Dr. Seaborn Hodges ( 1816- 1899 ) & Elizabeth Anne "Betsy" Hendricks Hodges

Seaborn and "Betsy" Hodges c.1870

Seaborn Randolph Hodges c. 1860 about age 50

Seaborn R. Hodges (April 26, 1816-October 11, 1899) son of William and Hanna fought with Elmore Callaway in the Seminole Indian Wars with General Charles Floyd's Brigade of Georgia Volunteers in the vicinity of the Okefenokee Swamp in 1837  in Florida.  Seaborn's sister, Samantha, married Elmore and they settled on Cedar Creek lands north of Manassas.  Seaborn married Elisabeth Anne "Betsy" Hendricks, daugher of John Hendrix and Jemina Brewton.  Jemina Brewton was the daugher of Nathan Brewton and Nancy Fontaine.  (Nancy Fontaine was the daugher of Francis Fontaine descended from a long line of French Heguenot ministers who broke away from the Catholic Church in the 1500's and left Europe for England and later migrated to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.)  In 1792 Nathan Brewton of North Carolina moved with his wife Nancy Fontaine to a site on the Canoochee River near Hendrix Bridge.  He founded Brewton Church and Cemetery in Hagan in 1835.

Photographed at their log home c. 1898, Seaborn (age 82) and "Betsy", are surrounded by their eleven children born between 1843 & 1865.  Located two miles east of Claxton and across Rogers' Bridge Road from the restored home of their son, Samuel Eli, the site originally included physician, Seaborn's drug store.  Seaborn was one of the earliest physicians in Tattnall County and his daughter in law, Jewel Branch, reported that she remembers that he and his assistant gathered roots and plants in the woods for many of his remedies.  His early mule drawn "cole" planter, a "Boy Dixie" one horse turn plow used to lay by corn, a grain cradle and rope bed have been restored.  Seaborn and Betsy are buried at Anderson Church Cemetery.
Seaborn and Betsy's children were; George Washington (b.1843, m. Levina Collins) , Susan Jemima      ( b. 1844, m. Gideon T. Burdett, Sr.),  James J. (b. 1846 um.), Nancy Jane (b. 1848, m. John Wesley Tippins),  John Hendrix (b. 1849, m. Mary Jane Tippins) Seaborn Layfaette (b.1852, m.1st Susan Brewton, 2nd Liza Collins) , Berry Hyram (b. 1854, m. Laura Frances Brewton) , Samuel Eli (b. 1857, m. Lurania  Williams) , Daniel Alexander (b. 1859, m. Utah Morgan),  Phillip Bartow (b. 1861, m.1st Mary Frances Rogers,2nd Emma Clanton) and Elias (b. 1865, m. Edna Elizabeth Coleman). 


References:  Anderson Church Cemetery, A History of  Evans County, GA by the Evans County Historical Society, A History of Our Locale by Lucille Hodges 1965, Once Upon A Time in Tattnall County, GA by Charles Edward Wildes, Family Bibles of Seaborn & Lurania Hodges from Lucille Hodges, National Archives Veterans Records.