Throwback Thursday, William Elijah Joseph Petty (1875-1935)

Throwback Thursday.  You may recall last Throwback was a photograph of five of the six children of Daniel Webster and Sarah Jane Garrett Petty.  The one that is missing in the photo is our grandfather William Elijah Joseph Petty (1875-1935).  He was born in Fannin County, Georgia.

Was William Elijah a child abuser or a loving father?  It is according which child you ask if they were still living.  Some of his children claimed he was loving and caring and the others claimed he would blame everything on a certain few and beat them without mercy.

William Elijah had a breathing problem which could have been TB.  He moved his family out west to a homestead in Gillette, Wyoming.  After a couple of years of near starvation he moved his family back east.  First to Appomattox, Virginia, then back to the Murray & Whitfield Countries area of Georgia.

He put Viola and the girls and younger kids on a train to return east.  He and his two oldest sons returned by covered wagon, which I'm sure they got quality father-son time in.

Once while homesteading in Gillette, Wyoming, an outlaw gang paid them a visit.  They said they did not want any trouble; just food and the barn to sleep in.  William Elijah Joseph obliged, but through the night as the outlaw rode their horses hooting and hollering, Elijah sat at the house's front door holding a shotgun.

Back in Georgia, Elijah died with his lung disease. When his son Roy was told of his father's death the following morning, Roy said, "Good!" and turned over and went back to sleep.

He married Frances Viola Petty 2 December 1904, in Murray County, Georgia.  They had twelve children, three died as infants.

Notes - You may have heard of Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.  It is where General Lee surrendered the Confederate Army to General Grand in 1865.

The picture.  As I mentioned, about half of Elijah's children thought he was hateful and cruel, He is holding a bouquet.  How nice.