Chapter 1– The Carson Family

Historical Background

For at least four hundred years, the English struggled to gain control of Ireland, and by the end of the 16th century, the English were in control of all of Ireland except the northern province of Ulster.  Queen Elizabeth I of England tried to subdue the Ulster chieftans, without success.  Then, in 1603, when King James VI  of Scotland became also James I of England, the chieftans surrendered.  But they were still afraid of retalliation from the English, so in 1607, several of the Ulster chieftans fled to Spain.  Seizing the moment, James I and the English finally gained control of Ulster.  (This is the same King James who was responsible for the translation and publication of the well-known King James version of the Bible.) In 1607, the English set about to colonize Ulster by establishing the Plantation of Ulster, a plan by which the English confiscated land from the native Irish Catholic lords, and redistributed the land to various Protestant lords from England and Scotland, to developers called undertakers, and to certain London merchant groups.   The new owners (among them, Sir Walter Raleigh and poet Edmund Spencer ) recruited Protestant laborers, craftsmen, and tenant farmers from England and Scotland to settle among the displaced native Irish tenant farmers in Ulster.  Many of the native Irish were driven to the bogs and moors, where it was hoped they would starve to death.

The 17^th century in Ulster was one of economic, political, and religious strife which continued into the 18^th century.  The landlords often raised the rent they extracted from the farmers, and the farmers were often evicted from the land if they couldn’t pay.  Faced with high rent, uncertainty about their tenure on their farms, and high tithes they were forced to pay to the church, many Protestants whose forefathers had come from Scotland left for America.  During the years between 1717 and 1776, an estimated 250,000 people emigrated from Ireland to America.  These emigrants from Ireland, with Scottish roots, became known in America as the Scotch-Irish.

Early Carson genealogy is confusing, because the information is scrambled, and because the same names were used many times, for parents, children, and cousins. Moreover, genealogists weren’t helped by a 1922 fire in Dublin’s Four Courts Building, which destroyed many of Ireland’s public records.  There are many different versions of early Carson genealogy, and since primary (original) sources of information seem non-existant, you can choose whichever version you like, or you can make up your own as I have done.  The parent-child relationships presented here seem logical, based on the birth and death dates of the individuals, but they are by no means certain.  Based on the best information available, here’s one possible genealogy.

The earliest known Carson ancestor was Alexander Harvey Carson .  Alexander Harvey Carson was born in Scotland about1652, and came to Ireland, probably Armagh, Ulster.  He is believed to have been a Presbyterian minister, and some say he lived to age 84.  His children included John Carson  and William Calvin Carson .

The following information about John Carson  and his descendants is not directly pertinent to the story of “our” Carsons, but it may be of some significance to other Carson researchers.  Also, it shows how we may be very, very distantly related to the famous “Kit” Carson .

John Carson , son of Alexander Harvey Carson , was born in 1680 in northern Ireland.  He married Sarah Dickey  (born in 1682), and their children were:

• Andrew Carson  (born in 1706)
• John Carson  (see below)
• Moses Carson  (see below)
• Samuel Carson  (see below)
• William Carson  (see below)
• Robert Carson  (married Margaret Bates)

John Carson , son of John Carson and Sarah Dickey , was born in 1710 in County Down, Ireland.  He came to America, and was on the Susquehana River by 1733.  He was an Indian trader, and founded Carsonville in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  He died after 1777, probably in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Moses Carson , son of John Carson  and Sarah Dickey , was born about 1710 in northern Ireland.  He came to Pennsylvania about 1730-1740.  He married Sarah Hickman  ca. 1736.

Samuel Carson , son of John Carson  and Sarah Dickey , was born about 1712.  He married Jane (or Janet) Patterson  in 1738.  He died in 1762, probably in York County, Pa.

William Carson , son of John Carson  and Sarah Dickey , was born in Ulster, Ireland about 1715.  He married Eleanor Jane McDuff  in York County, North Carolina, in 1753, and they lived in Rowan County near Harmony, NC.  William Carson  died about 1773-1776, and is buried in Morrison’s Graveyard in Iredell County, North Carolina.  Eleanor Jane McDuff was the daughter of ----- McDuff and Eleanor Gordon .  After William Carson’s death, Eleanor married John Scruggs  (1712-1792), a farmer and miller who lived on Third Creek about three miles from Statesville, North Carolina.  Eleanor Jane McDuff died on John Scruggs’ plantation in Rowan County, North Carolina.  John Scruggs’ first wife was Sarah Carter .

The children of William Carson  and Eleanor Jane McDuff  were:

• Lindsey Carson (born August 1, 1754, see below)
• Andrew Carson  (born March 1, 1756, see below)
• Robert Carson  (born July 20, 1758, see below
• Sarah Carson  (born 1762, married John Scroggs, Jr .)
• Eleanor Carson  (born 1764, married William Gordon
• Alexander Carson  (See below)

We’ll discuss Lindsey Carson , son of William Carson  and Eleanor Jane McDuff , in a few moments

Andrew Carson, son of William Carson and Eleanor Jane McDuff, was born March 3 (or March 1), 1756, in a part of Rowan County that later became Iredell County. As a youngster, he was “bound out”, or apprenticed, to Christopher Houston (1744-1837), whose name will come up again shortly. Andrew served in the Revolutionary War as a Minute Man under several generals including General Wade Hampton, and earned a promotion to Captain in command of his own company. Upon his return from the war, Andrew learned that his father had died, he had inherited his father’s land, and his mother had remarried. Andrew Carson married Temperance Young on September 19, 1783. They settled in Iredell County, North Carolina, on the Catawba River near Hunting Creek where Andrew became a farmer.

Temperance Young was born January 31, 1761, the daughter of Thomas Cadet Young and Judith Johnson. Thomas Cadet Young was a Revolutionary War soldier. Temperance Young died October 24, 1831, and Andrew Carson died January 24, 1841. Both are buried in Young Cemetery, Houstonville, North Carolina.

Children of Andrew Carson and Temperance Young were:

• Thomas Carson (born February 29, 1784)
• Mary Carson (born August 25, 1789, married Samuel Anderson)
• Robert Carson (born January 15, 1792)
• Andrew Washington Carson (born August 27, 1898, lived in Tennessee)
• Nancy Caroline Carson (born May 19, 1802, married Josiah Cowles)
• Alfred W. (or G. or Y.) Carson (born September 15, 1809)

Robert Carson , son of William Carson and Eleanor Jane McDuff, was born July 20, 1758 or 1759, in Rowan County, North Carolina.  He married Jane Robinson McCullen Moore  on July 22, 1791.  She was born September 16, 1788 in Virginia, and died in May, 1836.  Robert Carson died November 22, 1810.

Alexander Carson , son of William Carson  and Eleanor Jane McDuff , was born 1769 in Pennsylvania.  He married Esther McKim , and they had a son, also named Alexander Carson, who was a member of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition.

Lindsey Carson , whom we skipped over a few moments ago, son of William Carson  and Eleanor Jane McDuff , was born August 1, 1754, in Rowan County, North Carolina.  He was a soldier in the Continental Army.  About 1785, he married South Carolinian Lucy Bradley  in North Carolina.  Lindsey, Lucy, and their four children moved to Kentucky in 1793.  A fifth child, Sophie, was born soon after their arrival, and Lucy died not too long afterward.

On February 11, 1796, Lindsey Carson  married second Rebecca Robinson  in Kentucky.  She was born in Green County, Virginia, on September 16, 1778, the daughter of James Robinson and Agnes Boone .  In 1811, Lindsey Carson  moved his family to Boonslick, Missouri.  Lindsey and two of his sons, Andrew and Moses, rendered militia service at Fort Kinkead during the War of 1812.

Lindsey Carson  was still in Missouri in 1818.  One day during August of that year, he attempted to cut down a tree.  A limb from the tree fell on him and killed him.  His widow married Joseph Martin  on October 12, 1821, in Howard County, Missouri. 

Children of Lindsey Carson and Lucy Bradley were:

• Moses Carson
• William Carson
• Andrew Carson
• two girls

Children of Lindsey Carson  and Rebecca Robinson  were:

• Elizabeth Carson  (born in 1797.
• Robert Carson  (born in 1803)
• Matilda Carson  (born in 1805)
• Hamilton Carson  (born in 1808)
• Christopher “Kit” Carson  (born in Madison County, Kentucky, December 24, 1809)
• Nancy A. Carson
• Hampton B. Carson  (born in 1812, married Arminty Crews )
• Mary A. Carson  (born in 1814)
• Sashwell C. Carson  (born June 16, 1816)
• Lindsey Carson  (born in 1818).

William Carson , son of Lindsey Carson and Lucy Bradley, married a daughter of Daniel Boone .

“Kit” Carson

Lindsey Carson, son of William Carson and Eleanor Jane McDuff, must have admired Christopher Houston, because he named his son Christopher “Kit” Carson after Christopher Houston. “Kit” Carson ran away from home at an early age and went on to become the famous hunter and scout. He married thrice, first about 1836 to Waa-nibe or “Singing Wind”, daughter of an Arapaho Indian named Niekahochithinaahniet, which means “Running in Circles.” Kit and Waa-nibe had a daughter named Adeline (Adelaide). Adeline was living in Tulare County, California, in 1860, where she was a prostitute. She died at Mono Lake, California.

Kit Carson married second, about 1840, a South Cheyenne Indian named “Making Out Road”. Her baby died, and she left Kit by the winter of 1841-1842.

Kit Carson’s third wife was Josefa Jaramillo, whom he married in Taos, New Mexico, on February 6, 1843. Josefa died on April 27, 1868, and Kit died May 28, 1868, in Fort Lyon, Bent County, Colorado.

Children of Kit Carson and Josefa Jaramillo were:

• Julian Carson (born October 1, 1852)
  
• Teresina Carson (born June 23, 1855)
  
• Christobal Carson (born June 13, 1858)
  
• Charles Carson (born August 2, 1861)
  
• Rebecca Carson (born April 13, 1864)
  
• Estifanita Carson (born December 23, 1866)
  
• Josafita Carson (born April 13, 1868)
  

An interesting post-script to “Kit” Carson’s story is that, after the deaths of Kit and Josefa, all of their children except one were adopted by Thomas O. Boggs. The one exception, William, was adopted by General W. T. Sherman. General Sherman sent William to school at Notre Dame in Indiana, but he soon returned to Colorado, where he married Maria Pascuala Tobin.

Kit’s daughter Terresina married Dewitt Fulton Allen in 1871 and lived in San Miguel County, New Mexico.

Kit’s daughter Rebecca committed suicide in 1885 by taking an overdose of morphine in Colfax County, New Mexico.

As a child, Josafita was not healthy and required constant medical care.

Now that we’ve finished our side-trip down to “Kit” Carson, we’ll go back and pick up the main line of our genealogy.

William Calvin Carson

William Calvin Carson , son of Alexander Harvey Carson , was born in either Scotland or Ireland on June 22 or June 27, 1682.  He married Sarah Ann Ferguson  on June 7, 1704, either someplace in Scotland or in Londonderry, Ireland.  Sarah Ann Ferguson  was born in ondonderry, May 10 or May 18, 1687.  Their children included Thomas Gibson Carson .  William Calvin Carson  died in Ulster, Ireland, on November 11, 1748, and Sarah Ann Ferguson  died in Ulster, Ireland on January 16 in 1745 or 1746.

Carson researchers have many variations of this genealogy up to this point.  However, beginning with Thomas Gibson Carson , what’s presented here seems to be accepted by most Carson researchers.

The Carsons and the McGoughs – From Ireland to America

Thomas Gibson (?) Carson , Sr., son of William Calvin Carson  and Sarah Ann Ferguson , was born in Ulster, Ireland, on May 11, 1710.  There is some question whether his middle name was “Gibson”, or whether he had a middle name at all.  He married Margaret McDowell  in Ulster on ugust 12, 1734.  Margaret was born May 11, 1713, also in Ulster, and she was probably a Presbyterian.  Their children were supposedly:

• William Carson
• John Wesley Carson
• Thomas Carson
• David Carson
• Adam Carson
• Elizabeth Carson
• Joseph Carson . 

You’ll see why I use the word “supposedly” in a few minutes.

Robert McGough  was born in Ireland in 1725, and he was a blue-stocking Presbyterian.  He was a son of Robert Alexander McGough, and he married Sarah Matilda (or Mary) Carson , born in County Down ca. 1729, perhaps a sister of Thomas Gibson Carson , Sr.  Their children were:

• John McGough (born August 21, 1761)
• Isabella McGough (born May 13, 1764)
• Robert McGough , Jr. (born December 1, 1765)
• William McGough (born ca 1767)
• Sarah McGough (born 1768)
• Mary McGough (born ca 1770, married John Sharp, son of Edward Sharp) .

The Carsons and the McGoughs were good friends.  On June 19 or June 30, 1773, they sailed from Newry, Ireland, bound for a new life in America.  I think the ship was the Elliott, under the command of John Waring .  The Elliott arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, on August 18, 1773. 

On the internet, I found a list of ships that arrived in Charleston from Ireland in 1773, and only the Elliott sailed from Newry.  Therefore, I conclude that the Carsons and McGoughs must have come aboard the Elliott, but since I have no idea whether the list of ships is complete, and since there’s no passenger list for the Elliott, it’s possible that it may have been some other ship.

Most Carson and McGough family histories that you’ll see on the internet characterize the voyage as long and hazardous.  However, since it took only six to eight weeks, normal sailing time in those days, I’d have to say the voyage was mostly uneventful.  It couldn’t have been fun, however, because passengers in those days endured crowded conditions and poor food.  Many passengers died on such voyages, but apparently none of our Carsons and McGoughs.  Altogether, there were about 40 friends and relatives named Carson, McGough, McDowell, and Patterson crowded among the other passengers on the ship, and I’m sure they were very glad when they disembarked in Charleston.

On October 24, 1773, Robert McGough  bought 150 acres of land in the Providence Presbyterian Church Community along McCalpanes Creek in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, from tavern keeper Patrick Jack  for 60 pounds proclamation money.  Considering the difficulties of travel in the Carolinas at that time, Robert McGough  must have been in a real hurry to travel from Charleston to Mecklenburg County (modern-day Charlotte) and find a place to live in just two months.  Apparently, Thomas Gibson Carson  and his family tagged along.  Robert McGough died in 1778.

What was proclamation money?  The British Parliement had passed a law against bringing English silver money into the colonies.  As a result, there was insufficient English money to sustain commerce in circulation in the colonies, so the colonists turned to other monies, particularly Spanish gold coins.  The exchange rate was established by a proclamation issued by Queen Anne  in 1704.  So proclamation money was foreign money accepted at the exchange rate established by Queen Anne . 

The McGoughs were probably well-off and well-educated, because Robert’s son William owned a library at the time of his death.

The Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War

One might think that the Carsons and the McGoughs had sailed away to America and lived happily ever after in their new home.  Not so.  In just a few years, they were smack in the middle of the American Revolution.

So long as the war was conducted mainly in the northern colonies, the settlers on the southern frontier were not affected very much.  They had their own problems, notably Indians.  However, in 1778, the war in the North was approaching a stalemate, and the British believed that little more than a show of force in the South would restore the southern colonies to normal relations with England.  Accordingly, British forces under Sir Archibald Campbell  and General Augustine Prevost  captured Savannah during the last week of 1778.  Campbell completed the conquest of Georgia during the first half of 1779, and devastated much of South Carolina during April of 1779.  However, he was not able to capture Charleston, so he returned to Savannah.  An American attempt to retake Savannah in September of that year was repulsed, with heavy American losses.

In December, the British again attacked Charleston with troops from New York under the command of Sir Henry Clinton .  After a siege, the British captured Charleston in May of 1780.  Having achieved his objective, Clinton returned to New York, leaving the Earl of Cornwallis  in command in South Carolina.  Cornwallis kept his base at Charleston, while activity in the interior centered around Camden, South Carolina.  On May 29, 1780, Colonel Banastre Tarlton attacked a force of about 400 Virginia patriots, defeating them soundly.  Even though the Virginians tried to surrender, Tarlton ignored their white flag, and killed 113 of them and wounded more than 100 others who were left to die.

In June, the Americans appointed Horatio Gates  commander of American troops in the South.  Gates determined to liberate the South, starting with an attack on the British at Camden on August 16, 1780.  The result was a disastrous defeat for the Americans, which temporarily terminated all organized resistance to the British in South Carolina.  Without much resistance, Cornwallis  moved his main army to Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina in September, 1780.  Another British force, composed of Loyalists under Patrick Ferguson , was expected to join Cornwallis at Charlotte.

Patrick Ferguson was considered the best shot in the British Army, and was the inventor of a breech-loading flintlock rifle.  Unfortunately for him, his troops in the South were not equipped with his rifles.

Ferguson sent a message to the patriot forces:  If the patriots did not desist from their opposition, Ferguson would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay waste to the countryside.  Ferguson’s message, and the way Tarlton had treated the patriots earlier, aroused the settlers.  Now the war was personal.  The settlers raised several small forces, which coalesced at Sycamore Shoals into agroup of about 2000 frontiersmen who set out in pursuit of Ferguson.  Ferguson waited for them at Kings Mountain, South Carolina.  The settlers found him on October 7, 1780, and about 1000 of them attacked Ferguson immediately.  At the end of an hour’s battle, Ferguson  was dead, about 400 of his men were dead, and more than 700 were captured.  Most of the soldiers on both sides were Americans, dressed in frontier hunting clothes.  The Patriots identified themselves by scraps of paper in their hats, while the Tories put pine twigs into theirs for identification.  Very few British troops were involved.  Learning of the disaster, Cornwallis  withdrew from Charlotte to Winnsborough to await reinforcements. 

American guerilla forces under Francis Marion  had disrupted British communications and prevented Loyalists from participating fully in the Battle of Kings Mountain.  Marion had learned his guerilla tactics while fighting against the Cherokees in 1761.  Marion had earlier been involved in the American attempt to recapture Savannah, and in the unsuccessful defense of Charleston.

As a result of Gates’ defeat at Camden, the Continental Congress lost confidence in Gates, and asked George Washington  to replace him.  Washington appointed Nathanael Greene  as commander of the Southern Department.

Greene reached Charlotte in December, 1780.  He found that the remnants of Gates’ forces were in no condition to fight the British head-on, so he decided on a guerilla-type campaign.  Greene divided his army, sending half of it to Fort Ninety-Six under General Daniel Morgan , while Greene himself led the other half to the Peedee River near Cheraw, South Carolina.  The position of these two American forces threatened Cornwallis’ entire line, so Cornwallis  also divided his army.  Colonel Banastre Tarleton  led a British force against Morgan, expecting to drive the Americans northward.  Meanwhile, Cornwallis tried to move into position to intercept the fleeing Americans.  Unfortunately for Cornwallis, Morgan soundly defeated Tarleton at Cowpens, South Carolina, in January of 1781.

Morgan then began a rapid retreat to the north and east, with Cornwallis in pursuit, about twenty-five miles behind.  Upon learning of Morgan’s victory, Greene sent his army north under General Isaac Huger , while he himself joined Morgan near Beatty’s Ford on the Catawba River near the present site of Mooresville, North Carolina. 

Greene’s plan was to draw Cornwallis as far as possible from his supply base before engaging in battle, and so continued his retreat toward Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, where he was joined by the other half of his army.  With his entire force, Greene continued on toward Virginia.  Cornwallis , eager to catch the Americans as soon as possible, burned most of his supplies so he could travel faster.  The pursuit developed into a race for the river fords.  At one point, Cornwallis was able to interpose his army between the Americans and the Dan River ford, but Greene  had anticipated such a move, and so had prepared boats to take his army across at another point.

Failing to catch Greene at the Dan River, and running low on supplies, Cornwallis went to Hillsborough, North Carolina.  However, he was dissapointed there, as the citizens did not supply him with many supplies or recruits.  Within a few days, Cornwallis was on the move again, partly in search of food for his army.

Safely in Virginia, Greene rested his army.  However, he became concerned that Cornwallis might return to his base, so Greene recrossed the Dan River about March 1, 1781.  For about two weeks, Greene stayed on the move, playing for time and position while he waited for various militia reinforcements.  On March 14, the last of the reinforcements arrived, and Greene moved into battle position at Guilford Courthouse.

Early the next morning, Cornwallis marched his army to the long-sought engagement.

Greene’s army was larger than Cornwallis, but Cornwallis’ 2000 British Regulars were better trained than the Americans.  The battle lasted about 2 ½ hours, and resulted in nearly 600 British casualties and about half as many American casualties.  Realizing that he had dealt the British a heavy blow, Greene withdrew his forces as the British were regrouping for another attack.  Therefore, the battle is considered a British victory, but it so weakened the British that it was the beginning of the end for them.

Cornwallis, now running very low on supplies, returned to Wilmington, North Carolina.  Greene followed him as far as Cross Creek, where Cornwallis managed to avoid a serious engagement.  Greene then broke off the pursuit, and turned to the liberation of South Carolina.  Greene lost most of his battles, but each battle left the British weaker than they were before.  After the Battle of Eutaw Springs, in which the Americans were led by General Francis Marion , the British were driven from all of South Carolina except Charleston.

After about a month, Cornwallis left Charleston for Virginia.  In August, 1781, Cornwallis  established himself at Yorktown, Virginia, where the Continental Army and the French Navy forced him to surrender on October 19, 1781.

After Cornwallis’ surrender, the British Prime Minister, Lord North , resigned, and his successors determined that it was no longer in Britain’s best interest to continue the war.  By the Treaty of Paris of November, 1782, Britain recognized the United States as an independent nation.

As you continue now with the main body of our story, look for people, places, and dates from the foregoing discussion of the Southern Campaign.  Also, note the general south-western migration of the Carsons during the Nineteenth Century – from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, to Edgefield District and Abbeville, South Carolina, to Baldwin, Wilkes, Greene, Crawford, and Macon Counties in Georgia, and on to Alabama, Mississippi, and even Texas.

After the Revolution, Thomas Gibson Carson  and his family went to Wilkes County, Georgia, where he signed his will on September 1, 1789.  He also owned property in Greene County.  Margaret McDowell  died in Greene County, Georgia, on December 16, 1784, Thomas Gibson Carson  died in Greene County on July 10 or November 18, 1790, and lies buried in the family cemetery at Round Oak in Jones County, Georgia.

Children of Thomas Gibson Carson , Sr., and Margaret McDowell  – A Mystery

William Carson  was the eldest son of Thomas Gibson Carson , Sr., and Margaret McDowell .  He was born in County Down, Ireland, on October 15, 1735.  He immigrated to America with his family in 1773, and joined Captain William Fullwood’s  company of volunteer militia on September 30, 1775, in South Carolina.  He lived at Long Cane in Abbeville, South Carolina, south of Patterson Bridge.  He was in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in 1782, and his name appears on the 1790 census in Long Cane.  He was a member of the Cedar Springs Reformed Presbyterian Church. 

He married Margaret Mills , and their children  were:

• Robert Carson
• William Carson (Received a Land Grant at Long Cane in 1808)
• Jean Carson , “Boarn July ye 7 in the yeare of our Loard 1756 it being on Thursday”
• Martha Carson
• Margaret Carson  (who married Josiah Patterson)
• Elizabeth Carson  (June 25, 1764 – April 23, 1847, married John McGough )
• Mary Carson  (who married a Patterson)
• Sarah Carson  (who married a Rafferty).

Jean Carson , above, died September 1, 1789, in Abbeville, South Carolina.

Martha Carson , above, married John Hearst  and became a great grandmother of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst .

William Carson  died November 14, 1801 or April 3, 1802, in Long Cane, Abbeville, South Carolina.

Now, here comes the mystery.  As I said, Thomas Gibson Carson  and Margaret McDowell  were married on August 12, 1734, so William’s birth date of September 30, 1735, seems about right.  However, the second child, John Wesley Carson , wasn’t born until May 24, 1760.  That’s twenty-five years after his older brother, when their mother was 47 years old, so it’s unlikely that Thomas Gibson Carson  and Margaret McDowell  were the natural parents of William’s brothers and sisters.  Some have suggested that William was their father, not their brother, but Thomas Gibson Carson  plainly claimed all of them as his children in his will (See Appendix IX).  So the true parentage of these children (except William) is a mystery which may never be solved.  To place John Wesley Carson  in the proper sequence among his siblings, he ought to be discussed here, but I'm going to discuss him last.  Since we’re going to follow his descendants all the way down to the present time, I think things will be clearer that way.

The younger Thomas Carson , third child of Thomas Gibson Carson , Sr., and Margaret McDowell , was born May 23, 1763, in County Down, Ireland.  He came to America with his family aboard the Elliott in 1773, and served in the American Revolution between 1780 and 1781 in Georgia and Tennessee.  He was a member of the Refugee Regiment of Richmond County raised by Colonel William Candler  at the first seige of Augusta, Georgia, in 1780.  The regiment moved to Tennessee, marched to the Nollichucky Settlements, and fought at King’s Mountain, Fishdam Ford, Blackstock’s Farm, and Long Cane.  On April 7, 1784, Colonel Elijah Clarke  testified that Thomas Carson  had served in the Revolution, and was entitled to a refugee’s bounty of land.

Thomas Carson married his wife, Jenny, on June 24, 1802.  Their children were:

• John S. Carson
• Thomas S. Carson
• Ann Carson  (married a Mr. Bates)
• Sallie Carson
• Elizabeth Carson
• Joseph Carson

Thomas Carson’s  father, Thomas Gibson Carson , Sr., willed him the lower part of his property in Wilkes County, Georgia, “the part by the river”, which Thomas and Jenny soon sold to Joseph Scott .  In 1802, Thomas Carson was in Washington County, Alabama, where he sold David Johnston  a Negro woman named Rose  and her child.  In 1805, Thomas Carson  was in Washington County, Mississippi Territory, where he owned 640 acres of first-quality land and a house on the west side of the Tombigbee River opposite the cut-off.

Thomas Carson  died in Washington, Alabama, in 1807.  Among other things, he left Jenny a ferry on the Tombigbee River.  This ferry has an important place in history.  As you may recall, Aaron Burr  killed Alexander Hamilton  in a duel.  After Burr’s capture, the sheriff used Mrs. Carson’s ferry while escorting Burr to Pensacola.

Thomas Carson’s widow, Jenny, appeared in court in Baldwin County, Mississippi, on October 25, 1815, where she claimed that hostile Indians had stolen her negro woman named Miley, and that Miley  had been killed trying to escape from the Indians.

Adam Carson , fourth child of Thomas Gibson Carson  and Margaret McDowell , was born in 1765 in County Down, Ireland.  He came to America with his family in 1773.  He enlisted in the Revolutionary Army at the age of 11 or 12, and served between 1777 and 1783.  He was promoted to Orderly Sergeant, and held that position from 1781 until 1783.  On May 24, 1784, Adam Carson  petitioned for 287 ½ acres of land in Washington County, Georgia, for his services in the Revolution.  He officially resigned from the army on March 31, 1791.

On June 11, 1785, Adam Carson  married Sarah (or Sallie) McGough  at Round Oak Plantation.  Sarah was a daughter of Robert McGough , who came from Ireland aboard the Elliott, as described earlier in this chapter.  Sarah was a Quaker, born ca. 1768 in County Down, Ireland.

The State of Trans-Oconee

In 1791, General Elijah Clarke  led a force of land-hungry Georgians across the Oconee River against the Creek Indians.  Clarke and his men, including Adam Carson , laid out a few towns and erected some forts along a 120-mile stretch along the west side of the Oconee, including Forts Defiance, Advance, and Winston.  However, President Washington disapproved of Clarke’s plan, so Governor Matthews sent Georgia Troops to blockade the Oconee River and burn the forts.  Most of Clarke’s troops deserted, and on September 28, 1794, Clarke surrendered the State of Trans-Oconee.  Adam Carson , one of Clarke’s captains, was arrested, but he escaped and was not prosecuted further.

More about Adam Carson, his Descendants and his Siblings

Adam Carson  served on grand juries in 1808 and 1810, and he also served as a Justice of the Inferior Court.  He was elected sheriff of Baldwin County, Georgia, on July 14, 1806, and served in that capacity for six years.  He drew land in the Cherokee Land Lotteries of 1832 and 1838.  Adam Carson  died in Jones County, Georgia, in 1842 or 1843, and lies buried at Round Oak Plantation.  During the War between the States, Adam Carson’s house was burned by General Sherman  during his march to the sea.

Children of Adam Carson  and Sarah McGough  were:

• William P. Carson
• John P. Carson  (born in 1794)
• David P. Carson
• Thomas J. Carson
• Adam Carson
• James J. Carson
• Isabel Carson  (married John H. Thomas )
• Malinda Carson  (married James Brantley )
• Jane Carson
• Joseph J. Carson

Of the children of Adam Carson  and Sarah McGough , William P. Carson was killed by a runaway horse (or a team of runaway horses) while still a young man, and his orphan children drew land in the lottery of 1821 and again in the lottery of 1832.  Thomas J. Carson  also drew land in the lottery of 1821.  Adam Carson married Sarah -----.  She was a resident of Nashville, Tennessee, at the time of her death, but she died near Indian Spring, Georgia, in November, 1883.  James J. Carson  was a Latin scholar, entered Harvard but did not finish, always enjoyed drinking, and died penniless.

Joseph Carson , fifth child of Thomas Gibson Carson  and Margaret McDowell , was born January 11, 1766, in County Down, Ireland, and immigrated to America with his family in 1773.  He served in the American Revolution between 1777 and 1781 in Georgia and Tennessee.  He served in the Minute Men Battalion and in the Refugee Battalion.  He served in Picken’s Brigade as a private from August 17, 1781, until November 15, 1781.  On April 7, 1784, General Elijah Clarke  certified that Joseph Carson  was a refugee soldier entitled to a bounty of land.  About 1790, Joseph Carson served as a captain under General John Clark, raiding the Creek Indian Village of Cheehaw Town.  He married Jane -----, who was born in Tyrone County, Ireland, in 1766.  Joseph Carson died November 12, 1798, in Jones County, Georgia. 

Joseph Carson and Jane ----- had one known child, a daughter named Martha Carson, born in Wilkes or Washington County, Georgia, December 21, 1791.  Martha Carson married James Beckham on June 27, 1811, at the home of her uncle, David Carson.  Martha Carson died at her home in Zebulon, Georgia, December 3, 1872.  Martha Carson and James Beckham had two children, Susan Russell Beckham and Joseph Carson Beckham.  

David Carson, sixth child of Thomas Gibson Carson  and Margaret McDowell , was born in 1762 in County Down, Ireland, and immigrated with his family in 1773.  He served in the American Revolution in Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee in 1780 and 1781, and received a certificate of service as a Minute Man from Colonel Elijah Clarke  on April 3, 1784.  In 1794, he served with his brother Adam under General Elijah Clarke  in the attempt to establish the State of Trans-Oconee.  David married Nancy Brantley  on December 22, 1807, in Hancock County, Georgia.  Their children were Thomas Brantley Carson  and Joseph Matthews Carson .  After David’s death in Selma, Alabama, his brother Adam refused to serve as his executor.  David’s widow, Nancy Brantley , then married John Tipton , and John Tipton was appointed guardian of David’s estate.

Elizabeth Carson , seventh child of Thomas Gibson Carson  and Margaret McDowell , was born in 1768 in County Down, Ireland.  She came to America with her family in 1773.  On December 9, 1790, she married James W. McDowell  in Greene County, Georgia, and their children were:

• Thomas McDowell
• Joseph McDowell
• Margaret McDowell

After the death of James W. McDowell  about 1800, Adam and David Carson  were appointed guardians of James’ and Elizabeth’s children on July 31, 1800, in Wilkes County, Georgia.  Elizabeth Carson  subsequently married James Cowan , and by 1820, they were living in Dallas County, Alabama.  James Cowan  died in 1849.

Now, back to John Wesley Carson , second child of Thomas Gibson Carson  and Margaret McDowell .  John Wesley Carson  was born in County Down, Ireland, on May 24, 1760, in a long-forgotten small town near the foot of some mountains near Newry, Ireland.  John sailed with his parents from Newry to America in 1773.  Isabella McGough , born in Ireland on May 13 or November 8, 1764, the daughter of Robert McGough  and Sarah Matilda Carson , was on the same ship.  John was just fourteen, and Isabella was just nine.  John and Isabella were married in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on June 24, 1782, and they settled in Edgefield District, South Carlina, where their eight children were born.  Later, they moved near the frontier in what became Crawford County, Georgia.

Note that Isabella’s sister was Sarah McGough , who married John’s brother, Adam. 

Even though a majority of the citizens of Edgefield District did not support separation from England, John Wesley Carson  served in the Revolutionary War, putting himself at risk of retribution from his Tory neighbors.  He was a Minute Man in the Georgia Militia in Colonel Elijah Clarke ’s company.  He received a certificate of service from Colonel Elijah E. Clarke  on April 3, 1784, and he also received a refugee’s bounty of land in Georgia, even though he was not a resident of Georgia at the time.

John Wesley Carson  died in Jones County, Georgia, in February, 1823.  At the time of his death, he owned thirty slaves and much land.  In the lottery of 1827, Isabella McGough  drew land in Jones County as the widow of a Revolutionary War soldier.  Isabella McGough  died in Crawford County, Georgia, and lies buried at the Carsonville Cemetery, at the site of the old Methodist Church in Carsonville, Taylor Couty, Georgia.

The Children of John Wesley Carson  and Isabella McGough

The eight children of John Wesley Carson  and Isabella McGough  were:

• Thomas Carson  (born May 13, 1785)
• William Carson  (born August 26, 1787)
• Jane Carson  (born September 16, 1789, married George Marshall )
• Isabelle (or Phoebe) Carson  (born January 3 or June 5, 1793, married Luke Matthews )
• Pauline (or Polly) Carson  (born July 5, 1796, married James Rowan Cox, 5^th of 14 children of Ichabod Cox and Mary Rowan )
• John William Carson  (born July 2, 1799, married Nancy Shaw )
• Joseph Jefferson Carson  (of whom more later)
• Robert Carson  (born May 2 or May 5, 1806, married Sarah R. Stanford )

John William Carson  and Robert Carson , sons of John Wesley Carson  and Isabella McGough , settled Carsonville in present Taylor County, Georgia, and later moved to Texas.  John William Carson  died in Weatherford, Texas.

Joseph Jefferson Carson , son of John Wesley Carson  and Isabella McGough , was born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, August 16, 1802.  He married Martha Goodwin Raines  (See Chapter 2) on October 29, 1823, in Jones County, Georgia, exactly one month before her fifteenth birthday.  The Reverend Henry Hooten  performed the ceremony.  The young couple lived in Pike County, Georgia, for a few years, and sold land there to Robert Wood  on January 9, 1830.  It appears that Joseph Jefferson Carson began to accumulate land in Crawford County, Georgia, with a purchase of 130 acres on October 28, 1833. He made additional purchases in 1834, 1837, 1842, and 1843.   Sometime between 1830 and 1835 they moved to Knoxville in Crawford County, Georgia, where they operated a stagecoach inn. 

The stagecoach usually stopped at the Carsons’ for breakfast, and the driver blew a horn as he neared the inn so the Carsons would know he was approaching.  When the Carsons heard the horn, they immediately set to work preparing breakfast.  By 1850, the Carsons had accumulated 23 slaves, and among them was an old Negro man whose only job was to pick chickens for breakfast.

Several times, Joseph Jefferson Carson  was appointed as a road commissioner in Crawford County to build various roads and bridges, and on March 3, 1845, he was appointed commissioner of the Poor School in Crawford County.  The Carson’s inn was near the courthouse, and the Carsons billed the county for meals for jurors on several occasions.

Joseph Jefferson Carson  and Martha Goodwin Raines  joined Antioch Church in Talbot County, Georgia, on January 18, 1834, but were dismissed by letter on January 17, 1835.  They subsequently joined Elam Baptist Church in Crawford County in 1835, and two of their slaves, Daniel  and Nelson , also joined Elam Church in 1835.

Carsons Active in Church

Elam (or Elim) Church in Crawford County, Georgia, was constituted on the Saturday before the fourth Sabbath in January, 1828, by the presbytery composed of Reverend Henry Hooten  (the preacher who married Joseph Jefferson Carson  and Martha Goodwin Raines ), Reverend Jacob King , and his cousin, Reverend Zachariah H. Gordon  (father of General John B. Gordon ).  Joseph and Martha Carson were received into membership at Elim Church by letter from Antioch Church in February, 1835.

In March, 1835, Joseph Jefferson Carson  was on a committee to talk to Bro. William Robinson’s  slave, Toby , who “was not of sound faith.”  Toby was excommunicated.  Joseph Jefferson Carson  was also appointed delegate to a general meeting at Mt. Paran in Crawford County.

In April, 1835, Daniel , colored and property of J. J. Carson, joined Elam Church by letter.  In June, J. J. Carson was ordained a deacon.  In July, he and Brother Benjamin White  were delegates to the association.  Also in July, J. J. Carson was appointed treasurer of the church.  In November, 1835, J. J. Carson served as moderator pro tem.

In April, 1836, a decision was made to move the church to a place on the road leading from Calhoun’s Ferry to Knoxville, not far from the bridge over Ulcahatchee Creek.  Brother Carson was on the committee.  The Elim Cemetery is on this spot today, but there is no sign of a church building.

In April, 1837, J. J. Carson  and Benjamin White  were correspondents to Antioch Church.  In May, 1837, J. J. Carson  was on a committee to sell the old meeting house.  Also in 1837, Bro. James Perryman was elected supply preacher for the remainder of 1837 and 1838.  He may have been Joseph Perryman Carson ’s namesake.

In April, 1844, J. J. Carson  was on a committee to “wait on” a list of eight people for “trace breaking”.  In August of that year he was a delegate to the association.

In May, 1846, Brother Thomas Carson  was appointed to make a talk on missions.  In November, 1847, Brother Thomas Carson  asked for a letter of dismissal.

In March, 1848, Joseph Jefferson Carson  and wife and two negroes, Daniel  and Nelson , asked for letters of dismissal.  Apparently, Joseph Jefferson Carson  joined the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Garden Valley, because in 1855 Joseph Jefferson Carson  was a delegate when the Rehoboth Association accepted the Pleasant Grove Church by letter from the Columbus Association.

In June, 1857, four negroes, property of Joseph J. Carson , formerly owned by Cadwell W. Raines , asked for letters of dismissal.

Elim Church continued at the same location until it disolved in 1905.

When they left Elim Church, many of the Carsons joined Union Church in Macon County.  Union Church was first organized May 12, 1832, as a Primitive Doctrine Baptist Church, located about eight miles north of Reynolds, Georgia, at Ariel in Crawford County, which at that time included part of what is now Taylor County.  Services were usually held on the fourth Saturday and Sunday of each month.

In 1845, the membership moved to a site on the Corbin Place, about four miles southeast of Reynolds in Macon County.  The Macon County church was named Union Church.  Joseph Jefferson Carson  served as clerk of Union Church 1848-1849.  In 1851, Joseph Jefferson Carson  served on a committee to select a place to build a meeting house.  Services were held at Union Church regularly until the outbreak of the War between the States, and intermittently during the 1860’s. 

In January, 1870, several members of Union Church organized themselves into a new church called The Church of Christ at Reynolds, because Yankees and carpetbaggers had put ideas into the heads of the newly freed colored people, and they wanted to sit on the front seats of Union Church.  In December of 1870, the remaining members of Union Church presented themselves in a body to the church at Reynolds,and were accepted.  A wooden building for The Church of Christ at Reynolds was erected in 1871.  For years, the men sat on one side of the church and the women on the other, with a wooden partition between them.  A  brick building was built 1956-1959.  The church is now known as the First Baptist Church of Reynolds.

The Move to Macon County

In 1854, Joseph Jefferson Carson  and Martha Goodwin Raines  bought the plantation known as Wilburville on the River Road in the Hicks District in Northern Macon County, Georgia. All of Joseph’s and Martha’s ten children were already born by that time.  Let me finish telling about Joseph and Martha, and then I’ll go back and tell about the children.

Wilburville was on the stage coach route from Knoxville to Lanier, and stage coaches stopped at Wilburville to change horses.  The previous owners, the Wilburs, were from the North, and in the face of growing resentment against Northerners, the Wilburs sold out and went back North.  The Wilburs had a store.  After they left, the store was torn down, and William Minor used the lumber to build a hotel at Miona Springs.  In its day, Miona Springs was a fashionable resort, and it was even served by a steamboat on the Flint River, subject to conditions such as floods, low water, and sand bars.  The Miona Springs Hotel burned in February, 1930.

Lanier was just a few miles south of Wilburville, and at one time, it was a thriving community, the county seat of Macon County.  By 1840, the population had reached 200.  But after the Central of Georgia Railroad extended its line to Oglethorpe in the early 1850’s, and Oglethorpe became the county seat in 1854, people began to move away from Lanier, and by 1870, there was nothing left of Lanier except a modest cemetery.

When Joseph Jefferson Carson  came to Macon County prospecting for a farm, he was thrown from his horse and taken to the home of Mr. Jones Hicks  where he recovered from his injuries.  Now, Mr. Hicks sometimes drank too much of his own fine wine, and such was the case when Joseph Jefferson Carson  was ready to leave.  Mr. Hicks intended to say, “I’m sorry you were hurt, sir, but I’m d--- glad you were at my house.”  However, what came out was, “I’m glad you were hurt, sir, but I’m d--- sorry you were at my house!”  Both men got a good laugh over that.  They became neighbors and good friends, and one of Mr. Carson’s daughters later married Mr. Hicks’ eldest son.

Jones Hicks had originally come to Macon County from Crawford County in 1836, and the Hicks District of Macon County is named for his family.  He cleared his land when the wolves could be heard howling in the distance.  He built a large house on his plantation in 1857, using his slaves to do the work, and he was noted for his hospitality.  Interestingly, Jones Hicks (December 25, 1803-December 14, 1875) and several other members of his family were originally buried in a mausoleum near the Flint River in Crawford County.  However, in 1900 their remains were moved to the Hicks Cemetery south of Reynolds, Georgia, because of pilferage at the original location.

Macon County Had Been Settled only a Few Years

I don’t think Macon County, Georgia, in 1854, was very much like it is today.  I imagine it was mostly virgin forests and swamps.  Plantations were clearings surrounded by forests, and there were probably tree stumps left in many of the fields.  Roads were poor.  In fact, the Indians had only been gone from the area about 30 years.  Remember, some of Joseph Jefferson Carson ’s brothers had been actively engaged in fighting the Indians.  In 1854, it had not been long since Macon County was Indian territory, even though other places further west, such as Alabama, had been settled earlier.  We think of slaves engaged in raising cotton, but I’m sure their first task was clearing land.

If the Lord’s Willing and the Creeks Don’t Rise

The Flint River, which forms the southwestern border of Crawford County, was the border between Georgia and the Creek Indian Nation, so named because they built their villages near streams of water.  As a matter of fact, in order to travel through the Creek Nation, one had to obtain a passport, signed by the Governor of Georgia.  So you can see that Crawford County was on the frontier in the early 1800’s, and Macon County was still new when Joseph Jefferson Carson  went there in 1854.

The Indians who occupied the area of present-day Macon County were actually a separate tribe, the Euchee.  The Euchees had a different language from the other Indians of the region, and were not well-liked by the other Indians, but all the tribes of the region had the common sense to join together in the Creek Confederacy against their common enemy, the white man.  In 1818, their were 240 families of Euchees along the streams in the area of present-day Macon County.

There were frequent clashes between the settlers and the Indians, and some have suggested that the expression, “If the Lord’s willing and the Creeks don’t rise,” refers not to bodies of water, but to the Creek Indians.  

In 1802, Georgia ceded its claim to the Mississippi Territory to the Federal Government in exchange for a promise that the United States would buy all the Indian land in Georgia for the state.  The land between the Flint River and the Chatahoochee River remained Indian territory until 1821, when President Monroe  negotiated with the chiefs of the Creeks, and the Creeks ceded nearly half their land to Georgia.  However, the Georgians became impatient with the Federal Government, and, when it appeared that the Federal Government would not evict the Indians by force, the Georgians decided to take action themselves. 

On February 12, 1825, the State of Georgia made a treaty with Chief William McIntosh  and several others at Indian Spring, Georgia, even though McIntosh probably didn’t have the support of the majority of the Indians and the whites knew it.  This treaty ceded all of the remaining Indian land to Georgia.  Under the Treaty of Indian Spring, the Creeks had one year to leave the area, and received land west of the Mississippi and a large sum of money to compensate them for their moving expenses.  The treaty was ratified by the Federal Government.  William McIntosh , whose Indian name was Tusunugee Hutkee, and who was a half-breed cousin of Georgia Governor Troup , received two small reservations – one at Indian Spring, the other near present-day Oglethorpe, Georgia.

However, the Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh , had traveled through the Southeast, urging the Indians to resist further encroachment by the whites.  He argued that the whites were not to be trusted – after all, hadn’t they crucified their own God?  Partially because of Tecumseh’s influence, many of the Creeks disapproved of the Treaty of Indian Springs, and they murdered, or executed, William McIntosh  on April 29, 1825, acording to the Creek “Law of Pole Cat Springs”.  However, after the death of McIntosh, the Indians saw the futility of resisting the white men, and decided to leave the area under the best terms they could get.  On January 24, 1826, President Adams  and a Creek delegation made a new treaty at Washington, DC.  Among other things, the Treaty of Washington voided the original treaty and gave the Indians two years to leave the area, and the Indians ceded most, but not all, of their land to the whites.

Governor Troup  and the Georgia Legislature continued to recognize the original treaty, and sent surveyors into the area in preparation for settlement by the whites.  The Indians considered this to be a violation of the treaty, and President Adams  ordered the Governor to stop the survey.  Troup refused, and Adams threatened to stop the survey by force if necessary.  Governor Troup  ordered the Georgia Militia to prepare to repel the federal invasion, and the entire nation watched to see whether the Governor or the President would back down first.  In the end, it was the President who flinched.  Adams said that a bunch of Indians were not worth going to war over.  The Creeks were gone (to Arkansas) by 1827.  Their exodus should not be confused with the more famous exodus of the Cherokees from North Georgia to Oklahoma in 1839, known as the Trail of Tears.

The Carson Place

In 1859, the Carsons sold the Wilbur Place (Wilburville) and purchased the Troutman Place from Hiram B. Hicks .  The Troutman Place, which became known as the Carson Place, was approximately 2000 acres on the west bank of the Flint River in northern Macon County.   The house, known as the Carson House , was already built at that time.

The Carson House
Watercolor by Emily Harp

Joseph Jefferson Carson , Delegate to the State Convention

In 1861, Joseph Jefferson Carson  was a delegate to the State Convention in Milledgeville, Georgia.  Milledgeville was the state capital at that time, and South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi had already ceceded.  On January 19, 1861, J. J. Carson reluctantly voted for cession from the Union, and the Ordinance of Secession passed by a vote of 208 to 99.  William Heatley Robinson , original owner of Miona Springs, was the other delegate from Macon County.

There are some who argue that states rights, not slavery, was the main issue in the War between the States.  I disagree.  The dissatisfaction of the South with the Federal Government may have started over states rights, protectionist tariffs, and several other issues, but by 1860, the main dispute was over slavery.  White Southerners were afraid of losing their source of economic prosperity, and they were willing to fight to perserve it – 13.1 percent of the Southern population fought in the war, a higher percentage than any other American war before or since.  18.7 per cent of all Confederate soldiers died in the war, again, the highest percentage of any American war.

Despite what Abraham Lincoln  may have thought, the Confederate States of America was an independent country, completely separate from the United States of America.  The Confederate States had their own territory, president, congress, money, post office, army, ecomomic system, and social customs.  A civil war is a war within one country, and since the War between the States was a war between two separate countries, it is not called the Civil War in this book.  Die-hard Southerners may call it the War between the States, the War for Southern Independence, the Late Unpleasantries, the War of 1861-1865, or any of several other names, but never the Civil War.  That’s a Yankee term.  

A New Stepmother?

Martha Goodwin Raines  died of epilepsy on June 21, 1862.

I was very surprised to come across the following in a letter from John Thomas Carson  to his wife, Saphronia.  John Thomas Carson  was a son of Joseph Jefferson Carson  and Martha Goodwin Raines .  The letter was written on November 13, 1862, while John Thomas Carson  was serving in the Confederate Army near the Shenandoah River in Virginia.  He wrote,  “Glad to learn that the children are better pleased with their new mother than they expected.  I hope she will become a mother indeed to all of us.  Let each one strive to render her happy as well as to add to Pa’s happiness.  I hope that he may spend the remainder of his days as comfortable and happy as it be possible for a companion and dutiful children to render him….

“I learn that our Mother is an amiable lady, one worthy of your esteem in every way.  Therefore let us be content and accept her as a Mother.  Give Sister Mary my love and say to her, ‘Love our Stepmother’.  Bobby must also be kind unto her and try and do all he can to render her happy….”

New mother?  Stepmother?  Who was he talking about?

It turns out that Joseph Jefferson Carson  had a second wife.  He married Mrs. Mary Laura Lamar Slappey  on October 21, 1862, in Houston County, Georgia.  (See Appendix X)

Mary Laura Lamar Slappey  was born about 1825, the daughter of John Lamar  and Isabella Stewart  of Richmond County, Georgia, who married about 1824 in Houston County, Georgia.  Mary Laura Lamar Slappey  was the widow of William Frederick Slappey  (October 9, 1819 – September 29, 1852).  Mary and William Frederick Slappey  had four children, who became step-children of Joseph Jefferson Carson .  They were:

• Emily Slappey
• Isabella Slappey
• Reuben Slappey
• William Augustus Slappey (Confederate veteran, prisoner of war at Elmira, New York)

William Frederick Slappey  was the second of five sons born to Jacob Class Slappey  and Elizabeth Hiley .  Jacob Class Slappey  was born in 1790 in Marshallville, Georgia, and died in 1839.  His parents were John George Slappey (born in 1749 in Orangeburg, South Carolina, died in 1825) and Henrietta Class  (born about 1762).  John George Slappey’s  parents were Hans George Slappey  (born about 1725 in Switzerland, died 1788 in Orangeburg, South Carolina) and Magdalena Huber  (born about 1727 in Orangeburg, South Carolina).  Hans George Slappey may have had a second wife named Christina. 

William F. Slappey  lies buried in the Hiley Slappey Cemetery in a field on the south side of Dole Road, west of Highway 49 about four miles south of Fort Valley, Georgia, just inside Macon County.  His headstone has been moved twice – first to the north side of Dole Road, and then to Oaklawn Cemetery in Fort Valley, Georgia.  The original Hiley-Slappey Cemetery has been plowed over.

Joseph Jefferson Carson  and Mary Laura Lamar Slappey  had no children of their own.

Curiously, Joseph Jefferson Carson purchased lot 62 in the 8th District of Crawford County as trustee for his wife, Mary L. Carson, on January 12, 1870.

I suspect that the marriage of Mary Laura Lamar Slappey  and Joseph Jefferson Carson  may not have been a happy marriage.  Joseph Jefferson Carson  died at the home of his son-in-law, Henry Terell Jordan , on April 23, 1875, and the question arises, why didn’t he die in his own home, attended by his wife?  In 1880, Mary Laura Lamar Slappey  was living by herself on her own farm near her sons Reuben Slappey  and William Augustus Slappey  near Fort Valley, Georgia.  Again, the question arises, why didn’t she continue living on the Carson Place?

Children of Joseph Jefferson Carson and Martha Goodwin Raines

Joseph Jefferson Carson and Martha Goodwin Raines  had ten children.  They were:

• John Thomas Carson
• Emily Jane Carson
• Cadwell Raines Carson
• James Alston Carson
• Martha Goodwin Carson
• Sara Isabelle Carson
• Joseph Perryman Carson
• Annie Elizabeth Carson
• Mary Jane Carson
• Robert Hall Carson

What happened to these ten children?  All four sons served the Confederacy in the War between the States, and only one came home alive.  The bodies of the other three were brought home in wagons by faithful servants, and buried in the family cemetery.  We’ll discuss each child, and some of his or her descendants, before moving on to the next child.

John Thomas Carson  and his Descendants

John Thomas Carson , eldest child of Joseph Jefferson Carson  and Martha Goodwin Raines , was born November 11, 1825.  He married Susan Saphronia Howe  of Crawford County, Georgia, the daughter of Robert Howe , Jr., and Susanna Gray , on February 2, 1847.  Susan Saphronia Howe  was born May 17, 1826, and died in Columbus, Georgia, at the home of her daughter, Martha Susan Carson Hicks, on September 15, 1898.  Her father, Robert Howe , Jr. (January 22, 1782-February 10, 1858), was the son of Robert Howe , who married Jennette Armour and served as a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War.  His wife, Susanna Gray (September 13, 1786-October 1, 1846), was the daughter of Archibald Gray  (May 3, 1782-January 12, 1840) and Cynthia Armour (October, 1785-1841) .  Archibald Gray was the son of James Gray  (May 1, 1758-Novembwer 20, 1832) and Nancy Riley  (May 26, 1762-July 16, 1834).  Cynthia Armour was the daughter of John Armour  and his second wife, Nancy Caldwell  of Greene County, Georgia.  Robert Howe , Jr., and Susanna Gray were married on December 17, 1807.

Cynthia Armour is buried in an above-ground grave in Taylor County, Georgia, with her name and dates scratched into the concrete.  Both she and her husband are buried in the Harris Family Cemetery.

John Armour  was born in Anson County, NC, about 1753, the son of James Armour  and Jeanette “Jean” Little .  On August 17, 1762, John Armour was apprenticed (with his mother’s permission) to John Buchanan for four years and six months to learn to be a tailor.  John Armour served as a private in the Revolutionary War from June 1 to September 11, 1780.  He was employed as a wagon master to remove the public records when the British advanced on Charleston.  He served as a horseman under Major Wales at Orangeburg in 1782, and he also served at Quarter House and Biggin Church.  Also during 1782, he was under General Henderson at Edisto, South Carolina.  John Armour built the first house in Greensboro, Georgia.  In 1787, Creek Indians burned several houses that he owned, along with furniture and hogs.  The loss was set at $250.  He married first a woman named Martha, and they were living together as late as August 22, 1788.  However, he married Nancy Caldwell in Greene County on November 18, 1788, less than three months later.  He owned land and a tobacco warehouse in Greene County, and he was sometimes called upon to officiate at weddings.  John Armour died in Greene County, Georgia, before January 4, 1836. 

James Armour, father of John Armour, owned land in Anson County, North Carolina, as early as 1752.  (This area was later in Mecklenburg County, NC)  James Armour served in the North Carolina Militia from Mecklenburg County, and he died in Greene County, Georgia, about 1805.  He is said to be the son of Dr. Jerome Armour  and his wife Susan. 

Dr. Jerome Armour (or Armore) may have come first to Pasquotank County, North Carolina, from Scotland by way of Ireland.  In 1724 or 1725, he owned a Negro named Nanny.  In 1727 he owned land in Edenton, North Carolina, and in 1730 he was in the Middlesex County Militia Lower Troop.  Dr. Jerome Armour is said to be the son of William Armour  and his wife Mary.  

John Thomas Carson  served as clerk of the First Baptist Church of Reynolds, Georgia, in 1861 and 1862, and was a member of Masonic Lodge 56, of Lanier, Georgia.

John Thomas Carson  was appointed a first lieutenant in Company C, 12^th Georgia Regiment, in the Confederate Army.  This Company was known as the Davis Rifles.  He was promoted to Captain on May 8, 1862, and to Major on June 9, 1863.  He saw action at the Battle of Gettysburg.  He was captured at Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 12, 1864, held prisoner at Fort Delaware, and released (exchanged) in July, 1864.  He was wounded three times at Winchester, Virginia, on September 19, 1864, and died in a hospital in Lynchburg, Virginia, on September 30, 1864.

When news of her husband’s death reached them, Susan Saphronia Howe  and her son Albert Alphonso Carson  set out in a wagon to bring her husband’s body home.  In route, they met their husband and father who was being brought home by a faithful old family servant named Mose .  John Thomas Carson  had a Masonic funeral.

I suppose that Mose must have had numerous opportunities to escape from his slavery, and the fact that he chose to bring the body home all the way from Lynchburg illustrates the bond of trust and loyalty that existed between the slaves and their masters – in some cases, at least.

The grave of John Thomas Carson  in the Carson Cemetery is marked by an obelisk, about eight feet tall.  On one side of the obelisk, the artist carved a likeness of John Thomas Carson ’s sword.  That sword was made in Germany by W. Walscheid and imported by the Confederacy from the city of Solingen.  It’s a real sword, made for fighting, not just for dress.

Children of John Thomas Carson  and Susan Saphronia Howe  were:

• Albert Alphonso Carson  
• Martha Adelia Carson  
• Robert Alston Carson  
• Marcia Elbertina Carson  
• Martha Susan Carson
• Lula Caroline Carson
• John Thomas Carson , Jr.

Albert Alphonso Carson , son of John Thomas Carson  and Susan Saphronia Howe , was born March 28, 1849.  He married Mrs. Sarah Welch Bethune  on June 15, 1875, and they lived in Butler, Georgia, for a time, where he was elected to the City Council in 1888.  He  later moved to Columbus.  He became a lawyer, and he died in Columbus, Georgia, about 1912.  Children of Albert Alphonso Carson and Sarah Welch Bethune were:

• Robert A. Carson  (died April, 1887, aged about 20 months)
• Mabel Claire Carson  (born March 28, 1876)
• Willis Gordon Carson  (born October 2, 1878)
• Caroline “Carrie” Rochelle Carson  (born September 13, 1879)

Robert Alston Carson , son of John Thomas Carson  and Susan Saphronia Howe , was born January 18, 1853.  He married Ida Brannon  on June 12, 1877.  They had one son who died young.

Marcia Elbertina Carson  , daughter of John Thomas Carson  and Susan Saphronia Howe , was born December 15, 1854.  She married William Ben Hinton  on February 21, 1877, and was a member of the First Baptist Church of Reynolds, Georgia.. 

Children of William Ben Hinton  and Marcia Elbertina Carson  were:

• Mary Albert Hinton  (born February 25, 1879)
• Ben Hinton
• Carson Hinton

Martha Susan Carson , daughter of John Thomas Carson  and Susan Saphronia Howe , was born January 5, 1857.  She married Lewis Bess Hicks , son of Jones Hicks , on December 24, 1878.  They had one son, Herman Milton Hicks , born June 11, 1881.

Lula Caroline Carson , daughter of John Thomas Carson  and Susan Saphronia Howe , was born December 13, 1858.  She married Charlton Thomas Waters  on September 17, 1879.  They were members of First Baptist Church of Reynolds, Georgia, and they were the grandparents of author Carson McCullars .  Lula Caroline Carson  died November 21, 1923. 

Children of Lula Caroline Carson  and Charlton Thomas Waters  were:

• Mary Helen Waters  (September 2, 1880 – June 12, 1892)
• Thomas Elam Waters  (February 21, 1882 – 1939)
• Martha “Mattie” Waters  (born April 4, 1885)
• Gorham Carson Waters  (November 5, 1888 – April 7, 1908)
• Vera Margaret Waters  (born June 4, 1890)

John Thomas Carson , Jr., son of John Thomas Carson  and Susan Saphronia Howe , was born December 29, 1861.  He married Bette Wallace  on July 19, 1885.  Their children were:

• Bessie Carson
• Forrest Alphonso Carson
• John Thomas Carson
• Wallace Carson  (December 14, 1892 – April 4, 1946, seaman in the U. S. Navy, buried at Butler, Georgia)
• Lillie Carson  (January 21, 1898 – October 16, 1918, buried at Butler, Georgia)
• Robert Carson
• Daniel Carson

Emily Jane Carson

Emily Jane Carson  was the second child of Joseph Jefferson Carson  and Martha Goodwin Raines .  She was born November 8, 1827, and died June 4, 1833. 

Cadwell Raines Carson

• Jimmie Jordan  (1857 – 1858)
• Mattie Jordan  (1858 – 1858)
• Walter T. Jordan  (born in 1861)
• Scott Jordan
• Henry Jordan  (born in 1865)
• Mary E. Jordan  (born in 1867)
• Edwin Jordan  (born in 1869)

Joseph Perryman Carson

Joseph Perryman Carson  was the seventh child of Joseph Jefferson Carson  and Martha Goodwin Raines .  He was born June 1, 1839. He  graduated from Mercer University in 1860 with an AB degree and was a member of Reynolds Masonic Lodge #255.  He served as clerk of First Baptist Church 1861-1862.  He enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private on April 29, 1861.  After 12 months, he was elected Junior 2^nd Lieutenant.  Soon he was promoted to 1^st lieutenant, and in March, 1863 he became captain.  He was wounded at Sharpsburg, MD,  the Wilderness, Winchester, VA., and twice during the siege of Petersburg.

The following story was told by Marcia Elbertina Carson  Hinton.  It seems that, during the War, Major John Thomas Carson  became concerned about the education of his children, so he hired a tutor, a Miss Charlotte Keith Briggs  of Greene County,Virginia, who was seeking employment as a governess.  Major Carson arranged for his younger brother, Lt. Joseph Perryman Carson , to get a furlough for the purpose of escorting Miss Briggs from Richmond to the Carson home in Georgia. 

Lt. Joseph Perryman Carson  did not want to escort a school teacher to Georgia.  He obeyed orders, but he did not care how he looked, and he did not bother to change clothes or shave when he went to meet her.  Imagine his surprise when the school teacher turned out to be a beautiful 25-year-old.  Miss Briggs took one look at the dirty soldier and made up her mind not to go anywhere with such a man.  Joseph Perryman Carson  told her to think it over, and he’d come back later. 

That evening, the calling card of “Lieut. Joseph Perryman Carson ” was delivered to her room, and when she came downstairs, a handsome young officer in a new uniform and new boots was waiting for her.  She could hardly believe it was the same man she had seen that morning.  She changed her mind and went to Georgia with Lt. Carson. 

As one might guess, Joseph Perryman Carson  and Charlotte Keith Briggs  were married -- on January 15, 1864 in Macon County, GA.  Rumors that they were married at the Orange County Courthouse in Virginia seem to be untrue, as there is no record of their marriage there. 

Charlotte Keith Briggs was born February 7, 1842, in Lincoln County, Missouri. Her parents were Reverend William S. Briggs (1820-1892) and his wife, Ophelia H. Riley (1818-August 16, 1877), who were married in 1838. Reverend William S. Briggs was the son of James McDonald Briggs (1787-1845) and Charlotte Ashmore Keith (1782-1866), who were married in 1814. James McDonald Briggs served as a Colonel in the War of 1812. The now-defunct Chapter 15 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was named Charlotte Keith Briggs. Ophelia H. Riley lies buried in the Carson Cemetery in Macon County, Georgia.

Charlotte Ashmore Keith (above) was the daughter of Lt. Isham Keith (born ca 1735 in Faquier County, Virginia, died 1787, Faquier County, served as a Revolutionary soldier , and later as a member of the Virginia Legislature) and Charlotte Ashmore (born in Virginia, died after 1787 in Virginia), who were married in 1760 in Virginia. Lt. Isham Keith was the son of Reverend James Keith (born ca 1696, Spearhead [or Peterhead], Scotland, died 1751 or 1761, Fauquier County, Virginia) and Mary Isham Randolph (born ca 1713-1718 at Tuckahoe, Goochland County, Virginia, died after 1761, Faquier County, Virginia), who were married ca 1733 in Virginia.

A Connection to Chief Justice John Marshall

Reverend James Keith was the first pastor of Hamilton Parish in Faquier County, and he was buried under the altar of Elk Run Church. Mary Keith, eldest daughter of James Keith and Mary Isham Randolph, married Colonel Thomas Marshall and was the mother of Chief Justice John Marshall.

Mary Isham Randolph was the daughter of Thomas Randolph (born ca 1689, Turkey Island, Henrico Copunty, Virginia, died 1730, Tuckahoe, Goochland County, Virginia) and Judith Fleming (born ca 1696-1698 in Virginia, died after 1730 in Virginia, daughter of Charles Fleming), who were married on October 16, 1712, in Virginia. Thomas Randolph was the son of William Randolph (born 1651, Yorkshire, England, died April 21, 1711, Turkey Island, Henrico County, Virginia) and Mary Isham (born ca 1659, Bermuda Hundred, Henrico County, Virginia, died after 1713 in Virginia). William Randolph was the son of Richard Randolph and Elizabeth Ryland. Mary Isham was the daughter of Henry Isham and Catherine Banks.

A Connection to Indian Princess Pocahontas and John Rolfe

Thomas Randolph, above, had a brother named Richard Randolph (born ca 1690, Turkey Island, Henrico County, Virginia, died 1748, Curles, Virginia). Richard Randolph married Jane Bolling (ca 1703-1766), and Jane Bolling was the daughter of John Bolling (1676-1729) and Mary Kennon (born ca 1680-1685 in Virginia). John Bolling was the son of Colonel Robert Bolling (born ca 1646 in England, died ca 1709 in Virginia) and Jane Rolfe (ca 1653-1676), and Jane Rolfe was the daughter of Thomas Rolfe (born ca 1616-1617 in England, died after 1655 in Henrico County, Virginia) and Jane Poythress (?). Thomas Rolfe was the son of John Rolfe and his second wife, Pocahontas. (See Chapter 2)

Joseph Perryman Carson, CSA, was wounded at Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862. Captain Joseph Perryman Carson was wounded in the abdomen at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864, and in the left arm at the Battle of Winchester, Virginia, on September 19, 1864. He was still in Hospital No. 3 in Lynchburg, Virginia, on September 30, which means he was there when his older brother, Major John Thomas Carson, died. He wrote the Major’s obituary, and probably attended the funeral.

A Consciencious Objector

In December, 1864, Joseph Perryman Carson was assigned to serve on a Court Martial. The court met on December 29, 1864, and tried a few cases. One of the cases concerned a man who had refused an order to fight. The man said the charges were true, but said that he was a Quaker, and such orders were against his religion and against his own conscience. The court recommended that he be assigned to non-combat duty. Shortly afterwards, the army received orders to move, and the court martial never met again.

Joseph Perryman Carson, CSA, was wounded at Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862.  Captain Joseph Perryman Carson  was wounded in the abdomen at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864, and in the left arm at the Battle of Winchester, Virginia, on September 19, 1864.

Fort Stedman

General Robert E. Lee  was committed to the defense of Petersburg, Virginia, and the Confederate capital of Richmond.  By March of 1865, things were looking bleak for the Confederacy.  General Sherman  had completed his march through Georgia and was headed for Petersburg to join forces with General Grant’s  Army of the Potomac.  General Jubal Early , operating in the Shenandoah Valley, had failed to draw significant numbers of federal troops away from Richmond and Petersburg.  Union troops surrounded Petersburg on three sides, and Confederate defenses had been stretched thinner and thinner as Union forces gradually encircled Petersburg. Confederate rail lines leading to Petersburg had been destroyed by the Union army, so that supplies had to be brought in by wagons.  Contrary to popular suppositions, there was never a shortage of military supplies for Lee’s army, but there was a shortage of soldiers.  Confederate forces in Petersburg numbered about 50,000, a sizeable army, but they were facing a Federal army of about 200,000.

Lee saw that the South’s last hope lay in escaping from Petersburg and stopping Sherman from joining forces with Grant.

Lee’s youngest corps commander was thirty-three-year-old General John B. Gordon , who owned a farm in Taylor County, Georgia, just north of the Carson Place in Macon County.  On March 4, 1865, Lee summoned Gordon to his headquarters and asked Gordon to devise a plan to escape from Petersburg.

Gordon presented his plan to Lee on March 22.  The attack would be made against Fort Stedman, and would be made at night.  The first step was for special squads to open avenues through the Confederate defenses, so the soldiers could get out into the no-man’s land between the two armies.  The plan then called for handpicked men to infiltrate the Union lines, overpower the advance Union pickets, and clear a pathway through the Federal obstructions.  Next, fifty men with axes would enlarge the opening through the Federal obstructions.  Then, three storming parties of 100 men each were to attack the Federal line.  One storming party would capture Fort Stedman, while two other storming parties would capture Battery X north of Fort Stedman and Batteries XI and XII south of Fort Stedman. 

After Fort Stedman and Batteries X, XI, and XII were captured, three more groups of 100 men each were to press through the gap and capture certain crucial places in the rear of the Federal lines.  These groups were to use local guides to help them find their objectives in the dark.  Finally, the bulk of Gordon’s 15,000 men would rush through the gap to the Union rear, cutting communications and generally raising havoc. 

Lee approved this plan on March 23, 1865.     

Serving as a captain of Company I, 4^th Regiment of Georgia Infantry under General John B. Gordon , Joseph Perryman Carson  had a hundred sharpshooters under his command.  On the night of March 24-25, 1865, Captain Carson and his men charged Fort Stedman, commanded by Edward W. Rogers  under General McLaughlin .  Fort Stedman was named for Connecticut Colonel Griffin A. Stedman , who had been killed in August, 1864, while reconnoitering the site.  Fort Stedman was situated on a little hill, and surrounded by three rings of obstructions.  The first ring was composed of skinned pine logs about eight inches in diameter.  Holes had been bored in these, and sharpened spikes inserted.  These logs, about 25 feet long, had been crossed and recrossed and fastened with wire.

About 40 steps outside the first ring was the second ring, composed of tangled brush piled up.

The third ring was composed of fence rails stuck in the ground with their sharpened ends slanted outward.

The fort itself was surrounded by a moat four feet deep and half full of water.  The dirt from the moat had been piled up on the inside edge of the moat, so that from the bottom of the moat to the top of the dirt pile was thirteen feet.  The fort was manned by 500 Yankee soldiers, armed with eight cannons and numerous rifles.

Under cover of darkness, Captain Carson  and his men took this fort, killing many of the defenders and capturing the rest.  The other two storming parties also captured Batteries X, XI, and XII and captured General McLaughlin , but the next three storming parties became separated from their guides in the confusion and darkness and failed to reach their objectives.  It was not until the battle was over that Captain Carson learned that his younger brother, Robert Hall Carson , had been killed in the battle.

The next morning, the Yankees advanced with superior forces, and Captain Carson was forced to withdraw.  He carried the body of his brother back to the Confederate line on his shoulders.   F. T. Sneed  of Montezuma, GA, was wounded during the withdrawal. Captain Carson’s horse was shot through the nose, but survived, and served Captain Carson for many years after the war.

Captain Carson was forced to bury Robert Hall Carson  near the scene of the battle, but reburied him in the Carson Cemetery in Macon County, Georgia, probably in the Fall of 1867.

Captain Joseph Perryman Carson  was wounded again, this time at Petersburg, VA on April 3, 1865.  He was taken to Receiving and Wayside Hospital Number 9 in Richmond, where he was captured on April 3, 1865.  He was transferred to Stuart Hospital in Richmond on April 19, 1865, and was paroled on April 20, 1865.

Confederate losses at the Battle of Fort Stedman were never officially tallied.  Unofficial estimates range from 800 to a little over 4,000, with the figure of 2,681 coming from a careful study made after the end of the war.  Union losses were put at 1,044 during the Battle for Fort Stedman itself, and another 690 in related actions against the Confederate lines later in the day.

John B. Gordon  went on to become United States Senator from Georgia three times, and Governor of Georgia for four years.  In 1904, a Union veteran of the Battle of Fort Stedman asked the elderly John B. Gordon  why the assault on Fort Stedman had failed.   Gordon had been expecting reinforcements which never arrived.  He said, “Why did we fail?  I’ll tell you why.  God did not intend that we should succeed.  He did not intend that the Southern Confederacy should be an accomplished fact.  He caused the axle of the tender of the last section of the train that was to bring troops from north of Richmond to break, thus delaying that entire body of troops from reaching us.  Had they arrived I believe that we should have captured City Point [Grant’s headquarters] that morning.  God did not intend that we should succeed.  He was in command.”

In Taylor County, Georgia, much has been made of the idea that General Gordon was a neighbor of the Carsons.  While it is true that Gordon did own Beechwood Plantation on the River Road, about four miles north of the Carson Place, Beechwood was a white elephant for Gordon, and he used it mostly as a vacation retreat.  He was a native of Thomaston, Georgia.  Gordon was never a full-time planter like the Carsons.  Gordon was in various businesses, such as coal mining in North Georgia, the practice of law in Atlanta, the insurance business and politics in Atlanta and Washington, and, during the last year of his life, as a lecturer.  While Gordon was certainly a Confederate war hero and a great political leader, it is difficult to understand why Gordon is so honored today as an important citizen of Taylor County.

It has been claimed that the capture of Fort Stedman was the last Confederate victory in the war.  Not true.   The Rebels beat the Federals at the Battle of Dinwiddie Courthouse, fought on March 31, 1865, and some claim that was the last Confederate victory.  Conventional wisdom says the war ended with Lee’s surrender on April 9^th, 1865.

But that’s not true either.  Even though Lee surrendered on April 9^th, President Jefferson Davis urged his army to fight on.  Confederate General Joseph Johnston, seeing the futility of further bloodshed, acted against Davis’ orders and surrendered near Durham, North Carolina, on April 26, 1865.  Jefferson Davis was captured on May 10, 1865, near Irwinsville, Georgia.  News of events in the East was slow to reach remote areas in the West, and the last Confederate victory occurred at Palmeto Ranch, or Palmito Hill, Texas, on May 12-13, 1865, more than a month after Lee’s surrender.

And even that’s not the end of the story.  In 1865, the cruiser CSS Shenandoah (which had been purchased in London) was busy capturing and destroying U. S.-flag merchant vessels and whalers in the South Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the South Pacific, the Berring Sea, and off California.  She didn’t receive a firm report of the end of the war until August 2, 1865.  Captain Waddell then disarmed his ship and took her to England, going the long way east-to-west around Cape Horn, arriving in Liverpool in November.  The Shennandoah was the only Confederate naval vessel to circumnavigate the world. 

Apparently, it took Joseph Perryman Carson some time to recover from the wounds he received on April 9, 1865. He was in Jackson Hospital in Richmond on May 28, 1865.   

Arson and a Walking-Stick

Upon his return from the war, Captain Carson settled on his plantation.  An ex slave, Charlotte Raines , set fire to Captain Carson’s house.  For this, Captain Carson gave her a sound thrashing with his silver-headed walking stick.  The Freedmen’s Bureau arrested, tried, and convicted him and sentenced him to a term in the Atlanta Penitentiary.  En route, Captain Carson fell in with a carpet-bagger Jew, to whom he paid $300 and secured his freedom.

The Freedman’s Bureau

What was the Freedmen’s Bureau?  Established by an act of the United States Congress on March 3, 1865, the Bureau of Refugees, Freed Men, and Abandoned Lands was to adress all matters concerening refugees and freedmen in the states under Reconstruction.  It had no budget of its own, but was a part of the War Department, headed by General O. O. Howard .    At first the bureau received funds from the sale and rent of confiscated lands in the South, but its funding was undermined in 1866 when President Andrew Johnson  returned all confiscated lands to their pre-war owners. 

What did the Freedmen’s Bureau do?  Four things:  It helped black communities to establish their own schools and churches.  It monitored the civil authorities in legal cases that involved African-Americans -- initially, the Freedmen's Bureau conducted its own courts of law when it was illegal for blacks to testify in other courts.  It acted on behalf of blacks to negotiate fair contracts for labor and property.  And, it acted as a clearinghouse of information to aid blacks in finding lost relatives and mediated domestic disputes.

Well-intended, the Freedmen’s Bureau was only modestly successful.  Congress allowed most of its activities to end in 1869, and its educational efforts ended in 1872.  

In 1869, Joseph Perryman Carson  was elected one of the first Road Commissioners of Macon County, and in his later years, he was active in the local Democratic Party.

By 1880, Joseph Perryman Carson  and Charlotte Keith Briggs had moved to Reynolds.  He served on the Taylor County Grand Jury in October, 1881, and and again in April, 1883.  His signature appears on an 1885 petition against the granting of licenses to sell liquor in Taylor County, Georgia.  He performed burial rites for Mr. Haynes Dwight  at Little Vine Church, about a mile south of Reynolds, in January, 1887.

Joseph Perryman Carson  died March 25, 1889 in Reynolds, Georgia, after an illness of three weeks.  Charlotte Keith Briggs subsequently moved to Tifton, Georgia, where she died at her home in November, 1913.

During a visit to Monacacy Battlefield near Gaithersburg, MD in 2000, Charles Ferdinand Carson  Jr.  met a Mr. Gary McLaughlin , a member of Friends of the Monocacy Battlefield.  Sometime after their meeting, Mr. McLaughlin wrote to Mr. Carson, saying, “[Captain Carson] was not at the Worthington House where I spoke to you, but up at the Jug (?) Bridge on the Baltimore Pike during the Battle of Monocacy.  He was in Cook’s Brigade, (unreadable) Division, and they were engaged in skirmishing with the Ohio troops of General Erastus Taylor  and Colonel Allison Brown . 

“Ironic that his death date is the same as the Battle of Fort Stedman….”

Children of Joseph Perryman Carson and Charlotte Keith Briggs were:

• Ophelia G. Carson (April 9, 1865 – Oct. 18, 1886)
• Raines Carson (July 22, 1867 – Oct. 16, 1881)
• Beulah Carson (1869- )
• Homes Carson (1872-1873)
• Briggs Carson (December 13,1870 or 1872-May 27, 1937)
• Keith Carson (1877-1944, buried in Tift County, Georgia)
• Joseph Peyton Carson (March 9, 1879-May 5, 1914, buried in Tift County, Georgia.

Briggs Carson, Beulah Carson, and Joe Carson joined the First Baptist Church of Reynolds, Georgia in 1886. Beulah Carson attended college in LaGrange, Georgia, and later married James William Bivins and lived at Lumpkin, Georgia.

Briggs Carson, son of Joseph Perryman Carson and Charlotte Keith Briggs, married Ella Pate (born March 27, 1873, Dooly County, Georgia, died August 19, 1962, Tifton, Georgia) on April 27, 1898, and lived at Tifton, Georgia. Ella Pate was the daughter of John Smith Pate (born June 27, 1847 in Dooly Counth, Georgia, fought for the Confederacy at Griswoldville, died August 20, 1930, in Cordele, Georgia) and Jamie Clements (born July 17, 1853 in Dooly County, Georgia, died April 24, 1931, in Cordele, Georgia. Briggs Carson and Ella Pate are both buried in Oakridge Cemetery, Tifton, Georgia.

Children of Briggs Carson and Ella Pate were:
John Pate Carson
Briggs Carson, Jr.
William Banks Carson
Robert Clements Carson
Charlotte Carson (November 28, 1908-June 9, 1909, buried in Tift County, Georgia)
Baby Boy (October 21, 1909-October 21, 1909, buried in Tift County, Georgia))
James Mason Carson
Joseph Ashmore Carson

John Pate Carson, son of of Briggs Carson and Ella Pate, was born May 2, 1899, in Cordele, Georgia. On January 26, 1925, he married Georgiana White (born January 11, 1902). John Pate Carson became a successful lawyer in New York, and Georgiana White Carson was Director of the New York City Red Cross during World War II. According to the family story, New York Mayor La Guardia was not very tall, and he liked to have his picture taken with Georgiana White, because she was even shorter than he was. John Pate Carson died May 23, 1972, (or April 23, 1972), and Georgiana White died December 7, 1988. Both lie buried in Oakridge Cemetery, Tifton, Georgia.

According to another family story, James Ricks Carson and his wife, Frances Camilla Hill, went to the New York World’s Fair in 1939. While they were there, they also visited John Pate Carson and his wife, Georgiana White. John Pate Carson offered to sell James Ricks Carson his 1927 Rolls Royce automobile, but James Ricks Carson declined the offer. He said he had enough money to buy the car, but he might not have enough money to get home if he had any trouble. John Pate Carson had received the Rolls Royce as payment for some legal work.

Briggs Carson, Jr., son of of Briggs Carson and Ella Pate, was born August 21, 1900 in Tifton, Georgia. He married Perry Lee Moore Webb on at eleven o’clock on March 15, 1935, in Atlanta, Georgia. He died May 15, 1961. Perry Lee Moore Webb was born July 22, 1903, the daughter of Perryman Moore and his wife, Susie. Children of Briggs Carson, Jr., and Perry Lee Moore Webb had one child, Charlotte Briggs Carson, born December 2, 1940, in Tifton, Georgia. Charlotte Briggs Carson married Abbott Martin, and they had two children, Abbot Martin, Jr., and Charlotte Martin.

William Banks Carson, son of of Briggs Carson and Ella Pate, was born February 21, 1903, in Tifton, Georgia. He married Evelyn Varner on December 26, 1941, and died January 7, 1983.

Robert Clements Carson, son of Briggs Carson and Ella Pate, was born in Tifton on February 21, 1903. He married Florence Willingham Karsten (her second marriage) on July 26, 1942. Florence Willingham Karsten was born on the third floor of the Administration Building of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, on June 18, 1918.

Children of Robert Clements Carson and Florence Willingham Karsten were:

Ella Pate Carson
Elizabeth Karsten Carson
Julia Pickard Carson
Robert Clements Carson, Jr.
Ralph Bailey Carson

Ella Pate Carson, daughter of Robert Clements Carson and Florence Willingham Karsten, married Charles Murray Payne, and later divorced. They had one son, David Warren Payne, who married Susan Simmons.

Elizabeth Karsten Carson, daughter of Robert Clements Carson and Florence Willingham Karsten, married first Horace Porter Reed, Jr. They had two sons, Mikell Stephen Reed and Horace Porter Reed III. Hoarace Porter Reed, Jr., died in October, 1998. Elizabeth Karsten Carson married second Jack Ernest Keith on January 4, 2000.

Julia Pickard Carson, daughter of Robert Clements Carson and Florence Willingham Karsten, married Charlie Ferguson on Natchez, Mississippi, and they had two sons, Clements Ferguson and Paul Ferguson.

Ralph Bailey Carson, son of Robert Clements Carson and Florence Willingham Karsten, married Nancy Schmittle, and they have one daughter, Lisha Carson.

James Mason Carson, son of Briggs Carson and Ella Pate, was born in Tifton November 6, 1910, and died July 11, 1993. He married Doris Gwendolyn Ridberg (November 1, 1918-August 15, 1988) on July 6, 1948. Both lie buried in Oakridge Cemetery,Tifton, Georgia. James Mason Carson and Doris Gwendolyn Ridge had two sons, John Keith Carson and James Bertle Carson who married Sheila Smith of Alexandria, Louisiana.

Joseph Ashmore Carson, son of Briggs Carson and Ella Pate, was born in Tifton August 12, 1913. On January 2, 1946, he married Edith Wilkes. He died May 3, 1970, and lies buried in Oakridge Cemetery, Tifton, Georgia.

Joseph Peyton Carson, son of Joseph Perryman Carson and Charlotte Keith Briggs, was born March 9, 1879 and died May 5, 1914. His wife was Francis Isadore (January 12, 1881-March 12, 1909), and they are both buried in Tift County, Georgia. They had one daughter, who may have been Helen Carson (July 27, 1903-July 14, 1904), or who may have been Mary Keith Carson.

Joseph Peyton Carson, son of Briggs Carson and Ella Pate, was born March 9, 1879 and died May 5, 1914. His wife was probably Francis Isadore (January 12, 1881-March 12, 1909), and they are both buried in Tift County, Georgia. Helen Carson (July 27, 1903-July 14, 1904) was probably their daughter.

Keith Carson, son of Joseph Perryman Carson and Charlotte Keith Briggs, was born October 2, 1876, at Reynolds, Georgia, and died April 6, 1944 in Tifton, Georgia, where he lies buried. On October 26, 1906, in Tifton, Georgia, he married Laura Smith, who was born March 9, 1886, in Brunswick, Georgia, and died March 29, 1978, in Gr