Sarah Sally Whitsell
Sarah
Sally Whitsell was born in 1794 and died in 1855 in Henry County, GA, at age 61
and was buried in the Hand Fam Cemetery, Hampton, Henry, Georgia.
Sarah
married Littlebury Brittain Edwards (SEE: Descendants of Rhodri Mawr
King Of All Wales below.), son of William Edwards and Elizabeth
Brittain. Littlebury was born on 18
Jun 1792 in Wilkes, GA, died in 1833 in Hampton, Henry, GA, at age 41, and was
buried in 1833 in Hampton, Henry, GA. They had four children: James W.,
William G., Thomas J., and Martha S.
Sarah next
married John M. Ponder Major, son of James Ponder and Elizabeth
Luckie, on 27 Nov 1827 in Oglethorpe County, GA. John was born on 4 Apr 1795 in Abbeville, SC and died on 17 May
1864 in Henry County, GA, at age 69. They had one child: George M..
Research
Notes:
Major
John M. Ponder was a native of South Carolina and may have lived for a time in
Franklin County, Ga., as he owned land there in
1831 when
he was living in Henry County. Sarah (Whitsell) Edwards was undoubtedly his
second wife as Daniel H. Ponder, who married in Henry County in 1844 Amanda E.
Little, is believed to have been his son by a prior marriage. Another son may
have been Edwin W. Ponder who married Sarah E. Hand in 1839. Two children
appear to have been born to Major Ponder, and Sarah (Whitsell) Edwards: Susan
E. Ponder who married James Henderson Hand in 1856, and George M. Ponder, who is
known to be a child of this marriage. This compiler has not conducted thorough
research on the Ponder family, nor can he state when it was that Major and Mrs.
Ponder moved from the waters of the Towaliga in 3rd District to their final
home in the Mt. Pleasant M E. Church community in the 6th District, but assumes
the move was made during Mrs. Ponder's lifetime and prior to 1856, when Major
Ponder took part in a large Fourth of July Celebration at Bear Creek Station
(Hampton).
(See
"Fourth of July at Bear Creek, Henry County, Ga." in The Empire State
newspaper, Griffin, Ga. issue of July 16, 1856, and quoted in Vessie Thrasher
Rainer, Henry County, Georgia, The Mother of Counties, 1971, page 78. Major
Ponder read this toast: "The ladies -- may they be diligent in training
the minds of their rising offspring to revere and cherish the principles of our
glorious-Republic.")
Major
Ponder, along with his stepson Thomas J. Edwards, Andrew Henderson, William
Alexander and Benjamin Hail, was a trustee of Liberty Hill Baptist Church in
1860. On 31 March 1861, his neighbor Richard Henderson appointed him executor
of his will. (Henry County Wills, Book A, page 392, "my friend John M.
Ponder.") Major Ponder was evidently deceased by 1868 when Richard Henderson
died, as the court found it necessary to appoint Richard A. Henderson
administrator of the Henderson estate.
After
Major Ponder's death, this land passed to his son, George M. Ponder, and on 15
Nov. 1874, he sold it to James Henderson Hand, whose home place joined it on
the west. Hand was a son of Isiah (Isaiah) Hand and Hannah L. Henderson, who
had moved from Henry County to Tallapoosa County, Ala., about 1844. He had
returned to Henry County and on 28 May 1856 was married to Susan E. Ponder,
daughter of Major J. M. Ponder. (Henry County Marriages, Book 1851-1868, page
97.) On 22 Dec. 1884, J. H. Hand deeded this land to his wife Susan, including
his home place, being a total of 234 acres in Land Lots 227, 228, 229 and,253,
together with one horse and buggy, one ox and wagon, three cows and calves and
thirteen head of hogs. This deed was evidently made in lieu of a will and it
may be assumed that James H. Hand was buried in the graveyard without a carved
stone. He was born in Henry County in or about 1835. Susan E. (Ponder) Hand is
presumed to be buried beside him. (See Henry County Deeds, Ponder to Hand, Book
S, page 515; J. H. Hand to S. E. Hand, Book V, page 578.)
The
paternal grandfather of James Henderson Hand (and father of Isiah Hand) was
Joseph Hand, Revolutionary soldier, who came from South Carolina and settled
first in Jasper County, Ga., then in Henry County, where he received a grant in
the 1821 Lottery. This was Land Lot 246 of the 6th District and Joseph Hand
died and was buried in the Hand Graveyard on that place in 1834. His sons Isiah
Hand, John C. Hand and Simeon Hand
were all among the group of Henry Countians who later removed to Tallapoosa
County, Ala. (The Joseph Hand Graveyard in Land Lot 246 is one of the oldest
burying grounds in Henry County and likely served several neighboring families.
The site contains no carved gravestones, however.)
On his
mother's side, James Henderson Hand was a grandson of Richard Henderson and his
first wife Isabel Jamison. (See "Henderson- Moore Graveyard" in
Ancestors Unlimited Edition, Vol. 9, No. 2 June, 1987.) Thus the Edwards,
Ponder, Henderson and Hand families formed a close-knit settlement among
themselves and other relatives and connections in the Mt. Pleasant community
west of Hampton. The home of James H. Hand stood until very recent years at the
intersection of Bear Creek Road and Mt. Pleasant Road. It is shown on military
maps drawn by Union forces in 1864. (See Plate XL, Official Military Atlas of
the Civil War. The house is identified by the name "Hahn.") Nearby
and within sight was the residence of Richard Henderson from 1858 to his death
in 1868. This home was standing in 1964, but destroyed thereafter. Both the
Hand and Henderson houses were variations of the classical Greek Revival cottage
style and in their day were comfortable and
attractive
country places. The house site of Major J. M. Ponder has not been identified by
this compiler.
Others
buried in the Edwards Graveyard were residents of this immediate locality. Adam
Frederick Turnipseed came to Henry County in 1850 from Richland District, S.
C., with his brothers Henry, Levi and Reddick Washington Turnipseed and their
cousin Mathew Turnipseed. Henry, Levi and R. W. Turnipseed are buried at nearby
Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Adam's burial in the Edwards Graveyard suggests that his
wife belonged to one of the other families buried there. The Littles in this
graveyard were connected with the Edwards, and the Stanfields lived in this
neighborhood and may have been connected with others buried here. The Henry
County Tax Digest for 1831, Capt. James Fields' District, lists William B.
Stanfield in Land Lot 222, which diagonally touches Lot 228. He was probably
the father and grandfather of Stan- fields in this graveyard and is likely
buried here himself. Henry County records show William B. Stanfield was
commissioned a Justice of the Peace in 1831.