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Many Cherokees had lived in the
land, which became James County in
1870, and two of them, Chief Brown
and Chief Van, were leaders in
affairs of the Cherokee Nation
before the removal. Chief Judge
Brown-Judge being a name, not a
title was active in Cherokee
events in the Tennessee county and
later in the Indian Territory.
Chief Joseph Van was the richest
man, either White or red, who
lived in lower East
Tennessee during the early period.
Many stories are told of his
private race track and his great
number of slaves.
Harrison was about the center of
the section in which Chief Joseph
Van lived. Van’s or
Vanstown, was the original name of
Harrison.
Settlers had begun to drift into
James County section long before
the removal of the Cherokees.
Later the rich land and its
beautiful prospect along the
Tennessee River, with the
opportunity for boat landings,
attracted many others.
These citizens were actually early
residents in Hamilton County, as
the division had not taken place
when they made settlement.
Many of their descendants
moved to Chattanooga later and
became identified with public
affairs.
Among the pioneers of the section
which became James County and was
later returned to Hamilton County
were:
John Allen
George Anderson
J. H. Barnett
David N. Bell
S. J. Blair
Marion Boyd
William Boyd,
Jonas Burk,
George R. Cannon
Robert Carden,
William Caruthers
A. M. Cate,
John Chestnut
James Childress
E. M. Cleveland
Eli Cooley
William Crowder
James Davis
Walsh Davis
Wesley Davis
Hiram Douglass
John Eldridge
Cal Erwin
Acy Fitzgerald
John Goodman
Jesse Green
Samuel Green
Henderson Guthrie
James Guthrie
Cas Hall,
Arch Hambright
Richard Henderson
Joshua Hunter
Allison Howard
Samuel Igou
Richard Jordan
Alexander McDonald
Press McDonald
William McDonald
Bird McGhee
Robert L. McNabb
Alexander Mahan
John Marshall
George Matthews
P. L. Matthews
Harvey Moon
George Montgomery
William Murphey,
Elias Padgett
Caleb I. Parker
Hiram Parkes
Ancel Poe
A. G. W. Puckett,
Davis Ragon
Eli Ragon
Jesse Ragon
N. W. Rawlings
Joseph Ray
Dr. T. H. Roddy
Allen Rodgers
William Saunders
L. B. Shirley
Thomas Shirley
J. H. Stalcup
Alexander Starner
Nathan Stone
William Stone
Michael Swisher
William Swisher
Houston Syler
the Taliaferro family
William B. Tallent
James Talley
James P. Taylor
Allison Temple
D. C. Trewhitt
Carter Trim,
Finley P. Watkins
Hardy Watkins
Reuben Watkins
F. P. Wells
George F. Wells
William Whittenburg
The Witt family
Dr. Yarnell.
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