Very interesting bit of history regarding the family progenitor in the new world. If you were to drop everything and take off with a group of guys on a crusade to keep Charleston, SC, I suppose you would want to get paid, too, even if the trip wasn't as successful as all that. If you'd like more knowledge about the surrender of Charleston to the British in 1780, click here.
At anywise, please enjoy the following, our link to Revolutionary War heritage. Thanks for the info to Richard Nix, by way of Aunt Ann. You should note the spelling is how it was:
North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal -- Revolutionary War Papers, compiled by Ransom McBride.
Lincoln County, North Carolina
Collans, Jacob. Request of Capt. Jacob Collans for payment to the men of his company at the surrender of Charleston in 1780, dated 14 Oct. 1786.
"Gentlemen Comitionars please to Grant the Clames of the within List Seporat as it will be mutch convenianter for me and the within Named Soldiers and you will mutch oblidg your friend and Hum'l Serv't. Signed, Jacob Collans
A just and true list of Capt. Collans es Company at the Sorender of Charlestown is as folows --
Jacob Collans -- Capt.
Joseph Beatey --- Lieut.
James Gilmore --- Sergant
David McMiken --- Sergant
William Cor___os --- Corpal.
The following are soldiers from Lincoln County,
Samuel Elison
Sacariah Sufield
Abner Warnock
George Reel
Frederick Balsdroff
Archibald Elison
James Robertson
Robert Berey
William _____
John McLean
George Rominger
James Dickson
Jonatha Thomas Givens
John Hopkins
The following are soldiers from Burke County,
Simon Pack
John Alon
Fradrick Fifinger
William Hainsworth
John Smith Hainsworth
Deposition of Capt Jacob Collans, dated 14 Oct 1786, "that the above named offisers and Soldiers was under his command at the Sorender of Charlestown in the year 1780 being Drafted from North Carolina for a three months tower of Duety and That the were peroaled home and hath not been Returned by him or Received aney order from him to receive pay for the Same and that he himself Nor Aney of the above named offisers or Soldiers his had aney Satisfaction to his knolieg.
Sworn before me ... John Carruth, JP Signed, Jacob Colans, Capt
On reverse: "Jacob Collins - Left home the 29th March 1780
Came home 26th May 1780"
Friday, October 5, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
A Noted Family
Now here's an interesting bit of history, not least because it was probably penned by the first female U.S. senator in 1885. This is just a bit of a larger column that adds some "color" to the Collins migration to the Salacoa Valley. May post more as we go.
Notes from Collins descendant Richard Nix (born 1935; died Sept. 1, 2004), who lived in Cartersville, GA: The following narrative was printed in the Cartersville Courant Thursday, July 2, 1885. The publishers of the Courant were Doctor and Mrs. W. H. Felton. Mrs. Felton (Rebecca Latimer) was the first woman to be a United States Senator. She is probably the one who wrote this narrative.
A few days ago, the writer had a pleasant call from Wm. J. Collins, the excellent superintendent of our Bartow county pauper farm, and in the course of conversation he gave us the following facts: In the year 1841, his father, James Collins, moved to this county from Cleveland County, N.C. Fifty-one persons came together in company, and of that number all were related by consanguinity except one young man by the name of Logan. They reached Pickens County (then called Gilmer) a short time before the Presidential election of 1844. The political excitement was exceedingly high, and all along the route these emigrants were saluted and questioned as to politics. Mr. James Collins was a staunch democrat and he decorated his wagon-covers with pokeberry juice in broad stripes. In the front and rear huge poke-stalks were planted, and above all towered a hickory pole, in memory of "Old Hickory" Jackson. Our friend, Wm. J., was only eight years old, but he recollects they passed a farm house where they were engaged in digging sweet potatoes. Seeing the red poke stripes on the white wagon-cover, the farmer insisted on sharing his potatoes with his Democratic friend most liberally. These staunch Democrats were not allowed to vote, however, by the Whig managers at election time. The wagons halted in old Gilmer and the new settlers proceeded to build houses. They got all the corn they wanted at fifteen cents a bushel and a sufficiency of meat at two and a half cents a pound. James Collins settled near "Skeerd Corn" church and camp ground (which the writer remembers very well from a visit made to it in the year 1879.) There was only one grave when the Collinses settled there; now there are between two and three hundred. The mother and two brothers were laid to rest at this spot before the family scattered. The father lies on the hill above the Baptist Church in Cartersville.
Notes from Collins descendant Richard Nix (born 1935; died Sept. 1, 2004), who lived in Cartersville, GA: The following narrative was printed in the Cartersville Courant Thursday, July 2, 1885. The publishers of the Courant were Doctor and Mrs. W. H. Felton. Mrs. Felton (Rebecca Latimer) was the first woman to be a United States Senator. She is probably the one who wrote this narrative.
A NOTED FAMILY
A few days ago, the writer had a pleasant call from Wm. J. Collins, the excellent superintendent of our Bartow county pauper farm, and in the course of conversation he gave us the following facts: In the year 1841, his father, James Collins, moved to this county from Cleveland County, N.C. Fifty-one persons came together in company, and of that number all were related by consanguinity except one young man by the name of Logan. They reached Pickens County (then called Gilmer) a short time before the Presidential election of 1844. The political excitement was exceedingly high, and all along the route these emigrants were saluted and questioned as to politics. Mr. James Collins was a staunch democrat and he decorated his wagon-covers with pokeberry juice in broad stripes. In the front and rear huge poke-stalks were planted, and above all towered a hickory pole, in memory of "Old Hickory" Jackson. Our friend, Wm. J., was only eight years old, but he recollects they passed a farm house where they were engaged in digging sweet potatoes. Seeing the red poke stripes on the white wagon-cover, the farmer insisted on sharing his potatoes with his Democratic friend most liberally. These staunch Democrats were not allowed to vote, however, by the Whig managers at election time. The wagons halted in old Gilmer and the new settlers proceeded to build houses. They got all the corn they wanted at fifteen cents a bushel and a sufficiency of meat at two and a half cents a pound. James Collins settled near "Skeerd Corn" church and camp ground (which the writer remembers very well from a visit made to it in the year 1879.) There was only one grave when the Collinses settled there; now there are between two and three hundred. The mother and two brothers were laid to rest at this spot before the family scattered. The father lies on the hill above the Baptist Church in Cartersville.
Resolution, I Rekon!
Perhaps one of our burning issues have been put to rest. We may have an answer regarding exactly what number to attach to the reunion going forward (refer to the 69th (70th) minutes). I posit this missive from Aunt Ann (Merritt):
Sarah Sue called last evening and wants to correct/clear up the matter of when the reunion actually began. She said the first was indeed a birthday celebration for Great Grandma in 1934, and the photo on the blog was of the 2nd reunion, in 1935. She is basing her input on the obvious ages of the babies in the photo. Her sister Pat, born in 1933, is one of them, and Sarah Sue says Pat is nearly a year old in the photo.
I don’t know how all the confusion began, but I guess it was because of the date on the photo where 1935 had been marked out and 1936 written in beside it.
Thus, because of the past relative's errant jot some unknown number of years previous, the relative of some years hence is perched over all of this newfangled technology correcting the error whereas otherwise he might have been enjoying an iced tea on the veranda, if he in fact owned such a thing. Just shows once again how how a few strokes of a pen can alter history -- Jefferson, Lincoln, Collins. So, in case you had your teeth on edge, this last one was the 72nd Collins Reunion. Rest well tonight.
Sarah Sue called last evening and wants to correct/clear up the matter of when the reunion actually began. She said the first was indeed a birthday celebration for Great Grandma in 1934, and the photo on the blog was of the 2nd reunion, in 1935. She is basing her input on the obvious ages of the babies in the photo. Her sister Pat, born in 1933, is one of them, and Sarah Sue says Pat is nearly a year old in the photo.
I don’t know how all the confusion began, but I guess it was because of the date on the photo where 1935 had been marked out and 1936 written in beside it.
Thus, because of the past relative's errant jot some unknown number of years previous, the relative of some years hence is perched over all of this newfangled technology correcting the error whereas otherwise he might have been enjoying an iced tea on the veranda, if he in fact owned such a thing. Just shows once again how how a few strokes of a pen can alter history -- Jefferson, Lincoln, Collins. So, in case you had your teeth on edge, this last one was the 72nd Collins Reunion. Rest well tonight.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Collins Family Reunion #2
The Collins family reunion started as a birthday party for family matriarch Nancy Ann Thompson Collins in 1935. Her birthday being on September 12, it was determined that the reunion be held on the Sunday closest, which is the second Sunday in September. Here is a picture of that second reunion at the old homeplace, with grandma perched in the rocking chair in the middle of the second row. Blest be the tie, and such. (When you click on it, it gets bigger!)
Some context for the latest version of the reunion minutes
You may read a reference in the latest version of the minutes from the Collins family reunion regarding the "historic, family-led massacre at Hinton Methodist Church." So as not to obfuscate the family history, I offer some historic context about the event that I trust the reader will find helpful. Some family members may be mortified by my actions herewith, however I think it fairly appropriate to pay tribute to those from our past who have given us something to continue to gossip about today. Probably quite unintentionally, ancestors achieve their own, imperfect level of immortality, and hopefully we are the better for it. At any rate, the results can be colorful. Thus, following is a bit of Collins family history sent to me by Ann (Collins) Merritt of Asheville, NC. All credit, of course, to Mr. Davis, the author who, for whatever reason, developed an interest in the first place:
THE LAST OF A CIVIL WAR: THE SCARECORN MASSACRE
by Robert S. Davis, Jr.
In the popular mind, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant in April 1865 and the Civil War ended. In fact other Confederate armies surrendered over the month that followed and some of the Confederate forces, such as General Nathan Forrest's cavalry corps, didn't surrender at all but eventually informally disbanded.
During the several months that followed Lee's surrender, fighting continued throughout the nation. Two books have covered some of the turbulence of this period, Burke Davis' The Long Surrender (1985) and Noah Andre Trudeau's Out of the Storm (1994) but much remains to be told. Hordes of starving and desperate Confederate soldiers trying to return to their homes rioted and broke into former Confederate depots. Some of these men turned to outright banditry of private property. Even before the war ended, gangs of armed deserters from both armies roamed the South committing pillage just outside of the reach of any organized military force. The advancing federal forces also had to deal with suspicious fires and explosions that destroyed federal facilities, North and South, as well as steamer and locomotive explosions killing Yankee soldiers returning home.
For the soldiers of blue, the war had hardly ended at all. When no other way of ending the war seemed possible, President Abraham Lincoln had considered peace terms that allowed local officials in the South to retain their public offices. Such a plan would have kept operating the machinery of civil law and order in many areas of the crumbling Confederacy. Lee's sudden surrender, however, persuaded Lincoln to abandon this idea and the president's assassination shortly afterwards hardened federal authorities to allowing any continuation of any semblance of the former southern governments.
Historian Henry C. Hyde, Jr. argues that this end of civil authority and the local influence of the wealthy planters began an era of escalating acts of personal violence that continued in much of the South, including Pickens County, through the 1890s in lieu of rule of law. A class of southern "plain folk" armed, used to violence, and with a greatly diminished regard for political authority now acted as vigilantes.
One particularly bloody example of this new age took place at the Scarecorn Methodist Campground and Tabernacle in Pickens County's community of Hinton. It is a tale of how several people came to die because of a cow. The people of Hinton lived in the hill country rather than the mountains of North Georgia but they lacked the transportation system in 1860 to make cotton a viable crop. Few of them owned slaves and they greeted secession with mixed feelings. Strongly Methodist, the people of this area ultimately likely named their community for James Wootten Hinton, the well known author and North Georgia Methodist leader. When the war came, the local people divided with those opposed to secession forming a Methodist church separate from the original Methodist church at Hinton.
Hinton's problems reflected those of surrounding Pickens County, where supporters of the Union raised and protected a United States flag over the Pickens County court house in protest of secession. During the war, Pickens raised both Confederate and Union companies, while suffering cavalry invasions from both armies.
The war officially ended in the Spring of 1865 but the hatreds and the violence continued. Henry Ledford had traveled north of the Ohio River to avoid the war. However, he eventually enlisted in the 144th Indiana Infantry. Returning home to Pickens County, he was gunned down and killed in the streets of the county seat of Jasper by former Confederates. When the Pickens County grand jury convened after the war, under the protection of federal troops, the jury men lamented on the necessity of the people having to carry guns to walk the streets of Jasper safely. Hinton specifically obtained a reputation for violence through the 1920s.
Many of the Civil War veterans had long standing grudges. In 1862, a John H. Paxton recruited several men in eastern Gordon County and western Pickens County, including the Hinton area. He offered to take the men through the Confederate lines to the Union army. After the men formed and followed Paxton, he led them into a Confederate camp and enlisted them as Company F of the 1st Georgia Confederate "Volunteer" Cavalry Regiment. Paxton received the rank of lieutenant and a large bounty fee before going home to Pickens County on sick leave and then obtaining a medical discharge from the army. His victims, after hard fighting and riding in Tennessee and Kentucky, deserted or, as they claimed, escaped from the Confederate army in 1863. With Tom Hailey as a guide, fifty-six of these men and their relations reached the federal lines and joined Union units, especially the 10th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. Some of these men, including the Nallys, were captured by Confederate Home Guard in Tennessee en route to the federal lines but managed to escape.
According to Nally family tradition, the final cause of the Scarecorn shootings began with a cow. With the war over and discharged from service, Jesse Aaron, Bailey ("Dick"), and Elijah Nally of the 10th Tennessee returned home to Pickens County to learn of their farm being looted, the family cow having been taken, and their mother abused by the local Confederate Home Guard. Even worse, the Nallys learned that the Home Guard had not taken the cow to the Confederate Commissary but had sold it. Some accounts claim that the cow actually belonged to Edy Gravely, the mother of their neighbor Franklin A.Gravely, formerly of the 1st Tennessee Artillery (Union) and the son of prominent local blacksmith Booker Gravely. The Nally brothers and Frank set out for the Scarecorn Campground to confront some of the men who took the cow.
The history behind the violence that followed had other dimensions far beyond Hinton community. Before the war, many young men from northwest Georgia, some from prominent families, traveled to the then western states to seek their fortunes. How many of them became involved in the violence between "free soil" northerners and pro-slavery southerners remains unknown. When the war came, these men returned to Georgia and enlisted in the Confederate army. They found the discipline and the sacrifices of the formal military not to their liking and deserted.
Georgia Confederate Governor Joseph E. Brown had no military forces left in 1864 to arrest these men. Historian Keith Bohannon believes that Brown dealt with the problem by allowing these deserters to form county home guard units to arrest other deserters and draft evaders, as well as to act as commissaries and as a force to suppress anti-Confederate activities. Although largely deserters themselves, these home guards herded hundreds of unwilling recruits to the Confederate army.
Most of the records of the official sanction for these units long ago disappeared. Family tales and the Confederate press describe these men as riding about the countryside in their distinctive broad brimmed hats, long hair, and spurs, stealing, torturing, and killing, with little distinction between them and the growing numbers of bandits and deserters led by such men as John Gatewood. Booker Gravely of Pickens County made a deposition in the post war claim of John Johnson of how he and hundreds of his neighbors had to hide out in the woods from such men during the war. The home guards serves as the nemesis in the new novel Cold Mountain.
Home guard units led by such men as Captain Benjamin F. Jordon of Pickens County and Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin F. McCollum of Cherokee County acted as effective guerrillas against the federal supply lines as General Sherman's army moved south against Atlanta in the summer of 1864. As the federals fought desperately against their rebel counterparts, the home guard preyed upon the more than 100 railroad cars of supplies per day that Sherman's army needed to stay supplied. Eventually half of Sheman's command defended the railroad and chased the guerrillas. Sherman and his chief subordinate, Major General George H. Thomas, took harsh measures against anyone suspected of aiding the guerrillas. Hundreds of Georgia civilians were moved to the federal prison camp at Louisville, Kentucky and entire families were moved to the North behind federal lines.
The Scarecorn shootings took place in this atmosphere, heightened hostility and despair after the official end of the war. A newspaper account appeared in the Rome Weekly Courier of September 7, 1865. The paper quoted a "source deemed entirely reliable" that a man named Nally and a man named Gravely on Sunday August 27, 1865 entered a church in Pickens County during preaching and called out two men against whom they had a long standing grudge. When the men refused to comply, Nally and Gravely went in and killed one while mortally wounding the other. A woman was accidentally shot but recovered. The following Wednesday, Lieutenant Harper of the 29th Indiana Infantry arrived with three soldiers and three Cartersville civilians, Thomas Hancock, Bell Collins, and Ben Smith, at the "Gravely" House. In the fray that followed, Collins, Smith, old man Gravely, Gravely's three sons, and Nally were killed or mortally wounded with no injury to the federal troops or to the two women present in the cabin.
A different version by a Collins relative appeared in the Cartersville Courant, July 2, 1885. The Collins family had moved to North Georgia in the 1840s from Cleveland County, North Carolina. Many of them had served in the Confederate army including Captain Miles Collins of the 23rd Georgia Infantry. In August 1865, several of the family attended a funeral at the Scarecorn Campground. Men entered the tabernacle and called for Boswell Collins to step outside. His brother (Should be, his cousin) Miller told him not to do it. The Collins pulled knives and the Nallys and Gravely pulled guns. Berry Collins fell dead. His brother, Boswell Collins, mortally wounded, left a bloody hand print on the pulpit. A Collins relative, married that morning, suffered a shot through the elbow, and a bullet passed through the hip of a small boy. Pickens County historian Luke Tate learned many years later that Bailey and Elijah Nally suffered knife wounds, the former serious cuts, from the affray.
Bell Collins of Cartersville learned of what had happened to his brothers-in-law (Should be his brother and his brother-in-law) of the same surname and went to the federal troops at Cartersville for help. With a posse of federal troops and civilians, he reached the Nally cabin between today's Ludville and Fairmount by the following Tuesday night. Bell Collins and Smith stormed into the cabin, reportedly yelling that if the Nallys wanted the home guard they would have them now. However, the Nallys killed Collins and Smith. The federal soldiers fired through the cracks between the logs. Wounded, Frank Gravely fled the cabin and offered to surrender but, according to the Collins's account, then tried to fire and a federal soldier bayoneted him. According to his mother's later pension claim, he died the next day at her cabin. The federal soldiers loaded their dead in their wagons and withdrew.
Benson Nally, the head of the family and the South Carolina born son of an Irish immigrant, was wounded but lived and later moved to Illinois, where he died in 1888.
The brothers Jesse and Bailey Nally told their version of the "troubles" in their federal pension claims many years later. They omitted mentioning the Scarecorn campground shooting but claimed that Confederate bushwhackers stormed their home at supper time in August 1865, leaving their brother Elijah and their sister Gracy Ann dead. Jesse Aaron Nally changed his name to Jesse P. McAnally and lived in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas before his death in Pemiscot County, Missouri on September 15, 1924. His brother Bailey moved to Illinois, where he died in Pulaski County on January 1, 1927. An agent for the federal pension office later wrote sarcastically of Bailey Nally, "Judge Lynch, from all accounts, would have presided at claimant's trial if he had not made his escape with lightning-like rapidity" from the "regular massacre" he helped to create.
Jerry Nally believes that, aside from family prejudices, the differences in the original account in the Rome Courier and the various family stories can be understood through Lieutenant Harper's motives. Although born in Madina, Ohio in 1839, the five foot ten inch George W. Harper of Plymouth, Indiana enlisted in the 29th Indiana Infantry at La Porte in 1861. He served at the Battle of Shiloh and was captured by the Confederates in Kentucky in 1862 but he spent much of the war as a private and either absent as sick or on detached duty. He was promoted to sergeant in the summer of 1864 and to 1st lieutenant in the Spring of 1865. Although, his regiment was alternatively stationed at Marietta and Dalton, in May 1865, he and some of his men served on detached provost marshal duty at Cartersville.
Bell Collins had likely persuaded Harper to intervene in what Collins likely described as a public outrage. The lieutenant and his soldiers instead found themselves in the middle of bloody family feud. With most of the principals dead but none of his own men harmed, Harper withdrew before a bad situation became worse. He likely was the anonymous source for the garbled story for the Rome press that misidentified the Nallys as the Gravelys and which was later carried by other Georgia newspapers. Harper likely used the story as a means of persuading his superiors not to investigate further. His plan succeeded for no paperwork exists today in the National Archives about the Scarecorn shootings beyond the pension depositions that the Nallys made decades later.
With the many different troubles that the dwindling federal army had to deal with in the Summer of 1865, Harper's superiors likely saw no reason to look into a matter that Harper persuaded them had taken care of itself.
The Army's Department of Georgia had jails filled not only with their own unruly soldiers but growing numbers of civilians guilty of civil crimes. At almost that same moment, federal troops in nearby Cherokee County, Alabama, while recovering federal horses stolen by the gang of the bandit Gatewood, were fired upon and pursued by a posse of 100 men led by the local sheriff, attempting to arrest the federal soldiers! At the same time, the army had to deal with guerrillas in Chattanooga; men in federal uniforms committing robberies in Twiggs County; arsonists trying to destroy the Springfield (Massachusetts) Arsenal; roving gangs in Columbia, South Carolina and in Mississippi; lynchings in East Tennessee; and Iowa City going up in flames.
Harper and his regiment were formally mustered out of service on December 2, 1865. He moved to Douglas County, Minnesota where he married Mary Ingersoll on June 24, 1868 and began what became a large family. George W. Harper died at Cheppewa Lake, Medina County, Ohio on January 24, 1891.
For Harper, the Civil War finally ended on that date for after that no one could question him from then on about what happened in Pickens County in August 1865. The Nallys and the Collinses probably found their closure no sooner. Although these incidents took place after the surrender of the major Confederate armies, the Scarecorn shootings also occurred before the restoration of any civil law and order under the reunited United States. As the attorney for Edy Gravely, Frank Gravely's widowed mother argued, whenever he died and by whomever's hand, he died because he had been a soldier of the United States army and at a time when that army owed him protection. In the region wide confusion of the times, however, he fell at the hands of his comrades as they defended their former enemies. The parsimonious federal government, however, as much as possible avoided paying any benefits for any losses, under any circumstances, after the official end of the war.
The Civil War ended for each survivor in their own way, place, and time.
Acknowledgement: The author would like to thank the Nally family for their help in this research, especially Tamara McAnally, Paul Nally, and Jerry Nally.
Western soldiers of the federal army, unwillingly had to try to take on the responsibility for law order in Georgia for several months after the Civil War officially ended.
The Scarecorn Campground still stands next to the Hinton Methodist Church. Some members still remember a bloody hand print on the pulpit still visible decades after the shooting. (The author)
Many North Georgia families lived in rural isolation. Despite mixed feelings about the Confederacy, frequently such families lost most of their property and many family members to the war. (The author)
THE LAST OF A CIVIL WAR: THE SCARECORN MASSACRE
by Robert S. Davis, Jr.
In the popular mind, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant in April 1865 and the Civil War ended. In fact other Confederate armies surrendered over the month that followed and some of the Confederate forces, such as General Nathan Forrest's cavalry corps, didn't surrender at all but eventually informally disbanded.
During the several months that followed Lee's surrender, fighting continued throughout the nation. Two books have covered some of the turbulence of this period, Burke Davis' The Long Surrender (1985) and Noah Andre Trudeau's Out of the Storm (1994) but much remains to be told. Hordes of starving and desperate Confederate soldiers trying to return to their homes rioted and broke into former Confederate depots. Some of these men turned to outright banditry of private property. Even before the war ended, gangs of armed deserters from both armies roamed the South committing pillage just outside of the reach of any organized military force. The advancing federal forces also had to deal with suspicious fires and explosions that destroyed federal facilities, North and South, as well as steamer and locomotive explosions killing Yankee soldiers returning home.
For the soldiers of blue, the war had hardly ended at all. When no other way of ending the war seemed possible, President Abraham Lincoln had considered peace terms that allowed local officials in the South to retain their public offices. Such a plan would have kept operating the machinery of civil law and order in many areas of the crumbling Confederacy. Lee's sudden surrender, however, persuaded Lincoln to abandon this idea and the president's assassination shortly afterwards hardened federal authorities to allowing any continuation of any semblance of the former southern governments.
Historian Henry C. Hyde, Jr. argues that this end of civil authority and the local influence of the wealthy planters began an era of escalating acts of personal violence that continued in much of the South, including Pickens County, through the 1890s in lieu of rule of law. A class of southern "plain folk" armed, used to violence, and with a greatly diminished regard for political authority now acted as vigilantes.
One particularly bloody example of this new age took place at the Scarecorn Methodist Campground and Tabernacle in Pickens County's community of Hinton. It is a tale of how several people came to die because of a cow. The people of Hinton lived in the hill country rather than the mountains of North Georgia but they lacked the transportation system in 1860 to make cotton a viable crop. Few of them owned slaves and they greeted secession with mixed feelings. Strongly Methodist, the people of this area ultimately likely named their community for James Wootten Hinton, the well known author and North Georgia Methodist leader. When the war came, the local people divided with those opposed to secession forming a Methodist church separate from the original Methodist church at Hinton.
Hinton's problems reflected those of surrounding Pickens County, where supporters of the Union raised and protected a United States flag over the Pickens County court house in protest of secession. During the war, Pickens raised both Confederate and Union companies, while suffering cavalry invasions from both armies.
The war officially ended in the Spring of 1865 but the hatreds and the violence continued. Henry Ledford had traveled north of the Ohio River to avoid the war. However, he eventually enlisted in the 144th Indiana Infantry. Returning home to Pickens County, he was gunned down and killed in the streets of the county seat of Jasper by former Confederates. When the Pickens County grand jury convened after the war, under the protection of federal troops, the jury men lamented on the necessity of the people having to carry guns to walk the streets of Jasper safely. Hinton specifically obtained a reputation for violence through the 1920s.
Many of the Civil War veterans had long standing grudges. In 1862, a John H. Paxton recruited several men in eastern Gordon County and western Pickens County, including the Hinton area. He offered to take the men through the Confederate lines to the Union army. After the men formed and followed Paxton, he led them into a Confederate camp and enlisted them as Company F of the 1st Georgia Confederate "Volunteer" Cavalry Regiment. Paxton received the rank of lieutenant and a large bounty fee before going home to Pickens County on sick leave and then obtaining a medical discharge from the army. His victims, after hard fighting and riding in Tennessee and Kentucky, deserted or, as they claimed, escaped from the Confederate army in 1863. With Tom Hailey as a guide, fifty-six of these men and their relations reached the federal lines and joined Union units, especially the 10th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. Some of these men, including the Nallys, were captured by Confederate Home Guard in Tennessee en route to the federal lines but managed to escape.
According to Nally family tradition, the final cause of the Scarecorn shootings began with a cow. With the war over and discharged from service, Jesse Aaron, Bailey ("Dick"), and Elijah Nally of the 10th Tennessee returned home to Pickens County to learn of their farm being looted, the family cow having been taken, and their mother abused by the local Confederate Home Guard. Even worse, the Nallys learned that the Home Guard had not taken the cow to the Confederate Commissary but had sold it. Some accounts claim that the cow actually belonged to Edy Gravely, the mother of their neighbor Franklin A.Gravely, formerly of the 1st Tennessee Artillery (Union) and the son of prominent local blacksmith Booker Gravely. The Nally brothers and Frank set out for the Scarecorn Campground to confront some of the men who took the cow.
The history behind the violence that followed had other dimensions far beyond Hinton community. Before the war, many young men from northwest Georgia, some from prominent families, traveled to the then western states to seek their fortunes. How many of them became involved in the violence between "free soil" northerners and pro-slavery southerners remains unknown. When the war came, these men returned to Georgia and enlisted in the Confederate army. They found the discipline and the sacrifices of the formal military not to their liking and deserted.
Georgia Confederate Governor Joseph E. Brown had no military forces left in 1864 to arrest these men. Historian Keith Bohannon believes that Brown dealt with the problem by allowing these deserters to form county home guard units to arrest other deserters and draft evaders, as well as to act as commissaries and as a force to suppress anti-Confederate activities. Although largely deserters themselves, these home guards herded hundreds of unwilling recruits to the Confederate army.
Most of the records of the official sanction for these units long ago disappeared. Family tales and the Confederate press describe these men as riding about the countryside in their distinctive broad brimmed hats, long hair, and spurs, stealing, torturing, and killing, with little distinction between them and the growing numbers of bandits and deserters led by such men as John Gatewood. Booker Gravely of Pickens County made a deposition in the post war claim of John Johnson of how he and hundreds of his neighbors had to hide out in the woods from such men during the war. The home guards serves as the nemesis in the new novel Cold Mountain.
Home guard units led by such men as Captain Benjamin F. Jordon of Pickens County and Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin F. McCollum of Cherokee County acted as effective guerrillas against the federal supply lines as General Sherman's army moved south against Atlanta in the summer of 1864. As the federals fought desperately against their rebel counterparts, the home guard preyed upon the more than 100 railroad cars of supplies per day that Sherman's army needed to stay supplied. Eventually half of Sheman's command defended the railroad and chased the guerrillas. Sherman and his chief subordinate, Major General George H. Thomas, took harsh measures against anyone suspected of aiding the guerrillas. Hundreds of Georgia civilians were moved to the federal prison camp at Louisville, Kentucky and entire families were moved to the North behind federal lines.
The Scarecorn shootings took place in this atmosphere, heightened hostility and despair after the official end of the war. A newspaper account appeared in the Rome Weekly Courier of September 7, 1865. The paper quoted a "source deemed entirely reliable" that a man named Nally and a man named Gravely on Sunday August 27, 1865 entered a church in Pickens County during preaching and called out two men against whom they had a long standing grudge. When the men refused to comply, Nally and Gravely went in and killed one while mortally wounding the other. A woman was accidentally shot but recovered. The following Wednesday, Lieutenant Harper of the 29th Indiana Infantry arrived with three soldiers and three Cartersville civilians, Thomas Hancock, Bell Collins, and Ben Smith, at the "Gravely" House. In the fray that followed, Collins, Smith, old man Gravely, Gravely's three sons, and Nally were killed or mortally wounded with no injury to the federal troops or to the two women present in the cabin.
A different version by a Collins relative appeared in the Cartersville Courant, July 2, 1885. The Collins family had moved to North Georgia in the 1840s from Cleveland County, North Carolina. Many of them had served in the Confederate army including Captain Miles Collins of the 23rd Georgia Infantry. In August 1865, several of the family attended a funeral at the Scarecorn Campground. Men entered the tabernacle and called for Boswell Collins to step outside. His brother (Should be, his cousin) Miller told him not to do it. The Collins pulled knives and the Nallys and Gravely pulled guns. Berry Collins fell dead. His brother, Boswell Collins, mortally wounded, left a bloody hand print on the pulpit. A Collins relative, married that morning, suffered a shot through the elbow, and a bullet passed through the hip of a small boy. Pickens County historian Luke Tate learned many years later that Bailey and Elijah Nally suffered knife wounds, the former serious cuts, from the affray.
Bell Collins of Cartersville learned of what had happened to his brothers-in-law (Should be his brother and his brother-in-law) of the same surname and went to the federal troops at Cartersville for help. With a posse of federal troops and civilians, he reached the Nally cabin between today's Ludville and Fairmount by the following Tuesday night. Bell Collins and Smith stormed into the cabin, reportedly yelling that if the Nallys wanted the home guard they would have them now. However, the Nallys killed Collins and Smith. The federal soldiers fired through the cracks between the logs. Wounded, Frank Gravely fled the cabin and offered to surrender but, according to the Collins's account, then tried to fire and a federal soldier bayoneted him. According to his mother's later pension claim, he died the next day at her cabin. The federal soldiers loaded their dead in their wagons and withdrew.
Benson Nally, the head of the family and the South Carolina born son of an Irish immigrant, was wounded but lived and later moved to Illinois, where he died in 1888.
The brothers Jesse and Bailey Nally told their version of the "troubles" in their federal pension claims many years later. They omitted mentioning the Scarecorn campground shooting but claimed that Confederate bushwhackers stormed their home at supper time in August 1865, leaving their brother Elijah and their sister Gracy Ann dead. Jesse Aaron Nally changed his name to Jesse P. McAnally and lived in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas before his death in Pemiscot County, Missouri on September 15, 1924. His brother Bailey moved to Illinois, where he died in Pulaski County on January 1, 1927. An agent for the federal pension office later wrote sarcastically of Bailey Nally, "Judge Lynch, from all accounts, would have presided at claimant's trial if he had not made his escape with lightning-like rapidity" from the "regular massacre" he helped to create.
Jerry Nally believes that, aside from family prejudices, the differences in the original account in the Rome Courier and the various family stories can be understood through Lieutenant Harper's motives. Although born in Madina, Ohio in 1839, the five foot ten inch George W. Harper of Plymouth, Indiana enlisted in the 29th Indiana Infantry at La Porte in 1861. He served at the Battle of Shiloh and was captured by the Confederates in Kentucky in 1862 but he spent much of the war as a private and either absent as sick or on detached duty. He was promoted to sergeant in the summer of 1864 and to 1st lieutenant in the Spring of 1865. Although, his regiment was alternatively stationed at Marietta and Dalton, in May 1865, he and some of his men served on detached provost marshal duty at Cartersville.
Bell Collins had likely persuaded Harper to intervene in what Collins likely described as a public outrage. The lieutenant and his soldiers instead found themselves in the middle of bloody family feud. With most of the principals dead but none of his own men harmed, Harper withdrew before a bad situation became worse. He likely was the anonymous source for the garbled story for the Rome press that misidentified the Nallys as the Gravelys and which was later carried by other Georgia newspapers. Harper likely used the story as a means of persuading his superiors not to investigate further. His plan succeeded for no paperwork exists today in the National Archives about the Scarecorn shootings beyond the pension depositions that the Nallys made decades later.
With the many different troubles that the dwindling federal army had to deal with in the Summer of 1865, Harper's superiors likely saw no reason to look into a matter that Harper persuaded them had taken care of itself.
The Army's Department of Georgia had jails filled not only with their own unruly soldiers but growing numbers of civilians guilty of civil crimes. At almost that same moment, federal troops in nearby Cherokee County, Alabama, while recovering federal horses stolen by the gang of the bandit Gatewood, were fired upon and pursued by a posse of 100 men led by the local sheriff, attempting to arrest the federal soldiers! At the same time, the army had to deal with guerrillas in Chattanooga; men in federal uniforms committing robberies in Twiggs County; arsonists trying to destroy the Springfield (Massachusetts) Arsenal; roving gangs in Columbia, South Carolina and in Mississippi; lynchings in East Tennessee; and Iowa City going up in flames.
Harper and his regiment were formally mustered out of service on December 2, 1865. He moved to Douglas County, Minnesota where he married Mary Ingersoll on June 24, 1868 and began what became a large family. George W. Harper died at Cheppewa Lake, Medina County, Ohio on January 24, 1891.
For Harper, the Civil War finally ended on that date for after that no one could question him from then on about what happened in Pickens County in August 1865. The Nallys and the Collinses probably found their closure no sooner. Although these incidents took place after the surrender of the major Confederate armies, the Scarecorn shootings also occurred before the restoration of any civil law and order under the reunited United States. As the attorney for Edy Gravely, Frank Gravely's widowed mother argued, whenever he died and by whomever's hand, he died because he had been a soldier of the United States army and at a time when that army owed him protection. In the region wide confusion of the times, however, he fell at the hands of his comrades as they defended their former enemies. The parsimonious federal government, however, as much as possible avoided paying any benefits for any losses, under any circumstances, after the official end of the war.
The Civil War ended for each survivor in their own way, place, and time.
Acknowledgement: The author would like to thank the Nally family for their help in this research, especially Tamara McAnally, Paul Nally, and Jerry Nally.
Western soldiers of the federal army, unwillingly had to try to take on the responsibility for law order in Georgia for several months after the Civil War officially ended.
The Scarecorn Campground still stands next to the Hinton Methodist Church. Some members still remember a bloody hand print on the pulpit still visible decades after the shooting. (The author)
Many North Georgia families lived in rural isolation. Despite mixed feelings about the Confederacy, frequently such families lost most of their property and many family members to the war. (The author)
Minutes from the 71st (72nd) Collins Family Reunion
There are certain life events that can be said to have an air of inevitability, like the sun rising in the east, the sun setting in the west, children starting out cute, then growing up to be really annoying, and everything weird coming from the West Coast. Inevitable may also be an apt description of the really long food line that develops in the fellowship hall of Goshen Baptist Church following the service on the second Sunday of September.
Once again, the Collins family and those closely related made their annual eating pilgrimage to Goshen, the ancestral church in the Salacoa Valley. Officially, 89 souls were recorded as attending, but the crowd looked a lot bigger in the fellowship hall.
Ultimately, the business of the family was undertaken in the church sanctuary, presided over by outgoing President Sonny Collins. Secretary Wayne Collins assailed the assembled with a recitation of the minutes from the following year. They were approved to be inscribed forever into the annals of family history, or at least written on the next page of the Minutes book.
First up was the unfinished business of the annual cemetery cleaning. As the current condition of the residents do not predispose them to accomplish it on their own, John H. Bennett normally, albeit reluctantly, accepts a certain remuneration for cleaning and caretaking services he provides on their behalf. This year, however, John H. insisted that his payment be applied toward purchase of new red songbooks for the church, surmising that $250 is a small price to pay if it might improve overall performance in the family sing-a-long.
Sensing an opening, the President decided it was time to lob a joke at the audience, something about a $20 bill and a $1 bill going to church. Details were not recorded, but it is noted that the joke had to be told twice and explained before the punch line finally took. Mercifully, this ended the old business section of the meeting.
The meeting then proceeded to new business, the first part of which involved the biennial sideshow called election of officers. President Sonny Collins, eager to give up the gavel after two grueling years in office, called for nominations from the floor. The first victim was Wayne Collins, who received a consecutive nomination for an office that had already been thrust upon him two years previous. Before protest could be registered, he was re-elected by acclamation. Feeling victimized, Wayne immediately nominated his brother, Greg Collins, for the office of Vice President. He was elected by acclamation before he knew what hit him. Emboldened by success, Wayne then proceeded to nominate Anna Lee Moss for President. Having a woman in charge again seemed to strike the assembly as a good idea, as it was determined the men folks haven’t done much with it. She was immediately railroaded into office, which everybody thought served her right.
With future leadership decided for better or worse, the business of the lists proceeded. Many in the family were apparently otherwise occupied for most of the year, due to the relatively large numbers of new births reported. Those were:
· Colin Evan Ulm—July 14, 2006
· Noah Moss Travis, born August 11, 2006 to Christin and Jacob Travis
· Sarah Catherine Hastey, born July 21, 2006 to Cary and Todd Hastey
· Camden Neighbors, son of Carol and Patrick Neighbors and Grandson of Jim and Pat (Collins) Hunt, born on October 27, 2005
· Henry Lewis Carter, first great grandson of Jimmy Carter (the President), September 2, 2006—apparently related in some fashion.
Unfortunately, there were two deaths to report from the previous year:
M.J. Hensley, Sr.—November 7, 2005
Sandra Elaine Wise—October 16, 2005 in Birmingham, AL
Most Senior:
Estelle Hughes at 96 eventful years
The Man-Mile award :
The battle over who came the furthest was between Linda Bennett Pennel from Houston TX, and Marion Barri from Allen, TX. As no one had a map handy, it was decided that it would be called a tie.
The newly married were as follows:
Brett Rogers to Sarah Powell in September (Grandson of Yteva Frye)
Mark Francis Merritt to Heather Huskes, May 13 in Weaverville, NC. (Son of Logan and Ann Merritt)
The old-ly married among us were congratulated:
Billy and Ruth Beard—married 60 years
Howard and Marie Collins—married 60 years. There was some movement among the assembled that a commemorative medal should be struck and awarded to Marie for her efforts.
First-timers to the reunion were recognized:
Annette Nichols and Dr. Elvin Hobgood from Canton, who came with Don and Henrietta Campbell
Jim Langford from Calhoun
Ashley Moss and Kristen Mueller – while they have attended the reunion many times, this year was the first time they bothered to attend a business meeting.
Following all that, the outgoing president introduced our distinguished guest. As the family is not used to have distinguished guests, this could also be classified among the firsts. Mr. Jim Langford, a historian in Cherokee County, made a right interesting presentation about the Collins’ of North Carolina. A summation of the highlights were as follows:
--The family left North Carolina in the 1830s due to drought.
--Mary Collins, the niece of Jacob Collins, was married to George Perry, who killed her for some reason, possibly over something to do with a ’possum.
--Mr. Perry was unceremoniously hung and buried near the old homeplace. It was said that later on some of the family dug him up and sold him off for use in medical experiments.
At the conclusion of the presentation, Anna Lee spoke up and said she had some new information regarding the historic, family-led massacre at Hinton Methodist Church. At this point, President Sonny asked if anyone had anything good to report about the family. His question being met with grim silence, he determined it was time to move along to the singing.
Bobby Cleghorn led the sing-a-long, which seemed to switch between the red book and the green book like a traffic light. As another first, the singing included a popular hit song by Cat Stevens, which was right there in the green book. The rendition, however, did not sound like him in the least.
Don Campbell offered the closing prayer and, following “Blest be the Tie”, the 71st (or so)* annual reunion was adjourned.
______________________
*Ann’s note:
It should be noted that in reality, it was the 72nd annual reunion. According to Yeteva Bennett Frye after the meeting yesterday, it began when she was not quite two months old, in September 1934, as a celebration of the birthday of Nancy Ann Thompson Collins (born September 12, 1851; died April 27, 1944).
Once again, the Collins family and those closely related made their annual eating pilgrimage to Goshen, the ancestral church in the Salacoa Valley. Officially, 89 souls were recorded as attending, but the crowd looked a lot bigger in the fellowship hall.
Ultimately, the business of the family was undertaken in the church sanctuary, presided over by outgoing President Sonny Collins. Secretary Wayne Collins assailed the assembled with a recitation of the minutes from the following year. They were approved to be inscribed forever into the annals of family history, or at least written on the next page of the Minutes book.
First up was the unfinished business of the annual cemetery cleaning. As the current condition of the residents do not predispose them to accomplish it on their own, John H. Bennett normally, albeit reluctantly, accepts a certain remuneration for cleaning and caretaking services he provides on their behalf. This year, however, John H. insisted that his payment be applied toward purchase of new red songbooks for the church, surmising that $250 is a small price to pay if it might improve overall performance in the family sing-a-long.
Sensing an opening, the President decided it was time to lob a joke at the audience, something about a $20 bill and a $1 bill going to church. Details were not recorded, but it is noted that the joke had to be told twice and explained before the punch line finally took. Mercifully, this ended the old business section of the meeting.
The meeting then proceeded to new business, the first part of which involved the biennial sideshow called election of officers. President Sonny Collins, eager to give up the gavel after two grueling years in office, called for nominations from the floor. The first victim was Wayne Collins, who received a consecutive nomination for an office that had already been thrust upon him two years previous. Before protest could be registered, he was re-elected by acclamation. Feeling victimized, Wayne immediately nominated his brother, Greg Collins, for the office of Vice President. He was elected by acclamation before he knew what hit him. Emboldened by success, Wayne then proceeded to nominate Anna Lee Moss for President. Having a woman in charge again seemed to strike the assembly as a good idea, as it was determined the men folks haven’t done much with it. She was immediately railroaded into office, which everybody thought served her right.
With future leadership decided for better or worse, the business of the lists proceeded. Many in the family were apparently otherwise occupied for most of the year, due to the relatively large numbers of new births reported. Those were:
· Colin Evan Ulm—July 14, 2006
· Noah Moss Travis, born August 11, 2006 to Christin and Jacob Travis
· Sarah Catherine Hastey, born July 21, 2006 to Cary and Todd Hastey
· Camden Neighbors, son of Carol and Patrick Neighbors and Grandson of Jim and Pat (Collins) Hunt, born on October 27, 2005
· Henry Lewis Carter, first great grandson of Jimmy Carter (the President), September 2, 2006—apparently related in some fashion.
Unfortunately, there were two deaths to report from the previous year:
M.J. Hensley, Sr.—November 7, 2005
Sandra Elaine Wise—October 16, 2005 in Birmingham, AL
Most Senior:
Estelle Hughes at 96 eventful years
The Man-Mile award :
The battle over who came the furthest was between Linda Bennett Pennel from Houston TX, and Marion Barri from Allen, TX. As no one had a map handy, it was decided that it would be called a tie.
The newly married were as follows:
Brett Rogers to Sarah Powell in September (Grandson of Yteva Frye)
Mark Francis Merritt to Heather Huskes, May 13 in Weaverville, NC. (Son of Logan and Ann Merritt)
The old-ly married among us were congratulated:
Billy and Ruth Beard—married 60 years
Howard and Marie Collins—married 60 years. There was some movement among the assembled that a commemorative medal should be struck and awarded to Marie for her efforts.
First-timers to the reunion were recognized:
Annette Nichols and Dr. Elvin Hobgood from Canton, who came with Don and Henrietta Campbell
Jim Langford from Calhoun
Ashley Moss and Kristen Mueller – while they have attended the reunion many times, this year was the first time they bothered to attend a business meeting.
Following all that, the outgoing president introduced our distinguished guest. As the family is not used to have distinguished guests, this could also be classified among the firsts. Mr. Jim Langford, a historian in Cherokee County, made a right interesting presentation about the Collins’ of North Carolina. A summation of the highlights were as follows:
--The family left North Carolina in the 1830s due to drought.
--Mary Collins, the niece of Jacob Collins, was married to George Perry, who killed her for some reason, possibly over something to do with a ’possum.
--Mr. Perry was unceremoniously hung and buried near the old homeplace. It was said that later on some of the family dug him up and sold him off for use in medical experiments.
At the conclusion of the presentation, Anna Lee spoke up and said she had some new information regarding the historic, family-led massacre at Hinton Methodist Church. At this point, President Sonny asked if anyone had anything good to report about the family. His question being met with grim silence, he determined it was time to move along to the singing.
Bobby Cleghorn led the sing-a-long, which seemed to switch between the red book and the green book like a traffic light. As another first, the singing included a popular hit song by Cat Stevens, which was right there in the green book. The rendition, however, did not sound like him in the least.
Don Campbell offered the closing prayer and, following “Blest be the Tie”, the 71st (or so)* annual reunion was adjourned.
______________________
*Ann’s note:
It should be noted that in reality, it was the 72nd annual reunion. According to Yeteva Bennett Frye after the meeting yesterday, it began when she was not quite two months old, in September 1934, as a celebration of the birthday of Nancy Ann Thompson Collins (born September 12, 1851; died April 27, 1944).
Minutes from the 70th (71st) Collins Reunion
The 70th version of the Collins family reunion dawned mildly warm and magnificently bright on September 11, 2005. Dewy grass gleamed from the sun-drenched rolling meadows that framed Goshen Baptist, the ancestral clapboard country church –an eternal landmark in an ancient pastoral landscape--frozen in time, the scene disturbed only by leaves rustling in the faint warm breeze that signaled the gentle fading of late summer into early fall, as has happened in the mountains of Northwest Georgia from time immemorial.
Not that anyone actually noticed this, as all 63 of Collins collective were conclaved in the climate-controlled, insect-free confines of the church fellowship hall, seeing who could most efficiently shovel the most food onto a 5-compartment Styrofoam plate.
Having failed to determine a winner in that regard, Family President Sonny Collins took the pulpit in the church sanctuary at about 1:30 or so to call the family business meeting to order. Past president Logan Merritt was called upon to invocate and did an admirable job, as far as we could tell. As Whitey Butler was not present and no one could be easily coerced, the sing-a-long was postponed until later in the program, in the hopes that someone in the family might finally become an energetic self-starter.
Wayne Collins was then put-upon to the deliver the minutes from the 2004 business meeting, and did so with at least some measure of competence. There was only one proposed amendment to the minutes, lobbed by Suzy D Collins, who protested that the secretary had besmirched the reputation of her grandson, Mark Neves--winner of the man-mile award in 2004--by stating that 2004 was the first time that he had ever attended a Collins reunion. She reminded the secretary in no uncertain terms that Mr. Neves had in fact attended the reunion on many, many occasions, and to state otherwise was a clear obfuscation of the facts.
Having been put squarely in his place, the secretary then proposed his own amendment to the minutes of September 12, 1965, where then-secretary Henrietta Campbell wrote, “A new son was born to Pat and Jimmy Collins.” The nature of the amendment was as follows: Wayne Collins, as far as he knew, was the first son born to Pat and Jimmy Collins and documented evidence showed conclusively that he was born in January of 1966, not in 1965. He was therefore not yet 40 years old, and to state otherwise was a clear obfuscation of the facts.
Both amendments were adopted with little controversy, though probably outside the accepted rules of order. President Sonny Collins, being new to the job, apparently didn’t notice, or at least failed to give a hoot.
Ann Collins Merritt then recognized John H. Bennett and thanked him for managing the family cemetery cleanup for another year. For his part, John H. generously volunteered to continue managing the effort, even doing so at his own expense if necessary. Amid a chorus of protests, the family made it clear that proceeds from the treasury should continue to be used for the cemetery cleanup, and anyway, if it wasn’t, what would we use the money for, as a family can only fill up so many Styrofoam plates in a year. The agreement reached, Logan Merritt sternly reminded the assembled that since they voted for the service, they need to pay the tax when the plate comes around.
Again, the business of the lists proceeded and was recorded as follows:
No perpetuation of the family occurred, as there were no births.
There were, unfortunately, two deaths:
Jan Truett, who died on June 20th, , 2005
Joe Collins, who died on December 5th, 2004
There was one marriage, on Uncle Milt’s side of the family
Joseph Collins Wise married Mary Allison Waters on July 17, 2005 in Asheville, NC, which, incidentally is the new home of Logan and Ann (Collins) Merritt.
President Sonny Collins, in an unprecedented move, then asked if there were any divorces, either final or pending. As there were none, Don Campbell, in a nod to the spirit of the times, asked if there was anyone cohabitating. Again, no takers.
The results from the other lists are now offered in these minutes, even though they occurred out of the usual sequence of the meeting. This was attributed mainly to spotty leadership from the pulpit. They were as follows:
Most seasoned and proud of it – Pearl Bennett (95)
Youngest – Kyle Bennet (22) (note: there were much younger people in attendance, but they chose to skip the business meeting for one reason or another, if you can imagine such a thing.)
Man-Mile Award – Sonny Collins, from Nashville, who has indeed attended the reunion many, many times in the past.
A report on the previous night’s dinner at Williamson Brothers was offered by Ann Collins Merritt who stated, “it was good.” She noted, however, that the room in the restaurant was only about half full. Anna Lee (Collins) Moss explained that that was because not all of her 36 children were there (actually 7) this year. At any wise, the feeling was that the restaurant was of such quality, that the event should be held there again next year, and possibly years following, until such a time as the family tires of all-you-can-eat barbeque.
John H. Bennett, in an admirable attempt to inject culture and learning into the second Sunday of September, then put forth an idea. He related the details of a presentation he saw at the Cherokee Historical Society Meeting at Reinhardt College recently, where a fellow named Langford did a fine presentation on the Collins’s of North Carolina. As those were our Collins’s, John H. thought it would be a good thing if Mr. Langford was invited to do the presentation at the next reunion, noting that he had worked and traveled all over the world and might be right interesting. Everyone agreed that smarter was better, and John H. promised to proffer an invitation.
Sarah Sue Cleghorn chimed in, saying quite rightly that we should do more things like that to help spur the interest of younger folks in attending the reunion, surmising that not doing so would eventually kill it off, and there would be no need for anyone to take the minutes of anything. Ideas included:
Name tags for everybody, perhaps color-coded by branch of the family so everybody could know who is who and from whom they came.
Family stories, so as to firmly record the antics of departed relatives for the amusement of generations to come.
Both ideas seemed to garner a good deal of traction with the assembled, so much so that the president called on some folks to relate a few stories. After a moment of quiet, the likes of which the family has not known, Ann (Collins) Merritt got a bug and related the following tale about Granddaddy Collins (Note: this is not an actual transcript, but is possibly a reasonably accurate rendition of things that may have been said. Or not.):
It seems Grandaddy Collins, being a man of the earth, had taken to plowing up the farming property at the old homeplace one day. By and by, he happened to notice Uncle Zack pulling up to the house in his car for a visit. Uncle Zack, being a man about town, was dressed as fine as any man of that time could hope to be, resplendent in white suit and tie, and apparently a sight to behold, at least from a distance.
Not to be outdone, as we understand, he rarely was, Grandaddy Collins immediately bookmarked the mule and the plow in their place and marched into the house, where he commenced to don his own Sunday finery. Himself now resplendent, he went back to the field and continued plowing.
Another Grandaddy Collins anecdote was offered by Yteva (same rules apply):
It seems Grandaddy Collins, being a man of the earth, liked to get up ridiculously early in the morning, ridiculously early, even for a man of the earth. That being the case, he felt it was also incumbent upon the rest of the family to get up, as well, even if for nothing else but to help him stare at the dark. As legend has it, his favorite way to accomplish this was to take a seat at the pump organ in the house, and commence to playing his very favorite song, “Little Brown Jug”. Reactions to such a rude awakening from Grandma Collins are, unfortunately, lost to history and the Lord, which may be for the best.
Following the fond remembrances, President Collins again pushed the idea of the family sing-along. As no one had become energetic or self-starting in the time elapsed since the last attempt, he coerced the talented Anna Lee (Collins) Moss to come to the keyboard and attempt to lead the sing-along. After a couple of false starts, the family did a reasonably fine rendition of “Victory in Jesus” from the red book and ended the affair with the usual “Blest be the tie”.
After a closing prayer, the 70th Collins Reunion was adjourned (or 71st. See minutes from September 12, 2004).
Not that anyone actually noticed this, as all 63 of Collins collective were conclaved in the climate-controlled, insect-free confines of the church fellowship hall, seeing who could most efficiently shovel the most food onto a 5-compartment Styrofoam plate.
Having failed to determine a winner in that regard, Family President Sonny Collins took the pulpit in the church sanctuary at about 1:30 or so to call the family business meeting to order. Past president Logan Merritt was called upon to invocate and did an admirable job, as far as we could tell. As Whitey Butler was not present and no one could be easily coerced, the sing-a-long was postponed until later in the program, in the hopes that someone in the family might finally become an energetic self-starter.
Wayne Collins was then put-upon to the deliver the minutes from the 2004 business meeting, and did so with at least some measure of competence. There was only one proposed amendment to the minutes, lobbed by Suzy D Collins, who protested that the secretary had besmirched the reputation of her grandson, Mark Neves--winner of the man-mile award in 2004--by stating that 2004 was the first time that he had ever attended a Collins reunion. She reminded the secretary in no uncertain terms that Mr. Neves had in fact attended the reunion on many, many occasions, and to state otherwise was a clear obfuscation of the facts.
Having been put squarely in his place, the secretary then proposed his own amendment to the minutes of September 12, 1965, where then-secretary Henrietta Campbell wrote, “A new son was born to Pat and Jimmy Collins.” The nature of the amendment was as follows: Wayne Collins, as far as he knew, was the first son born to Pat and Jimmy Collins and documented evidence showed conclusively that he was born in January of 1966, not in 1965. He was therefore not yet 40 years old, and to state otherwise was a clear obfuscation of the facts.
Both amendments were adopted with little controversy, though probably outside the accepted rules of order. President Sonny Collins, being new to the job, apparently didn’t notice, or at least failed to give a hoot.
Ann Collins Merritt then recognized John H. Bennett and thanked him for managing the family cemetery cleanup for another year. For his part, John H. generously volunteered to continue managing the effort, even doing so at his own expense if necessary. Amid a chorus of protests, the family made it clear that proceeds from the treasury should continue to be used for the cemetery cleanup, and anyway, if it wasn’t, what would we use the money for, as a family can only fill up so many Styrofoam plates in a year. The agreement reached, Logan Merritt sternly reminded the assembled that since they voted for the service, they need to pay the tax when the plate comes around.
Again, the business of the lists proceeded and was recorded as follows:
No perpetuation of the family occurred, as there were no births.
There were, unfortunately, two deaths:
Jan Truett, who died on June 20th, , 2005
Joe Collins, who died on December 5th, 2004
There was one marriage, on Uncle Milt’s side of the family
Joseph Collins Wise married Mary Allison Waters on July 17, 2005 in Asheville, NC, which, incidentally is the new home of Logan and Ann (Collins) Merritt.
President Sonny Collins, in an unprecedented move, then asked if there were any divorces, either final or pending. As there were none, Don Campbell, in a nod to the spirit of the times, asked if there was anyone cohabitating. Again, no takers.
The results from the other lists are now offered in these minutes, even though they occurred out of the usual sequence of the meeting. This was attributed mainly to spotty leadership from the pulpit. They were as follows:
Most seasoned and proud of it – Pearl Bennett (95)
Youngest – Kyle Bennet (22) (note: there were much younger people in attendance, but they chose to skip the business meeting for one reason or another, if you can imagine such a thing.)
Man-Mile Award – Sonny Collins, from Nashville, who has indeed attended the reunion many, many times in the past.
A report on the previous night’s dinner at Williamson Brothers was offered by Ann Collins Merritt who stated, “it was good.” She noted, however, that the room in the restaurant was only about half full. Anna Lee (Collins) Moss explained that that was because not all of her 36 children were there (actually 7) this year. At any wise, the feeling was that the restaurant was of such quality, that the event should be held there again next year, and possibly years following, until such a time as the family tires of all-you-can-eat barbeque.
John H. Bennett, in an admirable attempt to inject culture and learning into the second Sunday of September, then put forth an idea. He related the details of a presentation he saw at the Cherokee Historical Society Meeting at Reinhardt College recently, where a fellow named Langford did a fine presentation on the Collins’s of North Carolina. As those were our Collins’s, John H. thought it would be a good thing if Mr. Langford was invited to do the presentation at the next reunion, noting that he had worked and traveled all over the world and might be right interesting. Everyone agreed that smarter was better, and John H. promised to proffer an invitation.
Sarah Sue Cleghorn chimed in, saying quite rightly that we should do more things like that to help spur the interest of younger folks in attending the reunion, surmising that not doing so would eventually kill it off, and there would be no need for anyone to take the minutes of anything. Ideas included:
Name tags for everybody, perhaps color-coded by branch of the family so everybody could know who is who and from whom they came.
Family stories, so as to firmly record the antics of departed relatives for the amusement of generations to come.
Both ideas seemed to garner a good deal of traction with the assembled, so much so that the president called on some folks to relate a few stories. After a moment of quiet, the likes of which the family has not known, Ann (Collins) Merritt got a bug and related the following tale about Granddaddy Collins (Note: this is not an actual transcript, but is possibly a reasonably accurate rendition of things that may have been said. Or not.):
It seems Grandaddy Collins, being a man of the earth, had taken to plowing up the farming property at the old homeplace one day. By and by, he happened to notice Uncle Zack pulling up to the house in his car for a visit. Uncle Zack, being a man about town, was dressed as fine as any man of that time could hope to be, resplendent in white suit and tie, and apparently a sight to behold, at least from a distance.
Not to be outdone, as we understand, he rarely was, Grandaddy Collins immediately bookmarked the mule and the plow in their place and marched into the house, where he commenced to don his own Sunday finery. Himself now resplendent, he went back to the field and continued plowing.
Another Grandaddy Collins anecdote was offered by Yteva (same rules apply):
It seems Grandaddy Collins, being a man of the earth, liked to get up ridiculously early in the morning, ridiculously early, even for a man of the earth. That being the case, he felt it was also incumbent upon the rest of the family to get up, as well, even if for nothing else but to help him stare at the dark. As legend has it, his favorite way to accomplish this was to take a seat at the pump organ in the house, and commence to playing his very favorite song, “Little Brown Jug”. Reactions to such a rude awakening from Grandma Collins are, unfortunately, lost to history and the Lord, which may be for the best.
Following the fond remembrances, President Collins again pushed the idea of the family sing-along. As no one had become energetic or self-starting in the time elapsed since the last attempt, he coerced the talented Anna Lee (Collins) Moss to come to the keyboard and attempt to lead the sing-along. After a couple of false starts, the family did a reasonably fine rendition of “Victory in Jesus” from the red book and ended the affair with the usual “Blest be the tie”.
After a closing prayer, the 70th Collins Reunion was adjourned (or 71st. See minutes from September 12, 2004).
Minutes from the 69th (70th) Collins Family Reunion
A light breeze and a splendid autumnal splash of sunshine colored the 69th annual version of the Collins Family Reunion, which took place September 12, 2004. Sixty-three made the trip to once again gather at the big marble table at Goshen Baptist Church. The quality of the food was such that many members made two and even three trips to the big marble table, most of them blissfully ambivalent as to the amount carbohydrates they were consuming.
Following the culinary fury, Family President Logan Merritt convened the business meeting in the sanctuary at Goshen Church. He opened with prayer and a joke about a preacher and a guy in a septic tank. The details of said joke were not recorded in these minutes, but it seemed pretty funny at the time, and was certainly tame enough to be related in mixed company from the pulpit of a Baptist Church.
Whitey Butler led the hymn-sing from the green book, artfully accompanied by Anna Lee (Collins) Moss on the piano. The general judgment from Whitey was that the family was in as fine a voice as ever.
Heather Bennett relayed the minutes of the previous reunion, which were adopted unanimously. There was some controversy as to what number to actually attach to this reunion. Legend has it that it began in 1935 as a celebration of Grandma Collins’ birthday. Yteva mentioned that she was present at the first reunion, evidenced by a picture from the event of her mother actually holding her as a baby, and that she was born in 1934. There was some discussion, but the issue was tabled pending further evidence.
Then the business of the lists proceeded. The results were as follows:
The man-mile award (traveled the furthest to get here): Marc Neves from Massachusetts.
The closest resident: Pearl Bennett
The youngest in attendance: Kyle Bennett (21 years)
The most seasoned family member: Pearl Bennett (94 years)
It was also noted that Estelle Hughes has attended every family reunion since the 1934 (Or ‘35. See above)
One birth from the previous year was reported:
Jackson Armstrong Miller, born June 7, 2004 to Jimmy and Denise Miller.
Marriages from the previous year included:
Tabitha Moss, married to Jesse Scott (May 15, 2004)
Jimmy Miller and Denise Melton (September 27, 2003)
Kevin Rogers to April Waddell (August 14, 2004)
Sarah Sue Cleghorn updated the family on the health of Joe Collins, reporting that he appears to be on the mend.
Ann Merritt gave the report on Saturday family dinner, originally scheduled for O’Charley’s in Canton. Due to a mix up in the arrangements, tough choices had to be made about what restaurant might be able to seat 36 for dinner on no notice. The eventual choice, Williamson Brother’s Barbeque, turned out to be such a hit that a motion was unanimously adopted that said barbeque joint be the location for next year’s Saturday family dinner.
With much trepidation, the assembled then embarked upon the task of electing a new slate of leaders for 2004-2006, as the much-ballyhooed Merritt administration was at an end. The assembly grew deathly silent and accomplished a collective slump into the pews at the call for nominations for president. Shortly, Anna Lee (Collins) Moss started in and began nominating everybody that looked sideways. Those nominated issued rapid declinations. Eventually, Sonny Collins (nominated by Mark Merritt) was elected because the assembly voted faster than he could decline. After promising to establish a firm autocracy, the President-Elect revenge-nominated Mark Merritt for the position of Vice-President. He was elected unanimously. Then, Wayne Collins was nominated as Secretary/Treasurer for no apparent reason as he had done nothing to anyone. The motion was seconded by President Merritt, noting that Wayne was “a business manager at the United Way in Chattanooga and could probably handle the treasury.” With Wayne’s election, his wife, Hanna (Dymarska) Collins (from Poland) was by default elected as chair of the preparation committee for the following year.
The last, and most contentious, issue of the day dealt with where the food should actually be served for the reunion in the future
The two sides were clearly drawn:
-Outside, as usual (weather permitting)
-Inside, in the fellowship hall (no weather, no insects, no problem).
The insiders noted that the flies nearly carried off the food this year, and if it’s not the flies, it’s the yellow jackets, and besides it was a bother to carry out all the chairs and then put them back again afterwards. The outsiders worried about the clean-up situation inside the fellowship hall after the food fest, and besides it was a bother to set up all those tables, and anyway, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Before it degenerated into a second Civil War, President Merritt called for a vote. The insiders nipped the outsiders in a close one, 12 to 9, with a number of folks not having a dog in the fight.
With bloodshed averted, President Merritt, as his last official duty in office, told a Catholic joke. The meeting was turned over to Whitey, who led the assembly in “Blest Be the Tie that Binds.”
The reunion was adjourned, which was probably the best thing that could have happened just then.
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