Rachel CHAMBERS
Sex: F
Birth: in NC
Birth: ABT 1781 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
Death: ABT 1846 in Oak Hill, Overton County, Tennessee

NOTE:
She was buried in an unmarked grave in Overton County, Tennessee at the what is now known as the Wells Cem.

Note:
Rachel Chambers was born about 1781 in North Carolina. She often told her children she was one-fourth blood Cherokee. Her father, Henry Chambers, was said to have been one-half blood Cherokee. Rachel had a sister, and a brother, named Samuel (Sam) Chambers. She told her children that this brother went with the old Cherokee settlers to the Indian Territory in 1819. In fact, a Samuel Chambers was an old settler. He was married to a woman named Nancy. They had several children. Unfortunately, all but one of them had died in the Cherokee Nation by 1880. The only son to live to the time of the Dawes Commission was Lorenzo Dow Chambers.
He, also unfortunately, was not enrolled by the Dawes Commission at any time from 1896-1902. He died in 1909 and is buried at Dwight Missions in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. In a Guion-Miller Application in 1906, Dow Chambers did fill out a form for his deceased wife but included his vital statistics. He stated he was the son of Samuel and Nancy Chambers. That both parents had died early. He had several brothers and sisters, but he was the only one to live beyond 1880. He did name his father's brothers and sisters, but no Rachel was mentioned. He did name a Tookah Chambers, which could have been her Indian name but she was not named as Tookah Norris.
One of the main reasons I believe Henry Chambers was not on any Cherokee census roll was because he left the confines of the old Cherokee Nation in North Carolina. As a result, he gave up his citizenship in the Cherokee tribe. The old Eastern Nation was in the southwestern section of North Carolina near the Georgia border. Henry Chambers lived in the northwestern section of North Carolina in Wilkes County. At that day and time, it was not a good thing to be part Indian. Whites looked down on them. Apparently, Henry Chambers must have looked more white than Indian and lived among the whites as one of them. The whites would not have taken kindly to the fact that he was a half-blood Cherokee, a "half-breed." In those days, they did not know it would be important in later years to prove you were of Cherokee descent.
By the time Henry's descendants, the children of Rachel, emigrated to the Indian Territory, there was no factual proof in their beliefs. Although she repeatedly told her children she was part Cherokee Indian, her descendants could not later prove it. Rachel died in 1846, possibly from consumption. Now called tuberculosis, it is a disease which took the lives of several of her descendants. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Overton County, Tennessee.

Father: Henry CHAMBERS

Marriage 1 Gilbert NORRIS b: ABT 1780 in NC
Married: ABT 1799 in Wilkes County, North Carolina 3 4
Children
Agnes (Aggie) NORRIS b: 13 AUG 1807 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
Edith (Edie) NORRIS b: 1815 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
Elizabeth (Lizzie) NORRIS b: 1816 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
James Elihu NORRIS b: 1804 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
Jesse NORRIS b: 1810 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
John NORRIS b: 30 NOV 1799 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
Jonathan NORRIS b: 21 OCT 1818 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
Mary Nancy NORRIS b: 10 JUN 1813 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
Sarah Jane (Sallie) NORRIS b: 1806 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
William Roland (Billy) NORRIS b: 1817 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
Frances NORRIS b: 1804 in Wilkes County, NC