Wesley Dowling son of Dempsey Dowling and Martha Stokes was born in 1806 in Darlington Dist, SC. near Jeffries Creek.

Wesley was blacksmith. He. 1850 Dale Co AL p 184 The year after Westley's two sons were killed,he was involved in an incident of such import that its story wasrepeated in 'The Montgomery Advertiser'. He was approaching theChoctawhatchee River bridge new Newton, AL on 3 Dec 1864, when henoticed a half-dozen men of Captain Breare's confederate Home-Guardganged around a helpless-looking Dale Countian, named Bill Sketo.They were preparing to hang the man, on the charge that he haddeserted the Rebels' front-lines. (Sketo had come home, because ofhis wife' serious illness, but had followed an often-used procedure byhaving a friend take his place) Dowling warned the self-appointedprosecutors that such a lynching was not right, whereupon they warnedhim that he ' would get the same medecine' if he interfered. Then asSketo stood on the buggy, the rope tightening around his neck, heprayed: 'Forgive them; forgive them, dear Loard!' Such a display ofChristianity by this forlorn foreigner (he was of Spanish birth andprior to the war had preached around Newton) angered the 'judge andjury' so much, they could stand it no more. They belted the red horsehitched to the buggy and Sketo's body went craching downward. But thevictim was tall; his feet were dragging the ground under the post oaktree. Immediately guardsman G___ E___, a cripple, grabbed his crutchand scratched dirt from under the gasping man's feet. And for yearsand years, even on into the twentieth century, that hole remainedhollowed out enen though persistent attempts were made to fill it.One by one the six hangmen died terrible deaths. One was riding ahorse one still day when suddenly the limb of a post oak tree crasheddown on him, splitting his skull. One was killed by a run-away mule.Still another was killed by lightning. One was found dead in a swamp. Today, even the old hangingtree is gone. But the scar?? It probablyremains. REFERENCE: A Dowling Family of the South.

Wesley Dowling was listed in the household of Dempsey Dowling in the census in 1810 in Darlington Dist, SC.¹

Wesley died in 1878. He was buried in Claybank Cem, Ozark, Dale Co, AL.

He married Amanda E. O'Neal.

Amanda E. O'Neal and Wesley Dowling had the following children: