New

as of August 2008

Finding Elizabeth English Ward’s Parents

 

 

 

Finding James B. Ward’s Parents

 

A Condensed Version of Three Previous Papers with New Research Added

 by

Jerry Merritt

March 2006

 

Over the past decade I have carried out four separate research efforts trying to find the parents of James B. Ward of Dale County, AL.  Each effort generated new finds but ultimately failed to locate his parents.  This failure was not from lack of reliable data to work with, though one could certainly wish for more.  The failure was from not properly applying the data I had.  The clues were there; I just hadn’t interpreted them properly.  My purpose here is show how to use the limited reliable information still available today on James B. Ward to trace him back to his parents.

 

In a separate effort, not included here, I had already proved that James B. Ward’s parents were not John and Nahoga Ward and that the Monroe Letter and the Ward Report were fraudulent documents created to “prove” a Ward link to the Creek Indians.  That separate paper also proved that James’ wife, Elizabeth English, was not a full-blooded Creek Indian.  It is too long to wicker into this paper but Ward researchers who still think Nahoga was James’ mother or that Elizabeth English was “full-blooded” Creek Indian, should read that paper before beginning this one.  You can find a copy here.

 

With the two main documents upon which many late-twentieth century researchers had built their Ward lineage proved bogus, I started over using only government documents I could trust as genuine.  Even affidavits sworn out in the 1950s claiming Elizabeth English to be full-blooded Creek Indian are now useless since we know that wasn’t so.

 

Starting over necessarily meant trying various approaches until I finally understood how to fit the remaining clues together to find James’ birth place and parents.  In this paper I have resisted the temptation to describe the false starts and initial failures in the interest of brevity.  So, I begin with the first research effort – condensed to far less than half its original size.

 

From the First Research Effort

James B. Ward

What Do We Really Know?

 

For my first effort, my primary goal was a modest one: to positively locate James in the 1820 census and subsequently in every census until his death in the 1860s.  The farthest back I had found record of James B. Ward was Dec 1813 when he enlisted at Hartford, Pulaski County, Georgia in Captain John Thomas’ Company of the Georgia Militia. 

 

I began by locating Captain John Thomas figuring James might be living near him.  It turns out Captain Thomas was in Laurens County, GA in August of 1812.  It’s the right Thomas because he is listed several times in Laurens County records as Captain.  In 1820 he was on page 9 of the Laurens County census and listed as Major.  I also know James B. Ward applied in 1859 in Dale County, AL for land for his services in early 1814 and mentioned Captain John Thomas as his commander.

 

With John Thomas located, I turned to finding all the James Wards in 1820 Georgia, Alabama and Florida.  They were as follows:

 

All the James Wards in the 1820 Georgia Census

Appling County, GA

Page 13

James Ward

200100  30100

Burke County, GA

Page 20

James Ward

100100  20010

Burke County, GA

Page 37

James Ward

000100  11010

Wilkinson County, GA

Page 214

James Ward

000100  10100

Wilkinson County, GA

Page 221

James Ward

000100  00101

Wilkinson County, GA

Page 226

James Ward

000110  30100

Green County, GA

Page 216

James S. Ward

010110  01001

 

There was also a James Ward in the 1820 Alabama census index in Franklin County but I was not able to locate him.  I did find a Jesse Ward whom I suspect was listed incorrectly in the index as James.  There were no Wards listed in Florida but it was still Spanish.

 

1820 Appling County, GA

Page 13

James Ward

200100  30100

1820 Wilkinson County, GA

Page 214

James Ward

000100  10100

1820 Wilkinson County, GA

Page 221

James Ward

000100  00101

 

The Appling County James has 2 sons and 3 daughters that don’t fit the family of James B. Ward so I can discard him That leaves only the two James in Wilkinson County.

 

1820 Wilkinson County, GA

Page 214

James Ward

000100  10100

1820 Wilkinson County, GA

Page 221

James Ward

000100  00101

 

One of these is almost certainly James B. Ward but which one?  Well, four of James B. Ward’s children married into the family of Chesley Purvis and Lydia Wright.  And Chesley is on page 215 of the 1820 Wilkinson County census.  But Lydia is with her father on page 222.  So it’s hard to say which James is James B. based on the Purvises and Wrights, however, the Purvis/Wright connection certainly supports one of these Wards as being James B. Ward.  If we go forward to 1830 Wilkinson County, though, there is only one James Ward and he has three daughters in the 10-16 bracket.  That accounts for the daughter shown with the James Ward on page 214 plus two more apparently born in the 1820s but listed incorrectly.  Anyway, our James had sons by then so this can’t be him.  We know from The History of Wilkinson County, GA  that the Ward on page 214 married Sarah Jones.  So James B. Ward was on page 221.

 

What exactly have we now gained by locating James B. Ward in 1820?  Well, it lets us ask whether there were others there with him who might provide clues to where he came from or who his parents were?

 

I began looking for a nearby James English who could have been Elizabeth English Ward’s father.  A James English was living in 1820 Wilkinson County.  That James English and his wife, however, were both in the 16-26 age bracket so they can’t be Elizabeth’s parents.  Where, then, was the James English who raised Elizabeth?

 

In the records of Laurens County which abuts Wilkinson on the south is mention of James English of Baldwin County who sold property in 1808.  Baldwin County abuts Wilkinson County to the north.  As an added note, a James Ward paid taxes in Baldwin County in 1815.  I have found evidence that this is James B. Ward and will cover this a bit later.  He may have met Elizabeth then since a James English lived there in 1808 and perhaps until 1815 or later.  Then in 1819, a James English owned land on Turkey Creek in Laurens County.  In 1819 he also appraised a brace of hogs with Abraham Payne in Laurens County.  So we have James Ward in 1820 Wilkinson County bracketed by James English to the north and Captain John Thomas (and later James English) to the south. 

 

You’ll notice that our James Ward had a female 45+ living with him in 1820.  This may be his mother since Elizabeth’s father was still alive up to about 1837.  So perhaps we shouldn’t be looking for James’ father in 1820 since his mother was almost certainly a widow if she was living with him.  We need to go to 1830 and see if we can find a James Ward with a female over 55 living with him. But first we have to go to Jackson County, FL where James lived for most of the 1820s.

 

A Florida Side Trip

 

 

Confirmation Office

Pensacola December 10th 1824 - Sir,

 

We have the honor to transmit an abstract of claims to lands in West Florida marked I. Founded on habitation and cultivation between 22nd February 1819 and the 17th July 1821, reported to Congress in obedience to an act entitled "an act granting donations to certain actual settlers in the Territory of Florida". It has been deemed expedient to make this report, at an early period, as the act may require amendments and this class of claims is subject to future legislation.

We have the honour to be with high consideration of respect

                                                                        Your obedient Servants

                                                                        Sam R. Overton

                                                                        Jos. M. White

                                                                        Commissioners

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives

A Report of Claims of Land in West Florida, Founded on Habitation and Cultivation in Obedience to an Act of Congress, approved 26th May 1824

 

I. (I have extracted the Jackson County Wards only. j.m.)

 
No.
Name of Claimant
Age
# Acres
Cultivated
Where Situated
 70
John Ward
 21*
...
Jackson County
 71
James Ward
 21*
...
Jackson County
101
Nathan Ward
 21*
5 or 6
Jackson County
*Everyone in this document was listed as 21

All of this is respectfully submitted
Signed Sam'l R. Overton
Jos. M. White 

 

This document indicates that James Ward was in Florida before the 17th of July 1821 -- just after his first son, John Jackson Ward, was born in GA the 16th of Feb 1821. Perhaps that’s why his property on Nat’s Creek was sold for taxes as shown below.  The source was in Genealogical Abstracts from the Georgia Journal (1819-1823). The following is from the 7 May 1822 Milledgeville Newspaper.

 

 

"Sold at courthouse....110 acres of land, on the waters of Nat's Creek....levied on as the property of James B. Ward, to satisfy two fi fas in favor of Robert Adams."

NOTE: fi fas is plural for fieri facias, meaning "cause it to be done". Another term is "execution". This is a judicial writ directing the sheriff to satisfy a judgment such as unpaid delinquent taxes on real or personal property from a debtor's property. In 1820 Robert Adams was living in Hancock County just NE of Wilkinson County.

 

This shows us where James B. Ward owned land in 1822 (provided we can locate that creek today).  It may also explain why he ended up in Florida.  Perhaps Robert Adams paid the back taxes and received the property as compensation.

 

Moving on -- in the Territorial Papers of the United States, Volume XXIII, pages 948-949 was a Petition to Congress by Inhabitants of Jackson County, Florida Dec 11, 1827.  A note at the end of the list stated that they are citizens of the county.

 

Among the 140 signers were: John Ward, Nathan Ward, James Ward, Matthew Tucker, John Roach, and John Smith.

 

All of the names listed above fall within a span of 13 lines on page 217 of the 1830 Dale County census. This indicates that the Wards listed in 1827 were closely connected and that the James Ward listed is James B. Ward whom we know to be on page 217 of the 1830 Dale County Census.  In 1830 all of these Wards were in either the 30-40 or 40-50 age brackets and could, therefore, be brothers.

 

As further evidence that this is actually James B. Ward in Florida in 1827, in 1900 his third son, Thomas Jefferson Ward born in 1825, listed his birth state as Florida.  In other censuses, however, he listed Alabama as his birth state.  Toward the end of this paper we shall see why James’ sons born between 1820 and 1830 listed AL as their birth state.

 

Back up into Alabama

 

By 1830 we only need to look in Alabama for James Wards since all of his children after the first were usually listed as born there.  Here are James’ children and their birth years as used in this exercise:

 

John Jackson WARD                      1821

James Madison WARD                   1823

Thomas Jefferson WARD                1825

Female WARD                            1826/1829

Wm. Josiah WARD                         1830

Benjamin Franklin WARD               1834

Elizabeth WARD                             1836

Mary WARD                                  1838

Monroe WARD                              1845

 

All of the James Wards in 1830 Alabama

Covington County

Page 234

James Ward

10001      11001

Dale County

Page 227

James Ward

0110001  1330001

Dale County

Page 227

James Ward

0021001  01

Dale County

Page 217

James Ward

130001    100001

Henry County

Page 321

James Ward

1210101  01110101

St. Clair County

Page 234

James Ward

201001    001001

               The family should have looked like this -

                                                                or this -

                                                                or this -

220001    100001

120001    100001

130001    100001

depending how those sons born on the cusps of the age brackets were counted and whether William Josiah born in 1830 was counted.

 

We have a good match with the James Ward on page 217.  He was listed in the census index as Warde.  The “e” at the end is actually an artifact made when the census taker put a dash after many of the surnames on the original census. There is a female child that I don’t have in my Ward history but she shows up in 1840, too, so she must be one of the Ward children.  We also have the first real break in the James Ward saga.  Right next to James Ward is Nathan Ward (almost certainly the one from Jackson County, Florida in 1827) aged 40-50 in 1830.  Neither, however, have an older female living with them who could be the woman with James in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA.

 

Moving on to 1840 we’ve got two James Wards in Dale County, AL.

 

James Wards in 1840 Dale County, Alabama

Dale County

Page 18

James Ward

1212001  201001

Dale County

Page 34

James Ward

0110011  102001

The family should have looked like this -           

1212001  2010001

 

Elizabeth shows up in a younger age bracket but is only off by one.

 

More Proof James B. Ward was in Wilkinson County in 1820

 

Another benefit of locating James in 1820 is that we get to see if any of the people around him in Wilkinson County stayed with him after 1820 or were with him before 1820.

 

In the 1830 Dale County census three people were grouped on the same page with James B. Ward -- Daniel Duniven, James Cooper, and John Calaway.  In 1815 Daniel Dunivent, James Cooper (born 1796 SC), and John Calloway paid taxes in Baldwin County with James Ward.  Daniel Dunevan and John C. Callaway were still there in the 1820 census and also fit the 1830 Dale County census data.  What’s the probability of three people from Baldwin County, Georgia ending up on the same page in 1830 Dale County, AL with a James Ward who was not the one from the original Baldwin County group?

 

In 1840 Dale County, James Ward has a J.L.B. McCrone on the census line next to him.  There was a John McCrone in Wilkinson in 1820 on page 222.  McCrone is a rare name.  There was only one in any given census year in the states we are looking in.  John McCrone was 45+ in 1820.  In 1830 he was in Thomas County, GA about 100 miles from Dale County, AL and was in the 50-60 bracket.  In 1840 J.L.B. McCrone was 20-30.  John McCrone had a son the right age to have been J.L.B. in both 1820 and 1830.

 

In another name match, there was a John Rodgers near James Ward in 1820 Wilkinson County, page 222.  Both John and his wife were in the 26-45 bracket.  In 1838 James Ward sold land in Early County, GA to John Rodgers for the heirs of James English.  In 1840 Early County was a John Rodgers 40-50 and his wife 30-40.  Comparing with the 1820 census ages this would have made John 26-30 in 1820 and his wife 10-20.  In 1850 John was 57 making him 27 in 1820 - a good fit.  In 1840 John had a son in the 20-30 range that fits the young son he had in 1820.

 

Still another link are two of the spies from Pulaski County who served with James in 1814 - William Ford and James Clark.  Both were in Wilkinson County in 1820 on pages 209 and 203 respectively.  Now we’ve got people associated with our Wilkinson County, GA James both before and after 1820.

 

Timeline for James B. Ward

 

1813 Hartford, Pulaski County, GA - enlistment as a spy

1814 Hartford, Pulaski County, GA - discharge

1815 Baldwin County, GA - James Ward paid taxes (see above)

1820 Wilkinson County, GA – Census records fit

1821 Listed as resident of Jackson Co., FL – 1824 Government document

1822 James’ land on Nat’s Creek in GA is sold for fi fa

1827 Signed Jackson County, FL Petition

1829 Sold land in Jackson County, FL

1830 Dale County, AL - Census records fit

1837 Dale County, AL - James English estate settlement records

1840 Dale County, AL - Census records fit

1850 Dale County, AL - Census records

 

The remainder of the first research effort looked at a potential link between James B. Ward and the John Ward who died at the breastworks on Uchee Creek in late 1813.  I have dropped that rather detailed discussion from this condensation.  It seems highly unlikely that these two are related as father and son.  James was born in SC and there is no evidence John Ward ever lived there.  We also know from Thomas Simpson Woodward’s papers that John Ward died leaving only one son.  It appears James B. Ward had several brothers as we shall see a little later.

 

 

The Second Research Effort

 

James B. Ward’s Lineage -- Are We Getting Close Yet?

 

Did James B. Ward have any brothers?

 

This second paper dealt with input I had received from various people that James B. Ward had brothers.  One source listed Nathan Ward as a brother and another listed Samuel Pollus Ward.  At the time no evidence of any kind had turned up to support these assertions.  In the absence of any evidence on these alleged brothers, I started to gather data on Nathan and Samuel to see if I could establish that they weren’t brothers of James B Ward since confirming they were brothers would be nearly impossible.

 

That search led down numerous avenues until a picture emerged that seemed to trace many of the Wards found around James B. Ward in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA; 1821-1827 Jackson County, FL; and 1830 Dale County, AL back to Spartanburg, SC.  I have carried the relevant data from that effort over to the final section of this paper.  This paring down of the data will, I hope, greatly simplify the explanations of how I finally located James B. Ward’s parents.

 

 

The Third Research Effort

 

The Real Lineage of James B. Ward of  Dale County, AL

 

Finally Making a Link to his Parents

 

A Brief Introduction

 

At the end of my last attempt to find James B. Ward’s parents I was left pondering the loose ties I had discovered to potential brothers and to some Ward families back in 1800 Spartanburg, SC.  At that point several Ward families could have been James B. Ward’s family and one family looked particularly good but I had run out of easy clues to confirm any connections.  For several years I hoped for a document to turn up naming a parent or sibling or at least James’ place of birth.  It didn’t happen, though.  It probably never will.

 

Then about two years ago I began to consider different approaches to tracing James B. Ward to his family.  I soon realized that the scientific method could be used on these hard-to-trace Ward families.

 

Science works by formulating testable, i.e. falsifiable, hypotheses to explain known facts and to make new predictions.  In science, as in all of life, there is no certainty.  Science does not prove hypotheses to be true but instead tests them repeatedly to see if they can be proved false.  If even one flaw is found, an hypothesis fails.  If after a time no flaws are found, then scientists gain confidence that the hypothesis is correct.  A new piece of evidence can come along at any time, however, and disprove any hypothesis no matter how long it has stood.  In science, therefore, nothing is ever “proved.”  Since we can never “prove” how all those southern Wards are interrelated, the scientific method looks like it might be right up our alley.

 

Now in setting up an hypothesis in genealogy it pays to state it as specifically and in as much detail as the known facts allow because that makes it easier to disprove if it is wrong.  More specificity also makes it more likely to be true if it can’t be disproved in any area.  The hypothesis, of course, also has to explain all of the data already known.  If such an hypothesis can be formulated and not proved false after an exhaustive number of checks are run against both it and its predictions, then we gain confidence that the hypothesis is right.  The rest of this paper deals with assessing such an hypothesis about the makeup of James B. Ward’s early family from 1790 to 1820.  With this new research approach in mind,  I returned to the early census data of South Carolina.

 


FORMULATING AN HYPOTHESIS


I at least knew from census data, county documents, and wills used in my last effort that:

 

  • James B. Ward was born in SC.

 

  • Had Solomon and Samuel Ward, with him in 1810 Wilkinson County, GA,  and John and Nathan Ward closely associated with him in 1824 and 1827 Jackson County, FL and 1830 Dale County, AL.

 

  • Had an elder female known not to be his mother-in-law with him in 1820.

 

We know the elder woman was not Elizabeth English Ward’s mother because Elizabeth’s father was still alive at that time.  We can then pretty safely guess that the elder woman was James’ mother and that James’ father must, therefore, have died before 1820. 

 

I started with this hypothesis:  That the Samuel, Solomon, Nathan and John Wards associated with James B. Ward were his brothers; that their father died before 1820; and that their widowed mother lived with them in Wilkinson County, GA in 1820.

 

This hypothesis is specific enough that if it is wrong I will fairly quickly find that there are no Ward families exactly matching this detailed description and will have refuted the hypothesis.  As you will notice as you read further, this hypothesis leads to many new predictions about James B. Ward’s childhood family.  That is, things that must be true in order for the hypothesis to be true -- like having age slots for each of the hypothesized brothers in the families we find and those same families disappearing from SC by 1820 because they should be in GA with James.  Much of what follows merely checks those unstated predictions as they spin off of the hypothesis.

 

So, once we find SC Ward families using the given names listed above, we need to sort out those whose father died prior to 1820.  Then we have to determine those that were no longer in SC by 1820 – because they will have moved to Wilkinson County, GA with James B. Ward.  If we find such a family, and only one such family, and James B. Ward fits into it along with Solomon, Samuel, John and Nathan Ward we can be pretty sure we have James B. Ward’s parents.

 

For the remainder of this paper I will present evidence for two main concepts.  The first is that the Wards in and around 1820 Wilkinson County, GA are out of Spartanburg, SC.  The second is that James B. Ward is closely related to those Wilkinson County Wards and is, therefore, also from Spartanburg.  The process of verifying these two concepts will ultimately leave us with a single couple who are the only ones in 1800 SC who could be James B. Ward’s parents.   Don’t lose track of these two concepts as you get into the tangle of details in this research.  Both concepts are necessary because there is insufficient reliable data on James B. Ward alone to prove convincingly that he came out of Spartanburg.  To make a valid connection he must be linked to others who can be shown convincingly to have come from Spartanburg.

 

First, though, I need to match our 1820 Wilkinson County, GA Wards to some SC Wards.  Because the names Solomon, Nathan and Samuel are quite uncommon in the South during the 1820s (I present evidence to back this up a little later) I figured there might be a reason for our Wards bearing those particular names.  Such as them all being from the same family group.

 


FINDING NATHAN, SOLOMON, AND SAMUEL WARDS IN EARLY SC


First I needed to get a handle on how many SC Ward families have the names Nathan, Solomon or Samuel as heads of household.

 

 

In 1790 there are 40 Wards in SC with one Nathan in Spartanburg and two Samuels in Pendleton and Spartanburg.

 

By 1800 there are 48 Wards.  Only four have the names in question and show up in just two counties.

Ward

Abdon

Edgefield

 

Ward

Christopher

Edgefield

Ward

Betty

Lancaster

 

Ward

Daniel

Charleston

Ward

Christopher

Edgefield

 

Ward

Daniel

Edgefield 

Ward

Daniel

Charleston

 

Ward

Frederick

Edgefield

Ward

David

Georgetown

 

Ward

H D

Orangeburg

Ward

Dr

Charleston

 

Ward

Howell

York

Ward

Edmond

Spartanburg

 

Ward

James

Greenville

Ward

Elizabeth

Chester

 

Ward

James

Laurens

Ward

Elizabeth

Chester

 

Ward

James

Marion

Ward

Francis

Spartanburg

 

Ward

James

Spartanburg

Ward

Frederic

Edgefield

 

Ward

James

York

Ward

James

Georgetown

 

Ward

James Esq

Charleston

Ward

James

Laurens

 

Ward

Jeremiah

Abbeville

Ward

James

Orangeburg south

 

Ward

Jessey

Abbeville

Ward

James

Spartanburg

 

Ward

John

Charleston

Ward

Jeremiah

Laurens

 

Ward

John

Darlington

Ward

John

Fairfield

 

Ward

John

Orangeburg

Ward

John

Pendleton

 

Ward

John

Spartanburg

Ward

Joseph

Abbeville

 

Ward

John

Spartanburg

Ward

Joshua

Charleston

 

Ward

John

Sumter

Ward

Joshua

Charleston

 

Ward

Joshua

Charleston

Ward

Love

Charleston

 

Ward

Joshua

Georgetown

Ward

Nahan (sic)

Spartanburg

 

Ward

Joshua Estate

Charleston

Ward

Penuel

Spartanburg

 

Ward

Mark

Pendleton

Ward

Richard

Greenville

 

Ward

Mary

Fairfield

Ward

Robt

Fairfield

 

Ward

Micajah

Abbeville

Ward

Sam

Spartanburg

 

Ward

Micajah

Sumter

Ward

Samuel

Pendleton

 

Ward

Michael

Sumter

Ward

Sarah

Laurens

 

Ward

Milly

Marion

Ward

Sarah

Pendleton

 

Ward

Nathan

Spartanburg

Ward

Shaderick

Orangeburg north

 

Ward

Nathan

Spartanburg

Ward

Theophilus

Charleston

 

Ward

Richard

Greenville

Ward

Theophilus

Charleston

 

Ward

Samuel

Pendleton

Ward

Thomas

Abbeville

 

Ward

Shadrack

Edgefield

Ward

Thomas

Pendleton

 

Ward

Solomon

Spartanburg

Ward

Thomas R

Abbeville

 

Ward

Theophilus

Darlington

Ward

William

Georgetown

 

Ward

Thomas

Darlington

Ward

William

Laurens

 

Ward

Thomas

Newberry

Ward

Wm

Lancaster

 

Ward

Thomas Jr

Abbeville

Ward

Wm

Spartanburg

 

Ward

Thomas Sr

Abbeville

 

 

 

 

Ward

Walter

Abbeville

 

 

 

 

Ward

Will

Lancaster

 

 

 

 

Ward

William

Abbeville

 

 

 

 

Ward

William

Darlington

 

 

 

 

Ward

William

Edgefield

 

 

 

 

Ward

William

Greenville

 

 

 

 

Ward

William

Greenville

 

 

 

 

Ward

William

Marion

 
 

So, by 1800 we have the names Nathan twice and Solomon once in Spartanburg and Samuel once in Pendleton.  That’s a good start.  Less than one family in 200 back then was headed by Nathans or Solomons and we find three Ward families in Spartanburg in 1800 using these names.  The only other family that uses one of the three names is the Samuel in Pendleton and, while Samuel is used eight times more frequently than Nathan or Solomon, there is only one in 1800.  That puts into perspective how unusual it is finding a Nathan or a Solomon Ward back then.  Finding three together in the same county is even more remarkable.

 

Moving along, let’s check those Pendleton Wards first.  There were only two Pendleton Wards.  They don’t have the names Nathan or Solomon with them so I suspect they aren’t who we are looking for.  Comparing them against our hypothesis shouldn’t take long.  The two families are shown below in 1800 and it looks like James B. Ward could be there as well.  James would have been about 4 in 1800.

 

1800 Pendleton, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Sam’l

 

1

0

2

0

1

3

3

0

1

0

Mark

 

2

0

1

1

0

1

0

1

1

1

 

By 1810 there are two Sam’ls in Pendleton.  Neither, however, has a place for now 14 year old James B. Ward.  That rules out the two Samuel Wards in Pendleton as James B. Ward’s family.  But now there are, in all, four Ward families in 1810 Pendleton.  None, however, had places for Samuel, Solomon, John and Nathan Ward.  Mark Ward, though, had moved to Logan County, KY by 1810.

 

1810 Pendleton, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Sam’l

 

0

0

1

0

1

0

3

2

0

1

Sam’l

 

1

0

0

1

0

3

0

1

0

0

Stephen

 

2

0

0

1

0

2

1

0

1

0

Wm

 

2

1

0

1

0

1

2

0

0

1

 

1810 Logan, KY

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Mark

 

3

1

0

2

0

2

0

0

1

2

 

Mark could still have James with him in 1810 KY but in 1820 Mark is still alive in St Clair County, IL so isn’t dead as required by the hypothesis.  He looked like this in 1820:  010101 – 00102.  We can be pretty sure it’s the same Mark Ward.  There was only one in the US in 1810.  There were only two in 1820. The other was in Columbus County, NC.

 

So James B. Ward didn’t come from the Pendleton Wards.  The census data certainly support that conclusion.
 

On the upside, that Spartanburg Ward group has all of the names we are looking for.  But before getting into them I first want to run some checks on the GA Wards in Wilkinson County to see if there’s any evidence that they are, in fact, from Spartanburg.

 


IS JAMES B. WARD IN 1820 WILKINSON COUNTY, GA REALLY LIVING AMONG FAMILIES FROM 1810 SPARTANBURG COUNTY, SC?


To answer this question, I used digital copies of the entire censuses of 1810 Spartanburg, SC and 1820 Wilkinson County, GA.  I combined color-coded copies of the 1810 Spartanburg, SC and 1820 Wilkinson County, GA censuses and sorted them alphabetically in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet bringing like names together so I could tell at a glance which families showed up in both censuses.  This produced far too much data to include here, however.

 

So to give an idea of how those names fell out, I identified the 1810 Spartanburg names in 1820 Wilkinson County by showing Spartanburg families as an “s” in the Wilkinson County census.  I then converted the remaining Wilkinson County names to a “-“ to show the distribution of 1810 Spartanburg names (the “s”) in the remaining 1820 Wilkinson County, GA names (the “-“) in one small chart.  That chart is shown below.

 

1810 Spartanburg Names distributed in the 1820 Wilkinson County, GA Census

-----------------s-----------------------------s----------------------------------s------------------------s----------s-----------

--------------s------------------s--------------------------------s-----------------s---s-----------------------s----------------

-----------s-------s-----s-------------------------------------s--------------------------s----------s------SolWs---ss-----

-s---------SamW--------------------W-----------------------------------------s--s---------s------------------------------

-------------------------------------ss--s-------s-------s----------------------------------s---ss----------------s-------ss---

--------ss-----------------s--------------------s--s---s------s-----sJBW-------------s----------------s---------------s---

--------------------s------------------------------------------------------s-----------s-------------------------------------------

s--------s------s-W-----s---s------s-s-------------------------------------------

 

 

Key to the coding of families in the 1820 Wilkinson County, GA census

-

a family not having both a first and last name found in 1810 Spartanburg

s

a family having both a first and last name found in 1810 Spartanburg

SolW

Solomon Ward

SamW

Samuel Ward

JBW

James B. Ward

W

the other two James Wards in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA

 

Keep in mind, the characters -, s, and W each represent an entire family in the 1820 Wilkinson County census beginning with the first family on the census and going straight through to the last. You can see several groupings of Spartanburg families in the chart above.  All are around Wards.  Solomon and Samuel fall into first group and James B. Ward falls into the second group indicating these groups may have all come into and settled the county together.

 

I have underlined to better show the Spartanburg groupings around our Wards.  (I’m well aware that just because two families are listed next to each other on the census it doesn’t necessarily mean they were neighbors. Depending on where the census enumerator started after each break and how he navigated through a community, two families listed together could be widely separated or, conversely, two families widely separated on the census could be neighbors.  In the absence of evidence to the contrary, however, betting two families listed together also lived near each other will win you a lot more money than betting the opposite.)

 

There were 956 families in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA with 59 having first and last names from Spartanburg.  That’s an average of 6 percent.  Looking at the grouping with Samuel and Solomon Ward, out of 24 families, 6 have Spartanburg names – an average of 25 percent.  The grouping with James B. Ward is 22 families with 6 Spartanburg names – an average of 27 percent.  The concentration of Spartanburg names is over four times greater with our Samuel, Solomon and James B. Ward groups than with the county as a whole. 

 

Lets take a deeper look into those families listed in 1810 Spartanburg and 1820 Wilkinson to see if the names disappear from the Spartanburg 1820 census.  Here are those Spartanburg families in their order of appearance in the 1820 Wilkinson County census. The groupings are shown in light green.

 

Smith

William T

 

Ford

William

 

Brown

James

Smith

Thomas

 

Chambours

William

 

Smith

James

Johnson

John

 

Ward

Samuel

 

Lewis

Thomas

Brown

John

 

Ward

James

 

Davis

John

Smith

John

 

Crutchfield

Thomas

 

White

Samuel

Smith

William

 

Ross

James

 

Ward

James (B.)

White

Samuel

 

Cannon

Nathaniel

 

Rodgers

Joseph

Davis

Joseph

 

Brown

William Sr.

 

Rodgers

John

Jones

John L

 

Smith

William

 

Wright

John

McKey

William

 

Smith

James

 

King

John

Brown

Jessey

 

Scott

James M

 

Moore

Thomas

Pool

James

 

Young

James

 

Greer

Carlton

Stephens

John

 

Chapman

William

 

Mathews

John

Simmons

John F

 

Thompson

Thomas M

 

Smith

William H

Williams

Jourdain

 

Jackson

William

 

Johnson

James

Smith

Samuel

 

Clark

Samuel

 

Ward

James

Owens

William

 

Williams

Isaac

 

Miars

Abraham

Ward

Soloman

 

Jones

William Sr.

 

Collins

Thomas

Davis

William

 

Smith

John

 

McKee

Alexander

Jones

William

 

Young

William

 

Williams

William

 

 

 

Smith

John M

 

 

 

 

Since they appear in the order they were listed in the census, you could match each name to its corresponding “s” or “W” in the 1820 Wilkinson County Census Chart shown above.

 

Next I compared these 1820 Wilkinson County names to the same names in 1820 Spartanburg to see if they disappeared from Spartanburg.  If they didn’t, I assumed they were just different people with the same first and last names.  I quickly realized I couldn’t compare all of the names in a reasonable time so I tried to find names near Wards in both the 1810 and 1820 censuses since they would be more significant as a connection.

 

Many of these families are as hard to trace as our Wards but the table below does show that many of the names disappear from Spartanburg after 1810 and are in Wilkinson County, GA by 1820.  It would take extensive research to actually prove these families are out of Spartanburg and I have not done that.  With that in mind, researchers should view these matches as merely one more piece of circumstantial evidence that the groups with our Wards in 1820 came from Spartanburg.

 

Name

1810

Spartanburg

pg

1820

Wilkinson

pg

1820

Spartanburg

pg

Wm Davis

00010 - 30100

325

300101 - 11010

 

200000 - 12201

325

Thomas Lewis

20110 - 21110

329

200010 - 11010

 

Gone in 1820

 

Wm Ford

21010 - 10010

298

200010 - 21010

 

000010 - 00000

309

Wm Jones

40100 - 21010

311

310010 - 11010

 

200100 - 40010

 

Wm Owens

01001 - 11111

305

210001 - 21001

 

320010 - 00010

 

Wm Owen

20010 - 11100

321

210001 - 21001

 

Gone in 1820

 

Alex McKee

00310 - 12010

331

000010 - 00010

 

Gone in 1820

 

Wm Williams

01201 - 02001

335

000201 - 32110

 

Gone in 1820

 

James Ross

00011 - 00001

335

000010 - 02010

 

Gone in 1820

 

 

William Davis is of special interest since he is listed right next to Solomon Ward in 1820.  He is a fit to the 1810 Spartanburg William Davis.  Even though there is another Wm Davis in 1820 Spartanburg, there is no male actually shown in that census.  So I’ll boldface Wm Davis to show him as a potential Spartanburg transplant.

 

Thomas Lewis compares well between the two censuses as the same family plus he’s gone from 1820 Spartanburg.  There is more on the Wilkinson County Thomas Lewis later.  He is definitely from Spartanburg.  He is in the James B. Ward grouping in 1820.  He also links later directly to Samuel and Solomon Ward.

 

Wm Ford drops from two families in 1810 Spartanburg to one in 1820.  The other seems to be in 1820 Wilkinson.  William Ford was born 1791.  There is another connection to William Ford.  Not only was he in 1810 Spartanburg and 1820 Wilkinson County, he served with James B. Ward as a spy in Capt. Thomas’ Militia in 1814.  He is in the Solomon/Samuel grouping in 1820.

 

Wm Jones could be a fit into 1820 Wilkinson and is not a fit in 1820 Spartanburg but Jones is a common name and the match isn’t close enough for my tastes so, even though he is in the Solomon/Samuel grouping, Wm Jones is a negative.

 

Wm Owens looks like a positive even with the difference in spelling (Owen vs. Owens) since at least one of the 1810 Owens is gone from Spartanburg.  While I didn’t count him in the Solomon/Samuel grouping he is only 6 families away from Solomon in 1820.

 

Alexander McKee is a positive even though he seems to have remarried by 1820.  Alex is also only four families below Elizabeth Ward in the 1810 Spartanburg census.  He is in the 1820 grouping with the last Ward.

 

Wm Williams is another excellent fit even if a somewhat common name.  At least there were none left in Spartanburg in 1820.  He is in the 1820 grouping with the last Ward.

 

And James Ross is listed right next to Elizabeth Ward in the 1810 Spartanburg census.

 

So that gives us seven examples of 1810 Spartanburg families who may be living in 1820 Wilkinson County right next to our Wards.  Considering we are only counting families with a match in both the given and surname that are also grouped with our Wards and not trying to count any children that may have shown up in Wilkinson County, GA ten years later with a different given name, that seems to me to be good evidence that our Wards are with those Spartanburg Wards.

 


 

What else do we have that gives us a clue to families back in Spartanburg that might be tied to our Wards?  Well, there’s that 1827 Jackson County, Florida petition.  Plotting the names on that petition against both the 1810 Spartanburg and 1820 Wilkinson County, GA censuses we get a few hits.  As you scan the signatures on the petition you find like surnames strongly grouped.  This indicates the petition was circulated family to family and the order of the signatures has at least some bearing on how close the various people who signed it lived to each other.

 

Some Signers of the 1827 Jackson County, FL Petition

who were also with the Wards in 1810 and/or 1820

 

Name

1810 Spar.

1820 Wilk.

 

Name

1810 Spar.

1820 Wilk.

James Allen

x

 

 

Wm Wright

 

x

David Allen

 

x

 

John Gilmore

 

x

William Allen 

x

 

 

John Davis

x

x

John Williams

x

 

 

John D. Thomas*

x

 

Wm Williams

x

x

 

Williams Daniel

 

x

Robt Thompson

x

 

 

Thos Cook

x

 

Josiah Jones

 

x

 

*NOTE:  John D. Thomas had the same
 middle initial in both the petition and
 the 1810 Spartanburg census.

 

 

 

 

 

There were 140 signatures but only 10 complete names are found in the 1810 Spartanburg census.  Three of those, because of spelling variations or uses of initials, are questionable so I threw them out.  But, running down the list in order we find James Allen and John Smith with only two names separating them and one of those was David Allen who was in 1820 Wilkinson County.  John Smith was one of the names that showed up in 1830 Dale County very near James B. Ward.  Next we find Wm Williams, John Ward, Thos Goff and John Williams all together.  All but Goff were in 1810 Spartanburg.  Prior to this were 21 names with only one match back to 1810.  Then 11 more names with no matches until we hit Nathan Ward and William Allen.  This is followed by another long run with only two matches then James Ward, Josiah Jones and William Wright within six lines.  Then a run to the end with only scattered matches.  Clearly, yet again, the names from Spartanburg correlate closely to our Wards.  I have included all but the doubtful matching names in the table below along with which census those names are found in.

 

This table further supports the hypothesis that James B. Ward came out of Spartanburg, SC after 1810.  Wm Williams and John Davis who were in both Spartanburg and Wilkinson Counties were also in the groups with our Wards in 1820. 

 


SORTING OUT THE SPARTANBURG WARDS


Now we need to sort out the Wards in Spartanburg then see if the Wilkinson County Wards fit into any of those families.
 

Notice that there are only two males from the 1790 Spartanburg census listed in the 1800 census – Nathan and James.  We know from other research that Francis and Edmond died before 1800 but not what happened to Penuel, Sam and Wm.  In 1790 note that James, Nathan, Sam and William are all on census page 30 so may be a closely related family unit.

 

1790 Spartanburg

 

Page

>16 males

<16 males

females

Penuel

25

1

1

3

James

30

2

3

5

Naham (sic)

30

1

4

4

Sam

30

2

3

5

Wm

30

2

6

3

Edmond

32

1

2

3

Francis

36

1

2

4

 

1800 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Nathan

172

3

2

2

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

John

184