Willie Allday

Notes:

Milam County, Texas David Allday

SOURCE: History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. (Chicago, IL: Lewis, 1893), p. 630.

DAVID ALLDAY, of Jones prairie, Milam county, was born in Burke county, Georgia, September 7, 1831. His father, Peter Allday, was born in the same county and State February 5, 1794, and was there reared. December 23, 1824, he married Louisa Ward, daughter of the Rev. Frank Ward, of Georgia, whose wife was a Miss Baton, whose ancestors settled and named Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Ward were: James Ward, Charles Ward, Frank Ward, Gus Ward, Louisa Ward and Amelia Ward.

Peter Allday enlisted for service in the war of 1812, but made only two days' march toward reinforcing Jackson, near New Orleans, when the news of that battle reached his ears. He returned to the farm, and there engaged in farming till 1855, when he came to Texas, settling in Milam county, where he died May 21, 1867, still engaged in farming till his death. He possessed good judgment, but never accumulated a great deal of property. He was consistent member of the Methodist Church, and was much noted for his piety. He never used an oath in his life nor indulged in strong drink. His father, grandfather of the subject of this notice, was at one time Sheriff of Burke county, Georgia, in the days when branding criminals was in vogue.

Peter Allday's children were: Absalom Pryor Allday, born September 20, 1825, now a physician of Robertson county, Texas; Francis Asberry Allday, who was born July 5, 1829, and who is supposed to have died in the Confederate army; David Allday, the subject of this notice; Ann Allday Moore Jones, deceased, was first married to Daniel Moore and had two children, and secondly married J. R. Jones; Richard Arnold Allday, who was born July 7, 1836, and was killed in Arizona during the late war; James Augustus Allday, who was born September 25, 1838, died in the Confederate army; Charles Allday, born February 5,1841, now a Methodist minister in Alabama; Peter R. Allday who was born April 30,1844, and died November 25, 1861, in the Confederate army; Mary B. Allday Taylor, born November 18,1845, is now the wife of William M. Taylor; Amelia F. Allday Jones, born December 1, 1847, is the widow of Anderson Jones; Louisa Lodema Allday Jones, born July 29, 1850, is now the wife of James Jones, of Davilla, Milam county.

Just before Christmas, 1855, David Allday came to Texas, having left Georgia and proceeded overland, crossing the Mississippi river at Natchez. The seven wagons of the company were bound for Waco, but the party were induced by Doctor Allday, who was then living at Port Sullivan, Milam county, and who was familiar with the country, to settle near the mouth of Pond creek, in this county. The land was bought of the Rev. Rufus C. Burleson, the eminent Baptist minister, who for many years was president of the Baylor University. Mr. Allday engaged in farming from 1855 to 1861, when he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in a company raised mainly in Robertson county, which was attached to the Eighth Regiment, under Colonel Young. The command operated west of the Mississippi, and participated in a number of engagements in the Arkansas and Louisiana, among the series of fights following Banks' Red river campaign. In the spring of 1865 the army returned to Texas, and at the close of hostilities was disbanded at Hempstead. Mr. Allday's first real-estate purchase was in Milam county, and consisted of 132 acres. He now owns 275 acres, and is cultivating 125. The average annual yield of his farm is from twenty-five to thirty bales of cotton, and other products in proportion.

He married December 14, 1865, to Miss Sarah L. Taylor, daughter of McClem Taylor. This union was blessed with eight children: James Allday, born September 28, 1866; Emma Allday born December 11, 1868; Peter McClem Allday, born November 18, 1870; John Allday, born September 20 1872; William D. Allday, born August 4, 1876; Janie Allday, born April 14,1878; Roxie Allday, born January 3, 1883, and Charles Allday, born March 31, 1888. Mrs. Allday died April 9, 1892. The family are connected with the Missionary Baptist Church.
NOTE:

David Allday - Private, Co. C, 12th Regt. Texas Infantry (Young's)
F. A. Allday - Private, Co. K, 32nd Regt. Texas Cavalry (Crump's Battalion, Mounted Volunteers)
P. R. Allday - Private, Co. C, 4th Regt. Texas Infantry
R. A. Allday - Private, Co. E, 4th Regt. Texas Cavalry (4th Mounted Volunteers)


We must say a special thank you to Sylvia Thomas of Georgetown, Texas, for typing the above biographical sketch for use on the Milam County TXGenWeb site

Absalom married Sarah Ann Johnson 1853. Sarah (daughter of Willis F. Johnson and Nancy Reddick Greer) was born 9 Aug 1827, Hillsboro, Jasper, Georgia, USA; died 28 Apr 1916, Owensville, Robertson, Texas, USA; was buried , Owensville Cemetery, Owensville, Robertson, Texas, USA. [Group Sheet]

Peter married Louisa Ward 23 Dec 1824, Burke County, Georgia, USA. Louisa was born 29 Jul 1806, Georgia, USA; died 1884, Milam County, Texas, USA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Lafayette was the county seat of Chambers County, Alabama from 1833 to present. Originally known as Chambersville, name changed to Lafayette in 1835. Incorporated in 1835. Post office established in 1875.

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Cemetery notes and/or description:
Description: An old cemetery - the later portion (German) is tended, the older Anglo-Saxon side is overgrown. About 2.5 miles ENE of Greenvine on a gravel road. There are 55 to 60 grave spaces indicated by brick or rock surrounds or rock markers with no legible information on them.

The following article is excerpted from the Historical Marker application, written circa 1991:

Bethlehem Cemetery in south Washington County, Texas, is a cemetery containing persons and their family members who were among the very first Anglo-American settlers to Stephen F. Austin's colony, the "old three hundred". The Allcorn (sometimes spelled Alcorn) family, who have family members in this cemetery, were the second Anglo family to arrive in present Washington County spending the last night of 1821 by a creek they subsequently named with dawn, "New Year's Creek".

Bethlehem Cemetery is located on five and three-fourths acres of the original Josiah Lester League in Washington County, a headright league granted to Lester by the Mexican government and later conveyed by him to Erwin Brown. It was Erwin Brown, in turn, who conveyed the five and three-fourths acre parcel on August 13, 1851, to the trustees of the Bethlehem Academy for the purpose of a settlement school and house of worship for the Baptist and Methodist denominations. The first trustees receiving the deed were James C. Crenshaw, James Lane, Leander Burns, Willis Johnson, and I. M. Harris.

The site soon also became a "burial place for the neighborhood", as cited in an officially recorded agreement signed April 14, 1873, between the Bethlehem trustees and one J. E. Gray for erecting a fence around the cemetery. The first burial for which there is an extant marker was that of Susan J. Burdett, age 39, who died in 1852 (though Henry Burdett, age about 65, may have died earlier; his tombstone gives only his age and not date of death).

Little Rufus Mallets, one of the earliest burials with an extant headstone, appears on the 1860 mortality census (1859 deaths): he died of the "flux" in November, 1859, at the age of one. Also on that mortality census were members of the Armstrong, Crenshaw, Barnhill, Woods, Bowers and Sanders families--- most of them infants, who may have been buried without headstones in many cases. It is a sad commentary on the infant mortality rate of the day to read that census.

Bethlehem Cemetery is now a beautiful, spacious, old (and new) cemetery, located on the very top of a high rolling hill that overlooks the Mill Creek valley, home to the earliest of the Anglo-Texans settlers. Some of these earliest of settlers belonged within one lifetime to the Republic of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America, and the Confederate States of America-and some a second time to the United States of America.

Today the cemetery is in a remarkably attractive condition. Several plots are enclosed still by their original wrought iron fences, standing guard after all these years. The feeling of the cemetery is one of quiet, rural peace and endurance. The cemetery was restored by a group of citizens banded together at nearby Greenvine Lutheran Church March 6, 1988. Donations were taken at this first meeting and one man hired to rid the site of the major obstructions. Then citizens literally lined up shoulder to shoulder and cut their way into the jungle with chain saws. A couple of years prior to that some persons crawling through the brambles, briars, and brush, and snake holes, seeking an ancestor's tombstone, were trapped and got out only by tearing up clothes and skin-the older part of the cemetery had gotten to that state. After the chain saw crews' attack, men, women and children followed up against the brush, weeds, and trash, carefully working around the old tombstones and iron fences. Anyone viewing the cemetery today will have a hard time imagining what it was like three years ago.

The Bethlehem Cemetery group makes this application to the state of Texas for a historical marker for following reasons: this is, no doubt one of the more historical cemeteries of the state, both for its location and for the pioneers buried in it; these pioneers gave so much to the Republic and to the state that they are deserving of respect and perpetual remembrance; and a historical marker will contribute toward protecting this site from future neglect and any future vandalism. Present day and future citizens need to know who built this state and where its origins lie; and they need occasionally to stop and visit these peoples graves in this lovely place. Bethlehem Cemetery is today part of what remains of colonial Texas.

Source: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&GSln=Doerntge&GSiman=1&GScid=2383&CRid=2383&pt=Bethlehem%20Cemetery&

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Wharton County, Texas (979) 532-2381
https://coclerk.co.wharton.tx.us/external/User/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fexternal%2fIndex.aspx
No records of Willis Johnson from 1845-1900. Researched 10/14/2013

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Yorktown Public Library - 103 West Main, Yorktown, Texas 78164
(361) 564-3232
yplbeth@yahoo.com
***Nothing as far back as 1850s***

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Yorktown Historical Museum
144 West Main
Yorktown, TX 78164
(361) 564-9115

Has old tax records that haven't been indexed

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Milam County Courthouse and all county records were destroyed by fire in April 1874.

Willis married Nancy Reddick Greer Abt 1825. Nancy (daughter of John D. Greer and Sarah "Sallie" Hunt) was born 9 Aug 1805, Hillsboro, Jasper, Georgia, USA; died 9 Oct 1878, Fairview, Lincoln, Wyoming, USA; was buried 9 Oct 1878, Fairview, Lincoln, Wyoming, USA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

James McGaw was an early LDS missionary in Texas in 1848 to the Dallas area of Texas. In 1851 he may have been in Grimes County (borders Washington County) and may have converted the Sprouses. Washington Lafayette Jolley was the caption of the company that left Texas in 1854 to Utah.

Edward W. East mentions Preston Thomas as a missionary in Port Sullivan, Texas and he KEEP A JOURNAL. Preston Thomas was a captain of a wagon train leaving Texas in 1856.

An 1848 missionary companion of James McGaw was William Martindale.

See: http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/19911/First-LDS-bishop-in-Idaho-a-pioneer-for-gospels-sake.html


Preston Thomas's March 14, 1849 letter to Orson Hyde mentions that a number of interesting fact:
- Preston Thomas and William Martindale meet James McGaw at Weston, Missouri (on the Mississippi River)
- Preston Thomas visits is brother Daniel Claiborne Thomas at his home in Burton, Texas (8 miles from Brenham)
- Martindale and McGaw baptized 5 persons east of Burton in the Brazos River (FIND NAMES).
- Preston Thomas baptized a young man in Washington County before going to the settlements on the Guadalupe River to preach.


https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE3974986

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Seth M. Blair Journal Entry September 12, 1854 "Sept. 12th Br Me today baptized Jas. Johnson bro of Br S.M. Johnson who was converted by the Lord through my preaching -

13th Today blessed 9 children and baptized 5 - Sarah East (RB) James Sharp, Nancy Johnson and Margarett and Adeline Jones - thus the Lord has blessed his servant and now raised up a church of 24 members with the 9 children blessed no 34 members of the church in this place some of whom are enjoying the gifts etc - for which I pray the Lord to accept the grattitude of his servants _____ to _____ increase the work." (pages 45-46)


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Washington Lafayette Jolley and John Osler were probably the first Mormon missionaries that the Johnson family encountered in 1852(per "Reminiscences of E. W. East).

Henry G. Moyle was probably another early missionary.

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According to the Johnson-Greer-Davis Connection book "After John’s death Nancy was back with her clan ready to strike the trail when the call came from President Brigham Young to go to southern Idaho and northern Utah." John Sprouse died 27 Oct 1858 and on the 27th of June 1860 Nancy is still in the 6th Ward in SLC according to the 1860 census. We don't have record of Nancy north of SLC until the 1870 census.

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1851 Missionary James McGaw arrives in Texas

https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1121665

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1852 John Brown, Preston Thomas, Washington Jolley and William Camp are called to serve missions in Texas.

https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1121665
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1854 William C. Martindale arrived in Texas.

https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1121665

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"The Community of Laketown has always maintained a belief in the value of formal education. The first organized school was held in 1869, and conducted by Nancy Greer Johnson, three months out of the year. Later, around 1876, a bright, well educated young man, Robert Spence, came to Laketown and began teaching."

Source: Laketown Master Plan December 2007, page 7,http://laketownutah.com/uploads/master_plan.pdf

Notes:

The following are references to Snelling Johnson in the Spotsylvania County Records 1721-1800:

Page 483 - Jany. 28, 1796. James Nelson of Louisa Co. to Joseph Nelson of Spots. Co. £50 curr. 50 a. in Spots. Co., etc., etc. John Carter, Zachariah x Wharton, Snelling x Johnston. April 5, 1796.



The 1790 and 1800 census records for Virginia were destroyed by fire during the War of 1812 with the British.

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Hannah Greer (daughter of John D. Greer and older sister to Nancy Reddick Greer) and her husband Thomas Flew Nolan are living in Montecello, Jasper, Georgia (1820 census) in 1820 which is 9 miles from Hillsboro.

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GRANTOR GRANTEE DATE RECORDED
Irwin, Benjamin Snelling Johnson 2/10/1818
Merritt, Thomas Snellen Johnson 5/5/1823

Source: http://georgiaarchives.org/what_do_we_have/online_indexes/pdi/RG179/179-01-006.htm

New court case for Snellen

Ferrell, Cuthbert and Amos Jones vs. Snellen Johnson
Johnson, Snellen and Alfred Johnson vs. Benjamin Barron
Johnson, Snellen vs. Benjamin Marshall
Johnson, Snellen and Alfred Johnson vs. Isaac C.W.T. McKissack
Johnson, Snellen vs. Hezekiah W. Scovill
Johnson, Snellen, Alfred Johnson and Reuben Dawkins
Johnson, Willis, Alfred Johnson, Snellen Johnson, Jeptha Clements and John Grier vs. James Whitfield
Moore, Aaron vs. Snellen Johnson

Johnson, Alfred, Snelling Johnson, Administrator and LaFayette Johnson vs. W.C. Clement
Johnson, Snelling vs. John H. Brantley for use of John Greer Johnson, Snelling vs. Hamilton Brown, Peyton Gwyn and James Gwyn
Johnson, Snelling vs. Charles Kelsey, Alfred M. Hobby and Charles McIntire
Johnson, Snelling and Jarrel Beasley vs. George Stephens,
Steven Stephens, Administrator and William Stephens, Administrator
Johnson, Snelling vs. John T.C. Towns

Johnston, Snelling vs. James Cowen and Thomas B. Erwin
Merrit, Thomas vs. Snelling Johnston.


From this website: http://georgiaarchives.org/what_do_we_have/online_indexes/pdi/RG179/179-01-001.htm

Snellen married Mary Foreman. Mary (daughter of Isaac Foreman and Sarah F Lucas) was born 5 Nov 1778, South Carolina, Britsh Colonial, USA; died 9 Apr 1856, Hillsboro, Jasper, Georgia, USA. [Group Sheet]

John married Sarah "Sallie" Hunt 14 Feb 1782, Edgefield District, South Carolina, USA. Sarah (daughter of Nathaniel Hunt and Nancy Reddick, daughter of Nathaniel Hunt and Nancy Reddick) was born 26 Feb 1763, Edgefield, Edgefield, South Carolina, USA; died 8 Aug 1835, Troup County, Georgia, USA. [Group Sheet]