Finding Your Folks: Gracy Tidwell and Henry Orrick

William Tidwell and Mary Amelia Jones, our current family of interest, had nine children, as previously stated. Seven were born in Putnam County and the last two were born in the Coweta-Meriwether area, according to Ettie Tidwell McCall, author of McCall, Tidwell and Allied Families, written in 1931. This book has been the basis for much of the information in this series on the Tidwells. These nine children were:

(1) Grace Tidwell b. abt. 1805, m. Henry Orrick;(2) Amelia (Milly) Tidwell b. 17 Feb. 1808, m. James Boyd; (3) John J. Tidwell b. abt. 1810, m. Martha Westmoreland; (4) Mark Tidwell b. abt 1813, m. Frances (Fanny) Boyd; (5) William DeGraffenried Tidwell b. 22 Sept. 1818, m. Angelina Westmoreland; (6) Julia Tidwell b. 1820, d. 1837; (7) Benjamin Tidwell b. abt. 1820, m. Permelia Unknown (*maybe not) and Martha Moody; (8) Pleasant Madden Tidwell b. abt 1824**, m. Emily Glass; and (9) Littleberry Tidwell b. abt 1827, m. Martha Westmoreland.

*Another Benjamin Tidwell, son of Benjamin Tidwell and Milly Grimes, married Permelia Hannah Byram in Coweta County in 1832. The “Permelia” as a wife of our Benjamin (son of William) comes from Mrs. McCall’s research and she may have made an error. The two brothers, William and Benjamin, had children and grandchildren with many of the same names. To have been a party to this marriage in 1832, our Benjamin would have been only 12 years old. Not likely. I will keep looking to see if he did, indeed, marry another Permelia.

**Pleasant Madden Tidwell’s birth year is given as 1822 by many researchers. However, the 1870 and 1880 Campbell County censuses indicate he was born about 1824. He is supposed to be buried in the City Cemetery in Fairburn. If I get a chance, I my run up there and see what his gravestone says.

Researchers also say P.M. was born in the Coweta-Meriwether area but it did not exist until 1827. It could very well be that the Tidwell family arrived in this area before the county was officially formed.

Now, of all those children, we have explored in previous columns the family of Milly Tidwell who married James Boyd (in great detail), and the family of William DeGraffenried Tidwell who married Angelina Westmoreland (Mrs. McCall’s line). I would like to continue research on as many of the others as I can, if I can find information on them, starting with Grace Tidwell and Henry Orrick.

There was nothing in the McCall-Tidwell book on Grace — not even a birth year and I sort of left her dangling there on the end of the list of children.

What a surprise, when I really started looking for her, to find out that Grace was actually the first child, born about 1805, probably in Putnam County where she spent her entire childhood. When the family moved to the Coweta-Meriwether area Grace was about 20 and was still unmarried. It didn’t take long, however, for Grace to meet and marry Henry Orrick.

I looked all over the place for a marriage record for Grace and finally gave up, thinking that perhaps her marriage was one of those never formally recorded. Then just the other night I had my Upson County history book out looking for Groces, and, on a whim, checked the index for Tidwells. Well, you guessed it. Henry Orrick and “Gracy” Tidwell were married 18 Dec. 1828 in Upson County.

Why there, I will never know. Upson joins Meriwether, but on its extreme southeastern side, and the Tidwells lived in the extreme northeastern end. It was in that marriage record that I saw Grace listed as “Gracy” for the first time.

After their marriage, Henry and Grace lived in Meriwether County near her parents and, by 1830, had two children, a girl and a boy.

When Grace’s father died in 1837, I would imagine that Henry rallied around the family along with the other men, helping to settle matters and make life as easy as possible for Grace’s mother.

At the estate sale, Henry made several purchases including two scraphooks, some tanned leather valued at $1.37, six hogs and a sideboard. He owed his father-in-law money and paid a note to the estate in the amount of $40, along with a co-borrower, T. Johnson. When the estate was finally settled, Henry accepted his wife’s portion of the estate — cash in the amount of $862.84.

Henry and Grace remained in Meriwether County through 1840 and by that time had increased their family to four boys and one girl. By 1850, they had moved to Tallapoosa, Ala. Their children were Sarah, Henry, William, Mary, Seaborn (or Sebra) and Mark, plus two sons who left home before the 1850 census. The last records I have of this complete family are in 1860 when they lived at Stow’s Ferry P.O., Tallapoosa County, Ala. Henry was 57 and Grace was 55 and five of their children were still living at home. By 1870, Gracy was not with Henry, and by 1880, William Orrick, his wife, children, and his two older unmarried sisters had moved to Pike County, Ark. From this information, I would assume that Gracy died before 1870 and Henry died before 1880.

If anyone is descended from this family and knows the rest of the story, please write and let us know.

Next week, we’ll discuss Frances Boyd and Mark Tidwell. Contrary to what one might think, Frances was not a sister of James Boyd who married Milly Tidwell. Frances was from my branch of the Boyd family who, I still believe, were related to James’ family.

I welcome letters about your ancestors who lived in the south metro Atlanta area. Send letters to me at The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214. By e-mail (which I prefer), I can be reached at jkilgore@thecitizen.com or JodieK444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!