A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 46

Author: Harden, William, 1844-1936
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1208

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James Groover was twice married. He married first, Elizabeth Den- mark, who was born October 27, 1803, in Bulloch county, Georgia, and died in 1848, aged forty-five years. Ile married second, Mrs. Sarah Ann (Hagan) Groover, widow of Malachi Groover. His first wife bore him children as follows: Eliza, Redding J., Wiley W., Charles A., Thomas A., Clayton, Martha, Allen W., James 1., Sally Ann, John Bur- ton, Mary Jane, Daniel W., Henry C., Francis M., and Clinton D. By his second marriage he had one son, Fuller.

Laying a solid foundation in the pioneer schools of his native district for a good education, James I. Groover subsequently continued his studies in Thomasville two years, during his long vacations assisting his father in the work of the farm, when old enough going occasionally to either Tallahassee or Newport, Florida, with loads of farm produce, being several days in making the round trip. His natural inclinations turning him toward a professional career, he afterwards spent three years at the University of North Carolina, and at the age of twenty- five years was graduated from the Medical department of the New York University with the degree of M. D. Immediately locating in the Groov- erville district, Brooks county, Doctor Groover had a long and eminently useful career as a physician, during the forty-five years that he con- tinued in active practice gained to a marked degree the confidence of the community, and built up an extremely lucrative patronage. When ready to retire from his profession, the doctor announced his intention in church, arising in his seat and telling his friends that they would confer a favor upon him by never calling upon him again for profes- sional services. At the outbreak of the Civil war Doetor Groover en- listed in the Brooks County Volunteers, which became a part of the Twenty-sixth Georgia Volunteer Infantry, and continued with his regi- ment in all of its marches. campaigns and battles, and after the surrender resumed his practice in Grooverville.

Doctor Groover has been twice married. He married first. in 1860, in New York City, Emily S. Johnson, a native of Connecticut. She died in 1885. The doctor married second, in 1887, Mittie Groover. who was born in Grooverville district, a daughter of Joseph Groover. By his first marriage Doctor Groover had one son, Clarence I. Groover, now publisher of the Enquirer and Sun, at Columbus, Georgia. He married Mary Davis, and they have two children, Emily and Herbert. The doctor is a member of the Episcopal church, to which his first wife also belonged.

WILLIAM HENRY WILSON. One of the active representatives of an old and well known family of South Georgia, William Henry Wilson. is a son of Jeremiah Wilson, JJr., and grandson of Jeremiah Wilson, Sr., the latter having made his name and work impressive among the old settlers of this part of the state as the man who made many of the first surveys in Thomas and Lowndes counties, especially in that part of Lowndes now included in Brooks county. The history of the varions members of the Wilson family will be found elsewhere in this work under the name of Joseph D. Wilson.

William H. Wilson was born on the old home farm in this vicinity. July 10, 1859, and was reared and educated in Brooks county and lived at the parental home until his marriage. He began his independent career as a farmer on a small place bordering Mule creek in the Dry Lake district, but six years later bought the farm which he still owns and ocenpies, located four miles southeast of Boston in the Boston dis- triet of Thomas county. Here he owns 250 acres, with improvements, and for a number of years has carried on a prosperous business of gen- eral farming and stock raising.

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Mr. Wilson was married at the age of twenty-four to Miss Hattie Julia Stanaland, a member of an old and well known family, the his- tory of which will be found elsewhere in the sketch of J. O. Stanaland. Mr. Wilson and wife are the parents of six children, named as follows: James Stanaland, Nellie M., Henry Grady, Martha (died aged fifteen years), Joseph J., and Robert Lee. James S. married Katie Owen, and they have two children, Janette and Jewel. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are members of the Primitive Baptist church.

DANIEL A. GROOVER. Closely identified with the agricultural in- terests of Brooks county, Daniel A. Groover is meeting with highly grati- fying results in his pleasant and independent occupation, his estate, which is located in the Grooverville district, having substantial im- provements, and being amply supplied with the necessary implements and appliances for carrying on his work. A grandson of John Groover, Sr., an early pioneer of South Georgia, he was born March 22, 1841, in Thomas county.

His great-grandfather, John Groover, was born either in Germany or America, of German parents. At the time of the Revolutionary war he was living near Cowpens, South Carolina, within sight of the field which later became the scene of a great battle. Joining the colonists in their struggle for independence, he was murdered by the Tories when home on a furlough.

John Groover, Sr .. was born very near the line separating North Carolina from South Carolina. Migrating to Georgia in early life, he resided for many years in Bulloch county, from there coming to Thomas county, where his son, John Groover, Jr., father of Daniel A., had previously located. His brother, Solomon Groover, came with him to this seetion of the state, and they became the progenitors of the many families of Groovers now living in Brooks and Thomas counties. Locat- ing in what is now the Grooverville district, Brooks county, John Groover, Sr., remained in that district until his death. He married and reared three sons and four daughters, as follows: John, James, Abner, Eliza- beth, Hannah, Mary, and Barbara.

John Groover. Jr., was born in 1793, in Bulloeh county, Georgia, and was there brought up and married. Subsequently, accompanied by his wife and their three children, and his brother James and family, he eame with his own teams across the country to Brooks county, bringing with him his household goods and provisions, cooking and camping by the way. Locating in what is now Grooverville district, he purchased a traet of timber that was still in its virgin wildness, and in the space which he cleared erected the humble log cabin in which his son, Daniel A., first drew the breath of life. The land was in its primitive eondi- tion, its dense growth of timber being inhabited by the wily red man and the wild beasts of the forests, both at times proving troublesome, so much so that the settlers of that vicinity were forced to build a log fort to which the women and children could flee for protection when the Indians started on a rampage. There were but five families living near what is now Grooverville, and more than once these families, the women and children, sought refuge in the fort. After clearing quite a portion of his land, he sold out and purchased in lot 417. in the northwest part of Grooverville precinct, and was there employed in tilling the soil until his death, in 1859. He married Mary Redding, who was born in Bul- loch county, Georgia, and lived to the advanced age of four score and four years. Eight children were born to them, as follows: John M., Elizabeth, Mary A., James H., Charles W., Sarah H., Albert J., and Daniel A.

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Growing to manhood on the parental homestead, Daniel A. Groover has witnessed the growth of Brooks county from a vast wilderness to a rich agricultural region, dotted here and there with populous towns and villages, through which railroads now pass. In the days of his boyhood the forests were filled with wild beasts of all kinds, and game was abundant. Tallahassee and Newport, in Florida, were then the most convenient markets to which his father could haul the farm produce, the round trip to those places consuming at least five days. There having been no free educational institutions, he was foreed to walk a distance of four miles whenever he attended sehool, which was very irregularly. Reared to habits of industry and economy, Mr. Groover remained with his parents until the outbreak of the war between the states, when he enlisted in the "Piscola Volunteers," which beeame Company G, of the Twenty-sixth Georgia Volunteer Infantry, known far and wide as the "Fighting Regiment." His regiment -was assigned to Jaekson Corps, Army of North Virginia, and he continued with it, taking an aetive part in all of its engagements until the battle of Gettys- burg. Mr. Groover, who was then ill with typhoid pneumonia. was eap- tured by the enemy and held as a prisoner-of-war at Forts Delaware and Point Lookout, for eight months. On being paroled he returned to Vir- ginia, arriving at Appomattox just in season for the surrender. With several of his eomrades he then started for home, walking aeross the states of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and on to Augusta, Georgia, from there going by rail to Albany, via Atlanta, and thenee on foot to his old home.

On his arrival, Mr. Groover found that his father's estate had been settled and the farm sold subjeet to his mother's dower, Confederate money having been received in payment and thus lost. In 1865 he raised a erop on the old homestead, which he purchased the following year, and on which he has since resided. Mr. Groover now owns 264 acres in Brooks eounty, and seventy aeres in Thomas eounty, and a large part of it is under cultivation and most intelligently managed. In 1907 Mr. Groover's home was burned and he ereeted the one that he and his family now oecupy, it being situated in the Quitman and Boston road.

On October 6, 1861, Mr. Groover was united in marriage with Martha A. Groover, who was born in Brooks county, Georgia, a daughter of Joshua S. and Rebeeea (Beasley) Groover, and granddaughter of Solo- mon Groover. Mrs. Groover passed to the higher life December 31, 1909, leaving a heaven-made vaeant place in the home. Eight children

. were born of their union, namely: Mally A., Ophelia L., Mary Re- becca, Samuel Dickson, Janie E., John T., Julia R., and Mattie Lee, who died at the age of thirteen years. Mally A. married Annie Jarrett. and they have four sons, Wallace A., Daniel A .. Felix, and Herman. Janie E., who married W. A. Simns, died March 2, 1906, leaving three ehil- dren, Minor A., Sam Groover, and Martha A. Ophelia beeame the see- ond wife of W. A. Simms. Mary Rebecca. wife of Hammond H. Groover, has one child, Eula K. Groover. Samuel Diekson married Fanny Moody, and at his death, which occurred in 1902, he left her with two children, James Russian and Samuel Daniel. John T. married Birdie Seruggs, and they have two children, Martha A. and Julia R. Julia is the wife of Jaek Stringer.

ANSEL ALDERMAN. The Alderman family has beeome very well known in the southwestern part of Georgia, both on aeeount of the industry and excellent character of the present generation, but also on account of the prominent part played by the early representatives of

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the name in the settling and opening up of the region where their descendants make their homes. The first American representatives of the family was David Alderman, who came to this side of the ocean from England in the latter part of the eighteenth century. His son, Timo- thy, and his grandson. James, the father of the subject of this sketch. were pioneers in Southwestern Georgia, and suffered the hardships of primitive existence in the very seetion which is now blessed with the advantages of civilization.

Ansel Alderman was born on a farm in the Tallokas district of Brooks eounty, on the fifth of April, 1867, one of the ten children of James and Jane Roberts Alderman. He passed his early years on the farm of his father, receiving his early education in the rural schools of his com- munity. He was married when only seventeen years of age to Willie Murphy, and the parents of the young bride and groom fitted them out for their start in life, one family supplying them with land and the other with stock. By industry and thrift. indoors and out, the youthful couple soon managed to make a sueeess of their small farm, and in time were able to add to the original tract until they possessed 650 aeres, all in the Pavo district of Thomas county. Mr. Alderman continued to farm this Jand until the year 1902, when he moved to Pavo, where he has lived ever since. letting out his farm to tenants.

Willie Murphy Alderman, the wife who shared so many of the happy and prosperous years of his life, was the daughter of William Murphy, a native of one of the Carolinas, who was an early settler of Colquott county. Georgia, in which locality Mrs. Ansehnan was born. After a useful, though brief, career as a wife and mother, Mrs. Willie Alderman died in the year 1901, leaving seven children. These were : Jessie, who is now the wife of Mont Eller, and whose children are Clyde and Louis; James, Mattie, Romulus, Corbett, Tonny and Sabie. Ansel Alderman was married the second time to Lilla Pittman, who was born in Thomas county. Georgia. the daughter of Jack and Josephine (Hart) Pittman. Three children have resulted from this marriage, Aline, Wil- lie Lee, and Lilla May.

Mr. Alderman lives quietly, seeking no publie honor, but he is never- theless a valued citizen of Pavo and lends his influence toward the good. Mr. and Mrs. Alderman are members of the Missionary Baptist ehureh, and lend their support to the works of that congregation.

EZEKIEL ALDERMAN, the well known eitizen and former hotel man of Pavo, was born in Thomas county, Georgia, August 13. 1850, a descendant of a family that had played its part in America since early colonial times. Mr. Alderman's great-grandfather, David Alderman, was a representative of a good old English family who settled in the United States while they were yet under the rule of Great Britain. He first made his home in New Jersey, but after living there for some time, he moved to North Carolina. There he spent a great many years, but late in life, his wife having died and his children being pretty well grown, he migrated to Bullock county, Georgia, with his family. and resided in that place until his death, which occurred at a good old age.

The grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Timothy Alderman, was born in North Carolina in the year 1801. and was a young man when he moved to Georgia with his father. After his marriage. which was solemnized in Bullock county, he changed his place of residence to Berrien county. While living in the latter place he explored the south- western section of Georgia, and considering that that section of the state offered superior advantages for the settler. in the year 1835, he located at a place now inchided in Brooks eonnty. At the time of his

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settlement in his new home, Southwestern Georgia was a wilderness. All kinds of game roved its tangled forests, and the red men still elaimed it as their hunting ground. Nothing daunted by the obvious difficulties presented by life in this wild place, Timothy Alderman commeneed at onee to clear and put under cultivation the traet of timbered land he had brought in what is now the Tallokas district. By the time he had his farm in working condition, settlers were thronging the locality. Timo- thy Alderman sold out to one of these men and bought a farm south of Quitman. Ile resided there two years, but at the end of that time re- turned to the Tallokas district where he purchased a new farm and several hundred head of cattle. and engaged in stock raising. He died on this farm at the ripe old age of eighty-one years, leaving his wife, with whom he had shared fifty-five years of happy married life, to sur- vive him. She passed away at the age of ninety-two years, after a long and useful life as wife and mother. Her maiden name was Sally Williams and she, like her husband, was born in the state of North Carolina. She reared seven daughters and four sons, namely: Nancy, Polly, Jinsey, Susan, Betty, Martha, and Jane, and James, Ezekiel, Henry and Timothy.

James Alderman was born in Bullock county, Georgia, in 1823. IIe was brought to the southwestern part of Georgia by his father when a mere lad and was reared amid the rigors and inspiring scenes of pioneer days. When he started out in life for himself, he purchased a tract of land about one mile west of Pavo. and there built himself a log house and engaged in farming. There were no railroads in those days aud the nearest market he had for his produce was Tallahassee. which was a long and arduous journey from his farm. He hauled his commodities there by team, however, the journey consuming several days. After liv- ing on his original farm for several years, James Alderman sold it and purchased some land west of Thomasville. He only lived here two years, and at the end of that time he settled iu what is now Brooks county, having bought a fine farm in the western part of the Tallahas district.

In the year 1864, when the memorable struggle between the states began, James Alderman enlisted in the Georgia state militia, and went to the defense of Atlanta. He served without interruption until the elose of the war and then resumed farming on his last-purchased farm. In 1867 he sold his farm and rented land for a year, during which time he was looking around for an advantageous location. With the idea of finding a good place to settle in mind, he explored Florida, but that state did not come up to his expectations, so he returned to the Tallahas district and bought a farm from William Yates. In the year 1870 he sold his farm to Captain Wells and bought another large farm in the same district, Two years later he disposed of this land also and bought a small farm, upon which he lived for three years. At the end of that time he purchased a farm in the Pavo district. He stocked this farm with cattle and remained there engaged in stock raising until his death, which occurred when he had reached the ripe age of sixty-nine years.

The wife of James Alderman and the mother of the subject of this sketch, was Jane Roberts Alderman. She was born in what is now the . Tallokas district of Brooks county, the daughter of Elias and Nancy Novils Roberts. Mrs. Jane Alderman died at the age of sixty-five years, having reared ten children, Eliza, Elias, Timothy, Sally, Nieie. Ezekiel, James, Mary, Charles and Ansel.

The subject of this history was raised and educated in Brooks county and commenced his career as an independent farmer on rented land in

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the same locality. After renting for two years, he bought a tract of land in the Tallokas distriet from his father. and shortly afterward his father gave him one hundred acres adjoining his farm. He proved very successful in the pursuit of agriculture and added to his original farm until it included 525 acres, besides about one thousand acres of outly- ing land. In 1901 he removed to Pavo, in order to give his children the advantages of town schools. In Pavo he bought the hotel which he operated so successfully for several years and of which he is still the owner. Although he had the newer interests of town life to distract him, Mr. Alderman did not grow neglectful of his agricultural duties. He rented his farm property out to tenants and still keeps it under his supervision. In the town where he has made his home, Mr. Alderman enjoys the reputation of being not only a man of property, but a well- liked and prominent citizen. He is a valued member of the MeDonald Lodge No. 172, of the Ancient, Free and Aceepted Masons.

The marriage of Ezekiel Alderman to Mrs. Susan Elizabeth (Robert- son ) Beatty, took place when he was twenty-five years of age. She was the widow of Jackson Beatty and was born in Webster county, Georgia, the daughter of William and Matilda Hale Robertson. Mr. and Mrs. Alderman were blessed with eight children, Laura. Hugh, Frank, Charles, Deney, Jolin, Hezekiah, and Sally Jane. Mrs. Alderman also had one son, Iverson J. Beatty, by her first marriage. Of these children, Laura is now the wife of D. M. Adams and has five children of her own, Will- iam E., Stanley, Ruth, Beulah, and Huson. Frank is married to May Simms and is the father of two children, Chester and Minnie Lee. Hugh Alderman married Nannie White from near Atlanta.

HEZEKIAH ROBERTS. A veteran of the war between the states and the first mayor of the town of Pavo, where he now resides, Hezekiah Roberts and his family have been identified with the substantial development of South Georgia since the beginning of settlement and progress in this region.

Mr. Roberts was born in that part of Lowndes county that is now the Tallokas district of Brooks county, on the 25th of December, 1840. His grandfather was Thomas Roberts, a Scotchman, who was born either in England or Scotland, and who on coming to America settled in Sereven county, Georgia, where he spent the remainder of his days. He married a Miss Ponder, who died in Sereven county and they were the parents of one son, Elias, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Patience.

Elias Roberts, after spending his youth in Sereven county and a few years' residence in Chatham county, brought his family into the sparsely populated region of Southwest Georgia. He and his household made the removal in private conveyances and brought all their movable prop- erty, with slaves and live stock, locating in the west part of Lowndes county. Most of the land in this region was still owned by the state, though some of it had been purchased by non-resident speculators. Elias Roberts, having bought land bordering Mule creek. first built a house of round logs to shelter his family. Then his slaves laboriously whip-sawed boards from the native timber and with a skilled house- joiner and carpenter to direet the operations, a commodions two-story dwelling was erceted. The boards were two and a half inches thick, were dove-tailed together at the ends, and were fastened to the studding with wooden dowel-pins in lieu of nails. When finished, and for some years afterward. this was the most pretentious residence in all this coun- tryside. A few years after Mr. Roberts settled there, he was approached one day by a speenlator, who owned several lots in this region. and who offered his land for sale at fifteen dollars per lot (a lot containing

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490 acres). Mr. Roberts bought and paid the price asked for one lot, which was covered with fine oak timber, but told the speculator he thought the rest of his land was valueless for farming purposes. Elias Roberts remained a resident at the place of his first settlement until his death, at the age of sixty-three years. Before coming into this part of Georgia, he had served under General Jackson in the Florida Indian wars, and after coming here was a member of a company organized for protection against the Indians over the border, the company being several times called out to drive the red men back to their reservations. During such troublous times the Roberts homestead above deseribed be- came the place of refuge for the women and children of the settlement, so that it served both as a residence and a fort. Elias Roberts had been a participant in the battle of Brushy Creek in 1836, when the Indians made their last great stand in defense of their hunting grounds.

Elias Roberts married Naney Nevils, whose birthplace was at States- boro, Bulloch eounty, Georgia. Her father, Jacob Nevils, was one of the very earliest settlers of Bulloch county, where he bought land and improved a farm, a part of which is now included in the town of Statesboro. There he resided until his death at the age of ninety-eight. His wife, whose Christian name was Nieey, attained to an even greater age, living one year beyond a century. They reared a large family of children, and Mrs. Elias Roberts likewise attained advanced age, being eighty-two at the time of her demise. Her nine children were John, Mary, Jane, Elias, James, Jaeob, Nieey, Hezekiah and L. E.

As one of the youngest of this family, Mr. Hezekiah Roberts was about twelve years old when his father died, and as the older brothers had gone from home he became his mother's ehief assistant in the man- agement of the farm and slaves. He continued in this way until the .breaking out of the war in 1861, at which time he enlisted in Company C of the Seventh Georgia Battalion, later being transferred to the Sixty- first Georgia Infantry. His first serviee was at Brunswick and Savan- nah, and he then went into the army of north Virginia under Stonewall Jackson, and his regiment saw almost eonstant movement of eampaign- ing and fighting until September, 1864, when it was captured. He and his eomrades were then confined at Point Lookout, Maryland, until 1865, when they were paroled. The war elosed before he was exchanged. so he came home and resumed the work of the farm. IIe suceeeded to the ownership of the old homestead which his father had earved out of the wilderness, and was there suceessfully engaged in general farming and stoek raising until 1897. Sinee that year his home has been in Pavo, of which town, at its incorporation, he served as the first mayor.

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A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 46

Author: Harden, William, 1844-1936 Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1208

Author: Harden, William, 1844-1936
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1208