a. Robert Calvert Keesee was born 16 June 1827 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, and died there on 12 May 1834. This death date is commonly stated in published trees of this Keesee family. I have not found a source for it. It’s possibly written on a page in Thomas and Jane Caroline’s bible register of which I do not have a copy. The copy sent to me (see the link above) lists Robert’s death in the death column of the bible register, but without recording a date. Note that if the death date is correct, Jane Caroline was very much pregnant when she lost this son, since she gave birth to her daughter Emeline on 26 July 1834.
Robert was named for Thomas Keesee’s brother-in-law Robert Calvert, who married Thomas’ sister Mary Keesee. On Robert Calvert, see this previous posting, which includes an engraved portrait of Robert.
b. Mary Jane Keesee was born 31 January 1829 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, and died 25 September 1896 at Ovilla in Ellis County, Texas. The dates of birth and death are recorded on her tombstone in Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian cemetery at Ovilla. The will of her mother Jane Caroline Green Keesee gives Mary Jane’s married name in January 1880 as Franklin. According to the biography of her brother Thomas in Memorial and Biographical History of Ellis County, Texas, her spouse’s name was Gus Franklin.[1] Digital images of this biography are at the posting I’ve just linked.
I have not found a marriage record or other information about Gus Franklin. Mary Jane was no longer in her parents’ household when the 1850 federal census was taken, so it appears she had married prior to 1850, probably in Arkansas, where her family settled in 1837 when she was eight years old. I cannot find Mary Jane on the 1850 or 1860 federal censuses (or on federal censuses after that time, for that matter), and do not know if she had a husband prior to her Franklin husband.
Mary Jane was named for her grandmothers Mary (McKnight?) Keesee and Jane Kerr Green.
c. Anastasia S. Keesee was born 3 June 1831 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. By 1850, Anastasia had married Dr. Ezekiel A. Hammon, who was born between 1820-2 in Tennessee. This family is found on the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses in Johnson township in Union County, Arkansas, so it appears likely that Anastasia married Ezekiel A. Hammon in Union County after her parents moved their family to that county from Saline County, Arkansas, in 1848. The couple probably married shortly before 1850. I don’t find the family on the 1870 federal census, but they seem to have gone from Union County, Arkansas, to Texas when Anastasia’s parents moved there in 1863, since Ezekiel A. Hammon is on a voter registration roll at Chappell Hill in Washington County, Texas, in 1867. Anastasia had died by January 1880 when her mother made her will, and when Ezekiel and Anastasia’s son Walter Scott Hammon is enumerated on the federal census in Ellis County, Texas, living with his uncle George Sidney Keesee.
d. Willis B. Keesee was born 29 June 1833 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, and died there on 8 September 1833. Both the birth and death dates are recorded in his parents’ bible.
e. Emeline Virginia Keesee was born 26 July 1834 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. According to the previously biography of her brother Thomas J. Keesee, Emeline married Sidney Wheelis of Union County, Arkansas.[2] Billingsley states that Emeline married Sidney T. Wheelis and this family did not follow her parents from Union County, Arkansas, to Texas, but lived in Union Parish, Louisiana, across the state line from Union County, Arkansas, where Sidney and Emeline died.[3] The death certificate of their son Thomas, who died at Tacoma in Pierce County, Washington, on 8 September 1936, states that he was born in Arkansas on 2 November 1852 to parents Sydney Wheelis and Emaline Keesee.[4]
Burial markers for Emeline and Sidney T. Wheelis, both modern ones obviously placed in the cemetery many years after their deaths, are found in Spring Hill cemetery at Oakland in Union Parish, Louisiana. Sidney’s Find a Grave memorial page gives his name as Sidney Thompson Wheelis. Emeline’s gives her name as Emeline Virginia Keesee Wheelis. A number of trees for this family found online state that Sidney T. Wheelis and Emeline Keesee married 12 September 1850 in either Arkansas or Louisiana, but do not cite a source for this information. Emeline is not enumerated in the household of her parents in Union County, Arkansas, on the 1850 federal census. I do not find Sidney and Emeline on the 1850 federal census.
Sidney T. Wheelis’s succession record in Union Parish states that he died 2 September 1863.[5] The succession record states that on 17 May 1864, Sidney’s widow Emeline Virgie Wheelis petitioned for tutorship of their children. Emeline’s succession record in Union Parish states that she died on or about 19 October 1868.[6] The Find a Grave memorial page for Sidney T. Wheelis states that he was born in 1825 in Monroe County, Georgia. The 1860 federal census, which enumerates Sidney and Emeline and their family in Union Parish, Louisiana, shows him born in 1825 in Georgia. The bible register of Sidney’s parents Lewis Wheelis and Tilitha Thompson states that Sidney was born 17 February 1825.[7]
As my previous posting states, I find it puzzling that the January 1880 will of Emeline’s mother Jane Caroline Green Keesee does not mention her daughter Emeline or Emeline’s children. In her will, Jane Caroline names all of her children who were living at the time the will was made, and it also leaves a bequest to the children of her deceased daughters Anastasia Hammon(d) and Louisa Hussey. The will does not name Jane Caroline’s children who had died young and unmarried — Robert Calvert, Willis B., and Patience W. Keesee.
The one daughter who had predeceased Jane Caroline leaving children by her husband Sidney T. Wheelis — Emeline — is not named in the will, nor are her children mentioned. But the will names as a living daughter E.L. Everett. The only daughter of Thomas Keesee and Jane Caroline Green other than Emeline who had the initial E. is Eleanor, who is named in Jane Caroline’s will as E.E. Tucker.
There is no other daughter of Thomas and Jane Caroline who could have been the daughter E.L. Everett named in this will except Emeline. But if this is Emeline, then the information that Thomas and Jane Caroline’s daughter Emeline married Sidney T. Wheelis and died on or about 19 October 1868, predeceasing her mother, would not be correct. Nor can I find any information about an E.L. (or Emeline) Everett who was a daughter of Thomas Keesee and Jane Caroline Green. There’s a puzzle here!
Springhill Baptist church at Oakland in Union Parish, Louisiana, in whose cemetery Sidney T. and Emeline Wheelis are buried, was founded by Reverend George Everett (1798-1855), who died in Union County, Arkansas, on 25 June 1855, but was buried in Spring Hill cemetery at Oakland. Oakland is about a mile south of the Arkansas state line, and some fifteen miles south of Hillsboro in Union County, Arkansas, where the Keesee family settled in 1848. Federal land records show Sidney buying a number of tracts of land just east of Oakland, so this is evidently where the family lived.
f. Milton S. Keesee was born 8 March 1837. Billingsley states his place of birth as Pickens County, Alabama.[8] Note that it was in the summer of 1837 that Milton’s parents and other Keesee relatives moved from Alabama, to Saline County, Arkansas, with various reports stating that these families moved from Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, where they were living at the time of their move. So it would seem strange that Milton was born in Pickens County, bordering Tuscaloosa County on the west, if his parents had continued living up to the summer of 1837 in Tuscaloosa County on its eastern side, bordering Bibb County.
Billingsley states that Milton married Fannie R. Coburn on 21 February 1856.[9] Federal censuses show her born in Missouri. Her tombstone in Shiloh cemetery at Ovilla in Ellis County, Texas, shows her born 20 November 1840. I do not find any match for Fannie on the 1850 federal census. To me, it seems likely that the couple married in Union County, Arkansas.
When Milton’s parents moved from Union County to Robertson County, Texas, in 1863, Milton and Fannie moved to Texas with his parents and lived the rest of their lives at Ovilla in Ellis County, where they’re buried in the cemetery of Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian church in which Thomas Keesee and Jane Caroline Green are also buried. Milton died at Ovilla on 13 June 1883. His tombstone in Shiloh cemetery gives both his dates of birth and death. However, in his appeal for administration of his father’s estate filed in Ellis County 4 July 1883, Milton’s son Francis Milton Keesee gives the date of Milton’s death as 12 June 1883.[10] A burial notice for Milton published in Dallas Daily Herald on 16 June 1883, which is dated 15 June, states that M.S. Keesee had died the preceding day — i.e., 14 June.[11] Fannie Coburn Keesee died at Ovilla on 9 August 1880, according to her tombstone in Shiloh cemetery.
Milton was named for his father’s brother Milton Keesee.
g. Thomas J. Keesee was born 7 June 1839 in Saline County, Arkansas. On 2 January 1861 in Union County, Arkansas, Thomas married Emily Michaux, daughter of Daniel Woodson Michaux.[12] Thomas’ biography in Memorial and Biographical History of Ellis County, Texas give the name of Emily’s mother as Elvira Hall,[13] whereas Emily’s death certificate, which I’ll discuss in a moment, states that her mother was Emily Murray — and see the Find a Grave memorial page for Emily, who is buried in Shiloh cemetery at Ovilla in Ellis County. Emily Michaux Keesee’s mother’s name appears as Elvira on the 1850 federal census and other documents, and as Elvira Murray on her tombstone. My conclusion is that she was née Hall and married a Murray following the death of Daniel Woodson Michaux.
More biographical information about Thomas is included in his Civil War service records and in an application he made for a pension for his Civil War service. The service packet shows him enlisting at Little Rock on 12 May 1862 in Co. G (Captain Norris’ Company) of 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles (CSA).[14] He entered service as a private and was then made a sergeant at an unspecified date. Thomas’ pension application filed on 7 June 1907 in Ellis County, Texas, states that Thomas served in this cavalry unit from the fall of 1861 to the end of the war.[15] The pension file has an affidavit by Thomas’ brothers George Sidney Keesee and John Hill Keesee filed in Ellis County on 17 July 1907 in which they verify Thomas’ service and state that he enlisted in Co. G of 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles, but these affidavits give the enlistment date as February 1862 and the place of enlistment as Hillsboro in Union County, Arkansas. Thomas’ brother Milton served in the same unit during the war.[16]
Thomas J. Keesee died 21 July 1909 near Ovilla in Ellis County, Texas. The date of death is stated in an application for a military marker for his grave in Shiloh cemetery in Ovilla, Ellis County, filed on 3 June 1946 by his daughter Ida Keesee Quaite at Waxahachie, Texas.[17] A death notice for Thomas published in Waxahachie Daily Light on 21 July 1909 states that he had died that morning at home near Ovilla, aged 70 years, and would be buried the following morning at Shiloh cemetery at Ovilla (see the image at the head of the posting).[18] Thomas’ affidavit for a pension states that he was living at Midlothian when he made the claim on 7 June 1907.[19] Midlothian is some 12 miles southwest of Ovilla in Ellis County.
Thomas’ tombstone in Shiloh cemetery records his dates of birth and death. The tombstone of his wife Emily Michaux Keesee, who is buried with him in Shiloh cemetery, states that she was born 22 March 1838 and died 19 December 1924. Emily’s death certificate, with her son Frank Willard Keesee reporting the information, gives these dates of birth and death and states that Emily was born in Gainesville (Sumter County), Alabama, and died at Waxahachie in Ellis County. The death certificate also gives Emily’s parents’ names, with the mother’s name given as Emily Murray, as stated above.
In my next posting, I’ll provide information about the six children of Thomas Keesee and Jane Caroline Green born following Thomas J. Keesee.
[1] Memorial and Biographical History of Ellis County, Texas (Chicago: Lewis, 1892), p. 477; and see Carolyn Earle Billingsley, Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004), p. 138.
[2] Memorial and Biographical History of Ellis County, Texas, p. 477.
[3] Billingsley, Communities of Kinship, p. 138.
[4] Washington State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Tacoma County 1936, n. 1177, death certificate of Thomas Wheelis, available digitally at FamilySearch.
[5] Union Parish, Louisiana, Succession Records Bk. F, pp. 163-176.
[6] Ibid., Bk. G, pp. 542-7.
[7] Annie Laurie Spencer, Bible Records, Spencer and Related Families (Arkansas DAR GRC report, Robert Rosamond Chapter, series 1, vol. 143), p. 79.
[8] Carolyn Earle Billingsley, “Descendants of George Keesee I, updated 18 September 2000,” at Genealogy.com. Milton’s Find a Grave memorial page also states that he was born in Pickens County, Alabama: see Find a Grave memorial page of Milton S. Keesee, Shiloh cemetery, Ovilla, Ellis County, Texas, created by Geno-seeker, with a tombstone photo by Kelli Smythe.
[9] Billingsley, “Descendants of George Keesee I, updated 18 September 2000.” For some reason, I am unable to access the section of Billingley’s history of the George Keesee family that contains her footnotes, so I don’t know her source for this marriage record.
[10] Ellis County, Texas, estate packet file 476.
[11] “Ovilla, Burial of M.S. Keesee by the Masons — Hot Weather and Much Sickness,” Dallas Daily Herald (16 June 1883), p. 1, col. 4.
[12] Union County, Arkansas, Marriage Record Bk. B, p. 247.
[13] Memorial and Biographical History of Ellis County, Texas, p. 477.
[14] NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Arkansas, 1861-1865, RG 109, available digitally at Fold3.
[15] Texas State Library and Archives, Confederate Pension Applications, 1899-1975, Ellis County file 3040.
[16] NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Arkansas, 1861-1865, RG 109, available digitally at Fold3.
[17] NARA, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Applications for Headstones, January 1, 1925–June 30, 1970: 1941-9, RG 92.
[18] “Death of Thomas Keesee,” Waxahachie Daily Light (21 July 1909), p. 4, col. 4.
[19] See supra, n. 13.
BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS 
2 thoughts on “Children of Jane Caroline Green (1808-1897) and Husband Thomas Keesee: Robert Calvert, Mary Jane, Anastasia S., Willis B., Emeline Virginia, Milton S., and Thomas J. Keesee”