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In 1815, John True and his son Benjamin were looking to purchase Jonathan’s remaining piece of his father’s Halifax property, and Jonathan obliged. The court in Halifax had recently ruled in Jonathan’s favor, giving him the 29 acres he should have inherited but his brothers sold to a wealthy land speculator. Samuel Martin, who lived close to Jonathan at the time of the sale, witnessed the deed. Samuel moved soon after, and nothing more is known about him, except that a Samuel Martin had earlier lived not far from John in Halifax County, Virginia.
John and Benjamin True were descendants of Martin True, son-in-law to Henry Martin, a wealthy plantation owner in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near Fredericksburg. Henry died in 1848, leaving a grandson John, among others. This led some to believe John might be the grandson of Henry Martin, but Henry’s grandson never left Spotsylvania, according to living relatives, and had no connection with Halifax. Henry had other children, and Jonathan may have been related to Henry though another line. The link is missing, but some DNA matches suggest Jonathan and Henry are related. This is unconfirmed.
Six years passed between the birth of David in 1811 and Jonathan’s next son, Solomon, in 1818. Solomon was Jonathan’s last child born in Jackson County. That year, the northern end of Jackson became Hall County, and Jonathan moved north several miles and settled just south of the Chattahoochee River near Lula, purchasing over 350 acres along the northern Oconee River over the next few years.
Jonathan is remembered as a strict but educated Baptist, who demanded his children be educated as well. He must have known it was impossible to become an effective preacher without it. At least two sons, John and Jonathan Jr., and several sons-in-law and grandsons became preachers, when they were not farming. Jonathan is supposed to have helped establish the Timber Ridge Baptist Church not far from his home, and his descendants preached there for generations. Many of the early Hall County Martins are buried there.
Jonathan and Nancy claimed two more children: Joseph Marion in 1824 and Harriet in 1825. By this time Peter and Alex are in their twenties and already married, and Delilah, Nancy, and Margaret are married and starting families of their own. These five siblings will move away during the next twenty five years, and over time lose touch with the Hall County families. Peter and his wife Mary move to Forsyth County in 1840 with Hall County neighbors Peter Weaver, Joel Herndon, Caleb Herndon, William Fry and Thomas Denning -- all from Virginia or related by marriage to Martins.
Alex married Sarah Martin in 1820, and won property in the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery in what was becoming Murray County. Alex moved deep into the heart of what had been the Cherokee Nation, and became the head of a prominent family. Nancy married Henry Culpepper in 1821, and after raising a family in Hall, moved to Lauderdale County, Mississippi, with other Culpeppers.
Delilah and John Hogan married in Jackson County, Georgia, on 13 Sep 1822. On 19 Dec 1825 John purchased land owned by John's father, John Hogan, Sr., situated adjacent to property owned by Delilah's uncle, John Carmichael Jr. But in 1829 John and Delilah moved to Franklin County, Illinois, where they appear in the 1830 census. John Hogan, a doctor, died in 1832 due to complications to surgery. His brother David M. Hogan left Jackson County at that time and headed for Illinois. Delilah married her brother-in-law David around 1833, gave birth to Nancy in 1835, then divorced him the following year. Delilah then married Daniel Fortney on 17 Oct 1837, but he died in 1840. Delilah Martin Hogan Hogan Fortney died in Illinois in 1844.
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