|
My Willis Family
in Newton County, Mississippi
By Joyce Willis Nicholson
 Pictured Left: Thomas James Willis and Pearlie Milling Willis
In the Jasper County Library in Bay Springs, Mississippi, I found a book on the Willis family. In it the author described how difficult the Willis family is to research. This is probably true, but with my Willis family I believe that I have a good understanding of their lineage since arriving in America.
Much of my information was obtained from a book by Edna Myrtle McNair entitled Our Willis-Hogan-Davison-Dowdle and Allied Families. The book was difficult to understand for me and I have been told it contained errors. Using the usual genealogical research methods and the hints from McNair, and through the use of Family Tree Maker, I was able to sort through the information in a meaningful way.
As a former real estate salesperson, I became interested in the research when I was looking for information on the old Boler Inn in Union. Quite by accident I opened the old Book of Original Entries at the courthouse to the last page. In thumbing down the page I found entries where Daniel and William Willis received patents in Newton County in 1835. I had seen the tombstone for Elizabeth Willis, wife of Daniel Willis, in Erin Cumberland Presbyterian Cemetery. My recollection is that on the tombstone there was a statement that she came to America in the 1820s. This was the real boost to stir me into serious research on the Willis family of Newton County. In recent years that tombstone has been replaced.
My analysis of the information obtained is that Daniel and William Willis arrived in the United States in the 1820s and managed to obtain the patents for land in Newton County. They were later joined by other Irish settlers who came in the 1840s and 1850s to escape the Potato Famine in Ireland. The Davison, Hogan, and Dowdle families were part of this migration. The area in which they settled became known as New Ireland and Lucern. Myrtle McNair cites church records on page 116 of her book that indicate Daniel and William with his wife Mary joined the Old Caroline Presbyterian Church, Neshoba County, in 1841, then transferring their membership to Pinckney in 1842.
The Family of Daniel Willis and Elizabeth Chisom
- Daniel Willis, born September 1, 1798, County Antrim, Ireland and died before 1860 in Newton County. He married Elizabeth Chisom October 5, 1818 in County Antrim, Ireland. Elizabeth was born in 1800 and died on August 8, 1877, Newton County. Evergreen Masonic Lodge #77 records indicate that Daniel was a member in 1848, 1849, and 1850.
Their children were
1. Thomas Willis, born 1820, County Antrim, Irelanddied September 20, 1863, Battle of Chickamauga, Civil War. Private, Pinckney Guards, Co. B, 8th MS Infantry Volunteers.
2. Robert Willis, born August 11, 1822, County Antrim, Ireland. In 1850 Robert was shown as a resident of Newton County and was working for Walter Nimocks, merchant. According to McNair, he later moved to Scott and Rankin Counties, Mississippi, where he worked as a merchant.
3. Mary Jane Willis, born October 15, 1824, County Antrim, Ireland died April 8, 1865, Pinckney, Newton County; married Benjamin B. Martin. (Her obituary, as reported in Pinckney Baptist Church Minute Book A, and reported by her husband, then the clerk of the church, includes the following information: Mary J. Martin, wife of Bro. B. B. Martin, who died of conjestion of the stomach and liver on the 8th day of April A. D. 1865 at her family residence in Newton County. Aged forty years, five months and 22 days, Sister Martin was the eldest daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Chisolm) Willis. She was born in the County of Belfast, Ireland on the 15th day of October A. D. 1824 when quite a childe hir parents emigrate to the United States and settled in Green County Ala about the year 1836 and in a shorte time they mooved and settled in Newton County... She was married to B. B. Martin on the 17th of November 1842 and leaves eleven children.)
4. Nancy (Letitia) Willis, born 1827, County Antrim, Ireland died 1859, Newton County, Mississippi; married William (Billie) Hogan. She was three months old when her family departed from Ireland to the United States.
5. William Willis, born 1831#, Greene County, Alabama died October 28, 1867; married Mary Jane Heslen. (McNair debates whether the surname was Chessland or Heslen. There were no Chesslands in the county at the time. There was a family of Heslens who attended church at Pinckney and this is most likely one of the girls. Mary Jane Heslen married (2) George French and moved to Freestone County, Texas.)
6. Lewis M. Willis, born 1833, Greene County, Alabama, and served in Company I, 46th Mississippi Infantry, CSA. Died unmarried after 1880, Newton County, Mississippi.
7. Eliza Willis, born November 17, 1836, Newton County, Mississippi died July 21, 1862, Erin; married J. G. Walton
8. James Sheed Willis, born January 12, 1842 died May 15, 1844, Newton County, Mississippi
The Family of William B. (Billie) Willis
William B. (Billie) Willis was born 1800, County, Antrim, Ireland, and died in 1879, Newton County, Mississippi. He was married twice. His first wife, Mary Ann Greenleaf Castles, was the widow of Thomas Castles and the mother of four daughters from that marriage. Thomas Castles is said to have died in 1829, Greene County, Alabama, and this is probably correct, as we find William Willis listed with a wife and four young females in the 1830 Federal Census of Greene County. These step-daughters were Sarah Castles, later wife of Elisha Red/d, Eliza Castles, later wife of Andrew J. Windham, Mary Castles, later wife of James Jackson (Jack) Vance, and Letitia (Letty) Castles, later wife of John Jackson. Mary Ann died about 1851-1852. The 1850 Federal Census indicates she was a physician by profession. (While the level of her professional training is unknown, Mary ranks as one of the first physicians in the county and certainly the first female of that profession. According to McNair, she delivered babies and treated the sick with herbs and homemade remedies.) According to McNair, there were two children from her second marriage:
William Willis, Jr., died young
Infant Daughter Willis, died young
The second wife of William Willis was Nancy Davison, daughter of Samuel Davison and Sarah Patterson, whom he married in 1852, Newton County. Nancy was born about 1826, Ireland. They had the following children:
- Sarah (Sallie) Willis, born 1853, Newton County, Mississippi died 1875; married William Henry Willis
- Thomas J. Willis, born October 14, 1855 died May 25, 1884; married Letitia Ann Henry on February 27, 1879. Letitia married secondly to Dr. Thomas F. Vance.
- Letitia (Lettie) Willis, born 1858, died after 1880 unmarried
- Caroline (Callie) Willis, born January 1, 1859 died October 21, 1902; married Daniel Robert Hogan
- Mary H. (Lizzie) Willis, born March 4, 1862 died May 3, 1927, Neshoba, Neshoba County, Mississippi; married (1) Henry N. Vance and (2) Nat Gully
- Elizabeth (Bettie) Willis, born 1865, died after 1880 unmarried
- Margaret (Maggie) Willis, born 1867, died after 1880 unmarried
William (Billie) Willis and four of his children are buried in a row of graves with undated markers in Erin Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Likely his first and second wives are also buried in this row, but without permanent markers.
The Family of John Willis
John Willis was born 1801, County Antrim, Ireland and died after 1850, likely Newton County, Mississippi. He married Jane (maiden name unknown), born 1801, Ireland. Their marriage produced the following children:
- John Henry Willis, born 1825; Ireland died after 1880; married Ellen _______.
- Letitia Willis, born 1832, Ireland
- Jane Willis, born 1834, Ireland; married in 1854 to Alson Red/d and moved to Freestone County, Texas
- Thomas Willis, born 1842, Mississippi
- Mary Willis, born 1847, Mississippi
The Family of John Henry Willis
John Henry Willis, son of John and Jane Willis, was born 1823, Ireland, and married Ellen (Maiden name unknown). He was a shoemaker, according to the 1870 Federal Census and later a farmer, according to the 1880 Federal Census. John Henry and Ellen Willis first appear in the 1870 Federal Census of Newton County, with their son William, his wife Sarah (Sallie) and James Johnson, said by some to have been an adopted child. Children of John Henry and Ellen Willis:
- William Henry Willis, born 1850 and married three times
- James Johnson, adopted, born 1845, Alabama. Unmarried in 1880.
The Family of William Henry Willis
William Henry Willis, son of John Henry Willis and grandson of John Willis, was married three times. He first married his second cousin, Sarah (Sallie) Willis, daughter of William Willis and Nancy Davison. This marriage produced two children: Howard Willis (1870-1874) and Sallie Ann Willis (2/12/1872-8/20/1905) who married Robert William Leach.
William Henry Willis married secondly to Christina McCraney (1854-1892), daughter of William McCraney and Elizabeth Ann McBeath. Their children were William Evander Willis (12/25/1877-3/13/1940), Ella Elizabeth Willis (1879-2/19/1961) who married Benton B. Leach, Norma Willis, 1880 died young, Fannie Willis (10/30/1882-10/4/1969) who married Jesse Lewis, and Thomas James Willis (10/5/1866-11/18/1954).
William Henry Willis married thirdly to Mary Jane Williamson. Their children were Ruben Willis (4/24/1895-- ), Nathan C. Willis (10/2/1897-- ), Herbert Lee Willis (10/4/1900--) who married Alberta Moss, and Katie Mae Willis (8/6/1903-- ).
About 1905 William Henry Willis moved from the New Ireland community in Mississippi to Oklahoma. He went there with a group of Choctaw Indians. He became a merchant, law officer, a Justice of Peace, and an occasional preacher. He was a complicated man who some considered loose in his principles. He left home one day to catch a train, saying he was going to Texas to buy merchandise and never returned. No one was ever able to find a lead as to what happened to him; however, on the eve of his departure there was a terrible storm and it said by some that he died in that storm. Others say that he wanted to go to Ireland.
The Family of Thomas James Willis
Thomas James Willis, the son of William Henry Willis and Christina McCraney, was my grandfather. He was first married to Pearlie Milling (6/13/1887-2/22/1923). Their marriage produced five children: Elbert Phinus Willis (12/15/1910-2/9/1993) who married (1) Helen Bradley and (2) Zada Wall Brand; Fletcher Obediah Willis who married Ethel Story; Alphie Stephen Willis (6/14/1914-3/7/1957) who married Grace Burnham; and Elon Willis 5/14/1916-2/20/1999) who married (1) to Charlie Vance and (2) to Scott Ashley; and an infant, born and died 1918.
Thomas James Willis married secondly to Mary Francis “Fannie” French (6/11/1890-11/01/1937). The third wife of Thomas James Willis was Mrs. Frances Harrison Reid (4/2/1882-1/21/1964).
Note from Harold Graham: Marriage records show T. J. WIllis married Mrs. Fannie Reeves on 6/19/1940. This should read Reid, the error in the original book. I double-checked that today. She was the widow of Arthur B. Reid and death records indicate her maiden name was Harrison. She is buried in New Prospect Cemetery next to A. B.
|
