Census and military records indicate that this Box line, headed by brothers John C. Box and William Box, moved from South Carolina to southern Georgia prior to 1840. John was born about 1795 in North Carolina and William about 1805 in South Carolina. I do not know where in North and South Carolina they lived or who their parents were.
John Box appears on a Lowndes County Georgia muster roll in 1838. He is listed in Capitan Levi J. Knight's company, which was formed August 1838 to October 15, 1838 to "repel the invasion," from the Indians. The John Box family is listed in the 1840 census for Lowndes County Georgia. The William Box family is listed in the Ware County census for 1840. The 1850 census shows them in the same respective counties. By 1860 the families were living together or in close proximity in Clinch County Georgia, which had been formed from portions of Lowndes and Ware Counties. Sons of John C. and William included Hansford (or Joseph Hansford), John S., William J. (and probably another William), Richard, Joseph, Allen, and John. Daughters included Lucy, Rachel, Sarah, Caroline, Martha, Fanny, and Wealthy A. (perhaps the same as Fanny). Most of the sons of John and William fought for the Confederate States and they appear on rosters of the 26th and 4th Georgia Regiments from Clinch County.
After the Civil War, most members of the John and William Box families moved to Columbia and Hamilton Counties Florida. Later, some lived in Baker and Clay Counties Florida. One branch subsequently moved north across the border to Charlton County Georgia and others moved further south to Hillsborough and Polk Counties Florida, the later of which included my branch.
My direct ancestry is John C. Box and wife Nancy Rice, John S. Box and wife Emeline, James Henry Box who was born in Polk county Florida and wife Elizabeth Richards, and my grandfather William Thomas Boxx who was born in DeSoto now Hardee County Florida and wife Thelma Miller. William added the second "x" in our branch of the family as did other branches and I would like to know if there was a definite purpose for doing so. I would like to find from where in the Carolinas these Boxes came and who the parents were. Family tradition holds that my Box / Boxx family had Cherokee Indian ancestry, which I would like to verify – perhaps a maternal line.
I would also like to find the surname of the wife of John S. Box, whose given name was Emeline or some variation. She was born about 1842 in Florida or Georgia. In a telephone conversation many years a go, my great grandmother told me that Emeline’s last name was, what sounded to me at the time something like “Rolison.” I have thought that she might have been a Raulerson, (and the many variations of the name) but have not been able to make that connection.
I would like to clarify the identity of Hansford Box, age 30 in the 1850 census living next door to John C. Box, and Joseph H. Box, age 40 in the 1860 census, which I believe to be the same individual and a son of John C. Box. Also, the father of William Jackson Box, born about 1837 or 1838 in Georgia is still not completely clear to me. He seems more likely to me to be the elder William’s son but some Box researchers have Hansford as his father and the Huxford research sheets have him as the son of John C.
|
Box / Boxx of Carolinas, Southern Georgia, and Florida