The heritage of Willis Green Lundy of Covington County, Ala., was featured in a column in 2008. Additional genealogical data on his family has been made available, which permits another look at this set of Lundys. Willis Lundy was born in 1831 in Thomasville of Thomas County, Ga., as the son of Matthew ad Mary (Walker) Lundy. He moved with the family sometime before 1850 to Coffee County, Ala., but his father was already deceased.

He and his mother filed for homestead deeds for separate tracts of land in Coffee County in 1855. They next appeared in the 1860 federal census for Covington County.

According to some records on Ancestry.com, Matthew Lundy was born in 1765 and died before 1850 in Thomasville, Thomas County, Ga. He was married first to Mary Green, and they had two or three children: Thomas A., b.1824, d. 1965; and Mary, b. 1826. It is uncertain if the third child, Lucretia, b. 1823, d. 1918, was their daughter of if she belonged to the next wife. Matthew was also married to Mary Walker (1800-1860) with whom he had several children: Possibly Lucetia, but definitely the following: Willis Green, b. 1831, d. 1902, m. Elizabeth Ann Stokes; Sarah Nancy, b. 1833; and Francis A., b. 1840, d. 1964. Matthew and his family lived some in Georgia and Florida, but he settled them eventually in the Fairfield community of Covington County, Ala.

According to Ancestry.com, Matthew Lundy was the son of Abraham Lundy (1726-1784) and Mary Esther Green (1740-1830). Abraham was born in Isle of Wight, Va., and died in St. George’s Parish, Ga. He was the son of James Robert Lundy (1684-1744) and Sarah (Colson) (1696-1744). James R. was the son of James Lundy Sr. (1660-1717) and Sarah “Sally” (Sherard) (1663-1690. James Lundy Sr. was the son of Jeremiah Lundy who was born in 1650 in Balgonie, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland and died in 1689 in New Kent, Va., and Jane (Wade), born in 1652 in Hampton, York, Va. Jeremiah Lundy was the son of John Lundy (1620-1680) and Helen ?.

The family of Willis Green Lundy is the primary subject of this story. He arrived in Covington County by 1860 with his mother and siblings. He was then married here in 1861 to Elizabeth Ann Stokes, daughter of Wright Absalom Stokes and Elizabeth (Steele) of the Falco/Wing community. Their first child, Matthew Wright Stokes, who was born in 1861, was named for his two grandfathers, Matthew Lundy and Wright Absalom Stokes.

The bliss of this young family was interrupted the next year in 1862 when Willis Green Lundy enlisted to serve in the Confederate Army during the War for Southern Independence. He was assigned to Captain W.B. Amos’s Company of Partisan Rangers in Santa Rosa County, Fla. This company later became Company D., 3rd. Battalion, Fla. Cavalry and eventually Company I, 15th Confederate Cavalry. Near the end of the war Willis G. was captured on March 22, 1865, near Andalusia and held as a prisoner of war on Ship Island at Fort Massachusetts before being transferred to Vicksburg, Miss. He was paroled from there at the end of the war, and as most Confederate soldiers did, walked the long way home.

Willis’s younger brother, Francis A. Lundy, was even less fortunate. He was born in 1840 and enlisted in the Confederate Army at an early date during the war. He was captured at Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, and imprisoned at Rock Island, Ill. He died there on January 13, 1864.

Willis Green and Elizabeth (Stokes) Lundy reared the following children: Matthew “Matt” Wright, b. 1861, d. 1931, m. Martha Jane Geohagan; George Willis, b. 1865, d. 1932, m. (1) Joanna Jane “Jody” Leonard (2) Lizzie Nowlin Smith; Burrell Jackson “Jack,” b. 1865, d. 1926, m. (1) Roxie Ann Moore (2) Martha L. Johnson; Henry Allen, b. 1869, d. 1932, m. Georgia Gravella Knight; Sarah A., b. 1872, m. (1) Ben F. Finley (2) James Kines; Elizabeth L., b. 1874, m. Lee Smith; John Thomas, b. 1876, d. 1949, m. Ida Bethanie Williams; Callie “Mittie,” b. 1879, m. F. J. “Jink” Sharpe; Elijah Houston “Lige,” b. 1881, d. 1945, m. Willa Josephine Leonard; and Rosa A. “Rose,” b. 1883, m. Kenneth G. Presley.

The oldest son, Matthew Wright Lundy, was married to Martha Jane (Geohagan), daughter of Rev. Thomas Jefferson Geohagan and Martha Victoria (Lowery). They reared the following children: Allen Thomas, b. 1891, d. 1971, m. Virginia “Jenny” McLeod (1891-1987); Roxie M., b. ca 1898; Malissa J., m. Bertie Bell Padgett (1887-1982); Gladys, b. 1900, d. 1966, m. William Starling McLelland (1891-1952); Creasie G., b. ca 1901; Mathew K., b. ca 1903; James C., b. ca 1903, d. 1980, m. Tessie Lee Brooks (1905-1998); and Matilda J., b. 1904, d. 1971, m. (1) Thomas Henry Slay (2) ? Cofield.

The next son, George Willis Lundy, was first married to JoAnna Jane “Jody” Leonard (1873-1926), daughter of Henry Leonard and Nancy (Harrison). They resided in the Falco/Wing community, and both were buried in the Beda Church Cemetery, located north of Wing. They reared the following children: Anna Lee, b. 1891, d. 1963, m. Carl A. Adkinson (1885-1945); Della C., b. 1893, d. 1974, m. Enoch Chester Spinks (1888-1972); Henry Willis, b. 1896, d. 1994, m. Ethel Pauline Henley (1897-1982); Thomas “Bud,” b. 1898, d. 1961, m. Vallie Mae Coxwell (1902-1968); Rosa E. “Rose” or “Sis,” m. Ronnie Booker; Willis Green “Dick,” b. 1903, d. 1973, m. Andrea Lois Lowery (1915-1992); Joseph Daniel, b. 1907, d. 1956, m. (1) Effie Lou Robinson (1908-1971) (2) Charlotte Sewell Tillis; Josephine “Dimple,” b. 1910, d. 1978, m. Hardy Worley (1903-1963); Benjamin David “Ben,” b. 1912, d. 1975, m. (1) Annie Bell Cook (1914-1988) (2) Virginia ?; and Willella E. “Penny,” b. 1915, d. 1992, m. Burt J. Johnson (1913-1992).

George Willis Lundy and his second wife, Elizabeth “Lizzie,” born in 1894, had two sons: Jack, b. 1928, d. 2014, m. (1) Ruth Dubose (2) Nora May (1938-1990); and John Sessions, b. 1930, d. 1951. Lizzie was also buried in the Beda Cemetery.

The Lundy family heritage is quite extensive with many descendants who currently reside or have previously lived in Covington County. With the matriarch of the family being featured in this writing being a Stokes descendant, the number of kinsmen is much greater.

The source for this genealogy of the Lundy family was the research records of Jeff Lundy, a direct descendant. Appreciation is expressed to him for making this story possible.

Anyone who might find an error in the above is requested to contact this writer, Curtis Thomasson, at 20357 Blake Pruitt Road, Andalusia, AL 36420; 334-804-1442; or Email: cthomasson@centurytel.net.

 

HISTORICAL MEETING:

The Covington Historical Society will be meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thurs., Sept. 29, in the Dixon Memorial Room of the Andalusia Public Library.