John Lee McLucas (1866-1906) &
Louisa Dora Nash (1868-1952)
and Family
based on information submitted by John Lee McLucas, Sr., direct descendant; edited by S. J. Overstreet for church history
John Lee McLucas was born 7-5-1866 in Fayette County, GA as the youngest son of Capt./Rev. Daniel McLucas and Rebecca Ann Chambers (for further information, go to the McLucas: From Scotland to Georgia page). Since Capt./Rev. McLucas served in the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee for three years, it is assumed that his son was named after General Lee as this is the first time the name Lee appears in the McLucas lineage. This was Daniel's only child born after the Civil War. John Lee was a farmer and was the first postmaster in Inman. In this capacity he was responsible for the name "Inman" being given to this community (in honor of the cotton trading firm of S. M. Inman & Co.). He was a merchant and took on running the mercantile that his father had started in the community. (The first store had stood on the site of the current Inman Church, and the two more recent buildings stand across the street from the church.) He was a Mason and an active member of Liberty Chapel Church. Even at a young age he held positions of responsibility in the church. He grew to be six feet seven inches tall--a particularly unusual height in the 1800's. It is said that height is a McLucas trait still evident today.
John L. married Louisa Dora Nash (for further information go to the Nash Family Bibles page) on 1-7-1891 in Fayette County. She was born 1-14-1868 in Fayette County, as the daughter of John A. Nash and Nancy S. Harp. She died in Fayette on 11-21-1952. The couple had the following children:
Rembert Harp McLucas--b. 7-1-1892; d. 3-19-1927; md. Virginia Long Allen
Nannie Ann McLucas--b. 12-20-1894; d. 12-2-1963
Andrew Clinton McLucas--b. 4-21-1897; d. 3-13-1973; md. Ethel Woodward
John Daniel McLucas--b. 1900; d. 4-22-1981; md. Harriet Leppert
Margaret Ann McLucas--b. & d. 1905
Willie Bryan "Bill" McLucas, Sr.--b. 4-4-1906; d. 6-25-1986; md. Grace Minter
John L. McLucas died11-25-1906 as the result of a "mad dog" bite. He was bitten by a puppy who died of rabies. After determining that the puppy bite was the cause of his sickness he rode the train to Atlanta every day for 21 days and took the newly developed Louis Pasteur treatment for Hydrophobia. This consisted of a large shot in the stomach every day for 21 days. Although the treatment did not work, it did prevent his dying from being so horrible as was the case with Hydrophobia. He and his wife are buried in the Inman Cemetery.
John L. McLucas' son Willie Bryan "Bill" McLucas, Sr. was born 4-4-1906 at his parents' home. When Bill was 7 months old his father died at the age of forty from a "mad dog" bite. He left a widow and five children ranging in age from 7 months to 14 years with Bill being the youngest.
Bill's mother, Dora (Nash) McLucas, never remarried and Bill grew up under the tutelage of his mother; Grandpa and Grandma Nash; his sister Nannie; brothers Rembert, Clint, and J. D.; his uncle Jim McLucas; his cousin Dan McLucas; and other friends and relatives in the Inman community. He developed a love for quail hunting and learned well from cousin Dan McLucas and his son Steve McLucas. He attended the Inman school until it was consolidated with Fayetteville High in the early 1920's. He played basketball and was on the track and field team. He graduated (11th grade) from Fayetteville High in 1925. After graduation he moved to Fort Myers, Fla. to seek his fortune. He worked in a furniture store for four or five years selling furniture, delivering furniture and installing linoleum floors. He continued his "bird" hunting in Florida and often remarked that quail were plentiful there but so were rattlesnakes. In the early 1930's the Florida boom turned to bust and Bill returned to Inman and took over the management of his mother's farm as well as farming on his own account. Bill always embraced progressive farming practices and was a pioneer in terracing, rotating crops, soil testing, fertilization, planting wild game feed plots, and building the land through legume planting. In the 1930's he purchased his first tractor, a Minneapolis Moline, to use in his farming operations. He followed this purchase with a combine and traveled all over Fayette County harvesting grain for shares or cash. He continued farming throughout the depression and in 1943 he married Grace Minter, the girl next door. From 1945 until 1951 Bill and Grace had three boys, Bill, John & Andy, and one girl, Judith Kay, who died after a premature birth. When they first married they rented a house next door to the (cousin) Dan and Minnie McLucas home on Hill's Bridge Road in Inman. About 1944-5 they built a house on John Street on the lot given to Grace by her family. Her mother Della (Moore) Minter moved in with Bill and Grace and lived with them until her death in 1955 at the age of eighty-three.
In the 1950's Bill took a salesman job with the International Fertilizer Company. He traveled all over Georgia in this capacity and was on the road in 1952 near Roberta, GA when the Georgia State Patrol located him with the sad news that his mother had died. His favorite territory was the north Georgia mountains, especially the Hiawassee valley. He was a gifted "talker" and developed many friendships throughout his territory. By the mid 1950's row cropping cotton and corn was on the way out in Georgia and so was Bill's job with the fertilizer company. He returned to his farm full time, but cotton was no longer king. Prices were down, and the sharecroppers were moving from the farm to better paying jobs in the city. Bill gave up cotton and corn farming and switched to raising cattle and beef calves. He kept a commercial beef cow operation until 1968, when he sold all of his cows and retired.
In the 1950's Bill was one of the charter members of the Fayette County Kiwanis Club and remained a member for over one quarter century. During his membership, he served as Kiwanis President, Fair Chairman, Horse Show Chairman, and was on other committees as needed. He was instrumental in helping the Kiwanis Club purchase the land and establish the Fayette County Kiwanis Recreation Center on Redwine Road.
In 1971 at the age of sixty-five, Bill was appointed county registrar in charge of all voter registration for Fayette County, GA. This appointment had traditionally required a minimum of time, but 1970 to 1980 saw the county population triple from ten to almost thirty thousand. This swelled the voter rolls and caused Bill to recommend that the county commission revise and modernize the registration process by creating a board of elections to handle all matters relating to voter registration and elections. After this was accomplished Bill retired once again.
On July 5, 1980, Grace McLucas suffered a massive heart attack and died. Bill lived alone in relatively good health from 1980 until his death in June of 1986, at the age of 80. By this time he had three grown sons and three grandchildren.
He married Della Grace Minter, daughter of John Gideon Minter and Della Lee Moore, on 4-4-1943. She was born 4-3-1912. She was a teacher, homemaker, and Sunday School Teacher at Inman Methodist. She died July 5, 1980 and she and her husband are buried in the Inman cemetery.
Grace Minter was born in her parents' home in the Rest community of Fayette County, GA on Wednesday, April 3, 1912. She was the youngest of twelve children, eight of whom survived. After Grace was born the family moved to a home across from the Methodist Church on John Street in Inman, GA. Her father John Gideon Minter died when Grace was eleven years old. She attended Fayette County High School graduating in 1929. Fayetteville was five miles from Inman, and she rode to school in a car belonging to the Wesley family of Woolsey. The students that rode together were Rubye Wesley, Eloise "Girlie" Woolsey, Faybe McLucas, Frances Wills, John McClain, and Grace. They became good friends and maintained lifelong friendships even though they were scattered.
Grace attended the Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, GA graduating about 1932 or 1933. She obtained a job teaching school in Clayton County. She taught at Mountain View, Lovejoy, and possibly other schools in the area. In 1943 she married Bill McLucas, the boy next door.
Bill and Grace had the following children--still living in Inman community:
Willie Bryan "Bill" McLucas, Jr. md. Ellen Callaway
John Lee McLucas, Sr. md. Mary Victoria Bernhard
Andrew Bruce "Andy" McLucas md. Hilda Winnona Carver
Judith Kay McLucas--b. & d. 1951
In 1956 when her youngest son Andy started the first grade, she resumed her teaching career. She was hired to teach the fourth and fifth grade (in one classroom) in the Woolsey School District in Fayette County, GA. She taught at Woolsey School as Principal/Teacher until it was consolidated with the Fayette County Schools by the Culpepper Act of the GA General Assembly. Woolsey School closed its doors in 1966. Grace transferred to Fayetteville and taught third grade at Hood Avenue Elementary in Fayetteville from 1966 until her retirement in 1974.
In September of 1974, Grace and Bill's first grandchild was born, and she insisted on keeping the infant Bryan (Son of John Lee & Vicki McLucas) in her home while his parents returned to work. Bryan was a real joy to her, and she delighted in taking him with her to visit friends. She read stories and taught him many things while he was very young. When Bryan was four years old he could read the newspaper and loved it.
Grace taught Sunday School at Inman Methodist Church for over twenty years. She continued her church and social activities and membership in professional organizations (Delta Kappa Gamma). She canned vegetables from the garden, cooked and baked wonderful food, and did all the things grandmothers love to do.
On Saturday July 5, 1980, Grace was at her son John's home visiting her first granddaughter, Brandi, who was six days old. Bill called and said that Frances Wills had come by to see her so she started home. She was driving down the driveway when she suffered a massive heart attach and died. She was sixty-eight years old.
John Lee McLucas, Sr. was the second child of Bill and Grace McLucas. He grew up on a farm in rural Fayette County, GA. He rode horses; fed the cows; drove tractors; ate fresh meat, vegetables, milk, and eggs raised on the farm; churned the buttermilk, brought in the coal; participated in hog killings; hunted quail, doves, squirrels and coon; built a hut, played, and camped in the woods; swam in the Flint River and farm ponds; went to church and MYF; owned and rode a hog (Harley Davidson); went to the county fair; took a part time job at Melear's Barbecue Restaurant in Fayetteville; hung out with the boys; dated the girls; went to reunions; visited relatives on Sunday afternoons; and did all the other things farm boys are prone to do.
After graduating from Fayette County High, John entered the freshman class at the University of Georgia in Athens. He graduated with an AB degree in Geography.
His selective service classification was immediately changed from 2-S (student deferment) to 1-A. John was drafted into military service as were most male college graduates. The selective service system at that time drafted the oldest eligible registered males between the ages of 18 and 26. After receiving a deferment while in college, they were drafted as soon as they graduated because they were the oldest. This was before the lottery system of classification was instituted.
He was sworn into the United States Marine Corp and went to Parris Island, SC for basic training. He finished boot camp in ten weeks and was shipped to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina for advanced infantry training. At this time his orders were to Camp Lejeune, NC then to Twenty-Nine Palms, CA for staging, then to Okinawa, Japan, then to the Republic of South Vietnam. While he was at Camp Lejeune completing his training, he and all other Marines in his Company were called together and told that the Marine Corps was pulling out of Vietnam and that they would be receiving a change in orders which would send them to a school. A couple of weeks later the order came sending him back to Parris Island, SC to Administrative School. After graduating in the top five percent of his class he was ordered to the Marine Corps Administrative Unit, United States Army Missile and Munitions School, Redstone Arsenal, (Huntsville) Alabama. There were a handful of Marine Corps Officers stationed there as electronics instructors on the Hawk Missile Radar Systems. Young Marine enlisted personnel with an electronics MOS went through electronics and radar training at this base along with US Army soldiers as it was a joint military training site. John served the next eighteen months of his Marine Corps tour of duty on an Army Base. He was awarded a National Defense Service Medal, a Meritorious Mast citation, Good Conduct Medal, and earned a Sharpshooter Badge on the rifle range with the M-14 rifle. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant (E-5) and was honorably discharged.
John married Vickie Bernhard (b. to John Ed Bernhard and Mary Agnes LeSueur) at Lisbon Baptist Church in Fayette County, Georgia and honeymooned in Orlando, Florida at the newly opened Disney World Amusement Park.
John took a job teaching math and science to eighth graders at Fayette County Junior High School. He entered Georgia State University taking evening classes to pursue a Masters degree graduating with an MED (Master of Education in Social Studies.) He continued teaching and going to night school pursuing an additional Masters Degree in School Administration. He received an administrative position as Vocational Supervisor and Assistant Principal at a new high school (McIntosh High, Peachtree City, GA.) He continued attending night classes at West Georgia College, Carrollton, GA and received a Specialist Degree (6th year) in school administration. He remained at McIntosh High until he received a job as a vocational coordinator with the Griffin Regional Education Service Agency in Griffin, GA. In this position he works for the Georgia State Board of Education as a vocational education administrator for eight school systems in the south metro Atlanta Area.
John has been a major contributor of information and hard work on the details that have made the history of Inman United Methodist Church a document for research and genealogy. The church owes a debt of gratitude to John for his many hours of volunteer effort.
John and Vickie have three children:
Patrick Bryan McLucas
Brandi Leigh McLucas
John Lee McLucas, Jr.
