THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Sometime in 1840, Hix Souther
(May 7, 1815
– ca 1843) and his wife, Caroline Burgess Souther (1812 - ?) left their
home
near Old Fort, North Carolina, and migrated to Choestoe in Union County. The lure to move was partially initiated by
the fact that Hix Souther already had siblings Joseph, John, Kizziah
and Jesse
Souther who had migrated to Union County, Georgia earlier.
The lure of land and a better way of life
enticed this couple to pursue their dreams and move.
Little did they know that the move would meet
with heartache and change, become a dream deferred.
Hix Souther, born in 1815, was the
eighth of eleven known children of Jesse Souther (1774-1858) and Jane
Combs
Souther (1782-1858) who lived in Wilkes County, NC.
Hix married Caroline Burgess in North
Carolina, probably in 1837. The young
couple had two children before the lure of moving hit them with force. Catherine Saphronia Souther was born in North
Carolina in 1838 and Jesse Wilburn Souther was born there on November
11,
1840. When Jesse Wilburn was a baby, the
couple moved to Georgia, settling near Hix’s brother John in Choestoe. A third child, son John Jefferson Souther,
was born in Union County, Georgia after his parents moved from North
Carolina. His birth date has been given as
1841 or 1842.
Hix Souther may have worked on the
farm of his brother, John Souther, or at the mill established by
another
brother, Jesse Souther. A third brother,
Joseph Souther who married Sarah Davis also had settled in Union County
and
owned land and a farm. Hix’s sister,
Kizziah Souther Humphries and her husband John Humphries had also
migrated to
Union and settled here. Two of Hix’s
grown nephews, sons of his brother James Souther, namely James Logan
Souther
and John “Rink” Souther had also settled in Union County; but these two
nephews
would soon move west to Colorado, seeking their fortunes there.
But how was the dream of Hix and
Caroline Burgess Souther deferred when they seemed to have much going
for
them—a new place to live, surrounded by kinfolks in a supportive
community? Hix became suddenly ill. We know not the nature of his disease or what
took his life in 1843 or early 1844. He
died, leaving Caroline with three young children. He
was buried in a family grave plot, his
being the first grave dug “in a pasture on a hill north of John
Souther’s
house” on Choestoe. Later, some of
John’s children were buried in the same family plot:
Kizziah Souther (who was named for John’s
sister, Kizziah Souther Humphries) who died May 16, 1845; his son,
Alfred Hix
Souther (1839-June 11, 1849); and Nancy (1844-1864).
The markings of filed stones have disappeared
from the grave sites. Now we are trying
to establish the exact burial site of Hix Souther, husband of Caroline
Burgess
Souther, and his two nieces and one nephew.
Legal documents show that Joseph
Souther and John Souther were appointed administrators of the estate of
Hix
Souther on September 3, 1844, each giving a bond of $1,000. For reasons unknown, John Souther was made
sole administrator of Hix Souther’s will on December 5, 1844. An inventory of the estate was made. It showed that the amount of $500 was still
owed on parts of Land Lots 86 and 87, which, we assume by this entry,
Hix
Souther was buying. The will was probated in court on February 5, 1845, Spencer
Burnett,
Ordinary. But settlement, as we will
see, was not over.
Bereft as a widow, and no doubt
facing
financial difficulties, Caroline Burgess Souther turned to her
(widower)
neighbor, Rollin (or Roland?) Wimpey, who himself was left with three
small
children to rear, namely William D. Wimpey, Daniel Wimpey, and Roland
D.
Wimpey, Jr. Union County marriage records show that Rollin Wimpey and
Caroline
Souther(n) [misspelling of her last name in records] were married
August 25,
1844, with the Rev. John Prewitt officiating at the ceremony.
Family stories hold that the
Southers
thought Hix’s widow too quickly married after her husband’s death. Since we have not found an exact date of his
death (whether 1843 or early 1844), we don’t know how many months she
mourned
her husband’s passing before she wed Rollin (or Roland D. Wimpey, Sr.)
in
August of 1844. The reports passed down
are to the effect that “there was a lot of dissatisfaction in the
family.”
Roland Wimpey, Sr. (also noted
as Rollin)
and Caroline Burgess Souther Wimpey moved from Union County to Gilmer
County,
Georgia. In the 1860 census of Gilmer
County, the household of R. A. (the initial had been rendered D. in
earlier
records)Wimpey was listed, he as age 47 and born in South Carolina, and
his
wife Caroline, age 42, born in North Carolina.
Evidently Caroline’s daughter, Catherine Saphronia was already
married
to Frank Wells and gone from Roland and Caroline’s household by 1860,
for she
was not listed as a resident. But
Caroline’s sons, Jesse Wilburn Souther (age 21, b. NC) and John
Jefferson
Souther (age 17, b. GA), as well as Roland’s children, William D.
Wimpey, age
15, Daniel Wimpey, age 13, and Roland B. Wimpey, age 12, all three born
in
Georgia, and younger children Martha J. Wimpey (8), Robert Wimpey (6),
and
Andrew Wimpey (2) made up this household of ten people.
Court records show that
Catherine Saphronia
Souther, Hix and Caroline’s daughter,
sued her uncle John Souther and received a settlement from her father’s
estate
of $176.00 on March 30, 1860. In other
court action, one Lorenzo Spivey of Gilmer County sued for “his part”
of the
Hix Souther estate and received $69.62 “in full payment” on May 1, 1861. Who was Lorenzo Spivey? This
person was not listed in the Inventory
of the Hix Souther estate as one to whom Hix owed money, but must have
been one
of those noted thusly: “etc.—other sales not listed here,” to whom Hix
Souther,
at his death, owed money.
A dream deferred?
Yes. I
can imagine that Hix and Caroline Souther moved to Union County,
Georgia with
great hopes for their young family. But
death visited their home soon, taking the breadwinner, husband and
father, Hix
Souther. Caroline did what she could to
get her life back on track. Now a host
of descendants from her and Hix’s three children would like to find the
gravesite of one Hix Souther “buried on a hill north of John Souther’s
home”
and marked with a field stone that has long since been moved or
disappeared
with time and the elements.
[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.]
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