A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 66

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

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Stephen Willis Avera, the father. was born in Wilkinson county, Jannary 5, 1836, was reared on the farm and trained in its pursuits, and after his marriage settled in the western part of Clinch county, where he resided until 1856. and then came to Berrien county, which had just been organized that year. During the war he enlisted and be- came a soldier of Company E of the Fifty-fourth Georgia Infantry. IIis command joined the western army under Generals JJoseph E. John- ston and Hood, and stubbornly resisted Sherman's advance all the way from Dalton to Atlanta. After the fall of the latter eity he went to Hood's army, participating in the battles at Jonesboro, Franklin, Mur- freesboro and Nashville, and after the last named engagement he was. sent home on detached duty, the war closing before his reeall to the front.

Laying aside the musket he again put his hand to the plow, and was engaged in farming in Berrien county until 1887, when he sold out and bought a farm in Colquitt county which he still occupies. having reached the good old age of seventy-six years. He married Martha Elizabeth Aikins, who was born in Clinch county. a daughter of William Green and Winnie Ann ( Moore) Aikins. Stephen W. Avera and wife reared eleven children, whose names are William Green, Winnie Ann. Polly Ann. Sarah O'Neal, Daniel M., Lyman H., Phebe V., Lou, Junius II., Cordelia and Martha.

Reared in a good home and trained to habits of industry, William G. Avera early manifested special inclination for study and the pursuit of knowledge, and made the best of his early opportunities of school- ing. He has been a lifelong student, and when he was eighteen he was entrusted with his first school. located. three miles east of Nashville. For thirty-three years, an entire generation, he was in the active work of the schoolroom. and he taught children and children's children during that time. The aggregate length of his service out of those thirty-three years was twenty-five full years, a third of a long lifetime. In 1907 Professor Avera was elected superintendent of the Berrien county schools, and by re-elections has since served continously in that office. His administration has been marked by many improvements in the county educational system.

In 1877 Professor Avera was united in marriage with Miss Eliza J. Sirmans. Mrs. Avera was born in Berrien county, daughter of Abner and Frances (Sutton) Sirmans. She died at Sparks in 1905. In 1911 Professor Avera married Margaret MeMillan, a native of Berrien county and daughter of Randall McMillan. The following children were born to Professor Avera by his first marriage, namely: Sirman W., Marcus D., Bryant F., Aaron G., Alice J., Homer C., Abner J .. Willis M., Lona. and Ila. Marcus D., Homer C .. AAbner J., and Enla are now deceased. Aaron G. married Fannie Key. now deceased, and has one son. William. Sirman W. married Annie Young and has a daughter named Georgia. Bryant F. married Mary Patton. Alice J. is the wife of William T. Parr. and has four children. J. W., Stella. Saren and Gladys. Lona married Austin Avera, son of I. C. Avera, sheriff of Berrien county.

In 1878 Professor Avera settled on a farin eight miles southeast of Nashville, and that was the home of his family until 1904. when it was temporarily removed to Sparks that the children might have the benefit of the superior educational advantages available in the Sparks Collegiate institute there. Prof. Avera's present home is at Nashville. the county seat of Berrien county. He still owns the old home where all of his children were born and reared, and where his beloved deceased wife and children are buried. Sacred is the memory of this home to the

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man who has given the best years of his life to the educational and moral npbuilding of this section of Georgia.

Professor Avera and wife are members of the Primitive Baptist church, and in polities he is a Democrat.

WILLIAM FOREST LOCKE. One of Terrell county's best known citizens and business men was the late W. F. Locke, who died at his home in Dawson, in 1910. He had been a merchant. farmer, warehouseman for a number of years, and with material success also won high personal esteem. Mrs. Locke, who survives him, belongs to one of the oldest and most prominent families of southwestern Georgia.

William Forest Locke was born in Enfanla, Alabama. June 13, 1865. His father was William H. Locke, who for many years was engaged in business at Eufaula where he kept a clothing store and had a large trade. IIe was also a large land owner and farmer, his lands being lo- eated near Eufaula. When the Civil war broke out, he entered the Con- federate service as a member of the Eufaula Rifles. Being a man of unusual education and a fluent writer and frequent correspondent of newspaper, while in the army he often wrote his wife accounts of his experienees, and these letters were published by the press, and the little volume of them is now highly treasured by the descendants of this worthy man. His home remained in Eufaula until his death. His wife, before her marriage, was Ann Judson Sylvester, who was a native of. Georgia, and a daughter of DeMarquis Sylvester. The latter removed from Georgia to Alabama and bought land five miles from Eufaula, which he operated with slave labor and continued a resident in that com- munity until his death, Mr. Sylvester married a Miss Rembert, a native of South Carolina. Mrs. William H. Locke survived her husband for many years and died at the age of seventy-five. She was the mother of ten children, all of whom grew to maturity, namely: Ella Estelle, Lula, Clifford A., Nettie L., William F., Charles C., Pearl D., Judson S., Mattie B., and Leslie Roscoe.

The late Mr. Locke of Terrell county was reared and educated at Eufaula, and at an early age began his independent career as a clerk in a wholesale grocery store in that city. After a few years as clerk he moved to Montgomery, where he was elerk in a hotel for a few months, after which he returned to Eufaula and opened a fancy grocery store and conducted it for one year. At the end of that time he came to Dawson, where he established a men's furnishing store, and also became inter- ested in farming on land which was his wife's inheritance, located two and a half miles from Dawson. As a merchant and farmer he pros- pered during all the remaining years of his life. As a farmer he raised large quantities of cotton and corn, and for several years was engaged in the warehouse business at Dawson, handling large quantities of cotton. The late Mr. Locke had unusual business talent, and succeeded in almost every venture to which he put his hand.

On October 10, 1888. he married Miss Lillie Belle Rogers. The Rogers family have long been prominent in this state. Her father, Harrison Rogers, was formerly a resident near Dalton before the war, and was a large planter and operated his plantation with slave labor. When the slaves were freed. as a result of the war, the bulk of his wealth was swept away, but he did not lose the courage and enterprise which were the essential features of his character, and moving to Dawson when it was but a village he bought land nearby and began once more as a farmer to build up his prosperity. He became one of the most sue- cessful men in this region, and as his means increased, he invested in land until he became a very large holder of Dawson property, where he

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resided until his death at the age of eighty-two. The maiden name of Harrison Rogers' wife was Lney Hood, of Meriwether county, Georgia, daughter of Bynum Hood, of the same county and the consin of Bynum Hood of Dalton, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. The five children in the Rogers family were named William, who died at the age of thirteen ; John C .; Lee II. : Ella Elizabeth and Lillie Belle.

Mr. and Mrs. Locke were both members of the Baptist church. The five children in their family were William Harrison. Mamie Ailene. Ruth, Lillie and Rogers. William II. married Olive Thornton, and they have a son named William Forest.

WILLIAM MILLS LEWIS. attorney in Vidalia, is a native of the state of Georgia, born in Warren county on November 7, 1869. He is the son of Nathan Augustus and Sicily ( Rogers) Lewis, the former of Green county and the latter of Warren county. Mr. Lewis lived in Green county until 1859, at which time his family moved to Alabama, and there he attended the Eastern Alabama Male College, from which insti- tution he was graduted in June. 1861. Immediately thereafter he joined the Fifty-first Alabama regiment and was with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston until the close of the war. Returning then to Georgia he was engaged for some time in teaching school in Warren county. It was there he inet the girl who later became his wife and the mother of Wil- lian Mills Lewis of this personal review. He was one of the three chil- dren of his parents. the others being Marvin Lewis, a manufacturer of Coca Cola, in Dothan, Alabama, and Mariana, wife of Henry R. Hall of Warren county.

The son, William, attended school in Warrenton, and was duly gradu- ated from the high school of that place. He thereafter engaged in farming until he was twenty-one, when he took a position as clerk and continued in that work for two years. Later he taught school in Jefferson county for a year and the same length of time in Warren county, following which he returned to his farming again and was thus occupied for another term of two years. He then decided to study law, with a view to entering the profession, and for nine months was a stu- dent under E. P. Davis of Warrenton, after which he successfully passed his examinations and was admitted to the bar. He initiated the active practice of his profession in Milledgeville, Baldwin county, and after two years in that place he located at Vidalia, and here he enjoys an ever increasing clientage, and is regarded as one of the important citizens of the city. He was judge of the city court of Mt. Vernon in 1901 and 1902 and solicitor of the city court in 1907 and 1908, and a member of the board of commissioners of roads and revenues of Montgomery county.

On January 16, 1898, Mr. Lewis was married to Miss Sallie Meadows, the daughter of S. B. Meadows, mayor of Vidalia, and the representative of Toombs county in the legislature in 1909-10. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis,-Mattele, born October 17, 1899, and Urma, born April 1, 1902.

Mr. Lewis is a member of the Knights of Pythias, but is not further affiliated with any fraternal organization. Mrs. Lewis is a member of the Baptist church.

DOOLLY DEWITT GILMORE. Even in an age which recognizes young men and places responsibilities upon them which in the past have been laid only upon the shoulders of those of more mature years, and in a part of the country noted for its young men of ability and sound judg- ment, we seldom find one who in so short a time has attained the promi-

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nenee in financial eireles that has come to Doolly Dewitt Gilmore, cashier of the Citizens Banking Company of Baxley, Georgia, one of the soundest institutions of Appling county. That the trust placed in his hands is well merited has been proved by the universal confidence in which he is held by the citizens of the community in which he has discharged his duties. Born March 11, 1886. in MeRae, Telfair county, Georgia, he is a son of James II. and Mary Elizabeth Gilmore, natives of Butts county, the latter of whom died when he was an infant.

James II. Gilmore, a prominent planter, merchant and lumberman. served the Confederacy in a regiment of Georgia volunteers during the War between the States. He had the following children : Jesse M., who is thirty-seven years of age: Henry Cephas, who died at the age of thirty- two years; James Ernest, who is twenty-nine years old; Doolly Dewitt : Annie, the wife of Dr. Dan Morrison of Waycross, Georgia; Sarah Etta. living at Baxley and caring for her dead brother's children : and Edna Belle. the wife of Robert L. White. a prominent merchant of Live Oak, Florida.

Doolly D. Gilmore was seven years of age when he was taken by his father to a farm near Lumber City, on the Ocmulgee river, where he resided for eight years, obtaining his education in the publie schools. He then returned to MeRae for one year, where he was employed as a elerk in a dry goods store. and spent a like period in the dry goods estab- lishment of his brother in Baxley. Subsequently he beeanie engaged in railroad clerical work at Macon for the Southern and Central Railroads. but after three years went to Live Oak. Florida, and for a short time acted as a bookkeeper in a furniture and jewelry store. During the year that followed he was bookkeeper for the International Harvester Company, at Atlanta, and then returned to Baxley and entered the Citizens Banking Company as assistant cashier, serving in that capacity from November, 1906, until January, 1907. when he was elected cashier, a position which he has held to the present time.

The Citizens Banking Company, an institution with an authorized capital of $50.000, is now installed in a new reinforced concrete and steel building, erected in 1912, where it has large, modern and elegant quarters, including brick vaults and safety deposit department. It has been in operation for five years, during which time it has paid yearly dividends, and has accumulated a surplus of $9,000. The deposits have grown rapidly and now amount to more than $100,000, and the bank is the state depository for Appling county. Mr. Gilmore is a young man of fine character and excellent abilities, and takes a great interest in every- thing that tends toward the welfare of his adopted community. He be- longs to the blue lodge. chapter, commandery and Shriner degrees of Masonry and is also connected with the Knights of Pythias. He and Mrs. Gilmore are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church South, in which he is at present serving as steward.

In December, 1908, Mr. Gilmore was married to Miss Madena Griner, who was born at Attopulgas, Decatur county, Georgia, daughter of the Rev. J. B. Griner of the Methodist Episcopal church South. They have had one daughter. Dorothy, who was born December 4, 1910.

JERRY D. TILLMAN. Belonging to a Southern family of prominence and worth, and a representative of the agricultural community of Brooks county, Jerry D. Tillman is eminently deserving of mention in a work of this character. A Georgian by birth, he was born, December 28, 1828. at Berlin, Colquitt county, a place then known as the Robinson district. Irwin county, in the log cabin creeted by his father, JJohn Till- man.

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His grandfather, Jeremiah Tillman. a native of South Carolina, was there a resident when the War of 1812 was declared. Enlisting as a sol- dier, he came with his regiment to Georgia, where he was stationed until receiving his honorable discharge at the close of the conflict in Savannah. Being then joined by his family, he lived for awhile in Ware county, Georgia, subsequently becoming one of the original householders of that part of Irwin county now included within the limits of Colquitt county. Buying a tract of wooded land. he cleared a portion of it, and was there industriously employed in tilling the soil until his death, at the age of seventy-five years. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Dicey Brown, six children were born and reared.

Born in South Carolina. John Tillman was brought up and educated in Georgia, where his parents settled when he was a small child. Becom- ing a farmer from choice, he bought land in Colquitt -county, and with slave help cleared and improved the homestead upon which he spent his remaining years. passing away at the venerable age of four seore and six years. He married Sally Mercer, who was born in Robinson county, North Carolina. Her parents. John and Fereby (Muselewhite) Mereer. came from their native state. North Carolina, to Georgia in 1836, settling as pioneers in Ware county, where they both spent their last days. Mrs. Sally ( Mercer) Tillman died at the age of seventy-five years. She reared a large family of children, eleven in number, as follows: Jerry D., the special subjeet of this brief sketch; Henry; Sarah; Sally ; Elijah ; John; Harrison ; Elizabeth : Fereby ; Roxie; and Rachel. The sons all served throughout the war between the states, Elijah, who was con- missioned captain of his company, being the only one of them that was wounded.

Born in a rude log cabin. Jerry D. Tillman grew to manhood among pioneer scenes. The dusky savages still frequented the forests. often- times going on the war path, in 1836, when he was a lad of eight years, making their last fight on Georgia soil. The people in his boyhood days lived chiefly on the wild game so abundant in this section, and the pro- duetions of the land, and his mother, who was accomplished in the do- mestie art and sciences. did her cooking by the open fire, and from the cotton grown on the plantation, and the sheep raised, carded, spun and wove the homespun in which she dressed her family. Jerry D .. the oldest son, was fourteen years old before he wore shoes, not because he was not allowed to, but because he preferred to go barefooted. There being no railways in those times, he, in common with his neighbors. used to team produce to Saint Marys, Georgia, or to Newport. Florida, being a week or more on the round trip, and invariably taking along a stoek of provisions, and cooking and camping on the way.

As a youth JJerry D. Tillman acquired a very good education, and at the age of twenty-one started for himself as an overseer on a large plantation, a position which he filled acceptably for five years. He then bought land on Mule creek, in Lowndes county, and was there em- ployed in tilling the soil five years. Selling out at the end of that time. he bought land in Madison county. Florida, and continued his former occupation. In 1861 he enlisted in the Second Florida Cavalry, under Captain Paramour. With his company, which was attached to General - Finnegan's Brigade, he took an active part in numerous important cam- paigns and battles, remaining with his command until the close of the war. In November. 1869, Mr. Tillman disposed of his Florida land. returned to Georgia, and settled on lot number 196. Briggs district. Brooks county, where he has since resided. This plantation contains five hundred acres of land, pleasantly located on the Morven and Val- dosta road, and is under a good state of cultivation, with attractive Vol. 11-29

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improvements, the residence sitting baek from the road, and having a beautiful grove in front of it.

On September 1, 1852, Mr. Tillman married Elizabeth Allen, who was born in Thomas eounty, Georgia, a daughter of Isaac and Easter ( Harrell ) Allen, natives of North Carolina, and pioneers of Thomas county. Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Tillman, namely : Robert, Amelia. Sally, Jimmie, Ella, Ida and Idella, twins, Charlotte, and Gordon. Amelia, widow of A. D. Bass, resides in Quitman. Sally, wife of Charles Freer, of Florida, has five children, Mabel; Leon and Leonora, twins; Tillman; and Ielen. Jimmie, wife of W. C. Dampier, of Brooks county, has seven children, Gertrude, Missiebob, Blanche, Glenn, Valora, Jim, and Dunean. Gordon married Elizabeth MePher- son, and they have one child, Gordon Isaae. Ella lives in Morven. Robert superintends the management of the homestead farm, his sis- ters, Charlotte and Idella living with him on the old home farm, keep- ing house for their father and brother, their mother having passed to the life beyond at the age of seventy-two years. She was a woman of much foree of character, and a valued member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Tillman was formerly a Whig in politics, but since the Civil war has been identified with the Democratic party.

OLIVER C. CLEVELAND, the prosperous and progressive farmer of Thomas county, has had a life rich in the adventures both of war and peace. When a mere youth of eighteen years, he saw serviee in the Mexiean war. A few years later, he joined the great tide of men that surged toward the gold fields of California, and came safely home after a perilous journey thither and home again. only to find his country on the eve of a great Civil war. The South had need of such valiant young men and strong fighters as Oliver C. Cleveland was, and he knew no more of peaceful days until the war was over, and the cause for which he had given so much of his youth, was lost. It is fitting that after the hardships of his early days, Mr. Cleveland should spend the remainder of his life as an agriculturist in his native state, and it is doubly fitting that his biography be included in the annals of his community, not only because of the part he played in the historieal events of the nine- teenth century, but because of the place he has won for himself in the hearts of his fellow citizens, in the neighborhood of his home, by his kindly spirit and true manhood.

Mr. Cleveland first saw the light of day in Franklin county, Georgia, March 30, 1829. ITis father, Benjamin Cleveland, was born in the same county in the year of 1792, the son of Jolin Cleveland, who was a native of the Greenville district of South Carolina, and was descended from English ancestors who settled in the colonies in early times. John Cleveland moved to Georgia from South Carolina as a young man, and he was among the first to settle in Franklin eonnty. He resided in that loeality for a great many years, and then moved to Mobile, Alabama, where he died at a good old age. ITis wife was a Miss Gilbert before her marriage, and she bore him one daughter, and six sons, of whom the father of the subject of this history was one.

Benjamin Cleveland was reared and educated in Franklin county. He was married in the district in which he had spent his boyhood, and a few years later moved to Troop county, where he purchased a traet of land, enltivating it by means of slave labor. He also engaged in the mercantile business in the same district for several years, but finally sold out and moved to Stewart county, where he remained until his death, at the age of eighty-seven years. His wife, Amelia Hooper Cleve- land, died at the age of seventy-five years. She was a daughter of

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Richard Hooper, and reared five sons and four daughters. All of these sons afterward served in the Confederate army. Their names were James M., Richard II., Benjamin F., John W., and Oliver C.

Reared and educated in the county to which his parents moved soon after his birth, that is Troop county, Oliver C. Cleveland received in its schools, as well as in its woods and meadows, the foundation of that education which he has since acquired, guiding a natural intelligence by wide reading and keen speculation. In the year 1847, he enlisted in Company B, Georgia Battalion of Mounted Infantry, of which Lien- tenant-Colonel James S. Colhoun was commander. He was mustered in for service in the Mexican war at Mobile, and then set sail with his company over a difficult and circuitons route to Mexico City, which had surrendered before the arrival of the forces of which he was a part. After a few weeks in the City of Mexico, he was transferred to Cuerna- vaca, where he remained until peace was declared, and on his return home, he was honorably discharged from the army.

In 1850, the year after the famous gold-craze was inaugurated. Oliver Cleveland went to California. He chose to travel via the Isthmus, and was one hundred and twenty days en route. He landed at San Fran- cisco, then a city of tents wrestling among the saud hills, and from thence he went to the mines. He remained in California, engaged in mining and other occupations until the year 1860. At that time, he returned home, choosing the southern route, this time. He travelled the entire distance of 2,760 iniles by stage, the trip consuming nineteen days and niglits.

He had been home just a year when the war between the North and South broke out. On the nineteenth of April, 1861, he enlisted in Com- "pany A, Second Georgia Battalion, and was sent at once to Virginia to save the Gossport navy at Norfolk. From Norfolk, he went to Golds- boro, North Carolina, to drill new reernits to the Confederate ranks. ITis first term of enlistment expired in April, 1862. and he reenlisted in the same company. He was sent to Virginia, then. and served under Gen- erals Welthers and Mahone in Longstreet's corps, and took part in many of the great battles of the war, including the battle of Gettysburg. A few days before Lee's surrender he was granted a furlough, and re- turned home, and was there when peace was declared.

After the war, Mr. Cleveland engaged in farming in Stewart county, until 1872, when he moved to Terrell county. IIe remained at the latter place until 1885, in which year he came to Thomas county, and settled in the Oak Hill district, on the farm where he has since resided. Mr. Cleveland has been twice married. His first wife was Martha L. Armonr. and he was thirty-nine years of age when he was united in marriage with her. She was a native of Troop county, and a daughter of William and Sarah (Harper) Armonr. She died in 1879, and later Mr. Cleveland married Mrs. Sarah Grace. Mrs. Sarah Cleveland was a native of Sampson county. North Carolina. IIer father was John Shearman, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and a life-long resident of North Carolina. Mrs. Cleveland was first married to John S. Herring, of Sampson connty, North Carolina. Her second husband was Thomas Grace, who died in 1880. Mr. Cleveland had one son by his first wife. This is Monroe E. Cleveland, who is married and now resides in Oklahoma.

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A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 66

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