Mansel Womack was born June 4, 1770 in North Carolina, the son of Abraham Womack and his first wife, Martha Mitchell. He moved to Georgia with his father, step-mother Martha Watkins, and siblings as a young man.
Abraham Womack wrote in his 1797 will: "I give unto my son Mancil Womack my green broadcloth coat," a bequest that was common for the time, but gives a personal glimpse into the individuals behind the recorded facts. Descendants wonder what that green broadcloth coat looked like, and whether it fit Mansel or had to be altered, or whether he kept it at all or passed it on to someone else.
Mansel's name is found in various Georgia county records including Greene (1790), Warren (1805), Hancock (1807), and Jones County (1817, 1818). He married his first wife, Sarah Rogers, daughter of Drury and Tabitha Rogers, on September 11, 1790 in Greene County, Georgia.
Mansel and Sarah's children were Martha "Patsy" Womack (1791-1859) who married Adam Livingston; Jesse Womack (c. 1795-1848) who married (1) Frances Carter (2) Mrs. Jane Lewis Melvin; Kinchen R. Womack (1800-1851) who married Mary Agnes (probably a Jones); and Mary Avia Womack (born about 1802) who married (1) Charles Timothy Paul (2) Jim Grey. Other children were *said* to be Sarah Anne who may have married an Evans, and Lucy who married a Whiting and/or an Evans – but these names seem to come from descendants mixing up memories of the older generation of kinfolk. Lucy Womack, Mansel's half-sister, married Stith Evans. Lucy Mitchell Coleman, daughter of Mansel's half-sister Elizabeth Womack and Benjamin Stephen Coleman, married Ebenezer Whiting. Lucy's sister, Martha Watkins Coleman, married Abner Evans.
Sarah Rogers Womack is said to have died in childbirth in 1804 (no proof, only family stories), and Mansel married Mary Mariah "Polly" Lewis on July 9, 1805 in Georgia (no county marriage record has been found; the date is from family papers). Mary was the daughter of Jacob Lewis and Sarah Noland. A number of her Lewis family were early settlers of Butler County, Alabama, and Mary became a Butler County resident as well.
Mansel bought land in Alabama as early as 1816, but didn't settle here until several years later. He and his brother John Womack came to Butler County from Georgia in 1818. With them, or shortly afterwards, came several of Mansel's adult children with their spouses – Martha Womack and Adam Livingston, Jesse Womack and Frances Carter, and Mary Avia Womack and Charles Paul.
Mansel's son Jacob Lewis Womack wrote in a reminiscence letter in "The Greenville Advocate," July 30, 1874:
"With the exceptions of three or four others, I am the longest resident now alive in Butler county. I left Jones county, Georgia, with my father in the fall of 1818, and arrived in Butler county some time in December. The coming fall will make fifty-six years since my arrival."
Even without JLW's reminiscences, we know that Mansel was living in Butler County by December 1819, since he was elected a justice of the county court then. His son Jesse Womack was elected Butler County's first sheriff in 1820.
Mansel Womack and Mar Lewis' children were Jacob Lewis Womack (1806-1877) who married Agnes Chiles and lived on The Ridge; John Warburton Womack (1807-1863) who married Mrs. Ann Miller Beville Hays and lived in Eutaw, Alabama; Mansel Noland Womack (1810-1842) who married Ann Jones and lived on The Ridge; Abraham Mitchell Womack (1809-1856) who married Martha Pruitt of Lowndes County and lived on The Ridge; and Joseph D. Womack (1818-1894) who married Sarah Jane Tigner of Wilkinson County, Mississippi, lived in Mississippi and then died in Texas.
Mansel and Mary are also said to have had several daughters who died young. Grandson Thaddeus Augustus Womack wrote in 1896: "Our Grandfather had, I think, about seven daughters." We can only positively identify two daughters as the children of Mansel's first wife Sarah Rogers, and she didn't live long enough to be the mother of six or seven MORE children in addition to her four proven children. It's very likely that Mary Mariah Lewis had several daughters who died young. The gap in births of her known children is from 1810 to 1818, so we can estimate that several daughters may have been born between 1811 and 1817. We doubt any children would have been born later than 1818, when Mary was already 45, but it's possible.
Thaddeus Augustus "Gus" Womack (abt 1828-1897), son of Jacob Lewis Womack (1806-1877) and grandson of Mansel Womack (1770-1826), wrote bits of family history in a letter to "Cousin Pauline" in 1896. The letter is dated June 30, 1896, on letterhead: Office of J. L. Womack, Dealer in General Merchandise, 5 Postoffice Block, Greenville, Ala.
Cousin Pauline,
I recon you thought I was never going to answer your letter. I seldom write now. In relation to your enquiries I send you one of Pa's letters to Cousin Rebecca Hinds. Also a duplicate of the family record he sent her.
I thought I would keep one of the originals. This being written in 1850. It ought to have some additions but with the exception of myself, son Lewis, and one of Uncle Joseph D. Womack's son Edward, there is no other male relative.
Your father's brothers were (in order): Jacob Lewis Womack, John Warburton Womack, Mansel Noland Womack, Abraham M. and Joseph D. Womack. They had two half brothers, Jesse and Kitchen. Thomas, Uncle Jesse's son, lives in Victoria, Texas. Uncle Kintchen has three or four sons in Texas and Arkansas.
You see, we have relations all over the United States and I know very little about the family outside of my own uncles, as my grandfather Mansel, and his brother John moved to this co. in 1818.
There are a great many Womacks in Va. My brother-in-law Wiley W. – [Womack] was a soldier in the hospital in Danville, Va. during the War, said there was a Womack found it out. Came and took him home with him. Kept him there until he got well. Said he reminded him very much of my father, Large, stout, weighs about 225 lbs.
Our grandfather had I think about 7 daughters. John, Mansel's brother, had five. My wife's kin lived in Ga. so we have extensive relationship over.
You will have to excuse this as I wrote on a book in my lap. I will write again soon.
Your cousin,
T. A. Womack
P. S. Love to Cousin Octavia, my respects to your family.
----------- [end of letter ------------
With this letter were copies of two old, very nicely-handwritten pages on 4.5 x 7-inch plain sheets – not the family record that "Pa" (John Warburton Womack) sent to Cousin Rebecca Hinds, since the family data on these small note pages comes down to Frederick William Crenshaw II's 1897 marriage to "M. Inez Owens." Perhaps these small sheets were written by FWC II? Also there were 3 numbered pages on "J. L. Womack" letterhead with an accompanying cover envelope addressed to "Mr. G. A. Crenshaw, Office" with the date "July 3rd, 1912" written on the left bottom corner of the envelope. The typeset printed return address is "Return in five days to J. L. Womack, Greenville, Ala.", and handwritten at the top of the envelope (I believe by the recipient) is "Womack Record."
The 3 pages have an Old English font letterhead with a place on each page to insert a handwritten date as 191__ :
J. L. Womack Notary Public
Agent for
Artistic Foreign and Domestic Monuments
===========================
Iron Fencing, Marble Work
of All Kinds
Greenville, Alabama ________________ 191__
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
So we see that G. A. Womack was sharing T. A. Womacks' 1896 family letter with relatives in 1912. The people mentioned in the letter and its accompanying note pages are:
"Cousin Pauline" = Pauline Womack, daughter of John Warburton Womack (1807-1863)
"Cousin Octavia" = Octavia Womack, sister of Pauline
"Cousin Rebecca Hinds" = Rebecca Womack, daughter of Sherwood Womack (abt 1764-abt 1819), married Lewis Hines/Hinds
"T. A. Womack" = Thaddeus Augustus "Gus" Womack (abt 1828-1897), son of Jacob Lewis Womack Sr.
"J. L. Womack" letterhead = Gus Womack's son, Jacob Lewis Womack, called Lewis
The Womack men became planters and farmers, and some served as county officials. Family stories handed down into the twentieth century described them as big, strong men, all over six feet tall.
Mansel died in Butler County on December 11, 1826. He was buried in Womack Cemetery near his home on The Ridge. The story was passed down in the Womack-Crenshaw family on The Ridge that Mansel's death occurred while he was bringing the doctor for his wife Mary during a winter storm. Mary was said to have been staying with her Lewis kinfolk down The Ridge, and on the long return journey with the doctor, Mansel's horse slipped and fell on the icy Caldwell Hill. Mansel was killed by a broken neck. The doctor placed Mansel's body upon the horse, rode on to the home and tended to the ill wife, and waited until the next morning to tell her of her husband's death.
Even though the Butler County courthouse burned in April 1853, we know from the Crenshaw family papers that Mansel Womack did leave a will and estate. My mother, the late Myra Ware Williams Crenshaw (1921-1985) , transcribed hundreds of family documents in the 1960s-1970s that were then in the possession of Crenshaw-Womack cousins on The Ridge. One of her transcripts is this document:
Deed: ".... that whereas Mansel Womack Gent by his last will and testament among other things directed his executors to sell all or any part of his estate real or personal, and whereas it is deemed expedient to sell .... one hundred and sixty acres .... Therefore we, John Womack, John Lewis and Jacob L. Womack, Executors of the last will and testament of the said Mansel Womack Gent and Mary Womack widow.... do convey to Anderson Crenshaw.... this 6th of August 1832.
Wit: M. W. Levingston Jn. Womack
Wm. Manning John Lewis
J. L. Womack
Mary Womack
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, these priceless family documents are now scattered among later descendants, and some have been destroyed in "house cleaning" after older relatives' deaths. Not every one today values family letters, diaries, plantation accounts and journals, bibles, deeds, wills, store accounts and other papers that were preserved for two centuries.
The identities of Mansel's children by his first wife, Sarah Rogers, have been debated over the years, as you see in this biography. Unfortunately, past researchers often relied on inaccurate sources, such as Dr. Jean Stephenson's well-known 1913 "Record of the Womack Family" (which she never intended to be published as an absolutely factual genealogy). Part of her work is correct, and parts are not. Mansel's children by his second wife, Mary Mariah Lewis, are much more accurately documented than his children by his first wife, Sarah Rogers.
I wrote a long biographical story about Mansel Womack for "The Heritage of Butler County, Alabama" (published in 2003). This article was based on data I had gathered by 2001-2002, and some of it has since been proven wrong, such as the stories of a daughter Lucy who married an Evans and a Whiting. If you've relied on the 2003 article for information on Mansel, I'll be glad to share updates and corrections with you. We can help each other by sharing what we know, and revising and correcting EVERY fact as new evidence comes to light.
I'll edit and add more to this memorial (transferred to me in April 2023) as time permits.
Abraham Womack wrote in his 1797 will: "I give unto my son Mancil Womack my green broadcloth coat," a bequest that was common for the time, but gives a personal glimpse into the individuals behind the recorded facts. Descendants wonder what that green broadcloth coat looked like, and whether it fit Mansel or had to be altered, or whether he kept it at all or passed it on to someone else.
Mansel's name is found in various Georgia county records including Greene (1790), Warren (1805), Hancock (1807), and Jones County (1817, 1818). He married his first wife, Sarah Rogers, daughter of Drury and Tabitha Rogers, on September 11, 1790 in Greene County, Georgia.
Mansel and Sarah's children were Martha "Patsy" Womack (1791-1859) who married Adam Livingston; Jesse Womack (c. 1795-1848) who married (1) Frances Carter (2) Mrs. Jane Lewis Melvin; Kinchen R. Womack (1800-1851) who married Mary Agnes (probably a Jones); and Mary Avia Womack (born about 1802) who married (1) Charles Timothy Paul (2) Jim Grey. Other children were *said* to be Sarah Anne who may have married an Evans, and Lucy who married a Whiting and/or an Evans – but these names seem to come from descendants mixing up memories of the older generation of kinfolk. Lucy Womack, Mansel's half-sister, married Stith Evans. Lucy Mitchell Coleman, daughter of Mansel's half-sister Elizabeth Womack and Benjamin Stephen Coleman, married Ebenezer Whiting. Lucy's sister, Martha Watkins Coleman, married Abner Evans.
Sarah Rogers Womack is said to have died in childbirth in 1804 (no proof, only family stories), and Mansel married Mary Mariah "Polly" Lewis on July 9, 1805 in Georgia (no county marriage record has been found; the date is from family papers). Mary was the daughter of Jacob Lewis and Sarah Noland. A number of her Lewis family were early settlers of Butler County, Alabama, and Mary became a Butler County resident as well.
Mansel bought land in Alabama as early as 1816, but didn't settle here until several years later. He and his brother John Womack came to Butler County from Georgia in 1818. With them, or shortly afterwards, came several of Mansel's adult children with their spouses – Martha Womack and Adam Livingston, Jesse Womack and Frances Carter, and Mary Avia Womack and Charles Paul.
Mansel's son Jacob Lewis Womack wrote in a reminiscence letter in "The Greenville Advocate," July 30, 1874:
"With the exceptions of three or four others, I am the longest resident now alive in Butler county. I left Jones county, Georgia, with my father in the fall of 1818, and arrived in Butler county some time in December. The coming fall will make fifty-six years since my arrival."
Even without JLW's reminiscences, we know that Mansel was living in Butler County by December 1819, since he was elected a justice of the county court then. His son Jesse Womack was elected Butler County's first sheriff in 1820.
Mansel Womack and Mar Lewis' children were Jacob Lewis Womack (1806-1877) who married Agnes Chiles and lived on The Ridge; John Warburton Womack (1807-1863) who married Mrs. Ann Miller Beville Hays and lived in Eutaw, Alabama; Mansel Noland Womack (1810-1842) who married Ann Jones and lived on The Ridge; Abraham Mitchell Womack (1809-1856) who married Martha Pruitt of Lowndes County and lived on The Ridge; and Joseph D. Womack (1818-1894) who married Sarah Jane Tigner of Wilkinson County, Mississippi, lived in Mississippi and then died in Texas.
Mansel and Mary are also said to have had several daughters who died young. Grandson Thaddeus Augustus Womack wrote in 1896: "Our Grandfather had, I think, about seven daughters." We can only positively identify two daughters as the children of Mansel's first wife Sarah Rogers, and she didn't live long enough to be the mother of six or seven MORE children in addition to her four proven children. It's very likely that Mary Mariah Lewis had several daughters who died young. The gap in births of her known children is from 1810 to 1818, so we can estimate that several daughters may have been born between 1811 and 1817. We doubt any children would have been born later than 1818, when Mary was already 45, but it's possible.
Thaddeus Augustus "Gus" Womack (abt 1828-1897), son of Jacob Lewis Womack (1806-1877) and grandson of Mansel Womack (1770-1826), wrote bits of family history in a letter to "Cousin Pauline" in 1896. The letter is dated June 30, 1896, on letterhead: Office of J. L. Womack, Dealer in General Merchandise, 5 Postoffice Block, Greenville, Ala.
Cousin Pauline,
I recon you thought I was never going to answer your letter. I seldom write now. In relation to your enquiries I send you one of Pa's letters to Cousin Rebecca Hinds. Also a duplicate of the family record he sent her.
I thought I would keep one of the originals. This being written in 1850. It ought to have some additions but with the exception of myself, son Lewis, and one of Uncle Joseph D. Womack's son Edward, there is no other male relative.
Your father's brothers were (in order): Jacob Lewis Womack, John Warburton Womack, Mansel Noland Womack, Abraham M. and Joseph D. Womack. They had two half brothers, Jesse and Kitchen. Thomas, Uncle Jesse's son, lives in Victoria, Texas. Uncle Kintchen has three or four sons in Texas and Arkansas.
You see, we have relations all over the United States and I know very little about the family outside of my own uncles, as my grandfather Mansel, and his brother John moved to this co. in 1818.
There are a great many Womacks in Va. My brother-in-law Wiley W. – [Womack] was a soldier in the hospital in Danville, Va. during the War, said there was a Womack found it out. Came and took him home with him. Kept him there until he got well. Said he reminded him very much of my father, Large, stout, weighs about 225 lbs.
Our grandfather had I think about 7 daughters. John, Mansel's brother, had five. My wife's kin lived in Ga. so we have extensive relationship over.
You will have to excuse this as I wrote on a book in my lap. I will write again soon.
Your cousin,
T. A. Womack
P. S. Love to Cousin Octavia, my respects to your family.
----------- [end of letter ------------
With this letter were copies of two old, very nicely-handwritten pages on 4.5 x 7-inch plain sheets – not the family record that "Pa" (John Warburton Womack) sent to Cousin Rebecca Hinds, since the family data on these small note pages comes down to Frederick William Crenshaw II's 1897 marriage to "M. Inez Owens." Perhaps these small sheets were written by FWC II? Also there were 3 numbered pages on "J. L. Womack" letterhead with an accompanying cover envelope addressed to "Mr. G. A. Crenshaw, Office" with the date "July 3rd, 1912" written on the left bottom corner of the envelope. The typeset printed return address is "Return in five days to J. L. Womack, Greenville, Ala.", and handwritten at the top of the envelope (I believe by the recipient) is "Womack Record."
The 3 pages have an Old English font letterhead with a place on each page to insert a handwritten date as 191__ :
J. L. Womack Notary Public
Agent for
Artistic Foreign and Domestic Monuments
===========================
Iron Fencing, Marble Work
of All Kinds
Greenville, Alabama ________________ 191__
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
So we see that G. A. Womack was sharing T. A. Womacks' 1896 family letter with relatives in 1912. The people mentioned in the letter and its accompanying note pages are:
"Cousin Pauline" = Pauline Womack, daughter of John Warburton Womack (1807-1863)
"Cousin Octavia" = Octavia Womack, sister of Pauline
"Cousin Rebecca Hinds" = Rebecca Womack, daughter of Sherwood Womack (abt 1764-abt 1819), married Lewis Hines/Hinds
"T. A. Womack" = Thaddeus Augustus "Gus" Womack (abt 1828-1897), son of Jacob Lewis Womack Sr.
"J. L. Womack" letterhead = Gus Womack's son, Jacob Lewis Womack, called Lewis
The Womack men became planters and farmers, and some served as county officials. Family stories handed down into the twentieth century described them as big, strong men, all over six feet tall.
Mansel died in Butler County on December 11, 1826. He was buried in Womack Cemetery near his home on The Ridge. The story was passed down in the Womack-Crenshaw family on The Ridge that Mansel's death occurred while he was bringing the doctor for his wife Mary during a winter storm. Mary was said to have been staying with her Lewis kinfolk down The Ridge, and on the long return journey with the doctor, Mansel's horse slipped and fell on the icy Caldwell Hill. Mansel was killed by a broken neck. The doctor placed Mansel's body upon the horse, rode on to the home and tended to the ill wife, and waited until the next morning to tell her of her husband's death.
Even though the Butler County courthouse burned in April 1853, we know from the Crenshaw family papers that Mansel Womack did leave a will and estate. My mother, the late Myra Ware Williams Crenshaw (1921-1985) , transcribed hundreds of family documents in the 1960s-1970s that were then in the possession of Crenshaw-Womack cousins on The Ridge. One of her transcripts is this document:
Deed: ".... that whereas Mansel Womack Gent by his last will and testament among other things directed his executors to sell all or any part of his estate real or personal, and whereas it is deemed expedient to sell .... one hundred and sixty acres .... Therefore we, John Womack, John Lewis and Jacob L. Womack, Executors of the last will and testament of the said Mansel Womack Gent and Mary Womack widow.... do convey to Anderson Crenshaw.... this 6th of August 1832.
Wit: M. W. Levingston Jn. Womack
Wm. Manning John Lewis
J. L. Womack
Mary Womack
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, these priceless family documents are now scattered among later descendants, and some have been destroyed in "house cleaning" after older relatives' deaths. Not every one today values family letters, diaries, plantation accounts and journals, bibles, deeds, wills, store accounts and other papers that were preserved for two centuries.
The identities of Mansel's children by his first wife, Sarah Rogers, have been debated over the years, as you see in this biography. Unfortunately, past researchers often relied on inaccurate sources, such as Dr. Jean Stephenson's well-known 1913 "Record of the Womack Family" (which she never intended to be published as an absolutely factual genealogy). Part of her work is correct, and parts are not. Mansel's children by his second wife, Mary Mariah Lewis, are much more accurately documented than his children by his first wife, Sarah Rogers.
I wrote a long biographical story about Mansel Womack for "The Heritage of Butler County, Alabama" (published in 2003). This article was based on data I had gathered by 2001-2002, and some of it has since been proven wrong, such as the stories of a daughter Lucy who married an Evans and a Whiting. If you've relied on the 2003 article for information on Mansel, I'll be glad to share updates and corrections with you. We can help each other by sharing what we know, and revising and correcting EVERY fact as new evidence comes to light.
I'll edit and add more to this memorial (transferred to me in April 2023) as time permits.
Mansel Womack was born June 4, 1770 in North Carolina, the son of Abraham Womack and his first wife, Martha Mitchell. He moved to Georgia with his father, step-mother Martha Watkins, and siblings as a young man.
Abraham Womack wrote in his 1797 will: "I give unto my son Mancil Womack my green broadcloth coat," a bequest that was common for the time, but gives a personal glimpse into the individuals behind the recorded facts. Descendants wonder what that green broadcloth coat looked like, and whether it fit Mansel or had to be altered, or whether he kept it at all or passed it on to someone else.
Mansel's name is found in various Georgia county records including Greene (1790), Warren (1805), Hancock (1807), and Jones County (1817, 1818). He married his first wife, Sarah Rogers, daughter of Drury and Tabitha Rogers, on September 11, 1790 in Greene County, Georgia.
Mansel and Sarah's children were Martha "Patsy" Womack (1791-1859) who married Adam Livingston; Jesse Womack (c. 1795-1848) who married (1) Frances Carter (2) Mrs. Jane Lewis Melvin; Kinchen R. Womack (1800-1851) who married Mary Agnes (probably a Jones); and Mary Avia Womack (born about 1802) who married (1) Charles Timothy Paul (2) Jim Grey. Other children were *said* to be Sarah Anne who may have married an Evans, and Lucy who married a Whiting and/or an Evans – but these names seem to come from descendants mixing up memories of the older generation of kinfolk. Lucy Womack, Mansel's half-sister, married Stith Evans. Lucy Mitchell Coleman, daughter of Mansel's half-sister Elizabeth Womack and Benjamin Stephen Coleman, married Ebenezer Whiting. Lucy's sister, Martha Watkins Coleman, married Abner Evans.
Sarah Rogers Womack is said to have died in childbirth in 1804 (no proof, only family stories), and Mansel married Mary Mariah "Polly" Lewis on July 9, 1805 in Georgia (no county marriage record has been found; the date is from family papers). Mary was the daughter of Jacob Lewis and Sarah Noland. A number of her Lewis family were early settlers of Butler County, Alabama, and Mary became a Butler County resident as well.
Mansel bought land in Alabama as early as 1816, but didn't settle here until several years later. He and his brother John Womack came to Butler County from Georgia in 1818. With them, or shortly afterwards, came several of Mansel's adult children with their spouses – Martha Womack and Adam Livingston, Jesse Womack and Frances Carter, and Mary Avia Womack and Charles Paul.
Mansel's son Jacob Lewis Womack wrote in a reminiscence letter in "The Greenville Advocate," July 30, 1874:
"With the exceptions of three or four others, I am the longest resident now alive in Butler county. I left Jones county, Georgia, with my father in the fall of 1818, and arrived in Butler county some time in December. The coming fall will make fifty-six years since my arrival."
Even without JLW's reminiscences, we know that Mansel was living in Butler County by December 1819, since he was elected a justice of the county court then. His son Jesse Womack was elected Butler County's first sheriff in 1820.
Mansel Womack and Mar Lewis' children were Jacob Lewis Womack (1806-1877) who married Agnes Chiles and lived on The Ridge; John Warburton Womack (1807-1863) who married Mrs. Ann Miller Beville Hays and lived in Eutaw, Alabama; Mansel Noland Womack (1810-1842) who married Ann Jones and lived on The Ridge; Abraham Mitchell Womack (1809-1856) who married Martha Pruitt of Lowndes County and lived on The Ridge; and Joseph D. Womack (1818-1894) who married Sarah Jane Tigner of Wilkinson County, Mississippi, lived in Mississippi and then died in Texas.
Mansel and Mary are also said to have had several daughters who died young. Grandson Thaddeus Augustus Womack wrote in 1896: "Our Grandfather had, I think, about seven daughters." We can only positively identify two daughters as the children of Mansel's first wife Sarah Rogers, and she didn't live long enough to be the mother of six or seven MORE children in addition to her four proven children. It's very likely that Mary Mariah Lewis had several daughters who died young. The gap in births of her known children is from 1810 to 1818, so we can estimate that several daughters may have been born between 1811 and 1817. We doubt any children would have been born later than 1818, when Mary was already 45, but it's possible.
Thaddeus Augustus "Gus" Womack (abt 1828-1897), son of Jacob Lewis Womack (1806-1877) and grandson of Mansel Womack (1770-1826), wrote bits of family history in a letter to "Cousin Pauline" in 1896. The letter is dated June 30, 1896, on letterhead: Office of J. L. Womack, Dealer in General Merchandise, 5 Postoffice Block, Greenville, Ala.
Cousin Pauline,
I recon you thought I was never going to answer your letter. I seldom write now. In relation to your enquiries I send you one of Pa's letters to Cousin Rebecca Hinds. Also a duplicate of the family record he sent her.
I thought I would keep one of the originals. This being written in 1850. It ought to have some additions but with the exception of myself, son Lewis, and one of Uncle Joseph D. Womack's son Edward, there is no other male relative.
Your father's brothers were (in order): Jacob Lewis Womack, John Warburton Womack, Mansel Noland Womack, Abraham M. and Joseph D. Womack. They had two half brothers, Jesse and Kitchen. Thomas, Uncle Jesse's son, lives in Victoria, Texas. Uncle Kintchen has three or four sons in Texas and Arkansas.
You see, we have relations all over the United States and I know very little about the family outside of my own uncles, as my grandfather Mansel, and his brother John moved to this co. in 1818.
There are a great many Womacks in Va. My brother-in-law Wiley W. – [Womack] was a soldier in the hospital in Danville, Va. during the War, said there was a Womack found it out. Came and took him home with him. Kept him there until he got well. Said he reminded him very much of my father, Large, stout, weighs about 225 lbs.
Our grandfather had I think about 7 daughters. John, Mansel's brother, had five. My wife's kin lived in Ga. so we have extensive relationship over.
You will have to excuse this as I wrote on a book in my lap. I will write again soon.
Your cousin,
T. A. Womack
P. S. Love to Cousin Octavia, my respects to your family.
----------- [end of letter ------------
With this letter were copies of two old, very nicely-handwritten pages on 4.5 x 7-inch plain sheets – not the family record that "Pa" (John Warburton Womack) sent to Cousin Rebecca Hinds, since the family data on these small note pages comes down to Frederick William Crenshaw II's 1897 marriage to "M. Inez Owens." Perhaps these small sheets were written by FWC II? Also there were 3 numbered pages on "J. L. Womack" letterhead with an accompanying cover envelope addressed to "Mr. G. A. Crenshaw, Office" with the date "July 3rd, 1912" written on the left bottom corner of the envelope. The typeset printed return address is "Return in five days to J. L. Womack, Greenville, Ala.", and handwritten at the top of the envelope (I believe by the recipient) is "Womack Record."
The 3 pages have an Old English font letterhead with a place on each page to insert a handwritten date as 191__ :
J. L. Womack Notary Public
Agent for
Artistic Foreign and Domestic Monuments
===========================
Iron Fencing, Marble Work
of All Kinds
Greenville, Alabama ________________ 191__
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
So we see that G. A. Womack was sharing T. A. Womacks' 1896 family letter with relatives in 1912. The people mentioned in the letter and its accompanying note pages are:
"Cousin Pauline" = Pauline Womack, daughter of John Warburton Womack (1807-1863)
"Cousin Octavia" = Octavia Womack, sister of Pauline
"Cousin Rebecca Hinds" = Rebecca Womack, daughter of Sherwood Womack (abt 1764-abt 1819), married Lewis Hines/Hinds
"T. A. Womack" = Thaddeus Augustus "Gus" Womack (abt 1828-1897), son of Jacob Lewis Womack Sr.
"J. L. Womack" letterhead = Gus Womack's son, Jacob Lewis Womack, called Lewis
The Womack men became planters and farmers, and some served as county officials. Family stories handed down into the twentieth century described them as big, strong men, all over six feet tall.
Mansel died in Butler County on December 11, 1826. He was buried in Womack Cemetery near his home on The Ridge. The story was passed down in the Womack-Crenshaw family on The Ridge that Mansel's death occurred while he was bringing the doctor for his wife Mary during a winter storm. Mary was said to have been staying with her Lewis kinfolk down The Ridge, and on the long return journey with the doctor, Mansel's horse slipped and fell on the icy Caldwell Hill. Mansel was killed by a broken neck. The doctor placed Mansel's body upon the horse, rode on to the home and tended to the ill wife, and waited until the next morning to tell her of her husband's death.
Even though the Butler County courthouse burned in April 1853, we know from the Crenshaw family papers that Mansel Womack did leave a will and estate. My mother, the late Myra Ware Williams Crenshaw (1921-1985) , transcribed hundreds of family documents in the 1960s-1970s that were then in the possession of Crenshaw-Womack cousins on The Ridge. One of her transcripts is this document:
Deed: ".... that whereas Mansel Womack Gent by his last will and testament among other things directed his executors to sell all or any part of his estate real or personal, and whereas it is deemed expedient to sell .... one hundred and sixty acres .... Therefore we, John Womack, John Lewis and Jacob L. Womack, Executors of the last will and testament of the said Mansel Womack Gent and Mary Womack widow.... do convey to Anderson Crenshaw.... this 6th of August 1832.
Wit: M. W. Levingston Jn. Womack
Wm. Manning John Lewis
J. L. Womack
Mary Womack
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, these priceless family documents are now scattered among later descendants, and some have been destroyed in "house cleaning" after older relatives' deaths. Not every one today values family letters, diaries, plantation accounts and journals, bibles, deeds, wills, store accounts and other papers that were preserved for two centuries.
The identities of Mansel's children by his first wife, Sarah Rogers, have been debated over the years, as you see in this biography. Unfortunately, past researchers often relied on inaccurate sources, such as Dr. Jean Stephenson's well-known 1913 "Record of the Womack Family" (which she never intended to be published as an absolutely factual genealogy). Part of her work is correct, and parts are not. Mansel's children by his second wife, Mary Mariah Lewis, are much more accurately documented than his children by his first wife, Sarah Rogers.
I wrote a long biographical story about Mansel Womack for "The Heritage of Butler County, Alabama" (published in 2003). This article was based on data I had gathered by 2001-2002, and some of it has since been proven wrong, such as the stories of a daughter Lucy who married an Evans and a Whiting. If you've relied on the 2003 article for information on Mansel, I'll be glad to share updates and corrections with you. We can help each other by sharing what we know, and revising and correcting EVERY fact as new evidence comes to light.
I'll edit and add more to this memorial (transferred to me in April 2023) as time permits.
Abraham Womack wrote in his 1797 will: "I give unto my son Mancil Womack my green broadcloth coat," a bequest that was common for the time, but gives a personal glimpse into the individuals behind the recorded facts. Descendants wonder what that green broadcloth coat looked like, and whether it fit Mansel or had to be altered, or whether he kept it at all or passed it on to someone else.
Mansel's name is found in various Georgia county records including Greene (1790), Warren (1805), Hancock (1807), and Jones County (1817, 1818). He married his first wife, Sarah Rogers, daughter of Drury and Tabitha Rogers, on September 11, 1790 in Greene County, Georgia.
Mansel and Sarah's children were Martha "Patsy" Womack (1791-1859) who married Adam Livingston; Jesse Womack (c. 1795-1848) who married (1) Frances Carter (2) Mrs. Jane Lewis Melvin; Kinchen R. Womack (1800-1851) who married Mary Agnes (probably a Jones); and Mary Avia Womack (born about 1802) who married (1) Charles Timothy Paul (2) Jim Grey. Other children were *said* to be Sarah Anne who may have married an Evans, and Lucy who married a Whiting and/or an Evans – but these names seem to come from descendants mixing up memories of the older generation of kinfolk. Lucy Womack, Mansel's half-sister, married Stith Evans. Lucy Mitchell Coleman, daughter of Mansel's half-sister Elizabeth Womack and Benjamin Stephen Coleman, married Ebenezer Whiting. Lucy's sister, Martha Watkins Coleman, married Abner Evans.
Sarah Rogers Womack is said to have died in childbirth in 1804 (no proof, only family stories), and Mansel married Mary Mariah "Polly" Lewis on July 9, 1805 in Georgia (no county marriage record has been found; the date is from family papers). Mary was the daughter of Jacob Lewis and Sarah Noland. A number of her Lewis family were early settlers of Butler County, Alabama, and Mary became a Butler County resident as well.
Mansel bought land in Alabama as early as 1816, but didn't settle here until several years later. He and his brother John Womack came to Butler County from Georgia in 1818. With them, or shortly afterwards, came several of Mansel's adult children with their spouses – Martha Womack and Adam Livingston, Jesse Womack and Frances Carter, and Mary Avia Womack and Charles Paul.
Mansel's son Jacob Lewis Womack wrote in a reminiscence letter in "The Greenville Advocate," July 30, 1874:
"With the exceptions of three or four others, I am the longest resident now alive in Butler county. I left Jones county, Georgia, with my father in the fall of 1818, and arrived in Butler county some time in December. The coming fall will make fifty-six years since my arrival."
Even without JLW's reminiscences, we know that Mansel was living in Butler County by December 1819, since he was elected a justice of the county court then. His son Jesse Womack was elected Butler County's first sheriff in 1820.
Mansel Womack and Mar Lewis' children were Jacob Lewis Womack (1806-1877) who married Agnes Chiles and lived on The Ridge; John Warburton Womack (1807-1863) who married Mrs. Ann Miller Beville Hays and lived in Eutaw, Alabama; Mansel Noland Womack (1810-1842) who married Ann Jones and lived on The Ridge; Abraham Mitchell Womack (1809-1856) who married Martha Pruitt of Lowndes County and lived on The Ridge; and Joseph D. Womack (1818-1894) who married Sarah Jane Tigner of Wilkinson County, Mississippi, lived in Mississippi and then died in Texas.
Mansel and Mary are also said to have had several daughters who died young. Grandson Thaddeus Augustus Womack wrote in 1896: "Our Grandfather had, I think, about seven daughters." We can only positively identify two daughters as the children of Mansel's first wife Sarah Rogers, and she didn't live long enough to be the mother of six or seven MORE children in addition to her four proven children. It's very likely that Mary Mariah Lewis had several daughters who died young. The gap in births of her known children is from 1810 to 1818, so we can estimate that several daughters may have been born between 1811 and 1817. We doubt any children would have been born later than 1818, when Mary was already 45, but it's possible.
Thaddeus Augustus "Gus" Womack (abt 1828-1897), son of Jacob Lewis Womack (1806-1877) and grandson of Mansel Womack (1770-1826), wrote bits of family history in a letter to "Cousin Pauline" in 1896. The letter is dated June 30, 1896, on letterhead: Office of J. L. Womack, Dealer in General Merchandise, 5 Postoffice Block, Greenville, Ala.
Cousin Pauline,
I recon you thought I was never going to answer your letter. I seldom write now. In relation to your enquiries I send you one of Pa's letters to Cousin Rebecca Hinds. Also a duplicate of the family record he sent her.
I thought I would keep one of the originals. This being written in 1850. It ought to have some additions but with the exception of myself, son Lewis, and one of Uncle Joseph D. Womack's son Edward, there is no other male relative.
Your father's brothers were (in order): Jacob Lewis Womack, John Warburton Womack, Mansel Noland Womack, Abraham M. and Joseph D. Womack. They had two half brothers, Jesse and Kitchen. Thomas, Uncle Jesse's son, lives in Victoria, Texas. Uncle Kintchen has three or four sons in Texas and Arkansas.
You see, we have relations all over the United States and I know very little about the family outside of my own uncles, as my grandfather Mansel, and his brother John moved to this co. in 1818.
There are a great many Womacks in Va. My brother-in-law Wiley W. – [Womack] was a soldier in the hospital in Danville, Va. during the War, said there was a Womack found it out. Came and took him home with him. Kept him there until he got well. Said he reminded him very much of my father, Large, stout, weighs about 225 lbs.
Our grandfather had I think about 7 daughters. John, Mansel's brother, had five. My wife's kin lived in Ga. so we have extensive relationship over.
You will have to excuse this as I wrote on a book in my lap. I will write again soon.
Your cousin,
T. A. Womack
P. S. Love to Cousin Octavia, my respects to your family.
----------- [end of letter ------------
With this letter were copies of two old, very nicely-handwritten pages on 4.5 x 7-inch plain sheets – not the family record that "Pa" (John Warburton Womack) sent to Cousin Rebecca Hinds, since the family data on these small note pages comes down to Frederick William Crenshaw II's 1897 marriage to "M. Inez Owens." Perhaps these small sheets were written by FWC II? Also there were 3 numbered pages on "J. L. Womack" letterhead with an accompanying cover envelope addressed to "Mr. G. A. Crenshaw, Office" with the date "July 3rd, 1912" written on the left bottom corner of the envelope. The typeset printed return address is "Return in five days to J. L. Womack, Greenville, Ala.", and handwritten at the top of the envelope (I believe by the recipient) is "Womack Record."
The 3 pages have an Old English font letterhead with a place on each page to insert a handwritten date as 191__ :
J. L. Womack Notary Public
Agent for
Artistic Foreign and Domestic Monuments
===========================
Iron Fencing, Marble Work
of All Kinds
Greenville, Alabama ________________ 191__
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
So we see that G. A. Womack was sharing T. A. Womacks' 1896 family letter with relatives in 1912. The people mentioned in the letter and its accompanying note pages are:
"Cousin Pauline" = Pauline Womack, daughter of John Warburton Womack (1807-1863)
"Cousin Octavia" = Octavia Womack, sister of Pauline
"Cousin Rebecca Hinds" = Rebecca Womack, daughter of Sherwood Womack (abt 1764-abt 1819), married Lewis Hines/Hinds
"T. A. Womack" = Thaddeus Augustus "Gus" Womack (abt 1828-1897), son of Jacob Lewis Womack Sr.
"J. L. Womack" letterhead = Gus Womack's son, Jacob Lewis Womack, called Lewis
The Womack men became planters and farmers, and some served as county officials. Family stories handed down into the twentieth century described them as big, strong men, all over six feet tall.
Mansel died in Butler County on December 11, 1826. He was buried in Womack Cemetery near his home on The Ridge. The story was passed down in the Womack-Crenshaw family on The Ridge that Mansel's death occurred while he was bringing the doctor for his wife Mary during a winter storm. Mary was said to have been staying with her Lewis kinfolk down The Ridge, and on the long return journey with the doctor, Mansel's horse slipped and fell on the icy Caldwell Hill. Mansel was killed by a broken neck. The doctor placed Mansel's body upon the horse, rode on to the home and tended to the ill wife, and waited until the next morning to tell her of her husband's death.
Even though the Butler County courthouse burned in April 1853, we know from the Crenshaw family papers that Mansel Womack did leave a will and estate. My mother, the late Myra Ware Williams Crenshaw (1921-1985) , transcribed hundreds of family documents in the 1960s-1970s that were then in the possession of Crenshaw-Womack cousins on The Ridge. One of her transcripts is this document:
Deed: ".... that whereas Mansel Womack Gent by his last will and testament among other things directed his executors to sell all or any part of his estate real or personal, and whereas it is deemed expedient to sell .... one hundred and sixty acres .... Therefore we, John Womack, John Lewis and Jacob L. Womack, Executors of the last will and testament of the said Mansel Womack Gent and Mary Womack widow.... do convey to Anderson Crenshaw.... this 6th of August 1832.
Wit: M. W. Levingston Jn. Womack
Wm. Manning John Lewis
J. L. Womack
Mary Womack
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, these priceless family documents are now scattered among later descendants, and some have been destroyed in "house cleaning" after older relatives' deaths. Not every one today values family letters, diaries, plantation accounts and journals, bibles, deeds, wills, store accounts and other papers that were preserved for two centuries.
The identities of Mansel's children by his first wife, Sarah Rogers, have been debated over the years, as you see in this biography. Unfortunately, past researchers often relied on inaccurate sources, such as Dr. Jean Stephenson's well-known 1913 "Record of the Womack Family" (which she never intended to be published as an absolutely factual genealogy). Part of her work is correct, and parts are not. Mansel's children by his second wife, Mary Mariah Lewis, are much more accurately documented than his children by his first wife, Sarah Rogers.
I wrote a long biographical story about Mansel Womack for "The Heritage of Butler County, Alabama" (published in 2003). This article was based on data I had gathered by 2001-2002, and some of it has since been proven wrong, such as the stories of a daughter Lucy who married an Evans and a Whiting. If you've relied on the 2003 article for information on Mansel, I'll be glad to share updates and corrections with you. We can help each other by sharing what we know, and revising and correcting EVERY fact as new evidence comes to light.
I'll edit and add more to this memorial (transferred to me in April 2023) as time permits.
Inscription
SACRED / to the memory of / MANSEL WOMACK / who was born June 4th, 1770, / and died Dec. 11th, 1826.
Footstone: M. W.
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