Four generations of the Wingo family were content to live out their lives in the land of their founder, John Wingo.

Amelia County, Virginia was home for John, his son Thomas, his grandson John Washington Wingo, Sr., and his great grandson, Churchwell Wingo, sometimes called "Church". 

As the fifth generations began to mature, America was changing.  John had come to the colonies a Huguenot, escaping the religious persecutions of Europe.  Later Wingo men would distinguish themselves in America's battle for independence.  With that battle won, the young nation's energy would be exercised in a new battle, not of war but of expansion.  War debts hung over the national government.  Raw, largely unexplored lands in the west were the country's largest asset, and so the land was offered in sections of 640 acres at a cost of generally $1.25 an acre to pay off its debts.  The young Wingos were no doubt torn between their Virginia traditions and the call of the cheap land in the west, where a vigorous man could make good.

The Seay family (pronounced according to some old timers as "Sea") was a neighbor to the Wingo family, providing matrimonial fodder deluxe.  There were at least six Wingo-Seay marriages in Amelia County during the 1780's.  There were probably others, which have long since been forgotten.  The Seay family would distinguish itself by playing a large part in the founding of Spartanburg, South Carolina. By 1810 the Wingo clan had grown quite large.  Virginia itself had become the nation's most populated state.  With a population in 1810 of over one million, Virginia would not be surpassed by New York and Pennsylvania until 1820, when New York would become America's largest state, and in 1830 when Pennsylvania's growth would make her the third largest in population.  Such a large population no doubt pushed up land cost, and in an era when ownership of land was almost everything, this no doubt played the decisive point in persuading the young Wingo men to leave their families and forge ahead into a new era.  In 1810 Joshua A. Wingo and Mary Sadler married, and with their decision to move west, this was to be the start of a separate line of Wingos, who would unfortunately forget their origins as they headed west.  He was perhaps either rebel or outcast.  Unlike most of his brothers and cousins who preferred to move to South Carolina as a group, Joshua was alone except for his bride of a few months when he loaded his wagon with his few possessions to begin a new life in America's western frontier.  Joshua claimed a section of land (Section 20, Township 3, Range 1E) in Mississippi Territory, near the present-day city of Huntsville, Alabama.  The former Mary Sadler and her husband were among the first few hundred people to claim land in the area only recently occupied by Indians. Joshua's mother was Mary Seay, who married Churchwell on December 17, 1788.  His grandmother was the former Sarah Rucker, daughter of William Rucker, and the granddaughter of Peter Rucker and Elizabeth Fielding, who had come to Virginia in the early 1700's, probably about 1702. Mary's father was the Reverend Robert Sadler, whose religious affiliation as of this writing is unknown.  Her mother was Rachel Hubbard, who married Robert on July 5, 1791. Unfortunately, little is known about Joshua.  In 1815 his name was included on the poll tax list, noted as 'Winge', and in 1816 listed as 'Winger."  The spelling may have reflected the way in which Joshua pronounced his name.  The writing of 'Wingo' as 'Winger' was not that uncommon.  In 1899, Joshua's grandson Enoch Churchwell Wingo married in Prentiss County, Mississippi.  Illiterate, Enoch had to depend on others to write out his name, to which he placed his "X".  The man who married Enoch and Dora wrote out the Wingo name as 'Winger'. It is known that in 1818 Joshua claimed another section of land.  The move west was proving well for the former Virginian.  In an era when postal services were difficult and unreliable, it is not known if Joshua was able to communicate with the family he left behind.  It is not even certain if he could read or write.  The 1820 Census for Alabama has unfortunately been lost, and thus a great deal of information about the Wingo family has been lost forever.  We can only wonder about the size of their family. In the 1820's Joshua moved his family to Lawrence County, Alabama.  In 1828, James Churchwell Wingo (called "J.C.") was born.  The 1830 Census indicates that there were six children living at home with Joshua and Mary.  J.C. was the youngest.  In addition, there were four other boys and one girl.  J.CV. was two, one son was between 15-20, one between 10-15, and two between 5-10.  His sister was 5 to 10 years of age in 1830. The 1840 Lawrence County Census indicated that the family continued to grow.  Two more girls were born, one being born between 1835 and 1840, and the other between 1831 and 1835.  Besides the addition of two young girls, Joshua's fortune apparently continued to grow.  In 1840 the 50-year-old Wingo now owned 15 slaves.  There were also eight free colored females living on his farm.  The 15 slaves included nine males and six females.  As of this writing little more is known about this period of their lives.  Hopefully, future research in Lawrence County will shed additional information about Mary and Joshua. About their lives in Madison County little is known regarding the Wingo's personal lives.  However, considering the scant population of the area, they were extremely likely to have been a part of the mainstream of the general history of the county.  In 1811 the NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER reported that cotton production in the area was double the production of any other county its size in America.  In this year, 48,463 acres of land were under private ownership.  There were 696 families, with about 29% owning slaves. The year after the Virginia couple settled on their new land, an attempt was made to gain statehood for the Mississippi Territory.  The move was defeated in the Senate.  1812 was significant in two other areas of Madison County.  The first capital case occurred in December of that year, resulting in the hanging of Eli Newman early in the following year.  While the trial may have entertained, a more serious business was at hand.  The first County Tax Levy was provided for.  The tax was not to exceed one half of the Territorial Tax.  In addition to the murder and the tax law, the county was shocked by the first divorce known to have been recorded in all of Alabama.  John and Catherine Carter were granted the divorce on May 11, 1812. By 1812 the population had grown to 916 families, and in addition there were by this time 1744 slaves.  Over 150,000 acres had been bought by settlers and land speculators. The War of 1812 plunged America into another battle with England.  Two companies from Madison County joined in the fight.  But the Alabama pioneers were more deeply involved with their confrontation with the Indians than with the international war being fought on their native soil.  The Indians deeply resented the American thrust to continually keep moving the frontier westward.  The Americans were well aware of the close ties many of the Indians felt with their British allies.  Tecumseh, the great Indian chief of the Great Lakes region, came to Alabama with a call to arms for his red brothers.  He promised support in weapons and food from the British if the tribes would band together and force the frontiersmen out once and for all.   Techumseh pleaded with the Creek nation to join in the uprising.  Twenty-nine of the Creek's villages were fired up by the promises. The onslaught was soon to begin for the Red Sticks (Creeks), the mighty Indian coalition determined to push the white man out of their Indian hunting grounds.  Red Stick leaders included William Weatherford, High-head Jim, Josiah Francis, Menawa and Peter McQueen.  The English names were those of half-breeds who had chosen to follow the ancestry of the Indian parent. It was a futile effort.  By 1830 almost all Indians were forced to give up their rights to the land.  With the decisively anti-Indian Andrew Jackson in the White House, the Red Man found himself pushed further westward to Indian Territory (Oklahoma).  The most famous (or perhaps infamous) Indian re-settlement was the Trail of Tears.  It was so named by the group of Cherokees who traveled it on their sad journey from Echoto, Georgia to Parkhill, Oklahoma, which was near the present town of Tahlequah.  These Cherokees had lived in the Echoto Valley for five hundred years.  They were a settled people who were ordered to leave for lands set aside for them in Oklahoma.  The trip began in September of 1838.  Thirteen thousand began the journey, yet less than half lived to see their destination.  A starved deprived bunch of just over 6,000 saw the new homeland.  It was not America's finest hour. As a side note, the powder gourd once owned by Joshua is known to have existed well into the twentieth century. Unfortunately it was passed to a member of the family who did not understand its family historical value.  Joshua's great granddaughter Eula Wingo Stafford remembers the gourd well.  She described it as being so old and so much handled that it was extremely smooth and had a shiny, almost waxed look about it.  So little remains of the life they lived, it is a shame that this small memento of Joshua and Mary's life does not remain with us today. The Census of 1850 indicated that Joshua had made another change in his life.  Again the move was westward, albeit a move of only a couple of counties.  His new home was Tishomingo County, Mississippi.  He was now aged 60, and perhaps no longer cared to, or was able to, or needed to farm.  On the census of the year, he quoted his wealth at $5,000 and his occupation as "landlord."  The Virginian had done quite well for himself.  To give you an idea of Joshua's wealth, the Shull family, whose daughter would marry J.C. <Joshua & Mary's son> in 1865, indicated their wealth at $300.  Enoch Shull owned only 73 acres.  Joshua's landholdings must have been fairly large.  Unfortunately, the Tishomingo Courthouse burned years ago, taking with it the exact details of the Wingo's holdings. In that year, the two youngest Wingo girls were still living at home: Sarah (age 19, b. 1831) and Frances (age 15, b.1835).  P.A. was living with his wife Martha.  J.C. lived with his brother, George, George's wife, Ann, and their two-year-old son Joseph.  Two other Wingo males called Tishomingo County home in 1850.  Their ages would make it possible that they were the children of Mary and Joshua Wingo.  Paton was 21, born in 1829.  Oliver P. Wingo was 34, born in 1816.  All known records indicated that Joshua had only lived in Alabama between 1816 and 1848, but Paton indicated that he was born in Tennessee, and Oliver called South Carolina his birthplace.  As of this writing their exact relationship to Joshua is not absolutely known.  <According to one Wingo historian, Paton and Oliver were nephews.> Another perplexing problem exists with the 1850 census.  Mary's age was written as 50.  Since she and her husband were married in 1810, if we are to believe the census, she would have been only 10 years old at the time.  Perhaps the census taker misread his 6 as a 0.  Someone else may have been interviewed at the time and guessed at Mary's age.  <There is also the possibility that she lied about her age, as some women have been known to do down thru the ages! :>) >  Perhaps this was a different Mary, but this does not seem likely since she gave her birthplace as Virginia.  The 1850 census is the only census available which gave Mary's exact age.  Other census grouped the members of the household in ten-year periods.  Thus by the 1830 and 1840 census, it is possible only to determine that Mary Sadler was born between 1790 and 1800.  Someday, perhaps further research in Amelia County will clear up this problem.  Until proven otherwise, the Mary of 1850 will be assumed to be Mary Sadler Wingo, and her age probably was 56. As of now it is believed that the two elder Wingos died in the 1850's.  No record of their existence has been found during the 1860 census.  It seems likely that the two died in Tishomingo County.  However, a book compiled several years ago detailing the names of those buried in that old Mississippi County failed to reveal the name of either Mary or Joshua.  That is not that uncommon since many pioneers were laid to rest in small private cemeteries, and worse, many were buried with wooden markers, or none at all.  And so the final resting place of Joshua and Mary Wingo will probably never be known. JAMES CHURCHWELL "J.C." WINGO 1827 - 1908 He was named for a grandfather that he probably never met.  It was a name he seldom used.  He was James Churchwell Wingo, "J.C." to his friends, "Papa" to his kids, and "Grandpa" to the grandchildren. J.C. was 25 when he married Sarah Catherine Hill in 1853.  Their marriage would last about 11 years, producing four children - all girls.  Sarah Catherine was only 18 on her wedding day.  More knowledge of her life is subject to further research.  Sarah Catherine Hill was listed in the 1860 Census as "Sarah C.".  The death certificate of Cornelius Clemintine Dumas, the oldest of her four children, listed her name as Katherine Hill.  This was a misspelling of Catherine, and indicates that she went by the name "Catherine". In the final calm before the Civil War, the 1860 Census only hints at the life of J.C. and Sarah Catherine.  Mr. Wingo listed his occupation as "carpenter", his wife was noted as "keeps house".  Their family had grown in their seven years of marriage to include three daughters, ages 5, 3, and 1.  By the next census, the young Wingo couple's life would have changed in a manner that would have been unbelievable to them in 1860.  In 1870 J.C. would be married to the former Caroline Shull, widow of James Rubin Falkner.  What happened during the years between the two census was a national tragedy that was transposed into a personal tragedy for the Wingos. Tishomingo County, Mississippi was caught exactly in the middle of the horror of the American Civil War.  Even before the war would commence, Tishomingo was caught up in strife.  While Mississippi was almost unanimous in its sentiment to leave the Union, this northeastern county refused to instruct its delegates to vote for secession.  Eventually, of course, secession would take place, but the inhabitants of Tishomingo would pay dearly either by design or by accident for their opposition.  This county contained major railroad centers, and was the center of several battles in the war, and in addition, only twenty miles to the north, the first major battle - Pittsburg Landing - was fought in Hardin County, Tennessee.  Hundreds of thousands of Confederate and Union soldiers combed the area.  And worse, authority broke down, leaving this area to the mercy of thieves and opportunists. The story of J.C. and Catherine is chronicled only in oral family tradition.  No proof otherwise has been found to substantiate the stories.  However, the stories have been told from several different sources, and there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that the oral stories were in large part true. Like most Southerners of the Civil War era, most of the wealth that the Wingos had was taken from them.  Their monetary wealth was sapped from them in the guise of Confederate money.  Their real wealth, their livestock and harvest, was taken from them either by the South for the war effort, or stolen from them to support the Union.  It is not believed that J.C. was in the Confederate Army, but he apparently was a sympathizer, and either lent (or was paid) his services as a shoe cobbler. In 1864 J.C. was sitting in his doorway working on Confederate shoes, when a band of union soldiers (some in the family referred to them as "Troy soldiers") suddenly attacked.  J.C. was severely beaten.  Those who retold the story especially emphasized the beating about the head.  He was beaten so badly about his head that never again would hair grow back where the blows had been struck.  J.C. was left for dead.  The soldiers then vented their rage on Catherine.  The frail 29-year-old woman did not survive the repeated attacks.  When family members found J.C. and nursed him back to health, the saddened Wingo found himself a widower with four children.  This was a time in which almost everyone in this part of Mississippi knew death in a very personal way.  But this death must have come as a terrible shock.  J.S. would carry the physical evidence of the beating to his grave.  Not enough is remembered about him to know how severely the death of his first wife affected his life.  It must have been tremendous. Near the end of the Civil War J.C. married for the second time.  Like J.C., Caroline Shull Falkner had lost her mate as a results of the Civil War.  Her husband, James Rubin Falkner, died of pneumonia, probably at the war's first major battle, Shiloh (also known as Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee).  Mr. Falkner's only son would never know his father.  James Rufus (Jimmy) was born a few months after his father's death.  This was in 1862. Family tradition indicates that Caroline was disowned by her family upon her marriage to James Churchwell Wingo.  The exact reason that the Shull family so adamantly opposed this marriage is not known today.   It must have been a result of the war.  Perhaps Enoch Shull, the father of Caroline, supported the Union cause.  Perhaps he supported the Confederacy and was upset that J.C. did not don the gray fighting garb of the Rebel Army, (although it is known that he supported the Confederate Army with his shoe-making talents.).  Someday perhaps further research will turn up the point of dissension.  Whatever the problem between the Wingo and Shull families, it apparently did not affect the marriage, which would not end until December of 1904 when Caroline would precede her husband in death. When they married, the James Wingo family became a family of seven, four girls and one son.  And it did not end there.  Despite the fact that J.C. was about 38 upon his second wedding day, there were to be an additional nine children.  In all, 14 children would claim kin to the Wingo-Shull (Falkner) marriage. While the family grew, it did not prosper in the Tishomingo / Prentiss County Mississippi area. J.C. kept his family together by farming, carpentry, and occasionally making shoes.  No one alive today can relate any information about this era of the Wingo family.

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