John Baldwin being first duly sworn deposes and says:

I am 70 years of age, and was born in Ashe County, N.C. and moved to Virginia when I was three years old, in Grasyson County and have lived in Ashe County since 1861. I have always been taught that I had Cherokee Indian ancestors, I claim my Indian blood through my grandmother on my father's side. He was William D. Baldwin, and his mother was a Hart. My father lived in Grayson County, Va. He was a very old man when he died. I never heard that he ever received any money from the Government on account of his Indian blood.   It was unanimously talked through the settlement and in the family that he had Indian blood. I went to Tahlequah and proved my Indian blood. This was years before the Dawes Commission, when I claimed and proved my Indian blood in the Indian Territory. The Dawes Commission turned my claim down. I have stayed in Indian Territory several months, but I have never lived with the Indians out there. My father, William D. Baldwin, also proved up out there. My grandmother on my father's side was Catharine Hart. My recollection is that she was the daughter of James Hart. I never heard of but one Hart family. I think Ned Hart and James Hart were related. They lived in Ashe County, and some of the family in Grayson County. Catharine Hart, I think, was the daughter of Ned Sizemore. Elisha Blevins gave me theinformation contained in my application. I have known him all of my life until his death. I do not recollect that he ever told me where Ned Sizemore came from or where he died. He said I favored old Ned Sizemore, and called me "Ned" many a time. I never heard him say whether Ned Sizemore had a beard or not. I have seen James Hart many a time. He looked like an Indian, and he, as well as all the Hart family, were regarded as Indians. I have seen Ned Hart hundreds of times, I do not remember when I last saw him. When I was a young man he was getting to be a pretty old man. He resembled an Indian very much. My grandmother, father and I were considered White people, but when people go mad with us, they would throw up Indian. I did not mind it, because my father and mother taught me that I was part Indian.

   John Baldwin   

Subscribed and sworn to before me at Grassy Creek, N. C., this 6th day of April, 1908.

   J. Edward Tylor   
Assistant to Special Commissioner
Court of Claims.      

Sizemore

(see 1st deposition John Baldwin page 40.) [should say page 41]

John Baldwin being first duly sworn deposes and says:

I appeared before you Saturday, at Grassy Creek, N.C., and gave testimony in support of my claim to participate in the Eastern Cherokee Judgment Fund. After going home and studying I saw that a very material matter was left off that I did not state. I now come before you to prove my Indian blood, and to state that long before the Dawes Commission (It was six, eight or ten years) I went to the Indian Territory for the purpose of proving my right as a Cherokee Indian and for citizenship in the Nation. Chief Harris, who is still alive, told me that if I would come back in the Fall that he would citizenize me. I, thereupon proved up my case by a man who was sent from here as a Cherokee that he knew Ned Sizemore well, and I got the Notary's seal, and, later on, filed it before the Dawes Commission for my rights. There were so many there when I went back, that they would not try my rights, but I got the seal and kept it. I proved it before the Dawes Commission, and got the seal of the Cherokee Nation. George Vann, is the man referred to above, who proved my rights in Indian Territory. He went from here there, with the tribe when they were sent from this country. The Cherokees did not refuse me any rights, and were willing for me to have them alone. The chief told me that if I would come back in the Fall he would citizenize me. I came back and got 330 families here to prove up their claims for citizenship in the Indian Territory before the Dawes Commission, thinking that this large number would make my own claim stronger. I think the Majority of these people claimed through Ned Sizemore, and these same people are now applying for this Cherokee money.

   John Baldwin   

Subscribed and sworn to before me at Grassy Creek, N. C., this 6th day of April, 1908.

   J. Edward Tylor   
Assistant to Special Commissioner
Court of Claims.