Wade Ward; Crockett Ward of Independence Va.

Wade Ward; Crockett Ward of Independence Va.; Saddle Creek, Grayson Co.

[It has not been determined if this Ward family is related to the Benjamin Ward who moved to Valle Crucis NC, circa 1770 and helped settle that area.]

Benjamin Wade Ward was born October 15, 1892, one of five sons, and four daughters of Enoch Ward and Rosamond Carico Ward. His father Enoch Ward b. 1850 d. 1923 Independence Va. Their children:

    Creed Ward 1885-1961
    Della Ward 1887-1972
    Crockett Ward 1872-1964
    Ellen Ward 1876-1972
    Wells Columbus Ward 1878-1944
    Mollie Ward 1880-1960
    Joe Ward 1883-1962
    Verna Ward 1889-1963
    Benjamin "Wade" Ward 1892-1971 "Uncle Wade"

His father, Enoch, was a fiddle player, but he had already stopped playing when Wade was born, and his mother knew many of the traditional mountain ballads and songs; however, it was Wade's elder brother, David Crockett Ward (known as Crockett), 20 years his senior, who was the key musical influence on his life. Crockett was a fine fiddle player and began teaching his younger brother the rudiments of banjo and fiddle playing when he was an early teen.

Fields Mac Ward and his uncle Benjamin Wade Ward were talented musicians who performed traditional Appalachian music from the early years of commercial recording through the urban folk revival of the 1960s. Born in Saddle Creek, near Independence, Virginia, on October 15, 1892, Wade was one of the nine children of Enoch and Rosamond Carico Ward. Enoch and his son David Crockett Ward played fiddle, while another son, Joe Ward, played the banjo, and Rosamond sang ballads and songs. Wade started playing the banjo at age eleven and the fiddle at sixteen. He later helped form the Buck Mountain Band, which eventually included Fields as a member. Besides learning music from his parents, Fields— born January 23, 1911, on Buck Mountain, Virginia—was also heavily influenced by the recordings of Riley Puckett, from which he learned guitar technique.

Crockett Ward’s son and Wade’s nephew, Fields Ward made his first commercial recordings in the mid-1920s for the OKeh label and recorded later for Gennett. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he made recordings for the Library of Congress with a string band called the Bogtrotters, which featured Wade on banjo; several performances from those sessions were issued commercially. In 1940 the Bogtrotters performed for a national audience on the CBS radio program American School of the Air.

Crockett Ward m. Lina Weatherman 1878-1958

    Curren Ward
    Verna Mae Ward
    Sampson Ward 1898-1966
    Kate Ward 1901-1973
    Fields M Ward 1910-1987
    Verna M Ward 1913-Unknown

David Ward was born on 9 Apr 1823 in Virginia. He died on 24 Mar 1899. He was buried in Wells Ward Cemetery, Ward-Jenkins Farm, Grayson, VA. He married Minerva "Manerva" Ward (daughter Nancy Hash) who was born on 4 Oct 1826 in Virginia. She died on 21 Aug 1919. She was buried in Wells Ward Cemetery, Ward-Jenkins Farm, Grayson, VA.

They had the following children:

    +     729     F     i     Nancy P. Nina Ward was born on 25 Aug 1846. She died on 11 Apr 1912.
    +     730     M     ii     Enoch David Ward was born on 14 Jun 1850. He died on 25 Apr 1923.
          731     M     iii     Johnathan Ward was born on 12 Aug 1854 in Saddle Creek, Grayson Co. VA. He died on 16 Jan 1864. He was buried in Wells Ward Cemetery,Ward-Jenkins Farm, Grayson,VA.
          732     F     iv     Malvina Ward was born on 3 Oct 1870.
    +     733     F     v     Rebecca Ward was born on 2 Dec 1862. She died on 31 May 1895.
    +     734     M     vi     Thomas Wells Ward was born on 1 Jun 1867. He died on 10 Feb 1949.
          735     F     vii     Susan Abigail Ward was born in 1873. She died on 14 Apr 1879. She was buried in Wells Ward Cemetery,Ward-Jenkins Farm, Grayson,VA.
          736     F     viii     Irena "Reney" Ward was born in 1861. She died in Dec 1863. She was buried in Wells Ward Cemetery,Ward-Jenkins Farm, Grayson, VA.
          737     M     ix     David Ward was born in 1861. He died in 1863. He was buried in Wells Ward Cemetery, Ward-Jenkins Farm, Grayson, VA.