Martha Ann Beazell Justice ( 1824-1867)

Martha Ann Beazell Justice the second daughter of Allen and Susan Justice was born on January 14, 1824, in Jackson County, Georgia. Her middle name, Beazell, was her maternal grandfather’s surname.

She grew up on the Justice family property with her older sister Elizabeth and the siblings born after her. On September 7, 1846, at the age of twenty-two, she married her neighbor John Moorman Venable Jr. (1827–1910). He was the son of John Moorman Venable Sr. (1779–1868), who had migrated from Virginia and North Carolina to Georgia and settled along the Mulberry River in Jackson County.

Between 1847 and 1862, Martha and John had ten children. Their first was their only daughter, Virginia “Jennie” Josephine Venable (1847–1887, buried in the Justice Cemetery). She was followed by nine sons:

2. Allen Leonidas Venable (1849–1901 in the Justice Cemetery)

3. John Alvin Venable (1850–1920)

4. Daniel H. Venable (1851–1915, in the Justice Cemetery )

5. Joseph Parschal Venable (1852–1895)

6. William R. Venable (1854–1922)

7. James Columbus Venable (1857–1882, Justice Cemetery)

8. Thomas Lafayette Venable (1859–1944)

9. Francis Benton Venable (1860–1929)

10. Eugene Bartow “Bart” Venable (1862–1929)

In the summer and fall of 1861, John M. Venable Jr. joined many of his Mulberry River neighbors in the newly formed 16th Georgia Infantry Regiment. He began as a second lieutenant in Company B and was promoted to captain after the Battle of South Mountain. The 16th Georgia spent nearly the entire war in Virginia as part of the Army of Northern Virginia, attached to Toombs’s (later Benning’s) Brigade. They fought in nearly every major campaign of that army: Seven Pines, Gaines’ Mill, Second Manassas, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness–Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Sayler’s Creek, and ended at Appomattox Court House, where Captain Venable was captured and General Lee surrendered.

By the summer of 1865, he had made the 600-mile journey back to Jackson County. What he returned to bore little resemblance to the world he had left: farms run down, enslaved labor gone, Confederate currency worthless. Nearly every family had suffered a loss. Martha’s youngest brother Allen T. Justice (1843-1863) who was also enlisted in the Georgia 16th infantry never made it back from Virginia. Returning veterans struggled with illness, trauma, and the weight of defeat. Reconnecting with wives and families, and resuming agricultural life amid economic collapse, proved extremely difficult.

For John and Martha, the war years created a rift that never healed. John began a relationship with a married woman, which led to a court summons and a local scandal. Martha died on June 14, 1867. She was laid to rest in the Justice Cemetery.

On August 31, 1869 John M. Venable married a new acquaintance Mary Garrison (1838-1920) and lived on his father’s land with her and his children through the 1870s. He was the administrator of his father’s will. He transferred part of his property to his only daughter Jennie (1847-1887) who was married to John Jackson Wallis (buried in the Justice cemetery). By the 1880s John M Venable had moved with Mary to Gainesville, Hall County, and he reported that he worked as a sewing machine agent. In 1897 he requested a CSA veteran’s pension. He died in 1910 and having been a Mason for the greater part of his life the order took charge of the burial services and his body laid to rest at Alta Vista cemetery in Gainesville.

Of the ten children of Martha and John, their daughter Virginia “Jennie” Josephine (1847–1887), and sons Daniel H. (1851–1915), and James Columbus (1857–1882) remained in Jackson County and are buried in the Justice Cemetery. Joseph P. moved to DeKalb County, and four sons—William R., Thomas L., Francis B., and Bart—moved to Mississippi, while John Alvin settled in Arkansas.