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MURRAY COUNTRY FAMILIES

THE BANDY ANCESTRY


The Bandy ancestry originated in England. Richard Bandy came to America, along with his wife, Mahala Jane. Their first child, Thomas, was born June 22, 1748, in Cumberland County, Virginia. Joseph P. "Josiah" Bandy, generation six in this timeline, was born in Kentucky or Tennessee November 7, 1839. (Letters 2, 3).

Upon his discharge from the army, after serving in the Civil War, Joseph "Josiah" Bandy walked from Virginia to Georgia. Passing Greenwood Crossing, on the L & N Railroad at Chickamauga Creek in Catoosa County, he thought it was pretty and peaceful. He would later settle in this area, along with his wife Jane, and build a new home.

Joseph married Mary Jane Bates on January 2, 1866. They had eleven children. Two of their sons died as infants. Joseph and Jane were living in the Conasauga District, Murray County, Georgia when their 3rd Child, Robert H. "Bob" Bandy was born in 1870. (Books 6).

Four of their children, Camilla Bandy (Messimer), Thomas, Lee, and Lon moved to Texas and raised their families there. Tom, Lee, and Lon all owned stores in their hometowns.

William Elbert, Robert H. "Bob," Georgia Bandy (Ernest-Million), Richard, and Aggie Bandy (Skelton) remained in Georgia and Tennessee.

William Elbert, son of Joseph "Josiah" and Jane Bandy, married Laura "Birdie" Cochran in 1889. They lived in Whitfield County, where their eleven children were born. They moved across Sugar Creek into the Little Murray Community in 1914, and built a new house and store.

The children of William Elbert and Laura "Birdie" Bandy living to adulthood: John Robinson, Walter, Pearl (Waters-West) Cecil, Virgil (Morrison), Itzel Hoyt, W. E., and Aurora (Cox). (Letters 1).

Robert "Bob" Bandy son of Joseph "Josiah" and Jane Bandy, moved to Catoosa County in 1897. He married Edith Forsythe, and they had two daughters, Delia and Reo. He married, second, Cora Nance. They had sons, Paul and Kenneth Bandy and daughters, Imogene, Mildred, Robbie and Dorothy Bandy.

Bob was a State Representative; President of Bank of Ringgold; Chairman of the Board of Stewards, Ringgold Methodist Church, and was a prominent farm leader in the campaign to secure Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) energy in its formative stages in late 1935 and 1936.

The TVA facilitated changes were part of President Roosevelt's New Deal package designed to lift the United States out of the Great Depression. Only three or four percent of farms had electricity. Wage scales ranged from Forty cents to one dollar and ten cents a day in rural sections of the Southeastern States. Aside from employment of local residents, people saw the availability of electricity, soil erosion control, forestry control, rural sanitation improvements, and extended telephone service.

Bob increased his property through the years to about one thousand acres. He had five tenant houses, and cotton was the chief money crop, until after World War II. He raised other row crops, as well as livestock and chickens. In addition to many community responsibilities and his large-scale farming operations, Bob built and operated a country grocery store across the road from his home. (Books 6).

Georgia Bandy daughter of Joseph "Josiah" and Jane Bandy, married Columbus Ernest. Their six children were Charlie, Ben, Ed, Joe, C. G., and a daughter Ida Ernest Emerson. After the death of Columbus, Georgia married Mr. Bill Million.

The Joseph "Josiah" Bandy family were living in the area as early as 1873, according to original tax receipts found among Joseph Bandy's papers, which also include envelopes, invoices and other articles. The family was living near Old Fort, Tennessee in 1892. An original tax receipt dated 1907 showing Catoosa County, Georgia, and an envelope addressed to Tunnel Hill, Georgia, were also found. Included in the Joseph Bandy papers was a letter of recommendation dated August 9, 1879, for Joseph Bandy to be "licensed as Exhorter signed on behalf of the 3rd Quarterly Conference, Dalton Circuit, Dalton District, North Georgia so long as his doctrines agree with the Holy Scriptures and this license may be annually renewed by the Quarterly Conference of which he may be a member." Exhorter means "to warn earnestly." The license was renewed on July 23, 1896 and signed by order of the District Conference of the Athens District of Holston. (Records 2). Joseph "Josiah" Bandy died May 5, 1911. His wife, Jane, died January 22, 1911. They are buried at the Old Stone Church Cemetery, near Ringgold, Georgia. (Letters 1).

LITTLE MURRAY MEMORIES...in Stories & Pictures of The Way We Were,

Copyright by Betty Bandy. Used here by permission.


 



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