(This is one of the families included in the new book, Early Hamilton Settlers, by John Wilson)
Elisha Corbitt was among the earliest settlers of Hamilton County, arriving prior to the formation of the county in 1819. Though most of the Corbitts were gone by 1860, several returned to fight in the Civil War battles around Chattanooga.
The Corbitts trace back to Barnwell, S.C. Daniel Corbitt was born there about 1752 and he lived until about 1805. He was in the militia in the Revolutionary War. Daniel's children included Rebecca, John, Sarah, Susanna, Mary, Thomas, Samuel and Ann. Rebecca and Ann married Baxters. John and his wife, Penny, had Daniel, who was born about 1804 and married Mary Bennett. Daniel and Mary moved to Homerville in Clinch County, Ga.
Brinkley Corbitt was also at Barnwell, and he served under Gen. Francis Marion in the Revolution in 1781 and 1782. He provided six beef cattle for continental and militia use. He married Margaret Connell. Brinkley died in 1817. Isham Corbitt was one of his sons and Elisha may have been another.
Isham, who was born at Barnwell in 1777, married Amelia Stokes, who was born in 1779. Isham was in Edgefield County, S.C., in 1800. He took his family to Bulloch County, Ga., about 1803 and he was there at the time of the Georgia land lottery in 1806. Isham is said to have lived a short time in Hamilton County. Isham's children were Celia (1798), Wealthy (1801), Harbid (1802), Marshall (1804), Newsom (1806), Martin (1810), Hillman (1813), William (1817) and Amelia (1820). About 1825, Isham “had domestic difficulties” and left his wife, Amelia. He went west and was away for many years. His remaining family took part in the 1827 land lottery under the listing of “Isham Corbitt's orphans” at Bulloch County. They left that winter for property in Loundes County, Ga., on the east side of the Alapaha River. Many years later, Isham Corbitt returned to his family in Georgia and sought a reconciliation with Amelia. She would not agree to it - until his last illness when she reconciled and “nursed him tenderly.” Isham Corbitt died in the first year of the Civil War and Amelia passed away in its last year. They were buried together at the Fender Cemetery. Celia married Michael Stephens, and Harbid married Luraney Boyett. Newsom married Polly Smith and his second wife was Jane. Hillman died young. Amelia was the first wife of her cousin, Allen Corbitt, son of Elisha Corbitt. William married Rhoda Griffis. Newsom and William lived many years at Homerville in Clinch County, Ga. Marshall and Martin also lived at Homerville. Marshall married Martha Ann Guthrie, then Martha Curry. Martin married Fanny Smith, then Lydia Curry.
Wealthy was first married to James Pafford, and they made their home near Soddy. She later married Isaac Curry, whose father, James R. Curry, was a Revolutionary soldier. Isaac had a number of children by his first wife, Fanny Mays. They had married in 1819. They included the Martha who married Marshall Corbitt and the Lydia who married Martin Corbitt. Martha was born in 1820 and Lydia in 1821. Other children of Isaac Curry were Rhoda who married Henry Daughtery, Mary who married J. Hamilton Guthrie, and Charles W. who married Mary Burkhalter. Isaac Curry and Wealthy moved from Hamilton County to a farm at Clinch County, Ga., about 1854. Isaac died there on Christmas day 1856, and Isham Corbitt lived his last days with his daughter, Wealthy Corbitt Pafford Curry. By her second husband, Wealthy had daughters Emily, Elizabeth and Wealthy Curry. Emily died unmarried at age 80 in 1921. Elizabeth married J.C. Bradford. The name Wealthy was carried down in the Corbitt lines.
Tyner W. Corbitt was in Hamilton County in 1836 when he enlisted to fight in the Sabine War and in 1837 in the Cherokee War alongside Isaac Curry, Henry Daughtery and others.
The marriage of Elisha Corbitt and Mary Gann, daughter of Thomas Gann, was recorded at Rhea County. It occurred on the last day of December in 1817. Elisha was a witness on a Hamilton County deed in 1825 from the Cherokee David Fields to another Cherokee, James Brown, on a 640-acre reservation. In 1838, he was witness on a document relating to a debt owed Wealthy Corbitt Pafford. Elisha's oldest child, Calvin, was born in 1818. He married Edith “Eda” Daughtery. The other children were Thomas, Allen, Elizabeth, Nancy, Colonel W., Monroe L., Henry and Wealthy. Thomas had three children by Martha Curry prior to her marriage to Marshall Corbitt, according to family members. Those were Tyner, Polly and Angeline. Thomas later married Nancy Sirman, and they named one son Elisha and another Colonel W. Allen married Amelia Corbitt, then Sarah Touchstone Hill, then Eliza Burkhalter. Elizabeth married Robert Haskins. Nancy married James G. Lastinger and then Jesse S. Bostick. Wealthy married Etheridge “Dread” Newbern. Colonel W. married Roxy Summerlin in 1866, then Mary Ann Roberts in 1882. He had six children by the first wife and 10 by the second. Henry married Elizabeth Morris.
Elisha died in the latter 1840s, leaving Mary Gann Corbitt with a large family to rear. It was decided to join Corbitt relatives in Georgia so they began a trip by wagon train about 1854. They stayed first at Bulloch County, then settled to the south at Homerville in Clinch County. The Henry Daughterys also moved to Homerville. Calvin stayed behind in Hamilton County, but he moved to Clinch County also about the time the Civil War broke out. His children were Nancy, who died young, Thomas, Henry Adam, who married Elda Bostick, Addison M., who married Martha Mainor, and Martha J.
The brothers Colonel W. and Monroe L. Corbitt joined the Alapaha Guards of Co. H of the Confederacy's 29th Infantry along with two young cousins, Daniel and Reuben Corbitt. Colonel W. and Monroe enlisted Sept. 1, 1861, at Savannah. Colonel W. rose to the rank of second lieutenant and sergeant, and Monroe became a sergeant. The war took the unit near the territory where they had grown up. Daniel Corbitt, who ad enlisted Dec. 28, 1861, at Savannah, was killed by a gunshot at Chickamauga on Sept. 19, 1863. His mother, Nancy, later claimed his few belongings. Colonel W. suffered a slight arm wound near Jonesboro, Ga., but he fought the remainder of the war. Part of the pay he received was 10 cents per mile for a 150-mile recruiting trip between Savannah and Clinch County. Monroe L. was in Ocmulgee Hospital at Macon suffering from diarrhea in June 1864. Then on Dec. 7, he was captured at Stone River. He was sent to Nashville, then to Louisville and on to the prison at Camp Chase, Ohio. His parole was granted on May 2, 1865, and he was released at Thomasville, Ga., on May 19.
Colonel W. Corbitt was long active in the Methodist church. He died in 1915 at age 81 at Atkinson County, Ga. Monroe L. Corbitt died in Atkinson County at the home of his son, Lamar, in 1921 at age 83.