Stegall Family History & Genealogy

Source: The Stegall Family of Pontotoc, Mississippi, by Mrs. Meradine Bedingfield Jones, granddaughter of Columbus Ware Stegall,1991, pg.28-30:

"Jeremiah Green Stegall was born in 1806 in Union County, North Carolina. He was the oldest son of Thomas Stegall who was born 28 April 1783 near Jamestown, Virginia.
"Thomas Stegall was the son of Moses Stegall, a Baptist Minister, who died about 1840 at the age of 105 years. Moses moved to Anson County, NC, about 1790. He is buried near Marshville, NC. Moses came from Wales....
"Jeremiah Green Stegall, his wife and babies, lived in a one-room, log house with a dirt floor and cooked on the fireplace. The beds were pegged to the wall. This was about 100 yards west from where he built his home which now stands. This home was built in 1848. The foundation and framing is hewn oak morticed and pegged and grooved together. Square iron nails were used in the walls. It was built by Andrew McFall.
"This country was almost a wilderness and he traded with the Indians for a small farm and built the log hut. He cleared enough land to make his corn, wheat, and few other products. As time went on he owned and operated the first cotton gin in the country and did quite a bit of ginning for the public. He built up, adding to his farm, hundreds of acres of land. He built a large home and storehouse and entered the mercantile business with wonderful success until he died. During the Civil War he stored away 50 bales of cotton. After the close of the War he sold the cotton for 50 cents a pound. His money was all silver to make sure it was good after the war.
"His wife, Margaret, said once when she was very old that she had lived in fear all the time after they came to Mississippi. At first, she was afraid of the Indians, and then the war and after that, her husband made quite a bit of money and, having to keep it in the house caused more fear of robbers. Her favorite song was "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone."
"Jeremiah Green Stegall didn't believe in slavery and didn't own but few negroes. He sold them believing that they would be freed. He was a good judge of human nature and people who owned slaves would get him to grade them. When they first came to Pontotoc County others coming in to buy land would stay with him and kep their money in kegs in his house....
"J. G. Stegall owned and operated a horse-drawn gin. In operation it took four horses and two drivers with one man upstairs to feed the gin by hand. Capacity--two bales per day. The floor of the gin was 160 feet square. The press was hewn logs 50 or 60 feet long which was about 48 feet from the gin. He owned 1000 acres of land. He gave and deeded one acre for Woodland Baptist Church and also gave the grounds for Bethel Cemetery which is nearby....
"Four sons, Thomas, Jeremiah Jr., James and Columbus (Doc) were all in the Civil War and none of them were wounded. Margaret C. Morrison Stegall made cloth before the War and was considered the best seamstress in the country.
"(Lottie Stegall Bedingfield says her grandmother kept a little negro boy with her all the time. She was so scared and, at every little noise, she would wake him up and the boy said, "Massa, I think you hear every little chicken dumpling that hits the ground.")
"At one time a post office was built in the store. In one corner of the building the post office was cut off by about three feet of fancy iron fence with a little iron gate for an entrance. There was in the inside and outside walls an opening for dropping in the mail such as letters and small papers without anyone having to come inside. While a merchant, Jeremiah Green bought goods in St. Louis, Louisville, KY, and New Orleans. All theses years and up until now there has been a 65-foot well betweeen the store building and the house with abundance of soft water. There are still crepe myrtiles in the yard and some locust trees.
"The house is a one and one-half story colonial-type with two rooms upstairs with windows on eighter side of the chimneys. The stairway opened on the outside of the porch and this furnished space in one room for a closet. There are four rooms downstairs, closed hall between with glass panels on either side of the door and clear across the top. The house was painted white. The rooms on the front had one window on either side of the chimney and one each on the front. The servant's house in the yard was a log room with a side room and front porch with brick chimney.
"Jeremiah Green kept himself well-dressed all the time in best quality of black broadcloth suit with white pleated bosom shirts and black silk top hats.
"He was very witty with keen insight to the future. He was talented in music. His wife was Scotch Irish--tall, slender, straight-type, and a brunette. She was from a very proniment family. She was a first cousin of Stonewall Jackson's wife who herself was a Morrison. All of them being Presbyterian and members of Ole Rocky River Church in North Carolina. After moving here she was, for a long time, a member of Old Monroe Presbyterian Church but later joined Pleasant Grove Baptist Church with her husband. They were early members of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. She joined the church in 1843 and was baptized by Rev. J. A. Ware, they remained members until death and were buried there in the church cemetery."

Source: The Stegall Family of Pontotoc, Mississippi, pg.19 (this is a transcription of part of a letter from Carroll Richard Stegall to Mrs. Dora Campbell):

"Moses Stegall was a Baptist minister and had a club foot. He died about 1840 at the age of 105 years. I have seen his will. In it he names his various children: George, James, Martha, Nancy, Elizabeth, Solomon, William, John, Thomas, and Francis. This will is dated 1835. Moses moved to Anson County, North Carolina, about 1790 where he lived the remaining years is is buried near Marshville, North Carolina, in what is now Union County. He owned quite a bit of property on N***** Head Creek in that county. N***** Head Creek still holds that name, as it did in 1790. I cannot say positively where Moses came from. Some state with conviction that he came from Wales, but since I have no record of this fact as proof, I hesitate to state it as fact...