Pierre Chastain "The Immigrant" and His Continuing Influence (part 2) Learning From the Past - Shaping the Future

Dr. Pierre Chastain (ca. 1659-1728) , known as “The Immigrant,” made giant ‘footsteps in the sands of time’ in at least three of the four areas pinpointed: improved living conditions, religious life, economy and agriculture.

Let us look briefly at his family for whom he sought to leave a memorable legacy. He and his first wife, Susanne Renaud, had eight children: Jean Adam, Marie Susanne, Pauline Elizabeth, Pierre, Arthuze, Jeanne Francois, Pierre Samuel, and Suzanne. Of these, seven died young, leaving only Jean Adam Chastain of his first children to carry on the Chastain name. Susanne Renaud and four of their children died by 1701 in Manakin Town, Virginia.

By his second wife, Anne Soblet. Pierre Chastain had eight children. Perhaps living conditions were more conducive to rearing children in a healthier atmosphere for six of eight of these lived to adulthood and married. The children of Pierre and Anne were: Judith, Susanna, Pierre (Jr.), Mary, Elizabeth, Rene, Janne and Mary (Marie) Magdalene. Of these, Mary and Janne did not marry, died young. Pierre Chastain married, third, to widow Mary Magdalene Trabue but had no children by her. All of you gathered at the Pierre Chastain Reunion in 2011 have traced your roots back to your inimitable ancestor, Pierre, the Immigrant, over whose name we proudly write the superscription 1.

Not to show partiality, by any means, but by way of illustration, I have selected stories of Chastain descendants from several generations to bear out the truth that many of Pierre’s progeny did, indeed, make a difference in the four areas of society we have named: (1) improved living conditions; (2) religious life; (3) politics and government; and (4) agriculture and the economy. Let us learn from their lofty examples and make a difference now and in the future. Selections include (and there could be many more):

Rev. John “Ten Shillings Bell” Chastain (1743-1805), third generation, son of Pierre Chastain and Mildred Archer Chastain. He was born in Manakin, Goochland County, Virginia. His migrations took him to various places. He died and was buried at Table Rock in Pendleton District, Pickens County, South Carolina. He had a distinctive nickname: “Ten Shillings Bell.”

It has been reported that this minister of the gospel, in association with such well-known evangelicals at the time as the Rev. Shubael Starnes and others of the “Great Awakening” movement on the frontier, was known for his resonating voice, one that carried well to great crowds gathered to hear the gospel. The cost for a well-wrought bell, one that resounded clearly, was ten shillings. Hence the nickname, a compliment to Rev. John Chastain’s ability as an orator and preacher. Before the term “church planter” was known in American parlance, Rev. John Chastain traveled far and wide establishing and strengthening churches of what became the Baptist faith. In Western North Carolina in 1774, an area that became Sullivan County then Carter County, Tennessee, he ministered at the Sinking Spring Baptist Church. Moving about forty miles to Pendleton District in South Carolina (Pickens County) in 1790, he preached there, then became pastor of the Middle Saluda Baptist Church in the Greenville District. He founded the Oolenoy Baptist Church in Greenville District in 1795 and became its first pastor. Prior to leaving Virginia, he signed an oath of allegiance at the beginning of the Revolutionary War to be faithful to the colonies. Anyone tracing their ancestry back to the Rev. John Chastain can claim him as a patriot to qualify for membership in Sons and/or Daughters of the American Revolution. In all four areas of our consideration, the Rev. John “Ten Shillings Bell” Chastain made giant steps in the sands of time. John Chastain and his first wife Mary O’Brien had eleven children: Abner, John, Jr., Martha, Edward Brigand, Mary, Elijah, Elizabeth, Cleo (Chloe), Benjamin, Nancy and Joseph. Following Mary O’Bryan Chastain’s death about 1797, he married, second, a widow, Mrs. Mary Robinson. Their children were Violet, William and Mary Lavinia.

Rev. John Chastain’s son, Benjamin (1780-1845), was selected as an Indian agent and settled in 1837 on the Toccoa River (Union County) in what became Fannin County, Georgia (1854). The story of his work in dealing with the Indians on land sales, and heading up Ft. Chastain, a holding station for the Cherokee prior to the Trail of Tears, was the subject of an earlier Chastain article.

Next in our line of Chastain greats is the Rev. Abner Chastain, (1803-1871), fifth generation from Pierre the Immigrant, and tenth of fifteen children of Edward Brigand Chastain (1769-1834) and Hannah Brown Chastain (1771-ca 1832-1837). Migrations and land holdings show that this Abner Chastain (not to be confused with his uncle by the same name, son of Rev. John “Ten Shilling Bell” Chastain) was born on Christmas Day, 1803 in Pendleton District, South Carolina. His parents took him to North Carolina by 1809. Just where and when Abner Chastain was ordained a Baptist preacher, we have not discovered the record. However, in minutes of Choestoe Baptist Church, Union County, Georgia (organized perhaps by 1832; minutes intact and preserved from 1834 to the present), this Rev. Abner Chastain was pastor. Like his grandfather, Rev. John Chastain, Abner was a church planter, leading Choestoe Church to assist with organizing other churches within the vicinity of the mountain region. According to history, 1869 had been a bad crop year due to draught and depleted lands. Rev. Abner Chastain led in organizing a massive wagon train of 250 people and started the long trek west to Colorado to settle on lands available there. We can only imagine the responsibility of leading enough wagons to accommodate a crowd of 250 men, women and children, and the hardships, illnesses and challenges they faced along the journey. Abner’s first wife, Susan Pemberton O’Kelley, may have died on the way west or shortly after they settled there at the Heurfano River two miles east of St. Mary’s at LaVeta, Colorado. True to form, Rev. Abner Chastain soon started a church in the new settlement. In the fall of 1870 he baptized the first convert there in the Heurfano River. He married, second, Amanda Elzy, Unfortunately, Rev. Abner Chastain died of pneumonia on April 1, 1871, leaving behind a new settlement and a church without the dynamic of his much-needed leadership. But he, too, even in his 67 years of life, added significantly to Chastain “footsteps in the sands of time.”

[Next: Elijah Webb Chastain, political leader; Oscar Fitzallen and Zenobia Chastain, educators; and Jason Coward Chastain, farmer, in the saga, “Learning from the Past - Shaping the Future.”]

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Sept. 15,2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Pierre Chastain “The Immigrant” and His Continuing Influence

Labor Day weekend has come and gone, with its stormy weather, tornadoes in a corridor area emanating from Tropical Storm Lee, more rain than we’ve had in months, a death in my family, and attendance at the Pierre Chastain Family Association Reunion in Helen to which I was invited to be “on-site historian” and keynote speaker.

Where do I begin this column after that introductory paragraph? If you read this, and are among those who sustained damages from any of the storms attendant upon Lee’s widespread catastrophe, you have my deepest concern. May you find shelter, comfort and redirection. For those who received much-needed rain without flooding and damages, be most grateful as I am. This morning my dry lawn, shrubs and flowers seem to have hope renewed.

As to the death of my nephew, Christopher Fortenberry, age 37, dear son of my sister Linda, we are all diminished and saddened by his death. Linda and Claxton, Chris’s parents, will read this, as will Chris’s brothers, James and David. Be assured that many people love you and are praying for you. You are strong people; you will never forget, and will wonder why Chris died so suddenly. But the God of all comfort will sustain you. Look up and take courage.

And now to the major subject of this article, Pierre Chastain, “The Immigrant” the first-generation Chastain to America and his continuing influence. The gathering in Helen was such a happy occasion (despite my sadness over my nephew Chris’s death). I had done much research to prepare for the speaking engagements with those gathered from various states to hold this annual PCFA (Pierre Chastain Family Association) Reunion. I had spoken at the 1998 Reunion in Hiawassee/Young Harris, GA. James Chastain, host and program planner for this reunion, had read several of my Chastain articles. Those provided the springboard for my invitation back to this notable gathering as keynote speaker. I felt humbled, indeed, for this “repeat” invitation to speak. I was honored, indeed, when, by action of the Association, they “adopted” me into the PCFA toward the end of the meeting and presented me with the official Chastain coat-of-arms. So now I have another loving family, one that has made a significant impact in American life from 1700 to the present. Because many requested that I publish the remarks I made at the reunion, I will attempt to do so. It will take more than one column; please bear with me for the next few weeks as I proceed with

LEARNING FROM THE PAST ~ SHAPING THE FUTURE
An Address Before the Pierre Chastain Family Association
Helen, Georgia ~ September 3, 2011

From the pen of the inimitable American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, came these words that seem to apply appropriately to the life of Pierre Chastain, “The Immigrant,” and his descendants to the present day:

“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.”

We learn from the past; these lessons shape our future.

Let us remember some of these great men and women of note in the Chastain line who have carved out monumental differences and left footprints in the sands of time. What can we learn from them to shape our present and future in these trying times?

We will consider and give emphasis to four areas these forebears impacted:

(1) How they sought to improve living conditions;
(2) How they led innovations in religious life;
(3) How they impacted politics and government; and
(4) How they improved agriculture and the economy.

Who better than the first generation Chastain in this line, known to us as Pierre “the Immigrant” Chastain (ca 1659-1728) as a representative of all four areas of impact on American life? We will recall briefly highlights from his story:

Conditions in Europe were atrocious at the time of his childhood, youth and young adulthood. Briefly, his ancestors were living in Bourges, Central France, at the time of the terrible massacre on St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24, 1572. This was almost a century before Pierre’s birth. Look this up in history; you will have an account of the religious persecution that brought death and hardships. The Chastains, along with others, fled to Charost, France, and later crossed the Jura Mountains to Switzerland. These protesters, called Huguenots, seeking religious freedom, were greatly influenced by the preaching of John Calvin (1507-1564). Persecution grew. Dr. Pierre Chastain (for he was a medical doctor by then) and his family left Switzerland and went to Holland for refuge. There they learned of groups sailing to America, the new land of promise. They went to England and he and his family boarded the ship Mary and Ann, one of four ships headed for America. Enduring the hardships and crowded conditions on the ship, they landed in Virginia. In “History of the Huguenot Emigration,” Volume II, this notation was made about Pierre Chastain in August, 1700 to the City Chamberlain of London: “The Bearer, Monsiur Castayne, is going out surgeon to ye French now departing for Virginia. He wants twenty pounds to make up his chest of drugs and instruments.”

Settling in Manakin Town, Virginia, Dr. Pierre Chastain began to make his “footprints in the sands of time” that have extended to the present age.

[Next: Continuing the story of Chastains of various generations in America. Resources: Pierre Chastain and His Descendants, Volume I. PCFA, 1995. Jason Coward Chastain and His Family. Jason Coward Chastain Historical Society and M. A. McGraw, 1976]

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Sept. 8, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

[Ethelene Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net; phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061-2411.]

Kizziah Souther Humphries and Her Family (Part 2)

Last week’s column began the story of Kizziah Souther Humphries and her husband John. This couple came to Union County to settle in the mid- to late-1830’s, and remained here until the 1850’s (exact time of departure unknown to this writer). By 1860 the family was recorded in the Monroe County, TN census, and later in Blount County, TN. In their life story, we observe the strong influence of family upon migration patterns. Kizziah’s brother, Joseph, had preceded her family’s move to Union County. Her brothers John, Jesse and Hix would also make the move from North Carolina to the 16th District of Union County. But it seems that Kizziah and John’s move to Tennessee was not precipitated by other family moves prior to theirs that we can pinpoint.

Kizziah was the mother of thirteen children. Part One of their family saga traced her children through the first four, and their marriages, namely Jesse who married Charlotte Duckworth, Jane who married Wiley Dean, Catherine, nicknamed “Katie”, who married John Hix, and Willis who married Mary Johnson. We saw how Humphries had various spellings in official records, mainly with the “H” (so often a silent initial letter) omitted, so that to find these children of Kizziah and John, I had to search not only the “H” section of copied records, but also the “U” section. We can get an approximate date of Kizziah and John Humphries’ move to Union by the births of their children. The first two, Jesse (b. 1833) and Jane (b. 1835) were born in North Carolina; the third, Catherine, was born in Georgia about 1837, which dates their move to Union prior to that date. The last three were born after their move to Tennessee.

Continuing with Kizziah and John’s children (the fifth through the thirteenth) in this Part 2 of their family saga, we will give highlights and where they scattered geographically.

James Humphries (1840-?) married Sarah Ann Alman. They lived in McMinn County, TN, moved to Cherokee County, NC for a period, where Sarah Ann died, and then James returned to McMinn County. When James’s next-to-youngest brother, Joseph, was interviewed in 1931 by Tennessee genealogist Will Parham of Blount County, TN, he told the historian that the family Bible in which Kizziah and John had recorded births and deaths of family members was in possession of his brother James in McMinn County, TN. It would be interesting to know if the family pages of this Bible have been preserved. James and Sarah Ann had children J.Harve, Jesse, Hugh, Georgia, Lillie and Paralee.

Phillip Humphries (1841-?) married Cordie Parker. He had an interesting life to say the least. A soldier (in the Confederate Army) during the Civil War, it is believed that the traumatic experiences there left him nervous and restless. He became an itinerant preacher and went from Arkaquah District in Union County all the way to Texas, returning on the long trek periodically to warn any who would listen along the way to the “coming catastrophe,” the end-times and the hardships to be endured. He was finally placed in a Soldiers’ Home in North Carolina where he died. Known children of Phillip and Cordie Parker Humphries were Joseph, James, Louise and Maggie, and perhaps others whose names were not known by his brother Joseph in 1931.

John Humphries (1843-1862?) remained single. Joseph stated this brother died in 1862. However, Mrs. Don (Ruth) Carroll, wife of one of Nancy Ann Humphries Carroll’s grandchildren who submitted Chapter 10 in Watson Dyer’s “Souther Family History” (1988) stated that she found a record of a John Humphries with wife Mary, and an eleven-month old son, Robert, in the 1870 Blount County, TN census. The age of this John would have about matched the age of Kizziah and John’s son, named for his father. Joseph Humphries was giving the family information when he was 80, and without benefit of written records. There is, therefore, a question about the John Humphries found in that 1870 census, with Joseph’s remembrance of his brother dying in 1862. Mysteries are rampant in the search for family history.

Noah, eighth child of Kizziah and John, (b. 1845) married first to Jane Wilkins and second to Rebecca Wilhoit. Joseph stated in 1931: “Noah’s two boys are working near the Pendergrass Marble Quarry near Knoxville, TN. He had five girls; one lives near Neubert’s Springs in Knox County.” (p. 289, Souther book). However, the Georgia Southers have a little different story. They say Noah went west to Texas and bought land for a farm there. Later, oil was discovered on Noah’s property, thus making him a rich man. He had at least five daughters, names unknown, by his first wife Jane Wilkins, and two sons, John and Benjamin, born to his second wife, Rebecca Wilhoit.

Sarah, ninth child of Kizziah and John, (b. 1847-?) married James Gooden on February 21 in Blount County, TN. They had known children, John, Thomas and Joseph. In the 1880 Blount County census, the Gooden family lived four houses from her brother, Joseph. In 1931 Joseph stated that Sarah and James Gooden moved later to Walker County, Georgia where they remained the rest of their lives.

Mary, known as “Polly” (b. 1848-?) married Tillman Walker Davis on February 14, 1873 in Sevier County, Tn. They had two known children, Theodore and Thomas. They may have moved to Missouri, because her brother Joseph stated in 1931 that Mary’s children lived in that state.

Nancy Ann Humphries (1851-1882) married William Pinkney Willis Carroll on September 17, 1874 in Sevier County, TN. Willis joined the Union Army during the Civil War. After Nancy’s death Willis married again. Nancy Ann and Willis had two sons, William Joseph and John Houston Carroll.

Joseph F. Humphries (1852-1936) married twice. His first bride was Mary Ann Carroll (1849-1910) whom he married January 6, 1872 in Blount County, Tn. He married, second, Rachel Walker. This is the son of Kizziah and John who gave an account of the family in 1931 to Will Parham, genealogist, and to whom we owe much credit for family tree information. With him, he and his descendants changed the spelling of their surname to the more-commonly used form, Humphrey. Joseph and Mary Ann had these eleven children: George, Sarah, John, Jacob Houston, James, Mary Belle, Samuel Henry, Josiah, Richard, William C., and Brown Melton. Joseph or his descendants did a masterful job listing Joseph’s family. Pages 296 through 304 of Dyer’s “Souther Family History” are replete with a listing of Joseph’s descendants.

David Humphries (1854-?) married but did not have children. In Joseph’s account of the thirteen children of his parents, John and Kizziah Souther Humphries, he did not elaborate on this youngest of their large family.

We can only imagine the uncertainties John and Kizziah Humphries faced in their multiple moves from North Carolina to North Georgia to the Monroe and Blount County, Tennessee area, and the hardships of survival, feeding, caring for and schooling a large family during the trying times of the Civil War and its aftermath. We salute them and their hardiness, a tribute to many like them who paved paths through the wilderness in the nineteenth century.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Sept. 1, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Kizziah Souther Humphries and Her Family

The name Kizziah given to my great, great aunt has fascinated me since I first heard it. Kizziah Souther was born at Old Fort, McDowell County, North Carolina on March 27, 1811. She was the sixth child of fourteen born to Jesse Souther (1774-1858) and Jane Combs Souther (1782-1858). I began to wonder where Jesse and Jane Souther came up with the name “Kizziah” to give to their baby in 1811.

Searching for the name Kizziah, I found that it was a surname, not usually a given name. I thought that perhaps someone in either Jesse or Jane’s family might have had the name Kizziah. My search did not reveal an ancestor with the name, but I did learn that Kizziah seems to be a Tuscarora Indian name, and that there were families in the area of North Carolina where the Southers lived that had the Kizziah surname. My search did not reveal why the name Kizziah for the new baby born to the Southers in 1811, but it sounds pretty, and still holds a fascination even now. Maybe the beauty of the name also fascinated my great, great, great grandparents.

Kizziah Souther married John Humphries (b. 1810) on December 27, 1831 in Burke County, North Carolina. She was 20 and John was 21. He no doubt was a farmer, and perhaps a trapper and timber cutter. Four of the thirteen children who were born to this couple were born before Kizziah’s brothers who had already migrated to Union County in North Georgia enticed John and Kizziah to leave Burke County and find their fortunes on land available in Union County after the exodus of the Cherokees. Her brothers, Joseph and John Souther, had already secured land holdings in District 16 (Choestoe).

By the time of the 1840 Union County census, John and Kizziah Humphries were living in their adopted county. In their household in 1840 were 3 male children under 10 and 2 female children under 10. A next-door neighbor to John and Kizziah were her brother Joseph Souther, and a little farther away, her brother John Souther (my great, great grandfather).

By 1850 we learn in the census the names of the children born to John and Kizziah Humphries, and their ages. Jesse, 17 (named for Kizziah’s father Jesse Souther), Jane, 15 (named for Kizziah’s mother, Jane Combs Souther), Catherine, 14, and Willis, 11, had all been born in North Carolina. Since Willis was born in 1839, this gives us a date of their leaving North Carolina, after Willis’s birth, but before the census enumeration in Union County in 1840. Other children in the Humphries’ household, all born in Georgia, were James, 10; Philip, 9; John, 7; Noah, 5; Sarah 3; and Mary, 2.

Whether the farm in Union County could not yield enough to support his growing family, or whether the desire to go to other more promising places hit John Humphries, sometime before the 1860 census they had departed from Union County. By 1860 John and Kizziah Humphries and the children remaining at home were in Monroe County, Tennessee. Three other children, bringing the total to 13, had been born to Kizziah; these were Nancy Ann, Joseph F. and David.

They moved on from Monroe County to Blount County in Tennessee where some of the family lived. By the 1880 census, Kizziah had died (her death date is unknown to this writer), and her husband John was listed as a widower, living in the household of his next-to-youngest son, Joseph. However, before John Humphries died, he moved to Cherokee County, NC to live with one of his children there, and died in Cherokee County.

We will trace what we know of Kizziah and John Humphries’ thirteen children. The oldest, Jesse (b. 1833, NC) served in the Civil War. He married Charlotte, known as “Lottie” Duckworth. This marriage record is entered for this couple in Union County marriages: Charlotty Duckworth to Jessee Umphris, March 11, 1855, performed by H. J. Scruggs, minister. The 1910 census shows that they were living in Union County then. Later Jesse moved to Walker County, Georgia. He and Lottie had four known children: Rosetta who married a Martin; their marriage is entered, with this spelling in Union records: Roseta Umphas to T.H. Martin, by C. N. Davis, JP, on May 6, 1878. Ellen, their second child, married Juan Jones on November 17, 1882, with A. B. Harkins, JP, performing the ceremony. Her last name in the record was spelled Umphres. The other two children of Jessie and Lottie were Sarah and John E.

Catherine, nicknamed “Katie” Humphries was born in 1837. Katie married John Hix, their ceremony performed by William Pruitt, minister, in Union County on November 2, 1854. In the record, Catherine’s surname was spelled Umphris. As Katie’s next-to-youngest brother, Joseph, recalled his memories of his family and gave information to Tennessee genealogist, Mr. Will Parham, in 1931, he noted that Katie and John Hix moved from Union County to White County, Georgia. They had several children.

John and Kizziah Souther Humphries’ fourth child, Willis, born in 1839 in North Carolina, married May Johnson on October 14, 1866 in Union County, with Thompson Collins, Justice of the Peace, performing the ceremony. By 1870, this young couple had moved to Cherokee County, North Carolina, where they were recorded as having two children, but the children’s ages indicate that Mary may have been married before she and Willis married, and she had two children, Elizabeth, 11 in 1870, and Hugh, 9. They were listed, however, under the last name Humphries. Joseph Humphries in 1931 stated that his brother Willis moved west to Arkansas where he “was killed” (no indication of whether his death was by accident or confrontation). Willis Humphries’ wife and children moved on to Texas after his death and settled there.

We will continue the account of John and Kizziah Humphries’ remaining nine children in a subsequent article. This family provided an example of the migrations that occurred in the mountain regions of North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee in the 1800’s. Nearly always, moves came because the head-of-household was looking for better opportunities for his family. It is interesting that the surname Humphries (with its various spellings, Humphreys, Humphrey, Humfries, Umphries, Umphres) is Welch in origin and is from “Hun” meaning “bear cub,” plus the suffix “frid” meaning peace. In the 9th century, the Bishop of Therouanne, named Hunfrid, was named a saint, known for his peace-keeping skills. He was very popular among the Norman settlers of England. In 1854, Blanche and Edward Humphries settled in Virginia. They may have been ancestors of John Humphries who married Kizziah Souther in Burke County, NC in 1831. The Humphries coat-of-arms motto is “L’homme vrai aime sons pays,” and, translated, means “The true man loves his country.”

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published August 25, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Early Settlers in Union County with Ledford Surname

A search of the 1834 (first) census of the newly-formed Union County (founded 1832) did not yield any citizens listed in the 147 households and 903 population with the surname Ledford.

However, by the 1840 census, when Mr. John Butt, Jr. made his way to all the households he found to register heads of household and number of males and females with the general ages within those residencies, he located four households with the name Ledford.

Ledford is an interesting name, seems to be English in origin, and is what is termed a “habitational” name, with those bearing it having come from a particular location in the old country known by the name. The “ford” part is easy to determine. People would have lived by or near a ford in a stream. We wonder, then, was Led, the first syllable, from the name of a stream? Actually, yes. The Lyd River flowed through Somerset and Devon in England, and was known as “a noisy stream.” The Old English Lyd meant just that. But in Surrey, people were called Latchfords who lived by the stream there. Eventually, through the standardization of English spellings, the surname settled into Ledford, those who lived by the ford by the River Lyd.

The first of the Ledford ancestors of some of those who eventually settled in the new Union County, Georgia seem to be descendants of the John Ledford who came from England to North Carolina about 1763.

By the 1840 census in Union County, Georgia, there were four households of Ledfords enumerated. This writer was not able to learn the relationship, if any, between these four Ledford households. They could have been brothers, cousins or otherwise related.

Benjamin Ledford had nine in his household in 1840—six males and three females. He and his wife were both listed in the age category of “40 and under 50.”

Thomas Ledford had six males and two females in his household. He and his wife were “thirty and under forty.”

William Ledford had three males and six females in his household. He was “forty and under fifty” and his wife was “thirty and under forty.”

The fourth Ledford household was that of George, who had five males and three females. He was “thirty and under forty,” and his wife was in that same age category. Therefore, we count and find that 20 males and 15 females, or a total of 35 Ledfords made their home in Union in 1840.

Moving to the 1850 Union County census, it is interesting to note whether the same households are listed again, and if any other Ledford households have been set up within the ten-year period. It is noteworthy, too, that by the 1850 census, the government had made the decision to list not only the heads-of-households, but the spouse and children, the ages, and where each member of the household had been born.

Let’s take a look at Ledford households in the 1850 Union Census, from which we learn much more information. The only household with the same-named head of household in 1850 as in the 1840 census was that of Benjamin. Whether Thomas, William and George were going by another given name by 1850 is not known. But households, according to the information given to Mr. Butt, the census taker in 1850, were headed by Silas, Porter, David, Benjamin, and James.

Silas Ledford and his wife, spelled Deilly (Delia ?) lived in household # 53. He was 28, had been born in North Carolina, his wife, 29, had been born in South Carolina, and they had been in Georgia at least five years, because their oldest child and the three others listed were all born in Georgia. Their children were Thomas, 5, Benjamin, 4, Caroline, 2, and Louisa, 1. We learn from other research that Silas was a son of Benjamin and Grace Owenby Ledford, the one settler from the 1840 census who had remained in Union County. My curiosity turned me to the Union County marriage records where I found this listing: Silas Ledford married Dolly Elmiry Bowling in Union County on December 19, 1841, with the Rev. Elisha Hedden performing the ceremony. The census-taker’s spelling, “Deilly,” therefore should have been “Dolly” for Silas’s wife’s name.

Household # 54, next door to Silas and Dolly, had the family of Porter Ledford, age 23, born in North Carolina, his wife, Temarina, age 20, also born in North Carolina, and their four-month old baby, Marion. Again, the Union County marriage records yielded the date of this couple’s marriage—August 28, 1848, when Thomas Ervin, a justice-of-the-peace performed the ceremony. The bride’s name was Damaris A. Rogers. Again, this helps us correct a misspelling from the census record of “Temarina” to Damaris. Porter Ledford was the sixth child of Silas and Dolly Ledford, and was given the name Porter after his maternal grandfather, Porter Owenby.

Household 87 was home to David Ledford, age 31, born in North Carolina, and his wife Jane, 35, also born in North Carolina. They had been in Union County less than two years in 1850, for their four listed children, Rachel, 9, Marion, 6, Hardy, 4, and Madison, 2, had all been born in North Carolina.

In 1850, the household of Benjamin Ledford, age 50, born in North Carolina, was listed as # 133 in the enumeration. Living there were his wife, 51, born in North Carolina, and listed as “Racy,” an unusual name, to say the least. Make that an error in entry, which probably should have been Gracy, or Grace—Grace Owenby Ledford, whom Benjamin married in North Carolina before moving to the Ivy Log section of Union County, Georgia sometime before 1840. In Benjamin and Grace’s household in 1850 were two children still at home, Vianna, age 20 and Benjamin (Jr.?), 11, both born in North Carolina. Registered in their household was another female, Caroline Brown, age 19, born in North Carolina.

A young man, Jacob Ledford, age 20, was listed as living in Household 475 with Eli Henson and Elizabeth Henson and their three children, James, 7, Archibald, 5, and Jacob, 1.

In household # 619 were James Ledford, 35, born in North Carolina, his wife, Nancy, 32, also born in North Carolina. Their first three children, Caroline 10, LaFayette 7 and Lucious, 6, were born in North Carolina, but Asberry, 4, and Jane, 1, were born in Georgia.

The last of the Ledford households appearing in the 1850 Union census was that of the family or Hiram Ledford, 47, and his wife, Mary, 47, both born in North Carolina. They had seven children listed as still living at home in 1850, all born in North Carolina: John, 25, Spencer, 22, Marion, 15, James, 12, George, 10, Hiram, 8, and Alexander, 5. They had evidently moved to Union County after 1845 since Alexander was not born in Georgia.

These families were the beginnings of the Ledfords who remained in Union and Towns counties of upper Georgia. We will follow some of them in subsequent accounts.



c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Aug. 18, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Hix and Caroline Burgess Souther’s Second Child and His Family:Two Southers Joined—Jesse Wilburn and Mary Delia

Last week we looked at “A Dream Deferred,” how Hix and Caroline Burgess Souther moved to Union County, Georgia from North Carolina about 1840, and how Hix died not long after they settled here. His widow, Caroline Burgess Souther, married Rollin (Roland?) Wimpey, combining their families, moving on to Gilmer County, Georgia where they had three children born to them, thus combining her family of three children and his family of three children with their own children, Martha, Robert and Andrew Wimpey.

The focus of this story will be that of Hix and Caroline Burgess Souther’s second child, Jesse Wilburn Souther, born November 11, 1840 in McDowell County, North Carolina who died March 6, 1920. Both he and his wife, Mary Delia Souther (May 1, 1858 – Nov. 15, 1915) reared their family in Union County. Interment for this couple was at New Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery on land that Mary Delia’s father, John Souther (he was also Jesse Wilburn’s uncle) gave for a cemetery and church site.

When Jesse Wilburn Souther’s widowed mother, Caroline Burgess Souther, married Rollin Wimpey on August 25, 1844, Jesse Wilburn was not quite four years old. We know that the couple moved, with her children and his children, six, all very young, “little stair-steps” as we would say, six and under. They moved to Gilmer County, Georgia and settled in the Gates Chapel section of that county where Rollin Wimpey farmed. From there, some of the Southers later moved to Whitfield County, Georgia and settled in the Deep Springs section north of Dalton.

Jesse Wilburn Souther joined the Confederacy in May, 1862 and fought in the Civil War in Company F, 60th Regiment of Georgia, Gordon’s Brigade. He was wounded in 1864, losing one of his fingers. A family photograph with his wife and four of their eight children shows a finger missing from his right hand. He was on the pension list of 1893.

We have no record of the courtship of Jesse Wilburn Souther and his first cousin, Mary Delia Souther, daughter of J. W.’s uncle and aunt, John and Mary “Polly” Combs Souther. Perhaps they became attracted to each other as Jesse Wilburn visited his uncle after his mother moved to Gilmer County. After the Civil War, and following Jesse Wilburn’s recovery from his wound that took a finger, we learn from Union County marriage records that he and Delia married on September 17, 1868. They made their home on Choestoe near New Liberty Baptist Church, probably on land where Jesse Wilburn’s uncle John had settled in the 1830’s. Jesse Wilburn and Mary Delia Souther had eight children as follows:

William Leason Souther (1869-1948) married Elizabeth Goforth

Johnathan Hix Souther (1871 – 1957) married Julia Vesta Woodring 1869-1950)

Bailey William Souther (1876- 1956) married Lydia Plott (1882-1969)

Jesse Benjamin Souther (1876-1964) married Dovie Caroline Townsend (1883-1975) Emory Spier Souther (1878 - ?) married Iowa Nicholson

James Henry Souther (1881 - 1958) never married

Daniel Loransey Souther (1883 – 1961) married (1) Alice Collins and (2)Dora Collins

Mary Elizabeth “Mollie” Souther (1886-1910) never married

Several of Jesse Wilburn and Mary Delia Souther’s children moved to Colorado and other points west. Leason and Elizabeth Goforth Souther homesteaded in Upper Disappointment Valley near Norwood, Colorado. But they got to that location by moving first from Choestoe to Mulberry, Arkansas, then to Montrose, Colorado and finally to Disappointment Valley. Despite its name, that area proved to be a good place for Leason and Elizabeth to homestead. They raised cattle there and Leason had a postal route from Norwood to Cedar, Colorado for sixteen years in addition to his ranching operations. Leason and Elizabeth had seven children, three of whom died in infancy and four of whom lived to adulthood, married and had families.

Johnathan Hix (Hicks) Souther and his wife, Julia Vesta Woodring Souther, also went to the Upper Disappointment Valley near Norwood, Colorado and settled there around 1900. However, they did not remain in Colorado but moved back east to Towns and/or Union, County, Georgia with their children Garnie (?), Ambrose, Esta and Gordon. His obituary (clipping, undated by person who saved it, 1957) stated that he was “a life-long resident of Union County,” but this statement was in error. His funeral was held at New Liberty Baptist Church with the Revs. Henry Brown, Tom Smith and John Thomas officiating. There is not a marked tombstone for him at New Liberty. His son Gordon and Gordon’s wife Thelma Ensley Souther were both interred at Harmony Grove Cemetery, Union County.

Bailey William Souther (1873-1956) migrated to Pueblo, Colorado in 1890. He worked as a carpenter and farmer. He cut and sold the first crossties used for laying the rail line to Telluride, Colorado. He returned to Towns County and married Lydia Plott (1882-1969) in Young Harris on February 2, 1901. Their children were Vernon, Arnold, Elizabeth Lillian and Mary Delia. They went back to Colorado where they made their home in Eaton. They were buried in the Eaton Cemetery.

Jesse Benjamin Souther (1876-1964) married Dovie Caroline Townsend (1883-1975) in Union County, Georgia on July 30, 1903. Like his siblings before him, Ben Souther went west as a young man, and the first child, Bertha Edna, was born in Telluride, San Miguel County, Colorado in 1904. They returned to Georgia where son Paul Wilburn was born in 1906, Pearl Iowa was born in 1909, Mary Lee was born in 1911. They went back west for another few years and Gladys Delphane was born in Colorado in 1913. About the time World War I ended, Ben Souther moved his family back to Georgia, settling in the Gum Log section of Union County. Gladys died at age six in 1919 and was buried at Ebenezer Baptist Church Cemetery. Ben and Dovie Souther were buried at Old Union Cemetery, Young Harris.

Emory Spier Souther (1878 - ?) married Iowa Nicholson. They had one child, a daughter born about 1911, named Emorie for her father. Emory Souther was a dentist and a pianist. This family lived in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado and later at Eads in the same state. Emorie had made application to teach school in Georgia, evidently wanting to live in the state where her father was born. However, she got a bad boil on a thigh and contracted blood poisoning. She died January 5, 1937 and was buried in Eads, Colorado. Emorie, with her father’s penchant for music, was a good pianist and singer. Family reports are that Emory Souther died in the Murphy, NC Hospital while visiting his brother, Johnathan Hicks Souther, and was buried in New Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery. However, there is not a marked tombstone there for Emory Souther.

James Henry Souther (Dec. 4, 1881- Oct. ?, 1958) never married. He went to Colorado and was living in Eaton when he died in 1958.

Daniel Loransey Souther (1883-1961) was married twice and had children by each spouse. Alice Collins (1893-1919), daughter of Joseph Newton Collins and Sarah Melissa Nix Collins and Daniel Loransey Souther were married August 31, 1913 in Union County, Georgia. Their children were Thomas Roy Souther (1915-1994) and Jesse Clyde Souther (b/d August 26, 1918). Alice died in 1919. “Ransey” Souther married Dora Iowa Collins (1900-1989), daughter of Isaac and Josephine Hunter Collins in Union County on March 26, 1922. Their children were Blain, J. D., Reba, Mamie Eulene and James Ralph. Like his siblings, Daniel Loransey Souther lived and worked in the area of Weld County, Colorado. He died January 17, 1962 and was buried in the Eaton, Colorado Cemetery. [Note: This Ransey Souther should not be confused with Frank Loransey Souther (1881-1937) son of William Albert Souther and Elizabeth “Hon” Dyer Souther, who served as a US Marshal in North Georgia, Alcohol and Tax Unit, from 1920-1937.]

Jesse Wilburn and Mary Delia Souther’s eighth and last child, Mary Elizabeth (1886-1910) never married. She preceded her parents in death and was buried at the New Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery, Blairsville, dying before her 24th birthday.

Resources for information on the family of Jesse Wilburn Souther and Mary Delia Souther were Watson Benjamin Dyer’s “Souther Family History” (1988) and Dianalee Reynolds Gregar’s “Souther Lines,” (1998), covering especially the “Western” Southers. It takes special people and careful research to dig through countless records to compile family histories.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Aug. 11, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Dreams Deferred: Hix Souther and Caroline Burgess Souther

Sometime in 1840, Hix Souther (May 7, 1815 – ca 1843) and his wife, Caroline Burgess Souther (1812 - ?) left their home near Old Fort, North Carolina, and migrated to Choestoe in Union County. The lure to move was partially initiated by the fact that Hix Souther already had siblings Joseph, John, Kizziah and Jesse Souther who had migrated to Union County, Georgia earlier. The lure of land and a better way of life enticed this couple to pursue their dreams and move. Little did they know that the move would meet with heartache and change, become a dream deferred.

Hix Souther, born in 1815, was the eighth of eleven known children of Jesse Souther (1774-1858) and Jane Combs Souther (1782-1858) who lived in Wilkes County, NC. Hix married Caroline Burgess in North Carolina, probably in 1837. The young couple had two children before the lure of moving hit them with force. Catherine Saphronia Souther was born in North Carolina in 1838 and Jesse Wilburn Souther was born there on November 11, 1840. When Jesse Wilburn was a baby, the couple moved to Georgia, settling near Hix’s brother John in Choestoe. A third child, son John Jefferson Souther, was born in Union County, Georgia after his parents moved from North Carolina. His birth date has been given as 1841 or 1842.

Hix Souther may have worked on the farm of his brother, John Souther, or at the mill established by another brother, Jesse Souther. A third brother, Joseph Souther who married Sarah Davis also had settled in Union County and owned land and a farm. Hix’s sister, Kizziah Souther Humphries and her husband John Humphries, had also migrated to Union and settled here. Two of Hix’s grown nephews, sons of his brother James Souther, namely James Logan Souther and John “Rink” Souther had also settled in Union County; but these two nephews would soon move west to Colorado, seeking their fortunes there.

But how was the dream of Hix and Caroline Burgess Souther deferred when they seemed to have much going for them—a new place to live, surrounded by kinfolks in a supportive community? Hix became suddenly ill. We know not the nature of his disease or what took his life in 1843 or early 1844. He died, leaving Caroline with three young children. He was buried in a family grave plot, his being the first grave dug “in a pasture on a hill north of John Souther’s house” on Choestoe. Later, some of John’s children were buried in the same family plot: Kizziah Souther (who was named for John’s sister, Kizziah Souther Humphries) who died May 16, 1845; his son, Alfred Hix Souther (1839-June 11, 1849); and Nancy (1844-1864). The markings of filed stones have disappeared from the grave sites. Now we are trying to establish the exact burial site of Hix Souther, husband of Caroline Burgess Souther, and his two nieces and one nephew.

Legal documents show that Joseph Souther and John Souther were appointed administrators of the estate of Hix Souther on September 3, 1844, each giving a bond of $1,000. For reasons unknown, John Souther was made sole administrator of Hix Souther’s will on December 5, 1844. An inventory of the estate was made. It showed that the amount of $500 was still owed on parts of Land Lots 86 and 87, which, we assume by this entry, Hix Souther was buying. The will was probated in court on February 5, 1845, Spencer Burnett, Ordinary. But settlement, as we will see, was not over.

Bereft as a widow, and no doubt facing financial difficulties, Caroline Burgess Souther turned to her (widower) neighbor, Rollin (or Roland?) Wimpey, who himself was left with three small children to rear, namely William D. Wimpey, Daniel Wimpey, and Roland D. Wimpey, Jr. Union County marriage records show that Rollin Wimpey and Caroline Souther(n) [misspelling of her last name in records] were married August 25, 1844, with the Rev. John Prewitt officiating at the ceremony.

Family stories hold that the Southers thought Hix’s widow too quickly married after her husband’s death. Since we have not found an exact date of his death (whether 1843 or early 1844), we don’t know how many months she mourned her husband’s passing before she wed Rollin (or Roland D. Wimpey, Sr.) in August of 1844. The reports passed down are to the effect that “there was a lot of dissatisfaction in the family.”

Roland Wimpey, Sr. (also noted as Rollin) and Caroline Burgess Souther Wimpey moved from Union County to Gilmer County, Georgia. In the 1860 census of Gilmer County, the household of R. A. (the initial had been rendered D. in earlier records)Wimpey was listed, he as age 47 and born in South Carolina, and his wife Caroline, age 42, born in North Carolina. Evidently Caroline’s daughter, Catherine Saphronia was already married to Frank Wells and gone from Roland and Caroline’s household by 1860, for she was not listed as a resident. But Caroline’s sons, Jesse Wilburn Souther (age 21, b. NC) and John Jefferson Souther (age 17, b. GA), as well as Roland’s children, William D. Wimpey, age 15, Daniel Wimpey, age 13, and Roland B. Wimpey, age 12, all three born in Georgia, and younger children Martha J. Wimpey (8), Robert Wimpey (6), and Andrew Wimpey (2) made up this household of ten people.

Court records show that Catherine Saphronia Souther, Hix and Caroline’s daughter, sued her uncle John Souther and received a settlement from her father’s estate of $176.00 on March 30, 1860. In other court action, one Lorenzo Spivey of Gilmer County sued for “his part” of the Hix Souther estate and received $69.62 “in full payment” on May 1, 1861. Who was Lorenzo Spivey? This person was not listed in the Inventory of the Hix Souther estate as one to whom Hix owed money, but must have been one of those noted thusly: “etc.—other sales not listed here,” to whom Hix Souther, at his death, owed money.

A dream deferred? Yes. I can imagine that Hix and Caroline Souther moved to Union County, Georgia with great hopes for their young family. But death visited their home soon, taking the breadwinner, husband and father, Hix Souther. Caroline did what she could to get her life back on track. Now a host of descendants from her and Hix’s three children would like to find the gravesite of one Hix Souther “buried on a hill north of John Souther’s home” and marked with a field stone that has long since been moved or disappeared with time and the elements.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Aug. 4, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.