THE BARTON LUNDY FAMILY REUNION

In her later years, this lady would be known to her grandchildren and some great-grandchildren as :GRANDMA WICKY.:  She would tell them how she used to pray that she would die when she was a slave because she hated slavery and the times she would be made to hold a hot iron in her hand, without a rag or cloth to protect it from the burns.

            Often described as a clean, neat and little old lady, Grandma Wicky came into this world around the year 1834 and was given the name Ellen.  Little is known about her early life as a young slave girl on a Georgia plantation.  According to one family member, Ellen’s mother died when she was a very young girl and she was raised by her grandmother, supposedly the lady with the hoe in her hand.

            Ellen was the daughter of Harry and Amy Lundy. 

            What is known about this beautiful, strong lady is that she was the wife of Floyd Barton and bore him six children: HENRY-1858; ELBERT-1859; GILLIAN-1862; TALLULAH-1865; THOMAS-1867; ELIJAH-1869.  Around the year 1882, Floyd Barton died and left Ellen with the three youngest children to raise.  One family member recalls hearing that at the funeral of Papa Floyd, Ellen and Lula, the baby daughter threw themselves over the casket and mourned very loudly over the death of Floyd.  The cause of his death has not been discovered.

            Two years later, Ellen married Moses Reynolds on December 18, 1884 and became the step-mother of three sons, William, Moses Jr. and James.  Moses died and on February 23, 1902, at the age of 68, she married for the third time to Robert “Bob” Wicker and thus became Mrs. Wicker to acquaintances and Grandma Wicky to family

            Ellen never would let her age slow her down.  Her granddaughter Pauline Johnson Litman recalls that even in her late sixties and early seventies she would go out in the field and pick cotton and work a little on the farm.  About ten years before her death, she lost her sight and moved in with her son Tom.  Robert Wicker had died and she outlived three husbands.  Grandma Wicky died at the age of 98 and was buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Lumber City Georgia.

Dr. Skip Mason, Family Historian