Second
So I researched my Brown and Guess surname, where they lived as far as I could. I could only go back until about the year 1820 with my Browns, and the Marriage of John Brown to Mary/Polly Black. My "Guess" surname I discovered, had started out "Gist". Some people I am known to be related to who kept the Guess/Gist surname took the DNA test. They went back to Nathaniel Gist. Not the Nathaniel thought to be Sequoyah's father, but his first cousin, ALSO named Nathaniel Gist. He was killed on August 8th, 1780 at the battle of Kings Mountain during the America Revolution. Could this be the origin of the story of Harriet being Sequoyah's niece or great niece? They I was surprised when I looked into our Wayland surname..
The Wayland's
About this time I started researching related families. Josephine Brown, my great grandma married Jeffrey Richey. Jeff's parents were Joseph Richey and Sarah Ann Wayland. Those Wayland's really surprized me. Thy helped organize the first church in Indian Territory along the White River, back when the White River in Arkansas was the border between Indian Territory and Arkansas Territory. in 1815, three years before Dwight Mission was established along the Arkansas River. Descendants of these Wayland's went on to serve at Fort Gibson in 1832. Their unit, Bears Rangers, were present at the first meeting between forces of the U. S. government and the Comanche, Kiowa and Wichita in southwestern Oklahoma. That meeting took place just 20 miles north of where I presently live. There was a man named Abraham Ruddle who was held captive by the Shawnee for about 20 years. In a book about the History of Arkansas, it states that Abraham Ruddle and my Wayland ancestors moved to Arkansas together!
I went back in time to earlier generations of Wayland's. They had come to Arkansas from the southwestern corner of Virginia. At this time I had never heard of "the Melungeons" or the "Saponi". It turns out the Melungeons were mixed race descendants of the Saponi. The Saponi were a band of the Catawba. The word "Melungeon" was first used in a church my Watland's attended. I whole new area of research opened up for me to try to uncover.
Nevil Wayland Sr, a Veteran of the Revolutionary War, had married a Saponi Girl surnamed Gibson. That family became known as "mixed". The word "Melungeon is first person plural of a French verb, "melanger" and it means "we mix". This word was first used in the minutes of a church my Wayland's attended. It was recorded by a man of French Huguenot ancestry.
One early Wayland named "Jonathan Wayland (1818-1882) became a Methodist Minister. Methodist are methodical record keepers, and therefore we have a photograph of him. his grandmother was the one said to me Saponi Indian. He would have been contemporary of my Harriet Guess Brown. He is not my direct ancestor, but he is her first cousin. Unfortunately, we have no picture of Sarah Wayland Richey. But we are fortunate to have this (probably alsoa tin-type that has been cleaned up) photo of him. If he hadn't have become a Methodist minister, we wouldn't have this photo of him..
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