Brooks-Hancock-Marion County GaArchives Biographies.....Talley, William R. 1844 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 20, 2004, 9:06 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 876-877

   REV. WILLIAM R. TALLEY. A fine representative of the professional and
agricultural circles of Brooks county, Rev. William R. Talley, of Dixie, has
gained distinction not only for the honorable ancestry from which he traces his
descent, but for his industry, ability and integrity of purpose. He was born at
Mount Zion, Hancock county, Georgia, February 16, 1844, a son of Rev. John
Wesley Talley.

   His grandfather, Caleb Talley, a native of Hanover county, Virginia, was a
descendant of one of three brothers who came to America in colonial days, one of
whom located in North Carolina, on the Roanoke river, one settling in Hanover
county, Virginia, while the other took up his residence on the Susquehanna
river, in Pennsylvania. Leaving Virginia in 1797, Caleb Talley traveled across
the country by private conveyance to Georgia. He bought land in Lincoln county,
but as it proved impossible to raise tobacco there at an advantage he moved to
Greene county, leased manual labor school lands, and there raised tobacco on an
extensive scale. Packing his tobacco when harvested into hogsheads through which
he had drawn an axle, he attached shafts, and drew his entire crop to Augusta,
seventy-five miles distant, where he received top prices for his loads. While
yet a young man he served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He married
Elizabeth Stuart, who was born in Virginia, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. She passed
away at the age of seventy-five years, while his death occurred when he was but
fifty-five years old. They were both members of the Methodist Episcopal church
at Walker, Greene county, it being one of the oldest churches of that
denomination in the state. They reared one daughter and five sons, the sons
being named William, Nicholas, Alexander, Caleb, Elkanah, Nathan, and John
Wesley. Caleb and Elkanah became farmers, and the other five became preachers in
the Methodist Episcopal church.

   On December 6, 1800, the birth of Rev. John Wesley Talley occurred in Greene
county, Georgia, where he was reared. There having been in that early day no
free educational institutions, he had but little opportunity to attend school,
but through his own efforts he secured a fair education, and began life for
himself as a merchant in Washington, Georgia. A man of deep religious
convictions, he entered the ministry in 1827, and in 1828 joined the South
Carolina Conference, which embraced the western part of North Carolina, and all
of South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama. His first two appointments were in
North Carolina, and his third was at Pensacola, Florida. There were then neither
railways nor public roads of any account in this section of the country, and he
made his rounds on horseback, following Indian trails, mostly, and preaching,
generally, in log houses. In 1835 he was assigned to Macon, Georgia. A man of
advanced ideas, broad-minded and liberal in his views, fully appreciating the
value of a good education for girls as well as boys, he was one of the leaders
in the movement of offering the girls the same facilities for acquiring
knowledge that was as a matter of course afforded the boys. During his pastorate
in-Macon he agitated the subject, and, supported by Elijah Sinclair, proposed
the establishment of a female college in that city, and the two leaders in the
movement worked to such good purpose that the Wesleyan College, for which they
selected the site, was established in Macon. It was at first called the Georgia
Female College, but was later changed to the Wesleyan Female College, a name
which it still bears. During the Civil war he served as chaplain of the First
Georgia Hospital, in Richmond, Virginia. Being superannuated in 1871, Rev. Mr.
Talley spent a few years with his son William, but in 1878 removed to Corsicana,
Texas, where he resided until his death in 1885. He married Rosetta Ralston, who
was born in Savannah, Georgia, a daughter of John Ralston, who came from Ireland
with two of his brothers just after the close of the Revolutionary war. She died
at the home of her daughter in Corsicana, Texas, at the advanced age of
eighty-five years. They reared four children, namely: Elizabeth Stuart; John
Shellman, a soldier in the Confederate army, died from the effect of wounds
received at the second battle of Manassas; William R., the subject of this brief
biographical record; and Sally C.

   Completing his early education at Emory College, in Oxford, Georgia, Rev.
William R. Talley began his professional career, at the age of twenty-two years,
as a teacher in the Hancock county schools. Licensed as a local preacher in
1876, he preached in different places in Georgia, in addition to teaching and
preaching turned his attention to farming. In December, 1880, Mr. Talley
purchased his present farm in Dixie, where he has since resided. His one hundred
and forty acres of land are under a, high state of cultivation, and he has a
substantial set of buildings, his house being most pleasantly located on a knoll
overlooking Dixie valley. As a farmer and stock raiser he is meeting with well
merited success, and as a man and a citizen he is held in high regard throughout
the community.

   Mr. Talley married, in 1872, Carrie Harvey, who was born in Marion county,
Georgia, a daughter of Benjamin and Mary Harvey. Seven children have blessed
their marriage, namely: Lizzie, John S., Eunice S., Ben H., Charles R., Sally
Lee, and Elmer. Lizzie, wife of L. L. Stevenson, has two children, William and
Shellman. Eunice, wife of W. L. Watkins, has three children, William Talley,
Ruth, and Harrison. Ben married Mattie Stuart, and they have two children, Ben
Harvey and Martha. Charles married Luella Hurt.



Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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