Prof. William Green Avera (b. 1855, Clinch Co., GA) descended from a distinguished line of Georgia pioneers. His great-grandfather, Moore Avera, of Welsh ancestry, migrated from Robeson Co., NC, to Wilkinson Co., GA, where he farmed and raised livestock. His grandfather, Daniel Avera, moved to Lowndes Co. in 1845, later settling in Clinch Co. near the Okefenokee Swamp. Prof. Avera’s father, Stephen Willis Avera (b. 1836), served in the Confederate Army before resuming farming. His mother, Martha Elizabeth Aikins, was the daughter of William Green and Winnie Ann (Moore) Aikins. Through two marriages, Avera’s lineage extended through multiple generations of educators and farmers in Berrien Co. and beyond.
The career of a man who for the greater part of a lifetime has been identified with the training and education of the youth is always one of the most valuable assets of a community. Probably no educator in south Georgia has been so long or so closely connected with educational progress and the practical work of the schools as the present superintendent of the Berrien County schools, Prof. William Green Avera. He belongs to a family of pioneer Georgians and was born on a farm in Clinch County, the 1st of August, 1855.
His great-grandfather, Moore Avera, of Welsh ancestry, was born in Robeson County, North Carolina, and after arriving at mature years emigrated to Georgia, making the journey with his private conveyance and becoming a pioneer settler of Wilkinson County. There he bought land and was engaged in farming and stock raising until his death.
Daniel Avera, son of this pioneer and grandfather of Professor Avera, was a native of Wilkinson County, was reared on a farm, and in 1845 moved from that locality into south Georgia, establishing the name and family fortunes in Lowndes County. It may be remembered that all of south Georgia was then sparsely settled, much of the land still in state ownership and its value counted in cents rather than dollars per acre. The grandfather’s purchase of land was near what was then the center of Lowndes County, the area of which has since been materially reduced by the organization of other counties. As railroads and market towns had not yet become features of this part of Georgia, the planters took their surplus products to the St. Mary’s River or to the gulf ports. In 1858 the grandfather, having sold his possessions in Berrien County (Berrien having been organized in 1856), moved to the southern part of Clinch County, where he engaged in cattle grazing on the borders of the Okefenokee Swamp and lived in that neighborhood until his death at the age of eighty. The maiden name of his wife was Tabitha Cook, and she was a native of Wilkinson County, and she also reached the age of eighty years. Their ten children were named Cynthia, Nancy, William M., Stephen W., Elizabeth, Rebecca J., Mary Ann, Sally, John R., and Zanie.
Stephen Willis Avera, the father, was born in Wilkinson County, January 5, 1836, was reared on the farm and trained in its pursuits, and after his marriage settled in the western part of Clinch County, where he resided until 1856, and then came to Berrien County, which had just been organized that year. During the war he enlisted and became a soldier of Company E of the Fifty-fourth Georgia Infantry. His command joined the western army under Generals Joseph E. Johnston and Hood, and stubbornly resisted Sherman’s advance all the way from Dalton to Atlanta. After the fall of the latter city, he went to Hood’s army, participating in the battles at Jonesboro, Franklin, Murfreesboro, and Nashville, and after the last-named engagement he was sent home on detached duty, the war closing before his recall to the front.
Laying aside the musket, he again put his hand to the plow and was engaged in farming in Berrien County until 1887, when he sold out and bought a farm in Colquitt County which he still occupies, having reached the good old age of seventy-six years. He married Martha Elizabeth Aikins, who was born in Clinch County, a daughter of William Green and Winnie Ann (Moore) Aikins. Stephen W. Avera and wife reared eleven children, whose names are William Green, Winnie Ann, Polly Ann, Sarah O’Neal, Daniel M., Lyman H., Phebe V., Lou, Junius H., Cordelia, and Martha.
Reared in a good home and trained to habits of industry, William G. Avera early manifested special inclination for study and the pursuit of knowledge and made the best of his early opportunities of schooling. He has been a lifelong student, and when he was eighteen, he was entrusted with his first school, located three miles east of Nashville. For thirty-three years, an entire generation, he was in the active work of the schoolroom, and he taught children and children’s children during that time. The aggregate length of his service out of those thirty-three years was twenty-five full years, a third of a long lifetime. In 1907 Professor Avera was elected superintendent of the Berrien County schools, and by re-elections has since served continuously in that office. His administration has been marked by many improvements in the county educational system.
In 1877 Professor Avera was united in marriage with Miss Eliza J. Simians. Mrs. Avera was born in Berrien County, daughter of Abner and Frances (Sutton) Simians. She died at Sparks in 1905. In 1911 Professor Avera married Margaret McMillan, a native of Berrien County and daughter of Randall McMillan. The following children were born to Professor Avera by his first marriage, namely: Simian W., Marcus D., Bryant F., Aaron G., Alice J., Homer C., Abner J., Willis M., Lona, and Lula. Marcus D., Homer C., Abner J., and Lula are now deceased. Aaron G. married Fannie Key, now deceased, and has one son, William. Simian W. married Annie Young and has a daughter named Georgia. Bryant F. married Mary Patton. Alice J. is the wife of William T. Parr and has four children, J. W., Stella, Saren, and Gladys. Lona married Austin Avera, son of I. C. Avera, sheriff of Berrien County.
In 1878 Professor Avera settled on a farm eight miles southeast of Nashville, and that was the home of his family until 1904, when it was temporarily removed to Sparks that the children might have the benefit of the superior educational advantages available in the Sparks Collegiate Institute there. Prof. Avera’s home in 1913 was at Nashville, the county seat of Berrien County. He still owns the old home where all of his children were born and reared, and where his beloved deceased wife and children are buried. Sacred is the memory of this home to the man who has given the best years of his life to the educational and moral upbuilding of this section of Georgia.
Professor Avera and wife are members of the Primitive Baptist Church, and in politics, he is a Democrat.
Source
Harden, William, History of Savannah and South Georgia, vol 2, p. 974-976, Chicago and New York : Lewis Publishing Company, 1913.