|
Also see: "Research Breakthrough", Melson Family, found in the National Archives, Washington D. C., by Tom Milson, The Gems, Volume 6 No. 4, pages 64-69, Fall 1996 & Volume 8, No. 2, Spring 1997.
MISSISSIPPI CHOCTAW APPLICATION ENTRY 606
MARY A. BITTICK ET. AL.
COMMISSION TO THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES
ARDMORE, INDIAN TERRITORY
SEPT. 21, 1898
In the Matter of the application of Mary A. Bittick, et al,
Petitioning for identification as Mississippi Choctaws with their descendants.
Examination by Mr. G.M.P. Turner attorney for petitioners.
Mary Ann Bittick being duly sworn by Commissioner T.P. Needles testifies as follows:
QUESTION: About how old are you Mrs. Bittick?
ANSWER: Well, I know I am somewhere in eighty - somewhere in eighty; maybe eight-three or eighty-four or maybe more. I am in eighty.
QUESTION: Who was your mother?
ANSWER: My mother was Rosa Ann (Rosanna) Ballew before she was ever married. She married James Green (Guinn) Melson, but her name was Rosa Ann Ballew.
QUESTION: Who was her father?
ANSWER: William Ballew and her mother Sarah Jones.
QUESTION: Who was Sarah Jones?
ANSWER: She was Tom Jones' daughter.
QUESTION: Now state to the gentleman what Tom Jones was?
ANSWER: He was a full blood Indian.
QUESTION: What sort of an Indian?
ANSWER: A Choctaw.
QUESTION: You say Rosa Ann Ballew was his (grand) daughter and married a Melson?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: Who was her mother?
ANSWER: Rosa Ann Ballew. (Her mother was Sarah Jones).
QUESTION: How much Indian did she have in her veins?
ANSWER: Well, her father - she was one quarter Indian.
QUESTION: Was she the daughter of (Sarah) Jones?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: Was Tom Jones wife a white woman or an Indian?
ANSWER: She was a white woman.
QUESTION: And your mother was the (grand) daughter - Rosa Ann Ballew?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: And Rosa Ann Ballew was the daughter of Sarah Jones?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: And Sarah Jones was the daughter of Tom Jones?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: Where were you born?
ANSWER: I was born in seven miles of Natchez, Mississippi. I do not know what county it was.
QUESTION: Do you know any road that would indicate leading to the town?
ANSWER: Now here is a house (witness indicates) and there is a field of that way (witness indicates) and the road went off between the field and the house.
QUESTION: Did you live with your parents all the time?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: Did you move to any other place?
ANSWER: No sir. We just stayed and stayed there until we moved to Arkansas.
QUESTION: And you afterwards moved to Arkansas?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: Do you remember whether you moved after the Choctaws left the country?
ANSWER: Yes sir. Two or three years after the bulk left.
QUESTION: I will get you to state Mrs. Bittick whether you were considered a white or a Choctaw girl?
ANSWER: I was considered a Choctaw girl among the girls and some of them sorter looked on me as an Indian and other nice girls would say: "I do not care if she is a Choctaw Indian. She is a good girl and I like her and I am going to be with her and associate with her. She is a nice girl."
QUESTION: You remember these doings back in your girlhood days?
ANSWER: Yes sir. I remember that just as well as anything can be.
QUESTION: You are very feeble in health are you not?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: And very old?
ANSWER: Yes sir. I am old.
QUESTION: Dr. Bittick is your son?
ANSWER: Yes sir. The only child I have got.
QUESTION: What is your son's given name?
ANSWER: Samuel G. Bittick.
QUESTION: You heard me read the ... list of grandchildren and great grandchildren several times?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: Were these all your grandchildren and great grandchildren you gave me the names of?
ANSWER: All my grandchildren.
QUESTION: Have you got your picture taken when you was a young woman?
ANSWER: I have got it taken since we were married. I have not (had) it taken when I was a young woman or girl. There was no pictures taken when I was a girl.
Question by Commissioner A. S. McKinnon:
QUESTION: Where has she been residing since she came from Mississippi?
Answer by Mr. Turner:
ANSWER: In Arkansas, Hempstead County.
Continuation of examination of witness by Mr. Turner.
QUESTION: Did you have a sister?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
QUESTION: Who did she marry?
ANSWER: I had several sisters. One of them married a Milson and one of them married a Johnson.
QUESTION: The one who married a Milson who was that?
ANSWER: Rebecca.
QUESTION: And Mr. (Howard) Milson the gentleman here was he her son?
ANSWER: Yes sir.
Affidavit of J.S. Snellgrove
Indian Territory
Southern Judicial District,
Before me, a Notary Public in and for said District, on this day personally appeared J.S. Snellgrove, who after being by me duly sworn on his oath states and says: that he resides in the Chickasaw Nation and Indian Territory and has so resided for a period of 13 years. That he is personally acquainted with Dr. S. G. Bittick who resides at Ryan in the Chickasaw Nation in said Territory. That he was personally acquainted with the late Mary A. Bittick who was mother of S. G. Bittick and who departed this life Nov. 15th 1898. That the said Mary A. Bittick during the latter part of her life and at the time of her death resided at the town of Ryan in the Chickasaw Nation Indian Territory. That upon her death she left surviving her as one of her heirs at law, a son, the said Dr. S. G. Bittick who from all appearance is now of the age of 51 years. Affiant further states that he knows that the said Mary A. Bittick was the identical person she claimed and represented herself to be during her lifetime, and that the said S. G. Bittick is the same person whom he represents himself to be in his application for citizenship in the Choctaw Nation.
Affiant furthers says that the said Mary A. Bittick at the time of her death was a very old woman. That she was from all appearances above the age of 80 years. That she was a very large woman with coarse straight black hair and black eyes. That she was of a dark copper color and that she had the appearance of being of Indian blood.
Affiant further says that the said Mary A. Bittick's maiden name was Mary A. Melson and that affiant was personally acquainted her brother Sol Melson when he resided in the state of Arkansas where affiant knew him.
Affiant further says that he became acquainted with the said Sol Melson about the year 1862 and that he lived nearby him in the same neighborhood from about 1862 to 1877 and during this time he was well acquainted with Solomon Melson and with his relatives and family residing in said neighborhood. That the said Sol Melson was of a dark copper color with coarse straight black hair, black eyes, and high prominent cheek bones. That he showed from his appearance that he was of Indian blood. That he was, when affiant last knew him, about 65 years of age. That the said Sol Melson and Mary A. Bittick, nee Melson, resembled each other very much and that all the other members of said family with whom affiant was acquainted, and he knew several of them, had the same general appearance. Affiant further says that the said Melson was generally known and recognized in the neighborhood in which he lived and among the people he was most intimately acquainted to be of Choctaw Indian origin and that it was generally understood in that neighborhood among the people that said Melson was of Choctaw Indian blood.
Affiant further says that he was acquainted with such reputation at the time last above named and that such was their general reputation in that neighborhood at that time. Affiant further says that said Sol Melson is now dead. That the said Mary A. Bittick in her lifetime also claimed to be of Choctaw Indian blood. Affiant further says that the complexion, physical appearance, language and manners of the said Mary A. Bittick and the said Sol Melson indicated that they were of Indian origin. That from the facts and circumstances and from the statements above made out affiant says that he has every reason to believe that the said Mary A. Bittick and Sol Melson and said S. G. Bittick are of Choctaw Indian blood. That the said Sol Melson and the said Mary A. Bittick claimed to have emigrated to the state of Arkansas from the state of Mississippi a great many years ago and that it was generally understood in the neighborhood where they lived that they came originally from Mississippi to Arkansas.
Affiant further says that he has no interest in the prosecution of the claim made by the said Mary A. Bittick and now being prosecuted by her son S. G. Bittick for identification and enrollment as Mississippi Choctaw Indians and as descendants of such Indians.
J. S. Snellgrove
Sworn to and subscribed before me this the 26 day of June, 1900.
G. L. Tyson
Notary Public
Affidavit of Emeline Pertate
Indian Territory
Central District
Before me, the undersigned authority, on this day appeared Emeline Pertate who after being by me duly sworn on oath says: that she is a Mississippi Choctaw Indian of the full blood. That she is about 80 years of age though she is unable to state what her exact age is. That she was born in the state of Mississippi where she lived until she was about eleven years old when she was taken to the state of Tennessee. That she is a lineal descendant of the Mississippi Choctaw Indians. That during her childhood she knew and often played with Mary Ann Melson who was then a girl of about eleven or twelve years of age. That the said Mary Ann Melson was the daughter of Rosanna Melson, formerly Rosanna Ballew, who then resided in the State of Mississippi. That affiant also knew while she lived in Mississippi an old Indian man who was a full blood Choctaw Indian and who was very old who went by the name of Possum Jones. That he claimed to be related to the said Rosanna Melson and to the said Mary Ann Melson. That the said Rosanna Melson and Mary Ann Melson called him grandpa Jones. That said Possum Jones often visited the family of said Rosanna Melson and Mary Ann Melson whom he claimed as his grand children. Affiant says that she knew the said Possum Jones well while she lived in the State of Mississippi and that after she moved to Tennessee he visited the house where she lived and that she saw and talked with him there.
That affiant at that time did not understand the English language and could not understand it when she heard it spoken and that she spoke the Choctaw language and that she talked with grandpa Possum Jones in that language.
That when this affiant left the State of Mississippi she left the said Rosanna Melson and Mary Ann Melson living in that state. That this affiant can not state from memory at just what time she left the State of Mississippi, but that she left there about the time the Choctaw Indians were leaving the State. Affiant further says that she removed to the State of Texas about forty years ago and that she has lived most of the time in Lamar County, Texas. That she saw and knew Mary Ann Bittick, the mother of Dr. S. G. Bittick, before her death. That she last saw and talked with said Mary Ann Bittick during the year 1898. That said Mary Ann Bittick was then a very old woman. This affiant knows that the said Mary Ann Bittick was the same person whom she knew as a child in the state of Mississippi as Mary Ann Melson the daughter of Rosanna Melson. That she and the said Mary Ann Bittick, often during the year 1898, talked over their childhood days together when they lived as little children in the state of Mississippi, and that they each remembered little incidents which had occurred during their childhood together. That this affiant now has upon her foot a scar left by a wound which was made during her childhood and which was treated and sewed up by the said Rosanna Melson in the State of Mississippi when this affiant was a little girl. That said Mary Ann Bittick was dark complexioned, was quite dark and had coarse straight black hair and black eyes and had every appearance of being of Indian blood and that she and her said mother always claimed to be of the Choctaw Indian blood and to be Mississippi Choctaws. That the said Rosanna Melson also had every appearance of being of Indian blood.
That while said family resided in the State of Mississippi they associated with the Choctaw Indians and that they and the Indians visited each other and that they were then recognized as Choctaw Indians by the people among whom they lived. That this affiant can not read and write, but that she remembers distinctly the facts above stated. That this affiant did not know the given name of Possum Jones and that she always understood that the name Possum was a nick name and that she knows that he was called Possum Jones by the Indian children.
Emeline (her x mark) Pertate
Witness:
S. S. Wigand
Sworn to and subscribed before me this the 12 day of June, 1900.
B. C. Wigand
Notary Public
Southern Dist.
I. T.
Source:
Records of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes
Mississippi Choctaw
National Archives
Washington, D. C.
Legal Disclaimer; Copyright 2002-2014 by Show Me...The Bitticks; www.showmethebitticks.com; Mary Bittick Gallano and Ronda J. Snider --
