Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsA Legend Named Reverend Elder Wilson Conner Is Hard To Overlook
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
I paid a visit to Brewton-Parker College a few weeks ago for the express purpose of seeing an old log cabin which was once inhabited by the illustrious wiregrass soldier-preacher Elder Wilson Conner. Now, of course, the energetic Wilson Conner didn't live at Brewton-Parker or where it presently sits. His cabin was moved there and restored so that folks like you and me can enjoy an historic memorial if ever there was one.
Mac Nobles was with me and challenged me to determine the difference between the original logs of the house and the replacement ones of the restoration effort. Mac instructed me on how to look for the froe, adze and draw knife (cutting tools) marks on the old logs. The replacement logs were zipped through the whirring whirling blades of modern day planers and were smooth in comparison. If you're over that way you will notice those interesting subtleties of woodworking.
Since then I've thought a good bit about those ancestors of ours who stood the tests back then but came out of the scrape with quite a few "marks" on them. Nowadays we have smoother veneers but that might not always be best for our constitutions. Old Wilson Conner had plenty of marks on him.
I was back at Brewton-Parker again the other day, not to look at the cabin of the colorful Wilson Conner, but to chat briefly with Sid Johnson about the man Wilson Conner. Sid is the Director of Development at the college and wrote the book, "Longpondium," which has a section dedicated to the doings of Wilson Conner. It also has other interesting sections and I would highly recommend it to lovers of history. "Longpondium" gets its name from the community of Long Pond which is a beautiful site between Uvalda and Mt. Vernon, Georgia, containing Long Pond Methodist Church and Long Pond Baptist Church (both established 1802, according to the signs there). It is also here that you will see the old Peter Johnson House (Sid's ancestor's place). The idyllic setting automatically takes you back a few years. Not many places are as beautifully captivating and undisturbed as Long Pond. That's for sure. It is one of those places where we need to exert extra historic preservation efforts. It's well worth saving.
I asked Sid for permission to liberally use the efforts of his research and his kind reply was something like this: "Sure, go ahead -- I need all the exposure I can get." I thought it nice of Sid to let me pass on some of his material through the articles concerning Old Jacksonville, Georgia. The Reverend Wilson Conner had many members of the flock and acquaintances around Jacksonville, Georgia. He and his horse frequented the place.
Either because there was more than one of him or owing to the fact that he had a good horse, Elder Wilson Conner could be described as "ubiquitous" (being everywhere at the same time). This distinction also caused him to incur the blame for some deeds not attributable to him. One case in point is the fact that he did not divorce his wife, Mary Ann, as some histories record. He had a kinsman, also named Wilson Conner, but some younger, who also, believe it or not, had a wife named Mary Ann, and he did, in fact, divorce her, or vice-versa. Anyway, they discontinued mutual housekeeping. But it was not our Wilson Conner. Not that he didn't have his share of other troubles.
And his fine horse contributed to his legend also. Any horse who can carry its rider 35,000 miles should get a prize. Now, whether this was the same horse or not, I have no idea. But it was the same Wilson Conner and I bet the part of his constitution that came into direct contact with the saddle was glad to get home to the comfort of the front porch rocker. We take so much for granted today as we tool around in the conveniences of our modern day vehicles and even dare call them "off-the-road" vehicles. The Reverend Conner would get quite a chuckle off the vanities of our pretenses.
He was almost another biblical Melchizedek - because he went "so far" back. It was almost like he had always been around. Did he know General John E. Coffee and his wife, Ann Penelope Bryan Coffee? Believe it or not, he married them.
We find this passage in the old Telfair history: "Here (at the home of John Hill Bryan) he (surveyor John Coffee) met the young daughter, Ann Penelope, who went unconcernedly about her carding and spinning, little dreaming Cupid had entered her home on his usual secret missions. John Coffee, the young surveyor, made it convenient to spend many of his nights thereafter in this home and eventually wooed and won the heart and hand of the fair Ann Penelope. He and his bride settled on an immense plantation near the present little town of Jacksonville. Here they reared a large family of children whose numerous descendants are living in Telfair and adjacent counties (and may I add, everywhere else you can think of!)."
And when Cupid had shot his arrow into the hearts of that young couple, John Coffee and Ann Penelope Bryan, there had to be a preacher around to perform the ceremony - way back yonder in 1808. When the buggy dust had cleared and the candles were lit, there stood the imposing form of the presiding minister uniting the young man and his bride in holy matrimony - it was none other than the timeless, universal, and commanding presence of the Reverend Elder Wilson Conner. He and that horse had come through again!
The Reverend Elder Wilson Conner, through the many pages of our early history, so colorful and involving, to say the least, became almost a mystical figure, touching the lives of almost everyone around. Whether in war or peace, in hardship or comfort, in the courts or in the churches, he was there. You would hear of him in Twiggs County but the approaching rider on horseback crossing a creek in Montgomery County would turn out to be The Reverend Elder Wilson Conner. He was all over Georgia but even this great state could not hold the likes of him.
We wanted to wrest Florida from Spain and the Indians and to do so necessitated the capture of Amelia Island, favoritely called Fernandina Beach nowadays. And here are the words of the stalwart and undaunted Wilson Conner as he, like a plumed knight on his faithful steed, issued his proclamation to Governor David B. Mitchell in November of 1812 (just as he wrote it):
"My heart beats high for conquest, and under the guidance of divine providence we shall one day (as a nation) be led to sirtain victory. For 25 years past, my attention have been turned to the Sirvice of the Sanctuary and that God in whom I have trusted has hitherto diffended, and will difend. War is sirtainly an awful Callamity, one of greatest that can befall a nation, but under such a government as that of these United States, when the nation is invaded, for any man to sit still and be silent, and inactive; is sirtainly to act the part of the Enemies of God and man."
To be sure the good Governor knew that his intent was solid, his aim straight, his organization meticulous, and his planning flawless, he again sent him a subsequent letter, detailing to His Excellency the description of the uniforms he and his troops would be wearing as they thrashed the daylights out of the Spaniards and anyone else who got in their path:
"--- black short coats, waistcoats and pantaloons, also with black hunting shirts, hats (instead of caps) with black leather cockado and a bunch of white hear behind it." Sounds like the troops of The Reverend Elder Wilson Conner would be fit for the fight. And they had just as much grit as they had glory.
And one more thing. The Reverend Elder Wilson Conner was kin to the Willcoxes. And we will continue our story of this highly unusual fellow next week.
Credits:
Albert Sidney Johnson for "Longpondium";
C.T. (Chris) Trowell for info on General John E. Coffee and General John R. Coffee;
Peg Conner Corliss for notes on Wilson Conner;
Floris Perkins Mann for History of Telfair County;
Ann Carswell for letters of and notes on Gen. Mark Willcox;
The Coffees (Internet);
Willcox Family History by Martha Albertson;
Telfair History (1807-1987);
info furnished by Gertrude Wilcox Williams and Diane Williams Rogers and others.
