Winston Tyson and Cathy Greene

In a blog comment not so many back Suzanne mentioned that it seems that I am related to everybody. With that in mind:

I just finished 1776 by and still have it on my mind. In the book General Nathaniel Greene is mentioned throughout the book. He was a hero of the Revolutionary War.

Here is a moment of a brush of history with a relative. My great great grandfather was Eugene Hargraves “Job” Tyson (1798-1868). Job’s real name was Job Tyson, but his sister Winston Tyson adopted him and changed his name to Eugene Hargraves Tyson.

Winston was a school teacher.

After the Revolutionary War the Georgia State Legislator gave Mulberry Plantation to General Nathaniel Greene and his wife Caty. Mulberry Plantation is northwest of Savannah about 10 or 15 miles, on the Savannah River. Then, after they started the plantation going well, General Greene died, which left Caty the job of running it.

They had small children. Cathy Greene ran an advertisement for a school teacher to live on the plantation. Winston Tyson applied for the job and got it.

Also, Eli Whitney ran the ad and went to the plantation to apply for the job and found the job had already been filled by my g-g-g-great aunt. Even though the teaching job had been filled Cathy invited Eli to spend a few days visiting before traveling back to his home.

While there, as they say, the rest is history. He invented the Cotton Gin with the help of Cathy Greene’s comb – which changed slave labor in the south.

And a few years later President George Washington visited the plantation to pay his respects to one of his favorite generals.

Not only that, for shortly after that General “Light Horse Harry” Lee. Who also was a Revolutionary War General visited the Mulberry Plantation and Mrs. Cathy Greene. Light Horse Harry was Robert E. Lee’s father. While visiting Mrs. Greene, he dropped dead.

Many years later Winston Tyson died in a retirement home for teachers in Augusta, Georgia (not that this has anything to do with the story).