Nix Connections (part 4): Aunt Jane Nix Wilson Hood
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
Nix
connections (part 4)
Aunt Jane Nix Wilson Hood
The determination and bravery of
some women could be the subject of a book of virtues. The life of
Jane Nix Wilson Hood would fall into this category.
Sophronia
Jane Nix was born October 20, 1867 in Union County, Georgia to James
"Jimmy" Nix and his second wife, Carolina Elizabeth Duckworth
Nix. From past articles in this series, you will remember that
Jimmy Nix was a son of William and Susannah Stonecypher Nix.
Jimmy married first Elizabeth "Betsy" Collins. They had fifteen
children. Betsy died in November of 1859. When the Civil
War was raging, Jimmy married Carolina Elizabeth Duckworth, who became
a loving stepmother to his children. Jimmy enlisted on December
14, 1863 in Company 2 of the Georgia State Militia. To Carolina
and Jimmy, four children were born: Mary Eveline, Nancy, Buddy
and Sophronia Jane. She would be the youngest to live of Jimmy's
twenty children. Her mother died before 1870 when Sophronia Jane
was a little over two years old. Jimmy Nix, Jane's father,
married the third time to her aunt, her mother's younger sister,
Rebecca Evaline Duckworth, in 1872. Jimmy and Evaline's one child
was stillborn.
Now we come to
the story of Sophronia Jane Nix, and how she came to incorporate the
attributes of a sturdy, determined mountain woman.
The Nix homestead, on
which James Nix had settled on the 160 acres of land he had secured in
the land lottery when Union County was new, was in the area of Choestoe
where the present-day Richard Russell Scenic Highway intersects with
Fisher Field Road. Here the Nix children grew up, going to the
local one-room school at Hood's Chapel for their education. Being
the youngest of nineteen children, Jane would have had as much
fellowship growing up with her nieces and nephews, being about their
same age, as with her own siblings. That's how life was back in
the mountains of that era.
At age 18, three
months before she reached her 19th birthday, Sophronia Jane
married Isaac Thornton Wilson on July 27, 1886. Isaac and Jane
had the following children: Verdie (1887), Hattie (1889),
Gertrude (1892), Benjamin (1894), James Isaac (1896), Thomas (1902),
Estelle (1904) and Garnie (1898). Garnie died in 1900 at age
two. Seven of their children grew to adulthood.
Times were hard and
work scarce. Isaac Thornton Wilson sought employment in the
Copper Mines of Copperhill and Ducktown, Tennessee. He found a
place to board there, and would return to his wife and children on
weekends. He was a miner, going deep within the rich veins
bearing copper and other ores around Isabella, Ducktown and
Copperhill. But as was common, Isaac developed a serious lung
condition from his work in the mines. He died of what was
commonly called consumption on June 3, 1905. His birthdate was
February 22, 1858. He was interred in what is now called the
"Upper" Cemetery of Union Baptist Church.
While Isaac Wilson
was away working in the mines, his wife, Sophronia Jane, managed their
farm. She continued this work after the death of her
husband. She added acreage by buying land from some of her
brothers who decided to go west.
She had learned much
about farming from her father, Jimmy Nix. She had apple trees and
the bottom lands along the river yielded good crops. The family
survived and managed due to Jane's industriousness. Not only was
she a good farmer, she was skilled in the mountain household crafts of
spinning, weaving, making quilts and "making do" with whatever was
available. She worked with a will.
A family portrait
which has survived shows Jane Nix Wilson, seated, with her eight
children about her, and "Granny" Rebecca Evaline Duckworth Nix (Jane's
aunt and her step-mother), in her bonnet seated on the front with
Jane. On her lap Jane holds little Garnie, her last baby, who
died very young. Having Granny Nix in her household was a big
help to Jane as she adjusted to widowhood and had Granny's help in
rearing her children.
Union Baptist Church
was constituted on "the fourth Saturday in October, 1897" as stated in
the church's constitution. Why Jane Sophronia Nix Wilson was not
listed as a charter member is not known, for she gave the land on which
the church building was erected. Granny Rebecca Evaline Duckworth
Nix was one of the founding members. In the community and in the
church, Evaline and Jane were stalwart leaders. The women hosted
"quilting bees" in their home, and the ladies of the community would
"quilt out" a new quilt for a needy family or a new bride in one day of
work, sharing a country mid-day meal, and catching up on news.
Though work, the quilting bees were also a common form of entertainment
and relief from harder work.
Jane Nix Wilson was
determined that her children have the best education she could possibly
provide for them. In the wintertime, she would actually move the
family to Young Harris, rent a place for them to live there, and put
the children in school at the academy or in the college. At
crop-planting time, the family moved back to their farm near Union
Church in Choestoe and began the work required for the year's crops.
Jane's determination
yielded from her children a dedicated homemaker, a nurse, a farmer who
moved to Colorado to purchase land and become successful, a mechanic
and three teachers. One of her daughters, Gertrude (1892-1980),
who married Benjamin Franklin Shuler, better known as Frank (188-1978),
was an excellent teacher at Union County High School. In my high
school years, I was fortunate to have instruction from this gentle,
compassionate lady whose mother, Sophronia Jane Nix Wilson, had worked
so hard to see that her children were well-educated. Gertrude's
husband, Frank, served as Union County School Superintendent for twenty
years during a period of change and challenge in the system's schools.
After several years
of widowhood, and after her children were grown, Sophronia Jane Nix
Wilson married Enoch Chapman Hood, a widower and a neighbor. The
marriage was short-lived, not because of any problems between the two,
but due to his death. His tombstone in Union Baptist Church
Cemetery shows his birth as September 1, 1855 and his death as April
10, 1932. Jane Nix Wilson Hood died August 15, 1956, and was laid
to rest in the Union "Upper" Cemetery beside her first husband, Isaac
Thornton Wilson. Dying two months shy of her 89th
birthday, this noble mountain lady could well be called a heroine of
her time.
(c2007
by Ethelene Dyer Jones. Published August 16,
2007 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. All rights reserved.
Used by permission.)
[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.]
Updated January 11, 2009
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