GRANDMA CHARLOTTE

Grandma Charlotte Vickery was born in 1788 in Gwinnett County, Georgia. She was one of many Cherokee Indians living in the eastern states that was forced from her home and property during the Indian removal enacted in 1830 by President Andrew Jackson, who was the 7th President of the United States. The story of her amazing life was passed down through her ancestors and a third great granddaughter wrote this book by listening to stories told by her maternal grandmother, Mary Ann Vickery Russell, who was Charlotte's Great Granddaughter. Grandma Charlotte married Henry Vickery by tribal law in 1810 and they had seven children, but he later left her and married her sister. Twelve years later Charlotte gave birth to a baby girl, who was the author's Great, Great, Great Grandmother. Charlotte was a midwife and a legend in her time. She was known far and near for choking a "wildcat" to death with her bare hands, after riding her mare for miles to deliver a baby. She had stopped at a small creek to water the horse, nurse her baby and fill her water jug. While bending over the water to fill the jug she suddenly heard rustling in the nearby tree tops and suddenly was attacked by a wildcat. The terrible ordeal left deep scars over her body, which she carried to her grave. She thought she was going to bleed to death while carrying the baby to the nearest farm house in desperate need for help. Her grown children left Georgia before 1840, but Charlotte was allowed to stay in her beloved Georgia, because her sister, Lucy, was married to Robert J. Rogers who had strong political ties. Their son, Robert Rogers Jr., was the grandfather of the famous William "Will" Rogers, known as a movie star, stunt actor and America's number one humorist of the time. Grandma Charlotte in her old age along with her granddaughter Lydia Ann Bettis Padgett, husband, Jim and baby, Martha Emma traveled west to the new Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. Grandma Charlotte Vickery died the 17th of March 1883 in the new Indian Territory. The book then describes the lives of Charlotte's great granddaughter, Mary Ann Vickery Russell and husband, Lester J. and family. Their many miles traveling from Muldrow, Oklahoma in a wagon, pulled by a team of horses to distant places to find work and a place to live. She was a natural bon story teller and remembered the stories passed down by her Cherokee ancestors from Georgia.