Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Monday, January 1, 2018
The Asa Russell Family
When Asa Russell was born in Talbotton, Georgia, on July 4, 1872, his father, David Russell was 51 and his mother, Martha Ann Elizabeth Crawford Russell was 37. He grew up in a thriving community well supplied with means to support travel to and from the area as well as shipping via the railroad. Talbot county had been laid out in 1827 from lands that were carved from previously established Muscogee county. Talbot county, lying in the western part of Georgia, was and still has Meriwether County on the north side, Upson County on the northeast side, Taylor County which was carved out of Talbot and Muscogee county plus Harris County and part of Muscogee on the west. The county lines were pretty fluid early but today's county lines ring true to the last carving which established Taylor County. Flint River flows along the northeastern side and separates Talbot County from Upson. Lazer Creek is also a main source of water. The terrain is breathtaking with lush forest-covered hills which ripple from the fall line which divides the prehistoric ocean shoreline across the northern part with rich brown soils over a red clay subsoil supporting wild game and fowl. The southern part of the county, once covered by the Atlantic Ocean, has gray sandy soil supporting many long-leaf pines. The entire West and South-Central Georgia block of counties all grew corn, wheat, oats, field and ground peas, cotton, potatoes, and corn along with peaches, plums, apples, pears, and cherries. There was much work to do on the farm and much to learn in school and in everyday life.
John Asa's father, David Russell, was first listed as a farmer in the census taken in 1850 and 1860 but by 1870, he had taken a job as a school teacher. In 1870 Talbot County had two schools The LeVert female college and the Collinsworth institute. The Russell children enjoyed a large bank, a money order post office with rural free delivery, express and telegraph offices, successful business houses, a cottonseed oil mill, churches, and a Masonic Hall that has space for meetings and entertainment events.
When Asa and Bertha were first married in Pike County, Georgia on November 1, 1899, they lived in a rented house in Meriwether County Georgia in the Jones Mill community along with Asa’s mother Elizabeth and sister Dora who was a dressmaker. One year later on November 14, 1900, sister, Dora, would be married to W. H. Betts in a celebrated double wedding with friends Edward Chunn and Mattie Lou Gill.
Sometime between 1900 and 1902 Asa and Bertha moved to Pulaski County, Georgia, and set up housekeeping on their own. By the time the 1910 census was taken, Asa and Bertha only listed two children a son, Luther, age 7, and a daughter, Merlin age 5. Asa’s and Bertha’s first child, Elizabeth, born in 1900, had only lived two years. It is not known why she died, but as her parents grieved, she was buried in City Cemetery, Cochran, Georgia. Sadly, Bertha would also die ten years later and be buried beside her precious first daughter. Oral history from son Luther is the only proof we have of these events as no documents can be found and the graves are unmarked.
Asa and his two remaining children would move back to Meriwether County, Georgia where he would fall in love again and marry a young dark-haired beauty named Winnie Elizabeth Glazier.
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