John A and Martha (Pinholster) Smiley Bible: inserted sheet of Marriages

Sheet of Marriages inserted in John A and Martha (Pinholster) Family Bible (Copywirte 1877), Liberty County, Georgia

Transcription of text in document

John M Durrence and Mary L Smiley
were Married Aug 14th 1884
S. H. Martin and Jane C. Smiley
were Married Dec. 12th 1892
H.L. Tootle and Martha L. Smiley
were Married Oct. 25 --1893
J.E. Smiley and Mary O Martin were
married Jany 24--1895

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Teresa McVeigh 2013

John Alexander and Martha Delila (Pinholster) Smiley Bible (page 7)

Deaths page from John Alexander and Martha (Pinholster) Smiley Family Bible (Copywrite 1877) of Liberty County, Georgia

Transcription of text in document

Deaths
Margaret E. Martin Died July 5th 1881
Miriam J Dubberly Died April 28th 1882
Sarah Smiley Died Sept 2nd 1883
Margaret L Knight Died Oct 7th 1886
John A. Smiley Died Jany 23rd 1894
Text Job 14th x 10th
Martha Luvincy Tootle nee
Smiley Died July 14th 1895
Jane Cornelia Martin nee Smiley
Died June 19th 1897
Mary L Durrence Died Aug 6, 1910
John Enoch Matthew Smiley
died June , 1912

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Teresa McVeigh 2013

James A and Martha D (Pinholster) Smiley Family Bible (1877): Marriages (Page 6)

"Marriages" page of John A and Martha D (Pinholster) Smiley Bible (1877). They lived in Liberty County, Georgia.

Transcription of text in document

Marriages

John A Smiley and Martha D Pinholster
was Married February 6th 1851

Chylar Kirkland and Sarah E Smiley
was Married November 23rd 1871

Edward M Dubberly and Maraum J Smiley
was Married December 19th 1872

James A Smiley and Isabel S Dubberly
was Married November 14th 1878

David A Smiley and Georgia Padgett
was Married Octr 9th 1879

Alexander L Knight and Margaret L Smiley
was Married May 31st 1880

James A and Martha D (Pinholster) Smiley Bible (1877): Record of Births (page 5)

Record of Births page of James A and Martha D (Pinholster) Smiley Family Bible

       

Transcription of text in document

Record of Births
John A Smiley and Family

John A Smiley was born 19th Decr 1828
Martha D Pinholster was born 30th Jany 1834
Maraum J Smiley was born Jan'y 28th 1852
Sarah E Smiley was born Oct 7th 1853
David A Smiley was born Sept 15th 1855
James A Smiley was born Nov 15th 1857
Margaret L Smiley was born July 17th 1861
John E M Smiley was born April 4th 1867
Mary L Smiley was born Aug 14th 1869
Martha L Smiley was born May 23rd 1871
Cornelia J Smiley was born Oct 3rd 1873

Recorded by James D. Zorn

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Teresa McVeigh 2013

John Alexander Smiley and Martha Delila Pinholster Family Bible (1877) page 4

This Bible page of the John A and Martha (Pinholster) Bible lists the birth dates of their children: Maraum Jennett, Sarah Elizabeth, David Archibald, James Alexander [Jr.], Margaret Levicy, John Enoch Matthew, Mary Lubedy, Martha Luvicy, and Cornelia Jane Smiley. The copywirte on the Bible is 1877, so the information was probably written around that time. They lived in Liberty County, Georgia.

Transcription of text in document

Maraum Jennett Smiley was Born
January 28th 1852
--------------------------------------
Sarah Elizabeth Smiley was Born
October the 7th 1853
----------------------------------------
David Archibald Smiley was Born
September 15th 1855
----------------------------------------
James Alexander Smiley was Born
November 15th 1857
----------------------------------------
Margaret Levicy Smiley was Born
July the 17th 1861
---------------------------------------
John Enoch Matthew Smiley was Born
April the 4th 1867
----------------------------------------
Mary Lubedy Smiley was Born
August 14th 1869
----------------------------------------
Martha Luvincy Smiley was Born
May 23rd 1870
----------------------------------------
Cornelia Jane Smiley was Born
October 3rd 1873

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Teresa McVeigh 2013

John Alexander Smiley and Martha Delila Pinholster Family Bible (1877): page 3 Marriage and birth dates of John and Martha

Marriage and birth dates of John Alexander Smiley and Martha Delila Pinholster in their family Bible (copywrite 1877)



 

Transcription of text in document

Marriages and Births
John Alexander Smiley was Born
19th December 1828
Martha Delila Pinholster was Born
January 30th 1834

Mr. John A. Smiley
and
Miss Martha D. Pinholster
Was duely joined in Matrimony
February 6th 1850

NOTE: The Liberty County, State of Georgia, Court of Ordinary Marriages Book shows the marriage date as February 6th 1851. On the Marriage page it says: John A Smiley and Martha D. Pinholster was Married Feb 6th 1851 The bond/license was 4 Feb. 1851.

John Alexander Smiley and Martha Delila Pinholster Family Bible (1877) Page 2

Page 2 of the Family Bible of John A and Martha (Pinholster) Smiley. This page lists the birth dates of John Smiley's parents, Archibald and Sarah (Dreggors) Smiley, and their children: John A,. James M. Mary E., Martha A. and Margaret E. Smiley. The Bible was published in 1877 so this was probably written shortly thereafter. They lived in Liberty County, GA.

 

 

Transcription of text in document

Archibald Smiley was born Novr 1806
Sarah Dreggors wife of Archibald Smiley was born January 22nd 1796
Ages of the Children of A Smiley and wife
John A Smiley was born 19th Decr 1828
James M Smiley was born Octr 3rd 1830
Mary E Smiley was born Novr 10th 1832
Martha A S Smiley was born Feby 8th 1835
Margaret E Smiley was born July 10th 1838

Mary M Hodges Daughter of John
Dreggors and Esther Hodges was born
April 19th 1820

Eliza Crawford was born 13 October 1821

 

 

John Alexander Smiley and Martha Delila Pinholster Family Bible (1877) Frontpiece

Family Bible of James Alexander Smiley and his wife Martha Delila Pinholster
Frontpiece: The Holy Bible, Saint Louis, Missouri, J.H. Chambers & Co, 1877
Current owner Dylan E Mulligan

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Teresa McVeigh 2013

Judge William Dubberly-The Squire of Glennville

Judge William Dubberly-The Squire of Glennville

By Dylan Edward Mulligan

One of the most well-known figures in the history of Glennville is William "Squire" Dubberly, my great-great-great grandfather. Born in Tattnall County November 22, 1827, he was the son of Joseph and Holland Anderson Dubberly. Joseph (1788 - 1855), a veteran of the War of 1812, was one of the original settlers of Philadelphia (now Glennville) in the 1820s. Joseph's father was Tattnall County pioneer and Revolutionary War veteran John Dubberly, who settled in Tattnall County after its creation in 1801.

The Dubberlys settled at the village of Philadelphia, which sprang up around the intersection of two important roads-the Reidsville - Johnston Station (Ludowici) Road and the Hencart Road, which wound its way from present-day Richmond Hill to present-day Hawkinsville, and was an important trade route into the Creek nation.

The earliest settlers were Reverend Seth Knight (1795 - 1853) and Elijah Padgett, who received land grants in the 1820s. They were immediately followed by Joseph Dubberly, John J. Baxter, Asa Barnard, Hardy DeLoach, Joshua Groover, Dempsey Griffin, and Gideon Poppell. Seth Knight was one of the most prominent citizens of the area, serving as Treasurer of Tattnall County and a justice of the inferior court. In 1845, he built a plantation house (now known as the Knight - Dubberly House) facing the intersection at Philadelphia. His large plantation comprised of some 700 acres, the chief crops being Sea Island cotton and rice.

Philadelphia continued to see growth throughout the 1800s. A milestone in the town's history was 1857, which saw the establishment of Philadelphia Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church) whose first pastor was Reverend Hopkin Padgett, who married William Dubberly's sister, Mary Ann. It was during this era of prosperity that William was raised. The happiness was not to last, however, as the clouds of war loomed on the horizon.

At the Secession Convention at Milledgeville in 1861, Tattnall County's delegates Benjamin Brewton and Henry Solomon Strickland voted against secession; however, the subsequent War for Southern Independence brought much hardship to Philadelphia as young men marched off to battle. As the war raged on, the Confederate lines gradually became exhausted, until there was nothing standing between General William Sherman's army and Savannah. The citizens of Philadelphia could do nothing but wait for the true horror of war to come home. They would not have to wait long.

On December 14, 1864, a band of Sherman's army under Colonel Smith Atkins forced their way across the Canoochee River at Taylor's Creek and invaded Liberty and Tattnall Counties. The Yankee invaders forded Beards Creek and marched into defenseless Philadelphia, where they camped in the front yard of the Knight - Dubberly House. On or about December 15, the troops awoke and awaited orders from Colonel Atkins. As they had already done much damage in other parts of the county, Philadelphia seemed fit for the torch. Before ordering the destruction of the plantation and the surrounding village, Colonel Atkins entered the deserted house, where he discovered a Masonic emblem displayed on the mantel. He had received orders from General Sherman not to lay a hand on any property belonging to Masons, as Sherman himself belonged to the brotherhood. Atkins begrudgingly ordered his troops to leave the village, claiming that there wasn't much worth burning there anyway. Despite his orders, some renegade troops had already ransacked part of the property, doing no significant damage. And thus, the Knight - Dubberly House was the savior of the village.

On December 15, 1868, on the fourth anniversary of the sparing of Philadelphia, the old Knight house came under new ownership-that of William Dubberly. With most of the founding fathers of Philadelphia dead, the burden of leadership passed to William, who had by this time been elected justice of the peace. A constable was selected, and law and order came to town. Judge Dubberly used his home as a courthouse and held court there regularly until his death. Because he was the central authority in the town, Dubberly earned the nickname "Squire," which denoted a lower-ranking nobleman or, in his case, a justice of the peace.

 

 

Knight-Duberly House c. 1905

 

With order restored after the war, Philadelphia again began experiencing growth-growth like it had not yet seen. Newer, more substantial buildings began to replace the older ones, and more settlers arrived and established farms and businesses. By 1889, there was a need for a closer post office than the one located several miles away at Matlock Plantation, so, with the help of local schoolteacher Glenn Thompson, a post office was established at Philadelphia. The name "Glennville" was selected in honor of Thompson's hard work in securing the post office. By 1894, the population and economy of Glennville made it impossible to refer to it as a village anymore. On October 6, 1894, Glennville was incorporated as a town, after a petition was signed by sixteen local citizens, including Squire Dubberly's son, Edward. The aging Squire had lived to see his village achieve the rank of town. He passed away peacefully at his home March 29, 1895. The Knight - Dubberly House, now the oldest structure in Glennville, still stands solemnly at Hilltop as a sort of memorial to its former occupants, the founding fathers of Glennville.

William Dubberly first married Mary Louise "Lanie" Kicklighter (November 1, 1828 - February 1, 1868), the daughter of Tattnall County pioneers Jesse and Luvisa Thomas Kicklighter. Jesse Kicklighter was the patriarch of one of Tattnall County's largest families, so it was only natural that his children should marry into other prominent families in the area. William and Lanie had ten children together: Edward Miles, Jesse Thomas, John Daniel, Henry Joseph, Nancy Luviney (Kennedy), our ancestor Isabelle Sophronia (Smiley), Manning Jasper, Charles Beauregard, James Jackson, and Melissa Dubberly (Easterling).

After Lanie's death, William married Mary Ellen Smiley Curry (November 10, 1832 - February 20, 1902), the daughter of Archibald and Sarah Dreggors Smiley of Liberty County. William and Mary had six children together: Sarah Jeanette (Godwin), William Archibald, Mary Temperance, Horace Columbus "Uncle Gundy," Russell Clayton, and Leila Augusta Dubberly.

                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                     William and Mary (Smiley) Dubberly

                                                                          
                                                                               Knight-Dubberly Hous 2011, photo by Dylan E Mulligan

Sources: Philadelphia to Glennville: A Backward Glance by D. Mark Baxter, Carroll L. Cowart, Joseph T. Grice, and Alec F. Thompson; Sketches of By-Gone Days by Joseph T. Grice; information from the Glennville-Tattnall Museum; local historical tradition and legends; written and oral family histories.

Previously published in The Heritage of Tattnall Co., GA - 2011 used with permission of the author

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Teresa McVeigh 2013