Absalom and Elizabeth Autrey and Their Descendants, With a Section on Thomas Norris

by Jeanne McDuff Murphy and Jo Lyon Autrey

CHAPTER VIII

William Norris and Rebecca (Henry) Autrey

William Norris Autrey, sixth child of Absalom and Elizabeth Autrey, was born 26 October 1833 in Perry County, Alabama.  He married Rebecca Henry, daughter of Robert Henry, 7 January 1852 in Union Parish, Louisiana.  They were married by Jesse F. Fuller, J. P.  She was born in 1831 in Alabama.

William Norris Autrey enlisted in the Confederate Army 2 March 1863 at Vienna, Louisiana.  He was a Private in Company E., 12th Louisiana Infantry.  Colonel T. C. Standifer was his Commanding Officer.  he fought in the Battle of Champion's Hill and was captured and paroled at Jackson, Mississippi on 16 May 1863.  At the end of the war, he, with his Captain R. J. Tabor and about twenty-five other men, were paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina.

In January 1872, William N. Norris sold eighty acres of land in Union Parish, Louisiana to Thomas J. Henry.  This land was the property that his wife, Rebecca, inherited from her father in 1859.

According to William N. Autrey's Confederate Pension Application of 1906, Rebecca had already died.  He had lived in Union and Lincoln Parishes since moving to Louisiana in 1849.  He farmed until 1903.  He was living with one of his sons in 1806.  He died 18 August 1918.

They had six children born in Union Parish, Louisiana:  Mary Jane, Lucinda, Nancy C., Robert Absalom, Melissa and William J.

References/Contacts

Absalom Autrey Bible (have copy of Bible)
Autrey Bulletin #25 - Page 8 (have copy)
Autrey, Gregory Mitchell
Autrey, Ophelia (Simpson)
Autrey, Randy Wayne
Bernice Cemetery Records, Bernice, Louisiana
Confederate Pension Papers of William Norris Autrey - Louisiana Archives
Cemetery Inscriptions of Lincoln Parish, Louisiana - W. C. Nolen
Cemetery Inscriptions of Union Parish, Louisiana - W. C. Nolen
Farley, Willie (Huffman)
Hamilton Memorial Cemetery, Dubach, Louisiana
Henry Cemetery Records, Lincoln Parish, Louisiana
Lincoln Parish, Louisiana 1880, 1900 U.S. Census
Lincoln Parish, Louisiana Marriage Records
Meet Our Ancestors - V. Mayo Bundy (have copy of his books)
Norris Line - Mrs. Walter Frank & Bettye Green
Pine Grove Cemetery, Bernice, Louisiana
Pine Grove Baptist History
Records of Confederate Campaigns & Engagements - Hill Jr. College, Hillsboro, Texas
Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers & Commands - Andrew Booth
Ruston Daily Leader, 24 October 1874
Thompson, Ronald S.
Union Parish, Louisiana 1850, 1870 U.S. Census
Union Parish, Louisiana Marriage Records
Warren, Bert