HOME PAGE

Paul and Dottie Ridenour's Major Ridge Home Page

Paul and Dottie Ridenour

"Ross knew the hearts of the people, but Ridge saw the future of the nation" - Shane Smith, brother of Chief Chad Smith

"[John Ross/Anti-Treaty Party] Lovers of the land,  [Ridge Party/Treaty Party/Husband Elias] lovers of the people" - Harriet Boudinot

This is some information we've been compiling on Major Ridge since 1998.  This webpage has genealogies of the Ridge, Watie, Boudinot, Paschal, Polson, Washbourne, Northrop/Northrup, and McNeir families.  I have added a new section on Texas Cherokees.
If you have any questions or information to add, feel free to email me:
Paul Ridenour

"Oblivion's Altar" - Historical fiction novel about Major Ridge by award winning author David Marion Wilkinson
2003 SPUR AWARD WINNER, BEST ORIGINAL PAPERBACK
(Published November 2002/Purchase at www.amazon.com)
[Dottie is mentioned in the Author's Notes and Acknowledgments, pages 369 and 375]

Complete Genealogy of Major Ridge (to the McNeir Family of Texas - References)

Major Ridge Summary

Ridge-Watie-Boudinot Family Tree Summary

Click here for the genealogy of the Ridge-Watie-Boudinot families in tree form (From Cherokee Cavaliers)

Major Ridge to Dottie (Doyen) Ridenour (direct line/pictures)

Major Ridge's Journey from Georgia to Honey Creek

Ridge Party’s Defense for Signing Treaty - school paper by Anastasia Ellis

Ridge-Watie-Boudinot Pictures
(Stand Watie stamp)

Historical markers, gravestones, museums Part 1 (photographs)

Historical markers, gravestones, museums Part 2 (photographs)

Where Major Ridge was assassinated

Major Ridge's original portrait at the Smithsonian/Polson Cemetery/Ridge's Lizard Brand/Stand Watie's desk

PBS Special on Major Ridge - We Shall Remain

Play performed in LA from February to April, 2012

Treaty of New Echota
(Signed by Ridge, Boudinot, Watie, William Rogers, Robert Rogers, Andrew Ross (brother of John Ross), Gunter, Fields, Adair, Starr, Bell, Foster, Moore, Foreman, Smith, et al)
[Major Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and the others signed the treaty in New Echota, Georgia, on 12/29/1835.
John Ridge and Stand Watie signed the treaty on 3/1/1836 in DC]

Major Ridge, John Ross, George Lowry, and Elijah Hicks letter to the Essex Register 1824

Major Ridge and John Ridge letter to the Essex Register 1838

Boston Recorder - Moravian Mission Among The Cherokees At Springplace - Major Ridge and Susannah

New Echota (Cherokee Nation Capital 1825-1838)

New Echota Cemetery (Harriet Gold Boudinot)

Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home

Ridge/Watie/Boudinot/Paschal/Washbourne Signatures

Paul and Dottie's Published articles

Ridge family Quotes and Stories

50th Anniversary - Cherokee National Holiday 8/30/02 - 9/2/02

Cherokee Warrior Memorial - Opened 11/2005 [includes Worcester Cemetery and Ross Cemetery]

Sarah (Ridge) Paschal Pix (circa 1854, age 40)
Dottie Ridenour's 3rd great grandmother

Sarah Ridge's letter to the Arkansas State Gazette, printed January 15, 1840

Dottie's unedited article about her 3rd great grandmother - Sarah Ridge
(Edited version printed by the Territorial Book Foundation of Oklahoma)

 Historical Marker Dedication for the McNeir Cemetery - 04/08/2006
Sarah Ridge's gravesite
Smith Point, Texas

East Brainerd Mission, East Brainerd, Tennessee

Congressman John Bell's Suppressed Report
Suppressed Report In Relation To Difficulties Between The Eastern And Western Cherokees,
Letter to the National Intelligencer, Washington, July 27, 1840

The Handbook of Texas Online - Sarah (Ridge) Paschal Pix

The Handbook of Texas Online - George Washington Paschal
(First husband of Sarah Ridge)

George Washington Paschal's daughter from his 2nd marriage - Elizabeth Paschal O'Connor
(The Handbook of Texas Online)

George Washington Paschal Genealogy (pictures of Sarah Ridge and G. W. Paschal)
(Begins with Dottie's 13th great grandparents - 1465)

The Cherokee Rolls for Ridge, Watie, Boudinot, Paschal, and McNeir

1900 Galveston Storm described by Paschal McNeir
(Great grandson of Major Ridge)

The McNeir Family (pictures)
(Begins with Dottie's 5th great grandparents)

New 2024 book (Released 11/22/2024) about Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix by Nancy Stanfield Webb. The second book was released on 4/1/2025.
Order both books here.

Sarah Ridge's brother John Ridge
(1825, age 23)
Portrait by Charles Bird King in Washington
Original at the Smithsonian

The John Ridge Family (pictures) - [including Northrup/Northrop family]

Where John Ridge attended school and was married at Cornwall

Sarah Bird Northrup Ridge Obituary/Mount Comfort Cemetery (pictures)

John Ridge's letter - National Gazette 1831

John Ridge - The Essex Register 1824

New-Bedford Mercury; Date: 01/23/1835; Volume XXVIII; Issue: 29; Page 1 [Sent by Kevin Ladd]

1825 New York Advocate - John Ridge and his marriage to a white woman

John Ridge and His Slaves

Poem by John Ridge 1819

John Ridge - Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, February 2, 1932

John Ridge's daughter Susan Catherine Ridge and Josiah Woodward Washbourne Family (pictures)

John Ridge's daughter Flora Chamberlain Ridge and Dr. William Davis Polson Family (pictures)

New 2023 book (Released 12/19/2023) about John and Sarah Ridge by Leslie Simmons.  Order the book here.

John Ridge and Sarah Ridge's first cousin Stand Watie

The Stand Watie and Elias Boudinot Family (pictures)

Brig. General Stand Watie Surrendered at Doaksville 1865

Stand Watie's "Iron Cross" Re-dedication
Park Hill, OK
June 26, 2004

Stand Watie at Pea Ridge

Letter by John Adair Bell and Stand Watie to the Arkansas Gazette on the Murders of the Ridges and Boudinot

Woodall Cemetery
(Charles and Susannah (Watie) Woodall)

Elias Boudinot (born Kilakeena "Buck" Watie - brother of Stand Watie)

The Stand Watie and Elias Boudinot Family (pictures)

Elias Boudinot: Thoughts on Removal and His Marriage to a White Woman

Where Elias Boudinot attended school and was married at Cornwall

Elias Boudinot's visit to Boston - National Register 1826

1825 New York Advocate - Elias Boudinot and his marriage to a white woman

The Whereabouts of Colonel William Penn Boudinot

The Seven Clans - Wolf, Bird, Paint, Deer, Long Hair (The Twister, Hair Hanging Down, or Wind), Blue (Panther or Wild Cat),
and White Potato (Blind Savannah, Bear, or Raccoon)

==================================================================
TEXAS CHEROKEES

Mount Tabor Indian Community
(An Indian community south of Kilgore, Texas (Rusk County), where the families of the signers of the Treaty of New Echota 1835
fled due to the assassination of Major Ridge, John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, James Starr, and others)

Mt. Tabor Indian Cemetery (History and who is buried there)
(Paul's two-year search of a lost and almost forgotten cemetery)

Mount Tabor Indian Cemetery
(Search ended - cemetery found 2/27/2005)

George Harlan Starr Home at Mount Tabor

Mt. Tabor Indian Cemetery/George Harlan Starr Home
(A Starr studded event on April 9, 2005)

Dottie Ridenour's article on the Mt. Tabor Cemetery for The Goingsnake Messenger
Email Glenita
None Left Behind:
The Rediscovery of a Native American Cemetery
Goingsnake District Heritage Association
Volume XXII, Number 2, 2005

Mt. Tabor Update 11/03/2005 (includes Mayfield Cemetery)

Jesse Thompson's Genealogy of Mount Tabor Families

The Thompson Cemetery (Texas Cherokees and Oil)

The Asbury Cemetery (Cherokee-Choctaw - more Thompsons)

1937 Interview with 85 year-old W. W. Harnage (Mt. Tabor area (Kilgore), Mayfields, Starrs, Thompsons, Chief Bowles

Destroyed Graveyards in the Mt. Tabor area

"Cherokee Village" at The Handbook of Texas Online is south of the Mt. Tabor Indian Community

"Cherokee War" in Texas (The Handbook of Texas Online)

Cherokee Indians in Texas (The Handbook of Texas Online)

Chief Bowles (includes San Saba and John Dunn Hunter/Fredonian Rebellion and Little Bean's Cherokee Village)

Chief Bowles Memorial Ceremony - July 15, 2006
Chief Bowles Memorial Ceremony - July 14, 2007

Bonus:  Creek McIntosh Family and the Falonah Plantation/Drew Cemetery/Refuge Plantation

==================================================================

Back to Ridenour's Main Page