Willis Edgar Musgrove: Big Turnip

Waycross Journal-Herald

December 18, 1971

Big Turnip -- Willis Edgar Musgrove grew a seven and half-pound turnip in his backyard at 1817 Lamont Street in Waycross. Musgrove said it is the first turnip of such a size as he has ever grown in his 10-foot square garden. 

Macy Carol (Williams) Musgrove: DNA Story

In our last post, we presented DNA evidence supporting an earlier post on our second great-grandmother* (see relationship notes below), Lucy Williams (link here).

Macie Carol Williams

John Williams: An Ancestry DNA Story

Waycross Journal-Herald
Dec 4, 1945 page 8

A few months back, we posted research on finding our third great grandmother* (see relationship notes below), Lucy Williams (blog post here).

We used Federal Census records and her obituary.

'Mrs. Lucy William Leverette, 78, died at her residence in Waycross. She is survived by...two brothers, John Williams of Waycross and Bill Williams of Florida....' - Waycross Journal-Herald - Dec 4, 1945 page 8

It turns out her brother, John, has a descendant who tested on Ancestry DNA. And so does Hezekiah, another sibling. My DNA test results suggest a match.

(Note: Mrs. Henry Lairsey is Idell 'Hattie' Leverett. Mrs. E C Musgrove is grandma Macy Carole Williams in the obituary above.)

John David Musgrove & Eliza Cox

The Atlanta Constitution

March 31, 1894

SHE TOOK STRYCHNINE

Mrs. Musgrove Was an Invalid & Despondent

The Atlanta Constitution
March 31, 1894

Great-aunt Louise (Musgrove) Tillman* (see relationship notes below) says her grandmother, Elizabeth Arissa 'Betty' (Collins) Musgrove, got sick from a spider bite. According to the paper,

She said she wanted to die, and that death would be a relief. Mrs. Musgrove had been an invalid for eighteen months. She complained of being in the way and said she had no hopes of recovering (Find-a-Grave link here).

Cuthbert's Only Son: John Musgrove I

Cuthbert Musgrave and his son, John, are counted in the book Seventeenth Century Colonial Ancestors of Members of the National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century, page 180.

Musgrove, Cuthbert (c 1653-87) Md.: m. Dorothy ___   Landowner 

John Musgrove (1685-1746) Md.-Va. m. ___   Landowner

 

We blogged about it here. Cuthbert died in 1687, two years after John Musgrove I was born.

Cuthbert: Our First American Musgrove

Cuthbert Musgrave was born June 1, 1644, in Crookdake,  England, to William and Dorothy Musgrave. He was named after St. Cuthbert, who was...

 ...a monk, who grew in merit and in the intensity of his devotion. He was elected to the bishopric of the church of Lindisfarne. 

St Cuthbert b 634 - d 687

John and Mary Musgrove: Before Marriage

Our last post was about the year John and Mary Musgrove were separated (link here). John spent most of 1734 in England, translating for Oglethorpe and a delegation of Indians led by Tomichichi. 

Team Musgrove: John and Mary

Previously, we blogged about John Musgrove, Jr. When James Oglethorpe arrived in what would become Savannah, Georgia, Musgrove translated his meeting with the local Indian chief, Tomichichi. (post)

Georgia/Florida Musgroves: Y-DNA Update

My father, Melvin Musgrove, took the Family Tree Y-DNA (FTDNA) test for the descendants of our great, great grandfather, John 'David' Musgrove, of Pierce County, Georgia. * (see relationship notes below)

Melvin and David Musgrove - 1959

Musgrave: Distinguished Surname

Our name, Musgrove, was originally Musgrave.

"This distinguished surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and a locational name deriving from a pair of villages near Kirkby Stephen in Westmorland, called Great and Little Musgrave." Surname Database

This post follows our Musgrove family's journey and what remains of their landmarks.

Elizabeth (Bryan) Musgrove

Elizabeth (Bryan) Musgrove is our third great-grandmother* (see relationship notes below). She had three sons: John 'David,' Charles, and James Musgrove. Her middle child died in 1915.

"Charles 'Charley' H. Musgrove was born in August of 1850 in either Baker or Ware County, Georgia. Charles is thought to be the son of James W. Musgrove and Elizabeth Bryan. He was the grandson of James Bryan (b. 1799) of Bladen County, North Carolina, and the great grandson of William and Sarah Bryan (Vol 5)." 

Folks Huxford "Pioneers of Wiregrass, Georgia" Vol 12, page 350.

This is what we know of her story.

John Collins Meets Larkin Musgrove

Richard Graham Musgrove
1923-2016

Our family history is recorded in Richard Graham Musgrove's book "The American Family Musgrove." In 1993, on page 725 of his book, the author wrote of our family line:

"James Walter Musgrove, Sr. has been reported by descendants to have come from Baker County, Georgia. However, I have been unable to tie him back to one of the many Musgrove families from that area."

Until now, we'd no clue how our family's line became Musgroves. There was no known point of contact between Elizabeth (Bryan) Musgrove - James Walters' supposed wife - and any other known Musgrove.

This post tells the story of a meeting between John Forbes Collins - our third great grandfather* (see relationship notes below) - and Larkin Cuthbert Musgrove of Baker County, Georgia.

Musgroves in War: Letters Home

Melvin Musgrove
Viet Nam 1968

Our last blog was about Joshua John Musgrove and included a letter home from a Confederate camp in Virginia during the Civil War. Joshua had five young children back at home.

Your humble family historian was an Army brat. My father, Melvin Musgrove, served two tours of duty in Viet Nam. In the days before cellphones and Skype, letters were the only communication between soldiers and their families.

Soldiers deployed in active locations were sometimes barred from writing for months at a time. These times were scary for Mom, though she didn't tell us kids at the time. The soldiers also were careful about what they wrote home. They usually spared their families the gruesome details. From this perspective, we present the entire article by Earl 'Tige' Pickle that contained the very young Joshua John Musgrove's letter home.

Joshua Musgrove: Scalawag

On the morning of December 21, 1862, in camp near Franklin, Virginia, young Confederate soldier William Jordan wrote to his wife - the mother of his five young children,

 

"I this morning seat myself to inform you that I am well only I got my arm hurt in a row the other day. Hoping these few lines reach you safe and find you and the children all right. 

We got in a fight the other day and the Yankeys got Josh Musgrove, Little Bill Jordan and James Smith, Herman Chain, Elisha Harrison, Abi Dias, Wood Richardson, Albert Gladden all Prisoners. None killed as we know of."   

John Collins: Florida Pioneer

"The First Seminole War...is generally dated to 1817–18 and that led Spain to cede Florida to the United States."  

Encyclopedia Britannica

Florida historian and author Dale Cox wrote one book we've already referenced; The History Of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years. 

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.

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

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