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.

Union County Poor House or Almshouse

Once an entity of Union County government, the County Farm or Almshouse, also called the Pauper’s House or the Poor House, operated for approximately 30 years from the 1920s to the early1950s.

I have the following to thank for information on the County Farm. Mr. Leon Davenport submitted an article to The Heritage of Union County, 1832-1994 entitled “The County Home,” (p. 40-41) and in Sketches of Union County History, Volume 2 by Jan H. Devereaux and Bryan Webb (pages 150-152), the 1934 report of W. L. Benson from the Georgia Department of Agriculture and R. B. England was given on “The County Poor Farm.”

A certain stigma was attached to those who had no recourse but to take up residence at the county poor farm. They either had no relatives who would take them in and care for them, or else they were rejected by family and consigned to work on the Poor Farm because they had to be supervised. Some evidently were lacking in mental or physical capacities and could not manage on their own as adults.

Union County acquired land for the Poor Farm from the estate of Captain John W. Meeks. In the Benson-England report of January 1934, the deeds of the property were not up-to-date, and a strip of pastureland and bottomland had been exchanged for a section of woodland so that firewood could be provided for the living quarters. Therefore, the adjoining landowners had to give permission before a survey of the County Farm properties could be made. Coosa Creek ran through the property, and a road edged the eastern section of the land, evidently not intended in 1934 as a public road, but used by the public, nonetheless.

The “inmates” as they were called by the Benson-England report had no apparent afflictions, chronic diseases, or communicable diseases. The worst infirmity was “age,” with three being over seventy in 1934. In the report published in the county history book, a schedule of expenditures from the years 1929-1936 stated that there were eight to ten residents at any one time, and that expenditures were for salaries of the superintendents, pauper burials, clothing, provisions, medical or dental attention, transportation for the Civilian Conservation Corps “boys” who evidently were assigned to work on the farm and/or buildings (in 1935), allowance to paupers, medical aide, lunacy transportation and board, and one small item of $7.96 in 1934 for “miscellaneous.”

Known superintendents serving at the County Farm were Cicero Wilson, Henley Potts and Vic King. During the term of each superintendent, living on the farm and managing the buildings, care and work was a requirement. Their annual salaries, given for only three years in the statistical table, were $259.25 (1934), $496.00 (1935), and $971.50 (1936). Bear in mind that these were years of the Great Depression, and even though the superintendents’ salaries seem low by modern standards, the County Farm provided them rent and board as part of their annual “package.”

Noting “Paupers’ Burials,” the lowest was in 1932 for $1.00. The highest year in those covered was 1934 when burial expenses were $118.21, and the second highest in 1933 of $107.53. The average for the eight years of statistics for burials was $62.89. No particulars were given, but the burial expenses probably covered a home-made casket, the clothes for the corpse to be buried in, transportation to a designated cemetery, and perhaps a small stipend for the minister or eulogist who presided at the funeral.

The Benson-England report posed a series of questions about the County Poor Farm to call attention to challenges that needed attention. First was to survey the land and establish authentic land lines. Neither electricity nor telephone lines were available to the farm in 1934. The main agricultural product raised on the farm was corn, used as a “money crop.” A vegetable garden near the residence gave food for the table and some to sell as truck crops. Some rye and winter wheat were grown on portions of the farm.

The land received no improvement to fertility. The examiners recommended rotation of crops and fertilization to make the land more productive. Fencing the farm was highly recommended. Raising cattle and hogs for the residents’ meat supply would be to a good use of farm facilities and labor. A small industry (not named) was recommended.

The buildings were old and in very poor repair except for a corn crib built in 1932, which was not sufficient in size to take care of the corn crop, because half of the building was used for the wagon shed.

The dwelling house was in a T-shape, with four rooms, one the kitchen. It was in poor condition, needing new shingles and a new floor, and a means of heating the individual rooms. The proposal was made for the addition of six rooms “in the near future,” with the CWA (Civil Works Administration?) assisting with the building.

The water supply was from a bold spring that had a flow of 1/2 gallon per minute. The spring house was used for refrigeration of milk and other perishables.

However, a grave threat to the spring was nearby. An outside privy was the only sewage disposal unit, only fifty feet away from the spring. The report stated: “This constitutes a health menace since the volume of water and the fall is not sufficient to preclude the possibility of flow-back to the spring that is used for drinking (water).” (Sketches of Union County History, p. 152 )

An interesting item in the Schedule from the Probate Judge’s office for the years 1929 through 1936 showed expenditures for “Lunacy Transport(ation) and Board.” The average annual expenditure over the eight-year period for this item was $79.80, with the largest amount spent in 1930 ($156.60).

The County Poor Farm existed and met a need for poor and indigent citizens before the day of federal programs such as Medicaid and the resources of the Department of Family and Children’s Services. I noted that the amount listed for clothing for the residents was only $31.00 for an eight-year period. Probably the people housed at The Almshouse wore hand-me-down clothing gathered from citizens.

We can imagine the plight of these less-fortunate citizens, while at the same time we must applaud county government for making efforts to provide for them. I am an avid “quotations” person. Many quotations I found were appropriate to the Union County Poor House and its mission. Jesus had this to say about the poor: “You always have the poor with you” (Matthew 26:11). Moses said: “The poor will never cease out of the land” (Deuteronomy 15:11). The American writer, Will Carleton (1845-1912) wrote: “Over the hill to the poorhouse I’m trudgin’ my weary way.” In his annual message to Congress on January 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson stated: “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty.” And that war, declared by our 36th U. S. president, continues today and into the future. For, surely, the poor are still with us.

c2006 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Jan. 12, 2006 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.