The Family › Woodall–Ramsay › Dollahite
Mary Ann Dollahite
1826–1899
✦ direct ancestor — my children's 4×-great-grandmother
· Woodall line, the Woodall–Ramsay side
— their mother's people
Life
- Born
- 30 Jan 1826 · TN
- Died
- 7 Nov 1899 · Gum Springs, Texas, USA
Parents
Marriage & children
James Dollahite Woodall (1853–1922)
Timeline
- 1849MarriedRyal (Royal) Barber Woodall — DeSota County, Mississippi
Records behind this page
1850 U.S. census, population schedule, Harrison County, Texas, enumerated by J. W. Johnston, page stamped 139 (NARA M432; image via Ancestry coll. 8054)
1850 census, Harrison Co., Tex., p. 139, dwelling 288, family 288, lines 22-28; Ancestry coll. 8054 image 4191105-00142, rec. 1581793
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[Read on the full-resolution image 16 Oct 2026 (register K1055): lines 22-28, columns name, age, sex, occupation, real estate, birthplace. No relationship column in 1850.] Dwelling 288, family 288: W Dolahite, 52, m, Farm, real estate 1500, born N.C.; S Dolahite, 50, f, born Geo.; E Dolahite, 18, f, Tenn; S Dolahite, 17, m, none, Tenn; S Dolahite, 14, f, Tenn; R Dolahite, 11, f, Tenn; L A Dolahite, 8, f, Missis. (birthplaces after E. by ditto).
De Soto County, Mississippi, marriages 1845-1851, transcription by Mildred Scott, Ozell Scott and Evelyn Tinkle for the DeSoto Descendant (Genealogical Society of DeSoto County, from 1983), online at msgw.org/desoto; with the reverse (bride) index of De Soto County Marriage Records 1845-1854 read on the image (FamilySearch)
msgw.org/desoto/vitalrecs/marriages/mar1845-1851bride.html (saved 1 Sep 2026); FS DeSoto Marriage Records 1845-1854, index image 15
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[Transcription row as saved 1 Sep 2026 (register K386); index entry read on the image 16 Oct 2026 (register K1054).] Groom | Bride | Date | Official: Woodall, Ryal B. | Halliburton, Mary Ann | 27 Nov 1849 | Samuel Halliburton, M.G. Reverse index, female column: Halliburton, Mary Ann; male: Ryal B. Woodall. The same transcription shows Samuel Halliburton, M.G., officiating at other, unrelated marriages in 1848-1849.
De Soto County, Mississippi, Probate Court minutes, January Term 1852, p. 332, guardianship of Benjamin F. and Sarah E. Halliburton (FamilySearch, DeSoto Court Minutes 1846-1853)
DeSoto Co., Miss., Probate Court minutes, January Term 1852, p. 332; FS image 631, ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9Q8-FQ3P
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[Read on the image 16 Oct 2026 (register K1050), this entry in full.] In the matter of the Guardianship of Benjamin F and Sarah E Halliburton: Willie Dollahite this day presented a transcript of his appointment as Guardian of Benjamin F And Sarah E. Halliburton from the County Court of Rusk County, State of Texas. Whereupon the Guardianship of said Benj. F. and Sarah E. Halliburton, which letters were granted at the December Term 1851 of this Court to R. B. Woodall be and are hereby revoked and said Wilie Dollahite is hereby recognized as the Guardian of said Benj. F. and Sarah E. Halliburton and is hereby authorised to remove the estates of said Wards to the State of Texas.
Rusk County, Texas, County Court, called term 1 December 1851, guardianship of Sarah Elizabeth and Benjamin F. Halliburton (petition, order, bond, oath and clerk's certificate), as recorded in De Soto County, Mississippi, Final Record, January Term 1852, pp. 220-223 (FamilySearch, DeSoto Court Records 1848-1852)
DeSoto Co., Miss., Final Record, January Term 1852, pp. 220-223; FS images 467-468, ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9Q8-X892
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[Read on the image 16 Oct 2026 (register K1049), pp. 220-221, with the FamilySearch transcript of both images.] Called term, Rusk County Court, 1 December 1851, J. E. Glascock Chief Justice, James McWilliams Clerk. Your petitioner Will Dolhite a Citizen of Rusk County respectfully represents unto your Honor that Sarah Elizabeth and Benjamin F Halleburtin minor heirs of Benjamin Halleburton deceased are now in the County of Rusk and State of Texas and that they have no legal Guardian; he asks to be appointed guardian ad litem and for a copy of the order to send to De Soto County, Mississippi, to take charge of an Estate and bring it to Texas. Order: Willie Dollahite appointed Guardian ad litem of the said Sarah Elizabeth and Benjamin F Halleburton Minors, bond four thousand dollars. Bond, 1 December 1851: Wilie Dallahite principal, James Kuykendall and John Kuykendall securities, for the minor heirs of Benjamin F Halleburtin deceased one of the heirs of William Halliburtin late of the County of Desoto. No relationship of the petitioner to the minors is stated.
Rusk County, Texas, County Court, January Term 1853, guardianship of the heirs of B. F. Halliburton (petition of Willie Dollahite, order, bond and letters), as recorded in De Soto County, Mississippi, Final Record, Probate Court, pp. 178-179 (FamilySearch, DeSoto Court Records 1855-1858)
DeSoto Co., Miss., Final Record, Probate Court, pp. 178-179 (March Term 1854); FS image 428 of 729, ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89Q8-XTYG
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[Read on the image 16 Oct 2026 (register K1048), both pages in full, with the FamilySearch machine transcript. Spelling as written.] Estate of B F Halliburton. Transcript. The State of Texas, County of Rusk. To Honorable John C Miller, Chief Justice of said County of Rusk: Your Petitioner Willie Dollahite Guardian of the minor heirs of B F Halliburton would respectfully represent unto your Honor that the duty of Guardian of the said minors are such that he would prefer them placed in the hands of some one else and that he might be discharged from his present trust, and would recommend to your Honor R B Woodall as the most suitable person for said Guardian he being the step father of the said minors ... Willie Dollahite Guardian. Endorsed: Petition of Willie Dolahite, filed Jany 31st 1853, J. S. Swan C.C.R.C. County Court January Term 1853: R. B. Woodall appointed Guardian, letters to issue upon bond of Four Thousand Dollars. Bond: R B Woodall as principal and Willie Dollahite, Jesse R Rountree and John Kuykendall securities; approved January 31st 1853, John C Miller, Chief Justice. Letters: R. B. Woodall appointed guardian of the estate and person of Sarah E Halliburton and Benjamin F Halliburton minors under the age of Fourteen years, heirs of B F Halliburton deceased late of the County of De Soto and State of Mississippi. No relationship of Willie Dollahite to the minors or their mother is stated.
Typescript family history, 1971, by a grandchild of Ryal B. Woodall; FamilySearch "United States. History Records 1971", film 007831273 item 6 (119 images). DAR applications cite a work titled History of the Woodall-Dollahite-Miles-Kuykendall Families in East Texas. Compiled; derivative
Typescript 1971, pages 'The Dollahite Family' (image 35, ark ...HFP4-J), 'Grandpa Wiley' (ark ...HFPD-B) and 'DOLLAHITE RECORDS' chart (image 60, ark ...HF5X-Q)
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[Read 16 Oct 2026 (register K1051) on the FamilySearch transcripts of two prose pages, the chart on the image; the rest of the volume not read. Typed in capitals.] OUR GRANDMOTHER, MARY ANN DOLLAHITE, DAUGHTER OF WILEY AND GRANDDAUGHTER OF CORNELIUS, MARRIED, FIRST, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HALLIBURTON AND BY HIM HAD TWO CHILDREN: SARAH WHO MARRIED VIRGIL CALLOWAY AND JIM WHO DIED YOUNG. THE HUSBAND, B. F. HALLIBURTON, DIED IN 1848 AND OUR GRANDFATHER, RYAL B. WOODALL, CAME INTO THE PICTURE TO WOO AND WIN THIS BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WIDOW SOMETIME IN 1849. ... GRANDPA WILEY DOLLAHITE WAS BORN ON JANUARY 15, 1798, IN NORTH CAROLINA AND MARRIED SARAH PERKINS ON MARCH 9, 1819. SARAH WAS BORN ON SEPTEMBER 16, 1799, IN TENNESSEE, AND DIED ON OCTOBER 2, 1854, IN TEXAS. GRANDPA WILEY MARRIED SECOND A MRS. ELIZABETH CALLOWAY AND THEY LIVED TOGETHER UNTIL HE DIED ON JULY 28, 1871. ... WILEY ALSO HAD A STORE IN HARMONY HILL AND HIS DAY BOOKS WHERE HE KEPT HIS ACCOUNTS ARE IN THE POSSESSION OF MRS. ED DOLLAHITE OF HALLSVILLE AND MRS. BILL DOLLAHITE OF DALLAS. ... THE CHILDREN OF WYLIE AND SARAH WERE: EVALINE, BORN 1 FEBRUARY 1820; IRENA, BORN 15 MARCH 1821; WILLIAM A., BORN 18 FEBRUARY 1823; JESSE PERKINS, BORN 11 SEPTEMBER 1824, DIED 8 APRIL 1864, AND MARRIED RACHEL KUYKENDALL; MARY ANN (SEE ABOVE), BORN 30 JANUARY 1826, DIED 7 NOVEMBER 1899, AND MARRIED, FIRST, B. F. HALIBURTON, AND, SECOND, RILEY WOODALL; NANCY J., BORN 27 MARCH 1827; CORNELIUS, BORN 15 SEPTEMBER 1828; ELIZABETH, BORN 29 MAY 1830; RUTH PARTHENIA, BORN 23 SEPTEMBER 1831; SAMUEL HOUSTON, BORN 8 MAY 1833; SUSAN, BORN 21 FEBRUARY 1835; REBECCA, BORN 16 OCTOBER 1837; AND LUCY ANN, BORN 15 JUNE 1841. ... B. F. HALLIBURTON AND MARY DOLLAHITE MARRIED IN DESOTO COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI, ON OCTOBER 7, 1845 [search snippet; that page not opened].
Will of Jesse P. Dollahite, Smith County, Texas, dated 27 June 1864; Smith County Probate Packets 168-245, 1846-1880 (image via Ancestry coll. 2115, Texas Wills and Probate Records)
Will of Jesse P. Dollahite, 1864, Smith Co., Tex., Probate Packets 168-245; Ancestry coll. 2115 rec. 2164069, image 007627831_01412
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[Read on the full-resolution image 16 Oct 2026 (register K1052), one page, in full.] The last Will & Testament of Jesse P. Dollahite. In the name of God Amen. I Jesse P Dollahite of Smith County and State of Texas being still of sound mind and believing myself to be suffering with my last mortal sickness do make and ordain this my last will and Testament. Imprimis: All my Estate both real & personal I divide equally among all my children. Secondly: It is essential to the final and eternal welfare of my children that they should be brought up with & in a pious God serving & God loving manner and I ordain that this charge shall be placed in the hands of my Father Wiley Dollahite and the father of my late wife, John Kuykendol, and request that they should undertake the same for me. Thirdly: the County Court shall have no control over my estate further than the law absolutely requires. Fourthly: I appoint E. K. Kuykendol and Alva Kuykendol executors. Signed, witnessed and sealed the twenty seventh day of June 1864. J. P. Dollahite. Witnesses J. J. Adams, J. G. Copeland. No sister is named.
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 · 16 Oct 2026
PROOF CLASS: FATHER = ARGUMENT (Owen, 16 Oct 2026) - Wiley Dollahite: the Rusk/De Soto guardianship records 1851-53, his son's 1864 will and the 1850 census, against a 1971 family history that names him. Register K1048-K1056.
PROOF CLASS: MOTHER = INFORMANT (Owen, 16 Oct 2026) - Sarah Perkins is named only by the 1971 family history; the 1850 census shows Wiley's wife S., 50. Flag stays 0. Reopens on a record naming her.
AUDITED 16 Oct 2026 - FATHER ENTERED: Wiley Dollahite (1798-1871), farmer and storekeeper of Harmony Hill, on the Rusk-Harrison county line in Texas, earlier of Humphreys County, Tennessee, and De Soto County, Mississippi. Mother entered on weaker evidence: Sarah Perkins. Mary Ann married first Benjamin F. Halliburton, who died in 1848, and second, on 27 Nov 1849 in De Soto County, Ryal B. Woodall.
THE QUESTION. Who were the parents of [6] Mary Ann (Dollahite) Woodall, mother of [3] James Dollahite Woodall? And is Dollahite her maiden name, given that the 1849 De Soto marriage calls her Mary Ann Halliburton?
THE EVIDENCE. (1) The Rusk County court's guardianship of the heirs of B. F. Halliburton, January 1853, copied into the De Soto County Final Record pp. 178-179 (K1048, read on the image): Willie Dollahite, guardian of the minor heirs, asks to be discharged and recommends R. B. Woodall, "he being the step father of the said minors"; Woodall is appointed guardian of Sarah E. and Benjamin F. Halliburton, with Willie Dollahite one of his sureties. (2) The same court, 1 Dec 1851, copied into the De Soto Final Record pp. 220-223 (K1049): "Will Dolhite a Citizen of Rusk County" is appointed guardian of the two children, who "have no legal Guardian" in Texas; their father is named as one of the heirs of William Halliburton, late of De Soto County. (3) De Soto probate minutes, January 1852, p. 332 (K1050): Woodall's December 1851 De Soto letters are revoked, Willie Dollahite is recognised as guardian and allowed to move the children's estate to Texas. None of the three says how Willie was related to the children. (4) A 1971 typescript family history by a grandchild of Ryal B. Woodall (K1051, compiled): Mary Ann was the "daughter of Wiley"; Wiley, born 1798 in North Carolina, married Sarah Perkins in 1819 and died in 1871; it lists their fourteen children with dates, Mary Ann born 30 Jan 1826. (5) The will of her brother Jesse P. Dollahite, Smith County, Texas, 1864 (K1052): his children are to be raised by "my Father Wiley Dollahite". (6) The 1850 census of Harrison County, Texas, dwelling 288 (K1055): W. Dolahite, 52, born N.C., with S., 50, and five children aged 18 to 8.
THE CORRELATION. The court records identify the woman. Her second husband is the "step father" of B. F. Halliburton's children, so the Mary Ann Halliburton who married Ryal B. Woodall in 1849 was Halliburton's widow, and Halliburton was her first married name, not her maiden name. They also show Willie Dollahite of Rusk County taking charge of her children and their property between her two marriages. The children's Halliburton grandfather was dead. Once she had remarried, Willie handed them to her husband and stood surety for him. The family history names Wiley as her father. Where that history can be tested against originals, it holds: Jesse P. is on its list, and his own will names Wiley as his father. The 1850 household holds Wiley at 52, a wife S. at 50, and the five youngest children on its list (Elizabeth, Samuel Houston, Susan, Rebecca, Lucy Ann). Its account of her first marriage and two children matches the 1851-53 court records. Her son carried Dollahite as his middle name.
THE CONFLICTS. (a) Halliburton or Dollahite: resolved above; Halliburton was her first husband's surname. Samuel Halliburton, the minister at the 1849 wedding, married other, unrelated couples in 1848-49 (K1053) and is not evidence of kinship. (b) The 1850 census gives S. Dolahite's birthplace as Georgia; the family history says Sarah was born in Tennessee. Unresolved; it bears on the mother, not the father. (c) Robert Dollahite died in De Soto County in 1845, an insolvent estate administered by Martin Halliburton (K1053). No record connects him to her, and Wiley was alive and acting for her children in 1851-53. (d) The family history's dates for her birth and death are the ones this tree already carried; the tree was very probably built from it, so the tree is not a second witness.
THE CONCLUSION. Father: ARGUMENT, Wiley Dollahite. No surviving record states it outright. Her first marriage on 7 Oct 1845 predates De Soto's surviving marriage book, which begins in mid-November 1845 (K1054). Wiley's 1871 estate, if it was probated in Rusk County, was lost when the courthouse burned in March 1878 (K1053). Mother: INFORMANT, Sarah Perkins, on the family history alone. The 1819 marriage would be in Humphreys County, Tennessee, whose marriage records for 1809-1861 are lost (K1056). What would overturn the father: a record naming another man as her father, or one showing Willie Dollahite of Rusk County was not the Wiley born 1798.
Elsewhere
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