My father's uncle, Charles, contributed to the Tale of Two Wives of William, the 2nd" Moneymaker, by dying and having someone include on Uncle Charlie's death certificate the mis-information that his mother was "Maggie Epps". This story was started by Nellie Moneymaker Sorrel, who, in her hand written family history, included that mis-information.
To be fair, we don't know if Nellie started the rumor or just documented it.

To compound the problem, Dorothy Burgess, Kimliz2@aol.com discovered her great-grandmother's death record at the Weaver Mortuary in Cumberland Estates, TN, was showing "Maggie Epps", as mother, also. Click Here to see Callie Moneymaker Burgess' letter, dated 1910, stating Martha Ann was her mother. Callie's death certificate also had been filled in by someone who thought her mother was "Maggie Epps".

Our research shows there was no second marriage by William Moneymaker.

The Civil War military records of William, the 2nd, describe him as blue eyes, light hair, five foot nine. My father, Bruce McClure Moneymaker, was black hair, brown eyes, and five foot nine.
Here with my mother, Dorothy Agnes Williams Moneymaker. Photo taken in 1930 after wedding.
<==== Click the photo to enlarge it.

( My father stated to me, when I was in high school, in the late 1940's, that his grandmother, Martha Ann Harvey Moneymaker, was "full-blood Cherokee Indian." At that time his mother, Carrie Koon Moneymaker came out to California to visit. (I recall she looked like a full-blooded Cherokee, herself, with jet black hair and a round face and dark eyes.)

At the Tennessee State Archives in Nashville, we found a marriage record in the Blount County Vital Statistics of an Eliz. Epps married to John Garner, on 12/8/1860. The record was marked with a "B", which according to the book meant black or mulatto.

John Garner was the father of William Garner, who married Mary "Maggie" Moneymaker, (1859-1906), October 25, 1883. Maggie had his child, Mertie Garner, out of wedlock in 1879. The U.S.Census of 1880 shows Mertie Garner with Martha Moneymaker's listing.

We believe that the "Maggis Epps Myth" got started by those who confused Maggie Moneymaker Garner with her mother-in-law, Eliz. Epps.

My great-grandfather William, the 2nd, died on March 27, 1878. Also, the year of my grandfather, Joseph Henry Edward's, posthumous birth, April 23, 1878.

The sworn affidavits of a dozen friends and acquaintances in the 1890's, state that Martha Ann was the only wife of William Moneymaker.
The Pension Testimony Cover Letter to those affidavits, which we have in our records, is here.

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