Person:Isaac Thomas (7)

Jean Fladger Shanelec in "For His Own Personal Adventure" writes in the words of Mary Cobb Massengill: "There was a well-known trader living down at the Indian capital Chota. He had been an interpreter when we bought our land from the Cherokee. He wore fringed buckskins and a coonskin cap. His name was Isaac Thomas. The Indians were in awe him, and we all felt safer when Isaac was around. There was a high priestess the Cherokees at Chota who had often befriended the white settlers. Her name was Nancy Ward and people called her the Pocahontas the West. Several times Isaac Thomas brought messages from her, warning us to be prepared because the British had incited the Indian braves to attack. One time he made the 150 mile trip across the wilderness in the unbelievable time three days and saved over two hundred lives."

Issac lived with the Cherokee Indians for 8 years. He along with Patrick Jack and Captain Stuart were spared durring the massacre of Fort Loudoun because of the love borne him by Chief Atta Culla Culla.

During the Revolutionary War, Colonel Sevier asked Isaac to lead his troops directly over a mountain after they discovered two spies had warned the British their plans to take the old trail. And that is how the overmountain men Tennessee completely surprised and defeated the British at King's Mountain in South Carolina on October 7, 1780.

An interesting note is that Isaac Jones (1735-1818) died 30 Oct 1818, the day after Isaac Thomas died, and is buried in the Thomas family cemetery in Sevierville TN, along with Isaac Thomas. Although their families followed different routes to Calif., Jones to KY, TN, Stockton, CA and the Thomas to TN, MO, Sonoma Co. CA, two their respective G G Grandchildren, Susan "Fanny" Gard and Benton Thomas' were married in Lake County CA in 1884.

Plaque picture is from "For His Own Personal Adventure", Jean Fladger Shanelec, 1996.
More Information: Isaac Thomas Page at Terry Mason's web site.

Nancy Ward (Nanye'hi, the Ghi-ga-u, daughter of Fivekiller and Tame Doe) was a Cherokee leader who knew Isaac Thomas. See information on her at Robert B. Ringo's Nancy Ward Genealogy and Women in American History
Reference to Issac in a page about Caleb Starr "The Mystery Indian Trader" by Linda Sparks Starr.

Reference to Isaac in a page about Captain William Kennedy who was imprisoned by the indians and Isaac convinced them to release hom.

The house of ISAAC THOMAS stood on the West Bank of Pigeon River near the confluence of its east and west branches, between which, at this point, October 1795, the town of Sevierville was laid out and afterwards built.

This ISAAC THOMAS had an interesting history. He was called an Indian Trader and was one of the three known survivors of old Fort Loudon, built 1767 on the banks of the Little River (recently partially restored.)

In 1775 the Indians had a plan to attack the settlements on the Watagua. Nancy Ward, who was nearly allied to some of the principal Chiefs, obtained knowledge of the plan, and without delay communicated it to ISAAC THOMAS, her friend, a "Trader", and a true American. He immediately set out to warn them of the danger, which he opportunely did, and proceeded without delay to the Committee of Safety in Virginia. He was accompanied by William Fallin (Fewlin) as far as the Holson settlements.

It is probable that ISAAC THOMAS married twice and had two sets of children, though there appears no record of his first wife and family.
At some uncertain time, but early in the history of Tennessee, a man named A. Timothy was killed by the Indians on Little Tennessee River. It is thought he may have been one of the victims of the Fort Loudon massacre, which ISAAC THOMAS escaped, with Major Stuart. This Timothy was a son-in-law of Henry Massengill, of the Watagua Settlement and a nephew of William Cobb, whose sister had married Massengill. ISAAC THOMAS thereupon married the widow Timothy who was Elizabeth Massengill. There is some evidence that ISAAC THOMAS was at one time on the Watauga with Andrew Greer and the other earliest settlers.
There is a well considered tradition that the Thomas Family of the Watagua came from Wayne or Duplin County, North Carolina, where they lived at a point called Seven Springs, near Little River and the Nuece. He may have been the brother of Jacob Thomas and a son of William Thomas whose name appears in the records of the earliest meetings of the Court of Washington County, North Carolina (later a part of Tennessee). At any rate, it is believed that ISAAC THOMAS, the old Indian Trader and Nancy Ward's messenger, and his wife Elizabeth Massengill were the parents of :
:1. ISAAC THOMAS (b. Sevier County, Tennessee) a veteran of War of 1812.
:2. JOHN THOMAS who married Elizabeth Daniel and lived in Blount county.

Thomas, Isaac, born in Virginia, about 1735. He was an early Indian trader, and about 1755 located among the Cherokees, near Fort Loudoun. His immense strength and courage commanded great respect from the Indians. On one occasion he interfered in a feud between two Cherokee braves who had drawn tomahawks upon each other. and tore the weapons from their hands, when they both attacked him. He lifted one after the other into the air, and threw them into the Tellico river. One of the Indians subsequently saved his life at the Fort Loudoun massacre, of which it is said that he and two others were the sole survivors. After peace was restored, he again seitled among the Cherokees, making his home at their capital, Echota, where, in a log-cabin, he kept the trader's usual stuck. He was on very friendly terms with Nancy Ward, the Cherokee prophetess, who early in 1776 told him of the hostile designs of the Indians. He at once sent a truity messenger to John Sevier and James Robertson at Watauga, but remained behind till the actual outbreak of hostilities. At midnight on July 7, 1776, Nancy Ward again came to his cabin and urged him to leave the settlements. At great risk he mide the journey, and a few days later was with the lttle garrison of forty that repelled the attack of Oconostota on the fort at Watauga. Sevier probably could not have held out if he had not received the warning. :-oon afterward he piloted the expedition that laid waste the Indian country, and, for twenty years afterwards he acted as guide to Gen. Sevier in nearly all of his campaigns against the Creeks and Cherokees. Soon after the revolution he relinquished trade with the tndia1is. and settled upon an extensive farm in Sevier county. He called his settlement Sevierville, in honor of his general, and the place is now one of the most beautiful localities in the state of Tennessee. He died in Sevierville, Tennessee, in 1819.

Record for Elsie Thomas _APID: 1,2204::797967