Mt. Zion Cemetery

Mount Zion Church Cemetery
Contributed by Gloria and John Holback

Please see also History and restoration of Mt. Zion Cemetery - generously donated by Johnnie Rhodes Knight

James Lea Willcox Lot in Mount Zion Church Cemetery, Wilcox County, GA material submitted by Gloria Holback, April 2003 Surveyed by John D. Willcox and wife Polly Willcox Willcox. This page is dedicated to the memory of John D. Willcox who spent the last years of his life tending to all of the cemteries in neighboring counties where Willcox family members and their allied families were buried. He and his wife Polly along with Tad Evans set up the Willcox Family Cemetery Foundation to maintain cemeteries where Willcox family members are buried. The idea came to John D. Willcox and Tad Evans during some of their discussions about the need to care for family burial grounds. Though their mutual respect of their ancestors they began their dedicated work. They have placed headstones on graves and cleaned all of the cemeteries which had Willcox family members interred...Polly Willcox and Tad Evans, both living should also be honored for what they too have done. This information was abstracted from pages 29 and 30, "Cemeteries of the Willcox Family", John D. Willcox and Tad Evans, published by authors, 1988. Book given to me as a gift from my cousins Polly and John D. Willcox. Material was used on the old GAGenWeb Project Willcox County pages with the permission of both John D. Willcox and Tad Evans. This and many other cemeteries are maintained by donations to the Willcox Family Cemetery Fund for perpetual care.

In 1985 a monument was erected in this cemetery to the memory of the members of the Willcox family buried here. Some members of the family are listed on the monument although they are not buried here. Those persons are indicated below by an asterisk (*) in front of their name:

This cemetery contains five separate infant graves with no names or dates

James Lea Willcox Oct 30, 1803 Jul 16, 1861
Elizabeth McDuffie Willcox May 10, 1805 Nov 8, 1887
*Thomas Lea Willcox Feb 17, 1812 Apr. 25, 1897
Abigail McDuffie Willcox Feb 27, 1816 Apr 17, 1864
*Murdock McDuffie 1767 1822
*Abigail Curry McDuffie 1774 1863
John Woodson Willcox Jan 31, 1825 June 18, 1852
*Nancy Reid Willcox June 26, 1829 Apr 21, 1895
John Woodson Willcox, JR 1846 1870
*Elizabeth Willcox 1848 1875
*John A. Tomberlins Feb 29, 1843 Aug 24, 1929 See# Irwin County Tomberlins
James Lea Willcox 1851 1862
*Sarah Willcox 1853 1922
*Samuel J. Brown May 4, 1844 Oct. 3, 1900
Sarah Willcox Feb 13, 1827 Jan 4, 1854
James V. Hollingsworth, JR Sep 1, 1816 Nov 17, 1855
James Hollingsworth, III 1845 1859
John Hollingsworth 1846 1858
William Hollingsworth 1852 1853
Mark Willcox 1829 1829
Mary (Polly) Willcox Feb 24, 1833 1883
Abner Brown Feb 26, 1826 1862

Page 29.......beginning of page 30

James Lea Lot in Mount Zion Church Cemetery

George Brown 1854 1860
James Lea Brown 1861 1861
*George Mitchell Willcox Nov 1, 1835 - May 19, 1915
*Nancy Daniel Willcox Feb 21, 1841 Jan 7, 1908
Woodson Willcox 1836 1836
Georgia Ann Willcox 1837 1837
*Sibbie Gertrude Willcox Dec 27, 1839 1910
*Jacob Watson 1832 1901
Elizabeth Willcox Mar 27, 1842 June 12, 1876
James S. Turner Mar 17, 1829 Mar 25, 1904
Lewis Abijah Willcox 1845 1845
*Abigail Sophronia Willcox Jul 25, 1847 Jun 9, 1894
*Reverend Elias Turner May 10, 1834 June 3, 1910
Annie Turner Dec 15, 1867 Aug 28, 1878
*Mattie Turner Nov 7, 1873 Sept 28, 1889
*Sibbie Catherine Turner Apr 4, 1882 May 3, 1897
Infant Daughter of Oliver and Elizabeth Tomberlin....no dates
John Lea Willcox 1832 1832
Mary Woodson Willcox 1840 1856
Thomas Lea Willcox, Jr. 1855 1892
**James S. Turner born 1829
** Elizabeth Willcox Turner born 1842 and daughter born abt 1862
**Per research of George Robert Turner: Elizabeth & James S. Turner and daughter are listed on the monument but buried in Levy County, FL. Rev Elias Turner & his three children buried Tift Co. GA & his wife Abegail Sophronia Wilcox TURNER buried Polk Co FL.

*Note there are many Willcox family members with the middle names Lea and Woodson. These are from early Colonial ancestors from Virginia.

John Woodson came to Virginia on the ship George, from England 29 January 1619. A fellow passenger was Governor, Dir George Yeadley. See Hotten's Emigrants To America. John's son, Dr. Robert Woodson was slain by Indians during an attack on 18 April, 1644. Robert was on his way home from attending a patient...he was ambushed and killed, near his home. His wife, Sarah, two young sons Robert and John were at home alone, other than a male servant, ? Ligon. Mr. Ligon held the Indians off with an eight foot muzzle loading gun (I have seen this gun and have a photo of it, taken during my visit to the Virginia Historical Society, where it is housed in a glass case as you enter the gallery). It is huge and so long, one would wonder how a small person could handle such a weapon. According to the family legend, Sarah made the two boys hide, one in a tub and the other in a potato pit, while she and Ligon held off the Indians till help arrived. She managed to pour boiling water on one indian coming down the chimney and the other she stabbed with a cooking/roasting spit. She must have been an amazing woman.....or perhaps in defending our children we would all find the courage to fight off anything or anyone. Well enough about that....more cemetery records will follow soon from other burial grounds in Wilcox County.

The Woodson, Lea, Herndon, New, Winston, Tarleton, Bates, Butler, Barry lines are all ancestors of the Willcox family in Wilcox, Dodge, Telfair and Pulaski Counties. All of the aforementioned families were among the first families of Virginia.

Compiled by authors, John D. Willcox and Tad Evans, Cemeteries of the Willcox Family, (written and published by, compilers/authors, John D. Willcox & Tad Evans: 1988). 1996,1997,1998, Gloria D. Holback. All rights reserved by author. No portion of this and the attached pages are to copied or reproduced without the author's written expressed consent.