Atkinson

I am cleaning out my inbox this morning and deleting old e-mails that had information in them that I am not quite ready to lose.  I am almost certain that this URL came from Nancy Wooten....but it is about the Atkinson family: 

https://dnaconsultants.com/cherokee-unlike-other-indians/

I barely skimmed the first of the article.  But the part that you want to read if you believe that you connect to the Atkinson line is in the blurb labelled Cherokee Unlike Other Indians…..Scroll down until you see the Adkins surname in bold letters.

  And here is what I wrote at the bottom of the e-mail that I sent to the Morrison google group:  I am a bit blown away by this article….I have to think about it a bit!  There are just enough facts that are familiar to me to get my attention!  I do believe that I descend from this Atkinson/Atkins line.  I believe that William Morrison and his wife Rachel Witcher were living on land that William Atkinson had given his son-in-law, William Witcher, when William married daughter, Lydia Atkinson.  That is William and Rachel received land from her father that her father had received from his father-in-law.  And I continue to believe it most likely that I descend from these people!  I just can not prove it yet.  However, I have been looking lately at the area around Henrico, Chesterfield, Cumberland and I see Atksinsons there….not likely to be the same Atkinson family that came into Philly area…..But we’ll see, huh?  Any thoughts for me on this from those of you who have Atkinson/Atkins connections?  We already know that Owen Atkinson/Atkins was traveling with our group to the Wautauga/Nolichucky area as he was among the signers of the petition with our Morrison men.  And here is what the article says about the Adkins family (below).  The William with the accumulation of wealth is my 7-gr-grandfather/

Adkins . . . is a family heavily intermarried with the pioneer Coopers, Blevinses and Burkes from Wayne County, Kentucky.  They came from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, an important staging area for the movement of Melungeon families along the northern and eastern boundaries of the Overhill Cherokee. The family is traced to a James Atkinson, a Quaker who came to Philadelphia in the 1600s, probably from a seaport in Wales. His great-grandson William Adkins left a will dated Jan. 22, 1784 and probated March 15, 1784, detailing an accumulation of wealth, and was buried near Cooper’s Old Store, Pittsylvania County. William’s son Owen was born about 1750 in Lunenberg County, Virginia (parent county of Pittsylvania) and died in Watauga, Hawkins County, Tennessee about 1790. He married Agnes Good/Goad, from the same family that provided a spouse to Valentine Sevier (1701/02-1803). Good is the English equivalent of Shem Tov, Buen, Boone, Le Bon and other names for those bearing the “good name” of King David. Valentine and Agnes were the parents of John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee. One of his sons, Valentine, married Sarah Cooper. The Seviers can be traced to Don Juan de Xavier of a Sephardic family who took refuge in Navarre during the Spanish Inquisition.

In 1836, Benjamin Adkins built a log mill on the Little South Fork of the Cumberland near Parmleysville, Kentucky, made of huge squared logs. This mill, with rifle slits on two levels, is still standing. He left a will in 1839 showing $10,000 in debts owed him and an estate of great value. Numerous family members moved first to Sequatchee (Marion County, Tennessee) and subsequently to Sand Mountain and to a hidden cove at the foot of Fox Mountain (named after Black Fox) called Anawaika, or Deerhead, on the Georgia state line. Some proceeded west to Arkansas. William E. Adkins (about 1828-1862) married Susan E. (Sukie) Cooper (about 1831-1901), the daughter of Isaac and Mahala Jane (Blevins) Cooper, April 20, 1847, in Henry County, Tennessee, and descendants filed unsuccessful applications to be enrolled as Cherokee in Indian Territory. Memories of their Cherokee ancestors ran thin, but Steve Adkins of Arkansas  recalled in 2001, “When I was little my Great Grandma Adkins (Virgie Stanley) use to tell me stories about my Great Grandfather’s (Arthur ‘Aud’ Adkins) Grandmother. She said her name was Sukie and she was a Cherokee Indian. I later found out that ‘Sukie’ was a nickname for Susan. She also mentioned the name Mahala Blevins.”