Lucy Eunice...A Legacy Moniker

Lucy Eunice Marshall Pittman was no doubt 'The Matriarch Pittman' of the 'Second Generation Georgians'.   So beloved by her children and grandchildren that at least one of her names...Lucy, Eunice or Marshall...was bestowed on her descendants, both boys and girls. 

By the time Matriarch Lucy had her one and only daughter after seven sons, there were over ten grandchildren named after her.  Without hesitation, Lucy Eunice the first, passed her remarkable name to her daughter born around 1800.

Would she live up to the 'Lucy Eunice Legacy'?

Only time would tell...and tell it has.  After two hundred and fourteen years to date, Lucy Eunice II's history is vaguely documented and uncommonly missing in the well documented lives of her parents and brothers. Her exact birthdate is unknown.  In death, she was Laid to Rest in an unmarked grave.

Even so, Lucy Eunice Pittman has a story to tell.

"I will not pay any debts by William H. Jenkins, who I married in 1832...Lucy E. Jenkins, July 8, 1837."  Gwinnett County Records/Newspaper Notice

"NOTICE:  I  deny posting Libel against my husband, William H. Jenkins....Lucy E. Jenkins, July 29, 1837."  Newspaper Notice

It appears that after five years of marriage, Lucy and William have had their problems.  At this time there is no documentation or mention of children born to this union.  There is also no records to indicate that Lucy and William separate or diviorce...which would have been unacceptable in the eyes of society and the prominent Pittman Family.

"NOTICE:  March 31, 1843...Sheriff's Sale...Land Sale of William H. Jenkins to satisfy a Judgement by J.W. Cardwell."

Lucy and Williams undocumented...'No more News Notices'...life must have gone on for another seven years.  At least until the 1850 Gwinnett County Census where the Pittman name appears not only as a Resident of the County but also as the Enumerator of the 1850 Gwinnett County Census.

It is revealed by an earlier 'Pittman Family Historian' that Daniel N. Pittman noted in this Census that his sister Lucy Eunice Pittman Jenkins declared herself as Widowed.  However, her husband, William H. Jenkins was alive and likely not so well, living right next door.  It seems that the brother and Magistrate Daniel N. Pittman of Lucy Eunice had found a way to end the union without marring the family name.

Declaration by Daniel N. Pittman...The 1850 Morality Schedule

A woman may be declared a widow if she has been abandoned.

"Natural spring water, vegetation, and the 'Inebreating' fluid which is so bountifully manufactured on many of the streams of this division.  But the men must (?) partake of the juice manufactured into alcohol and are held captive by the evil one at his will.  The apple is a delicious fruit but when fermented and distilled ought not to be placed to his neighbor's mouth by the bottle which beggars many citizens of all descriptions discovering their nakedness truly as said the prophet Habakkuk chapter 2nd verse 15th." 
In his strong words backed up by the Bible, Daniel, legally and morally declared his brother-in-law a captive/maker of the devils brew, a drunk, unfit husband and dead.

Regardless of his Magistrate Brother-In-Laws 1850 Declaration as to his 'Dead ToUs' status and Unfit Family Man, William H. Jenkins survived another ten years to appear in the 1860 Gwinnett County Census.  This Census is extremely important in revealing the history of Lucy Eunice's life between the time she married William in 1832 until August 23, 1860, the date of this Census.

First, it reveals a child born to Lucy and William.  Robert born in 1837 when Lucy recanted her Libel Notice against her husband.  There is no denying Roberts birth and birthrights as the son of Lucy and William and the grandson of Lucy Eunice and John Ichabod Pittman.  His existence helps explain Lucy's staying in close proximity to her husband and father of her child.  It is suspected that Lucy's marriage and choice of a husband was less acceptable to her brother Daniel than to Lucy, and that she was caught in the proverbial  'rock and a hard place'.

Secondly, it confirms the Pittman Family Landholdings before the Civil War with Robert apparently having inherited his Mother's real estate valued at $1,500 with a personal estate of $4,000 which for the time indicates a moderate to wealthy status.  Since his father William is listed as a member of the household and not the head, it reinforces Robert's wealth came from the Pittman side of the family, since William's land was sold off in a Sheriffs Sale nearly twenty years earlier.

Next, the absence of Lucy Eunice Pittman Jenkins in any of the 1860 Census indicates that her death must have occurred in the ten year period between the Census'.    Another interesting note is the occupation listed for William...carpenter.  He must have been quite a 'Jack of All Trades' and a patriot as his Find A Grave Memorial notes:

WM. H. Jenkins is listed as Muscian in County A, 39th GA Volunteer Regiment Infantry,

Murphy Guards, Sept. 26, 1861.

This record suggests that at age 59/60 William H. Jenkins was an early enlistee in the Confederacy.  He, however, was not a casualty of the Civil War but died of a 'Fever' in August 1869 as documented in the US Federal Census Mortality Schedule of 1870.  He is buried in an unmarked grave in Mount Carmel United Methodist Church Cemetery where Lucy II, Lucy I and many other Second Generation Pittmans are interred.

Lucy Eunice Pittman Jenkins