Thomas-Brooks-Bulloch County GaArchives Biographies.....Groover, Daniel A. 1841 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 20, 2004, 10:35 am

Author: William Harden
p. 840-841

   DANIEL A. GROOVER. Closely identified with the agricultural interests of
Brooks county, Daniel A. Groover is meeting with highly gratifying results in
his pleasant and independent occupation, his estate, which is located in the
Grooverville district, having substantial improvements, and being amply supplied
with the necessary implements and appliances for carrying on his work. A
grandson of John Groover, Sr., an early pioneer of South Georgia, he was born
March 22, 1841, in Thomas county.

   His great-grandfather, John Groover, was born either in Germany or America,
of German parents. At the time of the Revolutionary war he was living near
Cowpens, South Carolina, within sight of the field which later became the scene
of a great battle. Joining the colonists in their struggle for independence, he
was murdered by the Tories when home on a furlough.

   John Groover, Sr., was born very near the line separating North Carolina from
South Carolina. Migrating to Georgia in early life, he resided for many years in
Bulloch county, from there coming to Thomas county, where his son, John Groover,
Jr., father of Daniel A., had previously located. His brother, Solomon Groover,
came with him to this section of the state, and they became the progenitors of
the many families of Groovers now living in Brooks and Thomas counties. Locating
in what is now the Grooverville district, Brooks county, John Groover, Sr.,
remained in that district until his death. He married and reared three sons and
four daughters, as follows: John, James, Abner, Elizabeth, Hannah, Mary, and
Barbara.

   John Groover, Jr., was born in 1793, in Bulloch county, Georgia, and was
there brought up and married. Subsequently, accompanied by his wife and their
three children, and his brother James and family, he came with his own teams
across the country to Brooks county, bringing with him his household goods and
provisions, cooking and camping by the way. Locating in what is now Grooverville
district, he purchased a tract of timber that was still in its virgin wildness,
and in the space which he cleared erected the humble log cabin in which his son,
Daniel A., first drew the breath of life. The land was in its primitive
condition, its dense growth of timber being inhabited by the wily red man and
the wild beasts of the forests, both at times proving troublesome, so much so
that the settlers of that vicinity were forced to build a log fort to which the
women and children could flee for protection when the Indians started on a
rampage. There were but five families living near what is now Grooverville, and
more than once these families, the women and children, sought refuge in the
fort. After clearing quite a portion of his land, he sold out and purchased in
lot 417, in the northwest part of Grooverville precinct, and was there employed
in tilling the soil until his death, in 1859. He married Mary Redding, who was
born in Bulloch county, Georgia, and lived to the advanced age of four score and
four years. Eight children were born to them, as follows: John M., Elizabeth,
Mary A., James H., Charles W., Sarah H., Albert J., and Daniel A.

   Growing to manhood on the parental homestead, Daniel A. Groover has witnessed
the growth of Brooks county from a vast wilderness to a rich agricultural
region, dotted here and there with populous towns and villages, through which
railroads now pass. In the days of his boyhood the forests were filled with wild
beasts of all kinds, and game was abundant. Tallahassee and Newport, in Florida,
were then the most convenient markets to which his father could haul the farm
produce, the round trip to those places consuming at least five days. There
having been no free educational institutions, he was forced to walk a distance
of four miles whenever he attended school, which was very irregularly. Reared to
habits of industry and economy, Mr. Groover remained with his parents until the
outbreak of the war between the states, when he enlisted in the "Piscola
Volunteers," which became Company G, of the Twenty-sixth Georgia Volunteer
Infantry, known far and wide as the “Fighting Regiment.” His regiment was
assigned to Jackson Corps, Army of North Virginia, and he continued with it,
taking an active part in all of its engagements until the battle of Gettysburg.
Mr. Groover, who was then ill with typhoid pneumonia, was captured by the enemy
and held as a prisoner-of-war at Forts Delaware and Point Lookout, for eight
months. On being paroled he returned to Virginia, arriving at Appomattox just in
season for the surrender. With several of his comrades he then started for home,
walking across the states of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and on
to Augusta, Georgia, from there going by rail to Albany, via Atlanta, and thence
on foot to his old home.

   On his arrival, Mr. Groover found that his father's estate had been settled
and the farm sold subject to his mother's dower, Confederate money having been
received in payment and thus lost. In 1865 he raised a crop on the old
homestead, which he purchased the following year, and on which he has since
resided. Mr. Groover now owns 264 acres in Brooks county, and seventy acres in
Thomas county, and a large part of it is under cultivation and most
intelligently managed. In 1907 Mr. Groover's home was burned and he erected the
one that he and his family now occupy, it being situated in the Quitman and
Boston road.

   On October 6, 1861, Mr. Groover was united in marriage with Martha A.
Groover, who was born in Brooks county, Georgia, a daughter of Joshua S. and
Rebecca (Beasley) Groover, and granddaughter of Solomon Groover. Mrs. Groover
passed to the higher life December 31, 1909, leaving a heaven-made vacant place
in the home. Eight children were born of their union, namely: Mally A., Ophelia
L., Mary Rebecca, Samuel Dickson, Janie E., John T., Julia R., and Mattie,Lee,
who died at the age of thirteen years. Mally A. married Annie Jarrett, and they
have four sons, Wallace A., Daniel A., Felix, and Herman. Janie E., who married
W. A. Simms, died March 2, 1906, leaving three children, Minor A., Sam Groover,
and Martha A. Ophelia became the second wife of W. A. Simms. Mary Rebecca, wife
of Hammond H. Groover, has one child, Eula K. Groover. Samuel Dickson married
Fanny Moody, and at his death, which occurred in 1902, he left her with two
children, James Russian and Samuel Daniel. John T. married Birdie Scruggs, and
they have two children, Martha A. and Julia R. Julia is the wife of Jack Stringer.


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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