U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865
Capt. Julius Warren Boyd Was Citizen and Soldier Of Old Feronia
Old Towns Had Different Names "Back Then"
This article is compiled by Julian Williams.
Some of the old towns might have started when the section below the Ocmulgee River was in Telfair County. That would have been before February of 1854. Others might have begun after that date. After that date most of that section became a part of Coffee County and part of it is now in Jeff Davis. Some of the old towns are named something else now. Near where Ambrose sits was the settlement of Phillips Mill. Broxton was referred to as Gully Branch. Over at West Green the place was called Garrant. All those names appear at one time or another on some of the maps of the 1800's. One map of 1877 listed all those old places even though Georgia Place Names says that West Green was The Twenty (twenty miles from Hazlehurst) until around 1900 and then afterward was known as Garrant. Regardless, it is interesting to learn about these old places. The same had happened in Telfair - the town of Scotland was first named McVille.
One old place is especially interesting. Feronia. It is even more interesting because it is connected to a man named Julius Warren Boyd. Boyd was born in 1834 around Lumber City and, after finishing at Spring Hill Academy, moved across the river to "keep store" for his cousin, Jonathan Ashley. Ashley owned the first plantation down the river road (the road south of the river bridge near Jacksonville) which is now referred to as Georgia 107 (entering from Highway 441). If you continue down this road you will pass the old site of Feronia on the left as your odometer registers 1.4 miles. You will reach Oak Grove Methodist Church and cemetery at the 2 mile mark.
Cornelius Ashley had bought the plantation from Hiram Swain for his son, Jonathan Ashley. Jonathan married Elizabeth Shelton, daughter of Major Charles Shelton. He was the one who was captured by the British and carried to England in the War of 1812 but managed to make his way back to Jacksonville, Georgia, his home. He is buried at Blockhouse Church. Major Shelton is the one who started Shelton's Chapel in Telfair County. After Jonathan and Elizabeth Ashley left for Valdosta, Julius Boyd bought their plantation which he had been managing.
One of the present residents around the Oak Grove Church area said that an old story had been passed along over the generations relating that Captain Boyd had given the land for the church cemetery to win the hand of a fair lady, Miss Marcella Smith. Evidently, Mr. Smith was impressed enough with the young man's efforts to allow the marriage. They were married March 31, 1870.
Julius Boyd, Lieutenant, CSA, was like many of the young men who left for the horrible conflict called the Civil War. I have often wondered how it got that name. He joined the Telfair men at Jacksonville in 1861 and became an officer of Company H, 20th Georgia Regiment.
After fighting in such places as Antietam Bridge (with Lt. Farquhar McCrimmon) and at Gettysburg and many other places he was fortunate to come out alive and was paroled at Appomattox Courthouse, April 9, 1865. Farquhar was not as fortunate. He was killed at Gettysburg.
Floris Perkins Mann in her History of Telfair County, said this about Captain Boyd: "Many tales are related of his valor in his fight for the South. After the war Mr. Boyd married Marcella Smith and settled on a farm (this farm had 2,000 acres) near Barrows Bluff on the Ocmulgee River, in Coffee County. Here he dispensed old-fashioned Southern hospitality with a lavish hand. He served in the State Senate of Georgia in 1890-91."
Mrs. Lon Dickey, in Ward's History of Coffee County, relates how her mother, Marcella Smith Boyd, wife of Captain Boyd, and her kin and friends, "did considerable weaving." She even mentioned the "loom house" where this activity took place. It seems that all the raw materials were present because "cotton was still the order of the day" when the war ended . And, Archibald McLean, a Scottish Highlander sheepherder, owned the plantation next to the Boyds. So wool was available. It was said that sheepshearing at their river home was a "festive occasion." Indeed, one definition of sheepshearing is "the festival held at sheepshearing time." Also, according to Mrs. Dickey, the third plantation down the road belonged to Narcissa Frier.
For those interested in genealogy, it is noted that Archibald McLean married Margaret Ann McRae, daughter of Duncan McRae, an early settler of Telfair County. She grieved greatly when her eldest son, Albert, was killed in the Civil War near Griffin, Ga., in 1864.
So many people yearned for their kin to return alive. Marcella Smith told of sitting at the arbor which was to become Oak Grove Methodist Church and seeing a lone struggling figure dressed in a Confederate uniform approaching the worship service. They all ran to render what aid they could and when she saw his face she realized it was her brother, Neil Smith. It became a happy homecoming. Not long after Marcella relates that Confederate General Beauregard came to visit briefly as he made his way to New Orleans.
And, so, Captain Boyd and Marcella Smith Boyd were good neighbors among good neighbors. He also got the Oak Grove Methodist Church going as a church with a permanent structure and became a dependable member.
He and his wife had eleven children: Leila (Mrs. M.W. Howell), Nathaniel S., Julius, Lola, Annie (Mrs. J.N. Hartley), Mamie, Ella (Mrs. H.A. Dickey), C. Ashley, Emma (Mrs. T.J. Dickey), J. William, and Fannie Lula.
And, if what I am told is true, Feronia became the "northern capital of Coffee County," enabling the river folks to obtain marriage licenses, pay taxes, register deeds, and do other things one would normally have to come to Douglas to attend to. It is said that at one time a railroad even ran to Feronia!
And Captain Boyd's descendants are still around. I noticed in the Tifton obituaries the other day where an old gentleman had passed on. His name was Julius Shelton Boyd. I immediately wondered if there might be some connection to the old Captain Boyd of yesteryear. Indeed there was. I contacted Mrs. Jackie Bowen of Hazlehurst, one of Mr. Boyd's half-sisters. We had a good conversation and she told me that Julius Shelton Boyd was the son of Nathaniel, one of Captain Boyd's sons.
You will not see the town of Feronia now or any remains of Captain Boyd, save his grave in Oak Grove Church Cemetery. But as you stand there an unexplainable reverence will make you acutely aware that you are surrounded by a history both interesting and significant.
