Polly Ann "Wah-Li" Dawson

(Curator note, I think the photo is questionable, given that the camera was invented in 1816, the first photographic image produced in 1826, the first camera for commercial sale availing in 1839… this image appears to be in a portrait studio setting which was likely after 1840, Polly would have been 53 years old. The image of her husband appears to be a painting, not a photograph, so there is no argument that they would have been on the same date.)
Biography

• Buried Nabors Creek Cemetery, MIlls Co., TX.
• Physical Description: part Cherokee.
• Event: Find A Grave Memorial #5142461.

Note:

• Cherokee blood, tall, black eyes & hair.

Polly Ann Rogers was the daughter of Capt. John "Hellfire Jack" Rogers and Alcie (Mary Ann) Vann/Anna Pruitt. Believed to have been born in 1787, she may have been born as late as 1792, in Calhoun, McMinn, Tennessee.

Polly Ann Rogers married Samuel Riley Dawson, Sr. in 1804 in Calhoun, McMinn, Tennessee. They had seven children, two daughters followed by five sons.

Marriage

21 Jun 1804. Russellville, KY.[1] Note: moved to Tx. in 1836.

Parents: Husband John Rogers. Wife Alsey Vann. Child: @I658@.
Child: Polly Ann Rogers. Marriage AFT 1780. Or 1786 in GA. [2]

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #S217
2. ↑ Source: #S663

• Source: S128 Repository: #REPO1 Cherokee by Blood Publication: Vol. 1-8 Call Number: 929.308 997 J82c Note: in Native American section

Repository: REPO1 Mahon Library

• Source: S22 1850 Williamson Co., Tx. census
• Source: S243 Repository: #REPO2 Families of Samual Dawson and Polly Ann Rogers Jessie Dawson Blackwell
• Source: S390 Repository: #REPO1 My Journal James Manford Carselowey Note: in Oklahoma section
• Source: S663 Repository: #REPO2 A Brief Genealogy of the Samuel Felix Magee Family Note: acquired from Vada Pitts home; author unknown

Source: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rogers-3885
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POLLY ANN ROGERS (AILSEY5FAWLING, MARY4EMORY, MARY3GRANT, LUDOVIC2, JOHN1GRAUNT) was born Abt. 1794, and died 1852 in Texas.
She married SAMUEL RILEY DAWSON, SR. He was born Abt. 1780 in England.

• Many researchers have traced their Cherokee lineage to Alcey Vann, alledged sister or daughter of Chief James Vann, who was supposed to have married a Cherokee citizen (by marriage) John Rogers and a man named Pruitt. * The daughter of this alliance was Polly Ann Rogers(1787-1856) who m. Samuel Dawson.
• Some versions of the story have Alcey Vann marrying Capt. John Rogers (mixed-blood son of "Hell-Fire Jack"). * * All accounts of Alcey are based on an application (#1306) of Joanna Barber to the Eastern Cherokee Roll (a.k.a. Guion Miller) Roll in 1908 and her testimony before the Dawes (Five Civilized Tribes) Commission. However, no contemporary document has yet been found to verify the existence of Alcey Vann.
• per Jerry l Clark, There MAY be indirect evidence for her to be found in the Moravian Diaries. On June 30, 1806, a white man named John Rogers who lived on the Hiwassee River in TN visited Spring Place, GA. He was almost certainly "hell-Fire" Jack Rogers, whose 2 Cherokee wives (Elizabeth Emory & her daughter (by a previous marriage) Jennie Due) are listed in Dr. Emmet Starr's HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS (p.305) who lived at the time on the Hiwassee. Rogers told the Moravians that he wanted to enter his 12-year old daughter [unnamed] in to the Spring Place school, but the girl's mother [also unnamed] was a sister of John Falling. Since James Vann had been adverse to the marriage of his sister Nancy Vann to John Falling and had recently (May15, 1806) killed his brother-in-law in a duel, and was still angry at the Falling family, it was impolitic for Rogers to risk the enmity of Vann in placing the girl in the school.

In 1819, Ruth Falling, daughter of John Falling & Nancy Vann, a student at Spring Place received a letter from her female cousin [unnamed], who was a pupil at Brainerd school at Chickamauga, TN. I have not found any record of a Rogers daughter attending the Brainerd school, but some of his children did attend a similar school run by Rev. Gideon Blackburn at the Hiwassee Garrison.

Thus the story of Alcy, sister of James Vann, who became the 3rd wife of John Rogers, & had a daughter Polly Ann(born ca. 1787) is mighty close to Ms. Falling, sister of the brother-in-law of James Vann, who was the 3rd wife of John Rogers, and whose daughter (born ca. 1794) & a 1st cousin of Ruth Falling. This does not prove the validity of Alcey & her daughter Polly, but suggests at least a kernel of truth.

If this identification is correct, then Alcy was a descendant of a white man named Rim Falling, who married the mixed-blood Cherokee Mary Emory (sister of John Roger's older wife Elizabeth Emory) [Starr, p. 305] and NOT related to the better known Vann family. Incidently, the 2nd wife of John Rogers, Jennie Due, was a daughter of Indian trader Robert Due, whose 1779 letter to British agent Alexander Cameron mentioned 2 white men living among the Cherokees named John Vann and Joseph Vann. Jennie Due was the mother of Diana Rogers, who was the Cherokee wife of Gen. Samuel Houston (governor of Tennsee and President of the Lone Star Republic of Texas).

• Blood: Cherokee
• Clan: Ani'-Gilâ'hi = Twisters, Braids, or Long Hair Clan (Mary Grant)
• Disputed Cases: "Polly Rogers" Case [ref. Miller ap# 1306, Joanna Barber]
• Moravian Journals: June 30, 1809, reference to John's daughter "the child's mother is Falling's sister"

Children of POLLY ROGERS and SAMUEL DAWSON are:
498. i. JAMES7 DAWSON, b. February 28, 1814, McNairy Co, TN; d. 1894.
499. ii. ROBERT DAWSON, b. February 14, 1815, CNE [TN]; d. August 17, 1886.
500. iii. ELIZABETH DAWSON, b. Abt. 1816, TN or GA; d. April 03, 1873, Texas.

	iv.	 	JOHN DAWSON, b. Abt. 1818; d. 1888.

	v.	 	EDNA? DAWSON, b. Abt. 1820; d. 1903; m. _____ MAGEE; b. Abt. 1810.

	vi.	 	SAMUEL RILEY DAWSON, JR, b. 1822, Tennessee; d. 1890.

Source: Hicks, James R. “Cherokee Lineages: Register Report of Ludovic Grant” Genealogy.com, Sites.Rootsweb.com, 2023, https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/h/i/c/James-R-Hicks-VA/BOOK-0001/0015...
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Polly Ann Rogers, daughter of John Rogers Sr., sister of Captain John Rogers Jr., Chief of the Western Cherokees, who served with General Andrew Jackson and was commissioned a captain by this renowned American. To this union were born:
1) Stephen Riley (Buck) (1873);
2) Carl G. (1875),
3) Olin T. (1878);
4) Kirk L. (1887);
5) Mell (1892);
6) Audie Hedgecock, nee Lewis (1881).

These two pioneer citizen s raised a family of prominence. Stephen Riley (Buck) Lewis married Elizabeth Bell Schrimsher (1874) a charming Cherokee girl,

who is a daughter of Judge John G. Schrimsher. He possesses talent and marked energy; studied law by a coal oil lamp and became an attorney of prominence in Tusla; engaged also in the real estate business; owns a beautiful pioneer home; Lewis Avenue one of the principal streets in Tulsa is named in his honor. He deserves much credit for perseverance and success, achieved under pioneer conditions in the Indian Territory where schools were few and primative.

Polly Ann Rogers was the daughter of Capt. John "Hellfire Jack" Rogers and Alcie (Mary Ann) Vann/Anna Pruitt. Believed to have been born in 1787, she may have been born as late as 1792, in Calhoun, McMinn, Tennessee.

Polly Ann Rogers married Samuel Riley Dawson, Sr. They had seven children, two daughters followed by five sons.

Polly Ann Rogers Dawson was my great-great-great-great-grandmother.

NOTES:
The write-up on her father's memorial page shows: "Captain John "Hellfire Jack" Rogers Sr. fathered a child with 2) Ailsey Ann Fawling. Polly Ann (Rogers) Dawson (1787 – 1854) married Samuel Riley Dawson Sr."

"Families of Samuel Dawson and Polly Ann Rogers and Allied Families Rogers, Pruett, Vann, Emory" by Jessie Dawson Blackwell shows: Anna Pruitt

"Graham, Rogers, Dawson Journal" by Florence Graham Arritt shows: Anna Pruett

The black and white picture may or may not be Polly Ann Rogers Dawson. Most believe the woman pictured is one of her daughters.

If anyone truly knows where Polly Ann Rogers Dawson is buried, please let me know so I can place her in the correct cemetery. The consensus is leaning toward Nabor's Creek Cemetery.

Bio and NOTES by: Pam Barns

If anyone has more/better information, please contact me.* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: May 17 2024, 16:47:38 UTC