Hardy Hubbard

https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=331&p=surname...

GENEALOGY OF THE HUBBARD FAMILY WITH A BRIEF HISTORY OF ITS CONNECTION WITH THE CHEROKEE INDIANS

According to the best information to be had in regard to the ancestors of the Hubbard family as obtained from records, history, traditions and aged persons, about the year 1740 there dwelt near the banks of the Keehukee Creek in the British province of North Carolina a Cherokee Indian by the white name of Goochee, but in the Cherokee language as Doochee.

[Kehukee Swamp rises in eastern Halifax Co. and flows SW into Roanoke River. Appears as Kehukee Creek on the Collet Map, 1770. Source: Powell, Wm S. "The North Carolina Gazeteer." 1968, pp.261-76]

In the year 1729 North and South Carolina were made separate and distinct provinces. The original Cherokee Indians, however, were the almost sole occupants of all the central and a greater part of the Eastern portions of the North Carolina Province. Soon the Whites, who had gained a foothold on the Eastern coast of North Carolina began to penetrate these hitherto sacred hunting grounds of the Indians. Among these adventurous pioneers was a white man, an Irishman, named Hardy Crews, hardy he was by name and hardy by nature. In what is now known as Person County he halted and permanently located. Finding very few white settlers, and especially of the female sex, he chose for a life companion a beautiful Cherokee maiden, a dark-haired daughter of the Doochees. A generous welcome seems to have been extended to this happy couple by the Indians. In due course of time two daughters were born to them named Ann and Mary Crews. These English names as well as an English education were bestowed upon these promising children. Ann Crews, having grown to womanhood, her mind enlightened and cultured with such an education as that frontier life and early period would allow, was tall, graceful and slender; features regular and beautiful; in manners gentle and modest, quiet and unassuming, yet in disposition and character firm and very determined in purpose. While attending school in Mecklenburg County, she formed an acquaintance of a young white man, Joseph Hubbard, a sedate Quaker. That acquaintance ripened into an affection that resulted in their marriage about the year 1770. Thus it is clearly seen by the marriage of the full blood Cherokee Doochee mother to the white man, Hardy Crews, and the subsequent marriage of the half blood daughter Ann Crews to Joseph Hubbard, another White man, that by the faithful observance of the sacred marriage obligations which bound these devoted women solemnly to their devoted husbands, lost them and their descendents to their identity as members of the Cherokee Nation of people, but not their rights as such when properly applied for.

Not much is known of Joseph Hubbard's ancestors. The best information is, they were English Quakers who came over to this country in 1681 with William Penn when the settlement was made in Philadelphia and from there they emigrated to and settled in the County of Mecklenberg, Virginia, and in the adjoining counties of North Carolina. Dr. Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography gives a concise account of the colony of Pennsylvanis [sic:Pennsylvanians] who emigrated to Virginia and North Carolina in 1729, and among other things he had to say in regard thereto, speaks particularly of the Merideths, one of whom married Mary Crews. He mentions Hugh Merideth, who was his partner for some time in the printing business in the City of Philadelphia. It seems that the Hubbards and Merideths have been in close connection for over one hundred and fifty years and that their Indian blood runs back to the same Cherokee stock of starting point the Doochees.

Joseph Hubbard was born in Mecklenberg County, Virginia, and after his marriage to Ann Crews still lived there, where several of his children were born. He afterwards moved over into Person County, North Carolina, where he lived until after the death of his first wife in 1812, he then moved to Guilford County, North Carolina. Joseph Hubbard and Ann Crews had eight children, viz. Hardy; Jeremiah; Joseph; Woodson; Jacob; Ann; Susana and Rhoda. After his removal to Guilford County, he married a white woman named, Axsah [Achsah] Coffin by whom he had two sons, viz., John R. and Samuel N. Hubbard. He lived to be upwards of ninety years old, died and was buried in the graveyard at New Garden Meeting House, North Carolina.

The five Hubbard boys were noted for their large size, fine personal appearance, none of them being less than six feet tall. They were generally known as the "Big Cherokee Boys". They were trained by their Quaker parents to practise the principles of peace and friendship, but woe to the boy or man who with sneers and insults taunted them with their 'Cherokee blood'. Of all the brothers, Jeremiah was the best known and portrayed in his features and general appearance his Indian descent. He was tall, erect and straight as an arrow, being six feet two or three inches in height.

He had a dark swarthy complexion, keen black eyes, high cheek bones, hair straight and black as coal, a large mouth with firm lips and his front teeth were long and slightly curved inward. He was a distinguished and influential minister in the Society of Friends of Quakers. He was a fluent and eloquent speaker and a natural born orator. His voice was strong and musical and he seemed to sway his hearers at will. He was generous, unselfish and hospitable and his 'Red Brothers', the Cherokees, as they travelled through his section, which they often did, always made a stopping place at his plain and unpretentious home hailing him as a friend and brother and claiming him as one of their own people.

• ENDS*