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."
