Stalnaker connection?
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In reply to:
Ratliffs: Augusta>Patrick&Russell>Pike=consensus??
Steve Williamson 4/27/02
Continuing what I was saying about the "Black Dutch" & "Cherokee" traditions:
I only recently noticed this marriage: February 26, 1788 Beverley, Randolph County, Virginia:Samuel Stalnaker & Susannah Ratcliff, dtr of William Ratcliff & Deborah Hughes; William son of Daniel Stephen Ratcliff - brother of the Richard, William, Reuben, John, Silas group?
What's interesting about a Stalnaker connection to our Ratliffs is that it would explain both the "Dutch" & "Indian" traditions rather neatly. The Samuel who m. Susannah was the grandson of Capt Samuel Stalnaker, a famous early Indian Trader & frontier explorer. Samuel Sr, from Germany or Holland, was called an "old Dutchman" in one record: Fred Smoot, "East Tennessee, Pre 1796", http://www.tngenweb.org/pre1796/index.htmlhttp://www.tngenweb.org/pre1796/index.html("In 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker, a land speculator, among other things, received directions through the Cumberland Gap from an Indian trader, one "old Dutchman" Capt. Samuel Stalnaker Sr.")
Stalnaker was definitely "Black / Pennsylvania Dutch" & he was definitely connected to the Cherokee Indians. For example, the Journal of Dr. Walker states that in April, 1748, he met Samuel Stalnaker on his way to the Cherokees. (Filson Club Papers, No. 13, Page 42). His 'house was chosen as the meeting place for treating with the Indians by his Majesties’ Commissioners, at request of Chief of Cherokees held at Catawba Town and Broad River in March, 1756.'
The areas in Virginia associated with these Stalnakers should be familiar to Ratliff researchers: Hampshire/Hardy Counties, West Virginia, Draper's Meadow, Botetourt Co, Blacksburg, New River, Reed Creek, the South Fork of the Roanoke and the Holston....& they even used the name Valentine....:)
It is true that Ratliff is a Cherokee surname, and appears on the earliest 19th century tribal rolls, but this is due to it having been the name of some 18th-century English traders, who married Cherokee women, and left children among that people. For example, a "Richard RatliffTrader" appears on a letter dated 11 March 1797, Knoxville, Tennessee from Silas Dinsmoor to Gov. Sevier, listing those living in the Cherokee territory "...not natives of the land." Interestingly, a number of the foreigners listed among the Cherokee are Dutch and Spanish (could this have been one reason for the association of "Black Dutch" with Cherokee?).
Now, who is this Richard? Could it be Richard, b abt 1750 Augusta, who m. Frances 'Fanny' Ratliff?? That Richard was in Russell VA up to 1796, but is not listed on the 1797 tax list, which fits nicely with his appearance in Tennessee - or was he simply perhaps in Wythe or somewhere else? Previously, I had thought it more likely that the trader Richard was from South Carolina (where most of the later Cherokee traders came from), and maybe the father of the Ratliffs who appear later in central Tennessee & Alabama. I have never seen any evidence our Richard left Virginia, but who knows? If the Stalnaker connection can be taken seriously, perhaps Richard or his father Reuben or another Ratliff in that line was an Indian Trader. Mystery solved?
See:
1) William G. McLoughlin, "Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic," Princeton, 1986; pp 88, 111 (John Ratliff, a Cherokee "countryman" in early 19th century)
2) "Passports of Southern Pioneers 1770-1823", pg 320 (1797 letter)
Anyone want to take this up for more research? I welcome comments.
More Replies:
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Re: Stalnaker connection?
Gary Radcliffe 9/20/02