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The Barney History Project: The people, places, and stories of Barney, Georgia

Clayton Groover

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June 1, 1829 to March 19, 1916 | farmer, merchant, Confederate sergeant, druggist, banker, mill operator, civic official, insurance investor, and railroad charter petitioner

Identity and evidence

The Clayton Groover associated with the South Georgia Railroad was the elder Quitman businessman born in 1829, not Frank Clayton Groover or any of the younger men who carried Clayton as a first or middle name. His identity is verified through federal censuses from 1850 to 1910, his marriage to Floride Burney, their sons Edwin and Ledley, contemporary business reports, his full-name obituaries, and his photographed grave marker.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

The marker reads "Clayton Groover / June 1, 1829 / Mar. 19, 1916".[8] Find a Grave memorial 36045694 incorrectly transcribes the birth year as 1839. That cannot be reconciled with the marker, the 1850 census age of twenty, the 1870 census age of forty-one, the 1900 birth entry of June 1829, the 1910 age of eighty, or the obituary age of eighty-six.[2][4][6][7][9] June 1, 1829 therefore controls.

Parents and early adulthood

The 1850 census placed twenty-year-old Clayton in the District 81, Thomas County household of James and Elizabeth Groover. The census did not state relationships, so Ancestry's parent labels are inferred from household position. Clayton was a farmer and had attended school during the year. Older men Redding and Thomas Groover were in the same household, along with Mary Hancock and five Adams children.[2]

Find a Grave links Clayton to James Earl Groover and Elizabeth Denmark Groover. Those parental links agree with the 1850 household, but the memorial relationships remain derivative because no birth, probate, or family Bible record was inspected.[8] Clayton's 1916 obituary independently named Dr. James Groover of Grooverville as his brother and Martha Ramsey as his sister.[9][10]

Folks Huxford's transcription of the 1860 Brooks County census lists Clayton, age thirty-one, as a merchant-clerk boarding with Mariner J. Culpepper in the new town of Quitman. The original census image was not recovered in the fresh Ancestry search, so the name and occupation remain a published transcription rather than a new image reading.[1]

Groover had already acquired a stake in the county seat. Huxford's town-lot list says "Clayton Groover, Brooks County" bought one Quitman lot for $170 on February 19, 1859.[1] His 1916 obituary called him a native of Brooks County, but Brooks did not exist until December 1858. The obituary meant the local area, not the county as a legal jurisdiction at his birth.

Marriage and children

The Brooks County marriage record names Clayton Groover and Floride Burney and dates their marriage to July 16, 1861.[3] The 1900 census says they had been married thirty-eight years, a one-year difference that is ordinary for census reporting.[6]

Floride was born in Florida in November 1842. The 1900 census lists November 1842, while her marker-based memorial gives November 26, 1842.[6][11] She appears as Florida in the 1870 census and Floride in the marriage record, 1900 census, death notice, and cemetery record. These are spelling variants for the same woman.

The couple had at least two sons:

  1. Edwin A. Groover, born about 1863 or 1864. The 1870 census calls him Edwin, age six; the 1880 index renders him "E. A. Grooves", age sixteen. Later Jacksonville reports identify Edwin A. Groover as Clayton's son. He became a banker and insurance executive.[4][5][12][13]
  2. Ledley Groover, born about 1865 or 1866. He was four in the 1870 census and about fourteen in an 1882 newspaper report. The 1880 index instead gives a fourteen-year-old son as "A. S. Grooves". The original 1880 image was not inspected, so Ledley's full name and the "A. S." reading remain unresolved.[4][5][14]

Clayton's obituary said one son, E. A. Groover, survived him. That indicates Ledley had died before March 1916, but no identity-secure death or burial record was found.[9][10]

Edwin's daughter Floride was Clayton's granddaughter. Contemporary social reports repeatedly make the link. In 1903 Mrs. Edwin Groover and Miss Floride Groover visited Clayton and his wife in Quitman. In 1908 Mrs. Edwin A. Groover and Floride again visited him. A Jacksonville account that August called Clayton the young woman's grandfather and described him joining her guests.[15][16][17]

Floride Burney Groover died at Quitman early on February 9, 1905. The Valdosta report said the death was sudden and attributed it to asthma. Edwin traveled from Jacksonville for the funeral. Her photographed-marker memorial gives the same date and burial in West End Cemetery.[11][18][19] Clayton was listed as widowed in 1910.[7]

Civil War service and Reconstruction

The Georgia muster-roll index records Clayton Groover in the Piscola Volunteers of Brooks County on May 9, 1861.[20] Huxford's company roster says he was elected fourth sergeant at Quitman on July 23, 1861. The unit first belonged to the 13th Georgia Infantry and became Company C of the 26th Georgia Infantry at reorganization.[1]

Huxford says Groover retired at the May 1, 1862 reorganization. A compiled soldier profile gives a muster-out date of May 8, 1862, but then adds a wound and furlough dated after that retirement. Those later notes conflict with the service boundary and may belong to another soldier or reflect a compilation error.[21] No claim about a wound or later Virginia service is adopted here. The secure finding is service as fourth sergeant from 1861 until the spring 1862 reorganization.

Georgia's 1864 militia-reorganization census listed Clayton Groover in Brooks County.[22] That list established his presence and militia eligibility, not a second period of active Confederate service. On June 20, 1867, he registered as a white voter in Brooks County's Seventh Election District under the Reconstruction Acts.[23]

A fresh exact-name search of the 1860 federal slave-schedule index returned no Clayton Groover entry. That is a documented negative index search, not proof that he never enslaved anyone. The original Brooks County schedule, tax digests, deeds, and probate records were not reviewed page by page.

Merchant, property holder, and druggist

Groover's prewar merchant-clerk occupation continued into the postwar economy. The 1870 census found him in Quitman as a retail dry-goods clerk. It valued his real estate at $3,000 and personal estate at $750.[4]

Huxford says Dr. James H. McCall opened a Quitman drugstore in 1866 and took Groover into partnership about 1870. The business traded as McCall & Groover.[1] Contemporary newspapers confirm that the firm existed. A September 1873 storm unroofed its store, and a January 1876 fire report says McCall & Groover owned the building occupied by R. M. McCall and E. Ives. Their building was insured for $1,300.[24][25]

Huxford also says Quitman's first Baptist sermon was preached in a store building owned by Groover. The event belonged to the Civil War era, but the county history does not supply a deed, address, or contemporary article that would identify the building more precisely.[1]

Banking and the Quitman mills

In 1878 Groover joined J. O. Morton and F. J. Spain in the private bank that preceded the Bank of Quitman. Huxford calls the concern Denmark, Groover & Company. Contemporary newspapers often print "Clayton, Groover & Co." or "C. Groover & Co." and identify it as the Quitman bank.[1][26][27] The surviving OCR and punctuation do not justify turning those forms into separate firms. What is secure is the continuity from the private banking house to the state-chartered Bank of Quitman.

The 1880 census calls Groover a banker. Floride and their two sons were in his household on Screven Street.[5] An April 1888 report says the banking firm was adding a story to its offices and rebuilding the front in pressed brick, iron, and glass.[28]

The bank also entered manufacturing. In August 1885, "C. Groover & Co." bought the Quitman mills from Jelks & Hines for $7,000. The report said the property had originally cost more than $40,000.[26] A January 1886 item called Clayton, Groover & Company bankers and said the mills were running full time with about forty employees.[27] The sources establish the purchase price, operation, and approximate workforce, but not each partner's investment or the mill's balance sheet.

The Bank of Quitman elected Groover president on February 13, 1893 after E. P. S. Denmark declined reelection before moving to Valdosta. The elected directors were Groover, F. J. Spain, Joseph Mabbett, E. A. Jelks, and R. C. McIntosh. E. A. Groover was cashier.[29]

On December 31, 1894, Clayton and Edwin A. Groover submitted resignations as president and cashier, effective immediately, but agreed to serve until January 15. The report connected the change to a proposed reduction in expenses and said the bank was prosperous, had just declared its usual semiannual dividend of 3.5 percent, and was in excellent condition.[30] Judge J. O. Morton succeeded Clayton as president. The record supports an orderly resignation, not a failure or accusation of misconduct.

Agriculture and local development

Groover and his wife both appeared in the region's agricultural reporting. At the 1878 Brooks County fair, Mrs. Clayton Groover displayed 222 specimens of pickles, preserves, jellies, and marmalades made from cultivated and wild fruit.[31] In 1890 Clayton reported an acre of Japanese persimmons that brought from one to eight dollars per crate. He responded by planting another acre.[32]

In February 1890, Groover joined R. C. McIntosh and John Tillman on the committee seeking local subscriptions for a cotton compress. The committee reported that Quitman had subscribed the requested $15,000. The project then moved to negotiations with the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway.[33] The article gives Groover a verified fundraising role but does not state his personal subscription.

Quitman's council granted Groover and E. P. S. Denmark a franchise in July 1890 to install an electric-light system and furnish fifty street lights for $1,800 a year. Huxford says they did not exercise it, and the franchise reverted to the town.[1]

Civic and political work

Huxford's municipal roster lists Groover as a Quitman councilman in 1876. It also identifies him as secretary of the Brooks County Democratic Executive Committee for the 1872 to 1874 term.[1] No council minutes or committee proceedings were found to show particular votes or policies.

He and Floride took part in early public organizations. Huxford names Mrs. Clayton Groover on the committee for an 1874 supper that raised money for the Ladies Memorial Association. The organization cared for Confederate graves and later became the Quitman chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.[1]

Clayton was on the first board of directors of the Brooks County Library Association when it organized in 1880. Later that year he joined A. J. Rountree and Dr. Harry Mabbett on the committee for the association's two-story brick building.[1] Anniversary reports in 1912 named him as one of only three surviving members of the first board. A 1913 feature again identified Groover and G. W. Avrett as surviving founders in Quitman.[34][35]

Huxford also identifies Groover as a charter member of the Quitman Hotel Company, which developed the Hotel Marie.[1] He attended its public events, but no inspected record makes him an officer or states his subscription.

The 1882 schoolhouse incident belongs in the record because it shows a serious failure of judgment and preserves Groover's own response. A reprinted Quitman Free Press account says his son Ledley resisted punishment and tried to draw a knife. Clayton entered the school and struck teacher Sterling G. Brinkley with a cane, knocking him unconscious. Groover then signed an apology stating that he should not have attacked Brinkley in the schoolhouse and in front of the pupils. Friends of both men negotiated a settlement.[14] The apology does not erase the assault. It establishes that Groover acknowledged it.

South Georgia Railroad

Groover was one of the twenty-six petitioners named in the February 1896 application for the South Georgia Railroad charter.[1][36] He does not appear on the January subscription committee, the first nine-member board elected in March, or the first officer slate. No stock ledger or subscription amount has been found.

His verified railroad role is therefore narrow: charter incorporator. His earlier banking, mill, electric-light, and cotton-compress work explains why he belonged among Quitman's development promoters, but it does not prove a railroad office or personal investment.

Insurance work in old age

The 1900 census called Groover a furniture agent and showed that he owned his Quitman home free of mortgage.[6] In 1910 he lived alone at 609 Stevens Street. The census listed him as a fire-insurance agent and a Confederate veteran, and again recorded a mortgage-free home.[7]

That insurance occupation led to a new business connection with his son. On January 30, 1912, Edwin A. Groover, Clayton Groover, Ugo E. Guerrini, and J. P. Hoffman signed the proposed charter of the St. Johns Insurance Company in Jacksonville. The charter named Edwin president, Clayton vice president, and both men directors. It recorded Edwin's subscription of 950 shares and Clayton's subscription of 45 shares at $100 par value, a nominal $4,500 commitment.[37]

The charter is unusually specific, but par value is not proof of the cash amount paid on the filing date. It authorized stock payment in money, property, or services. The source proves the offices and subscription, not the form or timing of payment.

Final years, death, and burial

Clayton remained socially active into his eighties. Jacksonville and Quitman reports place him with Edwin's family and granddaughter Floride, and he attended a Quitman wedding in June 1912.[16][17][38] The insurance charter shows that his business activity also continued after the Bank of Quitman years.

During his last year, Clayton lived with Edwin at 2370 St. Johns Avenue in Jacksonville. He died there at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 19, 1916, after a short illness.[39] The body was sent to Quitman for a funeral at 10 a.m. Tuesday and burial in the family plot. The Atlanta and Macon obituaries called him one of Quitman's oldest and best-known citizens, credited him with founding the private bank that became the Bank of Quitman, and named surviving siblings Dr. James Groover and Martha Ramsey and surviving son E. A. Groover.[9][10]

The photographed marker and Find a Grave memorial place him in West End Cemetery.[8] The memorial's birth-year typo should not be repeated. The marker, census chain, and obituary age all establish 1829.

Findings and limits

  • Clayton Groover was born June 1, 1829 and died March 19, 1916. The photographed marker controls over Find a Grave's 1839 transcription.
  • The 1850 household and memorial links identify James and Elizabeth Groover as his parents with strong probability. A direct birth or probate record was not found.
  • He married Floride Burney on July 16, 1861. Their sons were Edwin A. and Ledley. Ledley's full name, later life, and death remain unresolved.
  • His secure Confederate service ended at the 1862 reorganization. A compiled profile's later wound and furlough notes conflict with that boundary and were rejected.
  • His career included dry-goods work, McCall & Groover, private banking, the Bank of Quitman presidency, operation of the Quitman mills, civic committees, and a late insurance venture with Edwin.
  • He was a South Georgia Railroad charter petitioner, not a verified director, officer, or stockholder.
  • No complete deed, tax, probate, will, estate, slave-schedule, bank-stock, or railroad-stock audit was available. Personal wealth, land totals, and investment amounts should not be guessed.

Sources

  1. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858-1948 (1948), pp. 102-103, 170, 193, 195, 198, 211-212, 257, 358, 389, and 460.
  2. 1850 U.S. census, District 81, Thomas County, Georgia, Clayton Groover in James Groover household, NARA M432, roll 83, p. 59A, Ancestry collection 8054, record 18965772.
  3. Brooks County marriage record, Clayton Groover and Floride Burney, July 16, 1861, Georgia Archives county marriage records, Ancestry collection 4766, record 182288.
  4. 1870 U.S. census, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, Clayton Groover household, NARA M593, roll 137, p. 100B, Ancestry collection 7163, record 3685430.
  5. 1880 U.S. census, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, indexed as Clayton Grooves, NARA T9, roll 135, p. 291D, ED 4, Ancestry collection 6742, record 11962810.
  6. 1900 U.S. census, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, Clayton Groover household, NARA T623, roll 181, p. 2, ED 6, Ancestry collection 7602, record 52865747.
  7. 1910 U.S. census, 609 Stevens Street, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, NARA T624, roll 174, p. 4A, ED 16, Ancestry collection 7884, record 3196361.
  8. Find a Grave memorial 36045694, Clayton Groover, West End Cemetery, including photographed marker inspected August 21, 2026, memorial.
  9. "Clayton Groover", Macon News, March 21, 1916, p. 11, Newspapers.com image 823423204.
  10. "Clayton Groover, Quitman", Atlanta Constitution, March 21, 1916, p. 3, image 26893051.
  11. Find a Grave memorial 36045661, Floride Burney Groover, West End Cemetery, memorial.
  12. Clayton visits son Edwin A. Groover in Jacksonville, Florida Times-Union, December 28, 1905, p. 7, image 1258211274.
  13. 1916 obituaries naming Edwin as surviving son, sources 9 and 10.
  14. Groover-Brinkley schoolhouse incident, apology, and settlement, Valdosta Times, February 25, 1882, image 889706091, reprinting the Quitman Free Press.
  15. Edwin and Floride Groover visit Clayton and Floride, Atlanta Constitution, June 14, 1903, p. 5, image 34065982.
  16. Edwin's family visits Clayton, Atlanta Constitution, March 15 and 29, 1908, pp. 7 and 6, images 26848564 and 26848800.
  17. Jacksonville visit naming Clayton as Floride's grandfather, Florida Times-Union, August 16, 1908, p. 18, image 1258161227.
  18. "Death of a Quitman Lady", Valdosta Times, February 11, 1905, p. 7, image 889653819.
  19. Floride Groover funeral notice, Florida Times-Union, February 10, 1905, p. 8, image 1258858358.
  20. Georgia Civil War muster rolls, Piscola Volunteers, Clayton Groover, Ancestry collection 2371, record 17604.
  21. Compiled Civil War soldier profile, Clayton Groover, Ancestry collection 1555, record 1730593; later wound and furlough notes rejected as internally inconsistent.
  22. Georgia census for reorganizing the militia, 1864, Brooks County, Ancestry collection 3007, record 3401.
  23. Georgia return of qualified voters, Brooks County Seventh Election District, June 20, 1867, Ancestry collection 1857, record 826744.
  24. Quitman storm damage to McCall & Groover, Georgia Weekly Telegraph, Journal and Messenger, September 30, 1873, p. 8, image 823252231.
  25. Quitman fire and McCall & Groover property, Georgia Weekly Telegraph, Journal and Messenger, January 4, 1876, p. 8, image 823242316.
  26. Quitman mills sale to C. Groover & Company, Atlanta Constitution, August 18, 1885, p. 404, image 26775783; parallel report, Valdosta Times, August 22, 1885, image 889716427.
  27. Quitman mills running full time with about forty employees, Valdosta Times, January 30, 1886, image 889717600.
  28. Banking-office improvements, Savannah Morning News, April 16, 1888, p. 6, image 852573375.
  29. Bank of Quitman election, Savannah Morning News, February 14, 1893, p. 1, image 852568841.
  30. Clayton and E. A. Groover resign from Bank of Quitman, Savannah Morning News, January 1, 1895, p. 2, image 852563975.
  31. Mrs. Clayton Groover's 222 preserved-food exhibits, Georgia Weekly Telegraph, Journal and Messenger, November 19, 1878, p. 2, image 823254923.
  32. Clayton Groover's Japanese persimmons, Atlanta Constitution, January 3, 1890, p. 2, image 26774715.
  33. Quitman cotton-compress subscription committee, Atlanta Constitution, February 23, 1890, p. 11, image 26778070.
  34. Brooks County Library anniversary, Atlanta Journal, January 27, 1912, image 970010229; parallel Valdosta Daily Times, image 889696782.
  35. Library founders retrospective, Atlanta Journal, April 20, 1913, image 970059243.
  36. Huxford, pp. 197-198, South Georgia Railroad charter petition; contemporary first board, Savannah Morning News, March 24, 1896, p. 2, image 852573116.
  37. St. Johns Insurance Company proposed charter, Florida Times-Union, February 1, 1912, p. 12, image 1258798099.
  38. Clayton attends Lee-Little wedding, Macon Telegraph, June 9, 1912, p. 33, image 825513850.
  39. Jacksonville death and shipment notice, Florida Times-Union, March 20, 1916, p. 8, image 1258239333.