From “Family History of the Joseph Taylor, Jr. and Sarah Best Family”
By Shari H. Franke
Evans Wallace was born ca. 1807 in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. Evans must have come to Warren County, Kentucky with his parents and sister when he was about one year old. It must have been hard for him to lose ‘his sweet mother when he was only about eight years old. He moved with his father to Tennessee when he was about 11 years old, and a new stepmother joined the family. It must have been quite a relief to Evans and the other members of the family, to have a mother about the home once again. Evans married (1) about 1828, Sarah Williams, in Stewart County, Tennessee. The “History of Stewart County, Tennessee” tells us that Evans and his first wife, Sarah Williams had five children. Then Sarah died about 1838. He married (2) 15 August 1839, Sally Clark. They had children. A Wallace descendant, D. Watkins, describes Evans Wallace as “having a fiery temper, and being a very colorful person.” Watkins stated that, “Evans Wallace was a member of Quantrill’s Guerillas in the Civil War. Also, that Frank and Jesse James and the Younger Brothers were members of that gang.” (Note: “William Clark Quantrill raised a troop of Confederate irregulars at the outbreak of the Civil War, and he received a Captain’s commission in 1862. On 21 August 1863 with 450 men, he raided Laurence, Kansas, pillaged the town and slaughtered over 150 men, women and children. In May 1865 his followers, reduced to 33 men, were surprised by a federal force while they were on a plundering foray in Kentucky where he was fatally wounded. Quantrill died a month later in prison.”) Edgar Wallace stated that Evans was “kind of a country doctor who took care of many family members and friends. He had a natural gift of healing and was kindly and loving and would sit up for hours and spend days tending to the sick.” Edgar also stated that “there have been many legends spoken of Evans Wallace. He apparently got kind of mean after he had been drinking too such moonshine whiskey! Evans also had a great love for horses. He was a stern father and believed that children should never talk back to their elders, even after they were grown up and married. Evans was also a constable and helped a lot of people.” D. Watkins also stated that Evans met with a violent death when he was shot in the back, and died several days later as a result of the gunshot wound. Evans died 2 December 1864, at Bumpus Mills, Stewart, Tennessee. Edgar Wallace said that he was killed by Col. Nathan Brandon, (who was a brother to Dr. Wesley Brandon, husband of Harriet Wallace, the daughter of Etheldred Wallace and Amy Taylor.
Sarah Williams, born ca. 1809, of Stewart County, Tennessee, died in 1838, Stewart County, Tennessee. She was the mother of five children, Nancy, Sally, Riley, Wilson and William.
Sally Clark was born August 1818 in Sussex County, Virginia. She was the daughter of Littleberry Clark and Sally Lashley. She also had two children by Axiom Green Wallace, son of Etheldred Wallace and Amy Taylor before she married Evans Wallace. (Evans was very jealous about this fact.) “Sally had very long dark hair which she could sit on, and she was dark-complexioned. She was very petite and pretty. In fact she was a flirt”, according to Edgar Wallace. Sally suffered from a stroke and was an invalid for about ten years before she died on 30 October 1900, at Stewart County, Tennessee. She had eight children with Evans Wallace: Allen, Emaline, James Edgar, Delilah (“Lila”), Sarah F. (“Ninnie”), Parazade, Johnson and Pinkey (“Pink”).
