Leroy ‘Lee’ Guthrie/Guttery 1771-6 – 1847GA & Letty Rylee
of Franklin and Hall Counties, Georgia, USA

LEROY ‘LEE’ GUTHRIE / GUTTERY
Parents: Robert Guthrie / Guttery b.1750-52SC – 1799GA and Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ MNU
Birth: Bet.1771 – 1776
Birth Location: South Carolina (probably) or Georgia
Occupation: Planter / Slave Owner
Marriage: About 1795 (Estimate)
Death: 1847
Death Location: Hall County, Georgia, USA
Burial Location: Unknown, presumably in Hall County, Georgia, USA
Notes:
Leroy, also known as Lee, is estimated to have been born between 1771 and 1776 based on census data. He was the third son named in his father’s will, but there is no certainty that Robert identified his children by birth order. The first documented evidence associated with Leroy is the 1800 Tax List for Franklin County, Georgia. By 1820 they were living in Hall County, Georgia. Leroy died in 1847. In July 1847 sons-in-law Charles Hulsey and Richard Miller contested the will. The estate was eventually settled. Leroy was a slave owner and by 1840 owned 11 slaves. They were identified in 1848 estate records as the slaves were sold.

CHARLOTTE ‘LETTY’ RYLEE
Parents: Rev. James Rylee 1755VA-1835GA and Anna Dye 1758VA-1829GA
Birth: Bet.1771 – 1774
Birth Location: South Carolina (probably) or Georgia
Guthrie Children: (Dau.), Margaret, Nancy, Ann, Charlotte, Letty, Mary ‘Polly’,Rhoda, Reuben
Death: Bet. 1840 – 1850
Death Location: Hall County, Georgia, USA (probably)
Burial Location: Unknown, presumably in Hall County, Georgia, USA
Notes:

CHILDREN: 9

(Unidentified Daughter) GUTHRIE / GUTTERY

We know about this daughter only because of the early census records enumerating an 8th daughter born between 1795 and 1810. She could fit anywhere in that range.

Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Female Guthrie
Family Finder Participants: No

MARGARET GUTHRIE / GUTTERY
Abt. 1799 GA – Aft.1850 GA?

Margaret Guthrie was born about 1799. This estimate comes from the 1850 census which listed her as 51 years of age. She is only identified by her first initial “M”. She apparently married Charles Hulsey of Hall County, Georgia. Note that he should not be confused with a Charles T Hulsey who married a Susannah Hulsey in Hall County in 1821. That couple moved out of Hall County and is not associated with the man who remained there.

Charles Hulsey’s marriage to Margaret Guthrie likely occurred in late 1819 or prior to 7 Aug 1820 when they were enumerated in Capt. Buffington’s District, Hall, Georgia: 1M 26-44 (Agriculture) and 1F 16-25. The 1830 census shows Charles in the 30-39 category with 1F 30-39, 1F 20-29, and 3F under 5. They are still in Hall County in 1840. Charles is still in agriculture, but he also owns 3 slaves: 1F 24-35, 1M and 1F under 10. His family is listed with 1F 40-49, 1F 30-39, 1F 10-14, and 3F 5-9.

Margaret’s father, Leroy Guthrie, died in 1847. Charles Hulsey, along with one of his brothers-in-law, contested the will claiming that Leroy was not of sound mind. In due course, Leroy’s estate was settled. I do not have a copy of the will itself. Margaret is not named in the court documents as a legatee, which is not unusual as the husband typically acts on their behalf in legal matters. Margaret’s sister, Charlotte Guthrie, assumed the legal guardianship of her “idiot” brother Reuben Guthrie, with Charles Hulsey signing as second. Both Charlotte and Reuben were listed in the Hulsey household during the 1850 census.

Charles Hulsey plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter being sentenced to 3 years hard labor for the brutal treatment of his brother-in-law, Reuben Guthrie whom he had chain up and beaten on multiple occasions. It is unknown what Margaret and Charlotte were doing about this, if anything. During the 1860 Census, Charles is listed at the Georgia State Penitentiary. Charles Hulsey died on 3 April 1861 while serving his sentence. (Georgia Central Register of Convicts)

Margaret Hulsey was still living as of 15 June 1863 when her daughter Elizabeth Hulsey testified that she had received her balance of money from the estate amounting to $29. The total estate value was under $500, and according to the inventory there were no slaves.
CHILDREN:
1) Letty Hulsey 1831GA-Bef.1880GA m. about 1852GA Isaac Cape +children
2) Elizabeth Hulsey 1832GA-aft.1870 still unmarried in 1870, possibly 1 daughter
3) A Hulsey (daughter) 1833GA – aft.1850 – No further details
4) Rachel Hulsey b.1841-1845GA-???? – No further details

Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Female Guthrie
Family Finder Participants: No

NANCY GUTHRIE / GUTTERY
Abt. 1801GA –

Nancy is a presumed daughter of Leroy Guthrie and Letty Rylee. She was born about 1801 in Georgia. She married William Goddard on 1830 in Hall County, Georgia, USA. A marriage license was found for William Goddard to marry Hanna McCollum in Oct 1822. A marriage record notation indicates the license was “returned but said not to have been executed.” Nancy Guthrie appears to be the mother to William Goddard’s three children: Delphina, John and William. Nancy died sometime prior to 1842 when William remarried on 7 July in Bartow, GA to Jane Messiah Overby. He died sometime before 1870 in Georgia. The Goddard family may be descendants of a “half breed” Cherokee woman named Downes, but they were crossed off the Indian Census roll as they lived in an area with no other natives and no other proof could be provided. The Native American ancestry would be on William’s side of the family as one of his sisters was also on the list.
CHILDREN:
1) Delphina J Goddard abt.1830GA – aft 1870 m.James Reeves +children
2) John H Goddard 1835GA – 18?? – No further details
3) William McGoddard Jr Ab.t 1836GA – ???? – No further details

Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Female Guthrie
Family Finder Participants: No

ANN GUTHRIE / GUTTERY
Abt. 1801GA – Aft.1840AL?

Ann Guthrie’s relationship to her parents is designated by the attempted distribution of her part of her father Leroy Guthrie’s estate. The July 1854 Court of Hall County, Georgia noted the administrators of Leroy’s estate had made payments to all except Ann Williams. The marriage of Ann Guthrie and Jonathan Williams was held on 10 May 1821, the marriage record returned for filing by John Guthrie, J.P.

There are several Jonathan Williams households in Georgia and Alabama during the 1830 census. The one that makes the most sense based on the age of the couple and their marriage date is the household in Lee County, Georgia: 1M 20-29, 1F 30-39, 1M and 2F 5 – 9 and 1M under 5. By 1840 they had moved from Georgia to Alabama settling in Dale County: 1M30-39, 1F 40-49, 2M and 1F 10-14, 2M 5-9. Sometime between 1843-1850, the Williams family moved from Alabama to Texas. It is unknown if the parents were already deceased or if they headed west.
CHILDREN:
1) Susan Arrena ‘Rena’ Williams 1820GA – 1895TX m.1840AL George P King (farmer) +children
2) Rhoda Caroline Williams 1824GA – aft.1879AL m.William Reynolds (blacksmith) +children
3) Nehemiah Williams 1826GA – 1881TX (farmer) m1.1843AL Mary Ann Coker, m2. Elizabeth MNU +children
4) LeRoy Guthrie Williams 1827GA-1922TX (farmer) m.1857TX Audelia ‘Delia’ Haight +children
5) Isaac Walter Williams abt. 1837GA – 1879AL (farmer/blacksmith) m. Caroline Nancy Holtam +children
6) Anson or Ansel Williams ? – Named in trees as a son of Ann & Jonathan, but the dates don’t work unless he is a son of Jonathan by a previous relationship.

Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Female Guthrie
Family Finder Participants: Yes

CHARLOTTE GUTHRIE / GUTTERY
1803 GA – Aft.1850 GA

Charlotte Guthrie appears to be a separate individual than her sister Letty Guthrie. Charlotte Guthrie was born about 1803 in Hall County, Georgia. She is likely the unmarried 20-29 year old female enumerated in her father’s household during the 1830 census. Just to confuse matters for us, she was apparently named for her mother, Charlotte, who went by the nickname Letty. The 1840 census suggests that the mother was alive at that time, but not at the time of Leroy Guthrie’s 1847 death. There is a Charlotte Guthrie named in the estate records as she is assigned as the guardian for Leroy’s only son, Reuben Guthrie, who was legally designated as an “idiot”. One might presume that it was his mother who was being assigned as an official guardian to her own child, but I don’t believe that was the case. Charlotte is most likely the 30-39 year old female enumerated in the household of Charles and Margaret (Guthrie) Hulsey during the 1840 census. This makes sense because we find her living there in 1850: Charlotte Guthrie, 47, and Reuben Guthrie, 35. There is no sight of Charlotte Guthrie listed in the 1860 census. Two years earlier Charles Hulsey deliberately chained and physically abused his brother-in-law until it killed him. There is no mention of Charlotte Guthrie in the court records that followed wherein Charles Hulsey pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. This suggests that Charlotte Guthrie was probably already dead at that time. I found no death record or burial info, nor was there any sign of a marriage record to suggest another reason for Charlotte not being around. The 1860 census lists Charles Hulsey in prison, and his wife and daughters are living on their own in Hall County. No sign of Charlotte.

Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Female Guthrie
Family Finder Participants: N/A – No Descendants

LETTY GUTHRIE / GUTTERY
1805GA – bef.1880GA

Letty Guthrie is sometimes listed as Charlotte in various family trees, for obvious reasons. Her mother was Charlotte and was nicknamed Letty. For whatever reason, it appears that her mother wanted one daughter with the formal name and another with the nickname.

Letty was born on 30 April 1805. She married Richard Miller on 9 December 1824 in Hall County, Georgia when she was 19 years old. This means she was already out of the Guthrie household before 1830 and is not the daughter still living there. She is also listed in her husband’s household during the 1850 census when her sister Charlotte is living with relatives. Richard Miller is the named party in all of Leroy Guthrie’s estate records rather than his wife, which is very common for the time. Richard and Letty had a large family, but the 1850 census lists only the first initials making it difficult to properly identify the children in subsequent records. They lived in Hall County, Georgia throughout their entire lives. Richard died in Gainesville on 10 October 1868. Letty outlived him. She died between 1870 and June 1880.
CHILDREN:
1) (FNU Daughter – S or T?) Miller b.1828GA-Aft.1850 – No further data
2) Melinda Margaret Miller 1830GA-1871GA m.1856GA David Norris +children
3) Jane Miller 1831GA-1900 m.1868 John C Kendrick +children
4) R Miller, male 1833GA-aft.1850 – No further data
5) Richard Miller 1834GA-1915GA m.1873GA Eliza Jane Dobbs +children
6) Jerry Miller abt 1838GA-aft.1860 – No further data
7) Letty Caroline Miller abt.1839GA-1906GA m. John McAfee Hulsey – No children
7) P (Polly?) Miller Abt.1842GA-aft.1850 (female twin of Rhoda) – No further data
8) Rhoda Caroline Miller abt.1842GA-1905 m.1872 David Norris (see above) +children
9) Julia A Miller 1846GA-aft1900TX m.1876 GA Douglas “Washington” Styles +children
10) Rebecca Miller 1847/8GA-1907GA m.1878 William Y Barton +children

Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Female Guthrie
Family Finder Participants: No

MARY ‘POLLY’ GUTHRIE / GUTTERY
1808GA – 1877GA

Mary, aka Polly, was born about 1808 in Hall County, Georgia. She married when she was about 20 to John Martin Shamble on 11 December 1828. They moved to Cherokee County by 1840 where they lived in Woodstock and Hickory Flat. Martin was a farmer. They had 9 children. Polly did in 1876. Martin remarried the following year to a widow, Anna Elizabeth (Martin) Bailey. Martin died 30 Apr 1887.
CHILDREN:
1) Nancy M Chamblee 1830GA – 1912GA m.1851 William Mitchell Day (farmer) +children
2) Gatsey L Chamblee 1832GA-1860GA m.1850GA Francis E Pugh +children
3) William Leroy Chamblee 1833GA-1872GA (farmer) m.1854GA Minerva F Westbrooks +children
4) Elisha Chamblee 1836GA-1863GA m.1858GA Francis Day +children
5) Dorcas Anna Chamblee 1838Ga-1912GA m.1868GA William Henry Rusk +children
6) George M Chamblee 1840GA-aft.1910GA m.1870GA Louisa Landrum +children
7) Mary C Chamblee 1842GA-1917GA m1.1886 Marcus L Pool, m2. aft 1900 William Irvin – No children
8) Martha Jane Chamblee 1848GA – Bef.1880GA m.1868 Dempsey P Rusk +children
9) San Francisco Chamblee 1849GA-abt1869GA m.1866GA Henry D Westbrook +children

Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Female Guthrie
Family Finder Participants: No

RHODA GUTHRIE / GUTTERY
1811GA – 1876AL

Daughter Rhoda Guthrie has also been found listed as the daughter of Leroy and Letty’s siblings John Guthrie and Mary ‘Polly’ Rylee. Honestly, there is not a lot of concrete data either way, but Rhoda appears a better fit for the enumerated census records for Leroy’s family.

Rhoda married James Liles in Hall County, Georgia on 6 August 1829. By they 1830 census, John Guthrie’s family was already living in Alabama, whereas James Liles and his wife made their home in Hall County. James Liles was an administrator of Leroy’s estate along with Martin Chamblee, another of Leroy’s sons-in-law.

James and Rhoda moved with their family to Gilmer County, Georgia by 1850 and remained there for at least two decades. During the 1870s, they moved to Randolph County, Alabama. Rhoda died there on 3 May 1877 and just a year later, James on 30 April 1878 in Wadley. They are buried at the Concord Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery.
CHILDREN:
1) Francis Marion Chester Liles 1830GA-1876CA (wagoner) m.1864GA Sara Elizabeth McPherson +children
2) Jasper D Liles 1833GA-1899AL (physician) m.1872 M (Martha?) “Pattie” Morris +children
3) Minerva Mary Liles 1835GA-1913AL m. W J Hamiter – No further info
4) Jefferson James Liles 1836GA-1923AL (farmer) m.1865 Lydia McGregor Golden +children
5) Madison DeKalb Liles 1842GA-1923AL (farmer) m.abt.1874 Mary Ann Park +children
6) Lafayette W Liles 1846GA-1922OK (farmer) – unmarried
7) William Wallace Liles 1847GA-1920TX (blacksmith) – unmarried
8) Rhoda Emaline Liles 1849GA-1865AL – died at 16 years of age – unmarried.
9) Harrison Taylor Liles 1851GA-1915TX (farmer) m.1887 Josie Johnson +children

Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Female Guthrie
Family Finder Participants: No

REUBEN GUTHRIE / GUTTERY
1815GA – 1858GA

Census records sometimes make note of family members with certain infirmities or conditions categorizing them as being blind, deaf and dumb, an imbecile/idiot, or a lunatic. It is unknown whether Reuben Guthrie had a congenital genetic condition, suffered from a birth injury resulting in decreased mental capabilities, or another form of mental illness. The census records and other legal records identifying him legally class him as an idiot. After the death of his parents, he required the assignment of a legal guardian.

Court records show that this right was granted to Charlotte Guthrie, whom we have determined to be his older and unmarried sister. Even though Charlotte was an adult at that time, she still required a man to sign off as her support person, and the records note her approval was in consideration of her own fitness for the role. Charles Hulsey, her brother-in-law was the one who supported the decision. Charlotte received payment out of the estate of Reuben Guthrie for the cost of his care.

Almost as soon as Charlotte received the money, she disappeared from the legal records. Whether she finally married and moved away leaving Reuben Guthrie behind, or if she died, is unknown.

Charles Hulsey seems to have gotten into some financial troubles. Whether his mistreatment of Reuben Guthrie was in any way related to his money problems is anyone’s guess. One day he chained his brother-in-law by his right leg to a threshing house. He kept him chained up over a period of 5 months from 1 October 1857 to 1 March 1858 without proper clothing, or sufficient food or a fire during the cold weather. Hulsey would also strike him with a rake knocking him off the platform he was on causing bruising and other injuries. Reuben was then moved into the smoke house of ten square feet in size with a dirt floor. He was kept there a further five weeks until 14 April 1858. The severe beatings continued causing further injury to his body including skinning his right leg. Reuben Guthrie died from his injuries. Charles Hulsey was arrested. During the March Term 1860, after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter, he was sentenced to three years hard labor in the Georgia State Penitentiary.

Reuben Guthrie was about 43 years old at his death.

Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – No Descendants
Family Finder Participants: N/A – No Descendants

READING & RESOURCES

BOOK/MAGAZINE: Historical Collections of the Georgia Chapters – Daughters of the American Revolution – Volume III Records of Elbert County, Georgia, Stein Printing Company, Atlanta, Georgia, 1930.
[Includes transcript excerpt of the will of “Robert Guthree”]

BOOK: Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical, Smith & Demand, Birmingham, Alabama, 1888. Huntsville Historical Collection.
[Robert Malone Guttery of Walker County, Alabama served as county commissioner, voting against recommending AL secession from the United States in 1860. See p.46.]
“The State of Alabama also appointed commissioners to visit the other slave-holding States to confer with them “as to what was best to be done to protect their interest and honor in the impending crisis” … “An ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of Alabama and other States united under the compact styled The Constitution of the United States of America.” … “The ordinance was signed by William M Brooks, president of the convention, and the following members: (includes long list of commissioners). Twenty-four members of the convention did not sign the ordinance, as follows: (includes list of the commissions) Robert Guttery, of Walker (Alabama)…”

BOOK/DATABASE ONLINE: Boddie, John Bennett. Historical Southern Families. Volume IV. Digital Repository: Ancestry.com
[See p.77-78 / img 85/266 / Section on Guttery of Georgia and Alabama.]

BOOK: Dombhart, J. Martin. (1937). History of Walker county, its towns and its people. Thornton, Ark.: Cayce Publishing Company. Digital Repository: Hath Trust Digital Library.

BOOK: The Family of Reverend James Rylee, RS. (2006). United States: L.W. Gardner.
[Minimal mention of the Guthrie connections.]