Although Adella Hunt Logan was born far from Woodbridge, one branch of her family can be traced to colonial Woodbridge. William Stone (1665-1703) and Margaret Dix (1673-?) were Adella’s fourth great grandparents. William and Margaret’s great granddaughter Margaret Stone (1758-1813) (daughter of Robert Stone and Deliverance Heard) married Samuel Sayre (1741-1813) who was born in Goshen, New York. Samuel Sayre had first married Mary Cooper and had six children. Mary died in 1777 and Samuel married Margaret Stone in 1779. Samuel and Margaret had seven children and several of their children made their way to Georgia where they were large landowners and prominent in the community. One of these sons, Nathan Coombs Sayre (1795-1853) was the great grandfather of Adella through his relationship with Susan Hunt (abt. 1810-1892).
Nathan Coombs Sayre settled in Sparta, Georgia. He was an educated man who was an attorney and judge. Along with his brother, Nathan was a trustee of the Sparta Female Model School which offered education for girls and young women from primary school through college.
Nathan never married. He fathered children with at least two of his slaves, but then took as his consort a woman named Susan Hunt. Susan was a mixture of Cherokee, African, and white. Susan and Nathan had at least three children, one of them named Cherokee Mariah Lilly Sayre. You can read more about Nathan and Susan in this PBS Frontline article: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/nash.html
Adella Hunt’s parents were Cherokee Mariah Lilly Sayre and a white farmer Henry Alexander Hunt. Although Henry Hunt apparently did not live with his mixed race family, he did provide for the education of his children, and Adella attended Atlanta College. Adella married Warren Logan who was born into slavery in 1857 in Virginia. Adella and her husband Warren Logan were both on the faculty at Tuskegee Institute. Adella was active in the women’s suffrage movement and the NAACP. Warren and Adella had nine children, six of whom lived to adulthood. They were all well educated and had very successful families. One of Adella’s brothers, Henry A. Hunt, Jr., was a member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “black cabinet.”
Adella suffered from depression throughout her life. She sadly died by suicide when she jumped from a building at Tuskegee Institute.
Click here for the family group sheet for Samuel Sayre and Margaret Stone: http://sites.rootsmagic.com/WoodbridgeNewJersey/family.php?f=10
Family group sheet for Robert Stone and Deliverance Heard: http://sites.rootsmagic.com/WoodbridgeNewJersey/family.php?f=4
Sources:
Alexander, Adele Logan. (1991). Ambiguous lives: Free women of color in rural Georgia 1789-1879. University of Arkansas Press.
Archives of the State of New Jersey. Calendar of New Jersey Wills, volume I, 1670-1730.
Nash, Gary. Forbidden Love. Frontline. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/nash.html