My mother may have been good at telling stories but she was not
good at writing where her notes came from. I found this in a box of her
notes. In large letters at the top it says "Some interesting facts about
Morgan". At the bottom it has pg.117. So it must come from a
book. But it looks to be hand typed.
When older houses are razed lots of history gets destroyed in the
process. In Lexington when an old house was being torn down historic
notes were found by some one who recognized their value and the notes given
a neighbor who in turn brought them to her native Morgan county. The neighbor,
Linda Elam Blackburn, daughter of Ida Mae
Wells Elam and the late Noah Elam, delivered the notes to Henrietta
(Mrs. Harold) Wells
McKeinney, president of the Morgan County Historical Society who
allowed others to copy them. Ella Mae dropped of the notes for me to copy.
Ella Mae and I both had had recent inquiries about the Elams, Easterlings
and related families. One of Ella Mae's calls mentioned an ancestor named
Socrates Plato. She remembered the name was in the found
notes. Lue Elam Bailey, Rockdale, Texas started the notes
with: "Mr. Mark S. Elam,
Halifax Co. Va. was my grandfather. My father also was Mark S. Elam.
He left Va. and moved to Tenn. with a brother Jim and a sister Elizabeth.
My sister Mary Elam age about 80 lives at Bradford, Tenn. My brother J.B.
Elam 78 at Bradford, Tenn. also. Maut and Walter two other brothers
live at Newburn, Tenn. I.L. Elam Edgewood, Texas is my nephew. He is the
son of Mrs. J.E. Elam Bradford, Tenn. I am 70 years of age. I have been
in Texas for 44 years. Uncle Jim Elam was at Wingo, Ky when last I heard
from him. He has been dead some years. His chldren are Bird Elam,
John and Andrew Elam, Mrs. Minnie Elam Yates and Phil Elam, deceased.
Pages of the notebook will be separated by paragraphs:
Walter Elam, son of Gilbert Elam of Chesterfield Co. VA moved from
Scott Co. VA and settled on Licking river south of West Liberty, Morgan
Co. KY in 1818.
Walter Elam 1. Bill; 2. James: Sally Fugate. Bill (Mo.), Dr. W.T.
Elam; Albert G. 3. Ruchard, 4. Sina Walter Elam. His eldest son Bill remained
in Scott Co. Va. and according
to tradtion of the family Walter later returned to VA. where he
died. James Elam was the second son of Walter. He lived in the log house
now standing at the foot of the hill on Rt. 40 just south of West Liberty.
James daughter Sally married James Fugatte and lived at the old homestead.
Walter Elam third son was Richard. He had seven children, Polly, Betty,
Lieut. Menifee Elam killed at the battle of Salyersville in 1862, Bill
(Devil Fork Bill) died1914, Easter died 1929, James, Matthew McClure a
Union Soldier. Walter 4th child was Sina who married Henry Easterling.
Submitted by Steven Colvin [email protected]
This letter was written by John Monroe Elam at Vicksburg, Mississippi during the Battle of Vicksburg....Letters are owned by J. Bryant O'Neal and were contributed by Herman Belcher.
Vicksburg, Mississippi
11th March 1863
My dear Wife...
I once more undertake the pleasing task of wrighting
you a few lines to inform you that John and I are quite well...There
is little or no news siring here only I saw a deserter shot on last Friday.
The circumstances were as follows: he had deserted over to the Yankees
and had spiked one of our cannons but we took him prisoner fighting for
the enemy at the battle of Chickasw bend some two months ago. The Yankees
are constantly sending down flat boats on dark nights by our batteries,
I expect with the intentions of fooling our men.
I don't see any more prospect of a fight here yet. I have sold John Meggs one hundred pounds of Bacon at 40 cents a pound and he paid for it and I want you to send it down to his house for him. There is some talk of us going to Mobile and a Louisiana Brigade coming here in our place But I don't expect the exchange will hardly be made. All the neighbours boys are well except Jack Avery who is sick in the Hospital but is getting better. Bud and the rest of the boys are under arrest yet but I don't expect from all I can learn that they hurt them bad. Whenever you write let me know how John Meggs family are as he can't hear from home. This is the wettest and muddiest countries I ever was in. Every two or three days it rains until the day before yesterday when they gave us half a pound of Bacon to the man. We had not got a morselle of meat of any kin in over ten days and we had to live on course corn bread and water. And you can't buy anything hardly here. Bacon here is worth one dollar a pound, Beef Eighty cents a pound, Mutton Sixty cents a pound, Butter two dollars a pound, Lard the same, Eggs two dollars a dozen, Milk two dollars a gallon and Sweet Potatoes five dollars a bushell and hard to get at that. Congress I understand has passed a act allowing us five dollars a month more on our wages to procure provisions for ourselfs with. A letter has come has come here to Jack Avery a few days ago which informed him that his brother Mack Avery was dead.. He died in Virginia so no at present only write soon.
I remain ever your
affectionate Husband
John Elam
Camp near Wanenton, Vicksburg, Mississippi
5th May 1863
My dear Wife,
I take this opportunity of dropping you a few lines to inform you that I am quite well and so is John and I hope and trust you are well also. Since I last wrote to you we have had a dreadful battle but I was not in it for when the regiment started to Fort Gibson 35 miles for here where the battle was fought I was very unwell and was not able to stand the march but John was in the fight. The battle commenced at one oclock in the morning of the 1st of May but the battle did not become general all along the line until seven oclock. About the second round General Tracy was killed. He was shot by a minnie ball in the back whilst giving some orders to the artilleries. His last words wre when he ws shot was turning around to our Brigad and said "remember the State you are from" and died immediatly. After his death Colonel Garrott commanded our Brigade and the whole right wing of our line of battle and a most able General he made and the boys say he was as calm and cool even whilst passing along the line under a perfect storm of bullets as if he was on dress parade our company was during the day deployed as skirmishes and sharp shoters on the right wing of our army to prevent the enemy flanking us and a desperate time they had as they were constantly under fire of the enemy from nine oclock in the morning until five in the evening. Our loss was as follows" James R.Haines was killed, dead on the field, Newton Gentry, his fate we don't know but suppose him to be wounded a a prisoner, Jery Bridwell was shot in the arm and taken prisoner, James Hayse his fate not known but suppose him to be a prisoner and William Fikes was very slightly wounded in the arm and is now all right. Some of our companies in our regiment suffered badly from what I can hear....Captain Pratt company lost fourty men amongst whom is Hill James. We also lost two of our field officers...the brave Col. Pettus who was shot in the thigh and taken prisoner and Major Pickering who was mortally wounded being shot in the lower part of the bowels. Of company officers our regiment lost as followers" Capt. Leroy Davis shot in the thigh and taken prisoner, Capt. Prat his fate not known but supposed to be killed on our retreate and Lieutenant Montgomery shot in the wrist. Our loss as far as known in our regiment was about 84 men, but we had to fight about forty odd thousand with only five thousand men. The 23rd Alabama suffered very severly having lost a one hundred and sixty men killed and wounde. Just as I am wrighting this, Colonel Pettus has arrive. He made a most wonderful escape from the Yanks even after he was taken prisoner. He saw Capt. Pratt he was taken prisoner but not wounded in the least. Yu ought to have heard the boys cheer him when he arrived. It was like seeing one risen from the dead. We have now retreated here to near Warrenton ten miles from Vicksburg and formed line of battle and now that we are strongly fortified and reinforced, if he Yanks attack us they will be well whoped. I think John Barnes and Bob Barnes came out safe. I received the stamps you sent me. Azri Fikes is also safe so nothing more at present only with love to you all..
I remain ever your
affectionate Husband
John M. Elam
Emmett Eugene Elam was born Dec. 14, 1842 and reared at his family home in East Lothian, near White Haven TN, way out in the country then but near the Memphis airport now on Tchulahoma Rd. His father, John Wooldridge Elam, had moved there from Virginia in 1835 with his young bride, Mary Thweatt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest used this home when he recruited men to join his regiment. The family still has the desk on which the men signed the document to enlist in his regiment.
Emmett enlisted in the Confederate Army at the age of 19 in April or May of 1861 as a Private in Company A, Eleventh, TX and was injured at Chickamauga when his horse fell on his leg; he walked with a limp thereafter (Confederate Historical Association publication).
Below is the text of a letter he wrote to his mother, Mary Thweatt Elam, while serving in the war, presumably after returning to South Carolina from his furlough to Memphis to recruit new troops (I have the original note).
June 23rd, 1864
Dear Mother
At your request
I will write you a few lines to let you know that I have arrived at my
post of duty and that no punishments awaited to be inflicted upon me.
There has been heavy skirmishing all day with both artilery (sic) and small
arms. If Gen. Johnson holds his position, you may expect a hard fight
in a few days: nothing more of interest: Give my
love to Miss Maggie. Mat says tell all at home howdy for him.
In haste Affectionately
Your son
E.E. Elam
He was paroled from the War in Granada, Mississippi in May of 1865.
He married Sallie Hilderbrand in 1866, a year after his return from the War. She bore him 8 children, the last in 1880. She died worrying about who would take care of their daughter, Missy, who had contracted spinal meningitis at the age of 7 1/2 and which left her severely retarded. Her eldest daughter, Katie Clyde, took that responsibility.
Emmett then married a neighbor, Frances Davis, in 1882. She bore
him 2 children, one of whom was my grandmother, Edith Eugenia Elam.
Frances was in her early thirties when they married. She died at the age
of 40 and my grandmother's half-sister, Katie Clyde. who was called "Amah"
by my grandmother and all of us, reared the children who were quite small.
My grandmother was 2 at the time of her mother's death. I think her
mother may
have died in childbirth with twins as the doctor was not able to
get there in time because of the distance to the country. Edith Elam,
her daughter, told me this and said there were 2 left feet that came out
and they were unable to deliver the babies.
Katie, or Amah, lived and farmed on her share of the property of
her father's estate on Tchulahoma Road until just before her death at 222
Edgewood in Memphis, my grandmother's home. My grandmother nursed
her until her death in 1954. I remember Amah well and have pictures
of me with her when I was very little. I also have her little Bible.
She never married but took care of her younger sister Missy who was mentally
retarded and died in 1951. She stayed in a little room in the
house with Amah. I remember seeing Missy pacing and muttering.
She also helped raise the children of her brother, Medicus (Edith and Beth),
when his young wife died. I have a diary she wrote
in the days after Missy, her beloved sister, died. Her devotion
is quite touching. She was a truly selfless woman. Emmett Eugene
died in December of 1908. We have pictures of him on his horse with some
of the younger children of the family. Also a portrait.
Contributed by [email protected]
Link to Lile Elam's website for stories and photographs about his family.
Sworn affidavit of LUCY FRANCES ELAM FREY, dated 12 March 1964
AFFIDAVIT
LUCY FRANCES ELAM FREY, being duly sworn depose and say:
My name is FRANCES ELAM FREY. My age is 81 and I was born May 21, 1882, in Wilson Station, Henderson County, Kentucky. I am the daughter of Abram Richard Elam and Mary (Molly) Dixon Posey. I remember my paternal grandmother, Emily Mandaville Ligon, quite well. She was born in Nottoway County, Virginia, on April 16, 1824. She was the daughter of Matthew Ligon and his wife, Jane Hatchett of Nottoway County, Virginia. Jane Hatchett, my great grandmother, was the daughter of Abraham Hatchett and Mary Farley of Nottoway and Amelia Counties, Virginia. Abraham Hatchett my great, great grandfather was the son of William Hatchett and his wife, Margaret Ann Remé, who was the daughter of Abram Remé, who settled at Mannikintown Virginia.
My paternal grandmother, Emily Mandaville Ligon came to Henderson, Kentucky, about 1838, with her parents. I used to love to hear grandma tell about the long hard trip they made from Virginia to Kentucky and all the hardships they encountered in covered wagons. Grandma rode along in a "phaeton", it was very much like-a buggy. She met my grandfather, John Thomas Elam, on the way to Kentucky. He was coming with his parents, Harmon Elam and Nancy DuPree of Charlotte County, Virginia.
Grandma said they brought a lot of food with them, especially hams, and the two families would eat together along the way, sharing food with each other. Emily Ligon and John Thomas Elam married several years later after the families settled in Henderson County, Kentucky. They had four children, Aunt Nannie who married John Robert Wilson and Aunt Ida who married Joseph Thomas Wilson, the sisters married brothers. The two boys were Uncle Judson who married my mother's oldest sister, Lucy Frances Posey and my father Abram Richard Elam who married my mother Mary (Mollie) Dixon Posey, the brothers also married sisters. Therefore all of us children were double first cousins.
Her son, Judson's wife, Lucy Frances Posey, for whom I am named died leaving two little girls, Nannie and Janie. Grandma went to live with her son Judson and raised the two little girls. As Grandpa died very young with typhoid fever leaving my grandmother Emily Ligon Elam with four children to raise. My father was only three years old when my grandfather died.
Uncle Will Elam my grandfather's brother was very good about helping Grandma raise the four children, especially the two boys, Uncle Jud and my father. I remember he gave my father's sister, Aunt Nannie, a beautiful piano. I used to love to go to see Grandma, she was such a good woman) so sweet and kind. We all dearly loved her, she was very sweet. She was always teaching us children manners.
She used to tell us that etiquette was very important and we should always use our very best manners at all times. She used to tell us about her ancestors and what a wonderful heritage all of us had. She always told us we came from Royalty and we should always hold our heads up high and our shoulders back and walk very straight. She was a very dainty little woman, very tiny) she only weighed ninety pounds. She was very immaculate about everything. She always kept a little broom on the hearth and she was always sweeping the ashes around the fireplace, keeping it clean. She loved good coffee and always kept a pot of coffee on the stove and always kept her cookie jar filled with cookies for us children. Yes, Grandma was an aristocrat from her head to her toes.
I can remember how I used to walk down to Wilson Station before I was married to spend the day or the night with her and when I would get there my shoes would be very dusty as I had about a mile or more to walk and Grandma would go get the shoe polish and make me take off my shoes and polish them the very first thing.
I remember her telling about when her two daughters went away to college, she went along with them and stayed in the college while they were there. I remember so well the quaint little dresses Grandma Emily used to wear. They had tiny little waists and real long full skirts. She had naturally wavy hair and parted it in the middle. Several years before she died used to always wear little wool shawls around her shoulders with fringe on them. She had so many dizzy spells and so many headaches before she died. She used to have to stay in bed late of mornings because of dizziness.
She was living with her daughter, Aunt Ida and her son-in-law Joseph Thomas Wilson, when she died. She is buried at Fernwood on Uncle Thom's lot. She died on February 7, 1906. Yes, my Grandmother Emily Ligon Elam was a very wonderful person. I'll never forget her. One thing in particular I remember so well is when she got started telling us children about her family, way back, and she did love to talk about it. She would always tell us "You children remember one thing -- there are very few white folks and no niggers at all with a lineage like ours."
My father, Abram Richard Elan, and his wife, Mary (Polly) Dixon Posey
had eight children.
Judson Harmon Elam married Linda Mitchuson and they had two sons, William S. Elam who is married and living in Cincinnati Ohio, and has no children, and Richard Posey Elam who died December 18, 1911. Edwin Samuel Elam married Olivia Wilder. They live at 406 Belgavia Court, Louisville, Kentucky. Abram Richard Elam, Jr. married Mrs. Edna Bethel in September 1943, in Henderson, Kentucky. Abram Richard Elam, Jr. died on August 17, 1959. John Thomas Elam married Birdie Ward on October 23, 1901. They had three daughters, Florence Hard Elam, Birdie Lucile Elam and Dorothy Elam. I, Lucy Frances Elam married Hoyt K. Kimsey son of Benjamin T. Kimsey and his wife Harriet Baskett. Hoyt K. Kimsey, my first husband whom I married on October 18 1904, and I had one child, a daughter, Mary Elam Kimsey, born July 6, 1910, in Henderson, Kentucky. Mary Elam Kimsey first married George Wills McKnight in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. They were married in Jeffersonville, Indiana, on January 2, 1928. Their only child a daughter, Marie Mae McKnight, was born on November 6, 1929, in Henderson, Kentucky. Mary Elam Kimsey married second William Tinsley Rudy on August 19, 1939, at Henderson, Kentucky. They are living at 617 Second Street, Henderson, Kentucky.
Mary Elam's daughter, Marie McKnight, married Kenneth Eugene Huber, who was born August 2, 1928, on November 4, 1950, at Vincennes, Indiana, by Rev. F.W. Shaefer.
Marie McKnight Huber and her husband Kenneth Eugene Huber have three children:
Mary Marchelle Huber, born September 12, 1951
Randal Kimsey Huber, born March 10, 1953
Lisa Marie Huber, born March 10, 1958
They are living at 4704 E. Jackson Street in Evansville, Indiana.
/s/ Lucy Frances Elam Frey
Lucy Frances Elam Frey
Subscribed and sworn to before me by LUCY FRANCES ELAM FREY, this 12 day of March, 1964. Notary Public, Henderson County, Kentucky My commission expires Jan. 23, 1965
(Seal) Alvin Reeder
Notary Public
Ethel Weir, David Motz' great aunt, related the following when she was 8 or 9:
"My great, great grandmother Ellam [sic] was a French woman cousin of Henry Clay. Her name was Mary Aines. She married Louallen Ellam who was Irish. To this union was born Marrandy, Nancy, James, William, Hiram and Laffaett.
My great grandfather Hiram Ellam enlisted in the Civil War. He laid in prison ten month. After the war he came back and married Louisa Thomas, daughter of Elijah and Sarah Pounds Thomas. Hiram Ellam had five girls: Marrandy, Enezetta, Mary, Louisa and a girl that died in infancy. Louisa Thomas died in 1854. In 1858 Hiram Ellam married again. They had four children: James, George, Effia and Ellam. [sic]
Mary Ellam married my grandfather Josephus Weir."
It is said that my great-great grandfather Loucous Elam (spelling uncertain) came to Arkansas as a Territorial Marshal - date uncertain. I know that his wife's maiden name was believed to be Yearwood. They had many children. The ones I know of are as follows: Little John - it's said that he was killed as a baby when a stray dog came into the yard. The dog was believed to have been rabid. Demp, Dale and my great grandfather Claude are the others I know of.
Claude married Flora Duncan - date and place unknown. They had many children. They are as follows: Delmar, Jack, Clauda, Velma, Norma, Murle Glen (my grandfather), and Lou Emma.
My grandfather -- Murle Glen "Rick" married Sarah Pauline Kennedy on June 11, 1938 in Bentonville, Arkansas. They had two children: Linda Murlene Elam, and Walter Glen Elam who both reside in the Bentonville area.
My father -- Walter Glen married Peggy Lorraine Sprague on June 15th, 1968 in Bentonville, Benton County, Arkansas. They had three children: myself - Jayne, Glen and Eddie.
All three of us have married and have ten children collectively - eight by birth!
If anyone can help me with my quest for Elam information tied to any of the above please e-mail me at [email protected] or by post @ 1004 S.E. J St., Bentonville, AR 72712
Sincerest thanks, G. Jayne Christensen
To submit a story or stories about your Elam ancestors, please drop me a line!