FRANCIS MARION KILGORE Sr.

      As long as I have been tracing my family, I have run across many names of importance given to different family members. Such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and James Monroe. But the most memorable is one such person in my Kilgore line known as Francis Marion. He was born on May 18, 1838 in Putnam County but he had lived in Murray County his entire life. He was born to Abner C Kilgore and Martha Scott and he is the brother of my second great grandfather, Alfred J. Kilgore.
      He married Miss Susan Aline Carter in 1861 and started to raise a family when the War between the States broke out. Being the good Southerner that he was, he joined the Confederacy. Company A, Georgia 39th Infantry Regiment on March 10, 1862 as a private. Was appointed a Corporal on the Roll for April 30, 1864. He surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. But pension records states that he surrendered at Kingston, GA May 12, 1865.
      But the most interesting thing of his life that I found was an unusual nickname he obtained while returning to Georgia sometime during the war. The legend says that he had to swim across a river to escape Union soldiers, As he had tired very quickly, he resigned himself to drowning only to find himself on a sandbar in about 2 feet of water. He was able to rest and wade out of the river. He was so elated that he did not drown, that he made quite a bit of noise coming through the woods. His companions stated that they thought it might be a panther or maybe a tiger therefore, "Tiger." The nickname stuck until the day he died.
      One storyteller said that he never knew of any tigers being in this area but I can witness to the effect of panthers being in Georgia and their running through the woods is quite a scary experience. I am sure that there is no difference between the sound of running tigers or panthers or bobcats. Besides, after the boys had been fighting for months, anything in the woods would be reason to be scared. No matter how brave our men appear to be, I am pretty sure that some things would scare them.
       Francis Marion Kilgore died in 1911 and both him and his wife are buried in Spring Place Cemetery, Murray County, Georgia.