THE CLIFT FAMILY

William W. Clift

1803 – 1876

TN - AR

 

 

 

 

William Clift (JOSEPH3, JOSEPH2, JOSEPH1) was born in Knox County, Tennessee in ca. 1803, the oldest child of Joseph (III) and Sally Clift.  When he was about four years of age, the family moved to Roane County, Tennessee where they remained for about ten years.  In about 1816, Joseph, Sally, and eight of their children moved to Alabama.  They settled near the village of Somerville in Morgan County where William grew to manhood.

On the 27th of April 1827, William was married to Mary “Polly” Ann Winters.[1] Mary Ann had a son, Montique Winters, who was about three or four years of age when she and William married.  Monty Winters was reared in the Clift household and treated by William as his own son.

The year after William married Mary Ann, his parents loaded-up their wagon and moved to Arkansas, and in 1838, William and his family followed them.  William purchased land in Fenter Township of Hot Spring County and was a successful farmer as well as a natural mechanic.  In 1850 his land was valued at $1500. 

In 1848, when the Francios Baptist Church[2] was organized, Mary Ann Clift was a charter member.  The first meeting of the church took place in the Clift home, and their eldest son, Joseph, was the church clerk for many years during the 1850’s[3]. 

 

William and Mary Ann were the parents of nine children, seven of whom have been identified:

 

Joseph Clift IV, born January 10, 1828 in Alabama and married Sarah Collie.

 

James T. Clift born ca 1829 in Alabama and married Thursday (T. B.) Cooper. He died in 1866 as a result of hardships suffered during Civil War.  He and Thursday were parents of one child, Howell Clift, who married Caroline Chandler, daughter of James Washington Chandler.

 

Barbara Clift born 1830 in Alabama and married Alexander H. Cooper.  Her son James T. Cooper would marry two of James Washington Chandler’s daughters, Elizabeth and Emily.  Her daughter Mary Jane Cooper was the mother of Grace Ebbs Chandler, wife of Vaughn Chandler, and her son George Washington Cooper was the father of Elbert Cooper and Alice Cooper Carpenter.

 

Sarah Clift born ca. 1831 in Alabama and married James Ashley.

 

Hiram Jackson Clift born 1832 in Alabama and married (1) Caroline Sanford and (2) Martha Ann Davenport.  Hiram Jackson moved to Texas in 1856, settled in Anderson County and served in the Confederate Army from Texas.  After the war he returned to Hot Spring County. 

 

William M. Clift born 1842 in Arkansas and married Winnie Brown.

 

Mary Jane Clift[4] born 1844 in Arkansas and married (1) Eli Bunn and (2) William Carrol Adams.

 

 

 

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[1] Goodspeed History of Arkansas gives her last name as Wyandus, but recent researchers list it as Winters, probably because she had a son named Montique Winters that was reared with the Clift children and in 1850, Barbara Winters, age 80, born in North Carolina was living in the household with William and Mary Ann Clift.

[2] This is still pronounced “Franceway” Baptist Church.  Some of the old records spell it Franceway.

[3] The church minute book has survived many of the pages written by Joseph Clift IV before he went off to the war.  June Chandler Everheart has copies.

[4] Some researchers now question that it was the daughter of William and Mary Ann that married John Collie.