The Final Bertie County Transactions

1831 – Bertie County Deed book 163 page 418

William Chew et als, Indians, to the People of North Carolina

This indenture made this 19th day of November in the year 1831 between William Chew, Nicholas Casie, George Warchief, Jonathan Printup, Matthew Jack, William Johnson and Isaac Miller, Chiefs of the Tuscarora Nation of Indians, of the first part and the people of North Carolina of the second part witnesseth that the said parties of the first part for and in consideration of the sum of $3250 lawful money of the US to them in hand paid at and before the ensealing and delivery of these represents, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged have granted, bargained, sold, remised, released, aliened and confirmed and by these presents do grant, bargain, sell, remise, release, alien and confirm unto the said parties of the second part in their actual possession now being and to heir assigns forever, all their lands, tenements and hereditaments, situate, lying and being in the County of Bertie in the State of NC, together with all and singular the appurtenances thereunto belonging or in anywise appertaining and the reversion, and reversions, remainder and remainders thereof and the estate right, title, interest, claim and demand whatsoever of the said parties of the first pat either in law or in equity of in and to the above bargained premises, with the hereditaments and appurtenances.

To have and to hold the said lands, tenements and hereditaments, to the said parties of the second part, and their assigned to the sole and proper use, benefit and behoof of the said party of the second part and their assigned forever.

In witness whereof the said parties of the first part have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year above written.  In the presence of Haratio J. Stow and R. Fleming, State of NY, County of Niagara.

Signed by:

William Chew

Nicholas Casie

George Warchief X his mark

Jonathan Printup

Mathew Jack X his mark

William Johnson X his mark

Isaac Miller X his mark

Note that in the above document, William Chew, Nicholas Casie and Jonathan Printup can sign their own names.

Note that this deed was not registered in North Carolina until Nov 20th 1832 after it was certified by the governor of NY Dec. 3, 1831.

In  April 1911, there are further notes about this deed certifying it to be a legitimate deed, two days before the letter was penned from Bryan Grimes to Luther William Jack.

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1837 – Bertie Co. Deed Book CC pg 150 – February 2, 1837

Poor quality, extracted, not exactly transcribed.

Nicholas Cusick, Solomon Longboard and William Chew, Chiefs of the Tuscarora Nation of Indians, for divers good reasons and considerations hereunto moving appoint Alfred M. Slade of Martin Co. NC lawful attorney to receive money and debts due and demanded and to lawfully recover…

Witnesses difficult to read, but look like William Sladd or Gladd [probably Slade] and William Sutton.

Signed by Nicholas Cusick

Solomon (his X mark) Longboard

William Chew

Registered in Bertie County Court, Feb. Term 1837.

The Sun Sets on the Tuscarora Tribe in North Carolina

In an undated suite between Joseph H. Burnett vs John Thompson, from the North Carolina Archives, North Carolina Reports, vol 51, p 210-216 a suit about the cutting of timber for shingles gives us the following information:

The action was brought cutting cypress trees and making them into shingles.  The plaintiff claimed the premises south of the line between Town Swamp and Conoit Swamp, marked in the diagram as “swash” and the defendant owns the lands to the north of it marked “Ceasar’s Island.”

Ceasar’s Island was once the home of the Tuscarora Chief Samuel Smith.  This record clearly occurs after the Tuscarora land has been sold.  With this record, after the Tuscarora proper have departed, the sun sets on most of the Tuscarora in North Carolina in Bertie County, at least the official tribal members.  A new chapter has opened in the history of the Native people.  It is those ones that the Moravian missionaries describe as scattered as smoke to the wind that we still seek, the ones who remained, stripped of their tribal membership, assimilating into other ways of life.

Of these, we know of only 6 individuals:

• A 1777 deed from the Indians stipulates that Joseph Lloyd, Thomas Smith & Sarah Hicks cannot be disturbed upon the land the Indians are leasing to the whites.  They may have been part of the final group to leave in 1803.
• In 1805, the support of one Indian girl was mentioned in the records, but not by name.
• Esther Gibson, who may have been elderly, is mentioned twice in financial records before 1810, and not thereafter.
• John Cain, a young Tuscarora man who remained and was schooled in NC, only to betray the trust of his tribe as their power of attorney in 1817, is given money to go to Raleigh in 1818, and disappears from the records thereafter.