HEARDS & NOLENS AND THEIR MILLER/MUELLER KIN -- UPDATED MARCH 15, 2021

HEARDS & NOLENS AND THEIR MILLER/MUELLER KIN

UPDATE 3/15/2021

I have more Miller/Mueller relations among my DNA matches than any other Surname.  There seem to be three reasons: 1. I have multiple Miller/Mueller lines; 2. They have big families who have big families; 3. They do genealogy; 4. They do DNA Tests.  At least one of my Miller/Mueller lines has strong connections with the Church of the Latter Day Saints, and have a long-time involvement with the genealogy programs offered through the Temple.  

Three Miller connections have long puzzled me, and I described these in the original post which follow this update.  I have since positively confirmed the relationship between the ancestors of my great, great grandmother Abidia Obedience Wise Nolen  (daughter of Amelia,Permelia "Milly" Miller Wise and the ancestors of Samuel Nathanial Miller (who married Emma Frances Heard, my great Aunt).   Both families are descended from Joseph Medford Miller (1755-1826) and his wife Ada Gilbert Miller  (1765-1830).  Thus, the children of my great Aunt Sarah Deliah Nolen (1885-1023) are descendants of Joseph Medford Miller and Ada Gilbert, but they are also the descendants of her husband William Curtis Miller.  William Curtis Miller is descended from a totally different group of Miller's/Mueller's.  If the two families are related, the relationship traces back to 16th or 17th century Germany.

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The 12 children of Clora Frances Nolen Heard and James Addison Heard had two sets of first cousins with the MILLER surname.  Their paternal Aunt Emma Frances Heard married Samuel Nathanial Miller (Miller cousins - Maurice, Cecil, Floyd, Frank, Ray, Sam, Helen, and Jay),  Their maternal Aunt, Sarah Delilah Nolen married William Curtis Miller (Miller cousins — Nolen, Herman, Cecil, Robert, and Frankie Laverne). My Uncle Meredith Heard had a Believe-It-Or-Not in which he wrote, “I have two first cousins named Cecil Miller, who are not related to each other.”

Well, as it turns out, the Heard children’s Miller Cousins may actually be related to each other, and what’s more the 12 HEARD-NOLEN children may be doubly related to their MILLER COUSINS.  This possibility has recently been evoked by DNA test results showing connections between the Miller families as well as our Heards.

Here is the connection.  Clora Frances Nolen’s father was ABSLOM SMEON NOLEN.  His mother was ABIDIA OBEDIENCE WISE.  Her mother was AMELIA PERMELIA “Milly” MILLER.  Great, great, grandmother Milly Miller Wise was born in 1794 in South Carolina and died in 1869 in Colquitt, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana,  It now appears that both Sam Miller and Bill Miller (Uncles of the 12 Heard children) were also related to Milly Miller Wise.

I have not traced the Sam or Bill MILLER lines, but I have tried to establish Milly’s Ancestry.  Milly was the daughter of JOSEPH MEDFORD MILLER, who was born in York County, South Carolina in 1755 and died there in 1830.  He fought in the Revolutionary War and married ADA GILBERT in 1785 when he was 30.  

Joseph was the son of JACOB MILLER/MUELLER, JR.  Jacob, Jr. who was born June 1, 1736, in Bertie, North Carolina, was of the first generation to use the English form of his name, MILLER instead of the German, MUELLER.   On June 1, 1768, Jacob married ANNA CIVILLS FRANVK, the daughter of JOHN MARTIN FRANCK  and his wife CIVILLA MILLER/MUELLER.  

Civilla was the daughter of JOHN (JOHANNES) JACOB MUELLER, JR. (ah yes, you caught that).  Jacob Miller/Mueller, Jr. married his cousin (the daughter of his Aunt CIVILA MILLER/MUELLER).  The marriage of cousins was fairly common in that era, especially in frontier settlements.  

The mutual grandfather of Jacob, Jr. and his wife  Ana Civilla was JOHN (JOHANNAS) JACOB MUELLER, JR. He was  born in  1667 in Rheinland-Palatinate, Germany, and died in 1732 in New Bern, South Carolina..  in 1688, ha married CATHERINE ELAINE LETHER.  Their daughter Civilla was born in 1698, in Alentine, Palatinate Germany.  Their son, JACOB Mueller, Sr., was born 1702 in Bavaria, Germany. By 1719-20 records show the MUELLER Family (John, Jr., Catherine Elaine, Jacob, Sr. and Civilla) living in Craven, North Carolina.

In my family tree on Ancestry, I have two generations of MUELLERS before John, Jr. And his wife, Catherine Elaine LETHER, but I am not fully confident of the information.  After John Jr., Catherine Elaine and their children Jacob, Sr. and Civilla arrived in the Carolinas, I have more confidence in my research.  

During the 17th and early 18th Centuries, Germany was a bloody battleground over which Protestant and Catholic forces warred.  Many German Protestant refugees fled to the British colonies while some of their Catholic neighbors immigrated to Louisiana. 

JACOB MILLER/MUELLER, SR. married MARY CATHERINE ISLER.  Conflicting records say they were married in either North Carolina or Germany about 1720.  Their son JACOB MILLER, JR. was born in Bertie, North Carolina, but not until 1736. They may have had other children in the intervening 16 years.  Research into the place of their marriage and these years is needed. 

As noted earlier, Jacob, Jr. married his cousin Anna Civilla Franck.  Anna Franck was the grand daughter of AUGUST HERMANN FRANCK, a scholar and clergyman, often called the father of German public education.  We have little direct information about the social, economic, or educational status of the Mueller family, but their close association with the Franck family would suggest that they were educated and Protestant.

Our Miller/Mueller ancestors arrived in the Carolinas in the first quarter of the 18th Century, and remained there until after the Revolutionary War.  Between 1821 and 1823,  AMELIA PERMELIA “Milly” MILLER WISE with her husband JAMES GIDEON GILES EUGENE WISE and the living  6 of their 7 oldest children (Joseph Ford, Archie, John James, Adah Sarah, Ambrose Jilly, and Evan “Ivan”) moved to Copiah, Mississippi.  Nine additional children were born to them in Mississippi (Gilbert Mays, Levi “Lee,” Giles James “Doc,” Abidia Obedience “Beedie,” Celia Ann “Sealy,” John Warren, Delilah Aretha, David Nathan, and Gideon W.).  Then, between 1837 and 1840, the family moved to Claiborne Parish in Louisiana, where they appear on the 1840 census,  There, James G.G. E, passed away in 1858.  Milly survived another decade, dying in 1869.

COMMUNICATING MEMORIES -- SECTION I -- EARLIEST MEMORIES

COMMUNICATING MEMORIES –

An Autobiography by Frances Ruth Jackson Freeman (b 1939, Coushatta, LA.)

Written in the 80^thyear of her life

SECTION I: EARLIEST MEMORIES

Chapter 1 --  FRONT YARD MEMORIES (About 1942)

FORWARD – As I enter my 80^thyear of life, I am writing my memories.   I wish to review the amazing changes that have occurred over these 80 years, and to remember the people who touched and changed my life.  I have two goals (1) to replay my life and define critical moments and insights and (2) to share memories with my family and my (mostly unborn) descendants. Many of my earliest memories are like old black and white movies, and these I relate as I see them..     

THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM

            I am lying on my back in the grass, and a heavy weight is bearing down on my chest, holding me.  I am screaming and crying, and kicking and beating my arms against the ground.  Above me is the long and narrow face of a dog, its red tongue lolls out between long white teeth, and drips saliva in my face.  The animal’s two front paws are placed firmly in my chest, and it’s blood shot brown eyes stare directly into my blue ones.  It’s fur is long and reddish, and the dangling ears are flecked with sandspurs and burrs.  The animal is barking at the top of her lungs, and the sound is frightening in my ears. 

            I’m not sure what impulse drove me, but I stopped pounding the ground and with both of my hands I hit the dog right in the muzzle. The barking ceased suddenly and the pressure on my chest was relieved as the startled dog jumped back.  At that moment, I heard my father shout, but I couldn’t understand or was too angry to listen. 

 I leaped up from the ground, and began to run toward my objective.  I wanted to reach my Uncle Andrew and Aunt Elizabeth (aka Uncle Ander and Aunt Lizzie) Adams’ house.  The problem was that their house stood across State Highway 84 from my house. As I ran toward the road, as fast as my short, plump legs would pump, the big red dog came at me again, knocking me down with the full force of her broad chest.  She stood over my body again, this time alternatively barking and whining, while looking back and forth from me to my approaching father.

My Daddy laid his rifle down, and gathered me up in his arms as I continued to scream and kick.  He tried to calm me, while alternatively to petting and praising the dog.  He would pat me and then he would pat the big Irish Setter who sat proudly at his feet, still hassling from her exertions.

I don’t actually remember the rest, but have heard Daddy tell the story many times.  Daddy had heard my cries, and seen the dog apparently attacking me.  He had grabbed his rifle, and taken bead on the dog, just as I managed to stand up.  He couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting me.  As I ran and was knocked down again, Daddy realized that the gentle animal was not attacking me, but preventing me from running onto the busy highway.   When Daddy told the story, the moral was always clear, “things are not always what they appear at first glance.  Sometimes wisdom demands we assess more carefully before acting, especially when our actions can never be reversed.”

ON RETIREMENT

PRESENTATION BY LAUREN DECILLIS

For those of you who know Dr. Frances Freeman, you know that she is passionate about giving people the opportunity to show their potential.  She was a social activist to the core, even before it was in vogue to be a feminist.  I have heard some truly smashing stories about her glorious New York days in the 70's when she worked alongside our feminist founders to bring the Women's Rights Movement to launch point.  She already had the Civil Rights Movement experience to draw from in the 60's, where equality and inclusion were new, raw words. Thank you for starting to say those words, Fran.  

Frances has had many careers, hats, roles...from journalist to teacher to scientist to Methodist Minister.  Through all of those years, even though I did not know her then, I'm fairly certain that every new friend was met with that same remarkable smile, gracious observations, and curious questions.  Who are you and what are you made of?  Human communication master...

Which leads me to her incredible research and academic background in Speech and Hearing Sciences, contributing to advances in the treatment of stuttering and disorders of the brain. I could go on about this, but you can Google her and find out what she's made of...or can you?

You probably won't find an article about the support and love Frances has for her family, old friends, colleagues and flowers. I have been on the receiving end of Fran's support over the last few years, as I had the pleasure of working with her in her latest passion for building faculty diversity at UT Dallas.  In her role as Assistant Vice President, she has made inroads in a road that was gravel. "Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light."  Yes, I know that's an Eagles song.

She made great inroads and I'm proud of her work.  Now, she is retiring, for the 4th time.  Goodness, let's hope we can pick up where you gracefully left off, and that you have a rollicking good time on a shimmering new road. Congratulations to my friend and colleague, Frances J. Freeman.

THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF JOAQUIN 1876-2016

First United Methodist Church of Joaquin

1876-2018

Compiled with love by Cynthia Webster in memory of our church members who have gone before us.

Written on the 140^th Anniversary of the Church -- 2016

The First United Methodist Church of Joaquin

1876-2016

 

The Joaquin United Methodist Church has existed for one hundred and forty years in three locations, and at least four different buildings. The church has provided worship opportunities, spiritual support, a venue for joyful weddings and baptisms, solace in times of sorrow, lively bible schools and youth activities, divinely inspired music and community service across multiple generations through floods, drought, the Great Depression, wars, and in times of peace and prosperity.

When early Texas settler Henry I. Brook died in October 1871 he was buried just west of the Brookland-Logansport ferry crossing on the Sabine River. His burial site began the Brookland cemetery. Henry’s widow, Mary Jane Brook, donated land and lumber for a church to be built in the northeast corner of the cemetery. Worship services started in 1876 with Circuit-Rider Reverend George Hughes.

The church was soon relocated farther south to a more populated area of Shelby County and named Harmony Methodist Church.

As the Houston East and West Texas Railroad (HE&WT) route from Houston to Shreveport was being built through Brookland the area had an increase in population. In 1884 the church was returned to the original site at the Brookland Cemetery near the new train depot until a new church building was completed in the budding township of Joaquin in 1894-1895.

Leona and Dillard Brook, Sr. (Nephew of Henry Brook who lived and is buried at Brookline Cemetery)

According to the late Richard Wharton’s father, Henry Wharton, the still intact Joaquin Depot originated in Brookland. The depot was moved to Joaquin when the station was established and remodeled, later adding annexes and platforms that no longer exist. 

The old Rail Road Depot

The first known wedding ceremony conducted in the new church located in Joaquin was that of Dr. William Allen Ramsey and Miss Clara Short on August 8^th 1895.   

 

Dr. William Allen Ramsey

Charter members of the church included a local farmer, Alabama-born Thomas A. Henry, William R. (Bob) Crawford and his wife Emmie T., W.D. Wade (Postmaster at BoBo in 1893), a Brook family and the Erastus Sayers family.

As the church grew another building was erected across the street 10 years later.  Vol 43 page 270 of Shelby County Real Estate Records reveals W.R. Crawford, his wife, E.T. Crawford and R. A. Rushing sold to W.R. Crawford and John Mills (a local Blacksmith) serving as church trustees, ½ acre of land located “300 yards north of the town square” for the sum of $150.00 in 1904.  

The First Methodist Church of Joaquin, TX from 1922-1951

The new church building sustained wind damage in 1921 resulting in another building being erected at the same site. Shelby County Real Estate Records Book 10 page 381 dated 10/12/1923 attested M. M. Carroll (a local merchant), S.B. (Sam) Crawford and J. C. Brook were Trustees of Record for the church named Joaquin Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

These trustees signed a document of indebtedness for $1500 to the Board of Church Extension Methodist Episcopal Church, South by Joaquin Methodist Episcopal Church, South on September 24^th 1922 to complete the new church.

 

This photo shared by Jo Heller shows Gladys Nixon’s car in front of the Methodist church. Jo stated her mother (Gladys) was preparing/decorating the church for the wedding of her daughter Lou Ann to Billy R. Freeman on September 10^th 1950. Their wedding was probably one of the last taking place in that building.

After the merging of several Methodist associations in 1939 the church became known as Joaquin Methodist Church. During this time preaching was conducted every-other-Sunday until 1945 when Joaquin Methodist became a full-time church.

The present church building was constructed and consecrated in 1951. The building was officially dedicated in 1961 when the debts for the building were paid in full.

Sample of Church Building Bonds Issued in 1951

After the uniting of more branches of American Methodist Churches in 1962, the church at Joaquin became known as the First United Methodist Church of Joaquin. Through the years, the church has sponsored nursing home ministries, scholarship programs and luncheons for graduating high school seniors; Joaquin Christian Services for those in need; and church bazaars.

The Methodist Church facilities provide a polling site for elections, and have been used as a quiet site for student testing by the Joaquin Schools.

A fellowship hall was added in 1987.

Steeple Added to Joaquin United Methodist Church

The steeple was replaced in recent years.

 

Stain Glass Cross Added to JUMC

Members of the Methodist Church gladly minister to our entire community, bringing the good news of God's love made known through Jesus, by witnessing the Gospel, sharing our lives, and being committed to the welfare of the others.  We strive to be a church where love is an action and not just a word.

Pastor History

1876-1905 East Texas Circuit including Rev. George Hughes


1906-1907 Rev. W. L. Easterling 1946-1947 Rev. Lewis Risinger


1908-1909 Rev. I. J. Coppedge 1947-1950 Rev. Charles W. Williams


1910 Rev. W. L. Easterling 1950-1951 Rev. Clyde C. Shoemaker


1911 Rev. I. J. Coppedge 1951-1953 Rev. Robert H. Jonte


1912 Rev. W. L. Easterling 1953-1955 Rev. Lawrence Lanzrum.Jr.


1913 Rev. I. J. Coppedge 1955-1957 Rev. H. Leroy Stanton


1914 Rev. A. G. Hall 1957-1959 Rev. Henry Alloway, Jr.


1915-1916 Rev. R. E. Beaird 1959-1960 Rev. Lloyd E. Holt


1917-1919 Rev. Frank Platt 1960-1961 Rev. Robert H. Koch


1920 Rev. E. G. Downs 1961-1964 Rev. Buford Fenley


1921-1922 Rev. E. C. Goins 1964-1966 Rev. H.O. Bonner


1923-1924 Rev. L. A. Humphries 1966-1967 Rev. Vernon Fincher


1925-1926 Rev. W.C. Hughes 1967-1869 Rev. W. Byron Boyette


1927-1928 Rev. J. I. Weatherby 1969-1972 Rev. Claude S. Decelle


1929-1931 Rev. M. J. Bigger 1972-1975 Rev. D. Z. Danheim


1932 Rev. C. H. Dark 1975-1977 Rev. John B Rozell


1933-1934 Rev. T. H. Gibbs 1977-1977 Rev. W. F. McQueen


1934-1935 Rev. R.B. Bates 1977-1979 Rev. Randall Barlow


1936-1938 Rev. E. S. Brawner 1979-1989 Rev. Hershell Ramsey


1939-1940 Rev. James F. Ferguson 1989-1991 Rev. Ray L. Freeman


1941-1942 Rev. J. M. McCain 1991-1992 Rev. Gerald L. Phillips


1943-1944 Rev. C. T. Wallace 1992-2001 Rev. Billy R. Freeman


1944-1946 Rev. R. Eugene Jonte 2001-2015 Rev. Randall K. Smith


2015-present Rev. Robert Ortigo            

Easters in the Walter Rainbolt Memorial Garden

Easter in the Walter Rainbolt Memorial Garden

Christmas in the Sanctuary

Compiled with love by Cynthia Webster in memory of our church members who have gone before us.

Sources:

 http:  State of Texas Historical Marker Number 16832.  Atlas Number 5507016832.  Marker Title Brookland Cemetery. Index Entry Brookland Cemetery.  Address 12996 U.S. Hwy. 84 E.

http://www.shelbycountytexashistory.net/Shelby/Marriages/bridesshea-shray.htm

  History of Shelby County, Texas 1988 published by Shelby County Historical Society, page 157

  Oral and written history by Richard Wharton.

 

http://www.shelbycountytexashistory.net/Shelby/Marriages/groomsfoy-fulsom.

Church records and memorabilia of Joaquin First United Methodist Church

http://www.shelbycountytexashistory.net/Shelby/Census/1900Census-HEA-HEN.htm

http://www.shelbycountytexashistory.net/Shelby/Census/1900Census-MIC-MIL.htm

Shelby County Texas Real Estate Records

A HISTORY OF POST OFFICES AND COMMUNITIES

First Congressional District of Texas   SHELBY COUNTY

 COMPLIMENTS OF WRIGHT PATMAN Texarkana, Texas

Copyright 1968 by Wright Patman

Photos by Cynthia Webster