About Wallace
& Susannah (Beavert) Jones of Walker County, Alabama
(Written and researched
by Ed H. Jones and George C. Jones)
For decades, descendants of Wallis
(Wallace) and Susannah (Beavert) Jones have blushed, and
silently giggled, as they read John Martin Dombhart’s history of
the elopement of this pair from an English tavern in the late
1700’s. That these Joneses made Walker County, Alabama, their
home prior to 1800 and brought four children into the world in
this county were segments of this narrative which caused Jones
family members of later generations to feel proud. But since
Dombhart’s 1937 work became almost sacred, contemporary
researchers finding contradictions to these tenets had to keep
mostly silent when in the company of earlier Jones generations.
(Even as the evidence in records runs counter to some of his
Jones history, Dombhart’s historical volume, History of
Walker County – Its Towns and Its People, is invaluable for
genealogists involved with Walker County, Alabama. The Joneses
he describes and their relationship to others seem to be near
perfect. Times and locations, in many cases, are in need.) The
history in question is from page 235-6 and it reads:
“JONES,
WALLACE, according to family tradition, settled along the
Warrior River, in Walker County, prior to 1800. He was born in
England about 1775, where he learned the trade of millwright and
cooper. He was a suitor for the hand of Susan Beavert, and upon
meeting parental objections, the couple eloped from an English
tavern at night and boarded a ship for America. They made their
home in North Carolina for a short time before coming to Walker
County, where Wallace Jones died in 1856. After settling in
Walker County, Susan (Beavert) Jones made two trips, alone and
on horseback, to North Carolina to secure her bounty from the
government. At this time the country through which she passed
was infested with Indians, but they aided her on her way. She
died in Walker County in 1870 at the age of ninety. Wallace and
Susan (Beavert) Jones were the parents of four children—Giles C.
Jones; William Wallace Jones; James Ausborn Jones; and Minerva
Jones, who married a Mr. Whitney and moved to Fayette County;
and, upon his death, married Thomas Reed. Children by the first
marriage---Marion Whitney, Toney Whitney, and Susanna Whitney.
Children by the second marriage---Reuben Reed, Polk Reed, Dallas
Reed, and Pierce Reed.”
No less than seven census records of these
four Jones children from 1850 to 1870 bear witness that they
were born in South Carolina. Two additional census records of
Susan (Susannah) Jones, 1850 and 1860, now a widow, attest she
was born in the Carolinas, also. The 1850 Walker County
Mortality Schedule, headed with information stating it was from
the 12th District and enumerated by E. G. Musgrove,
shows a married Wallis Jones, born in South Carolina, who died
in August of the previous year, 1849 (not 1856). This heading
is duplicated on the 1850 census page of Susan (above) where she
is a member of the household of Giles C. Jones, her son, thereby
showing a high probability of her connection to Wallis, since
surely she was the informant to Mr. Musgrove concerning her
husbands death. (An independent professional genealogist, some
years ago, made the statement that until a highly probable
connection between Wallis and Susan could be shown, this story
would remain just that—a story.) This ‘Wallis Jones’ death
record (mortality schedule) apparently was long ignored because
the spelling differed from that of the historically accepted
Dombhart. But this ‘Wallis Jones’ name, complete with
signature, was also discovered in a credit-sale land record file
of 1819 in Blount County. This purchase was for the northwest
and southwest quarters of Section 12 of Township 13-South and
Range 4-West. This was 320 acres of good bottom-land just a few
hundred feet from the Warrior River---in keeping with Dombhart’s
early geographic location for this Jones clan. But like many
other early settlers who were trying to make a living and at the
same time pay off their new (but mortgaged) dreams, the
worsening financial panic of the country in general and of The
Second Bank of the United States in particular, helped cause
Wallis Jones to soon (1821) rid himself of all but 80 acres
(Patent # 1148) of his original purchase.
William Wallace Jones married Celia Files
(daughter of Abner Files, another early Blount County settler)
in 1823 and by the middle 1830’s had migrated down the Warrior
River, with the Files group, to upper Tuscaloosa County. James
Ausborn Jones was not far behind as he married a sister to
Celia, Eliza Files, on May 28, 1835 in that county. By 1840,
both William Wallace and James Ausborn are remarried and living
in the Oakman area on new government land purchases. Wallace
(Wallis) and a spouse are also enumerated (1840) in this part of
Walker County, evidenced by the fact they are neighbors to
settlers who bought government land in the Oakman area in the
late 1830’s, as documented by the Bureau of Land Management
files. Giles C. (Chapman) Jones married Mary Ann Brooks from
Marshall County in 1826 and bought land in Blount County by
early 1837. He somehow became a medical doctor and by 1850 was
in the Jasper area of Walker County where, in that decade, he
apparently died. No date of death or burial site has been
found. Minerva Jones and her two husbands (and children) left a
history of rich stories and memorabilia still cherished by some
of her descendants. Her first husband, Hiram C. Whitney, has
left an equal amount of genealogical mystery and frustration.
Additional brief mentions of these male Jones children can be
found in Ethel Armes’ Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama
and Albert Burton Moore’s three volume (but un-indexed) tome,
History of Alabama, published in 1926, ten years before the
Dombhart work.
Dombhart, in his biographical presentation
of Giles C. Jones on page 236, cites Moore’s Vol. II, page 79 as
a source. However, Dombhart did not use that part of this
source which could have, early on, shed some light on the later
conflict between Moore’s entry and that of Dombhart concerning
Wallace Jones. Perhaps he could see that the information he was
receiving from his interviews differed from Moore to the extent
that he did not attempt to explain it. Maybe Moore’s work was
not well known at this time in Walker County as Dombhart began
to chronicle its rural and farmer citizens in the 1930’s.
Moore’s Vol. II, page 79 contains this
biography:
“TARLEY
WILLIAMS JONES, M.D. A physician and surgeon of wide and
varied experience, Dr. Tarley William Jones of Fayette County is
recognized as one of the able members of his profession, and his
name is a household one throughout Fayette County. He was born
in Newtonville, Fayette County, Alabama, April 3, 1875, a son of
Dr. William W. Jones, grandson of Giles C. Jones, and a member
of one of the old families of this country, which was
established in the Carolinas by his great-great-grandfather, who
came from Wales to the American Colonies, bringing with him his
wife, a native of Holland.”
This was an astounding revelation! Tarley
William Jones’ great-great-grandfather was Wallis Jones’
father! Wallis’ father came from England, and now with this
clarification, the South Carolina birthplace for Wallis and
Susan is consistent with both a recorded history and
document.
Other research has established, with very
high probability, that Wallis Jones was in fact married to
Susannah Beavert. (Genealogists are being kind to themselves
when they speak of probabilities rather than proof---especially
in print.) The 1810 Federal Census of Pendleton District, South
Carolina, page 151A, shows a Wallace Jones household with two
females and four males. This entry is exactly, in number, age
and location, as the Wallis (Wallace)/Susan family should have
been at this particular point in time. Wallace’s name is
embedded within a census cluster of Sampson Norton, William
Norton and Gideon Norton. Further up the page is Barak Norton
and on an adjacent page is Jeptha Norton. In between two of the
Nortons, there is a very suspicious entry, William Beaver.
After several years of work it was established, by way of land
and military records, that Catherine Norton was married to
William Bevert, the same William Bevert who served in
the military during the War of 1812 as a sergeant in a company
whose captain was Jeptha Norton. An 1829 South Carolina ‘will’
lists each and every one of these Norton entries, including
Catherine and William Bevert, as heirs to land sale proceeds.
William Bevert, and not William Beaver, was adjacent to a female
in an 1810 census listing whose name was probably Susannah
Beavert (Bevert), and probably a sister-in-law to the Norton
clan and in the household of Wallace (Wallis) Jones.
There are still mysteries within this
genealogy. Who was Wallis’ father? Probably Wallis
Jones, Sr., who with his wife, Elizabeth, signed an 1805 land
sale document in Greenville District, South Carolina. How
did an English tavern come into the story? There exists a
document which shows a Wallace Jones holding a mortgage on a
tavern in Newberry County, South Carolina. Why parental
objections to Susan marrying Wallis? Could she have been a
Quaker? What bounty did Susan seek from North
Carolina--Indian?--military? Nothing has been found.
Who was Susan’s father? There were two John Beaverts
with documents of one kind or another in the Carolinas during
this period, but neither can be linked to Susan or William.
Why are there two sets of Wallis (Wallace) Joneses, Senior and
Junior, some with identical birthdates, etc., in South Carolina
during this time frame? One set had ties to Ohio and one
had ties to Alabama. Why did my father and my
grandfather tell me that they had heard “…old man Wallace spent
some time in Ohio…”?
Copies
of related records and a more complete chronicle is available
in ... A Study: Wallace and
Susan (Beavert) Jones of Walker County, Alabama by Edwin
Hilary Jones and George Casey Jones