Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States, serving from 1829 to 1837. Born in 1767 in the frontier settlement of the Waxhaws in South Carolina, Jackson moved to Salisbury, NC in 1784 and received his license to practice law in 1787, beginning his practice in North Carolina's Western District in Washington County (now a part of Tennessee). In October 1788, he moved to Nashville, where he met his wife Rachel. After serving as the major general of the Tennessee militia for twenty years and earning recognition as a military leader in the War of 1812, Jackson was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1823 and to the presidency in 1828. After serving two terms as president, Jackson returned to the Hermitage, his Nashville home, in early 1837. Eight years later, in 1845, Jackson died at his home at the age of 78.

Samuel Austin Worcester was a Presbyterian minister who was known as the Cherokee Messenger. He was born on January 19, 1798, in Peacham, Vermont to Leonard and Elizabeth (Hopkins) Worcester. His first wife's name was Ann Orr, and they had seven children together. In 1842 he married Erminia Nash and they had a daughter named Sarah. He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1819 and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1823. While at Andover, he met a Cherokee who had changed his name from Buck Oowatie to Elias Boudinot. Worcester's career as a missionary took him to Brainerd, Tennessee in 1825 and then to New Echota, Georgia in 1827. In Georgia, Worcester and Boudinot translated the Bible into Cherokee, and published the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper. Worcester also advised the Cherokees about their legal rights, so Georgia passed a law against whites living in the Cherokee Nation. Worcester and Butler decided to challenge the law by staying. After years of court cases and jail time, the new governor, Wilson Lumpkin, persuaded them to accept a pardon and leave jail in 1833. In 1835, Worcester moved to Oklahoma to prepare for the Cherokee removal. He died on April 20, 1859 in Indian Territory.

Elizur Butler married his first wife, Esther Post, in 1820. His second wife's name was Lucy Ames, and his daughter's name was Esther. After his missionary service in Georgia, he accompanied the Cherokees during their removal and then worked at the Cherokee Female Seminary. Butler died in 1857 in Arkansas.