SAMPSON LANIER

SAMPSON LANIER was b. in North Carolina in 1795, was a hotel keeper in Macon, a large slaveholder in 1850, when he owned 16 slaves. Five male slaves labored at chores prevalent to the hotel business. It is interesting to note that he housed his children as well as grandchildren, The establishment which be owned later became known a the famous "Lanier House", in which many investors Sought shares. As early as 1808, Sampson owned land in Morgan Co., Ga. He is descended from an Englishman, Nicholas Lanier, who was b. in 1655 and left England in 1670 to settle in Prince George Co., Virginia. Nicholas had a grandson, Thomas Sampson Lanier who m. E1izabeth Washington in 1725, the daughter of Richard Washington, and a cousin of George Washington, the father of our country. Sampson m. 2nd Georgiann Vegal 10/5/1847. Issue:

1. JANE E. LANIER, a graduate of Wesleyan Female College in 1839 (the first graduating class), m. 1/7/1840 Abraham P. Watt in Bibb Co., Ga.
2. WILHELMINA LANIER m. 2/27/1847 Bibb Co., Ga., Thomas D. Eason.
3. ROBERT SAMPSON LANIER, Colonel, b. 1819 Macon, Ga., father of the poet, Sidney C. Lanier. He practiced law in Macon and m. Mary Anderson, the daughter of Major Hezekiel R. Anderson and Martha Y., his wife, of Nottaway Co., Va. Mary was b. 12/14/1822 and received some of her education in Petershurg and Richmond, Va. She loved music and excelled in art. It was at the commencement exercises at Randolph Macon College where Colonel Lanier met Mary. They were m. in 1840 and Colonel Lanier practiced law in Macon for some 50 years in his own firm of Lanier h Anderson. At his death in 1593, he owned a house in Vineville, a suburb of Macon, and on Monroe Street; also half interest in s ome land at Riverville with a Danish gentleman , Washington Dessau. Issue:
   
   
   1. Sidney Lanier, famous Georgia poet, b. 2/3/1342 on High Street in Macon, Ga. The house bad a small square porch in front, with two columns in front (pilasters behind), with a gravel walk to the gate. Evergreens grew on both sides, jonquils and spirea blossoming in the yard. Sidney Lanier is particularly remembered for his poems, "Song of the Chattaboochee" and "Marshes of Glynn." Later, in 1590, a bronze bust was unveiled in Macon in his honor, presented by a l(i-nsrnan, Charles Lanier. Sidney was 39 years old when he d. in Tryon, North Carolina, 9/.7/1851. He liked math, was 3 musician as well as a poet, and was a famous player of the flute. He m. 1867 Mary Day (1844-12/31/1931).
      
      Sidney Lanier expressed his love for his wife in many poems, and one of the most beautiful is:
      
      "Oh love, O wife, thine eyes are they
      My springs from out whose shining gray
      Issue. the sweet celestial streams
      That feed my life's bright lake of dreams.
      
      For none O'the singer even yet
      (las wholly lived his minstrelsv,
      Or clearly sung his true, true thought,
      Or utterly bodied forth his life,
      Or out of life and song has wrought
      The perfect one of man and wife."
      
      Issue of Sidney Lanier:
      
      
      1. Charles Day Lanier b. Greenwich, Connecticut.
      2. Sidney Lanier m. Elizabeth M. Masson.
      3. Henry Wysham Lanier b. 1873 m. Josephine Stevens.
      4. Robert Sampson Lanier 1880-1912 m. Annie Goldsborough.
      5. . Clifford Lanier b. 1844 Macon, Ga.

      6. WILLIAM B. LANIER b. 1823 in South Carolina m. Lucy. Issue:
         
         
         1. Sarah Lanier b. 1847 Ga.
         2. Elizabeth Lanier b. 1849 Ga.

Sidney Lanier, the poet.

Sources: Bibb Co. Marriages; 1850 Bibb Co. Census; Last Will and Testament of John Lanier