By default, I have become our family historian. It began with my father in the late 1970s, and I have tried to honor him by continuing his work. Back then, tracing and locating family historical documents was difficult. Dad traveled to many courthouses and cemeteries across the South for clues and answers. Today, family history documents are available that my dad could only have dreamed of, making the search far less difficult.
I’ve been told, “What does it matter where one comes from or learning about ancestors you have never known?” I believe the bigger question is this: could each family lineage tell a glorious story of triumphs and tragedies that would rival the best Hollywood movie script? After years of research, I can affirm that the answer is YES. That answer leads naturally to the story that follows!
How did the lives of my ancestors affect me? Did their decisions affect where I live today and, in turn, who I love today? Did my family’s lineage nudge me toward where I am today, and help explain my place now?
If I met any of my great-grandparents, what would they think of me and my life today? Did they ever look into the future and ponder the lives and journeys of their grandchildren or great-grandchildren? Would they love me? Could they love me? Is it possible to love someone you’ve never met, and to feel the joy or pain of a family member we have never known, and carry that feeling forward?
While I don’t know what they would think of me, I do know what I think of them, based on personal letters, historical documents, and interviews. From these sources, a portrait has been painted in my mind of each individual I have researched—some just a mere sketch, others a beautiful rendering of what I can know of who they were—and that is how I begin to see them more clearly.
During the 1700s, the name Benedict was as common as William or John and remained so until the treachery of the infamous Benedict Arnold. Major General Benedict Arnold had the utmost trust of his Commander-in-Chief, future first President of the United States, George Washington. Benedict ultimately betrayed General Washington and the Continental Army, switching his allegiance to the British and becoming a Brigadier General in the British Army, fighting the same men he once commanded.
Benedict Arnold was born in the British colony of Connecticut in 1741, but a few years later in 1755 in another British colony, Virginia, Benedict Hammock was born, carrying the name into a different time and place. It is believed that Benedict Hammock was born near Richmond, Virginia, and moved through the Carolina Colonies with his wife, Sarah. After a season in Wilkes County, Georgia, he ultimately lived out his later years in Jones County, Georgia.
One would believe that Benedict would have shared a story similar to that of most other pioneer settlers who came to call Georgia home, but a few lines in his will tell a different story, making his journey unlike most others.
Those lines are:
“In the Name of God, Amen. I, Benedict Hammock, of Jones County, Georgia, being in health of body and sound mind, memory and understanding, but deprived of two of the greatest blessings that man can possibly enjoy from my birth; that is of hearing and speaking but through Providence can understand perfectly by signs how to trade and transact my business and which signs I am perfectly satisfied that the witnesses of this my last Will understand.” (April 22, 1825)
I wonder how the fact that her father could not hear or speak from his birth affected his daughter and my great-great-great-grandmother Rebecca “Becky” Hammock Culpepper, wife of Joel Culpepper?
The Bible says in Galatians 6:2, “Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
I wonder how Becky Culpepper helped carry her father’s burden of never hearing the sound of a bird’s tweet, the bark of a dog, the noise of approaching danger, or the sweet voice of his wife and daughter.
All of my research shows that she was a wonderful woman of dignity, grace, and kindness to all.
Granddad Benedict, it has been wonderful to meet you and to know that the lifelong burden you carried would have helped you understand some of my burdens today. I happen to believe, that you would love me.
One thing I know, as I listen to the birds sing, Grandad: I Love You!
Dirt Road Diaries 