In Portrait of Margaret Tate, Mistress of Montpelier, a Plantation, a biographical and historical sketch of the
daughter and heir of Choctaw metis, Reuben Dyer, is presented.
Reuben Dyer died before the events of August 30, 1813. In fact, he was not enumerated in the 1810 Mississippi Territorial Census. His widow, Mary Dyer, on the other hand, was killed at Fort Mims. Her son-in-law, [William] Theophilus Powell, represented her estate, as reported in Lackey’s Frontier Claims in the Lower South.
Massacre at Fort Mimms, 1813. Courtesy of the New York Public Library, Digital Collections.
Margaret Dyer’s Lineage
Richard Cussins = Choctaw maiden Dyer = Choctaw maiden
| |
Mary Cussins = Reuben Dyer
___________|________________
| |
Margaret Dyer Martha [Polly] Dyer
= 1. William Theophilus Powell = John Weatherford
___________|___________________________________
| | |
Mary D. Wm. Th. Jr. Martha
= David = Mary = Jason
Moniac Bryant Staples
= 2. David Tate
|
Josephine Bonaparte Tate
= James Denny Dreisbach
Powell’s three children and heirs were Mary Delphine, Martha, and William Theophilus Powell.i Dyer and David Tate had only one child together, Josephine Bonaparte Tate [James D. Dreisbach]. Although AmerIndian, Dyer responded to interrogatories at the Weatherford v. Weatherford, et al. trial, that she did not speak the Creek language, nor was she familiar with Creek lore and culture relating to marriage.ii Considering that she was Choctaw and not Creek, her responses were plausibly truthful. However, when we consider her treatment of Flora, we note that she was disengenuous.
According to George Stiggins, it was customary for Creek men to marry the female relative of their deceased wife. Tate legally married his second wife or concubine, Penny Coleman, another EuroIndian, in June of 1814, at Mobile, within a year of Mary Louise Randon’s death at Fort Mims. Unavailable Margaret Dyer-Powell, did not spark his attentions until well after the death of Coleman in 1817, the wartime death of William Powell, and the purchase of another concubine, “Flora,” in 1819. It was also customary to have multiple “wives.”
iTheophilus Powell, Last Will and Testament, May 17, 1816, Monroe County, Alabama, Orphans Court Record of Orders Book No. 1. 1816-1821. FHL# 1548209.
iiParedes, J. Anthony and Knight, Red Eagle’s Children, Weatherford vs. Weatherford, et al. (Contemporary American Indians) Hardcover – October 16, 2012.
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I am interested in the REUBEN DYER, and his daughter Martha DYER Weatherford Downey. I believe that Reuben DYER or his wife Mary (Maria) Cussins have a connection to my ADCOCK family. Reuben Dyer was in Richmond County, Georgia between 1775 and 1790. He had several land transactions between the same people who lived on Keg Creek as Thomas Adcock. and they both wound up in Mississippi Terr (later Baldwin County, Alabama between 1798 for REUBEN DYER and 1808 for Thomas Adcock. Reuben died around 1808 and his wife Mary died at Fort Mims in 1813 with all of her children but Margaret Dyer Powell and Martha Dyer Weatherford Downey. Martha Dyer is buried in John Jenkins cemetery in Monroe county, Ala along with Sarah Adcock Boyles, daughter of Thomas Adcock. Thomas Adcock named his youngest son Reuben, a name not given to any of the other Adcock men. His other daughter Elizabeth Adcock married George Stiggins. Thomas Adcock and his wife died at Fort Mims, but all of their 5 children were not at the fort that day. Reuben Adcock and his brothers John and Lewis Adcock were in Capt. Thomas Boyles company and George Stiggins was their sergeant. After years of research I have found a document that list Thomas Adcock and his wife Sary on a deed dated 1791 and recorded 1806 in Columbia county, Georgia. But another deed that interests me is one of land transferred from Reuben Dyer to William Cousins in 1779 in Richmond county, Georgia witnessed by William and James Cousins. Nothing confirmed but a lot of coincidences. I guess my real question is Where the info you have listed that shows Richard Cussins (Cousins?) is the father of Mary Cussins. sorry for the long winded message.
Thank you, Mark
You provided much information. I will review and respond shortly.
Carolyn