The Love family was possibly the largest of the mixed-blood families in the Chickasaw Nation and second only to the Colbert family in service to the Chickasaw Nation.

Thomas Love was my ggggg grandfather. He was a refugee Tory from Virginia who settled among the Chickasaw in 1782. After his father William Love ("English Bill") had been killed, Thomas said that he took off through a briarpatch and made his lifesaving escape.

He led a quiet existance. He was described in July, 1875 as "a person of high esteem". He assisted in marking the Creek-Chickasaw boundary in 1796. Another countryman, John McIntosh, appointed him administrator of his estate in 1803. He was still living in 1818 and apparently died about 1830.

Thomas had two wives; his first wife, was Sally Colbert, half breed Chickasaw, daughter of James Logan Colbert. His second wife was a full-blood Chickasaw woman named Emahota. Following the Chickasaw tradition of the husband becoming a member of the wife's family, he became a member of the house of In-cun-no-mar. Thomas fathered eight sons and five daughters. Descendant Chart -[PDF Format]

Emahota was born in 1791. She sold land in Marshall County, Mississippi on April 8, 1836. She was listed on the 1840 LaFayette County census. She removed to Indian Territory in November, 1844. The 1847 census lists her as half white, head of household, consisting of one male over 18 and 2 females over 16. She died at Burneyville on September 25, 1873.

Sons: Henry, Isaac, Benjamin, Slone, Robert Howard, Samuel, William, and Thomas
Daughters: Delilah (married a Mitchell, then John B. Moore), Betsy(married James Allen), Sally (married James T. Gaines), Nancy Mahota (married James M. Boyd), and Lucinda (married Samuel A. Colbert)

By the 1820's, most of the Love family were living in a prosperous farming community located about six miles southwest of the present town of Holly Springs, MS. In 1826, a Presbyterian missionary located a station they called Martyn Station near Henry Love's home which stood at the crossing of two Indian trails near Pigeon Roost Creek. Many of the family's children attended school there.

Thomas died in 1830.

Seven of his sons became Chickasaw leaders, particularly during and after the removal to Indian Territory.

There is a journal excerpt mentioning Henry and Slone by William Calhoun Love, grandson of Robert Love of Pennsylvania.

Resources:

"Chickasaw Loves and Allied Families" by Marie Garland. Some of the above information was contributed to me by Linda Davis of Fort Worth, <honeychi@flash.net>

"The Saga of a Mixed-Blood Chickasaw Dynasty" by Hubert H. McAlexander
and also The Love Family from "Southeastern Indian Notebook" by Don Martini and contributed to me by Tania Patrick <aeptcp@preferred.com>

Updated information:
Who was Who Among the Southern Indians, a genealogical notebook 1698-1907, by Don Martini, copyright 1998.