My Great Great Grandmother Dorcas White Williams, Chapter 1

  I decided to see what was new on my mom's ancestors. I started with her father that died young, Bud Webb. His mom had been Annie Elizabeth Williams. And her mother was Dorcas White Williams.

I hadn't been able to find Dorcas' parents and hated that she was a dead-end so to speak. The description is usually called a "Brick Wall."

So I looked back on my Ancestry tree to Dorcas' husband, Great Great Grandfather William T. Williams, who was born in Missouri, and came to Texas with his wife, Dorcas and daughter Annie Elizabeth and the rest of the family.

It was interesting to read about all the Williams' families...lots of brothers and sisters. And then I decided to read about Liberty Williams...a brother of W. T. (yes many of these people went by their initials!)

And Liberty had married a woman named Luvicy "Jane" White. I wondered if she was related to Dorcas White. It seemed they were sisters!

What a great coincidence. So then I could go up Great Great Aunt Jane's tree and find Dorcas' parents, and many more generations!

I'm going to save the documentation about Great Great Grandma Dorcas White Williams. 

Dorcas was born on 19 Dec. 1825 in Lincoln County KY to Henry A. White and Elizabeth Hocker White. (I'll investigate their ancestors on another blog.)

Her brother William White was born in Lincoln County KY in Dec. 1830, and then the family moved to Missouri before her next sibling, George Robinson White was born on 9 Oct 1837. 

So her father Henry lived first in Lincoln County, KY, then in Montgomery County, MO...until he died at the age of 66 in 1870.

Her husband W. T. Williams had been born in a different county in KY, Pulaski County, which is pretty close to Lincoln county. Their family came from KY to Montgomery County MO between 1830 and 1833...based on where their children were born. W.T.'s father died in Montgomery, MO in 1850, and his mother, Nancy Williams died also in MO in 1860.

Dorcas married W. T. Williams probably when a preacher was available, around 1827. Their first son was born in 1828. In the 1850 census for Montgomery County MO, W. T. and Dorcus are living on their own farm right next door to his father Richard Williams. There's a 5 year old girl also in the household named Malinda Packston. I have no idea who she was.

Details of this census below...

The 1860 census says they live in Middletown, Montgomergy County, MO...with 5 children and W. T. is listed as a carpenter. There are merchants and other carpenters along the same street.

Because W. T. has a rather common name, even when using his full name rather than initials, there are several who were in the Union Army. Since Dorcas was able to apply for pension benefits as his widow, I will assume that was the only position he served during the Civil War. It says he served as G 1 Mo L Art - which I cannot transcribe accurately. When she filed following his death in 1898 she was living in the Indian Territory (probably what became Oklahoma.) 

Their son (William Franklin Williams) had married a Choctaw woman (Mollie E. Foster Williams) while they lived in Texas. There's an interesting document which allowed him to remain on the Chickasaw lands with his wife, who was 1/8 Choctaw and their 4 children who were 1/16 blood, even though he wasn't tribal. The date of application for this family was Oct. 1898.

The 1870 census is somewhat confusing so I'm going to jump to the 1880 one. It means they now live in Goliad Texas, as farmers. Next door are 2 other families of Williams. 

Close-up detail below...

In 1880 their household consists of W. T., age 55, Dorcus age 54, W. T. Williams Jr. age 21,W. C. Williams age 20,  and O. R. Williams age 14. (This is before W. T. Jr. married Mollie and moved to the Indian Territory.)

What I noticed is that Annie Elizabeth Williams isn't on that census with her parents. And since she was born in 1862, she wouldn't have been on the 1860 census. Her marriage had been in 1877 in Texas, when she was 15. And then there's the strange 1870 one...

Detail below shows Dorcas Williams...

Still in Montgomery County, but living with a Elizabeth Witcher (or Fitcher), as the Domestic Servant in the Witcher boarding house! It does also give 2 checks in columns on the right which indicate she couldn't read or write. The town of Upper Loutre is an unincorporated area as of 2020. There are still about 200 families living in the area. 

But how did Dorcas come to be a Domestic Servant in the boarding house? Post Civil War, or Reconstruction times were hard on many people. I will keep looking for where William T. and their children might have been. At least some of them came to Texas and were together by 1880.

I will give more information on my Great Grandmother Annie Elizabeth William in another post. 

Back to 1860. I found a sister of W. T. who also lived in Upper Loutre MO but in the 1860 census. For such a small community, I'm sure if Dorcas had still been there, she would have known about the Hattie Williams Mannen family (which had a lot of children.) But the Mannen (Manning) family moved to another county in MO for the 1870 census, and then by 1880 they also had moved to Texas.

Dorcas' own sister, Jane White Williams, wife of Liberty Williams, had lived consistently in Prarie, MO, and in 1870 had 11 children. In the 1880 census Liberty had died and Jane lived in same address with 6 of her children ages 6-21, with two sons carrying on as farmers. Jane lived until 1918. The last census I've found for her was 1910, when she was living with her youngest married daughter and her family. On that census she lists that 10 of her 13 children had lived. Jane White Williams died at age 90 in 1918.

Two other of Dorcus' siblings lived into the twentieth century, as well as Dorcus in all probability. Her headstone says she died in 1900, but other information says 1906. I'll have to look at those documents later...it's late and I'm yawning now.

 

To be continued...