randa\: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Stabbin' Stylists podcast. I'm Randa. And I'm Ashley. We are just two stylists who love true crime and hair, and we're gonna tell you about both.

ashley: This is a true crime podcast. These stories may be disturbing to some. Listener discretion is advised. Her husband was a hardworking man.

singers: Just about a mile from here.

His head was found

in the driver wheel. And his body never

was found. My girl, my girl, don't lie to me. Tell [00:01:00] me where did you sleep last

night?

ashley: Okay, so the fun thing about me is I love history and there's a lot of weird ass history in the south. So yeah, there's so much weird history. And every year I drag Yuri to the, actually my whole family went this year and it was really fun. But to the spooky storytelling that they do at the courthouse around Halloween.

And I have told Randa for years that the assassination of Jack Walker is fascinating to me because if you live right here in Cleveland, Tennessee, right there where like Paul Huff and North Lee kind of meet where. It was a cleaner for a dry cleaner for years and years and years. On the corner of that farmland corner, now, I think it's like a fire on fire [00:02:00] fitness, it's called.

Something like that. Yeah. But right next to that building there is a little plaque and I drive by it every single day. And it is about Jack Walker. And his homestead was right there whenever Cleveland was like first becoming a thing. So I think about this all the time, but back to the storytelling thing McIn County, sheriff Joe Guy Okay.

Was he told the story there, and I've always known about it. But you couldn't find like a ton of detail about what happened? He told the story and I had like always, I'm such a nerd, and my little sister Sky was making fun of me because I was literally like taking notes in my phone as he was talking.

But then for Valentine's Day, Yuri got me his book. If you are ever in Walgreens and you are like, who the fuck buys these books in Walgreens? Me? Yeah. Because me, I buy these books in Walgreens,

randa: anyway, [00:03:00] tell me why. I was eyeing one that was like the ghosts of Tennessee the other day. I was like, mm,

ashley: I love that because two, I'm gonna have to come back

randa: and buy this.

ashley: Two of our cases are from the historic disasters of East Tennessee. That's right. So anyway his, his name was Jack Walker. He was called Chief Jack Walker, but in reality his name was John Walker, Jr. They called him Jack Junior. He was born around 1800 in the Cherokee town of Wicha. Okay. And he was one quarter Cherokee,

so his father was Major John Walker, and he was a prominent in influential Cherokee leader. He had fought alongside Andrew Jackson during the Creek War. 1814 And he had accumulated a lot of land around the Hae River.

randa: Mm. Andrew Jackson is problematic.

ashley: Yes. Yes. [00:04:00] And so he had got all this river around 1800, around the Hae River, and he established what became known as Walkers Ferry.

Okay. After signing a treaty in 1816, he renamed his settlement Calhoun after the Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun.

randa: Okay.

ashley: That area became part of McMinn County in 1819, and it was actually the first county court of McMahon County was held in Walker's home. Back to Jack Walker, the son. He obviously grew up like wealthy and in an influential household, nepo baby kinda situation.

Gotcha. His father had done really good in all the land and the business dealings, and he was rich compared to the other settlers at the time, and Jack even attended school in [00:05:00] New Jersey. Before you came back to Tennessee. So I mean, they had money, money, money for the time. Okay. So in 1824, Jack Walker married Emily Stanfield Megs and her daughter was Return Megs. Who is actually who Megs County is named after.

randa: That child's name was Return.

ashley: Yep. Return J Megs.

Hmm. So he marries Emily who is half Cherokee and he's a quarter of Cherokee. Okay. And they established a large farm just north of what Cleveland was back then.

And they got like this big two story house, which would be right there. Like where? Wal Walgreens, n TB, I believe. Yeah. The club vape, the crazy bait. Yeah. Right there. All kind of right in that area. So he's got this big land and like his father, he becomes a Cherokee leader. And he was a civil officer

at one point he confiscated a illegal and and illegal [00:06:00] shipment of whiskey from two other men that were Cherokee mixed and. Back then, they literally called them half breed men. Ooh, don't like that. Yeah, I don't really like saying that. So just Cherokee Mix is the way we're gonna do it. And he had caught them down on the Kasa River at the Georgia line down.

Like what now is like Spring place. Their names were James Foreman and Anderson Springs. This will be a big part of his story later in life. So by 1831, the Cherokee Nation was under pressure by the federal government to relocate. Charlotte Laers. He supported removal as did other wealthy mixed heritage leaders.

Yeah, because they were in the area. They were part white. Right. So they're all, they all had these, they didn't count. Right. They all had these big farms and stuff so they were landowners, literally. [00:07:00] So they were. Essentially selling their people out. That guy literally, and obviously this like really pissed the Cherokees off, they were strongly opposed to the removal.

They didn't like that. They were selling them out was not, was not cool. And you know, both sides were making threats and a lot of those threats were directed at. Jack Walker because he literally was selling his people out. Oh,

randa: now I

ashley: need to go to Red Clay and see if they got anything on Old Jack Walker.

Yeah. And especially that at one point they called him Chief Jack Walker and then he like turns his back on them. Do not let that don't

randa: piss me off.

ashley: So August 24th, 1834, he had attended a council meeting at Fort Morrow on the Federal Road in what is now Polk County. The issue of removal came up again like a Cherokee council, meaning?

Yes. And so the, [00:08:00] and they killing, they should have just killed it. So the issue of removal comes up again and once again, he's arguing in favor for it. And people do not like this. What the fuck are you doing? Doing? 'cause

randa: why would you?

ashley: So that evening he was coming home on his horse along what is now present day.

Benton Pike.

randa: Yep. Been there.

ashley: And he was accompanied by a man named Dick Jackson who was from Athens. It was a white guy. Yes. I assume, I don't know. It doesn't say so. As they approached a large chestnut tree along the side of the road, a gunshot rings out. The bullet strikes Walker in the left chest. He's in

randa: on a horse?

ashley: Yes. Okay. Just immediately, boom, hits him in the chest.

randa: Mm-hmm.

ashley: Mm-hmm. They carry, yes, they carry him from down on Benton Pike to up where his home was. Right there at the corner of Paul Huff and Okay. Like Paul h waist, coy. Yeah. That is a, and especially not a horse. It'd be like, [00:09:00] so they carried him home and he lived for 19 days.

Oh. But on September 11th, 1834, he was buried behind his house.

randa: The two accused him. So when did he die? The same day or

ashley: day before or what? No, he lived for 19 days and he died September 11th.

randa: Okay.

ashley: So he lived for a little bit after this

randa: and he was, and then they put him behind the house?

ashley: Yes. So the two accused men were arrested in McMinn County and they were put in jail at the time in Athens because at that time, Bradley County had not actually been formed.

And so that area was still considered Indian land.

randa: Okay.

ashley: Yep. They escaped from jail, but were later. Later. Recapture before the trial,

randa: ma'am.

ashley: People still don't like completely know the motive. It's kind of debated. Was it retaliated? I think we know. Oh yeah. Like they're like, we don't know if it was because his supported the Cherokee removal or was it [00:10:00] because he had confiscated the whiskey from the two men before?

No, I'm gonna go with removal. Yeah, the trial was initially held in Athens, but the charges were dismissed on the grounds that a state court could not claim jurisdiction over a crime committed within the Cherokee Nation. Oh, so the following year, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned that ruling and justice John can John Kran.

Catron, his decision effectively stripped Cherokee courts of all authorities that they had in those manners. Of course he

randa: did.

ashley: That ruling contributed to the growing erosion of Cherokee sovereignty and actually set the stage what would be known as the Trail of Tears, literally kind of paved the way for 'em.

So Walker's home. Obviously [00:11:00] it was this two story log home, and in the thirties, 1930s, it was actually torn down. So US 11 could be widened. When it was torn down, his burial site was lost. Oh. So he is still down

randa: there somewhere.

ashley: So his burial site was lost for years and years and years. And when Sheriff Joe Guy was tear telling the story at the spooky stories he shared with the audience that him and a couple other people got out there with lidar. Okay. And they found what they believed to be, I think three different bodies right there behind where that like Onfi Gym is now, which would've been right at the corner of what his property would've been.

Now I'm gonna

randa: have to get a gym membership 'cause I need to know if it's haunted.

ashley: Yes. Excuse me. So basically, kind of right there, anybody from Cleveland will see it and now you'll pay attention every time you drive by it, but kind of think like parallel with [00:12:00] where that sign is for his marker, historical marker or whatever.

Probably is right around where he would be buried, but it's underneath the parking lot. So that's just like where he is forever. Tomb, which yikes. Yeah. Which I don't think it's good for anyone to get murdered, but maybe for selling out your people, you deserve a eternity under blacktop and maybe like dumpsters or something.

Yeah. But yeah, I, you know, I have for years been bringing this story up like I have just 'cause I've driven by that and I've wanted to know more about it. Yeah. So that, that little book helped me, you know, where I was. Finish story. We need to do Nancy Ward.

So I think that's just kinda like a local he had to be. Yeah, right, right. There were more Indians than just them. But he was part of their, actually, let me keep going on this then, because this is not part of this, but in this book was really interesting. I, the first thing I [00:13:00] open it to was the lost Dutch colony of Polk County.

Yeah. Not long before, just so you know how they get all into my ancestry stuff. Mm-hmm. Not long before I had realized that my mom's great-grandparents. Were from Germany, from like different parts of Germany though, which means they would've met here somewhere.

And it stuck with me. The last name Beckler stuck in my head. Beckler and Lindner because I thought that's why my leg care gets so dark sometimes. So then days later, Yuri gave me that book from Joe Guy and I open it and the first story I open it to is. The lost Dutch colony of Polk County. So as I start reading, I see that after they removed the Indians, this man, this businessman from New York and some family had came down and scoped out all that area and realized, hey, like there's actually money to be made here.

So he reached out to some Italian, some German, and some Dutch families, and were like, Hey, if you move here and you [00:14:00] start a successful farm, then I will just pay for you and your family to be naturalized citizens. Okay. So two of those families were my great, great grandfather's family and my great, great grandmother's family.

Interesting. They both landed in New Orleans. My draw to New Orleans. They landed in New Orleans, took them up the Mississippi across the Tennessee River into the Ocoee River, and they lived in this settlement in Polk County, which is no longer there. You can still kind of see some foundations. And they farmed all of this land and made like a successful community in stolen land from the Cherokees.

But in the last one to lead that property was in 1924, and it was my great, great. That's cool. And so my mom's family, not to brag about it, because once again this was stolen land, but they were like some of the first original [00:15:00] like settlers to move on to stolen Indian land after the Trail of Tears.

Now we know, and I would've never put. That together. Had I not gotten Joe guy's book. So yeah, I fan girl over him, but you know, at least my husband realized it and got me the book. But it's super interesting and I will bring it up Walgreens books multiple times during this recording session. But Walgreens, we having some good books, guys, if you like the kind of stuff we're into.

Check out their books because they have some really interesting things on the history of Cleveland, the history of East Tennessee, like Cleveland's old and we've had some shit happen here too. Not as like many antique corruption cases as around us, but it's, we have stories.

Some wild things we do. We have stories, and I'm about to tell a bunch of Cleveland History murders, so here we go. Woo.

Speaker: Don't whistle in the woods at night. Bye [00:16:00] y'all.