Thomas Jacob Raper Jr. (abt. 1792 - bef. 1870)

Born about 1792 in North Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before 1870 before about age 78 in Georgia, United States

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Biography

Thomas was born about 1792.

Thomas married Catherine (Katie) McDaniel, a Cherokee Indian, between 1810 and 1815. Their children were Jackson, Susannah, Alexander, Nancy and Mary.

Thomas Raper Jr. accumulated during his lifetime several good farms on either side of the Georgia/NC line. He was a blacksmith and used to run a store. He sold spinning wheels to the Cherokee. He was at one time associated with William H. Thomas who was a trader among the Cherokees and who served many years as the Indian Agent. Thomas is said to "have borrowed from Raper several thousand dollars and about 800 dollars in gold from Catherine Raper. Raper was offered a large tract of land on the Ocona Lufty river in settlement of the debt but the offer was the rejected and the debt was never discharged. It is believed that this money was taken and applied to the purchase of the property which later became the Qualla boundary or the Reservation of the Eastern Cherokee.

Thomas Raper died before the Civil War. At his death his farm was divided among his children. Alexander Raper chose the farm in Georgia while Mary and Katie chose portions on the NC side of the line.

That he was the son of Thomas Raper is family tradition but the fact that he 'ran a shop' is in keeping with the fact that the Raper family were merchants and people of 'trade'. They were part of the small middle class in the pre-war south.

Affidavit of John Noland Lambert 1810. Family Traditions

An Indian visited the family when John was a young man. He said he was Ayah-se, English name John Wilson. He told him he was the brother of his mother's grandmother, Mary.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1800", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHRC-WPQ : accessed 28 March 2016), Thomas Raper, 1800, pub M32, film 50, GS film No. 181425, digital folder 004955934, image 00249.
• 1835 Cherokee Census, Tyner, James W., editor, Those Who Cried-The 16,000, A record of the individual Cherokees listed in the United States official census of the Cherokee Nation conducted in 1835, Pryor Printing Inc., Pryor, Oklahoma, 5th printing 1993, p. 152. Names 3 Raper heads of Cherokee households on the Nottley River in North Carolina: James, Thomas and Jesse. A 4th is Polly Raper living at the mouth of Valley River in North Carolina. In Thomas' family there were 5 quarterbloods and one intermarried white.
• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4YB-DQX : 12 April 2016), Thomas Raper, Cherokee county, part of, Cherokee, North Carolina, United States; citing family 49, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

Thomas Raper Male 60 North Carolina

Catharine Raper Female 53 Georgia

Hugh Lambert Male 25 North Carolina

Nancy Lambert Female 26 North Carolina

Andrew O Lambert Male 6 North Carolina

Catherine Lambert Female 4 North Carolina

Santa Anna Lambert Male 0 North Carolina

• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZML-N5F : 13 December 2017), Catharine Raper in entry for Thos Raper, 1860. 1025th Dist. Georgia Militia, Fannin, Georgia.

Thos Raper Male 68 N. C.

Catharine Raper Female 60 N. C.

Cinthia Payne Female 14 N. C.

• The Lamberts of Swain County, by Carl G. Lambert, Sr.
• Affadavit of John Lambert Nov 25 1910
• Testimony of Samuel Carson Lambert 1922