Red Bird fork and Jack's creek, from two friendly Indians bearing those names, to home was granted the privilege of hunting there; they were both murdered for the furs they had accumulated, and their bodies thrown into the water (Collins 1847). |
The Indian chief for whom Red Bird Creek in Clay County was named was (probably) a Cherokee from Tennessee or North Carolina. Like others of his race, he was a great hunter and allured by the game in this remote region he finally took up his residence on the creek that bears his name at the mouth of Jack's Creek in this county. He came to his death by the avarice of the "pale face." There lived with him a crippled Indian named Willie. This man dressed the skins, which Red Bird brought to their wigwam and looked after the culinary department of their house. Some hunters from North Carolina, greedy and unscrupulous, came to the wigwam and murdered Willie. They then secreted themselves and awaited the return of the brave chief who had long before buried his tomahawk and for years had been living in peace with the white man, and as he approached his crude castle the bullet of an assassin laid him in the dust. They threw his body into a hole of water nearby which is still called "Willie's Hole," and from which John Gilbert and others took him and buried him. One tradition is that he was sitting on the bank of a creek fishing when he was shot and that he fell into the creek (Dickey 1898a). |
Red Bird was killed by some hunters below the mouth of Big Creek and thrown into a hole of water. I do not know whether my father helped bury him or not. I have heard my father talk about Red Bird but I do not remember anything definitely now. There was no justification for the murder of Red Bird. The hunters quarreled with him about furs and killed him out of greed. He had an Indian with him, called Jack, who escaped (Dickey 1898b). |
I was born in Clay County, Kentucky, September 18, 1841. I am a son of Abijah and Martha Gilbert. I knew my grandfather, John Gilbert well. I used to be with him a great deal. When I was 14 years old, he and I were passing the mouth of Hector's Creek. He said here in this bottom, just above the mouth of this creek is where Red Bird was killed. Red Bird and his companion, Jack, were asleep. A party of white men came along. A young man in the party had lost his father by the Indians and he had taken a vow that he would kill the first Indian he should meet. This was the first chance. He took the tomahawk of these sleeping Indians and with it killed them and then threw them in the river. He said he came along a short time after the murder was committed and saw their bodies. I think he helped bury them, though I do not remember. He told me the name of the young man who killed them. It was a queer name but I do not remember. He said Red Bird was a peaceable man and should not have been killed (Dickey 1898c). |
Red Bird is supposed to have been named for a friendly Indian by that name who (sic) lived thereon. Two creeks that empty into Red Bird some ten miles apart were originally called Jack's Upper and Jack's Lower Creeks, also named for a friendly Indian. Legend has it that both Red Bird and Jack were murdered for the furs, which they accumulated (White 1932). |
At the time he (John Gilbert Sr.) moved to Clay County and settled, there had been no white man in that part of the state. The country was then settled by many hostile Indians and shortly after he located there an Indian chief know as Red Bird was killed and Red Bird River was named after this Indian chief. 9 The name of this Indian Chief "Red Bird" is referred to in A.B. Gilbert's letter, supra (White 1932). |
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I am 59 years old. I claim my Indian blood through my father, Samuel Cornett. My father died in 1870 in the Cherokee Nation. He was 68 years old at the time of his death (Showing family bible pages). Samuel Cornett was born December 27, 1802, in Clay County, Kentucky. He lived in Kentucky until after his marriage, and went to Missouri after the births of three or four of his children. I was born in Missouri, but I was next to the youngest child. I have heard my mother say that my brother William Cornett, who was born May 9, 1833, was born in Missouri, and John Cornett, born November 29, 1835, was also born in Missouri as were the rest of us children. My father got his Indian blood through his mother, Susan Brock. I can tell nothing about Susan Brock other than she lived in Kentucky and she died there. She was said to be a full blood Indian. She never got any money or lands from the Government on account of her Indian blood. My father went to Tahlequah in 1869 to have his Indian rights recognized, but he did not get his claim fully established. |
Jesse Brock was the first settler on Wallins Creek, Kentucky. He was about three-quarter Indian, and had so much Indian blood in him, that he had no trouble living among the Indians who were thickly settled in the mountains when he first came, raised his family among them, hunted along with them, with no trouble whatever (Walker-Burns n.d.) |
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