Eliakim Stanley
Eliakim Stanley was born in Johnston County, North Carolina, about 1810. A Georgia militia roll of 1864 gives his age as fifty-three years and nine months and his birthplace as "Johnson Co, N.C.", which puts his birth in the autumn of 1810. WikiTree gives the day as 1 March 1810, without a source. His gravestone gives the year as 1810.
He spent his working life as a farmer in Henry County, Georgia. He was there by 1832, when his son Eli was born in the county. Land in Henry County was described by district and by numbered lot, and every deed he made names the lot.
On 11 September 1837 James Stanley sold him 165 acres, land lot 221 in the 11th district, for $231. James wrote a condition into the deed. He reserved "the privilege of living on and tending or cultivating a sufficiency for a support for himself during his life time, and also for the use of Delia his wife during her life or widowhood." William Dodson and Hubbard Holloway, a justice of the peace, witnessed it, and it was recorded on 11 October 1837.
That is how a father hands his farm to a grown son while keeping a living off it. WikiTree gives Eliakim's parents as James Stanley, 1789 to 1864, and Delilah Blackman, without a source, and Delia is a short form of Delilah. The deed fits that exactly. It does not use the word son, so James and Delia are his parents only very probably.
Both were still alive in Henry County in 1850 and 1860. The 1850 census lists J. Stanley, a farmer of sixty born in North Carolina, with D., seventy, also of North Carolina. In 1860 James Stanley, sixty nine, a farmer born in North Carolina, lived near the White House post office with a "Lilie" of North Carolina. Next to him on the page were R. Stanley, thirty three, and John B. Keen, the justice of the peace who witnessed Eliakim's two deeds of gift in 1865.
In 1850 the census of Henry County found E Stanley, born 1810 in North Carolina, and S Stanley, born 1810 in South Carolina, with eight sons. The enumerator wrote every person on the page in initials: L, born 1831; E, 1832; W B, 1833; J J, 1840; J B, 1843; J N, 1845; L, 1847; and B L, 1849. The E of 1832 is very probably Eli.
His wife was Susan, born about 1809. Her burial entry of 1892 names her husband as "Elikim Stanley". She is very probably the S Stanley of 1850 and the mother of his children, though neither of his deeds of 1865 names her. Find a Grave calls her Susanna Fisher, born in South Carolina, and gives no source for it.
In 1864 Georgia enrolled the white men who were not in Confederate service into a home militia, under an act of 14 December 1863. Eliakim was enrolled in his own district, numbered 622 and 491 and known as Bushy Knob, as a farmer of fifty-three. His son Eli was in Virginia with Company K of the 22nd Georgia. A Lodoric Stanley of sixteen years and eleven months is on the same roll. He is very probably the L born in 1847, and he too served in Company K and was wounded at the Crater at Petersburg in July 1864.
On 9 September 1865, five months after Appomattox, he gave land to two of his children by two deeds written in the same words. To "Eli Stanley son of the said Eliakim Stanley" he gave 101 1/4 acres, the north-east half of land lot 224 in the 12th district. He kept back one acre in its south-east corner, "which is to go to John J Stanley". To "Mariah Stanley daughter of the said Eliakin Stanley" he gave the north half of lot 194 in the 11th district, 93 1/4 acres. Each deed was made for natural love and affection and five dollars, the token price that made a gift into a conveyance.
Mariah's land was hers for her lifetime and then went to "her bodily heirs", meaning her own children. That wording fits a woman not then married. Jas. H. Cook and John B. Keen, a justice of the peace, witnessed both deeds, and J. H. Maxwell, the clerk, recorded them on 12 March 1866. John J. Stanley, who was given the acre, is very probably another son, the J J of 1850.
The county's books hold more of his business. A purchase of his is in the deed book for 1855 to 1859, and three more conveyances are in the book for 1859 to 1868. He appears in the court minutes of 1841 to 1850 and in the appraisal records of 1823 to 1860.
He died in 1884. No estate record of his is known. He is buried in plot 21 at Alexander Cemetery in Rockdale County, under a stone lettered "ELIKIM STANLEY 1810-1884". Susan lies in plot 22, under "SUSAN STANLEY 1809-1892". Eli was buried in plot 26 in 1905, five plots away, and his wife Nancy beside him.
Children
Sources
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Cite: Heirology, "Eliakim Stanley (1810-1884)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/eliakim-stanley-1810-1884-a92e08.