Francis F. Cheek
Francis F. Cheek, called Frank, was born in Georgia at the end of December 1865, the first winter after the Civil War. His gravestone gives 28 December 1865. His death certificate gives 26 December 1866, but the age written on it, sixty one years, three months and three days, fits the earlier year.
He married Lillis about 1887. In 1900 they were living at Dacula, in Gwinnett County northeast of Atlanta, with seven children, all living: James W., thirteen; Jennie M., ten; Arthur J., eight; Alice and Allen, both six; Lustre, three; and Mart, one. More were born after 1900, among them John, Eva and Lisbon.
By 1917 Frank had moved the family west to Douglasville, the seat of Douglas County, and was working at the Lois Mill, the cotton mill on the east side of town with its own village of mill houses, church and hall. The local columns of 1917 have him on the sick list in January, visiting a married daughter at Tallapoosa in March and spending a day in Atlanta in May. In 1920 his son Marty, twenty, was still at home with John, Lisbon and Eva.
On the night of 9 March 1920 a tribe of the Improved Order of Red Men was organized in the Lois Mills Hall with 54 members. The Red Men were a men's fraternal lodge whose chapters were called tribes and whose officers took mock Indian titles. Frank was installed as its first sachem, the presiding chief, and his son Arthur as Deputy Grand Sachem. Four years later his son Marty was sachem and Frank served as C. of W.
In September 1925 he had a stroke. The county paper called him "one of the oldest employees of the Beaver Lois Mills" and said he was "in a very serious condition." He lived another eighteen months.
Frank died at Douglasville on 28 March 1927, at sixty one. His death certificate gives his work as engineering. The doctor, R. E. Hamilton of Douglasville, saw him the day he died and gave the cause as apoplexy, a stroke, with high blood pressure behind it. His son A. J. Cheek, Arthur, gave the family information. He did not know his grandmother's maiden name and wrote only that both of Frank's parents were born in Georgia. The N. B. and J. T. Duncan Company of Douglasville buried Frank in the Douglasville cemetery on 30 March. Lillis was buried beside him in 1939, under a stone carved FRANCIS F. and LILLIS A.
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Cite: Heirology, "Francis F. Cheek (1865-1927)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/francis-f-cheek-1865-1927-4e1a93.