Legacy of the Sacred Harp

Chapter 5. Revelations—Settlement of the Will

Legacy of the Sacred Harp 48 Chapter 5 Revelations—Settlement of the Will marriaGe records at the courthouse revealed that Aaron David Dumas and Winnie Collier were married in January of 1847 in a ceremony performed by his brother, edmund Dumas, pastor of Union Primitive Baptist Church. I wondered about the young wife Davie left behind on his adventure to California, and I turned again to Carine for answers. “I’ve been imagining,” I began, “what I would have done if my husband had abandoned me back in the 1800s? That’s really what we’re talking about, you know. Winnie couldn’t simply go out and get a job back then. I think she might have gone home to her parents. One news story said they had two children who died before reaching their first birthday. Where should I begin looking for them?” “Why, that’s easy. You’re right there in Atlanta, the state capital; the Georgia State Archives are right at your fingertips. You’ll need to find the 1850 census. If you find Winnie Collier, you’ll find any children they had. The census is about the only place I know to find anything at all about a child—unless there’s a gravestone somewhere. If an infant died, the matter was never discussed publicly in those days as the subject was too intimate; it was a personal, private matter.” “And losing a child wasn’t uncommon back then, was it? It must have been even more painful than today when we can grieve openly.” I suddenly remembered the tragic death of Carine’s son and caught my breath. “Oh, Carine, I’m sorry. It was thoughtless of me to speak of losing a child.” “I don’t avoid the subject. I’ve found it to be a comfort when others acknowledge my loss, and I agree that perhaps Winnie’s sorrow was especially hard to bear, suppressed as if it never happened.” “Why would Davie leave her at such a difficult time? Did he try to comfort her somehow? Maybe she didn’t want to get pregnant again.” “Well, pregnancy was virtually synonymous with marriage,” Carine said. “Maybe Davie Dumas didn’t want to be married in the first place. He might have been ‘encouraged’ with a shotgun wedding.” 49 Carine, softening my cynicism, said, “We’ll never know. We can only assume that on that winter day in 1847, they both had hopes for happiness like any other couple who makes a commitment based on their love and desire for each other.” “Do you suppose Davie left because of alienation within the family? We already suspect that his father, Benjamin Franklin Dumas, was unhappy with him about something of critical importance.” “We could speculate anything,” Carine said. “However, you first need to establish some facts. Find her parents. Your assumption that Winnie went home to her folks is a fairly safe guess.” “They might have lived a long way off.” “Then you’re out of luck, though it’s more likely that they were neighbors. Young people didn’t have many opportunities to meet prospective mates from too great a distance. You might also check for records of Winnie’s family in the counties adjacent to Monroe County. And you could try to find out something about the old Union Primitive Baptist Church. There might be some helpful information in the church minutes.” “Minutes? Would they keep records back that far?” “I have copies of the minutes from Shady Grove Baptist Church all the way back to when it was first organized,” Carine said. “That’s roughly the same time frame. Make a list and start looking with an open mind.” Because Georgia was a major stage in the westward migration of America, there is always a full house of genealogy seekers at the State Archives, a large utilitarian building in the shadow of the gold-domed Georgia capitol. And as soon as I learned how to access microfiche records, I began combing the 1850 census for Dumas and Collier. There was no evidence of Winnie’s whereabouts in Monroe County, but in the adjacent 1850 Pike County census, in household No. 791, I found: Randolph H. Collier, age seventy-one, male; Nancy Collier, age fiftyfive , female; and Winnie Dumas, age twenty-four, female. So Winnie did go home to her folks, but there were no other family members listed—no children. The compilation continued with the unrelated household No. 792. I felt a...