Individual Details

Three indisputable pieces of evidence attest to the life of Neverson Cook: the 1850 census, the will of Neverson Cook and the gravestone markers of Neverson and his wife, Margaret Grier Cook.
From the 1850 census, we can learn several pieces of information. Neverson, 66, and his wife Margaret, 63, lived in 38th district of Hall County, Georgia. Neither Neverson or Margaret could read or write. Both were born in South Carolina. Neverson served in the War of 1812 in 3rd Regt. (Alston’s) S.C. Militia as a Private. Neverson Cook owned five slaves in 1850; three males who were ages 28, 3, and 9 months and two females who were aged 26 and 6 years.
Margaret Greer was the daughter of Robert Greer and Anna Isabella Kilgore of Spartanburg S.C. Margaret had a twin brother named Joseph.
Neverson Cook’s will was probated in Hall County, Georgia on August 4, 1856. He named seven children in his will along with 7 members of his “negro family.” Neverson’s daughters were Mahaley, Mary Ann and Nancy. His sons were Frances M., William H., James M. and Jedatha Cook. His enslaved family members were named Bart, Susah, Mariah, Benny, Jasper, Lea and Albert.
Two of Neverson’s daughters, Mahaley and Mary Ann, married Hardage brothers. Both of these families moved eventually to Cobb County, Georgia. Mahaley Cook, the eldest daughter of Neverson and Margaret, married Jesse Daniel Hardage on August 15, 1826. The two had six children.
Mary Ann Cook, born December 10, 1814, married George Washington Hardage on September 1, 1831. Washington owned land at Kennesaw Mountain. According to Sybil McRay, part of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought on the Hardage land. Washington and Mary Ann’s youngest daughter, Miss Lucinda Hardage, “calmly proceeded to gather beans with bullets whizzing past her head,” saying “no Yankee could keep her from having a mess of beans for dinner.”
Nancy Cook, third daughter of Neverson and Margaret Grier Cook, married Jonathan Martin, Jr. in 1833. The two were parents of nine children.
Of the four sons of Neverson and Margaret, Frances [Francis] M. had moved to California by the time of his father’s death. His three remaining sons all married and remained in the area.
In 1968, Sybil McRay and Mrs. Frank Tatum transcribed the inscriptions from the graves of Neverson and Margaret Cook. The cemetery was part of the Frank Tatum homeplace. McRay and Tatum described the cemetery in detail:
Two graves built up with large rock slabs. Several sinks where graves were no longer in evidence. Many field stones used for headstones. Mrs Tatum says the cemetery is known as a large one. There was evidence of about 15 graves. A relative of [the] Cook family belives that only members of this family [are] buried here. One dau. of Neverson Cook married a Pittman and it is believed she is probably interred in this cemetery.
From this cemetery, both Neverson and Margaret’s birth and death dates are recorded clearly. Neverson Cook was born May 6, 1785 and died May 7, 1855. Margaret Grier Cook was born January 1, 1788 and died December 31, 1873.
copyright 2004 Vicky Chambers

Birth	6 May 1785	South Carolina
Census (family)	1830	Hall County, Georgia - Margaret Greer
Census (family)	1840	Hall County, Georgia - Margaret Greer
Census	1 Nov 1850	Hall County, Georgia
Census (family)	4 Nov 1850	Hall County, Georgia - Margaret Greer
Death	7 May 1855	Hall County, Georgia
Probate	4 Aug 1856	Hall County, Georgia
Marriage		Spartanburg County, South Carolina - Margaret Greer
Burial		Cook Family Cemetery, Lula, Hall County, Georgia

Spouse	Margaret Greer (1788 - 1873)
Child	Mahala Cook (1806 - 1875)
Child	Jiditha Cook (1810 - 1896)
Child	Nancy Cook (1812 - 1898)
Child	Mary Ann Cook (1814 - 1908)
Child	William H. "Uncle Billy" Cook (1820 - 1907)
Child	James Madison Cook (1821 - 1905)
Child	Francis M. Cook (1831 - )

Notes