Isham Hendon

Dedication remarks by Piedmont Charter member Aubrey R. Morris: “It’s no accident that many of the offspring of the HENDONS, especially during the family’s first two hundred years in America, can logically be called the “Give ‘em Hell Hendons.” The Hendons had their American origin in the early 1700s. The family’s progenitor, Josias Hendon, born in England, came to America as an indentured servant, his new home being in the Gunpowder River area, Eleventh District, Baltimore County, Maryland. Josias Hendon, after completing his indenture, about 1722, married Hannah Robinson, daughter of William and Elizabeth Robinson. Thus began our HENDON Family, some offspring of which are present here today, either alive or in spirit. The first family migration Southward from Baltimore County was to the Cape Fear River area of North Carolina. But, for sure, the Hendons definitely have never been gun shy. They're documented as having fought in every war from the Colonial, pre-revolutionary era, through the Revolutionary period, to the present. Their fighting prowess has even been demonstrated in numerous skirmishes with the Indians during the family’s early days in Georgia. These occurred at Olive’s Fort, a neighborhood stockade/blockhouse built by a branch of the Hendon family and located in Cloud’s Creek. Along with my wife, three grandchildren and several Hendon kinfolk, I visited the site just two weeks ago. It's only about a two-hour drive from this spot, between Crawford and Comer, over in a part of original Wilkes, now Oglethorpe County. The first trek to Cloud's Creek in Northeast Georgia, by several entire households within the Hendon Family, was over 215 years ago. It was an adventurous ménage, male and female, young and old. It included horses, cows, pigs, wagons, carts, and all the personal belonging. It came from Wake, Bladen, Anson and surrounding North Carolina counties, and occurred about the year 1780. And that one group of adventurous Georgia-bound pioneers, following a long-standing family custom, included at least a dozen I-sham, or Ish-am Hendons, young and old. On that list were several Revolutionary as well as pre-Revolutionary soldiers. One such Isham Hendon, for example, had been listed as Lieutenant in Field Returns of the Regiment of Militia for Wake County, N. C., at General Musters in 1772 and 1773. In today's fast-developing technology, family members from far and near, including one of my recently discovered Hendon cousins, Mrs. Alice Hughes, of Walnut Grove, have been busy, through the magic of the computer-world, turning abstract names into well -documented, living history. It's great to see Alice here today. She tells me she’s headed to a Hendon Family reunion over in Alabama, also under way this weekend. In closing, I’d like to mention to my fellow compatriots of the Piedmont Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, to other SAR and DAR members and officials, and to my Hendon cousins and other guests present, two other Hendons – a man and a woman. They, like the Hendon we honor here today, had their names etched in Atlanta – and Georgia – history. If you came here this morning by way of Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, you may not be aware that it gets name from the late, great, longtime Atlanta Mayor, William Berry Hartsfield, 1890-1971. Hartsfield’s Hendon connection goes back several generations, from the Hartsfield to Karenhappuck Hendon, whose first marriage was to Anthony Olive, the man who built the previously mentioned Olive’s Fort. However, “Happy” Hendon Olive, who died in 1847, at the ripe old age of 87, must have provided the “happy” disposition often exhibited by her descendant, Mayor Hartsfield. I once literally “felt” the Mayor’s legendary temper. One morning “Wild Bill,” as I called him, without warning, threw a paperweight at me, after I, then a young reporter on the Atlanta Journal, asked what he considered an “unfriendly” question? The flying paperweight brushed my right arm. Hartsfield then began smiling broadly, hugged me, and invited me to have a Coca Cola with him – fresh out of the private cooler supplied Hartsfield by his friend and confidant, Robert Woodruff. The other “historic Hendon.” Who comes to mind, was a female member of the family. Not, like Hartsfield, a big salesman, out front – always in the limelight, pushing Atlanta. But a power, nevertheless, behind the scene. I speak here, of Martha L. (Mattie) Hendon, 1848-1893, daughter of Major James Walton Hendon, of Clarke County, Georgia. Mattie’s father, at age 40, commanded the Clarke County Rifles, Company L, 3rd Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia, during the Civil War. Mattie Hendon, married Dr. George Washington Durham, and became the mother of Georgia Durham. Georgia Durham, with her mother’s fiery Hendon personality - her rigid disposition and knack for having her way, was a daily mentor, the driving force behind her controversial husband, Thomas Edward (Tom) Watson, United States Senator, lawyer-publisher, and Populist. Unlike these individuals, the exploits of the ISHAM HENDOM, being memorialized today at Utoy Cemetery, and the good deeds of his devoted wife, Sarah (Salley) (Murray) Hendon, the first person buried here, are virtually unknown. This Isham and Salley were married in Oglethorpe County, Georgia on August 5, 1803). Most of the remarkable accomplishments, the crowning glories even the notorious reputations of the high and mighty, as well as the exploits of every-day people, go largely un-heralded. Whether in history books, in newspapers, or radio or television, or on monuments or memorials. So, I leave you with just this thought, as I close. Quoting one verse from the great English poet, Thomas Gray, in his “Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard:” “Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness in the desert air.” Isham Hendon served as a Captain in Colonel John Stewart’s Regiment of the Georgia Troops and received a bounty warrant for his services.