Somehow I have temporarily misplaced my Heritage Book of Okaloosa County! However, I find that I was at one point extracting Givens info from it, pages 224 and 364. Don't think I ever finished, but here are some of the notes I took:
John Hezekiah Givens, also known, I believe, as "Bud", received a homestead grant in Laurel Hill. This according to Dr. Mark Givens Weatherly, his grandson. Bud Givens was into the sawmill business and was a prominent business man and financier, who in 1900, founded the Falco Land & Lumber Company near Florala. Some 15,000 acres of timberland were involved. There were Branch Mills in Munson and Blackmon/Blackman. Obie Weatherly ran both mills. This industry embraced both Walton and Santa Rosa County areas (Okaloosa not having been formed as a county at that time). Bud Givens was part Creek Indian and the Yellow River Railroad was another of his interests.
It is believed that the Givens migrated from Scotland to Orange County, Virginia, to North Carolina, to Alabama (Bay Minette). The turpentine and lumber industry were an integral part of their livelihoods.
John Hezekiah (Bud) married Marguerite (or Maggie) Chance of Milton. Listed as children are Lilla Mae, b. 1892, Daisy, Gladys, Johnny (ie), Val, and James. Obie Lee Weatherly married Lilla Mae Givens in 1911 in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. Their children were Mabel, b. 1911, Maurice, Maudie (John), John Max Weatherly (of Laurel Hill), and Mark. This from page 363 and 364 of the Heritage Book.
