Descendants of
David Fleming
of Pitt County, North Carolina
thru his son John,
later of
Pulaski County, Georgia
1,364 descendants and their spouses
of John Fleming, son of David Fleming,
correcting and supplanting all previous versions.
In Eight Parts
Last updates and revisions – April 15, 2004
Generation No. 1
J1. JOHN3 FLEMING (David2, John1) –– my great-great-great-great grandfather and fourth child of David and Ann Fleming –– was born on March 18, 1786 in Pitt County, North Carolina –– this date given in the David Fleming family bible and confirmed by his son’s family bible, that of William Green Fleming, a copy of which is found in the latter’s widow’s Indian War pension application.
n reporting the death of John’s second wife, Malinda, The
Hawkinsville Dispatch newspaper, of Hawkinsville, Pulaski County, Georgia, on July
14, 1881 states that John Fleming died in Pulaski County in 1852.
John Fleming’s will (excerpt below) stipulates that his body was to be buried on his Pulaski plantation, Seven Miles Farm – so named for it was seven miles from Hawkinsville by way of the old Slosh Eye Road – and that “one-eighth of an acre for said graveyard be set apart by executors.”
At the age of 20 or 21, about 1807, in Pitt County, North Carolina, John married Louisa Dudley, who bore 13 children. She was born on December 4, 1783; died between 1840 and September 6, 1845 in Pulaski County, Georgia.
Moves to Washington County, Georgia
By February 21, 1818, when their daughter Catherine was born, John, Louisa and their young children (possibly along with his sister Sarah and her husband Edmund Little) had moved from Pitt County to Washington County, Georgia. Once there, John registered and qualified for the Georgia Land Lottery of 1821, drawing Land Lot #162 in the 2nd District of Dooly County. (To be eligible for the 1821 Land Lottery, he would have had to be a resident of Georgia for three years.)
Notes on the Georgia Land Lottery of 1821
THE FOURTH GEORGIA LAND LOTTERY – (a.k.a., the 1821 Land Lottery):
he fourth, or 1821 Land Lottery opened the portion of Georgia between the Ocmulgee and Flint Rivers for settlement. This area, comprised of original Fayette, Henry, Monroe, Houston and Dooly counties, extended from today’s Roswell on the north to Ashburn on the South. The tract was ceded to the United States by the Creek Nation of Indians on January 8,1821 at the Treaty of Indian Springs. Approximately four months later, by Act of May 15,1821, the drawing of the Lottery was held at Milledgeville, the State Capitol.
As this was the fourth lottery to be held by Georgia, all persons who had drawn blanks in the three previous lotteries were able to participate. Many, for the first time, received a prize, and ultimately were granted a land lot by the State of Georgia. The lots were 202½ acres in size and the fortunate drawer could receive his grant by paying the $19.00 grant fee established by law.
COUNTIES
Dooly 16 districts (1 thru 16)
Fayette 4 districts (6,7,9,14)
Henry 18 districts (1 thru 18)
Houston 16 districts (1 thru 16)
Monroe 15 districts ( 1 thru 15)SIZE OF LAND LOTS
For all five counties they were 202½ acre lots, 2970 feet square.
PERSONS ENTITLED TO DRAW
Bachelor, 18 years or over, three years residence in Georgia, three year citizen of the United States (one draw);
Married man, with wife and/or minor son under 18 and/or unmarried daughter, three year residence in Georgia, three year citizen of the United States (two draws);
Widow, three year residence in Georgia (one draw);
Family of minor orphans, father dead, three year residence in Georgia (one draw);
Family (three or more) of minor orphans, father and mother dead (two draws);
Family ( one or two) of minor orphans, father and mother dead (one draw);
Widow, husband killed or died in Revolutionary War, War of 1812 or Indian War, three year residence in Georgia (two draws);
Orphan, father killed or died in Revolutionary War, War of 1812 or Indian War (two draws); or
Child or family of children of a convict, three years residence in Georgia (one draw).
PERSONS EXCLUDED
Any fortunate drawer in any previous Land Lottery.
The information above was taken from the Georgia Secretary of State’s website at http://www.sos.state.ga.us/archives/rs/1821.htm
John Fleming appears in 1820 census of Washington County, farming in the Jenkins’ district, and then on the 1825 Washington County Tax List paying taxes on 100 acres there that adjoined the property of Mr. Dudley (perhaps kin to his wife?) and on the 202½ acres he had drawn in Dooly County. He remained in Washington County at least until January 7, 1827, when – as recorded in Pitt County Deed Book EE, p. 99 – “John Fleming of Washington County, Ga. (gives) to Elisha King ... power of attorney to secure monies or property due him from Willis Fleming, Admn. of the estate of David Fleming, dec’d.”
Moves to Pulaski County, Georgia
Sometime later in 1827 or 1828, John Fleming and his family moved to Pulaski County, in central Georgia. The obituary of his son, John Ottaway Fleming, in The Hawkinsville Dispatch on June 14, 1883 states that the son “was born in Washington County, Georgia, in 1824, and at the age of 3 years moved with his parents to Pulaski County ...”
Whatever the exact date, by 1830, John had settled in Pulaski County, Georgia, that portion of land that he had drawn in 1821 being annexed from Dooly to Pulaski County in 1826.
The 1830 federal census of Pulaski County, Georgia finds John, his wife, eight sons, and two daughters, along with 19 slaves, on the west side of Big Creek on land that now straddles both sides of the Unadilla Highway from the Fleming Bridge roughly to Snow Road. (Remains of the old wooden Fleming Bridge still remain. A newer bridge replaced the original in 1928.)
By 1840, “J. Fleming” is shown with two male children between 15 and 20 years of age (James and perhaps John Ottoway) and two between 20 and 30 (William Green and Ferdinand). Among females, one female child is listed between 5 and 10 (name unknown) and one female between 50 and 60 (John’s wife, Louisa). John’s daughters Ann and Catherine had married and presumably moved away from the home as had sons Duncan Lemmon Fleming and Count Pulaski Fleming. Daughters Lydia and Mary had died before the 1830 census, and Ottoway Glenn Fleming died before the 1840 census. Another son, name unknown, was living in 1830, but dead before 1840.
Louisa (Dudley) Fleming Dies
And John Fleming Remarries
Between the 1840 census count and 1845 when he remarried John’s first wife Louisa Dudley had died. As his will states, she was buried at Seven Miles Farm.
On September 6, 1845, John Fleming married Mrs. Malinda Chance Jones in neighboring Houston County, Georgia, according to Houston County, Georgia, Marriage Book, A, p. 86. The widow of Taney Jones of Houston County, Malinda was born in Jefferson County, Georgia, on July 14, 1799; and died in Hawkinsville, Pulaski County, Georgia on July 7, 1881.
Five years later, the federal count of Pulaski in 1850 shows John and Malinda, on 7,400 acres. Living with them was David Green Fleming, age 7, John’s grandson and son of Duncan Lemmon Fleming. Duncan L. Fleming and his wife Elda had died the year prior, leaving at least six orphaned children.
John Fleming Dies in 1852
Sadly, the family burial ground for which he provided in his will is today lost: Reportedly the grave markers there were destroyed in the 1970s. John and his wives are buried there and probably several of his children and maybe grandchildren. Somewhere amid the pines, on the west side of Big Creek, they rest nameless and unrecognized.
A letter from cousin Evelyn (Fleming) Hoffman to Mrs. Leonard G. (Marie) DeLamar, on November 16, 1976, states: “Re(garding) the old Fleming plantation cemetery: I was told that it was ploughed under, tombstones and all ... by a new owner. I have never known just where it was. The person said to have done this I believe is still living. I wonder if we could at least find the buried tombstones?”
Marie wrote back the following: “The family cemetery once had slabs and headstones. As years passed and the property was sold, others farmed the section where the plot lay. Until about 1976, the little cemetery was there in a small grove of trees surrounded by fields of crops. One day about 1977 someone came in with a truck (the heavy tire tracks were evidence) and took all the tombstones. The indentures where they once were were easy to see. It is unfortunate, but no one in the family ever took pictures of this cemetery not did they copy the inscriptions on the stones. This is lost to us forever.”
In a letter to me (Joseph T. Fleming) dated June 6, 1997 she added this: “Enclosed find a copy of a write up from the Hawkinsville Dispatch of some 70 years ago. It is yellowish brown ... It states that Ferdinand (my husband’s line) lived in the house built two years before he was born (was still standing in 1917) on the old Seven Miles Farm on Big Creek and about ½ mile from Fleming Bridge. This is where the cemetery was.”
Will of John Fleming
WILL OF JOHN FLEMING
Book A/239
GEORGIA –– PULASKI COUNTY
Item first. I prayerfully and hopefully commend my soul to God who gave it and through whose great mercy I am permitted to cherish a lively hope of a blessed immortality and I desire my body to be buried if possible beside the grave of my first wife deceased on my plantation in this county and that one-eighth of an acre for said graveyard be set apart by my executors herein after named and secondly reserve for that purpose in any conveyance or disposition which may be made of my land where the said grave yard is located.
Item second. I desire and direct my executors to pay all my just debts and funeral expenses with as little delay as circumstances will allow out of my money on hand if sufficient and if not sufficient then from the proceeds of my cotton if on hand or of such other of my perishable property as my executors may deem it most advantageous to sell for that purpose.
Item third. On account of the permanent affliction of my son John O. Fleming, I feel it to be my duty to make some additional provision for him and my will and desire therefore is that my executor, before making the general division and deduction of my estate hereinafter directed, do raise as they think proper out of my property and pay over to said John O. Fleming for his use, benefit and ____ the sum of two hundred dollars.
Item four. All the rest and residue of my estate both real and personal of which I am or may die possessed or entitled to I desire my executors when such early period after my death as to them seems decent and proper to come to the family and equally divide and distribute to and among my six sons, to wit Duncan L. Fleming, William G. Fleming, Count Pulaski Fleming, Ferdinand Fleming, James Fleming and John O. Fleming and my daughter Catharine Williamson, wife of Thully Williamson, and my granddaughter Amanda M. Coney, wife of Jeremiah Coney, Jr., to them or those who legally represent them share and share alike according to the statutes of distribution now of force in this state excepting out of which distribution until after the death of my present wife in case she shall survive me the negro girl Jinny and 2/3 of lot of land number seventy in the fourth district of Dooly County and one horse worth sixty dollars, a cow and calf and sow and pigs which by an antinuptial contract with my said last wife I conveyed in trust to her during her natural life.
Item fifth. My will and desire is that my executors abstain from selling any of the property out of the family and especially the land and negroes except wherein it may become necessary absolutely to the payment of my just debts or of the special legacy of my son John O. Fleming or where it shall be impractable to make an equal division without such sale. If it should become necessary to have any such sale I hereby confer upon them authority to make it in such manner and upon such terms as to them shall seem most advantageous and proper.
Item sixth. I hereby nominate and appoint my well beloved sons Duncan L. Fleming, Count Pulaski Fleming and my son-in-law Thully Williamson the executors of this my last Will and Testament. Signed, sealed and published by John Fleming as his last Will and Testament.
JOHN FLEMING
The above and foregoing signed, sealed and published and declared by John Fleming as his last Will and Testament in our presence and signed by us as witnesses in his presence and view and in the presence and view of each other on the eighteenth day of May eighteen hundred and forty-seven.
Augustus H. Hansel (or Haskins),
John V. Mitchell,
Wm. L. WhitfieldCODICIL
GEORGIA –– PULASKI COUNTYWhereas I John Fleming of the county and State aforesaid have made and executed my last Will and Testament bearing the date the Eighteenth day of May Eighteen hundred and forty seven and whereby Item fourth of said will did except out of the distribution of my Estate until after the death of my present wife in case she should survive me the negro girl Jinny and 2/3 of the lot of land number seventy in the fourth district of Dooly County and the horse worth sixty dollars and the cow and calf and sow and pigs which by an antinuptial contract with my said last wife I conveyed in trust for her during her natural life and whereas I consider the provisions for my said wife by said Item and by said antinuptial contract sufficient for her use and support I do hereby declare it to be my will and desire that my said wife Malinda Fleming shall have and take not dower or interest in any kind in the estate real or personal which I have but do declare said provisions to be in lieu and stead of all her claim and right to dower in my estate and do declare this writing to be a codicil to my said will and that the same shall be annexed thereto and be as part thereof and I confirm my said will in every particular thereof that is not hereby revoked. In witness whereof I have to this codicil set my hand this the twenty seventh day of August in the year Eighteen hundred and forty nine.
JOHN FLEMING
Signed by the said John Fleming as and for a codicil to his last will and Testament in the presence of us and present at the same time who in his presence and in the presence of each other now hereunder subscribe our names as attesting witnesses this 27th August 1849.
Augustus H. Hansell
Batts W. Mitchell
C. M. Bozeman
Division of the Estate of John
Fleming
Excerpt from Deed Book M, p. 7,
Pulaski County, Georgia,
September 1854 (Exact date illegible)
GEORGIA –– PULASKI COUNTY
Pursuant to the last will and testament of John Fleming, late of said county deceased, after publication and notice for sixty days made in the Macon Journal and Messenger, on the first Tuesday in January eighteen hundred and fifty-four, Thully Williamson, executor of the last will and testament of said John Fleming deceased, at Hawkinsville in said county did put up and expose? to sell for ready money all of the lots of land nos. sixty-eight, num. seventy, and ninety, and all that part of ninety-three that lies on the southside of Big Creek and all that part of ninety-two that lies above a certain spring branch it being the northwestern part of said lot that joins ninety-three except a fourth of an acre at being reserved for a graveyard and also lot number seventy after reserving two acres in the northeast corner of said lot in the fourth district of originally Dooly now Pulaski County when James Fleming, being the highest and best bidder said lots and part of lots ...
Obituary of Malinda Chance
The Hawkinsville Dispatch, Hawkinsville, Georgia, Thursday, July 14, 1881, p. 3:
MRS. MALINDA FLEMING was born in Jefferson county, Georgia, on the 14th of July, 1799, and died near Hawkinsville on Thursday, July 7th, 1881, lacking just one week of being eighty-two years old.
Her maiden name was Chance, and at the age of fifteen years she was married to Taney Jones, with whom she moved to the neighborhood of Henderson, Houston county, about the year 1839, where he died a few years later.
Issue:
Of John Fleming and Louisa Dudley
J2–––i.––– Ann D(udley)4 Fleming, of whom below, born March 30, 1808 in Pitt County, North Carolina.
J3––– ii.––– Lydia Fleming, born September 27, 1809 in Pitt County, North Carolina; possibly died before 1830. She does not appear in the 1830 census of Pulaski County, Georgia.
J4––– iii.––– Mary Ann Fleming was born on November 7, 1810 in Pitt County, North Carolina; possibly died before 1830, as she does not appear in the 1830 Pulaski County census. Two daughters are accounted for in the 1830 census. Ann (#J2) was married about 1828 so it is likely she was not one of these two. Catherine was one of these two daughters, since she did not marry until 1836. Therefore, it would appear that either Lydia (#J3) or Mary Ann died before 1830.
J5––– iv.––– Duncan Lemmon Fleming, of whom below, born February 16, 1812 in Pitt County, North Carolina; died May 14, 1849 in Dooly County, Georgia.
J6––– v.––– William Green Fleming, of whom below, born April 8, 1813 in Pitt County, North Carolina; died October 11, 1870 in Pulaski County, Georgia.
J7––– vi.––– Count Pulaski Fleming, of whom below, was born on June 12, 1814 in Pitt County, North Carolina; died on May 17, 1876 in Atlanta, Georgia.
J8––– vii.––– Ferdinand Fleming was born on December 24, 1815 in Pitt County, North Carolina; he died on October 7, 1879, age 63, at the home of his sister Catherine (Fleming) Williamson, in Pulaski County, Georgia. He never married and had no children of his own but Ferdinand Fleming served as guardian for four minor children of his brother, William Green Fleming. Viz. –––
The Hawkinsville Dispatch, Hawkinsville, Georgia, November 10, 1870, p. 2:
GEORGIA –– PULASKI COUNTY
Ferdinand Fleming applies for letters of Guardianship of the persons and property of Martha C., Ferdinand P., George W., and Elam Fleming, minors of W. G. Fleming, deceased ...
Obituary of Ferdinand Fleming
The Hawkinsville Dispatch, Hawkinsville, Georgia, Thursday, October 9, 1879:
Mr. Ferdinand Fleming, Sr., an aged and highly respected citizen of this county, died at the residence of his sister, Mrs. Catherine Williamson, on Tuesday evening last.
J9––– viii.––– Catherine Fleming, of whom below, born February 21, 1818 in Washington County, Georgia; died March 21, 1887 in Hawkinsville, Pulaski County, Georgia.
J10––– ix.––– Ottoway Glenn Fleming, born February 25, 1820 in Washington County, Georgia. No further record, but assumed to have died young. May have been living in 1840, but not mentioned in his father’s will written May 18, 1847.
J11––– x.––– James Fleming, of whom below, born February 25, 1823 in Washington County, Georgia; died May 6, 1896 in Pulaski County, Georgia.
J12––– xi.––– John Ottaway Fleming was born on November 3, 1824 in Washington County, Georgia; died on April 17, 1883 near Jasper, Hamilton County, Florida. The will of his father speaks of the “ ... permanent affliction of my son John ...” but there is no indication to know the specifics of his disability or illness.
Obituary of John Ottaway Fleming
From Marriages, Deaths, and Etc., from Hawkinsville Dispatch, 1870 - 1888, by Robert K. Nobles, published by the Central Georgia Genealogical Society, Warner Robins, Georgia, 1991, p. 229 (excerpt of The Hawkinsville Dispatch, Hawkinsville, Georgia, Thursday, June 14, 1883):
Mr. James Fleming has received a letter announcing the death of his brother John Ottaway Fleming, near Jasper, Hamilton County, Florida, on the 17th day of April last.
The deceased was born in Washington County, Georgia, in 1824, and at the age of three years moved with his parents to Pulaski County, where he lived until about the year 1857, when he emigrated to Florida. About the year 1854, he was elected to the office of Tax Collector by the people of Pulaski.
There were six of the Fleming brothers. Mr. James Fleming, now living near Hawkinsville, is the only survivor. Duncan Lemon Fleming died in Dooly County in 1849. He was the father of Mr. D. G. Fleming of Hawkinsville. William G. Fleming died in Pulaski County in 1870. Count Pulaski Fleming died in Atlanta about 1878. Ferdinand died in this county in 1879.
All except Ferdinand married and raised families. One sister, Mrs. Catharine Williamson, is still living near Hawkinsville.
J13––– xii.––– (Unknown) Fleming, a son, appears in the 1830 census, but is not accounted for in the 1840 census. Nor his he mentioned in the his father’s will written on May 18, 1847.
J14––– xiii.––– (Unknown) Fleming, a daughter. The existence of this daughter is assumed from the 1840 census of Pulaski County, Georgia, which accounts for 1 female under 10 years of age. By that time, daughter Catherine Fleming had married Thully Williamson and it would be assumed they had moved out of father John’s household. Her father’s will, written on May 18, 1847, mentions only one living daughter, Catharine (Fleming) Williamson.
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