A Brief History of the Bible

Given as a betrothal gift to his son David's fiancee, Miss Elvyann Mannery Walker, of Lauderdale County, Tennessee, by his father, William Absalom Willliams in 1841. Sadly the elder Mr. Williams died several months prior to his son's wedding. This Bible has been within the family since its origins. It was originally bought by Levin Wood, cousin of W. A., from a traveling Bible salesman who passed through the area in the late 1820's. It passed from Wood to William Absalom Williams, to his son, David Williams, then on to David's daughter, Ellen Louise Williams, who carried it to her own wedding to Mr. Eli Martin, in Lauderdale County, Tennessee on May 1, 1878. Later it was carried by their daughter, Albertha Williams Martin, to her wedding to Mr. Albert Carroll Cheatham, Sr. of Blytheville, Arkansas, on 9/27/1916. Mrs. Cheatham kept it until her death in 1953, in which it then passed to Mr. Cheatham's second wife, Grace. Grace Cheatham then passed it to her step-daughter, Verlie Louise Cheatham upon her marriage to Col. Richard Francis. Upon her recent death, it became the property of Verlie Francis's niece, Cheryll Cheatham Haile, of Atlanta, Georgia. It was addended to and corrected for publication and reprint in 2000 for all interested parties. Sadly the deteriorating condition of the Bible prevents it from being circulated further, and is currently in a hermetically sealed vault in Apple Valley, California.

Copied from the original Wood/Williams/Martin Family Bible of 1829,
owned by William Absalom Williams, Esquire, of Lauderdale County, Tennessee.

An asterisk (*) marks corrections and additions to the original.

George Williams died 10/4/1841 (father to (*cousin)David, G. R., William, Daniel, and Turner)
Absalom Williams died 1/19/1849
Wilson Williams died 1/26/1849
Sabret Wood (I) died 1836
Mary E. Thompson Wood died 1839 (wife of Sabret)
Reason "Reek" Wood died 1899 (son of Sabret II)
Sarah Jane Currie died 1879 (1st wife of Sabret Wood)
Sarah A. Burks died 1880 (2nd wife of Sabret Wood)
Belinda S. Arnold died June 22, 1850
Mary R. Williams died 5/10/1852
Edwin Williams died 7/18/1851 (son of Emma Williams)
Benjamin W. Williams died 1863 (son of Emma Williams)
William A. J. Walker died 5/18/1862
Robert Walker died 6/1/1863
Mary A. Walker died 1/26/1866
Benjamin Williams died 11/8/1875
James R. Jenkins died 10/24/1876
David Williams died 8/25/1884 (*son of William Absalom and Mary Williams)
Elvyann Mannery Walker Williams died 7/3/1890
Ellen Louise Williams Martin died 2/21/1915
Robert A. Williams died 5/10/1908 (He was 51 years old)
Phredonia "Phee" W. Williams died 1928 (*wife of R. W. Burks)
Robert W. Burks died 1916
Emma Williams died 8/9/1909. (She was 41 years old)
Emily H. Williams died 12/22/1917
Lillian Estelle Jenkins died 6/11/1942
*Eliza Verlie Williams Martin died 1881
*William Walker Martin died in infancy 12/9/1881

(*handwritten on added notes) Eli Martin died at Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, on January 2, 1919 after a brief illness. He was the son of Zebulon Martin and Lucinda Shoemake Martin Mahan (*daughter of William and Martha Shoemake) and the husband of Ellen Louise Martin Williams. He was also father to Beulah, Lillias, Albertha, Eli Van Louis, and Juanita Martin.

Eli Van Louis Martin, WWI Army Veteran, died at L. A. County Hospital, Hollywood, Ca. 12/10/1935 of menengitis. He was cremated and his ashes are buried in Hollywood City Cemetery. He was 44 years old. He had changed his name to Glenn Martin Watson. He never married, and he had no children.

Juanita Martin died 2/1940 in Washington, D. C. where she worked for many years for the FBI. She was 45 years old. She never married, and she had no children.

Albertha William Martin Cheatham died in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1953 of ovarian cancer. She was 65 years old.

Gordon Martin Cheatham, Capt. U. S. Army Korean War Vet, died in 1960 in Bethesda, Md. of testicular cancer. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery, Arlington, Va. He was 34 years old.

Albert Carroll Cheatham, Jr. died of heart disease on 3/12/1993 in Kenner, Louisiana. He was 72 years old. The son of Albert, Sr. and Albertha Cheatham, he was a WWII vet, husband to Lucy Rosemary Robertson Cheatham, and father to Cheryll Anne Cheatham (Haile) and Pamela Jean Cheatham (Estevez).

Verlie Louise Cheatham Francis died 6/30/1994 of breast cancer, in Bakersfield, California. She was 64 years old. She is buried near her home in Apple Valley, California.

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