General Gates & Eliza are my maternal great grandparents.

Spouse 1: Laura B. McGEE
Marriage: 11 SEP 1892 in by J.W. Bird MG, witness I.L. McGee, Sarah McGee, M.T. Stanford

Spouse 2: Eliza Jane "Liza" GREENE
Married: March 13, 1902 in the Cherokee Indian Reservation in Oconaluftee, Swain County, NC

--- MORE ---

U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989
Name: Gates G McMahan
Gender: Male
Residence Year: 1924
Street Address: 314 Tremont avenue
Residence Place: Greenville, South Carolina
Occupation: Elevator Operator
Spouse: Eliza McMahan
Publication Title: Greenville, South Carolina, City Directory, 1924

Florida Death Index, 1877-1998
Name: Gates General McMahan
Death Date: 1940
County of Death: Seminole
State of Death: Florida
Race: White
Gender: Male

---

A Biography by William P. McMahan, Greenwood, South Carolina
GATES McMAHAN
Gates and Laura made their home for six years up Mingus Creek from Mingus's Mill near what is now known as Watson's Field in Swain County, North Carolina. A small church and school were in the community. The Forester Service still maintains a cemetery there but all of the tombstones have deteriorated until no names are readable. Laura was never well after Bethel, their fourth child, was born. She developed Pneumonia and died one year later. Laura McGee McMahan is buried in Floyd's Cemetery near present day Highway 441, not far above Mingus's Mill.
After Laura died, Gates became restless. The loss of one's first love sometimes is never overcome. The rest of his life he was a wanderer. He chased an elusive dream. Some say he searched for "The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."
Gates was busy as a Loggerman (Foreman of a logging crew) so the four children went to live with Aunt Ell, wife of Dillard Jones, on
Barker's Creek in Jackson County, North Carolina.
Two years later Gates married Eliza Jane Green, daughter of Miss Marietta Jane Green. The children went to live with them. Eliza cooked for the entire logging crew. As their kitchen was small she often cooked in a large pot in the yard.
Once, Gates bought some Navy beans to feed them and the loggers. Eliza had never cooked Navy beans. The men sat down to eat with no beans on the table. Gates asked Eliza about the beans. Eliza called him aside to tell him the beans could not be eaten because they were full of worms. The kernels had cooked out and to Eliza they looked like tiny worms.
With the logging completed in that area, Gates wanted to raise tobacco. They moved to Sugar Land, Tennessee. Several of their children were born there. Later, they moved to Blairsville, Union County, Georgia on top of the Blud Ridge Mountains. Frank McMahan (his son) remembered the trip to Blairsville in the horse drawn wagon. The children had never seen a white hog. As they passed a farm where a white hog was in the yard, one of the children said "Look there Papa, there is a hog that has been scalded and scraped." In Blairsvile, Eliza's brother George Green and his wife, Mattie, with their children came to live in the house with them. Eliza raised quite a flock of sheep here. George Baxter McMahan remembers each child walking around with a lamb to play with as well as the bitter cold weather and deep snow. Frank McMahan remembers their first cook stove. Gates ordered it by mail. When it arrived at the train station, the entire family went to bring it home. Each member of the family had to carry part of the stove, even the smallest child carried on of the 'eyes'. They were the first family for miles around to stop cooking on a fireplace and cook on a store bought stove. Gates always wanted to raise cotton. The cotton farms of Hall county (Georgia) appeared to be the place to escape the harsh winters of Blairsville. There was also schools for the children.
George Baxter McMahan tells of the move from Blairsville to Murrayville, Hall County, Georgia. Burgess Ballard McMahan was born in
Blairsville while Gates was gone to find them a house and farm (in Hall County). According to George, the night Burgess was born, the cow gave birth to twin calves and the sow gave birth to sixteen pigs. Eliza was sick and had no milk for the baby. Burgess was allergic to cows milk and also had asthma. No one believed that Eliza or the small baby could survive the move in the covered wagon.
A neighbor agreed to take Eliza and the baby in his buggy which was equipped with curtains. With the help of two lanterns sat on the floor and the curtains, Eliza and baby Burgess was kept reasonably warm and dry on the trip that took several days. Frank McMahan drove the covered wagon with their few possessions and the other children. The weather was cold with a drizzling rain falling. The wagon leaked. The first night was spent with a black family who operated a camp for travelers. George McMahan said it was the best cooked food as he really was hungry.
The second day the children became damp and were about to freeze to death. Frank gave each child a small amount of white whiskey to help keep them warm. It was the only thing available. The children said this would be hard to believe because no one can remember Frank taking a drink of any alcoholic beverage in his life. Late the second day, they arrived at a small town. No one remembers the name but Frank bought Eliza a pair of shoes there. It was the first time George Baxter McMahan had seen concrete sidewalks. He was a little leary of it. The first time he stepped on it, it flew up and hit him in the face. Actually, he was so drink from the whiskey he couldn't walk. After they became settled in Murryville, Gates went back to Blairsville to sell the land and livestock left behind.
The next move was to the Tadmore community near Gainesville in Hall County, Georgia. Here Nora Bethel McMahan met William Rastus "Bunk" Christian who worked for the railroad that passed near their home. After their marriage they made their home in Dames Ferry in Monroe County, Georgia.
World War I began. Frank Lee McMahan went into the Marine Corps and was stationed in Salt Lake City, Utah. He returned with unbelievable tales of water where an egg would float and a man had to exert considerable effort to go under. Rufus Love McMahan and Richard Reagan McMahan went into the US Army, serving in France. Gates went to Montana where two of his cousins lived because of the big money that could be made plowing the great plains. His plan was to move his family three but abandoned the idea. At Tadmore the home burned with the boys and Gates away from home. Eliza burned her arms badly attempting to save a trunk belonging to Frank where his momentoes and money sent home were kept.
Gates then moved his family to Greenville, Greenville County, South Carolina where he and several of the children worked in the Mills of that area. Frank and Mary Moore McMahan moved to Laurens County, South Carolina, near Mary's people, where they lived and raised their family. Gates became dissatisfied with the environment around the Greenville Textile Mills in which the children were growing up in. This was during the great Florida Land Boom.
Like so many people, Gates was impressed with the beautiful picture painted by the land promoters of that day. He decided to go to Florida and see. All arrangements were made for him to go by the Real Estate people. He boarded a boat "The Saint Cloud" at Charleston, South Carolina. After going up the Saint Johns River it docked at Sanford, Florida, where he was met by the land salesman. He made a down payment on 20 acres that he was lead to believe Oranges could be grown on. sixty years later, this same scam is carried still carried out to sell Florida land. Upon returning to Greenville, South Carolina, Gates purchased an old laundry delivery truck. In their truck, Gates, sons Herman, Burgess and future son-in-law, Richard Phillips (married Gertrude McMahan) went to Florida. There they picked fruit to make payments on the land. Richard Phillips went back to South Carolina after a short time because he became homesick (or should that be 'lovesick'). All of the family later moved to Florida where they survived the great hurricane.
The next move was back to Georgia, Dames Ferry in Murray County.
During a time when workd could not be found in Florida, the family moved to Dames Ferry where his married daughter Bethel and husband 'Bunk' Christian lived. In addition to farming, brothers Burgess Ballard McMahan and John Herman McMahan made charcoal that was sold in Macon, Georgia. The black got into their skin and was almost impossible to wash off. Burgess decided there had to be a better way to make a living after a certain event. One day they carred a load to Macon. Black children were near when they were unloading the charcoal. Speaking of Burgess one said, "Dats a black man". The other retorted "I know he a white man 'cause he talk like a white man." After that the brothers broke up the charcoal business.
Most of the family then moved back to Florida where they lived out their lives. Whether Gate's restlessnss was a search for "A city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" or material possessions, we do not know. Everyone knew him as a hard working, God fearing man, that loved his family. Some say he searched for "That pot of gold". His constant moving was typical of the pioneer American Spirit. Gates always loved work and the mountains of western North Carolina. The summer before he died he was visiting his nephew Jehu Jones. With Jehu's permission, he raised a field of corn for no other reason than he liked to work the earth and see things grow. On his way back to Florida he came by his son Frank's and picked cotton for several weeks to help with the harvest. The author met him several times but was not priviledged to know him well. He was a quiet man with not much to say. It is known that he died in peace and assurance in May 1940, and is buried near his helpmeet of many years, Eliza Jane Green McMahan, in Oveido, Florida.