THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
A Mill for the
Settlement -- The Souther Mill (Part 2)
Jesse
William Souther, Jr. was a bachelor, age
35, when he moved from
Jesse Souther began to court
beautiful Malinda Nix, a daughter of
William and Susanna Stonecypher Nix, who
lived near
Malinda’s grandfather, John Henry Stonecypher, Jr. of Eastanollee near Toccoa, had figured prominently in the
Revolutionary War and also in the Indian Wars. Jesse
and Malinda were married
Jesse Souther added to his land
holdings by purchasing a tract from Ivan J. Collins, a son of Thompson
Collins, first settler on Choestoe. In a note dated May 12, 1862, Jesse gave his
bond to pay $125 for the Collins land along Cane Creek that adjoined
the property he had secured from his brother, Joseph Souther, before he went west in 1853.
To Jesse and Malinda Nix Souther were born eight children, four sons and
four daughters. Fairlena
(died in infancy); Nancy Elvira (b. 1853); Joseph G. (b. 1855); John
Baptist (b. 1857); Sarah (b. 1861); Mary (b. 1863); William Jesse (b.
1864); and Jeptha Freeman (b. 1865).
It was the last-born, Jeptha, who
was to remain on the Souther farm and
continue the milling operation started by his father and uncles.
Jesse Souther was a prominent
citizen of the Choestoe District. He was official treasurer of the Militia
District # 834. In records kept
meticulously by him, are these notations: “In
1849, paid W. L. Howard, teacher, $22.16 for 134 children (for the
A school term was on the average of four months per year,
usually in the winter months when no crops demanded work from the
pupils. A notation indicated there were,
at one time, 182 school children in the district of Choestoe. Treasurer
Jesse Souther paid teachers who worked at Choestoe, New Liberty, Old Liberty and
His brother, John Souther, served
on the
The Civil War years were hard on the Jesse Souther
family, as well as others in the Choestoe
Settlement. So far as we know, the mill
kept operating, but probably not on as big a scale as during pre-war
years. Jesse’s son, Joseph, was six years
old when the Civil War broke out. He wrote
in his memoirs: “Thirty men from Choestoe
enlisted, one-half of them never returning to once-happy and prosperous
homes.” When he was nine, Joseph became a
scout for one of the Home Guard units and continued until the year
ended in 1865. Knowing what we know now
about Home Guard members and their ruffian methods, being a scout was
no easy task for a nine-year-old.
Records are somewhat sketchy about the operation of Souther Mill following Jesse’s death. Various millers were employed, probably on
shares, to operate the grist mill and sawmill. In
his book, Between the
Blood and the Bald (Matthew’s Press, 2000), John Paul Souther, grandson of Jesse and
son of Jeptha,
tells about how his father at a young age became the miller. Jeptha Freeman Souther
was naturally skilled in technology and built a millrace thirty feet
long, stretching from the millpond at a higher level to turn the
turbines at the mill. The millrace, also
called the penstock, was made of three-inch thick lumber a foot wide,
and had no leaks. A personable and wise
miller, Jeptha kept the clients
entertained with his stories, his knowledge of world affairs and his
ability to relate genealogical ties of the families in Choestoe District.
Edward Shuler in his memoirs,
Three years after his mother’s death, Jeptha
married Mintie Iva
Ann Dyer in 1897, a daughter of Henderson Dyer. He
brought her to the house his father Jesse had built in 1850, and there
they reared their five daughters and four sons: Mae,
Fannie, Viola, Mary, Eva, Theodore, John Paul and Hubert.
John Paul Souther stated that his
father sold the mill in 1919. Some of the
operating millers following the sale were Bud Ballew, Martin Jones, Joe
Townsend, Bert Watkins, Newt Curtis, Virgil C. Collins, Jimmy Self, and
Ivan Collins. Unfortunately, the mill
burned in 1943. The Depression years had
caused the mill to gradually fall into disrepair. Gristmills
were becoming a thing of the past and the glory days of Souther Mill were no more.
On a misty morning in Choestoe, one
can almost imagine the gentle splash from the waterwheel and the steady
whirling drone as the millstones grind a turn of corn, wheat or rye.
Descendants related in some way to the entrepreneurs who began Souther Mill in 1848 are almost as numerous
today as the turns of corn that knew the pressure from the grinding
stones of Souther Mill so many years ago.
Life goes on, layer upon layer, with what is good from the past
lighting the way into the future.
(Note: For sources I am indebted to
Watson B. Dyer’s Souther Family History, 1988; John
Paul Souther’s Between the Blood and the Bald
(2000); Edward Shuler’s Blood Mountain, 1953); my
own childhood memories of Souther Mill
when my father, J. Marion Dyer, took me there where he had his own corn
ground; and an article I wrote in the Autumn, 1993 issue of North Georgia Journal
(Legacy Communications) entitled “Memories of the Old Souther Mill.” The
photographs are courtesy of John Paul Souther.)
c2003 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published
[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
Updated May 22, 2008
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