If you ever visit Jasper Co, do stop at Evergreen/Ebenezer Cemetery to the west of Heidelberg. It is on Co Rd 8 in Barton Green’s pasture. This was the cemetery for Ebenezer Baptist Church, rebuilt closer to town on HWY8. The little cemetery is lovely with wildflowers among the graves. Google it! Elijah’s grave always has a US flag so someone still knows about him. His son Rufus ordered his stone from the US govt in the 1930′s. And by the way, Nicholas Lyon was killed by Indians as he rode by the old Ebenezer church in 1858. Again, thanks for opening some new avenues of research.

Judi Robertson

Vikki

Just finished the book and I just wanted to tell you how much I thoroughly enjoyed it. It provided me with a wealth of knowledge.

As a descendant of many of the families you discuss in the book, the insight you provide into their lives as they made their way in early Mississippi is invaluable and, sometimes, extremely sobering. My sixth great-grandfather was Williams Duckworth (through his son George Washington Duckworth, born about 1820) and, in addition, I am descended from Sumralls as well (though I’m not sure quite where the line goes…my fourth great-grandfather was named Green Berry Sumrall, born about 1833).

In addition, as a librarian and as a history buff, your book provided hours of entertainment and education.
Again, thank you so much for writing the book.

Brandon Shoumaker, MLIS
Lake Charles, La.

Vikki

Thank you for taking the time to write to Renegade South, and I truly appreciate your kind words about my research and my book, The Free State of Jones.

Daniel Thomas Knight was the son of James “Dry” Knight and Harriet Youngblood. He was the grandson of John “Jackie” Knight and Keziah Davis. He was a first cousin to Newt Knight.

Your great-grandmother, Alice Knight Stringer, was the daughter of Daniel Thomas Knight and his second wife, India Warren. There is quite a bit on this branch, including a portrait of Dan Thomas and India (p. 186), and a 1914 family reunion group portrait (p. 189) that includes your great-grandmother, Alice, in the book, THE FAMILY OF JOHN “JACKIE” KNIGHT AND KEZIAH DAVIS KNIGHT, jointly written by Winnie Knight thomas, Earle W. Knight, Lavada Knight Dykes, and Martha Kaye Dykes Lowery. Although this book is no longer in print, you will find it on the shelves at the Laurel Public Library.

In addition to visiting the collections that I referenced in my book, I recommend that you contact the Jones County Genealogical Association when you visit Jones County.

I share your criticisms of Ethel Knight’s rendering of the story of the Free State of Jones, but, like you, I also appreciate the many stories that she saved from oblivion when she wrote ECHO OF THE BLACK HORN. That book will always be an important starting place for historians, alongside Tom Knight’s memoir of his father’s life.

Best of luck with your research, and let me know if I can answer any more questions. I also invite all descendants of the Dan Thomas Knight line to respond to your post with insights and research of their own.

Vikki
Moderator

Thank you for researching and telling as much of the true story as possible: good, bad and downright ugly. Without your hard work starting nearly 20 years ago, I fear some of us would be left with Ethel Knight’s unsubstantiated, racist indictment of the Jones County C.S.A. insurgents, or counter-rebels, as the primary account of this fascinating sub-chapter of Civil War history.

I have purchased and read both your book, “The Free State of Jones: Mississippi’s Longest Civil War,” and The State of Jones. My maternal great-grandmother was a Knight from the Jones County Knight family. I also grew up in Jones County, but came there in 1973 at 8 via my Dad’s job transfer–with no other relative besides my long-since-gone great-grandmother ever having lived there.

In the late 1970s (I believe) my mom and dad took my grandmother to a Knight family reunion–the one and only time. The only thing I recall about that is my Dad coming home with a copy of Ethel Knight’s “Echo of the Black Horn.” I never read it. From all accounts, I’m glad I did not, as a then somewhat impressionable 13-year-old. I’m now a civil litigator in Mobile, Alabama and would like to read it from the perspective of staring down my South’s sick past.

I have been trying to determine the Knight from which I descended on your Jackie Knight family tree. Appx. I, p. 192-193. I have hit a wall for my online research abilities. I found that my great-grandmother Alice Knight was born in 1889 or 1890 in Jones County, was married to AC (or Claude a/k/a A Feland) Stringer in December 1908, then my grandmother (Irma Lee Stringer) was born in 1915.

The only clue I have to a possible ancestor is what Ethel Knight told my Dad in the late 70′s–that Alice Knight’s father or grandfather was the Dan Thomas Knight referenced on page 113 of “Echo”:

“At first the men in hiding were approached by relatives who insisted that they come out and return to the Confederate army, or at least, to protect the good name of their kinsmen, join the Union forces in an honorable manner. Three of the first to contact Newt by volunteering to do this service were cousins of the Deserter. One of this group was Alpheus Knight. The other two were Dan Thomas Knight and John Knight”

Do you have any suggestions on where else I might look? Either on the internet or in public records. I am planning on taking trips in the coming months to Laurel, Hattiesburg and Jackson to look at some of the unpublished source materials listed in your bibliography.

Thank you again for the education and enlightenment.

Sincerely,

W. Perry Hall