In WOMACK GENEALOGY, VOL. IV, NO 1 JUNE 1960 WHOLE NO. 7.
The first item is a sketch, written about 1909 by Capt. J. J. Womack (1834-1922), on one Tennessee branch of-the family. It is published here because members of this branch who reside in almost every state in the U. S. will find it of special interest. We in form the reader that the statements in paragraph two of this sketch regarding the country of origin, the names of the emigrants and the date of their migration to this country have not been proven. Other data contained is presumed to be correct.
Notes in [] inserted by editors of Womack Genealogy newsletter.
A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE WOMACKS IN THE UNITED STATES.
By Capt. J. J. Womack
After a painstaking search and investigation of over forty years I now undertake to set forth the facts I have been able to gather concerning my genealogy. Nothing will be inserted in the following sketches that I do not know, or fully believe, to be literally true.
Womack is a Scotch name., and Abraham Womack, Isaac Womack and Jacob Womack., three brothers, emigrated from Wales, in 1615., and settled in Virginia; and from these brothers have descended all the Womack families now in the United States. From the names of these three patriarchs it is at once inferred that they sprang from Bible reading parents, consequently were Christian people.
Nothing definite is known to the writer of this sketch of the immediate descendants of these men.
Jesse Womack, of Va., is mentioned as Lieut. in Capt. Smith's Co., serving from Aug. 13, 1813 to March, 1814. He was born in 1789, in Va. and died in Madison Co.., Ga.
We find that one Abraham Womack, with his brothers Abner, David, Robert, William and Jacob and one sister, Dorothy, moved from Va. to East Louisiana and West Miss., but just at what time we have not been able to ascertain. Abraham and Jake Womack served as privates in Capt. William George's Co., 12 and 13 consolidated regiments., Louisiana Militia., and that Abraham was transferred from Capt. George's Co. Jan. 10, 1815, to Lieut. A. Kirkland's Mounted Men, twelfth Regiment, and served therein from Dec. 14., 1814 to March 10, 1815. He and his brother Jake participated in the battle of New Orleans, under Gen. Jackson., and it is believed and claimed by his comrades that Jake Womack is certainly the man who killed Gen. Packingham.
Abraham married Elizabeth Burton,, daughter of Col. Richard Burton of Wilks County, Ga., and was born in Burks County., Ga. and died in Georgia in 1800. He was the son of David Womack, who was the son of Jesse Womack, mentioned above., of Va., who was a Col. in the War of the Revolution, and participated in the battle of King's Mountain.
I am indebted to Hon. W. L. Thompson, of Beaumont., Texas, whose mother was a Womack, for most of the foregoing facts.
He is a very intelligent gentleman, has served as State Senator repeatedly in the State of Louisiana and also in the State of Texas, and now lives in Beaumont, and is contributing to the effort being made to establish the true history of the Womack family.
I find that the masses of the family, both in the mother country and the U. S. have been tillers of the soil, preferring the humble, honest walks of life to the so-called higher spheres; yet there have been among them Colonels in the armies, judges on the bench and minor officials all down through the generations.
Having traveled and lived in more than thirty of the states of the Union, and met them in nearly all of them and traced their genealogy, I have readily found that we have all descended from the original three Scotchmen,who sailed from Wales and landed on the shores of Va. at Jamestown., or near there.
Thomas Womack, [b. 1743, in Va.] and his wife Louvisa Rice Womack were the ancestry of another branch of the family descended from one of the three., Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who first came to America, from Scotland, and located in the vicinity of Jamestown, Va. Just how many generations down the line of descent they began life has not been ascertained, but from the most reliable data. Thos. Womack was born in the latter part of the sixteenth century in Va. From Thomas and Louvisa have descended five brothers, (possibly others may have been in the family, as there is no mention of any daughters,) Anderson, Abner, William, James and George. All of whom were native Virginians, and migrated with their father to North Carolina.
Abner Womack, [b. 1770] emigrated to Tennessee when about 40 years of age, and settled in the north part of Warren county, Tenn., near Collins River, where now stands a church and school house known as Cross Roads.
During the war between the states his family bible was lost, or destroyed, so that the exact dates of his birth and death are not known. but by computation he was born about 1750, and died about 1855, at his home above described. He came to Tennessee in 1791.
He was one of God's Noblemen., and a member of the Old Baptist church, a highly respected citizen and a good farmer. He married Miss Martha Byars, who was born in Spartanburg Co., S. C., and to them were born twenty-two children, fourteen of whom lived into mature manhood and womanhood, and everyone good and upright citizens. Their names v in the order of seniority, were William, John, Nathan, Burgess, Abner Clemmons, Ransom Pinkney, Robert B., Greenberry H., with six sisters among them as follows: Martha, Elizabeth, Lucy, Lecy {Artelisa?}, Mary and Drucilla.
Some of these brothers emigrated to Alabama, some to Mississippi and Louisiana, some to Illinois, Indiana and Missouri, while others remained in Tennessee where there is at this time a very extensive connection --- too extensive to be followed in this sketch further than to state that each and all made good citizens wherever they lived; all were believers in the Christian religion, and most of them became members of some branch of the Christian church. Only two of them abandoned agricultural pursuits, one became a clergyman and the other a doctor.
Abner Clemmons Womack was born Feb. 8, 1799 in Rutherford County., NC and emigrated with his father to Tennessee when a small boy.
As such he was an active helper in felling the trees and clearing
the lands heretofore mentioned at Cross Roads, where he grew to manhood under the eyes of a careful and industrious father and a loving and devoted mother.
He married Aseneth Hand, daughter of Samuel and Mary Hand, who was born May 27, 1804, Rutherford Co. N. C.., at the home of her parents, now known as the Nathan Byars farm, five miles due north of McMinnville, Tenn.
To them were born eleven children, six sons and five daughters; ten of whom grew to maturity, the fourth one died in early infancy.
They lived in the Cross Roads neighborhood till after their sixth child was born, when they purchased and moved to the place on the McMinnville and Short Mountain road, seven miles N.W. of McMinnville, where their oldest son. W. P. Womack, now lives and has resided the last forty years.
Two years later, in 1834, they bought and moved one mile south to the place which was their home to the close of their lives.
At this time the country round about was almost an unbroken forest, and only here and there a settlement within a radius of two miles. On this purchase there was only two log cabins and two little cultivated patches of ground.
Here they settled for life and went to work, and by rigid economy and close application to business they succeeded in their under taking.
As the years rolled by they added acre after acre and tract after tract to their first purchase, until they could travel two miles north and south and one mile east and west on their own territory. Meantime adding other buildings to the home, erecting commodious barns and cribs, sinking wells for more convenient water, etc. Never after the writer of this sketch was old enough to recollect common things, was there a year when there was not live stock and other products of the farm for market.
My father was a peculiar man in some things, (better to say consciencious)---he believed corn grown on his farm cost him fifty cents per bushel and that when his neighbor was in need he ought not to sell him for any more than that,, and if it was very scarce the neighbor who could not pay cash was a preferred customer.
One year when I was a boy almost the whole county had failed to make corn, and many could not get enough for their bread, he divided with them and refused others who offered cash---I thought that strange! The people that year had to go down in Smith and Dekalb counties for corn - they called it going to Egypt, which I did not understand then.
Religiously he and my mother were both "Old Two Seeded Baptist"., but neither connected themselves with any church. Their idea of the true Christian was so exalted, so far above and beyond their ability to live, that they doubted their fitness for membership in the church, and therefore would never consent to membership although urged to do so by their pastor.
Politically they were Jeffersonian Democrats, and all their sons grew up democrats.
The first three of these sons, William Pinkney, Samuel Marion and Abner Monroe enclined strictly toward the farm for an occupation and bought lands adjoining the old homestead and later each became, by purchase, owner of parts of the home tract; Pinkney and Monroe getting theirs off the north and Sam off the east side.
Pink and Monroe, like their father, remained through their lives on their purchases, but Saml M. sold and bought again on the south side of Charles Creek, at Yager, two miles south of the old home where he died.
The three younger sons, the writer of this sketch., Burgess Riley and John Byars did not select the farm for an occupation, as the older sons did. They seemed enclined to a wider field for an occupation.
All these brothers espoused the Southern side in the war between the states, and all, except William P., who was invalid, were actively engaged., and all went through, except the youngest, John B.., who was killed on the 30 day of Nov. 1864, in the charge on the works at Franklin, Tennessee.
He was a valiant soldier, always at his post of duty and ready for any emergency. He was unable for duty and could have been excused from duty on the day he fell but elected to go into the battle, and was near the enemy's works when the fatal Minny ball crushed through his brain.
He was unmarried and twenty-five years old and a Christian gentleman. He laid down his books, left the schoolhouse and loved ones at home, everything near and dear to him., rather than surrender his constitutional rights as an American citizen and as a citizen of the State of Tennessee.
Burgess Riley was the eighth member and fifth son in the family, born Dec. 16, 1836, and now living. With the other brothers he worked and grew to manhood on the farm,, receiving only a good common school education. At the age of twenty-two he married Miss Mary Webb, daughter of Wadkins and Sarah Webb, who lived ten miles north of McMinnville, Tenn. To them were born three boys and four girls.
At the age of twenty he began the study of law under Col. Thos. B. Murray, in McMinnville. Before beginning practice, in the year 1858, father having been elected county tax collector, he was made deputy collector, and his work was accepted as satisfactory.
From some cause he abandoned the idea of practicing law and began merchandising and farming and continued in these until the war between the States began, 1861, when he volunteered his services on the Confederate side and was elected first lieutenant in Company B, Capt. Jno. W. Towles, 5th Regiment Confederate Infantry, Col. Ben J. Hill.
In the Battle of Shilo, (Pittsburg Landing) he commanded his company, April 6 and 7, 1862,, and was in the thickest of the fight both those terrible days, coming through much fatigued but other wise unharmed.
After this battle his health gave down, and in the summer follow ing he was discharged from the service and went home, where he remained until his health was restored, when he joined Murray's Battalion, in the latter part of December., 1862, just in time to participate in the battle of Murfreesboro. In this engagement he was acting quartermaster and ordinance master of his battalion.
After-the battle at Murfreesboro Murray's Battalion was allowed to return to Tennessee, having gone with the regular calvary as far south as Tupelo, Mississippi, and here he was captured and thrown into prison, and rather than remain in prison, there being no chance for exchange, he was released on parole of honor and returned home. Here, after the war was over and the remnant of the soldiers had come home he again went back to the farm and store at the same old stand and continued there until March 1874, when he removed to Smithville Tenn., and engaged in the practice of his originally intended profession. He remained about one year and went to Cookeville, Putman county, Tenn., and continued the practice of law in partnership with Hon. B. M. Webb, his Brother-in law. While here in 1878, he lost his wife. In Sept. 1879, he again married, this time Miss Leonova L. Lisk, daughter of William Lisk.
In connection with his law practice here he conducted a news paper, The Cookeville Times.
In the latter part of 1881 he emigrated with his family to Weatherford, Parker county., Texas and engaged in hotel business., and continued in that work over twenty years; when he sold out and retired to private life., having accumulated a competence for the evening of life.
At this writing he and his second wife still reside in Weatherford surrounded by his children, loved and respected by a large circle of friends and neighbors, in robust health for a man in his seventy-third year.