Descendants of Revolutionary War Soldier, Absalom Hooper, Sr. - Absalom Hooper, Jr. (Part 2 - Hooper Family)

Several children, sons and daughters, of the Revolutionary War soldier, Absalom Hooper (Sr.) were residents of Union County, Georgia by the time of the 1840 census. We saw from last week’s story that at least three of his sons settled here: Absalom, Jr., Andrew and Enas (Enos). Likewise, at least two daughters, Kissiah Hooper who married Milton Brown and Mary Hooper who married Henry Brown were also in Union. Then, as time moved on and Towns County was formed from a portion of Union in 1856, some of the Hooper landholdings were taken in as part of the new county of Towns.

Absalom Hooper, Jr. was born about 1800 to Absalom Hooper, Sr. and Sarah Sales Hooper in the Pendleton District of South Carolina, but that region was not to be their permanent home. They settled in Haywood County, North Carolina where Absalom, Jr. married Martha (called “Mattie”) Kelley.

It seems that Absalom, Jr.’s older brother, Andrew, born about 1792, led the migration of the Hooper siblings to the new and burgeoning Union County. The Fodder Creek section in what would become Towns County was the domicile of Absalom, Jr. and his family. In 1840, the census that does not give names except for the head-of-household, gave numbers in that household as one male (10 to 15), 1 male (20-30) and 1 male (40-50), Absalom himself. Females in the house numbered eight: one (under 5), three (5-10), one (10-15), two (15-20), one (40-50), Martha Kelley Hooper herself. They were reported as having one slave. With nine children at home at the time, and Absalom himself being both a farmer and a miller, the family no doubt needed the help their slave provided.

Piecing together what information we can find from the 1850 census (which was the first US census to list names of children as well as head-of-household), together with various family records, we can determine that Absalom, Jr. and Martha Kelley Hooper had eleven known children.

(1) The oldest of their children was named Thomas, possibly the 20-30-year old listed in the 1840 census. I found a marriage record for Thomas Hooper to Cynthia Rogers in the Union County marriage records. They were married February 1, 1849 by the Rev. John Corn (one of the more-noted Baptist ministers of this early period of Union County history). About six years before Towns was formed from Union, a land transaction took place in which Thomas Hooper purchased land on Fodder Creek on March 28, 1850 from William A. Brown. Thomas did not keep the land but eight years, for records show he sold it to Henry Picklesimer on January 29, 1858. I have not proven this, but because some of the female Hoopers married into Brown and Picklesimer families, Thomas’s land transaction may have been to kin. To date, I have not located names of children of Thomas and Cynthia Rogers Hooper.

(2) The second child of Absalom, Jr. and Mattie Kelley Hooper was named Elizabeth, born about 1822 before the family migrated to Union County. She would have been one of the females between 15 and 20 years of age in the 1840 census. Again Rev. John Corn performed a Hooper wedding when Elizabeth married Josiah Wood (known as “Cy”) on September 29, 1847 in Union County. Known children of Elizabeth and “Cy” Wood were a daughter named Perthena born in 1850 and twins, Abner and Absalom L, born May 25, 1856. Note how the name Absalom is carried to multiple generations. Twin Abner may have died young as it is hard to find a record of him beyond his birth.

(3) Mary Hooper was born in 1825. According to Hearthstones of Home (Towns County History book, 1983), Mary married Henry Picklesimer. The Mary Hooper I found in Union County marriage records shows that one Mary Hooper (evidently not this daughter of Absalom, Jr. and Martha Kelley Hooper) married David Nicholson on February 22, 1855. Mary, daughter of Absalom, Jr. and her husband Henry Pickelsimer had these known children: William (b. 1844), Martha Adaline (b. 1846), Margaret (b. 1849), Andrew (b. 1852), Willborn (b. 1854), Alrina A. known as “Sis” (b. 1856) and Jason (known as “Bird,” b. 1859).

(4) The fourth child may have been named Francis. This family of Hoopers was living next door to Absalom, Jr. and Martha in the 1850 census, with his age as 24, born in North Carolina, wife Alvina, 22, also born in North Carolina and their nine-month old daughter, Sarah.

(5) Daughter Nirma Hooper was age 22, born in North Carolina, listed still at home in the 1850 census (born 1828). There is no listing of her marriage that I have found.

(6) Jemima Hooper (spelled Jermima in the Union County marriage records) was born in 1829. She married her first cousin, William J. Hooper, son of her uncle Andrew Hooper. The marriage took place August 16, 1851. They may have had one daughter, Jane. William was badly wounded in the Civil War and returned with health problems that persisted until his death in 1878. Jemima died in 1907. Jemima drew a Civil War widow’s pension.

(7) Sarah was born August 27, 1831 and died December 22, 1919. She married Samuel Nicholson on January 27, 1848 with the Rev. John Corn performing the ceremony. They had children John Thomas (b. 1849), Andrew Absalom (b. 1851), Martha Dorcas (b. 1853), Leander Columbus (b. 1856) and Carnmiller (?) Jane (b. 1868). This family also lived at Fodder Creek in Towns County and were responsible for giving land for the Fodder Creek School and Enotah Baptist Church.

(8) Margaret was born April 5, 1834. She married John W. Gilbert in Union County on December 23, 1852, with Justice of the Peace M. L. Burch performing the ceremony. This same justice of the peace performed Margaret’s sister Jemima’s wedding in 1851. Margaret and John had these children: Martha (b. 1853), Delia Ann (b. 1855), Mary Ellen (b. 1857), Sarah Frances (b. 1859) and John Absalom DeKalb Gilbert (b. 1861). John Gilbert was elected sheriff of Towns County in 1857. When the Civil War came, he enlisted in the Hiawasse Volunteers and was killed in the war. Widow Margaret Hooper Gilbert later married Joseph Brewster and they moved to Tennessee after the war.

(9) Hannah Hooper was born in 1836 in North Carolina. She was listed as 14 in the 1850 Union census. She married William Gilbert on November 4, 1853 with an M. Lance, justice of the peace, performing their ceremony in Union County. William Gilbert was a brother to Hannah’s sister Margaret’s husband, John W. Gilbert. According to a Hooper family Bible Hannah and “William’s four little boys” are listed as Larkin Pinkney (b. 1856), William Bartley (b. 1857), Oliver Perry (b. 1860) and George W. (b. 1862). Hannah’s husband William evidently died in the Civil War. By the time of the 1870 census, Widow Hannah Hooper and her four children were living in the household of her sister Jemima, also a widow, and her children. These sisters who married brothers seemed to have reared the double-first cousins—their children—in the Fodder Creek section of Towns County that once was part of Union County.

(10) Martha Ann (b. 1842 in Georgia) married Javan Brown on February 4, 1864, the son of Milton and Mary Hooper Brown. Martha Ann and Javan were first cousins. Their children were Willard (b. 1856), Carrie (b. 1865), Icey (b. 1868), Thomas (b. 1874) Amanda (b. 1875), Robert (b. 1879) and Columbus “Lum”, (b. date unknown).

(11) John, the last child of Absalom, Jr. and Martha Kelley Hooper was born in 1850, but no further information about him is known at this time.

With a large family of eleven children to rear, we can imagine that life was not easy on their Fodder Creek farm for Absalom, Jr. and Martha. He was a miller, an occupation that was of assistance to his community while bringing in a little extra corn and grain to the mill operator. Martha Hooper died July 19, 1862 and Absalom, Jr. died a little later on October 16, 1862. They were buried on their own property, but their son-in-law, Samuel Nicholson, who bought most of Absalom, Jr.’s land, gave land for the Enotah Baptist Church location, and the Hooper family cemetery was incorporated into the Enotah Baptist Church Cemetery. If you go there to visit, know that the land was once part of our own Union County.

c2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Oct. 28, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Hooper Early Settlers in Union Descended From Absalom Hooper (Sr.) Revolutionary War Soldier

No Hooper families were listed in the 1834 special census of the new county of Union founded in 1832. However, by the 1840 census, three families of Hoopers with heads-of-households listed as Absalom, Andrew and Enas (Enos) were living in Union. Absalom and his wife were between thirty and forty and had two sons and eight daughters and one slave. Andrew and his wife were also between forty and fifty and had three sons and three daughters. Enas (probably should have been spelled Enos) and his wife were between thirty and forty and had six sons and four daughters. By the 1850 census, the Hooper population had grown with seven households enumerated.

The first three Hooper men to settle in Union were all sons of the Revolutionary War soldier, Absalom Hooper (Sr.). Some of the exploits of this soldier show his bravery, daring and determination. He was born about 1764 in South Carolina in the vicinity of the Green and Main Broad Rivers. His father died when he was a youngster. His mother sided with the Tories (those favoring the British). But Absalom Hooper definitely had sympathies for the colonists and left home to join the U. S. forces in 1776. His pay was to be in bounty of $30.00 and $5.00 per month, plus 640 acres of land at the close of the war. However that payment was not forthcoming according to his signed statement in 1833.

His military service saw him in many places during the war. He was under the command of General Howe at Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina. But the British General Sir Henry Clinton conquered the island and Howe and his forces went to Florida and fought against the British forces at the St. Mary’s River. From there they returned to Charleston, to Purrysburg, SC, and finally into Georgia. He was in the attack against the British at Stono Fort on the Edisto River. From thence his regiment went to Beaufort Island. Back to Savannah, he was with the American and French forces, allies, in the siege of Savannah. There Absalom Hooper was wounded in the right arm. From there they returned to Charleston where Absalom received another wound, that time in his left thigh. He was imprisoned and was in the enemy prison hospital until he somewhat recovered. He escaped and went to Georgia to find refuge in his uncle’s frontier home. The Tories captured him, held him five days and brought him to trial, but released him.

He heard of the whereabouts of his group, and joined up again at Augusta in Captain Daniel Gunnals’ regiment. They had skirmishes around the Augusta area, especially with parties of Tories. Then his regiment went to South Carolina and joined forces with General Pickens around the Little River area and Ninety-Six District. The Cherokee during the Revolution sided with the British. Absalom and his regiment were in the Battle of Long Swamp against the Cherokee but were defeated. They returned to Long Swamp, and awaited the end of the war.

Absalom Hooper married Sarah Salers at Pistol Creek in Elbert County, Georgia about 1783. Ten years after they married, they moved from Georgia to Table Rock, South Carolina. Their next move was about 1810 to Haywood County, North Carolina (later that area was named Jackson County). Along the Tuckaseegee River where they settled, some of the highest peaks in North Carolina towered above their land. There they reared their family of twelve children: James (1784), Elizabeth (1786), Andrew (1792), Kissiah (1794), Nancy (1797), Mary (1798), Absalom, Jr. (1880), Eleanor (1800), Margaret (1802), Enos (1805), William (1806), and Isaac (1807).

Three of these children of Absalom and Sarah Salers Hooper moved to the new county of Union sometime in the late 1830s and were counted in the 1840 Union census. Also Hooper sisters moved to the area. Kissiah married Milton Brown. They were living in Union when the 1834 census was taken, with eleven in their household. She and Milton preceded her three brothers, Absalom, Jr., Andrew and Enos in settling in Union. Mary who married Henry Brown lived in the Hightower section of Union that became a part of Towns County when it was formed in 1856. In fact, most of the Hooper households were on land that became Towns, so they automatically became citizens of the new county of Towns. Nancy Hooper and her husband, Benjamin Chastain, were in Union by 1850 and their farm at Hightower was absorbed into Towns.

Next week’s column will present more on the Hooper family that still has many descendants with multiple last names still remaining in the Towns and Union County areas.

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Oct. 21, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Patterson Families – Early Settlers in Union (Part 2)

As we saw from last week’s initial article on early settler Patterson families in Union, four households were registered in the first census of Union in 1834. The heads of these households were Joseph, Amos, John and George. Further research revealed these as brothers. The John listed is not the patriarch of the family in Union. He was also John Patterson, the father of these four men. John (Sr.) and his wife, Margaret Black Patterson, were also in Union in 1834, probably living in the household of their son Amos—or with one of the other three sons.

Let us focus on George Patterson and some of his descendants. With records available, George is shown as the eighth child of John and Margaret Black Patterson. He was born in 1800 in North Carolina and died before November, 1866 in Georgia. When the Patterson brothers settled in the vicinity of Ivy Log Creek in Union County, George knew how to make hats and became a milliner. This business became a means of added income to their mainstay occupation, farming. George was married first to Rebecca Chastain. She had distinctive ancestry back to the patriarch Pierre Chastain who settled in Virginia. George’s second wife was Sophia Dunnigan.

A son of George and Rebecca Chastain Patterson, William Harden, was born April 10, 1832. Researchers of this family line believe he was the first of these Patterson children to be born in the county that would become Union later in 1832. William (called Bill) grew up on his father’s farm in Ivy Log. Marriage records of Union County show that William Hardin (given as W. H. in the record) married Elizabeth Akins on November 5, 1853. The Patterson families were a part of Bethlehem Baptist Church where they attended. That church has the founding date of 1848.

Then the Civil War came. William Harden Patterson and his younger brother John both joined the Confederate Army. They were mustered into the 6th Regiment of the Georgia Cavalry Volunteers, Company B. Fortunately, they survived the war.

William Hardin and Elizabeth Akins Patterson had twelve children: James Alonzo, Sarah Florence, Martha Elizabeth, Rebecca Emmaline, Mary M., John Lumpkin, Lewis, twins William Elisha and Joseph Elijah, Vienna Caldonia, Lula L, and George Bunyon.

Of the children of Bill and Elizabeth Patterson, the eldest, James Alonzo, became a Baptist preacher. James Alonzo Patterson and Rozellia C. Sparks were married August 8, 1888 by Rev. James Waters. She was a daughter of Harden J. Sparks and Elizabeth Thomas Sparks of the Dooley District. The marked cemetery stones of Rev. J. A. Patterson and his wife in the Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery give their birth and death dates: James Alonzo Patterson, born November 30, 1855, died December 5, 1940; Rozellia Patterson, born February 27, 1867, died December 7, 1939. Alonzo’s parents were also buried at the Bethlehem Cemetery. Their gravestones read: W. H. Patterson, born 1832, died 1883; and Elizabeth Patterson, born 1836, died 1914.

Alonzo and Rozellia Patterson had nine children: Semon, Howard, Harden, Ellen, Milton, Maude, John, Howell and Ernest.

This brief view of early Patterson settlers leaves much yet to be researched. From the four brothers, Joseph, John (Jr.), George and Amos, and their father and mother, John and Margaret Black Patterson, who settled in Union, possibly even before the county was formed in 1832, come hundreds of Patterson-related descendants who have spread out through the adjoining mountain areas of Georgia, the state at large and other states. Amos and his family, for example, moved to Texas where many of his descendants can still be traced.

I am grateful to the research of Charles Wesley Patterson, “Wes” (born 1968) who has done extensive work on his Patterson line and shares it on his blogspot. He shows his descendency as follows:

William Patterson, born before 1690, died about 1710-20
Robert R. Patterson, born about 1711 and died in 1775
Thomas Patterson, born about 1740-44, died about 1800-02
John Patterson (who came to Union), born about 1765, died between 1840-1850
George Patterson, born 1800, died about 1860-67
William Harden “Bill” Patterson, 1832-1884
Joseph Elijah “Lige” Patterson (twin), 1871-1957
Clinton Willis “Clint” Patterson, 1904-1995
Francis Oliver “Frank” Patterson, born 1940
Charles Wesley “Wes” Patterson, born 1968

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Oct. 14, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Patterson Families ~ Early Settlers In Union

In seeking surnames of early Union settlers registered in the 1834 census, I was a bit amazed that I had not noted before the four Patterson households side by side. With number of males listed first and number of females second in each of these residences, we find Joseph Patterson (8 m, 4 f), Amos Patterson (5 m, 2 f) John Patterson (4 m, 3, f) and George (4 m, 3 f), making the Patterson population 33 in Union in 1834.

By 1840, Patterson households registered were ten with population with that name 55. These families were William (3 m, 2 f), Amos (3 m, 4 f), George (6 m, 2 f), John (1 m, 1 f), Samuel (3 m, 3 f), Lewis (1 m, 2 f), Joseph (5 m, 4 f), John (2 m, 2 f), John (6 m, 2 f), and Baily (1 m, 2 f). These numbers gave 55 with Patterson surnames. The fact that heads of four households were named John posed a definite challenge to identification.

The 1850 census, the first to give names as well as ages of those within a household, and the states where born, can still be confusing about the Patterson clan in Union. To save space, I will just list heads of the 11 Patterson households, the spouse, if married, and the number of male and female children: William (37) and Elizabeth (32) [NC] and 10 children, 6 m, 3 f and an infant—gender unspecified; John (35) and Sarah (29) [NC] and 5 children, 3 f, 2 m; Samuel, 44 [NC} and Jane, 43 [TN], 9 children, 6 m, 3 f; Joseph, 61 and Agnes, 55 [SC] and 6 children, 1 m, 5 f, with an 84 year old Sary Durham [VA] in the household, as well as Joseph’s sister (?) Ann, age 47 [NC]; Amos, 26 [GA] and Jane, 24, [NC] and 3 children, 1 m, 2 f; John, 28 [NC] and Marian, 24 [SC]; no children; John, 52 [NC] and Sarah, 47 [SC] own 1 slave, the have 5 children, 4 m, 1 f, and living in their household, Margaret Patterson, age 83 [SC], and also Lucinda Hix, 45 [SC]; William, 23 and Margaret, 22 [both born in GA] and 2 children, 1 m, 1 f; George, 50 [NC] (no spouse listed; she had possibly died by 1850), 5 children, 4 m, 1 f; and James, 34 [NC] and Esther, 26 [NC] and 4 children, 2 m, 2 f. A tally of these Patterson residents in 1850 shows that they and those living with them somehow related, no doubt, numbered 76 people, plus the one slave held by John and Sarah.

How did the Patterson name originate? We find that it is a patronymic—named for the father long ago, as is almost any surname with the suffix son. Some who have studied the history of names say it harks back to Peter (spelled in the Latin, Pater); others say it stems from followers of St. Patrick. It is Scots-Irish-English in origin. A William Patterson founded the bank of England in 1694. He was a farmer’s son from Dumfriesshire who did well. It was through him that the “Darien Scheme” in Panama was begun, an economic development that collapsed in 1700.

I owe much to the research and writings of Wesley Patterson (b. 1968) who has done extensive research and posted an online blog about the Pattersons in his line, who go back to the early settlers in Union—and much beyond that. It is from his research that I learned the four Patterson men listed in Union County’s 1834 census were brothers from North Carolina who came into the county when land became available from some of the first Cherokee Removal.

Wesley Patterson believes that the father and mother of the four brothers were also in Union County in 1834, then living in the household of Amos, their youngest child and the first to settle in Union County. The father and mother were John Patterson (born about 1765, died in Union County before 1850) and his wife, Margaret (oftentimes called “Peggy”) Black Patterson (b. about 1767, died between 1850-1860). Wes Patterson believes that the elder John Patterson and his wife Margaret were buried in unmarked graves in the Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery, Union County, where some of their children and other descendants were buried.

John and Margaret were married in the Pendleton District of South Carolina about 1788 (no marriage record found). They had at least ten children, maybe eleven.

In his extensive research, Wes Patterson has traced his fifth great grandparents’ children and has them listed as follows:

(1) A son (?) born in Lancaster County, SC before 1789
(2) Joseph Black Patterson (1789, SC – 1860, GA)
(3) Margaret “Peggy” Patterson (b. about 1790, SC)
(4) Isabella Patterson (b. about 1792-95, SC. died in Ga, 1869; married a Price (?)
(5) Amey Jane Patterson (1793-SC – 1889, GA) married William D. Kincaid
(6) Robert Patterson (1796, SC – 1860/70, TX)
(7) John Patterson (1798, NC – 1854, GA)
(8) George Patterson (1800, NC – before Nov. 1866, GA)
(9) Ann Patterson (1802, NC – after 1870, GA) – never married
(10) Amos Patterson (1803/04, NC – 1861/70, TX).

Wesley Patterson believes, after having studied land transactions in the Ivy Log section of Union County for the early days of the county that Amos Patterson, the youngest child, was the first to purchase land in the about-to-be Union County, and then some of his brothers and sisters, along with their parents, moved to Union. It was a rather tightly-knit community where the Pattersons settled—Amos leading the way, with his brothers Joseph, John and George following shortly.

Also in the 1834 census was William D. Kincaid who had married the Patterson brothers’ sister, Amey Jane. Later this couple became citizens of Fannin County when their land lots were absorbed into the new county Fannin in 1854. If, as Wes Patterson believes, Isabella Patterson married a Price, she purchased land as Isabella Price on April 8, 1837, Land Lot 290, District 9, in Lower Young Cane. Her household was listed in the 1840 census as living next door to the elder of the John Pattersons (who was her father?).

Many questions still remain about early settlers with the surname Patterson. But one thing we can say with certainty: Many remained, for that name is still quite prevalent in the mountain counties of North Georgia. And from Wes Patterson I learned that the combined Patterson-Turner Family Reunion is an event of the 3rd Sunday in October each year at Oak Grove Baptist Church on the Loving Road (That will be October 17 this year). The church building is located right on the Union County/Fannin County line in the section where so many of the early Patterson ancestors settled. Descendants of John and Margaret Black Patterson, and of Bailus E. Turner are especially invited to attend. The service begins at 10:30 a. m., with “dinner on the grounds” at noon, and visitation and “reunionizing” in the afternoon.

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Oct. 7, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.