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The FamilyTemple–CatchingsFowlkes

Abner D Fowlkes

1833–1867

Elizabeth Ann Bruce 1798–1858Edward Bass Fowlkes 1785–1853Agnes Bass Bruce 1765–1817Lemuel Bruce –c. 1816Tabitha Bass I 1763–1825Henry Bass Fowlkes I 1750–1808Tabitha Hatcher 1742–c. 1800John Bass, Sr. 1738–c. 1808Tabitha Hatcher 1742–c. 1800John Bass, Sr. 1738–c. 1808Sarah Elizabeth Jennings Fowlkes 1730–1782Senator John Anthony Fowlkes\Foulks 1722–1799Martha Clay 1713–1745William Bass 1707–1775Martha Clay 1713–1745William Bass 1707–1775Elizabeth c. 1700–1730(Lt. Col.) Gabriel Fowlkes\Foulks (the immigrant) 1696–1775MaryHenry Clay c. 1672–c. 1760Mary –1717William Bass c. 1684–c. 1748MaryHenry Clay c. 1672–c. 1760Mary –1717William Bass c. 1684–c. 1748Mary Fowlkes Cheatham 1665–1720Gabriel Fowlkes\Foulks I 1665–1740
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✦ direct ancestorOwen's 3×-great-grandfather · Temple line

✦ A story has been written about this person: Home From the War: Abner Fowlkes, 1833–1867 — A Hempstead County farmer who survived Confederate service and a prisoner-of-war file, and had one year of the peace.

Life

Born
21 Feb 1833 · Virginia, United States
Died
18 Mar 1867 · Arkansas, USA

Parents

Marriage & children

SpouseJosephine Derrick (1834–1901) m. 16 Oct 1855 · , Hempstead, Arkansas, United States of America
Georgia Derrick Fowlkes (1859–1900)
Emma Lyons Fowlkes (1861–1919)
Abner D Fowlkes, Jr. (1866–1892)

Timeline

Records behind this page

1850 United States Federal Census
Year: 1850; Census Place: Springhill, Hempstead, Arkansas; Roll: M432_26; Page: 270A; Image: 537
Year: 1850; Census Place: Springhill, Hempstead, Arkansas; Roll: M432_26; Page: 270A; Image: 537
read the transcript
READ ON THE IMAGE 18 Aug 2026 (Ancestry img 4193066-00537; crop in ancestry/sources/fowlkes-1850-springhill-census-2026-08-18/): Schedule I, Spring Hill Township, Hempstead Co., Arkansas, enumerated December 1850, stamped p. 270. Dwelling 5 / family 5, lines 20-23: Edward B. Fowlks 65 M Farmer b. Virginia; Mary E. 21 F; Abner D. 17 M 'Manager'; Louisa M. 11 F (all b. Virginia). The household is exactly FOUR - NO WIFE PRESENT; the next dwelling (6, Simon Morgan) begins at line 24, so the roster is bounded on the page, not taken from an index panel. 1850 has no relationship column and carries no weight on any proof flag. But Elizabeth Ann Bruce's absence here, joined with the Jan Term 1854 distribution order that names no widow (register K199), contradicts her stored 10 Mar 1858 death from two directions. Register K221.
1860 United States Federal Census
Year: 1860; Census Place: Springhill, Hempstead, Arkansas; Roll: M653_42; Page: 794; Image: 282; Family History Library Film: 803042
American Civil War Soldiers
Side served: Confederacy; State served: Confederate States
Ancestry.com, Arkansas, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1818-1998 (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015)
Bonds, Inventories & Appraisements, 1826-1927; Author: Arkansas. Probate Court (Hempstead County); Probate Place: Hempstead, Arkansas
Ancestry.com, North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016)
Book Title: The Sharples-Sharpless Family : Volume 1
read the transcript
ENTRY 2428 READ ON THE PAGE IMAGE 18 Aug 2026 (printed folio 766, running head THE SHARPLESS FAMILY; image saved 5 Aug 2026 as ancestry/sources/cope-1887-sharpless-genealogy-PAGE-766-VERIFIED-entry2428-william-s-derrick-children.jpg): Gilbert Cope, Genealogy of the Sharpless Family (Philadelphia, 1887), p. 766: '2428. William S. Derrick, Sarah, b. 7, 31, 1802; d. Washington, D. C., 5, 15, 1852; m. 8, 9, 1827, Anna P. Lyons. Children,- ... 6938. Josephine, b. 1, 13, 1834; m. 10, 16, 1855, Abner D. Fowlkes, and 4, 21, 1870, Dr. Henry J. Garrett.' Seven children enumerated (6935-6941). NOTE: a COMPILED GENEALOGY of 1887 - an informant, not a record; per the 15 Aug 2026 decision, Josephine's mother link stays ungraded on Cope alone. Her 16 Oct 1855 marriage here matches the tree's E8146 to the day. Register K222.
Ancestry.com, Texas, U.S., Death Certificates, 1903-1982 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013)
Texas Department of State Health Services; Austin Texas, USA
Arkansas, County Marriages Index, 1837-1957
FamilySearch; Salt Lake City, Utah; Arkansas County Marriages, 1838–1957
Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861-1865
National Archives at Washington DC; Washington, DC. USA; Selected Records of the War Department Commissary General of Prisoners Relating to Federal Prisoners of War Confined at Andersonville, GA, 1864-65; NARA film publicaton #:: M2072; Record Group: War D
U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles
Historical Data Systems, Inc.; Duxbury, MA 02331; American Civil War Research Database
U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865
U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Confederate Organizations, compiled 1903 - 1927, documenting the period 1861 - 1865; Catalog ID: 586957; Record Group #: 109; Roll #: 170Fold3 · subscription

Research notes

Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open. Many open with a line grading the parentage; what the grades mean.

Research note · 4 Sep 2026
PROOF CLASS: MOTHER = ARGUMENT (Owen graded 4 Sep 2026). FATHER = DIRECT. NO record states Eliza was Abner's mother - the mother link closes on twelve correlated records, not on a filiation statement. Summary: proof-summary-104-fowlkes-mother-2026-09-04.md THE QUESTION WAS MATERNITY ONLY. The father half has been DIRECT since 16 Aug 2026 on a court record: the Hempstead Co. Court of Probate, January Term 1854, names Abner D among the "children and heirs of the said Edward B Faulkes decd" (Probate Records Vol D-E p. 48-49, image 357, ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9W3-QD7C; register K199; captures in sources/fowlkes-hempstead-probate-2026-08-16/). The petitioners are Thomas C Smith and Emily his wife, Calvin Henry and Eliza his wife, Charles P Turrentine and Mary E his wife, Ethelbert B Faulkes, and Abner D and Louisa M Faulkes, minors, by Simon T Sanders their Guardian. The order charges lifetime advancements (Ethelbert 1836, Emily 1838, Eliza 1846, Mary E 1850) and distributes share and share alike. THE MOTHER ARGUMENT, in one paragraph. Edward B. Fowlkes's marriage to Eliza A. Bruce is evidenced by original records at three points that BRACKET Abner's February 1833 birth: the Nottoway Co. Order Book 7 partition of Lemuel Bruce's estate, commissioners appointed Feb 1816, allotting land "to Edwd B. Fowlkes & Eliza A his wife formerly Eliza A. Bruce" (K428, read on the FS full-text transcript, NOT the image); the Charlotte Co. justices' certificate of 10 Sep 1821 examining "Eliza Fowlkes the wife of Edwd B Fowlkes" privily and apart, read on the manuscript image (K402); and two 1839 Charlotte deeds in which she joins the conveyance and signs "Eliza A Fowlkes" (K396, signature verified on the image; K410). Six dated births run 1816-1839 at regular intervals inside her childbearing span - she was 34 in Feb 1833 - and the eldest son is named Ethelbert BRUCE Fowlkes, carrying her maiden name. A full-text sweep of the Charlotte deed books 1827-1841 and all 17 Charlotte will-book documents naming Edward B. Fowlkes finds NO second or different wife at any date (K404, K409); the "his wife Jane" alarm resolved as Claiborne Ford's wife (K396). The control that makes that negative admissible is on the RECORD CLASS, not the surname: "privily and apart" returns 100+ hits in every year 1827-1840. WHAT WOULD OVERTURN IT: a Virginia or Arkansas record naming a DIFFERENT wife of Edward B. Fowlkes between 1822 and 1833, or a record showing Eliza A. (Bruce) Fowlkes dead before February 1833. The residual hypothesis is stated at full strength in the summary's section 4c: the Charlotte deed books structurally COULD NOT have named his wife before 1833, because in all seven of his pre-1833 appearances he is the grantee or an adjoining landowner, never the seller, and a wife joins only when her husband conveys away. CORRECTION, 4 Sep 2026 - THIS NOTE CARRIED A SUPERSEDED CLAIM FOR 17 DAYS. Its 18 Aug 2026 paragraph said Eliza's stored 1858 death was "contradicted twice" by the Dec 1850 census (no wife in the household) and the Jan 1854 petition (no widow). K226, recorded 19 Aug 2026 - the day after - REVERSED that: both are absence-inferences, and the K199 jaw was always weak, because a distribution order runs to "children and heirs" and DOWER IS A SEPARATE PROCEEDING. Her gravestone at Hervey Cemetery states 10 Mar 1858 outright and survived a hostile glyph-by-glyph re-read (K226, K238). SO THE WIDOW CONFLICT IS REAL BUT ORTHOGONAL: every candidate resolution puts her death in or after 1839, i.e. after all six dated births, so it bears on her DEATH DATE and not on Abner's maternity. E3810 is deliberately NOT edited. THE OTHER TWO CONFLICTS, both confined. (1) SIX HEIRS vs SEVEN CHILDREN: the seventh is [1294] Martha Ann Fowlkes, who has no birth date, no death date and no citation of any kind in this database - an unsourced tree entry, not a documentary conflict. She is flagged, NOT detached. (2) Ethelbert B is an heir in the Jan 1854 order but absent from the Dec 1850 household, recorded as unexplained in the 18 Aug 2026 text: he was 34 in 1850 and had taken his advancement in 1836, so this is resolved, not open. THE SUPPORTING CLUSTER, all read on images 16 Aug 2026 (K196-K198): letters of administration to Joel W. Hannah, 15 Oct 1853, reciting that Edward B Faulkes "died intestate... on or about the 5th day of October 1853" (Administration Bonds Vol I p. 792); Maria Louisa Faulkes's guardianship letters, Oct Term 1853, "a minor heir of E. B. Faulkes deceased" (Vol I p. 797); and Calvin M. Henry's bond of 16 Jan 1854 as guardian of Abner D Faulkes, a minor (Vol I p. 827-829) - Henry being the husband of heir Eliza per this order. The 1850 census was read on the image 18 Aug 2026 (K221): Spring Hill Twp., Hempstead Co., p. 270, dwelling 5, Dec 1850 - Edward B. Fowlks 65 Farmer b. Va., Mary E 21, Abner D 17 "Manager", Louisa M 11. FINDING-AID WARNING, unchanged and still load-bearing: in Hempstead records this family is spelled FAULKES/FAWLKS - a "Fowlkes" index search of Ancestry collection 8638 returns a FALSE ZERO. NOT USED, and deliberately: F442's "1815 Amelia County" marriage event E8480 carries ZERO citations, so the earliest EVIDENCED date of the marriage is the 1816 partition, not 1815. Abner's exact birth DAY (21 Feb 1833) is likewise unsourced - E434 cites the read 1850 census plus three index-attached records with no transcribed text - so this argument uses only the year range 1832-33, which the census age carries.

Elsewhere

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