I made an interesting discovery while working on census records for some of the Pattersons/Chapmans.  I was looking at the 1840 record for my fourth great-grand uncle, Joseph Patterson (born 1790/1794).  The 1840 census is two pages wide, so make sure you always look at that second page.  I almost missed this find, myself, and I’m not sure I would have caught it if I weren’t referring to the index, as well as the actual document.

The index indicated that one member of the household was employed as a miner. At first, I assumed it was a transcription error (I had found one on Joseph’s 1830 census index), so I flipped over to the original and sure enough, mining was checked.  I’m so used to my ancestors having been farmers, that I hadn’t noticed that the check was not in the agriculture column, but was mining.

Then it dawned on me.  Joseph lived in Lumpkin County, Georgia.   The Gold Rush.  Joseph must have been a gold-miner.  I looked back at the census and almost every household on the page had at least one person who was employed in mining.

The Georgia Gold Rush was the second in the United States, after the Gold Rush in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.  Gold was discovered in Georgia in 1828, near Dahlonega in what is now Lumpkin County, although Native Americans had told the European explorers that there was gold in the North Georgia mountains centuries earlier.  Word spread quickly and the Gold Rush began in earnest in 1829.  Gold was found in numerous North Georgia counties, and in fact, the Georgia Gold Belt begins in Alabama and extends to Rabun County, which is the northeastern-most county in the state.  Georgia’s gold was almost 24 karat and was easy to collect.   Congress established a branch of the United States Mint in Dahlonega, which operated from 1838 until it was closed by the Confederate government in 1861.

Various pieces of evidence indicate that Joseph, his mother, and most of his siblings came to Georgia in or before 1828. I never knew why they left South Carolina, but gold could be the reason.

CHATSWORTH – Mrs. N. C. Ward of Sunset Drive off Charles Road works barefoot at her machine making quilts.  She will be observing her 83rd birthday tomorrow and would like to hear from all her friends for whom she has made quilts.  For over 40 years she has made quilts, but it was about 12 years ago that she turned the hobby into a money-making activity.  Often she starts on a quilt about daybreak, has it pieced by mid-afternoon and then does the quilting and hemming, and by nightfall the finished product is ready for the bed that night.  Mrs. Ward is especially lonely this week because her husband of many years died last week.

This article probably was published on August 10, 1974 in The Dalton Daily Citizen News or possibly in The Chatsworth Times.

Twice Told Tuesday is an occasional series featuring family-related articles republished from old books, magazines, and newspapers. To see all posts in the series, click here.

My great-great grandparents.

Source: J. Thompson, [e-mail for private use], to Tonia Kendrick, e-mail, 5 March 2011, “Re: [Tonia's Roots] New Comment On: Seeking Robert West Information,”; privately held by Kendrick, [e-mail & address for private use].

This article about my great-grandmother was published in the Autumn 1974 issue of Georgia Life magazine (now defunct).

“An 83-year-old Chatsworth woman makes and sells about $1,000′s worth of quilts each year in a home enterprise that began about twelve years ago.  At that time Mrs. N. C. Ward injured her back and her doctor recommended quilting as good physical therapy.  Though she had been quilting since 1895, after her accident she made a business of it.  Currently she has over 100 orders to be filled.

Her quilts are owned by people who live in Germany, Japan, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, West Virginia and Georgia, especially in Murray and Whitfield Counties where she is best known.

The energetic, silver-haired woman who “loves to go barefoot around the house” says she had always been in good health until her accident.  Sitting in her comfortable home in Chatsworth, a stack of quilting pieces on a small table in front of her and now and then tucking a wisp of silver hair into place, she said, “I believe in work.  Sometimes I get up at four a.m. and start quilting.  I haven’t been able to get out of my yard for several years since walking bothers my back.  But I can’t stand to lie around and do nothing.  And when I miss working on my quilts for even one day I’m unhappy.  My work is what keeps me going.”

Her mother and her grandmother were great quilt makers and when she was only three years old her grandmother would place her in a big box with a pair of scissors and paper.  When she was four, she was given fabric, needle, and thread.  She has been sewing ever since and as a teenager made her own clothes.  While she sews her quilts on machines now, she has made many by hand.

Mrs. Ward and her husband are natives of Fannin County.  They came to Chatsworth about 35 years ago to visit a daughter and have been living there ever since.  “We just like it here,” she says.  Mr. Ward worked in the talc mines until his bad health forced his retirement.  For the past year he has been in a rest home.

The Wards have been married 66 years and have seven daughters – their only son died.  They have 21 grandchildren and so many great-grandchildren that she says she can’t keep up with them.

Mrs. Ward uses no pattern, nor does she baste.  She buys sheeting and cotton batting but her daughters and many people in the community keep her supplied with enough colorful scraps of cloth to make the applique designs and patchwork covers for the quilts.

She has two quilting machines, one with a special zig-zag attachment with which the colorful designs are appliqued on squares of sheeting which are then sewed together.  The cover, cotton batting and backing are stretched on a quilting frame.  Then her daughter, Mrs. Alfred Flowers, who lives next door, helps her roll up the three layers and the final sewing is done on the quilting machine.  The finished quilt is placed in a plastic bag to be picked up or shipped to a far-away destination.

Mrs. Ward remembers selling her first quilt for $1.50.  Now she gets $10.00 or $15.00 for each one.  Being an ardent gospel fan, she enjoys her favorite records while working.  Most of all, however, she enjoys talking with those who come by to place orders.  “But usually,” she says a bit wistfully, “they can’t stay and talk very long.”

She is a remarkable lady.

Olivene Godfrey”

Source:  Olivene Godfrey, “Mrs. N. C. Ward Makes Quilts,” Georgia Life (Autumn 1974), 12-13.

Twice Told Tuesday is an ongoing series featuring family-related articles republished from old books, magazines, and newspapers. To see all posts in the series, click here.

Randy Seaver has Saturday Night Genealogy Fun up at Genea-Musings.  Check out this week’s assignment:

1) How old is one of your grandfathers now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your “roulette number.”

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an “ahnentafel”). Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the “roulette number.”

My grandfather, John Edward Hemphill, would have been 95 in a few days, had he lived.  Following the rules of the game, I divided 95 by 4, which resulted in 23.75; this is rounded up to 24.

The 24th person on my Ahnentafel chart happens to be the above grandfather’s grandfather, James  Young Hemphill.

Three facts about J. Y. Hemphill:

• J. Y. married sisters.  He married his first wife, Rhoda Jane McEntire, on 18 Aug 1859¹.  Rhoda died giving birth to twins on 23 Jun 1864 (one of the babies died at birth; the other died at age 17).  Three years later, J. Y. married Mary Elizabeth McEntire (my great-great-grandmother – see the photo at right).²
• In May 1866, J. Y. paid $10 to the United States Internal Revenue Service.  The tax was on a stallion.³
• J. Y. was appointed by the Grand Jury to Murray County’s first Board of Education.⁴

This was a fun exercise and, in reviewing the data, I found an error in a source citation, so it was also valuable.  Check out Randy’s post for complete details and tell us what you find in Ahnentafel Roulette.

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Robert M. Hemphill, proprietor of a local dry cleaning plant and an officer in World War Two, was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen at a special election held last Saturday.  Hemphill will fill the unexpired term of the late T. H. Moreland.

Fifty votes were cast for Hemphill, who had no opposition.

Thirty-four voters were in favor of changing the term of office of the mayor and aldermen from one to two years, the aldermen’s terms to be staggered so that an entirely new board will never go into office at the same time.  Twelve voters were against this change.

Thirty-nine voted in favor of having a three-man water commission.  Five voted against this issue.

This article was originally published in The Chatsworth Times on May 15, 1947.

Source: Hemphill Scrapbook; privately held by D. H. Davis, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] , D. H. Davis, “Hemphill Elected to City Council”, 15 May 1947, The Chatsworth Times, 13 Jul 2009.

Twice Told Tuesday is an ongoing series featuring family-related articles republished from old books, magazines, and newspapers. To see all posts in the series, click here.

Mrs. Mary Hemphill, one of the best known and most beloved women of Murray County, died Wednesday, and was buried Thursday afternoon at 2 o’clock at the family burying ground.

Mrs. Hemphill lived in Chatsworth for several years, making her home with her son, Mr. J. A. Hemphill.  Her many friends are saddened by her death.

This article was originally published in The Chatsworth Times on Thursday, July 7, 1921.

Source:  Hemphill Scrapbook; privately held by D. H. Davis, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] , D. H. Davis, “Mrs. Mary Hemphill Called By Death”, 07 Jul 1921, The Chatsworth Times, 13 Jul 2009.

Twice Told Tuesday is an ongoing series featuring family-related articles republished from old books, magazines, and newspapers. To see all posts in the series, click here.

This week’s Surname Saturday focuses on my Johnson family line, which begins with my great-grandmother, Rachel Louisa.

Rachel Louisa Johnson was born August 9, 1892 in Fannin County, Georgia.  She married Newton Coleman Ward in Fannin County on June 27, 1909.  Rachel and Newt lived in Fannin County until 1939, when they moved to Murray County, Georgia.  At various times in her life, Rachel was a farmer’s wife, a midwife, a pencil packer, and a quilter.  She and Newt had eight children.  She died February 16, 1980 in Chatsworth, Georgia and is buried at the Stock Hill/Johnson Cemetery in Fannin County.

Rachel’s father was Reuben Phillip Johnson.  He was born September 3, 1853, probably in the North Georgia mountains.  He lived in Gilmer County, Georgia in 1860 and 1870.  He married Martha Garrett about 1877.  Reuben and Martha lived in Fannin County for the remainder of Reuben’s life.  They lived on a farm and had eight children.  Reuben died April 15, 1911 in Blue Ridge, Georgia and is buried at the Stock Hill/Johnson Cemetery.

Reuben was the fourth son of Amos Johnson and Elizabeth Ann Jones.  Amos was born about 1826, possibly in Forsyth County, Georgia.  Amos and Betty lived in Union County, Georgia in 1850 and Gilmer County in 1860.  His death date is uncertain.  There is a marker with Amos and Betty’s name on it at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church Cemetery in Gilmer County, but the death date for Amos says 1858, and he was clearly alive in 1860, since he appears on the census.

I have names for two more generations of Johnsons, but I consider them speculative at this time.

Johnson Surname Fun Facts

Johnson is the second most common surname in the United States, which makes researching this line challenging.  In 2000, there were 19 million Johnsons in the U.S.  In 1920, there were 292,000 Johnson families in the U.S.; 4% lived in Georgia.  The 1880 census enumerated 383,000 Johnson families, with 5% of them living in Georgia.  In 1840, Georgia claimed 4% of the 14,536 Johnson families enumerated.

More about the Johnson Family

• A complete list of deceased Johnson family members in my database.
• Posts about Johnson ancestors and relatives in this blog.
• Johnson documents, photos, and headstones.

Research To-Dos

• Look for marriage record for Reuben and Martha.
• Research land records for Reuben in Fannin County.
• Research probate records for Reuben in Fannin County.
• Check Georgia marriage records for Amos and Betty.
• Look for Civil War records for Amos.

If you have any additional information (or corrections) on this Johnson line, comments are most appreciated!

This post is part of an ongoing series focusing on specific surnames. To see all posts in the series, click here.