The Macon Daily Telegraph - Sunday Morning December 12, 1909 - Remarkable Families of Emanuel County Swainsboro - December 11 - Emanuel besides being a remarkable county in the variety, quality and quantity of it's agricultural products, it's naval store products, it's resources etc. id the proud possessor of many remarkable families. Down near Covena, a little hamlet in the southwestern corner of this county, there resides Mrs. Leecy An Williamson, wife of the late Andrew J. Williamson, who died September 1908, at the advanced age of 92 years and some months. This good woman is able to see no less than four hundred living souls of the house of Williamson; two score of which are her great-great-grandchildren. She had sixteen living children, twelve of whom are alive. Many of her grand-children are old men and women. Williamson is herself ninety years of age and in fairly good. health. Mrs. Elizabeth Phillips, one of her daughters, married William C. Phillips and is the mother of twelve children, eleven of whom are living. In this remarkable family are several groups of five generations, one of which is grouped as follows: Mrs. Leecy Ann Williamson, Mrs. Elizabeth Williamson Phillips, her daughter, Gilmore Phillips, son of Mrs. Elizabeth Phillips, and his daughter, Mrs. Mattie Phillips William and her two year old son Jewel. Mrs. Williamson was, before her marriage, Miss Leecy Ann Moore, daughter of Mr. James Moore, who was one of the early settlers of this state. She and her husband lived together for more than seventy-five years and raised sixteen children to manhood and womanhood before there was a death among them. Their descendants in this county are good citizens and have helped to make the county what it is. Mr. Wilder Phillips, who married one of Mrs. Williamson's granddaughters, is the tax receiver of Emanuel county. Another remarkable family is that of Mrs. Elizabeth Durden who boasts of two hundred and sixty-nine living descendants. Mrs. Durden was born in 1807 on the spot where she resides within a mile of Norristown, Ga. She is the daughter of the late Nathan Barwick and Elizabeth Whitten Barwick. Her husband, William Durden, who died about forty years ago, was a prominent citizen of this county. She is the mother of eleven children, all living. Her tribe has increased until at present there are sixty-five grandchildren, forty three of these being men, on-hundred and eighty-two great grandchildren and ten great-great-grandchildren. Mrs. Durden is a consistent member of the Primitive Baptist Church, having joined at Old Canoochee church forty years ago. Her mind is still active and her eyesight good. At the present time she is abler to read without glasses and she can get about without assistance. One of her sons, Mr. John F. Durden, was tax collector of this county for several years. Near the same little county villa, Norristown, lives Mrs. Eliza Youmans, a sister of Mrs. Durden. Mrs. Youmans was Miss Eliza Barwick and is now 88 years old. She married the late Soloman Youmans, a public spirited citizen of this county. She is the mother of eight sons and one daughter. Her sons are more or less public spirited men, five of them having held offices of honor and trust in this county. They are big in both mind and body, their aggregate avoirdupois pulling the scales at something over sixteen hundred pounds. These three old ladies, who have passed many milestones since their alloted time expired, live within a radius of six miles of each other. Within a few miles of them is the famous Gillis Springs, whose health-giving qualities have spread over the land, and it is probable that draughts of this water and that bubbling from the hillsides surrounding these springs, have added years to these noble women whose posterity is an honor to this county.