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Ancel Lawrence: Farmer, Landowner, and Parcel Seller

Ancel Lawrence—also recorded as Ancil, Ansel, Ansil, and Ansle—was a Black farmer and landowner whose conveyances helped turn the land around the new railroad into the town of Barney. He was not Barney's sole founder and did not create its only subdivision plan. His importance comes from the scale and variety of his own transactions: he acquired large tracts, borrowed against land, and sold church, lodge, residential, commercial, and railroad-related parcels from the 1890s into the 1910s.

Identity and early life

Lawrence's death certificate records that he died at Barney on April 7, 1925. It names his wife as Tyrie Lawrence and his father as John Walker; his mother was unknown to the informant. The certificate's age implies a birth about 1856 or 1857, but the census ages conflict and do not establish an exact birth date.[1]

The strongest earlier candidate is Ansell Walker, age twelve, a Black farm laborer in Norman Campbell's Brooks County household in 1870. A later tax entry for Ansel Lawrence also names Campbell as his employer, and the death certificate's identification of John Walker as Lawrence's father supports the connection. Together, those details make Ansell Walker a strong-probable earlier identity for Ancel Lawrence. No located record explains the change from Walker to Lawrence or explicitly states that the two names belonged to the same person.[2]

Marriage and household

Brooks County's marriage return records Ansil Lawrance and Tira Baalam marrying on January 15, 1880. The census taken that June lists Ansel, age twenty-two, and Tyre, age sixteen, as husband and wife.[3]

In the 1900 Barney census, Ancil Lawrence was listed as a farmer and headed a nine-person household. His wife Tirah reported twelve children born and eight living. Seven children were at home: Mohalia, Laura, William H., Lizzie, Missouri, Simon, and Leola. The household therefore does not provide a complete list of their children.[4]

Ancil and Tyra also appear together in the 1910 and 1920 Barney District censuses. Their reported ages vary substantially from one schedule to another. Tyra survived Ancel and died at Barney on December 26, 1938. Her death certificate records burial at Rock Hill, but that does not establish Ancel's burial place.[5]

The 245-acre tract in Land Lot 321

On February 8, 1893, B. F. Hitch conveyed Lawrence 245 acres described as the west half of Land Lot 321. That deed, recorded in Deed Book K, page 721, is the secure beginning of Lawrence's large documented holding near Barney.[6]

Lawrence repeatedly used a 245-acre LL321 tract as security during the next decade. Deed indexes record mortgages to F. B. Walker, J. B. Rountree & Company, and Merchants & Farmers Bank. The pattern shows continued access to credit, but most of the original mortgage instruments have not been inspected. The indexes do not establish the purpose of each loan, a default, or a foreclosure.

The 1893 west-half deed does not prove that Lawrence's later town parcels came from that tract. A separate 1914 deed shows that he also owned and conveyed 200 acres in the east half of LL321. The deed by which he acquired that east-half interest has not been found.[7]

Lawrence and the making of Barney

Lawrence began selling small parcels as the railroad town emerged. A reconciled register of LL278, LL279, LL320, and LL321 contains 43 Lawrence title events: thirty conveyances and thirteen mortgages or other encumbrances. Twenty-five of those events have been checked against original instruments. The register is limited to the four land lots around Barney and is not a complete countywide deed count.[8]

His early conveyances included:

  • one acre to W. M. Eatman in October 1896;
  • an undivided half interest in a half-acre proposed station parcel to South Georgia Railway Company in December 1896;
  • a one-acre Barney parcel to Arthur R. Rogers in February 1897;
  • one acre to African Methodist Episcopal Church trustees in August 1897;
  • an 80-by-25-foot LL279 lot to William McCoy in November 1897;
  • parcels to D. O. Folsom, William Ryall, J. S. McKenzie, J. D. Register, Primus Roberts, Charles Ryall, and Oglesby & Brother in 1898;
  • a 29-by-75-foot parcel in LL279 to W. H. B. Spell in October 1899, later part of a chain leading to I. L. Folsom and a strong candidate for business lot 5; and
  • a tract described as one-half acre in LL321 to Masonic Lodge officeholders in 1900, recorded in 1901.[10]

These transactions establish Lawrence as an important early landowner and parcel seller. They do not show that he authored a single comprehensive town plan. LL278's numbered plan came through the Hodges estate and Joel Mable plat; Sallie A. Rozier controlled the whole LL320 parent lot; and several owners divided property in LL279.

Land for the Masonic lodge

On October 30, 1900, Lawrence conveyed a tract described as one-half acre in Land Lot 321 to Henry M. Wooten, J. F. Johnson, and L. M. Hester, collectively named as the Master and Wardens of the Masonic Lodge at Barney, and their successors in office. The price was $25. The deed was recorded November 9, 1901, in O/583; 1901 is the recording year, not the year of the sale.[10]

A second deed, dated July 4, 1914, names C. O. Rountree, W.M., and Wesley Baker, N.G., and their successors. The $35 tract in northwest Barney, also in LL321, began about fifteen feet from the southwest corner of the Masonic lodge. Coleman O. Rountree was a Black Barney resident; his W.M. title strongly supports identifying him as Worshipful Master of a Black Masonic body. Baker’s N.G. title ordinarily denotes an Odd Fellows Noble Grand, not a Masonic office.[11]

The deeds do not establish whether the 1900 and 1914 officeholders represented the same organization. Neither gives a lodge number or governing jurisdiction, and Prince Hall affiliation remains unverified. The lodge’s exact modern location is also unresolved.

The proposed station parcel

Lawrence's December 26, 1896, deed to the South Georgia Railway Company conveyed only an undivided one-half interest in a half-acre intended for the proposed Barney station. The operative description leaves the land-lot number blank. “LL321” appears only as a later marginal or index notation. The deed bounds the parcel north by Hodges land, east by Berryhill land, and south by church property.[9]

The surviving deed therefore does not establish the parcel's land lot, identify the owner of the other half interest, or prove that the parcel came from Lawrence's verified west-half tract. No second conveyance of the remaining half interest has been found in the reviewed deed indexes.

Later ownership in the east half of LL321

On June 20, 1914, Lawrence conveyed Anna Ruth Whitehurst 200 acres described as part of the east half of LL321 for $5,000. The tract was bounded by D. H. Purvis and Tom Shamery on the north; I. L. Folsom and S. L. Hall on the south; Mary Dukes, John Flournoy, and Z. W. Oglesby on the east; and a public road on the west.[7]

This deed proves that Lawrence's holdings extended beyond the west-half tract he bought in 1893. It also leaves the central title gap in his land history: the incoming deed that placed the east-half tract in his ownership remains unlocated.

Death and remaining questions

Lawrence died at Barney in 1925 after more than three decades of documented land activity. No verified obituary, probate file, grave marker, or burial record has been found in the completed searches.

The main unresolved questions are:

  • the exact birth date and identity of his mother;
  • the record connecting Ansell Walker to Ancel Lawrence;
  • the complete identities of all children born to Ancel and Tyra;
  • the deed by which Lawrence acquired the east-half LL321 tract;
  • the exact land lot and remaining ownership of the proposed station parcel; and
  • Lawrence's burial place and probate record.

Sources

  1. Georgia death certificate, Ancel Lawrence, file 6384, April 7, 1925. Ancestry original image.
  2. 1870 United States census, Brooks County, Ansell Walker in Norman Campbell household. Ancestry original image.
  3. Brooks County marriage Book B, p. 398, Ansil Lawrance and Tira Baalam, January 15, 1880; 1880 census. Marriage image · 1880 census image.
  4. 1900 United States census, Barney, Brooks County, Ancil and Tirah Lawrence household. Ancestry original image.
  5. 1920 United States census, Barney District, Brooks County; Georgia death certificate, Tyra Lawrence, no. 32937. 1920 census image · death-certificate image.
  6. Brooks County Deed Book K, page 721, B. F. Hitch to Ancel Lawrence, February 8, 1893. FamilySearch original image.
  7. Brooks County Deed Book Y, page 29, Ancel Lawrence to Anna Ruth Whitehurst, June 20, 1914. FamilySearch original image.
  8. Brooks County four-land-lot transaction register, reconciled through October 9, 2026; supporting originals include Deed Book O, page 583; Deed Book S, page 123; and Deed Book S, pages 595–596. Deed Book O, page 583 · Deed Book S, page 123 · Deed Book S, pages 595–596.
  9. Brooks County Deed Book N, page 534, Ancel Lawrence to South Georgia Railway Company, December 26, 1896. FamilySearch original image.

  10. Brooks County Deed Book O, page 583, Ancil Lawrence to Henry M. Wooten, J. F. Johnson, and L. M. Hester, October 30, 1900; recorded November 9, 1901. FamilySearch original.

  11. Brooks County Deed Book Y, page 20, Ansle Larrance to C. O. Rountree and Wesley Baker, July 4, 1914; recorded July 6, 1914. FamilySearch original.

Research status: Complete with documented gaps. The inspected records establish Lawrence's household, major landholdings, and role in the early parcel market. The surname bridge, east-half acquisition, complete child list, station-parcel title, burial, and probate remain unresolved.