Bobby: 
This account of Florida LANGSTONS was given by MAJOR LANGSTON, born 1904, great-grandson of JOHN LANGSTON, who came to Florida in the 1840's. [he was called "FLORIDA JOHN" by his relatives, and was the son of REDDICK LANGSTON (1776-1848) and PRISCILLA THORNHILL LANGSTON of Darlington County, SC.] 

Major:
He [FLORIDA JOHN] was born and raised in SC, of course, like all the rest of the LANGSTONs. He stayed up there in Spartanburg; he owned property in Spartanburg. He went down to Darlington, Timmonsville and Greenville. That's where he moved from. When he left SC, he moved from Greenville to Wakulla County. I wouldn't know what particular time it was....in 18 and 45 or 1840, or somewhere along there. 

Bobby:
In the 40's?

Major:
Yeah, it was in the 1840's, somewhere along there, I think. He carried all 5 of his boys down there. Of course, Grandpa JOHN was married twice. His first wife was a BAKER.  And she had one boy and they named him JACK.  [This editor's note:  JACK was his nickname; his name was actually JONATHAN BAKER LANGSTON. Reportedly, he was also called JB.] And she died, and then grandpa lived a single man for a year or two, and then married a HUDSON. He had four more boys by his wife, [the] HUDSON woman, and then she died. And of course, there's three of the boys who were completely grown before they left up there and moved down to Wakulla County [FL]. And, uh, so he picked up and moved to Wakulla County and to Florida, due to the fact there was an awful lot of people that had already come down here in Florida that he knew from SC; the REVELLs was one family, and the HARRELLd was another. So the HARRELLs lived… one of them lived here in Tallahassee, and the others had already moved to Wakulla County. And he went down to Sopchoppy.. .that was before the railroad was even built through Wakulla County...Jeff and A Railroad Carrabelle...that was before then...a long time. But he moved there in Sopchoppy, a little old community, and built a tremendously big log house down there with his slaves and with his boys. You know timber was available. You could get it anywhere you go, a lot of timber, so he hewed the logs out on each side and hauled them in. They were at least eight inches thick. And he built a great big log house down there close to Sopchoppy. He lived down there in that house for I don't know how many years...2 or 3 years. I'm just guessing. About 2 or 3 years, and from that, he had went up there in Liberty County and visited one of the REVELLs that had moved directly from up there in Liberty County. And he knew him, see? He was as old as Grandpa JOHN. He went up to visit him, and doggonit, he decided to move from Sopchoppy to Liberty County. And naturally, there wasn't no place to cross the river. And first thing he done...he was evidently a darn good engineer, I'm telling you he must have been. He brought his slaves up there and he went in up where Grandpa SHOTE lived up there. And went in there and he surveyed a road from there to a location in Liberty County where he could carry and build a barge to move all of his stuff from across the river.

Bobby:
I think his daddy was an engineer.

Major:
I bet he was, too. Grandpa JOHN wasn't a large man.  He was a small man. But anyway, he had his slaves, and then he had all of his boys. They tore the darn house down and moved it. They built a flat. I've crossed the river in it many a times before it eventually deteriorated. [I've heard stories how they had to blow the conk shell to get the ferry to come pick you up.]

Bobby:
Where was it at?

Major:
It was down there at the Colvin Landing, and the river was low, and they could just push it across the river and, uh, he had his teams, all of his oxen and mules; he carried all of that house, the whole thing, and carried it over and re-set it up in Liberty County, right close to the REVELLs. So then, it was about way long there is when the war broke out between the states, North and South. There was three of the boys conscripted to go back in service. It was Uncle JACK, Uncle JAKE, Uncle ERV. It was three brothers and my granddaddy; his name was CHARLIE; there was four of them. Now mind you, they had one boy died after they moved up to Liberty County. He was in his teens. I never did know this until Aunt LAURA told me, and she knew his name, but I can't remember his name. But anyway, the other three were conscripted back… or four… and went into the war; and they walked all the way back to Tennessee. Oh, I don't mean by themselves! They had a bunch of them. There was a bunch of people who walked with them.

Bobby:
How is cousin LAURA related to them?

Major:
Well, she was Uncle JAKE'S wife. She was my own aunt. See, my daddy and Uncle JAKE was first cousins, and they married sisters.

Bobby:
The Uncle JAKE you're talking about was cousin JAKE and cousin LAURA?

Major:
Yeah, that's right.

Bobby:
I was thinking there might be another JAKE.

Major:
No, you see, old Uncle JAKE, that married Aunt MARY MOBLEY, they come from...they carried...when Grandpa JOHN went down there in SC, he carried a girl, was ten years old, for one of the boys' wives. And she was an orphan girl; he found her up there and carried her along and Aunt CHLOE helped raise her until she got to be grown. They never did get married until Uncle JAKE (that was the OLD Uncle JAKE) came back out of the war. And then they got married. But see, Uncle JACK though, had married prior to going into the service. He was the onliest one of the 3 or 4 boys that had married before they went into the service. And after that, they came back. Aunt MARY had grown. I don't remember, the war lasted  3½ to 4 years. So then old Uncle JAKE was the crippled one of the four. He got a piece of his heel shot off. Then he married Aunt MARY, which was a MOBLEY. And never had no children. And then of course, when Uncle ERV married, he married a McMILLAN. Uncle ERV was the onliest [sic] productive one. [He may have been confused here; JACK married CELIA McMILLAN and they had several children.] And then when Grandpa CHARLIE married, he married a COLLINS woman. And, because they lived over there in Gretna, on this side of Chattahoochee....you know where that's at? And so her husband and her had two grown daughters when he was conscripted back into the service and went to war, the COLLINS man. And he left his widow and the two girls there on the farm. They had their slaves. So whenever they come back, the war was all over, and the boys all got all them billies, took a bunch of logs and pulled them up together to make a billy and put a tent over it. The army issued them tents when they got back on the billies. They just floated down the Flint River and Chattahoochee River until they got to Chattahoochee, of course they got off. All the ones that was in this area, they got off at Chattahoochee and walked home. Well, Grandpa CHARLIE LANGSTON got tremendously sick with malaria. Whenever he went to pass the COLLINS home, well that's as far as he got. He couldn't. They'd taken him in and taken care of him and doctored him until he got well. So he married one of the girls. That particular marriage, after they married, they moved on down to where Grandpa JOHN lives in Liberty County, and built a....I've been to the little old house spot, and, uh, they built a small log house there for him just across the bridge. I don't know how long they were married, but they wasn't married too very long, and my own daddy was born. As I just told you, on the same night that his daddy died. In other words, one come and one went. It wasn't even four hours difference. So then Grandpa JOHN and Aunt MARY and and Uncle JAKE and old Aunt CHLOE, they raised my daddy, see what I mean? Until he was 8 or 9 years old. Well, when he was 9 years old, then old Uncle JACK died, which was the oldest boy of Grandpa JOHN's. He died.     

Bobby:
That was cousin ELIE’s daddy?

Major:
That’s right. That was cousin ELIE’s daddy. So Uncle JACK died and cousin ELIE by that time was a grown man. But he hadn’t married, and so consequently, see, that was my daddy’s half-first cousin. That was his half-first cousin ‘cause of the way Uncle JACK come. So it was, I guess the times were so darn hard then. People weren’t as thick as they are now. The population was very, very slim, and lots of mileage between each home. Well, that’s for sure. So I don’t know if what I’ve told you will be of any assistance to this genealogist that you talk about. I believe it would.

Bobby:
She’s searching for all she can find about the two LANGSTONS that came down here from this bunch. Which was JOHN in the ‘40s and REDDICK in the ‘70s. I know REDDICK ---

Major:
Grandpa REDDICK …I mean, uh, Uncle REDDICK, didn’t come down here until the ‘70s? Well, that was after the war, then. The war ended in 1865.

Bobby: 
I think Grandma SUE was in Florida and she went back to SC, and the way daddy… I just heard it on the tape the other night… daddy said REDDICK walked home from Long Island, New York, and they met under a pear tree. That’s the way daddy tells it. 

Major:
Well, let me tell you something. I know where there’s a book in Gadsden County. Judge WILLIS has got a book of the records of all them boys from both counties -- Wakulla and Liberty County -- who was conscripted. ‘Cause he gave it to me and I read it. And it gives them everybody’s name who went back to service and the war and so forth, and how they come back and all that. It’s a real good history of the war.

Bobby:
I know he came in 1870, because Grandma SUE was carrying Uncle JIM when they moved down here, and he was born in ’70.

Major:
You’re darn right it happened like that, ‘cause for the simple reason my daddy was born on November 9, 1875, and he came down just before my daddy was born. That’s certainly right.

Bobby: 
The reason I pinpointed that was Uncle JIM’s tombstone… was born in ’70, and she carried him down here. Conceived up there, and born down here. Do you have any idea where he settled at? Grandpa REDDICK?

Major:
He settled up there close to where JOHN LANGSTON’s residence was years ago, back there above where you lived. Where REDDICK lives now. Up north of there, on the highway side of the river. Yeah.

Bobby:
REDDICK said he thought… he wasn’t sure…. his daddy bought a lot of that land from somebody else. He wasn’t sure if his daddy bought it, or his granddaddy bought it.

Major: 
Well, I think his granddaddy probably homesteaded it or bought it, one. I don’t know what time that was.

Bobby: 
Yeah, that property I got down there is the old STRICKLAND homestead, the 160 acres.

Major:
Well, Uncle BUCK STRICKLAND you was talking about. That was the Uncle BUCK STRICKLAND place. But it was right in that area that Uncle REDDICK LANGSTON …or Cousin REDDICK LANGSTON, we always called him.. that’s where he settled, also.

Bobby:  
Well, he was my uncle on my daddy’s side, and my great-granddaddy on my mother’s side. That was my mother’s granddaddy.

Major:
Yeah, that’s your mother’s granddaddy, exactly. It’s like I told you the other night, Bobby, the strange thing about it… not strange, but unusual… back there, was when Grandpa JESSE LANGSTON came down here before any of them. Grandpa JESSE LANGSTON come here from the West Indies, and didn’t even know any of them. Of course, he went over there way before Smith Creek was even named.

Bobby:
Well, who’s JESSE LANGSTON?
           
Major:
Well, uh, he come to this country, as I said, from the West Indies, down here to Saint Marks, or up there on the river… what was the name of that place? On the river above Saint Marks that we used to go up there to? Magnolia. That was way before the war.

Bobby:
Who come off of him? Anybody of these down here?

Major:
Well, all of my mother’s people. 

Bobby:
Your mother? Part LANGSTON too?

Major:
That was my mother’s side. My mother was a LANGSTON and married my daddy. They knew each other ‘cause they both come up in Smith Creek. But their parents didn’t even know each other.

Bobby:
JESSE was your…

Major:
JESSE was my granddaddy on my mother’s side. And Grandpa CHARLIE LANGSTON was my granddaddy on my daddy’s side.

Bobby:
Well, who is Cousin LAURA’s daddy, and what lineage was she?

Major:
Grandpa SHOTE. And he sprung off JESSE LANGSTON, see?

Bobby:
OK, now, nobody has been able to find out…

Major:
Aunt LAURA was Grandpa SHOTE’s daughter.

Bobby:
Well, that’s a totally different set of  LANGSTONS?

Major:
Absolutely! Grandpa JESSE LANGSTON married J.B., Uncle EDMON BUNYAN SMITH’s niece. There were 2 SMITHs in SE Georgia. EDMON BUNYAN SMITH and HYRAN J. SMITH. They were 7 feet tall… big men! Great goodness alive! They decided… that’s a-way, I just said before Smith Creek was even… that’s why Smith Creek got its name. 
 
Bobby:
How is CALVIN and his bunch related to you?

Major:
Well, CALVIN married into the LANGSTONS.

Bobby:
I’ talking about… who’d his daddy come from?

Major:
CALVIN is HAMP’s boy. My brother.

Bobby:
How’s he related to you?

Major:
Who’s HAMP? HAMP’s my brother. Yeah, he’s older than I am, and I’m the second. CALVIN come off of HAMP, see? CALVIN still married a LANGSTON, too.

Bobby:
Well, I’ll go back through this then. Your daddy was named CHARLIE, and his daddy was named CHARLIE, and he’s off of  a JOHN?

Major:
Right. CHARLIE CALEB ELIJAH LANGSTON. They had to put something else because… to distinguish them apart. That was my daddy’s name.

Bobby:  
How about your grandaddy?

Major:
His name was CHARLIE CALEB LANGSTON. That was my granddaddy, his daddy. That was his daddy, because whenever he died that night, they just gave my daddy his daddy’s name. One come, the other went.

Bobby:
It goes back to JOHN, then REDDICK, and then we’ve found the other JOHN… the Patriot JOHN. 

Major:
Well, I’ll tell you, that was a strain of LANGSTONs that was sprung off from SC, and… you can shut it off now… whenever MARGARET went up to Washington, Norfolk, VA, to visit her… [lapse in the tape]  … Timmonsville, and he lived at Spartanburg. He lived at all those places. There’s one more thing I’d like to add to this tape here. When Grandpa JOHN came down here to Florida, way before the way, he had as much cash money… he had at least a bushel of cash money. Confederate money, of course. Of course, when the war was over, they counterfeited all of it, and he was broke. You get what I mean? He’d sold all the places he had up there and accumulated that much  money, and he thought he was fixed for life, him and his boys, and probably would have been. But whenever they counterfeited the money, it was no good. That box, that chest, is still at MARY’s house, under the bed. I know exactly where it’s at. Grandpa JOHN’s Bible is in that. There’s probably a number of bills. There was at one time.

Bobby:  
Do you have access to that?

Major:
Oh yeah! Absolutely!

Bobby:
Could we go there and photograph?

Major:
Oh yeah! MARY… I mean ELMER…. MARY’s dead. ELMER was the one I was thinking of. It’s under her bed.

Bobby:
Who? ELMER *CALL?                              

Major:
ELMER *CALL. J.B.’s wife. You see, it was Aunt LAURA’S daughter. [background voice is MARY HERSHELL ANDERSON] Then Grandpa JOHN left the chest with his son ERVIN, and ERVIN passed it down to Uncle JAKE, and he passed it on down to ELMER.
 

*unsure of pronunciated word
 
 

Transcript courtesy of R. Dalton