Surnames & Families

When tracing Native American ancestors in Okaloosa County, search the counties between Mobile, AL. and the Apalachicola River, FL. During the later part of the 19th century Creeks from south Alabama and South Georgia migrated into West Florida, adding to the small Indian population already present here. Those who were removed and returned to their home area (after ca. 1859) tried to stay as close as possible to their ancestral tribal grounds. Florida Indians tended to live together in small family groups, usually in remote areas to avoid undue attention or trouble. This way they could also move quickly to another area if necessary. Creek country was from the Alabama River to the east coast of Georgia and north to the Tennessee River. After 1815,  Seminoles were generally from east of the Apalachee to St. Augustine and south into Florida, the Uchees favored Uchee Valley, DeFuniak Springs and down near Boggy Bayou

The challenges of tracing Native American ancestry can be legion and complex so pace yourself and take the long view. Tribal associations have been deeply affected by whether they were ‘removed’ or ‘unremoved’ from their native lands;  problems of suppression and records affecting their tribal status with the State and Federal governments.

A Short List of Native American descendants associated with Northwest Florida, particularly Okaloosa County. This may provide clues for you as you search for your ancestors.

• Chief Sam Story. He was Chief of the Choctawhatchee Euchees in the early 1800s. Some identify him also as Timpoochee Kinnard. This is doubtful; there needs to be a great deal more study on this question. You will find many reports of (his contemporaries) Timpoochee Kinnard and Timpoochee Barnard in Georgia, as well as in northwest Florida. It would be difficult for one person to accomplish as many activities as are ascribed to one man. This gives rise to speculation that "Timpoochee" was a title used by two, perhaps as many as three, Native American leaders in the southeast. And, by the way, Camp Timpoochee is a modern day name assigned to a Four-H camp on the south west side of Choctawhatchee Bay. Surnames and families associated with Chief Sam Story and his people include:  Campbell; McKinnon; Crow; Potter; Garrett among others.
  
  
• Families of Okaloosa and Walton Counties document Native American decendancy. Detailed information appears in the research library at the museum. Surnames include: Cousins, McIntosh, Williams, Turner, Grierson, Griner among others.
  
  
• Ruby F. Atwell (1906-1996) OBIT states his ancestors are buried in the area surrounding Turkey Hen Creek, and, were Seminole Indians who are buried along the Yellow River. The OBIT appeared in the Crestview News Bulletin, December, 1996.
  
  
• Jesse C. Turner signed an Affidavit regarding his Native American ancestry. He is also a descendant of Chief William McIntosh and Chief William Cousins of the Eufaula Creeks. Surnames noted in the document are: Turner, Cannon, Knight, and Ward. A copy of this Affidavit appears in the Native American section of The Heritage of Okaloosa County, Florida Volume II.
  
  
• Muscogee Nation of Florida (formerly The Florida Tribe of Eastern Creek Indians) Surnames include:  Tucker, Crews, Walters, Denson, Carn, McCauley, Denson, Ward, Stokes and Thomas.
  
  
• William "Red Eagle" Weatherford, (1781 – March 24, 1824), was a Creek (Muscogee) who led the Creek War offensive against the United States. William Weatherford, like many of the high-ranking members of the Creek nation, was a mixture of Scottish and Creek Indian. His "war name" was Hopnicafutsahia, or "Truth Teller," and was commonly referred to as Lamochattee, or "Red Eagle," by other Creeks. He was a nephew of Alexander McGillivray and by marriage, the nephew of Le Clerc Milfort. He was also a cousin of William McIntosh.
  
  
• "Trek of the Henderson’s" by Jeanette Henderson. (Available in the museum's research library) lists many, many surnames. To name only a few:  Jackson, McCarty, Dalton, Treadaway, and Henderson. Mrs. Jeanette Courtney Henderson is a member of the Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe in Wigham, GA. and her husband Charles Henderson is a member of Muskogee Florida Tribe of Indians at Bruce, FL.
  
  
• Descendants of Tomas Jackson and wife, Asenith Hammond. By Jeanette Henderson. Baker Block Museum Binder.
  
  
• The works of William Bell, Baker Block Museum Special Collections.
  
  
• Linda McCay Calhoun of Pensacola, FL has an extensive history of her ancestors - in our area - which includes the following surnames. Her full article appears in the Heritage of Okaloosa County, Florida Volume II (available in the museum book store)Surnames include: Cannon, Gates, Southern, Atwell, Smith, Daughtery, McCay and others.
  
  
• Other known surnames of descendants of Native Americans in our area include:  Chessher, Dannelly, Stokes, Steele, Carr, Helms, Snell, Kirkland, Devereux, Tarvin, Elliott, Danley, Kennedy, Franklin, Snowden, Cook, Booker and Posey - these surnames are embedded within the many family history volumes in the museum's research library. Happy hunting!
  
  
• Semoise, Dees, Williams, Native American Descendants (available at Baker Block Museum)
  
  
• Within the Introduction to "Native American Heritage", page 90, The Heritage of Okaloosa County, Florida Volume II. These surnames are associated with the Catawba Indians (1828) - Brown, Bunch, Ayers, Jeffries, Harmon, Jones, Stephens, Williams, Scott. Additional surnames associated with the various Creek bands in our area include:  Wm. Brown, McGilveray, Feagin, Bryant, Perryman, Butcher, Hagan, Fennell, Stanley, Bartlett, Marine, Burns, Bryant and Moniac.
  
  
• Henry Rushing Cook Family. Henry was born 4/25/1869 in the Escambia Farms area. Son of Matthew Malicah Cook and Eliza Ann Steele. His mother, Eliza, served as a midwife and used her knowledge of herbs and Native American medicines to help people in the area. She was a descendant of the Muscogee Nation, who were called Creek Indians by the English traders. Family ancestors were prominent traders in the Creek nation. In order to secure the trade in a village, these traders always married prominent women within the tribe. Eliza's grandmother was such a woman.
       Henry Rushing Cook raised his family in the Shockley Springs community. He and his daughter Susie (Susie Cook Helms) are pictured in the "Cultural Heritage Section of this site. They are on their way to the coast (Gulf of Mexico) to find shells which would be used as Native American ceremonial objects - particularly to adorn gravesides. This family kept the old Indian customs and belonged to the Church of Christ at Union Hill. A member of the Florida Tribe of Eastern Creek Indians, now known as the Muscogee nation of Florida, the following is quoted from a written statement she made and is on file with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.  Susie Cook Helms is the Mother of Linda Sue Helms  Chessher, wife of Nathan Chessher. 
      "Daddy was sick for two weeks. When he first got sick, the Spirit of Elizabeth (Eliza Steele Cook) his dead mother came to visit him. He said  she had a crown hanging from her arm and Medicine from her other arm. She told him to drink the medicine and he did. His wife, Nannie, heard him talking to her and went in to see who he was talking to. This is when he told her his Mother (Eliza) had just visited him and told her this story. He died just two weeks later."  (I believe) these Christian Creek Indians were much more in touch with the spiritual world than we are today, says Nathan Chessher, the author of this article printed in The Heritage of Okaloosa County, Florida Volume I.   See our history section on Native Americans to learn more about burial customs.
  
  
• Thomas Elijah Chesher. The 1826 Congressional Records indicate that 18 men, including Thomas E. Chesher,  signed a petition with James Innerarity requesting a Land Office be established in Pensacola, FL. The men in this group included five ancestors of the Chessher family. James Innerarity was the agent for the Panton Leslie Trading Company and he employed many men in the Southeastern United States in the Indian trade. Most of the men who signed this petition worked for Innerarity. They coexisted with the Creek Indians and some married Creek women. After the trade ceased they acquired cattle and ranged them back and forth across the Florida/Alabama state line. Surnames include:  Barrow, Steele, Chesher/Chessher, Bryan, Dannelley.
  
  
• Hathcock Family. Baldwin County, AL. Creek Heritage. Surnames include: Gibson, Lofton, Hollinger, Bailey Dusong, Ehlert/Elliot, Colbert, McGhee and many more. Google or go to their website, http://www.gulftel.com/nobles/
  
  
• The "Border Hopping Browns."  The accounts vary and finding documentation is difficult. Family lore says that William Brown sailed into the Choctawhatchee River and took an Indian wife. Several researchers trace their ancestry to William Brown's children: Charles, Laborn, Henry, Allen, and John Brown. They believe that the Browns were active in both Native American and  U.S. politics. They became known to the local Creek Indians as the "Border Hopping Browns" because, at one time, the family was on the run from bounty hunters. They moved back and forth across state lines - Georgia, Alabama, Florida - to avoid detection and there are no records of their exact locations before 1850. There are several articles on these particular Brown families in the Florida county heritage books found in our local libraries, and the museum's research library.
  
  
• Calvin McGhee.  The first formal leader in the sense of a single leader with a definite title and a clearly defined role was Calvin McGhee, who was chosen in 1950. A charismatic leader, McGhee led the Poarch community until his death in 1970. He also led a wider land claims movement among Eastern Creek descendants, resulting from the illegal tactics of the Treaty of Fort Jackson. He traveled the area collecting family names and data of people known to be Native American.  A copy of the handwritten volume is available in the Genealogy Section of the Pensacola Florida Public Library, as well as, other locations.  It is an extraordinary work with many, many names.
• Andrew Ramsay .  Andrew Ramsay:   A Creek Native American, Andrew Ramsey was born in 1923 and grew up in Blountstown, Florida. His family ancestors settled Calhoun County in 1815. Andrew’s Indian name is Vntolv Harjo and under this name he was chief of the Miccosukee band of the Apalachicola Creeks.
  
  One of Andrew’s earlier jobs entailed keeping the free roaming cows and hogs out of his father’s grocery store. After attending college at FSU and receiving his Ph.D., Andrew returned to Blountstown to train elementary schoolteachers and remained a lifelong educator. He is now the state historian for Apalachicola Creek Indians and runs the grocery business started by his father. Dr. Ramsey’s paternal grandmother advised her son to start a “rolling store” with some dry goods and a mule—a store that in 2005 is the Blountstown Piggly Wiggly.
  
  
  

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