12

Children of John Wilks, Sr., & Elizabeth Mead, continued

Sally

1.6 Sally Wilks was born in 1774 at Bedford Co., VA. She married James Newman, possibly a son of Nimrod Newman and Sarah Arthur, on 4 Dec 1794 at Bedford Co., VA. Nothing else known.

John (Jr.)

1.7 John Wilks (Jr.) was born circa 1775 at Bedford Co., VA. He married Barbary Newman, daughter of Conrad Newman (from the Palatinate of Germany ca 1725 with his father and brother) and Anna Margaretta Brubeck (from Basel, Switzerland, with her father and siblings, but her mother died on the voyage), on 1 Sep 1795 at Bedford Co., VA (marriage bond).

Bedford Co., VA, Marriage Bond

Word spread that the federal government planned to remove the Native Americans from their homes. In their continuous quest for more land, white settlers moved near the border, poised to draw lots for the ceded land. John Wilks's brother Amos Wilks went first and ran a trading post with the Indians on the Chickasaw Trace, which became the Military Road widened by General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812 for his route to New Orleans. This led to the removal of the Creeks and other Indian tribes in the infamous Trail of Tears westward, and opened the area to settlement. An influx of settlers led to the formation of Alabama Territory in 1817. Lauderdale Co., AL, was created in 1818 from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Session in 1816.

The Alabama Territory was formed in 1817. Lauderdale Co., AL, was created in Feb 1818 from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Session of 1816. By 7 Mar 1818 John Wilks and his brother Amos Wilks Sr. held original federal patents to land in Lauderdale Co., AL, as shown on the Alabama Platte book in the county court house at Florence.

The first record found of JohnWilks in Grayson Co., VA, was 16 Mar 1799. He and Conrad Newman were enumerated in the 1800 census in Grayson Co., VA. Other records of John in Grayson Co. were on 27 Jan 1801, 1806, and deeds recorded 27 Jan 1807, one from John Wilks to Anderson Melton, and one from John Wilks to Samuel Wilks.

Having sold the land in Grayson Co., John and Barbary (Newman) Wilks apparently left Virginia before the 1810 census. They have not been found elsewhere, although some counties' 1810 census have been lost. By 1814 John and Barbary were in Maury Co., TN.

In 1795 Alabama became part of the Mississippi Territory. During the War of 1812, American forces defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, in which brother fought against brother, some for the Brits and some for the Americans, and so decimated the tribes that they never recovered.

John and Barbary's son Philip Wilks (ca1805-1831, my great-great-grandfather) was born in South Carolina, according to his son Benjamin Carroll Wilks's 1880 census. We have been unable to find trace their family to South Carolina, but it was on the way from Grayson Co., VA, to Oglethorpe Co., GA, so perhaps they visited John's parents, John Sr. and wife Elizabeth Mead lived.

We know that brother Amos spent time in both Chester Co., SC, and Oglethorpe Co., GA, and in fact he married there, before going to Maury Co., TN, and Alabama. Amos married Rebecca Killough, 30 Sep 1796, in Oglethorpe Co., GA, daughter of Allen Killough.

They moved with his brother John Wilks (Jr.) and wife Barbary to Maury Co., TN, and Amos was on its tax lists, 1813-1816 for one free poll. Soon they were joined in Lauderdale Co., AL, by their nephew Benjamin Wilks (son of Samuel, the Revolutionary vet), Sally Wilks and husband Jabez Beard (daughter of Samuel Wilks), and several Newmans and Rhodes from Bedford Co., VA.

The home of John Wilks's 1st cousin Sally Wilks and husband Jabez Beard in Lauderdale Co., built in 1830s, was probably similar to John and Barby's, his brother Amos's, and their nephews wholived there.

JOHN WILKS (Jr.) was a slave owner. The stories handed down from his grandson BenjaminCarroll Wilks to my Grandmother, Erie Taylor Wilks, probably exaggerate the number, but he purchased (by deed recorded in the Lauderdale Co. Court House), a negro girl named Harriet (age 12-13) from Jesse Evans for $301 on 1 Oct 1823 at Lauderdale Co., AL.

Acquiring more land he purchased from William Griffin & Elizabeth his wife of Lauderdale Co., AL for $400 paid by John Wilks, E. 1/2 of S.W. 1/4 of Section 9, Twp. 2, Range 11 West of Huntsville, and lines heretofore run by Ferdinand Sammons on 12 Sep 1827 at Lauderdale Co., AL. John Wilks, his wife and children appeared on the census of 1830 at Lauderdale Co., AL.

On 13 Aug 1831, Lauderdale Co., the estate of John's deceased son Philip was inventoried and appraised by Samuel Hammell, John Brown, John Wommack. They listed 2 cows & calves, 2 heifers, 18 hogs, one 6 yr. old horse, 2 yr. old bay colt, 1 yr. old sorrel colt, 1 framed loom, 1 side saddle and 1 man's saddle, 1 cherry bureau, and assorted household and farm implements.

The sale on 27 Feb 1832 by his father John Wilks, administrator, had buyers Charles Walton, Newman Wilks, Sterling Phillips, Jacob Rhodes, Wm. Stowe, Conrad Newman with Philip Wilks on 13 Aug 1831 at Lauderdale Co., AL. John Wilks, as administrator of son Philip's estate, signed (his mark) on a deed conveying half of land Philip bought with brother Newman, pursuant to Act of 13th General Assembly of Alabama meeting in Tuscaloosa, approved 19 Jan 1832 on 26 Jun 1832 at Lauderdale Co., AL.

John Wilks and wife Barbary sold 80 acres to Saml. Brumley for $230, the N. 1/2 of N.W. 1/4 of Section 29, Twp. 2, Range 13 W, land deeded to Samuel WILKES by the U.S. by deed on 29 Sep 1832. Recorded 4 Nov 1835 on 12 Jul 1834 at Lauderdale Co., AL.

John was mentioned in a letter from his nephew Benjamin Wilks back to brother Henry in Bedford Co., VA, "I have a tolerable crop of corn. Uncle JOHN allows I will have a hundred barrels to sell" on 18 Sep 1834 at Lauderdale Co., AL.

Stony Point Church of Christ and Cemetery, Florence, AL, on John Wilks's original Patent of sandy, reddish land, has been continuously used as a place of worship since 1816, and some Wilks-Wilkes relatives still are members there. The church is planning to celebrate its 200-year anniversary in 2016. The earliest cemetery, where Philip Wilks would be buried, is Denson Ceme., about 1/2 mile W. across the road on private property. The earliest burial in Stony Point Ceme. was 1871.

When John and Barbary's older son Newman Wilks moved to Mississippi, Newman Wilks & wife Betsy (Elizabeth Carr) sold a 40-acre tract of land for $300 to his father John Wilks, the S. 1/2 of W. 1/2 of N.E. 1/4 of Section 8, Twp. 2, Range 11 W on 4 Nov 1834 at Lauderdale Co., AL.

John was mentioned in a letter by nephew Samuel Newman Wilks to his brother Henry in Bedford Co., VA, letting him know he had safely arrived at Florence, was 27 days on the road, traveled the whole distance alone except for his dog and horse, which he'd had to trade at Wythe Co., VA, "I have been at BENs and JABES [Beard, brother-in-law] land and UNKLES JOHN and AMUS and it is as good as I ever seed and it appears to be healthy" on 9 Dec 1834 at Lauderdale Co., AL.

John Wilks Jr. and Barbary Newman immigrated on 1 Nov 1835 to Yalobusha Co., MS, part of the Choctaw Session of 1830. John's land and his son Jackson's and his sons-in-law William Brown, Thomas Crawford, and Charles Mattox's land were all original grants on the same Twp. 25 Section map of Range 4 East.

John and Barby both took sick in Jan 1836 and died there within three days of each other, according to a letter from his nephew to John's brother Henry Wilks in Bedford Co., VA. (Note by Doris Johnston: They were my third-great-grandparents.)

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