Wesley family papers

Collection

Identifier: 0000-0087M

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Collection consists of Gwinnett County, Georgia documents, including four land lottery grants, 1821 - 1822; 18 deeds, 1822 - 1881; and mixed land records and other papers, 1852 - 1886, which relate primarily to Rusha Wesley's (daughter-in-law to Pulaski and Louisa Wesley and wife of Carl Wesley) ancestors who were farmers, slave owners, and land speculators. The records document the changing ownership and value of four lots located in the Fourth Land District of Walton County, Georgia (now Gwinnett County), which belonged at various times to members of the Echles (Echols), Hawthorn(e), Weaver, Doby, Clay, and Wesley families.

Dates

1821 - 1886 and n.d.

Creator

Wesley family (Family)

Biographical / Historical

The papers were probably collected by the daughter of Pulaski Judge Wesley (1845 - 1916) and Louisa Elizabeth Hawthorne (1851 - 1925). Louisa's parents were Terrell Constantine Hawthorne (1829 - 1856) and Susan Laura Echols. Terrell was the son of James Hawthorne (d. 1847) and Louisa Rutledge, who settled in Gwinnett County, Georgia, in 1832. Susan married second, ca. 1861, Berry B. Doby. Her parents were Eliza Griffin Paxon and Robert B. Echles (1794 - 1861) who married in 1821 and also settled in Gwinnett. Their son, John W. D. Echles, married Mary Clay, was an inventor, and lived in Jackson County, Georgia. By 1880 Pulaski Wesley and his family had moved to DeKalb County, Georgia and unto Fulton County, Georgia by 1910 before his Pulaski's death in 1916 (1880, 1900, and 1910 U.S. Census for Georgia). Louisa and her children lived in Fulton County until Louisa's death in 1925 (1920 U.S. Census for Georgia and 1925 Georgia death certificate). After 1925, the majority of the of Pulaski and Louisa Wesley's children stayed in Fulton County, Georgia (later U.S. Census records for Georgia).