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Ancestors of James Daniel Beshires

Generation No. 1

      1. James Daniel Beshires¹, born 17 February 1966 in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia. He was the son of 2. James Orland Beshires, Jr. and 3. Jo Anne Holton.

Notes for James Daniel Beshires:
      Daniel is a very friendly young man. He is well-liked by all that know him and he never meets a stranger. He has a slight handicap, but that has never stopped him from doing the best he could. He has overcome many adversities in his life, and is a model for us all.
      He loves all things spiritual, especially Gospel singing, and is a member of the Baxley, Appling County, Georgia Seventh-day Adventist Church, where he has served as a deacon and usher. He was baptized when he was eleven years old. He was scared to go down into the baptismal pool at church, because of the large crowd on hand to witness the baptism, and was baptized by his father later in the day in the swimming pool at the home of John Drew, a local church elder.
      When he was a little boy, he liked to go with his father in doing door-to-door work.
      One time when the people at the door were not receptive and Daniel and his father started to leave, he ran back up to the door and stuck a tract in. 'They need the truth, Daddy,' he said.
      Daniel believes in supporting the work of the Gospel and always has his tithes and offerings ready. Anytime there is a special offering for anything, you can always count on him to do his part.
      Daniel also attends the Pentecostal Holiness Church in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia, where his 'official' job is to count the people in attendance!
      He has been employed for many years at Hills Grocery Store in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia, and has been featured in the local newspaper, as a model employee.

More About James Daniel Beshires:
Religion: Seventh Day Adventist Church

Generation No. 2

      2. James Orland Beshires, Jr., born 07 August 1943 in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia¹. He was the son of 4. James Orland Beshires and 5. Gertrude Eunice Lindsay. He married 3. Jo Anne Holton 12 September 1964 in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia.

      3. Jo Anne Holton, born 06 September 1946 in Toombs County, Georgia. She was the daughter of 6. Jim Holton and 7. May Lilly Johnson.

Notes for James Orland Beshires, Jr.:
      James or Jimmy, as he is known to his family has always had a keen interest in religion. He has always wished to know what various religions taught and if they could be supported from the Bible.
      One of his earliest memories is that of going to Sunday School at the Church of God of Prophecy with his Aunt Grace. It was a small church near the cemetery. No-one had a lot of money in the late 1940's and the offering was generally in pennies, nickels, or dimes, but everyone gave as they could. The Sunday School gave awards for various things and one time Jimmy won a quarter for memorizing Bible verses. To him, a quarter was a lot of money. You could get in the movies for a dime and still have money left for coke, popcorn and candy. Somehow, he dropped the quarter on the floor and it fell between the floorboards! So much for that fortune!
      When his family lived in the house near the old Baptist church, Jimmy used to slip out at night and go to the movies. His bedroom window opened onto the front porch, and he would sneak out after being put to bed. Supposedly he was only five or six at the time. When his Mama would check on him and find him gone, she would send one of his sisters down to the movie theatre and tell the cashier to send him home after the first showing!
      Jimmy also was very afraid of the dark as a child. The place they were living at the time did not have an indoor bathroom, so he would make sure that everything was taken care of before dark. One nite an emergency came up, but he could not get anyone to go with him out to the bathroom. To make things worse it was raining very hard. After getting his courage up he made a mad dash out, threw open the door, and out flew an owl, right into his face. All matters forgotten, he turned and ran back to the house. When he got there, it was found that the clothesline was tangled around his neck! Nothing stood in his way!
      Another memory Jimmy has is that of the annual dosage with castor oil!! Every year at the beginning of school, his Mama would give all the school age children a dose of castor oil. This was supposed to 'cure' them of anything that they might have contracted during the summer. As a 'bribe' for taking the castor oil, it would be mixed with a Coca Cola. However that did not kill the taste!!
      Jimmy had an intense interest in the Bible which led him to join the Pentecostal Holiness Church when he was about 14. He was licensed as a Mission Worker(a precursor to becoming a minister) shortly after that, and went on to become a licensed minister. He pastored several churches for them.
      When he was about 24 or 25, he converted to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and was a member for about 14 years. He served as Elder for the Church and traveled all across the country as an Evangelist, published a book, and had a tape ministry that reached around the world. Personal issues led to his leaving the Adventist Church in 1979. He is presently a student of the Unity School of Christianity and attends their services.
      Jimmy lives in Decatur, Dekalb County, Georgia, and has been employed by the State Court of Fulton County for over 15 years.


Children of James Beshires and Jo Holton are:

	1	i.		James Daniel Beshires, born 17 February 1966 in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia.
		ii.		Joanna Joy Beshires, born 1973 in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia; died 1973 in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia.

Generation No. 3

      4. James Orland Beshires, born 22 April 1915 in Toone, Hardeman County, Tennessee ²; died 27 May 1993 in Cobbtown, Tattnall County, Georgia². He was the son of 8. Christopher Columbus Beshires and 9. Lucinda Daniel. He married 5. Gertrude Eunice Lindsay 21 August 1942 in Hinesville, Liberty County, Georgia.

      5. Gertrude Eunice Lindsay, born 18 September 1912 in Union County, North Carolina ³. She was the daughter of 10. William Arthur Lindsay, Sr. and 11. Florence Alice Cleo Ross Cook.

Notes for James Orland Beshires:
      Eunice said that she met James when she was working in a restaurant in Hinesville, during the early part of the war. He was a handsome man, according to the pictures of him at that time, but she thought him ugly.
      He was inducted into the Army on 17 Feb 1942 at Fort Oglethorpe Georgia. His rank was Technician, 4th Grade, attached to Headquarters Battery, 441st Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion. This was part of the 3rd Army. A history of his unit was kept by James Beshires, Jr. for many years, but it eventually disappeared. The year he went overseas is not known, but the battles and campaigns that he fought in included Central Europe, Naples, Foggia, Rome, Arno, South France, Rhineland and Sicily. He received the following Decorations and Citations: Good Conduct Medal, Distinguished Unit Citation(French), European, African, and Middle Eastern Theatre Ribbons with 6 Bronze Stars.
      After coming home, he opened a grocery store with his wife's brother, Monroe. The grocery store failed and they opened a beer joint and dance hall that was more successful. Eventually he sold his interest to Monroe.
      In later years he was a carpenter and a carpenter foreman.
      He used to lock James, Jr in a dark closet to punish him. James Jr. was terrified of the dark and used to scream, which would cause James, Sr. to whip him. This continued until Marie, Norma Jean and Louise(James' older half-sisters) took a baseball bat to him. After that he left James, Jr. alone.       Seems that the girls took after their mother!

More About James Orland Beshires:
Fact 1: Social Security #: 255-40-7512 ⁴

Notes for Gertrude Eunice Lindsay:
Eunice was born in Union County, North Carolina, the second of eight children. Shortly after she was born, the family followed the other Lindsays and Cooks down to Tattnall County, Georgia.
When she was a little girl, she took some matches and went under the house and was playing with them. As a result she set her clothes on fire and was badly burned.
Times were hard for them back then. It took everything they could make just to put food on the table. Eunice said that she only went thru the seventh grade in school, because then you had to buy your school books, and her daddy was too poor to afford them. But she always tried to keep up, and continued to educate herself as best she could.
She was only 17 when she married her first husband - James Hardwick. A picture of her and her older brother, Ralph taken at that time shows a very self-assured young lady. They are dressed very sharply and in fashion, leaning against a new car. But Eunice tells a different story. The new coat and hat, she said, was borrowed as well as the car! Only Ralphs suit was new!
She was living in a house on the outskirts of Reidsville on the Glenville road when she and her first husband divorced. She got sick and her father, mother, Grace, Ralph, his three boys, Lois Mae and Cleo all moved in with her to help look after her three daughters, Marie, Norma Jean, and Louise. It was quite a crowed house with thirteen people living there! But room was made for all.
When the war broke out, she got a job working in a restaurant in Hinesville, Liberty County Georgia, near the Fort Stewart military base. She boarded there during the week. At that time she was going with a man that drove a taxi and he would take her to work on Mondays and go back the thirty miles on Friday to pick her up. Later in life, she was asked who the man was. 'Frank McCall' she said. "Later the mayor and one of the richest men in town."
Why didn't she marry him?
"He never asked me." was her reply.
One day a soldier who had been eating occasionally in the restaurant asked her to go to the show with him. She said that she thought he was the ugliest man that she had ever seen and told him that she had to work and couldn't go. He asked if she would go if her boss would let her off work. 'Yes,' she said, 'but he won't.'
In the meantime she went to her boss and told him to say no, if that man asked if she could get off.
The man did ask, her boss said she could, and she had to go to the show. Eunice eventually married him and James Beshires was the father of James Beshires, Jr, and Judy Phyllis (Beshires) Rowland.
She continued to live with the rest of her family in the Lindsay house, as it was now known until at least 1943, as her first son, James Beshires Jr. was born there.
She and James divorced after a ten year marriage, and she later married Leon Tootle, father of Katherine Melita (Tootle) Collins.
They moved into a four room house near the middle of town. The rent was $10 a month, but remember this was in the early 50's.
Times always seemed to be hard for the family, but Eunice never let on. She always tried to have 20 cents in reserve each week for James, Jr. and Judy to go to the 'show'.
Even though the times were lean, she made them seem like fun. For instance, they raised chickens for eggs and as a meat source, but if they had none ready for killing, many times the only meat they had was bologna, and that was on Saturday. She would send James, Jr, to the store to buy ten cents worth ' cut real thin'. She would fry it, make sandwitches, and the children would think it was a great treat! Again, sometimes when the paycheck didn't quite make it until the end of the week, she would tell the children that she was to tired to cook, and they would have cornbread, or if they had it, saltine crackers, crumbled up in a glass of milk for their supper. That was also a treat for them.
Eunice made most of the children's clothes on an old fashioned pedal sewing machine. Shirts and dresses were made out of flour sacks, which in those days were always a patterned material. It seems that the flour companies knew that their customers used them for material. Customers would trade with each other to get enough material for whatever they were making. The only 'store bought' items were shoes, underwear, and church clothes.
Eventually things got better for Eunice and her family. They moved up into the ranks of the middle class in the late 50's with the purchase of their own house in what was known then as the 'Gentry Quarters'. This was near the Reidsville Pentecostal Holiness Church, which the family attended.

Children of James Beshires and Gertrude Lindsay are:

	2	i.		James Orland Beshires, Jr., born 07 August 1943 in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia; married Jo Anne Holton 12 September 1964 in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia.
		ii.		Judy Phyllis Beshires ⁵, born 09 June 1946 in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia; married Paul Norris Rowland 16 August 1964 in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia⁵; born in Georgia.

      6. Jim Holton, born 20 March 1909 in Johnson County, Georgia ⁶; died November 1985 in Toombs County, Georgia⁶. He was the son of 12. Joshua Christopher Columbus Holton and 13. Ida Meadows. He married 7. May Lilly Johnson 25 February 1938 in Toombs County, Georgia.

      7. May Lilly Johnson, born 04 May 1922 in Georgia; died in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia. She was the daughter of 14. Robert Jackson Johnson and 15. Ida Belle Snead.

More About Jim Holton:
Fact 1: Social Security #: 260-30-7354⁶
Fact 2: Last residence: GA 30453⁶
Fact 4: State of issue: GA⁶

Child of Jim Holton and May Johnson is:

Jo Anne Holton, born 06 September 1946 in Toombs County, Georgia; married James Orland Beshires, Jr. 12 September 1964 in Reidsville, Tattnall County, Georgia.

Generation No. 4

      8. Christopher Columbus Beshires⁷, born 12 March 1871 in Hardin County, Tennessee; died 22 May 1945 in Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tennessee ⁸. He was the son of 16. Louis Beshires and 17. Margaret Ann Roach. He married 9. Lucinda Daniel 12 April 1891 in Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tennessee ⁹.

      9. Lucinda Daniel, born 09 June 1872 in Hardeman County, Tennessee; died 02 September 1957 in Silerton, Hardeman County, Tennessee ¹⁰. She was the daughter of 18. James Wilson Daniel and 19. Lucinda Hankins.

Notes for Christopher Columbus Beshires:
      There is an enormous amount of confusion about who CC's parents were. On the death certificate are listed Louis Beshires and Margaret Ann Roach. Aunt Mary and Uncle John said their parents were John William Beshiers and Martha Ussery-Essery-Essary. Is it possible that John William and Martha were the parents of Louis?
      There is also a lot of confusion about his ancestry. Family legend has it that he was part Choctaw Indian. There were a lot of Brashears, Beshirs, etc. that married into Indian families in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. Some reports have Lums parents has having been born in Mississippi. But nothing has been found to prove that. A picture in the possession of Daniel Beshires seems to show Lum and Lucinda posed with an Indian blanket on the wall behind them, and Lucinda in an Indian dress.
      Lum, as he was called, was a farmer, and was reported to have made the best moonshine for miles around.
      Lum did not fight in any war, nor did he have a Social Security number.

More About Christopher Columbus Beshires:
Cause of Death: Tuberlocous
Fact 2: 23 May 1945, buried in Hickory Grove Cemetary, Silerton.
Medical Information: Cause of Death obtained from Death Certificate filled out by Lucinda (Daniel) Beshires.

Notes for Lucinda Daniel:
There is a lot of confusion as to the ancestors of Cindy, as she was known. We know for a fact of her Daniel lines, but family history has it that she had an Indian line also. Nothing definite has been proven about it. An old picture of her and Lum seems to show her in an Indian dress with an Indian blanket hanging in the background.

More About Lucinda Daniel:
Fact 1: 03 September 1957, Buried in Hickory Grove Cemetary, Silerton, TN

Marriage Notes for Christopher Beshires and Lucinda Daniel:
According to the Marriage Licence Bond,(no marriage licence has been located), Lum had to put up $1250.00. It is surmised that in the case of divorce, Lucinda would get the money to live on.

Children of Christopher Beshires and Lucinda Daniel are:

	i.	Emmer Lee Beshires, born 09 January 1892 in Hardeman County, Tennesse; died 24 May 1979 in Hardeman County, Tennesse; married Seth Wilson Beshires 03 December 1916 in Lauderdale County, Tennesse ¹¹; born 01 January 1890 in Tennessee; died 03 December 1973 in Silerton, Hardeman, Tennessee.
	ii.	Lillie Belle Beshires, born 04 November 1893 in Hardeman County, Tennesse; died 08 March 1953 in Tennessee; married George Haskins 24 September 1916 in Lauderdale County, Tennesse; born Abt. 1893; died Aft. 1916.
	iii.	Earnest Burton Beshires, born 14 December 1894 in Hardeman County, Tennessee; died 01 January 1980; married Minnie Lee Daniel; born 18 March 1894; died 17 February 1993 in Brownsville, Haywood County, Tennessee ¹².
	iv.	Martha Ella Beshires, born 18 January 1896 in Hardeman County, Tennesse; died 11 March 1978 in Ripley, Lauderdale County,Tennesse; married Albert Arnell Crowder 26 May 1917 in Lauderdale County, Tennesse; born 07 June 1898; died 20 February 1978 in Ripley, Lauderdale County,Tennesse.
	v.	William Morris Beshires, born 20 November 1900 in Hardeman,County, Tennesse; died 18 December 1959 in Benton Harbor, Berrien County, Michigan; married Laura Angeline 'Bessie' Daniel Bef. 1919; born 17 June 1902 in Tennessee; died 26 February 1985 in Benton Harbor, Berrien County, Michigan.
	vi.	John Adam Beshires, born 03 February 1903 in Hardeman County, Tennesse; died 18 March 1977 in Henderson, Chester County,Tennesse; married Rona Magdelina Roland 19 February 1920 in Tennessee; born 12 February 1907 in Henderson, Chester County,Tennesse; died 12 February 1995 in Henderson, Chester County,Tennesse.
	vii.	Iva (Ivy) Beshires, born Abt. 1904 in Died very Young.
	viii.	Mary Mae Beshires, born 17 September 1907 in Hardeman County, Tennesse; died 16 January 1997 in Brownsville, Tennessee; married (1) Ernest Cooper 10 May 1924 in Hardeman County, Tennessee ¹³; married (2) George Alton Fawcett 04 November 1931 in Hardeman County, Tennessee¹³; born 01 April 1905 in Tennessee ¹⁴; died May 1962 in Tennessee.
	ix.	Elcie Gertrude Beshires, born 10 January 1909 in Hardeman County, Tennesse; married (1) Pat Osborne in Tennessee; married (2) Ed Fawcett; born Abt. 1909.
	x.	Nannie Estella Beshires, born 09 October 1912 in Hardeman County, Tennesse; died March 1981 in Hardeman County, Tennesse; married Thomas Dillard 09 May 1931 in Hardeman County, Tennessee ¹⁵; died in Hardeman County, Tennesse.
4	xi.	James Orland Beshires, born 22 April 1915 in Toone, Hardeman County, Tennessee; died 27 May 1993 in Cobbtown, Tattnall County, Georgia; married Gertrude Eunice Lindsay 21 August 1942 in Hinesville, Liberty County, Georgia.

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