Update 2019-02-10: His previous land on Coffee Road at Jackson Road, and family pictures.
Much to my surprise, according to evidence turned up by the
Wiregrass Region Digital History Project (WRDHP),
an owner of the mill at Bowen Mill Pond west of Quitman, Georgia
was my great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Waters Sinclair.
In an
WRDHP facebook post 2019-02-06:
We have created a series of maps overlaid upon a modern google earth
map that depict
the property lines of the area about 1870. These
have been compiled from tax lists, deed books, sheriff sales, and
other records. All of that information is searchable.
The following is a link to the map covering the area of modern
Brooks County and Lowndes County, as well as parts of Echols County,
Lanier County,and Thomas County. The area for Echols County and
Lowndes County is more or less finished. The maps are color-coded.
Red = The landowners or their families that were there before the Civil War were still there.
Blue = The landowners came during the Civil War.
Brown = Freedman landowners, or in some cases land that was owned by free people of color before the Civil War.
Light Blue = Land the was owned by people outside of the county.
Yellow = Land that the landowners from about 1870 cannot be positively identified.
Areas without color are those land records have not been encountered yet, and were probably owned by people living elsewhere in Georgia.
For the mill marked with the icon just southeast of Bowen Mill Pond,
WRDHP says:
name
description
For the odd-shaped property straddling the Thomasville Road (US 84)
south of Bowen Mill Pond, WRDHP says:
name
description
Property of George Hicks to be sold May 1845. Including mill.
LL 434. LD 12.
Granted to Joseph Rogers.
Jesse Goodman. 1830 tax list. 245 acres.
William G Goff. 1830, 1834 tax list. 245 acres.
William Lastinger. 1835 tax list. 100 acres.
William J Bivins. 1838, 1840 tax list. 195 acres.
George Alderman. 1838 tax list. 122.5 acres.
George Hicks. 1838, 1840 tax list. 100 acres.
LL 441. LD 12.
Granted to C Long.
James Goff. 1830 tax list.
George Hicks. 1838 tax list.
That seems to add up to 400 to 500 acres.
For the rectangle east of Bowen Mill Pond (the other plot
outlined in white),
WRDHP says:
name
description
So apparently B.W. Sinclair owned somewhere around 900 to 1000 acres.
This is a far cry from what I thought he owned, which I imagined as
a hardscrabble small farm off of what is now GA 76, between Quitman and Morven.
-jsq
Short Link:
Annotated detail from
WRDHP Google map of old Irwin County ca. 1870.
Hicks/Sinclair Mill
George Hicks sold in 1845.
Benjamin W Sinclair
LL 434, 441. LD 12. Land plat. 25 January 1854.
Asa Geiger. 1834. 1835 tax list. 122.5 acres.
William J Rushing. 1835 tax list. 122.5 acres.
Ryan Fryier 1835 tax list. 145 acres.
LL 433. LD 12. Benjamin W Sinclair
Benjamin W Sinclair. 1871 tax list. 490 acres.
Benjamin Waters Sinclair
b. 12 September 1812, Thurso, Caithness, Scotland
d. 7 July 1878, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia
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