Williams, John W. "Cherokee John" 1787 - 1835
John W. Williams was born in 1787 in Tennessee, the oldest child
of Thomas Williams and Maria Priscilla Brooks Williams. In about 1817, the
family migrated from Weakley County, Tennessee, to the Missouri Territory and
settled on the Jean Petit River in what is now Arkansas. In 1819 they crossed
the Red River to Fort Towson in Oklahoma Territory, a US fort established to
keep peace between the Indians. His father, Thomas Williams, is noted in
military records as being a trader at Pecan Point on the Red River.
John William's name appears in Spanish records of the Mexican colony of Texas,
often as "John Cherokee Williams".
1820 - "John Cherokee Williams came into the Texas colony from Pecan Point and
lived on the Old San Antonio Road." "He passed through Nacodoches in Mexican
Texas, had his own abode and was trading with the Indians in early 1820."
1827 - "John Williams was in Nacogdoches in May when Chief Bowles and Mush
arrived to find out about title to the Cherokee Indian lands."
1828 - "John Williams was living on the west bank of the Neches River when he
entertained Ramon Sanchez in June."
1829 - "Ramon Musquiz wrote Stephen F. Austin that John Williams was selling
arms to the Indians."
1830 - " The ayuntamiento at San Felipe adopted a resolution that Juan Williams
was a man of bad character who harbored infamous persons, however, since he had
made improvements on his land, he was to be given further trial and would not be
allowed to reserve land and would be removed immediately if there were further
reports of his wrong doing."
1832 - "John P. Coles wrote Austin in San Felipe that other colonists looked on
John Williams as a dangerous man."
1834- "John Cherokee Williams was in trouble in Nacogdoches for selling stolen
horses."
1835 - "James Bowie wrote Henry Rueg that he had been visiting in the village of
Big Mush and that John Williams had been killed."
It is believed his brother, Brooks Williams, retrieved the body and took it to
his own home place for burial. About a year later, the Texas Revolution had
begun. John's brother, Brooks Williams, received orders from Gen. Sam Houston to
help settlers escaping to Louisiana in the Runaway Scrape. He arrived with a
group of settlers on the west bank of the flooded Neches River (20 miles east of
Nacogdoches near Fort Lacy, in present Cherokee County) on May 27, 1836. A group
of young Cherokee braves, stirred up by Mexican soldiers, were milling about on
the other side. Brooks was asked to go over and see if the settlers could cross
the river in peace. He crossed over and was killed and scalped.
The two oldest Williams brothers, early Texas pioneers, met violent deaths and
rest together in the soil of this Texas.
Family links:
Parents:
Thomas Williams (1757 - 1835)
Maria Priscilla Brooks Williams (1757 - 1834)
Siblings:
John W. Williams (1787 - 1835)
Brooks Williams (1791 - 1836)*
Leonard Houston Williams (1793 - 1854)*
Naomi Williams Ware-Bradshaw-Burton (1795 - 1848)*
Mary Polly Williams Elliott (1806 - ____)*