Some Nix connections (part 1 in a Series on the Nix Family of Union County, GA and surrounding counties)

In tracing Nix family lines, we find that the last name was spelled Nicks, Knix and Nix (our present day spelling). The origin seems to be from the old English surname Nichollas, Nicoles, and Nichols, meaning "victory of the people." In the United States, the surnames Nixon and Nickson (both meaning "son of Nick" and "victory of the people") was eventually shortened to Nix by some branches of the family.

William Nix was born about 1788 in South Carolina. His parents were John and Sarah Nix. In Franklin County, Georgia, on September 3, 1809, William Nix married Susannah Stonecypher, a daughter of John Henry, Jr. and Nancy Curtis Stonecypher. Susannah's father fought in the American Revolution.

William and Susannah Nix lived in Franklin County, Georgia for a while after their marriage. In 1822 they bought land in Habersham County, When White County was formed, some of the land holdings of William Nix were incorporated into the new county. They made their home near present-day Tesnatee Baptist Church. In the 1860 census of White County, William Nix's worth was listed at $3,000. The Nix cabin was still standing as late as 1990. Known for their hospitality, it has been said that William "Grancer" and Susannah Stonecypher Nix never turned anyone away from their home. They were buried in the Nix Family Cemetery a little south of the old homeplace. In 1985, grave markers were erected by a descendant, Wanda West Gregory.

Of the eleven children born to William and Susannah Nix, four of them married persons with Union County, Georgia roots, and settled here. James Nix married (1) Elizabeth Collins, daughter of Thompson and Celia Self Collins; (2) Carolina Duckworth, daughter of David and Mary Williamson Duckworth; and (3) Rebecca Evaline Duckworth, a sister of Carolina. Mary Nix, known as Polly, married Archibald Collins. Ruthia Nix married Francis Collins. Malinda Nix married William Jesse Souther.

Let us trace first some of the descendants of James Nix, who more often than not was listed as Jimmy Nix. The second-born child of eleven born to William and Susannah Nix, he made his appearance into the world in Franklin County, Georgia in July of 1812 in the farmhouse owned by his parents on Eastanollee Creek. When he was about ten years of age, his family moved to Habersham County. It was there he met and married Elizabeth Collins, lovingly called "Betsy" by her family and by her husband, Jimmy Nix.

She was born in North Carolina on August 24, 1814. She was nineteen when they married on March 12, 1834. To Jimmy and Betsy were born fifteen children as follows: William (1836), Susannah (1837), Thompson (1838), John (1840, died in the Civil War at Sharpsburg, Maryland in 1862), Archibald Carr (1842), Isabella (1844 - twin), James Bly (1844 - twin), Jeffrie (1846), Jasper (known as "Grancer," 1847 - twin), Newton (1847 - twin, died at age 15 in the Civil War in Virginia), Thomas Jefferson (1848 - enlisted in Civil War at age 13), Ivan (1849), Benjamin Stonecypher (1851), Celia (1852), and Sarah, known as "Sally" (1854).

At the young age of 45, after bearing fifteen children and looking after them diligently, Elizabeth Collins Nix died in 1859. She was buried in the Old Choestoe Cemetery.

Jimmy Nix began to look for a good woman who could help him with his many children. He found her in Carolina Elizabeth Duckworth (b. 1815), daughter of David and Mary Williamson Duckworth. They were wed on January 3, 1863 after the Civil War was well under way. Four children were born to this union. Mary Evaline (10-23-1863), Nancy (1864), Buddy (1865), and Sophronia Jane (1867).

Jimmy Nix enlisted in the Georgia State Militia, Company 2, on December 14, 1863, and apparently served with the Militia until the end of the Civil War. The cause of his second wife's death is not known, but she died before the 1870 census.

For his third wife, James "Grancer" Nix courted and married a younger sister of his second wife. Her name was Rebecca Evaline Duckworth (b. 1828). The Duckworth sisters were born in North Carolina near the headwaters of the French Broad River in Henderson County. Their parents migrated to Union County and became prominent early settlers there. Jimmy and Rebecca had one child, stillborn, who was not named.

He and his third wife had ten years together before his death on October 2, 1882. She lived to be 86 and died June 14, 1914. Both were buried in the Old Choestoe Cemetery.

Readers might like to keep this column for reference. Future columns will expand on names of some of the children and grandchildren, descendants of James "Grancer" Nix. There are more stories to tell of these hardy early settlers.

c 2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. Published July 26, 2007 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

The Farm Reece remembered

"I know a valley green with corn
Where Nottley's waters roil and run
From the deep hills where first at morn
It takes the color of the sun."

So read the first four lines of Union County Byron Herbert Reece's poem entitled, "I Know a Valley Green with Corn."

In the summertime he 'laid by' his crop of corn along Wolf Creek in Choestoe. As he toiled by day, the rhythm of the cultivator plowing through the corn rows produced the lyrical cadences of poems which he set down by pen at night when most farmers in his valley were resting.

But "I know a valley green with corn" came as a remembrance, with nostalgia and homesickness. The poet was (as he indicates) "three thousand miles away" from his beloved valley "green with corn" when he penned these lines.

He left his home beside US Highway 129 near Vogel State Park on June 14, 1950. It took him almost as long to get to the Atlanta airport and board a plane as the flight across country to the University of California at Los Angeles. There he taught classes, met with literary groups, and faced criticism that he was a poseur. "Many people in the artificial circles where he read his poetry, after hearing one of his exquisitely executed lyrics, could not accept the authenticity of the man standing before them. Surely he must be cultivating the appearance of an unpolished mountain farmer who was trying to gain notoriety and publicity by posing as a 'primitive.'" (in Raymond A. Cook, Mountain Singer. Atlanta, Cherokee Publishers, 1980, page 70).

He wrote a friend that he felt he was "Exhibit A" from "the primitive mountains of Georgia." The academicians could not accept that he wrote with such perception and lyricism without having earned several degrees from prestigious colleges. It was from his apartment on Veteran Avenue in Los Angeles that he thought about the Wolf Creek farm and longed to be there, where "Nottley's waters roil and run."

Now the farm which was once "green with corn" is being turned into the Byron Herbert Reece Memorial and Appalachian Cultural Center. As progress is made on the project undertaken by the four-year old Byron Herbert Reece Society, work is moving forward to save the land, the barns, and Reece's dwelling house which will become the Visitor's Center of the complex.

Interactive programs for children will help them understand how an early twentieth century mountain farm operated. Educational displays will show the life and times of Byron Herbert Reece. When the plaza is built, some of his poems will be engraved at each of the cardinal points. An amphitheater is on the drawing board. It will be at the north end of the property at the bend of Wolf Creek. It will be available for outdoor dramas, poetry readings and programs.

Union County had a genius among us as Reece farmed the land and spent what few hours he had from hard labor writing lyrical poems, ballads, sonnets and novels. Kenneth Rockwell writing in the Dallas Daily Times in 1950 stated: "There is no doubt that Byron Herbert Reece is one of the important younger writers in America." (Cook, p. 72). In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of July 16, 1950, a reviewer wrote: "Anything that Byron Herbert Reece, Georgia's hill country bard, turns his hand to is done with vigor and thoroughness. This is true whether he is plowing a furrow on his farm in the Choestoe district or writing a ballad or a novel." (Cook, p. 72).

In this ninetieth year since Poet Reece's birth, the Society named for him is working hard to build the Cultural Center, to create lesson plans and make persons available for the "Reece in the Schools" project, to record oral histories from those who knew Reece personally during his life; and to have programs that will give insight and understanding about the "poet genius of the mountains." You may go online at http://www.byronherbertreece.org to find out how to join and to read more about the cultural center. We in the Society would like to have readers of this column as members. Your membership can make a difference as we work together to make known the rich legacy of this mountain poet.

Young Harris College and the Georgia Center for the Book/Georgia Humanities Council are the presenting sponsors joining many other supporters to honor Reece this fall at 2007 Georgia Literary Festival. Featured writers will be Philip Lee Williams of Athens, Helen Lewis of Morganton, and Bettie Sellers of Young Harris. Cathy Cox, former Georgia Secretary of State and President of Young Harris, will be the keynote speaker. Many other Georgia writers with ties to the mountains will be Honored Participants. The Festival will be held in Blue Ridge September 28-30. For more information, see http://www.georgialiteraryfestival.org.

c 2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published July 19, 2007 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Dyer-Souther Reunion

Saturday, July 14, 2007 marks the date for the annual Dyer-Souther Heritage Association Reunion. Choestoe Baptist Church's Family Life Center will be a-buzz with people, beginning with registration at 11:00 a. m. A bounteous covered dish meal will be enjoyed at noon. The reunion program will begin at 1:00 p. m.

If telephone calls and e-mails are an indication, many new "kin" who are just now finding out about the wonderful reunion are planning to be first-time attendees. My excitement begins to grow weeks before the event.

The reunion honors early settlers to the Choestoe Valley who began coming into the county about the time Union County was formed from the large Cherokee territory. Elisha Dyer, Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth Clark Dyer, and several of their children came from Pendleton District, South Carolina by way of Habersham County where they remained awhile, and then moved on across the mountain to Choestoe, "place where rabbits dance."

The Souther early settlers migrated from the vicinity of Old Fort, NC a few years later, about 1835, with John and Mary Combs Souther settling in the vicinity of present-day New Liberty Baptist Church. Altogether, five Souther siblings had settled in the area by 1850. These were John, Jesse William, Jr., Joseph, Hicks (or Hix), and Kizziah Souther Humphries. Jesse established a mill, with assistance from his brothers John and Joseph. The mill opened in 1848 and ground corn for meal and grains to bolt flour. A sawmill was operated on the site using the water power provided by a head of water passed through a chute to operate the turbines. The grist mill operated for 90 years.

Another family, in the valley by 1832, was Thompson Collins and Celia Self Collins. Her father, Job Self, also settled in Choestoe. Claiming other homesteads were the John and Elizabeth Hunter family. Daniel England married Elizabeth, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Hunter. The oldest house in the county still standing is the Hunter-England cabin, now in bad repair, which can be seen just off Highway 129/19 in the Choestoe District. There were other families: Nix, Jackson, Duckworth, Spiva, Henson, Vandiver, Brown, Townsend, Turner, Reece and more. By the time marriages were performed from one family to another, there soon came a rich fabric of kinship.

Saturday, present for the first time, will be Dan Smith of Raleigh, NC. He descends from Rhoda Lucinda Souther who married John Floyd Edward Vandiver. Dan is a musician. He will sing and will also lead reunion attendees in singing an old, old song.

On April 13, 1868 at New Liberty Baptist Church, Nancy Collins Souther, wife of John Combs Hayes Souther and daughter of Thompson and Celia Self Collins, sat writing the words of a song as the song "heister" lined them out to the congregation. In her own handwriting, these words have been preserved. Set to the tune of "The Good Old Way" found in Southern Harmony # 156, Dan Smith will lead reunion attendees in singing this old church song on Saturday. It is entitled "Come All Ye Righteous Here Below." Nancy Souther wrote nine stanzas of the song. Here are three:

"Come all ye righteous here below,
Oh, Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
Let nothing prove your overthrow,
Oh Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
Chorus:
But call on me both day and night,
Oh Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
And I'll visit you with delight,
Sing glory ha-le-lu-jah!
When the day of judgment doth draw nigh,
Oh Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
Poor sinners will lament and cry,
Oh Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
For the earnest deeds that they have done,
Oh, Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
They will repent in time to come,
Oh, Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!

A solemn memorial service will honor those who have moved from this life to the next- a large number since the last reunion.

We will gladly welcome familiar faces, those who return to their roots year after year. We will help those who come for the first time to feel welcome through connections that have been made since July, 2007. And if you would like to come, too, and see what's up with this large family, you will find a warm reception.

In 1989 my cousin, the late Watson B. Dyer, nominated me to take his place as family historian. Without even asking me if I would accept the job, I was suddenly plunged into a task I didn't anticipate. But one of the great pleasures of my life since then has been contacting people throughout America to help them find their roots. I don't always succeed in giving them the right links, but I've made many new friends and have more "cousins" than I thought possible. The Russian writer in his famous novel, Anna Kerenina, wrote: "All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." We're one big happy family and that's a good way to be.

c2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published July 12, 2007 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved

Our Level of Patriotism

Webster's dictionary defines patriotism as "love for or devotion to one's country." Consider the phrase, "love for." What one loves, one respects. Have we today departed from President John F. Kennedy's plea? "Think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

What is our level of patriotism? How much do we love America? Are we, its citizens, among those who are most critical of its present policies? Are we looking for what our country can do for us?

The Fourth of July is a good time to renew our love for and devotion to country.

Does seeing Old Glory flutter in the breeze send a message to your mind of the freedoms that have been won dearly and which we enjoy today? Let us take a little journey back into history. Maybe we can refresh our patriotism and determine to be more loyal to a country that gives us "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The Fourth of July is observed as the official birthday of our country. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence became the document whereby the colonies declared their separation from England. It was not as simple as signing the document penned mainly by Thomas Jefferson and subscribed to by the other four members of the committee. The Continental Congress debated lines, changed statements. Jefferson, the youngest of the delegates to the Congress at age 32 had to return to his desk and revise the document according to strong suggestions made. The revision was approved on July 4, 1776.

Prior to adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the Colonies were already at war with Britain, fighting for their rights. Militia units throughout the colonies were building up supplies and arms against encroachments by British soldiers. How well do we remember the cries of "taxation without representation" and the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773 when "every chest from the three vessels was knocked to pieces."

There followed what the colonists declared as "The Intolerabe Acts," five laws passed by the British Parliament against the "rebellious" colonists. Each stricture by Britain, and the build up of the Red Coat Army on colonial soil sent strong ripples of dissent throughout the colonies.

Tories were the party in the colonies that supported British rule; patriots were forming their own local militia to oppose the British.

Patrick Henry, one of the patriots, spoke in the Virginia legislature on March 23, 1775 supporting the resolution that the colony be immediately put in a state of defense and begin to assemble arms and men to do battle. Henry's impassioned speech ended with these words: "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

We recall the poem by William Wadsworth Longfellow that made famous the "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" and the sign in the old North Church of lanterns lighted to alert the militia of the British approach: "one if by land, two if by sea." That date in history was April 18, 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence.

The very next day, April 19, 1975, British troops were marching toward Concord, Massachusetts. At Lexington, the local militia beat their drums and fired their guns, providing a brief and unexpected interruption for the advancing British. At that confrontation, eight of the militia were killed and ten wounded.

The British troops continued their march toward Concord and it was there, on April 20, 1775, that the famous "shot heard 'round the world" was fired. The militia had been instructed not to fire unless fired upon. Because of the brave fighting of the Americans, the British retreated from Concord.

Militia throughout the colonies were on alert, building their supplies and recruits. It was on June 15, 1775 that George Washington was chosen by the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia to become Commander-in-Chief of the American armies. He had an almost impossible task both in communication and action to bring the scattered militia into a semblance of a united American force. They suffered terribly from the elements, lack of provisions, desertion. The terrible winter at Valley Forge is an example of utter hardship.

On June 17, 1775, the famous Battle of Bunker Hill took place. American General Israel Putnam had cautioned his men, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." The British far outnumbered the American troops. But at each confrontation, the militia fought valiantly.

In January of 1776, the pamphlet entitled "Common Sense" written by Thomas Paine was widely circulated in the colonies. In it, Paine advocated separation from England, declaring that "virtue is not hereditary" and "We are not Englishmen; we are Americans." This set the stage for Virginia's Richard Henry Lee to make the statement in the meeting of the Continental Congress in June, 1776: "These United States are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." His words, almost verbatim, were included in the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, using political philosophy advocated by the seventeenth century philosopher, Englishman John Locke, and bearing the meaningful words we have come to cherish: "All men are created equal" and among their rights are "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

We know the story. Many of our ancestors took up arms against the British. America won freedom at a heavy cost in lives and fortunes. Since the surrender of British General Cornwallis at Yorktown , Virginia on October 19, 1781, America has been on the road to the liberties applauded in the Declaration of Independence. A nation, even at one time divided into North and South in a bitter conflict, has survived. It has been 231 years since the birth of our nation on July 4, 1776.

At the famed battle of Yorktown, the flag with its stars and stripes was mounted and fluttered in the breeze. Private Joseph Martin wrote: "I felt a secret pride swell in my heart when I saw the star-spangled banner waving majestically."

And so may our pride and patriotism rise for this "land of the free and the home of the brave." May we never take our blessings and privileges for granted.

c 2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published July 5, 2007 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Ivy Log as a bustling settlement

"It is evident and conceded that the center of activity of early Ivy Log was near the mouth of Ivy Log Creek. Here creaked the Casteel Mill. Here rang the iron foundry operated by R. W. Roberts and last by David Thompson prior to the Civil War. Here was Hunt and Cooley's store. Here Lovell made chairs. Here George Patterson fashioned hats from lambs' wool. Here was a school on the east side of the creek. Here is the Casteel Cemetery, numbering twenty-four graves, not far distant from the pioneer cabin site. Here on the west side is unmistakable evidence of a church--a cemetery where forty or more are sleeping that last, long sleep. Today in this vicinity all is quiet and still, save the murmur of waters, the sighing of the wind in the pines and the night bird's croon--a requiem for the slumbering pioneers awaiting the resurrection."

The above is from the pen of Union County Historian, Mr. Edward S. Mauney, written in 1948, and reproduced in the compendium entitled "Sketches of Union County History III" edited by Teddy J. Oliver and published in 1987. Mr. Mauney's history of Ivy Log is on pages 85-87 of the book. If you have a copy available to you, please read his flowing language and listing of people who made up the early census records of that north central district of Union County numbered Militia District 843.

"Here creaked the Casteel Mill," Mr. Mauney wrote. Barney Casteel not only established a mill for the convenience of settlers in Ivy Log District, but he also served as a minister of the gospel and as a "practical doctor." This designation probably indicates that he knew the value of herbs as medicinal plants and could prescribe certain treatments for common diseases. This first Casteel family migrated from East Tennessee. Mr. Mauney writes that they lived in their covered wagon under a large tree "for a season until a cabin could be hewn from the primitive forest."

Barney Casteel was listed as 63 years of age in the 1850 Union County census, and his wife, Mary, was 60 that year. His native state was Tennessee and hers was Virginia. Among their known children were James who married Minta Ellege. Robert married Nancy Simpson. Hastings married Sarah Lance. William married Emily Rabun. John G. Casteel married Rachel Byers. This couple had three children who became doctors- Dr. Lewis Casteel, Dr. William J. Casteel, and Dr. Van D. Casteel. John Casteel became a judge. The other four were Lafayette, Robert, Mary and Adelaide.

In the Ivy Log District are two Casteel Cemeteries. The one known as Casteel Cemetery No. 1 has one marked tomb with the name Ann Casteel, 1833-1861. She may be a daughter of the first settlers, Barney and Mary Casteel. Also buried in the Casteel 1 cemetery, according to Historian Mauney, are George Patterson and his wife, without marked stones, the "hatter" or milliner of Ivy Log District. Mauney states that this family lived at "the Ned Chastain place," and were the forebears of most of the Pattersons in Union County. Casteel 1 cemetery has at least fifteen unmarked graves.

An interesting story is told of the Casteel 2 Cemetery which is located south of Casteel 1 and across Ivy Log Creek from the first burying ground. None of the graves in this cemetery have stones with names. But buried apart from the graves which were of the early Casteel family and their descendants is a known grave, though unmarked. It is that of Gentry Taylor who met his death in 1876. He was killed at a moonshine still because he resisted arrest. The community, due to the circumstances of his business and his death, would not allow him to be buried in the Antioch Church Cemetery. His final resting place was at the Casteel 2 Cemetery, but distant 50 feet east of the other graves in the cemetery.

Mr. Mauney touches on moonshining as a business in his history of Ivy Log: "From many a sheltered nook on the tiny streams rose wisps of smoke that gave evidence of the pioneers brewing their own spirits without fear of God or man, in the days when it was not considered a sin. But they were rigid in their belief of honesty. One patriarch [was] "churched" for taking whiskey from his own "stillhouse" that belonged to someone else" (p. 87).

Space precludes telling of other early settlers, but family names passed to the present generations show that many hardy settlers had children in subsequent generations that made this mountain district and other parts of Union County their permanent home.

For example, there was Robert B. Conley and his wife Susan Kincaid Conley who migrated from Clear Creek in Buncombe County, NC to the Chester District of South Carolina and then to Ivy Log. But tragedy came to them on the move from South Carolina. Their young son, John Lawrence Conley, age two, died at the Tugaloo River at the South Carolina line. They brought the little corpse on into Georgia and buried him at the first cemetery they found on their route within Union County, Old Choestoe. This family lost another son, Elisha, in the Battle of Chickamauga during the Civil War.

Solomon Chapman and his wife, Adeline Odom Chapman were early Ivy Log settlers from Wilkes County, NC. Reece Creek in Ivy Log was named for early settler John Reece. And the list goes on.

Mauney ends his Ivy Log history with these pensive words: "Today the crude wheels and the distaffs are still. The hands that turned them are mouldered to clay. Today there is a new generation - their descendants - living in a bustling world of modernization." He wrote that in 1948. What would he say today? Housing developments extend even to tops of high hills and roads are busy with traffic all hours of the day and night. Small farms have virtually disappeared but some corporate farms are master producers of the products they specialize in. And, dotted here and there throughout the district are spires of churches with modern buildings, begun as log cabin places of worship by the early settlers. The one-room school houses are no more, long since consolidated into the modern graded school complexes at the county seat of Blairsville. Someone aptly wrote: "The only thing certain is change."

c 2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published June 28, 2007 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Sheriff Charles Leonedas Hill

The Civil War had been over a little more than a year when young Charles Leonedas Hill decided to run for sheriff of Union County, Georgia. He and his family lived in Ivy Log, a district in the county bordering on the North Carolina line.

The Hill family had moved from Cherokee County, North Carolina in the 1860's during the war years. Charles's parents were Felix Walker Hill (08-07-1806 - 08-24-1883) and Elizabeth Cooper Hill (10-29-1811 - 11-15-1896). Three of Charles's brothers served with distinction in the Civil War. They were Napoleon Bonaparte Hill, Abel Hill and Noah Hill. They had all enlisted in Company A, 29th Regiment of the North Carolina Infantry, Confederate States of America. Napoleon became a Second Lieutenant, and later, when the unit reorganized as Company H, he advanced to Major.

But this story is not about the war, or Charles Hill's brothers. Their stories can wait for another time. Felix W. Hill and his wife Elizabeth and their family had established a farm along Reece Creek in Ivy Log, Union County, Georgia. In addition to being a farmer, Felix Hill had been a traveling peddler where the family had lived in South and North Carolina before moving to Georgia. Whether the elder Hill continued this trade route in Union County is unknown.

Charles Hill ran on the Democratic ticket and was elected sheriff of Union County in November of 1866. Evidently the first few months of his term in service passed with the ordinary duties of keeping the law.

Six months into his service, in May, 1867, an incident requiring attention came about. A certain William Campbell, who lived in a mountain cabin just over the Towns County line committed a crime in Union County. Reportedly, he robbed a poor widow of all that she had.

Since the robbery took place in Union County, and Sheriff Hill was pledged to protecting and bringing justice for Union citizens, he endeavored to find Campbell and arrest him.

Taking his deputies with him, Sheriff Hill made his way through Gum Log and to the cabin on Crane Creek in western Towns County, close by the Union County line.

The story goes that he asked his deputies to remain on the mountain, in close proximity, as the sheriff himself, unarmed and walking, approached the cabin where Campbell was living.

Evidently the sheriff intended to persuade Campbell to surrender and stand trial for the crime of theft. Reportedly, the man was accused of other thefts in the area, not just the one when he had robbed the poor widow.

But surrender was not in the mind of Will Campbell. Two stories have been told of the incident. One version is that Sheriff Hill tried to talk Campbell into surrendering, but when he did not come out of hiding, Hill took an axe from a woodpile in the yard and began to cut the door open. That is when Campbell aimed at Hill and shot him.

Another version is that Campbell himself opened the door a crack, just enough to put the barrel of his pistol in the opening and aim at the advancing sheriff.

The deputies waiting on the mountainside heard the shot and went immediately to the scene. They found Sheriff Hill with a gunshot wound to the stomach, losing blood and in great pain. They borrowed a wagon in which to haul the wounded sheriff back to his parents' home in Ivy Log. It was a torturous trip, at best, over a road not much better than a forest trail, bumpy and rough. Reports are that Sheriff Hill went in and out of consciousness. He was nursed by his parents and others, but his life ebbed out, with the bullet still in his stomach. His date of death was May 17, 1867. Born August 21, 1839, this brave young man's span of life on earth was twenty-seven years and eight months.

On his tombstone at the Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery is this inscription, declaring his faith and his hope in the resurrection from the dead: "God my redeemer lives, and ever from the skies, Looks down and watches my dust till He shall bid it rise."

William Campbell fled from the deputies after he shot the sheriff and reportedly "went west." He was never heard from again. The indictment against Campbell in Towns County stated that he "feloniously, willfully, and of his malice aforethought" shot Sheriff Charles Hill with "a certain pistol of the value of $10.00" and put "a leaden ball into the belly of" Charles L. Hill, "near the navel." The mortal wound was described as "the breadth of one inch and of the depth ten inches." From this wound, he "languished and lingering and did afterwards" die. (Quoted from "The Murder of Sheriff Charles Hill" by Roxanne Powell in "A North Georgia Journal of History, Volume II" compiled by Olin Jackson, Legacy Communications, 1991, pages 296-297).

Young, brave and daring, Sheriff Charles Leonedas Hill paid the highest price for public service: he gave his life. Later, two of his brothers would seek and win the office of high sheriff of their counties. Abel Hill was sheriff in adjoining county, Cherokee, in North Carolina from 1872-1876, and Napoleon Bonaparte Hill was sheriff in Union County, Georgia in 1876.

c 2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published June 21, 2007 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserve

Ivy Log and some of its early residents

On Saturday, June 9, I attended the fourth annual meeting of the Byron Herbert Reece Society in Young Harris. As attendees were visiting in the lobby of the Goolsby Center after registration and prior to beginning of the meeting in the Wilson Lecture Hall, a fine citizen of Union County commented on this weekly column and assured me he was a regular reader. I thanked him and told him I was glad to hear I do have readers. He gave me a little reprimand that I have dwelt so long on my home district of Choestoe without branching out to other sections of Union County. "Why not write about Ivy Log?" he asked. And to that dear gentleman, I appreciate his question, and will try in future to hop about the county to find worthy historical subjects for this column.

Look at a map of Union County and you will find the militia district of Ivy Log bordering North Carolina on the north, with Gum Log District on the east, Dooly district on the west, and Lower Young Cane on the south. I turned to my excellent ready resource, The Heritage of Union County, 1832-1994 (p. 28) to find if and when Ivy Log had post offices. These federal stations tell us much about some of the activity and people in a district from its early days.

Rock Hill post office in the Ivy Log Militia District received its grant for operation with the appointment of Joseph Patterson as first postmaster on May 21, 1838.

The first census of Union County in 1834 listed Joseph Patterson as having eight males and four females in his household. Other Patterson families, which seem to have been living adjacent to each other in 1834, were Amos Patterson (five males, two females), John Patterson (four males, three females), and George Patterson (four males, three females). According to the Patterson family articles in the county history book, John Patterson, his wife Margaret Black Patterson, and some of heir children migrated to what became Union County in 1829. Although not specifically indicated, Joseph may have been one of their sons, or maybe even a brother to John. The twins, Joseph Elijah and William Elisha Patterson, sons of William Harden Patterson and Rebecca Chastain Patterson, were born in 1871 and were too young for one to be the Joseph Patterson who founded Rock Hill post office at Ivy Log.

Rock Hill post office operated under that name and with Joseph Patterson as postmaster until October 4, 1842 when Richard W. Roberts got the contract as postmaster. He changed the name to Ivy Log and the post office went by that name until it was discontinued September 15, 1910. As Rock Hill and Ivy Log, the community gathering place, probably in a store run by its postmasters, had an operational life of 70 years, quite a long tenure for mail depositories of that era. For two years, the post office charter was not renewed, as seen in the following listing of postmasters.

William R. Utter succeeded Richard W. Roberts on May 4, 1847. He remained until the post office was discontinued at the end of his term June 27, 1866. His was the longest tenure of any of the officers.

There must have been an appeal to reestablish the office, for on June 9, 1868, William A. Cobb became postmaster. William Alfred Cobb married Charlotte Henson on May 22, 1861. This couple had nine children: Reuben Francis; John Franklin.; Rebecca Leona; Joseph Jasper; Louise Jane; James Wesley; Rufus Alexander; Elbert Lorenzo; and Harrison Taylor.

Both William A. Cobb and his wife, Charlotte Henson Cobb, were children of Revolutionary War patriots. His father was John Paul Cobb who fought with the famed "Swamp Fox," Francis Marion, at the Battle of King's Mountain, York County, NC. Charlotte's father was Daniel Henson who served in the Revolution and fought the Tories.

Before moving to Georgia about 1848, William Alfred Cobb was sheriff of Haywood County, N.C. He was also a Methodist minister. Charlotte Henson Cobb died May 23, 1861 in Union County and was buried in the New Hope Cemetery, Ivy Log. William Alfred married his second wife, Lavinia Roberts, on February 2, 1862. His second wife probably assisted Rev. Cobb with duties at the post office. When he gave up duties as Ivy Log's postmaster, he and Lavinia moved to Beaver Dam, Cherokee County, N.C., where he died August 5, 1886. He was interred at the Unaka Cemetery there.

William A. Cobb was succeeded at the Ivy Log post office by Pleasant Short, appointed postmaster April 21, 1873. The remaining postmasters and their dates of appointment were William W. Chapman, June 7, 1883; Jasper L. Owenby, March 29, 1887; Frank E. Conley, August 9, 1887; Ulysses Sidney Cobb, May 18, 1897; and Elizabeth C. Cobb, March 15, 1899. Ms. Cobb kept the office open until Ivy Log was permanently closed on September 15, 1910.

Space in this article precludes tracing family connections of these last six postmasters at Ivy Log. However, Ulysses Cobb was a grandson of William Alfred Cobb, son of Harrison Taylor Cobb. The last postmaster at Ivy Log, Elizabeth C. Cobb, was Harrison Taylor Cobb's wife, Elizabeth Caroline Neece Cobb (09-27-1845 - 10- 07-1933). She and Harrison Taylor Cobb (06-14-1846 - 05- 31-1920) were buried at the New Hope Methodist Cemetery in the Ivy Log Militia District. An interesting aside is that the oldest marked grave at the New Hope Cemetery is that of Lydia Keys Cobb (1773-1848). She was the second wife of Revolutionary War soldier John Paul Cobb and the mother of William Alfred Cobb (1809- 1886). W. A. Cobb was fourth postmaster at Ivy Log.

c 2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published June 14, 2007 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.