BANKS COUNTY, GA - BIOS J.D. Gunnells

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J.D. GUNNELLS, farmer and preacher, Banksville,
Banks County, Ga., son of Nathan and
Nancy(Hunt)Gunnells, was born in Franklin county,
GA., in 1827.  His paternal grandfather, Daniel
Gunnells, was a native of Virginia, a farmer and
migrated to Georgia the latter part of the last
century amd settled in Wilkes county.  Mr. Gunnell's
father was born in Wilkes County in 1800, and was
raised a farmer and made that his business until
1836, when he also engaged in merchandising and
continued it for the remainder of his life.  He was
a volunteer soldier in the Indian war of 1836-1837,
served a number of years as a justice of the peace,
was tax collector of the county one or more terms
and a member of the constitutional convention.  Mr.
Gunnell's mother was born in 1797, and was a
daughter of Joel and Sallie Hunt. He was a native of
Virginia, a farmer, and was a soldier in the patriot
army during the revolutionary war.  Some years after
the war he came to Georgia and settled in Wilkes
county.

Mr. Gunnells was raised on the farm and educated in
the historic log school-house common to the locality
and period.  His life has been an active one, and
useful in many fields, exercising a wide and
beneficient influence.  He has been honored with
many public positions, elective and otherwise, and
filled all of them acceptably to the people.  At one
period of his life he taught school for a number of
years with excellent success.  He has served the
county as clerk of the superior court, receiver of
tax returns four years, was a member of the board of
education a number of years and represented the
county in the general assembly one terms, and in
1880 was United States enumerator.  In 1865 he was
ordained a local preacher of the Methodist church,
where his labor has been arduous and useful, having
preached at one church thirty years.  He is the
owner of an excellent 450-acre farm, on which he has
demonstrated that as a farmer, as well as in other
callings, and as a public official, he ranks among
the foremost.  None stand higher that he socially or
financially.

Mr. Gunnells was married in 1851 to Miss Martha
E.(born in Franklin county March 15, 1833), daughter
of William J. and Naomi(Prickett)Parks.  He was a
farmer by occupation, but of strong religious
convictions, and traveled much of Northeast Georgia
, preaching.  His father, Henry Parks, was a native
of Pennsylvania, and was a soldier in the patriot
army during the revolutionary war, after which he
came to Georgia and settled in Franklin county.  

Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Gunnells seven
are living; Sarah A., wife of T.B. Neese; Nancy N.,
wife of A.J. Holbrook; Georgia A., wife of John S.
Varner; C.L., J.H., Daniel B. and George B.  Mrs.
Gunnells, a devoted and exemplary member of the
Methodist church, died in the early part of 1885.
The latter part of the year he was united in
marriage to Miss Permelia(born in Franklin county in
1830), daughter of Leroy and Mary(Anderson)Parks.
He was a prominent, prosperous farmer, and his
family was among Franklin county's earliest
settlers. Mr. Gunnells is a Good Templar, and
aggressive temperance worker; a member of the
I.O.O.F., and a Master Mason, and himself and wife
are prominent and influential members of the
Methodist church.

Source: Memoirs of Georgia, Volume I., Southern
Historical Association, 1895


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