The actions of John D. Chisholm has been a topic for historians for many year, as he played a minor role in the early history and formation of the State of Tennessee and of the Western Cherokee Nation. Accounts of his public activities leaves us a rich variety of sources. Many of these sources have been misused or poorly chosen, which provide us with a history of varied accuracy and uneven scholarship. Unfortunately, the most poorly documented part of Chisholm's life is his family. This is not unusual, as historians are naturally less concerned with genealogical details in favor of the actual events that the individual took part in. In the case of Chisholm, historians are quick to accept secondary and undocumented sources on his family life and connections. Chisholm�s name appears frequently in the public records. He left numerous letters and deeds, and other written items, most involving his activities among the Cherokee. Recent access to a wide variety of public records through the internet has been helpful in finding fragments of clues to his story.
Chisholm�s Character Kate White�s biography of Chisholm characterizes Chisholm as a �Soldier of Fortune.� This portrait may not be far from the truth, as his life certainly reflected many divergent loyalties and connections. He disliked Tories and was even fined for assault of one, but was intimately involved in a conspiracy involving requiring the assistance of the British government against an ally of the United States. He was one of the leaders of the Watagua Settlers on the Western Frontier, but later joined forces with Chief Doublehead who once terrorized these colonists. With Doublehead he defrauded both the Cherokee people and the American settlers through fraudulent land deals. Contemporary accounts of Chisholm are wholly unflattering; however, most of the comments came from those who were opposed to him or his allies. For a family historian the bountiful records are both a blessing and a curse, as it is difficult to form an objective perspective of John. These notes hope to pull together documentation of both Chisholm�s actions and the existing narrative to try and form as complete a portrait as history will allow.
There are surviving descriptions of John Chisholm's physical appearance, though thy too hold some discrepancies. In 1797 he was described as a large man with very red hair and aged between 55 and 60. This description is found from the Blount Impeachment Hearings. However, after the hearings, Chisholm was issued a passport describing him as, "a citizen of the United States, 40 years of age, five feet ten, English, gray eyes, common mouth, ordinary forehead, short chin, dark complexion, black hair and eyebrows and oval face [re: Potter, D.W., Passports of Southern Pioneers 1770-1823 (1982) pg. 55]. Colket suggest that this infers that Chisholm cut his hair and wore a toupee in order to disguise his appearance, but the logic in this is not entirely clear. Blount�s exposure was due to the discovery of a letter in his own hand and many people testified against him and Chisholm�s deposition to the US Ambassador to Britain does not appears to have been presented in the impeachment proceedings. So in the hearing, it does not appear Chisholm shouldered blame for the failed conspiracy or for Blount�s impeachment. Chisholm�s desire for a disguise may be explained by his creditors; however, his economic situation is not clearly represented in the records of the time.
Chisholm BibliographyMy own personal connection with John D. Chisholm, started with King family traditions of kinship with Jesse Chisholm, thus inferring the family connection. These family traditions were preserved both orally and in written form. Frank M. King left a written record identifying John Chisholm as an ancestor, but wrote little of Chisholm's life, probably as little was passed down orally. It is likely that King relied on his distant cousin Narcissa Chisholm Owen�s recollections and the research of T.U. Taylor; a biographer of Jesse Chisholm. In the Biggs family, the name "John Duncan" and "John" have been used in naming patterns denoting some identification of with this man as late as the 1880s. John Chisholm's granddaughter, Narcissa Chisholm Owen wrote in 1906 her knowledge of Chisholm as passed down to her from he elder sister Jane and their father's nursemaid; a Black woman named "Granny Jenny" who had be enslaved by the Chisholm family [re: Memoirs of Narcissa Owen (1907), pg. 104]. Today, few recall family stories and traditions concerning Chisholm. It is mainly through tribal, governmental and historical sources that the fragments of this family's story must be reconstructed.
Published SourcesIn 1930, Kate White published the only dedicated biography of John D. Chisholm in the "Chronicles of Oklahoma" titled, John Chisholm: Soldier of Fortune [re: Vol. VIII, June 1930, #2, pg. 233]. Unfortunately, White's work is not documented though footnotes were later added by the editor without sources. Beyond White's work on John Chisholm, there are numerous references to Chisholm in footnotes and short passages among a myriad of historical publications and articles dealing with such topics as the Cherokees; the Blount Conspiracy; early Knoxville and Tennessee local histories. An important source used by many historians is the 1946 history of East Tennessee titled, The French Broad and edited by Mary Rothrock. The French Broad provides a biography of Chisholm, though it also perpetuates the undocumented account of his marriage to Elizabeth Muse in 1772. Surveying these many published works proves that there are as many discrepancies concerning Chisholm's birth, place of origin, parentage, and wives as there are publications. As these documents were more concerned with Chisholm�s activities in history, rather than genealogical accuracy; family history derived from these sources cannot be considered dependable and demand documentation.
Despite the poor quality of the documentation of past historical works, the more recent works concerning the Chisholm family are proving to be more accurate and better researched. In the past few years, a wealth of public records, newspapers, and recorded first hand accounts contemporary to Chisholm have become more accessible to researchers and the standards for genealogical research have become more stringent. The two most important recent works are by Meredith Colket and Stan Hoig, who have approached John Chisholm's backgrounds for two very different reasons. Colket includes the "Cherokee" Chisholms as part of a much wider survey of Chisholm families in America and though one would expect his work to have merely summarized existing works, his work actually provides the first fresh look at possible resources for Chisholm's life. Colket's work, probably more than any other existing work has succeeded in accurately and clearly identifying the existing materials relating to Chisholm's life. Stan Hoig approached John Chisholm as a journalist and historian focusing primarily on biographical materials concerning John Chisholm's grandson, Jesse Chisholm. Hoig's work, 'The Genealogy of Jesse Chisholm' is published in "The Chronicles of Oklahoma." Further to the works of Hoig and Colket, the research of William Breedlove a descendant of Thomas Chisholm has also brought to light important primary sources and have organized them in a clear and meaningful format. I have used the work of these men to create the framework for these notes and work to locate primary sources to substantiate or disprove current accepted facts on the Chisholm family.
Unpublished SourcesThe Feliciana Parish, Louisiana estate records of John Chisholm�s first wife Patience Massengill Brent are to date the most important of the unpublished records. Though John is not mentioned in the records, the estate records provide us with the only comprehensive legal account of their children. Further to this, other non-published public records are surfacing through abstracts and historical accounts especially in regards to the record of the region now known as Arkansas. Many of these records have been hard to trace as the Territorial governments that controlled Arkansas included Louisiana and Missouri. There are also potential records hidden in Spanish colonial records during their brief control over the region. The latter records may hold important documents on John Chisholm as he clearly had a deep-seated hatred of the Spanish, though the specific genesis of the conflict is still not known.
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