Continuing the Self Family Saga (Part 2)

By way of review, last week’s introductory story on the Self early settlers to Union County told of three families with the surname Self that were here in 1834: Job, Thomas and Francis, with a total of 16 people. In 1834, too, was one household, that of Isom Seffle, that unusual spelling, with 6 males and 2 females. Was this a misspelling of Self? Seffle was not found listed again in Union census records. By 1840, the households listed were those of Job, Thomas R. Robert B. and William, with the Self population swelling to 28 persons.

I am always glad to come to the 1850 census record, the first one to list the name of wife and children rather than just the number by ages, not just the name of head-of-household.. By the time the county was 18 years into its life as a division of the state of Georgia, the Self population was as follows:

Household 163: Self, William, age 37, born in North Carolina Wife, Elizabeth, age 43, born in North Carolina

The first four children listed had been born in North Carolina: David, age 17 Berryman, age 14 John, age 12 Sarah, age 10

The next three children were born in Georgia: Mary, age 8 Franklin, age 6 Barbary (Barbara?), age 4

Of these children of William and Elizabeth Self, marriage records in Union that possibly are for these Self offspring are David Self to Polly Long on December 20, 1855 by William M. Duncan, Justice of the Peace. John Self to Rebecca Seabolt, January 1, 1860, by Rev. Thomas M. Hughes. On the other hand, this John could be the son of Francis and Hester Self who was 10 in 1850, or John the son of Thomas and Nancy Cook Self who was 12 in 1850.

With so many children in Self families named John, Francis and Job, to trace those wed back to the right parents takes more adequate family records than I have available on the Self descendants. For example, there are four Sarah Self marriages listed in the records. The three possibilities for William and Elizabeth’s Sarah was to T. E. Jenkins on March 13, 1870; or the Sarah who married James L. Smith on January 2, 1868; or the Sarah who married M. H. Monroe on March 27, 1879. This Sarah definitely is not the Sarah Self who married Allen Simpson on February 2, 1845. This couple must have left the county soon after their marriage, for in 1850 I could not find a Simpson household with Allen as the head and Sarah as the wife and mother. A Mary Self married W. W. Hix on May 4, 1872, with Rev. J. B. Parham officiating. This could be the daughter of William and Elizabeth. Barbery (sic) Self married John Medaris on November 8, 1866, with Rev. S. H. Waters officiating.

Household 542: Self, Robert, age 30, born in North Carolina Wife Martha, age 29, born in North Carolina

Their five children had all been born in Georgia: James, age 13 Susan, age 8 Elisha, age 7 Jane, age 4 Job, age 2

Union County marriage records indicate that Robert Self married Martha Cook on January 25, 1838, with Jarrett Turner, Justice of the Peace, performing their ceremony.

The two James Self marriages listed in the record take place in 1889 and 1896, a little late, it seems for this 13-year old son of Robert and Martha Self. I do not find marriage records that seem to match the ages of the other children of Robert and Martha.

Household 534: Self, Francis, age 32, born in North Carolina Wife Hester, age 31, born in North Carolina

They had five children by 1850, all born in Georgia: Job, age 12 John, age 10 Thomas, age 10 John (yes, a second named John), age 4 Joseph, age 1

Evidently Francis and Hester were married before they settled here, because no marriage record is listed for this couple in Union. The Job Self, son of Francis and Hester, might be the Job Self who married Caroline Hix on January 22, 1860 with James R. Hood, Justice of the Peace, officiating.

In a message from Pat Self, she told me that Job M. Self and Mary Samantha Plott married. I find a J. M. Self and Mary M. (Samantha not as part of her name in marriage record) married on October 8, 1871, with Rev. Alfred Corn performing their ceremony.

Pat Self reported that Job M. and Mary Samantha Self helped to organize the Old Union Baptist Church at Young Harris when it was founded, and were active there until their deaths. But was the Job who married Mary Samantha a son of Francis and Hester? I hope Pat Self will help me clarify who were the parents of this Job Self.

Household 646: Self, Thomas, 34, born in North Carolina Wife, Nancy, age 35, born in North Carolina

Eleven children, all born in Georgia: William, age 16 Sally, age 15 Caroline, age 13 John, age 12 Elizabeth, age 10 Francis, age 9 Jehu, age 7 Monroe, age 6 Newton, age 5 Thomas, age 3 Infant (male), age 2 months

Marriage records show that Thomas Self and Nancy Cook were married in Union County on July 11, 1833 by John Thomas, Justice of the Inferior Court. Searching for names of these children and their marriages, the records show: Caroline Self married Michael Lance on July 12, 1853.

There are two John Self marriage listings: one John to Margaret Daniel on February 10, 1856 performed by Charles Crumbly, Justice of the Peace; and another John, which by age and time of marriage must have been Thomas and Nancy’s son John, age 12 in 1850, who married Rebecca Seabolt on January 1, 1860, when he was 22, with Rev. Thomas M. Hughes performing their ceremony. But this John’s marriage could also have been for William and Elizabeth Self’s son, John, who was also 12 in 1850. Francis M. Self married Rebecca Daniel on August 6, 1863, with Thompson Collins, Justice of the Peace, officiating.

Household 662: Crumbly, William, age 31, born in North Carolina Wife, Jane, age 28, born in Alabama

They have in the household with them a child, Celia Self, age 6.

In the marriage records, William Crumbly and Jane Self are listed, marrying on February 25, 1849, with Charles Crumbly, JP, performing their ceremony.

This article has given mainly census and marriage records, with little help from family research and history that would tie the marriages to the right parents for the brides and grooms. Maybe someone who reads this article knows the puzzles and can clarify and help set the record straight.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published March 31, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

More Post Offices in the Suches Area

Mr. Ira Harkins, who, if not officially the historian of the Canada/Suches area of Union County, should be declared so. I am grateful to him and his articles in “The Heritage of Union County” for information about early post offices in that section “across the mountains” from the county seat of Blairsville.

Last week’s column listed three of these early post offices and the postmasters who worked at Gaddistown, Quebec, and Suches. Several other mail stations were located along the hills and hollows of this mountainous area.

Early settlers along Mulky Creek were the Harkins family and the Shopes family. In 1880 Charles W. O’Kelley made application for a post office which he wished to name Harkinsville. However, the US Postmaster General disapproved that name and Shopes was chosen instead, with Mr. O’Kelley becoming the first postmaster on August 8, 1880. This office was short-lived, with the mail routed to Clemeth near the Toccoa River on March 3, 1883.

However, the people served by Shope didn’t want to give up their post office. William L. Smith applied for approval of Polk, Georgia post office in the vicinity of the former Shope station on January 1, 1882. You will recall that this was the second time the name Polk was approved as a Union County post office. The first was named by postmaster John Butt on February 20, 1884 and changed to Choestoe on September 25, 1881. Evidently Polk had been out of disuse as a post office name in the county long enough to be reactivated in a new location. Some of the people who served Polk were Mr. Smith, James H. Shope (rescinded), Mr. Smith (second time), James H. Cavender, Mary A. Cavender, and Samuel Dixon. The last location of Polk was at Mr. Dixon’s homeplace at present-day Dixon Branch a mile south of Mulky Gap. When this Polk post office closed September 7, 1887, the mail was routed to the Coosa post office.

Joe Lunsford applied for a post office which he wanted to name Mist on April 5, 1903. Mist was not approved as a name and Seabolt was designated. This post office served about 300 people in the area of today’s Cooper’s Creek bridge. Seabolt, too, was short-lived, closing on October 31, 1907 with the mail going to Suches. Seabolt was reopened in 1922 with Frank Seabolt as post master and continued for two years when it was closed in 1924. At that closure, Seabolt’s mail was routed through the Baxter post office.

Baxter was the forty-fifth post office established in Union County. Its founding date was June 16, 1900. David M. Jarrard was the first postmaster. It is believed that the wholesale groceryman, John Cannon, persuaded Mr. Jarrard to apply for a post office permit, and at the same site he would operate a grocery store for the community. Baxter post office was located near a sawmill and grist mill on the Toccoa River. David Jarrard and his wife Essie operated the Baxter post office until they moved to Texas in 1901. The Jarrards were followed by James H. Cavender who served from 1901 through 1903. His sister, Mary Ann Cavender, who got her start in post office work at Polk at Mulky Gap, followed her brother and served as postmaster for thirty-two years. Baxter’s next postmaster was Mary Ann’s sister, Nellie Cavender Grizzle who began work in 1935 and served until her death. Then Mrs. Lillie Gurley was postmaster from January 26, 1944 until the post office was closed April 15, 1953 and the mail routed to Gaddistown. She moved the post office into her home about a mile from the former location of Baxter.

For forty-four years Baxter served its constituents and was a gathering place for those who enjoyed trips to the post office to visit with the postmasters and hear the latest news of the day. The last location of the Baxter post office, in an annex of Mrs. Gurley’s house, was still standing in 1994.

Clemeth post office in the Cooper’s Creek district was approved in 1881 and closed out in 1887. The name was from the first postmaster, Clemeth Cavender. In the short six years of its existence, Clemeth had its founder and the following postmasters: Andrew Campbell, James Cavender, William Jones, William A. Jones (was this the same person?), William F. Cavender and James A. Cavender (for the second time). Gaddistown became the recipient of the mail when Clemeth closed. It is interesting to note that in the application, Clemeth Cavender noted that the location on the Toccoa River was thirteen miles from Blairsville, nineteen miles from Dahlonega, forty-eight miles from Gainesville, and 100 miles from Atlanta. The community of Clemeth had a population of “about 200,” a grist mill and saw mill, a general merchandise store, a school and Baptist and Methodist churches.

Sarah post office began in May, 1899 with John Marr as first postmaster. He was followed by his daughter, Fannie Marr Jarrard , then Marr’s son-in-law, James Jarrard. John Marr and Jim Jarrard also operated a grocery store, one in the “John Cannon” chain of stores. This post office was near Mt. Airy Church on Cooper Gap Road. Sarah operated until May 31, 1955, fifty-six years. The mail was routed through Suches.

Natal began in June, 1901 on the headwaters of Cooper Creek two miles west of Wolf Pen Gap. G. W. Gaddis was the postmaster for almost two months. Others serving at Natal were William P. McGee, Emanuel Burnett, Mrs. Lizzie Burnett, and Miss Mollie Jarrard. Natal closed after thirty-five years of operation and the mail was routed through Suches.

Pilot post office, named after Pilot Mountain and the copperhead snakes called “pilots” prevalent there, opened in December, 1911 with the Reverend William Henry Washington Gurley as applicant. He opened the office in his store, but it was his daughter Mary Gurley who was first postmaster. Operation stayed in the Gurley family, with another daughter, Vennie Gurley Hendrix, serving for eight months, and Ethel Akins Gurley for four years. These were followed by Dollie Grizzle, John F. Seabolt, Dollie Grizzle (for the second time), and Mrs. Bertha Tritt. Pilot closed after twenty-one years and the mail was routed through Suches. These post offices in the Suches area made it easier for residents to have a connection to the world outside their mountain stronghold.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published May 12, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

What We Learn From Early Post Offices

Even though we live in an age of electronic communication and e-mail is the mode of today’s exchange of letters, there still is a fascination about receiving mail by post. If you have a post office box and go there to check your mail, no doubt you spend time to greet someone in the lobby or in the parking lot. You exchange pleasantries, news of the day, and talk of the world situation, politics or the weather (none of which we can change much by talk alone).

If the mail is delivered to your home address and you are there near the time for the postman to come, you begin to watch the clock. If you are away at work when the postman arrives at your address, you most assuredly will check your box soon after arriving home. We may deplore the excesses of “junk” mail. We could wish our bills were not so prompt in delivery. But still there is the fascination for the mail. And so has it been through many a day of mountain mists.

In the last column we sought to locate where Polk, Union County might have been. Noting that the post office name changed from Polk, founded in 1844 to Choestoe in 1851, we listed the known postmasters until the Choestoe post office closed in 1938.

Other complications are noted about Polk as a post office. In the old Coopers Creek District were five post offices: Baxter, Clemeth, Polk, Seabolt and Shopes.

William L. Smith made application for a post office to be named Polk, Georgia on December 23, 1891. It was approved January 11, 1892 and Mr. Smith was the first postmaster. Evidently the authorities at the U. S. Postal Services considered that enough time had elapsed since September 25, 1851 when Joseph F. England “across the mountain” had requested that the Polk office there be changed to Choestoe. That was, after all, forty years in the past.

Polk post office opened in the Coopers Creek District. James H. Shope was appointed second postmaster at Polk on October 15, 1892, but his appointment was soon rescinded. Smith resumed the duties until James H. Cavender was appointed on April 14, 1893. Next was his sister, Mary A. Cavender, who began as postmaster on March 30, 1894. Samuel A. Dixon began duties on April 2, 1895. Polk, Georgia post office was discontinued on October 7, 1897. This Polk location for the U. S. mails lasted almost five years. When the last postmaster had the charge, it was located at his home on Dixon Branch, a mile south of Mulky Gap. When Polk was closed, the mail was routed to the Coosa post office, which closed March 15, 1907.

Baxter post office had an interesting history. It was the forty-fifth post office to be established in Union County. Dates of appointment and postmasters were: David M. Jarrard, June 16, 1900; James H. Cavender, April 15, 1901; Mary Ann Cavender (James’ sister), February 20, 1903; Nellie Cavender Grizzle (sister to James and Mary Ann), January 17, 1935; Mrs. Lillie Gurley moved the post office to her home January 26, 1944 and served until the office was discontinued April 15, 1953. Two of the postmasters served until their deaths: Ms. Mary Ann Cavender and Ms. Nellie Cavender Grizzle.

Clemeth post office in Coopers Creek District was opened June 21, 1880, with Clemeth Cavender the first postmaster. The office had the given name of its first postmaster. It had a short life until April 26, 1887, two months shy of seven years. Yet in that seven year period, there were seven postmaster appointments, some serving twice: Clemeth Cavender, Andrew B. Campbell, James A. Cavender, William Jones, William A. Jones, William F. Cavender and James A. Cavender.

Seabolt post office was located in the Coopers Creek District. The initial application asked for the name Mist, due to the mist from the waterfalls near Coopers Creek Bridge as well as the many morning fogs that left mist like a veil over the valley. The application was approved on May 25, 1903 but not the name Mist. Instead, Seabolt was the assigned name. Seabolt was designated in honor of the first settlers to the area. It lasted the first time until October 31, 1907 when it was discontinued and the mail routed through Suches. However, Seabolt was reopened July 22, 1922 by James Frank Seabolt and operated until July 31. 1924 and the mail routed to Baxter, GA.

The last of the five post offices in the Cooper Creek District was named Shope. The application requested Harkinsville as the name, but instead the U. S. Postmaster General chose Shope after early settlers. Opened August 8, 1880 with Charles W. O’Kelley as postmaster, he served until the office closed March 2, 1883 and the mail was routed to Clemeth.

Applications for new post office charters had to give approximate number of families that would be served by the office, the names of some citizens in the community, and occupations. Even being in close proximity to those the office served, postmasters could not always guarantee delivery for they depended on mail to arrive at their office by a carrier on horseback. The Pony Express of the west had a kindred tie to the station-to-station carriers of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Through rain, flood, snow, sleet or sun’s burning rays, they sought to do their jobs and get the mail on its way.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 31, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Arthur Woody, Forest Ranger Extraordinary

Ranger Arthur Woody
From sketch by artist Mary Beth Stager

Woody was an appropriate last name for this pioneer in Georgia forestry, for he loved the virgin forests, the undulating hills that surrounded the Woody family cabin, the sparkling mountain streams, the cry of whippoorwills and other birds, and the passing seasons that painted his domicile with variegated landscapes.

Legend holds that he saw his father shoot the last white-tail deer in the forest at a time when there were no laws in these mountains to protect them. He resolved then that when he grew up he would do whatever it took to bring the deer back to the forests and to prevent their extinction from over-hunting.

William Arthur Woody was born April 1, 1884 in a log cabin in Suches, Union County, Georgia. His parents were Abraham Lincoln Woody and Eliza Ingram Woody. His great grandparents were Jonathan Wesley Woody and Axey Seabolt Woody. He assisted his father on their farm and with their herds of cattle that roamed unhampered and pastured in the mountains. At time to sell them, he and his father would drive the cattle to market in Atlanta, a trip that took at least ten days. He learned early to work hard, to persevere, to set goals and strive toward them.

Arthur Woody’s early education was in the small one-room school near his home in Suches. At about age sixteen, he entered North Georgia College, Dahlonega, an institution his great grandfather had assisted in founding. But academic life was not for the outdoors-loving Woody. After a year of study there, he returned to Suches and continued to help on the farm and with cattle drives.

He married Nancy Emma Abercrombie whom he affectionately called “June.” She was from a third-generation Suches family. To them were born three children: Walter W. Woody (July 13, 1902); Clyne Edward Woody (April 30, 1905); and Mae Woody (July 15, 1907). The sons followed in their father’s footsteps and became foresters. Mae became a teacher.

He began his career with the U. S. Forest Service on October 1, 1912 as an axeman on a baseline crew. He gained valuable knowledge on forest fire control.

He soon advanced to surveyor for lands acquired by the forest service. On May 1, 1915 he was sworn in as a forest guard with the assignment of protection of forestry lands from fire, trespassers and poachers. On July 1, 1918 he became the first official Forest Ranger of Georgia, and among the first in the nation. His area was the Blue Ridge District that later became the Chattahoochee National Forest.

On the test to become a ranger, Woody was questioned on basics of life in the forest which he had mastered since youth. Among them were saddling and riding a horse, building a campfire with only flint and sticks, tying certain knots in rope, skills with which he was familiar as a man of the mountains.

To fulfill his promise to restock the mountains with deer, he first rescued three male deer left behind by a traveling circus from Wisconsin. Then he bought five fawn with his own money from the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. He named them Nimble, Bessie, Billy, Nancy and Bunnie-Girl. He fed them with a bottle and they became pets. When they were strong enough to make it on their own, he released them to the forest. He added more deer to the herd, carefully protecting them from hunters.

To deter hunters, Woody discovered a large bear track, perfectly formed. He made a plaster cast of it and used it to make ominous bear tracks near his deer preserve to discourage poachers. By 1941, the deer population had grown to about 2,000.

His next conservation effort was to restock the mountain streams with rainbow and speckled trout. These he had shipped into the Gainesville train depot from Denver, Colorado, the first shipment arriving in 1918. Clyne Woody recalled that he and his father met the train and hauled the barrels of fish by truck to the foot of the mountain and from there by wagon across Grassy Gap. Woody, his sons and others hand-distributed the fish to the cold mountain streams. He also ordered shipments from Washington State.

During President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps was founded to give young unemployed men a job and to provide income for needy families. During this “New Deal” period, Ranger Woody used many of the young men to build roads, string telephone lines, and protect the forests from fires.

Building dams on streams was another work of the CCC boys. At Dockery Lake near Suches, Woody, tiring of government bureaucracy, drew up specifications himself and had the dam built. When the engineers came they adamantly said the dam would not hold and had two more erected downstream. The first flood following hard rains washed away the two government-order dams, but the one Woody had erected using his own natural skills as an engineer held firm.

“Do what needs to be done and get permission later,” was his mode of operation.

He was known for his humor and philosophizing. When the road from Stone Pile Gap to Suches was being paved, Woody took some of the gravel and had it assayed for gold content and discovered that it yielded $30 of gold per ton. Asked why he allowed the gold-laden gravel to be used, his wry comment was, “Wal, I wanted at least one government road in this county to be worth what it cost.”

Trying to cheer up a friend who was down, Woody used the mountains as metaphor: “These mountains must be a little human. They go through periods of being dark and cold, and it looks like night will never end. But I’ve been watching it for nigh onto 60 years and it always does.”

He once tore up a lien against property when a mountain farmer died still owing Woody money. Asked by his wife why he did that, he told her to tell the widow when she came inquiring that the debt had been settled before the farmer died.

Woody Gap School stands as a monument to Ranger Arthur Woody. Situated on land donated by Woody, built of stone from his quarry, and lumber sawed at his sawmill, the school has operated since 1941, an isolated school with excellence in education its goal.

The tall man among tall timbers died June 10, 1946. He had been instrumental in building the new Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church sanctuary, as he said, to have a place big enough for his funeral. But that summer day, the crowd of over 1,500 attending his service could not begin to find seating in the church building he loved. By his request, he was laid to rest in the church cemetery, facing Black Mountain, so that “on the resurrection morning he could rise up and see if his forests had been properly preserved.”

Sosebee Cove on the road between Vogel State Park and Suches is a memorial to William Arthur Woody. He negotiated the sale of 178 acres from F. Alonzo Sosebee on February 16, 1925 and it became a part of his Blue Ridge Ranger District and the Chattahoochee National Forest. Within the confines of this preservation are numerous trees that make the spot a botanist’s dream.

Today we enjoy the benefits of forest preserves because Ranger Woody cared enough to begin early efforts in Georgia to save them for posterity. Only their continuous preservation will remain a fitting and ongoing tribute to the “bare-foot,’ untraditional forester, W. Arthur Woody, forest ranger extraordinary.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 3, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Continuing the History of Education in Union County (Part 2)

With school beginning for the 2004-2005 school term, it seems appropriate to review some of the history of education in Union County over the 172-year period since the county was formed in 1832. Last week’s column brought us roughly to 1916 when Mr. M. L. Duggan, Rural School Agent for Georgia, visited the county and submitted a lengthy report with recommendations for improvements for the school system of the county.

Mr. Duggan began his report by giving information about the county: “The taxable value of the county, as returned for 1916, totals $1,003,879.00, of which about one-third is owned by non-residents. Most of this non-resident property consists in large tracts of original forests held by foreign corporations. The United States Government also has acquired a considerable area for the Appalachian Forestry Reservation.”

Population in the county in 1916 was reported as 6,918. Of that number, 2,114 were white school children and 19 were Negro school children. Mr. Duggan commented that “the mountain slopes are covered in hardwood timber, and abound in mineral wealth.”

He noted the “water power that goes wasting everywhere.” Cattle and hogs abounded and the valley soil was fertile. Apple trees grew to large size and produced immense crops of finest fruit with a minimum of care. He lamented that few of the rich resources of the county had been tapped, and that no railroad “touched the county” for easy transport of products to market. “The one greatest need of the county is first-class public highways,” he wrote. “Good roads will facilitate consolidation of the schools and in many ways bring prosperity that will enable the people to support their public schools more liberally. Good roads and good schools always go together, and neither will much precede the other,” he concluded.

He made no mention of the fact that people in the southern portion of the county still hauled their farm produce in covered wagons drawn by mule teams over the Logan Turnpike through Cleveland, Georgia to markets in Gainesville for sale and barter for needed goods not grown on their mountain farms. Those trips took two days going southward, one day for trading, and two days for the return trip.

Those in the northwestern part of the county likewise hauled their goods by mule team but went to the train stations at Culberson or Murphy, NC, or perhaps to Blue Ridge or Mineral Bluff, GA. It was not until 1925 that Neal Gap opened and the first paved road over the mountain to Blairsville was available for the few motorized vehicles available.

The 1916 report on education revealed 43 public common schools (for white students) in the county, and one high school at the county seat in Blairsville, partly supported by the State Baptist Mission Board. This was the Blairsville Collegiate Institute [the subject of previous columns], founded in 1904, and jointly supported by Notla River Baptist Association, the Georgia Baptist Convention, and the Home Mission Board. This boarding school operated from 1904 through 1930, when properties were deeded to the Union County Board of Education and the public high school opened in the fall of 1930. Tuition and board were charged, but students also had opportunities for work-study programs.

Mr. Duggan stated that the “common schools” were located too close together, some just a mile and a half apart and seldom more than three miles, and that there seemed to be no delineation of school districts. The County School Superintendent, T. E. Patterson, was paid “the minimum wage allowed by law,” and could not be expected to do much supervision, receiving such small remuneration for his services. Besides the superintendent, elected members of the Board of Education in 1916 were A. T. Sullivan, chairman; Bart Swanson, Norman Allison, James Seabolt and C. E. Rich.

Mr. Duggan’s report indicated that “teacher elections” were held by patrons in the various school districts. These appointments of teachers, evidently not necessarily approved by the County Board of Education, “degenerated into political contests, and have worked serious injury to the schools.” He recommended standard opening and closings of schools. Much of his survey was done in August of 1916, the month he was told that “most of the schools would be open.” However, he found that many communities were also having “protracted meetings” at the churches—with buildings used also as school houses---and that school could not go on simultaneously with revival meetings. In his third recommendation about schools, Mr. Duggan stated that a uniform opening of schools should occur, and that “the school term should not conflict with the protracted meeting season.”

Item 5 in Mr. Duggan’s recommendations urged “the citizens of the county to vote a local school tax of two or three mills for the further improvement of their schools. “Their children are worth it.” He further noted, “Much of this (tax) burden would fall upon non-resident property owners who will willingly bear it. The entire county would benefit greatly.”

In assessing Mr. Duggan’s report and recommendations, I thought how the millage has increased through the years, but how “non-residents” still bear a portion of the “burden” of taxes and “willingly bear it” for the privilege of owning mountain property within the confines of Union County. Certainly the county schools and students have benefited from this upward progress for education.

Consolidation was a strong word used by Mr. Duggan. He thanked the School Board, the Superintendent, and the Grand Jury for complete cooperation in his August, September and October, 1916 survey of the schools in the county. We can almost imagine his progress through each district of the county as he visited the 43 scattered schools, and as he was present at the court house in each of the three monthly meetings of the Board of Education to hear their plans and to present his findings. Knowing the scarcity of roads and of vehicles in which to travel in 1916, Mr. Duggan probably went from place to place by horseback—or perhaps by horse and buggy. He found lodging in the homes of patrons within each school community. He wrote, “Every encouragement and facility was cordially offered me in making a very thorough educational survey, and there is strong and growing sentiment all over the county for better schools. The Grand Jury strongly endorses any serious effort to that end, and the county Board of Education is awake to the situation. The county is ripe for educational progress, and we confidently predict immediate and rapid improvement in the system and in the schools.”

[Next week: A look at recommendations and problems of consolidation.]

c2004 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published August 12, 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.