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WARNING -- This document contains many serious ERRORS!
EARLY FAMILIES OF DECATUR COUNTY GEORGIA
The Post-Searchlight May 19, 1976 p.5A
(This article was gathered and prepared by Mrs. Frank Battles Jr. on behalf of
The Daughters of the American Revolution.)
We are not sure just when the Cloud family appeared in Decatur County but we are sure it was quite early. One member of the family says that tradition in his family tells of their coming as early as 1814 and having a trading post between Spring Creek and the Flint River. The 1820 census shows two families of Clouds, Elizabeth and John Cloud, in Early County.
Elizabeth Cloud as head of household with - Males: under 10, 1; 16-18, 1; Females: 10-16, 2; 16-26, 1; 26-45, 1. John Cloud as head of household - Males: under 10, 3; 10-16, 1; 26-45, 1;Females: under 10, 1; 26-45, 1. By 1830 the census of Decatur County shows John and Reuben. Elizabeth Cloud is not listed. Either she had died by then or remarried. The first Cloud family to appear in this country was William Cloud who came from Calne, Wiltshire, England to Pennsylvania with William Penn. He was granted 500 acres of land by William Penn on the 8th and 9th, 1681, to be laid out in Pennsylvania. He died in 1702 in Concord, Chester Co., Pennsylvania. The name of his wife is unknown. For three generations this family resided in Pennsylvania. When William Cloud of the third generation made his will on May 12, 1747 he gave land to his three older sons, and small token to his three younger sons and three daughters. There is no further record of the three younger sons in Pennsylvania, but every evidence that they moved on to North Carolina and South Carolina. The older brothers did eventually remove to Virginia.
Jeremiah Cloud, Senior, served in the Revolutionary War along with three of his sons. He was the fourth generation from the immigrant William Cloud. He married Sarah and died about 1822 in Wilkes County Ga.. They had the following children:
- Jeremiah Cloud Jr., Revolutionary War Soldier, married Sarah and died in Wilkes County Ga., in 1783. His second wife was Elizabeth Jones. They married in Olgethorpe County, Ga.; Noah Cloud, Revolutionary War Solider, born 1752 in Virginia; died 1844 Edgefield County, South Carolina; Ezekiel Cloud, Revolutionary War Soldier, born 1760 in North Carolina; died Henry County, Ga. Married Elizabeth Harmon; Elisha Cloud, married Ruth Collins; Reuben Cloud, born 1750; Peter Cloud who died before 1832; Aaron Cloud who moved to Mississippi. (ed. note: Is the Elisha Cloud and Ruth Collins above an error? These names are similar to those of a different line: see Elisha Cloud & Ruth Collins.)
Noah Cloud fifth generation son of Jeremiah and Sarah Cloud, was born in 1752 in Virginia and died in Edgefield County, South Carolina. He at one time lived in Wilkes County Ga. but must have returned to North Carolina before his death in 1838. He married Eunola Carrol who survived him. Their children were William Cloud; Reuben Cloud who died in 1831 in Decatur County. He married Caroline and had a son Noah Lafayette. Noah's only child, a son died when about 10 years old. Noah left no descendants but left his property and household things to a woman of color, Miriah Davis, for her faithful service to his mother, his wife and himself. Noah Lafayette Cloud, who died in 1883, was the first white child born in Bainbridge according to a newspaper clipping. He was postmaster in 1852, 1855, 1858, 1869 and 1870. His father Reuben was one of the first purchasers of land in the town of Bainbridge, owning the lot behind the present courthouse; Jeremiah Cloud, who died in 1818 in Decatur County, married Elizabeth Noble. She survived him and is very probably the widow Elizabeth who was the head of the household in the 1820 census of Early County; Mary, who married Van Swearinger; John, who married Margaret Swearinger; and James.
John Cloud, son of Noah and his wife Sarah, was born in Wilkes County, Ga. and died in Decatur County in 1840. He married first, Margaret Swearinger, who died here in 1830. They had six sons and one daughter: Reuben Cloud who married Charlotte Lottie Gibbons, Oct. 11, 1830; Mansico Cloud who married Eliza McGriff and died in 1857; Phillip Cloud, who married Sophia Elizabeth Mock on Sept. 20, 1845; Daniel Cloud who married Phebe Pate, Mar. 12, 1833 in Decatur County; James Cloud; Elizabeth Cloud who married H. Kemp; John, Jr. (His brother Reuben administered his estate. He had a son Berry Cloud.) (John Cloud married 2nd, Sarah Dean before 1840.) (Ed. note -- the above data differs from what I have. According to my data, Reuben Cloud who m. Charlotte Gibbons/Gideons and Mansico Cloud who m. Eliza McGriff were first cousins to John Cloud, the sons of his uncle Peter Cloud; and Phillip Cloud who m. Sophie Mock and Daniel Cloud who m. Phebe Pate were grandsons of Peter.)
So three brothers Reuben, Jeremiah and John Cloud came to Decatur County, being the sixth generation from the original immigrant William Cloud, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1681. From these brothers came the Clouds of Decatur County. They have been good citizens and have served. their community well.
WARNING -- This document contains many serious ERRORS! |
