• HOME
• BEFORE THE WAR
  • FAMILY ORIGINS
  • MAJOR DAVID GOLLADAY
  • PATRIOTIC CEREMONY
  • 1860 CENSUS
• CONFEDERATE
  • CSA SOLDIERS
  • JACOB B. GOLLADAY
  • MISSISSIPPI
  • STONEWALL BRIGADE
  • TENNESSEE
  • VIRGINIA
• FOR THE UNION
  • KENTUCKY
  • UNION SOLDIERS
• AFRICAN
  • AFRICAN ROOTS
  • 1870 KENTUCKY CENSUS
  • 1870 MISSISSIPPI CENSUS
  • 1870 TENNESSEE CENSUS
• GENEALOGY
  • FAMILY TREE AND BOOK
  • ABOUT THIS SITE

Roots of the Black Golladay, Golliday, and Goliday families 

Frederick W. Golladay of Tennessee, Jacob Shall Golladay of Kentucky and George Shall Golladay of Grenada, Mississippi were slave owners. All three were sons of Isaac Golladay in Lebanon, Tennessee.

AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA

The Golladay families in Virginia fought for the Confederacy. However, at the start of the Civil War, there is no evidence that any Golladay families in Virginia owned slaves. Only one Golladay is listed in the 1860 slave schedule. This was Jonathan Golladay of Augusta County, who employed a 50 year old black male and a 22 year old black female. Jonathan was not shown as the owner, so he likely he paid the slave's owner for the work.

David Golladay in Augusta County owned slaves in the early 1800's. However, family records indicate that David and his son Frederick were part of the effort to free the slaves and return them to Africa to settle in Liberia. Years later, Frederick daughter's Mary and Martha could still recall the memorable day when David's former slaves departed for the trip back to Africa. This was after David's death. The U.S. census in 1810 and 1820 shows that David had slaves. David made a will in the autumn of 1823, just before his death. David was a wealthy man at this time, but his will does not list these slaves. This will seems to verify the story that David's slaves were freed.

Also, David's son (Reverend Peter H. Golladay) attended the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention held at Putnam on the 22 April 1835. This conference advocated "the principle of immediate emancipation without expatriation" for the slaves. Peter held the office of Manager in the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society for Preble County from 1835-39.

LIFE ON THE GOLLADAY PLANTATION IN
MISSISSIPPI BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

George and Martha Golladay's ten year old daughter Medora died early in 1858. Because of their grief, George and Martha took their family on a trip to Tennessee in the summer after Medora died. While they were gone, their relatives wrote several letters to them concerning the happenings back at their plantation in Grenada. These letters give some information about the blacks working on the plantation.

But the flooding of the Yalobusha River and the resulting mosquitoes caused a lot of illness that summer.

In a letter written later in the summer, an update on the black workers was given:

Other blacks mentioned by name in these letters are Smithy and Harrison.

BLACK SOLDIERS

Several of these former slaves fought in the Civil War for the U.S. Colored Troops in the Union Army:

History of the 13th U. S. Colored Infantry

The seven black soldiers listed above had been workers on the farm of Jacob Shall Golladay of Logan County, Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation did not free the slaves in Kentucky and the other border states that did not secede from the Union. And Jacob had remained loyal to the Union, so he wrote a letter to General Ulysses S. Grant in late 1863 requesting the return of these soldiers. His request was not approved, possibly because these blacks worked on his farm in Tennessee.

AFTER THE WAR

GRENADA, MISSISSIPPI

After the slaves were freed, almost all of the black Golladay/Golliday's remained in Grenada. George Shall Golladay kept his plantation for a short period after the war.

The hog killing incident

After the death of George's wife in 1866, he left Mississippi. George's children Davidella and George (Jr.) remained in Grenada. Davidella's husband owned a dry goods store and George (Jr.) worked there, so the white Golladay family was no longer involved with farming.

It is not currently known what happened to the farm that had once been the Golladay plantation. Additional research is needed to determine the exact location of this farm, but it was about three miles west of the town of Grenada.

So far, only one black Golladay from Mississippi has been found outside the state in the 1870 census. Jesse Golladay had moved to Fayette County, Tennessee. He was 22 years old and his wife was also from Mississippi.

The large majority of blacks still worked on the area farms during this era. A newspaper article noted:

LOGAN COUNTY, KENTUCKY AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TENNESSEE

At least five of the seven black men serving in the Union Army who had worked for Jacob Shall Golladay died during the war. They were between the ages of 21 and 33 years old when they enlisted, so they probably had wives and children when they died. Their wives may have remarried and taken different last names, thus making researching their families difficult.

Jacob Shall Golladay was active in national politics after the Civil War, but he kept his farm. Eddie Golladay shown as a black farmer in Jacob's household in the 1870 census. He may have been the Union soldier Edward Golladay, although this needs to be verified.

William Golladay moved his family to Nashville, but some of the black Golladay's/Golliday's stayed in Logan County, Kentucky and Montgomery County, Tennessee.

WILSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE

Frederick W. Golladay's wife and oldest son died, so he moved with his youngest son to live with his brother Jacob Shall Golladay in Logan County, Kentucky. What happened to the black Golladay's who worked on Frederick's farm is not currently known. On 10 November 1870, the Lebanon Herald reported the murder of a black man named Nathan Shorter. It stated that Nathan lived on "the Fred. Golladay place" which was about two and a half miles northeast of Lebanon and between the Hartsville and Hunter's Point pikes. Frederick Golladay did not live in Tennessee when this crime occurred, but this article is useful in identifying the location of the Golladay farm.

The Cedar Grove Cemetery in Logan County, Kentucky contains the unmarked graves of some of these black Golliday's.

Hilliard Golliday

Harriet Golliday

Ewing Golliday

This page last updated on September 05, 2012