Greene County GaArchives Biographies.....Fuller, Elijah 1754 - 1824 ************************************************ 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: Jon F Fuller http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00017.html#0004128 December 29, 2005, 10:52 pm Author: Jon F Fuller ELIJAH FULLER (b. abt. 1754 – d. 1824) Elijah fuller was the son of Nehemiah Fuller of Maryland and Orange/Caswell Counties, North Carolina. The date and place of his birth is not yet proven. There has been much debate over the years whether Elijah was born in Maryland or North Carolina. The earliest record this author has traced is an Elijah Fuller listed in Orange County, NC on the 1776 Freeholders Tax List. The name “Fuller, Elisjah” is recorded. According to the “Freeholders of Orange County, North Carolina – 1776” by William Doub Bennett – “Property ownership was a requirement before one could vote….the accompanying list of voters to this document (calling for a new election in Orange County) represents the majority of freeholders of Orange County at that time..” Both Elisjah (Elijah) Fuller and his father, Nehemiah Fuller are listed on the 12th & 13th pages consecutively. Caswell County, NC was founded in 1777, mostly from land in Orange County. Elijah Fuller is found in the Caswell County, NC tax lists in 1777 and 1780. Elijah Fuller married his first wife, Cenith “Siney/Cena” Browning sometime in 1782 in Caswell County, NC according to information contained within Family Data Collection, compiled by Edmund West, though a marriage record has not yet been located for these two in Caswell or Orange County, NC. ‘Siney” was the daughter of John Browning. He left a will in Greene County, Georgia naming Siney Fuller as his daughter. See the will at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/greene/wills/browning.txt According to "Genealogy of the Brownings in America from 1621 to 1908,: by E. F. Browning, published 1909, John was married to Elizabeth Demarest first. However, this book does NOT name Siney as a daughter. There is NO credible evidence that John Browning, of Greene County, Georgia, was the husband of Elizabeth Demarest. John did marry second Susanna Teague Boring, widow of David Boring, of Caswell County, North Carolina. They came from Caswell County to Greene County, Georgia with many of their children. Elijah Fuller is also recorded as “witness” for payment of “rents and covenants, land on both sides N. Hico for full term of 7 years until 1200 lbs is paid”, paid Dec 20, 1784 by John Browning of Caswell County, guardian of David Boring, to David Dickie. In records for the Sale of the Estate for Nehemiah Fuller dated Dec. 1780, Elijah Fullar (Fuller) is listed purchasing several items of his father’s estate. Elijah Fuller is also recorded in the North Carolina State Census of 1786 in Caswell Co., NC; one male over the age of 21 and under 60 along with one female. Elijah is listed in the Caswell Co., NC tax lists for the years 1780, 1784 & 1786. Elijah gathered up his family (by then a wife and three young children; twin boys Jesse Franklin & John Alfred, and daughter Polly) and headed south into new lands that had been recently opened to settlers in Greene Co., Georgia (formerly Washington County) sometime in 1787, settling on the banks of Town Creek. The following is an excerpt “A History of Greene County, Georgia” by Dave Buckhout to give an idea of the risk Elijah Fuller and his family took settling in Greene Co., GA in the early days of Greene County’s formation. “As early as the 1770s, pioneers were carving out humble plots in what was then Washington County. Unlike the traders who moved on, though, this hearty, brash set was moving in. The Creek resented them. The bitter truce of 1773, which ceded millions of acres to the land-hungry Georgians, was fresh on the minds of the Creek living along the Oconee. Another such treaty in 1783 provoked even more animosity. While the end of the Revolution in 1782 signified the end of hostilities between the English and Americans, it signified a fiery beginning to hostilities with the Creek. William Bartram’s expedition of 1773 had delivered grand descriptions of the lands beyond the coast. He described in detail the bountiful cane and wildlife then thriving throughout the Oconee River valley. Following the Revolution, settlers began to pour into Georgia. And it was obvious to the infant Georgia legislature that this land of which Bartram talked was where they should be placed. A large, western portion of Washington County was surveyed in 1784. By act of legislature, on February 3rd, 1786, Greene County was formed from it; Georgia’s eleventh county. It was named for a patriot and a hero, Nathaniel Greene; Continental commander of the southern campaign that had led directly to the capitulation of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. But the simple creation of Greene County was overshadowed. Another more localized treaty had stirred the Creek into a fury. In 1786, the Treaty of Shoulderbone Creek, a swift tributary feeding the Oconee in lower Greene, was signed in which a number of Creek chiefs ceded another large portion of land to the Georgians. The Creek contested the treaty, claiming a few minor chiefs had represented the interests of the whole. In like representation, they took their case to the fledgling United States. Not looking for a war with the Creek, Congress voided the treaty. This enraged the frontier Greene Countians, and would prove one of the first steps in placing the loyalties of these southerners with their own rights over the rights of the nation. Most every settler ignored the rulings; the rulings proving virtually unenforceable at that. For a wave of migrants was descending upon Georgia. This flood of settlers into Georgia was the result of the system of “head- right” grants. Any veteran of the Continental armies was provided 287 1/2 acres of land as compensation for his service; 50 additional acres for every family member, or slave if they owned them. The treasury of the U.S. was broke after fighting the long war. All the country had was land, massive tracts of land. In 1788, Georgia ratified the Constitution; was the fourth state admitted. It also had little to offer economically. But it had land. And on the impetus of the land grants, veterans poured into Greene County. Most were from Virginia and the Carolinas, bringing their hardscrabble ways and their religions with them. Thaddeus Brockett Rice, celebrated historian of Greene County, described the original settlers as possessing “little sophistication . . . sturdy, virile, and easy to anger”; advantageous traits for the hard life they would lead. Until the 1800s, Greene County would be the edge of civilization in Georgia.” (It is not yet known where Elijah Fuller and his family settled during their initial years in Greene Co., GA, although William Burford (b. abt. 1760–d. abt. 1840), the father-in-law of Elijah’s son, Greene Fuller, received a Head- right grant and moved from Caswell Co., NC to Greene Co., about the same time. There is no evidence of a “head-right” grant mentioned above for Elijah Fuller, though detailed in a Georgia Indian Depredation Claim filed Sept 3, 1821 by Elijah Fuller, he stated Creek Indians had stolen a dark bay mare from him worth $100.00 in the Summer or Fall of 1788. John Browning is listed as a witness who testified to the value of the horse and “good character and credibility” of Elijah Fuller. In a later statement, John Browning is mentioned as Elijah’s brother-in-law.) In 1790, Elijah Fuller and his family are listed on the Greene County, GA census; page 128. Elijah purchased two hundred acres of land joining William Burford, Cornelius Batchelor, Eustice Daniell & Issac Boring, on the waters of old Town Creek in Greene County, GA from Peter & Rachel Parham in December 1793 and recorded Oct 6, 1794 by William Cochran. This deed is recorded in Book F, Page 331; Land Records, Greene Co., Georgia. Tax lists of Greene Co., GA between 1793 and 1796 provide records of Elijah Fuller. He is listed as a tax defaulter of Greene County, GA for the year 1797. He shows up again in Tax Lists for Greene Co., GA in the years 1801, 1805, 1809 and 1815. In the 1805 Georgia Land Lottery, Elijah Fuller of Greene County, GA is shown as receiving a “blank draw”. By 1805, all of Elijah & Cenith “Siney” (Browning) Fuller’s children had been born, starting with twins, Jesse Franklin & John Alfred in 1784 and Polly in 1786 - while still living in the Hillsborough District of Caswell Co., NC. Their remaining children were born in Greene Co., Georgia: Phoebe (1788); Greene (1792) Amelia “Milley” (1796); David (1798); Celia (Bef. 1800); John Browning (1803); and Elijah William (1805). Elijah’s first wife died sometime prior to October 25th 1811. The circumstances of her death are unknown. It is not known where she is buried but many family descendants believe she and Elijah Fuller are interred on the land they once owned in Greene County, GA. By Oct 25th, 1811 Elijah took a second wife; Elizabeth Boggis/Boggus, a widow; their marriage conducted by Abner Veazey, Justice of the Peace of Greene County Georgia. A document recorded February 5, 1817 and signed by Elijah Fuller indicates receipt of one hundred and twelve dollars and eight and a half cents received from the Administrator’s of John Browning’s estate in “full of my wife’s Legacy”. Of this second marriage, was borne three children; Elizabeth (1816); Martha Ann (1818) and Simeon Fuller (born about 1821). Elijah Fuller can be found in the Greene Co., GA 1820 Census with his family. Also in 1821, Elijah drew Lot 200, Section 12, Greers Militia Dist. - Henry Co., in the Georgia Land Lottery. Elijah Fuller died sometime between May 5, 1824, the likely correct date of his last Will and testament, where he recorded being “sick and weak in body”. The original Will, located in the Greene County Courthouse, Georgia Will Book F, Pg. 87 – records the date of the Will as Dec 8th, 1825. It is believed the date is listed in error by the clerk of the court, since other court records in the Greene County Courthouse, such as the Administrator’s Bonds “Book A”, provide details that James Culberson, Frances West & Thomas Moseley were “held & firmly bound unto the Honorable Court of the Ordinary” as executors to the sale of the Estate of Elijah Fuller (document dated July 8, 1824). Furthermore, Inventory & Appraisement documents of the Estate of Elijah Fuller was taken July 20, 1824 and recorded in the book; Inventory of Appraisements 1823 – 1831, Page 166-168, Probate Court - Clerks Office, Greensboro, Greene County, GA. The sale of personal property of Elijah Fuller took place on Oct 26 & 27th, 1824. Lastly, records in the Greene County Court of the Ordinary indicate Abraham Yeats, John Bird & James Culberson of Greene County (were) …”subscribing witnesses to the within Will who being duly sworn depose & say that they saw Elijah Fuller sign seal & heard him pronounce & publish the foregoing instrument in writing as his last will & testament. That they each believed him to be of perfect sound mind & memory at the time of his so doing & that they each in the presence of the testator subscribed their name in witness thereto. Sworn to & subscribed before us this 5 day of May 1824 Abraham Yeats…” Based on documents that have survived, Elijah Fuller lived a long, interesting and at times, pioneering life. His children from both marriages continued to thrive long after his death, many from his first marriage eventually settling in other parts of Georgia, some eventually migrating west to Alabama. At the time of his death, Elijah’s estate was vast, including fertile farm land and many slaves. Elijah’s second wife, Elizabeth Boggis/Boggus remained in Greene County, Georgia. She was lised in the 1830 Census and was a fortunate drawer in the Georgia Cherokee Land Lottery of 1832, drawing land in Troup County, Georgia, where she can be found in recorded documents and deeds. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/greene/bios/fuller329bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 12.1 Kb