IN THE BEGINNING—-TOUGH TIMES

                                                     Life story of Henry M. and Sarah Anderson

TOUGH TIMES NEVER LAST BUT TOUGH PEOPLE DO.  That was the title of the late Dr. Robert H. Schullers best selling book. In this book he states  “no matter how tough times get, you have the potential to achieve the best in life”.  These words held true during  the time ( 1809-1897) when Henry M. Anderson was raised in Amite County, MS (Choctaw country) migrated west to Arkansas and then to Comanche/Arapaho country in west Texas. 

Henry M. Anderson was born on July 15, 1809 in Amite County, Mississippi.  With the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, to the U.S. Presidency, the federal government had an increasing hunger for Choctaw land.  Between 1801 – 1830, the Choctaws ceded more than 23 million acres to the United States.   Henry would have witnessed the removal of the Choctaws from Amite County, and the migrants  changing the landscape to cotton plantations.  The plantation workers were African American slaves,  as a result the county population (approximately 1500) was a majority black.  Years later Henry M. Anderson would become a slave owner and fight for the Confederacy.

Our Cherokee blood came from Henry’s paternal grandmother, Bettie Harlan Mitchell.  Henry’s grandson, William H. Anderson,  wrote an affidavit about his grandfather, “Henry Anderson, a quarter breed Cherokee Indian, who was born in 1809 in the state of Mississippi, as appears from the record taken from the family bible” ( unfortunately the family bible was destroyed by fire when his daughter, Elizabeth’s house burned on the old James George ranch in Hemphill County, Texas).  An affidavit taken from the  Guion/Miller Indian registration, indicates that Henry’s Indian blood came from his grandmother , Bettie Harlan Mitchell.  Another written statement  , ” his name is Henry Anderson, that his age is eighty three.  That he resides in Hemphill County, state of Texas.  That he is the son of James Anderson who was the son Henry Anderson and grandson of James  and Bettie Mitchell, who lived in the old Cherokee Nation East”.  Bettie Mitchell’s maiden name was Bettie Harlin, a recognized Cherokee Indian who lived and remained in Southeast U.S., the old Cherokee Nation East.

With the help of Ancestry.com, we discovered that Henry’s Cherokee heritage also came from his maternal grandmother, Francis Fannie Griffin.  Francis mother was Sarah  SaKaYuAh Ocoore, a full blood Cherokee.  She  married our ggg grandfather, John Griffin. 

We are proud of our Cherokee ancestry, however, proving our membership to the Cherokee Nation is more difficult to obtain than other heraldic organizations.  Memberships are denied unless “his name appears on any of the authenticated rolls of said nation”.  When his grandson, William  Henry “Black Bill” Anderson applied for Cherokee membership in 1907, it was denied because Bettie Harlin and Sarah Ocoore’s name did not appear on the Cherokee rolls.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker stated, “Andrew Jackson defied a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and forced the removal of our Cherokee ancestors from homeland we’d occupied in the Southeast for millennia.  His actions as president resulted in a genocide of Native Americans and the death of about a quarter of our people.  It remains the darkest period in the Cherokee Nations’s history”.

  Perhaps that is why we do not find Henry’s two grandmothers on the Cherokee rolls.  Our grandparents remained in the old East Cherokee Nation, avoided signing the government “rolls” that led to the infamous “Trail of Tears” and Oklahoma Territory.  The TULSA WORLD newspaper quoted Chief Baker, “Jackson’s legacy was never one to be celebrated, and his image on our currency is a constant reminder of his crimes against Natives.  It’s been an insult to our people and to ancestors, thousands of whom died of starvation and exposure and now lie in unmarked graves along the Trail of Tears”.

Henry M. Anderson married Sarah “Sally” Lowry on September 18, 1827 in Amite County, Mississippi.  There are family debates as to whether Henry married Sarah Lowry or Sarah Collier?  Good arguments on both camps, however, the only document found so far is the marriage certificate from Amite County, dated September 18, 1827, stating that Henry Anderson married Sarah Lowry. 

The next chapter will be Henry and Sarah’s ARKANSAS YEARS in Caddo Gap, Arkansas.