Amory (Amzi) Walton Byers was born in South Carolina in 1802. He later lived in Coosa County, Alabama, before he married Samirah L. Ashe. The Byerses moved to Panola County, Mississippi, around 1839. Amory Byers acquired a plantation on Bynum Creek in the southeastern section of Panola County. He also operated a mercantile business in nearby Water Valley, Yalobusha County. The Byerses had three children: John Alemuth (1836-1864), Mary Jane (1838-1915), and Samirah Louise (Lon). Samirah Ashe Byers died on June 8, 1841, and she was buried at College Hill Cemetery in Lafayette County, Mississippi.

On April 22, 1847, Amory Byers married his second wife, Eliza Strong, and they had six children: Medora (Dora) Roxana, Henry Walton (1849-1945), Edward (Eddie) Strong, Willie (1856-1857), Laura Johnston (1858-1885), and Julia Loughborough (Dudie). Eliza Strong Byers was born in New York on November 20, 1820, and she moved to Mississippi to teach school. Amory and Eliza Byers were among the twenty-two charter members of the Sand Spring Presbyterian Church that was organized in 1850. The church was originally located in Panola County, but it moved to Lafayette County. Amory Byers died on September 15, 1879. Eliza Byers later moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to live with her daughter, Julia Byers Logan. Eliza Byers died on February 10, 1907.

Samirah Louise Byers was born on January 31, 1840. She attended Huntsville Female College in Alabama in 1859. Her husband, James Mercer Hartsfield, was born in Mississippi around 1845. He farmed with his father in Panola County until he joined the Confederate army around 1863. Hartsfield enlisted as a private in the Panola Vindicators, Company H, Seventeenth Regiment, Mississippi Infantry. He was wounded and captured in the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, on May 3, 1863. After remaining a prisoner-of-war for the next two years, Hartsfield was paroled at Memphis, Tennessee, in June of 1865. He returned to Panola County and married Samirah Louise Byers on September 19, 1866. The Hartsfields later moved to Fort Worth, Texas. They had at least one child, Blanche Walton, who was born on February 22, 1867. Blanche Hartsfield married John T. Nason on June 17, 1896. The Nasons later moved to Jackson, Tennessee. Samirah Louise Byers died on November 18, 1926.

Medora Roxana Byers was born in Panola County, Mississippi, on March 28, 1848. She attended Monticello Seminary in Godfrey, Illinois, in 1867. Byers married Thomas J. McFarland on September 14, 1870. McFarland was born in Mississippi on December 10, 1843. He was the son of John and Harriet McFarland, who were originally from Tennessee and North Carolina, respectively. McFarland attended the University of Mississippi, and he later fought in the Spanish-American War in Company G, Second Regiment, Mississippi Infantry. The McFarlands had at least one child, Johnnie McFarland (1871-1872). Medora Byers McFarland died in Water Valley on February 10, 1894, and Thomas McFarland died on January 7, 1900.

Edward Strong Byers was born in Panola County on December 2, 1850. He moved to Water Valley in 1871, finding employment in the grocery business. Byers married Alice H. Hughes (b. 1855) on September 17, 1873. The couple had least three children: Maud, Russell E. (b. 1875), and Helen (b. 1881). Alice Byers died, sometime between 1880 and 1883, and Edward Byers married his second wife, Sally A. Jones, on June 3, 1884. After her death, sometime before 1900, Edward Byers married a third time. He remained in the wholesale grocery business, and his son, Edward Byers, worked with him as a grocery salesman. Edward Byers was a member of the First Methodist Church of Water Valley. He died on September 11, 1915, and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Water Valley. Byers was survived by nine children, including Edward (1886-1930), Cecelia (b. 1889), and Kenneth A. (1892-1918).

Julia Loughborough Byers was born in Water Valley on March 7, 1862. She married William L. Logan on October 26, 1887. The Logans later moved to Dallas, Texas. Julia Logan died on August 26, 1941. She was the grandmother of the donor, Mary Anna Rogers.

This collection contains the bound, unpaginated diary of Medora Byers (McFarland); her bound, unpaginated memory book; sixteen black-and-white photographs; and one tintype photograph of an unknown, seated lady.

The name of Medora Byers (McFarland) is inscribed on the inside front cover of her diary. Several pages of the diary are torn, the penciled writing is occasionally faded, and the writing continues on the inside back cover. The diary begins the day after Christmas, 1868, continues with a few non-chronological entries during subsequent weeks, and ends in January of 1869. Primary topics include the weather, especially the heavy snow; Thomas J. McFarland’s courtship of Byers; and a number of social encounters, including the entertainment of a number of callers with Byers’s cousin, Lillie Webster. Byers referred to a number of visitors, including those bearing the surnames Dodd, Johnson, Leland, and Walthall. Typescripts of the diary are in folder two of the Byers Family Papers (Z/1808.000/S).

The memory book is inscribed on the first page as a birthday present from "Papa" to Medora Byers (McFarland) on her [twelfth] birthday on March 29, 1860. However, it is mostly blank and contains only three poems: one unsigned poem entitled, "My Little Sister when Half a Year Old," which speaks of one sister’s affection for another; one untitled poem by Robert Boyd instructing one to be slow to anger; and one poem by Medora Byers (McFarland) entitled, "Young Womanhood," which speaks of the maturation of a young lady. The final item in the book is a two-sentence directive for someone to teach Julia and Laura [Byers ?] the names of kings of various countries.

A photograph of Russell Byers is dated May 30, 1879, but the rest of the photographs are undated. One photograph is of Edward [Byers ?] at age thirteen. Other photographs name their subjects: Edward Byers, Blanche Hartsfield (Nason), and Sally Byers. There are biographical notations on the backs of the photographs of Julia Byers (Logan) and Sally Byers. Two photographs are inscribed to "Mother" and to "Sister Julia and Rev. Hill," and there is a card accompanying one photograph that says the subject may be James Mercer Hartsfield.

1. Diary (Medora Byers McFarland). 1868-1869. 1 folder.
2. Memory Book (Medora Byers McFarland). 1860; n.d. 1 folder.
3. Photographs. 1879; n.d. 2 folders.