THE LIVELY'S IN GEORGIA

Around the year 1740 Abram Lively entered the New World along with many other colonists from Scotland. Shortly after his arrival he along with many other Scottish Highlanders were called upon by General Oglethorpe to help run the Spanish out of St. George's Parish. They accomplished this feat in what is known as "The Battle of Bloody Marsh" on St. Simon's Island. Totally defeated the Spanish retreated to Florida never to threaten England's hold on Georgia again.

For his part in this campaign Abram Lively was given a land grant from the King of England. This land was along what is now known as Brier Creek in Burke county. Abram prospered and had many children. One of these was Matthew Lively. Matthew and his contemporaries were Loyal English subjects. Having prospered under King George in the Parish named after him they were reluctant to go along with the cry for revolution. These sentiments changed when England began waging war on the colonies. Matthew joined The Sons of Liberty and fought and helped win the American Revolution.

For his part in this most famous of all revolutions Matthew was allowed to compete in the land lottery, He could also retain the land, he through his father had been granted by the King. Through his winnings in the land lottery, the Lively's acquired more land along Brier Creek, Just as Abram had done after his war, Matthew put down the tools of war and picked up the tools of the land.

As Matthew's son Mark was growing into adulthood England decided to try to reclaim her former colonies. The war of 1812 had begun. England with her mighty Navy was waging a war of blockade and attrition against the United States. After years of blockade, little known to the Southern States the New England states drew up a plan for secession from the United States of America. They planned to form their own government and come to separate terms leaving the other states to feud for themselves. The blockade had severely hurt their lucrative seafaring trade.

Much to England's chagrin and the New England states surprise, a man named Andrew Jackson had gone through the South gathering soldiers, among them one, Mark Lively, who met the English Army in New Orleans and totally defeated them. This ended the War of 1812 and kept the United States united, despite the New England states intentions. Just as Abram and Matthew had received land for their services so did Mark. He was a land owner but he had a different calling. That of God. Mark became a Methodist Minister. He was very strong in his religious beliefs. Luckily for us he married a strong devout Baptist woman. They like Mark's predecessors settled in Burke County and raised a large family.

One of their son's they named George Pierce Lively. According to what we've all been told over the years from many different members of the Lively League, George Pierce, was a man amongst men.

At a very early age he too was confronted with war. After the War of 1812 the North and South grew farther apart. The North was a region based on industry and the South was almost totally an Agrarian society. The North had been settled mainly by people from England towns therefore they had urban traditions and lifestyles. The South had been settled by people of mostly Celtic origins who clung tenaciously to their individuality and rural way of life. These implacable differences highlighted against a backdrop of unfair taxes and trade tariffs imposed on the South by the North made war seem inevitable. Then came the election of a sectionalist President who seemed bent on remaking the South in the North's image. Before this President could be inaugurated the South employed the Unites States Constitution in the same way the New England States had begun to do in 1816 to legally secede from the Union.

George Pierce Lively became a citizen of the Confederate States of America, a right he felt was an honor and obligation to fight and possibly die for. At age 16 he left home with the confederate Army to repel the invading army of the United States of America. He first served digging salt petter out of caves in Tennessee, that (was) used to make gun powder to further the cause for Southern Independence. While pulling this duty he contracted T.B. and returned home to Burke County. His obvious belief in the Confederate States of America caused him to exercise vigorously so he could continue to contribute to the effort of forming a new nation, just as his grandfather Mark had.

After regaining his health, he ended up in the Georgia Fifth Calvary fighting under the famous General Joseph Wheeler. Where he had a horse shot out form under him. He was fighting against a people that were waging a new kind of war. An unheard of war against civilians, women and children. A war headed by Sherman that was to sweep across Georgia, destroying everything in it's path, good and bad. "Fighting Joe Wheeler" with people like Cpl. George Pierce Lively under him harassed Sherman and his Army of butchers, all the way across Georgia. This slowed them down enabling many Southerners to escape, some only with their lives.

As told by Grandma Julia Lively, George Pierce's mother and family hid their money and jewelry in a crevice in the Big Gully at Lively's Pond not a hundred yards from where we stand. I can imagine George Pierce fighting Sherman's men in a holding action somewhere in Burke Co. while his own mother was hiding their few worldly possessions from an army of thieves rightup there in the woods where we've all carved our initials on the trees. Our history surrounds us!

George Pierce came back from the failed war for Southern Independence only to find himself in another war. This was a war for our very way of life, for our Southern heritage. It was a war against carpet baggers and scally wags. It was a war he and his family and peers could not afford to lose. They didn't! George Pierce and his fellow disenfranchised southerners took the South back. He became a State representative helping Georgia through the turbulent years of the beginning of the twentieth century.

In 1929 George Pierce's children and their descendants established the Lively League. After a few years the meetings started being held at Lively's Pond and have been here every since. If we are to hope that our children's children will continue this tradition then we must instill in them the things that have brought the Lively Family through so much war and diversity. The things that bring you and me back to Lively's Pond on July 4th, year after year.

The two things that have held this family together are simple in saying, but profound in acting! Our unwavering belief in God and His Saving Grace and our sometimes seemingly obsessive belief in Family and Family Traditions.

I'd like to add one more part of our character that George Pierce had to fight for after his war and that we are in an all out fight to save today; Our Southern Heritage. If we let our Southern Heritage be destroyed as so many are trying to do today, it won't be long before our family traditions will come under the same attack by the same people. Without our strong moral family guidance, without the camaraderie of fellow family Christians, without all the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles,cousins and stolen in-laws to guide us, sometimes with a seemingly to stern a hand; where would my generation have ended up? Not here at Lively's Pond; I assure you of that.

If we don't commit ourselves to making sure the next generation of Lively's have these same unshakable beliefs in God, family and our Southern way of life, not only will they be gone but so will a place called Lively's Pond. I ask each of you as members of the Lively League to recommit ourselves to pulling together as a family. Without our family how long before we loose faith with God. And without Godwhere are we? Lost. We need our faith in God and an unconscious prevailing knowledge that we can rely on the Lively Family being constant. We need to look to our family history to gain the strength to pull together so our children's future has a chance of measuring up to the high standards our predecessors have set.

Abram, Matthew, Mark, George Pierce, James Thaxter, Q.U....... to be able to list my heritage fills me with possibly too much pride. But because of my parents, grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins, I feel I have the best family that ever was! Thirty years from now I want my daughter and son to feel the same way.

Let's keep our Lively Family traditions strong and pass our Lively history down to our children

Presented and compiled by,
Bill Lively

4th of July, 1993