Wardlaw Family Connection

Remember when I said that although I had no direct ancestors buried in Bean Cemetery, my family was connected to the cemetery in many different ways? Well now, in addition to my family's connection to Enon Primitive Baptist Church and its original site at the present location of Bean Cemetery, there's another connection here. The Wardlaw family has been connected to mine for many generations. Clara Nell Pennington, who is my great-aunt Tootsie, married Clarence E. Wardlaw. And as mentioned before, the Penningtons and Wardlaws have long attended church together at Enon. Plus, the 1900 census finds them as neighbors when Aaron and William Giles Pennington, brothers to my GG Grandfather James J. Pennington, were living next door to Charles W. Wardlaw, Clarence's grandfather.

The tombstones above belong to Samuel McCulley Wardlaw and his wife, Jane. Samuel and Jane moved their family to Itawamba County from Georgia between 1840 and 1844, based upon the birth places given for their children. Researchers indicate that Samuel was born to William Wardlaw and his second wife, Margaret McCulley, in Gwinnett or Harris County, Georgia. The Wardlaws appear to have been Scotch-Irish, arriving first in Pennsylvania and then following the usual route south through Augusta County, Virginia and later to Abbeville District, South Carolina before spreading west. Samuel's tombstone provides us with a birth date of July 4, 1805 and a death date of May 10, 1877 while census records tell us he was born in Georgia.

Buried next to Samuel in Bean Cemetery is his wife, Jane, whose tombstone indicates that she was born January 3, 1810 and died June 8, 1875. She was born in South Carolina and thought to have been an Austin.

Samuel and Jane attended church at Enon, which was originally known as Enon Baptist Church of Christ. This was not a Church of Christ faith as we know it today, rather the Primitive Baptist churches in those days were typically titled "Baptist Church of Christ." Church records show that Samuel and Jane were admitted by letter of experience in May 1847. Samuel served as a delegate to union and association meetings, and his son George W. Wardlaw served the church as moderator and eventually became ordained as an Elder (preacher).

Church records also indicate that a William Jasper Wardlaw and wife M. H. were granted "letters of dismission" in September 1857. In the census of 1850, we find a William and Hawkins Wardlaw living next to Samuel and Jane. William was most likely their son. In the 1860, he and his family can be found in Bartholomew, Arkansas near Pine Bluff. It is not known what happened to this family after 1860.

Daughters of Samuel and Jane were Mary, Amanda, Martha and Margaret. Their spouses are not known.

Sons James H. and Samuel H. died young without any issue. Both are buried at Bean Cemetery.

Son Charles W. Walker and his wife Susan Francis Jones are both buried in the cemetery as well. The succeeding generations of these Itawamba County Wardlaws are buried at nearby Bourland Cemetery, near the relocated Enon Primitive Baptist Church. The Bourlands are another well-connected family to Enon Church.