William Russell Raiford
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Writing an autobiography can be difficult, especially when a portion of one’s life has been spent in the quiet, discreet and unheralded service to one’s country. In order to protect the identity of certain individuals and their descendants, I have had to change names, dates and, in some instances, even places. Nevertheless, the life experiences I am about to relate are true. The people are real. Some of the situations are known to several people; some are known only to a few. I have omitted several instances that happened because of their delicate nature as it relates to the security of both individuals and countries. The first part of my life’s story, up until about age thirty, is straightforward, the normal recollections of “a gentleman of the Old South.” But the majority of my life, thus far, is still cloaked in, what I prefer to call, “service to others.” My father had an expression which I liked. It was not original with him, but hearing him say it impressed me greatly. “It’s amazing what you can get done, if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
My family came to Georgia in 1798 from North Carolina. Maurice Raiford, my great-great-grandfather, fought in the American War for Independence as a Lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment of the North Carolina Continental Line. That particular Regiment saw much action and participated in many battles of the Revolution, to include Monmouth, New Jersey; and Philadelphia and Germantown, Pennsylvania; and spent the winter at Valley Forge with General Washington. When the victory at Yorktown, Virginia, ended the War in October, 1781, most North Carolina participants were granted some acreage for their military service. Maurice, sometimes listed as “Morris” in the military records of North Carolina, was granted acreage in the western part of that State, land that is now situated in Eastern Tennessee. After traveling westward to view his new holdings, he returned to Raleigh, to exchange a part of his land grant for a “more suitable” piece of land in the “new” State of Georgia. Having been successful in this attempt, he moved his family in 1798 to Jefferson County, to the lower part of the County along Blackwater Swamp Creek. Louisville, the County seat of Jefferson County, was the capital of Georgia from 1794 until 1807.
Maurice’s first marriage, in Johnston County, North Carolina, in 1780, was to a woman who’s first name was Polly. Her last name is not now known. This union produced a son named Isaac Wesley. Maurice’s second marriage, in 1785, also in North Carolina, was to Asenath Hodges, whose father, John, had been a Captain in the Fifth Regiment of the North Carolina Continental Line. Asenath, as found in the Biblical Book of Genesis, Chapter 41 and verse 45, was the name of the Egyptian wife of Joseph, the son of Jacob. This union was blest with eight children. Over the next twenty-five-plus years, Maurice acquired much land in Jefferson County, while, for some unknown reason, he retained some of his original land grant in the Western North Carolina (Eastern Tennessee) area.
