Full Circle - Sol J. Wiginton to John T. Robinson to Z. B. Palmer to M. B. Lawhon

First, there was the tombstone of Solomon J. Wiginton that I came across in the Itasca Cemetery in Hill County, Texas.  Then, less than ten days later, I received the Civil War pension records of John T. Robinson which contained an affidavit of Solomon as to John's service in the 10th Alabama Cavalry.  The pension file also had an affidavit from another member of the 10th Alabama, Z. B. Palmer.

When researching Z. B. Palmer, I found this website http://www.goldwingbums.org/genealogy/e291.htm which included a transcription of a probate record for M. B. Lawhon in Marion County, Alabama dated 1900.   Lordy, at the names!

S. L. Cofield, along with J. M. Shotts, were executors of the will of Merrell Brooks Lawhon, who was born March 1823 and died on October 12, 1900.   S. L. Cofield was my great-great grandfather, Samuel Lewis Cofield.  J. M. Shotts was John McCarty Shotts, brother-in-law of John T. Robinson. 

The Lawhon will references a lawsuit filed against Z. B. Palmer in 1899, the proceeds of which were to be divided among his heirs.  Since M. B. Lawhon never married and had no children, his heirs were his living siblings and the children of his deceased siblings.  A petition filed with the court named, among others, the following next-of-kin which I found of interest:  Z. B. Palmer (apparently the plaintiff was also a nephew), Mrs. Arvilla Young (she was the sister-in-law of my great-great grandmother, Rachel Young Loyd), Gertrude Robison (minor, in the care of her father L(ucian) G(aines) Robison) - via her deceased mother, Ophelia Lawhon Robison), N. L. Lawhon (presumed to be Noah Lucian Lawhon, married to Luna Robinson, niece of John T. Robinson).

Two years ago, on a cemetery tour along the Alabama-Mississippi state line, I took some photographs of the Lawhon Cemetery, a small family cemetery located not far from the Cofield-Cockrell Cemetery.  The first photo, below, is of the grave marker for M. B. Lawhon, 1823-1900.  The last photo is of John Lawhon, Sr., born 1792, died 1873.  Unusual to find a marker of someone born before 1800 in our neck of the woods - not impossible, but not a common find.