While I was rumbling around in the files, found the following:
Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas
Stephen Bluejacket of Olathe enlisted 22 July 1864 as a Private in
Company
D of the 17th Kansas
Infantry Regiment and mustered out 16
November 1864.
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August 14, 2000
Wanda Norton, Curator
Eastern Trails Museum
215 W Illinois
Vinita OK 74301
Yours last about
Annie Foreman and
Gertrude Alice (Foreman) Hinshaw
Dear Wanda;
I never suspected that a toilet paper roll holder would cause so much commotion!
Judge George Austin Hinshaw, proprietor of the Hinshaw Plumbing Store, would
have chuckled over the work that he caused you and Kegge Ruark in trying to find
his “advertisement”. He and Gertie both had a great sense of humor.
Gertie and her mother have had me in knots for several years and I can’t help
you with your Annie Foreman at present. I will tell you what I know and
you will find that I have some distance to go to resolve the problems.
Emma Bluejacket, in her Cherokee Nation application of citizenship interview for
she and her two children as Adopted Shawnees on September 24, 1900, gave her age
as 42. That would have had her born in 1858 (in Kansas Territory, now
Johnson Co.). In BLUEJACKET GENEALOGY, on file in the Vinita Public
Library, her father, Henry Bluejacket, is listed as dieing there on May 3,1855.
YIKES! Was Emma all woman or not? The 1857 SHAWNEE INDIANS IN KANSAS
CENSUS lists Emma as being four years old. That puts her birth in 1853.
In the 1889 ROLL OF SHAWNEE CHEROKEES, Emma was listed as Emma Grass, 38 years
old (b 1851). The 1910 INDIAN POPULATION, OKLAHOMA, CRAIG COUNTY, lists
her as Emma A. Renfro, a 50 year old (b 1860, still husband hunting?) Indian
widow who had two living children. Let us proceed.
The Shawnees moved from Kansas to Indian Territory about 1871, concurrent with
the building of the MKT railroad through the Cherokee Nation. They settled
along Russell Creek and the area around what is now Bluejacket and Timber Hill.
In an article in the Craig County
Heritage Association, 1984, THE STORY OF CRAIG COUNTY, ITS PEOPLE AND PLACES,
Vinita, Gertie was quoted as saying she was born on
February 4, 1880, near Timber Hill and my father’s (Felix Carlyle Hinshaw)
birth certificate has her maiden name as Gertrude Alice Foreman. Gertie
always told me that her father was John Foreman and, in “THE STORY…”,
above, said Foreman was a Cherokee and Emma’s first husband. I have
briefly looked at the Dawes Rolls and there was a prominent Foreman Cherokee
family but I have yet to try to sort the possibilities out. I do remember seeing
a Judge John Foreman. By the way, I have a copy of Gertie’s interview
for that article and it was taken in 1978. Also in the article, Gertie
said that she had an older sister who had died before she was born.
In that September 24,1900 interview, Emma listed Gertie as Alice G. Grass and
Gertie’s father as Benjamine Grass. When Gertie went to school at Carlisle
Indian Industrial School in Carlisle PA in 1893, she was enrolled there as
Gertrude Foreman Renfrew. Her address was given as John Foreman and her
father listed as being dead. When Gertie enrolled her first child, Gaylord
Adalphus Hinshaw, into the Cherokee Nation, her husband, George Austin Hinshaw,
wrote to the Indian Commissioner stating, “Mrs. G. A. Hinshaw will appear as
Alice G. Grass on your records”. There are Cherokee Grasses but I have
yet to find a Benjamin(e).
Emma was buried in Mount Hope cemetery in Afton. The headstone reads Emma
A. Renfro, 1855-1916. I am sure that George Austin Hinshaw took care of
the arrangements as she died at their home in Vinita, the services were held in
the home and she was taken to Afton later in the day for burial. The
headstone engraving probably was provided by Gertie.
So, there you have it. What a mess. I suspect Emma needed names for
her children so she may have used those of prominent residents of the area at
the time. Her son Felix G. Cowan was born October 7, 1888 in Vinita and
there was a Felix G. Cowan there but I need to research that.
I am enclosing a copy of this letter for the Craig County Genealogical Society
at the Vinita Public Library.
Looking forward to stopping and seeing you on our next trip through.
Yours very truly;
Gaylord Carlyle Hinshaw
1713 Baron Dr
Norman OK 73071
405-364-4584
bjexploration@swbell.net
