“At the beginning of the rebellion I sympathized with the Yankee side I felt glad and long[ed] to see the day come and when they did come I shouted for joy I told my friends I was glad God hath put it into the hearts of some loyal men to strike of[f] the chain binding us down…though they stripped us of every thing I still rejoiced.”
Aberdeen LeCounte was 36 years old in 1873 when he submitted a claim to the Southern Claims Commission for property he said had been stolen from him by U.S. soldiers during Sherman’s March to the Sea in December 1864. At the time of his claim, he was farming about 10 acres that he rented for $15 a year from plantation owner John L. Harden in Liberty County. He testified that he had lived there during the war, enslaved by Harden, and had gone back there after moving around from place to place within the County after the war.
See the full transcript of this claim here: https://theyhadnames.net/2020/07/07/aberdeen-lecounte-southern-claims-commission/
LeCounte said that his father — not named — had belonged to William LeConte. About 10 years before the war, his father had given him a colt, which he had raised and which had a colt herself, the mare taken by the U.S. Army. They also took a saddle and bridle, poultry, rice, corn, potatoes, plates, and bed clothes from him, he said, and carried them off to their camp on Sam Varnedoe’s plantation, later moving to their headquarters at Midway Church.
Testifying for LeCounte was Somerset Stewart, 65 years old, who said he was born enslaved in Liberty County, and that his slaveowner at the time of the war was John LeConte, who was now living in California. He said he was not related to Aberdeen LeCounte but had known him since he was a little boy. Stewart said that the property was taken at Aberdeen LeCounte’s house on John LeConte’s plantation, although Aberdeen had said he was living then on John L. Harden’s plantation. Stewart named Thomas LeCount, Morris LeCount, and Tony West as people who were there when the property was taken.
Ben Howard, 30 years old, also testified for Aberdeen LeCounte. He said he was born enslaved in Liberty County and had belonged to Joseph LeConte. He also said he was not related to Aberdeen LeCounte, and that he was now (1873) still living on the Joseph LeConte place. He said that the property was taken at Aberdeen LeCounte’s house on the “Widow Harden plantation.”
When asked where he was living when the property was taken, Aberdeen LeCounte replied, “On the Lecount place, where I live now. No, I was on the John L. Harden place. I belonged to Harden. He married a daughter of old Lewis Lecount. He died before I was born.”
Aberdeen’s claim was denied by the Southern Claims Commission, based on the following report by Special Agent R.B. Avery:
“The claimant in this case is a leader, and pretty sharp, not over conscientious , though he is a deacon in the church. I was at his house, in his absence. It was clean, but did not contain $10 worth of furniture and cooking utensils, including bedding. But Aberdeen dresses pretty well. I made inquiry of a large number, and learned that he had no horse of his own. His mother told me the horse was hers. The same one charged in this claim, and that Aberdeen had none. The rice was here, and corn. It is possible he had some potatoes and chickens, but very few. He was very young then – not more than thirty years old now. The saddle and “bits” -bridle- belonged to his mother, and was not in his possession. All the story he tells about how he got these things is false, and what property was taken belonged to his mother, to which he had no title.”
Birth date
Aberdeen LeCounte had testified that his father had belonged to William LeConte and that William LeConte’s father, Louis (Lewis) LeConte, had died before Aberdeen was born. Louis LeConte died in January 1838. Aberdeen LeCounte’s birth year varies from 1838 to 1842 in postwar federal censuses, but the 1900 census, which is the only one to specify both the year and month of birth, has May 1838 for his birthdate. “Aberdeen,” valued at $175, was listed in Louis LeConte’s estate when it was inventoried in August 1838, and that Aberdeen was in the lot that went to WIlliam LeConte. An “Aberdeen” was then named in William LeConte’s 1841 estate inventory, valued at $200, and another inventory for William LeConte’s estate that was done in 1848, valued at $500. Thus it appears that the birth date of May 1838 for Aberdeen is probably correct.
Parents
It also appears likely that Aberdeen’s father, who was still alive to give him a horse 10 years prior to the Civil War, was in both the 1838 Louis LeConte inventory & division and the 1841 William LeConte inventory. In the estate inventories and divisions, families were often preserved intact to the extent convenient for the slaveowners, and thus are often listed in family order. In the 1838 Louis LeConte estate inventory & division, Aberdeen is listed as follows:
Prince $700
Suckey $600
Charity $225
Aberdeen $175
Katy $75
Hamlett $700
The order of the names and the values appear to suggest that Prince and Suckey were the parents of Charity, Aberdeen, and Katy, and that Hamlet starts a different family group. Does that hold up in the 1841 William LeConte inventory? Yes. We find Aberdeen listed as follows:
Prince $500
Suckey $400
Charity $250
Aberdeen $200
Catey $125
So it appears that Prince and Suckey were very likely Aberdeen’s parents, and Charity and Catey his sisters. In the 1848 William LeConte estate division, Prince, Charity and Caty were listed in order, but divided into different lots, and Suckey and Aberdeen were listed separately and also in different lots.
Now we check to see if there is a Prince LeConte in the 1870 Liberty County federal census…and there he is, 65 years old, with wife Sukky, 59, and daughter Susan, 34.
Slaveowner & Location
William LeConte was only 28 when he died in 1841, leaving a widow and three young children, as well as his Cedar Hill plantation. Col. Thomas Quarterman initially became administrator of the estate, but LeConte’s brother John LeConte later became administrator. William LeConte’s widow and children moved to Macon to be near her brother, and thus likely left Cedar Hill and the people enslaved there under the supervision of a family member. However, both her brothers-in-law — John LeConte and Joseph LeConte — were scientists and college professors and did not live regularly in Liberty County. In fact, after the war, John LeConte became the president of the University of California, where Joseph was also a prominent professor and a founding member of the Sierra Club.
Jane LeConte, their sister, married Dr. John M.B. Harden, who died in 1848. Jane’s and John’s son John LeConte Harden, on whose plantation Aberdeen LeConte said he was living during the Civil War, was born in 1839. Jane LeConte Harden would have been the “Widow Harden” on whose plantation Ben Howard said Aberdeen was living at the time of the raid. She owned Halifax Farm.
Family Life
In 1929, Lydia LeCounte Law of Riceboro, widow of Peter Law, died. Her death certificate listed her parents as Deen LeCounte and Lovenia LeCounte. It seems possible that Aberdeen LeCounte was her father. Nothing more was found about Lovenia.
By 1862, however, Aberdeen was married, formally or not, to Catherine, and they were married for at least 38 years, according to the 1910 census, which also indicated that Catherine had had six children, two of them then living. The censuses show that two of these children were Marshal A. LeCount, born in 1867, and Mary Tallulah LeConte, born in 1869. Marshal LeCount married Katie Brown in 1887, and they were blessed with many children, including a son named Aberdine (Dean), after his grandfather, who lived nearby.
No death records were found for Aberdeen, but he was not found in the 1920 Liberty County census, and neither was Marshal. There was a Dean LeCounte in the Georgia death index for 1925, but this proved to be Aberdeen’s grandson Aberdine, according to the death certificate found for him.