PROMINENT NAMES FROM SOCIAL CIRCLE’S PAST

         

          The recent death of long time Monroe resident and businessman John C. Eckles brought to mind a number of prominent family names from Social Circle who had very early ties with Georgia history. While few, if any Monroe or Social Circle folks are left who remember these families, their histories make for an interesting read.

Names like Eckles, Knox, Upshaw, Sigman & Malcolm bring to mind families who helped make Social Circle the wonderful small town it is today.

          Information gathered about the Eckles family and how they landed in Georgia lists these facts:

          Columns of the Sept. 18, 1932, issue of the Sunday American, contains the following account, headed “Noted Eckles Family, Georgia Pioneers, came to this country from Wales.”

The Eckles family is of Welsh descent.  In Bardsley’s “Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames,” we find two places that became parents of the surname, Eckles (or Eccles): Eccles, an ancient priest near Manchester: and Eccles, a parish in County Norfolk, near Statham.

          The Eckles family came from Virginia and settled in Walton, Wilkes or Morgan County, Georgia.  Joshua Eckles and his wife, Mary Gray Eckles, are buried on the Fannin place in Madison County, though time has almost erased all inscriptions over their graves, showing no dates of their births and deaths.  It is known that the settlement of Joshua’s estate was made on August 18, 1834 and that March Eckles’ will was written in Walton County, Georgia, in 1845. The “First Census of Virginia, 1790” Pennsylvania County, shows Joshua Eckles (Echolles) to have six whites and one black in his household.  The same

book and the same county gives James Gray, four white and eight blacks, so it is presumed that Mary was the daughter of James Gray.

          Joshua and Mary Gray Eckles had the following children: Robert who married Eliza Paxson; Douglas, who married Angeline Ivey; Sterling, who married Susan Herring; Mary, who married a Hubbard and lived in Madison, Georgia; Mancy, who married a Brannon, and lived in Cumming, in Forsyth County; Lucinda, who married a Few and lived in Madison, Ga,, and Caroline, who married a Jones and moved to Alabama.

          Robert B. Eckles was born Dec. 13, 1794 and died in 1861.  He married Eliza Griffin Paxson and lived in Gwinnet County and are buried in unmarked graves in the burying ground on their home place.  Their children were: Permelia Frances, Mary Elizabeth, John William Davenport, Martha Caroline, Robert Joshua, Susan Laura and Joel Douglas.

Robert B. Eckles left his daughter, Permelia Frances, and her husband, James Henry, a farm on Yellow River, Gwinnett County, but they sold it and bought what is now the site of Druid Hills and Ponce de Leon, where the old Sears Roebuck and ball park across the street once stood.  They Henrys sold the land and bought a farm in Jackson, County, near Commerce. Ernest Yarbrough, Washington Brooks and Luther Davis are grandsons of James Henry.

          Joel Douglas, youngest son of Robert B. Eckles, attended Emory College, and fought in the War Between the States.  He married Jane Lucas and became a builder and orange grower in Ocoee, Florida.

          Douglas, second son of Joshua and Mary Gray Eckles, married Angeline Ivey and had four children: Mollie, who married William Mitchell of Social Circle, Georgia; Martha, who married George Stanton; Julia, who married Green Robertson and Joshua, who married Elizabeth Coleman.  Mollie Mitchell had five children: William, who

married Sallie Whatley and had four children; William, who married Sallie Whatley and had four children; Paralee, who married Lamar Harris; Clarence, who married Mary Pearl Blasingame and Joe, who married Annie Lee Cox; John, who married Jessie White and had three children; Tom who married Lizzie May Fuller; Grat, who married Inez Williams and Alma, who married J. Thurman Cobb; Till, who married Frances Cook; Joseph, who died early and Robert, who married Annie Lou Graham.

          Sterling Eckles, third son of Joshua and Mary Gray Eckles, married Susan Herring and had three children: John, who married Susan Zuber; Frank, who married Mamie Garrett of Social Circle and Lillie, who married a Shipp of Chattanooga.  John Eckles and Susan Zuber had the following children: Walter, Frank, Estelle and Lillie.

                   Another prominent name from Social Circle’s history is Mell Anderson Knox.

Mell Knox was born in Walton County on May 3, 1886 to William T. and Minnie Gibbs Knox.  He attended school in Social Circle and graduated from Mercer University with honors in 1907 and was a member of the S. A. E. fraternity.

          Mr. Knox’s grandfather, George W. Knox, was considered an indispensable man to Social Circle during the Civil War.

          In the Georgia Department of Archives and History is the following petition, dated Sept. 17, 1964.

          “Whereas George W. Knox of this place is a shoemaker and tanner by trade and having in his possession the untanned leather of the entire community which, owing to the near approach of winter, must be prepared and shoes made thereof, as our families both white and black will suffer; and as he is the only white male person on his place, and the only proper one in this vicinity to get their leather and form the necessary shoes; now coming as he does under the last call of our

Governor, Joseph E. Brown, notwithstanding he has a Confederate detail.

          We the undersigned testify that his services are indispensable and do earnestly request that he be permitted to attend to this business or be allowed a furlough until the above labor can be completed.”

          Petitioners as can be determined are: George Spence, Nathan Anderson, M. A. Parker, John Crowe, B. A. Lane, E.B. C. Christian, A. H. Wordsworth, E. Patrick, J. W. Gibbs, J. A. B. Abercrombie, L. C. Mitcham, David Anglin, James H. Studdard, J. W. Stark, V. H. Crawley and H. T. Colquitt.

          On January 11, 1911, he married Miss Gertrude Funk of Logansport, Indiana, whose father, George W. Funk, was part of the Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary and Encyclopedia family.  He and Mrs. Knox celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1961. Mr. & Mrs. Knox were parents to the late Clara Bell Adams of Monroe

Mell Knox taught school in Covington and at Walker Park before assuming in 1923 the role of superintendent of the Social Circle Public Schools where he also taught classes. Upon his retirement from the school system in 1951 he was presented with a plaque recognizing his many years of  service as a teacher and school official.

          In an interview back in the late 60’s, Mell Knox recalled he began school at the age of 8 and continued until the age of 16 when he graduated and entered Mercer University.

          “A section of the one-room school was petitioned off for beginners.  Early teachers were: Mrs. Joe Gibbs, Miss Julie Tucker, Miss Mattie Johns and the principal was Mr. Wolcott.  Mr. Wolcott left the school at one point to begin a job with the U.S. Patent Office in Washington.

In 1895 a three room brick building with an auditorium replaced the one room school house. And the 1912 the building for the present high school was constructed.  A corner stone in the building shows members of the building committee who were: P.A. Stanton, mayor; H. L. Conner, R. L. Towns, R. L. Cook, and T. M. Woffard.  E. W. Cooksey was the builder and Marshallville Lumber Co. was the builder.”

          Being the interesting historian and letter writer he was, Mr. Knox had a great knowledge of Social Circle’s history and passed along this mostly unknown tidbit to his friends and family,

          “Much of the land comprising Social Circle covers a giant block of granite.  When the city first sought to establish a waterworks they drilled at the present school house and reports were they had drilled to an 800 feet depth through solid granite before finally abandoning the project. The waterworks plant was later constructed on the Jersey Road about a mile from the center of town.

When excavation for the Social Circle Depot got underway around the turn of the century, a little known fact about the railroad waterworks was discovered. All of the pipes that had been serving the water tank for years were made of wood and all were in remarkably good condition.”

          During my years at Mercer I corresponded with Mr. Knox and treasure the many letters I received from him full of tidbits on Social Circle history.

          Mell Knox died on August 10, 1968, aged 82.  He rests next to his wife in the Social Circle City Cemetery.