As noted here, at least 3 of the children of William and Winifred Clements wound up in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana: James Monroe, Nancy and Dicey.
- James Monroe Clements arrived in Louisiana sometime between the 1850 and 1860 censuses. He is still in Randolph County Alabama on the 1850 census living near his brother younger brother Jesse. By the time the 1860 census was taken, he was in Lisbon, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. The adjacent listing in this census is the Methodist Minister John L. Williams. Both men appear to be fairly well off financially with real and personal estates of over $20,000 (over $600K today). James was one of the founding trustees of the Lisbon Methodist Church in 1871. James and his wife Mary Clements are buried in the Lisbon Church cemetery.
James M. Clements, Trustee, Lisbon ME Church
(Claiborne Parish Historical Association, 1962) - Nancy Clements and her husband Thomas B. Wafer can also be found in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. Thomas B. Wafer was the son of the Methodist Minister James T. Wafer. The present day Lisbon United Methodist Church had its beginning (in 1849) in the home of Thomas and Nancy Clements Wafer. Note that James Wafer's 2nd wife was Asenath/Senah Boring, the daughter of the Revolutionary War soldier Isaac Boring. Isaac Boring was from Orange County, NC and he is buried in Jackson County, Georgia. The Methodist Minister Jesse Boring is probably the grandson of Isaac and therefore the nephew of Asenath/Senah Boring Wafer. Rev. Jesse Boring is buried on the grounds of the present day Methodist Children's Home in Decatur, Georgia (The children's home is less than 1 mile from the street where I grew up). Isaac Boring, Jr. married the daughter of Lemuel Winn. Lemuel Winn was the brother of Elisha Winn. Another daughter of Lemuel Winn married John Clower who was the son of Methodist Minister and Revolutionary War soldier Daniel Clower of Orange County, NC.
The Orange County, NC and Methodist Church connections are quite interesting especially when one considers two other Orange County families that settled in Jackson County Georgia: Horton and Ledbetter. (The Horton family is my paternal ancestry and the Ledbetter family is my maternal ancestry.)
Dr. Jesse Boring's grave in Decatur, Georgia, Decatur Methodist Children's Home(Author photo)
Ephraim Carpenter and Dicey Clements are on the same 1850 census page as James Clements and Thomas Wafer. Ephraim and Dicey then moved to Grayson County, Texas where they later died (1884 & 1898).
Winifred Horton Clements, the widow of William and the mother of James Monroe, Nancy and Dicey, was living with James Monroe on the 1860 census (Claiborne Parish). Her age is given as 74 which makes her birth year 1786. She is not listed on the 1870 census so she likely died in Louisiana (possibly buried in the Lisbon UMC cemetery).
Also on the 1860 census for James' household, there is also a Martha Allen, age 69 living with him. Presumably she is his mother-in-law but we know from his marriage certificate that his wife was a Peters so his wife may have been married once before and her true maiden name may have been Allen.
Lisbon, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana(Bing Maps; Annotation by author)
Of interest to me and others researching our Hollis ancestry, one may notice the nearby towns of Spearsville, Farmerville and Marion in Union Parish, Louisiana. These towns are where numerous Hollis settlers arrived from SC in the early 1840s. One of these men was Rufus Hollis who is probably my 2nd great grandfather. Rufus' son, likely my great grandfather (John William), arrived in Douglas County, Georgia from Louisiana in the 1870s. The Methodist Church, the Clements family and the Dorris family may have all played a role in the pairing of my Hollis great grandfather with my Davis great grandmother (daughter of Milton Davis and Elizabeth Dorris). As a researcher, the Campbell County, Georgia connections, the Louisiana connections and the Methodist Church connections are hard to ignore as ancestral overlaps. More on this as I have time to input my Hollis research into this blog.
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(This page was updated on 2/7/2021)