"The Mattaponi Lie: Part 2"
- Moderator
- Apr 24
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 25
The Duplicity of George F. Custalow and the Collusion of the Gatekeepers
Chief Elston Major's struggle to keep the Allmond's and Custalow's off of the reservation appeared to be in vain. After pleading with county and state officials for assistance in keeping them off, he found himself with a dead tribal member, the scattering of others, fewer physical tribal resources, and both families just moving onto the reservation. In one last attempt, Elston, and the trustee's pled to the Govenor of Virginia, in vain. The gatekeepers had failed the tribe, perhaps intentionally. Thirty years (1843) prior, local whites had filed a legislative petition (the Gregory Petition) to have the Mattaponi and Pamunkey (both groups called Pamunkey), detribalized and their lands confiscated. This petition failed to have the desired results, so maybe allowing known free blacks to take over the reservations would give them the ammunition needed to dislodge the tribes.
As the Allmond/Custalow clan moved on to the reservation, tempers continued to flair. One final incident occurred between the groups across the river from the Mattaponi Indian Reservation, at Mantapike Wharf, in King and Queen County on March 1, 1878. Both sides filed complaints against the other, and all were ordered into court for their involvement in 'affray'. On one side were white men John Hooper, William Littlepage, and tribal member Austin Key. Their opponents were William Allmond, Norman Custalow, and Buck Hill. Both groups pled not guilty, and the court seemed reluctant to place blame.
We were unable to discover anything more regarding the conflicts at the Mattaponi Indian Reservation, as the courthouses of King William and King and Queen counties both suffered devastating fires. In King William County, a fire occurring on January 17, 1885, burned all records with exception of 19 books. In King and Queen, a fire occurring during the Civil War pretty much wiped any remaining records from previous fires in 1828 and 1833.
The King William Courthouse fire was almost like a gift from heaven for the Allmond/Custalow family. On June 21, 1887, an aged and sick Eliza 'Major' Allmond was taken to the King William Courthouse to present 'old' documents and requested that they be 'spread among the records'. The purpose was to put into the record that 'no other person living on the Mattaponi Indian Reservation had Indian blood' but her and her family, to establish her 'title to the Mattaponi Indian Town', and lastly, to deprive the Dungee family of their on-reservation lot. They were treating the reservation like a real estate transaction.
Now we hope that you can read this hot mess. Presented to the court were fake trustee's minutes from 1855 stating that Eliza Major was the only Mattaponi Indian on the reservation (look at the top of this page to see a REAL trustee document to the Govenor, with the REAL TRUSTEES). We KNOW this is a lie, as Claiborn and Austin Key, Farley Major and her family, the Tuppence family and the Major family all STILL resided there. She also presented her 'father's' free black registration, dated 1799 (making this document 88 years old when presented) calling him a Mattaponi Indian, as well as her own, dated 1841 (46-year-old document), calling her a Pamunkey Indian (remember, they were all referred to as Pamunkey during this time period). The fake trustee document called Evie Dungee a 'free negro' and ordered her and her family off of the Mattaponi Reservation. Even the clerk seemed suspicious because he made a note of the request to record and 'spread' these 'old' documents among the records. It appears they were securing a title to the reservation and were going to displace the Mattaponi Indians. Curiously, if these were legitimate documents, why weren't they presented twenty years prior when the Allmond/Mattaponi feuding was at its peak? We think we all can figure this out! Thornton Allmond Sr.'s land had been sold, but they were still moving lumber and needed deeper water, and being 'Indian' offered more protections than being 'black'. Lastly, they were tired of fighting the tribe over reservation resources. We know many local whites employed the wharfage services of the Allmond family from the accounts due to Eliza Allmond's estate, and it would be unsurprising if the Allmond's had favorable connections to these whites. The Allmond's appeared to also be legally savvy. How did this happen? We suspect that Elston Major died in early 1887, and two of the three trustees were dead as well. There was no one left to dispute it.... well almost no one. At the death of Elston Major, all Mattaponi Tribal documents, trustee minutes, and other papers promptly disappeared.
The disappearance of Mattaponi tribal documents was not the only puzzling disappearance of documents. Marriage, and Death Registers survived the King William courthouse fire. Page and years started to come up missing from the middle of volumes. The death register was missing years 1863-1868, the marriage register is missing years 1868-1870, 1873-1875, 1882, and 1884. These are curious gaps. Additionally, there are hardly any entries for the Allmond family, which is interesting because they had been in the county since at least 1835. Finally, the births and deaths of Mattaponi families stopped being reported to the county. The Allmond/Custalow family lived close to the courthouse, and understood the law well enough to run up there to sue one another and spread fake documents throughout the records, so why weren't they reporting vital statistics as required? We refuse to believe they didn't know, and besides, where were the gatekeepers???
The last act of final resistance from the Mattaponi occurred on July 30, 1889. The remaining Mattaponi Indians, along with members of the Pamunkey tribe, called on Govenor Fitzhugh Lee to help remove the interlopers from the reservation. This last Hail Mary fell on deaf ears. Not only was there no mention of it in the Governor's Papers for Lee, but there was also no mention of the visit and its purpose in ANY of the Virginia newspapers. We discovered the event from out of state press. The tribe was once more failed by the gatekeepers.
William Key was dead, and his family no longer on the reservation, and documents were filed at the courthouse in an attempted to strip Evie Dungee of her piece, and the Allmond/Custalow clan moved onto the reservation in mass, threatening and forcing off the legitimate families. Not only that, but they had also began representing themselves AS the tribe and AS the leadership. This left the remaining Keys, the Majors, Nannie Tuppence, and one Dungee family. Complicating matters more, a dispute broke out between the Custalow family and Allmond family, with many of the later relocating to Philadelphia. The Commonwealth of Virginia did absolutely nothing.
In 1895, George Custalow sued the remaining trustee, James S. Robinson in King William court Virginia Memory: Chancery Records Index - 101-1895-002. George had gone and gotten married and when he returned, he took possession of Austin Key's house. The trustee ordered him off of the reservation, and said he had no right to be there. Not only did George refuse to leave, but he also sued the trustee back, stating he had a right to be on the reservation and wasn't leaving. In the suit, Mr. Robinson pointed out that Austin Key was an 'old Indian' who had been on the reservation for his entire life. George did not care and convinced the court to prevent his removal by the trustee. The lawsuit was replete with blatant lies and misrepresentations made by George, many disputed by the trustee, but the King William court prevented his removal in spite of this. We believe Austin Key died during the lawsuit, as did the remaining trustee. We had been told by one of George's descendants, many years ago, that George eventually put a barn on Austin's allotment. With Claiborn having died previously, and other members of the family off reservation, the Key family were effectively erased from the annals of Mattaponi history, as were the Dungee family. Additionally, all of the Tuppence family had been forced off but Nannie Tuppence, who had married Powhatan Major (son of Lee Major). A handful of members of the Major family still stayed on the reservation, and all, other than 'Tan' and Elston were decimated by tuberculosis. At least three children went to North for work, two of whom died of tuberculosis shortly after arrival. The only two children of Lee Major (who were grandchildren of Chief Elston) who survived were Tan, who never left, and Elston, who was not welcome to come back. Members of other families, who had left to find work, were afraid to come back due to threats to their safety. They couldn't rely on the gatekeepers; this was a proven fact.
Tan Major, the only remaining member of Chief Elston Major's extended family who was still on the reservation, refused to leave. Family lore among the Major family was that he was told to invite himself off, but he refused. Married to Nannie Tuppence, the only remaining Tuppence, he became so afraid that he wouldn't sleep in his own bed, electing instead to sleep on his boat. He confided in his brother, and other 'disenrolled' Mattaponi that he was afraid and why. On May 16, 1934, 47-year-old Powhatan Major's body was found floating in the Mattaponi River, having been in the water a few days. Major family descendants speculated that he was killed at the behest of George. Tribal lore says he was killed by off-reservation others because he was involved in a messy domestic situation. At any rate, the death of Tan, and a few years later, Nannie Tuppence, his wife, erased the last Major and Tuppence lines from the Mattaponi Indian Reservation, the tribal roll, tribal history, and collective tribal memory.
In the backdrop to all of the chaos, the Federal Government, specifically the Smithsonian, became interested in documenting remnant indigenous populations, before they disappeared forever.