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HISTORY
GREENE COUNTY, GEORGIA
JUICE AND WILLIAMS
1800
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY GEORGIA
1786 - 1886
Thaddeus Brockett Rice
1]
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY
GEORGIA
1786-1886
Data by
DR. THADDEUS BROCKETT RICE
Edited by
CAROLYN WHITE WILLIAMS (Mrs. Carlton Candler Williams)
1
The J. W. Burke Company .
Macon, Georgia 1961
F292 GARS Copy2
Copyright 1961 By Board of Commissioners of Roads and Revenues For Greene County, Ga. R. C. Corry, Chairman
COPYRIGHT OFFICE
OCT 2 7 1961 LIBRARY OF CONGR SS
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527717
The Sponsors of this Book Dedicate it To the memory of Thaddeus Brockett Rice and Mayme Bowen Rice.
LOVE OF COUNTRY
Breathes there a man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, "This is my own, my native land !" Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, As home his footsteps he hath turn'd, From wandering on a foreign strand? If such there breathe go, mark him well ! For him no minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim Despite those titles, power and pelf, The wretch concentered all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unswept, unhonour'd and unsung.
-Sir Walter Scott.
PREFACE
It is most unusual that the history of a county should be gathered painstakingly for more than tweny years by a man, not a native of that county, and not for money. This man was Dr. Thaddeus Brockett Rice, who was born ,and grew to man- hood in Prattsville, Alabama.
Dr. Rice lived most of his life in Greene County and had an abiding love and pride in her past, present and future. He served her interests in many capacities. He was pharmacist, druggist, County Historian, telephone manager for a time, Mayor, Chairman of Board of Welfare, Chairman of Red Cross, President of a Bank, Deacon and Treasurer in the Bap- tist Church, and had filled at different times all of the offices in the San Marino Lodge F & M in Greensboro. He was Presi- dent of the Pharmaceutical Association in 1910.
Please remember, as you read this book that Dr. Rice gathered this material and made the remarks, in the 1930's and 40's all of which was pertinent to that time and place and to his own way of thinking. As best I can, I have tried to verify the dates but do not take any responsibility for his mistakes.
His dearest wish was to have the data which he had gather- ed, published as Greene County's own history. He died April 18, 1950, without his dream being fulfilled. Ten years later, Miss Catherine Cornwell, a friend of Dr. Rice, and also an adopted daughter of Greene County-she hails from Louisiana -became so interested in publishing the history, that she tried to interest others. She captured my interest with her letters and an interview.
I was the third person to fall under the spell of this eleventh county of Georgia, organized on February 3, 1786, and after Mr. Seaborn Ashley and Miss Cornwell had presented the idea to the Board of Commissioners of Roads and Revenues in and for Greene County, Georgia, composed of ROBERT C. CORRY, Chairman, T. H. McGIBONY, and C. L. RHODES, SR., they wholeheartedly agreed to publish the book. Miss Caro- line Ashley made and developed most of the pictures.
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I have read and culled through enough data to make two large books. All of this material is splendid and has historic value, so I have taken the highlights from the rich background of this old county and now present it to you, and if you will step down the staircase of time and pause whenever you please, we will re-enact the scenes of yester-years. Through reading the history of our forefathers and pioneer days, it will provide us with the understanding of those dramatic events which give meaning to the complexity of our civilization.
History, to my mind, is entertainment at its best, whether in books, radio, television or the stage. Next to my own beloved county of Jones, of which I wrote the history, comes this fasci- nating county of Greene which makes her contribution to the ever-widening stream that is our own America. Her story gives us a stimulus and inspiration to carry the old forward to meet the Nuclear Age in which we live. What pioneers ever dreamed that satellites would be making pictures of the earth from the sky and forecasting the weather, and that a man would burst through the bounds of this earth to outer space ?
These are the awe-inspiring new frontiers which takes bold, unafraid men to conquer, even as those pioneers did back in the 1700's.
Now this has happened, shrouded in great secrecy, the Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin was hurled briefly free of the earth into airlessness of space in a giant capsule and came back safely April 12, 1961.
On May 5, 1961 the United States Navy Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., thirty-seven years old was hurled into space, with all the world listening and a free press there to report on suc- cess or failure, and returned to earth safely. Thanks to a divine Providence, the scientific and technical knowledge, the achieve- ment of a free people and to this exceptional young man Ameri- ca is proud.
Carolyn White Williams
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY, GEORGIA
INTRODUCTION
The original appointee to compile the history of Greene county resigned after waiting a year to consider the matter. This necessarily caused delay in completing the task. In addi- tion to this, Greene County failed to make any appropriation to cover the cost of assembling materials, furnishing station- ery, typing, or paying for any part of the cost of writing a history, therefore, the substitute historian has drawn on his meager funds in order to record as much information as he could assemble pertaining to the history of the County of Greene. What he has recorded, and what he may yet record, will in all probability never be published in book form, how- ever, it will be filed with the Department of Archives and History, and will be available to all who care to consult, criticise, denounce, praise, "cuss," or otherwise denounce its author.
With the assistance and hearty co-operation of the State's efficient, courteous head of the Department of Archives and History, Miss Ruth Blair, Greene County's historian has been able to compile much of the history of the eleventh county created by the Georgia Legislature.
Unfortunately, little of the County's history has ever been written. It is true that most of the Georgia historians have de- voted a few brief pages to it's activities in the long ago; but most of them copied what others had written, and with the exception of Dr. Lucien Lamar Knight's "Georgia's Land- marks, Memorials and Legends," they are practically all the same.
In assembling information for the county's history, the following sources of information have been studied: Watkins, Digest of Georgia Laws from it's establishment as a British Province down to the year 1800, and other Digests of Georgia Laws. Many of the Acts recorded have to do with the creation, changes of the original county lines, the Indians, the people,
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and the progress of the county. In addition to this, the minutes of the Superior and Inferior Courts of the county, the records in the office of the Clerk of the Court, the minutes of the var- ious church Conferences (especially the Baptist churches), diaries kept by Thomas Stocks 1818 to 1832. County newspaper files, and every other available source of reliable information. In addition to all of this, Miss Ruth Blair has sent copies of all records in her office pertaining to Greene County including : Indian affairs, military and civil affairs, rosters of soldiers and officers of all military organizations from the time the country was created, to and including the World Wars, letters from the various governors to military officers who had to wrestle with Indian problems, and much other interesting information.
Some tradition has been recorded as tradition, and some of the chapters contain side-lights that will not destroy the historical value but add to the local interest. The author has lived in Greene County for more than forty years, and his vari- ious activities have brought him in close personal contact not only with those now living, but practically all of those who were on the scene of action forty years ago. He has always been one of those inquisitive "cusses" who wanted to know the whys and wherefores for everything, and his friends say that, he never forgets anything that he has seen or heard.
There have been some 700 pages of typewritten material assembled to date, and it is hoped that the work can be com- pleted during the year 1933.
The assistant historians are as follows: Miss Maude Townsend, Miss Abbie Goodwin, Miss Helen Kilpatrick, Mrs. Harold Lamb, and Mrs. T. B. Rice. These were asked to get information pertaining to their immediate communities, and their materials have not been assembled yet, however I am sure they have gotten together a good deal of information. This will have to be scanned and culled, and probably most of it will have to be rewritten.
There are to be three centennial celebrations in Greene County during the month of May; two of them are at White Plains. One is the one hundredth anniversary of the White
Plains Methodist Church, and the other is the one hundredth anniversary of the White Plains school. The latter wll be a home-coming day for all who have attended this school.
On May twenty-seventh, Mercer University will celebrate it's Centennial at old Penfield, which is located about six miles from Greensboro. There will probably be more than one thou- sand people to attend this celebration. This being a Baptist College, of course will make it largely a Baptist meeting, how- ever, there will be many from all denominations.
Greene County's historian has been asked to act as chair- man of the committee on entertainment, and is now busy gath- ering up the threads of his organization and preparing to see that none go away hungry. A description of these gatherings will become a part of Greene County's History.
T. B. Rice
Note:
I have tried to assemble in readable form the many versions of the same stories, and the thousands of pages of data which were accumu- lated over the years and changed from time to time. I know there will be those who wonder why many things were put in or left out, so to those I ask you to check the data of Dr. Rice's that I took over a year to read and sort and you will find the Herculean task which I tried to do, and found almost impossible. Remember what Carlyle said: "If a book comes from the heart it will contrive to reach other hearts. All art and authorcraft are of small account to that".
-Carolyn White Williams (Mrs. C. C. Williams)
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Map of Greene County, Georgia, the eleventh county created. 1786.
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FOREWORD
Having been second choice in the matter of writing the history of Greene County; and having no reputation either as a writer or historian; and being a rank outsider, that is, not a native of Georgia, I undertook the task with fear and tremb- ling. However, as I had passed the imaginary deadline of use- fulness 65 years of age, and needing some hobby as a pastime to keep me busy, Judge James B. Park, Judge of the Ocmulgee Circuit, urged me to undertake the task of writing the history of the only county created in the year 1786, and named for Gener- al Nathaniel Greene ere he died.
My appointment was hailed with joy by my friend W. H. M. Weaver, now deceased, who lent me much encouragement by way of books and records that had been gathered by his ancestors and himself, Then, too, Miss Ruth Blair, then State Historian and Archivist for Georgia, somehow, seemed to think the making of a historian lay in me; and she rendered most valuable help so long as she was in office, and her in- terest in my work has never ceased. Her successor, Mrs. J. E. Hays, has also been helpful; but most of my material had been gathered ere she assumed the office. My interest caused me to search the records of Greene County; and the minute books of both the Inferior and Superior Courts have revealed much that has never appeared in any history. I have also found the minute books of old churches very revealing as well as inter- esting. These sources together with the very brief accounts of Greene County given by Adiel Sherwood, George White, A. B. Longstreet, Rev. George Smith, Gilmer and other early his- torians, have been helpful; and so have Dr. Lucian Lamar Knight's "Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," Robinson's, "History of the Georgia," Baptist Association, and Ragsdale's "Story of Georgia Baptists." Judge Garnett Andrew's "Mem- ories of an Oldtime Georgia Lawyer," reveals much as to the character of early settlers.
Old newspaper files have enabled me to reconstruct many scenes of the long ago; but none have been so prolific as the old files of the Augusta Chronicle, however, The Milledgeville
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and Athens papers tell of events that can be found nowhere else. In addition to all of these, it was my good fortune to know and contact both men and women whose knowledge extended far back into the distant past; and from them I have gathered much.
Both letter and personal visits from countless people whose ancestors once lived in Greene, and my desire to help them, has revealed many things that otherwise, I would never have found. And, in this way, many friendships have been established, and perhaps, many of them will read my book.
One peculiar thing about many of the inquiries about the ancestors of those who now live in distant cities is, that they try to picture their ancestral roof-tree as mansions with Doric or Corinthian columns in a setting of great trees and surround- ed by formal gardens and dusky slaves to do their bidding. This may have been true in a few instances; but prior to 1820, the average home, in Greene County, consisted of a two-room log house with wide, open veranda between. There may have been one or more "lean-tos" at the back of the house, and may be, log kitchen and dining room in the back yard. If there were several half-grown boys in the family, there was, very proba- bly, a large log, single room house just back of the kitchen, and known as "the boys room." The main dwelling was known as the "Big House," by the darkies. Practically all of these pioneers were farmers; and the average landlord owned 287 1/2 acres of land and about a dozen slaves counting children. The nabob's owned five and ten thousand acres with slaves in proportion; and most of them had fine homes, for that day, but they constituted the minority. However, between 1820 and 1860, many of the small land-slave owners became rich for that period, and many of them built imposing homes, sent their sons and daughters to college, and imitated so far as possible, the homes and living conditions of their more well-to- do neighbors. Perhaps, the Early family set the pace for Greene County's early settlers, Joel Early, father of the Governor, is said to have owned the finest home north of Savannah, "Early Manor," near Scull Shoals. It is said that he required his sons and daughters to don evening dress each day for 6 o'clock
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dinner; and that his house furnishings were imported from London and Paris. However, the Early's were the exception, and if you would know the contents of the homes of the aver- age pioneer just read their wills that are on file in the Ordi- nary's office, things, rather than money constituted the wealth of our forefathers; and administrators and executors made in- ventories of them from the best piece of household furniture to the smallest medicine phial; nor was it taboo to list "my large copper still, peach brandy and fermenting kegs."
If you wish to take a peep into their homes and see what they had, how they lived, and what their amusements were; read A. B. Longstreet's "Georgia Scenes." If you would know of their home-life, manner of speech, their courtship and mar- riages; read Richard Malcomb Johnston's "Dukesborough Tales," and some half-dozen other books that tell of the people of Greene and Hancock counties; and if you would know of their religious customs, prejudice against vanity and worldly show; read Judge Garnett Andrew's "Memories of An Old- time Georgia Lawyer;" and, if you would glimpse the distin- guished men and women who lived and wrought, and who the leaders of thought and action were from the year 1800 to 1870, read William H. Sparks' "Memories of Fifty Years." All of these men once lived in Greene County; and what they wrote has been the key that unlocked the past for this inex- perienced historian.
T. B. Rice
XV
GEORGIA
Georgia, was the youngest of the thirteen colonies, she had the Spanish to the south, the French to the west and the Indians on the frontiers, she was truly a land of pioneers and fighters, and in the wars of 1776, 1812 and 1861 her soil was the ground of decisive movements, unrest, duels and personal struggles.
After a hundred years we find the tidewater region and parts of the upland rich in a comfort and culture as much like those of England and Virginia as children are like their par- ents.
In Savannah there were delightful homes such as the Richardson House built in 1815, a Georgian masterpiece. In Augusta there was the famous Richmond Academy. Far back from the "big road" were spacious and charming homes, where moonlight shone on old gardens and candle light gleamed on old mahogany and where pretty girls sang to the melodeon the latest songs from Byron and Tom Moore, and there they danced the minuet.
Also one hundred years ago there were more log houses than any other. It was not until 1804 that the Indians were moved west of the Ocmulgee River. In May of 1836 the Creeks were pushed beyond the Chattahoochee River. The Cherokees were not sent to lands beyond the Mississippi until 1837. Until that time the head of the family carried his gun into the pew when he attended church, so real was the danger of a sudden attack by the Indians.
Up to 1830 Georgia was largely a story of migrations; first the English colonists with a mixture of Salzburgers and Scotch Highlanders; then the Virginians poured in just before and just after the Revolutionary War; then the South and North Carolinians of Scotch and Irish strain; there were trick- lings of New England school teachers and traders and finally the native Georgians forging into their states' vast woodlands to conquer new frontiers.
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You cannot imagine now, the hardships and perils those pioneers endured. They were hoping, daring, achieving and were happy doing it. They built traditions into those log houses and made character for their commonwealth. They earned their bread in the sweat of their brow and laid the foundations of power and a beauty with their primitive and quaint ways. They were child-like in their faith in God and there was no so- phistication in these pioneers. They had the power to laugh, to wonder, to be generous, to be courageous in the face of dan- ger, to keep a stubborn faith and they believed in doing things yourself instead of depending on someone else. They had the capacity to make decisions, a passion for freedom, and here we are reminded of what Emerson said, "For what avail the plough or sail or land or life, if Freedom fail,"
Gentlemen often settled a political or personal grievance with sword, pistol or fists. Gen. John Floyd, a frontier hero, and an Indian fighter of 1812, is reputed to have fought a duel with a fellow, Hopkins, of Camden County in which the weapons were to be first, shot guns, if neither fell each was to advance ten paces and fire with horse pistols, and should both survive they were to close in and grapple with bowie knives. People were brave, hearty and sometimes rough but they were also neighborly, hospitable and intensely interested in politics. They took their religion fervently and their horse- racing with gusto.
From the masters' of the big plantations and from the pioneering ranks came more leaders than at any period in Georgia's history. William H. Crawford, Sec. of the Treas. under Pres. Monroe, and also an Ambassador to Napoleon's France ; John Forsyth Sec. of State under Pres. Jackson; John M. Berrien for two years Pres. Jackson's Attorney General; James M. Wayne associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. After these came Alexander Stephens, Robert Toombs, Ben- jamin Harvey Hill, Howell Cobb, Thos. R. R. Cobb, George Foster Pierce, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Herchel V. Johnson, Benjamin Hawkins, Archibald Bulloch, J. A. Treutlen, George Walton, Lyman Hall, Button Gwinnett, Peter Early, William Few, Abraham Baldwin, G. M. Troup and a man named Craw-
xviii
ford Long, who gave the world a miracle against pain and death, called ether.
Seventeen years before Robert Fulton launched his Cler- mont on the Hudson river, William Longstreet of Augusta was making an engine of his own on the Savannah. Soon steam- boats were carrying cotton on Georgia rivers. In 1819, the "Savannah," pioneer of ocean going steamships made her voy- age to Liverpool.
Four years after the first steam locomotive in America the Georgia railroad was chartered in 1833, followed by the Central of Ga. and the Western and Atlantic. The latter spon- sored by Alexander Stephens then only 24 years old and a rep- resentative from Taliferro County.
Industries came slowly in this agricultural state. In 1810 the state granted Zachariah Sims of Greene Co. a loan to aid him in settling up a paper mill. In 1833 Mark Anthony Coop- er built a cotton mill on Little River near Eatonton. Henry Stevens pioneered in ceramics, but most people farmed and had few or no slaves.
Alexander Stephens and Daniel Chandler championed a bill for female education in 1836 which eventuated in what we know as Wesleyan College, the first to confer degrees on wom- en. That same year Emory College was started in a wilderness, then Mercer at Penfield, and Oglethorpe at Milledgeville. The University of Georgia sent forth leaders making history for all Georgia. All of these came in a decade as well as the in- stitution for the mentally ill, the school for the deaf and the blind. The State Library was opened and the Ga. Historical Society was started.
Do we now prove worthy of that great frontier heritage? Traditions are not things to hold us back but should urge us to go forward. The frontier of today is just as great as it was then. To mention a few; education, better teachers and better paid teachers, road improving, providing better health programs and educational facilities, especially for superior stu- dents and unlimited space discoveries.
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Our ancestors were not afraid to experiment nor were they self-satisfied, they believed the way to hold fast to what was good was to make it better. May all of us prove worthy of these hardy pioneers who opened the way for us.
Do you know Georgia ? It is an interesting state. It has weathered many storms and survived ordeals that tried the souls of her men and women. Her delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence, were: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall and George Walton, for each of whom a Georgia county is named.
Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River, and is the twentieth state in the Union in area, with 58,876 square miles.
The first steamboat to cross the Atlantic sailed from Savannah, May 24, 1819.
The first long distance telephone was established in 1880 between Trion and Rome.
The first machine for manufacturing ice was made in Co- lumbus in 1844.
The first motion picture to which admission was charged was Atlanta, 1895.
The first chartered state university in the United States was the University of Georgia, January 27, 1785.
The first chartered woman's college and first college to grant degrees to women was Wesleyan College, Macon, Ga.
Oldest boy's high school with continuous operation in the United States is Richmond Academy, Augusta.
The Largest and best equipped infantry school in the world is Fort Benning, near Columbus.
Founder of the National Congress of Parents and teach- ers was Alice Mclellan Birney, born in Marietta in 1858.
The first to use ether as an anesthetic was Dr. Crawford W. Long, at Jefferson in 1842.
The Bethesda Orphans Home was the first orphanage and it was established at Savannah in 1741.
The first Girl Scouts of America was organized in Savan- nah in 1912.
The first Sunday School in the world was organized by John Wesley of Savannah in 1736.
Poppy Day was originated by Miss Moina Michael of Athens in 1918.
The first Garden Club in America was organized in Ath- ens in 1891.
This was the first state to establish an agricultural experi- ment station.
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