FRANKLIN COUNTY, GA - BIOS Sarah T. Westbrook Bell

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by: Tricia Westbrook" <twestbrook@alltel.net>

Table of Contents page:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/franklin.htm
Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm

Sarah's Story
By Bill Bell

her great grandson

On September 1, 1862, William J. Bell returned home from the
Civil War to his wife Sarah and their six children. Ravaged by
typhoid fever from his service in Savannah under Robert E. Lee,
he was furloughed home on August 20, 1862 to spend his last
days with his family. He died on September 5, 1862 leaving his
wife Sarah to raise their six children alone at 40.[1]

Sarah was born Sarah T. Westbrook sometime between 1818 and
1822,1 daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Allen Westbrook.[2],[3]
She was one of nine children raised on the farm in Franklin
County, GA. Her grandparents Stephen and Anphilady Hudson
Westbrook had acquired over 700 acres of land in Wilkes and
Franklin County, largely as payment Stephen received for his
service as a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War.[4] So Sarah
spent her youth growing up on a farm in the foothills of
Northeast Georgia. In 1850 the US census showed Thomas
Westbrook to be 57 and wife Elizabeth to be 51. All three of
the older daughters had left home, leaving only Elizabeth E.
23, John C. 26, Richard C. 21, Nathan C. 19, Franklin A. 16,
and Thomas C. 15. All were born in Georgia. The value of their
property was $3500.2

Sarah and William J. Bell married on October 18, 1846 in
Franklin County.[5] William was probably the son of Thomas
Bell, Jr., although he and his sister Martha were raised by
their grandmother Phebe after the death of their parents.

Sarah and William started their own farm in Franklin County and
soon began raising crops and children. Sarah C. was born in
1847, William Thomas arrived in 1848, John H. came in 1850,
Consentine in 1855, Francis M. in 1858, and Asa W. was the
youngest to populate the household on February 16, 1860.[6]

Within a year of Asa's birth, the American Civil War broke out.
According to Sarah and William's grandson, Harold Bell, William
picked up his musket one day and went off to help out with the
fighting. He joined the Confederate Army on September 10, 1861,
enlisting as a private for a one-year tour of duty to begin
October 1, 1861.1 Sarah had two brothers who served in the same
regiment as her husband.[7] They were stationed in Savannah and
witnessed the fall of Fort Pulaski, which they still talk about
today on tours of the Fort. They also fought at Port Royal, on
Hilton Head Island, where they defeated a raiding party of
Federal troops, before being ordered to withdraw to defend
Savannah from a massive naval assault.[8] But with the summer
season in the marshes of the Georgia Coast came disease, and
William, along with one-third of his brothers in arms,7
succumbed to the greatest killer of the war.

Sarah's father died on February 19, 1850,[9] so Sarah and her
mother were both widows running a farm. Sarah had to rely on
her oldest son William Thomas to help out. By 1860 the census
rolls of Franklin County showed Sarah's mother Elizabeth
Westbrook 62 at home on her farm with Sarah's youngest brothers
Nathaniel 26 and Franklin A. 25, who was married to Lavina J.
18. Franklin had served with William and helped Sarah issue a
request for any benefits due from her husband's war service.
Sarah, Franklin, and their attorney prepared the following
deposition to the Confederate Army.

State of Georgia

County of Franklin

On the thirteenth day of March 1863 Individually appeared
before the Subscriber, a Justice of the Peace in and for said
County, Sarah Bell, who after being duly sworn according to
law, deposes and says that she is the widow of William J. Bell
dec'd, who was a private in Captain J. J. Owens Company B, 29th
Regiment of Georgia Volunteers commanded by Genl. W. J. Young
in the service of the Confederate States; that the Said W. J.
Bell entered the Service at Savannah, Georgia on the 10th day
of September 1861 and was discharged from Service on the
eighteenth day of August 1862; and that the Said William J.
Bell died at his home in Franklin County, State of Georgia on
or about the first day of September Eighteen hundred and Sixty
two leaving her, this deposer, as his widow; that she makes
this deposition for the purpose of obtaining from the
Government of the Confederate States whatever may have been due
this Said William J. Bell at the time of his death for pay
bounty or active allowances for his Services as private.

Sarah Bell + (her mark)

Aforesaid sworn to and subscribed before me

Lewis Farrow, J. P.

Now on the same day and year as aforesaid also appeared before
same Justice of the Peace as aforesaid, Franklin A. Westbrook,
who is well known to me, and whom I justly certify to be a
person of veracity and credibility who having hereby sworn an
oath - that he is well acquainted with Sarah Bell, the
claimant, and also well-known to said William J. Bell, the
deceased soldier, for many years; and that the Statements,
words written, and acts by the said Sarah Bell, the claimant,
as to the relationship to the deceased soldier is true and
correct in every particular to the best of his knowledge and
belief; and that he the said Franklin A. Westbrook is wholly
disinterested.

Franklin A. Westbrook (his mark)

Sworn to and subscribed before me

Lewis Farrow, J. P.

Georgia

Franklin County

Clerk's office of the Superior Court. T. Andrew Morris Deputy
Clerk of the Superior Court of said County does hereby certify
that Lewis Farrow, before whom the foregoing affidavits of
Sarah Bell and Franklin A. Westbrook were made and Signed, was
at the time of making and Signing an acting Justice of the
Peace in and for the said County, duly commissioned and
qualified; and that his Signature thereto is genuine and that
full faith and credit should be given to all his official acts
as such.

Given under my hand and seal of Office at Carnesville, March
31, 1863

T. Andrew Morris, Dept. C. S. C.

The assets left to Sarah appeared in the appraisement of the
property after William J. Bell's death. It reads

Inventory and Appraisement of the Estate of William J. Beall
deceased.

1. 2 Beds, bedsteads & furniture $75.00

2. 1 half round table & spinning wheel 3.00

3. 1 Other bedstead & furniture 20.00

4. 1 Cupboard & contents & table 20.00

5. 1 Lot of pot ware 15.00

6. 1 Lot of water vessels 2.00

7. 3 Jugs, chest & sideboard 10.00

8. 5 Chains, hand saw, 2 augers, 2 drawing knives 4.50

9. 1 Lot Farming tools, 1 froe 20.00

10. 1 Lot of Books 2.00

11. 2 Cows & calves 180.00

351.50

12. 1 Note on J. H. Coker Georgia for Six 75 cts

Cr of 1.10 cts Franklin note note date 1st of

Sept 1861 Cr 16th Sept 1861 6.25

One note on Roy Chasteen for 18.89

25.14

351.50

376.64

We the undersigned appraisers do hereby certify that the
foregoing contains a just and true appraisement of the Estate
of W. J. Beall so far as was produced to us, and we hereby set
apart the same for the support of the widow & children of said
Deceased in terms of the law in such cases made and provided
this 26th of December 1863.

David Carson

John Shelton

John Arendall

Thomas Crenshaw

William Neal

I hereby certify that the foregoing Appraisers were sworn to
perform their duty as Appraisers according to law, this 26th of
December 1863. David Carson J. P.

Sarah was left with assets totaling $376.64 for her support. In
spite of her limited means, she still found the resources to
help others. The 1870 census showed that she was caring for her
husband's grandmother Phebe, who was 92 years old by then. She
also sent one of her boys to help out on her mother's farm. By
1870 the census showed that all the children of Sarah's mother
Elizabeth had left home except for Franklin A. Westbrook 37 and
his wife Lianna(?) 27 and their children Terissa 9, Francis A.
8, Sarah C. 5, Thomas J. 4, and William 1. John C. Westbrook
17 and Sarah's son Consentine Bell 14 also appeared as farm
laborers who were helping out their grandmother Elizabeth
Westbrook 73. She remained as head of the household on her
farm, whose total value had plummeted from $1900 in 1860 before
the war to $600 in 1870 after.

Sarah earned a living "keeping house" according to the 1870
census. She headed a household that included her children Sarah
C. 20, Franklin 12, Asa B. 10, and her grandmother-in-law
"Febe" 92. None but Phebe could read or write according to the
census. William Thomas Bell had already married Mary Clementine
Prichett, Constantine had left home at 14 to work on his
grandmother's farm, and John H. had also left home.

In 1891, Sarah T. Bell applied for and received a pension of
$100 per year from the service that her husband gave during the
Civil War. But on Christmas Eve in 1899, her son William Thomas
lost his wife Mary. By 1900 Sarah T. Bell, 81 and born in 1818
according to the 1900 census, was living with her son William
Thomas (listed as Thomas W.) to help out after his wife's
death. Sarah's last application for pension came in January of
1901.

Sarah found her final resting place somewhere in the hills of
Northeast Georgia, perhaps in the Westbrook graveyard in
Franklin County. Her legacy lives on through her children. Asa
and John H. Bell settled in Banks County and worked a farm with
William Thomas. Asa and John H. Bell are buried in the
graveyard of the Damascus Baptist Church in Banks County. John
remained a bachelor all his life, but Asa lies next to his wife
Artemis (Artie), named after the Greek goddess of the hunt and
childbirth. William Thomas Bell, Sarah's oldest son, had seven
children by his first wife Mary (Henry J., Eliza A. Minnie,
Sarah Jane Babe, William Thomas Jr. who died on the railroad,
John W., Samuel, and Mealey). After his mother's death, William
Thomas married Minnie Strange and had four more children
(William Harold, Thomas Frank, Thelma Lucille, and Cleo).
Through them and others, the legacy of Sarah T. Westbrook Bell
lives on in the rolling hills of Banks County and beyond.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] William J. Bell, Confederate Service Records, National Archives, Atlanta, GA

[2] Franklin County Georgia, US Census, 1850

[3] http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/r/o/b/Pamela-J-Robinson/GENE4-0009.html

[4] Knight, Georgia's Roster of the Revolution, Bounty Surveys, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1967

[5] Franklin County Marriages, page 131

[6] Franklin County Georgia, US Census, 1860

[7] Confederate Muster Roles, 29th Regiment, Company B

[8] Confederate Military History, Volume VI, Confederate Publishing Co., Atlanta, GA, 1899, pp51-52

[9] 1850 Death Index for Georgia, Georgia State Archives, Atlanta, GA