MUSCOGEE COUNTY, GA - BIOS Aaron Land Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: John Mallory Land Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Aaron LAND was born 24 FEB 1834 in AL, the son of Jacob and Anna “Annie” (HERREN / HERRING) LAND. His parents moved to Harris County, GA, when Aaron was a small boy, purportedly because of the threat American Indian attacks on European-American settlements in Alabama. Aaron was reared to manhood in Harris County, thereafter moving into Muscogee County, GA, where he resided (in the Double Churches community) for the rest of his life. Aaron LAND married on 06 DEC 1860 in Muscogee County to Angeline Polk “Angie” LOKEY (b. 26 JUL 1843 in Talbot Co, GA), the daughter of John Taylor & Nancy Tate (ANTHONY) LOKEY. Aaron’s brother Joseph Benjamin “Joe” LAND (1836-1911) married 1860 to Angie’s sister Frances Ann “Fannie” LOKEY (1842-1923), and his brother John Henry LAND (1845-1923) married 1865 to her sister Missouri Anna Winifred “Hoon” LOKEY (1848-1914). Before the Civil War, Aaron had “accumulated some little property by his labor and economy.” He had bought a Negro woman named Lucinda and a child named Dempsey, for which he paid fourteen hundred dollars in gold, or its equivalent. More than a year after he bought Lucinda, she bore another child. Following the outbreak of the war, Aaron enlisted in the Confederate Army. The following is adapted from an account of his service, as dictated to his wife, Angie (LOKEY) LAND: I enlisted in the Confederate Army about the First of May, 1862. I went out as an Orderly Sergeant of Company H, Fifty-Fourth Georgia Regiment [organized in Muscogee County, Georgia]. Captain Charles RUSSELL was in command of the Company, and Colonel Charlton H. Way in command of the Regiment. Our Regiment was in General MERCER’s Brigade. After serving a while on the coast at Savannah, I was elected Second Lieutenant of our Company H. Afterwards we was moved from the coast and joined the Tennessee Army, attached to WALKER’s Division. We were reorganized, and I was made First Lieutenant of our Company. (General WALKER was killed at Atlanta. After the death of General WALKER, we were under General CLEBORN. General CLEBORN was killed at Franklin, Tennessee, after which we were under General CHEATUM, under whom we served until the Surrender.) After leaving the coast, we served a while in South Carolina and then joined the Tennessee Army above Dalton, Georgia. After fighting and falling back to Atlanta, we continued to Jonesboro, then back to Lovejoy Station, then to Palmet[t]o Station, then back to Dalton, then to Decato [= Decatur?], Alabama, then to Tuscumb[i]a, Ala., and then we crossed the Tennessee River and went to Franklin, Tennessee. We went as near to Nashville as we could get, and then to Murfreesboro, and then back to Franklin. We marched from Murfreesboro back to Franklin - a distance of seventy- five miles - in a day and night, and there my shoes gave out, so I wrapped my feet in pieces of blanket. We marched back to Tuscumb[i]a, Ala., and from there to Vicksburg, Miss., thence to Lauderdale Springs, Miss. My feet was frostbitten and swollen so I couldn’t travel, and I remained at Lauderdale Springs, at the hospital six weeks, and then came on through Meridian, Miss.; I taken breakfast at Meridian. Then I came on to Columbus and stayed at home a few days. I then went to my command at Augusta, Ga. We proceeded to Columbia, South Carolina, and on to Raleigh, North Carolina, and finally to Smithfield, North Carolina. There we waited for orders. We were expecting to join the Virginia Army, but General LEE was surrounded by the enemy and had to surrender. Thus, we were disbanded at Smithfield. Aaron LAND arrived home about 01 JUN 1865, to rejoin his wife and one child, Lillie Ora. (Their second child, Ella Jefferson, had died at nine months old during the war). By this time, the family had lost quite a bit of property. In addition to the slaves having been freed, when he had left for the war, Aaron had three bales of cotton. During WILSON’s raid on Columbus, GA, April 16 & 17, 1865, the Union forces burned Col. Martin J. CRAWFORD’s gin house, where Aaron’s cotton bales were stored, so they had been destroyed. Also, the Yankees carried away a fine young mule that belonged to Aaron LAND. Futhermore, Aaron had sold his home during the war for Confederate money, and he owed five hundred dollars on the home, but the party would not receive Confederate money or cotton on the debt. So Aaron went to work to make a living and make back some of what he had lost. According to his wife, Aaron “was a noble-hearted man, and he went to work and payed [sic] the five hundred dollars that he owd [sic], and together with his dear wife they tried to do unto others as they would have them do unto them. Aaron and his dear wife shared the burden of life together, each one trying to do their part in providing an honest living, and rearing their children and educating them to the very best of their ability.” Angie had been a member of the Missionary Baptist church about twelve years, but became fully convinced that the Primitive Baptist church was the true church. She was anxious to go to church with her husband, and they went together and joined the Primitive Baptist church at Mt. Moriah [in Muscogee Co, GA] about June 1871, and were baptized by Elder Nathan BUSS[E]Y. Aaron LAND was ordained deacon of the church. Per Angie, Aaron “taken much interest in the church and was prompt to fill his place. He tried to live a Christian life, always trying to do unto others as he would have them do unto him. He was an upright, good man. As Judge CRAWFORD said on one occasion, he was a man that would not sell for his value.” Aaron and Angeline appear with their children on page 515D of the 1880 federal census of Nance’s District, Muscogee County, Georgia. Aaron was farming and Angie was keeping house. Aaron LAND departed this life early in the morning of 11 OCT 1901. His health had not been good for several months before his death, but he was able to keep up and look after his business. The day before his death, he rode horseback several miles to attend to some business and was seemingly getting along as well as usual. That evening he declined dinner, drinking only coffee, but appeared in good spirits. He was using medicine called swamp root at the time, which he took before retiring for the night. The next morning near four o’clock, about his usual time to get up, he arose from his bed and fell on the floor. His daughter Lena, sleeping in an adjoining room, heard him fall and called for her brothers Hezekiah and Judge. (Angie was staying with her daughter, Mrs. T. Z. MILLER, to attend to a very sick child.) The boys put Aaron on the bed, but he only breathed two or three more times before drifting off into eternal sleep. Aaron was buried in the Mt. Moriah (Double Churches) Cemetery in northern Muscogee County, Georgia. He had made a non-cupative last will and testament before his children and some neighbors. In this will, he stipulated that his wife should have all of his property for her use until her death, at which time it would be equally divided among the children. However, if she remarried, the property would be divided between her and the children. She did not remarry, and lived a widow until her death on 22 DEC 1930, at which time she was laid to rest beside her husband. Aaron and Angie (LOKEY) LAND were the parents of twelve children, as follows: Lillie Ora LAND (1862-1932), m. John Thomas WHATLEY, Sr. Ella Jefferson (1863-1864) Elizabeth Angeline “Lizzie” LAND (1866-1950), m. ca. 1887 Thomas Zephaniah MILLER (1860-1927) John Taylor LAND (1868-1920), m. ca. 1889 Minnie LAYFIELD (1868-1951) Andrew Jacob LAND (1870-1933), m. ca. 1901? Harriet Elizabeth “Bessie” CORBETT (b. ca. 1881) Aaron Brewster LAND (1872-1953), m. 1891 Mattie Tabitha MILLER (1872-1960) Frederick? Monroe “Freddie” LAND (1875-1906), m. Effie ABEL Lena Triphenia LAND (b. 1877), m. 1902 Thomas Kimbrough TAYLOR (1876-1926) Hezekiah LAND (1879-1952), m. ca. 1902 Susie Lee TAYLOR (1880-1963) Martin Jenkins Crawford “Judge” LAND (b. 1881), m. ca. 1903 Allie SANDERS (1889-1984) Annie Katherine “Kate” LAND (b. 1883), m1. ca. 1906 Thomas Clay TAYLOR (1860-1913) m2. W. C. DAVIDSON Paul Lokey LAND (1885-1969), m. Lessie CONNER [T. Z. and Mattie MILLER were siblings; the kinship among the three TAYLOR spouses has not yet been determined.] Compiled from various sources - including a biographical sketch of Aaron LAND by his wife, Angie, and an account of his war service, as dictated to her - by their gg-grandson, John Mallory Land