My Grandma Mary’s paternal grandmother Anna F. Harman (daughter of
Henry
J. Harman, whose father was Mathias, whose father was Henry,
Sr., whose father was the German immigrant, Heinrich
Adam) is
somewhat of a mystery woman—like her mother Famy
Brown. Famy’s unknown parentage makes Anna’s maternal ancestry a mystery,
too. Some of Anna’s descendants claim she was half Cherokee. Adamantly claim.
Soon after I learned about Anna’s Harman heritage, I
learned about the controversy over Anna’s alleged Cherokee ancestry. Nancy
Nash, who co-edited the Adam Waggoner book, wrote me that I was one of only two
ancestors of Jacob and Ann who had ordered the book. She gave me contact
information for the other person, Fred Cousin (not his real name) who had complained about mistakes in the book, and told me
that I might learn more about the family from him. Fred is the only
grandson of Anna’s fifth child, Hezekiah Hiram Waggoner, known as HH, which
makes Fred a first cousin to my dad and his siblings—or first cousin once removed
to me. If fact, I remember visiting Fred’s family in Liberty, Missouri, when I
was a kid on one of my family’s summer trips from Nebraska to Virginia.
Fred very graciously responded to my letter by sending me
copies of family photos and telling me this about Anna: "Regarding
the Indian thing: Mom said her dad (HH), Willis, & George [HH’s brothers]
all said AH [Anna Harman] was ½ Cherokee. Ottie, Willis’s [sic] widow told
me AH was a legend years after her death. Ottie [neè Buchanan] said she heard lots
of stories of AH’s meanness, ferocious temper & Indian Blood. This is from
the Buchanans,
not the Wagners. Ottie lived to 101, and was alert to the very end."[1]
I’d love to hear the stories Ottie had heard about Anna.
None of Anna’s siblings’ descendants have made claims about Cherokee ancestry,
it seems, and there’s nothing in their records about it. Nash says there’s no
evidence in the records that Anna was ½ Cherokee, and I’ve not found any,
either, but my curiosity craves more information. I
can’t easily dismiss the testimony of Anna’s three sons and a daughter-in-law. The key is Anna’s mother. Was
Famy (neè Brown) Harman Cherokee? When Anna and her siblings were born prior to
1860, it wasn’t such a great thing for people to know you had Indian blood. Not
until 1893 when the Dawes
Commission formed and started officially enrolling people who could claim
descent from one of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, and Seminole) and get free land did many people want to claim Native
American ancestry. Then many people seemed to remember, "Didn't Grandpa say his
mother was Indian--or was it Grandma?" Any time I mention Anna’s possible Cherokee ancestry to other
researchers, they rather patronizingly remind me of this.
 |
| Anna F. Harman and Jacob Waggoner, possibly their marriage photo, taken about 1853. |
What I do know about Anna is that in the years following her marriage Jacob
Waggoner on 6 July 1853,[2] she bore
nine children:
1.
Elias Henry, born 4 October 1853[3]
just three months after his parents married, likely named for Jacob’s father
Elias and for Anna's father Henry;
2.
Eli Pierce, born 25 October 1854[4], father of my Grandma Mary;
3.
George W., born 27 January 1857,[5]
likely named for Anna’s brother who was later killed during the Civil War;
4.
Maude Alice, born 16 August 1859[6];
5.
Hezekiah Harman “Hiram," born 27
January 1861,[7]
likely named for Anna’s brother Hezekiah;
6.
Ardelia Ibbie, born June 1864[8];
7.
Amanda V., born February 1866[9];
8.
Willis Grant, born 12 January 1869[10];
9.
William Stewart, born 8 March 1871.[11]
With all
those children and a husband, who was busy farming, buying and selling land,
going off to war, returning in ill health and obsessed with finding a cure for
his ailments (more on this next week), perhaps we can imagine why Anna might have been in a nasty mood now
and then.
At least, she
had a mother’s helper. In 1860, 13-year-old Ellen Cameron served in the home,[12]
most likely helping Anna with her four young children. In 1870, 21-year-old Fanny
Kirby[13]
served as needed. Less than a year later and all too soon, Anna died on 9 March
1871[14]
after giving birth to her ninth child, William. The following December, Jacob
married Fanny Kirby.[15]
© 2014, Z.
T. Noble
[1] Fred Cousin,
[ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] Liberty, Missouri, to Zola Noble, letter, 28 April
2003, information on Harman/Waggoner ancestry; Jacob Waggoner binder; privately
held, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] Anderson, Indiana.
[2] John Newton
Harman, Sr., Harman Genealogy (Southern
Branch) with Biographical Sketches and Historical Notes, 1700-1924 (Radford, Virginia:
Commonwealth Press, Inc., 1925), 162.
[3] “Former
Pierce Resident Dies in Missouri,” Pierce
County Call, Pierce, Nebraska, May 23, 1935, p. 1.
[4] Smyth
County, Virginia, Register of Births, Book 1: 71, entry for Eli P. Wagner;
County Clerk’s Office, Marion.
[5] Findagrave.com, digital images
(http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 22 May 2014), photograph, gravestone for
George W. Wagner (1857-1939), Mount Olivet Christian Church Cemetery, Clay
County, Missouri.
[6] 1900 U. S.
census, Olympia, Smyth County, Virginia, population schedule, enumeration
district [ED] 86, p. 142 (stamped), sheet 7-A, dwelling 117, family 117, Maud
A. Hubble; digital image Ancestry.com
(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 May 2014); NARA microfilm publication
T623, roll 1728.
[7] Findagrave.com, digital images
(http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 22 May 2014), memorial for Hezekiah Hiram
Wagner (1857-1939), Fairview Cemetery, Liberty, Clay County, Missouri.
[8] 1900 U.
S. census, Sedden, Bland County, Virginia, population schedule, enumeration
district [ED] 3, p. 93 (stamped), sheet 2-A, dwelling 24, family 24, Tobie Gegring [Ibbie Gearing]; digital
image Ancestry.com
(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 May 2014); NARA microfilm publication
T623, roll 1701.
[9] 1900 U. S.
census, Salem, Roanoke County, Virginia, population schedule, enumeration
district [ED] 77, p. 209 (stamped), sheet 8-B, dwelling 129, family 129, Amanda Wagoner, digital image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com :
accessed 22 May 2014); NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 1725.
[x] Findagrave.com, digital images
(http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 22 May 2014), photograph, gravestone for Willis
Wagner (1869-1956), Mount Olivet Christian Church Cemetery, Smithville, Clay
County, Missouri.
[11]
Bland County,
Virginia Births: 1861-96, p. 87, William Waggoner, 8 March 1871;
database Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com
: accessed 23 July 2013).
[12] 1860 U. S.
census, District 58, Wythe County, Virginia, population schedule, p. 52
(penned), dwelling 401, family 333, Jacob Wagoner; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com :
accessed 12 May 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration
microfilm publication M653, roll 1385.
[13] 1870 U.
S. census, Bland County, Virginia, population schedule, Sharon post office, p.
7 (penned), dwelling 47, family 47, Jacob Wagoner; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com :
accessed 12 May 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration
microfilm publication M593, roll 1636.
[14] Virginia
Deaths and Burials Index, 1853-1917, Anna Waggoner, database Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com :
accessed 12 May 2014).
[15] Bland
County, Virginia, Marriage Records, Book 1:8, entry for Jacob Waggoner and
Fanie J. Kirby; County Clerk’s Office, Bland.
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