King Dock Sconyers

Quick Facts

Significance:

Alabama Homesteader

Place of Birth:

Fort Gaines, Georgia

Date of Birth:

abt 1830

Place of Death:

Coffee County, Alabama

Date of Death:

abt 1897

The first generation of the Sconyers (Sconiers) family as homesteaders began with Solomon Sconyers and his younger brother, King Dock Sconyers. King Dock met his wife Mariah in Dale County, Alabama. King Dock was born in Fort Gaines, Georgia. Records indicate that Solomon and Dock were together as enslaved persons with their slaveholder, Allen Sconyers, in 1850 and 1860.

Solomon and Dock remained in Dale County, Alabama by the time of emancipation. They became registered voters as emancipated men in the state of Alabama in 1867. Both Solomon and King Dock registered to vote, the privilege already afforded to their former slave holder and former slave holder’s son. Both brothers lived next to each other in Grants, Coffee County, Alabama in 1880 as farmers along with their families on the land they resided. King Dock and his wife Mariah resided on the land with their children, Dock, Solomon, Mary, Billie and Valonia. On this property, he had fifty livestock, two oxen, three cows, fifteen swine, ten acres of corn and six acres of cotton on the land he tilled, according to the 1880 agricultural schedule. Alfred Engram, Charles Engram, Henry Davis, along with King Dock’s brother, Solomon, were listed as Black owners of the land they were on, alongside white owners such as Johnathan Wilson, Cobb Gilmore, John Brunson, Samuel Brunson, and George Griffin.

On November 8, 1883, King Dock filed Homestead Application No. 15005 at the courthouse in Coffee County, Alabama. His land entry case files are filed under the wrong spelling of his last name, Scongers not Sconyers. King Dock made his Final Affidavit on February 27, 1890. According to his Testimony of Claimant form, one dwelling house (16’X18’) for King Dock, his wife Mariah and their children. There was a smokehouse, corn crib and a stable. Corn, cotton, peas and potatoes were grown on the land. He built his log dwelling, a meat house, and cleared thirty acres of land. The land was worth four hundred dollars and King Dock stated that he commenced living on the land on the first of January, 1875. Witness testimonies were given by his neighbors, J.T. Lee and Henry Goodwin.

King Dock received his Land Patent No. 8892 from the United States government by President Grover Cleveland on May 29, 1891, twenty-six years after emancipation. This land patent granted him full private ownership to the land he resided. King Dock owned approximately one hundred sixty acres of land without any mortgage obligation. By the 1900

United States Federal Census, King Dock’s wife, Mariah was listed as a widow with the remaining family members living on the homestead property.

King Dock was born enslaved, lived through emancipation, was a registered voter, owned land during the Reconstruction South, and used his freedom to become a homesteader.

Patent Details - BLM GLO Records
 

~ Contributed by Charles Wilson

Charles Wilson

More about the contributor: Charles Wilson is a retired U.S. Navy Chaplain, former Veterans Affairs Chaplain and currently Chaplain at a correctional facility in San Diego, California. He completed the Boston University Certificate in Genealogical Research program and the 2019-2020 ProGen Study Group. He is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), Afro-American Historical Genealogical Society (AAHGS) and serves as Board Secretary and Founding Board Member of the David & Dovetta Wilson Scholarship Fund (DDWSF). Charles is the Sole Proprietor of Wilson Griot Legacy, a genealogical service with a Wordpress site concerning genealogy. He is Project Administrator of the African American Griot Legacy Project for Gedmatch members and FTDNA. He is married to Burlenda and they have two adult daughters, Charla Wilson, Bonita Wilson-Falconer and son-in-law, Darryl Falconer II. Burlenda, Charla and Bonita are descendants of King Dock Sconiers.