Long (Family)
Long County, Georgia, was named for Crawford W. Long of Athens, Georgia, who was not related to Long families of Liberty and Long counties. Those families, without exception, derive from Fashaw Long (1788- 1863), son of Levi and Sarah Long of Winton County, Barnwell District, South Carolina. His siblings were Sarah, Nathaniel, and Fannie Long. All of them remained in South Carolina. Fashaw Long migrated to the Rye Patch community of Liberty County in 1800, and was a member of the Georgia Militia during the War of 1812. He married Margaret (“Peggy”) Benton Allen of Savannah, Georgia, and their children were Robert Long (1818-1893) and John Sanford Long (1820- 1894).
Robert Long married (1) Matilda Smith (her third marriage) of the Jones Creek community, and their children were John Hand, Jacob S., Enoch L., and Robert Long Jr., (2) Eliza Delk in 1863 with no children, (3) Mary Ellen Caswell in 1864 with one child, Ellen Long, and (4) Isabel Jane Smart Delk, and their children were Edith Matilda, Nancy Caroline, and Eliza. First husband of the fourth wife was David H. Delk (see David Delk in the appendix).
The U.S. Census for 1850 says Robert and Isabel Jane Smart Delk Long that year were residing in the home of his father, Fashaw Long, along with Martha Bryan, and Cornelia Long. John Sanford Long married Cornelia Elliott (1822-1894), daughter of John and Harriet Dukes Elliott, who migrated from Pennsylvania to Tattnall County, Georgia. Their children were Harriet Louvenia, Robert Wilson Long, Margaret (“Maggie”), James Fashaw, Franklin Lecurgus, Charles Nathaniel, Benjamin Allen, Matthew C, John Elliott. William Cassaday, and Mary (“Mollie”) Cornelia Long.
Fashaw Long by 1820 had acquired property left vacant by Archibald Clark in the Gum Branch community. He deeded property he owned in the Rye Patch community and the Gum Branch community to his sons. They in turn deeded it to their sons when they married and needed a farm and home. It was Franklin Lecurgus Long (1851-1891) who settled on property deeded him by his father in the Gum Branch community. He married Laura L. Smith, and their children were Leila L., Mary (“Mamie “), Florence Eugenia (“Davis”), and Hilton Franklin Long. He eventually owned 1,200 acres of land, which his hired hands called “Silver Hill” because he paid them in silver dollars.
Laura L. Smith Long was the first teacher in the Gum Branch school, adjacent their home; her husband was the first postmaster at the Gum Branch post office also adjacent their home. The next school for Gum Branch was established in 1905 in the Providence community. The second Gum Branch post office was near the home of Howell Howard about 5 miles from the Gum Branch Baptist Church. Hilton Franklin Long married Ida Mae Cameron in 1889, and their children were Myrtle Oliver, Franklin Leslie, Annie Ruth, and James Ogden Long.
Hilton Franklin Long was a long-time member of the Liberty County Board of Education and contributed greatly to the consolidation of white Liberty County schools during the period 1920-1930. John Hand Long (1844-1927), son of Robert and Matilda Smith Long, married Cynthia Jane Parker, daughter of George Washington and Senia Baxter Parker, in 1870, and their children were Ida and Ada (twins), Romulus and William Damon Long (twins), Nina, Maggie, Rosa Belle, Nora, Pearl, and Anna D. Long.
The John H. Long home was on property which adjoined that of Franklin Lecurgus Long. John Hand Long had two half-sisters who married Groover brothers (see Charles A. Groover in the appendix) and lived on nearby farms. James Fashaw Long (1848-1913), son of John Sanford Long, married Elizabeth (“Lizzie “) Smart, and their children were Janie, James (“Jimmie”), Clara, F. Harley, Elizabeth (“Lizzie”), Glenn, Eva, Mattie, Joseph P., John L., and William L. Long. Joseph P. Long (1888- 1965) married Illa Mae Mobley, daughter of Joseph Cephas and Sallie Ann Watson Mobley, and their children were Maderia, Joseph Adrian, and Max Ormand Long.
In the Rye Patch community, John Elliott Long (1857 -1944) married Mary Etta Wilkinson, and their children were Charlton C., James Arlie, William Yancy, John Sanford (“Sank”), and Thomas Watson Long. They resided on what was known as the “Keaton Tract” in the Rye Patch community. John Sanford (“Sank”) Long married (1) Isolia Baxter in 1897, and their children were Myrtis, Marie, and Arthur Franz Long, and (2) Annie Lou Barnard, and they had no children.
