Posted By:	Connie Stringer
	Email:
	Subject:	John A. O'Sheal
	Post Date:	January 06, 2008 at 10:35:57
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ga/gordon/messages/548.html
	Forum:	Gordon County, GA Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/ga/gordon/

In 1855, a letter was sent from John A. O’Sheal in Calhoun, Gordon County, Georgia, to L.P. Waldo, esq., Commissioner of Pensions in Washington, D. C. This letter was written nine years after the death of Jethro O’Sheal. The letter asked if there were any monies due the “heirs” of Jethro O’Sheal. John A. O’Sheal could not have been an “heir” of Jethro O'Sheal except for one of the following reasons: (1) John A. O’Sheals was a direct descendant of Jethro O’Sheal through one of Jethro’s children. OR (2) If John A. O’Sheal was NOT a direct descendant of Jethro, he could claim to be an “heir” ONLY if all of Jethro’s children, grandchildren, great-children, etc. had died. Because we know that all of Jethro O’Sheal’s descendants were not dead by 1855, the only logical conclusion to be reached is that John A. O’Sheal was a direct descendant of Jethro O’Sheal through one of Jethro’s children. There is a preponderance of evidence to back this claim. It is based on census records, marriage records, newspaper articles, historical information about Cass, Bartow, and Gordon Counties Georgia, and family history: John A. O’Sheal was the son of Charlotte Harrison and John O’Sheal, Jr. THEREFORE John A. O’Sheal was a direct descendant of Jethro O’Sheal, through his daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth O’Sheal was John A. O’Sheal’s grandmother, and Jethro O’Sheal’s was John A. O’Sheal’s great-grandfather. This is the line of descent: Jethro O’Sheal’s daughter, Elizabeth O'Sheal, married Tyree Harrison. Elizabeth O’Sheal’s and Tyree Harrison’s daughter, Charlotte, married one of her cousins, John O’Sheal, Jr. Charlotte Harrison and John O’Sheal, Jr. had these children: Charlotte Silas JOHN A. Elizabeth In 1855, John A. O’Sheal, the son of Charlotte Harrison and John O’Sheal, Jr., was living in Cass/Bartow County, Georgia. John A. O’Sheal and his wife, Frances, lived in the northern section of Cass/Bartow County near Frances’s parents, Henry and Anna Gaines, in Adairsville, Georgia. This area is approximately ten (10) miles from the courthouse in Calhoun, Gordon County, Georgia, and was the place where those in the Adairsville area took care of legal matters and sent and received mail. In conclusion, there was no other John A. O’Sheal in the area of Gordon County, Georgia, when John A. O’Sheal wrote his letter to L.P. Waldo, the Commissioner of Pensions in Washington, D. C. Therefore, this John A. O’Sheal was in fact an “heir’ of Jethro O’Sheal through Jethro’s daughter, Elizabeth, who married Tyree Harrison in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The matter of who married Jethro’s daughter, Elizabeth, can now be put to rest.