George Leonard Merritt and Lydia Stewart

Our grandfather was Willis Edgar Musgrove, born September 9, 1909, in Schlatterville, Pierce County, Georgia. He married our grandmother, Carrie Mae Merritt, on June 13, 1929, in Bickley, Ware County, Georgia. She was born there on April 1, 1910, to George Henry Merritt and Mary Jane Williams.

Willis Edgar and Carrie Mae
(Merritt) Musgrove

George Henry &

Mary Jane (Williams) Merritt 

Our great grandfather George Henry Merritt was born March 23, 1867. His father was George Leonard Merritt, a young Union soldier from Connecticut. The elder grandpa George fathered him and a sister (who died young) with an older Confederate widow in the Okefenokee Swamp.

George Henry and Mary Jane Elizabeth
(Williams) Merritt

Great-grandpa George Henry Merritt married our great-grandmother Mary Jane Williams. Her Georgia roots extend to the first colony under James Oglethorpe. The Confederate widow has always been identified as Lydia Pittman through our Lastinger and Parker family lineage.

Lydia Pittman

Since 1960, when Aurora Shaw wrote: "The John Lastinger Family of America" (hosted .pdf file), genealogists have searched for Lydia Pittman. On the 1860 federal census, she was married to William J Webb and the mother of his five children. In 1870 she was Lydia Merritt, head of house and widowed. No record of her as Lydia Pittman has been found.

Judge Folks Huxford

Judge Folks Huxford

"Judge Huxford was a historian, author, and Clinch County Probate Judge. From early childhood, he had a keen interest in the pioneer families of South Georgia... .  

He kept copious notes on handwritten cards that formed the nucleus for his seven volumes of Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia..."

On page 420 in Volume V of his "Pioneers of Wiregrass, Georgia," Folks Huxford's biographical sketch of pioneer family Gordon S Stewart and his wife, Ann Taylor, offers this clue:

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

1. Elizabeth b. 1823 m. William Smith. Nov 8, 1837
2. Priscilla b. 1825 m. Berry Whitely
3. Lydia b. 1827 m. William J Webb
4. William Gordon b. 1830 m. ThursdayAnn Lee, dau. of James
5. Mary b. 1837 m. Lemuel Pittman
6. Matilda b. 1837 m. C G B W Parker
7. Martha b. 1838 m. Elias Pittman

William J Webb & Lydia Stewart

Lydia A. Stone 

We have Civil War records on William J Webb. He appears with Lydia, his wife, on several census records. After his death, three of his children and the two Merritt children are on her household census. Two of her sisters married men named Pittman. But the older Confederate widow who gave birth to our great grandfather with a former Union soldier was Lydia Stewart. And that connects our family to a lot of stories.

(Below are posts about George Henry Merritt and his father, George Leonard.)

George Leonard Merritt: Union Soldier


Part 1 George Merritt: Yankee Rich Kid             Part 5 Burning of Jacksonville
Part 2 George Merritt and Lydia Stewart            Part 6 Brothers-In-Law
Part 3 From the North                                         Part 7 Deserters
Part 4 A Connecticut Yankee                               Part 8 Yankee in the Swamp

Note: Relationships are expressed from the perspective of the grandchildren of Willis Edgar and Carrie (known as) Mae (Merritt) Musgrove. 

*Terms of relationship - grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin, etc.  - are generically used to include relatives such as fourth great-grandfathers, great grand uncles, second cousins twice removed, etc.