Boler, Wesley

Submitted by Carol Shrader

Wesley Boler was born in Edgefield District, SC and lived his early life in the midst of his Boulware and Rutherford family members. His Mother, Rachel, died in SC between 1805 and 1810. By 1816 Wesley's father, William Bowler, had migrated, with his youngest two children, to the Mississippi Territory, Clarke Co, AL. Wesley is listed, along with his brother John and brother-in-law Green McKinney, on the 1820 AL Census for the Cherokee Indian Land. In 1823 Wesley married Eliza Walton and just prior to 1830 the couple and some extended family members moved to Hinds Co, MS.

In 1834 Wesley Boler sold his land in Hinds County and began purchasing land in Neshoba Co, MS. That land had just been opened for settlement by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. Wesley, his cousins, and his wife's extended family were among the earliest settlers of Neshoba County, living in the area that became Newton County after that county split from Neshoba in 1836.

He owned property in both Neshoba & Newton counties and families members lived on both sides of the county line, in the area west and north of the present town of Union, MS. In 1856 his son-in-law, Norfleet Staton, built a two story home for Wesley in the present city of Union, MS. That home would become Boler's Inn, a stagecoach inn on the route to Jackson, MS. Sherman quartered his men around Boler's Inn on his march through Mississippi. That building is still standing in the year 2000, but is in need of repair and renovation.

Wesley & Eliza's third son, James Boler, was killed in the Civil War during the Siege of Vicksburg, MS. Some time prior to 1870, Wesley moved back to the New Ireland area west of Union, in an area very close or right on the Neshoba/Newton county line. After Wesley's wife, Eliza Walton, and Eliza's brother, James Walton, died, Wesley married James' widow, his sister-in-law Nancy Miller Walton. Wesley Boler died November 15, 1882 and is buried in Abney Cemetery, just west of Union, MS.