Betsey “Quaty” Walker

From Frances Moody, Nadeau, The Moody Family of Western North Carolina and Scattered Descendants Commercial Printing Co, pg 37.

(This is from another family tree.)

As the story goes, Betsy Walker was born a full-blooded Cherokee. Her Cherokee name is unknown. She and a brother were said to have been found hiding in the woods after a raid upon their village (possibly Big Bears Village) by the Anglo settlers. The two children were adopted by a man named Walker (attributed to Felix Walker, but that is probably wrong, since Felix would not have been old enough). Apparently they were raised as Anglos, but were generally known to be Cherokee. Because Cherokee tribal affiliation follows the mother’s line, Betsy Walker's children would have also been considered Cherokee. Later generations of Haywood County Leatherwoods and Moodys considered themselves part Cherokee, based upon this ancestry.

If her husband was also named Walker, they would not have been blood relations.

It is not at all clear where and when these events took place. It may have been in present-day Henry County, Virginia, as the Cherokee would have occupied a larger area in the mid-18th Century than they did in the early 19th Century. Betsy Walker being raised in Virginia would help explain why her daughters were in Virginia when they were married.

References

• Frances Moody Nadeau, The Moody Family of Western North Carolina and Scattered Descendants Commercial Printing Co, pg 37.