Additional Witnesses

She had Choctaw blood.  Her maiden name was either Lipsie or Black.  He had heard his grandfather call his uncle, Billy Black, and he knew the Blacks in that country.  Witness does not know where Nancy Jane Brashear was born, nor how much Choctaw blood she had.  He would not state as a fact that it was Choctaw Indian blood that she had, independent of the proof made by descendants in application for identification.  Seventy-one years ago witness was living in Alabama, he thinks in Fayette or Pickens county, but cannot remember which.

            Question.—Did Jane look like an Indian?

            Answer.—She was a lean, spare-made, dark-skinned, black haired woman.

            She came to Mississippi in 41 or 42.  John Brashear died in 41.  Nancy Jane Brashear lived in Alabama where witness did before she came to Mississippi.  The witness says some of his ancestors were residing on the Tom Bigbee River in 1830, but he does no know that any of them attempted to comply with the fourteenth article, nor does he know that his grandfather owned any improvements in the Choctaw Nation.  He does not know whether any of his ancestors emigrated to the west, between the years 33 and 38.  If any of his people eve received land from the Government in accordance with the fourteenth article of the treaty, he did not hear of it.  He was small at the time.  He did not hear of the Commissioners’ being in Mississippi.  He had heard Colonel Lawrence Brashear speak of his land warrants and scrip, but had never seen them and did not know what they were.  Supposed they were old Revolutionary scrip, or something of that kind, but did not know.  Col. Lawrence Brashear entered land under the Government in Calhoun county, Mississippi.  As remembered by witness, the children of John and Mary Jane Brashear were Lawrence, James, a deaf and dumb man, who died without issue, Elizabeth, Keziah, Nellie, who apparently married a man named Chrestman, Polly, who apparently married a man named Miller.  The witness did not speak or understand the Choctaw language, but his mother could talk it. (Rec. p. 16.) 

CHARLES F. MURPHY 

            The witness is not an applicant.  He was introduced as a witness in Mississippi by Miles Lantrip.  He knew Lawrence Brashear and his wife.  The witness of his own knowledge did not know that Lawrence had Indian blood; he had simply heard it.  He had heard that “old grandmother Brashear,” wife of old Colonel Brashear, ( that is, Nancy Jane, the wife of John,) looks indicated that she had some Indian blood in her, but he could not say how much.  Lawrence Brashear and his wife lived together as husband and wife, and he always claimed Elizabeth Lantrip as his daughter.  They lived in the marital relation and reared a family.  (Rec. p. 28.) 

THADDEUS W. DUMAS 

            This applicant was sixty-four years of age at the time he gave his evidence in 1902.  He was born in Mississippi, in 1838, in Lowndes county.  He lived there until he was five years old, when his father moved to Fayette county, Alabama.  His father was Winchester Dumas, a son of Elhanan W. Dumas and his wife, Elizabeth.  Witness knew of his grandfather, E. W. Dumas, living in Alabama:  did not know anything with regard to Elizabeth’s living in Mississippi or Alabama.  He does not know anything with regard to his ancestors attempting to comply with the provisions of the fourteenth article. (Rec. p. 65.) 

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