Chattahoochee-Talbot-Muscogee County GaArchives Biographies.....Bussey, Hezekiah 1840 - 1917
************************************************
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:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 4, 2004, 1:37 pm

Author: N. K. Rogers
BUSSEY

(Some data furnished by Mr. Arthur Bussey of Columbus, and from public records).

    Hezekiah Bussey was born in Calvert Co.. Maryland, removed to Edgefield, S.
C. and from there to Lincoln Co. Ga., where he died in 1796. He married Amy
Fleming (reference to Hezekiah and Amy Bussey can be found in Lincoln Co records
preserved in Joseph Habersham D. A. R. Collection) Hezekiah Bussey was a
Revolutionary soldier and his will is recorded at Lincolnton, Ga. Children of
Hezekiah and Amy Fleming Bussey:

    (1) David b. 1772; m. Sallie Fleming; (2) Elizabeth m. John Edwards; (3)
Benjamin b. 1774, m. first Polly Burgamy; second (Mrs.) Rebecca Smith; third
(Mrs.) Lucy Wooldridge; Hezekiah m. Rebecca Shaw: (4) Amy; (5) Nancy (6) Rebecca
(7) Nathan b. 1821; m. Lucy Baugh.; d. in Talbot Co., Ga. Children of Nathan and
Lucy Baugh; Bussey: David, William Daniel, James Marion, Susannah, Peter, Lucy
Ann, Hezekiah who married Frances C. Stokes and lived in Cusseta for many years.
Their children: Arthur, Leila, Stokes, Loulia, Frank, Brannon and Herman. Col.
Hezekiah Bussey who was born in Talbot Co., Ga. April 18, 1840 and died in
Columbus, Ga. Nov. 5, 1917, was made Lieut. Col. of 27th Regt. of Ga. Infantry
during the War between the States. Besides being a lawyer of ability, who served
as solicitor of this circuit, he was a Primitve Baptist preacher and was pastor
of Mt. Olive Church for many years. His personal integrity was always above
reproach but proof of the inestimable value of such unswerving honesty as his is
vouchsafed to few men. He and his son Arthur Bussey and others formed a
partnership for manufacturing guano during the seventies when there really was
not much money in the South. During a crisis in their affairs Rev. Hezekiah
Bussey went to a bank in New York City where he was personally unknown and
borrowed $75,000.00 without giving any security for its payment except his word
and the recommendation of a friend of his living there. It is said that he told
his friends he was able to borrow this money because he was a Primitive Baptist
preacher. Some may not be aware of the significance of this, but this church in
its day of greatest usefulness did not permit any one to have membership in it
who failed to pay his debts or invoked the aid of the laws which allow honest
debts to be unpaid. The records of Mt. Olive Church which would reveal the
salient facts of this historic place being in the possession of its last pastor
who has refused to furnish a copy for this history, the names of that membership
whose lives have been directly influenced by this godly man can not be given.
But he and others of his faith wrought well in the days allotted them for their
earthly pilgrimage.

    The Bussey family of the South were descended from Hezekiah Bussee who lived
in Calvert Co. Md. 1689. In that year he signed a petition to the king. He was a
brother of George Bussee. A letter (on record Calvert Co. Md.) 1761, from Cecil
Calvert to Gov. Sharpe speaks of "Moses Bussey Charge des affairs" as being in
London. In the declaration of war by England against Spain, reference is made to
"Monsieur Bussy, Minister Plenipotentiary of France." The family came to United
States from France. Several members of this distinguished family have lived in
Chattahoochee Co., the first to come being Rev. Benj. Bussey (b. 1774) whose son
Dr. N. J. Bussey of Jamestown owned about four square miles of land there; many
slaves with all the other possessions appertaining to an antebellum plantation.
A descendant of the family says the house was built of logs then clapboarded and
ceiled. In addition to the usual buildings necessary for such a plantation, were
the doctor's office and post-office. N. J. Bussey was one of the founders and
first president of the Eagle and Phoenix Mills built in 1868 (the old Eagle Mill
having been burned by Wilson's Raiders in 1865) at that time it was the largest
manufacturing plant of its kind in Ga. His son W. W. Bussey says. he moved to
Columbus in 1866 where he was interested in a bank, including as officers Ben
May and Judge Gustavus de Launey, from which place he, his wife and daughter,
Harriet went to New Orleans during Mardi Gras week 18__ where his daughter met
Thomas Dixon afterwards to become famous as an author. They were married that
year and went to N. C. to live - later to Va., and New York City.

    To the residents of Chattahoochee and surrounding counties, the best known
member of this branch of the family was Rev. Benj. W. Bussey (b. 1846) who
enlisted in the Confederate Army at the age of 17 and served in the signal
service in the Virginia Campaigns. He attended Mercer University when it was
located at Penfield and was ordained a Baptist minister in a small church in
Chattahoochee Co. He held pastorates in Shelby and Huntsville, N. C., then in
New Orleans, from whence he returned to Ga., in 1893, living then either at his
ancestral home at Jamestown, in Columbus, or Cusseta until 1918, preaching at
these places and in neighboring counties. He was Moderator of the Columbus
Association for twenty years. After selling his land to the Federal Government
in 1918, Mr. Bussey moved to Gulfport, Miss., where during the last years of his
long life, so beneficent in its influence everywhere, he enjoyed his favorite
recreation—fishing. During Mr. Bussey's pastorate at Cusseta, there was always
such harmony between his church and the Methodist Church that it was often said
the Methodist could hardly be distinguished from the Baptist.

    He was a scholarly gentleman, whose real worth was fully appreciated by the
rank and file of those who were his contemporaries.

  Through him and the Rev. Hezekiah Bussey, descendants of the Revolutionary
soldier Hezekiah and his wife Amy there came spiritual grace and power to this
western county, comparatively poor in this world's goods, but rich in the type
of manhood and womanhood it has sent forth to bless and adorn the world.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF CHATTAHOOCHEE COUNTY, GEORGIA
By N. K. Rogers

Dedicated to

KASIHITA CHAPTER U. D. C.

and all worthy descendants of the County's first settlers.

Copyright 1933

by N. K. ROGERS

PRINTED   BY
COLUMBUS  OFFICE  SUPPLY CO. COLUMBUS, GA.




File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chattahoochee/bios/gbs553bussey.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/

File size: 6.8 Kb