Thomas-Liberty-Tattnall County GaArchives Biographies.....Dukes, John W. 1839 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 19, 2004, 8:55 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 816-818

   JOHN W. DUKES. Only a few of the Georgian families of today can trace their
ancestry in an authoritative line back to the original colony planted in this
state over a century and a half ago. One representative of that period of
beginnings in Georgia history is Mr. John W. Dukes, of the Boston district in
Thomas county, who is only three generations removed from the founding of
Georgia. His great-grandfather came to America with General Oglethorpe, and the
Dukes family were among the very first settlers in Liberty and Tattnall counties.

   John W. Dukes, who has spent a long and prosperous career in south Georgia,
was born in what is now the Boston district of Thomas county, May 9, 1839. The
date and place of his birth also indicate that the Dukes family, previously
identified with the original colony of Oglethorpe, was in a subsequent
generation likewise connected with the pioneer development and first settlement
of southwest Georgia. His father, Edward C. Dukes, was born in Liberty county,
January, 1810, and after reaching manhood brought his family to Thomas county.
This migration was accomplished with horses and wagons and with slaves and many
cattle. Only a few years before had the Floridas been transferred to the United
States, and the entire southwest frontier of Georgia was a wilderness. Most of
the land was owned by the state and sold as low as ten dollars per lot of four
hundred and ninety acres. The father bought two lots numbered 330 and 331, built
a log cabin in the forest, and then with his slaves set to work to clear up a
farm. After a few years' residence there he gave one of his lots to a preacher
friend, and moved to what is now the Dry Lake district of Brooks county. He
bought a large tract of land, erected a commodious frame residence, and lived
there until his death on July 17, 1855.

   Edward C. Dukes married Nanny Hodges, who was born in Tatt-nall county,
February 6, 1813, a daughter of William Hodges. She survived her husband and was
married a second time, to John Hancock. Her death occurred in 1872. The twelve
children of Edward A. and Nanny (Hodges) Dukes were: Martha A., Elizabeth J.,
Caroline, John W., George B., Elias C., Julia A., Edward T., Henry C., Millard
F., Florence C. and William B. Of these, John W., George E., Elias C. and Edward
T., were all soldiers for the Confederacy.

   John W. Dukes was a child when the family moved to Brooks county, and was
reared and lived at home until the war. In 1861 he enlisted in Company C of the
Sixth Georgia Infantry, and was attached to Gordon's corps in the army of North
Virginia. During the following three years he did a soldier's duty in many of
the great battles of the war, including Gettysburg. In 1864, in the terrific
struggles at the Wilderness, he was taken prisoner, was placed in the federal
prison at Elmira, New York, and was not released until the end of the war. He
was then carried as far as Point Lookout in Maryland, and from there made the
best of his way home, walking most of the distance to southern Georgia.

  In the meantime his mother had removed from the home farm, which he now took
charge of and managed for three years. Then at the settlement of the estate, he
bought the homestead and continued farming it for ten years, when he sold. He
next bought a tract of timbered land on Mule creek in the Tallokas district of
Brooks county, and after clearing up part of it traded for a farm and
water-power site with a grist and saw mill on the Ochlochnee river in Thomas
county. This place was exchanged two years later for his present homestead,
situated close to the place on which he was born, and consisting of five hundred
and twenty acres in lots 360 and 361.

   In 1860, Mr, Dukes married Miss Wealthy E. Peacock, of an old and prominent
family in this part of Georgia. She was born in Brooks county, a daughter of Dr.
How ell and Mary (Mitchell) Peacock. Dr. Howell Peacock, who was a son of Eobert
and Wealthy (Howell) Peacock, was for many years a practicing physician, and
spent his last years in Thomas county. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary
Raines Mitchell, was a daughter of Col. Thomas Mitchell, a native of Virginia,
who commanded a troop of cavalry during the Revolutionary war (see sketch of
Hon. E. G. Mitchell elsewhere in this work). After a wedded companionship
lasting nearly a half century, Mrs. Dukes passed away in 1909. She reared two
children, Mattie and Edward. The latter has always lived at home and has been
associated with his father in farming. The daughter Mattie is the wife of A. J.
McKinnon, and has six children, Frank L., Clara May, Wealthy E., Lucy A., George
R. and Howell E. Mr. Dukes, as was his wife, is a member of the Baptist church,
but their children are all members of the Methodist church.


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

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