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.
Keziah and William Cone had the following children: Aaron, Jane, William, Joseph, Keziah, Sarah, and Nancy Cone.
William Cone, son of Keziah and William Cone the elder, was born in North Carolina on December 24, 1777. He moved with his parents to Georgia, and, subsequently to Camden County, where he married Sarah Haddock about 1812.
This William Cone, known as Captain William “Billy” Cone, was the progenitor of the Cone family in Columbia County, Florida. Before moving to Florida, he was a representative in the legislature from Glynn County in 1804, a Justice of the Peace in the 35th district of Camden County in 1806, and, in 1807, he was elected representative from Camden County to the state legislature of Georgia. By re-election, he served as representative the following years: 1818-1823, 1825, 1833-34, 1836-1839. He served as Justice of the Peace in the 270th district of Camden County, 1829-1830. After moving to Columbia County, William Cone was a member of the Florida territorial legislature of 1840.
Although he was an influential political figure, Capt. William Cone was most notable for his military prowess, fearlessness, and bravery during the War of 1812. He commanded a group of militia known as the “Patriots,” a free fighting corps. It was reported that, although greatly outnumbered, he successfully used swamp guerilla tactics against the British in defending St. Mary’s, Georgia, and ran the British out of the area. He was also captain of a militia that fought in the Okefenokee Swamp in the Indian War of 1838. Capt. William Cone also held the distinction of being the first person to survey the Okefenokee Swamp.
Because he was so well known, when Captain William Cone died on August 24, 1857, his obituary was printed in the Atlanta Examiner. His wife, Sarah Haddock Cone, died on January 11, 1872. Both were buried in the cemetery at the Prospect Primitive Baptist Church, Hamilton County, Florida.
Sarah and William Cone had the following children: Keziah, Daniel Newnan, William Haddock, Simon Peter, James Barnard, and Charles F. Cone.
William Haddock Cone was born July 15, 1825 in Camden County, Georgia. He moved to Columbia County in 1835 and became a large cattleman and cotton farmer in the area where Benton Tower is now located. He married Sarah Emily Branch, November 17, 1851.
Like his forbears, William Haddock Cone was both a military and political figure.
He was captain of his company in the 1st Regiment of Mounted Florida Volunteers commanded by Col. Samuel Rogers in the Indian War of 1857. During the Civil War, W. H. Cone enlisted at Lake City, August 12, 1863, in the 2nd Florida Cavalry, Company G, and became the captain of the company. He fought in the Battle of Olustee and in other battles throughout the war. He was paroled in Lake City on May 18, 1865.
Prior to his Civil War service, William H. Cone represented Columbia County in the State Senate of Florida from 1854-56.
Sarah Emily and William Haddock Cone had the following children: Julia, Martha, Ida, George H., J. Randolph, Horace, Annette, William Newnan, Frederick P., Agnes May, Jesse Wood, Peter D., and William Branch Cone.
Like their father, two of William Haddock Cone’s sons were active in government. Frederick P. Cone served for three terms as mayor of Lake City and was governor of Florida from 1936-41. His brother, William Branch Cone served as his secretary of state.
William Newnan Cone, sixth child of Sarah Emily and William Haddock Cone, was born November 2, 1869. Unlike his politically active brothers, his calling was to be a minister of the gospel. He married Frances Elizabeth Long in Columbia County on December 11, 1888 and to this union were born the following children: Nellie Estelle, George Houston, Annie Mae, William Ernest, Juanita Gussie, and Emily Elizabeth Cone.
William Newnan Cone died in 1947, and Elizabeth Long Cone died in 1943. Both were buried in the family plot in Oaklawn Cemetery, Lake City, FL.
Nellie Estelle Cone, daughter of Frances Elizabeth Long and William Newnan Cone, was born August 13, 1889. She married Hardy A. Revels in Columbia County on May 18, 1913, son of Ann Box and John Hardy Revels. He was the Chief of Police in Lake City at the time of his death on November 29, 1922. Nellie Revels later married William R. Wheeler; however, when she died on September 24, 1964, she was buried next to her first husband in Oaklawn Cemetery. To the union of Nellie Estelle Cone and Hardy A. Revels were born two children: Newnan Revels, born about 1914 and died 1988, and Ouida Bess Revels, born December 13, 1918, died April 1, 1989.
Ouida Bess Revels married Wash I Wood, a Baptist minister, born November 14, 1906 and died November 5, 1993.
The Blue-Grey Army is privileged to honor the descendants of William Haddock Cone, Battle of Olustee soldier, through the family of Ouida Bess Revels Wood, which include (but are not limited to) the following: Wash H. Wood, Joe W. Wood, Joey Wood, and Alison Wood Roberson.