Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Sarah Maxcy 1777-1853

Sarah Maxey's grave is the earliest marked grave in the Gilmore-Evans Cemetery (Old Asbury Methodist Church Cemetery) south of Tremont.  As her headstone indicates, Sarah was born April 8, 1777 and died May 18, 1853.  She was the wife of Walter Maxey.  There are no other marked Maxey graves.

Quick research indicates that Sarah was the daughter of Rhodam Allen and Mary Emily Ransom Allen, and that she was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina.   Her husband was Walter Grenada Maxey, son of Jesse and Elizabeth Maxey.  Walter was born in 1775 in Tennessee, died in 1839 in Itawamba County, and descendants indicate that Walter was buried on the Maxey Family farm.

In this 2008 blog post by Bob Franks on the Itawamba Historical Society Web-blog,  the Walter Maxey family is discussed as being one of four families found living in what was still Indian territory in 1833 (Itawamba County wasn't formed until 1836).  Surveyors of the land obtained through treaty with the Chickasaw Indians in 1832 were in the area shortly after the treaty to survey and draw off sections of land for eventual purchase by white settlers.   The field notes of these surveyors show that Walter and Sarah Maxey were living just west of the old wagon road that came out of Monroe County (Monroe County was formed in 1821 from lands earlier ceded by the Chickasaws) into the Chickasaw Nation.

Can you imagine moving with your husband and eleven children to  the wilderness of pre-Itawamba County, only to lose your husband in 1839?

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