The Cherokees of Texas, Cherokee, Henderson & Smith Counties, TX Submitted by East Texas Genealogical Society P. O. Box 6967, Tyler, TX 75711 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ***************************************************************** East Texas Family Records - Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall 1982 Submitted with the permission of the East Texas Genealogical Society, P O Box 6967, Tyler, TX 75711 ***************************************************************** EAST TEXAS FAMILY RECORDS THE CHEROKEES OF TEXAS By Howard O. Pollan, Tyler, TX The Cherokee Indians had lived in the Allegheny Region forever. They were descendants of the Iriquois tribe from the area of Pennsylvania. John BOWLES, a member of that tribe, was born in North Carolina about 1756, the son of a Scotch trader and a full blood Cherokee woman. This Scotch trader was murdered by two North Carolinians and robbed while on his way home from Charlestown with goods for his trading post. This was in 1768 when the son was about 12 Years old. But within the next two years, John BOWLES had killed both his father's slayers.1 When Chief Dragging Canoe died in 1792, BOWLES, an auburn haired, blue eyed half-blood Scotch Cherokee, succeeded to the position of town chief in Runningwater Town, which was one of the Chickamauga settlements near Lookout Mountain. Here BOWLES became involved in an altercation with some pioneers who were floating down the Tennessee River and killed all the boatman in June, 1774. BOWLES and his followers then manned the boats and navigated them to the mouth of the St. Francis River in the Spanish Province of Louisiana. There they freed the women and children and allowed to continue to New Orleans. Because of this incident, BOWLES and his followers were expelled from the tribe and they crossed the Mississippi River to live in Missouri.2 About 1811, a terrible earthquake frightened them so badly they moved down into Arkansas and lived at Lost Prairie. It was in that earthquake that Reelfoot Lake was formed in western Tennessee and the Mississippi River flowed backward for more than an hour. After a time at Lost Prairie they learned they were not on the lands specified in the Cherokee Treaty of 1819. They then moved again, down across the Red River into the area where Dallas stands today. On July 18, 1969, W. W. Keeler of Bartlesville, Okla., principle chief Of the Cherokee Nation, unveiled a historical marker overlooking the R. L. TNORNTON Freeway in Dallas, commemorating the settlement of Chief BOWLES and 90 members of the Cherokee Nation in the Dallas area in 1819. The Cherokees were considered to be the first immigrants in the Dallas area from the United States.3 The wild Prairie Indians forced B0WLES and his people to leave there and move into the area about 50 miles north of Nacogdoches where Chief BOWLES established his village. About 1823, Richard FIELDS and Chief BOWLES went to Mexico City to petition the Mexican government for title to the land where they lived. A new set of officials had been installed and they told the Indians that since no Colonization Law had been passed, no action could be taken then. When a colonization law was passed by Texas and Coahuila on March 25, 1825, and many grants were made to the Empresarios, the tcrritory granted to Hayden F. EDWARDS included the country claimed by the Cherokees.4 BOWLES lost much of his influence when John Dunn HUNTER and Richard FIELDS attained power. Following the Fredonian Rebellion of 1327, HUNTER and FIELDS were murdered and BOWLES became military leader while BIG MUSH became civil leader of the tribe.5 Chief BOWLES was then given a Lieutenant Colonels commission and a fine military hat by the Mexican government. In May 1835, at the suggestion of Indian Agent Ellis P. BEAN, the Mexican government offered to give the Cherokees a "selection out of the vacant lands of Texas, that land which may appear most appropriate for the location of the peaceable and civilized Indians." But the Cherokees didn't want to move to other lands. They wanted the land where they were living.6 By this time the tribe numbered 150 families, about 800 people with 200 of them men. The Cherokees owned 3,000 head of cattle and as many hogs, and 600 head of horses. The majority of the people knew how to read and write, and a school for young men was conducted in their village. The Cherokees cultivated their fields and wove their own cotton into cloth and made it into clothing. The clouds of war loomed ominously on the horizon and a Texas rebellion against the Mexican government seemed eminent. A provisional government was established by the Texans on November 11, 1835, with Henry SMITH elected Governor and James W. BINSON elected Lieutenant Governor. This action was taken at the General Consultation of Texas at San Felipe de Austin on the Brazos River. In an attempt to resolve the Indian problem in East Texas, a "Solemn Declaration" was unanimously adopted on Nov. 13 by the 54 members of the Consultation, to give the Cherokees the land they were living on. Of course General Sam HOUSTON who had just been elected Commander-In-Chief of the Texas army, supported it with all his power. HOUSTON and BOWLES had been friends since their childhood in Tennessee when HOUSTON would go and spend much of his time with the Indians. The first treaty negotiated by the Provisional government of Texas was signed in BOWLES' village on Feb. 23, 1836, by HOUSTON and John FORBES for the government and Colonel BOWLES, BIG MUSH, Samuel BENGE, OSOOTA, CORN TASSEL, THE EGG, John BOWLES (the Chlef's son) and TENUTA signing for the Cherokees, Shawnees, Delawares, Kickapoos, Quapaws, Biloxi, Ioni, Alabama, Coushattas, Caddoes of Neches, Tahocullakes and Mataquo. Among other statements, the second article stated that the tribes should own the following lands: Beginning on the west bank at the point where the San Antonio Road crosses the River Angelina, and running up said river until it reaches the mouth of the first large creek below the great Shawnee village emptying into the said river from the northeast, thence running with said creek to its source and from thence a due north line to the Sabine River and with said river west; then starting where the San Antonio Road crosses the Angelina River and with said road to the point where it crosses the Neches River and thence running up the east side of said river in a northwest direction. This area was about fifty miles long and thirty miles wide and comprised present day Smith and Cherokee Counties and parts of Van Zandt, Rusk and Gregg Counties. The Indians could not sell or lease land to any person who was not a member of their tribe, nor could any citizen of Texas buy or lease land from the Indians. After the signing of this Treaty, General HOUSTON revortedly presented Chief BOWLES with a sword, a red silk vest and a sash.7 After the war with Mexico, and Texas had gained its Independence, HOUSTON was elected President and one of his first acts was to send the Treaty to the Texas Senate for ratification. Nearly a year later, the Senate reported that the Cherokee Treaty would be detrimental to the Republic of Texas and a violation of the legal rights of many citizens. One of the greatest reasons for this decision was that David G. BURNET had been granted land, part of which was in that claimed by the Cherokees. On December 26, 1837, the Treaty was declared "null and void". Of course, HOUSTON was greatly disappointed and distressed by this decision. He did not give up getting the treaty ratified and even went so far as to have General Thomas J. RUSK, Commander of the Texas Militia, have the line laid out according to the Treaty of 1836. On Nov. 10, 1838, Alexander HORTON wrote HOUSTON that the line had been run in 19 days with 34 whites and 16 Indians.8 This was the last action HOUSTON could take for his term expired and Mirabeau Buonaparte LAMAR was elected president. LAMAR wanted the Indians expelled from Texas. The new cabinet made the boast that they would kill off HOUSTON'S pet Indians.9 And then came the CORDOVA uprising. In August, 1838, it was learned that six hundred Mexicans and Indians under the command of Vincente CORDOVA and Nathaniel NORRIS were encamped on the Angelina River. These actions seemed to an armed rebellion against the constituted authorities. Thomas Jefferson RUSK of Nacogdoches, Major General of the Texas militia, immediately enlisted a company of about 700 volunteers to quell the uprising. General RUSK went to the village of BOWLES but CORDOVA and his followers had gone to the Kickapoo village in what is now northeastarn Anderson County. RUSK'S army was then disbanded. On October 5, 1838, eighteen members of the Killough family, including married sons and daughters and their children, who had come from Alabama to Texas in 1837, were brutally murdered near the settlement of Larissa, in present Cherokee County. Of course, since this occurred inside the Cherokee nation BOWLES and his people were blamed for it.10 This incident so inflamed the Texans toward the Indians that little concern was shown for the Cherokee rights in Texas. This time RUSK with 250 men attacked the KICKAPOO village killing eleven men while losing only 35 horses but no Texans. In May, 1839, Manuel FLORES, the Mexican Indian agent at Matamoros, started for Texas with a large pack train consisting of about 30 men and 150 horses and mules, most of them loaded with supplies, ammunition and arms. FLORES had been ordered to deliver important papers to CORDOVA. Among the men were some renegade Cherokees from BOWLES'S nation. A group of about 20 Texans followed the Mexicans and finally caught up with them on a bluff overlooking the San Gabriel River. In an exchange of gunfire, FLORES was killed and his men ran away. Papers of great importance were found on his body and they were quickly carried to President LAMAR. Some of the papers were addressed to Chief BOWLES and other Indian chiefs, promising them their lands if they would join the Mexicans in an uprising. Those letters spelled the doom of the Texas Cherokees. When news of the captured letters spread through Texas, tempers flared and fears of Indian uprisings were rampant. In April of 1839, President LAMAR sent Major B. C. WALTERS with a company of mounted volunteers to establish a fort at the Neches Saline, within the limits of the territory alloted to the Cherokees and allied tribes by the unratified treaty of Feb. 1336. The Indian chiefs who met him there warned him not to build a fort on Indian land. WALTERS, thereupon, prudently withdrew to the other side of the Neches River, began work on a fort and waited instructions from the government. The fort was built in haste; it was probably small and inadequate for defense against a determined attack by the Indians. The place was named Fort SALINE and was abandoned sometime in May, 1839. The exact location of Fort SALINE has not been determined but it probably was in the area between HIGHSON and FLAT CREEKS and near the State Highway 155 bridge over the Neches River.11 After abandoning Fort SALINE, Major WALTERS and his troops moved down to the abandoned Kickapoo village which had been the scene of a battle between the Texans and CORDOVA'S Indians on Oct. 16, 1838, a few days after the KILLOUGH Massacre, and established a fort there. The action of Chief BOWLES in refusing to let Major WALTERS occupy the Neches Saline completely outraged President LAMAR. He immediately wrote Chief BOWLES a hot letter advising him that "The Cherokee will never be permitted to establish a permanent and independent jurisdiction within the inhabited limits of Texas." The letter was sent to BOWLES by Indian Agent Martin LACY who was accompanied by Dr. W. C. JOWERS, John H. REAGAN and a half-blood Mexican interpreter named CORDAY. The letter also advised BOWLES that they would be permitted to remain in undisturbed enjoyment of their present possession until Congress shall be able to make some final arrangements, satisfactory to both parties, for their return to their own tribes beyond the Red River.12 LACY, REAGAN, JOWERS and CORDRAY rode into the Cherokee village and to the Chief's cabin, which was located about six miles east of the Neches River in what is now Smith County, close to the present day town of Bullard. He greeted them, led them to a deep, cool spring behind his cabin and invited them to sit down on a dead tree. After the interpreter read the letter to the Chief, BOWLES told LACY that he could not reply to the letter until he had talked with his headmen. He asked Agent LACY to come back in ten days for his answer. So, LACY and his companions rode away.13 When the ten days had elapsed, LACY and his same companions rode back to the Cherokee village where BOWLES again led them to the spring behind his cabin and invited them to sit down on the dead tree, and told them that his young warriors wanted war because they believed they could whip the Texans. However, he said that he and BIG MUSH did not want war. He added that if he fought the whites they would kill him, but if he did not fight them, his braves would kill him. He told them he was an old man 83 years of age and would not live much longer but he had led his people too long to quit them now. After BOWLES'S answer was reported to LAMAR, he appointed Vice-President David G. BURNET, Secretary of War. Albert Sidney JOHNSTON, General Thomas J. RUSK, Major James S. MAYFIELD and I. W. BURTON as commissioners to negotiate the immediate removal of the Indians to the area north of the Red River where the eastern Cherokees had been removed to from Georgia the year before in what would become known as the "Trail of Tears". In a letter dated June 27, 1339, President LAMAR instructed the commissioners to "Negotiate removal of the Cherokee and all other tribes by peaceful means if possible. They should not agree to pay the Indians more than $25,000 but under no circumstances can they be permitted to remain in the country longer than is required to make the necessary preparations for their removal. Unless they consent at once to receive a fair compensation for their improvements and other property and remove out of this country, nothing short of the entire destruction of all they possess and the extermination of their tribe will appease the indignation of the white people aginst them.14 General RUSK'S East Texas Regiment was the first to arrive upon the field. "They first went to Fort KICKAPOO, located at the abandoned Kickapoo village in northeastern Anderson County, 2 1/2 miles southsouthwest of Frankston. But on July 10, they moved across the Neches River and set up Camp JOHNSTON. Prior to this move, the Commissioners had conducted their negotiations from Fort KICKAPOO. They had even written up their so-called "Articles of Agreement" for BOWLES and his headmen to sign, while there. One part of this agreement stipulated that all of the gun locks except fifty would be turned over to the Texans. This really upset the Indians for they feared that as soon as they turned their gun locks over to the troops they would be killed. Chief BOWLES refused to sign the treaty.15 Camp JOHNSTON was the final assembly point for the volunteer troops and BURLESON'S regulars of the First Infantry Regiment. The site was in extreme southwestern Smith County, adjacent to the Neches Saline, about five miles southwest of the town of Flint and in the vicinity of Teaselville. The site is marked by a granite marker across the road in front of the old John DEWBERRY house.16 In the early part of July, 1839, Captain Adam CLENDENIN and his Company of regulars from the First Infantry were ordered to establish a fort in the area. This one was built around the house of Dr. E. J. DeBARD, who settled in the area about 1833 and in 1838 was in partnership with Chief BOWLES in the salt making business at the Neches Saline. They made salt in huge iron pots bought in Shreveport for $117. 16A The forts central buildings were DeBARDS house and warehouse. A few cabins to serve as barracks and a stockade were doubtless erected around the buildings. The work was done in great haste for CLENDENIN'S company arrived at Camp JOHNSTON about July 14. This new fort was named Fort LAMAR for the President of the Texas Republic. Fort LAMAR stood in the southwestern part of Smith County, some five miles southwest of Flint and about a mile west of the Community of Teaselville. After the battles of July 15 and 16, the Texan wounded were sent there where army surgeons had established their hospital. Some of the less seriously wounded reached the Fort on July 18. CLENDENIN'S troops remained at the fort until Aug. 12, then it was empty for a time. In the last days of 1839 or early 1840, Second Lt. Abram H. SCOTT was ordered to the Saline. It is thought that he occupied Fort LAMAR for a time and 8hanged the name to Fort SCOTT. It is possible, however, that he established another, new fortification. Fort SCOTT was named Fort SKERRETT sometime after April 30, 1840, and the garrison was withdrawn on July 11. The site of Forts SCOTT and SKERRETT were about the same as Fort LAMAR.17 The Commissioners met with Chief BOWLES on July 11 in his camp on Coucil Creek. He rejected the agreement saying that his young warriors would not give up their gun locks. He feared they would run away first. At the meeting on July 12, it had become apparent that BOWLES was stalling for time. One of the reasons he gave for not starting for the Red River right away was that they didn't have enough lead for his people to kill game on the way. BOWLES was actually waiting to gather more Indians around him. However, the Texans didn't mind this waiting so much for they, too, were waiting for reinforcements to arrive before starting the war. Gen. BURLESON had been on the Colorado River collecting forces to operate against the wild Indians when he received orders to march with his men on East Texas. He reached Camp JOHNSTON July 14. General LANDRUM, from San Augustine, arrived with his troops on July 13.13 On the morning of July 14, the Commissioners could sense the hostility of BOWLES and his headmen. SPYBUCK of the SHAWNEES said they would need two moons to get ready. The Texans urged BOWLES and his headmen to sign the treaty. BOWLES said many of his men were away from camp. He was told that those there could sign and the others could sign when they returned. BIG MUSH had not been present at any of the meetings. Major MAYFIELD then told BOWLES that the Texans wanted no further delay and some action had to be taken. The next morning Major MAYFIELD, Colonels MCLEOD and WILLIAMS, John THORN and James DURST returned to BOWLES' camp to find the Chief with about 80 warriors there. After consulting with BOWLES, he told them his warriors would not sign the treaty. Soon after MAYFIELD and his companions returned to their camp, Chief BOWLES, his son John BOWLES, and Fox FILEDS, carrying a flag of truce, rode into the Texas camp and gave notice that they would move west of the Neches River that morning. BOWLES was told that the Texans would also break camp and follow the Indians. With the July heat and the restlessness of the troops, the Texans were eager to get it over with. BURLESON and RUSK with their troops headed directly for BOWLES'S camp only to find them gone. They followed the Indian trail for about six miles, crossed the Neches River about 100 yards south of where Indian Creek runs into it, and found them in the late afternoon near the Delaware village west of the Neches River. General RUSK motioned them forward. They advanced a short distance, yelling and firing their rifles, then took refuge in a thicket covering the bottom of a ravine. The Texans charged the ravine and quickly killed 18 warriors, putting the rest to rout in wild confusion. Two Texans were killed, Dr. RODGERS of Nacogdoches and Col. CRANE of Montgomery County, and a third one was mortally wounded.19 By that time, night had fallen and the Texans made camp at the battle site. This place was named Camp CARTER. It was doubtless named for Captain James CARTER, leader of the scout company which made the first contact with the Indians in the battle of that day, July 15, 1839, the first battle of the Cherokee War. The site was near the Delaware village in northeastern present day Henderson County on Battle Creek, about two miles north of Chandler.20 Before making camp though, the troops gathered the booty they had captured from the fleeing Indians. There were five kegs of powder and 250 pounds of lead, many horses, cattle, corn and other supplies. Most of the Texans that night remained on guard although some rode back to protect outlying settlements from marauding and vengeful Indians. On the next day, July 16, the Texans again set out in pursuit of the Indians. They passed the Delaware village and left it in flames. They soon came upon a mile-long line of warriors near the Neches River, in present Van Zandt County. Both sides attacked and the fighting continued for an hour and half. For a time it seemed as though the Indians would win out, but then General Kelsey H. DOUGLASS, overall commander, called on the troops to concentrate their fire on the leader. Chief BOWLES was mounted on a handsome horse with blazed face and four white feet. He had been trying valiantly to rally his forces. Clutching the sword his friend, Sam HOUSTON, had given him and dressed in the bright red silk vest and sash, with the military hat on his head, BOWLES made an imposing figure as he rode back and forth urging his warriors on. John H. REAGAN reported that BOWLES'S horse had been shot several times and fell to the ground throwing off his rider. The Chief slowly rose to his feet and started walking in the direction his warriors had taken. As he did so, he was shot in the back by Henry CONNER. The Chief took a few steps and fell, then rose to a sitting position facing his enemies. REAGAN ran forward to try and save the Chief's life but before he could do so, Captain Robert SMITH approching from another direction, shot BOWLES through the head with his pistol. REAGAN excused SMTTH'S action because BOWLES had a pair of pistols, a knife and a sword and he had not asked for quarter. It was also said that SMITH killed BOWLES because BOWLES had killed SMITH'S father-in-law. The sword was taken from the Chief's dead hand and present to SMITH. It was later donated to the Masonic Lodge of Henderson. It was carried through the Civil War by Colonel James H. JONES. About 1890 it was presented to the Cherokee Nation and is now owned by the Talequah, Okla. Masonic Lodge. John Henry BROWN wrote that at least half a dozen men claimed to have killed BOWLES.21 The old Chief's body was mutilated after his death. Sorrow and disorder among the Indians followed. BIG MUSH was also killed in the battle. The other Indians scattered, hiding in the dense cane brakes along the river and creek bottoms. BOWLES'S body was left where he had fallen. One Texan cut strips of skin from the Chief's back to make bridle reins. The old man was also scalped by one of the Texas troops. The Texans made camp there at the battle site that night. All night long they heard the moaning and wailing as the Cherokees mourned their dead.22 This camp site was named Camp RUSK, the second one to be so named, in honor of General Thomas J. RUSK. It was at the site of the last battle in the Cherokee War of 1839, just west of the Neches River in present day Van Zandt County about two miles north of Redlands Community. The site is marked by a granite marker.23 Next morning when the sun came upf the river bottom was empty. The Indians were gone. They had vanished like the early morning mists on the Neches. Some of them went to Arkansas; others went to Indian Territory bringing with them the bloodstained canister containing the patent for their Texas land which BOWLES had carried about with him since the treaty with HOUSTON and which he had upon his person when he was shot. After the short final struggle, General DOUGLASS wrote his report to Secratary of War JOHNSTON, telling him that "the Notorious Mexican ally, BOWLES" had been killed. "All Texans behaved so gallantly it would be invidious to particularize", he added. This battle of the Neches was one of the most important battles ever fought on Texas soil. It is ranked second only to the Battle of San Jacinto. Eight hundred warriors fought about nine hundred Texans. Over one hundred warriors died while five Texans were killed and twenty seven were wounded. The Texans were not through with the Cherokees, though, for as they crossed the Red River into Indian Territory, a party of hunters fired on them killing four more.24 Mr. HARPER, who owned the farm for a time where the battle took place, said when he was a boy about ten years old, an aged lady lived in that area named Mrs. BOHANNON. She told how, when she was a young girl, she lived near the battle site. A few days after the battle the sky was real black in that direction. They rode their horses to the place to see what was happening and they found the sky filled with buzzards and all those Indian bodies scattered around. Mrs. BOHANNON died at the age of 90. An early settler named Tom INGRAM could see the skeleton of the Cherokee Chief near the Neches River when he hunted or fished in the area. He said the skull remained for many years near the spot where the Chief had been slain. BOWLES had led his tribe for nearly fifty years, yet when he was killed in battle they left his body where it fell. The BOWL had been scalped and according to tribal custom, funeral honors were paid only to unscalped braves. The Texas troops followed the Indians to the shore of Lake Burleson where a camp was made. This camp is believed to have been named Camp WOODLIEF. It was named for Lieut. Col. Devereaux J. WOODLIEF, second in command of KARNE'S Cavalry Regiment, a part of Col. BURLESON'S First Infantry. This camp was occupied after July 17, when the army left Camp RUSK. It was on the west side of Burleson Lake in Northwestern Smith County, about three and one half miles south southwest of Mineola.25 When the volunteers were disbanded and sent home, they would be going in small groups and did want to be burdened with heavy weapons and unneeded small arms. Col. BURLESON ordered a cannon and some small arms to be thrown into the lake so they would not fall into the hands of roving Indians or outlaws. It was there, 38 years later, a group of young men composed of J. T. COPELAND, Ben and Lum COPELAND, Riley STEWART and his 10 year old son, John, were in swimming when one of the group, while diving in the placid waters of BURLESON Lake discovered the wheels of what is believed to be the old cannon almost covered with mud. In an edition of the Courier Times-Telegraph on April 28, 1940, John STEWART related the story of that swim and showed where on Lake Burleson it took place. He said many efforts had been made to recover the old cannon but all efforts had failed and the murky bottom still held the gun.26 The Texans followed the Indians trail for the next ten days, burning their villages when they came upon them. They appropriated enough corn to supply the army for a year. They finally made their was to Camp HARRIS. The troops were disbanded on July 25, with some remaining there until July 29. Camp HARRIS was at or near the house of the Delaware Chief HARRIS, (the one for whom Harris Creek was named). His house was the "HARRIS" mentioned in Gen. Kelsey H. DOUGLASS'S report on the Cherokee campaign. The site is about nine miles northeast of present day Tyler, Smith County, near the Harris Creek Baptist Church.27 This war is said to have ended a Chief, to have ended a tribe, and to have ended an era when the Cherokees were driven from Texas. However, this was not the end of that tribe in Texas. On Christmas Day, 1839, Col. Edward BURLESON and his troops were making a winter campaign between the Brazos and the Colorado Rivers when they encountered John BOWLES and his party near the mouth of the San Saba River in San Saba County. The Indians were trying to make their way to Mexico. They fired as soon as they saw the Texans. Many of them, including John BOWLES and THE EGG, were killed by return fire in the short, fierce battle that followed. John's mother, two sisters, and three children were taken prisoner. When John BOWLES was killed, he was wearing the large black military hat that Chief BOWLES had worn when he was killed. No doubt he had gone back to the battlefield on the night of his father's death and retreived the hat along with a pair of pistols and a Bowie knife which Chief BOWLES was said to have been carrying and which were never accounted for. Before this last fight with the Cherokees, however, the Texans had achieved what they fought for --- the red man's land.28 FOOTNOTES FOR THE CHEROKEES OF TEXAS 1. "Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees" by Mary W. CLARK, 1971, University of Oklahoma Press, p 8. 2. IBID. pp 9. 3. IBID. pp 14. 4. IBID. pp 25. 5. IBID. pp 50. 6. IBID. pp 56. 7. IBID. pp. 61-63. 8. IBID. pp 75. 9. IBID. pp 77. 10. IBID. PP 85-86. 11. "Texas Under Arms" by Gerald S. PIERCE, 1969, Encino Press, pp 125-126. 12. "Chief BOWLES and the Texas Cherokees", pp 93. 13. IBID. pp 95. 14. IBID. pp 97. 15. IBID. PP 104. 16. "Texas Under Arms." pp 79-80. 16-A Smith County Deed Records - M-241, N-588. 17. IBID. pp 155. 18. "A History of Smith County, Texas" by William R. Ward. pp 40. 19. IBID. pp 105-106. 20. "Texas Under Arms" pp 26-27 (Camp Carter). 21. "Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas" by John Henry BROWN. 22. "Chief BOWLES and the Texas Cherokees" pp 106-110. 23. "Texas Under Arms" (Camp Rusk) pp 122-123. 24. "Chief BOWLES and the Texas Cherokees". pp 11. 25. "Texas Under Arms". pp 181-182. 26. Courier-Times-Telegraph of Tyler, April 28, 1940. 27. "Texas Under Arms". pp 64-65. 28. "Chief BOWLES and the Texas Cherokees". pp 111-112. Howard O. Pollan, President of the East Texas Genealogical Society, is a Past-President of Smith County Historical Society and has held many offices through the years in both organizations. He is well known in the field of history and genealogy in East Texas.