Biography of Georgia Ann Wynn of Laran, Union Parish Louisiana Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by Desiree Beck Beard, 3/2007 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================== ================================================================================== Biography of Georgia Ann Wynn of Laran, Union Parish Louisiana Written and submitted by Desiree Beck Beard ================================================================================== ================================================================================== Tragedy was no stranger to poor Georgia Ann: she lost her father and childhood home before her tenth birthday, survived the Civil War, and she was widowed four times. And that’s only half the story. It appears that half of everybody in Laran - better known as Fork of D’Loutre - are her descendants, according to local family historian, Peggy Manning Rockett. Her father, Tatum Manning, used to say that "we are a little kin to everybody, somehow" and "the Mannings, the McCormicks, the Porters, and the Cranfords were all so tangled in up in cross marriages-that it may never be untangled. Most of these people are related on both sides." The names of Georgia's siblings and parents were in the Sallie Jones Wynn Bible. Georgia's parents' homestead was down the road from Mt. Tabor Church, or so Mrs. Rockett believes. But that fact is yet to be proven. According the Sallie Jones Wynn Bible, Georgia’s parents were John and Sarah Norris Wynne, and they had three children: 1. Georgia A. Wynne,(1842 – February 19, 1918) buried at Laran Cemetery. I will elaborate on her after introducing her parents. 2. Josephine “Josie” Wynne, (1843- 1923), m. Emanuel “Mann” Britton on Aug 18, 1881 and had two children: 1. John R. Britton (1882 – 1951), never married, and was buried in Mt.Tabor. 2. Fair Rella Britton (1884-1908) m. John Will Sutton (Sept. 5, 1880 –Dec. 27, 1965) and had three children: Rock, Wes (Oct 15, 1903-Oct 13, 1928), and Louis. Josephine and Emanuel were married under their legal names, but were buried by their nicknames, and if it weren’t for Thelma Pearson, this Wynn sister would have been lost to Peggy, our family historian. Josephine and family are buried at Mt. Tabor Cemetery. 3. Jack Lemuel Wynne (Oct. 4, 1851 – Mar 21, 1918) m. Ithamer Rehabiah Pearson (January 9, 1859 – March 3, 1900), a daughter of Thomas J. Pearson and Francis Boatright Pearson. They had 7 children: Ellen G. Wynn Manning Ward (June 21, 1880 – August 26, 1943), Guy Ruthford (February 25, 1883 – March 8, 1959), Melissa Wynn McDermott Compton (October 26, 1887-September 22, 1968), Sallie Edith Wynn Cummings (November 25, 1888 – August 27, 1962), Floyd (September 21, 1894 – May 1, 1918), Woodroughfee (March 4, 1896 – April 21, 1901) Johnnie Ithamer Wynn Nolan (January 22, 1900 – October 2, 1973). When baby Johnnie was only a few weeks old, Ithamer died suddenly (some say from food poisoning) Johnnie was sent to her sister, Ellen Manning, and her husband, Billy, to raise – which they did. Then Jack married Sallie Jones (April 27, 1877 – September 15, 1951), a daughter of Dr. Henry H. Jones and Martha McCormick Jones, and they had 8 children: Clara Luicie Wynn Holley, Mary Cornelia Wynn Jinks, Henry Cuff Wynn, Matttie Las Wynn Ford, Lincoln HiwathaWynn, J.E.Wynn, Sarah Ann Wynn Green, Floie Idell Wynn. Jack is buried between his two wives at Mt. Tabor Cemetery. After researching the parents’ names provided by the Bible, I was unable to obtain any information. Thankfully, an internet researcher, also named Jack Wynn, intervened. In November, 2001, he wrote: “I looked your Georgia up in several data bases including my 1850 - 1910 Texas censuses and couldn't find them. The only parents of a Georgia were L.P. & Sarah Wynn in 1850. That Georgia was Georgiana. Her parents were Lemuel P. Win and Sarah Ann Norris. Do the names Josephine & Katherine ring bells as they were also in the household of L.P. & Sarah Win along with Georgiana (the last name was spelled various ways in the earlier censuses)? Both L.P.(b.1788) & Sarah (b. 1816) were born in GA. The 3 children were b. in TX. The census I refer to is the 1850 Walker Co., TX Census, pg 286 or p. 267a household # 236. The marriage record I have comes from Automated Archives and shows 2 dates and 2 counties: 10 Apr 1848 Collin Co., TX & 17 Apr 1848 Walker Co., TX. I strongly suspicion the former date was a marriage license date and the latter the actual marriage date.” Of course, this fit exactly with the Georgia that I was looking for, as later census records show her being born in Texas, and the mother and sister’s names and ages matched as well. Now, the only problem is this: Sarah and Lemuel Winn married six years after Georgia’s birth, which leaves us with one of two conclusions: 1) Sarah was not Georgia’s biological mother, or 2) Sarah and Lemuel lived in sin six years before finally tying the knot. One must look into both matters before settling the question. There are traces of “Lemuel Winn” that could very well be our Lemuel. The first trace is one that married Lucy Fretwell on June 23, 1808 in Warren County, Georgia. The Lemuel on the Walker County, TX Census in 1850 was born in 1788. If this is the same Lemuel, then he would have been 20 years old, a suitable age to marry. Perhaps another siting of our Lemuel is in the recording of a marriage between Lemuel Wynn and Elizabeth Roberson in Montgomery County, Alabama on January 24, 1831. If this is true, then Elizabeth Roberson must be Georgia Winn's biological mother. If so, then she evidently died sometime bet. 1842 and 1846, possibly at Katherine's birth. Katherine is a child of Lemuel’s recorded only on the 1850 census, not in any other census or in the family bible. A third trace of him may be of a Lemuel P. Winn who married Miriam Easley, November 11, 1846 in Calhoun County, Alabama. This is particularly intriguing because of the middle initial being the same. However, if this is our Lemuel, then he would have returned back east in 1846 after settling in Texas in 1844 (as recorded in the patent records, he was granted land in Walker County on August 1, 1844). This would also infer that Miriam died shortly thereafter, as Lemuel remarried in 1848. However, it is perhaps not coincidental that her family moved to the next county over from Walker County, Texas in the same time period that Lemuel evidently trekked west. If the previous marriages all belong to our Lemuel, then destiny gave him the same lot in life that his daughter would have: a total of four marriages. His fourth marriage is the only one we can definitively say is his: the one to Sarah Norris. How he met Sarah is still a mystery. Sarah was the daughter of James and Patsy Parsons Norris, born in 1815 in Georgia. She was 27 years younger than Lemuel, which explains why she outlived him. She is found in the 1860 census in Union County, Arkansas, married to Spencer Johnson and living with Josephine and Jack Wynn, born in Texas, and daughter Caroline Johnson, born in Arkansas 6 years earlier. Georgia Ann, along with her 85 year old grandfather, is living with a relative two doors down. Georgia didn’t live there long. On February 4, 1862, she married Jeremiah J. Pratt in Union County, Arkansas. He was a Corporal in the Arkansas 11th Infantry who had patented 85 acres in 1855 and 1860. He apparently died at Camp Ledger, a confederate camp, on March 13, 1863. Family talk has it he died of "swamp fever "(Great grandson, Eugene Senneff). He left behind at least one child from a previous marriage to Mary E. Dobbs. That child/children must have been raised by other family members, as they are not listed with Georgia on later census records. Georgia then married James Cranford on January 28, 1864, in Union County, Arkansas. The wedding certificate verified that Georgia Ann was 23 years old, and James was 63! . James was born in 1795 in Putnam County, Georgia, the son of Ezekiel and Elizabeth Painter Cranford. We know that Ezekiel’s father came from England, as Ezekiel’s grandson, Hiram Craton Cranford, reported in the 1911 Arkansas Census of Confederate Veterans. Ezekiel and his wife moved from North Carolina to Georgia around the turn of the century. While living in this area, the sons joined Andrew Jackson for the War of 1812. After the war, the family moved to Clarke County, Alabama. Ezekiel and Elizabeth had 10 children: Elias, Lemuel, William, John, Josiah, James, Jesse, Jeremiah, Leonard and Louisa. Georgia’s husband, James, first married Martha A. Lynch, on September 21, 1815 in Putnam County, Georgia. They can be found on the 1830, 1840, and 1850 Perry County, Alabama Census Records. She apparently died between 1860-1864 in Union Parish, Louisiana, after giving birth to Cynthia, Louisa, Seborne, James, Mary, William M., Amanda C., Sarana, Virgil D., and Leroy Cranford. James subsequently married Georgia Wynn Pratt, and died shortly thereafter on October 2, 1867, leaving behind a one-year- old son, Lemuel Leonard, and another son on the way (William Pinkney Cranford, born February 18, 1868). Georgia then married Marion Harris in January, 1872 and had the following children: Virginia “Jinnie” Harris (m. Albert Snearley), Elbert B. “Ebb” Harris (m. Mary Jane McCormick), Minnie Mae Harris (m. William Allen Porter), and California “Callie” Harris (died in early childhood). Marion had had at least two children from his first marriage to wife, Sarah ( 1816-1884): Leanora and Elizabeth (m. ____ Manning). Sadly, on March 15, 1884, Marion died. But the grief did not end there. Apparently, there was a great to-do about his estate, and Georgia Ann had to fight tooth and nail to get what was hers. Marion had appointed a Mr. James L. Tugwell to be executor of the estate, and there arose in the following years a disagreement between him and Georgia as to the value of property, the assignment of debts, and the payment that was due her and Marion’s minor heirs. To make matters worse, Mr. Tugwell died during the legal proceedings. There are 17 legal pages of typed testimony to attest to this! Through it all, Georgia Ann learned to fight and stand up for herself. In the end, she got exactly what she wanted from the courts for herself and children. After Marion died, Georgia married Louis Norman Porter on August 21, 1890. They had no children, as Norman drowned in D’Loutre not too long after they married. Georgia was reportedly red-headed and was undoubtedly temperamental after living down so much tragedy. Little is known about her life between 1890 and the time of her death. She is said to have died from the great flu epidemic of 1918 . She left behind many, many descendants, including: 1) Descendants of Lemuel L. Cranford (September 8, 1865-April 3, 1954) who married Sarah Lula McCormick (1862- abt. 1907) :Anna Cranford, married Henry Nash. Children: Roy (m. Pauline Burnside), Mattie (m. Jesse Lee Foster), Mamie (m. Auger, Jones), Mittie “Monk” (m. Willie Breland), Ralph Nash (m. Ruth Jones and Marie Gentry), Dewey Nash, Mardell (m. Herbie Beck), Maudine (m. Harold Murray). Henry and his first wife, Dora Perry, had three children: Minnie (m. Jacob Bryant), Carl (m. Sallie Elkins), Clyde (m. Gracie Mouton); Etta “Tate” Cranford McAdams Merchant Haney. Etta had at least two children: Clete Adams and Lula Mae Merchant. Sarah Lula McCormick died, and Lemuel “Big Uncle Lem” married Dealy Henman, and they had three sons: Leonard, Lemuel “Lemmie”, and James Pinkney “J.P.” Lemuel is buried at Laran Cemetery. Probably Lula is too, without a headstone. 2) Descendants of William Pinkney Cranford, who married Nancy Porter: Beulah (July 31, 1887-April 14, 1964) who married Carl Hollis and had ten children: Opal, Grady, Homer, Floy, Dovey, Grace, Mack, Novie, and stillborn twins; William Herman Cranford (1893-1958) who married Rosa McAdams and had two sons: Evonne and Jack, and Lemuel Homer “Lem” Cranford (November 19, 1896 – September 9, 1985)who married Susannah “Tiny” Martindale and had three sons: Raymond, Ray, and Rudeen. . These people are all buried at Laran Cemetery. 3) Descendants of Virgina Harris Snearley: Carrie Abbott, Ollie Lockwood, Albert, Bud, and Frank. 4) Descendants of Ebb Harris: Lovie Leona Harris (Oct 4, 1901 - )m Robert McAdams, Baby Lennie Harris ( March 11, 1903-July 9, 1904), Charlie B.(February 6, 1905 – August 5, 1965) m. Dollie Yossett, Lonnie Marion (January 6, 1907 – November 4, 1981) m. Sallie Hairston, Etta Mae (March 13, 1909 - ?)m Joseph Edwards, Winne Marie (January 28, 1911 - ?) m. Lee Applin, Clyde Elbert Harris (May 4, 1913 - ?)m. Opal Hairgrove, Mary Alice (September 16, 1915 - ?)m. P.S. Nichel, Vera Allie (May 26, 1918 - ?)m. Raymond Shepherd, Lottie Era (July 29, 1920 -?)m. Robert Ney. 5) Descendants of Minnie Mae Harris Porter: William Odis Porter, Effie Porter (m. Harve Carroll), Freddie Taylor, Bernie (died as an infant), Lee, Baby Girl (stillborn), John, Lydia (m. Marshall Moore), Bertha Lou Pilgreen. *************************** Sources: I wrote this brief biography based upon my own personal research into the Wynn family, utilizing in particular these sources: +++ the court records of Union Co AR +++ the court records of Union Parish LA +++ Automated Archives of Jack Wynn +++ US census records +++ family Bible records +++ research by Peggy Manning Rockett, Imogene McAdams, Faye Harris Hux, Mattie Nash Foster, Novie Jean Hoolis Creed, Lynette Cranford Ramsey, Eugene Senneff, Sally Ann Knight +++ records from Mt. Tabor Cemetery, Laran Cemetery +++ Alabama Marriage Collection, 1800-1969 +++ Georgia Marriages to ########################################################