The Irish Side: January 2008 Archives
The Durden family apparently came what was the colonies in the late 1600's/early 1700's, and started to show up in Georgia late in the 1700's. A Benjamin Durden shows up in 1830, he was a Revolutionary War veteran that got land in a lottery from area that was taken from the Creek Indians at the conclusion of that war. From what I could understand, you got extra preference in the lottery if you were a Revolutionary War veteran, so a lot of families brought their elderly fathers and grandfathers to Georgia to get land. There is no clear relationship with Benjamin to us, although that name is common in the Durden family. He had a son named Wiley, but I don't think that Wiley is our ancestor, the ages are different as is the middle initial. The Durden's liked three names, Benjamin, Wiley, and Francis. Most of the Durden men had one or two of these names.
Our ancestor doesn't show up until the 1870 census, his name was Wiley Francis Durden. He was a school teacher in the 1870 census. Family tradition is that he was an Indian and taught Indian children. Supposedly the Indians in Twiggs County got together and paid him privately for schooling their children. Before you go off thinking we are going to have our own casino, there is a bit of a hitch. There is no record at all of any Indian community remaining in Twiggs County. There were some clustes of Cherokees that stayed behind after the forced removal, but that was in Northern Georgia. Twiggs was in Creek territory, and they were pushed out in the war. So, I would say that Wiley Francis was NOT an Indian.
So, what was the deal? Wiley doesn't show up in the 1860 census, although some Durdens have drawn some lines of the family tree from him to others, the dates, ages, and middle initials don't jive. Wiley also didn't show up in the "History of Twiggs County" that I found in a library here as a school teacher in 1870, so he was not in an "official" school. During Reconstruction many black people pooled their money together to hire a teacher. Also, as Reconstruction ended, the schools were shut down by the Klan, which would explain why in 1880 Wiley was living in Macon as a "peddler of tin". More controversial is why Wiley doesn't show up in the 1860 census. After Emancipation a fairly large number of freed slaves of mixed race "passed" as white. That might explain why the older generation of Durdens down here had kinky hair and dark skin. While the aunts say the Durdens were big in the Confederacy, they couldn't give specifics, and according to Uncle Ben, Wiley was not in the Confederate Army.
Wiley had a son Benjamin Wiley (see what I mean about the names?). Benjamin Wiley was illiterate, which is odd being his father was a teacher. Benjamin was orphaned and supposedly adopted by an Englishman who lived in Macon. That may be another story, but it would be hard to invent that one, generally myths are about ancestors being "Cherokee princesses", or "Confederate War Heroes" and such, not adopted by foreigners. Ben had a number of sons and daughters, I can't name them all from memory, but he had Wiley, Jim, Ben, and a couple daughters. He was widowed by late middle age and apparently found raising children to be a hassle.
According to the story I was told, he raised horses, and decided to take a herd of them to Northern Georgia to trade for a Cherokee wife. He herded the horses up with his sons, and Jim had malaria (this was a third world country back then here in Georgia). Jim had been given quinine pills and got the great idea that he could cure his malaria all at once by taking all of the pills at once. That apparently didn't work so well, but it did make him dizzy and he fell off his horse. Supposedly, he lost his hearing from that. I don't know if that's how he lost his hearing, but he was deaf.
Ben wasn't able to strike a deal for a Cherokee wife, so he went back home to Hawkinsville (a town south of Macon). He instead married a 16 year old girl who already had a child out of wedlock and was in a jam. She had other children, like Uncle Ben, who was still alive when I moved here and told me most of the stories. Ben Sr. wasn't very much of a father figure to his second group of children (who by the way didn't look like him at all) because he was so old when they were born. Grandfather Wiley didn't like the second wife, but he was very good with the kids from the second marriage. He was very close to Uncle Ben.
One aspect to Great Grandfather Ben was he traded his children around a bit. He made Wiley quit school after 3rd grade to go work in a textile mill. He arranged marriages for his daughters for business deals. He would sell his children's belongings without hesitation. His daughters' arranged marriages didn't work out well at all which brings up an interesting story about Uncle Ben and the Spanish Flu Epidemic.
One daughter got Spanish Flu and couldn't make it to work at the mill. Her husband was a worthless drunk, and he beat her severely because of this. Down here at that time that kind of thing wouldn't get you in trouble with the law, so it became a matter of family pride. Uncle Jim was sent to "talk" to the guy. As he was leaving in a wagon, he was given a shotgun by his father "just in case". As he took the wagon over a bridge over the river in Hawkinsville, his drunken brother-in-law came out and started shooting at him with a pistol. Jim shot him in the arm with the shotgun. The guy came up to Jim, held the pistol at point blank to him and tried to kill him. Because he was so badly wounded in the arm, he couldn't pull the trigger. He bled to death shortly after and Jim was put in jail. Great grandfather Benjamin got him out with his connections - as they say down here, the guy just "needed killin'" It was not something the Durdens liked to talk about though.
Wiley's brother Jim also could make money very easily, he owned a bunch of slot machines. They illegalized them down here, but he pretended he didn't know. When the police told him he wasn't supposed to have them anymore, he pleaded ignorance on account of his deafness and they let him slide (but he had to get rid of the slot machines).
The aunts will alternately say that Wiley's family was rich and owned a big dairy farm, or was poor white trash. Actually, they were pretty poor, but they did have a bit of land which they farmed. Great grandfather Benjamin held a supervisory position of some sort at the local mill, but that wouldn't necessarily make you middle class. One story that each aunt claims was her is that Wiley took them to dinner at G-grandfather Benjamin's house, and they weren't to touch the food because of all the flies, and the poor people didn't have enough to eat anyway. Well, unfortunately their collective memories were a bit wrong if Uncle Ben told me the right story, and his makes the most sense.
Mom's story about that visit was she was 16, and Ben says it was her. Mom was really hot at 16, and Ben was about 12 so really noticed her. They served food to her and Grandfather Wiley, but they were too poor to buy screens for the house. The food was covered with flies and Mom refused to eat. Ben was horribly embarrassed by the whole thing, and when he was old enough to work he bought screens for the house. As for quantity of food, Ben said that food was one thing that they had lots of because they grew their own. Apparently Grandfather Wiley was really mad at Mom because of what she did. Uncle Ben said that Mom was being stuck up because her mother had a "high paying government job". I pointed out that Nana's high paying job was as a cleaning woman. Ben said to them at that time "that was high paying".
It's late, so I have to stop writing. Ben told me some other more entertaining stories, but they can't be posted here. Some may have to go to the grave with me, because the people we descend from didn't behave very well.
I can say that the reason Wiley lived here was because of his drinking. According to relatives here, Nana kicked him out of the house due to his drinking, he did not abandon her. They periodically would get back together when he'd quit drinking, but then he would relapse and she would send him packing. I can't say I don't blame her, she had daughters to raise, and she to her credit, she NEVER said a bad thing about Wiley. None of the relatives have anything bad to say about him either. He just drank too much, but he tried his best. It's sad, but one story that I am sworn to secrecy about shows that he was a better man than I ever realized or hope to be, you'll just have to take my word for it.
Bill
