Week 47 – “This Ancestor Stayed Home”

 

I apparently come from a long line of restless travelers. Even as far back as my twelfth great-grandfather, who left Germany for England in the early 1500s, few of my ancestors stayed in the same place they were born.  One exception to this is my Ayers family of Georgia.  For three generations of my direct line, this family remained in Habersham County.  They married into other deep rooted Georgia families, like the Cash, Davis, Echols, and Yearwood’s. Since shortly after the Revolutionary War, my ancestors were born, lived and died in this one area at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains.

My fourth great-grandfather, Moses Ayers, was born in Franklin County, Georgia, on 7 December 1794, and he died in Habersham County, Georgia on 19 August 1876. While you may think he did move, the formation of counties between 1794 and 1876 changed the boundaries many times, and he did, in fact, die in what had been Franklin County at the time of his birth.  There is much speculation, but no known documentation, as to who the parents of Moses were, but it is likely his father was Rogimalech/Regimalick Baker Ayers, known as Baker Ayers. Relentless research for where the name Rogimalech may have come from has been entirely fruitless although a number of unsourced family trees tell of a Rogimalech Baker who was born in Maryland circa 1715, or Rogimalech Baker who was born in New Jersey, circa 1717 – who both reportedly died in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The search continues.

What we do know is that Moses married Mary “Polly” Davis on 14 September 1815, in Habersham County. Mary was the granddaughter of Revolutionary Patriot, Thomas Davis of North Carolina, who served as a Private in the “Battalion of Minutemen” in defense of the state of Georgia.  For his service, he was granted land in Franklin County in 1784. Mary’s father, Henry Davis, deeded 250 acres to Moses, “in consideration of natural love and affection for my daughter Polly Ayers, wife of Moses” in March 1849. Later, this same land was deeded in three parts to the adult sons of Moses and Mary.  Altogether, Moses and Mary had ten children, five boys and five girls, between 1816 and 1834. A daughter, Margaret, born 1817, and son William Baker Ayers (another clue regarding the name of the father of Moses), born 1822, both died in January 1827. In 1834, a baby boy named Humphrey was born, but he lived only six weeks. The remaining children lived to adulthood, all of which married and had children of their own, apart from their daughter, Rebecca.  When Rebecca died in 1860, she was twenty-four years old, but never appears to have been married. In 1864, Moses Ayers gifted his grandson and namesake, Moses Prince Ayers, a small book he used as a census taker for the Georgia census in 1852. It includes the names of those inhabitants in the five districts of Habersham County – Upperleather, Polecat, Mudcreek, Centerhill, and the Fork District. He also wrote in it, “I, Moses Ayers do solemnly swear, or affirm, that I will to the best of my ability, do and preform [sic] all the duties required of me by law as a taker of the census for the county of Habersham and faithfully and duly execute the trust confided to me, So help me God.” The book also included family birth and death dates, beginning with his father-in-law, Henry Davis and family; Moses, Mary and their children; and Moses’ son, James Morgan Ayers (father of Moses Prince Ayers) and his family. The extremely fragile book still exists today and is in the possession of an Ayers descendant living in Toccoa, Georgia. The daguerreotype photograph below is of Moses, taken some time in the 1860s.

When one thinks of the south, it’s the grand plantations and the antebellum lifestyle that immediately comes to mind. From records available, it appears the Ayers were only able to eke out a meager living. Their personal property and real estate values were quite low in comparison to their neighbors.  The ideology of the family, however, sided with the south when the Civil War broke out in 1861. The remaining three sons all went off to fight in the name of the Confederacy. Middle son, James Morgan Ayers (my third great-grandfather), was the first to enlist in February 1862. He served with Company G of the George Militia State Troops.  Shortly thereafter, on 12 May 1862, youngest son Jonathan Stone Ayers, joined as a Private in Smith’s Legion which soon became Captain Grant’s 65^th Regiment of Georgia Volunteers, for a term of three years.  His term only lasted five months and twenty-three days when he was killed in a skirmish with Union troops near Morristown, Tennessee.  Oldest son, Henry Davis Ayers, had managed to steer clear of the fighting, but possibly due to the death of his brother he was spurned into action, enlisting with the Second Battalion Infantry, on 1 April 1864. While Henry seems to have survived the conflict unscathed, his brother James’ story ended quite differently. 

James Morgan Ayers had married Hannah Melissa Prince in 1848. By the time the Civil War broke out, they had four children.  After the war, James returned to Habersham County to his small farm.  He owned the small patch of ground (part of the tract of land bestowed to his father) that he used to raise his crops, but he had become a feeble man.  According to his Civil War Pension Application, filed in 1902, he had suffered some type of paralysis and had been unable to work for many years. To say the family was poor is quite an understatement.  Forced to sell their land, James and Hannah ended up living with various other families, often separately, for the remainder of their lives. It seems that marriage was the best way for each of James and Hannah’s children to get out from under the poverty they endured.  Their oldest daughter, Artimissia Ayers, married Willis Howard Cash of the prominent Cash family, all descendants of Revolutionary Patriots Stephen Cash and Howard Cash, father and son.  Howard had settled in the area shortly after the war.  Daughter Mary M. Ayers married John M. Echols from another leading family, although much gossip and scandal surrounded this family in the earlier days of the county (a story for another day).  The youngest daughter, Eliza Jane Ayers, married James Allison Yearwood (whose first cousin is a direct ancestor of country music star, Trisha Yearwood).  This left their only son, Moses Prince Ayers, to branch out on his own to make a life.

As a romantic, I can only imagine that the marriage, on 19 Mar 1871, of Moses Prince Ayers to Sarah Frances Cash must have been one of love. Sarah was born into one of the most well-to-do families around and I can only assume that their union was not one that would have been welcomed by her parents due to Moses’ poverty-stricken upbringing. However, his sister’s marriage to Sarah’s cousin may have helped to alleviate any misgivings.  By 1880, the couple had welcomed four children. Moses was twenty-five, Sarah twenty-three.  While the family never became prosperous, they seemed to have made a comfortable living.  Of the couple’s six children, comprised of two sons and four daughters, the only one to leave Habersham County was Malora Jane Ayers, who would later become my great-grandmother.

There are countless Ayers descendants still living in Habersham County today. In the summer of 2020, I had the opportunity to visit the Genealogy Department of the Clarksville Library. When I relayed to the curator that I was looking for information on the Ayers family, he expressed with great exuberance that his wife was also an Ayers, as well as a Cash descendant. The smallness of the world never ceases to amaze me.