Bryan County GaArchives Biographies.....Thomas Canady 1802 - 1884 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: William Scott, Jr. aeturnallrain67@hotmail.com January 11, 2004, 7:32 pm Author: William Scott, Jr. Thomas Canady 1802 Bryan County, Georgia 1884 Bryan County, Georgia Son of Stephen Canady (1796-1820) and Mary Bennett Married Sarah Jane Delegal 1810 Liberty County, Georgia 1906 Bryan County, Georgia Daughter of Henry Delegal and Elizabeth Bacon Thomas Canady was born in 1802 in Bryan County, Georgia. He was the third child and second son of Stephen Canady (1796-1830) and Mary Bennett Canady, the first of their offspring born in Georgia. He grew up on his parents’ farm in Bryan County, learning the skills of business management and good farming. After his father died, Thomas took over the family farm, and among the vegetables grown were Irish potatoes, peas, cotton, corn, and sweet potatoes. His older brother John Canady had already began a family of his own nearby, and in later years moved southward to Florida. On 23 June 1832 Thomas married Sarah Jane Delegal in Chatham County, Georgia. She was born in February 1810 near the Little Ogeechee River in Liberty County, Georgia, a daughter of Henry Delegal (1777-1819) and Elizabeth Bacon (1777-1848). Henry and Elizabeth fled the country during the Revolution, as Henry’s father, Thomas Philip Delegal II, was a loyalist who supported King George III, and had his lands confiscated as a result. Henry and Elizabeth returned to Georgia, settling in Liberty County. By 1814, when Sarah was four, they moved to the Spring Hill District of Savannah, Georgia, and in 1818, after the death of her father, they again relocated. This time it was with her mother and sister Mary to her uncle Jonathan Bacon’s farm in Tattnall County. By 1825 they moved again, to Bryan County, where her mother Elizabeth won a land grant in the land lottery. By 1830 her older half-brother Nathaniel died, leaving his daughters Lavinia and Ann Rebecca in Sarah’s care. When she married Thomas Canady, they continued raising the girls as their own. Many wonderful stories were told about Sarah Jane Canady. Some said that she was a midwife and nurse, helping deliver babies and cure ailments to many people and families in Bryan County. She made her medicines from plants found in the woods. No one really knew the secrets of the cures, only that they were effective and many people owed their lives to her. She was described as a “short, feisty, Irish Grandmother” who always wore a bonnet. She possessed a sense of humor and could make them laugh, even in her advanced years. She was an avid seamstress, making quilts and other items in quilting bees with other ladies. The ladies would stretch a quilt on a rack and sew it together while the children played beneath it. She had a wonderful singing voice, and sang “Amazing Grace” often in church. Thomas and Sarah Jane Canady expanded their estate by purchasing and receiving awarded lands. They were granted land in 1838, 1851, and 1854. By 1860, their real estate was valued at $1500, and personal property at $3892. In 1861, the War Between the States began, and their ravaging effect on the South was yet to be discovered. Many of the Canady clan volunteered for service to their new country, the Confederate States of America. Two of their three sons, John and William, along with son-in-law Andrew Love (husband of their elder daughter Jane) went to war. The other son, Henry, was not able to join, for he always walked with a limp. He stayed and helped his sisters run the farm. In the olden days, the news of the events that happened in the war came by letter, and the rural areas of the country received word last. Most of the news from the battlefront was not good---John died in Savannah with dysentery in December 1862. Andrew was MIA and never heard from again. Last word from him was in Chickmauga, and he was probably killed in the battle. William was wounded in Chickamauga, captured in Nashville in 1864, and spent the rest of the war in a horrid prison, Camp Chase, Ohio, as a POW. Thomas Canady and family pulled together to save their farm and each other from the Yankee invaders. Their house was spared during Sherman’s March to The Sea, but other neighboring lands were burned. They helped their neighbors any way they could. After the war, the South endured even more hardships with Reconstruction offering mediocre relief at best. Families who depended on slaves for labor in the fields had to hire hands to help them. By that time, most of Thomas’s family had moved away with families of their own. Sons William (who married Susan Bacon) and Henry (who married Frances Sheffield) lived close by and helped out. Thomas and Sarah Jane gave some of their lands to their children and sold other parcels. The remainder they continued to work, and Sarah Jane continued quilting and caring for the ailing---even delivering some of her own grandchildren. Thomas Canady died in 1884 in Bryan County, having been married to Sarah 52 years. She followed in 1906. Both are buried at Old Hopeful Cemetery in northeast Bryan County, off Highway 119 north of Pembroke. CHILDREN OF THOMAS AND SARAH CANADY--- 1. Jane Canady 5 March 1833 Bryan County, Georgia 17 May 1917 married Andrew Love 1. Tallula Love (1855-1951) married James E. Butler (1852-1907) 2. John J. Canady 1836 Bryan County, Georgia December 1862 Savannah, Georgia 3. Henry W. Canady 1 October 1837 Bryan County, GA--16 May 1897 Bryan County, GA married (1) Jincy Hart (2) Fannie Sheffield 3 Feb 1861 Bulloch County, GA--13 Feb 1953 Bryan County, GA daughter of WIlliam Sheffield and Virginia Iler 4. William Ervine Canady 5 April 1840 Bryan County, GA--14 May 1921 Savannah, GA married Susan Elmira Bacon 17 Jan 1846 Tattnall County, GA--16 Jun 1903 Savannah, GA daughter of Albert G. Bacon and Julianna Waller 5. Elizabeth Canady 5 October 1842 Bryan County, GA-- 27 December 1928 married John Bacon 1839-1923 son of Albert G. Bacon and Julianna Waller 6. Nancy Ann Canady 1844 Bryan County, GA-- married Alfred C. Bacon 1844-1915 Son of Alfred C. Bacon and Emma Stubbs 7. Mary Frances Canady 31 August 1848 Bryan County, GA--22 April 1924 Bryan County, GA married Edmund Lovell Bacon 31 Aug 1848 Bryan County, GA--10 Jun 1934 Bryan County, GA son of John F. E. Bacon and Rose Blocker This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 7.1 Kb