Biography: WILLIAM and CATHARINE ELIZABETH GIDEON WISE of Itawamba & Monroe Counties, Mississippi Compiled for USGenweb Project by Marie Evans Davis Note: This e-mail address was not working in August 2002. ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ************************************************************************ William Wise was born about 1776 in South Carolina and was in Laurens District, South Carolina for several years. He married Catharine Elizabeth Gideon, daughter of Richard Gideon. She was born about 1775 in Laurens District, South Carolina. The Wise and Gideon families were pioneer settlers in Bedford County, Tennessee. William Wise and his brother, Henry Wise, migrated to the area of Monroe County, Mississippi before 1818. With them was Elizabeth Gideon Wise and her brothers, John Gideon and Abraham Gideon. They came in a wagon train led by Rev. Frederick Weaver. The expedition came from Russell Valley (Russellville) down Gaines Trace. They settled at the ferry. Weaver took up land a mile or more southeast of Cotton Gin settlement on a creek which still bears his name. When these settlers first entered what is today Monroe County area, Mississippi was not yet a state and was still a territory. Mississippi became a state in 1817, but the Monroe County area settlers were thought to be in Alabama. It was not until the survey of the boundary between Mississippi and Alabama in 1820, that the status of the settlers was determined. William Wise had wanted to settle north of Gaines Trace and had cut the logs for his house when Levi Colbert told him he was on Indian property and advised him to go several miles east, which he did and settled in what would become the Quincy-Wises Gap area and near the break in the ridge of hills. At the time they reached Cotton Gin, the only family living there was that of a Creek Indian named Billy who ran the ferry. This group of Cotton Gin settlers made the first crop ever made by whites in the county. Later, Eli Thames and Robert Coil and their families came in and William Wise went back to Russellville and brought back with him several Wise families and old father Gideon, a veteran of the Revolution. When these families came to the area, the location was so covered with dense forests that there was very little fit for cultivation. By the end of the first year, the provisions became so scarce that William Wise was compelled to make the trip back after corn and other necessities. Before he completed the trip, he was robbed and killed, it was thought by Indians. After his death, title to his property was given to his widow, Catharine Elizabeth Gideon Wise. The burden of the support of the family fell upon Catharine and the children. In the Itawamba Census of 1860, Catharine Elizabeth Wise was living with her daughter, Catharine, and her husband, Thomas S. Booker. The Booker family were in Monroe County before 1820 and moved to Itawamba County after 1835. Thomas Booker was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina November 25, 1803. His parents were Shields and Ann Pride Booker. Catharine was thought to be of Swedish or German descent. The Booker Bible has the name shown as "Catharine" and there is a note in the Bible advising that she had bright yellow hair. Catharine Wise Booker was born June 7, 1810 in Bedford County, Tennessee and died November 28, 1887 in New Salem community of Itawamba County, Mississippi. Thomas Booker died February 10, 1883 in Itawamba County, New Salem Community. Both are buried New Salem Methodist Church Cemetery. Sources: Joe D. Stuart, Austin, Texas Monroe County History There's No Wonder We Act The Way We Do - Marie Evans Davis - This info furnished by Dr. David Conwill Booker Bible New Salem Methodist Church Cemetery Marker John Wise Riley Good Speed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi Monroe County Book Committee