Blasterz were fascinated with this multi-family tombstone. Surely there is some connection between the people buried around it.
So we started digging.
From the 1850 Warren Co MS census: (
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" CENSUS YR: 1850 STATE or TERRITORY: MS COUNTY: Warren DIVISION: The City of Vicksburg REEL NO: M432-382 PAGE NO: 184A
REFERENCE: Enumerated by R. H. Tompkins on August 8, 1850
LN HN FN LASTNAME FIRSTNAME AGE SEX OCCUP.VALUE BIRTHPLACE
33 222 228 Harper Thos I 49 M Physician 2,000 Va
34 222 228 Harper Mary J 46 F Va
35 222 228 Harper Virginia 20 F Va
36 222 228 Harper Viola 18 F NC
37 222 228 Harper Adora 9 F Miss
38 222 228 Harper Leonora 7 F Miss
39 222 228 Harper Joseph W 5 M Miss"
This is the right family from the census, since the ages of Mary J. Harper and her son Joseph match the names, ages, and dates on the waymarked tombstone.
So what is the connection between them and the others buried here?
Turning to the grave of David S. Bolls, who is buried on the east side of this multi-family marker, is the deceased husband of Leila Harper (b after 1850), we found him in "The Annual of Washington and Jefferson College. Washington Pa.", pp 146-147:
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"[page 146] DAVID S. BOLLS
David S. Bolls was born in Warren County Mississippi on Sept. 5, 1838. His father was of Irish and his mother of Scotch descent. His father died when he was quite young and his mother was again married to Thomas Kidd. His early education was acquired from private tutors in the family of his step-father. He entered the Freshman class at Jefferson College. He was a quiet, gentlemanly young fellow, and was a general favorite with his classmates. Soon after the breaking out of the war he entered Confederate service in Cowan’s Battery. He saw much hard service. Was present at the siege of Vicksburg and was surrendered with the rest of the Confederate Army. During the siege of Vicksburg he met with quite a number of Jefferson [page 147] students. Three of his classmates, Guy, Rankin, and Wylie, were made prisoners at the same time. After being exchanged he again entered the service and remained until the close of the war. Before the war Bolls was considered to be well off. The Emancipation Proclamation closed out what was left if his property in negro slaves and General Grant’s army in its advance on Vicksburg, left nothing but the land and chimneys of what once was a fine plantation. Financially ruined, he attempted to make a living by merchandising at Bovina and Vicksburg, but owing to the poverty-stricken condition of the people, that venture proved a failure.
He was married May 26, 1870 to Miss Leila Harper, daughter of Dr. Harper. Dr. Harper was a nephew of General Winfield Scott, United States Army.
David S. Bolls died January 23rd 1877, at Smith Station, Miss. He left a wife and two sons surviving him. His widow is living with her sister in Atlanta Georgia, trying to educate her boys.
His step-father, Thomas Kidd, to whom I am indebted for many of he particulars above given, writes very affectionately of David. He says, “I sat by his cradle, followed his hearse to the grave. He was a good citizen in any country.” Peace to his ashes."
We also learned from the Mississippi Confederate Grave Registry website that Davis S. Bolls was a Private in Co. G, 1st MS Light Artillery: (
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"Bolls, David S.
Born: Mar 9, 1842
Warren County, MS
Died: Jan 23, 1877
Vicksburg MS
Pvt; Co. G, 1st MS Lt Arty
Enlisted: Feb 10, 1863 Vicksburg, MS
Discharged: Apr 9, 1865
Cedar Hill Cem.
Vicksburg
Private"
To make sure this is the right David Bolls, we went back to the 1850 US census for warrren Co. MS, where we found him living with his family on a planation in Warren Co. MS. We saw that several separate Bolls families are living nearby on their respective plantations -- they must have been very wealthy. Creepily, the overseer of the slaves who worked the plantation where David Bolls grew up was enumerated as a member of the Bolls household. The family's slaves are on the 1850 slave census (a separate census of slaves listed by owner's name), not part of the household.
"CENSUS YR: 1850 STATE or TERRITORY: MS COUNTY: Warren REEL NO: M432-382 PAGE NO: 226A REFERENCE: Enumerated by R. H. Tompkins on October 5, 1850
LN HN FN LASTNAME FIRSTNAME AGE SEX OCCUP.VALUE BIRTHPLACE
16 931 960 Kidd Thomas 35 M Planter 14,000 Ireland
17 931 960 Kidd Sarah 38 F Missi
18 931 960 Kidd Alice 6 F Missi
19 931 960 Kidd Mary 4 Missi
20 931 960 Kidd Claraine 8/12 F Missi
21 931 960 Bolls Martha 14 F Missi
22 931 960 Bolls Mathew 12 M Missi
23 931 960 Bolls David 11 M Missi
24 931 960 Bolls William 10 M Missi
25 931 960 Taylor Richd 28 M Overseer Va"
Putting census records together with the Confederate Grave registry we see that David's younger brother William also enlisted in the Confederate Army, but in Co. A, 21st MS Infantry. Many of their cousins from the plantations up the road also enlisted -- in all, 6 Bolls family men from Warren Co. MS enlisted in the Confederate Army. They are all living nearby in the 1850 Census.
So David Boll's connection to Mary J. Harper is that he was her son-in-law, and his connection to Joseph W. Harper is that he was his brother-in-law..
Moving to the west side of the multi-family tombstone, the grave of B. R. Thomas is the hardest of all the sides to read. It is very heavily discolored with black lichen. We can barely make out that he died at the age of 60, on March 13, 1875.
So how is he connected to Bolls and the Harpers?
We started again with the 1850 warren Co. MS census (where we had had so much luck before). We found Benj. R. Thomas in the 1850 US Census in Vicksurg, where he works as a merchant. He is 36 in 1850, which placed his date of birth at around 1814. He was born in Virginia, and was not married. (
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CENSUS YR: 1850 STATE or TERRITORY: MS COUNTY: Warren REEL NO: M432-382 PAGE NO: 211A REFERENCE: Enumerated by R. H. Tompkins on September 4, 1850
LN HN FN LASTNAME FIRSTNAME AGE SEX OCCUP.VALUE BIRTHPLACE
30 680 704 Thomas Benj R 36 M Merchant Va
Dead end? Nope. Google searching for "Benjamin R Thomas of Vicksburg died 1876", we found the "Bring Thomas Home" website, whose purpose is to recognize the contributions of General George H. Thomas to US History:
The website gives the genealogy of the John Thomas family of Virginia. It turns out that there were 9 children born to John Thomas and Elisabeth Rochelle Thomas: (
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"The monument in the Thomas family graveyard next to Thomaston [The family home -- BMB]
The 4th side is blank and therefore not shown here. The other 3 sides show the names of the Thomas parents (John and Elizabeth, né Rochelle), and 7 of the 9 children. George is buried in Troy, NY, and Benjamin is buried in Vicksburg where he lived before and after the war. According to Wilbur Thomas (General George H. Thomas, pg. 48), "John William was the eldest child; Judith Elvira, the second; Benjamin, the third; and George Henry, the subject of this work, the fourth. Unfortunately, the remaining children cannot be placed in their order of birth." His source were the Mattie R. Tyler Papers in the Southampton County Courthouse. However, since the children on the one side of the monument are arranged in order of birth, it is reasonable to assume that the stonemason had received instructions. The complete order would thus be as follows:
1. John William
2. Judith Elvira (died 1903)
3. Benjamin (1814-1876), buried in Vicksburg, Miss.
4. George Henry (born 31 July 1816, died in San Francisco 28 March 1870 , buried in Troy, NY)
5. Anne
6. Francis G. (Fanny, died 1902)
7. Lucy Briggs (né Thomas)
8. Elizabeth
9. Juliett
In a geneology search for Benjamin Thomas I find the following entry:
'Sarah B. Brooks f0ght@tir.com 15 May 2000
Looking for information on the following Thomas' who lived in Madison Parish, LA, about 1902:
THOMAS, Nathaniel W., THOMAS, Rosa C., THOMAS, Lillie.
These were the children of Benjamin THOMAS (1814-1876) and his wife, Virginia of Vicksburg, MS and are buried with their parents there. Benjamin THOMAS was a brother of the Union General, George Henry THOMAS (1816-1870).' "
That's right -- the Benj. R. Thomas who lived in Vicksburg before and after the Civil war, and who is the brother of US Army General George Thomas, and who is buried on the third side of this broken column tombstone a foot away and 90-degrees offset from David S. Bolls, son and step-son of slave-owning cotton planters, a veteran of the Civil War who fought for the Confederacy and who was the son of a cotton planter -- HE MARRIED ONE OF MARY HARPER'S DAUGHTERS!
Hypothetically, (and Blasterz have NO evidence of this), if Benjamin Thomas lived in Vicksburg starting around 1850, stayed through siege and remained after the war, AND if he and/or his wife later moved on to Louisiana, then PRESUMABLY he did not share his brother's Union sympathies. But boy, that must have made for some awkward family gatherings, especially since Gen. Henry Thomas gained fame as "The Rock of Chickamauga" and had great success defeating Confederate forces in Tennessee. And awkwardness on the streets, since everybody in Southern towns knows everything about everyone, AND their families.
we know that George Thomas was treated as a pariah in his own family for deciding to remain in the US Army instead of following his fellow Virginians in the 2nd cav., and resigning to join the Confederacy.
Who were those fellow Virginians he served with who resigned?
From Wikipedia: (
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"At the outbreak of the Civil War, 19 of the 36 officers in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry resigned, including three of Thomas's superiors—Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and William J. Hardee. Many Southern-born officers were torn between loyalty to their states and loyalty to their country. Thomas struggled with the decision but opted to remain with the United States. His Northern-born wife probably helped influence his decision. In response, his family turned his picture against the wall, destroyed his letters, and never spoke to him again. (During the economic hard times in the South after the war, Thomas sent some money to his sisters, who angrily refused to accept it, declaring they had no brother.)
Nevertheless, Thomas stayed in the Union Army with some degree of suspicion surrounding him. On January 18, 1861, a few months before Fort Sumter, he had applied for a job as the commandant of cadets at the Virginia Military Institute. Any real tendency to the secessionist cause, however, could be refuted when he turned down Virginia Governor John Letcher's offer to become chief of ordnance for the Virginia Provisional Army. On June 18, his former student and fellow Virginian, Confederate Col. J.E.B. Stuart, wrote to his wife, "Old George H. Thomas is in command of the cavalry of the enemy. I would like to hang, hang him as a traitor to his native state." Nevertheless, as the Civil War carried on, he won the affection of Union soldiers serving under him as a "soldier's soldier", affectionately referring to Thomas as "Pap Thomas"."
For more on Union Army General George H. Thomas see here: (
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Tying this all up neatly in a bow: We started with a broken column tombstone under which four people with three different surnames were buried.
After some digging, we discovered that the common connection between them all is Mary J. Harper -- she is the mother of Joseph W. Harper, and the mother-in-law of David S. Bolls and Benjamin R. Thomas.