CROATANS : 
 THE LOST COLONY 
 OF 
 AMERICA 
 
 
STEPHEN B. WEEKS 
 
 CLASS OF 1886: PUD. THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 rwMMn 
 
 HIE WEEKS CdDLILECTnON 
 
 C P 970.03 
 
 M52c 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032203856 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION 
 
h 
 
 TH E 
 
 MID-CONTINENT MAGAZINE 
 
 ( Formerly The Southern Magazine. 
 
 Vol. VI. 
 
 JULY*, 1895. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 OM Series Wo. IS 
 
 CROATANS: THE LOST COLONY OF AMERICA. 
 
 JY FRANCES JOXES MELTON. 
 
 IF we are to have a return of ro- 
 mance in fiction writing there is 
 no place in America richer in material 
 than the portion of North Carolina, 
 where there may be found to-day the 
 supposed descendants of ' ' The Lost 
 Colony of America." 
 
 For nearly three centuries the fate 
 of those colonists has been a theme of 
 historical speculation ; and probably 
 when the last word about them shall 
 have been written, these mystical cap- 
 ital letters, CROATAN, carved on the 
 tree inside the entrance to the frontier 
 palisade, will remain as inscrutable as 
 they were to the bewildered savage 
 who took possession after Roanoke had 
 been abandoned by the colonists. 
 
 Briefly, the story of the lost colony 
 is that they were sent from England 
 by Sir Walter Raleigh 'in ^5^7-^ bout 
 one hundred and fifty strong ^>mler 
 Governor John White, and landed on 
 Roanoke Island. 
 
 After a little while Governor White 
 found it necessary to go back to Eng- 
 land for supplies. For some reason 
 he did not return to America for three 
 years, notwithstanding he had left his 
 own family among the waiting colo- 
 nists on Roanoke Island. 
 
 When he at last came back, he found no 
 trace of those whom he had left behind 
 when he departed for England three 
 years before, except the wo^f " Croa- 
 tan ' ' carved upon a tree within the 
 palisade ; ' ' which letters, ' ' fee saVs in a 
 report of the last voyage, "presently 
 
 we knew to signify the place where I 
 should find the planters seated, accord- 
 ing to a secret token agreed upon be- 
 tween them and me at my last depart- 
 ure from them, which was that in any 
 way they should not fail to write or 
 carve on the trees or posts of the doors 
 the name of the place where they should 
 be seated, for at my coming away they 
 were prepared to remove from Roanoke 
 fifty miles into the main. Therefore, at 
 my departure from them in August, 
 1587, I willed them that, if they should 
 happen to be distressed in any of those 
 places, they should carve over the let- 
 ters or name a cross ( t ) i u this form , 
 but we found no such sign of distress. 
 And, having well considered of this, we 
 passed through the place where they 
 were left in sundry houses, but we found 
 the houses taken down and the place 
 very strongly enclosed with a high pal- 
 isade of great trees, with curtains and 
 flankers, very fort-like, and one of the 
 chief trees or posts at the right side of 
 \ the entrance had the bark taken off, 
 ;and five feet from the ground in fair 
 capital letters was graven 'Croatan,' 
 withoiit any cross or sign of distress. 
 This done we entered into the palisade, 
 where we found man}' bars of iron, two 
 pigs of lead, four iron fowlers, iron 
 locker, shot and such heavy things 
 thrown here and there, almost over- 
 grown with grass and weeds. ' ' 
 
 "But, although it grieved me much 
 to ^/ " 
 othe 
 
 dui, uiLiiougu 11 gueveu iiic uiutu 
 ij^ejjsuch «%>oil Q&my goods, yet on the 
 .her side I greatly joyed that I had 
 
 Coypright, rHys, bi </■'. C. Nunemacher. All rights 
 
CROATANS: THE LOST COLONY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Hamilton McMillan says concern- land deed made by King George the 
 ing the Croatans : "At the coming of Second, and recognized as a chief man 
 
 white settlers there was found located 
 on the waters of Lumber river a large 
 tribe of Indians, speaking English, 
 tilling the soil, owning slaves and 
 practicing many of the arts of civilized 
 life. They occupied the country as far 
 west as the Pedee, but their princi- 
 pal seat was on the Lumber, extend- 
 ing for twenty miles along that river. 
 They held their lands in common, and 
 land titles only became known on the 
 approach of white men. The first 
 
 in his tribe, is described as an Indian, 
 who married Priscella Berry, a sister 
 of Henry Berry, the other grantee 
 mentioned. 
 
 ' ' James Lowrie was a descendant of 
 James Lowrie, of Chesapeake, who mar- 
 ried a Croatan woman in Virginia ( as 
 Eastern North Carolina is still de- 
 scribed by the tribe), and became the 
 progenitor of all the Lowries belonging 
 to this tribe. 
 
 ' ' According to the traditions respect- 
 
 grant of land to any of this tribe, of ing this family, the men were intel- 
 
 which there is any written evidence in 
 existence, was made by King George 
 the Second, 1732, to Henry Berry and 
 James Lowrie, two leading men of the 
 tribe, and was located on the Lowrie 
 swamp, east of Lumber river, in the 
 present county of Robeson, in North 
 Carolina. A subsequent grant was 
 made to James Lowrie in 1738. 
 
 ' ' According to tradition there were 
 deeds of older date, described as 
 'White' deeds and 'Smith' deeds, 
 but no trace of them can be found at 
 this date. 
 
 ' ' Many families described as white 
 . people emigrated toward the Alleghany 
 •mountains; and there are many fami- 
 lies in Western North Carolina at 
 tthis time, that are claimed by the tribe 
 <iin Robeson county as descend- 
 ants of the lost English colonists, 
 v who had preserved their purity of 
 ■?• blood to that degree that they 
 »3 could not be distinguished from 
 ^ white people. 
 
 "These Indians built great 
 roads connecting the distant set- 
 tlements with their principal seat 
 on the Lumbek, as the Lumber 
 river was then called. One of 
 these roads can be traced from a 
 point on Lumber 
 river for twenty 
 miles to an old set- 
 tlement near the 
 mouth of Heart's 
 Creek. 
 
 "James Lowrie, 
 previously men- 
 tioned as one of 
 the grantees in the 
 
 lectual and ambitious and ' leaders 
 among men. ' Henry Berry, thegrantee 
 mentioned, was a lineal descendant of 
 the English colonist, Henry Berry, who 
 was left on Roanoke Island in 1587. 
 Many of this tribe served in the Conti- 
 nental army during the Revolutionary 
 war, and enjoj^ed pensions within the 
 memory of persons yet living. 
 
 ' ' A considerable number served dur- 
 ing the war of 181 2, some of whom re- 
 ceived pensions within the recollection 
 of the writer. Some of the tribe fought 
 under 'Bonnull,' as they term Colonel 
 Barnwell, and we have reliable evi- 
 dence that they brought home as con- 
 traband of war a few Mattamuskeet 
 Indiatfs as their prisoners and slaves. 
 ' ' The name Dare was not recognized 
 by them in our first in- 
 vestigation, but we after- 
 ward discovered that 
 they pronounced the 
 name variously as Darr, 
 
 Another Type. 
 
CROATANS: THE LOST COLONY OF AMERICA. 
 
 199 
 
 Dorr and Durr. This discovery was 
 made when we related to an old chron- 
 icler of the tribe the story of Virginia 
 Dare, the first white 
 child born on Ameri- 
 can soil. 
 
 ' ' This name Dorr ap- 
 pears on the muster roll 
 of 18 1 2, but has since 
 
 " Mention is used for measurement, 
 aks for ask, hit fur it, hosen for hose, 
 loven for loving, hoitscn for houses. 
 
 
 $U kfcr 
 
 disappear- 
 ed from on 
 the Lum- 
 ber river. 
 
 "Several affirm that the 
 Dares, Harvies, Coopers and 
 others retained their purity of 
 blood, and were generally the 
 pioneers in emigration. Many 
 names are corrupted so that 
 it is difficult to trace them. 
 
 " Traditions are fading fast. As far 
 back as 1820 their traditions were more 
 vivid than now. and familiar to old and 
 young. Now you will find their ancient 
 traditions confined to a comparatively 
 few old persons. The language spoken 
 is almost pure Anglo-Saxon, a fact 
 which we think affords corroborative 
 evidence of their relation to the lost col- 
 ony of White. 
 
 "Mon is used for man, farther for 
 father, and a tradition is usually begun 
 as follows : 
 
 "Mon, my fayther told me that his 
 .fayther told him, etc. 
 
 . 
 
 A Croatan Woman. 
 
 They seem to have but two sounds for 
 the letter a, one like short o. Many of 
 thew T ords in common use among them 
 have long been obsolete in English- 
 speaking countries, and this is corrob- 
 orative of the truth of their tradition 
 that they are the descendants of the 
 lost Englishmen of Roanoke. Their 
 language has many peculiarities, and 
 reminds one of the English spoken in 
 the days of Chaucer." 
 
 " In traveling on foot they march in 
 'Indian file,' and exhibit a fondness for 
 bright red colors. They unconsciously 
 betray many other traits characteristic 
 
200 
 
 CROATANS : THE LOST COLONY OF AMERICA. 
 
 */ 
 
 of Indians. The custom of raising small 
 patches of tobacco for their own use 
 has been handed down from time im- 
 memorial. In building they display no 
 little architectural skill. In road-mak- 
 ing they excel. Some of the best roads 
 in North Carolina 
 can be found with- 
 in their territory. 
 They are univer- 
 sally hospitable 
 and polite to stran- 
 gers. They are 
 proud of their race 
 and boast of their 
 English ancestry. 
 Like their Indian 
 ancestors, they are 
 friendly to white 
 men. They never 
 forget a kindness, 
 an injury nor a 
 debt. In common 
 with all Indians 
 they have a great 
 respect for Quak- 
 ers, and look upon 
 them as the true 
 friends of the In- 
 dians. In the olden time they had 
 houses of entertainment for travelers." 
 V* 1 The chief settlement of these people 
 to-day is Scuffletown on the historic 
 IyUmber river. This river pursues a 
 southeasterly course through Scuffle- 
 town. Its waters are very dark, and 
 flow swiftly between flat, swampy 
 banks. Pine, cypress and gum trees 
 thickly stud its waters, except in its 
 deepest and swiftest currents. It very 
 rarely confines itself to one current, and 
 lovely islands full of feathery greenness 
 are constant in the dark stream. The 
 soil of the flat lands bordering the river 
 is moderately fertile and very easily 
 cultivated. The country is pretty, but 
 is marred somewhat by the ever present 
 sameness of a land unvaried by hills 
 and diversity of forest ; while the glare 
 of unending reaches of white sand tire 
 the eyes and tan the complexion. 
 
 The Croatans till small farms and 
 live in small houses, but the habita- 
 tions have an air of homelike conven- 
 ience. Their dooryards are ornamented 
 with shrubs, vines and flowers, and 
 
 1ft*! 
 
 A Croatan Girl. 
 
 their gardens are large and stocked 
 with vegetables. Their farms are usu- 
 ally a clearing of four or five acres im- 
 mediately surrounding the house. A 
 large farm is a rare exception, and an 
 evidence of superior prosperity, among 
 these primitive people. 
 
 The women and children cultivate 
 the tiny crops, principally ; while the 
 men work at making turpentine, ditch 
 for the neighboring planters, labor at 
 the saw-mills, make splint baskets, 
 vessels from juniper, and pick cotton 
 to earn money for necessities the farms 
 are inadequate to produce. 
 
 In former times, no doubt, when the 
 swamps were full of game and the 
 streams were more prolific, the men 
 hunted and fished, and the women 
 tilled the cleared patches of land ; but 
 with the coming of the white men 
 they forsook fishing and hunting to 
 serve for hire. Why they did not 
 enlarge their farms and embrace the 
 advantage of markets brought so near 
 them, is a mystery pertaining to their 
 Indian blood. 
 
 With their English thrift and economy, 
 and Indian simplicity and seclusive- 
 ness, they have evolved a personality 
 of race to be found in no other people 
 in existence. They are extremely in- 
 teresting as a product of the mingling 
 of two distinct races, entirely opposite 
 to each otherinhabits, color and physic- 
 al traits. They can hardly be declared 
 a mixed race even at this distant day. 
 The physical traits of each were so in- 
 destructible that the}' persist in declar- 
 ing themselves in all their purity after 
 the lapse of centuries. There was not 
 a point, it seems, at which their blood 
 could mingle and produce a type that 
 would harmoniously combine the char- 
 acteristics of both races. When a Croa- 
 tan is English he is almost entirely so ; 
 when he is an Indian he is an almost 
 perfect type of the red man, robbed of 
 his typical sternness by civilized habits 
 and surroundings. 
 
 . There are freaks among them, in whom 
 the color is pronounced Indian and the 
 features pure Anglo-Saxon. Again this 
 type is reversed, and Indian features 
 are clothed in a fair, rosy complexion. 
 Another exception is an amber-tinted 
 
CROATANS: THE LOST COLONY OF AMERICA 
 
 20I 
 
 color, with the features of either race. 
 There are fair maidens and Anglo- 
 Saxon young men ; and maidens and 
 young men who might be lineal de- 
 scendants of Hiawatha and Minnehaha. 
 As the men grow old they assume the 
 characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon, typ- 
 ically, while the women seem to degen- 
 erate into the Indian type phenom- 
 enally. The}' are also the product of the 
 coalescence of two very different intel- 
 lects ; and the more enlightened mind 
 of the civilized man must have domi- 
 nated the Indian very powerfully to 
 eliminate the language, the names and 
 the uncleanly sloth of the savage/There 
 is not an Indian word, name or appel- 
 lation among them, and often the)- have 
 an exaggerated habit of cleanliness. 
 Their uncarpeted floors are scrubbed to 
 an almost snowy whiteness, their un- 
 painted furniture is kept in the same 
 spotless condition, and their dooryards 
 are neat and tidy. Their dress is like 
 that of an ordinary rural people, who 
 w r ork and pay but little attention to the 
 toilet. 
 
 They are fond of bright colors and 
 eschew neutral tints in dress fabrics. 
 Bright pinks, deep reds, vivid greens, 
 gay plaids and dark grounds spangled 
 with large flowers or mottled with in- 
 tricate blossoming vines are their most 
 popular fancies in attiring themselves. 
 The} r are quick-witted and appreciative. 
 As a race they are unpresuming and 
 retiring, the more benighted ones pre- 
 ferring to live away from the public 
 highways in the undisturbed solitude 
 of the swampy pine lands. Their im- 
 plements of agriculture and other in- 
 dustries are like those of the white peo- 
 ple, with whom they trade almost ex- 
 clusively. The Croatans, with a few 
 exceptions, are not a mercantile people. 
 They have no means but what is at- 
 tained by patient toil and stern econ- 
 omy, involving much self-denial. The 
 majority of them can read and write, 
 and some have sufficient education to 
 thoroughly appreciate literature. They 
 thirst for knowledge when they are so 
 enlightened as to feel their need of it. 
 A newspaper is universally prized 
 among them. They reverence that 
 medium between them and the busy 
 
 world in which they have so little part. 
 In former times it was impossible for a 
 Croatau to get any education at all ex- 
 cept by hiring some one to teach him 
 privately, and this was difficult and 
 expensive. When the free schools were 
 established for the colored race they 
 were given the privilege of attending 
 them, but they indignantly declined to 
 do so. In 1885 they were given sep- 
 arate schools, and since that time their 
 progress has been phenomenal. Their 
 public school houses, built entirely by 
 private means, are all frame, and are 
 much better equipped than those of the 
 colored race. By an act of the General 
 Assembly of North Carolina, passed in 
 1887, the Normal School for teachers 
 of the Croatan race was established, 
 and the sum of five hundred dollars is 
 annually given -by the State for its sup- 
 port. The Normal School has sent out 
 thirteen instructors for the race, and is 
 doing much to elevate the Croatans. 
 At the present time there are thirty- 
 seven pupils in attendance, but all are 
 not teachers. The children of the public 
 school near by are included in the in- 
 struction given by the Principal, be- 
 cause the attendance after the spring 
 opens is small, and separate schools at 
 that point are not necessary. The Prin- 
 cipal is a white man, a graduate of 
 Edinburgh, Scotland. The Croatans 
 praise him warmly for his conscientious 
 work in their behalf. 
 
 There are about two thousand five 
 hundred Croatans in Robeson county ; 
 and eleven hundred children between 
 the ages of six and twenty-one years 
 are entitled to the benefit of public in- 
 struction. They generally avail them- 
 selves of this opportunity for an educa- 
 tion. There are sixteen churchesowned 
 by the Croatans, divided between the 
 Baptist and Methodist denominations. 
 Their churches are frame buildings, 
 but like, their houses, are as clean as 
 scrubbing with white sand can make 
 them. They are austerely furnished 
 with the bare necessities of pioneer 
 worshippers. 
 
 The Croatans as a people are de- 
 voutly pious, and reverential of sacred 
 things. The great faith which illumined 
 the lives of their English ancestors in 
 
CROATANS: THE LOST COLONY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the vast solitude of the American wilder- 
 ness, and the sublime conception of the 
 Great Spirit embraced by Manteo and 
 his people, have descended as a re- 
 demptory benediction, even unto the 
 present day, upon this lowly people. 
 
 In vScuffletown are many names de- 
 rived from the English colonists. Low- 
 ries are there in abundance. Sampson, 
 Brookes, Allen, Johnson, Graham, 
 Thompson and many others, identical 
 with the lost colony. Many of the 
 colonial names have become extinct, 
 and other names, through inter-mar- 
 riage with settlers around them, have 
 become incorporate with them. 
 
 When a white man married a Cro- 
 atan woman, the children of such a 
 union, with their father's name, became 
 Croatans, and thus French, German, 
 Irish and Scotch names are among 
 them. In the original colony left upon 
 Roanoke Island were one hundred and 
 twenty persons in all ; ninety-two 
 men, seventeen women and eleven 
 children, including the two who were 
 born at the "city of Raleigh," on 
 Roanoke Island, the first of whom was 
 Virginia Dare. They were embraced 
 in ninety family names, the majority of 
 which can be found in the settlements 
 on the Lumber river. This must be 
 irrefutable evidence that the Croatans 
 are the descendants of White's colon}-. 
 They should be simply Croatans, not 
 Indians or English. 
 
 Through misfortune of color they in- 
 curred the resentment of the white peo- 
 ple in the unhappy days before and 
 after the Civil war. In eager but sad 
 
 tones they will tell you how they suf- 
 fered through another mongrel race, 
 the ante-bellum free negro, who re- 
 quired laws to regulate his behavior. 
 Every law passed for the free negro's- 
 government was enforced upon the 
 proud, harmless, retiring Croatans. who 
 only asked to be let alone in their pov- 
 erty and isolation. The blood inherited 
 from the proteges of the might}- Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, and the royal tribe 
 of Manteo, "Lord of Roanoke and 
 Dasamonguepeuk," boiled with fiery 
 but impotent indignation when those 
 humiliating laws were executed upon 
 them by uninformed officials, who did 
 not know or care about the extreme 
 difference between a Croatan and a per- 
 son with African blood in his veins. 
 Learned men came to their rescue in 
 many instances, and gained the eternal 
 gratitude of the oppressed Croatans. 
 This wrong-doing finally ended in a se- 
 ries of horrible tragedies. The famous 
 outlawry of Henry Berry Lowrie and 
 his associates was a result of those 
 tyrannical laws unjustly enforced. One 
 law forbade a free negro to carry a gun, 
 and the Croatan 's much-loved weapon 
 of sport was wrested from him. 
 
 As a people the Croatans are peace- 
 able in disposition, but wdien aroused 
 by repeated injury they will fight des- 
 perately. The great mass shun notorie- 
 ty, and carefully avoid places where 
 crowds of other races assemble. They 
 are exclusive and seclusive ; they have 
 the combined traits of English and In- 
 dians ; they are " The Lost Colony of 
 America." 
 
 / / I y \ \ \— \ 
 
 In the Croatan Public School. 
 
 ■