They Had Names

African Americans in Early Records of Liberty County, Georgia

Toby Ashmore: Sibby’s Son

By Stacy Ashmore Cole

Toby Ashmore was held in slavery by my Liberty County, Georgia, Ashmore family.
He was very likely also my half 3d great-uncle.

Before Emancipation

Toby Ashmore was born around 1809-1810 to an enslaved woman named Sibby in Liberty County, Georgia[1]. Sibby was owned by my 4th great-grandfather, John Ashmore (1767-1849). She is known to have had at least 9 children during slavery. Their names (with the surnames used after Emancipation) were: Toby Ashmore, Andrew Law, Frank Williams, Toney West, Sandy Maybank, and Elitha Smith. Clayton is believed to have been sold away to an unknown destination before Emancipation. Venus and Adaline likely did not survive until Emancipation.

Toby was likely originally owned by John Ashmore, since Sibby was owned by him at the time of Toby’s birth but appears to have been gifted at some point after birth to John’s son Joseph Ashmore (b. 1791), my 3d great grandfather, who was a planter in Liberty County, Georgia, and had recently married.[2]

When Joseph Ashmore died in December, 1832[3], Toby appears to have gone back to his father, as John Ashmore left Toby to Joseph’s widow Ann Ashmore upon his death in 1849, stipulating that he would pass to Ann’s daughter Martha Eliza Ashmore upon Ann’s death[4]. However, in 1850, Ann Ashmore was living with a relative, Ann Elizabeth Shumatt, in a Taylors Creek house that was later purchased by the founders of the Pleasant Grove AME Church[5]. Toby has not yet been identified in the 1850 slave census, which did not list names, so it is not known where he was during that time, since it does not appear he was with Ann Ashmore[6], but he more than likely still being held in slavery by a member of the Ashmore family.

Who was Toby Ashmore’s father? DNA connections between one of his descendants and a descendant of John Ashmore indicate a biological connection, and the likely suspect for being his father is John Ashmore. We may never know exactly what happened, but one possibility is that Toby may have been gifted to Joseph upon his marriage in order to remove Toby from John Ashmore’s wife’s Sarah’s sight. Toby and his children were listed as mulatto in the 1870 census.

Pre-Emancipation Church Membership

Both Toby and his owners Joseph and Ann Ashmore were members of the Pleasant Grove Methodist Church. A small church that no longer exists, it was formed as an offshoot of the well-known Midway Congregational Church. Most of its white members, including many Ashmores, were related to each other by blood and/or marriage. Its records list both black and white members, and it was part of Rev. Charles Colcock Jones’ mission to evangelize enslaved people.[7] Joseph’s father John Ashmore taught Sunday School to the black members as part of this mission[8]. Toby was received on trial in the church during the summer of 1830, and was baptized by the church’s pastor, Rev. John C. Carter, on 28 February 1832[9].

However, sometime before 1846, Toby had become a member of the North Newport Baptist Church[10]. That church had both white and black members also until it split prior to the Civil War and the white members formed another church elsewhere. The remaining African Americans formed the First African Baptist Church, now the oldest African American church in Liberty County. Sometime prior to 1846, Toby had been excommunicated from that church; it is not known if he later returned to it[11].

After Emancipation

On 7 April 1868, Toby – using the last name Ashmore – took the post-Civil War Reconstruction Oath in neighboring Chatham County, Georgia[12], and in the 1870 census, Toby Ashmore was living in subdivision 181 of Liberty County, Ga, as a free man[13]. Listed as a mulatto farm laborer, he was living with wife Elizabeth, born around 1830, and children, Caroline, Ned and Icicle (whose name may have later been changed to Agnes). Elizabeth (Lizzie) and all three children were also listed as mulatto. Son Irving Ashmore was born about 1871, and Washington Ashmore about 1873.

Toby Ashmore lived along what is now Highway 17 in Liberty County, north of the old Midway Church, between Midway and Fleming[14].

In 1871, Toby Ashmore’s brother, Sandy Maybank, used the U.S. Freedman’s Bank, and listed his siblings as Andrew Law, Toby Ashmore, Toney Ashmore, Frank Ashmore, Lizia Ashmore, and Venus and a name that looked like Talona (possibly mistranscribed).[15] He also listed his parents as Balam and Sibey West and said he (Sandy) was born about 1813.

In 1872, Andrew Law, another of Sibby’s sons, also used the Freedman’s Bank, and listed his siblings as Toby Ashmore, Tony West, Frank Williams, Litha Smith, Venus & Adaline, deceased, “Clayton sold away.”[16] He listed his parents as Shadrach, deceased, and Sibby Ashmore.

Those two Freedman’s Bank records are the basis for understanding that Sibby was the mother of Toby, Andrew, Toney, Frank, Lithia, Venus, Adaline, and Clayton.

In 1873, Toby Ashmore applied for a homestead exemption in Liberty County and described the personal property and real estate he owned as “a lot or parcel of land lying in the County of Liberty and State of Georgia containing eighteen acres more or less known as a part of the Wilson tract of land lying and being in the 15th District G.M. and bounded as follows: on the North by land of J.W. Feaster East by land of Frank Williams South by Land of London Young and West by land of London Young and J.W. Feaster,” as well as “one red ox purchased from Sloman Ashmore in lieu of form horse or mule.”[17] “Sloman Ashmore” was J. Sloeman Ashmore, eldest son of Joseph Ashmore (1819-1889). W.S. Norman, a white landowner who had performed the 1870 census in which Toby Ashmore was listed, signed the petition as his attorney.

Toby died on 28 January 1877 in Liberty County[18], survived by his wife Elizabeth (Lizzie) and his minor children Washington, Irving, and Agnes. Ann Ashmore’s granddaughter, Mary S. Carter Feaster, mourned Toby’s death, writing to a friend on 20 February 1878 “in less than 2 weeks after [John] Strong [Ashmore]’s death (on January 16, 1877), daddy Toby died. You knew our old daddy Toby I think. Grandma raised him with her own children, and we all felt like another of the family was gone.”[19]

Mary Feaster may or may not have known that Toby really was a member of the Ashmore family. It seems likely that such things may have been known in families and connected groups without needing to be spoken.

He died without a will. Lizzie’s application for a year’s support from the estate was filed on 24 September 1877 by Joseph Ashmore’s son of the same name, Joseph Ashmore (b. 1819), who was judge of the Liberty County Probate Court at the time[20]. Judge Ashmore ordered that Lizzie’s provision be determined by a group that included Mary S. Carter Feaster’s husband William J. (Josie) Feaster.

She was granted a year’s worth of support from the estate[21]. His estate was valued at $94 and included 12 acres of land (valued at $50), an ox and cart, a gun, and some household furniture and tools.

Lizzie remarried on 27 June 1878 to George March, about 17 years her junior[22]. The marriage was performed by J. Sloeman Ashmore, who had been chaplain of the 25th Georgia Infantry Regiment, C.S.A., during the Civil War and was an ordained Methodist minister. She kept her land, paying property tax on 12 acres in District 15 of Liberty County as sole owner in 1879[23]. (George March was listed in the same property tax register but not as owning land.)

Toby’s Family

In 1880, Lizzie was still living in District 15 with husband George and her children Agnes, Irving, and Washington Ashmore[24]. She lived near her older daughter Caroline, who had married Daniel Shuman[25] and started a large family. By 1900, at about age 70, she was still living with George in Militia District 1467 of Liberty County, near her daughter Agnes, who had married John R. Jordan[26]. Lizzie likely died before 1910[27].

On 7 December 1888, Mary Feaster wrote to the same friend that she had been laid up with rheumatism and “late in the afternoon Maum Lizzie came,” likely a reference to Toby’s wife Elizabeth.[28]

Toby and Lizzie’s daughter Caroline, born 20 May 1854[29], lived all of her life in Liberty County. At age 20, in 1874, she married Daniel Shuman[30]. Their first child, John S. Shuman, was born in 1875; thirteen more children followed. They lived near Lizzie in Liberty County, as did her other daughter, Agnes, born in 1868, who married John R. Jordan on 29 March 1883[31]. Agnes’ and John’s marriage was performed by Rev. H.S. Andrews, who was related to the white Ashmores. Agnes and John R. Jordan had at least three children: James A. Jordan, John Richard Jordan (1890-?), and Priscilla Jordan[32].

In 1910, Caroline and Daniel Shuman were still living in Liberty County with six of their children and were listed as owning their own farm[33]. By 1920, Caroline was a widow, still living on her owned property – no mortgage – and living with sons Irving, Sampson, and Houston[34]. She died on 19 April 1926 of pleurisy, still living in Liberty County[35]. Agnes Jordan, who was listed as a widow in the 1920 census (dated January 20, 1920), was living near her son John and his wife Florence,[36] and died on 4 August 1923 in Freedmen’s Grove, Liberty County.[37] According to their death certificates, both Agnes Jordan and Caroline Shuman were buried in “Frank Williams’ cemetery.” Frank Williams was a brother of Toby Ashmore.

No information has been found on the fates of Toby and Lizzie Ashmore’s sons Ned, Irving and Washington.

  1. For more information about Sibby and her family, see: https://theyhadnames.net/research-sibbys-family/. ↑

  2. This is based on Joseph Ashmore being listed as Toby’s owner in the 1830-1832 Pleasant Grove Church records, and the letter from Mary S. Carter Feaster referring to her grandmother having raised Toby with her own children. ↑

  3. Records of the Pleasant Grove Church (see previous footnote). ↑

  4. “Liberty County Court of Ordinary , Georgia, Volume B, Wills, appraisements and bonds 1790-1850, pages 479-81, Will of John Ashmore;  digitized microfilm accessed through manual search, Ancestry (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-893L-GH8M : accessed 9 June 2024), “Georgia Probate Records, 1743-1990” > Liberty County > “Wills, appraisements and bonds 1790-1850 vol B,” image 680-1 of 689; citing original records of Liberty County Superior Court, Georgia. Note:  Record transcribed and put online by Stacy Ashmore Cole at TheyHadNames.net at https://theyhadnames.net/2018/06/08/liberty-county-will-john-ashmore/. ↑

  5. Liberty County Superior Court, “Deeds & Mortgages v. v. AB 1894-1896” p. 389-90, Elizabeth Ann Shumatt to Piner Martin; digital image, FamilySearch.org, “Deeds & Mortgages, v. AA-AB 1892-1896” within “Deeds and mortgages, 1777-1920; general index to deeds and mortgages, 1777-1958,” image #519, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QP-598Q-L?i=518&cat=292358, accessed 2/6/2021) ↑

  6. Ann Ashmore was not listed as owning any enslaved people in the 1850 federal slave census. ↑

  7. For more information on Rev. Charles Colcock Jones, see Erskine Clarke’s Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic. ↑

  8. James Stacy, History and Public Records of the Midway Congregational Church, Liberty County, Georgia. ↑

  9. For this and previous information on the Pleasant Grove Church, please see transcription of a microfilmed copy of the original records at https://theyhadnames.net/pleasant-grove-church-records/. The microfilmed copy was obtained from a cousin, Jerry Crosby, who got it from the Georgia Archives. The original records were notated by the Georgia Archives as being in possession of a member of the Mt. Olivet Church, but inquiries with her relatives have been unsuccessful in locating the originals. ↑

  10. Charles Colcock Jones, “1846 Census of African American Church Members in Liberty County’s 15th District,” Liberty County, Georgia, entry for Toby Ashmore, North Newport Baptist Church; transcription, TheyHadNames.net (https://theyhadnames.net/1846-c-c-jones-census/ : 21 Dec 2021); citing Charles Colcock Jones papers, Louisiana Research Collection, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.  ↑

  11. Ibid. ↑

  12. “Georgia, Returns of Qualified Voters and Reconstruction Oath Books, 1867-1869,” Chatham County, Georgia, entry for Toby Ashmore; database images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1857/images/32305_1220705227_0130-00164 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 127 of 164. ↑

  13. 1870 U.S. census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Subdivision 181, page 40, dwelling 378, family 378, enumerated on November 22, 1870, by W.S. Norman, entry for Tobey Ashmore household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4263491_00475 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 40 of 56. ↑

  14. Based on location of Mary S. Carter Feaster and her husband William, who were neighbors of Toby Ashmore and his brother Frank Williams. ↑

  15. Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874, for Georgia, Chatham County, Microfilm Series: M816, the National Archives in Washington, D.C. record for Sandy Maybank; digital database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8755/images/GAM816_9-0100 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), “U.S., Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865-1874” -> “Registers of Signatures of Depositors, 1865-1874,” -> “Roll 09: Savannah, Georgia; Dec 17-1870-Oct 22, 1872), image 100 of 686. ↑

  16. Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874, for Georgia, Chatham County, Microfilm Series: M816, the National Archives in Washington, D.C. record for Andrew Law; digital database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8755/images/GAM816_9-0100 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), “U.S., Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865-1874” -> “Registers of Signatures of Depositors, 1865-1874,” -> “Roll 09: Savannah, Georgia; Dec 17-1870-Oct 22, 1872), image 671 of 686. ↑

  17. Homestead exemption application in Liberty County, Georgia, Deeds & Mortgages, 1870-1874, Book Q, page 359; digitized microfilm accessed through catalog, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QP-5931-6 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), Family History Library microfilm 008564334, “Deeds & Mortgages, v. Q-R 1870-1877,” image 209 of 607, item 2 of 3; citing original records of Liberty County Superior Court, Georgia. ↑

  18. 1878 letter from Mary S. Carter Feaster. Original in possession of Hermina Glass-Hill, executive director, Susie King Taylor Women’s Institute and Ecology Center, Liberty County, Georgia. ↑

  19. 1878 letter from Mary S. Carter Feaster. Original in possession of Hermina Glass-Hill, executive director, Susie King Taylor Women’s Institute and Ecology Center, Liberty County, Georgia. ↑

  20. Liberty County, Georgia, Court of Ordinary, loose folders in alphabetical order, application of Elizabeth Ashmore widow of Toby Ashmore for year’s support for herself & minor children, 24 Sept 1877; digital images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8635/images/005764252_00286 : 9 Jun 2024), images 286-290 of 1246. ↑

  21. Ancestry.com, “Georgia Probate Records, 1743-1990” > Liberty County > “Administrations, Aikens, M-Baker,A,1896-1939,” image 286 of 1246 (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8635/images/005764252_00286 : 9 Jun 2024); citing original records of Liberty County Superior Court, Georgia. ↑

  22. Liberty County, Georgia, Court of Ordinary Marriages White & Colored, Book A, 1819-1896, indexed by men’s names, entry for George March to Elizabeth Ashmore, June 27, 1878, Liberty County, Georgia, by Joseph Sloeman Ashmore, “ordained minister of the gospel”; database images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/4766/images/40660_307901-00106 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 73 of 139. ↑

  23. Liberty County, Georgia, Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892, 15th District, 1879, entry for Lizzie March; digitized images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1729/images/40881_1220705227_0839-00395 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 396 of 883. ↑

  24. 1880 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule,  District 15, enumeration district 66, page 17, dwelling 164, family 166, entry for George and Lizzie March household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6742/images/4240148-00373 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 17 of 39. ↑

  25. Based on the 1900 census. ↑

  26. 1900 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Militia District 1476, enumeration district 88, sheet 5 (handwritten, 9 written in and crossed out), line numbers 18-9; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/images/4120072_00103 : accessed 9 Jun 2024).  ↑

  27. She was not found in the 1910 census, even during a page by page search near her daughters. Georgia did not require death certificates until 1919. ↑

  28. 1888 letter from Mary S. Carter Feaster. Original in possession of Hermina Glass-Hill, executive director, Susie King Taylor Women’s Institute and Ecology Center, Liberty County, Georgia. ↑

  29. Caroline Shuman’s death certificate: “Georgia, Death Index, 1914-1940,” entry for Caroline Shuman, 19 Apr 1926 (filed 1 May 1926), District 1476, Liberty County, Georgia, State File 9925; database images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2562/images/004179365_01314 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 1314-1498. ↑

  30. This and records of children based on census records already cited. ↑

  31. Liberty County, Georgia, Court of Ordinary Marriages White & Colored, Book A, 1819-1896, indexed by men’s names, entry for John R. Jordan to Agnes Ashmore, March 29, 1883, Liberty County, Georgia, by H.S. Andrews, minister of the gospel; database images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/4766/images/40660_307901-00090 : accessed 9 June 2024) “Georgia, Marriage Records From Select Counties, 1828-1978″ > ” Marriages (White & Colored), Book A, 1819-1896,” image 57 of 139. ↑

  32. Based on census records already cited. ↑

  33. 1910 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Militia District 1476, enumeration district 122, sheet 4B, line numbers 54-61, entry for household of Daniel and Carlina Schulman (name miswritten by the enumerator);  digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/31111_4327500-00862 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), images 8 of 16.  ↑

  34. 1920 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Militia District 1476, enumeration district 131, sheet 4B, line numbers 97-100, dwelling 97, visited 98; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4300124_00819 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 8 of 15.  ↑

  35. Caroline Shuman’s death certificate: “Georgia, Death Index, 1914-1940,” entry for Caroline Shuman, 19 Apr 1926 (filed 1 May 1926), District 1476, Liberty County, Georgia, State File 9925; database images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2562/images/004179365_01314 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 1314-1498. ↑

  36. 1920 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Militia District 1476, enumeration district 131, sheet 3B, line numbers 70-2, dwelling 68, visited 69; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4300124_00817: accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 6 of 15.  ↑

  37. Agnes Jordan’s death certificate: “Georgia, Death Index, 1914-1940,” entry for Agnes Jordan, 4 Aug 1923 (filed 1 May 1926), Freedman’s Grove, Liberty County, Georgia, State File 26786; database images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2562/images/004179203_01439 : accessed 9 Jun 2024), image 1439 of 1510. ↑

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