Kindly Mr. Irby?
Who was this slaveholder, turned landholder? If Mr. Irby picked a time to pick cotton in Rehoboth, he might have waited a mite too long. Yet, we know he did, because we have Emma.
Born in Marlboro in 1818 (the same year importing slaves were banned by the way), in 1850 Census he lived as a single man with 31 slaves in Lexington, Dallas County, Alabama.
One decade later in 1860 I found him at home in Rohoboth, Gee's Bend, (post office box Prairie Bluff) and his 31 slaves had grown from 31 to "47 plus 7." That "plus 7" interested me very much, since the Wanderer had landed 2 years earlier and the captives trekked through his home state. Those 54 slaves lived in 12 houses on land he purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Christian.
Enter the war.
"His people" must have earnestly waited for him to return from the Civil War, not knowing their fate. Cal, Emma's future grandfather, being too young to know.
Josiah was a foot soldier, and an older one at that. He volunteered to join the Confederate Army at age 44, went in as a 2nd Lieutenant, Alabama, Company A, 4th Infantry Regiment, muster date 1 August year 1862. The war had begun at Ft. Sumter in 61 and he saw much action. I honestly felt sorry for him. He started with the Battle of Manassas which lost all field officers, Yorkton, Seven Pines 2nd Battle of Manassas, Seven Days Battle, Chickamauga, Antitem, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Ft. Sanders, The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Campaign. Miraculously he did not die, although he may have finally have been captured and surrendered with 300 others at the Battle of Mobile Bay in 84.
After 1865, he applied for a Presidential Pardon which cost him $2,000.
His slaves were now free, in theory at least.
In 1870, he lived in Rehoboth, with $10,000 worth of land, paying taxes of $1,800 to Mileax County. He was 52 years old.
He was living with a "mulatto" freed woman and her (their?) son, Duncan, also "mullato," and in his last will and testament in 1870, he gives Emeline Gee, quite a bit of property, and she is named preferentially before any of his other heirs. Her occupation on the 1870 Census is "dorm servant."
His will began with the words, "In the Name of God, Amen!"
He died the following year.//
(Photo The Battle of Mobile by Louis Prang. Library of Congress. Used by Creative Commons, Wikipedia.)
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