Lincoya Jackson

Lyncoya Jackson also spelled Lincoya (born c. 1811-1813 in Creek territory; died July 1, 1828 in Nashville, Tennessee) was the adopted son of Andrew Jackson.

The child was born to Muscogee Creek parents who were aligned with the "Red Sticks" under William Weatherford during the Creek War. The infant boy was found orphaned among the dead after the Battle of Talladega, where Jackson's 2,000 men attacked a Red Stick force numbering around 700 huddled inside a wooden palisade called Fort Leslie in present day St Clair County on November 9, 1813. The child was brought to General Jackson, who decided to adopt him.

Jackson had earlier sent a Creek child, "Theodore", who was captured at Litafatchi on October 29, to his farm at the Hermitage. Theodore did not survive long after arriving. Lyncoya did survive, nurtured by Jackson's wife, Rachel. Lyncoya may have initially been intended to live with the Jacksons as a curiosity and as a playmate for their three year old adopted nephew, Andrew Jr, whom they had also raised since infancy. Nevertheless, the two boys seem to have been treated as equals.

He ate with the family, was clothed similarly, and attended lessons together with his half-brother and other wards of the Jacksons. He showed great aptitude as a horseman, and several times rode away, apparently in hopes of rejoining his tribe.

Jackson wrote of his ambition of sending Lyncoya to West Point, but Lyncoya, who did not enjoy academic pursuits, declined the offer. Instead he was sent to apprentice as a saddle maker in Nashville, where he died of tuberculosis in 1828, shortly before Jackson's election as President of the United States.

References

• Burstein, Andrew (2003) The Passions of Andrew Jackson. Borzoi/Knopf

External links

• "Lyncoya at the National Park Service website