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

0

0

1

0

0

2

1

1

1

0

John

186

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

James

205

0

1b

1c

0

1

0

1

2

1

1

Nathan

205

5

0

0

1a

0

0

0

0

1

0

Solomon

205

0

0

1d

0

0

3

0

1

0

0

 

NOTE:  Various data bases use various census page numbering systems.  Many differ from the page numbers written on the actual census.  I use page numbers here only for showing groupings.  If you want to find these people in the census use the index that matches the census data base you are looking in.

 

By 1800 the 1790 James is on page 205 with a Solomon and a younger Nathan.  There are also two Johns that weren’t named on the 1790 census.  It would be easy to assume one of these Johns must belong to James and the other to the elder Nathan and that’s how I initially sorted them out.  As more data came in, however, I discovered this is not the case.  I’ll cover this in more detail a bit later.

 

Using the 1790 and 1800 censuses, I have tried to separate out the 1810 families by color code.  It was fairly straightforward except for Jonathan and Patsy.  I cover Patsy a little later.  As for Jonathan, there is no place for him in the 1800 families so he must have come in from somewhere else.  Perhaps he is the 1800 Jonathan Ward from Washington in Beaufort County, NC.  A Jonathan Ward shows up in 1820 Greene County, GA not far from James B. Ward.  It could be the same Jonathan if he picked up some folks along the way.  He was listed in 1830 as 112013 10105.  Other GA researchers have Jonathan in GA as early as 1801, however.

 

Also, it is tempting to jump to the conclusion that the Samuel on the same page with Jonathan is his son but we will find out later that that is probably not the case.

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Jonathan

302

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

2

1

Samuel

302

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

Patsy

306

0

2

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

James

315

3

1

0

1c

0

1

0

0

1

0

Nathan

315

0

2

3

0

1a

1

0

0

0

1

Sam'l

315

1

0

0

1b

0

2

0

0

1

0

John

324

1

0

0

1

0

2

1

0

1

0

John

324

1

1

2

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

James

328

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

Solomon

328

1

0

0

1d

0

4

2

1

1

0

Elizabeth

331

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

1

 

We get a minor break now since the elder James Ward family (shown here in light green)  stayed in Spartanburg and has already been researched as shown below.  That research lets us know which names in light green fit where.  The tables above have the four brothers listed with a corresponding a, b, c, or d to match the numbers in the census to the previously researched names shown below.  The only mismatch is Samuel who is in the wrong age bracket in James Ward Sr.’s 1800 family but has a son and two daughters in 1810 who match the family history of this Samuel.  But that comes later.  The Samuel on page 302 in the 1810 census belongs to the 1790 Nathan Ward, hence the dark green color coding.

 

Sons of the Elder Spartanburg James Ward

~

Brother of the Elder Nathan Ward

 

JAMES Ward.  Born in 1755, Spartanburg Co., SC. Died 1825 in Spartanburg Co., SC. Married Susannah Unknown, born 1756, died 1826. Children:

     a. Nathan         born 1772  ~ 28 in 1800 (light green-coded Nathan)

     b. Samuel        born 1773  ~ 27 in 1800

     c. James          born 1775  ~ 25 in 1800

            d. Solomon     born 1777  ~ 23 in 1800

 

THE PROBLEM WITH JAMES JR

The younger 1810 James marked 1c in the census charts above would have been in the 16-26 bracket in 1800 so he had to be with either the elder James or Nathan.  He would also have had a son under ten in 1800.  Only Nathan has a boy under ten with him in 1800 so I initially matched this younger James to Nathan.  In addition, that could be his wife in the 16-26 bracket.  That would make the 45+ female in 1800 Nathan’s wife.  So it would appear the Elizabeth Ward in 1810 was Nathan’s widow.  This is exactly what we are looking for -- a Ward family whose father died prior to 1820.  But there’s a big problem here.  If Elizabeth is James B. Ward’s mother, she wouldn’t have another son named James.  And, as we just saw, only Nathan fits our hypothesis.  He died before 1810.  If our hypothesis is correct, there must be another family for this younger James.

 

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

James

205

0

1

1c

0

1

0

1

2

1

1

 

As predicted, there is a matching set of people with the elder James in 1800 on page 205 to supply this 1810 James and his wife on page 315.

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

James

315

3

1

0

1c

0

1

0

0

1

0

Nathan

315

0

2

3

0

1a

1

0

0

0

1

Sam'l

315

1

0

0

1b

0

2

0

0

1

0

 

You would expect that elder James to have a son named James and looking in 1810 there is only one other James in Spartanburg to be that son.  That also puts James in a group in 1800 which has the names Nathan and Sam’l Ward.  And we know from other research we will get to later that the elder James had sons named James, Nathan and Samuel.  I like the fit on the same page as Nathan and Sam’l but would prefer to see a male under ten with James in 1800 to match the son over ten in 1810.  It may have been a child born just a little too late to make it into the 1800 census.  On the other hand, there is a matching female who is probably the younger James’ wife in the 1800 Elder James Ward’s household -- and she is gone from Elder James’ household in 1810.  If you are uneasy about all the shuffling, note that the outcome agrees with the research already done on this James Ward family as shown in the text box above.

 

WHAT ABOUT THOSE JOHN WARDS?

How can we show that these two Johns in 1800 do not belong to Nathan and Elizabeth thereby clearing the way for the John Ward from Dale County, AL to be theirs?

 

Let’s return to the 1790 census where Nathan had 4 males under 16 with him and compare that census to 1800 Nathan Sr. with 4 males all of whom would have been under 16 years old ten years earlier. 

 

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

0

0

1

0

0

2

1

1

1

0

John

186

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

 

Nathan still has all of his 1790 <16 males with him in 1800. And both Johns are listed separately in the census in 1800.  So neither John belongs to Nathan and Elizabeth.

 

However, the younger John seems to be Nathan Ward’s younger brother.  The Spartanburg County Deed Books mention on page 500 a transaction on 31 Oct 1811 of 36 acres granted to Francis Ward deceased being sold by his son John Ward to Lewis Ferguson.  The 1790 Spartanburg census shows two males <16 with Francis.  One of those would have to be the younger John.  Francis is the 1790 Nathan Ward’s father.

 

If you take into account the census data from 1790-1820, the elder John was born in 1774 so he was 16 in 1790.  The census data from 1800 to 1810 has the younger John born 1774-1784.  The LDS has record of a John Ward born 19 Mar 1777 in Spartanburg making him 13 in 1790. Only the younger John fits Francis Ward’s <16 sons.

 

Other researchers list a John Ward born in 1777.  His father was Francis Ward who died in Spartanburg.  The 1811 land sale mentioned above supports this.  John’s first wife was Lydia Shirley and his second wife was Sally Gentry. John had a son, Addison Ward born 1818, in Spartanburg, SC by Sally and by Lydia had another son, Francis, who had a daughter, Mary, who married a George Martin Hatchette.   In 1870 Addison was in Kemper County, MS near the Nathan Ward from 1830 Dale County, AL.

 

ELIZABETH WARD

Wife of Nathan?

Now we need to check the 1800 Spartanburg households to figure out which of the unnamed elder Ward women is Elizabeth Ward.  In 1810 Elizabeth had two boys 10-16 with her.  In 1800 Nathan had three boys under 10.  But the younger Nathan and one of the Johns also had boys under ten.  However, the women with John and Nathan in 1800 (and each had only one female) were almost certainly their wives as shown with them again in 1810.  I have marked them in bold red with a, b, and c to identify them in 1800.  So in 1810 Elizabeth only fits with the elder Nathan.

 

Women with <10 boys in 1800 Spartanburg, SC who could be 45+ in 1810

 

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

1a

John

184

0

0

1

0

0

2

1

1

1

0

John

186

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1b

0

James

205

0

1

1

0

1

0

1

2

1

1

Nathan

205

5

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1c

0

Solomon

205

0

0

1

0

0

3

0

1

0

0

 

The same women from 1800 Spartanburg, SC shown in 1810

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Samuel

302

0

0

1

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

James

315

3

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

1

0

Nathan

315

0

2

3

0

1

1

0

0

0

1c

Sam'l

315

1

0

0

1

0

2

0

0

1

0

John

324

1

0

0

1

0

2

1

0

1

0

John

324

1

1

2

1

0

0

0

0

1

1b

James

328

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

Solomon

328

1

0

0

1

0

4

2

1

1

0

Elizabeth

331

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

1a

 

Elizabeth, then, is Nathan’s widow.  That makes sense since she appears in 1810 and Nathan doesn’t.  That may be James B. Ward and one of his brothers with her.

 

Elizabeth’s husband, Nathan, was born about 1758 according to Robert G. Adams in The Wards of Ireland.  The 1800 census has him born before 1755.  According to the 1800 census Elizabeth was also 45+ in 1800, so she must have been born before 1755.  This means she was at least 40 when James B. was born in 1795 or 1796 (he is listed as 54 in 1850 and 65 in 1860).  Women almost never have children after age 47 so, if Elizabeth is James B. Ward’s mother, she must have been born pretty close to 1755  –  probably no earlier than 1750.  It also means James was one of her youngest and should, therefore, turn out to be one of the youngest of the five hypothesized brothers Samuel, Solomon, Nathan, James and John once we get better information on their ages.

 

Is there anything that might indicate Elizabeth Ward was in Wilkinson County, GA in the 1820s besides the elder woman with James?  Something that mentions her by name maybe.  This extract from the membership roles of Mt. Nebo Baptist Church of Wilkinson County, GA is taken from the Church Minutes of 1808 – 1855.

 

“Elizabeth Ward – Dismist 8th Apr. 1826.”

 

She would have been around 71-76 at this time.  Because James, John and Nathan Ward were documented in Jackson County, FL in 1824 and 1827, we know they were in Florida during the time this Elizabeth Ward was dismissed from the Mt. Nebo Baptist Church.  This is important.  First, James had a wife named Elizabeth English Ward so we might have thought this was her if we didn’t know that James was already in Jackson County, FL by this time.  Second, it provides a reason for this Mt Nebo Church member to be leaving, i.e. to join her sons.  We also know that one of the other James Wards was married to a Sarah Jones further raising the probability this is the Spartanburg Elizabeth Ward.  Samuel was already in Fayette County by 1826 so it wasn’t his wife.  Elizabeth may have been in Wilkinson County with Solomon in 1826. 

 

PATSY WARD

Patsy from 1810 Spartanburg had two boys and one girl who would have been under ten in 1800 so we have a problem matching her to the rest of the Spartanburg Wards.  No one in 1800 has both boys and girls under ten.   At any rate, she doesn’t appear to be connected to Nathan and Elizabeth Ward plus other researchers have her with a son, James Madison Ligon born in 1811, not matching in age our James B. Ward born in 1796.

 

WHICH SPARTANBURG WARDS DEPARTED AFTER 1810?

Now let’s see if we can determine which Wards had left Spartanburg by 1820.  We know there are Spartanburg families in Wilkinson County, GA by 1820.  Were there Spartanburg Wards with them?   I’ll number them off on the two charts below using the 1810 numbers on the 1820 chart to show who is where.

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

1

Jonathan

302

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

2

1

2

Samuel

302

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

3

Patsy

306

0

2

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

4

James

315

3

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

1

0

5

Nathan

315

0

2

3

0

1

1

0

0

0

1

6

Sam'l

315

1

0

0

1

0

2

0

0

1

0

7

John

324

1

0

0

1

0

2

1

0

1

0

8

John

324

1

1

2

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

9

James

328

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

10

Solomon

328

1

0

0

1

0

4

2

1

1

0

11

Elizabeth

331

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

1

 

#1 Jonathan has disappeared but he was never part of this Spartanburg group anyway.

 

#2 Samuel is a good match for the Samuel in 1820 Wilkinson County (see charts below.)  We shall get more on this Samuel later.  If he is Elizabeth’s son, our hypothesis predicted he would be gone from Spartanburg by 1820 and he is.

 

#3 Patsy is gone but wasn’t associated with Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s household.

 

#4 James should be 26-45 in 1820 and that could be him in Wilkinson in 1820 but with a name as common as James it’s hard to say for sure.  This James Ward (who was neither James B. Ward nor the James who married Sarah Jones) may be the one in the last 1820 Ward grouping we studied earlier.

 

#5 Nathan is still in Spartanburg in 1820.

 

#6 Samuel is still in Spartanburg in 1820.

 

#7 John is gone from Spartanburg or dead by 1820 but John Ward is too common a name to trace reliably in these early censuses.

 

#8 This John is still in Spartanburg in 1820.

 

#9 The elder James is still in Spartanburg in 1820.

 

#10 Solomon looks like he moved to Wilkinson County, GA but I later found that #10 Solomon went to TN and not GA.  The unnumbered Solomon in GA in 1820 is Elizabeth’s son.  I cover this in detail a few pages down.

 

#11 Elizabeth (marked in red in 1820) moved to Wilkinson County, GA with James.

 

Those 1820 Wards not named as a head of household in the 1810 Spartanburg census are colored coded white in the 1820 Spartanburg census below.  The others retain their original color codes. Only #8 John Sr. and  #9 James and his two sons remain in 1820 Spartanburg.  This could explain why we find a lot more data on James’ family in the records than Nathan’s.  James’ family stayed in Spartanburg for the most part.  Nathan’s family left entirely and turned out to be the “lost” Wards of James B. Ward and his brother Nathan.  At least that’s the theory we are working on here.  In short, it appears from the census data that Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s entire family have left Spartanburg by 1820.

 

1820 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-18

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

6

Sam'l

312

4

1

0

0

1

0

4

0

0

1

0

Levi

313

2

0

0

0

1

0

3

0

0

1

0

5

Nathan

313

0

0

0

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

Wm

319

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

8

John

320

1

0

1

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

2

9

James

327

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

Sam'l R.

329

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

Thomas

331

1

0

0

0

1

0

2

0

0

1

0

Wm

338

3

0

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

1

0

Francis

340

1

2

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

1820 Wilkinson County, Georgia

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-18

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

2

Samuel

300

1

0

0

0

1

0

2

0

1

0

0

Solomon

300

5

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

1

0

12

James

308

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

1**

James*

301

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

4

James

313

0

0

0

1

1

0

3

0

1

0

0

 

*The Ward on page 301 is a James Ward born in GA in 1795 who married Sarah Jones born 1798.  He was still living there in 1860.  His story is available in the history of Wilkinson County, GA.

**This red cell marks the elder woman who may be James B. Ward’s mother, Elizabeth.

 

ARE SAMUEL AND SOLOMON WARD RELATED

Not having a better link between Solomon and Samuel Ward in 1820 Wilkinson County raises a serious question.  Are Samuel and Solomon just two unconnected Wards who happened to show up in Wilkinson County in 1820?  If they are connected then it’s compelling evidence that these are the same Wards from Spartanburg and that we are on the right track.  There is data from Fayette County, GA linking the Solomon Ward of Wilkinson and Samuel Ward, by this time of Fayette County, together.  Fayette was formed in 1821 and is about 70 miles northwest of Wilkinson.

 

There is a deed in Fayette County, Georgia, dated Aug. 25, 1823 from Thomas Lewis (the same one from Spartanburg who was in Wilkinson County, GA in 1820) and Margaret Lewis of Wilkinson County, Georgia to Samuel Ward of Fayette County, Georgia.  Following the deed record was an affidavit of Solomon Ward of Wilkinson County, Georgia, stating that he witnessed the land transaction of Thomas Lewis and Margaret Lewis, his wife, to Samuel Ward.  In those days one generally got a family member to witness deeds.  But the fact that this was in two noncontiguous counties lends even stronger support to family ties between Samuel and Solomon.  In addition, Thomas Lewis is listed in both the 1820 Wilkinson County census 14 households away from Elizabeth Ward and the 1810 Spartanburg census.  Other researchers have Thomas Lewis born in Spartanburg, SC in 1796.  The deed and affidavit are in Deed book A, page 54.

 

SAMUEL, SOLOMON , NATHAN, JOHN AND JAMES B. WARD

 

~ A More Detailed Look ~

 

While I now have some pretty good evidence that the Spartanburg Wards are the same ones who were in Wilkinson County, GA in 1820,  I still feel a little uneasy that the names could still be a coincidence -- that the names are the same but the people aren’t.  In the interest of simplicity I have so far avoided getting into too much detail in sorting out the Spartanburg and Wilkinson County Wards.  Now it is time to look at more detailed data on each of the supposed brothers and to try to show, if possible, that all of them fit together into the same family in 1800 Spartanburg.  Or, conversely to prove that they don’t fit or aren’t James B. Ward’s brothers.

SAMUEL WARD

There are only two Samuel Wards in 1820 GA census records.  One in Wilkinson and one in Oglethorpe County.  The one in Oglethorpe was 45+.  Further research reveals him to be a well-researched Revolutionary War veteran so he isn’t the Spartanburg Samuel Ward we are tracing.  We are only concerned with the Samuel in Wilkinson County.

 

Here are the 1810 Spartanburg and 1820 Wilkinson County Samuel Wards.

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Samuel

302

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

 

1820 Wilkinson County, Georgia

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-18

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Samuel

300

1

0

0

0

1

0

2

0

1

0

0

 

By comparing the 1810 and 1820 censuses we know Samuel was 26-36 in 1820 and his wife was born in 1794 making her 16 in 1810 and 26 in 1820.

 

By 1830 there were three Samuel Wards in GA.  Our Samuel should be 36-46 in 1830.  Only one Samuel matches our Samuel Ward.  Here is that Samuel Ward in 1830 Troup County, GA.

 

1830 Troup County, GA

 

 

Page

 

Samuel

48

1 0 0 0 0 0 1(40-50)

1 2 1 0 1(20-30)

 

If this is our Samuel, we can now further narrow his age to 40-46. Not much else matches except the daughters, however.  Perhaps Samuel’s wife died just before 1830 and that’s why we don’t get a closer match.

 

Recall that Samuel bought land in Fayette County in late August of 1823.  Fayette County was formed from Creek Indian lands ceded in 1821.  Troup County, not far away, was formed from ceded lands of the Creek Indians in 1826 and we find this Samuel there in 1830.  It’s a logical migration pattern.  There are no other Samuel Wards in 1830 AL or GA who match so, by default, this seems to be our Wilkinson County Samuel Ward.

 

1840 Habersham County, GA

 

Page

Samuel

143

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1(50-60)

0 0 2 2 3 0 0 1 0 1(70-80)

 

By 1840 there are still only three Samuel Wards in GA.  Only a Samuel in Habersham fits, though.  He was 50-60 and our Samuel would have been 50-56.  Tracking that Habersham County Samuel into 1850 and later, he turns out to be a little too old to fit.

 

This means that from 1840 on there are no Samuel Wards of the right age to fit the age range we have on this Samuel, born 1784-1790, except one in Madison County, AL who was also there in 1830 as well and was born in VA in 1788 according to the 1860 census.  There’s an elder female with him but she’s at least five years too young to be Elizabeth Ward.  Apparently our Samuel Ward died before 1840 or left the GA/AL area altogether.

 

So, do we have any clue that would actually name the Samuel in 1820 Wilkinson County as being from Spartanburg or as being from somewhere else?  I thought I’d found it here:

 

Genealogical Abstracts from Reported Deaths,

The Nashville Christian Advocate 1890-1893

 

May 26, 1892 - WINIFORD BERRY born Spartanburg Dist., S.C., Nov. 1, 1811; moved with father, Samuel Ward and family, to Ala.; married A. J. Berry, April 26, 1834; 10 children; died Feb. 15, 1892.

 

Tracking Winiford Ward Berry to 1850 I find:

1850 DeKalb Co., AL

A J Berry        35 TN

Winiford         38 SC

John L.            11 AL

Samuel W         8 AL

Mary                 5 AL

Hugh P.             3 AL 

1850 DeKalb Co., AL page 329

Samuel Ward   69 VA  (LDS -  born 25 Nov 1780 in VA; died 28 Nov 1857 DeKalb Co., AL)

Elizabeth         35 SC

Marietta            8 AL

Abijah Brooks 60 NC (male)

(There was an Abijah Brooks in 1820 Morgan Co., Ga. The only one in the South)

 

So it would seem this Samuel Ward was born 1780 in VA but moved to Spartanburg where Winiford was born in 1811.  Since he was born in 1780, he would have been 20 in 1800 and 30 in 1810.  So he is not the same Samuel Ward listed in 1810 Spartanburg that we have been tracing into Wilkinson County, GA.  That Samuel was in the 16-26 bracket in 1810.  The DeKalb County, AL Samuel Ward shown above is the one shown below on page 312 in the 26-45 age bracket back in 1820 Spartanburg.  Other researchers list 4 boys and 4 girls for this Samuel Ward.  That would clearly make him the Samuel shown below and not the Samuel in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA.

 

1820 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-18

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Sam'l

312

4

1

0

0

1

0

4

0

0

1

0

 

I included the above only to save future researchers the trouble of sorting out the apparent link of that DeKalb County Samuel to our Samuel Ward.  The link is all the more compelling because another Abijah Brooks (see 1850 DeKalb Census above) lived not far from our 1820 Wilkinson County Wards.  Also in 1840 this Samuel had an elder female with him in the 80-90 age bracket.  Elizabeth would have been 85-90 in 1840!  I doubt this elder female was his mother-in-law.  His wife had died back in Spartanburg years earlier.  Could it be that I have been too hasty in excluding this Spartanburg Ward as Elizabeth’s son?

 

Moving along, there is this:  Spartanburg County, SC, Deed Book B, pages 427,428: Deed Book F, pages 191,192.  Francis Ward bought 150 acres in 1789. Nancy Ward sold her widow’s third of that land [50 acres] in 1797. (Francis Ward is the father of the Spartanburg Nathan Ward we are so interested in -- the one who married Elizabeth.)

 

Then this:  Spartanburg County, SC, Deed Book K, page 232.  (A Quarles researcher notes that, “This is a pretty good indication John had married the widow [of Francis Ward], Nancy Ward,….”)  In 1800 John Quarles gave Nathan Ward a cow and calf to hold in trust for Samuel Ward.  This would mean Samuel was a minor in 1800 and we know that he was, in fact, only 10-16 in 1800.  This Samuel who received the cow and calf is probably the young Samuel Ward in the 1810 Spartanburg Census.  He would have been a grandson of Nancy Ward Quarles. The other Nathan Ward in 1800 had boys all under 10 but is not the son of Francis Ward.

 

So it would seem we now have a Samuel Ward named as the son of Nathan and Elizabeth and we have a Samuel Ward in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA with James B. Ward and the elder woman we suspect is his mother.  There are very few Samuel Wards in early Georgia and only the Wilkinson County Samuel fits through all the years up to 1830.

 

Using the data gathered in Wilkinson and Troup Counties we now know that Samuel Ward was 10-16 in 1800 and fits into only Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s household.  The only other family with a slot for him in that 1800 census was the Elder James Ward’s family and that spot is already taken by James’ son, Solomon.

 

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

0

0

1

0

0

2

1

1

1

0

John

186

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

James

205

0

1

1c

0

1

0

1

2

1

1

Nathan

205

5

0

0

1a

0

0

0

0

1

0

Solomon

205

0

0

1d

0

0

3

0

1

0

0

 

I also found record in Genealogical Abstracts from the Georgia Journal (1809-1818) of Samuel Ward paying taxes on Nov 1815 on 101 acres in Wilkinson County.  So Samuel was in Wilkinson County around the same time James was pulling his tour as a spy indicating they could have arrived together prior to late 1813.

 

Here are two other factoids concerning this Samuel in Fayette County where he bought land.  Fayette is not far from Troup where we found him in 1830.

 

  • Morris HARRIS 19 Feb 1824 - Bought 202.5 acres in Fayette Co., GA, from Samuel WARD for $800

 

  • Fayette County, Georgia: Jury Selection for the April 1827 Term of the Superior Court.  The following persons were empanelled & sworn to serve as Grand Jurors at April Term 1827 viz.

                  11  Samuel Ward

                  14  William Ward

 

That is about all I can do on Samuel.  He seems to be around in 1830 Troup and then disappears.  It would have been nice to find him in 1850 or later to get a confirmed state of birth and actual age but that hasn’t happened.  The age is no big deal. We were able to narrow his age from the 1810-1830 census data to show that he could only fit in Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family if he is from Spartanburg.  A later census could not tell us if he was from Spartanburg – only if he was from SC.

 

Well, we already know from the Lewis Deed that Samuel and Solomon are related or are at least very close associates.  So let’s take a closer look at Solomon.

 

SOLOMON WARD

The Solomon Ward in Wilkinson County was the only Solomon Ward in GA in 1820.

 

The problem is, though, he looks a lot like the 1810 Spartanburg Solomon, son of James.   Bear with me as I trace the 1820 Wilkinson County Solomon Ward to see if he is the same Solomon Ward listed as head of household in the 1810 Spartanburg census.

 

In both 1810 and 1820 Solomon is 26-45.  Solomon’s wife remains in the same age bracket as well.  By 1820 four daughters under 10 have disappeared and two aged 10-16 and one 16-26 are also gone.  Marriage of the under 10 females would explain this loss if the 1810 girls were 9, 8, 7 and 6.  This would put them into marriageable age by 1820.  Or they could have died.  Seven girls disappearing is a lot but it’s conceivable.

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Solomon

328

1

0

0

1

0

4

2

1

1

0

 

1820 Wilkinson County, Georgia

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-18

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Solomon

300

5

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

1

0

 

By 1830 there are two Solomon Wards in GA.  One in Habersham County is 30-40 but the other in Pike County is 50-60 so he fits.  Wilkinson to Pike is about 65 miles and is near where we found Samuel Ward in 1830.  The Pike County Solomon looks like this:

 

1830 Pike County, Georgia

 

Page

<5

5-10

10-15

15-20

20-30

30-40

40-50

50-60

<5 

5-10

10-15

15-20

20-30

30-40

Solomon

112

1

0

3

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

1

 

This gives four sons which match age-wise four of the six sons he had in 1820 Wilkinson County.  The wife and daughter also fit.

 

In the 1820 Wilkinson County, GA census Solomon Ward had three slaves: 1 male <14, 1 female <14 and one female 26-45.  In Pike County in 1830 he had a male slave 10-24 and a female slave <10.  The 1820 male matches.

 

Solomon’s supposed brother Samuel was in Troup County in 1830 and before that bought land in Fayette County adjoining Pike.  It appears these two struck out westward after leaving Wilkinson County.  This 1830 census also lets us narrow Solomon’s birth years to 1775 - 1780.  That puts him in the 10-16 bracket in 1800 and only Nathan and James had sons in that bracket in 1800 Spartanburg.  Nathan had two and James one.  But  in 1810 James had a Solomon Ward listed four lines below him on the same page making it highly likely that that Solomon was his son.  Other researchers of the Spartanburg James Ward family list James as having a son named Solomon born in 1777 making him 23 in 1800.  That certainly matches this 1820 Solomon in Wilkinson County.  The hypothesis is now in trouble so far as Solomon being a son of Nathan and Elizabeth Ward.

 

Moving forward to 1840, there are still only two Solomon Wards in GA.  One in Early and one in Walker County.  They look like the same two who were in GA in 1830.  The one matching our Wilkinson County Solomon was in Early County, GA twenty miles east of Dale County, AL where Nathan, John and James B. Ward were living and in the same county where James B. Ward’s father-in-law, James English, left property when he died in 1837.  That Solomon looked like this:

 

1840 Early County, Georgia

 

Page

<5

5-10

10-15

15-20

20-30

30-40

40-50

50-60

<5 

5-10

10-15

15-20

20-30

30-40

40-50

Solomon

112

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

 

Everything matches up pretty well but Solomon is still in the 50 to 60 bracket.  This is a clue.  I see this in other lineages I have worked and it occurs when someone was born on the cusp of the span of years represented by those early census age brackets.  We see exactly the same thing happen when we get down to Nathan Ward a few pages later.  In Nathan’s case, however, we can verify the cusp birth from post-1840 census data.  In this case, if Solomon was born in 1780, his position in the censuses would fall out like this:

 

Birth                                                                                         Possible birth years

Year    Age       Possible Census Bracket                                  from census records

1780     born

1790     10        could only be in the <16 bracket                                    born from 1774 to 1790

1800     20        could only be in the 16-26 bracket                     born from 1774 to 1784

1810     30        could only be in the 26-45 bracket                     born from 1765 to 1784

1820     40        could only be in the 26-45 bracket                     born from 1775 to 1794

1830     50        could be in the 40-50 or the 50-60 bracket          born from 1770 to 1780

1840     60        could be in the 50-60 or the 60-70 bracket          born from 1780 to 1790

1850     70        there is no SC Solomon in either AL or GA anywhere near this age

 

You can see immediately from the right hand column of the above chart that the census records have Solomon born in 1780.  The left side of the chart shows how he could be listed if he were born in 1780 as the census data indicate.

 

If Solomon was born in 1780 as just discussed, it means he isn’t the Solomon born to James Ward in 1777.  Combining this with the explainable though strained mismatch between the two Solomons of 1810 Spartanburg and 1820 Wilkinson (recall those seven missing girls) it just barely supports our hypothesis and certainly doesn’t disprove it.  If this Wilkinson County Solomon was born in 1780, it puts him in Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s household in 1800 since the other Solomon is already accounted for as born in 1777.   But that’s a big “IF” considering the error rate in those early census ages.

 

I’m still concerned that we don’t have two Solomons here but the same one listed in 1810 Spartanburg with the Elder James and again later in 1820 Wilkinson.  If our hypothesis is correct then James’ son, Solomon, must also have left Spartanburg after 1810 and we should find him somewhere else in 1820 besides Wilkinson County, GA where we hope we have Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s Solomon.

 

From the research done on Thomas Watt Beard we have his wife  Isabelle "Lucy" Ward (daughter of Solomon Ward) born in 1804 in SC. Not much is known of the ancestry of Isabelle "Lucy" Ward, though she is reputed to have been part Indian.  A Willis Monroe Ward (19 Jun 1802 - 15 Dec 1876) of Marion (in 1860) and Fayette (in 1870) Counties, Alabama, who was known to be part Cherokee, had a sister named Lucy. This Willis Ward was from Franklin County, Tennessee born in 1802 in SC, a son of Solomon Ward. His father, Solomon Ward, was from Spartanburg, South Carolina.

 

We can “see” Lucy and Willis both <10 in the 1810 census below.

 

1800 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Solomon

205

0

0

1

0

0

3

0

1

0

0

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Solomon

328

1

0

0

1

0

4

2

1

1

0

Note: In 1820 Franklin Co., TN Solomon Ward was listed as 101101 – 31210.  Combining the previous two censuses we can narrow his birth to around 1774-1775.

 

So here is evidence that James’ son, Solomon, left Spartanburg not for GA but for TN.  Of course, we would expect to find something like this if our hypothesis is correct.  This now puts our 1820 Wilkinson County, GA Solomon into Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family and only there.

 

Solomon in 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

0

0

1

0

0

2

1

1

1

0

John

186

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

James

205

0

1

1

0

1

0

1

2

1

1

Nathan

205

5

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

Solomon

205

0

0

1

0

0

3

0

1

0

0

 

In the 1880 census of Coryell, Texas, Lucy Ward Beard said she was born in South Carolina, and her parents were born in Virginia.  This fact of her father being born in Virginia might be important since Winifred Berry’s father Samuel Ward was also born in Virginia.  It seems to be telling us that the Spartanburg Wards arrived in SC from Virginia after Solomon (son of James) and Samuel (of 1850 DeKalb County, AL) were born in 1775 and 1781 respectively.  Spartanburg County, SC, Deed Book B, pages 427,428: Deed Book F, pages 191,192  shows Francis Ward bought 150 acres in 1789.  I have not found any earlier entries for our Wards in Spartanburg.

 

For what it’s worth, between 1830 and 1840 we have from Randolph County, Georgia Early deeds -- 1831-1839: Solomon Ward to William Smith. Lot #134, 9th Dist. Wit.: W. B. Smith, William V. White, J.P. Mar. 3, 1832/Oct 27, 1832.  Randolph County is just above Early County and could have been a stop after leaving Pike County en route to Early County down near his brothers in Dale County, AL.

 

NATHAN WARD

Now let’s turn to Nathan.  He’s a key link because he shows up in 1824 and 1827 Jackson County, FL documents with John and James B. Ward and is listed next to James in 1830 Dale County, AL.  But we don’t ever find him by name in the census until 1830

 

Recall from the first research effort that Nathan was listed with other Wards of Jackson County, FL on Dec 11, 1827 in the Territorial Papers of the United States, Volume XXIII, pages 948-949.  Many of the names from that petition, including James and John Ward, fell within a span of 13 lines on page 217 of the 1830 Dale County census.  James B. Ward was on page 217.

 

Now, before we get back to tracing Nathan pre-1850 it would be nice to know as accurately as possible his wife’s and kid’s ages back then.  We have to look at censuses from 1850 and later to get specific data on his wife and kids.

 

By comparing ages and birth places for other Wards living around Nathan in 1850 Clarke County, Mississippi, I came up with the following possible children for Nathan and show them on the next page in the pre-1850 census data which follow this 1850 census extract.

 

1850 Clarke County, MS

Ward

John

36

M

Farmer

SC

(b. 1814)

Ward

Rebecca

30

F

AL

(school)

Ward

Mary

12

F

AL

(school)

Ward

 
Abram

8

M

MS

(school)

Ward

Ann

5

F

MS

Ward

John

2

M

MS

Ward

Wm. A.

38

M

Farmer    1500

SC

(b. 1812)

Ward

Laura

26

F

SC

Ward

Osmond

3

M

MS

Ward

William

1

M

MS

Ward

Jesse

30

M

Farmer

AL

(b. 1820)

Ward

Rebecca

27

F

AL

Ward

Thomas

6

M

AL

Ward

Jane

4

F

MS

Ward

Lee

1

M

MS

Ward

Lee

27

M

Farmer

AL

(b. 1823)

Ward

Mary

25

F

AL

Ward

Thomas

4

M

MS

Ward

Benjamin

2

M

MS

 

You will note that John and William A. Ward were born in SC in 1812 and 1814.  We might, then, expect to find Nathan in SC in 1810.  Jesse was born in AL in 1820, however, so Nathan shouldn’t be in any SC census after 1810 unless they left right after the census and arrived in AL in time for Jesse’s birth.  Other than these Wards being in the same county with Nathan in 1850, I have never found any evidence these are sons of Nathan Ward.  Three do fit into his household in the 1830 and 1840 censuses, however.  William is still in Clarke County in 1860 but the others are gone from MS by then.

 

We would expect, based on Nathan’s conjectured sons, that Nathan had left SC by 1820. And our Nathan and his family don’t seem to be there as shown below.  He would have been 30 to 31.

 

All 1820 South Carolina Nathan Wards

Nathan

Spartanburg SC

Page 242

000201  00001

Nathan

Union Co    SC

Page 140

111301  02111

Nathan

Union Co    SC

Page 144

000100  00100

Nathaniel

Newberry SC

Page 137

100100  00100

 

Nathan doesn’t show up in the 1820 Georgia or Alabama census indexes either, however, we know he was in Florida by 1821.  But, if Nathan is part of our Ward family, shouldn’t be with the other Wards in the 1820 Wilkinson County, GA census?  Let’s press on.

 

I have plugged in the names of his potential sons from the MS censuses to see if there is a good fit.

 

1830 Dale County, AL page 217 (next to James B. Ward)

Nathan Ward

1 male    40-50   Nathan age 41

1 male    15-20   Wm. b. SC 1812 age 18

2 males   10-15  John b. SC 1814 age 16 & Jessee b. AL 1820 age 10

1 female 5-10

1 female 10-15

1 female 15-20

1 female 30-40  Polly age 36

 

Notice that the Lee Ward I found with Nathan in MS doesn’t seem to be Nathan’s son since Nathan had only three sons in 1830 and Lee doesn’t fit into that census nor the following 1840 census.

 

NOTE: Lauderdale and Clarke Counties listed below in MS are adjacent.

 

1840 Lauderdale County, MS page 42

Nathan Ward

1 male   40-50       Nathan age 51 (his wife of 1830 is not shown)

2 males  20-30       Wm and John b. SC 1812 & 1814 ages 28 & 26

1 male   15-20       Jessee b. AL 1820 age 20

1 female 20-30

1 female 10-24 free colored (Marth Ellis)

7 slaves (1 male 10-24 and 6 females)

 

Notice from the 1830 census Nathan was born 1780-1790 and the 1840 census has him born 1790-1800.  This indicates he was born on the cusp of the age range between these two censuses or about 1790. (We saw the same thing with Solomon Ward, if you recall)

 

1850 Penty Ellis seems to become 1860 Purity Elliott who becomes 1870 Nancy Elliott who becomes 1880 N.A.P. Ward.
 
1850 Clarke County, MS page 190

Nathan Ward        61 male Farmer   SC

Polly Ward            56 female              GA

Marth ELLIS         20 female Mulatto                FL

Penty ELLIS            4 female Mulatto                MS

 

NOTE: In 1860 James B. Ward had a 21 year old Black named Ann Ellis in his household.  In 1850 he had 12 year old Ann Elliot, a Black, in his household.  This Ellis link means that this is almost certainly the same Nathan Ward in 1830 Dale County, AL with James.  Notice that in 1860 below, Nathan has Martha Elliott with him.  Why these families alternate between Ellis and Elliott I have no idea but this alternation further links Nathan and James.

 

This table shows the alternation of names in the Ellis/Elliott family between James’ and Nathan’s households

Nathan Ward’s Household

James B. Ward’s Household

1850

1850

Ellis, Marth     20 F Mulatto   FL

-----  Penty        4 F Mulatto   MS

Elliot, Ann      12 F     Black   AL

1860

1860

Elliott, Martha 31 Mulatto     FL

-----  Purity     13 Mulatto     MS

-----  Henry      10 Mulatto     MS

-----  Ellen         7 Mulatto     MS

-----  Frances     5 Mulatto     MS

Ellis, Ann        21        B         AL

-----  Wesley     6        Mu      AL

-----  Henry       3        Mu      AL

-----  Amos      3/12    Mu      AL

 

1860 Smith County, MS page 292.  Nathan was listed as follows in household 376:

Ward, Nathan       74 Farmer              1200       SC

No race is shown for Nathan and Mary since in 1860 the enumerator made no entry in the color column if the people were white.
 
Mary                 65           100                         GA

Elliott, Martha      31 Mulatto                            FL

               Purity     13 Mulatto                            MS

               Henry     10 Mulatto                            MS

               Ellen         7 Mulatto                            MS

               Frances     5 Mulatto                            MS

 

Martha Elliott may be a sister to the Ann Elliott with James B. Ward in 1850 Dale County.  Her birth in Florida about 1829 indicates this is the same Nathan who signed the 1827 Florida petition with James and John Ward.)  James B. had one free male of color 14-26 with him in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA.  This Ellis/Elliott family may be descendants of that male.

 

1870 Smith County, MS page 388

Ward, Nathan 80 MW Farmer --- 200              SC

1870 Nancy & Nathan Elliott seem to be 1880 N.A.P. & J.I.N. Ward.  The initials and ages match.
 
               Mary 76  FW                                       GA

Elliott, Nancy    23  FW Farm Labor                 MS

               Nathan 3 MW                                      MS

Smith, Edney E.29 W Domestic Servant           MS

 

1880 Scott County, MS page 61

 N.A.P. Ward         Self         S   Female W    31                MS   Day Laborer GA          GA

 Henry Ward          Son         S   Male    W    28  MS   Day Laborer                    GA       GA

 J.I.N. Ward           Son         S   Male    W    13  MS   Day Laborer                    AL       GA

 F.C. Ward             Son         S   Male    W   7M MS                            MS       GA

 Mary Ward          Mother Widow        W    85  GA   Keeping House  ---      ---

 

The 1850, 1860 and 1870 censuses list Nathan as 61, 74 and 80 respectively making him born in 1789, 1786 and 1790.   These three censuses give Nathan possible ages in 1800 of 11, 14 and 10.  Since the 1860 census age is so far off, it’s probable Nathan was 10-11 in 1800.  That also agrees with the 1830 and 1840 censuses.  But any of the three ages place him in the same age bracket in 1800.  It also appears that trying to determine who Nathan’s kids were has done us no good in helping to place him into a particular family so it matters little whether I got them right or not.

 

So how does Nathan fit into the early Spartanburg families?  In 1800 Nathan would have been 10-11 and been in the 10-16 age bracket as one of the red numbers in the 1800 census shown below.  In 1810 Nathan would have been 20-21 and would have been in the 16-26 age bracket.  Only Jonathan, Nathan Jr. and John have any males in that bracket in 1810.  But all the males <10 with Nathan Jr. and John in 1800 were still with them in 1810 and are spread across the 10-16 and 16-26 age brackets as shown in yellow below.  Since neither Nathan Jr. nor John had a male Nathan’s age in 1800 and the males in 1810 are already accounted for as the same ones with them in 1800, Nathan can’t be with either Nathan Jr. or John.  And we already know Jonathan was not in SC in 1790 or 1800.  That leaves only Nathan Sr. who has a place for Nathan in 1800.

 

1800 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Nathan Sr.

172

3

2

2

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

John

184

0

0

1

0

0

2

1

1

1

0

John

186

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

James

205

0

1b

1c

0

1

0

1

2

1

1

Nathan Jr.

205

5

0

0

1a

0

0

0

0

1

0

Solomon

205

0

0

1d

0

0

3

0

1

0

0

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Jonathan

302

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

2

1

Samuel

302

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

Patsy

306

0

2

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

James

315

3

1

0

1c

0

1

0

0

1

0

Nathan Jr.

315

0

2

3

0

1a

1

0

0

0

1

 
Sam'l

315

1

0

0

1b

0

2

0

0

1

0

John

324

1

0

0

1

0

2

1

0

1

0

John

324

1

1

2

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

James

328

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

Solomon

328

1

0

0

1d

0

4

2

1

1

0

Elizabeth

331

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

1

 

To repeat, the 3 males <10 with John in 1800 and the 5 males <10 with Nathan in 1800 are still with them in 1810.  That means Nathan isn’t one of the males 16-26 with Nathan Jr. and John in 1810 because he wasn’t with them in 1800.

 

We have shown Nathan could only fit into Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s household in 1800 but where he was from 1810 to 1820 remained a mystery until right toward the end of this final effort.  All of the clues I had gathered told me that Nathan should have been in or near Wilkinson County with the other Wards in 1820 yet I could not find him in any 1820 census.  There were not even any Wards with given names beginning with N in any indexes I searched.  This seemed wrong. Then in mid-December of 2005 I found the following:

 

Genealogical Abstracts from the Georgia Journal (1809-1818):

 

~   June 1818 N. Ward had letters in the Milledgeville Post Office.

 

Genealogical Abstracts from the Georgia Journal (1819-1823):

 

~   April 1819 N. F. Ward had unclaimed mail in the Madison Post Office.

~   April 1819 Nathan F. Ward had a harness sold at public auction in Jasper County to satisfy claims against him.

~   December 1819 Nathan F. Ward received fi fa on property in Baldwin County.

~   August 1820 Nathan F. Ward received fi fa on property in Jasper County, formerly Baldwin County.

 

This clearly places Nathan with the other Ward brothers in the 1820 Wilkinson County area and at dates after his kids were born in SC.  Jasper is just one county away from Wilkinson in 1820.  Letters in the Madison Post Office just north of Jasper County indicate he had a permanent address in the area.  Here is part of an 1822 Georgia Map to show distances among these counties.

 

 

Because I discovered this late in my research, I have waited until this point to introduce it to this paper so the reader can fully appreciate the impact of this finding.  Nathan now links to not only John and James B. Ward in 1830 but to Solomon, Samuel and Elizabeth Ward in 1820 as well.  We would have expected from the hypothesis that Nathan would be with our other Wards in 1820 and now here he is.

 

JOHN WARD

Recall there was a John Ward with Nathan and James in 1824 and 1827 Jackson County, FL and 1830 Dale County, AL.  In 1830 there were only two John Wards in Dale County.  One was actually on page 217 with James and Nathan.  They looked like this:

 

John Ward page 217  010011  11001 (head of household 30-40; wife 20-30)

John Ward page 225  100001  10001 (head of household 30-40; wife 20-30)

 

Both would have been under 10 in 1800.   This doesn’t rule either out as a brother to James B. Ward since either fits into three Spartanburg Ward families, Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s being one of them.

 

There is not much information on the GA, FL and AL John Wards but to be conscientious we should at least try to show that none of them fit our hypothesis.  Remember, we are trying to find evidence that the hypothesis is wrong.

While the name John is too common to trace easily, it should at least be noted that there was a John Ware listed in some indexes on page 6 (208 in other indexes) of the 1820 Wilkinson County, GA census.  I have never found him, though.  This seems to be our first failure in matching up all of the hypothesized brothers of James B. Ward.  If our hypothesizing about John Ward from Jackson County, FL and Dale County, AL being a brother to the other brothers who left Spartanburg is correct, however, we should find a matching John Ward somewhere very near Wilkinson County in 1820 GA.  After all, Nathan finally turned up there.

It turns out there is a John Ward in Putnam County, GA.  Putnam County’s center is only 35 miles from the center of Wilkinson County and their borders are separated by only 15 miles.  Plus both counties share the Oconee River along whose banks these Wards may have settled.  In fact, the John in Putnam could well have been closer to James B. Ward than the other Wards in Wilkinson County were to him.  It is less than 16 miles between Putnam and Wilkinson but almost 30 across Wilkinson.  The other John Wards were at least 50 miles away in Richmond, Oglethorpe and Burke Counties.  And this John Ward seems to be the match we were looking for.  He looked like this:  John Ward 000100 | 0000, i.e. he was 18 to 26 years old and single. 

 

Since he was listed as 18-26 in 1820 and 30-40 in 1830 he was actually 20-26 in 1820 and was therefore six or younger in 1800. Age-wise, the Putnam County John Ward matches the 1830 Dale County John Wards.  Plus, he is gone from Putnam County by 1830.

 

There were only four John Wards listed in all of 1820 Georgia and one of them is near James B. Ward and fits age-wise the two John Wards of 1830 Dale County, AL.  Earlier I gave evidence that James B. Ward paid taxes in Baldwin County, GA in 1815.  Baldwin, of course, separates Putnam and Wilkinson County.  This puts James even closer to the Putnam County John five years before we see James in 1820 Wilkinson County. 

 

Since the Putnam County John Ward was single in 1820, the listing below may be his marriage and could be a clue to finding him in 1850 and later censuses.

 

Baldwin Co, GA Marriages From 1806 to 1850

 
04/24/1825 Ward, John - Lockett, Lucy

Another researcher gives this: Lucy Lockett 1802-1876.

 

This marriage date seems to fit the Dale County James Ward on page 225 since the other already had three kids two of whom were 5-10.  On the other hand, maybe that John Ward marrying Luck Lockett isn’t our John Ward at all.

Putnam County John Ward was 60-66 in 1860.  In 1860 only one John Ward in AL came close to fitting this age and even he was a year too young.  If he is still alive after 1830, I need to positively locate this John.  To date I haven’t been able to do that.

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

0

0

1

0

0

2

1

1

1

0

John Sr.

186

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

James

205

0

1

1

0

1

0

1

2

1

1

Nathan Jr.

205

5

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

Solomon

205

0

0

1

0

0

3

0

1

0

0

 

Since our John who was <6 in 1800, he fits into one of three families in Spartanburg -- Nathan, John Sr. or Nathan Jr. as shown above.  Are we now out of luck in being able to place each of the Ward “brothers” into only Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s household?  Let’s go forward to 1810 when John would have been in the 10-16 age bracket?

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Jonathan

302

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

2

1

Samuel

302

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

Patsy

306

0

2

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

James Jr.

315

3

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

1

0

Nathan Jr.

315

0

2

3

0

1

1

0

0

0

1

Sam'l

315

1

0

0

1

0

2

0

0

1

0

John

324

1

0

0

1

0

2

1

0

1

0

John Sr.

324

1

1

2

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

James Sr.

328

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

Solomon

328

1

0

0

1

0

4

2

1

1

0

Elizabeth

331

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

1

 

·       Taking it a family at a time, Patsy has a place for John but researchers of Patsy Ward and her next husband, Peter Ligon, don’t show her having a son named John.  Patsy is out.

·       James Jr. has one place for John but James was with his father James Sr. in 1800 and there was no place for John in 1800 so James Jr. is out.

·       Nathan Jr. has two places for John in the 10-16 bracket but in 1820 he still has those two with him in the 16-26 bracket.  Nathan Jr. is out.

·       John Sr. had three males <10 in 1800.  In 1810 two of those are 16-26 making them 6 or older in 1800.  John Ward was <6  in 1800.  That leaves one in the 10-16 column in 1810 who could be John Ward.  John Sr. still has a male 16-26 in 1820 but that male was also listed in the 16-18 column.  That would have made him 6-8 in 1810 so he is the <10 male from 1810. That leaves the 10-16 male in 1810 who could be John.  If, however, those are two different males in the 16-18 and 18-26 columns, it would rule John Sr. out as John’s father since both 1810 males would be with him in 1820. There were places in this census where there were entries in the third column and not the fourth column.  That would indicate the enumerator wasn’t always following directions and was entering 16-18 year olds into only the 16-18 column.  This might mean that these are two different males in the 1820 census but there’s no way to know for sure.

 

1820 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-18

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

John Sr.

320

1

0

1

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

2

 

On the other hand, maybe that’s not a 1 in the 16-26 column.  I have placed an image of John Sr. from the 1820 census below.  If that is a partially obliterated 2 instead of a 1 in the fourth column, then both the <10 and the 10-16 males from 1810 are still with him in 1820 and we could rule John Sr. out.

 

 

I strongly suspect it is a 1 but I can’t be sure.  For now John Sr. can’t be completely ruled out as John’s father based on age matching alone.

·       James Sr. had no male <10 in 1800 to fill the 10-16 column in 1810 so that means the 10-16 male in 1810 is not his.  Since Elizabeth had only two males with her in 1810, James Sr. may have been raising one of her boys.  Possibly even John.  But John is not his son or he would have shown up in 1800.  James Sr. is out.

 

For now either Nathan and Elizabeth or John Sr. could be John’s family.  Our luck seems to have failed in placing John into only one family using only age data as the deciding factor.

 

JAMES B. WARD

We’re finally down to James B. Ward.  Obviously he fits into Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s household but can we show that he fits there and only there?  That would greatly bolster the hypothesis that the 1820 Wilkinson County, GA Wards are his family.

 

Wards in 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

0

0

1

0

0

2

1

1

1

0

John Sr.

186

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

James

205

0

1

1

0

1

0

1

2

1

1

Nathan Jr.

205

5

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

Solomon

205

0

0

1

0

0

3

0

1

0

0

 

Looking at 1800 there are three Ward families that James B. Ward might fit into -- Nathan, John Sr., and Nathan Jr.  You will notice that this is very similar to the situation we had placing John into only one family.  Once again, we have to go to 1810 Spartanburg to solve the problem.

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Jonathan

302

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

2

1

Samuel

302

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

Patsy

306

0

2

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

James Jr.

315

3

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

1

0

Nathan Jr.

315

0

2

3

0

1

1

0

0

0

1

Sam'l

315

1

0

0

1

0

2

0

0

1

0

John

324

1

0

0

1

0

2

1

0

1

0

John Sr.

324

1

1

2

1

0

0

0

0

1

1

James

328

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

Solomon

328

1

0

0

1

0

4

2

1

1

0

Elizabeth

331

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

1

 

·       Taking it again a family at a time, Patsy has a place for James in 1810 but, while researchers of Patsy Ward and her next husband, Peter Ligon, show she had a son named James, that James was born in 1811 and his middle name was Madison.  Patsy is out.

·       James Jr. has one place for James B. Ward but James was with his father James Sr. in 1800 and there was no place for James B. Ward in 1800 so James Jr. is out.

·       Nathan Jr. has two places for James in the 10-16 bracket in 1810 but in 1820 he still has those two with him in the 16-26 bracket.  Plus Nathan Jr. is still alive in 1820.  Nathan Jr. is out.

 

1820 Spartanburg, SC

 

Page

<10

10-16

16-18

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Nathan Jr.

313

0

0

0

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

John Sr.

320

1

0

1

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

2

 

·       As mentioned in the study with John just above, John Sr. had three males <10 in 1800.  In 1810 two of those are 16-26 making them 6 or older in 1800.  James B. Ward was 4-5 in 1800.  That leaves one in the 10-16 column in 1810 who could be James B. Ward.  John Sr. still has a male 16-26 in 1820 but that male is also listed in the 16-18 column.  That would have made him 6-8 in 1810 so he is the <10 male from 1810. That leaves the 10-16 male in 1810 who could be James (or John) since he is gone by 1820.  Again, the same arguments for the partially obliterated 2 in the fourth column or the single entry in the 16-18 column could be used to rule John Sr. out as James’ father but they are weak arguments.  At the moment, John Sr. can’t be ruled out except that he and his wife are still alive in 1820 and we need an elder widow who could be with James B. Ward in 1820.

·       James Sr. had no male <10 in 1800 to fill the 10-16 column in 1810 so that means the 10-16 male in 1810 is not his.  Since Elizabeth had only two males with her in 1810, James Sr. may have been raising one of her boys.  Possibly even James B. Ward.  But James is not his son or he would have shown up in 1800.  Plus James Sr. already has a son named James.  James Sr. is out.

 

So, either Nathan and Elizabeth or John Sr. could be James’ family if we ignore the fact that John Sr. and his wife were still alive in 1820.  Our luck seems to have failed yet again in placing one of the supposed brothers into only Nathan’s family using nothing but the census data and James’ age.  There is one Spartanburg male outside of Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family who could conceivably be him.

 

ADDRESSING THE FAILURE TO PLACE JAMES AND JOHN INTO ONLY NATHAN AND ELIZABETH WARD’S FAMILY USING CENSUS DATA ALONE.

 

Having some evidence that James and John were actually brothers would prove they don’t belong in John Sr’s family because he only has space for one of them.  Saving the day, perhaps, is this intriguing bit of data:  On 1 Sep 1827 Benjamin Foscue, assignee of John Ward, assignee of Mary Ward shows up in the Bureau of Land Management records in Jackson County, FL.  On that same date there was another property transaction for Mathew Marshall, assignee of James Ward.  I’m not sure what was going on but it shows a strong link between James and John Ward that they were doing the same sort of property transaction on the same day at the same place.  Perhaps they were preparing to leave for Dale County, Alabama and sold their land in preparation.

 

But the real linkage comes from the property descriptions:

James had:             sec 17 7-N 12-W E½SW¼

John had:               sec 17 7-N 12-W SE¼

Mary had:              sec 17 6-N 11-W NE¼

 

Here is what James and John Ward’s property looked like in sec 17.  James’ is shown in red; John’s in blue.

 

 

They had adjoining property.  This is a strong indication that they were very closely tied.  Mary Ward’s property was in an adjoining township and range less than 10 miles away.

 

As is turns out James and John Ward’s property on today’s maps would show up about a mile inside of AL.  The Florida survey had some rather large errors in it back in the 1820s.  Finding after a more accurate survey that this property, initially listed as being in Jackson County, FL in the 1820s, was really in AL explains why James B. Ward’s children were listed in later years as born in AL and (with one exception) not FL. When the FL and AL boundary was later resurveyed they found out that they had been in AL all along.  It turns out John and James were only about ten miles from Malvern and Slocomb, AL where James B. Ward spent the latter years of his life.

 

So John Ward is indeed very closely linked to James B. Ward.  He is not just another unrelated Ward who happened to live in early Jackson County and happened to sign a petition with James, but quite probably a brother.

 

Below is a map of the property of those Jackson County Wards.  The small squares are sections 17 in each township and range with John’s & Mary’s, and James’ property shown in blue and red respectively.  This is significant.

 

 

The failure to place John in only Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family using only age data repeats with James B. Ward because he is so close in age to John.  John Ward Sr. of Spartanburg, however, could have had either James or John as his son but not both.  Other than Nathan and Elizabeth Ward, he had the only Spartanburg Ward male the right age to be either James or John.  Only Nathan and Elizabeth, however, had a place for both.  Finding this adjoining property sold on the same day in 1829 lends credence to James and John being brothers which would place both James and John into only Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family.  But should research ever show John not to be James’s brother, only James had the elder female with him in 1820 and only Nathan Sr. can provide a widow to be that female.  So it seems James fits only with Nathan regardless of John’s future status as a brother.

 

RULING OUT ALL OF THE OTHER SC WARDS

Now some might say that the above exercise placing the supposed Ward brothers into the same Spartanburg family is all well and good but James B. Ward could just as easily have come from any of the other SC Ward families in counties that we haven’t checked.  So let’s correct that oversight.  On the bright side, of the 50 Wards listed in 1800 SC, only 30 had a boy in James’s age bracket.  Here they are:

 

All 1800 SC Wards with a place for James B. Ward

Given Name

County

Page

Head Counts

Christopher

Edgefield

159

12001 31011

Daniel

Edgefield

153

51010 00011

Frederick

Edgefield

174

31110 11121

H.D.

Orange

291

10010 00100

James

Laurens

033

31010 32011

James

York

934

22101 21101

James Esq

Charleston

116

20100 30110

Jeremiah

Abbeville

024

20010 30010

John

Lexington

258

32001 21010

John

Spartanburg

186

30010 00010

John

Sumter

928

20110 20100

Mark

Pendleton

040

20110 10111

Mary

Fairfield

200

11000 00010

Micajah

Sumter

881

22010 20020

Michael

Sumter

932

10211 11101

Milly

Liberty

783

20000 10010

Nathan

Spartanburg

172

32201 00101

Nathan

Spartanburg

205

50010 00010

Richard

Greenville

256

30001 10010

Samuel

Pendleton

004

10201 33010

Shadrack

Edgefield

170

51010 11010

Theophilus

Darlington

117

20201 53110

Thomas

Darlington

120

30010 32010

Thomas

Newberry

098

21100 11101

Thomas Jr.

Abbeville

033

12201 02101

William

Abbeville

033

20010 10100

William

Edgefield

182

20010 10100

William

Greenville

260

30001 20010

William

Greenville

260

10100 00100

William

Liberty

783

10100 00100

 

If only we could narrow that down a little.  Well we can by assuming that Nathan, John and James B. were brothers.  Since we now have ages for the brothers, the list reduces to only nine -- those with two or more males in the first column and one or more males in the second column as shown below.

 

1800 SC Wards

Given Name

County

Page

Head Counts

Daniel

Edgefield

153

51010 00011

Frederick

Edgefield

174

31110 11121

James

Laurens

033

31010 32011

James

York

934

22101 21101

John

Lexington

258

32001 21010

Micajah

Sumter

881

22010 20020

Nathan

Spartanburg

172

32201 00101

Shadrack

Edgefield

170

51010 11010

Thomas

Newberry

098

21100 11101

 

Throw Solomon, age about 20, into 1800 the mix and we’re down to four.

 

1800 SC Wards

Given Name

County

Page

Head Counts

Frederick

Edgefield

174

31110 11121

James

York

934

22101 21101

Nathan

Spartanburg

172

32201 00101

Thomas

Newberry

098

21100 11101

 

Put in Samuel 10-16 and we’re down to two in all of SC.

 

1800 SC Wards

Given Name

County

Page

Head Counts

James

York

934

22101 21101

Nathan

Spartanburg

172

32201 00101

 

The James Ward in York County is still there in 1820 and so is not dead as our hypothesis requires.  Only our Spartanburg Nathan is left.

 

There’s a lot of room for errors in the assumptions, however.  James may not have had all those brothers.  If James did have his brothers around him in 1820-1830 and they are who we think they are, only one of those 1800 SC Ward families could be his and it turns out to be the only family which has all of the first names we were looking for associated with it.   That’s a double payoff -- there’s only one family that fits and it also happens to have the names James, John, Samuel, Solomon and Nathan associated with it through the other Spartanburg Wards.  Note, too, that by just assuming Nathan and John are James’ brothers we narrowed the SC families who could be James’ family to only nine.  Nathan and John are the most closely linked to James.  John and James had adjoining property in 1829.  Nathan was listed next to James in the 1830 census and shared the Elliott/Ellis family connection with him in later censuses.  Both were with him in 1820 GA.  Assuming Nathan and John are James’ brothers is entirely reasonable.

 

NARROWING THE FIELD USING ONLY NATHAN AND JOHN

 

So let’s see what happens if we assume James had only two brothers; Nathan and John.  Let’s return to where we sorted out only nine families from all of the SC Wards who could have Nathan, John and James in them.  I traced those families to 1820 and found that Daniel, Frederick, one of the James, John, Micajah, Shadrack and Thomas were still alive in 1820.  By now we all know what that means.  I couldn’t find the John Ward in 1820 but in 1810 he was still in Lexington County and looked like this: 20401 – 11102.  You’ll note that he has no place for 14 year old James and his brother John.  That leaves only James from Laurens or Nathan from Spartanburg who could be James’ father if only Nathan and John are his brothers.  I don’t know what happened to the Laurens County James after 1800 but we at least know that, if only Nathan and John are James’ brothers, only Nathan or James Ward out of all of SC Wards in the 1800 census could be their father.  And only Nathan has a given name that matches one of those two brothers.

 

Tracking 1800 SC Wards who could be John’s, Nathan’s & James’ parents to 1820

1800

1820

Given Name

County

Pg

Head Counts

County

Pg

Head Counts

Daniel

Edgefield

153

51010 00011

Edgefield

215

220201 01101

Frederick

Edgefield

174

31110 11121

Putnam, GA*

150

011001 11010

James

Laurens

033

31010 32011

Can’t find in 1820

James

York

934

22101 21101

York

305

000001 00000

John

Lexington

258

32001 21010

Lexington

108

20401 11102**

Micajah

Sumter

881

22010 20020

Richland***

155

001201 00101

Nathan

Spartanburg

172

32201 00101

Spartanburg

Died before 1810

Shadrack

Edgefield

170

51010 11010

Floyd, KY

029

200011 20010

Thomas

Newberry

098

21100 11101

Union****

279

100110 10010

*  In 1820 he was listed as Federick.

** I was unable to find John in 1820 Lexington so I used 1810 instead to show that he had no place for 14 year old James B. Ward that year.

*** Sumter and Richland are adjacent.

**** Union and Newberry are adjacent.

 

 So using only Nathan and John as assumed brothers to James B. Ward we have narrowed the field of all 1800 SC Ward families who could be theirs to a mere two.  It would seem that this exercise is not very sensitive to dropping out Samuel and Solomon provided we put a little extra effort into the research.  How sensitive is it to dropping out another brother?  Of all the potential brothers I have found for James, Nathan is clearly the most closely linked.  Let’s drop John and see what happens.

 

NARROWING THE FIELD USING ONLY NATHAN

 

It turns out we add only three additional Ward families to the possible parents for James and Nathan.  The table below shows those three families (Christopher, Mary and Thomas Jr.) added to the other two families I couldn’t exclude in the exercise above.  In the table below I have already removed those families I was able to exclude from the previous exercise.

 

Tracking 1800 SC Wards who could be Nathan’s and James’ parents to 1820

1800

1820

Given Name

County

Pg

Head Counts

County

Pg

Head Counts

Christopher

Edgefield

159

12001 31011

Edgefield

162

001101 11021

James

Laurens

033

31010 32011

Can’t find in 1820

Mary

Fairfield

200

11000 00010

Can’t find in 1820

Nathan

Spartanburg

172

32201 00101

Spartanburg

Died before 1810

Abbeville 1810

014

03101 10010

Thomas Jr.*

Abbeville

033

12201 02101

Abbeville 1810

010

00001 01001

Abbeville 1810

011

00101 10201

* Since there were no Thomas Wards in 1820 Abbeville I used 1810 instead.  There were three in Abbeville in 1810.  Only one had age brackets for Nathan and James.

 

So by using only Nathan and James as brothers we have excluded all of the 1800 SC Ward families as theirs except for the four highlighted in blue in the table above.  Keep in mind, if they were still alive in 1820 they don’t fit the hypothesis.  Likewise, if I can’t find them in 1820 I have to assume they are dead or else I have to find them in 1810 and show that James wasn’t with them.

 

However, I can also exclude them in other ways.  For instance, Thomas Jr.’s wife (see page 14 entry in table above) is missing in 1810 so is not available to be with James B. Ward in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA.  So we can now exclude Thomas Jr.  That brings us down to three.

 

1800 SC Wards not yet excluded as parents if only Nathan is James’ brother

James

Laurens

033

31010 32011

Mary

Fairfield

200

11000 00010

Nathan

Spartanburg

172

32201 00101

 

If we go back to 1810 Fairfield to look for Mary, we find Creighton Ward listed as 00200 00002.  This appears to be the elder son of Mary from 1800 and Mary and another older woman are with him.  Creighton got listed twice in 1810 so we have confirmation on the ages.  The two males are 16-26 so if Creighton was, say, 14 in 1800 and his younger brother was as young as 6 there is no problem fitting them into the 1810 census.  In fact, other researchers have Creighton born in 1786.  Creighton Ward died in Holmes County Mississippi 12 Nov 1832.  His mother was Mary Creighton.  His father was a James Ward who died in 1797 per his estate records.  I have not found any information on the younger son of Mary.  But – James B. Ward was 14 to 15 in 1810 and doesn’t fit into this family.

Now, let’s try to exclude James of Laurens.  With a name like James we have little hope of positively identifying him after 1800 if he left Laurens County, SC and there is no James Ward in Laurens or in any county adjoining Laurens except Spartanburg in 1810.  But in 1810 Laurens in the same group of families from 1800 is James Word 21101 32310.  This is obviously the 1800 James Ward.  The “o” in Word looks like other “a” in Richard on the same page.  He still has places for James B. Ward and Nathan in 1810, however.

 

James Wards of Laurens County, SC 1800-1820

Year

Name

County

Pg

Head Count

1800

James Ward

Laurens

033

31010 32011

1810

James Word

Laurens

055

21101 32310

1820

James Ward

Laurens

035

010210 11211

 

So, what else might we logically use to disqualify the Laurens James as father of James and Nathan?  Well, in 1790 James Ward was in Laurens as 1 - 1 - 4 with no slaves.  In 1800 James is 26-45 and has two females with him; one aged 26-45 and one 45+.  That 26-45 female is almost certainly his wife so the elder female is probably his mother or mother-in-law.  And in 1810 the elder female is gone, however, we can’t rule this family out based on the elder female being gone/dead in 1810 (as we did with Thomas of Abbeville) because the female who was 26-45 in both 1800 and 1810 would be 45+ in 1820 and, so, could still be the elder female with James B. Ward in 1820. 

 

In 1820 that James Ward in Laurens County, SC is not the same James Ward from 1800 and 1810 so we are still left with the Laurens County James Ward as a potential father for James and Nathan.  To eliminate him requires plugging John or Samuel or Solomon into the family or discarding this James on the basis of no Samuel, Solomon or Nathan Ward anywhere around him.  But I can eliminate all but one of the non-Spartanburg, SC Ward families using only Nathan as James’ brother.

 

The only 1800 SC Wards who could be parents if only Nathan is James’ brother

James

Laurens

033

31010 32011

Nathan

Spartanburg

172

32201 00101

 

A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE PERTINENT CENSUS DATA

After a number of false starts in the second paper, things seem to have finally fallen into place.  We now have an excellent fit of our Wards in GA and AL into Nathan Ward’s family in Spartanburg.  A fit - the only fit in SC - that matches the hypothesis and data available.  James B. Ward’s family would have had names distributed like this in the 1800 and 1810 censuses:

 

1800 Spartanburg, SC

 
Head

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Nathan

172

3

John

James B.

2

Samuel

Nathan

2

Solomon

0

1

Nathan

0

0

1

0

1

Elizabeth

 

1810 Spartanburg, SC

Head

Page

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

<10

10-16

16-26

26-45

45+

Elizabeth

331

0

2

John

James B.

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

1

Elizabeth

 

Age Brackets Needed in Census Records to Account for the Hypothesized Ward Brothers

Birth Year

Age in 1800

Age in 1810

Age in 1820

James B.

1795-1796

4-5

14-15

24-25

John

1794-1800

0-6

10-16

20-26

Samuel

1784-1790

10-16

20-26

30-36

Nathan 

1789-1790

10-11

20-21

30-31

Solomon

1775-1784

16-25

26-35

36-45

 

Keep in mind that I have already shown that James, Samuel, Nathan and Solomon Ward taken separately fit into only Nathan Ward’s household.  The supposed brother, John, fits into either Nathan’s or John Sr.’s family.  In James’ situation, he differs from John in that he had the elder female with him in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA and the only Spartan-burg Ward family she could have come from is Nathan’s.  Since James and John shared a common border on their Jackson County, FL property, it is likely they are brothers or cousins.  Even if John is a cousin, the Spartanburg link holds up and James stays in Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family with Samuel, Solomon and Nathan.  The hypothesis hasn’t been disproved; John still fits in with James and his brothers.  It’s just that he could also be John Sr.’s son.  He is the only exception.  Also notice that Solomon, Samuel and Nathan have actually turned out to be James’ elder brothers as predicted by Elizabeth’s age when James was born.  This further fits our hypothesis’ predictions.

 

Before we move on, lets take another look at the 1810 and 1820 census data to see how the Ward brothers now fit into it.

 

All the Male Wards in 1810 Spartanburg, SC and 1820 Wilkinson Co., GA

 

All 1810 Spartanburg, SC Wards

All 1820 Wilkinson Co., GA Wards

page

page

Ward

Jonathan

302

Ward

Solomon

11

Ward

Samuel

302

Ward

Samuel

11

Ward

Nathan

315

Ward

James

12

Ward

Samuel

315

Ward

James

19

Ward

James

315

Ward

James

24

Ward

John* (2)

324

Ward

Nathan

N/A

Ward

James

328

*In 1820 John Ward is in Putnam County, GA a short distance away.

Ward

Solomon

328

Now, granted, James and John are pretty common names but here we have all of our 1820 Ward names reflected in the 1810 Spartanburg, SC census.  In fact the two areas share all of the Ward given names (and only those names) except for Jonathan who came to Spartanburg well after our GA Wards were already born.  Keep in mind, these early Spartanburg names are not actually the Wards from GA but have the same given names as the Wards from GA.  Many families repeated names in close family groups -- kids being named after aunts and uncles and grandparents. And some of these are rare names.  For instance, in 1800 the only other Nathan Wards in the US were in Maine, Vermont, New York and New Hampshire.  The only two Nathan Wards in the South were the two in Spartanburg.

 

The table of Spartanburg Wards below easily sums it up.  It is easy to see that Samuel, Solomon, Nathan, John and James from 1820 fit into only Nathan Ward’s family.

 

1800 Spartanburg Wards

Ward Nathan

Pg 172

32201-00101-00

Ward John

Pg 184

00100-21110-00

Ward John

Pg 186

30010-00010-00

Ward James

Pg 205

01101-01211-00

Ward Nathan

Pg 205

50010-00010-00

Ward Solomon

Pg 205

00100-30100-00

 

The “3” in the first column fits James B. age 4, John age 0-6, plus another as yet unidentified brother.  The “2” in the second column fits Samuel age 10-16 and Nathan age 11.  Solomon age 20 is in the third age bracket.  The above table also shows that if only Nathan is James’ brother and they are from Spartanburg, only Nathan Sr. can be their father.

 

In addition, in the 1810 Spartanburg census a John Turner on page 184 turns up in Dale County, AL in 1830.  And the William Fords on pages 182 & 194 reflect the name of the William Ford who served with James B. in 1814.  A John Bird on page 185 ended up in Dale County, AL in 1830 as well.  (A long list of other matching names I had in earlier papers is deleted for brevity.)

 

So, we’ve now traced our Wards up to Spartanburg.  Let’s go back to Spartanburg and see if there is a family lineage there to fit them.

 

FINDING A FAMILY LINEAGE IN SPARTANBURG THAT FITS WHAT WE KNOW OF

JAMES B. WARD’S CONNECTIONS.

This next effort will try to pin James B. Ward’s new-found family to a particular lineage in Spartanburg, South Carolina.  With the 1810 Spartanburg Elizabeth shown to be Nathan Ward’s wife in 1800 and the Wilkinson County, GA Ward brothers tied to Nathan and Elizabeth Ward, we need to find Nathan’s lineage to continue James B. Ward’s lineage.

 

So is there a lineage for these Spartanburg Wards than includes Nathan?  That same lineage must also include the other Spartanburg Wards that are tied to Nathan through Spartanburg court records and early census data.  The dates for births and deaths in that lineage must also be in agreement with the observed census data and court records.  It must also agree with the DNA evidence now available on the male lines of James B. Ward (more on that in the last part of this paper.)  That’s a pretty tall order.  Well, it turns out there is such a lineage and it seems to be well documented.

 

The following information is derived from "The Wards of Ireland," by Robert G. Adams.

 

Edmond Ward

Born about 1675 in Ireland, under the English Crown

Married 1709 in Ireland per LDS IGI

Children:

Francis

born about 1710.

died about 1795.

Edmond

born about 1712.

(Father of Bryant)

Lucy*

born about 1714

died 1756. 

* Married Chief Oconostota, 1738. Ref: "Nancy Ward, Wild Rose of Cherokee," pp.6-7, by E. Sterling King, Univ. Press, Nashville, TN, 1895. U.S. Census, SC 1790.

(Note here a case of a European woman, Lucy Ward, marrying an Indian.  We know from the Ward Y Chromosome (see below) that James B. Ward is not from this line.)

 

Francis Ward

Son of Edmond Ward above

Born about 1710 in Ireland

Died about 1795 in Spartanburg Co., SC.

First Marriage

1730 to Tame Doe, sister of Chief Oconostota

Child:

Nancy     Cherokee Indian “Princess”

Second Marriage

About 1754 in Spartanburg, SC to Unknown

Children:

James

born about 1755 died 1825.

William

born about 1757

Nathan

born about 1758

(Our Nathan)

 

Here is the James shown above, one of the sons of Francis Ward who is listed in the 1790 Spartanburg census with his brother Nathan.

 

James Ward. Born in 1755, Spartanburg Co., SC. Died 1825 in Spartanburg Co., SC. Married Susannah Unknown, born 1756, died 1826. Children:

        a. Nathan               born 1772 (light green-coded Nathan)

        b. Samuel              born 1773

        c. James                 born 1775

        d. Solomon            born 1777

        Ref: U.S. Census, Spartanburg Co., SC, 1790, 1800, 1810.  Also, James Ward's        Last Will and Testament, File 2286, Spartanburg Co. Court House

 

Here is Samuel, one of the sons of James Ward shown just above.

Samuel Ward. Born 1773, Spartanburg Co., SC. Died 1864, Spartanburg Co. SC. Married Anna Unknown, born about 1775, died about 1868. Children:               

        a. William E.,        born 1800

        b. Lottie (Charlotte), born 1806

        c. Pricilla,              born 1810

        d. Elias,                 born 1815

        e. Fielding,            born 1816

               Ref: U.S. Census, Spartanburg Co., 1790, 1810, 1850. Also, probated Estate of Samuel Ward, File 1231, Spartanburg Co. Court House, SC

 

Only Nathan, son of Francis, fits the elder Nathan Ward in 1800 Spartanburg.  The other Nathan, son of James, was far too young in 1800.  While Francis married an Indian about 1730, he remarried again about 1754 in Spartanburg, SC according to Adams.  Francis Ward was born in Ireland.  The above research didn’t list a wife for Nathan but we now know his wife was Elizabeth.

 

While the 1790 Spartanburg James Ward family that stayed in Spartanburg has been researched, the 1790 Nathan Ward family is not mentioned in the LDS records, nor in the over 400,000,000 names on World Connect nor in any Ward forums I have visited.  Nothing.  And here we are researching this entire family as being James B. Ward’s family.  And we certainly know that James B. Ward’s lineage is a lost one.  So, yet again, we have an indication that we are on the right track, though it is admittedly the lack of anyone else claiming this line that indicates this.

 

If there is any remaining doubt about members of the Spartanburg Wards going into Georgia, I’ll offer this final piece of evidence.  Francis Ward (Elder Nathan’s father) had a daughter named Tame Doe by his previous marriage who married Bryant Ward, a nephew of Francis.  Bryant had another wife, Anna P., and had a son by her named Samuel.  Here is an extract from Georgia Indian Depredations.  On 2 Oct 1802 Franklin County, GA Samuel Ward filed a claim backing up his father’s claim of having a horse stolen by the Indians.  His father also had a claim on file for the same incident.  Samuel was merely corroborating his father’s claim.   His father was recorded as Briant (Bryant) Ward.  Both this Spartanburg Bryant and son, Samuel, were still alive in 1815.  It’s certainly possible the Nathan and Solomon set off for GA under the care of Bryant Ward.  Bryant Ward didn’t die until 1815.  His son Samuel died three years later.

 

If you trace this family as portrayed by Robert G. Adams in "The Wards of Ireland" and many others, James B. Ward’s aunt was Nancy Ward, the famed “Beloved Woman of the Cherokee.”  A few sources, to be fair, say her father is not known.  But she was unquestionably the wife of Bryant Ward, James’ first cousin once removed.  So we now find that James had plenty of opportunity to gain experience with Indians through his family connections.  This explains how James B. Ward was able, as a teenager, to be an effective spy against the Indians in 1813-1814.  This revelation is no small achievement.  It comes directly out of following our hypothesis. 

 

Here is an extract of Franklin County, GA records:

 

 

This Indenture made this sixteenth day of April 1808 between Bryan Ward & Samuel Ward, son of Bryan Ward his Attorney in fact of the County of Franklin of the one part & Buckner Harris & Walton Harris of the state aforesaid and of the County of Jackson of the other part Witnesseth that the said Bryan & Samuel hath for & in consideration of the sum of four hundred dollars to them in hand paid the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged hath bargained & sold & by these presents doth grant, bargain & sell unto the said Buckner & Walton all that tract or parcel of land Containing five hundred acres more or less situate lying & being in the County of Jackson but Franklin at the time of Survey on the middle fork of the Oconee River called Marbury's fork at the time of survey & which was granted to Bryan Ward in the year 1786 signed by his Excellency Edward Telfair then Governor of said State.

 

The Oconee River either runs through or forms the borders of Jackson, Wilkinson, Baldwin, Putnam and Greene Counties where we found evidence of Samuel, Solomon, John, James, and Nathan Ward (as well as Bryant and Samuel) in our research above.  It would appear that our hypothetical Ward brothers could have all traveled down the Oconee from the property of their cousins, Bryant and Samuel, and settled along the banks of the Oconee by 1820 and, over a distance of as little as 30 miles, still been in their respective counties.

 

Having traced James back to the Spartanburg Nathan Ward we now find him settled along the same river as one of those other Spartanburg Wards.  But in view of the above history it makes perfect sense and seems to point out yet another of those unexpected links mentioned in the introduction that we would not otherwise have predicted.

 

 

IS THIS ALL JUST COINCIDENCE AND STATISTICS OR WHAT?

We have evidence tying James B. Ward to the Nathan Ward family in Spartanburg, the only SC county having Wards with the names Nathan, and Solomon in early SC.  That family is the only family with those names that has age brackets for Samuel, Solomon, Nathan, John and James B. Ward in 1800.  And it also has a father who died before 1820 -- the only one in the Ward families of 1800 Spartanburg to suffer this fate.  And that family has an elder female to account for the elder female with James in 1820.  Could it just be a coincidence that Nathan’s family is the only one that coincides perfectly with what we hypothesized James’ family would look like if we found it?

 

If it is a coincidence, it’s a truly extraordinary one.  How extraordinary?  One chance in a 100?  One in 500?  One in a 1,000?  Let’s see.  What exactly is the significance of the names we find in the Spartanburg Ward lineage being near James B. Ward in 1820 and 1830?  What’s the probability it’s just chance those names show up in unrelated Ward families near James from 1820 to 1830?  Well, fortunately all of the names but James and John are fairly uncommon.  For instance, the occurrence of the names in the censuses of the counties in question is:

 

In 1810 Spartanburg:

In 1820 Wilkinson:

In 1830 Dale:

 

Nathan            0.4%

 

Nathan            0.6%

 

Nathan            0.9%

Solomon         0.4%

Solomon         0.4%

Solomon         0.0%

Samuel                        3.1%

Samuel                        2.3%

Samuel                        5.0%

James              9.2%

James              6.3%

James              7.5%

 

We can see immediately that Nathan and Solomon are particularly infrequently used compared to Samuel.  And Samuel is used about one third as much as James.  This study wouldn’t be possible at all except that I was able in the earliest paper to match James B. Ward to a particular James Ward in a particular county the 1820 census.  That and the lightening fast data manipulation possible with spreadsheets

 

From basic probability theory we know that the probability of finding by chance the two names Nathan and Solomon, tied to the Wards in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA to be the probability of finding one times the probability of finding the other or PSamuel x PSolomon based on their occurrence in the censuses in those years.  This works out as .023 x .004 = 0.000092 or less than 1 chance in 10,000.

 

Since we later find Nathan with Solomon and Samuel Ward in GA it makes sense to plug him into the equation as well to get a feel for these three Ward given names being so closely associated with James B. Ward.  Including Nathan gives us a probability of 0.0000005 of finding all three Ward names associated with James Ward by pure coincidence.  That’s 1 chance in two million.  And that’s just accounting for three names.  It doesn’t even address the fact that they all fit by age into only one Spartanburg Ward family!

 

NOTE:  For you statistics majors, I know that there are a lot of unaccounted for variables in the above exercise such as the frequency of the Ward name compared to other names but the purpose here is to give approximate figures to show how unusual such an occurrence would be.  There were, by the way, only five Ward families out of 956 families in 1820 Wilkinson County.  Only one half of one percent.

 

Some might protest that 1 chance in 2,000,000 still isn’t good enough.  So what about the elder woman with James in 1820?  We know it wasn’t his mother-in-law.  It would make sense then that she was James’ mother.  Age-wise that woman fits the Elizabeth Ward of Spartanburg whom we know from the census evidence was Nathan Ward’s wife.  And she and Nathan had age brackets in the 1800 and 1810 censuses for James.  And James was living next to a South Carolina Nathan Ward in 1830.  In fact, in 1810 the Spartanburg Elizabeth Ward was a widow and her sons would have been expected to take her with them when the last of them left Spartanburg for GA.  We already know that one of the Wilkinson County Wards married a Sarah Jones so it wasn’t his wife dismissed from Mt Nebo in 1826.  There was only one other Ward there who wasn’t part of the Nathan and Elizabeth Ward family.  Therefore the chances that the 1826 Mt Nebo Elizabeth Ward was the one from Spartanburg is fairly high.   But just for fun I used the spreadsheet to sort the 1820 Wilkinson County, GA census.  It turns out that only 8 households were headed by males in the 16-26 bracket – as was James B. Ward’s in that census – with a female 45+.  That’s 8 out of 956 households.  So having that elder female puts James in a group making up only 0.8 percent of the county; or one out of 120.  It wasn’t a common occurrence.  That elder woman being his mother, however, easily explains her presence.  If you plug her into the probability equation you get far less than one in 100 million probability of all those unusual Ward names plus the elder woman being the result of chance.

 

Then there’s the Alexander McKee who was near Elizabeth Ward in 1810 and in 1820 Wilkinson County with James.  And the other names like William Ford who shows up in 1810 Spartanburg and 1820 Wilkinson and who served with James B. Ward as a spy in 1814.

 

Taken individually, each event could well be a coincidence.  But looked at as a whole it becomes clear that there is a James B. Ward connection to Spartanburg and Elizabeth Ward that goes far beyond any conceivable coincidence.

 

RECAPITULATION

With all of the evidence presented, it’s easy to lose track of everything supporting the finding for Nathan and Elizabeth Ward of Spartanburg being James B. Ward’s parents.  Here is a review of the important points:

 

  • In early research I had located James B. Ward in 1820 Wilkinson County, GA with other Wards named Samuel and Solomon.
  • James had an elder woman I figured was probably his mother thus leading me to suspect his father was already dead by 1820.
  • While trying to prove in later research that two alleged brothers, Samuel Pollus Ward and Nathan Ward, were not James B. Ward’s brothers I noticed a group of Samuel, Solomon and Nathan Wards in Spartanburg, SC.
  • I discovered Nathan Ward repeatedly listed in documents with James B. Ward from 1820 to 1830, found Nathan and James with the Ellis/Elliott families in their households after 1850, then later found that Nathan was in the same area as James in Wilkinson County, GA from around 1815 to 1820.
  • Nathan, John and James Ward turned up in documents of Jackson County, FL in the 1820s along with others from around them in 1830 Dale County, AL.
  • John and James had adjoining property in 1829 and sold it on the same day.
  • From the above data I had a hunch that James B. Ward was kin to Samuel, Solomon, John and Nathan and suspected all of them were out of Spartanburg.

 

I formalized my hunch into a testable hypothesis and began to check that hypothesis to see if I could prove it wrong.

 

The hypothesis was: 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.

 

It’s important to restate here that there was no proof of this at the time.  There simply is no documentation that anyone has found to name James B. Ward’s brothers, parents or birth locale.  From this point on I gathered data to try to show that my hypothesis couldn’t be right.  I also tested the predictions the hypothesis made to try to show the predictions to be wrong as well.  Here is what I found:

 

  • I went back to SC and listed all 1790 and 1800 Wards to find Ward heads of household named Samuel, Solomon or Nathan.  Only Spartanburg and Pendleton had any of these names.  I quickly ruled out the Pendleton Wards.
  • Then I checked 1810 Spartanburg residents against 1820 Wilkinson County residents and saw groupings of Spartanburg families around our Ward families.
  • I then performed the same check against the names on the 1827 Jackson County, FL petition and again verified that names from 1810 Spartanburg and 1830 Dale County were on that petition.
  • Then I began an extensive comparison of early Spartanburg Wards to our 1820 Wilkinson County Wards and found a strong correlation.
  • I checked to see if one of those 1800-era Spartanburg families had the father die before 1820 to account for the older woman (his widowed mother) with James Ward in 1820.  Nathan Ward Sr. did.  He was the only one.
  • Then I verified that the 1810 Elizabeth Ward who had a son in James B. Ward’s age bracket was the widowed wife of Nathan Ward.
  • I verified that the entire family of Nathan and Elizabeth Ward was gone from Spartanburg by 1820.
  • I looked for other evidence that these Wilkinson County Ward families were actually related and weren’t just a coincidence of names from other places.  Samuel and Solomon were linked across several GA counties and to a Spartanburg family on a land purchase.
  • I then checked each of the Wilkinson County Wards in some detail to try to pin down where they were born and their exact age.  I was only able to trace James and Nathan into 1850 but both were born in SC.
  • I proved that, in Spartanburg, Solomon fit into only Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family.
  • And Samuel fit into only Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family.
  • And Nathan fit into only Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family.
  • And if John and James are brothers they fit into only Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s family.
  • And Nathan and Elizabeth had places for all of them.
  • One might concede at this point that Nathan, Solomon, John and Samuel were certainly from Spartanburg but maybe James wasn’t related to them.  Yet James had adjoining property with John and both sold their property on the same day in 1829.  And Nathan was next to James in 1830 Dale County.  James is certainly very closely tied to at least two of the Spartanburg brothers.
  • I then found a Ward lineage out of Spartanburg that tied into Indians, Bryant Ward, and had the names Nathan, Solomon, Samuel, James and John in it.
  • I checked on the probability that these same Ward names around James B. Ward in 1820 were just a coincidence that happened to match those same names in Spartanburg.  It was only one chance in two million.
  • I then checked every Ward family in SC to see if James, Solomon, Samuel, John and Nathan Ward all fit into them.  There were only two -- one in Spartanburg and one in York.  I then found the York Ward was still alive in 1820 leaving only Nathan who had died before that time as the hypothesis requires.
  • Then I checked those same Ward families again finally using only Nathan as James’ brother.  I researched the possible parents not excluded by the revised hypothesis and eliminated all but two -- Nathan in Spartanburg and James in Laurens.
  • So we have Nathan Ward’s family in Spartanburg repeatedly selected as James B. Ward’s by several entirely different processes.
  • Indeed, the unusual name “Nathan” alone would certainly indicate, along with the rest of the circumstantial evidence presented above, that Nathan of Spartanburg is James B. Ward’s father.
  • Everything fits.

 

So, after all of this research it, boils down to a simple statement of logic:  If James B. Ward’s widowed mother was with him in 1820 and Nathan was his brother then, of all the 1800 SC Wards, only James of Laurens, or Nathan of Spartanburg could be his father.  I have found no evidence linking James B. Ward to the Laurens County James Ward.  I have found a great deal linking him to Nathan of Spartanburg.

 

And this brings us to an interesting point.  The elder Nathan’s father was Francis Ward who came out of  Ireland.  I have previously shown beyond doubt that the Monroe Letter is a fake.  Others more qualified have said the same thing, including documents experts.  But in that letter was the statement that James B. Ward had Irish blood.  From this latest research paper we now know (or very strongly suspect at least) that statement was correct.  So it appears that there was still enough family history alive back when the Monroe Letter was concocted to correctly identify James as part Irish.  I wonder how much other family history, however, was tossed out at that time because it didn’t support the claims of the fabricated Monroe Letter and the falsified Ward Report that the Wards were Creek Indian.  There may have been enough to tie James to the Cherokee through his mother.

LOOSE ENDS

Several people have noted that James B. Ward didn’t name any of his sons after the Spartanburg patriarchs but James used his own naming tradition for his sons and pretty much stuck to it.  He named them after U.S. presidents and Benjamin Franklin.  That explains why we see no Nathan, Solomon or Samuel in his household.  There weren’t any presidents with those names.  The only exception seems to be William Josiah Ward.

 

As a side note, here are the first presidents and their party affiliation:

 

  1. George Washington        1789-1797       ----------         

  2. John Adams                    1797-1801       Federalist       

  3. Thomas Jefferson                       1801-1809       Democratic-Republican

  4. James Madison               1809-1817       Democratic-Republican

  5. James Monroe                1817-1825       Democratic-Republican

  6. John Quincy Adams       1825-1829       Democratic-Republican

  7. Andrew Jackson              1829-1837       Democratic    

  8. Martin Van Buren                       1837-1841       Democratic    

  9. William H. Harrison       1841                Whig  

10. John Tyler                                   1841-1845       Whig  

 

It would appear that James Ward was a Democratic-Republican since he named his sons only after those presidents.  Andrew Jackson was the exception but John Jackson Ward was born before Andrew Jackson ever ran for office.  James probably just liked Jackson’s style and John Jackson was his first son so he may not have worked out his naming scheme by then. (Or see the paragraph below)  He didn’t use John Q. Adams’ name because James already had a son named John Jackson.  By 1834 when Ben Franklin Ward was born all of the Democratic-Republican presidents were used up except James Monroe but James already had a son named James Madison so he had to fall back on Benjamin Franklin as a namesake.  Later he named Monroe Ward using the last name only of James Monroe to get around having two sons named James. This still doesn’t explain where the name William Josiah came from, though, it does explain why the change from naming sons after presidents and why no Spartanburg names show up.

Many seemingly well-researched family histories posted on the Internet show that Bryant Ward also had a son named John Jackson Ward (born in Ireland about 1750) who married Catherine McDaniel, a woman of Cherokee/Scot descent.  John had a large family and died around 1815-1818 in the Cherokee Nation East.  John Jackson Ward would have been James B. Ward’s second cousin.  He may be the source of the name for James’ first son.

In 1880 Nathan Ward’s widow, Mary, is living in MS with a Henry Ward who appears to be the same Henry listed with her in 1860.  In 1860, however, Henry was listed as Henry Elliott age 10 mulatto MS.  In 1870 Henry is in Clarke County as a railroad worker listed as Henry Ward age 21 black MS.  In 1880 Henry is in Scott County not far from Clarke with Nathan’s widow and listed as 28 white MS GA GA.  The 1880 census has Henry listed as the son of the female, N.A.P. Ward, just above him but there is only a three year difference in their ages.  N.A.P. may be Purity Elliot from the 1860 census, alias the Nancy Elliott W F 23 from the 1870 census, who was also three years older than Henry.  I don’t know what’s going on here but there seems to be a very close relationship over many decades between Nathan Ward and the Elliotts.  It’s also interesting that in 1880 Mary Ward is listed as Mother.  These two families lived together in the same household for at least 40 years.  In view of the Elliott/Ellis tie to James B. Ward this might be worth pursuing someday if anyone is interested.

 

I have never found another Ward in 1830 with an elder woman who might be Elizabeth in the 75-80 range with them.  I haven’t looked all that hard, however, because Elizabeth could just as well have been with a married daughter in 1830 making her nearly impossible to spot.  There are only three 70-80 women in 1830 Dale County, AL and none are in a family that looks like it might be linked to our Wards, i.e. wives way too young, husband same age, or family is all female.  More searching in this area might turn up a real clue or two.  I don’t have names for all of the available spots in Nathan and Elizabeth Ward’s 1800 household so James may have other brothers or sisters out there with Elizabeth.

 

It might be instructive to find more on the Mary Ward who had property in 1829 Jackson County, FL.  I thought for a time she might be Mary Coleman Ward, widow of Francis Ward who died in 1830 in Putnam County, GA but according to Francis’ obituary he was born in VA in 1765.  His age precludes fitting him into Spartanburg Nathan’s family.

 

For those who might be wondering how many 1800 SC Ward families could be James B. Ward’s assuming only that his father died before 1820 to account for the elder woman with him then, here is the list I came up with after about an hour’s work with an on-line census provider.  It’s not as fully checked as the work already presented and further work might exclude some of these names (or even add a few of those I excluded back in) but this gives a ballpark figure on the size of the problem if you exclude all of the hypothesized brothers.

 

Possible 1800 SC parents for James if we make no assumptions about brothers

Name

County

Page

Head Count

James

Laurens

033

31010 32011

Jeremiah

Abbeville

024

20010 30010

Michael

Sumter

932

10211 11101

Milly

Liberty

783

20000 10010

Nathan

Spartanburg

172

32201 00101

Theophilus

Darlington

117

20201 53110

Thomas

Darlington

120

30010 32010

Thomas Jr.

Abbeville

033

12201 02101

 

 

We’ve been talking about our Wards being spread out over several counties in 1820 Georgia.  To give an idea of how small an area of Georgia the counties of Wilkinson, Baldwin and Putnam make up, here is a map of the Georgia Counties in 1821.

 

The area in green showing Wilkinson, Baldwin and Putnam makes up 1.8 percent of the total area of GA.

 

 

WHAT NOW?

We are now in a position to concentrate our efforts looking for additional evidence into a single area -- Spartanburg.  I know that the elder Spartanburg James Ward left a will in the Spartanburg courthouse.  His brother Nathan may have done the same.  If he did and he named his children, that alone could wind this up.

 

Best of all, we have identified a group of Ward descendants with whom we can compare DNA to see if all of us descend from the same line.  Locating other Wards already documented as descendants of Francis Ward will allow us to see if our DNA profiles match theirs.  In July 2003 another Ward researcher who wishes to remain anonymous wrote me to let me know he had had some DNA testing done.  Since he is a son of a son of a son of James B. Ward, his Y chromosome, barring a mutation, would be the same as James B. Ward’s.  The results of the test were conclusive only in that James had no male Indian ancestors whatever up his father’s paternal line going back thousands of years.  This matches what we know of the lineage we have found for James.  That didn’t seem to be much help at the time but it would rule out any family ties that had male Indian blood up the male side at any point.  This “no Indian in the male line” now plays a larger role since we know that Francis’ sister, Lucy Ward, married an Indian.  The hypothesis withstands yet another minor test.

 

Later, another family name did turn up with the same Y chromosome – the descendants of Septimus Wardle.  Since Septimus was born in Manchester, England in 1777 and died in Lexington, KY 16 Jan 1850, however, this does little good for linking to James B. Ward at the moment.  But this does give us the opportunity to trace the Spartanburg Wards back into Ireland then to England until they connect with the Wardle line.  That would at least keep us on track as we push the lineage to its limits.

 

UPDATE:

 

Other Wards had suggested years ago that I do a DNA test to help determine the American Indian question with our Ward line.  I didn't at the time because a Y and mtDNA test on me would not have shed any light on the Ward line.  All of that changed with Autosomal DNA testing, however.  I have watched it come of age over the past five years until 23andme.com finally offered a test that would address the problem with near certainty  -  99.74% - actually higher in my case.  In stark contrast to the 67 marker test offered on the Y chromosome tests, 23andme identified well over 500,000 markers.

 

While other of James’ and Elizabeth’s descendants had a Y test that showed no Indian heritage that only applied to their paternal line.  They could easily have had Indian DNA from Elizabeth English and it would not have shown up in either their Y or mt DNA test.  With the Autosomal test, this is not a problem.

 

One of the features of 23andme's DNA test was their ability to determine the percentage of American Indian DNA with great certainty back five generations.  This applied to every chromosome so that James and Elizabeth would be included in my sample.  The test was less certain at the sixth generation with a certainty of only 96% but that didn't matter since James and Elizabeth were only back five generations.

 

In March of 2012 I took an Autosomal DNA test with 23andme.com.  In looking for matching relatives who had also submitted DNA to 23andme, I discovered a fourth cousin who was also descended from James B. Ward and Elizabeth English Ward through their son J. J. Ward.  We compared our genomes.

 

Both of us had 0.00% DNA from American Indians. Since we both got the same result, there seems little doubt that James and Elizabeth had little if any American Indian blood.  That's not to say they didn't have a slight chance of having grandparents who might have been Indian but it completely rules out Nahoga Moniac and John Ward as James' parents and completely rules out Elizabeth being full blooded Creek.  It also gives a 96% certainty that her parents weren't Creek.

 

For the record, I am the great-great-grandson of James B. Ward’s fourth son, William Josiah Ward, through his daughter Mary Nicey Ward Brigman shown below in the only known photo of her.  This photograph was taken just before her untimely death and while she was pregnant with her only child, Edward Lorin Brigman, my grandfather.

 

 

If you have any additional information about any of these families, have a new insight into how to further the ideas set out in this paper, or have information that can disprove the hypothesis used in this paper, feel free to contact me here.

 

 

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