The Cherokee family legend: Spicey Jane Smith



Josephine Elizabeth Pinner in 1938.



My paternal grandmother's name was Josephine Elizabeth Pinner Vaught (1916-2002).  She was married to my grandfather, James Albert Vaught on the 5th of April, 1941.

 The Pinner family, at least my branch of it, were settlers of Florida before it became a state.  In fact, the first Pinners to move into the Sunshine State arrived in the late 1820s and served in the Indian Wars of the 1830s.  As the American army moved south into Florida pursuing the Seminoles, settlers followed---many of whom were soldiers who when they mustered out stayed in the new land.

 William Pinner (son of Arthur Pinner from South Carolina, who was in turn the son of the first Pinner I know of, another Arthur, also of South Carolina) moved with his young family to what is now Alachua County, Florida in the late 1820s.  He is listed on the Alachua County Census for 1820 but since his family didn't arrive until from South Carolina until a few years later, it is assumed he was merely laying claim to his future homestead.  By 1850, he had moved the Pinners to Putnam County.

 The 1860 Putnam County, Florida Agricultural Census shows William Pinner owned 180 acres of land, 45 acres of which were improved and 135 were unimproved.   The estimated value of his land was listed at $900 (the 1860 value).  His farm implements were valued at $60 and the value of livestock was $250.  In 1850, the U.S. dollar was worth 4 times what it is today.

William’s youngest son Arthur (born in 1825 in South Carolina) married an interesting woman named Spisa Jane Smith.  Family oral tradition has it that Spisa, also known as Spicey Jane Smith, was a full Blooded Cherokee Indian.  The only information I have on her is that she was born (supposedly) around 1824 on Cherokee lands in southwestern South Carolina.  She (again supposedly) died sometime after 1860 (she was listed on the Putnam County 1860 Census but there is nothing after that). 

Spisa/Spicey, as the story my grandmother told me goes, left her husband and family in 1838-1839 to travel the "Trail of Tears" with her people.  She was supposed to have had a "brood" of children she left behind...however, all my data points to the fact that her first child, Arthur A. Pinner (my grandmother’s grandfather) was born in 1843, well after the Trail of Tears.    Perhaps she traveled with relatives who had a lot of children?

My grandmother used to tell my sister and I when we were children that one of her ancestors was an Indian, but she always thought it was a Seminole.  The information I reported above was a combination of family legend I’ve gathered from other relatives and my grandmother (who swore up and down there was an Indian in her ancestry).

This is a fascinating brick wall I’ve encountered, but I’m not giving up.  Unfortunately, the usual first place to look for Indian ancestors are the various “Rolls” the US Government produced as a sort of Indian Census.  However, these rolls, I have come to understand, only cover Indians who were transferred to a reservation recognized by the United States and/or were granted land there as well.  Since everything I have points to the fact that Spisa/Spicey---if she did go west with the Cherokee at all---came back to Florida and her husband where she began having children and remained the rest of her days.

This is one “problem” I love coming back to, time after time.  There’s something that draws me to this story.  For one thing, many people (including my grandmother) have commented that my grandmother looked like she had Native American roots.  Is it true?  I have no idea.  But I’d like to find out, if nothing else than to justify my grandmother’s beliefs.  Only time will tell, but when I do find something, I’ll post it here!