John Wesley Carnley (1875 - 1923)

Born 13 Mar 1875 in Walton County, Florida, USA

Ancestors

Died 7 Apr 1923 at age 48 in Walton County, Florida, USA

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Biography

JOHN WESLEY CARNLEY was born March 13, 1875, in Walton County, Florida. He was the fifth child and second son of George M. and Martha Ann Lassiter Carnley. He died April 7, 1923, in Walton County, and was buried the following day at Clear Springs Cemetery, Walton County.

John married Emily I. Busbee on February 17, 1901. Emily was a daughter of Andy Chanty and Sarah Elizabeth (Betty) Lassiter Busbee. John and Betty were first cousins, making Emily John’s first cousin once removed.

John's children with Emily were as follows:

1. Cora Carnley, b. 1 Jan. 1903, in Walton County, Fla., d. there on 10 May 1970 and buried at New Harmony Baptist Church Cemetery, Walton County. She m. Ernest C. Brown on 18 Mar. 1921, in Walton County. He was b. 15 Jun 1900 in Florida and d. 23 Oct 1959 in Walton County. He is buried beside Cora at New Harmony Baptist Church Cemetery.

2. Kate Carnley, b. 5 Mar. 1905 in Walton County. She d. there on 15 May 1985, and was buried at Clear Springs Cemetery. She m. James Parmer, aka Palmer, in Okaloosa County, Florida, on 1 Jan. 1927. He was b. 16 Sep 1896 in Walton County, Florida, and d. there 11 Oct 1983. He is buried with Kate at Clear Springs Cemetery.

3. Sarah Carnley, b. April 24, 1907, in Walton County. She d. January 10, 1970 at Eloise, Polk County, Florida, and was buried at Eagle Lake Church of Christ Cemetery in Polk County. She m. Allen B. Cawthon on August 30, 1925, in Okaloosa County, Florida. He was b. 23 Feb 1907 in Walton County and died in Polk County, Florida, 28 Mar 1959. He is buried with Sarah at Eagle Lake Church of Christ Cemetery.

4. Willie Fred Carnley, b. 9 Sept. 1909 in Walton County. He d. 24 Jan. 1985 at Fort Mead, Polk County, Florida, and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery. He m. Jessie Rayborn, 14 Jan. 1929 in Okaloosa County, Florida. She was b. 30 May 1911 in Walton County and d. 18 Jan 1966 in Fort Mead. She is buried with Will at Evergreen Cemetery.

5. Raymond Radford Carnley, b. 23 Nov. 1911 in Walton County. He d. 9 July 1974 in Lake Wales, Polk County, Florida, and was buried at Lake Wales Cemetery. He m. Avie Dee George Boutwell 24 Dec. 1941, in Polk County, Florida. She first married Noah Lee Boutwell, 24 Feb. 1934, in Walton County, Florida, from whom she was divorced before 25 July 1936 on which date he married Peggy Hilton in Okaloosa County. Avie Dee was b. 30 April 1916 in Alabama and d. 19 Jul. 2001 in Lake Wales, Polk County, Florida, and was buried beside Raymond at Lake Wales Cemetery.

6. Henry Joseph Carnley, b. 18 Jun 1914 in Walton County, Florida. He d. 28 Apr 1983 in Lake Wales, Polk County, Florida and was buried at Lake Wales Cemetery. He m. (1) Catherine Addison May 1958 in Polk County and divorced her there in Jan 1965. He m. (2) Mae Adkins (Atkins), Feb 1968 in Polk County. She was b. 28 Aug 1930 in Altha, Calhoun County, Florida, and is still living in Polk County as of 2015. John Wesley Carnley 13 Mar. 1875 - 7 April 1923.

7. Johnnie Lee Franklin (Frank) Carnley, b. 29 Aug 1917 in Walton County, Florida, and d. 2 Sep 1982 in Lake Wales, Polk County, Florida. He was buried at Lake Wales Cemetery. He m. Annie Bryan, 20 Feb 1937, at DeFuniak Springs, Walton County, Florida. She was b. 17 Apr 1917 and, after her death on 20 Jan 2002, she was buried at Lake Wales Cemetery with Frank.

8. Walter Samuel Carnley Sr., b. 22 Dec 1919 in Walton County, Florida, d. 27 Jan 1960 of a heart attack at hospital in Valparaiso, Okaloosa County, Florida. His burial was on 30 Jan 1960 at Clear Springs Cemetery. He married Eunice Evelyn Kirkland, 4 Dec 1941, at Bartow, Polk County, Florida. Witnesses were his brother, Henry Carnley, and his cousin, Starlin Carnley. Eunice was born 14 May 1922 in Geneva, Geneva County, Alabama. She d. 23 May 2007 in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama and was buried beside Walter at Clear Springs Cemetery.

Reverend George M. Carnley may have named his son, John Wesley, after the famous eighteenth century British Methodist minister of that name as Reverend Carnley was a Congregational Methodist minister himself and could have bestowed the name on his son in honor of the famed theologian. John was born probably in his parents’ log cabin on Pine Log Creek, in northwest Walton County in the area now known as Children’s Home Community. In Washington D. C., Ulysses S. Grant, hero of the North, victor of the Civil War, and conqueror of the Confederacy, was president of the United States. Reconstruction, the Union imposed post war re-education and racial sensitivity training program intended to put the recently defeated upstart south in its place, was coming to an end.

It is unknown to what extent Reconstruction impacted the neighborhood where John was born, and not much is known of his life other than what is found in a few records and scant second hand information from family and others who knew hardly anything about him. The poor quality photo of him included in this memorial is the only one known to exist. On his WWI draft registration card, dated 12 Sep 1918, he is described as of medium height and build with gray eyes and black hair. His age then was 43, and his birth date was given as 13 Mar 1875. He gave his address as 2 RFD Laurel Hill, Okaloosa, Fla, and his stated occupation was farming for himself. He signed the draft registration card as John Wesley Carnley in his own handwriting.

On the 1900 U. S. census of Walton County, he remained a member of his father’s household at age 25. He was a day laborer by occupation, and it was indicated that he could read and write. On 21 December of that year, he filed a Homestead Affidavit with James A. McLean, Walton County Clerk of the Circuit Court in DeFuniak Springs. The reason he gave for filing with the Clerk of Court was that he was unable to appear at the Dist. Land Office in Gainesville, Florida, on account of the great distance and lack of funds. On 4 January 1901, the Gainesville Land Office acknowledged his application in a “HOMESTEAD” document under the signature of W. G. Robinson, Register. After marrying Emily in February of that year, he moved onto the forty acre homestead property around the 1st of March. In a document dated 22 June 1906, John gave notice of his intention to make final proof to establish his claim to the land. He was required to provide two witnesses to prove his residence and cultivation of the property, but he named four. They were G. (George) M. Carnley, his father; W. J. (James) Pressley, his step father-in-law; Mallie (Malachi) Majors, his brother-in-law, and husband of his sister Ada; and Henry Majors, father of Mallie. He gave Stella, Fla., as the address for himself and the witnesses. Another requirement of the 22 June document was that he publish notice of his application in the Florala News, printed at Florala, Alabama, and designated by Henry S. Chubb of the Land Office, as the newspaper published nearest the homestead property.

Oscar R. Smith, publisher of the Florala News, certified that the notice was published for six consecutive weeks, beginning 16 August 1906 and ending 20 September 1906. Robert A. French, an insurance agent and notary public living in Florala, notarized the certification on 19 Dec. 1906. Copies of the “Notice For Publication,” and Florala News certification of publication are included in John’s homestead application documents.

In addition to himself, only two of the four individuals John identified as witnesses to testify in proof of his residence on the property actually did so. They were his father and stepfather-in-law, and the information they gave substantially agreed with what he stated in his “Testimony of Claimant” form. On that form, he identified himself as John W. Carnley, about 31 years old, living at Stella, Fla., and born in the State of Florida. He commenced settlement on the property as soon as he made his application and moved on it according to his best recollection about March 1901. He built a two room frame dwelling, a crib, a stable and dug a well. Along with those improvements he had about six acres under fence, all worth about $175.00. He indicated that he had been on the property for six seasons, and that the first year he had only a garden (a “greens patch,” was how his stepfather-in-law described it in his testimony). The next year it grew to about one and a half acres and afterwards to a total of six acres under cultivation. Others living there were his wife and two children, and he had resided there continuously since entering the property, having never been absent from it for any extended period of time. As to the character of the land, he described it as “Ordinary farm land, most valuable for farming.” (Both his father and stepfather-in-law characterized it as “Common piney woods land,” in their “Testimony of Witness” documents). After occupying the land for the requisite five years, he received a homestead patent dated 25 July 1907. The patent number was 18469, for 39.89 acres described as the NE 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of section 12, township 4, north and range 21, west. The location of the property as it appears on a 1936 Walton County map was a short distance northwest of the community of New Harmony and southwest of Gordon. In 1908, he recorded a turpentine lease to Simon Ginsburg. Its terms gave the lessee the right to enter the land and use it and the pine trees growing thereon for turpentine purposes, which included cutting, chipping and boxing said trees. Other activities authorized were the building and using of roads necessary to the management of the business. The term of the lease was for three years, to begin no later than 15 March 1908. Payments on the lease were to be $25.00 at its beginning, and the balance when the boxes were cut at the rate of fifty dollars per thousand boxes. The lease was still in effect in 1910 when the census of that year was enumerated. John should have appeared on the census as head of his own household, but no Carnleys can be found on the Walton County census for that year.

When the three years of the lease were up 1911, John sold the timber. He signed a timber deed to Stearns and Culver Lumber Company to harvest the timber early in the year. Then, on 7 November, presumably after the timber was cut, he sold his homestead property in its entirety to W. D. Hunt for seven hundred dollars.

Shepherd Funeral Home of Florala is reported to have overseen John’s funeral. In their records, his age is given as 45, although he was probably a 48-year-old farmer. He died on April 7, 1923, of heart failure near Florala, with burial at Clear Springs the following day at 4:00pm.

On 8 March 1912, John Carnley paid fifty dollars to Florala Naval Stores Company for ten acres in the south ½ of the north ½ of the NW 1/4 of the NW 1/4, section 5, township 4 north and range 21 west. Its location on the map was south of Children’s Home Community and a few hundred yards north of Pine Log Creek. Mack Henry Busbee’s one hundred and sixty acre homestead lay a short distance to the northeast. On 12 March 1912, John purchased 20 acres from Chipley and Lora Cawthon for two hundred and twenty-five dollars. Its location was the south ½ of the NW 1/4 of the NW 1/4, section 5, township 4 north and range 21 west, adjoining his earlier ten acre purchase on the south.

For the two parcels totaling thirty acres, he paid two hundred and seventy-five dollars. On 22 November 1912, he sold the thirty acres to D. J. Burlison for three hundred dollars, realizing a meager profit of twenty-five dollars. No further records of any other land he purchased have surfaced. From this, it appears he squatted on public property for the rest of his life in a log cabin he built in the vicinity of section nine or ten, directly west of the property he earlier homesteaded in section 12. Old timers long referred to the vicinity as the Covington Place, after Andrew J. Covington, the purchaser in 1904 of eighty acres in the south ½ of the NE 1/4 of section 16, township 4 north, range 21 west. On the map, section 16 is directly south of section 9, about two miles south of Long Road bridge across Pine Log Creek.

In 1920, John’s household on the census included himself, age 45, Emily, 35, and their eight children: Cora - age 17, Katie - 15, Sarah - 12, Willie - 10, Raymond - 8, Henry - 5, Frank - 3, and Sam (Walter) - 0 (less than a year old). The place of the census enumeration was identified as Stella, Precinct 6, an indication he still lived closer to the New Harmony-Stella vicinity than to Children’s Home.

In the few records in which he appears, John was identified as a farmer, but it is clear from his homestead application documents how little farming he did. It appears he barely held the land he acquired long enough to clear it for planting crops. Like many of his neighbors, he probably worked at odd jobs to supplement the little income he earned from farming. One income source available to anyone willing to work hard was the cutting and selling of rail road crossties. These were in demand by the lumber companies which laid train tracks throughout the area to haul logs to their lumber mills at Florala, Paxton, Lakewood, and other locations. The tracks ran through almost every community, making it convenient for those wanting to sell crossties to transport them to the tracks to be picked up.

Cutting crossties demanded physical stamina and a knowledge of different tree types. Preferred trees were red or white oak, with southern yellow pine a close second. The length acceptable to the railroads was eight and a half feet with four flat sides. Any knots or rotted places rendered them unacceptable. Felling the trees took the work of two men on the opposite handles of a cross cut saw. The downed logs were then measured out and sawed into the required lengths. Working one man to a tie, each side was flattened with a broad axe. As each side was finished, the log was rolled over and the remaining sides flattened until all were done. Wielding a broad axe invited danger. The user stood on top of the log swinging the axe along its side toward himself. Slashed and severed toes and serious cuts to the feet and lower legs were the prices hewers paid for failing to pay attention to what they were doing. Many a crosstie cutter suffered permanent injury to himself from the careless use of the tool.

A finished crosstie could weigh three or four hundred pounds, considerably more than the average man could lift onto a wagon bed. A good strong man might have been able to do all the work of felling the trees and hewing the ties by himself, but he needed help loading them on his wagon for hauling to the railroad. He received payment on delivery at the rate of thirty or forty cents each. At those rates, if he could cut ten crossties in a day, which only the best hewers could do, he made at the most three or four dollars for a day’s work.

No one knows, of course, exactly how John cut his cross ties but, in the spring of 1923, somewhere in the woods near his cabin south of Pine Log Creek, he had several on the ground ready to sell and was loading them on his wagon. His daughter, Sarah, who was about 15, and possibly other of his children, was helping him. When he went to step up on the front wheel hub to climb onto the wagon seat, his foot slipped, throwing him to the ground. He got up laughing and tried it again but fell a second time and did not get up. Realizing something was wrong, Sarah ran to him. She dropped to her knees and lifted his head on to her lap. Not knowing what else to do, she watched helplessly as he gasped a time or two and then stopped breathing. Witnessing her father’s death affected her deeply. For the rest of her life, she told many times of the anguish she felt as he lay dying with his head in her lap.

Leaving him lying there, she went to find someone to help her get him home. There were probably no more than two or three houses scattered in the woods nearby and, as she came to each one, she found no one home. She finally made her way to Mack Henry Busbee’s grist mill on the north side of Pine Log Creek. The only person she found there was Irene Busbee, Mack Henry’s granddaughter. Needing to run some errands, he left her there to mind the mill until he returned. Sarah told Irene what had happened and sat with her while they waited for Mack Henry.

On his return, Sarah told her sad story, and he took her on his Model T Ford truck to where she had left John’s body. They loaded him on the truck and took him home. In the meantime, Sarah’s brother Will, who was about 13 at the time and might have been with John when he collapsed, had gone home to give his mother Emily the bad news. It then came as no surprise to her when Mack Henry and Sarah arrived with John’s body. They carried him into the house and, after taking down a door, laid him out on it and bathed him, at least as Irene Busbee Nelson told the story. Shepherd Funeral Home of Florala handled John’s funeral. According to their records, he was a 45 (he was actually 48) year old farmer and died on 7 April 1923 of heart failure near Florala. His burial followed at Clear Springs the next day at 4:00 P. M. The record contains no details of who actually prepared the body for burial or when, or where, they picked it up, but Shepherd provided the casket. It was manufactured by Junction City and cost $35.00. Payment was secured by John’s brother, W. B. (Wiley Berry) Carnley, of Stella Rt., Florala.

Her husband’s death left Emily a destitute widow with seven children to support. Cora, the oldest, had married in 1921, but one less mouth to feed did little to ease the burden of a woman who had no means of providing for her remaining children. Over the next few years, other children married and moved out: Sarah in 1925, Katie in 1927 and Willie in 1929. At the time of the 1930 census, Emily’s household included only herself, age 46, Raymond - 18, Henry - 15, Frank - 13 and Walter (identified as Sam on the 1920 census) - 10. Between the year of John’s death and 1930, Emily relocated her family from the cabin near the Covington Place to a small wood frame house north of Children’s Home Community. The move was made possible by the generosity of William L. (“Babe”) Gordon, a wealthy land owner and resident of the area. In a gesture of compassion for Emily’s desperate plight on the loss of her husband, Gordon built the house at his own expense and allowed her to live there rent free for the rest of her life. The location of the house is depicted on a map of north Walton County dated 1936 and identified as a map of John W. Carnley’s plat of 30 acres, which appears on Page 6. The photo of Emily (above) was taken at the house. Gordon Pond, named after Babe Gordon, is the light area visible in the center of the dark background by Emily’s right arm. As it turned out, the “rest of her life” in the house was short. She died there on 18 August 1936 after suffering from an extended illness brought on by severe headaches so debilitating as to keep her constantly bed ridden. Dr. Fletcher W. Galaway of Florala certified cerebral hemorrhage as the cause of her death. Whether the hemorrhage resulted from a stroke or possibly an aneurysm was not stated. Her obituary in the local newspaper (probably Florala) appears at left.

Emily’s mother Betty survived her. Betty’s father was James Benjamin Lassiter, a brother of Martha Ann Lassiter Carnley, Emily’s great aunt as well as her mother-in-law. Although Betty and her second husband, James Presley, were still living at the time of her death, Emily’s obituary omitted them as survivors. The obituary included a daughter Mary, which was erroneous. Her correct name was Cora. Mrs. Summerlin in the obituary was Emily’s sister, Ella Busbee, who married J. P. Summerlin. She and Frank Busbee, also mentioned in the obituary, were Emily’s full biological siblings. Their father was Candy Busbee, Betty’s first husband, who died about 1891 when Emily was 7 years old. Emily’s then 3 year old brother Hosea died about the same time as Candy. The story told of their deaths was that the family had attended an event, possibly at church, where they had dinner on the grounds. Afterwards, both Candy and Hosea came down with what was described variously as severe diarrhea, dysentery, or “bloody flux.” Speculation was that they contracted food poisoning from spoiled food at the dinner. Whatever the cause, they died within a few days of each other and were buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Florala.

Betty then married James Presley, either in late 1891 or early 1892, because their first child Obie was born October 10, 1892. The Presley brothers mentioned in Emily’s obituary were children of that marriage and her half siblings. Betty and James both died in 1950, having outlived Emily by 14 years.

Additional information about Emily’s death and funeral is provided by Shepherd (subsequently Evans) Funeral Home records: Raymond Carnley ordered the funeral and paid for it with a check in the amount of $38.85. The deceased’s occupation was housekeeper, and she died Tuesday, 18 August 1936 at 11 o’clock. Her date of birth was 12 March 1865 (correct date should be 1885), and her place of death was Laurel Hill, Rt. 2, near Svea (Sweer). That location was actually several miles from Emily’s home, but it may have been given because it was the closest place to where she lived that was named on a map.

She was of the Congregationalist denomination and probably had been a member of the Congregational Methodist Church pastored by her late father-in-law, Reverend George M. Carnley, who died in 1914. He served at churches in Gordon and Stella and possibly at a third location in the Children’s Home vicinity.

Following their mother’s death, Raymond and his brothers departed the Babe Gordon house and Children’s Home. Frank married Ann Bryan in 1937 and was living in Clear Springs where he worked as a farm laborer. Raymond, Henry, and Walter traveled to Lake Wales in Polk County, Florida, and as of the 1940 census, worked at nearby Winter Haven as fruit peelers in a citrus canning plant owned by Snively Groves, Inc. They and cousins Lloyd and Elvin Carnley, all of whom were single, lived with cousin Starlin Carnley and his wife Doreatha.

About 1940 or 1941, Sarah moved with her husband, Allen Cawthon, and their children to Eloise in Polk County, where they remained the rest of their lives. After his 1941 marriage to Eunice Kirkland in Polk County, Walter returned to Walton County where he lived until drafted into the Army shortly after the outbreak of WWII. Following his discharge in 1945 at the end of the war, he remained in Walton County except for about a year spent in Polk County around 1946 or 1947. Walter was the youngest child of John and Emily but the first of them to die in 1960, about a month past his fortieth birthday. He and Eunice had four children, none of whom now live in Walton County. Frank, too, was drafted and, after the war, moved permanently to Polk County where he spent the remainder of his life. Raymond and Henry also served during the war and afterwards made Polk County their permanent home as did Will, the only Carnley brother not called into service.

Cora and Kate spent their entire lives in Walton County. Cora bore no children, but Kate presented her husband, James Palmer, with ten children, only one of those still living currently resides in the James and Betty Presley, Clear Springs, Walton County, Fla., Before 1950 county. Walton County is now the home of none of John Carnley’s descendants who share his surname except for those found in its cemeteries.

Source: Articles by Sam Carnley; published in Walton Relations; January 2016 (Vol 7, Issue 3) and February 2016 (Vol 7, Issue 4); Walton County Genealogy Society Publisher; DeFuniak Springs, Florida; Wayne Sconiers, President; Dianne Merkel, Editor; used with permission.

Burial Clear Springs Community Cemetery, Clear Springs, Walton County, Florida, USA

Created by: Michael Strickland Record added: Apr 20, 2016 Find A Grave Memorial# 161409761

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #128732792

Articles by Sam Carnley; published in Walton Relations; January 2016 (Vol 7, Issue 3) and February 2016 (Vol 7, Issue 4); Walton County Genealogy Society Publisher; DeFuniak Springs, Florida; Wayne Sconiers, President; Dianne Merkel, Editor; used with permission.