Shumate Mason Shumate was of French Huguenot descent. The name in France was De Shumate, and the ancestors of Mason were called by that name for sometime after they emigrated to America; but they dropped the "De" and have since been called plain Shumate. Mason Shumate was born A.D. 1761 in Farquiar (sic) County, Virginia. He married Miss Nancy Gatewood of the same county. He moved from Virginia to Spartinsburg (sic), S. C., in 1804, and from there to Decatur, DeKalb county, Georgia in 1824. Decatur, at that time, was nothing more than a collection of just about a dozen log huts. The Indians had just moved to the west side of the Chattahoochee. Decatur was a trading post, and the Indians would come over there in droves of thirty or forty to sell their peltries, baskets, moccasins and other wares. They were generally peaceable, but the remembrance of having been driven from their old hunting grounds would sometimes incite them to commit depredations on the whites, and the whites were so scattered in small settlements over the country that they fell easy victims of the savages before they could organize and drive the Indians over the river. Mr. Shumate kept the first hotel ever opened in Decatur. After living in Decatur a few years, he moved to his plantation, about one mile west of Decatur, where he and his slaves engaged in planting, as long as he lived. The land in and around Edgewood was owned by him. He used it for a hog range. His administrator, as late as 1850, sold 100 acres of it for $700. It is now worth about $300 per acre. He was one of the founders of the Presbyterian church in Decatur. He was an intelligent, well read man for his day, and gave his children the best education he could. He was thoroughly honest, and was kind and generous to a fault; was a devoted father and kind master. Everybody in the country knew him and honored him. He died in 1849, leaving 9 children, Joseph D., Lucinda, Harriet, Berryman, Sarah, Cynthia, Elizabeth, Franklin, and Eliza. His descendants now number about 125. Joseph D. Shumate married Amelia Montgomery, daughter of Major J. M. C. Montgomery. He resided near Marietta, Ga., many years. He moved to near LaFayette, Ga., and from there to Texas in 1865, where he died. His family consisted of four sons and three daughters.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1864 Marietta Street Atlanta Ga.