James Underwood was born about 1794 in North Carolina, possibly in the Rockingham County area of northern North Carolina, where one James Underwood served as a private in the 5th Regiment of North Carolina militia during the 1812 War. He first married about 1810-1814, although the place of the marriage and the name of his wife are presently unknown. James was very likely related to three Underwoods named Matthew, William,and Thomas Jr. who arrived in Tattnall County, Georgia no later than the period 1815-1817. William and Thomas were still there in 1820, and both were listed as having been born prior to 1775, making both of them potential candidates to be James' father and/or uncles. By 1820 James was living with his wife and children in Bulloch County, Georgia, just across the county line from William Underwood and Thomas, but by no later than 1824 he had moved to Tattnall County to live on 500 acres of land he had been granted there while still retaining ownership of 350 acres of Bulloch County land through the 1824 tax year.
By 1825, Thomas Underwood had moved out of the county (he sold tracts of land there in 1824 and 1826), leaving James and William in Tattnall. William apparently moved away after 1827, during a three-year period (1826-1828) when James was listed as owning no land. About this same period, his first wife seems to have died. By 1829, James once again paid taxes on 150 acres of land granted to him in Tattnall County, and during the next decade he was awarded over 1,000 acres of headright land in the county, and purchased some 2,000 additional acres. On October 12, 1834, he was married to Eleanor Anderson (born c1812), daughter of neighbors Amos and Martha Anderson, with whom he ultimately had one son, James Dekalb Underwood, born c1842.
By 1840-1842, James Underwood owned 3,212 1/2 acres in Tattnall County, but in 1843 he began to sell off large parcels of property, including 500 acres to his son Thomas. The following year (1844) several more parcels were seized and sold at auction, and James moved from the 43rd District to the 40th, where his son Thomas and son-in-law Isaac Hutto had lived for several years. In 1846 James purchased 511 acres in the name of his 4-year-old son James, and by 1848 he was listed without any property, paying taxes only as agent for his son (older son Thomas moved to Ware, later Clinch, County after 1848).
James Underwood died in Tattnall County before October 1853, when his widow Eleanor applied for letters of administration on his estate. Eleanor continued to pay taxes on her son's land through 1855, when James was listed as a poor school child. The following year the land was seized by the sherriff and sold at auction, after which Eleanor and her son James disappeared from Tattnall County. Their ultimate fate is unknown.
Children of James Underwood and first wife
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The identification of Katherine Hutto's original surname (eventually leading to the identification of James Dunwoody) was based on the work of Mrs. Grady Sanford, granddaughter of Sarah Ann Hutto, which was sent to me by Fred Hutto in California.
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