For quite some time now I have been trying to determine the circumstances under which my great-great-grandmother Emma Eliza (Young) James came to Alabama from South Carolina and just how she met Major L.B. Vasser, her second husband and my great-great-grandfather. So far, Rev. Robert Buchanan James (also from South Carolina)is the only link I have found between Emma Eliza and Alabama. I am now trying to establish some sort of a connection between Rev. James and either the Vassers or the families they intermarried with. The search has spread out over four counties Dallas, Lowndes, Autauga and Elmore.

I am seeking the following information: (1) the maiden name of Sarah, Rev. Robert B. James’ second wife; and (2) the name (s) of the Methodist church (or churches) in the Robinson Springs-Coosada-Wetumpka area that he may have been a minister at during the four decades that he lived in Alabama. Please take a look at the following background information and if any of it strikes a responsive cord, let me know.

Rev. Robert Buchanan James was born in Virginia in 1803 and moved to Laurens District, South Carolina with his parents, Jane Stobo and Benjamin James in 1808. Benjamin James was a prominent attorney and served a term as a South Carolina Senator. Robert B. James’ siblings included: John Stobo James, Susan Washington James, Eliza Louisa James, Jane Strother James, and Maria Stobo James.

Robert B. James became a Methodist Episcopal clergyman and moved to Alabama in 1832. His first wife, the former Alice C. Word (?) of Laurens District, died in 1845. He evidently remarried, for the 1850 Autauga Co., AL Census, Coosada Beat shows him with wife Sarah C. age 41, born in Georgia. His children included Nancy A., Amanda, Harper; Emma, and James A. Rev. James and Sarah James also appear in 1860 Autauga, AL census, Pine Flat Beat, with a single child, Ella G. age 6.

Rev. James and Sarah James appear in the 1870 Elmore Co. AL census, Wetumpka Beat. In the 1870 census Rev, James is misidentified as colored but it is obviously the same individual. His son, Harper James, a farmer, also appears in the 1870 Wetumpka Beat. census with his wife Catherine and children Robert, Hampton, George, and Edwin. Rev. James died sometime after the 1873 Masonic membership list was compiled for the Hampton Sidney Lodge in Robinson Springs (filed in Prattville). There is a notation for Rev. James which states “Bro. Robert B. James...very low with no hope of recovery.”

Rev. James’ older brother, John Stobo James was Emma Eliza’s first husband. John Stobo James died in Charleston, SC in April, 1851 after he had failed as an attorney and as a merchant in Laurens and Columbia SC. His widow Emma Eliza Young James and two children moved to Alabama at some point between April 1851 and December 23, 1853, the date Emma Eliza married Major L.B. (Littleberry) Vasser of Pleasant Hill, Dallas County.

Although there are Autauga land records that indicate transactions between John S, James and Robert B. James (September 22, 1832) and another transaction to Robert B. James from his brother-in-law (John) Garlington and others (July 2, 1838), I have not examined these records and I believe that these probably relate to the settlement of Sen. Benjamin James estate in South Carolina.

My great-grandmother, Flora Aurelia Vasser married James Lewis Moor in 1872. However, the Vassers and the Moors associated with each other long before the young couple met. Both families were founding members of the Mt. Carmel Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Hill. James Lewis Moor’s mother, Mary E. Dudley, was the daughter of John “Jack” Dudley and Julia Ann Reese.

Although the Dudley family lived in primarily in Lowndes and Dallas counties, John and Julia were married in Autauga Co in 1820. John Dudley appears on Masonic membership lists for the Autauga County Lodge as late as 1829.

Julia, daughter of Elizabeth Hall and Littleton Reese, is my link to the Hall and Reese families of Autauga and Elmore counties. In 1850, Julia Ann still had very close relatives living in Autauga Co—her mother, Elizabeth Hall Reese, and her younger sister, Matilda H. Pope, wife of Dr. Zachariah Pope, are both listed in the Coosada Beat.

Based on the 1850 Autauga Co. census, Rev. Robert B .James was living fairly close to Matilda H. Pope as well as to a large household headed by Peterson Hall, Julia and Matilda’s first cousin.

Although from what I can determine the Hall, Pope, and Reese families were not affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church, I do not want to discount the possibility that there could have been some tie to Rev. James through church membership or through the Masons.

Records indicate that Rev. James was a member of the Hampton Sidney Lodge in Robinson Springs at the time of his death. Dixon Hall Jr. (Peterson Hall’s father) was a member of the Autauga County Lodge during the same period as John Dudley circa 1828-1830). John Dudley remained an active Mason throughout his life.

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