Youmans (Family)

The first persons with this surname to settle in Liberty County were Lucian Quincy (1859-1952) and Candacy Youmans (1870-1927). They were married and had the same surnames, but were otherwise not related. Their ancestors originated in South Carolina. They originally resided in Emanuel County, Georgia. They migrated in 1908 to Liberty County, where they resided in a home on Colonels Island.

At that time they already had four children. They were Fracie, who married Elbert Williamson and died giving birth to her first child; Lucian Etheridge Youmans (1900-1913), Hoke Smith Youmans, and Thomas Ernest Youmans.

Lucian Quincy Youmans was a farmer, raised horses and mules, and harvested and sold seafood. Hoke Smith Youmans married Nina Edenfield of Candler County, Georgia, and they had one child, Hoke Etheridge (1935-1935). She was educated at Georgia Southern College and was a school teacher when she married. She later taught at Dorchester Junior High School until 1949. She then became a Civil Service employee in telephone communications at Camp Stewart, Georgia, and was acting supervisor and supervisor of that facility when she retired.

Thomas Ernest Youmans married Bessie Deloach of Liberty County, and their children were Thomas Ernest Jr., Juanita, and Marjorie Youmans. L.P. Youmans, a physician, was a brother of Lucian Quincy Youmans. He married Hattie Bell. Both resided in Swainsboro, Georgia. They had one child, Roger, who married Mary Sherrer of Cuthbert, Georgia, and they had one child, Mary Eugenia Youmans.

L.P. and Hattie Bell Youmans relocated in Liberty County in 1923, and he established the Yellow Bluff Fishing Camp, with 11 cottages, on Colonels Island. Willie Bell was the brother of Hattie Bell Youmans. He married Gertrude Brown, a niece of L.P. Youmans. They were both from Swainsboro, Georgia, had two children, Juanita and Mildred Bell, and relocated in Liberty County and resided on Colonels Island in the 1930’s. After L.P. Youmans died, the Yellow Bluff Fishing Camp was operated by Roger Youmans. He sold it in 1951 to Arthur Goodman, who married Mildred Bell.

Hoke Smith Youmans was vice chairman of the Liberty County Board of Commissioners from 1961 to 1965. It was during this period of time that he traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, and secured the necessary state funds with which the Liberty County Courthouse was given its first renovation since it was built in 1926. It was also during this period of time that he was largely instrumental in persuading the Interstate Paper Corporation to locate its facility at Riceboro.