Wilkinson-Lee-Mitchell County GaArchives Biographies.....Cumbest, Adam Jones 1846 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 30, 2004, 7:11 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 998-999

   ADAM JONES CUMBEST. As farmer and miller and a useful citizen of his
community, Mr. dumbest has been identified with south Georgia for many years. He
was born in Wilkinson county, this state, August 14, 1846, the Cumbests being an
old family of that vicinity. His grandfather was, so far as known, a lifelong
resident of Wilkinson county, where he was a farmer.

   Mr. Cumbest's father, James Cumbest, was a native of Wilkinson county, and
spent all his active career in agricultural pursuits. From Wilkinson he moved to
Lee county, thence to Irwin, and finally to Mitchell county, where he bought a
farm and resided until his death at the advanced age of eighty-six years. He
married Bethany Williams, who was born in Wilkinson county and died in Lee
county. She reared six children, named Thomas, Adam J., Frances, Elizabeth,
Ellafarr and Angeline.

   Spending the early years of his life on the home farm first in Lee and then
in Mitchell county, Adam Jones Cumbest was still a boy when the war between the
states came on. He enlisted in Company E of the Seventeenth Georgia Infantry and
went up into Virginia to join Lee's army. During many of the campaigns and
battles he did his soldier's duty, and in 1864 was captured at Port Harrison and
held a prisoner at Point Lookout, Maryland, until near the close of the war.
Being released on parole, he was not exchanged before the surrender. The life of
a soldier he exchanged for that of farmer, and after his marriage in the spring
of 1865 he settled on a farm belonging to his wife in Mitchell county. Two years
later he moved to Decatur county, buying a farm fifteen miles from Bainbridge;
then bought a farm in Colquitt county, two years later bought one in Mitchell
county, where he resided five years, and then came to Thomas county, where he
owned and operated a farm three years. He was then made superintendent of the
Thomas county infirmary, an institution which he capably managed for a period of
twelve years. On retiring from that public responsibility, he bought his present
farm and homestead in the Boston district. Located on this place, near his
house, was a grist mill, which he has operated in addition to his general farm
enterprises.

   In April, 1865, Mr. Cumbest was married to Eliza (Grinner) Hudson, whose
family is one of the oldest in southwest Georgia. She was born in Decatur
county, a daughter of John Grinner and granddaughter of John Grinner, both of
whom were natives of South Carolina. The grandfather moved from his native state
to Georgia about 1822, being one of the pioneers of what is now Decatur county.
He and his family made the migration with horses and wagons and brought all the
household goods and implements for their settlement in the wilderness.

Grandfather Grinner bought timbered land about five miles from the present site
of Whigham. That region was still the hunting ground for Indians, who soon
viewed the arrival of the increasing number of whites with distrust and
hostility. The Grinners and other settlers built a fort for the protection of
their families, and at one time the mother of Mrs. Cumbest spent four weeks in
that structure. After clearing quite a tract of land, the grandfather moved to
Mitchell county, where he bought other timbered land five miles northeast of the
present site of Camilla, and lived there until his death. He had served in the
Indian wars and was in every sense one of the pioneers to whose enterprise and
hardihood later generations were indebted for the advantages which they enjoyed.
The maiden name of his wife was Susan Mills, also a native of South Carolina,
and she died in Mitchell county. The father of Mrs. Cumbest, John Grinner, was
about twelve years old when brought to Georgia, and was reared amid pioneer
scenes. On beginning his own career he bought land in Decatur county, but after
some years bought another farm five miles from Camilla in Mitchell county. His
settlement there occurred a number of years before railroads had been built, and
for a number of years he hauled his products to Albany or to Tallahassee to
market. His wife, the mother of Mrs. Cumbest, plied all the domestic arts of
that primitive period, including the spinning of cotton and wool, the making of
all clothes from homespun, and cooking at the fireplace until the introduction
of cookstoves. The father changed farms several times, and spent his last years
in Colquitt county, where he died at the age of eighty-seven. He married Lottie
Ford, a native of South Carolina, and her father, James Ford, came from that
state and was also a pioneer of Decatur county. The mother of Mrs. Cumbest died
at the age of about eighty, and she reared ten children.

   Mrs. Cumbest was first married at the age of fourteen to Levi Butler, who was
a native of Mitchell county and enlisted in the first company that went from
that county to the war. He died in the service while at Yorktown, Virginia, in
1862. After his death Mrs. Butler married David Hudson, a native of middle
Georgia. In 1864, he also enlisted and five months later sacrificed his life to
the southern cause at Macon. Mrs. Cumbest was one of the martyrs to the
tragedies of the great war. After losing two husbands she married a third who
had recently returned from a northern prison, and she and Mr. Cumbest have had a
happy wedded life of upwards of a half century.

   By her first marriage Mrs. Cumbest had three children: William, John and
Louisa Butler. She and Mr. Cumbest reared six children: Elias, Seaburn, Mary
Anna, James, George and Mittie. Elias married Marxilla Shiver and has one son,
Elias. Seaburn married Ophelia Holland and has four children: Lonnie, Eunice,
John and Ellis. Mary Anna married Jeff Busby, and has eight children: Gordon,
Henry, Ira, Annie, Frank, Ola, Charles and Ruby. James married Arrilla Holland
and has one son, Lee. George married Annie Purvett and has two children: Mittie
and Viver. Mittie, the youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Cumbest, died at the age
of two years. William Butler, the first of Mrs. Cumbest's children, married Ida
Douglas and have the following children: Audrey, Mamie, Louis, and William. John
Butler married Ida Smith, and their seven children are: Levi, Nonie, William,
Calvin, Mamie, Lois and Jewell. Loiiisa Butler married George Williams and has
six children: Lonie, Betey, George, Trudie, Eliza and Ola. Mrs. Cumbest has
seven great-grandchildren.


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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