Nancy Mary Kelley(1810-1853)

My Maternal 3rd Great Grandmother, married John Maud Blakeley Carlton

Nancy Mary Kelley, the daughter of James Wilbourne Kelley and Elizabeth Burrow, was born February 20, 1810 in Campbell County, Georgia.  At the age of 22 in 1832 she married John Maud Blakely Carlton, a well to do cotton farmer, grocery store owner, justice, and representative in the Georgia General Assembly.   In the 1850 census John and Nancy owned a farm valued at $7,800 located in Palmetto Georgia about 25 miles south of Atlanta and all six of their children with ages ranging from seven to seventeen were living at home. Her husband’s father, Blake Carlton, age 86 was also living with them. Nancy’s brother, John W. Kelly with his wife and 6 children were living next door. Nancy was not able to experience the joy of seeing her children grow to adulthood – she died on June 9, 1853 at the age of 43.

[Image: Image of a Georgia Saw Palmetto Tree]

Their first child Evaline Ann was born in 1833. She married a farmer, Wiley Washington Russell, in 1850 at the age of 17, moved to Alabama and had two sons. Six years later when her 26 year old husband died, she moved her children back to Georgia She waited two years then married a carpenter named James Hill Awtry and gave birth to a daughter.  Evaline died before reaching her 30th birthday in 1862.

Their second child, Mary Sophronia was born in 1835. At age sixteen she married a farmer, Jesse Bailey, gave birth to four children: Jacobus Alonzo, Ada Frances, Edgar and Judson Carlton and moved to Texas. Her son Jacobus became a druggist and acquired stock in the Golden Peacock Cosmetics Company based in Paris Tennessee. (This cosmetics company was acquired by the Revlon Company in 1970.) In 1907 Jacobus sold his stock for $20,000 ($700,000 in today’s dollars). Her daughter Ada married a farmer. Her son Edgar died before his 10th birthday. Her son Judson became a real estate dealer and a debt collector. After Jesse died in 1865 Sophronia married another farmer, Benjamin F Browning, and had four more children. She died at the age of 81 in Pittsburg, Texas in 1916.

Their third child, Christiana Frances (“Fannie”) was born in 1837. Fannie is my ancestor. Her story follows in a separate blog.

[Photo: Sophronia Carlton]

Their fourth child, John McPherson Berrien (“Berrie”) was born in 1839. He was named after a prominent figure who served as a US Senator and the Attorney General of the United States under President Andrew Jackson In April of 1864 Berrie enlisted in the Civil War as a Captain and was assigned to work at the notorious Andersonville Prison as a guard where he worked “until the surrender”.  Of the 45,000 Union soldiers imprisoned there, 13,000 died from starvation and diseases due to the ghastly conditions at the camp.  The 41 year old commander of the camp Commander Henry Wirz was tried and hung for war crimes – one of the few convicted and executed for crimes during the Civil War. Berrie married three times: to Martha Missouri Dean in 1865 (who gave birth to one child William Howard and died in 1868), to Annie Allen in 1873 (who died in childbirth as did her baby in 1874) and lastly to Mrs. M.A. Henderson in 1896.

[Photo: Emaciated Prisoner at Andersonville Prison]

Two years after the war, Berrie signed the “Reconstruction Oath Book” pledging that he would uphold the constitution of the United States. In the 1870 census he lived with his brother Bud and his wife Emma and their two servants. The two brothers owned a clothing store in Atlanta for many years.  He applied for a military pension in 1906 reporting he was infirmed, unemployed and had been supported by his brother for the previous five years. Berrie died in 1919. His obituary mentions he was a Captain in the civil war but there was no mention of his work at Andersonville.

[Photo: Gravestone of JMB Carlton in College Park Cemetery in Fulton Georgia]

John and Mary’s fifth child, John Caldwell Calhoun, was born in 1841. He married Sarah Rebecca Merrill in 1862, and they had between eight and ten children.  John served in the Civil War in the 2nd Regiment of the Georgia Cavalry and was taken prisoner in July 1864. In 1870 he was a farm laborer with a wife and three children to feed. In 1880 he was a postmaster with a wife and six children. In 1901 he applied for a military pension because he was too feeble to be able to support himself due to a variety of medical conditions including “eczema, laryngitis and dyspepsia that produced extreme nervousness and at times prostration.” His only support at the time was a small salary from his dry goods store company, Carlton & Smith.  His wife died in February 1914, and a year later so did he.

{Photo: Rebecca Merrill, Wife of John Caldwell Calhoun]

Their last child, James Knox Polk (“Bud”) was born in 1843. He was named for the 11th President of the United States. Bud enlisted in 1861 and served as part of the 2nd Regiment Company C Georgia State Troops and later the 19th Regiment of the Georgia Infantry.  He was seriously wounded in February of 1864 at Weldon Railroad in Virginia, captured and held in the dreaded Point Lookout Union POW Prison in Maryland.  He was exchanged in November of 1864.  After the war was over, he married Sallie Emma White in 1869.

In the 1870 census Bud’s occupation was listed as “no business” and in addition to his wife Emma, his brother Berrie was living with him.  He must have had some means of support because the census also mentions two black servants. When the 1880 census was taken Bud had two children, his brother Berrie had moved out and so had one of the two servants.  He was employed as a grocery merchant. In the 1910 census he and Emma had four children (one of whom was 29 and was an optical merchant) living at home with them.  His merchant business must have been doing well because he was back up to two servants. His youngest son Howard moved to Alabama and was killed in a streetcar accident in 1916. Bud helped to support his brother until Berrie’s death in 1919.  In the 1920 census Bud had a boarder to help pay the bills. He prepared his will on the 26th of January in 1921 and died of stomach cancer ten days later leaving everything to his wife, Emma. 

[Photo: James Knox “Bud” Polk]