John Allen Wagley

     John Allen Wagley was born on 20 February 1798 at Morgantown, Burke County, North Carolina. He married, at age 52, Louisa Ann VanBebber, age 29, daughter of Isaac VanBebber and Mary Martin, on Thursday, 22 August 1850 at Claiborne County, Tennessee. John Allen Wagley died on 22 April 1868 at age 70 years, 2 months and 2 days.
     From Gary R. Hawpe, ed. and comp., 'Wagley Family,' Van Bibber Pioneers E-Newsletter, Vol. 5 No. 5 (March 2002), pp. 3 - 5.

WAGLEY FAMILY

John Wagley was born in Morgantown, Burke County, North Carolina in 1798. In 1850 he and another man started from North Carolina on horse back to hunt a new location. As they were riding through Georgia* they came to a farm with a well near the road where there was a young woman drawing water to carry to the house. They asked her if they could water their horses and get a drink and rest for a little while. She stayed and talked with them. This girl was Louisa Vanbebber, a thirty year old school teacher. Sometime before she had been at the well and came to the house and told the family that she had looked into the well and had seen the face of the man she was going to marry. The family treated the story lightly, thinking Louisa had a wonderful imagination. She talked a lot about this as the days went by. When she came to the house after the two men had gone on their way she told the family that one of the men was the man whose reflection she had seen in the well. Again the family paid little attention accusing her of being romantic. After a day or two John said to his companion, 'I'm going back,' of course the other man asked, 'Where and why?' and John told him he was going back to see the girl they saw at the well; said he had fallen in love with her. When he arrived at the Vanbebber farm Louisa was delighted, but he received a cold reception from her parents. When he told them he wanted to marry Louisa they were distressed but Louisa accepted at once. He stayed a few days, in spite of not being welcome, finally Louisa's parents told them that they could not marry. She didn't know him and he was twenty years older. But when Louisa told them she was going to marry him in spite of the objections they relented and helped them get a wagon and team, a little furniture and a few house keeping things. So John and Louisa were married August 22, 1850 and started out for Arkansas.

Louisa had been educated at a girls college some where in the south and had never done anything but teach school. Her family had slaves so she had not learned to work. But in spite of this she made a good pioneer and faced many hardships. They came to Stiffler Springs (now Harrison) and homesteaded a few miles up Crooked Creek.

After coming to Arkansas, Louisa never saw any of her family again with the exception of her brother Clayborne who came and stayed several months with them when he was a young man.

They either brought negroes with them or bought them later for there were several negroes on the farm place.

They were truly pioneers living off the land. They raised hogs and cattle for their own meat, had a large garden and canned and dried what they grew to put them through the winter. They sheared the sheep, carded the wool, spun the thread and wove the cloth for everything needed around the farm, clothes, rugs, ticking that covered the mattresses that they filled at the hay stack. The beds had rope springs. They used polk berry juice and other wild growing things for dye for the thread that was used in making the items needed. They shod their own horses, sharpened their own tools, even made part of them, did their own carpenter work, half soled the family shoes, cut the men and boys hair and did anything else that needed to be done around the farm.

They faced many hardships over the years, certainly during the reconstruction days when Carpetbaggers went through the country calling men to the door and shooting them. They lost many friends during this time.

John had selected good land to homestead and he was a successful farmer and stockman. At his death in 1868 he left Louisa with eight children, the youngest five. John is buried in a family cemetery on the farm.

With the help of a Negro mammy and the other Negroes on the place Louisa raised her family. Their children were: Tennessee V. married Ike Carson, James C. married Laura Spurlock, Joseph Franklin married Frances Elizabeth Holt, Frances never married, Augusta married Nicodemus Tippet, Labon S. never married, Isaac married Hulda Atchley, Ollie married Bill Edens.

After the children were married Louisa decided to divide the farm and give each child some acreage. She selected Joe to do it, he let all the children take their choice and he took what was left which was the home place and with it came Louisa, who lived with them until her death in 1892. She is buried beside John in the family cemetery.

Joe and Fannie (Frances) had six children and Louisa played a big part in their bringing up, they loved her dearly. These children were: Lawrence married Effie Jenkins, Louisa married Clarke Long, William never married, Marvin married Routh Lewis, Bertha never married, Lemmer married William Wilson.

In November of 1892 a cyclone struck that part of the country and it destroyed everything on the old part of the farm; house, barn, stock and all fences; it even blew rails through big walnut trees. Joe was blown out of the house and killed. Two Eden children (Ollie and Bill s) on an adjoining farm were killed.

Fannie went to her fathers for a few days and her brothers and neighbors came and built her a log house where they lived for many years. In about 1910 they built a two story frame house, a typical farm house, where the old house had stood above the beautiful spring surrounded by walnut trees. This spring had never been known to be dry, the branch through the pasture had supplied water year round for two of the farms. Ike and his family lived very near and were a big help to Fannie in her struggle to stage a comeback.

Fannie and William moved to Harrison in the early 1920s where Bertha and Marvin both lived. Bertha had attended a business college and was a business woman. She worked with Marvin in the Peoples Bank and later with him in the Security Bank. Later she worked until her retirement, at the State Highway Department Offices. Fannie died in 1944 and is buried in Maplewood Cemetery beside Joe, who was moved from the family cemetery.

Ike and Hulda, after their children were married moved to Harrison but later went back to the farm where he died in 1943. Hulda lived three years and died in Harrison. They are buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Harrison.

Ike and Hulda s children are scattered, Vern was a doctor in Michigan, Van was in the Harrison Post Office for many years, Myrtle, Gertrude and Delta lived in and near Harrison, Winnie moved to Camden, Arkansas, Joe lived in Michigan.

Tennessee and Laura lived in New Mexico. They had two daughters, Maude and Velma.

Augusta and Nicodemus Tippet had three children, Donna, Cliffie and Ralph. They lived in the Boone County area.

Ollie and Bill Edens lived in Boone County and later Oklahoma. Their children were Willie, Bland and Lee.

The Wagley family has always been a respected family in Boone County. Members still living here are Marvin Wagley, Carolyn Routh Wagley Raney, Velma Wagley Wagner, Jo Frances Wagner Smith, Willard Wilson, Helen Wilson Fox, Jean Wilson Hamilton, Jack Wilson, Jay Wilson, Dan Wilson, Shirley Ann Wagley Morton, Perry Trotter, Dorothy Trotter Murray, Dennis Trotter and Hodgen Jenkins.

These Wagleys that are left revere the memory and appreciate thoroughly the struggle of John and Louisa in their pioneering of Boone County.

Pioneer Life and Pioneer Families of the Ozarks, by Earl Berry -- Pages # 327 x 330.

*Where it states John and his friend was riding through Georgia, and met Louisa, this is incorrect. Louisa was living with her parents in Claiborne County, Tennessee. John and Louisa applied for a marriage license in Claiborne County and were married there in 1850.