Fain Family of Fannin County on Both Sides of the Civil War

To be fair and inclusive, the Fain family of which I am discussing is also rooted in Gilmer County, Georgia and the state of North Carolina.  Preliminary research also suggests a good number went West, but that's for another time.

I've only just begun researching the area including and surrounding Fannin County, Georgia.  In this very early stage of studying – to be honest and clear, and maybe show you how easy it is to begin – all I've really done is pay attention to historical markers, street names, cemeteries, and the like.  In doing so, I'm seeing overlaps of family names and such.  This simple observation has pointed me, for one example, in the direction of the Fain family.

In Blue Ridge (Fannin County), near a magnolia tree in the downtown city park, is a historical marker placed for the 150 year commemoration of the Civil War.  The subject is William Clayton Fain: Georgia Unionist.  The text reads as follows:

One of the leading Unionists in the state during the Civil War, William Clayton Fain was born in Georgia in 1825.  A Fannin County lawyer and state representative, he served in the 1861 Secession Convention, where he opposed Georgia leaving the United States and refused to sign the Ordinance of Secession.  During the Civil War, Fain was an outspoken supporter of the United States and an anti-Confederate leader among the sizeable number of Unionists in Fannin and adjoining counties.  In 1864, the U.S. Army authorized him to raise recruits, which he conducted into Federal lines.  Fain was captured and killed by Confederates near Ducktown, Tennessee, on April 6, 1864.  He was one of many Southerners who opposed the Confederacy, including 400,000 – primarily from the Upper South – who enlisted in the U.S. armed forces.

William Clayton Fain was a son of John Fain (b. abt 1797), who was a son of pioneer and patriot Ebenezer Fain (1762-1842).

The Other Side

Last June, on opening day of farmers market season, I visited the old Blairsville Cemetery in adjoining Union County, Georgia.  Though I wasn't looking for a Fain connection, I found one.

JANE ADELINE FAIN
Beloved Wife Of Col.
JOHN S. FAIN
BORN FEB. 15, 1833
DIED SEPT. 13, 1861
A dear and loving mother gone to rest.

Jane, daughter of March and Sarah Addington, was a wife of Colonel John Simpson Fain.  Col. Fain was born in the Spring of 1818, a son of David and Rebecca Moore Fain.  David (b. 1782) was a brother of William Clayton Fain's father and another son of Ebenezer.

John Simpson Fain was a military man who served in three wars, including the Civil War.  According to an entry by Jeanette Fain Cornelius in the United Daughters of the Confederacy Patriot Ancestor Album (1999, Turner Publishing Co. Paducah, Ky), "In the Civil War he [Col. Fain] organized a company of North GA mountain men in February 1861 and served as captain of Co. G, 1st Regt. GA Regulars.  On May 21, 1862 he was elected lieutenant colonel of 65th GA Inf…" Short of a year later, he was promoted to the rank of colonel.  He served until June of 1863, when he tendered his resignation due to a medical condition.

The common ancestor of William Clayton Fain and John Simpson Fain is their grandfather, Ebenezer Fain.  As I mentioned before, Ebenezer was a pioneer and a patriot.  He was a pioneer of Southern Appalachia from a young age and throughout his full life.  Though born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, when Ebenezer was a young boy, the Fain family moved to southwest Virginia.  Before he was 16, the family moved down into what was then North Carolina.  About 1783, the then married Ebenezer Fain continued the moving tradition of his father by relocating to South Carolina.  Twenty years later, Ebenezer and family returned to what would eventually become Buncombe County, North Carolina.  Finally, about 1819, Ebenezer Fain and family were in north Georgia.  Each move advanced the family to more sparsely populated areas within the Southern Appalachia region.

Prior to his marriage and "settling down" with a family of his own in 1781, Ebenezer served his country in the American Revolution.  He enlisted on five distinct occasions.  One of those included service at the famous Battle of King's Mountain.

Travis H. McDaniel, a descendant of Ebenezer Fain, has written much about his family.  And some of that writing has appeared in the Georgia Backroads magazine.  One such article, "A Man in the True Sense of the Word: Southern Appalachian Pioneer Ebenezer Fain," was published in the Summer 2013 edition.  The following is from that article:

Just a few months later Ebenezer, his father, and several brothers enlisted in the militia at the request of Colonel John Sevier, who would later become Tennessee's first governor.  Sevier's militia, referred to as the Overmountain Men because they came from settlements west of the main crest of the Appalachian Mountains, played a key role in the Battle of King's Mountain, North Carolina, in 1780…This was a turning point in the southern operations during the Revolution.

Ebenezer Fain remained in Georgia until his death in 1842, spending some of his old age in the Hot House area of Fannin County.  Apropos to this posting, is a statement on the passing of Ebenezer attributed to his grandson, John Simpson Fain (also from Mr. McDaniel's article referenced above):

"I was a sort of a favorite child of my grandfather, and he principally raised and educated me, and I learned to love him when quite a child and I can never forget him.  My grandfather was a man in the true sense of the word, physically and mentally and morally.  His death was calm, and without a struggle…"

Ebenezer Fain and his descendants have left a lasting legacy in the mountains of north Georgia.

[Note:  Travis H. McDaniel wrote another article about his Fain family that may be viewed online >>> Clayton Fain's Last Ride.  In that writing, Mr. McDaniel delves deeper into the death of William Clayton Fain at the hands of the Confederacy.] 

Fannin County, Georgia: Named for Col. J. W. Fannin

James Walker Fannin was born 1 January 1804, the son of a Morgan County, Georgia plantation owner named Dr. Isham Fannin.  At the age of 15, James Walker entered the military academy at West Point in New York.  He resigned six years later.  He then returned to Georgia, became a merchant, and got married.

In 1834, J. W. Fannin moved his family to Texas.  Less than a year later, likely because of his ties to the state, "Fannin was appointed by the Committee of Public Safety and Correspondence, an assembly of prominent Texans seeking independence from Mexico, to solicit funds and supplies from sympathizers in Georgia…" [New Georgia Encyclopedia] Fannin became a captain in the Texas volunteer army, and by the end of 1835, was commissioned a colonel in the Texas regular army.  Soon after, he was given command of a regiment containing many volunteers from Georgia.

"By February 12, 1836, Fannin had marched his regiment to Goliad, an old Spanish fort on the southwest bank of the San Antonio River…" [New Georgia Encyclopedia]

Fannin at Goliad: Story of the Brutal Massacre of 1836

As told by Lucian Lamar Knight in Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends (vol. 2):

ONE of the most brutal massacres of history was the inhuman sacrifice of life at Goliad during the war for Texas independence, in 1836.  Colonel James W. Fannin, who lost his life in the massacre, was a native Georgian, who, removing to Texas in 1834, raised a company, which he called the Brazos Volunteers, and joined the army of General Houston.  On the fall of the Alamo, Fannin received orders from his commander to destroy the Spanish fort at Goliad and to fall back to Victoria.  He delayed his retreat for some time, in order to collect the women and children of the neighborhood, whose lives were exposed to imminent peril.  But he finally set out for Goliad with 350 men.

En route to this point he was overtaken by General Urrea, at the head of 1,200 Mexican troops.  There followed a battle which lasted for two days, during which time the Mexicans lost between 300 and 400 in killed and wounded, and the Texans only about 70; but Fannin, having been wounded in the engagement, was forced by the exigencies of the situation to surrender.  He agreed to capitulate only on condition that his troops should be paroled.  But, instead of being set at liberty, they were marched to Goliad as prisoners of war, and, on March 27, 1836, in pursuance of orders said to have been received from Santa Anna, were, in the absence of General Urrea, massacred in cold blood.

Per the New Georgia Encyclopedia:

[O]n Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, more than 330 Georgians, Texans, and others imprisoned at Goliad were marched out into the woods and shot. While some prisoners escaped the massacre, Fannin was kept inside the fort. He was taken to the courtyard, where he was blindfolded, seated, and shot through the head. His body was burned. During the Battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836, Fannin's watch was discovered in the possession of a Mexican officer. The officials who found it assumed the Mexican was responsible for Fannin's murder; he thus met death in a like manner as Fannin.

Per History in the Headlines:

The injured Fannin was the last to be slaughtered. His three dying wishes were to be shot in the chest, given a Christian burial and have his watch sent to his family. Instead, the Mexican commanding officer shot Fannin in the face, burned his body with the others and kept the timepiece as a war prize.

Several places were named in Fannin's honor.  One such place is Fannin County, Georgia, created in 1854.  In 1895, Blue Ridge became the county seat.

Courthouse in the image above dates to 1937.  It now houses the arts association.  Below is the new courthouse.

Downtown Blue Ridge today:

The Blue Ridge Mineral Springs

Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce water containing minerals that some claim give it a therapeutic value.  Salts and sulfur compounds are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water while it travels underground.

Resorts sprang up around these springs in the 19th and early 20th centuries when it was popular for (usually wealthy) people to travel to such places and "take the waters." An 1886 newspaper article spoke of such a treasure in Whitfield County, Georgia, saying it contained "this pure medicinal beverage gushing from the Blue Ridge Mountains." Two counties over, due east of Whitfield, is Fannin.  In 1905, it was discovered the town of Blue Ridge in Fannin County had at least three mineral springs.  Rev. Joel Butts, pastor of the Blue Ridge Baptist Church found the springs, cleaned them out, and had the water analyzed.  It was determined that drinking the water from these springs would benefit one's general health because it contained magnesium, iron, and sulfur.

According to theblueridgehighlander.com, "today there are no longer any mineral springs available for visitors to submerge in, even though un-maintained springs still do exist on private property in the area if you know where to look." In April 2015, a walking trail was opened in a place where one of the springs could once be found.  According to an old picture on an informational marker along the trail, the spring was outfitted with what looks to be a gazebo, a common practice of the time.

The creek that runs through the area is simply called Mineral Springs Creek, and you can see where the mineral spring itself once was, as denoted on this map.

The walking trail is part of a very pretty and well kept 13 acres.  I've visited it a couple of times.  Walking along and listening to the quiet waters of the creek flow by is very peaceful.  It's also cool to think people have been coming to this same area for the same rejuvenating purposes for more than 100 years.  As local resident Eva Baugh said when describing the springs, "Even if you didn't drink the water, it was a good place to visit and gossip."

In the following image, the creek bank to the left is approximately where the spring once was.

I've only known about the walking trail less than a month.  I read an article that stated the site was once a dump.  I don't know if that was to be taken figuratively or literally.  Whatever the case of the recent past may be, I'm glad the area was cleaned up to a space that can be enjoyed by many.  And I'm especially thankful the historical significance is not lost.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)