Alexander Ware; Case #2

Alexander Ware #2

Always so interesting to find that you had documentation all the time that helped with the sorting out.

Alexander Ware #2 was born 11 September 1789 in Amherst, Virginia to James Powell Ware and Mary Veale.  A nephew to William Alexander Powell Ware (b.  about 1748 and married to Martha “Patty” Davis), a brother to James Ware who married his cousin Lettice Ware, also a brother to Edward who married Sarah Daniel Penn.  Alexander is the name he is always called in the family bible of Edward Ware (his brother) and Sarah Daniel Penn.

Alexander #2 is the individual who lived in the area of Line Creek, Fayette Co. Georgia.  He was a fairly large land owner and slave holder.  He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and eventually became a state brigadier-general.   He also worked with the Creek Indians and it was to his house the 2 widows of Chief William McIntosh came when their husband was killed.

“McIntosh’s remaining family, including the two wives and two sons, refuged to General Alexander Ware’s home in Fayette County.  Ware’s home and property was on the eastern side of Line Creek, near the border of Georgia and the Creek Nation, in the vicinity of present day Peachtree City. With them came 120-150 other Creek Indians who feared for their lives. General Ware and friendly whites did what they could for the refugees. Ware reported to Governor Troup, “The road is covered with refugees, and upwards of four hundred warriors of hostile party are feasting on McIntosh’s cattle and would be marching toward the settlement of whites in three days. I will prepare for an invasion of perhaps as many as four thousand warriors. Whites, who have lived among Creeks a long time and know them, are sending their families out of the Creek Nation.” Near General Ware’s home, in fear of a Creek up-rising, Fort Troup was constructed to protect the settlers and friendly Indians, but the attack ever came.”   From the web site Historical Exploration  by Edward Jordan Lanham and John Lynch,  April 2007  “Chief William McIntosh And The McIntosh Road”

 As I have researched the Alexander Ware on Line Creek, Fayette County Georgia he has always been mentioned in compiled genealogies or other books of historical information as “never married”.  Last week in preparing for this article after “googling”  Alexander Ware the following information  from “Biographical souvenir of the States of Georgia and Florida” pg 812-813  An article about Col. George M. T. Ware b. 17 Nov 1824 in Fayette county Georgia includes the following;

“Gen. Alexander Ware, his father, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and later a State brigadier-general.  He had charge of the McIntosh party of the Creek Indians who ceded lands to Georgia, which created a division in the tribe known as the Hostiles and the McIntosh party.  He was also a planter and an enterprising man of means, investing when and where the outlook appeared inviting.  He was killed July 7, 1836, at about the age of forty years, in Texas, by parties who belong to the “Murrell gang,” which was a band of outlaws headed by one John A. Murrell.  They originated in Tennessee during the thirties, and operated mostly in the southern States, and notably in Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas and Mississippi and in the great Mississippi Swamp, where they had their headquarters.  Their business was mostly stealing “niggers,” selling them and stealing them again as often as possible or prudent, and then killing them, on the theory that “dead men tell no tales.”  This band was finally broken up under the surveillance of Detective Virgial A. Stewart.”

Now this is an interesting turn of events, a son who was about 11 years old at his fathers death, especially a man of great wealth and position as this particular Alexander Ware, should be easy to find in the land and guardian records of the day.  So that is an area of research to be pursued in January 2011 h

The following is a transcription of the newspaper article of July 12, 1836 announcing the murder of General Alexander Ware and requesting contact from any heirs to claim the property, both land and slaves. 

Macon, July 7—We are informed by a Mr. Clark, a gentleman recently from Texas, that General Alexander Ware, Formerly a resident of Fayette county, in this state, was murdered in Veilon Zavalla Colony, about the last of May.  He was traveling with a man by the name of Eaton, by whom he was shot and robbed of his money,(probably 5 to 6,000 dollars.  Eaton was pursued into the United States, but it is not known whether he has been taken.  General Ware left, it is believed, about 15 negroes on his farm, near the town of San Augustine, and as he has no connections in that country, that our informant knows of, it is probable that his property could be obtained, if claimed by his relatives in the United States.  Our informant thinks that further information, might, probably be obtained respecting his property, by writing to Col. John Thomas, recently of Upson county, in this State, at San Augustine, via Fort Jessup.-Messenger

 

Recap of Facts        

#2 Alexander Ware; Parents are James (Powell alias) Ware #1 and Mary Veal.  His known siblings are James Ware #2 and Edward Ware #3.    

He was born 11 September 1789 in Amherst, Virginia.   

His family moved to Elbert County Georgia in 1790 and settled in a part of that county that later became Madison County.   

As an adult he fought in the War of 1812 and later in several Indian conflicts.  He was elected a state Brigadier General.  

 He was an early settler in Fayette County, electing to purchase property on the very edge of the frontier with the Creek Indians. 

In early 1830’s he began to sell off his property in Georgia and moved to Texas when it was really frontier.  

 The Edward Ware III and Sarah Daniel Penn bible gives the date of his murder as 8 June 1836. He was 46 years old

You Never Know What You Have.

I don't know if this has ever happened to you but I'm telling the story so that maybe it won't happen to you.

Last June 2009 we cleaned out an apartment that my Dad, bless his heart, had been using as a storage place.  If you knew my dad you would know that he never has enough storage places.  While my mom was alive she sort of kept things under control but she has been gone 20 years now and he doesn't have the foggiest idea how to sort, choose the best, and get rid of the rest.  To him it is all the best.

Anyway it had been a long hot morning of sorting and tossing stuff to go to Goodwill, stuff to sell, stuff to throw away.  My sister in law said, "Have you looked in that box, I think I saw your mother's scriptures in there" My response, "Yes, I have looked in there!  I agonized over throwing my mother's scriptures away but I think I got everything out of them and I already have 3 sets of my own at home that I need to get rid of.  So I don't want to ......"    As I am saying all this she is shaking the book over the container and out falls this piece of paper with a black "ribbon" woven through it.  I remember seeing this as a child in one of the bibles my father brought back from the funeral of his parents (future blog story).  I was seven at the time and over the years as I became interested in Family History my mother allowed me to peruse those bibles.  I remember it as a book mark but at the time did not recognize it's significance.

Yes, it really is what it says it is.  An "announcement" of  a funeral service in 1865.   Do the math folks!  This is 144 years old.  It is hand written and as you can see William died at 2:30 am and this was going out to neighbors and relatives probably as soon as they could reasonably knock on someones door to give it to them.  Notice the date, April 18th, 1865.  Nine days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.  These were all (we don't know how many there were) hand written and probably went by horse back because the area was rural.   It was on the path of the Union Army's march to the sea in 1864 and most of the outlying farms and plantations suffered significantly by Sherman's "scorched earth" policy.  Both sides raided these folks for food over about a 6 month period.  The Ware's  had been well off before the Civil War but now some of the families began to disintegrate.  William's family was completely broken up less than ten years latter, scattered from Rome to Texas and in between.   Those are stories for later posts.

I heard one story of William death from my father who heard it from William's daughter Sarah Emma Ware, dad's grandmother.  She would have been seven or eight years old when this happened because she was born in 1858.    However, recently I have been contacted by a descendant of Emma's brother, George Harrison Ware (about 2 years older than Emma) and he has a completely different story from his family.   These stories are not in any sense similar,  in fact they are so different we would be hard pressed to figure out how the "legends" became so different.  I looked several years ago at microfilm of newspapers in Rome to see if I could find any mention of this death to no avail.  But, things are different now and maybe I need to revisit the newspapers because both stories would have been spectacular for the day.  I will post the stories later on.   If and when I can figure out my new picture program I will try to get the pictures up of who we consider must be William and his wife Martha Gee Ford.