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Enrolling as Cherokee Freedmen: Social Networks of Rejected Applicants

Betsy Reed

Elizabeth or Betsy Reed/McPherson (Freedmen applicant) was around seventy years old in 1901. She was enslaved to Aleck McPherson (Cherokee), who took Betsy to Dog Creek, Cherokee Nation, at the start of the Civil War. Betsy married her husband, Joseph (Joe) Reed, during the war. Unsure how to count the days, she believed she returned to the Cherokee Nation two years after the war; Sam Webber (Cherokee) stated that this was in the fall of 1866. In Betsy’s statement, she shared that she returned with Anderson Turk, her sister’s husband, and Spencer Harris, also bringing her children Agnes (Aggie) Harris, Sarah Hines, Senie (Sena) Forester, and Rachel Reed with her at that time. Her son, John, and George Tucker were not with her, but rather with Betsy’s brother, Jess Brown. On her return, she first stopped near Coody’s Bluff. The family stayed with a colored man, Tobe Schrimsher, and his wife, Edy, camping in the woods in Chetopa, near Nowata, Cooweescoowee District. Betsy and the grandchildren rented a home in the area for about a month without Joe Reed, who said he was “afraid of the Indians.” After a few months, they moved to Mound City, Kansas, to work as washers.

According to A. R. Wayne, who lived in Mound City as Betsy’s neighbor, Betsy moved to town around 1867 and remained there until 1890. At this time, Betsy was living with her brother, George Brown, and not her husband, Joe. Betsy and Joe were eventually divorced. 

In 1868, Betsy returned to the Cherokee Nation when her son, John Tucker, who was still living with his uncle, shot himself. Betsy stayed in the Cherokee Nation for an undetermined period before returning again to Kansas.

Betsy came back to the Cherokee Nation after that as well. John H. Coody (Cherokee) recalled seeing Betsy around 1885 near Coody’s Bluff and hearing from George Brown that she came from Kansas. Betsy also came back during the payment resulting from the Wallace Roll but was not approved for the roll, due to being a little late. Betsy was not sure of the exact years, but stated that she had been in the Cherokee Nation for around the past twenty years at that point. It is not exactly clear at what point Betsy continued to live in the Cherokee Nation. John Coody believed that both Sarah and Betsy were living there until 1893; Nev Campbell, living in Mound City, testified to knowing Betsy from Mound City since 1889. Nev asserted that Betsy permanently left Kansas for the Cherokee Nation around 1893 to draw her money. He remembered Betsy and Sallie having collected money from their friends to come to the Nation. 

Betsy tried to enroll herself in the Dawes Roll along with five grandchildren: Hannah Brown (age seventeen), Myrtle Brown (fourteen), Silas Harris (eighteen), Mamie Harris (sixteen), and Minnie Harris (thirteen). Hannah Brown was Rachel’s child, while Silas, Mamie, and Minnie were Aggie’s children. They were all born in Mound City, and had never been to the Cherokee Nation before their enrollment on the Wallace Roll. These names are not found on the tribal rolls, but do appear on the Kern-Clifton Roll. Betsy's name is listed as Betsy McPherson on the Kern-Clifton Roll.

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