This seems like a good time to bring in more family lore. We have always heard that there was Native American blood in the McFarren family. We aren’t the only part of the family that heard that. Apparently it was a passed down through Grandpa’s siblings as well, at least through his brother Will’s family. A few years ago I made contact with Dan Hancock, Will’s great grandson, who says he’s been interested in family history from childhood. He has amassed a great deal of material. He and his wife, Karen, invited me to lunch one day, so Dan could share some of his material with me and we could meet face to face instead of only by email. I was able to look through old picture albums which were a treasure trove of McFarren-alia, if you will. Through his grandmother, Bess McFarren Williams, he was told a tale about John and Mary Ann McFarren. Apparently Bess heard this from Mary Ann Jackson McFarren herself while living with them for a time in El Centro.
The tale is:
According to Bess McFarren, he (John 1841) was of Scotch and Irish descent. He hid out in an Indian village during the civil war, and married Mary who was a quarterbreed Cherokee.
This is all very interesting, but I have found nothing to substantiate the part about Mary’s Cherokee heritage. John 1841, was married in Liberty Twp, Wells County, Indiana. We have a copy of the marriage license with place and date, November 1860.
Civil War was imminent, within months from the time John and Mary Ann married in Nov 1860, the South seceded from the UnionIt is true that Civil War was imminent, for within a couple of months from the time John and Mary Ann married in November 1860, the South seceded from the Union, in January 1861. There was nation-wide debate and struggle going on when the Southern States formed their own government and forced the Union out of formerly Federally held forts within the newly founded Confederacy of Southern States. Lincoln was inaugurated in March of 1861. On April 10th the Confederacy demanded that Federal Troops hand over Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. They refused and were fired on two days later, the action that started the Civil War. All this took place quite a distance from Wells County, Indiana. Little action was seen in Indiana at all during the entire War, with only a brief raid into the state in 1863.
In fact, the War was good for the economy of Indiana with factories springing up to provide needed support and the agricultural products helped feed an embattled nation. Indiana held to Union sympathies and the choice to serve in the War was largely voluntary. There was a draft in Wells County in October of 1862. No McFarren names were drawn. John’s brothers, Adam and Jacob McFarren were living in the community too and were not conscripted to serve.
All this to say that I cannot understand why John 1841, would go to hide in an Indian village during the war. I feel sure he was needed in the work force, on his own land and perhaps on that of his father, his father-in-law, or siblings. He certainly did not meet Mary Ann Jackson in an Indian village. She was from a well-established and well respected family in the community. I’m sure you can see why I, for one, take this tale with perhaps more than a grain of salt… a salt lick maybe. I always think it’s worth keeping these stories in mind while researching. Some variation of the scenario might prove true someday that would make it understandable how the story originated.
The issue of Native American blood has been discounted by nearly all McFarren and Jackson researchers that I have contacted about the family history prior to the union of John and Mary Ann (Jackson) McFarren as well. However, before you toss out the idea altogether, there is a slight possibility that has not been proven or disproven, and might bear exploring.
To interject some background, we know that the Jackson family was originally from Ireland, entering this country in the mid 1700s (another long story-see sources for Jackson research) and passing through Pennsylvania and the Carolinas before arriving in Indiana. The story is told that shortly after arriving in the Wells County area as a young man, Hiram Jackson...
...made the acquaintance of Miss Mary Logan and after a friendship and courtship covering two years he and Miss Logan were married just after he attained his majority in 1838.
"Miss Mary Logan" was the daughter of Joseph Logan, another pioneer of Wells County. Joseph Logan was born in 1789 in Ireland. His daughter, Mary Logan was born 3 August 1818 in Ohio. We have Joseph’s will, naming Mary Jackson as a daughter. When we look carefully at Joseph’s family, it appears that he might have been married three times. He can be found on Census as early as 1830 in Butler County, OH. Mary is accounted for in this census as a daughter, aged 12, the second eldest child. She had a sister, Margaret, who was 6 years older and born in Pennsylvania, we learn from later census. After Mary Ann’s birth in 1818, there was another gap of 4 ½ years between children. A gap of more than 4 years between children can often be explained by deaths of children who had been born during that time, due to disease, injury, or mishaps of pregnancy and childbirth. Otherwise babies generally came at a regular rate of one birth every 1 to 3 years, like clockwork for a healthy woman. The other possible explanation is the death of the mother, and the time needed to find a new wife.
We don’t know when Joseph Logan married his wife, Elizabeth, whose name appears on the 1850 census. In all likelihood, Elizabeth is the wife noted on the 1830 census in Ohio as well, since her age range is the same (only the head of household is named on census before 1850). We learn in the 1850 census that Elizabeth (unknown maiden name) was born in Pennsylvania in about 1796 and she is definitely the mother of the last eight of Joseph’s children. He had ten in all.
Ten years later, in the census of 1860, we learn that Elizabeth Logan had died and Joseph had remarried the widow Jane McNair. No children were born to this couple. Since these censuses are so early we are not given important information such as race and numbers of children born specifically to these women. The speculation is that there may have been a first wife before Elizabeth, who could have been the mother of Joseph’s first two daughters, Mary and Margaret. If you have been able to follow this, this possibility allows for the very slender chance that Joseph had a Native American wife in his youth, who could have been mother to Mary and Margaret. We must remember though, that his first daughter, Margaret, was born in Pennsylvania. For what it’s worth, Pennsylvania tribes are Iroquois, Delaware, Erie, and several smaller tribes. There were Cherokee as far north as Tennessee and N. Carolina, but not in PA. So, if there is that slim possibility that Joseph Logan married an Indian Princess, she was unlikely to have been Cherokee.
It all seems pretty far-fetched, but Dan Hancock, who is a stickler for proper and careful research, insists that it’s true, based on his grandmother’s testimony. As my brother, Jerry, likes to point out, if there is Indian blood, it’s pretty darned dilute by now. With the Indian Princess scenario as stated, our generation would be, at most, 1/32nd.
From what I hear, claims of Indian heritage are widespread and are rarely substantiated. I came across notes regarding a similar claim about the generation of McFarrens before John 1841 and Mary Ann (Jackson) McFarren, when researching John’s sister, Mary Esther McFarren Mendenhall. This would be hopping over the Logan connection by a generation, so would have nothing to do with it.
Noted by one of the Mendenhall family researchers:
Joseph and brother, Charles, (sons of Mary Esther McFarren Mendenhall) participated in the Cherokee Strip Homestead Run in 1891. Joseph was sometimes called "Old Black Joe" because of his dark complexion. His mother, Mary McFarren, was said to have been part Cherokee Indian.
-- THE MENDENHALLS 1825-1985, compiled by son, Chester.
This becomes even more difficult to understand. If Mary Esther McFarren Mendenhall was part Cherokee, it would mean that either John McFarren 1792 or his wife, Anna Maria Elizabeth Foust, was part Cherokee. This is definitely untrue according to all research thus far conducted. In addition, it would seem to have been a decided disadvantage to claim Indian blood while participating in the Oklahoma Land Rush. This land grab involved taking land away from the Indians, not giving it to them!
One more note about this and then we will move along. I used to think there was something to the appearance of Grandpa Exie McFarren’s features, imagining his high cheek bones and black hair was from his “Indian” heritage. Now I can see from photos that he resembled his father far more than his mother. His father’s heritage was Scots and German. I inherited his age spots and only have to walk into a dermatologists office to be told my heritage is from the British Isles before I open my mouth. So, I for one, have dropped the fantasy of the Noble Savage heritage. I’m only left with a curiosity as to why people make these claims. What was the advantage? Or, hey, prove me wrong. I would welcome that.