DETAILED BIOGRAPHY OF ELIJAH MICHAEL AULD & MARGARET JANE WARD submitted by: T. D. Hudson ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ DETAILED BIOGRAPHY OF ELIJAH MICHAEL AULD & MARGARET JANE WARD Margaret Jane Ward’s birth occurred in about 1812, the daughter of Elisha Ward, Sr. (1773 - 1838) and Jane Washington Neeland (1784 - after 1850). She was presumably born on her parents’ 202½-acre farm in Twiggs County Georgia. When she was about six years old, her father Elisha Ward moved his family into Alabama Territory, settling a short distance northwest of present-day Greenville, Alabama, in Butler County. Margaret’s family remained there until the latter 1820s, when the Wards followed yet another land rush and moved north into what soon became southern Lowndes County Alabama. Sometime either before they left the Greenville area or shortly afterwards, the Wards met John Fields Auld, a relatively wealthy planter from Anson County North Carolina. He had made preparations for a trip west in December 1824, and so if he visited Butler County in 1825, Auld may have become acquainted with the Wards then. However, we have no actual evidence that Auld came to Alabama that early, and so the two families may have only met in the latter 1820s when the Aulds settled near them in Lowndes County Alabama. Although all evidence indicates that Elisha Ward had never met John Fields Auld until the latter 1820s, their ancestors had known one another back in the latter 1760s. Auld’s grandfather James Auld moved from Maryland to Halifax County North Carolina about 1765 and settled near Ward’s grandfather or great-grandfather David Ward, Sr. Records there suggest they were at least casually acquainted, but the Aulds soon left Halifax in eastern North Carolina and moved west to Anson County. Already a family of considerable financial means for their era, the Auld family continued to prosper in western North Carolina. James’ son Michael Piper Auld served in the military on the side of the patriots during the Revolution, and afterwards, he served as Anson’s county clerk. A rather sickly man his entire life, Michael Auld died of a sudden and “violent” illness in 1789, leaving only one infant son, JohnFields Auld. Michael bequeathed his son a total of 860 acres and three slaves, together with another 500 acres to his widow. Thus, John Fields Auld certainly grew up enjoying many comforts not available to most of his less-wealthy contemporaries. John F. Auld married Mary Jackson about 1806, and they settled on the plantation given to John by his father. Their eldest son who survived to adulthood was Elijah Michael Auld, born about 1811, followed next by James Alexander Auld in about 1813. By about 1826, when John and Mary had a house full of children, the Aulds decided to leave North Carolina and move further westward. They departed Anson between 1826 and 1829 and apparently settled in Montgomery County Alabama. The Alabama Legislature placed the southwestern portion of the county into Lowndes County on 20 January 1830, and John Fields Auld purchased 160 acres of government land in southern Lowndes County (just north of the Butler County line) in 1831. Judging by the incredible profit he made on this place when he sold it in 1834, by all accounts Auld quickly established a profitable plantation. John Fields Auld’s son Elijah Michael married Elisha Ward’s daughter Margaret Jane on 7 April 1830, just over two months after the creation of Lowndes County. The Methodist Episcopal minister who married them filed their marriage with the Montgomery County Alabama clerk, probably because Lowndes did not yet have county offices set up for operation. Additionally, Methodist circuit preachers during this early statehood period were notorious for performing marriages and filing them with a county clerk in a nearby county rather than the county in which the minister actually performed the marriage. So given that their fathers both apparently resided in Lowndes County in 1830, it does appear that Elijah and Margaret’s marriage occurred in Lowndes. For several years after their marriage, Elijah and Margaret lived in Lowndes near their parents. Their two eldest sons stated in 1862 that their births had occurred in Lowndes County in October 1831 and February 1833. On September 1831, John F. Auld gave a nineteen-year old male slave named Albert to Elijah in consideration for John’s “Natural love and affection” for Elijah, plus the sum of $1.00. As Elijah owned no land during this period, he undoubtedly helped his father on John’s plantation. The United States land officers remained quite busy in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas during the 1820s and 1830s trying to fulfill their massive task of having the entire region surveyed and platted so the government could sell the land to settlers. Although some white herders and trappers roamed those regions quite early, most farming families hesitated to migrate into those regions until they could obtain a clear title to the land. As the government began to offer these regions for sale the public in the mid-1830s, many Alabama settlers sold out and moved west in search of fresh land. John Fields Auld sold his 160-acre Lowndes County plantation on 15 November 1834 to a South Carolina resident for $1000, a considerable profit on his original $200 investment only a few years earlier. We have no clear indication where John Fields Auld spent the 1835 growing season; he could possibly have remained in Lowndes County, but I believe he probably moved west and planted his 1835 crops in either Sumter County Alabama or across the state line in Kemper County Mississippi. By 26 November 1835, Auld had already become a resident of Kemper, and as such he purchased a 240-acre farm there for a total of $506.61. Auld’s second son James Alexander Auld, who had married in 1833 back in Lowndes County, accompanied his father to the government land office in Columbus, Mississippi on that same day, where he purchased his own 160-acre farm for $201.48. Some six weeks after the Aulds purchased their farms in Mississippi, Margaret’s father Elisha Ward joined them in Kemper County and purchased 40 acres of government land. We have no clear idea where Elijah Michael and Margaret resided during the year 1835. Elijah did not purchase Mississippi property with his father and brother in November 1835, nor with Margaret’s father in January 1836. Margaret’s condition may have caused him to remain with her during this period; she was in about her ninth month of pregnancy in December 1835, and on Christmas Day 1835, Margaret gave birth to her only daughter, Harriett Ann E. Auld. The records give conflicting reports as to whether Harty’s birth occurred in Alabama or Mississippi, so we have no clear idea if Elijah and Margaret planted their 1835 crops in Lowndes County Alabama and remained there until after the birth, or if they arrived in Mississippi for the 1835 planting season. In any event, on 8 March 1836 Elijah Michael Auld and his brother-in-law David Ward went together to the government land office at Columbus, Mississippi and purchased land; Ward’s new farm adjoined his father’s, whereas Elijah purchased 80 acres located between the farms of John F. Auld and Elisha Ward. David Ward reported to the land officer in Mississippi that he still resided in Lowndes County Alabama, which suggests that he raised his 1835 crops in Alabama rather than Mississippi. In fact, we have no evidence that David Ward ever resided upon the Mississippi propertyhe bought in March 1836. Ward apparently went back to Alabama for the year 1836, and then in early 1837, he joined a large group of Lowndes County families who migrated to north Louisiana. Whereas David Ward likely returned to Alabama for the 1836 growing season, the slim available evidence points towards Elijah and Margaret remaining with their parents in Kemper County Mississippi for the 1836 and 1837 seasons. The records do indicate, however, that while in 1836 John F. Auld had 90 acres in cultivation that produced 18 bales of cotton and his son James A. Auld had 19 acres in cultivation, neither Elijah Michael Auld nor Elisha Ward had any of their own acres in cultivation. This makes it difficult to determine whether they assisted John F. Auld in cultivating his property in 1836 or if Elijah and his father-in-law returned to Alabama for the year 1836 with David Ward. What we do know is that Margaret and Elijah, their parents, and his brother James A. Auld all resided in Kemper County Mississippi for the year 1837. After the harvest of the 1837 crops, this family group broke up and went in various directions. John Fields Auld remained on his farm in Kemper for several more years – at least through 1840. James Alexander Auld went back eastward, across the state line into Sumter County Alabama with Margaret’s sister Mary Caroline Ward and her new husband, Richard H. Gee. Margaret and Elijah, along with her parents Elisha and Jane, went westward towards north Louisiana to where Margaret’s brother David had migrated with the large group of Lowndes County Alabama in February 1837. David Ward and the others had settled in what was then northern Ouachita Parish Louisiana. Once again, the scarcity of records from this early period prevents us from knowing precisely when Margaret and Elijah arrived in the piney hills of north Louisiana. While we cannot say for certain they reunited with David Ward during the winter of 1837 – 1838 and planted their 1838 crops between Bayous D’Arbonne and D’Loutre in what would soon become eastern Union Parish Louisiana, the only available evidence points toward this being the case. What we do know is that Elisha Ward, Sr. died on 5 August 1838, and ten days later, on August 15th, Elijah Michael Auld appeared in person at the government land office in Monroe, Louisiana and purchased 80 acres of land a few miles south of David Ward’s plantation. As mentioned above, Elijah’s new farm lay midway between Bayous D’Arbonne and D’Loutre, then located in northern Ouachita Parish. However, the next spring on 13 March 1839, the Louisiana Legislature approved the creation of a new parish called “Union” from northwestern Ouachita. Now the Auld and Ward farms lay in eastern Union Parish Louisiana. Margaret and Elijah resided upon their 80 acre farm throughout the 1840s. By 1850, Elijah had cleared and improved 60 acres of his 80-acre farm, making it worth about $700. In 1849 he harvested 500 bushels of corn, 13 bales of cotton, and 100 bushels of sweet potatoes. Many of their relatives joined them in north Louisiana during this decade. Margaret’s sister Mary Caroline Ward and her husband Richard H. Gee arrived in eastern Union Parish in 1841 or 1842. When Gee died prematurely in 1843, Elijah and David Ward assisted Mary in managing her husband’s estate. Elijah’s father John Fields Auld also moved to north Louisiana in the early-1840s, initially settling in neighboring Claiborne Parish. Finally, Elijah’s brother James Alexander Auld, who had moved back to Sumter County Alabama in 1838 when Elijah left Mississippi for Louisiana, joined Elijah and Margaret in about 1846 and purchased a farm that adjoined his brother. In the early 1850s, John Fields Auld sold his farm in Claiborne and retired to Union Parish, apparently settling near his sons Elijah and James. Several years later, on 29 August 1859, both John and his wife Mary Jackson Auld died on the same day of unknown causes. On 2 May 1851, Elijah went to the land office in Monroe and purchased 120 acres of government land that adjoined his existing farm for $104.55. This land acquisition caused Elijah M. Auld problems with his nearby neighbor, Drury H. Mason. In 1850 Mason lived on the farm adjoining Margaret and Elijah, and apparently he occupied or placed in cultivation portions of this 80-acre tract of land Auld purchased from the government. Federal land laws protected settlers who rightfully established residence on land before they purchased it; had Mason built a cabin or placed some portion of that tract in cultivation, he would have had the right of “preemption” over anyone else wishing to purchase it. Since he did not claim this right, he either could not afford or chose not to purchase the property from the government. In any case, Drury H. Mason refused to vacate the property, so on 10 March 1852, Elijah M. Auld’s attorney Henry B. Essick filed Auld’s suit against Mason in the Union Parish court. Auld claimed that Mason "...is in possession & now occupies… the property of your petitioner...that [this] tract of land and improvements thereon is his just and lawful property, that he entered and paid for said land at the town of Monroe, in the State of Louisiana, as will appear by the receipt of the receiver at Monroe...Auld further claimed that Mason...has been duly notified to deliver said property to your petitioner, and that he refuses to do so..." Thus, Auld requested that "...the said Drury H. Mason may be duly cited to answer hereto, and that upon a final hearing of the Case, that he have judgment against the said Mason, for the above described tract of land & improvements thereon, and that it be declared to be the property of your petitioner. He prays for judgment also for fifty dollars, damages for the detention & injury of the property which defendant has caused and for all such other orders and decrees as the nature of the case requires and for general relief & for costs of suit..." In response to Auld’s suit, on that same day the court issued a summons to Mason, ordering him to file his answer to Auld’s suit with the court. Union Parish Deputy Sheriff John Norsworthy served the summons on Mason by giving it to his wife at Mason’s house about ten miles from Farmerville. Mason’s answer does not survive, but the next week the court subpoenaed James M. Turner and Samuel Kirkpatrick to testify on Auld’s behalf before the court. Deputy Norsworthy served both subpoenas within the next several weeks, delivering them to Turner at his house located about thirteen miles from Farmerville and also to Kirkpatrick’s wife at his house about eight miles from Farmerville. Union Parish Judge R. W. Richardson did not issue his ruling in the case until late that fall. On November 11th, Richardson ordered that Elijah M. Auld be placed in possession of the disputed eighty acres of land, that Auld should be “quieted in his possession”, and that Mason should pay the costs of the suit. However, Richardson’s judgment did not address Auld’s claim for $50 in damages. Despite the court’s ruling, apparently Mason still refused to vacate Auld’s property, and so on November 25th, Auld again filed a protest before the court. In response, the court issued this order to the Union Parish sheriff: "...We command you… in the name of the State of Louisiana, that you command the said Mason to leave & depart from the said land within three days from notice & that you serve upon Drury H. Mason a copy of this writ, and that if he then refuse to obey the order and go off the said land & premises, within three days from the service of said copy of this writ, that you then proceed to put in full possession of said estate or land, the said Elijah M. Auld and that you force & compel the said Drury H. Mason to leave & depart from the said land, & that you use all legal means to effect said object or purpose – also that of the money or movable effects of the said Mason, situated in said Parish, at the value thereof you cause to be levied paid & satisfied unto the said Auld the aforesaid sum of Costs & also the costs of executing this writ." "Hereof fail not, & make return of this writ, with your doings thereof unto the said court, within the seventy days next coming..." Union Parish Sheriff David B. Trousdale did not serve the above writ on Mason until 10 January 1853. On that day Sheriff Trousdale, accompanied by Elijah M. Auld, went to Mason’s residence "...for the purpose of dispossessing the said Drury H. Mason and giving possession to Elijah M. Auld…Trousdale reported to the court that upon...the parties being brought together they amicably agreed upon a compromise which being affected I return this writ..." Sheriff Trousdale charged Mason $5.00 for serving the above writ, together with the court costs of $7.10. Elijah and Margaret continued to live on their plantation in eastern Union Parish during the 1860s and 1870s. Although all of their sons except the youngest one served in the Confederate army, all managed to survive the war apparently unscathed. However, two of Elijah Michael Auld’s nephews, sons of his brother James Alexander Auld, died of wounds received on battlefields in Mississippi and Georgia. Following the war, Elijah farmed each year into the mid-1870s, and apparently he assisted Margaret’s brother David Ward to some extent in Ward’s cotton ginning enterprise. Most of his children purchased their own farms in the neighborhood, although two sons moved to Texas in the latter 1860s. By 1876, Elijah Michael Auld apparently suffered from some type of physical disability and could not travel to Farmerville. In that year he placed much of his plantation in his children’s names, with a transaction on January 5th signed at his eldest son John Jordan Auld’s home, and another on January 26th at his nephew Elijah H. Ward’s residence (Ward’s farm adjoined Auld’s). The fact that both land transfers occurred at neighboring homes indicates Auld’s physical condition prevented his traveling to Farmerville. The next year on 15 February 1877, Elijah’s son Asbury C. Auld sold to his brother James W. Auld land he described as “adjoining the lands of E. M. Auld”, which implies that Elijah was still alive. However, by June 1880 Elijah had died and Margaret lived with her son Elijah Fields Auld. Also living with Margaret and her son were her brother John J. Ward and his wife Mary. The records give no clear indication as to when Margaret died. All we know is that she had died by 16 January 1893, when her heirs sold the remaining portion of her and Elijah’s farm to their brother Elijah F. Auld. ############################################################################################### SOURCES: I wrote the above biography based upon my own personal research into the Ward and Auld family plus information shared with me by Mark Ward. Col. V. L. Auld of Lafayette, Louisiana has done extensive work into the origins of the Auld family, and the early history of this family is due to his work and publications. Sources for the period 1811 - 1900 include family Bible records, census data, land records of the United States and various court records from Union Parish Louisiana. # # # T. D.Hudson