The Selection of Grandpa's Name

             
My maternal grandfather, Calvin Callcayah Smith, was born on March 13, 1894, in eastern Oklahoma in the community of Hickory Grove, to Walter and Julia Steely Smith. His great-grandmother, Susannah Spainard Smith Miller, was born in Cherokee Nation East, in 1808. She walked the Cherokee Trail of Tears at the age of thirty with her two little boys, Cullicayah (the spelling used by Grandpa’s father) and Isaac. Susannah’s husband and father of her two sons is mentioned but not as a survivor of the arduous trip. She remarried soon after completing the forcible march to Indian Territory from her ancestral home. 

Tombstone of Susannah Spainard
Smith Miller who died in 1875. It is
told hers was the first burial in
 Hickory Grove Cemetery on the
land she gave for the cemetery. 
(Taken from findagrave.com)

My grandpa seldom spoke of his early days or his family history, a history linked with some of the most heartbreaking years of American History in the early 1800s. Walter Smith, Grandpa’s father, was born to Cul-la-ca (spelling on the 1851 Drennan Roll) and Rachel Kingfisher Smith. Both of his parents had been born in Cherokee Nation East, specifically Georgia. To learn more about them, go to the blog posting entitled It’s More Than the First Holiday of the Summer  https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2016/05/its-more-than-first-holiday-of-summer.html

Grandpa came from mixed ethnicity. His father descended from Cherokee parents. His father, Walter, a pure blood Cherokee, was fluent in Cherokee, Spanish, and English, yet according to Elizabeth Purcell Hammer, a much-loved cousin of my mother, Walter limited his use of the Cherokee language, his first language, out of respect for Julia, his wife with Scottish-Irish roots who only spoke English.

Julia Steely, Grandpa’s mother, had been born in Illinois. Her family transplanted to the Ozark Mountain region of Missouri. The family moved into the Cherokee Nation in 1872. One relative of Mother, mused, “Why did that white family relocate among the all those Cherokees?”

On a rare occasion, Grandpa shared a snippet of how he was named. He spoke quietly with little expression, “Ma wanted to name me “Elijah,” but Pa named me “Callcayah.” As a preteen, those names had no significance at all to me.

A few years ago, I viewed Great-grandpa Walter’s own handwriting on his application to the Guion Miller Roll, the roll with the most historical information for Cherokees and included the Dawes number accepted by the Cherokee Nation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to prove authenticity of degree of Cherokee blood. A distant relative working at the NEOSU research room in Tahlequah told me only one-third of the applications were dubbed valid. There I discovered his father was named “Cullicayah” or “Ga-la-ka-yah.” (Interestingly, Ruben Hopper, one of the few people I could talk to who knew my grandpa when he still lived in the Cherokee Nation, always called Grandpa “Cull” or “Cul-la-kay" when I visited him and Mrs. Hopper in their later years.)

Names often bring to mind character attributes of the individual. Grandpa’s paternal grandfather, Cullicayah, as a young boy provided courage and comfort for his widowed mother as they faced the hardships of the forced removal. His little brother observed and modeled his older brother's resiliency and unflinching determination throughout their harsh journey of the Trail of Tears. Cull as an adult fought and lost his life defending the Cherokee Nation and attempting to preserve the little farm on which he was raising his four children with his wife. In contrast, Grandpa’s maternal grandfather worked much of his adult life to defend and restore his reputation tarnished by allegations. He died before achieving that. His name was Elijah.

When reflecting on the naming of Grandpa 127 years ago, I thought how many times the importance of a name appears in the Bible. The name of Jesus came to the forefront of my mind. His compassion, mercy, loving kindness, and power over nature illustrate some of the attributes of the Savior, but nothing describes Him with such laser focus as His sacrificial love so willing to give His life for the sins of the world. No precious metals as silver or gold could redeem us but only the precious blood of Christ wrote Peter in 1 Peter 1:18-19.

What is the significance of the name of Jesus in our every day lives? One passage in the book of Acts leaped to my mind to answer that question. Less than two months after the resurrection of Jesus, when Peter and John proclaimed about Jesus in Jerusalem, they were arrested and put in custody. At their hearing, they were about to be released because of strong support among the people for Peter and John. The spokesmen for the Sanhedrin sternly commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.(Acts 4:18) Peter and John responded immediately to the ultimatum with these powerful words.

Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)

Upon their release from incarceration, the two apostles gathered with the believers of the Jerusalem church to pray. For what did they pray? They prayed for boldness to speak His word and power to work through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus. (Acts 4:29-30) May their response and prayer be the daily guide for those of us who revere, honor, love, and have been saved by the name of Jesus.