Clay County, Texas

Blalack Family History
of Prospect, Clay County, Texas
Submitted by:  Kirk Lyons

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John Quincy Adams Blalack was the youngest child of Levi Blaylock and Louisa Roberts. 

   The Blalack’s descend from Thomas Blaylock I, born in Cumberland England about 1597. In 1622 Thomas arrived at Jamestown , Virginia and settled in what is now Accomac Co, Virginia, dying in about 1660.  From Thomas we pass to Thomas II, John William I, Richard I (who married Rachel Harden), Richard II born 1745 in Louisa Co Virginia (who married Sarah Wade? In about 1767 and left Virginia for South Carolina), Richard III born 1770 in South Carolina (married Martha Long in about 1790  - Martha born abt 1774 in Barnwell County, South Carolina).  Richard III moved to Dallas County Alabama where he died January 13, 1838 followed by his wife on November 18, 1848

   JQA’s Father, Levi,  was born in SC in about 1803 the son of Richard Blaylock III and Martha Long.  Levi’s brothers and sisters were: John Washington, Richard D. (1798 – 1865), Sarah (1801-aft 1865), Wade, Nathaniel, James B. (1804-1869), Julia Ann (1810-1867), Elizabeth (1812-1887), Harden (1806-1864), Barney, Martha (1818-1837), Washington, Osmand A., and John.

   Levi’s bride, Louisa Roberts (her middle name may have been “Sabra”),  was born April 22, 1806 in Virginia the daughter of Jesse Roberts (born about 1784).  Save that Jesse moved to Lowndes County Alabama and was still alive in 1860, nothing else is currently known about him save that his wife’s name is Mary and he had another daughter Jemima who was born in about 1809 .

   Levi married Louisa in about 1824 and settled in Dallas County Alabama , out of which later was formed Lowndes County, with other Blaylock kinfolk where he started to raise a family and farm and styled himself a small planter.

   Sometime after 1850 Levi moved his family to Neshoba County , Mississippi where he achieved some success as a yeoman farmer working his one or two slaves.  Levi died sometime between 1860 and 1870 – the family story is that he was killed in the war and the farm/plantation was ravaged and plundered by Yankees.

   Levi and Louisa (pronounced loo – eye’ –zah) had the following 8 children:

  1. James Brinkley (1825-1872) married Amanda Avenger.  Enlisted in Co E 40th MS Inf Regt, CSA received  Medical discharge for disability.
  2. Martha Ann (1832 - ?)
  3. Jesse Roberts born Sept 5, 1833 in Dallas Co AL married Sarah Ann Jackson in about 1858 in Butler County , Alabama .  Family moved to Caddo Parish,  LA and Jesse enlisted in Co G, 25th LA Inf Regt, CSA, severely wounded at Murfreesboro and given a medical discharge. Moved to Texas in 1865 and was a farmer in Clay County by 1880. Jesse later settled in McLean, Gray Co. Texas in about 1900, where he died April 11, 1918.  Sarah Ann died after 1880 and is believed buried in Clay County .  Their children: A. (1859 LA), Sarah Louisa Elizabeth “Lou” (1860 LA), Mary Margaret Emma (1866 TX), John Francis (TX 1870), Martha Rosetta (TX  1874), Mary Ethel (TX 1876).
  4. Richard J. (1836 - ?)
  5. Mary E. (1841 - ?)
  6. George N. Washington (1844 - ?)
  7. Marcella  (1846 – 1920) married Andrew Hill and settled in Bowie, Montague Co, TX where she died  November 29, 1920
  8. John Quincy Adams born October 8, 1851 in Lowndes County Alabama (what was told the census taker) or Vicksburg , Warren County, Mississippi (what is on his death certificate). He was named for a local planter of that name and possibly his Father was a Whig.

   According to family lore, it fell to JQA to care for his mother and work the devastated farm after the Uncivil War. The 1870 Neshoba County Mississippi census finds JQA in the town of Philadelphia working as a farm laborer to help his widowed Mother and two unmarried sisters.

   As his economic prospects in Mississippi worsened,  JQA decided to start over and  join his older brother Jesse in Texas .  Jesse had settled in Louisiana, served in the Confederate Army, was medically discharged from a severe wound suffered at the Battle of Murfreesboro and ended up in Texas in 1865 and Clay County by 1880 or before.  I can’t find Jesse in the1870 census, so I don’t know how early he arrived in Clay County .

   So in 1878 JQA left Mississippi in a covered Wagon, headed for Texas .  The only thing he salvaged from the old farm were the family guns and JQA was a crack shot. By family tradition he stopped in Jefferson, Marion County, Texas and married Celia Elizabeth Bullard on January 26, 1879.

   Celia Elizabeth was born Feb 23, 1858 in Atlanta Georgia , the daughter of Ephraim Ira Bullard (born June 25, 1830 in Coweta County , Georgia ) and Mary Ann “Polly” Joiner (born December 10, 1832 in Stewart County Georgia ). The couple was married in Stewart County on October 24, 1850. 1860 find’s the couple in Jackson Parish, Louisiana .  After Confederate service in Co F, 28th LA Inf Regt, Ephraim moves his family to Cooke County Texas. The Bullards other children: William Asa (1851 GA),  Francis Kinion (GA 1853), Sarah Commella (GA 1855), George Wesley (LA 1859),  Thomas J. (LA 1861), Mary Catherine (LA 1864),  George Bryant (TX 1866), Marthena Jane (TX 1868), Jackson J. (TX 1870),  Lawson C. (TX 1873). Ephraim died Jan 27, 1893 and Polly, Dec 26, 1906 in Cooke County , Texas .

   JQA, with new bride and Mother proceeded on to Jesse’s farm in Clay County .  The story is that “Mom was played out and would not go a step further,” so, the story goes,  JQA settled on the worst patch of ground in Texas where he proceeded to eke out a living until his death in 56 years later, farming some, but mostly hunting.  JQA guarded barbed wire fences during the “Grange” War where being caught with wire cutters could get you shot. JQA went by “John Adams Blalack,”  and it has been a family particularity that the name be spelled and pronounced BLAY-LACK, not LOCK as it is often assumed.

   JQA’s Mother never got used to being poor and died Dec 13, 1886. She is buried in the Liberty Cemetery in Prospect.  JQA reminisced to his children about the old days “before the war,” claiming he had a body servant who called him “Marse John.”

   JQA and Celia Elizabeth had 7 children all born in on the Blalack farm near Prospect, Clay County, Texas:

  1. Louisa Sabra  born  Sep 25, 1880 died Sep 25, 1964 in Ft Worth, Tarrant Co, TX. Married Hillery Lawrence Collie
  2. Maud Belle born Nov 13, 1882 died ??. Married Edgar P. Haney
  3. Jesse Lee born Mar 3, 1886 died Apr 18, 1966 in Henrietta.  Married Walter William Davis
  4. James Brinkley born Aug 15, 1888 died April 3, 1933 from a farm accident. Married Molly?
  5. Floy Earnest born Mar 23, 1891 died July 29, 1899
  6. Ephraim Ira born Nov 20, 1893 died ??
  7. Marcella Agnes born Jan 7, 1896 died Oct 5, 1977 in Amarillo , Potter County , texas. Married Clarence Jay Lyons on Dec 15, 1924 in Wichita Falls , Wichita County , Texas . C. J. was born Mar 1, 1896 in Battle , McLennan County , Texas , died Oct 10, 1980 in Amarillo , Potter County , Texas .


    JQA fell from a tree and broke his hip when he was 83 years of age.  He had all his hair and all his teeth. He died in the hospital at Henrietta of pneumonia on Oct 16, 1934 and is buried in the Liberty Cemetery in Prospect. Celia Elizabeth died Jul 27, 1939 and is buried in the Liberty Cemetery in Prospect.

 

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