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July 7th, 1768 | Marlborough district, South Carolina |
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Mary Ann COOK |
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CHILDREN | Louisa
Ann Conner Mary J. Conner Harriett Elizabeth Conner James Gassaway Conner Thomas Benton Conner Polly Goodwin Conner Eliza Trplay Conner Mariah McDonald Conner Martha Lewis Conner Nancy Ann Conner Wilson Walker Conner William Barnard Conner |
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PARENTS |
Thomas CONNER Lillie PALMER |
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30 JUN 1844 | Telfair
Co GA Dead River Cemetery Vidalia GA |
CONNER
| http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/FL/baker/newspapers/wiw19823.txt THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS, Thursday, September 23, 1982 THE WAY IT WAS-Gene Barber The Elder Wilson Conner For much of this week's material, this column is indebted to the following: the late and greatly respected Mr. Willis Conner of Glen Saint Mary, the famed and definitive word on deep south genealogy-the Honorable Folks Huxford, and young writer Marc Dugan of Raleigh, North Carolina. If we could remember them all, we would also name the number of authors who tantalizingly mentioned only too briefly the South Georgia Thunderer and Exhorter Elder Wilson Conner. Many of our Conners in the Baker, Charlton, and Union Counties section are descended from the venerable Wilson "Wilce" (and "Willis") Conner, who, until a more authenticated contender comes along, will hold the distinction of being the first active non-High Church cleric in the Wildes of Florida. In some of the books he is titled "Reverend", but those writers don't know much about the Primitive Baptist faith which allows that none shall be called by that epithet except the Almighty. He was born, depending on which source one checks, in either Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Ireland in 1768. Ireland can be discounted since the extant 174 year old family Bible gives a pretty good run-down on the family tree back to 1678 and gives them all as being born on this side of the Atlantic. Part of his youth was spent in South Carolina, and he married in that state. His father received bounty land in Georgia for his services during the Revolutionary War, and young Wilson joined him there. Much to the relief of our typographer and proof-reader, we shall not list the kids and their dates, and it is at this point that some researchers disagree on the line. The family Bible lists 12 children, but some of the record is missing. Perhaps it was on that missing portion that the William Barnard (pronounced with the accent on the first syllable), who was the progenitor of the local family, was one. We are going on the word of Mr. Willis Conner, and we believe that he would know who his grandfather was as well, or better, than most other folks. William Barnard and his wife Pollie Leigh lived in Camden (now that portion called Charlton County and were charter members of the very old Emmeus Baptist Church near the present Saint George. Their children were Reubin, Willis Washington (from whom most of the Baker County Conners are descended), William Barnard Riley "Billy" (ancestor of Commissioner Doyle Conner) Caroline, Mary (who married a Kersey), Jesse (who moved to Union County), George, John R. (he remained in Nassau County) Joseph, and Ellen. Back to old Wilson, he traveled around the southeastern Georgia area, preaching and founding churches throughout the late 1700's and early 1800's, and like many other Georgia pioneers, he developed a keen interest in the Spanish possession of Florida. When the cranky General George Mathews of Georgia decided that the Georgia Militia should do its part during the War of 1812 (meaning to rush into Florida and grab everything possible from the Spanish with whom our little nation was not at war), Elder Conner was right in there as soldier chaplain. The Georgians were so successful in their harassment of little Fernandina, Cowford, and the half dozen other tiny settlements of Spanish, former English subjects, and American pioneers that they gleefully marched on to Saint Augustine where they intended to capture the Castillo de San Marcos and the capital of Spanish East Florida (they'd heard that Andy Jackson was tending to like duties in West Florida). Since the old Spanish fort had never been taken by force and had no intention of succumbing to a band of ragtag Georgia Militia men, the assault was unsuccessful. But of almost equal magnitude was that, as far as history has told us, Elder Wilson Conner-son of a Revolutionary Soldier and progenitor of the Baker County Conners-directed the first Christian service outside the Roman and English rites in Florida. If Florida could not be gained by so-called honest means (war),then Elder Conner and a few others determined to acquire the territory by another time-honored American plan-move in, revolt, form a country, and invite the U.S. to accept the reins of government. They formed the Nation of Alachua somewhere in the present area of Alachua County (some believe closer to the Melrose section), and Conner was a member of the new country's President's Cabinet. Secretary Conner's pleas for recognition of the little state went unheeded in Washington City. His compatriots (were summarily tended to by the governments of Spain and the U.S. (hanging and imprisoning), and Elder Conner suddenly felt the call to return to the ministry in that "Haven of Rest" called backwoods Georgia. In 1819 he helped a band of Americans living along the Spanish side of the Saint Mary's River form the Pigeon Creek Baptist Church (formally chartered a couple of years later)-Florida's first Baptist Church. From Pigeon Creek went assistance to other communities such as Emmeus and North Prong's Mount Zion (both also on the Saint Mary's). These, together with those being established by Elder Conner, became locally known as the "Conner Faction" or"Connerites." A very few of these churches are still meeting and are now sometimes referred to as the "Ben Thomas Faction" and occasionally in an unflattering intent as the "Ben Thomas Bunch"> Elder Conner was a valuable state and county officer many times in Georgia during the latter part of his life. The Georgia Legislature granted him a divorce from his wife in 1829. He suffered expulsion from the church one time, and was always some what of a different thinker in his faith. It was said that he traveled over 35,000 miles on horseback along his circuit of churches during the last thirteen years of his life. He died in a pulpit in the middle of a sentence while preaching in Telfair County Georgia in the summer of 1844. One wonders at the successes of the image-makers and re-writers of history when folks heros are made of n'er accomplishers and blow hards such as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, but doers-with God and guts are passed over. __________________________________________________________________________ ___ Unknown County GaArchives Biographies.....Conner, Wilson 1768 - 1844 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 3, 2005, 12:25 am Author: J. H. Campbell WILSON CONNER Was born in Marlborough district, South Carolina, July 7th, 1768, and at about twenty-one years of age engaged in the ministry among the Methodists. About 1773, having become dissatisfied with the doctrine and discipline of that society, he was baptized at Cheraw, South Carolina, by Joshua Lewis, and was ordained as a Baptist minister in Effingham county, Georgia, in 1803, by Revs. Messrs. Peacock, Brewer and Cook. The next year he was excluded from the Great Ogeechee church, and remained in a backslidden state for several years. He was for eighteen years Justice of the Inferior Court in Montgomery county. He was likewise a member of the Legislature from the same county. He was at length turned from his backslidings, in the exercise of hearty repentance, and was restored to the church and the ministry. In his latter days his ministry was signally blessed. Many souls were added unto the Lord through his instrumentality. He was a warm and successful advocate of the temperance cause and of all similar institutions. He was principally occupied in itinerant service, to which he was much devoted. It may be said in truth that the entire State was his mission-field. In thirteen years he traveled over thirty-five thousand miles. For a time he acted as domestic missionary, under the patronage of the Georgia Baptist Convention, and then as an agent of the Board of Trustees of Mercer University. His person was commandingóframe large, though neither tall nor corpulent, dark complexion, with black eyes, deeply set. His voice was extraordinary, resembling more the rumbling of distant thunder than anything else. Those who ever heard him never forgot its sound. He appeared to take great pleasure in preaching, and was frequently heard to express the desire ìthat the last act of his life might be to preach the gospel and then be permitted to die in the pulpit." His wish in this respect was singularly fulfilled, for in the summer of 1844, having preached with great liberty and power in Telfair county from the words, "Verily, I say unto you the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live," he sat down and expired instantly, without the least struggle. He was then about seventy-six years old, and had been on the walls of Zion near fifty years. His descendants are quite numerous and very respectable. Additional Comments: From: GEORGIA BAPTISTS: HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL BY J. H. CAMPBELL, PERRY, GEORGIA. MACON, GA.: J. W. BURKE & COMPANY. 1874. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by J. H. CAMPBELL, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ga/unknown/bios/gbs703conner.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 3.3 Kb http://www.pbase.com/jacksonville_ga/image/86016 Capt. Wilson Conner And Patriots Ran Up Another Flag At Fernandina In 1812 The Rev. Elder Wilson Conner of Dead River and Long Pond was now a "Patriot" - one of those Georgians, who, under the clandestine approval of Madison and Monroe, took Amelia Island and Fernandina away from the Spaniards. The President and Secretary of State later crawfished and Wilson and the others had to get out in a hurry. That didn't stop him from going back in 1819 and starting the first Baptist church in Florida. Madison And Monroe Caused Problems For Rev. Elder Wilson Conner At first promoting the taking of Florida from Spain and even having Congress provide an appropriation for its conquest, they found it a hot potato and backed out of the deal, leaving Wilson Conner and his comrades holding the bag. Thomas Jefferson once said, "Monroe is so honest that if you turned his soul inside out there would not be a spot on it." After his encounter with Monroe, one would have had a hard time convincing Wilson Conner about the validity of such a statement. (See article) When I was researching at the Georgia Archives, I looked at many sources, but particularly the vertical files on Conner families, these certified pages from the Rev. Wilson and Mary Cook Conner Bible, which had been certified for use by DAR researchers. I did not see an actual family Bible, but I generally don't ask to see Bibles. Chat | Daily Search | My GenForum | Community Standards | Terms of Service Jump to Forum Home: Surnames: Conner Family Genealogy Forum More on Rev. Wilson Conner, Cheraws, SC Posted by: Liz Conner Date: June 12, 2000 at 13:10:35 of 3713 Here are some more research notes I've collected about Rev. Wilson Conner. Wilson was living in Cheraws District, SC, in the 1790 census and was reportedly baptised here. In Leah Townsend's history of the early Baptist Churches in South Carolina, he is shown as a licentiate in the Marlboro area, along with a Bryan Conner. Wilson was ordained in 1803 as a Baptist minister in Effingham County, GA, by "Revs. Messrs. Peacock, Brew & Cook" at Great Ogeechee Baptist Church. All of this information was reported in the Conner files found at the Georgia State Archives. In 1804, Wilson was reportedly excluded from the church and his ordination revoked. In 1815-1819, he was listed as a member of Sarepta Baptist Church, Tatnall Co., GA, and then at Jones Creek Baptist in Liberty Co, GA. In 1817 and 1820, he was clerk of the Piedmont Baptist Assocation. He was preaching 30 June 1844 in the pulpit of a church in Telfair Co., GA, when he suddently died. He was buried at Dead River Cemetery, near Vidalia, GA., at a site that has been marked by the DAR. The marker reportedly was placed in 1955 at a Uvalda, GA, park to direct the way to the graves. It read: Once Part of the Oconee Dead River stood there but was later moved to Longpond 2 miles north. In the cemetery are buried 3 soldiers of the Revolution, Capt. Wilson Conner, Richard Cooper and William Ryals. Among the entries in Wilson Conner's family Bible, which has been certified by a court for use in geneaological research, are these entries: Betsy (Elizabeth) Long died 10 May 1809. Lewis Conner, died 30 Aug. 1793, age 37 years. William Conner, died July 1797, age 32. Hope this helps someone. Liz. http://genforum.genealogy.com/conner/messages/1466.html Home | Help | About Us | Site Index | Jobs | PRIVACY | Affiliate © 2007 MyFamily.com, Inc. Go to: http://hometown.aol.com/jgphoto3/myhomepage/index.html See # 100 and more for more stories of Wilson Conner in the "History of Old Jacksonville GA" |