Westward Ho!

In this post I want to chronicle what is known about the life of my great-great-great-great-grandfather, William E. Malone (descent: Priscilla Jane Malone > Virginia Conway > Vernon Edgar Wise > James Kenneth Wise > Kendra Elaine Wise > me), henceforth W.E. (middle name unknown), particularly his and his family's movements from North Carolina to Texas in the middle 19th century.  W.E. was born August 20, 1816, in Caswell Co., North Carolina to unknown parents.  Records concerning W.E.'s early life are sparse.  Between the time of his birth and the late 1840s, he wound his way to Tennessee, where his wife (name, and date and location of marriage unknown) gave birth to a daughter, Mary~Marie E., on May 10, 1849.  The family then moved to Mississippi, where two more children were born, Alexander in ~1850, and Elizabeth in ~1853.  Between 1853 and 1860, W.E.'s first wife died, and he remarried Priscilla M. Johnson and settled in De Kalb, Kemper Co., MS, where they appear together in the 1860 Census.  Priscilla had previously been married to John Watkins (known by name only), by whom she had had the following children:

-Loucasey Watkins, born December 24, 1846 in Alabama
-Alason (Allison?) Watkins, born November 1, 1848 (location unknown)
-Margaret E. Watkins, born November 12, 1850 in Alabama
-Elyett Osborn Watkins, born December 30, 1852 in Alabama

It is clear, then, that Priscilla had previously lived in Alabama, and it is likely that she and John Watkins migrated to eastern Mississippi before his death, although I have been unable to locate any records on this man, and in Kemper Co. more generally, as the Kemper Co. Courthouse burned to the ground in 1882.

W.E. and Priscilla went on to have at least five children together:

-John W. Malone (June 29, 1861 - December 4, 1921)
-Moses Evans Malone (April 4, 1863 - September 16, 1947)
-Priscilla Jane Malone (January 7, 1865 - January 7, 1942)
-James H. Malone (January 12, 1867 - December 14, 1932)
-Malcom E. Malone (unknown - November 4, 1868 [likely died at birth])

Malone Family Bible
(Sperlon Malone, Houston, TX)

On October 23, 1863, W.E. enlisted in Company I of the 40th Mississippi Infantry under Captain Culbertson in Enterprise, Clarke Co., MS -- on the Confederate side.  His military activities appear to have taken him eastward, since on July 1, 1864 he appears on the roster for the Floyd House and Ocmulgee Hospitals in Macon, Georgia, for having fractured the lower one third of his radius.

W.E. Malone, wounded

On May 4, 1865 he was part of the military outfit that surrendered to Union General Richard Taylor in Citronelle, Mobile Co., Alabama.  The family remained in Kemper Co., MS in the years immediately following the Civil War (at least through 1867), when son John was born there.  Between then and 1870 the family began their migration to east Texas.  It is likely that the family was living in and around Navarro Co., where W.E.'s stepdaughter married Hiram Frazier on March 17, 1870.  By 1872 the family had settled in Bosque Co., where W.E. appears on county tax rolls as proprietor of 100 acres of land originally granted to A.W. Moore.

W.E. Malone, 1872 Bosque Co., TX, Tax Rolls

W.E.'s wife Priscilla died in Bosque Co. on Christmas Day, 1876, at the age of 47 and it is unknown if he remarried.  Between 1879 and 1880, W.E. resettled his family to Stephens Co., TX, west of Dallas, where his daughter Priscilla Jane (my great-great-great-grandmother) married Thomas J. Conway on October 11, 1880, at the age of only 15!  W.E. remained in Stephens Co. until his death there on January 5, 1894, at the age of 77.