Mary Watson Stevens was the daughter of Thomas Stevens, a Georgia pioneer who owned land in Baldwin and Dekalb County, Georgia. Records show that in 1825 he owned lands along the Chattahoochee River and between the forks of Nancy and Peachtree Creeks. In 1831 he also bought land lot 143 in Decatur, Dekalb County for $400.00.
He died in April 1840. In his will he left property which included slaves to his daughter and a trust that was to benefit his granddaughter's education. He is forever immortalized in the book, Slave Life In Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown a Fugitive Slave, Now in England (1855).
Mary Watson Stevens married William Gay about 1822. William Gay was descended from Virginians who migrated through the Carolinas to the northwestern frontier of Georgia. During their marriage they lived in Jones County, Georgia and one child was born to this union, a daughter, Mary Ann Harris Gay in 1828. William Gay died about a year and a half after his daughter was born.
Mary Watson Stevens Gay then married a Decatur lawyer, Joseph Stokes in 1833. The family then moved to Cassville.
Her daughter, Mary A.H. Gay writes of her mother's second wedding and about the move to Cassville:
"Although a wee bit girl, scarcely turned in my fifth year at the time of my mother's second marriage, I remembered her as a bride. I remembered our journey by gig and wagon to Cassville then paradoxical as it may sound now, situated in the heart of a wilderness of beauty and savagery."
"The war-whoop of an uncivilized race of Indians, justly angry and resentful, reverberated though the impenetrable forest that belted the little settlement of white people that had the hardihood and bravery to make their homes among them. I remembered how she soon became a favorite, and was beloved by every one in that sparsely-settled locality, and won even the hearts of the Indians, by kindness towards them."
"She taught them how to make frocks and shirts, and clothes for their children, for the Cherokees were an ambitious people, and aspired to assimilation with the white race; and, to please them, she learned to bead moccasins, and other articles, ornamental and useful, just as they did. She also learned their alphabet, and became able to instruct them in their own language".
To the marriage of Mary Watson Stevens Gay and Joseph Stokes two children were born, a son, Thomas J. Stokes in 1837 and a daughter, Missouri Horton Stokes in 1838.
In 1845 the family moves again, this time to Marietta. Joseph Stokes died in Marietta in 1850.
Twice widowed, Mary Watson Stevens Gay Stokes moved her three children and six slaves to the village of Decatur in Dekalb County to a small house on Marshall Street in 1851.
Prior to the Civil War very little outside of the ordinary every day business of living and educating her children occurred, and for all intents and purposes life appeared to be good.
Records indicate that from the inheritance she received from her father and her deceased husband, along with bonding out her slaves, that she was well off financially and did not have to work outside of the home to support her family, nor did her children have to work.
The 1860 census shows that she increased her slave holdings from 6 slaves in 1850 to 18 slaves by 1860. Her daughter, Mary A.H. Gay wrote of the bonding out the family slaves in her book "Life in Dixie During the War".
The family fell on hard times during the Civil War and those struggles are also written about in "Life in Dixie During the War". She had invested heavily in confederate bonds and the income needed to cover their living expenses was dependent on the bonding out their slaves. Subject to the hardships of war and at times within the bounds of the front line, life became difficult for all those who remained.
In November 1864, her son Thomas died in the Battle of Franklin. She never fully recovered from her son's death though and her daughter, Mary wrote about this in her book, Life in Dixie During the War. She died in April 1866.
Mary A.H. Gay wrote this of her mother after her mother died as she remembered the day of her mother's funeral:
"I remembered how she had always worked for the poor; not so much in societies...as in the quiet of her home, and in the humble habitations of God's poor."
"I remembered with a melancholy thrill, how she had worked for our soldiers, and had not withheld good deeds from an invading alien army."
"Reverently I took in mine her little, symmetrical hand as it lay peacefully over the heart that had ever beat in unison with all that was good. It was weather-beaten, and I could feel the rough places on the palm through the pretty white silk glove in which it was encased. Cold and stark in death, it gave no responsive pressure to my own."
"I thought of its past service to me in which it never tired. It had trained my own from the rudimentary "straight lines" and "pot hooks," through all the intricacies of skilled penmanship, and from the picturesque letters on a sampler to the complete stitches of advanced embroidery."
"The little motionless hand that I now held in my own had picked corn from cracks and crevices in bureau drawers, which served as troughs for Garrard's cavalry horses, to make bread with which to appease her hunger and mine."
"I gazed upon the pallid face and finely-chiseled features. The nose never seemed so perfect, or the brow so fair, or the snow-white hair so beautiful. The daintiest of mull caps heightened the effect of the perfect combination of feature, placidity and intellectual expression. I fancied I had never seen her look so beautiful, and felt that it was meet that we should lay her away in a tomb where she could rest undisturbed until the resurrection morn, not doubting that the verdict of a great and good God would assign her a place among His chosen ones".
Daughter Not Linked Yet:
1. Mary Ann Harris Gay (Mar. 18, 1828
- Nov. 6, 1918)
References:
1. Early History of Decatur by Levi Willard (1920)
2. Georgia Women Their Lives and Times Volume 1 edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood (2009)
3. DeKalb County Land Records, Deed Book "H" p. 368, on file at Courthouse, Decatur, Georgia
4. Life in Dixie During the War by Mary A.H. Gay (1892)
5. Slave Life In Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England by John Brown, Edited by, Lousi Alexis Chamerovzow (1855)
6. The History of DeKalb County Georgia by Vivian Price (1997)
7. The Struggle for Equality: Essys on Sectional Conflice, The Civil War & The Long Reconstruction by Orville V. Burton, Jerald Podair, Jennifer L Weber (2011)
8. Census Records
9. Marriages Index; Alabama, Georgia and SC (FTM CD #3): William Gay and Mary Stephens - Feb 23, 1822 (Note: Last name spelled differently)
10. Thomas J. Stevens Will, filed July 1837, Bartow County, GA
11. DeKalb New Era 1920-21
He died in April 1840. In his will he left property which included slaves to his daughter and a trust that was to benefit his granddaughter's education. He is forever immortalized in the book, Slave Life In Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown a Fugitive Slave, Now in England (1855).
Mary Watson Stevens married William Gay about 1822. William Gay was descended from Virginians who migrated through the Carolinas to the northwestern frontier of Georgia. During their marriage they lived in Jones County, Georgia and one child was born to this union, a daughter, Mary Ann Harris Gay in 1828. William Gay died about a year and a half after his daughter was born.
Mary Watson Stevens Gay then married a Decatur lawyer, Joseph Stokes in 1833. The family then moved to Cassville.
Her daughter, Mary A.H. Gay writes of her mother's second wedding and about the move to Cassville:
"Although a wee bit girl, scarcely turned in my fifth year at the time of my mother's second marriage, I remembered her as a bride. I remembered our journey by gig and wagon to Cassville then paradoxical as it may sound now, situated in the heart of a wilderness of beauty and savagery."
"The war-whoop of an uncivilized race of Indians, justly angry and resentful, reverberated though the impenetrable forest that belted the little settlement of white people that had the hardihood and bravery to make their homes among them. I remembered how she soon became a favorite, and was beloved by every one in that sparsely-settled locality, and won even the hearts of the Indians, by kindness towards them."
"She taught them how to make frocks and shirts, and clothes for their children, for the Cherokees were an ambitious people, and aspired to assimilation with the white race; and, to please them, she learned to bead moccasins, and other articles, ornamental and useful, just as they did. She also learned their alphabet, and became able to instruct them in their own language".
To the marriage of Mary Watson Stevens Gay and Joseph Stokes two children were born, a son, Thomas J. Stokes in 1837 and a daughter, Missouri Horton Stokes in 1838.
In 1845 the family moves again, this time to Marietta. Joseph Stokes died in Marietta in 1850.
Twice widowed, Mary Watson Stevens Gay Stokes moved her three children and six slaves to the village of Decatur in Dekalb County to a small house on Marshall Street in 1851.
Prior to the Civil War very little outside of the ordinary every day business of living and educating her children occurred, and for all intents and purposes life appeared to be good.
Records indicate that from the inheritance she received from her father and her deceased husband, along with bonding out her slaves, that she was well off financially and did not have to work outside of the home to support her family, nor did her children have to work.
The 1860 census shows that she increased her slave holdings from 6 slaves in 1850 to 18 slaves by 1860. Her daughter, Mary A.H. Gay wrote of the bonding out the family slaves in her book "Life in Dixie During the War".
The family fell on hard times during the Civil War and those struggles are also written about in "Life in Dixie During the War". She had invested heavily in confederate bonds and the income needed to cover their living expenses was dependent on the bonding out their slaves. Subject to the hardships of war and at times within the bounds of the front line, life became difficult for all those who remained.
In November 1864, her son Thomas died in the Battle of Franklin. She never fully recovered from her son's death though and her daughter, Mary wrote about this in her book, Life in Dixie During the War. She died in April 1866.
Mary A.H. Gay wrote this of her mother after her mother died as she remembered the day of her mother's funeral:
"I remembered how she had always worked for the poor; not so much in societies...as in the quiet of her home, and in the humble habitations of God's poor."
"I remembered with a melancholy thrill, how she had worked for our soldiers, and had not withheld good deeds from an invading alien army."
"Reverently I took in mine her little, symmetrical hand as it lay peacefully over the heart that had ever beat in unison with all that was good. It was weather-beaten, and I could feel the rough places on the palm through the pretty white silk glove in which it was encased. Cold and stark in death, it gave no responsive pressure to my own."
"I thought of its past service to me in which it never tired. It had trained my own from the rudimentary "straight lines" and "pot hooks," through all the intricacies of skilled penmanship, and from the picturesque letters on a sampler to the complete stitches of advanced embroidery."
"The little motionless hand that I now held in my own had picked corn from cracks and crevices in bureau drawers, which served as troughs for Garrard's cavalry horses, to make bread with which to appease her hunger and mine."
"I gazed upon the pallid face and finely-chiseled features. The nose never seemed so perfect, or the brow so fair, or the snow-white hair so beautiful. The daintiest of mull caps heightened the effect of the perfect combination of feature, placidity and intellectual expression. I fancied I had never seen her look so beautiful, and felt that it was meet that we should lay her away in a tomb where she could rest undisturbed until the resurrection morn, not doubting that the verdict of a great and good God would assign her a place among His chosen ones".
Daughter Not Linked Yet:
1. Mary Ann Harris Gay (Mar. 18, 1828
- Nov. 6, 1918)
References:
1. Early History of Decatur by Levi Willard (1920)
2. Georgia Women Their Lives and Times Volume 1 edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood (2009)
3. DeKalb County Land Records, Deed Book "H" p. 368, on file at Courthouse, Decatur, Georgia
4. Life in Dixie During the War by Mary A.H. Gay (1892)
5. Slave Life In Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England by John Brown, Edited by, Lousi Alexis Chamerovzow (1855)
6. The History of DeKalb County Georgia by Vivian Price (1997)
7. The Struggle for Equality: Essys on Sectional Conflice, The Civil War & The Long Reconstruction by Orville V. Burton, Jerald Podair, Jennifer L Weber (2011)
8. Census Records
9. Marriages Index; Alabama, Georgia and SC (FTM CD #3): William Gay and Mary Stephens - Feb 23, 1822 (Note: Last name spelled differently)
10. Thomas J. Stevens Will, filed July 1837, Bartow County, GA
11. DeKalb New Era 1920-21
Mary Watson Stevens was the daughter of Thomas Stevens, a Georgia pioneer who owned land in Baldwin and Dekalb County, Georgia. Records show that in 1825 he owned lands along the Chattahoochee River and between the forks of Nancy and Peachtree Creeks. In 1831 he also bought land lot 143 in Decatur, Dekalb County for $400.00.
He died in April 1840. In his will he left property which included slaves to his daughter and a trust that was to benefit his granddaughter's education. He is forever immortalized in the book, Slave Life In Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown a Fugitive Slave, Now in England (1855).
Mary Watson Stevens married William Gay about 1822. William Gay was descended from Virginians who migrated through the Carolinas to the northwestern frontier of Georgia. During their marriage they lived in Jones County, Georgia and one child was born to this union, a daughter, Mary Ann Harris Gay in 1828. William Gay died about a year and a half after his daughter was born.
Mary Watson Stevens Gay then married a Decatur lawyer, Joseph Stokes in 1833. The family then moved to Cassville.
Her daughter, Mary A.H. Gay writes of her mother's second wedding and about the move to Cassville:
"Although a wee bit girl, scarcely turned in my fifth year at the time of my mother's second marriage, I remembered her as a bride. I remembered our journey by gig and wagon to Cassville then paradoxical as it may sound now, situated in the heart of a wilderness of beauty and savagery."
"The war-whoop of an uncivilized race of Indians, justly angry and resentful, reverberated though the impenetrable forest that belted the little settlement of white people that had the hardihood and bravery to make their homes among them. I remembered how she soon became a favorite, and was beloved by every one in that sparsely-settled locality, and won even the hearts of the Indians, by kindness towards them."
"She taught them how to make frocks and shirts, and clothes for their children, for the Cherokees were an ambitious people, and aspired to assimilation with the white race; and, to please them, she learned to bead moccasins, and other articles, ornamental and useful, just as they did. She also learned their alphabet, and became able to instruct them in their own language".
To the marriage of Mary Watson Stevens Gay and Joseph Stokes two children were born, a son, Thomas J. Stokes in 1837 and a daughter, Missouri Horton Stokes in 1838.
In 1845 the family moves again, this time to Marietta. Joseph Stokes died in Marietta in 1850.
Twice widowed, Mary Watson Stevens Gay Stokes moved her three children and six slaves to the village of Decatur in Dekalb County to a small house on Marshall Street in 1851.
Prior to the Civil War very little outside of the ordinary every day business of living and educating her children occurred, and for all intents and purposes life appeared to be good.
Records indicate that from the inheritance she received from her father and her deceased husband, along with bonding out her slaves, that she was well off financially and did not have to work outside of the home to support her family, nor did her children have to work.
The 1860 census shows that she increased her slave holdings from 6 slaves in 1850 to 18 slaves by 1860. Her daughter, Mary A.H. Gay wrote of the bonding out the family slaves in her book "Life in Dixie During the War".
The family fell on hard times during the Civil War and those struggles are also written about in "Life in Dixie During the War". She had invested heavily in confederate bonds and the income needed to cover their living expenses was dependent on the bonding out their slaves. Subject to the hardships of war and at times within the bounds of the front line, life became difficult for all those who remained.
In November 1864, her son Thomas died in the Battle of Franklin. She never fully recovered from her son's death though and her daughter, Mary wrote about this in her book, Life in Dixie During the War. She died in April 1866.
Mary A.H. Gay wrote this of her mother after her mother died as she remembered the day of her mother's funeral:
"I remembered how she had always worked for the poor; not so much in societies...as in the quiet of her home, and in the humble habitations of God's poor."
"I remembered with a melancholy thrill, how she had worked for our soldiers, and had not withheld good deeds from an invading alien army."
"Reverently I took in mine her little, symmetrical hand as it lay peacefully over the heart that had ever beat in unison with all that was good. It was weather-beaten, and I could feel the rough places on the palm through the pretty white silk glove in which it was encased. Cold and stark in death, it gave no responsive pressure to my own."
"I thought of its past service to me in which it never tired. It had trained my own from the rudimentary "straight lines" and "pot hooks," through all the intricacies of skilled penmanship, and from the picturesque letters on a sampler to the complete stitches of advanced embroidery."
"The little motionless hand that I now held in my own had picked corn from cracks and crevices in bureau drawers, which served as troughs for Garrard's cavalry horses, to make bread with which to appease her hunger and mine."
"I gazed upon the pallid face and finely-chiseled features. The nose never seemed so perfect, or the brow so fair, or the snow-white hair so beautiful. The daintiest of mull caps heightened the effect of the perfect combination of feature, placidity and intellectual expression. I fancied I had never seen her look so beautiful, and felt that it was meet that we should lay her away in a tomb where she could rest undisturbed until the resurrection morn, not doubting that the verdict of a great and good God would assign her a place among His chosen ones".
Daughter Not Linked Yet:
1. Mary Ann Harris Gay (Mar. 18, 1828
- Nov. 6, 1918)
References:
1. Early History of Decatur by Levi Willard (1920)
2. Georgia Women Their Lives and Times Volume 1 edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood (2009)
3. DeKalb County Land Records, Deed Book "H" p. 368, on file at Courthouse, Decatur, Georgia
4. Life in Dixie During the War by Mary A.H. Gay (1892)
5. Slave Life In Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England by John Brown, Edited by, Lousi Alexis Chamerovzow (1855)
6. The History of DeKalb County Georgia by Vivian Price (1997)
7. The Struggle for Equality: Essys on Sectional Conflice, The Civil War & The Long Reconstruction by Orville V. Burton, Jerald Podair, Jennifer L Weber (2011)
8. Census Records
9. Marriages Index; Alabama, Georgia and SC (FTM CD #3): William Gay and Mary Stephens - Feb 23, 1822 (Note: Last name spelled differently)
10. Thomas J. Stevens Will, filed July 1837, Bartow County, GA
11. DeKalb New Era 1920-21
He died in April 1840. In his will he left property which included slaves to his daughter and a trust that was to benefit his granddaughter's education. He is forever immortalized in the book, Slave Life In Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown a Fugitive Slave, Now in England (1855).
Mary Watson Stevens married William Gay about 1822. William Gay was descended from Virginians who migrated through the Carolinas to the northwestern frontier of Georgia. During their marriage they lived in Jones County, Georgia and one child was born to this union, a daughter, Mary Ann Harris Gay in 1828. William Gay died about a year and a half after his daughter was born.
Mary Watson Stevens Gay then married a Decatur lawyer, Joseph Stokes in 1833. The family then moved to Cassville.
Her daughter, Mary A.H. Gay writes of her mother's second wedding and about the move to Cassville:
"Although a wee bit girl, scarcely turned in my fifth year at the time of my mother's second marriage, I remembered her as a bride. I remembered our journey by gig and wagon to Cassville then paradoxical as it may sound now, situated in the heart of a wilderness of beauty and savagery."
"The war-whoop of an uncivilized race of Indians, justly angry and resentful, reverberated though the impenetrable forest that belted the little settlement of white people that had the hardihood and bravery to make their homes among them. I remembered how she soon became a favorite, and was beloved by every one in that sparsely-settled locality, and won even the hearts of the Indians, by kindness towards them."
"She taught them how to make frocks and shirts, and clothes for their children, for the Cherokees were an ambitious people, and aspired to assimilation with the white race; and, to please them, she learned to bead moccasins, and other articles, ornamental and useful, just as they did. She also learned their alphabet, and became able to instruct them in their own language".
To the marriage of Mary Watson Stevens Gay and Joseph Stokes two children were born, a son, Thomas J. Stokes in 1837 and a daughter, Missouri Horton Stokes in 1838.
In 1845 the family moves again, this time to Marietta. Joseph Stokes died in Marietta in 1850.
Twice widowed, Mary Watson Stevens Gay Stokes moved her three children and six slaves to the village of Decatur in Dekalb County to a small house on Marshall Street in 1851.
Prior to the Civil War very little outside of the ordinary every day business of living and educating her children occurred, and for all intents and purposes life appeared to be good.
Records indicate that from the inheritance she received from her father and her deceased husband, along with bonding out her slaves, that she was well off financially and did not have to work outside of the home to support her family, nor did her children have to work.
The 1860 census shows that she increased her slave holdings from 6 slaves in 1850 to 18 slaves by 1860. Her daughter, Mary A.H. Gay wrote of the bonding out the family slaves in her book "Life in Dixie During the War".
The family fell on hard times during the Civil War and those struggles are also written about in "Life in Dixie During the War". She had invested heavily in confederate bonds and the income needed to cover their living expenses was dependent on the bonding out their slaves. Subject to the hardships of war and at times within the bounds of the front line, life became difficult for all those who remained.
In November 1864, her son Thomas died in the Battle of Franklin. She never fully recovered from her son's death though and her daughter, Mary wrote about this in her book, Life in Dixie During the War. She died in April 1866.
Mary A.H. Gay wrote this of her mother after her mother died as she remembered the day of her mother's funeral:
"I remembered how she had always worked for the poor; not so much in societies...as in the quiet of her home, and in the humble habitations of God's poor."
"I remembered with a melancholy thrill, how she had worked for our soldiers, and had not withheld good deeds from an invading alien army."
"Reverently I took in mine her little, symmetrical hand as it lay peacefully over the heart that had ever beat in unison with all that was good. It was weather-beaten, and I could feel the rough places on the palm through the pretty white silk glove in which it was encased. Cold and stark in death, it gave no responsive pressure to my own."
"I thought of its past service to me in which it never tired. It had trained my own from the rudimentary "straight lines" and "pot hooks," through all the intricacies of skilled penmanship, and from the picturesque letters on a sampler to the complete stitches of advanced embroidery."
"The little motionless hand that I now held in my own had picked corn from cracks and crevices in bureau drawers, which served as troughs for Garrard's cavalry horses, to make bread with which to appease her hunger and mine."
"I gazed upon the pallid face and finely-chiseled features. The nose never seemed so perfect, or the brow so fair, or the snow-white hair so beautiful. The daintiest of mull caps heightened the effect of the perfect combination of feature, placidity and intellectual expression. I fancied I had never seen her look so beautiful, and felt that it was meet that we should lay her away in a tomb where she could rest undisturbed until the resurrection morn, not doubting that the verdict of a great and good God would assign her a place among His chosen ones".
Daughter Not Linked Yet:
1. Mary Ann Harris Gay (Mar. 18, 1828
- Nov. 6, 1918)
References:
1. Early History of Decatur by Levi Willard (1920)
2. Georgia Women Their Lives and Times Volume 1 edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood (2009)
3. DeKalb County Land Records, Deed Book "H" p. 368, on file at Courthouse, Decatur, Georgia
4. Life in Dixie During the War by Mary A.H. Gay (1892)
5. Slave Life In Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England by John Brown, Edited by, Lousi Alexis Chamerovzow (1855)
6. The History of DeKalb County Georgia by Vivian Price (1997)
7. The Struggle for Equality: Essys on Sectional Conflice, The Civil War & The Long Reconstruction by Orville V. Burton, Jerald Podair, Jennifer L Weber (2011)
8. Census Records
9. Marriages Index; Alabama, Georgia and SC (FTM CD #3): William Gay and Mary Stephens - Feb 23, 1822 (Note: Last name spelled differently)
10. Thomas J. Stevens Will, filed July 1837, Bartow County, GA
11. DeKalb New Era 1920-21
Family Members
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