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The Thumb's Christmas

  Our daughter, Anne, was a prolific artist when she was young. Our refrigerator door was full of her drawings, paintings, and school artwork. She liked to create little books, too, as she was also a natural storyteller. One Christmas when she was about eight years old, Anne wrote and illustrated a Christmas story for her little brother, James. If memory serves, she drew her inspiration from a book she had recently gotten from the library by illustrator Ed Emberley. He wrote and illustrated The Great Thumbprint Drawing Book . In it, Emberley showed how to make a variety of animals and people using a thumbprint as a starting point. The creations are simple and charming. It's amazing what you can do with a blog of ink and a few black lines. It's art that's accessible to anyone. Anne's story is called "The Thumb's Christmas," and is based on our family. There is a thumb with glasses (Anne), a thumb with little hair (toddler James), a thumb with a mustache (Ji...
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GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021 - Interesting Letter


GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021

Interesting Letter - January 13th entry of a 31-day challenge to post a document, photo or artifact on social media every day in January.  

by Nancy Gilbride Casey 


My husband grew up being told that he was part Native American. When multiple DNA tests came back with no traceable Native American DNA, he began to question his family legend.1

I recalled an interesting letter I received a few years back from his great uncle Earl Stephen, of the family line where the alleged Native ancestry resided. I had written him with some questions about his family's history. He generously wrote back with his best recollections from historical books he had read, and what he had been told by his father and grandfather.

Digging his letter out and rereading it, this line sticks out:

"He was married in 1857 to an Elizabeth Kite. She was the daughter of the Commanche Chief of this area her maid name in Indian was Morning Dew." 2

Like so many other families, it appeared that our family also had an Indian Princess myth. And as with most family myths and legends, this one was also part kernel of truth, part random family facts, all mixed up in a blender and spilled out into the present. 

The family under discussion was the Stephen family and in particular, the "he" was my husband's 2nd great grandfather James Howard Stephen. 

Let's untangle the bits of fact from the bits of fiction.

In terms of the facts, James did marry an Elizabeth Kite, though the year recalled by Uncle Earl was off by a few decades: James H. Stephen and Elizabeth Kite married in 1876, not 1853.3

In the category of "almost true," there was an intersection of the Stephen family and the Comanche but not via marriage, and not involving a Comanche chief. 

It is certainly true that Comanche territory in the mid-1800s overlapped the Stephenville and Erath County area in central Texas, where the Stephen and Kite families settled. The map below shows the very large territory covering parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, where various bands of Comanche lived.4

Dark dashed line outlines the Comanche territory in this 1840s map.


Detail of map showing central Texas Comanche territory. Stephenville is located southwest of Fort Worth & Dallas and west of Comanche Peak.

The recalled Stephen-Comanche connection may also reference the fact that James Howard Stephen's uncle John Miller Stephen—one of the founders of Stephenville, Texas—set up a trading post in the mid-1850s in what is now Erath County, Texas. In the 18 April 1913 edition of Stephenville's The Tribune, a reprint of a speech entitled "Reminiscences of Stephenville," by speaker Mrs. Fred H. Chandler noted:

"Mr. Stephens [sic] established the first store here carrying red calico and such things as the Indians would trade for honey, hides and buffalo hams."5

And in the category of "no idea where that came from," is the idea that Elizabeth Kite was the daughter of a Comanche chief, and had the memorable name of "Morning Dew." In fact, Elizabeth's parents were Caswell Kite (1811-1897) and Harriet Kite (1818-1878), born in North Carolina and Georgia, respectively.6 No reference to Native American ancestry has been found for this couple. Though never say never in family history—new info can surface and overturn previous conclusions at any time.

And as family legends usually get their start in a nugget of truth, I will be keeping my eye out for any further references to "Morning Dew." 

Just in case...


NEXT UP: Photo of Ancestral Village

 
1 Lack of a particular ethnicity in one's DNA does not necessarily preclude that heritage. A person inherits about 50% of the DNA from a parent; about 25% from a grandparent; about 12.5% from a great grandparent, etc. The amount of DNA passed down is halved with each generation. However, which percentage of DNA is passed down is random. Over generations, this may result in DNA from some ethnicities being passed down more than others and in some cases ethnicities being completely lost.
2 Earl M. Stephen (Texas) to nephew's wife Nancy Gilbride Casey, letter, circa 2004, page 2; privately held, January 2021, by Nancy Gilbride Casey, Tioga, Texas.
3 Erath County, Texas, Marriage Record, 1874-1880, Vol. B, p. 99, marriage of J.H. Stephen and Elizabeth Kite (1876); "Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GP3B-SB : accessed 13 January 2021); FHL film 004820345, image 167/967.
4 The Comanche Country and Adjacent Territory, 1840 [Cleveland : Arthur H. Clark Company, 1933]; image, The Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth493310/m1/1/: accessed 12 January 2021); citing Hardin-Simmons University Library.
5 "Some Reminiscences of Stephenville," The Tribune (Stephenville, Texas), Vol. 21, No. 16, Ed. 1, 18 April 1913, p. 1, col. 1; digital image, The Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth882554/m1/1/zoom/ : accessed 13 Jan. 2021); citing Stephenville Public Library.
6 1870 United States Census, Texas, Burleson County, page 10 (penned), Line 14, dwelling 76, household 79, Elizabeth Kite, age 15, in the household of Caswell Kite; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4275547_00262 : accessed 13 January 2021) image 10/204; citing FHL film 1375181.

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