Samuel Langston and Mary A. Bostick were married in Izard County, Arkansas on December 30, 1853. Who
were their parents?
According to the 1880 mortality table, Samuel Langston was born in Arkansas about 1831. He had a
brother Daniel who was in Izard County in 1853 when Sam and Mary were married, but by
1860, Daniel had settled in Crawford County, Arkansas, while Sam and Mary and their four little
children were still in Izard County. Sam and Mary soon moved to Crawford County, though, where they
lived the rest of their lives, except for the war years.
Around 1820 five Langston brothers, one of whom was named Samuel, settled in Izard County.
After appearing on the 1824 tax list, there is no indication that Samuel was ever in Izard County
again.
Samuel and his brother Daniel would have been teenagers in 1850, but I have been unable to find them
in the census in Arkansas or any of the surrounding states.
In the 1850 census in Carroll County, Mississippi, Mary Bostick, born in Georgia, is found at the age of 14 living in the household of
65-year-old Martha Moorman, a farmer from North Carolina, and her middle-aged children, one of whom is a schoolteacher.
In addition to the Moormans, a 10-year-old W. L. Bostick was in the household. From the fact that Mary was
illiterate in a household with a schoolteacher, I conclude that she was probably a servant.
In the same county at the same time is a 24-year-old Stephen C. Bostick, also born in Georgia, and
his young family. And in Copiah County, Mississippi, in 1850 is a 30-year-old William L. Bostick,
in whose household the Bostick boy living with Mary in 1850 is found in the census for 1860. Those
two W. L. Bosticks joined the Confederate Army, with the younger one giving his place of birth as
Augusta (Richmond County), Georgia. The maiden name of Stephen's wife Matilda was Langston;
perhaps she is responsible for the meeting of Sam Langston and Mary A. Bostick.
If anyone can help me find the parents of Samuel and Daniel Langston and the parents of Mary Bostick, I will be deliriously grateful.
