Lowndes-Monroe-Telfair County GaArchives Biographies.....Christian, George Robert 1867 - living in 1913 ************************************************ 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 1, 2004, 9:03 pm Author: William Harden p. 1068-1071 GEORGE ROBERT CHRISTIAN. Occupying a noteworthy position among the active and prosperous business men of Georgia and Florida, George R. Christian is distinguished not only for his own sterling traits of character but for the honored ancestry from whom he descended. He was born November 18, 1867, in Lowndes county, Georgia, nine miles south of Valdosta. The Christians were natives of the Isle of Man, where they had been prominent from time immemorial as the history of the Isle of Man shows (Peveril of the Peak). He is a son of Thomas Johnson Christian, whose father, Gabriel Christian, was the son of John Christian of Virginia, who came when a child with his father, Gilbert Christian, from the Isle of Man. They landed first at Philadelphia, and from there they came on down to the valley of Virginia, and were the second immigrants to settle there, John Lewis already being there, and having settled near where Staunton, Virginia, now stands. John Christian, who married Elizabeth Crawford, a woman of vigorous intellect, was captain of horse in the Colonial army and fought the Indians along with Daniel Boone and Col. Wm. Christian, in whose honor Christian county, Kentucky, was named. (Life and Times of Caleb Wallace). John Christian was the only surviving member of a party of twelve attacked by the Indians while attempting to survey lands drawn by Col. Wm. Christian in western Kentucky as a bounty for services rendered in fighting the Indians. Gabriel Christian, born in Virginia, received excellent educational advantages and was reared in the Presbyterian faith—he subsequently embraced the Protestant Methodist religion and became a preacher in that denomination. Coming to Georgia, he purchased a tract of wild land in Monroe county, and with his slaves began the improvement of the plantation. Continuing his work in the Master's vineyard as a circuit rider, he preached in numerous places in Georgia, remaining a resident of Monroe county until his death. The marriage of Gabriel Christian to Harrison Blair Gilmer also of Virginia was solemnized in Albermarie county in that state in the year of 1800. Her father, John Gilmer, married Mildred Merriwether, who was descended in the sixth generation from Nicholas Merriwether. Mildred Merriwether, who was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Thornton) Merriwether and who became the wife of John Gilmer was therefore a great-grandmother of George Robert Christian. Gabriel Christian and his wife reared seven children as follows: John Gilmer, Martha Taliaferro, Abner Hobbs, Julia Ann, Nicholas Thornton, Hope Hull and Thomas Johnson. Thomas Johnson Christian was born in 1822 in Monroe county, at which place he remained until seventeen years of age. After the death of his father in 1839, he and his mother moved to Florida, carrying with them their slaves. He entered government land in Madison county and improved a plantation. Having sold this in 1856 to his brother-in-law, Dr. J. W. Hines, he moved to Georgia, and purchased lot No. 82, a timbered tract, eight miles south of Quitman, then in Lowndes, but now in Brooks county. He was on the first jury drawn in Brooks county. Having again sold in 1860, he moved to Hamilton county Florida, near Belleville, where he bought lands. There in company with Green McCall he built in the Withlacoochee river "a fall fish trap" from which he hauled fish by the two-horse wagon loads. The trap is still standing, having been in operation these many years. On account of failing health he sold his possessions in that locality and settled in 1862 in Berrien county. Georgia, four miles from Nashville, where he purchased Flat Creek mills, consisting of gins and grist with several adjoining lots of land. During the war between the states he not being physically able to render active military service was detailed miller, and in that capacity did all that he could to help the Confederacy. He owned twenty-six slaves, for whom he was offered real estate in Savannah to their full value, but on account of the relation between master and slaves he refused to sell, saying that he always had treated them well, and he believed they would never leave him, and some of them did, after freedom, remain with him for several years. During the latter part of the war Captain Sharpe, an enrolling officer, was his guest while performing his duties for the Confederate army. The captain's whereabouts was discovered by the Confederate deserters, by whom he was brutally murdered. These deserters worked great damage to the property of Thomas J. Christian by killing his stock, burning his kitchen, setting on fire his dwellings, which would have burned had it not been for the prompt and active service of his slaves—especially the negro Summer, who carried the blankets into the well in order to wet them and smother the fire, the buckets having been taken off by those who set the house on fire. His life was constantly in danger. He was waylaid by the deserters who were jealous of his kind treatment to the soldiers and loyal persons connected with the Confederacy. His life was spared and he remained until 1867 in this trying community, in the center of the collection of the Confederate deserters, who congregated around this ten-mile bay and large swamp. From here he went to Lowndes county, nine miles south of Valdosta, at which place he remained for six months. He traded his Berrien county property for land in Madison county, Florida, just across the state line. Fifteen years later he exchanged that land for a farm located in Brooks county, Georgia, ten miles south of Quitman, and there he spent the remainder of his life, passing away January 6, 3885. Thomas Johnson Christian married Mary Susannah McCall, who was horn in Telfair county, Georgia, July 12, 1832, and died in Brooks county, Georgia, June 26, 1893. She was a daughter of Col. George Robert Francis McCall, a granddaughter of Rev. Wm. McCall, and great-granddaughter of Francis McCall, a native of Scotland who immigrated to America in Colonial days, settling in South Carolina. Rev. Wm. McCall served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war and was for many years a noted preacher in the Missionary Baptist church. Removing from Society Hill, South Carolina, to Screven county, Georgia, he was there a resident until his death. He was twice married. His first wife, Nancy Fletcher, the great-grandmother of George R. Christian, was the daughter of William Fletcher, who died in southeast Georgia at the advanced age of 132 years. The maiden name of his second wife was Mary Pierce. Col. George R. McCall was born July 28, 1794, in Screven county, and was educated for a physician, having graduated at a medical college. Not caring for his professional life, he entered land in 1838 in what is now Brooks county, Georgia, and Madison county, Florida. The little Ancilla creek passed through his land and he improved the power, building first a grist mill and later putting up the first sawmill in South Georgia. He erected the first frame house in this section of the state, painted it white, and it was known for many miles around as the "White House." It was located about twelve miles south of Quitman in Lowndes county, now Brooks county, near the state line. Colonel McCall sold that estate to William Thomas, moved from there to the Land place, eight miles south of Quitman. Then he sold this and moved about one mile south of the state line into Madison county, Florida. On the same little Ancilla creek he built a larger grist and saw mill, and there resided until his death, November, 1884, in the ninety-first year of his age. The colonel was an important factor in the development of the resources of his community and during his career witnessed many wonderful transformations in the face of the country, villages and populous cities springing up. He saw Savannah grow from a small hamlet, when he first began trading there, to a large and enterprising city, one of the foremost in the state. On January 15, 1817, Col. George R. McCall married Luvincia Fain, who was born in Telfair county, Georgia, January 15, 1801. She was a daughter of Thomas Fain and granddaughter of William Fain, a Revolutionary soldier who lies buried in Knoxville, Tennessee. William Fain was a native of Ireland, his trade was a linen weaver, and he left a land estate there when he came to America; when the-Tories land was confiscated in this country he decided to give up his estate in Ireland. Luvincia (Fain) McCall died June 26, 1885. They lived a long and happy wedded life of sixty-eight years, and reared ten children. Of the union of Thomas Johnson and Mary Susannah (McCall) Christian ten children were born, namely: Mary Blair, Thomas Addison, Rebecca Luvincia, Frank Gilmer, Moses Nathaniel, Hope Hull, Martha Virginia, Georgia Robert, Julia Ann and Cora Hull. George R. Christian, the special subject of this sketch, attended common schools whenever opportunity offered, acquired a practical education when young, and assisted on the home farm until attaining his majority. He then went to a horological school at Oxford, North Carolina, and mastered the trade of watch maker, in which he engaged as watch maker and jeweler for eleven years in different parts of Georgia and Florida, during which time he permanently located at Quitman, Georgia. In November, 1899, he changed his business into an installment furniture business in which he was engaged seven years. Retiring from that business in 1906, lie is at present a successful dealer in real estate, being one of the largest real estate owners in Quitman, Georgia. He is building a summer home on Pine mountain at Manchester, Georgia, and his winter home is on 15 Rhode avenue, St. Augustine, Florida, a place which is surrounded by palms, oranges, figs, mulberries and plums, trees and fruits which distinguish that section of the state. It is located near the famous Matanzas Bay, from which he gets his fish, oysters and deep-sea products. He has made a home for his unmarried sisters in Quitman, Georgia, since 1896, who still remain with him. Captain Christian has never married. He takes special interest in his genealogy and has several relics handed from his ancestors. 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 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/lowndes/bios/gbs522christia.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 11.0 Kb