Charles Averett was also known as Charles Averitt Averett.
3 He. Charles Averett was born in Georgia about 1780.
1809 Amite Co Mississippi was created from Wilkinson County
The article below says that they left Houston County, Georgia about 1810 (age 30) and his brother was James. NOTE: Houston Co was not created until 1821 so this should have said, 'the area that was to become Houston Co'.. Written and submitted by Claude B. Slaton,Baker, La. Found on internet.
This unsettled and potentially dangerous country was the destination of our progenitor, Charles Averett. The name was spelled 'Everett' in most of the older records, but by the decade of the 1850s our branch of the family had settled on 'Averett'.
Charles' first cousin, Robert Furlow, traveled with him to Amite County from Houston County, Georgia. They left Georgia in January,1810, and arrived in the Mississippi Territory in early summer.
Charles left behind his brother, James Everett, in Houston County, awealthy cotton plantation owner.
Robert Furlow's name appears in land records as much as three years before this, so he may have been the 'family scout'.
On August 23, 1810, Charles Averett was married to Catherine Rentz, known as 'Caty' to her family and friends. She was the daughter ofJohn and Sarah Rentz. John Rentz was a Revolutionary War veteran, andlater a veteran of the West Florida Rebellion and the War of 1812.
Charles and Caty were living in the southern part of present-day Amite County, not far from the Spanish (Louisiana) border, when resentment against the Spanish flared into the West Florida Rebellion, resulting in the military capture of the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge. Among the hastily-assembled troops that captured the fort were a group of cavalry under the leadership of a prominent resident of St.Francisville, Llewellyn Coleville Griffith. His troop of 'Mounted Riflemen' contained Charles Averett, his father-in-law John Rentz, and his brothers-in-law, Lewis Harrell and his brothers and their father, Hezikiah Harrell. The Harrells were another family originally from South Carolina who settled first in Georgia and then in Amite County.They later moved to East Feliciana Parish, La. The leader of Griffith's Riflemen was Llewellyn Coleville Griffith. He recruited men from all over the area to ride to Baton Rouge under the command of Gen. Philemon Thomas and free the Florida Parishes from Spanish ownership and create the short-lived Republic of West Florida. Theyconsisted of about 78 riders. Charles apparently returned home to Caty and farmed after his adventure, but several years later Griffith's Mounted Riflemen were again called upon to defend their homes, this time from the British invasion of New Orleans at the end of the War of1812.
Capt. Griffith and his men were at Chalmette with Gen. Andrew Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans. They served from October 29, 1814,until March 24, 1815, and saw action several times, the most intense during the night battle of December 23, 1814, when they were in advance of Hind's Battalion and the 44th U.S. Infantry.
Charles and Caty Averett had three children that I have been able to identify in available records.
The oldest, Turner A. Averett, was born between 1811 and 1820. He married, about 1840, to Lewis Harrell's sister, Mary Harrell,and they had Jared, Aislee, and Turner C. Averett. Of these three children of Turner and Mary, I have only been able to locate records on only one--Aislee Averett, who married Langdon T. Methvin in St. Helena Parish on December28, 1858. Turner A. Averett died prior to January19, 1852. Turner A. Averett's widow, Mary Harrell Averett, later moveto Livingston Parish and was one of the three wives of Andrew Wells of Bayou Barbary.
The next oldest child was Virlinda Averett. Virlinda was married to Lewis Harrell in East Feliciana Parish on July 28, 1836. The third child of Charles and Caty Averett was born about 1825 in Amite County and was named for his father's cavalry commander, Capt. (later Judge)Llewellyn C. Griffith.
Llewellyn Griffith Averett was a young child when his father Charles died (between 1825 and 1830). After Charles' death, his widow Catherine and their children, along with Lewis and Virlinda Harrell,moved from their homes and settled on the bank of Colyell Bay in Livingston Parish, La., between 1836 and 1840, near where the Colyell Baptist Church stands today, and not far from the little community of Frost.
Living near them on Colyell Bay was an immigrant from Lawrence County,Mississippi, named Clarkston Edwards, and his wife Celia. Clarkston was born about 1791 in South Carolina, and had also served in the Warof 1812 in Capt. Peter Barnett's Company of Mississippi TerritoryMilitia, commanded by Lt. Col. Peter Perkins. They had nine childrenborn between 1824 and 1840, one of whom was a girl, the second oldest child, named Mary C. Edwards.
Llewellyn Averett and Mary C. Edwards were married in Livingston Parish about 1846. Their son, John Rentz Averett (named for hisgreat-grandfather) was born November 22, 1852, and married a daughter of Andrew Wells and Margany Sides, Martha Jane Wells. Llewellyn and Mary's marriage record was lost in the Livingston Courthouse fire of1875. When Llewellyn Averett's brother, Turner A. Averett, died about1852, Llewellyn made a trip up to Clinton to try to help settle his estate. Turner left his widow, Mary Harrell, and their three small children in poor circumstances, unable to support them selves. He petitioned the court to make him administrator of his brother'sestate, but objections were raised by two of Mary's brothers, Samuel and Benjamin F. Harrell. Llewellyn was trying to see to it that his brother's children would receive their fair portion of the estate of James Averett, Llewellyn and Turner's uncle in Houston County, Ga.,who had died about this time and had left Turner and his children $5,000. After some legal jousting, the matter was finally settled to everyone's satisfaction, and it was probably at this time that Mary Harrell Averett came to Livingston Parish and later married Andrew Wells.
Several miles away from the Colyell Bay community was another group of settlers trying to make a living cutting cypress trees out of the swamps around Port Vincent and French Settlement. Four brothers and a sister named Wells had floated down the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers about 1847 from Jackson County, Alabama, and made their home on the east bank of Bayou Barbary. Elevated slightly abovethe swamp surrounding it, their homestead was called Wells Island.Andrew, George, Jeremiah, Asa Perry, and Mary Wells carved a home out of the swampy country. This kind of life was apparently not to the liking of all of them, however, because later Asa and Jeremiah moved back to Alabama. Their wanderlust never completely left them, though,because Asa later moved to Texas and Jeremiah to Missouri. Their sister Mary became sick and died unmarried about 1850. George andAndrew remained, and before long Andrew met and fell in love with the widow of Turner Averett, Mary Harrell. I have not found any evidenceof children of this marriage, and Mary died not long afterward. George Wells remarried about 1850 to another daughter of Clarkston Edwards, Sarah, and had three children. Andrew remarried September 17, 1854, to Margany Ann Sides Sweeney, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Nordon and her murdered husband, James Sides. Margany was the widow of Hampton Sweeney, by whom she only had one child, a daughter Elizabeth Sweeney.Andrew and Margany had six children of their own (the third oldest, as mentioned before, was Martha Jane Wells, who married January 10, 1878,to John Rentz Averett), and raised the three children of Andrew's brother George Wells after the death of Sarah Edwards Wells in 1860,and George's death in 1865. Tradition in the Wells family is that Andrew and George participated in a defense of Donaldsonville from an attack by Yankee soldiers during the War Between the States. George is said to have been wounded in the leg and died on a plantation in Ascension Parish. After Mary Harrell Averett Wells died, it is believed that Turner A. Averett's three children went to live with their Harrell cousins in East Feliciana or St. Helena Parish. He, son of
Henry Averett and
Elizabeth Abingdon, was born in 1784 in North Carolina
G.
1,1 Baldwin Co GA was formed in May 11,1803 from Creek Indian lands. Additional Creek Indian land was added in Jun 26 1806. Land from Hancock was added in 1807 and from Washington in 1812 and 1826. Baldwin lost land in 1807 to Jones, Morgan, Putnam, and the first Randolph Co(now Jasper).
4 Jones Co GA was formed in Dec 10,1807 from Baldwin Co. Land was added in 1810 from Putnam Co.
4 Charles lived in Jones Co, GA
G+, in 1807.
In 1808 in Jones Co, GA
G+, Charles Averett. witnessed a deed.
5 About 1810 [p1] moved from [m1] to [l]. [m2].
On 18 January 1810 in Georgia
G, Charles Averett. Robert Furlow with a negro girl and Charles Averitt were issued a passport to travel through the Creek Nation of Indians.
3 Charles Averett married
Catherine Rentz, daughter of
John Rentz and
Sarah Morgan, on 23 August 1810.
Charles lived in Amite Co, Mississippi
G, in 1820. Charles Everett, males 1<10, 2 26-45; females 3<10, 1 16-26.
2 Charles Averett died in 1830 in Amite Co, Mississippi
G.
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