Ahnentafel #10 Warren David Hendricks and #11 Lucinda Jane Gooch

According to his own account, Warren David Hendricks was born 8 Sep 1854 to George Washington Hendricks and Jane (Jenny) Keith, in Pickens County, SC.  His mother died a few years later after the birth of his younger brother James and his life became rather peripatetic at that point. The family lived in Alabama as well as various places in Georgia, before finally reaching Lumpkin County, which is where he married Lucinda Jane Gooch.

Lucinda Jane Gooch was born 19 Mar 1857 in Lumpkin County, Georgia to James Gooch and  Elvira Grizzle.   They had moved to Union County by the time she was 13 and she married Warren when she was 16, on 27 March 1873.  The ceremony was performed by Warren's cousin (by marriage) George Whitmore, who was a J.P. 

The young couple almost immediately settled in the Gaddistown area of Union County, where they raised a very large family.  Warren was primarily a farmer, Jane was a midwife, mother, and homemaker.   For the first 20 years of their marriage, Warren's brother James lived next door to them, before moving down to Madison County.  James was married to Jane's sister Eliza.   The brothers must have been close, since they named their first sons after each other. They also lived quite close to Jane's parents as well as her brothers William and Madison. Tax records indicate that they owned 260 acres of land.

In 1880 Warren and Jane first appear in the census as a family, with their two oldest children Lucy Ann and John James.  Also in the household was a 14-year old orphan Elizabeth Rider.  Her relationship to the family is not known but Warren and Jane did later take in at least one other orphaned child whom they raised. 

In March 1890 Warren was arrested for making whiskey, although he was not charged with selling it.  He was released when one of the witnesses (who worked for him) changed his testimony.   Family tradition maintains that he did in fact make whiskey.  A few months later, the Atlanta Constitution wrote a short piece about him in their section "Dahlonega Nuggets":  'Mr. Warren Hendricks, One of Union County's most prosperous farmers, was in Dahlonega some days ago.  Mr. Hendricks is worth about two thousand dollars and made it by hard licks.  He never wore a store coat or store pants in his life, but wears clothing manufactured by the "folks at home."  Instead of furnishing his little boys with a bicycle and ((unreadable)) pair of shoes, he gives them a long pair of home-made pants, suspenders knit by his girls, tenders them a hoe and puts them in the cornfield barefooted, with instructions to cut the weeds so as to let the corn grow, is why he prospers.'

By the 1900 census, Jane and Warren's two oldest children were married, with 7 more still at home, the youngest being 4.   An additional 4 children had not survived.   Her daughter Mattie always claimed that Jane was an excellent midwife, but that she had great difficulty with her own pregnancies and was often bedridden for them.

In 1903, Warren was appointed as the road commissioner for the Gaddistown district, along with two other men.  About the same time, he was also made a jury commissioner, a position he remained in until his death.

By 1910, several more of the children had married and left home, but 5 were still living with Warren and Jane as they ran the farm.  About 1915 they fostered Evelyn Ingle from Copper Hill, Tennessee.  She was about 4 at the time.  To date, we have not discovered why she was sent to a family in Union County, Georgia.  Her father had died and her 4 brothers were also fostered, separately.  She was apparently very fond of Warren and Jane, naming two of her children after them, including her first son.

In 1920, Warren and Jane show daughters Mattie, Maude and Evelyn still at home.  Mattie and Maude were both teachers.  This census entry is not totally accurate since Mattie was also listed on the census in Emanuel county, where she was working. Since the census was taken in January, its possible that she was still home for the holidays when the census taker came by.   Maude was at home but left to marry a few months later.   The fact that Mattie and Maude were both teachers is a reflection of the importance that the family apparently attributed to education.  At least 3 of the daughters (Viana, Mattie and Maude) and one of their sons (Luther) had attended North Georgia Agricultural college in Dahlonega.

In 1930, Warren is still apparently farming, despite now being 76.  Foster daughter Evelyn is still with them, as well as their daughter-in-law Ellen Jones Hendrix Seabolt.  Ellen's first husband was their son Joseph.  In 1920, he had been serving as the mayor of McCaysville, GA when he intervened in an incident with a drunken man, who shot him in the head.   Ellen later married James Seabolt but by 1930 was listed as widowed again.

In 1940, Jane and Warren are living at the same place but he is no longer listed as a farmer.  All the children are now gone, but they do have a 15-year old maid in the house.  Both Jane and Warren are listed as having done 4 years of school.  Warren died on 28 August 1940 and Jane followed him on 25 May 1942.  Both of them are buried at Mount Pleasant #2 (the Hill Church) in Suches.

Jane and Warren had the following known children:

     -- Mary LucyAnne Hendrix, born 29 September 1875, died 29 April 1956.  She married Anderson Asberry McDougald and lived her entire life in Union County.
     -- James John Washington Hendrix, born12 Dec 1877, died 17 Mar 1954.  He was named after Warren's father Washington and his two brothers James and John.  He married Vinnie Gurley and eventually settled in Morgan County, GA.
    --  Joseph Benjamin Hendrix, born 18 Mar 1881, died 25 April 1920 while serving as mayor of McCaysville, GA.  Married Ellen Jones.
    -- Allen Luther Hendrix, born 16 Feb 1884, died 11 Mar 1959 in Gwinnett County, GA.  He became a preacher, and met and married his wife Cora Blanche Clyde while serving in Holt County, Nebraska. 
   --  Vianna Hendrix, born 22 May 1885, died 19 Sep 1947.   She married William Carl Gurley.
   --  Elvira Hendrix, born 23 Sep 1889, died 20 Aug 1968 in Monroe County, GA.  She married John Richard Bearden.
   -- William Arthur, born 20 Jan 1891, died February 1976 in Hall County, GA.  He lived much of his working life in Franklin County, Ohio, but returned to Georgia after his wife died.  He married Gilla May Sparks of Fannin County.
   -- Mattie Irene Hendrix, 13 June 1893 - 12 April 1975, Married Charles Gordon Garner
   --  Maude June Hendrix, born 21 Oct 1895, died 4 Aug 1967 in Atlanta.  She married Edward Lee Floyd, who had been one of the instructors at NGC when she and Mattie were there.
   --Alice Evelyn Ingle, born 7 Oct 1911, died 24 Dec 2007 in Haywood County, NC.  Married James Thomason and then Dennis Ammons.

Warren and Jane with their descendents, taken about 1938.

Through the Mountains

Over Thanksgiving, I went down to visit my father in Suches, Union County, Georgia.  This is the area where his maternal family has lived since about 1860.  Suches is a hanging valley, so the only access to the area is over a mountain pass.  These aren't hard to traverse today with good roads and a car, but they must have been terribly difficult on foot or with a wagon.  A heavy snowstorm, which used to be very common, leaves the area completely cut off.   Woody Gap is at 3160 feet and the Appalachian trail passes there.   Wolf Pen Gap is 3260 feet and the road over the mountain there is even today known as the curviest road in Georgia.   Suches itself is at about 2800 feet and describes itself as "the Valley in the Clouds".   Some of the early settlers (after the Cherokee were kicked out) came there for free land, always a powerful incentive, but that was not what brought my family.   The Gooches had lived in the mountains for more than a generation, but over in the gentler terrain in Rabun county, then in Lumpkin County.  In the early 1860s, James Gooch crossed over Woody Gap, purchasing land in Gaddistown, near Suches, and moving his family there.  With land available in the West, one has to wonder what attracted him to the very difficult and inaccessible land around Suches.  Did he like the isolation of the mountains - or even the beauty?   The fact that deeds were often not recorded, or recorded in Dahlonega (Lumpkin County) rather than Blairsville (Union County), tends to verify that transport over the mountains was not easy.  From Gaddistown, the transit over Woody Gap to Dahlonega was an easier and shorter route than going over Wolf Pen Gap to Blairsville, but in this case "easy" is definitely a relative term.  This probably also accounts for the fact that some of the marriages are registered in Lumpkin County, even when the bride, groom and officiant were in Union.

There's no way to know why the family secluded themselves in the mountains or how it affected what they eventually became, but it's easy to believe that much of their strength and self-reliance stem from learning to survive there.

View from Woody Gap

Ahnentafel - #5 Mattie Irene Hendrix

My grandmother Mattie Irene Hendrix was born on 13 June 1897 to Warren David Hendricks and Lucinda Jane Gooch in Gaddistown, Union County, Georgia, near modern-day Suches.  Mattie was the next-to-youngest of 9 surviving children and in fact, her oldest sister married the same year she was born. She and her sister Maude always claimed that they were not given middle names at birth, with the expectation that when they married they would use Hendrix as their middle name.  Both of them chose to adopt a middle name anyway. The spelling of the family name was definitely in flux at this time, which is really obvious when you look at their college yearbooks, and see it spelled differently on the same page. 

Very little is known about her early years.  Her father ran a farm and took pride in being a somewhat stern taskmaster.  There was no high school in the area, but there was apparently a small country school that the children used to get the basics. Certainly Mattie and her siblings could all read and write, which was not a given for the area.   As they got older, several of the children, including Allen Luther, Vianna, Mattie and Maude, went to North Georgia Agricultural College (later North Georgia College, then North Georgia College State University, now University of North Georgia).   The college had a preparatory program specifically designed for local students who did not have other access to secondary education.  Mattie did the full preparatory program, then went on to get her domestic science certificate, which qualified her as a graduating senior in 1914.   All three of the girls played basketball while at the school.  According to the yearbook, Mattie "plays for all it's worth at guard's position.  Her speed is a feature in every game, and she plays the ball splendidly.." Mattie later used to tell her grandchildren that she was one of the first women in Georgia to play basketball in shorts (bloomers) rather than a skirt, something she was proud of.

Shortly after graduating, Mattie began working as a teacher in Emanuel County, Georgia, possibly as a home demonstration agent.  In newspaper reports, she is just noted as a teacher, while the census

has her as a U.S. vocational teacher.  Her photo of her first car, shown here, was labeled as "home demonstration agent".  She was the 1921 Attendance officer for education in Emanuel County and  heavily involved in literacy programs for the county, as well as demonstrating at the county fair and joining the Camp Fire girls on a camping trip.   She was also active with the county Georgia University alumnae association, attending their meetings.

Mattie married Charles Gordon Garner on 10 December 1921 in Swainsboro.  Apparently at the time this meant that she could not continue in her job, so this was the end of her professional career.  She and Gordon lived first in Lyons, Toombs County, where their first two sons Charles Gordon,Jr and Warren Hendrix were born.  About 1931 they moved to
Athens, where James Arthur and Robert Edward joined the family.   After her father died in 1940, Mattie and Gordon purchased his property in Gaddistown, Georgia. In the late 40s, she moved back there with Jim and Bobby.  Gordon joined them after his retirement.

Left a widow in 1955, Mattie continued to run the farm for many years, until finally selling the property in the late 60s.  She lived for some time after that with her sons in Kansas, Georgia and Oklahoma.  She died in 1975 in Oklahoma City, having been living at the time with her son Warren in Cordell, Oklahoma. She and Gordon are both buried at Mt Pleasant Church #2 (the Hill Church) cemetery in Suches, GA.

Sports Center Saturday - The Hendrix sisters and Women's Basketball

North Georgia Agricultural College Women's basketball team (and coach) about 1914.  The two women in front are sisters Mattie Hendrix (later Garner) and Maude Hendrix (later Floyd).  The coach was Maude's future husband, and professor at the college, Ed Floyd.  I particularly love this picture because it validates my grandmother's stories of having played basketball in college and of doing so in bloomers. 

Family Gathering - Warren Hendricks

This photograph will have been taken about 1924, based on the apparent ages of Charlie Garner and Ed Floyd.   Not everyone has been conclusively identified.  The elderly couple in the middle are Warren David Hendricks and his wife Lucinda Jane Gooch Hendricks.  To the left of Warren is his daughter Maude Hendricks Floyd, holding her baby Edward Lee Floyd Jr born in 1924.  Ed Floyd Sr is to her left.  The woman to the right of Jane Hendricks is their daughter Mattie Hendrix Garner,  holding her son Charles Gordon Garner Jr, born in late 1922.  Her husband is probably the photographer.   The other people are more speculative.  The man on the porch, holding the young boy, is probably Arthur Hendrix, based on the fact that he was the only son with boys about the ages of the three there.  If he is Arthur, then the boys are probably William (b 1917), Frank (1918) and Kermit (1922).  The final man is almost certainly one of the other sons.  Joseph had been killed in 1920 which is definitely before this picture was taken.  His son would have been too young for this man.  Luther and his wife were living out west at the time but could have been home for a family visit.  However, he would have had a young daughter, born in 1920, who would have presumably been included in the picture.  Therefore, I think the most likely candidate for this last one is John, with his wife Vinnie next to him.  Their son Roy was grown which would account for him being absent.  Finally, the biggest mystery of the picture is the girl on the right.  She is definitely not one of the daughters (Maude was the youngest).  She might be the foster daughter listed in the 1920 census, Evelyn Anglund, who would have been about 12 when this was taken.

The photo was taken in front of the Warren Hendricks house, in Gaddistown, Union County, Georgia.

Editted to add:  I have since been given photos of John and Vinnie Hendricks and this is clearly not them in the photo.  My next guess would be one of the other daughters and her husband, but I need to look for more photos for comparison. The young girl has been confirmed as Evelyn Anglund by her granddaughter. 

Second edit:  It was recently pointed out to me that I had Paul's birthdate wrong and looking at my records I see that I had reversed his age and that of Kermit.  Therefore the child being held by Arthur would be Kermit.  I have corrected it in the main text above.  

The Short Autobiography of Warren David Hendricks

When she was a young lady, probably in the 1920s, Hattie McDougald (Bell) interviewed her grandfather Warren David Hendricks about his life and wrote down what he told her.  She retained this for many years and then in the 1970s shared copies with the family.  This is a transcription of what she had written down.  In places, she is quoting him so exactly that she starts to write "Uncle" and then crosses it out.  I am not vouching to the accuracy of this, although much has been confirmed from other sources.


Allen Keith lived on Saluta river 4 miles of Table Rock, had one or two boys and several girls (?) Jenny Keith born 1829 and married about 1850 when she was about 23 years old. Had a lot of goods and was given two slaves as a present by her father when she married. Warren Keith her brother, also Matt Keith, drank a good bit.

Mose Hendrix of South Carolina had 7 boys and 7 girls. George Washington Hendricks married Jenny Keith. lived in Pickens county about 4 miles from Table Rock. Father own nearly all of the land along the Illinois river near Table Rock N. O. Estate was given to children just before the war and Keith's estate settled soon after the war.

George W Hendricks and his wife lived at Pumpkin town S.C. until 1861. Moved in 1861 to Alabama. Un ((crossed out)) Ben Hendrix G. W. brother lived there. He had two sons to die near the beginning of the war with fever. 1861 G.W. Hendricks enlisted in Alabama in Calvary. '62 came to Ga. and joined army. 1859 Mrs. Hendrix died, 1860 Rosa Trotter was married to G. W. Hendrix in S. C. moved to Alabama soon after.

1862 moved to Ga and lived on Nimberwill from there to Yahoola in Lumpkin County.
1854 Warren David Hendrix born, 1856 James Larkin Hendrix born John R. E. Lee Hendricks born in 1869. G. W. Hendrix fought under Capt Craven in Ga was discharged at Kingston Ga in '65. Gus, negro who lived with Hendricks family during the war was offered 9 hundred dollars in gold and offered to give Gus half , but Gus begged G. W. Hendricks not to sell him. Negro stayed with family a year after slaves were freed. Lived near Mill Creek after war and died there about 1898.
Warren Hendrix married Jane Gooch in 1873. Jane daughter of Jim Gooch. Jim Gooch fought with South during part of the war, left army and went to north but did not fight with northern army. Did not get pension after war.
Lived in Lumpkin 4 months after marriage then moved to Canada district and in July 1873 moved to Gaddistown.

Madison Gooch - estate of James Gooch, Union County, GA

State of Georgia}
 Union County} The Honorable, the Court of Ordinary for the County & State aforesaid To Matison Gooch:


Whereas James Gooch, late of the State and County aforesaid, being deceased, died intestate, having whilst he lived and at the time of his death Real and personal estate within the county and state aforesaid by means whereof, the full disposition and power of granting the administration of all and singular the real and personal estate of said deceased, and also auditing the accounts, calculations and reckonings of the said administration and a final dismission of the same to this court is manifestly sworn to belong:  I, descrive that the real and personal estate of the said deceased may be well and truly administered converted and ?1wd? disposed of do hereby grant unto the said Matison Gooch full power and by the tenor of these presents to administer the real and personal estate of the said deceased which to him in his lifetime and at the time of his death did belong and to ask, levy, sue for, and recover and receive the same and to pay the debts in which the deceased stood obligated so far forth as the said real and personal estate will extend (2nd pic) according to their rate and order of law, being first sworn on the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God to make a true and perfect inventory thereof, and to exhibit the same into the court of ordinary aforesaid in order to be recorded on or before the 1st day of December, 1913 next issuing, and to render a just and true account, calculation and reckoning of the said administration of all and singular the real and personal estate of the said deceased.
  Witness the Honorable V. I Burg, ordinary for union county, this the 6th day of Oct 1913.
                                                                        //signed// V. I. Burt
                                                                            Ordinary

Recorded Oct 7 1913
  //signed// V. I. Burt
    Ordinary