WILLIAM TERRY SHANKS family WILLIAM TERRY SHANKS (23 SEP 1805- 26 NOV 1882) was born in Marion County, South Carolina, on 23 September 1805. His father is believed to be George Shanks, It is believed George's father was William Shanks who immigrated from Ireland in 1772 and settled in what was to become Marlboro County on the Pee Dee River.' William and George were the only Shanks living in neighboring Marlboro and Marion counties during the 1790 to 1820 census. William Terry's siblings were:l. James C. (1798-1878)2. Nancy (1801 - before 1850) 3. Asbury H. (1808-i868)According to his obituary, William Terry moved to Alabama in 1828. James and Asbury were among the first itinerant Methodist ministers in Alabama.In 1828 William joined the Methodist Church South and "entered the full work of the ministry in 1833 and for seventeen years was an active, efficient preacher".2 According to the Abstracts of Deed Book A, 1826-1839, Pike County, Alabama,"Thomas A. Morris, a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has this day set apart William T. Shanks for the office of Deacon. He is a proper person to admi nister the ordinan ces of Baptism, Marriages and Burial of the Dead and to feed the flock of Christ.'This was signed by Thomas A. Morris on 6 January 1839 and recorded on 14 January 1839 by John D. Curtis, Clerk, Pike County, Alabama.According to his obituary, William Terry withdrew from the Methodist Church in the 1850's. ..."by immersion in water, allied himself with the Baptist". ..."being a profound thinker, a prayerful reader, and having an investigative mind, he found that the word of God had no warrant for Episcopacy nor Pedobaptism".2 He joined the Missionary Baptists and was ordained in Montg County, Alabama. According to West, "It annoyed and scandalized the Methodists ..,Whatever the influence and the motives which caused him to abandon the Church... the Methodists never excused him".4 According to family information, William Terry was a pastor of a rural Baptist church at Robertson Crossroads in Montgomery County; however, this church no longer exists. He also served the Macedonia Baptist Church near Almeria in what was then part of Pike County but now is part of Bullock County,1 Reville, Janie. A Compilation of the Original Lists of Protestant Immigration to South Carolina-] 7b3-1773. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1974), 71.. "Obituary of Elder William T. Shanks". The Texas Baptist Herald, January 11, 1883.Houston, Texas, 128. [Also found in Footprints, Fort Worth Genealogical Society, 20, (August 1977): 128 3 Miscellaneous abstract and marriage information regarding the Shanks family in Pike County, Alabama. [Obtained via e-mail <Bilko33 @aol. com> on December 27,1999]." West. Rev. Anson. A History of Methodism in Alabama. (Spartanburg, SC. The Reprint Company, 1983. Reprint of 1893 edition), 283-284.
Information was obtained regarding William Terry's Baptist ministry in Alabama from the Special Collection Department of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, which houses extensive Alabama Baptist resources. The information was obtained from the Salem Baptist Association and The Alabama Baptist (also known as the South Western Baptist).51852 Antioch BC Antioch Community between Troy and Brundidge1854-1855 Mt. Pleasant BC Linwood (northeastern part of Pike County)1861-1862 No church in- Listed as an ordained minister in dicated the minutes of the Annual Session of the Salem Baptist Association; Mailing address listed asBrundidge1872 Bethel BC Mailing address listed as TrayWilliam Terry married four times. Nothing is known about his first wife, but it may have been a Miss Harris." In an account of Elvira Tilda's son, William Oscar Mulkey, her parents were listed as William T. and Mary Shanks.7 It is assumed William Terry married in South Carolina as sons James and John were born in South Carolina, according to the 1850 Alabama census. Children believed to be from this first marriage were:l. James (Jim) (1824-1868) 2. John (1826 -1881)3. William G. (1829 - 1884) 4. Elvira Tilda (1833-1908) 5. Flournoy (1835-1892)The first official mention of William Terry in Alabama is in the 1830 census. His second wife, Ann Elizabeth Beasley (20 June 1822 - 20 February 1863), was from a family of early settlers to Barbour County, Alabama. Her parents were John Giles Beasley (1792-1883) and Martha Allums (1802-1881). Her oldest brother, James Tarplin [or Tarpley] Beasley, reportedly was the first white child born in Barbour County.8 To date the date of this marriage has not been substantiated.Their children were:1. Terry Tarplin (1846-1927)2. Missouri (abt. 1850 - after 1872) 3. John Fletcher (1853-1900)4. Martha Ella (1856-1900)."Minutes of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Session of the Salem Baptist Association Held with Hepzibah Church, Pike County, Alabama, Commencing On the 5th Oct 1872 ", Furnished by the Special Collection Department (Alabama Baptist Resources), Samford University. Birmingham, AL. [Photocopies of extensive collection of ministerial references to William Terry Shanks].° Group sheets on William Terry and Terry Tarpley Shanks families. Brazoria County Historical Society (Shanks file), Angleton, TX. [author unknown - possibly Rex Shanks, Laredo, TX, as the material corresponds with information in the book Lots of Laughter: Laughter: Lots of Love by his daughter Ann Shanks]7. William Oscar Mulkey account. Alabama Official and Statistical Register, Legislative Dept., Geneva County, 1911, 113. [Copy obtained from Ronny Roy via e-mail <
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> Vicksbury, MS, August, 2003].g Godfrey, Marie H. Early Settlers of Barbour County, Alabama. (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, Inc., 1979), 2-10.5. Frances "Fannie" (i859-1907) 6. Jefferson J. (1862-1926)Between 1830 and 1870 William Terry and his family lived in the Alabama counties of Barbour, Montgomery, and Pike. William Terry purchased land in Louisville, Barbour County, on 12 April 1836 in Township 9, Range 25, and Section 13.(9) Other Shanks purchasing land in
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this area were:
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County |
Township |
Range |
Section |
|
Date |
| George |
Barbour |
9 |
25 |
24 |
2 |
Jan 1837 |
| James |
" |
9 |
25 |
24 |
2 |
Jan 1837 |
| Sarah |
" |
9 |
26 |
18 |
|
1836 |
| Jeremiah |
" |
9 |
25 |
24 |
21 |
Dec 1851 |
| James, Sr. |
" |
9 |
26 |
|
17 |
Jan 1851 |
| James, Jr. |
" |
9 |
25 |
|
7 |
Jan 1851 |
| Asberry H. |
" |
9 |
26 |
|
2 |
Jan 1837 |
| William G. |
Pike |
10 |
21 |
|
3 |
Apr 1855 |
It has been reported that Jeremiah Shanks was a son of James C. Shanks."" It is unknown at this time the identity of Sarah Shanks.William Terry served as Justice of the Peace of Barbour County in 1837 and was elected as a Whig to two terms as state representative for Barbour County in 1840-41 and 1845-46.11 He voted to remove the state capital from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. He became a Freemason in 1842 and was a member of the following lodges: (1) Royal White Hart Lodge #10 in Clayton, Barbour County (2) Troy Lodge No. 56, Pike County, and (3) Wiley Lodge No. 134 in Omega, Bullock County, Alabama.According to a written account by Terry Tarpley, the family moved from Montgomery to near Troy, Pike County, in 1852.12 In July 1857, William Terry sold one acre of land for $10 to the Beth el BaptistChurch near Banks, Alabama, to be used as a graveyard.13 James and Millie Shanks and some of their descendants are buried in the Bethel Baptist cemetery. Farmer, in her history of Pike County, stated that a William T. Shanks was buried in the graveyard of the Bethel Baptist Church; however, the listing of the marked graves of the Bethel Baptist Church does list a William T. or W. T. Shanks .13A newspaper article in the 21 Sept 1856 issue of the Independent American of Troy, AL stated:REV. W. T. SHANKSThe gentleman whose name heads this article is extensively known,91Hahn, Marilyn D. Old Sparta X. Ella Land Office Records & Military_Warrants 1822-1860 ( Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, Inc., 19$3), 23, 38, 77, 107, 358.10 Shultz, David. Elizabeth Jane Shanks McKissack family notes and Shanks information. [Furnished by David Shultz, Lucedale, MS].11 Owen, Thomas M. History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabanta Biolography: Vol. 1. ( Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Company, Publishers. Reprint of 1921 edition, 1978), 122. [Dates when W. T. Shanks served in the Alabama state legislature].12 Shanks, Minnie Mae. "Biography of Terry Tarpley Shanks". [Photocopy obtained from the Brazoria County Historical Society, Angleton, TX].13 Farmer, Margaret Pace. One Hundred Fifty Years in Pike County Alabama: 1821-1971. (Anniston, At Higginbotham, Inc, 1973), 417-422; 435-436.
and has for sometime been under a serious charge effecting his moral and religious standing. A prosecution for perjury was set on foot a few Court sessions back against him,-----, the whole matter originated in a mistake. So palpable was it that the Attorney General of Alabama after making every effort to fix guilt upon him, abandoned the prosecution, and the Court sent him hence, declaring it "found no fault in the man". Almost irreparable injury is not unfrequently done to the character of good men, through the actions of overzealous Grand Juries. They find true bills on too slight of evidence, or by acting on the evidence of some malicious witness. We have thought it proper to say this much of his innocence, since the tongues of slander have been busy trumpeting his disgrace. 14In 1860 Rev, W. T. Shanks was one of three speakers at a Resistance Meeting at Newberry's Store with citizens of Monticelio and Dixon's Beat, for the purpose of forming and organizing a resistance club tothe impending problems in the South. During the Civil War, at age 59 [1864], William Terry commanded a Pike County Home Guard Company of 72 men.'15Ann died on 20 February 1863. The location of her grave is not known at this time. On 1 October 1863, in Pike County, William Terry married Melissa Davis King, the widow of William C. King. 16 Melissa had two daughters by her first marriage - Mollie and Betty King. She was the mother of William Terry's youngest living child, Joseph Edgar (1864-1929). According to Joseph's daughter Willie L. Shanks, Melissa Davis King was the sister of Missouri Davis Shanks, wife of William Terry's son William G. Shanks; thus, father and son were also brothersin-law. 17 Melissa's daughters evidently did not live with William Terry following their mother's death, as their names were not listed in his household on any subsequent census. A mention was made in a letter to Rex Shanks that Willie's father never saw his half-sisters after the family moved to Texas .17Following Melissa's death, William Terry married for the fourth time. His fourth wife, Laura Harlee or Harley, also a widow, was some 40 years his junior, 18 They reportedly were married in Pike County on 2 January 1868; however, correspondence with the Pike County Judge of Probate did not find a marriage license for them. According to Willie L. Shanks, William Terry had 24 children." If this information of correct, evidently only 12 lived to adulthood as no record has been found to date regarding other children.According to the Minutes of the Salem Baptist Association meeting14 Senn, Susie K. Newspaper Ahstraets, from Pike Count Alabama: 1844-1861. (Greenville, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1999), 39, 46, 53.15 Napier, John Hawkins III. "John Shanks of Mississippi: Ancestors and Descendants". Ramer, AL, 1992. [Unpublished manuscript supplied by author, John Napier, Ramer, AL. Information appears consistent with other Shanks information].16 W. T. Shanks and Melissa King, State of Alabama Pike County, Alabama, 1 OCT 1965 [Book 4, p. 47i].`7 Shanks, Willie L. Letter to Rex Shanks, February 21, 1972, detailing information on the W. T. Shanks family. [Original letter furnished by Ann Shanks, in possession of the author].18 Miscellaneous abstract and marriage information regarding the Shanks family in Pike County, Alabama. [Obtained via e-mail <
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> on December 27; 19991.held on 5 October 1872 in Troy, Alabama, William expressed his intention to "remove beyond the bounds of the Association", in which he was very active. 5 According to an account by Joseph Edgar Shanks, William Terry and his family sailed from Mobile, Alabama, in December, 1871, and landed in Galveston, Texas, in January, 1872.'9 Unfortunately, no passenger lists are available in Galveston for domestic passengers, only foreign passengers. Evidently William made his request to the Salem Baptist Association following his move to Texas.William Terry and his family settled in Grimes County, Texas, in and around the communities of Oakland and Bedias. Some family information states the family may have lived in Milam County for atime; however, according to his obituary, the family "lived all the time in Grimes County".'Supposedly almost all his children, married and single, moved to Texas with him. Terry Tarpley had moved to Brazoria County, Texas, in 1867. 12 The only family members remaining in Pike County, Alabama, were James' widow Millie and her six children. Elvira and her husband, William G. Mulkey, later returned to Pike County and purchased the "Shanks place". 20In the Texas 1880 census the children still living with William Terry were Martha, Fannie, Jefferson, and Joseph. William G. Shanks and his family were living in Washington County, Texas, in 1880.William Terry reportedly preached in the Bedias area until his death and is buried in the Bedias Baptist Church Cemetery [located on FM 2620] along with numerous other family members. Information obtained from the Creath Brazos Baptist Association indicated he participated in the ordination of G.H. M. Wilson on 7 Sept 1873 at the Union Hill Church 21 According to his obituary, ill health may have prevented him from active ministry. 2 Laura Harlee Shanks reportedly returned to Alabama following William Terry's death. 1719 Davis, Wallace. "Biological Sketch of Joseph Edgar Shanks" in My Home Town. (Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company, 1953), 213.2° Brantley, May Shanks. Letters to Rex Shanks, Laredo, TX, February 28 and 13 March 1965, relating Shanks information. [Furnished by Ann Shanks, Laredo, TX 78043. Original in the possession of the author].21 Creath Brazos Association [Baptist], Bryan, TX. "Ordinations by Union Hill Church, 7 Sept 1873". [Correspondence, October, 1992 regarding W. T. Shanks].
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