JONAS MEMORY WALLER, SR.

The following bio was taken from page 425 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

Jonas Memory Waller, Sr. was born December 29, 1803 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia and died September 25, 1884, son of Jonas B. Waller and Mary Madding. On December 16, 1833 he married Martha Washington Emmerson, born March 28, 1817 in Pittsylvania County and died June 27, 1899, daughter of Henry Emmerson and Betsy Chesher (Cheshire), granddaughter of John Emmerson and Ann, and great-granddaughter of Thomas Emmerson of Albemarle County, Virginia. All but Thomas were from Pittsylvania County. Jonas and Martha are buried in Millville Cemetery in Rusk County.

Jonas moved his family to Henry County, Tennessee, about 1846 and to Rusk County in 1851-1852, settling in the town of Millville, known in the 1840’s as Liberty Hill. Millville is one of the "ghost towns" in Rusk County today. Only a church and cemetery are left, located about nine miles northeast of Henderson. He owned a tavern and inn in Millville in 1853. This was a two-story building with living quarters upstairs where they slept stagecoach passengers and other travelers. He helped organize the Masonic Lodge #219 and was a member.

In 1859, Jonas bought from Jesse Walling two hundred and twelve acres of land in the Oak Hill Community. The deed is recorded in his old 1853 ledger along with other things after he started farming. He and his boys cleared the land with ox teams and cut timbers and sawed logs to build their first home. Later he built a second home. On this farm they planted corn, oats, rye, millet, cotton, sugar cane, and vegetables. They raised hogs, cows, sheep, goats, horses, mules, chickens, turkeys, guineas, ducks, and geese. They also had plenty of fruit trees. They wove yarn on a loom and spun wool on a spinning wheel. In old letters, a granddaughter wrote, "No one was ever angry or greedy and everyone loved each other and was happy." Neighbors were few and far between. Some were the Watsons, Bennets, Maloneys, Roberts, Higginbothams, Gibsons, and Taylors.

Two of the Waller boys, David H. and Jonas Memory, Jr., and a son-in-law, Oswell E. Burt, Jr., son of Dr. O.E. Burt, joined the War Between the States at the same time. Jonas Memory, Jr. was wounded in the hand at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.

John Memory, Sr. sold not only drinks and whiskey by the gallon in his tavern but also matches, salt, pepper, sauce, vinegar, raisins, pickles, nails, tobacco, cigars, candy, cakes, sardines, crackers, starch, cheese, lead, shots by the pound, water-proof caps and other things. Shots, lead, and caps were for guns. Some people will think that selling whiskey was sinful, but one must remember that alcohol was an antiseptic and medicine in those days.

The following is taken from a granddaughter’s letters; "All the preachers, called circuit riders, spent their nights at Grandpa’s. He was a prominent man and a Grandmaster Mason. Never joined any church for his faith was the old Hardshell Baptist and they did not accept members of secret orders. Grandpa was a Mason and would not give up his Masonic secret orders just to put his name on a book. He was a Christian, lived it to the letter and in faith. He never owned slaves, but he and Granny cared for many, many of the Negro boys that were turned out like stock to die. They fed them and helped them in every way they could. They never forgot it. When they left the house they always came back to see us."

Jonas and Martha Waller had ten children, one of whom died unnamed at birth. The rest married Rusk County men and women. Mary L., born in 1834 in Virginia, married W.C. Stanford. The family went to Oklahoma. David Henry, born in 1836 in Virginia, married Martha Jane Williams. (See Williams family) He bought land in Crims Chapel Community and raised his family there. All but one of this family are buried in Crims Chapel Cemetery. They had eight children. Tabitha Leoanna, born in 1838 in Virginia, remained single. Jonas Memory, Jr., born in 1840, in Virginia, married Lucy Ellen Patton. They had three children: Sarah J., born in 1843 in Virginia, married W.A.G. (Bill) Knight and had six children. In 1880 they were living in the living quarters in the jail where Bill was the jailor. The census lists five children, nine prisoners and J.H. Langhorn, a boarder and deputy sheriff, as living in the jail. Martha W. born in 1845 in Virginia, married, first, Oswell E. Burt and second, George W. Roberts. Her children were Eliza, Thomas, John and Josephine, and probably another. After Martha’s death this family went to Nebraska. John Burel, born in 1847 in Tennessee, married first, Mary Jane Varnon (Vardiman), who had eight children and second, Elizabeth Nix who had six children. He raised his family in the Danville Community. William H. (Billy), born in 1850 in Tennessee, was single. He accidentally shot and killed himself climbing out of Taylors Ditch while squirrel hunting. Virginia Beulah, born in 1858 in Millville, Rusk County, married Sam Washburn and had one child; then married a Mr. Grade and had four children, and married last Mr. Thompson. This family lives in and around Omaha, Nebraska. Submitted by Helen Holdeman Pearson.