Carroll County, Georgia 1830 Federal Census, p 220
Joel Leathers 1 male age 30-39
2 females age 0-4
1 female age 5-9
1 female age 20-29
Houston County, Texas 1840 Tax List
Joel D. Leathers
Posted by Jerry Clark on 16 December 2004
<http://genforum.genealogy.com/leathers/messages/729.html>
Joel Leathers(1795-1849)of Carroll County, GA, was a member of an organized gang of thieves. This information is available from sources not likely to have been found by standard genealogical research. After the Cherokee Indians were expelled from Georgia in 1838, individual Indians submitted claims to the Federal Government for compensation for property stolen by citizens of that state. Many of the claimants knew the names of the persons who purloined their property. Some claims papers are now in the National Archives and others in the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Cherokees' livestock roamed freely in the woods and valleys on tribal land, with the domesticated animals marked with brands and markings showing individal ownership),thus providing easy pickings for predation. The Indians called their tormentors the "Neenoskuskee" (meaning "robbers"), and the Georgia Legislature dubbed the thieves "The Pony Club." Members of the Pony Club were supposed to be banned from participating in the Georgia Land Lottery or to join the Georgia state militia, known as the Georgia Guard. Members of the Leathers family did both.
In 1829 Joel Leathers of Carroll County, GA wrote to Col. Hugh Montgomery, US agent to the Cherokees, that he was "frightened" of 400 families of intruders who had settled in Carroll County (recently ceded by the Creek Indians). Leathers warned that these intruders were a lawless and unruly bunch of land grabbers [CONGRESSIONAL SERIAL SET #197, 21ST CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION, HOUSE DOCUMENT].
Leathers had a place located at Leather's Ford on the Chestatee River near Dahlongega, GA where the "Gold Digger's Road" crossed the river. He had another store on Salaquoya Creek in the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee towns of Sixes and Dahlongega were in the area where gold was discovered in 1828, resulting in America's first full-blown gold rush. This event became the main reason for Cherokee removal. According to Cherokee claims, Leather's stores frequently served as storage areas for many horses, cattle, and hogs stolen from the Indians:
1) Leathers stole 2 horse, a wagon, and hogs from Thomas McDonald (a Cherokee)
2) Joel Leathers ("a noted thief") took a horse from Bear Meat
3) Joel lived 15 miles from Ned Crittenden (Cherokee), & took Ned's hogs to Carroll County
4) 1829 Joel had cattle (worth $72) belonging to Rachel Baldridge, Salaquoya Creek
5) 1830 Joel had hogs belonging to Nanny, Hightower River
6) 1831 Joel had hogs belonging to Arnulla and Bill Vann to the Sixes gold fields
7) Feb. 10, 1831 the Georgia Guard entered the gold mining districts to arrest a score of illegal golddiggers, but had to fight off an attempted rescue by 50 armed men. This episode became known as the "Battle of Leather's Ford. The "daring and outrageous manner of their resistence" was led by "the vilest of the vile". Was this leader Joel Leathers? [from WHITES AMONG THE CHEROKEES, by Mary Bondurant Warren, p67]
8) 1831 Joel took cattle of Nancy Baldridge (Cher.) to Carroll County
9) 1832 Joel took cattle ($26) of Tekancesky
10)1832 horses stolen from Sour John were taken across the Chestatee River at Leather's Ford
11)1832 Leathers, "a captain of the noted pony club" stole the great coat (worth $20) of George Blackwood (Cher.) at Sixes Town
12)1834 Joel took 2 hogs ($12) of Sawney of Hickory Log to Sixes
13)1834 Joel killed 2 hogs ($36)
14)1834 Joel Leathers & Richard Blackstock stole a horse ($80) from Child Toter of Hightower Town and in 1835 26 hogs($78) from Child Toter
15) Joel stole 6 hogs ($18) from Suwucha of Hightower. Joel was a member of the "noted pony club"
16) Joel stole 25 hogs ($135) from Susannah Tarapin of Hickory Log
This rap sheet of Joel Leathers is intended to provide useful information about activities of an individual in the past. Other members of the Pony Club were the Philpot family (Richard, James, and Reuben), the Yorks (Allen, Josiah, and Thomas), James Johnson, Asa and Nathan Upton, Alexander Ramsey, William Shipley, John Goodwin, Jack and John West, Tom Hogan, Jesse Humphrey, Joshua Smith, the Welch family (John, "Muk" [Mark?], and "Pink" [Pinckney?]), and the Tatums (Edward, Hugh, John, and Thomas). I welcome any genealogical information about these men, to be used in further research about the "Pony Club."
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I ~feel~ that I have a long history with the Cherokee people… Dad claimed descendant of Native Americans but I’ve not been able to prove such, but it is not unusual for men to claim such either!