TAHLEQUAH – Genealogist David Hampton has been researching and tracing his ancestry since 1961. For 30 of those 61 years he has concentrated on researching and locating the descendants of Cherokee beloved woman, Nanyehi or Nancy Ward.
Ward was a political leader born in 1738 in Chota in what is now southeastern Tennessee. She died in 1822 or 1824 near Benton, Tennessee, and her gravesite near Benton is maintained by the state. Along with genealogy, in his book Hampton provides a biography about Ward’s life and her influence on Cherokee history and politics.
She was a member of the Wolf Clan and came from an important family in Cherokee politics, but her parents are unknown. About 1751, Nancy married Kingfisher who was a member of the Deer Clan, and they had two children, Katy and Little Fellow, who later used the name Fivekiller.
Nancy first took part in Cherokee affairs and became noticed about 1755 during the battle of Taliwa fought with the Muscogee (Creek) for northern Georgia. The battle took place in what is now Cherokee County near the Etowah River and pitted 500 Cherokee against twice that number of Muscogee. At first, the Cherokee fell back but rallied and drove the Muscogee from their cover. Kingfisher was killed during the battle, and Nancy picked up his rifle and continued to fight. Her valor in battle made her famous. The defeat was so great the Muscogee left the upper portions of Georgia and Alabama and never returned.
In 1759, Nancy married a trader named Bryant Ward and they had one daughter named Betsy.
Hampton, who is a 7th great grandson of Ward, said his intention for compiling the book was to include the names of all of Ward’s fourth-great grandchildren.
“While there are likely some stragglers I have not discovered, I have been mostly successful. It goes against my grain to publish when I have not fleshed out easily found information. But as I get older, I have realized that it is publish now or never,” Hampton said. “I was somewhat surprised to discover that there are, perhaps, a couple of dozen fourth-great grandchildren who are still living.”
In addition, Hampton said, he prepared a new biography about Ward using online digitization of old newspapers, journals, congressional documents and other sources.
“She lived during a time of great change in the Cherokee way of life and the tribe’s relationship to other Native people, the British and the Americans,” he said. “Starting a few years after Nancy’s death, the Cherokee people went through times of tremendous change and turmoil. The voluntary and forced removal of the 1830s, the Civil War and Reconstruction of the 1860s and the allotment period of the 1900s were pivotal events directly impacting every Cherokee citizen.”
Hampton, a Cherokee Nation citizen, added it is difficult to determine how many Nancy Ward descendants may be living today, but his educated guess is about 40,000 people. It is also difficult for him to determine how many on Ward’s descendants he has met and corresponded with during the last 60 years, but it is more than 2,000.
He has been the president of the Association of the Descendants of Nancy Ward since its inception in 1994, and said he meets additional descendants every year. He tries to share freely his findings about Ward with all of her descendants, he said. This year, the association will meet at 2 p.m., Sept. 3 during the Cherokee National Holiday at the Tahlequah Armory Municipal Center in downtown Tahlequah.
“Nancy Ward and Her Descendants”: (David Keith Hampton, 2 volumes, 760 pages/1,518 pages, hardcover – $125 plus $10 for shipping and handling.)
The books may be purchased at paypal.com using the email address cherokeeresearch@gmail.com. Digital copies are sent by email and are $50, purchased the same way.
