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William Henry Lightfoot
Name: William Lightfoot Born: Aug 1847 (Attala County, MS)
Father: Julius C. Lightfoot Mother: Elizabeth Frazier
Married: Nancy L Bickerstaff, May 25, 1870, Rusk, Cherokee County, TX (In the marriage record her name is N. L. Drake)
Children: Francis Lee Lightfoot (1871 - 1939) George W. Lighfoot (1872-1939) David E. Lightfoot (1873-1899) John R. Lightfoot (1874 - 1943) Amanda Belle Lightfoot (1881 - 1971) William S. Lightfoot (1885 - 1905) Lucinda Catherine Lightfoot (1876- )
Died: Jan 19, 1922 Burial: Shiloh Cemetery, Kaufman County, TX
William Lightfoot was born in Mississippi in 1847. He is listed on the 1850 and 1860 census with his parents Julius Caesar and Elizabeth Lightfoot in Attala County. In the 1850 census he is the youngest of the children. By 1860 he has a younger sister Mary.
Between the 1860 census and the 1870 census William has relocated to Texas with his Mother and Sister Sarah. No record of his Father is found again and presumably Julius Ceaser Lightfoot has died before 1870. William Lightfoot is resident in Cherokee County close to his Brother, Thomas Jefferson Lightfoot. Living in his home in 1870 are Nancy, his new bride, and Elizabeth (age 60) and Sarah (age 30). Elizabeth , William's mother and Sarah is probably his half-sister. No surname is given for Elizabeth and Sarah, so presumably there family name is also Lightfoot. There is a small age difference on this census for Elizabeth and Sarah on this census compared to other records. This is the last time we have found Elizabeth and Sarah in the census records.
Also living in the Lightfoot household is Philips Lallie. This could be Nancy's son from a previous marriage.
Among our family members there was a significant post war (Civil War) exodus from the Mississippi and Alabama to Texas. The Bourlands, at least one Petty family, and several Lightfoot family made their way to Texas, many to Hill County. A letter among the Sanders clan describes a young nephew as having the "Texas Fever."
William Lightfoot's family is resident in Hill County, Texas in 1900. Living with William is his wife Nancy, his daughter Amanda B. (age 19), and son William S. (age 13). The age in the census does not agree with William's tombstone.
Listed adjacent to William Henry Lightfoot is his son Francis Lee Lightfoot and family. Included in Francis' household is John R., brother of Francis and son of W. H. Lightfoot.
Several family members are buried in the Old Lebanon Cemetery in Hill County, not far from Aquila, Texas. William Delma Lightfoot (grandson of William Henry Lightfoot) remembered starting life in Aquila before moving on to McLennan county. Evidence of the hard life are the Tombstones of children, William S. Lightfoot and David E. Lightfoot., and the grandchildren Anna Lena Lightfoot and Altie E. Lightfoot.
In 1910 William and Nancy are still in residence in Hill County, Texas, living adjacent to his son George W. Lightfoot. Francis Lee is still resident in Hill County, but no longer listed adjacent to his Father.
In 1920, about about two years before his death, William Henry and Nancy Lightfoot are in resident in Pyle's Prairie in Kaufman County, Texas. You will not find Pyle's Prairie on a modern Texas map. It refers to the area in Kaufman County that was settled by the family of John Pyle, a member of the Texas Revolutionary Army. Pyle Prairie cemetery is at the end of FM 4059 from highway 148. Not far away is the Shiloh Cemetery.
George W. and Mattie have also made the move to Pyle's Prairie. William's nephew Walter William Lightfoot, son of William Lightfoot's brother Thomas Jefferson Lightfoot is also in resident in the area. Nancy Lightfoot dies in 1920, and two years later, William dies on Jan 19, 1922. He is buried next to his wife in the Shiloh Cemetery of Kaufman County, Texas. |
