The Family of John and Cornelia Mullins

John Madison Mullins

My Mullins line came down into Alabama out of antebellum Georgia.  Back in 1840 Miles Mullins married Elizabeth Dodgens up in Bartow County, Georgia.  Elizabeth was the daughter of William and Nancy Dodgens and comes from a long line of Dodgens who first entered the US before 1750.  Miles’s parents have been harder to trace.  After researching every Mullins in 1820-1830 Georgia I was able to rule all of them out as Miles’s parents except May and Anna Mullins.  In all probability May is his father but May has been hard to trace as well and it’s still an open question whether May and Miles are father and son.  At any rate, Miles and Elizabeth showed up in the 1840 census of Cass County.

Miles Mullins circa 1870

1840 CASS COUNTY, GEORGIA, PAGE 90

MULLINS, MILES

Miles at age 25

----- 1 MALE    20-30 

Elizabeth at age 17

----- 1 FEMALE  15-20

Miles has defied detection in any 1850 census.  Records put him in Cobb County, Georgia in 1851, however.  By 1860 Miles was in Butler County, Alabama working for the railroad.  He and Elizabeth had a total of six children by then -- five are shown here.

1860 BUTLER COUNTY, ALABAMA, PAGE 46, 14 JUN

MULLINS, M.            W/M  45     R. R. LABORER         GA

-----E.                           W/F  35

-----M.C. (Monroe C.)   W/M 15

-----N.E.                        W/F  13

-----JAS                         W/M 12

-----JNO                       W/M   9

-----M.                           W/F    6

Miles’s family was counted twice in 1860 and shows up on page 47 in a slightly different format.  Maybe this makes up for not being counted in 1850.

His eldest daughter Mary J. was married in Greenville 17 Jun 1859 to Benjamin F. Hammett.  Mary J. had one child, Lenora.  Lenora died 29 Sep 1860 and Mary followed her three days later on 2 Oct.  Another daughter, M. E. (Emma) married John W. Powell in Butler County 25 Oct 1866.  And Miles’s eldest son Monroe died 19 Jun 1866.  Because they weren’t named in any census, I only know of Mary and Lenora and Monroe through the Old Mullins Family Bible shown to me by Ben Morris of Pensacola. It took a long time to figure out who some of those people listed in the Bible were but I have now identified all of them.

Miles Mullins moved on after 1866 and is in the 1870 census of Canoe with Elizabeth and two children.  Another son, James H., who married Eulalia J. Milner in Butler County, Alabama 17 Dec 1872, lived not far away.

1870 CANOE, ESCAMBIA COUNTY, ALABAMA, PAGE 7, 5 JULY

MULLINS, MILES         W/M 52   R.R. S MANAGER      GA

-----ELIZABETH             W/F  47                                       GA

-----MAHALAH                 W/F  16                                       GA

-----JAMES                      W/M 18   FARMER                     GA

Apparently Miles’s son John Madison got listed as James in the 1870 census.  Not much changed with the family structure by 1880.

1880 CANOE, ESCAMBIA COUNTY, ALABAMA, PAGE 247, 94/94

MULLINS, MILES     W/M 65 HEAD   FARMING              GA SC SC

ELIZABETH      W/F 67 WIFE   KEEPING HOUSE    GA SC SC

JOHN M.            W/M 28 SON    TIMBERING            GA SC SC

         MAHALIA ANN   W/F 25 DAUGHTER  ASSISTANT  GA SC SC

Miles and his sons John M. and James H. owned land in Canoe along what is now highway 31.  Miles died on 27 Oct 1880 shortly after the census.  He is buried in the Bowman Cemetery at Waubeek, Alabama.

In 1880 John’s future wife Margaret Cornelia Bowman was living in Escambia County, Florida.  She had married a Still and was widowed in 1880 and living with J.J. Lathram and his wife Frances Jane Shepard, Cornelia’s aunt.  Apparently Cornelia knew John from earlier since her father, John Wesley Bowman, lived several miles away in Waubeek.  However it was that they met, they were married in Canoe 13 Jul 1882.

Margaret Cornelia Bowman Mullins

Around 1890 the remaining Mullins moved down into Muscogee, Florida to work for the Southern States Lumber Company.

In 1900 Elizabeth was living with her daughter Mahala and son-in-law W. F. Brown in Muscogee.  Mahala had had 5 children all of whom had died prior to 1900.  Elizabeth died the 5th of Jun that same year and is buried in the Old Muscogee Cemetery.  Her beautifully carved tall marble tombstone, before it was smashed by vandals, stated proudly that she was born in DeKalb County, Georgia.  That statement was the only proof I had that I had made the right family connections.  I’m glad I made it to the cemetery before the vandals.  Mahala died eight years later and was buried next to her mother and her young children.  James H. died in 1894 and is buried in the Old Muscogee Cemetery.  John Madison Mullins, my great-grandfather is buried with his wife Cornelia Bowman across the Perdido River in the Clear Springs Cemetery.

Left to right are Cornelia, Nell, Minnie Mae, John and Ola circa 1905