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John Folsom

John Folsom was living in Lowndes County by 1840. His name appears on the original federal census schedule as the head of a household. A John Folsom also appears in the county's 1850 census as a Georgia-born farmer about fifty-two years old, with $1,200 in real estate. The age, place, and household make him a strong-probable match to the earlier man, although the census does not identify his parents.

Folks Huxford later included John among the settlers who reached the territory of present Brooks County in 1824 or 1825. That precise arrival date has not been confirmed in a contemporary record. A 1938 Folsom genealogy calls him “Kelley John,” makes him a son of Lawrence Armstrong and Rachel Vickers Folsom, and distinguishes him from a younger relative known as “Sog John.” Those family relationships remain based on compiled genealogy rather than an inspected parent-naming record.

A John Folsom also appears as a private in an 1836 Lowndes general-militia return. The return establishes the name in the district, but it does not prove active Creek War service or settle which John Folsom was listed. The available evidence places the pioneer in the future-Brooks region. It does not yet connect him directly to the later town of Barney.

Sources

  1. United States Census, 1840, Lowndes County, Georgia, original population schedule, Ancestry collection 8057, record 1792486, image 4411334_00491.
  2. United States Census, 1850, Lowndes County, Georgia, Division 53, original population schedule, Ancestry collection 8054, record 18779549, image 4193244-00475.
  3. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858–1948 (1948), chapter 4, pp. 29–33; grand-jury discussion, p. 331.
  4. Elizabeth Knowles Folsom, Genealogy of the Folsom Family, rev. ed., vol. 2 (1938), pp. 867, 871–881, especially pp. 871–872, public scan: https://archive.org/details/genealogyoffolso02fols/page/870/mode/2up.
  5. Lowndes County, Georgia, 81st Regiment Georgia Militia return (1836), Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections, item 10428/1219: https://vtext.valdosta.edu/handle/10428/1219.