Ann Meeks

About 1817, Mark Meeks married Ann Chambers, the daughter of John Chambers and Elizabeth Jane Johnston; Ann was born about 1802 in Georgia. Their eldest child was born in Georgia in 1818, but by 1820 they had moved to Alabama. By the mid-1820s they lived in Fayette County Alabama, where Mark served as sheriff and tax collector during the period 1825 – 1828 and again during 1832 – 1837. He ran for the state senate in 1834 but was defeated. - - - * - - - By 1842 Mark Meeks, Sr. had settled in Union Parish Louisiana. The following year his eldest daughter, Mary Elizabeth, married Elisha Ward, Jr., and in 1850, his son Joseph Anderson married Elisha’s niece, Harty Ann Auld. On 23 May 1846, Mark and Ann Meeks, together with another ten people all founded the Good Hope Primitive Baptist Church. The church was located just across the Louisiana/Arkansas state line in Union County Arkansas from Union Parish. On June 26th, the church included Mark on the committee appointed to write the rules of decorum for the church. Then on August 22nd, the church elected Mark as the first church deacon. His ordination as deacon occurred on September 27th, and the presbytery consisted of Elders C. B. Landers and Charles Primm. - - - * - - - Sometime in the mid-1850s, Mark Meeks moved a short distance west to Claiborne Parish. His wife Ann Chambers Meeks died there in March 1857.