Biography of James Isaiah DuBose of
Darlington, South Carolina and
Worthington Springs, Florida
(1846-1928)

James Isaiah DuBose was born on April 10, 1846 in Darlington (Darlington District), South Carolina. He was the son of Ezekiel Dossey ("E.D.") and Cassandra ("Cassie") Ann Perniece Thompson DuBose.

He was 14 years old when his family traveled by horse and wagon to Columbia County, Florida, where they settled near Lake City. His paternal grandmother Mary "Polly" Polk DuBose (1800-1876), widow of John DuBose (b. circa 1782-d. before October 1860), joined the family in Florida approximately ten years later.

James Isaiah joined the Confederate army soon after the Civil War started. His father E. D. DuBose enlisted in 1863.

James Isaiah was captured at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee on November 25, 1863. After a Christmas holdover in Kentucky, he was transferred to Illinois where he was confined in the Rock Island Barracks for Confederate Soldiers. E. D. DuBose wrote a letter to his son begging him to sign the oath of allegiance, as he had. However, James Isaiah would have no part of it.

By the summer of 1865 the Civil War was over. E. D. DuBose met his son somewhere between Rock Island, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio. They rode down to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Some say they took a train. Some say they took a steamboat. Maybe it was a combination of the two. From Chattanooga, however, they walked. The railroad tracks had all been torn up south of there.

The family remained on the tenant farm while James Isaiah and his father E.D. were away during the Civil War. When the Battle of Olustee took place, James Isaiah's 12-year-old brother Wiles could hear the guns firing nearby. During this time, the family faced severe financial hardship and food was scarce.

James Isaiah married Mahaley (Mahala) Frances Pinkston on July 21, 1870 in Columbia County, Florida. She was born on December 4, 1852 in Brooks, Fayette County, Georgia, the daughter of John S. Pinkston and Frances King Pinkston. John S. and Frances had 12 children who survived to maturity, five girls and seven boys. Three of the boys were killed in the Civil War, and two others served and survived.

James Isaiah and Mahaley had 12 children.

Mahaley died in Worthington Springs on April 10, 1924. James Isaiah died in Worthington Springs on October 15, 1928.

Submitted by Sandra Johnson Witt, his great grand niece on April 3, 2010