John L. Knighten - Just the Facts

Below I will share the undisputable factual information that I have heard or found on my own that I have documents to back up.  Ancestry.com has been my friend for most of this, but it also includes visits to the Morgan County Archives and trips to cemeteries.

I guess the "set in stone" record of John L. Knighten's life is his headstone at Ebenezer Cemetery, in Falkville, Alabama. 


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According to it, he was born on March 20th, 1849, and died on July 4th, 1933.  The first chronological record that I have found is the 1850 Census for District 27, Cherokee, Alabama.  He is the last entry on the page and listed in the household of Jeremiah (20) and Amanda (19) Nighten.  John would have been just around a year old when the census was taken.  The right bottom corner of the page is damaged, so not all of the information is legible.  In the column for race, no entries were made on the entire page, so it can be assumed that the census-taker was counting everyone as white.

The next record is the 1860 Federal Census for Calhoun County, Alabama.  According to it, he was living in the household of Jeremiah Knighten, who was 23.  John was 11.  Also listed in the household were Johann, female, 20, Sarohan (Sarah?), female, 1, and Malissa, female, 8.  I'm not sure what the deal was on Jeremiah's age.  He should have been 30 based on the 1850 census, unless there somehow were two Johns that were the same age, both living with Jeremiahs.  Also, Calhoun County isn't that far from Cherokee County, so that is not a issue in my opinion.  People move around.  Note again that no race is listed for anyone on the page.

There are stories of John L. Knighten serving as a courier for the Confederacy during the Civil War.  I can't substantiate this legend at the present, but I can say that there is a record of a PVT John L. Knighten in Company K of the 22nd Alabama Infantry Regiment.  According to the National Park Service Soldier and Sailor System the

22nd Infantry Regiment completed its organization at Montogmery, Alabama, in November, 1861, then moved to Mobile. Its companies were raised in the counties of Walker, Clarke, Cherokee, Mobile, Pike, Choctaw, Montgomery, Calhoun, and Randolph. The unit suffered severe losses at Shiloh under General Gladden, then saw action in Bragg's Kentucky Campaign under General Gardner. Later the 22nd was attached to Deas', G.D. Johnston's, and Brantley's Brigade, Army of Tennessee. It fought in many conflicts from Murfreesboro to Atlanta, was part of General Hood's winter operations in Tennessee, and ended the war in North Carolina. After the Battle of Shiloh, the regiment reported only 123 men fit for duty. It sustained 94 casualties at Murfreesboro, and lost fifty-three percent of the 371 engaged at Chickamauga. In December, 1863, it totalled 272 men and 171 arms. It reported 5 killed and 35 wounded in the fight at Ezra Church; many were also disabled at Franklin and Nashville. The regiment was included in the surrender on April 26, 1865. Its field officers were Colonels Zach C. Deas, B.R. Hart, John C. Marrast, and Harry T. Houlmin; Lieutenant Colonels E. Herbert Armistead, Napoleon B. Rouse, and John Weedon; and Majors Robert B. Armistead, Robert Donnell, and T.M. Prince.

Is it possible that John L. Knighten served during the Civil War?  Sure, but bear in mind that he would have only been twelve years old when the war started in 1861.  I'm just not sure what capacity that someone that young would have been able to serve in.

Now up to 1870.  The next record I have is John's marriage to Caroline Gipson on January 4th, 1870, in Morgan County, Alabama.  You may have noticed from the images that the spelling of Knighten is really fluid.  It bounces between Nighten, Nighton, Knighten, and Knighton.  In this instance, it was spelled Knighton. 

Now, the 1870 Census, John (20) and Caroline (17) are living in Basham's Gap, Morgan County, Alabama.  This is the first census where race has been recorded on the page.  Both John and Caroline are listed as white.  John's occupation is listed as farmer, and Caroline's as "keeping house".  The surname on this one was Niten.

This gets us up to the 1880 Census.  Apparently, John and Caroline had a lot of free time in the 1870s.  The following are children are now brought into the picture:

• Jeremiah Lafayette, male, 8
• Missouri Ann Adeline, female, 7
• Amanda "Mandy" Melissa, female, 5
• Sarah Francis, female, 3
• Mary Elizabeth, female, 1

Skipping over the 1890 Census, which was destroyed by fire, we get to the 1900 Census, where John and Co. are now living in Holmes Gap, Cullman County, Alabama.  This is still really close to where he has lived since getting married in 1870.  A lot has changed in the household since the 1880 Census:

• Loria Beatrice, female, 16
• Luria Zula, female, 16
• John Doss, male 13
• Thomas Grady, male, 11
• Wesley Harvey, male, 9
• Arzo Hampton, male, 7
• Lonzo Hamilton, male, 7

Personally, I can't imagine being 50 years old and having two sets of twins at home.  Hopefully, the older kids that had already moved of helped out some.

The 1910 Census shows John living at Nunn's Mill in Morgan County, Alabama.  At 59 years old, he still has a house full of kids:

• Wesley Harvey, male, 18
• Arzo Hampton, male, 16
• Lonzo Hamilton, male 16

Also, if interest to me, is that when I look up the page, I see another ancestor, William Smith Blevins, whom the census-taker had apparently stopped to visit a few houses prior.

It appears that by the 1920 Census, John and Carline had moved to Eva, Morgan County, Alabama, with their daughter Missouri, and her husband, Grant Morgan.  Grant and Missouri had quite a family of their own by that time.

The last Census to document John L. Knighten was the 1930 Census.  He was still living with Missouri, and by that time two of her grand-children were living there as well.

Our last record takes us back to the first, the headstone tells us that he passed away on July 4th, 1933.

Cherokee Knightens - Intro

In Morgan County, Alabama legend, there exists the enigma of John L. Knighten, who some claim to be a full-blooded Cherokee who lived from 1849 to 1943.  He was my great-great-great grandfather.  I don't believe that the legend has been fabricated, but some of the details may have been embellished over the years.  The problem is, everyone with first- or even second-hand knowledge has fallen victim to time themselves.

John L. Knighten sometime in the early 1900s

I have spoken with both proponents and opponents of the validity of John L. Knighten's Cherokee blood.  Those who support the claim that he was Cherokee often refer to him as Johnny Lighthorse Nightingale, prince of the House of Winds (I'll explain what the House of Winds was in a later post).  Those who think he was just a regular white guy refer to him as John Littleton Knighten.  Personally, I probably fall somewhere in between those two camps.  I believe that he had Cherokee ancestry, but may have not been full-blooded.  You might say that there are no official documents to support this claim, and I would retort, that many people of South Eastern Native American lineage wanted it that way to avoid persecution, and I believe (possibly naively) that the origins of this story are too old to have been totally fabricated.  It traces back to long before it was "cool" to be an Indian.

I'd like to take a moment to credit my aunt, Nancy Blevins, for allowing me access to photos that she had.  I spent a day with her and uncle Vaughn several years ago scanning the pages of her photo album and some handwritten notebook pages that she written.  The notes were based on conversations that she had with Zudie Morgan, who was either, John L. Knighten's granddaughter or great-granddaughter.  If anyone knows, let me know.  So for the information that I have that I haven't personally researched, Ms. Morgan, via Nancy Blevins, is my ultimate source, unless otherwise noted.

John L. Knighten's Headstone at Ebenezer Cemetery, Falkville, AL

More to follow...

New Logo

I've been working on coming up with some "personal branding" that fits the image that I would like to portray of myself.  I'm fascinated with historical symbolism, such as coats of arms and other such embellishments.  I can't trace my lineage with the proper documentation to claim rights to an ancestor's armorial bearings, so I'm playing with my own design that doesn't "infringe" on anything I'm not entitled to.

So above you have my cipher inside a sunburst over the Latin lotto "A Posse Ad Esse", which loosely translates as "From being possible to being.", which I think fits me pretty well.  I believe that most people are given opportunities to excel, its just a matter of taking advantage of them.  I'm thankful to my Lord that I have been blessed with opportunities beyond what I deserve.

New Site Design

For the umpteenth time over the past decade or so, I have once again moved my site to a new provider.  This time, am redirecting my domain to a Blogger.com site.  I don't have to mess with making the site look good and I don't have to manage a server.  That being said, I probably have lost a fair amount of content over the years that I had posted to the various permutations of my site.  You can pull up some of the previous versions using the Internet Archive's Way Back Machine.  Boy, did I have some cheesy site designs in the past...

So what are my goals with the new iteration of the site?  Given that I work a full-time job, am attending graduate school and have two small kids (and one on the way), not a whole lot.  Every now and then I may post something, but for the most part, I'm really not the kind of person to share publicly, and I'm probably not that enthralling in the first place.  I will probably use this as a forum to share some of my thoughts.  I love to read and learn in general.  I like the challenge of creative thinking.  I try hard to be a good husband and father.  I struggle to serve my Lord.  I am fascinated with history.  If you're into that kind of stuff, then maybe you'll find this site to be to your liking.