Hi Howard, This is your 2 e-mails in one!! First, do you have an abstract (typed in computer)of the will that you could send to me, please?? Second-I checked the marriage index for Mobile County and I see a Simeon Wheeler married a Rebecca Maples on July 16, 1850 (Book 11;Page 74). The following was gleaned from newspaper articles in the Mobile Register (circa 1890-1905), and other documents/sources. Wheelerville, Alabama Simian (Simeon) Wheeler established the legal precinct of Wheelerville in 1828. Wheelerville ran west on Old Shell Road/Tanner-Williams Road from what is now the University of South Alabama to the vicinity of Big Creek Lake reservoir. It soon gained the the reputation of "the murder capital of Alabama." In the late 1830s, a teen-age outlaw, James Copeland, born near Pascagoula, Mississippi in 1823, joined the wages Clan, dominated by Gale Wages and Charles McGrath. The clan used Wheelerville as one of its staging areas, and from there "spread terror through a wide area of the middle Gulf Coast in general and Mobile in particular." In 1839, Copeland and his associates, with key members employed as Mobile city guards, started a fire in the Mobile shopping district, looted most of the stores and burned down the entire downtown business area. Copeland went on to form his own gang and engaged in the robbery of slaves, livestock and even flatboats, accompanied by numerous shootings and murders until his arrest in the vicinity of Mobile in 1849. After four years in the Alabama Penitentiary, he was released, only to be arrested by Mississippi authorities. He was tired and convicted of murder. On October 30, 1857, the 34-year-old outlaw was hanged in Augusta, Mississippi. His body was not claimed, so he was buried in a pauper's grave in Perry county, Miss. Three days later his body was secretly dug up and disappeared. A story (undocumented oral tradition) has persisted for more than 140 years in the Wheelerville community that Copeland's remains were brought back and buried in the old Wheelerville cemetery (now New Hope Gardens) in the heart of the area that was the rendezvous and hideout for his clan. The woods near the New Hope gardens cemetery were the headquarters of the Copeland gang. A list of the Copeland and Wages clan was given in 1857 by Copeland to Mississippi sheriff J.R.S. Pitts, who recorded it in his 1858 book, The Life and Confession of the Noted Outlaw James Copeland. On January 7, 1875, Thomas Fincher, a deputy sheriff who had a warrant for his arrest on a charge of forgery, shot John E. Allen. A posse was collected and at Fincher's home when Allen walked into the room with a musket on his shoulder, and defied them to arrest him. Fincher closed with him and took the gun away. Allen seized another gun and turned to fire. Fincher fired at Allen hitting him in the left side, killing him. The body was brought in and placed in the jail by Fincher, who gave himself up to wait the result of the inquest. In 1868, Tom Fincher assassinated Simon Wheeler. This started the beginning of the feud and "general acceptance of the doctrine of vengeance by the old families of Wheelerville." Wheelerville, according to a 1905 Mobile Register article, is famed as the only feud center in Alabama. Fincher was convicted, but after a series of appeals and reversals, the case was dropped by the State. Fincher, supposedly, went on to murder again, but was later shot from ambush and the killer was never discovered. Both Wheeler and Fincher are buried in the Wheelerville cemetery, which, before 1828, was known as Mount Mariah. "Jabe, Thanks. This is some kind of proof for me. Now, how about Elizabeth's parents? Was she related to Simeon Wheeler, the purported founder of Wheelerville? Howard" -----Original Message----- From: HBusby@aol.com [mailto:HBusby@aol.com] Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2000 12:17 PM To: BUSBY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: surnames I'm searching In a message dated 1/29/00 4:58:42 PM Eastern Standard Time, jabef@netpathway.com writes: << George, Micajah, Nathaniel, Benjamin, Jr.(b. 1730), Thomas, Henry, John, another Benjamin (born 1738), Needham, Jeremiah, and Zachariah. Does any of this match your records? I also have a >> Jabe, I have come across most of those names in various postings from the list, plus other records in print form, but I never was able to associate them as siblings. One puzzle here: why are not Miles and Reese( also known as William Reese) listed here as Benjamin's sons? The will indubitably states they were sons, along with Benjamin (possibly the second one). Another perplexity: why are there no females in this family? Were they left out of the records or was it simply that none were born? I would appreciate having the information on marriage records in Mobile County AL, especially as regards the Wheelers. My great great grandmother , Elizabeth arista Wheeler married Richard Tillman, b. 1822, d. 1869 Mobile Co., AL. Is their marriage listed in your records? I am also looking for Elizabeth's parents. Thanks and best regards, Howard ==== BUSBY Mailing List ==== RootsWeb Resource Cluster http://resources.rootsweb.com/~clusters/surnames Listowner: Barbara Peddicord mailto:nashoba@cdsnet.net