Thomas Isaac Mills and Nancy E. Lawrence Mills of Mena, Polk Co. Arkansas

I am researching my Mills ancestors.

I have run into a brickwall with my g g g grandfather Thomas Isaac Mills. Born abt. 1818-1821 in North Carolina. Thomas Isaac Mills. Below is the information I have for Thomas I. Mills. Would love to hear from anyone else researching Thomas I. Mills and his ancestors or descendants.
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Thomas Isaac Mills was born Abt. 1818 in North Carolina and died Aft. 1880. He married Nancy E. Lawrence from Tennessee Bef. 1846 in Alabama. She was born Abt. 1823 in Tennessee, and died Aft. 1880.

Notes for Thomas Isaac Mills:
Isaac may be spelled incorrectly.

The 1880 Polk County, Arkansas census records indicate Thomas was born in North Carolina. The same census indicates his father was born in Virginia and his mother was born in North Carolina. Their names are not known.

Thomas’s exact whereabouts are not known between 1818 and 1846. A record of him was found in the 1850 census for Polk County, Arkansas. The census indicated his first three children were born in Alabama, so we can assume he lived there from at least 1846 when their first son Henry was born until sometime in 1849 when their son Thomas J. was born. Notes from research done earlier by Mary D. Robinson show that Thomas and Nancy were married in Alabama, but we have not been able to confirm this.

In the 1850 census Thomas is listed as a carpenter, and in the 1860 census as a farmer. That census also indicated he had $1,200 in real estate and $1,800 in personal property.

 In the 1860’s Thomas I. Mills and his family lived in the log cabin which still exists on its original site, located in Janssen Park in Mena, AR. His daughter Nancy married Elijah Cagle in the cabin in 1869. During this time Thomas contracted to handle the six mail routes out of old Dallas, the county seat, handling mail to and from Hot Springs, Fort Smith, Arkadelphia, and other points in Howard and Sevier counties. The 1860 census shows three mail carriers living in the Mills household.