The “52 Cousins” series of biographical sketches are Artificial Intelligence (AI) compiled narratives of selected individuals from my Genealogical database. The selected AI will used the RootsMagic Individual Summary from my Genealogical Software, Roots Magic. All genealogical data is my research material acquired over the past 49 years of research. Today's Biography of Amelia "Milly" Rivers Holifield (1800-abt 1865-1867) was compiled with the assistance of Claude Sonnett 4 and is entitled:
"The Rivers Run Deep: Amelia Holifield and Her Pioneer Family"
Early Life and Family Origins
Amelia "Milly" Rivers was born around 1800 in Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina. She was the daughter of Mark Rivers (1781-1831) and Annie Parker (1785-1860), growing up in the rural farmlands of South Carolina during the early years of the American republic.
Milly came from a close-knit Rivers family that included several siblings who would remain important figures throughout her life. Her brothers Mark and Luke Rivers, along with her sister Elizabeth Rivers (who married John Dryman), formed a support network that would follow the family westward. These family connections would prove crucial during the hardships that lay ahead.
Marriage and Early Family Life in South Carolina
Around 1817, at approximately seventeen years old, Milly married Moses S. Holifield Sr. in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. Moses, born around 1800, was the son of John H. Holifield (1769-1869) and Caley (1780-1850). The young couple began their married life in the same South Carolina community where they had both grown up.
Between 1814 and 1837, Milly and Moses welcomed eight children into their growing family:
Joshua S. Holifield (March 15, 1814 - January 29, 1894)
Ray Holifield (born about 1822) (Note: this may be Bay)
Charlotte Holifield (March 4, 1826 - June 14, 1904)
John C. "Cow John" Holifield (born about 1827)
Mark Holifield (born about 1830)
Jonathan Holifield (born about 1833)
James Holifield (born about 1835 in Greene County, Alabama)
Moses Holifield Jr. (born about 1837 in Jones County, Mississippi)
The 1820 census found the young Holifield family in Huntley, Anson County, North Carolina, suggesting they had already begun moving westward from their South Carolina roots. By the 1830 census, they had returned to Chesterfield County, South Carolina, where Moses was listed as a man aged 30-39 with Milly and their young children, including sons Ray and John under five years old, Joshua aged 5-9, and daughter Charlotte under five.
The Great Migration Westward
Like many Southern families in the 1830s, the Holifields were drawn by the promise of cheaper, more abundant land on the frontier. Moses left South Carolina around 1830, first moving the family through Greene County, Alabama (where their son James was born around 1835), before finally settling in Jones County, Mississippi in 1836. Moses became the first Holifield to establish roots in Jones County, attracted by the wide-open ranges and abundance of wild game in what was then still frontier territory.
Jones County had only been formed ten years earlier in 1826, carved out of Wayne and Covington Counties. The area was initially called "Copperas Brithes," and the early settlers were sometimes sneeringly called "smutty skins" because of the soot from cooking over smoky pine fires. It was a rough, pioneering existence, but it offered opportunities that crowded South Carolina could not.
By the 1840 census, Moses and Milly were well-established on Talahala Creek with 160 acres of land. The household bustled with activity—nine people in total, including their sons ranging in age from young James (under 5) to their oldest, Joshua (20-29). Milly, listed as a woman aged 40-49, was managing a frontier household with children spanning nearly two decades in age.
Family Ties and Tragedy
The Rivers family remained close even across the distances of the frontier. Between 1850 and 1860, Milly's brother Luke Rivers and his wife Mary Salena Johns moved their family from Chesterfield County, South Carolina to Jones County, Mississippi, maintaining those important family connections.
Tragedy struck the extended family when Milly's sister Elizabeth Rivers Dryman and her husband John died sometime after the 1840 census, leaving three minor orphaned children: Ann, Louisa, and Jasper Newton Dryman (born February 9, 1842). The 1850 census shows Milly and Moses opening their home to two of these orphaned nieces—Ann Driman, age 17, and Louisa Driman, age 11. Their nephew Jasper was taken in by Milly's brother Mark Rivers and his wife Catherine Hancock Rivers. This kind of family care for orphaned relatives was common on the frontier, where extended family networks provided crucial support.
Life in Jones County, Mississippi
The 1850 census provides a glimpse into Milly's life at mid-century. The household included Moses (age 50), Milly (age 50), and several of their sons: Mark (age 20), Jonathan (age 15), and Moses Jr. (age 12), along with the two Driman nieces. Moses was working as a farmer, and the family was carving out a modest but respectable existence in the Mississippi piney woods.
By April 19, 1859, there are records suggesting some family difficulties, though Milly continued managing her household and caring for her family. The 1860 census found Moses (age 70), Milly (now listed as age 80—likely an error in recording), and their son Mark (age 33) still living together. At this point, Moses owned about 80 acres of cropland.
Final Years
Milly Rivers Holifield spent her final years in Jones County, Mississippi, the frontier territory that had been her home for nearly three decades. She died sometime between 1865 and 1867 and was buried in the Old Holifield Cemetery in Jones County.
The exact circumstances of her death are not recorded, but these were difficult years. The Civil War had just ended, bringing tremendous upheaval to Mississippi. Her husband Moses had even attempted to enlist in the Confederate Army in 1861 at age 65, though he was sent home due to his age. The war years brought hardship to everyone in the South, and Milly lived through some of the most challenging times in American history.
Legacy
Milly's legacy lived on through her children and their descendants. Her son Joshua married Mary Ann Craft and lived until 1894. Daughter Charlotte married Robert Cooper and lived to 1904. Many of her children remained in Jones County, establishing the Holifield family as permanent fixtures in the community.
After Milly's death, Moses remarried around 1867 to Nancy M. Sumrall, a much younger woman (born about 1838), with whom he had three more children before his death after August 3, 1872.
Amelia "Milly" Rivers Holifield embodied the pioneer spirit of 19th-century America. She raised eight children while moving from South Carolina through Alabama to the Mississippi frontier, took in orphaned nieces when tragedy struck her family, and helped establish a family dynasty that would spread throughout Jones County. Her life spanned the early republic, westward expansion, and the Civil War—a true witness to one of the most transformative periods in American history.
Amelia "Milly" Rivers Holifield is a distant cousin.
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1. 1850 Census, Jones County, Mississippi, population schedule, Jones County, Mississippi, Page:s 25 & 28#128B, Line:#42 Dwelling:#186, Family:#186;, Household of Moses Holifield; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : online January 2024); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, Roll 374.
2. 1860 Census, Jones County, Mississippi, population schedule, Jones County, Mississippi, page 709, Line 10, Dwelling 329, Family 329, Household of Moses Holifield; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 2009); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, Roll 584.
3. Patricia N. Edwards & Jean Strickland, Who Married Whom (Ashdown Arkansas 71822: Strickland Books, 1986), page 68.
4. Ancestry, "Civil War Service Records" database, Military Service Records (https://www.fold3.com/ : accessed 11 June 2011), entry for MOSES HOLIFIELD, Sr., Private; 8th Regiment, Mississippi Infantry; Confederate.
5. 1820 U S Census, Anson County, North Carolina, population schedule, Huntley, Anson County, North Carolina, page 33, Line 22, Household of Moses Holyfield; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : viewed 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm M33, Roll 80.
6. 1830 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, page 244, Line 19, Household of Moses Holifield; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 2009); citing National Archives Microfilm M19_172.
7. 1840, Jones County, Mississippi, population schedule, Jones County, Mississippi, page 305, Line 1, Household of Moses Holyfield; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.om : viewed 2009); Family History Library Film: 0014840, Roll 214..
8. Moses HOLYFIELDS, Image 4 of 9, , ; , Jones County Tax Rolls; Mississippi State Archives, Jackson, Mississippi.
9. 1841, Jones County, Mississippi, state census, No Township Listed, Moses Holyfield; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.om : viewed 20 June 2011).
10. 1853, Jones County, Mississippi, mississippi state and territorial census collection, 1792-1866, , Line: 88, Moses Holifield; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.om : viewed 11 June 2012); Microfilm V229. 3 rolls. Heritage Quest .Roll : v229_2.
11. Bureau of Land Management, Mississippi Pre-1908 Patents: Homesteads, Cash Entry, Choctaw Indian Scrip and Chickasaw Cession Lands, on-line database (: The Generations Network, Inc.,, 1997), Moses Holifield.
12. National Park Service, "Soldiers" database, Civil War Soldiers & Sailor System (http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers.htm : accessed 11 June 2011), entry for Moses Holifield Sr., Private; 8 Mississippi Infantry; Confederate.
13. 1870 US Census, Jones County, Mississippi, population schedule, Township 8, Jones County , Mississippi, Page 204B; Line 15, Dwelling 84, Family 86, Household of Moses HOLYFIELD; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 11 June 2011); citiing NARA publication M593_733.
14. Ed Payne, "Ed Payne on Jones County Civil War Widows: Part 4: Ed Payne on Jones County Civil War Widows," Victoria Bynum, Renegade South, 7 April 2010 (https://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/part-4-ed-payne-on-jones-county-civil-war-widows/ : viewed 11 June 2011), Moses Holifield sold 40 acres to Kitty Sumrall, 1871.
15. Land Deed - Moses Holifield to Mrs. Kitty Sumrall; 3 August 1872; Deed Book #A!; Page(s) 571; The Chancery Clerk's Office; Ellisville, Jones County, Mississippi; 3 September 2020.
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