Amy Johnson Crow from Generations Cafe is again hosting the blog writing prompt this year called 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2021. I'm going to try to participate more fully this year. I like that she gives us "permission" to interpret the prompt however we wish and share it however we wish. It doesn't have to be a blog post; it could be a family video, a letter to a child or grandchild, an e-mail, etc.
The Theme for Week 3 (Jan 18-24) is Namesake.
Since I have covered previously who I was named after (You can read that post here.), I decided to go in a different direction for this post. There are two towns in Georgia that were named for members of my family.
Swainsboro is a city in and the county seat of Emanuel County, Georgia. It is where I grew up from ages 8-18. In 1822, the Georgia State Legislature established "Swainsborough" as the seat of Emanuel County. The town was named in recognition of Stephen Swain the state senator who introduced the bill for the county's creation in 1812.
Stephen Swain (1768-?) was my 4th great uncle, the son of Stephen Swain (1746-1796) and Ann Elizabeth Spruill Swain (1748-1792). The younger Stephen had a brother named Canneth who is my 3rd Great Grandfather.
Senator Swain served in the Georgia Assembly for more than twenty years.
As a side note, believe it or not, the town's name was changed to "Paris" at its incorporation on February 18, 1854, but three years later reverted to its current name and spelling of Swainsboro.
In the town's early days, Swainsboro depended on railroads for transportation. However, in the 1930s, many of the town's streets and sidewalks were paved, and Swainsboro found itself at the intersection of two major national highways, U.S. 1 and U.S. 80, thus earning its city motto: "Crossroads of the Great South." U.S. 1 was the principal highway from Maine to Key West and U.S. 80, at that time, ran from Tybee Island, Georgia to San Diego, California.
While growing up, I lived on Highway 80 West going toward Dublin. I had no idea at the time that the town had any ties to my family history.
Kite is a city in Johnson County, Georgia, along the Little Ohoopee River. Kite is 13 miles northwest of Swainsboro on Highway 57. My father grew up in and around Kite. I have and had many, many family members in Kite and Johnson County.
The town was named for Shaderick Jasper Kight, Jr., (1818-1893) who donated the land to build the town. He requested the simpler spelling of the name for more efficient mail delivery and processing. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Kite in 1891.
While Shaderick Kight Jr is not technically related to me, he does cross over into my family many, many times. First of all, he was married to my 2nd cousin, 7x removed, Millie Norris Kight. He was the great uncle of Maud Wheeler, who was the wife of my great uncle, Bascom Tapley. He was the 2nd great uncle of Maggie V. Powell, the wife of another of my great uncles, James L Tapley (brother of Bascom). That is just three examples. I counted a total of 21 ways Shaderick Kight was intertwined with my family.
Kite is basically a crossroads, with a population in 2010 of only 241. The crossroads is made up of U.S. Route 221 and as mentioned, Georgia State Route 57. Kite has a total area of only about 0.81 square miles.
So as you can see, even a town can be a namesake.
Enjoyed your post! Great take on namesake. The final post of a street in Kite had to have been no earlier than 1957 with the nearest and newest car being 1957 Chevy. The other cars appear to be earlier 50s...probably Olds or Buicks. ��
ReplyDeleteI like your unique take on this week's prompt. Thanks for sharing.
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