planter, Jeffersonville. This prominent citizen of Twiggs county is a descendant
of a family always, and wherever found of wide influence and of fine character.
The above gentleman's paternal grandfather Matthew Carswell, was a native
of Jefferson county, Ga., his father before him having emigrated from Ireland.
he was a planter of large means, his chief moral characteristic having
been his intense loyalty to the Methodist church. He married and reared
five children: James, Alexander, Wm., E., Samuel M., and Sarah. Of these
Wm. E. was the father of Capt. Carswell. He was born in Jefferson county
in 1807, received a superior education for those early times, and
was from many years a prominent educator in his section. He married Elizabeth
J. Gilbert of Wilkinson county, who bore him five children: John, Rufus,
Eugenia, James, and W.E., four of whom died in infancy. William E. Carswell
was a man of fine intellect and during his lifetime accumulated a fine
property. He was in political belief a disciple of Henry Clay, and a devoted
member of the Missionary Baptist church. He died in Wilkinson county, where
he had passed his life, in 1887. Capt. William Edward Carswell was the
youngest child and was born Nov. 5, 1836, in Wilkinson county. He was educated
at Jeffersonville academy, and has passed his life as a planter. In 1861,
he enlisted in the Carswell guards, a company so called in honor of his
father, who equipped them at his own expense. Third lieutenant at the outset,
promotion soon came to him and he led the company as its chief officer
during the major part of the war, participating in a number of engagements,
and received several serious wounds. The principal engagements were Malvern
hill, Roan station, Gettysburg, where he received a ball in his left
leg. Petersburg, where he was wounded, Sharpsburg, Cold harbor, Wilderness,
Chancellorsville, and many minor engagements. His marriage was consummated
while on furlough in 1863, Dec. 16, with Miss Anna, daughter of John Chapman,
of Twiggs county. He located in Twiggs county after the surrender, but
soon returned to Wilkinson, where he remained until 1875, when he settled
on the plantation he now cultivates. This consist of 1,200 acres of choice
land, which, together with his other real estate interests will aggregate
thousands of acres. A democrat, but not a politician, Capt. Carswell affiliates
in religion with the New Providence Baptist church. A large and interesting
family of children have been and are being reared about his hearthstone,
in whom the captain feels a just pride. Their names are: Eugenia, married;
Laura L.; Mattie M.; Mrs. Dr. W. A. Daniel, state physician during Gov.
Northen's administration; Anna T.; Iverson C.; Elizabeth; Wm. R.; and William
E., Jr., deceased. Memoirs of Georgia Volume 1Historical
Society of Georgia, 1895
FRANKLIN A. CANNON
Stephensville, Wilkinson Co., Ga., son of James and Leah West (nee Stanley)
Cannon, was born in Wilkinson county
county, Sept. 16, 1842. His paternal grandfather, Nathaniel Cannon,
was born in South Carolina in 1760, was a farmer, and married Miss Frances
Sumner. The latter part of the last century he came to Georgia with his
family and settled in what is now Wilkinson county, where himself and his
children acquired a great deal of land, became very prominent, and were
classed among the most solid and best citizens of the community. He died
April 8, 1844, aged eighty-four years, and his widow died Jan. 1, 1850.
Mr. Cannon's father was born March 5, 1809, in Wilkinson county, and followed
farming all his life. By his marriage with Mrs. West he had the following
children: Hardy; William, Company F, Third Georgia regiment, killed at
Manassas; Mary F.. widow of H. M. Green; Benjamin F., Company F, Third
Georgia regiment, killed near
Richmond, July 18, 1862; Nancy A., deceased; Edward B, Company F, Third
Georgia regiment, killed at Gettysburg; Winniford, widow of James A. Sheffield;
Franklin Allen, the subject of this sketch: Leah M.; Rachel A., deceased;
Lucretia J., wife of R. J. Stuckey; Joseph M., deceased; Elsie, wife of
N. Perry, and George W. Mrs. Cannon was twice married, and by her first
marriage to Joshua West she had two children: James Stanley, born in 1827,
and Frances E., widow of James Helton, born March 15, 1830. Mr. and Mrs.
Cannon were both very devoted members of the Primitive Baptist church.
Mr. Cannon died July 13, 1857; Mrs. Cannon, who was born Feb. 25, 1810,
in Jones county, N.C., died July 20, 1874. Mr. Franklin A. Cannon was reared
on the farm, and received a fairly good education. In June, 1862, he enlisted
in Company F, Third Georgia regiment, and at the battle of Malvern Hill
received a gun-shot wound from which he was disabled, and was discharged
at Orange Court House, Aug. 12, 1863. On his return from the army he taught
school, then attended Emory college, Oxford, a year, and also Oglethorpe
university a year. He taugh first in 1866, and has taught school more or
less ever since. He taught in Twiggs county and adjoining counties nine
or ten years. Himself and his youngest brother George W., born Oct. 2,
1853, own about 1,400 acres of excellent land, where they with three
sisters and a niece are living, enjoying the fruits of their labor and
the soil, unembittered by any jealousies. Nathaniel Cannon, soon after
settling in Wilkinson county, donated the land where "Old Sandy church"
was built. Of this congregation he remained a member until the year 1836,
when the church separated into two factions known as Missionary and Primitive
baptists. He went with he Primitives and donated the land that Mount Olive
church was built on, and remained a devoted member of that church until
his death. He was interred in the cemetery at "Old Sandy", where al of
the deceased of the Cannon family have been buried, except those who sleep
beneath Virginia's soil. Nathaniel and Frances Cannon had four sons:
Miles, Allen, Wiley and James. Miles married Miss Isler and had seven sons
and one daughter. Four of these sons were killed in the late war: Nathaniel,
Nathan, Wiley, and David. John G. and Miles J. are yet living in Wilkinson
and laurens counties, are engaged in farming, and each has a family. William
married and moved to Louisiana about the year 1858, and the only daughter,
Nancy J., widow of Wiley Bender, resides in Laurens county. Allen married
Mrs. Rigbee and had two sons and four daughters: Iverson, William F., Lucretia,
Fannie, Phoebe and James. Iverson was tax collector of Wilkinson
county at the time of his death, about 1858, and left a widow but no children.
William F., Company F. Third Georgia regiment, received a gun-shot wound
while engaged on the battlefield at the Wilderness, which caused his right
arm to be amputated. He married before the war closed, and engaged in farming
and merchandising near Toombsboro, Ga. He was successful and accumulated
a large property, was elected sheriff, then ordinary of Wilkinson county,
and these office he filled with efficiency and honor. He then engaged in
a wholesale mercantile business in Macon, Ga., where himself and family
enjoy the fruits of his large farm near Toombsboro. Lucretia became the
wife of Wiley Fordham, deceased; Phoebe, wife of James Pierce, deceased;
Fannie, widow of Thomas Dixon, resides in Wilkinson county, and Jane, wife
of Joel Lofton, lives in Florida. Wiley Cannon settled in Wilkinson county,
remained a few years, then moved to Sumter county. Nathaniel and Frances
Cannon had four daughters: Didema, Keziah, Joicie and Lizzie. By Didema's
marriage with Nathaniel Mason she had three sons: James A., captain Company
F, Third Georgia regiment; Nathaniel E. (both are substantial farmers
residing in Wilkinson county); John deceased. She also had six daughters
by that marriage. By Didema's second marriage with Geo Brack there were
born three sons: Miles, Eli and Franklin and two daughters, Elizabeth and
Dorinda. These settled in Wilkinson county. Keziah married a Mr. Turner,
who moved to Randolph county; Joicie married George Harrison and had one
child, Elizabeth, and is deceased; Lizzie married Nathan Bowen, had
one child, William, and is now deceased. James Stanley West, son of Mrs.
James Cannon, married Elizabeth J. Harrison, whose mother was Joicie Cannon,
in the year 1850. He moved to Appling county, Ga., where he lived until
1859; in the latter part of that year he settled in Texas, where he has
reared a large and very interesting family. Memoirs
of Georgia Volume 1Historical Society of Georgia, 1895
JOEL TOMBS DEESE
J. T. Deese. Of the officials of Bleckley County, one who through
his public service has made himself known to the people is J. T. Deese,
ex-member of the Georgia Legislature, and now serving his second term in
the capacity of county clerk. Primarily a farmer, Mr. Deese has demonstrated
the fact that the residents of the rural districts are eminently capable
of dignified and able service as public servants,and his record is one
which will bear the closet and most searching inspection.
Mr. Deese was born in Wilkinson County, Georgia, April
13, 1866, and is a son of Joel and Nancy (Lord) Deese. His father, a native
of South Carolina, moved to Alabama at the age of nineteen years, and two
years alter came to Georgia and settled in Wilkinson County, where he became
a large slave owner and prominent and influential planter and citizen.
He served in several local offices within the gift of people, and while
engaged in the discharge of his duty in some official way, was assassinated
in 1870, when he was sixty-five years of age. Mrs. Deese was born in Georgia,
the daughter of a North Carolinian who was an early settler of the Cracker
state, and here she was educated, reared, married and passed her entire
life, dying in 1900, at the age of eighty-one years. In the family of Joel
and Nancy Deese there were five children, namely: William M., who at the
outbreak of the Civil war became a a member of the Wilkinson Rifles, a
military organization in the army of the Confederacy, and met his death
at the battle of Sawyer's Lane; one child who died in infancy; Mrs. Dr.
W. N. Fleetwood, the wife of a well known citizen of Cochran; and J. T.
J. T. Deese was granted exceptional educational advantages
in his youth, attending first the country schools of Wilkinson County,
and later the high school at Hawkinsville, the agricultural school at Thomasville,
the M. G. & M. A., at Milledgeville, and the State University at Athens.
He was next appointed as a cadet to the Georgia Military Academy, at Savannah,
and after one and one-half years in that institution was given an appointment
to the Unived States Military Academy at West Point. After several years
Mr. Deese entered upon his career as managr of cotton compresses at Hawkinsville
and Griffin, and when he left the latter place returned to farming ventures
in Pulaski County, which he has continuted to the present time. Mr. Deese
has taken an active interest in politics, havng been a stanch supporter
of the democratic party, and in 1911 became the candidate of that party
for the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly. Duly elected, he servied
capably and energetically for one term, and upon his return to Cochran
was elsected clerk of the newly-formed County of Bleckley. He is now serving
his second term in this office and is giving the people the benefit of
his labors. Mr Deese retains membership in the Alpha Tan Omega, which he
joined at the University of Georgia.
On March 15, 1893, at New York City, New York, Mr. Deese was
united in marriage with Miss Julia Berard, daughter of R. A. and Harriet
Berard, a member of a well-known family of New York City, and granddaughter
of Prof. Claudius Berard, who was a member of the faculty of West Point
Military Academy in 1925. They have no children. A
Standard History of Georgia and Georgians, Lucian
Lamar Knight, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1917
WILLIAM DICKSON
deceased, once a much-respected and prominent citizen of Wilkinson county,
was born in Hancock county, Ga., in 1814. His father, Thomas Dickson, came
to Wilkinson county when he was a small boy, and died soon after attaining
to manhood and his marriage. Mr. Dickson received a good an education as
the schools of the time and locality afforded, and then grown engaged in
farming. He was married in 1844 to Miss Frances, born in Georgia, daughter
of Joseph and Sennia (Mitchell) Paine. The two famlies-the Paines and the
Mitchells- came nearly the same time, about 1800, from North Carolina to
Georgia, and settled in Hancock and what is now Wilkinson county, there
both accumulated property and became prominent. There were no oak trees,
the growth being pine and wild oats. After his marriage Mr. Dickson settled
down to quiet farm life, and was content with his employment and its profits,
his family are esteemed and loved for their unostentatious neighborly kindness
and piety. They raised two children: Mollie, wife of Hansford A. Hall,
and John Allen, sketches of both of whom will be found in these Memoirs.
Mr. Dickson was an ardent master Mason, and died in 1874. His venerable
widow, a devout and devoted member of the Methodist church, is yet living,
a benediction to the little family circle of which she is a member. Memoirs
of Georgia Volume 1Historical Society of Georgia, 1895
HANSFORD A. HALL
farmer, Toombsboro, Wilkinson Co., Ga., was born in May, 1844. He was raised
on the farm and educated at the near-by country schools. he taught school
in 1861, and the next year enlisted in Company A, Capt. (afterward colonel)
S. T. Player, Forty-ninth Georgia regiment. With his command he was in
many of the bloodies and most stubbornly contested battles of the war,
and innumerable skirmishes. he was a participant in the seven days' fight
around Richmond, and was severely wounded at Gettysburg, while lying on
the ground and supporting a battery. He was carried to the field hospital,
and at the end of three months reported for duty. At the battle of the
Wilderness he was wounded in the right hip, which knocked it out of shape,
and from the wound quiet a number of pieces of bone were extracted. The
ball is still in his body. After remaining a while in the hospital he came
home on a furlough from time to time reported to the board at Macon, and
was finally placed on the retired list. As soon as he was able to he engaged
in farming, and has following it since as a life-pursuit. he is one of
the largest farmers in the county, and is generally regarded as one of
the best. he owns now 4,500 acres of splendid land, after having given
1,100 acres to his son; and his farm is said to be one on the best improved
and best equipped of any for miles around. He has made nearly all he has
and has displayed superior farming ability and business management. He
has served the people as justice of the peace and also as county commissioner.
Mr. Hall was married in the fall of 1864 to Mary E., daughter of William
and Frances (Paine) Dickson, and to them two children have been born: Willie
A., born in November, 1865, a successful farmer near Irwinton, Wilkinson
Co., and Isaac Oliver, born in January, 1875, at home. Mr. and Mrs. Hall
and all the family are active members of the Methodist church, of which
he is a steward and trustee. Memoirs of Georgia
Volume 1Historical Society of Georgia, 1895
WILLIAM ALFRED HALL
planter, Red Level, Wilkinson Co., Ga., son of William Anderson and Edna
(Paulk) Hall, was born in Wilkinson county in 1838. His paternal grandfather,
Isaac Hall, was one of the earliest settlers of what is now Wilkinson county,
and a near relative of Dr. Lyman Hall, one of the Georgia signers of the
Declaration of Independence, for whom Hall county was named. He was a soldier
in the war of 1812. Mr. Hall's father was born in Wilkinson county Nov.
3, 1822; was from many years a justice of the peace, was a justice of the
inferior court, and a member of the board of county commissioners. He was
a man of limited means, made annually about fifty bales of cotton, and
was of unusual kindly and benevolent disposition. During the war he was
detailed to look after the comforts and necessities of soldiers' families.
He was also recognized as a man of marked ability, discharging every public
duty with conscientious fidelity and excellent judgement. He was a
democrat, and himself and wife were members of the Methodist church. He
died July 12, 1892, and his wife, born Jan. 1, 1816, died Sept. 10, 1885.
Mr. Hall's mother's father, Paulk, was a descendant of the early settlers
of Georgia. Their children were" Mansel M., Company F., Third Georgia Regiment,
killed at Petersburg; William A., the subject of this sketch; Hansford
A., farmer, Wilkinson county; Mary M., deceased; Isaac O., wounded at Atlanta,
and died as the result of the amputation of his leg; and Luther A., lawyer,
was with the Second regiment, Georgia state troops. Mr. Hall grew to manhood
on the old homestead and received only limited educational advantages,
to which he added afterward. In 1861 he enlisted in Company D, Fifty-seventy
Georgia regiment. He was with the forces at Vicksburg, where he spent forty-eight
days and nights in the trenches. He remained with the army until the close
of the war, and surrounded at Greensboro, N.C. Returning home he directed
his attention to his extensive planting interests, which he has managed
with exceptional skill and pecuniary success. He is progressive in his
views and practice, and fully alive to all movements promising the material,
educational and religious advancement of the county. He has been a member
of the board of education six years, and of the board of commissioners
five years. Mr. Hall was married in 1868 to Miss M. Vanlandingham, daughter
of William and Elizabeth (Dean) Vanlandingham. He was of German extraction,
the family having emigrated to Georgia about the close of the last century.
This union has been blessed with eight children: Cora E., Max E., Flora
L, Ira, Emma R.. Alma, John M., and Ethel, all at home, forming an attractive
and intersting family circle. He is a master mason, and himself and wife
are prominent members of the Methodist church, of which he is a steward
and trustee.
Memoirs of Georgia Volume 1Historical Society of Georgia,
1895
ROZAR FAMILY
excerpted from The History of Dodge County "The Rozar family trace their ancestors back to North Carolina. The
name is said to be of French origin, but evidently came through England,
as the family is typically English, with here and there some Irish
showing.
Robert Rozar was born in 1756 in Halifax County, North
Carolina, and at the age of nineteen, while a resident of Bladen County,
enlisted in Col. Brown's North Carolina Regiment, and began serving as
a Revolutionary soldier. In the winter of 1781 or '82 he moved to Georgetown
Parish in South Carolina, and enlisted in Col. Horry's South Carolina Regiment.
After the Revolution Robert Rozar moved to
Wilkinson County, Georgia, and became one of the early settlers of that
county. He lived the life of a planter of his day, as his will would indicated
when he disposed of his money and slaves. He lived to the ripe age of eighty-four.
From this early settler of Wilkinson County came the Rozar
family of Dodge County. Among the early settlers who came to Dodge was
Charles M. Rozar. He settled near the present site of Bethel church many
years previous to the War Between the States. he perhaps settled in the
wild woods of that section about 1835 or 1840. He became a leading citizen
and large land owner; it is said his sheep were so numerous he never knew
how many he owned. He was married three times. One of his wives was Miss.
Sara Lister, sister of Dan Lister, and from this union was born a son,
C.M. Rozar, commonly known as "Boss Rozar," and from an earlier marriage
came J. J. Rozar, who was elected first Ordinary of Dodge County. He served
eighteen years and died while holding office. He was more commonly known
as Judge Rozar. An avenue in Eastman was named in his honor. C.M. ("Boss),
half brother to J.J. (Judge), was later elected on the the five road commissioners
of Dodge County, and was serving as such when the present court house was
erected. Both died a few years ago, leaving large families. They are remembered
as leaders among men. Boss Rozar made his home and died in the Bethel church
community. He was an auctioneer and went far and near to hold auction sales.
He is buried in Rozar cemetery on his old homestead. His father, C.M.,
was a Confederate soldier. The children of C.M. (Boss) are several girls
and four boys: J. J. and Jack, who are farmers on the old homestead; Frank,
who holds a responsible position with the Berry Schools at Rome, Ga.; C.M.,
Jr., is with the Coastal Plains Chevrolet Co. at Brunswick.
A brother to old man C.M., who was named Shade Rozar,
reared a family in Wilkinson County. He was a large planter, ran a public
gin, and was interested in schools. He reared a family of several girls
and three boys, viz: Dan, who married a Miss Coleman near Chester, and
reared several children; William, who married a Mrs. Rogers; James Washington,
who married Isabella Lister, a sister to Dan Lister. He was a Confedrate
soldier. He has reared a family of several girls and one boy, viz:
Charles B. Rozar; James Washington Rozar, who taught school in his early
days. He taught the first school ever held at Bethel church in this county
and was considered well educated for those days. He died at the age of
eight-nine and is buried in Rozar cemetery."
