Friday's Faces from the Past

 

Dr. William Jordan Flanders
1860-1936

    Dr. Flanders was a dentist in Wrightsville, Johnson, Georgia, USA.  He was elected temporary chairman of the 16th District Senatorial Convention that met in Dublin, Laurens, Georgia, USA in 1912.

Tombstone Tuesday

 

 Gregory Thompson "Greg" Clark

18 Jul 1963 - 11 May 2020

buried at Clark-Joiner Cemetery

Dexter, Laurens County, Georgia, USA

A Time Line for James Madison "Jim" Tapley (1847-1912)

        

 

Our connection:

Liz (that's me!)

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Gilbert Earl Tapley, 1928-2008 (my father)

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Lusion Keman Tapley, 1870-1935 (my grandfather)

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James Madison 'Jim' Tapley, 1847-1912 (my great-grandfather)

Time Line for the life of James Madison "Jim" Tapley:  

1847 Age 0	Birth	April 29 Emanuel County, Georgia, USA
1850 Age 2	Residence	Laurens County, Georgia, USA
1858 Age 11	Historical Event	Johnson County is formed from parts of Laurens and Emanuel County.
1860 Age 12	Residence	Johnson County, Georgia, USA
1861 Age 13	Historical Event	Civil War – Some 11,000 Georgians gave their lives in defense of their state – a state that suffered immense destruction.
1864-1865 Age 17-18	Military Service	March 15, 1864 – April 19, 1865 Private with Company F, 48th Regiment, Johnson County (GA) Battleground Guards.  Fought in the battles of Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, The Battle of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg (Battle of the Crater).  Surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865.  Walked back home to Georgia.
1864 Age 17	Death of Brother	July 30 Jim’s oldest brother, Francis “Frank”, died in the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia.  Frank was a 1st Corporal in the same company as Jim.
1866 Age 18	Marriage	February 18 Jim married Elizabeth Rebecca ‘Becky’ Page (1844-1924) in Johnson County, Georgia, USA.
1867 Age 19	Birth of 1st Child	Franklin Morgan “Frank” Tapley was born on April 7 in Johnson County.
1868 Age 20	Historical Event	The Fourteenth Amendment.  As one of the Reconstruction Amendments, the Fourteenth Amendment addressed the rights and protections that all citizens of the United States have. The amendment also limits actions of state and local officials in all states.
1868 Age 21	Birth of Child	A second boy, James “Jim”, was born July 17 in Johnson County.
1870 Age 22	Historical Event	The Fifteenth Amendment.  Prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s race, color, or previous condition of servitude.  It was the last of the Reconstruction Amendments.
1870 Age 22	Birth of Child	A third boy, Lusion Keman, was born on March 31.
1873 Age 25	Birth of Child	A Girl!  Elizabeth Virginia “Lizzie” was born on February 12th.
1874 Age 27	Birth of Child	Their second daughter, Magdaline, was born.
1875 Age 32	Historical Event	A New Civil Rights Act. During the response to civil rights violations to African Americans, the bill was passed giving African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and to prohibit exclusion from jury duty. While many in the public opposed this law, the African Americans greatly favored it.
1875 Age 27	Birth of Child	A daughter, Tabitha “Bosch” was born on March 10.
1876 Age 28	Historical Event	The First World’s Fair in the U.S.  The first official World’s Fair was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. 37 countries provided venues for all to see.
1876 Age 29	Historical Event	The Battle of Little Bighorn. An armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. Army. The battle was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.
1876 Age 29	Birth of Child	George Washington Sentell “Tell” was born July 5th.
1878 Age 30	Birth of Child	On April 10, Bennett Olin “Ol” was born.
1880 Age 32	Birth of Child	A girl, Marry, was born February 10.
1881 Age 33	Birth of Child	Solomon was born on March 5.
1885 Age 37	Death of Child	Daughter, Marry, died on February 25, at age 5.
1886 Age 39	Birth of Child	Vianna Bell was born October 4th.
Abt 1886 Age 39-40	Death of Child	Daughter, Magdaline, passed away when she was about 12 years old.  Jim was out of town, selling timber at the time.  He did not find out until he returned and disembarked the train in Bartow.
1889 Age 42	Birth of last child	On August 5, Bascom Bishop Tapley was born in Johnson County.
Between 1880 and 1900	Death of Parents	Sometime between the 1880 and 1900 censuses, Jim’s parents, Georgia Washington Tapley (1814-) and Elizabeth Hicks (1824-) passed away.
1910 Age 62	Residence	Johnson County, Georgia, USA
1912 Age 65	Death	Jim passed away on November 5 in Johnson County, Georgia, USA. He was buried at Oaky Grove Primitive Baptist Church cemetery right down the road from where he had lived most of his life.

 Jim and Becky had a total of 12 children; 10 of which lived to adulthood.  Jim was a farmer and had enough land to split it between all of his children.  My father used to tell many stories about his aunts and uncles.  

My Genealogy "Life" List - UPDATED

 This is an update of a post by the same name from December 29, 2010.  It can be found here.

I am still a very organized person.  I have my family history documents filed in notebooks with the spines clearly marked as to what family or family members the information in that notebook encompasses.  I have a spreadsheet of who I send Christmas cards to each year.  I have my household inventory in notebooks, clearly marked with the category included in that particular binder.  I'm not quite as organized as I was before I returned to work full-time 9 years ago, but I am still in the running.  What I am not as good at follow through.  (I get that from my dad.  Oh!  There's an idea for a blog post!).   I make lists, like any good organized person would do.  But I am not good at consulting them so they don't keep me on track as they are meant to do.  I wish I could get past that cause they are very useful for jump-starting my memory.  

I looked over my genealogy life list from 2010 and was pleasantly surprised to see that I have accomplished many of the items, without even trying.  Also, other items are no longer relevant since I got divorced in 2011 and am no longer researching my ex-husband's family.  So I am going to update it here... Bring over the items I have not gotten to do yet and add some new items to the list.

What is a Genealogy "Life" List?  For me, it is a list of things I want to do, research-wise, or places I want to visit that are related to my genealogy research and family history.  It is a to-do list, as well as a wish list.  I can easily scan photos that I have in  my house, but it will not be so easy to get to Salt Lake City, Utah to do some family history research!  My items are not in in any particular order, though I am going to try to group items by family or like themes.

-    Harrell:  Visit Darlington, South Carolina, for land records for James K. Harrell.

-    Harrell:  Check Washington County, Georgia for James Robert Harrell and Winford; possible marriage date January 6, 1880.

-    Harrell:  Find marriage license for Mary Ann Harrell and Daniel Kea in either Emanuel, Laurens, Washington, or Johnson County between 1870-1880.

-    Lampp:  Try to locate newspaper article(s) re:  Sid Lampp shooting Clifton Powell.  Possibly in Emanuel, Jefferson or Laurens County libraries.  

-    Lampp:  Find a copy of Sid and Mamie Lampp's marriage license and/or certificate at the Johnson County courthouse in Wrightsville.

 -    Lampp:  Visit Louisville City Cemetery in Louisville, Georgia to photograph the Lampp graves located there.

-    Odom:  Search for land, marriage and probate records in Marion County, South Carolina for Archibald Odom III.

-    Odom:  Get a copy of the marriage license/certificate for Elijah Samuel Odom in Laurens County.  Marriage date is 29 Oct 1835. (First find out if their records go back that far.)

-    Ranney:  Visit Middletown, Connecticut, to see where my Ranney family originated, and do research at the library there.  

-    Ranney and Hesser:  Visit Ohio, where my Ranney family migrated to the Western Reserve.  My Hesser ancestors are also from Ohio. 

-    Ranney:  Visit Michigan (Lansing area) where my Ranney family migrated from Ohio.

-    Ranney:  Visit Iowa where my Great Grandparents Ranney lived when they were first married.

-    Schwalls:  Learn how to do family research in German records so that I can find the place where my Schwalls family originated.

-    Schwalls:  Find out the names of George W. Schwalls' parents and whether he had siblings, along with their names.

-    Schwalls:  Finish transcribing the Schwalls land records I copied from the deed books in Johnson County, Georgia.  

-    Tapley:  Find news articles re:  the murder of Sentell Tapley on 12 Oct 1976.  Try Jefferson County newspaper.

-    Research (for days!) at the genealogical library in Salt Lake City.

-    Attend a genealogical conference in Salt Lake City.

-    Scan every family photo and historical document in my house.

-    Scan my negatives and turn them into digital photos.

-    Scrapbook all my family pictures, along with the stories behind them.  At the very least, names and dates! 

-    Go back to Dublin, Georgia, to do more research in their library's genealogy area... especially looking up obituaries and newspaper articles from Johnson and Emanuel Counties that pertain to my family.

-    Along with my mother, visit my Uncle Bob Plumlee's grave in the Atlanta area.

-    Meet in person my newest cousin discovery.

-    Travel to Georgia and hang out with my cousins again.

-    Spend some time with Google Earth.

-    Catch up on my genealogy email, podcasts, and seminars.

Disclaimer:  This list is not complete, nor will it ever be.  

Those Places Thursday: Johnson County, Georgia

 What can I say about Johnson County?  It is the cradle of my family.  It was home to my father and 3-4 generations before him.  It is my heritage.  It is where I come from.  It is where all the funny, sad, and poignant family stories start.  As a matter of fact, there really aren't many conversations about the Tapley family that do not include some mention of Johnson County, Georgia.

Johnson County was created by the Georgia legislature December 11, 1858 from parts of Emanuel, Laurens and Washington counties. It was the 129th county formed in Georgia.  Johnson County was named for Georgia governor, senator, and unsuccessful U.S. vice-presidential candidate Herschel Vespasian Johnson.  The county seat is Wrightsville.  The county also has the towns of Kite and Adrian (which is actually partly in Johnson and partly in Emanuel County). 

 

County Courthouse, 1923

County Courthouse, 2010

My second great-grand uncle, James M. Tapley, was one of the founders of Johnson County, helped pick the location of the county seat, and was a representative in the Georgia Legislature when the county was first formed, 1859-1860.  Most of the family were farmers, but many of them took time out to serve the county.  My second great-grandfather, George Washington Tapley, was a Magistrate and Justice of the Peace.  Another second great-grandfather, George Schwalls, served as the county's coroner.  My grand uncle, Jim Tapley, was a deputy sheriff with the county.  Several members of the family served on juries.  My great-grand uncle, Francis Tapley, my great-grandfather Jim Tapley, and my great-grandfather, George Schwalls all represented the county as CSA soldiers in the Johnson County Battleground Guards, 48th Regiment. 

Most of my ancestors are buried in Johnson County.  My great-grandparents and many other family members are buried at Oaky Grove.  Other great-grandparents are buried at Minton's Chapel.  My Drake ancestors are buried at Popular Springs.  One set of grandparents and uncles are buried at Powell's Chapel.  My other grandparents and my father are buried at Gumlog.  Other various family members are buried at several different cemeteries throughout the county.  

I still have family members living in Johnson County.  My cousin, Bennett Wesley Tapley, Jr., who is my go-to person for Tapley family history, still lives there, and I try to visit him whenever I'm there. 

It is a relatively small county with a population of less than 10,000 people.  There is not much industry there - most folks are farmers - so the population has gone down due to the lack of jobs, I imagine. 

 

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1860	2,919		—
1870	2,964		1.5%
1880	4,800		61.9%
1890	6,129		27.7%
1900	11,409		86.1%
1910	12,897		13.0%
1920	13,546		5.0%
1930	12,681		−6.4%
1940	12,953		2.1%
1950	9,893		−23.6%
1960	8,048		−18.6%
1970	7,727		−4.0%
1980	8,660		12.1%
1990	8,329		−3.8%
2000	8,560		2.8%
2010	9,980		16.6%

However, if someone was looking for country, quiet, peaceful living, Johnson County, Georgia would be a good place to go!  Maybe that's why the population increased between 2000 and 2010!

I will continue to go back there... to visit my family and learn about my roots.