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Genealogy: Finding Your Folks

The Patton family of Bethany, part 2

By Judy Fowler Kilgore

Last week we uncovered some of the ancestors of the Pattons who came to Fayette County (descendants of Matthew Patton of Augusta Co., Va., Johnston Co., N.C., and Wilkes and Oglethorpe counties in Georgia) who are buried at historic Bethany United Methodist Church in northern Fayette County. I found a wonderful Web site which gives some of the actual records of the Patton family in Augusta Co., Va., and I am inclined to believe that Matthew Patton’s father was Jacob, not John as some have on their family trees.

This is one of those “more than likely” situations all genealogists are faced with at one time or another when there is no hard, cold, concrete proof connecting one ancestor to another. You can either put your facts and evidence together and draw a conclusion or just stop dead cold in your tracks. It is much more productive to draw your conclusion and continue research farther back as more evidence may come to light which may prove or disprove your theory.

Matthew Patton’s son, Solomon Patton (1797-1811), had two sons with his first wife (James and Jacob) from whom many of the Fayette Pattons stem, owing to the fact that James’ daughter, Rebecca, married Jacob’s son, Solomon, and also to the fact that Jacob married into the Hunt family, later of Pike County, which married into the Rivers family. As you develop these Bethany families, you will find some interesting twists and turns as most all of them are connected at some point.

But let’s get back to the two brothers, Jacob Patton and James Patton, sons of Solomon and his first wife, Nancy, grandsons of Matthew, and more than likely great-grandsons of Jacob Patton of Augusta Co., Va.

Jacob Patton, son of Solomon, was born 7 Oct. 1791 and died 30 July 1843 in Oglethorpe Co., Ga. He was married first to Rebecca Stovall in 1822 and second to Elizabeth Cox in 1834.

Jacob’s children with Rebecca Stovall included Solomon S. Patton (1823-1907, m. Rebecca Albina J. Patton); Josiah S. Patton (1824-?); James O.A. Patton (1826-1899, m. Sallie B. Moore); and Mary Ann Patton (1829-1893, m. George Willingham).

Jacob’s children with Elizabeth Cox included: Rebecca J. Patton (1835-1837); Sarah E.A. Patton (1836-1854); and Jacob Terry Patton (1838-1902, m. Adelaide Stanley Milner).

Jacob Patton’s brother, James Patton, son of Solomon Patton and his first wife, Nancy, was born 20 Aug. 1793 in Wilkes Co., Ga. and died 14 Sept. 1838 in Pike Co. He married Elizabeth Ann Hunt in 1823 in Jasper Co. and moved to Pike Co. about 1830. Elizabeth was the daughter of Judkins Hunt and Unity Hancock.

Jacob’s will was probated in 1838 in Pike Co. (Will Book B, pp. 66-68) and named his wife, Elizabeth, as executrix, but did not name his children individually. In 1856, after the children were grown and married, Elizabeth (Hunt) Patton remarried to William H. Simmons who died in 1866. Elizabeth died in 1875 in Spalding County.

The children of James Patton and Elizabeth Hunt included: Mary Ann Elizabeth Patton (1822-1895, m. Benjamin Franklin Harper); Emily J. Patton (1823-1902, m. William Milam); Martha J. Unity Patton (1825-1857, m. William B. Ballard); Rebecca Albina J. Patton (1828-1904, m. [1] Henry Rook, m. [2] Solomon S. Patton, her first cousin, son of Jacob Patton and Rebecca Stovall); Sabrina A. Patton (1830-?, m. Jackson Butram in Pike Co.); James H. Patton (1835-1889, m. Nancy Leah Yarbrough, daughter of Henry Yarbrough and Sarah Harper); and Matthew Patton who died in Murfreesboro, Tenn, during the Civil War.

Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the Bethany families we’ve done in previous columns, you can begin to see how these families intertwined, intermarried and all became cousins of one degree or the other and why many of them are buried at Bethany. It is truly a “family” cemetery.

We have done the family of Mary Ann Elizabeth Patton and Benjamin Franklin Harper, and the family of Emily J. Patton and William Milam, so we will not repeat those again. However, I would like to develop the family of Solomon Patton and Rebecca Albina J. Patton since both sides contain the Patton line and many of the children continued to intermarry into Bethany families.

However, we will save that for next week and close with some very good news.

I received a notice that the Fayette County Cemeteries book, first published by the Fayette County Historical Society in 1987, has been revised and updated and is on sale now.

The new book contains more than 600 pages with a full name index and includes headstones from 1824 - 2000. The Society has it on sale for $25 at the Research Center, 195 Lee Street, Fayetteville (30214), or by mail for an additional $5 for shipping. The Research Center is open Tuesday from 6-9 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. This is great news for Fayette County researchers and I, for one, will be making a beeline to the Research Center to purchase the updated book. We can probably update the number of graves of all those Bethany families with this recent publication.

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!