JAMES WELLS WARNER TO MORDECAI HARVEY WARNER
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Among the happiest of men, James
Wells Warner carried a gleam in his eye that would eventually be passed on to
me and many in my generation. Chores finished, he sat on the porch he had helped
attach to the house he had helped to build. He sat in a rocking chair he had
made, watching the shadow of the hill to the west creep up across the pasture
on the hill to the east. In his hand was a large gold pocket watch with the
letter M beautifully engraved on the front cover. James had carried it
since the funeral of the stranger who had become a real friend. He had come
to help with the farm work and was invited to stay. The fancy letter on the
watch also caused him to think of his grandfather. He was young when they
made the trip to |
James Wells
Warner
His grandfather Mordecai had built his own house. James had been amazed
at all the farm tools and other utensils made from copper and silver his
grandfather had made. It was the last time he had seen him. His grandfather
Mordecai died from appendicitis shortly after their visit.
James had been only thirteen when
his father, John Lewis Warner, had been enticed by both a teaching job and talk
of good land in the new state to the west.
It had been twelve years since President Jefferson had declared
John Lewis Warner was a certified
teacher and a millwright, having learned the building trade from his father,
Mordecai Warner. James and his father had built several homes in this new area
of
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At nineteen James Wells married
Mary Frances Carpenter, an attractive neighbor girl, whose box lunch he
bought at the first annual May Day celebration held in Batesville. They were
married on the day before Christmas, 1857. His father s house later became
their home when his mother and father moved to Gorrel s Run, near |
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Warner babies.
Mary
James Wells Warner held the office of school director for
Sub-District No. 3 for nine years. He was elected justice of the peace in 1874
and held the position for a number of years. He served as commissioner of
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James Wells Warner and Mary Frances (Carpenter) and Children 1892
Front row: Virginia 1867-1951; Sarah Roe 1869-1950; James Wells 1838-1918;
Mary Frances 1835-1897; Shirley Ellatherr Brownfield 1880-1964; Alva C.1876-1950;
Back row: John B. 1862-1918; James F.1874-1958; Bellazora A. Rockwell 1864-1939;
Letitia Jane Steven 1860-1943; Joanna Howiler 1859-1947; Alfred Sherman1865-1951;
and Mordecai Harvey 1871-1956. (An infant daughter was born and died 1882)
This generation had families of five to ten children for a total of sixty children.
There are many stories about the
involvement of the eight boys, five girls and their sixty offspring in the
development of our American culture.
These are my great-aunts and uncles, some of whom I met on visits with
my father. Up until the beginning of
WWII there was an annual reunion of this part of the Warner clan. They met on
the fairgrounds at
Of interest in developing our
story is Mordecai Harvey (MH), who grew up in this pre-machine, agricultural,
rural hill country. James and Mary Frances had named their eighth child with
the Biblical name given to James grandfather and added a middle name. Mordecai
Harvey was born in 1871, just over two hundred years after Captain William
Warner arrived from
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