Wiley Anderson

My great-grandfather, Anderson Payne, was the first of our Payne line to come to Lone Mountain. The path that took him there, as well as the paths of his ancestors who led in that direction were filled with drama and adventure, tragedy and success. And in the case of his maternal grandfather, Wiley Anderson, it also included crime and punishment.

I spent several years wading through a few facts and a lot of misinformation to find the truth of where Wiley Anderson came from, who he was, and what became of him. Once I was sure I found him, it took two more years to find out what happened to him.  If I am right,[1] it is not a pretty story.  Which may explain why Wiley Anderson’s children didn’t talk about him much; thus, leaving him in the dustbin of history.

Finding Wiley

The records that I first found on Wiley, claimed he was born in South Carolina, married Sarah Lawson in Scott County Virginia, moved to Georgia where he had several children, and then was hanged as a Union spy in Georgia in 1864. Some claimed he died in 1849 in Georgia.

I wondered how Wiley came from South Carolina to marry a girl in Virginia. In short order, I ascertained that Wiley was born in Tennessee, not South Carolina. There was a Wiley Anderson who was born in South Carolina and later moved to Georgia, but it was easy to establish that he was not my Wiley. My Wiley Anderson was born in Tennessee around 1800.[2]  There is no record of his birth, but records of  two of his children show Wiley’s birthplace as Tennessee.  The 1880 US Census was the first to record the birth state of each person’s parents; thus, it is through Wiley’s two longest surviving children, Epperson (“Epson”) Anderson and Winney Anderson Rogers, that I was able to discover where Wiley was born.

I also found a marriage record for Wiley. His full name may have been George Wiley Anderson[3], but he went by Wiley.[4]  According to his wedding record on Ancestry, He married Sarah Lawson around 1821, probably in Scott County, Virginia.[5] I also located an 1823 land transaction in nearby Jefferson County, Tennessee, that mentions a small land improvement previously made by Wiley Anderson. If this is my Wiley, it would be consistent with him having been in Tennessee before relocating to Scott County, Virginia.

Wiley and Sarah’s five children are well established in the record. Epperson and Mary “Polly” were born in Virginia in 1822 and 1824. Their younger three sisters were all born in Georgia.

So, my next step was to look for Wiley in Georgia.

I had no idea at this point where in Georgia Wiley was.  I knew only that he had taken his family there sometime between the birth of my great-great grandmother, Mary “Polly” Anderson Payne in Virginia in 1824 and the birth of her sister, Louisa, in Georgia in 1827.[6]  Two more daughters were born in Georgia as well – Winney in 1827 and Rebecca in 1830; so, I began looking for Wiley Anderson in Georgia during those years. 

I was excited to find a Wiley Anderson of the right age in Tattnall, Georgia.  But he was already in Tattnall at the time of his marriage to Nancy Inman in 1825, and both of them were originally from South Carolina.  They reared a large family in Tattnall and were still there in 1880.  Though this is probably the Wiley Anderson most researchers confuse with him, this absolutely could not have been my Wiley.

But, lo and behold, there was one more Wiley Anderson in the state of Georgia at that time.  I found him in the 1830 census for Habersham County:

Habersham County had been established in 1818 from land formerly held by Cherokee Indians, and ceded through a series of treaties. As always, when cheaper and more plentiful land opened further west, many settlers poured in. This land was on the western reaches of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and had a natural appeal to the Scots-Irish from Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee who came in droves. There was also an expansion of the Cherokee cessions in the mid-late 1820s, so the timing would also be right for Wiley to come around 1826.

But, just as I was neatly squaring away Wiley’s story, I come across a very inconvenient fact. In 1832, Wiley’s wife and children were back in Scott County, Virginia, and his wife, Sarah, was married to the young widower, Jacob Roller, Jr.

What could possibly have happened to Wiley between 1830 and 1832? It was as if he had just vanished into thin air!

Knowing the societal norms of the day, I reasoned that Wiley must have died shortly after the 1830 census.  He was not listed in the 1840 Habersham census. Divorce was extremely rare in those days, and it certainly would have taken too long for Sarah to remarry by 1832.   It was almost unheard of for a man to desert his family – especially leaving a young wife with small children so far away from her own family.  Plus, Sarah returned to the place she and Wiley had lived together – everyone knew them both, and she would not have been able to remarry such a religious man as Jacob Roller unless she was legally and morally free to do so.

So, Wiley must have been dead, I reasoned.  For the next two years I looked for him until, completely by chance, I stumbled upon the family history of Habersham County resident, Nancy Goodson. 

William Goodson, born in 1800 in Burke County, North Carolina, had won land in the 1827 Georgia Land Lottery, and came to Habersham with his young wife, Sarah Thompson and their small children. William is listed across pages 45 and 46 in the 1830 Census for Habersham Georgia.  Wiley Anderson appears on pages 47-48.  This would indicate they lived in same neighborhood.  Tragically, for both men, some kind of altercation must have occurred in 1831.

Further searching found more information in the Georgia Black Book [7]…

…as well as in court records:[8]

So, it seems pretty certain that in August of 1831 Wiley Anderson killed William Goodson. In October he was charged with his murder, was convicted, and then “hanged by the neck until he was dead”.[9] 

This sad story, of course, makes me the 3rd-great granddaughter of a murderer and not-very-nice guy.  It also explains why his family did not pass his story down to their descendants, and why he has remained such a mystery for almost two hundred years.

~ Amy Payne Potts, July 2023
amypotts53@gmail.com

  

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[1] I cannot be 100% certain I am right, but this story presents the best theory I have about Wiley.

[2] Based on the probable date of Wiley’s marriage and the information of his age on the 1830 Census, he was born in late 1800-1801.

[3] The name on his marriage record is “George Wiley Anderson.”  That his only son was named Epperson George supports that as being correct based on the naming conventions in that time.

[4] Epson Anderson listed his father’s name as “Wiley” on his marriage license. (Virginia, Marriages, 1785-1940. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013).  This was also the name he used in the 1830 US Census.

[5] This theory is based on Wiley and Sarah’s first child, Epperson, being born in Scott County in 1822.

[6] This assumption is based on census records for Polly and Louisa Anderson.

[7] The Georgia Black Book, Vol 1 by Robert Scott Davis Jr: pg 143 – #78

[8] From Kimsey’s Habersham Co. history:  Criminal Docket “A” 1818-1848 Habersham Superior Court October Term 1831

[9] There is no actual record of Wiley’s hanging, but that was the way the death penalty was administered in 1831 in northeast Georgia.