William Weatherford

Abt 1782 - 1824  (~ 42 years)

• Name	William Weatherford
  Born	Abt. 1782	Coosada, Elmore, Alabama   [1, 2]
  	Present-day location. Weatherford was born at his father's home, described as being across from the village of Coosada and on the first bluff on the Alabama below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers. Woodward identifies Weatherford as the second-born child of Charles and Sehoy, thus the date given.
  Gender	Male
  Political	Sep 1811	Wetumpka, Elmore, Alabama   [3]
  	Address of Tecumseh at Tuckabatchee, Creek Nation. Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, addresses the Grand Council of the Creek Nation, inciting war with the Americans. Weatherford and brother-in-law Sam Moniac rise in opposition.
  Military	27 Jul 1813	Brewton, Escambia, Alabama   [4]
  	Battle of Burnt Corn Creek. While returning from Pensacola with a load of arms, Peter McQueen and a number of other Creeks are ambushed by militiamen. The attackers are then routed while plundering McQueen's camp. This set the stage for armed conflict between the nativistic (Red-Stick) and the assimilationists (White-Stick) within the Creek nation.
  Military	30 Aug 1813	Fort Mims, Baldwin, Alabama   [5]
  	Ft. Mims Massacre. Retaliating for the failed ambush at Burnt Corn Creek, Red-Stick Creeks massacre about 250 of the inmates at Ft. Mims on the Tensaw River. Weatherford and McQueen led the attack. While a tactical success, it was surely a strategic failure: The massacre led to the mobilization of forces under Andrew Jackson which invaded the Upper Creek nation. The degree Weathersford's complicity in the atrocities of the day is the subject of debate. It is alleged by contemporary sources that Weatherford was acting under duress and had counseled his warriors to act with restraint. This was the tradition passed down in the Tate family as reported by J. D. Driesbach, husband of Weatherford's niece, Josephine Tate. If anyone had a reason to feel animosity towards Weatherford, it would have been his half-brother David Tate, whose wife, Mary Randon Tate, was murdered in the attack. Others were also taking refuge at the fort who would have been of more than passing attachment to Weatherford. Vicey Cornells McGirth, his aunt by a prior marriage to Alexander McGillivray, was there. (She was rescued by one of the attackers, Sanota, whom she had taken in as a orphan many years before.) Griffith also alleges that Weatherford had fallen in love with another inmate and victim, Lucy Cornells.
  		Fort Mims Massacre 30 August 1813
  Military	29 Sep 1813	Mississippi   [6]
  	Pushmataha and the Choctaws enter the war on the side of the White-Stick Creeks and the Americans.
  Military	03 Nov 1813	Wellington, Calhoun, Alabama   [7]
  	Battle of Tallushatchee. A force under Gen. John Coffee reduce the Creek town of Tallushatchee, killing 186 Indians.
  Military	27 Mar 1814	Daviston, Tallapoosa, Alabama
  	Battle of Horseshoe Bend, (Tohopeka, Cholocco, Litabixbee). Forces under the command of Andrew Jackson defeat the last contingent of Creek insurgents. Weatherford is generally believe not to have been present.
  		Mississippi Territory
  Died	24 May 1824	Monroe County, Alabama   [8]
  Buried	Tate Brickyard Plantation Cemetery, Little River, Baldwin, Alabama
  Notes	Excerpt from J. D. Driesdback, "Addenda to the Paper Furnised by the Writer on June 28th, 1877", Alabama Historical Reporter, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Feb. 1884): "Among the names of prominent white men who mingled their blood with that of the Red man, is the name of Wm. Moniac (a Hollander) who came with a remnant of Natchez Indians to the Creek nation in 1755. He took a Tuskegee woman, Polly Colbert, for his wife, who was the mother of Sam Moniac, who married Weatherford's sister. He and Sam Moniac were men of fine sense and indomitable courage, strict integrity and enterprise, had considerable influence over the Indians, went with Gen. McGillivray to New York to see Washington, was presented by Washington with a medal which was buried with him at Pass Christian in 1837. He was the father of Maj. David Moniac, who was killed in the Florida war in 1836, and of whom Gen. Jessup said, that he was as brave and gallant a man as ever drew a sword or faced an enemy. He (David Moniac) was a nephew of Weatherford and David Tate, and a graduate of West Point. His descendants are highly respected citizens of Ala. and Miss. His wife was a cousin of Oceola the Florida Chief, who commanded the Florida Indians when Maj. Moniac was killed. Moniac had resigned his commission in the U.S.A. many years before the Florida war of 1830, and entered the army as a private in a company from Claiborne, Ala., but soon rose to the rank of Major by Brevet, and was in command of 600 Creeks and Choctaws when he was killed. His mother was Weatherford's sister, which would lead to the conclusion that Weatherford sprang from heroic stock, and his uncle, Gen. McGillivray was said by Judge John A. Campbell to be a regular descendant of a noble Scotch family of a heroic clan in Scotland. I have been solicited to give a more extended account of the father of the Creek warrior Weatherford, and the family of the chief, than I did in a paper of June 28th, 1877. I will here attempt to do so. About the year 1750, two Englishmen by the name of Charles and John Weatherford, came to Georgia, from England. Charles, in 1770, or a short time thereafter, came to the Creek nation and cast his lot with the Creek Indians. He married the widow of Col. John Tate. She was the daughter of Laughlin McGillivray, and mother of David Tate. The fruits of this marriage was six children, named as follows : Elizabeth, William, John, Polly, Major and Rosanna. Major and Polly died in early life. John lived and died in Monroe county. He built the first house in the town of Claiborne, and died in 1831, in Monroe Co., Ala. Elizabeth married Samuel Moniac, who was the son of William Moniac, mentioned above. There were three children by this marriage, named as follows: David, Alexander, and Levita. David was the Major Moniac who was killed in the Florida war in 1836. The Grand-mother of Major David Moniac was the daughter of the Creek Chief William Colbert, from whom the Colbert Shoals, on the Tennessee river, took its name. Charles Weatherford was a government contractor in 1799 for the U. S. Government to furnish horses, blankets, etc., for the American Troops then in Geo. and Ala. Territory. I have seen his license for that purpose signed, by President Adams. The warrior William Weatherford's first wife was Polly Moniac, daughter of William Moniac and Polly Colbert; by this marriage Weatherford had three children, named Charles, William, and Polly. After Polly's death he married his wife's cousin, named Sefoth-Kaney, daughter of John Moniac, said to be the most beautiful forest maiden of the tribe, noted for her musical voice, and powers of song ; could charm the stern red warrior, and make him forget for the moment the war-path and the chase, by the cadence of her voice; whilst the wild bird stopped in its flight to drink in the sweet refrain. He had by this marriage but one child, a son, named William, his mother, Sofoth-Kaney, dying a few days after his birth, which event, it is said, cast a dark shadow athwart the path of the chief for all time to come. The boy grew to manhood, and, after the death of his father, departed from the home of his youth, and went beyond the ''Father of Waters," and has never been heard of since. After the death of Sofoth-Kaney, Weatherford married Mary Stiggings, by whom he had five children?Alexander, Washington, Major, John, and Levitia. The eldest son, Alexander, is the only one of the five children by this marriage now living; he is now in Texas, went there since the war. Major was killed; John died in boyhood; Levitia grew to womanhood, and married Dr. Howell, a highly respected citizen of Wilcox county, in this state. The doctor and his wife are both dead, leaving four children, who are in Texas. Weatherford's eldest son by his first wife (Polly Moniac) is still living at his father's former homestead, in Monroe Co., Ala. He is 79 years old and still possesses a great deal of vigor for one of his advanced age. He has ever been respected for his strict integrity, generous nature, and manly character. A worthy son of a noble sire. From a conversation I had, a few years since, with the late Hon. Dr. Weatherford, of Colbert county, Ala., I was led to the conclusion that, Dr. Weatherford's grand-father was the brother of Charles Weatherford, the father of the warrior. He said his grand-father often spoke of having a brother who left him in Georgia and lived and died among the Creek Indians; and there is a very striking resemblance between Dr. Weatherford and John Weatherford, of Monroe Co., who is a nephew of the chief Weatherford. In closing the sketch of Weatherford, I will here relate an incident which occurred a short time before his death, which is illustrative of the poetic superstition of the untutored savage: A short time before the death of Weatherford, he was one of a party of hunters who were engaged in a deer and bear hunt on Lovet's Creek, in Monroe county, Ala. Whilst on this hunt a white deer was killed, which seemed to make a marked impression on Weatherford, who withdrew from the hunt and went home, remarking that some one of the party engaged in the hunt would soon be called to the hunting ground of the spirit land; that the white deer was a 'token.' And the next day he was taken suddenly ill. and died three days thereafter, and during his illness imagined that Sofoth-Kaney (his former wife) was standing by his bed waiting for him to go with her to the hunting grounds of the spirit land. If Weatherford had a weakness, or 'squaws heart, in matters of this kind, it should be overlooked, as his civilized and educated pale-faced brother of the present enlightened period, claims that he can with raps, and ,'mighty conjurations,' call up the spirits of the dead at will. In regard to a portion of the Indians being devided as hostiles and friendly Indians, during the war of 1812, I will remark that Weatherford always charged that the 'Big Warrior' used his influence to get as many Indians as he could to espouse the cause of the British and then deserted them, and became a 'friendly Indian,' through cowardice, and if he ever crossed his path, he would meet a traitor's death. Weatherford and Big Warrior never met after the war. One of the most implacable and bitter haters of white men was Davy Kurnells, who was the father of the great speaker of the Creek nation, Hopothlebolo. He (Kurnells) committed depredations for many years after the war of the Revolution in violation of treaties and promises of peace and friendship, and appeared to be implacable as fate in his hate for the Pale-face, and even one of his own race was not spared when he stood in his way of reeking vengence upon the Americans. But this man of blood met a murderer's fate. During the Agency of Col. Seagrove, Kurnells agreed to be at peace with the white man, and started to Cole Rain to see Seagrove about terms, etc. Seagrove inadvertently mentioned to some of the frontier men about the Agency that Kurnells was on his way to pay him a visit. A man by the name of Harrison, with others who had suffered by Kurnell's treachery, watched by the path, and shot him, bearing a white flag. Kurnells was known by the Indians as the Dog Warrior, or Efaw Tusfanugga. Alex. McGillivray's second wife was sister to Kurnells. The destruction of the beautiful and picturesque little French village in the fork of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, was caused by McQueen, who was living in the nation during the French or Braddock war. McQueen was the friend of the French and used his influence to get as many Indians as possible to go and aid the French; but after the French broke up the settlement of the Natchez Indians at Natchez, McQueen became their enemy, and caused the destruction of the French settlements on the Alabama river and in the fork of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. And from that period, French domination in Alabama and Mississippi Territories, and the entire South-west, rapidly declined. I may in some future paper give some account of other prominent actors who filled a large place in the public eye during the Territorial period of Alabama and Mississippi, and throw some light on the true cause of the Indian depredations; or, in other words, how the war commenced, or why it was that some of the Indians were hostiles, whilst others were friendly, etc., and give some account of the death of one man, who in wisdom and the management of Indians, aside from Gen. Alex. McGillivray, was without a peer in the nation. I allude to Billy, or Gen. MacIntosh, who was killed by the order of the celebrated chief Menocaway, who in after years said, that he would be willing to lay down his life if it would bring back to life Billy MacIntosh. Respectfully, J. D. Driesback. Baldwin Co., Ala. July 9th, 1883.
  Person ID	I5045	Dickinson
  Last Modified	13 Apr 2017

  
  

  Father	Charles Weatherford,   b. Abt 1752, Virginia
  Relationship	Birth
  Mother	Sehoy III McPherson
  Relationship	Birth
  Married	1780	Wetumpka, Elmore, Alabama
  Notes	"Charles Weatherford was the second and last husband of Sehoy McPherson. They raised four children that I knew. Betsy, the oldest child, married Sam Moniac, and was the mother of Major David Moniac, who was educated at West Point and was killed by the Seminoles in the fall of 1836- he was educated at West Point in consequence of the faithful and disinterested friendship of his father to the whites. Billy was the next oldest, Jack next, and a younger daughter whose name I have forgotten. She married Capt. Shumac, a very intelligent officer of the United States army." [9]
  Family ID	F1354	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Mary Moniac,   d. 1804, Point Thloly, Lowndes, Alabama
  Children	+ 1. Charles Weatherford,   b. ca. 1800, Alabama ,   d. 13 Jun 1894, Eliska, Monroe, Alabama  (Age ~ 94 years)  [Birth]
  Last Modified	16 May 2010
  Family ID	F1383	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Sapoth Thlanie
  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. [10, 11] 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."
  Children	1. William Weatherford  [Birth]
  Last Modified	18 Feb 2013
  Family ID	F1384	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 3	Mary Stiggins,   b. Abt 1783, Alabama ,   d. 1832, Eliska, Monroe, Alabama  (Age ~ 49 years)
  Married	1817	Alabama   [12]
  Children	+ 1. Alexander McGillivray Weatherford,   b. ca. 1820, Little River, Baldwin, Alabama ,   d. 1897, Alabama  (Age ~ 77 years)  [Birth]   2. Washington Weatherford   3. Major Weatherford   4. John Weatherford + 5. Mary Levitia Weatherford,   b. 27 Mar 1823, Little River, Baldwin, Alabama ,   d. 26 Jun 1859, Pleasant Hill, Sabine, Louisiana  (Age 36 years)
  Last Modified	11 Jun 2010
  Family ID	F1382	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Political - Address of Tecumseh at Tuckabatchee, Creek Nation. Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, addresses the Grand Council of the Creek Nation, inciting war with the Americans. Weatherford and brother-in-law Sam Moniac rise in opposition. - Sep 1811 - Wetumpka, Elmore, Alabama Military - Battle of Burnt Corn Creek. While returning from Pensacola with a load of arms, Peter McQueen and a number of other Creeks are ambushed by militiamen. The attackers are then routed while plundering McQueen's camp. This set the stage for armed conflict between the nativistic (Red-Stick) and the assimilationists (White-Stick) within the Creek nation. - 27 Jul 1813 - Brewton, Escambia, Alabama Military - Ft. Mims Massacre. Retaliating for the failed ambush at Burnt Corn Creek, Red-Stick Creeks massacre about 250 of the inmates at Ft. Mims on the Tensaw River. Weatherford and McQueen led the attack. While a tactical success, it was surely a strategic failure: The massacre led to the mobilization of forces under Andrew Jackson which invaded the Upper Creek nation. The degree Weathersford's complicity in the atrocities of the day is the subject of debate. It is alleged by contemporary sources that Weatherford was acting under duress and had counseled his warriors to act with restraint. This was the tradition passed down in the Tate family as reported by J. D. Driesbach, husband of Weatherford's niece, Josephine Tate. If anyone had a reason to feel animosity towards Weatherford, it would have been his half-brother David Tate, whose wife, Mary Randon Tate, was murdered in the attack. Others were also taking refuge at the fort who would have been of more than passing attachment to Weatherford. Vicey Cornells McGirth, his aunt by a prior marriage to Alexander McGillivray, was there. (She was rescued by one of the attackers, Sanota, whom she had taken in as a orphan many years before.) Griffith also alleges that Weatherford had fallen in love with another inmate and victim, Lucy Cornells. - 30 Aug 1813 - Fort Mims, Baldwin, Alabama Military - Battle of Horseshoe Bend, (Tohopeka, Cholocco, Litabixbee). Forces under the command of Andrew Jackson defeat the last contingent of Creek insurgents. Weatherford is generally believe not to have been present. - 27 Mar 1814 - Daviston, Tallapoosa, Alabama Died - 24 May 1824 - Monroe County, Alabama  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos		Weatherford and Jackson Surrender to Gen. Andrew Jackson at Ft. Jackson (old Ft. Toulouse, near Wetumpka, Alabama), 1814.
  		William Weatherford Gravesite, ca. 1940

  
  

  Documents » Slide Show		Weatherford, William Marriages Letter, Charles Weatherford, Jr. to T. H. Ball, 7 Oct 1890 Mississippi Territory in the War of 1812, Eron Opha Rowland,(Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1968), vol. 4, 47
  		Weatherford v. Weatherford, 20 Ala. 548 (Ala. 1852)
  		Tate Tree Descendants of David Tate Drawn by Dr. Marion E Tarvin, 1908
  		Weatherford, William Order on Letters of Administration

  
  

  Headstones		Weatherford, William
  		Weatherford, William Birth year on the stone is erroneous.

  
  

  Histories		History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, vol. 4 Owen, Thomas McAdory, Marie Bankhead Owen, ed., (Chicago, Illinois: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1921)
  		Forty-second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1928)
  		The Red Eagle: A Poem of the South Meek, Alexander Beaufort (Montgomery, Alabama: The Paragon Press, 1914)

  
  

• Sources

  [S336315] Romantic Passages in Southwestern History, Alexander Beaufort Meek, (Mobile, Alabama: S. H. Goetzel & Co., 1857), 266. [S336313] Woodward's Reminiscences of the Creek or Muscogee Indians, Thomas S. Woodward, (Montgomery, Alabama: Barrett and Wimbush, 1859), 89. "Charles Weatherford was the second and last husband of Sehoy McPherson. They raised four children that I knew. Betsy, the oldest child, married Sam Moniac, and was the mother of Major David Moniac, who was educated at West Point and was killed by the Seminoles in the fall of 1836- he was educated at West Point in consequence of the faithful and disinterested friendship of his father to the whites. Billy was the next oldest, Jack next, and a younger daughter whose name I have forgotten. She married Capt. Shumac, a very intelligent officer of the United States army." [S336326] McIntosh and Weatherford: Creek Indian Leaders, Griffith, Benjamin W., Jr., (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1988), 77-78. [S336326] McIntosh and Weatherford: Creek Indian Leaders, Griffith, Benjamin W., Jr., (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1988), 95-97. [S336326] McIntosh and Weatherford: Creek Indian Leaders, Griffith, Benjamin W., Jr., (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1988), 101-111. [S336326] McIntosh and Weatherford: Creek Indian Leaders, Griffith, Benjamin W., Jr., (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1988), 113. [S336326] McIntosh and Weatherford: Creek Indian Leaders, Griffith, Benjamin W., Jr., (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1988), 119. [S336315] Romantic Passages in Southwestern History, Alexander Beaufort Meek, (Mobile, Alabama: S. H. Goetzel & Co., 1857). [S336313] Woodward's Reminiscences of the Creek or Muscogee Indians, Thomas S. Woodward, (Montgomery, Alabama: Barrett and Wimbush, 1859), 89. [S336326] McIntosh and Weatherford: Creek Indian Leaders, Griffith, Benjamin W., Jr., (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1988), 101, 254. [S336330] The Rise of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Lou Vickery and Steve Travis, (Upword Press, 2009), 55. [S336327] Mississippi Territory in the War of 1812, Eron Opha Rowland, (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1968), vol. 4, 47.