THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Reece
Family in Union County, GA (part 3):
Quiller Frank Reece, Second Child of William and Mary Daniel Reece
Pvt. Quiller Frank Reece
(1843-1932)
Civil War - Confederacy
6th Georgia Cavalry,
Company F.
Quiller
Frank Reece (4.20.1843 – 10.13.1932) was the second of ten children
born to
William “Billy” Reece and Mary “Sarry” Daniel Reece.
As the second child and first son, Quiller
held a responsible position in his parents’ household, for he helped to
provide
leadership and example for his older sister Sarah Elizabeth and the
eight other
children born into that Reece family.
Union
County
marriage records show that Quiller Frank Reece married Eliza C. Logan
on November 15,
1866. Thompson Collins (not the
first settler
Thompson Collins, but his son, Thompson), a justice of the peace in the
Choestoe District, performed the marriage ceremony.
This marriage was after the Civil War,
after Quiller had performed his duties as a soldier in the Confederacy
in the 6th
Georgia Cavalry, Company F, Hart’s Battalion, Smith’s Legion. When the men signed up for service for three
years, they had to furnish their own horse.
Commanding officers of Reece’s Company F were not Georgians, and
were
not listed in the roster of those who served from Union. Records show that Quiller was taken prisoner
on December 18,
1862
in eastern Tennessee. Whether he remained in prison until the war
ended is not indicated in the records.
Many years after he and his sweetheart married, in the year
1910, he
registered for a pension for his service in the Civil War.
Whether he received it is not clear from
available records.
Although Quiller Frank Reece’s wife’s
name was listed in the Union marriage
records
as Eliza C. Logan, her full name was Elizabeth Clarica Adelia Logan
Reece
(06.04.1849 – 03.08.1936). Elizabeth
(shortened to
Eliza) was the youngest child of Drury Logan (1766-1855) and Mary
Addington
Logan (1759-1847). Eliza’s father,
Drury, was a brother to Major Frank Logan who owned and operated the
famous
Logan Turnpike across the mountain between Blairsville and Cleveland,
the route
over which farmers and traders hauled loads of produce to barter for
what they
could not grow in Union
County. Drury and Mary Addington Logan built their
double-story log cabin on Land Lot 50 in the Owltown District on the
south side
of the Nottely
River. The house, remodeled through the years, still
stands today as a testament to the solid building of pioneer settlers. It was there that Eliza’s parents reared
their eleven children, nine of whom were born in Union. When Drury and Mary Logan were old and
incapacitated, it was their youngest child, Eliza and her husband
Quiller Frank
Reece who took her parents into their home and cared for them until
their
deaths.
Frank Quiller and Eliza Logan Reece
had a very large family, sixteen children, twelve of whom lived to
adulthood. Quiller Frank was primarily a
farmer by occupation, but he no doubt pursued other trades to bring in
extra
money to rear his large family. They were Methodists by denomination
and
faithful members of the Shady
Grove Mehodist
Church. Upon their deaths, they were interred in the
Shady Grove cemetery where their monuments may be viewed today.
A
listing of the sixteen children of Quiller Frank and Elizabeth Clarica
Adelia
Logan Reece follows:
(1)
William Drury Reece (02.22.1868) married Roxie Potts.
(2) Mary Rachael Rowena Reece
(10.06.1869)
married John S. McDonald.
(3) Martha Elizabeth Jane Reece
(06.22.1871) married William J. Jackson.
(4)
James Roberson Reece (07.21.1873) married Millie Henson.
(5) Thomas Joseph Hughes Reece
(12.05.1875)
married L. Henrietta Gardner.
(6)
Eli Josiah Reece (04.02.1878) married Sallie Luella Stephens.
(7)
John Henry Reece (03.27.1880) married Nellie I. Self.
(8)
Francis Allen Reece (08. 25. 1881 – 11.01.1881).
(9)
Simon Edward Reece (11.14.1882) married Fleta Belle Colwell.
(10) Charles Logan Reece
(12.20.1883)
married Louise Jane Davis.
(11) Frank Wellborn Reece
(03.05.1885)
married Sarah Ann Ledford.
(12) Richard Marvin Reece
(04.23.1886)
married Hailie C. Grendle.
(13) Mintie Della Reece
(06.30.1888 – 07.?
1888)
(14) Baby Boy Reece (twin – b/d
07.18.1890)
(15) Baby Boy Reece (twin – b/d
07.18.1890).
(16) Alice Eliza Louise Reece
(01.23.1893)
married Olin Hayes.
In looking over the list of Frank
Quiller and Elizabeth Clarica Adelia Logan Reece’s twelve adult
children and
who they married, it is easy to see how these descendants of the early
Reece
settlers married into families of other early settlers.
Several of these Reece-connected families
remained within Union
County. Present citizens can look back with pride and
claim their roots to this Reece couple who worked hard to rear
dependable,
hard-working children.
c2010 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Jan. 28, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood Road,
Milledgeville,
GA
31061-2411.]
Updated May 27, 2018
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