Mary "Polly" Guest, 1842 - 1882

Mary "Polly" Guest, 1844-1882, was the first wife of John Tyler "Jack" Henderson (1839 - 1923) and the mother of John's first five (?) children, including our ancestor Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson.

Mary Guest was born around 1844 to Miles Jackson Guest (1810 - 1865) and Hulda Kight (1812 - 1882). She appears as a five-year-old in the 1850 census for Ware county, Georgia.

Miles J. Guest, 41
Huldah, 40
Allen, 18
Hiram, 16
John, 13
James, 11
Elizabeth, 7
Mary, 5
Franklin, 2.

The 1860 census for Ware county lists this household (Mary is listed as 'May', now 15) with four additional children: Dorcas, 9, Willis, 6, Francis, 6, and Candorse, 1.

In 1880 Mary is shown married to John T. Henderson and living in Coffee county, Georgia, with four children, including nine-year-old Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson. See previous post for details.

Mary Guest Henderson is buried at Antioch Baptist Church cemetery in Kirkland, Georgia. Her birth year is 1842 on the stone, but as she was reported to be five years old in the 1850 census, a birth year of 1844 is probably closer.

Her husband, John Tyler Henderson, remarried Mary Overstreet and had ten more children.

Here is the information from Volume I of Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia by Folks Huxford concerning Miles Jackson Guest, father of Mary "Polly" Guest. Note that Huxford lists Mary Guest as having married Andrew Henderson. This is an error, as she actually married John Tyler Henderson.

MILES JACKSON GUEST was born in Barnwell District, South Carolina, March 8, 1810, son of William and Agnes and grandson of John Guest, R.S., who died in that county in 1828. William Guest had a sister, Nancy (or Ann) and her husband, John Rice, who moved to Georgia also and resided in Clinch County. With his parents, M. J. Guest moved to Tattnall County, Georgia, and soon after was married to Miss Hulda Kight who was a sister of Hiram Kight of Clinch County. She was born April 10, 1812, in Georgia and died at her home in Clinch County, September 30, 1882. Their children were:

1. William Allen, b. 1832, m. Eliza Wilkerson 

2. Miles Jackson, b. 1833, died in boyhood.

3. Hiram Walker, b. 1834, m. Annie Waldron.

4. John Powell, b. 1837, m. Sarah Ann Stanfield of Tattnall Co.

5. James, b. 1840, m. Serena miner, daughter of Win. of Ware Co.

6. Elizabeth, b. 1843, m. Kindred C. Cowart.

7. Mary, b. 1845, m. Andrew L Henderson.

8. Benjamin F., b. 1848, m. Mary Waldron.

9. Darkis Matilda, b. 1851, m. David Henderson. 

10. Francis Marion, b. 1854, m. Tobitha Ann Griffis, daughter of Juniper.

About 1834-1836 Mr. Guest removed to Ware County and granted lands from the State, mostly in the 8th district of his county. He built his home on some of these lots, cleared up and operated a large plantation with slave labor, near the present village of Manor, Ware County. In 1861 he exchanged these lands for the holdings of Duncan Giddens in northern Clinch County, consisting of about 3000 acres, plantation, millpond and watermill, etc. He moved there and continued to live there until his death March 7, 1865. He and his wife are buried in the nearby Guest Millpond Cemetery. His widow and Rev. Guilford Lastinger were the administrators on his estate, and sold the Guest holdings except the dower-lands, to Fisher Griffin in 1866. John Moore became the owner of this property at sheriff's sale in 1868, and operated the farm and water mill until the 1880s when he sold same to Francis Marion Guest, youngest son of Miles J. Guest, and who owned the same until his death in 1907.

Mr. Guest served three terms as Sheriff of Ware County: 1836-1838, 1844-1846 and 1850-1852. He was deputy clerk of the superior court a short while, also in the Indian War he served as a private in Capt. David J. Miller's company of Ware county militia in 1838.

Census References: 1830, Tattnall; 1840, 1850, 1860, Ware.

Miles married Hulda Kight. (Hulda Kight was born on 10 Apr 1812 in Georgia 1 and died on 30 Sep 1882 in Clinch County, GA 1.)

Sources:

Folks Huxford Judge, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, Volume I, 12 (Georgia: Folks Huxford, 1951), 1. 

Here are undated pictures of Miles Jackson Guest and his wife Hulda Kight Guest, photocopied from the Huxford books. In exploring the possibility of native American roots, I've considered that both of these ancestors may have had Indian mothers.

I have visited the Guest Millpond cemetery, also known as Langs Church cemetery, on Lang Church Road off Highway 441 between Homerville and Pearson, Georgia. Here is a photo of Miles Jackson Guest and Hulda Kight Guest's gravestone.

There is a William Guist on the 1800 and 1810 census for the Barnwell District of South Carolina, but we can't know for sure that this is our ancestor. These early census records did not include the names of the children,. Note that as you go back in time you will see the name spelled several different ways. 'Guest' and 'Guess' are the most frequent, but variations such as 'Gist' also show up. The census takers and even the families themselves were not always consistent with spellings.

Returning to the Huxford books, we can find out more about William Guess. Keep in mind that this is a secondary source.

William Guest was born in North Carolina in 1778, a son of John Guest (Vol. II). The family removed to Barnwell District, S. C. in his youth, and it was there that he grew up and married. His wife, Agnes, was born 1790 in Barnwell District. Her maiden name so far is unknown. Their known children were as follows;

1. William P., b. 1800, m. Elvira Tanner.

2. Thesley A., b. 1803, m. Elizabeth

3. Allen, b. 1805, m. Elizabeth

4. Miles J., b. 1810, m. Hulda Kight. (Vol: I).

5. Benj. W., b. 1814, m. Georgia Ann -.

Mr. Guest removed to Georgia about 1818, and located in Appling County, being among the first settlers there. He lived in the 3rd land district of Appling when he drew lot 405, 8th district Early County in the 1820 land lottery. He moved to Camden County and granted land there. Some years later he removed to Ware County and settled in the portion cut into Clinch County in 1850.

He lived in the Magnolia district. He dropped dead in his field in June, 1851.

Census Refs: 1800, 1810, Barnwell Dist., S. C.; 1820, Appling; 1830, 1840, Camden; 1850, Ware (Clinch).

William married Agnes. (Agnes was born in 1790 in Barnwell District, S. C.)

Sources

Folks Huxford Judge, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, 12 (Georgia: n.p., n.d.), 3. 

Huxford cites several census records for this information, but I have not been able to find records that would conclusively identify this family. Some genealogies exist online but unless they are sourced they can't be considered reliable.

I continue to work on these lines and will update as I find information. One final note about Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson's possible native heritage - she had been told that she was one quarter Indian. We will later see that her father's line is well established back to its European roots. Her mother's line, detailed in this post, contains more unknowns. We know nothing about the Agnes who married William Guest in South Carolina. We also know nothing about Hulda Kight's mother. (Her father may have been John Cecil Kight.) These areas of South Carolina and Georgia were still part of the frontier at this time. Many Indians were assimilating. It was at least two generations before the mass removal of native peoples in the 1838 Trail of Tears. If both of Mary Guest's grandmothers were Indian women who married white men, which was not uncommon in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, both of her parents, Miles Jackson Guest and Hulda Kight, pictured above, would have been half Indian, and Mary "Polly" Guest herself would have been half Indian. Her marriage to John T. Henderson would have resulted in children with one fourth native blood. It's mathematically elegant but flies in the face of Occam's Razor, which says that the simplest solution - the one with the fewest steps - is more often the correct solution. A simple DNA test of any of the females in this line (must be female all the way down to determine Mary Guest's origins) would possibly provide this answer. I can't afford it but if anyone reading this can do a mitochondrial DNA test, please don't leave me hanging. Let me know what you can find out.