Di-Ga-Lo-Hi 'James' "Crazy Chief” Vann

James Vann was a Cherokee man

Biography

James Vann was born in 1766 (or 1768), near Spring Place, Georgia, the son of a white trader, Joseph Vann, and a Cherokee mother named Wha-li. Born just after the end of the Cherokee War, he grew up in turbulent times. The astounding details of his life are well-recorded in books like "The House at Diamond Hill" [1] He inherited property from his white trader father, and then by outright theft, deception, and shrewd business practices, became one of the wealthiest men in the Cherokee Nation. Because of his heavy drinking, parties and many incidents caused by this, he was called "part devil" by the missionaries nearby. He was a drunk, a thief, a slaveholder, a murderer, was murdered himself, and yet was also a chief and a judge and lived in a beautiful plantation home.

Chief Vann House Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries.

Vann was an early supporter of the Moravian missionaries to the Cherokee and he and his family are described in detail in the Moravian records.[2] He had at least nine wives, some concurrently, and at least eight children.

In 1809 while James, his twelve year old son- Joseph and an enslaved person were on a trip and stopping at Buffington's Tavern for the night, a lone shot fired from the shadows of the darkened yard killed James. [3] The Moravians recorded on Feb. 21, 1809 "Today we received the sad news from an Indian that Mr. Vann had been murdered last Sunday evening in Thomas Buffington's house. [4] At the time of his death, he was living with just one wife, the twenty-six year old Peggy Scott.

Apparently anticipating his own death, Vann wrote a Will in 1808, one of the first Cherokee to do so. In part it stated ...

• “1st I do hereby give & bequeath unto my beloved wife Peggy Daughter of the late Walter Scott dec’d all my household furniture.
• 2nd All the rest & residue of my property which I shall or may die possessed of, be that whatsoever it may & wheresoever it may, I give and bequeath unto my natural son Joseph to have and to hold forever.” [5]

The terms of the Will so infuriated the Cherokee that the will was broken by the Cherokee Council and the estate distributed among most of his children. The Council wrote, "Upon a full consideration of the Writing of James Vann deceased purporting to be a Will … annulling & setting aside said writing determining that the same is not agreeable to the rules & regulations of the said Nation and it being their wish that the property should be divided among all the children of the said James & his widow.” [6] The Moravians reported that Vann’s mother and sisters also tried to reclaim property left them by their husband and father, but taken from them by James.

His known wives and children were [7] ...

• Elizabeth Hicks (no children)
• Da-ni – Jesse Vann
• Elizabeth Scott – Delilah (Lily) Amelia Vann
• Nancy Brown – Mary Ga-ho-ga Vann, Joseph "Rich Joe" Vann
• Jennie Foster – Sarah Vann
• Peggy Scott (no children)
• Peggy unknown – John (Jimmy) Vann
• Mary "Polly" Scott – Robert (Robin) Vann
• unknown Cherokee woman - mother of a son later identified by the Cherokee Council.

Research Notes

Many 20th century publications include erroneous information about the Vanns. An article about the Vanns written by genealogist Penelope Allen in 1936 (attached) seems to be the source of much of this misinformation. Following are corrections to some of the errors in her article (sources are noted in the profiles of the individuals):

• The origin of the Vann family is unknown.
• They were not a noble family and did not have a coat of arms.
• The first documented Vanns settled in Virginia in the 1600's and moved south through North and South Carolina.
• The first of the Vanns to come to the Cherokee Nation was John Vann who arrived about 1746
• John Vann was followed by Joseph Vann, probably a nephew of John.
• Joseph Vann married a Cherokee woman called Wah-li about 1765.
• Joseph and Wah-li were the parents of three children James, Jennie, and Nancy.
• Joseph died about 1780.
• Clement Vann possibly Joseph's younger half-brother arrived in the Cherokee Nation about 1780.
• Clement married the widowed Wah-li. They had no children.
• Wah-li died before 1835 in the Cherokee Nation (East). She was not removed to Indian Territory, she did not live to be 130 years old.
• James Vann was murdered by an unknown assailant in 1809.
• His burial location is unknown. Attempts to locate it have been unsuccessful.
• His grave marker is not on his grave.
• James Vann had at least nine wives, all Cherokee
• James Vann and his last wife, Peggy Scott, had no children
• James Vann and Nancy Brown were the parents of the son known as "Rich Joe" Vann
• "Rich Joe" built the plantation home known as "Diamond Hill." Construction began in 1819, ten years after his father's death.
• Avery Vann may have been the brother of Clement Vann

Sources

1. ↑ Miles, Tiya, The House at Diamond Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
2. ↑ Crews & Starbuck, eds. Records of the Moravians Among the Cherokees, Cherokee Heritage Press, Tahlequah, OK , Vols. 1-4
3. ↑ Shadburn and Strange, Upon Our Ruins, Cottonpatch Press, Cumings, GA, 2012 p. 405
4. ↑ Crews & Starbuck, eds. Records of the Moravians Among the Cherokees. Cherokee Heritage Press, Tahlequah, OK Vol. 3, p. 1246
5. ↑ "Jackson County, Georgia, Early Court Records 1796-1831" Wills and Estate Records transcribed by Faye Stone Poss; W. H. Wolfe Associates Historical Publications of Alpharetta, GA in 1994 p66-67
6. ↑ Jackson County p65-66
7. ↑ Shadburn and Strange pp. 405-401, Moravian records and others

See also:
Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Vann

Source: The WikiTree Native American Project @ https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Vann-25
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Vann selected locations in Forsyth County to build two of the taverns. One would be situated on the Chattahoochee River (Vann’s Tavern)and the other(Buffington/Blackburn Tavern) on the Etowah in the Hightower Community. A third tavern called the Harnage Tavern was build at Tate, Georgia. It later burned. It was at the Etowah Tavern that James Vann met his death in February of 1809 while in Forsyth County on business. He was buried nearby before his family could travel from his home at Spring Place to claim his body. Vann’s Tavern was eventually moved to Spring Place. (New Echota, after 1956. Vann's Tavern was built ca. 1805 by James Vann, a Cherokee Indian. It was located near Vann's Ferry which provided transportation across the Chattahoochee River between Hall and Forsyth counties on what was known as the Federal Road. Richard Winn became the owner after Vann's death in 1809. Later a Mr. Boyd bought it. Early in 1956 the tavern was dismantled log by log and reconstructed at New Echota. New Echota is located northeast of Calhoun. In 1825 it was designated the capital of the Cherokee Nation. In 1976 New Echota was named a National Historic Landmark. The relocation was necessary because its original location was slated for flooding by the waters of Lake Lanier. Buford Dam, located in Forsyth County, was completed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in 1957. The dam created Lake Lanier which flows into both Forsyth and Hall counties.)

Photograph of Vann's Tavern, New Echota, Gordon County, Georgia Digital Library of Georgia, https://dlg.usg.edu/.

The Buffington Tavern / Blackburn Inn was moved to the City of Cumming Fairground Indian Village in 2004.. (Curator note: the is a distinct difference between photos of the supposed Buffington Tavern and the rebuilt Blackburn Inn as yet unexplained.)

A third tavern located Tate, Georgia was located where the Tate Mansion now sits. It burned over a century ago. Each tavern was a days travel insuring Vann the profits from the travelers.

“Short History of Forsyth County.” Historical Society of Cumming Forsyth County, 20 Oct. 2018, https://historicforsyth.com/hscfc/''.

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In 1809, Cherokee Chief James Vann was killed by still-unknown assailants, variations of the specifics abound, at Buffington’s Tavern in the northeastern corner of Forsyth County and afterward was buried in a nearby, unmarked grave.

Vann was “purportedly” buried in Forsyth County’s Blackburn Cemetery, where Vann and about 250 others were buried from the 1800s until the final burial in 1909. (However, the gravesite of Chief James Vann has never been definitively identified.)

More than two centuries after his death, Vann’s grave was recently marked with a permanent stone.

The Historical Society of Cumming/Forsyth County dedicated a marker at Vann’s grave on Saturday, May 5, 2018

Whitmire, Kelly. “James Vann Had No Grave Marker for More than 200 Years.” FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS, 9 May 2018.
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Wives of Chief James Vann
By jerry l. clark November 28, 2001 at 10:04:49

Chief James Vann, like King Henry VIII, had many wives. Here is some more information about the spouses and offspring of Vann, gathered from Dr. Emmet Starr's HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS and his unpublished notes, claims (by Polly Scott) submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, correspondence of the Cherokee Agency in Tennessee, records of the Presbyterian Brainerd mission (Chickamauga, TN), diaries of the Moravians, and list of students (with names of parents) at the Spring Place school:

A) Anne or Nannie Brown (1/2 blood ?) was a daughter of Robert Brown (white) and an unknown Cherokee woman. Later Robert Brown married Sarah Hicks (mother of 3 of James Vann's wives) after the death of her 1st husband Walter Scott (see below). Anne's brother James Brown m. Jenny Vann, sister of James Vann and was one of the administrators of Vann's estate. Anne Brown had 3 husbands:
1) James Vann
a) Mary Vann m. Fox Taylor / Alexander Nave / John Stidham
b. c.1793
b) Joseph Vann ["Rich Joe"] m. Jennie Springston / Mary Black (or Blackwood)
b. 1795-1844 (killed in the explosion of the boiler of his steamboat "Lucy Walker" near Louisville, KY)
2) Richard Fields
a) Lucy Fields m. George Hicks
b) James Fields m. Elizabeth Miller
c) Delilah Fields m. James Foreman
d) Isabel Fields m. Dennis Wolf
3) Richard Timberlake

B) Betsey [Elizabeth] Scott (1/4 blood?) was a daughter of Walter Scott (white, British Agt. to Cherokees) and Sarah Hicks (sister of Principal Chief Charles Renatus Hicks). Betsey had 7 husbands:
1) Edward Adair, Sr. (white, his brother John Adair, m. Gahoga Foster)
a) Edward Adair, Jr.
b) James Adair
c) Walter Scott Adair ["Red Watt"] (later a Cherokee Supreme Court justice)
2) James Vann
a) Delilah Amelia Vann m. Capt. David McNair (white)(also administrator of Vann's estate)
1798-1838
3) Edward Springston (son of white Indian trader William Springston?)
a) Jennie Springston m. Joseph ["Rich Joe"] Vann / Mitchell
b) Edley Springston m. Elizabeth Foreman
4) William Burgess (white)
a) William Burgess, Jr. m. Mary Vann (dau. of John Oowanna Vann)
5) John Shepherd (white)
a) Jack Shepherd m. Sally McDonald / Ruth Falling (niece of James Vann)
6) Pleasant Rose (white)
a) Tilgman Rose
7) ________ Vogt (brickmaker who helped build James Vann's house "Diamond Hill")
a) Charles Vogt

C) Polly [Mary] Scott (1/4 blood?), sister of Betsey Scott, Peggy [Margaret Ann] Scott, and Sally Scott.Sally Scott (my ancestor and the reason I began trying to sort out the Vann family), m. George McDonald, uncle of Principal Chief John Ross. Polly Scott had 3 husbands (which Emmet Starr confused with her sister Betsey, p. 566):
1) James Vann
a) Robert B. Vann (aka Robin Vann) m. Catherine Myers
1803
2) William Campbell (white)
3) Eliphus L. Holt (white)
a) William Holt m. Elizabeth Sanders

D) Peggy (Margaret Anne) Scott (1/4 blood?) was a sister of Betsey, Polly, and Sally Scott and the last wife of James Vann, but had no children by him. She had 2 husbands:
1) James Vann
2) Joseph Crutchfield (white first cousin of James Vann)

E) Jennie Foster (sometimes called Jennie Foster nee Doublehead).Her m. Gahoga Lightfoot (1/2 blood of the Deer clan) m. James? Foster (white) and John Adair (white, and brother of Edward Adair, Sr., 1 of the husbands of Betsey Scott and was also my ancestor). Jennie probably (the records are sketchy) had 3 husbands:
1) Chief Doublehead (a rival of James Vann)
2) John Foreman
a) Elizabeth Foreman m. John Elliott (white)
3) James Vann
a) Sally Vann m. Evan Nicholson (white) / James Lamar (white)
b.1797

F) Dawnee, described by the Moravian missionaries as a poor full blood woman, who was often drunk. She had at least 2 and maybe 3 husbands:
1) James Vann
a) Jesse Vann m. Annawake Foster
b. c.1793-1819
2) Water Hunter
a) Robin [not to be confused with Robin Vann]
3) [unknown father]
a) George

G) Peggy [NOT Peggy Scott] was probably a full-blood since her son was described by the Presbyterian missionaries at Brainerd as being 3/4 blood"
1) James Vann
a) John Vann m. Martha Denton (white) / _________ (full blood)
b.1805
H)[unknown mother]
1) James Vann
a) James Vann, Jr. m. Elizabeth Eaton (white)
b.1809-1836

I) [unknown mother]
1) James Vann
a) unnamed 14 years old boy from TN (see below)
b. 1804

Many of these children were pupils in the Moravian school at Spring Place. There is a list of students in the Moravian records (from Microfilm Copy in the Library of Congress), which gives the dates of attendance, age at the time of entering school, residence, and names of parents or guardians.

After the assassination of James Vann in 1809, his will left all of his very large estates to only one of his children, Joseph Vann (thereafter known as "Rich Joe."). However, the National Council of Chiefs decided to annul Vann's Will and to provide additional shares for the other children: Mary Vann, Robert Vann, Lilly [Delilah Amelia] Vann, Sally Vann, Jemmy [James, Jr.?] Vann, and something for Jesse Vann (who got a horse & a colt). Note that John Vann was not named, perhaps because the mothers of both John and Jesse were full-blood and not considered legitimate progeny. Later Thomas Foreman (town chief of Amohee Town, TN) brought an unnamed 14-year-old boy who was acknowledged as a son of James Vann but surfaced too late to get any part of the estate.

An application to the Eastern Cherokee Roll in 1909 (sometimes called the Guion Miller Roll) asserted that a woman named Annie Pruitt was either a daughter or sister of James Vann and married a Cherokee named John Roger (there were at least 3 separate Rogers families and many were named John Rogers). However, I have found no contemporary record of her, so this claim remains unproven and doubtful.

Source: Clark, J. L. (2001, November 28). Wives of Chief James Vann. Geneaology.com. Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/vann/1890/''
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Further Reading:
1. AND THE TRAIL CONTINUED: NINETEENTH CENTURY FEDERAL INDIAN POLICIES AND THE VANN FAMILY, 1745-1902 By CHARLES DAVID HEAVERIN
A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY, University of Central Oklahoma 2013 @ https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/324778/HeaverinCD2013.pd...
2. The Project Gutenberg eBook of Myths of the Cherokee, by James Mooney @ https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45634/pg45634-images.html