ENSLAVER-Pickens
Pickens, Edmond- Chickasaw chief, was born in 1789, the son of John Joseph Pickens, a white man, and Mary, a Chickasaw. His father died in the Natchez District in January, 1789 (1). His mother later married Bernard McLaughlin, another white resident in the Chickasaw country. Edmond was listed on the 1818 Chickasaw census as a McLaughlin. He was baptized into the Martyn branch of the Monroe Church on April 3, 1830. His wife, Liney (also called Euthlike or Tiney), was baptized on May 1, 1831. Their children-Rachel, Mary, and David-- were baptized the same day as their mother, and another son, Johnson, was admitted on September 11, 1831, Edmond sold S7 T1 R1W in Marshall County, Mississippi, on April 15, 1836 (2). On September22 of that year he sold section 18 in the same township and range (3). He moved west in 1837. The 1839 census shows that his family consisted of three males under 10, one male 1020, two males 2050, one male over 50, one female under 10, three females 1020, and one female over 50. He then owned five slaves. The 1847 census shows Mrs. Edmond Pickens as a full blood, head of a household that consisted of two males under 18, one female under 16, and two females over 16.
Why Edmond was not listed is unknown, though he may have been away on tribal business. He was an influential tribal leader for many years, serving as Financial Chief from 1845 to 1848, chief of the Chickasaw District from 1848 to 1852, and a frequent delegate to Washington. He signed the treaties of 1852, 1854, and 1855. He died in 1868 and was buried at Graveyard Bluff, now an island in Lake Texoma. Liney died in 1805. She was buried in the Keel Cemetery, three miles north of Lebanon.
they were the parents of Johnson (18271858), David (killed by Comanches in 1858), Rachel (married Wilson N. Jones), Mary (married Houston Brown), Sally (married George Levers), Malcy (married Lewis Keel), Winey (born 1844; married Johnson Keel and James F. Leedy), Hilly (born 1852; married Henry Pratt and Frazier McLish), Thompson, and
Ihunta (4). Edmond was shown on the 18571860 annuity rolls, while Siney appeared separately on the 1858 roll.
(l)McBee, 141.
(2)Deed Book B, Marshall County, Ma.
(3)Ibid., Book C.
(4)3ita Tate to author, February 17, 1986.
Source: WHO WAS WHO AMONG THE SOUTHERN INDIANS a genealogical notebook,
1698-1907
by Don Martini ©1998. Don Martini Falkner, Ms.