USA > Georgia > Tift County > History of Tift County > Part 50
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A mere lad at the time of his father's death, Jonathan Walker, born February 12 (or 7), 1852, grew to manhood in his native Irwin County. On February 23, 1881, he married Margaret Fletcher, called Gally, daugh- ter of Black Jim Fletcher, Irwin County's representative to the Legisla- ture. Gally was born January 6, 1862. She was niece of Elbert Fletcher, whose son Danny Fletcher married Mattie Churchwell. Gally's mother was Melissa Paulk.
Jonathan Walker and Gally settled on a large plantation which he cleared in the pine wilderness. He farmed, cut timber and ran a grist mill. Also he owned a wooded tract on the Alapaha river where he loved to fish. This place he sold to a corporation which in 1912 formed the Country Club at Gun Lake, of which Jonathan was a charter member. The club has numbered among its membership some of the most prominent citizens of the county.
An accident left Jonathan Walker crippled, but despite this his was a sunny, cheerful disposition, and his was a large circle of friends. Jonathan died at his plantation home near Tifton, October 1, 1917. To him and Gally were born four children: Alice (Mrs. George Edd Clements) ; Edna (Mrs. W. B. Hitchcock) ; Kate (married first, Robert Land; second, Loften Hitch- cock; third, George Paulk) ; James, who married and has several children. of whom Elsie was voted the prettiest girl in the Senior Class at Tifton
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High School in 1942. James Walker is Sheriff of Tift County. He loves to shoot and often in season brings home a fat deer, and he, his family and friends have a feast of venison.
THE WARRENS
William Warren was the first of the Warren family to locate in what is now Tift County. He was born in Irwin County, December 8, 1846, and was son of George Washington Warren, Sr., and Sallie Ross Warren, both of Irwin County. George and Sallie Warren are buried on the Macajah Young private burial ground, Tift County. Micajah Young's mother was Hester, a sister of William Warren.
Children of George and Sallie Ross Warren were William, who married Sarah Clements; James, who married Martha Gibbs (an aunt of Earl Gibbs, clerk of Superior Court of Tift County) ; Lott, who married Millie Sumner, of Irwin County; George Washington, Jr., who married Ellen Fox, of Tifton (their daughter married William Bruce Donaldson, Sr., father of Bruce Donaldson, Jr., of Tifton) ; Bettsie Warren, who married William Sumner, of near Moultrie; Hester Warren who married first, Macajah Young; and second, Aaron Tyson; Sallie Warren, who married Allen Gibbs (a brother of Martha) ; Pollie, who married Reverend James Gibbs, Primitive Baptist Elder, who was at Hickory Springs Church and other churches. Polly and James Gibbs are buried at Hickory Springs.
Wm. Warren and Sarah Clements (born July 7, 1851) were married January 6, 1870 and came to what was then Worth but now is Tift. County. Sarah was a sister of R. Walton Clements, father of Judge James Clements who deeded to Georgia the land which comprises the Jefferson Davis Na- tional Park, which project came into being largely through the untiring efforts of Mrs. Ralph Johnston, of Tifton, formerly of Ocilla. William, a farmer, lived on the place where he settled soon after his marriage until his death there, May 3, 1914. Sarah died Tuesday night, March 30, 1909. Burial was at Hickory Springs, where Elder James Gibbs conducted the services.
To William and Sarah Clements Warren were born the following chil- dren: George Washington Warren, born Irwin County, May 5, 1872; died July 26, 1872. Lott Warren, born Irwin County, July 19, 1873; died July, 1875. William Jelks Warren, born Worth County, April 2, 1875; Lula Alice Warren, born Worth County, August 7, 1877 (Mrs. Will W. Willis, of Willacoochee) ; Luna Warren, born Worth County, February 11, 1880 (Mrs. John Henry Pitts, of Tifton) ; Thomas Lawrence Warren, born Worth County, June 10, 1882; Lillie Warren, born Worth County, June 17, 1884 (Mrs. George Washington Peters, of Tifton).
William Jelks Warren has for many years been tax collector of Tift County.
Jimmie Clements was one of six brothers of Sarah Clements Warren. Jimmie married Sarah Henderson, and was prominent in the life of early Tifton where he leased the Hotel Sadie from Captain John Phillips, who built it. Sarah Clements Warren also had four sisters.
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HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
WILLIAM WILEY LaFAYETTE WEBB
. William Wiley LaFayette Webb, son of James I. Webb and Mary Sandi- fer Webb, was born in Crawford County, Georgia, April 25, 1838. He grew up on his father's farm, moved to Sumter County in 1846 and to Dooly County in 1858. To most people he was known as W. W. Webb.
On March 4, 1862 at Vienna, W. W. Webb joined Company C, under Captain W. C. Carter, 4th Regiment of Georgia Volunteers, of the Con- federate Army. He was mustered into service at Griffin, left Ma'y, 1862, and the first battle in which he took part was the Seven Days Battle at Rich- mond. Next he was in the second Battle of Manassas, then at Harper's Ferry, next at Chancellorsville, and he was in the terrific Battle of Gettys- burg, the bloodiest battle of the war. At Gettysburg he was shot and wounded, one finger being burst by a minnie ball. After a brief furlough he was in the Battle of the Wilderness, on the Plank Road, May 6, 1864. In this engagement he was shot in the heel and the heel string was cut one third. After two months in a hospital he returned to service and was in the Battle of Petersburg and Weldon Railroad. On July 31, 1864 he fought in his last battle when the mines were sprung in front of Peters- burg. Thereafter he was confined by rheumatism to a hospital, received a furlough, at the end of which he reported to a hospital at Macon, where he was pronounced disabled for service. Sent to a Fort Valley Hospital, he was transferred thence to a hospital at Eufaula in order to make room at Fort Valley for the wounded. He remained at Eufaula until the end of the war. He was paroled in May or June, 1865.
On February 28, 1865 W. W. Webb married Miss Laura Daniels. Of this union were four children: Joseph T., Ella Assenith, James I., Jr., L. Timo- thy. Laura Daniels Webb died June 16, 1873.
On August 20, 1876 W. W. Webb married Sarah Catherine Sinclair, at the Sinclair homestead two miles north of Tifton. She was daughter of Dr. Robert D. Sinclair and Mary Culpepper Sinclair. Of this union were eleven children: William E., John T., Henry D., Thomas T., Robert F., Mary C., Margaret E., Louise Lee, Elias L., Jacy J., George G. Of these Henry D. was for many years clerk of the Superior Court of Tift County. He also was for many years chairman of the Board of Deacons of the First Bap- tist Church; and he is secretary of the Country Club, at Gun Lake. Elias and George engage in the plant business on a large scale, and have other business interests in Tifton, where they are well known and highly re- garded. Elias was for a time secretary and treasurer of the Tift County Historical Society. Also he is on man'y committees of the First Baptist Church of Tifton.
W. W. Webb was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1870. He served at Lake View, Staunton, both in what is now Cook County; Macedonia, in what is now Turner County; Willacoochee, in what is now Atkinson.
Mr. Webb moved to Irwin County in February, 1878, and to near the Tifton site that fall. In what is now Tift County he served Zion Hope, Mt. Zion, Mt. Olive, Liberty; in Berrien County he served at Enigma, Alapaha, and at Brushy Creek.
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His was a service of deed as well as of word. Many times he walked from his farm south of Tifton to his church many miles north of Tifton, and when one church was in the building he helped carry the logs and set them in place. His influence for good cannot be expressed in words. He it was who constituted the First Baptist Crurch of Tifton, in 1888, when about a dozen Baptists met in a small frame building used in Tifton as a place for all types of public meetings, before a real church edifice was constructed here. About a dozen Baptists banded together to form the Baptist Church. These were the Reverend and Mrs. W. W. Webb, Mr. and Mrs. B. T. Allen, Bessie W. Tift, Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Youmans, Mrs. Adams. and several others. Soon after this meeting, this meeting place was de- stroyed by fire, and not long thereafter Henry Tift gave a site on which a church was built to be used by all denominations. This formerly stood about where the post office is, but nearer to where the present Methodist Church is, and the building was that now known as Bessie Tift Chapel, in the mill village, where it was moved b'y Henry Tift after the Methodists built a new edifice. (See article on Henry Tift.)
W. W. Webb died on July 5, 1917, and burial was the following day at Zion Hope. Of him has been said "As a soldier, minister and citizen, he measured to the full statue of a man."
WHIDDON FAMILY By Mrs. Clifford Whiddon
James W. Whiddon, son of Juda Dominey Whiddon and Lott Whiddon. was born April 20, 1834, in a settlement since named Sycamore, Ga. His father, Lott Whiddon, came from South Carolina to Emanuel County, Georgia, where he married and later moved to Sycamore, Georgia. Lott Whiddon served with Company F, 59th Georgia Regiment in the War Be- tween the States, and died of fever, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1863. His was the first grave in Hickory Springs Cemetery. In 1796, James W. Whiddon's mother, Juda Domine'y Whiddon, was given a small sycamore limb, used as a riding switch, by a man who spent the night in their home. She planted that switch and it grew. Thus the town of Sycamore received its name. The old dead stump of the tree stands today.
James W. Whiddon was the youngest boy in a family of nine children. When a small boy he lost one eye while he was threading an old-time home- made, harmonium. He played the harmonium well. My great-grandfather. James W. Whiddon was married to Lucy Branch, April 10, 1856, in Water- loo, by Mr. Abram Clements. Thirteen children were born to this union. They lived in Waterloo for twelve years, then moved nine miles south of Sycamore to the Whiddon Mill home, a log house built near the mill in 1868. This 1500-acre tract of land was purchased from Mr. Jesse Sumner. Here, great-grandfather, with the help of his two oldest boys, John and William, built a dam on what is known as Mill Creek. They used a horse cart, wheel barrow, and shovels to do the work. Great-grandfather put up a saw mill and grist mill at the west end of the dam and later a flour mill
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and rice mill at the east end. All the mills were powered by water. Trees were cut from the land and floated down the pond to the sawmill. In 1880 a new house was built. Today, the house is the beautiful country home of J. O. Ross and family. Mr. Ross, a nephew of Mr. Whiddon, purchased the home from the Whiddon estate after the death of Mr. Whiddon. Mr. Ross and Doctors W. F. and Charles Zimmerman own the Whiddon Mill Pond. The house is a large one and every piece, even the molding, was planed by hand. Great-grandfather was considered one of the best wood- workmen in the country. He cut, dressed and carved out his lumber. He told that he could shut his e'yes and see a building finished in every detail before he built it. Farming and stock raising provided his livelihood.
In 1890 great-grandfather with the help of his children and other fam- ilies in the church, built Little River Church, which is today known as Hickory Spring Primitive Baptist Church. The large hickory tree stand- ing today in the cemetery grounds was his hitching post.
For several years the children attended school three months out of the year at Muddy Head, a one-room log school house near the Mill Pond. Later a private teacher was employed who lived in the home.
The home life of the family of James W. Whiddon was simple. They had no luxuries as we have today. For tubs to do the family washing, and to hold flour, meal, and syrup, large troughs were hewn from cypress trees. For light, string was spun for candles made from home grown wax. Prac- tically all food was grown and raised at home. Granulated sugar was un- known, but rock sugar from syrup barrels was eaten. Most of their clothes and household linens were spun and woven at home. A few items such as coffee and matches were bought from foot and horseback peddlers, or in the nearest towns, Ty Ty, Albany, and Hawkinsville. Trading in the towns was done only in the spring of the year. Crops were laid by in June, and wild game was hunted until time to gather the corn. Square dances, "run and jump" and stone marbles gave fun for their little leisure time.
For many years the rural letter carrier rode horseback from Deep Creek post office in Dooley County (now Crisp County) three times a week to Hat post office, which was in the Whiddon home. During this time great-grand- father served as postmaster. Later David Whiddon my grandfather, and the third son of great-grandfather, became postmaster. He held this office for many years. During this time the post office was moved to Ruby, Ga. (now Chula, Ga.), and the name was changed to Ruby post office, and later to Chula post office.
Albert Whiddon, David's oldest son, was postmaster for many years. For the past thirty years Alonzo E. Whiddon, David's second son, has served as postmaster at the office in Chula, Ga.
Great-grandmother, Lucy Branch Whiddon, was a woman of large statue. Those who knew her say that she was very sympathetic, kind, generous and very talkative. She was always ready to lay aside her work to administer to the sick. She knew all the locally grown healing herbs from which she made salves and ointments. She was a good old-time cook, and when her grandchildren visited in her home she took them to her cupboard at once.
ยท Great-grandfather was a tall well-built man. He was a man of few words.
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He had a way of finding out all anyone knew by telling little of what he knew. He refused to make a reply when asked a foolish question. He be- lieved in justice and peace. He was very ambitious for the education of his children. He kept lumber seasoned ready for caskets, which he made and gave to both white and colored.
Lucy Branch Whiddon died October 25, 1916, and James W. Whiddon died June 7, 1924. Their graves are in Hickory Springs Cemetery.
Following are the names of the children of James W. Whiddon and Lucy Branch Whiddon :
John J. Whiddon, born March 19, 1857, married Jane Sumner.
William Whiddon, born January 31, 1859, married Jane Easters.
David Whiddon, born December 18, 1860, married Priscilla Young.
Una Whiddon, born January 25, 1863, married John Vickers. Dempsey Whiddon, born January 25, 1863, married Ava J. Vickers.
Georgia Ann Whiddon, born June 9, 1865, married George Cravey.
James B. Whiddon, born July 7, 1867, married Mollie Paulk ..
Lula Whiddon, born June 21, 1869, married Tom Perry.
Reecy Whiddon, born December 1, 1871, married James Goodwin. Lott Whiddon, born March 12, 1874, married Emma Fletcher.
Lucy Whiddon, born March 4, 1876.
Annibell Whiddon, born August 20, 1878.
Benjamin F. Whiddon, born May 27, 1882, married Mary Young.
Following are the names of the grandchildren living in Tift County :
Emmill Haywood Whiddon, born July 1, 1897, married Ethel McGill. John Edward Whiddon, born February 16, 1888, married Mattie Godboldt. W. Nichols Whiddon, born August 17, 1892, married Ocie Bell McCord. Alonzo E. Whiddon, born October 11, 1885, married Annie Lou Leach. Alice L. Whiddon, born October 23, 1887, married Dr. W. E. Tyson. Clifford G. Whiddon, born August 22, 1897, married Cora Louise Buch- anan.
Arthur Jack Whiddon, born March 25, 1886, married Nora Phillips.
Martha Van Whiddon, born July 30, 1887, married Tullie Sutton, and
Tom Stowers.
Ave Jane Whiddon, born July 7, 1893, married James A. Akins.
David C. Whiddon, born December 23, 1900, married Blanche Clyatt.
Ora E. Cravey, born in 1891, married Bill Branch.
Abie J. Cravey, born in August, 1898, married Bessie Payne.
Joe L. Cravey, born in 1901, married Iva Cox.
James Richard Goodwin, born February 6, 1894, married Edna Dewey Smith.
Jacob Vinson Goodwin, born January 11, 1897, married Minnie Douglas. Otis Grady Goodwin, born May 9, 1905, married Naomi
Lucile Whiddon Goodwin, born April 12 1907, married Omar Shiver. Frankie L. Goodwin, born January 29, 1913, married Harold Turk. Clarence Orvin Whiddon, born February 14, 1904.
Those grandchildren who served from Tift County in World War I, are as follows: Clifford Grady Whiddon, Quarmaster Corps, Army, overseas.
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Emmill Haywood Whiddon, navy; John Edward Whiddon, army; Lemmie M. Whiddon, army; Claude Whiddon, nav'y; James Richard Goodwin, army; Vincent Goodwin, army; Leon D. Whiddon served in the army in World War II.
The great-grandchildren from Tift County who served in World War II are as follows: Hinton Goodwin, army; Wayne Goodwin, merchant ma- rine; Donald Tyson, marines (overseas) ; Orman Whiddon, army (over- seas) ; Raymond Whiddon, army; Ralph Whiddon, army; Oslin D. Whid- don, army; Ordway Whiddon, army (overseas) ; Haywood Whiddon, son of Emmill Haywood Whiddon and Ethel McGill Whiddon, joined the army in April 1942. He was Technician 5th Grade, in the Medical Corps. He died January 28, 1945 on Luzon Island, where he had served for three years.
Numbers of other great-grandsons, who lived in other parts of the state. served in World War II.
The Whiddon family were of substantial, common, people, the backbone of the country. This large family is, and has been, represented in many walks of life. They have been invariably a people simple in their life and tastes, but useful to the community.
CHESLEY ANDERSON WILLIAMS
In the early part of the nineteenth century there lived in Akin County, South Carolina, a veteran of the Revolutionary War. To him and his wife was born, in Akin County, on October 15, 1815, a son whom they named Hiram Williams.
When twenty-five years old, Hiram went from Akin County to Dooly County, Georgia, where his first Georgia land purchase was Lot 233 in the Tenth District of Dooly. This he bought from the Collins, and thereon he built his rift board home at the site later that of the refugee home of Gov- ernor Joseph E. Brown, and still later that of the Cordele hotel called the Suannee House.
Hiram upon arrival in Georgia taught school. Thereafter he represented Dooly County in the Legislature in 1865-6, 1868-9, 1873-4. A dauntless and courageous man, he was loyal to the South at a time when loyalt'y required courage.
In 1841, Hiram Williams married Sarah Jane Warren, daughter of James Warren, whose wife prior to her marriage, had been a Miss Sted- man, of South Carolina. Sarah's ancestors had migrated to America from Ireland, soon after the Revolutionary War, and were of a high social standing and of "integrity of purpose." Hiram and Sarah lived at what was later known as the old C. C. Greer, Sr., place near Cordele. To them were born eleven children, all of whom lived to maturity and all of whom survived their father, who died in Dooly County, now Crisp, November 7, 1899. These children were Senator Isaiah Williams, Chesley Anderson Williams, Hiram Williams, Jr., Lydia Williams (Mrs. Wheller), Warren Williams (D.D.S.), Grovan Williams, C. C. Williams, Jane Williams (Mrs. Mckinney), Joseph R. Williams, D. J. Williams (D.D.S.) Nannie Williams (Mrs. Fenn), whose husband was of that Fenn family of which "Uncle
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Buddy Fenn" was a celebrated character, in Dooly.
Of the above mentioned children, the second son, Chesley Anderson Wil- liams, came to what is now Tift County and here he carved for himself a permanent place in the annals of this community, where he was highly esteemed and much beloved.
Born March 3, 1848, in Dooly County on the site now that of the Suannee House, Cordele, he lived in one of the only three houses within a radius of nearly fifteen miles. The other homes were those of the Hamiltons and the Smiths. His boyhood days were spent on his father's farm which was in the midst of a vast pine forest spreading over what is now Cordele and environs. Deer and many kinds of wild beasts roamed the forests, in which also dwelt Indians. Far from civilization, nails were not easily obtained and the floor boards were not nailed in place; and often little Chesley would be awakened by the noise of the floor planks being displaced by wolves fighting beneath the house; for the house stood near what was called "Wolf Thicket."
Chesley, with his elder brother, Isaiah, and his younger brothers, Hiram, Warren and Grovan, and his sister, Lydia, attended famous "Oliver School," the only Old Field School prior to the Sixties, in what is now Crisp County. It was near Coney, and was east of Gum Creek, at what was later the Oscar Mckinney farm. The first teacher was Miss Amanda Fitzpatrick, of Crawford County. Many Oliver pupils became distinguished in the com- munity. Among these were John S. Pate, father of Ella Pate Carson, who married Briggs Carson, of Tifton. Mr. Pate was a boarding pupil at Oliver's.
Ches Williams was but a lad when the War Between the States broke. In those stirring times, in that wilderness, there remained little oppor- tunity for formal school. His father was captain of the Militia of the Tenth District. Isaiah was in the war and was orderly sergeant of his com- pany. Much work fell to the lot of Chesley, now the man at the home. He had to make the needed crops; but as he plowed he would prop his Blue Back Speller or some other book upon the cross bar of the plow and as he plowed would study.
In 1864 both Chesley and his younger brother, Hiram, Jr., joined the Confederate Army. Hiram was in Company H, 5th Georgia Reserves.
Chesley Williams was in Company G, 60th Georgia Infantry, and was with the Army of Virginia, under General Robert E. Lee. He was under "Stonewall" Jackson, General John B. Gordon, and General Jubal Early. A lieutenant, Chesley kept a diary of his war experiences. Wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, he lay hour upon hour in the relentless downpour of rain. He bore valiantly the pain of the wounded leg, but he long mourned the theft of his diary at that time.
After partial recovery Lieutenant Williams in the last year of the war enlisted in the cavalry at Savannah. He was on his way to join General Lee when Lee surrendered, at Appomattox.
The war over, C. A. Williams returned to his home and resumed farm- ing. In 1867 he married Miss Martha Jane McMercer, whose name, in later times, was spelled Mercer. In 1880 or 1881 they moved to Sumner
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where he was in the mercantile business until 1889, at which time he moved to Tifton. In 1890 he built at Tifton the brick sales stable and liver'y stable, the town's first brick building.
Devoted to his mother, C. A. Williams provided her with articles con- sidered wonderful in that day in that remote community. They were the first cook stove, the first sewing machine and the first buggy owned by any of the family. These were treasures. Sarah had spun the thread for cloth which she had woven, and friends and relatives came great distances to watch her sew on the treasured new sewing machine.
Fox hunts were the order of the day in Chesley's time and he loved the chase. His granddaughter, Miss Eloise Roughton, of Tifton, owns an ingeniously carved cow-horn which belonged to her grandfather, C. A. Williams. The carving, done with a pocket knife, depicts deer, fish, a man on horseback, and a man hunting, and dogs. Also the dogs' names are carved: Pomp, Blue, Buck and Bully. The first three belonged to Williams. The horn was a gift to Williams by J. J. Garrett, Christmas, 1894.
C. A. Williams, and Martha Jane McMercer Williams had an only daugh- ter, Antoinette Tallulah, born February 1, 1868, about nine miles from Cordele. She was called Lula. She married Willie Thaddeus Roughton (born near Sandersville, Washington County, Georgia, died November, 1896). When a small boy Willie and his mother were left at home when his father was in the Confederate Army. During Sherman's march, their house was raided, their stock taken. In a search for hidden valuables the commanding officer saw in a trunk in the attic Willie's father's Masonic paraphernalia. The officer was a Mason, and he ordered that the stock be returned, the house and its occupants be left unmolested; and he threw a guard around the house to see that his orders were carried out faithfully. Willie was a railroad engineer, and he and Lula Williams had two children, Eloise and Willie T., Jr., Willie T., Sr. was killed when struck by a train in a Savannah railroad yard.
Chesley Williams was local commander of the Confederate veterans. Governor Nathaniel Harris visited Titfon in September of 1916, and C. A. Williams was chosen to introduce the speaker. This he did, at the large assembly at the courthouse. It was a glorious hour for the gallant veteran of more than seventy-two years; but it also was his last public appearance. The excitement was too much. Later that day he was stricken ill, and he died, at his home in Tifton Heights, November 4, 1916. A long procession of friends and loved ones followed him to his last resting place. The Char- lotte Carson Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy were in attend- ance; the old Confederate soldiers were present; and his pall-bearers were his former brothers-in-arms: R. A. Patrick, J. W. Bolton, B. N. Bowen, G. W. Montgomery, J. J. Baker, J. L. Rousseau. The casket was lowered into the grave just at sunset.
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