Appalachian Values and Some People Who Exemplify Them

Senior scholar, Loyal Jones, a native of nearby Cherokee County, North Carolina, and for many years director of Appalachian Studies at Berea College, Kentucky, wrote an essay on “Appalachian Values” first published in Twigs in 1973. His intention when he first wrote the essay was to dispel the misconceptions often held about people of the Appalachian mountain region. Betty Payne James ofDisputanta, Kentucky, suggested to Mr. Jones that his essay be made into a book with pertinent photographs. The word artistry and depth of thinking from “Appalachian Values” of Loyal Jones were combined with excellent black-and-white photographs by prize-winning photographer Warren Brunner of Berea, Kentucky to make a book published by the Jesse Stuart Foundation of Ashland, Kentucky in 1994. If you have not yet read this provocative book, I recommend that you find a copy at your library—or better still—purchase your own copy, because you will want to refer to it again and again.

It occurred to me, while thinking about a worthy subject on which to write for his column, that it would be appropriate to name the values Loyal Jones calls to our attention and think of persons within Union County, Georgia, past and present, who exemplify the values worthy of emulation. I thank Loyal Jones for such a thought-provoking book. I give him deserved credit for calling to our attention the characteristics and values held dear and lived out by our ancestors. And Warren Brenner’s excellent photographs brought to my own mind persons and places with whom I am acquainted that fit so well the values Loyal Jones enumerates. I only wish I had photographs to illustrate this article that carry the same sense and depth that those in Appalachian Values convey. I ask my readers, therefore, to think of persons you know, and make a “mountain pictorial” of them as you read about these values, still alive and well in the coves, valleys and hillsides of our beloved Appalachian region.

Loyal Jones sets the stage for Appalachian Values by devoting a chapter to the early settlers to the region and their origins. Many Scots-Irish, German, English and Welsh people came to America and eventually found their way to our Appalachian wilderness and mountains, an ideal place with plenty of wild game, land for clearing and farming, and isolation that afforded them the seclusion they desired, “away from ‘powers and principalities’” (p. 24) that would rob them of their desire for freedom. “They came for many reasons, but always for new opportunity and freedom—freedom from religious, political, and economic restraints, and freedom to do much as they pleased. The pattern of their settlement shows that they were seeking land and solitude.” (p. 29)

Here we have but to do a roll-call of people who were listed on the 1834 (first) Union County census. Which from that list of 147 heads-of-households enumerated in 1834 are your ancestors? They fall into Loyal Jones’s category of people with European ancestry that came seeking freedom and independence. We salute them all.

Religon is one of the values cited by Loyal Jones. “Mountain people are religious…we are religious in the sense that most of our values and the meaning we find in life spring from the Bible. To understand mountaineers, one must understand our religion” (p. 39). I thought of the Rev. Milford G. Hamby (1833-1911), who became a Methodist Circuit Rider in 1852. As a minister in the North Georgia Conference, he often filled as many as twenty-nine appointments for preaching per month. He married Eleanor Hughes on May 9, 1850. She was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas M. Hughes. Her father was also a faithful minister in Union and nearby counties in the early settlement days. Eleanor’s grandfather, the Rev. Francis Bird, was likewise a minister. A brother-in-law to Rev. Hamby was the Rev. John Wesley Twiggs (1846-1917) who married Eleanor Hughes Hamby’s sister, Sarah Elizabeth Hughes. Rev. Twiggs was a noted minister, school teacher and farmer. These early ministers in the county did much to set a pattern of religious practice. Rev. G. W. Duval, writing in his eulogy of Rev. Milford Hamby in the 1911 Conference Journal of the North Georgia Conference Methodist Episcopal Church South (pp. 80-81) said of him: “He conferred not with flesh and blood but was obedient to the heavenly vision…He made the Bible the man of his counsel, the guide of his young life. His library was not extensive. He made his sermons from the revelation of God’s love to man.” Here I have briefly cited only three of the early ministers in the county; there were many more, both then and since. Oftentimes laboring under great hardships and certainly without much monetary remuneration for their labors, they planted the gospel in hard-to-reach places as itinerant preachers and religious and educational leaders.

Mr. Loyal Jones combines three of our Appalachian Values in chapter three, perhaps because the three are so inter-related and so vital a part of the fabric of our mountain people’s lives. These are independence, self-reliance and pride.

He quotes John C. Campbell (for whom Campbell Folk School is named) by saying in the mountains “independence is raised to the fourth power” (p. 52)—meaning we have an exceeding strong spirit of independence. I think of John Thomas, chosen to be the first representative from Union County in 1832 to the state legislature. When a name for the new county was being considered, he said, “Name it Union, for none but union-like men resides in it” (The Heritage of Union County, 1944, p. 1). Although our ancestors were patriotic and supporting of our nation, their geographic isolation and dependability on local resources bred independence. Several of the early-settler men had seen service in the American Revolution and desired independence from tyranny and outside rule. The lay of the land to be tamed and a living to be made from the wilderness inspired an independent spirit.

Closely tied to that spirit of independence is self-reliance. I think of my own ancestors, the Collins, Dyer, Souther, Hunter, Nix, Ingram, England and other settlers who began productive farms, established churches, set up mills, began schools, were elected to government positions—all showed the spirit of self-reliance. True, our ancestors sometimes over-did the self-reliant bent and depleted the land and its resources, like cutting timber and not allowing it to be replenished, before they learned to be conservators. Not all qualities of self-reliance are applaudable.

Then pride is a part of our values; not the puffed-up, vain, egotistical, arrogant, “better-than-thou” kind, but a sense of self-esteem and self-respect for a job well done. I think of my Aunts Avery and Ethel Collins who fashioned many quilts, woven coverlets, and other handcrafted items, entering them into the Southeastern Fair in Atlanta, Georgia and consistently winning blue ribbons. Dr. John Burrison and his crew of historical preservation people from Georgia State University filmed my Aunt Ethel before her death as she showed many of the items that had won acclaim. Never did she seek accolades for her work, but it was worthy of notice and was recorded in a documentary entitled “The Unclouded Day.” She and Aunt Avery had pride in their work, and rightly so. As Loyal Jones notes: “The value of independence and self-reliance, and our pride, is often stronger than desire or need” (p. 68).

In my next column, I will explore more of Loyal Jones’s listing of Appalachian Values. Dr. Stephenson asks this question in the introduction: “Who really knows Appalachia?” (p. 9, 11). This is a probative question. Even though I was born and reared in that area of America, and have experienced all the values named by Mr. Jones, I realize that we only begin to scratch the surface of the complexity and depth of a people whose characteristics, as he writes, represent “the core elements of regional culture, the bones upon which the flesh of a people is layered” (p. 10).

[Resource: Jones, Loyal. Appalachian Values.Photography by Warren E. Brunner, with an Introduction by John B. Stephenson. Ashland, Ky: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994.]

c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones.Published February 23, 2012 online by permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved.

Repeated Given Names Often Confuse Genealogy Searchers ~ Or: Which Person Do You Mean?

This week I’ve spent time back-tracking to an article I wrote for this column on June 2, 2005 about John Little Ingram’s family. He was my great, great grandfather who was born in 1788 in South Carolina, died in 1866 in Union County, Georgia, married three times, and had a total of twenty-one children, nine by his first wife Mary “Polly” Cagle, ten by his second wife, Cynthia Kittle, and two by his third wife, Catherine Cameron.

A question and additional research came about the tenth child by John Little Ingram’s second wife, Cynthia Kittle. This child was named Martin Ingram, born in 1844 and, according to Watson B. Dyer in his family history book, died in Jackson, Mississippi in 1863 during the Civil War.

A very fine genealogy researcher, Dr. Charles Ingram, read my article online at the GaGenWebProject and saw the name Martin Ingram. He immediately thought that the birth and death dates were wrong, because his ancestor by the same name, Martin Ingram, he had documented well. He knew that his particular Martin was born December 26, 1816 and died November 13, 1891 and was buried at the Four Mile Cemetery, Pickens County, Georgia—not in far away Mississippi during the Civil War.

One of the difficulties seemed to revolve around the name of the wife listed for each of the Martin Ingrams. Both were listed as marrying a Rebecca Bozeman, and to further confuse, Rebecca had a nickname, Beedee or Becky. Now is that coincidence, or an error in listing? Dr. Charles Ingram has a family Bible showing his 1816 Martin Ingram married Rebecca (Beede/Becky) Bozeman on November 24, 1842 in Cherokee County, Georgia. He also has authentication from Cherokee County marriage Book A, page 46, a listing for the marriage of Martin Ingram and Beedy Bozeman.

The only record I’ve found for the 1844 Martin Ingram’s marriage to Rebecca Bozeman is a listing on page 408 of Watson B. Dyer’s “Dyer Family History, 1600’s to 1980.” He did not give a source for the marriage record. Maybe the younger Martin Ingram married a cousin by the same name of the wife of his first cousin, 1816 Martin Ingram. I looked in the Union County marriage records and did not find the younger Martin’s marriage listed there. Could this be an error? Perhaps Watson Dyer found a listing for the 1816 Martin Ingram’s marriage, and assumed that the younger Martin married a Bozeman, too. Since the 1844 Martin died young, at age 19, he evidently married young, too, if, indeed, he wed before he went to the Civil War and was killed. I did find a listing of Martin R. Ingram in the 52nd Regiment of the Georgia Infantry Volunteers, Army of Tennessee, Company G. They called themselves “The Alleghany Rangers,” from Union County. They enlisted for six months and their commanding officers were Lewis B. Beard and Julius H. Barclay [Reference: “Sketches of Union County History, Volume 2, 1978, p. 41]

John Little Ingram’s son, Martin, lived only nineteen years, and whether he married before he went away to war (to a Rebecca Bozeman or not?), we do not have a record that he had children.

On the other hand, the Martin Ingram (1816-1891) who is definitely known to have married a Rebecca Bozeman, was the son of Tillman Ingram (1794-?) and Elizabeth “Betsy” Dalrymple Ingram (1799-?). Tillman and John Little Ingram were brothers, so the two Martin Ingrams were first cousins. The 1816 Martin Ingram became a Baptist minister and preached in churches in Cherokee and Pickens Counties, Georgia for more than thirty years. They had eleven children, nine for whom we have names: Isaac N., John H., Samuel T., Nancy E., Hester A., James P., Thomas K., Mary, and Loan. Rev. and Mrs. Martin Ingram were buried at the Four Mile Cemetery, Pickens County, Georgia.

Given names in any family are important. Maybe the babies are named for someone in the family, a grandparent, parent, aunt or uncle, or even going farther back to another ancestor. The fact that brothers give their sons and daughters family names causes confusion at times, because there are multiple people with the same name. That’s how we got confused over the name Martin Ingram. We could say the same of John, Little, Isaac, Tilman and other given names, carried through several generations.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published October 6, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

She Has Worn Many Hats: Saluting Loujine Young Shuler on Her Birthday April 10

Loujine Young Shuler (left) is shown with two of her Class of 1947, Union County High School, classmates at their golden anniversary class reunion June 14, 1997 at Blairsville. Loujine traveled from Walden, CO to be present for the event; Elbert Dennis Wilson from Wales, Michigan, and Ethelene Dyer Jones from Epworth, GA (where she lived at that time). Friends in high school--friends in the "golden" years!

Something as simple as telephone calls can renew an avalanche of memories and launch a simple project that will eventually result in much happiness.

I speak of recent telephone calls, one from a mother and one from her son. Neither knew the other was calling me. Both calls precipitated this column about my Union County Classmate, then Loujine Young, now Loujine Young Shuler, who went out from Union County and did well as wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and professional woman.

Let me quickly note that neither Loujine nor her son Carl remotely suggested I write about Loujine. They are too humble and unpretentious to seek publicity at all. To write about her is my own idea, my choice. But let me get on with the subject at hand, that of noting some of Loujine Young Shuler’s accomplishments and why Union County can be proud of this just-about-to-turn octogenarian.

And if you are a friend to Loujine, know her now or knew her in the past when she lived and grew up in Union County, will you please take the time to send her a birthday card. Loujine’s son Carl Shuler and her daughter Gwendolyn Shuler Hanson are both hoping a virtual “shower of cards” of good wishes will be sent to their beloved mother on or before her 80th birthday on April 10. Right now, Loujine is temporarily in Arizona with her granddaughter Jodie and may be addressed at Mrs. Loujine Y. Shuler, 21875 West Casey Lane, Buckeye, AZ 85326. Loujine will be returning soon to her home in northern Colorado where she spends the “warm” months of the year and may be addressed there at P. O. Box 296, Walden, CO 80480-0296.

Loujine Young was born April 10, 1930 to Joseph Benjamin Ezekiel Young (Dec. 18, 1891-May 3, 1931) and Birdie Maybelle Ingram Young (Sep. 25, 1896-Jul. 15, 1997). She was the youngest of five children. Her siblings were Ray Alan Young (1920-1941) who married Juanita Thomas; Clara Pauline Young (1922 - 1999) who married Howard McCarter; Joseph Benjamin (J. B.) Young (1924-1994) who married Dortha Pauline Henderson; and Floyd James Young (1927-1984) who married Alice Kathleen Freeman.

Loujine’s father, Zeke Young, died when Loujine was just a year old. Her mother worked hard to keep house and home together and rear the children to be solid, productive citizens during the hard times of the Depression, World War II, and the children’s “growing up” years.

I met Loujine first when we both became students of Union County High School, Blairsville, in our “Fabulous Class of 1947”. I was a country girl who had gone to Choestoe Elementary School. Loujine was a “town girl,” having grown up in Blairsville, attending Blairsville Elementary. We enjoyed having classes together and developing a lasting friendship. Loujine stated in memoirs for the Class of 1947’s 50th Reunion Book distributed when we had a grand reunion in 1997 that she liked mathematics best of all her subjects, as “it helped her much in her later work.” We both have the late Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva to thank for our love for and whatever proficiency in math we have. Loujine was also athletic in nature, and played on the Union County girls’ basketball team.

In those years from 1943 through 1947 when we were in school, any basketball we played was on an outside court, for our school did not then have a gymnasium for our practice, games or athletic gatherings. In recalling those days of playing basketball, Loujine wrote, “When we went to schools with hardwood gym floors, our ball did some strange things. It was a challenge, but we still won games.”

Loujine and Vester Eugene “Gene” Shuler, son of Murphy Jane Fortenberry Shuler and Marion Shuler, were married July 17, 1948. The young couple settled down in northern Colorado in a town called Walden. Eugene worked as a maintenance supervisor and Loujine began her career as a postmaster at Walden in 1959, continuing that job for 33 years until her retirement on October 4, 1992.

Loujine and Eugene had two children, son Carl who married Patty Hines (a teacher) and Gwendolyn Shuler who married Kirk Hanson. Loujine delights in her grandchildren, Matthew Allen, Joie, and Adam Shuler and Jodie and Deanna Hanson. I haven’t a current count or names or number of great grandchildren (sorry, Loujine!).

Eugene, Loujine’s companion of more than sixty years, died October 30, 2007. Eugene was known for his hunting trips, they both liked to travel, and Eugene played his fiddle for many a gathering, especially the famed “Georgia Picnic” in Eaton, Colorado the last Sunday of August each year.

As postmaster at Walden, Colorado for 33 years, Loujine was well respected in the community and earned many rewards for her service as both postmaster and citizen. In 1990, the great Christmas Tree that was taken to Washington, D. C. to be placed on the White House lawn was gathered from near Walden. Loujine assisted with fundraising to get the tree transported and was able to go to Washington for its placement and lighting.

She also was active in preserving local history in Walden and received recognition for the special stamps, dyes and other items she promoted to help Walden be known throughout Colorado and even in the United States. This lady, well-reared by her beloved mother Birdie Ingram Young, and well-grounded in principles of faith, family and work ethic, went out from Union County and lighted up another place, a town called Walden. She and Eugene were active in Walden Baptist Church, and reared their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. In talking to Carl, their son, I find that he and his wife Patty enjoy providing music at worship services, Carl on guitar (having perhaps inherited his father’s love for producing instrumental music) and his wife Patty playing piano. So the talent goes on from Gene (and maybe Loujine, too) to the next generation.

In giving advice to the Class of 1947, Loujine said: “Enjoy life to the fullest each day you live. The golden years will be so full of fond memories you won’t have time for sadness.” My life has been enriched since 1943 by knowing Loujine Young Shuler. I am glad to call her friend, and happy for the fellowship we have enjoyed at class reunions and through other means in our “golden years.” Congratulations, Loujine, on reaching the milestone of 80 years. Best wishes for good health and continued happiness for you and yours. (And, as a reminder, remember to send Loujine a birthday card; we want to “shower” her with cards on her 80th!)

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 8, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

My Brother, My Hero, Francis Eugene Dyer

When death comes near a holiday, such as Christmas, it seems to hold an extra measure of sadness. My brother, my hero, Francis Eugene Dyer, drew his last breath on December 21, 2009 and was released from suffering and earthly restrictions. In reviewing his life, I was extremely proud to call him my brother, my hero. He will live in my heart and memory as long as I myself have breath—and, even beyond this life; I hope to rejoin him in Paradise.

He was born on February 25, 1921 in the farmhouse of his parents, Azie Collins Dyer (1895-1945) and Jewel Marion Dyer (1890-1974). In his ancestry on both sides of the family he descended from pioneer settlers who were in Union County in the early 1830s when the county was formed. Azie’s parents were Francis Jasper Collins (1855-1941) and Georgianne Hunter Collins (1855-1924). Azie’s grandparents on her father’s side were Frank Collins (1816-1864) and Rutha Nix Collins (1822-1893) and on her mother’s side were William Jonathan Hunter (1813-1893) and Margaret Elizabeth “Peggy” England Hunter (1819-1894). And Azie’s great grandparents were Thompson Collins (abt. 1785-abt. 1858) and Celia Self Collins (abt. 1787-1880) and John Hunter (1775-1848) and Elizabeth (last name unknown).

On his father’s side, Eugene’s ancestors were grandparents, Bluford Elisha (“Bud”) Dyer (1855-1926) and Sarah Eveline Souther Dyer (1857-1959). His great grandparents were James Marion Dyer (1823-1904) and Louisa Ingram Dyer (1827-1907); Little Ingram (1788-1866) and Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram (abt. 1793-abt. 1830); John Combs Hayes Souther (1827-1891) and Nancy Collins Souther (1829-1888). His great, great grandparents were Bluford Elisha Dyer, Jr. (abt. 1785–1847) and Elizabeth Clark Dyer (abt. 1788-1861); John Souther (1803-1889) and Mary “Polly” Combs Souther (1807-1894); John Little Ingram (abt 1755-1828) and Ruth White Ingram (abt 1758-abt 1849). John Ingram was a Revolutionary War Soldier.

With this list of ancestors, all of whom pioneered and settled land and became landowners, solid citizens, farmers, and some businessmen and teachers, we should not wonder that Eugene himself became a World War II soldier with a heroic and distinguished career, a businessman, a farmer and for 36 years a member of the Union County Board of Education. Family matters. Family helps to make us who and what we are. And he was, indeed, from “solid” stock.

Eugene Dyer served in the Army Air Force during World War II from September, 1942 through the end of the war. He was a bombardier in the famed Flying Fortress, B-24, serving in the Liberation Group of the 15th Army Air Force. He saw action in the European, African and Italian Theaters of War, participating in more than 400 combat missions. He was awarded the Soldier’s Medal of Heroism when he saved the life of a fellow flyer. He and the one he saved were the only survivors of the plane’s crew when its oxygen system was bombed out. Other decorations included the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with oak leaf clusters, the Good Conduct Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater War Ribbon with five campaign stars, and the Distinguished Unit Badge with two oak leaf clusters. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant. He spent fifteen months in Italy, much of which was in an army hospital recovering from severe injuries, the results of which were present with him the remainder of his life in the form of shrapnel in his legs. He can truly be termed a “hero,” a member of “The Greatest Generation.”

As a merchant, he operated a grocery, gasoline, feed, seed and fertilizer store from 1947 through 1989. He was known for his credit to farmers that badly needed his help to get their crops planted. In this respect, he followed the practice he had observed from his grandfather, Francis Jasper “Bud” Collins, who also had extended credit to hurting families during the Great Depression, and before and after.

As a school board member in Union County for 36 years, an elected office, he helped to make decisions that brought the school system from scattered country schools to strong consolidated schools, adequate and state-of-the-art buildings and equipment, and well-qualified teachers and administrators. Education was high on his list of priorities.

He was a family man. His wife Dorothy, his children Connie, Ivan and Tim, his grandchildren Jason, Alexandra and Emily, and his brothers and sisters and a host of cousins can all attest to his love, respect and reverence for family ideals and priorities.

And as a church man, he was quiet and often did not say much, but when he spoke on matters of building decisions, church finances, and expansion, he was heard and heeded. His devotion to Choestoe Baptist Church where he was a faithful member extended from boyhood through all of his adult life.

I wrote the following poem for my hero, my brother, in December, 2008, for Christmas. I am glad he was able to read it and know how I felt about him. I read it as a tribute to him at his funeral on December 23, 2009.

Going Out a Boy, Returning a Man
(For my hero, my brother, Eugene)

The call to arms came when he was but a lad,
A farm boy following the plow.
Defending one’s country couldn’t be bad;
That duty in patriotism called him now.

Hardly had he been beyond the hills
That tied him closely to his home;
Dearly he loved the farm, its rocks and rills,
And the seeds planted in the fertile loam.

Out beyond the mountains duty lay,
To boot camp, training, assignments read;
A gunner in a B-24 was to be his way,
And into European combat his path led.

Soon he learned what courage meant
Through sleepless nights and anxious days;
The enemy like a blast of locusts sent
Volleys into the blue untrammeled ways.

Came then the day when the plane crashed
And many were the casualties of war;
A boy no longer, a brave man lashed
Onto life and fought another kind of war—

A war to readjust when peace was signed,
Seeking to reestablish a solid way of life,
A way to make a difference, be refined
Amidst whatever came of peace or strife.

-Ethelene Dyer Jones

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

A tribute to Otis Cecil Dyer, Sr.

In the mists of grief as I remember one of my favorite cousins, I will recall that I heard of his death on October 31, 2005, Halloween. I will remember the circumstances of hearing the news.

My daughter and I had taken my husband, her father, the Rev. Grover D. Jones to Macon, Ga., for a 3:30 p.m. appointment with a dermatologist who specializes in MOHS surgery for skin cancer. The waiting room was full to overflowing because Dr. Kent was ill and his patients had been rescheduled to another doctor in the Dermatologic Diseases Group. My cell phone rang. When I answered, my sister Louise said, “Our Cousin Otis died a little while ago.”

We both knew he had been very sick and his death was expected. But Otis was only a month away from being a centenarian. He, his close family and cousins had hoped he would live to reach his 100th on December, 1, 2005. He died one month and one day shy of ten decades of a very good life. Somehow we though wise, good, gentlemanly Otis would be with us on and on with his sage but quiet advice, his encouragement, his genuine concern for people.

Otis Cecil Dyer was the first and only child born to Herschel Arthur Dyer (1880-1974) and his first wife, Sarah Rosetta Sullivan Dyer (1882-1920). Otis’s parents married January 5, 1904 and the next year, December 5, 1905, Otis came into their home. Early on, his parents told him of his ancestors who had been early settlers in the Choestoe Valley where the family lived. On his paternal Dyer side he went back to Elisha Jr. and Elizabeth Clark Dyer, James Marion and Eliza Louisa Ingram Dyer, and Bluford Elisha and Sarah Evaline Souther Dyer and on his paternal Souther side he descended from John and Mary “Polly” Combs Souther, John Combs Hayes and Nancy Collins Souther.

Otis’s father, Herschel, was a teacher, educated in county schools near his Choestoe home, and Young Harris College.

Otis’s mother, Sarah Rosetta, Sullivan, had descended from John and Elizabeth Hunter, builder of the Hunter-England old cabin. One of their sons, William, had married Margaret Elizabeth “Peggy” England and they were parents of Margaret Eliza Hunter (1852-1919) who married William L. Sullivan (1856-1897).

When Otis started to elementary school about age 5, he went to whichever school his father was teaching. Some of them were the Henson School (often known as the Wild Boar Institute), Old and New Liberty Schools, Track Rock School, and Choestoe School. When Otis was ready for high school, he attended the Blairsville Collegiate Institute and then Young Harris College. Later he would graduate from Piedmont College, Demorest, Ga., (BA.), the University of Georgia (MA). He did post-graduate work at the University of New York.

When Otis was 15, his mother died on February 27, 1920. She was buried at the Old Choestoe Cemetery near her parents. His father married, second, to Lillie Collins (1888-1975), a sister to his sister-in-law, Azie Collins Dyer, married to his brother Jewel Marion Dyer, and a sister to his brother-in-law, William Harve Collins, married to Herschel’s sister, Northa Maybell Dyer Collins. His stepmother was a loving mother to Otis and always treated him as she did her own children (and Otis’s half-siblings), Valera, India and H. A. Jr.

As a young man, Otis met his bride-to-be at the Blairsville Collegiate Institute. She was Margie Lee Cagle, daughter of Strawbridge and Edith Smith Cagle of Union County. Otis and Margie married November 5, 1927. With the Great Depression a near reality at the time of their marriage, they survived and built a strong home based on Christian principles and commitment.

Otis, the son of a teacher and seeing the example of a good teacher from his father, entered the teaching profession. At first he was a teacher in the Habersham County, Georgia School system and later a principal there.

In 1942, just as America was entering World War II, Otis became an employee of the Georgia Department of Education in the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. He was a counselor and later supervisor of Training and Placement Services. Otis retired from his position with Vocational Rehabilitation in 1969. Otis and Margie lived in Atlanta. She preceded him in death and was interred in the West View Cemetery, Atlanta.

Otis Dyer and Margie Cagle Dyer had three children, Harry Vaughn, Sarah Edith and Cecil Otis Jr. Sarah and Otis Jr. were twins, but the little boy lived only about 11 months. Otis delighted in his grandchildren, Margie Rose Dyer and Sarah Estelle Adams. He lived to enjoy five great grandchildren.

As his first cousin more the age of his son and daughter than Otis himself, I appreciate the encouragement Otis gave me at tough times in my life. When my mother died, I was one year younger than he had been when his own mother died. He knew how to give love and empathy, because his experience had been similar to mine. When I was struggling to get a college education without much money to support me, Otis encouraged me to keep my goals and press forward. When I became Dyer-Souther Family Historian, he told me many stories of our common ancestry, helping me to see and appreciate what a rich legacy we shared. If I could summarize Otis’s almost 100 years of life, I would use the adjective STALWART. He was a Christian gentleman always, serving as a deacon and in many other capacities in the church. He was a teacher and counselor, a lover of family, and a friend whose loyalty did not waver. Chaucer wrote in his Canterbury Tales: “And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach.” And Henry Adams, American educator, wrote: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” These quotations characterize Otis Cecil Dyer Sr., stalwart to the end.

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

England siblings settled in Union

Jonathan (called “Athan”) England, Daniel England and Margaret Elizabeth (called “Peggy”) England were all children of William Richard England and Martha (called “Patsy”) Montgomery England. They married and settled near each other “over the mountain” from Helen on the former Cherokee land after it became Union County in 1832.

Taking these three children of Richard England (who died in 1835 and was buried in the England Cemetery at Helen, Ga.) in order, we will trace a bit of these siblings’ history.

Jonathan “Athan” England (9/26/1815-10/6/1893) was born in North Carolina, the first-born of Richard and Martha England. In Union County marriage records, Athan is listed as Arthur. He married Nancy Ingram (born 4/13/1823 in Hall County, Ga., died 6/24/1897) who was one of the ten children born to Little Ingram and his first wife, Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram. Their neighbor and Nancy’s brother-in-law, married to Nancy’s older sister, Sarah Ingram, was Justice of the Peace Thompson Collins Jr. He performed the marriage ceremony for “Athan” and Nancy on April 15, 1860.

Athan England’s farm was in the Owltown District. A portion of that now owned by Georgia Mountain Experiment Station was once farmed along the Nottely River by Athan England. He and Nancy had five children: C. E. England (1861), Tom P. England (1862), Richard Little England (1863), William H. England (1865) and John E. England (1867). Notice that Athan’s children were born just prior to, during and just after the Civil War. This writer does not have a record of whether Athan served in the war. At any rate, the general upheaval and unrest during the period did not provide a good environment for rearing a family of five children. Many of their crops and goods would have been confiscated by roving bands set on stealing and marauding. Athan and Nancy England were buried in the Shady Grove Church Cemetery where readable tombstones mark their resting places.

Daniel England (b. 1818 in NC, d. 1897 in Union Co., Ga.) was the second child of Richard and Martha England. He left the Helen Valley and went across the mountain to Choestoe District prior to the Civil War. He married Harriet E. (Elizabeth?) Hunter (1821, NC ?) in Union County on December 29, 1842. She was a daughter of John and Elizabeth Hunter who had moved their family from Buncombe County, N.C., to the Choestoe District of Union County prior to or about the time the county was formed. In 1834, John Hunter began building the cabin that still stands (in very bad repair) just off Highway 129 South about eight miles from Blairsville. Family legend about the Hunter family is that some had to stand watch to fight off the Indians because the white men had moved onto their lands and were erecting permanent dwellings. Some believe that Daniel England built the cabin. He and his family did not build it, but lived in it. Overlooking the Nottley River and with good land to farm, John Hunter was set to be able to care for his family. After John Hunter’s death, evidently his son-in-law, Daniel England and his daughter, Harriet Hunter England, moved into the cabin to help look after Harriet’s mother, the widow Elizabeth Hunter. That is how the historical house got the name Hunter-England cabin. Daniel and Harriet England had ten children, the first four born in North Carolina and the last six born in Georgia: John Richard (1843), Martha (1845), Mary Amanda (1847), Harriet (1849); William Andrew (1852), Thomas Noah (1855), Exton Virgil (1856, called “Eck”), Margaret (1859), James A. Polk (1862), and Emma Jane (1866).

Athan and Daniel England’s sister, Margaret Elizabeth (called “Peggy,” born in North Carolina in 1819, died Union County, 1894), married in 1839 to William Jonathan Hunter (1813-1893), son of John and Elizabeth Hunter. He was a brother to Daniel’s wife, Harriet. In 1840, William Jonathan Hunter began building a frame house near Town Creek not far from where it emptied into the Nottley River. That house, where several generations of Hunters have lived since William Jonathan’s time, is still standing just off Liberty Church Road, Choestoe. To William and Peggy England Hunter were born ten known children: Martha J. (1840), Mary E. (1842), John A. (1844), James A. (1847), Amanda Rebecca (1849), Margaret Eliza (1852), Willliam J. (1854), Georgianne (1855), Josephine (1858), Jerome (1861) and Jasper Francis “Todd” (1863).

These three England siblings were progenitors of Union County citizens almost too numerous to number. Through the years since the 1800s when the above-listed families first came to claim lands along the Nottely River, descendants of Englands, Ingrams and Hunters have proliferated and led out in many professions.

c2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Oct. 27, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Tracing more Townsend ties

With the disaster of Katrina and that hurricane’s aftermath, the thousands dislodged from their homes, the hundreds injured and killed, and with statistics and losses still rising, it is difficult to pull away from reports of the present catastrophe long enough to return to a quieter time and trace connections through the mists of time.

The ties to Eli Townsend and Sarah Elizabeth (Sally) Dyer Townsend’s descendants are so numerous that to trace them all would take a long book. For the benefit of this short column, I will focus today on a child of Eli and Sally’s first child, Andrew (Andrew Crockett Townsend, Sr.) and trace connections through Andrew’s sixth child, Elizabeth, who married William Jackson Shuler.

Elizabeth Townsend Shuler (Feb. 1, 1861-June 9, 1947) grew up in a household of seven children. They were the children of Andrew Townsend (1826-?) and Malinda Ingram Townsend (1829-1903). Malinda’s parents were John Little Ingram and Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram. The marriage of Andrew and Malinda brought together two early-settler families of Union County.

Elizabeth’s siblings were Thompson L. (known as “Bud”) Townsend; Thomas Simpson (known as “Simp”) Townsend who married Ruthie West and Wilda Hood; Nancy J. Townsend (who married Thomas N. England); Amanda Jane (who married Enoch Chapman Hood).; Andrew Crockett Jr. (who married Myra Anne Duckworth, Mary Duckworth, and Mary Hunter); and Clarasie Townsend (who married Joshua Columbus Fortenberry).

The story of Elizabeth Townsend Shuler and William Jackson Shuler is told in the book by their third child, the Rev. Edward Leander Shuler, entitled Blood Mountain: An Historical Story about Choestoe and Choestoeans. To the union of Elizabeth and Jack Shuler were born 14 children, all but two of whom grew to adulthood and married. Two sets of twin girls were among the 14 children. The children grew into productive citizens, two becoming ministers, five choosing to be teachers and the others following other vocations.

In order of birth the 14 children were: Allen Candler Shuler (April 19, 1883-Sept. 1, 1967) married Lillian Lipscomb and Louise Rogers. William T. (Sept 8, 1884-April 16, 1901) died at age 16; Edward Leander (March 15, 1886-?) married Laura Collins (sister to Dr. M.D. Collins, Georgia’s long-time State Superintendent of Schools); Benjamin Franklin (Feb. 14, 1888-March 7, 1978) married Gertrude Wilson (March 27,1892-March 6, 1980). They were educators, she teaching mainly at Union County High School and Frank serving for 20 years as Superintendent of Union County Schools. He was a founding director of the Union County Bank. Andrew Harve (1889-?) married Ophelia Maddox. Della (1891 ?) married J. M. Chastain. Lydia Jane (1893-1967) married Lester Stovall. Ruth (1894-1948) married Epp L. Russell. Ada and Ida, twins, (born April 21, 1897, death dates unknown); Ada married Ralph Cavender and Ida married Herbert Jones. Alice (March 27, 1899-March 21, 1989) married James I. Wilson, a brother to her sister-in-law, Gertrude Wilson Shuler. Henry Grady (Dec. 31, 1900 ? June 16, 1901) was buried at Union Baptist Church Cemetery. Twins Myrtle and Bert, known as Mert and Bert, were born February 10, 1904. Mert married Watson Collins. She was a teacher. She died January 29, 1988. Bert married Joseph Warnie Dyer. She died May 31, 1987. The twins Mert and Bert and their spouses were interred at the Choestoe Baptist Church Cemetery.

In his book recounting life at the Jack Shuler farm along the Logan Turpike, Edward Shuler tells about the Ponder Post Office being in a portion of their house and of travelers stopping by to spend the night and take the supper meal and breakfast with the Shulers and rest their mules or horses before going on to Blairsville or to Cleveland, depending on whether they were traveling north or south. The Shuler boys helped their father keep the Logan Turnpike, the major trade route in those days, in repair by removing brush, filling in potholes, and shoring up the roadbed. Never knowing when guests might arrive unannounced, Elizabeth Townsend Shuler always seemed ready to give them a good mountain meal of cured meat, vegetables, cornbread and biscuits, and fruit cobbler or apple stack cake for dessert. Jack Shuler also had a country store. He and his wife were founding members of the Union Baptist Church.

Even though their formal education was only in the oneteacher schools of the communities where they grew up, they were ambitious for their children to get an education. The girls went to the Blairsville Collegiate Institute. The boys attended Hiawassee Academy. Beyond these institutions, the children on their own pursued further college education. Two sons, Allen Candler and Benjamin Franklin served in World War I and were deployed to France.

When surveying was in progress for the right-of-way for Highway 129, Jack Shuler “walked many miles with the surveyors over the hollows and around the cliffs out in the Blue Ridge…on Oak Mountain …above Harkins old fields over in White County…at Tesnatee Gap…by Cow Rock and Camp Branch to Frogtown Gap…northward along Wolf Creek and down under Blood Mountain.” (Shuler, “Blood Mountain,” p. 142) The road was finished and opened in 1925. It took the place of the old Logan Turnpike, and the laborious work Mr. Shuler and his boys had done to keep the old road open was no longer necessary. Jack Shuler built his third house in “Lower Choestoe” close to the new highway, but he always longed to return to the Hood Chapel and Union Church Community where he and Elizabeth Townsend Shuler had reared their large family. They were interred in the cemetery at Union Church. Their tombstones read: Elizabeth Townsend Shuler (Feb. 1, 1861Jun. 9, 1947); William Jackson Shuler (June 14, 1860-July 4, 1936).

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published September 8, 2005 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Some Ingrams and Their Spouses

We have, for two weeks, written about the families of John Little Ingram (1788-1866) and his father, Revolutionary War soldier, also named John Little Ingram (1755-1828). It is interesting to note some of the marriages of descendants of these Ingrams and see how the marriages linked Ingrams to other early settler families of Union County, Georgia.

Sarah (better known as Sally) Ingram (1820- ?) was the fourth child of John Little Ingram (1788-1866) and his first wife, Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram (1793-1829-30?). Sally Ingram married Thompson Collins, Jr. (1818- ?). “Thompie,” as he was known, was a son of early settlers Thompson Collins (1785-1858) and Celia Self Collins (1787-1880). Thompie and Sally did not have any children; at least, not any who lived to adulthood. Thompie Collins had a large portion of farmland near the Notla River from holdings his father had claimed in the 22,000 acres that once belonged to the elder Thompson Collins.

Thompie developed the land and had one of the largest apple orchards known then in the Choestoe District along what is now Collins Road on a rise between the present Wilonell Collins Dyer property and what was the Jewel Marion Dyer property.

Thompie Collins was, for many years, a justice of the peace for the Choestoe District. In viewing early Union County marriage records, the name of Thompson Collins appears often as officiant of marriages in the community.

Nancy Ingram (1823-1897) was the sixth child of John Little and Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram. She married Athan England (1815-1893), a son of William Richard England (1770-1835) and Martha “Patsy” Montgomery England (178-1865). Richard England’s parents were Daniel (1752-1818) and Margaret Gwynn England (1758-1847). During the Revolutionary War, Daniel England performed patriotic service by operating his iron foundry at his large plantation on Hunting Creek near Morganton, NC, for the war effort. When some of the England children migrated to what is now White County (then Habersham) during the gold rush of 1828, Margaret, widowed, went with them. When Richard and Martha England settled in Choestoe, Union County, in the early 1830’s, Margaret England moved with them. Margaret’s is said to be the first grave in the old Choestoe Church Cemetery. Athan and Nancy Ingram England had these children: California E. England, Tom P. England, Richard Little England, William H. England, and John E. England. Athan and Nancy lived on a farm in the area that is now the Georgia Mountain Experiment Station off Highway 129/19 south of Blairsville.

Eliza Louisa Ingram (1827-1907) was the eighth child of John Little and Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram. She married James Marion Dyer (1823-1904) on June 18, 1846. They lived on a farm on Cane Creek, Choestoe, where James Marion’s parents, Bluford Elisha Dyer, Jr. (1780-1845) and Elizabeth Clark Dyer (1785-1861) had settled in the early 1830’s. James Marion and Louisa Ingram Dyer had a large family of twelve children: Harriet Emaline who married Carr Colllins; Joseph G. who married Polly Turner; Micager C. (“Buck”) who married Josephine Henson; Archibald C. Young who married Hannah Jane Wimpey; James C. Dyer, died at age two; Bluford Elisha Dyer who married Sarah Evaline Souther; Nancy “Sis” Dyer who married William Hunter; Elizabeth Caroline “Hon” Dyer who married William Albert Souther; Jefferson Beauregard Dyer who married Rhoda Souther; Francis Marion Dyer who married Molly Dyer and Helen Dann; Mary Dyer, died young; and James C. Dyer who married Malissa Swain.

Malinda Ingram (1829- ?) was the ninth child of John Little and Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram. She married Andrew Townsend, son of Eli and Sarah “Sally” Dyer Ingram. Andrew Townsend, along with his father, Eli, served in the Texas War for Independence against Mexico, and was honorably discharged from the service of the United States on July 13, 1848 at Mobile, Alabama. For his service, Andrew Townsend received 160 acres of bounty land. Malinda and Andrew Townsend had these children: Thompson L. “Bud” Townsend who never married; Thomas Simpson “Simp” Townsend who married Ruthie West and Wilda Hood; Nancy J. Townsend who married Thomas N. England; Amanda Jane Townsend who married Enoch Chapman Hood; Andrew Crockett Townsend, Jr., who married Myra Anne Duckworth, Mary Duckworth and Mary Hunter; Elizabeth Townsend who married William Jackson Shuler; and Clarasie Townsend who married Joshua Columbus Fortenberry.

Since these daughters of John Little Ingram (Sally, Nancy, Louisa and Malinda) are only four of the twenty-one children of John Little Ingram who grew to adulthood, these families comprise only a small portion of Ingram descendants. If you can make your own kinship connection back to any of these, you share in a rich heritage of Ingrams who reach back to England, Wales and Scotland before migrating to the New World in the late 1600’s.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published June 16, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Revolutionary War Patriot John Little Ingram

John Little Ingram, Union County, Georgia early settler, the subject of last week’s column, with his twenty-one children reared to adulthood, was a son of Revolutionary War patriot John Little Ingram of South Carolina.

The records on the father of John Little Ingram born about 1755 in South Carolina are hard to determine. Since John seems a common given name for Ingrams, we note several John Ingrams who immigrated from England to Virginia. The first among these came in November, 1643 and claimed 300 acres in Elizabeth City. Another John Ingram settled in Virginia in 1652, the third in 1656, and the fourth in 1662. A Joseph Ingram immigrated in 1652. Two Richard Ingrams settled in Virginia, one in 1642, another in 1653. Toby Ingram arrived in Virginia in 1653. An indentured servant, who had to work seven years before he received his freedom, was William Ingram transported from Kent, England to Virginia on the ship “Forward Gally” in December, 1731.

On March 1, 1790, President George Washington signed into law the Census Act and ordered a compilation by heads of households of citizens in the thirteen states of the Union. There were 104 families of Ingrams (also spelled Ingraham) enumerated that year in eleven of the thirteen states, with none listed in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. North Carolina had the largest concentration with 32 Ingram (Ingraham) families, South Carolina had thirteen and Virginia had thirteen.

A year after his order to enumerate the colonists in the first US Census, President George Washington made a trip to South Carolina. His diary entry of May 26, 1791 stated that he “lodged at James Ingram’s fourteen miles farther” from Camden, SC. Further entries in President Washington’s diary show that “Mr. Porter and Mr. Ingraham” “dined and spent the night at Mt. Vernon (January 16, 1787). Between that date and July 21, 1788, the said “Ingraham and Porter” again were guests of Washington on these dates in 1788: January 20, February 3, 13, 15, 28 and July 21. They seem to have enjoyed the president’s Mt. Vernon hospitality and, on February 15, a fox hunt with a distinguished guest, the Marquis de Choppedelaine of France. Whether this James Ingram of South Carolina, friend of George Washington, was a brother or other close relative of John Little Ingram, research has not proved.

Later, on March 4, 1795, Washington again spent the night in the home of James Ingram near Camden, SC on the Wateree River. James may have been a son of William Ingram who settled on land at the Wateree River in 1752.

That William Ingram migrated from Wales to Virginia. He asked for and received a land grant in South Carolina. The land is described thus: “Persuant to a precept to me by George Hunter, Esq., bearing date 7 April 1752, I have measured and laid out a tract of land containing 300 acres, being in Craven County, north side of the Wateree River butting and adjoining land laid out to William Harrison and part of vacant land and to the N. E. and S. E. of vacant land, and hath such shape and marks as the above plat. Certified to me this 23 day of April 1752. (Signed William Ingram).

That William Ingram had three known sons named John, James and Arthur. It seems reasonable (though not proven) that John Little Ingram of Union County, SC could have been the John Little Ingram, Revolutionary War soldier, and the James Ingram the friend who had received President George Washington into his home on the Wateree and who was also entertained by the president at Mt. Vernon. However, Watson Benjamin Dyer in his research on the Ingrams stated that “John Ingram was evidently the son of Benjamin Ingram of Lancaster County, SC, because there were boys named Benjamin on down in the family” (p. 390, Dyer Family History). Since we have not seen a definitive record of the parentage of John Little Ingram, born about 1755 in South Carolina, we can only surmise who his father was, but this writer tends to lean toward William Ingram as the father.

Wedding bells rang for Rutha White and John Ingram in 1778. They were married at Fair Forest Baptist Church in Union County, SC, with the Rev. James Crowder, Rutha’s pastor, performing the ceremony. Married only two years after America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776, John Little Ingram, Sr. was caught up, as were his neighbors, in the spirit of patriotism sweeping the colonies. He enlisted as a private in Captain John Putnam’s Company of South Carolina militia, Colonel Brandon’s Regiment. His service number was R-5483.

Years later, when Rutha White Ingram applied for a pension for her husband’s Revolutionary War service, she recorded that he was in the Siege of Charleston, and the Battles of King’s Mountain and Cowpens. The Charleston Siege confrontation with British and Loyalist forces ended in great disappointment. Fought from March 29 through May 12, 1780, Patriot Major General Lincoln surrendered Charleston. It was occupied by British forces until the British evacuated Charleston On December 14, 1782.

Ingram fought at the Battle of King’s Mountain, SC, on October 7, 1780. Frontier militia from South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia converged and surrounded Patrick Ferguson’s forces, defeating them. King’s Mountain was a turning point in the Revolution, a decisive victory for the American Patriots.

Three months later, on January 17, 1781, John Ingram was with the militia forces under the notable Patriot Brigadier General Daniel Morgan as they attacked General Banastre Tarleton’s forces of British Regulars at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina. Historians have recognized that battle as one of the most important of the American Revolution. It was customary for militia members to sign on for three month terms and fight in battles near their homes. Those frontier soldiers bravely defended America, turning the tide of war and leading to the surrender of British General Cornwallis on October 19, 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia.

After the war, John and Rutha Ingram moved from their home at Padgett’s Creek, Union County, SC, to a land grant received for his Revolutionary War service in what was then Franklin County, Georgia. The area where they settled became Hall County in 1819, in the vicinity of what is now Lula, Georgia. There the patriot John Ingram died September 16, 1828. Even though his widow, Rutha White Ingram, made petitions for pension, she did not receive any payment for her husband’s Revolutionary War service. Rutha White Ingram died at the home of her son, Tillman Ingram, in Cherokee County, Georgia near Ball Ground (date unknown), but she was alive at age 89 in 1847, still applying for a widow’s pension. The pension quest did not rest with Rutha’s death. John Little Ingram, son and executor, of Union County, Georgia, made petition for himself and Tillman Ingram and Elizabeth Riley Ingram, three living children of the patriot, on October 26, 1852. Like their mother Rutha’s petition, this one was also denied.

Many descendants of John Ingram have established a direct line to this patriot and received admission into the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution. Even though Rutha White Ingram did not receive monetary remuneration in the years of her widowhood, subsequent intrinsic benefits to their heirs in past, present and future generations are testimony to the significant contributions this couple made to America’s freedom.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published June 9, 2005 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.

Arthur Woody, Forest Ranger Extraordinary

Ranger Arthur Woody
From sketch by artist Mary Beth Stager

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Look at Thompson Collins, Jr.

The two previous articles have traced early settler Thompson Collins, Sr. (ca 1785- ca 1858) and his wife, Celia Self Collins (ca 1787- Sept. 3, 1880). This article will take a look at the fifth of their ten children, Thompson Collins, Jr., known as Thompie.

Characteristics common to the early settlers of Union County were a spirit of independence, unprecedented loyalty, common decency and hard work. These traits were passed to subsequent generations and taught by precept and example. To survive in the land they were carving from the wilderness required exercise of these traits and more. We see them in the life and times of Thompson Collins, Jr.

Thompson, Jr. was born in Buncombe County, NC in November, 1818. He was seven when his parents migrated to Habersham County, Georgia about 1825 and was a young teenager when they settled in the Choestoe Valley of Union County in the 1830’s.

He married Sarah (known as Sallie) Ingram in 1839. She was a daughter of Little and Mary “Polly” Cagle Ingram who migrated from the Pendleton District of South Carolina to the area around Lula, Georgia, Hall County. Later, after Mary’s death, Little Ingram moved to Union County. (The story of this family and their place in Union history will come in subsequent articles.) Thompson and Sarah’s marriage joined two noted early settler families.

Thompson and Sarah Ingram Collins had no children. If they did, they died in infancy. There is no census record of children born to them. We do not know the death dates of this couple, as they were interred at the Old Choestoe Cemetery with field stone grave markers. Birth and death dates have long been obliterated if, indeed, they were ever on the stones.

Thompson Collins, Jr. served for several years as a Justice of the Peace for the Choestoe District. This local magistrate in the nineteenth century had the legal authority to perform marriages, to administer oaths, to hear and settle minor cases of infractions of the law, and to refer more serious cases for trial in a larger court.

A perusal of a very valuable historical resource, “Union County Marriage Records, 1833 -1897” compiled from original court house records by Viola Holden Jones, gives valuable insights into this “marrying” justice of the peace, Thompson Collins, Jr. (although Jr. was not attached to his name then).

The first marriage on record performed by Justice of the Peace Thompson Collins was on November 2, 1854 when he joined Harriet Cannon and Francis M. Tanner. Tanner was a son of Revolutionary War soldier Michael Tanner whose grave is in the Old Choestoe Cemetery.

On February 28, 1875, Thompson Collins officiated at the marriage ceremony of my grandparents, Bluford Elisha Dyer (1855-1926) to Sarah Evaline Souther (1857-1959). In reading the marriage records, it is interesting to note how many of the second and third generation Union citizens were joined in marriage by Thompson Collins. In the record, running concurrently with entries with Thompson Collins spelled out, were marriages performed by T. Collins. It is now a matter of speculation as to whether these designations were for the same person.

Thompson, Jr. and Sarah Ingram Collins settled on some of the acreage owned first by his father, Thompson Collins, Sr. whose domain stretched over 22,000 acres. The bottom land along the Notla River in Choestoe District was prime farming land on which Thompson, Jr. grew abundant crops of corn and sorghum cane. On the hillsides he planted apple trees that grew into a very productive orchard. Neighbors and kin were invited to partake of the orchard’s bounty and gather apples for drying on scaffolds in the sun for winter’s use. Also to preserve the apples to have fresh for Christmas, the best and tastiest from the crop were wrapped in paper and stored in barrels. These provided fresh fruit treats in the dead of winter. Thompson also gathered loads of apples to haul by mule and wagon to Gainesville over the Logan Turnpike through Tesnatee Gap. These apples were bartered for supplies not grown on the Collins farm.

Thompson and Sarah built their house on a hillside overlooking the Notla River. The location was on present-day Collins Road. Going north from the former Marion Dyer residence, it was on the right on the hill about half way between the Dyer house and the present house owned by Wilonell Collins Dyer. We can imagine that Sarah Collins fastidiously kept the house with pride, as many people made their way to the Collins home to be married or to have the justice of the peace hear grievances.

About 1920, my father, Jewel Marion Dyer (1890-1974) purchased land from his brother, Albert Dyer (1877-1962) who moved to White and then to Habersham County.
This was the land owned formerly by Thompson Collins, Jr. It is interesting to see the double relationship here to my parents, Jewel Marion Dyer and Azie Collins Dyer.
Sarah “Sally” Ingram Collins was my father’s great aunt, a sister to his grandmother, Louisa Ingram Dyer who married James Marion Dyer, parents of Bluford Elisha Dyer.
Thompson Collins, Jr. was my mother’s great uncle, brother to her grandfather, Francis (known as Frank) Collins, who was, in turn, a son of the first Thompson Collins and Celia Self Collins. These relationships show how closely interrelated were the people of Choestoe District, Union County, Georgia.

When I was growing up on the old Thompson Collins, Jr. farm, then owned by my father, we still enjoyed a fall harvest of apples from the trees planted by Thompson Collins, Jr. As did the couple who started the orchard, we, too, dried the apples for winter use and packed the best in barrels for Christmas treats. I was fortunate to own a little over six acres of the old Thompson Collins estate. Recently, I passed the land on to my own children. They know the history of the land, and how generations have viewed it as the land of promise, as sacred to generations as the biblical land “flowing with milk and honey.” Thompson Collins and his son, Thompson, Jr. helped to make it so—long ago.

c2004 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published December 2, 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Thompson and Celia Self Collins Family (Part II)

With our nation celebrating Thanksgiving and our family members together for the traditional turkey feast and all its trimmings, this is a happy time. One of the items on my gratitude list is the marvelous heritage we enjoy, thanks to the sacrifices and hardships our ancestors endured. May we never take for granted the price they paid that we might enjoy freedom, plenty, and security. We can still learn much from their example. I hope we will never forget, ever be grateful.

We began in last week’s column to chronicle Thompson Collins (ca. 1785-ca. 1858) and his wife Celia Self Collins (ca. 1787-Sept. 3, 1880). He had large land holdings along the French Broad and Mills Rivers and McDowell’s Creek in Buncombe County, North Carolina. In 1822, a general migration of people from that area moved to Habersham County, Georgia. A paper on the migration given at “a lawn party” at the home of Henry Williams in Nacoochee Valley in 1822 lists sixty-two different families who made the migration and settled on lands they secured either by lottery or by purchasing from the Indians prior to their removal to western lands. Thompson and Celia Collins were not in this migration of 62 families originating mainly in Burke and Rutherford Counties, NC.

Two years later, in 1824, Thompson Collins purchased 250 acres of land in Habersham (now White) County, District Four, Land Lot 27. He paid $300 for the land to Daniel L. Richardson of Hancock County, Georgia. The latter probably received it in a land lottery, did not plan to move to the mountains, and sold it instead. Thompson and Celia lived on this land which is now where Loudsville Church is located in White County.

He added 250 acres to his holdings on December 1, 1827 when he purchased from R. M. Richardson of Walton County, GA in Land Lot 28, 4th District for $20.00.

Gold fever struck when nuggets were found at Duke’s Creek in 1828. Whether Thompson Collins ever dug for gold is uncertain. However records in the Habersham County Court house show that he sold fifty of the above-listed acres to Charles P. Gordon of Putnam County, Georgia from Lot # 27 “next to Collins Field” for gold mining. The price he received for the sale was $200.

Thompson Collins’ next land transaction was a purchase of 250 acres in Lot # 75, 4th District, from Averette Bonner of Putnam County for $100.

On February 9, 1831, three prospectors, Elijah Reid, James P. Heath and Michael Brown made a mortgage to Thompson Collins for $200 on parts of Land Lots 27 and 28, District 4, for the purpose of mining.

Another 250 acres was purchased May 18, 1831 from Thomas J. Rush in District 4, Lot # 71 for $150.00.

Collins sold to the said Reid, Heath and Brown for $400 in land lots 27 and 28, 250 acres, “except for 50 acres sold to Charles P. Gordon.”

Collins received from Lewis Clark to secure a debt of $846.30 which Clark owed him the following, delivered to him in person: Negro slaves: a woman named Betsy about 25 years old; Lucy, a girl about 16 years old; Henry, a boy about 8 years old; Patience, a girl about 6; Bill, a boy about 4. The slaves were delivered April 2, 1833 and the transaction was recorded in Habersham County records on August 15, 1833.

Thompson Collins and Henry Turner sold to Francis Logan parts of lots 45, 46 and 51 in District Four (Habersham) and lot 51 in Lumpkin County for $900. Jesse Souther and Olaf Collins were witnesses to the legal transaction. On part of this land, Francis Logan built the Logan Turnpike, a toll road that led from the Choestoe Valley in Union County across Tesnatee Gap and down into present-day White County. This toll road operated until Neal Gap Highway (Hwy 129) was opened in 1925.

The move across the mountain to Choestoe District occurred in the early 1830’s, possibly by the time Union County was formed in 1832. Thompson and Celia Collins were in the 1834 (first) Union County census. By the 1849 tax digest, Thompson Collins owned land in Union, Gilmer, Habersham, and Lumpkin Counties. In District 16 of Union County he owned 2,270 acres. Current owners of land in Lots 82, 95, 96, 112, 117, 118, 121 and 134 in Union County have land once owned by Thompson Collins. In 1849 he owned seven slaves and in 1850 five slaves. It is believed that, upon their deaths, some of these slaves were interred in the Old Choestoe Cemetery, Union County.

The Thompson Collins family made their home on land along Choestoe Creek. Six of their ten children were born in Buncombe County, NC before they moved to Habersham County, Georgia. The remaining four were born in Georgia. Children and their spouses were: Archibald Collins (1811) married Mary “Polly” Nix (1818); Sarah “Sallie” Collins (1812) married Jarrett Turner (1806); Elizabeth “Betsy” Collins (1814-1856) married James Nix (1812); Francis (Frank) Collins (1816-1846) married Rutha Nix (1822-1893); Thompson “Thompie” Collins (1818) married Sarah “Sallie” Ingram (1817); Ruth Collins (1820) married Jacob “Jake” Butt (1808); Celia Collins (1826) married James West (1812); Nancy Collins (1829-1888) married John Combs Hayes Souther (1827-1891); Olive Collins (1831-1853) married Robert “Bob” McCoy (1826); and Ivan Kimsey Collins (1835-1901) married Martha J. Hunter (1840-1920).

In 1834 the first extant minutes of Choestoe Baptist Church list Thompson and Celia Collins as members. They were interred in the Old Choestoe Church Cemetery where descendants erected a monument in recent years on which the names of the couple’s children are listed.

c2004 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published November 25, 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.