Dempsey Wade Willis

From: https://archive.org/stream/Muscogiana192CSU/Muscogiana19-2_CSU_djvu...

Around 1802, Dempsey Willis (b. 11 Mar 1782, in Craven County, NC) married Margaret Curry, the daughter of a Warren County Willis neighbor, Cary Curry. Dempsey Willis appeared on the Baldwin County Tax Digest of 1810. The Currys also moved to Baldwin County, Georgia, where Cary Curry's 1819 will mentioned his daughter, Margaret Willis, and his grandson and namesake, Cary Curry Willis. Dempsey Willis and his family shifted into Jones County, but before 1840 went west to Talbot County (formed from the original Muscogee County in 1827). He and Margaret had a large family (the census of 1830 indicates five boys and five girls, although by that time several children had already left the nest). Dempsey and his wife lived alone at the time of the 1850 Census for Talbot County. He established a large farm in districts twenty-three and twenty-four of Talbot County; in 1840 he owned twenty slaves. The family remained faithful to the Baptist denomination and reared their children in the faith. While "not wealthy, yet possessing enough of this world's goods to live in ease and comfort," Dempsey and Margaret provided their offspring with a basic education and an appreciation for energetic farm work. Dempsey had evidently made distribution of much of his property before his death in 1851. Among his known children were James M. Willis, Mary Willis, Cary Curry Willis, Dempsey Andrew Jackson Willis, Benjamin Franklin Willis, and William H. Willis.