Descendents:
James William Edwin Sampson 1846 - 1934
+Sarah Roxie Lumpkin 1851 - 1911
Jessie Sampson 1870 -
William Emmitt Sampson 1873 - 1970
Lillie Dee Sampson 1884 - 1969
Bonnie Leota Sampson 1887 - 1970
Lura Bell Sampson 1869 - 1953
Mary Edwin Sampson 1880 - 1957
Mittie Grevil Sampson 1882 - 1974
Oliver Kelly Sampson 1892 - 1954
Roxie Nadie Sampson 1889 - 1963
Simpson Bredner Sampson 1875 - 1953
Ina Sallie Sampson 1878 - 1952

James's Life History written by himself in 1932 (typed with grammar as he wrote)
I was born February 11th, 1846 at Old Boston, Bowie County, Texas. It was called Old Boston on account of there was another town built joining it and they called it Boston. My mother's maiden name was Mary Maglin Proctor, marrying my father I do not know what year, she became Mary Maglin Sampson. There were two children born to them; my sister and myself, sister being the elder. I do not remember the date she was born but she was born in the year 1843. Sister was married to Issac McLendon - disremember just when she was married. There were three children born to them; two girls and one boy. My father and mother both died when I was very small. Mother died in August 1846 and father died in September 1846, there being only about one month difference in their deaths. My grandmother on my mother's side took us to raise. I lived with her until I was seventeen then joined the Confederate Army; remained in the service about two years and six months; returned to my grandmother's at the end of the war; remained there a short while, then went west. I went in the cattle business for about three or four years. At the age of 23 was married to Miss Sarah Roxie Lumpkin. Then spent most of my time on the farm till the death of my wife and have lived with some of my children since. There were eleven children born to us; ten still living. The oldest Lura Bell, was born November 19, 1869 in Bowie County, Texas on the old homestead. Lura was married to R.T. Harkey at San Saba, Texas in 1887. There were eight children born to them. William Emmitt was born December 5th, 1872 in Bowie County, Texas and was married to Miss Lue Nalley at McGee Oklahoma. McGee at that time was Indian territory but was made Oklahoma in 1907 when this became a state. There were eleven children born to them. Simpson Bredna was born February 11, 1876 in Bowie County, Texas and was married to Miss Nora White at Snowhomish, Washington in 1896. They had twelve children born to them. Ina Sallie was born August 5th, 1878 in Bowie County, Texas and married Edd West at Everett, Washington in 1896. There were three children born to them. Her husband disappearing, she never heard anything from him. She later married to F. P. Dowdy at Duke, Oklahoma in 1905. There were two children born to them. Mary Edwin was born September 11,1880 in Hayes County, Texas. Was married to C. C. Dowdy at Mangum, Oklahoma in 1904. There were eight children born to them. Mittie Grevil was born December 10th, 1882 and was married to Elmer Briley at Mangum, Oklahoma in 1904 and they had no children. Lillie Dee was born October 21,1884 at San Saba, Texas and was married to J. A. White at Mangum, Oklahoma in 1907. There were six children born to them. Bonnie Leota was born January 17th, 1887 and was married to W. N. Cheek at Duke, Oklahoma in 1909. There were three children born to them. Roxie Nadie was born April 14, 1890 and was married to L. F. Holm at Duke, Oklahoma in 1910. There were five children born to them. Oliver Kelly was born February 2, 1893 and was married to Miss Dimple Myers at Mangum, Oklahoma in 1912. There were five children born to them. Mrs. Sarah Roxie Sampson nee Lumpkin was born July 7, 1851 and died October 24, 1911.

Sampson Family The Sampson line is traceable back much farther then any of us ever expected. Though there are a few gaps in the line where we know very little about the individuals, we can place our ancestors back to the year 1066 when, during the Norman invasion, Sir John Sampson,* left Normandy with his family and settled around Kent, England. The Sampson's stayed there until about 1546 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They then moved to Dublin, Ireland where they lived and prospered for 300 years. In 1778 the Protestant - Catholic problem that is still brewing today, was just getting started. There was an Arthur Sampson* who had four sons. Two of the Sampson brothers, William and Michael* both young attorneys, would give their time and efforts defending the members of the Brotherhood of United Irishmen, as they became known when they were brought to trail. They both were eventually jailed and after several years banished to America along with Wolfe Tone and Thomas Addis Emmet, two very famous Irishmen. Thomas Addis Emmet was a very close friend to William and Michael* and is probably responsible for the name Emmet becoming one of our family names. Robert Emmet, Thomas Addis' younger brother, was hanged in 1802 after the others had already been banished to America. Of the two brothers, William settled in New York and is reported to be the first attorney to be able to practice law in the United States without having a degree from an American law school. He was known to be a very quick wit and a very good lawyer. I have not been able to verify this but I think he is an ancestor of Admiral Sampson who fought in the Spanish- American War of 1910. Later in his life he edited several books, wrote his own autobiography and had two biographies about him written by others. We have been able to locate a copy of his autobiography but neither of the biographies. His brother, Michael,* who is our direct line of ascent, settled in Wilmington, North Carolina. He eventually inherited the plantation named Sampson Hall in Clinton, North Carolina. We are not exactly sure how he acquired the plantation but we are fairly sure he did. The original owner of the plantation was John Sampson, Arthur's brother, who received a land grant of 940 acres from Queen Elizabeth around 1737 before his death in 1787. He built up quite an estate. He owned around 50 slaves. Richard Clinton, we think, was a nephew to John Sampson and the town was named for him while the county was named for John Sampson. Clinton is the county seat. Michael Sampson* married and had one son and four daughters. His son, James Sampson* became a Presbyterian minister and moved west in about 1824. He lived first in Hempstead, Arkansas which is in Sevier County. Then he moved with his family to Tennessee in 1833 and then back to Arkansas in about 1836. The Reverend James Sampson had three sons and five daughters. The sons were named Michael William,* James Walker, and Robert Lewis. James was married while living in Arkansas around 1839 and later became the sheriff of Fannin County and was assassinated about the same time as Abraham Lincoln. Reverend James Sampson* took a job in Clarksville, Texas in about 1839 where he was minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and operated or had some connection with a school for girls. He was fluent in Latin and Greek and his Bible was written in Greek and he made his notes in Latin. One amusing story was that this particular Sunday morning some of his congregation were in dispute over something in his message. To settle the argument, one of the participants said he would go to the pulpit and look at the Bible. When he couldn't read what was written, he told the others and all agreed that the Reverend was teaching something of the devil. It was not until the Reverend explained that it was Greek, the original language of the Bible, that the congregation settled back down. As I mentioned, Reverend James' first son was named Michael William* Sampson and apparently disliked the name Michael and went by William M. Sampson. His brother James even named a son after him and called him William M.. This made it very hard for me to sort out who was who. Anyway, William M.* moved to Clarksville, Texas with his father and family and met and married Mary Ellen Proctor in about 1840. Their first child was a girl which they named Sarah after Mary Ellen's mother, Sarah Proctor. In 1846 they had their first son and couldn't decide whether to call him Edwin, William, or James, so they compromised and called him James William Edwin Sampson*. On a day to day basis, Sarah was called ‘Sally' and J.W.E. was called ‘Ed'. Shortly after Ed was born, William M. died and in less then six months, Mary Ellen died. I am not sure whi the children Sally and Ed didn't go to live with Reverend James Sampson or some of the William M.'s brothers or sisters, but they didn't. The 1850 census shows Ed and Sally Sampson living with Sarah Proctor, Mary Ellen's mother. So, Ed Sampson, the one Sampson that every Sampson we know that can trace back to, was not raised by Sampsons. We know that his grandpa Sampson was still living until he was eight years old. Also, we can figure that Little Ed learned something of his father's people somewhere. Now whether he was told by the Proctors who may have been mistaken or whether he simply remembered incorrectly, we'll never know. What we do know is that there were some errors in what he passed on to Grandpa and his brothers and sisters. First, we have heard all our lives that the two brothers stowed away on a ship and split up in New York and never saw each other again. We now know that they did not stow away but were banished, which conjures up similar emotions of mystery or secrecy. Also, they didn't even come to America on the same ship. Ed* also named his second son Emmitte which suggests that he had been told of his great grandfather's close friendship with Thomas Addis Emmet although he spelled the name differently. I realize that this is very sketchy, but it is hard to condense several hundred years into two or three pages. We have all the information available if anyone wants to see it. There are three items which I find very interesting. The two generations we are most familiar with are James William Edwin Sampson* who married Sarah Roxie Lumpkin and Sarah M. Sampson who married Issac "Ike" McLendon. We don't know the names of Sarah and Ike's children. Ed* and Sarah had twelve children. They were: Lura Bell - Jesse - William Emmittee - Simpson Bredna - Ina Sallie - Mary Edwin - Mittie Grevil - Lillie Dee - Bonnie Leota - Roxie Nadie - Oliver Kelly and one last baby unnamed. Of these people, at least three of then felt it was important to write down something about their time on earth and left some written record for those of us who followed. The three were Ed* Sampson who served in the Confederate Army and died in 1934; Simpson Bredna Sampson who died in 1953 but not before he told of a young man's trip on horseback with his entire family from Texas to Washington state and how he met his future wife on the trail; and Ina Sampson West who wrote about living and growing up on the prairie on Oklahoma and of how the mix of the white man and Indian culture blended together to have an effect on all of our lives. These stories were not unique in their time; what makes them unique is that they felt compelled to write it down and pass it on to us so that our lives may be enriched by it. The study of genealogy is a never ending process. We have been very lucky in finding much of this information that had already been assembled by others. An example is a James Rowe who lives in Houston, Texas. His father found his Sampson line in 1963 and until he died in about 1979, did quite a lot of research on the Sampson. If you remember, William M. Sampson* had four sisters. One of them was named Anna Eliza and she married a David Look Rowe. James had a picture of them taken in their later years of which I have a copy. James Rowe was a real genealogist and spent his vacations going through old records all over the country. He even made a trip to Mississippi to look at the Reverend James Sampson's Bible before he died. Unfortunately there was no family history written down in the Bible, but it is still in existence today in Mississippi.