My 5th generation great grandmother is named Martha Whiting. In the family bible she is listed as the wide of Adam Poole Vandiver. She is said to be a full blooded Cherokee who walked the trail of tears, but returned to Georgia where lived and remained till death. She is said to be the sister of “Great Eagle”. My Ancestry.com leaves are showing me other trees listing Wurteh Watts (Mother of Sequoyah) as Martha’s mother as well, which I have NO clue if it’s accurate. Is there ANYONE that is an absolute authority on the family tree of Great Eagle? Thanks SO much in advance, this is my very first post!
This is all I know about her:
Martha Whiting
Birth 26 Sept 1794 in Fairfield, Oconee, South Carolina, United States
Death 10 Jan 1877 in Tallulah Falls, Habersham County, GA
weiggle says
Hi my maiden name is watt which is my grandfather’s he was born and raised in Oklahoma, I’m searching for my family. His name was Jonah Watt. I know some of his family last name was runway.
bharter says
Candace. Not sure if you are still on this site, however, I am related to Adam Pool Vandiver, and Martha Gulle Whiting. Here is a little of what she discovered please read through to the bottom to read more about martha whiting.
Adam Poole Vandiver and his father, George Vandiver, were two of the first settlers in the Tallulah Falls, Ga area. Adam was a renowned hunter, and he also farmed. Adam was known as the “Hunter of Tallulah,” and he has been mentioned in many books from Habersham County historians and travelers. He was well known for his tall tales, and “pelt hunts,” which would begin in early fall and sometimes last the entire winter. He reportedly trapped and shot anything whose fur or meat would sustain him and his family’s lifestyle. Deer was his favorite game, and he estimated that he had killed about 4,000 during his years as a hunter. The largest number of skins he ever brought home at one time was 600.
According to stories about him, Adam Poole Vandiver had many hair-raising experiences in the wilderness and with wild animals. In those days, wolves were plentiful in north Georgia, and their pelts were valued. Vandiver told of shooting at one wolf which failed to fall. He trailed it to a cave and waited outside. He knew he had hit it, and assumed it had finally died inside the cave. When the mountain man crawled inside the cave to claim his prize pelt, it was very much alive. In the close quarters of the cave, a “clinch fight” occurred, and Vandiver finally killed the animal with his hunting knife. In the daylight, Vandiver discovered that his rifle ball had broken the animal’s jaw—such a wound probably saved his life because even the mountain man was no match for a full grown wolf.
Vandiver built a hunting camp in the mountains above Tallulah Falls. As the number of visitors to Tallulah Falls and the gorge area increased, he began to stay more and more back there in the mountains, but people would still seek him out from time to time, and he was known for hosting strangers who wandered near his cabin. This old camp is known as the “Vandiver Fields,” and it is still recognizable by the old stone walls of extremely large rocks that were placed there by Adam Vandiver and his Cherokee Indian relatives.
Adam Poole Vandiver earned the respect of the Cherokee Indians who lived in the Tallulah Falls, GA area; he obtained land from them, and became good friends with Chief Gray Eagle, the last chief of the Tallulah Falls Band of the Cherokee Indians.
The first of Adam’s wives was the sister of Chief Gray Eagle—her name was “Gulle” (the Dove) Whiting. Some research notes her name as “Martha Gulle Whiting”—she likely changed her name to “Martha” when she married Adam on 01/01/1810. She and Adam were reportedly childhood playmates.
Adam was a private in the War of 1812, and he played a major role in the Creek Indian War of 1813-1814, when he allegedly avenged his brother Aaron’s death by killing many Creek Indians. Adam Poole Vandiver and Gulle/Martha Whiting Vandiver reportedly had 14 children, including George Vardyman Vandiver (1812-1910); Celia Vandiver Stone (1817-1819); Matilda Catherine Vandiver Taylor (10/10/1838 – 02/17/1921) and Louraney M. Vandiver (D: 02/15/1885, buried at Damascus Baptist Church Cemetery in Long Creek, SC.)
Adam Poole Vandiver reportedly had two more wives, and a family numbering at least 30 children (some may have been step-children from his second and third wives.) His children are scattered throughout the area and are now represented by the surnames of their descendants—Vandiver, Taylor, Stone, Ivester, Pitts, Shell, Franklin, Westmoreland, Atkins, Tipton, Sims, Trotter, and many, many others.
Information about Adam Poole Vandiver can be found in many of the displays at the Tallulah Falls State Park Visitors Center.
Gulle/Martha Whiting Vandiver died in 1841 in Tallulah Falls, Habersham Co., GA. Adam and his wife Gulle/Martha Whiting Vandiver were buried in the Vandiver family cemetery along the river below Tallulah Falls. Before Georgia Power flooded this area around 1910, Adam’s grave was moved to the Pitts Cemetery on Reverend Marvin Pitts’ private property in the Shirley Grove
community. Reportedly, Gulle’s Cherokee family moved her grave up into the mountains of North Georgia.
In recognition of his role in settling Tallulah Falls, GA, the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia honored Adam Poole Vandiver by dedicating a bridge to his name. The “Adam Poole Vandiver Memorial Bridge” can be found on Historic Highway 441 just north of the town of Tallulah Falls, GA.