USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 58
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In 1822, the Village of Ruckersville was incorporated, but no boundaries were fixed, and from that day until this, the name has been applied not so much to a town as to a large neighborhood. In 1827 Sherwood's Gazateer described it as containing ten houses, six stores and shops, an academy, and a house of worship for the Baptists. In 1849 it had 200 souls. This paragraph, quoted from a sketch of Joseph Rucker in the Cyclopedia of Georgia, will help us to form a picture of Ruckersville :
"From our present standpoint there was little in the locality to commend it as a center of influence, or as the seat of a great estate. The land was young, roads were bad, markets there were none, and it was a four days journey to Augusta, the nearest approach to a city. And yet, in that secluded locality, remote from marts aud markets, Joseph Rucker not only created a fortune great for his day and genera- tion, but displayed such wisdom and executive ability and manifested such high traits of character as marked him as an extraordinary man."
In this day of subdivided labor, it is difficult to appreciate the kind and variety of talent then required in the successful management and development of great landed estates at points distant from centers of trade and according to present standards, practically inaccessible for want of highways, railroads, and means of transportation. The successful agriculturist in every stage of the country's history has needed the highest order of judgment and forethought, and has necessarily been a man of affairs. But the successful planter at the early ante-bellum period required in the Southern States at least, a combination of talent, which would now thoroughly equip the master minds who control the colossal enterprises of the Twentieth Century. For such a planter had not only to be an agriculturist, but a manufacturer and a financier; and, above all, he had to know how to manage, care for, and develop men. Iu all these departments Joseph Rucker was conspicuous. The cotton industry was in its infancy, but even in this he made a marvelous success. Stock of all kinds, horses, mules, cows, goats and sheep, were raised. The cotton was to be ginned, and the ginnery and the press were supplemented by the spinning of yarn and wool, and the weaving of eloth. There were blacksmiths, wheelwrights, and carpenters, besides saw-mills to make the lumber for the quarters. This prince of planters had his own tan-yard, and tanners, his harness-makers and shoe-makers. Immense crops of wheat and corn were raised. Corn eribs abounded. There were also mills for converting grain into meal and flour. The management of these separate and
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HOME OF JOSEPH RUCKER AT OLD RUCKERSVILLE, GEORGIA
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various industries was net the most difficult task. There were the slaves themselves, a large and heterogeneous bedy, a wholly irresponsible people, whose ancestors had only recently come from Africa. These had to be trained and taught, and how humanely and well this was done, by the old time planter, is shown by the conduct of these same slaves, when, during the war, discipline was necessarily relaxed and control partially suspended.
Joseph Rucker lived the typical life of the Southern planter. Self-centered and independent, he lived at home. He had little to buy and always something to sell, and his great erops of cotton were shipped in Petersburg boats down the Savannah to Augusta. The neighboring community was unusually prosperous. The Harpers, the Martins, the Heards, the Whites, the Maddoxes, the Clarks, the Adamses, and a host of others, made a neighborhood ideal in its social and domestic charms. Joseph Rucker's home especially, was the scene of a wide and generous hospitality-a social center which made its impress upon its inmates, and the memory of which abides to the third and fourth generation. He was pre-eminently a good neighbor, counsellor, and friend, for he gave needed help at the right moment. Extremely dignified, grave and reticent, he was also open-handed and generous. In politics, a whig, he was one of the chosen friends, counsellors, and advisers of the great leaders of the party in that district so noted in state and national politics. He never sought political preferment, though always taking an interest in the questions of profound importance which then agitated the South.
Living at a time when the country was experimenting with bank laws, be organized, and, as president, managed, with phenomenal success, the Bank of Ruckersville, under circumstances which would now provoke a smile. We cannet think of a bank, a moneyed institution, with hardly a human habitation in sight, surrounded by original forests. This institution was operated in a small, unpretentious frame building. Its doors and shutters were studded with nails at close and regular intervals to guard against the burglars' axe. It had a safe without time lock, opened with a key carried by the president. The furniture was of the plainest, but it issued bills which passed current par throughout the state. It throve and prospered, and with the assistance of the wealthy planters in the neighborhood, became a strong financial institution, contributing to the development and prosperity of that part of the state. In his old age, Joseph Rucker was a man of striking appearance, ruddy cheeks, snow-white hair, clear blue eyes. Dressed in the prevailing style, black broadcloth coat, cutaway to the waist line at the front, beaver hat, turn down cellar and stock, and gold fob, he might have posed for the portrait of the ante-bellum planter, one of those who made the old South.
His son-in-law, the late Rev. James S. Lamar, of Augusta, in an unpublished manuscript, has left us the following graphie pen picture of Joseph Rucker :
"In manner and bearing Squire Rucker was simple and unpretentious, and by nature thoughtful, quiet and dignified. He enjoyed a good anecdote or story, and possessed a rich store of personal reminiscence, from which he was fond of drawing for the entertainment of others. He told his stories well, and, of course, like all genuine recounteurs, he sometimes repeated himself. It was his custom to go to Elberton on the first Tuesday in every month, when the principal men of the county would assemble in a sort of general meeting together, to attend the sheriff sales, to transact business with each other, to laugh and talk and crack jokes, and especially to save the country by discussing politics. Among the leading citizens of the town or county at that time were such influential men as Major Hester, Major Jones, Mr. Pverton Tate, Mr. Lofton, the Mattoxes, the Harpers and the Burches, Judge W. W. Thomas, and (during court week) Alexander H. Stephens, Robert Toombs and Judge William M. Reese. All of them were Squire Rucker's friends.
"Squire Rucker's judgment was never known to fail him. Violently opposed to secession, when the final act came at Milledgeville, he said, pointing to one of his slaves: 'See that fellow. A year ago he was worth $1,500.00; today he isn't worth a silver thrip.' But he accepted the situation-helped to equip a company-took $30,000 of the first issue of Confederate bonds, at par. These bonds were lying in the old Bank of Athens, in the care of the late Albin Dearing, when the war was over ; not a coupon had ever been elipped."
"The house was approached through a long avenue of cedars and bex planted by Margaret, from which the place became known as Cedar Greve. The fine old trees,
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the office, the flower garden, the kitchen garden, the well-house, the smoke-house, the kitchen, the buildings for house servants, and, not far off, the barns, the carriage houses, the quarters, presented a typical picture of the life of the ante-bellum planter who lived at home, making on his own acres all that was needed for those dependent upon him. For there, as in so many other similar places throughout the State, the tannery, the blacksmith-shop, the corn-mill, the flour-mill, the cotton gin, the spinning wheels, the looms and the wheelwright were an essential part of the plantation. It was a hive of industry, and it is not surprising that in time a name should be given to the little center, nor is it strange that it should have been named after the village in Orange County, Virginia, from which John Rucker had come in 1785.
"He was always called Squire Rucker. I well remember the first time I saw him. It was in the summer of 1856. He was dressed in the old-fashioned suit of broad- cloth, a vest also of cloth, and a coat of the same material in the style called shad- belly-somewhat like the cutaways of the present day. He wore it unbuttoned-a watch chain with a heavy seal hanging from a fob, or watch, pocket. His neckcloth was then and always pure white. It was not a simple tie, but a sort of folded handkerchief, put on by laying the middle part against the throat, leading the ends back and erossing them, then bringing them to the throat to be tied together. The knot was plain. I am not sure that there was even a bow.
He was polite, but very reserved. He seemed to be studying me. His conversa- tion, so far as it was directed to me, was mainly questions-chiefly about men and women and things in Augusta-Mrs. Tubman, the Cummings, the Claytons, the Gardiners, and Mr. Metcalfe-then about cotton and business prospects; but no human being could have told from any expression of his face what effect my answers had upon him, or what inference as to me he drew from them. Considering the time of the year and the purpose of my visit, I must say it was a little chilly. Presently supper came on-such a supper as only the Ruckers could get up-and the conversation took a somewhat wider range. The family were book people-Dickens was the rage then, and I had read Dickens and Thackery, and had dipped into Cousin and various philosophers; and at that period of my life I could talk-an art which I have un- fortunately lost. So that when the old gentleman found that I could hold my own with Elbert and others, and that all the family treated me with sincere respect and consideration, he seemed to thaw, little by little, concluding, I suppose, that I. might turn out to be something in my way, if I was nothing in his." "Georgia's Land- marks, Memorials aud Legends, " Vol. II, pp. 713-719, by L. L. Knight.
THE MILITIA DRILL .- Following the Revolution, each county in the state, to insure adequate protection, was divided into militia districts; and for more than half a century one of the dominant features of life in Georgia was the semi-annual or quarterly militia drill. On the all-important day set apart for these maneuvers the able-bodied men of the district were required to report for duty at a given time and place, with the requisite military accounterments; and while at first these exercises were serious affairs they eventually degenerated into mere travesties, at which many a shaft of ridicule was aimed by the writers of the period. The mirth- provoking character of these evolutions can hardly be realized at the present time. The election of a major-general, under the old militia system, was almost if not quite as important au event as the election of a United States Senator; and there was any amount of polities involved in the choice of some half-score of brigadiers. The militia district still exists as one of the state's political subdivisions but without the peculiar military significance which attached to it in ante-bellum days. To an article in Longstreet 's "Georgia Scenes," supposed to have been written by Oliver H. Prince, afterwards a United States Senator, we are indebted for the following ludicrous description of one of the early militia drills in Georgia. Says this writer : "I happened, not long since, to be present at the muster of a captain's company in a remote part of one of the counties; and as no general description could convey an adequate idea of the achievements of that day, I must be permitted to go a little into detail, as well as my recollection will serve me. The men had been notified to meet at nine o'clock, 'armed and equipped as the law directs'; that is to say, with a gun and cartridge-box at least; but, as directed by the law of the United States,
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' with a good fire-loek, a sufficient bayonet and belt, and a pouch with a box to contain no less than twenty-four sufficient cartridges of powder and ball.'
"At twelve, about one third, perhaps one half, of the men had collected, and an inspector's return of the number present, and of their arms, would have stood nearly thus: 1 eaptain, 1 lieutenant ; ensign, none; fifers, none; privates, present, 24, ditto, absent, 40; guns, 14; gun-locks, 12; ramrods, 10; rifle ponches, 3; bayonets, none; belts, none; spare flints, none; cartridges, none; horse-whips, walking-canes and umbrellas, 10. A little before one, the captain whom I shall distinguish by the name of Clodpole, gave directions for forming the line of parade. In obedience to this order, one of the sergeants, whose lungs had long supplied the place of a drum and fife, placed himself in front of the house, and began to bawl with great vehemence : ' All Captain Clodpole's company parade here! Come, gentlemen, parade here,' says he; 'all you that hasn't got guns fall into the lower eend.'
"He might have bawled to this time, with as little success, as the sirens sung to Ulysses, had he not changed his post to a neighboring shade. There he was imme- diately joined by all who were then at leisure; the others were at that time engaged as parties or spectators at a game of five and could not just then attend. However, in less than half an hour the game was finished, and the captain enabled to form his company and proceed with the duties of the day.
" 'Look to the right and dress!'
"They were soon, by the help of the non-commissioned officers, placed in a straight line; but, as every man was anxious to see how the rest stood, those on the wings pressed forward for that purpose, till the whole line assumed nearly the form of a erescent.
" 'Why, look at 'em,' says the captain, 'why, gentlemen, you are all a-crooking in at both eends, so that you will get on to me by-and-by! Come, gentlemen, dress, dress! '
"This was aeeordingly done; but, impelled by the same motives as before, they soon resumed their former figure, and so they were permitted to remain.
" 'Now, gentlemen,' says the captain, 'I am going to carry you through the revolutions of the manual exercise; and I want you, gentlemen, if yon please, to pay particular attention to the word of command, just exactly as I give it out to you. I hope you will have a little patience, gentlemen, if you please; and, if I should be a-going wrong, I will be obliged to any of you, gentlemen, to put me right again, for I mean all for the best, and 1 hope you will excuse me, if you please. One thing, gentlemen, I caution you against, in particular, and that is this: not to make any mistakes, if you ean possibly help it; and the best way to do this will be to do all the motions right at first; and that will help us to get along so much the faster; and I will try to have it over as soon as possible. Come, boys, come to a shoulder,' etc." "Georgia Seenes." Edition of 1894, pp. 160-167.
THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL .- Very few people in this decade of the nineteenth century know anything of the old field school in the Georgia of the long ago. I will try here to give a faint conception of the one which I attended, and which was a fair specimen of its elass. It was kept by a man named Tomson, who had come into the neighborhood from somewhere, to hunt for a school. Nobody, I suppose, examined him, or knew anything about his qualifications, character or antecedents. He was about forty years old, elean shaved, rather good looking and a little better dressed than the ordinary farmers. He went through the neighborhood with "Articles of Agreement," to be signed by the patrons, and without difficulty got up a large school, which was soon opened and running in the usual way. Geography and English grammar were not in the curriculum. Smiley's Arithmetic was taught with considerable suceess so far as "The Rule of Three." Beyond that it became a weariness to the flesh of both teacher and pupil; and when the eube root was attacked, it was found to be invincibly intrenched, and, as they "didn't see no use in it no how, " it was deemed expedient to go baek to the beginning of the book, and review.
In the building of the schoolhouse, which was of long pine poles with the bark left on, two of the poles had been half eut away from end to end, and by bringing the euts opposite each other, the long opening served as a happy provision for illuminating purposes. In front of this was a broad shelf reaching all the way and resting on stout pegs inserted with a slant into the log beneath. It was there that
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I began my career as a writer, by laboriously making pot-hooks and other chirograph- ical elements. At the opposite end of the house was a chimney, built also of logs wholly on the outside. It was very broad and deep. The opening into the house was about eight feet wide. The hearth was made of clay mortar, resting on common dirt or sand, firmly packed. The back and jams were secured against burning by a very thick lining of the same mortar. This chimney was doubly useful. In winter it held a large fire; and in summer it subserved important mathematical purposes. The cipherers were permitted to take their slates out of the school house, and sit around the outside, and in the angles of that vast projecting chimney. In the afternoons it was shady and very pleasant out there. And when I reached the point of being sent out for the first time, I felt that I had attained a higher grade in life, as well as in school. Like the other boys, I would work a sum or two, maybe in addition or subtraction, and then carry my slate inside to show it to the teacher. Ah, it was a grand thing-marching in there before all those boys and girls as a cipherer! Sometimes, after working my sums on one side of the slate, I would turn it over and indulge in my taste for art. The horses that I drew were something wonderful. The men were fairly good, though it must be admitted that their legs were very spindling, and their shoes much too large. My ladies were all in short frocks, and I regret to have to say that, though they were intended to be perfect beauties, their ankles were preternaturally small, and their feet altogether too big. But sometimes the creations of genius must be sacrificed upon the altar of duty. Art must yield to Science. And so hastily rubbing my pictures, I would rush in to show my sums.
But I have not yet shown how the young idea was taught to shoot. To do this it will be necessary to go in and observe the processes of the school. The scholars leave home before sunrise and get to the schoolhouse a little after. They engage in plays of various sorts while waiting for the teacher, who, by the way, is cordially hated. Before a great while he is seen approaching, when immediately the girls, who have been carrying on at a high rate indoors, subside, and become as quiet as mice. The teacher, with a fresh and stout switch or two in his hand, which he has had the fore- thought to cut from the wayside as he came, marches with a firm and steady step to the door, and calls out: "Books! Books! Come to books!"
All that are outside hurry to get in, and presently the entire school is seated, some on the bench against the wall, where they can lean against the logs, the rest on long benches reaching from side to side across the room. Books are opened, places found, and in a moment comes the command, "Get your lessons." Now be it known, that in the brave boys of old, reading meant reading out, nor was spelling to be done. in a whisper. Consequently, in order to get the lesson, whether it was spelling or reading, the process must go on aloud. This early morning study, however, was not in full voice, nor was it much subdued. It was the ordinary conversational tone. Imagine thirty scholars, and often there were many more, having perhaps, five or six different lessons, and even those having the same lesson would never all be conning the same parts at once all spelling different words or reading all manner of different sen- tences at one and the same time! Listen. Here is a girl that goes racing through a familiar lesson-"b-a ba k-e-r ker, baker; " "s-h-a sha d-y dy, shady; " a young reader over there is slowly and with difficulty making known that "She-fed-the- old-hen;" back yonder we hear, "i-m im m-a ma imma t-e te immate r-i ri immateri a-l al immaterial i immateriali t-y ty immateriality; " and this boy reads: "I- like-to-play-in-the-shady-gro -- g-ro-v-e-groove-I like to play in the shady groove"-and as much as he likes it, he will probably get a thrashing for it this time. Representing the coming thus as if the parts came in succession one after another, laughable as it is, can, of course, give no adequate conception of their con- currence and commingling-every man for himself, but all together. Meanwhile the teacher sits at his desk near the fire-place, possibly mending peus or working over a hard sum in vulgar Fractions.
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Our teacher, who, by the way, was never called teacher, but always "The school- master," took part in most of the pastimes, and I think the big boys took a special delight in hitting him hard with the heavy ball and otherwise bringing him to grief. Of course, they "turned him out" whenever they wanted a holiday. He would want it too, but if he gave it, the loss in tuition would be his, whereas if it was forced from
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him he would get pay for the day, as usual. He would, therefore, positively decline, with a great show of determination and bluster.
But next morning he would find the doors securely barred and watchfully guarded. He would command and splutter, and threaten dire consequences, and we little boys would be sorely frightened, but as he remained obstinate, he would be seized by both legs, thrown over and securely held, and, not yet yielding, strong arms would lift him from the ground, and, holding his hands and feet as in a vise, would bear him, vainly struggling, down to the spring, and if he still held out, would duck him head and ears in the water. Commonly, however, the sight of the water would suffice, and with much apparent reluctance he would yield, but was not released until he had promised to inflict no punishment for this high-handed act.
(Reproduced by special permission from an unpublished manuscript of the late Rev. James S. Lamar, D. D., LL. D., of Augusta, father of Justice Joseph R. Lamar, of the Supreme Court of the United States.)
SECTION IV
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION, OR GEORGIA IN THE PROC- ESS OF GROWTH. 1802-1857
CHIAPTER I
WHEN THE NEW CENTURY BEGINS, GEORGIA PRESENTS A PICTURE OF PEACEFUL REPOSE, UNDER SETTLED CONDITIONS-THE TREATY OF FORT WILKINSON IN 1802-THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF ITS STIPULATED PROMISE, ACQUIRES LARGE BODIES OF LAND FROM THE INDIANS-THREE COUNTIES FORMED-BALDWIN- WILKINSON-WAYNE-JOHN MILLEDGE, GOVERNOR-THE LAND LOT- TERY SYSTEM IS DEVISED-SUPERSEDES THE OLD SYSTEM OF HEAD RIGHTS-IIOW THE LANDS WERE DISTRIBUTED THE NEW SYSTEM EXPLAINED-ITS ADVANTAGES OVER THE OLD LOUISVILLE DEVELOPS MALARIAL SYMPTOMS- FAILS TO GIVE SATISFACTION AS A SEAT OF GOVERNMENT-POPULATION MOVING RAPIDLY TOWARD THE FOOT- HILLS-MILLEDGEVILLE, AT THE HEAD OF NAVIGATION ON THE OCONEE, CHOSEN AS A SITE FOR THE STATE CAPITAL-HOW THE TOWN STARTED -GEN. JETT THOMAS BUILDS THE NEW STATE HOUSE-THE STRUC- TURE NORMAN IN DESIGN-THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1804- INDIAN TREATIES OF 1804 AND 1805-DEATH OF JAMES JACKSON IN 1806- JOHN MILLEDGE BECOMES UNITED STATES SENATOR-JARED IRWIN IS AGAIN MADE GOVERNOR-DEATH OF ABRAHAM BALDWIN- DR. GEORGE JONES SUCCEEDS HIM IN THE SENATE, UNTIL WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD IS CHOSEN BY THE LEGISLATURE-GEORGIA IS GIVEN FOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS UNDER THE CENSUS OF 1800.
When the nineteenth century dawned upon Georgia its benignant rays awoke the promise of a long peace and kindled the outlook for a prosperous era, under settled conditions. All was quiet along the south- ern border. The Treaty of Coleraine had produced a tranquilizing effeet upon the Creeks who still retained possession of the Tallassee lands under a guaranteed title from the Federal Government. The Cherokees on the north were giving the white settlers no greater trouble than was incident to frontier life at the best of times. Cattle-stealing was per- haps the worst offense to be laid at the door of the Cherokees.
Georgia's population was steadily increasing. As a result of recent aceessions of territory the frontier belt had been pressed still further back into the Indian's green arcadia ; and, though it may not have been apparent to the savages themselves, it was nevertheless written in the Book of Fate that the ultimate outcome of this relinquishment of land would be the forfeiture by the red man of all this splendid heritage which for time immemorial had furnished the hunting grounds and held the tombs of his forefathers. Each year the whites were acquiring more and more of these Indian lands; and each year the dusky natives found them- selves moving further and further westward toward the sunset.
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