Household #88: Wilks, George

Back to the 1900 Census & Household Index

In the 1900 Barney census, George Wilks headed an 8-person household. The table below preserves the exact names, relationships, ages, birthplaces, and occupations recorded for the household.

Household Snapshot

George Wilks headed an 8-person household in the 1900 Barney census with 1 spouse or marital partner and 6 children.

George Wilks's listed occupation was Farmer.

All listed household members were reported as born in Georgia.

Newspaper and Public-Record Trail

This section flags public-record leads separate from the census table. The detailed discussion stays in the family narrative, research status, and source citations below.

1900 Census Household

Children and Later Trails

This section is reserved for later-life child evidence. No later spouse, death, burial, obituary, probate, separate household, or descendant-line identification has been added here yet from direct records.

Family Narrative

The 1900 census shows George Wilks in Barney as a farmer who owned his home free of mortgage. The household consisted of George, his wife Margarett, and six children born in Georgia between about 1887 and 1895. On the face of the 1900 census, this is a second-family household rather than George's first known family.

The broader record trail is substantial, though not complete in every respect. In 1850, George W. Wilkes, age three, appears in Columbia County, Florida, in the household of Jeston Wilkes. In 1860, George W. Wilkes, age eleven, appears in Colquitt County in the household of James R. Douglas rather than with the earlier Wilkes household. In 1867, George W. Wilkes appears in the Georgia Reconstruction voter registry in Dooly County, which helps bridge the gap between the Colquitt County placement and his later settled life in south Georgia. By 1870, George Wilkes was in Brooks County with wife Nancy and children Noah, Judy, and Daniel. In 1880, G. W. Wilks appears in Lowndes County with wife Nancy and children Benjamin N. and Jordy, a pattern that strongly suggests Noah and Benjamin N. were the same child and that Judy and Jordy were the same child under different recorded forms. By 1900, George had returned to Brooks County and was living with Margarett and their younger children. In 1910 and 1920, George and Margaret M. Wilks still appear in Brooks County, with the household reduced to the youngest remaining children and, in 1910, a grandson named Pierce Wilkes. A newly supplied Georgia death index record gives George W. Wilks a death date of 21 February 1925 in Brooks County, certificate number 6388-G. The supplied Find a Grave memorial screenshots match that index by placing George W. Wilkes in Corinth Cemetery near Morven and linking him to wife Margaret Malissa Dugger Wilkes and children including Benjamin Noah Wilkes, Bettie Church Wilkes Hewett, and Nellie Rachel Wilkes Elliott. A newly supplied Find a Grave memorial for Benjamin Noah Wilkes also strengthens, though still does not fully prove, the Noah-to-Benjamin bridge by presenting "Benjamin Noah Wilkes" as son of George W. Wilkes, giving a birth of September 1865 in Georgia and death in 1921, and identifying "Pierce F. Wilkes" among his children. If that memorial reflects real family knowledge, the 1910 grandson Pierce Wilkes in George's household was most likely Benjamin Noah Wilkes's son. A newly supplied 5 July 1927 Valdosta Daily Times death notice for another George Wilkes appears to fit that same descendant line rather than HH#88 himself: it describes a George Wilkes of near Palmetto, Florida, who died of typhoid fever while visiting relatives near Hahira, was buried at Fellowship Cemetery, was survived by a wife and four children, and was identified as a son of the late Noah Wilkes. Read together with the Benjamin Noah Wilkes memorial, that obituary makes it probable that the 1927 decedent was a grandson of HH#88, likely the George Washington Wilkes shown as Benjamin Noah's son. Because the memorial material is derivative and user-edited, and because the obituary has not yet been tied to a direct death record, this descendant-line identification should still be treated as probable rather than final.

Taken together, these records support a two-marriage life pattern. The first marriage was to Nancy, already present by 1870 and still present in 1880. The second marriage was to Margarett, whose reported 1900 and 1910 marriage durations point back to the mid-1880s. The Brooks County Dugger records show a strong pre-marriage candidate in Margaret or Margaretta Dugger, who appears in Brooks County in 1860, 1870, and 1880: age ten in the household of Harvey Dugger in 1860, age twenty-two in the Harvey and Mary Dugger household in 1870, and age thirty-one in the same extended Dugger household in Quitman in 1880. That identification is no longer just a census-based lead. A Brooks County marriage record now shows "Mr Geo W Wilks" and "Margaret Malissa Dugger" licensed on 18 July 1884 and certified as married on 20 July 1884. A newly supplied 1928 Georgia death certificate for daughter Bettie Church Hewitt adds direct family-level support by naming her parents as "G. W. Wilks" and "Margretten Dugg.", giving Bettie a birth date of 6 September 1886 in Brooks County, and placing her burial at Corinth Church. The linked Find a Grave memorials fit those records by naming George's spouse as Margaret Malissa Dugger Wilkes and giving an "m. 1884" notation that matches the marriage record and census-based timing. The census trail also supports a long economic rise from farm laborer in 1870 to landholding farmer by 1880, with continued farm ownership in 1900, 1910, and 1920. What the records do not yet show is the direct marriage proof for the earlier Nancy union, the full death record for George, or a firm explanation for why the 1860 George Wilkes was living in the Douglas household.

The newly supplied Civil War index entries add a possible military lead for George. They identify a "George W. Wilkes" who served as a private in Wheaton's Company, Georgia Artillery, also styled Chatham Artillery, with references to compiled Confederate service records. The name and state fit, but the unit's Chatham/Savannah association sits uneasily against George's known south-Georgia and Florida record trail, and the current evidence does not yet provide an age, residence, spouse, pension file, or other bridge proving that the soldier and the Brooks County farmer were the same man. For now, the military item is best treated as a plausible but unproved identification.

Connections to Other Barney Families

• No documented connection has yet been proved between HH#88 and the other Barney kin networks already established in this volume.
• The Wilks family appears to reflect a Georgia-origin settlement line rather than the South Carolina migration pattern seen in several other Barney households.
• The 1910 grandson Pierce Wilkes now most likely points to Benjamin Noah Wilkes as the parent line, because the supplied Benjamin Noah Wilkes memorial identifies a child "Pierce F. Wilkes"; this remains derivative until confirmed with direct records.
• The 1927 Valdosta Daily Times death notice for a younger George Wilkes likely belongs to Benjamin Noah Wilkes's son rather than to HH#88 himself, but that reading should be confirmed with a death record or other direct documentation.

Military Service

The military item for George W. Wilks remains a plausible but unproved Confederate-service lead. The current entries identify a George W. Wilkes as a private in Wheaton's Company, Georgia Artillery, also styled Chatham Artillery. Because the unit's Savannah/Chatham setting does not yet connect cleanly to the Brooks County and Florida trail, the page should keep this as a lead until a pension file, compiled service card, age/residence match, or other bridge proves the identification.

Open Research Questions

• Parentage audit: Keep head-of-household and spouse parentage as unresolved unless a cited direct record names the parents or the entry explains the census chain supporting the identification.
• Child census audit: Continue direct-record tracking for each child named in the 1900 household where later census, marriage, death, burial, obituary, or other parent-link proof is not already cited above.
• The 1850 Columbia County, Florida, Jeston Wilkes household is the earliest strong candidate for George's birth family, but the exact relationship should be confirmed through probate, guardianship, land, or other direct records.
• The 1860 placement of George W. Wilkes in the James R. Douglas household suggests a disrupted family situation, but the surviving record set does not yet show whether that came from orphaning, remarriage, labor placement, or some other arrangement.
• The first marriage to Nancy is well supported by the 1870 and 1880 censuses, but a marriage record is still needed.
• The second marriage to Margarett is now directly supported by the Brooks County marriage license and return for George W. Wilks and Margaret Malissa Dugger, dated 18 and 20 July 1884.
• The apparent child-name shifts from Noah to Benjamin N. and from Judy to Jordy are plausible census continuity readings. The newly supplied Benjamin Noah Wilkes memorial strengthens the Noah-to-Benjamin reading, but the identification should still be treated as probable rather than final until supported by direct records.
• Bettie Church Wilkes Hewitt is now directly supported as a daughter of George W. Wilks and Margaret Dugger through her 1928 Georgia death certificate.
• The 1910 grandson Pierce Wilkes is now more likely identifiable as Benjamin Noah Wilkes's son, but birth, death, marriage, or later census records are still needed to confirm that bridge directly.
• The Georgia death index now supports George W. Wilks's death date as 21 February 1925 in Brooks County, and the Find a Grave memorials point to Corinth Cemetery near Morven, but the underlying death certificate, obituary, cemetery register, or family documentation would provide stronger direct proof of the full end-of-life profile.
• The Confederate-service entries for "George W. Wilkes" in Wheaton's Company / Chatham Artillery are a plausible lead, but they should remain unproved until a pension file, compiled service card, age/residence match, or other bridge ties that soldier directly to the Brooks County George W. Wilks.
• George's literacy reports vary across census years and should not be overinterpreted.

Research Status

Well documented, but not fully closed. The census trail from 1850 through 1920 is strong, the 1867 voter registry helps bridge a key gap, the Brooks County marriage record directly identifies George's second wife as Margaret Malissa Dugger, and the Georgia death index now supports a 21 February 1925 death in Brooks County, with Find a Grave pointing to burial at Corinth Cemetery near Morven. What remains missing is direct proof for George's parentage, the earlier Nancy marriage, the identity bridge for some children across census name shifts, and stronger end-of-life documentation.

Sources

• 1850 U.S. census, Columbia County, Florida, dwelling 60, family 60, household including Jeston Wilkes and George W. Wilkes, age 3.
• 1860 U.S. census, Moultrie post office, Colquitt County, Georgia, dwelling 107, family 98, household of James R. Douglas, including George W. Wilkes, age 11.
• Georgia Reconstruction return of qualified voters, Dooly County, Election District 14, registration dated 6 August 1867, entry for George W. Wilkes.
• 1870 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Quitman post office, dwelling 876, household of George Wilkes, including wife Nancy and children Noah, Judy, and Daniel.
• 1880 U.S. census, Folsom, Lowndes County, Georgia, dwelling 385, household of G. W. Wilks, including wife Nancy and children Benjamin N. and Jordy.
• 1900 U.S. census, Barney, Brooks County, Georgia, household of George Wilks and Margarett Wilks.
• 1910 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, household of George Wilkes and Margaret M. Wilks, including grandson Pierce Wilkes.
• 1920 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, household of George W. Wilks and Margerett M. Wilks.
• 1860 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Tallokas post office, dwelling 34, family 34, household of Harvey Dugger, including Margaret Dugger, age 10.
• 1870 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, dwelling 773, household of Harvey Dugger, including Margaret Dugger, age 22.
• 1880 U.S. census, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, dwelling 574, household of Harvey Dugger, including Margaretta Dugger, age 31, niece.
• Brooks County, Georgia, marriage license and return for George W. Wilks and Margaret Malissa Dugger, license dated 18 July 1884 and certificate dated 20 July 1884.
• Georgia death certificate for Bettie Church Hewitt, died 24 December 1928 in Brooks County, naming parents "G. W. Wilks" and "Margretten Dugg." and showing burial at Corinth Church.
• Georgia, U.S., Death Index, 1919-1998, entry for George W. Wilks, death date 21 February 1925, death place Brooks County, Georgia, certificate number 6388-G.
• U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865, entry for George W. Wilkes, Confederate, private, Wheaton's Company, Georgia Artillery (Chatham Artillery), film number M226 roll 65.
• U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, entry for George W Wilkes, private, Wheaton's Company, Chatham Light Artillery, Georgia.
• Find a Grave memorial #10843096 for George W. Wilkes, showing birth 6 January 1844, death 21 February 1925, and burial at Corinth Cemetery, Morven, Brooks County, Georgia; used as derivative burial and family-link evidence pending stronger direct death documentation.
• Find a Grave memorial #10757828 for Margaret Malissa Dugger Wilkes, showing death 22 December 1928 and burial at Corinth Cemetery, Morven, Brooks County, Georgia; used as derivative support for the Dugger maiden-name reading pending direct marriage or death-record confirmation.
• Find a Grave memorial #13377599 for Benjamin Noah Wilkes, showing birth September 1865, death 1921, burial at Fellowship Baptist Church Cemetery in Cecil, Cook County, Georgia, and linking him as son of George W. Wilkes and father of Pierce F. Wilkes; used as derivative support for the Noah/Benjamin and Pierce connections pending direct records.
• The Valdosta Daily Times (Valdosta, Georgia), 5 July 1927, p. 3, death notice for George Wilkes of near Palmetto, Florida, stating that he was a son of the late Noah Wilkes, died of typhoid fever while visiting near Hahira, was buried at Fellowship Cemetery, and was survived by a wife, four children, brothers, and sisters; used as probable descendant-line evidence pending direct death-record confirmation.

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