Skip to content

Israel Folsom

Israel Folsom was an early Lowndes County household head. His name is legible on the original 1830 census schedule, and another original schedule names Israel Folsom as a household head in 1850. Huxford also placed him in the county in 1840, although that year's index reads “Israel Tolsom” and the manuscript row still needs a careful independent review.

A sheriff-sale notice published in 1844 named John Bryant and Israel Folsom as plaintiffs in a Lowndes County case. Fifteen years later, Huxford's account of Brooks County's organization listed Israel Folsom among the jurors at the Inferior Court's August 1859 term. The court service is strong secondary evidence until the original minute book is inspected.

Huxford assigned Israel an arrival date of 1824 or 1825, but no contemporaneous arrival record has been found. The 1938 Folsom genealogy identifies him as a son of George Folsom and Edith Penny and a brother of Thomas, Pennywell, and Elizabeth Folsom. That family placement remains secondary-supported because no inspected original record names the parents. His spouse, children, land, probate, church, death, and burial remain unresolved.

The pioneer must be kept separate from Israel Lee Folsom, who was born in 1860 and later became a prominent Barney farmer. Their shared name does not make them the same person or establish a direct line. The compiled genealogy instead places pioneer Israel and Ebenezer Folsom as brothers, while the later record chain identifies Ebenezer as Israel Lee's father. That makes the pioneer Israel Lee's reported uncle. The relationship is secondary-supported, and it does not place the pioneer himself at Barney.

Sources

  1. 1830 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Georgia, stamped p. 81, Israel Folsom, NARA M19 roll 19; Ancestry collection 8058, record 1850841, image 4409522_00160.
  2. 1840 U.S. census index, Lowndes County, Georgia, “Israel Tolsom,” alternate Israel Folsom, NARA M704 roll 45; Ancestry collection 8057, record 1792376, image 4411334_00483. Cited as an unresolved locator, not an accepted manuscript reading.
  3. 1850 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Georgia, Israel Folsom, NARA M432 roll 60; Ancestry collection 8054, record 18778691, image 4193244-00455.
  4. Lowndes County sheriff-sale notice naming John Bryant and Israel Folsom as plaintiffs, Southern Recorder, April 23, 1844, p. 4: https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn82016415/1844-04-23/ed-1/seq-4/.
  5. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858-1948 (1948), pp. 29-33, 64-65.
  6. 1860 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Israel Folsom aged four months in the E. J. and Priscilla J. Folsom household, p. 676, dwelling/family 183, NARA M653 roll 112; Ancestry collection 7667, record 10752896. This record distinguishes the later Israel Lee Folsom.
  7. Elizabeth Knowles Folsom, Genealogy of the Folsom Family, vol. 2 (1938), pp. 896–897, George Folsom family; used as compiled evidence, not original parentage proof.
  8. Israel Lee Folsom research dossier, 1860–1880 census chain and cemetery/family-history evidence for E. J./Ebenezer George and Priscilla Jane Folsom; the complete paternal name is strong probable rather than verified.