By Rachel McDaniel
news@pikecountygeorgia.com
As the seasons change, the beauty of the Nelson Memorial Foundation’s projects can be seen blooming across the county. The Nelson Memorial Foundation funds beautification projects throughout the year and was established in honor of Thomas ‘Century’ Nelson, a Revolutionary War hero from Pike, by his descendent Thaddeus Nelson Morris.
Morris was 73 and had never married when he died in January 2000, leaving around $1 million in his will to beautify Pike County and the cities of Meansville, Concord and Zebulon in honor of his ancestor and Pike County preacher ‘Century’ Nelson. Morris’ will specified the funds would be distributed on a rotating schedule after a council was set up; otherwise, the funds would go to Emory University.
Thomas Nelson Sr., moved his Scotch-Irish family in to the area of what is today known as Rutherfordton, North Carolina sometime prior to 1745, where Thomas Nelson, Jr. was born on Nov. 25, 1745. The family moved to Fairfield District, South Carolina, circa 1750, probably because of Indian uprisings in that area which killed a number of white settlers in Western North Carolina. Thomas Nelson, father and son, served in the South Carolina Militia during the Revolutionary War. Circa 1799, Thomas Nelson Jr. married Susannah Woodward, of the family of Thomas Woodward, “The Regulator,” a captain in the South Carolina Militia. Thomas Nelson, Jr., was a Methodist minister admitted in the South Carolina Methodist Conference in 1797, and served until 1807 when for family concerns he re-located.
In 1831, Thomas Nelson, Jr., moved his family and living children to Pike County, Georgia, to an area along Big Potato Creek with children, William D. (later a Methodist minister), Nancy, Mary Ann and a sister Cynthia. A son, Henry, who was married to a Delila Hardy, lived in Macon County, Alabama with children, Thomas, James, and Delila, moving his family to Pike County, Georgia, upon the death of his wife at the birth of the daughter, in 1835.
Century Nelson Methodist Church was named in honor of Thomas Nelson, 1745-1846. It is reported that Thomas split 100 fence rails on his 100th birthday.
Not only was a church named in his honor – Century Nelson Methodist Church – but the entire area around the church was referred to in the late 1800s and early 1900s as Century Nelson community. The church was established in 1828. There is no church in the area today, although there are around 180 burials in the Century Nelson Cemetery which is located around 150 yards from the Lamar County line, just inside Pike County on Alabama Road (now Mud Bridge Road).
Nelsons in Pike County in the mid 1800s were James, married to Sarah Jane Campbell, who had sons James F. and Robert P., daughter Louisa; Thomas, married to Sarah Jane Wadsworth,; Delia married to Alfred Andrew Liles; Nancy married to John Paxton, of Tennessee, Ben Hill married to Mattie Barrow, second wife, Pearl Albert West; Lavenia married to Henry C. Watson; Eliza Jane married to W. M. Allred. Henry Nelson, Jr., born 1848, married Martha Ann Agnes Rucker in 1870, and acquired 100 acres abutting the town of Meansville, to the East, to establish a home near the Meansville school, John Means Institute. The children of this marriage were James Colwell, and Truman Edwin. James married Alma Naomi Mabry, of Monroe County, and Truman married Eunice Idella Trice, a descendent of Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
A story in The Barnesville Gazette on Thursday, Aug. 19, 1987 says,
“Grand Pa Nelson, from whom Century Nelson church takes its name, lived to be 104 years old. Century Nelson Church stands as a monument to the noble deeds and good advice of this grand old patriarch.”
The Southern Christian Advocate, published in Charleston, SC, on Friday, May 8, 1846 states of his death, “On the morning of his death, though not able from a palsied tongue to speak audibly, he appeared joyous, and pleasantly to look to the change that was passing on him, and so he left this transitory world without a murmur, and scarcely a sigh. Having battled successfully against both temporal and spiritual enemies, as in this world he lived to enjoy the fruits of the former victory, so he now, we confidently believe, lives in another, still more richly rewarded for the latter victory achieved. May his example be an incentive to move others to as faithful performance of duty, that they may secure similar benefits through the merits of the Redeemer.”
Century and his wife are not buried at Century Nelson Church although they are buried on a family farm nearby.
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