THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Fain brothers -
early settlers in Union County
The John Samuel
Fain and David Mercer Fain families were listed in the first Union County
census taken in 1834, when the county was just two years old. This
census, conducted under a special act of the Georgia Legislature passed
in 1833, was taken in new counties that had been formed from Cherokee
lands. The census was completed March 24, 1834, and
listed a total of 903 people in the population of Union County at
that time.
Who were these
Fain brothers, and what led them to settle in the new Union County?
Both John and
David Fain were sons of the famed Revolutionary War soldier, Ebenezer
Fain (1762-1842). He served five enlistments as a patriot in the war to
free America from
British rule. The two Fain men who were residents of Union County in
1832 were sons of Ebenezer Fain, patriot.
David Mercer
Fain (1782-1852) was the first-born child of patriot Ebenezer Fain and
his wife, Mary Mercer Fain. He was born at Jonesborough, Washington
County, North Carolina (now
Tennessee).
The Fains migrated to 96 District in South
Carolina, then back to Buncombe
County, NC (now
Transylvaina). There David Mercer Fain
married Rebecca Moore. But the Fains were
by no means through with their migrations.
About 1819
Patriot Ebenezer Fain, with his grown children, David Mercer and John
Samuel Fain, and a grown daughter, Elizabeth Fain Trammell and her
family, settled in a portion of Habersham County (now White) north of
Cleveland in what became known as Captain Fain's Georgia Militia
District 427 (now Nacoochee District). By
1821, more of the Fain children had migrated to Habersham County,
including their daughter Margaret Fain Witzel
Thomas and her family.
Then came the move into the Choestoe District of what
would become Union
County, Georgia in
1832. John Samuel Fain and his family settled there first. Then John's
older brother, David Mercer Fain and his family joined them. They
settled near the Indian village of Choestoe
(Militia District 834). It is interesting to note that close friends of
the Fain brothers, Thompson Collins and his wife Celia Self Collins,
migrated with the Fains, also settling in
Choestoe District. The Ebenezer Witzel
listed in the 1834 Union Census was a grandson of Patriot Ebenezer
Fain, and a son of Margaret Fain Witzel
Thomas.
Bearing names
of the people who lived there, Fain Creek and Fain
Branch Road in
Choestoe were named for David and John Fain. But by 1839, David Fain
got the wanderlust again. His younger brother, John Samuel, had already
secured land along Hot House Creek in Gilmer County (now
Fannin). David followed, and the two Fain men, along with other
settlers at Hot House, established the Hot House Methodist Episcopal
Church. Firm Methodists, and associates of
early pastors, the Rev. Francis Bird and the Rev. Jesse Richardson, the
Fains had been instrumental in establishing
a church at Duke's Creek in what became White County, and
one at Hot House in what would become Fannin County.
What other
landmarks remain in Union County of
the Fain settlers? In the 1840 Union census was listed Ebenezer Fain,
grandson of the Patriot Ebenezer Fain, and the first child of David
Mercer Fain and Rebecca Moore
Fain. He married his second wife, Elizabeth D. Roberts in Union County
(evidently his first wife, Eleanor Dalton, had died in Habersham County).
Elizabeth Robert's parents were neighbors of Ebenezer's parents at
Choestoe. This Ebenezer Fain was a justice of the peace. But by 1848,
Ebenezer Fain (the younger) bought land in Old Gilmer (now Fannin) along Sugar Creek, evidently wanting to
be nearer his parents.
Meanwhile, back
at Choestoe where the two Fain brothers settled about 1832, these
events were taking place on the land they had sold. John W. Duckworth
(b. 1821 in Buncombe
County, NC)
applied to the US Postal Service and was granted permission to open a
post office. It was approved and opened July 14, 1884. The
post office was set up at the intersection of the present Fain
Branch Road and Town
Creek School Road. He
named it the Duck Post Office, using the first syllable of his last
name. On June
14, 1892, Duckworth's son-in-law, John
P. Collins, became postmaster. He applied for a name change, and the
post office became known as the Fain Post Office to honor the early
settler Fain brothers, John and David. The post office was discontinued
on March
30, 1907, but that section of Town Creek
in Choestoe District is still sometimes referred to as Fain, Georgia.
[Note: I give
credit to H. Dean Thomas of Ringgold, GA, a descendant of Patriot
Ebenezer Fain, for information relating to the Fain Family, published
in his 2004 FTC Genealogy (Fain, Thomas, Curtis), and available at the
dedication service for the Patriot Ebenezer Fain memorial marker on
October 16, 2004 at Hot House, Fannin County, GA.]
c2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 12, 2007 in The
Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights
reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood Road,
Milledgeville,
GA
31061-2411.]