Ephraim D. Moore and the Wardlows

    ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Lots of researchers warn against wasting time going down rabbit holes. Rabbit holes are intriguing tidbits of information that can eat up time and yield nothing other than interesting trivia that contributes nothing to the actual search. In other words, they are just interesting distractions. 

However, I find I can never resist a rabbit hole because there have been too many times when I have found really good information that I would not found any other way. Those few successful experiences have kept me leaping into rabbit holes.

Researching Ephraim D. Moore's exploits in Texas was one of those rabbit holes. He was the minister who solemnized the marriage of Wiley Lewis and Charlotte Bricker in Madison County, Alabama in 1821. In researching him, I learned that among other things his wife was Mary Ann Wardlow. That was interesting because Wiley Lewis's sister Jane married Milton Wardlow. In looking at trees for Milton Wardlow and Mary Ann Wardlow, I found that there is not much information about either one of them, so I don't know if they connect to each other.

In researching Ephraim D. Moore after he migrated to Texas, I found him administering the estate of David S. Wardlow in 1846 in Red River County, Texas. This notice of a suit to sell the property of David S. Wardlow appeared in the Northern Standard of Clarksville, Texas on 6 March 1847:

The heirs of David S. Wardlow were Mary Moore [Ephraim's wife], James Wardlow, John Wardlow, Ann Sharp - wife of John Sharp, and Elizabeth Tankersly. Ann Sharp's name got my attention. Reading further into the notice is the information that John Wardlow, Ann Sharp, and Elizabeth Tankersly were residents of McNairy County, Tennessee.

Based on what I know about suits like this, these heirs are probably siblings. As a group, they are either the children of David S. Wardlow or the siblings of David S. Wardlow. This information would be helpful to a Wardlow researcher. 

And Ann Sharp? She is very likely the same Ann M. Sharp of McNairy County, Tennessee, who provided critical information in a deposition that was presented in a lawsuit among the children of Green B. Babb in the early 1870s. The children of Elizabeth (Lewis) Babb sued their stepmother Mary (Broom) Babb and their Lewis half-siblings. Elizabeth Lewis was the daughter of John D. Lewis, who died in McNairy County, Tennessee in 1843. That lawsuit provided important documentation that identified John D. Lewis's children and last wife - the purpose of the suit was to sort out the inheritance of Elizabeth (Lewis) Babb, which required an inquiry into the settlement of John D. Lewis's estate. 

In an earlier post, I noted that in 1840 John Lewis lived near John A. Sharp and David Wardlow. I even provided a snippet of the census that shows them to be near neighbors. At the time, I was wondering if Ann Sharp was John A. Sharp's wife, and I noted David Wardlow because of Jane Lewis's marriage to Milton Wardlow.