Wednesday, September 29, 2010

September Birthdays

Each month you will be introduced to some of your ancestors.  They will be listed in the month of their birth date.  Along with vital statistics, I will add personal stories I have been told and/or ones of my own as I have been fortunate to have personally known them.  Please add your stories here too.






Daddy Swann
01 Sep 1891 - OTIS FRANKLIN SWANN, SR. -Otis was my grandfather (Daddy Swann).  He was the youngest of eleven children born to Matilda Green HARPER and William Wilson SWANN in Conyers, Rockdale County, Georgia.  He married Eddye Mae LOYD and they had three children:  Frances, Mary Elizabeth, and Otis, Jr.
        Daddy Swann loved to tell stories of the family and I remember once he told me that when he was a young boy, he was walking down the road with his aunt.  She stopped and said to him, “Otis, look up in the sky.  I think one day trains will drive across the sky carrying a lot of people from one place to the other.”  He said he thought she was crazy!  Then he chuckled and added, “She really wasn’t crazy—look at the way people travel in the sky every day in airplanes!”

        When he was a young boy, he said he was in North Carolina and saw the Wright Brothers flight.  That may not seem like a big deal to some people, but it means a lot to me because this same man sat in front of a television set in 1969 and watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.  During Daddy Swann’s lifetime he witnessed the history of flight from a prediction made by his aunt, to its birth, to man’s first step on the moon. That is exciting!

        Daddy Swann worked for the railroad most of his life and retired when he was 62 years old.  He enjoyed a retirement that lasted 26 years.  He wanted so much to make it to his 100th birthday, but he died when he was 98 years old (14 April 1989).  He loved to hunt and fish, loved baseball, and loved going to church.

13 Sep 1865 - ELIZA MADELINE LAVIER BRANNAN Eliza was the daughter of Eliza MITCHELL and Isaac B. LAVIER.  She was born in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, on 13 Sep 1865,  After her marriage to John L. BRANNAN, they lived in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida.  They had two children: Josiah Lavier BRANNAN and Edith BRANNAN as well as an adopted son, John Henry FAUCETTE.  Eliza died 20 Feb 1955.

13 Sep 1891 - ELIZA BRANNAN NORRIS Eliza was born in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, to parents Eliza M. Lavier and John L. Brannan.  She married Edward F. Norris. On 7 Jul 1982, Eliza died in Plant City, Hillsborough County, Florida.

15 Sep 1804 - Eliza SHUMAN (ENGLISH) Eliza was born in Bryan County, Georgia.  She was married to Reuben ENGLISH around 1823.  Their children: Ann Matilda, Sara Jane, William H., James R., Eliza, Ellen Lavinia, Elizabeth, Andrew Jackson, Joseph, and Alexander Franlkin.  She died 15 Oct 1885 and is buried in the English Cemetery in Ellabelle, Georgia.

Aunt Julia
21 Sep 1878 - Julia B. SWANN MAHONE - Julia was the sixth of eleven children born to parents Matilda Green HARPER and William Wilson SWANN in Rockdale County, Georgia.  She married James Fletcher MAHONE, Sr., on 06 Sep 1911.  She gave birth to a son, James Fletcher MAHONE, Jr., and a daughter, Gussie MAHONE (HAMMOCK).  Julia died 02 Sep 1942 and is buried in the Locust Grove First Baptist Church Cemetery in Locust Grove, Henry County, Georgia.
          Daddy Swann (Julia's youngest brother) told a story about them sitting around Julia's dinner table one night when one of the guys asked that the biscuits be passed.  Instead of passing the plate of biscuits, one of the other fellows picked up a biscuit and tossed it through the air. Daddy Swann said Julia got up from the table, took a horse whip off the wall and "corrected" them both with it.  She put the whip back, never said a word, sat down, and continued her meal.  Needless to say, no one ever threw another biscuit across her table.


25 Sep 1862 - George Burrington LAVIER – George (son of Eliza MITCHELL and Isaac B. LAVIER) was only two when he died 08 Jun 1865 in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, where he was born.  He is buried on the Lavier-Haselton plot in Laurel Grove Cemetery.  Little George died 7 days before the death of his father.




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