As mentioned in a previous posting, a biography of sorts was created by some family historian sometime in the mid to late 1900s. Probably written by the unidentified shirt-tail relative that did much of the research that has survived on the internet. A brief excerpt from that biography mentions the appointment of Samuel Jones to a Road Commission to build a connecting road to the Federal Highway to enable other North Georgia Counties to access the Federal North-South route from Atlanta to Tennessee.
The paragraph reads:
“The legislation authorized the construction of a road from Dahlonega, by way of Elijay, to the Federal Road in Murray County near the Summer house. The act provided for three commissioners to lay the road out and complete its construction. Samuel Jones, Isaiah Clayton, both of Gilmer County and Richard Bearden of Lumpkin served on the Commission to build it.”
Recent access to the Georgia Archives online database has provided a copy of the very act of the legislature making the authorization for the road building. This was in 1836 some two years before Samuel was elected to the State Legislature for the Gilmer County area in 1838 and 1839. A downloaded copy of the act from the Archives follows. His name is mentioned in section 2.
http://neptune3.galib.uga.edu/ssp/cgi-bin/legis-idx.pl?sessionid=7f000001&type=law&byte=16342387&lawcnt=143&filt=doc
Georgia Legislative Documents
Content of Act/Resolution
Act/Resolution 143 of 175
ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA, PASSED IN MILLEDGEVILLE AT AN ANNUAL SESSION IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1836.
ACTS of the General Assembly of the STATE OF GEORGIA, PASSED IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1836.
ROADS.
1836 Vol. 1 -- Page: 243
Sequential Number: 143
Type: AN ACT,
Full Title: To appropriate a sum of money, and to lay out and put in good order, a road from Dahlonega, in Lumpkin county, by way of Elijay, in Gilmer county, and on from thence to the Federal Road in Murray county, where the Commissioners may deem most expedient, and to appoint Commissioners to carry the same into effect.
Sec. 1st. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That from and immediately after the passing of this act, the sum of ten thousand dollars, be appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of laying out and putting in good order, a road from Dahlonega in Lumpkin county, by way of Elijay, in Gilmer county, and on from thence to the Federal Road in Murray county, where the commissioners may deem expedient: Provided, the same is between Sumach creek and Coosawattee river.
Sec. 2d. And be it further enacted, That Michael Smith, and Richard Bearden, of the county of Lumpkin, and Samuel Jones and Joseph Clayton, of the county of Gilmer, and James McGee, of the county of Murray, be, and they are appointed Commissioners for said road, and they are hereby vested with full power and authority to contract for, and superintend the laying out and putting in good order, said road; and before they enter on the discharge of said duty, they and each of them shall severally enter into a bond with good and sufficient security, payable to the Governor for the time being, and his successors in office, in the sum of four thousand dollars each, for their, and each of their faithful performance, and discharge of their duty in contracting for said work, and for their, and each of their superintendence as aforesaid, in the application of the sum appropriated, or of such parts of the same as may severally come into their, or each of their possession, which said several bonds shall be taken and approved by the Justices of the Inferior Court, or majority of them, in the county in which the said Commissioners severally reside, to be by them transmitted to the Governor as aforesaid, and field in the Executive office: Provided, that no one Commissioner shall draw more than a proportionable part of the appropriation aforesaid, to the number of Commissioners aforesaid.
Sec. 3d. And be it further enacted, That upon the receipt of such bonds in conformity to the above and foregoing sections it shall be the duty of the Governor, to issue his warrants in favor of the Commissioners aforesaid, for the aforesaid sum of ten thousand dollars.
Sec. 4th. And be it further enacted, That if any of the aforesaid Commissioners shall refuse to serve, or execute such bond as provided for in this act, that the Justices of the Inferior Court, or a majority of them, in the county where such refusing Commissioner may reside, shall fill such vacancy by appointment, who shall give their bond and security as aforesaid.
Sec. 5th. And be it further enacted, That each Commissioner appointed and superintending as aforesaid, shall be entitled to compensation, at the rate of two dollars per day, for each and every day he shall be engaged in laying out and superintending the work in completion of the same: Provided, that no Commissioner shall receive pay for more than fifty days.
Sec. 6th. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of said Commissioners or a majority of them, to report from time to time, to his Excellency the Governor, the state, condition, and progress of said work, and that said Road shall be completed within eighteen months from the passage of this act.
JOSEPH DAY,
Speaker of the House of Representatives,
ROBERT M. ECHOLS,
President of the Senate,
WILLIAM SCHLEY, Governor.
Approval Date: Assented to, Dec. 24, 1836.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Timelines Can Help Sort Out The Past
Several Timelines have come into play for me to use as a tool while strolling through our families past. Creating a timeline helps to keep facts and related dates in a pictorial format. Just organizing and entering the data, combing over various pieces of information to make sure all is included really initiates a learning and memorizing process. This was a pleasant surprise to me personally. Gathering the facts and recording them helped immensely in attempting to commit much, but not all, of this to memory. To coin a phrase, it really is a process of “memory osmosis”.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Samuel Jones- Summary of Georgia Archives References
The State of Georgia along with several other States are committing many old archived documents to a digital format and uploading them to the Internet for public access. These efforts have opened many new avenues of research for some families attempting to document their past. The Jones family is no exception for a few references of the patriarch, Samuel Jones, 1796-1870, have been found rather easily online.
Due to some local prominence, especially in Gilmer County, Georgia, and Ellijay specifically, his name has found it’s way into some obscure references and recorded in the annals of the State. For what it’s worth, but primarily to partially fulfill some of my continuing interest in recording anything of interest regarding family, I have copied what has been found to date for my Great-Grandfather, Samuel Jones.
The first reference here is from what the Georgia Archives calls their Master Card Index file, with but brief mentions of names and topics. Just when and how this was compiled I have no idea but assumedly the indexes were extracted from some other data sources and of course do not elaborate very much at all. If time and energy allow perhaps another visit to the Archives in Atlanta might reveal more detailed information. But for now, this is what is available online. The following image is a copy of one of two card indexes found for the man.
There is little room for doubt that this is our ancestor. What I consider to be reliable family trees that have been found on the Internet refer to Samuel’s time spent as a judge of the inferior court of Gilmer County. Inferior Court assumedly meaning the lowest court, perhaps similar to a Justice of the Peace or even some municipal courts. An inferior court as I understand it requires no official recording of the proceedings and primarily only records the charges and the judgments, if that.
So in interpreting what is written here the significance of the roman numeral VII following the name escapes me for now. The data is obviously a compilation of of the periods that he was assigned the duty of judge. Without the aid of an official explanation perhaps the individual dates were dates of official duties or of a renewal of a swearing in process. Regardless, the entries cover a period of several years beginning in March of 1836 through perhaps December of 1855, a period of some nine years. Further research in the Archives will probably clarify these dates to be an uninterrupted span of duty or perhaps individual short periods of assignment. Someone accessing our Family History many years past obviously did a considerable amount of research for some of the accounting of his activities found in his short biography online are now easily confirmed. That is always a good thing in my estimation for at times I truly wonder how reliable some of the sources really are. What I have personally found in the online Archives really adds to my feeling of the accuracy of what I consider my baseline of the family tree found some ten years ago.
The next Master Index file card cannot be easily verified, but based on dates, location and rank, specifically Captain Samuel Jones, reflected in many online family trees, I am rather confident that this is also our ancestor. Lumpkin county is the county where Samuel was a sheriff and was the location where the family began it’s Georgia history, most likely in or near the town of Dahlonega, after leaving South Carolina some 50 to 75 miles to the east.
During this period of our Countries history, and not only in the State of Georgia, Militia Service was compulsory. Men of good health and of the proper ages were well organized and trained to some level of capacity strictly from the necessity of protection from either Indians or marauders of any sort. They were the “Minute Men” of their time and the forerunner of our current National Guard units.
Dahlonega was the center of commerce during the period of the Georgia Gold Rush beginning in 1828 on what was Cherokee Indian land, and was described as a wild west area. Lumpkin County was formed from a portion of Habersham County in 1832 and Samuel Jones was elected the first sheriff of the county and served for two years or less. That information also passed down in other family trees has also been verified in History of Lumpkin County, For the First Hundred Years by Andrew Cain and published in 1932. He is listed in the appendix as the first sheriff and sworn in on March 9, 1833. The author relates that “Sheriff Samuel Jones stepped to the door and sang out “Oh yez, Oh yez, the Superior Court of Lumpkin County is now open”. This was contained in the authors description of the opening of the first court session in Lumpkin County in August of 1833, some eight months after it was formed in December of 1832.
The first seven of eleven children that Samuel and his wife Narcissa Tate spawned were born in Habersham and later Lumpkin Counties. Lumpkin County was carved out of a portion of Habersham County. This card index reveals that his time served in the Militia ended in 1835 suggesting he was not directly assigned in a military capacity to the expulsion of the Indians during the period of the “Trail of Tears” of 1838-1839. There is some vague reference that Samuel was appointed to sell assets of some Cherokee families and to forward the funds to Oklahoma to be given to the owners of the personal assets, but I am not sure that this responsibility was of a military capacity. This apparently occurred after he had moved his family some 30 miles further west in Georgia to Gilmer County, where he and his family first appear in the U.S. Census of 1840. The seventh child, Willis, was the first born there in 1837. Our Grandfather A.H. Jones was the last child born, in Ellijay, Gilmer County, in 1843. All this establishes the time of the move to Gilmer County between 1835 and 1837. In all likelihood Samuel was also a member of the Gilmer County Militia but that requires further research.
These are but the first of a small handful of what can be found of Samuel in the Georgia Archives. More will be posted as I collect them and ponder any of the questions that arise from them.
Due to some local prominence, especially in Gilmer County, Georgia, and Ellijay specifically, his name has found it’s way into some obscure references and recorded in the annals of the State. For what it’s worth, but primarily to partially fulfill some of my continuing interest in recording anything of interest regarding family, I have copied what has been found to date for my Great-Grandfather, Samuel Jones.
The first reference here is from what the Georgia Archives calls their Master Card Index file, with but brief mentions of names and topics. Just when and how this was compiled I have no idea but assumedly the indexes were extracted from some other data sources and of course do not elaborate very much at all. If time and energy allow perhaps another visit to the Archives in Atlanta might reveal more detailed information. But for now, this is what is available online. The following image is a copy of one of two card indexes found for the man.
There is little room for doubt that this is our ancestor. What I consider to be reliable family trees that have been found on the Internet refer to Samuel’s time spent as a judge of the inferior court of Gilmer County. Inferior Court assumedly meaning the lowest court, perhaps similar to a Justice of the Peace or even some municipal courts. An inferior court as I understand it requires no official recording of the proceedings and primarily only records the charges and the judgments, if that.
So in interpreting what is written here the significance of the roman numeral VII following the name escapes me for now. The data is obviously a compilation of of the periods that he was assigned the duty of judge. Without the aid of an official explanation perhaps the individual dates were dates of official duties or of a renewal of a swearing in process. Regardless, the entries cover a period of several years beginning in March of 1836 through perhaps December of 1855, a period of some nine years. Further research in the Archives will probably clarify these dates to be an uninterrupted span of duty or perhaps individual short periods of assignment. Someone accessing our Family History many years past obviously did a considerable amount of research for some of the accounting of his activities found in his short biography online are now easily confirmed. That is always a good thing in my estimation for at times I truly wonder how reliable some of the sources really are. What I have personally found in the online Archives really adds to my feeling of the accuracy of what I consider my baseline of the family tree found some ten years ago.
The next Master Index file card cannot be easily verified, but based on dates, location and rank, specifically Captain Samuel Jones, reflected in many online family trees, I am rather confident that this is also our ancestor. Lumpkin county is the county where Samuel was a sheriff and was the location where the family began it’s Georgia history, most likely in or near the town of Dahlonega, after leaving South Carolina some 50 to 75 miles to the east.
During this period of our Countries history, and not only in the State of Georgia, Militia Service was compulsory. Men of good health and of the proper ages were well organized and trained to some level of capacity strictly from the necessity of protection from either Indians or marauders of any sort. They were the “Minute Men” of their time and the forerunner of our current National Guard units.
Dahlonega was the center of commerce during the period of the Georgia Gold Rush beginning in 1828 on what was Cherokee Indian land, and was described as a wild west area. Lumpkin County was formed from a portion of Habersham County in 1832 and Samuel Jones was elected the first sheriff of the county and served for two years or less. That information also passed down in other family trees has also been verified in History of Lumpkin County, For the First Hundred Years by Andrew Cain and published in 1932. He is listed in the appendix as the first sheriff and sworn in on March 9, 1833. The author relates that “Sheriff Samuel Jones stepped to the door and sang out “Oh yez, Oh yez, the Superior Court of Lumpkin County is now open”. This was contained in the authors description of the opening of the first court session in Lumpkin County in August of 1833, some eight months after it was formed in December of 1832.
The first seven of eleven children that Samuel and his wife Narcissa Tate spawned were born in Habersham and later Lumpkin Counties. Lumpkin County was carved out of a portion of Habersham County. This card index reveals that his time served in the Militia ended in 1835 suggesting he was not directly assigned in a military capacity to the expulsion of the Indians during the period of the “Trail of Tears” of 1838-1839. There is some vague reference that Samuel was appointed to sell assets of some Cherokee families and to forward the funds to Oklahoma to be given to the owners of the personal assets, but I am not sure that this responsibility was of a military capacity. This apparently occurred after he had moved his family some 30 miles further west in Georgia to Gilmer County, where he and his family first appear in the U.S. Census of 1840. The seventh child, Willis, was the first born there in 1837. Our Grandfather A.H. Jones was the last child born, in Ellijay, Gilmer County, in 1843. All this establishes the time of the move to Gilmer County between 1835 and 1837. In all likelihood Samuel was also a member of the Gilmer County Militia but that requires further research.
These are but the first of a small handful of what can be found of Samuel in the Georgia Archives. More will be posted as I collect them and ponder any of the questions that arise from them.
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