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Genealogy: Finding Your Folks

The families of Bethany

By Judy Fowler Kilgore

Before I start on Bethany families, I’d like to wrap up the Wade Lester family with a little more research I’ve done in the past week.

Thanks to the generous help of Mary Harper, whose husband is a descendant of the Bethany Harpers, we believe we have “proved” the known children of Wade and Elizabeth Lester. Mary lives in Florida, but she and her husband make many trips back up this way to visit relatives. If it hadn’t been for the Internet, Mary and I never would have found each other. Chalk another one up to modern technology.

Since the last nine Lester children appear by name in the 1850 census with their mother, we had no problem with those. However, the first three were not enumerated by name in any censuses with their parents and that took a little doing. The first two daughters may flip-flop in their birth years, but this is the way we think it adds up.

We now know that Wade’s first son was, indeed, William H. Lester and he was born about 1824-1825 in Georgia. Exactly where is still up in the air. William Lester was named in his father’s will in Fayette County and also was a witness to the will. Unfortunately, the other children were mentioned but not named, so we still had our work cut out for us.

Wade’s second child was a daughter, Sarah, b. abt. 1826-27, who married William Simpler in Meriwether County in 1841 and appears in the 1850 Meriwether census with her husband and children. One of their sons, Wade Simpler, is buried in the Brown-Lester cemetery on Ga. Hwy. 74 along with Wade and Elizabeth Lester.

Wade’s third child was another daughter, Mary, born between 1825 and 1830, also in Georgia. Mary married John Hanson in Fayette County in 1845 and John also was a witness to Wade’s will.

Some researchers say Wade’s father was Isaac Lester but I’m not completely satisfied with this information. That will take more research. But we are now certain of those first three children and can proceed from there.

Getting back to the Bethany families (a group to which the Lesters belong), I couldn’t let Bethany Methodist Church’s upcoming 150th anniversary go by without jumping on the opportunity to feature some of the families of that historic church in the column. From now until June, I will attempt to feature as many as I can. I hope those of you out there who are descended from Bethany families will help me out a little by sending your family information. If not, I will just print what I can find on my own. The names of the predominant families buried there appear later in the column.

First, a little history of the church for those of you who may be new to Fayette County. Bethany is in north Fayette County on the corner of Rivers Road and Lee’s Lake Road, not far from the Fulton County line. According to “The History of Fayette County, 1821-1971,” compiled and edited by my dear friend Carolyn Cary, and published by the Fayette County Historical Society, Bethany was organized about 1856 with land donated by Edward Bustin. Additional land was donated in 1946 by T.E. Rivers and Mrs. M.J. Ellington. The community surrounding the church was called “Fife.”

After moving several times, the church finally settled in its present location in 1898 and was formally dedicated in 1900. The cemetery across the street is a magnificent and serene place, holding hundreds of graves of the Bethany faithful who have passed away over the years.

All those buried at Bethany through 1977 are recorded in the “Cemeteries of Fayette County,” published by the Fayette County Historical Society. However, I’m sure there are hundreds more who have found Bethany as their final resting place over the past 30 years. In 1977, the official count was 506 graves.

Using the cemetery book as a tally point, I found the following predominant families buried at Bethany:

Harper, 41 graves; Ellington, 37; Rivers, 36; Boyd, 26; Harris, 22; Milam, 21; Jones and Horton, 18 each; Spier/Speir, 17; Patton, 16; Lester, 14; and Banks and Thomas, 13 each. All other family surnames are represented by fewer than 10 graves each. There are 102 different surnames represented.

Also, keep in mind that females of the above surnames may have married outside the core Bethany families and many of them are included in the cemetery.

Two people buried at Bethany were born in the 1700s — Sarah Rivers, b. 3 Dec. 1777 and John L. Horton, b. 29 July 1793.

While most persons in the cemetery were born in the mid- to late-1800s, many, many were born in the very early 1800s, before 1850. Joshua Shropshire was born in 1806 and his wife, Mrs. M.L. Shropshire, was born in 1811; Millie (Tidwell) Boyd was born in 1808 and her husband, James Boyd, was born in 1810.

Many of these families came from other states and settled in Georgia in the 1820s and 1830s. Most communities were clustered around a church and the congregation often literally became a church “family” with family intermarriages over the years.

Next week I hope to continue this series with more details on one particular family at Bethany, although I haven’t decided yet which one. I may even start with my own, John Fowler and Nancy Leah Harper, although I’d rather write about yours.

If you have a family buried at Bethany, or one which played a part in the church's early history, please write a short story and send it to me. What a wonderful way this will be to honor historic Bethany church on its 150th anniversary.

I welcome all letters and e-mails about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Any letters and/or e-mails I receive are subject to being used in the column.

Until next week, happy hunting!