Spalding-Pike County GaArchives Biographies.....Doe, Benjamin Winslow July 10, 1815 - August 25, 1884
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joan Horsley jhorsley46@yahoo.com September 7, 2006, 2:07 pm

Author: Joan Horsley

BENJAMIN (B. W.) and RHODA H. DOE
Pioneer Settlers of Griffin, GA

Benjamin Winslow Doe was born July 10, 1815, in Portland, Cumberland County, 
Maine, the son of Stephen and Ruth Winslow Doe. His ancestor Nicholas Doe came 
about 1662 from Devonshire, England, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, moving soon 
after to become one of the early settlers of Oyster River (now Durham), NH. 
Benjamin's mother, Ruth Winslow, a fourth-generation Quaker, was descended 
from Kenelm Winslow, brother of Edward Winslow of the Mayflower Compact and 
early governor of Plymouth Colony. It was Ruth's ancestor Kenelm who brought 
the remaining members of the "Pilgrim Church" from Leiden, Holland, to 
Plymouth about 1629. 

At age 27, Benjamin married Rhoda (Lydia) H. Durgin, age 29, on August 21, 
1842, in Paris, Oxford County, Maine. Rhoda's fathers' ancestors also first 
settled in Oyster River about the same time as Benjamin's. In fact, some 
records show Benjamin's and Rhoda's mothers are both descended from the same 
father (but different wives) in the early Plymouth Colony. As was common with 
old New England families connected through many generations, it is probable 
that Rhoda's and Benjamin's immediate families had been well-acquainted, even 
though Benjamin was born in Maine and Rhoda in Farmington, Strafford County, 
New Hampshire. 

Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved from Paris, Maine, to Griffin, 
Georgia, where Benjamin and Rhoda became pioneer settlers of the town. 
Griffin, incorporated as a town December 28, 1843, was first in Pike County. 
After December 1851, Griffin was in the new county of Spalding. The only ones 
of their families to leave New England, Benjamin and Rhoda possibly were drawn 
by the opportunities opening up in this sparsely populated area made newly 
accessible and commercially strategic by a railroad. With the new railroad 
connection from Griffin to Macon in 1842, Griffin became a center for the 
buying, selling, storing and shipping of cotton and other goods.

Benjamin was known locally as Capt. B. W. Doe. It is not yet known how he 
obtained the rank of Captain. Possibly he was in a Maine militia. But also 
Benjamin could have been involved in the Indian Wars in Georgia, as he appears 
to have been in the Griffin area even prior to his 1842 marriage to Rhoda back 
in Maine. Researcher Bob Ellis has found that Benjamin was one of the original 
buyers of the property for the new town of Griffin which was sold at auction 
by General L. L.  Griffin on June 8, 1840.
     
Benjamin was originally a tanner by trade, but soon branched out into other 
business endeavors as well. In Griffin, Benjamin owned and operated both a tan 
yard and a large storehouse for the public storage of cotton.  Griffin town 
historian J. P. Jennings says that Benjamin's home, tannery, and cotton 
storehouse were located on a large parcel of land on Solomon Street. Benjamin 
had particularly wanted that location for the stream that ran across it, as 
water was needed both for tanning and for operating the hydraulic press which 
compacted stored cotton for easier and more efficient loading and transport. 
Today St. George's Episcopal Church stands on a part of the old Doe property. 
Benjamin bought and sold numerous properties in Griffin through the years. The 
index of his deed transactions runs several pages long. He also appears to 
have been involved in the purchasing, storing, and selling of other 
merchandise besides cotton, as indicated by several letters still existing.

These letters regarding Benjamin Doe are in the possession of Dave Barnes, a 
descendant of Quintas Price*. Mr. Price operated a general mercantile business 
and distillery in what is now Brooks, GA, about 10 miles west of Griffin. 
According to Mr. Barnes, evidently Quintas Price would buy merchandise, have 
it shipped via rail to Griffin, and stored at Benjamin's warehouse until 
either Mr. Price could pick it up or Benjamin sold it in bulk on behalf of Mr. 
Price. The transactions could also work conversely, where Mr. Price would sell 
merchandise, deliver it to Benjamin for storage and eventual rail shipment to 
the purchaser.

A letter to Mr. Price from Henry F. Jackson indicates the distances and range 
of goods that could be involved in such transactions. The letter was dated 
March 17, 1858, from Butler County, Alabama, located in south-central Alabama, 
south of Montgomery, and reads in part: 

" ....I want you to see Mr. Doe for me and tell him I have a note on A. B. 
Tramel for $854 dollars I wish to trade for buggies and ask him to see what he 
can do for me.  The note is perfectly good but I can sell buggies here for a 
profit if he can a trade. I would be much ablige to him...."
	
One business associate of Benjamin, Jack Adams, wrote from McKinley, AL, about 
80 miles west of Montgomery. Another, M. P. Suber, lived in Andersonville, GA.

The only surviving letter from Benjamin Doe to Quintas Price is marked 
Griffin, August 1, 1856. This letter is a personal one, giving news of family 
and friends, illnesses, a death, and the weather. The paper is deteriorated 
and the script difficult to read, but some of the names mentioned appear as 
Mr. Will and Ramsey, Mr. and Mrs. Bloodworth, Mr. Landers, Jack Adams, Nan or 
Wm. Nunley (Nunnally), Dr. Williams, and Dr. Nisrath.  It also says that Mr. 
Winslow (apparently referring to one of Benjamin's mother's family) went back 
to New York, possibly with his family, after a visit to Griffin. This is 
particularly interesting in that it indicates Griffin's connection, probably 
by rail, with major cities to the north, and the relative ease of travel that 
allowed for personal visits.
  
Benjamin was elected an Alderman of Griffin in 1858. By 1860, he was appointed 
City Sexton of Griffin, with responsibility over the City Cemetery (later 
called Oak Hill Cemetery), a position he held until his death 22 years later. 
His eldest son, Benjamin Franklin Doe, became Assistant City Sexton under his 
father, then held the position of Sexton after his father's death. And at 
least by 1880, Benjamin was also serving as Spalding County Coroner.

In the 1860 census, the family of Benjamin and Rhoda Doe lived two houses from 
the family of Bryant and Catherine Skipper. Catherine was the daughter of 
Abraham Mathews of Meriwether County, GA. Several of her siblings also lived 
in or around Griffin, including A. B. Mathews, a Griffin alderman 1858-1860; 
Rebecca Carlton Mathews, married to John Reddy Jones; Eliza Mathews, married 
to John P. Garner and mother of Rev. Geo. W. Garner;  A. J. Mathews; and 
William Mathews, who died of disease while a soldier in the Civil War. 
Catherine's husband Bryant Skipper, also an alderman and a deacon at First 
Baptist Church, was a cotton broker by profession, and likely a business 
associate of Benjamin. The Doe and Skipper families later became in-laws as 
well. In 1880, the youngest Doe son, Ed, married the eldest Skipper daughter, 
Nora, and became the writer's maternal great-grandparents.

By the time the Civil War began, Benjamin had been a respected community 
leader, businessman and local government official for all 21 years of 
Griffin's existence. Elmer Doe, author of "Descendants of NIcholas Doe 1631-
1918" (pub. 1917), gives us the following glimpse into that time in Griffin:

"The following is a copy of a letter received by Benj. W. Doe with reference 
to his attitude toward the South.  This communication was found among his 
personal papers and marked 'To be preserved to show to my grandchildren':
     
'Captain Benjamin Doe: The Undersigned Acting under Authority from citizens of 
this City respectfully invite you to an interview with us a Four O'clock on 
the subject of your relations to the Confederate States of America, and your 
avowed sentiments with reference thereto. At which meeting we will present to 
you more fully our reason for requesting this interview.'
//s// Respectfully Your Friends- P. Eason, E.P. Daniels, E.J. Green, A.K. 
Moore, J. H. Campbell
Dated Griffin, Ga., Saturday, March 16, 1861."

This is an intriguing item which Benjamin obviously thought important. 
Unfortunately he did not leave any further information about his "sentiments," 
the complaints, his response or the outcome. It could be that Benjamin was not 
in favor of the war and wanted that fact to be remembered by his descendants. 
It could be he felt that as war passions became inflamed his integrity was 
being unjustly called into question, possibly because of his links to his 
birthplace and family in the North. In any case, it appears from Benjamin's 
later history and the way he was remembered after his death that all questions 
were laid to rest. The two youngest sons of Benjamin and Rhoda, Charles Rice 
Doe and Edward Winslow Doe, were too young to have joined the army, but the 
third and eldest son, Benjamin Franklin Doe, did fight in the Confederate 
Army. And, indeed, scores of Benjamin's Northern relatives also fought, and 
some died, as soldiers on the opposite side. Through it all, Benjamin, in his 
capacity of City Sexton, spent the War of Brother Against Brother burying over 
1,300 of the war's dead.

Griffin historian Mr. Jennings says that, in fact, several Civil War soldiers 
were buried on Benjamin's property. And Benjamin's granddaughter Mildred Doe 
Scogin wrote that a Civil War soldier named H. H. Smith was buried in the back 
yard of the neighboring Bryant Skipper house. According to Mr. Jennings, a 
woman living several houses away from the Doe's home had turned her house into 
a hospital during the war. Although no Civil War battle was fought in Griffin, 
the town was a major troop mobilization point and a hospital town. Trainloads 
of sick and wounded soldiers overflowed the hospitals, so soldiers were nursed 
in private residences as well as in the Courthouse, stores, colleges and other 
public buildings. 

It is uncertain whether Benjamin's cotton warehouse and merchandising business 
survived after the war. The South in general was financially devastated. 
Griffin was hit particularly hard, because the railroad that had made it a 
market and shipping center had been destroyed in the war. Even as late as 
1870, over one-third of Spalding County was formally counted as destitute, and 
bankruptcies after the war were numerous. Although never a wealthy man, 
Benjamin did not seem to suffer as harshly as many others, perhaps because of 
his previous property holdings. He continued as City Sexton and, from some 
point, County Coroner until his death on August 25, 1884. Four years later in 
his wife Rhoda's death notice in the Griffin News, Benjamin was still 
remembered as the one whom "everybody knew as one of the cleverest and most 
accommodating men Griffin ever had."

Benjamin, Rhoda, and their children are buried in Old Section, Oak Hill 
Cemetery, Griffin, Spalding Co, GA.


Children of Benjamin and Rhoda Durgin Doe:

1. Mary Helen "Mollie" Doe b. 01 Aug 1844, Griffin, Pike Co, GA; d.18 Aug 
1917, Atlanta, Fulton Co, GA where she had gone from Griffin for medical 
treatment. She married William Thompson of Illinois on 31 Oct 1867, divorced 
before 1880.

2, Benjamin Franklin Doe b. 27 Nov 1846, Griffin, Pike Co, GA; d. 10 Dec 1907, 
Griffin, Spalding Co, GA; married abt 1867 Nannie J. Freeman b. 13 Mar 1846, 
Griffin, d. 27 Aug 1923, Griffin.

3. Charles Rice Doe: b. 01 Oct 1848, Griffin, Pike Co, GA; d. 24 Mar 1919, 
Spalding Co, GA; married abt. 1882 Amanda Emiline Freeman b. Aug 1850, 
Griffin; d. Bet 1920-1930, Griffin.

4. Edward Winslow Doe: b. 21 May 1852, Griffin, Spalding Co, GA; d. 21 Jan 
1924, Griffin, Spalding Co, GA; married 08 Feb 1880, Nora Lizzie Skipper b. 29 
Nov 1856, Griffin; d. 29 Aug 1937, Sandersville, Washington Co, GA at home of 
daughter Katie Doe McMichael Davis

----------------
*Dave Barnes has a website on Quintas Price that includes more information, 
letters and pictures at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wb4kdi/Family%20History/Price/Quintus%
20Samuel.htm
He wrote by e-mail: "One more interesting note: Quintus had a son born 1859 
and named him Benjamin W. Price.  Ben is a Price family name but he could have 
also been named after his friend and longtime business associate."


Additional Comments:
Author is a great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin & Rhoda Doe.

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