Household #130: Hiers, John B. Gordon

Back to the 1900 Census & Household Index

In the 1900 Barney census, Gorden Hines headed a 3-person household. The table below preserves the exact names, relationships, ages, birthplaces, and occupations recorded for the household.

Household Snapshot

Gorden Hines headed a 3-person household in the 1900 Barney census with 1 spouse or marital partner and 1 child.

Gorden Hines's listed occupation was Laborer Saw Mill.

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 Barney household was headed by Gordon Hiers, a sawmill laborer, with wife Jinnie and daughter Carrie.
• Later Lowndes County records support a Gordon Hires who died at Hahira in 1920 and a widow recorded as Loca, Lockey, or Lokey Hall Hiers.
• The older encyclopedia entry merged this family with an Augusta J. B. Hiers line. The direct records reviewed so far do not justify that merger.

The 1900 census for Barney shows Gordon Hiers, age 26, in household #130 with wife Jinnie, age 22, and daughter Carrie, age 1. After review of the census image, Jinnie is the better reading for the wife's name. The common transcription Jimmie appears to be an indexing or reading error.

A Brooks County marriage record dated 23 March 1898, with the ceremony on 27 March 1898, records the marriage of Mr. Gordon Heirs and Miss Jennie Hall. That record fits the 1900 household well. A second Brooks County marriage record, indexed to 17 October 1901, records Mr. Gordon Hires and Miss Loca Hall. The later Lowndes County records also point to a wife called Lockey or Lokey Hall. At present, the records are strong enough to connect Gordon to the later Hall-Hiers family in Lowndes County, but not strong enough to explain with confidence whether Jennie, Jinnie, Loca, Lockey, and Lokey represent one woman recorded under shifting forms or more than one wife.

Gordon's later Lowndes County trail is better anchored than the earlier entry suggested. His death certificate records Gordon Hires dying on 26 January 1920 at Hahira, Lowndes County, as a married farmer born in Brooks County. The same certificate names his father as Mitchell Hires and his mother literally as Martha Wade, and says he was buried at Shiloh Church on 27 January 1920. The age shown on the certificate reads 47 rather than 27, which fits an 1870s birth year and makes the index age of 27 unreliable.

The widow and children can be followed after Gordon's death. In 1930 Lokey Hiers appears in Hahira as a widow with children May, Gladys, Lois, and William. In 1940 she again appears as a widow in Hahira, with daughter Mae, daughter Louis Bottlier, granddaughter Peggie San Hiers, and grandson Rodney Bottlier in the household. In 1950 she appears in Cat Creek, Lowndes County, indexed as Lakery Hires, with son William Hires. A 1937 death certificate for Gladys Hires names her parents as Gordon Hires and Lockey Hall. William Mitchell Hiers's WWII draft card names Mrs. Lokey Hiers as his mother. A 1957 Valdosta Daily Times notice says Mrs. Lokey Hiers announced the marriage of her daughter, Lois Bottlier, to John A. Hicks of Valdosta.

Some parts of the former entry should be removed. The direct records reviewed here do not support folding the Augusta J. B. Hiers or John Broadus Hiers material into this Barney-Hahira household. The 1910 Augusta census shows a J. B. Hiers, age 34, a glazer in a lumber company, with wife J. L. Hiers and son E. R. Hiers. The WWI draft card and later Augusta-area records for John Broadus Hiers belong to that separate track unless a direct bridge is found. For the same reason, the four-generation lineage in the earlier entry should not be carried forward as settled fact.

Open Research Questions

• The relationship between the 1898 Jennie Hall marriage and the 1901 Loca Hall marriage remains unresolved.
• Carrie Hiers from the 1900 household has not yet been carried forward with confidence into later records.
• The mother on Gordon's death certificate should be cited literally as Martha Wade unless stronger direct evidence proves a correction.
• The Augusta J. B. Hiers and John Broadus Hiers records should remain separate from HH#130 unless a direct record bridges the two lines.

Research Status

Well-researched. The 1900 Barney household, Gordon Hires's 1920 Lowndes County death, and the later Lokey Hall Hiers widow household are well supported. The wife-name sequence and any connection to the Augusta J. B. Hiers line remain unresolved.

Sources

• 1880 U.S. census, Morven district, Brooks County, Georgia, Mitchell J. Hiers household, including John B. G. Hiers.
• Brooks County, Georgia, marriage record, license dated 23 March 1898 and ceremony 27 March 1898, Mr. Gordon Heirs and Miss Jennie Hall.
• 1900 U.S. census, Barney Precinct, Brooks County, Georgia, ED 9, sheet 6, dwelling 130, family 130, Gordon Hiers household; image review supports wife-name reading as Jinnie.
• Brooks County, Georgia, marriage record indexed to 17 October 1901, Mr. Gordon Hires and Miss Loca Hall.
• Georgia death certificate, 26 January 1920, Gordon Hires, Hahira, Lowndes County, certificate 1668-B.
• 1930 U.S. census, Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, Lokey Hiers household.
• 1937 Georgia death certificate for Gladys Hires, naming parents Gordon Hires and Lockey Hall.
• 1940 U.S. census, Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, Lokey Hiers household.
• WWII draft registration card for William Mitchell Hiers, naming Mrs. Lokey Hiers as mother.
• 1950 U.S. census, Cat Creek, Lowndes County, Georgia, Lakery Hires household.
• The Valdosta Daily Times, 29 June 1957, page 3, notice stating that Mrs. Lokey Hiers announced the marriage of her daughter Lois Bottlier to John A. Hicks of Valdosta.
• Georgia death index entry for Lokey H. Hiers, died 1 September 1973, Lowndes County, certificate 032941.
• Social Security Death Index entry for Lokey Hiers, born 5 October 1874, died September 1973, last residence Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
• 1910 U.S. census, Augusta Ward 4, Richmond County, Georgia, J. B. Hiers household, treated here as a separate candidate line rather than as HH#130.
• WWI draft registration card for John Broadus Hiers of Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia, treated here as part of the separate Augusta line.
• Find a Grave memorials for Gordon Hires and Lokey Hall Hiers, used as secondary support for burial and family-context clues.

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