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

Mitchell Brice

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Mitchell Brice was born in Georgia on December 14, 1840, according to the date preserved by the Brice family history and his cemetery memorial. He died in Quitman on March 7, 1903. Census records place him at Tallokas from childhood through the end of his life. By the 1890s he had interests in farming, timber, turpentine, a sawmill, a store, racehorses, and land. He also served as a county commissioner, helped raise subscriptions for the South Georgia Railroad, and later sat on its board.[1][2][3]

The exact birth date is not established by a civil record. The 1850 census, which gives his age as nine, and the 1900 census, which gives December 1840 as his birth month, support the year and month. The day comes from later sources.[1][4][5]

Parents and childhood at Tallokas

The 1850 census places nine-year-old Mitchell in Thomas County with Francis and Elisabeth Brice and six other Brice children. The 1860 census follows the family into newly created Brooks County: Mitchell, nineteen, was living at Tallokas with Francis, Elizabeth, David J., Timothy W., and Martha Brice. The schedules did not record family relationships, but the matching household, ages, and locations establish a continuous family group.[4][6]

Folks Huxford identifies Mitchell's parents as Francis Brice and Elizabeth Murphy. He says they moved from Duplin County, North Carolina, in 1833 and settled at Tallokas. The 1850 and 1860 households support the parents' names and Tallokas residence. The 1880 census reports Mitchell's parents as North Carolina natives, while the 1900 census reports Georgia. That conflict leaves Huxford's migration account plausible but not independently proved, and neither census establishes Elizabeth's maiden name.[1][4][5][6][13]

The 1850 slave schedule names Francis Brice as the owner of five enslaved people: three males, ages twenty-four, twenty, and fifteen, and two females, ages forty-three and eighteen. Mitchell was nine and living in his parents' household. The record documents enslavement by Francis. It does not establish that Mitchell personally owned those five people or later inherited them. A usable 1860 Brooks County slave-schedule entry for the family was not recovered.[7]

An original Brooks County Reconstruction oath records Mitchell Brice on June 29, 1867. The evidence located in this research does not establish Confederate military service. A militia enrollment or postwar oath should not be turned into a claim that he served in the Confederate army.[8]

First marriage and the Lyman Hall case

In April 1870, newspapers reported that Brice shot and killed Lyman Hall at the Alderman and Brice store near Scruggs Mill. The initial report withheld details because an investigation was underway. Brooks Superior Court later tried Brice for voluntary manslaughter. After a trial lasting more than two days, the jury found him not guilty on May 20. The surviving reports establish the killing, charge, trial, and acquittal. They do not explain what happened inside the store or why the jury acquitted him.[9][10]

The next month, Brooks County issued a marriage license to Mitchell Brice and K. M. Walker. The original record gives June 15, 1870, as their marriage date. The 1870 census was taken on July 25. It places Mitchell with a fourteen-year-old woman whose first name is difficult to read; both were marked as married in June. Ancestry indexes her as "Tissy" and labels her as a child, but the marriage entry and later records make her identification as Keziah Walker strong. Her exact age remains less certain because the census and later reported birth date differ by about a year.[11][12]

The 1880 census names Mitchell's wife as Kisiah M. and their eight-year-old son as David J. An original will supplies the family links that the census does not state. John W. Walker called Kiziah M. Brice his sister, David James Brice his nephew, and Mitchell Brice his brother-in-law. He appointed Mitchell as executor and as guardian for David and another minor nephew.[13][14]

Huxford and cemetery memorials give Keziah's life dates as February 4, 1855, to January 26, 1882, and David James Brice's as February 13, 1872, to June 24, 1894. David reportedly died unmarried. No readable marker image or civil death record was recovered for either person, so the exact dates rest on derivative sources.[1][15]

Farming, labor, turpentine, and credit

A December 1875 account said Osburn Bird had worked as a farm laborer on Brice's place. This confirms that Brice employed farm labor by then, but the article does not identify the acreage or crops.[16]

Huxford says Brice inherited Tallokas Plantation after his father's death in 1878, added adjoining land, and operated farms, a sawmill, and a general store. Those details are not equally secure. Contemporary reporting confirms the general business profile, while the inheritance and acreage claims still depend on Huxford because no deed chain or estate inventory was recovered.[1]

Huxford also says Brice bought the Hilton turpentine still in 1882. A newspaper reported that Brice's turpentine still in Quitman burned on November 28 of that year, causing an estimated $1,000 loss. The cause was unknown. The paper mentioned suspicion of arson but reported no finding. The timing confirms that Brice was operating a still in 1882, though it does not identify the seller.[17]

Mortgage and sheriff's-sale notices show that Brice extended secured credit. An 1888 notice concerned 245 acres in Berrien County; an 1889 notice listed two mules and a wagon as collateral in Lowndes County. These records prove individual secured debts. They do not establish a general lending business.[18]

An 1890 Lowndes County tax digest lists Mitchell Brice as the owner of 100 acres in Folsom District, returned by another person. The uncommon name and nearby location probably point to the Tallokas man, but the entry contains no household or residence information.[19]

Party activity, post office, and county government

At a Brooks County Democratic meeting in July 1876, Brice represented Tallokas on the committee that proposed delegates to the state convention. The meeting also elected him and J. M. Williams to the county Democratic executive committee for Tallokas. This was a party role, not county office.[20]

A federal register records Brice's appointment as Tallokas postmaster on December 4, 1882. In May 1903, a newspaper announced John P. Clower's appointment in place of Mitchell Brice, deceased. The register and the later notice together resolve the identity.[21]

Brice served on the Brooks County Board of Commissioners from 1892 to 1900. A contemporary December 1894 report names him with the other four commissioners. Huxford's family sketch says Brice chaired the board during the 1892 and 1893 courthouse remodeling. Huxford's official roster contradicts that statement: it names John Tillman as chairman through 1894 and S. S. Rountree afterward. No surviving minute found in this search resolves the discrepancy. Brice's commission service is verified; the chairmanship and direct responsibility for the remodeling are not.[1][22]

The 1894 killings and Brice's public response

In December 1894, white mobs killed Black laborers in the area around Brice's plantation. Newspaper accounts identify several victims as his tenants and preserve his response. Brice rejected reports of an armed Black uprising, said the victims were innocent of the alleged conspiracy, and said most of the armed white party came from Colquitt County. The county commissioners, including Brice, issued a resolution condemning the killings and calling for prosecution.[22][23]

The same reporting attributed a sharply different allegation to John Simmons: that Brice treated Black workers as though they were still enslaved and whipped them rather than send them to the chain gang. No court record or independent finding was located to confirm that accusation. It remains an attributed allegation, not an established fact.[23]

Second marriage and children

An original Brooks County entry records Brice's marriage to Mattie E. Edmondson on March 14, 1895. A contemporary newspaper announced the marriage that month. Huxford calls her Martha Elizabeth Edmonson but spells her father's surname Edmondson. The records therefore preserve both spellings rather than settling on one.[1][24]

The 1900 Tallokas census places Mitchell, age fifty-nine, with Mattie E., age thirty, and Henry T., age two. It says Mitchell and Mattie had been married five years. The handwritten surname is Brice, but Ancestry indexes the family as Buice.[5]

Later sources identify two sons of this marriage. Mitchell Brice Jr., born in 1896, died in 1899. Henry Turner Brice was born in May 1898 and survived his father. Huxford gives May 2 as Henry's birthday, while his cemetery memorial gives May 5. The census confirms May 1898 but does not settle the day. Henry later chaired the Brooks County Commission and the Georgia Board of Corrections.[1][15]

Horses, store, and the Barney tram road

Brice's involvement with racehorses is documented beyond the family history. In April 1897 a newspaper said he owned several fine horses and planned to spend $1,000 improving the Quitman track for carnival races. A June report called him a high-class sportsman with a string of racehorses and named one horse, Little Baltick, that had raced in Savannah. Huxford says Brice bred horses at Tallokas and raced in cities including New Orleans, Jacksonville, St. Louis, Atlanta, and New York. The contemporary reports confirm serious involvement with horses and racing, but not every venue in Huxford's list.[25][26]

Brice described his retail operation in an 1898 testimonial advertisement. He said his nephew A. B. Williams had kept his books and later took charge of "my store." The praise in the advertisement is promotional, but Brice's statement directly confirms the store and Williams's management role.[27]

The clearest link between Brice's business and Barney appeared in an October 1899 Valdosta Times profile. It said he operated a tram road about seven miles west from Barney to his large lumber mills and turpentine still. This was a private industrial tram serving his woods operation. The source does not make it part of the South Georgia Railway main line, identify its western terminal, or fix the route on a modern map.[3]

A 1901 Moultrie Observer item reported that Brice sold land near Hempstead to a Mr. Griffin of Irwin County and planned a fifty-acre Elberta peach orchard. The full name, date, and regional business profile probably identify the Tallokas man. The item itself does not mention Tallokas or Barney, and no follow-up report was found to show that the orchard was planted or harvested.[28]

Railroads

Brice backed two railroad efforts. In June 1892, a contemporary report said that he and John W. Hopson each subscribed $2,000 toward a proposed line between Quitman and Moultrie. The search did not establish that this version of the project was completed.[29]

Huxford places Brice on the county-at-large subscription committee formed on January 29, 1896, to raise Quitman's half of the cost of the Adel-to-Quitman railroad. Five days later, the committee reported the required money raised. Brice was not one of the twenty-six named charter petitioners and was not elected to the first board in March. Two contemporary reports, published on March 30 and April 4, 1899, later named him among the South Georgia Railway directors. The April 4 report corroborates the March 30 account.[1][30]

The evidence supports a precise description: Brice helped organize local subscriptions and later became a director. It does not establish how much he personally subscribed in 1896 or make him one of the original incorporators.

Convict leasing

Brice participated in Georgia's county misdemeanor-convict leasing system. In 1897 he bid $5 per month for each of ten Colquitt County prisoners, with D. J. Devane appointed as guard. A 1900 report said Brice held county contracts and operated a convict camp in Brooks County. That report came from rival lessee Ed McRee during a business dispute, so McRee's criticism of Brice's management requires attribution and is not treated here as an official finding.[31][32]

A 1903 Thomas County report independently confirms the business relationship. The county had previously hired its misdemeanor prisoners to Brice for $8 per person per month. After his death, his executors did not bid because they were winding up his affairs. Bell Lumber Company received the new contract at $11.50. The sources establish the use of leased convict labor. They do not identify every work site, describe daily conditions, or resolve the separate allegations about Brice's treatment of Black workers.[33]

Final illness, death, and estate

On February 28, 1903, the Thomasville Times-Enterprise reported that Brice had suffered paralysis and was in precarious condition. He died in Quitman on March 7. The Savannah Morning News gave pleuropneumonia as the immediate cause, described his timber interests and Quitman property, and said he left a widow and one son. Burial took place at Tallokas on March 8.[2][34]

The paralysis report and the later cause of death are not necessarily contradictory. One describes a serious event a week before death; the other names the illness associated with his death. No civil death certificate was located.

On April 6, Mattie E. Brice posted a guardian's bond for Henry Turner Brice, identified in the original record as the minor and orphan child of Mitchell Brice, deceased. This is direct evidence for the surviving mother and son. A will-book index points to a Mitchell Brice entry on page 21, but the actual will pages and estate inventory were not recovered. No claim about the will's provisions can yet be made.[35]

The cemetery memorial identifies his burial place as Bethel Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery near Pavo. The contemporary obituary says Tallokas and another report says Bethel Church. Together they support the cemetery identification, though no readable marker image was recovered in this research.[2][15]

What the record supports

Mitchell Brice's identity can be followed from his parents' Thomas County household in 1850 through Tallokas censuses, marriages, probate records, business reporting, county service, and his 1903 death. His documented railroad role was important but limited: he helped raise local subscriptions in 1896 and later served as a director. He was not one of the named incorporators or a member of the first board.

The fuller record is less tidy than the older county sketch. Brice publicly condemned the 1894 killings of Black laborers, yet other sources place him inside the coercive labor system of his time through county convict leasing and preserve an unverified accusation about his treatment of Black workers. Both parts belong in an honest account.

Several questions remain open. No direct bank ledger confirms Huxford's claim that Brice owned stock and served as a director in early Quitman banks. The commission-chairmanship claim conflicts with Huxford's own roster. The exact inheritance and land chain, the 1860 slave schedule, the original 1896 subscription report, the complete racing record, the death certificate, and the actual probate file still require archival work.

Namesake control

This Mitchell Brice died in 1903. He is not the Mitchell Brice convicted in Valdosta in 1902 for killing Tom Canidate. He is also not the schoolboy associated with Sparks in 1902 and 1903, his son Mitchell who died in childhood, or his grandson Dr. Mitchell Brice, born in 1920. A newspaper hit that contains only the name is not enough to merge any of those people with the Tallokas planter.[15][36]

Sources

  1. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858-1948 (1948), pp. 197-198, 240, 374-376, and 436-438.
  2. Savannah Morning News, March 9, 1903, p. 5, Newspapers.com image 879562699.
  3. Valdosta Times, October 14, 1899, p. 21, Newspapers.com image 889671340.
  4. 1850 U.S. census, Thomas County, Georgia, District 81, dwelling and family 683, Francis Brice household; NARA M432, roll 83, p. 48A; Ancestry collection 8054, record 18964759.
  5. 1900 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Tallokas district, dwelling 341, family 348, Mitchell Brice household; NARA T623, roll 181, p. 18, ED 3; Ancestry collection 7602, record 52860790.
  6. 1860 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Tallokas, dwelling and family 544, Francis Brice household; NARA M653, roll 112, p. 728; Ancestry collection 7667, record 10757052.
  7. 1850 U.S. census slave schedule, Thomas County, Georgia, District 81, Francis Brice; Ancestry collection 8055, record 93253596.
  8. Georgia Reconstruction registration oath, Mitchell Brice, Brooks County, June 29, 1867; Ancestry collection 1857, record 928155.
  9. Quitman Banner, April 29, 1870, p. 3, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  10. Savannah Morning News, May 23, 1870, p. 2, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  11. Brooks County marriage record, Mitchell Brice and K. M. Walker, June 15, 1870; Ancestry collection 4766, record 182610.
  12. 1870 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Mitchell Brice household; NARA M593, roll 137, p. 53B; Ancestry collection 7163, record 2667933.
  13. 1880 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Dry Lake district, Mitchell Brice household; NARA T9, roll 135, p. 393A, ED 6; Ancestry collection 6742, record 40731708.
  14. Will of John W. Walker, Brooks County Record of Wills, pp. 136-137; Ancestry collection 8635, record 1660312.
  15. Find a Grave memorials Mitchell Brice, 45067462, Keziah Walker Brice, 31600411, David James Brice, 50941805, Mitchell Brice Jr., 50941767, and Henry Turner Brice Sr., 44692731.
  16. Quitman Reporter, December 2, 1875, p. 3, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  17. Macon Telegraph, December 5, 1882, p. 3, Newspapers.com image 823253918.
  18. Valdosta Times, April 7, 1888, p. 2, Berrien County sheriff's-sale notice, Newspapers.com image 889632329; Valdosta Times, February 2, 1889, p. 2, Lowndes County sheriff's-sale notice, Newspapers.com image 889788458.
  19. 1890 Lowndes County tax digest, Folsom District, Mitchell Brice; Ancestry collection 1729, record 4853283.
  20. Quitman Reporter, July 20, 1876, p. 3, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  21. U.S. postmaster register, Tallokas, Georgia, Mitchell Brice appointment, December 4, 1882; Ancestry collection 1932, record 1630511; Atlanta Constitution, May 18, 1903, Newspapers.com image 969500931.
  22. Macon Telegraph, December 28, 1894, p. 2, Georgia Historic Newspapers; Chattooga News, January 3, 1895, p. 1, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  23. Atlanta Constitution, December 26, 1894, Newspapers.com image 26817221.
  24. Brooks County marriage record, M. Brice and Mattie E. Edmondson, March 14, 1895; Ancestry collection 4766, record 125776; Daily Times-Enterprise, March 17, 1895, p. 2, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  25. Daily Times-Enterprise, April 23, 1897, p. 1, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  26. Savannah Morning News, June 14, 1897, p. 6, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  27. Daily Times-Enterprise, February 25 and 26, 1898, p. 2, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  28. Moultrie Observer, December 20, 1901, p. 8, "From Hempstead," Moultrie-Colquitt County archive.
  29. Atlanta Constitution, June 6, 1892, Newspapers.com image 26952196.
  30. Atlanta Constitution, March 30, 1899, p. 3, Newspapers.com image 26826945; Valdosta Times, April 4, 1899, p. 3, Newspapers.com image 889670566.
  31. Valdosta Times, October 26, 1897, Newspapers.com image 889778923.
  32. Savannah Morning News, September 28, 1900, Newspapers.com image 879565665.
  33. Thomasville Times-Enterprise, September 5, 1903, p. 1, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  34. Thomasville Times-Enterprise, February 28, 1903, p. 1, Georgia Historic Newspapers; Atlanta Constitution, March 9, 1903, p. 2, Newspapers.com image 34089490.
  35. Brooks County guardian's bond, Mattie E. Brice for Henry Turner Brice, April 6, 1903; Ancestry collection 8635, record 536769; Brooks County will-book index, Mitchell Brice, p. 21, collection 8635, record 1153532.
  36. Valdosta and Sparks namesake search results preserved in the Mitchell Brice research ledger.