Delk, David (Family)
The first two persons of this surname to settle in Liberty County were Samuel and Jacob Delk, brothers, around 1800 in the Taylors Creek community. They were descended from Roger Delk , a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1633. They both migrated from North Carolina to Georgia before the Revolutionary War. David Delk was the son of Samuel Delk. He bought 100 acres of land near that of his father, married, and had children. His eldest child, Anna Delk, married her first cousin, Samuel Delk , son of Jacob Delk. Their children were Nancy Delk (see Baxter Families in this appendix), Jacob Delk , Mary Delk , Eady Delk , and George W. Delk. David Delk about 1817 received a grant of land in the Gum Branch community for his service in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. After his wife died he relocated there and married Elizabeth Terrell, whose family also migrated from North Carolina to Georgia.
Their children were John Delk, David Delk Jr., William Shelton Delk , Elizabeth Delk, Susan Delk, and Fleming Delk. Elizabeth Delk married John Chapman of Liberty County, and they had 15 children. David Delk J r. married (1) Mary Delk, daughter of Samuel and Anna Delk , and (2) Mary Leigh Chapman, daughter of Francis John and Mary Leigh Chapman, who migrated from North Carolina to Liberty County about 1800. The children of David and Mary Leigh Chapman Delk Jr. were David Hamilton Delk, James F. Delk, Mary J. Delk, William Shelton Delk, Nathaniel S. Delk, and Francis Delk. David H. Delk married Isabel Jane Smart on October 16, 1856. Their children were Zenal L. Delk, James W. Delk, and William A. Delk. He died and she married Robert Long, and their children were Eliza, Edith Matilda, and Nancy Caroline Long. (See Long Families in this appendix.)
After Robert Long died, Isabel Smart Delk Long remained on the family farm north of the Rye Patch community. In 1900 members of her household included William A. Delk, a son by her first marriage, and Nancy Caroline Long, a daughter by her second marriage. She died in 1905. William Shelton Delk (1846-1925) married (1) Sarah Ann Smart, and their children were Sarah, Francis, William H., Mary Beulah, John Andrew, Ruby M., and Jessie V. Delk. (See David I. Dawson in this appendix.) This family resided in the original home of David Delk in the Gum Branch community. William H. Delk and John Andrew Delk built homes near that of their family, and resided there with their wives and families during the early part of their lives. The log home of David Delk was the residence of Dalton Howard and his wife and family until World War II. Its last residents was a Salters family. It was donated by a descendent of David Delk , Walter Everitt Dawson, to the Chatham County Public Schools in Savannah, Georgia, and became a permanent part of the Oatland Island Educational Exhibit.
Many members of the Delk families of Liberty County relocated in other parts of Georgia, and in Florida, before the Civil War. Some of them returned to live in Liberty County. John H. and Nancy Delk Baxter, after residing in Florida, returned to Liberty County. Their daughter, Asenath, married Washington Parker, son of William Hall Parker (see William Hall Parker in this appendix). Their daughter. Cynthia Parker, married John Hand Long and they resided in the Gum Branch community (see Long Families in this appendix).