Hanceford "Hance" Cleland was born in Pierce County, Georgia on May 8, 1862, the son of John and Elender "Ellie" Smith Cleland. This was a period of time when the War of Southern Independence was just beginning and, John, the father of Hanceford had joined the Confederate States Army, and was being shipped-out with the 26th Georgia Infantry Regiment to Northern Virginia to join the forces of General Robert E. Lee, the southern Commander in Chief.. There is no record that John Cleland saw his new son until he returned to Georgia in 1865.
During the Civil War period, Elender Smith Cleland and her son accompanied the William Jasper Riggins family (John's mother, Mary Lugg Riggins) to Brooks County, Georgia, and remain there throughout the war and and into the 1870's. The Cleland family had moved back to Pierce County at the time of the 1880 census.
About 1881, Hance married Mary Jane Baxley, born May 1867, the daughter of Mitchel Baxley and Cecilda Sellers, and eventually relocated from Pierce County to Applying County.
THEIR CHILDREN:
1. Lillie M. Cleland, born April, 1884
2. Robert Horace Cleland, born June 11, 1889
3. Walter E. Cleland, born Sep. 12, 1891, and died March 12, 1921.
4. Eddie Cleland, born January 1, 1896, and died June 23, 1968
5. Charles M. Cleland, born February 20, 1899
6. Hiram D. Cleland, born about 1901
7. Henry G. Cleland, born about 1905
8. Nellie N. Cleland, born about 1909