Jarrett Bell aka J. D. Bell

Jarrett was a Cherokee man

Biography

Devereaux Jarrett Bell was born about 1817 in the Cherokee Nation (East). He was the son of John Bell, a white man and Charlotte Adair, a Cherokee. [1] At age eighteen in 1834 he was a student at the Choctaw Academy in Kentucky. [2] His mother Charlotte died in 1838 shortly before the family Removed to Indian Territory. His older brother John was a signer of the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, and led a detachment of Treaty supporters over the Trail of Tears in 1838. Jarrett is listed as an express rider in that detachment. [3] He married Juliette Vann, also Cherokee; they had no surviving children. Jarrett and Juliette went to California in April of 1850 [4] and settled in Amador (a gold rush town), where a number of other Cherokee were living. He wrote to his brother James in 1855:

”Sam Mayes [later married to Juliette's half-sister Martha] borrowed twenty-five dollars from me when here you call on him for it and use it-if you get it. If I return I can have it off you-but I would rather you have it. I want you to write to me often, if you have nothing else to write about just as much as you can in praise of my babies. I would like to see Mrs. Caroline Bell, be sure and give her my love and also my respects to Jo Lynch [James Bell's father-in-law] and family-tell me who is Chief, assistant Chief and officers generally. Juliet is talking Indian as hard as she can to George Downing. Indian talk is a great rarity. She sends love to you and Caroline [James' wife, Caroline Lynch Bell].”

[5] It is not clear when the couple returned from California, but "Jariot Bell" appears on the 1851 Drennan Roll living in Saline District, so he may have gone back and forth between California and the Cherokee Nation. [6] Jarrett's father and some of his siblings moved to the Cherokee community in Rusk County, Texas about 1850 and in 1864 his sister Sarah (Bell) Watie, (who was living there for safety during the Civil War) wrote, " I ben very bad ever sence I left Jarratt's," [7] so Jarrett had apparently joined them there. According to his sister Charlotte he died in 1866. [8]

Research Notes

The Cherokee Devereaux Jarrett Bell, who apparently always went by "Jarrett" or "D.J." Bell, is often confused with a white man by the same name who appears on a land record in Nacogdoches, Texas in 1840. Jarrett could not have received land in Texas in 1840, a time when Indians could not own land and the Cherokee had just been forcibly expelled. [9] He is also sometimes conflated with a man called "Chicken Trotter" who signed the Treaty of Bird's Fort with an "X" in 1843; Jarrett Bell was clearly literate and there are examples of his signature on documents.

Deveraux Jarret Bell lived at the historic Mt. Tabor Indian Community at some point after he and Juliette returned from California. He died there. I don't think he was ever a leader of the Mt. Tabor group, contrary to the Wikipedia article he could not have been a “leader/chief” in 1847-1853 if he was in California until 1855. It is not sure they even HAD a leader until the 20th century, they were a community of families, many/most related by marriages.

Jarrett and Juliettte Bell were in California from 1850 to at least 1855. Devereaux Jarrett Bell was en route to California in 1850, although he is on the 1851 Drennan Roll in I․T․ (it was a payment roll , not a census)․ It’s not known where he was in 1860, quite possibly in the Cherokee Nation․ No Cherokee censuses there between 1852-1866․ He is recorded in Saline District in 1851․ In the early 1840’s he was Executive Secretary of the Cherokee Council, so may have been living in or near Tahlequah․. He was not shown in the 1850 US census for Rusk County, TX.

"The Journal of John Lowery Brown of the Cherokee Nation en route to California in 1850." Muriel Wright, ed. Chronicles of Oklahoma Vol. 12, No. 2, p.182. Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, OK. 1934

Dale, Edward and Litton, Gaston, eds. Cherokee Cavaliers. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 1995. pp. 88-89. (letter written from Jarrett (in California) to his brother in 1855)

In 1864 his sister Sarah (Bell) Watie, (who was living there for safety during the Civil War) wrote, " I ben very bad ever sence I left Jarratt's," so he was apparently living there then. According to his sister Charlotte Bell Dupree he died about 1866 but she didn't say where. His brother James also filed an Eastern App but didn't say where Jarrett died either.

D.J. Bell went to California in the Gold Rush, he was in California at least through 1855. Other members of his family lived at Mt.Tabor and according to his sister Sarah Waite’s letter D.J. Was living there during the Civil War. Another sister and a brother both said he died in 1866 but not where.

D.J.’s brother was a signer of the Treaty of New Echota, and barely escaped assassination after Removal, so that’s why some of the Bells went to Texas. Sarah Bell Watie lived at Mt Tabor during the Civil War. She joined J.D. Bell and his family there during the Civil War when the Cherokee Nation was unsafe for her.

Sources

1. ↑ Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians. Oklahoma Yesterday Publications edition, Tulsa, OK. 1979. p. 404. Digitized edition at Starr
2. ↑ Foreman, Carolyn. "The Choctaw Academy." Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 9, #4. p. 408. Oklahoma Historical Society. digitized at Academy
3. ↑ https://www.nps.gov/trte/index.htm
4. ↑ "The Journal of John Lowery Brown of the Cherokee Nation en route to California in 1850." Muriel Wright, ed. Chronicles of Oklahoma Vol. 12, No. 2, p.182. Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, OK. 1934
5. ↑ Dale, Edward and Litton, Gaston, eds. Cherokee Cavaliers. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 1995. pp. 88-89.
6. ↑ Drennen Roll of “Emigrant Cherokee,” 1851. Series 7RA-01. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75. The National Archives at Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas. Saline District, p. 318, #646.
7. ↑ Dale & Litton, Cherokee Cavaliers, p. 172
8. ↑ National Archives and Records Administration, Eastern Cherokee Applications of the Court of Claims. Application #2478, sister Charlotte Bell Dupree.
9. ↑ Ancestry.com. Texas, U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1820-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.

Source: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bell-34778
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“The Cherokee man named Devereaux Jarrett Bell was called Jarrett/Jarratt by his family and close friends. Legally and professionally, he was known as D.J. Bell. He was from the affluent Cherokee Bell family and a brother to the Treaty of New Echota signer, John A. Bell. He was fairly well educated and a student at the Choctaw Academy in 1834 when he was 18 years old.”

Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 9, No.4

After leaving school, Jarrett worked as an interpreter for US agents in the Cherokee Nation. In 1838, he removed from the east in the detachment led by his brother, John A. Bell, also known as the Treaty Party detachment.

1842 was a big year for him. Not only did he sign as the witness for the claims filed by his father and brother David against the United States for losses of property in the east,

1842 Flint District Book 2 #128 David Bell

He was also a claims agent in Flint District, writing the claims for Cherokees to file against the United States for their lost property.

1842 Flint District Book 2 #27 Ellis Hogner, full image @ https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SHK69hO-DFM/YTr1fzgyx_I/AAAAAAAAGZw/K466AVfFPiA7cJvTf_OxH76pk6WFTVpCACLcBGAsYHQ/s1960/Bell%2BClaims%2Bagent2.jpg''

History gets conflated

While Jarrett could read and write English very well, the man named Chicken Trotter who signed the Treaty of Bird's Fort could not.

The man named Chicken Trotter who signed the Treaty of Bird's Fort in 1843 signed the treaty with a mark. That means he could not write his name.

Bird's Fort Treaty Ratification Proclamation, 1843 Full image at the TEXAS STATE LIBRARY and ARCHIVES COMMISSION @ https://www.tsl.texas.gov/treasures/indians/birds-10.html

Many historical sources have combined two real Cherokee men, Devereaux Jarrett Bell and Chicken Trotter, into one mythological Cherokee folk hero. One man could read and write in English. The other could not. They are not the same man.”

However, according to Cherokee historians, genealogists and officials of federally recognized tribes, the Mount Tabor Indian Community’s historical claims aren’t true.

Cherokee researchers say the purported leader of Mount Tabor who signed the 1843 treaty, identified in the Peace Circle sculpture as Devereaux Jarrett “Chicken Trotter” Bell, is actually two separate people: Bell, a well-documented figure in Cherokee history who isn’t known to have lived in Texas, and Chicken Trotter, a Cherokee man of whom little is known beyond his signature on the treaty. (3)

Source: Carey B…, T. (2021, October 27). Who were the TEXAS ' CHEROKEES? [web log]. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from http://www.pollysgranddaughter.com/2021/10/who-were-texas-cherokees.html.''

(Curator Note: as is common on the internet today, data has been copied and pasted to one’s content, without either checking sources or just simply being convinced of the “truth” of someone’s else’s work. Such is, I believe, the case with Devereaux Jarrett Bell, aka Jarrett/Jarratt, D. J. Bell, with an entirely different real person known as Chicken Trotter. How these alternate “facts” have promulgated the genealogy of this man are unknown in origin, but it’s seems clear from the document based research shown here, that they are two different persons. The stories are simply not true, without fact in documentation.

This leads to a larger problem, Cherokee identity and cultural theft (1). There is also seen numerous attempts to certify ones self or a tribe as being NA without being able to provide evidence of such. Frequently we see these attempts by those who claim the have proof but continually fail to provide such documentation. "They are creating an identity that is absolutely false." (2)

Recommend Reading:
(1) Watts, C. C. (2009, July 1). Tribal culture and identity deserve protection. CHEROKEE PHOENIX.
(2) Snell, T. (2007, January 19). Non-recognized 'Cherokee tribes' flourish. CHEROKEE PHOENIX.
(3) Brewer, G. L., & Ahtone, T. (2021, October 27). In Texas, a group claiming to be Cherokee faces questions about authenticity. NBC News.

A statue of Devereaux Jarrett "Chicken Trotter" Bell was unveiled Sept. 18 in Grapevine, Texas, but some historians say it actually represents two separate historical characters. Ivan Armando Flores / The Texas Observer
This article was published in partnership with the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet, and the Indigenous Investigative Collective, a project of the Native American Journalists Association.

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This man was NOT "Chicken Trotter." The Cherokee Devereaux Jarrett Bell, who apparently always went by "Jarrett" or "D.J." Bell, is often confused with a white man by the same name who appears on a land record in Nacogdoches, Texas in 1840. Jarrett could not have received land in Texas in 1840, a time when Indians could not own land and the Cherokee had just been forcibly expelled. He is also sometimes conflated with a man called "Chicken Trotter" who signed the Treaty of Bird's Fort with an "X" in 1843; Jarrett Bell was clearly literate and there are examples of his signature on documents.

Ancestry.com. Texas, U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1820-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.

Original bio from creator of memorial is below divider. Source for their information is not given.

11 SEP 2021 SAC with following information, posing questions about the nickname that was entered by the original creator of the memorial, suggesting that his identify has been confused, so keep this in mind with regard to Mr. Bell: "Chicken Trotter, who could neither read nor write, was not the same person as D. J. Bell, who COULD read and write. Chicken Trotter signed the Treaty of Bird's Fort with his sign, because he could not write his name. There are many documents out there that show D. J. Bell's signature. They are two different people. "
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One Researchers Opinion

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2021

Similar name, different man: Devereaux Jarratt Bell vs Deveraux J. Bell
“If taken at face value, records and their “facts” can deceive, mislead, or confuse us.” - Elizabeth Shown Mills

Anyone who has done genealogical research very long is aware of the “mischievous facts” that can sneak into our work and throw us off track. Recently while doing my reasonably exhaustive search for information on a Cherokee man named Devereaux “Jarratt Bell”, I encountered some “facts” that could have misled me if I hadn’t evaluated those “facts” through the lens of their time as well as in comparison with other established facts about Jarratt Bell.

Similar name, but not the same man

Jarratt Bell, an Indian and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, was well documented throughout his life. Between the years 1837 and 1842, he was found on twenty-two documents. He was an interpreter for U. S. Indian agents before removing from Georgia to Indian Territory in the detachment led by his older brother, John A. Bell. Upon his arrival in Indian Territory, he carried mail for the detachment. Later, he was recorded as working as a blacksmith assistant; writing letters and documents as a clerk for the National Committee of the Cherokee Nation; witnessing claims filed by his father and brother; and acting as a claim’s agent in Flint district.

In a plethora of documents, records, family correspondence, and newspaper articles, Jarratt Bell is never found in the Republic of Texas or the state of Texas. Many in his family settled in the state of Texas shortly before and during the U. S. Civil War. While those relatives are documented as being there, Jarratt is not.

Despite the absence of records of Jarratt Bell in the Republic of Texas and the state of Texas, a different man named Deveraux J. Bell was found on a clerk’s list of those receiving land grant certificates between December 5, 1839 and January 11, 1840. That same man, Deveraux J. Bell, was also listed on the 1840 Tax Roll of Nacogdoches County. He owned one horse and one watch. He was not found in any other records in the Republic of Texas after a reasonably exhaustive search of those records.

While a novice researcher or someone cherry picking “facts” might argue “the name’s the same, so they are the same person”, they are not the same man. First, the names are similar, not the same. We have no indication for what the J in the name of Deveraux J. Bell represents. Second, even if it was an exact match on the name, it doesn’t mean it was the same man. Same name is not always the same person.

During the analysis of the numerous records found on Jarratt Bell, he is never recorded as using the name Devereaux on any document created during his lifetime. As a child, a young man, and to his family, he was “Jarratt.” In his legal and professional life which started in 1837, he was D. J. Bell. This is a key factor in his identity. His given name appears to have been Devereaux, but he was never known by that name, and he never used it on documents. “Devereaux” does not appear in records as his name until forty years after his death when his siblings, nieces, and nephews filed Eastern Cherokee applications and claimed through him. The two records in the Republic of Texas for a man named “Deveraux J. Bell” do not match the well-established identity of Jarratt Bell.

Some might believe the name “Devereaux” is too unique to belong to two different men, but it wasn’t unusual or rare in the early 1800s. A highly respected minister throughout Virginia and North Carolina was named Devereux Jarratt. He died in 1801 and some devout parents may have named their sons after him. An examination of the U. S. censuses of 1830-1850 on Family Search revealed over 100 men named Devereux (various spellings.) Because Bell* is a common surname, it would not be beyond the realm of possibilities to find other men with the same or a similar name to the Cherokee man named Devereaux “Jarratt Bell”.

Though one might be tempted to stop the evaluation of evidence after establishing the differences in the identities of Jarratt Bell and Deveraux J. Bell, it’s not enough to review only “facts” attached to names. We must also analyze “facts” within the context of the place and time they occurred. When comparing the two men, it is important to remember the bitter climate that existed in the Republic of Texas toward Cherokees in 1839. The Bowl and his followers were nearly annihilated by the Texans in July that year. Those that survived either fled to the Cherokee Nation or they tried to get to Mexico for safety. Cherokees were not trying to get into the Republic of Texas that year. They were trying to get out. It was not safe for them there.

To reiterate that point, in December 1839, soldiers encountered the Cherokee remnant trying to get to Mexico. They killed John Bowles, son of The Bowl, and captured other Bowles family members. The few remaining survivors of that attack managed to escape and cross into Mexico where they remained until 1843 when Sequoyah found them.

In stark contrast, while Cherokees were fleeing from the Republic of Texas in 1839, white settlers were flooding into the area chasing free land. The Republic was awarding land grants to those who qualified. A single man named Deveraux J. Bell arrived December 16, 1839 and was granted a certificate for 320 acres by the Board of Land Commission Office. He received a third-class headright grant. Only free white men were eligible for those land grants.

Clearly there were two men, one Indian and one white, with similar names. Only one was eligible for the land grant in the Republic of Texas. It was not the Cherokee man named Devereaux “Jarratt Bell”. Inept analysis of the “facts” on one man or the other could deceive a researcher, leading them to believe all the “facts” apply to only one man. Unfortunately, in research involving Cherokees, there are also some people who carelessly or intentionally combine “facts” from more than one person to create the ancestor they want. Whether accidental or deliberate, playing with “facts” in such a way would be an injustice to the legacy of both men.

We, as genealogists and researchers, are the only voice people from the past have today. They are not characters in a fictional story we want to tell, but instead, real people who lived upon this Earth and left their mark in some way or another. If we are going to tell their story, the least we can do is tell it correctly. It’s important to be aware that “facts” can mislead us if we don’t carefully examine and evaluate each piece of data we find, ensuring those “facts” belong in the narrative of another person’s life.

Source: Carey B…, T. (2021, October 27). Who were the TEXAS ' CHEROKEES? [web log]. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from http://www.pollysgranddaughter.com/2021/10/who-were-texas-cherokees.html.''

(Curator Note: while we recognize that these comments will be considered personal, the genealogy research from this site has not been shown to be flawed. The passion with which this discussion is presented cannot be separated from the content. )
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Further Reading
1) Wikipedia contributors. "Mount Tabor Indian Community." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Feb. 2023. Web. 21 May. 2023.
2) "The Journal of John Lowery Brown of the Cherokee Nation en route to California in 1850." Muriel Wright, ed. Chronicles of Oklahoma Vol. 12, No. 2, p.182. Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, OK. 1934.
3) Dale, Edward and Litton, Gaston, eds. Cherokee Cavaliers. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 1995. pp. 88-89. (letter written from Jarrett (in California) to his brother in 1855)

4) Barnes, Twila. “ Who Were the TEXAS ’ CHEROKEES?” Thoughts from Polly’s Granddaughter “ A LITTLE CHEROKEE HISTORY AND GENEALOGY MIXED IN WITH A WHOLE LOT OF TRUTH.,” 27 Oct. 2021, www.pollysgranddaughter.com/. @ http://www.pollysgranddaughter.com/
5) Carol A. Lipscomb, “Cherokee Indians,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed May 21, 2023, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cherokee-indians.
6) Pynes, Patrick. “Historic Origins of the Mount Tabor Indian Community of Rusk County, Texas.” Proceedings of the Seventh Native American Symposium, 1 Nov. 2007, www.se.edu › uploads › sites › 2019/09 › NAS-2007-Proceedings-Pynes. Accessed 21 May 2023 @ https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000194793369821