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The Life and Death of Asa Hendrick

gingerinmydna





I first read about Asa Hendrick in a Paulding New Era article from 1884. It was 30 years since the Paulding County borders had changed. This necessitated the forming of a new county seat at Dallas. The New Era printed a series of “Pen & Ink” Sketches which gave some of the early history and events of the County since 1854. This included a list of those “killed in the county.” The Aug. 1st issue says this about Asa.

“Parties unknown Killed Aca Hendricks by shooting him with guns. They went to his house after night in disguise, set fire to his barn, which caused him to run out, and in doing so he was riddled with bullets. Different causes have been suggested which prompted the midnight assassins to commit the deed. The grand jury found some true bills. Some of the parties were arrested and broke jail and left, but it is not known what disposition was made of the other cases.”

A few months ago I was asked to speak at a genealogy event in Powder Springs and was approached by one of the guests, Marguerite Craig, who mentioned she had some ties to Paulding County history and told me her ancestors name, Asa Hendrick. I recognized it, of course, from the Pen & Ink Sketch, but she had an additional detail not mentioned. That Asa had been killed for his gold. The family history article in The Heritage of Paulding County, Georgia book mentions this as well. I wondered if we could find more detailed records concerning Asa and decided to look into it.

I am much more familiar with Ancestry.com but Marilyn Cranford had peaked my interest in what was available through Family Search and I was not disappointed. Using these two sites and others, bits and pieces of Asa’s life began to come together.


Asa was the oldest child of William Hendrick. I have seen various names for his mother but no records that say who she is. Family lore calls her Eliza, so that’s what I will use. Asa was born about 1805 in South Carolina, and came with his parents to Elbert County, Georgia before 1809. They lived near an area known as Scull Shoals. In 1811 this area was part of a new county known as Madison.

There are two known brothers, William Pinkney and Barnett. There were more likely other unknown siblings, at least 2 boys and 2 girls. The 1820 through 1840 Census records show younger children in the William Hendrick household.

Most family trees I see of his family show that Asa’s bride was named Lavina or Vina Robertson. Their marriage bond, dated 28th Jan 1828, has her name as Vina Roberts.


Asa started acquiring land at a fairly young age. In 1827 he paid an $18.00 grant fee and was awarded 202 ½ acres of land in Carroll County. In the 1832 Gold Lottery he received land lot 103, 3rd District, Section 4. I believe this is located in what is now Bartow County.

William Sr. deeded Asa 116 Acres of land in Madison County in 1833. The 1838 Madison Tax list shows Asa owning 116 acres in Madison County, 202 ½ acres in Carroll County and 40 acres in Unknown, the last being the Gold Lottery land.



I believe that sometime between 1838 and 1840 is when the Hendricks, consisting of William, William Pinkney, Asa and their families, made their move to Cobb County. One book I recommend is The First Hundred Years. This is a Cobb County history book and gives wonderful details about what it was like migrating overland by ox teams in the early days. We have two copies available at the library if you’d like to see it.

The 1848 Cobb County tax list shows Asa owning seven lots of land in the 1st District, 3rd Section. They were lot numbers 221, 233, 234, 235, 236, 343 and359. The 1850 Census shows them living in Baites District, Cobb County, a few years later the borders changed and this became Brownsville, Paulding County.

This is where Asa and Vina raised their four sons, Charles, Joshua, Willis and Asa Jr.

All four sons joined the Confederacy at the time of the War, only one returned home. Charles and Willis were buried in the Hendrick Cemetery while the youngest, Asa Jr., was buried at Richmond, Virginia, where he died of Typhoid in 1864.

Back in Paulding, times were rough. In a letter dated 1863, Claborn Bishop, a local miller, had this to say:

I am of the opinion that the worst of the war is over and the purpose of the enemy at this time is to starve us out and if they should fail in that I then think they will abandon the war. Consequently my opinion for them to try to starve us out how they may succeed at that is more than I can see at this time. our whole country is filled with speculators and is monopolizing everything in their power and is doing a great damage to the county. I'm not able to say what I will do yet but I want to leave this country and think I will the circumstances may so turn out that may have to stay here but it is not my choice. The fact of the currency to wit the confederate money is depreciating constantly and the Congress does not try to make provisions for the redemption of it I have sold my mills which was all the valuable property that I had my town property being worthless the man I sold my mills to yet owes me $1800 and I could get the confederate money at anything but it is so much under par that I am fearful I will lose too much.

Another Bishop letter says: it is impossible for a poor man to make anything here at this time the country appears to be run down and I think it will be worse if possible as soon as peace is made.

Asa was able to hang on to his land and prospered, the 1866 tax list shows that at that time he owned 14 lots.

One of these, lot 75, shows a very interesting chain of custody. Asa bought the forty acres and ½ of the mineral and mine rights for $450 in 1858. Was it possible that gold was being mined on this property?

One of the many things I wanted to settle about Asa’s death was the date. The stone that was placed later at the Hendricks Cemetery gave the date as Aug 1869. It was probably someone’s best guess but I knew the date had to be earlier than this because an estate notice was printed in the Atlanta Intelligencer in January of 1869.


I next found Asa’s will. He had probably what would be a considerable amount of wealth, especially in the aftermath of the war. He was very concerned about the care and comfort of his wife and left her many items to help with this including 4 of his land lots. 221, 233, 234, 235.

In the inventory of his estate it lists his cash money:

G. piece 71.00

Green Back 45.65

Old bank money So. Ca. & Ga (from before war) 768.00

Revenue Stamps 1.00

1 Note on A. Aiken 30.00

This amounted to $915.65

In the Ordinary records it was quite by accident I found the record of Joshua applying to be executor of Asa’s Will which he’s presented. He gave the date of death for Asa, the deceased, as 19 Oct 1868.

This will probably be as close as anyone can get, to an actual death date for Asa.


Another mystery that I wanted to discover is who was responsible for his death. One theory was told to me, that they thought there was some trouble with their neighbors, the Umphries. I did find one record in the Court Minutes dated Feb 1861. There was an issue of trespass, the Hendricks vs. Umphries and vice versa.


I looked through the Court Minutes that would have been right after his death in 1868 but there was nothing mentioned of charges or true bills being drawn against anyone. At least not for Asa’s murder. The records were a bit in chaos, due to another death that had taken place just a few months before Asa’s.

Claborn Bishop wrote to his son the 23 Aug 1868: there has been two very atrocious murders committed in Dallas in the last 12 months and others threatened. One was committed by Son or Wiley Jones on William Stegall. Jones shot him dead in the streets publicly without any conceivable cause. Jones ran off and keeps himself concealed but has been in the neighborhood lately. This happened sometime last winter and but a few days ago Robert and James Carter murdered S.L. Kincannon in his own storehouse by shooting him all in open daytime.


This happened when the Aug. Term was opening up at the courthouse. There was such an uproar that court was canceled. If you look in the Court Minutes for Aug. 1868 you’ll find the list of jurors had been written but then nothing in the pages after. Everything was carried over until the next Court term in Feb of 1869. But in February there was nothing about Asa’s murder or who could have been responsible.


The newspaper clipping in the New Era had said that people had been arrested so I knew there had to be something somewhere. I scanned through the minutes page by page until I found it. In the Feb. Term of 1876, True Bills were drawn up for Murder and Arson against 6 men.

George W. Stewart, Elijah L. Hendrick, Terrel T. Nally, Samuel Wood, Lem Shaw and Jesse Stewart.

The witnesses were Lavina Hendrick, J.W. Hendrick, John Norton, B.H. Smith, A. Akin, Emily Seals, David Smith, Jacob Meadows, Elizabeth Turner, Levicy Norton, Mary Ann Burton and Robert Seals.


Asa’s own nephew, Elijah, was one of the accused and had been a neighbor to Terrel Nally growing up. Lem Shaw is found listed as a Freedman living in the Brownsville area. At this time, I’ve not found much of the other three.

The Hendrick case seems to have been pushed aside because of other murder cases, another of the Jones’ brothers, and Shelton brothers were being tried this time. The state continued their case against the six men accused, and Elijah made bail. The article had said that there was a jail break, I’m curious if that might have happened later and it’s just not in the court minutes.

Elijah Hendrick and Terrel Nally did, however, leave as the article said.

In 1880 they are found in the Siever County, Arkansas census living as neighbors.

Was Asa Hendrick murdered for his gold as his family believes? I may not have the answer to that figured out. Yet. But I do have some theories. I think I’ll save that for a future post.

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