Missouri Beasley Barnes

In a previous post I discussed my great-great grandfather, Green Berry Barnes (1838-1891), and his wife Missouri Beasley Barnes (1843-1925).  Widowed at the age of 47, she led a long life full of challenges.  She died just a couple of months shy of her eighty-second birthday, in the process outliving at least four of her eleven children and caring for her blind youngest son* for decades.

Census images courtesy of Ancestry.com

Missouri Beasley was born on 25 July 1843 in Bulloch County, Georgia, the eldest child of John R Beasley (1813-1899) and Nancy Parrish Beasley (1821-1860).  The 1850 and 1860 censuses show her living in Bulloch County with her parents and siblings.  In 1850, in an area identified only as “Subdivision 6” they are John R (37), Nancy (29), Missouri (6), America (4), Henry (3) and James (1).  In 1860, near the Bengal post office, they are John R (48), Nancy (39), Missouri (16), America (14), Henry (13), James (12), Mary (7) and Eli (4).  I can’t find definitive proof yet, but my belief is that John and Family didn’t move, and they were living in the area west of Statesboro, near the present-day border of or possibly in Candler County.  This is partially based on the 1890 Bulloch County Tax Digest, which places John Beasley in the Club House district (Militia District 45), which surrounds the modern town of Register.

As a side note, the 1850 census form lists the value of John’s real estate as $150.  By 1860 his real estate is worth $400, and his personal estate is valued at $716.  To Do Item: check property records to see if John purchased additional land, or possibly the increased value was strictly due to inflation. 

Pension Application image courtesy of Ancestry.com

Missouri Beasley married Green Berry Barnes in March 1865.  This is according to her Widows Pension Applications of 1908 and 1910 (she appears to have been denied a pension both times).  Even though the pension application asks that the marriage license be attached to it, there is no indication that it ever was, or that it survives if it was.  So far, a search of the Marriage Books of Bulloch County for the marriage registration has proved fruitless (using the microfilms available through the Family History Library as well as the incomplete digital copies available through Georgia’s Virtual Vault).  The accepted date on Ancestry.com seems to be 21 March 1865, but without further proof I can’t state that definitively.  Hopefully someone, somewhere, has the marriage license or family bible and will share it with the rest of us!

I covered the period of her marriage to Green in the previous post.  To summarize, in 1870 the family consisted of Green (27), Missouri (23), Ella (4), James (3) and Thomas (6/12).  In 1880 the household included Green B. (41), “Masoria” [sic] (37), Ellen C. (13), James H. (11), Willis R. (10), Rosa (7), Molly A. E. (5), Magga M. (4) and John G (1), plus Green's sister Sarah (44) and a white servant, John Jones (18).  Green B. Barnes also appears on the 1890 Bulloch County Tax Digest, owning 408 acres in the Court House District (1209^th Military District), which is the area around Statesboro. 

Image courtesy of Family History Library (microfilm # 2105)

Green Berry Barnes died in 1891.  Since I wrote the above- mentioned post I’ve found a record of the so-called Barnes-Akins Family Cemetery in a film from the Family History Library (FHL US/CAN Film #2105, Item 103), which is a compilation of survey sheets from the 1950’s.  Filmed in 1956, the survey shows four burials at this plot: Sarah Barnes (d. 18 August 1900), Missouri Barnes (25 Jul 1843 - 31 May 1925), Green B. Barnes (18 Mar 1838 - 26 Mar 1891) and Willis R. Barnes (21 April 1870 - 4 January 1903).  Sarah Barnes is almost certainly Green’s sister, who lived with them.  Missouri and Green B. are designated as Wife and Husband, but there is no indication on the form as to how or if this is indicated on the gravestones.  Willis R. Barnes is probably their son Remer.  I’ve been told by a cousin that the grave site still exists, and is still in family hands – sort of.  The Akins are second cousins.  Missouri Maggie Barnes married Welcome Akins and her sister Rosa Barnes married my great-grandfather Jacob Jones.  Yet this means there is hope of obtaining photographs of the graves, or even visiting one day.

Census images courtesy of Ancestry.com

In any case, the 1900 census shows Missouri as the widowed head of household with 5 of her 10 children, living in Blitch, Bulloch County, where she owned her own farm.  Blitch is the name for Georgia Military District 1575, situated north of Statesboro.  The residents of the farm are Missouri (56), Millie A (25), John G (21), William B (18), Eli W (16), Robert C (12) and her sister-in-law Sarah (65).  I can’t find her listed anywhere on the 1910 census, but in 1920 she appears to be living on the farm of her son-in-law Welcome Akins.  The census shows the family as Welcome A Akins (42), Maggie [Barnes, her daughter] (42), Floyd (17), Day (15), Fred (14), Clyde (12), Datus (10), Wilmur (8), Irene (7), Roy (5), Inmon (3) an Ernest (1) Akins, with Robert C Barnes (33) and Missouri Barnes (75).  I do not yet know if this Welcome Akins farm was the Barnes farm before.  The two Military Districts are adjacent, so the borders 

Image courtesy of Georgia Archives
Digital Collection (Death Certificates,
Vital Records, Public Health, RG 26-5-95)

could have shifted slightly, or 1575 (Blitch) could have been created after 1900.  And it could be a completely different farm.  More research is needed in the Bulloch County property records.  Unfortunately, the microfilmed records of deeds and mortgages available through the Family History Library only go through 1912, so I’ll have to plan an extended research trip, or else depend on the kindness of strangers!  :-)  To Do Item: also check records to find out when Military District # 1575 was formed.

Missouri died on 31 May 1925, at the age of 81.  This date is shown on her grave stone (at least according to the cemetery survey cited above) and on her death certificate, a digital copy of which I was able to obtain from the Georgia’sVirtual Vault web site. 

Draft card images courtesy of Ancestry.com

*Missouri’s youngest son, Robert Calhoun Barnes, remained single throughout his life, and lived with his mother until her death, then with his sister Missouri “Maggie” and her husband Welcome A. Akins until his death on 6 June 1943.  I haven’t completed researching him, but based on his WWI draft registration, it appears that he was blind.  In fact, the draft registration card says he “lost both eyes.”  Since he was listed as a “farm helper” on the 1900 census, which means there was probably some sort of accident between 1900 and 1917.  In my imagination the romantic in me comes out, and I can imagine the reason they were missed on the 1910 census is that Missouri was firmly ensconced at Robert's bedside in a convalescent center or sanitarium as he slowly recovered physically and emotionally from the horrible farm accident which took both eyes and left him a near-invalid!  The facts, when discovered, will probably prove me wrong, but in the meantime it makes a good movie in my head!

That’s about it for now.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

Green Berry Barnes

While the Stringers were my father’s maternal grandparents, his paternal grandparents were Jacob Jones (1866-1951) and Nancy Rosanna “Rosa” Barnes (1872-1948).  The subject of this post is Rosa’s father, Green Berry Barnes (1838-1891), farmer and Civil War veteran.  “Green Berry”, or alternatively “Greenberry” as one word, seems to have been a common name in the early part of the 1800’s right up until about 1900, based on what I’ve seen in my own searches of the census records, though some seemed to have settled on just “Green” as a first or middle name.  Supposedly the name originated before the revolution, as families named sons after Colonel Nicholas Greenberry (1627-1697), a popular and effective Indian fighter who became governor of Maryland.  I can’t vouch for that, but it does appear to have been prevalent in some families throughout the South through the end of the 19^th century.

I wish I had pictures of Green Berry and Missouri Barnes, but apparently this is yet another branch of the family tree that didn't go in for new-fangled ideas like photography.  If there were any photos, they were passed down through another line.  Maybe one will show up some day.

Green, as he seems to have been known, first shows up in the record in the census of 1850, living with some of his siblings in “Subdivision 6”, Bulloch County, Georgia.  Their parents are not in the household, instead they are living with the Newsom family, Jesse (49), Mary (60), Joseph (29) & James (14).  The Barnes children are given the surname “Bonds”, which if you think of “Barnes” being pronounced as “Bahnz”, a perfectly reasonable assumption for the South, certainly not as nasal as a Bostonian, but otherwise similar, and you could get that spelling.  The “Bonds” children listed are Dempsey (16), Sarah (14), Green (13), “Ebinezer” (12), Zilphy Ann (5), “Alferd” (3), Remer (2).  Based on later censuses, the Barnes children would have been Dempsey (16), Sarah (14), Green (12), Ebenezer (8), Zilpha Ann (4), Alfred (2), Remer (1).  It’s certainly within the margin of error for a  census, so it’s currently my working hypothesis.  I don’t know who the Newsom’s were, possibly relations of Green’s mother Thaney or Saney (possibly Bethany?).

Census images courtesy of Ancestry.com (subscription required)

In any case, according to the 1860 census, the family is living together in the Statesboro district of Bullloch County, Georgia.  The family members are Thaney (45), Sarah (24), Greenberry (21), Ebenezer (18), Zylpha (14), Alfred (12), Reamer (10), Viney (6) and Ann (4).  There is no mention of Green’s father on this census, and on the 1870 census, when “Saney” is living with Remer, she is listed as a widow.  (Marital status and family relationship were not indicated on the 1850 or 1860 census records.)  When war came, Green enlisted as a private in Company I, 9th Georgia Infantry Regiment on 10 Jun 1861.  According to Missouri Beasley Barnes' Confederate Widows Pension Application of 1910, which was the first record I found (on the Georgia’s Virtual Vault website), his wife says he was wounded “at Gettysburg, I think, or maybe at the Second Manassas.” 

GB Barnes Service
Record: Fold3.com

GB Barnes Service
Record: Fold3.com

Recently though I found Green Berry's Confederate Service Records on the Fold3.com website (subscription required).  Fold3 is the rebranded Footnote.com, which was purchased by Ancestry.com last year and refocused on military records.  The name of the site refers to the third fold of an American flag, and is a tribute to the one who gave a portion of his life in service to his country (see the Wikipedia article for more information).  According to those records he suffered a severe leg wound at Second Manassas (also known as the Second Battle of Bull Run) on 30 August 1862.  He spent months recovering, first at the CSA General Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, then at the “Receiving and Wayside Hospital, or General Hospital No. 9” in Richmond, Virginia.  In January 1863 he was given an extended furlough by the surgeons at the Oglethorpe Barracks in Savannah on account of his leg wound, but by January 1864 he was serving the Cause as best he could, “detailed by Secretary of War in government shoe shop in Augusta, Ga.”   There are 20 “cards” in the file for Green Berry Barnes.  These cards are summaries of original records prepared by the War Department in the period from the 1890s through the 1920s.  They are often invaluable resources for information about Civil War soldiers.  There are separate sets for Union and Confederate forces.  Ancestry.com recently posted a "how-to" video as part of it's YouTube channel, where they have training videos and other info.  The video is called How to Find your Civil War Roots with Anne Mitchell @ Ancestry Day San Francisco (click on the name to access the YouTube video).

It was in Augusta that he finished out the war, with occasional leaves.  Probably on one of these leaves, on 21 Mar 1865, he married Missouri Beasley in Bulloch County (again according to her 1910 Widows Pension Application).  There are many missing records from around that time period, and the Barnes-Beasley marriage license appears, so far, to be one of them, for I have been unable to locate one.  Green and Missouri wasted no time starting their family, for by the 1870 census the family consisted of Green (27), Missouri (23), Ella (4), James (3) and Thomas (6/12).  In 1880 the family had grown, and the record shows the household to consist of Green B. (41), Masoria (37), Ellen C. (13), James H. (11), Willis R. (10), Rosa (7), Molly A. E. (5), Magga M. (4) and John G (1), plus Green's sister Sarah (44) and a white servant, John Jones (18).

Census images courtesy of Ancestry.com (subscription required)

Unfortunately, this is the last census in which Green appears.  The 1890 census, as I've said before, was lost in a fire, and Green Berry Barnes died on 26 March 1891, according to Missouri's Pension Application.  I found a record at the Family Search web site that has his date of death as 26 May 1891, but in this instance I choose to go with the widow's statement.  Once again I have been unable to find a tombstone.  Missouri's death certificate of 31 May 1925 indicates that she was buried at the Barnes Family Cemetery in Bulloch County.  I'm not entirely sure yet where this is located, and it's possible that both their graves are unmarked, but the search goes on.  Like Robert F Stringer, Green B Barnes shows up on the 1890 Bulloch County Property Tax Digest. In addition, as shown by the 1900 census, before Green died he and Missouri had another 3 boys.  The household consisted of Missouri (56), Millie A (25), John G (21), William B (18), Eli W (16), Robert C (12) and Green's sister Sarah (65), and Missouri still owned and farmed the property.

That’s about it for now.

 Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

Robert Frances Stringer

Taking a step farther back from Thomas Henry Stringer (in the last blog here) I reach his father, my great-great grandfather, Robert Frances Stringer (b. 9 Aug 1828, Burke County, Georgia; d. 2 Jan 1910, Bullloch County, Georgia).  Robert, or "RF" as he is usually referred to in the historical record, is the last member of this branch of my family tree about whom I know anything.  I don't know anything about his ancestors because I don't know who his parents were. Indeed, I don't know much about his early life at all.  I got his birth date and place of birth from his own statement on his confederate Pension Application dated 7 July 1905. 
 

Excerpt from the Pension file of R.F. Stringer, Bulloch County, Georgia (Confederate Pension Applications, Georgia Confederate Pension Office, RG 58-1-1, Georgia Archives; http://cdm.sos.state.ga.us/u?/TestApps,463262)

The next two sources I've located are the 1840 and 1850 censuses, which seem to be consistent with the Pension Application. There is an "M. W. Stringer" listed in the 1840 census in Burke County, Georgia. The 1840 census only lists the name of the head of household, which includes the following "free whites": 1 male aged 5 to 9, 1 male 10 to 14, 1 male 40 to 49, 1 female 15 to 19, and 1 female 40 to 49, with no slaves. Then there is the 1850 census, in Militia District 66 of Burke County, with a Robert F Stringer (age 21 and a carpenter) & William Stringer (18, also a carpenter) living in the household of Benjamin D Hill. The 1850 census doesn't list relationships of the household members, so there is no indication of whether the Stringer boys were employees or boarders.  I don't know for sure that this is "my" Robert F Stringer, but I haven't found any others with that name who are in that age-group, so it seems a reasonable assumption.  Whether or not MW Stringer was indeed Robert's father, this is my current "wall" on this branch of the family.

About 1852, Robert married Martha (or Margaret) Elizabeth Sheppard, probably in Burke County, Georgia. The 1870 Census names her "Margaret E Stringer"; her son Thomas' death certificate and the family Bible I've shown before gives her maiden name as "Martha Elizabeth Sheppard". I calculated the year by the 1900 census where the "Number of Years Married" for Robert is 48. The location is presumed because they were living in Burke County in 1850. Unfortunately there are no court records in Burke County prior to 1856 because of two devastating court house fires. I have also checked the available marriage records in the surrounding counties, though with no luck so far.

Census images courtesy of Ancestry.com (subscription required)

According to the 1860 census the family had moved to Militia District 35 in Screven County, near Ogeechee, Georgia, and consisted of R F Stringer (31, still a carpenter) & M E Stringer (24) with their children Horace L (5), Tulia C (3) & Mary E (1).  He had no real or personal property, so was probably hired labor living in rented quarters.  I haven't got all of the details yet, but by 1870 the family had moved at least once for the 1870 census showed them living in the Brier Patch district (Militia District 47) of Bulloch County, Georgia, where R F Stringer is a "House Carpenter" (aged 41), and his household consists of himself and his wife Margaret E Stringer (35) and children Tulia C (13), Alexander H (8), William E (4) & Thomas H (1).  The 1870 census indicates a value of personal property of $150, but no real estate, so it is likely that he rented his residence.

Map of Bulloch County Militia
Districts copyright by
Paul K. Graham

I’ve spoken of Georgia Militia Districts many times before.  The Militia Districts are political, legal and military organizational structures, apparently unique to Georgia, which date from the Colonial era and survive to this day.  There is a very good overview of the history and organization of the Militia Districts at the Georgia Archives website by lawyer Alex M. Hitz (http://www.sos.ga.gov/archives/what_do_we_have/GeorgiaMilitiaDistricts.htm).  Because the Inferior or Ordinary Courts laid out the boundaries of the Districts and were responsible for them throughout much of their history, there is no master list or map showing where the districts were historically.  There is a map from 1950 which shows the counties and the Militia Districts, copies of which are available for a few dollars at the Georgia Archives in Morrow.  I don’t know if they do mail order.  For the eastern counties of the state, there is a wonderful book I’ve mentioned before, Atlas of East and Coastal Georgia Watercourses and Militia Districts by Paul K. Graham, a Certified Genealogist^SM whose website is http://www.pkgraham.com.  Clicking the link from the book’s title will take you to the Amazon.com page, or you can go through Paul’s site to order the book.  I don’t make anything either way.  I really do think it’s a valuable resource.  One of the nice things about the Atlas is that he provides many of the historical names of the numbered Militia Districts; not all by any means, as the Hitz article noted above makes clear that the districts in earlier days were named after whoever was the Captain of the Militia, a post which was elective and could change frequently.  The page here is for Bulloch County, and shows how detailed his book is.  There are indexes in back for Militia Districts (by name and by number) and for the waterways.

Pension Record
from Georgia's
Virtual Vault

Between 1860 and 1870, of course, there was a rather large war, that "recent unpleasantness" as it was often referred to by the newspapers of the time. According to the Confederate Service Records and several databases of American Civil War Soldiers, along with Robert's Confederate Pension Application, RF Stringer enlisted at Savannah, Georgia, as a 2nd Sergeant in Company D of the Georgia 22nd Siege Heavy Artillery Battalion; he was promoted to 1st Sergeant on 11 Aug 1862.  He served until the end of the war, but was not with his unit when it surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina, on 26 April 1865.  Quoting from his Pension Application, he was "at home in Bulloch Co., Ga. Left command in March 1865, cause - sickness. Was left by the roadside so sick that I could not keep up."  This story is supported by the statement of witness James A Fulcher, an acquaintance since about 1857, that they "left him exhausted & sick by the roadside."  Robert's statement also implies that the family had moved to Bulloch County by 1865.  Since he says he was at home in Bulloch County, it's likely they moved there before he enlisted, which gives a narrow margin of mid-1860 to mid-1862 for when they moved from Screven County.

It's interesting to note that the documents commonly referred to as "Confederate Pension Applications" were officially known as "Indigent Pension" or "Indigent Soldier's Pension" applications, but the wording of the laws and the questions make very clear the purpose was to provide support to soldiers who fought for the Confederacy and were thus ineligible for the pensions offered to members of the United States military.

Robert & Margaret/Martha had six children that I have found record of.

• Horace L (b. 1855) and …
• Mary E (b. 1859) may have died before 1870 because they are both in the 1860 census but not in the 1870 census and I can find no further record of them. 
• Tullia (or Tullie) C Stringer (1857-1901) married Thomas H Hendrix and had 11 children, 9 of whom were still living in 1900.  She is buried in the Hendrix Cemetery in Bulloch County. 
• Alexander H Stringer was born in 1862 and married Georgiann Smith in 1886 and had at least 7 children, according to the probable census record of 1900, which showed them living in Dooly County, where he was a railroad engineer.  I haven’t traced them after that. 
• William E Stringer (1866-1912) was a farmer.  He married Nettie Hall in 1903 and had at least two children before his death at age 45. 
• Thomas Henry Stringer (1869-1933) was my great grandfather and has been discussed earlier in this blog (click here).  

Property tax record images courtesy of Ancestry.com (subscription required)

Sometime around 1872 to 1875 Robert’s first wife died and he married Sarah Hendrix.  (According to the 1900 census Sarah had been married for 28 years.  According to a statement by Robert’s sons WE [William E.] & TH [Thomas H.] Stringer dated 6 January 1910 they were married “about 1875”.)  As with Robert’s first marriage, there doesn’t appear to be a surviving marriage license.  I haven’t located Robert or Sarah in the 1880 census.  I am reasonably certain they were still in Bulloch County.  There is a Property Tax Roll for Bulloch County from 1890 which lists “R.F. Stringer” living in Blitch, in the Lockhart district (Militia District 46) in northeastern Bulloch County.  He owns no real estate, just some “mechanical tools” and other personal property worth about $42.  He is also, however, the agent for his wife, who owns 180 acres worth about $270 plus some household goods and livestock worth $74.  He paid no poll tax.

In addition, I came across a mention of an "R.F. Stringer" who was President of the Echo sub-alliance of the Southern Farmer's Alliance (http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=display&webtag=ab-americanhist&tid=1114).  I haven’t yet personally verified this, but it’s already on my To Do List.    Roger Warren Allen, the author of the forum post, is a Bulloch County historian, professional genealogist and author, so I'm hopeful that I will be able to make this connection to my great-great grandfather.  Mr. Allen is writing a book on the Georgia Farmer's Alliance in Bulloch County and I look forward to reading it.

Pension Record from Georgia's Virtual Vault

Robert and Sarah finally show up together on the 1900 census living in Militia District 46, Bulloch County, Georgia.  Robert (71, and a farmer)  & Sarah J Stringer (50) and their son James G (10) also live with 5 boarders (Randal, Hariet S, Fannie M &George D Rigdon, and Ada Mixon).  RF Stringer has been busy.  He still manages to bring in a little money doing carpentry work, and he has been for many years a Justice of the Peace (there are several recorded deeds and other legal documents where he is the witness or swearing officer, and he performed the marriage of his son William E “Willie” Stringer to Nettie Hall in 1903.  Yet in 1905 he applied for the Indigent Soldier’s Pension, claiming “Age & infirmity & poverty.”  The Pension file may be incomplete, but there are additional filings for 1906 and 1907.  

Robert & Sarah had three children that I have found record of.

• Rebecca "Beckie" Stringer (1877-1955) who married John Calvin Finch Jr. and had five children.
• Harriet Lucretia "Hattie" Stringer (1880-1963); the assumption I have at this time is that she is the "Hariet S Rigdon" boarding with Robert and Sarah in 1900 and that she married Randal Rigdon and they had at least six children together, and that she was widowed by 1930.
• James Gordon Stringer (1889-1971) who maybe married Anna about 1910.  I don't have any other definite information on him.

The final page of the Pension file is the affidavit mentioned above, dated 6 January 1910, sworn to by WE & TH Stringer, stating:

Personally appeared before me W. E. Stringer and T. H. Stringer who on oath say that their father R. F. Stringer, who was on the Indigent Pension roll in said county, died on Jany 2nd 1910, leaving surviving him a dependent widow Mrs Sarah J. Stringer, That she was married to him about thirty five years ago and has lived with him continuously ever since as his wife up to his death, That W. E. Stringer remembers seeing them married in Bulloch County, Ga.

There are no marked graves for Robert Stringer or either of his wives that we have been able to discover.  There is a bit of family information that RF Stringer, being a carpenter, did work on a church in the area.  The Union United Methodist Church north of Statesboro celebrated their 200th anniversary in 1990.  Fred W. Brogdon wrote a brief history of the church for the Bulloch County Historical Society (Bulloch County Historical Society, PO Box 42, Statesboro, Georgia 30458) that is still used as a typewritten handout for visitors to the historic building.  In it he states: 

The present Church building was constructed in 1884 during the ministry of T. J. Nease. Much of the material for the structure was furnished by two brothers, Jim and Tim Davis, who operated a lumber mill in the area. One of the carpenters was Robert W. stringer who crafted the beautiful hand-carved circular altar rail still used in the Church.

Is this the face of Robert F. Stringer,
my 2nd great grandfather?
(image courtesy of the Bulloch County
Historical Society)

The middle initial is wrong, but I haven't been able to locate a "Robert W. Stringer" anywhere around at a time and date that were relevant.  Since I can't locate my own ancestor at many points around that time, that makes the lack of evidence less suspicious, though.  To Do Item: check with the church for historical membership records or rolls to see if there was more than one Robert Stringer at the time.  Still, it is possible that through multiple transcriptions the initial was changed.  Several years ago my dad and some of his siblings visited the Union Church with my cousin Michelle Winter Buhler, who filmed it.  I have the DVD.  They were told that a grave site that has a low crumbling brick wall around it (about 3 bricks high) contains multiple unmarked graves, including Robert Stringer, one or possibly both of his wives, and an unknown hobo who died on the church grounds in the 1930s.  I haven't confirmed any of this, but it makes a nice story and a fitting conclusion to a life well-lived.

Interior of the Union United Methodist Church (Union Meeting House) - photo courtesy of Michelle Winter Buhler

OK, I know I said a few weeks ago that I was going to try to write shorter posts more frequently, but it's so hard to stop sometimes!  I start looking up sources again to verify what I'm posting and sometimes one thing leads to another and before you know it I'm looking up the grandchildren of some great granduncle who is a sibling to a direct ancestor.  It's loads of fun, but it doesn't get the blog posts done.   I will try harder to get back to twice a week posts, but I hope you'll understand the delays and that the results are worth the wait.

That’s about it for now.

Later y'all,
*GeorgiaTim

Thomas Henry Stringer

Thomas Henry Stringer, 1869-1933, was my great grandfather (my father’s mother’s father, as I discussed a few months ago in this post [click]). Thomas was born 26 March 1869 in Statesboro, Bulloch County, Georgia, to Robert Frances Stringer (1828-1910) and Martha (Margaret) Elizabeth Sheppard (1836-1875).  He is on the 1870 census with his parents living in Brier Patch, Bulloch County, Georgia.  This isn’t a town, but another name for Georgia Militia District 47, which is in the southeast corner of the county, essentially south of Brooklet and east of Lower Black Creek.  This picture of him is from about 1904.  Unfortunately, he seems to have disappeared from the census for the next thirty years.  I can’t find an 1880 census for his parents.  There isn’t a surviving 1890 census record, and I can’t find Thomas in the 1900 census.

Fortunately I have a couple of other sources of information.  The first is the family Bible of Thomas and Hattie Stringer (my aunt Mildred Jones Helmey has the original; the digital copies are courtesy of my cousin Michelle Winter Buhler).  The second is a Spanish War Invalid Pension Application that Thomas filled out in 1924 (again the digital copy is courtesy of my cousin Michelle).  The family Bible gives a basic framework, indicating that he married Hattie Mosell Williams on 21 March 1901 at Augusta, Georgia.  They had five children: Essie Lee (19 March 1903), Lilian Mae (14 August 1905, also spelled “Lillie Mae”), Francis Magadelin (5 February 1907; my grandmother), Thomas Shepard (2 September 1908), and Walter Hartridge (8 August 1910).  Essie Lee married Leroy “Roy” Lynn in 1919, had one daughter who died at 3 weeks of age in 1920, and died in 1935.  Lillie Mae married Frank Sapp in 1921, Maggie married James Dewey Jones in 1928, Thomas married Minnie Rose Knight in 1929, and Walter married Effie Barber in 1931.   

According to Thomas’s Pension Application (dated 12 May 1924), he enlisted on 29 July 1898 in Company M of the 2^nd Georgia [Infantry] Volunteer Regiment, and was honorably discharged at Savannah, Georgia, on 22 November 1898.  On succeeding pages of the application, dated 6 June 1924, he stated that he was born on 26 March 1869 in Statesboro, Bulloch County, Georgia, and that in July 1898 when he enlisted he lived in Bulloch County but his mailing address was Rocky Ford.  Rocky Ford is across the Ogeechee River, in Screven County, so he must have been living in northeast Bulloch County, in Militia District 46 (also know as Lockhart).  Further, in his pension application he states the after discharge he lived at Rocky Ford from 1899 to 1901, though at some point he travelled to Augusta, for he states that he was married to Hattie M. Williams Stringer on 21 March 1901 at North Augusta, Aiken County, South Carolina, by Louis Shillers (spelled “Schiller” in the family Bible).

After that, again referring to the pension application papers, he lived in Statesboro from 1902 to 1904, Adabelle (southwestern Bulloch County) from 1905 to 1915, 1916 to 1921 in Egypt (40 miles to the northeast, across the Ogeechee River in Effingham County), and finally outside of Manassas (in the Haw Pond district), northwest of Claxton in the newly-created Evans County from 1922 through 1924, and as later supplements indicated, until his death.

All of this disagrees somewhat with the census when it picks up again in 1910, which showed him living in Militia District 1366 of Tattnall County (which was Haw Pond district of Evans County after that was formed in 1915).  According to the census he was a farm laborer, renting his house of Cobbtown Road.  The 1920 census places him in Haw Pond, Evans County, again farming on rented land.  According to James Sapp, the oldest surviving grandchild and the only one I know of who still remembers Thomas Stringer, the family were tenant farmers, as were many other members of the Jones and Stringer families from the end of the 19^th century and through the first decades of the 20^th century.  So it may be that he simplified the amount of moving he did for the sake of the pension application, or that he was only living at certain farms for a season, which corresponded with the census.  That would also explain why he is difficult to locate, and may not even exist, in some of the earlier censuses. 

Census images courtesy of Ancestry.com (subscription required)

On 21 July 1921, Thomas’ beloved wife Hattie died of “apoplexy” (a term applied to any sudden loss of consciousness followed by death).  Thomas struggled on, raising his younger children with the help of the older ones, though he was apparently himself in failing health.  If you notice the signatures on the 1924 pension application they are those of his two sons in law, Roy Lynn and Frank Sapp.  Thomas would live with Frank and Lillie Mae Sapp the rest of his life.  Thomas requested an increase in his monthly pension, from $30 to $40, in 1930 “due to increased infirmity”, and requests again were made in 1931 and 1932 by his friends and relations, because he suffered increasing infirmity of body and mind, to the point of being “confused and feeble” much of the time.  According to the 1930 census, he is unemployed and living with the Sapps in Militia District 1738 (Canoochee), Evans County, Georgia.  (This disagrees with the location listed as Manassas, which supposedly is in Haw Pond, but the boundaries were rather fluid, and Canoochee looks to have been created out of Haw Pond, though I haven’t determined when.) 

Finally, on 1 Jul 1933, at the age of 64, Thomas Henry Stringer died in Claxton.  According to daddy's cousin James Sapp, Thomas went into Claxton to pick up his pension check, accompanied by his son-in-law Frank Sapp.  James says that when he went into town he would usually pick up some candy for the grandchildren. He collapsed on the sidewalk after leaving the general store with the candy and was carried to a doctor's office, where he died.  My father was born the following year, and thus never got the opportunity to know his maternal grandparents.

That’s about it for now.

 Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

Thomas H & Hattie Moselle Stringer with oldest child Essie Mae (about 1904)

Nancy Patterson McNair

Nancy Patterson McNair
(courtesy of Christy Spooner)

Permelia Ruth McNair Maxwell’s death certificate (see my last post) also notes that her mother was Nancy Patterson.  It’s difficult to discover much about Nancy’s early life.  I haven’t seen any contemporaneous records covering those years and must rely on what others have said, in published or unpublished family histories.  Remember, you can click on any image in this blog to see a larger version.

According to Nancy’s tombstone she was born 18 October 1816 to William and Ruth Patterson, was married to Robert M. McNair, and died 29 January 1905.  Tombstones can be wildly inaccurate, depending on when and by whom they were placed, but it’s as good a place as any to start when there’s not much else to start with.  It certainly agrees with the information I already have on Robert McNair.  There is the marriage license issued in Decatur County to Robert M. McNair and Nancy Patterson showing they were wed on 23 December 1835.  The ages given for the 1840, 1850 and 1860 censuses which cover the years of her marriage to Robert McNair (20-29, 34 and 43 respectively) seem consistent with the tombstone, within a reasonable margin of variation.

It’s difficult to add much to Nancy Patterson’s early life.  Remember, censuses prior to 1850 only showed the name of the head of the household.  I have discovered at the Georgia’s Virtual Vault web site a reference to the marriage of a William Patterson and a Ruth Clements on 1 February 1809 (Jefferson County Marriage Book A, 1803-1880, p.22; Marriage Books, Jefferson County Ordinary Court, Georgia Archives). This book is a typed transcription by the Clerk's Office, so not quite as good as the ones I usually copy, but it’s apparently official.  My guess, not having seen the originals, is that they are too far deteriorated to allow for casual inspection.  Still, it’s better than nothing.  So, if William and Ruth wed in early 1809 it’s possible that Nancy was also born there in Jefferson County.  So far I’ve had no luck finding them on the 1810, 1820 or 1830 censuses.  The first two are hardly surprising since so few portions of the Georgia census for those years survive, but I still have hopes they will be in found eventually in the 1830 census.  They were certainly in Decatur County, Georgia, by 1835 for Nancy married Robert McNair there that year.

Census image courtesy of Ancestry.com (subscription required)

After Robert died in 1869, Nancy continued to live in Decatur County, running the family farm and raising her younger children during the hard years of the Reconstruction.  The 1870 census shows the family consisted of Nancy (54), Robert P (25), Joseph W (23), Thomas M (21), Mary C (17), Sarah E (15) and Permelia R (13).  Robert Patterson McNair would remain unwed and living with his mother until she died.  In 1880, the household contained Nancy (63), Robert (35), Catie (27) and 17 year old granddaughter J [or I][something: difficult to read the handwriting], plus two black farm laborers, Henry Williams & John Mills (both 20).  I haven’t figured out yet whose daughter the granddaughter might be, or even if she was really a McNair and not the some other last name.  Add that to my To Do list!  There is no surviving 1890 census, and by 1900 there are only Robt P (55) and his mother Nancy (83) remaining on the farm; there is no mention of farm laborers living with them on this census.

Census image courtesy of Ancestry.com (subscription required

Nancy Patterson McNair
(courtesy of Christy Spooner)

Nancy passed away 29 January 1905 and was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, near Climax, Decatur County, Georgia.  Thanks to my cousin Christy Spooner I now have pictures of her headstone and grave site.  We’ve not yet found any mention of where her husband, the good doctor Robert Martin McNair might be buried.  In 1910, the census showed the 64-year old Robert P McNair living by himself on the farm, but by 1920 he had help.  He was living with his sister’s son Alonzo Jones and his family.  As near as I can tell, it was the same farm.  To Do Item: check property records for ownership of the McNair/Jones farm. 

Robert Patterson McNair died 3 July 1925 and was buried at Piedmont Cemetery in Calvary, Grady County, Georgia.  (Grady County was created from Decatur and Thomas counties in August 1905.  The McNairs lived for over 40 years in Georgia Militia District 553, which is in the southwest corner of the present-day Grady County, and thus was part of Decatur County through 1905.)  Robert P’s grave is right next to the graves of his sister and brother-in-law, my great-great grandparents Permelia Ruth McNair Maxwell and J.A.O. Maxwell.  His grave site is overgrown with small trees and brush, and it would probably be a major undertaking to clear it away and require permission from the cemetery management, but someone apparently still remembers him each year around Confederate Memorial Day, because there was a clean flag stuck into the ground next to the grave when I was there in April.  If you can understand this, you can begin to understand something of the character of the South, Old and New.

Robert Patterson McNair

That’s about it for now.

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim

Dr. Robert Martin McNair

In discussing my 2^nd great grandmother Permelia Ruth McNair Maxwell’s death certificate in my last post, I made the comment that finding out that her father was a doctor (Dr. Robert McNair) was a new piece of information.  I should have checked my research notes and email history more closely.  As my cousin Christy Spooner reminded me, we had a conversation about Dr. McNair back in June.  It was Christy who first brought the information up, having discovered a reference to him being a doctor in someone’s family tree.  My comment at the time was: 

Since the 1850 and 1860 census lists Robert's occupation as Farmer i doubt he was a doctor, unless he was a "country doctor", who tended to people and animals on the side so to speak. But as you know, records tend to be sparse in southwest Georgia, so it's possible.

As usual, the more certain I am of a “fact”, the faster I’m shot down!  The statement on the death certificate by Robert McNair’s granddaughter Julia Maxwell Bower that he was a doctor is a powerful supporting argument for the conclusion that he was indeed a doctor.  Yes, it’s second-hand information; she was after all born 28 years after his death.  But the close association of Julia and her mother throughout her life means that she would likely have heard the stories of her parents and grandparents many times.  We still have no indication of any formal medical training, but it’s certainly worth pursuing that avenue of research, and we can certainly move this particular piece of information into the “likely” category at the very least.  So Christy, as I sit down to enjoy my big plate of humble pie a la mode, I hope you’ll forgive me for forgetting our conversation and for being so quick to discount it earlier.  And I say a hearty, “Good job, Christy!”

Since I’ve started I will continue with Dr. McNair and what else we think we know about him. 

According to an unpublished McNair family history, Robert Martin McNair was born 16 March 1807 to Daniel Gilbert McNair (1783-1834) and Ann Martin (1790-??), probably in Richmond County, Georgia.  The family moved to Decatur by 1830 because Daniel McNair shows up on the 1830 census in Decatur County, and there is a male aged 20-29 living in the household.  (Prior to 1850 the US federal census listed only the names of the heads of household.  There are counts of other members of the family, broken down by age group and sex.)  The first record of Robert is a marriage license issued in Decatur County to Robert M. McNair and Nancy Patterson on 22 December 1835.  They were married the next day.

License image is from Decatur County Marriage Book AA, 1824-1841, page 112; Marriage Books, Decatur County Ordinary Court, Georgia Archives; http://cdm.sos.state.ga.us/u?/countyfilm,120048.

The 1840 census doesn’t show names of the members of the household, either, but there is a Robert M. McNair listed for Decatur County, and the members of his household consist of 3 free white males under 5, 1 white male 30-39, 1 white female 20-29, 1 male slave 24-35, and 1 female slave 24-35.  Then, in 1850, he is listed with his wife and children, Robert (42), Nancy (34), Daniel (14), William (12), James (10), Sophronia (8), John (6), Robert (5), Joseph (4) and Martin (1).

Census image courtesy of HeritageQuest.com (access provided with library card)

In 1860, the family is shown living in the Attapulgus area of Decatur County: Robert (53), Nancy (43), John T (20), Saphronia (18), Robert (16), Joseph (13), Thomas (11), Ellen (9), Catherin (7), Sarah (5) and Permelia (2). 

Census image courtesy of Ancestry.com (subscription required)

There is a book called 1864 Census for Re-Organizing the Georgia Militia (Nancy J. Cornell; Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, USA; 2000) which was a census of all white men aged 16 to 60 who weren’t then already serving in the armed forces of the CSA.  On page 188, in the 8th Senatorial District, 553rd Militia District, the census lists two McNairs:

MCNAIR, R. M., 56 yrs. 10 mos., Farmer, b. GA
MCNAIR, W. G., 48 yrs. 2 mos., Farmer, b. GA

Using the presumed birth date in March 1807 and adding 56 years and 10 months gives January 1864, which is the “date of record” for that 1864 census.  Robert also had a brother, William Green McNair, born 7 November 1815; so adding the stated age of 48 years and 2 months again we get January 1864.  I love it when the figures all add up!  If you have an Ancestry.com subscription the 1864 Census book can be found there, available for searching or browsing, at http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/BookList.aspx?dbid=49289. 

Census image courtesy of
Ancestry.com (subscription required)

The 1870 census does not show marital status.  However, in 1870 Nancy McNair is shown as the head of the household, which includes Nancy (54), Robert P (25), Joseph W (23), Thomas M (21), Mary C (17), Sarah E (15) and Permelia R (13).  The implication is that Robert Martin McNair had died by 1870.  (If you’ll notice, the McNairs are family number 4 on this census sheet.  Family number 1, at the top of the page, is the Maxwells, and line 4 is James A.O. Maxwell, who would later marry Permelia R McNair.  So they were childhood neighbors!)   

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found a tombstone or obituary for Robert.  I did however find another mention of him, in the book Gleanings from Grady County, Georgia (Wessie Connell, Frank W. Roebuck and Barbara C. Williams, editors; Roddenbery Memorial Library, Cairo, GA, USA; 1987).  On page 187, in an entry entitled “Overstreet/McNair/Maxwell Family” by H. W. Overstreet, Mr. Overstreet records a bit of family history. 

Daniel Gilbert McNair came to the Calvary settlement from Warren County, Georgia, in 1825.  His wife was Annie Martin.  They raised seven children; one was Robert Martin McNair (1805-1869) who was a country doctor in Calvary.  He married Nancy Patterson (1818-1905) and they had twelve children.

(Henry Wilbur Overstreet, 1908-1986, passed on just before the book was released.  He was my first cousin, twice removed.  His mother, Nancy May Maxwell, was Robert's granddaughter, Permelia McNair Maxwell's daughter, elder sister of my great-grandmother Lyda Ellen Maxwell.)  So even though all the census records list Robert McNair as a farmer, here’s another bit of a clue that he was more than that.  So I’ll repeat myself, “Good job, Christy!”  And as a bonus I get a probable year of death for Robert as well, which lends credence to the supposition that Nancy was a widow in 1870.

So for someone I don’t know much about it’s amazing how much can be gleaned in bits and pieces.  If you take a fact here and a document there and a scrap of information from somewhere else, you can begin to build a plausible, even probable, image of an ancestor long-gone and poorly documented.  Are there pictures out there, somewhere, in the hands of other descendants, unknown cousins perhaps?  Are there tattered diaries or other documents in some library or museum, lying unrecognized and unacknowledged, just waiting for the right person to come along?  I may, perhaps, one day make the journey and the search in pursuit of such evidence, but until then … I can dream, can’t I?

That’s about it for now. 

Later y’all,

*GeorgiaTim