The Haddocks of Wiregrass
“You had to be strong and tough just to hang on in those days. Those
that weren’t didn’t survive. We didn’t have a lot, but we shared what
we had with each other. Your roots had to be deep in the land and in
your kin to make it when times were bad. I guess we were kind of like
that old wiregrass, at least that’s what we called it then, that grew
near our house out at Kings Ferry. It was the toughest grass I ever
saw. It could live through the driest summer. And, once it had taken
root, it would take the whole Yankee Army to dig it up again.”
A Florida Pioneer Family
by
Tracy D. Connors
The story of the Florida's pioneer Haddock Family begins in the
mid-1700's in North Carolina. How they and other pioneer familes to
whom
they are closely related--Vanzant, Libby, Carleton, Braddock, and
Higgenbotham--made their way from North Carolina to take up new lives
in then Spanish Florida is explained in the following pages.
The history of these families is offered as a loving and
respectful tribute by this seventh generation Floridian to those of his
family who arrived in North Florida when it was truly wilderness to
carve out new lives.
This
history should be considered incomplete. There will be other
visitors with different or additional information on this story and
these ancestors. If you would like to post your materials--text
and/or images--on the BelleAire Press web site with your by-line,
please contact the press using the contact link above. They would
love to hear from you.
In coming weeks and months, this
on-going story will surely be revised and expanded to become the much
more complete, more accurate chronicle intended by this author.
The Haddock Family moved into Nassau County, Florida shortly after 1800, and settled in and near Kings Ferry, Florida. Near the end of the 19th century, Kings Ferry was described by the Nassau County directory as "on the St. Marys River and branch railroad (lumbermen's) from Savannah, Florida and Western Railroad at Hilliard. Two hours' ride from Jacksonville; fare: $2. Steamer to Fernandina, Tuesday and Fridays; fare: $1.50. There are three churches: Methodist Episcopal, Rev. W. R. Johnson; Baptist, Rev. A. A. Andrews; American Methodist Episcopal, Rev. Mr. Elliott. Among the owners of large saw-mills in this vicinity are Messrs. J. Mizell & Bros., T.A. Davis & Bro., and Hilliard & Bailey. Mr. Ga. Mallette is principal of the white school, R. A. Flair of the colored. The present (1884) populaton is about 800. E.S. King, postmaster."
Kings Ferry, Florida: Then and Now Click here to take a video tour of historic Kings Ferry, Florida, a vanished Florida lumber town on the south bank of the St. Marys River in northeast Florida. The video tour includes historic photographs combined with contemporary video that help tell the story of this once thriving little inland port that shipped lumber around the world. Views include the St. Marys River, Center Street circa 1910, the Daniel J. Connors home, Kings Ferry School, the river packet Hildegarde, Kings Ferry Cemetery, Haddock Cemetery and Brickyard Cemetery.
[New] Take a video tour of historic Kings Ferry, Florida, a once thriving lumber town on the St. Marys River.
Haddock family homestead photograph
Packet steamer Hildegarde photograph
The Haddocks of Wiregrass
Haddock Family Gathering - 1909
Haddock Family Reunion - 1928
Children of Rufus and Mary Jane Haddock
Eva May Haddock Connors
The Great Sweet Potato Nose Bash
The Connors Family of Kings Ferry
Judge Daniel John (Dümer) Connors
Julia Victoria Haddock Connors
Children of Daniel J. Connors and Julia Victoria Haddock Connors
1st Lt. Archibald Haddock Connors, Jr., USAF
Christopher Columbus Connors
Ruth Connors Biddy
Sally Connors Ward
Odyssey from Uschlag...the story of the Dümer Family arrival in America
Epilogue
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