Thomas Benjamin Adair (abt. 1794)

Born about 1794 in South Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Rachel (Lynch) Adair — married about 1830 in Cherokee Nation (East)

Descendants

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Biography

Thomas Adair was born in South Carolina, the son of John Adair and his second wife Jane Kilgore. John had five Cherokee children by his first wife, and ten white children with the second. All the children were raised together. Sons Thomas, Benjamin, and John Alexander who were white all married Cherokee women. ^[1] Thomas' father died in 1815, leaving a will which named his children. The will included the following bequest to Thomas: "I also purchased a note from James Head paid .00 for relapsing and carrying through some lands. This I request him to make title to my son Thomas B. " ^[2]

Thomas married a Cherokee woman, Rachel Lynch, about 1830. Thomas appears on "A 1831 List of White Men who have Indian Familys." ^[3]They were the parents of at least two children, John and Nancy. The Adairs were Removed to Indian Territory in 1838; daughter Nancy died on the Trail of Tears. Thomas' date of death is unknown, but by 1851 both Rachel and Thomas were dead and their son John was living with Rachel's sister Sabra Bell. ^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians. Oklahoma Yesterday Publications edition, Tulsa, OK. 1979, p. 403
2. ↑ Abstracts of Old Ninety-Six and Abbeville Dist Wills and Bonds. As on file in the Abbeville, South Carolina, Courthouse;. Will of John Adair - pp 176-179
3. ↑ Warren, Mary B. & Weeks, Eve, ed. Whites Among the Cherokees. Heritage Papers, Athens GA 1987 p. 91
4. ↑ Drennen Roll of “Emigrant Cherokee,” 1851. Images at Ancestry.com. Series 7RA-01. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75. National Archives at Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX. Delaware District, #685