00 — The MATERNAL BRANCH | HUDSONS

GEORGIANN (GEORGIA ANN) HUDSON WILLIAMS SMITH

Birth — November 1864
Death — October 9, 1931
Place of Birth — Geogia
Place of Death — at Home, Harris County

She was living in a small house next door to her son Johnson’s house

Burial Site — Old Hudson Cemetery – Harris County/ Hamilton, Georgia – Lower Blue Springs Road

1st Husband — Isaac S. Williams [1857 – 1917]
Date of Marriage — 1879/1881 (?) | The 1910 census says they have been married 29 years

2nd Husband — Crawford Smith (Divorced)
Date of Marriage — 1918
Date of Divorce — 1925

Mother – Jane Marshal Hudson (1832)
Father – Lewis Hudson (1836)

Grandmother – Elizabeth Marshal (1806)
Grandfather – Richard Marshal (1795)

This Story of Georgia Ann was told to Deborah Daniels Dawson by her mother Lizzie . . .
Georgia Ann had the reputation of baking the best biscuits and cooking the best ham and gravy around the area. My mother (Pearline) said she cooked the best food – period. Georgiann’s granddaughter, Ethel Jenkins, daughter of Lizzie “Baby”, said Georgiann was loving, sweet and the nicest person you’ve ever met.

Georgiann’s 2nd husband, Crawford Smith, was “mean and low down” according to Mama Lizzie. He would physically abuse her. She finally divorced him and was left completely homeless although Crawford Smith had plenty of land. They married in 1918 and separated from her in 1925. Mama Lizzie believed he died in 1945. The church, where his records were recorded, burned down.

Crawford had been spending time, with a widow woman who lived down the road from their house, every evening. He would sit with her and talk. Now everyone had hogs, cows, dogs, you name it, they had it. No paved roads — only dirt roads. There was one farmer, Mr. Holt, who planted peanuts who hired people to pick them for him. Lizzie and Georgia Ann used to pick at the farm for Mr. Holt. One day Georgiann was told by one of the men that Crawford had been seeing this widow and that was the reason why he was so mean toward Georgiann. Georgiann started crying and the women with her started to console her. Lizzie had not been there at the time, and when she returned she asked what had happened. Mamie Johnson told Lizzie the story and then she told Georgiann. The next day Lizzie approached the man. She asked him what did he say to her mother. He told her he thought she was too young to hear what was going on. (She was 16 at the time). Lizzie insisted he tell her. He told her Crawford was hanging out at the widow’s house down there, pointing in the direction of the widow’s house. Georgia Ann told Crawford to pack up and leave.

When they divorced, he had his daughter, Mozelle write a letter to Georgiann saying that he wanted the house (which was his house); Georgiann was living there at the time. He wanted Georgiann out. She left, he stayed in the house and remarried. He did not provide for Georgiann while she lived with him. Did not buy food, chop wood, nothing.

I saw a picture of Georgiann at Mama Lizzie’s house. Her hair on the picture looked as if it was very short, but Mama Lizzie said that if you looked close her hair is long. It was all the way down her back. Her daughters Lizzie, Minnie and Mattie also had long hair. My mother Pearline’s hair was long until she decided to cut it. There has not been a time when one of the grandkids or great grandkids or great-great grandkids has not combed and brushed Mama Lizzie’s hair. I was told we may have Native American Indian blook (perhaps Creek) in our ancestry somewhere.

Georgiann’s family did not talk about one another and what they did. Aunt Mary Jane moved to Chicago, Aunt Minnie had about 5 daughters, Aunt Sinia had a little girl who died at a young age.

Georgia Ann lived in Cataula, Georgia (Harris County) in a 2 room house that her son Johnson (Uncle Johnson) built for her. The day that she died, she was sitting on the porch, she got up and told someone to put her to bed; she said she wanted to get in with the baby. She repeated to them again that there was a baby in the bed and she wanted to lie down with the baby. They led her to the bed and she went on to “sleep.” 

Georgia Ann, in 1920, has her daughter Annie’s boys living with her and her 2nd husband Crawford Smith in Hamilton, Georgia. Eddie Lewis Williams is age 3 and Richard Williams age 2. In the 1930 census she is divorced and living in Cataula, Georgia next to her son Johnson. Eddie Lewis Williams is age 13 and James R. Williams is age 12. According to Georgia Ann’s granddaughter, Ethel Jenkins, Lizzie’s daughter, se did not want “Baby” (her daughter Lizzie) to marry Ocie Thompson. Her first husband Isaac had passed on by this time. The reason for distrust is because Georgia Ann had heard some not so nice words about Ocie’s father Lee Homer Thompson. (Note: Whatever she heard was probably true. Just ask the sheriff in Hamilton.)

Deborah Daniels Dawson is the Historian for our Williams Hudson Family. Please reach out for more info . . .