By
George Urvin Richard Jeffcoat
Jacob Jeffcoat1 Samuel
Jeffcoat2 Elijah Jeffcoat3 George Urvin
Richard Jeffcoat4
Samuel Jeffcoat was my
grandfather. He had eight sons, Richard, Jacob, Samuel, Daniel,
Edward, John, Benjamin and Elijah. (I am the son of Elijah) My
grandfather had one girl that died in infancy.
Samuel Jeffcoat was from England.
Father was born in Lexington District, South Carolina in 1782.
Moved to Alabama in 1848, died in
Pike County, Alabama in 1857.
My mother was a McAdams, Scotch
Irish from Scotland. She was born March 11, 1801 and died in 1885
in Collin County, Texas. Her father's name was Thomas McAdams. He
had six sons. They were George, Thomas, Robert, Wesley, James and
Epram. He had two daughters, Patient and Elizabeth (my mother).
Father had two wives. By his first
wire he had two boys, Johnson and Allen and four daughters,
Garusha, Patsy, Tally and Harriet.
By his last wife he had eight
sons, Duff, Elijah, Benjamin, George, Jasper, Morgan, William and
Robert. The daughters were Sarah, Elizabeth, Charity, Orra,
Elenair, and Margaret.
I was born October 18, 1834 in
South Carolina, Lexington District on Edisto River. I emigrated to
Alabama in 1849, then to Texas in 1887. In January I was married
to Sarah McAdams in Pike Country, Alabama in 1855.
On April 2, 1862, I joined the
confederate Army - Hillards Legion - captured artillery Company A.
The company divided and we was sharp shooters. Dave Harrell was
captain. We drilled at Montgomery, Alabama, thence Atlanta,
Georgia, thence to Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, thence to Knoxville,
thence to Clinton, Tennessee, thence to Maclamen Cave. There we
had a tilt with the yankees, then into Kentucky with General
Boggs' Army, thence back to Cumberland Gap, thence to Knoxville,
Tennessee, thence to Chickmorge Battlefield on September 1883.
The battle raged for two days, my
company lay on the battlefield till Tuesday - from Thursday. I
helped to fight that battle. The Yankees retreated back to
Knoxville. Longstreet besieged Burnsides army there and Sherman
moved on us and Longstreet retreated.
On the 29th November, I was
captured by Knoxville and imprisoned there for three weeks.
General Longstreet was at Strawberry Plains and we had to go
through the mountains to Lexington, Kentucky on foot. We had corn
issued to us for rations. Some had no shoes or coat (I for one)
and it was freezing weather. Though I was Sergeant, here I was
Captain of one hundred prisoners. We went from there to
Louisville, Kentucky. We were put in prison there.
On the last day of December 1883,
we crossed the Ohio River. The rain was pouring on us and we were
as wet as could be, and a blizzard was raging. They put us in a
box car without any blankets. Many of us still had no shoes or
coats and there was no fire. We had nothing to eat and we were two
days enroute to Rock Island Prison. Then they issued us two days
rations and were six days going there.
On the first day of January 1884
the road was covered with snow. They had to take snow plows to
clean the snow off the tracks. The second day they put us in
coaches with stoves in them.
There were five hundred and ten of
us when they pulled us into Marrietta, Indiana. The churches gave
us good meal. The third day we went on.
We got to Rock Island on the 6th
of January 1864. The wind was sharp and the snow was knee deep.
They put us off the train and kept us until they called five
hundred of our names and we were freezing. Then we went on two
miles to the prison.
As we entered the prison corridor
of one hundred sixty-four barracks box houses, I saw two heaters,
red hot. I thought Eureka, I have found it at last. Some of the
men suffered from their feet and ears being frost bitten. Some of
them were sick, but sympathy ad fled, there was no mercy.
The Mississippi River was all
around us and was frozen so solid that wagons could cross.
Sometimes we could hear the firing of guns, and knew that some
poor prisoner was killed, maybe on his bunk and we had four
blankets, two to sleep on and two to cover with. "Our rations
for three hundred sixty-five days a year consisted of seven or
eight ozs. of bakers bread, meat likewise, and one spoonful of
corn chips per day. We never saw a woman or child from September
1863 to March 1865; you can see what a temper we were in.
In January of 1887 I came to Texas
broke up through the ribs. Again we lived in a log house with dirt
floors and wood chimney. Oh, my, the smoke, but it was all
outdoors!
There were very few people here,
mostly men with two six-shooters on their belts, wearing spurs,
and with lariats on the saddle. The one who could cuss the loudest
was the man.
We had to haul in wagons to market
in Jefferson which was one hundred and fifty miles away. There
were no railroads within a hundred miles.
I was among the first to plant
cotton. Off of six acres of land I paid for one hundred sixty-four
acres where I now live. This was near Blue Ridge, Collin County,
Texas.
I soon caught the attention of the
people where I lived. They sent me as a delegate to the State
Convention as Senator. They also sent me as a delegate to County
and Industrial Conventions many times. When trouble came up I was
called upon to settle it. I never failed them.
I joined the Masonic Lodge in
1869. I was honored many times in that institution. I filled all
the offices in that lodge many times. I joined the Odd Fellows in
1900 and filled positions in that lodge too.
I have been wonderfully blessed in
life through industry and economy. I am above want in the goods of
this life. I have three shares in the bank and two good farms.
I was converted in South Carolina
at Crimms Camp ground in 1848 and joined the Methodist Church
South 87 years ago. I have filled many places, minor ones such as
a delegate to District Conferences and a member of sixty years. I
have prayed in public for years. Now I have written this without
spectacles and I am going into my 81st year - March 15, 1915. I
was born October 16, 1834.
Signed,
George Jeffcoat
*In Dell S. Jeffcoat's book,
"Seed of Jacob" Second edition revised, she
states," This is the most informative article I received
since beginning this research. A voice from a second generation
Jeffcoat born in America.
George, didn't mention his
grandmother as having come from England. I presume she didn't.
Elizabeth McAdams, George's mother
deserves a special place in history. She had the grit and fiber it
took to make a true pioneer. She was just a seventeen year old
from Scotland, daughter of a Methodist preacher when she married
Elijah Jeffcoat, widower with six children, nineteen years her
senior at the age of thirty six. She bore Elijah, also a
Methodist preacher, fifteen children.
When in 1847 Elizabeth's and
Elijah's family; their married children, teenage children, younger
children, the slaves, the family cows, the wash tubs, and all
their belongings loaded the wagon train for Alabama, I have an
idea she was a driver. Most likely slave girls tended the babies.
They may have left several married daughters in Lexington County.
I know for sure Orry Jane was left behind.
Then in 1867 at the age of sixty
six she climbed aboard the wagon train again for the long journey
into Texas. Two of her sons George W. Richardson and R.
"Robert" Ransom; also two grandsons, the sons of Thomas
Duff migrated to Texas. Again she left children and grandchildren
behind.
Texas was Elizabeth's third and
last frontier to conquer. It wasn't easy, as George said,
"again we lived in a log house with dirt floors." She
died eighteen years later and was buried in Snow Hill Cemetery,
Collins County, Texas.
