Mary Ann Celeste Selvage, also written Selvidge.

Tombstone says born Feb. 10, 1837. A number of family trees say Feb. 10, 1835. The 1900 census says she was born January 1836. She was born in Roane County, Tennessee, and her parents moved from there to Alabama in December 1835.
Her younger sister Nancy was born October 1837. It is very possible that Mary was born in 1833 but said she was three or four years younger.

Her granddaughter Nettie Katherine Whitaker told her own daughter Mildred Dalrymple that Mary Selvage Walls said she was born "the year the stars fell," a frequent reference in Alabama folklore to the night of a fantastic statewide meteorite shower in 1833 described in the book "Stars Fell on Alabama" [1934] by Carl Carmer and the song [1934] of the same name by Frank Perkins. Mildred Dalrymple remembered several of "the old people" making reference to "the year the stars fell" as she grew up, but she specifically remembered "Grandma Walls" was supposed to have been born that year.

Mary Selvage was the daughter of Michael K. Selvage and Nancy Jane (Snow) Selvage; granddaughter of Jeremiah Selvidge and Mary (Kelly) Selvidge, John Johnson Snow and Elizabeth Snow. John Johnson Snow was the son of Frost A. Snow and Elizabeth (Johnson) Snow.

Nancy Snow Selvage's parents lived in Alabama from 1815-21, appearing on the tax lists of Madison County, Alabama (then Mississippi Territory) 1815-16.


Madison County, Alabama Marriage Book Vol. 4B, p. 171: Index gives names as John Walls and Mary SELVAGE.

Alabama Marriages, 1809-1920
Name: John Walls
Gender: Male
Spouse: Mary Selridge (sic: Selvidge, aka Selvage)
Spouse Gender: Female
Marriage Date: 7 Aug 1856
Marriage Place: Madison
Performed By: J. P.
Surety/Perf. Name: P. C. Ledbetter
OSPage: 171

Alabama, Marriage Collection, 1800-1969
Name: John Walls
Spouse: Mary Selridge (sic: Selvidge, aka Selvage)
Marriage Date: 7 Aug 1856
County: Madison
State: Alabama
Performed By Title: Justice of the Peace
Performed by Name: P C Ledbetter



Alabama, Deaths and Burials Index, 1881-1974
Name: Mrs Walls
Birth Date: abt 1836
Death Date: 8 Jan 1919
Death Place: North, Marshall, Alabama
Cemetery Name: Marion Cemetery (transcription error: UNION Cemetery)
Death Age: 83
Race: White
Marital Status: Married (widow)
Gender: Female
FHL Film Number: 1908211

Alabama Deaths, 1908-59
Name: Mrs. - Walls
Death Date: 8 Jan 1919
Death County: Marshall
Volume: 18
Roll: 2
Page #: 235

Alabama Death Certificate 1919-11004
1. Place of Death
County: Marshall
Town or City of: North
2. Full name: Mrs. Walls
3. Sex: Female
4. Color or race: White
7. Age: 83
15. Filed: 2-15-1919
16. Date of death: 1-18-1919
17. I hereby certify that I attended the deceased from Jan. 3d 1919 to Jan. 7 1919, that I last saw her alive on Jan. 7, 1919,and that death occurred, on the date stated above, at 8 a.m.
The cause of death was as follows: Pneumonia
duration: 5 days
18. (signed) James C. Henis (?)
address: Columbus City
19. Place of burial: Union Cemetery
20. Undertaker: Jas D. Holt, G'ville (Guntersville)

Holt Funeral Home Records: ?

1910 Guntersville, Marshall Co. census:
J.D. Holt, 48, salesman/general store

1910 Guntersville, Marshall Co. census:
James D. Holt, 58, undertaker

1920 Guntersville, Marshall Co. census:
James D. Holt, 68, "coffin dealer"



History of Alabama (1927) by Albert Burton Moore, vol. 2, p. 353: "Doctor Walls was born at Grant…a son of Clement C. Walls, and grandson of John Walls, a substantial character, and extensive farmer, who, a native of Madison County, spent practically all his life within its confines, although his death occurred at Grant. Much of the earlier development of Madison County is due to his influence and work, and he held the confidence of the public to a high degree. He married Mary Selvage, whose death occurred at Columbus City, Alabama."