Aliff (Butler) Collins: Woman Scorned

"John F. Collins and Adelph Butler (Ed. note: should be Dixon) were the parents of Elizabeth Collins." 

American Family Musgrove - Richard Graham Musgrove -  page 734

Musgrove family historian, Richard Graham Musgrove, mis-spelled our third great grandmother's* (see relationship notes below) name in his book, The American Family Musgrove.

Finding Lucy (Williams) Leverette

Our second great grandmother* (see relationship note below), Lucy Williams, was born on February 3, 1867. 

John and Lucy (Williams) Leverett

Her first child was our great grandmother Macy Carol (Williams) Musgrove, born in 1889 in Pierce County, Georgia. (Grandma Lucy was an unwed mother. Rumors swirled that a Strickland boy was the father.) She married John Leverett on March 22, 1894. 

This post is to present evidence she was the daughter of Confederate soldier John and Nancy (Bowen) Williams, from Bulloch County, Georgia.

Mary Jane (Williams) Merritt

Our great grandmother,* (see relationship notes; the bottom of page) Mary Jane (Williams) Merritt, was born on February 4, 1867, in Pearson, Georgia when her father, Allen Raymond Williams, was forty years old and her mother, Sarah (Parker) Williams, was twenty-four.

Sarah (Parker) holding Mary Jane Williams
Allen Raymond holding Calvin GW Williams

Henry Merritt: Train Conductor

Our great grandfather, George 'Henry' Merritt, was born in the Okefenokee Swamp on March 23, 1867. His father was former Union soldier George Leonard Merritt from Connecticut. His mother was Lydia (Stewart) Webb, the widow of a Confederate soldier.

Henry Merritt

John Musgrove: Grandson of Cuthbert

Our Georgia Musgrove family shares a surname with the 'Pocahontas of the South'; Mary Musgrove. Her husband, John Musgrove, was the first to welcome James Oglethorpe to what would become the new colony of Georgia.

Mary Musgrove was a Creek Indian. John Musgrove, Jr.'s mother was Cherokee. His father was a South Carolina Indian trader and mediator to the colonists. John and Mary married in 1715 as part of peace negotiations. All their offspring died in childhood.

St Cuthbert's Church
Edenhall, England

George Leonard Merritt: The Yankee in the Swamp

We began our family research looking for an Indian.  Rumor had it our grandmother, Carrie "Mae" (Merritt) Musgrove *was one-quarter Native American and her father was born in the Okefenokee Swamp. 

Carrie "Mae" (Merritt) Musgrove

Henry Merritt: Amazon Cousins

"The Henry Merritt is the same George Henry Merritt to which you referred. ...All my records show that this Lydia A. Stewart Webb was the daughter of my great-great grandfather, Gordon S. Stewart."

E-Mail from William Stewart 

Civil War Stories: Deserters

Our second great-grandfather* (see relationship notes below), George Leonard Merritt, was a Union soldier in the Sixth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. He was wounded on July 10, 1863, in the first attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina.

The Assault on Fort Wagner
July 18, 1863

Civil War Stories: The Color Bearer

Our great, great grandfather, * (see relationship notes below) George Leonard Merritt, served in the 6th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment. His Army record (see link) shows him wounded in the early morning hours of July 10, 1863, at the First Battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina. (story here)

The second battle, though disastrous, is known to history for the heroics of the Colored unit, the 54th of Maine. The color bearer became an overnight hero. His story was told in the Academy Award-winning movie, 'Glory.'

This post is the same conflict told through the eyes of a soldier in the Sixth of Connecticut.

Lydia A. Smith: Queen of the Okefenokee

Lydia (Smith) Stone

"Born a dreamer, she became an empire-builder and a living legend in her time. Lydia Stone was the name she was best known by, but she was born Lydia Smith and died Lydia Crews, the name of her second husband." 

Ware County Georgia: Biography Lydia Stone

Lydia (Smith) Stone

William and Elizabeth (Stewart) Smith

Elizabeth 'Sarah' (Stewart) Smith

Elizabeth (Stewart) Smith

"Gordon S and Ann Stewart had the following known children:

Elizabeth b. 1823 m. William Smith. 
Priscilla b. 1825 m. Berry Whitley
Lydia b. 1827 m. William J Webb
William Gordon b. 1830 m. ThursdayAnn Lee
Mary b. 1837 m. Lemuel Pittman
Matilda b. 1837 m. C G B W Parker
Martha b. 1838 m. Elias Pittman"

Pioneers of Wiregrass. Ga. - Huxley - Vol V pg 420

Our great, great grandmother* (see realtionship notes below) was Lydia (Stewart Webb) Merritt third child of this Stewart family. This post is the story of her sister, Sarah "Elizabeth" (Stewart) Smith.

Civil War Stories: Brother-In-Laws in Arms

The Huxford Genealogical Society identifies our second great grandmother as Lydia Stewart, sister of Priscilla.  Grandma* Lydia's first husband was William Webb. Priscilla married Berry Whitley.

Pioneers of Wiregrass-Huxford
Book V page 420

Civil War Stories: Burning of Jacksonville

Charles K Cadwell, of Company F, served with our second great grandfather*, George Leonard Merritt, of Company I, in the 6th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War.

Civil War Stories: From the North

Our family story search uncovered a Union soldier in the Okefenokee Swamp. Our second great-grandfather*, George Leonard Merritt, served in the 6th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, Company I, during the American Civil War.

John Forbes and Aleph (Butler) Collins:Part 2

The Clinch County Collins

We blogged about our third great grand-parents*, John and Aleph (Butler) Collins. They married in Gadsden County, Florida, had two daughters and moved to Baker County, Georgia, where they had six more children.

"Sometime after James (Musgrove ed.) Sr. died, John F. (Collins) separated from his wife and lived in common law with Elizabeth Bryan Musgrove and her three sons David John, Charles H. and James Walter." 

American Family Musgrove pg 734 (lge pdf file)

Calvin Greenberry Washington Parker

Calvin Greenberry Washington Parker was a great uncle* (see relationship notes at the bottom of page) of our grandmother, Carrie Mae (Merritt) Musgrove.

Calvin Greenberry Washington Parker

Calvin was the half brother of our third great grandfather, William (Short-Armed Bill) Parker, Jr., whose home was attacked by Indians. He was the uncle of Sarah Parker who married Allen Raymond Williams. The Parker and Williams family were founding members of the Little Utah Mormon Church.

John Musgrove: Husband of Mary

The story of  Mary Musgrove is well-known in Georgia's History.

Mary Musgrove served as a cultural liaison between colonial Georgia and her Native American community... As Pocahontas was to the Jamestown colony and Sacagawea was to the Lewis and Clark expedition, so was Musgrove to the burgeoning Georgia colony.  

Read more: New Georgia Encyclopedia

Less is known of her husband's account. This post is about John Musgrove, Jr. 

John Forbes Collins and Aleph Butler: Part 1

John Forbes Collins

Our third great-grandfather*, John Forbes Collins, was born around 1815 in Darien, McIntosh County, Georgia.  

Shortly after the 1820 census (zoomable pdf file), his father, John, sailed the family and twelve slaves  to middle Florida (now Gadsden County) for "The Forbes Purchase".

John Sr. died in 1827.

Laura Janet Musgrove: Spanish Flu

When Laura Janet Musgrove - daughter of John 'David" Musgrove and Elizabeth Arissa Collins - married Phillip Eugene Wildes in 1887, his family had a tragic story. Phillip's father, John, survived the Wildes family massacre, which occurred during the Second Seminole War. Little did Aunt* Janet know, her new family would also befall tragedy as the result of a war.

Laura Janet Musgrove

Laura Musgrove: Wilde's Family Massacre

The story is Laura Janet Musgrove - born on November 14, 1868, in Ware County, Georgia, to John 'David' Musgrove and Elizabeth Arissa Collins - married Phillip Eugene Wildes in 1887. Phillip's father - John Wildes - survived when his family was massacred in 1838, two years after the last Indian attack in Berrien County, Georgia. (blog post here.)

Phillip Eugene and Laura Janet (Musgrove) Wildes
Spencer and Katie Wildes