General Notes

Information from Raymond Ray
From: Citizenship Commission, Tahlequah, June 2, 1879
Case #97, Benjamin Brackett vs. Cherokee Nation
Petitioned for his rights as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation
Statement of Francis Latta: I will be ninety six years old the 5th of
next month. I was well acquainted with John Wilkerson in the Old
Cherokee Nation. He was regarded as a cherokee citizen. I knew his
mother well and she belonged to the Wolf Clan. It has been about seventy
five years ago that I got acquainted with John Wilkerson. John and his
mother talked the Cherokee language. His mother spoke broken English.
John lived when I first got acquainted with him near Maker Jack Cove on
the Tennessee River. John had seven children by my sister and his other
wife had five. He had a first wife in South Carolina and two after he
came to the Old Cherokee Nation, at least he said he did. He had sons
named Uriah and William Wilkerson. Nellie Wilkerson was said to be a
sister to Uriah and William. William, Uriah and Nellie are children by
the South Carolina wife. Wilkerson s cherokee wife named Cootiah by whom
he had five children named Aaron, Dick, George, James and John. John
Wilkerson's children by my sister were name Hiram, Jefferson, Lewis,
Lydia, Tom George and Linda.
Note: I believe that Maker Jack Cove is really Nickajack Cave, a
Cherokee settlement. On the map it is near Jasper, Tennessee. The cave
is now underwater because of the damn being built just below the cave.
The Jones, Wood, and Wilkerson lived between Nickajack Cave and Crow Town.