William Benjamin Harrell

1873-1956 · Mississippi

Born 1873, Leake County, Mississippi

Died 1956

Children include Zelma

William Benjamin Harrell was born on 15 May 1873 in Leake County, Mississippi, by the date on his gravestone. The census of 1900 gives May 1874. He went by Ben as well as William.

About 1897 he married Nancy Jane Horn, called Sissie, a Leake County girl six years younger, the daughter of John Horn and Darewa Ann Eliza Flowers. Their first child, Zelma Tinnie, was born on 12 February 1898. In June 1900 the census found the young family in the town of Carthage, the county seat: William, 26, Nancy J., 20, and Zelma T., two. They had been married three years.

On 20 December 1900 a son was born. He lived nineteen days and died on 8 January 1901. He was buried at Reformation Cemetery, near Hopoca in Leake County, under a small stone that calls him the infant son of W. B. and N. J. Harrell. Fifteen years passed before the next child, Opal C., was born on 28 June 1915.

In 1920 the census found William B. and Nannie still in Carthage, with Zelma, 22, and Opal at home. Sissie died not long after. Her family gives the year as 1925, and the state's list of death certificates names a Nancy J. Harrell who died in Leake County in 1921. She was buried at Reformation Cemetery, beside the baby, under a metal marker that reads "Sissie Harrell".

William married again, to Media Wooten, born on 10 November 1893 and twenty years younger than he was. They had four sons: Chaldmus in 1925, Leonard T. in 1928, Kermit in 1931 and Carmon Paul on 15 February 1941, when William was sixty seven. Carmon lived until 2023 and was a retired corrections officer.

William died on 23 October 1956, aged eighty three, and was buried at Reformation Cemetery, where his first wife and their baby son lay. His granite stone, carved with scrolls of flowers, reads "William Ben Harrell, May 15, 1873, Oct 23, 1956." Media lived until 24 August 1980 and was buried in the same cemetery.

Children

Zelma Tinnie Harrell 1898-1974

Sources

Find a Grave, memorial 20449974, photograph captioned "William Benjamin Harrell", added by Anne Louise, 26 June 2026.

United States census 1900, Beat 2, Carthage town, enumeration district 31, Leake County, Mississippi, sheet 11B, line 79, FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:M9X7-N65.

Find a Grave, memorial 37010090, Infant Son Harrell, Reformation Cemetery, Hopoca, Leake County, Mississippi, photograph added by Another Ellisor, 16 June 2023.

Find a Grave, memorial 20449974, photograph added by NatalieMaynor, 22 August 2007.

United States census 1920, Carthage, Leake County, Mississippi, FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:M436-511.

United States census 1900, Carthage, Leake County, Mississippi, household of William Harrell (FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:M9X7-N65); 1920, Carthage (ark 61903/1:1:M436-511); gravestone (Find a Grave memorial 20449974); Find a Grave memorials 37010090 (infant son), 21206320 (Nancy Jane Horn Harrell), 21206003 (Media Wooten Harrell), 252432946 (Carmon Paul Harrell, obituary of April 2023).

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Cite: Heirology, "William Benjamin Harrell (1873-1956)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/william-benjamin-harrell-1873-1956-7b2982.