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
Patriarch of
Union County Townsends, Eli, son of Edward
From the Norman Conquest to
about 1832 or
shortly after is a span in history of about 766 years. When Eli
Townsend came
into Union County with his wife, Sarah “Sally” Dyer Townsend and their
children, he could not follow through with the meaning of the surname
Towns-end,
for Union County then was barely building the town of Blairsville, the
county
seat. Eli and Sally settled in the Choestoe District next door to her
parents,
Elisha Jr. and Elizabeth Clark Dyer. They did not settle at “towns-end”
or the
edge of town. The family of Eli Townsend is shown first in the 1840
Union
County census with seven children. The census-taker spelled the last
name
Townsel.
|
Eli (short for Elisha)
Townsend’s father
was Edward Townsend Sr. Edward’s estate in Pickens County, Ga., covered
2,100
acres of land. He owned 18 slaves. Appraisal of land, slaves, and
goods, all
listed February 3, 1860, showed an evaluation of $10,000. Edward Sr.
and Anna
Townsend had 16 children. Eli’s parents were buried in a family
cemetery near
Tate, Ga., Pickens County, as was a sister of Eli’s. Their tombstones
read as
follows: Edward Townsend (Aug 9, 1789-Jan 29, 1860); Anna Townsend
(April 30,
1796-Sept 19, 1838); and Elizabeth Townsend (Jan. 9, 1836-Jan. 9,
1852).
Eli (ca. 1809-1849?) was the
first-born of
Edward Sr. and Anna (Kimsey or McKinney?) Townsend. He married Sarah
“Sally”
Dyer sometime before 1830, for they were listed in the Habersham
County, Ga.,
census of 1830, already with three male children under 10 years of age.
When
Eli married Sally, she already had a child, Micajah Clark Dyer, who was
born in
1822 and was being reared by grandparents, Elisha Jr. and Elizabeth
Clark Dyer.
This son of Sally’s became quite well known as the inventor of “the
machine for
navigating the air,” the airplane he built and for which he secured a
patent in
July 1875.
Eli Townsend, farmer and
soldier, served in
the MexicanAmerican War. His war records give valuable information. His
statement given at “Perote Castle” stated that Morgan County, Ga., was
his
place of birth. He was enlisted into service of the United States July
7, 1847
and was 38 years of age at the time of enlistment, which would make his
birthdate in 1809. He was a sergeant of Company C of the Georgia
Battalion of
Foot Volunteers. He was honorably discharged “by reason of Surgeon’s
Certificate of Disability” on January 7, 1848. How badly he was wounded
is not
known. It seems that his sixmonths term of service entitled him to a
land grant
for which he applied on March 4, 1848 at Cassville, Ga. Why the grant
was
applied for at Cassville (now Bartow County) is not known. His
residence was
established as being in Union County. He did receive a Land Warrant
(15900) on
May 23, 1848, but the land was in Wisconsin. He did not go there to
settle on
that land, but rather sold his patent to one John Fitzgerald in the
Green Bay
Land District of Wisconsin. The transaction was authenticated by John
Butt,
Judge of the Inferior Court of Union County, Georgia on August 30,
1848. This
document is the last authentic record of Eli Townsend in Union County.
The 1850 census of Union lists
Elizabeth
(Sally) Townsend but not her husband, Eli. Some say that he had a
second wife
in another place, possibly in Cherokee County, Ga. This has not been
proven
authentically. The children of Eli and Sally Dyer Townsend were Andrew
(Andrew
Crockett Sr. born in Lumpkin County in 1826); Elisha; Thomas; Mary Ann
called
Polly; Caleb (called Cale), William and Sarah Elizabeth (called Betsy).
Andrew, the eldest son, also
served in the
Mexican-American War at about the same time his father Eli served. He
enlisted
on July 5, 1847 in John S. Fain’s Company C, Georgia Battalion of Foot
Volunteers. He was honorably discharged on July 13, 1848 at Mobile,
Ala., when
his year’s term was up. Andrew Townsend received a land grant of 160
acres,
also in Wisconsin, which he sold.
[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.]
Back To Union County, Georgia GenWeb Site