James Madison Knight (1879-1953) grew up in the Rays Mill District of Berrien County, GA; He was a great grandson of William Anderson Knight, pioneer settler of the district. His father was Ulysses A. Knight (1859-1934); his mother Mary J. Baskin (1861-1902). His father briefly served as postmaster of Rays Mill, GA. After attending Grand Bay School, near Ray’s Mill (now Ray City, GA), J.M. Knight attended Stanley’s Business College at Thomasville, GA. Other Rays Mill students at the college were Lane Young and W. D. Sloan. In 1904 J.M. Knight moved to Florida where he became a general contractor.
A biographical sketch of James M. Knight appeared in Cuthbert’s History of Florida, Volume 3, published in 1923:
James M. Knight, prominent contractor and builder at Miami, is a master of several of the basic arts involved in the building construction, and long mechanical skill and experience give him great advantage in directing his present organization and equipment for handling every class of building construction. Mr. Knight was born near Valdosta, Georgia, in 1880, and represents a lineage that has been in Berrien County, Georgia, from earliest pioneer times. One of the earliest settlers there was his Great-grandfather [William Anderson] Knight, a rifle maker, who made many of the guns with which warfare was carried against Cherokee Indians. Mr. Knight’s ancestors were soldiers in the Indian wars, the Revolution, and later on the Confederate side in the war between the states. His two grandfathers, Jonathan H. Knight and J. N. [James Madison] Baskin, built the famous and historic school at Grand Bay, in Berrien County. Mr. Knight’s father, [Ulysses] Hugh A. Knight, came to Florida some years ago, and owns one of the finest farms in the state, a large place near Arcadia, stocked with fine cattle and containing citrus groves. James M. Knight grew up on a Georgia farm, and from an early age took his place between the plow handles. His excellent education was due largely to the splendid Grand Bay school mentioned above. There he was an appreciative pupil under Dr. R. C. Woodard, then principal. Doctor Woodard was a teacher of genuine distinction, one who not only instilled learning, but character, into his pupils. After an honorary career as a school man Doctor Woodard took up the practice of medicine, and is now highly esteemed in his profession in Miami. James M. Knight also finished a course at Stanley’s Business College at Thomasville, Georgia. His years were industriously spent on the farm until he was twenty-three. Then, in 1904, having learned the trade of stone mason, he came to Florida, locating at Tampa, and made the building trade his permanent business. After spending several years in building operations in and around Tampa and after a short period in the central part of the state, he came early in 1917 to Miami. Here he has been one of the busy contractors. One of his first large jobs as superintendent of construction was the Clyde Court Apartments. His business has involved both business and residence structures at Miami and Miami Beach. A few examples of his work that may be mentioned as an indication of the character and scope of his business include two large residences for Carl Fisher at Miami Beach, the beautiful home of E. B. Kurtz in Magnolia Park, the plastering and masonry contracts on the Ohio Hotel, the Keystone Hotel, the Leamington Hotel, the new building of the South Atlantic Telephone Company, and he was the builder of the drug store of Dr. D. S. Boles on Northeast Second Avenue, the Llewellen Building on North Miami Avenue, the Bishop Apartments on Miami Beach, the Municipal Warehouse, Municipal Dock for the City of Miami, and many other noted structures. Mr. Knight is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Stanton Memorial Baptist Church. He married Miss Mary J. Swann, of Savannah, Georgia. They have three sons, G. B. [Girth Baskin Knight], U. A. [Ulysses A. Knight] and J. E. [James Earle] Knight.
Clyde Court Apartments, Miami, FL, 1921. Constructed by James Madison Knight, great grandson of William Anderson Knight, early pioneer of old Lowndes County, GA.
In 1920, J.M. Knight formed a partnership with George Lomas and for four years did business as the firm of Knight & Lomas. The company completed a large number of buildings before dissolving in 1924.
On New Years Day, 1924 The Miami News-Metropolis did a piece on the firm, in which it was observed the company was doing much to build up the city. About Knight, it was said,
J. M. Knight is a native of Georgia, in which state, in his earlier days, he followed the plow in fields of cotton, sugar cane and sweet potatoes, but as long as the demand continues in Miami for new buildings he has no intention of returning to the Goober state and the fields. He has his comfortable home in Miami, and prefers this to all localities he has seen.
But J.M. Knight was proud of his Georgia heritage. He and his sons were prime organizers in the Dade County Georgia Society. In 1922, the society put on a huge barbeque for the 4th of July. Among the south Georgians who removed to Miami were Lester Griffin & family, Lawson S. Rentz, Dr. D. Frank Rentz, and Benjamin L. Wilkerson.
During the Miami boom years from 1923 to 1926 J.M. Knight partnered with his brother Oliph May Knight under the name of Knight Construction Company. O.M. Knight invented and patented a cruise control device for automobiles, and built a manufacturing plant in Atlanta, GA.
The 1926 storm was described by the U.S. Weather Bureau in Miami as “probably the most destructive hurricane ever to strike the United States.” It hit Fort Lauderdale, Dania, Hollywood, Hallandale and Miami. The death toll is estimated to be from 325 to perhaps as many as 800. No storm in previous history had done as much property damage.
The Creek Indians, who were fleeing forced migration to western states, were attempting to make their way to join the Seminoles in Florida. Indeed, the Alabama Emigrating Company had already been contracted to remove “these troublesome neighbors” as quickly as possible, at a price of $28.50 per head; General Thomas Sidney Jesup was credited with executing the contract for the “speedy removal” by the “most efficient means.” Jesup was famously quoted as having declared about the Seminole that “[t]he country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.”
Ft. Hawkins, GA Messenger, Sept 8, 1836, reports Indians in Lowndes County, GA.
Ft. Hawkins Messenger September 8, 1836
INDIANS IN LOWNDES
A most respectable and intelligent citizen of Lowndes has just visited Milledgeville, in order to communicate to the executive full information of the unhappy condition of his fellow citizens, for the last too months there have been parties of Creek Indians almost constantly in that county. Lowndes lies on the route travelled by the Creeks in escaping from the Alabama Creek country to Florida; and it abounds in wide deep and dense swamps, forming a continuous covered and secret way for the passage of the Indians. Parties of savages, or their recent traces are so frequently seen that the county is kept in a state of continual alarm. No family can feel safe at night, under a belief that there may be a party of hostile and cruel savages lying hid within a few miles of them. Many plantations have been plundered of every article that could he carried away by Indians. The people of Lowndes have acted with extraordinary alacrity and spirit.— On the discovery of Indians or their fresh signs, parties of citizens immediately assemble and pursue them. Whenever they have overtaken the Indians, they have attacked them successfully; but most frequently the savages elude their pursuers in the swamps. The entire military population of Lowndes is about three hundred; of whom one third have been in constant service for a month past. These parties of Indians have killed none of the whites except in battle; but squaws who have been taken in one of the engagements say that when the women and children shall have been conveyed to Florida, the warriors, aided by the Seminoles, will return, and carry on a different kind of war. It is believed that they are now collecting provisions in a very deep swamp lying on the border of Lowndes and Ware: and that they intend to make a permanent lodgment in this tangled, boggy and almost impenetrable wilderness. Federal Union, Aug. 30.
——— ♦ ———
The Creeks, it appears, are dividing themselves into small parties of from ten to fifty in number, in order to elude the vigilance of the Georgia troops, and make good their escape to Florida, where they hope to battle to better advantage. Hundreds, we may say have already made their way to the Seminoles, where prompted by the almost universal success of that nation, and in conjunction with them, they will make a bold and daring stand. A gentleman recently from Hamilton county, informs us that body of Indians, from ten to sixty in a gang, are continually passing down, and when interrupted by the whites hastily collected together, fly to a hammock, and dare them to come in. — Floridian.
Second Seminole War Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company, 1838
In 1836 as bands of Indians moved across Lowndes County, GA towards the Okefenokee Swamp, Captain Levi J. Knight’s company and other local militia companies engaged them in skirmishes at William Parker’s place, Brushy Creek, Warrior Creek, Cow Creek, Troublesome Ford and other places. In 1838, when Indians raiding from the swamp attacked and massacred nearby settlers and travelers, militia companies were again called up, first on local authority of the Lowndes County Committee of Vigilance and Safety, then on the authority of Governor Gilmer. J. T. Shelton summarized the situation in Pines and Pioneers:
In 1838, Governor Gilmer authorized the call up of eight additional volunteer companies, notifying Colonel Enoch Hall to have any company raised there to report to General Charles Floyd in charge of the militia at Waresboro. Levi J. Knight promptly volunteered the services of a company of mounted riflemen of which he was captain, Barzilla Staten first lieutenant, and George Roberts second lieutenant, and sixty-five men who were “ready at a minutes warning-to march where ever you may order.” Knight had been operating for some time under the Committee of Safety for Lowndes County; He had searched the west side of the Okefenokee for fifty miles and found signs of about 500 warriors who had left ten days ago; he believed they would come back to steal corn and potatoes; he approved of the executive’s use of “efficient means to rid us of these troublesome neighbors.” Gilmer quickly accepted Captain Knight’s independent company and that of Captain Tomlinson into Floyd’s regiment. Knight, with a full company complement of seventy-five men served in the “sudden emergency” from August 15 to October 15, 1838.
The 1838 muster roll of Knight’s company was transcribed and published in the South Georgia Historical and Genealogical Quarterly. Nearly a third of the men in Captain Knight’s Company had prior military service. Many had served under Captain Knight in skirmishes with the Indians in 1836.
In 1830 William Schley became a member of the Georgia House of Representatives. In 1832 and again in 1834, he was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives. He resigned from that position to become the 36th Governor of Georgia from 1835 until 1837.
Governor Schley had noted in his November 7, 1837, address to the Georgia Assembly that militia volunteers who served enlistments in 1836 had received “payment for articles lost ‘in battle, or in the immediate pursuit of the Indians, or while employed in actual service,’ which shall not extend ‘beyond the loss of horses and equipages, wagons and wearing apparel of the soldier.’ The Governor paid “all accounts for ‘subsistence forage, ammunition, clothing, tents, camp equipage, cooking utensils, medicine, hospital stores &c.’… “The laws of the United States allowed each militia man in the service of the United States, two dollars and fifty cents per month in lieu of clothing.” No compensation was given for horses which died of natural causes. Militia volunteers, privates and officers received the same pay as soldiers enlisted in the U. S. Army. Sick or wounded men were compensated for any expenses for medical treatment they received from civilian physicians. The militia volunteers enlisting in 1838 probably expected similar compensation.
Muster roll of Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company, 1838. South Georgia Historical and Genealogical Quarterly
(Editor’s Note: In 1838 the Indians in this section of Georgia went on the warpath, and the state malitia was called out to repel them. The following seven companies of state militia from Ware and Lowndes counties saw service in this war, and these rosters are taken from the records in the capitol at Atlanta. The following is the caption as copied concerning Capt. Levi J. Knight’s company:
MUSTER ROLL OF CAPT. LEVI J. KNIGHT’S Independent Company from Lowndes county, from 15th day of August, 1838 to 15th day of October, 1838, which entered the service on a sudden emergency to repel the invasion of the Indians into that county in the year 1838.
George Roberts, Second Lieut., Martin Shaw (1803-1876), First Sargent Martin Shaw (Jr.), born in SC April 1, 1803, a son of Pvt. Martin Shaw; apparently moved with his father and siblings to Liberty County, GA between 1811 and 1816; moved by 1825 to McIntosh County where he paid a poll tax of 31 cents and 2 1/2 mills in Captain Duncan McCranie’s district; moved to Lowndes County, GA about 1828; a Whig in politics; in 1834-1835, a member of the State Rights Association of Lowndes County, GA; deputy sheriff of Lowndes County, 1834-1836; served as a private in Captain Hamilton W. Sharpe’s Company of Florida Volunteers in the Indian War of 1836; Sheriff of Lowndes County 1836-38, and at that time a resident of Franklinville, the then county seat of Lowndes County; after a short residence at Franklinville moved to that part of Lowndes County cut off into Berrien in 1856; married 1st in 1839, to Elizabeth Mathis, daughter of James and Rhoda Monk Mathis; married second Mrs. Matilda Sharpe of Colquitt County; served in the Indian War as a private in Captain Levi J. Knights company of Lowndes County Militia in 1838; served on 1849 committee to nominate a Whig candidate for Lowndes County representative to the state legislature; in 1852, administrator of the estate of Riley Deloach, Lowndes County, GA; in 1853, administrator of the estate of Abraham Deloach; He was cut out of Lowndes County into Berrien in 1856; elected one of the first Justices of The Inferior Court of Berrien county, serving 1856-1861; in 1858, served on Resolutions Committee to protest the proposed route of the Atlantic & Gulf railroad to the south to bypass Troupville, GA; paid 1866 IRS “buggy” tax in Berrien County, GA; served as County Commissioner of Berrien County, 1872-73; 1872 offered as unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Berrien County representative to the state legislature; died suddenly at his home in Berrien County, GA (now Cook), two miles east of Adel, November 7, 1876; buried Old Salem Church cemetery, now in the City of Adel, GA and known as Woodlawn Cemetery.
Box, John (1795- ) John C. Box (1795- ) born in South Carolina; came to Lowndes County, GA sometime between 1830 and 1836; served in Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company, Lowndes County, GA, 1836; served in Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company, Lowndes County, GA, 1838;moved to Clinch County, GA prior to the 1860 census; received Bounty-Land Warrant Number 55-120-74666 for military service
Brance, James T. (1818-1906) James Thomas Branch, born February 6, 1818, Laurens County, GA; as a young man moved to Irwin County, GA; Married February 13, 1838 to Ruthie Ann Sumner; served in Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company, Lowndes County, GA, 1838; Commissioned as militia Captain, September 7, 1861; enlisted as a private Company F, 49th Georgia Infantry Regiment, March 4, 1862; transferred to Company A, 61st Georgia Infantry Regiment; May 1864 elected Justice of the Peace, 690th Georgia Militia District, Irwin County, GA; moved to Berrien County, GA about 1878; later moved to Worth County; died November 8, 1906; buried Hickory Springs Baptist Church, TyTy,GA.
Clements, John F. (1810-1864) John Franklin Clements born October 7, 1810, in Wayne County, GA; served as Wayne County Tax Collector 1830-32; moved to Lowndes County (now Berrien) in 1832; served in Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company of Lowndes County; married Nancy Patten, a daughter of James M. Patten and Elizabeth Lee, in 1840; served on the Lowndes County Grand Jury of 1841; died on September 23, 1864; buried at Union Church Cemetery, Lakeland, GA.
Cribb, John (1897-) John Cribb, born about 1897 in South Carolina; came to Lowndes some time prior to 1836; served in Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company, 1836 and 1838; Bounty-Land Warrant Number 55-160-38066; appears in the 1840 and 1870 census of Lowndes County, GA. John Cribb died between 1870 and 1880. His widow, Eady Cribb, and daughter, Elizabeth Cribb, appear in the 1880 census of the 661 Georgia Militia District, the Naylor District, Lowndes County, GA.
Douglas, Eaton (1800- ) Eaton Douglas, born 1800, Burke County, GA; relocated to Tattnall County, then Appling County, GA; married Maria Branch in Appling County, GA; Administrator of the estate of Penelope Branch, 1835, Appling County, GA; about 1835 he located on Land lot 506 in the 11th District, north of Stockton, Lowndes County (now Lanier), GA; in 1838 served in Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company of Lowndes County; served as 2nd Lieutenant under Captain John J. Johnson in the Indian War, September 22, 1840 to October 18, 1840; joined September 9, 1848 to Union Primitive Baptist Church, expelled by request September 11, 1863.
Douglas, Barzilla (1821- ) Barzilla Douglas, born about 1821, son of Eaton Douglas and Maria Branch; in 1838 served in Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company of Lowndes County; married Dicey Bennett about 1839; established his household next to his father’s homeplace north of Stockton, GA; later moved to Florida.
Devane, Francis (c1798-1868) Francis DeVane, born circa 1798 in North Carolina, son of Captain John DeVane, Jr. and Ann Julia Davis, and brother of Benjamin Devane; Private, War of 1812 in Captain Montesquieu W. Campbell’s Company, New Hanover County Regiment of Militia, NC; Private in the company of Bladen County, NC Militia commanded by Captain Sellers. married Frances Giddens about 1815; tax defaulter, 1815-16, New Hanover County, NC; in 1825, acted as attorney for Lucretia Rogers and her children James Rogers, Ann Rogers and Benjamin Devane in the sale of 585 acres of land in New Hanover Count, North Carolina; relocated to Lowndes County (now Brooks County), Georgia in 1828, moving with the Rogers family; in 1838 served in Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company of Lowndes County; Died March 8, 1868 in Berrien County, Georgia; buried Pleasant Cemetery.
Devane, Benjamin (1796-1878) Benjamin Devane was born 1796 in New Hanover County, NC, son of Captain John DeVane, Jr. and Ann Julia Davis, and brother of Francis Devane; served in the War of 1812 as a Corporal in the New Hanover Regiment of Militia, New Hanover County, NC, serving from July 20, 1813, to August 2, 1813, under Captain George W. Bannerman; in 1814 married Mary Rogers of New Hanover County and afterwards moved to Bulloch County, GA; moved to Lowndes County, GA around 1828; enlisted as a private at Pedro, Fl, under Captain M. C. Livingston in the 2nd Regiment, East Florida Volunteers, June 16, 1837, and was honorably discharged at Newnansville, December 18, 1837; In 1838, Benjamin Devane served as a private in Captain Levi J. Knight’s Company, Lowndes County, GA; served as a private in Captain Thomas Langford’s Florida Mounted Militia, volunteering at Fort Collins, September 4, 1839, serving until March 4, 1840; In 1848 moved to Madison County, Fl; about 1858 moved to Brooks County, GA; in 1861 returned to Shady Grove, Madison County, FL; after the Civil War moved to Hillsborough County, Fl; received a land grant June 29, 1878, for services in the Indian War; received a pension for service in the War of 1812; died October 28, 1879 in Hillsborough County, FL; buried in Mount Enon Baptist Church cemetery near Plant City, FL.
Durrance, William (1804-1841) William Durrence was born in 1804; married Lourany Deloach on February 19, 1824, in Tattnall County, Georgia and settled on land near Bull Creek; Justice of the Peace, 1829, Tatnall County; moved to Lowndes County, GA sometime after 1830; In 1836 served in Captain Hamilton W. Sharpe’s Company of Florida Volunteers; In 1838, served as a private in Captain Levi J. Knight’s Company, Lowndes County, GA; 1841, filed a fi fa action in Lowndes Superior Court, Troupville, GA, against Elias Skipper; died on March 8, 1841, in Lowndes County, Georgia, at the age of 37.
Edmondson, James (1799-1870) James Edmondson, born 1799 in Bulloch County, GA, son of Revolutionary Soldier Isaac Edmondson and Ann Cox; married Sabra James about 1820 in Bulloch County; between 1825 and 1828 moved to that part Lowndes County, GA now in Brooks County; relocated one year later to near the Withlacoochee River, about 8 miles southwest of present day Ray City, GA (four miles east of Hahira); baptised into Union Primitive Baptist Church, December 12, 1832; a lucky drawer in the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery, drawing Lot 55, 18th District, Fourth Section, Walker County, GA; transferred Muscogee County, GA land grant to Thomas Belote in 1832; appointed by the Georgia legislature December 12, 1834 as a commissioner to determine a new location for the Lowndes County courthouse and jail; served as a private in Captain Levi J. Knight’s Independent Company 1836-1838, in the skirmish with Indians at William Parker’s place and afterwards; owned in 1840, 490 acres, Lot 3, 11th District of Lowndes; owned in 1844, 980 acres and 5 enslaved people in Lowndes County, GA; dismissed by letter from Union Primitive Baptist Church, October 9, 1847, and later joined Pleasant Church; died about 1870.
Emanuel, Amos (1795- ) Amos Emanuel, born about 1795 in South Carolina; married about 1819, wife Martha; located in Montgomery County, GA by 1820, owning Lot Nos. 250 and 240 in the 11th District, Montgomery County; involved in 1825 Fi Fas legal action with John J. Underwood against William Gibbs; sold at auction in Montgomery County, April 3, 1827, one enslaved woman, Mary Ann, property of Amos Emanuel; relocated to Lowndes County, GA about 1827; authorized by the Georgia Legislature on November 14, 1827 “to establish a ferry across Little River where Coffee’s road crosses the same, in Lowndes County, on his own land“; enrolled for six months service, June 16, 1837 to December 16, 1837 in Captain John G. Johnson’s Company of the 2nd Regiment East Florida Mounted Volunteers; In 1838, served as a private in Captain Levi J. Knight’s Company, Lowndes County, GA; removed to 719th Georgia Militia District, Ware County, GA prior to 1840; July 2, 1844 Ware County Sheriff seized seven head of stock cattle, taken as property of Amos Emanuel, to satisfy debts owed to the Superior Court of Ware County.
Griffis, Joel (1803-1871) Joel Griffis, born 1803 in Clinch County, Georgia, a son of Nancy and Samuel Griffis, elder brother of Pvt. Littleberry Griffis and Pvt. John Griffis, and nephew of Charles A. Griffis; the father, Samuel Griffis (1775-1851), also served with Captain Levi J. Knight in the Indian Wars; moved to Appling County with his parents when he was young; Captain of the militia in the 719th district, Ware Co, 1835-1840; served a short volunteer term of enlistment in Capt. Levi J. Knights independent company of Lowndes County militia in 1836 and 1838; Bounty-Land Warrant Number 55-160-38068; married Elizabeth Bennett, 1841, daughter of John Bennett and Sallie Register; lived on lot of land number 310, 12th district of Ware County; sold out to Abraham Hargraves, of Ware County in 1851, and moved to Land lot number 149, 12th district in the southwest corner of Clinch County; Joel and Elizabeth Griffis were received and baptized in 1847 in Wayfare Primitive Baptist Church – He was excluded in March 1867; died 1871 in Clinch County, Georgia; buried at Wayfare Church, graves unmarked.
Griffis, John (1809-1880) John Griffis born 1809 in Georgia; a son of Nancy and Samuel Griffis, brother of Pvt. Joel Griffis and Pvt. Littleberry Griffis; the father, Samuel Griffis (1775-1851), also served with Captain Levi J. Knight in the Indian Wars; married Easter Bennett (1817-1855) about 1830; moved in his youth with his parents to Appling County, thence to Ware County; served as a second lieutenant in the Ware County militia, 719th district 1830-35; served as a private in Capt. Levi J. Knight’s militia company in 1838 in the Indian War; married about 1843 to divorcee’ Esther Padgett who had abandoned her husband, John Stalvey, and children; moved to that part of Columbia County, FL later cut into Bradford County, FL; died about 1880 in Bradford County, FL
Griffis, Littleberry (1811-1895) Berrian “Littleberry” Griffis, born August 24, 1811 in that part of Ware County cut into Clinch County, GA, in 1850, and into Atkinson County in 1917; a son of Nancy and Samuel Griffis, younger brother of Pvt. Joel Griffis and Pvt. John Griffis; the father, Samuel Griffis (1775-1851), also served with Captain Levi J. Knight in the Indian Wars; married Easter Bennett (1817-1855) about 1830; moved with his family to the 12th land district of Ware county (now Clinch); October 30, 1833, purchased a note held by A. E. Thomas on Lot Number 57, Sixth District, Carroll County, GA and sold same note August 15, 1850 to Miles J. Guest; In 1838 in the Indian Wars, served as a private in Captain Levi J. Knight’s Company, Lowndes County, GA; November 1st to December 31, 1839,served as a private in Captain David Johnson’s company of Ware County militia; purchased land lot 417, 12th district, Clinch County, about 1852 where he established his homeplace; married second, widow Mrs. Sarah Brooker; baptized October 2, 1874 into Bethel Primitive Baptist Church, Echols County, GA and dismissed March 9 1876 to unite in constituting Ramah Church in Clinch County, which he did April 15, 1876- expelled July 24, 1882; married third, Sidney Lee in Cinch Co, Dec 16 1878 -separated in August 1884-divorced 1892; died April 1, 1895; buried Moniac Cemetery, Charlton County, GA.
Giddens, Thomas (1789-1857) Thomas Giddens, born 1789 in North Carolina, believed to be the son of Thomas Giddens, Sr., Revolutionary Soldier; brother of Frances Giddens Devane, Ann Giddens Rogers, Morris Giddens and Pvt. Duncan Giddens; married first Mrs. Gregory; married second, on April 25, 1825, Mary “Pollie” Nevill in Bulloch County, GA; moved from Bulloch County to Mattox’s District, Lowndes County, GA some time before 1830; a fortunate drawer in the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery, drawing Lot 280, 9th District, Walker County, GA; marched with Levi J. Knight’s company in the Indian Wars of 1836; volunteered April 3, 1838, at Troublesome, GA (now Statenville) and served under Captain David R. Byran in his company of Lowndes County militia, and was honorably discharged there July 22, 1838; served July, 1838 to October 15, 1838 as a private in Captain David R. Bryan’s mounted company; served as a Private in Capt Levi J Knight’s Company of Georgia Militia, 1838; In 1850 assigned power of attorney to Captain Levi J. Knight to secure 80 acres of bounty land due Giddens as compensation for eight months of military service during the Indian Wars; died February 22, 1857.
Giddens, Frederick (1812-1867) Frederick Giddens born 1812 in New Hanover County, North Carolina, son of Thomas Giddens (1789-1857); his mother died when he was a boy and from age 12 he was raised by his step-mother Mary “Pollie” Nevill; came with his father to Lowndes County before 1830; December 8-9, 1833, fortunate drawer in the Cherokee Land Lottery, drawing Lot 325 in the 4th District of Cherokee County, GA; married Elizabeth Mathis, 1833, in Lowndes County, GA; Lowndes County 1834 tax records show he owned 80 acres of oak and hardwood land in Cherokee County; settled in Lowndes in that part which was cut into Berrien County in 1856, on the Nashville-Valdosta Road, the homeplace later being known as the Harmon F. Gaskins place; served as a Private in Captain Levi J Knight’s Company of Georgia Militia in 1836 in the skirmish at William Parker’s place and in 1838; Bounty-Land Warrant Number 55-120-43514; Lowndes County 1844 tax records show the Frederick M. Giddens homeplace was 980 acres in Captain Sanderson’s District on Land lots 464 and 465 in the 10th District; February 6,1867, administrator of the estate of John W. Giddens, acting in the sale of 365 unimproved acres of Lot No. 334, widow’s dower excepted, in the 10th District of Berrien ; According to Berrien County court records, Frederick Giddens sold property to Benjamin Wooding which included the grave of a Giddens’ infant, and subsequently a feud arose between the two over burial rights at what Giddens considered a family burial ground; died July 5, 1867 in Berrien County, GA; buried Woodlawn Cemetery, Adel, GA.
Guthrie, Aaron (1788-) Born 1788 in South Carolina; Lowndes County Tax Digest show him in Captain Sermon’s District in 1840;
Guthrie, John (1795-c1870) John L. Guthrie, brother of Aaron Guthrie; born 1795 in South Carolina; In the Indian Wars (Second Seminole War) served enlistments in Captain Johnson’s Company, Captain David R. Bryan’s Company, and Captain Levi J. Knight’s Company; donated the land for Guthrie Cemetery, Berrien County, GA; His son, Samuel Guthrie married Martha Newbern, daughter of Etheldred Newbern; Died about 1870; buried Guthrie Cemetery.
Guthrie, John, Jr. (c1821-1904) John Hamilton “Hamp” Guthrie, son of John L. Guthrie; born about 1821; in 1849 a member of the Berrien Tiger hunting party along with brother Samuel Guthrie; received Bounty-Land Warrant Number 1855-333060 for 1838 military service; Census of 1850 shows he lived on 675 acres in Clinch County, GA; died 1904; grave unknown.
Guthrie, Hamilton
Giddens, Isbin (1788-1853) Pioneer settler of Berrien County, GA and brother-in-law of Captain Levi J. Knight; born in Blounts Creek, Beaufort County, North Carolina on November 4, 1788; lieutenant of the 334th District Militia, Wayne County, from 1816 to 1820; Member of Kettle Creek Baptist Church, 1823; Member of Union Primitive Baptist Church, 1827; Fortunate drawer in the 1827 Georgia Land Lottery; marched with Levi J. Knight’s company in the Indian Wars of 1836;
Giddens, William Marched with Levi J. Knight’s company in the Indian Wars of 1836; , Bounty-Land Warrant Number 55-160-38068
Giddens, Moses (1821-1906) Son of Isbin Giddens and Kiziah Amanda Knight, born November 14, 1821, Appling County,GA; served with Levi J. Knight’s company in 1836 skirmishes with Indians; a private on the 1860 muster roll of Levi J. Knight’s Berrien Minute Men, Company K, 29th Georgia Regiment; died January 11, 1906, Alapaha, GA.
Griffis, John J.
Gaskins, John (1802-1865) Pioneer settler and cattleman of Berrien County, GA; born June 29,1802, in Warren County, GA; marched with Levi J. Knight’s company in the Indian Wars of 1836; Gaskins’ own home was raided by Indians while the family was away; died July 13, 1865; buried Riverside Cemetery, Berrien County, GA.
Griffis, Leighton
Griffis, Richard
Gaskins, Harmon (1811-1877) Harmon Gaskins, Brother of Pvt. John Gaskins; born January 15, 1811; among Captain Levi J. Knight’s Company of men who fought in the Indian Wars of 1836; appointed one of the first judges of the Inferior Court of Berrien County; Justice of the Peace; Died September 4, 1877; buried Gaskins Cemetery, Berrien County, GA
Giddens, Duncan (1808-1907) Duncan Giddens, Son-in-law of Pvt. John Mathis; born in North Carolina in 1808; came to Lowndes County, now Berrien about 1827-1828; 1st Lieutenant of the militia in the 664th District of Lowndes County 1834-1840; died in Brooks County, GA, on November 26, 1907; buried Old Giddens Family Home Cemetery, Sandy Bottom, Atkinson County, Georgia.
Griffis, Charles, Jr. (1800-1875) Charles Griffis, Jr., born 1800 in Montgomery County, Georgia, and died 1875 in Appling County, Georgia.
Hodges, John (1809-1875) John Hodges, born in Tattnall County in 1809 and came to Lowndes County at the age of nineteen; participated in the Battle of Brushy Creek; established a mule-powered cotton gin on his farm; died 1875.
Hodges, Alex. (1816-1884) Alexander Hodges, brother of Pvt. John Hodges; born May 17, 1816, in Tattnall County, GA; became a Primitive Baptist reverend; Died April 6, 1884, at High Springs, FL; buried New Hope Primitive Baptist Church.
Hodges, James James Hodges, Brother of Pvt. Alexander Hodges and Pvt. John Hodges.
Harnage, George (1807-1895) George Harnage, born 1807; came to Lowndes from Liberty County, GA; a son-in-law of Jeremiah Shaw; marched with Levi J. Knight’s company in the Indian Wars of 1836; Primitive Baptist Deacon; died about 1895.
Harnage, Isaac (1804-1868) Isaac Harnage, Brother of Pvt. George Harnage; buried Boney Bluff Cemetery, Echols County, GA
Hearndon, Wm. Z. (c1804-1865) William Z. Herndon, born about 1804 in North Carolina; married Amelia Ann Freaux (or Fruhock); made their home in Appling, Lowndes and Ware County, GA; Served in Levi J. Knights Independent Company of Lowndes County from August 15, 1838 to October 15, 1838; about 1842 moved to Columbia County, FL; appointed U.S. Postmaster, January 20, 1853 at New River, Columbia County, FL; became a Methodist Preacher in Indian River County, FL; in 1860 moved to Fort Meade, Polk County, FL; died in 1865; buried at Homeland, FL.
Henley, Elmore
Johnson, David (1804-1881) David Johnson, born January 29, 1804, Bulloch County, GA, son of Martha Hardeman and David Johnson, Revolutionary Soldier, and grandfather of J.H.P. Johnson, of Ray City, GA; moved in 1822 to the Mud Creek District near the Alapaha River in Irwin County (now Clinch) where he was among the first to settle; about 1825 moved to Leon County, Florida Territory; about 1828 moved to Lowndes County, GA near present Valdosta, GA; married about 1828 to Nancy “Mary Ann” Burnett; moved to Ware (now Clinch) County GA; served as a Private in Capt Levi J Knight’s Company of Georgia Militia, 1838; from November 1, 1839 – December 31, 1839, captain of a Georgia Militia company ordered into Federal Service in the Indian Wars; commissioned Major General of the 2nd Brigade, 6th Division of the State Militia on December 16, 1850; elected April 1, 1850, Justice of the Inferior Court, Clinch County; served as Justice of the Inferior Court April 12, 1850-1854; in 1855 a candidate for state senator from Clinch County; Justice of the Inferior Court January 10, 1861; on February 2, 1861, resigned commission as Major General of the 2nd Brigade, 6th Division of the State Militia; delegate to the 1868 Democratic district convention at Blackshear, GA; died April 9, 1881; buried Fender Cemetery, Lanier County, GA.
Johnson, James R. Marched with Levi J. Knight’s company in the Indian Wars of 1836; Bounty-Land Warrant Number 55-160-28492
Knight, Jonathan Jonathan Knight, Son of William Cone Knight; came to Irwin County (in the Lowndes territory) over the winter of 1824-25; a constituting member of Union Primitive Baptist Church; marched with Levi J. Knight’s company in the Indian Wars of 1836.
Knight, John John Knight, marched with Levi J. Knight’s company in the Indian Wars of 1836; In 1844 John Knight owned Lot No. 453 in the 10th District, Lowndes County, with 490 acres of pine land. His assessed property did not include any enslaved people, his total property tax being $0.85.
Knight, Aaron In 1844, Aaron Knight owned the adjacent Lot No. 454, with all 490 acres in pines. His assessed property did not include any enslaved people, his total property tax being $0.85.
Knight, William
Kirkland, Lemuel
McDonald, Wm. William McDonald, born 1810; Lucky Drawer in the 1832 Georgia Gold Lottery, drawing Lot 1034 in Cherokee County; died on December 1, 1889; buried at Cat Creek Primitive Baptist Cemetery
Mathis, Riley (1817-1864)
Mixon, Michael
Mathis, Tyre (1806-1891) Tyre Mathis joined Union Church by letter April 12, 1828, dismissed by letter December 11, 1847, buried Prospect Church Cemetery, Clinch County, GA
Mathis, John (1802-1875) John Mathis, Brother of Pvt. Tyre Mathis; born 1802, Bulloch County, GA; Ensign of Militia, District 442, Appling County, GA 1822-25; married in 1827 to Jemima Lee b 1807 GA, daughter of Joshua Lee; Justice of Peace, District 664, Lowndes County, GA 1833-38; Coroner, Clinch County, GA 1851-58 and 1861-64; transferred his church membership January 22, 1859 to Prospect Primitive Baptist Church, Clinch County, GA near his home; owned land Lot 441, 7th Dist in Clinch County, GA; died 1875, Hamilton County, FL; buried Prospect Cemetery, White Springs, FL.
Mixon, Joshua
McKennon, James (1804-1880) James McKennon (or McKinnon) Born about 1804 in North Carolina; a private in the Indian War under Captain Levi J. Knight, Lowndes County Militia; enumerated in 1840 in the 586th militia district of Ware County; sheriff of Coffee County 1856 to 1858; died 1880, Coffee County, GA.
McDaniel, Benj. (1790-)
Newbern, Etheldred (1794-1874) Etheldred Dryden Newbern, born 1794 in South Carolina, the eldest son of Thomas Newbern; came with his family to Georgia about 1798, to Bulloch County; said to have fought in the War of 1812; had moved with his family to Tattnall County by 1815; moved with his family to Appling County, near present day Blackshear, GA; married 1823 to Elizabeth “Betsy” Sirmans and homesteaded in Appling County; cut into Ware County in 1825; 1825 to 1827 served as First Lieutenant of militia, 584th district; 1828, moved to Lowndes County (now Berrien) to a site on Five Mile Creek; elected First Lieutenant of the militia in the 664th district of Lowndes County, Captain Levi J. Knight’s district; July, 1836, served as a private in Captain Levi J. Knights Independent Militia Company in the skirmish at William Parker’s place; moved to a homestead on the west side of the Alapaha River; 1865 moved to Clinch County; purchased Lot 256, 10th District; died 1874; buried in an unmarked grave at Wayfare Church, Echols county, GA.
Peterson, Eldred
Peterson, Henry
Prester, Henry
Roberts, Lewis (1802-1854) Lewis Leonard Roberts, son-in-law of Jonathan Knight; his home was a polling place in the Lowndes County election of 1829; died September 1, 1854; buried Swift Creek Cemetery, Lake Butler, FL
Roberts, Bryant (1809-1888) Bryant J. Roberts, born in Wayne County, GA on June 4, 1809, and came to Lowndes County in 1827; ensign in the 663rd district of the Lowndes County militia, 1827 to 1829; Justice of the Peace in the 658th district, Lowndes County, 1834-1837 term; private in Captain Levi J. Knight’s company of Lowndes County militia, and present at 1836 skirmish with Indians at William “Short-arm Billy” Parker’s place; Died July 8, 1888; buried Cat Creek Primitive Baptist Church.
Shaw, Jeremiah (1800-1883) Owned portions of Lots 499 and 500, 10th Land District, Lowndes County (later Berrien);
Sloan, Daniel
Stalvey, John J.
Slaughter, Moses (c1796-1868) Moses Slaughter, father of Samuel and William Slaughter; the murder of his son William in 1843 resulted in two sensational trials at Troupville, GA and the hanging of Samuel Mattox; owned 490 acres on Lot 240, 10th District, Lowndes County.
Sirmans, Hardeman (1821-1896) Hardeman Sirmans, son of Pvt. Jonathan Sirmans; son-in-law of Captain Levi J. Knight
Skinner, Randol
Shaw, Martin, Sr. (1773-1863) Martin Shaw Sr., born about 1773 in South Carolina; married 1st to unknown in South Carolina; came to Georgia between 1811 and 1816; married 2nd, Elizabeth Chancey on September 12, 1816 in Liberty County, GA; moved by 1825 to McIntosh County, owning 400 acres of pineland and 200 acres of swamp in Captain Duncan McCranie’s district; a fortunate drawer in the 1827 Georgia Land Lottery, drawing 400 acres in Muscogee County, GA; moved to Lowndes County, GA about 1828, establishing residence in Folsom’s District; a fortunate drawer in the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery; in 1834 a tax defaulter in Captain Caswell’s District, Lowndes County, GA; in 1835 paid taxes on 980 acres of pineland on Cat Creek in Captain Bell’s District on Lots 408 and 420, 10th District, Lowndes County and 40 acres in Cherokee County, GA; marched with Levi J. Knight’s company in the Indian Wars of 1836; served as a private in Captain Levi J. Knights company of Lowndes County Militia in 1838; died 1863; buried Old Salem Church cemetery, now in the City of Adel, GA and known as Woodlawn Cemetery.
Slaughter, John (1798-1859?) John Slaughter, born about 1798 in South Carolina, son of James Slaughter, and uncle of William Slaughter who was murdered in Lowndes (now Berrien) county, GA in 1843; married Sarah ? sometime before 1825; came to Lowndes County about the time it was created from part of Irwin County, and settled in that part of the county which would be cut into Berrien County in 1856; served as a private in Captain Levi J. Knights company of Lowndes County Militia in 1838; Resided in Lowndes until 1840 when he removed to Jefferson County, FL; in the Civil War, his sons, Moses H. Slaughter and John H. Slaughter deserted Confederate service and took their families to seek refuge on the U.S.S Sagamore at Cedar Key, FL along with hundreds of other Floridians.
Thomas, Dixon Dixson Thomas, according to family researchers born 1805 in Screven County, GA, eldest son of William Thomas and cousin of Ryall B. Thomas, Isham B. Thomas, and Elias Thomas; in 1831, occupied as a surveyor in Bulloch County, GA with his cousin Ryall B. Thomas; married on May 2, 1831 to Susannah Bennett in Bulloch County; juror for the July 1833 term of the Inferior Court of Bulloch County; by 1836 moved to the vicinity of Franklinville, Lowndes County, GA with others of the Thomas family connection; served August 6, 1836 to September 6, 1836 in Captain Levi J. Knight’s Company during which time was engaged in local actions against Creek Indians along Warrior Creek, Little River, and at Cow Creek; served September 19, 1836 to October 15, 1836 in Captain Levi J. Knight’s Company; in November 1836, held on charges of riot, along with William M. Thomas – after the two escaped from custody charges were dropped; purchased in September 1838 Lot number 180, District 11, Lowndes county for $250 – sold same to Joshua Hightower on January 14, 1845 for $250; purchased in November 1845 Lot number 89 and half of Lot number 50, District 11 Lowndes County for $150; purchased in March 1848 the remaining half of Lot 50 for $33 – “Lot 50 included all and every part and parcel of town lots originally lay out and runs off in the town of Franklinville, GA”; sold Lot numbers 50 & 89 to Thomas A. Jones in July 1851 for $600; in 1852, moved to that area of Camden County, GA which was cut into Charlton County in 1854; on March 5, 1855 received 80 acres bounty land in Lowndes County, GA, Warrant No. 47,191 for service in the Indian Wars; On April 05, cancelled warrant number 47,191 and requested William Smith to prosecute his claim and receive his (new?) Warrant when issued; In 1855 received 80 acres bounty land in Charlton County, GA, Warrant number 19383, probably at Trader’s Hill, then the government seat of Charlton County, GA; died October 10, 1857, in Charlton County, GA; said to be buried at Mill Creek Primitive Baptist Cemetery, Nassau County, FL with others of the Thomas family connection, although the grave could not be located in 2016.
Located on the banks of the Alapaha River about two miles south of present-day Lakeland, GA, the old Union Primitive Baptist Church lies about 10 miles east of where Levi J. Knight settled on Beaver Dam Creek (now Ray City, GA). It was the first church constituted by the pioneer settlers of this region and became the mother church of many Primitive Baptist churches in south Georgia and North Florida. Levi J. Knight’s parents, Sarah and William Anderson Knight, were among the organizing members of the church. The history of Union Church, also known as Burnt Church, was the subject of a series of sketches by Folks Huxford.
Like the Knights, the Carters were among the earliest settlers in this section of land which would later become Berrien County, GA, the Knights arriving in 1824 and Carters in 1825. Jesse Carter settled his family on the west side of the Alapaha River about one- and one-half miles south of present-day Lakeland. The Knight and Carter families were soon connected. About 1826, Jessie Carter’s daughter, Rachel Carter, would marry William Cone Knight, son of William Anderson Knight and brother of Levi J. Knight.
Upon arrival, Jesse Carter established the first place of worship in the wilderness of the newly opened Lowndes County. According to Folks Huxford, “The first church building was known as ‘Carter’s Meeting House.’ Of course, the name came from the early Carter family that played such a big part in establishing the church. The meeting houses took their names generally from some family that was most active in building the house. Jesse Carter gave the land for the meeting house and built the original building, which was a small log house. The church records do not show that Mr. Carter was ever a member of Union Church but his wife, Mary, was a member.” Jesse Carter would later fight under the command of Levi J. Knight in the Skirmish at William Parker’s Place during the Indian Wars of 1836.
Primitive Baptist Meeting House. Image source: Florida Baptist Historical Society
In 1825 the Primitive Baptists convening at Carter’s Meeting House constituted as Union Church. Fleming Bates and Mathew Albritton acted as the presbytery for the constitution of the church.
State of Georgia Irwin County
1st October 1825
By the goodness of God we whose names are after ritten having been baptized upon a profefsion of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ having heare before lived in Kettle Creek Church and in Hebron and Macadonice Churches from them, have removed to this wilderness counteary, finding each thereout constituted together. The propriety of becoming a constituted church and we’re on a greede uanamously. Then made application to our several churches for letters with dismission with leave to be come a constituted body at Carter’s Meeting House on the Alappahaw River by which we with the sefrutance of a presbylen intend to be come with the help of God a church independent (as our internal rights) of aney church or churches Presbytory or —— and we do set apart this day for the purpose of becoming constituted for which purpose we do call the following ordained preacher of the Baptist order to act as the Presbytery Lay – Fleming Bates and Mathew Albritton.
These are the names of the members on which the church was constituted.
William A. Knight Jonathan Knight Joshua Lee James Patten Josiah Sirmans, O.D. Sarah Knight Elizabeth Knight Mary Knight Martha Lee Elizabeth Patten
The 1st of October 1825 being pronounced a church of Christ in order have united upon equal turmes and heare after be called and known by the name of Union Church.
Note: Jonathan and Elizabeth Knight were members of Hebron Church (present-day Brantley County, GA) before being dismissed by letter on November 8, 1823, to join in organizing Kettle Creek Baptist Church in Ware County which it seems, was near where they lived.
Grave of Isbin Giddens, Burnt Church Cemetery, Lanier County, GA
In the winter of 1824-25 Isbin (or Isben) Giddens brought his wife, Keziah Knight Giddens, and their two young children, William and Moses Giddens from Wayne County, GA to settle in what was then Irwin County, near the present day Ray City, GA. They came along with Keziah’s brother William Cone Knight, her parents, and their minor children John, Sarah, Elizabeth, Aaron, and Jonathan Knight. Also making the move to Lowndes was Keziah’s uncle Samuel Knight, his wife Fannie, and their children Fatima, Moses, Aaron, Jesse, Thomas, and Joel.
Isbin Giddens was born in Blounts Creek, Beaufort County, North Carolina on November 4, 1788, just a few months after the ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America. He was the son of Moses Giddens and Catherine Jones.
Sometime before 1816, “when he was about grown,” Isbin Giddens moved from North Carolina to Wayne County, Georgia. He served as lieutenant of the 334th District Militia, Wayne County, from 1816 to 1820. It was probably during that time period that he became acquainted with the family of William A. Knight and Sarah Cone Knight. William A. Knight was then serving as a Justice of Peace in the 334th District. William’s son, Jonathan Knight, was a captain in the Wayne County militia; another son, Levi J. Knight, served as a private.
Giddens became good friends with the Knights, and on Wednesday, April 7, 1819, just before Easter, Isbin married William A. Knight’s 17-year-old daughter, Keziah Knight (born November 25, 1801).
Isbin Giddens served as a grand juror the October, 1822 term of the Superior Court of Wayne County, and at other times also served on both petit and grand juries in the county.
About 1823 Isbin and Keziah Giddens were baptized into Kettle Creek Church. Jonathan and Elizabeth Knight were organizing members of Kettle Creek Baptist Church in Ware County which it seems, was near where they lived; they were members of Hebron Church (present day Brantley County, GA) before being dismissed by letter on November 8, 1823, to constitute Kettle Creek. Fannie Knight, wife of Samuel Knight, was a member of Kettle Creek Baptist Church, as were Keziah’s parents, William and Sarah Knight.
Over the winter of 1824-25 Isbin and Keziah departed Wayne County along with her parents and brothers to settle in parts of present-day Lanier County. Isben Giddens made his farm along what is now the Ray City-Lakeland public road. The following year, his brother-in-law, Levi J. Knight, joined the family and became the first to settle on land along Beaverdam creek at the present-day location of Ray City, Berrien County, GA.
On February 10, 1827, Isbin and Keziah moved their letters from Kettle Creek Church to Union Primitive Baptist Church. Keziah’s father had been instrumental in the organization of Union Church, it being the first Baptist Church in this section. The church organization took place October 1, 1825, at Carter’s Meeting house, located on the west bank of the Alapaha River. Mr. Knight was the first clerk of the new church and later became its pastor.
For the 1827 Georgia Land Lottery, Isbin Giddens registered in the 10th District of Lowndes County. On the 33rd Day’s Drawing – April 13, 1827, he was the fortunate drawer of Lot 248 in the 13th District of of the newly formed Lee County.
In the Census of 1830, Isbin Giddens is enumerated along with early Berrien County settlers like Joshua Lee, William A. Knight and John Knight. He served on the Lowndes Grand Jury of 1833 which was convened at Franklinville, GA, then the county seat of Lowndes County.
In the Indian Wars of 1836-1838, Isbin Giddens and his sons, William and Moses served under the command of now Captain Levi J. Knight, in the Lowndes County Militia. The Giddens were among those who took part in the Battle of Brushy Creek, one of the last real engagements with the Creek Indians in this region.
Isben Giddens died on his farm October 21, 1853. He was buried at Union Church Cemetery, in present day Lanier County, GA. He died with a legally valid will, and his three sons William, Moses, and Aaron served as executors of his estate.
In 1855 Kizziah Knight Giddens married the widower, Allen Jones. She died in 1861 and was buried at Union Church, Lanier County GA.
Grave of Keziah Knight Giddens Jones, Union Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, Lakeland, GA
Located in present day Lanier County, GA, the old Union Church lies about 10 miles east of where Levi J. Knight settled on Beaver Dam Creek (now Ray City, GA). It was the first church to serve the pioneer settlers of this region. L. J. Knight’s parents, Sarah and William Anderson Knight , were among the organizing members of the church. Built on land provided by Jesse Carter, the church was originally referred to as Carter’s Meeting House, and later designated Union Church.
The church and cemetery were on a trail used by the Creek Indians traveling between the Chattahoochee River and the Okefenokee Swamp. During the Indian Wars, 1836-1838, the church building was partially burned. The fire-damaged timbers were used in the reconstruction, and since that time Union Church has also been known as Burnt Church.
“Union Baptist Church, on the Alapaha River ….was constituted October 21, 1825, the first church in the old area of Irwin County. The original members William A. Knight; his wife, Sarah; Jonathan Knight; his wife, Elizabeth; Joshua Lee; his wife, Martha; James Patten; his wife, Elizabeth; Mary Knight; Josiah Sirmans, deacon. The Rev. Matthew Albritton served the church as its first minister.”
Union Church, Lanier County, GA
In Pines and pioneers: A history of Lowndes County, Georgia, 1825-1900, author J. T. Shelton gave the following description described a Big Meeting at Union church:
“The old church had a door on every side for easy access, a rostrum along one wall with seats facing it from three directions. The arrangement allowed the seating of slaves on one side. With feet planted firmly on the wide floor boards, the congregation sat on the pews, each a single plank. The women of the church had scrubbed down with potash and homemade soap both pews and flooring, and the wood had a soft, silvery sheen. The pulpit was seven feet long, twelve inches wide and two inches thick; three to five preachers sat on a long bench behind the pulpit until each had his turn to address the assembly. The exhorter then paced up and down the generous space provided, and he held forth for two hours before the next preacher had his chance. Listeners came and went; mothers carried out crying babies; little boys believed that they would starve to death before they could get outside to the loaded dinner tables that were as much a part of Big Meeting as the preaching.”
In 1928-30, The Clinch County News published a series of articles on the history of Union Church, portions of which are excerpted below:
HISTORY OF OLD UNION CHURCH Established 1825
Chapter I
Union Primitive Baptist Church, the mother of all the churches of this faith in this immediate section of Georgia, was organized or constituted October 1st, 1825. The presbytery consisted of Elders Fleming Bates and Mathew Albritton.
As is well known, the church is located on the banks of the Alapaha River about 1 1/2 miles south of Lakeland formerly old Milltown. It stands to-day where it has always stood for the past 108 years (1933). The cemetery close by contains the graves of many pioneers and old citizens of east Lowndes, southeast Berrien and western Clinch counties. Baptisms have always taken place in the nearby river, it not being over one hundred yards from the church to the river. A high bluff with a sharp bend in the river’s course is the visitor’s introduction after he has passed the church. Several steady-flowing springs of fine drinking water are to be found on the banks, and eminating from the walls of the bluff. Part of the bluff slopes off to the river’s edge at the river bend thus making an ideal place for baptism purposes.
The little log-house which was the first building on the site of the present church, had come to be known as Carter’s Meeting House prior to the organization of the church. For some months prior it had been the scene of monthly meetings or services, and it was the expression of the desire of the settlers to have some kind of divine services in their midst, for there was not a church to be found of any denomination from the Altamaha River to the Florida and Alabama lines. The settlers in this immediate vicinity were more numerous than in most of the settlements, and many of them Carters. The meeting-house took its name from old man Jesse Carter and he probably gave the land and his boys had a hand in building the original log house to hold services in. The earliest settlers had only been living here four years at the time, while the most of them had not living here hardly a year. Knights, Carters, Giddens and Lees made up most of the settlers west of the river while on the east side of the river were to be found Tomlinsons, Sirmans and Fenders, Corbitts and Mathises. Further down the river could be found the Wetheringtons, Swilleys, Peters, Walkers, and Roberts.
Elder William A. Knight, at that time a layman, was one of the leading spirits in the formation of the church. As already stated it was Elders Bates and Albritton who presided at the organization of the church, but to “Old Father Knight” as many people called him in his lifetime, may be attribute more than anyone else the religious activities of the community in those days when the first settlers were moving in. He led in prayer and in song, and when the preacher failed to keep an appointment because of lurking Indians, high waters or other providential hindrances it was Bro. Knight who took charge and carried on the service. Five years after the church was organized he was licensed to preach the Gospel and two years later (1832) he was ordained to the full Gospel ministry.
Union Church had been constituted under the auspices of the Piedmont Primitive Baptist Association, but by 1827 the establishment of a number of new churches prompted a desire to divide the association. According to a history thesis by Michael Otis Holt,
On August 24, 1827, a council met in Thomas County, Georgia to determine the feasibility of forming a new association in the region. The council arranged for another meeting at Mt. Gilead Church in September and requested that all interested churches send messengers with a statement of faith and the date of their constitution together with names of the ministers taking part in it. The careful attention to detail was necessary, because many churches in the area had cut corners in their organization. An example is Shiloh Church in Ware County. In 1833, the Ochlocknee Association would not accept Shiloh Church because it was constituted “illegally.” However, the association did offer instruction on how to craft a new constitution, which Shiloh did. The council decided to go ahead with the plans for a new association. In October, 1827, the Piedmont Association, “received and read a petition from seven Baptist churches situated between the Alapaha and Flint River praying ministerial aid to constitute them into a new association.” The Piedmont set Matthew Albritton and Fleming Bates to oversee the organization of the Association. Both were members of Union Church, near present day Lakeland, Georgia, which requested and received dismission from the Piedmont to join the new association.
The association held an organizational meeting at Bethel Church in what is now Brooks County, Georgia, in November, 1827. Six churches took part in the constitution of the Association. Union Church, was almost certainly the church that joined at the first session of the new association, which called itself Ochlocknee. In the first year of its existence, the Ochlocknee Association claimed 138 members among its seven churches. The initial meeting went well and Bates and Albritton reported to Union Church that, ‘much harmony and love abounded.’
The new association grew quickly. By 1833, the Ochlocknee had thirty-five churches with 1,010 members. Though migration to the region was steadily increasing during this time, it did not account for all of the increase. In 1833, 179 were baptized into the association’s churches. Fourteen new churches applied for membership during the same year. So many neophytes comprised the new churches that the association appointed William Knight to instruct them on the proper duties of churches to the association. The rapid expansion expanded the Ochlocknee’s borders to extend from the Piedmont Association to the St. John’s Association. The expansive size of the association prompted a proposal to divide at the 1833 meeting.
In 1834, Friendship, Union, and Elizabeth churches in Georgia, and Providence, New Zion, Concord, Newington, and New River in Florida, were dismissed from the Ochlocknee Association to form a new association. In a reflection of the intense territorialism of the associations of the period, the new body was given a boundary that extended up the Suwannee, Withlacoochee, and Little River. The association took the name Suwannee River and scheduled a constitutional meeting at Concord Church for December, 1834. The delegates duly arrived at the meeting, but the ministers failed to show. At a rescheduled meeting held in September, 1835, only one appointed minister showed, so the delegates coopted William A. Knight as the other member of the presbytery and proceeded to formally organize the association.
The Suwannee River Association did not experience rapid growth like the Ochlocknee. The Second Seminole War was the primary cause for the association’s slow growth and sparse representation. The 1838 session recommended that the churches increase their days of fasting and prayer, ‘that the Lord might divert the judgments which seem to hang over us.’ They also suggested they put off any general business of the association, “by reason of the unsettled affairs of our country.” The 1839 session met in the safer Georgia territory and again suggested more prayer and fasting, “so that the warwhoop of a savage foe, might not be heard any longer in our land to the great disturbance of our fellow citizens, while numbers of our women and infant children are falling victims to their relentless hands.” Nearby associations “lamented the situation of the Suwannee Association, on account of the Indian War in that vicinity.”
By the beginning of the 1840s, tensions in the region had eased and the Suwannee was experiencing growth. The 1840 minutes of the Suwannee Association speak of a revival that was strongest among its congregations in Georgia. However, this period of growth and expansion would eventually produce discord and division among the Baptists of South Georgia.
In 1856 the Union Association was constituted with twelve churches formerly belonging to the Suwannee Association, most of whose churches were in Florida. A division was agreed to, making the State line the dividing line between the two Associations. The constituting presbytery was composed of Elders J. E. W. Smith, William A. Knight and J. B. Smith met at Union Church. Her ministers were Elders William A. Knight, Moses Westberry, Ansel Parrish, J. D. Hutto and E. J. Williams, with perhaps two licentiates. Harmony prevailed for a number of years, and the progress of the Association was upward and onward.
Clinch County News September 20, 1929
HISTORY OF OLD UNION CHURCH Established 1825
Chapter XIII.
As has been stated before, the minutes of the church from the beginning in 1825 to 1832 have been lost. We understand, however, that Rev. William A. Knight was the first pastor as well as the guiding hand of the church during these early years. It is certain that he was one of the charter members and the only ordained minister holding his membership with the church during that time. Assuming that he was pastor during those seven years, the list of pastors up to recently [1929], is as follows:
If the writer could properly write the life of these earnest consecrated servants of the Lord, it would be equal to writing an account of the religious life of this section in the Primitive Baptist denomination. Fearless in fighting sin and bold in preaching Christ and faithful in contending for the Faith, they have served nobly and well and unborn generations will bear witness to the fruits of their work. With few exceptions the writer has not sufficient biographical data at hand now to write of their individual lives, but we know of their godly records. We hope to write later of the lives of these great preachers.
Church Clerks
The clerks of the church likewise contain a list of fine men, known throughout their communities and counties for their good, upright lives, and their staunch Christian characters. We do not know who the first clerk was.
Elected
Owen Smith September 7, 1832
Joshua Sykes January 12, 1839
Isaac D. Hutto April 13, 1845
William Patten May 10, 1851
William Lastinger July 8, 1854
John Studstill Jan 9, 1858
William Giddens May 7, 1863
E. R. Rhoden October 8, 1891
W. R. Rhoden November 10, 1894
J. L. Robertson February 12, 1898
Wm. J. Knight May 12, 1900
J. A. Weaver August 10, 1901
G. L. Robinson September 12, 1924
J. A. Weaver September 12, 1925
J. S. Shaw October 8, 1926
A good portion of the minutes is in the handwriting of assistant clerks. These assistant clerks were generally elected by the church, but of late years there have been no assistants. The list of assistant clerks is as follows:
The church has had but few deacons during its 105 years [as of 1929] of existence. There were apparently never over two at the time, and when elected they served for life unless sooner dismissed by letter or otherwise. The list given below is full of as fine men as ever lived in this section. We do not in the list make any attempt to show how long they served except in those cases where they died members of the church. We do not know who the first deacons of the church were. List follows:
Bro. Edmund Mathis, one of the deacons, having removed his membership, Bro. Joshua Lee was elected in his place March 10, 1833, and ordained April 13, 1833 by Elders Peacock, Friar and Knight.
September 6, 1839, Bro. Edmund Mathis was received back into the membership by letter from Concord church, Hamilton County, Fla., and acted as a deacon until dismissed again by letter April 10, 1841.
On June 13, 1841, brethren Jacob Hughes and John Lee were ordained deacons. Members of the presbytery not shown by minutes.
March 13, 1852, brethren Richard H. Burkhalter and J. D. Peters were elected deacons. They were ordained June 12, 1852 but the minutes do not show who constituted the presbytery. Bro. Burkhalter died in 1862 and Bro. Peters also died a member but we do not know when.
The minutes do not show any further ordination of deacons until 1891 when Bro. John P. Tomlinson was elected on May 9th. On June 13, 1891 he was ordained by Elders J. A. O’steen and T. W. Stallings.
On December 9, 1899, Bro. James L. Robinson was elected a deacon but was never ordained.
On November 10, 1906 Bro. Israel G. Carter was elected a deacon and ordained January 12, 1907 by Elders B.P. Lovett from Salem Church, I. A. Wetherington from Unity church, A. A. Knight , the pastor.
On October 9, 1909, Bro. J. A. Weaver was elected deacon, and ordained February 12, 1910 by Elders Wetherington, Chitty and A. A. Knight .
Treasurers
The minutes do not disclose that the church ever had any treasurer until 1909 whem on October 9th, Bro. J. A. Weaver was elected as such.
Historic Marker – Union Church, organized 1825. Sarah and William A. Knight were founding members.
Some other members of Union Church:
George Harris – received August 7, 1841, dismissed by letter March 12, 1842; joined Providence Primitive Baptist Church near their home soon after that church was constituted in 1844
Julia Ann Westberry Harris – received August 7, 1841, dismissed by letter March 12, 1842; joined Providence Primitive Baptist Church near their home soon after that church was constituted in 1844
Elender Wetherington Lee – joined by letter, June 8, 1838
Joshua Lee – constituting member, October 1, 1825
Martha Ford Lee – constituting member, October 1, 1825
Moses C. Lee – baptized September 11, 1841
Jincey Register Lee – baptized September 10, 1854
Thomas Mathis – united 1839, dismissed by letter December 12, 1840
Eady Mathis – united 1839, dismissed by letter December 12, 1840
Tyre Mathis – joined by letter April 12, 1828, dismissed by letter December 11, 1847
Nancy Lee Mathis – joined by letter April 12, 1828, dismissed by letter December 11, 1847
Mehala Rice Monk – joined by letter 1838
Elizabeth Skinner Register – received by letter into Union Church, September 13, 1828, from Fellowship Baptist Church, Appling County, and dismissed by letter April 10, 1841 from Union to participate in constituting Wayfare Church
William Patten – baptized September 9, 1848, dismissed by letter March 11, 1854 to organize Empire Church
From pioneer times to the present day, Ray City, GA, has been under the jurisdiction of three different counties and six different county seats of government. From 1825 to 1856 the community fell within the borders of Lowndes County. During that period, the county seat of government was first at Franklinville, GA, then briefly at Lowndesville, and about 1836 moved to the town of Troupville, GA. [A legal announcement in the November 7, 1837 Milledgeville Southern Recorder, pg 4, documents that public auctions were still being held at Franklinville at that date.]
In its heydey, Troupville was the center of commerce and social activity for the region. Promoters of the town hoped to develop the Withlacoochee River as a navigable waterway. In the Harrison Freshet of 1841, the town was inundated, the flood setting a high water mark on the old cypress tree there which set a record , according to the March 28, 1897 New Orleans Times-Democrat, which was not surpassed for 56 years. The Harrison Freshet knocked out bridges all over the region and probably caused the loss of bridges on the Coffee Road, then the main thoroughfare passing through Lowndes County. “Few bridges on the common streams … stood the shock.” The Milledgeville Federal Union declared it a 100 year flood. The “extraordinary flood…caused awful damage in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina” with major erosion, land slides, “roads rendered almost impassable, and plantations disfigured with enormous gullies.” In 1845, the citizens of Lowndes county petitioned the state legislature “praying that the State tax and 1846 and 1847, be retained by said county, to improve the navigation of the Withlacoochee river,” but the House committee on Petitions returned an unfavorable report.
Among the prominent pioneer settlers who frequented Troupville were the Knight family. Reverend William A. Knight, was the religious leader of many of the Primitive Baptist churches in the area and the father of Levi J. Knight, earliest settler at the site of present day Ray City, Berrien County, GA.
Troupville is the [Lowndes County, GA] seat of justice, immediately in the fork made by the confluence of the Withlacoochee and Little rivers. It has the usual county buildings, three hotels, two churches, four stores, several mechanics’ shops, two physicians, and four lawyers. It is distant from Milledgeville 180 miles S.; 40 from Thomasville; 75 from Waresborough, and 75 from Irwinville. It is a healthy and pleasant village. Population about 20 families.
Here is a conceptual layout of Old Troupville adapted from a sketch of the town made by C. S. Morgan, and superimposed on a modern map of the confluence of the Withlacoochee River and the Little River .
Map of Troupville, GA adapted from C. S. Morgan
In addition to the structures depicted on this map, the following Troupville property owners are known:
Lot No. 1 “on the east side of the Courthouse” property of William McAuley prior to 1841
Lot No. 2 1/2 acre “water lot”, Jesse Townsend, prior to 1846
Lot No. 3 1/2 acre, John J. Underwood, prior to 1844
Lot No. 4 1/2 acre, John J. Underwood, prior to 1844
Lot No. 5 1/2 acre, John J. Underwood, prior to 1844; 1/4 acre “water lot” property of Jared Johnson, prior to 1846
Lot No. 6 1/2 acre, John J. Underwood, prior to 1844
Lot No. 7 1/4 acre, Uriah Kemp, prior to 1839; south half (1/8 acre), Daniel S. Graham prior to 1841.
Lot No. 8 Uriah Kemp, prior to 1839
Lot No. 9 Uriah Kemp prior to 1839, Hiram Hall prior to 1842
Lot No. 10 1/2 acre, Hiram Hall prior to 1842, John J. Underwood, prior to 1844
Lot No. 11 1/4 acre “well improved” lot owned by John Studstill up to 1845; Richard Allen after 1845
Lot No. 13 south half (1/8 acre), James A. Boyet prior to 1842.
Lot No. 14 “on the east side of the Courthouse” property of William McAuley prior to 1841
Lot No. 15 1/4 acre “water lot”, Jesse Townsend, prior to 1846
Lot No. 16 1/4 acre, William P. Murdoch prior to 1852
Lot No. 21 1/4 acre, John J. Underwood prior to 1846.
Lot No. 25 1/4 acre, William Lastinger prior to 1840; Hiram Hall prior to 1842, Burnett & Hall (Joseph S. Burnett and Hiram Hall) 1842 to 1843.
Lot No. 28 1/4 acre mol, Thomas O. Townsend prior to 1847
Lot No. 29 1/4 acre, John J. Underwood prior to 1844, Samuel Maulden, prior to 1847
Lot No. 32 1/4 acre, Hiram Hall prior to 1842, Burnett & Hall (Joseph S. Burnett and Hiram Hall) 1842 to 1843; John J. Underwood, 1843 -1844; property of Hiram Hall, 1844 and described as ” the place whereon John J. Underwood now [Aug 13, 1844] lives.”
Lot No. 34 property of William McAuley prior to 1841
Lot No. 35 Henry J. Stewart, , prior to 1850. Stewart was an Attorney at Law and served as Postmaster in 1848.
Lot No. 37 Joseph S. Burnett and Hiram Hall prior to 1841
Lot No. 38 1/4 acre, William McDonald, prior to 1838
Lot No. 39 1/4 acre, William D. Branch, prior to 1840
Lot No. 40 1/4 acre, well improved, property of James Radford prior to 1858
Lot No. 41 1/4 acre, well improved, property of James Radford prior to 1858
Lot No. 42 1/4 acre, William D. Branch, prior to 1840
Lot No. 45 5 acres mol (Wilson’s Survey), Mikel Myers, prior to 1848
Lot No. 46 Peter K. Baillie, prior to 1842
Lot No. 48 1/4 acre, well improved, property of James Radford prior to 1858
Lot No. 50 1/4 acre, “on which is situated the Methodist Episcopal Church,” property Duke K. Jimson prior to 1846.
Lot No. 51 1/4 acre, well improved, property of James Radford prior to 1858
Lot No. 53 1/4 acre, Duke K. Jameson; also Richard W. Kirkland prior to his death in 1848
Lot No. 57 1/4 acre, John J. Underwood prior to 1846.
Lot No. 58 1/4 acre, John J. Underwood prior to 1846.
Lot No. 59 1/4 acre, John J. Underwood prior to 1844; Thomas O. Townsend prior to 1845
Lot No. 60 Thomas O. Townsend prior to 1945
Lot No. 61 1/4 acre, Duke Blackburn prior to 1838; Uriah Kemp, prior to 1839
Lot No. 64 1/4 acre, Uriah Kemp, prior to 1839; John J. Underwood, prior to 1844
Lot No. 65 Thomas O. Townsend prior to 1845
Lot No. 66 Thomas O. Townsend prior to 1845
Lot No. 67 1/4 acre, John J. Underwood prior to 1846.
Lot No. 68 1/4 acre, John J. Underwood prior to 1846.
Lot No. 69 1/2 acre, John J. Underwood, prior to 1844
Lot No. 70 1 1/2 acre, John J. Underwood, prior to 1844
Lot No. 72 Duncan Smith prior to 1846.
Lot No. 73 2 acres mol, Lodowick Miller, prior to 1842
Lot No. 91 1/4 acre, John J. Underwood, prior to 1844
SOME RESIDENTS AND BUSINESS OWNERS OF TROUPVILLE, GA
John Ashley, attorney, 1848
Dr. William Ashley,
Received his medical degree from UGA in 1845. Following further medical education in Philadelphia he moved to Troupville prior to 1850 and established a successful practice. He was a boarder in William Smith’s hotel, Tranquil Hall. In the Crisis of the Union in 1850, he was a pro-secessionist.
Georgia Smith Ashley, married in 1851
Anna Caroline Ashley
Daniel Cornelius Ashley
Sumner W. Baker, attorney, 1856; Livingston’s Law Registry, 1859; resident of Tranquil Hall, 1860
George W. Behn, attorney, 1845
M. J. Bennett
W. B. Bennett, attorney, Associate Editor of the Thomasville Southern Enterprise, 1858
M. B. Bennett, attorney
James B. Bliss, jeweler, 1843
Elisha Ward Bozeman – not a Troupville resident, but in the 1850s he was a “hack driver” who regularly drove carriages through the town on the route from Thomasville, GA to Monticello, FL. He was later a resident of Quitman, GA
Henry Briggs, Doctor and apothecary shop owner.
Cyprian Brinson, 1857, member Bible Revision Association
Anthony C. Bruner, Methodist Preacher appointed to Troupville station for 1842
Joseph S. Burnett, sheriff, 1839
T.A. Caruth, 1857 pastor
John B. Cashan, merchant
Deborah Cashan, wife of John B. Cashan
Children of John B. Cashan
Ann E. C. Cashan
Sarah J. Cashan
John B. Cashan, Jr.
James S. Cashan
Jones E. Cashan
Albert Converse
Mary Converse
Reverend William B. Cooper, pastor of Little River Baptist Church/Troupville Baptist Church 1841-1853
Ann G. Cooper
Eugenia Cooper
Frances M. Cooper
Ann H. Cooper
Franklin Law Cooper
Rebecca Perrill Cooper, sister of Rev. W. B. Cooper; married Berrien M. Jones; Mrs. Reba P. Jones, 1857, member Bible Revision Association
Elizabeth Isabelle Cooper, sister of Rev. W. B. Cooper, school teacher
. R. Creech, traveled to New York City, October 1857
O. P. Dasher, traveled to New York City, October 1857
S. H. Dasher, 1857, member Bible Revision Association
William H. Dasher, Attorney at Law, 1852-56
T. S. Davies, Attorney at Law, doing business as the firm Davies & Rockwell, 1846.
A. Davis, Pastor 1858
William Wesley Dowling, Farmer 1849-1854
Ardelia Frier Dowling, Wife of William W. Dowling
Children of Ardelia and William W. Dowling
John Moses Dowling
Sarah Elizabeth Ann Dowling
Ryan Eli Dowling
Henry Taylor Dowling
Mary Emily Dowling
Thomas William Ellis, Doctor and druggist; Agent for Dr. Allen’s all-healing ointment.
Piercy Dixon Ellis, wife of Dr. Ellis
Elisabeth Ellis, daughter of Dr. Ellis
Caroline Ellis, daughter of Dr. Ellis, married John B. Cashan in Dooly Co., 22 Jul, 1849
Ryan Frier, co-minister of the Little River Baptist Church, 1842
William Oglethorpe Girardeau – of Monticello, FL, had a law office in Troupville, 1848, in partnership with Charles S. Rockwell
William Godfrey, Grocery merchant circa 1850
Henrietta O. Goldwire, member of the Little River Baptist Church; 1857, member Bible Revision Association
James O. Goldwire, constituting member and deacon of the Little River Baptist Church
Joseph J. Goldwire, resident, arrived at Pulaski House, Savannah, Nov 1, 1844; member of the Troupville Baptist Church; later assisted Rev. Charles Anderson in forming Macedonia First African Baptist Church of Valdosta
Marie I. Goldwire, member of Little River Baptist Church
William H. Goldwire, second pastor of Little River Baptist Church, Attorney at Law, 1852; Livingston’s Law Register, 1852. attorney, retired;
Ann C. Goldwire, Wife of William H. Goldwire
Children of Ann C. and William H. Goldwire
Matilda M. Goldwire
Sophia B. Goldwire
Old Monday, a person enslaved by the Goldwires
Thomas Butler Griffin
Jane Moore Griffin
Children of Thomas Butler Griffin and Jane Moore Griffin
Marcus J. Griffin
Samuel Moore Griffin
Iverson Lamar Griffin
W.W. Griffin, Methodist Episcopal preacher, 1843
Mrs. J. S. Griffin, ; 1857, member Bible Revision Association
Joshua Griffith, Sales Agent for the Wiregrass Reporter (Thomas County newspaper)
Barney Howell – in the 1840s “was mail carrier between this neighborhood [Thomasville] and Monticello, Florida, making the horseback journey with great regularity and going via Troupville, which was then county seat of Lowndes County.” He was a resident of Thomas County and a brother of Caswell Howell, who served as one of the early members of the Baptist Church at Milltown, GA.
Thomas Hughes Hines, Attorney at Law, residing at Stansell’s hotel, 1850; doing business as the firm Nelson & Hines, 1852, and on his own account in 1853
Seaborn Jones, died November 9, 1849, accidently shot by his nine-year-old son, William Jones
Jonathan Knight, hotel operator circa 1840-1849
D. B. Johnson, student at Troupville Academy, circa 1849
Robert Marlow, member of Little River Baptist Church
R. J. McCook, Methodist Episcopal Preacher, 1856
Charles C. Morgan
David B. Morgan, Attorney
William Louis Morgan, Attorney at Law and Secretary of the Lowndes County Inferior Court; came from Macon to Troupville in 1842; beekeeper; Solicitor General of the Southern Circuit (1843); representative to the 1845 Georgia Democratic Convention; secessionist representative to the 1850 Georgia State Convention which produced the Georgia Platform; Livingston’s Law Register, 1852; grave at Sunset Hill Cemetery, Valdosta, GA
Thomas L. Nelson, Attorney at Law, doing business as the firm of Nelson & Hines.
Captain George W. Patterson, born in VA; lawyer and school teacher in Troupville from 1854 to 1860; relocated to Valdosta.
James W. Patterson, Attorney, 1854
Dr. W. H. Perry, of Troupville, received his medical degree in Augusta in 1843.
Col. Ephriam H. Platt, Attorney and real estate agent, 1853 -1858.
George Robie, Teacher, 1842
Frances Barrett Robie, wife of George Robie
Georgia A. Robie, daughter of George Robie, b. 1842 at Troupville, GA
Charles S. Rockwell, Attorney at Law, doing business in 1846 as the firm of Davies & Rockwell, and in 1848 as the firm of Rockwell & Girardeau; also taught school in Troupville; Livingston’s Law Register, 1852; moved to Thomasville before 1860.
Mrs. S. J. Rogers, ; 1857, member Bible Revision Association
John Slade, Methodist preacher riding on the Troupville circuit.
Aaron Smith – Storekeeper
Duncan Smith, Secretary of the Democratic Party of Lowndes County, 1848; Clerk of court, 1851; Livingston’s Law Register, 1852. attorney, retired;
Henry H. Smith, head of Troupville Bible Society, 1856
Mose Smith – Storekeeper, owned the first store in Troupville
Fourth of July 1835 Jubilee and many of the old familiar pioneers of Lowndes and Berrien, members of the State Rights Association of Lowndes County, GA, had gathered at the county courthouse at Franklinville, GA. State Senator Levi J. Knight, of Beaverdam Creek at present day Ray City, Berrien County, GA, gave a great oration, as did the Reverend Jonathan Gaulden. Big Billy Smith was there, as was Hamilton Sharp, Aaron Knight, Jonathan Knight, John Knight and William Cone Knight, Noah H. Griffin, Martin Shaw, Malachi Monk, Captain David Bell and many others.
After the speechmaking came the celebratory meal, followed by a round of regular toasts to Washington, Jefferson, LaFayette, and to former Georgia Governor, George Michael Troup, as well as some to denounce the excesses of President Andrew Jackson. The event and toasts were reported in The Milledgeville Southern Recorder, a continuation of the report on Fourth of July, At Franklinville, Lowndes County:
The Southern Recorder August 4, 1835
The company the proceeded to partake of a sumptuous dinner prepared by William Smith, Esq.; and when the cloth was removed, the following regular and volunteer toasts were received with the usual good humor and applause. All seemed to go off well, and the jubilee of the day was celebrated with a dignity becoming a free people.
REGULAR TOASTS
The principles that gave birth to the anniversary: unsullied may they remain, for they are the breathings of the spirit of liberty.
The Union: such as our fathers gave us, not as their degenerate sons have abused and perverted it.
The patriotism of Washington: how unlike that of our present military chieftain and the hero serving politicians of the day!
The signers of the declaration of American Independence: may their memory and fame be immortal.
George M. Troup: morally honest, politically honest, and politically right – the brightest luminary that adorns our political hemisphere: Georgia’s boast, and a nation’s pride. We admire the man and revere the patriot.
Thomas Jefferson: the illustrious writer of the declaration of American Independence: may his memory never hereafter be painted by the praises of those who cloak the odium of their principles under a pretended love of the Union.
The State of Georgia in 1825: she then stood proudly prominent among her compeers, battling for her rights. Alas! where is she now?
The right of resistance ever belongs to the oppressed; may its votaries never want, nor be wanting.
Our next President: better to have Hugh L. White with but one scare on his political visage, than to have a Baltimore manufactured President, crammed upon us, stinking with his political usurpation.
Nullification: used by patriots to protect the right of sovereign state – by office seekers and office holders, to frighten people from the true principles of democracy.
Religion liberty and science: may they remain forever as the constellations in the heavens, and visit in succession all the kingdoms, and people of the earth.
General Lafayette: the friend and associate of Washington: may his memory ever live in the hearts of a grateful, brave, free and independent people.
Georgia’s fair sex: “Till Hymen brought his love delighted hour, There dwelt no joy in Eden’s rosy bower; The world was sad – the garden was wild, And man the Hermit sighed, till woman smiled.”
VOLUNTEER TOASTS
By John Blackshear. The Honorable Charles Dougherty, the present nominee for the Executive of the State; his independent, manly course when the judicial mandate of the Supreme Court was present to him in the case of the missionaries, give ample evidence of his qualifications for the highest office within the gift of the people of his native State. Levi J. Knight. State Rights and State Remedies: our political system and policy in 1799; may it never be changed while North America has one proud son to defend it. H. W. Sharpe. The principle that brought about a repeal of the alien and sedition laws of 1798 be my principle, even if that principle be nullification.
Thomas D. Townsend. The preservation of a free government requires, not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially, that neither of them be suffered to overleap that great barrier, the constitution, which defends the rights of the people. The rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment exceed the commissions from which they derive their authority, and are tyrants. The people who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by authority derived from them, and are slaves.
William C. Knight. The patriotic State of South Carolina, with her patriotic rulers, McDuffie, Hamilton, Calhoun, Hayne and others.
John Knight. May it be the steady aim of all our public functionaries in future, to keep our government in that purity in which it stood in 1799.
Sent in by Mrs. Jane Sharpe. The patriotic ladies of the day; may they remember to emulate their Spartan mothers.
Mrs. Mary N. Smith. May the daughters of happy America never want a Washington to defend them.
Mrs. Sarah Underwood. All Fortune’s children except the oldest, Miss Fortune.
William G. Hall. May the tree of liberty long wave its golden branches over the free and happy people of America.
Noah H. Griffin. Nullification: the true conservative of our rights – without it there is no other barrier against usurpation.
Aaron Knight. May the executive of our nation in future cease to contend for enlarged power; but preside with that moderation and meekness that marked the administration of Washington and Jefferson.
Frederick Varn. Success to ex-Governor Hamilton of South Carolina, the originator of Nullification.
Thomas P. Jordan. (a visitor) A speedy and disgraceful death to modern Unionism and man-worship.
D. G. Hutchison. Samuel Chase, the independent statesman; after enumerating many a glaring instance of ministerial violation of American rights, with a voice of thunder that made the hollow dome resound, he swore a might oath that he owed no allegiance to the King of England. ‘Twas then the Demosthenes of Maryland first taught the startled hails of Congress Hall to re-echo the name of independence. May the youths of America imitate his example.
James Smith. Our next Governor: may he be emulous even to ape Troup.
John Dees. The Honorable A. S. Clayton: the fearless asserter of State Rights and true principles.
Owen Smith. The doctrine of State Rights: while it protects us from the unhallowed ravages of tyranny, may it remain an unshaken bulwark against the destructive fury of faction.
John M. Cranie jr The Honorable Charles Dougherty: may he be our next Governor.
James M. Bates. The sovereignty of the States: purchased by the blood of the whigs of the Revolution: may the whigs of the day remember it, and remembering feel it.
David Mathis. Our republican institutions: may they continue to diffuse light and liberty to the happy subjects of America.
Jonathan Knight. May the State Rights party succeed in restoring the fallen character of Georgia to the elevation in which it stood in 1825.
Martin Shaw, jr. May American virtue shine when every other light is out: may freedom of election be preserved, the trial by jury maintained, and the liberty of the press be secured to the latest posterity.
C. S. Gauldin. The Constitution formed by the wisest hands, increased in its vigor, until federalism gave it a wound in a vital part. Jefferson applying the balm, republicanism, cured the wound. Federalism has again entered its vitals; may another Jefferson rise to apply again the restorative State Rights, and restore it to its pristine vigor.
Capt. Bell. Nullification: used by State Rights men to protect the rights of the States; by office seekers and office holders to frighten fiats into subjects liege and true to the conqueror of Napoleon’s conquerors, but the violator of that constitution he had sworn to defend. William Smith. The fair sex: The only endurable aristocracy, who elect without votes, govern without laws, decide without appeal, and are never in the wrong.
James D. Smith. The three greatest and best Generals – general peace, general plenty and general satisfaction.
Wm. G. Smith. When wine enlivens the heart, may friendship surround the table. Joel Gornto. His Excellency Wilson Lumpkin: Georgia’s constant friend, the pure and immaculate statesman; his public acts, though, much abused by political demagogues, will ever be supported bu the yeomanry of Georgia.
M. Monk. State Rights without nullification, Union without consolidation.
1835 Independence Day toasts at Franklinville, GA. The Southern Recorder, August 4, 1835.
In the winter of 1824-25 a group of Revolutionary War “Baby Boomers” came west from Wayne County, Georgia to settle in what was then Irwin County, near the area that would one day become known as Ray City, Georgia. They were among the whites who swarmed into Irwin to carve out homesteads after the Creek Indians were coerced into ceding their south Georgia land to the state. “The state parceled out the area to whites through land lotteries. Cheap land offered a golden opportunity for upward social mobility, and the region developed quickly” (Wynn & Harrison, 1998).
They were politically connected and probably had full knowledge that the huge area of Irwin county, occupying the central third of southern Georgia, was about to be divided into smaller counties. “Irwin County, extending from the Ocmulgee River” to the border with Spanish Florida,” was created in 1818, but as new settlers demanded control over local affairs, the Georgia General Assembly carved out of it Lowndes (1825), Clinch (1850), Berrien (1856), and Brooks (1858) counties.”
Among the leaders of this small band of settlers were William Anderson Knight and wife Sarah Cone Knight, his brother Samuel Knight, and his son-in-law Isben Giddens. They brought with them their families, children, livestock, and their possessions to make a new home in the new county of Lowndes, which was created from parts of Irwin County in 1825. These pioneers were experienced at opening up a new county. They were frontiersmen with militia experience, and also experienced at carving farms and plantations from the wilderness of the Wiregrass. In a sense, they were the first ‘Americans’, born between the time of the Declaration of Independence and the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. They were raised in a time of war; their fathers served as Revolutionary Soldiers. Like the baby boomers of later wars, they grew up in a sort of post-war boom period, where Americans were celebrating their new-found independence and freedom.
The Knights were true Wiregrass pioneers. They could make or “make do” for the necessities of pioneer life. According to a biographical sketch of James Madison Knight (1879-1953), among other skills, William A. Knight was known as a “rifle maker, who made many of the guns with which warfare was carried on against Cherokee Indians.”
They came to this section from Wayne County, where William A. Knight had been among the very first settlers, arriving there about 1803. The Knight place in Wayne County was situated near the Old Post Road, one of the earliest roads in Georgia. On the land adjacent to Knight’s, another Wiregrass pioneer, William Clements, had settled his family. The Knights and the Clements became steadfast friends with many family and business dealings; William Knight and William Clements served together on the Wayne county Grand Jury of 1813 and worked together in other civic capacities.
Old Post Road Historic Marker, Glynn County, GA
The Old Post Road…was originally an Indian trail extending from St. Augustine, Florida, northward through south Georgia into the rolling country known as the Sand Hill section. Mitchell’s map of 1756, now in the Library of Congress in Washington, shows this trail. During the Revolutionary War the American forces marched along it on their way to attack a British contingent at Fort Tonyn, which was somewhere south of [U.S. Hwy 84]. Historians have not been able to determine the exact site. The road continued to be used as a stagecoach route and post road between Savannah and Florida until the War between the States.
When Wayne County had been created in 1803, William A. Knight was one of five commissioners empowered by the Georgia Legislature to determine the site of the county seat in the new county, and “when it was done it was located on lands owned by Mr. Knight and by William Clements.” The Wayne county seat became known as Tuckersville, after resident John Tucker who served as the first postmaster there. (Waynesville was not officially designated as the county seat until 1829.) William A. Knight served as a post master after John Tucker, and William Clements served as a Wayne County road commissioner. Tuckersville was located somewhere north of Waynesville on the Post Road near the Buffalo Swamp, once the home and feeding grounds of herds of Georgia buffalo. The town disappeared from maps after 1850 and its exact location remains a mystery. In its first twenty years, Wayne County was slow in developing. William A. Knight served as the tax collector for 1806 and 1807, but no monies were returned to the state Comptroller General’s office for those years. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia “The area contained hundreds of acres of pine barrens and wiregrass country. Much of the land was undesirable for settlement… Many of the early white settlers were families who, having lost their bids to win richer land in Baldwin or Wilkinson counties in the 1805 land lottery, settled for the isolation and less desirable land offered by Wayne County.” Perhaps the lack of economic development in Wayne County finally discouraged the Knights. For whatever reason, it appears they decided there were better opportunities in opening up a new county than remaining behind in Wayne County.
As a member of the state Legislature, William A. Knight undoubtedly knew of the impending division of the vast Irwin County into smaller counties. The military road constructed by John Coffee and Thomas Swain in 1823 had opened up the south central Georgia territory to pioneer settlers (see Daniel McCranie). Coffee’s road, as it was soon known, passed from Jacksonville, GA through the site of present day Nashville, GA and on southward to the Florida line.
Coffee Road Historic Marker, Nashville GA
When the Knights left their farms and came to south central Georgia to build their “log cabin in the wilds of the Wiregrass”, this area of Georgia was all part of the huge Irwin county. Lowndes was created from 2080 square miles carved out of Irwin, which had been plotted into Land Districts. Located on the center of Georgia’s southern border with Florida, Lowndes was still a quite large county. It would later be further divided with portions going into six present day counties; Lowndes, Brooks, Cook, Tift, Clinch, Lanier, and Berrien counties.
William Anderson Knight chose a home site on the northwest edge of Grand Bay in what was soon to be Lowndes County. This area, in the 10th land district of Irwin County, had good water and better soil than the typical pine barrens of Wayne County. It was situated between the Alapaha River to the east and the Withlacoochee and its tributaries to the west.
William Cone “Big Billie” Knight, born October 8, 1805, married Rachel Carter, daughter of Jessie Carter.
John Knight, born July 7, 1807
Sarah Knight, born October 10, 1809
Elizabeth Knight, born September 23, 1811
Aaron Knight, born July 17, 1813
Jonathan Knight, born January 16, 1817
William A. Knight’s place was near the route, such as it was, from Waynesville to Thomasville, GA. About nine miles to the west was Coffee’s Road; equidistant to the east was the site of Union Church, the Primitive Baptist church organized in 1825 by Reverend Fleming Bates and Reverend Matthew Albritton with the Knights, Pattens, Lees and Sirmans as founding members.
Historic Marker – Union Church, organized 1825. Sarah and William A. Knight were founding members.
Knight and Union Church played a significant role in the rapid growth of Primitive Baptist churches throughout the Wiregrass region. Union Church was at the head of the local organization of these churches into a Primitive Baptist Association, then known as the Ochlocknee Association. In 1833, Knight was appointed to travel these new churches to instruct them on their duties and responsibilities to the Association. On July 13, 1833, William A. Knight along with Fleming Bates and John Tucker formed the presbytery to constitute Providence Church in “East Florida, Columbia County on Olustee,” according to the original minutes of that church (FL Baptist Historical Society).
By 1835, when Union Church and other churches of south Georgia and north Florida sought to divide from the Ochlocknee Primitive Baptist Association, Knight served on the presbytery in the organization of the new Suwannee Primitive Baptist Association.
The Knight’s were influential in the development of Lowndes county from the very beginning, from the convening of the first superior court to the representation in state politics. William A. Knight became the first state senator elected from Lowndes county to serve in the Georgia Assembly, and his son Jonathan Knight became the first state representative.
Following his parents , Levi J. Knight brought his new bride, Ann Clements Herrin Knight, to homestead in Lowndes County in 1827. Anne was the daughter of the Knights’ Wayne County neighbors, William and Elizabeth Clements. L. J. Knight chose a spot not far from Grand Bay, on Beaverdam Creek, where he established his home site. Perhaps even then he saw that the headwaters of Beaverdam Creek could some day be impounded to provide water power for a settlement. Levi J. Knight’s homestead became the nucleus of a community, first known simply as Knight, GA that later grew into present day Ray City, GA.
Jonathan Perry Knight was born in Ray’s Mill, GA. in Berrien County on March 14 1872. A son of John Graham Knight and Mary A. Davis, he was the middle of three children. His grandfather, Levi J. Knight, served as a major in the Indian War, a major-general in the state militia, and as a captain in the Confederate army.
In his basic education Jonathan P. Knight attended the schools of Berrien County. When he was 16 he was presented with a prize by his teacher, W.L. Patton, “For Your Merit in School.” The prize was a book, “The Life of Daniel Webster“, which was to have a profound and lasting affect on the young man.
Jonathan Perry Knight went on to study at North Georgia Agricultural College in Dahlonega, GA (now the University of North Georgia). The college was a military academy and military duty was obligatory for all male students over the age of 15. The cadets drilled daily in artillery, infantry and other exercises.
Cadets on parade in front of North Georgia Agricultural College, 1894. Jonathan Perry Knight, of Rays Mill, GA attended the college around the late 1880s.
Returning to south Georgia, he took up teaching in Berrien and Lowndes Counties, “and considered the teaching profession as a sacred trust.”
On March 18, 1892, the Tifton Gazette reported “From Ray’s Mill…Mr. J.P. Knight has a school of between 25 and 30 pupils at the Academy.” Two miles south of Ray’s Mill (now Ray City), Robert Crawford Woodard was teaching at Knight’s Academy. The two men would later work together as state legislators.
On November 6, 1896 at the age of 23, he married Ada Parrish at Lois, Georgia. That same year he was elected Clerk of the Superior Court of Berrien County for the term beginning in 1897, and moved to the county seat in Nashville, GA. To Jonathan and Ada a son was born on May 1, 1898. This was the same day in which Commodore George Dewey led US Naval forces to a decisive victory over the Spanish fleet in the Battle of Manilla Bay. Just a few weeks earlier, the Spanish-American War had broken out and the newspapers of the time were full of sensationalism. No where was there greater fervor than in Georgia. “When the United States became involved in war with Spain, Georgia furnished according to population more volunteers than any other State of the Union.”
It seems that the war was paramount in the minds of the Knights, as they expressed their patriotism by naming their new son Dewey Knight, in honor of the nation’s new naval hero. The couple had three additional children, Thelma, Jonathan, and Nell.
Jonathan Perry Knight continued to serve as the Clerk of the Superior Court in Berrien County until 1900, when he aspired to higher political office. In February, 1900 The Atlanta Constitution reported:
“It is also very probably that Mr. John P. Knight, at present clerk of Berrien superior court, will offer as a candidate for representative in the general assembly. It is not known as yet who will oppose him, but there likely will be one or more opponents.”
As expected J.P. Knight did contend for the house seat, and his opponents in the short campaign were W.L. Kennon and H. K. Hutchinson of Adel. Ballots were cast on May 15, 1900 and a large voter turn out was reported for Berrien County. On the morning of May 16th, The Atlanta Constitution reported that Knight was elected to the Georgia General Assembly as the Representative from Berrien County.
Representative Knight took to his new office with relish. During the passage of the Depot Bill, his sensibilities were apparently offended by the “lobbyism and the use of whiskey.” “J.P. Knight, being disgusted with the way things were going, sent to the speaker’s desk a privileged resolution to have the hall cleared of all save those entitled to seats, which when read by the speaker, was refused recognition.” Apparently, when it came to a question of whiskey, the other legislators didn’t see eye to eye with the freshman representative from Berrien. Later, Knight would write a letter charging that there was lobbying and outright “drunkeness” in the Georgia House of Representatives on the day the Depot Bill was passed.
Among his other legislative activities, he was on the legislative committee that visited Dahlonega, GA in December 1901 to inspect the North Georgia Agricultural College. His position on that committee was fitting, since he attended college in Dahlonega. Georgia’s Public Men 1902-1904 noted, “He took a prominent part in the deliberation of the House during his first term and also in the recent campaign for the governorship.”
In a report filed from Tifton, GA, The Atlanta Constitution of March 4, 1902 announced that Knight would seek re-election. Among his expected opponents was Joseph A. Alexander, who had three years earlier represented Ray City murder defendant, J. T. Biggles.
“J.P Knight announces himself for reelection to the house, and it is said that he will be opposed by either Joseph A. Alexander formerly senator, John R. McCranie , former representative, or F.M. Shaw, Jr., chairman board of county commissioners, who has represented Berrien in the legislature several years ago. All are prominent and popular and the race for representative should be lively indeed.”23
In fact, the strongest challenge to Knight’s re-election bid was M.S. Patten. As voters went to the polls in June 1902, The Atlanta Constitution printed Berrien election reports filed from from Tifton, GA:
“The race is very close between J.P. Knight and M.S. Patten for representative, with chances in favor of Knight. When all the votes were counted J.P. Knight was re-elected to the House of Representatives in the Georgia General Assembly. He was appointed to serve on the committees for: Immigration, Invalid Pensions; Mines and Mining; Roads and Bridges; and, Wild Lands. In the description of the Honorable J.P. Knight given in Georgia’s Public Men, his occupation was given as “farmer and cotton buyer. “
In September of that year, Honorable John P. Knight was in Macon, Georgia where he was entering the study of law at Mercer College. He was hailed in the newspapers as ” one of the most influential members of the next house. His past record in the legislature is highly creditable to him.” Nine months later, in June of 1903 J.P. Knight was among 37 new attorneys who were graduated from Mercer. The newspaper announcement observed that 24 of the 37 students had college degrees. Knight was one of two married men in the graduating class. The paper noted that as a member of the Georgia legislature, “he has kept the class and professors posted on the acts of Georgia’s lawmakers.” In the individual records of men, Knight was honored thus,
“Hon. J.P. Knight, representative of the state legislature from Berrien county, will receive his diploma with all honor and glory. Mr. Knight, like all modern politicians, gets along with all the boys. He is one of the highest men in the class. He attended college at Dahlonega. In 1896 he was elected clerk of the superior court of Berrien County and held that office until 1900, when he was elected to the state legislature, where he has been ever since. In spite of the fact that the gentleman from Berrien attended to his legislative duties during the last session, he will be honored with a degree. His friends at Nashville, Ga. will be glad to know that he intends returning home to practice his profession.”
Knight was admitted to the Bar of Georgia in April of 1903, and began to practice law in Nashville, the courts of Georgia, and in Federal Court.
In the Georgia state election of 1904, Knight put in for a third term in the term in the House of Representatives in the Georgia General Assembly. Challenging for the seat was C.W. Fulwood. With votes being cast on April 20th, the Atlanta Constitution called the election for the challenger, ” incomplete returns from one of the hardest fought campaigns ever held in Berrien indicate the election of C. W. Fulwood over J.P. Knight for representative by about 200 majority.” But the next day, with all votes counted Knight was declared the winner.
That year J. P. Knight also served on a local Berrien county committee to solicit and collect funds for the construction of a monument to the confederate general John B. Gordon.
Back in the Georgia Assembly for 1905, Knight served on several standing House Committees. “Knight of Berrien” served on the House standing Committees on Corporations, Education, Penitentiary, Immigration, Manufacturers, Blind Asylum, Auditing, and the Western and Atlantic Railroad.
With the following election of 1906, he was elected to a term in the Georgia Senate. In an interesting note, the Nashville Herald reported on August 13, 1909, “Hon. Jon P. Knight and County Treasurer D.D. Shaw went to Atlanta Tuesday night to help sing the Doxology at the closing of the Georgia Legislature.”
In 1907 J.P. Knight presided as Mayor of Nashville. He was a member of the state Democratic executive committee, and attended the committee meeting of April, 1908. In October he was back in Atlanta.
Atlanta Georgian and News, Oct. 23, 1908 — page 11 Senator Knight Here. Senator John P. Knight, of Berrien county, who figured prominently in the settlement of the convict lease legislation when that matter was before the state senate, was a visitor at the capitol Friday. He came on business connected with a pardon and was in consultation with both the members of the prison commission and the governor.
In 1909 it was rumored in local politics reported in the Atlanta Constitution that he would run for Solicitor General of the Circuit Court in Nashville, a position being vacated by Will Thomas in a bid for the judgeship of the court.
Atlanta Georgian and News, Oct. 1, 1909 — page 15 Hon. J.P. Knight Ill. Nashville, Ga., Oct. 1 Hon J.P. Knight, who has represented Berrien county in the lower house and in the state senate, is very ill at his home in Nashville.
He was a Judge of the City Court of Nashville, Judge of Alapaha Judicial Circuit, and he served as Chairman of the Trustees of the City Schools of Nashville, GA for many years.
He put his hat in the ring in 1910 to run for U.S. congressman for the Second Congressional District to fill out the unexpired term of the late James M. Griggs. He won the Berrien County vote by a landslide but it wasn’t enough to carry the district.
Ada Parrish Knight died February 1913 in Berrien Co., Ga.
Children of Ada Parrish and Jonathan Perry Knight:
Dewey Knight 1898 – 1983 Spouses: Laura FRASEUR
Thelma Knight 1901 – 1983 Spouses: Joseph Stanley UPCHURCH
Nell “Nellie” Knight 1905 – 1996 Spouse: George ERICKSON
Jonathan P. Knight 1907 – 1984 Spouses: Elizabeth BAKER
Jonathan Perry Knight again ran for state office and was elected the Berrien Representative to the Georgia Assembly for the 1915-1916 term. He returned again for the 1919-1920 term.
In the 1920’s, Jonathan Perry Knight and his son, Dewey Knight, had a law practice together in Nashville. It was not unusual to see the law firm of Jno. P. and Dewey Knight mentioned in the legal advertisements in the Nashville Herald as representing the plaintiff in some divorce action, or offering to negotiate farm loans.
In 1924 he returned to the bench to served out an unexpired term as Judge of the Superior Court, and later that year he was elected to a subsequent term serving until December 31,1928.
Following the loss of his first wife Ada in 1914 J. P. Knight married again, to Gladys Brooks. In 1928, Mrs. John P. Knight served on the Board of Directors of South Georgia Junior State College at Douglas, GA. The school had just one year earlier been converted from a state high school (11th District Agricultural & Mechanical School) to a two year college.
J. P. Knight and Gladys Brooks Knight had one son, Jack Knight, who served as an Air Force Colonel.
Jon P. Knight died December 28, 1953.
In retrospection, the Historical Notes of Berrien County observed, “He enjoyed traveling, fishing, gardening, reminiscing with old friends, and the radio; he loved Georgia, Berrien County, family, and friends with deep devotion; he despised hypocrisy, snobbery and laziness. He lived in Berrien County all his life – was a real Berrien County product, boy and man.“
Cite: Georgia. (1927). Georgia’s official register. Atlanta: The Dept.].pg 117-118
SUPERIOR COURTS ALAPAHA CIRCUIT JONATHAN PERRY KNIGHT, Nashville, Judge. Born Mch. 14, 1872 at Rays Mill, Berrien Co., Ga. Son of John Graham Knight (born June 23, 1832 in Berrien Co., Ga.; lived at Rays Mill, Ga.; served the four years of the War Between the States in Stonewall Jackson’s Corps; died May 8, 1908) and Mary (Davis) Knight (born near Tallahassee, Leon Co., Fla.; died Sep. 19,1902). Grandson of Levi J. Knight (born Sep. 1, 1803; senator. Lowndes Co.. 1832, 1834, 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840, 1853/54, 1855/56; senator, 5th Dist., 1851/52; member. Constitutional Convention 1868; major-general, 6th Div., Ga. Militia, Dec. 4, 1840-; died Feb. 23, 1870) and Ann D. Knight, and of James and Rena Davis, who lived near Valdosta, Ga. Educated in local schools. North Ga. Agr. College, and Mercer University (law course). Began the practice of law July 13, 1903 at Nashville, Ga.
Married (1) Nov. 3, 1896 Ada E. Parrish (Nov. 1880-Feb. 12, 1914), dau. of John A. Parrish; married (2) June 21, 1915 in Jacksonville, Fla., Gladys Brooks (born Nov. 5, 1893). Children by first marriage: Dewey of Miami, Fla.; Thelma (Mrs. J. S. Upchurch), Thomasville, Ga.; Nell of Miami, Fla.; John of Miami, Fla.; by second marriage, one child. Jack, age 6 years. Baptist. Democrat. Clerk, Superior Court, Jan. 1, 1897-Oct. 20, 1900; member. House of Rep., Berrien Co., 1900-01, 1902-03-04, 1905-06. 1915-15 Ex.-16-17 Ex., 1919-20; senator, 6th Dist., 1907-08-08 Ex; chairman, board of education, Nashville, eight years; judge, Alapaha Cir. Oct. 21, 1924-date (term expires Jan. 1, 1929).
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