Brushes with Fate: A Georgia Bankston
Family’s Civil War-era Story
By Myra Vanderpool Gormley (c) 2017
By 18601
Jacob Bankston (1798-1881) and his wife, Catharine (née Biffle or Biefler, but
rendered under many spellings in American records) (1805-1886) had reared their
family. Catharine was the purported daughter of John Biffle, of German
ancestry, who died in DeKalb County, Georgia
in 1850.2 The Bankstons were of Swedish origins, tracing back to the
early Swedes on the
Delaware. 3
“Georgia’s decision in 1861 to leave
the United States had far-reaching and unintended consequences for all
Georgians . . . and indeed all Southerners.”4 The consequences of
the subsequent war that began 12 April 1861, touched the lives of Jacob and
Catherine Bankston, and all of their children — with death, physical and mental
losses and economic misery.
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| Georgia's old Capitol at Milledgeville |
While no personal accounts of war experiences
on the home front or about their lives during Reconstruction by any of this
Bankston family were written, or if so, have survived or been found, their
stories exist. They are told in military records, Confederate pension applications,
court documents, property taxes and later censuses.
It is believed that their eldest child
was Alfred Leander Bankston (called Leander), born ca 1826, who married Martha
C. Harris (1837-1905) in 1859 in Butts County, Georgia. This family removed to
DeKalb County, Georgia, where he died in 1877. Martha applied for a Confederate widow’s pension in 1891, but it was “refused.” Evidently on grounds she was
unable to prove he had died of a disease or injury directly related to one
received during the war.
Jacob and
Catherine’s youngest daughter, Delilah
(called Lila) Bankston, married on 6 November 1859 in Henry County, Georgia to
William J. Smith5, and they and their young daughter (not named at
the time) were living with her parents in 1860 in Henry County, Georgia. Jacob
Bankston’s real estate was valued at $750 and his personal estate at $339. He
owned no slaves.
Their eldest
daughter, Sarah Elizabeth “Betsy” Bankston, who married Thomas V. Pelt, a
wheelwright, in 1848, was living nearby in 1860 with their four young children.
Pelt had no real estate listed. His personal property was valued at $1,000,
probably the value of his tools and equipment for his business. He owned no
slaves.
Two of Jacob and Catherine’s sons — John E.
and William M. — have not been located in the 1860 census in Georgia. John E.
(purportedly his middle name was Edward, but that is unproven) was born ca 1828,
and he married Sarah E. Dawson 31 Oct. 1852 in Henry County. His brother,
William M. Bankston, born ca 1835, married Mary G. Mays on 29 November 1860 in
Henry County.
The propensity of many German-Americans6
to use the middle name of their children as the “rufnamen or call name” creates
some confusion for genealogists, especially in the censuses, when a person may
have given their “first name” as was usually asked for by the enumerators, but
they probably went by their second name. It is not unusual to find the same
person listed either way in various records. It may be that John E. and William
M. will be found in the 1860 census, but under other given names, spellings, or
in other states.
Martha M. Bankston, another daughter of Jacob
and Catherine, was born about 1838 and married Isaac W. Jinks on 5 January 1860
in Henry County. In the 1860 census they are shown in Buttrill’s District in
Butts County. Their first child, Frances, was born later than year or early in
1861. They were not slaveowners.
There also is a James Bankston, born ca 1849,
enumerated with Jacob and Catherine in the 1860 census, but he has not been
further identified or traced successfully.
The State of
Georgia first began giving pensions to Confederate soldiers who had lost a limb
in 1877. The law was gradually broadened to include soldiers who were disabled
due to their military service and to indigent soldiers. Indigent widows of
Confederate soldiers who died in service or as a result of their service began
receiving pensions in 1890. Pension funds also paid medical expenses for final
illnesses and funeral expenses for indigent soldiers and widows.7
The New York
Times on
11 September 1891 (page 1) carried a story under the headline of “Pensions
Given by Georgia” wherein it noted that the “[Georgia] House Finance Committee
has agreed upon a bill which will cost the State $400,000 per annum for the support
of the widows of Confederate soldiers. Two years ago it was resolved to pay
$100,000 per annum to such widows, but the estimate being there were about 600
in the State, for that purpose $60,000 was appropriated. Already applications
have been received from 3,700 widows. That there are at least 4,000 there seems
no doubt. The question which this Legislature had to meet was whether it would
stand by its determination to pay $100 pension to each widow.
“The Deficiency Appropriation bill was under
consideration and one paragraph referred to widows’ pensions. To a few of the
members it did not seem as if the State were able to grant so liberal a pension
in view of the great number of applicants, but the majority were emphatically
in favor of the pensions remaining as they were first put, $100 each, and when
the vote was take $340,000 was appropriate ‘for each of the years of 1891 and
1892.’”
A newspaper transcription below by Don
Bankston provides additional light upon the subject of Confederate pensions:
Jackson [Georgia]
Argus – Week of January 18, 1895
“Mrs. Sarah Bankston and Mrs. Betsy Pelt, two
of Judge Carmichael’s widows at Jenkinsburg, was [sic] in town Saturday looking
after their pensions for this year. All the widows are calling on the judge
now, and he politely and courteously gives them all the information they need.
We should have mentioned a week ago that the blanks were here and ready for
signatures, but the good ladies know the time of year and come right along as
they should.”
Thomas V. Pelt
and Betsy Bankston
Betsy Bankston’s husband, Thomas V. Pelt,
joined Co. G of the 63rd Regiment Georgia Infantry, CSA as a private
(later a sergeant). He was killed while on picket duty at the Battle of
Kennesaw on June 27, 1864, leaving her with six children ranging in ages from
one to 13. He was about 49 years old when he died.
In her Confederate widow pension
application she noted that he enlisted in 1862 and that "He never returned
after the close of the war, nor has he been heard of since said time."
In the 1870 census she and the
children are living in Henry County, County, with $150 in personal estate. Betsy
lived until after 1910 census. With the help of her four sons and two
daughters, she managed to survive after the war. Her children began to marry
and start their own families in the 1880s and early 1900s. They were: Mary C.;
John J. who married first Mary Elizabeth “Molly” Thaxton; William D.; Martha
Anne who married James P. Vaughn; Wayman who married Sarah E. Snow; and Henry
Lee who married first Lidie Parker. Apparently the daughter, Mary C. Pelt,
never married. She died 28 June 1943 in Henry County, Georgia.
Pattillo
Brothers
The image of the
Pattillo brothers above serves as a remarkable graphic illustration of the dress and
weapons used during this time period by men who probably knew the Bankstons,
Pelts, Dawson, Mays, Jinks, and Smith families. The Pattillo brothers of Henry
County, Georgia, enlisted together in Co. K, 22nd Regiment, Georgia
Volunteers, CSA. They served in the Army of Northern Virginia. (The photographer
is unknown.) They are, left to right: Benjamin (killed at Battle of 2nd
Manassas [Bull Run]), George, James (wounded and lost a toe at Battle of Deep
Bottom, Virginia) and John (wounded at Battle of Seven Pines, Virginia). Additionally,
James Pattillo connects to the author via his son’s marriage into the George
family, also of Henry County.]
John E. Bankston
and Sarah E. Dawson
John E. Bankston, born 7 April 1828,
joined as a private, in Co. A., 53rd Regiment, Georgia Volunteers,
CSA on 28 April 1862. He contracted measles and in August of 1862 the sight in his left eye was destroyed, as a result. Some of his
military records say he was captured at Cold Harbor, Virginia on June 1, 1864;
released at Elmira, New York on June 16, 1865, and returned home, but
substantiating documents about his capture have not been found. Evidently, he
continued to have severe pain and what was described as “violent inflammation
of the eye” as after-effects of the measles. He applied for an allowance (for
the loss of his eye) in 1889. However, it was questioned because the clerk
claimed that “a lunatic cannot make the proof the law requires and applicant
cannot be paid. Is he not now in the State Asylum and there is supported by the
State? If so, he certainly cannot be paid.”
In an undated note, but evidently about 1889,
in the Ordinary’s Court of Butts County, Georgia, action had been brought in
the “J. M. Bankston vs. John E. Bankston” case about the question of lunacy,
and the jury adjudged that “J. E. [evidently John E.] Bankston is insane and
that he should be committed to the Lunatic Asylum at Milledgeville, Georgia.”
He was committed and after some time was duly
discharged and returned home. He died there May 6, 1890. His widow, Sarah E.
(née Dawson) filed and received a Widow’s Pension ($100 per annum) as early as
1891. They had seven children. They were: Nancy “Nannie” who married Henry G.
Asbury; Jacob McDaniel who married Margaret Glass; Johnny H. (died young, in
1863); Mattie Emma Jane, who married Cicero H. Farrar; William James who
married Edna Letha Glass; Adella who married Joseph A. Moss; and Edgar
Bankston.
John E. Bankston,
OBITUARY (Middle Ga. Argus – Week of May
12, 1890)
(Transcribed by
Don Bankston)
“It is the sad
mission of this letter to chronicle the death of one of our most worthy
citizens, Mr. J. E. [John E.] Bankston, the senior member of the popular and
well-known firm of J. E. Bankston & Son. Mr. Bankston was one of the first
to open business at this point, and has steadily gained ground in popular
sentiment and in as well, deserved patronage. Shortly after his opening he
induced Mr. J. M. [Jacob McDaniel] Bankston become his partner, and the son has
borne the burden of business for the last several years, and this made it easy
for the old gentleman in his declining years. Thought a hard worker in his
younger days, he has spent the greater part of his time for several years in a
kingly and easy retirement. The virtues of J. E. Bankston cannot be enumerated
in a letter like this. He had in him all the Christian virtues happily blessed.
He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. He was not only charitable, but
he was a philanthropist; not only generous, but a peacemaker; not only polite,
but the master of courtesy; not only firm, but stable; not only honorable, but
the personification of honor and virtue; not only a dutiful husband, but an
adored father. He has been a consistent member of the church for a number of
years and has lived up to his profession all the way through. He was a model
Christian, and as sure there is a home for the soul, and just as sure as the
pure in heart shall see God, he is in Heaven today. We tender our sympathies to
the bereaved wife and children and the sorrow stricken relatives, and to all we
will say; try to live the life he did, and do the works he did.”
“For as the body
without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” —N. J. H.
William M.
Bankston and Mary G. Mays
William M. Bankston, another son of Jacob and
Catherine, was born about 1835. He married Mary G. Mays in Henry County,
Georgia 29 November 1860. He enlisted in Company A, Georgia 44th Infantry
Regiment (Weems Guards) on 17 March 1862 and died 10 March 1863 of chronic
diarrhea in General Hospital No. 2 at Lynchburg, [Campbell County] Virginia. He
was buried there in a Confederate Cemetery; disinterred, and sent to
Jonesborough, Georgia [Clayton County]. Mary, William’s widow, remarried in
1868 to Jackson Walden in Henry County8, but they are found in
Clayton County, Georgia in the 1870 census. It appears that Mary and William
Bankston were the parents of a daughter named Rebecca, born about 1862. While
Rebecca is recorded under the Walden surname of her stepfather in 1870, she was
born about six years before her mother married him, so she probably is a
daughter who William never saw or perhaps never even knew about, unless she was
born prior to his enlistment in 1862. Preliminary research indicates that Mary and
her second husband removed to Miller County, Arkansas where she died 29 April
1873. What became of Rebecca Bankston, born ca 1862 has not been determined.
Isaac Jinks Jr.
and Martha Bankston
Martha Bankston, whose date of birth varies in
the censuses from ca 1832 to 1838, married Isaac W. Jinks, Jr. in Henry County,
Georgia on 5 January 1860. He was born in Butts County and had $200 in real
estate and $200 in personal property at the time. They did not own any slaves.
He enlisted in Company A, Georgia 53rd
Infantry Regiment in either April or May of 1862 (conflicting dates in the
records). He mustered out on 15 Feb 1865. He applied for an indigent soldier’s
pension in 1895 claiming “infirmity.” He said that he had heart disease and
kidney disease and was ruptured about 15 years ago. He claimed he had no
property except household goods and no income. In 1893 and 1894 he had been
supported by the labor of his wife and children and about $10 by his own labor.
He was married, with five living children, two boys and three girls, ages 35,
32, 30, 25 and 22.
“They are hardly able to support themselves.
One boy, 30, is an idiot and utterly helpless, is an invalid, and unable to do
anything.” [That child was William, called “Willie” who was born about 1865 and
is listed as an “idiot” on the 1880 Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and
Delinquent Classes, Georgia.]
When questioned
about property on which he had paid county taxes in 1893/4, he said it had
belonged to his wife, who bought and paid for out of a small legacy estate of
her father in 1881. [Jacob Bankston, her father, died 12 June 1881 in Henry
County, Georgia.]
Isaac Jinks Jr.
drew his annual pension from 1897 to 1903. He died in September of 1903. His
widow, Martha M., then applied for a widow’s pension, filling out a “Widow’s
Affidavit” noting she was 68 years old and “suffer with my head and general
break down.” The only property she owned was 15 acres in Henry County and it
was sold to pay old debts, burial expenses (of her husband) and the physician.
The land was sold for $350. Also included in the file is the physician’s
statement that he was paid $350 for his services pertaining to Isaac Jinks’
final illness.
Martha died in 1918 in Butts County. She and
Isaac had six children, but one of their daughters (Catherine) died before 1880
and the fate of their son, “Willie” is not known. Only two of her children —
James M. Jinks and Rebecca Jinks Crane — survived her. Their daughter, Frances,
married a James Leach and purportedly lived until 1926, but is not mentioned in
Martha’s obituary. Her obituary appeared in the Jackson Progress-Argus on March
1, 1918.
Mrs. Martha Jinks Passed Away
Wednesday Evening
After an illness
of only a few days, Mrs. Martha Jinks, 79 years of age, died at the home of her
daughter, Mrs. P. C. Crane, near Jackson Wednesday night at 7 o'clock. Death
was due to paralysis. Mrs. Jinks was a member of Beersheba church, where the
funeral services were held Thursday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock. The pastor,
Elder Van Henderson, conducted the services. Mrs. Jinks is survived by one
daughter, Mrs. Pearl Crane, and one son, Mr. J. M. Jinks, of Henry County.
William J. Smith
and Lila Bankston
Delilah (called Lila) Bankston, the youngest
daughter of Jacob and Catherine, was born in 1840 and married in late 1859 to
William J. Smith, who was born in 1832 in Gwinnett County, Georgia. He also
served during the Civil War and was in Company A, Georgia 44th Infantry
Regiment (Weems Guards) as was his brother-in-law, William M. Bankston.
However, no record of him or Lila applying for Confederate pensions has been
found.
In 1870 census
they were living in Henry County, Georgia with $1,600 in real estate and $350
in personal property. According to his obituary [he’s buried in Westview
Cemetery, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia] he fought in the Civil War and
afterward became a schoolteacher in
Henry County.
When he died in 1910 he was survived by his wife, three sons, four daughters
and
19 grandchildren.
In the 1900 census, Lila claimed to be the mother of nine children with eight
living. She lived until 18 May 1926. She also is buried in Westview Cemetery in
Atlanta. Their children, born from about 1860 to 1880, have not been traced
further.
Sherman’s
March to the Sea
Jacob Bankston lived until June of
1881 and his wife, Catherine, survived him, dying five years later, in 1886.
Although they lived only about 37 miles from Atlanta in Locust Grove,
apparently the nearest they were to any military battles during the war was
when General William T. Sherman began his “March to the Sea.” One of his Union
corps was supposed to take the road to Jonesboro and from there proceed to McDonough,
Jackson, Clinton and another was to march from White Hall to Stockbridge, McDonough,
Jackson, Monticello and Gordon. They were to reunite in a week with other corps
at Gordon (south of Milledgeville). There was a brief engagement between the
Union forces and the “Kentucky Orphan Brigade at the Battle of Stockbridge9
in mid-November of 1864.
One wonders if
any of this Bankston family saw the smoke from the fires when Atlanta was
burned; or suffered any loss of property. No claims were made to the Southern
Claims Commission10, but it restricted claims to those who claimed
they were loyal to the Union and had quartermaster stores of supplies taken by
and furnished to the Union Army.
Regardless, in
their immediate family, Jacob and Catherine lost a son and a son-in-law, and
another son lost an eye and suffered mental problems after the war, and another
son-in-law returned home a physically broken man, scarcely able to take care of
his family. Their eldest son who came home from the war in 1864 suffered physically
and was unable to do much work on his farm; he died in 1877. Only their
youngest daughter, Lila, and her husband, William J. Smith appeared to have
survived and prospered after the war.
Sifting through
the ashes of this one family’s history brings the names and places to life and
greatly enhances what little genealogical information we had about them.
Additionally, it uncovered yet another Bankston.
Endnotes
1 1860 Henry,
Georgia; Roll: M653_127; Page: 913; Image: 251; Family History Library Film: 803127.
Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT,
USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch
.Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm
publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records
Administration, n.d.
2
See: The Biffle Cabin.
at DeKalb County, Georgia History Center:
3
See: Founding Forefathers: Anders Bengtsson (Bankson/Bankston) and
Peter Gunnarsson Rambo at:
5
Ancesrty.com. Georgia, Marriage Records from Select Counties,
1828-1978 [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: County Marriage Records, 1828–1978. The
Georgia Archives, Morrow, Georgia.
7
Ancestry.com.
Georgia, Confederate Pension Applications, 1879-1960 [database on-line]. Provo,
UT, USA: The
Generations Network, Inc., 2009. Original data: Confederate Pension
Applications, Georgia Confederate Pension Office, RG 58-1-1, Georgia Archives.
8
Ancestry.com. Georgia, Compiled Marriages, 1851-1900 [database
on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Original data: Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp., Georgia Marriages,
1851-1900. G. I. [sic] Walden to G. M.
Bankston, 18 August 1868. Her name is also recorded as Mary G., so the G. M. is probably a transposition.
10 Mills, Gary. Civil War Claims in the South: An Index of
Civil War Damage Claims filed before Southern Claims Commission, 1870-1880.
(Laguna Hills, Calif. Aegean Park Press, 1980).
“OK, I get that.”
Coming from Oklahoma, which is as football obsessed as any state, I get the
screaming wild-eyed passion for the sport and your team, and I even understand
the game (thanks, Dad) — knowing why and when a quick kick is utilized, what a
PAT is, and that a playing field is 100 yards long by 53.3 yards wide
