Biography of Mary Bankam

 by

Barbara Jefferson-Bonner

Family Historian

1998

Mary Bankam was a Cherokee Indian born in the District of Columbia in September, 1825.  She was transported (bought) from the Indian Reservation and taken back to Maine by the slave master to the place where her parents were born.

Mary was later transported (bought) and taken into Georgia before finally coming to a place that would later be known as Beckville, Panola County, Texas, by slave master Jones.

This information is recorded and has been passed down through the years by generations.  The name of the Cherokee Indian Reservation is listed in the old family Bible, but illegible.

Mary Bankam is my ascending grandmother on my father’s side. In 1870, Mary was living in Panola County as a 45-year old woman married to 50-year old Thomas Bankam.  Thomas was born about 1820. There were seven children living in the home, ages 2-15 years.

By 1900 there is no listing of Thomas Bankam.  Mary’s last name was Jefferson; she lived in the home of her oldest son, Henry Rogers.  Henry was a 45-year old widower with three children ages 7 to 15 years living in the home.  The children’s mother was born in Texas.  Henry’s 8-year old grand-nephew, Tom Horn, also lived in the home.     

One-hundred-seventy-one (171) years since the birth of Grandma Mary Bankam, there is still a water spring in Beckville that descendants remember as the Mary Bankam Spring.

Shortly before Mary’s death, she fell into a fire and died sometime later.  Mary’s daughter-in-law, Dovie Jones, made the shroud that Grandma Mary was laid to rest in.