Where They Were

 

From Wilkes County, Georgia Tax Records, 1785 – 1805 Volumes I and II. Compiled and published by Frank Parker Hudson, 7 Ivy Chase, Atlanta, Georgia 30342-4550.

 

The Jordan family was in Georgia from an early year.  Captain Charles Jordan was killed at the first Siege of Augusta in 1780. He had previously served at Fort Rogers where he sustained high losses.  His youngest son, Charles, is also known to have been present at Fort Rogers.  All of Charles Jordan’s three sons also saw Revolutionary War service in Georgia – at Kettle Creek in 1779 and both sieges of Augusta in 1780 and 1781.

 

Tracing tax records shows more specifically where the sons Samuel, Dempsey and Charles lived.  Since Shadrack Stanley married Penninah Jordan about 1780 he, too, was in the same area.  Therefore, we are able to substantiate proximity and location for him as well.

 

Name                           Wilkes County Tax District       Year

 

Charles Jorden             D                                             1785    * See notes below

Dempsey Jorden           HH                                           1785    *

Samuel Jurden              F                                              1785    *

Shadrack Stanley          QQ                                          1785    *

Charles Jorden             D                                             1787

Samuel Jorden              F                                              1787

Charles Jordan             D                                             1786

Samuel Jurdon              D                                             1790

Charles Jordan             D                                             1791

Charles Jordan             D                                             1792

Charles Jourdan            D                                             1793

Samuel Jordan              D                                             1793

Charles Jordon             D                                             1794

Charles Jordan             G                                             1795   

 

Wilkes County, Georgia Tax Records, Volume I, page 1:

 

The area of Wilkes County in 1785 (including Defacto Wilkes County) included all of the area now in the counties of Lincoln, Elbert and Wilkes; most of Oglethorpe, Madison, Taliaferro and Warren; half of Hart; part of Clarke, Glascock, Greene, Hancock and McDuffie.  It was over eighty miles from north to south and fifty miles from east to west at its longest and widest points.

 

Wilkes County, Georgia Tax Records, Volume I, page 9:

 

- District D –

 

Residents of the area designated as District D returned lands on Camp Creek, Shiver’s Creek, Rocky Creek, Well’s Creek, Double Branches, Little River and Savannah River in 1792.  The entire area was put into Lincoln County in February 1796.  It was reduced in size in late 1796 or early 1797 when the area west of Cherokee Creek was added to the eastern portion of District G to form District GD; and reduced again in 1806 or 1807 when District DF was formed from the upper portion of this district and the lower portion of District F.  While in Wilkes County, District D encompassed all of the area now included in the 182nd GMD, the Cherokee waters area of the 183rd GMD, and the area of the 269th GMD south of Well’s Creek.

 

- District F –

 

The district designated as District F was reduced in size before the returns were received for 1786, when District E was formed from District F.  Lands on the waters of Mill Creek, Soap Creek, Well’s Creek and Savannah River were returned by residents in 1792.  The entire district was put into Lincoln County in February 1796. The size of the district was reduced in 1797 when the northwest corner was given to District E; and reduced again in 1806 or 1807 when the area south of the Dry Fork of Soap Creek was given up to form District DF. The district is identified as Lincolnton District in many records due to Lincolnton, the county seat, being located therein. While in Wilkes, the district encompassed what is now all of the 186th GMD, the area of the 269th GMD south of Well’s Creek, and the northeast corner of the 185th GMD, all in Lincoln County today. 

 

Wilkes County, Georgia Tax Records, Volume I, page 14:

 

- District HH –

 

In 1785, captain Samuel Alexander’s District, designated as District HH, encompassed the entire area of the neck of original Wilkes County made by Wrightsboro Township of original Richmond County. [ Larry S. Note. See Vol. I, page 166, Note 6:  Wrightsboro was located in old St. Paul’s Parish ] The area was drained on the north and east by waters of Lick Creek, Powder Creek, Harden’s Creek, Reedy Creek and Williams Creek, all tributaries of Little River, and on the south and west by Ogeechee River, its forks and tributaries, Rocky Creek, Camp Creek and Red Lick Creek.  Thirty or more residents living between the forks of the Ogeechee in Defacto Wilkes County were put into Greene County in February 1786.  District II was created out of the eastern part of District HH prior to receipt of returns for 1786, removing the Williams Creek area bounding Richmond County.  Samuel Alexander, from his seat near the junction of the forks of the Ogeechee, became battalion commander, and later as Colonel, commander of the Fourth (Lower) Regiment.

 

In 1793, the district was split in the creation of Warren County.  Those put into Warren County are found in Captain Bunkley’s District of the 1794 Tax Digest for Warren County.  Twenty-three persons left in Wilkes were added to District MM in 1795, and then put into District RR in 1796. In 1790, the area of this district encompassed what is now the town of Crawfordville, and the area south, east and west thereof in Taliaferro County.

 

Page 65:  Notes for District HH

 

This district lost area and residents when the boundary between Wilkes and Washington Counties was moved east and north from the “Temporary Line” to the North Fork of the Ogeechee River at the time Greene County was created in 1786. 

 

 

Wilkes County, Georgia Tax Records, Volume I, page 15:

 

- District QQ –

 

The district arbitrarily designated as District QQ was commanded by Captain Thompson when the tax returns were received in 1785.  It was the only complete tax district in the area of Defacto Wilkes County put into Greene County in February 1786.  Most of the persons making returns in this district in 1785 in Wilkes County can be found in the following districts of the 1788 Greene County Tax Digest: Captain J. Cain’s, Captain Benj. Gilbert’s, Captain Michael Gilbert’s and Captain Thompson. 

 

Page 40:  Notes for District QQ

 

Captain Thompson’s District, which the compiler arbitrarily designated as District QQ, lay west of the Ogeechee River and south of the South Fork thereof, but east of the “Temporary Line” considered by surveyors and residents of both Washington and Wilkes Counties to be the boundary between the two counties.  The area of this district was put into Greene and Washington Counties over the protests of many residents when Greene County was created 3 February 1786.  For continuation of tax records for residents found in this district in 1785, see the early tax records for Greene County beginning in 1788, and for Hancock County in 1794.

 

 

Dempsey Jordan remained in the same place for many years until his death.  His father was granted a royal land grant in St. Paul’s Parish in 1757, which explains the family’s removal from Perquimans County, NC.  It was no-doubt after the Revolutionary Battle of Kettle Creek (1779) and the two Sieges of Augusta (1780, 1781) that Samuel and Charles Jr. moved north to Lincolnton.

 

Tax records and land sales show that the sons of Shadrack Stanley were born (Jordan 1782, James1785, Samuel 1792, Stephen 1795) in the area  “west of the Ogeechee River and south of the South Fork thereof.” He sold his land holdings in Hancock County and moved to Lincoln County, near Charles Jordan Jr. by 1801.  Lincoln County Genealogy and History, page 210 Robert S. Davis, Jr. and James E. Dorsey. July term, 1801, Petit Jury of Lincoln County lists Shadrack Stanley.

 

The following land sales reflect land granted to Shadrack in 1788 and 1790:

 

8th September 1794. Shadrack Stanley of Washington county to Miles Rachael (Rachell) of Hancock County for the sum of forty pounds money for a tract of land in said County, late Washington County now Hancock, containing one hundred fifty acres, said land granted to Shadrack Stanley on 30th December 1788. Land excepting three or four acres cut off by Ruthaf(illegible) line. Wit: Peter Boyle, J. P. and Jno. S(illegible).

 

3rd January 1799.  William Cureton of Hancock County to Nehemiah Smith of same place  for the sum of one thousand dollars for a tract of land containing two hundred acres in Hancock County formerly Washington County, on Little Ogeechee and adjoining vacant land at the time of the survey, adjoining Shadrack Stanley's land and by McClendon's and the Little Ogeechee , granted to Shadrack Standley on 19th April 1790. Wit: H. Chandler and Barrett Brewer. Reg.: 24th April 1800.