Thomas-Decatur-Brooks County GaArchives Biographies.....Linton, Moses B. 1850 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 24, 2004, 12:27 am

Author: William Harden
p. 945-946

   MOSES B. LINTON. Few families have been longer represented by residence in
south Georgia, and none have contributed more industrious effort and worthier
manhood and womanhood than the Lintons. One of the bearers of this name, Moses
B. Linton, has for many years been successfully identified with the farming
interests of the Everett district in Thomas county.

  Mr. Linton was born in the southwest corner of Thomas county, October 18,
1850. His great-grandfather, a native of the north of Ireland and of Scotch
ancestry, brought his young wife to America and settled in the Abbeville
district of South Carolina, where they reared their family and spent the rest of
their days in quiet industry and honor. Their four sons and two daughters were
Moses W., Thomas, Sidney, Ben, Rebecca and Margaret.

   Moses W., the grandfather, was born in Abbeville district. For some probably
interesting reason that has escaped the knowledge of his descendants, when he
was sixteen he became dissatisfied with home and ran away, finally reaching
southwest Georgia. It was this boyhood adventure which brought the name of
Linton so early into Georgia and accounts for the establishment of the family in
this part of the state. Soon after his arrival the grandfather married Lucy
Lanier, a native of Decatur county, her parents being pioneers there. She had
some money, and with this capital the young people bought a tract of land in the
southwest part of Thomas county. A small patch had been cleared by Indians, but
all the rest was primeval forest. After getting this land into productive
condition the grandfather had to haul his surplus crops to Tallahassee or
Newport in Florida for market, the trip requiring several days, and many years
passed before railroads were built to this region. By industry and good
management he and his wife became very prosperous, and had a large amount of
land and many slaves. At the close of the war he freed over a hundred of the
blacks. Late in life he moved to Thomasville and lived retired until his death,
which occurred at the age of seventy-eight, followed three days later by that of
his wife. They reared four children, whose names were Benjamin F., James A.,
John L. and Margaret.

   Benjamin F. Linton, the father, was born on the homestead in Thomas county,
and at the time of his marriage bought land two miles from his birthplace. That
was still a number of years before the war and before railroads brought modern
conditions, so that he had the same difficulties of marketing as his father
before him had encountered. In the household all the cooking was done by the
fireplace, and the mother taught her slaves to card, spin and weave the wool and
cotton, ail members of the household being dressed in homespun. In 1865 the
father sold his farm and for a time worked some of the lands of his father.
Finally in 1880 he moved to Jefferson county, Florida, where he died at the age
of fifty-two years. Benjamin F. Linton married Rebecca Rountree, who was born in
Lowndes county of a pioneer family there, and she survived her husband by
thirteen years. Their three sous and one daughter were Moses B., Frank J., Oscar
R. and Lona E.

   When Moses B. Linton was twenty-one his father gave him a pair of mules and a
pair of oxen, a horse and buggy, a year's supply of material and the use of land
for a crop. For an industrious worker this was a fair amount of capital, and he
used his talent wisely, making a good crop the first year. Then after renting
land for two years, he bought at the place where he still resides, in lot 153 in
the locality known as Aucilla, in Everett district of Thomas county. For some
years he was proprietor of a grist and saw mill and cotton gin, and for twelve
years was engaged in merchandising, so that he has been identified with a varied
enterprise and has won a commendable prosperity. His farm now consists of five
hundred and eighty acres, devoted to general agriculture and stock raising.

   Mr. Linton was married at the age of twenty to Miss Florence Virginia Kemp.
She was born in Grooverville district of Brooks county, a daughter of Asa and
Emily (Bryan) Kemp. Her mother was a native of Spring Hill, Florida. Her father
was born in what is now Brooks county, where his father, Peter Kemp, was a
pioneer settler. Mr. and Mrs. Linton reared two children, Lawrence E. and Maude.
The son for a time conducted a store in Thomas county and later a saw mill in
Brooks county. He came to his death by an accident in the mill when he was
twenty-four years old, just when his promising career was fairly started. He
married Marcia Austin, daughter of Robert Austin, and she with her two sons
Russell and Lawrence survives her husband, The daughter Maude is the wife of
Hecton L. Cook, and they have two sons, Emmett and Irvin. Mrs. Linton is a
member 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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