It was February 1st, 1797, a cold windy day, temperatures barely above freezing. John paced nervously in front of the fireplace in his father’s parlor while his father sat in his favorite chair pulled close to the fire and leaned over warming his hands by the fire. The fireplace barely kept the room comfortable against the cold wind rattling the window shutters. “How much longer?” John asked his father, John Senior, for the tenth time. His father, having been through the experience before, replying each time in a calm voice and such wisdom as, “It will come when it is ready.”  John knew this, he had been through it before when the horses, cows and other farm animals gave birth, but this time it was different, it was his wife, it was their first child.

His wife, Elizabeth Joyce, had been with his mother and the midwife in his parents’ bedroom for over an hour, he had watched the minutes slowly pass on clock on the fireplace mantel. The first time he heard his wife cry out he ran to the door, but his mother turned him back telling him all was fine, it was normal for her to cry out, and he should go back and wait with his father. His father’s calming words of wisdom didn’t help, he still paced.

Upon hearing a particularly loud cry, John stopped his pacing and looked toward the bedroom door with worry and concern, and then he heard it, the first cry of a baby, he rushed to the door, opened it to see his mother handing the infant to his wife who looked at it lovingly. His mother motioned him closer and when he was next to her, she said, “You have a son.”  They named him William Joyce Mixson#707, the Joyce being his mother’s maiden name.

The Mixson’s, or as it was often spelled Mixon’s, had considerable land holdings in Barnwell which officially became a “District” 1797 a few months after baby William was born. In the following years John would inherit his father's plantation and became more comfortable with the birthing process after having nine more children, Lavicy, Archibald Kirkland, Susan Elizabeth, James Joyce, Edward Miles, Charles Jones, Mary Hanson and finally Experience Gail in 1815. 

Updated: 12-14-2025

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