The Life of William Richard Callaway

William Richard Callaway, the fourth of 11 children born to William and Leah Ann Ralph Callaway, was born on Dec. 3, 1826 in Sussex Co., Delaware, later moving to Illinois and Missouri. On April 23, 1847, in Memphis, Scotland Co., Missouri he was married to Abigail Jane Cecil, a descendant of Lord Cecil of England. Abigail Jane Cecil Callaway was born December 5, 1832 in Jentres, Tentran Co., Tennessee, the daughter of Samuel Stewart Cecil and his wife, Lily Bowen Richardson. When he was 21, his father gave him a farm in Scotland Co., Missouri.

It is stated in the Portrait and Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley, Oregon that in either 1849 or 1850 he crossed the plains to California with ox-teams, taking six months to make the journey. After spending six months in the Sacramento Valley he returned across the plains to Missouri not overmuch pleased with the prospects which he had found in the west. By 1858 William Richard and his family had moved to Fillmore, Andrew Co., Missouri, engaging for some time in a mercantile business, later, however returning to the old farm in Scotland County. In 1864 he decided to make a change of home, not from necessity, but from the desire to give his strength and energy to the upbuilding of the commonwealth beyond the Rockies.

The trip was made across the plains in company with a large party all well armed and well equipped, the wagons drawn by horses. William Richard had four wagons, two teams allowed for each, besides quite a number of loose horses. After a six-month trip the party arrived in Oregon, locating on a farm near Albany, Linn County. At this time William Richard moved to Benton County, Oregon, outside of Corvallis. Two years later he purchased a farm of 640 acres, which was advantageously located on Soap Creek, where he built a house and engaged extensively in general farming.

Adding to his property from time to time, he finally owned over 1,000 acres, the Callaway Station, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, being upon this land as well as Callaway Creek. He was engaged in general farming and stock-raising and was successful in his operations. His granddaughter, Bea, said you could see Callaway Station from the front porch of the home, which made William Richard very proud. William Richard had always been a very prominent man in his area through the influence of the many good qualities which distinguished him, and as the choice of the people he was an able representative in the State Legislature for one term in 1877. William Richard died on January 5, 1897 at the age of 70, his wife dying July 25, 1885 at the age of 52.

The acreage of William Richard and his family was purchased by the U.S. Government for Camp Adair, which was activated in August of 1942 as a training site for Triangular Divisions from the Ninth Army Corps - 30,000 to 33,000 men each consisting of infantry, artillery and engineering units with the necessary support personnel. It appears German and Italian POWs were at Camp Adair from August 1944 through April 1946. It was used as an Air Force Station in the late 1950s to the late 1960s. It is now Adair Village. In order to construct this cantonment, families were uprooted, cemeteries relocated, railroad tracks rerouted and the small community of Wells was erased.

The above article was written by Nancy Schlabes Douglas, of Davis, California. It was submitted to CFA and originally published in the 1989 CFA Journal.

This family line of descent is as follows:
Peter Callaway
John Callaway
Ebenezer Callaway
William Callaway
William Callaway, Jr.
William Richard Callaway

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - Copyright © 2004 Callaway Family Association

Rev. Abner Josephus Callaway - Preserving a Memory

Rev. Abner Josephus Callaway Obituary

Rev. Abner Josephus Callaway was born in Kemper Co., Miss., Nov. 4, 1848. Died January 1st, 1914 in Marion, Union Parish, LA. Came to Louisiana in his boyhood days, began preaching at the age of 25 years, was a strict Missionary Baptist, a zealous and faithful worker for the cause. He was moderator at the last session of the Everett Association and was the last one of the band of ministers who would not accept a salary.

He leaves a devoted wife and nine children to mourn his loss. He was a member of Mount Olive Church.

But we the members of Concord Church who have sat under his ministry are desirous of testing (testifying) through respect for his memory and expressing their earnest and affectionate sympathy with and for his loved ones, therefore, be it:

Resolved, That we tenderly condole with the family of our deceased family and minister in their hour of trial and affliction and devoutly commend them to the keeping of Him who looks with pitying eye upon the widowed and fatherless.

Resolved, That in our natural sorrow for the loss of a faithful and beloved Shepherd, we find consolation in the belief that it is well with him for whom we mourn.

Resolved, That while we deeply sympathize with those who were bound to our departed brother and pastor by the nearest and dearest ties, we share with them the hope of a reunion in that better world where there are no partings.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the family of the deceased and as a token of our love and respect for the Christian character of a good Shepherd of his church.

The above obituary was submitted to CFA by Ruby Jacobs, who was a charter member of CFA. It was originally published in the 1983 CFA Journal

This family line of descent is as follows:
Joseph Callaway
Francis Callaway
Francis Callaway
William Abner Callaway
Abner Benjamin Callaway
Abner Josephus Callaway

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - Copyright © 2004 Callaway Family Association

From a Family Notebook, by Augustus Homer Callaway, 1920

My father, Elijah J. Marlow Callaway, had eight children, four boys and four girls. The oldest, a boy, died in infancy. The oldest girl, your Aunt Thenia, married Frank Stephens (Frank Stephens' father) in 1861. He was killed in the second battle of Manassas in 1862. The second girl, Angie L., died at our home in Gwinnett County, Ga., in 1889. She had never married. The third, Mary, married J. C. Sawyer. She had only one child, Willie, who is in Atlanta. She died in 1881. Martha J., the fourth, died in 1899. I am the sixth child and oldest boy that lived to be grown. I was born in Webster County, Ga., in 1854. Nickes W. was born in Henry County, Ga., in 1862. The girls all died between the ages of 45 and 52. All the old set of Callaways were Hardshell Baptists. My father was about the first to break off from that faith. Soon after his marriage to mother, she was Methodist, he joined the Methodist Protestant Church and soon became a preacher in that church. None of the Callaways that I knew of ever became very wealthy. None ever entered business to amount to anything. They were all of an agriculture trend of mind. They were all of a high moral character as far back as I ever learned except one of Uncle Burt's brothers (son?). You understand Uncle Burt was my Great Uncle. He had a boy named Allen that was of a low down character. He left Georgia in about 1858 and no one ever knew what ever became of him.

I guess we have no Callaway relations in Texas outside of your Uncle Nick's family, unless it be those three brothers near Tucker in Anderson County: John, Bill and Allen Callaway. My father had an uncle, named Joshua Callaway, who was a Hardshell Baptist preacher. He left Georgia several years before I was born. He went to Alabama, from there to Mississippi, later moved on west and was lost sight of. These brothers, that I spoke of, say their Grandfather came to Texas from Mississippi when their father was a boy and that his name was Joshua and was a Hardshell Baptist preacher and originally came from Georgia. So from their names we must be from the same stock.

Grandpa had several brothers and sisters. I never knew much about any but Great Uncle Burt (Gain's and John's father). Grandpa died in 1857, said to be 103 years old. My father had 2 brothers and 2 or 3 sisters. The girls died before I can remember. Pa was the oldest boy, Uncle Wilse next and Uncle Buck, the youngest, was killed in the war between the States in Confederate service. I think my father was born in South Carolina. He was born in 1804 and died in 1869. Most all of the Callaway genearations still live in Georgia, scattered along on both sides of the Flint River from near Atlanta to Ogletharp in southwest Georgia. Uncle Wilson, or Wilse as he was called, had 4 children.

End of Augustus Homer Callaway's Notes - The full context of these notes was originally published in the 1988 CFA Journal.

Augustus Homer Callaway was born in Webster Co., GA in 1854 and died in the little town of Montalba, TX from a heart attack, just after delivering a sermon for a revival he was conducting. He was a Methodist minister. He married Georgia Ann Jackson (b. 1855; d. 31 Jan 1919) about 1874 at McDonough, Henry Co., GA. At the time of their deaths they resided at Rt. 1, Palestine (Anderson Co.), Texas. After the death of Georgia Ann, Rev. Augustus Homer Callaway married in 1921, Florence Palmer, a school teacher in Palestine, TX. He had eight children by Georgia Ann, and two sons by Florence.

The children of Augustus Homer and Florence Palmer Callaway:
Augustus Homer Callaway, Jr. - b. 1922; d. 1976/7
J. E. Marlow Callaway - b. 1923; d. Nov. 17, 1997 in Athens, TX.

The above information and accompanying photographs were submitted to CFA by Ruth Foster Anderson, Rex, GA. Ramon W. Callaway of Crockett, TX (son of Cleophus Homer Callaway) also contributed much information on this family. Frustration has arisen in trying to interpret the NOTES of Augustus Homer Callaway. There is the feeling that he mixed up the generations. Regardless of the shortcomings of the NOTES, they did enable CFA to trace the ancestry of Augustus Homer Callaway.

His father, Elijah J. Marlow Callaway was the son of Elijah M. Callaway who, according to census records, was born in 1793 in Delaware. He married Sarah "Sallie" Leary in 1817 in Jones Co., GA. Augustus Homer Callaway said that his grandfather died in 1857 at the age of 103. He was confused here. Elijah M. did not die in 1857. It is possible that he confused his great grandfather's death. Levin Callaway (b. c1760, Delaware) would have been at an advanced age if he died in 1857. We have not found a record of Levin's estate settlement to determine his date of death, but he was not on the 1860 census. Levin Callaway married Elizabeth (Hall?, perhaps) in Delaware and some of their children were born there before the family made their move to Baldwin Co., GA during the 1790s. Levin Callaway (and his brother, Jehu, who also came to Baldwin Co., FA) were sons of Levin, Sr. and Mary Callaway, of Sussex Co., Delaware. Levin, Sr. died 1784 and Mary, his wife, died on 1 November 1793 in Sussex Co., Delaware. Of their eight children only two are known to have come to Georgia. The ancestry of Levin is shown on the CFA charts in the 1980 CFA Journal

This family line of descent is as follows:
Peter Callaway
John Callaway
John Callaway
Levin Callaway, Sr.
Levin Callaway
Elijah Marlow Callaway
Elijah J. Marlow Callaway
Augustus Homer Callaway

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - Copyright © 2004 Callaway Family Association

Abraham Callaway's Family Migration

Abraham Callaway and his wife, Tabita Wooten, were my great grandparents. Abraham was a son of Joseph Callaway and Nancy Ragan Callaway. Joseph was the son of Job Callaway.

In the early years my great grandparents lived in Wilkes County, Ga., where two girls, Nancy and Margaret, were born to them. In 1834 my grandfather, James Wylie Callaway was born to them and in 1837 Albert Hill Callaway was born to them followed by Joseph Willia Callaway in 1840.

Also in 1840, the Abraham Callaway family moved to Wetumpka, Ala., where son Limuel John Callaway was the first child born in their new home. He was later killed in action in the Civil War (1862). David Abraham Callaway was born in 1850, Xenophan R. Callaway in 1853, D. Robert Callaway in 1855, and Eugene Floyd Callaway in 1858.

The end of the Civil War in 1865 brought numerous changes, one of which was the change in the capital of Alabama from Wetumpka to Montgomery. These changes resulted in great financial losses for the Callaway family.

With heavy hearts they left Alabama and moved to Batesville, Miss., where they purchased land. By this time my grandfather, James Wylie, had reached manhood and married Lucy Ann Boseman in 1859. She was the daughter of Colonel Boseman of Arkadelphia, Ark.

Three children were born of this union: Ella in 1859, Nathan in 1861, and Eula in 1866. All died in early childhood. Later, Michael Abraham Callaway was born in 1867, Joseph Albert Callaway in 1869, James Wylie Callaway in 1871, and William Stone Callaway in 1873. In that same year (1873) a major portion of the family's land holdings was sold as the family bagan to prepare for the westward migration.

One son of Abraham Callaway, Albert Hill Callaway, remained at Batesville to carry on the family heritage there. Before moving westward, however, the family made a trip to Arkadelphia to visit their grandparents, the Bosemans. During this visit Charles Clark Callaway was born (1875), the last of five sons. In the next year (1876) a girl, Laura Lucy Callaway, was born.

The family then moved to Pueblo, Colo. From there they migrated to Silver Cliff, Colo., a flourishing silver mining town. My grandfather taught school there for two years.

The call went out for the newcomers to homestead land west of the Continental Divide where land had been set aside under the Homestead Act of 1863. The Indians on this land were taken to Unitah Reservation on the Colorado-Utah border.

The Callaway families moved to a new town in western Colorado in 1880. The beautiful town in the Uncompahagre Valley became home as the family grew with the town. As time passed, some family members migrated on to new territory.

My grandfather, James Wylie Callaway, and my father, Michael Abraham Callaway remained in western Colorado (Montrose) and are buried on Sunset Mesa. Masonic records show my great grandfather, Abraham Callaway, buried in Pueblo, Colo. I have been unable to ascertain whether or not he crossed the Great Continental Divide, as he died in 1875. My great grandmother, Tabita, died in 1884 on a wagon train in New Mexico. Her grave has not been located.

The above biography was submitted to CFA by Laura Callaway Huffer and first published in the 1988 CFA Journal

This family line of descent is as follows:
Peter Callaway
John Callaway
Edward Callaway
Job Callaway
Joseph Callaway
Abraham Aaron Callaway
James Wylie Callaway
Michael Abraham Callaway

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - Copyright © 2004 Callaway Family Association