tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26906853281113538242024-03-19T00:44:27.681-04:00Through Mountain MistsEthelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.comBlogger439125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-15926232681402656292012-03-29T09:48:00.001-04:002012-04-12T14:00:01.091-04:00The Rev. John Corn, Another Son of Elder Rev. Adam Corn<div align="justify">We’ve traced the story of Elder Adam Corn who moved to Union County from North Carolina as early as 1839 and of his second son, the Rev. Alfred E. Corn, both of whom were noted as missionaries to the Indians and were instrumental in planting churches in the new settlements to which they moved. The first son of Adam and Hannah Heatherly Corn was John who was born October 18, 1813 near Cullowhee in what was then Buncombe County, North Carolina, now Jackson County. John was already married when his father Adam and the rest of his siblings relocated to Union County, Georgia. John and his wife and one child under five were listed in the 1840 census of Union, but the census taker mistakenly spelled John’s last name as Carne instead of Corn. <br /><p> John Corn’s marriage to Mary Wade (known as “Polly”) Carter was recorded in Rabun County, Georgia as occurring on November 10, 1836 with the Rev. Robert Wood, also a Justice of the Peace, performing their marriage ceremony. Polly’s parents were Jesse Carter and Lavina Sams Carter. The Carter line went back to Edward Carter from Oxfordshire, England who settled in Pennsylvaniaabout 1682. Before Jesse and Lavina Carter moved to Rabun County, they had lived in Buncombe County near Cullowhee and their daughter Polly and John Corn knew each other then, and probably fell in love. He went to Rabun County to court and marry her in 1836. Polly was about three years older than John, having been born September 20, 1810 on the farm where her parents then lived at the Atkins Branch of the Big Ivy River near Cullowhee, NC. The young couple made their home at first at Cullowhee, but then when Adam Corn, John’s father, decided to migrate to Union County, Georgia to secure land available for settlement there, John and Polly decided to move, too. <br /><p>We have seen from previous stories about Adam and Alfred that Rev. Adam Corn baptized his two older sons in the Hiawasee River near Macedonia Baptist Church in 1841. John Corn’s license to preach was issued by Macedonia Church on December 17, 1842. Two years later, on November 16, 1844, John Corn was ordained to the gospel ministry by that same Macedonia Church. Serving on the presbytery and ordaining council to question John were his father, Rev. Adam Corn, and neighboring pastors Rev. James Kimsey and Rev. Singleton Sisk. <br /><p>A very significant event took place in Augusta, Georgia in May of 1845. Messengers gathered from states having Baptist Conventions and cooperating Baptist churches to discuss and act upon the proposal to form the convention and establish a Board of Domestic Missions, of Foreign Missions, of Education and other benevolent entities. Four friends discussed the importance of the meeting in advance, and they were made messengers from their respective churches in Union County to attend the organizational meeting. They had been given credentials for voting on proposals presented at the Augusta meeting. The men rode in Major Josiah Carter’s carriage drawn by two fine horses. With the routes available then from Blairsville to Augusta, we can imagine they went provisioned to camp out along the way since it would have been a several-days journey. In the group were the Rev. John Corn, the Rev. Elisha Hedden, the Rev. Elijah Kimsey and Major Josiah Carter. Major Carter was a brother-in-law to Rev. John Corn, the brother of John’s wife, Polly Carter Corn. Not only did these four men from Union County vote to form the Southern Baptist Convention, but Major Carter himself pledged there to contribute to foreign missions. Not only would he hold true to his pledge, but three of his granddaughters and one great grandson later became appointed foreign missionaries. The long trip to Augusta for these three ministers and one layman had far-reaching effects. <br /><p> Rev. John and Mary Carter Corn lived in the Upper Hightower section of Towns County, a portion taken in when Towns was formed from Union in 1856. There they had a farm and reared their family: Lucinda Caroline who married Lafayette McKinney and Rev. Will Eller; Hannah Lavina who married Marion Stonecypher; John Heatherly who married Sarah Elizabeth Dillard; Mary Adeline (an invalid) who never married; and Nancy Elizabeth who married Ransom Smith. <br /><p> Rev. John Corn was pastor of the Upper Hightower Baptist Church in his community for many years. It was said that, because that church was in his home district, he would never accept money for his services. Other churches he pastored were Old Union and Bell Creek in Towns County, and at Franklin and Valley River in North Carolina. He was listed as the first moderator of the Hiawassee Baptist Association when it was organized in 1849.<br /> <p>But farming and preaching were not the only two interests of the Rev. John Corn. When the Civil War was looming and the secession of Georgia from the Union seemed eminent, Rev. John Corn and Rev. Elijah Kimsey were elected representatives from Towns County to attend the secession convention held at the state capitol, then located at Milledgeville, Georgia, a four-hundred miles round trip by horseback from Hiawassee. Each of these representatives voted against Georgia’s seceding from the Union.</p></div><div align="justify"><p>Rev. John Corn was a slave owner. He bought two young slave girls from his brother-in-law Major Josiah Carter. Harriet, a slave girl, age 7 was purchased for $750 in 1861, and Susan, age 14, for $1,600 in 1863. He purchased a 17 year old slave lad at a slave auction in South Carolina for $850 in 1862.<br /><p> When he was 48, Rev. John Corn was drafted into the Confederate Army and served, according to his pension record, as Captain of Company D, 24th Regiment of the Georgia Volunteers. His service lasted from June 21, 1861 through May 22, 1862. When the elder Rev. John Corn resigned his commission, his son John Heatherly Corn enlisted in the Georgia Cavalry, Company A of the Sixth Regiment and served until the end of the war. </p></div><div align="justify"><p>In 1874, Rev. Corn was elected as Towns County’s representative to the Georgia Legislature. By then, the state capitol had been relocated from Milledgeville to Atlanta. While inroute to his legislative duties, he became ill and had to return home. He died from complications with pneumonia at his home at Upper Hightower on January 2, 1875. He was interred in the Corn family cemetery at Upper Hightower near his home. Mary Polly Corn died January 14, 1879 and was also laid to rest in the family cemetery.<br /><p>A special election was held through orders of Georgia Governor James Smith, and Samuel Y. Jameson, the great-uncle of Dr. S. Y. Jameson, President of Mercer University, Macon, was elected as Rev. John Corn’s successor to represent Towns County in the Georgia Legislature. Just as John Corn’s son, John Heatherly Corn, followed his father’s example and served in the Civil War, so he entered politics, becoming Towns County legislator for the 1884-1885 term. John Heatherly Corn also served as postmaster of the Visage post office in Towns County from 1875 through 1913, the entire life of that post office. The Corn families contributed much to early development of both Union and Towns Counties.<br /> <p>c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. Published March 29, 2012 online with permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved. </p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-17756422904411664372012-03-22T10:41:00.001-04:002012-04-12T13:47:56.350-04:00The Rev. Alfred Corn, Son of Elder Rev. Adam Corn<div align="justify">The Rev. Elder Adam Corn and his wife, Hannah Heatherly Corn, had at least nine known children, all of whom grew up to be solid citizens. When Union County gave up a section of its land to form Towns County in 1856, the Corn families were in a new county without having to move from the farms on which they had settled.<br /><p> As we saw in last week’s article about Elder Rev. Adam Corn, he was a Baptist preacher and a church planter. He helped to organize several churches within the Union and Towns Counties areas. One was the Macedonia Baptist Church southeast of Hiawassee. Into the membership of that church, the Elder Rev. Corn baptized his two older sons, John and Alfred in the year 1841. Both of these men became outstanding leaders in church, associational and missions work, and both became ordained ministers and denominational leaders. The story is told that one of the favorite pastimes of these brothers when they were young was to find a stump to use as a pulpit and to “preach away” to anyone who would take the time to listen, perhaps their younger siblings or neighbor children. But even with this early practice as pulpiteers, it was not until John was twenty-eight and Alfred was twenty-four that they were baptized by their father in the Hiawassee River and accepted into the membership of Macedonia Baptist Church.<br /><p> We will trace first some of the work of Alfred E. Corn, the second child of Adam and Hannah Corn. He was born January 19, 1817 before the Corn family left Buncombe County, NC to begin their travels to other points where they settled. He married Nancy T. Cook on January 16, 1842. I thought I might find their marriage record in Union County, Georgia marriages, since the Corn family moved from North Carolina to Georgia about 1839. I found that Rev. Alfred Corn performed marriage ceremonies for several in Union, but his marriage record to Nancy was not listed in Union. Rev. Alfred and Nancy Cook Corn had children Arminta Jane (1843-1932) who married Mangum Bryson; John Adam (1845-1864) who died in the Civil War but had married Ivy Ann Loudermilk on May 13, 1862. John Adam and Ivy Ann had a son, John Alfred, born in 1863. After his father’s death, his grandfather reared him. This young man became a prosperous property owner and served as both a state legislator and a Senator from the Towns County area. Rev. Alfred Corn’s first wife Nancy died in 1884 and he married, second, to Amanda Matthewson on May 22, 1885. <br /> <p> Alfred Corn was ordained to the gospel ministry by the Antioch Baptist Church of Union County on October 19, 1850. Little did those who sat in on his presbytery realize what a stalwart leader he would become in denominational work. He served for a number of years as an appointee of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board (known then as the Baptist Board of Domestic Missions) to the Indians in North Carolina. He had to preach through an interpreter to be understood by the Cherokee. He was pastor of the Old Union Baptist Church at Young Harris for about 20 years. He was recognized as an outstanding leader in the Hiawassee Baptist Association and the Georgia Baptist Convention. He and Alphaeus Swanson led in organizing the West Union Baptist Church in Hiawassee Association.<br /><p>He kept journals which tell of hardships during the Civil War. In one, he told how glad he was to see his son, John Adam, home for a brief leave from the Civil War. But later he lamented that, because of his son’s death, his family could never be together again as they once were on this earth. In 1864 his journal shows that he could not get to some of his church appointments because of unrest and “invasion of Yankee troops” that pillaged and robbed. Those same “snipers” stole his faithful steed that had taken him thousands of miles on his journeys to preach and do his missionary service.<br /><p> He was also noted as an itinerant preacher and was invited to preach at summer camp meetings such as that at Fightingtown, a summer gathering held on a former Cherokee Indian Council Ground in Epworth, Fannin County, Georgia. He was one of the early invited guests after the camp meetings were reinstatedfollowing the Civil War.Known for his level-headedness and attention to duty, he left his mark in several North Georgia and North Carolina counties as he labored to build stronger churches. He and his first wife Nancy Cook Corn were buried in the Old Union Baptist Church Cemetery, Young Harris, Georgia. She died December 26, 1884 and Alfred died July 16, 1905.<br /> <p>c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. Published March 22, 2012 online with permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved. </p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-45051649844273498582012-03-15T10:32:00.000-04:002012-04-12T13:39:43.814-04:00Early Union County Settler Adam Corn Noted as a Minister<div align="justify">He was likely referred to as “Elder” Corn among those who knew him. His name was Adam Corn, an ordained Baptist minister, who was living with his family in Union County Georgia by the time of the 1840 census. Extant family stories about this pioneer state that he moved here from North Carolina by 1839. In the 1839 census, his household had four males and four females. By age distribution, one male was five to ten, one was ten to fifteen, one twenty to thirty, and one fifty to sixty; females were two aged fifteen to twenty, one thirty to forty, and one fifty to sixty. The elder two listed in the household would likely have been Rev. Adam Corn and his wife, Hannah Heatherly Corn. Although the last name of another family living in Union at the time of the 1840 census was spelled Carne, it was likely intended to be Corn, the eldest son of Rev. Adam Corn. In that household were John Carne (Corn) who was between thirty and forty, his wife, and one child, a female under five. <br /><p> As we shall see, this early Baptist minister was what we call today a church planter, for everywhere he went, including Union and Towns Counties in North Georgia, he started new churches. He was aided in this work (especially in the North Carolina area) by two more noted ministers of that early settlements era, the Rev. Humphrey Posey and the Rev. Stephen Smith. Bonded together in their work with frontier settlements and mission work with the Cherokee Indians, these men contributed significantly to early church establishment and mission work in Virginia, North and South Carolina and North Georgia.<br /><p> Adam Corn was born May 2, 1783 in Albemarle County, Virginia, the son of John Peter and Elizabeth Parr Corn. His father was a Revolutionary War soldier. His grandparents were Matthew and Millie Corn and John and Miriam Parr, all of Henry County, Virginia. When Adam was a young lad of about eleven, his family moved from Virginia to Surrey County, North Carolina, then on to Wilkes County where so many who migrated from Union County had settled. <br /><p> Adam Corn met Hannah Heatherly in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Her parents had migrated there from the old Pendleton District in South Carolina. Adam and Hannah were living near her parents, the John Heatherlys, in the 1810 census of Buncombe County. Adam was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1812 by the Mud Creek Baptist Church in Henderson, North Carolina. Thus began his career as a minister, church organizer and itinerant preacher and pastor. We trace several moves over the next years as he assisted the Rev. Humphrey Posey of the Board of Domestic Missions and the Rev. Stephen White, sometimes called a “hardshell Baptist preacher” to organize churches. “Hardshell” often referred to an anti-missions position of doctrine. Since Corn and Posey were obviously quite missions-minded, one wonders how the three then cooperated. Perhaps the demarcations in beliefs were not as divisive in those early years and people welcomed ordained itinerant preachers to deliver sermons, perform funerals and weddings, and baptize converts at the locations of scattered churches. </p></div><div align="justify"><p> We trace Adam Corn’s ministry to the Cullowhee District in Jackson County, North Carolina where their eldest son, John, was born in 1813, and where he assisted with missions to the Indians and in organizing the Cullowhee Baptist Church. He was also an organizer of the Tuckaseegee Baptist Association at Cullowhee and presided at the meeting. He was present and led in organizing the Waynesville Baptist Church in 1823. He, the Rev. Stephen White and the Rev. Humphrey Posey organized the Cowee Baptist Church on March 15, 1828, and Rev. Posey served as its first pastor. Other churches he and the Rev. Humphrey Posey founded were the Locust Field Baptist Church in Canton (now First Baptist of Canton, NC), Mt. Zion Baptist Church at the Arneechee Ford of the Oconaluftee River, as well as the Luftee Baptist Church, the latter in 1836. <br /><p>Then when Indian lands opened up in Union County, Georgia, Elder Adam Corn moved his family there about 1839. Within that area Rev. Corn led in organizing Macedonia Baptist Church which is south of present-day Hiawassee in Towns County, Brasstown Baptist Church, and Old Union Baptist Church in Young Harris. Towns County was formed from Union in 1856. Without moving, Rev. Adam Corn became a resident of the new county. Their farm was in the Bell Creek Community. He continued active in the ministry for all of his long life. Records show that he baptized his two older sons, John and Alfred, in the Hiawassee River in 1841 and they became members of the Macedonia Baptist Church their father had helped to organize. Alfred himself became a noted minister. Adam’s son John Corn served as the first moderator of the Hiawassee Baptist Association in 1849.<br /><p> The graves of Rev. Adam Corn and his wife Hannah Heatherly Corn are in the Lower Bell Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. She died February 8, 1859 and he died September 12, 1871, at age 88. He had served as a minister for sixty years.<br /> <p>c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. Published March 15, 2012 online with permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved. </p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-79744016543589246132012-03-08T07:05:00.005-05:002012-03-27T19:13:33.330-04:00Appalachian Values and Some People Who Exemplify Them (part 3)<div align="justify">We have looked at Appalachian Values as specified by Loyal Jones in his book, <em>Appalachian Values</em> (Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994) and listed thus far religion, independence (that covers also self-reliance and pride), neighborliness, familism (love for family) and personalism (or relating well with others). Today we will complete his list with humility (modesty), love of place, patriotism, sense of beauty and sense of humor. <br /><p>Mountain people hold to humility and modesty. They do not like to take credit for any achievements they might have accomplished. They had rather defer compliments to others, or at least defect them from themselves by saying such things as, “Well, this of which you speak is really not that good, not worthy of honor, anyway.” Take for example a man from Union County, who had to bear much of the responsibility of helping his mother rear his siblings after his father died. After a hard youth and manhood, he went forth from the mountains and did quite well as a leader in the state of Georgia. His name was Mauney Douglas Collins who for twenty-five years served as the state school superintendent. During his decade in the top school position in Georgia, he led in innumerableachievements in educational advancement to his credit. Among them were moving scattered one-teacher schools into consolidation, getting the “Minimum Program of Education” funded and a more stabletax base for education established, free textbooks, school and public libraries, nine months of school for all students, bus transportation. The list could go on of accomplishments under his administration. But when commended for his work, as is so often the case with mountain-bred persons, he would reply with, “It was time for a change, the people were ready for change, the time was right.” He did not like for credit to accrue to his own name. Yet the record is there for all to examine and admire. Loyal Jones describes this sense of modesty and humility: “We believe that we should not put on airs, not boast, nor try to get above our raising” (p. 90).</p></div><div align="justify"><p>Love of place is almost a built-in part of our mountain ways. “Where’re you from?” one is likely to ask a person when hearing his/her mountain talk and wondering what cove or valley in Appalachian is home. Sense of place is deeply ingrained. There’s more truth than fiction to the saying, “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” We could substitute “mountains of Appalachia” for country and have a true evaluation of how much we who were born there cling to place. North Georgia Poet Byron Herbert Reece had the right idea when he wrote lovingly of his home and mine, “Choestoe,” the Cherokee Indian name meaning “Dancing Place of Rabbits.” It is a long poem, three pages published, so too long to quote here. But a few lines carry the strong sense of place he knew of the community where he was born, reared and lived:<br /><blockquote>“What does a land resemble, named for rabbits?...<br />There is peace here, quiet and unhurried living,<br />Something to wonder at in aged faces;<br />These are not all I mean, but symbols for it,<br />A thing, if one but has the spirit for it,<br />Better, I say, than many rabbits dancing.” </blockquote>Patriotism seems almost to be a built-in characteristic of Appalachian people. Next to family, another beloved entity for which one will die is country. So many people now dwelling in the hills and hollows of Appalachia can trace their ancestry back to someone who fought in the Revolutionary War. Likewise, when the rift came between the states in the 1860’s, many mountain people sided with the Union in that fray. The county of Union, when founded in 1832, was named Union because the representative,John Thomas, when asked what to name it, declared, “Union, for only Union-like people reside there!” From every war in which America has engaged since the Declaration of Independence was declared in 1776, Appalachian mountain military persons have fought with the bravest to win and maintain freedom.<br /><p>A sense of beauty permeates place with majestic purple-clad mountains rising toward the sky and green valleys with meandering streams rushing through the rocks and rills of what is Appalachia. But as if nature is reflected in what hands produce, beauty is seen in creative projects from looms, needles, workshops, blacksmith shops. Mountain music played on banjo, dulcimer, and fiddle pays tribute to beauty of sound and accompanies voices that might have composed the songs telling about the land and its people. A concert of beauty rises in place, project and pursuits as if in tumultuous offering of what the people enjoy in Appalachia in loveliness. Is life not hard there? We wonder and yet know that it often is, but amidst the hard toil and sometimes deprivation, the imagination and industry of a people seek after and produce beauty.</p></div><div align="justify"><p>And, finally, all the characteristics of mountain life are wrapped in a sense of humor. Loyal Jones assizes the humor of the mountaineer by stating: “Humor is more than fun; it is a coping mechanism in sickness or hard times” (p. 123). We often make ourselves the brunt of our own jokes. I remember the Rev. Jesse Paul Culpepper who was born and reared in Wetmore, Tennessee and who, for 26 and ½ years of his ministry was the director of missions among churches in rural Fannin and Gilmer Counties in Georgia. He was known far and wide for his preaching, and the points he could easily make on a difficult passage. He had the ability to do that oftentimes by telling one of his funny stories, with himself more likely than not the one who had put himself into a humorous position which would help the people to remember the point he was making. For example, in teaching tithing as a biblical way of giving, he would sometimes tell: “Our churches need a better way to raise money than to make punkin’ pies with foam on top (his word for merinque) and try to sell them to the highest bidder. I got one of those pies one time, and it was awful. We’re not winners when we get something like that. Why not give the money to the Lord’s treasury to start with?”</p></div><div align="justify"><p>In closing his book on <em>Appalachian Values</em>, Loyal Jones appeals to us all to help correct the abuses to place and people that have occurred within our environs. We can no longer put on blinders and hope the problems of environment and social conditions will go away on their own. He implores: “The reasons for change (must be) sound and desired by mountain people” (p. 138).<br /> <p>[Resource: Jones, Loyal. <em>Appalachian Values</em>. Photography by Warren E. Brunner, with an Introduction by John B. Stephenson. Ashland, KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994.]<br /> <p>c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. Published March 8, 2012 online with permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved. </p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-39091719070307648202012-03-01T09:56:00.004-05:002012-03-27T19:05:03.654-04:00Appalachian Values and Some People Who Exemplify Them (part 2)<div align="justify">Continuing on author Loyal Jones’s list of Appalachian Values as given in his book by the same title (Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994), we focus on neighborliness (also known as hospitality), familism (obligation to family) and personalism (relating well to others).<br /> <p> In recent decades, dwellers in Appalachia have adopted the customs of people in other areas, which, unfortunately, has somewhat curtailed our normal tendencies toward neighborliness and hospitality. Distrust and suspicion, and the fear of harm from strangers have erected walls of suspicion so that we are querulous of helping people. The time was, when persons passed through as strangers in the vicinity, with hotels and motels almost non-existent in the hill country, people “took in” the travelers and treated them to the best they had available in food and lodging. Sometimes, for a stranger, a bed in the hayloft on stacks of newly-threshed hay was welcomed, and the persons who offered such rest for the weary were thanked volubly. That was back in the day of trust and the desire to share what a family had with those who might happen by. Now, if we have people in our homes for meals, or to be overnight guests, we extend a special invitation in advance. This, of course, still shows the spirit of neighborliness and hospitality, but it somewhat takes away from the old mountain custom of “keeping the welcome mat” out.<br /> <p>Back in the nineteenth centurythere came through Choestoe community periodically a person who at one time had lived in the valley but who had migrated west to Texas. His name was Phillip Humphries (b. ca. 1841, a son ofKizziahSouther Humphries and John Humphries). He had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and many said his shock from battle left him somewhat deranged and with a desire to wander the country. He would come preaching on the end times. People knew of his family connections to the Souther families of the valley. They showed hospitality and neighborliness, listened to Phillip and gave him food and lodging, warm water for bathing, and clean clothes to wear. Then his restless nature caused him to move on. Someone, taking compassion on him, finally found him a permanent home in a veterans’ home in North Carolina.<br /> <p>Familism, or obligation to family, is a strong trait of Appalachian people.<br /><p>The general idea is that you don’t talk badly about “my” people, nor do you treat them with unkindness. Loyal Jones states: “Family loyalty runs deep and wide and may extend to grandparents, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, cousins and even in-laws. Family members gather when there is sickness, death or a disaster” (<em>Appalachian Values</em>, p. 75). An example of this loyalty to family shows in remorse that occurs if there has been a rift in a family relationship and apologies and reconciliations have not been made before the death of one or the other at odds with each other. Another example of deep familism is the obligation felt by mountain people to “take care of one’s own.” Until recent decades, assisted living and nursing homes were not a consideration, since children cared for aging parents or other relatives not as closely kin as parents. And if a young mother or father died and the widow or widower needed help with young children in the family, relatives were quick to take in the children and love and rear them as their own. Union County did have a “Poor House” back in the nineteenth century where, as a last resort, persons were housed and cared for if relatives could not, due to their own circumstances, take care of the indigent. Or maybe the residents of the Poor House had no kin who could take them in. But the general principle has been for generations in the mountains to “take care of our own.” Family is a strong entity. Even divorce is a more recent blight in Appalachian society because of the strong sense of family.<br /> <p>Personalism is a bit harder to define. Loyal Jones sees it as “relating well to other persons…going to great lengths to keep from offending others…not alienating others” (<em>Appalachian Values</em>, p. 81). However, don’t think that mountaineers are easy to give in. Consider, for example, when Tennessee Valley Authority was buying up land to build lakes in the area for generating hydro-electric power. Because much of the land had been a legacy, passed down from generation to generation, people were reluctant to let it go, even to sell it for the ‘purpose of progress’ as the promoters proclaimed. When the government prevailed, and the land had to be sold, the people would comply, but dissatisfaction often remained, and some of the most adamant against selling their land refused for years to “hook up” to the electrical lines that came into their communities. In summarizing how Appalachian people relate to others, Mr. Jones states: “We may not always like or approve of other people, but we normally accept them as persons and treat them with respect” (p. 82). <br /> <p>[Resource: Jones, Loyal. <em>Appalachian Values</em>. Photography by Warren E. Brunner, with an Introduction by John B. Stephenson. Ashland, Ky: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994.]<br /> <p> c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. Published March 1, 2012 online with permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved. </p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-36766171117796373892012-02-23T09:42:00.001-05:002012-03-27T18:56:09.153-04:00Appalachian Values and Some People Who Exemplify Them<div align="justify">Senior scholar, Loyal Jones, a native of nearby Cherokee County, North Carolina, and for many years director of Appalachian Studies at Berea College, Kentucky, wrote an essay on “Appalachian Values” first published in <em>Twigs</em> in 1973. His intention when he first wrote the essay was to dispel the misconceptions often held about people of the Appalachian mountain region. Betty Payne James ofDisputanta, Kentucky, suggested to Mr. Jones that his essay be made into a book with pertinent photographs. The word artistry and depth of thinking from “Appalachian Values” of Loyal Jones were combined with excellent black-and-white photographs by prize-winning photographer Warren Brunner of Berea, Kentucky to make a book published by the Jesse Stuart Foundation of Ashland, Kentucky in 1994. If you have not yet read this provocative book, I recommend that you find a copy at your library—or better still—purchase your own copy, because you will want to refer to it again and again.<br /><p>It occurred to me, while thinking about a worthy subject on which to write for his column, that it would be appropriate to name the values Loyal Jones calls to our attention and think of persons within Union County, Georgia, past and present, who exemplify the values worthy of emulation. I thank Loyal Jones for such a thought-provoking book. I give him deserved credit for calling to our attention the characteristics and values held dear and lived out by our ancestors. And Warren Brenner’s excellent photographs brought to my own mind persons and places with whom I am acquainted that fit so well the values Loyal Jones enumerates. I only wish I had photographs to illustrate this article that carry the same sense and depth that those in <em>Appalachian Values</em> convey. I ask my readers, therefore, to think of persons you know, and make a “mountain pictorial” of them as you read about these values, still alive and well in the coves, valleys and hillsides of our beloved Appalachian region.<br /><p>Loyal Jones sets the stage for Appalachian Values by devoting a chapter to the early settlers to the region and their origins. Many Scots-Irish, German, English and Welsh people came to America and eventually found their way to our Appalachian wilderness and mountains, an ideal place with plenty of wild game, land for clearing and farming, and isolation that afforded them the seclusion they desired, “away from ‘powers and principalities’” (p. 24) that would rob them of their desire for freedom. “They came for many reasons, but always for new opportunity and freedom—freedom from religious, political, and economic restraints, and freedom to do much as they pleased. The pattern of their settlement shows that they were seeking land and solitude.” (p. 29)<br /><p>Here we have but to do a roll-call of people who were listed on the 1834 (first) Union County census. Which from that list of 147 heads-of-households enumerated in 1834 are your ancestors? They fall into Loyal Jones’s category of people with European ancestry that came seeking freedom and independence. We salute them all.<br /><p> Religon is one of the values cited by Loyal Jones. “Mountain people are religious…we are religious in the sense that most of our values and the meaning we find in life spring from the Bible. To understand mountaineers, one must understand our religion” (p. 39). I thought of the Rev. Milford G. Hamby (1833-1911), who became a Methodist Circuit Rider in 1852. As a minister in the North Georgia Conference, he often filled as many as twenty-nine appointments for preaching per month. He married Eleanor Hughes on May 9, 1850. She was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas M. Hughes. Her father was also a faithful minister in Union and nearby counties in the early settlement days. Eleanor’s grandfather, the Rev. Francis Bird, was likewise a minister. A brother-in-law to Rev. Hamby was the Rev. John Wesley Twiggs (1846-1917) who married Eleanor Hughes Hamby’s sister, Sarah Elizabeth Hughes. Rev. Twiggs was a noted minister, school teacher and farmer. These early ministers in the county did much to set a pattern of religious practice. Rev. G. W. Duval, writing in his eulogy of Rev. Milford Hamby in the 1911 <em>Conference Journal</em> of the North Georgia Conference Methodist Episcopal Church South (pp. 80-81) said of him: “He conferred not with flesh and blood but was obedient to the heavenly vision…He made the Bible the man of his counsel, the guide of his young life. His library was not extensive. He made his sermons from the revelation of God’s love to man.” Here I have briefly cited only three of the early ministers in the county; there were many more, both then and since. Oftentimes laboring under great hardships and certainly without much monetary remuneration for their labors, they planted the gospel in hard-to-reach places as itinerant preachers and religious and educational leaders.<br /> <p> Mr. Loyal Jones combines three of our Appalachian Values in chapter three, perhaps because the three are so inter-related and so vital a part of the fabric of our mountain people’s lives. These are independence, self-reliance and pride.<br /> <p> He quotes John C. Campbell (for whom Campbell Folk School is named) by saying in the mountains “independence is raised to the fourth power” (p. 52)—meaning we have an exceeding strong spirit of independence. I think of John Thomas, chosen to be the first representative from Union County in 1832 to the state legislature. When a name for the new county was being considered, he said, “Name it Union, for none but union-like men resides in it” (<em>The Heritage of Union County,</em> 1944, p. 1). Although our ancestors were patriotic and supporting of our nation, their geographic isolation and dependability on local resources bred independence. Several of the early-settler men had seen service in the American Revolution and desired independence from tyranny and outside rule. The lay of the land to be tamed and a living to be made from the wilderness inspired an independent spirit.<br /><p>Closely tied to that spirit of independence is self-reliance. I think of my own ancestors, the Collins, Dyer, Souther, Hunter, Nix, Ingram, England and other settlers who began productive farms, established churches, set up mills, began schools, were elected to government positions—all showed the spirit of self-reliance. True, our ancestors sometimes over-did the self-reliant bent and depleted the land and its resources, like cutting timber and not allowing it to be replenished, before they learned to be conservators. Not all qualities of self-reliance are applaudable.<br /><p>Then pride is a part of our values; not the puffed-up, vain, egotistical, arrogant, “better-than-thou” kind, but a sense of self-esteem and self-respect for a job well done. I think of my Aunts Avery and Ethel Collins who fashioned many quilts, woven coverlets, and other handcrafted items, entering them into the Southeastern Fair in Atlanta, Georgia and consistently winning blue ribbons. Dr. John Burrison and his crew of historical preservation people from Georgia State University filmed my Aunt Ethel before her death as she showed many of the items that had won acclaim. Never did she seek accolades for her work, but it was worthy of notice and was recorded in a documentary entitled “The Unclouded Day.” She and Aunt Avery had pride in their work, and rightly so. As Loyal Jones notes: “The value of independence and self-reliance, and our pride, is often stronger than desire or need” (p. 68).<br /> <p>In my next column, I will explore more of Loyal Jones’s listing of Appalachian Values. Dr. Stephenson asks this question in the introduction: “Who really knows Appalachia?” (p. 9, 11). This is a probative question. Even though I was born and reared in that area of America, and have experienced all the values named by Mr. Jones, I realize that we only begin to scratch the surface of the complexity and depth of a people whose characteristics, as he writes, represent “the core elements of regional culture, the bones upon which the flesh of a people is layered” (p. 10). <br /><p> [Resource: Jones, Loyal. Appalachian Values.Photography by Warren E. Brunner, with an Introduction by John B. Stephenson. Ashland, Ky: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994.] <br /> <p>c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones.Published February 23, 2012 online by permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved. </p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-13381463842526044872012-02-16T09:27:00.001-05:002012-03-27T18:41:00.355-04:00Singing in the Cotton Mills or Mountain Music from the Sweat Factories<div align="justify">In these parts, Union, Towns, Fannin and surrounding counties in North Georgia and also in nearby Tennessee and North Carolina, we like what we call “country music.” During the Great Depression era and even prior to that economic downfall in America, many people had to leave their farms and seek employment elsewhere. Many went to towns where cotton mills operated, offering jobs for men, women and children at very low wages. The employment provided enough to keep food on the table, if they could find food to buy, a shelter of sorts over their heads, and clothing on their backs. Out of this sad time came much “country music,” for those with the abilities to play guitar, banjo, fiddle, “French” harp and autoharp and sing their plaintive, sad folk songs brought about what has been called “Singing in the Cotton Mills.” <br /><p> Recently I came across and read a delightful book about how our mountain folk music was preserved by those with a will to be happy despite circumstances. Patrick Huber has written/compiled a book chronicling the history of country music. It tells of those who got their start as music artisans as they worked in cotton mills of the Piedmont South. The title is Linthead Stomp: <em>The Creation of Country Music in the South.</em></p></div><div align="justify"><em><p></p></em><p> Huber devotes a chapter to Fiddlin’ John Carson (1868-1949) who, some biographers say, was born in Fannin County, Georgia. Carson described himself on one of his Okeh recordings in 1929: “I’m the best fiddler that ever jerked the hairs of a horse’s tail across the belly of a cat.”</p></div><div align="justify"><p> Life was not easy for cotton mill workers in the era covered by the “Linthead Stomp” book, 1923-1942. Many left farms that had been their way of life for a long time and sought work in the cotton mills. Many with musical inclinations took with them their ability to play the fiddle, a guitar or a banjo, and their plaintive voices that sang the ballad-type songs they had heard all their lives.<br /><p>Others, with a talent for writing rhyme, composed new ballads about the life they had left for hard work in the cotton mills. In John Carson’s case, he wrote a song about a newsworthy event, the murder of a young girl in Atlanta in April, 1913.<br /><p>John Carson wrote “Little Mary Phagan” about the murder trial of Mary Phagan, a thirteen-year old pencil factory worker who was murdered and her body buried in the basement of the factory. Leo Frank, manager and part-owner of the factory, was accused of the murder and a notorious trial ensued. While he was in prison serving a life sentence, a group calling themselves “Knights of Mary Phagan” stole Frank out of prison and hanged him.<br /><p> Fiddlin’ John Carson wrote his song about Mary Phagan in 1915 and sang it from the steps of the Georgia State Capitol to a crowd gathered to hear. In 1925, his daughter, Rosa Lee Carson, who was his guitar player and did duets with her father, sang the Phagan song and it was recorded. Those interested may access U-Tube clips of many of the John Carson songs as well as this ballad sung by his daughter.<br /><p>John Carson and a fellow musician, Ed Kincaid, another Fannin County native, who was a member of Carson’s Virginia Reelers Band, often did concerts together. Both appeared at the annual Georgia “Old Time Fiddler’s Convention” at which entrants were judged for their playing ability. In 1913, John Carson entered the competition for the first time and was named to fourth place that year. However, with more practice and much determination, Fiddlin’ John Carson was named first place winner seven times from the years 1914-1922. Both Carson and Kincaid worked at the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills in Atlanta. Their work at the mills and association through their music and recordings gave them the distinction of being included in the Huber compilation, <em>Linthead Stomp</em>.<br /><p>For the country music lover, especially of the more vintage (old-fashioned) type, Huber has included valuable information in appendices in his book. Appendix A is a directory of southern textile workers who made hillbilly recordings between 1923-1942. And Appendix B lists the discography of recordings of these artists during the same time period.<br /><p> Many of the old records have been re-recorded and are now available on disk. Johnny Carter of Rome, Georgia, who has Union County roots (his grandfather was Frank Dyer of Choestoe, who was a noted “shaped note” music teacher of the twentieth century, and inducted a few years ago into the Union County Gospel Music Hall of Fame) has the National Recording Studio in Rome. We commend Johnny Carter for this mission. You can read about him and his recording studio by going online to National Recording Corporation (NaReCo). He is not included in Linthead Stomp because he is after that era; but he is saving some of the recordings of the era Huber writes about.<br /><p> In looking through Huber’s appendix on recording artists, not only did I read about John Carson and his daughter, Rosa Lee, nicknamed “Moonshine Kate,” and Ed Kincaid, all of whom were partners in recording on the Okeh records, with Carson’s first being made in 1923, but I also found the listing of Hazel Cole who was born in Fannin County. She left Fannin County to go to Rome, Georgia to work in a textile mill there. She met her future husband at the mill, Henry W. Grady Cole from LaFayette, Georgia. Since both liked to sing and play, they formed the “Grady and Hazel Cole Duo.” During 1939 and 1940, Hazel and Grady recorded twelve sides on RCA and Victor recording labels. Huber gives a total of twenty-five natives of areas of North Georgia who contributed significantly to this particular era of country music. I don’t know if any he lists were from Union County, as he did not know or did not give their birth counties, except for a few of them. Noted in his listings are three with the last name of Chumbler who have North Georgia ties: George Elmo (1907-1956), Irene (1913-?) and William Archer (1902-1937) who often recorded as the Chumbler Family and also with “Jim King and His Brown Mules” as well as with “Hoke Rice and His Southern String Band.”<br /><p>With the Great Depression and its financial woes, a very real challenge to cotton mill workers (as well as almost everyone) during a major portion of the period covered by Huber’s history of country music in <em>Linthead Stomp</em>, there’s a heartening note to think that they might have been singing in the cotton mills as they operated the looms or made garments and worked hard to make their production quotas. The tone of much of the music they produced matched the depressed times, sad and plaintive, longing for better times, and remembering why they had to leave their farm homes in the first place.<br /><p>Carson’s “The Little Old Log Cabin inthe Lane” touched on that very nostalgic theme. But then, on their time off, the fiddlers could play at barn dances and community gatherings, providing music for weekend parties and get-togethers where they might share food they’d bring for the best meal their means could provide. They sang their blues away by singing sad songs and dancing. They were grateful for work, whatever it was, and singing in the cotton mills was better far than crying, even though their songs were often melancholy. Their music and their expressed pathos make up part of the fabric of America and the hard times they lived through.<br /> <p>c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. Published February 16, 2012 online by permission of the author at GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved. </p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-28281483655206148832012-02-09T15:08:00.012-05:002012-03-21T15:43:02.014-04:00Tracing the Souther Genertions ~ Those Who Remained Behind in North Carolina: Jesse Souther’s Will and His Children<div align="justify">I ended last week’s article by promising a look at the will of Jesse Souther (1784-1858), whose children Joseph, John Jesse, Kizziah Souther Humphries, Jesse and Hix moved to Union County, Georgia in the mid-1830’s. What about their father and other children who remained in North Carolina? His will reads:<br /><p>Fall Term 1858<br />State of North Carolina</p></div><div align="justify">This the twenty-second day of December, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-Seven<br /><p>McDowell County <br /> <p>I, Jesse Souther, of the county and state aforesaid, Being of sound mind and Memory, Thanks to God for His mercy, do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament in manner and form as follows:<br /> <p>First of all, I will my soul to God who first gave it to me. Then I will that my just debts be punctually paid with all burial expenses first.<br /> <p>Then I will to my son James Souther to have all the notes I hold against him together with all the notes and judgements where I am security for him.<br /> <p>I do will to my three daughters to wit: Nancy and Lucinda and Rosa J. Hogan all my perishable property, only Rosa J. Hogan to pay Nancy and Lucinda thirty dollars out of her part of the property.<br /> <p>Further, I will that Lydia Jane Justice have one cow and calf, one bed and furniture. I further will that Hix Souther’s three children, to wit: Catherine Saphronia, Jesse William, and John Jefferson have thirty dollars each when they arrive at the age of twenty-one, to be paid out of my perishable property.<br /> <p>I also will to Jesse Souther and Nancy and Noah and Lucinda Souther and Rosa J. Hogan all my lands to be equally divided between the five above-named. <br /> <p>Further, that my daughter Mary Elliott is to have one hundred dollars out of my estate.<br /> <p>Also, my daughter Kizziah Humphrey to have thirty dollars to be paid out of my estate.<br /> <p>All the above property to be paid over to my Executor and also applied my two sons Jesse Souther and Noah Souther Executors to this my last will and testament.<br /> <p>I set my hand and seal in the presence of:<br /> Jesse (X) Souther, Seal<br />Testators:<br />John Ross, Juratt<br />John P. Fortune, Juratt Court of pleas, Quarter Session, Fall Term, 1858.<br /> <p>The foregoing Will and Testament was presented<br /> To open court for probation in due execution.<br /> These were proven in solemn form by the oath of<br /> John P. Fortune and John Ross, Executors.<br /><p>Subscribing openly these and ordered to be recorded and registered together with the certificate. J. M. Finley, Clerk<br /> <p>Some observations about the will of Jesse Souther will be made while listing his known fourteen children:<br /> <blockquote> 1. Joseph Souther (1802-died in Stone County, Missouri, married Sarah Davis.<br /> 2. John Jesse Souther (1803-1889) married Mary Combs. He died in Union County, Georgia. He is not mentioned in his father’s will; could he have given John his inheritance before he moved to<br /> Georgia?<br /> 3. Mary Souther (1805-?) married an Elliott; she was mentioned in her father’s wil to receive $100. Had he given her property already at the time of her marriage? Or perhaps at that time that amount of money was equal to several acres of land.<br /> 4. Elizabeth Souther (1805), is believed to have died young; she is not listed in her father’s will. <br /> 5. James Souther (1809-?) married a Logan. According to the will, James owed his father money, and therefore his inheritance was the money he had not repaid. Two of James’s sons, James Logan and John “Rink” Souther moved to Union County, Georgia, married there, then moved to St. Charles Mesa, Pueblo, Colorado.<br /> 6. Kizziah Souther (1811-?) married John Humphries. They moved to Union County, Georgia between 1840 and 1850. They had thirteen children and lived awhile in Blount County, TN. Kizziah died in Cherokee County, NC. See their story in a separate “<em>Through Mountain Mists</em>” article.<br /> 7. Jesse Souther (1830-1869) moved to Union County, Georgia and established the Souther Mill in Choestoe. He married Malinda Nix (1829-1894), daughter of William Nix and Susannah Stonecypher Nix. They had eight children. Their stories are traced in previous “<em>Through Mountain Mists</em>” articles. Note that Jesse Souther (the elder) appointed son Jesse and son Noah to be Executors of his will. His second son (my great, great grandfather) was named John Jesse. It was not unusual in those days for two children to have one of the names of their father or their mother.<br /> 8. Hix Souther (1815-1840?) married Caroline Burgess. They, too, settled in Union County, Georgia. Hix died, leaving a wife and three children. Notice that Jesse Souther was thinking of his three minor grandchildren, Hix’s children, and gave them $30 each. Later, Caroline married Roland (or Rollin) Wimpey. Their story is in a previous “<em>Through Mountain Mists</em>” article. </blockquote>Children <blockquote> 9. Martha Souther (1817-?),<br /> 10. Nancy Souther (1818-?) and<br /> 11. Sarah Souther (1820) never married and continued to live in the old Souther homeplace in North Carolina. Nancy was the only one of these three mentioned in Jesse’s will. Martha and Sarah had perhaps died before 1858, the date of the will.<br /> 12. Noah Souther (1821-1883) married Sarah Gilliam, a daughter of Maynard Gilliam. In the will, he was to receive land, which was to be equally divided between Noah, Jesse, Nancy, Lucinda and Rosa J. Souther Hogan. He also was named one of the executors.<br /> 13. Lucinda Souther (1824-1875) never married. She, too, continued to live in McDowell County. She received equal parts of Jesse’s lands with sisters Nancy and Rosa and brothers Jesse and Noah.<br /> 14. Rose Jane Souther (1828-?) married William C. Hogan. I have no record of her family. She received a five-way division of Jesse’s land with two sisters and two brothers.</blockquote> Who was Lydia Jane Justice mentioned in the will as receiving a cow and calf, a bed and furniture? Was she a married granddaughter, or was she someone who lived with and took care of Jesse Souther after his wife Jane Combs died? Were the heirs of Jesse Souther pleased with his distribution of property or were some offended and complained? Family records available do not show this aspect of his descendants’ reactions. <br /><p>[Resource: Dyer, Watson Benjamin. Souther Family History. Self-published. 1988. Pp. 52-53.]<br /><p>cFebruary 9, 2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published online by permission of author at GaGenWebProject All rights reserved.<br /><br /></p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-56909487601354076642012-02-01T02:59:00.005-05:002012-03-21T15:07:49.137-04:00Tracing the Souther Generations ~ Some Who Stayed Behind in NC<div align="justify">I have written much in these pages about five siblings who came to Georgia in the 1830s and settled in Union County, Georgia, at least for awhile until two of them (Joseph and Kizziah) moved on elsewhere. These were sons and a daughter of Jesse Souther (1784-1858) and Jane Combs Souther (1782-d. before 1858), namely Joseph Souther (wife Sarah Davis), John Jesse Souther (wife Mary Combs), Kizziah Souther (husband John Humphries), Jesse Souther (wife Malinda Nix), and Hix Souther (wife Malinda Burgess). If you desire to review information on any of these five siblings, please refer to their stories in past articles in this “Through Mountain Mists” series. We now begin with a series on those in this Souther family who remained behind in North Carolina or who moved elsewhere other than Union County, Georgia. It is this writer’s hope that you will find this further information about the Jesse Souther family of interest.<br /> <p>Jesse Souther was born on June 6, 1784, only eight years after America declared its independence from England. He was a son of Stephen Souther (1742-ca 1780) and Mary Bussey Souther (ca. 1745-after 1790). Family legend holds strongly to the story that Stephen Souther enlisted with the soldiers from Wilkes County, North Carolina who were launching an attack against the British and Tories at the famous Battle of King’s Mountain. However, either due to a wound or from some other calamity, Stephen Souther developed a severe nosebleed (he was believed to be a hemophiliac) on the way to or in the battle and bled to death. Descendants of Stephen Souther (of whom I am one) have done much research to try to certify his Revolutionary War service, but we have not been able to go beyond the story passed down in our family concerning his joining the Wilkes County soldiers. No trace of his service has been clearly documented. However, Mary Bussey Souther was living on a 200-acre land grant which seems to have been given to Stephen Souther and recorded first in 1778, and again in 1782 (after Stephen’s death). Could this have been a grant for his Revolutionary War service? The description of the land in each entry (# 234, July 4, 1778 and # 482, October 23, 1782, Wilkes County records) were the same, reading: “Grant Stephen Souther 200 acres both sides Hunting Creek above William Carnes improvement…between Souther and Osborne Keeling.” With no proof of ancestor Stephen Souther’s enlistment in the Revolutionary Army, we who would like to claim him as a patriot have not been able to prove his service registration.<br /> <p>Mary Bussey Souther seemed to be a good wife and mother. Stories come to us of her having driven an ox cart herself, after her husband Stephen’s death, “to the west” (probably to settlements in Kentucky or Tennessee on the frontier) to visit her relatives, and the report was that “she was gone a long time.” She and Stephen had these known children: Michael (1760) who married Elinor (maiden name unknown) who lived in Buncombe County, NC; Elizabeth (1765) who married Alexander Gilreath; Jesse Souther (1774) who married Jane Combs [her name is also given as Joan in some records] and reared their family in Wilkes County, NC near Old Fort, with five of them migrating to Union County, Georgia and the others remaining in NC; Joshua Souther (1777 ?) who married Libby Profitt; he served in the War of 1812; Joel Souther (17?) married Patsy Brown; and Sarah Souther (17?) married Elijah Hampton. In the 1782 tax list of Wilkes County, Mary (Bussey) Souther was listed as head-of-household. In the 1790 census, she was again listed as head-of-household with two males under sixteen, two males over 16, and 3 females. It is not known if some of these were Mary’s married children and grandchildren. Stephen Souther may have died intestate, since no will is listed signed by him in Wilkes Court records.<br /> <p>Stephen’s son, Jesse Souther, is the ancestor whom we want to trace. Since we know that his children Joseph, John, Kizziah, Jesse, and Hix migrated to Union County, Georgia, and since these “Mountain Mists” articles have traced those stories, we will concentrate on those who remained behind in North Carolina. Jesse Souther’s will probated in 1858 gives insights into how he distributed his property.<br /><p>Our next entry will examine his will and some of his children who remained in North Carolina.<br /><p>[Resource: Dyer, Watson Benjamin. Souther Family History, Self-published, 1988. Pp. 45-60]<br /><p>cFebruary 1, 2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published online by permission of author at<br />GaGenWebProject All rights reserved.<br /></p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-38270597020936026962012-01-26T13:30:00.005-05:002012-03-21T14:58:59.811-04:00Tracing Some of the Jenkins Ancestors of the Late Hon. Edgar L. Jenkins<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">A search through the 1834, 1840 and 1850 Union County, Georgia census records did not </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">yield a single family with the last name of Jenkins. Where then did the Jenkins </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">ancestors of our late Honorable Edgar Lanier Jenkins, sixteen years our Ninth District of </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Georgia U. S. Representative, originate?</span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> <span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Edgar's paternal grandfather, Patterson Levi Jenkins (1855-1910), moved to Young </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Harris, Georgia in Towns County in 1906. He and his wife, Mariah Louisa Sawyer Jenkins </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">(1857-1950), moved from near Robbinsville, North Carolina, Graham County, shortly after </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Christmas in 1906. The move was necessitated by the building of the Santeetlah Dam and </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">the land the Jenkins family lived on in North Carolina was sold to be a part of the </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">development for hydro-electric power for that area. Mr. Jenkins, known as Pat, had been </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">a merchant in Robbinsville, and that was his goal in moving to Young Harris. Through his </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">friend and fellow merchant in Towns County, Mr. Tom Hunt, Pat Jenkins was encouraged to </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">move to Young Harris. Pat had purchased a large house and store from Mr. C. A. Webb on </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">grounds now owned by Young Harris College. There he settled his family and opened the </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Jenkins Store.</span><br /><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> </span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"></span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Imagine the adventure of riding four days and camping out three nights along the wagon </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">road as the Jenkins family went in the dead of winter from Robbinsville to Young Harris. </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">It must have been a general migration, for accounts list the entourage as a "wagon </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">train." Who the others were that made the trek with the Jenkins family, this writer does </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">not know. In the wagon(s) were as many of their household goods as they could pack, </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">merchandise from Pat Jenkins' store he had to close in Graham County, NC, and also his </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">family: Pat himself, his wife Maria Louisa, and children Mary Elizabeth (b. 1888), </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">William Robert (b. 1890), Nora Belle (b. 1892), Thomas Judson (b. 1896), Archie Jackson </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">(b. 1901) and Charlie Swinfield (b. 1904). The couple had to leave behind the graves of </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">their first two children, daughters, the first who died at birth and the second who died </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">at twelve days of age. Two more children were born to Pat and Mariah Louisa in Young </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Harris: Nannie Ellen Ethel Jenkins was born in 1907, and Patterson Levi Jenkins, Jr. was </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">born in 1910, but this namesake of his father, like the firstborn child in the family, </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">died at birth. Seven of their ten children grew to adulthood.</span><br /><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> </span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"></span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Going back a generation from Pat and Mariah Sawyer Jenkins, his parents were Jonathan </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">and Rachel Hyde Jenkins. Mariah's parents were Thomas Patton and Margaret Jane Stillwell </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Sawyer. Pat and Mariah were married in Graham County, NC on January 24, 1844.</span><br /><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> </span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"></span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Edgar Jenkins' father was Charlie Swinfield Jenkins, born March 4, 1904. He lacked not </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">quite three months being three years old when the Jenkins family arrived in Young Harris </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">by wagon train in December of 1906. In their eagerness to unload and get into the </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">"Jenkins House" (the former Webb house), the parents evidently did not notice when little </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Charlie wandered off. He had much to see in his new surroundings. On his own, he went </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">through most of the buildings then on the Young Harris campus, exploring as a little boy </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">will all the nooks and crannies of strange and exciting places. Missing him, someone in </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">the family finally found the little boy Charlie and rescued him. But a standing joke in </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">the family was that Charlie was the first to "go through" Young Harris College, and that </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">at the tender age of not even three years old. Later, many of the Jenkins family of Pat </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">and Mariah's children, as well as their subsequent generational descendants, would begin </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">their college careers at the college. Honorable Edgar Jenkins himself was graduated from </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">the college, later served on the Board of Trustees, and set up a scholarship fund that </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">benefits students attending there. It was also at the college where little explorer boy </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Charlie learned early to be an excellent athlete. He excelled in basketball, baseball </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">and tennis. Later, in 1927, he played professional baseball with the Florida State </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">League, pitching fifteen games and winning thirteen. He was noted for his fast overhand </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">pitch.</span><br /><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> </span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"></span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">The Jenkins Store in Young Harris was a popular place, not only for necessary shopping </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">but for sharing viewpoints on the state of the community, county, state, nation and </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">world. A checkerboard with chairs (and probably near a pot-bellied stove in winter to </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">ward off the cold) was an inviting place. Noted instructors Dr. Joe Sharp and Professor </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">W. S. Mann frequented the store. They were also fishing and hunting companions with </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">store proprietor Pat Jenkins. It was not unusual to see a sign on the store door on </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">rather slow days: "Gone fishing; be back soon if the fish aren't biting." Probably on </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Mr. Pat Jenkins' absences from the store, Mrs. Jenkins or one of the older children would </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">answer the summons by the store bell to go unlock the door and wait on the customers.</span><br /><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> </span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"></span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Mr. Jenkins' tenure as a merchant in Young Harris was short-lived, however. He died </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">on December 16, 1910, and the store was closed. Mrs. Jenkins continued to run what was </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">known as "The Jenkins House," somewhat like a bed-breakfast-and meals, where "drummers" </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">or traveling merchants liked to eat. She was noted as an outstanding cook. Two of her </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">sons, Charlie and Will, learned to cut hair. They became the community barbers, carrying </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">on their business in the Jenkins House. Charlie Jenkins followed his barbering talents </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">for some years at the Jenkins Barber Shop in Blairsville prior to his years of serving as </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">a Tennessee Valley Authority public safety officer.</span><br /><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> </span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"></span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Charlie Swinfield Jenkins married Evia Souther on June 30, 1929. They planned to </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">elope, and sought out the Rev. Henry Brown to perform their ceremony. They found him </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">preaching in a revival at Brasstown Church near Young Harris. After the service was </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">over, he performed their marriage ceremony outside the church house, with the </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">congregation looking on.</span><br /><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> </span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"></span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">No keeping their marriage secret after that.</span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> <span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Mariah Louisa Sawyer Jenkins died February 27, 1950. She was laid to rest where her </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">husband had been interred in the Old Union Baptist Church Cemetery, Young Harris. </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Following her death, the Jenkins House was sold to Young Harris College. The </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Pruett-Barrett building now stands on the land where the Jenkins family lived. The seven </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">children who grew to adulthood from the union of Patterson Levi and Mariah Louisa Sawyer </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">Jenkins have produced many descendants of this outstanding couple who moved to Towns </span><span style="font-family:comic sans ms;">County in the winter of 1906 from Graham County, NC.</span><br style="font-family:comic sans ms;"> <span style="font-family:comic sans ms;"></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span><br />cJanuary 26, 2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</span></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-49443605212176963202012-01-19T13:18:00.009-05:002012-03-21T14:58:26.303-04:00A Tribute to Congressman Edgar Lanier Jenkins<div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Union County, Georgia can be justifiably proud of one of her native sons, Congressman Edgar Lanier Jenkins.<span> </span>He grew up in the county, was educated in the elementary and high schools at Blairsville, and went out to make his mark in the world.<span> </span>We salute him, pay tribute to his memory, and extend condolences to his family.</span></div> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>Congressman Edgar Lanier Jenkins who served as the United States Representative from the Ninth US Congressional District, Georgia, passed away Sunday, January 1, 2012, three days shy of his seventy-ninth birthday.<span> </span>He was born in Young Harris, Georgia on January 4, 1933, the second son of six children born to Charles Swinfield Jenkins and Evia Mae Souther Jenkins.<span> </span>He served in the United States House of Representatives for sixteen years, from 1976 through 1992 when he retired.<span> </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>He and I were, as we say in genealogical terms, double-first cousins twice<span> </span>(or thrice) removed.<span> </span>We both descend from stalwart early settlers to Union County, Georgia (where Ed and I both grew up).<span> </span>As John Donne so aptly stated in one of his poems, Ed’s death “diminished me.”<span> </span>I was deeply saddened that he could not recover from the cancer he so bravely fought and that took his life three days before he reached his seventy-ninth birthday.<span> </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>I will miss his presence at our annual Dyer-Souther Reunions in July. I will miss sending him “The Chronicle,” the newsletter I write and send out to about 300 descendants of Ed and my common ancestors, John and Mary Combs Souther and Bluford Elisha and Elizabeth Clark Dyer.<span> </span>Edgar’s connection back to them is through his mother, Evia Souther Jenkins, the granddaughter of William Albert and Elizabeth “Hon” Dyer Souther.<span> </span>This couple’s first-born son, Frank Loransey Souther (1881-1937) who married Nancy Elizabeth Johnson (1886-1967) was Edgar’s grandfather, his mother Evia’s parents.<span> </span>Edgar’s great, great grandparents were John Combs Hayes Souther (1827-1891) and Nancy Collins Souther (1829-1888)—and through the Collins line Edgar and I pick up still another relationship, for we share the same Collins ancestors as well.<span> </span>But all these ancestral connections get to be a bit confusing, especially if you don’t deal with them on a regular basis.<span> </span>Suffice it to say that the family connections are back there, strong and with definite influence upon both of us.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>Edgar Lanier Jenkins perhaps got his penchant for public service in an “honest” way, as we say in the mountains.<span> </span>His grandfather, Frank Loransey Souther (1881-1937) was what we call in Appalachia a “revenooer.”<span> </span>That is, he worked for the U. S. Government to find, break up, and arrest perpetrators of the law who made “moonshine liquor” in the coves and hollows of this mountain region.<span> </span>When Edgar was a slip of a boy only four years old, his grandfather Ransey (as we called him) was killed in the line of duty.<span> </span>Maybe that Grandfather’s death made such an impression on Edgar that he resolved at an early age to do what he could in future to treat people well and to make a difference with his own life.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>Ed graduated from Union County High School and then attended and graduated from Young Harris College in 1951.<span> </span>His faithfulness to his junior college Alma Mater led him in later years to set up a scholarship fund there which has assisted many with tuition.<span> </span>His first job out of Young Harris was with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (was this in remembrance of his late grandfather, Ransey Souther?).<span> </span>He then joined the U. S. Coast Guard and served ably from 1952 through 1955. Following his honorable discharge, he entered the University of Georgia to receive his bachelor’s degree and then his law degree in 1959.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>From 1959 through 1962 he served on the staff of U. S. Congressman Phillip M. Landrum of the Ninth Congressional District.<span> </span>That experience helped the young Jenkins get a feel for serving in our U. S. capitol and set the stage for his later direction in life.<span> </span>From 1962 through 1964, Edgar Jenkins was Assistant District Attorney for Georgia’s Northern District, and he practiced law in Pickens County, Georgia, where he and his wife, Bennie Jo Thomasson Jenkins made their home at Jasper.<span> </span>Their two daughters, Janice Kristin and Amy Lynn came along in the 1960’s to give them much joy and grace their home. Later he would rejoice in two grandsons, Sam and Drew Dotson, sons of his daughter, Amy Jenkins Dotson.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>Ed Jenkins was elected as the Ninth District U. S. Congressman in 1976, the same year another Georgian, Jimmy Carter, was elected President of the United States.<span> </span>Since Ed had the experience of being on the staff of Congressman Landrum, he was not to be considered a rookie in Washington politics.<span> </span>His sixteen year tenure (he did not run for reelection in 1992) saw many achievements by this legislator from Georgia who served a total of eight terms.<span> </span>It is interesting that “The Almanac of American Politics” in 1990 described Jenkins as “one of the smartest operators on Capitol Hill.”<span> </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>This article could not possibly enumerate all the bills he sponsored or the legislative committees on which he served.<span> </span>Some of his major roles in Congress were serving on the House Ways and Means Committee, on the very volatile Joint Committee on the Iran-Contra which had the task of investigating and dealing with trading weapons to Iran.<span> </span>Ed Jenkins’ main value to the area he served was his strong stands for the textile industries within the Ninth District, holding that these jobs should not be parceled out to other countries.<span> </span>This had to do not only with the carpet industry of Dalton, but all the once-profitable sewing shops that made clothing throughout the mountain region.<span> </span>What do we see now on labels?<span> </span>“Made in-----” with the name of another country named.<span> </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>Jenkins likewise stood up for conservation in supporting our National Forest bills, and for the farmer and small business owner.<span> </span>He authored bills for soil and water conservation and wilderness areas. Having come from salt-of-the-earth ancestors, he recognized the value of hard work and of holding on to ideals of integrity and fairness.<span> </span>He also worked hard to bring about tax revisions to give more equity in the tax structure.<span> </span>He believed in education and in his retirement served on the Board of Regents of the University of Georgia and as a trustee (emeritus) of Young Harris College.<span> </span>He and his family demonstrated as well their Christian influence and were active in First Baptist Church, Jasper, where his memorial service was held on January 7, 2011.<span> </span>His body was returned to Union County where he was interred at the Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>To honor this long-time member of Congress, a bill passed on December 11, 1991 to name an area of the Chattahoochee National Forest the “Ed Jenkins National Recreation Area.”<span> </span>This 23,166 acre spread of north Georgia forest is a tribute to an humble man who studied hard, set goals and reached them, and lived nobly.<span> </span>In researching for this article, I accessed a beautiful photograph taken by Alan Cressler (photostream) of the Lovinggood Creek Falls in Fannin County, Georgia.<span> </span>This is one of the beautiful, sparkling falls in the Ed Jenkins National Recreation Area that lies generally within the Blood Mountain Wilderness area and the Blue Ridge Wildlife Management area.<span> </span>As I saw the image of the tumbling water, I thought of how Ed Jenkins’ influence is still flowing on, still making a difference now and into the future.<span> </span>He made “footsteps in the sands of time” and in our hearts.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>My condolences go out to his beloved wife, Jo, children Janice Anderson and Amy Dotson, grandsons Sam and Drew Dotson, brothers Charles and Kenneth Jenkins, sisters Ella Battle, Marilyn Thomasson and Patti Chambers. I thought of nephew Rick Jenkins (Charles’s son) and his wife, Cindy Epperson Jenkins (of Epworth, Ga—one of “my” children whom I taught) serving as missionaries in Panama who could not attend the memorial service because of the distance.<span> </span>I thought of all of us many cousins—twice, thrice removed—who people this planet.<span> </span>We will miss you, Ed, but we salute you for the life you lived.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;" class="Standard"><span><span></span>Edgar Lanier Jenkins, our ancestors would be proud of how you carried on the tradition of serving others.<span> </span>You “preached your funeral while you lived,” as our great grandparents liked to say as they sought to teach us how to live.<span> </span>I thought of Ed’s father, Charlie Jenkins, the barber of Blairsville for so many years, talking politics and expressing his wisdom to customers on the country’s situation as Edgar probably played quietly in the barber shop.<span> </span>I thought of Edgar’s grandfather, Ransey Souther, and his unselfish giving in the line of duty as a federal agent.<span> </span>So many influences combined to make Ed what he was.<span> </span>I thought of our wonderful mutual teacher, Mrs. Dora Hunter Alison Spiva, at Union County High School—and so many more people, kin and friends, who wielded their influence.<span> </span>Now we will look back on Edgar Jenkins’s life and say, with poet William Winter: </span></p><blockquote>“On wings of deeds the soul must mount!<p></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span> </span>When we are summoned from afar,</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span> </span>Ourselves, and not our words will count—</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><span><span> </span>Not what we said, but what we are!” </span></p></blockquote><span>cJanuary 19, 2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</span><p></p>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-19361698008292131532012-01-12T13:09:00.002-05:002012-03-14T13:18:11.969-04:00Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area Bears Distinctive Name<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area was a project of the Civilian Conservation Corps finished in 1942 shortly following America’s entry into World War II.<span style=""> </span>It was the last of the CCC recreation development projects in Georgia and almost the last in America.<span style=""> </span>Its 18 acres of mountain land lies ten miles south of Blairsville and 4.5 miles east of Suches, Georgia.<span style=""> </span>The lake rests at 2,854 feet above sea level and is the highest lake in elevation in Georgia.<span style=""> </span>The area provides space for camping and opportunities for fishing, boating, picnicking and hiking.<span style=""> </span>Around the lake itself is the Lake Winfield Scott Trail; nearby are Slaughter Creek Trail, Jarrard Creek Trail, and not too far away is access to the famed Appalachian Trail and the Benton McKaye Trail. Nearby Sosebee Cove, a beautiful forested area, invites naturalists.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Lake Winfield Scott was named in honor of General Winfield Scott who earned distinction as a strong military leader in the War of 1812, Indian Wars, The Mexican War, and a plan for operation of Union troops in the Civil War which has come to be known as the Anaconda Plan.<span style=""> </span>Among the notable assignments made to General Winfield Scott was commandeering the Cherokee Removal of 1838.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>What about this man for whom a lake and recreation area in Georgia were named?<span style=""> </span>He was not a native Georgian, nor did he spend much of his military career in Georgia except for a short period during the Cherokee Removal.<span style=""> </span>He was born on June 13, 1786 on Laurel Branch Plantation in Dinwiddie County near Petersburg, Virginia.<span style=""> </span>His parents were William Scott (1747-1789) and Anna Mason Scott (1748-1803).<span style=""> </span>In 1804 the young Winfield Scott graduated from William and Mary College in Virginia.<span style=""> </span>He read law in a private law firm and took the bar examination and became a lawyer in 1806.<span style=""> </span>However, the military beckoned him and he first joined the Virginia militia cavalry in 1807 as a corporal.<span style=""> </span>In 1808 he entered the U. S. Army in the artillery and soon achieved the rank of captain.<span style=""> </span>In 1811-1812 he served under General Wade Hampton in New Orleans, becoming a Colonel in the Artillery.<span style=""> </span>In March of 1813 he was made adjutant general and was deployed to the area along the US/Canadian border to fight in what we know as the War of 1812.<span style=""> </span>In 1813 he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Queenstown Heights and sent to Quebec to British Army Prison.<span style=""> </span>There he stood up bravely, ordering his American troops as prisoners not to speak to insure against fiercer punishment.<span style=""> </span>He was released on exchange in January of 1813.<span style=""> </span>He personally commanded the advance of Fort St. George, and was badly burned there when an ammunitions magazine was set ablaze by the enemy.<span style=""> </span>Some of his maneuvers led at Ft. St. George were said to be the best commanded operations of the entire War of 1812.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>His further maneuvers included victory over British forces at the Battle of Chippewa on November 8, 1814.<span style=""> </span>At the Battle of Lundy’s Lane he was badly wounded in his left shoulder, with bones shattered.<span style=""> </span>This wound left him greatly impaired in that arm and hand for the rest of his life.<span style=""> </span>In 1814 he was commended by receiving the military Gold Medal.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>He married Lucy Baker about 1814 and they had two children, Winniford Scott and John Scott.<span style=""> </span>His wife Lucy died in 1816.<span style=""> </span>They made their home at Hampton Place in Elizabethtown, New Jersey.<span style=""> </span>He later married Maria DeHart about 1817 and they had seven children, Maria, John Mayo, Virginia, Edward, Cornelia, Marcella and Adeline.<span style=""> </span>Maria died in 1845 in Georgia.<span style=""> </span>During the years between 1814 and 1820, he made some trips to Europe, representing America in France and elsewhere.<span style=""> </span>He also studied military tactics while there.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>He was named Commander of the United States Armed Forces in 1832, succeeding his long-time friend, General John Wool.<span style=""> </span>Then came the Seminole and Creek Wars, and General Winfield Scott was often on the scenes of these battles, giving commands and ordering maneuvers.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Then came the unrest with Cherokees and the political maneuvering to gain land held by the Native Americans.<span style=""> </span>Various treaties and negotiations failed, and finally, in 1832, General Winfield Scott was made commander of Cherokee Removal to reservations in the mid-west.<span style=""> </span>Scott arrived April 6, 1838 at New Echota in North Georgia at the Cherokee Capitol.<span style=""> </span>He divided the Cherokee Indian Nation into three major districts and began to set up forts as gathering points.<span style=""> </span>He wanted U. S. soldiers for the round-up operations, because he felt there would be less likelihood of personal gain.<span style=""> </span>However, because the army moved so slowly, he had to settle for many of the round-up force being Georgia, Tennesse and Alabama militia.<span style=""> </span>Two major moves of the Indians was launched, the first in August, 1838.<span style=""> </span>Complaining of heat, the remainder were delayed in removal until fall of 1838.<span style=""> </span>It must be noted to Scott’s advantage that he urged kindness, consideration of aged, babies and ill, and other humanitarian rules for the removal.<span style=""> </span>His orders, however, were not always followed, as reports of conditions on what we now know as the Trail of Tears have been uncovered. Wanting to go on the Trail of Tears himself, he left Athens, Georgia on October 1, 1838, continuing to Nashville, Tennessee.<span style=""> </span>There he received word to return immediately to Washington where he was assigned to the Aroostock or “Pig War” to settle the boundary between the state of Maine and British Columbia.<span style=""> </span>The remainder of the Cherokee Removal had to go forward without the presence of General Winfield Scott.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>In 1847 he was made chief of US Armies against Mexico and was successful in turning back the Mexican forces and winning victory in the western territories of the United States.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>With political ambitions, he entered the race for President of the United States as a member of the Whig Party in 1852.<span style=""> </span>He lost to Franklin Pierce.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span><span style=""></span>In 1861 when the War Between the States erupted, he was too aged and infirm to be active in the war.<span style=""> </span>His major contribution to the Union strategy in the war was to recommend what became known as the “Anaconda Plan” or “Scott’s Great Snake.”<span style=""> </span>This included embargoes on the major Confederate ports and possession of the Mississippi River, thus cutting the Confederacy in two.<span style=""> </span>His plan was slow to take effect, but in the end, President Lincoln was able to enact most of Scott’s strategy.<span style=""> </span>General Winfield Scott retired from active military service on November 1, 1861, with President Lincoln and members of his cabinet gathered around the venerable General.<span style=""> </span>He had nicknames of “Old Fuss and Feathers” (this due to his attention to details and his belief in elaborate military dress) and “Grand Old Man of the Army” due to his long years to serve in the major military role in our country, 1832-1861. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>When you visit Georgia’s Winfield Scott Lake and Recreation area, you will know something about the man in United States History for whom the beautiful place was named.<span style=""></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style=""> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"> </span></div><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published January 12, 2012 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</span>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-24887808382704695602012-01-05T13:02:00.003-05:002012-03-14T13:09:28.401-04:00Goodbye 2011...Hello 2012<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Years are the means of marking time on the calendar.<span style=""> </span>We said “goodbye” to 2011 and “hello” to 2012.<span style=""> </span>Time flows in relentless passage.<span style=""> </span>Before one year can hardly be reckoned with, another is upon us.<span style=""> </span>Much ink and an infinite number of words have been expended in trying to laud or decry time’s rapid passage.<span style=""> </span>But regardless of what we think or say about time, none of us has the power to either slow it down or stop it.<span style=""> </span></span><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style=""></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style=""></span></span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States who served from 1825-1829, wrote this poem about time:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">“Alas! How swift the moments fly!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">How flash the years along!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Scarce here, yet gone already by,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The burden of a song.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">See childhood, youth and manhood pass,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">And age with furrowed brow;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Time was—Time shall be—drain the glass—</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">But where in Time is now?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>This son of our second president, John Adams, was seven years old when the battle of Bunker Hill was fought during the American Revolution.<span style=""> </span>That day was carved indelibly in the young child’s memory.<span style=""> </span>When he was eleven, his father was sent as America’s representative to France where the young boy attended school.<span style=""> </span>And, unbelievably, when John Quincy Adams was only fourteen, his precociousness landed him in Russia where, at that young, impressionable age, he worked as secretary to the American ambassador in that country.<span style=""> </span>At age fifteen, he became his father’s secretary and was present as John Adams assisted with writing the peace treaty ending the American Revolution.<span style=""> </span>Returning to the United States, the younger Adams entered Harvard where he earned a law degree in 1787.<span style=""> </span>He then became America’s representative under President Washington to several European countries.<span style=""> </span>Continuing his career in foreign service, he helped write the peace treaty following the end of the War of 1812 (in 1814), sent by President Madison.<span style=""> </span>Then President James Monroe appointed John Quincy Adams Secretary of State in 1817.<span style=""> </span>He assisted when the United States negotiated to get Florida and helped to write the Monroe Doctrine.<span style=""> </span>In the election of 1824, the decision had to be determined by the House of Representatives because there was not a majority in the electoral college.<span style=""> </span>Andrew Jackson and his compatriots accused John Quincy Adams of making deals to win the election. Nevertheless, even with the shaky beginning, his presidency saw the building of the Erie Canal, and laid the groundwork for educational advancement and the establishment of the Naval Academy, all of which came later.<span style=""> </span>He was defeated by Andrew Jackson in the 1828 election, but later ran for Congress, was elected from his home state of Massachusetts and served seventeen years, helping to establish the Smithsonian Institution and advocating freedom for slaves, civil rights, and free speech.<span style=""> </span>He died at his desk in his office at Congress on February 23, 1848.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>With all of history that the inimitable John Quincy Adams lived through (1767-1848), is it any wonder that he asked the pointed question in his poem:<span style=""> </span>“But where in Time is now?”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">His question brings us to the same pivotal consideration.<span style=""> </span>“But where in Time is now?”</span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span></div><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">We are in a time of great duress in our nation.<span style=""> </span>Trust seems to be in grave danger.<span style=""> </span>Debt and uncertainty reign.<span style=""> </span>Citizens, many of whom would work if they had jobs, are jobless.<span style=""> </span>Many other citizens, too accustomed to government “hand-outs” and idleness, are just as glad to make-do from one government assistance check to another without rendering any worthwhile service either to their families or our country.<span style=""> </span>“But where in Time is now?” reechoes through the many decades from the time John Quincy Adams wrote these probing words.<span style=""> </span>The demise of 2011 and the dawn of 2012 call us to consider our own responsibilities and directions.</span> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>True, we may not lead a life of foreign service and domestic leadership as did the long-ago sixth president, John Quincy Adams.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>But I’m reminded of the old adage that carries great truth:<span style=""> </span>“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”<span style=""> </span>We come to 2012 for some purpose.<span style=""> </span>Could it be to stand on convictions and strengthen the one small link that is our niche in the chain of time and events?</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>We have now—which will soon pass.<span style=""> </span>But now is important.<span style=""> </span>All that we have and are has been shaped by what is past.<span style=""> </span>All that we have and will become lies in right choices and determined action.<span style=""> </span>Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson stated quite succinctly the passing of one year and the dawn of the new in his “In <a name="_GoBack"></a>Memoriam” (1850):<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">“The year is going, let him go;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Ring out the false, ring in the true.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Our times are more complex, more complicated than those experienced by John Quincy Adams and Alfred Lord Tennyson. <span style=""> </span>But we, as they, have opportunity to make a difference where we are, to “ring in the true.”<span style=""> </span>The question remains:<span style=""> </span>Will I?<span style=""> </span>Will we?<span style=""> </span>Tennyson put our responsibility quite well when he wrote:<span style=""> </span>“That men may rise on stepping-stones/Of their dead selves to higher things.”<span style=""> </span>The year 2012 gives us this opportunity.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style=""><br /></span></span></p> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published January 5, 2012 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</span></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-41386167946197873172011-12-22T23:41:00.003-05:002012-03-09T23:51:21.608-05:00Christmas Is... A Trail of Miracles through Unbelievable Circumstances (or the Malac-Bartak Story)<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Since this is my last column for 2011 in this paper, I want to thank my faithful readers for staying with me yet another year.<span style=""> </span>I have written about many “first settlers” to our county, going back to study the 1834, 1840 and 1850 census records to trace several of the brave people who hazarded the unknown to settle in the new and burgeoning county of Union.<span style=""> </span>If you missed any of these stories and have any interest in them, you may go online to GaGenWebProject, click on Union County, and when the general index emerges, click on “Through Mountain Mists.”<span style=""> </span>There you will find a complete listing by title of my columns since I began writing for “<i style="">The Union Sentinel</i>” in July, 2003.<span style=""> </span>Can it be it has been over eight years I have followed this challenging and satisfying pursuit of telling the stories of our brave ancestors and true stories of this section of our beautiful world?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">But today’s column will take a different turn.<span style=""> </span>It is a true story, coming at a pivotal time in the year here at Christmastime.<span style=""> </span>I recently received a most wonderful Christmas gift, a copy of Barry Forrest Malac’s book of remembrances entitled “<i style="">Through the Mountains, Valleys and Gloom…But Never Alone</i>.”<span style=""> </span>Barry and Marian Bartak Malac are fairly recent newcomers as residents of Union County, coming in 1986 to begin their Union County home, and moving here to live in 1989 after Barry’s retirement.<span style=""> </span>Mainly his story, but interspersed with how he met Marian in his native Czechoslovakia, and how their lives became intertwined as husband and wife, reads like a novel.<span style=""> </span>The reviewer, writer Arlene M. Gray of “<i style="">An Ordinary Life</i>…” rightly states of Barry’s book:<span style=""> </span>“The reader has no choice but not to put the book down until the end is reached.”<span style=""> </span>And with her evaluation I heartily agree; with many Christmas preparation jobs calling for my time, I could not leave Barry’s book alone until I had finished the last chapter.<span style=""> </span>His is a marvelous story of faith and adventure, trust and persistence, following God’s leadership and acting on opportunities, many through grave dangers and escaping Communism<span style=""> </span>That is why I entitle this review of Barry Malac’s book, “Christmas Is…A Trail of Miracles through Unbelievable Circumstances.”<span style=""> </span>I recommend to my readers that you find a copy of his book and read it.<span style=""> </span>It will inspire you, uplift you and make you know that miracles still occur in the lives of people who sincerely seek to follow the Lord who came to earth at Christmastime.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Born in Vienna, Austria on December 12, 1923, the third child of the Rev. Gustav Josef Malac and Antonie Malacova Malac, the new baby lived in the home of his Methodist Episcopal minister father and mother.<span style=""> </span>Later his father would minister in Czechoslovakia where he became pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in Bratislava, Slovakia on January 1, 1929, and then on to the area of Prague. Grave days lay ahead, as they would live through the perils of World War II, with Barry (his Americanized name) working at Stalag Erding in Bavaria to assist with keeping German warplanes repaired and in the air.<span style=""> </span>Barry’s story of close encounters of the dangerous kind, his bout in the military, and his college years are one string of miracles after another. Then he saw a picture of the daughter of an American United Methodist minister sent to his country as Superintendent of Methodist Missions.<span style=""> </span>Barry told his mother, when she tried to match him up with a young lady of her choosing, that he planned to marry the girl from America whose picture he saw on the Methodist brochure. And things came about that he was able to do just that.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>But even after their wedding, held on Easter Saturday, April 16, 1949, circumstances were not easy for the young couple—she an American citizen in that Czech country with her parents, approved missionaries, and the young Czech who had ambitions of becoming a forester.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">He first took steps to escape the strict confines of the communist regime and border patrols.<span style=""> </span>His story is full of suspense, intrigue and danger.<span style=""> </span>She was to follow and they were to meet in Munich, Germany.<span style=""> </span>Timing and getting through tough check-points allow the reader to see aspects of escape and holding securely to dreams.<span style=""> </span>The way Barry Malac gives God credit for opening up the way for both of them and getting them safely to America is a story worthy of any Christmas miracles we can imagine.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Even in America, life was not easy as Marian’s aunt in Texas took them in for a while. Then they decided to move east to Duke University in North Carolina for Barry to get his Master’s degree in Forestry.<span style=""> </span>Then came his first permanent job in Savannah, Georgia as Barry was employed in management with the Union Bag and Paper Corporation<a name="_GoBack"></a>.<span style=""> </span>Giving just the barest facts, as I am doing here, of a lifetime of dreams and their fulfillment may not sound very exciting.<span style=""> </span>But believe me, Barry’s narrative style, his ability to remember significant events and how these were turned to good (which he terms miracles) make their true story fascinating reading.<span style=""> </span>His frontispiece uses this quotation from the noted Albert Einstein:<span style=""> </span>“There are only two ways to live one’s life:<span style=""> </span>one is to live as if everything is a miracle, and the other one is as if nothing is a miracle.”<span style=""> </span>And what have Barry and Marian done throughout their lives together:<span style=""> </span>They see and acknowledge the miracles that have occurred.<span style=""> </span>They know to Whom to give credit, and the Spirit of Christmas is evident throughout their long and eventful lives.<span style=""> </span>Thank you, Barry Malac, for telling your story for us to marvel at and admire.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>And since I want to end this column with a Christmas wish for all of you faithful readers, I offer you my 2011 Christmas poem.<span style=""> </span>I hope its lines inspire deep thought about the true meaning of Christmas. </span></p><blockquote>Christmas Is…<p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Christmas is God with us,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Immanuel His name.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">In the fullness of time</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The Lord Jesus came,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Fulfillment of prophecy</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">From God’s plan for mankind,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">To restore broken kinship</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">And bring peace of mind</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">To all who draw near</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">With faith deep in the heart.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">This is the message</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">That Christmas imparts.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><br /></span></p><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Christmas is Love Incarnate,</span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The Word made flesh;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">A break through the darkness</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">From the sin that enmeshed</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Mankind in bondage</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">For multitudinous years.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Angels declared the message:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">“Rejoice!<span style=""> </span>Have no fears,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">For behold we bring you</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">This message of peace:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Christ is born in Bethlehem,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Now your bondage will cease!”</span></p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Think how our gratitude</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Should swell up in praise:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Let us serve Christ the Lord</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Throughout all of our days!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">“Christmas is the day</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">That holds all time together.”*</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Christmas is God-with-us!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">No power that bond can sever!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Script MT Bold";">-Ethelene Dyer Jones</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Script MT Bold";"><span style=""> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Christmas, 2011 </span></p></blockquote><br /><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">(*”Christmas is the day that holds all time together” is a quotation by Alexander Smith.)</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published December 22, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</span>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-89817373367683147442011-12-15T23:25:00.001-05:002012-03-09T23:41:32.176-05:00Christmastime and World War II Recollections<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">December 7, 1941 was, as then-president Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated in addressing the nation, “a day of infamy.”<span style=""> </span>Those still living who remember that day when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, resulting in the United States declaring war on December 8, indeed remember the times. Our nation was plunged into the war that had already been raging in Europe since 1939.<span style=""> </span>The years from 1941 through 1945 changed our rather peaceful, taken-for-granted way of life in the mountainous region of North Georgia.<span style=""> </span>Even Christmastimes during these years became different.</span> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Upon President Roosevelt’s declaration of war on December 8, 1941, eligible young men began to volunteer and/or were drafted.<span style=""> </span>This meant that the farm workers were cut drastically while at the same time maximum production was needed for the war effort.<span style=""> </span>My brother, Eugene, volunteered for the Army Air Force, as well as did my cousins William Clyde Collins, Sr., and Robert Neal Collins, and many other able-bodied young men we knew.<span style=""> </span>At Choestoe Church, we had an “Honor Roll” of those in service from our congregation, and we earnestly prayed for their safety each time we met to worship.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>In the meantime, those of us—much younger though we were—had to grow up and become responsible in assisting with farm labor, like hoeing (which we were taught anyway from a very early age), learning to walk behind a corn planter and guide the mule along the rows, or operate a “cultivator” plow to plow between the rows to keep the weeds down.<span style=""> </span>Maximum crop production was needed for the “war effort,” and it took all hands-aboard, young though we were.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Only ten days </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, my Grandpa Collins died on December 17, 1941.<span style=""> </span>He had been a stay in the community, out ahead in more modern methods of farming.<span style=""> </span>He had the first “threshing machine” in the area, going from farm to farm to thresh the harvests of grain.<span style=""> </span>He had the first electricity on his farm, from his own Delco system, <a name="_GoBack"></a>long before Tennessee Valley Authority got permission to run their power lines into the community. He also had owned the first tractor and tractor-drawn farm implements. Grandpa Francis Jasper “Bud” Collins had a Delco Plant that produced electricity for his house and some of his farm buildings.<span style=""> </span>Because of the passing of this staid citizen of Choestoe so shortly after Pearl Harbor, those of us who loved and respected him so highly thought we had lost our foremost citizen.<span style=""> </span>I, for one, grieved during that time near to Christmas.<span style=""> </span>Never again was his country store as fascinating to me as it had been before his death, even though his son and two of his daughters continued to operate it, and his large farm.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">To complicate matters </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">in the Dyer household, my brother Eugene joined the US Army Air Force and as soon as his training was finished shipped out to the European theater of war where he served admirably as a bombardier on many missions over enemy territory.<span style=""> </span>My brother-in-law, Ray Dyer, husband to my older sister Louise Dyer, also entered service.<span style=""> </span>He was sent to the Pacific theater of war.<span style=""> </span>We had two members of our family far away in war.<span style=""> </span>We had two less adult workers for all the farm work. We eagerly awaited any word from them in daily mail, but letters were sometimes infrequent.<span style=""> </span>And then my mother became quite ill with heart complications in the days before miracle drugs and surgery could promise relief from her suffering.<span style=""> </span>She died on Valentine’s Day, December 14, 1945.<span style=""> </span>At the time of her death, my brother Eugene was severely wounded and lying in an Army Field Hospital somewhere in Italy. At age fourteen I transitioned from teenager to adult because I became the main housekeeper, cook, and manager of our household.<span style=""> </span>It was a sad time for the Dyer family, but somehow we kept going, because of our strong spirit of patriotism and derring-do.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">What were </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Christmases like during these years from 1941 through 1945?<span style=""> </span>Recall that rationing became necessary to the war effort.<span style=""> </span>We could only have a “rationed” amount of sugar, other scarce items of “store-bought” supplies, and gasoline and tires were hard to come by.<span style=""> </span>Say that we adjusted.<span style=""> </span>Maybe these scarcities and restrictions were not as hard on farm families as they were on those living in the cities of our country.<span style=""> </span>We still mainly farmed through “mule” power and human effort and had not yet become mechanized on our farm.<span style=""> </span>Our first tractor came after World War II was over.<span style=""> </span>It was amazing the tasty sweets we made using our own home-created product, sorghum syrup. My father, J. Marion Dyer, made hundreds of gallons of sorghum syrup each fall, from his own and other farmers’ crops of cane.<span style=""> </span>We sweetened cookies and gingerbread, dried fruit stack cakes and peanut brittle candy with our country-produced sorghum. These made good sweets for Christmas during the war years.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">At school we had all sorts of </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">drives for the war effort:<span style=""> </span>selling savings stamps and bonds; collecting scrap metal for the war effort; rolling bandages in home economics classes.<span style=""> </span>We knew our nation was in a crisis situation and we as patriotic teenagers did what we could to support our troops and to hasten victory.<span style=""> </span>We kept abreast of progress on all fronts.<span style=""> </span>It is a wonder we did not become traumatized for life, having the realities of war and its effects on our families thrust upon us at such an impressionable age.<span style=""> </span>But at least no battles were fought on US home soil.<span style=""> </span>We were spared those atrocities and first-hand observations and fears of war.<span style=""> </span>But we did, on occasions, attend solemn memorials for a few of our young military men who met their deaths in service.<span style=""> </span>Four Christmases came and went.<span style=""> </span>We became older and wiser, more thoughtful and less presumptive because of how the war touched our individual lives and communities.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">At the churches </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">in our communities, we had our Christmas programs much as we had done before the war.<span style=""> </span>There were still manger tableaus with shepherds and wise men gathered around.<span style=""> </span>We sang the beloved Christmas carols, trying to sound notes of hope and majesty despite our concerns for the war and beloved from our churches who had gone as servicemen.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Maybe the little paper bags with our goodies—an orange, an apple, some peppermint stick candy and chocolate drops—had less of the goodies than in pre-war years.<span style=""> </span>But those treats were there…and ever, hope was paramount.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>And so we weathered the war years, 1941 through 1945.<span style=""> </span>Maybe it is good for us to remember, to think of the sacrifices and triumphs, the determination to make-do.<span style=""> </span>Have we lost some of our spirit of persistence and pride, of patriotism and faith?<span style=""> </span>Christmas is a good time to reflect and recollect…and to set new directions that will lead to victory.<span style=""> </span>We had this spirit in World War II years.<span style=""> </span>Oh, that we could recapture the wonder, the marvel of working together for common purposes!<span style=""> </span>In retrospect, I’m grateful that I “grew up” to adulthood at a young age because of circumstances.<span style=""> </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>The words of poet John Greenleaf Whittier express well the intention of having the Christmas spirit all the year through:</span></p><blockquote><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style=""> </span></span><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">“Somehow, not only for Christmas</span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>But all the year through,</span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>The joy that you give to others</span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>Is the joy that comes back to you;</span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>And the more you spend in blessing</span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>The poor and lonely and sad,</span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>The more of your heart’s possessing</span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>Returns to make you glad.”</span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span></p></blockquote>c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published December 15, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.<br /><p></p>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-46597816702655447342011-12-08T23:19:00.002-05:002012-03-09T23:24:47.172-05:00Patterson Families--Early Settlers in Union (part 2)<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Last week’s column introduced early settler families in Union County with the last name Patterson.<span style=""> </span>In 1834, four families with Patterson surname numbered 34 persons; in 1840, that number had climbed to ten Patterson households with 55 total; and by 1850, there were eleven Patterson households with a total of 73 persons and one slave.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Continuing with Patterson families, we will look a bit more closely at some of them.<span style=""> </span>We noted that John Patterson was here in 1834.<span style=""> </span>Family information holds that he and his wife Margaret Black came to the area that became Union as early as 1829.<span style=""> </span>Their son, George, also settled along Ivy Log Creek in Union about the same time his father came.<span style=""> </span>In the 1834 census, John’s household had four males and three females, and George’s family also had four males and three females.<span style=""> </span>Both of these had farms along Ivy Log Creek, but George Patterson was also a milliner by trade, making hats from sheep’s wool.<span style=""> </span>George was married twice.<span style=""> </span>His first wife was Rebecca Chastain.<span style=""> </span>After her death, he married Sophia Dunnigan.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>One of the sons of George and Rebecca Chastain Patterson was named William Harden Patterson (b. April 10, 1832, d. 1883).<span style=""> </span>He married Elizabeth Akins on November 5, 1853 with Hampton Jones, Justice of the Peace, performing their ceremony.<span style=""> </span>When the Civil War came<span style=""> </span>William Harden Patterson and his younger brother, John, both enlisted in the Confederate Army.<span style=""> </span>They were mustered into Company B, 6<sup>th</sup> Regiment, of Georgia Volunteers.<span style=""> </span>Both lived through the war.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>William Harden Patterson and Elizabeth Akins Patterson had a large family of twelve children:<span style=""> </span>James Alonzo, Sarah Florence, Martha Elizabeth (nicknamed “Jeff” because her father, William Hardin, known as “Bill” was such a staunch supporter of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy), Rebecca Emmaline, Mary M, John Lumpkin, Lewis, twins William Elisha and Joseph Elijah, Vienna Caledonia, Lula L, and George Bunyan.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Bill and Elizabeth’s oldest son, James Alonzo Patterson (Nov. 30, 1855 – 1953), was ordained a Baptist minister.<span style=""> </span>He married Rozella Sparks.<span style=""> </span>Their children were Semon, Howard, Harden, Ellen, Milton, Maude, John, Howell and Elizabeth.<span style=""> </span>Bethlehem Baptist Church in Lower Young Cane District was formed in 1848.<span style=""> </span>Some of the Patterson families attended and were active in that church, and William Harden, Elizabeth, Rev. Alonzo and Rozella and other of the Pattersons were buried in the Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Twins of William H. and Elizabeth Patterson, William Elisha and Joseph Elijah, were born September 12, 1871.<span style=""> </span>Elisha Patterson (1871- ?) married Julia Brackett (1875-1933) on July 24, 1895 with Rev. D. A. Sullivan performing their ceremony. I did not find a list of their children.<span style=""> </span>The other twin, William Elisha Patterson, married Nancy Jane Ammons in 1901.<span style=""> </span>They lived in Fannin County near her parents until Nancy’s untimely death with tuberculosis.<span style=""> </span>Elisha<span style=""> </span>farmed and sold fresh produce.<span style=""> </span>They had six children:<span style=""> </span>The first infant died at birth, The other five were Clinton, Nellie, Grace, Earl and Kathryn.<span style=""> </span>On a cold day, December 31, 1917, Elisha Patterson loaded his five small children into a covered wagon and moved them and their household goods from the foot of Aska Mountain in Fannin County back to Young Cane in Union County.<span style=""> </span>Later they moved to Ivy Log and then to Upper Young Cane. Back in Union, some of his relatives helped him with the children while he worked to make a living for them.<span style=""> </span>Elisha Patterson, almost blind in his old age, was killed when he walked into an oncoming automobile in November, 1957.<span style=""> </span>He was interred at Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>The Patterson surname is still numerous in Union and other North Georgia counties.<span style=""> </span>The name Patterson derives from the Scottish and Northern English patronymic form, Patrick, shortened sometimes to Pate, hence son of Patrick, son of Pate, and then Patterson.<span style=""> </span>By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in England, Scotland and Ireland, the name Patterson was common. William Patrison was listed as a “gentleman” in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1446.<span style=""> </span>James Patterson was noted as a Sheriff Deputy in Inverness, Scotland, in 1530.<span style=""> </span>John Patersoune was a Burgess in Northberwyck in 1562.<span style=""> </span>George Patersoune was a monk in the monastery of Culross in 1569.<span style=""> </span>Whether related to the Pattersons who migrated to Union County in 1829, I do not know, but Rev. Hampton William Patterson was born June 18, 1806 in North Carolina and died in Henderson County there February 28, 1880.<span style=""> </span>He was ordained to the ministry by Mountain Creek Baptist Church in Rutherford County, NC in 1834, and was appointed superintendent of public schools there in 1841.<span style=""> </span>Pattersons have been contributing citizens in various aspects of culture, education, politics and ministry.</span></p><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published December 8, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</span>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-86399613129217123702011-12-01T23:01:00.004-05:002012-03-09T23:18:36.131-05:00Patterson Families--Early Settlers in Union<p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span> </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">With our annual Thanksgiving celebration immediately past we have fond memories of our own family get-togethers, traditional </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">turkey and dressing and other excellent food, and the good times such family events provide for us.<span style=""> </span>We are grateful for such a highlight in our year and mark each as worthwhile and a time to draw together as family.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">We don’t know to what extent the early settlers to Union County observed Thanksgiving.<span style=""> </span>Maybe they, too, gathered family members and had a special time of gratitude for blessings and sharing food.<span style=""> </span>I took time to examine the 1834 Union census, and discovered that the surname recorded with the most families with the name living in the county then was Patterson.<span style=""> </span>Four families made up the Patterson population with heads of households listed as Joseph (8 males, 4 females), Amos (5 males, 2 females), John (4 males, 3 females) and George (4 males, 3 females).<span style=""> </span>That count brought the Pattersons living in Union at the time of the first census to 33 persons.<span style=""> </span>Some of the Patterson families settled in the Ivy Log District of Union County along Ivy Log Creek.<span style=""></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>The marriages recorded in Union records before the 1840 census were as follows: <span style=""></span></span></p><blockquote>Lewis Patterson to Jerushia Denton on December 6, 1836 by J. B. Chastain, Justice of the Peace; <p></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>Margaret Patterson to Gravit R. Foster on November 9, 1837 by William Patterson;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>Sarah Patterson to William Carroll on December 31, 1838 by A. Chastain, Justice of the Peace;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""> </span>John Patterson to Sarah Beasley on March 13, 1839 by John B. Chastain, Justice of the Peace. </span></p></blockquote><span style=""></span><span style=""></span>By the 1840 census, which gives only names of heads-of-households and the number of males and females and their ages by categories of under 5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, 20-30, etc. to over 100, we find ten Patterson families listed.<span style=""> </span>The four families resident in Union had remained, Joseph, Amos, John and George, and six more Patterson families with heads of households named William, John, Samuel, Lewis, John (the elder—he and his wife were between 70 and 80), and Bailey.<span style=""> </span>Those in Patterson households numbered a total of 55 for the 1840 population.<span style=""></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""></span>Those searching their genealogy are always grateful to come to the 1850 census, for therein they find names of husband, wife, children and any others living in the household when the enumerator visited.<span style=""> </span>There were eleven households of Pattersons in Union in 1850.<span style=""> </span>I list them here as I found them enumerated: </p><blockquote><span style=""></span>Household #45:<span style=""> </span>William Patterson, 37, born in NC, wife Elizabeth, 32, born in GA, and ten children, all born in Georgia; Mary, 13, Joseph, 12, John, 11, William, 9, Samuel, 7, James, 5, Nancy, 4, Alfred, 3, Manerva, 1, and an infant, gender and name not given, 4 months.<p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Household # 184:<span style=""> </span>John Patterson, 35, born in NC, Sarah, 29, born in NC and children all born in Georgia:<span style=""> </span>Lidey, 9, Nancy 6, Elizabeth, 4, Andrew, 2, and Nathan, 6 months. These, I think, are the John Patterson and Sarah Beasley married on March 13, 1839</span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Household # 187:<span style=""> </span>Samuel Patterson, 44, born in NC; Jane, 3 (?) born in TN, Carroll, 17, born in NC, Decator, 15, born in NC, and the remaining children born in Georgia:<span style=""> </span>Amanda, 13, Julius, 11, Mercilla, 9, Nathan, 6, Sarah, 4, Julian, 2, and Samuel, 6 months.</span> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Household # 333: Joseph Patterson, 61, born in SC, wife Agnes, 55, born in SC, children still at home all born in Georgia: Solomon, 24, Mary, 20, Elizabeth, 18, and Melissa, 16.<span style=""> </span>Listed in Joseph’s household is Margaret Patterson, age 83, his mother (?), born in SC, and Ann Patterson, 47, his sister (?) and Sary Durham, 84, born in VA, his mother-in-law (?).</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Household # 335:<span style=""> </span>Amos Patterson, 26, born in Georgia, Jane, 24, born in NC, and children Mary, 4, born in GA, James 3, born in NC, and Nancy, 1, born in GA.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Household # 373:<span style=""> </span>John Patterson, 28, born in NC and Mary, 24, born in SC.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Household # 454:<span style=""> </span>John Patterson, 52, born in NC, owns one slave; Sarah, 47, born in SC, and children all born in Georgia:<span style=""> </span>Andrew, 18, Humphrey, 15, John, 11, George, 8, Sarah, 3; and Margaret Patterson, age 83, listed again here in her son John’s household (she was also enumerated in her son Joseph’s household), and Lucinda Hix, 45, born in SC, who probably was a sister of Sarah Patterson, John’s wife.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Household # 455:<span style=""> </span>Joseph Patterson, 25; Mary, 22, both born in Georgia, and children all born in Georgia:<span style=""> </span>George, 5, Sarah, 3, and John, 2 months. A marriage is listed for Joseph Patterson and Polly Hawkins on October 24, 1844 by William Poteet, Justice of the Peace.<span style=""> </span>“Polly” was a common nickname for Mary.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Household # 456:<span style=""> </span>William Patterson, 23, Margaret Patterson, 22, Lucinda 5 and James, 2, all born in Georgia.<span style=""> </span>I do not find a marriage listing for this couple in Union’s records unless the one for W. H. Patterson and Elizabeth Akins on November 5, 1853 by Hampton Jones, Justice of the Peace is the entry, maybe using Margaret’s other name.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Household # 608:<span style=""> </span>George Patterson, age 50, born in North Carolina; no wife listed; children all born in Georgia:<span style=""> </span>William, 19, Elizer, 17, John, 13, Elijah, 11, and Margaret, 6.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style=""></span>Household # 902:<span style=""> </span>James Patterson, 34, born in NC; Easter, 26, born in NC, and children all born in Georgia:<span style=""> </span>Martha, 6, Adaline, 4, Jonathan, 2, and Nathan, 11 months.<span style=""> </span>James Patterson and Easter Nicholson were married in Union on Christmas Day, 1843 by Rev. Abner Chastain. </span></p></blockquote> T<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">hese 11 households of Pattersons in the 1850 Union census numbered 73 in population, plus one slave, with 38 males, 34 females, and one infant with gender not specified nor name given at age four months.</span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"> </span><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published December 1, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-6629711913373694422011-11-24T09:47:00.000-05:002012-03-09T16:39:29.656-05:00Doing Our Part to Bring Thanksgiving to Many: or a Venture into Raising Turkeys on Our Farm<div align="justify">How my father learned about the availability of baby turkeys that he could order-off for and have delivered by rural mail carrier to our farm at Choestoe, I don’t remember. However, I do recall our venture into turkey raising when I was a child—or how we tried to do our part to make the traditional Thanksgiving bird available to many people.<br /><p>Maybe Daddy read about turkey poults in the dependable “<em>Market Bulletin</em>.” That was a farm paper that came regularly to our farm mailbox and which he read avidly to keep up on the latest bargains in seeds and other farm needs. That was probably where he learned about where to purchase the baby turkeys and have them delivered to our farm.<br /></p><p>But before that adventure saw itself through to the end, his third child was glad our latest enterprise lasted only a few years. I never did make friends with those noisy turkeys, and the mean turkey tom, in particular, must have known I didn’t like him, because every time I was anywhere near him on the farm, he seemed to chase me and scare me half to death.<br /></p><p>We built a special poultry house for the anticipated turkeys, and since they were coming in early spring and the weather was still cold and unpredictable in the mountains, my father knew he would have to devise a way to keep the turkey house heated for the darling little poults. He put a small wood heater in the house, and built a fence around the house, with chicken wire strung from pole to pole so the fowl would not wander.<br /></p><p>I remember well the day the baby turkeys arrived. The mail man (as we called the postman) blew his horn at our mailbox, and since Daddy was avidly looking for his turkey poults, he hurried out to get the crates. We had a hundred of the little critters. They looked so cold, and even ailing when they arrived. What would we ever do to raise them? They seemed so small and furry. Surely it would take them years to grow into eating-sized turkeys worthy for a Thanksgiving feast.<br /></p><p>I’m sure Daddy spent sleepless nights looking after those little critters at first, making sure they were warm and fed properly. I recall how rapidly they grew, and maybe we lost a few, but as they developed from cuddly baby turks to lanky fryers, they had a mind of their own. Their sounds grated on my ears—and soon they were outgrowing their fenced-in area and Dad was allowing them to range a bit farther out. By then that aggressive gobbler had taken to my red sweater, or anything red, and chased me like I was easy prey and something he wanted to sample for his own dinner. I was mortally afraid of that barnyard king-of-the-roost.<br /></p><p>Since we had secured the 100 turkeys very early in the spring, my Dad’s aim was to grow them off for pre-Thanksgiving sale. He had to fence them in again and give them special feedings of grains and nutrients to make them ready for market. They didn’t like being confined, since they had been range turkeys for several months. They protested loudly, with a gooble- gobble here and a gobble-gobble there. I, for one, despised turkey language.<br /></p><p>But then, who was I to complain? My Daddy was always telling us that when he took the turkeys to market, we would have more money for the things we needed, for the Great Depression had certainly not been kind to North Georgia farmers. Turkeys were a “trial-run” crop to help restore the economy.<br /></p><p>Then came time to catch those turkeys, put them in coops and take them to Gainesville to market. We kept about eight or ten from the whole flock so that we and our neighbors could have a Thanksgiving feast from some of our own home-grown turkeys.<br /></p><p>I don’t know how much money per pound my father earned from those pestersome turkeys, but it must have been enough for him to try it again for about three more years. For it seems that we repeated that process of having baby turkeys delivered by mail and going through the same process for several years to grow them out for market. And without fail, there was always one or more turkey toms in the flock that played havoc with my own peace and quiet.<br /></p><p>Then my father told us how lucky we were that we didn’t have to “drive” the turkeys by foot to market like our grandfather used to have to do. It would take two or three days to herd the turkeys along the wagon roads by foot to market, with the turkeys roosting in trees as they camped by night. I never did understand just how they managed to keep those turkeys under control enough to drive them to market, especially when one in those we raised always gave me so much trouble.<br /></p><p>As we gather around our Thanksgiving tables this year, 2011, we feast on a roast turkey we purchased at the supermarket. But in the 1930’s, in the midst of the Great Depression, there was a time when turkeys were grown on a mountain farm and fattened up and marketed wholesale prior to Thanksgiving. That helped people to have that favorite of holiday meals—roast turkey. I, for one, was glad our turkey venture didn’t last many years. But the business did aid<a name="_GoBack"></a> farm families to have a little more money for some of the barest necessities of life.<br /></p><p>c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published November 24, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-1312544179496732122011-11-17T09:38:00.000-05:002012-03-09T16:40:02.742-05:00Honoring Early Settlers in the Duncan Family and Sheriff Harlan Duncan, a Descendant<div align="justify">One Duncan family was present in the new Union County when the first census was taken of residents in 1834, two years after the county was formed. When Alexander Duncan and his family settled here is not certain. In 1834, his household had three males and three females listed as residents.<br /><p>By 1840, four households of Duncans were registered in the U. S. census in Union County. These included Alexander Duncan, still residing in Union from 1834, whose household had a son between five and ten, one between ten and fifteen, Alexander himself, between 40 and 50 and three females under fifteen and his wife, between 40 and 50. The second Duncan household was headed by David, with two males under five, and David himself between twenty and 30, and his wife in his same age category. In another household was Charles Duncan, between fifty and sixty, two sons, one 15 to 20 and one 20-30, and evidently his wife, between 40 and fifty, and an elderly lady, aged between 70-80. The fourth and final Duncan household was headed by Elisha who was between 30 and 40, two sons between 10-15, and evidently three daughters, one under 5, one 5-10, and one 10-15 (no wife, or no female who would have been the approximate age of a wife and mother).<br /></p><p>In the interim period between the 1840-1850 census tabulations, more Duncan households had been set up, so that by 1850, the first census with names of all residents in a family listed, we note eight with Duncan as the household head. These, listed as found in the census (even with spelling as given then) were:<br /></p><p>Household # 9: Charles Duncan and his wife Mary, both age 75, both having been born in Virginia.<br /></p><p>Household # 75: Joseph Duncan, age 29, and Mary, age 27, both born in North Carolina. Union marriage records show a Joseph Duncan married Mary Thomas on September 28, 1840.<br /></p><p>Household # 111: David Duncan, age 44 and his wife Nancy, age 38, both born in North Carolina. Their children listed were Elisha, 14, William, 11, John 8, Moses 3. I found a listing of marked graves in the Duncan Family Cemetery with David Duncan’s birth date as March 14, 1806 and his death date February 11, 1877. Nancy Duncan, according to her tombstone, was born July 17, 1811 and died November 4, 1890.<br /></p><p>Household # 129: James Duncan, 39 and his wife Elizabeth, 36, both born in North Carolina, and their children William, 15, Frances 13, Elizabeth 11, Henry 9 and James, 5. Living in their household was Mary Lunsford, age 72, also born in North Carolina. She perhaps was Elizabeth’s mother.<br /></p><p>Household # 169: William Duncan, age 32 and Sarah Ann, 27, both born in North Carolina, and their children Mary 3, and Aryadey (sp.) 1. In the Union County marriage records, I noted that a William Duncan married Ann S. Neal on September 14, 1856, with the Rev. Thomas M. Hughes performing their ceremony. And much later, Areadna (so spelled), their daughter, married Elam A. Scruggs on August 15, 1883 with Rev. C. A. Sullivan performing the ceremony.<br /><br /></p><p>Household # 415: Mary Duncan, age 52, was head of household, born in North Carolina, and in her household were John, 21, Mary, 18, Jesse, 15, and Caroline, 11.<br /></p><p>Household # 679: Havey (sp) Duncan (should this have been Harvey?), 26, and Nancy, 23, both born in North Carolina, and Louesa, age 1.<br /></p><p>Household # 682: Jonathan Duncan, age 63, born in Virginia, Sarah, age 55, born in North Carolina, and their two children, both born in North Carolina, Elizabeth, age 10 and Andrew, age 15.<br /></p><p>By 1850, those with the Duncan surname in Union County numbered 33. And by 1850, the first settler, Alexander, had passed away already and was buried in the Duncan family cemetery with his birth and death dates noted: February 28, 1797 – August 17, 1849. Probably several other in the unmarked Duncan graves there had passed before 1850 as well.<br /></p><p>Duncan is a very old family name, having derived from Scots and Gaelic “Donnchadh,” the Donn meaning brown and the “chadh” meaning warrior. The first syllable was shortened to “Dun” by the Scots and meant a fortress, and the “chadh” became “chean” and later “can” which meant “the head or a chief.” We are all familiar with the story of King Duncan whom Macbeth killed in William Shakespeare’s play entitled “<em>Macbeth</em>.” Traces of the name go back in history to the Turpillian Stone carving of the 4th century AD in Crickwell, Wales. Dunchad was one of the earliest forenames in Scotland, originating with the Dalraidan Celtic Scots from Ireland that settled in the southwest of Scotland as early as the 4th century. On the Duncan family crest is the motto, “disce pate” which means “learn to suffer.”<br /></p><p>One of the lofty and notable Duncan citizens of Union County was Harlan Thomas Duncan (September 14, 1818-May 5, 1985), son of Tom and Gertrude White Duncan. Harlan Duncan served as sheriff of the county for 21 years, from 1964 until his death. Add to those 21 years as respected and efficient sheriff, a time as a member of the City Police force of Blairsville, 18 years as a Georgia State Patrolman, and his term as deputy sheriff and then sheriff and he clocked over 40 years in law enforcement.<br /></p><p>Handsome of demeanor, tall and rangy, and always impeccable in character and conduct, he was the “John Wayne” figure of Union County. It has been recounted that he was so intent on maintaining law and order that sometimes just a finger pointed by Sheriff Duncan and directed toward anyone infringing on the law, like speeding teenagers, was sufficient to slow them down and remind them what awaited if their behavior did not improve. Although a tough law man, he is remembered, too, for his congenial personality, his fairness, and his devotion to family and citizens of the county. He was married to Ruth Jackson, daughter of Marion and Emma Davis Jackson. Ruth was a teacher for many years in Union County Schools. They had two sons, Thomas Harlan Duncan, Jr. and Jack Sidney Duncan. His stately funeral procession, with Sheriff Duncan’s beloved horse with an empty saddle except for his sheriff’s hat on the saddle, saw over 500 law enforcement officers and others citizens paying tribute to this man who had stood tall for right in Union County. He served our country in the U. S. Army during World War II. Sheriff Duncan was laid to rest in Union Memory Gardens, Blairsville.<br /></p><p>c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 17, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-67712274201175566802011-11-10T09:33:00.000-05:002012-03-09T16:42:11.992-05:00Lard Pail Lunches and Shared Knowledge (or Life in a Country School ~ Part 3)<div align="justify">Through the past two columns, I have shared memories of attending and teaching my first year in the same country school. I hope this journey back in time brought to mind some good memories of your “grade school” years, wherever you attended. It is good to remember foundations in life that helped to mold and make us into life-long learners. I was fortunate to gain a good education even under what may seem now a rather outdated system. To conclude this series on life in a country school, I will pinpoint some memorable incidents that made a lasting impression on me.<br /><p>We had in the corner of each of the two classrooms at Choestoe School a wooden cabinet with doors. This book cabinet was the “library” for that particular classroom. When we finished our assignments, we had freedom to go to that cabinet, select a book from the shelf, take it to our desk and read it quietly. It was a great achievement in first grade to have learned phonics and “sounding out” words well enough to become competent to select a book to read from our “library” resources. The teachers, to encourage good reading habits, kept a chart with students’ names on the wall beside the book cabinet. A colored star was placed beside the name of each student who successfully read and reported to the teacher on books from this cabinet. These “star” awards seemed to work well as motivational devices to encourage reading. I often wondered how the library was furnished with books. That old classroom library was there in 1936, and it seemed to grow more books year by year—even before the days when Dr. M. D. Collins led state schools to have library resources and before the bookmobile from the regional public library began to make its regular monthly stop at Choestoe School. The bookmobile was an innovation by the time I taught there in the 1948-1949 school year. My life-time love for reading and books was encouraged by that library cabinet in a reading corner of Choestoe classroom long ago.<br /></p><p>I recall a memorable field trip. When I was a seventh grader in 1943 at Choestoe School, and just prior to going to high school by riding the bus the next school year, we had our first-ever field trip. Mrs. Florence Hunter was my teacher, and she was known for getting things done. Her husband, Mr. Joe Hunter, was a county school bus driver. So Mrs. Florence and he made arrangements and got permission to take the fourth-through-seventh graders to Atlanta on a Saturday. All who could go loaded on that old bus early, early on a Saturday morning while it was still dark. We had a most memorable trip to visit the State Capitol building, the Atlanta Zoo, and the Cyclorama. I had never been to Atlanta before that notable trip, and that was probably true of the other children on that bus trip. Mrs. Florence managed to take snacks and drinks, and we had been instructed to bring our own lunch as we would have a picnic at Grant Park. What a notable building was our capitol where state government was conducted. How interesting to see all the strange animals at the zoo, some we had only read about and seen pictures of in books at Choestoe School. Then the panorama and story of the Civil War in Atlanta in the Cyclorama display was a first-hand, up close lesson in history.<br /></p><p>We were a group of exhausted young children, sleeping on the long trip from Atlanta back to Choestoe after a full and exciting day. I’ve thought many times about how meaningful that trip was for us children, and of the sacrifice in time, money and influence expended by Mr. and Mrs. Hunter. They were able to give us a first-hand view of life beyond the confines of our mountain community. And to look back now and realize that in 1943 when we made that field trip during World War II, there was gasoline and tire rationing. For Mr. Hunter to be able to use some of his allotment of scarce items to take country school children to Atlanta was indeed a notable happening.<br /></p><p>Graduation from that country school was a memorable occasion. We had a graduation program, not only with the two top graduates speaking with valedictory and salutatory addresses, but we had a program in which other grades participated with music and recitations. In fact, some of the programs we had for parents at that school during my seven years of learning there were so poignant that I can remember even now lines of poems I memorized to recite. Even though our teachers had few resources, they managed to make learning challenging and interesting. They gave us opportunities such as “Parents’ Night” or “Parents’ Day” when we could “show and tell” some of the things we had learned.<br /></p><p>When I graduated from seventh grade country school, my future career as a teacher was already in my mind. I knew I wanted to be a teacher. In that way I could somehow repay Mrs. Mert Shuler, my own sister, Louise Dyer, Miss Opal Sullivan, Mrs. Bonnie Snow, and Mrs. Florence Hunter who had been my able teachers in my seven years as a student at Choestoe School. And so it was that in 1948 I returned to that same school, armed with two years of college and a provisional Georgia teacher’s certificate, ready to teach. As I greeted the twenty-five students in seven grades—for the school, by the time I returned to teach there—had a drop in student population and only one teacher could be hired for the seven grades. Talk about a challenge—a first-year teacher and twenty-five eager students scattered in every grade from first through seventh! I conducted classes much as my own teachers had done in the seven years when I was a student in that school. I had an excellent helper in a very brilliant seventh grade student named Shirley. Without neglecting her own instruction, I allowed her to help me mentor some of the younger students with their math, spelling and reading.<br /></p><p>Looking back, I count that year as a teacher in country school as one of my happiest and best, although it was hard, with all the responsibilities falling to me. In that first year of my thirty-year teaching career, I learned to be teacher and administrator, how to cultivate parental support, how to instruct with enthusiasm and how to motivate students to achieve. I had learned to teach by having been taught myself by exemplary role models.<br /></p><p>Education has gone through many changes since those days from 1936-1943 when I was a student in country school and took my lunch in a lard pail and had the privilege of shared knowledge because students learned from each other as well as from the teacher. And my year of teaching there, 1948-1949, was foundational to who I became as a teacher. Have we lost some significant aspects of education in these modern days? Then we had the privilege of learning from and being challenged by upper classmen whose recitations we heard. We had concepts drilled into us until the learning became second nature. There is much to laud and praise for our heritage of “lard pail lunches and shared knowledge.” Then eager students gathered at a country school under the auspices of ones called and dedicated to the important role of teacher.<br /></p><p>c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published November 10, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-45206079355424905612011-11-03T09:26:00.000-04:002012-03-09T16:42:50.514-05:00Lard Pail Lunches and Shared Knowledge (or Life in a Country School ~ Part 2)<div align="justify">Attending a country school for the first seven grades of my education and then returning to the same school to teach my first year as an educator were rich experiences indeed. Last week’s column began this series. I continue with Part 2. </div><br /><div align="justify"><br /><p>Persons have asked me, “What was a typical day like with everyone in several grades studying in the same room? Wasn’t there a lot of noise and confusion? Did you really learn what you should have learned under those primitive circumstances, and wasn’t teaching very hard?<br /></p><p>Back from 1936 through 1943 at Choestoe School, a typical day began with us lining up in orderly fashion to march into the building. Then in each room, our teacher began the day with a Bible reading, a few verses from the Psalms or some other selected short passage. Next we quoted the Lord’s Prayer in unison, followed by the pledge to the American Flag. There were no complaints then about this morning devotional time, even though it was a public school. When I returned to teach there in 1949-1950, I practiced the morning opening as I had learned it when I was a student.<br /><br /></p><p>Then classes began. The teacher had a schedule, usually with reading, arithmetic, and spelling all done in the morning. The class “reciting” or being taught at a particular time, went to a bench at the front near the teacher’s desk. First grade was mainly learning to make the numbers, count (for those who could not already when they entered school), learning the letters and how to form them, and learning to read in Primer and then first grade readers. Older pupils might work arithmetic problems on the board. Turns were taken reading aloud from the reading text, with comprehension questions and discussion led by the teacher. The classes proceeded in an orderly fashion, first, second, third grades. In the upper room the classes for fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh graders proceeded orderly. The teacher seemed quite adept at being able to assign meaningful seat work for those who were at their desks awaiting “recitation” time. Discipline was good—we were expected by our parents to behave, and if we received a paddling for an infraction at school, we certainly received the same punishment from our parents, as well as a stiff lecture on acceptable behavior. In this manner, good behavior was enforced. School was a privilege and we went to school to learn. That was an expected norm for our community.<br /></p><p>Two breaks came during the school day. One was for lunch. My title is meaningful in this regard. Each student took lunch to school usually in a tin bucket, a bucket that had contained lard or maybe a tin syrup pail. In that lunch might be ham and/or sausage and biscuit, a boiled egg, a baked sweet potato, an ear of boiled corn, an apple (in season), or maybe even a jar of homemade soup. We seldom had “light” (loaf) bread in those days. Sometimes we would have “store-bought” bread, a real treat. When peanut butter became available for purchase in country stores, a biscuit with peanut butter and jelly was always a welcome item in the lunch pail. Special sweet treats were gingerbread or cookies sweetened with sorghum syrup.<br /></p><p>We gathered outside in good weather to eat our noon meal, or in inclement or cold weather, we took our repast at our desks inside. For liquid, we drank water carried in a tin bucket from the spring, with each student bringing a personal cup from home to receive the water. Trusted older students were assigned “water duty,” and had the privilege of going the distance to the spring near the school to “fetch” the water. Sometimes we would “swap” lunches, with students trading something in their lunch pail for an item a friend had that seemed enticing.<br /></p><p>Following lunch, we had a long recess time. Some of the games played were “Red Rover”, “London Bridge,” Hop Scotch,” “Town Ball” or “Antni-Over.” No playground equipment graced the schoolyard. Only the expanse of yard and woods surrounded the building, forming ideal places for creative play at recess time. Games included the afore-mentioned and also “playing house” for the younger children, who might bring a favorite doll to school. In the playhouse, we outlined the house with sticks or moss, giving a name to each room just like at home. “Playing school” was another favorite recess game. We were supervised during recess times by both teachers, and any minor accidents were quickly attended. I might add that disagreements among students at recess time were also summarily handled with the proper punishment, or “time out” from play.<br /></p><p>Following lunch and the noontime recess, we were ready for another session of “books” as we called in-class time. Afternoons, especially in the upper grades section, were usually given to science, geography and history. In the lower grades, simplified science and more reading, and extra practice in arithmetic were the drills.<br /></p><p>Then came the mid-afternoon recess—a time for toilet and water break, and a very short time for some exercise or short games. Not more than twenty minutes was allowed for afternoon recess.<br /></p><p>Following the afternoon recess, any classes not covered either in the morning or after lunch were conducted. This was often the time for intensive spelling drills. We were quite competitive in spelling matches, enjoying the “spelling bees,” both in-school and competitively about once a month on Friday afternoons when parents were invited to come and observe, or even participate to try to “spell down” the most adept spelling students. This period was also sometimes used for recitations when we quoted poems we had memorized, or the teacher read to us from a continuing story book. All too soon, 3:30 came and time to go home. And so days proceeded at the country school in much this fashion.<br /></p><p>Part of my title for this series is “<em>Shared Knowledge</em>.” My opinion is that the students learned from each other as they heard recitations of the upper classmen in their room. That way, it could be possible to advance on one’s own level. I can never remember being bored because I learned something in the next grade simply by listening. Teachers then seemed to be quite aware of this occurrence and allowed students to proceed on their own to advanced levels.<br /></p><p>Our teachers comprised the whole staff. First and foremost, they were instructors, academically gifted and with skills to teach. They also had the job of keeping the building clean and in good order. They bound up wounds sustained in playground accidents. They felt fevered heads and applied compresses. Discipline-wise, they were strict and a few licks with a sapling switch were not beyond their parameters of dealing with misbehavior. They were likewise community leaders. If a program or drama were to be help on special occasions such as Christmas, Easter, or graduation, they came up with the proper program that made the parents glad their children were going to Choestoe School. When the churches near by (Choestoe Baptist and Salem Methodist) had revival meetings, students were lined up in orderly rows and marched to the church to hear the visiting minister. No questions were raised as to the propriety of this practice.<br /></p><p>c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 3, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-21406113217564905662011-10-29T09:12:00.000-04:002012-01-19T09:21:56.582-05:00Lard Pail Lunches and Shared Knowledge (or Life in a Country School ~ Part 1)<div align="justify">Choestoe School in Union County, Georgia, 1936 through 1943 has a special place in my memory, in things I love, and in who I became in life. It also figures in my first year of a thirty-year teaching career, for it was there, where I started school, that I returned to teach my very first year as a young, inexperienced, fresh-out-of-junior-college state provisionally certified teacher. <br /><p>Choestoe schoolhouse has been moved from its former location and now stands on land that was once my Daddy’s, then my brother’s, my own, my son’s, and now the county’s. The old Choestoe school house is being restored and will eventually be used as a voting precinct building and perhaps a community clubhouse. <br /><p>But what took place there in the building’s heyday as a schoolhouse? Come with me to learn about “Lard Pail Lunches and Shared Knowledge.” <br /><p>I received my early education in a two-teacher country school from 1936 through 1943. I never felt deprived educationally from this inauspicious start. In high school, college and graduate school, I regarded my elementary school education as excellent and special indeed. <br /><p>Not only did I begin my education in a two-teacher country school, but my first year of teaching was in that same school in 1949-1950. “You can’t go home again,” as proposed by author Thomas Wolfe in his novel, Look Homeward, Angel, did not apply to me. I returned home to teach with anticipation and joy, and gratitude that the Union County School Board would consider a product of that school to be worthy to teach there. <br /><p>By 1949, due to declining pupil population, Choestoe had become a one-teacher school. Having attended that school myself the very first year the “new” two-room building opened, and then returning thirteen years later to teach my first year there at the same school, were both rich and rewarding experiences for me. <br /><p>Let us look at life in Choestoe School from 1936 through 1943, the years I was a student in its hallowed halls. From Primer through Seventh Grade I was educated at that school. Choestoe had been an early school, although the building in which I attended was brand new in 1936. Previous schools had preceded the one I knew so well. Early settlers began the school, some of my ancestors with surnames like Dyer, Souther, Collins, Hunter, Nix, Self and England, to name a few. Many of these forebears were in the county when it was founded in 1832. And straightaway they began a school at various locations, not necessarily on the same spot as the new building of 1936. Earlier, a log building used for both school and church had been replaced by a two-room, two-story frame school building. On the upper floor of the old building, the Choestoe Masonic Lodge met. I can vaguely remember attending events in that building when my older brother Eugene and my sister Louise went to school there. Even as a young child, the steps to the second floor fascinated me and I wondered what lay beyond the confines of what I could see. <br /><p>The brand new building in which I began my educational adventures in 1936 had two rooms, both on the ground level. A covered open vestibule-type entrance was at the front. Two front doors led in from the vestibule to the classrooms. The “lower grades” (primer through third) classroom was on the left and the “upper grades” (fourth through seventh) was on the right. Each classroom had a cloak/storage room across the front where we had pegs to hang our coats and shelves to set our “lard bucket” lunch pails. If we wore galoshes over our shoes in rainy or snowy weather, we removed them and left them in the cloak room while we were in class. Also in that room were bookcase shelves in one end of the room on which the extra textbooks were aligned, grade-wise. <br /><p>The classrooms were separated by a removable partition, ceiled with wood on both sides. I can remember my father and other men in the community taking down those partitions to provide a large space. A raised stage was put in place and the classrooms could then accommodate our school programs. <br /><p>Each classroom was heated by a wood heater, an iron stove (not the usual “pot” bellied) a low, oblong heater with a door on the front into which to feed the wood. Parents (or patrons of the school) were required to haul their fair share of the wood consumed throughout the months heat was needed. Long tin stovepipes connected the heater to the common chimney that was outside the building about where the middle partition was located that separated the classrooms. <br /><p>That first nervous day—in July, 1936—we students waited outside, anticipating what school might be like until “the principal,”—the upper-grades teacher, rang the school bell—our signal that “books” (or classes) were to begin. Miss Opal Sullivan was the upper grades teacher, a trim, beautiful young lady who seemed to me then all-too-young to be a teacher. She stood in the school entrance on the right side, awaiting her fourth through seventh grade pupils to line up in an orderly row. Mrs. Mert Shuler Collins was the primary grades teacher. She stood at the school entrance on the left side. She patiently showed the new pupils like me how to line up. When everyone was quiet and in order, we were given the signal to proceed. <br /><p>Once we were inside that primary side of the magnificent new school building, it was not hard for us to tell which desks were for the primer and first grade students. The very smallest individual wooden desks were in a row nearest the line of tall, glowing windows. I quickly found one in a location I liked, and soon it seemed to me that I had found a new home. And, indeed, I had, because from that first day of school in 1936 until the present, I have found my home-away-from home in classrooms, wherever they have opened welcoming doors to me. <br /><p>[To be continued: Part 2 of “Lard Pail Lunches and Shared Knowledge”. Note: This story, in modified form, written by Ethelene Dyer Jones, appe<a name="_GoBack"></a>ared first in <em>Moonshine and Blind Mules</em> edited by Bob Lasley and Sallie Holt. Hickory, NC: Hometown Memories Publishing Co., 2006, pp. 88-91. Used by permission.] <br /><p>c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published October 27, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. </p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-19666836904574296702011-10-22T09:06:00.000-04:002012-01-19T09:21:56.582-05:00Unicoi Turnpike as a “Trail through Time” (Part 2)<div align="justify">Last week’s column presented the Georgia Historical Marker wording on the Unicoi Turnpike and gave a brief account of some of the importance of this road to the history of the area. It looked forward to November 12, 2011 when the Unicoi Turnpike Day will be held by the Towns County Historical Society, with an opportunity to hike along a portion of the old trail from the Unicoi Gap parking lot north of Helen and South of Hiawassee. <br /><p>This important “Trail Through Time” has figured prominently in the history of the mountainous regions of North Georgia, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. Let’s pursue some more highlights of this significant history. <br /><p>In 1999, the section of the Unicoi Turnpike that stretches between Vonore, Tennessee and Murphy, North Carolina was designated as one of sixteen National Millennium Flagship Trails by the United States government. Reading the speech made by Mr. Brett Riggs, archaeologist, for the September 9, 2000 dedication service at the Sequoyah Museum Pow Wow, I found a rich store of information about the Unicoi Turnpike and its significance to history. I merely highlight here some of the dates and events of this Trail through Time. <br /><p>Mr. Riggs told that the first Europeans to travel the Indian trail from Charleston, South Carolina to the Cherokee Overhill towns of Tellico, Chota and Tenasi in Tennessee—going through mountainous regions of what later became portions of four states, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee—were English traders with the names of Alexander Long, Cornelius Dogherty, Robert Bunning, and James Douglas. This history dates to 1690 when these men used pack animals to traverse the “Great Warpath” Trail and trade with the Indians.<br /><br /><p>Ten years later, by 1700, French traders had joined to ply their trade, coming from the New Orleans area, getting on this northern mountainous route, and finding the profitable business in furs and other items of trade from the Overhill Indians. <br /><p>By 1730, Alexander Cumming, an English Trader was dealing with the Indians. In a well-researched book by William Steele, he tells of Cumming having designated the Cherokee Chieftain, Moytoy of the Tellico, TN area as “Emperor of the Cherokee.” Cumming took seven warriors back to England with him , among whom was the famous warrior Attaculla, or “Little Carpenter.” This “Empire” designated by the trader Cumming lasted until another trader in 1736, named Christian Gottlieb Priber, still designating Chief Moytoy as leader, made himself Secretary-of-State. Priber’s empire, however, was only five years in duration. He was arrested as a “French spy” and died in prison on the coast of Georgia at Ft. Frederica. <br /><p>The French and Indian War (1755-1781) was the next large historic event that affected action on the Unicoi Trail. The British built Fort Loudon during this period. An amazing transport of twelve cannon were hauled over the Unicoi Trail, with the loss of only one of the horses that pulled the 300-pound cannon. After the British surrendered Ft. Loudon, the cannon were taken back over the trail to South Carolina. <br /><p>The next major highlight in Unicoi Trail history was the American Revolution. We will recall from history that the Cherokee sided with the British against the American settlers. Along the Trail, John Sevier invaded Overhill Cherokee villages, coming as far east as Murphy and Andrews in North Carolina. Sevier’s army was surrounded at one time by about 500 Cherokee warriors at Tellico, but amazingly the U. S. troops escaped massacre. A fuller story of this encounter is given in J. G. M. Ramsey’s book, <em>Annals of Tennessee</em>. <br /><p>Benjamin Hawkins, a US Indian Agent to the Cherokee and Creek tribes, made a journey in 1799 the whole length of the Unicoi Turnpike. His writings and journal have been preserved in what is entitled <em>Letters of Benjamin</em> <em>Hawkins</em>. This valuable account is in collections of the Georgia Historical Society (Volume IX, pages 110-113). His naming important landmarks along the trail and giving the time it took him to walk from point to point which he indicated has proved valuable in understanding the geography and lay-of-land of this ancient route. <br /><p>We learned from last week’s account that a group of Whites and Cherokees joined to form the Unicoi (or Unaka) Turnpike Road (1813 and following). Improvements on the old trail enabled better travel conditions. The turnpike became a boon to agricultural production and marketing, trading, and even transport of settlers as they moved into mountainous regions to claim land and begin a new and brave way of life. <br /><p>Then came the Gold Rush. Gold was discovered on Coker Creek in Tennessee in 1827 and at Duke’s Creek in upper Georgia in 1828. When the Cherokee were forced to give up all claims to their traditional homeland by the Treaty of New Echota in 1836, the plans for evacuation of the Indians began in earnest. We all know too well the Trail of Tears and the loss of many Indians along this route of exposure, illness and death. Unfortunately, many of the Cherokee were forcefully moved over portions of the Unicoi Trail from temporary stockades where they had been gathered. We have stories of how they mournfully waved farewell to their mountain homes. <br /><p>The Civil War, too, 1862-1865, provided all-too-bloody tales along this “Trail in Time.” The hollows and mountainous hiding areas provided cover for guerilla bands and outlaws who marauded, stole and killed. Following the war, the Trail was still the scene of intrigue and high adventure. Many stories abound of how history has occurred<a name="_GoBack"></a> along the trail. <br /><p>Now an effort is under way to continue marking more portions of the trail as a “National Millennium Flagship Trail” along the whole mileage from the Tugalo River in Georgia to Bristol, Tn. This “Great Warpath Trail” has many miles and many stories still to be told. <br /><p>c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published October 20, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-11799251807001398072011-10-13T09:57:00.000-04:002012-03-06T08:26:48.866-05:00Unicoi Turnpike<div align="justify">The Unicoi Turnpike was an old road that played prominently in the early days of settlement of Union and Towns Counties, and, indeed, as a trade route in parts of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia prior to the settling of the mountain region by whites. The historical marker that designates the road is at GPS reading N 34° 41.209` W 083° 42.616` in White County, Georgia. The message on the marker states:<br /><blockquote><strong>The Unicoi Turnpike</strong><br /><p>This road is the Old Unicoi Turnpike, first vehicular route to link East Tennessee, Western North Carolina and North Georgia with the head of navigation on the Savannah River system. Beginning on the Tugalo River, to the east of Toccoa, the road led this way, thence through Unicoi Gap and via Murphy, N. C. to Nine Mile Creek near Maryville, Tenn.<br /><p>Permission to open the way as a toll road was given by the Cherokees in 1813 to a Company of Indians and white men. Tennessee and Georgia granted charters to the concern. <p.prior>Georgia Historical Marker<br /></p.prior><p>Marker @ GHM 154-1R Date: 2003 </p></blockquote>In recent correspondence with Mr. Carey Waldrip, a history buff (as am I) and member of the Towns County Historical Society, he announced that Saturday, November 12, 2011 has been designated as Unicoi Turnpike Day in Towns County. Plans are to meet at any time between 9:00 and 12:00 noon on that date at the Unicoi Gap Parking Lot (GA Hwy 17/75). Hiking directions will be given for those who wish to walk the remnant of the old Unicoi Turnpike, a rough, sunken road from the Gap that leads for two miles northward into Towns County. Mr. Waldrip warns that people should come prepared for a rugged hike, with good walking shoes, and bright hat and jacket, “because it is hunting season.” Another feature of the Unicoi Turnpike Day will be a lecture beginning at 9:00 a. m. by Dr. Paul Arnold of Young Harris College who will speak on the subject of “Geocaching.” Those who have a hand-held GPS instrument should bring it for the lecture session.<br /><p>Now to more history on the Unicoi Turnpike: In the September-October, 2008 issue of the Sautee-Nacoochee Community Association Newsletter, some of the history of the Unicoi Turnpike was given. Dr. Tom Lumsden, a resident of the Nacoochee Valley and one who strongly works to preserve history, stated that the Unicoi Turnpike Trail was originated by “engineers with four feet.” Even prior to the Indians’ use of the trail as a footpath, large mammals went from eastern Tennessee to the piedmont and coastal plains of North and South Carolina as they migrated for the winter months and returned along the same route in the spring. Since the trail was already there, cut through the forest by migrating animals, the Indians began to use it as a trade and migratory route as well. The route was seen as useful for trade, and from 1813 through 1817 a company headed by a Mr. Russell Wiley began at Mullin’s Ford on the Tugalo River and began to improve the trail across the top of North Georgia, into western North Carolina proceeding to Murphy, and then northwestward to Vonore, Tennessee on the Little Tennessee River.<br /><p>With improvements on the turnpike, it was turned into a toll road for freight wagons. From Augusta in Georgia to Knoxville in Tennessee the toll road continued to operate until after the Civil War. Drovers went over the road with hogs, cattle, turkeys and other livestock along the trail. I have heard my grandfather, Francis Jasper Collins, tell of taking a “drove of turkeys” along the Turnpike from Choestoe near Blairsville all the way to Augusta. I could not envision how the drovers managed to keep the turkeys on trail and on task, and often wish I had been old enough when I heard him tell his stories of the turkey drives (and sometimes live cattle and sheep) to ask about particulars. I do remember his saying that the turkeys roosted in trees at night as the horses and men camped beneath them. Then early in the morning the turkeys would be fed from corn in the wagons and started on the next trek of the long journey. Also, at places along the Unicoi Turnpike were inns and rest stops, places where the men could get cooked meals and spend the night. These were sometimes at about fifteen-mile intervals. But not all the trail from Tennessee through North Carolina and Georgia had the convenience of inns for rest stops.<br /><p>The Unicoi Turnpike Trail was more than just a path. It became the thoroughfare over which our ancestors moved from South or North Carolina into North Georgia, many arriving before the Cherokee were ousted from the mountain lands. People, events, and places along the ancient trail are a part of our history.<br /><p>If you should plan to attend the Unicoi Turnpike Day on November 12, 2011, and walk a portion of the still discernible trail, you will be treading on ground almost sacred to the memory of a hardy people seeking a better way of life. Next week we will examine some more history of the Unicoi Turnpike—a “trail through time.”<br /><p>c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published October 13, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. </p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2690685328111353824.post-57594818173538657032011-10-08T09:50:00.000-04:002012-01-19T09:21:56.583-05:00Repeated Given Names Often Confuse Genealogy Searchers ~ Or: Which Person Do You Mean?<div align="justify">This week I’ve spent time back-tracking to an article I wrote for this column on June 2, 2005 about John Little Ingram’s family. He was my great, great grandfather who was born in 1788 in South Carolina, died in 1866 in Union County, Georgia, married three times, and had a total of twenty-one children, nine by his first wife Mary “Polly” Cagle, ten by his second wife, Cynthia Kittle, and two by his third wife, Catherine Cameron. <br /><p>A question and additional research came about the tenth child by John Little Ingram’s second wife, Cynthia Kittle. This child was named Martin Ingram, born in 1844 and, according to Watson B. Dyer in his family history book, died in Jackson, Mississippi in 1863 during the Civil War. <br /><p>A very fine genealogy researcher, Dr. Charles Ingram, read my article online at the GaGenWebProject and saw the name Martin Ingram. He immediately thought that the birth and death dates were wrong, because his ancestor by the same name, Martin Ingram, he had documented well. He knew that his particular Martin was born December 26, 1816 and died November 13, 1891 and was buried at the Four Mile Cemetery, Pickens County, Georgia—not in far away Mississippi during the Civil War. <br /><p>One of the difficulties seemed to revolve around the name of the wife listed for each of the Martin Ingrams. Both were listed as marrying a Rebecca Bozeman, and to further confuse, Rebecca had a nickname, Beedee or Becky. Now is that coincidence, or an error in listing? Dr. Charles Ingram has a family Bible showing his 1816 Martin Ingram married Rebecca (Beede/Becky) Bozeman on November 24, 1842 in Cherokee County, Georgia. He also has authentication from Cherokee County marriage Book A, page 46, a listing for the marriage of Martin Ingram and Beedy Bozeman. <br /><p>The only record I’ve found for the 1844 Martin Ingram’s marriage to Rebecca Bozeman is a listing on page 408 of Watson B. Dyer’s “<em>Dyer Family History</em>, 1600’s to 1980.” He did not give a source for the marriage record. Maybe the younger Martin Ingram married a cousin by the same name of the wife of his first cousin, 1816 Martin Ingram. I looked in the Union County marriage records and did not find the younger Martin’s marriage listed there. Could this be an error? Perhaps Watson Dyer found a listing for the 1816 Martin Ingram’s marriage, and assumed that the younger Martin married a Bozeman, too. Since the 1844 Martin died young, at age 19, he evidently married young, too, if, indeed, he wed before he went to the Civil War and was killed. I did find a listing of Martin R. Ingram in the 52nd Regiment of the Georgia Infantry Volunteers, Army of Tennessee, Company G. They called themselves “The Alleghany Rangers,” from Union County. They enlisted for six months and their commanding officers were Lewis B. Beard and Julius H. Barclay [Reference: “<em>Sketches of Union County History</em>, Volume 2, 1978, p. 41] <br /><p>John Little Ingram’s son, Martin, lived only nineteen years, and whether he married before he went away to war (to a Rebecca Bozeman or not?), we do not have a record that he had children. <br /><p>On the other hand, the Martin Ingram (1816-1891) who is definitely known to have married a Rebecca Bozeman, was the son of Tillman Ingram (1794-?) and Elizabeth “Betsy” Dalrymple Ingram (1799-?). Tillman and John Little Ingram were brothers, so the two Martin Ingrams were first cousins. The 1816 Martin Ingram became a Baptist minister and preached in churches in Cherokee and Pickens Counties, Georgia for more than thirty years. They had eleven children, nine for whom we have names: Isaac N., John H., Samuel T., Nancy E., Hester A., James P., Thomas K., Mary, and Loan. Rev. and Mrs. Martin Ingram were buried at the Four Mile Cemetery, Pickens County, Georgia. <br /><p>Given names in any family are important. Maybe the babies are named for someone in the family, a grandparent, parent, aunt or uncle, or even going farther back to another ancestor. The fact that brothers give their sons and daughters family names causes confusion at times, because there are multiple people with the same name. That’s how we got confused over the name Martin Ingram. We could say the same of John, Little, Isaac, Tilman and other given names, carried through several generations. <br /><p>c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published October 6, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.</p></div>Ethelene Dyer Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00691401755256201764noreply@blogger.com0