Cherokee County History Page: 581
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ton on the road to Courtland. He was a farmer and owned and
operated a grist mill on Big Nancy Creek at the foot of Little
Mountain.
Sarah Smyth Wallace had two brothers who came to Texas
and settled before Texas gained its independence. The eldest,
George W. Smyth, came ca. 1828 and settled at Bevil's Settlement
near Jasper. George was prominent in the early history of Texas.
He was a delegate to the convention that declared Texas an inde-
pendent Republic, and was one of the signers of Texas Declaration
of Independence. In 1848 he was elected Congressman from the
First Congressional District of Texas. Her other brother, Forney
Smyth, came to Texas in 1835 and lived with his brother, George.
Forney was a riverboat captain. He started with a keelboat and
with the advent of the steamboat he purchased one which he
captained on the Neches River from Bevil's Settlement to Beau-
mont and Galveston.
Green Berry Wallace wrote to Forney Smyth describing the
hardships encountered while living in Cherokee County. The let-
ter, dated Jan. 24, 1846, read (in part): "If I cannot better myself, I
shall leave Texas. We labor under too many disadvantages here. It is
about 140 miles to Shreveport which is the nearest place of naviga-
tion. Against (sic) I get my cotton there and then back, I can put
what's remaining in a coffee sack and if I can do no better, I cannot
do much worse."
Green Berry evidently, "bettered" himself, because in January,
1851, he purchased 320 acres of land near Pine Town for $480.
The next year he was appointed postmaster at Pine Town. He
served in that position from Dec. 9, 1852, until Nov. 3, 1856.
Green Berry and Sarah Wallace had (1) Buford, b. 1927, m.
Barbara Jones Jan. 9, 1862; (2) Edward S., b. 1829, a Confederate
Army soldier; (3) Andrew S., b. 1830, d. of pneumonia in Arkadel-
phia, Ark., while serving in the Confederate Army, m. Sarah Nel-
son Nov. 21, 1855, had Mary Isabel, George W., Green Hill, Sarah
Jane; (4) Sarah J., b. 1833, d. January, 1860, of winter fever, m.
Joseph Wallace, a cousin, Sept. 26, 1852; (5) Susannah L., b. 1836,
m. David G. Nevills, Jan. 29, 1864; (6) John Green, Civil War
veteran, b. June 21, 1839, d. Feb. 23, 1914, m. Margaret Jones, who
d. 1877, on Dec. 7, 1865, had Mary Alice, Joseph Lee, m. Evie
Gage June 19, 1879, had Forney Smyth, Edgar Brantly, b. July 16,
1883 (see family history); (7) Malcomb, d. young; (8) Francis C.,
m. A. N. McNeal Aug. 30, 1877.
Green Berry Wallace was paralyzed the last three years of his
life. - Jerry H. Taylor and Leonard A. Berry.
Green and Sarah D. Wallace
Green Wallace (b. ca. 1802 in Tenn.) m. Sarah D. (b. in
1802 in North Carolina). They came to Cherokee Co., Tex., before
the 1850 census and settled between Rusk and Mt. Hope.
Their children: (1) Davis, who remained in Greensboro, N. C.;
(2) Frank, who stayed in Mt. Hope, Ala.; (3) Campbell, m. Cather-
ine Jane Edgar; (4 and 5) Bufort and Joseph, twins; (6) Edward
L.; (7) Andrew; (8) Sarah; (9) Susannah; (10) John G.; (11)
Frances.
Green and Sarah D. Wallace lived in Tennessee when their
first three children were born. All other children were born in
Alabama. They tried to make it possible for their children to get
an education. Their son, Campbell, became a school teacher (see
Campbell and Catherine Jane Edgar Wallace history).
Their son, Frank, stayed in Mt. Hope, Ala., from where the
family had moved to Texas. A letter he wrote to the family in 1854
tells of his trying to sell "Mother's land," which suggested that his
father had d. between the time of the 1850 census and the date the
letter was written. - F. E. and Kate Sherman family.James A. Wallace Family
James A. Wallace (b. Aug. 8, 1844, Alabama, d. Dec. 11, 1923,
Cherokee County), was a son of Thomas A. G. Wallace and Martha
E. Morrow Wallace, whose ancestry is in another article in this
book.
James A. Wallace served as a private in the Civil War in Co. A,
Border's Regt., and was discharged in Navasota, Tex., in May,
1865, at the close of the war.
James A. Wallace m. Tobitha Agnes McKinley (b. Aug. 12,1849, Smith Co., Tex., d. Feb. 26, 1910, Tecula, of typhoid fever)
June 16, 1860, in Cherokee County.
Tobitha Agnes McKinley Wallace was one of a large family of
William L. McKinley and Elizabeth Thompson (Beard) McKin-
ley, daughter of John and Elizabeth Edmonds Thompson. It is
believed that the McKinley family came from County Antrim, N.
Ireland. Beginning with John McKinley, whose will was dated
Oct. 17, 1771, in South Carolina and whose wife was Esther, the
family history is well-documented.
One of the sons of John and Esther McKinley was William
McKinley (b. Aug. 10, 1744, Virginia, d. 1798, Abbeville, S. C.),
who m. Mary Beatty. William McKinley was in the Revolutionary
War. They were the parents of at least five children, including
Robert Mecklin McKinley (b. 1774, South Carolina, d. Monroe
Co., Miss., before 1846, the year the rest of the family came to
East Texas).
Robert Mecklin McKinley's wife was Margaret, who was still
living in 1860, according to the Smith County census and was 77
years old. Her name may have been "Peggy Neil," "Peggy" being a
nickname for Margaret. She m. one Robert McKinley Aug. 23, 1802,
in North Carolina. Besides William L. McKinley, there were at least
two other sons: (1) Robert L., a Justice of the Peace in Cherokee
County; (2) John M., who became a Sheriff in Smith County.
James A. Wallace and Tobitha McKinley Wallace, landowners
and farmers, lived most of their lives in the Reymonds (Tecula)
area. Both are buried in the Mixon Cemetery. They reared a large
family, many of whom followed in their footsteps and remained in
the county as farmers. Their children: (1) Lula, b. Feb. 26, 1872, d.
Nov. 11, 1891, m. Monroe Putman Dec. 3, 1890; (2) Dollie, b. July
5, 1878, d. April 16, 1972, m. Ed Pierce; (3) Minnie, b. 1873, m.
Edward King, and m. Dr. George Barnett second; (4) Thomas, b.
1876, m. Vina King; (5) Neely, b. 1880, d. 1911, m. Almer Bullock;
(6) James, m. Dee Ayers; (7) Edith, b. Dec. 13, 1885, d. Oct. 4,
1978, m. Ben Thurman, buried at Mixon; (8) Claude, b. 1889, d.
1964, m. Minnie Cheek; (9) a son, b. and d. Dec. 20, 1888.
When their daughter, Lula Wallace Putman, d. and left a two-
week-old infant, James and Tobitha took their granddaughter,
Bertie Mae Putman, into their home and she became their own.
The child's father, Monroe Putman, then a very young man and
without anyone to help him, had no way of caring for this baby
girl, so it was a blessing from heaven that they were around to
raise her. Bertie Mae Putman later m. W. E. "Charlie" Pierce.
In 1952, the first Wallace family reunion was held at Caddo
Lake, when more than 100 family members came together to share
the joys and sometimes sorrows of the various families. This tradi-
tion continues today and only the location has changed. Of the
eight children who grew to maturity, never have less than six been
represented at the reunion, and many times all eight, as they come
from West Texas, Arkansas, and as far away as Las Vegas, Nev. -
Kathy Pierce Owen.
James Britain Wallace Family
My father, James Britain Wallace (b. April 20, 1885 Lone Star,
Cherokee Co., Tex., d. June, 1937), son of Daniel Houston and
Laura Ellen Knight Wallace, (see family history), m. Flavia Alice
Stubbs (b. July 2, 1894, of Cove, Tex.) on Oct. 20, 1917.
The town of Lone Star was gone when I was a little girl so I
never saw it. The family moved to Troup, Smith Co., Tex. Daddy
went to school there for many years.
When I was about six years old, we met a Mr. Turner in Troup,
who told me that Daddy would go to the edge of the school yard to
watch every time a train went by, that he knew each crew and the
engineer's whistle, and that he told him, "When I grow up, I'm
going to drive a train."
The family bought a farm near Palestine, Tex., about 1907 andDaddy graduated from Palestine High School in 1908. I have his
high school pin. He went to work for the railroad, as a locomotive
fireman at first, and then as engineer on freight trains. For many
years he was on the Mineola-Troup run when carloads of canned
tomatoes, peaches, and blackberries were shipped. I never liked
his nickname, "Spitting Jimmy."
James Britain and Flavia Alice Stubbs Wallace's living chil-
dren: (1) James Britain Jr., b. Dec. 4, 1918; (2) Gloria Jacquelyn,
b. June 8, 1921, m. Douglas C. W. Avenell, in 1940 (see family
history); (3) William O'Brien, b. July 29, 1925.581
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Cherokee County Historical Commission (Tex.). Cherokee County History, book, 2001; Jacksonville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth354360/m1/591/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Cherokee County Historical Commission.