Stories
Gadi Strickland
Born 1778 in North Carolina – Died 6 March 1854, Bryan County Georgia
Buried Strickland Cemetery #30, Fort Stewart, Ga.
(An old Family Cemetery on the homeplace of his son, William Gadi Strickland)
G -A-D-I is a Biblical name found in II Kings15:14-17)
By descendant, Mary Exley
I believe that Gadi Strickland would be very surprised, if he were living today, that he has a great great granddaughter keenly interested in his life. He was a deeply private man. How do I know? Because he lived for 76 years and left few traces of his life for his descendants to know where he came from, how he lived, how he thought, how he talked, or what he believed.
The first documentation of Gadi's existence is in the 1810 Robeson County, North Carolina Census. There he is found as head of Household No. with -----males and ---females. I do not know who these people were or how they fit into his life. Military records document service to his country in the War of 1812 in a Robeson County militia. He witnesses a deed for the Wilkes family in Robeson County in 1814. Next Gadi appears on the 1820 Tattnall County, Georgia Census where he is found as Household No. with 5 males and his wife. This is strange information, as it is known that by that time he had one daughter and two sons. I do not understand this census in better than the one in 1810. After that time, Gadi's life is pretty clear, as there court records of his jury duty in Tattnall County, and a record of his divorce from his Wife, Elizabeth Burnside, in 1840.
Gadi's daughter, Mary, born about 1806 in South Carolina (according to information from the Griffin family into which she married) had three children with Kadar Keaton. No marriage date has been found. She later married Dempsey Griffin and had several more children. Two of her children married children of Gabriel Strickland. I have no proof, but I believe Gabriel was a brother of Gadi.
First son, William Gadi, was born 1812. His birth place is thought to be North Carolina, but one census says Georgia. William Gadi was my great grandfather. William Gadi married Miriam Kennedy, daughter of Edward Kennedy, in Tattnall County, Ga. in 1838, afterwhich they relocated to Bryan County Georgia and established a large farm on the Canoochee River. Gadi left Tattnall County after he married Mary Hughes Wilkes and relocated to Bryan County probably on land of his son, William Gadi. A hand written death certificate exists, written by son, William Gadi, stating that he witnessed his father's death. William Gadi is buried in Richmond, Virginia, Hollywood Cemetery, having died near the end of the Civil War in March 1865 after being sent to Hospital #9.
Second son, Thomas, was born about 1814. His birth place is thought to be Georgia, but is not documented. Thomas married Winneasy Holman in Tattnall County, Ga. in 1837. Thomas moved around a lot between Liberty County, Bryan County and Tattnall County. It is believed that he died in Tattnall County sometime after 1870. His gravesite has not been found.
Who was Gad's ancestors?
I have many boxes and a file cabinet full of research on the Strickland family, but I have been unable to document who Gadi's direct ancestors were. I know that he descends from the Matthew Strickland, Sr. line through DNA testing with no mutations. I believe, but cannot prove, that he descends from Matthew Strickland, Jr.
An interesting search on the given name of Gadi revealed several interesting notes. There were several people born in Robeson County, NC after Gadi with the same given name. Among them was Gadi Braswell (Matthew Strickland, Jr. married Ann Braswell) and Gadi Campbell (There was a John Campbell Strickland in Robeson County older than Gadi).
I believe that Gabriel Strickland was Gadi's brother. I cannot prove it. Their families intermingled in Tattnall County. I believe that Lucy Ann Strickland (married John Wilkes) in Robeson County was his sister. Gadi intermingled with the Wilkes family, and married as his second wife, the former wife of Jacob Wilkes, Mary Hughes Wilkes. He was very close to the Lewis Strickland family in Tattnall County, and David Jonathan Strickland of Bulloch County.
I have reconciled myself to accepting that I will never know who his direct ancestor was. I have to be contented knowing that his descendant's DNA matches with the Matthew Strickland, Sr. line of Stricklands, therefore England is probably the Motherland of my ancestors. I have traveled to the Motherland several times, and have walked the paths of the small villages of Little Strickland and Great Strickland in the very old shire of Cumbria. One cold winter day in 2004, I went to Robeson County to the area where the Stricklands owned land, and walked along the banks of Lumber River, which Gadi knew as Drowning Creek, and tried to imagine that he might have fished in the same spot. Perhaps he would have had a camp fire, hunted deer and wild turkeys, and probably did some trapping. If he was looking down on me, I am sure he would have been happy to see that a descendant remembered him. I felt his presence. I know he was smiling.
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