Our Family Tree

his son William Wesley's birth certificate obtained in 1945 and dated 29 January 1945 states "Alabama Tuscumbia" under the 'Father' heading [copy in possession of Barbara D. Corner].

“Grandpas [Benjamin Carol Wilks] used to walk to church with the girls in his youth when they lived back in Alabama. He would carry their shoes across his shoulders till they walked to the creek just before they got to the church house, then they would sit down to wash their feet and put their shoes on. Then after church they would walk back to the creek, pull their shoes off, given them to grandpa and walk on home bare fotted. Shoes were hard to get then and besides they all went barefooted at home. They were glad to get their shoes off. They were uncomfortable. He would climb the tall walnut trees to gather walnuts for the girls to use for marbles."
"He was a handsome man with coal black hair and dark hazel eyes, a typical Englishman. He was five feet eleven inches tall, slender and straight as an Indian. Our name was spelled Wilkes but some where down the line some man decided the “e” wasn’t needed, so he dropped it out. Now all of our family spell it Wilks. It has been several generations back since they dropped the “e”.”, Erie Catharine Wilks.

2 males under 5 [John Washington & Benjamin Carroll] , 1 male 20-30 [Philip]; 2 females under 5 [Minerva & Nancy L.], 1 female 20-30 [Nancy C.]

with his mother and step-father, James Rhodes

in hh 289 289 as Wilkes, John W., Age: 23, Male, Farmer, $700, AL; Nancy, Age: 18, Female, AL; Benjamin, Age: 22, Male, Farmer, AL.

with his brother John Washington and wife, Nancy.

when Benjamin was 24, from Shannon's Station located in Pontotoc Co., MS (as the 1850 Census seems to suggest) It appears that in 1852 Shannon Station was a stage coach stop. The Shannon Station that Erie Catharine Taylor Wilks mentions in her writings is most likely now Shannon, Lee County, Mississippi. Lee County was made up of Itawamba and Pontotoc Counties in 1866. On a 1850 Mississippi historic map one can see some of the stagecoach – wagon train trails from Alabama and Mississippi going west that appear to cross and meet north/south trails where the present day Shannon is located. I think Erie’s term “Shannon Station” as related to her by Benjamin Carrol Wilks, just meant Shannon stagecoach station. A 1850 map of this area of Mississippi did NOT have a town of Shannon shown on the map. This could be because it was still just a stagecoach station and not a town. Shannon had a population of 465 people in 1895 (45 years later) as shown on an 1895 map of Lee County.

from Shannon Station - today's Shannon, Lee, Mississippi, USA. They worked first in East Texas as overseers, but no record has been found.

”Grandpa [Benjamin Carroll Wilks] came to Texas when he was twenty-four [1851]. There was a colony of people coming from Alabama and Mississippe who asked him to come along. He rode his horse serving as a look-out with a few other young men. They all met at Shannon Station. They were from different parts of both states and they agreed to go there to wait until they all got there so they come all come together. Texas was a wild and wooley place then. There were lots of Indians here then, and wild varmints, mountain lions, panthera, and other vicious animals. It was a great trip. They had lots of fun on the way and some hardships, too. They had to clear a part of the roads to they could get through. The men on horseback had to ride in and test the streams to see if the wagons could cross. They rode on ahead to select camping places and to keep a look out for signs of Indians. It was in 1852 that they came to Texas. They settled in Hill County, near Peoria.
”The first year that grandpa [Benjamin Carroll] was in Texas he served as an overseer on a large cotton plantation in East Texas. I have forgotten just where but it was near the Louisiana line.Then he bought 160 acres of land adjoining his brothers land in Hill county. He built a two room log house on his land. He used to get up early of mornings and go to hunt wild turkeys. He kept the table supplied with turkeys, ducks and venison besides would kill panters and other wild game. He had a fine horse and saddle and a pack of hounds. He did enjoy hunting and of course he had a gun.”

John Washington and Benjamin Carroll bought land together

"He [Benjamin Carroll Wilks] met and married Miss Harriet Young in the year ’56. They were at a camp meeting when they met. When they married she was fourteen and he was twenty-eight. She owned 300 acres of land, had a few horses and a big bunch of cattle. They had thirteen children. He named the first one John for his father John. He died with bold hives when he was eight days old. Then a girl Ellen. She also died of bold hives when she was two weeks old. Then the third child was Samuel Theodore. He had pretty brown hair blue and brown speckled eyes, short and rather potty. The next as Benjiman Franklin. He mad a short stocky man with brown hair and dark blue eyes. Then five was George, who was small with brown hair and hazel eyes. A girl Anne came next. She was medium size with black hair and dark brown eyes. Then (7) Edmon who was medium tall with blue eyes and sandy hair rather fat. A girl (8) Nora, small, with reddish brown hair and blue eyes. A boy (9) Lee who was medium tall with black hair and real dark brown eyes, handsome. A boy (10) Claud Rivers, tall brown curly hair and blue eyes. A boy (11) Rufus Washington, tall, brown hair and real blue eyes, or deep blue eyes. A girl (12) Bessie, who died with whooping cough when she was 13 months old. Last (13) a boy William Wesley, short, brown hair and hazel eyes.

units of Hood's Texas Brigade were organized in Hill County on 10 Aug 1861, 17 August, and on 26 August the company at Peoria, under enrolling officer Capt. G. L. Hickey, appointed by Brigadier General A. Nelson, 28th Brigade of Texas militia. The muster roll includes among its officers H. W. Young and C. N. Brooks, and its privates B. C. Wilks and Henry Young (four brothers-in-law). Wesley Young was on the muster roll of Capt. William Graham's unit of 28th Brigade organized on 12 Oct 1861 , in Pct. 3 of Hill County. William Young also served.
Benjamin Carroll Wilks told Charles Jenkins Taylor (Uncle Buck) about his service, that he "walked all the way there and walked all the way back."
The Brigade was organized on October 22, 1861, in Richmond, Virginia, initially commanded by Brig. Gen. Louis T. Wigfall and composed of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Texas Infantry regiments, the only Texas troops to fight in the Eastern Theater. The First was commanded by Wigfall and Lt. Col. Hugh McLeod, the Fourth by Col. John Bell Hood and Lt. Col. John Marshall, and the Fifth by Col. James J. Archer and Lt. Jerome B. Robertson. On November 20, 1861, the Eighteenth Georgia Infantry, commanded by William T. Wofford, was attached. On June 1, 1862, eight infantry companies from Wade Hampton's South Carolina Legion, commanded by Lt. Colonel Martin W. Gary, were added, and in November 1862 the Third Arkansas Infantry, commanded by Col. Van H. Manning, joined the brigade. Both the Georgia and South Carolina units were transferred out in November 1862, but the Third Arkansas remained until the end of the war.
Wigfall resigned command of the brigade on February 20, 1862, and on March 7 Hood was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command. Because of his daring leadership the brigade became known as Hood's Texas Brigade, despite his brief service of only six months as commander. The brigade served throughout the war in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and in James Longstreet's First Corps. It participated in at least twenty-four battles in 1862, including Eltham's Landing, Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas, and Sharpsburg (Antietam). In October the Third Arkansas regiment replaced the Eighteenth Georgia and Hampton's Legion. On November 1, 1862, Brig. Gen. Jerome B. Robertson became brigade commander, and Hood was elevated to command of the division in which the Texas Brigade operated.
In April 1863 the brigade moved to North Carolina; in May it rejoined Lee's army; and on July 1, 2, and 3, it took part in the battle of Gettysburg. In Georgia the brigade fought on September 19 and 20 at Chickamauga, where Hood was wounded and forced to leave his division, ending his official connection with the brigade. In Tennessee the brigade joined in the sieges of Chattanooga and Knoxville. Gen. John Gregg became commander when the brigade returned to Virginia in February 1864. In the battle of the Wilderness, General Lee personally led the Texans in one of the charges. After Gregg was killed in October the brigade was temporarily led by Col. Clinton M. Winklerqv and Col. F. S. Bass. At the surrender at Appomattox on April 10, 1865, Col. Robert M. Powell commanded the brigade, Capt. W. T. Hill the Fifth regiment, Lt. Col. C. M. Winkler the Fourth, Col. F. S. Bass the First, and Lt. Col. R. S. Taylor the Third Arkansas.
It is estimated that at the beginning of the war the Texas regiments comprised about 3,500 men and that during the war recruits increased the number to almost 4,400. The brigade sustained a 61 percent casualty rate and, at its surrender, numbered close to 600 officers and men. It was praised by generals Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, James Longstreet, and Robert E. Lee and by high officials of the Confederacy.1 2

Hood's Texas Brigade joins battle at Gettysburg and became a major participant. The brigade had been organized in 1861 in Richmond, Virginia. It was composed of the First, Fourth and Fifth Texas Infantry regiments, the only Texas troops to fight in the Eastern Theater. Col. John Bell Hood had been commander of the Fourth. On July 2, 1863, the brigade led the assault at Devils Den and Little Round Top, the crucial action of the second day of the battle. A soldier of the First Texas called the assault on Devil's Den "one of the wildest, fiercest struggles of the war." After routing the Union forces at the Devil's Den, however, the brigade was unable to capture Little Round Top. A thirty-five-foot monument to the men of Hood's Texas Brigade stands on the south drive of the Capitol in Austin 1

Hood's Texas Brigade surrendered

in hh 15-15 as BENJAMIN C. Wilks 45 farmer $800-$200 AL, HARRIET E. 28 IL, Samuel T. 10 TX, Benjamin P. 7 TX, George Clinton 5 TX, Allsey A. 4 TX, James E. 1 TX; Louisa Caver 24 MS; p. 377

a deed from J. D. Choate and wife Nancy A. Choate to B. C. Wilks "of Bosque Co." 83.22 acres of the Charles McIntire survey, being a portion of 124.8 acres, more or less. Recorded in Erath Co. Deed Book 29, p. 512.

in hh 514-514 as Wilks, Benjamin F., Head, White, Male, Born: Sep 1862, Age: 37, Single, TX AL IL, Farmer, Home: owner, free, farm# 527; Benjamin C., Father, White, Male, Born: Aug 1827, Age: 72, Married: 41 yrs, AL MO Ireland; Martha, Mother, White, Female, Born: Aug 1841, Age: 58, Married: 41 yrs, Children born: 13, Children living: 10, IL TN TN; Claudie, Brother, White, Male, Born: Aug 1876, Age: 23, Single, TX AL IL, Farmer, Home: farm# 528; William, Brother, White, Male, Born: Aug 1884, Age: 16, Single, TX AL IL, At school: 5 mo. All could read write & speak English.

in family 54 as B.C. [Benjamin Carroll] Wilks, Head, White, Male, Age: 82, Married, AL KY KY; Harriate [Harriet], Wife, White, Female, Married, Age: 66, IL TN TN; C.R. [Claude Rivers], Son, White, Male, Age: 34, Single, TX AL IL; W. W. [William Wesley], Son, White, Male, Age: 25, Married, TX AL IL; Erica [Erie], Daughter-in-law, White, Female, Age: 28, Married, KY KY KY; Carl [Karl Glynn], Son [Grandson], White, Male, Age: 3 , Single, TX TX KY; Vane, Son [Grandson], White, Male, Age: 10 mo, Single, TX TX KY.

in the home of his son William Wesley Wilks

Tombstone inscription: B. C. Wilks; 1827 - 1919.

because of a 2 foot snow he wasn't buried until the 18th of January