A Correction, A Thanksgiving Wish, and Another Brown Family

First, a correction from last week’s column. Thanks to Wanda Brown Gibson of Blairsville who knows much more about the many Brown family lines in Union and Towns Counties than I could ever hope to uncover, I have this glaring error to correct from last week’s column (November 19), last paragraph.

I wrote that Smith and Mary Brown’s eighth child, Henry Franklin Brown, became a Baptist minister. Actually, this Henry Brown, son of Smith and Mary, became a deacon at New Liberty Baptist Church—not a minister. The Rev. Henry Brown was a descendent of Ezekiel Brown through Walter Brown. Ezekiel Brown had large holdings along the Hiawassee River in Towns County and before the Emancipation Proclamation, owned a number of slaves. This line of Browns made bricks from clay and Ezekiel Brown built an imposing brick house for his family. Rev. Henry Jud Brown was born February 28, 1880 and died March 20, 1968 at age 88. At age 21, he was the first pastor of West Union Baptist Church in Towns County when it was organized in 1901. Other known pastorates were Mt. Pisgah in North Carolina, and in Georgia Old Brasstown, Old Union, Liberty, Zebulon, Harmony Grove, Ebenezer, Antioch, Blairsville and Choestoe. I’m sorry for any confusion my error caused researchers.

Now for a Thanksgiving wish. Our American holiday which we call Thanksgiving dates back to November 21, 1621 when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and their neighbors, the Wampanoag Indians with Chief Massasoit as their leader, gathered for a feast of Thanksgiving. The Mayflower Compact governed the Plymouth Colony in those early years. The friendly Indians lent help to the brave band of Pilgrims as they planted their first crops and survived the rigors of their first year in a strange land.

The stories of how they built their government, settled into village life, and made friends with the Indians has inspired generations since 1620. As we gather with families on this Thanksgiving, may we consider the principles upon which America was founded. The Pilgrims made a solemn covenant to treat one another with brotherly love, to seek to supply one another’s needs, to live together in peace and harmony, to share each other’s joys and sorrows, and to work for the greater good of their community. My wish for you is a solemn and grateful Thanksgiving and a return to principles that served our forebears well in the early years of this nation.

Today’s focus on another Brown family will be that of Martha Clementine Brown (05/02/1861-09/05/1933), the eleventh child of twelve born to Harmon and Sarah Brown. On February 12, 1878, Martha Clementine, called “Tina” and John Padgett Souther (09/12/1858 -3/04/1959) spoke their wedding vows. Tina’s husband was the fifth child of ten born to his parents, John Combs Hayes Souther (10/22/1827-01/04/1891) and Nancy Collins Souther (02/13/1829-07/22/1888). Recall, please, from last week’s article that Mary Elizabeth Souther (04/07/1853-01/11/1929), John Padgett’s Souther’s oldest sister, married the Rev. Smith Loransey Brown (01/20;1850-05/16/1932), the sixth child of Harmon and Sarah Brown. The children of these couples, being double-first cousins, would have much in common, living rather close together on farms in the Choestoe District. Rev. Smith Brown and Mary Elizabeth Brown had nine children (see last week’s article for that list). John Padgett Souther and Martha Clementine “Tina” Brown Souther had sixteen children:

1. Jasper Gilliam Souther (11/29/1878-07/24/1943) married first, Nancy Collins (1876-1907) and second, Estella Mae Cole (1888-1978). Gilliam was an ordained Baptist minister. He died in the pulpit while conducting revival meeting at New Liberty Baptist Church. He had expressed a desire to die while preaching, and his wish was fulfilled. He was buried in Clermont, Georgia.

2. Sarah J. Souther (10/18/1880-02/15/1881)
3. Homer H. Souther (12/24/1881-1946) married Lizzie Plott.
4. Oria C. Souther (12/23/1883-12/29/1965) married Edward Collins.
5. Infant (b/d 03/14/1884).
6. Nora E. Souther (10/12/1887-10/17/1919) married LaFayette Jackson.
7. Maria Souther (08/02/1886-05/30/1950).
8. William H. Souther (07/17/1889-?), married twice; spouses’ names unknown.
9. Joseph Thompson Souther (02/22/1893-05/14/1983) married Bertha Pruitt.
10. Martha D. Souther (02/11/1891-07/03/1893)
11. Grady G. Souther (01/05/1895-09/25/1970) married Mary Johnson
12. Mary Souther (08/02/1897-05/30/1950).
13. Lydia Souther (09/22/1899 - ?).
14. Emily Rose Souther (10/26/1901 - ?) married John Rice.
15. Johnnie P. Souther (01/15/1905-01/06/1929).
16. Cora Souther (07/27/1903-11/09/1903).

We can imagine the heartache Martha Clementine “Tina” Brown Souther endured with four of her sixteen children dying as infants and one young son, Johnnie, at age 24. Tina died ten years before her preacher son, Jasper Gilliam, died at New Liberty Church in 1943, but his father, John Padgett Souther, who lived to be 99, was still living when his son, Rev. Gilliam Souther, died at age sixty-seven.

c2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 26, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A Jackson family story

When the first census of Union County, Ga., was taken in 1834, two years after the county was formed, three Jackson families were listed. William Jackson was head of one household, with four males and five females in his home. The other two Jackson heads-of-households were Joseph, with two males and two females; and the third was Samuel, with one male and two females. It is likely that William, Joseph and Samuel were brothers. Joseph and Samuel Jackson were not in Union's 1840 or 1850 census. But William Marion Jackson remained in Union, and it was from him that many of the present-day Jackson descendants came.

A shipboard romance bound William Marion Jackson's grandparents. The year was 1748. John Jackson was on board a ship from London, England headed to Maryland to settle in the colony there. Things looked promising in the new country. Aboard ship on the long journey to America, John Jackson met a young lady named Elizabeth Cumming (1720- 1825). They had time to get acquainted on the sea voyage. After John got established in Maryland, he married Elizabeth Cumming in 1750.

To John and Elizabeth Cumming Jackson was born a son named William. He, in turn, had a son named William (ca 1799-July 27, 1859) who married Nancy Owenby Stanley (ca. 1793-1861), a widow with two small boys, in Burke County, N.C. It is interesting that Nancy was six years older than William. The story goes that Nancy Owenby Stanley's brother, Arthur, introduced the 16-year-old William to his widowed sister, and the two were soon married.

William and Nancy Jackson moved their growing family to Habersham County, Ga., about 1827. They settled north of present-day Cleveland, Ga., (now White County) in the Nacoochee Valley, near towering Yonah Mountain. Their son, William Marion Jackson (1829-1912), was born there, as was their last son, Andrew (1835-1917). Children Rebecca, Armelia, Johile, Susie, and Kimsey had been born in North Carolina before the family migrated to Nacoochee Valley.

Land lots were being sold "across the mountain" from Nacoochee Valley in what would become Union County. William Jackson purchased land in Choestoe Valley and moved his family there, probably about 1831. Earliest records of Choestoe Baptist Church in 1834 list William and Nancy Jackson as members, and also Joseph Jackson who also was in Union's 1834 census.

William Marion Jackson (1829-1912) married Rebecca Jane Goforth (1833-1901) in Union County on December 19, 1850, with the Rev. William M. Pruitt performing the ceremony. She was a daughter of Miles and Elizabeth Patillo Goforth. Rebecca's mother died in Henderson, N.C., before her father migrated to Union County sometime before the 1850 census was taken. His household shows Miles Goforth, age 50, as head of household, with sons Millington, 22; John, 21; Albert, 16; and Miles Jr., 10; and daughters Sarah, 19; and Mary, 12. In the 1850 Union Census, Rebecca Jane Goforth, 17, was in the home of her sister, Martha Davis (24). Martha was married to William T. Davis (30). Rebecca Jane was helping her sister Martha with small children, Melinda (7), Mary Ann (2) and Jane (1).

William Marion and Rebecca Jane Goforth Jackson had eight children: Nancy (1851) who married John W. Souther; William Miles (1853) who married Nancy Souther and Nancy West; Sarah Catherine (1858) who married James M. Hood; Mary Louise Jackson (1861) who married Archibald Benjamin Collins; Martha Ann who married William J. Hunter and John Pruitt Collins; Frankie Jane (1870) who married James Elas Collins; Thomas Kimsey who married Jane Collins and Mary Caroline Collins; and Fairlena (1873) who married Jospeh Souther and George Harris.

William Marion Jackson was a blacksmith and a farmer. He served in the War Between the States as a private in Company D, Second Regiment, of the North Carolina Volunteer Mounted Infantry (U. S. Army). He was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh and carried a bullet in his leg for the rest of his life, suffering great discomfort from the wound. Rebecca Jane Jackson died June 5, 1901 and William Marion Jackson died March 12, 1912. They were interred at Old Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery.

c 2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 26, 2007 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Mr. Obe Pruitt's public service

Mention the name Mr. Obe Pruitt and many of the people still living will remember this public servant who served as a U. S. Deputy Marshall in Georgia's Northern District for 23 years and for twelve years as mayor of Blairsville. They will remember him and his wife Nettie as lovers of people and of animals, and genuine neighbors and friends to those who needed a helping hand.

Obe Pruitt was not a Union County native. Born in Banks County, Ga., in 1895, he received his early education in schools there, growing up on his father's farm.

When America entered World War I, Obe Pruitt enlisted and after training was sent to France. There he was wounded in battle. Returning to America following the Armistice in November of 1918, he continued to recuperate from his wounds and then farmed for awhile in Banks County.

In August of 1922 he married the love of his life, Nettie S., also reared in Banks County at Homer. The couple did not have children of their own, but every niece, nephew and neighbor child experienced the strong influence of these two stalwart people.

Feeling that law enforcement would be to his liking, Mr. Obe Pruitt was appointed a United States Deputy Marshall and served the Northern District of Georgia, mainly in Union County, for 23 years. One of the requirements of the job was that the deputy live in the area where he was assigned duty. The couple moved from Banks County and bought a house in Blairsville on what is now named Pruitt Circle.

It was at their house where I first met Mr. and Mrs. Pruitt. I was a close friend to their neighbor, Charlene Wimpey, who lived at the corner of Highway 129 and Pruitt Circle.

Sometimes when I visited Charlene at the Wimpey house, we would walk to Mr. Obe and Mrs. Nettie's house close by and look first to see what stray animals Mr. Obe had taken in to tend in the pens in his back yard. These ranged from opossums to wildcats and once even a mountain bear.

We school children also knew Mrs. Nettie as one of the school nurses employed by the health department to go to our schools and give us immunization shots. We had a certain dread of that needle, or the scratch and application of the smallpox vaccine, but Mrs. Nettie, with her kindness and gentle ways made "shots" day far less fearsome. She was a strong Christian lady and taught Sunday School at First Baptist Church, Blairsville, for over 30 years.

When Highway 129 was first built, it curved right by the Obe Pruitt House. Then, when the state decided to widen and straighten the highway, the roadway was rerouted through a mountain that sloped upward from the roadbed in front of the Pruitt house. The rerouting obstructed the view of the road from the Pruitt House. Mr. Obe took the problem to Atlanta, straight to Governor Eugene Talmadge's office. He pled that the obstructing land be smoothed out so the Pruitts could again see the traffic on Highway 129 as it went to and fro in front of their house. The mission was accomplished. Attention was brought to the ability of this Deputy Marshall who had influence enough in state governmental affairs to "move a mountain." Now, driving around Pruitt Circle, one can imagine how the land that was moved blocked a beautiful view across to busy Highway 129.

For 23 years in the job of Deputy U. S. Marshal, Mr. Obe Pruitt was frequently away from home attending to his duties. One of the important tasks of the marshals in the mountains was to arrest and bring to trial those caught making bootleg liquor, or "moonshine." They worked hand in hand with revenue agents. The 18th Constitutional Amendment in 1920 prohibited manufacturing, transportation and sale of intoxicating beverages. Marshals and their deputies take an oath to uphold the US Constitution and the rule of law.

The office goes back to the first president, George Washington, who appointed the first U. S. Marshal on September 24, 1789. The motto of this law enforcement unit is "Justice, Integrity, Service." The marshals and their deputies took on various responsibilities such as upholding the Constitution, offering security for witnesses in a trial, and enforcing civil authority of all three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Obe Pruitt was a highly-respected deputy marshal and stood tall as a purveyor of national law on the local level.

After his retirement from being a deputy U.S. Marshal, he entered local politics and was the mayor of Blairsville for twelve years. Beloved by his constituents, he and the City Council worked diligently to bring some visionary changes to the county seat town. The Blairsville Airport was built during his tenure. A central water system for the city received an affirmative vote and was installed. Many city streets were paved, street lights installed, and the first city fire truck and police car were purchased.

These additions to the growing town are taken for granted now, but Obe Pruitt pioneered in bringing about these needed changes.

Obe Pruitt passed away in 1975 at age 80. His widow, Mrs. Nettie, lived on at their house on Pruitt Circle until infirmity beset her and she had to enter the Union County Nursing Home in 1987. There she soon made new friends and kept her sweet, outgoing spirit. She died on August 16, 1991 at the ripe age of 91. Blairsville and Union County owe a debt of gratitude to these two citizens who worked hard to bring needed changes to the mountain region.

c2006 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published June 29, 2006 in The 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.

To Consolidate Schools or Not? That was the Big Question in 1916 and Later ( A History of Education in Union County, Part 3)

I began my teaching career in the same school I entered as a first grader when the new two-teacher Choestoe school building opened. Back in 1936, we were so proud of our new white weather-boarded school building, a great improvement over the previous old building that stood on the same spot near Choestoe Baptist Church.

When the school had first opened there in the 1830’s, classes were held in the log church building. Then the two-room building specifically for school was built, with an upstairs where the Lodge met in “secret” quarters. I do not have statistics for many of the years of Choestoe School, but in 1933, three years before I began as a first grader there, 69 students had been enrolled and C. J. Dyer and B. H. Rich were the teachers.

I did not attend school in the old building but was a proud first grader in 1936 when the new building opened with its shiny white paint outside, its tall windows, the “lower” grades room for students in 1st through 3rd grades, and the “upper” grades room for students in grades 4th through 7th grades.

Each classroom had its own “cloak” and supply room where we hung our coats on pegs and put our lunch pails on shelves. Extra textbooks and a few school supplies were also stored in the cloak rooms. The classrooms were heated by a wood heater and patrons (including my father, J. Marion Dyer) supplied the wood for the stoves. We brought our water supply in a bucket from a spring on church property until, about my third year there, a well was dug in the schoolyard and a hand pump (which always had to be primed) was installed. We each took our own cups with our lunch pails in order to have one for water when we were thirsty.

Mrs. Mert Shuler Collins was my first grade teacher and encouraged me to read, read, read. I already knew how to read when I entered school, having learned at my mother’s and my older siblings’ knees, probably pestering them so much that they felt to teach me to read for myself would be better than to spend so much of their valuable time reading to me. My aim in first grade was to read every book in the cabinet in the corner of the classroom where extra books were housed just for the students’ pleasure. I didn’t reach my goal that year, but remember the chart with many stars that represented each book completed.

Several teachers held the wonderful Choestoe School together in my first through seventh grade journey. My beloved teachers were Mrs. Mert Collins, my sister, Louise Dyer, Mrs. Opal Sullivan, Mrs. Bonnie Snow and her husband (as a substitute), Mr. Lon Snow, and Mrs. Florence Hunter. These opened for me the remarkable world of learning.

When I entered Union County High School in 1943 as an 8th grader and freshman, I had not suffered one whit from receiving my elementary education in a two-teacher country school.

By the school year 1949-50 when I began as an eager first-year teacher at Choestoe School, enrollment was down so that it was a one-teacher school. I had pupils in every grade first through seventh, a total of twenty-five students in all, with the largest enrollment being 5th grade with five pupils. The school did not have kindergarten, but those just starting out were in “Primer,” where they learned in the first few months the rudiments of reading so that they could progress through Primer and First Grade in their first year at Choestoe. In retrospect, I wonder how I, a brand new teacher, managed seven grades and taught the students even the minimum of what they needed to learn at their specific grade levels. Looking back on my thirty-plus years as an educator, I still remember the wonder and challenge of that first year in what had been reduced to a one-teacher school. I had begun in that building as a first grader; my fist year of teaching was in the Choestoe School; and it was ripe for closure and inevitable consolidation which came at the end of that year.

Returning to the 1916 report, Mr. M. L. Duggan, Rural School Agent for Georgia, gave recommendations following his three-month survey of education in the county. He listed schools and gave reasons for and against consolidation of the 43 schools he found operating at that time.

The Blairsville Collegiate Institute was going well in 1916 with 150 pupils enrolled in eleven grades. H. E. Nelson was principal, and taught mathematics and English. His wife, Mrs. H. E. Nelson, taught history, science and Latin. Miss Addie Kate Reid taught the intermediate grades. Miss June Candler taught primary grades. Music teacher was Mrs. Maud Haralson and Miss Etta Colclough taught Home Economics and also served as a sort of county home economist, visiting in homes and assisting women in proper methods of canning and preserving foods from their gardens and farms. The private institute had eight full months of uninterrupted instructional time and was doing well, indeed. From 1916 through its closure at the end of the 1929-1930 school year, it was to have fourteen more successful years of operation before it became the Blairsville—and subsequently---the Union County High School.

In the district around Suches in 1916, Mr. Duggan found three schools: Zion had Mr. G. W. Garrard as teacher, classes were in a church building, he had no equipment and only seven students. Mt. Lebanon School had Mrs. Ray Pruitt as teacher, met in a ceiled, unpainted building, had oiled floors, homemade desks, blackboards, a sandbox, and maps, charts and pictures. The pupils in five grades numbered 55. The Mt. Airy School met in the church building with 27 pupils and C. T. Lunsford as teacher. Mr. Duggan highly recommended that these three schools be consolidated, that an increase in taxes make Mt. Lebanon a “standard school,” and that students all attend Mt. Lebanon, which would be only about three and one-half miles for those farthest away.

A look at the 1933 county school statistics reveals that his recommendation was not accomplished to that date. Mrs. F. F. Pruitt was listed as teacher that year at Mt. Lebanon with 33 students and Mr. J. H. Lunsford, also there, with 30 pupils. Mt. Airy was still operating in 1933 with 20 pupils, and Zion with 23 pupils had Ms. Eula Berry as teacher. The schools at Suches were finally consolidated when Woody Gap School opened in the fall of 1940 near the homesite of Georgia’s Civil War governor, Joseph Emerson Brown. Today Woody Gap is considered an “isolated” school because of the mountains separating the district from Blairsville and the distance in travel prohibitive for pupils who would be transported.

[Next week: Continuing the look at 1916 and later school developments.]

c2004 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published August 19, 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

William Marion Jackson and Rebecca Goforth Jackson

Continuing the saga of the Jackson Family in Union County, today's account will look at a son of William Jackson and Nancy Stanley Owenby Jackson. William Marion Jackson was born, as he recounted to his children "near Yonah Mountain in Habersham (now White) County, Georgia on May 9, 1829. He died March 12, 1912. On December 19, 1850, he married Rebecca Jane Goforth who was born in Burke County, North Carolina on March 3, 1833 and died June 5, 1901. Those interested in seeing the graves of these two early settlers in Union County can find them in Old Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery, Choestoe District.

Rebecca Jane Goforth was a daughter of Miles Goforth. This family of Goforths migrated from Burke County, NC to Union County, Georgia about 1840. It is believed that the Goforths and Jacksons were neighbors in North Carolina and also in the new county of Union.

When they married in 1850, there was already talk of secession from the Union. The Jacksons were pro-Unionists and he would prove his loyalty by joining the U. S. Army.

William Marion and Rebecca began to rear their family. They had a farm, probably on acreage his father owned at Town Creek, Choestoe. William Jackson (1798-1859) and Nancy Jackson (1793-1861) died a few years after William Marion and Rebecca married. The grandparents Jackson saw some of William Marion's children before death claimed the first-generation paternal grandparents. These children were born to William Marion and Rebecca:

(1) Nancy Jackson (named for her grandmother), born November 21, 1851. She married John W. "Rink" Souther (b. June 15, 1833). Nancy and John moved to Pueblo Colorado and reared their family there.
(2) William Miles Jackson (August 30, 1853-January 8, 1910) married on February 24, 1873 to Nancy Souther (December 25, 1883 - May 8, 1899), daughter of Jesse and Malinda Nix Souther. Second, Miles married Nancy West (March, 1863 - February, 1939). Miles and his first wife Nancy were buried at the Old Choestoe Baptist Church Cemetery.
(3) Sarah Catherine Jackson (October 12, 1858 - March 21, 1909) married on February 17 to James M. Hood (September 23, 1856 - February 6, 1913). Sarah Catherine was buried in Old Liberty Church Cemetery, but James Monroe Hood moved to live near Rome, Georgia where he married again. He was buried in Aragon, Georgia Cemetery.
(4) Mary Louise Jackson (January 14, 1861 - February 13, 1934) married on January 1, 1881 to Archibald Benjamin Collins (October 19, 1862 - April 4, 1897). These were the parents of Dr. Mauney Douglas Collins, for 25 years Georgia's state school superintendent. This family's story has been recounted in earlier articles.
(5) Martha Ann Jackson (1866-1916) married first William Hunter on August 18, 1889. Following his death, she married John Pruitt Collins. Martha Ann and William Hunter had a son, Vanus, who became a dentist and practiced in Commerce, Georgia and a son, William (1894-1952). Martha and John Pruitt Collins had three children, Watson, Parker and Rosa.
(6) Thomas Kimsey Jackson (1867-1951) married Mary Jane Collins (1869-1887) and Mary Caroline Collins (1872-1952). Their family history was recounted in last week's column.
(7) Frankie Jane Jackson (February 6, 1870 - November 18, 1962) married James Eli Collins (October 3, 1868-January 8, 1938), a son of Dallas and Roseanna Souther Collins. Frankie Jane and James Eli helped Archibald Benjamin Collins in his store at Choestoe until after A. B.'s death and the store was closed. Frankie Jane and James Eli then migrated to Weatherford Texas.
(8) Fairlena Dorothy Jackson (August 4, 1873 - September 9, 1962) married on December 29, 1889 to Joseph Souther (April 24, 1870 - September 21, 1922). He was a son of Jesse Washington Souther (1836-1926) and Sarah E. Collins Souther (1840-1872). Fairlena and Joseph went to Taos, New Mexico where he worked in copper smelting. They had nine children. After Joseph's death, Fairlena married George Harris.

William Marion Jackson enlisted in the U. S. Army during the War Between the States. His enlistment was from October 1, 1863 through August 16, 1865 with Company D, 2nd Regiment, North Carolina Volunteer Mounted Infantry commanded by Colonel Bartlett. In his application for pension, he stated that at Cumberland Gap in August 1864, he was "taken sick with rheumatism and dysentery and sent to the hospital at said Gap." There he remained until March, 1865, when he received a "sick furlough." He was to be given a medical discharge, but told his commander he lived in Georgia "within the rebel lines," and could not, therefore, safely return to his home. In his pension statement, he declared he was "a farmer by occupation," but due to his "illness and physical incapacity was unable to perform manual labor." Records show that finally $379.00 were received for his nursing care, physician's charges, and undertaking charges following his death.

After Rebecca died in 1901, William Marion Jackson married again to Jane Davis who lived only a short time. He married third to Mandy Seabolt. He outlived her. His final days were spent with his youngest son, Thomas Kimsey Jackson and T. K.'s wife, Mary Caroline Collins Jackson.

Living through the Civil War years and struggling to make a livelihood when the chief breadwinner was disabled from the war was not an easy task. It is reported by family members that William Marion and Rebecca Goforth Jackson were staunch Christians, and "devout Baptists." They found ways to "make do" with what they had.


c2004 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published April 22, 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Family of Thomas Kimsey Jackson

Thomas Kimsey Jackson
Teacher, Merchant, Farmer, Minister
(1867-1951)

Two weeks ago this column presented the family of early Union settler William Jackson and his wife, Nancy Owenby Stanley Jackson. Many avenues can be pursued on the Jackson families and how they spread from Union County to many states. This column will focus on Thomas Kimsey Jackson, grandson of William and Nancy Jackson, and son of their son William Marion Jackson (05/09/1829-03/12/1912) and Rebecca Goforth Jackson (03/03/1833-06/05/1901).

Marion Jackson and his wife Rebecca lived on Town Creek, Choestoe District, where he farmed. They lived near his parents, William and Nancy Jackson. Marion joined the Union Army during the War Between the States and served as a private in Company H, 2nd Regiment, North Carolina Mounted Infantry from October 3, 1863 through August 16, 1865. He saw action in the Cumberland Gap Campaign. He received a medical discharge for severe rheumatism. His pension application stated that he was unable to perform manual labor because of his disability.

Thomas Kimsey Jackson was one of eleven children born to Marion and Nancy Jackson. Three of T. K.’s siblings died young. Eight of them lived to adulthood, married and had families. Thomas Kimsey Jackson was born December 17, 1867 and died February 2, 1951.

In an account of his life and family, T. K. Jackson wrote: “I was educated for a school teacher and for seventeen years I taught school.” He does not say where he received his education, but perhaps he went through the Gap to the Hiawassee Academy where he received as good an education as was available for aspiring teachers in the late nineteenth century.

He taught at the country schools at New and Old Liberty Churches. Among his famous pupils was his nephew, Mauney Douglas Collins, son of T. K.’s sister, Mary Louise Jackson who married Archibald Benjamin Collins. A letter dated October 9, 1936 from T. K. Jackson, Young Harris, Georgia, and written to a niece (name not specified) states: “Yes, we are all proud of M. D.’s success and his ability to do things. I hope others of our people will make high marks.” By this time, that nephew whom T. K. Jackson probably taught to read was Georgia’s School Superintendent.

Thomas Kimsey Jackson married twice. His first wife was Mary Jane Collins (11/26/1869-01/17/1887), daughter of John P. and Fronia Duckworth Collins. T. K. and Mary Jane had one child, Thurman Sylvester (known as Vester, born 01/15/1887 - 01/19/1922). Mary Jane evidently died with complications following childbirth, for her death occurred two days after her baby boy, Vester, was born. Mary Jane was buried in the Six Oaks Cemetery near Old Liberty Baptist Church about which I wrote last week. Jumping forward in time, this first-born son of T. K. Jackson married Lola Souther, daughter of William Albert and Caroline “Hon” Dyer Souther. Vester and Lola had five children: Elma Clara, Donald Clifford, Worth Oliver, Adele Marie and Ruth Lavesta. Vester Jackson met a tragic death on January 19, 1922 from a gasoline explosion at his store and filling station at Town Creek, Choestoe. His last child, Ruth, was born August 31, 1922, seven months after her father’s death.

Thomas Kimsey Jackson married his second wife, Mary Caroline Collins (04/09/1872-07/03/1952) on January 13, 1889. She was a daughter of Elijah Kimsey and Rosetta Sullivan Collins. To T. K. and Mary Caroline were born fifteen children. They were:

Iowa Rosetta Jackson who married Bluford Vasco Dyer
Sarah Christine Jackson who married Frank Calloway Duckworth
Thomas Watson Jackson (10/21/1893-01/19/1910)
Elma Jackson (08/01/1895-10/01/1895)
Martha Nevada Jackson who married Robert (Bob) L. Jackson
Fannie Jane Jackson who married Earl Penland
Ollie Mae Jackson who married Benjamin Frank Sargent
Lillie Bell Jackson (08/22-1902 - 08/30/1921)
Mary Leona Jackson who married McKinley Pruitt
Margaret Viola Jackson who married Anson Ray Geckler
Pat Marion Jackson who married Louise D. Macon
Pearl Jackson, a twin to Pat (03/23/1909-06-?-1909)
Annie Maude Jackson who married Roscoe McGaha
Thomas J. Jackson who married Lucy Inez Aderhold
Hugh Dorsey Jackson (03/12/1917-04/26/1917)

The Thomas Kimsey Jackson House and Store at Town Creek, Choestoe

In addition to his seventeen years of public school teaching, Thomas Kimsey Jackson operated a country store at Town Creek, Choestoe. The store was in the front ell of the house, accessible by steps from the front. The large family lived in the back wing of the house.

The family moved from Town Creek to Young Harris in 1907 where he also continued his work as a merchant. The twins, Pat and Pearl were born there. Pearl, one of the twins, was buried at Old Union Cemetery, Young Harris in 1909, as were the other children who died young. His reason for relocating to Young Harris was to give his children better educational opportunities at Young Harris Academy and College. Both Thomas Kimsey Jackson and his wife Mary Caroline Collins Jackson were interred at Old Union Baptist Church Cemetery, Young Harris. Jacksonville, the village near Young Harris on Highway 76/APD 515 was named for the Jackson family.

Thomas Kimsey Jackson was ordained to the ministry. This writer does not have information on where he might have been a pastor, but surmises that he probably preached at Old Liberty Baptist Church (Union County) and at Old Union Baptist Church (Towns County).

Descendants which are many of Thomas Kimsey Jackson and his sixteen children, fourteen of whom married and had families of their own, can be proud of the legacy left by this teacher/merchant/preacher.

c2004 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 15. 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.