Elizabeth ? DONAHOO ?
ABT 1715 - ____
* BIRTH: ABT 1715, VA or NC
Father: Chief DONAHOO
Mother: Mary Elizabeth WENTWORTH
Family 1 : William PLEDGE "Bill"
* MARRIAGE: ABT 1736
1. +Francis PLEDGE "Frank"
2. +Elizabeth PLEDGE "Betty"
Family 2 : AYRES
* MARRIAGE:
1. Junalusky
Family 3 : AYERS
1. +John AYERS

ID: I8156
Name: Elizabeth (Betty) Donnaha
Given Name: Elizabeth (Betty)
Surname: Donnaha
Sex: F
Birth: WFT Est 1699-1724
Death: WFT Est 1747-1812
Change Date: 20 Nov 1999 at 11:42
Father: Chief Donnaha b: WFT Est 1658-1698
Mother: Mary Wentworth b: WFT Est 1665-1700
Marriage 1 William Pledge b: WFT Est 1691-1721
Married: WFT Est 1717-1761
Change Date: 20 Nov 1999
Children
1.William Pledge b: WFT Est 1721-1761
2.Arthur Pledge b: WFT Est 1721-1761
3.Elizabeth (Bettie) Pledge b: Abt 1740 in Goochland County, VA
4.Francis Pledge b: Abt 1744 in Goochland County, VA

Several people have contacted me through this forum and by e-mail about a newspaper article that I came across relating to the Vest and Pledge families. I hope to help everyone out by submitting the article below. I found this article in a book called "Surry County and Yadkin County, NC Heritage" in the Clayton Genealogical Library in Houston, TX in 1986.

"Betty Pledge" #562

Tradition says that her name before marriage was Betty Donnaha, that she was the daughter of an Indian Chief of the Cherokee nation, and that her mother was white. Bettie Donnaha married William Pledge, and was the mother of two children, Elizabeth Pledge, who married Thomas Poindexter and Francis Pledge who married Thomas Poindexter's sister.
Elizabeth was the mother of Francis Archibald Pledge, William, John G. and R. A. Poindexter, Mrs. Mary Wentworth Ridens, Mrs. Elizabeth McCammons, Mrs. Martha Pettitt, Mrs. Ann R. Scott, Mrs. Sarah Lovill and Mrs. Dorothy Randolph. Her husband served as Captain in the Revolutionary War. He was born in the year 1733, and died Jan. 1, 1807. They have two grandsons now living, John H. Poindexter, 82 years old; and P. H. Poindexter, 74 years old.
Nancy Pledge, daughter of Francis Pledge, married Isham Vest. She was the mother of Isham Vest Jr.., Mrs. Telitha Apperson, Mrs. Lucy Apperson, Mrs. Henderson Poindexter and Nancy Kirk. She has eight grandchildren now living: Thomas Henderson Poindexter, Mrs. Anderson Poindexter, Mrs. J. W. Shore, James Kirk, Mrs. Monroe Hunter, Captain T. V. Apperson and Alvis Apperson. The ages of the grandchildren will average about twenty years.
The white woman referred to earlier was Mary Wentworth. It is said that she belonged to a family of nobles in England. It seems that her family came to Virginia in the seventeenth century and settled in what is now Louisa County. At the same time the Poindexters migrated to the same place. At a later date Thomas Poindexter and wife, Elizabeth Pledge moved to Old Richmond, Surry County, NC, and located in the bend of the Yadkin River one mile west of Donnaha. Around Donnaha are many descendants of Bettie Donnaha.
The above genealogy was told to me when I was five or six years old by my Uncle John C. Poindexter, who was born August 8, 1778 and died October 4, 1868.
Source: Newspaper article - assumed it was taken from Yadkin Valley Newspaper around 1907 which was printed in East Bend.
- P. H. Poindexter

Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 12:12:56 EDT
From: <FDessy@aol.com>
To: CherokeeGene-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: [Cherokee Genealogy only] Need birth parents of Chief Junaluska

I am also new to the list, and I am seeking information on the birth parents of Chief Junaluska, who died in 1858 and is buried near Robbinsville, NC. I understand he was over 100 years old when he died. Applications filed by family members with the Guion Miller commission indicate that Junaluska's birth mother was Elizabeth Donahoo Pledge, 1/2 Cherokee. The family story is that Elizabeth was the daughter of Cherokee Chief Donahoo (born about 1700) and a white woman named Mary Wentworth. Donahoo is said to have come from the "James River area" of Virginia, though family members still reside along the Yadkin River area of North Carolina. Elizabeth allegedly married a white man, William Pledge, and had two children, Elizabeth and Francis, before she left and went back to the Cherokee, where she had two more children, that being Junaluska and a John Ayers.

Junaluska was adopted by Drowning Bear, but none of the resources I have read provide any information whatsoever on his birth parents. Does anyone have any information that might help me prove or disprove family tradition? Wado!

Fawn Kennedy Dessy

• Married: ABT 1736 ²

1. Elizabeth Pledge b: 22 FEB 1739 in Goochland Co., VA
2. Francis Pledge b: ABT 1744 in Goochland Co., VA

1. Type: Gedcom File
   Title: Kerry & Joan Keener Genealogy
   Date: 13785 total entries, last updated Mon Dec 13 14:19:35 1999
   URL: http://home.att.net/~kkkeener/gedcom/index.html
   Detail: Poindexter
2. Type: Web Site
   Title: Poindexter Descendants Association
   URL: http://www.geocities.com/~poingdestre/
   Date: July 14, 2000
   URL: http://www.poindexterfamily.org/
   Date: 2001
3. Type: E-Mail Message
   Author: Ron Gunter <rgunter@conroe.isd.tenet.edu>
   Title: Apperson, Vest, etal
   Date: 1999-2000
   Location: GenForum - Apperson, Vest