David Hiers

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Research completed 23 August 2026

Bottom line

David Hiers, also recorded as Hires, was a South Carolina-born farmer who settled in Lowndes County, Georgia, and lived in Brooks County after its creation. He and his wife, Rebecca Yates, raised a large family in the Morven and Quitman side of the county. Their daughter Nancy J. Hires married Joseph J. "Joe" Rogers, known in family history as Joseph Jasper Rogers.

The federal censuses place David with Rebecca from 1850 through 1870. A June 1876 Brooks County order identified a David Hiers as the contractor building a bridge across a lagoon near Folsom Bridge. The contractor is highly likely to have been Rebecca's husband, but the order gives no family details. Rebecca was explicitly listed as a widow in 1880. No original record found in this search gives David's exact death date or burial place. Online trees repeat 23 January 1879, but none of the inspected tree pages supplied a source for it.

Records under David's name cover county office, politics, estate work, jury selection, and bridge construction. A county history lists him as Brooks County treasurer from 1864 through 1866. He took a Reconstruction oath in 1867, served on the county Democratic executive committee in 1872, ran for tax collector that year, applied to administer two estates in 1873, was selected for a petit-jury panel in 1874, and held the 1876 lagoon-bridge contract. The public notices do not identify his wife or children, so matching each item to Rebecca's husband is highly likely rather than certain from any single notice.

Family and household

David was born in South Carolina about 1822 to 1825. His age was reported as 25 in 1850, 35 in 1860, and 48 in 1870.[1-3] Rebecca's later records place her birth about 1827 to 1830. Her recorded age of 17 in 1850 does not fit comfortably with the ages of the oldest children and should be treated as a census-age problem, not a settled birth year.

The 1850 Lowndes County household contained David, Rebecca, Nancy, William, and Mary. By 1860 the family was in Brooks County near the Tallokas post office. David was a farmer with $1,500 in real estate and $850 in personal estate. The household then contained Rebecca and children Nancy, William, Elizabeth, Serena, Beana, Georgia Ann, Laura Jane, Amanda, and infant Cincinnati.[1-2]

The 1860 slave schedule records David Hires as enslaving one unnamed sixteen-year-old female.[4] The schedule preserves no name for her. This is direct evidence of enslavement and should not be hidden inside the household's property figures.

In 1870 David and Rebecca were in Brooks County with Serine, Beann, Georgeanna, Laura, Amanda, Cincinnatus, James, Simon, and Ophelia. Three people with the Phillips surname are grouped with the indexed census entry but should not be presented as Hiers children.[3]

By 1880 Rebecca was the widowed head of a Quitman-district household. Living with her were Georgiann, Laura J., Cincinatti, James L., Simeon S., and David O.[5] Read together, the censuses support thirteen children: Nancy, William, Mary or Elizabeth, Serena, Beann, Georgia Ann, Laura Jane, Amanda, Cincinnati, James L., Simeon or Simon, Ophelia, and David O. Names and ages vary across the records. Online family trees expand James L. and David O. to James Lawton and David Lee, but those forms were not independently proved in this search.

Nancy J. Rogers's 1932 Georgia death certificate names her parents as David Hires and Rebecca Yates.[6] This original record supports the census chain independently of online family trees. Existing project notes report that Serena Hall's 1921 Lowndes County death record also names David Hires and gives her mother's surname as Yates, but this search did not recover a stable record ID or certificate image for a fresh citation. Serena's record is therefore treated as a follow-up lead rather than independent proof here.

No original marriage return was located. A derivative marriage index names David Hiers and Rebecca Yates but supplies no date or place.[8] Since Nancy was about five in 1850, the safest conclusion is that David and Rebecca were married by about 1844 or 1845. A precise marriage date remains unknown.

Probable parents and wider Hiers family

FamilySearch, Geneanet, a family group sheet, and compiled family histories identify David as a son of Daniel Hiers and Nancy Hunter.[9-12] The attribution is highly likely, not fully verified. No inspected birth, marriage, probate, or Bible record directly names David's parents.

There is useful circumstantial support. David applied in September 1873 for permanent letters of administration on Daniel Hiers's Brooks County estate.[13] A submitted family group sheet also identifies David's sister Eliza as the wife of Reuben Riley Renfroe. David applied the next month to administer R. R. Renfroe's estate.[11,14] Neither newspaper notice states a relationship, and neither proves that the court granted the application. The likely father-son and brother-in-law relationships should therefore remain qualified.

Land and place

David took a Reconstruction oath in Brooks County Election District 7 on 1 July 1867, and an 1871 tax entry places him in the Morven district.[15-16] These records support the same postwar locality seen in the census and later bridge order.

A compiled land-lot extraction reports several transactions in Land Lots 234 and 235, west of Folsom Bridge. It includes an F. W. Dixon conveyance to David in 1867, a David Hiers and William W. Joyce transaction in 1871, and two 7 October 1875 conveyances from David to Rebecca covering the south half of Lot 234 and 100 acres in the northwest corner of Lot 235.[17] The reported 1871 tract was bounded partly by the Quitman Road and the Widow Joyce dower line.

This land pattern fits the Folsom and Strickland road-fork environment shown by later deeds and the 1908 Brooks County map.[18] It also makes David's 1876 work near Folsom Bridge geographically sensible. The underlying Hiers deed images, book numbers, and page numbers were not preserved in the available extraction, however. These transactions are strong land leads, not image-verified deeds. A separate reported 1861 tax holding in Land Lot 513 cannot yet be assigned securely because more than one local David Hiers existed.

County office and civic life

Folks Huxford's county-officer compilation lists David Hiers as Brooks County treasurer, commissioned 16 February 1864 for the 1864-1866 term.[19] This is a clear office listing. The treasurer is highly likely to have been Rebecca's husband because the older David was present in Brooks County before and after the war, but the list gives no family details.

The newspapers add a sequence of public activity:

• On 29 June 1872, the Savannah Morning News reprinted a Brooks County Democratic meeting report that placed David Hiers on the county Democratic executive committee.[20]
• Quitman Banner notices on 29 November, 6 December, and 20 December 1872 announced him as a candidate for Brooks County tax collector. The notices prove candidacy, not election.[21]
• In September and October 1873, Ordinary's citations reported his applications to administer the estates of Daniel Hiers and R. R. Renfroe. Appointment, settlement, and kinship were not stated.[13-14]
• On 23 April 1874, the Quitman Reporter listed him among petit jurors for the first week of the May term. The list proves selection, not that he was sworn or served through a trial.[22]

Together these records show county financial responsibility, political participation, estate work, and jury selection. They do not establish that David was a lawyer, that he won the 1872 election, or that either administration application was granted.

The Folsom lagoon bridge

The most detailed contemporary record of David's work is a Brooks County Court order dated 20 June 1876. It called him the contractor building a bridge across the lagoon near Folsom Bridge. Morven District road commissioners Ryals, Peacock, and Dr. Hitch were directed to inspect the timber, framework, flooring, and banisters before he could receive compensation.[23]

This was a separate span across a lagoon in the Little River swamp approach. It was not the main bridge across Little River. It was also not old Hyers Bridge over Okapilco Creek on Strickland Road. No located record says old Hyers Bridge was named for David.

The order proves that construction was underway and subject to inspection. The newspaper search found no commissioners' return, acceptance certificate, or payment notice. It would be an overstatement to say that the span passed inspection or that David was paid.

Military names and a serious record conflict

David's name appears in several wartime compilations, but none proves Confederate army service for Rebecca's husband. The 1864 Georgia militia reorganization census lists a 42-year-old David Hiers in Brooks County.[24] That record concerns home-front eligibility and is not an army enlistment record.

Huxford's rosters print two fatal Confederate entries for men named David Hires or Hiers. One entry says a married man born in 1825 was killed at Sharpsburg in 1862. Another says a David Hiers died in a Richmond hospital.[19] Both conflict with the verified 1870 census and 1872-1876 Brooks County record chain. More detailed online records identify at least one younger Brooks County namesake, born about 1844, who served in Company K, 50th Georgia Infantry and died in 1863.[25] David Owen Hiers, associated with Liberty County and Florida, was another separate man.

The safest conclusion is that the military indexes and later roster notes contain same-name confusion or a mistaken family attribution. No Confederate army service is assigned to Rebecca Yates's husband in this dossier.

Death, burial, and later family

The 20 June 1876 bridge order is the last original record found for a Brooks County man of this name, but it does not identify the contractor's family.[23] Rebecca's status as a widow in the 1880 census proves that her husband died before that enumeration.[5] If the contractor was Rebecca's husband, as the local record chain strongly suggests, David was alive on 20 June 1876. The lower endpoint remains highly likely rather than fully verified.

FamilySearch and Geneanet trees give 23 January 1879, but the inspected pages attach no death record, obituary, probate file, cemetery record, or grave photograph to that date.[9-10] No matching Find a Grave memorial was found, and a statewide probate-index search produced no personal estate entry for the target. The exact death date and burial place remain unresolved.

Rebecca lived on in the family household. In 1900 she was living with son Sim Hires in Barney and was reported as widowed, age 71.[26] Their daughter Nancy J. Hires married Joseph J. "Joe" Rogers in Brooks County in 1866. Family history gives his full name as Joseph Jasper Rogers, while the original records reviewed so far identify him as Joseph J., J. J., or Joe. Through Nancy and Joseph, David and Rebecca were the grandparents of Dove Rogers Moody, part of the Rogers-Moody family line at Barney.[6,26]

Evidence assessment

Research coverage and remaining targets

The search began with the project's saved census, Barney family, Folsom Bridge, road, land-lot, and Huxford evidence. Online work then covered Ancestry census, slave schedule, Reconstruction oath, tax, probate, marriage, militia, military, Geneanet, and death collections; FamilySearch records and trees; Find a Grave; Georgia Historic Newspapers; the Georgia Archives county map; and a South Carolina family group sheet. Exact and variant searches used Hiers, Hires, Hyers, David, Rebecca, Yates, Morven, Tallokas, Quitman, Folsom, bridge, treasurer, tax collector, estate, probate, obituary, death, and burial.

The Georgia newspaper search preserved direct page links, page images, OCR, and a query ledger. It found no obituary, funeral notice, personal estate citation, bridge-acceptance report, or payment notice. Logged-in Newspapers.com and a fresh Ancestry image readback could not be completed after the browser connection failed twice. The preserved Ancestry record IDs and earlier original-image readings were retained, and no fact was inferred from the failed calls.

The most valuable remaining records are the Brooks County deed-book images for the reported 1867, 1871, and 1875 transactions; Ordinary minutes for the Daniel Hiers and R. R. Renfroe estates; county-purpose minutes for the bridge inspection and payment; and a family Bible, probate paper, tax disappearance, cemetery register, or grave marker that establishes David's death and burial.

Numbered sources

1. 1850 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Georgia, David Hiers household, NARA M432 roll 75, p. 388B, Ancestry record 18781037, FamilySearch record MZYT-P2W.
2. 1860 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Tallokas post office, David Hires household, NARA M653 roll 112, p. 667, Ancestry record 10752243.
3. 1870 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Quitman post office, David Hiers household, NARA M593 roll 137, p. 68B, Ancestry record 588042, FamilySearch record MCSN-LPD.
4. 1860 U.S. slave schedule, Brooks County, Georgia, David Hires, Ancestry record 92495919.
5. 1880 U.S. census, Quitman district, Brooks County, Georgia, Rebecca Hien household, NARA T9 roll 135, p. 324B, ED 4, Ancestry record 11969137.
6. Georgia death certificate 32-13280 for Nancy J. Rogers, died 29 June 1932, naming parents David Hires and Rebecca Yates, Ancestry record 1053971.
7. Project lead for follow-up: Lowndes County, Georgia, death record for Serena Hall, died 12 June 1921, reportedly naming father David Hires and mother surname Yates; summarized on the live William Hall household page. A stable record ID or fresh certificate image was not recovered for this dossier.
8. Yates Publishing derivative family-data marriage index for David Hiers and Rebecca Yates, Ancestry record 571489.
9. FamilySearch person page for David Hiers, LQRD-P4Y, direct profile. Derivative and partly unsourced.
10. Geneanet tree index for David Hiers, Ancestry record 6049209711. Derivative source of the unverified 23 January 1879 date.
11. South Carolina Family Group Sheet Project, Daniel Hiers family, submitted by Junius Downing, direct page. Compiled derivative source.
12. Ingram family history index entry for David Hiers, Ancestry record 4520498683. Compiled derivative source.
13. Independent, 13 and 27 September 1873, p. 3, David Hiers application to administer Daniel Hiers's estate, 27 September page.
14. Independent, 4 and 18 October and 8 November 1873, p. 3, David Hiers application to administer R. R. Renfroe's estate, 18 October page.
15. Georgia Reconstruction oath, David Hiers, Brooks County Election District 7, 1 July 1867, Ancestry record 935736.
16. Brooks County tax digest, Morven district, 1871, David Hiers, Ancestry record 4679626.
17. Compiled old-Irwin land-lot map, map ID 1uAP1zA0ExqRb01-n1PrZCuaiQDo. The original deed images and book-page citations were not available.
18. R. D. Flippen, Map of Brooks County, Georgia (1908), Georgia Archives record cmf0526, catalog record, full-resolution image.
19. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858-1948 (1948), 116, 121, 368. The county-treasurer and Confederate-roster sections are preserved in the local OCR source.
20. Savannah Morning News, 29 June 1872, p. 1, Brooks Democratic meeting, Georgia Historic Newspapers page.
21. Quitman Banner, 29 November, 6 December, and 20 December 1872, p. 3, tax-collector candidacy, 29 November, 6 December, 20 December.
22. Quitman Reporter, 23 April 1874, p. 3, May-term petit-jury list, Georgia Historic Newspapers page.
23. Brooks County Court order dated 20 June 1876, printed in the Quitman Reporter on 22 June, 29 June, and 20 July.
24. Georgia militia reorganization census, 1864, David Hiers, age 42, Brooks County, Ancestry record 3295.
25. Younger David Hiers military namesake, Company K, 50th Georgia Infantry, Ancestry profile 3437337, service index 1591125, compiled service-record index 54106008.
26. 1900 U.S. census, Barney precinct, Brooks County, Georgia, Sim Hires household with widowed mother Rebecca Hires, page 9, lines 19-23; summarized on the live Sim Hires household page.