AMERICAN MYSTERY RESIDENTS OF ROANOKE ISLAND LOST IN 1587
Their Descendants Believed to
Be the Croatan Indians of 1587--The Facts in a Very Romantic History--
Condition of the Croatans of the Present Day
In 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh
sent John White with three vessels loaded with colonists to found a
settlement on the coast of far away and almost unknown America.
White landed on what is now NOrth Carolina, and established his colony
on Roanoke island. A short while after the departure of the fleet
for England leaving the colonists behind, a child was born--the first
on American soil. To it was given the name Virginia Dare.
The new country, so suspiciously settled, was named Virginia, after
England’s "Virgin Queen, " Elizabeth, and for the same reason the
name Virginia was given the first born. The colonist, when the fleet
sailed, were busy preparing their rude homes, and had thrown up a rough
fort, after the manner of the time, to guard against a danger
which must have seemed imaginary, so kind were the Indians who lived in
that region. The friendliness of the latter was so great that
they aided the new comers in every way. The fleet carried to
England good tidings of the settlers, "in a land well watered, with
great abundance of fish and game, with such grapes and fruits as have
not before been seen by Englishmen." Three years passed and then
the mystery began. It had been the plan that in a little while
the ships would return and that the colonists’ numbers would be
augmented by new arrivals from England. But i was three years
before a relief expedition sailed. In 1590 it reached
Roanoke. Where were the colonists? Echo only answered the
question. The people landed, searched the island thoroughly but
not a trace was there of the lost colony, save the outlines of the fort
and the one word "CROATAN" rudely carved upon the trunk of a
tree. There were no Indians, and the colonists had evidently left
in a body. There were no graves, no evidences of conflict:
nothing to tell nay tale of their whereabouts. The word "Croatan"
was more than meaningless. The ships finally sailed away with
this awful story of the unknown. For three centuries, on both
sides of the water, the most melancholy interest has been attached to
what came to be known as "the lost colony of Roanoke," an interest
which but deepened as the years passed. * * * Now where and what was
Croatan? It was in Tyrrell county, on the North Carolina
mainland, and across the sound from Roanoke. It was there the
white people went, no doubt as the special request of Indian friends,
who promised them a more generous land. To bridge, in one sentence,
the space of three centuries of time, the county of Robeson must be
visited, for there rests the other end of the mystery of 1587.
The Croatans are in Robeson. As the descendants of those older
Croatans, whose name was the one link in a chain otherwise lost, and as
the descendants also of the lost colonists of Sir Walter Raleigh’s ill
fated expedition, they can justly lay claim to more of romance
than any other people on this continent. During the recent session of
the North Carolina legislature, a member from Robeson county, Mr.
Hamilton McMillan, started thought in a new direction by asking for
special aid for the Croatan Indians. He declared that a great
injustice had been done them in that they had been classed as
negroes. He claimed that they were Indians, of a high class, and
of historic name and fame, and that they desired and deserved separate
schools and special aid. Three hundred years after the colony of
White was lost, the descendants of those colonists petition the
legislature for aid in educating their teachers--a legislature sitting
in a city named after Raleigh, the patron of the colony. The legislature has hearkened
to the matter and has granted separate schools and special aid for
normal schools to the Croatans, meanwhile restoring them to their
proper position as Indians and as citizens. The last two ends of the
chain were picked up. It now remained to discover the links
between. To do this a visit to the Croatans became necessary, and in
Mr. McMillan’s company it was made. The county of Robeson lies on
the state’s southern border, adjoining South Carolina, and a hundred
miles from Raleigh. The land there is fertile, much of it in
swamp, filled with luxuriant vegetation, while there are vast stretches
of the long leaf pine which formerly yielded the staple of North
Carolina’s commerce---tar, pitch and turpentine. The Croatoans
now living there number 3,000. they have enrolled
nearly 1,200 children of school age. They have twenty-six
churches, and are divided into Baptists and Methodists. They have
in the past few months built good schoolhouses. The very best
roads in all the state are found there. A century or more ago
they opened the great Lowry road from Robeson to Cambellton (a historic
Scotch settlement) and this was used as a post road until railroads
came. It was along this road that fast riding couriers carried
the tidings of the treaty of Ghent to Gen. Jackson at New Orleans in
1815. Very careful inquiries were
made to ascertain the past history of this tribe. The Croatans
came to Robeson county (then Bladen) between 1715 and 1732. An
investigation of land grants in their possession was made. The
oldest grant that could be discovered is dated in 1732 and by it King
George II granted a large tract to two chief men of the tribe, names
Henry Berry and James Lowry or Lowrie, who "came from Virginia," as
tradition has it, for the Croatans yet speak of eastern North Carolina
as "Virginia." There is said to be a grant by George III to John
White, but it cannot be discovered. The name of John White is
very suggestive. Over twenty names of Whites’s lost colonists are
today among them.
* * * Many inquireis were made as
to tribal traditions. The tradition is common that the tribe
formerly inhabited the country around Pamlico sound, including portions
of what are now Carteret and Hyde counties and all of Tyrrell and
Dare. Among the Lowry family there is a tradition that
their "feythers" (fathers) lived on the shores of Lake
Mattamuskeet, in Hyde county, before they came to Robeson county.
The best informed men say that the Croatan was the name of a place, and
that the name was later given the tribe by the English. An
intelligent Croatan clergyman says that the true tribal names is
Hatteras (or Hattorask, as the Croatans call it.) Now here is another
link. The Hattorask Indians are the ones who were on Roanoke
island when White’s colony landed. No Indians lived habitually on
the island: they only went there from the main land to fish or hunt, or
perhaps for greater coolness in summer. Another tradition, well
preserved, gives another ? in the chain of evidence. It is that
Lake Mattamuskeet, before alluded to, was a "burnt lake" or "lake burnt
out of the ground." And so it was, wonderful as it may
seem. The soil of Hyde is all peat, and in dry season it
occasionally catches on fire. In such a case the very land itself
is consumed and pits or depressions are formed, which presently fill
with water. The best evidence to that in a vast fire, perhaps
centuries ago, Lake Mattamuskeet was thus formed. It is thirty
miles long, at no place over eight feet deep, and not a fish of any
kind has ever been ? in its waters. But yet strange facts were
discovered. The language of the Croatans is peculiar in
tone. They use but two sounds of the letter a--a broad sound of a as in
father and the sound of a as in date. Dare is pronounced Derry.
the name of Virginia Dare is familiar to their chroniclers. The
Dare family name has disappeared in Robeson county, but is found among
a branch of the tribe in Lincoln County, N.C. One of the Dares served
as a soldier in the United States army in the war of 1812. Their
language is peculiar in that it is strictly Anglo-Saxon. It
contains many words in common use which have been obsolete for a long
period in most of England. For instance, "housen" is the plural
of house; "crone" is to push down; for "ask" they say "eks" (old
English): for "father" they say "feyther." Knowledge is spoken of
as "wit." As to family names, over
twenty of those held by the long lost colonists are found.
James (pronounced in the old English way, Jeams) Lowry is a very common
name among them. The name of Locklear is also found, and Cuzzie
Locklear is one of the oldest living members. The name Dial was
formerly Doyle. The name Goins was once O’Gwinn. Priscilla
and Rhoda are the most common name of women, and Henry that of
men. One of the oldest men is Aaron Revels, who is more than 100
years of age. He is an uncle of Senator Revels, of Mississippi. The prevalance of the name
Lowry has been referred to. According to tradition a man named
James Lowry came from "Chesapeake" and married in the tribe, and became
the progenitor of a large and influential family. That family, at
the time the tribe broke up, moved away from the Roanoke section, went
to western North Carolina, perhaps to Buncombe. Lowry’s
descendants they say, wee "leaders among men." Governor James
Lowry Swain, who after serving as chief magistrate of North Carolina
was for over a quarter of a century president of the State university,
was a descendant as was also Lieutenant Governor James Lowry Robinson,
of this state. They have always, their
traditions say, been warm friends of the white people. It is said
that long ago they fought under Bonnell (Barnwell) in the wars agains
the Indian tribes. Many of them were in the Continental army in
the war of the revolution, and a company was sent to fight the British
in the war of 1812. The English names of men in these companies
are remarkable as those of White’s colonists in many cases.
Some of the Croatans were slave owners, and some kept houses of
entertainment for travelers. Their cleanliness is a
characteristic. Physicians who practice among them speak of this
and say they never hesitate about sleeping or eating in the house
of a Croatan. They are a hospitable people also, and very
obliging. They are proud of their race and have far stronger race
prejudices than either whites or negroes. They are the best of
friends, but the most dangerous of enemies. Indian
characteristics are marked. Their fondness for cloth of a red
color is remarkable and in this most of their women are dressed.
They march in "Indian file" in their travels. They are
reticent, unless one gains their confidence. They are of all
colors, from pure white to copper. Many of them can with
difficulty be distinguished from white people.
Their women are in many cases
beautiful with superb figures, as voluptuous in some ?ruses as those of
the far famed Hawaiian maidens. One of their most beautiful women
is Rhoda Lowry, who was sometimes spoken of as "Queen Rhoda."
Their movements are grace itself, and the dress is worn in a most
becoming way, though simple in texture and design. * * * The Croatans were recognized
as white people, and attended the same schools with white pupils. But
in 1835 another curious thing in their eventful history occurred.
They were deprived of the right to vote, and classed "free persons of
color" under an amendment to the state constitution, adopted that year,
which prohibited that class from voting or attending school. The
Croatans allege that they were deprived of voting to effect a change in
the politics of their country. They were not allowed to attend
schooled from 1835 to 1868. Since the latter date some of the
poorer class attended the public colored schools. but that is at an
end. They are now a race apart, fully recognized and cared for
educationally. Some seventeen years ago a
member of the tribe, Henry Berry Lowry, disgraced it by becoming the
chief of a band of outlaws which for months terrorized that section and
caused a national sensation. Finally they were killed and that blot was
wiped out. Such is the history of the
Croatans, from 1587 to 1887. They were dwellers in Tyrell, Dare,
etc., who happened to be on Roanoke island. They induced White’s
colonists to go to the mainland with them. They intermarried and out of
regard for the white race the latter’s family names were chosen.
After years of life in eastern Carolina the tribe, after the manner of
many other, moved to other places and chose Robeson as its main abiding
place. The rest has been told, part on well-grounded tradition,
part on well known facts. the Croatans of today deserve a double
place in history. It is pleasant to mention
that the state of North Carolina, which named its capital Raleigh,
after the worthy sir Walter, has named its easternmost county Dare, in
honor of that little tribe, whose eyes first saw the light there and
whose name has gone down into the romance of history. F. A. Olds
July 17, 1890
--Red Springs, North Carolina
Hamilton McMillan
'The Croatan tribe lives principaly in Robeson county, North Carolina,
though there is quite a number of them settle in counties adjoining in
North and South Carolina. In Sumter county, South Carolina, there is a
branch of the tribe, and also in east Tennessee. In Macon county, North
Carolina, there is another
branch, settled there long ago. those living in east tennessee are
called "Melungeons", a name also retained by them here, which is
corruption of 'Melange', a name given them by early settlers (French),
which means mixed.''
AN INDIAN TO BE HANGED Georgia Crotan to be Executed
Next Month for Murder.
New York Times February 28, 1897, Wednesday
ATLANTA, Ga., Feb. 27. -- For
the first time in fifty years an Indian is under sentence of death in Georgia. He
will be hanged in Glynn County next month. Marcellus Lowry, the condemned
man, is a Crotan Indian from the celebrated band in North Carolina, many of
whom have drifted with the turpentine and timber men into Southern Georgia, where they
are called "Melungeons." Lowery and a white man named Patrick Burns were
working in the woods together and Burns went to Lowery's camp and entered his
shanty to get something to eat. The Croatan Indians are a fierce, treacherous
and vindictive race and once their anger is aroused they do not hesitate to
commit murder. The witnesses in the case
testified on the trial that as Burns left the shanty Lowery shot him in the back,
having concealed himself behind a tree. As to the origin of the difficulty between
them very little was brought out, but so far as can be ascertained it was
simply the ungovernable temper of the Indian.
Atlanta Constitution November 7, 1897
BILL ARP’S LETTER
It seems to me that I am
haunted by Indians. The other night as I came from Macon to
Atlanta my friend, Judge Hall, introduced me to Dr. Peterson, of St.
Louis, a very learned and cultured gentleman who was connected with the
ethnological department of the government and was engaged in examining
Indian mounds and in writing up the history of the Indian tribes,
especially of the five tribes known as civilized. Viz. The Cherokees,
Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Seminoles. As these were our
Indians, I became much interested in this discourse, for he had been
careful and diligent in his research, and what he knew, he knew
well. We talked about DeSoto and how, with a handful of brave
soldiers, he overran this country and took captive as many Indian girls
as his men wanted.
“Why did not these Indians
overwhelm DeSoto and his handful of followers and extinguish them?” I
asked. “Because," said the doctor, “they were paralyzed with fear of
this new and aggressive race of people just as the Peruvians were
paralyzed by Pizarro, who overran and conquered Peru with less than a
hundred men.”
The doctor had been to
eastern North Carolina investigating the tribe of 4,000 Croatans over
there. They were originally called Hatteras Indians but about three
hundred years ago Sir Walter Raleigh planted a colony of English and
Portuguese on Roanoke Island and put them in charge of Governor John
White, a very practical and accomplished gentleman. A few days after
landing, Governor White’s daughter Eleanor, who had married a Mr. Dare.
Gave birth to a child and she was named Virginia and so Virginia Dare
was the first English child born on American soil. Let the boys
and girls remember that. But no man knows anything more about
her.
Governor White and Sir Walter went back to England for supplies and
farming tools for the colony and on their return trip got into a fight
with some Spanish cruisers and lost their cargo and many of their men
and had to go back to England, and it was several years before they
made another venture and when they arrived at the island the colony was
nowhere to be found and little Virginia has never been heard of.
The colony left some marks on a tree pointing to an Indian town called
Croatan, but the town was deserted.
The doctor’s investigations have satisfied him that the colony did not
perish nor were they killed but that the men wanted wives and went into
the interior and co-habited with the Croatans- for it was found a
hundred years after that, these Indians were of mixed colors and many
of them spoke broken or mixed English and Portuguese, although they had
no intercourse with white people until the colony came nor for a
hundred years after. He believes that Virginia Dare probably grew
up with those Indians and her descendants are now of mixed blood.
It seems that
these Croatans were never Americanized until the last civil war when
many of them came to the front with their guns and said they wanted to
fight some. They were accepted and enrolled and did fight for the
confederacy. During the war there was an election held in a
county where some of them lived. And they were persuaded by an
ambitious candidate to go to the polls and vote for him. Their
votes were challenged by the other fellow upon the ground they had some
Negro blood in their veins. They were very indignant and said,
“When you want us to fight for you, we are same as white folks, when we
want to vote, you say we are negurs.” And so a committee of four
doctors was appointed to examine them and say what they were. The
committee took them out to a sandy place in the road and had them take
off their shoes and make tracks barefooted. Five of them made
very fair Anglo-Saxon tracks and were accepted, but of the other two
the report was that the hollow of their feet made holes in the ground
and they were rejected. There are some of these Croatoans on
Newman’s ridge, in Tennessee.
I remember that, some years ago, a party of us were riding in the
Negro car on the state road, and when we reached Kingston a colored
convention of preachers got aboard and claimed the car. Sanford
Bell ordered us out, and we retired, of course, but one man did not
move. He was a dark, cadaverous individual with black eyes and
black hair. “What are you” said Sanford, “are you a white man or
a Negro: He smile and said; ‘Mine fader a Portugee, mine
mudder a negur.” Sanford looked perplexed and turning to one of
the colored preachers, said “What must I do with him?” And he said “Let
him alone I reckon.” I learned afterwards that he was a Croatoan.
[This ends the part of the article dealing with Croatan and Newman's
Ridge.]
A
QUEER NORTH CAROLINA RACE
Are
These Descendants of Members of the Lost Colony of Roanoke?
NEW
YORK SUN
November
15, 1894
There live in the swamps of
Robeson County, North Carolina, a strange race of people. Their
manners, customs and personal appearance are unlike those of any other
race on the American continent. They live within themselves, and
their intercourse with their neighbors, both white and colored, is
limited to the extent which necessity demands. Among the citizens
of the county they are called Portuguese and mulattoes. They are
neither. Recent investigations by antiquarians who have closely
studied their characteristics, in cline to the opinion that they are
the descendants of the Croatan Indians and the lost colony of Roanoke
Island.
It is an historical fact that
on the arrival of the relief expedition fitted out by Sir Walter
Raleigh and Sir Richard Grenville the colony planted on Roanoke Island
a few months before had totally disappeared. Years afterward, when the
country had become sparsely settled by the English, and when the
Tuscorora Indians were the dominant tribe, it was a tradition among
them that in the interior there were white men who wee members of a
smaller tribe of Indians, and that these men possessed many of the
gifts of the English. It is generally thought that when the
English vessels sailed to England for supplies for the infant colony
those left on Roanoke Island were too weak to defend themselves against
the Croatan Indians, their nearest neighbors, and that in an incursion
the men were killed and the women and children carried away into
captivity.
Whatever may be the
supposition, the fact, nevertheless, remains, that in this remote
county of the Old North State, thee exists today a strange and peculiar
people. Their associations have, in the main, been with those
who, previous to the war, were known in the Southern States as free
negroes. They inter-married with these free negroes and the
majority of them are more or less tinctured with African blood.
this admixture, however, does not change their characteristics.
There are among them certain families who have held aloof from
such alliances, and these occupy a position of superiority. while
they are not, in the strictest sense, tribal in their government, they
bow in implicit obedience to their rulers who are always members of the
pure blooded families. These pure bloods in personal appearance
resemble the Portuguese, but in every other characteristic they are
more like the Indian. They are brave, generous, natural hunters,
fine shots and very truthful. The swamps abound in game, such as
bear, deer, ducks, turkeys and smaller animals and birds. They
never forget an injury and treasure up their feelings of vengeance till
they find a way to gratify it. They live in houses of peculiar
architectural design resembling the "dug out" of the primitive Western
settler.
A few years ago these people
became a source of terror to their white neighbors. One of their
principle men, Henry Berry Lowrey, organized a band of them and wrought
as much crime in Robeson and the adjoining counties ad did the James
gang in its more extensive field of operations. This man, on
account of a real or fancied wrong, waylaid and murdered a wealthy and
influential white man, a Mr. Townsend. The horrors of an Indian
war, except the scalping of the victims, followed. Women and
children were killed as well as able bodied men. No race was
exempt. It was a war of extermination. Houses were burned,
stock destroyed, and the country laid waste. After committing
depredations, the band would return to the swamps, which are almost as
impenetrable as the jungles of India. they are covered with dense
underbrush, and only those familiar with their recesses are able to
find the hidden paths that lead into their depths. Lowery
possessed considerable intellect, and, being familiar with every inch
of the ground, showed himself an adept in the warfare. His second
in command, Stephen Lowery, his uncle, was a capable lieutenant, and
was often sent on a marauding expedition with a part of the command,
while the chief would strike at a distant Point.
This was continued for
several years, and became so disastrous to that portion of the state
that the Legislature passed an act granting amnesty to all the
desperadoes except Henry Berry and Stephen Lowery, for whose capture of
death a reward of $10,000 was offered. This action of the State
had desired effect and the war came to an end. What became of the
leaders is not known. they were never captured and no one ever claimed
the reward for killing them. they disappeared, and their followers
resumed the even tenor of their way.
These people are legal
citizens of the United States, but seldom avail themselves of their
privileges. They take no interest in either local or national
affairs. They have fought against all efforts for their
improvement, and live today the same lives their ancestors did.
ODD THINGS ABOUT
INDIANS
Atlanta Constitution
July 21, 1901
Excerpt;
North Carolina's Croatans, who claim to be descendants pf Raleigh's
lost colony are not the only peculiar people among the red inhabitants
of theseUnited States. The claim is not new it has been more or less
exploited these thirty years, along with that of the still more curious
Melungeons of East Tennessee. Their name, said to come from the
French melange, a mixture, must be pre-eminently fit, since they show
racial characteristics of the Cherokees, the negroes, the Portugese,
and the plain, ordinary poor whites.
Their language is
as mixed as their blood, and their civilization is in somewhat the same
condition. Over against them set their
neighbors, the Eastern Cherokees, who live in Qualla boundary in
western North Carolina, and are so up-to-date they have formed
themselves into a regular corporation, so as to share in the government
benefits which were in danger ot monopoly by the, rich and out-reaching
western Cherokee nation.
A DESCENDANT OF MISSING COLONY
Secret of the Croatan
Tribe-- The Famous
Roanoke Settlers Were
Not Massacred,
But affiliated With a
Friendly and Powerful
Nation of Indians
St. Louis Dispatch
Former United States
Senator Hiram R. Revels, of Mississippi, has always been classed as a
negro. He was a tall, well-built man, with the chocolate skin and
curly hair of the African and the devout bearing of his profession the
ministerial. He served during the reconstruction period, never
being known as prominent, but always as a representative colored
man. Rebels was not a negro. Dr. C. A. Peterson of St.
Louis, who had made a study of the lost Roanoke (Va.) colony says that
Revels is a descendant of that mystery-shrouded band that Sir Walter
Raleigh sent to Roanoke Island in 1587.
..... Now for the facts
which the historians have generally so singularly overlooked. In 1710
when the Huguenots and Cavaliers started to penetrate the interior of
North Carolina, they found some seventy-vive miles from the coast in
what is now Robeson, N.C., a colony of English speaking
people, many of whom had blue eyes and light hair. They
inquired where they came from and they replied. "From Croatan'
How does it come that your speak English!' 'Our fathers were English'
"They wrote one letter
about their discovery, a letter by the way, is in the archives of the
board of trade of London.
It is evident that a
number of the Huguenots remained in a colony and intermarried, as there
are a great many names of undoubted French origin to be found among the
Croatan names of the present day.
"these people have
always been called Croatans. There are some 4,000 of them living
in robeson county, N. C. at the present time, but they have scattered
all over the South and West. I have found Croatan names among all
the civilized tribes living in the Indian Territory.
"The Croatans have
distinct racial characteristics. They are as black as Portuguese and
are different in appearance from either Indians, negroes or
Caucasians. In some instances there has evidently been a mixture
with negro blood, and on this account when in 1833 North Carolina and
Tennessee disfranchised the negroes, they included the Croatans.
When the war broke out
the Croatans were between two fires. Those who did not enlist in
the Southern army were liable to be impressed as negroes for work on
fortifications, etc. From this custom came the cause of the
depredations of the Lowry gang which for years spread terror in North
Carolina.
"Old man Lowry resisted
impressment, declaring that there was nothing but English and Indian
blood in his veins and that he was as much an American freeman, and had
as good blood in him as the Harrisons, the Randolphs, or any of the
descendants of the proudest colonial families. For this stubborn
stand he was shot dead.
"When his son, Henry
Berry Lowry reached his manhood he took his gun, organized a band of
sympathizers and started out on a mission of extermination. every
man suspected of having had any connection with his father's death was
waylaid and killed. the gang was finally broke up, but not until
it had collect bloody interest on old many Lowry's death.
"The most eminent of
the Croatans was United States senator Revels, who was elected from
Mississippi during the reconstruction days. he was classed as a
negro, but he was in reality a Croatan, one of those with a Huguenot
name and ancestry.
"The family names of
the Croatans are the same as those of the settlers on Roanoke
Island. They were men from Devonshiren England and furthermore
even the broad Devonshire pronunciation is found in certain words as
used by the Croatans of today.
"A hundred years ago a
colony of Croatans settled in eastern Tennessee, on Newman's Ridge, in
Hancock county. They can't tell today where they came from, for
tradition over 50 years isn't worth anything. These are the
people called Melungeons. They are similar in racial
characteristics to the Croatans, and Dr. Swan M. Burnett, a
distinguished scholar and scientitst - the husband, by the way, of Mrs.
Francis Hodgson Burnett, the novelist - has traced by family names the
connection between the Melungeons and the Croatans.
The name Melungeons is
accounted for in this wise; when the new settlers appeared among
the mountaineers their unusual looks prompted inquiries as to what they
were. The answer was 'Melange" -- or a mixture -- and the
mountaineers at once dubbed them Melungeons."
