Pullams

Branum Cemetery, Cotton Plant, MO

I don't know very much about Mary Ann Pullam (my g-g grandmother via Macy Williams, James Wesley Wicker, Louise Wicker Long, Me), but I know she had to have had a hard life.  Recently, I made a connection (through DNA test) with a descendant of her sister Abby (Absela) Pullam.  Here is what Teri had to say about her ancestor:

The story I got goes that Abby Pullum (daughter of a Pullum and Vaughn mother) and John Freels were married in Kentucky, moved to Texas. Abby brought 5 daughters back in a covered wagon to Missouri, bootheel area. Leaving her husband or he left her while in Texas. He showed up later, but, she was not receptive since she had to get herself moved. It would be interesting to find what you have on any of these family tales.

Mary A. wife of J.B. Williams
Branum Cemetery

That is a very similar story to Mary Ann---she married James B. Williams in 1865 while living in Webster, Kentucky (she was 14).  She had 5 children (Willie Ellen, Sam Patrick, Mahaly J, Oscar and Macy Alice) before moving to Missouri sometime between 1882-1884.  Someone once told me one of the older children remembered crossing the Missouri River in a boat with Macy (my great-grandmother) running around so much that she almost fell over-board.

Mary Ann and James B. Williams had 5 more children in Missouri (Lillie Belle, Joseph Daniel, Martin Luther, Fannie E., Mary A.) between 1884 and 1891 which is when Mary Ann Pullam Williams died (from childbirth?)

According to one of their grandchildren, Sammy Williams, "there was never anyone that talked well of the Williams that came from Kentucky."  After the death of Mary Ann (maybe even before), James B. Williams left town for Howell Co. Mo (later Oklahoma Territory), had another family leaving the children to be raised by his son Sam Patrick and his wife.

The children of Mary Ann Pullam and James B. Williams were a mixed bag of religious, upright citizens and those who bordered on or participated in criminal activity.  James B. was reportedly a horse thief, deserted his children (possibly had another family at the same time) and may have been in prison.  This leads me to think that Mary Ann was the religious, upright woman who had at least three preachers as grandchildren (one of her children was named "Martin Luther Williams") and two children who started a Methodist Church in Hornersville, Mo.  There were rumors that she had been Roman Catholic, but I can't imagine a Catholic naming a child "Martin Luther", although I think we can safely say she was religious.

Thanks to cousin Tom who provided the photographs.