I don’t find DeWitt Clinton Birdwell on the 1860 federal census or on subsequent censuses, and have found no other records of him. I think it’s likely that he died between 1850 and 1860, probably in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana.
New York native DeWitt Clinton (1796-1828) held a number of political offices including that of governor of New York and a U.S. Senator. He challenged James Madison as a presidential candidate in 1812. I don’t know of any particular reason that James and Aletha Leonard Birdwell would have chosen to give the name DeWitt Clinton to a son, but I would note that a leading political figure in Limestone County, Alabama, where the Birdwells were living when their son Clinton was born or from which they moved shortly before he was born, named a son DeWitt Clinton in 1830. This was Nicholas Davis (1781-1856), who was a state senator from Limestone County from 1820-1828 and who ran for U.S. Congress in 1829. Nicholas and wife Martha Hargrave named a son DeWitt Clinton Davis. He was born in Limestone County on 14 January 1830.[3]
I know of no connection between the Birdwell family and this Davis family, other than to note that, like James G. Birdwell’s father Moses Birdwell, Nicholas Davis was a Virginia native. It does strike me as interesting, though, that not long after Nicholas Davis named a son DeWitt Clinton Davis, the Birdwells named a son DeWitt Clinton Birdwell. Perhaps because Nicholas Davis was a prominent citizen in Limestone County, others living in or near that county in his heyday emulated him in various ways?
5. Thomas Birdwell, the fifth child of James G. Birdwell and Aletha Leonard, was born 18 May 1832 in Jackson County, Alabama, and died 23 December 1906 at Belton, Bell County, Texas. This date of birth is inscribed on Thomas Birdwell’s tombstone in North Belton cemetery at Belton.[4]
As we’ve seen previously, the 2 April 1850 petition of Hardin Harville to administer the combined successions of James and Aletha Leonard Birdwell in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, names Thomas as one of their children.[5] As another previous posting notes, the 1850 federal census enumerates Thomas in Avoyelles Parish in the household of Joseph J.B. Kirk, a merchant in whose store Thomas Birdwell was a clerk in 1850.[6] Thomas’ age is given as 16 and his birthplace as Louisiana. If the date of birth on Thomas’ tombstone is correct, then his age on the 1850 census is two years younger than it should be. His parents did not move from Alabama to Louisiana until 1840, so the Louisiana birthplace is also incorrect. On Joseph J.B. Kirk and his several connections to the family of James Birdwell, see here and here.
As has also been noted previously, the case file for the lawsuit that Thomas’ brother-in-law Ezekiel Samuel Green filed in Pointe Coupee Parish in March 1856 against his father Samuel Kerr Green, also a brother-in-law of Thomas, shows Thomas and his brother John Birdwell giving affidavits on behalf of Ezekiel in Holmes County, Mississippi, at some point prior to 5 November 1857, when these affidavits were filed in Pointe Coupee Parish.[7] Ezekiel S. Green married two sisters of Thomas, Camilla and Hannah, and his father Samuel K. Green married another sister, Elvira. John Birdwell had moved to Holmes County in 1856 or 1857. A 6 October 1857 letter from Ezekiel S. Green’s attorney found in the case file states that Ezekiel was himself out of state at that date, and that he needed the testimony of Thomas Birdwell, a resident of Pointe Coupee Parish, who was not in the parish at the time. It appears that Thomas Birdwell had accompanied his brother John to Holmes County, Mississippi, though he did not remain there.
Thomas Marries Virginia Turner, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, 1859
On 30 June 1859 in DeSoto Parish, a contract for the marriage of Thomas Birdwell to Virginia Turner, daughter of Ezekiah H. Turner, was filed.[8] The contract states that Thomas was a resident of Natchitoches Parish and Virginia of DeSoto. It was signed by Thomas and Virginia with her father Ezekiah H. Turner also signing and with E.T. Robinson and W.W. Brown witnessing. The marriage contract was recorded 11 July 1859, the date on which the marriage appears to have taken place. On Ezekiah H. Turner, who appears in some records as Elias Hampton Turner and who inventoried the succession of Thomas Birdwell’s father James Birdwell, see this previous posting. As the posting notes, Thomas Birdwell’s sister Sophronia married Virginia Turner’s brother Lewis Livingston Turner.
I have not been able to locate Thomas Birdwell on the 1860 federal census. At some point after the Civil War began – his scanty service packet does not have a date of enlistment – Thomas Birdwell enlisted from DeSoto Parish in Co. C of the 8th Louisiana Cavalry, Captain John. W. Stuart’s Young Greys.[9] The only card in his service packet providing information about his service beyond his listing in this unit is a card stating that he was on a roll of prisoners of war who were in CSA regiments surrendered by General E.K. Smith in New Orleans on 26 May 1865 and paroled at Natchitoches on 20 June 1865.
After Virginia Turner Birdwell’s sister Julia L. Turner died of malignant fever at age 17 in August 1869 in DeSoto Parish, Thomas Birdwell appeared several times in Julia’s succession records.[10] On 11 September 1869, he witnessed the sale of property in Julia’s succession.[11] On 15 January 1869, Thomas consented to the sale of his wife Virginia’s 1/5 Interest in Julia’s succession in DeSoto Parish to B.W. Marston Co.[12] These records have to do with Julia’s interest in the succession of her father Ezekiah H. Turner that that she had inherited along with her siblings when Ezekiah died in DeSoto Parish in January 1862. Ezekiah Turner’s 640-acre plantation on the Red River in DeSoto Parish was sold on 23 March 1870 by his children Robert Hampton Turner, Olivia E. Turner, and Virginia Turner Birdwell to C.K. Gillespie, with Virginia acknowledging the sale on 2 May 1870.[13] B.W. Marston, mentioned above, was planter Bulow Ward Marston (1841-1917), who represented Red River Parish in the Louisiana senate from 1880-1884 and in 1908, and who was suspected of being involved in the shooting of Reconstruction leader Marshall H. Twitchell in the Coushatta massacre.
The 1870 federal census enumerates Tom Birdwell and his family in DeSoto Parish’s 6th ward at Mansfield post office.[14] Thomas’ age is 40, his occupation farmer, and he has $400 personal worth. He’s born in Louisiana. Wife Virginia is 35 and also Louisiana-born. In the household are children Hampson [sic], 7, Effie, 4, and Elizabeth, 5 months. The preceding household in the census is that of Thomas’ recently widowed sister Sophronia Birdwell Turner, with her children and with nieces Lillia and Lue Oliver, children of her deceased sister Frances Birdwell Oliver.
The 1871 proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Louisiana shows Thomas Birdwell as a member of the Silent Brotherhood Masonic lodge at Springville in Natchitoches Parish.[15] An obituary of Thomas published in the Houston Post on 26 December 1906 states that he was a Mason and was buried with Masonic rites.[16] Also listed in the Silent Brotherhood lodge at Springville in 1870 was Mark Jefferson Lindsey, whose son Alexander Cobb Lindsey married Mary Ann Green, a daughter of Thomas Birdwell’s sister Camilla and husband Ezekiel Samuel Green.
Thomas Moves His Family to Belton, Bell County, Texas, 1871-3
Between 1871 and 18 April 1873, when his wife Virginia died at Belton, Bell County, Texas, Thomas moved his family from Louisiana to Texas.[17] As the preceding posting notes, in 1872, several sons of Thomas’ sister Hannah Birdwell by husband Hardin Harville moved from Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, to Bell County, Texas, and Hannah either joined them in that move or moved to Texas shortly after her sons did so. It seems to me very likely that Thomas Birdwell made his move to Bell County at the same time; Thomas and Hannah’s sister Sophronia joined them in this move.
Thomas Birdwell appears on the tax list in Bell County in 1874 taxed for part ownership of lots 1 and 2 in block 18 in Belton.[18] On 12 September 1877 in Bell County, he married again to Miss Sarah E. Nunn.[19] The 1880 federal census lists Thomas’ family in Belton.[20] The census shows Thomas as 47, a carpenter born in Alabama of Alabama-born parents.[21] Wife Sarah is 24, born in Kentucky of Kentucky-born parents. In the household are children Thomas H., 18, a carpenter, Effie L., 16, Julia Lula, 10, and Jessie O., 1. All the children are born in Louisiana except Jessie (who is Thomas’ daughter by Sarah Nunn), who was born in Bell County, Texas. Also in the household are Thomas’ sisters-in-law L.A. (Martha Louann) Nunn, 26, a milliner born in Kentucky, and Addie Nunn, 18, born in Illinois and suffering from typhoid fever. Sarah and her sisters were daughters of Julian L. Nunn and wife Eliza Jane Reed, who are buried in the North Belton cemetery along with Thomas Birdwell and wife Sarah Nunn Birdwell.[22]
A biography of Thomas Birdwell’s son-in-law Gus E. Ulrich, who married Thomas’ daughter Effie Lillian Birdwell, says that Thomas Birdwell was a builder of Belton.[23] The 1900 federal census again lists Thomas as a carpenter in Belton at 181 Wall Street with wife Sarah in the household along with their children Lydia and Walter.[24] The census shows Thomas as 67, born June 1832 in Alabama, with parents born in Alabama.[25] He’s a carpenter and owns his house at 181 Wall Street. He’s been married 22 years and he and wife Sarah have had five children of whom two are living. Sarah is 44, born in December 1855 in Kentucky with parents born in Kentucky. In the household are children Lidia, 18, and Walter, 17, both in school.
Thomas Dies in Belton, 1906
As was noted above, Thomas Birdwell died at Belton on 23 December 1906 and is buried in North Belton cemetery with that date of death inscribed on his tombstone.[26] An obituary published on 26 December in the Houston Post states that he died at Belton, aged 75, and was “an old and respected resident of that city for many years.”[27] The obituary (see the digital copy at the head of the posting) also states,
Interment occurred at Belton cemetery under the auspices of the Masonic fraternity, of which deceased was a member. He is survived by a wife and the following children: W. E. Birdwell, cashier, of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railway at Temple: Mrs. Gus Ulrich and Hamp Birdwell of Belton, Mrs. C. E. Jenkins of Bryan, Mrs. F. E. Wemple of Shreveport, La.
On 27 October 1906, the Bryan-College Station Eagle had reported that Mrs. C.E. Jenkins of Bryan had been called to Belton due to the illness of her father Thomas Birdwell.[28] Mrs. C.E. Jenkins was Thomas’ daughter by Virginia Turner, Julia Lula Elizabeth Birdwell, who married Charles Eric Jenkins. The Mrs. F.E. Wemple mentioned in Thomas Birdwell’s obituary was his daughter Lydia, who married Frederick Ephraim Wemple of DeSoto Parish, Louisiana.
As stated previously, Thomas’ wife Virginia Turner is also buried at Belton in South Belton cemetery.[29] Her tombstone states that she was born 4 November 1840 and died 18 April 1873. Virginia was born in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
Thomas’ second wife Sarah E. Nunn is buried with him in North Belton cemetery with a tombstone stating that she was born in 1852 and died in 1919.[30] As I’ve just noted, the 1900 federal census gives Sarah’s birthdate as December 1855. Her birth on 17 December 1854 in Butler County, Kentucky, is recorded in the 1854 Register of Births for that county.[31] Her parents had not yet named her when her birth was recorded in this register.
A case filed in Bell County on 18 March 1864 by E.S. Turner and his wife L.M. Turner of Belton against D.F. Lee, which eventually went to the Texas Supreme Court, states that the heirs of Virginia Turner Birdwell, who died in Belton in 1873, had claimed an interest in a two-story stone house in Belton.[32] The Supreme Court handed down a ruling in the case on 22 June 1888.
6. Camilla Birdwell, the sixth child of James G. Birdwell and Aletha Leonard, was born about 1834 in Jackson County, Alabama. This birth year is from the 1850 federal census, which is the only federal census giving ages of those enumerated on which I’ve found Camilla. As a previous posting states, in 1850, Camilla was enumerated in the household of her sister Elvira and Elvira’s husband Samuel Kerr Green in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, aged 16 and born in Alabama.[33] Camilla’s father had died in December 1849 in DeSoto Parish, having been predeceased by wife Aletha Leonard, and Camilla, her brother DeWitt Clinton, and her sister Mary Ann had gone to Pointe Coupee Parish to live with their older sister Elvira, with their brother Thomas going to the adjoining parish of Avoyelles to work in the store of Joseph J.B. Kirk. It appears that another brother, John, had also gone to Pointe Coupee Parish with his siblings; I do not find him on the 1850 federal census, but he was evidently living in that parish when he wrote a permission on 1 January 1853 for Camilla’s marriage to Ezekiel S. Green in that parish, a point discussed above.
As was stated previously, the 2 April 1850 petition of Camilla’s brother-in-law Hardin Harville, husband of Hannah Birdwell, to administer the combined successions of James and Aletha Leonard Birdwell in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, names Camilla as a daughter of James and Aletha.[34]
Camilla Marries Ezekiel Samuel Green, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, 1853
As previous postings note (here and here), on 2 January 1853 in Pointe Coupee Parish, Camilla Birdwell married Ezekiel Samuel Green, son of her brother-in-law Samuel Kerr Green (wife Elvira Birdwell). As noted previously, the preceding day, Camilla’s brother John B. Birdwell, as the oldest male in the family following their father James’ death, wrote a note of permission for this marriage, naming Camilla as his sister and noting that he was giving permission on behalf of her family. This note is found in the loose-papers file for this marriage in Pointe Coupee Parish. The marriage file also contains the bond that Ezekiel S. Green gave on the day of his marriage with Reason Cripps, a well-to-do planter of Pointe Coupee Parish.[35]
Following their marriage in 1853, Ezekiel and Camilla settled in Avoyelles Parish, which adjoins Point Coupee on the northwest. As a previous posting notes, on 5 April 1855, Camilla’s brother John married Mary Emily Brewster in Avoyelles Parish and joined his sister and brother-in-law in living in that parish. The first posting linked in this paragraph notes that testimony in the lawsuit that Ezekiel S. Green filed in Pointe Coupee Parish against his father Samuel K. Green in March 1856 states that Ezekiel and Camilla had settled in Avoyelles Parish by 1856.
As a previous posting indicates, on 27 September 1859, Ezekiel S. Green bought a tract of some 200 acres of land on the Atchafalaya River at Simmesport in Avoyelles Parish, with the purchase giving him rights in the operation of a ferry across the river that had been established by Isaac Martin, from whom Ezekiel bought this land.[36] Ezekiel, Camilla, and their daughter Rosa Frances, who was born 15 August 1854, were living in Avoyelles Parish in 1860, but, as noted previously, the federal census for that year contains garbled information about Ezekiel and his family: it gives Ezekiel’s name as Edward and his wife Camilla’s name as Mary Ann, and shows children who never appear in any records of this family.[37]
As a previous posting states, on 30 January 1862 in Avoyelles Parish, Ezekiel and wife Camilla sold the land they had purchased from Isaac Martin in September 1859.[38] As the land was sold, Camilla renounced her dower rights to it, and she and Ezekiel both signed the conveyance record, which states that Ezekiel was also selling his rights to a share in Martin’s ferry, which he had purchased along with the land he bought in 1859.
Ezekiel and Camilla Move Their Family to Angelina County, Texas
Following this land sale, Ezekiel and Camilla moved their family, which now included another daughter, Mary Ann, my great-grandmother, born 11 October 1861, to Angelina County, Texas, with the intention of owning and operating a lumber mill there. On 28 January 1863, Ezekiel bought 480 acres of land near Lufkin in Angelina County.[39] On 20 January and 4 September 1865, Ezekiel and Camilla sold their 480 acres in two installments, with the second deed noting that the tract contained a “steem mill.”[40] With both deeds, Camilla signed along with Ezekiel and relinquished her right to the land.
The 4 September 1865 deed record, with Camilla signing to relinquish her dower interest in the land she and Ezekiel were selling in Angelina County, is the last record I’ve found of Camilla Birdwell Green. On 11 December 1867, Ezekiel was back in Louisiana marrying Camilla’s sister Hannah Birdwell, the widow of Hardin Harville, in Natchitoches Parish on that date. Camilla had died between the 4 September 1865 and 11 December 1867 date. I have no indication of where she died and is buried.
In my next posting, I’ll provide information about James G. Birdwell and Aletha Leonard’s last three children, daughters Frances, Sophronia, and Mary Ann.
[1] DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, succession file no. 159; and DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, Succession Bk. D, pp. 643-650.
[2] 1850 federal census, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, p. 37 (dwelling/family 644, 5 September).
[3] See Find a Grave memorial page of Dewitt Clinton Davis, Athens city cemetery, Athens, Limestone Co., Alabama, created by Donnie Stanford with a tombstone photo by Donnie Stanford.
[4] See Find a Grave memorial page of Pvt. Thomas Birdwell, North Belton cemetery, Belton, Bell County, Texas, created by SFC Frank Irons Sr. Retired US Army 1977, maintained by Imagraver, with tombstone photos by SFC Frank Irons Sr. Retired US Army 1977 and Mary Jo Fellers Fraley.
[5] See supra, n. 1.
[6] 1850 federal census, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, p. 147B (dwelling/family 676; 16 October).
[7] Ezekiel S. Green vs. Samuel K. Green, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, 9th District Court, file no. 1525. See also Ezekiel S. Green, Appellee, vs. Samuel K. Green, Louisiana Supreme Court Docket no. 5483; E.S. Green v. S.K. Green, Louisiana Supreme Court no. 1521, ruling 15 February 1859; and A.N. Ogden, Louisiana Reports, Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana, vol. 65: For the Year 1859 (New Orleans: West, 1860), p. 39.
[8] De Soto Parish, Louisiana, Conveyance Bk. D, p. 422.
[9] NARA, Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Confederate Organizations, compiled 1903 – 1927, documenting the period 1861-1865, RG 109, T. Birdwell, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, available digitally at Fold3.
[10] See 1870 federal mortality schedule, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, p. 56A, l. 22.
[11] De Soto Parish, Louisiana, Succession Bk. H, p. 77.
[12] Ibid., Bk. L, p. 578.
[13] Ibid., Bk. N, pp. 215, 221.
[14] 1870 federal census, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, 6th ward, Mansfield post office, p. 534 (dwelling/family 239; 27 June).
[15] Proceedings of the M. W. Grand Lodge of the State of Louisiana, Free and Accepted Masons, Fifty-Ninth Annual Communication (New Orleans: Clark, 1871), p. 168.
[16] “Thomas Birdwell at Belton,” Houston Post (26 December 1906), p. 8, col. 4.
[17] See Find a Grave memorial page of Virginia Birdwell, South Belton cemetery, Belton, Bell County, Texas, created by SFC Frank Irons Sr. Retired US Army 1977, maintained by Imagraver, with a tombstone photo by Denise Kellam. Virginia Turner Birdwell’s tombstone records her date of death.
[18] Bell County, Texas, Tax List 1874, roll A, p. 6, available digitally at FamilySearch.
[19] Bell County, Texas, Marriage Bk. F, p. 210.
[20] 1880 federal census, Bell County, Texas, Belton, p. 267 (ED 1; dwelling 217/family 239; 5 June).
[21] Thomas’ father James Birdwell was born in Franklin County, Georgia, and his mother Aletha Leonard in Pendleton District, South Carolina.
[22] See Find a Grave memorial page of Julian L. Nunn, North Belton cemetery, Belton, Bell County, Texas, created by N M N, with tombstone photos by SFC Frank Irons Sr. Retired US Army 1977 and N M N. The memorial page states that Julian’s middle name may have been Lucian.
[23] Bell County Historical Commission, Story of Bell County, Texas, ed. E.A. Limmer (Austin: Eakin Press, 1988), p. 955.
[24] 1900 federal census, Belton, Bell County, Texas, precinct 1, ward 2, p. 62A (dwelling/family 181; 8 June).
[25] On the correct places of birth of Thomas Birdwell’s parents, see supra, n. 21.
[26] See supra, n. 4.
[27] See supra, n. 16.
[28] Bryan-College Station Eagle (27 October 1906), p. 5, col. 3.
[29] See supra, n. 17.
[30] See Find a Grave memorial page of Sarah Nunn Birdwell, North Belton cemetery, Belton, Bell County, Texas, created by SFC Frank Irons Sr. Retired US Army 1977 , maintained by Family of Angels, with tombstone photos by SFC Frank Irons Sr. Retired US Army 1977 and N M N.
[31] Butler County, Kentucky, Register of Births 1854, p. 2.
[32] Alexander Watkins Terrell and Alexander Stuart Walker, Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas, vol. 71 (Austin: Hutchings, 1889), pp. 264f.
[33] 1850 federal census, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, p. 37 (dwelling/family 644, 5 September).
[34] See supra, n. 1.
[35] On Reason Cripps, see Gregory R. Aymond, “Origins of the CANNON , CRIPPS , GOFF and THORNHILL Families of Rapides Parish, Louisiana,” at the Rapides Parish, Louisiana, GenWeb site.
[36] Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, Conveyance Bk. DD, p. 661. On the permission granted by the Louisiana legislature to Martin in 1858 to operate this ferry, see Louisiana Legislature, Acts 1858, no. 155, in Acts Passed by the Fourth Legislature of the State of Louisiana at its First Session, etc. (Baton Rouge: J.M. Taylor, 1858), pp. 108-9.
[37] 1860 federal census, Marksville, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, p. 142, (dwelling/family 987, 30 November).
[38] Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, Conveyance Bk. FF, pp. 676-7.
[39] Angelina County, Texas, Deed Bk. E, pp. 334-5.
[40] Ibid., pp. 548-9; and Deed Bk. F, pp. 618-9.
BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS 
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