James Wait and Sarah Sims

 

 

James Wait was born in 1778 or 1779 in Culpeper, Virginia.  He married his first cousin, Sarah Sims before 1799.  It appears that James died in Laurens after the 1840 Census records or moved away around 1843.  They lived near John and Frances Wait on the lands between the Saluda River and the Reedy River known as the Forks.  Their children Thomas, Madison, Zachariah, Sarah A., James Matthew, and Virginia migrated to Mississippi in the mid 1840s after the death of James.  The son Phillip moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

 

 

Sarah Sims was born about 1784 in either Culpeper, Va or Laurens, SC.  She was the daughter of Elizabeth Graves and Zachariah Sims.  They were married before 1799.  Sarah died after the 1870 Census in Lafayette Co., Dallas PO, MS where she lived with her youngest child, Virginia Scott.

 

 

 

The children of James and Sarah were:

 

 

Phillip                  Born about 1804 in Laurens Co., SC.

 

 

Thomas                Born in 1805 in Laurens Co., SC.  Thomas married his cousin Rhoda, daughter of James Sims and Mariah Parks Wait.  In 1850, they settled near the area that another cousin, John Culpeper Wait, moved to at the same time in Pontotoc Co., Mississippi.  They had 11 children:  Elizabeth, Rebecca, James B., Sarah Jane, John, Harriet, Zachariah, William, Virginia, Frances, and Adaline.  Rhoda died before 1877 when he married Charlotte.  His son Leander was born in 1878.

 

 

Girl                      Born between 1810-1815 according to the 1820 Census.

 

 

James Matthew   Born between 1810-1820 in Laurens Co., SC and died in 1850 in MS.  He married Tempy Willard, also from Laurens.  Many people have claimed that James Matthew belonged to another group of Waits but we have found a marriage record for one of Madison’s granddaughters and one of James Matthew’s sons was the bondsman.  This links the two families together.  James Matthew and Tempy had 4 children:  Nancy, James Marion, Martha Louisa, and Madison Duff.

 

 

Girl                      Born between 1815-1820 in Laurens Co., SC.

 

 

Madison               Born 1816 in Laurens Co., SC.  He married Sarah ? and moved to MS about 1844 according to his children’s state of birth on the 1850 Census for Mississippi.  Madison moved on to Arkansas for the 1860 Census and back to MS the next month.  He and Sarah had 10 children:  Elizabeth, James W., Mary Melissa, Phebe D., Virginia, Eliza F., William, Joseph/Jasper, Harriet, and Newton.  We think that he later married again to Amanda Vinson on October 28, 1866 in Pontotoc, Martha Eastep on March 19, 1867 in Tippah, and then later to Sarah Boatner on June 10, 1882 in Marshall.  M.L. Wait is on the 1870 Tippah Co., MS Census with wife Martha, son Robert 7, daughters M.E. 3 and Lucy 5/12.  This same man is in Marshall Co. for the 1880 Census with wife Martha, sons Robert 17, George 7, Thomas 6 and Benny 3 and daughters Martha 13 and Anna 11.  If this is him, he left the younger children of his first wife with his son James W. where they show up on the 1870 Census in Lafayette Co., MS with James’ young family.

 

 

Zachariah            Born September 15, 1821 in Laurens Co., SC.   He married Rebecca W. Roberts on December 20, 1844 in Talledega Co., Alabama.  Rebecca was born on June27, 1822 in Laurens Co., SC and she died on July 20, 1891 in Kansas City, Jackson Co., Missouri.  Zachariah lived in Lowndes Co., Mississippi.  Zachariah died June 30, 1864 in Tuscaloosa Alabama.  The family kept in touch with their SC cousins, other grandsons of John and Frances Wait.  There is a document about shares for a cotton-planting machine that John Travis Wait & Luda Jasper Wait made in 1854 that they tried to sell to Zachariah in Mississippi.  We have a copy of that patent.  The DNA profile from a descendant of Zachariah matches exactly with the profiles of three other men who descend from John b. 1730.  This confirms the line of Richard b. 1755.  Zachariah and Rebecca had 6 children:  Henry Lyndon, James Davis, Charles Baskerfield, Sarah E. “Sallie”, Lydia Rebecca “Lyd”, and Martha Louise “Mattie”.

 

 

 

Sarah A.              Born 1825 in Laurens Co., SC.  Sarah A. married Joel Suggs in 1849 in Tuscaloosa Alabama, he died about 1852 and she married Boswell Freeman on May 8, 1858 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  She died after 1880.  She had one son by Joel Suggs, Joseph Joel b. 1852 in Lowndes Co., MS. She had at least four children by Boswell Freeman, Cordelia Annie b. 1859, Hassleton b. 1861, Ophelia b. 1863 and Bradley b. 1866.

 

 

Virginia                Born between 1825-1830 in Laurens Co., SC.  Female DNA has proven that Virginia was the youngest daughter of James and Sarah.  She married John Scott in Pontotoc MS on May 15, 1855.  Sarah was with her on the 1870 Census along with her three children.  John Scott died during or just after the Civil War.  They had 4 children:  William James, Martha A., Sarah Rebecca Judith, and John Calvin.

 

 

 

 

This family is still being completed so if you have any information on this family, please contact Amanda Dicken.

 

 

This page was last updated March 25, 2008.