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WILLIAM VARNER
BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY
(1793-1870)
Macon County, Alabama
William Varner was born 1793 in Decatur, Georgia and died in 1870 in Macon County, Alabama. He was the second son of George Varner and Elizabeth Donaldson. George Varner married Elizabeth around 1788. He was an Irishman from Dublin, Ireland while Elizabeth was of Scotish descent.
William Varner married late in life at age 40, Sabrina Watson, daughter of Douglas Watson of Georgia. William and Sabrina resided in Monroe County, Georgia below Forsyth about 20 miles from Macon. They had the following nine children:
1.Mary Ann Elizabeth Varner (1833-1857); married William B. Bowen Oc.t 25, 1853
2.William Douglas Varner (1835-1855) After he returned home from college he died on Typhoid July 1855.
3.James Alexander Varner ( 1839-1860); went to University of Virginia – died 21st year of age Jan. 13, 1860.
4.Thomas Jefferson Varner (1841-1870); went to Franklin College, and Univertsity of Georgia
5.Edward Terry Varner (1843-1918): married Carrie Ligon (1847-1871) went to Franklin College an dUniversity of Georgia.
6.Louisa Sabrina Varner (1845-1916): finished Nashville Old Female Academy Feb. 1862 married James M. Alexander – They had a son Edward Robert Alexander who lived in the Varner-Alexander house in Macon County, Alabama.
7.Janie Varner (1845-1867); married Hugh M. Keene. She went to LaGrange and finished July 5, 1854 and died in 1857.
8.Robert Roland Varner (1850-1908); went ot Washington and Lee University in Virginia. He married Jan 3, 1883 to Cora Evans (1865-1937) of Cedartown, Georgia. Her parents were Holden-Evans and his wife Mattie Allen from Greenville, Butler County, Alabama. They moved to Florida where he lived for 10 years. They had a son William Varner born July 20, 1888 in Bonify County, Holmes, FL. He was Probate Judge in Macon County, Alabama and died Feb. 23, 1966. Judge Varner married Georgia Thomas March 22, 1916. She was the daughter of Judge William H. Thomas and his wife Lulu McCurdy of Lowndesborough, Alabama.
9.Susanna Corrine Varner, (1852-May, 1853)
All the children were sent to a country school then to college. The country school house was half a mile from their home so William had a roadway cut through the woods for them. Varner-Alexander records in Montgomery Archives include the following journal...
“In 1847 sister Lizzie went to the Baptist College at LaGrange, Georgia, to school and remained four years until she graduated. Brother William went to Franklin College, now the University of Georgia at Athens. Afterward he finished his law course at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sis Janie went to LaGrange, finished July 4, 1854. Brother Jimmie went to the University of Virginia. Brothers Tom and Ed went to the Franklin College, University of Georgia. Bob went to Washington and Lee University, Virginia, while General Robert E. Lee was its president and Stonewall Jackson a professor there. I finished school at Nashville, Tennessee, at the old Female Academy, which was used by the Federals during the War Between the States as a Post House. I left there on the last train which came south while the Confederates held Nashville. The Federal army captured Fort Donaldson the morning I left, Feb. 14, 1862..... " My mother's health began to fail in 1853. During the spring she contacted a cold which caused congestion of the lungs of which she died March 22, 1853. All her children were present: Sis Janie went home from LaGrange, brother William from college at Athens, Georgia, her father grandpa Watson, Uncle William, and Aunt Betty Jane (her brother and sister), Aunt Janie (my father's sister), and a neighbor Mrs. Colton. Mother asked my father to send for Mr. Colton that he might see how a Christian could die. Mr. Colton was thought to be an atheist. Mother was buried a short distance from the house in the fruit orchard. Baby sister Corrine was buried beside her. I was only seven years old and Brother Bob three when our mother died. In the last of that year, December, we moved to Tuskegee, Alabama. Father had large landed interests in Barbour County and wished to live in an educational center and be near his farms. Tuskegee was chosen for the home, 40 to 50 miles from the plantations. There were fine schools, fine social advantages, and healthful climate. While the home in which we now live was being built, we bought and occupied the house now owned by William Preer?. We lived there two years.”
William moved his family to Alabama after his wife died March 22, 1853. and built a large plantation in Tuskegee where he died in 1870.
William owned many slaves and records in the Varner-Alexander collection in Montgomery archives include the following.
Bill of sale for slaves, 21st of June, 1830. Received of William Varner $215 for the purchase of a negro woman named Grace aged 34 years and her child named Winey aged two years. Headed Norfolk but does not identify a state.
Bill of sale from William Varner. Feb. 1, 1864, he sold a negro man named Hiram, 30 years old, 5 ft. 6 inches tall, 160 lbs. Value $4100. Color is copper. Tuskegee, Alabama, enrolling office is Barbour County.
Bill of sale for negroes to William Varner from James Bacon from Worcester County, Maryland. William Varner, Jones County, State of Georgia, "my two negro girls, Leah and Barbary, aged about 10 and about 12, of dark complexions." Amount is $325. Dated Feb. 27, 1826.
SOURCES
Varner-Alexander collection in Montgomery archives
Ancestry.com |
