Andrew Hooper, Fourth Child of Revolutionary Soldier Absalom Hooper, Sr. (Part 3 – Hooper Family)

Andrew Hooper was the fourth of twelve children born to Absalom, Sr. and Sarah Salers Hooper, and one of the three Hooper brothers who settled in Union County, Georgia by 1840.

Andrew Hooper was born about 1792 and died in 1849. His place of birth is held to be Pendleton District, South Carolina. He grew up in Haywood County, North Carolina where his parents moved when he was young. It was there he met and married Dicie (sometimes spelled Dicey) whose maiden name is unknown.

Like his father before him who had served in the Revolutionary War, Andrew also heard the call of his country during the “unpleasantness” known in the annals of US history as the War of 1812 against Great Britain. His term of service was short, from February 16, 1815 when he volunteered until March 12, 1815 when he was honorably discharged. His army pay for the twenty-six days was $6. 93. However, as will be seen later, he had another recompense coming after his death.

It is not known precisely when Andrew Hooper migrated to Union County, Georgia to settle along Fodder Creek in what became Towns County in 1856. Andrew and his wife Dicey were residents and in the Union Census of 1840, having in their household himself and his wife who were listed as between 40-50 years of age with six children. Ages and genders of the children were two males between 10-15, one male between 20-30, one female between 5-10 and two females between 15-20. It is assumed that Andrew Hooper was a farmer at Fodder Creek. He may have assisted his brother Absalom, Jr. with his grist mill.

The known children of Andrew and Dicey Hooper were:

(1) Jonathan Hooper (1820-1880 ?) who married Lucinda Barrett (believed to be part Cherokee) in Union County on February 9, 1854 with William Burch performing their ceremony. After Towns was formed from Union County, Jonathan and Lucinda moved to the head of Byers Creek in Towns and made a living by sawmilling and farming. Jonathan was a cripple, small of stature. They had Millie Ann, Robert Richard, Jonathan “Pink”, Icey (or Dicea, after her Grandmother Hooper), Green Berry (died as infant), Mary Ollie, Gus, and Ulysses Allen. After Jonathan’s death, Lucinda married a Rizley.

(2) Sarah Hooper (1821-?) married Noah Shook and had children Mary, Jonathan, Permelia and Rebecca by 1850, with additions and/or name changes of Adaline, Dicea and Sarah (listed in 1860 census).

(3) Matilda Caroline Hooper (1824-1911) married William Burton Rogers on November 5, 1843. They lived in the Cynth Creek section of Towns County and at their deaths were interred in the Lower Hightower Cemetery. Children of this couple were Disa Manerva, Jonathan Burton, Melton Augustus, Martin W., Christopher Columbus, Freeman H., Elihu Montgomery, N. Leander, and David.

(4) William J. Hooper (1828-1878) married Jemima Hooper, his first cousin, daughter of his Uncle Absalom Hooper, Jr., in Union County, GA on August 16, 1851 with M. L. Burch, justice of the peace, performing the ceremony. William enlisted in the Confederate Army in May, 1864 with Young’s Battallion, Company 1, Hampton’s Brigade. He was seriously wounded at Lovejoy Station when Sherman was marching through Georgia. Although surviving, his wounds troubled him the rest of his life. By 1870, Jemima Hooper and her widowed sister, Hannah Hooper Gilbert and children, were living in the widowed Jemima’s household.

(5) Andrew Green Hooper (1829-1898) married Martha Talitha Berry. Their children were Dicie Rebecca, John Chapman, William Alonzo; Margaret Haseltine, Louisa Arah, Highley Al, and Andrew Young. Andrew, like his brother William, enlisted in the Confederate Army, Company D, 24th Regiment. He survived the war. His widow Margaret received a Confederate pension after his death.

(6) A female child was listed in the 1840 census without a name, born between 1830-1835. No further information is found on her.

A short time after Andrew Hooper’s first wife Dicey died in 1847, he married Mary Cantrell on July 2, 1847. Mary Cantrell may have been a widow, bringing some of her own children to live in Andrew’s household. The 1850 census has some children not quite identifiable by names of children of Andrew and his first wife Dicea. These were Mary, 29; Nancy, 12, Jane 9; Sarahan 6, Mahala 4, and John 1. It is known, however, that two of these were identified as “minor children” of Andrew Hooper and received a land grant on June 30, 1857 for their father’s service in the War of 1812. It could be that Mary Mahalia (known as “Polly”) may have been a child born to Andrew and Dicey, and that her mother died at childbirth. At any rate, children 7 and 8 of Andrew Hooper were:

(7) Mary Mahalia “Polly” Hooper born in 1846 or 1847. She married David Nicholson.

(8) John Harley Hooper (1849-1912), son of Andrew and Mary Cantrell Hooper married Martha Evaline Brewster. Their seven children were Jane, Martha Ann, Mary Etta, William Luther, John, Georgia and Lula.

Andrew Hooper and his family joined the lure of new lands in the 1830s and became a part of growing Union County sometime between 1834 and 1840. Numerous descendants still reside within the mountain region near where their ancestors took up residence.

c2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 4, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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.

Eight Crow Family Households in Union Listed in 1834 Census

Examining the 1834 Union County census for early settlers, I discovered eight families with the surname Crow. These were, as listed from the census, with numbers following the names indicative of count of males (first) and count of females (second) recorded in each family when the census was finished on March 24, 1834.

William L. Crow 3 – 4
John L. Crow 3 – 4
Isaac (?) Crow 2 – 2
Peter Crow 2 – 1
James Crow 4 – 4
John Crow 4 – 4
William Crow 2 – 3
Thomas Crow 3 – 4

The total count of Crow residents in 1834 numbered 23 males and 26 females. Out of a population of 903 registered in the census, these 49 people with the same family surname definitely represented a goodly proportion of the citizenship of the county.

With my curiosity thoroughly whetted, I went next to the Marriage Records of Union County, Georgia, 1833-1897, a very handy printed reference book that serves me well when I need to look up information. Thinking I would find many marriages of Crow citizens, I was disappointed to find only these registered listings:

Crow, Clarinda S. to Alfred Nicholson on May 26, 1872 by Charles Crumbley, MG.
Crow, Millisa to Jeremiah Kittle on Dec. 23, 1841 by J. M. Rogers, JP.
Crow, Thomas to Elizabeth Logan on Sept. 23, 1837 by John Martin, JIC.

(Note: For those wondering about the abbreviations following the marriage officers’ names, MG is Minister of the Gospel; JP is Justice of the Peace; and JIC is Justice of the Inferior Court.) To have three marriages registered from Crow family members over a period of sixty-four years of county records, especially with the forty-nine Crows living in the county in 1834, seemed a bit strange to me. Did they not register marriages?

Then I thought, perhaps some of the Crow families were Indians, since all the exodus of Native Americans had not occurred when the first census was taken. Crow sounded a bit like an Indian name, such as Chief Crow, perhaps.

My next tool was the excellent book, Cemeteries of Union County, Georgia (c1990). I searched for Crow entries in the book and the cemeteries where interred. Again, I found only three entries of marked graves of Crow family members in comparison to the number who were registered in the 1834 census. Another question was raised by what I discovered in the cemetery book listing. Here is what I found:

Crow, E. A. - b. 1835, died 1841, Choestoe 1 Cemetery
Crow, Francis M., - no birth date, died August 20, 1841, Choestoe 1 Cemetery
*Crow Indian Children, no birth or death dates, buried Indian 1 Cemetery.

I proceeded to look up the Indian Graves section in the book and read this explanation: “Two graves about 100 yards above the Roy Townsend residence in Coosa District are said to be those of Indian children. The Indian family name was Crow. This story has been handed down from older generations from the Pre-Civil War years.” (p. 249).

This Indian Cemetery, only if containing two graves and those of children, seemed to support somewhat my theory that some of the Crow families listed in the 1834 census might, therefore, have been Native Americans—Cherokee Indians.

That took me on a search for Crow as an Indian name. I found another surprising fact. Crows are a western states Indian group. Crow is a tribal name, a break-off from the Sioux Indians’ Hidatsa Group native to the Missouri River region of America. When the Crow broke from the Sioux, the Crow tribe went westward mainly to the Rocky Mountains area of Colorado. So if any Indian families had the name Crow in Union County, Georgia they were likely given the name due to their raven hair or characteristics considered appropriate to a crow.

Looking up the origin of the surname Crow and Crowe, I discovered that it is Anglo-Saxon in origin, an anthromorphic name, with characteristics resembling a crow, having to do more with character traits than appearance, although the early Crow families may have had very black hair. As early as 1100, Crow families lived in Norfolk and Suffolk in East England. Ailwin Crowe in 1180 was on the “Pipe Rolls of Warwickshire” England. He lived from 1154-1189, and was known as a “Builder of churches.” The first Crow I found migrating to the Southern colonies was Adam Crow, age 19, who sailed from London on the ship “Thomas” and landed in Virginia in 1635. Adam was followed the next year, 1636, by Henry Crow who also settled in Virginia. Adam and Henry were probably the progenitors of the Southern Crow families that migrated to North and South Carolina and into North Georgia. Others listed in the northern colonies were William Crow who arrived in Plymouth Colony in the early 1620s and John Crow in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1630.

One of the Crow men in early Union County served as a public officer. The first county officers were installed on March 20, 1833 when the county was a little more than three months old (founded Dec. 3, 1832). These were, according to the marker on the old courthouse square: James Crow – Sheriff; Arthur Gilbert – Clerk of Superior Court; Joseph Jackson – Clerk of Inferior Court; James Gaddis, Sr. – Coroner; and Joseph Chaffin – Surveyor. John Thomas was the representative to the Georgia Legislature and had been the one to suggest Union as the name for the new county, stating, “There are none but Union men there.”

c 2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Aug. 20, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

John Little Ingram, Father of a Large Family

John Little Ingram (1788-1866), the father of twenty-two children, twenty-one of whom lived to be adults, was the ancestor of many with Union County, Georgia connections.

John Little Ingram was married three times and had children by each wife. First he married Mary “Polly” Cagle (1793-1829). Their ten children included one child that died as an infant and nine more, seven daughters and two sons: Rebecca, Isaac, Elizabeth, Sarah, Tillman, Nancy, Mary Jane, Louisa and Malinda.

After his wife Mary “Polly” died, John Little Ingram married Cynthia Kittle in 1830. To them were born ten children, five sons and five daughters: Lucretia, Little, Jr., Ginsey, Allen, Clary, Cynthia, Jeremiah, Benjamin, Ruth and Martin.

After his second wife’s death, John Little Ingram married, third, Catherine Cameron in Franklin County, Georgia on February 22, 1845. He and Catherine had two sons, Joseph (1846) and William (1847). His third wife died before 1860. By then, several of the twenty-one children of John Little Ingram had already married and established homes of their own, with the first of his and Mary Cagle Ingram’s children, Rebecca, herself marrying a Cagle—Joseph Roland---in 1834.

At the age of 78, John Little Ingram died at the home of his daughter, Lucretia Ingram Rhodes in the Ivy Log District of Union County. She was the first child of Little’s second wife, Cynthia Kittle Ingram. Lucretia had married George Rhodes, a widower with two small sons, Grant and Wiley Rhodes. Even though John Little Ingram had been an early member of Choestoe Baptist Church (listed in the 1836 membership rolls), he was buried at the Ivy Log Baptist Church Cemetery, because transporting the body to Choestoe in 1866 would have been a long journey by wagon. His first wife Mary had been buried in Hall County. His second wife Cynthia may have been buried in the Gaddistown District of Union County where the family lived at the time of her death. The place of interment of his third wife, Catherine, is unknown.

There is no stone marking the grave of War of 1812 patriot John Little Ingram. I wish we knew the exact location so we could erect a monument to his memory.

My interest in the Ingram family stems from my great grandmother, Louisa Eliza Ingram (1827-1907) who married James Marion Dyer (1822-1904) on June 18, 1846. Louisa was the eighth child of John Little Ingram and Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram. The sixth of the twelve children born to Louisa and James Marion Dyer was Bluford Elisha Dyer (1855-1926), my grandfather, who married Sarah Evaline Souther (1857-1959). The tenth of the fifteen children of Bluford and Sarah was my father, Jewel Marion Dyer (1890-1974) who married Azie Collins (1895-1945).

The Ingrams in America were patriotic. John Little Ingram, my great, great grandfather, was a soldier in the War of 1812. His first service was near Nashville, Tennessee for six months. He enlisted again from Franklin County, Georgia and fought at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in Alabama with General Andrew Jackson in 1814. It was there that the Creek Indians known as “The Red Sticks” rose up against white settlers. General Jackson and his soldiers were dispatched to put an end to the Indian uprising at Horseshoe Bend.

We can only imagine the stories John Little Ingram told his many children of his experiences as a soldier in the War of 1812 and his service in the Indian uprisings. Little Ingram was discharged at Augusta, Georgia in 1814. He brought home with him a small hymn book that became a family treasure. It was passed on through his youngest son, William P. Ingram (son of Little and Catherine Cameron) who lived in Culberson, NC. As late as 1935, George Ingram, son of William P., still had the old hymnbook in his possession.

Five of John Little Ingram’s sons served in the Civil War and three of them lost their lives in that conflict. Tillman Ingram (1822-1863) was the fifth child of Little and Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram. His first enlistment ended in discharge with the notation that he was “too old for service.” However, Tillman, wishing to “defend against the enemy,” reenlisted, giving his age as younger than his actual years. He died of a raging fever in Trinity, Texas during the war. Four of Tillman’s sons, John Robert, Thomas B., John C. and Edmond Dale, fought in the Texas War for Independence against Mexico.

Little Ingram, Jr. (1832-1863), son of Little’s second wife, Cynthia Kittle, died at the Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi and was buried there. He had married Mary King on March 8, 1855. She was left a widow with little children, but information about their family has not yet been gathered by this researcher.

Jeremiah Ingram (1838-?) was a brother to Little, Jr. and the seventh child of John Little and Cynthia Kittle Ingram. He enlisted in the Confederate Army and fought at the Battle of Chancelorsville, Virginia where he was captured May 3, 1863. He was paroled from Fort Delaware (probably in a prisoner-of-war exchange) that same month. His record showed that he deserted the Confederate Army September 21, 1863. He married Elizabeth Henson on December 3, 1857. Further information about their family is unknown to this writer.

Benjamin Ingram (1840-?) married Charity Gilbert on July 15, 1856. He enlisted in Company B of the Georgia 23rd Regiment at Camp McDonald on August 31, 1861. He was at the Battle of Charlottesville, Virginia. He was hospitalized with consumption in December, 1862. He was captured at the Battle of Fredericksburg in June, 1863. He was paroled and rejoined his company. On July 21, 1864 he was captured at Winchester, Virginia and sent to military prison in Wheeling and from there transferred to a prison at Camp Chase, Ohio September 16, 1864 where he remained a prisoner-of-war until the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. He returned to Georgia but further information on his family has not been researched by this writer.

Martin Ingram (1844-1863) married Rebecca Bozeman prior to enlisting in the Confederate Army. He was a casualty of the war, dying at Jackson, Mississippi in 1863.

John Little Ingram learned the importance of patriotism from his father, Pvt. John Little Ingram of South Carolina who was a patriot in the American Revolution. Next week’s column will go further backward in time to trace the service of this soldier.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published June 2, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

March 4th Was Once the Presidential Inauguration Date

Was there a place called Polk in Union County? And if so, where was it located?

An e-mail from David Friedly noted that an 1839 map of Union County showed Polk as located “around Owltown.” His question to me was “Have you heard of Polk in Union County?”

I had not heard of a Polk in Union County, but curiosity got the better of me and I began a search to see if I could find authentic references. Knowing that a post office usually designated a place, named either for the first person approved to be postmaster or for another significant person, I checked out the post office history of Union County, using the wonderful Heritage of Union County, Georgia, 1832-1994, Sketches of Union County History. Volume 2 (1978) and census and other records.

Interestingly, I found that there was a Polk post office, but founded later than the 1839 map listing to which Mr. Friedly referred. The mystery of why a place was named Polk and whether it was in Owltown still remained unanswered.

Then I found this important bit of information. Of the 1800’s militia districts formed in Union County, Owltown (GMD # 1409) was the last district to be designated. It was carved out of portions of Arkaquah, Coosa and Choestoe. The addition of Owltown District was signed into law by Ordinary William Colwell on April 4, 1887.

The next step was to try to locate a Polk Post Office in Union. That was not hard to do. Looking at the list of post offices in Owltown District, only three were listed: Laura founded February 5, 1892; Otto, founded May 14, 1898; and Edmund founded March 11, 1905. No Polk there on record.

The Coosa Post Office was the first to be officially established in the new Union County, started On July 19, 1833 with Arthur Gilbert as postmaster. It was near the county seat of Blairsville, and ran until September 17, 1834. No post office seems to have existed in Union County until the old Coosa, under postmaster Charles R. Gibbs was granted a name change to Blairsville on February 9, 1835. There was no post office named Polk in the Coosa District.

Then to the Choestoe Militia District post office listings, and the origin of Polk was immediately evident. The very first post office in that district was named Polk, with the first postmaster John Butt, Sr. on February 20, 1844.

Why was it named Polk? Evidently not for the first postmaster. A guess is that it may have been to honor James Polk, eleventh president of the United States who was running for the country’s highest office and had been governor of the nearby state of Tennessee. Polk was not in the nation’s highest office when Polk post office was formed in 1844. Polk was elected and served one term, from 1845-1849. His platform of westward expansion, annexation of Texas and the Oregon Territory, the tariff, immigration policy and agrarianism might have appealed to Mr. Butt. Maybe he wanted to honor this “dark horse” candidate from Tennessee by naming the first post office in the Choestoe District for him.

Succeeding postmasters and their dates of appointment at the Polk post office were Francis (Frank) Collins, November 5, 1845; Robert F. Lemmands, May 28, 1846; John Butt, Sr. (for the second time), September 13, 1847; and Joseph F. England, June 30, 1851. While Joseph England was postmaster, he requested that the name be changed to Choestoe. This was granted on September 25, 1851. So Polk became Choestoe.

To answer the question posed by David Friedly: “Where was Polk in Union County?” I did some more speculation based on facts. Knowing that the post office changed locations with the appointment of a new postmaster, and that the office was either in a portion of the home or store owned by the postmaster, I surmised that the location could have been somewhere in the midst of Choestoe, a large district.

The second postmaster was Francis Collins, son of one of the first Choestoe settlers, Thompson Collins and wife Celia Self Collins. This Collins family was listed in the first census (1834) of Union County and owned broad acreages along Town Creek and the Nottely River in Choestoe. I could not easily find Mr. Lemmands who served for little more than a year. But the Joseph F. England was a neighbor to Francis Collins and his family had also settled early in Choestoe. He was the one who requested the name change from Polk to Choestoe.

[Next week: Continuing a look at early post offices.]

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 24, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Where in Union County Was Polk, Georgia

Was there a place called Polk in Union County? And if so, where was it located?

An e-mail from David Friedly noted that an 1839 map of Union County showed Polk as located “around Owltown.” His question to me was “Have you heard of Polk in Union County?”

I had not heard of a Polk in Union County, but curiosity got the better of me and I began a search to see if I could find authentic references. Knowing that a post office usually designated a place, named either for the first person approved to be postmaster or for another significant person, I checked out the post office history of Union County, using the wonderful Heritage of Union County, Georgia, 1832-1994, Sketches of Union County History. Volume 2 (1978) and census and other records.

Interestingly, I found that there was a Polk post office, but founded later than the 1839 map listing to which Mr. Friedly referred. The mystery of why a place was named Polk and whether it was in Owltown still remained unanswered.

Then I found this important bit of information. Of the 1800’s militia districts formed in Union County, Owltown (GMD # 1409) was the last district to be designated. It was carved out of portions of Arkaquah, Coosa and Choestoe. The addition of Owltown District was signed into law by Ordinary William Colwell on April 4, 1887.

The next step was to try to locate a Polk Post Office in Union. That was not hard to do. Looking at the list of post offices in Owltown District, only three were listed: Laura founded February 5, 1892; Otto, founded May 14, 1898; and Edmund founded March 11, 1905. No Polk there on record.

The Coosa Post Office was the first to be officially established in the new Union County, started On July 19, 1833 with Arthur Gilbert as postmaster. It was near the county seat of Blairsville, and ran until September 17, 1834. No post office seems to have existed in Union County until the old Coosa, under postmaster Charles R. Gibbs was granted a name change to Blairsville on February 9, 1835. There was no post office named Polk in the Coosa District.

Then to the Choestoe Militia District post office listings, and the origin of Polk was immediately evident. The very first post office in that district was named Polk, with the first postmaster John Butt, Sr. on February 20, 1844.

Why was it named Polk? Evidently not for the first postmaster. A guess is that it may have been to honor James Polk, eleventh president of the United States who was running for the country’s highest office and had been governor of the nearby state of Tennessee. Polk was not in the nation’s highest office when Polk post office was formed in 1844. Polk was elected and served one term, from 1845-1849. His platform of westward expansion, annexation of Texas and the Oregon Territory, the tariff, immigration policy and agrarianism might have appealed to Mr. Butt. Maybe he wanted to honor this “dark horse” candidate from Tennessee by naming the first post office in the Choestoe District for him.

Succeeding postmasters and their dates of appointment at the Polk post office were Francis (Frank) Collins, November 5, 1845; Robert F. Lemmands, May 28, 1846; John Butt, Sr. (for the second time), September 13, 1847; and Joseph F. England, June 30, 1851. While Joseph England was postmaster, he requested that the name be changed to Choestoe. This was granted on September 25, 1851. So Polk became Choestoe.

To answer the question posed by David Friedly: “Where was Polk in Union County?” I did some more speculation based on facts. Knowing that the post office changed locations with the appointment of a new postmaster, and that the office was either in a portion of the home or store owned by the postmaster, I surmised that the location could have been somewhere in the midst of Choestoe, a large district.

The second postmaster was Francis Collins, son of one of the first Choestoe settlers, Thompson Collins and wife Celia Self Collins. This Collins family was listed in the first census (1834) of Union County and owned broad acreages along Town Creek and the Nottely River in Choestoe. I could not easily find Mr. Lemmands who served for little more than a year. But the Joseph F. England was a neighbor to Francis Collins and his family had also settled early in Choestoe. He was the one who requested the name change from Polk to Choestoe.

[Next week: Continuing a look at early post offices.]

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 24, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.