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JOHN ANTHONY FOREMAN
Vol. 3, p. 1264, 1265, 1266

John Anthony FOREMAN. One of the most prominent of the old families
of the Cherokee Nation is represented by John Anthony Foreman now
living quietly retired in Ramona in Washington County. Such have been
the services and attainments of different members of the family that
this publication should devote considerable space to the record. The
father of John A. Foreman was the Rev. Stephen Foreman, one of the
most useful and earnest workers for the educational and religious
advancement of the Cherokees. Rev. Stephen Foreman died at his home
at Park Hill near Tahlequah, December 8, 1882, in the seventy-fourth
year of his life. A sketch of his career is a part of the history of
the Cherokee Nation, and the following facts are gleaned from a
sketch which appeared in the Cherokee Advocate at the time of his
death.

Rev. Stephen Foreman was born October 22, 1807, at a place called Oo-
you-gi-lo-gi about twenty-five miles northeast of the present site of
Rome Georgia. His parents were Anthony Foreman, a Scotchman, and his
wife, Elizabeth WATTY, a full blooded Cherokee. Anthony Foreman came
among the Cherokees during or soon after the Revolutionary war as a
trader, and died among them in 1817. Stephen Foreman was thus left at
the age of ten in a country where the opportunities for gaining an
education were very limited but there is ample evidence that he made
more than the best of his opportunities. The first school he attended
was in 1815 just after the Creek war. In later years he wrote about
some of his experiences in gaining an education, and of this first
school he says; "How long the school was kept or how much I learned,
I do not now recollect. Webster's spelling book and reader were my
first school books and Burgess WITT was my teacher." In 1824 he
attended the Mission School on Candy's Creek, walking three miles to
attend that school as a day scholar. Later quoting his own words, "In
1826 I went by invitation of Mr. HOLLAND to live at the Mission and
while there, or before going there, I heard a Mr. CHAMBERLAIN preach,
who was the first missionary I ever heard and through his preaching I
was made sensible of sin and brought to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ." He attended the Mission School two years, and during the
winter of 1828 went to New Echota and studied there under Rev. S. A.
WORCESTER. He was afterwards in school in Prince Edward, Virginia,
under Doctor RICE, and following the death of Doctor Rice in 1830 and
acting on the advice of friends he entered in 1831 the Princeton
Theological Seminary in New Jersey, remaining there two years.

Licensed to preach in 1833, Rev. Mr. Foreman took charge of the
church at Candy's Creek in 1834, and labored there until the removal
of the Cherokees from Georgia in 1838. At that time he acted as
conductor of one of detachments of Cherokees in their removal from
Georgia to the country set aside for them west of the Mississippi.
After reaching Indian Territory he labored as an evangelist at Honey
Creek, Fairfield and Dwight Mission and in other places. From the
beginning of 1834 until about the commencement of the war he was
employed by the American Board of Commissioners for foreign Missions.
During that time, besides preaching, he translated religious tracts
and hymns with Mr. WORCHESTER and more especially was engaged in the
translation of the Holy Scripture. His translation of the New
Testament and parts of the Old, was subsequently printed by the
American board of New York.

Besides his valuable work as a preacher, missionary and translator,
Rev. Mr. Foreman filled many important offices in the Cherokee
Nation, discharging his duties with constant fidelity. He was
intensely patriotic and loyal to his people and their welfare, their
advancement, the defence [sic] of their rights and the preservation
of their nationality were special objects of his endeavors and zeal.
With the exception of principal chief he filled almost every office
in the gift of the Cherokee people. He was their delegate to
Washington in 1846, and filled various offices in the councils of the
nation for a number of years. He assisted in drawing up in 1839 and
was one of the signers of the Cherokee Constitution, and afterwards
translated it into the Cherokee language, together with most of the
Cherokee laws. He was one of the first superintendents of public
schools, and was identified from time to time in almost every
capacity with the educational and other interests of the country. At
the time of his death he was a member of the board of the Cherokee
Insane Asylum. During the war he identified himself with that part of
the Cherokee Nation that chose Southern cause, and was then united
with the Southern branch of the old school Presbyterian church,
serving as its missionary until about January, 1878. Then owing to
lack of funds the mission among the Cherokees was discontinued,
though Mr. Foreman was allowed an annual sum of $250 for his support.
In the later years he built from his own means the church in Park
Hill, and continued to preach the gospel there until the close of his
eventful life.

The mother of John A. Foreman was Sally Walker RILEY, who was born
in the old Cherokee Nation in Alabama and was married there. She was
with her husband in the removal of the tribe to Indian Territory and
her third child was born during that migration on the banks of the
Mississippi River. That birth delayed the progress of the detachment
for three days. She died at the old home at Park Hill in 1861, and
had become the mother of ten children, namely: Austin W.; Ermina
Nash; Jeremiah Evarts; Susan Elizabeth; John Anthony; Sarah, who died
in infancy; Stephen Taylor; Jenny Lind; Archibald Alexander; and A.
W. Worcester. Rev. Stephen Foreman married for his second wife a
cousin to his first wife, Ruth Riley CANDY, widow of Reese Candy. By
her first marriage she brought him one child, Thomas Candy, and by
her marriage to Rev. Foreman had three children; Charles Hodge; Flora
wife of A. J. RIDER of Talala; and Araminta Ross, who was a teacher
in the Choctaw Nation.

John Anthony Foreman, a son of Rev. Stephen and Sally Walker (RILEY)
Foreman, was born at the old home of his father at Park Hill, five
miles south of Tahlequah, June 10, 1844. He grew up in that
picturesque section of old Cherokee Nation, and lived at home until
the outbreak of the war. In 1861 he was mustered in to the First
Cherokee Regiment in Company E, and saw four years of active service
in the Confederate army until the close of hostilities. He served as
a sergeant, and was with his regiment in all its campaigns and
battles. After the war he resided in and about Tahlequah, until 1870.
In 1869 Mr. Foreman married Eliza BLYTHE who was of part Cherokee
blood. In 1870 he took his wife to California, but returned to the
nation in 1872, locating first at Tahlequah and soon afterwards
establishing his home on a farm near Claremore on Blue Creek. He
became the first superintendent of the Blind and Insane Asylum for
the Cherokee Nation, located near Park Hill. The Cherokee National
Council commissioned him to establish this institution, which was the
first of its kind among the Cherokee people. Later Mr. Foreman was
engaged for three years in the mercantile business at Vinita and was
also a rancher near Claremore. Afterwards he moved to Talala and was
in the employ of Chief ROGERS for two years.

While living at Vinita in 1879 Mrs. Foreman died, and in 1883 he
married Amanda SMITH, who was born at Milan Tennessee, in 1859. She
was graduated at Cane Hill College in Arkansas in 1877 and was
engaged in work as a teacher until her marriage, having spent three
years in the schools of the Cherokee Nation. In 1899 for the benefit
of his wife's health Mr. Foreman removed to New Mexico and only in
1913 returned to Oklahoma, and has since lived at Ramona in
Washington County. While in New Mexico he conducted a hotel at
Roswell and also looked after a garden business. Mr. Foreman and wife
are members of the Presbyterian Church, in which he is an elder, and
in politics he is a democrat. He served as district judge for four
years in the Cooweescoowee District of the Cherokee Nation. He is a
Master Mason.

Of the children born to his first wife four are now deceased, and
the two living are: Ella, at home; and Mrs. Gertrude BASS, widow of
W. R. Bass, living at Ramona. By his present wife Mr. Foreman has two
children, John Fitz Lee, who died in 1901 at the age of sixteen: and
L. Wallace, of Ramona.

Mrs. Foreman's father was Leonard Collin SMITH, who was born in
Fayetteville, North Carolina, July 23, 1811. He afterwards moved to
Tennessee, and became the owner of a large plantation, operated by
many slaves, in the vicinity of Jackson. The town of Thomasville is
now located on a part of his old plantation. During the war he
suffered the many misfortunes which attended the lot of Southern
planters and afterwards took up merchandising at Milan Tennessee, and
was elected the first mayor of that town, filling the office for a
number of years. In 1873 he removed to Arkansas, and died at the home
of his daughter, Mrs. Foreman, in Oklahoma, December 23, 1885.
Leonard C. Smith married Nancy REED, who was born in Tennessee. She
died during the Civil war on their plantation at Beech Bluff near
Jackson Tennessee. Mr. Smith had three wives, and each one brought
him children, numbering eight in all, and three of his sons saw
active service during the Civil war.

Leonard W. Foreman, son of John A. Foreman, and a grandson of the
Rev. Stephen Foreman, was born in Rogers County, Oklahoma, July 16,
1888, and is now prominently identified with that community at Ramona
as a merchant. For about eleven years he lived with his parents in
Indian Territory, and then went with his parents to New Mexico, where
he attended school. Mr. Foreman is the only child of his mother,
Amanda (SMITH) Foreman, and has two half sisters. He also acquired
part of his education in a preparatory school at Lebanon, Tennessee,
and in 1907 returned to Oklahoma and for the past six years has been
engaged in the drug business at Ramona as proprietor of the Bass Drug
Company. He has been prominent in the civil upbuilding of the
community and several years ago built the electric light plant, but
has since sold a half interest in that business. He also has his
allotment as a citizen of the Cherokee tribe, comprising ninety acres
in Rogers County. He is a democrat, is affiliated with the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks at Bartlesville, and is a member of the
Presbyterian Church. In 1909 he married Miss Alice GWYNN, who was
born at Nashville, Tennessee. Their three children are: Wallace
Gwynn, Margaret Elizabeth and Alice Virginia.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Jean Owens October 20, 1998.