James Evans Wallace, Sr

http://www.tngenweb.org/stewart/lib2.htm#1863 1863 Liberty Baptist Church in Bumpus Mills, TN - meeting minutes: Noted: Then the case of Evans Wallace and Austin Taylor and Johnathan Brewer was taken up. Motion made and seconed (sic) that they be excluded for non-attendance and for using profane language.

History of the Liberty Church Stewart County, TN http://www.tngenweb.org/stewart/liberty.htm

GEDCOM Note

His name is misspelled on the tombstone. He was a blacksmith, a constable, and the leader of a band of guerilla's during the civil war. He was in on the lynching of about a dozen slaves at the Great Western Furnace Slave uprising in 1856. He was caught by the local law enforcemnt and was shot trying to escape by Lt. Col. Nathan Brandon. He died four days later of 2 December 1864.

From Carlos Richard & Myrtice Jean Taylor Owens Related Families on Rootsweb Carlos owenscm@bellsouth.net 18 Sep 2007
This webpage says that Evans was born 1809 in SC. Other records say 1814 in Edgecombe Co., NC.
1830 census, Stewart Co., TN -- Evans Wallace and his first wife & 3 children.
1850 census, Calloway Co., KY, Evans Wallace,blacksmith, age 43, born in KY.
1860 census, Stewart Co., TN, Evans Wallace, age 53, born in SC.

Evins Wallace received 90 acres in Stewart Co., TN, in the will of John M. L. Williams, Sr, father of his first wife. John Williams, Sr. also deeded to Evans Wallace 220 Acres on Indian Camp Branch of Hayes Fork,
Evins Wallace on his tomb stone which, according so some, was placed at a late date.
Sarah Williams Wallace died in 1838, leaving five young children.

Evans was a doctor of sorts; he had trained under his father who was somewhat a doctor. Evans uncle Etheldred Wallace had gone to Scotland to become a lawyer and Evans father John had studied medicine.

Evans delivered Sally Clark's first two children by Axiom Green Wallace. After Evans' wife died Sally came to live with him as housekeeper and to assist him with his children. Then Evans & Sally married and moved to Calloway Co., KY for a time. They moved back to Tobacco Port in Stewart Co. and settled there, maybe on the 90 acres he inherited from his father-in-law, John M. L. Williams, Sr.

Brenda Mathis Sensenig wrote, 29 Jun 2005, that Evans Walace was shot and killed by Nathan Brandon. One story was that Nathan accused him of stealing a horse. The other story - "the one I subscribe to," said Brenda, is that Nathan was in love with Sally, and asked her to run away with him. This is reported by Shery Franke in "The Family History of Joseph Taylor and Sarah Best." Evans was shot in the back and Nathan never came to trial. The fact that he was the killer seemed to have been common knowledge, reported Brenda.

Evans Wallace (ca. 1807-1864)
From “Family History of the Joseph Taylor, Jr. and Sarah Best Family”
By Shari H. Franke

Evans Wallace was born ca. 1807 in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. Evans must have come to Warren County, Kentucky with his parents and sister when he was about one year old. It must have been hard for him to lose 'his sweet mother when he was only about eight years old. He moved with his father to Tennessee when he was about 11 years old, and a new stepmother joined the family. It must have been quite a relief to Evans and the other members of the family, to have a mother about the home once again.

Evans married (1) about 1828, Sarah Williams, in Stewart County, Tennessee. The "History of Stewart County, Tennessee" tells us that Evans and his first wife, Sarah Williams had five children. Then Sarah died about 1838.

A Wallace descendant, D. Watkins, describes Evans Wallace as "having a fiery temper, and being a very colorful person." Watkins stated that, "Evans Wallace was a member of Quantrill's Guerillas in the Civil War. Also, that Frank and Jesse James and the Younger Brothers were members of that gang." (Note: "William Clark Quantrill raised a troop of Confederate irregulars at the outbreak of the Civil War, and he received a Captain's commission in 1862. On 21 August 1863 with 450 men, he raided Laurence, Kansas, pillaged the town and slaughtered over 150 men, women and children. In May 1865 his followers, reduced to 33 men, were surprised by a federal force while they were on a plundering foray in Kentucky where he was fatally wounded. Quantrill died a month later in prison.")

Edgar Wallace stated that Evans was “kind of a country doctor who took care of many family members and friends. He had a natural gift of healing and was kindly and loving and would sit up for hours and spend days tending to the sick." Edgar also stated that "there have been many legends spoken of Evans Wallace. He apparently got kind of mean after he had been drinking too such moonshine whiskey! Evans also had a great love for horses. He was a stern father and believed that children should never talk back to their elders, even after they were grown up and married. Evans was also a constable and helped a lot of people.” D. Watkins also stated that Evans met with a violent death when he was shot in the back, and died several days later as a result of the gunshot wound. Evans died 2 December 1864, at Bumpus Mills, Stewart, Tennessee. Edgar Wallace said that he was killed by Col. Nathan Brandon, (who was a brother to Dr. Wesley Brandon, husband of Harriet Wallace, the daughter of Etheldred Wallace and Amy Taylor.

Sarah Williams, born ca. 1809, of Stewart County, Tennessee, died in 1838, Stewart County, Tennessee. She was the mother of five children, Nancy, Sally, Riley, Wilson and William.

He married (2) 15 August 1839, Sally Clark. They had children. Sally Clark was born August 1818 in Sussex County, Virginia. She was the daughter of Littleberry Clark and Sally Lashley. She also had two children by Axiom Green Wallace, son of Etheldred Wallace and Amy Taylor before she married Evans Wallace. (Evans was very jealous about this fact.) “Sally had very long dark hair which she could sit on, and she was dark-complexioned. She was very petite and pretty. In fact she was a flirt”, according to Edgar Wallace. Sally suffered from a stroke and was an invalid for about ten years before she died on 30 October 1900, at Stewart County, Tennessee. She had eight children with Evans Wallace: Allen, Emaline, James Edgar, Delilah (“Lila”), Sarah F. (“Ninnie”), Parazade, Johnson and Pinkey (“Pink”).

POTNECK

An early community in Stewart County, there are several tales as to how it received its name. One version states that there was a crook in the river resembling the neck of a tea pot. Another, more colorful story tells that early in the 1800's a south side man and a north side man had an argument following a few hours of drinking at a pictnic. The southside man walloped the northside one with a skillet, whereupon the northside man smacked the southside one with a pot that then broke to its neck. Following this incident, the south side was known as Lick Skillet, and the north side as Potneck. Early settlers included: Cherrys, Lewis', Williams, Pages, Jacksons, Wallaces, Newberrys. POTNECK is located on the north side of Cumberland River about 6 miles north of Dover off highway 79, going toward Clarksville turn left on POTNECK Road. Stewart List subscriber, Chuck Allen writes, "Pot Neck is the area just across the river from Dover, actually behind the Headquarters toward Bumpus Mills, but there are people on and around Bagsby Hill that claim that area as Potneck too. I always considered the whole area as Potneck myself."

The Potneck community was home for the Wallace family, for over one hundred consecutive years, beginning in the early 1800's. Evans Wallace, born in 1807 raised his many sons in Potneck. Evans was shot and killed by Colonel Brandon, a confederate officer, in December 1864, while at the Pugh Grocery Store. Sally Clark Wallace, Evans' wife, continued to live in Potneck after the death of her husband. Pinkney Wallace was the youngest son of Evans, born in 1846. He was eighteen years old when his father was killed. Pinkney inherited land in Potneck, and upon marrying Elizabeth, also raised his many sons and daughters in Potneck. Sanford Madison (Jim) Wallace was the youngest son of Pinkney, born in 1896 in the Potneck community. Jim Wallace lived in Potneck, along with his wife Pearl and their children, until the death of Pinkney in 1929. Jim later moved into the nearby community of Big Rock. Jim Wallace had four sons and three daughters.
(source: http://potneck.com/2008/06/03/the-loving-light.aspx
history of Stewart County, TN)