John Andrew Moore and Rev. John Ferry Moore (Moore Family—Part 5)

Last week we traced some of the family of Christopher Columbus Moore (known as “Lum”) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Swanson Moore. You will recall that this account of the Moore family began with early settlers to Union County, Albert and Sarah McClure Moore. These meager accounts in no way cover all the spreading branches of the Moore descendants. This entry centers on two, John Andrew, the fourth child of Christopher Columbus Moore, and a son of John Andrew, the Rev. John Ferry Moore. Perhaps these five views of the Moore family will prove a springboard for further research for descendants who might not have known some of the facts given in these articles about these hardy settlers to our mountain region of North Georgia.

John Andrew Moore was born on December 25, 1871, a fine Christmas present for his father and mother, Christopher Columbus Moore and Elizabeth Swanson Moore. At the time of the new baby’s birth, he had older siblings James, Hanibal and Lavada to welcome his birth. Later, four more children were born to Lum and Mary Elizabeth: Lillie, Lola, George and Arthur.

Focusing on John Andrew Moore, he met and married shortly after his eighteenth birthday (date of marriage January 5, 1890) the very young not quite fifteen-year old, Emily Estalee Teem of Rabun County, Georgia. To this couple were born Forrest Columbus (b. May 7, 1891), Gretchen Manassas (b. March 26, 1894), Gaither Grayson (b. April 17, 1897), Noel Arvis (b. February 21, 1901), Hazel Prudence (June 1, 1902), John Ferry (b. September 14, 1905), Doctor Garland (b. October 1, 1907), Prince Hodson (b. December 7, 1912), and Lady Rhea (b. May 19, 1918). It was a happy day for John Andrew and Emily Teem Moore when they moved by wagon from Rabun County, Georgia back to Towns County in 1919 where John A. could be near his aging parents at Woods Grove. For twenty-two years they were happy farming and entering into the life of the “home” community at Woods Grove. But progress (as the world terms it) moved in, and John Andrew Moore had to sell his acreage for the building of Lake Chatuge as the Tennessee Valley Authority opened a series of dams and power plants for the production of electricity.

John Andrew and Emily Teem Moore relocated to Habersham County, Georgia. There John died June 20, 1950 and Emily died February 12, 1966. They were interred in the Hazel Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, in Habersham County.

Their sixth of nine children was John Ferry Moore, born September 14, 1905 in Rabun County, Georgia. He married Esther Tatham of Towns County on November 2, 1929. She was born April 16, 1909. They lived happily in Towns County until 1941 when their land in the Woods Grove community was purchased by Tennessee Valley Authority for the building of Lake Chatuge. They relocated to a good farm purchased in Habersham County, Georgia.

Children born to John Ferry Moore and Esther Tatham Moore were son Lynn Tatham Moore (1930), Barbara Jeane Moore (1934) and Frances Esther Moore (1947). Then in 1948, after much soul-searching, John Ferry Moore surrendered to the call to gospel ministry and was ordained a Baptist preacher. Lower Hightower Baptist Church in Towns County was his very first church to serve as pastor which he accepted in June, 1949. The next ten years found him faithfully serving churches in the mountains in Towns, Rabun, Stephens and Habersham counties. He was known as a good and solid Bible preacher and one who cooperated in the work of Baptist associations in each of the counties where churches he pastored were located.

In 1959 he accepted the call to a church in Coffee County, Georgia. Then in 1966 he and Ester moved back north to Hall County, Georgia where he accepted the pastorate of Springway Baptist Church. The last three years of his ministry before retirement were spent back in south Georgia, Randolph County, at Vilulah Baptist Church.

In retirement, he and Esther moved back to Habersham County to live His previous record as a good preacher put him in line for engagements in several churches as pulpit supply and interim pastor. One of his very happy appointments was back at Lower Hightower Baptist Church in Towns County in 1981, the very first church he pastored when he began his long career as a Baptist preacher in 1949.

This five-part view of the Moore family of Union, Towns and surrounding counties barely scratches the surface of the contributions this family and its descendants have made in the building up and strengthening of the way of life that has evolved since the first Moore cabins were erected in these mountains prior to 1840. For over 170 years Moore family members have either remained here or gone out to other places to make a difference where they took up residence and plied their work.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 3, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Christopher Columbus Moore Served the Confederacy and the Union (Moore Family, Part 4)

With a name like Christopher Columbus Moore, the third child of nine born to Albert and Sarah McClure Moore must have been destined for a noticeable life in his future. Perhaps like his namesake, who discovered America in 1492, Christopher Columbus Moore (born May 2, 1843 in North Carolina, died September 26, 1920 in Towns County, Georgia) would lead a life worth notice.

When the Civil War broke out, Christopher Columbus Moore was still at home with his parents in the Woods Grove Community of Towns County. He helped his father work on the farm. The political climate in this northern county was both pro-South and pro-Union, with sentiments largely favoring the latter. Few slaves were owned by farmers who, at best, had only small holdings in cultivated acreage.

Christopher Columbus Moore probably walked from his home at Woods Grove to the county seat town of Hiawassee. There, on March 1, 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate Army, joining Company E, 52nd Regiment, Georgia Infantry. For whatever reasons, whether his political leanings or dissatisfaction that he might have been defending slavery, “Lum” Moore (as he was known) was found to be away-without-leave from his regiment several times. Not so good a record, especially for anyone who might have thought of receiving a good conduct medal.

He was at the Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and there he was taken a prisoner of war by the Union on July 4, 1863, along with others in the command of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, Confederate States of America. Evidently plans were in the works to allow any of the imprisoned Southern soldiers who would do so sign an oath of allegiance not to take up arms again against the United States, and thus be released from prison. Christopher Columbus Moore signed the vow of allegiance and was released as a prisoner of war on July 6, 1863, only two days after his capture. He was no doubt still in pain at the time he was imprisoned and released. Lum Moore lost his right forefinger in fighting at Vicksburg—a very useful finger to lose.

Following his release at Vicksburg, he probably returned home to Woods Grove for awhile. But then, whether because of his loyalty to the Union or because he could be paid for his services if he enlisted, Christopher Columbus Moore journeyed to Cleveland, Tennessee where he signed up for a year in the U. S. Army on August 5, 1864. Where he served and in what battles is unknown to this writer, but before his year of enlistment was up, the war had ended. Christopher Columbus Moore was discharged from the Union Army at Nashville, Tennessee on July 16, 1865. Evidently his two enlistments were not something he wanted to discuss. Descendants note that their grandfather was silent about the war for the rest of his life.

The same year as his discharge from the Union Army, Christopher Columbus Moore and Mary Elizabeth Swanson were married on December 14, 1865. Her parents were Anderson Clifton and Mary Brown Swanson. She had been born June 29, 1840, the eldest of the Swanson children. Her parents had migrated from Wilkes County, NC to Union County, Georgia in 1849. Lum Moore’s father-in-law had also served as a blacksmith in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Christopher Columbus Moore and Mary Elizabeth Swanson Moore had eight children:

(1) James (01/07/1867) married Sadie Boyd and Sallie Williams
(2) William Hannibal (04/10/1868) married Jennie Wood
(3) Laveda (04/06/1870) married Albert Welborn
(4) John Andrew (12/25/1871) married Emily E. Teem
(5) Lillie (10/25/1873) married William Nicholson
(6) Lola (10/20/1875) married John Philyaw;
(7) George (04/21/1879) married Pearl Parker
(8) Thomas Arthur (04/09/1882) married Mae Johnson

As we learned from Part 3 of this Moore Family story, Christopher Columbus Moore and his wife Emily looked after his parents in the declining years of their lives, as Lum’s father had specified when he deeded him land along Long Bullet Creek, Towns County, “for taking care of Albert Moore and his wife Sarah and keeping as part of the family during their natural life.” This contract Lum and Emily Moore faithfully kept until Albert died in 1897 and Sarah died in 1899.

The old Civil War veteran of two sides, Lum Moore, lived mainly in Towns County for the remainder of his life, engaging in farming and perhaps harvesting timber from some of his acreage. But there were two brief periods when this couple lived elsewhere. For five years they lived in Habersham County, Georgia at a place called Arnold’s Mill. They also lived briefly in Macon County, North Carolina. Each move may have been because of living nearer some of their married children.

But they moved back to Woods Grove to live out their days. It is interesting that a post office once operated from the old homestead of Lum Moore’s father, and this post office was not called Moore—after the people who lived on that land—and not Woods Grove, as the community then and since has been known, but the post office that operated there for a decade from 1890-1900 was Campagne, Georgia.

Christopher Columbus Moore and Mary Elizabeth Swanson Moore died two months apart—he on September 26, 1920 and she on December 29, 1920. Their marked graves are in the Woods Grove Cemetery, Towns County, Georgia.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 24, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Continuing with the James and Albert Moore Families of Early Union and Towns Counties (Part 3)

Continuing with two of the families cited in the article published January 27, 2011 (Part 2) on Moore families in early Union County, we learn that when Towns County was formed in 1856, at least two of the Moore families living in Union in 1850—those of James and Albert—were within the bounds of the new county, Towns.

In 1850, the household the census taker numbered 627 in Union had only two people in residence, James Moore, age 70 and his wife, June Moore, age 67. Six years later this couple at age 76 and 73 respectively found themselves within the new county of Towns, living in the Woods Grove section. They had not moved. The new geography had just absorbed them as citizens of Towns.

James Moore was born July 10, 1779 in Rowan (maybe Iredell) County, North Carolina. His mother and father had migrated to America from Ireland prior to the American Revolution. James Moore married June Stevenson. She was born in 1783. They first made their home in Haywood County, North Carolina on a little farm alongside Crabtree Creek. The children born to them were named Harriet who married Hiram McLean, Clarissa Ann who married David Sellers, Aveline who married Samuel Sellers, and Johial, Terzey and Marcella whose spouses (if any) are unknown, and then the seventh child, Albert Moore who married Sarah McClure (more about this family later).

Sometime prior to the 1850 Union County, Georgia census, James and June McClure left their Crabtree Creek home in Haywood County, North Carolina and moved to the new and burgeoning Union County and settled in the Woods Grove community. Perhaps it was their youngest son, Albert, who convinced his elderly parents to move when Albert and Sarah decided to settle in Union. But James and June Moore did not have many years remaining in their lives in Union/Towns. June Moore died April 17, 1857 and James Moore died May 30, 1862. Their bodies were interred in North Carolina soil at Ely in Clay County in the Old Union Cemetery there.

Albert and Sarah Moore were registered by the census taker as living in household numbered 234 in Union County in 1850. Albert was born in Haywood County, NC on August 7, 1819. He married Sarah McClure, born April 3, 1822, a daughter of John and Sarah Cathey McClure. We learned from Part 2 in this account of this Moore family that seven of their nine children had been born prior to the 1850 census. Later, Albert and Sarah would have two more children. Their children were:

(1) Talitha Caroline (July 19, 1839-May 30, 1930) married on May 15, 1856 to Jehu Parker
(2) Nancy Ann (b. 1842) married Andrew James (“Jim”) Burch on Nov. 4, 1875
(3) Christopher Columbus (May 2, 1843-Sept. 26, 1921) married Mary Elizabeth Swanson on Dec. 14, 1865
(4) Altha (b. 1845) married George Tipton
(5) Andrew Americus (b. 1846) married Mary A. Green on March 3, 1867
(6) Sarah Jane (b. 1848) married a Parker
(7) Mercilla Arlene (b. 1850) married William L. Townsley on August 31, 1870
(8) Tursey M. (b. 1852) and
(9) Clarissa Melvina E. (b. 1854) married M. Henry Brown of Walker County

Albert and Sarah McClure Moore settled into life in the new county of Towns after they were absorbed into it by virtue of where they lived when that county was laid out in 1856. Then the Civil War came, and Albert Moore served with the Confederate forces during the war.

After the war, in early 1871, Albert Moore added to his already-held property by purchasing 150 acres from Marcus Kimsey for $300. The property was in Land Lot 50 of the 17th District along Long Bullet Creek. Records show that Albert Moore sold 80 acres in 1887 to his brother-in-law George W. Tipton for $300, receiving as much as he had paid earlier for the entire tract of land.

In 1895, Albert Moore deeded to his third child, Christopher Columbus Moore (known as “Lum”) the remainder of his land. The deed had a stipulation that Lum Moore would take in and care for his parents, Albert and Sarah McClure Moore, for the remainder of their lives. As was customary in that era, Lum Moore was true to his father’s wishes and provided a good home for his parents until their deaths.

Albert Moore died June 8, 1897 and his wife Sarah died almost two years later on March 18, 1899. They were interred at the Woods Grove Baptist Church Cemetery, Towns County, Georgia near where they had made their home since migrating from Haywood County, North Carolina to Union County prior to 1850.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 17, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

More descendants of early settlers

Continuing the saga of the Cathey settlers in early Union County, today's article will feature a son of theirs, James Cathey, a grandson Julius Young Cathey, and a great grandson, John Lucius Cathey. These did not remain in Union County, partly because the section where James's parents lived became a part of Towns County in 1856, and then because of outward migration of some to find better economic conditions elsewhere.

James Cathey (March 11, 1812 - February 3, 1887) was born to William Cathey (April 15, 1782 - abt. 1860) and Elizabeth Bryson Cathey (April 3, 1787 - abt. 1872). His birth occurred in North Carolina prior to his parents' move to Union County, Georgia in the 1830s. As listed in a previous article, the Cathey children of this first generation to live in Union (later Towns) County were Andrew Dever, James, William H., Samuel B. and Rebecca. Of these children, the last, Rebecca, was the only one born in Georgia (Nov. 17, 1820 - Feb. 21, 1871).

James married Emmeline (known as Emily) Brown in Union County, Georgia on May 28, 1846. Their children numbered six, and were Julius Young (1847- 1929) who married Rebecca Louvenia Wood; Jane Elizabeth (1850 - ?); Lucious (1854 - ?); William C. (1859 - ?) who married Josephine Crow; Nancy Marinda (called "Rendy," 1863- 1919) who married Noah Ellis; John A. (1866- ? ) and Andrew Dever. Noting the names, one easily sees that children in the third generation in Towns/Union were given some of the same names as those of children of William and Elizabeth Bryson Cathey, first settlers here.

Firstborn of James and Emmeline Brown Cathey, Julius Young Cathey (Sept. 17, 1847 - March 22, 1929) lived in the Woods Grove section of Towns County. He married Rebecca Louvenia Wood in April of 1870. Her parents were John, Jr. and Nancy McClure Wood. This Wood family, early settlers in what became Towns County, gave the community of Woods Grove its name. James and Emily were buried in the Brasstown Baptist Church Cemetery, Towns County.

Julius Young and Rebecca Louvenia Woods Cathey (Jan. 12, 1846 - Dec. 28, 1928) reared their family of either nine or seven children in the Woods Grove Community. It is interesting to note that the Towns County census of 1900 lists nine children in their household. However, only seven can be traced with any degree of authentication. Perhaps two died young. Known children and their spouses were: James Melvin (b. 1871) married Georgia Ann Martin and Roxie Ann Elliott. Mary Elizabeth (1873-1953) married William H. Dotson. John Lucious (1876-1960) married Hattie Ann Dyer. Elmira M. (1878-?) never married. Andrew Judson (1881 - ?) married Bessie (maiden name unknown). Sarah (known as Sally, 1883 - ?) married Charles Crawford. Nancy (1885 - ?) married Lon Gribble.

Julius Young and Rebecca Louvenia Wood Cathey's third child, John Lucius Cathey (Jan. 15, 1876- April 4, 1960) married Hattie Ann Dyer (April 9, 1876 - July 31, 1959) of Union County, Georgia on January 13, 1898. Her parents were Bluford Elisha Dyer (Feb. 13, 1855 - Nov. 21, 1926) and Sarah Evaline Souther Dyer (May 17, 1857 - March 4, 1959). Hattie Ann was the firstborn of fifteen children born to "Bud" and Sarah Souther Dyer.

When she and John Lucius Cathey married January 15, 1898, they lived near her parents in the Choestoe District of Union County. He was a farmer. Then, about 1920, they moved their family to White County, Georgia, and eventually on to Habersham County near Cornelia, Georgia. At their deaths, they were interred in the Level Grove Baptist Church Cemetery, Habersham County, GA.

John and Hattie Dyer Cathey had four children, three of whom lived to adulthood. Their firstborn, a daughter, Avie Cathey (born April 17, 1900 in Union County, GA, died May 4, 1962, and was buried at Level Grove Cemetery, Cornelia, GA). Avie was a teacher. She married Etna Beck (1904-1961). Their children were Johnny Lawrence Beck and Jimmy Nathaniel Beck.

The second child born to John and Hattie Dyer Cathey was a daughter named Beulah, born October 12, 1906. She died as an infant and was buried in New Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery, Choestoe, Union County.

Their third child, a son, was named Conley Lucian Cathey, born October 18, 1908. He married Louise Wiggins on March 22, 1935 in Habersham County, Georgia. Four children were born to Conley and Louise: Dorothy Gail, Conley Lucian, Jr., William Norman and James Michael. Conley worked for Southern Bell Telephone Company in Macon, Columbus and Cornelia. He had to take early retirement due to poor health. Sadly, his date and place of death are unknown because, under great duress, he left a hospital where he was a patient in the cold wintertime and (to this writer's knowledge) was never located again.

The fourth child of John and Hattie Dyer Cathey was Norman Dester Cathey, born Sept. 26, 1914, died September 3, 1964. He married Mary Faye Wiggins on June 20, 1942 in Phoenix City, AL. She was a daughter of J. A. Wiggins of Cornelia, GA. Dester and Mary Faye had six children: Susan Elaine, Steven Norman, David Neil, Sharon Elizabeth, Donna Faye, and Richard Alan. Norman Dester Cathey had a career in the U. S. Army, joining young and remaining in service until his retirement. He and Mary Faye made Jacksonville, Florida their home. He was buried there, and his widow remains there near their children.

At best, these articles about the Cathey families of early Union (and Towns) Counties are sketchy. For those interested in the Scots-Irish roots, the migration of some west, the "Cathey Settlement" in North Carolina, and the Woods Grove section of Towns County that became a sort of "Cathey Settlement" in Georgia, there is much information online on this pioneer family. I have pleasant memories of visiting Uncle John and Aunt Hattie Cathey near Cornelia, Georgia when I was a child and of their coming from Cornelia to family reunions and to visit "Grandma Sarah" Dyer.

c 2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published February 19, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Cathey family in Union by 1840

By preliminary greeting, I hope all you readers had a good Christmas, 2008, and that the New Year, 2009, despite its challenges on the economic front, has dawned with hope and health for you and your family. In a New Year's greeting from dear friends, they wrote: "Expect peace, love, joy, harmony, forgiveness, understanding and ask the Lord for wisdom." That is good advice for 2009 or any year.

Now to the family name we will pursue for awhile. Looking in the 1840 (second) census of Union County, I found the first reference to a Cathey family living here. No family by that name was recorded in the first census of the county taken in 1834.

William Cathey's household in 1840 consisted of four males between the ages of 20 and 30, one male (the head of household, William) between the ages of 50 and 60. And females in the house included one female child (0 to 5—who may have been a grandchild), one female age 15 to 20, one female, age 20-30, and one female, age 50 to 60, which was William's wife, Elizabeth Bryson Cathey.

From other records of the Cathey family, we learn that William Cathey was born April 15, 1782 in Burke County, NC and died in 1860 in Towns County, Georgia. His wife, Elizabeth Bryson was born April 3, 1787 and died in 1872. She was a daughter of Andrew and Agnes Nail Bryson. Her grandparents were William and Isabella Holmes Bryson.

Next door neighbors to the William Cathey family in Union County in 1840 were the John Bryson family (he may have been a brother of Elizabeth Bryson Cathey) and David McClure.

Known children of William and Elizabeth Bryson Cathey, all born in North Carolina before they migrated to Georgia, were Andrew Dever Cathey (04-16-1809) who married Mary Jefferson Allison; James Cathey (03-11-1812) who married Emmeline (called Emily) Brown; William H. Cathey (08-22-1815) who married Nancy M. Carter; Samuel B. Cathey (09-13-1818) who married Mary Melissa "Polly" Parker; and Rebecca Cathey (11-17-1820) who married John B. Parker.

In researching the Cathey surname, we find an interesting history. The first Cathey immigrants to America in the seventeenth century were four brothers (whose names seem to be James, John, David, and Alexander). They had lived in Monaghan County, Ireland. Before that, the Cathey family had migrated from the Island of Colonsay, Scotland. About 1720 the Catheys who came to America were settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Gradually, some of them migrated to lands in Virginia and North Carolina.

The Catheys were of the McFie or MacPhie Clan in Scotland (some spell it McAfie). The Gaelic spelling is far different from either McFie or Cathey and was Macdhubhshith, which meant "Son of the Dark Fairy or Elf." Legend holds that the chief of the MacPhie Clan was killed in 1623, and the clan had to gradually leave the wonderful island of Colonsay in Scotland. The clan had owned two islands off the coast of Scotland. On one they buried their dead and on the other they lived and farmed. For about 100 years, the Catheys survived in and around Ulster, Ireland. They held closely to their Presbyterian beliefs. They wanted a good education for their children, and had a strong work ethic. Religious persecution in Ireland caused migration to America. The Cathey brothers were among those who came to America seeking freedom.

James Cathey, one of the four brothers who came to America, was a millwright. He followed the occupation of milling wherever he settled—first in Pennsylvania, then in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. In Virginia, James was deeded 1,350 acres of land by King George II for which Mr. Cathey paid sixteen pounds and fifteen shillings.

The next move was across the Yadkin River where the "Cathey Settlement" was formed at Mills Bridge in Salisbury, NC. It is said the Catheys were the first English-speaking settlement at this location in North Carolina. James owned 3,752 acres there which he received in a grant. His wife was named Ann, but her maiden name is not found in any extant records. Upon James's death, he willed half his plantation to his wife Ann and one-half to a nephew John Branden.

Later, two of James Cathey's nephews owned the land, were operating his mill, and grinding the grains produced around Salisbury.

The lineage of William Cathey who settled in Union County, Georgia before 1840 has not been traced by this writer back to the large land holder James Cathey, the miller of Salisbury, NC. However, we do know that William came to Union from Burke County, NC, and that his father was Andrew D. Cathey. So he definitely stems back to the "Cathey Settlement" in the Yadkin Valley. It is interesting to note that the names of the first Cathey brothers to settle in America have been passed on to descendants in almost every generation of Catheys—a tradition to those who hold to the importance of family ties.

Julius Young Cathey was a son of James and Emily Brown Cathy, a grandson of William and Elizabeth Bryson Cathy. One of Julius's sons was John Lucius Cathey (b. 01-15-1876) who married Hattie Ann Dyer. And so comes my kinship to the Clan McFie for John Cathey married my Aunt Hattie, sister of my father, Jewel Marion Dyer. Little did my Cathey cousins and I know when we were growing up that the Cathey name had such a long and illustrious history.

c 2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published January 8, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Pinnacles of the Past: The Railroad went to Blue Ridge, not Blairsville Blue Ridge, Mecca of the Mountains

The railroad, when it came to the mountains, went to Blue Ridge, Georgia and not to Blairsville, to the disappointment of many in the 1880s. Folks from Blairsville had to go to Blue Ridge to the train station, or to Culberson, NC, when the tracks extended on to there, or to Murphy, NC to catch a train or to ship their farm goods.

Blue Ridge, Georgia was incorporated by an Act of the Georgia Legislature on October 24, 1887.

But the history of Blue Ridge, named after the azure peaks, part of the Southern Appalachian Range that surround the town, had a much earlier beginning than that October day in 1887.

Cherokee Indians had a village and stronghold at the site of the future town. They cleared fields for cultivation and grew maize and other crops. One of the five "civilized tribes" of Native Americans, the Cherokee were advanced in agriculture, a written language and governmental practices.

The first post office in Blue Ridge was established before the Indians were forced west on the Trail of Tears. Seventeen years before Fannin County was formed by an Act of the Georgia Legislature and the bill signed by Governor Herschel Johnson on January 21, 1854, William L. Buchanan was appointed first postmaster of the Blue Ridge station on March 30, 1837. It is likely that Mr. Buchanan was also an Indian agent, dealing in land transactions with the Indians as white settlers moved into the area prior to the Indian removal. Tuckahoe Post Office, which later became Tacoah and then Morganton, was established fifteen days before the one at Blue Ridge, on March 15, 1837, with Benjamin Chastain as first postmaster and Indian agent.

The founder and "father" of Blue Ridge was Michael McKinney whose father, James Isaac McKinney, had settled at Chestnut Gap to the west of Blue Ridge in 1853. There the McKinney family established a mill, a store, a stagecoach stop on the old Ducktown to Ellijay Road, and various other enterprises. Because of serious damage to the McKinney store and mill during the Civil War, the McKinneys returned to their former home in Tennessee at Horseshoe Bend in Roane County. Michael McKinney joined the Confederacy and served in the Civil War, earning the rank of Colonel. He was known as Col. Mike McKinney upon his family's return to Chestnut Gap after the war and until his death in 1925.

In 1886, Colonel Michael McKinney sold out his Chestnut Gap holdings to his eldest son, Robert McKinney, and he and his wife, Hepsey Adeline McClure, and their younger children moved to what would become the town of Blue Ridge. There Michael McKinney established the first business, with a general merchandise store, a sawmill with sale of lumber and building materials, and a real estate business. The McKinney residence was the first built in the newly formed town of Blue Ridge.

Land for the town of Blue Ridge had belonged to an early settler, John Green, a farmer who raised corn and other crops on the location where the Fannin County Courthouse now stands. Mr. Green's son, Elisha, donated land to establish the town of Blue Ridge and worked with Mr. McKinney to survery and plat the town.

Michael McKinney was the mover and shaker in getting the railroad to Blue Ridge. McKinney and Georgia state legislator from the county, Mr. Ben Duggar, negotiated with officials of the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad. Engineer C. R. Walton worked to find the best right-of-way for laying the railroad tracks through Pickens, Gilmer and Fannin Counties and on into Murphy, North Carolina. Through convict labor secured by Representative Dugger, the grade for the tracks was finished in 1885. Col. McKinney and Col. R. L. Herbert of Cherokee County, NC, drove the ceremonial spike linking the northward bound track at Ellijay on January 1, 1886 amidst much festivity and celebration. The engine named "Little Mary" roared into Blue Ridge in 1886, pulling the train into the depot. The railroad shops were located at Blue Ridge from 1886 through 1906, providing jobs for repairmen and other railroad workers. The railroad was a boon to population growth and commercial and residential building.

Blue Ridge soon became a tourist attraction. Mineral Springs, with health-giving chaleate water, was touted as a place where health could be restored. Hotels sprang up in the new town along the twin main streets east and west of the railroad tracks. Homes were opened as boarding houses. Blue Ridge quickly became a bustling town. Horses, buggies, carts and farm wagons crowded the streets. Railroad whistles, the sound of cars switching on the tracks, the sights and smells of steam and smoke combined to produce an atmosphere of prosperity and productivity.

A problem arose concerning county government and judicial business. Lawyers, judges and others coming to the county for "court weeks" traveled by train and lodged at Blue Ridge hotels. They had to hire buggies or other conveyances to travel the dirt road to Morganton, the county seat, to conduct court. This seemed a waste of time and was a great inconvenience to them.

A proposal came to move the county seat from Morganton to Blue Ridge. The vote was taken on August 13, 1895. Two-thirds of those voting favored the referendum. However, those who had long cherished having Morganton as the county seat town did not easily give in to the vote. The dispute was settled by the Georgia Legislature and the vote upheld.

A stately brick courthouse with two stories and a clock tower was completed in Blue Ridge in 1901 at a cost of $14,000. That building burned July 3, 1936. The replacement was completed in 1937. The present new court house was entered in January, 2004.

A lengthy article published in 1887 in The Ellijay Courier described the rapid growth of Blue Ridge. stating that people were moving "from Atlanta, Marietta, Michigan and other places." The climate, land, healthy environment and future prospects of prosperity hailed Blue Ridge as the "mecca of the mountains." The writer further stated that "Messrs. McKinney and Walton, who own the real estate, intend to make a town of that place whether fate so decrees or not."

Although the heyday of the railroad subsided when passenger trains ceased to pull into the depot in 1951, and freight transportation ceased in the 1980's, the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway short run between Blue Ridge and McCaysville draws thousands of sightseers each season. Downtown Blue Ridge has undergone massive renovation and could well be renamed the "mecca of the mountains" for antiques and specialty shops.

Citizens in each generation since the town's founding in 1887 to the present have left a legacy of hard work, entrepreneurship, and determination. "Mecca of the Mountains"? The torch of hope and determination is still flaming, ready to be transferred to those, who like Colonel Michael McKinney, are yet to dream of what Blue Ridge can become.

And it's still a pretty good place for folks at Blairsville to travel to, even though the only train operative there now is the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published July 17, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Spivey/Spiva and Related Families

Before I launch into today's article, please accept this correction from last week's story about "Some of the Descendants of Leason Spiva." When I make a mistake, I am eager to clear it up, because many of you read this column and if it is on family history, you often add the information to your file.

I heard from Linda Spivey Bjorklund of Baker City, Oregon, regarding her father's siblings and where they were born. As you recall, last week's article was about Claude Raymond Spivey, the 92-year old whose hobby is woodworking. The first six children of Luther Adniram Spivey and Ora Ellis Spivey were born in Monroe County, Tennessee. The seventh, Clyde Spivey, was born in Graham County, NC on July 10, 1927 at the home of Ora Ellis Spiva's aunt, Renie Ellis Blevins near Yellow Creek and the town of Robbinsville. Then in September, 1929, the twelve-day trip in a 1928 Buick took the large family across country to Baker City, Oregon where the last three children were born: Della Lavelle in 1931; James Henry in 1933; and Glenn Duane in 1937. (Note: If you have Geraldine Spiva Elmore's family history book, "Descendants of Adaniram Spiva and Evaline Souther Spiva," Linda Spivey Bjorklund asks you to please make the above corrections to the family of Luther Adniram and Ora Ellis Spivey on page 15.)

For this week's story of a member of the family of Adaniram (1827- 1898) and Eveline Souther Spiva (1826- 1865) we will take a look at their first-born of nine children, John Spiva, who was born in Union County, Georgia on April 25, 1851. John Spiva was only fourteen when his mother died. In the fifteen years his mother and father had been married, she had borne nine children, seven sons and two daughters. There is no information about Nancy Jane except the listing of her name; it is assumed that she died young. John's youngest sibling, Stephen Adrian Spiva, was born November 12, 1865, and was less than a month old when his mother Eveline died on December 4, 1865. You will recall from last week's story that the Souther grandparents, John and Mary Combs Souther, took the infant Stephen and reared him. That still left John Spiva, as the eldest of the children, great responsibility in helping his father Adaniram with the other children until the father married Sarah Haseltine Corn on October 28, 1873.

John Spiva was a blacksmith and a barrel-maker (cooper). In addition to farming his acreage, he used these two trades to help bring in some money at a hard time after the Civil War was over. John Spiva began to court a young lady who lived on Wolf Creek about where Vogel State Park and Lake Trahlyta are now located. John's sweetheart was named Margaret Louise Reece (b. 08/16/1856). They were married earlier in the same year John's father married for the second time. John and Margaret's wedding date was February 13, 1873. Rev. R. M. Hughes performed the marriage ceremony at the home of Margaret's parents, William "Billy" Reece and Mary "Sarry" Daniel Reece. Her parents' wedding date was June 18, 1839 in Union County and their officiant had been Thomas M. Hughes, a Justice of the Inferior Court.

Billy Reece was the son of Jacob Reece and the grandson of William Reece. The earliest Reece settlers in America had migrated from Wales. The name had gone through several spellings: Rays, Rhy, Rys, Reys, Rees, Reese and Reece. Billy Reece's earliest known ancestor was Valentine Reece who was in Watauga County, NC as early as 1790, and came to America from Wales in 1750. Billy and his brother James migrated together from North Carolina to South Carolina, into Habersham County, and finally to Union County before 1837 (they were in the 1840 but not in the 1834 census).

"Sarry" Daniel moved to Union County from Alabama. Her father was Josiah Daniel who came to Union prior to 1837.

John Spiva no doubt learned much from his father-in-law. Billy Reece was an early teacher at Choestoe School, and John may have been one of his students. He was also a farmer and a prospector. Billy found gold deposits in Helton Creek. He would work to get enough gold to take to the mint in Dahlonega, and on Saturdays he would go by horseback to take his findings to be assayed.

John Spiva and Margaret Louise Reece Spiva had ten children, nine of whom lived to adulthood. Their children were: Mary Jane "Mollie" Spiva (12/13/1874-06/05/1962 who married James Asbury Curtis; Eliza E. Spiva (09/08/1876 - ?); Mintie Caroline "Callie" Spiva (06/04/1878-12-06/1974) who married Arlie Knox Waldroop; William Henry Spiva (02/20/1881-12/13/1922) who married Elizabeth Jones; Margaret Emma Spiva (01/28/1883-09/09/1979) who married Joseph Reuben Brown; Frank H. Spiva (01/14/1885-01/18/1880) who married Ada Gertrude Ledford; Jewell Wilburn Spiva (02/16/1887-07/25/195?) who married Grace Mae Swain; Gardner Coke Spiva (12/31/1893-08/18/1988) who married Ethel Susanna McClure; Josiah Haygood Spiva (12/15/1895- 02/08/1988) who married LaFarest McGarity; and Guy Cook Spiva (04/25/1900-03/12/1973) who married Bessie Lee Duckworth.

John Spiva died at age 82 on November 3, 1933. His wife Margaret Louise Reece Spiva lived to age 84, dying June 20, 1941. Both were interred at Shady Grove Methodist Church Cemetery, Union County, Ga.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 28, 2008 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Echoes of camp meetings and evangelist Rev. Elijah Kimsey

The Rev. Elijah Kimsey was a great uncle of the noted Dr. George W. Truett who became one of the outstanding Baptist pastors and denominational leaders of the 20th century. Rev. Kimsey did not travel far from the mountain area where he was born, but his evangelistic zeal and fiery preaching had such an effect on summer camp meetings in the mountains of Western North Carolina, North Georgia and East Tennessee that echoes of his influence still linger on in lives he touched and in legends told about him.

In a biography about Dr. George W. Truett written by that great preacher's son-in-law, Powhattan W. James, Dr. Truett recounts how his "Uncle Lije" Kimsey waked up a floundering Methodist Camp Meeting being held one summer near Hayesville, N.C.

The fact that Rev. Elijah Kimsey was a Baptist minister ordained November 20, 1847 did not deter him from going to the Methodist overseers of the Camp Meeting at Hayesville. He told them that he had prayed all night and the Lord had told him to seek out the arbor meeting gathering and preach there. Rev. Kimsey had a thick lisp to his speech. The Methodist ministers conferred and told the itinerant preacher their services were at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. and again at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. "When do you want to preach?" they asked Rev. Kimsey.

"Brethren, my thoul ith on fire. I want to preach to these people. The thooner, the better, brethren," Rev. Kimsey replied. "The fire is burning in my thoul," he reiterated.

The ministers told him he could preach at the 8 a.m. service. They rang the bell to gather the people from their wagons and tents, and soon a crowd was under the brush arbor tabernacle. After an introduction by one of the Methodist elders, Rev. Kimsey was given the pulpit.

The story has been passed on for generations about that camp meeting and how the evangelist with a speech impediment began to preach and seemed not to be able to stop. His lisp only added to the interest, because everyone listened carefully to understand every word as Rev. Kimsey expounded the Scriptures and poured out his heart in zealous preaching.

As he preached, and as the services went on, sometimes not even stopping for the usual meals and fellowship, people in the surrounding area heard about the revival. The crowd increased as the Camp Meeting went on with exhorting, testimonies, singing, and preaching. As much as the people enjoyed eating around their campfires, fasting was a natural outgrowth of the spiritual climate and praying. Campers preferred hearing the preacher with a lisp and anointed with the Word of the Lord than to cook and eat.

It has been said that particular meeting marked the beginning of a moral and spiritual awakening of that section of North Carolina, Western Tennessee and North Georgia. Word of the meeting lept over the mountains and sped through the valleys. Hundreds were converted and the people who gathered there went home at the end of the series of meetings with renewed hope and inspired zeal.

Who was this preacher with the gift to move people to spiritual commitment? Elijah Kimsey was born February 4, 1812, a son of Thomas and Nancy McClure Kimsey. His birthplace was old Buncombe County, N.C. His family moved from Buncombe to Haywood County (now Macon) when Elijah was a boy. He and Sallie Bryson married there, but by 1837 the new couple had moved to what was then Union County, Georgia, a county five years into organization. They settled in the Friendship Community which would later be taken in as part of Towns County in 1856.

Elijah Kimsey, despite his pronounced lisp, had a desire to serve through both teaching school and being a preacher. He pastored churches and taught in one-teacher schools in the area of North Carolina and Georgia near where he lived.

Rev. Elijah Kimsey and Rev. John Corn were chosen as representatives of Towns County to go to the secession convention held at the Georgia capitol then at Milledgeville. Both the ministers were pro-union. It is said that they did not protest the right of Georgia to secede from the Union but questioned the wisdom of such a move in their general opposition to war and division in the country. When a large majority voted in favor of secession, the Revs. Kimsey and Corn went on record as accepting the decision to secede.

Rev. Kimsey was too elderly by the time of the War Between the States to serve in the army. However, three of his sons enlisted and fought for the Confederacy.

Rev. Kimsey's beloved companion, Sarah Bryson Kimsey, mother of their nine children (William, Thomas, David, Nancy, Amanda, Josiah, Araminta, Elisha, and Sarah) died September 1, 1886 and was buried in the Burch Cemetery in Towns County. Following Sarah's death, Rev. Kimsey moved to Habersham County. There he married his second wife, Ella, on April 3, 1887. Rev. Elijah Kimsey died May 7, 1896 at age 84 and was buried in the Kimsey Cemetery, Mt. Airy, Ga.

The epitaph on Rev. Kimsey's tombstone is typical of his life: "He went and done what the Lord commanded."

c2006 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published May 4, 2006 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.