Joseph J. Oglesby

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Joseph J. "Joe" Oglesby died on January 6, 1914, and was probably born on August 14, 1838. He was one of three brothers elected to the South Georgia Railroad's first board in 1896. James Wood Oglesby became president and Zenas Wise Oglesby became superintendent. Joseph held no office beyond his directorship in the surviving organization report.[1][3][5][6][21-23]

The name Julius appears on his Find a Grave memorial, but no contemporary source reviewed for this account expands the middle initial. Newspapers called him J. J., Joe J., or Joseph J. Julius is therefore probable, not verified.[8][19][21-23]

Family and early life

Joseph was probably born in Wilkes County, Georgia, on August 14, 1838. A memorial published in Confederate Veteran six months after his death supplies the date and county. No birth record was found.[1]

Published family accounts identify his parents as Thomas I. Oglesby and Elizabeth Johnson Wood Oglesby. The family later lived in Cobb County, where Thomas manufactured cotton gins. Those accounts list six sons: Garrett, Joseph, William, John, Zenas, and James. They also say that Joseph and Garrett served in the Confederate forces.[2][3]

Joseph's reported birth date conflicts with one obituary. The Valdosta Daily Times called him seventy-eight in January 1914, but a man born August 14, 1838, was seventy-five. The near-contemporary veteran memorial is more specific than the newspaper's age estimate, but the exact birth date remains probable without a birth or family record.[1][21]

No school or college record was found.

Confederate service

Joseph volunteered in 1861 with Company D, described in the veteran memorial as the first company organized in Burke County. The company elected him lieutenant and joined the 2nd Georgia Regiment. He remained with the regiment until he was sent back to Georgia.[1]

His later wartime work drew on mechanical skill. The same account says he became foreman of the Macon machine shop, where he made firearms for the Confederate government until the war ended. Huxford independently identifies Joseph as a Confederate veteran, though without a unit, rank, or shop assignment.[1][3]

The service narrative is specific and close to Joseph's lifetime, but no original muster roll, compiled service file, ordnance payroll, or machine-shop record was found. His Confederate service is well supported. The company, rank, and shop assignment are probable pending those original records.

Cotton-gin work in Smyrna

By 1883 a J. J. Oglesby, probably Joseph, lived at Smyrna in Cobb County. An advertisement in the Marietta Journal offered his services repairing cotton gins. It said he had long experience, guaranteed satisfaction, and accepted orders directly or through Henderson, Son & Company in Marietta.[12]

The same issue reported that J. J. Oglesby had returned from Texas with two visitors from Ladonia and was pleased with the country he had seen. A Kingston column in February 1884 said he was considering a move to Texas.[13][14]

The initials-only reports, the Bonham migration trail, and the later Texas and family evidence make Joseph the probable gin repairer. They do not place him in the later cotton-gin, patent, lumber, sawmill, banking, naval-stores, or grocery businesses documented for James and Zenas. Family relationship alone does not establish a corporate office or ownership interest.[2][3][12-18]

Move to Bonham, Texas

The J. J. Oglesby of Smyrna sold his home and left for Bonham, Texas, with his family in January 1885. The Marietta Journal called him a worthy citizen and said his friends regretted losing him. A report from Kingston twelve days later found the family stopping with relatives while traveling to Bonham. The later Texas and family trail makes the identification as Joseph probable.[15-18]

The Texas link continued for nearly two decades. In January 1904 a Quitman social column reported that Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Oglesby of Texas had joined James, Zenas, and James's wife on a camping and hunting trip to Hampton Springs, Florida. The shared trip, later brother identifications, and Fannin County memorial link identify the Texas visitor as the railroad director.[9][17-19][21-23]

Find a Grave memorial links identify Annah J. Sherwood Oglesby, 1844-1893, as Joseph's first wife and Mary Blanche Watts Oglesby, 1863-1961, as his second wife. The second memorial gives 1898 as the marriage year. These are probable identifications from memorial-manager data, not verified marriages. No marriage record was found.[9][10]

The same memorial network links six children to Joseph and Annah: Jarald Earnest, Willena Eleanor, Julia E., James V., Albert Sherwood, and Ralph Oglesby.[9][11] The links are useful leads, not a proved household. Four of those six memorials give death dates before 1914, while Joseph's obituary said a wife and five children survived him. The two accounts do not reconcile. The full child list remains unresolved until census, marriage, death, and probate records can be checked.

South Georgia Railroad

Joseph first appears in the surviving railroad account after the charter campaign. Huxford says James and Zenas, the business partners known as Oglesby Brothers, offered in January 1896 to pay half the cost of a permanent railroad between the Georgia Southern and Florida line and Quitman if local investors raised the other half. Huxford does not name Joseph in that proposal, the subscription committee, or his reconstructed list of twenty-six charter petitioners. The original petition was not found, so the narrower statement is the one the evidence supports.[3]

After the charter was granted, stockholders met at Quitman City Hall on March 23, 1896. They accepted the charter, adopted bylaws, and elected nine directors. Joseph joined James and Zenas on that board. The directors chose James as president, John W. Hopson as vice president, John Tillman as treasurer, and Zenas as superintendent. Joseph held no first officer post.[4-7]

The contemporary reports establish Joseph as a founding director and show that he was not one of the first officers. They do not identify him as a charter petitioner, general manager, or superintendent. No stock certificate, subscription ledger, share count, annual report, or later election notice was found, so his stockholding and the length of his board service remain unknown.[3][5][6]

Broken leg at Barney

Joseph was at Barney on June 1, 1897, when he broke his leg between the ankle and knee. The Savannah Morning News and Macon Telegraph identified him as the brother of railroad president J. W. Oglesby and described Barney as a South Georgia Railroad station. A Valdosta reprint also covered the injury.[19][20]

The reports place Joseph on the new line and prove the family relationship behind the initials. They do not explain how the accident happened, whether he was traveling on railroad business, or whether he held an operating job. No located follow-up describes his treatment or recovery.

White Sulphur Springs and final years

Several years before his death, Joseph moved from Texas to White Sulphur Springs in Hall County, Georgia. James had acquired and improved the resort in 1905. Joseph's residence there is verified, but no source calls him its owner, manager, or employee.[2][21-23]

Joseph later traveled to Hampton Springs, Florida, another resort associated with James. He died there at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, January 6, 1914, after a long illness. Contemporary reports described years of asthma, an asthma attack, and a general breakdown. Without a death certificate, the formal medical cause cannot be stated more precisely.[1][21-23]

His body arrived in Quitman the next morning. Confederate veterans escorted it from the train to Oak Hill Cemetery. Rev. Dr. Campbell conducted the funeral. The pallbearers were J. Henneman, R. C. McIntosh Sr., H. P. Townsend, H. L. Young, R. B. Young, and C. F. Cator.[21]

The veteran memorial and contemporary death reports agree that Joseph died on January 6, 1914. Newspapers also identify James and Zenas as his surviving brothers.[1][21-23]

Namesake control

Joseph must not be confused with James Wood Oglesby Sr., James Wood Oglesby Jr., Zenas Wise Oglesby, or unrelated men who used J. J. Oglesby. A 1922 bankruptcy notice identified a different J. J. Oglesby of Munnerlyn in Burke County, eight years after Joseph's death. That record does not belong to this man.[24]

The identification rests on several connected reports: the initials on the 1896 board list, the 1897 statement that J. J. was James's brother, the 1904 visit by the Texas resident with James and Zenas, and the 1914 notices naming Joseph and both brothers.[5][6][17-23]

Record conflicts and limits

• Middle name: Julius is probable from memorial-manager data. Contemporary sources use only J.
• Age at death: the obituary's seventy-eight conflicts with the veteran memorial's August 14, 1838 birth date, which would have made Joseph seventy-five.
• Marriages: Annah J. Sherwood and Mary Blanche Watts are probable from linked memorial data. No original marriage record was found.
• Children: the six linked memorials do not reconcile with the obituary's statement that five children survived. The complete household is unresolved.
• Military detail: service is well supported. Company D, lieutenant rank, and the Macon machine-shop assignment are probable from the 1914 veteran memorial pending original military and payroll records.
• Business: Joseph is the probable Smyrna cotton-gin repairer. No evidence supports assigning him James and Zenas's lumber, patent, banking, resort, or other corporate positions.
• Railroad: founding directorship is verified. Huxford does not name him as a charter petitioner, and contemporary reports show he was not a first officer. Shares and later board tenure remain unknown.
• Property and estate: no complete deed, tax, will, or probate chain was assembled in Georgia or Texas.

Confidence summary

Sources

1. "Lieut. J. J. Oglesby," Confederate Veteran, vol. 22 (July 1914), 329, Internet Archive.
2. William J. Northen, ed., Men of Mark in Georgia, vol. 4 (Atlanta: A. B. Caldwell, 1908), 341-347, Internet Archive.
3. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858-1948 (1948), 197-198 and 523-529, Google Books catalog record for the 1978 reprint (catalog metadata only, not a scan of the cited pages).
4. Folks Huxford, South Georgia Railroad reconstruction, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858-1948 (1948), 197-198, Google Books catalog record for the 1978 reprint (catalog metadata only, not a scan of the cited pages).
5. Savannah Morning News, March 24, 1896, p. 2, first board and officers, Newspapers.com image 852573116 and Georgia Historic Newspapers.
6. Atlanta Constitution, March 25, 1896, p. 3, parallel organization report, Newspapers.com image 26796218.
7. South Georgia Railroad first-board roster, South Georgia Railroad narrative.
8. Find a Grave memorial 41503848, Joseph Julius Oglesby.
9. Find a Grave memorial 46409964 and family links, Annah J. Sherwood Oglesby.
10. Find a Grave memorial 10302328, linked second wife, Mary Blanche Watts Oglesby.
11. Find a Grave linked-child memorials: Jarald Earnest Oglesby, Willena Eleanor Oglesby, Julia E. Oglesby, James V. Oglesby, Albert Sherwood Oglesby, and Ralph Oglesby.
12. Marietta Journal, August 23, 1883, p. 2, gin-repair advertisement, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
13. Marietta Journal, August 23, 1883, p. 3, return from Texas, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
14. Cartersville American, February 12, 1884, p. 2, proposed Texas move, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
15. Marietta Journal, January 8, 1885, p. 3, Smyrna home sale and planned Bonham move, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
16. Cartersville American, January 20, 1885, p. 3, family traveling to Bonham, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
17. Savannah Morning News, January 24, 1904, p. 16, Texas residence and Hampton Springs trip, Newspapers.com image 879556815 and Georgia Historic Newspapers.
18. Atlanta Constitution, January 24, 1904, p. 6, parallel social report, Newspapers.com image 34214927.
19. Savannah Morning News, June 3, 1897, p. 2, Barney injury and brother relationship, Newspapers.com image 852579985 and Georgia Historic Newspapers.
20. Macon Telegraph, June 3, 1897, p. 3, parallel injury report, Georgia Historic Newspapers; Valdosta Times, June 5, 1897, p. 5, Newspapers.com image 889774378.
21. Valdosta Daily Times, January 9, 1914, p. 8, obituary, funeral, pallbearers, age, and longstanding asthma, Newspapers.com image 889317731.
22. Atlanta Constitution, January 8, 1914, p. 11, death, brothers, Texas and White Sulphur Springs residences, family, and burial, Newspapers.com image 34080007.
23. Atlanta Georgian, January 8, 1914, p. 4, parallel death notice, Georgia Historic Newspapers and Newspapers.com image 876873561.
24. The True Citizen (Waynesboro, Georgia), December 23, 1922, p. 8, bankruptcy-discharge notice for J. J. Oglesby of Munnerlyn, Burke County, Georgia Historic Newspapers.