THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST, translated out of the original Greek

Published and sold by Kimber and Sharpless, 93 Market Street, Philadelphia, 1824. (Brown leather binding, gold embossing and lettering on front and spine, violet marbled interior lining, very faded and frayed red book mark ribbon bound into spine)

This 1829 New Testament Bible was given as a betrothal gift to son David Williams’s fiancee, Miss Elvyann M. Walker, of Lauderdale County, Tennessee, by his father, W. A. Williams in 1841. Sadly the elder Mr. Williams died several months prior to the wedding. The Bible remained within the family continuously ever since, passing from W. A. Williams, to his son David, to David’s daughter, Ellen Louise Williams who carried it to her own wedding to Eli Martin on May Day, 1878. It was then presented to Ellen and Eli daughter, Albertha Williams Martin, upon her wedding to Albert Carroll Cheatham, Sr., of Blytheville Arkansas, on 9/27/1916. Mrs. Cheatham loaned it to her son, Albert Carroll Cheatham, Jr., for his wedding to Lucy Rosemary Robertson on 7/31/1940. Upon the death of the elder Mrs. Cheatham, it was inherited by Verlie Louise Cheatham Francis, the youngest child of Albertha Williams Martin Cheatham, where it remained in very fragile condition in a vault in California. It was loaned to the niece of Verlie Francis, Cheryll Anne Cheatham Haile, for transcription, shortly before it became too fragile to be further handled.

These are the entries, handwritten on several pages in different inks and handwritings in the front and back of the Bible:

First interior page:

Joined in Holy Matrimony, this day, before Our Lord, Jesus Christ,

Mr. David Williams and Miss Elvyann M. Walker February 10, 1842

Second page “BIRTHS”

David Willliams born December 5, 1811

Elvyann Mannery Walker born December 19, 1818

Mary Jane Williams born December 16, 1842

Benjamin W. Williams born July 18, 1844

Francis A. Willliams born July 5, 1846

Eliza V. Williams born May 26, 1848

Phredonia W. Williams born July 14, 1850

Martha Harriett Williiams born December 3, 1852

Ellen Louise Williams born October 16, 1855

Robert A. Williams born march 13, 1858

Cornelia B. Williams born March 26, 1864

Max C. Williams born July 8, 1879

Effie Jenkins born April 20, 1868

Lillian E. Jenkins born April 5, 1872

Emily H. Pitts born September 25, 1858

Rufus Dixon Martin born September 28, 1872

Beulah Zebulon Martin born February 28, 1879 at Ripley, Tennessee

William Walker Martin born April 2, 1881, at Ripley, Tennessee

Lillias Gertrude Martin born January 9, 1884, at Ripley, Tennessee

Albertha Williams Martin born January 26, 1888, at Ripley, Tennessee

Eli Van Louis Martin born June 4, 1891 at Henning, Tennessee

Juanita Martin born May 18, 1895 at Henning, Tennessee

Lucinda Clementine Pitts, born April 19, 1849

Thomas Valentine Barnes born 1842

Sarah A. Burks born November 25, 1831

R. W. Burks born 1847

 

 

MARRIAGES

 

David Williams and Elvyann Mannery Walker married February 10, 1842

Willilam C. Brown and Mary Jane Williams married February 4, 1863

James R. Jenkins and Francis A. Williams married November 13, 1866

John T. Martin and Eliza V. Williams married February 15, 1870

John R. McGaughey and Martha Harriett Williams married December 22, 1870

Mr. R. W. Burks and Miss Phredonia W. Williams married (smeared)

Mr. W. C. Burks and Miss Cornelia “Neelie” B. Williams married November 28, 1882

Robert A. Williams and Emily “Emma” E. Pitts married December 25, 1876

Thomas V. Barnes and Lucinda C. Pitts married March 7, 1877

Robert J. Blackwell and Francis A. Martin married March 7, 1877

Reason L. “Reek” Wood and Sarah J. Currie married November 25, 1831

Secondly, Reek Wood and Miss Sarah A. Burks married November 29, 1881

J. R. Burks and Miss Eddi Wood married November 24, 1885

Secondly, J. R. Burks and Miss Willie House married November 4, 1900

Eli Martin and Ellen Williams married at Maplewood, Henning Tennessee, May Day 1878

Marriages of Eli and Ellen Martin’s Children:

John Wesley Blythe and Beulah Zebulon Martin married at Blythes Chapel, Blytheville, Arkansas, October 17, 1897.

Charles C. Ford and Lillias Gertrude Martin married December 26, 1904, Ripley, Tennessee

Ablert Carroll Cheatham, Sr. and Albertha Williams Martin married at the home of the John W. Blythes, Blytheville, Arkansas, September 27, 1916

Miss Juanita Martin did not marry

Mr. Eli Van Louis Martin did not marry

 

DEATHS

George Williams died October 4, 1841. (Father to David, G. R., William, Daniel and Turner Williams)

Absalom Williams died January 19, 1849

Wilson Williams died Jaunuary 26, 1849

Sabret Wood died 1836

Mary E. Thompson Wood died 1839 (wife of Sabret Wood)

Reason L. “Reek” Wood died 1899 (son of Sabret Wood)

Sarah Jane Currie Wood died 1879 (1st wife of Reek Wood)

Sarah A. Burks Wood died 1880 (2nd wife of Reek Wood)

Belinda S. Arnold died June 22, 1850

Mary R. Williams died May 10, 1852

Edwin Williams died July 18, 1851 (son of Emma Williams)

Benjamin W. Williams died 1863 (son of Emma Williams)

William A. J. Walker died May 18, 1862

Robert Walker died June 1, 1863

Mary A. Walker died January 26, 1866

Benjamin Williams died November 8, 1875

James R. Jenkins died October 24, 1876

David Williams died August 25, 1884 (son of George Williams)

Elvyann M. Walker Williams died July 3, 1890

Ellen Louise Williams Martin died February 21, 1915

Robert A. Williams died May 10, 1908. He was 51 years old.

Prhedonia Williams Burks died 1928 (wife of R. W. Burks)

R. W. Burks died 1916

Mrs. Emma Williams died August 9, 1909. She was 41 years old.

Emily H. Williams died December 22, 1917

Lillian Estelle Jenkins died June 11, 1942

Eliza V. Williams Martin died 1881

William Walker Martin died December 9, 1881

David Williams died August 25, 1884 (son of W. A. and Mary Williams)

Eli Martin died at Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee on January 2, 1919

 

(Separate page of handwritten DEATHS)

 

John Wesley Blythe died June 15, 1931, at Blytheville, Arkansas

Eli Van Louis Martin, WWI U. S. Army Vet, died in Hollywood, California, December 10, 1935 of spinal menengitis.

Juanita Martin died February, 1940 at Garfield Hospital, Washington, D. C.

Beulah Zebulon Martin Blythe died August 6, 1952 in Blytheville, Arkansas.

Albertha Williams Martin Cheatham died of cancer 1953, in Shreveport, Louisiana

Gordon Martin Cheatham, Capt. U. S. Army, Vet, died of cancer in 1960 in Bethesda, Md., buried in Arlington Memorial Cemetery, Virginia.

Albert Carroll Cheatham, Sr. died March 1973 in Shreveport, Louisiana, of kidney failure.

Albert Carroll Cheatham, Jr., died March 12, 1993, of heart disease in Kenner, Louisiana.