Aiahnichih Ohoyo of Okla Tannap

concerns

This Aiahnichin is not the same person as I-Ne-Chi-Hoyo, but her sister. Nathaniel Folsom married both of them. Do not merge this profile with hers.

This Aiahnichin seems to be the same as Ahnichi ohoyo of Okla Tannap, Younger sister. Further research is warranted.

brief biography

More data is available on my Choctaw great-great grandmother, who in other references was named Ar-Chi-Hoyo or Aiahnichih. She was a niece of Choctaw Chief, Miko Puskush, who was the father of Amosholihubib. Other sources say she was the daughter of Minko Poos-Coos, who was brother of Mo-sho-la-tubbee. They were descended from "a long and ancient line of Chiefs and belonged to the ancient Iksa Hattakiholihta (or Hayoh-pa-tuk-lo clan), one of the two great families." The other great family was Tashapookia, meaning Part of the People. Laws of these families forbade any person, male or female to marry any one of the same Iksa. Choctaw custom did, however, permit two sisters to marry one husband. This practice was effected when Ai-Ne-Chi-Hoyo and her sister I-Ah-Ne-Cha were married to Nathaniel Folsom around 1776.

Nathaniel Folsom, whose parents were apparently English and had been in New England (Connecticut and New Jersey) for 3 or 4 generations, came with his parents from North Carolina to Georgia around 1774. There he was sent to school for 6 months while also being taught to read and spell by his mother who was from New Jersey.

There had been a migration of about 400 families from New Jersey to North Carolina between 1743 and 1755, taking land in Rowan County. This was where Nathaniel was born in May, 1756. His father decided to move to Mississippi in the early 1770's, in hopes of getting rich in the Choctaw Nation. Nathaniel, named after his father, later reported: "My father had a great desire to go to Mississippi to get money; they said money grew on bushes!" They hired an Indian pilot who led them through the Nation to Pearl River, Mississippi Territory. After a fight with his father when Nathaniel was 19, his parents and brothers moved to the Chickasaw Nation, but Nathaniel remained with the Choctaws.

It was here, when he was around 20 years old, that he married the two Indian sisters. Nathaniel wrote in his memoirs some 50 years later: "I traded a long time in the Choctaw Nation, sometimes taking up three or four thousand dollar’s worth of goods. I followed trading about thirty years. I lived principally at Bok Tuklo. There was a great town of about four hundred Indians. The French King lived there (probably Bienville)."

His marriage to the two Indian sisters was fruitful. In his 1828 memories he noted: "I have been the father of twenty-four children, fourteen of whom are living. I have lived to see six of them join the church and three others sit on the anxious seat."

Records indicate that Nathaniel had seven children by I-Ah-Ne-Cha (6 boys and 1 girl), and 17 by Ai-Ne-Chi-Hoyo (10 boys and 7 girls). Delitia Delilah, who later married Noah Cloud, my great-great-grandfather, was born in 1808 after Nathaniel had been married some 35 years. Birth orders have not been clarified, but she was no doubt among his younger children.

Delitia Delilah Folsom was born December 31, 1808, at Grand Ecore, in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Sometimes later she went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where she met and married James Campbell. Before they were divorced she had a daughter named Margaret (Peggy), who later married Robert Nail.

She then returned to Natchitoches Parish, LA, where she married Noah Cloud around 1838. They had four children: Mary, in 1839; a son who died as a small child; Noah, Jr. in 1842 (from whom I am descended); and Nancy Ann, born 5 April, 1847 (married Samuel George Brewton on June 21, 1866).

John Cloud, Delilah’s father-in-law, "always called her Delitia. He was fond of her because she was so kind and good to him. He died at her home in 1840."

Delitia Delilah Folsom Campbell Cloud, ½ English, ½ Choctaw, died at Cloud Crossing on Black Lake "in August or 1st part of Sept., 1883. Dr. Pitts attended her. She died at Aunt Ann (Cloud) Brewton's. I (Mollie Elkins, his granddaughter--see letter of Manie, July 22, l938), helped wash and dress her for burial. Our mother (Mary Izora Smith Cloud) made a pretty bobinet lace trimmed cap for her to be buried in."

family

Nathaniel came with his father and family to the Choctaw Nation in present Mississippi where he remained as a trader and married I-Ah-Ne-Cha and Ai-Ne-Chi-Hoyo, two Choctaw sisters, who were nieces of Chief Miko Puskush, Chief of the Northeastern district of the Choctaws. He had 24 or 25 children with his two wives.

Marriage Notes: He m. two sisters, plural marriage as was then the Choctaw custom; I-AH-NE-CHA and AR-CHI-HOYO (or AI-NE-CHI-HOYO as given by Mrs. Conlan) who were nieces of the Chief, Miko Puskush, who was the father of Amosholihubib. They descended from a long and ancient line of Chiefs and belonged to the ancient Iksa Hattakiholihta, one of the two great families,--the other being Tashapookia (Part of the People) the laws of which forbid any person, male or female, to marry any one of the same Iksa.

The children of Nathaniel Folsom are probably not given in order of birth; nor, in some cases, may they be listed under their right mother's name. Information sent to the writer (EKF) has varied. As the mothers were sisters the Indian ancestry is identical.

notes

The most modern spelling of "respected woman" is Aiahninchi Ohoyo. It has also been spelled Ai-Ne-Chi-Hoyo.

Ai-Ne-Chi-Hoyo means 'a woman to be preferred above all others. She was a niece of Miko Puskush (Infant Chief), who was the father of the famous chief, Amosholitubbee. She was a descendant of a long line of ancient chiefs, and belonged to the most prominent clan, Iksa Hattakiholihta, one of the two ruling clans, and the only clan from which chiefs were selected, with an exception now and then."

sources

• Impson, Hiram. The Folsom Family of Oklahoma. Published circa 1915.

links

• http://www.folsomfamily.org/harry/choctaw%20folsoms/d1.htm#i1526
• http://www.intersurf.com/~bevans/My%20Indian%20Roots/My%20Indian%20...
• http://www.marciesalaskaweb.com/nathaniel_f_memoirs.htm
• http://jbruceevans.com/My%20Ancestors/d1057.htm

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• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jul 16 2016, 5:32:33 UTC