William Benjamin Tiller

William Tiller was born 19 Mar 1813 in Virginia, presumably Culpeper County, and as a boy accompanied the family migration in Kentucky. Indeed, we are provided with additional evidence that this migration did occur by the persistent family tradition in Texas of referring
to William Tiller “of Kentucky,” a tradition which has led some of his present-day descendants to believe mistakenly that he was born in that state. We lack even the scantiest bit of information about William’s formative years. He emerges from the mists to marry 13-year old Laura Elizabeth Ann Richardson, daughter of Richard and Mary Richardson, on 12 Feb 1835. It was not uncommon in those times for girls to marry so young. Probably this marriage took place somewhere in Louisiana, because their first child was born in that state in 1837. How, why, or when William migrated to Louisiana is unknown. There is good reason to believe that he had a brother George W. Tiller (1815-1849), that they came together from Kentucky, and that they both married Richardsons. An 11-year old female, M. E. Richardson, lived in the same household with George W. Tiller’s remarried widow Susan Hulme in Bowie County, Texas, in 1860. Another Louisiana neighbor, who also married a Richardson, was Cornelius Crenshaw (1815-1863). William Tiller and Cornelius Crenshaw apparently were good friends in Louisiana, and they later lived as neighbors in Panola County, Texas.

Probably in the early autumn of 1837, after crops were made, William Tiller journeyed over into the Republic of Texas to find a new place to settle. His wife Laura stayed behind, as she was expecting their first child. We believe William was in Texas before October 1 st , 1837, because he later received a Second-Class land grant, awarded only to immigrants who were in Texas before that date. His migration was probably prompted by the generous land grants offered by the Republic of Texas. William found a suitable site, near the headwaters of the East Fork of Socagee Creek in southeastern Harrison County. The place lay on the road from Old Elysian Fields to Shreveport, and it was likely this road, or trail, which William had followed from Louisiana into Texas. The border had not yet been surveyed, and he had no way of knowing for certain whether his settlement site lay in Texas or the United States. A valid title to the property was thus not immediately obtainable. Exercising squatter’s rights, William probably built a crude log cabin and then went back to Louisiana to fetch his wife, who had meantime given birth to a daughter, Laura Elvira, on 04 Nov 1837. William’s mother-in-law Mary Richardson, and perhaps her husband Richard, may have accompanied the migration to Texas. The move likely took place during the winter of 1837-8, in time to allow preparation of the land and planting. William may have gone back into Louisiana on business, for the 1840 census of Catahoula Parish in eastern Louisiana lists a certain “transient” named William E. Tiller, age 20-30 years. It is possible that William was driving cattle to market at Natchez, since Catahoula Parish lies on the main road to that Mississippi River Port.

Also in 1837 or 1838, William’s presumed younger brother George W. Tiller migrated to Texas, eventually settling near the present town of Hooks in Bowie County, west of Texarkana. He, too, received a Second-Class land grant. George W. Tiller died in Bowie County after a short illness in August, 1849, leaving a wife and 4 sons. His widow Susan reported that George had been born in Kentucky about 1815 and was a carpenter by trade.She probably erred in placing his birth in Kentucky, since he presumably migrated from Virginia as a child in the early 1820’s. The kinship of William and George W. Tiller is suggested not only by the reference to Kentucky, but also by their mutual skill in woodworking and adherence to Methodism. William is said to have been a skilled woodworker, and George was a carpenter. George W. Tiller’s descendants are still found in Bowie County, and they are Methodist.

William and Laura’s next few years were spent in typical backwoods pioneer life, on this perimeter of the Anglo-American frontier. On February 28 1841, a son was born to them in Texas home, and they named him William Henry Cornelius Tiller, presumably in honor of their friend Cornelius Crenshaw. William’s joy at having a son was tempered 7 months later on September 7, 1841, by the death of his wife Laura at the age of 20. A few days later, his
wife fresh in her grave, a grieving William went with his widowed mother-in-law Mary Richardson to Marshall, the seat of judicial Panola County, where on the second Tuesday in September they both appeared in court to receive the headright land grants to which they
were entitled as immigrants. Richard Richardson had died by this time, for otherwise he rather than his wife would have claimed the headright. A final survey of the Texas-US border had at last permitted survey of lands near the international boundary. William Tiller received
1,280 acres and Mary Richardson 640, as specified by law for Second-Class grants. Williams’s land lay in 2 parcels, each 640 acres in extent. One of these included his homestead near Elysian Fields, while the other lay in the northeastern part of Harrison County. The surveyor
platted the southern parcel of the headright on January 7, 1842, remarking that it lay only 2 ½ miles west of the mile post number 26 on the newly-surveyed international boundary. As laid out, the southern line of the nearly square headright “crosses the Shreveport road several times.” Field notes made by the surveyor mention “oak, hickory, and pine” as the timber on the grant. Part of Mary Richardson’s grant was surveyed adjacent to William’s land
on the east.

The young widower first appeared on the Harrison County tax lists in 1842 as owner of 640 acres and 1 slave. This tax list for 1842 shows his name as William B. Tiller, the only positive clue we have concerning the middle initial. It seems likely that the B. stood for Benjamin, a
common given name among the Tillers. He sold the northern half of his 1,280-acre headright grant to James Swanson on March 8, 1843. William no longer owned a slave in 1843, and the tax lists for 1845 indicate that he remained slaveless, though he did report 12 cattle. In each
of these years, the assessed value of his land was $1.00 per acre. Life was no doubt hard with 2 small children to care for, though William initially had his mother-in-law to help him. However, Mary Richardson soon followed her daughter in death, probably in the fall of 1843, because in December of that year William Tiller had himself appointed guardian of his children Laura Elvira and William Cornelius. Presumably this was done because they had inherited land and other possessions from Mary Richardson. Cornelius Crenshaw, whose wife Elizabeth Ann Richardson, had also died some time earlier, accompanied William Tiller to the
courthouse and took the identical legal action, since his wife was a sister William Tiller’s Laura. Cornelius had followed William Tiller to Texas, arriving late in 1841 and settling a few miles south of the Tiller place. Crenshaw had remarried on June 16, 1842 to Elizabeth Golden.

After 3 years as a widower, William Tiller again sought the companionship of a wife. His attention was attracted to Elizabeth “Betsie” Martha Woodley, daughter of William and Telitha Woodley, whose farm lay west of Elysian Fields near Caney Creek. The Woodley family had migrated to Harrison County in the fall of 1843. William courted Betsie for some months, laboriously copying a love poem to send her. The courtship culminated in marriage on September 30, 1844. William was 31 years of age, his bride 23. Pioneer weddings were festive occasions, attended by everyone in the vicinity, with no formal invitation necessary. The ceremony was follow by a feast, and afterwards the numerous guests danced to fiddle music until midnight, many of them fueled by the home-made whiskey which flowed freely in those days before prohibition. In all probability, the wedding and celebration were held at
the Woodley home, since no churches existed at that time.

Source: “Deep East Texas Folks”, by Terry G. Jordan and Mary Lynn Tiller Weir