Ancestors

Martury Wootson Cheek

Martury Wootson Cheek was born on 9 August 1899 in Gwinnett County, Georgia, northeast of Atlanta. He went by Marty, and his name is spelled half a dozen ways in the records: Marty, Martry, Martury, and once Marth. He was the youngest of seven children living in 1900, when the census taker found the family at Dacula in Gwinnett County. His father Frank Cheek was thirty five, his mother Lillis was thirty, and Marty was one year old.

By 1920 the family had moved west to Douglasville, the seat of Douglas County. Marty, twenty, was living there with his parents, his brothers John and Lisbon and his sister Eva. He registered for the draft of the First World War in Douglas County, giving his birth date as 9 August 1899.

By 1923 he was working at the Lois Mill, the cotton mill at Douglasville where his father had worked for years. On a Sunday that October he went up to Forsyth County with his brother Arthur and Arthur's wife to visit the family of William S. Tate near Cumming. On Christmas Eve, 24 December 1923, he married Cleo Geneva Tate at her parents' home there. In January 1924 the Red Men's lodge at the mill elected him its sachem, the presiding chief.

Their children came over twenty years: Carolyn, Norma in 1928, Frances, Nell, Barbara in 1936, Harold in 1939, Betty in 1941, Ray in 1944 and Nancy about 1947. In 1940 the family was living on the east side of Douglasville, off Campbellton Street, in the same house as in 1935. When the Second World War came he registered again at Douglasville, at forty two. This time he gave his birthplace as Gwinnett County and named his brother Allen Cheek as his contact.

In the Second World War he was working at the Douglas Mill in Douglasville. In May 1944 the mill ran a notice in the county paper addressed "To Our Fellow Workers Here On The Home Front", and it named him: he was one of the hands who had been working twelve hours a day for over a year. His son Ray was born that same month.

By 1949 the family lived in the South Beulah community of Douglas County. The grown daughters came home from Atlanta on weekends, and Carolyn, Mrs. Clarence Jordan, came over from Austell most Sundays. In 1950 he was fifty, with Cleo and the five youngest at home. Cleo died in 1964 and was buried in the Douglasville City Cemetery. Marty married again, and his wife at his death was Lily.

Marty Cheek died at Douglasville on 14 August 1993, five days past his ninety fourth birthday. His obituary ran in the Marietta Journal three days later. He was buried beside Cleo under a double stone carved CHEEK, with MARTY W. 1899-1993 on one side and CLEO G. 1903-1964 on the other. His son Hal's obituary in 2015 gives his name in full: Martury Wootson Cheek.

If Martury Wootson Cheek is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Martury Wootson Cheek (1899-1993)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/martury-wootson-cheek-1899-1993-2b214d.