Georgia: Oglethorpe County: Biography of Sarah Whitsell Edwards Ponder ================================================================= === USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store this file permanently for free access. This file was contributed by: Deanna (Whitsell) Spears mdspears@dbstech.com ================================================================= === Mrs. Ponder was the former Sarah Whitsell of Wilkes and Oglethorpe Counties, GA, and the widow of Littlebury B. Edwards who died in Oglethorpe County about 1827. He had drawn land in the 1821 Georgia Lottery, securing his grant in 1824, in Henry County. It is not certain whether his widow was married to Major Ponder before of after her move to Henry County. The marriage record is not found in Henry County and in the 1831 Tax Digest, Major Ponder is show as owning land in Franklin County, GA, while Sarah Whitsell's brother-in-law Thomas Edwards, is shown as the guardian of her minor children: James W. Edwards, William G. Edwards, Thomas J. Edwards and Martha S. Edwards.At that time Sarah and her children, Thomas Edwards and Major Ponder were all living in the 3rd District of Henry County on and near Thompson's Creek and Towaliga River. In 1833 their friend and neighbor the Reverend William Moseley, was appointed guardian for the Edwards children, which suggests that Thomas Edwards had either died or moved from the county. William G. Edwards, another brother-in-law of Sarah Whitsell, had also settled in Henry County, above the later community of Luella. Sarah Whitsell Edwards Ponder was born in 1794, probably in Wilkes County, and died sometime between 1850 and 1860, Her grave was likely among the first to be placed in the Edwards Graveyard. She and her connections formed a signifiicant settlement in the earlydays of Henry County. These connections included a group of Greene County, GA families who settled southeast of present Hampton on and near Thompson's Creek and Towaliga River: Whitsells, Fears, Barnetts, Aandrews, Griffins, Johnsons and allied families. These people included ancestors and relatives of President Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas. Of the four children of Sarah Whitsell and Littlebury B. Edwards, only one moved away from Henry County. This was William G. Edwards (not to be confused with his uncle of the same name) who in 1843 married Jane H. Hightower of Fayette County and subsequently removed to Ashley County, Arkansas and to Texas. James Whitsell Edwards married in Henry County in 1838, Sarah (Henderson) Crawford, daughter of Richard Henderson and believed to be the widow of son of George Crawford who lived variously in Henry, Monroe and Spalding Counties, GA, and in Chambers County, Ala. Thomas J. Edwards, the youngest son of Sarah Whitsell and Littlebury B. Edwards, married in Henry County in 1842, Martha J. Crawford, daughter of George Crawford. After her death he married a second, in 1886, Sarah (Glass) Harris, widow of Green B. Harris and daughter of Pleasant Glass of Butts County, GA. T.J. Edwards was a leading planter in Henry County and build Edwards Mill, whose old millpond is now known as Lake Amah Lee near Hampton. Soon after 1847 he built a fine house in the Greek Revival style at his plantation and in later years had a town-house in Hampton, where he died. He was a Justice of the Peace, a trustee of Liberty Hill Baptist Church in 1860, and later instrumental in the formation of the Hampton Baptist Church, the land for which was given by his son John L. Edwards. Martha S. Edwards, the only daughter of Sarah Whitsell and Littlebury B. Edwards, married in Henry County in 1839, James Frederick Glass, son or ward of Manson Glass of Fayette and Clayton Counties, who came to Georgia from Virginia. Frederick and Martha settled north of McDonough in Henry County on present U.S. Hwy 23/State Hwy. 42 and are buried on their homeplace. They were both under age at the time of their marriage and until reaching their majority, Manson Glass was guardian for James Frederick Glass, and the Rev. William Moseley continued as guardian for Martha (Edwards) Glass. This was owing to the substantial estates to which each of the young people was to be heir. They were ancestors of the Henry County branch of the Glass family. Major John M Ponder was a native of South Carolina and may have lived for a time in Franklin County, GA as he owned land there in 1831 when he was living in Henry County. Sarah (Whitsell) Edwards was undoubtedly his second wife as Daniel H. Ponder, who married in Henry County in 1844 Amanda E. Little, is believed to have been his son by a prior marriage. Another son may have been Edwin W. Ponder who married Sarah E. Hand in 1839. Two children appear to have been born to Major Ponder and Sarah (Whitsell) Edwards: Susan E. Ponder who married James Henderson Hand in 1856, and George M. Ponder, who is known to be a child of this marriage.