More Willises - Pt. 3

By 1870 some of the Willis family had moved to Marlin, Falls County, Texas. William and Ann were there with three children. Wesley is there too with wife Agnes and seven children. By 1872 Washington had joined them (according to the 1872-1876 tax rolls.)

In 1872 a daughter, Eliza Van Buren had married and had at least one child in Shelby County, Texas.

Sometime between 1870-1880 Ann died. William is listed on the 1800 census as a widower and living with his widowed daughter Mary Williams in Shelby County. In the “Pettey's of East Texas” it states that William was buried in Corrine Cemetery in Jacksonville, Cherokee County, TX but I have found no record of this.

Washington and his family returned to Panola county by 1880. He died in 1894 according to a pension application. 

The pension application led me to discover that Washington's wife, Emily had died in Panola county and he remarried Sarah A..... in 1888. She was the one applying for the pension.

His brother, Wesley also remarried a Mary in 1875 sometime after Agnes Kent died. Wesley and Mary had three more children, Ana, Thomas and Alice. He died in Decatur, TX in 1880.

The Willis-Welch-Pettey Story Part 2

In 1854, in Lawrence County, Alabama, Martha J. Willis married James Welch from Dublin Ireland. I don't have the original copy but it appears on the Index for the county. That is the last record we have for Martha.

  

In 1860, the whole Willis and Welch families moved west. William and Ann and their younger children are living in Panola co. TX. The transcription says Bethany, but the original census says McMillan, southeast of Carthage.

Census_Year  1860 Panola County, Texas

Willis,       William    51 m Shingle maker  GA

Willis,        Ann        47   f housekeeper      SC

Willis         Eliza       19   F   Housekeeper  GA

 Willis         Sarah     17   F                        GA

 Willis         Mary      14   F                        GA

Willis         Robert     8    M                        AL

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 Willis         Wesly A.     28   M         Teamster             GA

Willis         Agnes          24   F             Housekeeper     GA

Willis         Robert         6    M                                      AL

Willis         William        5    M                                      LA

Willis         Sarah          3     F                                       TX

Willis         John           6/12 M            

The son, Washington Franklin married to Emily Horn in Logansport, LA. Her parents and a sister are buried in the Old Horn cemetery there. A later census lists three of Washington and Emily’s children as being born in Louisiana. The dates would have been 1861 through 1867.
The eldest son, Wesley, is shown above in Panola County with his wife Agnes and their children.

James Welch appears on the 1860 census for Shelby County with Nancy and several children.What happened to Martha? Where did she go? Did they divorce? I don't think she died just yet.

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