Melungeon Historical Society: The Infamous Walter Plecker and his Letters cont.

Friday, January 28, 2011

The Infamous Walter Plecker and his Letters cont.

This letter was written by Mrs. John Trottwood Moore, State Librarian and Archivist in reply to Walter A. Plecker's letter of inquiry about the location of the Melungeons.

August 12, 1942

Mrs. John Trottwood Moore

Letter to Walter Plecker

Regarding Melungeon Classification

August 12, 1942

Mr. W. A. Plecker,

State Registrar

Bureau of Vital Statistics

Richmond, Virginia

My dear Sir:

The Secretary of State has sent your letter to my desk for reply.

You have asked us a hard question.

The origin of the Melungeons has been a disputed question in Tennessee ever

since we can remember.

Hancock County was established by an Act of the General Assembly passed

January 7th, 1844 and was formed from parts of Claiborne and Hawkins

counties.

Newman's Ridge, which runs through Hancock county north of Sneedville, is

parallel with Clinch River and just south of Powell Mountain. The only map

on which we find it located is edited by H. C. Amick and S. J. Folmsbee of

the University of Tennessee in 1941 published by Denoyer-Geppert Co., 5235

Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, listed as [TN 7S]* TENNESSEE. On this map is shown

Newman's Ridge as I have sketched it on this little scrap of paper, inclosed

But we do not have the early surveys showing which county it as originally

in. It appears that it may have been in Claiborne according to the Morris

Gazetteer of Tennessee 1834 which includes this statement: "Newman's Ridge,

one of the spurs of Cumberland Mountain, in East Tennessee, lying in the

north east angle of Claiborne County, west of Clinch River, and east of

Powell's Mountain. It took its name from a Mr. Newman who discovered it in

1761."

Early historians of East Tennessee who lived in that section and knew the

older members of this race refer to Newman's Ridge as "quite a high mountain

extending through the entire length of Hancock County, and into Claiborne

County on the west. It is between Powell Mountain on the north and Clinch

River on the south." Capt. L. M. Jarvis, an old citizen of Sneedville wrote

in his 82nd year: "I have lived here at the base of Newman's Ridge,

Blackwater, being on the opposite side, for the last 71 years and well know

the history of these people on Newman's Ridge and Blackwater enquired about

as Melungeons. These people were friendly to the Cherokees who came west

with the white imigration from New River and Cumberland, Virginia, about the

year 1790...The name Melungeon was given them on account of their color. I

have seen the oldest and first settlers of this tribe who first occupied

Newman's Ridge and Blackwater and I have owned much of the lands on which

they settled.. They obtained their land grants from North Carolina. I

personally knew Vardy Collins, Solomon D. Collins, Shepard Gibson, Paul

Bunch and Benjamin Bunch and many of the Goodmans, Moores, Williams and

Sullivans, all of the very first settlers and noted men of these friendly

Indians. They took their names from white people of that name with whom they

came here. They were reliable, truthful and faithful to anything they

promised. In the Civil War most of the Melungeons went into the Union army

and made good soldiers. Their Indian blood has about run out. They are

growing white... They have been misrepresented by many writers. In former

writings I have given their stations and stops on their way as they

emigrated to this country with white people, one of which places was at the

mouth of Stony Creek on Clinch river in Scott County, Virginia, where they

built fort and called it Ft. Blackamore after Col. Blackamore who was with

them... When Daniel Boone was here hunting 1763-1767, these Melungeons were

not here."

The late Judge Lewis Shepherd, prominent jurist of Chattanooga, went further

in his statements in his "Personal Memoirs", and contended that this

mysterious racial group descended from the Phoenicians of Ancient Carthage.

This was his judgment after investigations he made in trying a case

featuring the complaint that they were of mixed Negro blood, which attempt

failed, and which brought out the facts that many of their ancestors had

settled early in South Carolina when they migrated from Portugal to America

about the time of the Revolutionary war, and later moved into Tennessee. At

the time of this trial covered by Judge Shepherd "charges that Negro blood

contaminated the Melungeons and barred their intermarriage with Caucasians

created much indignation among families of Phoenician descent in this

section."

But I imagine if the United States Census listed them as mulattoes their

listing will remain. But it is a terrible claim to place on people if they

do not have Negro blood. I often have wondered just how deeply the census

takers went into an intelligent study of it at that early period.

I have gone into some detail in this reply to explain the mooted question

and why it is not possible for me to give you a definite answer. I hope this

may assist you to some extent.

Sincerely,

Mrs. John Trotwood Moore

State Librarian and Archivist

No comments:

First Use of the word Melungeon

The earliest known written use of the word "Melungeon" is in an 1813 Scott County, Virginia Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church record:

"Then came forward Sister Kitchen and complained to the church against Susanna Stallard for saying she harbored them Melungins. Sister Sook said she was hurt with her for believing her child and not believing her, and she won't talk to her to get satisfaction, and both is 'pigedish', one against the other. Sister Sook lays it down and the church forgives her."

The Melungeons were found here:

LITTELL'S 1849

You must know that within ten miles of this owl's nest, there is a watering-place, known hereabouts as 'black-water Springs.' It is situated in a narrow gorge, scarcely half a mile wide, between Powell's Mountain and the Copper Ridge, and is, as you may suppose, almost inaccessible. A hundred men could defend the pass against even a Xerxian army. Now this gorge and the tops and sides of the adjoining mountains are inhabited by a singular species of the human animal called MELUNGENS.

BURNETT 1889

It appears that the Melungeons originally came into east Tennessee from North Carolina, and the larger number settled in what was at that time Hawkins County, but which is now Hancock. I have not been able to hear of them in any of the lower counties of east Tennessee, and those I have seen myself were in Cocke county, bordering on North Carolina.

DROMGOOLE 1890

The Ridge proper is the home of the Melungeons. These people, of whom so little is known, inhabit an isolated corner of the earth, known as Newman’s ridge, in Hancock county. First, I saw in an old newspaper some slight mention of them. With this tiny clue I followed their trail for three years. The paper merely stated that “somewhere in the mountains of Tennessee there existed a remnant of people called Malungeons,......I merely mention all this to show how the Malungeons of today are regarded, and to show how I tracked them to Newman’s Ridge in Hancock County.....

HUMBLE 1897

The Blackwater Valley lies between Mulberry and Newman’s Ridges, and is from half a mile to mile wide. Twenty years ago it was still a wilderness, but is now under good cultivation, and divided into small farms upon which are rather poor dwellings and outbuildings. In this valley and along Newman’s Ridge, reaching into Lee County, Virginia, are settled the people called Melungeons. Some have gone into Kentucky, chiefly into Pike County, others are scattered in adjacent territory.

OTIS 1900

These people are called the Malungeons. ................ ......The Malungeons number between 400 and 500. They live on Black Water Creek, in Hancock County, which section they have inhabited for more than 100 years. ................ The records of Hancock County show that the Malungeon ancestors came to Powell's Valley as early as 1789, when they took up lands on the Black Water.

JARVIS 1903

Greasy Rock Creek, a name by which it has ever since been known and called since, and here is the very place where these Melungeons settled, long after this, on Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater. ............these friendly “Indians” live in the mountains of Stony creek, but they have married among the whites until the race has almost become extinct. A few of the half bloods may be found-none darker- but they still retain the name of Collins and Gibson, &c. From here they came to Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater and many of them are here yet....

CONVERSE 1912

The northern end is drained by Blackwater Creek, which winds its way leisurely northeastward through narrow strips of verdant meadow land. Here, along the banks of this sparkling stream and on the top and eastern slope of Newman's Ridge, is the home of the Melungeons.

WILSON 1914

Occasionally the student of ethnology may stumble upon a community that is a puzzle, as, for example, that one occupied by the 'Malungeons' of upper East Tennessee.

MOORE AND FOSTER

So far as is known they were first found in Hancock County on Newman's Ridge, soon after the Revolutionary War. Now they are settled in several counties, although still most numerous in Hancock County.

PLECKER 1942-1930

We have in some of the counties of southwestern Virginia a number of so-called Melungeons who came into that section from Newmans Ridge, Hancock County, Tennessee..............

August 5, 1930
Mr. J.P. Kelly.Trustee of Schools,
Gap,Lee County, Virginia

Dear Sir: office has had a great deal of trouble in reference to the persistence of a group of people living in that section known as "Melungeons", whose families came from Newman's Ridge, Tennessee.

CAMBAIRE 1935

It seems the Melungeons came into Hancock County between 1810 and 1851.

OSBORNE 1947

From what I gathered from Uncle Wash, the Melungeons started coming to Wise and Scott Counties about 1820. These people came in about equal numbers from Kentucky from Newmans’ Ridge and lower end of Lee County. A few came from North Carolina.

WORDEN 1947

Whatever they are—the Malungeons still are on Newman’s Ridge, in Hancock, Rhea and Hawkins counties of Tennessee, and a few across the border in Virginia. Many are scattered by ones or twos miles from the isolated ridge top they occupied for so long.

E. PRICE

The persistent folk tale, however, insists that the Melungeons are unusual racially; it identifies them as a dark-skinned people whose center is on Newman's Ridge in Hancock County. The Newman's Ridge-Blackwater area seems to be the locality where they have the deepest roots.

VINCENT 1961

colony of folks in this end of Tennessee settled along Newman's Ridge, and on Mulberry Creek in what is now Hancock County, and a few miles out from Sneedville.

DAVIS 1963

Trapped in poverty, snubbed by their fair-skinned neighbors, some of them withdrew to the poor land along Snake Hollow, deep in the rattlesnake-infested gorge in the shadow of towering Newman’s Ridge. Some of them settled along the northern end of the valley, at the Virginia line, where Blackwater Creek flows, and some settled on the Ridge.

BERRY 1963

For a century and a half, the prolific Melungeons have migrated in all directions from Newman's Ridge. .... There are fifteen hundred in Lee County, Virginia....Five hundred are in Scott Count, Virginia........A thousand are found in Wise County, where they are known as "Ramps."

GAMBLE

The only true Melungeons left, however, reside in the nearby mountainside areas known as Snake Hollow and Mulberry Gap.

H. PRICE

they occupied Newman's Ridge---rough and steep in places, but offering some table land and numerous hollows. Here they located near springs or creeks.

S. PRICE 1968

But whatever their origin, the group eventually settled in Hancock County, along Newman's Ridge and in settlements known as Blackwater, Snake Hollow and Vardy.

NORDHEIMER 1970

Newman’s Ridge overlooks Sneedville, a poor community of about 700 persons near the Virginia border. In the early 19th century nearly 350 Melungeons settled on the ridge, coming down into the valley only on rare occasions to forage for wild vegetables and sell moonshine whiskey. They lived apart from the whites for generations. The ridge was a hilltop sanctuary against the outside world and its prejudice.

FETTERMAN (Price) 1970

They bore the Melungeon names which appear on Newman's Ridge: Collins, Mullins, Brogan, Goins, Gibson, Bowlin. They were free of the restrictive legislation aimed at slaves and former slaves during the 1700s and 1800s.

YARBROUGH 1972

Those left in Snake Hollow, Blackwater, Vardy and Mulberry - are few in number, Most have left the hills for jobs in cities far and near. And time is catching up with those remaining. In 1931 there were 40 Melungeon families living on Newman's Ridge above their ancestral home.

LYNCH 1973

And the white man forced them high into the Clinch Mountains, principally Newman's Ridge just outside present day Sneedville, Hancock County, Tennessee.

BIBLE 1975

In East Tennessee, they have spilled over into the neighboring counties in an extension of the Hancock County families...... ......... "Melungeon surnames were noted in southwestern Virginia as early as 1820, but the families were not classified until 1870, when the census enumerators in Lee County listed the county and state of birth of each person. Of forty-six families whos names suggest they were Melungeons, thirty had one or more members who had BEEN BORN IN HANCOCK or HAWKINS County. Eight had members born in Scott County, and at least one of these also had been born in HANCOCK COUNTY. One person was born in Letcher County, Kentucky of parents born in HANCOCK and Scott Counties. The adults of a Goins family (one of the few listed as mulatto) were born in Surry and Ashe Counties, North Carolina; their children were born in Knox, HANCOCK and Grainger Counties, Tennessee. This is the best direct evidence available to confirm the relationship between several different groups of Melungeons and the importance of NEWMAN'S RIDGE as a CENTER OF THEIR DISPERSAL, but it is evident that the secondary Melungeon localities were also fed from North Carolina and Virginia

HAUN

Most of the mountain people refer to them as Blackwaters and Ridgemanites.” But even in that long gorge, winding some 20 miles in a half-mile-wide band between Newman’s Ridge and Powell Mountain there are few “pure Melungeons” left today.

WINKLER 2003

The only people who were called Melungeon 100 years ago were those who lived in or near Hancock County, Tennessee--including Lee, Scott, and Wise Counties in southwest Virginia.

Melungeon Historical Society

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Friday, January 28, 2011

The Infamous Walter Plecker and his Letters cont.

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