Some Chastains Were in Union County by 1834
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
Some Chastains
Were in Union County by 1834
Chastain is a
surname heard often in the mountain region of North
Georgia. It is a steadfast family name
and people who bear it (spelled variously Chasteen,
Chastaine and other ways) have been solid
citizens contributing in areas of farming, education, politics,
Christian ministry, medicine, business and merchandising.
The earliest
census of Union County in 1834 reveals three families
of Chastains living within the bounds that
became the county in 1832.
These were John B. Chastain with three males and three females in the
household; Edward Chastain, also with three males and three females
counted; and Abner Chastain, with three
males and four females registered.
By the 1840
census, the Chastain households had grown to seven in Union County,
namely John, Abner B., Edward, Benjamin,
James, Joseph C. and Abner. This increase
in population of Chastains did not mean
necessarily that four more families had moved into the county, but that
some of the children of the three families in Union in
1834 had married and established homes within the decade.
The 1850 census
reveals nine Chastain households with the following named as heads of
families: John, J. B., Withrow, James,
Jason, Calvin, William, Martin and Edward. One of the Chastain family
historians, M. A. McGraw, in his book entitled Jason Coward Chastain and His Family
(c1976) gives insight to how we find early Chastain settlers in
Habersham, Union, Gilmer, Fannin and other mountain counties: "As these families came to Georgia, they all
settled in the same area on Cherokee lands which became Cherokee County
in 1831, Union County in 1832, and Fannin County in 1854. Their homeplaces were the same, but as the large area
was subdivided, the records would seem to indicate they lived in
different places." (page 12)
Returning to
some of the Chastain families found in the early Union County
censuses, we will trace more on their origins and contributions.
John Chastain
(listed in a separate household in 1840 census) was born in Haywood
County, North
Carolina in 1791 or 1792. He had a
nickname, "Hootchie," to distinguish him
from another John Chastain, his uncle, who was known as "Blind John."
The name "Hootchie" was given to this John
because they settled in a bend of the Chattahoochee River when
they first came to Georgia.
John
Chastain married twice, first to Nancy Coward and second to Nancy Withrow. By his first wife he had one son, Jason
Coward Chastain (1818-1900). By his second wife Nancy Withrow, John had eight children: Withrow, James, Joseph DeKalb, Malinda, Susanna,
Hannah, Benjamin Nelson, and John. Evidently John and Nancy Coward
Chastain divorced after Jason Coward was born. She later married a
Kelly. When she was elderly, she returned to the home of her son Jason
Coward Chatain at Dial in Fannin County. He
cared for her in her dotage and she was buried in the family cemetery
on the rise above the commodious Chastain house. John Chastain and his
wife Nancy Withrow Chastain lived in the
Ivy Log section of Union County
where their eight children were born and reared.
John's father
was Edward Brigand Chastain, born March 29, 1769 in Buckingham
County, VA and
died in 1834 in what is now Fannin
County, GA. His
mother, Edward Brigand's wife, was Hannah Brown (1771- about 1837).
They were believed to be the parents of sixteen children, but records
have been found of only fifteen, namely: Delilah, Jemimah,
John, Rainey, Hannah, Mary, Griffith, Cyrus, Jehu, Abner,
Elisabeth, Nancy, Martha, Edward Bruce, and Joseph Carleton. Perhaps
one of their children died in infancy.
Hootchie"
John Chastain's grandfather was the famous John "Ten Shilling Bell"
Chastain (1743-1805), a Baptist preacher who worked with other famous
pioneer ministers such as Rev. Shubael
Starnes to establish churches on the frontier in Virginia,
North and South
Carolina. The "Ten Shilling Bell"
nickname came for the elder John Chastain because of his resonating and
clear ringing voice. It was reported that he could be heard, when
preaching, "for a mile or more" on a still,
clear day or night. Rev. John Chastain was declared a patriot when he
signed the oath of allegiance and pledged his support for the American
side in the fray against Great
Britain. He
and his family were in Powhatan
County, Virginia at
that time.
The other two
Chastain households in Union County in
1834 were that of Edward Chastain and Abner
Chastain. The Edward is believed to be Edward Brigand Chastain (1769-
1834). It seems he was enumerated in the 1834 census before his death
later that same year. His partial family history is given above.
Abner
Chastain was a son of Edward Brigand and Hannah Brown Chastain. Born in
1803, Abner was ordained to the gospel
ministry prior to the Civl War. He
married, first, Susan Pemberton O'Kelley
in Habersham County, GA. This
Rev. Abner Chastain served as pastor of
the Choestoe Baptist Church
before moving west. He led a wagon train going west, with some 250
people from Union County in
the massive move. His wife, Susan, died on this trip west. Abner later married Amanda D. Elzy. Arriving in Colorado, Abner Chastain settled on the Huerfano River east
of St. Mary's. There he established a Baptist Church and
baptized the first convert in the Huerfano River in
the fall of 1870. (Subsequent articles will trace more of the Chastain
story. - EDJ)
[References: Union County
census records, 1834, 1840, 1850. Books: M.
M. McGraw, Jason
Coward Chastain and His Family (1975). Pierre Chastain
Family Association, Pierre
Chastain and His Descendants Volume I (1995)]
c2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published June 4, 2009 in The Union
Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights
reserved.
Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator, freelance wirter,
poet, and historian. She may be reached
at email [email protected]; phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood
Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061-2411
Updated June
30,
2009
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