Jack Wilson submitted his Southern Claims Commission petition in 1873, asking for $463.50 for 3 horses, 4 cows, 2 hogs, poultry, corn, and potatoes taken by Sherman’s Army troops when they came through Liberty County, Georgia, in mid-December 1864. Wilson’s claim was disallowed because the Commissioners believed that either an enslaved man would not be able to own such property, or that if he did own it, it had saved his slaveowner from having to supply it to him and so aided the Confederate cause. Later such claims from Liberty County would prove that enslaved people there did own this kind of property, and the Commissioners would drop their convoluted logic about its usefulness to the Confederacy, but Wilson was unlucky enough to be one of the first claimants from Liberty County.
For a full transcript of this claim, see: https://theyhadnames.net/2020/05/30/jack-wilson-southern-claims-commission/.
Jack Wilson testified that he was 40 years old when he submitted the claim, and that he was born a slave in Liberty County, and had been owned by George Washington Walthour and was on his Westfield plantation at the time of the U.S. raid. Wilson said that he became free when the Yankee soldiers came, and added, “I was for my freedom all the time. I did not care how it came. I prayed for it to come and waited for it a long time. It came and I am not tired of it and I don’t think I ever shall be.” He said that at the time of his testimony he was living on the Halifax Plantation belonging to John L. Harden, to whom he paid $20 a year “for as much land as I can work.”
Wilson said that he had bought his first horse from his father, whom he unfortunately did not name, for $20, and that he had been raising horses ever since to sell and so had paid for or raised the other property. When the soldiers took everything off to their camp at Midway Church about 8 or 9 miles from his home, he said, they told him that they had been fighting for his freedom and needed his property to eat, but “I liked to starve to death. I had to go picking around among my neighbors but they were all about as bad off as I was, it was a hard time for us that winter. There was a great deal of suffering in Liberty County.”
Abraham Anderson and Ben Howard both testified that they were present when the soldiers took Wilson’s property, and said that William Jones, Joshua Andrews, Aberdeen LeCount, and others were there. Abraham Anderson said he was about 50 years old at the time of the testimony and that he also belonged to George Walthour, and now lived at “Parson Jones plantation in Liberty County” [probably meaning Rev. Charles Colcock Jones]. Ben Howard testified that he himself was born at Sifax [Syphax] Plantation in Liberty County, where he still lived, and was owned by Joe LeCount [Joseph LeConte] and was in his 30’s at the time of the claim. Both Anderson and Howard said they were not related to Wilson.
Jack Wilson was born around November 1832 [1]. He stated in his Southern Claims Commission claim that he was enslaved by George Washington Walthour on his Westfield plantation. When Walthour died, his December 1859 estate inventory listed 291 enslaved people across three plantations, including Westfield, and there were two young men named Jack on the Westfield plantation, one listed as 20 years of age and the other as 23 [2]. Jack Wilson would have been about 27. Walthour had four minor children when he died, meaning that his estate was not divided right away, so although Walthour was dead when Emancipation came, Jack would still have belonged to his estate [3]. It is not clear from the Southern Claims Commission testimony whether Jack had belonged to Walthour all his life, but Walthour did live in Liberty County all his life and inherited his father’s property there, so it is theoretically possible.
There are various dates given for Jack’s marriage to Dinah [maiden name unknown, name also spelled Diana in the censuses], but in the 1870 census, they were listed together with three children who had the surname Stewart: Catherine (6), James (3), and Pompey (2) [4]. In the 1880 census, these children are listed with the surname Wilson, and there are four more: Sarah (9), Thomas (4), Cato (2), and John (infant) [5]. When Catherine (Caty/Katy) married Morris Brown in April 1882, her maiden name was listed as Stewart [6]. No evidence was found to suggest why these first three children had a different surname or whether they were in fact Jack’s and Dinah’s biological children.
When he testified before the Southern Claims Commission in 1873, Jack Wilson said he was living on the Halifax Plantation belonging to John L. Harden, and paying him annual rent in exchange for land to cultivate. On March 23, 1875, Jack Wilson bought 86.5 acres from white landowner Joseph Ashmore [7]. The land was bounded by land owned by Prime Wilson Sr., Jim Holmes, Sandy Bennett, Frank Williams, William Richard Shave, and Doddy Brown. All of these were formerly enslaved people except for William Richard Shave, who was a relative of Ashmore. [Transcriber’s note: Ashmore became the Liberty County probate court judge the following year, and was my 2d great-grandfather.] What is odd is that property tax and agricultural census records from after this year do not seem to show that Wilson owned this amount of land but no record was found of him selling it.
In the 1880 agricultural census, Wilson was listed as renting 10 cultivated acres [8], and none of the property tax records between 1880 and 1890 show him as paying tax on land, though they do show him owning less than $100 in stock (horses, cattle, etc) [9]. In 1882 and 1883, he is listed as a guardian for minors and owning stock in their names (which were not given).
In the 1900 census, Jack and Diana were shown living next to son Thomas, married to Susan Lowe, and daughter Catie, now married to Morris Brown [10]. In the 1910 census, their home was shown as being on Sandy Run Road (where they had probably been all along), and living with them were grandson David Brown and granddaughter Lucille Spring [11]. Diana Wilson was said to have had 11 children, 9 of them still living.
Jack died before the 1920 census. His headstone is at the First African Baptist Church cemetery in Riceboro, Liberty County, and it shows his death date as April 18, 1918, although no records were found to substantiate this [12]. His headstone also has a Masonic symbol, presumably indicating he was a member.
In the 1920 census, Diana Wilson is listed as a widow and is living with her 21-year-old “son,” Jack Wilson and his wife Bertha on Jonesville Road in Liberty County [13]. (“Son” is in quote because it seems possible that Jack was actually her grandson; otherwise, he likely would have been with Jack and Dinah in the 1900 and 1910 censuses.) No death record has been found for Dinah Wilson.
Citations:
[1] 1900 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Militia District 15, enumeration district 81, sheet #12, line number 91-2, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7602/4120071_00602/9155488: accessed 5/30/2020).
[2] Liberty County Court of Ordinary, Old General Book “C”, 1850-1853, p. 364-371, Estate Appraisement of George W. Walthour; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Georgia Probate Records, 1743-1990,” Liberty County, within “Miscellaneous Probate Records 1850-1853 vol C and L,” image #231-5. Record summarized and put online at TheyHadNames.net (https://theyhadnames.net/2019/11/13/liberty-county-estate-inventory-geo-george-w-walthour/)
[3] Liberty County Court of Ordinary, Old General Book “C”, 1850-1853, p. 371-2, Support for widow and minor children of George W. Walthour; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Georgia Probate Records, 1743-1990,” Liberty County, within “Miscellaneous Probate Records 1850-1853 vol C and L,” image #235. Record summarized and put online at TheyHadNames.net (https://theyhadnames.net/2019/11/13/liberty-county-widow-support-inventory-widow-and-4-minor-children-of-george-w-walthour/)
[4] 1870 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Subdivision 180, p. 44, dwelling #422, family #422, enumerated on December 13, 1870, by Robert Q. Baker, Jack Wilson, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7163/4263491_00424/5887862: accessed 5/30/2020).
[5] 1880 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Dictrict 15, enumeration district 67, p. 45, dwelling #494, family #495, Jack Wilson; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/6742/4240148-00445/12825818: accessed 5/30/2020).
[6] Ancestry.com, “Georgia, Marriage Records From Select Counties, 1828-1978,” Liberty County, Georgia, “Marriages (White and Colored), Book A, 1819-1896,” (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/4766/40660_307901-00049/20549301: accessed 5/30/2020), image #16, Morris Brown to Katy Stewart, on April 18, 1882, performed by Rev. Wm. Tyson.
[7] Liberty County Superior Court, “Deeds & Mortgages v. R 1874-1877,” p. 168, Joseph Ashmore to Jack Wilson; digital image, FamilySearch.org, “Deeds & Mortgages, v. R 1874-1877” within “Deeds and mortgages, 1777-1920; general index to deeds and mortgages, 1777-1958,” image #372, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QP-599D-S?cat=292358, accessed 5/30/2020)
[8] U.S. Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880, 1880, Liberty County, Georgia, District 15, Jack Wilson; digital image, Ancestry.com, “U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880,” Georgia, Liberty County, Districts 67 and 15, image #9, (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/1276/32668_236695-00069/5410174: accessed 5/30/2020)
[9] Georgia, Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892, Liberty County, Georgia, 1878-1885, Militia District 15, Jack Wilson; digital image, Georgia, Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892, Liberty County, Georgia, 1878-1885, 15th District, Images #310, 544, 671; Liberty County, Georgia, 1890, 15th District, Image #122 (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 5/30/2020).
[10] 1900 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Militia District 15, enumeration district 81, sheet #12, line number 91-2, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7602/4120071_00602/9155488: accessed 5/30/2020).
[11] 1910 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Militia District 15, enumeration district 114, p. 14B, line number 51-4, house #299, dwelling #299, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7884/31111_4327500-00634/3613868: accessed 5/30/2020).
[12] Find A Grave Index, Memorial ID 210540609 (created by Stacy Ashmore Cole), Jack Wilson, death 23 Apr 1918, First African Baptist Church Cemetery, Riceboro Liberty County, Georgia; digital image: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210540609/jack-wilson, includes photo of tombstone.
[13] 1920 U.S. Census, Liberty County, Georgia, population schedule, Militia District 15, enumeration district 124, sheet #7, line number 48-50, dwelling #149, visited #165, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/6061/4300124_00593/8019250: accessed 5/30/2020).