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James Groover

James Groover appears as a household head in Thomas County in 1830 and in the Grooversville district in 1840.[1][2] Huxford identified him as a son of John Groover and Hannah Lastinger, born in 1798, and said that he married Elizabeth Denmark in Bulloch County in 1820. Those family details fit the later James and Elizabeth household, but the original marriage record and a direct parent-naming record have not been inspected.[3][4]

Arrival and later households

The date of James's move into the future Brooks County area is unresolved. Huxford's early-settler roster gives 1823. The Groover family history in the same book says James, his father John, and his uncle Solomon came in 1826, citing a Liberty Baptist Church record book. The 1830 census confirms James's residence by that year, but it cannot settle the earlier conflict. Until the church book or another contemporary record is found, 1826 is best treated as a secondary-supported family tradition rather than a verified arrival date.[4]

Two James Groover households appear among the preserved 1850 Thomas County candidates. The James and Elizabeth household is the stronger match to the reported 1798 settler, but the census images alone do not establish that identity.[3][5]

Connection to Barney

James lived in the Dixie, Piscola Creek, and Grooversville part of the future county. No inspected record places him at the later Barney townsite.

His family nevertheless connects to a later Barney Jones line through a collateral branch. Huxford identified James's father John and Charles Groover as brothers. Compiled Groover and Rieser family work identifies Charles's daughter as Sarah Reiser Groover. Walter C. Jones's 1913 biographical sketch names Sarah “Reissier” Groover as the mother of M. Franklin Jones, whose household is documented in Barney in 1900.[4][6][7]

On that reconstruction, Sarah and James were first cousins. The Jones line from Sarah through M. Franklin Jones and Edgar Jelks Jones is well supported, while Sarah's parentage and the older Groover sibling link remain dependent on compiled family histories. This is a documented family connection to Barney, but it does not place James himself in the town.

Evidence status

  • Verified: a James Groover household in Thomas County in 1830.
  • Supported: James Groover in the Grooversville district in 1840.
  • Strong probable: the reported 1798 identity and the later James and Elizabeth household.
  • Secondary-supported: the 1826 move and the reported marriage to Elizabeth Denmark.
  • Strong secondary: the collateral connection through James's reported first cousin Sarah Reiser Groover to the Barney Jones family.
  • Unresolved: the 1823 arrival claim, the two 1850 namesakes, and any direct Barney connection.

Sources

  1. 1830 U.S. census, Thomas County, Georgia, stamped p. 18, James Groover household; NARA M19, roll 21; Ancestry collection 8058, record 958214, image 4409523_00039.
  2. 1840 U.S. census, Grooversville, Thomas County, Georgia, manuscript p. 305, James Groover; Ancestry collection 8057, record 1849418, image 4411224_00624.
  3. 1850 U.S. census, District 81, Thomas County, Georgia, James and Elizabeth Groover household, p. 59A; NARA M432, roll 83; Ancestry collection 8054, record 18965772.
  4. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858–1948 (1948), pp. 29–30, 459–461.
  5. 1850 U.S. census candidate frames for two James Groover households, District 81, Thomas County, manuscript pp. 47 and 119; Ancestry collection 8054, records 18962736 and 18965768, images 4191564_00403 and 4191564_00475.
  6. William Harden, A History of Savannah and South Georgia, vol. 2 (1913), p. 1024; Walter C. Jones biographical sketch naming Sarah Reissier Groover and her son M. Franklin Jones.
  7. 1900 U.S. census, Barney, Brooks County, Georgia, M. Franklin Jones household; see HH#86 Frank Jones and HH#71 Edgar Jones for the documented Jones chain.