The Self Family of Meriwether County, GA

The Self Family 

of 

Meriwether County, Georgia 

Generation 1

Daniel and Sarah Garrett Self

In 1836, Daniel Self and family finally arrived in Meriwether County, GA. The family had left Prince Edward County, VA about seven weeks earlier. Daniel had decided to move to Meriwether County after hearing glowing reports from his old friends Charles and Jack Harris who had settled in the area. After camping with his wife Sarah and children for about six weeks, the family moved onto Charles Harris’s plantation* and never left. Daniel was a master carpenter and blacksmith. It was said that he became the master mill builder of the Cove, the loom builder, wheel and reel maker and anything else in that line. He could make anything out of wood or iron. I have seen axes that he forged on his anvil in Virginia. **

Daniel was born in 1808 in Prince Edward County, VA, his parents were Robert and Martha “Patsy” Walker Self. He married Sarah Garrett in Virginia(before 1836) Their first child John Robert Self was born in Virginia in 1835, shortly before the family made the trip to Meriwether County, GA. By 1860, the family had ten children: 1. John(1835), 2.Emma(1836 ) 3.Daniel(1837), 4.William(1839), 5.Mirabeau(1842), 6. Felix(1846), 7. Mary ”Mollie”(1848), 8. Alfradonia “Donie”(1850), 9. Leila (1854) and 10.Eugene ”Bubber”(1857).

In the 1860 census Daniel is listed as a carpenter and Sarah, keeping house. In the 1870 census Daniel is listed as a farmer. Daniel passed away on February 13, 1874. An article appeared in The Columbus Times stated that Daniel Self, 74, had “left town for home in the morning, but his mule came home without him that evening.” The article stated that the creek was up and the mule, not wanting to cross the swollen creek, probably threw him into the creek and he drowned. After Daniel’s death, Sarah lived with her daughter Mary Waddell until her death.

Daniel and Sarah were buried in an unmarked grave inside an iron fence on the old Harris plantation near the Greenville-Talbotton Road off Hwy 27.

Daniel and Sarah's Children

1. John (1835-1855?) In the 1840’s and 50’s the John Robinson Circus visited towns in the west Georgia region around every two years. Mountville (a small community in Troup County right near the Meriwether County line) had a race track and hosted the circus. John left with the circus, became ill and died in Eufaula, Alabama (John Robert was not listed in the 1850 census).

2. Emma (1836-1863) married Alfred Garrard on March 21,1851.  Alfred Garrard was from a pioneering family in Meriwether County, who had settled in The Cove, a community on the Flint River. Alfred enlisted in Company F, 41^st Ga Regiment in 1862 and died in Lauderdale Springs, Mississippi on May 24,1863 after a bout with the measles. A short time after his death, Emma became very ill. On her deathbed she gave her son Bill to her father Daniel Self, her son Jim to her brother Felix and her daughter Sarah (Sally) to her sister Mary (Mollie) Self.

3. Daniel Josef (1837) died in the early 1850’s.

4. William (1839-1862) married Lucy Jane Bussey on December 28, 1858. They had one son William(1860).  William enlisted as a private in Co. F, 41^st Ga Regiment. He was wounded at Perryville, KY (Oct. 8, 1862) and later died of his wounds near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

5. Mirabeau (1842 -1863) enlisted March 4, 1862, Co. A, 41^st Regiment, GA Volunteer Infantry, was taken prisoner at the Battle of Perryville in October 1862. He was taken to Camp Butler, Illinois. On December 31, 1863 he was reported “absent, a prisoner of war since October 8, 1862. No further record was found.

6. Felix (1846) is my great grandfather, and his story will be told later.

7. Mary “Mollie” (1848-1926) married Francis Marion Waddell around 1870. She raised Emma’s daughter Sarah and had nine children of her own: 1. James 2. Mary 3. Eunice          4. Willard 5. Lovic 6. Eula 7.Layla 8. Bessie 9. Frances

8. Alfredonia “Donie” (1850-1923) married George Willis Fowler after 1870. They had four children: 1. Ada 2. Lucy , 3. Ida, 4. Julian

9. Leila (1854-1930) married Elijah Milton Phillips and they had seven children: 1. Robert, 2.Larry, 3.Charles, 4.Albert,  5. Sarah, 6. Clifford, 7. Laura

10. Eugene Howard “Bubba” (1856-1914) married Frances Victoria McCullough and they had nine children: 1. Mary 2. William 3. Jefferson 4. Leslie 5. Benjamin 6. Burril 7. Alva 8. Minnie 9. Rosa

 

 Footnotes

* Charles Harris became very wealthy before the Civil War, in the 1860 census, his wealth, including personal and real estate was about $48, 660.00 (today that would be about 1.5 million).

**Information about the Self family came from Bill Garrard (grandson of Daniel Self) written about 1923, Isabell Kellor (letter with Self Family Bible information, written April 1980), Vivian Bradshaw, family historian, June 1999 and Charles Copeland (Copeland and Self Families), 2018.

Ancestry.com 1840,1850, 1860, 1870 census

The Hamilton weekly visitor., February 20, 1874, p. 2

The Sun and Columbus daily enquirer. (Columbus, Ga.) 1874-1874, February 17, 1874, p.1