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James Keen (1859 - 1936)

James Wesley Keen was born before the Civil War on Nov. 3, 1859, in Charlton County, Georgia, a son of David Myre and Nancy Walker Keene. His father, David Myre Keen, was born April 8, 1834, son of James M. Keen and Apsilla McCullough Keen, and grandson of David Keene of Tattnall County, Georgia. On August 12, 1852, he married Nancy Walker, born February 5, 1832, Ware County, Georgia, a daughter of Littleberry and Nancy Dowling Walker. They had seven children: Mary Elizabeth, Nancy P., Jerimiah Jackson, James Wesley, Joseph Carleton, John Hambleton Johns and Ida Keene. (Keen was spelled "Keene" in the family Bible of David Myre and Nancy Walker Keen and in the census it was spelled Keen).

James Keen's father, David Keene, was living in Columbia County, Florida, in the 1850 Columbia County, Florida census. In the 1860 Charlton County, Georgia census, James Wesley Keene was living in Charlton County, Georgia with his siblings and parents.

David and Nancy Keene were married only about nine years, when the threat of the Civil War was upon them and would change their lives and the lives of their children forever. James father, David, enlisted as Private, July 29, 1861, in Company G, 26th Regiment Georgia Volunteer infantry Army Northern Virginia, C. S. A. It was a ruthless, bloody war lead by General Sherman and his Yankee troops, destroying, killing and burning their path through the beautiful South that they had known.

While his father was away at war, James's brother, Joseph Carlton Keen was born Jan. 8, 1862, the fifth child of David, the little son that he would never get to see. On June 11, 1862, David was admitted to C. S. A. General Hospital at Charlottesville, Virginia, on account of debility. He returned to duty on June 30, 1862. He was killed at Manassas, Virginia, Aug. 28, 1862. This information is in the "Rooster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia", 1861-1865.

The last two children, John Hambleton Johns Keen, born 1869, and Ida Keen, born 1872, had to have had a different father, as they were born several years after David was killed in the Civil War. Her second husband was a Johns and her third husband was an Altman, but the children kept the "Keen" name.

James Wesley Keene was only three years old when his father was killed in the Civil War in 1862, and as soon as he could, he went to work on the railroad for 23 cents a day, to help his mother raise his brother and sister. What hard times those must have been for him and his mother. James Wesley Keen was married, July 28, 1879, in Nassau County, Florida to Charity Mary Jane Tanner, born Jan. 1, 1856, in Bryceville, Nassau County, Florida. She was a daughter of John "Josh" Tanner and Eliza Bradley Tanner. James's father-in-law, Joshua Tanner, was killed in the Civil war in the Battle of Olustee, in Baker County, Florida.

The war was a terrible thing, it affected so many families.  The following information was told, years ago, by Steve and Hattie Keen Johnson, (Hattie was a daughter of James Wesley Keen) when they were still living, that her father's first log home was located behind Farres, Jimmy and Edsel Higginbotham's homes on Ratliff Road in Nassau County, Florida, where James and Charity raised their 14 children. James Wesley made his living as a farmer and a timberman and owned a commissary that was near his home. He also owned the first sawmill in the Keen settlement, until his son, James Mitchell Keen bought him out years later. Eventually, about the turn of the century, he built a large two story home on Ratliff Road, located directly across from the second railroad crossing as you drive from US 1 and go down Ratliff Road. Their home was always open to the many families and friends that passed through or stayed with them when a need arose. The home is still standing, but looks quite different today, as the large upstairs and downstairs front porches that went all the way across the front of the home, were removed when it was remodeled around 1994.

James W. Keen was elected County Commissioner for Nassau Co., in 1916 and served for 16 years. He owned around 3,000 acres of land in the Keen settlement and paid 25 cents an acre for it. He also bought 1,000 acres of land around the Ratliff section and paid $10,000.00 for this land. James Wesley Keen Mapped out the way for the Georgia Southern Railroad to be placed through the land in the Keen settlement.

The hardships that he had to endure after the Civil War didn't hold him back long, instead, it built "character". He was a shrewd, self-made businessman, a survivor and a Nassau County, Florida pioneer.

Ref: David Myre Keene family Bible, Civil War military record.
Ref: James W. Wingate, grandson, Steve and Hattie Keen Johnson.

By Jean Mizell