The 2012 descendants of an Olustee soldier are from the pioneer William Haddock Cone, who settled in the Benton community of this county prior to 1840. Because members of this family distinguished themselves in military and political affairs in the early history of south Georgia and north Florida, the Cone family has been extensively documented in numerous historical accounts in newspapers and books. Indeed, one commentator observed, “All the men have been noted for good business capacity, sound legislative courage, and never-failing loyalty to the country.”
The ancestor of William Haddock Cone was the elder William Cone, who was born in the Pee Dee area of North Carolina in 1745. He married Keziah Barber about 1765. She was also from North Carolina and daughter of William Barber, a Revolutionary War soldier. The couple later moved to Georgia.
During the Revolutionary War, the elder William Cone gathered a group of men and drove the Tories out of Bulloch County, Georgia. For his service as major of the 1st Battalion of the Militia of Richmond County, Georgia, William Cone was given a special grant of lands in Effingham County, Georgia. In 1785 and 1787, Major Cone served as a representative in the legislature from Effingham County, and, when Bulloch County was cut out of Effingham County, he served as the foreman of its first Grand Jury, Superior Court, 1797. He was also the pastor of the Little Ogeechee Church in Screven County, Georgia in 1792 and helped to build up Baptist churches in Bulloch and Tattnall counties. He later moved to Camden County, Georgia but returned to Bulloch County, Georgia in 1815 and lived with a son until his death sometime prior to 1823. It is believed Keziah Barber Cone died about 1811.
