James Vann

95

James Vann : biography

1766-2 – February 19, 1809

Vann was buried in or near Blackburn cemetery, Forsyth County, Georgia. Charles Hicks replaced him on the council.Hicks, p. 37

Legacy

Vann was a shrewd tribal leader and businessman, but he had trouble with alcohol. He owned taverns, ferry boats, grist mills, and livestock. His business activities included a cattle drive to Pennsylvania and a pack train of goods to South Carolina. Vann brought European-American education into the Cherokee Nation with his support of the Moravian mission school. He urged adoption of European-style "civilization" for the positive aspects he observed.

He was noted as having problems with alcohol, which became increasingly severe.

Vann fought a notable duel with his brother-in-law John Falling, with both armed with muskets and on horseback (Falling died). Vann was generous with his money to those in need, but ruthless to those who crossed him. He ordered a slave Isaac, caught stealing, to be burned alive. In the same incident, Vann had a teenaged girl slave hung by her thumbs to tell about the theft; the Moravian missionaries rescued her and tried to dissuade him from the murder of Isaac.

In his will, Vann left nearly all his property to his Joseph Vann, his eldest son by Nannie Brown. This followed the law of Europeans but differed from the traditional Cherokee matrilineal practice of having property passed on through the maternal line. Joseph inherited the Spring Place plantation (Diamond Hill), and the property on the Tennessee River later known as Vann’s Town. He became known as "Rich Joe" Vann. Because Vann had gone against tradition, the National Cherokee Council recognized the other children of Vann’s nine wives or consorts as minor heirs, and they shared in the inheritance of lesser amounts of property.

Vann’s family background

John Vann was a Scots trader recorded as active with the Cherokee Nation as early as 1745. He operated a trading post in partnership with Bernard Hughes on the Saluda River near the frontier fort "Ninety Six" in South Carolina. In 1770 after the interpreter John Watts died, British colonial officials hired John Vann as the official interpreter for their negotiations with the Cherokee.

John Vann each joined independent Chickamauga war parties led by Oconostota and his son Terrapin. This John Vann is believed to have married a Cherokee woman and fathered Wah-li and John Vann, Jr.

The Cherokee woman married a second time, to Bernard Hughes. They had three children: James, Charles, and Sarah Hughes. Later she married a third man named Roe or Rowe. Their children were David and Richard Roe. (The latter became one of the executors of his half-nephew James Vann’s estate in 1809). The Cherokee matriarch was known as "Old Mrs. Roe" in her later years.

In 1796 U.S. Agent Col. Benjamin Hawkins traveled through the Cherokee Nation and recorded encountering Sarah Waters (née Hughes) and her uncle Sourmush. He also met "Old Mrs. Roe," nearly 80 years old, and her sons David Roe and John Vann. Hawkins also noted meeting Richard Roe and a chief named Terrapin nearby.

The following family data is derived from the Moravians’ daily journals and list of students: Wah-li was baptized by the Moravians as "Mary Christiana" Vann. Her brother was baptized as John Vann. John married a daughter of Terrapin (she was also a granddaughter of the "Great Warrior," Oconostota).

Wah-li married Joseph Vann, with whom she had three children: James, Nancy and Jennie. Wah-li Vann married a second time, to a white man named Clement Vann. He became the stepfather to her children.

Clement Vann had a sister Jennie and brother Avery Vann. (Avery also married a Cherokee wife and had a large family, so there are many Vanns in local records). Clement, Jennie and Avery were likely siblings of Joseph Vann. The British Indian agent Alexander Cameron recorded Joseph Vann and John Vann, men he classified as white (European), as living with the Cherokee in 1779.