Notes |
- Griffith (citing J. D. Driesbach- see note below) says Thlanie died in childbirth. Vickery and Travis claim that she died 27 Dec 1813, two days after the Battle of the Holy Ground. In an 1890 letter to historian T. H. Ball, Charles Weatherford, Jr. (the administrator of his father's estate) claimed to know no specifics about Sapoth's death. In an action filed by William Weatherford, Jr. to recover from his father's estate (see note immediately following), it is alleged that Sapoth survived William Weatherford. The apocryphal accounts of Thlanie passed along by Driesbach stand in somewhat stark contrast to opinions harbored by the family at the time of William, Jr.'s suit.
[2, 3]
- William Weatherford, Jr. claimed the estate of his father in an action that was eventually considered by the Alabama Supreme Court. Weatherford v. Weatherford, 20 Ala. 548, 56 Am.Dec. 206 (Ala. 1852. The administrator, Charles Weatherford, is William's eldest son by Mary "Polly" Moniac, William Sizemore the husband of Levetia Moniac, Weatherford's niece (i.e., the daughter of Sam Moniac and Elizabeth Weatherford) and Susan Sizemore (nee Stiggins) the sister of Mary. William Hollinger was raised in the household of Weatherford's half-brother, David Tate, who was most probably maternally related. If Elizabeth Moniac is Weatherford's sister (the wife of Sam Moniac), her testimony would have dashed any hope that Weatherford, Jr. entertained for obtaining a share of the estate.
Of interest are the following findings:
"It is not shown that William Weatherford, the elder, ever saw the complainant [William, Jr.]. On the contrary, it is proved that Superlamy [Sapoth] left his residence in Baldwin county while she was pregnant with the complainant, and never returned; and that the complainant was brought by a relative to the residence of Mary Weatherford, formerly Mary Stiggins, after the death of his mother, and subsequent to the death of said Weatherford; so that the record totally fails to furnish any evidence of filiation, arising from the treatment or recognition of the complainant by William Weatherford, senior.
The proof also sufficiently establishes that Mary Stiggins, alias Weatherford, raised complainant and sent him to school, and said to several witnesses that he was the son of William Weatherford; also, that her children by Weatherford called him 'brother,' and treated him as a half-brother. But the proof, coupled with the answers, clearly preponderates to establish the position, that neither she nor her children ever recognized him as the legitimate offspring of said deceased. Lucretia Sizemore says, Mary Weatherford did not recognize him as a legitimate son of William Weatherford.
Susan Sizemore says, he was not regarded as an heir.
William Sizemore says, Mrs Mary Weatherford did not own him as a lawful son, and that while her children recognized him as a brother, they did not regard him as one of the heirs.
These witnesses were examined by the complainant, and the only proof to show that he was regarded otherwise than as illegitimate by the family, is made by Samuel and Lucretia Edmunds, and they only prove that he was regarded in the family as William Weatherford's son, without stating whether as his legitimate or illegitimate son.
* * *
It would unnecessarily swell this opinion, to copy the evidence afforded by the depositions of the several witnesses upon this head. Samuel and Lucretia Ed-monds, and Susan Sizemore state, that they (Weatherford and Superlamy) were reputed to be man and wife in the neighborhood in which they lived; whereas, on the other hand, William Sizemore, Lucretia Sizemore, Gilbert C. Russell and William Hollinger prove that the connection was reputed to be illicit. Elizabeth Moniac proves that Weatherford 'took up' with this woman at the 'Holy Ground,' where the Indians were generally assembled after the massacre at Fort Mims, during the war, and that complainant was always reputed to be a bastard. This proof fails to show that complainant's claim to legitimacy, as deducible from reputation, can be sustained.
There is no proof of actual marriage according to the Indian customs; and the presumption of an actual marriage from the fact of cohabitation is rebutted by the fact of a subsequent permanent separation, with-out any apparent cause, and the marriage in solemn form of Weatherford to Mary Stiggins, which took place shortly after the separation."
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