USA > Georgia > Colquitt County > History of Colquitt County > Part 18
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
W. R. Tucker was married to Vera Page, born February 3, 1901, in Colquitt County, and who is still living in Colquitt County. She is Missionary Baptist, and is a child of W. A. Page, native of Randolph County, now resident in Colquitt County, and Mattie White Page, born in 1877 in Randolph County, and now living in Colquitt County with her said hus- band.
W. R. Tucker and his wife, Vera Page Tucker, have the following children all in life, in their home, in Moultrie:
Raiford, Jr., born in 1920.
Lamar, born in 1922.
Linwood, born in 1924.
Lanelle, born in 1926.
Ronald, born in 1929.
Louise, born in 1932.
Samuel P. Turnbull
THIS RESIDENT OF MOULTRIE, in Colquitt County, Ga., was born April 29, 1876, at Monticello, Fla., and educated at Jefferson Collegiate Institute, at Monticello, Fla. His par- ents were Samuel J. Turnbull, a native of South Carolina, and Virginia Finlayson Turnbull, a native of the State of Virginia. One of his grandfathers was John Turn- bull, a native of South Carolina.
Samuel P. Turnbull was married to Miss Willie Belle Matthews at Moultrie, Ga., on . She is a daughter of William Jefferson Matthews, a resident of Moul- trie, and reference is hereby made to his biographical sketch appearing in this chapter for further details as to her family history.
Two children are in life, the issue of the marriage of S. P. Turnbull and Willie Belle Matthews Turnbull, namely:
Mildred, Assistant to Dean, G. S. W. C., Valdosta. Eleanor, Moultrie High School student.
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
S. P. Turnbull is a direct descendant of John C. Calhoun, the wonderful political philosopher of South Carolina. He is a charter member of Moultrie Chamber of Commerce. Second to oldest member of W. A. Covington's Bible Class of Moultrie. A member of the Building Committee which had direction of the construction of the First M. E. Church, South, of Moultrie. Had part in the building of the First Baptist and the First Presbyterian churches, in Moultrie. Connected substantially with the origin of Moultrie Y. M. C. A., Moultrie Packing Plant, and Hotel Colquitt. Had direction of the fight to secure proper freight rates for Moul- trie, appearing before the Railroad Commission of Georgia and the Interstate Commerce Committee at Washington.
William Coachman Vereen
ON ONE SEPTEMBER DAY IN 1864, a man in uniform met a five-year-old boy who was taking a walk in the care of his nurse. He tapped him on the head and somewhat affection- ately called him "a little Rebel." It was on a sidewalk in Cheraw, S. C. The military man was General William Tecumseh Sherman, and the boy was William Coachman Vereen. And the boy was of rebel stock all right, and be- longed to the Southern aristocracy which General Sherman had admired since he left West Point.
On his father's side the boy could trace his ancestry straight back to the Huguenots whose beginnings in French history dated from Henry of Navarre, a rebel prince of the latter part of the Sixteenth Century. In 1680, Louis XIV repealed the Edict of Nantes and kindled the fires of persecu- tion in France. The result was that the Huguenots left France in hundreds of thousands to settle in many foreign lands. Great numbers settled in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina. Since the ranks of the
WILLIAM COACHMAN VEREEN
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
Huguenots were made up of the aristocracy and middle classes of France, it resulted that wherever they settled, they immediately became moral and political leaders. Witness, for instance, the Bayards and the Duponts of Delaware, the Delanos of New York, the Lamars of Georgia, and the Vereens of South Carolina.
By his mother, Eugenia McNair, he acquired more rebel background. The McNairs and other "Macks" in this branch of his family were descended from Scotch immigrants who got their religion and their politics from John Knox and his covenanting associates. It is too easily forgotten that on one fearful occasion, when the fires of political liberty had been put out in all lands save Scotland, the Scottish ministry alone held up the torch and from their pulpits fed its flickering flame. The debt of democracy to Mr. Knox and his con- freres is immeasurable.
It is a good thing to be closely related in time to the pio- neers-men who from the days of Abraham have given direction to the currents of history. And with such a back- ground, one would be surprised had W. C. Vereen spent all the voyage of his life in shallows and in misery. And the reader will not be surprised when he hears how that early in life he demonstrated that his soul was of the stuff of heroes -men capable of making immense sacrifices.
At 18, he was an employee of a New York wholesale hat firm, for a short while; and then he worked briefly at a few other things. On October 13, 1880, he married Miss Mary McNeill, a representative of a prominent South Carolina family, being a daughter of Major Neill McK. McNeill.
In 1885, with his wife and child, he moved to Montgomery County, Ga., where he engaged in the manufacture of naval stores for two years. He then removed to Coffee County, Ga., where he engaged in the same business for some three years.
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WILLIAM COACHMAN VEREEN
He came to Colquitt County in 1890, where Major Mc- Neill and sons were established in the naval stores business toward the southwest corner of the county. After looking over the situation, he leased timber and commenced naval stores operations towards the northwest corner of the county, erecting two turpentine stills-the first one a matter of one- half mile west of the Giles old mill site, and a second one near the present site of Doerun. He moved his family into a double-pen log house, erected by John Tucker, and there with his devoted wife put in six years of pure unremitting application to his business. The John Tucker house was at the site of the first still.
Since the Pidcock family had extended, in 1893, their timber road to Moultrie, Mr. Vereen had been wagoning his products to Moultrie. In 1896, in the midst of the so-called Cleveland Panic, he moved his residence to Moultrie, into a two-story frame building on the site of his present elabo- rate brick residence. The first campaign had been brought to a victorious conclusion. From that time until the present, Mr. Vereen has been identified with the marvelous industrial development of Colquitt County. Looking back over it, he could well adopt the language of Father Aeneas to Queen Dido, and say, "All of which I saw and a great part of it I have been." Some of the high points of Mr. Vereen's busi- ness career are:
1. The Moultrie Banking Co., which was established in 1896 by Mr. Vereen, Mr. W. W. Ashburn, and Mr. Z. H. Clark. Mr. Vereen was made active vice-president and held that position until the death of President Ashburn. He has been president of this bank from that date until now; so that for forty years he has never missed his duties of overseeing the daily business of this bank.
2. In 1901, we find him leading his associates in estab- lishing a unit of the textile industry in Moultrie. He thus
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became the president of the Moultrie Cotton Mills at a time when the textile industry was in its pioneer stage in the South, and when the impression was general that our climate was not favorable to the spinning of cotton yarns. At the moment this is being written, Mr. Vereen is in charge of extensive reconditioning of the equipment of this plant.
3. In 1914, in the midst of the ravages of the boll weevil, Mr. Vereen and a few "Old Guard" associates, like Jim Corbett, W. J. Matthews and W. H. Barber, projected the establishment of a meat-packing plant at Moultrie. This, despite the fact that the farm papers of the South were united in disparaging the establishment of such plants, saying to the farmers with apparently convincing logic, "You do not pro- duce the necessary live stock for the maintenance of such plants." But these men went ahead and erected the plant at a time when there was not another one in the South, from Richmond to Fort Worth. This has turned out to be the most important industrial movement for Colquitt and surrounding territory since the Seminoles gave up possession, more than a century ago.
4. Coincident with the coming of the Swifts was the work of Moultrie's industrialists for providing a market for diver- sification of crops. Mr. Vereen was in the forefront of the battle for diversification, putting his bank and his personal fortune behind the intelligent farmers. This in itself is mainly responsible for the fact that Colquitt is the leading agricultural county in the United States.
There is space here for mention of only the high spots of Mr. Vereen's business achievements. Enough has been writ- ten, however, to render it certain that regardless of its nature he would have made a success of any profession or business to which he might have addressed himself.
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WILLIAM COACHMAN VEREEN
Nor has he been completely absorbed by his business un- dertakings. While a very modest man, he has never rejected a call for social service. At one time, for instance, he was induced to take charge of a Bible class for men in the Moultrie Presbyterian Church; and built its membership to over 200. Recently, in looking over the records of this church, we found that in the 258 sessions during the first 25 years after its organization Mr. Vereen attended 249. The same records show that he never missed a communion service except when he was unavoidably absent from town. He spent more than half the time of his residence in Moultrie as a trustee of the Moultrie Public Schools. He is at present a trustee of Agnes Scott College. He was Mayor of Moul- trie, at 52; President Moultrie Packing Co., at 55; President of Downing Co., at 67; a member of the Democratic Dele- gation to the Baltimore Convention of 1912; and was ap- pointed by Governor Hardman a member of Georgia's State Highway Board, in which his work was a credit to him and of great benefit to the State.
This historian once attended a meeting of his neighbors called at Moultrie to consider a State-wide request that he consent to the use of his name as a candidate for Governor of Georgia. When there seemed no doubt that he could have been elected he refused because of his relations to his busi- ness associates, his children and his Sunday school class. He loved them and did not want to move away from them, so he said.
It will perhaps hearten the generations to come to know that Mr. Vereen has never indulged in vulgar or profane lan- guage. He does not indulge in intoxicants, and attends to no business of a secular nature on Sunday. At all that he has a fine sense of humor; and has always found interest in the great men and women of the country and of the world. Such great men as Dr. Joseph R. Wilson, the father of Wood-
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row Wilson, were frequent house guests at the home of W. J. Vereen, the father of W. C. Vereen, in Cheraw. This, in connection with his cultured forbears, is accountable for his cultivated tastes.
As has been said herein before, Mr. Vereen married Miss Mary McNeill on October 13, 1880. Children, the issue of this marriage, are as follows:
Jessie (Mrs. J. H. Smithwick) .
Jennie (Mrs. R. C. Bell) .
William J. Eugene M.
All these are in life and residents of Moultrie except Mrs. Bell, who lives at Cairo and in Atlanta. Three other children of this couple died after reaching maturity, as follows:
Pearl (Mrs. M. H. Stewart) .
Thomas W.
John M.
The mother of all these children died in 1898; and in 1899 Mr. Vereen married her sister, Miss Ellen McNeill, who also died on the 23rd of June, 1934. Both these women were exemplary wives and mothers, and in addition manifested constant interest in the people of Colquitt County.
Eugene Michael Vereen
THIS RESIDENT of Colquitt County all his life, was born on February 5, 1893, near Moultrie, in Colquitt County, Ga. He was educated in the Moultrie Public Schools, at Riverside Military Academy, Gainesville, Ga., and at Davidson Col- lege, Davidson, N. C.
He is now Executive Vice-President of Moultrie Banking Company, Vice-President and Treasurer of Moultrie Grocery
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EUGENE MICHAEL VEREEN
Company, and President and Treasurer of Colquitt County Tobacco Warehouse Company.
He is a Presbyterian and a Democrat.
He was a member of the U. S. Marine Naval Reserve Corps, stationed at U. S. Naval Air Station, at Pensacola,
EUGENE MICHAEL VEREEN
Fla., during the participation of the United States during the World War.
He was a member of the Moultrie City Council four years, during which he served as Mayor pro-tem.
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His father is Mr. William C. Vereen, who was born at Cheraw, S. C., on August 5, 1859, and who was first married on October 13, 1880, in Cheraw, S. C., and who still lives at Moultrie, Ga. His mother was Miss Mary McNeil, who was born July 1, 1861, in. County, N. C., who married W. C. Vereen, as stated above, and who died at Moultrie, Ga., on the 1st day of August, 1898.
Paternal grandfather of E. M. Vereen was William J. Vereen, who was born May 9, 1829, in Marion County, S. C., and died on May 29, 1877, at Cheraw, S. C. The maiden name of paternal grandmother of E. M. Vereen was Uegenia McNair, who was born on June 25, 1825, and died in Moul- trie, Ga., on the 10th day of February, 1905.
The maternal grandfather of E. M. Vereen was Neil Mc- Kay McNeil, born June 10, 1825, in North Carolina, and who died on December 29, 1902. Major McNeil was a soldier in the army of Northern Virginia, and for years carried on a successful business near Moultrie, Ga. The Moultrie- McNeil Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was named for him.
The name of the maternal grandmother of E. M. Vereen was Jane Johnson Pegrue, born December 3, 1835, in Ches- terfield County, S. C., and died March 20, 1900, in Colquitt County.
E. M. Vereen was married on May 31, 1917, in Edison, Ga., to Miss Wyolene Nance, who was born August 26, 1898, in Arlington, Early County, Ga. She was a daughter of Samuel Thomas Nance, who was born September 13, 1868, in Harris County, Ga., and married on August 19, 1890, in Sumter County, at Americus, Ga. He died on August 4, 1925, in Arlington, Ga., in Early County. Maiden name of mother-in-law of E. M. Vereen was Minnie Easterlin, born May 6, 1872, at Americus, Ga.
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
One child, the issue of the marriage of E. M. Vereen and Wyolene Nance, was born on August 9, 1920, and resides with his parents at Moultrie, Ga.
William Jerome Vereen
W. J. (WILL) VEREEN was born on the 11th day of June, 1885, in Montgomery (now Wheeler) County, Ga., and was the child of William Coachman Vereen and Mary McNeill Vereen. His paternal grandfather was W. J. Vereen, for whom he was named, and who was a native of South Caro- lina, as was W. C. Vereen, his father. The grandfather was born on May 9, 1829, in Marion County, S. C., and W. C. Vereen, his father, was born on August 5, 1859, in Cheraw, S. C.
The name of the paternal grandmother of W. J. Vereen was Eugenia McNair, who was born June 25, 1835, in Cheraw, S. C., Chesterfield County. The name of the ma- ternal grandfather of W. J. Vereen was Neill Mckay Mc- Neill, who was born June 20, 1825, and died on December 29, 1902, in Moultrie, Ga. The maiden name of the ma- ternal grandmother of W. J. Vereen was Jane Johnson Pegues, born December 3, 1835, in Chesterfield County, S. C., and died on March 20, 1900, in Colquitt County, Ga.
W. J. Vereen, the subject of this sketch, married on De- cember 29, 1908, in Thomaston, Ga. The maiden name of his wife was Miss Lottie Thompson, who was born on Sep- tember 2, 1888. The name of the father of Mrs. Lottie Thompson Vereen was Isaac Cheney Thompson, of Thomas- ton, Ga. The maiden name of the wife of Isaac Cheney Thompson was Alice Jordan, and she was born in Midway, - Ala. The maternal grandparents of Lottie Thompson Vereen were Ira Jordan and Mary Temperance Feagan Jordan. The
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paternal grandparents of Lottie Thompson Vereen were Dr. John Thompson and Elizabeth Anne Cheney Thompson.
W. J. Vereen was educated in the Moultrie Public Schools, and at Georgia Military Academy, College Park, Ga. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, as are all the members of his family. He was Mayor of the City of Moultrie at the
WILLIAM JEROME VEREEN
age of thirty, in 1915-1916. In politics, he is a Democrat, having been, during the years 1920-1921, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of that organization in Georgia; and
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
he could have had the nomination of his party-equivalent to an election- to the highest civil offices in Georgia, at any time during the past twenty years, had he manifested any desire for such honors.
In 1919, he was President of the Cotton Manufacturers As- sociation of Georgia. During the years 1925-1926, he was President of the American Cotton Manufacturers Association and is still on its Board of Directors.
W. J. Vereen is at present President and Treasurer of the Riverside Manufacturing Company of Moultrie, Ga .; Vice- President of the Moultrie Banking Company, and Vice-Presi- dent and Treasurer of the Moultrie Cotton Mills. Besides these high points of financial position, he has been connected with numerous smaller enterprises in Colquitt County.
Mrs. W. J. Vereen is a charter member of the John Ben- ning Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and is also a member of the Colonial Dames.
There are at present in life, being the issue of the marriage of W. J. Vereen and Lottie Thompson Vereen, children as follows:
Mary Vereen (Mrs. Thomas A. Huguenin), Charleston, S. C. Rosalind Vereen (Mrs. George H. Lanier, Jr.), New York City. William C. Vereen, Jr., Moultrie, Ga.
Thomas Jerome Vereen, now a student at Darlington School at Rome, Ga.
Aaron Vick, Jr.
THIS CITIZEN of Colquitt County is a son of Aaron Vick, Sr., and his wife, Sarah Luke Vick. He was educated in the common schools of Colquitt County, and was reared on the farm, and for some years past has resided in Moultrie, where he has been an automobile salesman, and deputy
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sheriff. His paternal grandfather was Wm. Vick, born in 1825 in South Georgia, and died in the Eighth Land District of what was then Thomas County, and which is now Colquitt County, about the year that Colquitt County was organized. The wife of Wm. Vick, the paternal grandmother of Aaron Vick, Jr., was Nancy Alderman, born near what is now Pavo, Ga., in the year 1827. At the beginning of her widowhood, Nancy Vick had children as follows: Aaron Vick, Sr., born about 1848; James Vick, born about 1846; Missouri Vick, born 1849; Timothy Vick, born 1851; John H. Vick, born 1852; Ezekiel Vick, born 1855. Nancy Vick must have been a remarkable woman; she reared the above children -- every one of them into good citizens-and died at the great age of 93 in Colquitt County. James Vick was a representa- tive from Colquitt in the House of Representatives, going as a Democrat, and following the era of reconstruction.
He died not long ago in Thomas County, Ga., leaving two or three generations of good citizens. Aaron Vick, Sr., during his whole life, was a highly respected citizen of West Colquitt. Aaron Vick, Jr., was born on March 15, 1890, married Amzie Smith in the year 1919, she being the daugh- ter of C. J. Smith, who died at Hartsfield in 1930.
Aaron Vick, Jr., was a member of the American Expedi- tionary Forces in the World War, serving more than a year as a member of the 47th Engineers. He and his cousin, Aubrey Vick, grandson of James Vick, served in the front lines in the Argonne Wood, where Aubrey Vick died a sol- dier's death.
The children of Aaron Vick, Jr., and Amzie Smith Vick are as follows: Walter Eugene Vick, 13; Leroy Vick, 1]; and Aaron Vick, III, 21/2 months.
Aaron Vick, Jr., served fifteen years as deputy sheriff of Colquitt County under Sheriff Beard.
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
The Weeks Family
THE FIRST CENSUS of Colquitt County, which was taken in 1860, shows Michael Weeks to have been a citizen of Col- quitt County at that date (July 5, 1860), and that he was born in South Carolina, in 1785. This man was the pro- genitor of all the Weeks who have ever lived in Colquitt County. All trace their lineage back to Michael Weeks, and Judy Ann Weeks, his wife.
This couple moved to the neighborhood of what is now Ellenton, about one hundred years ago, settling on a ninety- acre tract of land. They raised nine children, six of whom were sons, who reached maturity. The boys were named Benjamin, Charles, Thomas, David, James, and Seaborn. The girls were named Ann, Betsy, and Sally. There were no rail- roads, and consequently, no express service and no mail. Also, there were no books, no newspapers, and practically no schooling.
Eight of the children of Michael and Judy Ann Weeks established families and settled around their parents. They formed a kind of clan, which came together often, and estab- lished several cooperative enterprises-such as schools, a church, cooperative marketing and buying, and cooperative shoe making and clothes making.
The oldest son of pioneer Michael Weeks was Benjamin. He was born in 1819, in South Carolina, and was eight years old when his parents moved from South Carolina to this sec- tion. He was married to Sarah Harrell.
Benjamin Weeks, or Ben Weeks, as he was always called by his intimates and familiars, would have been a remark- able man, at any time or place. His home, where David Weeks now lives, was a community center. He had a large
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family of his own, consisting of himself, his wife, two elderly single sisters, and nine children; and when his brother died and left a family of nine orphans, Benjamin and his wife took them in. So that at one time, he had in his home eight- een children, two unmarried sisters, his wife and his brother's widow, making twenty-three in all. They still tell of two or three beeves killed per week at patriarch Benjamin's house.
Tradition has it that Benjamin Weeks was inducted into the Christian Church by Flournoy Clark, a local Methodist preacher, and a friend and neighbor. These men were largely responsible for the establishment of "Weeks' Chapel," thought to be the first church of the Methodist denomination ever erected in Colquitt County. This was erected soon after the creation of Colquitt County.
The home of Benjamin Weeks was quite a manufacturing center, as well as a social and religious center. He had vats for tanning leather, and kept on hand an assortment of shoe lasts, being the individual lasts of his relatives and neigh- bors. These, of course, were used in shoe making, as the necessities of the case demanded. Also under shelter, he had cotton cards, old-fashioned spinning wheels, weaving looms, coloring vats, etc., for making clothing. Practically all the family clothing for his own set-up, as well as those of his neighbors was from cloth turned out by machinery in the Weeks establishment, and from cotton and wool produced on the farms of the relatives and neighbors.
He was an ardent advocate of universal education, and patronized at all times such schools as were accessible. It is said that at one time as many as thirteen pupils attended a single school from his home-that is, from his children and his nephews and nieces.
Among the children of Ben Weeks were Joe S., Sarah Ann, Judy Ann, Michael, Samson, Ben. C., Wesley, Elizabeth, P. P., T. J., F. C., James H., and Sidney.
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THE WEEKS FAMILY
Other children of Michael and Judy Ann Weeks were: Charles, who married Phebe Harrell, this couple had children as follows: William C., Jane, Jim, Mike, Phebe, Martha, Betty, John, and Joe. The third son of Michael and Judy Ann Weeks was Thomas, who married Phoebe Robinson.
The fourth son of David Weeks married Frances Dawdry. To this couple were born the following children: Rosa, Sea- born, Jr., Daniel, Jane, David, and Benjamin.
The fifth son of Michael Weeks, was Seaborn Weeks, who married Nancy Harrell. Of this union there were the follow- ing children: Jane, John Taylor, F. M., Martha, Euphemia, Seaborn, and Laura.
Among the present generation of the Weeks family are the following well-known heads of families: Jim Weeks, John Weeks, Henry Weeks, David Weeks, Malley Weeks, Spenser Weeks, Montgomery Weeks, Wesley Weeks, John B. Weeks, Charley Weeks, Alex Weeks, John Weeks, Joe Weeks, Bob Weeks, Hardy Weeks, General Weeks, William Weeks, Stone- wall Weeks, Grady Weeks, and D. C. Weeks. All these are mostly great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons of Michael Weeks. The Harrell clan were neighbors of the Weeks for two generations, and five of the Weeks men married Har- rells, while at least one Harrell married a Weeks girl.
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Colquitt County Board of Education
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