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

She was their first daughter. Her older brother, Calvin Greenberry Washington Williams, was named after her great-uncle. Calvin Greenberry Washington Parker. He may be the connection between the Coffee County Parker family and Lydia (Stewart) Webb Merritt, the mother of her future husband.

Marriage to Henry Merritt

She married George Henry Merritt in 1891. He worked for his cousin, Lydia Stone, in the Okefenokee Swamp.

George Henry & Mary Jane (Williams) Merritt

The great uncle of Grandma (Williams) Merritt, Calvin Greenberry Washington Parker, married the sister of Grandpa Henry Merritt's mother, Matilda (Stewart) Parker. She was his second wife. Great Uncle Calvin Parker's first wife was Hannah Webb while grandpa Henry Merritt's mother was Lydia (Stewart), Webb. The relationship between William Webb, the slain Confederate soldier, and Hannah is not known, but the Webbs and the Stewarts were neighbors in the Okefenokee Swamp.

Related to Mormons

Eight years after she married her family began the Axson Ward Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Grandma and grandpa Henry Merritt were Church of God.

Early in our research, one Merritt historian claimed her family disowned our grandmother over religion. Though not literally correct, the differences in beliefs must have created some distance from her family. No one in our line knew of our Mormon connection until our recent research. This was not a story passed down.

Known as Mamie

On June 10, 1927,  'The Douglas Enterprise' newspaper covered her grandmother's - our second great grandmother, Sarah (Parker) Williams' - 86th birthday celebration. Grandma Merritt attended. We learn from this account, our grandmother was known a 'Mamie.'

"Mrs. Williams was 86 years old last Sunday and about three hundred of her children, relatives and friends assembled to do honor to this wonderful old lady. 

 

...The children of Mrs. Williams present were: Calvin W. Williams of Axson, Mrs. Mamie (Mary) Jane Merritt of Ware County, Martha Ann Adams of Coffee county, George W. and Emma Gillien Williams of Coffee county, and Asilee Sutton Williams of Cogdell, and J. H. and C. H. Williams of Douglas. 

One of the interesting features of the occasion was an Indian story told by Mrs. Williams herself."

Memories and Family Stories

(These memories of our grandmother (Williams) Merritt are from people who were children about a much older woman.)

One of her great-nieces - a descendant of our aunt Morning (Parker) Davis -  knew Grandma Mamie from family gatherings. She thought our grandmother wore a lot of 'face powder' on these occasions.

Our great aunt Louise remembers seeing our grandmother out walking. My Dad recalls she would leave her house in the morning, walk from Millwood to Pine Valley to visit his family and stay on for a few weeks.

Her grandsons thought she was pretty cool. She taught them to make sling-shots by cutting automobile inner tubes into strips and tying the bands onto a forked branch.

Our Aunt Juanita remembers her grandmother protecting the girls from the antics of their brothers. Dad says she was up to the challenge. He shared this story about his grandma.

Beds and Brooms

On one visit, their grandmother came upon dad and his older brother, Al, laying on their bed. As soon as she walked into the room and spotted them, they leaped up and ran from the room. They knew their grandmother's rules. No one was allowed on their beds until the evening when they were ready to sleep.

The bedroom was off the porch. The boys ran out one door, their grandmother right behind them, and re-entered the house through another door. Back in their room, dad saw his older brother hit the floor and slide up under the bed. "Hmm," he thought. "Looks like a good idea." He slid under behind his brother. They didn't know grandma had grabbed a broom.

It was homemade from very stiff straw tied onto a pole. They squirmed and pressed against the wall, but she jabbed and swept under the bed at them. No matter how they tried to push themselves against the wall, the broom kept coming. The persistent scratching of those straws on their bare backs convinced them to come out and surrender.

When he's asked what he remembers most about his grandmother, he says, "She didn't think the next thing of getting after you with a broom."

*Note: Relationships, such as grandmother, 2nd great, etc., 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 used here generically to include relatives such as fourth great grandfathers, great grand uncles, second cousins twice removed, etc.