Eugenia Witty's sisters

My great times two grandmother, Eugenia Witty Booth's oldest sister, was Martha E. Witty Barnes, daughter of Carroll and Susan Hoke Witty.

She was born in Limestone, Alabama, as were her 2 older brothers.  Her birthday was Sept 25, 1846.  She appeared in the Limestone Alabama Census of 1850, then next census in 1860 she and her family had moved all the way to Hill County, Texas, where her father was a one of the founders of a "subdivision" which was another name for land speculation which became Woodbury Texas. 

Her father was Carroll Witty, (1919-1898) my great times three grandfather.

She married John L. Barnes, who was born Aug 2, 1846 also in Alabama, but I know nothing about his family.  The Barnes couple appeared as a household in Houston, TX in the census of 1880.

They never had any children apparently.

By the time Martha was in her 60s, she and her husband were listed twice (1907 & 1909) in a city directory for Cleburne, Johnson County, TX which is near Dallas. The 1910 Census has them living there as well.  His occupation was advertised as gardener.  

Main St, Cleburne TX 1910s

She died on April 18, 1914, and he died on May 5 of the same year.  They are buried together in Woodbury Cemetery, Hill County, Texas.  Woodbury was the town which my Gx3 grandfather had helped found.

 

Martha E. Witty Barnes 1846-1914

John L. Barnes 1836-1914

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Mary Elizabeth Witty Hughes (1848-1876) was 6 years older than my great great grandmother, Eugenia Witty Booth.

Great Aunt Mary Beth (I'm guessing that that was her name because my own sister went by that nickname as a young girl) was born in 1848, also in Alabama, the 4th child of Susan Hoke Witty and Carroll Witty, (the first two being boys.)

In Limestone County, Alabama in 1850, the Wittys were farmers, and Susan's father,  Joseph Hoke, age 57 was living with them as well.  At that time the next family listed in the census were Jackson Witty, a brother of Carroll Witty's, actually named Andrew Jackson Witty.  When Carroll went to Texas around 1850-52, Andrew Jackson Witty stayed in Alabama.

But let's look at Great X2 Aunt Mary Beth a bit more.  By 1860 she was 12 and living in Hill County, Texas.  Then when she was 19 she married Isaac Butler Hughes, who apparently went by his middle name on most records.

They had 2 children: James M. Hughes who lived just from 1867-1876, and Alice Dovie Hughes Felts, 1869-1893.

But the same year that their son died, so did Aunt Mary Beth, on July 2, 1876.  She is buried with her husband, who had died just the year before, on 10 August 1875.

His headstone is broken, but her's has been somewhat repaired. It's interesting to note that her initial is wrong "M".  They are in the same cemetery as her parents and other family members, The Old Woodbury Cemetery, Hill County, Texas.

 

I was trying to find out if Alice had any children, who would be my cousins of course...but there wasn't much information on her, besides a name J. B. Felts for her husband, but no information on him.  

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Fanny Witty Gee, next oldest sister of Eugenia Witty Booth

She was a Valentine baby, Frances Malone (Fanny) Witty Gee born on Feb. 14, 1850 in Limestone, Alabama. But I don't know if Valentines Day was celebrated much then.

Her first census listing was when she was 4 months old, and the penmanship is so illegible the transcriber calls her Thomas, though a female child.  At least by 1860, when her family had moved to Texas, she was listed as Fanny.

She married at 17, to Richard A. Gee who had been born in 1833 in Tennessee (17 years older than she was). Some of his records say he was born in Virginia, where his parents were born.  The Gees raised 7 children, who all lived to be adults, (though one died at 19 years of age) and she had 19 grandchildren.  Some of her children and grandchidlren lived into their 90s, and one, Ethel M. Stingily, lived to 100, dying in 2013.

Her 19 year old son who died, has a marker in the same cemetery where she was buried, but I can't find any photos of her marker. So I'm using his to at least memorialize him.

Many of the death certificates in the early 1900s show how hypertension was a killer in my family.  I've seen this on many Booth records.  I'm so glad there is medication now (which I can take.)

Fanny herself was 73 when she died in 1923.

One of these men is Richard Albert Gee...I don't know the other, nor which one he is.

Her husband, Richard Albert Gee ("Rags" which are his initials) was a Sergeant in the Confederacy, and thus had a veterans grave marker when he died in 1930 at age 96.

Richard Albert "Rags" Gee, (1833-1930)

Marker for Frances' son, John C. Gee, 1873-1892. In Covington Cemetery, Hill County Texas, where his mother Frances Malone Witty Gee is also buried (1850-1923).

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Eugenia Witty Booth's next younger sister 

Laura Dove Witty Patty (as well as her twin brother) was born on 29 Mar 1854, in Marshall Texas.  This is where my great great grandmother Eugenia Witty Booth also was born just 2 years earlier.  Then by 1860 the family settled a new area in Hill County, much further west.  Actually their father, Carroll Witty had purchased land and "settlers began moving into the area about 1850, and the community was established in 1857."  

But let's go back to Marshall, which was founded in 1841 as the seat of Harrison County, in East Texas, and was incorporated in 1843.

Marshall quickly became a major city in the state because of its position as a gateway to Texas; several major stage coach lines and one of the first railroad lines into Texas ran through it. The founding of several colleges, including a number of seminaries, teaching colleges, and incipient universities, earned Marshall the nickname the Athens of Texas, in reference to the ancient Greek city state. Marshall was the first city in Texas to have a telegraph service....by 1854 the local paper had a telegraph link to New Orleans, which gave it quick access to national news. By 1860 Marshall was one of the largest and wealthiest towns in East Texas, with a population estimated at 2,000.  With slavery still prevalent for the major industry, cotton, over half the population were Blacks.

The whole Witty family had still lived in Limestone County, Alabama as of the February, 1850s census.  Carroll Witty probably settled his wife and the younger children in Marshall, by 1852 when Eugenia was born, then took his two oldest sons with him (this is pure speculation on my part) to set up  their land in Woodbury, Hill County, Texas.  Then they would all have a place to live on the frontier.

Obviously father Carroll visited the Witty family in Marshall, perhaps for supplies or other reasons, including fathering Laura Dove, and her twin brother.

She married like many young women in that time when she was 17.  Her husband was James Riley Patty, born on 14 Oct 1845 in McMinn County, Tennesse.  He had been a Corporal for the 59th  Tennessee Mounted Infantry, Company A, during the Civil War.  So he moved to Texas following the war, and was 26 when he married in 1871 in Hill County, Texas.

The Patty family included 10 children (though one died as a child) the last one born in 1890.  The youngest, Eva Laura Fay Patty Herring, lived to be 96, dying in 1987, after having 4 children.

Laura and her husband both died in 1935.  He died first, March 30, and she applied for pension as a Civil War widow in April of that year.  She died on Oct 5.  Her adult son who lived with her, Birch, gave information for the death certificate, saying she was still married.  He had been 50 when the 1930 census was taken, and his 45 year old sister Hettie also still lived with their parents.  Birch was employed as a grocery clerk, but Hettie didn't work outside the home.  These adult children  didn't marry or have children as far as I know.

Edith Patty, who died at 90, their oldest child, also was living with her parents as of 1920, and she was a public school teacher.  By 1930 however she was living as a boarder in Dallas, TX, and was still teaching.  She didn't marry or have children.

Lexie Patty, their 6th child, is on a Sevier County, Tennessee Census in 1930 as a widow, with 3 sons who all have Patty as their last name.  And Lexie is the head of a household which farms, while parents who are listed must be her in-laws, Levi and Sarah Henner.  She also gives her birth as well as that of her parents as being in Tennessee (which wasn't true).  At some point in her life Lexie returned to Hill County Texas, and she died there age 84 in 1968.

Major Riley Patty...the next youngest of their children...what another interesting name!  As a child he was given Major Riley as his name, but later records just show him as Riley.  Perhaps various official persons thought the title should belong to someone who had attained that rank.  He lived from 1885 till 1951, dying at 71 years of age.  In 1940 it is interesting to note, that he lived with his brother Birch, and sisters Hettie and Lexie, in Hillsboro, Hill County Texas.

These were siblings that came back to, or never left, the home of their parents.

William Canal Patty did marry, and had 2 children, then in his fifties became an inmate of the Colorado State Hospital, where he died after 5 years at age 57.  How sad.

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Eugenia Witty Booth's youngest sister 

Susan E. Witty Moore was born Dec 28, 1856, in Marshall, Texas.  I believe by 1857 her father had started the Subdivision in Hill County that was to be named Woodbury, and in their cemetery many of the Witty family are buried, including Susan.  

By the 1860 census of the Witty family, she is listed (as of July 30 when the census was taken) as being four years old. There was one source (another census) which gave her age such that she would have been born in 1857, but I'm going with 1856 and have changed the Ancestry listing on my tree.

It is nice that the youngest of 9 (or 10) children was named after her mother, Susan Hoke Witty.  

In the 1870 census her family says she is 13 (in agreement with having been born in 1856, because her birthday isn't until Dec. and the census was in July again...thus the question was answered, how old will she be in this year?

The wonderful census of 1900 tells how long people had been married, as well as listing their names and birthdates and the states in which they were born.

In 1877, Susan had married a farmer, James J. Moore, and they lived (in 1900) in Justice Precinct 2, Hill County, Texas with their 14 year old daughter, Edna.  James is listed as having been born in Alabama, as her parents were, though later records suggest he was born in Texas.  

Susan Witty Moore died Sept 10, 1902, in Woodbury, Hill County, Texas, and has a nice big grave marker in the Old Woodbury Cemetery, where many other of the Witty family are buried.  


The "Texas Find A Grave" information gives this information about her:

Children: Edna Mae Moore (1885 - 1916)

Siblings: Martha E Witty Barnes (1846 - 1914) Mary Witty Hughes (1848 - 1876), Laura Dove Witty Patty (1854 - 1935

She may have been only 46 when Susan E. Witty Moore died, but she outlived her sister, my great great grandmother who died at 23 in 1877.

Her daughter, Edna, died of tuberculosis in 1916, and her death certificate information was given by her father, J. J. Moore. I found the wonderful photo of him in his corn crop in 1930 two years before he died. He had actually remarried in 1912 to Julia Ann Ramsey.

James Joseph Moore, 1930 (h. of Susie Witty Moore.)

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This post belongs to the Barbara Booth Rogers Family Tree. Photo shows Mataley Mozelle Rogers, and her mother Mozelle Booth Miller, and my sister Mary Beth Rogers.

Eugenia Almeda Whitty Booth

This week I'm posting about the Booth family tree.

A repost from Monday, February 24, 2014 (edited)

Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth, my great great grandmother

She would have been 169 years old this year!!

Wikipedia tells me a bit about Marshall, TX (Eugenia Witty's birthplace)

The Republic of Texas and the Civil War (1841–1860)

Marshall, TX was founded in 1841 as the seat of Harrison County, since the county was established in 1839, and was incorporated in 1843.. The city quickly became a major city in the state because of its position as a gateway to Texas on several major stage coach lines and one of the first railroad lines into Texas. The establishment of several colleges, including a number of seminaries, teaching colleges, and incipient universities, earned Marshall the nickname the Athens of Texas, in reference to the ancient Greek city state. The city's growing importance was confirmed when Marshall was linked by a telegraph line to New Orleans, becoming the first city in Texas to have a telegraph service.^[8]

By 1860, the city was the fourth largest city in Texas and the seat of the richest county. The county had more slaves than any other in the state, making it a hotbed of anti-Union sentiment, though some residents of Marshall nonetheless fought for the North. 

Eugenia Witty was born on Feb 24, 1852 in Marshall, TX, a city where her parents aren't on the census records as having ever lived.  They were in Athens AL in 1850, she had 3 siblings born in Marshall before 1856, and they were all the way over in Hill County TX by 1860's census.  So I think they weren't planning to settle in Marshall at all...maybe were just waiting to go on their way to a better place to live.

Carroll and Susan Hoke Witty had been a farming family in the 1850 census of Limestone County, AL, living next door to a brother Jackson Witty and his wife Emily.  Susan Hoke Witty's father, Joseph Hoke, (57), lived with her family.  She already had 5 of their children in AL. 

Athens, Limestone County AL was

...founded in 1818 by John Coffee, Robert Beaty, John D. Carroll, and John Read... one of the oldest incorporated cities in the State of Alabama, having been incorporated one year prior to the state's admittance to the Union in 1819. (Source Wikipedia)

Founders Hall, Athens College, Athens AL

By 1852 the family had moved to Texas, where the rest of their children were born in Marshall.  They settled in Hill County, TX by 1860, which is another 175 miles or so west of Marshall.  In July of 1860 a census shows Carroll Witty identifying himself as a Wagon Maker, and his two oldest sons are stocksmen (which I assume means cowboys, before the term came into use).

Susan Witty now had 9 children, two of whom are 6 year olds (twins probably!)  And Eugenia is listed as 9 years old.  

Hill County, Texas was founded in 1853, so the Witty family was among the earliest settlers, and their property was listed in 1860 as "The Subdivision."   There no longer is another Witty family nearby, nor any Hokes either.  If I ever get the time, I might try to trace where these families moved. 

In 1868 Richard Booth, an attorney like his father, was 22 when his first wife had died in childbirth (and the baby died within 4 months.)  (See Here for more on RRB)  Their 2 year old son had been named after his grandfather, William Lewis Booth.(see HERE for more on WLB)  Richard R. Booth married Eugenia Almeda Witty on 7.20.1869 in Hill County, TX. 

William Booth residence, Hillsboro, TX, land purchased 1855

So by the Hillsboro Census of 1870, Richard and Eugenia and little William L. Jr,  were listed as living in a separate household next door to the senior William Booth's household, which included some of Richard's older siblings, who were also attorneys.  

On 7 Feb 1871, Eugenia Witty Booth gave birth to Edwin Witty Booth. And on 30 Jan 1873, she gave birth to Eugenia Almeda Booth, both children born in Hillsboro, TX. 

At some point in the next 4 years, the Richard Booth and the William Booth families moved to Hempstead TX. On July 13, 1875 Eugenia gave birth to a daughter and they both died the same day. Chidbirth was not as safe a procedure a it is today. Eugenia was only 23 years old.

  

Hempstead, TX was the home of the Booth families according to the 1880 census.   William Lewis Booth, Sr's household included his grandchildren: William Jr., 14, Ed, 9, and Eugenia A, 7.  Their father, Richard Booth, had been killed by a person he was prosecuting in the same town in 1879. He had been just 32 years old, leaving three orphaned children.  Hemstead is known as having been a distribution center between the Gulf Coast and the interior of Texas since 1858 when the Houston and Texas Central Railway reached it.  

Hempstead, Waller County,Texas: 

Availability of transportation facilities and the surrounding area's large cotton production facilitated growth of textile manufacturing and cotton processing industries. Merchandising and processing grew rapidly between 1867 and the 1880s. The town prospered as a transportation center and became Waller county seat in May 1873. Hempstead's commercial, manufacturing, and processing sectors suffered large financial losses from fires between 1872 and 1876.  (Source: Handbook of Texas)

There are various spellings of Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth's name, Almetta, Almeta, Whitty, and so on.  I would be interested in finding out the source of the name Almeda.

The great times 3 grandparents, the William Lewis Booth family, evidently moved back to Hillsboro TX by 1885 when grandmother Hannah Conn Booth died, and Uncle Charles Thomas Booth died in 1886. Great great grandmom Eugenia Almeda Booth married Charles Herman Mueller in 1896. The loss of the 1890 Census doesn't confirm where they were at that time (a fire at the Library of Congress I think.)

Here's my tree, not counting generations of my children (2) or grandchildren (1)

3) Barbara Booth Rogers (living)

4) Mataley Mozelle Webb Munhall Rogers (1917-2003)

5) Mozelle Booth Miller Webb Munhall (1897-1960)

6) Eugenia Almeda Booth Miller (1873-1936)

7) Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth born 2.24.1852 Marshall, Harrison County, TX, d. 13 Jul 1875 

Hempstead, Waller County, TX.

 married on 7.20.1869 (his second m) Hill County, TX

    (7  Richard R. Booth, born 23 Sept 1846, Jackson, IN, died 30 May 1879 Hempstead, Waller County, TX.

 her parents:  

8) Carrol Witty b. 6 Nov 1818 in Alabama,  d. 19 Sep 1898 in Texas

       married on 16 Jan 1843 Limestone County, AL

    (8) Susan E. Hoke Witty, b. 12 June 1817 in Athens, Limestone County, AL, died 18 Dec 1895, Hill County, TX 

In Hill County Texas, there are several sites which factor into my ancestors' homes.
Hillsboro became the site of the Booth family home, but Woodbury was where the Witty's settled.


A hilly area of Hill County.

Randle-Turner House, Itasca, Hill County, Texas

A later house in Hill County 

 

Map of Texas highlighting Hill County

Laying of Corner Stone, City Hall, Hillsboro, Texas

This post belongs to the Barbara Booth Rogers Family Tree. Photo shows Mataley Mozelle Rogers, and her mother Mozelle Booth Miller, and my sister Mary Beth Rogers.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week...not sure how my great great grandmother's life, and where she lived, would actually meet this prompt photo...will think about it!

I'll post about Eugenia's sisters next.

The Witty brothers of Eugenia Witty Booth

This week I'm posting about the Booth Family tree.

All 9 of the children of Carroll and Susan Witty lived to adulthood, though my great times 2 grandmother, Eugena Almeda Witty Booth died at 23.

But there are a lot of cousins (a few times removed) from these other Witty aunts and uncles.

The following is a revised post 

John C. Witty, Pvt. (1843-1865) GG uncle

He died in 1865, in the county in which he lived according to several census records.

My Mother: Mataley Webb Munhall Rogers
Grandmother: Mozelle Miller Webb Munhall
Great grandmother: Eugenia Booth Miller
Great great grandmother: Eugenia Almeda Witty Booth, sister to...

John Witty was a private in the Civil War,  Confederate  Regiment, Texas 12th Regiment, Texas Infantry (Young's)  Company:  K  Rank In:  Private   Rank Out:  Private  
1862 enlistment records.

With the great population of Ancestry records, I find that another John Witty lived his whole life in Yorkshire, England. So that wasn't the one born in Alabama who fought for the Confederacy, but was the one who married Keziah!

John and Kesiah Martha Witty (not in America)
This John lived from 1845-1931.
And was married to Kesiah.

What I do know is that John C. Witty was the oldest of my great times 2 grandmother's 9 siblings. He was just 6 years old on the farm in Alabama before she had been born, then moved with the family to Marshall, Texas where Eugenia, the twins and little Susie were born. After 1856 the family moved to his father's land speculation in the new "subdivision" in Hill County, Texas, with the development to eventually be called Woodbury. In the 1860 census for that area he was listed as a stockman, age 16. His father, Carroll Witty, called himself a wagonmaker. 

This was a young man who joined the 12th Texas Infantry for the Confederate cause.  Some Texans didn't want to fight for the south, and some left and joined Union forces.  It was a terrible conflict with brothers against brothers. John's father doesn't seem to have fought in the Civil War for Texas. In some of my reading I saw that the frontier of Texas needed some manpower to defend settlements against the Native Americans. John was only 18 when he enlisted in the military.  And he died in 1865, age 21.

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James J. Witty (1845-1904) was just a year younger than John.  Born in 1845 he was barely old enough to go to the war between the states for the Confederacy with his older brother, John, in 1862.

He didn't serve in the same way however, and was in the cavalry while John was in the infantry.
And he had a surviving widow who eventually applied for his war pension many years after he died.

12th Texas Calvary, W. H. Parsons Regiment , Company "A" of Hill County, TX,

His family had settled in Texas from Alabama, and his father (Carroll Witty) was one of the founders of a community called originally "Subdivision, Hill County, Texas" and later known as Woodbury.

The Hill County Historical Commission tells us: "Woodbury is on Farm Road 309 twelve miles northwest of Hillsboro in north central Hill County. Anglo-American settlers began moving into the area about 1850, and the community was established in 1857, when Carroll Witty, William R. Nunn, and Rev. Thomas Newton McKee purchased property and offered it for sale."

In the 1870 Census for Hill County, TX, James was 25 and living with his parents and listing his occupation as "stock raiser,"  just as he had 10 years previously in the 1860 Census.

After the war, James married a woman who was a widow with one child living with her, when he was 39 himself.  Mary Lou Cobb Brooks and James were married Nov 23, 1884.  Most of her 5 children were adults, and married and having their own families. But the youngest was Bert Brooks, born in 1875.  The date of the marriage was listed on her application for widow's pension, and the location was Shackleford, Texas, where she lived the rest of her life. I enjoyed looking at all the family photos from the Brooks family, including Mary with her grown children...obviously after James Witty had died.

Unknown old house, Moran, Shackleford County, Texas

Moran Texas, 1924 looking west.

Shackleford County, Texas is where James spent his later adult life, and where he and his wife are buried, but in different cemeteries.   She's in the Moran Cemetery, also in Shackleford County, and her youngest son Bert Brooks was also buried there.  

James' death is noted in the Texas Find A Grave site as "J.J. Whitty found dead in his wagon Sept of 1904 on his way home from town, found by Brooksey King (Possible burial place 7 or 8.) Thought to have died of a heart attack."  (Jo Ann Farmers Notes)

The cemetery where his remains are located is unique in that it's a ranch cemetery with many unknown cowboys buried there.  It is listed as the Lynch Cemetery.  "The Lynch Cemetery is located 8 miles southeast of Albany near the Ibex Community on FMR 601. The cemetery began in the summer of 1875 as the final resting place of J. A. Leflet, a young cowboy who worked for the Lynch family on what was then called Fairview Ranch. Founders of the ranch, John C. Lynch and his wife Fannie, arrived in this part of Shackelford County in the 1860's after coming to nearby Stephens County with Fannie's family, the Peter Gunsolus family. After Mr. Leflet was buried in 1875, on a rise a quarter of a mile from the Lynch home, other cowboys on the ranch who died were also buried there, most now are unmarked or unknown."

 James J. Witty is listed as a known grave, and has a legible marker there.

James J. Witty, died Aug. 30, 1904, age 59 years.

Post office, Moran, Shakleford County, Texas

I'll spend some time sharing the great photos of Mary Brooks Witty and her adult children, which I just saw on Ancestry. Though they aren't blood relations, they are close because James Witty married Mary and helped her raise Bert Brooks. The photos are like many of these, giving a good sense of what their lives were like. And Mary even wrote an autobiography. 

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William Wiley Witty (1854-1929) has the same birthday as his sister Laura Dove Witty, on most of his records.

But there is discrepancy on some others.  So though his year of birth is always within a year of the same one, the place is given on some records differently.

So about half the Ancestry listings in families have him born in Marshall Texas on the same birthday as Laura, the other half (out of 10 listings) say he was born earlier in the same month, to the same parents, but in either Missouri or Georgia, these mainly coming from his death certificate and the grave site information.

Now I've got a bit of logic on my side, the Marshall Texas and twin story that I'm presenting today.  His mother gave birth in Marshall 2 years earlier to my great great grandmother, Eugenia.  The Witty children are all on the first census in 1860 in Subdivision, Hill County, Texas...and there's no mention anywhere that Susan Hoke Witty (their mom) could have gone to Missouri or Georgia.  It's just not logical.  Until proven otherwise, I'm sticking with this direct movement of the family from Alabama, to Marshall (eastern Texas) to Hill County (central Texas)

Unfortunately a lot of his, and his children's records in "Find A Grave" use the earlier March 3, 1854 and Missouri information. Maybe that's what he told people in his family. Perhaps he wanted to be a Yankee?

So who was William Wiley Witty?

The 1860 Census had been taken in July, and there he and Laura were both the same age, 6 years old.  The 1870 Census of Precinct 1 in Hill County, Texas, taken in July of that year, lists him as 16, while Laura is 17, both born in Texas.   One of these records gives his birthday a year off, I think.

But skip ahead to the 1900 census for Precinct 2, Hill County, Texas, taken in June, and here is some interesting information that has been added to the data.  He is married and age 46.  That still has the 1854 birth year, including month of March.  He states he's been married 26 years, making his marriage happen in 1874 to Mary Witty.  They have 10 children by that census, and he owns his own farm.  Mary was born in Georgia in Nov. 1854, but William was born in Texas, as well as all their children, according to the census.

The very same 1900 Census also gives his sister, Laura, a clear birthday as March 1854...though they no longer lived in the same area...so a different census taker was recording it.

So I continue, at this time, to think these siblings were probably twins.

As I mentioned his wife was Mary, and one source gives her as Molly, and another says Mary Jane Paschal.  I haven't looked into her family beyond the fact that they came from Georgia to Texas.

AND William and Molly had at least one set of twin children: Stella and Della, born in 1885.

They not only have the same birthday, but were buried under the same headstone, though one died in 1909 and one in 1926. Della, who died first, had actually been married, though there's no information about her husband. Stella was the one who lived longest and had epilepsy, as attested to by her father, following her death in 1926 in a hospital. She had been cared for at home up until the 1920 census at least.

Mrs. William Witty, Molly, after giving birth to 10 children, lived to 79, dying in 1933.
William Wiley Witty, the farmer, predeceased her in 1929, dying at 74.

They had married in Hill County Texas, but lived in Star, Mills County, Texas.  Where is that, you may ask?  Star is a small unincorporated area with agriculture, named after nearby Star Mountain.

From The Texas Historical Association:

The first settlers, (Mills County) like the Indians, subsisted primarily on hunting. A number of the early settlers were German immigrants who toiled, as one put it, in a "place that was a heaven for men and dogs-but hell for women and oxen." Life on the frontier was often precarious; Dick Jenkins and several other early pioneers were killed by Indians. In 1858 Mr. and Mrs. Mose Jackson and two of their children were killed by Indians at Jackson Springs, while two other children were carried into captivity. After a force of settlers routed the Indians at Salt Gap, their pursuers and a company of Texas Rangers recovered the captive Jackson children. In 1862 a band of twenty Comanches raiding for horses was pursued by settlers to the mouth of Pecan Bayou and put to flight after three Indians and one white, O. F. Lindsey, were killed. After Indians killed John Morris, a rancher, settlers pursued them and killed or wounded seven of the twenty-seven raiders. Few of the settlers joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War because their own frontier required protection against the depredations of Indians and outlaws.

During the Civil War and for decades thereafter whites caused settlers more trouble than Indians, as cattle rustlers, horse thieves, murderers, army deserters, and other rogues infested the area. Vigilante committees were formed to deal with criminals, but then these groups degenerated into warring mobs committing criminal acts themselves. A reign of terror followed conflicts between vigilante groups, which broke out in Williams Ranch in 1869. Vigilantes drove out some bad characters, but killed other innocent men; lynchings and assassinations became commonplace. The turbulence lasted until 1897, when the Texas Rangers finally broke up a group of vigilantes who frequently gathered at Buzzard Roost. The first post office in what is now Mills County was established in Williams Ranch in 1877, and the place became a center for the area; between 1881 and 1884 250 people lived there. In 1885 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built tracks into the region, stimulating settlement and demands for organization. In 1887 the Texas state legislature carved Mills County from lands formerly assigned to Brown, Comanche, Hamilton, and Lampasas counties. Goldthwaite became the county seat. In 1890 5,493 people lived in Mills County. By that time, the area's agricultural economy was already fairly well-established. The county had 680 farms and ranches, encompassing 142,299 acres, that year.

Sources: Hartal Langford Blackwell, Mills County-The Way it Was (Goldthwaite, Texas: Eagle Press, 1976). Flora Gatlin Bowles, A No Man's Land Becomes a County (Austin: Steck, 1958).

 There are at least 6 graves of Witty's in this Cemetery, very near Star, Texas.  At the information site about the cemetery, it says:

Hurst Ranch Cemetery is in Hamilton County, Texas but has so many Mills County connections from Star, (originally Hamilton County) Mills County, Texas.

I just looked into the 10 children's lives. They almost all had spouses and children...but I won't be following my cousins quite that far. Now to go back to my gg grandmother's sisters...soon!

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This post belongs to the Barbara Booth Rogers Family Tree. Photo shows Mataley Mozelle Rogers, and her mother Mozelle Booth Miller, and my sister Mary Beth Rogers.

James Witty and Lucretia Wells Witty

 James Witty (abt. 1768 - 1830-40),  Booth Family Tree

post from Feb. 2019, some clarification added

He was born around 1768, and has several Quaker documents about him and his family from Guilford County, North Carolina - but no birth record.  It could have been lost, or he might not have been a Quaker from birth.

The New Garden Meeting (Guildford County NC) has a beautifully penned introduction, mentioning that it would record births and deaths, and especially work around the 11 lost days in Sept. 1752 (when the calendar moved from Julian to Gregorian according to England finally changing it's calendars). But nobody is mentioned in the introduction itself.  It should also be remembered that until 1752, the Western Christian Feast of the Annunciation, on March 25, also called "Lady Day" was considered the first of the new year. And since the Quakers don't use the Roman names of months or days, there was First Month, Second Month, etc.  So I'm not sure (like many genealogists) of when these events actually happened which are recorded as, say, 3rd of Fourth Month, etc.

James Witty's birth is listed in an index (again hand written) with a number 240 next to it which was a page number.

His children's birth's are recorded, as well as early deaths. Only 2 of the 5 may have made it through childhood apparently (at least as far as these records provide). I know 3 died early.  His wife, Mary, also died around 1792.

Updating this post in 2021, I found eldest son, William b. 1783, died in 1788. Elizabeth is the only child I don't have a date of death for yet...born in 1792, the last child of her mother Mary. Ancestry has copied again the Guilford minutes of the meeting, but gives 6 - 11 - 72 as June 11, rather than sixth day of the ll th month of 1792.  And they read the handwritten year as 1791, when the typist has put it as 1792. 

See the typed version below...with months listed as left numerals (but again, in Quaker version)

The minutes of the New Garden monthly meeting in 1806 report that James Witty had removed with his family to the visit (?) of the Miami Meeting. (This location is unknown to me, the modern one is in Ohio.)  Since he hadn't followed their proper procedure, another member was going to visit him and make sure everything was alright and report back next monthly meeting.

In the next meeting minutes, a report is made that the Friends who visited James Witty and his family gave a certificate saying all was well with them.

He apparently remarried in 1800 or so to Lucretia Wells (Witty) in Tennessee.  This has no documentation however.  Their first son, George Witty (1808-1865), was indicated to have been born in TN in 1805. But with the notation of the New Garden Meeting of Friends that it was 1806 when his family moved from Guilford County, NC, I question that these 2 events happened in TN.  I also found that his son George had a headstone which says he was born in 1805, but there are newspaper clippings (just found on Ancestry) saying he was the first child born in Limestone County, AL in 1808.

I believe that the records saying both the marriage and the birth were in TN are due to the boundaries of the states being close to one another.  It's possible the marriage was in NC or TN with or without any records, but that the birth of George Witty was in their new home along the border of TN and AL.  My hunch is based on the Guildford Quaker document of 1806 about the family moving, and the newspaper clipping.  But there seem to be no records saying that TN was indeed the location of these events.  So we don't know where the indication of TN marriage and birth came from. And some Quakers just marry by saying they are doing so in presence and the witness of other Quakers.

Anyway, back to James.  His second wife was named Lucretia not Elizabeth.  Her father's will (James Wells d.1810) states "Lucretia Witty" would receive some money, as well as "her sister Elizabeth Riece." That's enough for me to put two and two together and know Elizabeth Wells Riece wouldn't have had a sister named Elizabeth Wells Witty...and so now there's correction of her first name (born in 1775 in Surry County NC.)

James Witty left Guilford NC (The New Garden Meeting) and took off for the frontier through TN, and then to Alabama, and he met and married Lucretia. His first 5 children died by 1794, except perhaps Elizabeth. But he had a land claim which is mapped.  It's rather confusing, but apparently he was one of the founders of that area, on the border of Tennessee. There's a better copy of this map somewhere, showing James Witty's land.

While I was looking at Uncle George Witty's Ancestry site, I found a photo of the Witty Cemetery in Limestone County, Alabama.  It was completely overrun by trees, but the photo of George's headstone looks as if someone might have cleared it out.  I would imagine Grandpa James is also buried there, as well as other Witty's living and dying in that area. (Uncle George was a older brother of my 3 x great grandfather, Carroll Witty (1818-1898) who was born in Limestone, AL, then moved from Alabama to Texas.

Some of the Witty graves, Limestone, Alabama.

And updating information on Feb. 25, 2021...

The 1830 Census has James Witty with the following people living in Limstone, AL. It is believed that James died in that year...or soon after this census. 

Free White Persons - Males - 10 thru 14

1  child  Carroll was 12, Calvin was  6

Free White Persons - Males - 15 thru 19

1 teen Jackson was 15

Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29

1 young man - George was 25

Free White Persons - Males - 30 thru 39

1 young man ?

Free White Persons - Males - 60 thru 69

1 James Witty was 67

Free White Persons - Females - Under 5

1 child  Martha Jane was 3

Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19

1 teen ?

Free White Persons - Females - 20 thru 29

2 young women ?

Free White Persons - Females - 50thru 59  

 

   Lucritia Witty was 55

After James' death, Lucretia Witty remarried in 1837 to Lewis Barnett, in IN.  He mentions her to receive the proceeds from his property in his will in 1849. His executor is his brother. There are no children mentioned in his will.

Carroll Witty was in the 1840 census on his own (age 22)...in Limestone AL. He has several other people living with him, but he didn't marry Susan Hoke Witty until 1843. Of all the sisters/brothers in his family, I can't figure out who they are in that census...there were 7 of them, two of whom were in their 40s, male and female. But both of these Witty censuses didn't have any slaves in their household. 

Lucretia's life is certainly interesting...and confusing. There were several other documents about her marrying John Ellis in the same year she married James Witty, or while she was having children in the Witty family. So it may be possible that she had Ellis as a husband somehow. I've kept a copy of a photo of a headstone for Lucretia Ellis in KY. Unfortunately it isn't clear enough to read.

She was my great times 4 grandmother.

The Witty family in Texas

 

Witty's Fish and Chip truck, probably belonging to a later descendant of the Witty family. Pocklington is the site, and they supposedly had North Sea Fish from the Boat Daily. I'm curious what the Saloon represents, but I sure understand Fried Fish and Chip.  The only Pocklington I've located is a road in 

El Passo Texas. And no matter what the locale it would have to be within, say, 20 miles of the coast where the fish were caught.

So a 20th century cousin might have owned this business. I'll be looking at other Wittys who lived in Texas (an assumption that this truck would have been in Texas) 

The first Whitty to settle in Texas (on my family's line) was Carroll Whitty from Alabama, my great times three grandfather.

A repost from several years ago...

Carroll Witty, (1818-1898), my 3 times great grandfather on my mother's maternal side, the Booth Family Tree.

I found an Alabama agricultural census for 1850 had been recently added, with Carroll Witty having no land, either improved or unimproved, and no value of a farm, but $100 value for farm implements.  For the same year the federal census said he had a household of 8 persons.  He was 31, his wife Susan Hoke Witty was 32, and he had children; John C. 6. James 5, Martha E. 3, Mary 2, Thomas 0, and Joseph Hoke, 57 (his father-in-law).

The population census for the same year includes his brother (Andrew) Jackson Witty living next listing to his. Jackson did own land.  And his household was very interesting.  Jackson was 35 and his wife Emily was 26, and his mother's sister, Elizabeth Wells lived with them, age 75, and perhaps a cousin Sarah Wills 35 and unknown relationship Carlin Wills 26, and a mis-transcribed person Matilda Collins, 9 (listed as Marilda Colling).

I must salute Carroll Witty for taking his family to Texas, for being an entrepreneur and starting a new community (with partners) and for being a man with a mission.  He may have been a farmer in 1850, but by 1852 he was in Marshall TX, and by 1860 all the way in Hill County, Subdivision, TX.

This is a man who traveled far, as well as had a big family.  Though his 2 oldest sons took part in the Civil War, (and one died in it) there's no record that he did.  His family grew up, and daughters and sons married and moved away, and he continued to be a farmer.  In the 1870 census he had property valued at $1000 and his youngest 3 children as teenagers were living at home as well as his oldest son James who was a stock raiser (perhaps cattle.)

Granpa Carroll is listed as Terrell Witty, living with his wife Susan, in the 1880 census, with their daughter Susan actually 24, but listed as 20 living with them, as well as a niece, Freby Moore, age 21.  He is listed as "Terrell Witty" clearly in the handwritten form, but when someone says Carroll for a man's name, perhaps the census taker understood it as Terrell.  And their daughter Susan Witty (1856-1902) had married in 1876 in Hunt County TX to James Moore (1854-1931)...but for some reason was living with her parents and using her maiden name.  And whoever Freby Moore was, the niece, she was born in Alabama.  Perhaps a relative of James?  Susan and James Moore didn't have their daughter, Edna May More, until 1885.

But this Uncle James "J.J." Moore (b. 1856 Marshall TX) had a life which continued after his wife Susie Witty Moore died in 1902, and he remarried to have more children.  He also lived until 1932, and here's a great photo of him in his corn field in 1930.

Great times 3 Uncle James Joseph Moore 1854-1932

Back to where Granpa Carroll's roots came from...Limestone County AL.

First is a map of Alabama showing where Limestone County is located, at the very top on the middle, very close to Tennessee. Madison is the next county over to the east, where Susan Hoke Witty was born.

The Tennessee River has been damed more recently than when the Wittys lived in Limestone County.

 

On the topographic map below, you can see Athens, Limestone County as well as tiny Mooresville, in the southern part of the county. And don't believe your eyes that the Tennessee River starts anywhere in AL...it is fed from North Carolina mountains around Knoxville, where several rivers join up to form the Tennessee.

Limestone County, AL - used to be a cotton raising area.  Athens is s city in Limestone County.  My great times 4 grandfather, James Witty (abt. 1768 - 1830-40), may have lived in an area like this, where Carroll Witty, (1818-1898) his son, was born.

Mooresville AL - FYI

Mooresville is one of the oldest incorporated towns in Alabama, having been incorporated on November 16, 1818, when Alabama was still a Territory.

The entire town of Mooresville, described as a picturesque early 19th century village, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many of the older public buildings, including the Stagecoach Inn and Tavern, the Brick Church, the Post Office, and the Church of Christ, are owned and maintained by the town's residents.

Old Post Offece in Mooresville, AL  Photo by Brian Stansberry

Mooresville Post Office (1840) – located at the corner of Lauderdale and High streets, this post office is the oldest in operation in Alabama and has call boxes dating before the American Civil War. The call boxes and some of the office furnishings actually predate the building, having been used in the nearby Stagecoach Inn and Tavern.

Photo: Robbie Caponetto

Small Town We Love: Mooresville, Alabama

In Southern Living magazine...

A real-life living museum. 

by Lacy Morris

Population: 53

Why We’d Move There
History reigns supreme in this postcard-size town. As a matter of fact, the entire town, all 0.1 mile and six streets of it, is included on the National Register of Historic Places. White picket fences frame tree-shaded streets and buildings where Presidents have slept. Visiting here is like stepping back into a time of gracious plenty, where city noise is the rustling of oaks and congestion is the growth of moss on clapboard cottages.

The Community
Though there’s a larger city on either side of this Tennessee River town (Huntsville to the east, Decatur to the west), no one seems eager to leave. In fact, the mayor, Margaret-Anne Crumlish, is the third generation of her family to take the seat and the seventh consecutive generation to live in Mooresville.

The Perfect Day
Start at JaVa.Mooresville on North Street, where Jack McReynolds, the unofficial town record keeper, serves lattes, lemonades, and apple pies. Then lace up your walking shoes for a guided tour (256/355-2683) with a resident. Stops include the Stagecoach Inn and Tavern, where town council meetings are still held, and the post office, the oldest one in continuous use in Alabama. Stop over at 1818 Farms (1818farms.com) to buy organic eggs, lavender linen spray, and goat’s milk bath bubbles. And don’t even think about leaving town without visiting Lyla’s Little House (lylaslittlehouseal.com), where Mrs. Lyla Peebles sells her candies, cheese straws, and homemade ice cream along with vintage dishware. On Fridays in summer, join Bonnie Richardson as she hosts margarita nights on the porch of her home, Cedar Lane.

Locals To Know
Sixth-generation resident Woody Peebles has lived on the same street for 64 years. You’ll find him in the Peebles House on North Street, where he lives with wife Lyla. The two went on their first date 30 years ago on a Tuesday, and by supper on Friday, Woody had proposed. Now they act as the town’s party planners, hosting events at The Dance Hall.

Don’t Miss
The 1839 brick church on Lauderdale Street has a wooden hand pointing toward heaven atop the steeple. It was carved by Bonnie Richardson’s “Pa,” who worried that people wouldn’t know which way to heaven. 

Old Brick Church (1839) photo by M. Kauffman - date of photo unknown. It looks like part of the building was being renovated...as that entranceway is definitely a bit rudimentary.

How many brothers and sisters do we know about for Carroll Witty?

I'll post tomorrow about his father's two wives, and the many children.