Family History

Beginnings

The Picketts came from southern England and migrated to the United States in the late 1600s. Henry Pickett (1640 - 1702) had a son, John Pickett Sr. (1679 - 1765), who remained in Virginia. It wasn't until John's son, Micajah Pickett Sr. (1709 - 1796) settled in Fairfield County, SC, that the family moved elsewhere.

His son, Micajah Pickett, Jr., (1748 - 1822) had a large plantation in Fairfield County, but in 1799, purchased lands on White Oak Creek in Rutherford County, NC. After being estranged from his first wife, Kisannah Henson, he moved to his White Oak Creek property and entered into an agreement with widow Susannah Johns in Buncombe County, NC. In 1803, he moved to a 1,075 farm on the Green River which he accumulated after selling his White Oak Creek lands. Today, that farm is on the western edge of Lake Adger. He had upwards of 15 children, and when he passed away in 1822, a legal battle between the two "families," that is, the children of Kisannah and the children of Susannah, began. 

It stemmed from the desire to provide for his first family (who was still residing in Fairfield County) while also ensuring his second family inherited some of his assets. The two families fought for several years to the North Carolina Supreme Court, where in Pickett v. Pickett, on June 1, 1831, the second family lost.

There is an undated article in the Pickett family archives that reads, “Initially a suit was instigated by Charles and Kizannah Pickett in South Carolina against James and Suzannah McKenney, Susannah Johns and the children.  Also named as defendants were Jephtha, Isaiah and Elizabeth’s husband, Samuel Mobley [three children of the first family].  This court found in favor of the plaintiffs, upheld the validity of the 1805 Bond and found the 1817 conveyance in North Carolina to James McKinney to be fraudulent.  It ordered that a sum of $23,926 be paid by the defendants.  As a balance of $20,000 of the award was not paid, the plaintiffs took the case to North Carolina to get a settlement from those lands.  The second family filed a counter suit.  In 1831, Charles was still trying to get “his share” and apparently fell out with his mother.  During the course of the suit, Mary Jones [daughter from first family] died, Jephtha and Isaiah [sons from the first family] moved to Georgia and all of the second family moved to North Carolina.

Joseph Pickett, was born on December 26, 1804, to Micajah Jr. and Susannah, most likely in Rutherford County. He met Caroline Amanda Edney in North Carolina. He worked with his brother Malachi for his father's tavern and pub along the Drover Road, a migration route into upper North Carolina over the Saluda Gap. It was here in North Carolina that he met Caroline Amanda Edney.

They originally moved to Cobb County, Georgia, in the early 1830s, before settling in Gilmer County. It is unknown if they had any children in North Carolina, but the birth dates of several of their children (including eldest, daughter Josephine Pickett, 1831-1912) suggests so. They settled on a farm in the small community of Town Creek, GA, south of Ellijay. A creek here would be named for them, Pickett Branch. Today, Old Highway 5 runs over it and there are several homes on the land. 

"Colonel" Joseph Pickett became a pillar of the community and served on the Georgia State Senate, representing Gilmer County. When the vote to secede from the union was put forward, he was one of few state senators that voted against it, representing the more pro-union and anti-slavery ideals of the Georgia mountains. He died on July 27, 1893. One of his obituaries reads,

Death of Colonel Pickett at Ellijay.

Ellijay, Ga., July 29.--(Special.)--Colonel Joseph Pickett, aged eighty-nine years, is dead. He was born in Greenville county, South Carolina. From there he went to Henderson county, North Carolina, where he was married and elected to the legislature. He came to Gilmer county before the Indians were removed, was once elected clerk of the superior court, and represented Gilmer county in the Georgia legislature for fourteen years. He was one of the originators of the movement which resulted in the building of the Marietta and North Georgia railroad. Colonel Pickett was a high-toned and honorable gentleman and leaves a large family and many friends to mourn his death. 

12 children were born to the couple, all but two reared children. Marcus D.L. Pickett was born in 1835 either in NC or GA. He is mentioned in the 1850 census as a farmer. There are no further records for him. He may have died young or went out west, never to be heard from again. There are rumors he died in 1889,  but these cannot be confirmed. Emmaline Pickett was born in 1833. She spent nearly her entire life living with her parents until their deaths, and may have suffered from an intellectual disability or mental disorder, as she is marked "insane" in the 1880 census. After her parents deaths, she was committed to the Georgia State Sanitarium in Milledgeville, where she died sometime in July 1911. She was buried near her parents at the Talona Church Cemetery. 

The rest did have children, though, and most stayed in Georgia, including John Columbus Pickett, who was born on December 14, 1848, in Georgia. 

He was appointed the Postmaster of the Town Creek Post Office on January 7, 1872, a post office which has long since been closed. He married Margaret Holt later that same year, and they had two children: John Lester Pickett, born in Gilmer County in 1874, and Martha Flora Pickett, born in 1877 in either Gilmer or Pickens County. He moved to Jasper, GA, and ran for the 1886 senatorial race for the 41st district.

In 1880, he received his doctorate in medicine from the Georgia Eclectic Medical School and practiced medicine under the name "Columbus Pickett" until his untimely death on June 2, 1898. One of the most well-known stories in the family, he was traveling down Univeter Road in Canton with his wife, Martha. His horse got spooked and ran down the road. Both him and his wife were ejected from the buggy. It is reported that he hit a pine tree and died nearly instantly, while his wife suffered minor injuries. Sometime between 1898 and now, a family legend began that he was in a horse race, but this probably isn't true. According to the Cherokee Advocate, June 10, 1898, "The funeral service of Dr. C. Pickett, who was killed in a runaway last Thursday ... was one of the most largely attended and most impressive that Canton has ever witnessed.  The Baptist Church could not seat the numbers of people present, and they had to linger about the doors and open windows in order to hear any part of the service."

Martha Flora Pickett moved to Knoxville and married Francis Simpson Little. The couple was reportedly quite wealthy, as seen in her photo featuring a fur coat and a pearl necklace, but they never beared any children. Francis died in 1951, and Flora died ten years later. 

John Lester Pickett enlisted in the services and was stationed in Miami before he came home after his father's death. He married Lillie Evaoline Mills on December 12, 1897. They had three children: John Columbus Pickett, born on February 13, 1899, Hollis Mills Pickett, born on April 17, 1900, and Jay Windsor Pickett, born on December 25, 1901. At this time, they were living with Margaret Pickett at the Pickett Hotel, which she operated until her death in 1922, alongside four boarders, a cook, and a porter.

However, while she was pregnant with Jay, the family legend is that she was fed up with John Lester's alcoholism and status as a "playboy," and caught the next train to Atlanta from where they lived in Canton. Her sister, Maude Mills Carney, tried to talk her out of it, but she remained steadfast. They were formally divorced several years later. In 1907, she was listed in the Atlanta city directory as a widowed nurse, and in 1910, she was living at her sister, Alice Morris', home, with Hollis and Jay, where she was working as a trained nurse.

On the other hand, the 1910 census listed John Lester Pickett as a prisoner working as a miner in Vancouver, Washington. In 1917, his WW1 draft registration card was completed in Cochise, Arizona, where he worked as a smelterman for Copper Queen Smelters. He died in Clarke County, Georgia, on October 16, 1929, from tuberculosis, and he was buried in Canton next to his parents. According to Mike Pickett, his father, Jay, was planning on adding on to their home and giving John Lester a place to stay, but this never happened.

John Columbus Pickett 

Hollis Mills Pickett went to school to become a pharmacist after being discharged from the army in the wake of World War I. He married Cora Lee Duke on September 14, 1920, and they had two children: Marjorie Pickett and Hollis M. Pickett, Jr. His aunt, Florence Walkoenig (nee Mills) paid for him to attend the Southern College of Pharmacy where he graduated in 1924. Not long after, on March 24, 1925, he died in an automobile accident in Miami. He was originally interred at Crestlawn Cemetery, likely in the mausoleum with many other Mills family members, but after Jay Pickett purchased several Abbey crypts around 1948, he was reinterred there. His children took the surname of Cora's second husband, Albin Ganier, and they relocated to Louisiana. 

Jay Pickett reportedly quit school by 1909 to work in a department store, but by the age of 18, he was working at an accountant for E.C. Atkins Saw. He married Mary Catherine Donnelly on April 30, 1920. They lived in several boarding homes, and had several children: Jay W. Pickett, Jr. (December 16, 1922 - July 12, 2006), John D. Pickett (August 19, 1924 - December 25, 1974), Hollis W. Pickett, Sr. (February 17, 1928 - January 20, 2023), and Mike Pickett, creating the Pickett family as we know it today.