Hi Cousins:

I'm the one who started all this, apparently. My name is Nancy A. (Torrence) Coleman, and, according to my relationship calculator, Jacob L. Wyatt is my 3rd great-grandfather. He was married three times. He was born about 1814 in the Dry Fork area of Randolph Co., VA, which became WVa after the War between the States. He seems to have left home around 1830, or perhaps just before, and removed to Owen Co., IN where he married Sallie Reynolds, daughter of James Reynolds and Sarah Green. Sallie was the 7th of the 11 children of James and Sarah. She was supposedly born in NC. The Reynolds family moved lock, stock and barrel to Owen Co., IN at about the same time as Jacob. Several of the Reynolds children married there. Also, Jacob's brother, Aaron, married Elizabeth Reynolds, a sister of Sallie's. This is according to IN marriage records.

I'm of the opinion that Jacob and Aaron were the sons of Samuel Wyatt, b ca 1790 in VA. There are a fair number of Wyatts in this area of West VA. I have no proof that Samuel is the father, but it seems a good guess, given the Biblical nature of the family. There are also Isaac, John, and Edmond in the area, and I think they are all related. I think John and Samuel were brothers and Isaac may have been another son of Samuel's. Edmond must have been a relative, as well, because Jacob named his oldest Edmond.

In 1840, we find Jacob and Aaron in Randolph Co., AR. They are listed in the census for that year. They are the only Wyatts in the county, which had 321 households in that census. They had the same post office - Roanoak. In this census, Jacob has a son under 5, himself and his wife, Sallie, both between 20-30. Aaron has himself, his wife, Elizabeth and another female 15-20. I have no idea who this might be.

In the 1850 census, as you have noted, Jacob has married Margarette Scott in 1845 and has children by her. I haven't found Aaron in the 1850 census, but I haven't looked very hard. Aaron is in the 1860 census for Clay Co., IN (formed out of Owen Co., IN) and is a widower with two children, James, 18 and born in IN, and Laura, 19 and born in Arkansas. According to the IN marriage records, Aaron married Sarah Lloyd in 1868 in Clay Co., a woman about 40 yrs. his junior and moved to Wapello Co., IA where Edmond S. Wyatt, Jacob's oldest, lived with his family. Aaron died about five years later. Sarah married again and moved near Davenport, IA.

This is what I think happened. Edmond, Jacob's son, claimed to have been born in 1834 in Indiana. It is possible. He was also illiterate. This is set forth in 'Portrait and biographical album of Wapello Co., 1887', along with an extensive note about his life in Iowa. I think that Elizabeth was pregnant and had Laura in AR in 1841. I think about the same time, Sallie also died, leaving Jacob with a young son. I think that Aaron and Elizabeth moved back to their old home in IN, taking Edmond with them. They raised him as their own. I have found one reference which lists Laura as a sister of Edmond. He left their home about 1854 or 1855 and went to Ormanville, Wapello Co., IA where David Orman and a number of other Ormans went in the late 1840s. They had established Ormanville there. He became a well established businessman, and learned to read and write after he married
Zilpha Davis, daughter of Willoughby Davis and Polly Orman. Mary (Polly) Orman was the younger sister of David Orman, founder of Ormanville.

Edmond and Zilpha had four children, of which the oldest, Mary Ann (Molly) Wyatt, is my great-grandmother. Molly married Laris Pullman Torrence, a doctor; they had six children. Their son, Edward, is my grandfather and his second son, Floyd J., is my dad. Pop died in 2000 at the age of 90. We all were born in Wapello Co., IA.

Edmond died 24 Oct 1896 in Ormanville. He had been on his way to Ottumwa when his horse bolted, throwing him off his buckboard. He fractured his skull, lingered two or three days without regaining consciousness and died. My father knew his wife, Zilpha, quite well. She died 28 Feb 1925 when she choked at dinner one evening. Pop attended her funeral with the rest of the family.

So, we are related. I have been to Llano Co., TX and visited Hoover Cemetery. Like you, I thought it a beautiful spot and thanked in my mind whoever has been tending the cemetery. I also spent a couple of days researching the tax records, etc. I believe that Jacob died about 1887 because that's the last time he is mentioned in the tax records. Eliza sold the personal property and moved to the county next door. I also went to the home of Ms. Hasty, but it was an impulse thing and she wasn't at home. I should have called.

We now live in Las Cruces, NM and are both retired. In my previous life I practiced law. Now I do Church work and substitute school teaching.

Happy hunting.

Nancy A. Coleman