Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1901-01-24
INTERESTING HISTORY
Recalled by the Death of United
States Senator Revels.

Something About Ills Ancestry Lit
tie Supposed History of the Early
Settlers Of Virginia. Colony that
Disappeared.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22-The death
of former United States Senator
Hiram X. Revels, of Mississippi. has
revived a curious story regarding
his ancestry. He was always class.
ed as negro, being tall, we'll built
man, with the chocolate skin and
curly hair of an African, and the de.
vout bearing OF his profession--the
ministerial.
Reyels, however. was not negro,
or if of mixed blood, he was at least
the defendant of two other far high
er races According to DR.. c. A.
Peterson, of st. Louis. he was I'M
doubtedly a descendant OF that mys-
terry shrouded band of settlers that
Sir Walter Raleigh planted at Roam
oke in 1857, and that disappeared
from white Knowledge year or two
afterwards.
"The historian has usually con
tented himself with dropping his in
vestigat.ons when he reached the
point where Governor John White
returned from England and found
that the colony had disappeared from
Roanoke Island" said DR.. Peterson,
land you will find in about every
history you pick up the statement
that the eolonists were probably
killed by the Indians.
The Roanoke colony consisted Of
LIS unmarried men and 90 who had
families. They were sent out by
Sir Walter Raleigh in 1857, in
charge Of John White. who was APP
pointed governor. Ananias Dare,
his son in-law, was vice governor,
aud during 1857 his wife gave birth
to daughter, the first white child
born In America, and she was called
Virginia Dare
During the summer a tribe of
Croatan Indians, who lived some so
miles away, on the east shore of
what is now North Carolina-the
whole country was then called Vir-
ginia-visited the colony on Roam
oke Island and proposed to the set
tiers that they remove to the home
of the Indians, intermarry, and be
come members of their tribe The
lis unmarried men were willing to
accept the proposition and it was
only with difficulty that Governor
White induced them to remain.
"When everything was completed.
White returned to England and got
provisions and re endorsements. Be
fore going he instructed the colon
lists to leave some testimony If for
any reason they should conclude to
move during his absence.
"The next year, 1888, was the
year of the Spanish Armada, and
Whites boat and every other sea
going vessel was impressed into SER
vice. So it was impossible tor Gov
ernor White to set sail for America
again until 1889. When he arrived
at Roanoke he found the stockade
and the houses there, but everybody
had gone. On one tree he found the
word sCroatan' carved, and on one
stockade post merely the beginning
-'Cfot.' He was about TO proceed
in search of the Croatans when a
Hatteras storm came up, and, after
beating about for some time the
crew mutined and insisted on going
down to the Spanish main and en-
gaging in privateering.
'.In ITO, when the Huguenots
! and cavaliers started to penetrate
the interior of North Carolina they
found, some seventy five miles from
the coast. in what is now Robson
county, N. G., colony of English
speaking people, many OF whom had
blue eyes and light hair. They in
quired where they came from, and
they replied, From Croatan' How
does it come that you speak Eng
ilshg Our fathers were English
These people have always been
called Croatans There are some
1000 OF them living in Robson
County, n G, at the present time,
but they have scattered all over the
South and West. | have found
Croatan names among all the five
civilized tribes living in the Indian
Territory.
ssThe most eminent of them was
Unit q States Senator Revels who was
elected from Mississippi during the
reconstruction days. He was e4ass
ed as /. negro, but was in reality a
Croatan'