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Descendants of John Perdue and Mary Elizabeth Hitch
see
generation No. 1 see
generation No. 2 see
generation No. 3
see
Endnotes (Source Information), Page 1 (nos. 1 - 145)
see
Endnotes (Source Information), Page 2 (nos. 146 - 289)
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This file was contributed and copyrighted by Carolyn Golowka
Generation
No. 4
24.
MARY ELIZABETH6 SHEPPARD (SARAH T.5
REDDOCK, HETTY4 PERDUE, JOHN3, JOHN2,
JOHN1) was born Abt. 1834205, and died
February 5, 1905206. She
married JOHN J. NORMAN. He was born
June 2, 1830206, and died May 18, 1891206.
More About MARY
ELIZABETH SHEPPARD:
Burial: 1905, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
More About JOHN J.
NORMAN:
Burial: 1891, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
Military service: 2nd
Lt. Co. D, 1st Battalion, Hilliard's Legion, AL Inf, CSA
Child of MARY SHEPPARD
and JOHN NORMAN is:
i. JAMES
F.7 NORMAN, b. January 5, 1853, AL206; d. February
1, 1858, AL206.
More About JAMES F.
NORMAN:
Burial: 1858, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
25.
NANCY E.6 SHEPPARD (SARAH T.5 REDDOCK,
HETTY4 PERDUE, JOHN3, JOHN2,
JOHN1) was born Abt. 1835207.
She married JAMES W. TILLERY January 5, 1854 in Butler Co., AL.
He was born June 27, 1831208, and died September 9,
1862208.
More About JAMES W.
TILLERY:
Burial: 1862, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
More About JAMES
TILLERY and NANCY SHEPPARD:
Marriage: January 5,
1854, Butler Co., AL
Children of NANCY
SHEPPARD and JAMES TILLERY are:
i. JAMES
B.7 TILLERY, b. May 24, 1857, AL208; d. September
5, 1860208.
More About JAMES B.
TILLERY:
Burial: 1860, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
ii. WALTER
M. TILLERY, b. January 26, 1859, AL208; d. June 4, 1860, AL208.
More About WALTER M.
TILLERY:
Burial: 1860, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
26.
ALEXANDER REDDOCH6 SHEPPARD (SARAH T.5
REDDOCK, HETTY4 PERDUE, JOHN3, JOHN2,
JOHN1) was born Abt. 1836209, and died
January 8, 1873210. He
married MARY M. GHOLSON December 10, 1857 in Butler Co., AL.
She was born December 22, 1833210, and died February 2,
1913210.
More About ALEXANDER
REDDOCH SHEPPARD:
Burial: 1873, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
More About MARY M.
GHOLSON:
Burial: 1913, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
More About ALEXANDER
SHEPPARD and MARY GHOLSON:
Marriage: December 10,
1857, Butler Co., AL
Children of ALEXANDER
SHEPPARD and MARY GHOLSON are:
i. ALABAMA
CAROLINE7 SHEPPARD, b. December 27, 1860, AL210; d.
July 8, 1861, AL210.
More About ALABAMA
CAROLINE SHEPPARD:
Burial: 1861, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
ii. FRANCIS
A. SHEPPARD, b. October 13, 1869, AL210; d. October 20, 1879,
AL210.
More About FRANCIS A.
SHEPPARD:
Burial: 1879, Sheppard
Cemetery, Kirkville, Butler Co., AL
27.
VICTORIA6 CHEATHAM (ELIZABETH HETTY5
REDDOCK, HETTY4 PERDUE, JOHN3, JOHN2,
JOHN1) was born February 25, 1850 in AL211,212,212,
and died September 26, 1928212.
She married JOHN B. LEWIS. He
was born January 6, 1840212, and died June 5, 1918212.
More About VICTORIA
CHEATHAM:
Burial: 1928, Reddoch (Reddock)
Cemetery, Butler Co., AL
More About JOHN B.
LEWIS:
Burial: 1918, Reddoch (Reddock)
Cemetery, Butler Co., AL
Child of VICTORIA
CHEATHAM and JOHN LEWIS is:
i. FRANCIS
H.7 LEWIS, b. January 13, 1887212; d. September 2,
1895.
More About FRANCIS H.
LEWIS:
Burial: 1895, Reddoch (Reddock)
Cemetery, Butler Co., AL212
28.
HETTIE ANN P.6 REDDOCK (WILLIAM W.5,
HETTY4 PERDUE, JOHN3, JOHN2,
JOHN1) was born November 22, 1836 in AL213,214,215,216,
and died October 15, 1876216.
She married MONROE WIMBERLY PERDUE217 January 10, 1856
in Butler Co., AL218, son of SOVERING PERDUE and ELIZABETH
WATSON. He was born July 13, 1832
in AL219,220,221,222, and died March 30, 1913222.
More About HETTIE ANN
P. REDDOCK:
Burial: 1876, Live Oak
Cemetery, Crenshaw Co., AL
More About MONROE
WIMBERLY PERDUE:
Burial: 1913, Live Oak
Cemetery, Crenshaw Co., AL
More About MONROE
PERDUE and HETTIE REDDOCK:
Marriage: January 10,
1856, Butler Co., AL223
Children are listed
above under (19) Monroe Wimberly Perdue.
29.
MISSOURI JANE6 REDDOCK (WILLIAM W.5,
HETTY4 PERDUE, JOHN3, JOHN2,
JOHN1) was born October 14, 1838 in AL224,225,226,
and died April 17, 1910226.
She married (1) JOSEPH W. HIGHTOWER August 26, 1858 in Butler Co., AL.
She married (2) WILLIAM WATSON PERDUE227 September 11,
1860 in Lowndes Co., AL228, son of SOVERING PERDUE and
ELIZABETH WATSON. He was born May
14, 1825 in AL229,230,231, and died August 24, 1903 in Live
Oak, Crenshaw Co., AL231.
More About MISSOURI
JANE REDDOCK:
Burial: 1910, Live Oak
Cemetery, Crenshaw Co., AL
More About JOSEPH
HIGHTOWER and MISSOURI REDDOCK:
Bond Signed by: William
H. Morris
Marriage: August 26,
1858, Butler Co., AL
Married by: A. T.
Dickinson
Permission Given by:
Mrs. Sarah M. Reddock
More About WILLIAM
WATSON PERDUE:
Burial: 1903, Live Oak
Cemetery, Crenshaw Co., AL
More About WILLIAM
PERDUE and MISSOURI REDDOCK:
Bond Signed by: John J.
McCaw
Marriage: September 11,
1860, Lowndes Co., AL232
Child is listed above
under (16) William Watson Perdue.
30.
ABIGAIL CORINE6 REDDOCK (WILLIAM W.5,
HETTY4 PERDUE, JOHN3, JOHN2,
JOHN1) was born July 21, 1842 in AL233,234,235,
and died March 17, 1917235.
She married SOVERING TULLY PERDUE, JR.236 November 2,
1858 in Sarah M. Reddock residence, Butler Co., AL237, son of
SOVERING PERDUE and ELIZABETH WATSON. He
was born Abt. 1838 in AL238,239, and died Abt. 1917 in
Greenville, Butler Co., AL
More About ABIGAIL
CORINE REDDOCK:
Burial: 1917, Live Oak
Cemetery, Crenshaw Co., AL
More About SOVERING
PERDUE and ABIGAIL REDDOCK:
Bond Signed by: William
S. Gholson
Marriage: November 2,
1858, Sarah M. Reddock residence, Butler Co., AL240
Married by: Joseph W.
Hightower
Children are listed
above under (21) Sovering Tully Perdue, Jr..
31.
JOHN H.6 REDDOCK (WILLIAM W.5, HETTY4
PERDUE, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)
was born August 7, 1851241, and died July 28, 1901.
He married LULA M. RUTLEDGE. She
was born March 2, 1851, and died April 2, 1925.
More About JOHN H.
REDDOCK:
Burial: 1901, Live Oak
Cemetery, Crenshaw Co., AL
Child of JOHN REDDOCK
and LULA RUTLEDGE is:
i. MARGIE
RUTH7 REDDOCK, b. December 8, 1890242; d. September
14, 1900242.
More About MARGIE RUTH
REDDOCK:
Burial: 1900, Live Oak Cemetery, Crenshaw Co., AL
32.
MARY F.6 ROPER (PERDUE5, JOHN BAILEY4
PERDUE, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)
was born July 4, 1836 in AL243,244,245,246, and died January
19, 1906 in AL247. She
married ANDREW J. BROOKS March
12, 1857 in Lowndes Co., AL248.
He was born November 23, 1835 in GA249,250,251,252, and
died July 19, 1917 in AL253.
More About MARY F.
ROPER:
Burial: 1906,
Myrtlewood Cemetery, Fort Deposit, Lowndes Co., AL
More About ANDREW J.
BROOKS:
Burial: 1917,
Myrtlewood Cemetery, Fort Deposit, Lowndes Co., AL
More About ANDREW
BROOKS and MARY ROPER:
Marriage: March 12,
1857, Lowndes Co., AL254
Children of MARY ROPER
and ANDREW BROOKS are:
i. MATTIE
E.7 BROOKS, b. December 16, 1857, AL255,256,257,258;
d. July 15, 1898259; m. (1) A. F. WILLIAMSON, December 21,
1876, Lowndes Co., AL260; b. Abt. 1853, AL261,262;
d. Bef. 1880263; m. (2) ANDREW Z. DAVIS264,
April 13, 1893, Lowndes Co., AL265; b. May 22, 1848266,267,268;
d. August 18, 1902269.
More About MATTIE E.
BROOKS:
Burial: July 1898,
Myrtlewood Cemetery, Ft. Deposit, Lowndes Co., AL269
More About A.
WILLIAMSON and MATTIE BROOKS:
Marriage: December 21,
1876, Lowndes Co., AL270
More About ANDREW Z.
DAVIS:
Burial: Myrtlewood
Cemetery, Ft. Deposit, Lowndes Co., AL271
Census: 1850, Shows
name as Andrew G.
More About ANDREW DAVIS
and MATTIE BROOKS:
Marriage: April 13,
1893, Lowndes Co., AL272
ii. CHARLES
E. BROOKS, b. February 29, 1860, Lowndes Co., AL273,274,275,276;
d. May 4, 1947276; m. (1) MARY ELIZA WILLIAMSON, April 18,
1886, Lowndes Co., AL277; b. January 5, 1859278;
d. March 30, 1926278; m. (2) EVA R., May 16, 1928, Lowndes
Co., AL279.
More About CHARLES E.
BROOKS:
Burial: 1947,
Myrtlewood Cemetery, Fort Deposit, Lowndes Co., AL
More About MARY ELIZA
WILLIAMSON:
Burial: 1926,
Myrtlewood Cemetery, Fort Deposit, Lowndes Co., AL
More About CHARLES
BROOKS and MARY WILLIAMSON:
Marriage: April 18,
1886, Lowndes Co., AL280
More About CHARLES
BROOKS and EVA R.:
Marriage: May 16, 1928,
Lowndes Co., AL281
iii.
ANDREW FRANK BROOKS, b. March 16, 1862, AL282,283; d.
July 7, 1934283; m. VIRGINIA CRENSHAW; b. November 13, 1862,
FL283,284; d. July 10, 1926285.
More About ANDREW FRANK
BROOKS:
Burial: July 1934,
Myrtlewood Cemetery, Fort Deposit, Lowndes Co., AL
More About VIRGINIA
CRENSHAW:
Burial: July 1926,
Myrtlewood Cemetery, Fort Deposit, Lowndes Co., AL
iv. FANNIE
LOU BROOKS, b. June 4, 1869286,287; d. September 19, 1871288.
More About FANNIE LOU
BROOKS:
Burial: 1871, Sawyer
Cemetery, Sandy Ridge, Lowndes Co., AL
v. SELMAN
ROPER BROOKS, b. July 8, 1873, Lowndes Co., AL288; d. January
1875, Lowndes Co., AL288.
More About SELMAN ROPER
BROOKS:
Burial: 1875, Sawyer
Cemetery, Sandy Ridge, Lowndes Co., AL
33.
ELIZABETH WOMACK6 PERDUE (WILLIAM WATSON5,
SOVERING TULLY4, JOHN3, JOHN2,
JOHN1) was born November 10, 1855 in AL289,
and died September 15, 1948. She
married AUGUSTUS V. RUTLEDGE. He
was born October 14, 1845, and died May 7, 1922.
Notes for ELIZABETH
WOMACK PERDUE:
December 21 1948 -
Alabama Christian Advocate
Elizabeth (Bettle)Womack
Perdue Rutledge
November 10, 1855 -
September 15, 1948
" Where is death's
sting, where grave, thy victory, I triumph still if thou abide with me."
Betty Womack Perdue Rutledge's life spanned nearly a whole era.
During this
time as mcuh mechanical and scientific progress was made as in the pre- ceding
millennium. Railways improved from what had been a generation before her time
considered a ridiculous experiment into a vast network of
es--- tial and very often luxurious means of transportation. The
telegraph had already been invented, but the telephone was to come much later,
and by the time of this laldy's death, these systems had criss-crossed the
country and penetrated into every locality. And besides other marvels Of the
electric age such as the radio and television, not to discount the gas-engined
airplane in another field, there burst upon the world the splitting of the atom
ushering in another age. Most of these miraculous inventions had followed the
internecine struggle of the War Between the States, a struggle that she well
remembered. There had been many other developments scarcely less preternatural
than those mentioned. In the Confederate Army she had three Giddens uncles and
two Perdue. Thus may the placid life of one person afford a panorama of mighty
events. Betty Perdue's memory reached far enough back to have registered the
oratory of William Yancy, the Alabama Secessionist, the Secession Convention,
the withdrawal of Alabama from the Union not long after that of South Carolina,
and the entrance of Virginia, the Old Dominion, Mother of Presidents, into the
Confederacy. Had she been in Montgomery the cradle of the Confederacy, in
February,1861, she might have heard this orator during the inauguration of
Jefferson Davis as president of the newly founded republic stretch his hand
toward the president and perorate, "The and the hour have met." This
was on the portico of the State Capitol, and edifice to become the capitol, as
was Montgomery the capital, of the new nation. She could have seen and heard
there, as she doubtless did in her village and in the meetings of the
countryside, the demonstration of ardor for the new cause, one that was a few years later to become the Lost
Cause, and in 1943 the Forgotten Caure. (Sixteen years of conflict and of
political maneuvering and of tugging bland;-shments may work transformations).
On my wall is a Confederate battle flag, symbol of the Old South, emblem
of Lost Values, and here in the Southeastern part of the United, states a region
once known as the Southland and as Dixie, a goodly percentage of Southern
dwellers cannot identify this flag.
One deplores the death of any Christian lady or gentlemen of the Old
School; I know tha though the
spirit has risen to the Land of Goshen, and for better still, to Heaven, this
civilization has lost what it can ill spare a person with a finely balanced
sense of values, one who has perceived and woven into his soul the verities that
are everlasting, and has filled his
soul with harmonies, so that could such a life be transmuted into music and
orchestrated the auditoria and domes and corridors of our beings would be filled
wiht a rare beauty. So it is with
Bettie.
This serene lady saw, when she was a ten year old child, her kindred-
veterans of Manassas, Cold Harbor, Sharpsburg, Seven Pines, Murfreesboro, and
many other fronts, come up the flower-bordered pathways to the home- steads from
which they had once set out witb high hearts; and she heard the welcoming
shouts. But the year 1865 was not one in which to yield to despair. There were
tasks to be performed, a gigantic rebuilding program to be started, one that has
hardly been completed yet. There was no vast Recovery Program, with Federal Aid,
for the fallen South, such as there was for the Europe of 1918 and the European
enemy of 1945 and the Asiatic foe of the same war. The South had to adjust
itself, crushed and impoverished to a new economy in the fact of economic
discriminations, and accommodate itself to a new ("free") labor system
of wages, with very little United States money in its possession, and with scant
means of procuring more, and with little experience in the paying of wages
especially to farm hands. The United States said to the South: "Here are
your manumitted slaves, the freed men; they are your problem; now take care of
them." Then the women of the South had, Betty Rutledge among them, as their
mothers had had as mistresses of the plantation demenses or as chatelainer, of
their manor houses, before the war, many and trying duties to liquidate', they
faced a new mission in life. Even less in the new era than in the old war, there
time for self indulgence and lackadaisical languid. Here was a challenge. (The
playboy and the playgirl had not yet brust upon the world. )
Bettie Rutledge died September 15, 1948 after an illness of several
months. She was fortunate to have with her, as she had had with her for many
years, in her last illness, for loving care of her, her three unmarried
children, Ida Lou, Gerald, and Comer A. Ruthledge. Her fervent Christian faith
sustained her to the last. Hers was a life of piety and good deeds. She was not
demonstrative in her religion', her religion was a part of her, and she lived
it. In the locality in which she lived there are many plantation negroes: their
description of her was one or two words, "The Angel". Humble folk,
often unlettered, often form shrewd judgment.
In that locality an antebellum atmosphere hangs on, as the odor of
magnolia blossoms may linger in the air.
There are a large number of us survivors who call her "Cousin
Bettie", She has been both a fact and a legend in our lives. Her mother was
Mary Camilla Giddens Perdue (1834-1858) who died when her second child Emma
Louise, was an infant. This infant did not long survive her. Mary Camilla
Giddens was a daughter of Ansley Giddens, (1809-1876) of Raleigh, North
Carolina, who settled first in Dallas County, Alabama in I828, and there at the
Community of Richmond married first Emma Louisa Womack. Later, they moved not a
great distance to Lowndes County, about one mile west of the Crenshaw County
Village of Panola. it was from this home, much more commodious then than it was
a generation later, after the ravages of time, and the rapine of man, that the
Giddens brothers proceeded to join the Hosts of Grey. They were John Ansley,
Julius C. . and James Thomas ("Uncle Jim"). There is a letter in this
scribe's records written by Jules C. Giddens from the Army, in Tupelo or
Corinth, Missiissippi to his father, Ansley Giddens, asking whether some other
Confederate soldier in that camp, named Giddens and from Russell County, was
related to him. James Thomas Giddens early in February, 1862., joined Company I
which later was incorporated in the Forty- Fifth Regiment of Alabama of the
Confederate Army. Some others in this company were Captain James Gilchrist,
James F. Clements, George C. Freeman, Phillip Cook, and John A. Robertson, the
last named of a plantation near the Giddens, not far from Panola. The youngest
Giddens brother of that marriage, William, was too young for army service.
Cousin Bettie's husband entered the Confederate Army when he was fifteen years
of age and served gallantly four years.
The other daughters of this marriage were Elizabeth (Betty) Giddens
(Brown, Boykin) who died about 1920-22, age about 92; Sarah who married John E.
Roper of Sandy Ridge of Lowndes County, and was without issue, and war, buried
in the Sawyer Cemetery there. The foregoing were the maternal uncles and aunts
of Bettie W!omack Perdue Ruthledge.
The following were the maternal half-uncle and half-aunts of this lady
re- sulting from the marriage of January 1859, of her and my grandfather, Ansley
Giddens, to my grandmother Bettie's paternal aunt, Elizabeth Narcissa Perdue (Giddens)
(1836-1914); Lucy Matilda Giddens (Moore), (November 1859, November
1935), Lurien Pinckard Giddens, Sr. (1862-1934) who married May Taylor of
Greensboro; Allie Lois (traditionally Loice) Giddens (1869-1943) my mother who
married in 1890 my father, James Mack Brown, M. D. [1866- 1948) of Coffee County
and of Strata and Sellers, Montgomery County, Alabama, and Gadsden, Alabama. So
it happened that the tenth and last child, my mother, of the two marriages of
Cousin Bettie's grandfather, Ansley Giddens, was Bettie's half-aunt, although my
mother was much her junior. Thus it has come about that I know the fact of
pedigree of various lines represented in this disquisition, as perhaps no one
else knows them. (Will the reader please pardon the change of person from time
to time in the writing of this sketch). I have a strong conviction that I should
disseminate them, and a strong urge to do so, among the descendants of these
progenitors, most of whom are Methodists, and possibly good ones, and being such
are subscribers to "The Advocate", and I hope, readers of it. Those
who did not do so well religiously but did nearly as well, and become Baptists,
are admonished to behold the Methodism of their ancestors, and to subscribe to
"The Advocate", which is the one journal with which I would not
dispense.
As for the editors of this periodical who may shrink from the verbosity
of this discourse, I say to them, "Be not saturnine, look but a bit behind
and a check you will find."
The first of Giddens family to arrive in North America were John and
Elizabeth Gittings, as the name was then spelled, in 1659 with Philip Calvert at
St. Mary's Colony, founded by Sir, later Lord George Baltimore, and his son,
Cecil, in 1633, in Maryland. John Gittings was the clerk of the Upper House of
Burgesses of the General Assurnbly of Maryland. There were four sons, John,
George, Basil, and Thomas. The subject of this obituary was via Ansley Giddens,
the descendant of Basil. The name Basil might hark back to Swiss origin, since
it seems reminiscent of Basil,Switzerland and the name of "Basil" in
this family is a hereditary one. There were in prehistoric times, before the
Caesares invaded and occupied the island, two invasions of England from the lake
region of Switzerland. Leaping a chasm of 1500 years or more, there was at St.
Albans, England, in A. D. , 1327, one Sire John de Geiddinges (with variations
in the orthography), according to that year's Sussidy Roll-no WPA list, but a
taxation list in which property owners were taxes according to their reputed
wealth. This patronymic is sometimes spelled "Giddings", and there are
other variances. From 1659 to the American Revolution, I cannot fill out the
blanks except to say that apparently at least one Giddens was a Loyalist in that
contest, whereas the others, or most of them, were of revolutionary opinions. At
any time, the postwar standing of the adherents of either side depends upon
which side prevailed. Recall the large- scale migration of Loyalist to Canada,
almost depopulating some of our northermost colonies (states) after the
Revolutionary War, a trek to avoid persecu t ion, with the consequent founding
of some of the sturdiest family stocks there. Look about you now after the
presidential election in the United States in 1948. Question: What would have
been George Washington's place in the history of the English speaking world if
the Revolution had been crushed, and Lincoln's if the Union had been humbled.
By this time the stoutest hearts have quailed, and 11 readers, confronted
with more terrors of detail than John Bunyan of "Pilgrim's Progress"
faced in monsters, have raced back down the strait and narrow path of this
composition, sinuous as it has been, except for a band of determined kinsmen who
have vow- ed to traverse every genealogical by-path. But no more apologies.
Exortation:take shelter.
Bettie 'Womack Perdue (Ruthledge) paternal ancestry in recent times con-
sisted of her father, William Watson Perdue (1825-1903), who lived probably at
Panola at the time of her birth, but later removed to Live Oak, Crenshaw County,
and lived there the remainder of his days. Her grandparents were Sovereign Tull
Perdue, Sr. (1792-1863), buried near her mother in Bethel Methodist Cemetery,
Butler County, not far
from Panola; Elizabeth Perdue (I 804- 1889) buried at the Live Oak
Methodist Cemetery, Crenshaw County, Alabama. Her great-grandparents were Sylvia
(or Sylvirah) Perry (Watson) and Arthur Rice Watson of Orangeburg, South
Carolina, who settled in Wilcox County, Alabama in 1818. The others were John
and Betsy Hitch Perdue who removed with their family in 1796 to Baldwin County,
Georgia, living for a time at Sparta, Georgia. They made the journey by sea,
coming from Westermoreland County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, now a
district in Virginia. In 1819 they settled in Monroe County, Alabama, founding
the community, Perdue Hill. 'When Indian uprisings started, they repaired to
Fort Claiborne; after this emergency they sojourned near Greenville, and before
1836, Sovereign Tully Perdue, Sr. and Elisabeth 'Watson Perdue were at Sandy
Ridge, Lowndes County, Alabama, where they acquired the plantation formerly
owned by Dr. Russell. A while later, they purchased the plantation of Mr. Grant
in Butler County, not far from the Methodist Church at Bethel. The children of
this couple were William Watson Perdue (1825-1903), Monroe Wimberly Perdue
(1832-1913) who married Hettie Reddoch, Permelia Caroline (Mrs. Eldridge Fleming
Roper) (1828-1908), buried at Bethel; Matilda Clara (Mrs. Daniel Elvin Herlong)
(1829-1912), buried at Live Oak; Elizabeth Narcissa (second wife of Ansley
Giddens of Lowndes County, and ?anola (Crenshaw County) and Mt. Carmel
(Montgomery County), beginning in 1870. She was born in 1836 and died in 1914.
She was a twin to Sovereign Tully Perdue, Jr. whose wife waw, born Abilgall
Corine Reddoch. He died about 1917. The latter and Monroe Wimberley Perdue were
Confederate soldiers. All these lived to be seventy-two to eighty-two or three
years of age. Three Perdue brothers married three Reddoch sisters.
As an aside: personal (given) names, at any rate, those of British
origin, the origin of the names of those of whom I write, evicted a pioneer
liking for Bibical and classical derivations, as did those of the settlements
themselves, this, one hundred years and more ago.
A generation further removed now comes into view. The children of John
Perdue and Betsy Hitch Perdue were with their consorts: Sovereign Tully Perdue,
Sr. , who married Elisabeth Watson; Martin who died young, un- married', John
Bailey, a preacher-planter (1788-186 ), who married Mary Ellis', Boling, Sr. ,
who married Clara Watson (both buried at Bethel Cemetery) Joshua, another
minister of the gospel, whose wife, maiden name unknown to me, returned to
Georgia with their child after his death; Hiland (Hilom) who married Martha
Ellis; Joanna who was the first wife of Perry Watson who, after her death
married Nancy Ellis, (Joanna Perdue Watson) and Perry Watson are both interred
at Sawyer Cemetery. And Nancy Perdue who married Alex Watson-, Hetty who married
Alex Reddoch, and after his death a Mr. Cheatem; Betsy who married a Mr. Anthony
Golsn and a Mr. Johnson, but I do not know in what order; she was left a widow
by her first husband. Rachael married Marshall Smith, and after his death a Mr.
Rayburn or vice versa.
The first Perdues in America were French Protestants (Huguenots) who had
immigrated, possibly via the British Isles, in the 1600's or 1700's to
Pennsylvania and Maryland. " Perdue,' may be the same name in origin.
The maternal great-grandparents of Bettie Womack Perdue Rutledge (did you
think that you had finished with me) were Arthur Rice Watson and Sylvia Perry
Watson who had these children: Elisabeth Watson (1864-5-1889) who married as
already noted, Sovereign Tully Perdue, Sr. ; Clara, who married Boling Perdue,
Sr.; Isiah who married Sarah Youngblood; Marlin who married Mary Youngblood;
Arthur who married Alethea Boyd (Walter Watson of Mt. Carmel who died in the
1930 decade was a son or grandson of this couple); And Emsley who married Mary
Anne Ellis; Perry who married first Joanna Perdue and after her death Nancy
Ellis; Caroline who married George Harrison; Amelia who married Mortimer Roper;
Alex who married Nancy Perdue. Thus four Perdue brothers and sisters married
four Watson brothers and sisters. The marriages of these two families with a
third were numerous. After the death of Arthur Rice Watson, his widow, Sylvia
Perry Watson, undaunted by the vicissitudes of life, eventually married a Mr.
Stone and lived on a plantation near Selma. This Chronicler has lost sight of
the Watson posterity of the last hundred years, except for those in his
immediate family. He would like to have Watson family lore from any Watson
descendant who may read this article and shall not be too depressed to write.
On June 22, 1876, Elizabeth Womack Perdue married Augustus V. Rutledge
(October 14, 1845 - May 7, 1922). They passed the remainder of their life in
Patsburg or on their farm in its vicinity in the village of Rutledge, though the
family were living in the city of Montgomery when Mr. Rutledge died. They were
members of the Patsburg Methodist Church. Their children were: Ida Lou, Gerald
Humphrey, Comer Augustus, Maude Irene (Mrs. John Rhodes), the first three
unmarried, and all four of Pateburg; Mary Zou (Mrs. Chester C. Van Osdol) of
Montgomery, Ala.,, Rosa Kate (Mrs. Beauford McDonald, of Montgomery, Alabama);
Forrest Hunter, Dayton Beach, Florida. He
married Miss Pearl Sawyer of Macon, Georgia.
Betty Womack Perdue [Rutledge's] father, William Watson Perdue, added by
his second, Bettie's forster mother, Missouri Reddock [Perdue], who had before
thid marriage wed and become the widow of a clergyman, a Reverand Mr. Hightower,
srtictly but gently reared his family according to the tenets of his class and
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. this
foster mother made no difference in her care between her only child, Ida Alice
Perdue [later to become Mrs. Thomas Dendy of Vernledge, Alabama] and Bettie.
So peerless a mother was she that Bettie, in the culminating days of her
last illness, befogged by her malady, though she was nearly ninety-three years
of age, asked repeatedly for this mother and whether or not she was preset or
had "gone". In her last
illness, Cousin Bettie manifested the consideration for others that had always
been her characteristic. She had
always had the Christian virtue of fortitude, and in abundance.
She spent a busy life. She
was industrious and energetic. Even
when she had passed her ninety-second birthday she sinsited
on performing household duties and on busying herself about the premises.
She was useful until the end of her life.
When she was hardly more than three years old she had an experience that
was to guide her footsteps the remainder of her life. Shortly after her mother
died, while the family war, still living at Panola, she accompanied her father
on a walk. Presently they reached a woodland, and there in a glade her father
stopped, and in a sudden access of grief at the loss of his wife and cornpanion,
he stopped, and there in the eventide took thought of the future of his mother-
less child. She always remembered, as if it had happened the day before, his
prayer. As the hill purpled in the distance he prayed that he might be guided in
the rearing of this child. Shadows crept down the sides of the ridges and spread
strange mantles on the valley floors. There, far from the crowd he placed a
hand, as though in apostolic benediction, on her head and asked God that his
little girl,too , might grow up to be a real lady - a Christian lady.
This narrator has a letter dated in the year 1850 written by Mary Camilla
Giddens (later Perdue), mother of Bettie, from her boarding school in Green-
ville, Alabama, addressed to her father, "Ansley A. Giddens", of
Panola, at his post office at Hickory Grove, now usually known as Devenport,
Lowndes County, the letter to be taken "by the politeness of Mr.
Payne". After recounting school news, notably that the school principal,
Mr. Herbert, would not hold examinations, (good news for the pupils, no doubt)
because of the illness of his wife, she asked that the negro slave woman,
"Aunt" Jane, bake her a "nice" cake for her homecoming.
(Sixteen year old schoolgirls were as hungry then as now). V!ill the Partisans
of Civil Rights by force note: The letter concludes: "Give my love to black
and white". (Love is still something that cannot be forced; and the gold of
Ophir, the Jewel of Jarnshyr, and the rubies of Burma cannot purchase one iota
of it). This girl was a general favorite in her father's family and in the
establishment, because of her sweetness of disposition. About ninety-six years
after this "epistle" (as Mary Camilla Giddens, called it in her
letter) was written, her daughter, Bettie Womack Perdue Rutledge, told me that
when her mother was married in 1834 these two colored women, " Aunts
Mehailie and Jane", were given to her to serve her and her husband,
V."illiam Mtatson Perdue, and that as a "Black Mammy" for Bettie,
Mehailie was a wonder. On the tomb of Mary Camilla Giddens Perdue is the
tribute. "She was a kind and affectionate wife, a fond mother, and a friend
of all."
Elizabeth Womack Perdue Rutledge was laid to rest beside her husband,
Augustus V. Rutledge, on September 16, 1948, in the Live Oak Methodist Church
Cemetery, about three miles from Patsburg, not far from several relatives one of
whom was her Uncle, Monroe Wimberley Perdue. Close is the grave of her paternal
grandmother, Elizabeth Watson Perdue, devout Christian, on whose headstone is
carved, "Unto thee, 0, Lord, do I lift up my soul. " Generations of
man come and generations go, and the handiwork of man perishes, but Truth lives
on;, and while he is upon this planet man may contemplate Mother Earth; here
yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and perhaps till the end of time. In taking
leave of the mortal remains of Bettie Womack Perdue Rutledge, I am thinking of
the tenth verse of thirty-first chapter of Proverbs, a verse fitting for the
splendid wives and mothers and daughters of the world: "Who can find a
virtuous woman, for .her worth is far above rubies."
JOSEPH
LUCIAN BROWN, M. D
More About ELIZABETH
WOMACK PERDUE:
Burial: September 16,
1948, Live Oak Cemetery, Crenshaw Co., AL
More About AUGUSTUS V.
RUTLEDGE:
Burial: 1922, Live Oak
Cemetery, Crenshaw Co., AL
Children of ELIZABETH
PERDUE and AUGUSTUS RUTLEDGE are:
i. IDA LOU7
RUTLEDGE.
ii. GERALD
HUMPHREY RUTLEDGE.
iii. COMER
AUGUSTUS RUTLEDGE.
iv. MAUDE
IRENE RUTLEDGE, m. JOHN RHODES.
v. MARY
ZOU RUTLEDGE, m. CHESTER C. VANOSDOL.
vi. ROSA
KATE RUTLEDGE, m. BEAUFORD MCDONALD.
vii. FOSTER HUNTER RUTLEDGE, m. PEARL SAWYER.
see
generation No. 1 see
generation No. 2 see
generation No. 3
see
Endnotes (Source Information), Page 1 (nos. 1 - 145)
see
Endnotes (Source Information), Page 2 (nos. 146 - 289)
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