GG Grandmother Dorcus White Williams' family

 Continuing to look at GG Grandmother Dorcas White Williams' family...we briefly looked at Luvicy "Jane" White Williams (1828-1918).

The other children of Henry and Elizabeth White  included Virginia M. White, born about 1826, in Kentucky. No other information is available about her  at this point.

After Dorcas was born in Dec. 1825 came a daughter Mary born around 1827...also unknown. Then Luvicy was born in Jan. of 1828 (see elsewhere about her marriage to Liberty "Buck" Williams).

Next born to Henry and Elizabeth White was a son, Caleb White, born 29 April 1829.

The first census which lists his name (Caleb) was in Pike County, MO in 1850. It lists him as being 21 years old. And he's living with an older man, J. M. White 35 who is a merchant, with a wife Margaret J. age 24. Their children are Sarah A. (7) and William M. (5) and James M. (1)

Caleb's father (and Dorcas') was Henry White, born in Virginia in abt. 1804. He had a brother James Madison White, about whom we know very little. It's possible he moved to Missouri before marrying his wife who had been born in MO. Actually I found that his grave marker is in the same part of Pike County MO, and now have a birth and death date for him.

So Dorcas' Uncle, James Madison White, b. 26 July 1816 d. 5 Feb 1858, had been the merchant who housed Caleb when he moved to Missouri. There were several other men also living in their home.

Let's get back to Dorcas' siblings...which are perhaps also going to begin to come into focus just like this uncle did...which helps see how the family immigrated from KY to MO.

Caleb and wife, Julia White. They remained in Pike County MO all their lives. Caleb died in 1909.

Caleb and Julia White with their children.

The next child born to Henry and Elizabeth White was Emily White. We don't have much information about her, birth around 1830 and death before 1850.

Next born was William White, b. 3 Dec 1831, d. 1879, who married Sophia (no maiden name). They had five children, all born in MO.

George Robinson White was the first child born in MO b. 9 Oct 1837. He lived all his life in Montgomery County, marrying when he was 33 to Serena V. Hockaday Alvord (a widow with 2 children). He lived until 19 July 1920. They had 5 children and he adopted his two step children also.

Their next brother of Dorcas was Benjamin Franklin White, (13 May 1842 - 5 Mar 1919). He married a woman named Mary and they had 4 children who lived out of 6 births. He was a farmer all his life, remaining in Missouri. One of the census records gives his name as Frank, but all the rest use Benjamin. There are 4 possibilities of service in the Civil War, and I am not going to try to figure out where he served.

The youngest child of Henry and Elizabeth White was Elizabeth E (Eliza) White, born in 1846 and died aft. 1860.

The reason I've looked at all these families of Dorcas' brothers and sisters, and especially their 1870 census records, was to try to understand how she ended up at the boarding house, listed as a servant.  She had been one of the oldest children...and had married into the Williams family which her younger sister, Luvicy did as well.  

My guess is that her husband and children left for Texas with a group of immigrating families, and perhaps at that time she was either sick, or against the move, or for some reason stayed behind in MO. 

She eventually did move to Texas though, because she lives with W. T. Williams in the 1880 census for Goliad TX.  This was a fairly big town at that time. Lots of farmers were coming to that area. I don't know when they actually arrived, but by this census, there were 3 Williams families next to each other on that census.

The first sheet has D. H. Williams, (29) (born in MO, with parents born in KY) married to R. C. (25) born in TX, with parents born in MO. The next sheet starts with their children, 2 sons and a daughter. 

The next household is W. T. Williams (55) with Dorcas Williams (54) and W. T.(21), W. C.(20) and O.R.(14) all sons. (Remember Annie Elizabeth Williams had already left the nuclear family when she married L. F. Webb in 1877 when she was 15 in Texas!) So her parents and these remaining 3 sons lived in Texas,  having immigrated including Annie, from Missouri!

But back to the other Williams family on this census record. Both of those men had been born in MO, with fathers born in KY. So who were J. G. (30) and D. H.(29)?  None of William T. Williams' brothers either 1) lived to 1880, or 2) moved to Texas, So there's a possibility these were cousins. At this time I am not looking at the children of brothers of W.T.'s father Richard Frederick Williams. There were about 15 children in that family, some of whom moved from KY to MO. I am not going to chase down the relations who then moved to Texas at this time, but there they are living close to older W.T.

In 1880, Annie Elizabeth Williams Webb was married and also living in Goliad County TX (per the census).  So it's likely that she was still communicating with her mother and father. I will continue looking at her life in a separate post.

The 1890 census records were not available because of the later fire in the Library of Congress.  Dorcas White Williams is listed as dying in 1906 in a listing of Texas deaths. It's likely that she died elsewhere (in Lavaca County) and a family member just added her name with her husband's on the same stone but they didn't know the correct date. It does have her birthday one day off. 

We know she was living in Oklahoma (Indian Territory) with her son Frank (or William Franklin Williams) when she applied for the veterans pension in 1898 when her husband died. There is a 1900 census for Chickashaw Nation, Township 10, where W.F. and Mollie are living with 4 children. No mother.

So I have searched through lots of Ancestry records today to see if anything new showed up for Dorcas White Williams. I had 3 successful records found that she was on a Goliad County Texas Census in the years 1878, 79 and 81. 

And strangely enough she was listed in a 1880 Census record, (which has disappeared from my files in Ancestry) for Columbus, Boon County, MO with: W. T. Williams,55; Dorcus Williams, 54; W. T. Williams, 21; W. C. Williams, 20; O. R. Williams, 14.

And the same family members are on the 1880 Census for Goliad, Texas  I wonder how that happened.

And another unsolved mystery is Dorcus Williams property purchase in 1874;

1874 • Tarrant County, Texas, USA

Dorcas Williams 

Patent Date: 14 May 1874 

Acres: 99.50

 District: Robertson County: 

Tarrant File: 664 Patent #: 615

So Dorcas White Williams had quite a life, full of the usual duties of wife and mother, as well as going from KY to MO as a child, then to Texas where her husband eventually died in 1898, and she died either in 1900 or 1906. And through all her long life, she was unable to read or write...according to the answers on one of her census records.