The Lively League met for its annual Forth of July Family County.

After a program of patriotic songs and talks the following paper was read by J.B. Lively:

"Let it be understood that this sketch is not intended to point to ingenious, and outstanding individuals, to high positions of unusual honor, nor to achievements considered worthy of renown that we might boast; but it is to record decisions made, work done, and struggles participated in that we might be inspired to act well our parts."

"When we make the statement that the Lively family has been in Georgia since the days of Oglethorpe, the question naturally arises, What have they done during these 200 years?"

"Even though little noticed by historians, one of the decisive battles of history was fought on and about St. Simons Island in 1742. A Spanish fleet of 56 ships, with 7,000 men on board had sailed; from Havana with the avowed purpose of putting an end to the colony of Georgia. The force was about as large as the army Cornwallis surrendered to at Yorktown. Oglethorpe gathered a weak merchant vessel, and 65 men, and sailed forth to one of the most vital struggles which ever took place on American soil between the English and the Latin-speaking people. Of this battle Carlysle wrote: 'Half the world was hidden in embryo under it.' The question to be decided was 'Shall the New World be of Spanish type? Shall it be English? Shall there be a United States?'"

"The skill of Oglethorpe and the daring of his men gave him the victory over the Spanish host. The great George Whitfield said 'The deliverance of George from the Spaniards is such that it may not be paralleled, but by some instances out of the Old Testament'."

"What Oglethorpe said of one engagement sums up the whole conflict. He wrote, ' I charged them at the head of our Indians, Highlandsmen and rangers, and God was pleased to give us such success, that we entirely routed the first party'."

"Oglethorpe put much reliance in the small band of Scottish Highlanders. One of the Scots who took part in the fighting around the place called 'Bloody Marsh' was Abram Lively, the founder of the family in Georgia."

"When the 'Liberty boys' were agitating for complete separation from England the Livelys took a position similar to that held by Alexander H. Stephens when secession from the Union was advocated. They held that as Georgia, on the whole, had been well treated by the Crown, the grievance was not sufficient to warrant a revolution to completely sever connection with the 'Mother County'. But when George III began to make war on the colonies to coerce them they went with the state, and Matthew, the son of Abram, became a 'gallant soldier of the Revolutionary War'. This Matthew was born in Burke County in 1750."

"When Andrew Jackson rushed through the South gathering frontier families and school boys to drive the British out of Florida and stop Packenham at New Orleans. Mark the son of Matthew, went with a company of Georgia volunteers."

"It is a big mistake to think the early settlers of Georgia were all 'Puritan', 'church-going' was not so popular among those pioneers. Wesley complained that his congregation 'dwindled to two Presbyterians and one Papist, and the sandflies...'."

"He and the doctor who would hunt on Sunday arrested for firing of his gun 'during sermon time'. Those frontiersmen who gathered at cornshuckings, log-rollings, and horse races were a rough and ready set."

"Two of the sons of Matthew, Mark and Tal, became Methodist ministers, and labored earnestly among these people for the advancement of the cause of Christianity. At a time when Botsford Church had quit functioning Mark used to meet one old Negro there and have prayer meeting, and got the work started again. He probably had a special interest in this church as he married one of its members, Jane Boyd, the girl Rev. J.H.T. Kilpatrick broke the ice in Briar Creek to baptize."

"In the spring of 1861 patriotism was running high, and the men of the South were hastening to the defense of the "Bonny Blue Flag", a proposition was made to the young men of the congregation assembled in that church who intended to go the front to come forward and request the prayers of the good people of the church. That was no doubt one of the most 'touching' occasions in the history of the place. Numbers of those to whom the proposition was made answered the 'Last Call' as members of the 'Army of Northern Virginia'. Among those who came forward was Mark's son, Green. He went through four years of carnage in Virginia with Lee, and was wounded at Antietam.

His brother George joined him later, but came home some time afterward with a disability. Nevertheless, he soon after went into the cavalry under Joe Wheeler, and did much hard riding through Georgia and the Carolinas, keeping Sherman's stragglers and foragers closed upon the main body. Otherwise the fine old building that then stood near the one now used by Botsford Church might have been given to the flames. For Wheeler's men manned the breastworks that bristled over the bridges of Briar Creek."

"After the war, Green and George were among the Confederate soldiers who were the entire body of able-bodied white men ofthe South, returned home to find their country in ruins, the money of the realm worthless, their slaves freed, and demoralized, their fields growing up in thorns and thistles, and not financial depression, but financial and economic devastation."

"They went to work with a will to solve the problems of reconstruction, one of which was to do some more riding in a uniform that was more pale, ghostly and awe-inspiring than the Confederate gray."

"Coming down to the present generation, without calling names, let it be said, for it is a matter of record, that when the cry that shook the air was 'Remember the Main', and the purpose was to free a friendly and oppressed people, this group was represented: and when the slogan of America was 'Make the World Safe for Democracy', and Elbert Hubbard said 'Aristocracy now consists not in how long your family has been over here, but is it represented 'over there'? ; there are those present who were over there'. Also that there has been an almost unanimous stand for and a third of a century of incessant toil to protect, build up, and strengthen the influences of those institutions that stand for civic righteousness, observance of law, liberty, virtue, patriotism, and just government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

"As we look back over the nearly two hundred years we see a record of much hard work, and hard riding over hills, and through the forest and swamps of Georgia, especially Burke County, in the service of humanity as the Livelys participated in such vocations, and professions as trappers, hunters, traders, soldiers, guardians of civilization, preachers and law-makers, and last but not least, that ancient and honorable profession, alas now all but 'a lost art' the hard-working long-suffering country physician."

"Let us go back and speak of another phase of the work."

"When Oglethorpe and his dauntless little band had disposed of the 'unspeakable Spaniard' the settlers returned to their original task. At that task the descendants of Abram, the Scot, have labored in company with their fellows, in season and out, from the 'Marshes of Glynn' up past where the Chattahoochee rushes 'Down from the hills of Habersham and out of the valleys of Hall'."

Of the family there were present Mr. and Mrs. L.M. Lively, Julie and Carolyn Lively; Mr. and Mrs. H.M. Goodson, Emmie Ruth, Margie Lee, Hoyt Jr., Josephine and Marion Catherine Goodson; Mrs Edgar Mills and Gloria Mills; and Mr. and Mrs. B.F. Lively of Augusta; Mr. and Mrs. M.W. Lively, Ella Warren, Maud Virginia Bettie, Benjamin, Ashley, Kathryn, Eleanor and Earl Lively of Shell Bluff, Ga.; Mr. and Mrs.S.M. Horn, Lois Johnson, Fred Julius Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Emory Logue and Benjamin Calvin Logue of Augusta; Mr. and Mrs.G.P. Lively, Theodore, Roger, and Ann Lively of Savannah; Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Lively of Shell Bluff; Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Lively and Jean Lively of Waynesboro; Mr. and Mrs. Roger Barefield, Joyce, Gladys, Louise, and James Roger Barefield, Q.U. Lively, Van Zant, Keely, Hugh Miller, Julia Doritha, Atta Lee, Sevena, Octoma, and Yonce Thaxter Lively of Shell Bluff; Mr. L.S. Lively of Vidalia, Ga.; Mr. J.B. Lively of Waynesboro; Mr. and Mrs. H.W. Lively of Thomason, Ga.; Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Bateman and Alsie Imor Bateman, Mrs. J.I. Lively, Joe Jr., and Nell Lively of Augusta.

Among the visitors were Miss Frances Bell of Atlanta, Mrs. Burma Miner, Mrs. J.E. Miner, Mr. and Mrs. D.L. Miner, and Mrs. Kate Hill of Shell Bluff; Miss Sarah Quattlebaum and Miss Thelma Quattlebaum of McBean and, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Norrill of Shell Bluff.

 

Charter Charter  First Meeting By Laws NewsLetter Current Archives	History Burke County Lively Grave Sites Battle of Bloody Marsh	Livelys George Pierce Fighting Joe Poem	Re-Unions 1930  July 4th
Thank YOU for Visiting the Lively League Web Site Please read and sign our Guest Book