Elizabeth Brownlee Warner (1802-1880) was the child of Col. Thomas Cargill Warner (1772-1833) and his wife Tabitha Cargill Warner (1776-1854). The information for this column is derived from Dr. E. Russ Williams, Jr.'s book "Kinsmen All Descendants of Wettenhall Warner and Related Families," my source for this series of columns on the Warner lineage. Though Elizabeth was born on January 19, 1802, in South Carolina and died in 1880 in Texas, she settled as a child with her parents in Washington Parish, living here until she wed Reverend David Pipes of East Feliciana Parish in 1832. She was his third wife. And notably, Elizabeth had a twin sister - Nancy Cunningham Warner, who wed Reverend John P. Haney who is cited in this series. A discussion of Nancy follows Elizabeth.
Reverend David Pipes was a well known preacher of the Word, in both Southwestern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana. His obituary, penned by John G. Jones, in the "New Orleans Christian Advocate" dated March 14, 1878, revealed the tides of his life. Pipes hailed from Natchez, Mississippi, where his parents were "first generation Methodists." A teacher at "a common school," he married his first wife Sarah Holmes, the daughter of John Holmes and Rachel Ford Holmes, in 1823 in Adams County, Mississippi. The couple had three children: Mary Pipes, who was born in 1823 and married Rev. John F. Goodrich; John Pipes, who was born in 1827 and married Catherine Kemp; and Sarah Pipes, who was born in 1828 and married Rev. James H. Merrill. Following the death of his brother, through which David was led to "early conversion," he united with the Church in Natchez in 1824 at which time family prayer became routine with morning and evening devotionals.
After his first wife's death in 1829, Pipes moved to East Feliciana, where he became a licensed preacher. In August of 1830 he wed Minerva Flynn. The couple enjoyed matrimony for only fourteen months; she succumbed in October of 1831.
Pipes married his third wife Elizabeth Brownlee Warner in November of 1832. She was described in his obituary as "a lady every way worthy and well qualified to be the wife of a minister of Christ…." Together, the couple had five children: Minerva Ann Pipes, who was born in 1833 and died in 1840; David Pipes, who was born in 1835 and died in 1943; Elizabeth Wall Pipes, who was born in 1837 and died in 1843; Thomas Warner Pipes, who was born in 1838 and died in 1847; and Isaac Thomas Pipes who was born in 1840 and died in 1924.
It was said that Reverend Pipes enjoyed popularity as a preacher in Eastern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi for over forty years. In 1876, he relocated to McLennan, Texas, where his son Isaac Pipes lived and where he resided until his leave-taking. In the publication John G. Jones described Pipes's death in poetic detail, "On the 6th of November 1877, just as he entered his 80th year, the weary wheels of Nature stopped turning. No specific disease was perceptible. He only grew more feeble from day to day until he quietly slept in Jesus." A beautiful departing. His widow Elizabeth Brownlee Warner Pipes also died in Texas in the area of Stephensville, Erath County, on February 19, 1880.
Nancy Cunningham Warner (1802-1882), the daughter of Col. Thomas Cargill Warner (1772-1833) and his wife Tabitha Cargill Warner (1776-1854), was the twin sister of Elizabeth Brownlee Warner Pipes. Once again, obituaries in the "New Orleans Christian Advocate" in Dr. E. Russ Williams Jr.'s book are relied on for life's perspective. Nancy, who was born in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, arrived in Louisiana with her parents in 1805. Joining the Methodist Church in 1822, she married Reverend John P. Haney in 1827, settling near her father.
A mirror image of her twin sister's marriage to Rev. David Pipes, her husband Rev. John P. Haney was also well known within the Methodist ministry. As reported by John G. Jones, in his book "History of Methodism in Mississippi," Rev. Haney while on the Lower Pearl River Valley circuit "married Miss Nancy Warner, one of the lovely and pious twin daughters of Hon. Thomas C. Warner, of Washington Parish, Louisiana…." The couple had the following children: Tabitha Elizabeth Haney, who was born in 1829 and married Rev. Thomas C. Price of the Mississippi Conference in 1845, and John Pettis Haney, Jr., who was born in 1832, after his father's passing, and married Martha Louise Lee in 1862.
With her husband's life coming to an end far too soon in October of 1831, Nancy resided in a number of places, during her lifetime: Covington where she resided with her sister and brother-in-law, East Feliciana where she lived with her daughter who had married Reverend Thomas Price, the state of Texas, and also the Ezekiel Parke Ellis homestead in Amite.
