Gabriel Harrison Clopton of Georgia and Florida

Gabriel Harrison "Gabe" Clopton, was the fifth child of William Henry Harrison "Billy" Clopton and Martha Isabel "Mattie" Lancaster Clopton. Born in Putnam County (Eatonton) Georgia on September 14, 1870, he married Elizabeth Celine Girtman on July 3, 1907 in Miami, Florida. She was the daughter of John W. D. Girtman and Sarah Elizabeth Zelma Guilford Girtman of Eufaula, Alabama. Gab is a direct descendant of the first William Clopton, Gentleman, and his wife, Ann (Booth) Dennett Clopton. Gabe died May 21, 1971 in Georgia, and is buried in the Concord United Methodist Church Cemetery in Putnam County. It is believed his wife is buried in Miami. They had no children.

Gabe Clopton and his brother, James Brown "Boss" Clopton, went to Florida, but they came back to Putnam County every summer. In Florida they worked on a tomato farm. Prior to the Spanish-American War, they walked to Miami from Bartow, Florida. They were living in Miami by the time the Spanish-American War was fought in 1898.

The main industry in Florida at that time was growing fruits and vegetables for the winter markets, especially oranges, grapefruit, pineapples, guavas, mangoes, limes, avocados, peppers, tomatoes, beans and eggplants. Many farm boys, just like Uncle Gabe and Uncle Boss, came from other states to pick crops, returning home in the spring to work their own farms. And like them, many eventually decided to make Florida their home.

Uncle Gabe's sister, Hattie Belle (Harriet Isabel Clopton Girtman), who had married Aunt Bet's brother, died in 1891, and Hattie's husband, died in 1904. They left one child, Zelma Bell, called Rosebud. Uncle Gabe and Aunt Bet raised her, and even after Rosebud married, they continued to live together. After awhile, Uncle Gabe became disenchanted with the arrangement, and he returned to Putnam County to live out his days. When Gabe returned to Putnam County, he was "taken into" the home of his brother, William Thomas "Boo" Clopton. He loved to reminisce about his experiences in South Florida. Of all these he was proudest of the fact he was one of the carpenters who worked on Viscaya, the multi-million-dollar home on Biscayne Bay of James Deering, a member of the very wealthy mid-Western farm machinery manufacturing company.

Contributed by :

Suellen Clopton bblanton@fast.net
James Stanley Clopton,
Henry King Stanford, Ph.D.,
and Isabel Lancaster (Clopton) Steiner