Lemuel Lunceford Callaway

Lemuel Lunceford Callaway, son of Rev. Lemuel Callaway and Mahala Eliza Ann Shivers, was born in Greene County, Alabama, on January 17, 1840. He grew up in a large family of at least 10 children—Navia, Milton, Nancy, Malinda, Lemuel, Matilda, Sarah, Shevers (possibly Shivers), Caroline “Carry,” and W. A. Callaway. Lemuel later became the father‑in‑law of my great‑grandmother, Alice Beman Lankford, though we share no blood relationship.

For years, I assumed his middle name was Lawrence, simply because that was how it appeared in online trees and on Find A Grave. But none of the records in my files ever spelled out a middle name—some listed him simply as Lemuel Callaway, while others used only the middle initial “L”. While researching this sketch, I found his Civil War service record listing him as Lemuel Lunceford Callaway. To confirm that “Lunceford” wasn’t a clerical error, I looked for earlier documentation and located an 1859 Baylor University catalog that also recorded him as Lemuel Lunceford Callaway. Lemuel’s maternal uncle was Offa Lunsford Shivers, so it’s possible his middle name “Lunceford” was a variation of “Lunsford.” Because the Baylor catalog was published during the years he attended, it provides strong evidence that Lunceford was his true middle name.

Lemuel was born into a busy household. In 1840, his parents had recently purchased a 160‑acre homestead in Sumter County, Alabama. His father, a mid‑level planter, oversaw 9 family members and 18 enslaved people. The Callaway home was a working plantation with constant activity, many children, and the structured world of the antebellum South.

During the first half of the 1850s, the family was living in the Gaston District of Sumter County. Rev. Callaway, born in Georgia, farmed land valued at $3,800. Several of the children had attended school that year, even though only Milton was formally listed as a student. Lemuel’s sister Navia lived next door with her husband John Harper and their daughter Margaret. That same year, the Callaways sold more than 680 acres—evidence of how much they had built since arriving in Sumter County, and also a sign they were preparing to leave Alabama. Their disappearance from county records after 1851, combined with Lemuel’s presence at Baylor by 1858 and the family’s appearance in Wharton County by 1860, shows they migrated to Texas between 1851 and 1854, joining many Alabama planters moving west.

By the late 1850s, the Callaways were settled in Wharton County, Texas. Lemuel appeared in Baylor University’s Preparatory Department roster in 1858 as an 18‑year‑old student. He attended only one academic year, 1858–1859, in the College of Arts and Sciences.

 

Lemuel’s mother, Mahala, signed her will on October 25, 1858, and a codicil the next year. She died before December 26, 1859, when the will was proven in Wharton County. She was only 48.

In April 1861, Lemuel enlisted locally at Wharton, Texas, as men began organizing for military service. A few months later, in August, he joined the Rough & Ready Mounted Rifles of Wharton County, a short‑term Texas State Troops militia formed for home defense. 

After his brief militia service, Lemuel entered Confederate service in September 1861, mustering at Houston with Captain John T. Holt’s Company H, 8th Texas Cavalry—better known as Terry’s Texas Rangers—for the duration of the war. He traveled roughly 55 miles to rendezvous and brought equipment valued at $25.

Muster rolls show him present for duty through 1863. He was hospitalized twice—first at Nashville in December 1861, and later at Clinton, Alabama, where he was listed as absent sick. He suffered wounds to his right foot and left hip that left him partially disabled. When the regiment surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 24, 1865, Lemuel was not among those paroled. In his 1902 Georgia pension application, he explained that his officers had given him permission to leave on the morning of surrender. Fellow Ranger E. M. Phelps later testified that Lemuel had served honorably and “proved himself a brave soldier,” confirming his presence with the regiment from its organization in 1861 until the end of the war. His years with the Rangers placed him with the regiment during its major campaigns, matching the period when his muster rolls show him present for duty.

As a member of Terry’s Texas Rangers, Lemuel served in one of the most active cavalry regiments in the Western Theater. The Rangers often fought dismounted, skirmishing under heavy fire and supporting exposed artillery. At Shiloh in April 1862, they were ambushed at close range while crossing a ravine in single file, suffering heavy casualties and losing more than 50 horses. They later fought at Stones River in 1862 and at Farmington in 1863, all during the years when Lemuel was documented as present for duty. The close‑range fighting and rapid movements typical of these campaigns are consistent with the wounds he later described to his right foot and left hip.

During the war, Lemuel married Anna “Josephine” Mullins on December 23, 1863, in Penfield, Greene County, Georgia. She was the daughter of John “Jack” Mullins and Julia Ann Williams and the twin of Georgiana. The Christian Index announced the marriage on January 8, 1864, noting that Lemuel was “of Texas,” while Josephine was living in Penfield at the time. They had six children together: Talula “Lula,” Jack Mullins, Carrie, Robert “Bob” Dawson, Lemuel Kelser, and Earnest Callaway. Three of their children later married into the Lankford family.

Marriage announcement, The Christian Index, January 8, 1864

After the war, Lemuel and Josephine settled into family life in Georgia, where their first children were born during Reconstruction. By 1870, they were living in Greene County near Josephine’s relatives in Penfield. Lemuel worked as a farm laborer, and the census captures them with their young family in its early stages.

On June 18, 1880, Lemuel and Josephine lived in District 146 of Greene County with their six children. Lemuel farmed while Josephine kept house, and three of the children attended school. Josephine’s parents and her brother Benjamin lived two doors away. That same year, Lemuel operated a modest share‑rent farm with 27 acres of tilled land and a small amount of woodland and unimproved ground. His farm was valued at $500, with $10 in equipment and $150 in livestock. He raised corn, wheat, cotton, and potatoes, and kept cows, sheep, and chickens. The family produced butter, eggs, and wood, and the farm’s total production for 1879 was valued at $450. Josephine died on May 7, 1882, at their home near Penfield. Her burial place is unknown, though Penfield or Old Shiloh Cemeteries are likely.

Greene, Herald and Journal, The Oglethorpe Echo,
Crawford, Georgia, May 18, 1882

In March 1883, Lemuel was Sunday school superintendent at Shiloh Church in Penfield. On April 12, 1883, he married Julia Celeste Askew, daughter of Ezekiel “Griffin” Askew and Cornelia Frances “Fanny” Mullins. Lemuel was 30 years older than Julia, and they had eight children together: Sidney Johnson, Arthur Howell, Olivia, Annie C., Eulilla “Lilla” May, Ida “Ruth,” Samuel Ezekiel, and Claude Parkis Callaway.

By June 6, 1900, the family lived in Hutchinson, Greene County, about six or seven miles southwest of Penfield. Lemuel was listed as “Lem.” He farmed, and he and Julia had been married 17 years. All eight of their children were living, and several were in school.

Lemuel applied for an Indigent Pension on January 12, 1903, five days before his 63rd birthday. He stated he had lived in Georgia since December 10, 1869, though this date was almost certainly mistaken, since he married Josephine in Georgia in 1863 and their daughter Lula was born there in 1866. He reported that he had been a farm tenant since 1865 and based his application on age, infirmity, and poverty. Between 1894 and 1901 he owned no property and was supported largely by his wife and children. His annual support cost about $80, of which he contributed roughly $15 by doing light farm work. His household included Julia and six children. They had no homestead, and every member of the family had to contribute.

When he reapplied in 1906, the Pension Office required additional testimony. In 1908, Ranger E. M. Phelps submitted an affidavit describing Lemuel as a brave and reliable soldier and confirming that he had served continuously. Surviving pension papers cover 1903, 1906, 1908, and 1909. An Indigent Soldiers Roll shows Lemuel received $240 in payments—$60 per year—from 1909 until his death.

Extract of the Indigent Soldiers Roll listing Lemuel in Greene County

On April 28, 1910, Lemuel and his family lived on a rented farm on Greensboro and Cary Station Road. At age 78, he was no longer working. Five of his children, ages 12 to 20, still lived at home. His son Arthur lived next door with his wife Reaney and daughter Muzette and may have helped support both households.

Lemuel’s daughter Eulilla died on April 13, 1911, just before her 19th birthday, and was buried at Greensboro City Cemetery.

A little over a year later, on July 22, 1912, Lemuel died in a railroad accident in Greensboro. He was working as a night watchman for the Georgia Railroad when he was struck by a train on the Richland Creek trestle at about 5:30 a.m., roughly three miles west of town. Atlanta newspapers noted that he was deaf and likely did not hear the train approaching. A coroner’s inquest ruled the death accidental.

A later family account added that a red signal light had been turned incorrectly, causing Lemuel to walk onto the trestle to adjust it. This detail does not appear in the newspaper reports but was preserved in family memory.

Lemuel was buried on July 23, 1912, at Greensboro City Cemetery after an 11 a.m. service led by Rev. L. A. Dutton. He rests in plot Q‑24b beside his second wife Julia, who died in 1934, and near their daughter Eulilla. Early photos show his original stone standing alone; later photos show a military stone added on the right and Julia’s stone on the left, with his original marker cleaned.

 References

• Ann Josephine Mullins, Georgia, Marriage Records from Select Counties, 1828–1978.
• Armor, E. H., The Cemeteries of Greene County, Georgia, p. 156, 1987.
• Arthur Howell Callaway and Claudia Parkie Callaway, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007.
• Caught on Trestle and Is Killed by Train, The Atlanta Journal, Atlanta, Georgia, July 22, 1912.
• Email from Jack Callaway to Denise Murphy, September 18, 2000.
• Greene County, Georgia, Government Pensions 1861–1864, image 9, FamilySearch.
• Greene County, Georgia, Marriage Licenses 1850–1865, Guardianship Records 1804–1916, Marriage Bonds 1813–1816, images 158 and 160, FamilySearch.
• Greene, Herald and Journal, The Oglethorpe Echo, Crawford, Georgia, May 18, 1882.
• L. L. Callaway Dead, The Atlanta Journal, Atlanta, Georgia, July 24, 1912.
• L. L. Callaway Killed by Passenger Train, The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, July 23, 1912.
• Lemn Calloway, Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, Agriculture, 1880.
• Lemuel Callaway, Georgia, Marriage Records from Select Counties, 1828–1978.
• Lemuel Callaway, Georgia, U.S., Returns of Qualified Voters and Reconstruction Oath Books, 1867–1869, Oath Book, Warren County, July 1867.
• Lemuel Callaway, U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850–1885.
• Lemuel L. Callaway, Georgia, Confederate Pension Applications, 1879–1960.
• Lemuel L. Callaway, Texas, Baylor University, 1858; U.S., School Catalogs, 1765–1935.
• Lemuel Lunceford Callaway, Texas, Baylor University, 1859; U.S., School Catalogs, 1765–1935.
• Lemuel Lunceford Callaway, U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861–1865.
• Mahala Eliza Ann Callaway, Texas, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1833–1974.
• Marriage record: Wharton County, Texas, Marriage Records 1847–1898, image 144, FamilySearch.
• Married—Lemuel L. Callaway and Ann Josephine Mullins, The Christian Index, Washington, Georgia, January 8, 1864.
• Our Neighboring Counties, Green: Herald and Journal, The Oglethorpe Echo, Crawford, Georgia, March 1, 1883.
• Personal visit to Greensboro City Cemetery, Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia.
• Robert Dawson Callaway, Lemuel Kelser Calaway, Sidney Johnson Callaway, and Claude Parkis Callaway, U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918.
• Samuel Caloway, Alabama, County Marriages, 1805–1967.
• Samuel Ezekiel Callaway, U.S., World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938–1949.
• Sumter County, Alabama, Deeds 1838–1840, 1837–1838, image 98, FamilySearch.
• Sumter County, Alabama, Deeds 1849, 1852, images 334–335, FamilySearch.
• Texas 8th Cavalry (Confederate), Overview, Fold3.
• The Baylor Bulletin: A Directory of Ex-Students of the College of Arts and Sciences of Baylor University, vol. XXIII, no. 4, August 1920.
• Train Kills Aged Tender of Road’s Switch Lights, Atlanta Georgian, Atlanta, Georgia, July 23, 1912.
• Two Railroad Victims Buried at Greensboro, The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, July 25, 1912.
• U.S. Federal Census Gaston, Sumter County, Alabama, 1850.
• U.S. Federal Census, District 143, Greene County, Georgia, 1850.
• U.S. Federal Census, District 146, Greene County, Georgia, 1880.
• U.S. Federal Census, Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia, 1910.
• U.S. Federal Census, Hutchinson, Greene County, Georgia, 1900.
• U.S. Federal Census, Militia District 140, Greene County, Georgia, 1870.
• U.S. Federal Census, Penfield, Greene County, Georgia, 1910.
• U.S. Federal Census, Sumter County, Alabama, 1840.
• U.S. Federal Census, Union Point, Greene County, Georgia, 1950.
• U.S. Federal Census, Walkers, Greene County, Georgia, 1920.
• U.S. Federal Census, Wharton County, Texas, 1860.