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
A search of the 1834 (first)
census of the
newly-formed Union County (founded 1832) did not yield any citizens
listed in
the 147 households and 903 population with the surname Ledford.
However, by the 1840 census, when Mr.
John Butt, Jr. made his way to all the households he found to register
heads of
household and number of males and females with the general ages within
those
residencies, he located four households with the name Ledford.
Ledford is an interesting name, seems
to be English in origin, and is what is termed a “habitational” name,
with
those bearing it having come from a particular location in the old
country
known by the name. The “ford” part is
easy to determine. People would have
lived by or near a ford in a stream. We
wonder, then, was Led, the first syllable, from the name of a stream? Actually, yes. The
Lyd River flowed through Somerset and
Devon in England, and was known as “a noisy stream.”
The Old English Lyd meant just that. But
in Surrey, people were called Latchfords
who lived by the stream there.
Eventually, through the standardization of English spellings,
the
surname settled into Ledford, those who lived by the ford by the River
Lyd.
The first of the Ledford
ancestors of some
of those who eventually settled in the new Union County, Georgia seem
to be
descendants of the John Ledford who came from England to North Carolina
about
1763.
By the 1840 census in Union County,
Georgia, there were four households of Ledfords enumerated. This writer was not able to learn the
relationship,
if any, between these four Ledford households.
They could have been brothers, cousins or otherwise related.
Benjamin Ledford had nine in his
household in 1840—six males and three females.
He and his wife were both listed in the age category of “40 and
under
50.”
Thomas Ledford had six males and two
females in his household. He and his
wife were “thirty and under forty.”
William Ledford had three males and
six females in his household. He was
“forty and under fifty” and his wife was “thirty and under forty.”
The fourth Ledford household was that
of George, who had five males and three females. He
was “thirty and under forty,” and his wife
was in that same age category.
Therefore, we count and find that 20 males and 15 females, or a
total of
35 Ledfords made their home in Union in 1840.
Moving to the 1850 Union County
census, it is interesting to note whether the same households are
listed again,
and if any other Ledford households have been set up within the
ten-year
period. It is noteworthy, too, that by
the 1850 census, the government had made the decision to list not only
the
heads-of-households, but the spouse and children, the ages, and where
each
member of the household had been born.
Let’s take a look at Ledford
households in the 1850 Union Census, from which we learn much more
information. The only household with the
same-named head of household in 1850 as in the 1840 census was that of
Benjamin. Whether Thomas, William and
George were going by another given name by 1850 is not known. But households, according to the information
given to Mr. Butt, the census taker in 1850, were headed by Silas,
Porter,
David, Benjamin, and James.
Silas Ledford and his wife, spelled
Deilly (Delia ?) lived in household # 53.
He was 28, had been born in North Carolina, his wife, 29, had been born in South Carolina, and they had
been in Georgia at least five years, because their oldest child and the
three
others listed were all born in Georgia.
Their children were Thomas, 5,
Benjamin, 4, Caroline, 2, and Louisa, 1.
We learn from other research that Silas was a son of Benjamin
and Grace
Owenby Ledford, the one settler from the 1840 census who had remained
in Union
County. My curiosity turned me to the
Union County marriage records where I found this listing:
Silas Ledford married Dolly Elmiry Bowling in
Union County on December 19, 1841, with the Rev. Elisha Hedden
performing the
ceremony. The census-taker’s spelling,
“Deilly,” therefore should have been “Dolly” for Silas’s wife’s name.
Household # 54, next door to Silas and
Dolly, had the family of Porter Ledford, age 23, born in North
Carolina, his
wife, Temarina, age 20, also born in North Carolina, and their
four-month old
baby, Marion. Again, the Union County
marriage records yielded the date of this couple’s marriage—August 28,
1848,
when Thomas Ervin, a justice-of-the-peace performed the ceremony. The bride’s name was Damaris A. Rogers. Again, this helps us correct a misspelling
from the census record of “Temarina” to Damaris. Porter
Ledford was the sixth child of Silas
and Dolly Ledford, and was given the name Porter after his maternal
grandfather, Porter Owenby.
Household 87 was home to David
Ledford, age 31, born in North Carolina, and his wife Jane, 35, also
born in
North Carolina. They had been in Union
County less than two years in 1850, for their four listed children,
Rachel, 9,
Marion, 6, Hardy, 4, and Madison, 2, had all been born in North
Carolina.
In 1850, the household of Benjamin
Ledford, age 50, born in North Carolina, was listed as # 133 in the
enumeration. Living there were his wife,
51, born in North Carolina, and listed as “Racy,” an unusual name, to
say the
least. Make that an error in entry,
which probably should have been Gracy, or Grace—Grace Owenby Ledford,
whom
Benjamin married in North Carolina before moving to the Ivy Log section
of
Union County, Georgia sometime before 1840.
In Benjamin and Grace’s household in 1850 were two children
still at
home, Vianna, age 20 and Benjamin (Jr.?), 11, both born in North
Carolina. Registered in their household
was another
female, Caroline Brown, age 19, born in North Carolina.
A young man, Jacob Ledford, age 20,
was listed as living in Household 475 with Eli Henson and Elizabeth
Henson and
their three children, James, 7, Archibald, 5, and Jacob, 1.
In household # 619 were James Ledford,
35, born in North Carolina, his wife, Nancy, 32, also born in North
Carolina. Their first three children,
Caroline 10, LaFayette 7 and Lucious, 6, were born in North Carolina,
but Asberry,
4, and Jane, 1, were born in Georgia.
The last of the Ledford
households
appearing in the 1850 Union census was that of the family or Hiram
Ledford, 47,
and his wife, Mary, 47, both born in North Carolina.
They had seven children listed as still living
at home in 1850, all born in North Carolina:
John, 25, Spencer, 22, Marion, 15, James, 12, George, 10, Hiram,
8, and
Alexander, 5. They had evidently moved
to Union County after 1845 since Alexander was not born in Georgia.
These families were the beginnings of
the Ledfords who remained in Union and Towns counties of upper Georgia. We will follow some of them in subsequent
accounts.
[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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