Pylant Geneology

Written by David Franklin Howard for his daughter, Levada, in 1938.

<p> Dear Levada, You wanted me to give you a short sketch of your ancestors, and while I know but little about your mother's foreparents I know something of my side of the house. My father was born and raised in Lincoln Co., N.C. on the 7th day of Oct. 1812, and my mother was born and raised in Macon Co. before Clay Co. was cut off from Cherokee and Macon Co. in the year of 1815, month of August, and they were married in 1837 and set up housekeeping in what is now known as Clay Co., having a one horse wagon in which they hauled all their belongings and I have heard him say he had moved 28 times from one place to another. From Clay Co. he moved up into Towns Co., Georgia, and from there to Rayburn Co., then to White Co., and from White Co. back into Towns in the year 1864, and lived at two different places until the year 1875, when he made his last move to Macon Co. where he and mother died, each turning into their 72nd and 73rd year. Father died June 12, 1885, Mother dying June 25, 1887. To this union was born 9 living cildren which grew to manhood and womanhood. The first one, Calvin, was born in 1839. 2nd - Susanah 1841 3rd - Martha Ann 1843 4th - Joseph 1845 5th - Baxter 1848 6th - Mercilla 1851 7th - Hannible 1853 8th - Emmanuel 1855 9th - David Franklin 1859 All born in an odd year but two, Father and Baxter, and all died in an odd year but one and that was Hannible, who died October 31, 1920. Calvin married Margaret Brock in White Co., Ga., and to them was born two children, Johnny and Anna, and he joined the rebel army and died in Chattanooga, Tenn. from flux, and was buried at Chickamauga, we were told. His widow married a man by the name of Brenner, and went to Arkansas and we lost sight of them. Susanah married a man by the name of Roe, about 1862 and he died in the war. Martha Ann marrried Thom Lunsford in 1880 and they had one child, Annie. Joseph married in 1866, to Mary Owen and to them was born 9 living children and one dead - a boy - and two other boys and 7 girls. All scattered and died at various places. Baxter married in about 1868 to Anna Kirby, and to them was born a boy, Sylvanus, and she died when he was about one year old, and about 1869 or 1870 he married the second time to Nancy Self, and they had two children, a girl and a boy, Annie and Johnnie, and she married again and went to the Cherokee Nation as it was called then, but now, Oklahoma, where we lost sight of her and the Children. I believe Mercilla married Thomoson Allen in 1865 and to her and him was born 10 or 11 children, when they settled near Clarksville, Ga., Habersham Co., and they are scattered around there - that is, what is living of them, Thomoson having died quite a number of years before she did. Her death occured in August, 1937. Hannible married Addie Self about 1872 and to them was born 9 children, three girls and six boys and they too are scattered to different parts of the country. One girl, Georgia, is in Paoli, Oklahoma, the other two in San Antonio, Texas. One boy in the army and one somewhere in Arkansas, one in Oklahoma City - balance I reckon are dead. Emmanuel married Martha Garrison in 1879 and to them was born one boy, Charlie, and 'Manuel died in 1881 and she married again to Jasper Robins and they went West near Whitewright Texas and Jasper died and I suppose she is still alive at this writing, 1938. And that brings it down to your Dad and they told me that I came into the world March 31, 1859. This I don't recollect, but I do recollect asking my Mother to take me behind the door when she had company to let me nurse, and crawling under the bed and eating brown sugar they kept in a gourd that held about half a bushel, and that is among the first things I knew (remember), and another thing that fastened on my mind about that time was an invalid girl by the name of Brock that had been an invalid most of her life, 12 or 14 years of age, and she died and my mother took me to her burial and I can see that grave and the opening of her coffin and her dear mother putting her hands over the little one's face and weeping as plain as anything that has ever happened in my 79 years of life. I was 2 or 3 years old when this happened in White Co., Ga. down on Mossy Creek about 5 miles from Cleveland, Ga. and when I was 5 years old, in 1864, when Father swapped land with Dick Edmonson and we moved about half a mile from the town of Hiawassee. During the Civil War all kinds of reports were being circulated among the people about the Yankees coming and capturing the men that were left and tearing everything to pieces, which of course was false reports but that did not keep the people from being afraid, but it so happened that there was a small company of Yankees, as they called them, came and stayed awhile in the court house and while there they captured a man by the name of Loudermilk and tried him and condemned him and took him out on my old school grounds and shot him to death. I well remember hearing the guns, and while they were there some parties stepped into Malden's house at the front door and Malden started to run out the back door and they shot him dead. I saw the blood on the floor where he fell, and these days were the beginnings of my troubles, and since then I have experienced more or less down to the present. In the year 1881, March 3rd, I found me a help-mate by the name of Sara Jane Barnes, the daughter of Zebedee and Rebecca Rowland Barnes. B. L. Padgett, a justice of the peace of Macon Co. said the words by which according to law made us one. To this union was born 6 children, as follows. Cora Elso Dona, born July 22, 1885. Oscar Alonzo was born Sept. 11, 1886. Levada Rebecca and Lawrence Emmanuel were born June 13, 1889. Sheridan Hannible born Oct. 4, 1892 and Alton Edgar, born April 22, 1904. Of these, three are dead and three living. Oscar died March 14, 1901, Sheridan died September 15, 1907, and my dear wife died July 19, 1909. And on October 20, 1912, I was married again to Lou Tipton Nelson and this time R. L. Rowland, a minister of the Church of Christ, officiating, and to this union was born a baby girl on Feb. 19, 1919, which only lived a few hours. Of my first wife's descendants I know but very little. I have heard them say her great grandparents made the long voyage across the Atlantic, being of Dutch descent, and here I will add that my great grandparents were also from Germany and England. They always told me I was 3/4 Dutch. And I now think that the failure of our foreparents to keep a statistical record of births and deaths and where born and from whence they came is a sad state for us, their descendants. However, it cannot be helped now. We can only benefit by their mistakes by keeping records of events which we wish to be perpetuated ourselves.