TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1825-1843
192
No. 152 LE'M'ER FROM JOSEPH W. ROBERTSON TO ANSON JONES Washington April 20th 1843 Dear Sir In February 1839 a descent was made by a party of Indians upon my plantation on the Colorado River and among other thing carried off two negro boys one of them about thir- teen or fourteen years old named Manuel the other nine or ten named Aaron and in the fall of 1840 I was told by a Delaware Indian of the name of Frank who is well known from the cir- cumstance of his having a red head that said boys were in the possession of a Mr Edwards a white man who lived in the Cher- okee nation on the Canadian River and had a Creek Indian for a wife. upon the receipt of the above information I went di- rectly to where Edwards was living and found the boys one of them at Edwards and the others at Chisholms who is a Cherokee and the Soninlaw of Edwards neither Edwards or Chisholm were at home at the time and I was deterred from letting my business be known from the circumstance of having been cau- tioned particularly to not let it be known that I was a Texian and there was at that time a party of Cherokees that had been Driven from Texas encamped in one mile of Edwards and di- rectly on the road that I had to travel. When I arived at home I made known to the Hon Secretary of State the whole matter as it then stood and he informed me afterwards that there had been a demand made of the U.S.A. Govt. for the negroes, Since that time I have not heard anything of the matter except that the negroes are still in Edwards possession. Sir you will please to give me such information as may at any time come to your knowledge so that I can take such steps as is necessary on my part to recover the property yours respectfuley JOSEPH W. ROBERTSON [Endorsed] Joseph W Robertson Esq to April 20th 1843 Sec1·etary of State. Relative to the capture of two negroes by the Indians in 1840 and now in the possession of Mr. Edwat"ds.
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