Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Pack

Betsy was born in 1796 just a decade after Timberlake took the Cherokee Delegation to meet the King of England. She was born in the middle portion of what is now TN and what was then the heart of the tremendous- but shrinking- Cherokee nation.

In 1816 she married her cousin- William Shorey Pack, who was years older than she was.

Her parents were influential and well known:

Her dad was Chief JOHN LOWREY, MAJ (son of NANNIE WATTS, GI-GO-NE-LI-I, U-LU-TSE) and he also was born in TN but in 1768, and died 1817, one year after his daughter's marriage. He married (1) RUNAFTER GA-NE-LU-GI-E MCLEMORE Bef. 1795, daughter of JOHN MCLEMORE and NU-NA-LO. She was born Abt. 1780.

His second wife was (2) ELIZABETH SHOREY and she was born sometime Bef. 1796, it is thought that She was born Abt. 1762. She was the daughter of WILLIAM SHOREY ll & Peggy.

Notes:

Elizabeth Lowrey was born about 1789, daughter of Elizabeth Shorey and John Lowrey. Her second husband was William Shorey Pack. They married about 1807; children were Thomas Jefferson Pack, born about 1808, died 1850 Indian Territory, and Cynthia Pack, born about 1811, married John Cowart, died in Tennessee in 1881.

No Jeremiah in this family.

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In the Miller application for Henry Lowrey (#562) is a document entitled "Genealogy of the Lowrey Family". It states, in part "Capt. John Lowrey first married Betsey Shorey; they had one child, Betsey, and she married William Pack, Capt. John Lowrey's second wife was a "Runafter" ; their children were; Eliza Lowrey who married Martin Benge, and Jane Lowrey who married Robert Benge. Martin and Robert were both sons of Obediah Benge."

She was married and lived about 60 yards from where the Jasper Courthouse now stands. She was granted her land of 640 acres for her lifetime but the times changed and she began to feel that she was not welcome there anymore, nor was she safe. But how could she leave this land of her family? where she was born? and some of her children were buried?

In a display of wisdom she managed to preserve a small portion of the land that was so sacred to her when she granted 40 acres to the establishment of the county seat with the stipulation that the land be owned by the county and if not it would revert back to all her heirs.

She made the deal in exchange for the reversable deed she to 40 acres she was given $1 and in 1820 she left the land she had lived on and the country she had grown up in and went to Wills Town AL, and during the removal (Trail of Tears) went with the Benges to the west to Indian Territory (What is now OK) and settled just outside of Stilwell, OK in the Flint District.

She lived the rest of her life there in OK and is said to be buried in the New Hope Cemetary although there is a rumor that her body was carried back and secretly buried near her old home.

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http://www.spt.lib.sc.us/history.htm "The up-country of South Carolina which includes Spartanburg County was ceded to the English by the Cherokee Native Americans in 1755. Spartanburg was the frontier next to the Cherokee Nation. Among the earliest settlers in Spartanburg County were the Scots-Irish immigrants from Pennsylvania, the Native American traders, and the Cowmen. At first, they lived in peace with the Cherokee Native Americans, but during the Native American Wars, they lived in fear and built several forts, including Fort Prince, Gowen’s Fort, and Fort Nichols. In 1776, the present day Greenville County- Spartanburg County boundary was established to separate white man’s territory from the Cherokee nation."

I was searching for Andrew Ross on google.com because he appeared on the 96th Old District of Laurens Co. SC. I thought these Ross' might have a connection to my Elizabeth (Betsey) Ross wife of Isaac Sharp of Laurens Co. SC.,96th Old District also. I found it interesting in this article that an Andrew Ross is mentioned along with Chief John Ross. Judge Andrew Ross, brother of Chief John Ross and s-in-law of George Lowrey. Ok George Lowrey brother was John Lowrey. John had a daughter named Elizabeth "Betsey" Lowrey Pack. I'm wondering now if Andrew Ross might be a lead for my Elizabeth (Betsey) Ross?

This article has lots of clues I think about the geography of the SC / GA / AL / TN areas and family ties(from article found at following quoted web-page): "John Lowrey died in 1817 at age 42. His brother, Major George Lowrey was m to Lucy Benge, daughter of Urtah and "Old Trader" James Benge, non Indian. Two of Lucy's brothers were thought to be Old Tassel and Doublehead. John's daughter Elizabeth "Betsey" Lowrey Pack, the widow of non-Indian, William Shorey Pack, in spite of her father's service to the Americans, would be forced to sell her plantation, Rose Hill, located near present day Fort Payne Alabama and go on the (Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi) trail of tears, settling in Flint District, now Adair county, Oklahoma. Her son Thanas Jefferson Pack, would also remove."

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Who is Betsy Pack? Born Elizabeth Lowery, a daughter of prominent Chief John Lowery of the Cherokee, she lived in a house about 60 yards southeast of the present day Jasper Courthouse after her marriage. She donated the ground on which the town of Jasper was laid out in 1820, when the county seat was moved here from Cheekville, near Whitwell about 12 miles northeast. "Betsy Lowery Pack established a ferry on the Tennessee River," said TN TOTA secretary Vicki Rozema in her book, Footsteps of the Cherokees (pp. 90-91). "It is believed to have been located four or five miles west of Bogg's Ferry at Runningwater Town and approximately seven miles east of her father's ferry at Battle Creek. In 1815, she and her mother ran a public house on Battle Creek called Lowrey's Place." Betsy's land dwindled to 640 acres of land under the treaty of 1819, where the town of Jasper (Marion Co.) TN. now stands; She sectioned off the land with her home and the burial sites of her children to about 40 acres of which she deeded to the commission of the town for $1. Betsy then sold the other 600 acres & moved to Wills Valley in Alabama where many other Cherokee had gathered for safety reasons. Wills Town is where the town of Lebanon, Al. was later developed. There she is said to have lived in great style until she and many other Cherokee were forced to emigrate west in 1838. Two of her children also emigrated while a third remained behind in the east.