A Tribute to Congressman Edgar Lanier Jenkins

Union County, Georgia can be justifiably proud of one of her native sons, Congressman Edgar Lanier Jenkins. 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. We salute him, pay tribute to his memory, and extend condolences to his family.

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. 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. He served in the United States House of Representatives for sixteen years, from 1976 through 1992 when he retired.

He and I were, as we say in genealogical terms, double-first cousins twice (or thrice) removed. We both descend from stalwart early settlers to Union County, Georgia (where Ed and I both grew up). As John Donne so aptly stated in one of his poems, Ed’s death “diminished me.” 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.

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. Edgar’s connection back to them is through his mother, Evia Souther Jenkins, the granddaughter of William Albert and Elizabeth “Hon” Dyer Souther. 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. 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. But all these ancestral connections get to be a bit confusing, especially if you don’t deal with them on a regular basis. Suffice it to say that the family connections are back there, strong and with definite influence upon both of us.

Edgar Lanier Jenkins perhaps got his penchant for public service in an “honest” way, as we say in the mountains. His grandfather, Frank Loransey Souther (1881-1937) was what we call in Appalachia a “revenooer.” 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. 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. 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.

Ed graduated from Union County High School and then attended and graduated from Young Harris College in 1951. 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. His first job out of Young Harris was with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (was this in remembrance of his late grandfather, Ransey Souther?). 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.

From 1959 through 1962 he served on the staff of U. S. Congressman Phillip M. Landrum of the Ninth Congressional District. 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. 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. 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.

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. Since Ed had the experience of being on the staff of Congressman Landrum, he was not to be considered a rookie in Washington politics. 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. It is interesting that “The Almanac of American Politics” in 1990 described Jenkins as “one of the smartest operators on Capitol Hill.”

This article could not possibly enumerate all the bills he sponsored or the legislative committees on which he served. 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. 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. 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. What do we see now on labels? “Made in-----” with the name of another country named.

Jenkins likewise stood up for conservation in supporting our National Forest bills, and for the farmer and small business owner. 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. He also worked hard to bring about tax revisions to give more equity in the tax structure. 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. 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. His body was returned to Union County where he was interred at the Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery.

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.” 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. In researching for this article, I accessed a beautiful photograph taken by Alan Cressler (photostream) of the Lovinggood Creek Falls in Fannin County, Georgia. 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. 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. He made “footsteps in the sands of time” and in our hearts.

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. I thought of all of us many cousins—twice, thrice removed—who people this planet. We will miss you, Ed, but we salute you for the life you lived.

Edgar Lanier Jenkins, our ancestors would be proud of how you carried on the tradition of serving others. You “preached your funeral while you lived,” as our great grandparents liked to say as they sought to teach us how to live. 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. I thought of Edgar’s grandfather, Ransey Souther, and his unselfish giving in the line of duty as a federal agent. So many influences combined to make Ed what he was. 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. Now we will look back on Edgar Jenkins’s life and say, with poet William Winter:

“On wings of deeds the soul must mount!

When we are summoned from afar,

Ourselves, and not our words will count—

Not what we said, but what we are!”

cJanuary 19, 2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Reece Family Afterthoughts (Part 7 in Reece Family Series)

To Bobby Josiah Queen, current citizen of Union County and a person vitally interested in family roots, thank you for the volume of information you sent me on the Reece families in Union County.

This entry, at least temporarily, will wrap up my articles on the Reece family. Enough remains, untouched, from what Bobby sent, that could make a good-sized book. I was not surprised at how, from the earliest Reece settlers to Union County through marriages, many prominent last names show the relationship of this family to subsequent generations.

And so it is, in general. We “live and move and have our being.” Each generation leaves its mark, a circle in time, some work, some monument of service, some contribution to add to the corpus of knowledge or achievement. Or, alas, if we lack motivation and desire to contribute in a worthwhile manner to the good of all, our record can mar as well as help.

We can aspire to do as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) wrote in his great poem, “A Psalm of Life”:

“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.”

I was interested, for example, in seeing how Bobby Josiah Queen himself lay in the line of Reece descendants. He got his second name from his grandfather, Eli Josiah Reece (04.02.1878), son of Quiller Frank and Elizabeth Clarica Adelia Logan Reece. Eli Josiah Reece was the sixth of sixteen children born to Quiller and Eliza. And Quller Frank, as you recall, was a son of William “Billy” Reece and Mary Daniel Reece. Uncle Billy Reece mined gold from the creekbed of Helton Falls Creek and hauled it to the Dahlonega Mint for processing.

Bobby’s mother was Nora Elizabeth Reece (11.08.1907) a daughter of Eli Joseph Reece. To them were born four children, Carl Winford Queen, Durwood Norris Queen, Bobby Josiah Queen, and Frances Louella Queen. I won’t attempt to trace the marriages and descendants of these Reece kin. Bobby Josiah Queen followed in the footsteps of several of his ancestors and gave patriotic service in the U. S. Marines and the Coast Guard. He married Carmela Rinaldi. He chose to return to his beloved Union County after his service years.

And looking through the many names of Reece descendants, I noted with great interest that my high school classmate, Elbert Dennis Wilson, now of Michigan, is also a descendant of Eli Josiah Reece and Sallie Lou Ella Stephens Reece. Elbert’s mother was Mary Eliza Reece (11.20.1901), daughter of Eli Josiah. Mary Eliza married Abraham Lincoln Wilson and Elbert was their fourth of nine children. Isn’t it strange that as high school students we hardly gave a thought to our genealogy? Then we did not know, somehow, that grandparents and great grandparents were important to our history. We failed to sit at their feet, hear their stories, and record them while these noble people were alive and could enlighten us on who begat whom and what they did in the hills and valleys of Union County.

Going back to William “Billy” Reece and his wife Mary Daniel Reece, I note that their daughter, Margaret Louise Reece (08.16.1856 – 06.20.1941) married John Spiva (04.22.1851 – 11.28.1933). To this couple were born Mary Jane, Eliza, Minty Caroline, Henry W., Emma, Frank, Jewell W., Gardner C., Josiah H., and Guy Cook Spiva. This family link opened up another avenue of genealogical lines back to the original Reece settlers in Union County. These, too, would make another book, and my friend, Geraldine Spiva Elmore has done much to preserve the Spiva legacy in her research and writings. Thank you, Geraldine.

This brief overview only partially covers the links and names going back to “Billy” Reece and his children. But last, and not least, I want to pay tribute to the last-born of Quiller Frank and Elizabeth Logan Reece’s children, Alice Elizabeth Louise Reece (01.23.1893), who married Olin Hayes. Her great niece, Esther Minerva Clouse Cunningham (daughter of Nellie Caroline Reece and Zeb Clouse) wrote of her great aunt Alice Hayes:

“I remember Aunt Alice Reece Hayes. She was my grandfather’s youngest sibling. She stayed at home and took care of her parents (Quiller Frank and Elizabeth) until they died. She married late in life and never had any children. I think she felt her responsibility to keep her parents’ family united. When my grandma “Roxie” (Roxie Potts Reece, wife of William Drury Reece, firstborn son of Quiller Frank) was sick and dying, Aunt Alice and her husband, Olin Hayes, came. I brought them to my house to spend the night because my Aunt Kate was caring for her parents.” And so went this testimony of Esther Cunningham, who remembered her Great Aunt Alice as a “keeper of the family history.”

To Bobby Josiah Queen, thank you for these and other great stories of the Reece Family in Union County. I leave this family saga now, not because the story is finished by any means, but because it is too large for inclusion in sketchy columns in a weekly newspaper. For those of you, like Alice Reece Hayes, who want to be “keepers of the family history,” learn your stories and record them. You will be glad you did. Much for posterity hangs in the balance of our finding and recording the stories. “Lives of great men (and women) all remind us” even now to catch a glimpse of the sublime in the lives of others who made a difference.

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published February 25, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Reece Family in Union County, GA (part 3): Quiller Frank Reece, Second Child of William and Mary Daniel Reece

Pvt. Quiller Frank Reece (1843-1932)
Civil War - Confederacy
6th Georgia Cavalry, Company F.

Quiller Frank Reece (4.20.1843 – 10.13.1932) was the second of ten children born to William “Billy” Reece and Mary “Sarry” Daniel Reece. As the second child and first son, Quiller held a responsible position in his parents’ household, for he helped to provide leadership and example for his older sister Sarah Elizabeth and the eight other children born into that Reece family.

Union County marriage records show that Quiller Frank Reece married Eliza C. Logan on November 15, 1866. Thompson Collins (not the first settler Thompson Collins, but his son, Thompson), a justice of the peace in the Choestoe District, performed the marriage ceremony.

This marriage was after the Civil War, after Quiller had performed his duties as a soldier in the Confederacy in the 6th Georgia Cavalry, Company F, Hart’s Battalion, Smith’s Legion. When the men signed up for service for three years, they had to furnish their own horse. Commanding officers of Reece’s Company F were not Georgians, and were not listed in the roster of those who served from Union. Records show that Quiller was taken prisoner on December 18, 1862 in eastern Tennessee. Whether he remained in prison until the war ended is not indicated in the records. Many years after he and his sweetheart married, in the year 1910, he registered for a pension for his service in the Civil War. Whether he received it is not clear from available records.

Although Quiller Frank Reece’s wife’s name was listed in the Union marriage records as Eliza C. Logan, her full name was Elizabeth Clarica Adelia Logan Reece (06.04.1849 – 03.08.1936). Elizabeth (shortened to Eliza) was the youngest child of Drury Logan (1766-1855) and Mary Addington Logan (1759-1847). Eliza’s father, Drury, was a brother to Major Frank Logan who owned and operated the famous Logan Turnpike across the mountain between Blairsville and Cleveland, the route over which farmers and traders hauled loads of produce to barter for what they could not grow in Union County. Drury and Mary Addington Logan built their double-story log cabin on Land Lot 50 in the Owltown District on the south side of the Nottely River. The house, remodeled through the years, still stands today as a testament to the solid building of pioneer settlers. It was there that Eliza’s parents reared their eleven children, nine of whom were born in Union. When Drury and Mary Logan were old and incapacitated, it was their youngest child, Eliza and her husband Quiller Frank Reece who took her parents into their home and cared for them until their deaths.

Frank Quiller and Eliza Logan Reece had a very large family, sixteen children, twelve of whom lived to adulthood. Quiller Frank was primarily a farmer by occupation, but he no doubt pursued other trades to bring in extra money to rear his large family. They were Methodists by denomination and faithful members of the Shady Grove Mehodist Church. Upon their deaths, they were interred in the Shady Grove cemetery where their monuments may be viewed today.

A listing of the sixteen children of Quiller Frank and Elizabeth Clarica Adelia Logan Reece follows:

(1) William Drury Reece (02.22.1868) married Roxie Potts.
(2) Mary Rachael Rowena Reece (10.06.1869) married John S. McDonald.
(3) Martha Elizabeth Jane Reece (06.22.1871) married William J. Jackson.
(4) James Roberson Reece (07.21.1873) married Millie Henson.
(5) Thomas Joseph Hughes Reece (12.05.1875) married L. Henrietta Gardner.
(6) Eli Josiah Reece (04.02.1878) married Sallie Luella Stephens.
(7) John Henry Reece (03.27.1880) married Nellie I. Self.
(8) Francis Allen Reece (08. 25. 1881 – 11.01.1881).
(9) Simon Edward Reece (11.14.1882) married Fleta Belle Colwell.
(10) Charles Logan Reece (12.20.1883) married Louise Jane Davis.
(11) Frank Wellborn Reece (03.05.1885) married Sarah Ann Ledford.
(12) Richard Marvin Reece (04.23.1886) married Hailie C. Grendle.
(13) Mintie Della Reece (06.30.1888 – 07.? 1888)
(14) Baby Boy Reece (twin – b/d 07.18.1890)
(15) Baby Boy Reece (twin – b/d 07.18.1890).
(16) Alice Eliza Louise Reece (01.23.1893) married Olin Hayes.

In looking over the list of Frank Quiller and Elizabeth Clarica Adelia Logan Reece’s twelve adult children and who they married, it is easy to see how these descendants of the early Reece settlers married into families of other early settlers. Several of these Reece-connected families remained within Union County. Present citizens can look back with pride and claim their roots to this Reece couple who worked hard to rear dependable, hard-working children.

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Jan. 28, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

My Brother, My Hero, Francis Eugene Dyer

When death comes near a holiday, such as Christmas, it seems to hold an extra measure of sadness. My brother, my hero, Francis Eugene Dyer, drew his last breath on December 21, 2009 and was released from suffering and earthly restrictions. In reviewing his life, I was extremely proud to call him my brother, my hero. He will live in my heart and memory as long as I myself have breath—and, even beyond this life; I hope to rejoin him in Paradise.

He was born on February 25, 1921 in the farmhouse of his parents, Azie Collins Dyer (1895-1945) and Jewel Marion Dyer (1890-1974). In his ancestry on both sides of the family he descended from pioneer settlers who were in Union County in the early 1830s when the county was formed. Azie’s parents were Francis Jasper Collins (1855-1941) and Georgianne Hunter Collins (1855-1924). Azie’s grandparents on her father’s side were Frank Collins (1816-1864) and Rutha Nix Collins (1822-1893) and on her mother’s side were William Jonathan Hunter (1813-1893) and Margaret Elizabeth “Peggy” England Hunter (1819-1894). And Azie’s great grandparents were Thompson Collins (abt. 1785-abt. 1858) and Celia Self Collins (abt. 1787-1880) and John Hunter (1775-1848) and Elizabeth (last name unknown).

On his father’s side, Eugene’s ancestors were grandparents, Bluford Elisha (“Bud”) Dyer (1855-1926) and Sarah Eveline Souther Dyer (1857-1959). His great grandparents were James Marion Dyer (1823-1904) and Louisa Ingram Dyer (1827-1907); Little Ingram (1788-1866) and Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram (abt. 1793-abt. 1830); John Combs Hayes Souther (1827-1891) and Nancy Collins Souther (1829-1888). His great, great grandparents were Bluford Elisha Dyer, Jr. (abt. 1785–1847) and Elizabeth Clark Dyer (abt. 1788-1861); John Souther (1803-1889) and Mary “Polly” Combs Souther (1807-1894); John Little Ingram (abt 1755-1828) and Ruth White Ingram (abt 1758-abt 1849). John Ingram was a Revolutionary War Soldier.

With this list of ancestors, all of whom pioneered and settled land and became landowners, solid citizens, farmers, and some businessmen and teachers, we should not wonder that Eugene himself became a World War II soldier with a heroic and distinguished career, a businessman, a farmer and for 36 years a member of the Union County Board of Education. Family matters. Family helps to make us who and what we are. And he was, indeed, from “solid” stock.

Eugene Dyer served in the Army Air Force during World War II from September, 1942 through the end of the war. He was a bombardier in the famed Flying Fortress, B-24, serving in the Liberation Group of the 15th Army Air Force. He saw action in the European, African and Italian Theaters of War, participating in more than 400 combat missions. He was awarded the Soldier’s Medal of Heroism when he saved the life of a fellow flyer. He and the one he saved were the only survivors of the plane’s crew when its oxygen system was bombed out. Other decorations included the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with oak leaf clusters, the Good Conduct Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater War Ribbon with five campaign stars, and the Distinguished Unit Badge with two oak leaf clusters. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant. He spent fifteen months in Italy, much of which was in an army hospital recovering from severe injuries, the results of which were present with him the remainder of his life in the form of shrapnel in his legs. He can truly be termed a “hero,” a member of “The Greatest Generation.”

As a merchant, he operated a grocery, gasoline, feed, seed and fertilizer store from 1947 through 1989. He was known for his credit to farmers that badly needed his help to get their crops planted. In this respect, he followed the practice he had observed from his grandfather, Francis Jasper “Bud” Collins, who also had extended credit to hurting families during the Great Depression, and before and after.

As a school board member in Union County for 36 years, an elected office, he helped to make decisions that brought the school system from scattered country schools to strong consolidated schools, adequate and state-of-the-art buildings and equipment, and well-qualified teachers and administrators. Education was high on his list of priorities.

He was a family man. His wife Dorothy, his children Connie, Ivan and Tim, his grandchildren Jason, Alexandra and Emily, and his brothers and sisters and a host of cousins can all attest to his love, respect and reverence for family ideals and priorities.

And as a church man, he was quiet and often did not say much, but when he spoke on matters of building decisions, church finances, and expansion, he was heard and heeded. His devotion to Choestoe Baptist Church where he was a faithful member extended from boyhood through all of his adult life.

I wrote the following poem for my hero, my brother, in December, 2008, for Christmas. I am glad he was able to read it and know how I felt about him. I read it as a tribute to him at his funeral on December 23, 2009.

Going Out a Boy, Returning a Man
(For my hero, my brother, Eugene)

The call to arms came when he was but a lad,
A farm boy following the plow.
Defending one’s country couldn’t be bad;
That duty in patriotism called him now.

Hardly had he been beyond the hills
That tied him closely to his home;
Dearly he loved the farm, its rocks and rills,
And the seeds planted in the fertile loam.

Out beyond the mountains duty lay,
To boot camp, training, assignments read;
A gunner in a B-24 was to be his way,
And into European combat his path led.

Soon he learned what courage meant
Through sleepless nights and anxious days;
The enemy like a blast of locusts sent
Volleys into the blue untrammeled ways.

Came then the day when the plane crashed
And many were the casualties of war;
A boy no longer, a brave man lashed
Onto life and fought another kind of war—

A war to readjust when peace was signed,
Seeking to reestablish a solid way of life,
A way to make a difference, be refined
Amidst whatever came of peace or strife.

-Ethelene Dyer Jones

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Jan. 7, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Letters tell of family travels—Combs, Hendren, Souther Families

Thomas Hicks Combs (ca. 1765 - ?) married Kizziah Hayes (1782-?) on February 3, 1801. Their daughter, Mary Combs (1807-1894) married John Souther (1803-1889) on December 7, 1824 in Wilkes County, NC. Mary and John Souther would eventually settle in the Choestoe District of Union County about 1836, but not before they and some of Mary's brothers and sisters and parents migrated to Indiana.

Thomas Hicks Combs and his wife Kizziah lived in the Brushy Branch section of Wilkes County, NC on Hunting Creek. One of their daughters, Nancy Combs (1808-1888) who married Jabez Hendren in 1829, did not migrate to Indiana but continued to live on the farm at Hunting Creek. In the early 1830's, the mother and father and several of their married children set out for Indiana. It is said that Kizziah walked the distance to Indiana. A letter sent to North Carolina stated that after she arrived there, she fell out the door of the house and broke her leg and could never walk again, although otherwise she was in good health.

It is interesting to read some old letters preserved in family archives to learn of the travels of these couples who left Wilkes County to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

A letter written November 29, 1835 was postmarked in Lewisville, Indiana, Rush County, December 11, 1835. From a younger sister of Mary Combs Souther, Elizabeth Combs (1814-1836), who married Jehu Hendren in Wilkes County January 9, 1833, the letter was addressed to Jehu's father William Hendren in Wilkes County. The Combs and Hendren families must have lived close enough together in Wilkes to visit each other, for the letter asked that members of the Combs family be given news from Indiana.

I reproduce here sections of the 1835 letter, which gives information about how those who went to Rush County, Indiana to settle were faring:

"…We are well at present, through the kind mercy of God. We received your letter the 21st day of this month (November, 1835) and were glad to hear that you are all well.

"I made a tolerable crop of corn and flax. My corn was injured a good deal with the frost. All late corn planted in this country is frost bitten. I can pay fifty bushels of corn toward the mare I bought. The man says he will wait 'till next fall for the balance, or take it in work and allow two bushels for a day's work. Corn is selling for 25 and 50 cents per bushel. Wheat is selling for one dollar and 12 and ½ cents per bushel. Pork is selling for 3 to 4 dollars per hundred. I have engaged 3 hundred weight at 3.25 per hundred. I have ten head of hogs. I have two head of cattle and we get more milk than we can use three times a day. I have a first-rate young horse. I am a little in debt, but I can pay when due, I believe."

A child named William, after his grandfather William Hendren, had been born since the couple arrived in Rush County, Indiana. They have this to say about their child:

"William H. could walk before he was a year old, and began to talk tolerable smart. He is a tolerably large child for his age.”

Health is important, as they write in the letter:

"I (Jehu) have been as well as ever in my life since I left North Carolina. I weigh one hundred and sixty-five pounds. There has been a great deal of fever and ague in this county this year. It is enough to scare a fellow."

"We had prospects for a very great harvest but the frost destroyed most of it. I expect to move onto my own land next fall if I live."

Several of the Indiana relatives put their own pages in the letter. Asenath Ellis Combs, who had married William Combs in Wilkes County January 10, 1822, wrote in her portion of the letter:

"William and John Souther have gone to Cincinnati to haul goods for one of the neighbors for one dollar per hundredweight."

Asenath also urged William Hendren to hurry to Indiana to buy the rest of the Souther property, telling what good farm and pastureland it was, and stating the purchase

"would make William Hendren a rich man if he would come and buy it." She stated Souther was willing to sell it for $300 "and the land is well worth $1,000."

Jehu Hendren wrote news about his brother in law:

"John Souther moved to this country and bought 180 acres of land and sold 80 acres to (Thomas) Hicks Combs (his father-in-law). He says he will sell the balance and move from this country, for there is too much mud and cold and ague for him. He talks of moving to Georgia."

Not long after the letter was written, John and Mary Combs Souther did leave Indiana and move to Georgia, for they had purchased and settled on a farm in Choestoe District by 1836.

c 2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published April 16, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The 'Antique' New Home

The invitation to join the Bill Duckworth family on Sunday afternoon, July 31, 2005, at open house at 5566 Town Creek School Road termed it the “antique” new home.

In my second column for this paper dated August 7, 2003, I wrote about the old house that had been a family heirloom since 1852 (maybe even since 1850) of the Souther and Dyer families.

The house was built by early settler John Souther for his second child and first son, John Combs Hayes Souther who planned to marry Nancy Collins, daughter of Thompson and Celia Self Collins, a family that settled in the area prior to Union County’s forming in 1832. The young couple married February 6, 1852, and it was ready for John Combs Hayes Souther better known as “Jack” to take his wife after their marriage ceremony was performed by the Rev. William Pruitt, minister of the gospel.

My sister, Louise Dyer who lives in Commerce, and I went together to the open house sponsored by Bill and Carolyn Duckworth at their “antique” new home. Cars in abundance were parked along Town Creek School Road and in the yard at the old/new house, now named the Souther-Dyer-Duckworth Cabin. The crowd inside and outside the house was typical of the large gatherings my sister and I had experienced there for many years prior to our Grandmother Sarah Evaline Souther Dyer’s death in March 1959. She was the fourth of ten children born in the house to John Combs Hayes and Nancy Collins Souther. Her birthdate was May 17, 1857. After her mother Nancy died July 22, 1888, she and her husband, Bluford Elisha Dyer (known as “Bud”) moved into the house with her father Jack Souther to look after him until his death on January 4, 1891. Records show that they bought the house and 160 acres of land from the other heirs after her father’s death. Sarah and Bud Dyer had a large family of 15 children whom they reared in the John Combs Hayes Souther house. One, Jasper Hayes Dyer, died at age 1. Another, James Garney Dyer, died at age 20 from blood poisoning. The other 13 grew to adulthood, married and had families of their own. Children, spouses and grandchildren counted it great joy to return to “the old homeplace” to visit with Grandma Sarah, hear her views on world affairs, and enjoy her birthday celebrations.

As I walked into the “parlor” (Grandma’s room) with the fireplace and window beside it facing toward Enotah Bald Mountain, I could still see in my imagination my dear little Grandmother as she held court from her straightbacked cane-bottom chair at the window and beside the fireplace. She always seemed to have a “sixth” sense about who would visit her that day. She looked through the little window to note their approach down the road (now Town Creek School Road) from New Liberty Baptist Church. She often told us that the land for that church and cemetery had been given by her grandparents, John and Mary Combs Souther, designated to be used perpetually as a cemetery.

Host Bill Duckworth proudly showed us original logs which now form the interior walls of the “old” part of the house. Many of the original boards for the beamed ceilings are still a part of the “old/new” house. Then he led us up the steps I remember so well to the attic. How dark and foreboding that area of the house seemed as I was a child. Now they have formed two delightful bedrooms and a bath in the old attic room, with plenty of illumination from overhead skylights. Antique beds lined the north wall of the first room—dormitory style—“for our grandchildren and their friends,” Bill explained.

The old chimneys have been preserved at each end of the old log cabin. Now the room that was once my Uncle Hedden Dyer’s “family room” is the Duckworth kitchen, with an abundance of antique furniture that helps to preserve the period look of that room.

The old kitchen which was an ell-addition on the side of the spring house was the first part of the old house to crumble. It fell in and deteriorated several years ago. Where the kitchen and dining room once stood—places where so many meals for extended family were cooked and served over many years—is now the new two-story addition containing a comfortable great room and stairs leading to a bedroom suite above.

When I saw the fireplaces and viewed the fieldstone rocks so carefully placed to make the rebuilt chimneys look old, I remembered the great “chimney fires” that scared the children so badly winter nights long ago when we went to visit at Grandma’s house. Due to the roaring fire the soot would catch fire in the chimney. I remember the bucket brigades from the springhouse to get enough water to douse the chimney fires. These occurrences often left this overly-imaginative child almost afraid to fall asleep for fear the house would burn down around us.

Over the years the virgin timber from the Souther lands has been harvested and great logs are no longer readily available such as John Souther and his son John Combs Hayes “snaked” out from the forests, hewed and used to build the old house. The sawmill operated by John’s brother Jesse William Jr. at the Souther Mill that sawed logs into lumber to form flooring and ceiling has long since closed down. But Bill Duckworth has saved enough of it to show the good workmanship and the durable materials used in 1850-51 to build the old house.

The old Tower Post Office was in a room to the left of the front entrance. In that small room Sarah Evaline Souther Dyer was postmistress from 1907 through 1909 when Tower was discontinued. On the other end of the front porch Bill Duckworth has added a sunroom which makes a delightful family dining room and gathering place. The porch on the back is still L-shaped, but half is now open and the rebuilt portion enclosed. Looking down to the old spring at the foot of Cook Mountain, I recalled playing there with cousins in childhood days and fetching pitchers of cold milk from the springhouse where it was stored to keep cool.

Personally, I greatly appreciate the house being saved. Thanks to Bill and Carolyn Duckworth who graciously opened their “antique new house” for kin of the first owners and the public in general to enjoy.

It is almost as if the house has gone “full circle.” The present owner, William Henry Duckworth Jr., “Bill” is a son of former Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, the Honorable William Henry Duckworth Sr. Judge Duckworth was the third child of John Francis “Jack” Duckworth and Laura Jane Noblet Duckworth who lived near Old Liberty Church not far from the Souther and Dyer family at New Liberty Church. John Francis “Jack” Duckworth was a son of General Jackson Duckworth and Celia Emiline Collins Duckworth.

Note that Collins tie. Celia Emiline, wife of General Jackson Duckworth, was a daughter of Archibald and Mary Nix Collins and a granddaughter of Thompson and Celia Self Collins. Remember the wife of John Combs Hayes “Jack” Souther, first resident of the “old” house? She was Nancy Collins, daughter of Thompson and Celia Self Collins, and a brother to Archibald Collins, Celia Emiline Collins Duckworth’s father.

I think Nancy Collins Souther would smile to know that portions of her old house are preserved for her great, great, great nephew and his family to enjoy and to share with other relatives to keep alive wonderful memories of family connections.

Congratulations and many thanks for your “antique new home,” Bill and Carolyn Duckworth, and for all the recollections it conveys.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Aug. 4, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Nancy Collins Souther, Daughter of Thompson Collins, Sr.

Writing about early settler Thompson Collins and his family is like taking up an enthralling story that you can’t put down until you’ve read it all. And even then, you want to fill in gaps, go farther with the story.

In recent articles we’ve explored the first Thompson Collins, holder of vast acreages, progenitor of many who were born and grew up in Choestoe District and went out from there to make their mark in the world. A son, Thompson Collins, Jr. was a long-time Justice of the Peace. A grandson, Thompson Smith Collins, was known as “the poor man’s friend.” In the first year of my writing “Through Mountain Mists,” I traced the remarkable career of Dr. Mauney Douglas Collins, for twenty-five years Georgia’s state school superintendent and a great grandson of the first Thompson Collins. Chief Justice of Georgia Supreme Court, William Henry Duckworth and his brother, J. Lon Duckworth, corporation lawyer, were descendants of Thompson Collins. The branches go on and on…

This article pays tribute to Nancy Collins (February 13, 1829 – July 22, 1888), eighth of the ten children born to Thompson and Celia Self Collins. Nancy and her sister just older than she, Celia (1827-?) who married James West, were born after their parents migrated from North Carolina to Habersham County, Georgia. Her sister Olive (1831-1853) who married Robert McCoy and died in childbirth, and her brother Ivan Kimsey Collins (1835-1898), who was deaf due to a childhood fever and married Martha Hunter, were also born in Georgia.

Nancy Collins married John Combs Hayes Souther (Oct. 22, 1827 – Jan. 4, 1891), born in North Carolina, the second of twelve children of John Souther (1803-1889) and Mary “Polly” Combs Souther (1807-1894). The Souther family had settled in 1836 on land in the locality of present-day New Liberty Baptist Church. In fact, settler John Souther gave the land for that church and cemetery. The marriage of John Combs Hayes Souther and Nancy Collins on February 6, 1852 brought together two prominent early-settler families.

John, better known as “Jack” Souther, took his bride Nancy to live in the log house he and his father had built for Jack about 1850 on land lot # 150. The house still stands today within sight of New Liberty Baptist Church. The old adage, “It takes a lot of living in a house to make it home” could well qualify that house, for three generations of the Jack and Nancy Souther family lived there over a period of more than a century and a half.

Nancy Collins married one week before her twenty-second birthday in 1852. She no doubt felt pride in the fact that her husband Jack had taught the first school in the Choestoe District. Later he would become ordinary of Union County. He was always an advocate of education and good government. On their farm in Choestoe he practiced good farming techniques for that era and was able to support the family. He made many trips over the Logan Turnpike to take produce to market in Gainesville. Having Thompson Collins as a father-in-law and his own father, John Souther, as advisors, John Combs Hayes Souther was in a good position to make his own contributions to his life and times.

When the Union County courthouse was built on the square in 1899, Jack Souther was an advocate for building it. Timber from his land went into a portion of its construction.

Since Nancy’s father, Thompson Collins, had slaves at the time of her marriage, I wonder if one of them was loaned to Nancy and Jack Souther as their children were born to help Nancy with their care and with her housework. There is no record to verify this assumption, but it could reasonably have happened.

The Civil War came when the couple was ten years into their marriage. Jack Souther was a conscientious objector. In order to evade the Confederate draft, he hid out in caves in nearby Bald Mountain. At night he came out of hiding and tilled the crops. It was not an easy time.

The children born to John Combs Hayes and Nancy Collins Souther were:

(1) Mary Elizabeth Souther (1853-1929) married Smith Loransey Brown (1850-1932)
(2) Celia Souther (1854) died when about sixteen years of age.
(3) William Albert Souther (1856-1945) married Elizabeth “Hon” Dyer (1859-1902)
(4) Sarah Evaline Souther (1857-1959) married Bluford Elisha “Bud” Dyer (1855-1926)
(5) John Padgett Souther (1858-1959) married Martha Clementine Brown (1861-1933)
(6) Joseph Newton Souther (1861-1922) married Elderada Swain (1867-1948)
(7) Ruthie Caroline Souther (1863-1928) married (1) William Sullivan and (2) James Logan Souther (1847-1914)
(8) Nancy Roseanna Souther (1865-1938) married William Hulsey (1862-1946)
(9) Martha Souther (1867-1937) married (1) Jasper Todd Hunter (1863-1897) and (2) James Hunter (1847-1912) [Jasper and James were brothers.]
(10) Catherine Souther (1869-1921) married William Bruce Moore (1868- 1905)

Of the nine children who lived to adulthood and married, the descendants of John Combs Hayes and Nancy Collins Souther became legion. Each family has its own story. In fact, geneology lines sometimes are surprising. Their child number four, Sarah Evaline Souther who married Bluford Elisha Dyer is my grandmother. Sarah and Bluford’s tenth child, Jewel Marion Dyer (1890-1974) married Azie Collins (1895-1945), daughter of Francis Jasper Collins. Nancy Collins Souther was my mother’s great aunt. She is my own great grandmother, as well as my great, great aunt.

When I tell my children and grandchildren about these family ties at Christmas and other family gatherings, they sometimes shake their heads in disbelief. Somewhat like the royal families of England and other countries, our forebears, too, made alliances by marriage that have affected subsequent generations.

Have a wonderful Christmas with your family and remember the true meaning of the season.

c2004 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published December 16, 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Thompson and Celia Self Collins Family (Part II)

With our nation celebrating Thanksgiving and our family members together for the traditional turkey feast and all its trimmings, this is a happy time. One of the items on my gratitude list is the marvelous heritage we enjoy, thanks to the sacrifices and hardships our ancestors endured. May we never take for granted the price they paid that we might enjoy freedom, plenty, and security. We can still learn much from their example. I hope we will never forget, ever be grateful.

We began in last week’s column to chronicle Thompson Collins (ca. 1785-ca. 1858) and his wife Celia Self Collins (ca. 1787-Sept. 3, 1880). He had large land holdings along the French Broad and Mills Rivers and McDowell’s Creek in Buncombe County, North Carolina. In 1822, a general migration of people from that area moved to Habersham County, Georgia. A paper on the migration given at “a lawn party” at the home of Henry Williams in Nacoochee Valley in 1822 lists sixty-two different families who made the migration and settled on lands they secured either by lottery or by purchasing from the Indians prior to their removal to western lands. Thompson and Celia Collins were not in this migration of 62 families originating mainly in Burke and Rutherford Counties, NC.

Two years later, in 1824, Thompson Collins purchased 250 acres of land in Habersham (now White) County, District Four, Land Lot 27. He paid $300 for the land to Daniel L. Richardson of Hancock County, Georgia. The latter probably received it in a land lottery, did not plan to move to the mountains, and sold it instead. Thompson and Celia lived on this land which is now where Loudsville Church is located in White County.

He added 250 acres to his holdings on December 1, 1827 when he purchased from R. M. Richardson of Walton County, GA in Land Lot 28, 4th District for $20.00.

Gold fever struck when nuggets were found at Duke’s Creek in 1828. Whether Thompson Collins ever dug for gold is uncertain. However records in the Habersham County Court house show that he sold fifty of the above-listed acres to Charles P. Gordon of Putnam County, Georgia from Lot # 27 “next to Collins Field” for gold mining. The price he received for the sale was $200.

Thompson Collins’ next land transaction was a purchase of 250 acres in Lot # 75, 4th District, from Averette Bonner of Putnam County for $100.

On February 9, 1831, three prospectors, Elijah Reid, James P. Heath and Michael Brown made a mortgage to Thompson Collins for $200 on parts of Land Lots 27 and 28, District 4, for the purpose of mining.

Another 250 acres was purchased May 18, 1831 from Thomas J. Rush in District 4, Lot # 71 for $150.00.

Collins sold to the said Reid, Heath and Brown for $400 in land lots 27 and 28, 250 acres, “except for 50 acres sold to Charles P. Gordon.”

Collins received from Lewis Clark to secure a debt of $846.30 which Clark owed him the following, delivered to him in person: Negro slaves: a woman named Betsy about 25 years old; Lucy, a girl about 16 years old; Henry, a boy about 8 years old; Patience, a girl about 6; Bill, a boy about 4. The slaves were delivered April 2, 1833 and the transaction was recorded in Habersham County records on August 15, 1833.

Thompson Collins and Henry Turner sold to Francis Logan parts of lots 45, 46 and 51 in District Four (Habersham) and lot 51 in Lumpkin County for $900. Jesse Souther and Olaf Collins were witnesses to the legal transaction. On part of this land, Francis Logan built the Logan Turnpike, a toll road that led from the Choestoe Valley in Union County across Tesnatee Gap and down into present-day White County. This toll road operated until Neal Gap Highway (Hwy 129) was opened in 1925.

The move across the mountain to Choestoe District occurred in the early 1830’s, possibly by the time Union County was formed in 1832. Thompson and Celia Collins were in the 1834 (first) Union County census. By the 1849 tax digest, Thompson Collins owned land in Union, Gilmer, Habersham, and Lumpkin Counties. In District 16 of Union County he owned 2,270 acres. Current owners of land in Lots 82, 95, 96, 112, 117, 118, 121 and 134 in Union County have land once owned by Thompson Collins. In 1849 he owned seven slaves and in 1850 five slaves. It is believed that, upon their deaths, some of these slaves were interred in the Old Choestoe Cemetery, Union County.

The Thompson Collins family made their home on land along Choestoe Creek. Six of their ten children were born in Buncombe County, NC before they moved to Habersham County, Georgia. The remaining four were born in Georgia. Children and their spouses were: Archibald Collins (1811) married Mary “Polly” Nix (1818); Sarah “Sallie” Collins (1812) married Jarrett Turner (1806); Elizabeth “Betsy” Collins (1814-1856) married James Nix (1812); Francis (Frank) Collins (1816-1846) married Rutha Nix (1822-1893); Thompson “Thompie” Collins (1818) married Sarah “Sallie” Ingram (1817); Ruth Collins (1820) married Jacob “Jake” Butt (1808); Celia Collins (1826) married James West (1812); Nancy Collins (1829-1888) married John Combs Hayes Souther (1827-1891); Olive Collins (1831-1853) married Robert “Bob” McCoy (1826); and Ivan Kimsey Collins (1835-1901) married Martha J. Hunter (1840-1920).

In 1834 the first extant minutes of Choestoe Baptist Church list Thompson and Celia Collins as members. They were interred in the Old Choestoe Church Cemetery where descendants erected a monument in recent years on which the names of the couple’s children are listed.

c2004 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published November 25, 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.