February 7, 1860
Federal Union
MARRIED, At the residence of H. S. Beman, Esq., Mount Zion, Feb. 2d, 1860, by Rev. Dr. Beman, Orien Fowle, M. D., of Hillsdale, Michigan, to Janet C. McLean, M.D., of Sparta, Ga.

March 6, 1860
Federal Union
  ~excerpt~ Died in Hancock county, on the 10th of February, Sidney Rochella, youngest son of W. H. and M. A. Speight, aged 3 years, 5 months, and 14 days.

March 8, 1860
Daily Enquirer (Columbus)
    Addison Attaway broke the skull of John H. Sanders with a decanter in a bar-room, on the 20th ult. Sanders is the man, it will be remembered, who was the slayer of one of the Gardners, a few years since. Attaway fled from justice and is still at large.
   On the 28th ult., a young girl, aMiss Dickens, an operative in the factory, was accidentally shot by the guard on duty. It appears that the man on guard had been instructed to put out a drunkard who had been trespassing in the factory. He thereupon borrowed a pistol to scare him off, which, on incautiously handling, went off unexpectedly and killed the girl referred to. Southern Recorder.

April 14, 1860
Macon Daily Telegraph
Clinton, April 11th, 1860. Mr. Clisby-Dear Sir: Horatio, a son of F. S. Johnson, of our town, was holding a loaded pistol with the muzzle near his thigh when by accident it was discharged and the contents entered his thigh, severing a large artery, and so great was the loss of blood that he died in abuot a day and a half, from exhaustion. This happened at Mt. Zion, Hancock county, on Saturday, the 7th inst., whiter his father had placed him at school. His remains were brought home and interred here to-day. He was in his sixteenth year, and gave promise of a fine virgorous man. The shock to his father and family is a painfrul and distressing one, and we would tender all our sympathies in this, their bereavement. Friend.

November 26, 1861
Southern Recorder
   Departed this life October 30th, 1861, at her home in Hancock county, Mrs. JANE SMITH, wife of James Smith in the 52nd year of her age. Her sickness was painful and short. She suffered but 4 days and departed from this world of troubles-has now joined the angels inthe world above, which is unknown to us. Her disease was Bilious Colic. She said while on her death bed "I see Jesus, I am going to Heaven." She was born in Baldwin county, Ga., Dec. 16th, 1810. She left 8 children, and a kind and indulgent husband to mourn her departure, but their loss is her eternal gain. She has been a consistent member of Mount Olive Baptist church for the last 28 or 9 years, was a dutiful wife and a kind and indulgent mother. J. W.

January 7, 1862
Southern Recorder
~excerpt
DIED, At Chestnut Grove, in Hancock county, at four o'clock on the morning of the 23d December, 1861, Mrs. FRANCES MASON BONNER,  wife of Colonel John Bonner. Mrs. Bonner was the daughter of George Rives, lately deceased of this county, and was born on the 15th of March, 1810, She was married to Col. Bonner on the 13th of April, 1829. Their union was blessed with but one child-
Wm. Henry Bonner, who married the daughter of Col. Ramsey of Columbia county, and who resides near his father; they have three little daughters, Col. Bonner has been successful in the business of life. He and his son have about them all that comfort and refinement could suggest. To a family so few in numbers and thus happily situte in life, who can estimate the loss, by one fell stroke of death, of the true and devoted wife, the affectionate mother, the fond and doting grand-mother, for such she truly was in all these relations.

February 25, 1862
Southern Recorder
MARRIED, At the residence of the bride's father in Sparta, Ga., Feb, 10th, 1862, by the Rev. A. W. Pitzer, Mr. JAMES M. REID and Miss MARY EMMA SIMPSON, both of Sparta.

February 25, 1862
Southern Recorder
~excerpt~ Mrs LUCY BONNER, relict of Hamilton Bonner, was born January 27th, 1782, in Warren County, N.C., of respectable parentage, being the daughter of William and Mary Green. She was married in the State of her nativity, and shortly afterwards moved with her husband to Hancock county, Ga., where they remained on the same plantation they first settled, until her husband's death, which occurred a few years since. Most of her remaining days she spent with her youngest daughter at White Plains, Green county, Ga., where she died, of Paralysis, February 1st, 1862, aged 80 years and 5 days.

April 16, 1862
Daily Enquirer (Columbus)
~excerpt
Died at his residence near Upatoie, Muscogee county, on the 20th of May, James H. Jones, Esq., aged 84 years."
Native of North Carolina, last 70 years resident of Hancock and Muscogee counties, Georgia. Thirty years he was clerk of the courts of Hancock County. In 1832 he moved to Muscogee Co. "where for the remainder of his life  he was engaged in agricultural pursuits."

May 8, 1862
Southern Recorder
  Miss LIZZIE AMOSS, daughter of Mr. John and Mrs. Eliza Amoss, died at the residence of her father, in Hanock county, on 1st April, 1862, aged 16 years.
 

July 19, 1862
Macon Daily Telegraph
~excerpt
Gun Boat Fund - The Telegraph acknowledges. Mrs. M. J. Minor, ladies of Hancock. $25.00.

August 19, 1862
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
MARRIED
  In Dooly county, at the residence of Col. Jos. D. Lester, by the Rev. Jno. P. Duncan, Judge J. T. B. Turner, of Stewart county, toMrs. Sarah S. Wright, of Hancock county, Ga.

August 23, 1864
Southern Recorder
  Died, at her residence in Hancock county, suddenly, on the morning of the 5th inst., Mrs. ADA SANFORD, at the advanced age of 88 years.

December 7, 1864
Daily Chronicle & Sentinel

Carswell's Brigade - Annexed is a list of the casualties which occurred in Carswell's Brigade, in the battle of Honey Hill, S. C. Nov. 3d

First Regiment, Lieut. Col. T. A. Walton, Commanding
Company A -
Wounded :  T O'Keef, Wilkes county, in back slight; J W Smith, Wilkes county, left shoulder.
Company B -
Wounded: Peter Wright, Columbia county, left thigh; G W Martin, Columbia county, breast slightly;
 Richard Foster, Columbia county, back.
Company C -
 Wounded: Elijah Norman, Wilkes county, right thigh
Company G -
 Wounded: Lieut E A Burgess, Green county, flesh wound in right leg.
Company K -
 Joseph D Byrd, Lincoln county, both feet; Corporal Robt Davy, Lincoln county, right shoulder.

Second Regiment, Col. James Staplton Comd'g
Company G -
 Wounded: Private Jno Tompkins, Jefferson county, face severely; Private J Vining, Jefferson county, right arm;
 Corporal John Barrow, face slightly
Company H -
 Wounded : Private Allen Rountree, Emanuel county, left shoulder.

Third Regiment, Col. L G Johnston, Commanding
Company C-
 Wounded: Private Walter Davis, Hancock county, groin; Lieut A D Butts, Hancock county, left leg.
Company D -
 Killed: Corporal Thos A Orr, Washington county. Wounded: Sergt W H Armstrong, Washington county, left breast;
Private E F Orr, Washington county, left knee.
Company E -
Wounded:  Private J Brown, Hancock county, right arm and shoulder
Company G -
 Wounded: W C Faulkner, Elbert county, left rist.
Company H -
 Wounded: Lieut T T J Fortson. Elbert county, flesh wound in head.
Company K -
Wounded: Private C R Hitchcock, Oglethorpe county, face; Private W J Bell, Oglethrope county, back.
Company B - Killed: Corpl Oliver Griffeth, Madison county.

December 21, 1864
 Chronicle & Sentinel
LETTER FROM MIDDLE GEORGIA
(Special correspondence Chronicle & Sentinel)
High handed proceedings - An outrageous outrage - A second Yankee raid under Confederate authority - The people pillaged and plundered by orders of Confederate offices, etc, etc
Mayfield Depot, Dec 16
On Monday, Dec. 15, the train on the Warrenton and Milledgeville railroad brought up two hundred Yankee prisoners. They had taken the oath and were going on to General Hood's army. They were nearly starved- They said they had no rations for a day and night. The Major in command turned them loose at the depot, and told them to get something to eat. They were off in quick time, and scattered in every direction, killing hogs and going into ladies' houses demanding something to eat. There are still prowling around every farm. Some of them were seen fifteen miles from here. In our opinion they can never be picked up again.
   The Major today has gone to Sparta, fourteen miles from the depot, and the Captain has gone back to Augusta.
    The residents of this section look upon the whole affair as a perfect outrage, and think the matter ought to be investigated. But as it was committed in the name of the Confederacy, we presume it will, like other outrages, be passed over.
  The officer was offered rations for them if he would not disband them. But it appears he preferred to turn then loose among helpless women and children.
A Lady.

March 6, 1865
Macon Daily Telegraph
  ` ~excerpt
 Died on the 27th day of January, near Sparta, Geo., Geo. E. Kelley, age twenty-nine years. Thus another youth fallen; another champion of the great principle of Southern rights, taken from the sphere of his usefulness; another wife and child bereft of their husband and father, and another mother's heart made to "sob a mighty grief."
  The deceased was for several years prior to the war Editor of the Fort Gaines Advertiser. He also was at differnet times Editor of the papers at Tuskeegee and auburn, Ala., but upon the breaking out of the war, enlisted as a private soldier in the 14th Ga. Regiment, in which Regiment he passed through all the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. As a brave chiveric and dauntless soldier he had no equal and at the battle of Cedar Run, was particularly remarked for his dashing glaaantry. He had received a furlough of Indulgence, and was on his way (and within a few miles of his) home when he was overtaken by the grim destroyer.....

July 12, 1865
Macon Daily Telegraph
    The same paper says that Mr. Henry Amos, of Hancock county, was shot in his bed on Tuesday night last. No clue to the murderer has been discovered.

July 21, 1866
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
The Southern Recorder learns that Hon. James S. Thomas, an excellent citizen, an able lawyer, and for some years Judge of the Northern Circuit, died at his residence in Hancock county, on the 3d inst.

July 21, 1866
Macon Telegraph
Dr. J. S. Whitten, a prominent citizen of Hancock county, died on the 5th inst.

July 10, 1868
Georgia Weekly Telegraph
Leroy M. Wiley, the subject of this notice, was born in Hancock county, Georgia, and died at his plantation in Alabama, on the 16th day of April, 1868, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. His father was one of the early settlers of Baldwin county, and died when he was not more than fifteen years old, leaving his mother a widow with six children and with limited means of support. Without education, and thus thrown upon his own resources, he entered the store of the late Farish Carter, in Milledgeville, and by his energy, his faithfulness and activity in business, he soon gained the confidence of all those with whom he came in contact.
  Upon his arrival at manhood, Mr. Wiley entered into business with Thomas W. Baxter, (who had married his eldest sister), and under the name of Wiley and Baxter, and for many years they continued a profitable business in the old store which still stands in Milledgeville, and is known as Wiley & Baxter's corner and belongs to the family.
  After the settlement of Macon, they opened a store on the corner now known as Payne's Drug Store, and owning the entire square, they opened Cotton Avenue. In 1835 Mr. Wiley became associated with the parishes of New York and removed to New York, and established the house of L. M. Wiley & Co., which, under that and other names, continued until he retired from mercantile business, in 1854.
  At the commencement of the war, he promptly removed South, and residing on his farm in Alabama, cast his lot with his section and his friends.
  By his energy and superior skill, he amassed a large fortune, a considerable part of which was lost by the effects of emancipation. Commencing life with a limited education, and without influential friends, and without means, his success may well be posited to as an encouragement to the many toiling, struggling young men who are now commencing life, and ready to be overwhelmed with gloom and despondency. While engaged actively in business, Mr. Wiley was stern and unyielding, and by his strong will generally succeeded in his undertakings. But after his retirement from commercial life, he was affable and eminently social in his habits and disposition. In his intercourse with refined society, nonce could be more courtly in his manners; and in his intercourse with his immediate family, especially with his sisters and nieces, no one was more considerate and affectionate. Two of his sisters having been early left widows in dependent circumstances, he supported them handsomely and contributed to the education of their children. He was never married, and his defects of character were, perhaps, attributable to the fact that he never knew the soothing influence of a wife, or the quiet happiness enjoyed in the bosom of a family.
  Mr. Wiley died of disease of the brain. He was sensible of his condition in the commencement of the disease, and it was painful to notice the struggling of his strong will with the fatal Destroyer. He sank rapidly under it's approaches, and fell quietly asleep under the affectionate ministrations of his nieces and three weeping widowed sisters. 

February 12, 1869
The Southern Christian Advocate
William Stembridge was born in Virginia, but was raised from a small boy in Hancock co., Ga. He joined the church more than 40 years ago and has been a member of Montepelier, in Baldwin co., where he died 14th Jan 1869, aged 72 years. J. V. M. Morris.

June 15, 1869
Daily Columbus Enquirer
ONE MAN KILLED AND TWO WOUNDED IN HANCOCK COUNTY. We learn from the Hancock paper that on last Saturday night, Mr. John Taylor, Superintendent of the Montour Factory was shot and killed by a young man named James Oxford, in the adjoining village of Montour. It seems (from the evidence given on the inquest) that Oxford was fiddling near the residence of Mr. Taylor, who went out to quiet the disturbance. After a little altercation between them, Taylor gave Oxford a punch in the breast, whereupon Oxford drew a pistol. Taylor remarked "Oh, you have a pistol and unwittingly made at him again, whether as an assailant or take the pistol from him, witness could not say. Oxford, it seems, took it seriously, and shot him in the breast; Taylor called for his step-son, young Farrish, to defend him, as he was shot. He immediately replied by shooting Oxford just above the heart, the ball fracturing a rib and glancing round, lodging in the back. Oxford returned the fire, shooting Farrish in the abdomen, just above the hip  - the ball passing through without injuring the vicara. Oxford and Farish are both likely to recover, the former being put in jail until well enough to stand his trial for commitment.
  Mr. Taylor died of his wounds on Sunday evening. Augusta Chron.
See October 23, 1869
 

June 25, 1869
The Georgia Weekly Telegraph
The Fight in Sparta
  The Chronicle and Sentinel gives the following report of the row in Sparta last Tuesday:
  It appears that on last Tuesday afternoon Ames Circus was performing near the depot of the Macon & Augusta Railroad, in the town of Sparta, and of course, a large crowd of negroes had come in from the country to witness the exhibition. Among others who were attracted to the place, was a negro man named Washington Pierson, a notorious scoundrel and desperado, who has for some time past been known as the ringleader in nearly every act of rascality committed in Hancock county, and another negro named Eli Barnes, the colored Representative in the Legislature from that county, who was expelled last year, who is also reported to be a bold, turbulent incendiary, and a constant stirrer-up of strife between the white and colored races. The circus exhibition opened at two o'clock in the afternoon, an the canvas was soon filled with a large crowd of both white people and negroes. Two hours later, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a crowd of negroes, in which both Barnes and Pierson, assembled outside of the canvass, when the latter got into an altercation with two white men standing near. Some words passed between the parties when Pierson pronounced one of the white men to be a G-d d-d liar. At this the man drew his pistol and fired, the ball penetrating the heart of Pierson killing him instantly. Upon seeing the fall of their leader the negroes fired a volley into the two whites but id not execution. A ball, however, from one of their pistols struck a negro named Marshall, who happened to be in the way, in the abdomen, inflicted a mortal wound. The ball which struck Marshall was supposed to have come from a pistol held in the hands of Eli Barnes, the expelled negro Representative. The white men, as soon as Pierson fell, fled from Sparta into the county, pursued by the negroes. The pursuit had not been conducted a very great distance when, it is said, the white men rallied and fired a volley into the pursuers, which, though no one was injured, caused the negroes, in turn to take to their heels.
  Soon after the negroes were killed, Mr. Rogers, the Sheriff of the county, summoned a posse comitatus of citizens and went out to arrest the supposed guilty parties. This posse was still out when our informant left Sparta yesterday morning. Our informant also states that "Rev."  Wm. Henry Harrison, another expelled negro member of the Legislature from Hancock county, left yesterday for Atlanta. Of course, he was the bearer of dispatches to Bullock, and we may look out for another dispatch to the Radical journals North and West.
See October 23, 1869

July 9, 1869
Georgia Weekly Telegraph
Uriah G. Buckner died in Sparta on the 29th ult., and was buried with Masonic honors.

October 20, 1869
Atlanta Constitution
Alfred Cooper, (colored) found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Fourteen of the colored Ku Klux, charged with assault with intent to murder James Marchman, found guilty. C. S. DuBose admitted to the bar. Hancock Court adjourned until fourth Monday in November - Hancock Journal.

October 23, 1869
Daily Columbus Enquirer
THE KU KLUX - RESCUE OF OXFORD  - On Wednesday night last, between the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock, a band of armed men, disguised, about sixty in number, entered our town, sought the jail first, and then the residence of the sheriff and jailor of Hancock county, for the avowed purpose of taking possession of the person of James Oxford, a prisoner in the county jail, charged with the murder of Capt. John Taylor. They first went to the jail and demanded the key of Mr. Harbin, who was in charge of the guard on duty around the jail. Being told that Mr. Rogers had the key at his residence, they peremptorily demanded that he (Mr. Harbin should conduct them to Mr. Roger's residence, and forced him to obey. - On arriving at Mr. Rogers house, they surrounded it, and called for the sheriff. Mr. Rogers opened his front door and found several pistols presented towards the door, and asked the parties what they wanted, when they quietly informed him that they had come for the jail key. Mr. Rogers remonstrated, but to no effect. - They demanded it in unmeasured terms, assuring him that they would have it, regardless of consequences, admitting, at the same time, that they knew it was his duty to refuse it, but insisting that he must go with them to the jail. Mr. Rogers, finding himself overwhelmed by numbers, told them where the key was rather than have them search his house and distress his sick family.
  When they got the key they surrounded  Mr. Rogers, and in that position marched to the jail. When at the jail door they told Mr. Rogers that they had come to relieve him of one his prisoners (Oxford), and that they would not molest any other prisoner or any civil person whatever, but assuring him that they would make such disposition of Oxford should forever relieve Hancock county and the citizens of his presence - imitating that they were going to kill him as soon as they got out of the town. The opened the door, took Oxford out, and retired in the direction of Sandersville or the Shoals of Ogeeches. And thus ended the first visit of the Ku Klux to Sparta.
  The sheriff is wholly blameless, as resistance would have been foolish. Hancock Journal.

October 29, 1869
Georgia Weekly Telegraph
Hancock Superior Court. - From the Journal we learn that Judge Andrews passed sentence on all the convicted criminals at the recent term of Hancock Superior Court, as follows: On Alfred Cooper, found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, ten years imprisonment in the penitentiary; on the fourteen negroes found guilt of assault with intent to murder, four years; on Thomas O. Jackson, two years

October 27, 1869
Atlanta Constitution
   Hancock Court adjourned to 4th Monday in November. Alfred Cooper, voluntary manslaughter, sentenced to ten years in the Penitentiary; fourteen Negroes, assault with intent to murder, four years; Thomas O. Jackson, rape, two years. Grand Jury condemned indiscriminate use of pardoning power. Hancock Journal.