TAYLOR HOUSTON MARION COUNTY, GA - BIOS Enoch F. Collins Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Donald E. Collins bettydon@foxinternet.net Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ENOCH F. COLLINS BIO 1813-1899 Enoch F. Collins was born in Bulloch County, Georgia on September 21, 1813. His parents are unknown to me but in his youth Enoch moved to Houston County. There in 1832 at the age of 19, he entered, as a citizen of Houston County, the Land Lottery and won a Gold Lot, (40 acres) in Cherokee County. Three years later in August 1835, while still living in Houston County, he purchased Lot #119, in the 9th District, 2021/2 acres from John Brown. Around 1835, he married a woman named Rebecca who was born in South Carolina in 1810 but moved to Houston County when she was 12 years of age. They were married in Bethel Primitive Baptist Church where Rebecca was a member. Enoch and Rebecca had their first child in Houston County on January 8, 1837, and named him Jesse Thomas Collins. Some time prior to 1840, Enoch and Rebecca moved from Houston County to Pike County, where Enoch is listed in the Pike County 1840 Census. That same year Enoch and Rebecca had twin sons which they named Cicero S. Collins and William Hardison Collins. Still not fully settled Enoch, Rebecca and their three sons moved to the Cedar Creek area of Muscogee County, now Taylor County in 1842. On August 5, 1842, their fourth child, a daughter named Mary Adeline was born. Four more children were born over the next decade. Sara was born in 1844, Robert was born in 1847, Stephen was born in 1850, and Julia A. E. was born in 1853. Enoch, Rebecca and their eight children lived in the Cedar Creek Area of Taylor County on a farm of more than 500 acres from 1842 until 1868 when Enoch sold his Cedar Creek farm and purchased in excess of 1000 acres of land in the 12th and 13th District of Taylor County along the Whitewater Creek where Enoch and Rebecca lived until their deaths. During the Civil War, three of his sons (Jesse Thomas, William Hardison, and Cicero S.) were in the Confederate army. His son-in-law (William G. Johnson) was also in the Confederate Army and Enoch at the age of 50 enlisted in 1864 in the Confederate Army. William G. Johnson (husband of Mary Adeline) was killed at Wilderness, Virginia; William Hardison was wounded at Yorktown, Virginia in August 1861 and discharged with disability; Cicero S. was wounded near Richmond, Virginia on July 20, 1862 and discharged with disability; Jesse Thomas served from 1862 to the end of the war; and Enoch F served from 1864 to 1865 in Pruden's Battery. They are all listed in The Roster of Confederate Soldiers 1861-1865, Volumn IV. After the war Enoch and Rebecca farmed at their new farm on the Whitewater Creek and then in 1889 at the age of 79 Rebecca died after a lengthy illness. She was buried in Prosperity Primitive Baptist Cemetary. Her obituary is carried in the Butler Herald, Tuesday, April 2, 1889. Life was never the same for Enoch following Rebecca's death. Highlighting his difficulties was a short but costly marriage to a woman who was 42 years younger than he. On June 23, 1892, Enoch, who was 78 year old, married Hannah Mary Worsham, age 36. The marriage lasted only a little over a year and one child was born to the marriage, a girl named Elizabeth (Lizzie). Then in late 1893, Mary Worsham Collins sued Enoch for divorce. In settlement of child support Enoch deeded 2021/2 acres of land to Mary Worsham Collins. Enoch at the age of 81, in 1894, was physically unable to farm in his later years and entered into a contract with his daughter, Mary Adeline Johnson, deeding her 6071/2 acres of land for her contractural agreement to care of him until his death. He died five years later in 1899 and is buried in an unmarked grave beside his wife Rebecca in Prosperity Primitive Baptist Cemetary. Notes: Jesse Thomas Collins - Co G 6th Reg. William H. Collins - Co G 6th Reg Cicero S. Collins - Co E 45th Reg Enoch F. Collins - Pruden's Battery William G. Johnson - Co E 45th Reg.