William Allen David Ewing (1811 - 1878)

Born 1811 in Elbert, Georgia

Ancestors

Descendants

Died Oct 1878 at about age 67 in Comanche, Comanche Co., Texas

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Biography

William Allen David Ewing was born in 1811in Elbert, Georgia to William Allen David Ewing and Charity Woods.

He married Mary Jane Sarah Lucy.

Together they became the parents of Samuel T. Ewing, William Allen David, III Ewing, Sarah Jane Ewing [1845–85], Martha A. Ewing, Mary Catherine Charity "Molly" Ewing, James L. Ewing, Joseph Ewing, Alexander Napoleon Ewing, Safronia Ewing, Julius Eugene "Jules" Ewing.

Capt. WAD passed away in October 1878 and was buried at Luker Cemetery in Comanche County, Texas.

William Allen David Ewing and Mary Jane “Sarah” Lucy Ewing

William Allen David Ewing was a pioneer in the truest sense—leading the way for several families to move from Alabama to Texas just as his own ancestors had moved from Ireland to America in the mid eighteenth century. Born in Georgia in 1811, where his family had moved from Tennessee, William Allen David Ewing, Jr., was the youngest child of William Allen David Ewing, Sr. and Charity Dysert Woods Ewing.

On April 3, 1838, William married Mary J. Lucy in Marengo CO, AL. Little is known of Sarah Lucy Ewing other than that her family farmed in the Tom Bigbee Valley in Alabama. Known children of Wm. Allen David Ewing and Mary J. “Sarah” were: Samuel T. Ewing, 1842; Wm. Allen D., III, 1844; Sarah J., 1845; Martha A., 1846, Mary Catherine “Molly” Charity, 1848; James L., 1850; Joseph; Alexander N., 1852; Safronia, 1854; Julius Eugene, 1866.

For several years Captain Ewing moved his family around from Alabama to Tennessee and Mississippi .(These moves are documented at present primarily by the birth places of his children as shown on subsequent censuses.) He fought in the Choctaw Wars with the Alabama Militia where he earned the title of Captain. After the Civil War, William A. began looking for a new home for himself and his family. “Captain Ewing prepared his business affairs to search for new homes for his family and his married daughters still living in Alabama.1

So Captain Ewing, his wife and three children set out from Alabama to find new homes in Texas. They traveled to New Orleans by train. There he fitted out a wagon with needed household supplies preparing for the overland journey to Waco, then to Comanche CO, Texas. He left three of his younger children in Alabama. Alexander Ewing, age 23, was appointed guardian of James L., Joseph and Jules. Two married daughters remained in Alabama.2 He left many of his household goods and farming tools. Capt. Ewing’s plan was for his four sons to come with the married daughters as soon as a place for them could be readied.” Arriving in Texas in 1874, he located excellent land in Comanche County suitable for farming at a good price. He bought several half sections “locating them on streams of living water with post oak trees in profusion. Like other pioneers from the old south he looked for black land, wood, and water.”3

He purchased several hundred acres and built a house. Communicating with his older children and the Luker family in Alabama, he gave detailed instructions for their impending caravan from Alabama.

Moving to Texas with their father were: Mary Charity “Molly” Ewing who married Benjamin Franklin Luker and Saphronia Ewing. Sarah Ewing remained in Alabama to follow with her husband John W. Luker in 1875. Alexander and Jules followed their father to Texas at a later date.

“Your Grandfather Ewing was simple in his life. He was thrifty and pretty well off for a pioneer. He gave the site for a church, and we buried him there with that in mind, but the settlement built up in the other direction, and the neighbors wanted the church nearer the center of the neighborhood.* So after your grandpa’s death, I gave the land on the hillside north of our farm.” 3

“ Aunt Mollie had many times told Lula the story of Grandsire Ewing’s death from exposure when he made a long trip in the winter to pay a debt. He had gone in a wagon to Waco with his son Alec to pay a lumber bill. Contracting pneumonia on the way back. Grandsire died, and Uncle Alec drove home with the body. Grandsire was the first to be buried in the Ewing graveyard.”4

Wm. A. D. Ewing died intestate.

Bio by MLPowell (GGGrandaughter of Wm. A. Ewing)

Sources

• 1 Bradley, Willo M. and Edith Lucille Robinson, Family Trails: Ancestral and Contemporary, Stephenville Printing Co, 1978
• 2 Ibid., pp. 95-97.
• 3 Luker, Julia., The Yeoman’s Daughter, Exposition Press - New York – 1953

See also:

• Year: 1850; Census Place: , Choctaw, Alabama; Roll: M432_3; Page: 164A; Image: .
• Census Year: 1850; Census Place: District 26, Choctaw, Alabama; Archive Collection Number: M279; Roll: 27; Page: 5; Line: 26; Schedule Type: Agriculture
• Year: 1860; Census Place: Clarke, Mississippi; Roll: M653_580; Page: 696; Image: 212; Family History Library Film: 803580
• Year: 1870; Census Place: Township 14, Choctaw, Alabama; Roll: M593_; Page: ; Image: .
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/47214145/william-allen_david-ewing : accessed 06 May 2022), memorial page for Capt William Allen David Ewing (1811–9 Nov 1878), Find a Grave Memorial ID 47214145

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