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Dents and Woods in Heard and Coweta By JUDY FOWLER KILGORE That title sounds like an ad for a furniture repair shop, doesn’t it? Actually, it is another one of those strange coincidences and the story ties to the Kirby family I wrote about over the past two weeks. Joseph Tolleson Kirby, as you may remember, married, as his second wife, Lillian Virginia Dent. But, let’s back up more than five years ago when the genealogy bug bit me hard. I had been dabbling around with my Blake book and doing a little, but not really serious, searching for the Blakes in Randolph County, Ala. When I was on the board of directors for the German Shepherd Dog Club of Atlanta back in 1992, I attended the annual “doggy hike” for board members on the Allen farm in Heard County. Each year, we toured a different area of the farm, which extends for more than 2,000 acres. In 1998, the old Wood cemetery was one of the stops on the itinerary. When I discovered that my second great aunt, Nancy Blake Wood (sister of my great-grandfather Isaac Blake) was buried there, it totally bowled me over. The cemetery dates to the early 1800s and contains the graves of the family of Winston Wood and Dicey Gay and Winston’s mother, Tabitha Wood. Nancy Blake’s husband, William Thomas Wood, was the son of Winston and Dicey. So that meant that all their Wood children were my cousins. Here was a part of my family I knew nothing about. Over the next few months, thanks to the graciousness of the Allen family, I did a personal survey of the cemetery, took pictures, and posted it on the Heard County GenWeb Archives page on the Internet. The cemetery is out in the boonies on the back of the property and you would never find it unless you knew specifically where it was. It also is on private property and you may not go there without permission. Through that posting, I have made many contacts with Wood family members, several of them cousins I didn’t know I had. Just a few days ago, I received an e-mail from Anne Patterson-Barnett in Atlanta, who was interested in my family tree posting of Winston Bird Wood, son of Winston and Dicey Wood, from whom she was descended. (I actually had him as “Wilson instead of “Winston” and she corrected that.) I pulled Winston up on my genealogy program and discovered that he was married to Maria Louise Dent. Wait a minute, I said to myself. I just did Dents last week. Some of them were in Heard County. Could this be the same family? Well, Anne confirmed it. Maria Louise Dent Wood was a first cousin of Lillian Virginia Dent Kirby. Their fathers were brothers — William Barton Wade Dent and Joseph Ephraim Dent, respectively. And they were, indeed, in both Heard and Coweta counties. Well, out came all my Heard and Coweta resources and I started snooping. I am only going to hit the high spots because this family could take up several columns. There is a great deal written on William Barton Wade Dent in the Coweta Chronicles since he was a judge and served in the congress. He was born in Bryantown, Charles County, Md., the son of Thomas and Sarah Dent, and the great-grandson of John Dent, who was a member of the first Maryland Convention in 1774. William came to Georgia when he was 18 and taught school at Mallorysville, Wilkes County. In 1826, he married Eliza Hinton, daughter of John Hinton, and the couple moved to Bullsboro in Coweta County in 1827. He moved to Franklin in Heard County by 1830, but was back in Newnan by 1849. He was elected to Congress in 1853 but declined a second term because of failing health. At his death in 1855, he owned some 60,000 acres of land, including Stone Mountain. Eliza died in 1881 and is buried with William at Oak Hill Cemetery in downtown Newnan. Although Internet sources list 12 children for this couple, I could only find seven, since many left home before the 1850 census was taken. Their birth dates range from 1827 to 1844 and they include: Sarah Hinton, John Thomas, Caroline Elizabeth, Mary Sophia, Nathan Alexander, Martha Eliza, Maria Louise, William Barton Wade Jr., James Alfred Peter, Frances Jane, Ann Ellen and Joseph Hugh. Maria Louise Dent, seventh child of William and Eliza Dent, was born 26 March 1836 in Heard County and died 4 April 1902. She married Winston Bird Wood on 9 Nov. 1858 in Coweta County. He was born 15 March 1835 in Alabama , the son of Winston Wood and Dicey Gay, and the grandson of Richard and Tabitha Glass Wood. I found seven children for this couple, the last born about 1869, and, since Winston died in 1873, I assume there were no more as Maria and her children were listed in the home of her mother in 1880. Their children were Anna W., Lulie, William T., Winston B. (probably a junior), Hinton and Mary. Winston Wood Sr. died 10 April 1873 and Maria died 4 April 1902. They are both buried at Oak Hill, along with Maria’s parents. A big bonus I received when I was researching in Coweta was finding my Nancy Blake Wood with her husband and children in 1870 in Coweta County. I had not been able to find them in Heard or Randolph. They moved back to Heard by 1880 and Nancy didn’t die until 1920. Her remains were the last interred in the Wood cemetery on the Allen farm. And it was just luck and a strange coincidence that I found her. If you can add to, or are related to, the Dent or Wood family, I’d love to hear from you. I welcome your letters about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Until next week, happy hunting! (Judy regrets that time does not permit her to do personal research for others.)
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