Eight years ago, I began to piece together the family of Benjamin “Ivey” Hullender and his wife, Louella Junnie Williams. She was the daughter of John C. Williams and Louisa Miller and the sister of my husband’s great grandmother, Minnie Mae (Williams) (Brasher) Horne.
That makes her one of his closer extended family members, but she hasn’t been easy to trace as an adult. First, the Hullenders left Hopkins County, Texas and returned to Ben’s home in the Carolinas.
Second, she was sometimes found as Junnie, Junie, Jennie or Louella and he was found as Ben or Ivey.
Lastly, Hullender was often misspelled. When it incorrectly became “Hollander,” there were many more record hits, none of which belonged to this family .
With more digital records available, here is an updated family sketch of Benjamin “Ivey” Hullender and Louella Junnie Williams.
Benjamin “Ivey” Hullender was born during the Civil War on 8 October 1863 in South Carolina, probably York county, where the family lived in 1860. His father, Nicholas, served in the Confederate Army.
The family isn’t found in 1870, but by 1880, they had removed to Cleveland County, North Carolina. Sometime between that census and 1899, Ben headed west and settled for a time in Hopkins County, Texas.
There, on 19 March 1899, he married Louella Junnie Williams, the daughter of John Christopher and Louisa (Miller) Williams.
Ben and Junnie, as she was generally known, still lived in Hopkins County a year later when the census was taken in June 1900. However, not long before, they had welcomed and lost their first child.
Ben apparently didn’t take much of a liking to Texas and, by 1910, he and Junnie had gone back to Cleveland County, North Carolina where his family and friends still lived.
They lived there the rest of their lives. Ben died there on 26 March 1922. Junnie survived him by quite a few years, dying on 9 March 1937 in nearby Lincoln County, North Carolina.
They were the parents of six children, two of whom died very young.
Children: (Hullender)
- Child, born and died before June 1900
- Mary Lee, born 8 March 1901, Hopkins County, Texas; died 7 July 1971, Lincolnton, Lincoln, North Carolina; married Augustus Reynolds, c1924. They were the parents of seven children, six of whom have descendants and one child is still living today.
- Child, probably born c1904; died before 1910
- Emery, born 29 March 1907, North Carolina; died 1 August 1987, Cleveland County, North Carolina; married (1) Mamie Etta Laughlin, 15 January 1927, Cherokee County, South Carolina (2) Elizabeth Pruitt, 24 July 1937, Pittsylvania County, Virginia (3) Grace Geneva Philbeck, c1980. It appears that Emery was the parent of one daughter with Mamie, Virginia Luella, born 5 January 1928; Cleveland County, North Carolina; died 26 July 1997, Las Cruces, Dona Ana, New Mexico. Virginia married three times, but appears to not have had any children. Interestingly, one of her marriage records states her occupation in 1950 as “show business,” but no further information has been found about her career. Emery has no known living descendants.
- Frank Jonas, born 3 March 1910, Kings Mountain, Cleveland, North Carolina; died 21 June 1969, Kings Mountain. Cleveland, North Carolina; married Maggie Davis, c1929. They were the parents of one son, Joseph Arthur, born 20 June 1930 in Gaston County, North Carolina; died 8 October 2010, North Carolina; married Rachel L. Burton, c1948. They were the parents of one child so Frank has descendants living today.
- Richard Ira, born 19 May 1913, Kings Mountain, Cleveland, North Carolina; died 20 January 2000, Alamance County, North Carolina; married Madge Louise Pruett, c1939. They were the parents of one child and Richard has living descendants today.
This completes the updated family sketch for Ben and Junnie. If you are part of this family, I would love for you to leave a comment so we can connect.
