More Family History: The People Not Found

Sarah is named after an ancestor on the Ward side of the family, Sarah Berryhill. My mother was a little ambiguous about where exactly Sarah Berryhill was in the family tree - maybe a great-great-grandmother, or a great-great-great-grandmother - but she was said to have been Cherokee (or maybe half-Cherokee).  (In retrospect, we should have realized it was significant that my mother was unclear about the relationship; up until the time she had a stroke, my mother never forgot anything.)  When I was a child, I went to a Ward family reunion in Winfield, Alabama - my parents drove my grandfather there, so he could go - but I don't remember anything much about it. Then there were all those years we drove to Oklahoma for 2 weeks in the summer and again over Christmas, to see my parents; we would go through Winfield, and I always assumed that when I got ready to learn about the Wards it would be straightforward because so many of them were still there.

Willis Monroe Ward was my great-great-great-grandfather. He was born in 1802, possibly on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, or maybe in Spartanburg, South Carolina, or maybe somewhere else. His father, Solomon Ward, was said to be from Spartanburg. Willis married Mary Ann Berryhill in the 1820s in Franklin County, Tennessee, and by 1830 they were in Jackson County, Alabama, just across the border; by 1840 they had moved westward to Marion County, Alabama. They had nine children (at least I think they had nine children - these things sometimes are not so clear).

The oldest son, born in 1831, was named Solomon; presumably he was named after his grandfather. In the early 1850s or maybe a little earlier he married Lucy Ann Northcutt. By 1860 they had established their own residence and had three children. By 1870, Solomon, Lucy, and the youngest child no longer showed up in the Marion County census, and the older two children were living with Willis and Mary Ann.

There were at least three Solomon Wards from Alabama who served in different units of the Confederate Army, and I don't know which if any of them was Willis's son. One, who served in the 11th Regiment, was killed in 1862 at Fraziers Farm in Virginia. Another one, who served in the 58th Alabama Regiment, was wounded severely with both legs broken at the battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 and died the following month. Another one served in the 9th Alabama Battalion and was hospitalized in Selma for "vulnus sclopeticus" in September 1863. I didn't know what vulnus sclopeticus was (not a term I learned in medical school) - it's a wound inflicted by gunshot.

In the 1866 census of Marion County, households were asked about deaths among soldiers, and Willis reported that one was killed, and one died of sickness. One of Willis's sons-in-law died of disease in 1862, so I think that Solomon was killed in battle or died of injuries from battle.

But I don't know what happened to Lucy, or to the youngest child. I'd like to think she remarried, and I can't find her because she had a different name, by 1870, but I don't know.

And to circle back to the beginning of the story, another person I haven't found is Sarah Berryhill, who Sarah was named after, and who was supposed to be Cherokee. Willis's wife was Mary Ann, and went by Polly, not Sarah, although her last name was Berryhill. But Willis may have been born on the Cherokee Reservation, so maybe Sarah was his mother (and maybe her last name wasn't Berryhill).

Since I don't think my daughter wants to change her name, I guess I need to keep looking.