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Biography of the family of John Forrest Amos

Married Mary Elizabeth "Mollie" Hill

By Katina Roye Peevyhouse

John Forrest Amos was born 27 August 1866, in Arkansas. He was enumerated, aged four years, in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census in Prairie Township, Franklin County, AR, along with the other members of his immediate family. John F. was the oldest child of John R. Amos, born ca. 8 March 1839 in Roane County, Tennessee, (John R.'s father was Charles Amos b.1812 SC; his mother was Polly Harvey), died after 1900, in Arkansas, and his first wife, Catherine Kattie Mileham or Mildham born ca. April 1849 in Arkansas, died about 1873 in Arkansas. Catherine is said to be the daughter of Jackson Mileham.

John R. Amos married 1st) Catherine Mileham about 1865 or earlier, their children are as follows:
John Forrest Amos b. 27 August 1866 AR, d.15 Apr 1931 OK (our subject);
Bettie Amos b. about May 1868 AR;
Martha Mattie Amos b. about April 1870 AR;
Charles Charley Amos b. about 1873 AR.

After Kattie died, John R. Amase (Amos) married 2nd) Francis Anna Hill on 1 Oct 1874, Franklin County, AR, the marriage ceremony was performed by A. J. Ripley, M.C. P#153. The children of John R. Amos and Francis Anna Hill b.1845 Perry, MO, are as follows:
George Luther Amos b. about July 1875 AR (*Luther moved to Haskell Co., OK);
William M. Amos b. about Nov 1877 AR;
Albert Sidney Amos b. about 1879 AR;
Simon Amos b. about 1880 AR, d. 1885 AR.

It is probable that John Forrest Amos grew up in Franklin County, AR, helping his father on the farm: In 1880 the U. S. Federal Census shows the family of John R. and Anna (the second wife) to be living in Prairie Township, the town of Charleston, Franklin County, Arkansas, at that time John Forrest Amos was about 13 years old. By 1888 John F. Amos had certainly met and courted Mary Elizabeth "Mollie" Hill.

Mary Elizabeth "Mollie" Hill was born 2 (or 3) September 1870, Florence, Alabama. Her father was William (P.) Hill born about 1832 in Tennessee, her mother was Elizabeth Norwood born about September 1836 in Alabama. In the U. S. Federal Census of 1870 William and Elizabeth are living in Jonesboro, Township 4 Range 8, Lawrence County, Alabama with their first six children. By 1880 Elizabeth is found on the U. S. Federal Census living in Prairie Township, Franklin County, Arkansas: Her husband William is absent, all but the first two children are living with her there. The children of William P. Hill and Elizabeth Norwood Hill are as follows:

Madora(?) Hill b. about 1856 AL;
Ann E. Hill b. about 1858 AL;
William Hill b. about 1860 AL;
James (Peter?) Hill b. about 1862 AL;
Robert Hill b. about 1865 AL;
Walter J. Hill b. about 1868 AL;
Mary Elizabeth "Mollie" Hill b. 2 or 3 September 1870 AL (our subject);
Joseph Hill b. about 1873 AL

John Forrest Amos and Mollie Hill were married 11 November 1888 in Franklin, Arkansas. They probably set up housekeeping and lived in Arkansas for a few years (their first two children were born there). By 1900 John F. and Mollie Amos had moved to Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory, where they were living at the time of the 1900 U. S. Federal Census; living with them were their first four children, and Elizabeth (Norwood) Hill, mother-in-law, a widow. (The 1900 Census shows Mollie to be the mother of 5 children total, 4 living; thus I've added an entry showing an unknown child to the list of their known children.) In 1920 the family is found on the U. S. Federal Census in Taloka Township, Haskell County, Oklahoma. In 1930 the family is found in the same location, but Clyde is the only child listed on the U.S. Federal Census, aged 37 years old.

An article written by Mercedes (Amos) King for the Haskell County History book says the following:

"John and Mollie Hill Amos moved to Garland Community from Arkansas. John was a farmer and rancher. His two oldest sons lived with their parents until they were past 30 years old and helped their daddy farm. They had three teams of big mules. Mrs. Amos raised a big garden and canned every kind of vegetable raised. They had chickens and hogs for their own meat and cows for their milk and butter.

"John and Mollie lived in a big house with a breeze way. John built Mollie a cooler for the milk and butter. (It had) a solid bottom that held water and a shelf above that, with screen as a cover, could be lifted up, with hinges on the back of the screen lid. Milk and butter and any other perishables were kept in that and a cool breeze always swept through the breeze way and kept the water under the produce cool."

The children of John F. and Mollie (Hill) Amos are:
Unknown child, born and died before June 1900;
Claud Amos b. 19 Aug 1889 AR, d. May 1978, m. Clemmie Guthrie;
Clyde Amos b. January 1892 AR, m. Lillian Reid;
James "Jimmie" Amos b. Aug 1895 IT, d. 17 Aug 1931, m. Oma Young;
Pearl Lee Amos b. 13 Dec 1897 IT, m. Henry Louis Roye;
Oscar W. Amos b. about 1903 IT, m. Flossie Shirley;
Elsie A. Amos b. about 1905 IT, m1) Beller; m2) Arthur Bramlett;
John Walter Amos b. about 1909?, Haskell County, OK, m. Unknown

John F. Amos died 15 August 1931. Charles D. Roye, a grandson of John and Mollie, told me that John F. Amos and Jimmie Amos died in the same house, a couple of days apart, in 1931, presumably of influenza. What a loss this family must have endured, to lose both the father and his son in such a short span of time. They were both buried at Garland Cemetery in Haskell County, OK.

Mollie died 21 August 1947 in Haskell County, OK, and also was buried at Garland Cemetery.