Horatio Fields was born about 1800 in GA. He died on 26 Jul 1882 in Oconee Co., S.C.. He married 1 Nancy Presley in 1818 in South Carolina?.
Other marriages:Finley, Mrs. Sarah
Listed on the 1850 census at Western District, Anderson Co., SC, p. 225.
Listed on the 1860 census at Anderson City, Anderson Co., SC, p. 283 --only he and wife Nancy at home
Listed on the 1870 census at Seneca. Oconee Co, SC, p. 78 - age 80 - no one else in household; living next door to daughter Cynthia Keown
Listed on the 1880 census at Seneca, Oconee Co., SC, p. 384
Nancy Presley [Parents] was born about 1790 in S. Carolina. She died on 21 Sep 1860 in Anderson District, S.C.. She was buried in Big Creek Bapt. Cem., Williamston, S.C.. She married 1 Horatio Fields in 1818 in South Carolina?.
Last appears on the 1860 census of Western District, Anderson Co., SC, p. 225.
They had the following children:
M i Jesse Clark Fields was born about 1820. He died in 1862/1863. M ii Thomas Fields was born about 1821 in GA. F iii Cynthia E. Fields was born on 22 Sep 1822. She died on 31 Aug 1893. F iv Eliza Fields was born about 1829 in S.C..
Living at home with parents on the 1850 census of Anderson, S.C.F v Nancy Fields was born about 1834 in S.C..
Living at home with parents on the 1850 Anderson Co., SC census
Luther G. Presley [Parents] [scrapbook] was born on 6 Mar 1887 in Faulkner Co., Arkansas. He died on 6 Dec 1974 in White Co., Arkansas. He was buried in St Mary's Cem., Rose Bud, AR. He married Maggie Yingling.
Other marriages:Henderson, Rena
LDS submitter: David Gary Huddleston, 3529 S.Hwy. 89, Bountiful, UT. 84010
Luther G. Presley
He Wrote 'When The Saints Go Marching In' For $5
By BOB SALLEE
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 21, 1998
Virgil O. Stamps composed the famous melody in Dallas one day in 1937 and Luther G. Presley penned the immortal lyrics at his rural Arkansas home in White County.
Neither composer nor author had the foggiest notion that their rousing, inspiring religious song would become a Dixieland standard - and, 30 years later, the theme song of the New Orleans Saints football team.
Anyone can sing a few lines of "When the Saints Go Marching In," or hum a few bars of the melody.
Folks around Searcy are amazed to discover that the man who wrote the lyrics to the popular song was one of them. Even employees of a local music store weren't convinced until they were shown his credits in a song book from a display rack.
Presley's eldest son, Leister Presley of Pangburn, says he thinks his dad got $5 for writing those lyrics. But that was only the beginning of royalty checks. A music registration organization has paid royalties over the years. "Sometimes he'd get maybe $1,000," Leister recalls. "Every time the song was played on television or a radio station, they'd send a little check."
A 1944 article in the Arkansas Democrat described Luther Presley as the state's most prolific songwriter. He composed the music or wrote the lyrics to hundreds of gospel songs - 1,500 or more, according to the article. Personal experiences inspired him. Most of his songs were written at his home just south of Pangburn in the countryside near Clay and Drake Spur.
Presley's home was listed on a company letterhead as the Arkansas office of music publisher Stamps-Baxter of Dallas and Chattanooga, Tenn. He had worked for other music publishing companies before joining Stamps-Baxter in 1930.
In those days, the company usually put out two song books a year, and Presley contributed five songs to each of them. Certain pages in each year's books were reserved for him, Leister says.
ASSEMBLING A LEGACY
Some years later, Leister Presley began searching for songs written or composed by his father, fearing they might be lost if nobody collected them. He had seen two old song books stripped of their covers on an organ at a Pioneer Village display at the White County Fair. Leafing through the aging pages, he found two of his father's old songs - one composed in 1916 and the other in 1919.
So far, he has filled seven looseleaf notebooks with his father's compositions - music and lyrics of 649 songs, the lyrics for more than 400 others and the music for 25 others.
Leister Presley, a retired construction supervisor, is 85 now. His collection will go to the University of Central Arkansas where his wife, Cloie Presley, a county historian, was educated when the institution was Arkansas State Teachers College.
Leister Presley says his father also edited the gospel hit "The Great Speckled Bird," made famous by Roy Acuff at the Grand Ole Opry. (The same music was also used for the popular country hit, "I Didn't Know God Made Honky Tonk Angels." Which wasn't unusual in the past.)
Luther Presley was born March 6, 1887, on Beckett Mountain in Faulkner County, five miles west of Rose Bud. He grew up with religious music at a Free Will Baptist church. At 14 he attended his first music school and began directing the church choir. He wrote his first song, "Gladly Sing," when he was 17.
Known in those days for writing customized poems for $1, he always carried scraps of paper to write on. Often after a trying experience, the composer would wander off and write - while sitting under a tree or standing on a street corner.
One day his brakes locked when he tried to stop for another vehicle crossing a one-lane bridge over the Little Red River. He had to scrape up the money to fix the other man's car - no small thing in those days. But thankful that nobody got hurt, he was inspired to write, "I Know the Lord Is With Me."
After attending a funeral, he wrote the hymn, "He Wills It So."
Luther Presley's most famous song may be "When the Saints Go Marching In," says Leister Presley, but his dad's favorite song was "I'd Rather Have Jesus" - composed after he had studied the parable of the rich man in the 12th chapter of Luke.
AN INSPIRATION
"I'll Have A New Life" was composed one Easter after he heard a sermon by Dr. D.N. Jackson, a well-known minister in White County.
Leister Presley says his own favorite among his father's songs is "Give Them Red Roses (The Boys Will Be Coming Home)," composed near the end of World War II while he and his brother Clarence were serving in Europe. "I knew Dad was thinking about us. Dad wrote three or four songs about soldiers."
Luther Presley responded to his personal losses by composing hymns, Leister says, as though he knew his faith was being tested.
His wife and second child died in childbirth. He married again two years later. His second wife, Rena, was known for her fine singing voice, and together they made many public appearances promoting his songs. Rena Presley wrote some 40 songs on her own, including two that were published in recent years.
Luther Presley died in December 1974 [and is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery at Rose Bud, Arkansas, near Beckett Mountain where he was born] but Rena Henderson Presley continued his work for a decade - for the Zondervan Co., which had acquired Stamps-Baxter. She taught piano until she was 90. During an interview two years later, Rena said she still received orders for song books but she forwarded them to someone else.
At her funeral two weeks ago, a choir of singers from around White County sang a triumphant version of "When The Saints Go Marching In."
Footnote: G.E. Best Jr., president of the White County Historical Society, says one of his personal projects is to achieve permanent recognition for Luther Presley. "I have even thought about asking the New Orleans Saints if they would pay for some kind of marker - maybe up at his old home…" Or maybe at the Superdome in New Orleans?
Maggie Yingling.Maggie married Luther G. Presley.
They had the following children:
M i Leister Edward Presley was born on 16 Aug 1912 in Faulkner Co., Arkansas. M ii Clarence Rowe Presley. U iii Infant Presley.
James (Jim) W. Presley [Parents] was born on 19 Jan 1860. He died on 20 Apr 1929. He was buried in St. Mary's Cem., White Co., AR.. He married Lucy J. Winters on 10 Nov 1880.
Other marriages:Owens, Lou A.
Jim and Lou appear from 1900-1920 in Faulkner Co.,AR.
Lucy J. Winters was born on 7 Aug 1856. She died on 22 Feb 1899. She was buried in St. Mary's Cem., White Co., Arkansas. She married James (Jim) W. Presley on 10 Nov 1880.
They had the following children:
M i Lee Presley.
James (Jim) W. Presley [Parents] was born on 19 Jan 1860. He died on 20 Apr 1929. He was buried in St. Mary's Cem., White Co., AR.. He married Lou A. Owens on 14 Feb 1900.
Other marriages:Winters, Lucy J.
Jim and Lou appear from 1900-1920 in Faulkner Co.,AR.
Lou A. Owens.Lou married James (Jim) W. Presley on 14 Feb 1900.
They had the following children:
M i Delta Presley was born on 10 Nov 1902. He died on 6 Nov 1905. He was buried in St. Mary's Cem., White Co., Arkansas.
Lee Presley [Parents].Lee married Lydia Hill Havis.
Lydia Hill Havis.Lydia married Lee Presley.
They had the following children:
F i Maggie Presley. F ii Anna Presley. M iii Joseph Arthur Presley was born on 6 Mar 1883. He died on 15 Dec 1952. M iv Eligah Elmo Presley was born on 25 Feb 1887. He died on 22 Oct 1925. He was buried in St.Mary's Cem., White Co., AR..
Member of Masonic LodgeF v Ora A.L. Presley was born on 28 Jan 1889. She died on 29 Jun 1922. F vi Ollie B. Presley was born on 15 Oct 1892. She died on 16 Jun 1964. F vii Nora Presley was born on 18 Oct 1895. M viii Elbert Presley.
James R. Mercer [Parents] was born in 1843/1844 in Georgia. He married Eliza (Elizabeth) J. in 1864 in Arkansas. James was employed as farmer.
Family appears on 1870 census for Conway Co., AR. in Benton Twnshp., post
off. Quitman. James Mercer's age listed as 23 (making birth year cir. 1847)
Appears on 1880 Faulkner Co.,AR.still in Benton Twnship.
Eliza (Elizabeth) J. was born in 1847 in Tennessee. She married James R. Mercer in 1864 in Arkansas.
Listed on 1870 Conway Co., AR. at being 20 yrs.old, making birth year 1850.
They had the following children:
Benjamin F. Mercer [Parents] was born 1 in Sep 1846 in Georgia. He died in Oct 1900. He married Sarah F. Daniels on 3 Jan 1869 in Faulkner Co. (?), Arkansas.
Appear on 1870 Conway Co.AR. in Benton Twnship., p.o. Quitman
Appear on 1880 Faulkner Co.AR.but still in Benton
Listed on 1900 Logan Co,AR in the household of son James. He is a widower.
Sarah F. Daniels died before 1900. She married Benjamin F. Mercer on 3 Jan 1869 in Faulkner Co. (?), Arkansas.
They had the following children:
M i Henry F. Mercer was born in Nov 1869. F ii Sophronia E. Mercer was born in 1873 in Arkansas. M iii William O. Mercer was born in Apr 1872. M iv James N. Mercer was born in Oct 1878.
John Wiley Daniel was born in 1846. He married Zada Elizabeth Mercer.
Zada Elizabeth Mercer [Parents] was born in 1850. She married John Wiley Daniel.
They had the following children:
M i William Thomas Daniel was born in 1871.
William A. Mercer [Parents] was born in Feb 1853 in Arkansas. He died on 16 Mar 1919 in Kaufman Co., Texas. He was buried in Terrell?. He married Mary L. in 1873 in Arkansas. William was employed as farmer.
On 1900 Cooke Co., TX. census at ED 34, sht.18. Literate, rents farm
On 1910 Denton Co., TX. census at ED 85, sht.182. Louis, Frank, Adam and
Ollie still at home.
Mary L. was born in Aug 1856 in Tennessee. She died on 29 Apr 1935 in Kaufman Co., Texas. She was buried in Terrell?. She married William A. Mercer in 1873 in Arkansas.
They had the following children:
Jacob B. Smith was born in Oct 1854 in Arkansas. He died on 9 Jul 1931 in Denton Co., Texas. He was buried in Pilot Point Community Cem., Pilot Point, Denton Co., TX. He married Sarah Jane Mercer in 1881 in Arkansas. Jacob was employed as farmer.
Family appears on 1900 Cooke Co., TX. census at ED 34. sht18. Jacob & Sarah
appear alone on 1910 Grayson Co., TX. census at ED 100, sht 105. On 1920
Denton Co. at Pilot Point, ED 58, sht.3 with a dau. Sena agd 16, born Arkansas
This child is questionable as family was already in Texas on 1900 census and
child was not listed on 1910 census.
Listed on the 1930 census of Pilot Point, Denton Co., TX - occupation: restaurant merchant
buried in the IOOF section of the cemetery
Sarah Jane Mercer [Parents] was born in Apr 1865 in Arkansas. She died in after 1931?. She was buried in Pilot Point Oddfellows Cem.?. She married Jacob B. Smith in 1881 in Arkansas.
appears as wife of J.B. Smith on 1900 Cooke Co., TX. census, Ed 34,sht.18
appears on 1910 Grayson Co., TX. census, ED 100, sht.105. Believed to be
buried next to husband in unmarked grave at Pilot Point Odd Fellows cemetery
in Block1, Lot2,Grave3 Probably died after husband - yet to be proved.
Listed with her husband on the 1930 census of Pilot Point, Denton Co., TX - she is listed as a "cook" at the family's restaurant
They had the following children: