Skip to content

John Groover Sr.

John Groover Sr. was probably the John Gruber whom Folks Huxford described as born in 1766, married to Hannah Lastinger, and the father of James Groover. Huxford placed John and James west of Piscola Creek at Dixie, in the Thomas County portion that later became Brooks County.[1]

Conflicting arrival dates

His arrival year remains unsettled. Huxford listed a John Groover with the settlers of 1823 and a John Groover Sr. with the arrivals of 1824–1825. In the same book, the Groover family history says John, his brother Solomon, and his son James came in 1826, citing a Liberty Baptist Church record book. That church record has not been inspected.[1]

The 1830 census confirms two different John Groover household heads in Thomas County—one on stamped page 18 near James Groover and another on page 26 near Solomon Groover.[2][3] The census does not identify their relationships. The two early roster entries therefore cannot be treated as a proven duplicate, and none of the three proposed arrival dates can yet be accepted as fact.

Connection to Barney

The evidence supports an older John Groover household in Thomas County by 1830. Assigning the reported 1766–1836 man to a particular household is strong probable rather than verified. The reported Dixie and Piscola Creek settlement belongs to the wider future-Brooks region; no reviewed record places John at the later Barney townsite.

John's family does connect to a later Barney Jones line through a collateral Groover branch. Huxford identified Charles Groover as John's brother. Compiled Groover and Rieser family work identifies Charles and Sophronia Sarah Reiser as the parents of 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.[1][4][5]

On that reconstruction, Sarah was John Groover Sr.'s niece. The record chain from Sarah to M. Franklin Jones and onward to Edgar Jelks Jones is well supported. Sarah's parentage and the older Charles-to-John sibling link still rely on compiled family histories rather than an inspected parent-naming original record. The connection is therefore strong secondary evidence, not a claim that John himself lived at Barney.

Evidence status

  • Verified: two men named John Groover headed separate Thomas County households in 1830.
  • Strong probable: Huxford's reported 1766–1836 John Gruber/Groover identity and the elder man's association with the page-18 household.
  • Secondary-supported: the 1826 migration account, pending inspection of the cited church record.
  • Strong secondary: the collateral connection from John's reported brother Charles through Sarah Reiser Groover to the Barney Jones family.
  • Unresolved: the 1823 and 1824–1825 roster entries, exact relationships among the Groover households, and any direct Barney connection.

Sources

  1. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858–1948 (1948), pp. 29–30, 459–461.
  2. 1830 U.S. census, Thomas County, Georgia, stamped p. 18, John Groover and James Groover households; NARA M19, roll 21; Ancestry collection 8058, records 958211 and 958214, image 4409523_00039.
  3. 1830 U.S. census, Thomas County, Georgia, stamped p. 26, John Groover household; NARA M19, roll 21; Ancestry collection 8058, record 958437, image 4409523_00055.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.