Carroll County  GA  Bios  John Allen McWhorter

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JodieK444@aol.com  Judy Fowler Kilgore


http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/carroll.htm Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Georgia Table of Contents:

JOHN ALLEN McWHORTER

His name was John Allen McWhorter and this is his family
story.

John Allen McWhorter was born Dec. 23, 1882 in Carroll
County, Ga., a fourth generation Carroll County
McWhorter. His great-grandfather, the Rev. Leroy
McWhorter, came from Greenville, S.C. to Carroll County
and settled near Villa Rica with his wife, Mary Elizabeth
Thomasson (also seen as Thompson) and nine children:
Moses Allen; Sarah M.; Mary Ann; Johnson; Laura; Thomas
Benson; Elizabeth; Newton Alexander; and D. Franklin.


The Rev. Leroy, a Baptist minister, set about doing the
Lord's work right away, and was one of the founders and
first pastor of Carroll County's Macedonia Baptist Church
in 1847, a church which is still thriving today. He also
was among three ministers who started Pleasant Grove
Baptist Church in 1849, and in 1858 was pastor at
Centralhatcheee Baptist Church, now in Heard County.


John Allen was the grandson of Moses Allen McWhorter
(1820-1902) and Sarah Kinney (1830-1915) and the son of
William Leroy McWhorter (1857-1900) and Eliza J. Wren
(1859-1894?)


William and Eliza had eight children: Eliza Della, b.
1880; John Allen, b. 1882; William Oliver, b. 1883; Ida
Jane, b. 1885; Emma Angeline, b. 1886; Alice Pearl, b.
1888; Grover Emerson, b. 1889; and Benjamin Franklin, b.
1891. Eliza died about 1894 and William moved with the
younger children to Cullman, Ala. where he married Mrs.
Selie Bentley in 1897. William died Oct. 12, 1900 and is
buried in Emeus Baptist Church cemetery in Cullman.


John Allen was only 12 when his mother died and only 18
when his father passed away. What he did between 1894 and
1900 is uncertain, but family stories say that he and his
Uncle Tom sold the family horse to obtain money to attend
college. Tom apparently enrolled first, as he was seven
years older than John Allen, but the two were close and
remained so during their lifetimes.


Dedicated to education and following in the footsteps of
his uncle, John headed for Athens, Ga., sometime after
1900, where he attended teacher's college and became a
school teacher. Both John and his Uncle Tom returned to
Carroll County to teach. John fell in love with one of
his students, Sarah Jane Payne, daughter of Joseph Joshua
Payne and Louisa Elizabeth Boyd, and married her Aug. 19,
1906, in Carroll County. They moved to Shellman, Ga.,
where John had a teaching position. In 1908, their first
child, Ruby Faye (1908-1996), was born.


John and Sarah next moved to Turin, Coweta County, Ga.,
where, again, John taught school and Sarah gave birth to
another daughter, Gladys Mae (1910-1995). Excerpts from
the Newnan Herald and Advertiser dated Dec. 10, 1910,
note: "Born to Mr. and Mrs. J.A. McWhorter, a daughter
..."


With a growing family to support, John took a mail
clerk's job with the railroad and moved to Atlanta,
where, in 1917, the couple's third daughter, Marian
Payne, was born. John and Sarah eventually settled
permanently in East Point. Sarah's mother, Louisa, whom
John called "Miss Lou," lived with them and helped with
the child rearing. All the girls graduated from Russell
High and two attended business college. 

Faye married George Leonard Barron, son of Raymond Barron
and Carrie Myrtice Gill of LaGrange. They had two
children: George Leonard Jr., and Beryl Leah. Gladys
became a musical child prodigy and, by the age of 5, was
amazing the neighbors with her classical piano skills.
She later played for the USO during WWII, played for the
silent movies in East Point, and played for auditions on
"Stars of Tomorrow," an early TV talent show broadcast in
Atlanta back in the 1950s and 1960s.


Gladys married Francis Dennard (Frank) McDuffie, son of
Rodie McDuffie and Lillie Maude Coppedge of East Point,
and had four children: Marjorie Faye, Francis Dennard,
Jr., John Rodie, and Laura Lizbeth.


Marian married William J. (Dub) Fowler, son of Luther
Clarence Fowler and Lula Gadsey Blake, and they had three
children: Judith Jane (yours truly), Lula Kay, and
William Jethroe Jr.


In 1938, John suffered a heart attack, and, after several
days in the hospital, died July 26. Sarah lived on
Hamilton Avenue in East Point until her death from a
stroke in 1952. Both she and John are buried in College
Park Cemetery.

It really gives you a different perspective on your
ancestors when you put their life events into
chronological order. 


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