Gay Family History

By Julia A. Gay

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Elaine Hendricks has generously donated this extensive history of the Gay

Family written in 1898 by Julia Ann Webb Gay.   It does not seem to have

ever been published, but passed down in their family.

History of the Gay Family written by Mrs. Julia A. Gay,1898.  It was also

posted to the Gay mailing list in July of 1998. 

 

{ This copy made by Ena Mann Wilson from typed copy made from the original

by Bennie Louise Reynolds.  [copy sent July 10, 1998 to me by Annis Mann

Richardson, sister of Ena Mann Wilson, both descendants of Sherrod H. Gay

(nephew of this Sherrod Haywood Gay.] anything in [  ] 's added by me.} Me is

Elaine Hendricks.

 

As my children know very little of their Father's ancestors, I will write

what his Mother and her sisters have told me relative to his Father's

history - Sherrod Haywood Gay.  He was born in Halifax County, North

Carolina.  His Father was named Elias, I think.  His oldest son was named

Elias, and was killed by lightning after he was grown.  Sherrod H. Gay's

father had several brother and sisters.  His father married a widow Hunt.

[Martha Brinkley Hunt]  She had several daughters.  I never heard of any

brothers by the name of Hunt.  After she married Sherrod's father, she had

three children - Elias, Sherrod and Elizabeth.  She was the only daughter

by her Gay husband.  Elias was killed, as above stated.  The Hunt girls

were their half sisters.  They (or several of them) married men by the name

of Gay - no kin tot hem but were kin to Sherrod and Elizabeth.  I think

Elizabeth was older than Sherrod was.  Sherrod's father lived until his

children were grown.  After his death, Sherrod, with his Mother and Sister,

came to Georgia and settled either in Hancock or Washington County.

 

The Misses Hunt (several of them) married the Gays, as I have before said.

They came to Georgia also.  Some of them settled in Fayette County - two,

if no more.  Some settled in Jones County and several other counties.  The

name of Gay was, or is, legion.  There were two old men by the name of

Gilbert Gay.  One lived in Fayette County and the other went to Alabama -

Chambers County.  He was called Black Gilbert, as he had dark skin and

brown eyes.  The most of the other Gays were blue eyed with fair skin.  The

Mr. Gilbert Gay of Fayette County had several sons and as many daughters.

Old Uncle Hannon Pounds of Putnam County married two of them, I think.  He

married a Miss Melia Gay.  She had 12 children - boy and girls, about

equal.  She died and he married a widow Harris with four children; two boys

and two daughters.  She was Miss Mary Gay, a sister of his first wife. They

never had any children.  His wives had a brother that married a Miss

Stevens.  His name was William Gay.  He was the father of Miss Mary Gay of

war reputation - an  authoress also.  Has written several books.  She is

still living at Decatur, DeKalb County.  I think she has written two

editions of "Life in Dixie".

 

I do not know how many years Sherrod H. Gay, mother and sister had been in

Georgia before they married.  I do not know which married first, he or his

sister, but I think she did.  Her oldest child is, or was, older than his

oldest child.  She married a man that went off and left her after she had

had three children.  They never heard from him after he went away.  They

thought he must have been killed.  I do not know what his name was - she

was always called Aunt Betsy Gay.  I reckon she did like all of the rest

did - married her first or second cousin.  After he went off, Sherrod Gay

came up and bought a lot of land in Jasper County near where the homestead

is now.  He moved his Mother and sister with her family up to it.  It had

some buildings on it.  His Mother did not live very long.  I think she died

before he was married.  His Mother was the first person buried at the

cemetery at the homestead.

 

I do not now know what year Sherrod H. Gay moved to Jasper County.  He was

married 1810.  He married in Washington County.  He married his second

cousin, a Miss Sarah Curry.  She was from North Carolina also - near

Raleigh or Chapel Hill.  Miss Sarah Curry came to Georgia before Sherrod H.

Gay did.  She was visiting an uncle of hers who lived in Sparta, I think.

His name was Mr. Nicholas Curry.  I do not know whether he was her father's

brother or uncle, but rather think he was her father's brother.  He was

very wealthy and made a great deal of his niece.  He dressed her very fine

and promoted her pleasure all he could.  I do not think that Miss Sarah's

father was able to do a great deal for his children, as he had so many

daughters and only one son.  I think there were 12 daughters.  There were

two sets of twins.  I do not think they all lived to be grown, but all that

married, except one or two, married their second cousins.  Sherrod and his

wife were second cousins.  Her sister, Susan, married her second cousin - a

Mr. Stallings.  They went to Indiana to live.  then her sister, Ailsey,

married Mr. John Jackson, and they went to Florence, Alabama.  they were

the same relationship.  they were the parents of one daughter named

Paralee.  Then Mary married Uncle Jack Curry (Bob and George Curry's

father).  They were the same kin.  I believe they were the only ones that

married their cousins.

 

I will say something more about Sherrod H. Gay's kin before I start on his

married life.  He had a sister, or half sister, who went to Tennessee to

live.  She married a Mr. Wright.  He had several letters from her.  She

seemed to be a good Christian woman.  She asked him about how it was with

him relative to his soul.  She quoted that passage of Scripture "What shall

it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul" or "what

would he give in exchange for his soul".  I did not know her.  She never

came to Georgia.  I think she and her family were doing very well.  The

letters with this will tell more than I can.

 

There was a William Gay in Memphis - I think a cotton merchant or dealt in

cotton someway - that is, cotton sellers, grocers and commission merchants,

he and T. A. Hamilton & Company, No. 5 Front Street, Memphis, Tenn.  His

father was named Ben Gay and his grandfather John Gay.  I do not know what

family he was.  There was a Mr. "Resin" Gay that Sherrod Gay and wife

thought a good deal of and I think he went to Alabama.  He was a cripple, I

think he was born so.  He was crippled someway - club-footed or

"reel-footed", one or the other.  William's grandfather may have been his

son.  He was a middle-aged man when he left Georgia.

 

there was a Mr. Ben Gay that lived over in Newton County.  He was a nephew

of Sherrod H. Gay and his sister.  I think his father married a half-sister

of theirs, one of the Misses Hunt.  His wife was named Miss Anna Gay before

she married.  They both were very clever people.  After Sherrod H. Gay

married, Mr. Ben Gay had had Aunt Betsy Gay come and live on his land and

her boys work with his boys.  He was very kind and good to her and her

children.  They lived there until the boys were able to take care of

themselves and their mother.  Mr. Ben Gay went from Newton County to

Meriwether county and died there.  His boys grew up and made very good and

useful men - the old ones.  I do not know how the girls did.

 

Sherrod H. Gay had a nephew by the name of Sherrod H. Gay.  He was always

called Haywood Gay until after his uncle died.  They then called him

Sherrod H. Gay.  His mother was a Miss Hunt [Mary].  They lived out in

Clayton County near Jonesboro.  Almost every one that knew him as a nephew

of S. H. Gay thought the relationship, or the nearest kin came on the Gay

side - even my children until about 1887, I told them then.

 

there was an old relative by the name of Batchelor, William Batchelor,

always called Uncle Billy Batchelor.  He married some of the near kin.  The

family always called him Uncle.  He may have married one of the Misses

Hunt, but I do not think he was a brother-in-law.  I guess he married Mr.

S. H. Gay's aunt on his father's side, perhaps on his mother's side.

Whenever any of the family wanted to trace up any of their Gay kin, they

would always go to Uncle Gilbert Gay.  If you are not his son, he can tell

you whose son you are.  Madison Curry, a brother of George and Bob, married

Emily Batchelor.  They lived in Jasper and Newton Counties one or two

years, then went back, I reckon, to where she lived when they were married.

 

I will now go back to Sherrod H. Gay.  I do not think I said when he was

born.  He was born the 10th  or 13th day of July, 1783.  His wife, Sarah

Curry, was born in October, 1780.  They were married in 1810, October, I

think.  Elbert H. Gay, their oldest child, was born the 30th of November,

1811.  Then Milledge M. Gay in October, 1814.  Then Austin H. Gay born in

1816.  Elvira W. Gay born October 23rd, 1817.  Franklin H. Gay born August

30th, 1820. Hilliard M. Gay born November 25th, 1823.

 

After Sherrod H. Gay and Sarah Curry were married.  I think they lived one

year down near her uncle's, if not with them, but I am not certain that

they did live a year down in Washington County.  If their oldest child,

Elbert Hilliard, was born there, he was raised in Jasper county, and he may

have been born in Jasper.  If he was born down in Washington County, his

father moved Christmas, 1811.  Then he commences farming and was very

successful in farming.  He had nothing to begin with.  Her uncle may have

helped them some.  I know she had some nice bed clothes that she spun and

wove herself, besides much net work she did (bed curtains).  I have some of

it now - May 1898,

 

After they came to Jasper County, they were successful and soon began to

accumulate property.  He begun to buy lands and Negroes.  The first Negro

he ever owned was a little Negro girl named "Celie" and he bought her by

weight.  She was six years old and weighed 60 pounds.  I do not know what

he gave per pound - I think he paid about the average price.  She nursed

Mr. Elbert Gay when he was a baby and when the Negroes were set free, she

was among the number belonging to Elbert Gay.  She lived several years,

afterwards, that is, after she was set free.  She never had a child.

 

When Mr. Sherrod H. Gay died, he owned about 70 Negroes and 6,000 or 8,000

acres of land in Jasper and Newton Counties, besides several other lots in

different counties and several lots of what was called "wild lands".  He

died before the war between the north and south, so these matters were not

looked into as they might have been.  What he had he made and what lands he

had in Jasper and Newton Counties were divided between his children.  He

did a great deal for his wife's relatives after they begun to come to

Georgia.  I think his wife's father was named Hilliard, but I do not think

I ever heard any one say so.  Her first son was named Elbert Hilliard.

Then when the youngest son was born, Elbert took the Hilliard off of his

name and named his youngest brother Hilliard.  His mother put Mozeley for

the middle name after a favorite preacher, Uncle Billy Mozeley, who was a

Primitive Baptist preacher who preached at the church of which she was a

member, which was Murder Creek Church, close by their house.  I think he

baptized her and her youngest sister, which was Miss Delilah Curry.  I do

not now remember that any more of her sisters belonged to the Baptist

church.

 

Sherrod H. Gay built his new house in about 1822.  It was a very large,

convenient two-story house with a nice brick basement under it.  It was one

of the finest houses any where near there.  He now could entertain his

friends as he desired, was always generous and liberal.  I think I have

said Hilliard was the only child born in the new house of theirs.  He was

born in 1823.

 

About this time Uncle Thompson Curry, his wife's only brother, came to

Georgia.  He lived with them several years.  After his sister, Mrs. Ailsey

Jackson, died in Florence, Mr. Jackson, her husband, died also.  The

guardian of their daughter, Paralee, took her in charge, as well as her

property.  She was very rich.  Her aunt, who was Aunt Delilah Curry, her

mother's sister, then came to Georgia to her sister Sallie's, as they

called her.  She lived there several years.  Then her brother took a notion

to go to housekeeping, so he bought a place (the one that Mr. Bob Childs

built a brick house upon it).  He moved home, his sister Liley going with

him as his housekeeper, and she filled the place well, His, or their,

sister Sallie and her husband fixed them up all right in every way with

stock of every kind, as well as housekeeping matters.  And so they lived

many years, until he took a notion to marry after he was sixty years old.

He had two or three sisters that never married at all.  Two married in

North Carolina and two in Georgia.  I said their father could, or did not,

do much for his children, as he had so many.  He owned a tract or body of

land in Tennessee.  He sold it, but never did get any pay for it.  The City

of Nashville, Tenn. is now on that land.  They (Uncle Thompson Curry and

his sisters that were alive) gave a man by the name of Mr. Calvin Baugh, a

very clever man, the power of attorney to see after it.  He went to Raleigh

and said the State House and all the records were burned up, so that

stopped or closed up the matter.

 

I think all of Mr. Gay’s mother’s sisters came to Georgia but two that

lived to be grown and married.  Her sister, Susan, married a Mr. Stallings,

a second cousin.  They went to Indiana.  One of her sons came to Georgia

and two young men were with him.  They were all three cousins.  Edwin

Stallings was a cousin to the Gays, and it seems to me one of the other

young men was also.  I think their names were Stacy or Staley.  The three

were cousins to each and I am almost certain that two of them were mother’s

nephews.  I know they treated them mighty well and were very kind to them.

I may say something more relative to their visit.  Mother’s oldest sister

came south, or to Georgia, and married before Mother did, I think.  I think

she was one of the first set of twins.  She married a Mr. Babb.  They had

one son and four daughters.  Then her husband died and she again married, a

Mr. Hickson.  She never had any children by him.  She was a cripple, but I

do not know how she was crippled.  Two of her daughters married two

brothers by the name of Cook - John and James Cook.  I think they lived in

Meriwether County.  Another daughter married a Mr. John Wilson, a

Baltimorean and a brother of Mr. Jim Wilson who superintended building the

State Railroad from Atlanta to Chattanooga.  The youngest daughter married

a Mr. Johnston.  He came from Baltimore, also.  He and John Wilson worked

on the railroad under Mr. Jim Wilson.  Mr. Gay hired 8 or 10 of his Negroes

to the Negroes to the Company and one of them was drowned in the

Chattahoochee River.  He was helping the ferry man carry over a wagon with

four mules hitched to it one Sunday.  He was not sent there but went of his

own free will, so he was as much loss as he made by their work.  Sanford

Babb never married, as I ever hear of.

 

The last of Mother’s sisters that came to Georgia was the other twin, mate

to Mrs. Babb.  Her name was Diza.  She came with Mr. Cheek and wife, wife’s

mother (another sister) and their little son in 1848.  They stayed several

week’s at Mr. Sherrod Gay’s.  He was out trying to get work, as he was a

carpenter by trade.  He was a good architect, having served an

apprenticeship at the trade.  He had a friend that came to Georgia and

found out there was a great deal of building going on, and thought Mr.

Cheek could do well.  So he moved his family and got a house from E. H. Gay

for two or three years, doing well all the time.  Later he moved to

Monticello and lived there several years.  His wife’s mother and her sister

both died in Monticello.  Their son was a very smart boy.  Bid fair to make

a very talented man and did, I suppose.  As his father moved back to North

Carolina after his wife’s mother died, we did not see any of the family

afterwards.  His father was killed two or three years afterwards, that is,

after they moved back to North Carolina.  In the meantime, Uncle Thompson

Curry had died and he left all of his nieces a good deal of his estate.  He

married twice.  His first wife was a widow Moss with one child, a little

girl.  Her mother did not live very long before she died.  Aunt Liley was

still with him, so she took charge of the housekeeping matters again, and

the little girl also, and she thought a great deal of the child.  But Uncle

Thompson married again in about 2 years.  She was a young girl, that is,

she was young for him.  She was about 18 or 20 years old and he was about

65 years old.  But she said she loved as well as if he was a young man.

She was first cousin to his first wife and her name was Martha Ann Dismuke.

 She was very pretty and smart also.  Uncle Thompson was very proud of her

and dressed her very fine.  Got her a fine seven hundred dollar carriage.

Had plenty of servants to wait on her and they did so.  She had one child,

a sweet little girl, but it did not live to be a year old.  Soon after its

death, she became very unhealthy, seemed to be consumptive, which her

friends were afraid she would have and die, as many of her uncles and aunts

had died with it.  It soon was developed and she died in about a year after

her babe died.  She was very good to Katherine Moss, her husband’s first

wife’s daughter.  She remained with them during her life and was there with

her step-father at her death and stayed with him when he died.  His sister,

Lily, had left his house and was living with one of her nieces when she

died.  She died in August, 1846.

 

Uncle Thompson then took a notion to make Hilliard Gay his heir.  Had him

to go and live with him.  He was his sister, Sara Gay’s youngest son.

Hilliard went, and Uncle wanted him to marry his step-daughter, Katherine

Moss.  He had made his will and given her, as well as his nieces, a good

deal of his property, and as he had made Hilliard his heir, he wanted them

to marry and always live with and take care of him.  Hilliard told him that

he like Katherine very well as she was, but he did not like her well enough

to marry her, so they never married.  Catherine married Mr. Eden Spear.

 

Hilliard went off to the Mexican war in 1846.  When Uncle Thompson died and

his property was divided, I reckon all that were in Georgia got what willed

to them.  That niece, Paralee, never got hers.  She married a man by the

name of Gillespie.  He was a nice looking young man but he spent a great

deal of her money before he died.  They never had any children.  She did

not come to Georgia after he died, but she married in about two years

afterwards.  She married a Mr. Peters.  They had several children, mostly

girls, I think.  They lived at Holly Springs, Miss., I think.  Then, about

the time the war broke out, they moved to Arkansas.  He died there and she

was a widow again.  That is the last time that we have ever heard of them.

 

Mr. Berry Digby was Uncle Thompson’s executor.  Had all of the money and

the proceeds from what was sold of Uncle Thompson’s estate that he had not

paid out.  Ann Curry, Bob’s and George’s sister, was boarding with him at

the time of his death.  Her portion was Sixteen Hundred Dollars.  The other

nieces had more, I think.  They had Negro property, that is, Mrs. Cheek and

Mrs. Campbell.  Mrs. Cheek got the home place and two Negroes, I think.

She may have taken the home place instead of the money that was to be hers

and her children’s property.  When he (Mr. Cheek) went back to North

Carolina, he sold that place to Mr. Bob Childs and he built a brick house

upon the land.  I think he afterwards was afraid Columbus Cheek would come

back and claim it as his property, which he could have done.  His Father

was killed and his Mother had been dead several years, but he has not come

yet.  But if he has not slumbered over his rights, it is his yet.

 

Hilliard, I guess, got his property alright.  He was the only nephew he

gave anything to.  Uncle Thompson was a good old man, enjoyed life and was

very pleasant at home and abroad.  Many said he was very much like Gen.

Geo. Washington and his favor and person.  I suppose there were only a few

that had seen Washington in person, but I guess he favored his pictures.

 

After Mr. Gay’s father and mother, sister and brother left them or Uncle

Thompson and Aunt Delia left, Mother’s health became very bad.  She never

was well after Hilliard was born, but she kept up the most of the time.

Father was, as I have said, a successful farmer and he raised fine stock,

especially horses and donkeys.  Kept noted stallions and jacks.  He made

money that way and would sell to anyone that wished to buy.  About that

time a great many of the old settlers were selling out their lands, some

going to the lands they had acquired in the land lotteries that were had in

Georgia.  Then some left the state going west.  There were several that

sold their land to Father.  Perhaps he might  not have had to pay them much

money.  He would sell them stock and conveyances to move with, so that is

why he had so much land at his death.

 

Making money and getting rich did not keep them from having trouble with

their children.  I have always heard that it was unlucky for anyone to

marry their kin.  I think everyone has more or less trouble - kin or no

kin, but they did have a heap of trouble.  All of their children were well

formed in person and had good looking features.  They all had good minds

and all had as good education as was common in those days.  The first

serious trouble they had with their children was that Milledge caught on

fire and came near being burned to death.  It was a long time before he got

over it.  Then the 2nd day of April, 1833, their third son, Austin (or

Orson), was killed by a cart being turned over upon him.  He fell on a

stump and the cart fell on him.  A large bull caused the oxen to run and

turn the cart over.  He was killed almost instantly.  It nearly killed his

father and mother.  Mr. Elbert Gay was in Covington going to school at the

time.  He was sent for and went home.  His brother was buried Sunday

morning, April 3rd, 1833.  Mr. Gay never went back to school any more but

made up a school near by and taught the balance of the year.  Then he

attended to his father’s farming matters for the next three years, his

father giving him all the cotton he could make outside of paying his store

account, which was not over $250.00.  His father had all else that was

made.  Both the grain and cotton crop yielded a good price.  Cotton sold

for 18 3/4 cts.  per lb.  He went to merchandizing Christmas of 1836.  Then

he was married on April 5th, 1838.

 

Mother’s and Father’s next great trouble was Hilliard going to the Mexican

War.  He and his cousin, Russell Curry (a brother to George and Bob Curry)

volunteered and went with that Company that left Covington.  I think that

was in 1846.  I think he stayed 18 months, or perhaps longer.  When he did

come home, he was nothing but skin and bones.  He made a brave soldier and

was in several battles.  His horse was killed and he was on him when he was

shot.  He was a fine iron gray.  His father got the horse from Dr. Gaither.

 He got a nice mare from Mr. Elbert Gay for Russell.  But another one in

her place.  Russell was attending to Father’s farm matters at the time, but

Father and Mother both were very glad for him to go, so he and Hilliard

could be together.  But they did not stay together long and were not

together any more during the time that Hilliard stayed.  Russell was with

the officers most of the time.  Hilliard was taken sick with dysentery and

had it so bad and so long and because so emaciated that they gave him a

furlough; he came home and never went back.  It took him some time to get

stout and well.  I think he took charge of his Father’s hands and farm.

 

The war closed early in 1850, I think, and Russell got back the last of May

or the 1st of June.  As soon as Russell came home and found that Hilliard

was attending to his Father’s business, he seemed to be mad about it, and

begun to work against him.  Hilliard had bought a horse from Edwin

Stallings, one of his Aunt Susan Stalling’s sons, of whom I have spoken

before.  He and the other young men brought some horses with them and as I

have said before, Hilliard bought one.  Just as soon as Russell saw the

horse, he wanted it.  Hilliard liked the horse and did not want to sell it.

 Russell had a fine gold watch he had brought from the City of Mexico.  He

offered that for the horse, still Hilliard did not want to trade.  But

Russell kept after him until he traded with him.  He (Russell) had gotten

in with old Mrs. Ozborn to attend to gathering her farm produce, as it was

about harvest time.  After he had traded with Hilliard, one of Mrs.

Ozborne’s sons got him to attend to a fine stallion he had.  He could do

that and attend to the old lady’s business also, so that furnished him a

fine horse.  So he did not need the one he had gotten from Hilliard and he

went back to get his watch and let Hilliard take back the horse, but

Hilliard was provided with a horse and did not rue back.  After he left

Hilliard, he told someone that if Hilliard did not rue back, he would kill

him.  So Hilliard’s friends told him of it and told him to be on his guard

for Russell meant what he said.  So it went on and grew worse until the

friends of both sides advised them to have the matter arbitrated, which

they did on the morning of the 4th of July, 1850.  The arbitration was held

at Mr. William H. Bailey’s, near Rocky Creek Church.  It was decided in

Hilliard’s favor.  They got it settled before dinner, only some little

matter that Mr. Bailey could attend to later.  Hilliard stayed and took

dinner with Mr. Bailey.  As Russell was hauling wheat from Mrs. Ozborne’s

to Mr. Bailey’s gin or thresh, he would come back after dinner.  There came

up a heavy rain just after dinner, so Hilliard waited a while for Russell

to come.  Mr. Bailey told him he hardly thought he would come back that

evening, as the wheat, unless it was under a shelter, was too wet to

thresh.  Hilliard was attending to, and some of the negroes were at work

then.  They (Russell Curry and Hilliard Gay) met at the creek, Russell

coming in on the other side standing up in front of the wagon of wheat.

Hilliard was going in from this side and his horse had commenced drinking.

When he happened to raise his head and saw Russell in the act of pulling

out his pistol, Hilliard drew his immediately and they both shot at the

same time.  Russell’s pistol sorter hung in his shirt bosom, which enabled

Hilliard to shoot as quick as he did.  Hilliard was wounded in the front

part of his left shoulder.  I do not now remember where Russell was

wounded, but he could walk, for as soon as could, he got down and went down

to the creek with his pistol in his hand, so the Negroes said, But when he

came back, he had nothing in his hands.  They thought he went down there to

attend to the calls of nature, which he did, for he hid the pistol there.

Hilliard thought he had hit him and that it might be fatal.  He wheeled his

horse around and left there immediately, going up to Dr. Campbell’s, the

home of his brother-in-law.  Dr. Campbell and his wife saw him coming down

the lane in front of the house.  Dr. Campbell said something was the matter

and went out.  Before he got out of the gate, Hilliard’s horse stopped so

suddenly, (he was coming as fast as the horse could come) that Hilliard

fell off, but said “Doctor, I have shot Russell - go to him as quick as you

can.  He shot me, to.”  He was very bloody.  The Doctor called for help to

carry him in the house, as he saw he was very weak from the loss of blood.

Sister Elvira soon had a bed fixed for him.  The Dr. then attended to his

wound and found that although it was a bad one, he did not consider it

dangerous.  So as soon as he got it dressed and Hilliard was resting very

well, he went to Russell.  He got there soon after Dr. Perry did and they

dressed Russell’s wound.  Dr. Campbell did not consider his would very

dangerous, and thinks he died as much from starvation as from the wound.

There was a good deal of excitement about it.  Of course, Hilliard was

arrested and gave bond.  His Father went on his bond which was $1500.

Hilliard was kept at Dr. Campbell’s until they begun to think that Russell

would die, then he was carried off and concealed until the night before he

died.  Mr. Elbert Gay took him and carried him some distance beyond Ross’

landing on the Tennessee River, which is now Chattanooga City.  Hilliard

then went on to his Aunt Stalling’s in Indiana, the mother of Edwin.  They

then returned the hospitality they had received at their Aunt Sarah Gay’s

house in Georgia.

 

While Russell was alive, he sent for all of his relatives that he liked

(which was all until he and Hilliard fell out about the horse) to come to

see him.  They all went that could.  Mr. Gay and Dr, Campbell both were

very kind and did all they could.  Hi Mother was very much enraged against

Hilliard, and all of the rest, which she ought not to have been, for Father

and Mother, as well as all of their children, had always been very good and

kind to her and all of the family.  She wanted Russell to take an oath that

he never shot Hilliard, that he shot himself, but Russell would not take

the oath.  At first he did say so - said he had no pistol, but they hunted

and found the pistol where he hid it the day he was shot when he went down

to the creek.  Mr. Bailey heard the report of the shooting.  He said it was

all at once and sounded like a big gun, and when the Negroes carried the

wheat on to the thresh, he asked them what that big gun meant.  The Negroes

then told him what had happened.  Russell died and was buried at the old

cemetery at Leaksville by his father.  Hilliard remained away until the

April Court of 1851.  As his bond was not forfeited in October, Hilliard

came back and stood his trial and was cleared by Russell’s own witnesses.

Not one of his own witnesses were examined.  He remained in Georgia a year

or two, then went to Texas.  He was there when his Mother died.  She stood

all the trouble much better than we thought she could.  There was a report

that Hilliard was dead; it came while he was away before he had his trial.

That troubled her a great deal, but Father found out it was not so and

wrote to him to meet him in Chattanooga, which he did.  When she died, she

left many kind messages for him.

 

Mr. Gay’s father was sick at the time Mother died.  Had been confined to

his bead a year or so.  She died Feb. 13th, 1854.  He had a long spell a

few years before that with his feet and he thought he would die.  He went

up to the Coldwater Cave in Marietta.  Dr. Cary Case was the proprietor of

the system.  Father had his children all to render in what he had given and

done for them then so he would know what each child had had.  He did not

stay there long, as he did not se that he was benefitted.  Mr. Gay had

occasion to go down in Jasper below Monticello and he was telling about his

father’s affliction.  They told him about a remedy, which was “yellow dock

and Sarsaparilla”, a patent medicine, so he came home and got it for his

father, and it began to help him immediately.  The disease was in his feet

mostly.  He could not use his feet at all, not even to move them on the

bed.  That medicine helped him so much he could go where he pleased, but it

did not cure him entirely, I do not suppose.  He suffered a great deal with

dispepsia.  I do not now remember what was the matter with him when Mother

died.  He had been sick a long time then - could not walk when she was

buried.  Was carried to the grave in a chair and colored men carried him.

He took her death very hard.  He never would let a thing be moved that

could stay where she had it.  He always treated her well.  He loved her

dearly.  She was a lady in the true sense of the word.  He always would

arrange for her comfort.  He was not a religious man, but was always very

respectful to all denominations.  Would go to church very regularly and

would always go in church when services begun Saturday or Sunday.  He was a

sportsman, that is what was called a horse racer (but he never played

cards).  He was as honorable in horse racing as he could be.  He had extra

fine race horses - paid $500.00 for one mare.  As I said, he would always

go in church when services commenced.  He might talk politics or about

horse racing on Saturdays, but he would hush it all up and get as many to

go in with him.  Sunday the subjects were not named at all.  Then he would

do all he could for the meetings at Murder Creek and at LaGrange Church

where we belonged.  That was a Methodist Protestant Church.  Whenever there

was an Association at Murder Creek Church or a protracted meeting at

LaGrange, he was a good provider, and would furnish fresh meats of every

kind and many other things.  They always carried their dinner when they

would have an association at Murder Creek and none were better or more of

it, and always had a good cider there.  Then at the monthly meeting in

cider time, he would take it out by the pitcher full carried by as many

little darkies, and all that passed that would could have a glass of cider.

 He was a liberal man and a kind and humane master.  His Negroes were as

good as any and the most polite Negroes I ever saw, men, women, and

children.

 

Hilliard went to Texas and bought a good deal of land with the money that

he had left of what his Father had furnished him in his trouble.  After he

had invested it in pine lands, he wrote to his father and told him he

considered it his land, and when he died, he wanted him to count that

matter in his portion, as he did not want his brothers or sister to lose

anything by him.  He had a saw mill and did very well with the pine timber.

 He came back to Georgia during his Father’s lifetime, but after his Mother

died.  He stayed sometime and when he went back, George Curry went home

with him and stayed out in Texas until a few years back.  Hilliard came

back to his Father’s sale which was the Christmas of 1860.  His Father died

July the 20th, 1859.  He made his will leaving or making all as near equal

(he thought) as he could.  His will was for everything to be kept together

until Christmas, 1860.  Bob Curry was attending to his business when he

died, so he still continued.  Mr. E. H. Gay and Dr. Campbell were his

executors.  When the sale came off and everything wad divided, the

homestead fell to Mr. E. H. Gay.  We all would rather Sister Elvira had

drawn it, as she was the only daughter.

 

Hilliard disposed of some of his lands and some of his negroes, but carried

some very valuable ones back with him.  He afterwards sold the balance of

his lands, so he had no more interest in Georgia, as far as property was

concerned.  The next year after Mother died, Father got so much better that

he even bought him a fine suit of clothes, and the report got out he was

visiting a widow near by, but I have idea that it was so.  But while he was

sick, he commenced reading Mother’s testament and became a changed man, and

when he did he joined the church and was baptized by pouring.  Said he

would have rather been immersed but knew he could not be as he was.  Bro

William Gibbers officiated in administering baptism and taking him in the

church.  Father, next to the Baptist, preferred the Methodist Protestant.

Bro. William had taken a great interest in him, went to see him very often.

 He always sand, Prayed, read and talked on religious subjects, so I think

the Lord had pardoned all of his sins, and now I think he is happy and

united with his other loved one in Heaven.  Hilliard never married.  He

died about 12 years after his Father.  The was we found out that he was

dead, I wrote to him in May or June, 1882, telling him about his Brother

Elbert’s death, and asking him to help his brother (Franklin) in a

pecuniary way, as he was very much embarrassed at that time.  Mr. Lacy (of

the firm of Hill & Lacy of Hender, Rusk County, Texas) wrote to me that he

was dead.  Had been dean over two years.  Said that everything Hilliard had

was mortgaged to him.  Said Hilliard had gone on the bond of the tax

collector and that he had the bond to pay, as the man proved a defaulter

and had run away, leaving his bondsmen to pay their bonds.  Then Hilliard

and one of his neighbors had a difficulty that cost Hilliard a great deal

of money.  Said that he furnished him the money by Hilliard’s mortgaging

his land and saw mill to him.  So that is the last we have ever heard about

it.  I think if I had been his brother, I would have inquired something

about it while I was in Texas and in as needy circumstances as he was at

that time, but he, nor anyone else, has ever made any inquiry about it.  I

am through with this matter, I think.   May 20th, 1989.  (Signed) Julia A.

Gay.

 

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