Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: 24 February 1937
Name: Nannie Pierce
Post Office: Braggs, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: 17 September 1866
Place of Birth: near Braggs
Father: John J. Patrick
Place of Birth: Illinois District, Cherokee Nation, I.T.
Information on father:
Mother: Manervia Lillard
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Jas. S. Buchanan

My grandfather on my father's side of the family was an Irish emigrant to this country in 1820 when he was only seventeen years of age and was living among the Cherokees in Tennessee where he was married to my grandmother, Eliza HELDEBRAND in 1829. To that union were born ten children, William, Nancy, Rachel, Marguret, Eliza, John J. (my father), Washington, Polly, Lucy and Mikel.

As grandmother was Cherokee, she and grandfather and the children that were born up to that time, were driven out of that country with the removal of the Cherokees to this country in 1837 with the general exodus of the Indians over what has been referred to in history as the "trail of tears," the darkest blot on American history. 

According to the stories told to me by my grandmother when I was a small girl, it would be impossible for anyone to graphically portray the horrors and suffering endured by the Cherokees on that journey. The hardships were many all along the trail, rough country, bad roads and all kinds of weather. A seeming endless march of weary, struggling mass of humanity, driven from a country they knew and loved as their home, deprived of most of their individual possessions, to the wilderness of a new country. A procession miles in length of wagons, two-wheel carts, vehicles of every description drawn by horses, mules and ox teams, long troops of pedestrians of all ages and conditions, mothers walking and carrying their babes on their back. 

Many walking and driving their small herds of cattle and other stock. After a few days out on the trail you could see them scattered along the roadside falling out of the line of march from exhaustion and illness, and so the long journey from east of the Mississippi to the Indian Territory was made after several months of hardships and sorrow and the cost of many lives of the Cherokees. I have read of the "Trail of Tears" by different writers but none portray the horrors of it all in detail as grandmother related to us when we could persuade her to talk of it, as she would often tell us it was too horrible to talk about and it only brought back sad memories.

Soon after the arrival in the territory my grandfather taken up a claim in what was afterwards known as the Whiteoak Hills in the Illinois District of the Cherokee Nation about seventeen miles east of where the town of Braggs now stands. He built a large two room log house with a hallway between the rooms and a stone fireplace at each end of the house. At this place they reared their family of ten children and resided the remainder of their active life. Their last few years were spent among the children who were all married and living at different places in the Territory. Grandfather died at the home of his son Washington Patrick near Braggs in 1887. Grandmother died at the home of another son at Wann, Oklahoma in 1903.

John J. Patrick, my father, grew to manhood at the old home place and was educated in the Cherokee schools. He served in the federal army during the civil war and at the close of the war was married to my mother, Manervia Lillard, daughter of Noah LILLARD. Two children were born of that union, my sister Mary and myself, Nannie. He engaged in the stock raising business for several years at a place three miles south of Braggs which he had settled on as a claim, and when the country began to be more thickly populated by new settlers coming in and the range for stock greatly diminished, he retired from the stock business and farming and engaged in the mercantile business at Braggs in the year of 1888 and carried on this business until his death, May 17, 1927. He made many friends among the Indians through his fair dealing and the confidence he placed in them. He never was a member of any church but was always ready to help in any church or religious movement. My mother, Manervia Patrick died when my sister and I were very young.

I, Nannie Pierce, was born September 17, 1866 at father's old home place near Braggs. Educated in Cherokee schools and was married to Charles PIERCE of Elmira, New York in 1882.

Mr. Pierce came west in a trip of adventure more than anything else and through chance came in contact with William Penn BOUDINOT who was very prominent among the Cherokees and through Mr. Boudinot he was assigned to a position of teaching school in the Cherokee schools which he followed for eight years. Leaving that position he taken up farming and the practice of law in the Cherokee courts, as he was a graduate of a law university of the east. Most of his early law practice was at the old Illinois courthouse at Garfield. He was later appointed as attorney for the Cherokees with W.W. Hastings in the winding up of the Cherokee tribal affairs. He never did discontinue farming during the years of his law practice, as farming and stock raising was his hobby and he devoted much of his time in that line regardless of his other business until his death which resulted from a fall April 28, 1902.

Nine children were born to our family as follows: Cornelous, October 30, 1883, Susie, August 25, 1885, Effie, March 27, 1888, Percival, March 24, 1891, Claud, September 26, 1893, Ruth, July 26, 1895, Edna, July 22, 1897, Stella, September 24, 1899 and Bessie, August 30, 1901.

Mary Patrick, born March 12, 1868 at the old home place near Braggs, Educated in the Cherokee public schools. Married to Levi ACKLEY in 1887. Four children born to that union. (See Ackley story by some other writer.)

John J. Patrick. Son of Joshua Kilpatrick and wife Eliza, was born in Indian Territory in 1842, four years after the parents emigrated West to the Indian Territory. Later he dropped the first part of his name and was afterward known as John Patrick. He said that the original name was much too long for common use.

He was married to Miss Minerva Lillard. They located in Illinois District. After her death he was married to Miss Elmira FIELDS. They reared a large family.

He built and operated a general merchandise store on the Arkansas River, twelve miles East of Muskogee for a number of years; in connection with his other business he operated a ferry across the Arkansas that later became known as the Smith Ferry. A post office was established there, known as Patrick where the mail was received three times a week, brought by a man on horseback from Muskogee. With the coming of the Iron Mountain Railroad through Braggs he moved his store to Braggs where he continued in business until shortly before his death in 1927.

In connection with other things he owned the first cotton gin in that section of the country. Being successful in all business enterprises he was able to render valuable assistance to those less fortunate. His heart and hand was always open to calls from the needy.

At his death, the entire community grieved for a true friend. He is buried in the cemetery at Braggs.

P.S. Mrs. Nannie Pierce - daughter of John J. Patrick.
[Transcriber's note - Eliza's maiden name was Hildebrand.]

Transcribed and submitted by Wanda Morris Elliott <jwdre@intellex.com> January 2001.

 

Additional comments submitted by Emmett Myers chieftalos@earthlink.net January 2001. 

The above interview of Nancy (Nannie) (Patrick) Pierce appeared as a reprint in a newspaper (name of newspaper and date article appeared are unknown to me) article titled, Turning Back the Clock, written by C.W. "Dub" West, Muskogee historian. The first paragraph of this article reads, "The following is an account of experiences along the Trail of Tears as related to James S. Buchannan in an interview with Nannie Pierce on February 14, 1937. The original is in the archives of the Oklahoma Historical Society."

The reprinted interview contains some errors, probably due to bad memory of Nannie Pierce, inaccurate reporting by James S. Buchannan or inaccurate transcribing.

However, there is no doubt that Nannie Pierce's grandmother was Eliza Hilderbrand and not Ella Hildebrand. Nannie Pierce's grandfather, though not named by Nannie Pierce in the article, was Joshua Patrick/Kirkpatrick/Kilpatrick. Joshua appears on the 1835 Cherokee census in Tennessee, as Joshua Kirkpatrick, and in a sworn claims deposition in 1842 at Tahlequah, as Joshua Kirkpatrick. His name also appears as Josh. Kirpatrick for payment for subsistence and transportation for removal under the Treaty of 1835, and his name appears as Joshua Kirkpatrick in a War Department report dated February 28,1839, to the U.S. Senate, evaluating his property in Tennessee at $938.00.

However, two of Joshua's children, in their Guion Miller applications, state the family name was originally Kilpatrick. His name appears as Joshua Patrick on the 1880 Cherokee census. According to David Hampton's book, Descendants of Nancy Ward, Joshua and Eliza (Hilderbrand) Kilpatrick had 10 children, William Patrick, born 1830; Rachel Patrick, born 1837; Nancy Jane Patrick, born April 1, 1838; Margaret Patrick, born 1841; John Joshua Patrick, born August 2, 1843; Elias Patrick, born 1845; Mary Patrick, born 1847; George Washington Patrick (my grandfather), born September 22, 1850; Lucy Patrick, born July 1, 1855; and Michael K. Patrick, born September 22, 1863. According to Hampton, supra, Joshua Kilpatrick was born 1803 in South Carolina and Eliza Hilderbrand was born 1815 at Cherokee Nation East (now Tennessee).

My grandfather, George Washington Patrick, stated on his Guion Miller application that his father was born in Ireland so it is possible Nannie Pierce's statement that her grandfather was born in Ireland is correct. However, two other children of Joshua state on their Guion Miller applications that their father, Joshua, was born in Georgia. Eliza (Hilderbrand) Patrick/Kilpatrick/Kirkpatrick was 1/4 degree Cherokee and the great, great granddaughter of Nancy Ward of Cherokee fame. Nannie Pierce says her father, John J. Patrick, was in the federal army during the Civil War whereas, records reflect, he served under the Cherokee General, Stand Waite, in the Confederacy and participated in the Battle of Pea Ridge Arkansas.

Eliza (Hilderbrand) Patrick was granted her Cherokee land allotment of eighty acres East of Wann, Oklahoma, where she died at the home of her son, Michael K. Patrick. She was taken for burial beside her husband, Joshua, at the South Bethel Cemetery, Braggs, Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Chapter of the Trail of Tears is currently considering placing a Trail of Tears marker at the graves of Eliza and Joshua in the Spring or early Summer of 2001. It is believed that Joshua and Eliza's three oldest children, William, Rachel and Nancy Jane, accompanied their parents on the Trail of Tears.

The town of Wann, Oklahoma, is located on the Cherokee land allotment of Michael K. Patrick, son of Joshua and Eliza (Hilderbrand) Patrick/Kilpatrick/Kirkpatrick and several of the Patrick descendants of Joshua and Eliza, including my grandfather, George Washington Patrick, and my mother, Elizabeth Jane (Patrick) Myers, received Cherokee land allotments near Wann, Oklahoma.

In her book, Braggs Oklahoma, Juliana Irving Hiner, states that the town of Patrick, I.T. (Indian Territory), was named after John J. Patrick, appointed the first postmaster of Patrick, I.T. in 1886. In 1888, John J. Patrick moved his store and post office to Bragg Station to be near the new railroad and the town was renamed Braggs, in honor of Solomon Bragg.

Submitted to OKGenWeb.