Grainger County was organized April 22, 1796 with land from Hawkins and Knox counties. It was named for Mary Grainger, maiden name of the wife of William Blount, according to Pollyanna Creekmore, pre-eminent historian of Tennessee. Land was taken from Grainger when Anderson and Claiborne were created in 1801. Additional territory was given up when Union County was created in 1850. A final slice was removed when Hamblen County was created in 1870.
Virginia Easley DeMarse, Foundation researcher, compiled a list of the early taxpayers of Grainger County of interest to Gowen chroniclers. Her account read:
"By the provisions of the Act of 1797, the justices were authorized to take lists of taxable property and polls in various captains' companies of the militia. White polls were "all free males and male servants, between the age of twenty-one and fiftyyears;" slaves, "all slaves male and female, between the age oftwelve and fifty years." On Monday, November 3, 1809, the Grainger County Court ordered ten justices to take the list of taxable property and make their returns at the next court session. The returns were made February 19, 20, 21, 1810. The amount of tax was omitted on the copy I abstracted from.
The headers for the following list are:
1) on each 100 acres, 12.5 cents
2) each town lot, 25 cents
3) each free poll, 12.5 cents
4) each black poll, 25 cents 5)
5) each retail store, $5.00.
The acreage is listed after item 1.
Polls and Taxable property in Captain William Mayses Company of Militia returned by Moses Hodge included:
John Goan, 90 acres North Holston, Young's Creek, no polls.
Claiborne Goan, 100 acres North Holston, Young's Creek , 1 free poll.
James Goan, 1 free poll.
List of polls and taxable property in the bounds of Captain Elisha Williamson's Company returned by Henry Boatman included:
William Goan, 1 free poll.
Shaderick Goan, 1 free poll.
List of polls and taxable property in the bounds of Captain John Bull's Company, returned by John Moffet included:
Caleb Gowin, 1 free poll.
List of Polls and Taxable Property returned by William Clay in the bounds of Captain Richard Cotses' Company included:
Samuel Bunch, 180 acres at Richland, 1 free poll.
Samuel Bunch for John Spencer, 2.
John Bunch, Senr. 187 acres R. C, 2 polls (black?).
John Bunch, Senr. 200 acres R. Knobbs, 6 (black?) polls, 4 other polls.
Captain Samuel Richardson's Company returned by David Tate, included:
William Guynn, 200 acres, 1 free poll.
Captain Thomas Sharp's Company returned by Mathew Campbell included:
Daniel Goan, 338 acres R. Creek, 1 free poll.
Robert Gains, 150 acres R. L. McNabbs, 1 free poll.
Captain George Gifford's Company returned by Charles McAnally included:
Griffee Collins, 1 free poll.
Thomas Collins, 1 free poll.
Thomas Collins, 1 free poll.
Joseph Collins, 1 free poll.
Dowell Collins, 1 free poll.
Conley Collins, 1 free poll."
A portion of the 1810 census of Grainger, long believed to have been lost, surfaced during the 1980s in the McClung Historical Collection.
The total population of the county in 1810 stood at 6,397. The breakdown was as follows:
Free White Males
45 & over 315
26-45 438
16-26 548
10-16 478
0-10 1,115
Free White Females
45 & over 270
26-45 462
16-26 542
10-16 481
0-10 270
All other free persons,
except Indians not Taxed 182
Slaves 637
Total 6,397
Several heads of households were listed in the 1830 census of Grainger County that were of interest to Melungeon researchers and Gowen chroniclers:
Edmund Bolen (fc) Ezekel, Bolen (fc)
Shadrach Bolen (fc) Clabourn Bolen (fc)
Edmund Bolen ( fc ) Moses Collins ( fc)
David Goan (fc) Gondly Collins (fc)
Thomas Goan (fc) Dowell Collins (fc )
Nancy Goan (fc) Lewis Collins (fc)
Preston Goan (fc) Encey Collins (fc
Fanny Goan (fc) Hardin Collins(fc)
Joseph Collins (fc) Andrew Collins (fc)
Griffin Collins (fc) Allen Collins (fc)
Levi Collins (fc) Lavinia Lafes(fc)
“fc” indicates “Free Colored”
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Polly Goan [Goin?] was married May 20, 1812 to William Whitecotton, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Pryor Goan [Goin] was married to Martha Moore March 2, 1831, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Children born to Pryor Goan and Martha Moore Goan are unknown.
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Ann Goin was married December 19, 1850, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Caleb Goin was married June 10, 1820 to Polly Dunkin, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Of Caleb Goin and Polly Dunkin Goin nothing more is known.
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David Goin was married March 8, 1820 to Nancy Dunkin, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Children born to David Goin and Nancy Dunkin Goin are unknown.
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Dicy Goin was married November 19, 1848 to Walker Jackson, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Drury Goin [Goans?] was married August 23, 1817 to Mary Goin [Goans], according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Of David Goin and Mary Goin Going nothiug more is known.
Elizabeth Goin was married August 18, 1829 to John Davis, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Isabella Goin was married January 6, 1813 to Thomas Harriss, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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James R. Goin was married to Mariah Jarnagin August 19, 1849, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Children born to James R. Goin and Mariah Jarnagin Goin are unknown.
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Jane Goin was married to Abram Bell December 3, 1841, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Jeremiah Goin was married February 28, 1829 to Levenia Renfro, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Children born to Jeremiah R. Goin and Levenia Renfro Goin are unknown.
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John Goin was married January 10, 1845 to Martha Jane Goin, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." of John Goin and Martha Jane Goin Goin nothing more is known.
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Levi Goin was married to Nancy Dickson December 8, 1825, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Children born to Levi Goin and Nancy Dickson Goin are unknown.
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Mahala Goin was married October 22, 1846 to James H. Perrin, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Martha Goin was married January 31, 1825 to Henry Wysnor, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Nancy Goin was married November 22, 1802 to James Randolph, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Nancy Goin was married December 2, 1824 to Ezekiel Bowling, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Peter Goin was married December 4, 1837 to Katherine Petty, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Children born to Peter Goin and Katherine Petty Goin are unknown.
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Preston Goin was married December 9, 1829 to Betsy Goin, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Children born to Preston Goin and Betsy Goin Goin are unknown.
Rebecca Goin was married December 22, 1812 to Philip Denham [Derehorn?] according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Sally Goin was married to Edmund Boling January 3, 1824, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850."
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Elizabeth Goins was married August 19, 1829 to John Davis, according to "Grainger County, Tennessee Marriages, 1796-1850." Justice of the Peace Henry Alsup performed the ceremony.
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Ethel Louise Goins Dunn of Crandall, Georgia wrote in the July 1997 Foundation Newsletter, "Granville Goins, my g-g-grandfather, was born about 1810 in Grainger County, Tennessee of parents unknown, according to the affidavit of Matilda Goins of Dayton, Tennessee in the Court of Claims June 24, 1908."
He joined the exodus of some of the Melungeon Goins families who removed to Hamilton County, Tennessee. Prominent in this group was David Smith Goins, Revolutionary soldier who moved about 1832 and his younger brother, Laban Goins who had preceded him in the move about 1829. They were sons of Shadrach Goins of Hanover, Halifax and Patrick Counties, Virginia.
E. Raymond Evans, an anthropologist, made a study of the mysterious Melungeons and wrote a report of his findings in "Tennessee Anthropologist," Spring 1979. He wrote:
"Located approximately 30 miles north of Chattanooga, the community of Graysville, Tennessee contains one of the most stable Melungeon settlements in the state.
No people in Tennessee have been subjected to more romantic speculation than have the so‑called 'Melungeons.' These dark‑skinned people, living in a white world, have attempted to explain their color by saying they were of Portuguese descent, according to Swan Burnett in 1889 in 'The American Anthropologist.’ Popular writers, including Thurston L. Willis in 'The Chesapiean' in 1941 and Leo Zuber in 'The Melungeons' in 1941, have elaborated on this theme They have been claimed to be descendants of the 'lost' tribes of Israel as reported by Jean Patterson Bible writing in 1975 in 'Melungeons Yesterday and Today.' and 'old world Gypsies,' 'Welsh Indians,' and Arabs by others.
Others have attempted to link their origin with established historical events. Raleigh's 'Lost Colony' and the De Soto expedition are two examples suggested by Mozon Peters writing in 1970 in the 'Chattanooga Times.'
The most common surname among the Graysville Melungeons is Goins, being so prevalent that the whites in the surrounding area call all the Graysville Melungeons 'Goinses,' rather than Melungeons. In fact, the term 'Melungeon' is rarely used anywhere in lower East Tennessee. The Goins families are so well known in Rhea County that any dark skinned person, not regarded as a black, is said to 'look like a Goins."
In the 1830 census, Hamilton County reported less than 400 families. Four of them were headed by "Laban Gowan, Roland Gowin, Sandford Gowin and Dodson Gowin." Each of these families listed colored members [total of 13] and three of them listed white members [total of 6]. All were listed on Page 75 and were located just south of Graysville, Tennessee. Since Granville Goins did not appear as a householder in 1830, he may have been a son of Laban Goins.
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"David Goins, age 76" was listed as Revolutionary War Pensioner S3406 in Hamilton County in 1834, according to "Twenty Four Hundred Tennessee Pensioners" by Zella Armstrong. David Smith Goins died in 1840 in Hamilton County, "his pension then being paid to his children" [unnamed], according to pension records. He did not appear in the 1840 census of Hamilton County.
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Granville Goins was married about 1831, wife's name Mary "Polly," probably in Graysville, located just across the county line in Rhea County.
Twelve households of the family were enumerated in the 1840 census of Hamilton County: Sanford Gowin, page 150; Thomas Gowin, page 150; George Gowin, page 150; William Gowin, page 150; John Gowin, page 150; Martin Gowin, page 150; G.[ranville] Gowin, page 150; P. Gowin, page 150; John Gowan page 175; Pryor Gowen, page 175, Carter Gowin, page 177 and Preston Gowen, page 178. All except the last four were recorded as "free colored."
Granville Goins was enumerated as the head of a household No. 1339 in the 1850 census of Hamilton County. The family was recorded October 21, 1850 as:
"Goins, Granvill 40, farmer, born in Tennessee
Mary 33, born in Tennessee
Mahaley 18, born in Tennessee
Rachel 14, born in Tennessee
Noah 12, born in Tennessee
Roland 10, born in Tennessee
Dopson 8, born in Tennessee
James 6, born in Tennessee
Nancy 4, born in Tennessee
William 8/12, born in Tennessee"
Adjoining the household of Granville Goins was that of Nancy Goins. The household, No. 1340, was recorded on Page 925 as: "Goins, Nancy, 45, born in Tennessee; Elizabeth, 29, born in Tennessee and Fanney, 10, born in Tennessee."
"Granville and Polly Goins" were mentioned in an affidavit signed in 1908 by J. P. Talley of Chattanooga, according to "Cherokee by Blood: Records of Eastern Cherokee Ancestry in the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1910" by Jerry Wright Jordon. In the hope of compensation, several Melungeon families claimed Cherokee ancestry. Talley stated:
"I [affirm] that I am 80 years of age and lived in James County, Tennessee [later absorbed]. I knew Polly and Granville Goins. They lived in Hamilton County, but I think they were born in upper Tennessee, probably Grainger County. Polly and Granville were a little older than myself. They have been dead 12 or 15 years. They were never on any Indian rolls that I know of."
J. P. Talley
June 18, 1908 Chattanooga, Tenn.”
At the same time, W. T. Irvin of Chattanooga, grandson-in-law of Granville Goins, and former husband of Mary Jane Goins Irvin who died in 1897, made an affidavit about the family:
"I affirm that I live in Marion County, Tennessee [adjoining Hamilton County]. I am 49 years of age. I make claim for my children. My first wife has been dead 11 years. She was about 30 or 32 when she died. Her parents were Alfred Goins and Halie [Mahala?]Goins. She claims Indian descent on her father's side and her mother's side. Her grandparents on her mother's side were Granville and Polly Goins. On her father's side they were Thomas and Betsy Goins. They come by the same name because they were probably related. She was always recognized as an Indian in the community in which she lived. Her parents and grandparents lived in what is now James County. Her grandparents originated in Grainger County. She claimed to be a full-blood Cherokee. Her grandparents lived in Hamilton County in 1835.
W. T. Irvin
June 18, 1908 Chattanooga, Tenn"
Granville Goins and Mary "Polly" Goins died about 1914. Children born to them are believed to include:
Mahala "Halie" Goins born about 1832
Betsy Jane Goins born about 1834
Rachel Goins born about 1836
Mary Goins born about 1837
Noah Goins born about 1838
Roland Goins born about 1840
Dodson Goins born about 1842
Martha Goins born about 1843
James L. Goins born about 1844
Nancy Goins born about 1846
John Goins born about 1847
William Goins born about 1849
Francis Marion Goins born about 1853
Dodson Goins, above, was the subject of an article in the Newsletter, January 1997.
Mahala "Halie" Goins, daughter of Granville Goins and Mary "Polly" Goins, was born in Hamilton County about 1832. She appeared as an 18-year-old in the 1850 census of her parents household. She was married about 1850 to Alfred Goins, a cousin. He was a son of Thomas Goins and Betsy Goins.
Children born to Alfred Goins and Mahala "Halie" Going Goins include a daughter, Mary Jane Goins, born about 1865. The daughter was married about 1882 to W. T. Irvin of Chatanooga. She died in 1897 at about age 31, according to an affidavit furnished by Irvin, according to "Cherokee by Blood."
Betsy Jane Goins, daughter of Granville Goins and Mary "Polly" Goins, was born in Hamilton County about 1834, according to the research of Ethel Louise Goins Dunn of Crandall, Georgia. She did not appear in the 1850 census of her parents' household.
Rachel Goins, daughter of Granville Goins and Mary "Polly" Goins, was born in Hamilton County about 1836. She appeared as a 14-year-old in the 1850 census of the household of her parents.
Mary Goins, daughter of Granville Goins and Mary "Polly" Goins, was born in Hamilton County about 1837, according to Ethel Louise Goins Dunn. She did not appear in the 1850 census.
Noah Goins, son of Granville Goins and Mary "Polly" Goins, was born in Hamilton County about 1838. He appeared in the 1850 census of his father's household at age 12.
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Rev. Leonard Goins had the distinction of conducting the funeral service Gertrude Janeway, the last surviving widow of a Union soldier from the Civil War:
“Last Recognized Civil War Widow Dies
Sunday, January 19, 2003
By Duncan Mansfield
Associated Press Writer
Blaine, Tennessee - Gertrude Janeway, the last widow of a Union veteran from the Civil War, has died in the three-room log cabin where she lived most of her life. She was 93.
Bedridden for years, she died Friday, more than six decades after the passing of the man she called the love of her life, John Janeway, who married her when he was 81 and she was barely 18.
"She was a special person," said the Rev. Leonard Goins, who officiated at her funeral Sunday.
"Gertie, as she was called, had a vision beyond that [cabin] that kept her going. She never had any wavering or doubt in her salvation. She was strong in that," he said.
She was to be buried Monday near her husband's slender military tombstone at tiny New Corinth Church cemetery.
An honorary member of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Mrs. Janeway was the last recognized Union widow. She received a $70 check each month from the Veterans Administration.
Still alive is Confederate widow Alberta Martin, 95, of Elba, Ala. Mrs. Janeway, who lived her whole life in Blaine, about 30 miles north of Knoxville, was born 44 years after the Civil War ended.
In a 1998 interview, she said her husband rarely spoke about the war. "He says the nighest he ever got to gettin' killed was when they shot a hole through his hat brim," she said, but he never told her where that happened.
Her husband was a 19-year-old Grainger County farm boy who ran away to enlist in 1864 after being encouraged by a group of Union horse soldiers that he met on his way to a Blount County grist mill.
He sent his horse home and signed up under the surname January because "he was afraid his people would come and claim him," Mrs. Janeway said.
Two months later, he was captured by Confederates near Athens, Georgia. He was later released and rejoined his unit, the 14th Illinois Cavalry Regiment. After the war, he spent many years in California before returning home to Tennessee and meeting then 16-year-old Gertrude.
Mrs. Janeway said her mother refused to sign papers to let her marry him before she turned 18. "So my man says, 'Well, I will wait for her until you won't have to,'" she recalled. "We sparked for three years."
She remembered getting married in the middle of a dirt road in 1927 with family and friends gathered around. He bought her the cabin in 1932, and it was there that he died in 1937, at 91, from pneumonia.
"After he died, why it just seemed like a part of me went down under the ground with him," she said in the 1998 interview. "He is the only one I ever had. There wasn't anybody else."
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An article describing the life of the last surviving Confederate widow was written by Matthew Linton Chancey, an Alabama free lance writer:
Mrs. Alberta Martin, The Last Known Living Widow of a Confederate Veteran
Mrs. Alberta Martin, The Old Man’s Darling
By Matthew Linton Chancey
Crouching in a muddy Virginia trench, Pvt. William Jasper Martin, hot, wet and far from home, shivered with fever and contemplated his prospects. The backwoods 18 year-old boy represented the shattered remnants of an army that had captivated the world. The Army of Northern Virginia had started with a few local militias in fancy uniforms and smoothbore muskets, and within two years had earned an everlasting legacy of valor which would fill thousands of books and millions of hearts the world over.
They came from all over the South: from the well-bred, tidewater Virginia Cavilier to the ruddy Scottish Presbyterian of the Southern Highlands. These men represented the South united and the hope of the young confederation of American States which had banded together—as their fathers and grandfathers had—to form a government of their own. Now in the summer of 1864, the South’s greatest army was slowly sinking into the mire around Petersburg and into history.
Today, the American Civil War is considered by most to be ancient history. Aside from your core group of history buffs, many Americans have trouble placing the War Between the States within the right century, let alone understanding the significance of why it was fought.
However, The War Between the States did not take place that long ago. It is true that the technological wonders of the 20th century have created a seemingly insurmountable wall between the Old South and the New. But the Old South is not that old. There are people still living today whose grandfathers fought in America’s greatest and most devastating war. There are even those living who had fathers marching under Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson. But there is one individual connected to the Old South in a way in which none other can boast. Pvt. William Jasper Martin’s wife still lives. Mrs. Alberta Martin, age 92 is the last known living widow of a Confederate veteran.
If you want to visit "Miz" Alberta, you will not find her living on a plantation estate in Natchez, Mississippi, or Savannah, Georgia, but in a small assisted living facility in Elba, Alabama. Miz Alberta has been called "the last link to Dixie" because to meet her is to meet history face-to-face. Although she never lived in the 19th century, her connection to Pvt. W. J. Martin and the Confederacy is special and unique. Since 1996, Miz Alberta has received the "Alabama State Pension for the Widows of Confederate Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines."
Her story is one of two centuries, two worlds, two societies, two political philosophies and two nations all intersecting.
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“Goins Family Intermarried With Indian Neighbors”
This is one of the families included in the book “Early Hamilton Settlers” by John Wilson.
In the days when the Cherokee Indians occupied the Chattanooga region, members of the Goins family were their neighbors and intermarried with them. Some of the Goins clan were of the mysterious dark-skinned Mel-ungeon race.
The Goins pioneers made their way from Virginia to Grainger and Claiborne counties and on to Hamilton in the 1820s. Sanford Goins, Roland Goins, Laban Goins, Dodson Goins and John Goins were here at the time of the 1830 census. Roland Goins paid George Irwin $50 for 160 acres in 1845. Dodson Goins was among those going out from Ross's Landing in the Second Seminole War in 1837.
The Goins family was allied with the Dodsons in Grainger County, Tennessee. Laban Goins was born in Hanover County, Virginia in 1764, and he had an older brother, David Smith Goins, who was born in 1757. David Smith Goins volunteered for the Revolution in Halifax County, Virginia under Col. William Terry. He had several terms of service, including a march to join Gen. George Washington's army at Portsmouth, Virginia about two months before the surrender of Lord Cornwallis.
David Smith Goins lived in Grayson County, Virginia, then in Wythe County, Virginia before moving to Grainger County, Tennessee. He arrived in Hamilton County on the last day of February 1833 and drew a Revolutionary pension of $32 per year. Laban Goins resided on property at Sale Creek that is now the David Gray Sanctuary of the Audubon Society. Laban Goins' son, Carter Goins, was born in Virginia, and his children included Harbance Goins, Charles Goins and Carter Goins, Jr. Carter Goins, Jr. was married to Cynthia A. McGill.
Children of Harbance Goins included Laban Goins, William Goins, Duncan Goins and Jane Goins. Carter Goins, Jr. and Cynthia A. McGill Goins had William Goins, Francis Marion Goins, James Goins, Elizabeth Goins who was married to Pleasant Bowling, Jefferson Goins who was married to Sarah Mooneyham, Vandola Goins and Minerva goins who was married to James Goins and Francis Marion Goins, who was born in the removal year.
Francis Marion Goins was married to Sarah Neely and then to Margaret J. Murphy. He and Jefferson Goins were in the Union's First Light Artillery, and Francis Marion Goins was injured in the Battle of Cumberland Gap.
His children included James M. Goins, William J. Goins, Samuel Ulysses S. Grant Goins, Charles Goins, Andrew Goins and Lavada Goins. By his second wife he had James Robert Goins, Ida Jane Goins and Maria Elizabeth Goins. Francis Marion Goins died at Burt, Tennessee in Cannon County in 1895.
Samuel Ulysses. S. Grant Goins returned to the Graysville area after marrying Mrs. Amanda Mooneyham Barrett in Cannon County. Her first husband was Albert Barrett of Cannon County. Samuel Ulysses S.Grant Goins died in 1947, and Amanda Mooneyham Barrett Goins died in 1944. Their children were John Wiley Goins who was married to Dovie Mae Bedwell, Levada Goins, Emiline Goins who was married to Charles Albert Leffew, Andrew Jackson Goins, Amie Marshall Goins who was married to Floyd Martin Larmon, and Charles W. Goins who was married to Beatrice Goins. Andrew Jackson Goins, who was unmarried, for many years had an ice cream cart in Chattanooga, Tennessee..
Another early settler was Pryor L. Goins who acquired 82 acres from William Reed for $80 in 1841. Price Goins and Martha Goins also were here along with Tillman Goins and Dinah Goins.
Price Goins had Andrew Jackson Goins who was married to Mary Selvidge, Rachael Goins, Joseph Goins, Preston Goins, Priscilla Goins, Thomas Goins and Mary Goins.
Tillman Goins died in the late 1850s. His children included Julia Ann Goins, Spencer Goins, James Goins, Pleasant Goins, Eliza Goins, William Goins, Carter Goins, Jackson Goins and Isabella Goins.
Preston Goins, who was born about 1804, was here [Hamilton County] prior to the war with his wife, Mary Goins. Their son was Jarrett Goins, who married Rebecca and had William Goins, James Goins and Sarah Goins.
The John Goins family was allied with the Fields family, which had a Cherokee background. John's children included Sandell Goins, Polly Goins, John Goins, Jr, Sanford Goins, Martin Goins, Thomas Goins and Nathan Goins. Sandell Goins was first married to George Fields, a Cherokee who went to Arkansas on the Trail of Tears, but returned to Hamilton County a few years later and died about 1841. Sandell Goins Fields then married George Still. Nathan Goins was married to Mary Fields. Another member of the family, Nancy Goins, was married to John Fields.
Granville Goins and his wife, Polly Goins, also lived among the Cherokees in Hamilton County. It was said that Granville Goins knew the Cherokee language and had an Indian name. Granville Goins, who was a carpenter, started on the Trail of Tears, but was among those turning back to Tennessee.
Children of Granville Goins included Mahala Goins, Rachael Goins, Noah Goins, Roland Goins, Dodson Goins, Barnes Goins, Nancy Goins and William Goins.
One of the best known of the family was Oscar Claiborne Goins who was born in Grainger County February 24, 1830. His parents moved to Hamilton County when he was three. His father died when he was 11 and the mother, Nancy Biby Goins, was married in 1846 to a kinsman, Levi Goins. The other children were Pleasant Goins, William Goins, George W. Goins and Sarah Jane Goins who was married to James K. Cornell, a carpenter.
Oscar Claiborne Goins and his family “settled on a farm among the Cherokee Indians.” He took over the farm's management after his father's death, then he began clerking in a store at Chattanooga when he was 16. He married Nancy Florence Potter, daughter of Moses Potter and Ellen Potter, in 1853. They separated after they had a son, William Preston Goins.
John C. Potter, who was married to Tennessee Iles, may be another son of Nancy Potter Goins. William Preston Goins lived with his Potter grandparents during the Civil War.
William Preston Goins moved to Greene County, Arkansas. He was married to Lydia Elizabeth Lafferty, a descendant of the wealthy Rockefeller family.
In 1858, Oscar Claiborne Goins was married to Esther Reynolds, daughter of Anderson Reynolds and and Maria Reynolds.
Oscar Claiborne Goins was operating a grocery and supply house at Chattanooga when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted on the Confederate side in the 19th Tennessee Infantry. He first saw action at Fishing Creek, then was in the fighting at Shiloh. He was detailed to bring wounded soldiers to Chattanooga, then he helped raise the Lookout Mountain Battery. He was with this unit at Mobile, then was at Vicksburg before he finally had to leave the service because of poor health. He was a traveling salesman after the war, and he moved his family near Spring Place, Georgia in 1873, when he acquired the three-story Joe Vann mansion. The Goins family lived on this fine plantation the next 22 years. Oscar C. Goins was in Bradley County when he died in 1903.
William A. Goins also enlisted from Hamilton County with the Confederacy. He was captured at Grand Gulf, Mississippi May 18, 1863, and taken to a prison at Alton, Illinois. William Goins was sent for exchange on June 12, 1863, but he objected to the terms of the oath of allegiance and was returned to the Alton prison. He died there July 2, 1864.
A Goins family at Graysville near the Rhea County line had a Melungeon background. Asa “Acy” Goins was married to Sara Bolden and they had a large family in the Brown Rock section. Acy Goins was one of the sons of Jackson Goins and Jennie Goins, who moved to Hamilton County from Georgia about 1843. Others were Richard Goins, William Goins, Henry Goins, Nathaniel Goins, Bradford Goins, George Goins and Robert Goins. Daughters were Sarah J. Goins, Nancy Goins, Caroline Goins, Viola Goins, Lydia Goins and Jane Goins.
Also living near the Jackson Goins family were Alfred Goins and Mahala Goins and Francis M. Goins and Sarah Goins. Acy's Goins youngest child was Alvin Goins, who was born in 1903. He was kicked in the head by a mule when he was five, and he never learned to read and write. But he could “perform a Goins remarkable feat of computation in his head that would baffle a math professor. Given the day, month and year of someone's birth, in a few seconds Alvin could estimate the exact number of days that elapsed since then.” Tested on this by an author doing a book on Melungeons, “his figures were found to be correct down to the last digit.” It was said when he worked at a sawmill, he could accurately compute a load of logs and tell how many slabs to cut off. Some contractors building a brick building asked his advice on how many bricks to order. He made the computation in a few minutes. After the project, three bricks were left over.
John C. Goins was born near Apison in 1896. His grandfathers fought on different sides in the war. His father was Daniel Alexander Goins and the grandfather was John Goins, who married Amanda Jane Hughes in 1852 and lived in Bradley County. John Goins, who was a native of Blount County, fought for the Confederacy with Co. D of Thomas' Legion. There were 12 children, including Daniel Alexander Goins who was born in Bradley County in 1869. He married Mary Alta Johnson. Daniel A. Goins was killed near his home at Apison in 1939 when he was hit by a bus. John C. and his younger brother, Charles Daniel Goins, were Chattanooga lawyers, and John C. Goins became a judge in Hamilton County Circuit Court. John C. Goins was also president of the Chattanooga Bar Association in 1934 and the Tennessee Bar Association in 1941-42. He was also a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates in 1953-56. He married Wilda Swick, but she died a few hours after their son, John C. Goins Jr., was born. His second wife was Martha Raulston of Marion County, and their son, Landon Haynes Goins, is a lawyer here. His first name came from his father's longtime law partner, Landon Gammon. John C. Goins Jr. is a biologist in Missouri.
Caroline Goins, daughter of John C. Goins, married attorney Keith Harber. Bess Goins, sister of John C. Goins, was a teacher at Tyner High School and she married the school's principal, Paul Morris.
John C. Goins also had brothers Thomas M. Goins and James Goins. Thomas M. Goins was an attorney in Pennsylvania.
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Humble Beginnings
Miz Alberta was born Alberta Stewart on December 4, 1906, down in a little hollow by a sawmill at a place called Dannely’s Crossroads in Coffee County, Alabama. Today, although the sawmill is long gone, Dannely’s Crossroads looks much like it did in 1906—a simple intersection surrounded by cotton and peanut fields. An old filling station sits on the corner, representing the only commercial establishment in the community; and scattered here and there are a few house trailers and the remains of old barns and sharecropper homes.
Miz Alberta’s parents, like many folks in the rural South at that time, were sharecroppers who spent their lives moving from field to field, planting and picking under the steamy southern sky. "Back then times was hard," comments Miz Alberta, "Back in the olden times, we lived poor. Everything was cheap, but you had no money. It don’t seem like nothin’s like it use to be. Seems like ever’thing has got modern."
Folks alive today who grew up as sharecroppers will tell you that the arrangement usually resulted in farmer and field hand getting the essentials of life, but not much more. The better the soil in a particular field, the better the crop yield—which translated into greater profits for the sharecropper. Consequently, the Stewarts moved nearly every year, sometimes just across the street to work in an adjacent field.
Although modern family portraits usually picture family members neatly groomed and in comfortable living quarters, the only known picture of the Stewart family shows everyone in a cotton field—little cotton sacks hanging around the tiny bodies of the children. "Before we were old enough to pick, they would put us in a cotton basket and take us out to the field with ‘em. They would hang 24-pound flour sacks around our necks. I started pickin’ cotton just as soon as I could wear that sack. When we’d get that little ol’ cotton sack full, we emptied it into our mama or daddy’s sack. We shook peanuts, stacked peanuts, hoed peanuts, hoed cotton and picked up roots where they’d clear a patch for plantin’ next year. It was hard work."
Even though the Stewarts and most of their neighbors were dirt poor, Miz Alberta still remembers some of the good times they had down on the farm. Every 4th of July, ol’ Doc Donaldson, who owned many of the fields in the area, would have a big Independence Day dinner where all his hands and anybody else who wanted to come could spend the day eating and playing games. Mr. Stewart loved to dance, and, according to Miz Alberta, "He could play the fiddle right smart." He decided to throw a party one day for all the neighbors. So they cleared the furniture and beds out of one room and had a big dance. Miz Alberta remembers that the guests spit tobacco juice all over the floor, and her daddy promised never to host another indoor dance again. Such was life on the red dirt roads in Curtis, Alabama.
With the good times came some bad as well. When Alberta was 11 years old, her mother died after a long, painful battle with cancer. In 1918, Alberta’s brother, A. J. went off to war in France for Uncle Sam. Shortly after A. J. shipped out, so did the rest of the Stewarts. Mr. Stewart decided to move his family to a place that might have been as distant as Europe as far as the children were concerned—Tallassee, Alabama [around 100 miles from Curtis].
It was in Tallassee that Alberta married her first husband, Howard Farrow, in a little church on a street corner. Mr. Farrow made his living driving a taxi cab. While she was pregnant with their first child, Miz Alberta worked 12 hours a day in a cotton mill until her clothes could no longer hide her condition. Shortly before their son, Harold, was born, Mr. Farrow abandoned his young, pregnant wife.
Matters only worsened. When Harold was only six months old, his father burned to death in a violent car accident. After Howard’s death, Alberta and her father moved back south, this time outside of Opp, Alabama, in Covington County. They moved in with Alberta’s half-brother and his family. Living conditions were cramped in the little house, and Miz Alberta would periodically take Harold out for some fresh air in the front yard. The house was surrounded by a picket fence, and it was at this fence line that Miz Alberta remembers seeing an old man frequently passing by on his way to town.
Unbeknownst to her, this particular old man had passed the house for reasons other than to meet some old war buddies at the corner store for a game of dominoes.
Mr. Martin Little is known of the early history of Pvt. W. J. Martin. He was born in Macon County, Georgia in December 1845, but spent most of his life in the Covington County area. W. J. Martin joined the Confederate army in May, 1864. He fell in with Company K of the 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment, which at the time was involved in the siege of Petersburg and action around Richmond. As for the rest of his War record, confusion abounds, since there were three or four “W. Martins” in the 4th Alabama Infantry, including two in company K. It appears that several records have also been commingled.
What happened after Pvt. Martin arrived in Petersburg is sketchy. He took part in the Howlett’s House skirmish near Richmond and was eventually hospitalized with Rubella. Some records list a William Martin as a deserter, but that William Martin was recorded as being born in Alabama. William Jasper Martin was born in Georgia. The William Martin who was listed as a deserter joined the Army when he was 16. William Jasper Martin joined when he was 18. To add to the confusion, when W. J. was in the hospital, some of his comrades reported him dead.
Despite the ambiguity of the official record, Pvt. Martin later convinced the State of Alabama that he was eligible for the Confederate veterans’ pension through the production of witnesses testifying to his military service. Additionally, the War Department could find no evidence in 1920 that William Jasper Martin was a deserter. Mr. Martin, like so many other Alabama Confederate veterans, applied for a pension late in life—as one’s net worth had to be $400.00 or less to be eligible.
We may never know for sure whether W. J. was a deserter or not, but we do know that veteran Pvt. Martin was a true Confederate at heart. Miz Alberta remembers that he made an effort to attend every annual reunion of the United Confederate Veterans in Montgomery. "Mr. Martin," as Alberta called him, had changed considerably since his military days—at least physically. The sounds of battle long since faded, the old warrior was in his eighties now. But his elderly frame hid a youthful spirit.
Their courtship was brief—just a few conversations over the fence rail. He asked; she consented. Mr. Martin then had to ask Mr. Stewart for his daughter’s hand. Mr. Stewart gave his consent. Although it was an unusual match, he had little of which to complain. Mr. Martin was a sober man, and his generous pension of $50.00 a month would give Alberta and Harold a good life.
The wedding was scheduled for Saturday, December 10, 1927. W. J. was nearly 82; Miz Alberta had just turned 21. It may be safe to assume that never had the town of Opp heard such a story. This was to be a most abnormal marriage, and the gossip flowed freely. Mrs. Martin went to town and bought herself a blue dress with a floral design in front extending from the neckline down to the hem. Mr. Martin wore a dress shirt and sport coat. They were married at the courthouse in Andalusia, the Covington County seat. When asked if she loved him, Miz Alberta stated that her marriage to W. J. was not based on the type of love found between two young people, but on mutual respect and need. Both wanted companionship and support—a young widow with a baby to look after, and an old man who needed someone to take care of him.
The uneventful wedding concluded, Mr. Martin took his new bride home to meet the family. Mr. Martin lived with one of his sons [from an earlier marriage] and his family. Thus the peculiar wedding gave way to a very peculiar honeymoon when the new Mr. and Mrs. Martin spent their first night together in the same bedroom with four other family members. Needless to say, Miz Alberta remembers that " after that first weekend, we got out of that place and found us our own home in town."
No sooner had the gossip died down in Opp when it was announced that Mrs. Martin would be expecting her second child. Ten months after the marriage, Willie was born. Mr. Martin was very proud of his little boy. He would periodically take him into town, carrying the lad on his shoulders to show off his prize.
Remembering the War Mr. Martin never talked very much to his young wife about his service with the 4th Alabama. One of the few things she remembers is his complaining about how hungry he was and how on passing a field, he would dig frantically to find a potato or something left from the harvest. The grim memories of trench warfare also were related. Mr. Martin told Alberta about how he and his messmates would constantly throw firewood, blankets, and anything else on the floor of the trench in order to stay out of the mud. He also confided to Miz Alberta that Union men had tried to get him to enlist and serve Abe Lincoln’s army—a proposition he flatly refused.
Mr. and Mrs. Martin’s marriage was brief, lasting only 4 ½ years. During the 1920s and ‘30s, Pvt. Martin and his Confederate comrades began slipping into eternity at an ever-increasing rate. His funeral was very simple and without pageantry. Today, beneath a large cedar tree in the Cool Springs Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery in Opp, Alabama, a simple VA marker identifies his grave. Today, when asked why she married a man so much older than herself, Miz Alberta just smiles and says, "It’s better to be an old man’s darlin’ than a young man’s slave!"
Two months after Mr. Martin’s death, Alberta married again, this time to Mr. Charlie Martin. Charlie was the grandson of W. J. Martin from his first marriage, which had taken place over 50 years earlier. By this time, the folks in Opp had seen just about everything. At first, the local clergy were not sure how to handle the marriage, so Charlie and Alberta were temporarily estranged from their church. But upon further study of the Scripture, it was agreed that the Martins were not committing sin, and the couple was welcomed back into fellowship.
In 1936 the Martins moved to Elba, where they spent most of their life together. The two were married for over 50 years until Mr. Martin’s death in 1983. After Charlie died, Miz Alberta settled down for permanent widowhood. She led a quiet life, playing bingo at the local Senior Citizens Center and attending church with her friends. Every now and again someone would ask her about her Confederate husband, but for the most part Miz Alberta’s past remained largely unknown. That is until Daisy Wilson Cave, supposedly the "last known living Confederate widow" died around 1990.
The overlooked widow. In the Spring of 1996 when the Pvt. William Rufus Painter Camp # 1719 realized who they had in their back yard, Dr. Ken Chancey, a visiting SCV member from the Col. William C. Oates Camp #809, Dothan, Alabama, volunteered to visit Miz. Alberta and see if the SCV could offer any assistance to her.
After driving around Elba trying to find the right street, he finally received a police escort to her house. Miz Alberta was pleased as always to have visitors and listened intently as Dr. Chancey asked her questions about her needs. She made two requests to the doctor: One was that he help her receive the recognition to which she believed she was entitled for marrying into history. She modestly stated that she had never done anything all that important in her life, but she was the last Confederate widow. The second request was that the SCV look into her eligibility for a Confederate pension. After receiving assurance from Dr. Chancey that he would do his best, the two said their good-byes.
On to Richmond!
In 1996, the SCV held its 100th anniversary convention in Richmond, Virginia, at the majestic Jefferson Hotel. Men from all over the country gathered for the opening session of the Convention. SCV members could be easily identified—their Sunday suits glittered with heritage metals and Bonnie Blue lapel pins. The convention promised to be the one of the most memorable in SCV history.
In the main ballroom the 5th Alabama Infantry Band played Southern music with passion, and the stage was draped with a huge Confederate Battle Flag. After the ceremonies began, the Commander-in-Chief of the SCV announced that they had a special guest among them.
"Men, can you believe it? We still have one with us!" He then introduced Alberta Martin as the last known living widow of a Confederate veteran, and the brand new recipient of the "Alabama State Pension for the Widows of Confederate Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines." Mrs. Martin was slowly wheeled down the aisle by Dr. Chancey. As she passed, whispers could be heard, "That’s the widow…that’s her, boys." The men burst into a rousing ovation while Miz Alberta, with both hands, began throwing kisses.
This provoked the men to more intense applause and some were observed weeping, as they no doubt realized the special connection this 89-year-old woman had to their own Confederate heritage.
With the applause and rebel yells continuing, Miz Alberta was asked if she would like to say anything. She told the men that she loved them and thanked them for all they had done for her. With that, the ovations and rebel yells started up again. This was the largest and warmest reception Mrs. Martin had ever received in her life.
Miz Alberta has since been to numerous reenactments, Confederate grave dedications, a funeral for an unknown Gettysburg casualty, a meeting with a Union veteran’s widow, dedication of the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library, several more SCV annual conventions, and the recent Confederate Flag rally in Columbia, S.C. Who would have thought that Fate would have it that a little old woman, who grew up dirt poor in southeast Alabama, would become the most unique direct link to an old civilization that has endeared the hearts of millions?
Alberta Martin’s life is a silent reminder to us not to get so caught up in "progress" that we forget the important lessons and experiences from the past.
The seeds of her unique legacy have apparently fallen on fertile ground, for in the last ten years, Confederate heritage groups have mushroomed in the North and South. Never since the end of Reconstruction has there been such a renewed interest in what it means to be Southern and a descendant of a Confederate soldier, sailor, or marine. With this movement is developing a common icon—not of a masculine reenactor in his dress grays, or a suave politician speaking on State’s Rights—but of a little old widow from Elba, Alabama, waving a Confederate Battle Flag and blowing kisses to descendents of men who fought along with her late husband for the cause of Southern independence.
Ol’ times there are not forgotten…
Matthew Linton Chancey is an Alabama-born freelance writer currently living in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
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Roland Goins, son of parents unknown, was born about 1810. He was married about 1833, wife's name Elizabeth. He was reported at age 40 in the 1850 census of Hamilton County, Civil District 27, Household 662-830:
" Goins, Rolin 40, born in TN
Elizabeth 35,
John