Jennie

Jennie was a Cherokee woman

Disputed Origins

The wife of Johann Conrad is claimed by some to be Jennie Ani'-Wa-'Ya, herself a daughter of Chief Oconostota.[1] based on "extrapolations from the fact that George Harlin & Peggy Scott were members of the same Clan." These extrapolations assume all early Cherokee leaders were relatives from the same family-- assumptions that do not play out. And Oconostota had only one documented offspring, a son.

The Moravian Journals make numerous references to the Conrad family, mentioning a visit from Rattling Gourd in 1802 (Vol. 1, p 353). Vol. 3 pp 1375-76 describes a half-German Cherokee, the son of a man named ‘John Gunrod’ described in the journal as a mispronunciation of Johannes Conrad. Vol. 4 p. 1843 describes Rattling Gourd as the brother of Young Wolf... Starr has two story versions, neither of which can be accurate since all evidence says that “Jennie” was Cherokee. One says that she was a European wife of Johannes Conrad, the other that she was a divorced English woman named Taylor. There were a lot of ‘Jennies’, in the Cherokee Conrad and Taylor families, including the wives of Youngwolf and Thomas Taylor and it’s most likely the generations simply got confused in the telling.

Biography

Little is known of the Cherokee woman called "Jennie," the mother of Gunrod and Nan-ye-hi/Nancy by a white man named Johannes Conrad. Researcher James Hicks placed her in the Wolf Clan by reverse engineering and attached "Ani wa ya" (which means "Wolf Clan" to her). Some think she was the mother of Charles and Thomas Fox Taylor by a British soldier named Charles Taylor, but if that is the case she cannot be a member of the Wolf Clan since Thomas' wife Jennie Walker was from the Wolf Clan and Cherokee could not marry within their clan.

Many trees for the Conrad family are based on the information in Starr's "History of the Cherokee Indians," but it appears Starr's information was wrong. Information from the Moravian Journals seems to be more accurate since the information came directly from Gunrod. The Moravians made numerous references to this family, mentioning a visit from Rattling Gourd as early as 1802 [2]

In March of 1810 is the following entry: "We had Indian visitors.... Among others there was a half-German Cherokee here [referring to Gunrod Conrad] .... His father, whose name was John Gunrod, according to his pronounciation (presumably Johannes Conrad), is supposed to have been a rather well-to-do Indian trader and was killed by Indians in a war when he (this man) was only 3-4 years old. " [3]

Based on another entry in the Moravian Journals which mentions a very sick Gunrod as staying with Charles Hicks, a close relative, researcher James Hicks believes that Johannes Conrad and his Cherokee wife had a second child, a daughter named Nan-ye-hi who married white trader Nathan Hicks.

Research Notes

Starr may have combined two families into one, writing that a woman named Jennie Taylor, a widow with a son named Charles Fox Taylor, married "a Hollander named Conrad and emigrated to America." Starr also lists the son of this couple as "Hamilton" and his wife as "Onai." [4] Since the Moravians make clear that Gunrod Conrad was the son of a trader named Johann Conrad and a Cherokee woman, this is clearly inaccurate - he was not named "Hamilton" and he was not a white man.

The origins of British soldier Charles Taylor are unknown; he first appears in records as an Ensign in an American unit of the British Army in 1754. [5] Charles Taylor had children by a Cherokee woman; she may have been named Jennie and may have been the widow of Johann Conrad. It is also possible that Charles Taylor came to America with his mother who was named Jennie and had no connection at all to Johann Conrad's widow. The estimated birthdates of about 1750 for Gunrod and 1756-60 for Charles Taylor's sons make the first scenario possible, although not necessarily plausible. None of the descendants of Charles Taylor made reference to either the Rattlingourd/Conrad family or the Hicks family as relatives, so there may be no connection at all between them.

Some say she died in Cherokee, Swain County, North Carolina, United States but we’ve yet to find evidence of that!

(Curator Note: Jennie Ani-Wa'Ya of Ani-Waya Clan Conrad Taylor (Oconostota): this is another family that is hard to decipher from the records; the most likely scenario is that a German or Dutch trader named Johannes Conrad married a Cherokee woman named Jennie. It’s possible that this Jennie married the British soldier Charles Taylor. She is frequently confused with Jennie Walker Taylor, who married Thomas Fox Taylor, the Cherokee son of Charles Taylor.)

Sources

1. ↑ James R. Hicks, "Cherokee Lineages," (Genealogy.com Descendants of A-ma-do-ya Moytoy ; scroll down to family #8), accessed 25 Jan 2018
2. ↑ Crews & Starbuck, eds. Records of the Moravians Among the Cherokees. Cherokee Heritage Press, Tahlequah, OK. Vol. 1, p 353.
3. ↑ Moravians, Vol. 3 pp 1375-76
4. ↑ Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians. Oklahoma Yesterday Publications edition, Tulsa, OK. 1979. p 475
5. ↑ Clark, Murtie J. Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732-1774. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1999.

Source: The WikiTree Native American Project @ https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cherokee-280
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From James Hicks as qualified above
Children of OCONOSTOTA and WOMAN ANI'-WA'YA are:
25. i. A-LI4 ANI'-WA'YA, b. Abt. 1720.
26. ii. JENNIE ANI'-WA'YA, b. Abt. 1726.

Children of OCONOSTOTA and QUATSIS ANI'-WÂ'DI are:
27. iii. THE4 TERRAPIN, b. Abt. 1736; d. Aft. 1796.
28. iv. THE BARK, b. Abt. 1738.
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JENNIE ANI'-WA'YA (OCONOSTOTA3, MOYTOY2, A-MA-DO-YA1) was born Abt. 1726.
She married (1) JOHANN CONRAD Bef. 1743. He was born Abt. 1720, and died Abt. 1754.
She married (2) CHARLES THOMAS FOX TAYLOR Bef. 1754. He was born Abt. 1720 in England.

• Blood: Scottish/Cherokee?
• Clan: Ani'-Wa'ya = Wolf Clan (Peggy Scott)

More About JOHANN CONRAD:

• Blood: Hollander or German
• Occupation: Trader to the Cherokee

More About CHARLES THOMAS FOX TAYLOR:

• Occupation: Aristocrat

Children of JENNIE ANI'-WA'YA and JOHANN CONRAD are:
60. i. NA-YE-HI5 CONRAD, b. Abt. 1743; d. Abt. 1797.
61. ii. GUNROD, b. Abt. 1750; d. Bet. 1810 - 1817.

Child of JENNIE ANI'-WA'YA and CHARLES FOX TAYLOR is:

	iii.	 	CHARLES5 FOX TAYLOR, b. Abt. 1754; d. Bef. 1811, The West Indies.

• Clan: Ani'-Wa'ya = Wolf Clan (Peggy Scott)

Source: Hicks, James R. “Cherokee Lineages: Register Report of Amatoya Moytoy” Genealogy.com, Sites.Rootsweb.com,, https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/h/i/c/James-R-Hicks-VA/BOOK-0001/0021...
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The following is a discussion statement posted to Wikitree by Cherokee curator Kathryn (Parks) Forbes it might be useful here as well.

Who was Jennie “Ani-waya” Cherokee?

• Was she the daughter of Oconostota? No.
• Was she the wife of William Hicks as claimed in Wikipedia? No.
• Was she the wife of Johann Conrad? Yes
• Was she the mother of Charles and Thomas Fox Taylor? Maybe

1) Oconostota had only one documented child, his son Tukeesee (The Terrapin)

2) Starr says “William Hicks was the son of Nathan Hicks, a white, and a full blood woman of the Wolf clan. He was a younger brother of Charles R. Hicks….”(1) William had two wives, Lydia Halfbreed and Sallie Foreman. Starr incorrectly lists Lydia as the wife of Charles Hicks, but the Moravian journals and other records make it clear that Lydia was William’s wife. (2)

• 1) Baker, Jack D. and Hampton, David K. Old Cherokee Famlies: Notes of Dr. Emmet Starr. Baker Publishing Co., Oklahoma City, 1988. Vol. 1, p. 119
• 2) Crews and Starbuck, eds. Records of the Moravians Among the Cherokees. Cherokee Heritage Press, Tahlequah, OK, 2013. Vol. 5, p.2684.</

3) Emmet Starr recorded an erroneous story that Johann Conrad was married to an English woman named Jennie Taylor, that she had a son named Charles Taylor and together they had a son named Hamilton Conrad. Other records make it clear that this was at best a very garbled family story. Starr also said ‘Hamilton” married a Cherokee woman named “Onai”. (3) According to the Moravian Journals, 3/25/1810, “Among others there was a half-German Cherokee here…. His father, whose name was John Gunrod according to his pronounciation [presumably Johannes Conrad], is supposed to have been a rather well-to-do Indian trader and was killed by Indians in a war when he [the son, Gunrod] was only 3-4 years old.” (4) There is no mention of the mother.

Johann and “Jennie” were the parents of “Gunrod”, whose wife may have been the woman named “Arle Gunrod” on the 1851 Drennan Roll. James Hicks speculates that they also were the parents of a woman named “Nan ye hi”, the mother of Charles and William Hicks. He bases this on a comment in the Moravian Diaries that Gunrod left his family to live with the family of Charles Hicks, ‘a close relative.’ [NOTE: I have not been able to find the source for this information. kpf] Charles Hicks’ wife was named Nan-ye-hi (Nancy) Broom, the daughter of Chief Broom of Broomtown and his wife Ajosta. The Moravian record from April 5, 1822, says, "Ajosta, the mother of our student Nancy, who ardently wishes to be baptized, was this day declared a candidate for holy baptism." (5)

Gunrod was the father of five children, only one of whom used the surname ‘Conrad’. That son, Terrapinhead Conrad, had a daughter named Jennie.
Son Young Wolf also married a woman named “Jennie”

• 3) Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians. Oklahoma Yesterday Publications edition, Tulsa, OK, 1993 pp. 474-475
• 4) Crews and Starbuck, eds. Records of the Moravians Among the Cherokees. Cherokee Heritage Press, Tahlequah, OK, 2013. Vol. 3, pp. 1375-76
• 5) Missionary Herald for the year 1824. Vol XX. Published at the expense of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

4) If she was the mother of Thomas Taylor, she could not be of the Wolf Clan since Thomas’ wife, Jennie Walker, (granddaughter of Nancy Ward) was of the Wolf Clan and the Cherokee could not marry within their own clan). Charles Taylor was born about 1730. According to Starr he was born in England and brought to America by his mother. He claimed to be related to the prominent Fox family of England. (6) Charles received a commission as an Ensign in one of the Independent Companies of the southern colonies (these were part of the British army) in 1754 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1756, (7) was stationed at (and briefly in charge of) Fort Prince George and while in the Cherokee Nation he fathered two sons with a Cherokee woman. As far as is known he never married or had other children. He died on July 15, 1774, in South Carolina, at the age of 44. (8)

"Charles Thomas Taylor came into the C[herokee] Nation a Captain in a Brittish Regiment & married a Cherokee woman by whom he had a son named Thomas. Thomas married a Cherokee woman by whom he had three children; Richard, Fox, & Susan, the first named Taylor was a natural son of the Fox family in England, on that account the son of Thomas was called Fox & they have ever since continued to say that they by blood are allied to the late Charles Fox. Thomas had a brother named Charles who died in the west Indies. The simple narative from the widow of Thomas [NOTE: this would be Jennie Walker] who is still living bears all the marks of truth. It will be observed that the first mentioned Taylor had a brother named Charles & a son also named Charles so that there were three heirs of that name including the first-mentioned, that bore the name of Charles & the son of the first named his son by the Cherokee woman Fox [knowing?] at the time that he named him after his great grandfather in England.
November 14, 1811
[marginal notation] The first Charles Taylor died in Charles Town, SoCarolina”

• 6) Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians. Oklahoma Yesterday Publications edition, Tulsa, OK, 1993 pp. 474-475 </ref>
• 7) Clark, Murtie J. Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732-1774. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1999. </ref>
• 8) Death Notices from the South Carolina & American General Gazette,” South Carolina Historical Magazine, ed. Mabel Louise Webber. South Carolina Historical Society Baltimore MD, 1916, Vol. 17 p. 88
• 9) RG75, Records of the Cherokee Agency in Tennessee, 1798-1838 (correspondence, 1811-1813) Microfilm #M208, Roll 6

Further Comment:

Oconostota died almost twenty years before the Moravians arrived and the Moravians say nothing about him. James Hicks on-line tree(s) before 1800 are speculative at best. He theorized that all of the early Cherokee leaders were relatives from the same family and, as many others have done, he glossed over inconsistencies and lack of evidence and invented women and children to fill in gaps and make connections where none existed, There is simply NO documentary evidence for the name or clan of Oconostota’s wife, and he had only one recorded child, a son named Terrapin. ‘Ani wa ya’ means ‘Wolf Clan’; George Harlan was a grandson of Nancy Ward, who was a member of the Wolf Clan, so George, and by extrapolation Peggy Scott (not related to him), also would have been Wolf Clan. Every Cherokee village had members of multiple clans living there. Peggy Scott (daughter of Sarah Hicks Scott, who was sister of Chief Charles Renatus Hicks) was one of the many wives of James Vann. The Hicks family were closely aligned with the Moravians and many were among their first converts.

The Moravian diaries are very helpful, but the Moravians made mistakes. They didn’t always understand family connections or that a man called ‘grandfather’ or ‘uncle’ might simply be an older male relative of the mother, and not her parent or sibling. Among their errors they recorded that Sarah Hicks was the daughter of a white woman and a Cherokee man when it was the opposite situation, a white trader and a Cherokee woman.

Source: Forbes, Kathryn. “ Who Was Jennie ‘Ani-Waya’ Cherokee.” WikiTree, July 2018, www.wikitree.com/. @ https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Who_was_Jennie_%27Ani-waya%27_C...
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