Georgia Backroads: “We Are One People”

Georgia Backroads, Autumn 2013

I am delighted to announce the publication of my latest article in the current (Autumn 2013) issue of Georgia Backroads. “We Are One People” explores my ancestral ties to slavery, focusing specifically on the Armuchee Valley and Dirt Town Valley regions. My original photography, as well as antique images I curated, illustrate the piece. So much research and thought went into this article, and I feel this is one of my best pieces ever. Georgia Backroads has done a fantastic job putting together the issue with excellent writing, photography, and design. You can pick up a copy at newsstands or order the issue online.

If you haven’t seen my previous work for Georgia Backroads, check out the Winter 2012 issue as well!

For the other researchers out there, I thought I would share my bibliography for the “We Are One People” article (the sources are not printed in the magazine itself). Enjoy!

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The Mythology of Genealogy (or, The Stories We Tell)

Grave of Alfred C. Ward, my 4th great-grandfather. Unpublished photo from “Jordan’s Journey” by Jordan M. Scoggins.

Recently I wrote a series of posts on Delila Brown Ward (see here, here, and here). Today is a sort of follow-up to those posts, focusing on Delila’s husband, Alfred C. Ward.

Alfred (or Alford) C. Ward, my 4th great-grandfather, was a son of Absalom Ward and Nancy Ann Coleman and the grandson of Nathaniel Ward and Susannah Trail. Nathaniel had been a veteran of the Revolutionary War. The Absalom Ward family lived in Union County, South Carolina. Absalom and Nancy were members of the Gilead Baptist Church in Jonesville (Marby 293; Hair 64).

It was in Union County where Alfred would have met and married Delila Brown. Alfred and Delila are first counted together on a census in 1850, still in Union, already with their first two children (Ancestry.com 1850). Sometime during the following decade, they migrated to the Armuchee Valley area of northwest Georgia, where they were counted in East Armuchee on the 1860 census (Ancestry.com 1860). Alfred is the only one of his family who left Union County (Walker 406).

More details of this story are told in the Jordan’s Journey book and are not repeated here–as the focus of this article is not to duplicate the book but to expand upon what is already there.

As with many other men in Armuchee Valley (and throughout the South in general), Alfred soon picked up the call to arms and joined the Confederate army. He enlisted as a 1st Lieutenant in the 39th Regiment, Georgia Infantry in LaFayette on 4 Mar 1862.

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Caney Fork [video]

Today I’m happy to share a new Jordan’s Journey video with you. This video is pretty different from the others I’ve shown here so far. The short film tells the story of my trip to Arkansas in September 2011, searching out the story of my 3rd great-grandfather Francis Marion Holcomb (about 1832-1864).

This video would not have been possible without the help of Joyce Wood (who is featured in the video). Joyce helped me learn much more about Caney Fork than I ever could have on my own. Unfortunately, it’s an area that has been largely forgotten even to long time residents of Pike County. Joyce knows so much about the area because she and her family are virtually the only people to have lived there in modern times. Joyce’s family were pioneers just like in the old days, living in a cabin without electricity (it is not available in the area) or any of the creature comforts most of us take for granted every day.

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Finns Point National Cemetery

Union monument at Finns Point National Cemetery

Though the vast majority of my family–even going generations back–are rooted in Georgia and other parts of the south, some interesting burial locations exist in other parts of the country. I’ve not discovered any direct family connections to New York, where I call home. But there are a couple of interesting family burials in New Jersey.

James Young Foster (a descendant of the Young family) connects to my tree through his second wife, Margaret Mell Lawrence (my 1st cousin five times removed through the Lawrence family line). James fought in the Civil War in Georgia’s 1st Cavalry Regiment, Company F (National Cem.; National Park). Captured as a prisoner of war, he died in Fort Delaware and is buried in Finns Point National Cemetery in New Jersey. James left behind two daughters, Nancy Mell Foster and Frances Isabell Foster, whom Margaret raised. These daughters married into the White family, a prominent family in the Villanow and Sublgina area that connects many different family branches.

[UPDATE 17 May 2012: A Jordan’s Journey reader noted that I did not mention the children of James Young Foster’s first marriage. While not within the scope of this post, you can check out where his first wife, Martha Wade Booker, and their children are listed.]

My 2nd great grand uncle Moses Gresham Scoggins is also buried at Finns Point. Moses fought in Georgia’s 9th Infantry Regiment, Company B, and was a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware (National Cem.; National Park). Moses had never married and did not leave behind a wife or children. His line of descendancy continues only through his brothers (one of whom is my 2nd great grandfather, James Harvey Scoggins).

Both soldiers, Foster and Scoggins, are listed on the Confederate memorial at Finns Point. Moses also has a commemorative stone in the Chapman family cemetery in West Armuchee.

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The Union in the South

Consulting Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee in the NYPL’s Milstein Division, September 2011

One of the exciting things about the research behind Jordan’s Journey was the opportunity to learn about topics I had never explored before. One such subject was the Civil War. Like most things we learn in history class growing up, the Civil War is glossed over and never examined as closely as it should be. Most of us have an oversimplified impression of the war as being about the North versus the South and slavery versus freedom. The reality, however, is that the story is much more complicated than that. In terms of Jordan’s Journey, I learned that not only were there military regiments from southern states who fought for the Union, but I realized that several people from different family lines in my tree fought for those regiments–including a 2nd great grandfather on Mom’s side and a 3rd great grandfather on Dad’s side. It was a surprise to uncover this, as the family had long forgotten it.

In my Anderson family, my 2nd great-grandfather Abraham Anderson fought for the Union in Tennessee’s 5th Mounted Infantry regiment. You can read more about Abraham in the book, but I want to share more about Tennessee’s involvement with the Union.

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