2 December 1904: Love Locked Up

On this day in 1904, the Weekly Banner published news of a recent local marriage that required some persuasion of the bride's parents:

LOCKED

Up Young Bride, But Parents

Finally Give Blessings

to Happy Couple.

   Love laughs at locksmiths is true but sometimes love forgets and gets locked up again.

   The first part of the aphorism was proven true on Sunday afternoon when Mr. Pink Hilyard and Miss Ophelia Hughes were married at the home of a friend near Winterville.

   Mr. Hilyard brought his bride back to the city and they went to the home of the bride's parents. A stormy scene followed and the parents refused to let Mr. Hilyard see his wife.

   Later during the evening the refusal was still adhered to and not until yesterday morning did the parents of Mrs. Hilyard relent and give the young couple their blessing.

--Weekly Banner, 2 December 1904, p. 5, col. 7.

Alas, Mr. and Mrs. Hughes had good instincts. Robert Pink Hilliard was well known in town for being arrested as drunk or disorderly (or both) rather than for being an industrious young man with a bright future. He was also only 18 years old, and Ophelia had only turned 16 a month earlier. In the 1904 Athens City Directory, his profession is listed as painter.

(click to enlarge image)

According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Ophelia and Pink were living with his parents on Lumpkin Street, with Ophelia at home, caring for their two sons, Hughes, age 4, and Douglas, age 2, and Pink listed as now working as a "hackman," or public carriage driver. 

However, the 1909 Athens City Directory lists Ophelia as living with her sister on Oconee Street, indicating the marriage was already showing signs of strain. Pink continued to rack up fines from his frequent appearances the Mayor's Court, to account for his for disorderly drunken behavior, at a cost of $2.50 to $30.00 per conviction. In 1912, he and two of his friends were convicted of robbery and sent to prison. Pink was pardoned and released in 1915.

In the 1920 U.S. Census, Pink is found living in a boarding house in Augusta, Georgia, with an occupation of "painter" and marital status of "married." Ophelia and her boys are still living with her older sister, Alma, who worked as a bookkeeper for Bernstein Brothers Furniture Store and was active in the Y.W.C.A. Extension Club. Though Ophelia lists her marital status as "divorced," she would not officially file for divorce from Pink until August, 1928. 

Neither Ophelia nor Pink would ever remarry. Pink would live out his days in boarding houses and Y.M.C.A. rooms in Augusta, dying in 1958 at the age of 70. Ophelia spent her life in Clarke County, dying in 1965 at the age of 77.


Learn More: 

• Clarke County, Georgia, Ordinary Records. Marriages, Book K, 1901-1906 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• 1900 - 1940 U.S. Censuses in Ancestry Library Edition in GALILEO.
• Clarke County Marriages 1803-1909 by Faye Poss Stone in the Heritage collection.
• Athens City Directories, 1889 - 1927 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Death Certificates, 1919-1998 in Ancestry Library Edition in GALILEO.

23 June 1810: Partnerships Created and Dissolved

On this day in 1810, the following two notices were published in the Georgia Express newspaper:

Athens, June 23. Married, on Tues. evening last by the Rev. Hope Hull, Mr. Thomas G. Lamar of SC, to Miss Martha L. Cary of this place.

and

Co-partnership Dissolved. The public are hereby informed, that the co-partnership of John Harwood, and Elizabeth, his wife, is this day dissolved by mutual consent; we therefore hereby forbid all persons trusting either of the said firm, on account of the other, on any conditions whatever, as we are determined to pay no debts for each other, from the date hereof.

John Harwood, Jun. Elizabeth Harwood.

Marriage records from this time were short two-line entries handwritten in the marriage book, and were easily lost. There is no record of the marriage of Miss Cary and Mr. Lamar in Clarke County's records.

Miss Cary was possibly a daughter of John Cary, who ran Athens' first hotel starting around 1803, and "housed a number of students before campus lodging became available." It is possible that is how Miss Cary met Mr. Lamar "of SC", as not all students at the early University of Georgia were from Georgia. Starting in 1811, Thomas G. Lamar's name appears on plats for Edgefield, South Carolina, approximately 100 miles from Athens.

The fate of the Harwoods is equally fuzzy. There is a marriage record from 27 October 1795 in Richmond County for John Harwood and Elizabeth Dawson, and they do not seem to have been living in Athens at the time. Divorce was complicated during the early years of the United States, and this sort announcement was an easier and cheaper way of alerting those with whom they might do business that they were no longer a single entity for the purpose of debts.

Despite the public announcement of their separation, five months later, on November 30th, a John Harwood from Richmond County, Georgia was issued a passport by Governor David B. Mitchell "to travel through the Creek Nation of Indians." The passport included "his wife, three children, and eight negroes." To gain a passport at this time, one had to provide character references and promise to behave well while in Creek territory, even though some of the purposes for entering the territory were "to view the country" with plans for later settlement.

Learn More:

• Clarke Co. (Athens), GA Newspaper Abstracts 1808-1820 abstracted by Faye Stone Poss in the Heritage and general collections.
• Antebellum Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by Ernest C. Hynds in the Heritage and general collections.
• Clarke County Marriages on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Edgefield County, South Carolina: Abstracts of Deed Books 1-12 by Ge Lee Corley Hendrix in the Heritage collection.
• History of Edgefield County from Earliest Settlements to 1897 by John Abney Chapman in the Heritage collection.
• 40,000 Early Georgia Marriages by Joseph T. Maddox in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Marriages, Early to 1800 by Jordan R. Dodd in the Heritage collection.
• Passports Issued by Governors of Georgia, 1810-1820 by Mary Givens Bryan in the Heritage collection.
• Passports of Southeastern Pioneers, 1770-1823: Indian, Spanish, and Other Land Passports for Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, North and South Carolina by Dorothy Williams Potter in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia's Virtual Vault on the Georgia Archives website.

13 December 1834 - "Has Left Me Without Any Provocation"

On this day in 1834, this Notice by Thomas J. Rawlins of Pulaski County appeared on page 3 of the weekly Athens newspaper The Southern Banner:

"This is to certify that my wife, Sarah Rawlins, has left me without any provocation; therefore I forewarn all persons from trading with her with the expectation that I will be accountable for her contracts, as I design to pay off none of her debts contracted since she left my house in April last."

While such a notice seems surprising today, they do occur occasionally in 19th century newspapers. Divorce in Georgia in the early 1800s was no easy proposition. Originally, a couple would have to appeal to the state legislature after they had already had a trial by jury in the Superior Court. After 1833, the Superior Court was given the power to grant final divorce decrees, but only after "two concurrent verdicts of two special juries."

It doesn't appear that Thomas married Sarah in Pulaski County. What happened to Sarah, or what would cause her to leave is unknown. Thomas's name is listed as a winner in the 1832 Land Lottery, and by 1840, he had remarried in Pulaski County, a Miss Elender Davis.

Learn More:

• Southern Banner, Mar. 23, 1833 - Mar. 17, 1836 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Marriage Records of Pulaski County, Georgia 1810-1885 by William R. Henry in the Heritage collection.
• The 1832 Gold Lottery of Georgia Containing a List of the Fortunate Drawers in Said Lottery by Rev. S. Emmett Lucas, Jr. in the Heritage collection.
• Marriage Records on Microfilm collection on the Georgia Archives Virtual Vault website.