The Rutledge Family Reunion is a reunion of the
descendents and their families of four African-American slave women who bore
children by their slave master, Joseph (Joe) Rutledge in and around the area of LaGrange, GA.
These four women were named
Annie, Frances, Lillie, and Lizzie.
In 1986, the idea to have a family reunion was discussed in Atlanta by Willie Roy Hutchinson**, Marian Kelly, Norma Gary, and Bernice Cook** - our Reunion Founders. From the beginning, their ultimate desire was to come together as a family unit on a happy occasion with the hopes that the reunion would continue to grow each year.
What we have come to know as the history of these four women, has essentially remained unchanged since first published at the first reunion in Atlanta, Georgia in 1987. It must have been quite a task for our first reunion planning committee to research the history of our slave ancestors, as it was not considered important enough to properly document in the historical archives. Here is a re-cap of the history of our ancestors, as we know it.
We don’t have much history on Annie as of this writing. All we know is the name of one child she had with Joseph Rutledge, which was Robert Rutledge and his descendants.
Frances was born in 1845 in an area between Gabittville and LaGrange, Georgia on the Rutledge Plantation. She became the cook and housekeeper for Joe Rutledge, owner of the plantation and the father of her seven children. She was known as being very aggressive, headstrong, and defiant.
Lillie was taken from a loving and secure home and moved into an atmosphere of slavery, pain, and suffering. She was a woman of great strength and love, which was demonstrated when she refused to allow the slave masters to separate her family. She bore eight children to Joe Rutledge.
Lizzie joined the Bethel C.M.E Church in LaGrange, Georgia on August 4, 1908. The author who researched this information, Martha Anderson, was quoted as saying that there was never another black person to become a member of that particular church. She bore four children to Joe Rutledge.
Locating information on the plantation and slave owners, however, is a bit easier. We have located some additional information on Joseph Rutledge and his immediate family. We did a search on the Internet and came up with the following information that coincides with Joseph Rutledge’s obituary, which was provided to us at a prior reunion, and the grave of his daughter, Mary, and grandson in Troup County, Georgia.
Joseph Rutledge was born about 1811 and died in 1892. His first marriage was to (Sarah) Jane Brooker. The two of them had a son named John Thomas Rutledge (born in 1832 in Troup County and died in 1912). John served in the military between 1861 and 1865 in the Civil War. They also had a daughter named Mary L. Rutledge Robertson, born on September 7, 1834 and died on December 22, 1865 along with her son. After Joseph's first wife died, he later married Sarah T. Oglesby and they had two sons named William Franklin Rutledge and Elmer Eugene Rutledge. Joseph’s parents were James Rutledge, Jr. (born August 28, 1786 in Wilkes County, Georgia) and Suzannah Sherrer (or Susanna Shearer). Joseph’s paternal grandparents were James Rutledge, Sr. and Ann Owens. James, Sr. was born in 1745 in Wilkes County and died in 1837 in Troup County. He served in the military between 1776 and 1782 in the Revolutionary War.
Here's one website where some of this information was found: http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/e/a/Rafael-Weal/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0023.html .