The Abernathy Family

Nathan and Eve (Cline) Abernathy migrated to Cass County, Georgia from North Carolina in 1844.  One source claims they moved there to find jobs in the ironworks.  There were iron mines in Georgia.  They seemed to have lived in the community of Macedonia (also called Abernathyville) which now lies under Lake Allatoona.  Nathan and Eve Abernathy had a son named Phillip who became a blacksmith.  By at least 1848, the Abernathys met the Bates Family.  Phillip Abernathy married Margaret Bates, the daughter of Stephen and Sarah (Cox) Bates.   Phillip had a brother, James Alexander Abernathy, who married Mary Parasina Vandiver, the daughter of Nancy (Bates) and Enoch Vandiver.   These two Abernathy families joined the Bates wagon train and moved to Big Fork in 1852.

Phillip and Margaret (Bates) Abernathy found land on the east side of Big Fork which included the land that is now the Pleasant Grove Cemetery.   Their children were Canzada Abernathy who later married William J. Lewis;  Columbus C. Abernathy; James W. Abernathy; Elizabeth Hortense Abernathy and Minervah Abernathy.  The mother, Margaret, died before 1864 at an early age.  The father, Phillip, then married Mary Lewis and their children were Phillip R. Abernathy, Guilford Abernathy, Thomas Abernathy and either another son or daughter, the name is uncertain.

James A. Abernathy,Sr. and his wife, Mary P. (Vandiver) had a son named Joshua Abernathy.  Joshua married Lucretia E. Goss, the granddaughter of one of the early settlers, Elijah B. Goss.

James A. Abernathy, Jr. married Sarah Jane Standridge. Their daughter, Myrtle Abernathy, married Elijah A. Bates, son of John Calvin and Malinda (Goss) Bates.   Myrtle and "Lige" broke up and some people say she died of a broken heart at the age of 34.  She's buried at Pleasant Grove Cemetery near Big Fork and the name on her gravestone is simply "Myrtle Abernathy".

Abernathy Spring near Big  Fork on Hwy. 8 East