Year of the Tiger

May 8, 2013 at 3:09 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In Wiregrass Georgia, 1849 may have been the Year of the Tiger.  Several previous posts have related the story of the Berrien Tiger, a large panther which attacked Jim Hightower (aka James Stewart, step-son of Thomas B. Stewart) near the Alapaha River in 1849 (see Eyewitness Accounts of the Berrien Tiger).

Here is a family story shared by reader Lloyd Harris, of another “Tiger”  encounter which occurred that same year near Argyle, GA, about 35 miles east of Ray City.

When I was young my grandfather related a long ago memory of his grandfather’s encounter with a panther or panthers in the south Georgia wilderness. Our family story coincides with the Berrien Tiger accounts as they happened at approximately the same time. My great great grandfather, James Harris, told this story of his own childhood to my grandad when he was young.

James Harris, 1880s

James Harris, 1880s. Image courtesy of Lloyd Harris.

The  incident happened when James Harris was about five years old, and coincides with the 1849 date of the Berrien Tiger.

Family of James Harris

James Harris was the first of eleven children born to George Harris and Julia Ann Westberry. He was born near Quitman, Georgia, February 16, 1844. 

His father, George Harris, was the son of Thompson Harris (1784-1870) and Nancy Ursery (1784-  )   A Confederate Widow’s Indigent Pension application for Julia Ann (Westberry) Harris in 1908 reflects George Harris’ birth in 1817 in South Carolina. Another source relates that he was born in Appling County, Georgia between 1817 and 1822, after which the family lived in Clinch County.  George was a blacksmith and in addition assisted his father Thompson Harris in constructing covered bridges. His father’s work was known throughout Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. A trademark of their bridges was the integrated use of iron and bored wooden pegs to hold the timbers together.

George was a blacksmith and wheelwright. Family tradition relates that he assisted his father Thompson Harris in constructing covered bridges throughout Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.

The church records of Union Church show that George and Julia Harris were received and baptized into its membership August 7, 1841, and were dismissed by letter March 12,1842. They became members of Providence Primitive Baptist Church near their home soon after that church was constituted in 1844. Their subsequent records cannot be traced due to the loss of church records.

The Harris home and farm in Clinch County, Georgia was on lot 325 in the 7th District which lot was traversed by the county line between Clinch and Ware Counties when Clinch was created in 1850 from Ware County. This property is situated about three miles north of the present village of Argyle. George Harris was granted this lot from the state on June 3, 1849; also granted the adjoining lot 324 on October 3, 1848. He sold lot 324 to his brother, William Harris, November 2, 1849, and then lived on lot 325 until he sold that parcel of land to Richard Bennett on August 12, 1852.

Tale of the Panthers

There is a family tale handed down through many generations relating to frontier life. The event happened in 1849 during the time the Harris family was residing in Clinch County. George Harris was away leaving his wife Julia and the children home alone in a pioneer homestead. Speculation would be that he was away with his father building bridges or hunting. During one night panthers roaming from the nearby Okefenokee swamp menaced the home ranging closer and closer to the cabin. To keep the predators from entering the home the frantic family prayed through the night and burned their beds, and chairs keeping a large fire going. The tactic flushed the space with light and served to repel an attack by the curious cats.

The Harris family story of a young pioneer family praying, hanging blankets over windows, and burning the bed, tables and chairs was passed down serving to entertain several generations with a true historical drama of frontier Georgia living in the nineteenth century.

George and James Harris in the Civil War

George Harris  and his son James both served in the War Between the States. George  Harris enlisted as a Private in the fall of 1862 as a member of the 3rd Cavalry Battalion which was formed during the winter of 1861-1862 with six companies. He along with his unit served on the Georgia coast, scouting and patrolling, until a reorganization of troops occurred on January 1, 1863.  George Harris’ unit was merged into the 4th (Clinch’s) Georgia Cavalry Regiment , and he was placed in Company I. Lieutenant Colonel Duncan L. Clinch and Major John L. Harris were in command.

At the reorganization,  James Harris joined his father’s unit, Company I, 4th Georgia Cavalry as a private.  He participated in the Battle of Olustee, Florida and in the battles around Atlanta. Family tradition relates he contracted measles during the siege of Atlanta and was in the city when it fell to the Union armies under General William T. Sherman. His unit apparently left him outside of the city but in the line of the advancing enemy soldiers. James was convalescing on a farm (place unknown) when “Yankees” were seen approaching. He was hidden by the host family in the stump of a huge oak tree that had “bushed” up. James remained concealed in the oak bush throughout the hot summer day until the Yankees left. Though suffering from sickness, and within a stones throw of the Union soldiers, he remained quite and motionless evading capture! Records also indicate he participated in battle at John’s Island, South Carolina. He surrendered at Thomasville, Georgia and was paroled at Tallahassee, Florida on May 15, 1865.

After the war James Harris married Mary Alice Stone.  She was born February 16, 1842, the daughter of George W. R. Stone and Nancy Howell. The Harris and Stone families are listed in the 1850 Census of Ware County.  James and Alice raised a family and engaged in farming near Adel, GA in present Cook County. He was a skilled blacksmith and wheelwright, as well. James Harris is listed in the 1880 and 1900 census of Berrien County, Georgia.

For James Harris, 1897 was a particularly trying year.  That summer a hailstorm hit the Harris farm, damaging his house and property.

James Harris' plantation hit by storm, 1897.

James Harris’ plantation hit by storm, 1897.

Tifton Gazette
June 18, 1897

Storm Near Cecil.

Cicil, Ga., June 12. – A heavy and damaging hail storm passed three miles north of Cecil late yesterday afternoon.  The cloud traveled in a southeasterly direction, touching the plantation of Mr. James Harris, three miles northeast of this place.  The storm was accompanied by a terrific wind, which destroyed a large amount of Mr. Harris’ fencing and a portion of the roof of his dwelling.  No deaths or personal injuries have been reported.

In November, 1897,  Harris took another blow when his gin was burned down.

James Harris' gin house hit by fire, 1897.

James Harris’ gin house hit by fire, 1897.

Tifton Gazette
November 19, 1897

Gin House Burned

Cecil, Ga., Nov. 17 – At a late hour last night the gin house and contents of Mr. James Harris living two miles northeast of this place, was destroyed by fire. The origin of which is unknown, but is thought to be an incendiary’s work. The amount of the damage could not be learned to-day, but it is thought that it may exceed $1,000. SHEBA.

James’ father, George Harris,  died between 1892 and 1894 in Echols County, Georgia. His mother, Julia Ann Harris, applied for a Confederate Widows pension in 1908 and 1909 in Berrien County, Georgia. George Harris and his wife are buried in Union Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery in Lanier County, Georgia in unmarked graves.

In 1919, James Harris sold his farm near Cecil, GA.

James Harris sells out in Cecil District, Georgia, 1919.

James Harris sells out in Cecil District, Georgia, 1919.

 

Tifton Gazette
August 29, 1919

    Adel News.  There has been a good deal of activity in the sale of farm lands in Cook county this week.  Mr. W. S. Kirkland sold his farm to Mr. Jim Buck Whiddon and later bought Mr. John Taylor’s place which he also sold.  It is understood that the first brought $15,00.  Both of the places are in the Brushy creek neighborhood.  Mr. James Harris sold his place in the Cecil district to Mr. General Taylor for $15,000 also.

 

James Harris was a resident of Cecil, Georgia in Berrien/Cook County until his death. He died in Adel, Georgia December 12, 1928.   Alice died October 28, 1928, in Adel Georgia.  They are both buried at the Fellowship Baptist Church Cemetery in Cook County near Cecil, Georgia.

Rjames-harris-gravesite

Special thanks to Lloyd Harris for the contribution of images and content for this post.

Related Posts:

2 Comments

Elijah Fawcett of Possum Creek

August 23, 2012 at 12:49 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As a young man, Elijah Fawcett spent many years in Ray City, GA. He was a half-brother of Connie Moore, subject of the previous post.

Elijah Fawcett was a Ray City resident from about 1902 through the 1930s.

Elijah Fawcett was a Ray City resident from about 1902 through the 1930s.

Elijah Fawcett was born in Manchester, NC on June 6, 1891, a son of  and Charles Solomon Fawcett. Some time before the turn of the century, young Elijah moved with his family to Mud Creek in Clinch County, GA where they were enumerated in 1900. Elijah’s father, and older half-brother Connie Moore, worked a rented farm.But within a couple of years, the family moved to Ray City, GA.

As a young boy, Elijah attended school, eventually finishing seven grades. When he was about 12 years old, his half-brother Connie Moore disappeared, and was presumed killed, while working as a guard at a large convict camp in Fargo, GA.

About 1913 Elijah Faucett was married and began raising a family with his wife, Cora. Some time before 1917 his mother died, after which it appears that his father came to live in Elijah’s household.

In June of 1917, along with other men of the Ray City area, Elijah Fawcett register for the draft for World War I. At 36 years old he was a tall man, with a medium build, black eyes and black hair. He was employed in farming by John L. Allen, who at that time owned a 260 acre farm located just southwest of Ray City, near Possum Creek.

(One wonders if there was a Moore family connection here. John Levi Allen was a son of Rachel Moore Allen. Elijah’s mother had married a Moore man in her first marriage; Elijah’s older half brother was Connie J. Moore.)

By the census of 1920, Elijah Fawcett had moved his family and widowed father to Red Bluff, South Carolina where he rented a farm. Some time before 1930, he moved everyone back to Ray City, including his now 81 year-old father. With the help of his teenage sons, Arthur and Marvin, Elijah was working a rented farm. It appears that prior to 1935, through unknown circumstances or death, his marriage to Cora ended.

Elijah Fawcett relocated from Ray City to the New River district.  In a second marriage he was wedded to an Alabama woman, Mattie Louise Harrison.

Mattie Louise Harrison, second wife of Elijah Fawcett

The couple owned a farm on the Lenox-Enigma Road. Later, Mattie and Elijah Fawcett moved to Alabama.

-30-

Related articles

1 Comment

Merchant of Ray City: Joseph Henry Pascal Johnson

March 23, 2012 at 12:05 am (Historic Businesses, Johnson Family, Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Joseph Henry Pascal Johnson was born and raised on the old Johnson farm in Clinch county,  about four miles north of Dupont, GA.  His father, Captain Rowan Burnett Johnson, gave a portion of his land for the site of the primitive baptist Prospect Church,  J.H.P. Johnson lived in DuPont for some years prior to moving to Ray City about 1913.

Joseph Henry Pascal Johnson, of Ray City, GA. Image courtesy of Julie Hutson.

Joseph Henry Pascal Johnson, of Ray City, GA. Image courtesy of Julie Hutson.

In 1900 the newlywed J.H.P.  “Joe” Johnson  supported his bride, Chloe Ann Gardner, as a merchant in the Dupont district of Clinch County, GA. In the Clinch County census of 1910 Johnson reported his occupation as “farming”.  Some time about 1913, the Johnsons moved to Ray City, GA where  Joe served on the board of directors for the Bank of Ray’s Mill , and owned  several retail buildings  prior to the Great Depression.  By 1930 J.H.P.  the census shows he was back in the occupation of farming, but he was always in the retail business.  His death certificate in 1953 gave his usual occupation as ”merchant and farmer,”   and his type of  business was  owner of a general merchandise store.

Joseph Henry Pascal Johnson and grandchild. Image courtesy of Julie Hutson.

Joseph Henry Pascal Johnson and grandchild. Image courtesy of Julie Hutson.

The Clinch County News
February 27, 1953

Death Of J.H.P.  Johnson

Aged Clinch County Native Passes at Ray City

    Mr. J. H. P. Johnson, known to his old home-county people as “Joe” Johnson, died in the hospital at Lakeland last Saturday morning, age 83 years following a long illness.  Funeral and burial was had at Ray City last Sunday afternoon, the funeral being in the Ray City Baptist Church and conducted by the pastor, Rev. John W. Harrell, assisted by the Methodist Pastor, Rev. D. R. Dixon.
    Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Chloe Gardner Johnson; three daughters, Mrs. Paul King of Orange Park, Fla., Mrs. R. Lawton LeSueur of Americus, Mrs. W. M. Carlton of Nashville; and six sons, R. G. Johnson of Elberton, J. Wallace Johnson of Valdosta, Floyd V. Johnson of Charlotte, N. C., J. H. Johnson and Maurice Johnson of Ray City, and R. Bruce Johnson of Callahan, Fla.
    Mr. Johnson was the last surviving one of the children of the late Hon. Rowan B. Johnson, 1830-1904, well known Clinch County citizen and legislator of years ago.  The elder Johnson died in June, 1904, while a member of the legislature from Clinch serving his fourth or fifth (though not consecutive terms) from this county. The mother of the deceased was Mrs. Caroline Floyd Johnson, daughter of Jason Floyd of Liberty County.  The deceased was born and reared near Prospect Church, on the old Johnson farm now the plantation of Mr. G. C. Griner; and lived in DuPont for some years prior to moving to Ray City about forty years ago.  He engaged in merchandising in Ray City until forced by ill health a few years ago to retire.
      Mr. Johnson was a very fine, upright man,and had many friends.  He was always genial and friendly, and leaves behind the record of a good, clean life filled with many deeds of kindness exemplifying many fine traits of character.
      Mr. G. A. Gibbs of Homerville, is his nephew.  Mrs. O. C. Dukes of Homerville, and Mrs. M. G. Hughes of DuPont, are second cousins.

Death Certificate of Joseph Henry Pascal Johnson. Courtesy of Julie Hutson.

Death Certificate of Joseph Henry Pascal Johnson. Courtesy of Julie Hutson.

-

Grave of Joseph Howard Pascal Johnson and Chloe Gardner Johnson, Beaver Dam Cemetery, Ray City, Berrien County, GA

Grave of Joseph Howard Pascal Johnson and Chloe Gardner Johnson, Beaver Dam Cemetery, Ray City, Berrien County, GA

Related articles

Leave a Comment

Etheldred Dryden Newbern ~ Pioneer Settler

January 26, 2012 at 5:43 am (Battle of Brushy Creek, Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Etheldred Dryden Newbern was a pioneer settler of Berrien County and a noted participant in the last Indian encounters in Berrien County (see Martha Guthrie: Babe of the Indian Wars).

Monument for Etheldred Dryden Newbern, buried at Wayfare Church Cemetery near Statenville, GA. Newbern was one of the pioneer settlers of Berrien County.

Monument for Etheldred Dryden Newbern, buried at Wayfare Church Cemetery near Statenville, GA. Newbern was one of the pioneer settlers of Berrien County.

The Newbern’s homestead was located on the east bank of Five Mile Creek, perhaps about eight miles northeast of Ray City. This was probably somewhere in the present day vicinity of the Highway 168 bridge over Five Mile Creek.

The Newberns were the nearest neighbors of Short-arm Billy Parker. The Parker place was located a few miles further to the east, at a spring on the Alapaha River. When marauding Indians  came by the Parker place in 1836, Mrs. Parker and her daughters fled to the Newberns:

…the women ran through the field , a back way, a distance of five miles to the home of Dread Newborn.

Arriving there she related what she had seen, as fast as her fright and exhaustion would allow, for she had run every step of the way, and she was almost overcome with heat and fatigue. On learning this Mr. Newbern realized that the cause of their own experiences of the night before when the horses had become greatly frightened, snorting and breaking out of the horse lot and coming back the next morning. It was supposed that they had become frightened at the sight of the Indians who were prowling around the neighborhood to steal.

A company of men soon collected together, under the command of George Peterson, Dread Newborn, William Parker, and others. The Indians were overtaken at the Allapaha river and three were killed, others made their escape but were overtaken at the St. Illa river, at what is now known as Indian Lake, about two miles northeast of the town of Axson, Ga. They were all shot and killed, except one squaw; it was reported that she was captured and shot. Dread Newborn, the son of Dread Newborn, who followed the Indians, informs me that the Indian woman was kept in prison for a while and then by direction of the government was returned to her own people.

Etheldred Dryden Newbern, called Dryden or Dred by some, was born 1794 in South Carolina. He was the eldest son of Thomas Newbern.  Folks Huxford said the name of Dryden’s mother was not known, but some Internet genealogies indicate she was Nancy Christian.   Dryden’s grandfather, also called Thomas Newbern, was a revolutionary soldier.

About 1798 Dryden’s father, Thomas Newbern, brought the family from South Carolina to Georgia,  Thomas Newbern served as a lieutenant and captain in the Bulloch County militia.

Dryden’s mother died about 1803 when he was a boy, probably nine or ten years of age.  His father, a widower with seven young children, quickly remarried and Dryden was raised into manhood by his stepmother,  Kizzie Collins.  Some time prior to 1815, Thomas Newbern moved the family to Tatnall County, where he was elected Justice of the Peace.

It is said that Dryden Newbern served in the War of 1812, although no documentation is known to exist other than the testimony of his son, Dred Newbern. Dryden would have been 18 years old at the time the war broke out, and considering the military legacy of his father and grandfather,  his  service in the Georgia Militia seems reasonable.  In 1814, the British forces occupied St. Marys, GA, which would have disrupted the economy of the entire region. The British occupation certainly interrupted trade on the Alachua Trail which ran from the Altamaha River through Centerville, GA, then across the St. Marys River and into  East Florida. The resistance of the Georgia Militia against the British and St. Marys and other coastal Georgia incursions is described  in the New Georgia Encyclopedia  article on the War of 1812.

About 1823, Thomas Newbern relocated the family again, this time moving to  Appling County and homesteading on a site about five miles northwest of present day Blackshear, GA. Dryden Newbern, now a man of 29, apparently came along with his father to Appling county for there, in 1823, Dryden married.  His bride was Elizabeth  “Betsy” Sirmans, a daughter of Artie Hardeman and Josiah Sirmans, Sr.  Of her father, Huxford wrote, “According to the best available information, the first permanent white settlers in what is now Clinch County were Josiah Sirmans, Sr., and his family.”

About Dryden’s father, Huxford’s History of Clinch County relates the following:

 OF the Clinch County Newberns, Thomas Newbern was the progenitor. This old pioneer came to this section from South Carolina and settled in what is now Ware County, about 1820. He was married twice. By his first marriage he had three children, viz. : John, William C, and Dryden Newbern. By his second marriage he had five children, viz. : George W. Newbern ; Cassie, who first married Martin Nettles and later Chas. A. Griffis; Lucretia, who married Jack Lee ; also a daughter who married James Sweat, and one who married John Sweat. Thomas Newbern was a prominent citizen of his time. He was elected surveyor of Ware County and commissioned February nth, 1828.  Two years later he was elected a justice of the Inferior Court of Ware County, to which he was commissioned April 28th, 1830. He was also commissioned justice of the peace of the 451 district of Ware County, April 3d, 1833. He is the fore-father of many of Clinch’s prominent citizens.

After their marriage in 1823, it appear that Betsy and Dryden Newbern for a time made their home in Appling County, near the homestead of Dryden’s parents. In 1825, their farms were cut into Ware County into the 584th  Georgia Militia District. From 1825 to 1827 Dryden Newbern served as the First Lieutenant of the militia in the 584th district.

About 1828, Betsy and Dryden moved their young family to Lowndes County (now Berrien) to a site on Five Mile Creek.  They established a homestead about  seven or eight miles northeast of the home of Levi J. Knight,  who had settled a few years earlier on Beaver Dam Creek at the site of present day Ray City, GA. In Lowndes County, Dryden was elected First Lieutenant of the militia in the 664th district. Levi J. Knight was the Justice of the Peace in this district.

At that time the land was still unsettled ,  and the Native Americans who had occupied the territory for so long in advance of white settlers where  being driven out of their ancestral lands.  As Wiregrass historian Montgomery Folsom said, ” The Indians were goaded into madness.”  When open conflict with the Indians emerged in 1836,  Dryden Newbern was one of the first responders in the area.  Sending out the alarm when the Parker place on the Alapaha River was raided, he was among the leaders in the skirmish that routed the Indians (see Short-Arm Bill Parker and the Last Indian Fight In Berrien County). In the Indian Wars,  Ethedred Dryden Newbern served as a  private in Captain Levi J. Knights Independent Militia Company.

Huxford says the land on Five Mile Creek where  Betsy and Dryden Newbern established their Berrien County homestead later became the property of John Fender.  The Newberns  acquired land a few miles to the east and moved there, making a home on the west side of the Alapaha River.   Then about 1865 they sold this property, which later came into the hands of George N. Sutton, and moved east to Clinch County. They purchased Lot 256 in the 10th Land District and made their home there for  several years.  When their youngest daughter and her husband, Sarah “Sallie” Newbern and William Franklin Kirkland moved to Echols County, the elderly Newberns moved with them.  In Echols county, the Newberns purchased land and a herd of cattle; the late 1860s and early 187os were a time of expansion in Georgia livestock production.

In 1874 Etheldred Dryden Newbern suffered a “rupture” and died.  He was buried in an unmarked grave at Wayfare Church, Echols county, GA.  A monument has been placed in the cemetery in his memory.

Children of Etheldred Dryden Newbern and Elizabeth “Betsy” Sirmans:

  1.  Benjamin Newbern (1825-1895) married Nancy Griffin, daughter of Noah H. Griffin.
  2. Rachel Newbern (1826-) married Ashley Winn and moved to Florida.
  3. Thomas “Tom” Newbern (1828-1877) married Elizabeth Moore, daughter of John Moore.
  4. Caroline Newbern (1829-1891) married Edward Morris.
  5. Joseph Newbern (1834 – ) married Emily Gaskins, daughter of John Gaskins.
  6. Martha Newbern (1836-1925) married Samuel Guthrie.
  7. John Ashley Newbern (1839-) married Mrs. Sarah Ann Sirmans Gaskins, widow of John Elam Gaskins. Killed in the Civil War.
  8. Etheldred Dred Newbern (1844-1933) married Wealthy Corbitt, daughter of Elisha Corbitt.
  9. Berrien A. Newbern (1845-1863) never married. Killed in the Civil War.
  10. Sarah “Sallie” Newbern (1848-1921) married William Franklin Kirkland.

Related articles

1 Comment

Georgia Gossip about Hardeman Giddens

August 20, 2011 at 12:11 am (Giddens Family, Society and Leisure)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hardeman Giddens (1843- 1910) led an active life that often caught the attention of citizens in Berrien County and beyond. In March of 1884, the Georgia Gossip was about the horse racing at Alapaha, GA, and whether Hardeman’s black stallion was as fast as he believed.  The Challengers were W.N. Fiveash, Dr. Fogle, and Mr. Henley.  William Newton Fiveash, a young man of Magnolia, GA and later of Ocilla, GA entered his bay pony.  Dr. James A. Fogle, a surgeon trained during the Civil War, put his sorrel horse into the race. (Fogle was the original proprietor of the Alapaha hotel later known as the Schockley Hotel)  The winner for the evening was Mr. Henley’s sorrel mare.

The Atlanta Constitution
25 Mar 1884, pg 2

Alapaha is now engaged in the pleasures of the turf. In a recent race — half mile heat – between Mr. W. N. Fiveash’s bay pony and Mr. Hart Gidden’s black horse, the bay came under the string two lengths ahead. The next race was between Dr. Fogles’s sorrel horse and Mr. Henley’s sorrel mare. The horse was beaten by a neck. Then, Mr. Giddens still believing in his black, a race was arranged between the black and Dr. Fogle’s sorrel. The sorrel was again the winner. The last race of the evening was between Fogle’s sorrel horse and Henley’s sorrel mare. Henley’s mare came under the string ahead, but it was claimed that if a good start had been obtained the horse would have won. The races were quite exciting and proved that Alapaha contains some good horseflesh.

Hardeman Giddens, born MAR 1844 in Lowndes (nka Berrien) County, Georgia , was a son of Jacob Giddens and Sarah Ann “Annie” Sirmans.  The 1860 Census shows he was a resident of Berrien County at the time, Berrien having been cut out of Lowndes in 1856.

During the Civil War, Hardeman Giddens joined the 29th Georgia Regiment, Company D,  the Berrien Minutemen, enlisting for  12 months. He mustered in at Sapelo Island, GA on 4 November 1861 as a private in Captain John C. Lamb’s Company D (later Company K) .  Records show in 1862 he was on duty at Camp Young, near Savannah, GA.   In October he was  on extra duty there as a mail carrier. He was documented on payroll record rolls for  April 1862, December 1862, and January – March 1863 at a rate of 25 cents.  In September 1863, Hardeman Giddens was at the Battle of Chickamauga. His war experience and amazing good fortune in battle were the subject of a previous post:  Civil War Bullet Dodger Hardeman Giddens Finally Catches One in 1887

Georgia 29th Infantry, monument at Chicamauga battle field.

Georgia 29th Infantry, monument at Chickamauga battle field.

After the war, Hardeman Giddens returned to Berrien County, GA.  On the day before Valentines Day, February 13,  1870 he married Martha J. Gaskins.  She was a daughter of Harmon Gaskins & Malissa Rowland Rouse,  born on February 16,  1838 in Lowdnes Co, GA.   Martha had been widowed twice.  Her first husband was Thomas N. Connell, who died in the Civil War; her second was William Parrish.

After marriage, the Giddens made their home in the 1148th Georgia Militia District, where Hardeman was farming land valued at $225 dollars. His father Jacob Giddens, age 68, lived in Hardy’s household and assisted with farm labor.

In the census of 1880, Hardeman Giddens was enumerated in Georgia Militia District 1148 with his wife Martha, and sons James and Lyman.

In 1900, Hardeman Giddens and  Martha, now his wife of 30 years, were living on the family farm near Ray City, GA. The Giddens owned the farm free and clear, and their two sons, Lyman and William, lived with them and helped their father work the farm.  It seems Martha Giddens must have had a hard life. She birthed 9 children, only four of whom were living in 1900.

Martha J. Gaskins died in Berrien Co, GA on 26 February 1910 at age 72. The 1910 Census shows in that year Hardeman Giddens was living with his eldest son, Lyman F. Giddens, who was a prominent citizen, barber, and (later) mayor of Ray City, GA.    Hardeman Giddens died later that year on October 2, 1910 and was buried in the Harmon Gaskins Family Cemetery, Berrien County, Georgia.

Related Posts:

Leave a Comment

Obituary of Adolph Register

August 14, 2011 at 12:05 am (Johnson Family, Register Family, Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , , , ,

Adolpus M. Register, son of Annis Tomlinson and Moses C. Register, was raised in the Mud Creek District of Clinch County, GA. He was born October 31, 1888 in Georgia.  On June 18, 1916 he married 16 year-old Margaret Smith.   As a young man, Adolph Register worked in Enigma, GA as a Depot Agent for the Atlantic Coastline Railroad.  He was a tall man with medium build, brown eyes and brown hair.  In the 1920s he was working at the railroad station in Baconton, GA where he and his wife rented a house on Railroad Street.  By 1930 the Registers returned to Enigma, GA where Adolph tried farming for a while.  Eventually he went back to the transportation industry, working again for the railroad and later for the airlines. Around 1963, A.M. Register moved to Ray City, GA where others of the family connection were residing.

Adolphus M. Register (1888-1965), Fender Cemetery, Lakeland, Lanier, Georgia, USA

Adolphus M. Register (1888-1965), Fender Cemetery, Lakeland, Lanier, Georgia, USA

Clinch County News
Friday, Aug 6, 1965

Adolph Register Died, Nashville

    NASHVILLE -  Adolph Register, 76, died at the Berrien County Hospital here Thursday last week after a lengthy illness.
    He was born in Clinch County and had spent many years with the Atlantic Coastline Railroad and the Pan American Airlines.  He had lived at Ray City for the past year and a half.
    He was a member of the Railroad Brotherhood and the Methodist Church.
    Survivors include his wife; a son, A.M. Register, Jr. of Cincinnati, Ohio; a stepdaughter, Mrs. E. L. Mobley of Ray City, a stepson, Bernard Johnson  of Ray City; a sister, Mrs. Will Smith of Homerville; a brother, Mose Register of Milledgeville.  Three grand children and a number of nieces and nephews also survive.
    Funeral services were held at 4:00 p. m. at the Ray City Baptist Church.  Burial was in Fender Cemetery near Lakeland with Music Funeral Home of Lakeland in charge of arrangements.

 Related Posts:

aaa

 

Leave a Comment

More on the late Mr. and Mrs. Hughes

August 13, 2011 at 4:31 am (Law and Order)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

H.D. O’quinn, a citizen of Berrien County who in 1881 came from Clinch County,   had been a neighbor of William and Ellen Hughes, subject of recent posts ( The Bloody Story: 1889 Murder of the Hughes Family in Clinch County, Two Men Hanged in Clinch County). The widow Ellen “Nellie” Sellers Rice and the widower William Hughes were married in Clinch County, GA about 1874.  Following the brutal double axe murder of the Hughes in 1889, H.D. O’quinn wrote a condolence in the Valdosta Times. He reflected upon “an unusual coincidence” between the Hughes family and the Rice family.  Not only were William Hughes and Nellie Rice wed, but there were four unions between their sons and daughters.

                 William Hughes m. Nellie Rice, 1874
James H. Hughes m. Phoebe Rice, 12 Jan 1871
John Jasper Hughes m. Lucretia “Crecy” Rice, 15 Jul 1874
Frances Hughes m. Artemus Rice, 15 Jul 1874
Francis Marion Hughes m. Jane Rice, 187?

  Later descendants of Ellen “Nellie” Sellers Rice and William Hughes , including granddaughter Creasy Brown, would come to live in Ray City, GA.

The Late Mr. and Mrs. Hughes

HUMMING, Ga., Nov. 18th, 1889.
   Alas! Alas! How sad I feel while thinking of that awful outrage. My heart is sorely pained within me.  The tenderest sympathies of my heart is enlisted in behalf of their many children, grandchildren, and other relatives and friends.  In 1865 I moved to Clinch county and lived a near neighbor to Mr. Hughes until I moved to Berrien county some eight years ago. A better neighbor I have never known.  In all the relations of life he was upright, truthful, honest, industrious, economical, accommodating, kind, and benevolent, an still better, religious, being a leading member of high standing with the Primitive Baptists.  Some few years after our first acquaintance Mr. Hughes lost his first wife, with whom I was not well acquainted, but have heard she was a good woman, and no better proof of that could be given than the good qualities of her numerous family of children she left behind.  After a few years of widowhood Mr. Hughes married Mrs. Nellie Rice, relict of Mr. Guess Rice, who lost his life in the late war.  All that has been said above can as truly be said of his late companion.  They lived together many years in prosperity, peace, harmony and mutual affection, and in death were not divided, being barbarously slain by assassins solely for the purpose of robbery, for I have not  the remotest idea that they ever had an enemy. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes each had large families of children when they were married. An unusual coincidence occurred between the two families. On account of their industrious, economical, moral habits and many other good qualities, a reciprocal, mutual attachment seemed to spring up between them.  Before Mr. and Mrs. Hughes  were married James Hughes and Phoebe Rice, their oldest son and daughter, were married. After the old folks married they brought all their children to live together.  It was not long before  Jasper Hughes and Theresa Rice, and Artemus Rice and Frankie Hughes were married at the same time. Afterwards Marion Hughes and Jane Rice were married at home also.
    Again and again would I tender my most sincere condolences to the sorely bereaved ones that are left here in these low grounds of sin, sorrow and death to mourn over the tragic end of their dearly loved parents and their irreparable earthly loss. Yet we trust they m ay realize consolation in looking through the dark clouds of sorrow and see a silver lining, assuring them that those for whom they mourn are freed from sickness and sorrow, pain and death are are secure in that land of everlasting security and eternal repose. O, may we all meet them safely there. 

H. D. O’quinn

Related articles

Leave a Comment

Marrying Cousins: Letitia Giddens and John Mathis Giddens

August 11, 2011 at 12:02 am (Giddens Family)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Letitia Giddens and John Mathis Giddens were cousins who lived in the Ray City, GA vicinity prior to the Civil War.

Letitia ”Lettie” Giddens was the daughter of Sarah Smith and John Giddens, born July 14, 1832 in Randolph County, GA.  Her mother died in 1845, when Lettie was about seven years old.  Her father was remarried about two years later on April 11, 1847 to Nancy Smith in Randolph County.  Lettie was enumerated there at age 18 in 1850 in the household of her father and stepmother.

About 1851 Letitia Giddens married her cousin John Mathis Giddens.  He was born 1832 in Lowndes County, GA the eldest son of Civility Mathis and Duncan Giddens, and grew up on the family farm near the Cat Creek community, about ten miles southeast of Ray City, GA.  His father, Duncan Giddens,  served with Levi J. Knight in the Indian Wars of 1838. His grandfather, Thomas Giddens, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.  His brother, Jasper Giddens, was a subject of earlier posts (see Jasper Giddens ‘Settles’ Knife Fight).

According to Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia Vol 1, John M. Giddens’ father, Duncan Giddens, and uncle Thomas Giddens, came south around 1827-28 to settle in that part of Lowndes county later cut into Berrien county.  Around 1855, Duncan Giddens moved to Clinch County where he served as Justice of the Inferior Court.

In the Census of 1860, John M and Letitia Giddens were enumerated in  Berrien County, where John was a farmer with $850 in real estate and $900 in his personal estate. Census records place them in the neighborhood of James M. Baskin, William Washington Knight, John Knight,Sr. and other early settlers of the Ray City, GA area. According to Huxford, after marriage, Lettie and John M. Giddens made their home in Berrien County near her parents.

Around the start of the Civil War John and Lettie moved to Clinch County and settled in Lot 240, 7th Land District on land  given to them by John’s father, Duncan Giddens. After the outbreak of hostilities John M. Giddens went to Waresboro, GA  to Battery Walker where he enlisted as a private  “for 3 years or war.”  He was mustered into the 50th Georgia Infantry, Company B under Captain Bedford.

John M. Giddens soon learned that soldiers in the confederate camps were under risk of more than battle. His Civil War service records show that from April 30, 1862  he was “absent, sick in hospital.”  By June 1862 he was “sent to hospital in Savannah.”  In July, letters home from the Berrien county soldiers were telling of rampant disease spreading throughout the confederate camps: chills and fever, mumps, diarrhea and typhoid fever. That month, John was ”sent 17th of July to Convalescent Camp located near Whitesville, Ga,” about twenty miles south of Savannah.

The confederate facility at Whitesville, GA was Guyton Hospital, subject of earlier posts.  Guyton Hospital had been established just two months earlier. In Surgical Memoirs of the War of the Rebellion, Volume 2, issued 1871, Guyton Hospital was described as one of the better  hospitals in Confederate Georgia.

On the same day that John M. Giddens arrived at Guyton Hospital, July 17, 1862 his cousin Isbin T. Giddens died there of “brain fever.”  Until his illness, Isbin had been serving as 2nd Sergeant in the Berrien Minute Men,  Company G, 29th Georgia Regiment.

Later company records of the 50th Georgia Regiment show John M. Giddens was “absent sick not known where.”  The Company muster roll, for November and December 1864 observed that he was “absent – sent to Hospital in November 1862 – not heard from since – supposed to be dead.”

John M. Giddens, Company B, 50th Georgia Regiment. Company Muster Rolls show he was presumed dead since 1862, after he never returned from the hospital at Whitesville, GA.

John M. Giddens, Company B, 50th Georgia Regiment. Company Muster Rolls show he was presumed dead since 1862, after he never returned from the hospital at Whitesville, GA.

According to Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, John M. Giddens died at a military hospital in late November or December 1864, but it seems unlikely that he would have survived that long given the other known facts of his service.  It seems more probable that he died in 1862, shortly after becoming ill.  The location of his burial is not known at the time of this writing.

At home in Clinch County, Lettie Giddens waited for the husband who would never return.  After the war, she moved back to Berrien County with her two children, Virgil A. and Lavinia, and remained there for the rest of her days.  Her father, John Giddens, died in Berrien County in 1866.  Lettie lived on a farm valued at $330 near the home of her step-mother, Nancy Smith Giddens.

Related articles

Leave a Comment

Obituary of Lucretia “Crecy” Rice Hughes

August 9, 2011 at 12:29 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As Mentioned in a previous post , Nellie Hughes was the second wife of George Calhoun Mikell, of Ray City.  She was the daughter of John Jasper Hughes and Lucretia “Crecy” Rice.

In the fall of 1944, Nellie’s widowed mother was staying with the Mikells at their Ray City home. Crecy Rice Hughes had been in poor health for a number of years and on October 30, 1944 she died in Ray City, GA.   She was buried at Wayfare Primitive Baptist Church in Echols County, near Howell, GA.

The obituary ran in the Clinch County News:

Mrs. J. J. Hughes Died In Ray City

VALDOSTA, Oct. 31. – Mrs. J. J. Hughes, 86 prominent resident of the Howell section in Echols county for 37 years, passed away yesterday afternoon at the home of a daughter, Mrs. G. C. Mikell of Ray City, with home she had been staying a few months.  Mrs. Hughes had been in ill health for a number of years.
    Her husband, who was a well-known farmer of that community, died some years ago.
    Mrs. Hughes was an active and devout member of the Unity Primitive Baptist church, a woman of sympathetic and gentle disposition, held in the affection and esteem of all who knew her.
    She leaves four daughters, Mrs. Mikell, Mrs. W. L. Howell of Melbourne, Fla., Mrs. Lizzie Daugharty of Howell and Mrs. Beatrice Wortham of Jacksonville; five sons, D. E. Hughes of Valdosta, W. M. of Lakeland, Ga., T.J. of Arcadia, Fla., Art of Naylor, E. L. of Jacksonville,  and a brother-in-law, Mr. M. H. Hughes, of Dupont, Ga.
    Mrs. Hughes’  body was carried to her family residence at Howell this afternoon, where it will remain until 11 o’clock tomorrow morning when services will be conducted at the Wayfare church, near Howell, by Elder M. M. Fiveash of the Primitive Baptist church.  Interment will be in the Wayfare church cemetery under the direction of the Carson McLane Funeral Home.
   

Related articles

1 Comment

Two Men Hanged in Clinch County

July 31, 2011 at 12:09 am (Law and Order)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The public hanging of  Bob McCoy and Willie Hicks occurred on April 3, 1890 in  Homerville, Clinch County, Georgia.   The two men were tried and convicted of the double axe murder of William Hughes and Ellen Sellers Rice Hughes,  an elderly couple of Dupont, GA.  The story of the murders and the pursuit of the killers were reported in newspapers from New York to California .

As told in the previous posts the Hughes were the grandparents of Creasy Brown Woods, of Rays Mill, GA.  The murders, trial, and hangings occurred when Creasy was about twelve years old.

Robert McCoy was apprehended at Live Oak,  Florida by Sheriff Gottschalk “Gus” Potsdamer, who was himself an ex-convict, having been sentenced and later pardoned for the  murder of another sheriff.  William Hicks was arrested after a knife fight in Jasper, Florida.

The Waycross Reporter
Saturday, December 21, 1889, Pg 2

The Hughes Murderers

     Two of the Hughes murderers, William Hicks and Robert McCoy, are now in the Clinch County jail, and it is thought at Dupont that the other murderer, Robert Saxton, will be produced as soon as Governor Gordon offers a reward for him.
Hicks and McCoy were both captured by accident, as it were—that is to say, they were arrested for other crimes, and from a sense of guilt confessed their complicity in the Hughes murder.
Hicks was in Jasper, Florida, one night, and got into a cutting affray at a Negro candy pulling, and was arrested by Constable William Hinton, to whom he confessed.
Robert McCoy went to Live Oak after killing Hughes, and was arrested there by Sheriff Pottsdamer, for carrying concealed weapons.  He said to Pottsdamer, “You have arrested me for something else than carrying a gun, and can’t fool me in this way.”  “What else?” asked Pottsdamer.  “For the Hughes murder,” replied McCoy.  “And I was not by myself in that thing.  Robert Saxton and Bill Hicks helped me.”
A curious coincidence in the matter is that Sheriff Pottsdamer, Constable Hinton, and John P. Lanier had been trying for a couple of weeks to ferret out the criminals, and by accident two of them almost fell bodily into the hands of their hunters.
Sheriff Dickerson, of Clinch County, in the mean time, had sent to Atlanta for a detective named Moyett, and he was working what he considered a good clew at Dupont, where Lanier was also working a cold trail.  Moyett finally lost his trail, and tried to canter into Lanier’s.  The two clashed, had hard words, and came almost to blows.  Moyett then, so Lanier charges, accused Lanier and Hinton of having the murderers spotted, and conspiring with others to wait until a reward should be offered, when they would produce the murderers, and on this statement, Sheriff Dickerson telegraphed the governor not to offer a reward.
It is further alleged that when the news that Hinton had captured Hicks at Jasper reached Dupont, detective Moyett hurried on to Jasper, and offered Hinton $200.00 cash to take him into co-partnership in the capture and information gotten by Hicks’ confession, saying that he would use his influence in Atlanta to induce the governor to offer a large reward for the other two implicated by Hicks.  But Hinton declined the offer with thanks.  Moyett then threatened to use that same influence to prevent any reward ever being offered.
This but confirms what has often been said before—that the average professional detective is usually as unscrupulous and rascally as the criminal he seeks.  Of course there are exceptions to this rule, but Moyett does not appear to be one of them.

The Waycross Reporter
Saturday, March 8, 1890,  Page 2

To Stretch Hemp

    The two Negroes, who brutally murdered old man Hughes and his wife in Clinch County sometime ago, were tried for the murder at Homerville this week.
The courthouse was packed all day.  The case of the prisoners was ably and ingeniously managed by three counsel, but the evidence offered by the state was conclusive, and left no room for doubt of guilt.  The defendants themselves in making their statements, told a most blood curdling narrative of the heinous assassination; how Robert Saxton, who has since been shot and killed while resisting arrest, cam to them stating that a certain white man had agreed to pay him $35 to shoot his cousin, Orin Register, a highly respected citizen of Clinch County, and induced them to go with him to do the murder; they travelled on, and, coming to the plantation of Mr. Hughes, Saxton proposed to murder the old people and rob the house, as he knew they had some money.
All consented, and upon the pretense of desiring to buy a lunch came into the yard, and with an ax literally beat out the brains of the deceased and then plundered the house and made their escape, after dividing up the money and plunder.  During the trial each was proven to have made at the time of their arrest free and voluntary confessions of their guilt.  The jury after being out only a short time returned a verdict of guilty as to both defendants.
On Thursday Judge Atkinson pronounced the death sentence on the two men.  They are to be hung on Friday—.”

The Macon Weekly Telegraph, March 12, 1890

The Macon Weekly Telegraph, March 12, 1890

The Macon Weekly Telegraph
March 12, 1890

TO DIE ON THE GALLOWS.

Negro Murderers of Mr. and Mrs. Hughes Convicted.

McCoy and Hicks to Swing in Clinch.
April 3-They Confessed in Court
 - Story of the Murderof the Hughes.


Valdosta, March 7. -Special.)- Hicks and McCoy, the negroes who murdered Mr. and Mrs. Hughes in Clinch county last fall, were found guilty in Clinch superior court yesterday and sentenced to hang on April 3.

THREATS OF LYNCHING.
    The case was called Wednesday. The court appointed attorneys for the defense, and all the testimony which could be obtained  was examined before the court and jury, and at the conclusion when the prisoners rose to make their statement they both made a confession of the crime.  Their attorneys plead for the mercy of the court. Judge Atkinson pronounced sentence upon them on Thursday morning last, and they both will hang.
   There were open threats of lynching during the court and the trial of the prisoners, but the citizens of Clinch county wisely determined to let the punishment for the crime proceed in its legal and orderly way.

THE MURDER OF MR. AND MRS. HUGHES

   A full account of the crime for which these negroes are to hang was published in the TELEGRAPH last fall. Briefly retold it is as follows:
    The murder at first was enveloped in mystery. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, two old people living a few miles from DuPont, alone, were found one morning brutally butchered with some instrument of death, evidently an axe.  Their premises had benn robbed, and the murderers and despoilers had fled, leaving no evidence of their identity.  By an accident a month later two of the participants in this crime were arrested under a trivial charge at Jasper, Fla.  Without inquiring into the causes of his arrest, Will Hicks said to Marshal Hinton that he knew why he had been arrested and he might as well make a clean breast of it.

CONFESSED TO THE MURDER.

   He proceeded then to make a confession of his part in the murder of the Hughes family and implicated Bob McCoy and Robert Saxon.  McCoy, who was captured at the same time, also made a confession.  When the crime was committed Saxon did not go to Florida with Hicks and McCoy, but fled to the solitude of the pine forest in Wilcox county, in this state. After remaining therer some weeks and feeling secure he wrote a letter under an assumed name to his paramour at Cat Creek, this county [Lowndes], wherein he virtually confessed his connection in the crime. The dusky female could not read the letter and called upon a male relative to read it for her.

SAXON RUN DOWN AND KILLED.

    This relative had no sympathy with Saxon in his terrible crime, and reported his whereabouts to a white man neighbor.  There being a reward for his capture, the two armed themselves at once and went to Wilcox county to capture him.  They found him but Saxon took the chances of fight, an was fatally shot. He was brought to the Valdosta jail, confessed his crime and died.
    The negroes in their confessions implicated a white man in the crime,but no evidence could be found connecting him with the crime.

The Waycross Reporter
Saturday, March 8, 1890. Page 2

The Two Murderers

    I have been interviewing the condemned criminals that Judge Atkinson has just passed the sentence of death upon, and are to hang April 5th next, at Homerville.  I inquired into their early life and habits.  In a room closely guarded near the Courthouse I found the prisoners.
    The polite guards, as soon as they knew that I wanted some facts for publication, gave me permission to come in and talk with them.
    Will Hicks is twenty-one years of age, was born in Perry, Georgia, where his father now lives.  He has been in this section of the state about four years, and was mainly engaged in turpentine work.  He cannot read.
    Robert McCoy, was born in Sumter County, South Carolina.  He is 19 years old, can read a little, and once belonged to the church, but when he came out to this state, he soon drifted with the tide of evil so prevalent on these turpentine farms.
    Both of these Negroes are of the deepest African type, the animal showing in their faces and heads as predominating over the intellectual.  Indeed, so deep is their depravity that they seem to be under a stupefying influence that is altogether satanic.  They do not realize their danger, being ignorant of the law.  They were the willing dupes of Saxton, a mulatto of some shrewdness, and much of the demoniac in his mental make up.  In my interview with these doomed men I elicited as the prime cause of their terrible crime these three things: whiskey, cards, and bad company.  Let it be emphasized, and let all men, black and white, know that these are three of the most prominent steps to the gallows.  Let the young men, especially, take warning.  Because everyman that drinks, plays cards, and keeps bad company is on the road to the gallows, and will get there sooner or later, unless he stops or takes another road.
    The sentence, as passed by Judge Atkinson, was so impressive, that in breathless awe the full house of hearers stood as if transfixed for the time being.

 Atlanta Constitution
April 4, 1890

TWO MEN HANGED.

The Murderer of Old Man Hughes Pays the Penalty.

The Assassins Meet Their Fate With Dogged Indifference – The Story of Their Crime and Subsequent Capture.

Waycross, Ga., April 3. -[Special.]- Robert McCoy and Will Hicks, colored, were hanged publicly at Homerville today, for the murder of William Hughes and wis wife.  The drop fell at 1:03.  They died in fourteen minutes from strangulation.

THEY DIED GAME.

Both men confessed the brutal crime which they had committed, and died game.  They both passed their last night on earth as though nothing was to transpire on the morrow.  After a meagre breakfast they chatted cheerfully and passed the forenoon in singing and praying.  At dinner their menu consisted of a cup of coffee and biscuit.  About 4,000 followed the procession to the gallows.

THE MURDER OF THE MILLERS.

    The murder which they expiated today was one of the most cold-blooded in the catalogue of crime.  They were hired to kill other parties, and while en route to do their dastardly work, ascertained that Mr. Hughes was known to keep considerable money in the house, and they decided that it would be more lucrative to murder the Hughes family instead.
    They lingered around the premises until evening, and quietly approached the house, found the old lady in the kitchen when she was most cruelly murdered with an ax, and then leaving the kitchen, they met the husband at the gate, and served him similarly.  The ax with which this atrocious crime was committed is still on exhibition.  It was not until the following morning that the murdered bodies were discovered.

ONE OF THE ASSASSINS KILLED.

Robert Saxton, a third party who aided in this inhuman act, was killed while resisting arrest, thus cheating the gallows of what he deserved.

Related articles

1 Comment

« Older entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 111 other followers