Person:James Vann (10)

Research notes

• practiced Cherokee custom of polygamy and is thought to have had as many as 9 wives
• many of his children attended the Moravian school at Spring Place ; records still exist (Library of Congress)
• Vann became the richest man in the Cherokee Nation, and possibly in the entire eastern U.S. at the time.
• He held more than 100 slaves and hundreds of acres of plantation.
• He owned taverns, ferry boats, grist mills, and livestock. His business activities included a cattle drive to Pennsylvania and a pack train of goods to South Carolina.
• In his will, Vann left nearly all his property to Joseph Vann, his eldest son by Nannie Brown. This followed European-American practice, but differed from the traditional Cherokee matrilineal system of having property passed on through the maternal line. Because Vann had gone against tradition, the National Cherokee Council recognized the other children of Vann's nine wives or consorts as minor heirs, and they shared in the inheritance of lesser amounts of property.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} James Vann, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

   James Vann (c. 1762–64 – February 19, 1809) was a Cherokee leader, one of the triumvirate with Major Ridge and Charles R. Hicks, who led the Upper Towns of East Tennessee and North Georgia as part of the ᎤᏪᏘ ᏣᎳᎩ ᎠᏰᎵ (Uwet Tsalag Ayetl or Old Cherokee Nation). He was the son of ᏩᎵ (Wali) Vann and Indian trader Joseph John Vann. He was born into his mother's Clan, ᎠᏂᎪᏓᎨᏫ (Anigodagewi or Wild Potato Clan, also called Blind Savannah Clan). ...

2.   [1], in Murraycountymuseum.com.