Wall Family Tree: John Wall

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Project ID#: 323

Birth Information

A court case listed in the Mississippi Archives establishes Micajah and Mary Wall as John Wall's parents. (See the Guardian Bond transcript and the transcript of the long letter from Ransom Jones in the miscellaneous section of the Wall page.) His tombstone lists a birthdate of 5 January 1800. His father, Micajah Wall, was issued a passport to leave Georgia and enter the Missisippi Territory in 1801, which would place John's birth in Georgia; this is consistent with multiple census records (1850-1870) that list that state as John's birthplace. James Dupriest was granted guardianship of John and his underage siblings in November of 1819.

Residence

John's father, Micajah, is listed in the tax rolls of Vardeman's District in Washington County in the Mississippi Territory from 1803-1804, so the family was in the "State" by then. John is listed in the Perry County, MS, tax rolls from 1822-1830. He does not appear in the 1821 tax roll, which is when he would have reached the age of 21 years and first been subject to the poll tax. However, he is listed twice in the 1822 tax list, which is probably an indication that he was overlooked in 1821. John, his wife, and their children appear in Perry County in the 1830 census, but they had moved to Newton County, MS, by the 1840 census. John stayed there and can be found in all census years until his death in 1878.

Spouse/Children

I have not found a marriage record for John and his wife, Nancy. They likely married in Perry County, since they appear together there in the 1830 census and tax records clearly indicate he lived there well before then as well. I have not been able to find evidence of Nancy's maiden name, but family history claims she was the daughter of Pleasant Tisdale, who moved from South Carolina to Perry County, MS, in ??. I have not been able to find proof of this, but the name Pleasant does appear in the Wall family tree and Nancy's birthplace is listed as South Carolina in census records from 1850 & 1860; however, another of this Tisdale branch supposedly married Nancy's son, Micajah, so the name Pleasant may have entered that way.

John and Nancy had 12 children, who are identified in John's will probated in Newton County in 1878; the children of his son, Micajah C. Wall, are listed there as well because Micajah was to serve as Executor of the will but he predeceased his father. (A transcript of John's will is given in the miscellaneous section of the Wall page.) All of the children of John and Nancy are given by name in at least one of the censuses, with the exception of the oldest children (Jayne, Mary, Biddy, and Micajah), who had already left home by the 1850 census. Analysis of the MS 1840 census suggests that Mary, Jayne, and Biddy were between the ages of 10 and 15 when the census was taken.

Census Records

MS 1820

p. 96, Perry County
head of household: James Dupriest

MS 1830

Perry County
head of household: John Wall

MS 1840

p. 143, Newton County
head of household: John Wall

MS 1845 State Census

MS Genealogy Exchange v. 26, Spring, 1980
L. 24 (household 137, Newton County
Head of Household: John Wall

The houshold contained five males and four females. The males are probably: John, Micajah, John Jr., Thomas, and Zachariah. Peter, the only other son left, wasn't born yet. The females are probably: Nancy, Rachel, Eliza, and one other. The possibilities for the 4th woman are Elizabeth, Jayne, and Mary. Marriage records indicate Elizabeth was already married by 1845 and a posting in MS Gen. Exch. lists Mary's marriage as Feb. 1843. Therefore, the other female is most likely Jayne.

MS 1850

p. ?, Line 24 (household 137) Newton County
head of household: John Wall

MS 1860

p. 21 (27?), L 29 (family 193) Newton County
head of household: John Walls

*NOTE: Every one seems to be 2 years younger than they should be based on the 1850 census. The 1850 census is probably the correct one; if you went by the ages given in 1860, Margaret shouldn't have appeared on the 1850 census but she did.

MS 1870

p. 54 (412), Line 1 (family 1), Newton County
head of household: John Wall

Death/Burial

John Wall's tombstone lists his date of death as 27 March 1878. He is buried next to his wife in an above-ground stone coffin in Old Spring Hill Methodist Church Cemetery in Newton County, MS. This cemetery was abandoned a long time ago and consists of only a handful of graves in the woods. A book of Newton County cemeteries, published in 1995, lists the dates. I visited the cemetery in 2000 and vandals had smashed both stones, obliterating the birth and death dates.

References

Smith, Bonnie Addy, Jackson Eliot Smith, and Robert Ervin Smith, Newton County Mississippi: A Cemetery Census 1782-1995. 1997, Decatur: EBRS Publishing Company.
This book was privately published and is available from the authors at one of the following addresses:
18970 Highway 14 North
Decatur, MS 39327
phone: (601) 635-2149 		100 Woodville Drive
Natchez, MS 39120
phone: (601) 442-3084 		P.O. Box 529
Washington, MS 39190
It is part of the collections of the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, IN and Clayton Genealogy Library in Houston, TX.*



Ben & Jean Strickland, Washington County, Mississippi Territory. 1803-1816 Tax Rolls. 1980, reprinted 1987, Moss Point: Ben Strickland
It is part of the collection of Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, IN.*


Bryan, Mary G., Special Publications of the National Genealogical Society, Number 21. Passports Issued by Governors of Georgia, 1785 to 1809. 1959, Washington, D.C.: Reprinted from the National Genealogical Society Quarterly
It is part of the collection of The Library of Michigan in Lansing, MI.





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