The Hill Family

Charles Hendrix Hill and Harriet Poindexter Hill

(From an article in Wayne County Georgia; Its History and Its People, Wayne County Friends of the Library, Jesup, Georgia, submitted by John D. Mattox.)

Charles Hendrix Hill was born in Gilmer County, Georgia in 1872, the son of James P. Hill and Mary Jane Randall Hill. He married Harriet Jane Poindexter on August 9, 1891. "Hattie" Poindexter was born in Gilmer County in 1874, the daughter of Jasper Poindexter and Martha Jane Deweese Poindexter.

The following children were born as issue of the marriage of Charlie Hill and Hattie Poindexter Hill, all born in Gilmer County: Nettie Gertrude Hill, born on July 6, 1894, Warner Clyde Hill, born in 1897; Ruby Jane Hill, born in 1901; Hazel Marie Hill, born in 1906.

The Reverend John Poindexter, a brother of Hattie Hill, and a Baptist preacher, is reputed to have come to Wayne County, about 1902 on a mission for the Georgia Baptist Convention. A few years later he returned to North Georgia nd told his friends and relatives about the easy way a farmer could plow the loamy soil of Wayne County compared to the rocky soil of North Georgia. In any event, the records of Wayne County show that forty families moved from Gilmer and Murray Counties between 1905 and 1920. Most of them settled on farms between Odum and Screven. Most descendants moved to cities and became successful in business and professions.

Nettie Hill married Thomas Ottis Mattox on August 10, 1913. They were successful as farmers and moved to Jesup where they were successful in thegrocery business from 1924 until 1942. Then Tom Mattox bcame Chief of Police of the City of Jesup in January 1942 and served in that capacity until he had a severe heart attack in 1957; he then served as police dispatcher until his retirement in 1962.

Tom Mattox died on May 19, 1969. Nettie Mattox died on October 18, 1987.

The issue of their marriage was one son, John Dwight Mattox, who was born in Wayne County on October 29, 1917. He graduated from Mercer University with an A.B. degree in 1939 and he went on active duty as a second lieutenant on 29 September 1939. He served on continuous active duty, with 41 months overseas in Iceland, Hawaii, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the Southwest Pacific and the Central Pacific, including Okinawa. He went on terminal leave in November 1945 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

He graduated from Walter F. George School of Law, Mercer University, in 1948, and became a partner in the law firm of Turpin and Lane and Mattox, Macon. In 1957 he was appointed Regional Counsel of the Federal National Mortgage Association and in 1959 he returned to his hometown of Jesup to practice law.

John Mattox married Elizabet Knox on January 20, 1940, and they had two children, Panke and Jane.

Clyde Hill married Lottie Ogden and they had one child, Aletha. She was born in 1919 and died at the early age of 25, only one month before a date set for her wedding. Clyde Hill was a successful mortician in Jesup and later in Jacksonville.

His first wife, Lottie, died in 1936 when young. Many years later he married Irene Stephens. They had one daughter, Delinda. She married a Mr. Fischer and they had three daughters. They lived in Jacksonville. Clyde Hill died in 1960 and Irene Stephens Hill died in 1987. Both are buried in Jacksonville.

Ruby Hill married Wallace Mattox in 1919 in Wayne County, and they had a son, Paul Wallace, who was born in Wayne County on February 25, 1920. They moved to Winter Haven, Florida in 1921. Paul attended the University of Florida but he volunteered for active duty with the U.S.Air Force early in World War II. He had a distinguished record with the U.S., Air Force in the European Theatre and spent the last two years of war in a German prison. After a brief period he served in the Korean War as a Major, with distinction. After the end of the war in Korea he worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for many years before his death in Winter Haven on December 13, 1984.

Paul Mattox married Libbe Balfour, and they had three children, namely, a daughter Lee, a son William, and a daughter, Jane. Lee Mattox was killed in an automobile accident in San Francisco, California in October 1988.

Hazel Hill married J.B. McNabb in 1952; Mr. McNabb died in August, 1959; they had no children. Mr. McNabb is buried in the Jesup City Cemetery. Hazel Hill McNabb operated the Western Union office in Jesup for a few years before World War II. During World War II, officials of the Western Union made use of her talents by sending her to military installations to teach communications to the troops and she served in that capacity in many states. Upon the end of World War II she requested leave to operate the Western Union office in Jesup. They felt she was over-qualified for that positon, but they agreed to her request, reluctantly. She is now retired.