Col. Luke A. Powell of Sampson County (1821-1892) was the seventhgeneration of Powells in America. He was a Justice of the Peace,Colonel in the Sampson Militia, 24th Reg., 4th Brigade, seconddivision (u), and one of Sampson's Representative in the StateLegislature during the Civil War. (v). He married two widows who hadfirst married widowers with children. His first wife Mary Ann Vann(1823-1859), daughter of James Vann, was widow of William OdomMcArthur who had first married her aunt Phoebe Vann and died leavingan infant son, John A. McArthur. W.O. and Mary Ann had three children:Eliza Marvin who married Oliver Perry James, Vann Jasper who marriedSusan Catherine Boney, and Martha Elizabeth who married RobinsonJames. W.O. died in 1848, and Mary Ann in 1849 married Luke A. Powell.They had five children: James Mark (1850-1927) married Lucy JaneBoney; Marion Alverado (1853-1856); John William (1854-1904), aBaptist Minister, married Lillie Arrington, died in Georgetown, S.C.;Catherine Ann Miriam (1857-1945) married David Bascom Nicholson, alawyer, and moved to Georgia; and Julius Alexander Powell (1858-1933)married Mary Emma Bourden and lived most of his married life in DuplinCounty. Luke married second in 1861 Mrs. Melinda Pearsall Boney(1818-1896), widow of Wright Boney by whom she had five children:Christopher, Melissa, Susan Catherine who married Van Jasper McArthur,and Lucy Jane who married James Mark Powell. Luke and Melinda had nochildren, but in their home were reared, or partly reared, five setsof children, no kin, but step-brothers and sisters. When they grew up,two of the Boney girls married a McArthur boy and a Powell boy thusmaking the Luke A. Powell family truly "A Mixed Up Family" (w).
