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Ashley Lawson

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District and land record

Ashley Lawson was present in Lowndes County's 660th District by 1836, when an original general-militia return listed him as a private. The return establishes district residence and militia eligibility, not active Creek War service.

Folks Huxford later assigned Ashley an 1824 or 1825 arrival. William Harden's 1913 descendant biography says Ashley was born in 1810 and came south with his father, John Lawson. If so, Ashley would have arrived as a child in a parental household. No contemporary record proves that date.

A reconstructed 1849 deed abstract places Ashley on District 9 land that later became part of Cook County. Later abstracts place him in District 12 transactions, but they do not locate his home at the future Barney townsite.

Family

A reconstructed 1867 deed names Cynthia Lawson as Ashley's wife and Hardy V. Lawson and Irvin Lawson as their children. Harden identifies Cynthia as Cynthia Folsom, daughter of Lawrence Armstrong Folsom, and Ashley as a son of John Lawson and Rachel Green. Those two generational links remain secondary-supported because no inspected original record names Cynthia's parents or Ashley's parents.

Harden also said John Lawson first settled land in what became the Barney district. That is useful family context, but it does not prove Ashley's own residence at Barney.

Evidence assessment

  • Roster: supplemental early settler, verified in the 660th District in 1836.
  • Ashley and Cynthia as spouses: supported by the reconstructed 1867 deed.
  • Hardy V. and Irvin as children: supported by the same deed.
  • Cynthia's Folsom parentage and Ashley's descent from John Lawson: secondary-supported.
  • Direct Barney residence: not proved.

Sources

  1. Lowndes County, Georgia, 81st Regiment Georgia Militia, 1836 general-militia return, Ashley Lawson, private, 660th District; Valdosta State University Archives item 10428/1219.
  2. William Harden, A History of Savannah and South Georgia, vol. 2 (1913), pp. 862–865.
  3. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858–1948 (1948), pp. 29–33.
  4. Wiregrass Region Digital History Project, reconstructed Lowndes County deed-book abstraction, Ashley Lawson entries dated 1849–1880.
  5. Elizabeth Knowles Folsom, Genealogy of the Folsom Family, vol. 2 (1938), Georgia branch; compiled corroboration only.