The Shemwell Family

jonathan110_1 originally shared this on 26 Jan 2011 Samuel W. Jackson was one of the earliest settlers in Heard County. He was born ca 1796 in North Carolina, son of William and Nancy Mann Jackson. The family moved to Walton County, GA when Samuel was a boy. He married Lavinia Malone, who was born ca 1801 in North Carolina. Lavinia's parents were John (of Halifax County,Virginia) and Grace Eaves Malone who was born in NC. Samuel and Lavinia lived in Pike County, GA then Meriwether County, before settling in Heard County. Samuel Jackson was a cabinent maker and carpenter by trade. When Lavinia Malone Jackson died 1863, their son, John Calhoun Jackson bought their home place in Heard County, GA and moved his family there sometime after that date. After the Civil War was over, Samuel W. Jackson received a letter from Little Rock, Arkansas asking him to come up there and build a colonial house. He being older, about 74, his family objected to him going up there, but he went anyway. He traveled in a small two horse drawn spring wagon, sitting in an extra large chair (or took it along as he was such a large man). He took typhoid fever and died up there. The army had taken all the best horses and cows so no one could go up to Little ROck for his body....( says the above information related by a cousin Della Pearl Burdette Swan). Samuel W. Jackson was not only a builder of Colonial houses, he was a cabinent maker..... Samuel W. and Lavinia Malone Jackson had seven children: Charlotte T. Jackson born Nov 15, 1818 Walton Co., GA John Calhoun Jackson born Jan 7, 1821, Walton Co., GA Leroy Jackson born Oct 26, 1826 William L. Jackson born ca 1833 Meriwether Co., GA; killed ca 1863 in Civil War Charity Ann Jackson born April 25, 1835 Meriwether Co., GA Nancy Elizabeth Jackson born ca 1839 or 1840 in Heard Co.GA Grace Amanda Jackson born ca 1843 in Heard County, GA...." The article was submitted/written for the book by Lela W.Craft and Jacquelyn C. Adamson You might be able to contact one of these people through the Heard County Historical Society who compiled the book. PO Box 990 Franklin, GA 30217 1-706-675-6507 U.S. General Land Office Records, 1776-2015 1830 United States Federal Census 1840 United States Federal Census

Samuel was a large man, according to Mrs. Tyler McEwin Swann (nee Della Pearl Burdette), in a May 5, 1953 letter from Roanoke, AL. Samuel "weighed 300 lbs." His homemade chair was "quite a curiosity," and was made "out of old hickory wood from his timber land. When he went visiting he would carry his chair along to sit in. If he didn't, they would place two chairs together and put a plank across the seat of both chairs for him." Mrs. Fletcher adds that "the chair is now (Aug 1946) in the possession of the Adamson descendants near Roanoke, AL." His nickname was Hiram, which came from his Primitive Baptist Religion. King Hiram of Tyre donated craftsmen and materials toward the building of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

From Some Families of East Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, VA, PA & MD website: Biography*: Samuel W. Jackson was born in North Carolina. According to his great granddaughter, Mrs. Ira Quinton Adams (nee Eula Lee Jackson) in a letter from Glenn, GA, dated May 7, 1934, "He was born in 1800, and his father came to Walton Co. GA in 1802 with a group of colonists. They were of Scots-Irish descent. His mother was German." . This is not entirely accurate, however, as Walton Co. was not formed until 1818, partly from Jackson Co., which had been created in 1796. And census records give Samuel's birth as around 1796, rather than 1800. . He appears on the 1820 census of Jasper Co. GA living next to his father-in-law, John Malone. He had married John's eldest daughter, Lavinia, about 1817, but no record of the marriage has been found. Also nearby in 1820 Jasper Co. was Mary Jackson, aged 45, and Charity Jackson, a young woman, both apparently widows with children. . Charity was probably the widow of Coleby Jackson, who died in 1818 and whose land was adjacent to John Malone's. She was co-executor of Coleby's estate with Benjamin Cook. . Samuel was a fortunate drawer in the 1820 Land Lottery. As a resident of Eastes District in Jasper Co., he won Lot 64 in the 3rd District of Walton Co., and apparently took up residence there for a couple of years. No connection has been found between Samuel W. and other Jacksons in Walton Co., particularly with William or Samuel Jackson there, who were of Clarke Co. GA origins. . In Dec 1822, Samuel W. sold 149 acres on the west side of his lot in Walton Co. to David Johnson for $950 (Walton DB CD-265). At the same time he bought a half-acre lot from Johnson (lot 170) in the town of Monroe for $175 (Walton DB CD-266). . A month later, in Jan 1823, he sold an acre of Lot 64 to Andrew Baker for $100, "where old man Baker settled" (Walton DB CD-248). Witnesses were Wiley Cook and Herndon L. Henderson. . That same year Samuel moved to Pike Co. GA, and in September bought lot 134 in the 2nd District of Pike Co (Pike Co. DB A-260). . In July 1824 he sold his half-acre lot in the town of Monroe to Herndon L. Henderson for only $5 (Walton DB F-155). That same month he bought Lot 221 in the 8th District of Pike Co. for $500, from Francis Garner of Walton (Pike DB A-368). Witnesses included Wiley Cook. In Jan 1825 Samuel sold his remaining 100 acres of Lot 64 in Walton Co. to Harley Baker for $400, the land being "where Baker now lives" (Walton DB F-127). . In March 1825 Samuel sold his lot in the 2nd District of Pike Co. (Lot 134) to Wiley Cook (Pike DB A-388). Samuel had paid $400 for the lot and sold it for $500. (By 1830 Cook was in Harris Co. GA. He was in Troup Co. GA in 1840 and in Chambers Co. AL in 1850.) And in March 1827 Samuel W. sold his other lot in Pike Co. (Lot 221 in the 8th District) to James R. Gray, make a $100 profit on this lot as well (Pike DB B-236). . Samuel W. may have moved to Meriwether Co. in 1826, before he sold this last lot in Pike Co., even though Meriwether was not officially open for settlement at that time. According to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Brooks R. Jackson, in a 1964 letter, Samuel's son Lee Roy was said to have been born in a log house in Meriwether Co. in Oct 1826. In any case, Samuel W. was in Meriwether for the 1830 census. . But there is no evidence that he bought land there before January 1832, when he bought Lot 9 in the 8th District for $125 (DB B-168). In Oct 1833 he sold the west half of this lot to his father-in-law, John Malone of Butts Co. GA (DB C-286). Witnesses were Jones Malone, thought to be John's son, and Littleton Grimsley. . Grimsley had married Malinda Jackson in 1827 in Pike Co. GA. She is said to be the daughter of Coleby R. Jackson (Grimsley Workbook by Robert E. Parkin, St. Louis MO). Coleby R. Jackson was aged 60-70 on the 1830 census of Meriwether Co. and lived near Samuel W. Jackson. A Coleby or Colley Jackson married Malinda Henley in 1829 in Meriwether with Littleton Grimsley as J.P. This may have been the son of the elder Coleby. . Also near Samuel in 1830 Meriwether was Woody Jackson. This was probably the Woody who married Eliza Jackson in Pike Co. in 1829, and who won land in Meriwether in 1827 while a resident of Greene Co. GA. . Getting back to Samuel W. Jackson, in Dec 1834 he bought the north half of Lot 10 in the 8th District from Calvin Payne of Shelby Co. AL for only $21 (Meriwether DB F-82). (Calvin Payne was the son of Charles Payne and Rhoda Cawthon of Franklin Co, GA, but of Pendleton Dist, SC, prior to 1820. Charles Payne was the son of John Payne of Pittsylvania Co, VA) . Samuel W. probably moved from Meriwether to Heard Co. about this time. According to Mrs. Adams, quoted above, he settled on the SW fourth of Lot 161 in the 12th District of Heard Co., near Glenn, GA. Heard Co. records were destroyed by fire in 1894. Samuel was on the 1840, 1850, and 1860 censuses of Heard Co. . According to the family sources already mentioned, his wife, Lavinia, died there in 1862 and was buried on the family farm. . Samuel W. was not on the 1870 census in Heard, as the following account from Mrs. Omar L. Fletcher (nee Sarah Belle McDonald), of Temple, TX, a great granddaughter) explains: "Samuel W. Jackson, being a professional carpenter and cabinet maker, often received letters asking him to come and help build a colonial house. Such a letter came to him from Little Rock, AR, soon after the close of the War. He went against the wishes of his children, as he was then 73 years of age, and the South was in such a deplorable condition.... He was stricken down with (typhoid) fever from which he died in 1871, and was buried there in Little Rock, travel being almost impossible at that time." . Samuel was a large man, according to Mrs. Tyler McEwin Swann (nee Della Pearl Burdette), in a May 5, 1953 letter from Roanoke, AL. Samuel "weighed 300 lbs." His homemade chair was "quite a curiosity," and was made "out of old hickory wood from his timber land. When he went visiting he would carry his chair along to sit in. If he didn't, they would place two chairs together and put a plank across the seat of both chairs for him." Mrs. Fletcher adds that "the chair is now (Aug 1946) in the possession of the Adamson descendants near Roanoke, AL." . Another descendant (Mrs. J. Allen Carlisle, nee Ada Barrett, of Atlanta, GA, from a Dec 28, 1934 letter, she was another great granddaughter.) writes, "I too have heard that grandfather (John Coleman) Jackson was a cousin of Stonewall Jackson. (John was a son of Samuel's.) I met Mrs. Stonewall Jackson at Borden Wheeler Springs about 20 years ago (that would have been about 1914). We talked about the family a great deal, but as you know Stonewall was killed not long after they were married.... She couldn't tell me much about her husband's family." . According to Mrs. Adams, Vernon Adamson had the Samuel W. Jackson family Bible (this was in 1934) but it had no Jackson names in it, only Adamson. "But part of the book is torn out." Vernon was a great grandson of Samuel's. . Mrs. Swann said she thought Samuel's father "was named William -- my mother remembered seeing him at one time -- I do not know whether this is correct or not." She also said that William Jackson lived in DeKalb County, GA, and that after he died Samuel W. Jackson went over there and sold some land covered with standing timber. . Mrs. Swann's mother, Mrs. Sampson D. Burdette (nee Sarah Martha Jackson) was born in 1849. If the young Sarah M. saw her great grandfather, she must have been very young, and he very old. . Samuel W. was probably the son of the elderly Coleby R. Jackson who lived near him in Meriwether Co. in 1830, but proof of this is lacking. Coleby was known to be the father of Malinda Jackson, who married Littleton Grimsley in 1827. Littleton and Malinda were the ancestors of the Grimsleys in Tallapoosa County, AL, who were said to be "cousins" of the Lee Roy Jackson family there. Samuel W. Jackson was associated with Littleton Grimsley, as mentioned above, and was probably his brother-in-law. Susannah Jackson, who married Allen Cook, was another daughter of Coleby Jackson. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lewgriffin/g0/p210.htm#i6691