This Old House

"Did you know that the old Hunter-England Cabin is being torn down?"

So was the distressed call I received last week about the old cabin beside Highway 129/19 at Choestoe, which had been a landmark as long as any of us can remember, and much longer.

Legend holds that John Hunter (b. c1775 in VA, moved to Buncombe County, NC, then to Union Co., GA; d. 1848 in Union County, GA) built the cabin about 1832 (no later than 1834).

The Cherokee were still residents of the area. A story passed down in the family is that John Hunter and other workers who built the cabin had to ward off Indians who looked with disfavor upon those of light skin building a dwelling beside the Nottely River on land that had been hunting grounds and home for the Cherokee for untold generations.

"That's such an historical house. Isn't there something that can be done to prevent its being torn down?" another distressed caller asked me.

My response to him was that we as citizens and lovers-of-history had neglected to get the old house officially on the Register of Historic Places. Our hands were somewhat tied as to what we could do, outside of having the money for the price being asked for the cabin- which was destined for tearing down and removal.

It was obvious by the telephone calls and emails to me that many in Union County and descendants of the Hunter-England families for whom the cabin was originally named were "up in arms" about what was happening with the ancestral home.

As a lifetime member of the Union County Historical Society, and as a descendant of those pioneer settlers, John Hunter and Daniel England, I wanted to do what I could, albeit long-distance, to assure that the cabin would not be razed and lost to posterity. We had such a little bit of time to really take action.

The Hunter-England Cabin

I thought of what a landmark the cabin was in my growing-up years. I grew up "across the Nottely River" (on the east side) from the Hunter-England cabin. But my mother's portion of land from her father, Francis Jasper "Bud" Collins, was acreage that adjoined the land on which the Hunter-England cabin was built. When my sister, Louise, married Ray Dyer, they built their first house across the highway from the cabin. In those days, when I walked a footlog across the Nottely in the short-cut from our farm to my sister's new house near the old cabin, I went by the old house on each trip to visit my sister's family. In those days, the old cabin was occupied, rented to people we knew, other kin who always invited me in to warm by the cabin's fireplace or take a friendly meal in the little lean-to kitchen that had been built onto the old cabin. "This old house" was a fixture in our community, a place built a hundred years before I was born. It's sturdiness seemed to assure all of us in the community that it would be around forever.

I thought about John Hunter and Daniel England, my ancestors. John Hunter moved his family from the Mills River Section of North Carolina, then Buncombe County, and later named Henderson County. In the ones coming to Georgia with John and his wife, Elizabeth, were sons Andrew, William Johnson, and Jason Henderson, and daughters Harriet and Martha. Later, his daughter Rebecca, who had married Samuel Riley Lance in North Carolina, also came to Georgia and settled near her father and mother. It is through Samuel Riley and Rebecca Hunter Lance that our noted Union County poet, Byron Herbert Reece, traces his lineage through his mother, Emma Lance Reece. Settler John Hunter was the great, great, great grandfather of the poet.

John Hunter's son, William Johnson Hunter (1813-1893), married Margaret Ann ("Peggy") England, daughter of William Richard and Martha "Patsy" Montgomery England. She was a granddaughter of Daniel and Margaret Gwynn (Guinn) England.

Daniel England was noted as a patriot, giving aid during the Revolutionary War from his iron foundry in North Carolina. William and Peggy married in Habersham County in 1839. In 1840, they built their house not too far from William's father's cabin. That house, said to be one of the first built of planed lumber in the Choestoe area, still stands today on Liberty Church Road. It was the ancestral home of many Hunter descendants, including 103-year old noted teacher, Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva. It is through one of the ten children of William and Peggy England Hunter that I trace my ancestry to John Hunter, the cabin builder. Their daughter, Georgianne Hunter, married Francis Jasper Collins, and they became my grandparents through my mother, Azie Collins Dyer.

When John Hunter died in 1848, he was buried in the Old Salem Cemetery on a mountain directly up from the cabin he built. It is a sad commentary, indeed, to think that the long-time landmark will no longer be on land near his final resting place.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 3, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Tornado Fells Monument of Gov. Brown

The usual quiet and peaceful Oakland Cemetery which lies a few blocks east of Georgia's Capitol was hit violently by the Friday evening, March 14, 2008 tornado that cut a swath of destruction through the city of Atlanta.

Damages to the cemetery alone are estimated at $4 million, but evaluation of the destruction has not yet been completed. This site, on the National Register of Historic Places, will be given keen attention in the restoration process.

Giant trees which were left intact when the cemetery was founded in 1850 were uprooted by the violent storm. Magnolia trees were scalped and tall memorial obelisks were grounded. The debris and chaos to the once peaceful walking paths have left behind grim reminders of the fast-moving tornado that swept through the cemetery in 30 seconds, swift and destructive.

The time, and fear, were all experienced by Mr. Sam Reed who has been sexton of the cemetery for a decade. He had gone back to the bell tower in the middle of the cemetery to get an item he had left. The storm struck while he was there, with no time for him to take cover. Fortunately, he was unharmed, and amazingly, the bell tower remained intact. He was able to measure the tornado's intensity as only a brief thirty seconds, but seemingly an eternity as he cowered in its wake.

On the cemetery's western edge, the monuments to Georgia's Governor Joseph Emerson Brown and his wife Elizabeth Grisham Brown lie in pieces, the tall statue of the Angel Gabriel broken and sundered, the other two angels damaged, and Mrs. Brown's gravestone with her picture sculpted in stone is now cutting a deep dent in Oakland's soil.

This four-time governor of Georgia, from 1857-1865, during the hard period leading up to and during the Civil War, had brought pride with his life and service to the small Union County Community at Woody Gap where he spent his youthful years. Now the historic monuments to him and his wife lie sundered, toppled under the power of tornadic winds.

We should hope that restoration of the cemetery in future will somehow include rebuilding of these two significant monuments and the story they tell of a family that provided leadership at a pivotal time in Georgia's history. Pictures and descriptions of the monuments, with the information carved into the marble, have been preserved. The task of restoration, or rebuilding, will be costly and time-consuming. But at least the record is still intact to help with the restoration.

In "Frankie's Confederate Monuments and Memorials of the South" the Brown monuments are described in detail. The tall obelisk at Governor Brown's grave was topped by the Angel Gabriel looking toward heaven, with trumpet in hand. The tower itself had carvings of flowers and lower down, on the pedestal, two other angels lean on their trumpets. His name, birth date and death date are given: Born in Pickens County, SC April 15, 1821 - died in Atlanta, GA November 30, 1894. His statement of faith is also inscribed on his tomb: Marked by a cross, these words of affirmation appear: "I know that my Redeemer liveth!" A further testament to his faith follows: "Died hoping and relying though frail for smiling in the future world of all upon the mercies of Jesus Christ and the atonement made by Him."

Then follows a detailed record of his political service inscribed under the angel on the right: State Senator, 1819- 1850; Judge of Superior Court, 1855-1856; Governor of Georgia for four successive terms, 1857-1865; Chief Justice of Georgia, 1868-1870; US Senator, 1880-1891; President of Western and Atlantic Railroad, 1870-1990. "His history is written in the Annals of Georgia."

Under the angel on the left are included the names and dates of the Browns' nine children. One of them, Joseph Mackey Brown, served two terms as governor, from 1909- 1913.

Oakland Cemetery is a landmark for Atlanta, the state of Georgia and even the South, as thousands of fallen Civil War soldiers were interred there. For many of Georgia's great leaders, the cemetery became their final resting place.

Officials state: "The city is committed to repairing the park." Among the fallen debris and the uprooted trees, workers will have to proceed with care so as not to uproot coffins with the roots of ancient oaks and magnolias wrapped around them. These trees have, since the beginning of the cemetery, spread lofty limbs and provided leafy shade for this famous city of the dead.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 27, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Meditations on St. Patrick's Day and Easter

My column this week will depart from my usual historical probe and present thoughts on St. Patrick's Day (which we of Irish descent celebrated on March 17) and on Easter, coming earlier-than-usual this year on Sunday, March 23.

St. Patrick was the patron Saint of Ireland, credited with ridding that country of the plague of snakes and bringing Christianity and civilization to its citizens. On Monday, St. Patrick's Day, I went online and found St. Patrick's "Breastplate" Prayer. It is longer than the version printed here. But the lines reproduced here were set to lovely Celtic music and narrated, along with delightful pictures of nature. I give you St. Patrick's "Breastplate Prayer" in its shortened form. I recommend that you go online at www.prayerfoundation.org/st patricksbreastplateprayer.htm if you want to read the prayer in its entirety. It's worth the search!

The Breastplate Prayer of St. Patrick (shortened version)

I arise today

Through the strength of heaven,

Light of the sun, Splendor of fire, Swiftness of wind, Depth of the sea, Stability of earth, Firmness of rock.

I arise today

Through God's strength to pilot me,

God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's hand to guard me,

Afar and anear, Alone or in a multitude. Christ shield me today Against wounding; Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in me.

I arise today

Through the mighty strength

Of the Lord of Creation. - Amen

Holy Week is now in progress. Many of you, no doubt, are participating in Holy Week services at your church. This week we celebrate Maundy Thursday, the day Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, the night he was betrayed and arrested.

The next day we call Good Friday. The thing "good" about it was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world.

But then came Easter on the first day of the week following Good Friday, and Hope was born eternally with the glorious resurrection.

I give you here one of my original poems when I consider what it might have been like with Mary Magdalene at the tomb on that first Easter morning. You might like to read John 20:1-18 on which this is based:

As Mary Magdalene in the Garden

Mary Magdalene went early
Before the dawning light
Had spread abroad the sunshine
To give the darkness flight.
Sadness filled her heart
For lo, her Lord was dead.
He who had promised life and hope
Had died with thorn-crowned head.
Frightened was she when she saw
The sepulchre's stone awry;
Who had taken the Lord's body?
Was it not enough for Him to die?
To Peter and the other disciples
She ran with tears and said:
"They have taken away his body;
Wherever could He be laid?
Peter and others went to find
That Mary's word was true.
No longer was He in the grave,
Only burial clothes there to view.
The disciples left and went home
But Mary lingered there,
Weeping in the dark garden
And mourning her Lord so fair.
Then a voice said "Mary!"
And when He spoke she knew
It was her Lord triumphant!
"Rabboni!" she said, "'Tis you!"
"I have a message for you to bear:
Tell the disciples I now live;
As I told them when I taught,
This message of life you must give!"
Mary in the garden was afraid
When lingering shades of night
Still surrounded the tomb,
But then what a glorious Light;
The very Son of God arose
Victorious from the grave,
And to Mary Magdalene, His servant,
The glorious message He gave.
She ran telling the disciples:
"I have seen the Lord!"
He lives, He conquered death,
We have His holy Word
To tell others that death
No longer over us reigns
The Christ our Lord is risen!
Now my soul forever sings!"
As Mary in the garden
We need not fear shades of night,
Knowing that Life awaits us
In His marvelous life changing Light.
-Ethelene D. Jones

Enjoy an Easter filled with hope, a spring of new beginnings!

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 20, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

How Cottage Industries Added to Farm Family's Income

Many of you can probably remember driving through the countryside or going to a small town several years ago and seeing chenille bedspreads hung on clotheslines near the road, waving in the breeze. A hand-lettered sign at the display would announce FOR SALE. The salesman would be present to show the chenille patterns in those not on the line so the customer could choose one to his liking.

No doubt, some of these spreads were made in what has been termed "cottage industries," by farm women who wanted to earn a little more money, especially in the wintertime when the work was lighter on the farm.

This practice was done during the 1930s when our country was still in the Great Depression.

I can remember my aunts, India, Avery and Ethel Collins, making chenille bedspreads. The "laid out" (already patterned) broadcloth the size of a double-bed bedspread was brought to their house by the representative from the factory. With the designed spread, he also brought the thread they were to loop by hand into the spread and then cut the many stitches needed to form the chenille. It took many hours of work to finish one bedspread. The man who had delivered the designed cloth would leave maybe six spreads to be finished. About a month later, he would return with another batch and pick up the finished products. They were paid the agreed-upon rate for each completed spread.

As a child, I can recall my fascination with their work and how bright patterns of flowers (the usual design) came to life as they stitched in the colored heavy thread. There were some of the less common patterns sometimes. Some of these included a peacock with spread wings, a scene from nature, or a landscape scene. When finished, these latter patterns looked gaudy. Had we in our farm community been buying one of the finished bedspreads, we would not have chosen the gaudy patterns, for we were conservative, even in home decorations. But the peacocks and other designs were popular at the roadside sales places.

Where did the traveling "bedspread man" get the spreads for the farm women to work on? A factory in Dalton was our North Georgia supplier. Not then equipped in the factories to do the chenille tufting, they hired it out to farm women. It was a mutual benefit - to the factory and to the women who meticulously sewed in the designed spreads that were left with them.

On winter nights, when the outside chores were done and supper (the evening meal; we always called it supper then) was finished and the dishes washed, my aunts sat down near the fireplace, each with a voluminous spread on which they stitched until bedtime.

It was a time of purpose and also of storytelling and fellowship. I remember the talk around the spread-making. Tales of their early schooldays and who taught them in the one-teacher country school; stories of ancestors who came into Choestoe before the Indians left; how-to accounts of how they learned to weave on the large loom in the weaving room and make the wool cloth they tailored into Grandpa's suits - all of these stories fascinated me. My love for history no doubt was born as these dear aunts sewed the spreads delivered to them in the "cottage industry" era and told stories of past times.

Perhaps many more readers remember the days of the chenille spreads and how the women got paid for sewing in the designs. By today's standards, the pay would seem miniscule but every dollar could be used in those days to purchase items not produced on the farm.

Those were days of solidarity of family and of abiding by the Puritan work ethic, Hands found work to do that they could do. And they did the work to the best of their ability. It was from watching my aunts make those spreads that I learned an important life-truth: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 13, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Go West, Young Man"--Bluford Lumpkin Dyer and Some of His Descendants

I received a letter from my distant cousin John Dyer’s widow, Pauline. In it she stated, simply, “Your cousin John died February 2, 2008 in Kalispell, Montana after a valiant battle with cancer.”

John and I shared the same ancestors, going away back to Bluford Elisha Dyer, Jr. (abt. 1785-1847) and Elizabeth Clark Dyer (abt. 1788-1861), the first Dyer settlers in the Choestoe Valley, Union County. This pioneer family was in the 1834 census, the off-year census ordered because the county was new, founded in 1832.

John Dyer of Kalispell, Montana and I saw each other only two times in this earthly life, both times in the 1990’s when John and members of his family returned to Union County to meet some of his Dyer kin here and find out as much as he could about our common ancestors.

Immediately Cousin John and I developed a rapport, which extended over the remaining years of his life. He was a pleasant, hard-working, family-loving man. He and his beloved wife, Pauline Smith Dyer, had fifty-seven years together prior to his death with cancer. John’s five sons loved their dad and considered their lives blessed, indeed, for having him as their father.

Their names (and spouses) who mourned their father’s passing on February 2 are Ray (and Margo) of Kalispell, Jeff (and Candy) of Fairbanks, Alaska, Ronnie, Lonnie and Mark (and Wanda) of Kalispell. Eight grandchildren were beloved by their grandfather John and had time to learn from him and catch a bit of his optimistic, forward-looking spirit: Tammy, Matthew, Leslie, Tracy (and Amy), David (and Christine), Bryan (and Jamie), Brett (and Amber) and Chelsea. John loved his four great grandchildren: Jessica, Anthony and Nicole Olsen and Hannah Dyer. John’s parents who preceded him in death, were Ray George Dyer and Dorothy Bernadine Sheldon Dyer. Of the six children born to Ray George and Dorothy Bernadine Dyer, only three survived at the time of John’s death: brother Kenneth Dyer (and Lona) of Washington state; and two sisters, Roberta Ann Dyer Arnold and Shirley Ellen Dyer McDaniel of Kalispell. John’s siblings, Claire Frances Dyer Kienas and James Roger Dyer preceded John in death.

Growing philosophical as I considered John Chester Dyer’s death, I thought of the lines by Alan Seeger:

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade…
And I to my
pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

John Chester Dyer had that rendezvous, and so will all of us, in due time. But the English poet and minister, John Donne, in his “Holy Sonnets,” declared “Death be not proud, though some have called thee/ Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,/For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow, /Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me…/death, thou shalt die.”

And, thinking back over the generations of people to the early pioneers in this county, where John and I made our connections, I thought of the tenth son of Bluford Elisha Dyer and Elizabeth Clark Dyer. His name was Bluford Lumpkin Dyer, born in Habersham County in 1832, who died October 29, 1907 in Kalispell, Montana. He married on February 8, 1854 in Union County, Georgia to Ruth (Ruthie) Turner, daughter of Jarrett Turner and Sarah “Sallie” Collins Turner. A mistake was made in registration of this marriage in the Union County marriage records, and Ruthie was listed as “Tanner,” not Turner. Mark this up to difficulty in reading penmanship when a “u” looked like an “a”. Bluford Lumpkin Dyer’s marriage to Ruthie Turner brought ties of first settlers closer together. Jarrett Turner and his in-laws, Thompson and Celia Self Collins, were also among the first families who settled Union County.

But what about the “Go west, young man” which I mentioned in the title above?

Bluford Lumpkin Dyer served as sheriff of Union County in the 1860’s, a difficult time because of the unrest caused by the Civil War. Following cessation of the war, times were very hard. Bluford Lumpkin and his wife, Ruthie, made the decision to move to the Loudsville area of White County, “across the mountain” from Choestoe before 1870, for the family was in the White County census of 1870. Son John George Dyer (John Chester Dyer’s grandfather) was born in White County on October 12, 1870. Just when Bluford Lumpkin Dyer got the strong impression to “Go west, young man” is not exactly known, but it was within the decade 1870-1880. “Lump” (as he was called) had a first cousin, Francis Marion Dyer (1863-1947) who had gone west. It is believed Francis Marion had an influence on persuading Lump and Ruthie Dyer to move west.

Their westward pilgrimage was by stages. They settled first in Gainesville, Texas for awhile. Their next move was to Ardmore, Oklahoma. Then gold fever struck and Lump moved his family to Colorado and went prospecting. Evidently he did not ever find that evasive lode which would make him rich. The family’s next move was to Montana. Then back to Ardmore, Oklahoma for a short period, where their daughters, Rosetta and Sarah had married and settled. But there was a strong pull back to Montana. Lump and Ruthie and their children still at home returned there, bought a farm at Creston a little east of Kalispell. There Lump’s first cousin, Francis Marion Dyer, wooed and wed his cousin and the daughter of Lump and Ruthie, Mollie Dyer, who had been born in Georgia in 1866. Mollie died young and Francis Marion married, second, Helen Dann.

Lump and Ruthie remained on their farm at Creston, where Ruthie died and was buried. After his beloved Ruthie’s death, Lump moved to Kalispell, Montana, to be cared for in his last days by some of his children who lived there. Bluford Lumpkin Dyer, former sheriff of Union County, Georgia, died October 29, 1907 in Kalispell, Montana.

Much more history exists between the dashes—the period between the birth and death of John Chester Dyer (1932-2008), recently deceased, and Bluford Lumpkin Dyer (1832-1907), John Chester’s Dyer’s great grandfather who went west with a spirit of adventure to find a new way of life for his beloved family. I’m glad John Chester Dyer came back to Georgia on visits to find his roots; I’m glad we hold dear our common ancestry.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published March 6, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved

Spivey/Spiva and Related Families

Before I launch into today's article, please accept this correction from last week's story about "Some of the Descendants of Leason Spiva." When I make a mistake, I am eager to clear it up, because many of you read this column and if it is on family history, you often add the information to your file.

I heard from Linda Spivey Bjorklund of Baker City, Oregon, regarding her father's siblings and where they were born. As you recall, last week's article was about Claude Raymond Spivey, the 92-year old whose hobby is woodworking. The first six children of Luther Adniram Spivey and Ora Ellis Spivey were born in Monroe County, Tennessee. The seventh, Clyde Spivey, was born in Graham County, NC on July 10, 1927 at the home of Ora Ellis Spiva's aunt, Renie Ellis Blevins near Yellow Creek and the town of Robbinsville. Then in September, 1929, the twelve-day trip in a 1928 Buick took the large family across country to Baker City, Oregon where the last three children were born: Della Lavelle in 1931; James Henry in 1933; and Glenn Duane in 1937. (Note: If you have Geraldine Spiva Elmore's family history book, "Descendants of Adaniram Spiva and Evaline Souther Spiva," Linda Spivey Bjorklund asks you to please make the above corrections to the family of Luther Adniram and Ora Ellis Spivey on page 15.)

For this week's story of a member of the family of Adaniram (1827- 1898) and Eveline Souther Spiva (1826- 1865) we will take a look at their first-born of nine children, John Spiva, who was born in Union County, Georgia on April 25, 1851. John Spiva was only fourteen when his mother died. In the fifteen years his mother and father had been married, she had borne nine children, seven sons and two daughters. There is no information about Nancy Jane except the listing of her name; it is assumed that she died young. John's youngest sibling, Stephen Adrian Spiva, was born November 12, 1865, and was less than a month old when his mother Eveline died on December 4, 1865. You will recall from last week's story that the Souther grandparents, John and Mary Combs Souther, took the infant Stephen and reared him. That still left John Spiva, as the eldest of the children, great responsibility in helping his father Adaniram with the other children until the father married Sarah Haseltine Corn on October 28, 1873.

John Spiva was a blacksmith and a barrel-maker (cooper). In addition to farming his acreage, he used these two trades to help bring in some money at a hard time after the Civil War was over. John Spiva began to court a young lady who lived on Wolf Creek about where Vogel State Park and Lake Trahlyta are now located. John's sweetheart was named Margaret Louise Reece (b. 08/16/1856). They were married earlier in the same year John's father married for the second time. John and Margaret's wedding date was February 13, 1873. Rev. R. M. Hughes performed the marriage ceremony at the home of Margaret's parents, William "Billy" Reece and Mary "Sarry" Daniel Reece. Her parents' wedding date was June 18, 1839 in Union County and their officiant had been Thomas M. Hughes, a Justice of the Inferior Court.

Billy Reece was the son of Jacob Reece and the grandson of William Reece. The earliest Reece settlers in America had migrated from Wales. The name had gone through several spellings: Rays, Rhy, Rys, Reys, Rees, Reese and Reece. Billy Reece's earliest known ancestor was Valentine Reece who was in Watauga County, NC as early as 1790, and came to America from Wales in 1750. Billy and his brother James migrated together from North Carolina to South Carolina, into Habersham County, and finally to Union County before 1837 (they were in the 1840 but not in the 1834 census).

"Sarry" Daniel moved to Union County from Alabama. Her father was Josiah Daniel who came to Union prior to 1837.

John Spiva no doubt learned much from his father-in-law. Billy Reece was an early teacher at Choestoe School, and John may have been one of his students. He was also a farmer and a prospector. Billy found gold deposits in Helton Creek. He would work to get enough gold to take to the mint in Dahlonega, and on Saturdays he would go by horseback to take his findings to be assayed.

John Spiva and Margaret Louise Reece Spiva had ten children, nine of whom lived to adulthood. Their children were: Mary Jane "Mollie" Spiva (12/13/1874-06/05/1962 who married James Asbury Curtis; Eliza E. Spiva (09/08/1876 - ?); Mintie Caroline "Callie" Spiva (06/04/1878-12-06/1974) who married Arlie Knox Waldroop; William Henry Spiva (02/20/1881-12/13/1922) who married Elizabeth Jones; Margaret Emma Spiva (01/28/1883-09/09/1979) who married Joseph Reuben Brown; Frank H. Spiva (01/14/1885-01/18/1880) who married Ada Gertrude Ledford; Jewell Wilburn Spiva (02/16/1887-07/25/195?) who married Grace Mae Swain; Gardner Coke Spiva (12/31/1893-08/18/1988) who married Ethel Susanna McClure; Josiah Haygood Spiva (12/15/1895- 02/08/1988) who married LaFarest McGarity; and Guy Cook Spiva (04/25/1900-03/12/1973) who married Bessie Lee Duckworth.

John Spiva died at age 82 on November 3, 1933. His wife Margaret Louise Reece Spiva lived to age 84, dying June 20, 1941. Both were interred at Shady Grove Methodist Church Cemetery, Union County, Ga.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 28, 2008 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Some Descendants of Leason Spiva

When the Union County Census of 1834 was taken, the first after the county was formed in 1832, one of the families listed was that of Leason Spiva. His name was spelled by the census taker, Lecen Spivey. He had come into Union County from Habersham, and to Habersham from Rutherford County, NC where he had married Jane Jackson. Leason Spiva became clerk of the first inferior court of Union County. It seems that Leason liked to live in new counties, for by 1860 he and his family were residing in Towns County which had been formed in 1856 from a portion of Union. His property near the Hiawassee River on Mill Creek in Towns County was distributed to heirs. He died sometime before April 1, 1889.

Leason and Jane Jackson Spiva had at least eight children. I will focus on Adnirum, born in 1828 in Habersham County, who married Eveline Souther, daughter of John and Mary Combs Souther. They made their home on a farm near her father's home in Choestoe. Their children were John (1851-1933), Jesse (1852-1918), Joseph L. (1855-1940), William Washington (1857-1931), Rhoda Caroline (1859-1930), Thomas Newton (1862-1918), James Alfred (1864-1950), Nancy Jane (?), and Stephen Adrian (1865- 1960). Eveline Souther Spiva died December 4, 1865 when her baby Stephen was less than a month old. She was buried on her father's farm and her grave has been lost to the ravages of time. Her parents, John and Mary Souther, took her small child Stephen and reared him. In his will, John Souther bequeathed to Eveline's heirs $300 to be divided between them, except for "Stephen whom I raised." To him he gave $100.

Claude Spivey, age 92, stands before some of his model trains that he makes in his woodworking shop.

Adniram Spiva married, second, Sarah Haseltine Corn of Towns County and they had five children, bringing the total born to Adniram to fourteen. Adniram and Sarah's children were Evaline (1875), Sarah Rose (1876-1943), Louis J. (1880-1954), Luther F (1883-1955) and Benjamin H. (1885-1925).

James Alfred, seventh child of Adniram and Eveline, chose to use the spelling Spivey for his last name. He was the only one of the children by Eveline who ventured out of Union County and went first to Tellico Plains, Tennessee and eventually to Baker City, Oregon. He married Mary Elizabeth Rhea at Tellico Plans. They had eight children: William Finley, George Thurston, Luther Adniram, Maggie Beatrice, James Wiley, John Henry, Harvey Ethridge, and Charles. All the children were born in Monroe County, TN at Tellico Plains, so it was perhaps after their third child, Luther Adniram, left Tellico Plains in 1931 to go to Baker City, Oregon to make a living that the other family members followed him. All of James Alfred and Sarah's children lived in Oregon until their deaths.

Luther Spivey

Luther Adniram Spivey was the third child of James Alfred and Mary Elizabeth Rhea Spivey. He and his wife Ora Lee Ellis Spivey had a large family of ten children. The eldest of these was Claude Raymond Spivey, born December 2, 1915 in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. He is now 92 years old, in good health, and is eagerly awaiting spring in Baker City, Oregon, so that it will be warm enough for him to go into his shop and resume his hobby of woodworking. A feature article in the "Living Well" section of the "Baker City Herald" told of this zestful senior citizen who looks forward to each day.

He tells of his family's trip to Baker City in a 1928 Buick. He remembers it as in 1929. However, noting the birth dates of his siblings, it must have been 1931, for his sister, Della LaVelle, was the last born in Tellico Plains on June 14, 1931. With seven children and two grownups in the car, they learned to pull some subterfuge at toll gates to avoid paying twenty-five cents per head for every child. They "hid" the younger ones to save some payment in tolls.

Claude Spivey served as a cook in the US Army from 1941 to 1945. His tour of duty took him to Trinidad, Curacao, Puerto Rico and other places. After the war, he returned to Baker City, Oregon, but went to Brooklyn, New York to marry the girl whom he had met in service in Puerto Rico. He married Ernestina Gomez Quinones on July 5, 1947. Known as "Tina" because of her petite 4' 11" stature, she and Claude had four children, all born in Baker City, Oregon: Diana Lynn, Linda May, Evelyn Sue, and Ronald Steven. Tina passed away in 2005 and Claude now lives with his daughter Linda May Bjorklund.

Among his prizes in his woodworking collection are six trains which he has fashioned simply by "thinking about them," from his years of work on the railroad. He began woodworking in 1977, a year after his retirement from Union Pacific. One of his favorites is the steam locomotive made after #4449 "American Freedom Train." When the weather warms up in Oregon, he will put the finishing touches on this seven-foot replica.

Trains are not his only forte. In their home are gun cabinets, a secretary desk, a table, creative picture frames, stools, a stock for an old .22 caliber rifle, and knife handles. Linda says lovingly of her father: "If I don't have something and need it, Dad makes it."

It's a long distance to Choestoe in Union County where his great, great grandfather Adniram Spiva lived. And it's been a long time since that ancestor passed away. But some of the genes for a solid work ethic and a zest for life still remain with this 92-year old descendant, Claude Raymond Spivey, in Oregon.

[Thanks to Linda Spivey Bjorklund of Baker, OR for sending me the newspaper article about her father; to Geraldine Spiva Elmore of Tuscaloosa, AL for her book, "Descendants of Adaniram Spiva (1827-1898) and Evaline Souther Spiva (1826-1865)"; and for Watson B. Dyer's "Souther Family History" 1988, all of which I used as resources for this article.-EDJ]

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 21, 2008 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved