By Brian DeNeal
Staff Writer
RIDGWAY - When Clara Firebaugh's mother, Francis Duncan, died April 9, 2000, at the age of 93, the family lost the chief storyteller of the family's American Indian heritage.
Firebaugh of Ridgway, and her sister Lorene Schell of New Burnside, had heard their mother's stories all their lives.
Duncan was full-blooded Cherokee and had traced her roots back to the Cherokee tribe that lived in Shawneetown during the time of the government-forced migration of American Indians to reservations, mainly in Oklahoma. The Cherokee tribe was split along the trail and Duncan's ancestors were made to go to North Carolina to live, Firebaugh said.
Firebaugh said the tribe went from Shawneetown to Golconda and crossed the river. In Tennessee, the tribe was split.
Along the trail, Duncan's grandmother gave birth to a boy.
"My grandpa, Eli Pitman, was born on the Trail of Tears. Where, I do not know," Firebaugh said.
"She said the government had them take a Christian name and they chose the name Pitman."
Pitman grew up to become a member of Teddy Roosevelt's army of Rough Riders in the Spanish American War. Firebaugh said he had been an Indian scout and was stationed in Cuba.
Pitman settled in Caruthersville, Mo., and became a rural mail carrier, delivering the mail between there and Hayti, Mo. There, he and his wife, Carrie Herrin, had a son, Oscar and Firebaugh's mother.
Duncan told Firebaugh stories of seeing her father returning home on horseback carrying game such as venison and rabbit across his saddle. In 1900, Pitman and his son Oscar both died in a flu epidemic. Duncan was 12 years old.
"She remembered riding when they took him to the cemetery. She was too little to walk," Firebaugh said.
Herrin had two brothers who traveled to Southern Illinois from North Carolina. Firebaugh knows one of the brothers had the name William and the other, she believes, was Jim.
The two brothers acquired land from the government. One operated a blacksmith shop and the other a general store.
Duncan told Firebaugh William left his land to his son and that land became Williamson County. The town of Herrin took it's name from those first two settlers, Firebaugh said.
Firebaugh said her great-grandfather on her father's side was named Gardner Moore and he took his wife, Mary Mighells, when she was only 12 years old from a Indian Reservation in Oklahoma. Moore settled in Johnson County and made his living loaning money. His wife was very sharp in math and kept his books. The Moores had a son also named Gardner who also married his wife from the reservation and he remained to live on the reservation, she said.
"They said she had a very sharp mind and when she passed away, they said she had the smallest waist in Johnson County," Firebaugh said.
The Moore's had 12 children, including Firebaugh's grandfather, Granville.
Firebaugh said her mother was extremely proud of her Indian heritage and received her Indian name of Lady Bird just before she died at Carrier Mills Nursing Home.
"She always wanted it. I got ahold of the chief and he let her have her papers and things in the nursing home before she passed away. It really thrilled her to death," Firebaugh said.
Firebaugh and Schell both are registered as half Cherokee.
Firebaugh said she, Schell and her mother had unusual experience she believe is related to their ancestry at Firebaugh's home when she lived in Golconda.
Firebaugh and her mother sat at the table talking about a sensation each were having that they had been at that spot before.
Then Schell came into the room.
"My sister looked at the door and said 'I feel like I've been here before,'" Firebaugh said.
"We laughed because we felt it ourselves.
"It had to be something we don't know about. It was really odd. I don't know if where we lived was an old Indian ground."
She described the experience as a sort of pull to the area that none had ever experienced when they were in Shawneetown, where her ancestors originated.