This what I sent to Grandma Woolliscroft about her family.
Major Sgt. John Berry Watts
Your Grandmother, Celia (Watts) Lowrey’s Father
Your Great-Grandfather
“During the Civil War John Berry Watts was a resident of Ellijay, Georgia. He enlisted in the Georgia 6th Confederate Calvary. During the Battle of Chickamauga he was Sergeant Major and was the reconnaissance officer for the Confederate Army. He rode his horse to the top of Missionary Ridge at Rossville Gap and met the Yankee
Armies head on. He immediately turned his horse and spurred him back toward the Southern Lines. As he was hugging his horse and ridding down the ridge he could hear the mini balls whine over his head. After riding the Confederate lines announcing that the Yankees were coming he took up a firing position in a log cabin. It was here that his buddy thought that he was dying from a stomach wound to only learn later that he had a blister on his stomach burned by a hot bullet that had ricocheted from one of the logs of the cabin.”
(An interesting note about your Great-Grandfather, John Berry Watts, his 1st wife was Lilly Pitner which would have been your Grandmother’s mother. She died young at about the age of 33. John Berry Watts’ 2nd wife was Mary Elizabeth Lowrey. The only thing it can tell me was both the Watts families & Lowrey families lived close together to be marrying into the two families. There fore, Mary Elizabeth Lowrey was your Grandmother Celia’s step-mother.) - Arlene Teller Duncan
Goldia Inez Lowrey Chrisman Remembers
George W. Lowrey was born in Murray County, Georgia on November 10, 1869 or 1870. Celia Bethena Watts Lowrey was born December 15, 1870 or 1871 in Walker County, Georgia. They had nine children of which five lived. Four of them died before they were two years old. They were married when Grandma Lowrey was 16 years old and Grandpa Lowrey was 17 years old. Marriage was on May 1st.
A very interesting story I was told when I was a little girl then many times after. George W. Lowrey lived in what was called the Gap which was not the best part of the country. They had been seeing each other on the sly for quite a while and decided to get married. They knew Grandpa Watts would never approve so they made it up that after Sunday School before church they would slip off and go over into the next County and get married. Several of the young people in the area went with them. They went in a buggy. Grandpa Watts came out of church and asked where Bethena was. Someone said she and Wesley had gone over to the next County to get married. He started out on his horse running it as hard as he could. He met the group of young people coming back. He asked if Wesley and Bethena were married. They said yes. He stopped and turned around. He had run the horse so hard that it died. (When we were in Georgia I saw one of my aunts. She was a very small child when this happed but she told me the same story. So apparently there was some truth in it. She also remembered that the horse died.)
