USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 25
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Burke in the On the site of the present town of Waynes-
Revolution. boro stood Burke Jail, the scene of a noted battle in 1779 between the British, under the famous Tory leaders, Brown and McGirth, and the Americans under the two gallant officers, Twiggs and Few, in which the latter were victorious. It was during this engagement that Captain Joshua Inman performed his celebrated feat of slaying three men with his own hand. He was at the time in command of a body of horsemen.
Some few miles to the south-east of Waynesboro was fought the disastrous battle of Briar Creek, in which the Americans under General Ashe were routed with heavy loss.
Colonel John Jones, one of the most distinguished partisan leaders of the war for independence, was a resident of Burke. Usually in association with Twiggs, we find him engaged in a number of skirmishes in which he sustained himself with credit. He was evidently a man of courage, and of some military skill, but except for fragmentary allusions to him in McCall's History of Georgia we know very little concerning this gallant officer.
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Due to the patriotic work of the Shadrach Inman Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution the graves of several soldiers of the first war for inde- pendence have been located in Burke, and ornamented with handsome markers furnished by the United States government. The list is as follows:
John Murphree, a private, who served in Collier's regiment of North Carolina militia. He died on March 6, 1798. His grave is in the old Murphee burial ground at Midville.
Benjamin Brack, a private, whose credentials are given in the 3rd. Report of the National Society of the D. A. R. p. 349 and in the Georgia State Records. He died in 1827, and is buried on the Brack plantation near Midville.
Daniel Inman, a private. As a Revolutionary soldier, he drew Lot 45 in District 4, Section 3. He died on May 15, 1837 and is buried on the Inman plantation near Mid- ville.
Miles Murphree, a private. He received 500 acres of land, on a bounty warrant, as shown in book H. H. H., p. 365, of the Secretary of State's office. His death oc- curred on December 7, 1815, and he is buried 14 miles from Waynesboro, in the family burial ground.
Lieutenant John Carswell. He was a son of Alex- ander Carswell, also a soldier of the Revolution. The younger Carswell was a Lieutenant in the 4th Georgia Battalion, as shown by the Records of the War Depart- ment at Washington, D. C. He fought under Colonel John White. The date of his death has not been fur- nished. His grave is on the Carswell plantation in Burke.
On this list belongs also Alexander Carswell, whose last resting place was marked some time ago with a handsome stone furnished by the United States gov- ernment. Alexander Carswell was born in Antrim County, Ireland, in 1727 and died in Burke County, Ga.,
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in 1803. He enlisted from Georgia as a private under Brigadier-General Twiggs and fought throughout the war. He was granted 150 acres of land in Burke, as shown by the Georgia State Records.
He lies buried by the side of his wife on a tract of land granted to him by the State for his services in the Revolution. It is known as the "Hopeful plantation" and is still owned by his descendants. His grave was marked, together with those of two others, George Pal- mer and Batt Jones, when Shadrach Inman Chapter was first organized.
Abraham Jones, a soldier of the Revolution, died in Burke, in 1808. He was captured at the siege of Augusta. Hon. John J. Jones, a Congressman from Georgia, on the eve of the Civil War, was his grandson. Seaborn Jones, a patriot of the Revolution, whose grave is in the churchyard of old St. Paul's, at Augusta, was also from Burke; and there were a number of others belong- ing to this same family connection.
David Emanuel and Jared Irwin-both of whom afterwards became Governor of Georgia-were living in Burke at the outbreak of the Revolution, and both were active participants in the struggle.
Matthew Lively was a soldier of the Revolution who lived in Burke. His father, Abraham Lively, was a Scotchman who came to St. George's parish in 1750.
John Lawson, a native of Liberty and a Captain in the war for independence, settled in Burke in 1796. His son, Judge Alexander J. Lawson, and his grandson, Judge E. F. Lawson, both achieved prominence in public affairs. Joseph A. Roe, a private soldier in the War of the Revolution, was granted a Federal pension while a resident of Burke in 1848.
Waynesboro. Though not incorporated until 1812,
Waynesboro was a village of some note at the close of the Revolution. It was important enough to
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attract the notice of General Washington, when he ma.1 his famous visit to Georgia, in 1791, and he even went six miles out of his way to stop at this little town. The following entry appears in his Journal :
"Tuesday, 17th May. Breakfasted at Spinners, 17 miles-dined at Lamberts 13-and lodged at Waynes- borough-which was coming six miles out of our way-14, in all, 43 miles. Waynesborough is a small place, but the seat of Burkes County-6 or 8 dwelling houses is all it contains ;- an attempt is making-without much ap- parent success-to establish an academy at it, as is the case also in all the counties."
In 1910, another President of the United States was entertained at Waynesboro-Mr. Taft.
Says Dr. Smith: "Waynesboro was laid off in 1783 and was named in honor of General Anthony Wayne who was a great favorite in Georgia. The Legislature incorporated an academy and granted two thousand acres of land as an endowment. The village was after- wards incorporated with Thomas Lewis, Sr., Thomas Lewis, Jr., James Duhart, Edward Telfair and Johu Jones as commissioners. Two hundred lots were to be sold and the proceeds devoted to paying for the public buildings. The academy was among the first houses built and the court-house was soon erected. The town grew. There was a race-course near by and the famous comedy, 'The Wax Works' in 'Georgia Scenes,' was enacted in this village. There was no church, however, for many years, and the only preaching was an occasional sermon in the court-house; but in the early part of the century two Presbyterian churches one of which had been organized at Walnut Branch and the other at Old Church, united and built a small house of worship in Waynesboro, which was served by a pastor who in winter preached in Burke and in summer to the same people who went to the village of Bath in the pine woods of Richmond.
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How an Old Church was Saved. White has preserved an amusing incident of an old pioneer church, located six miles to the south-east of Waynesboro on the old Quaker road leading to Savannah. It was formerly an Episcopal church, with a glebe of forty-seven acres but at the time in question it was an unoccupied structure. As soon as Waynesboro was made the county seat, so the story goes, the Justices of the Inferior Court passed an order directing the old church to be torn down, removed to Waynesboro and converted into a court house. To this proposed desecra- tion however, a lawyer by the name of Allen demurred. He said that if such a step were taken it would be a ful- fillment of the passage of Scripture which says: "My house shall be called an house of prayer but ve have made it a den of thieves." The old church was not re- moved. In later years it became the property of the Methodists.
Original Settlers. As given by White, the earliest set- tlers of Burke were: Colonel John Clements, William A. Burton, Absalom Pryor, William Whitehead, Capt. Lett, M. Marshall, Hugh Alexander, William Greene, Clarke Key, John Emanuel, David Emanuel, Capt. Whitaker, Daniel Evans, Lark Robinson, William Paramore, John Fryar, James Rawles, Basil Gray, Samuel Lassiter, and Wiles Davies. See also Queensboro, a Colonial town founded in a part of St. Paul's Parish which afterwards became Jefferson.
Burke's Distin- John Houstoun, an early Governor of guished Residents. Georgia, a member of the Continen- tal Congress and a patriot who signed the earliest call for the "Sons of Liberty" in Savannah, was born near the site of Waynesboro, in what was then the parish of St. George. It was due to
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an unfortunate circumstance elsewhere explained that the name of Governor Houstoun was not affixed to the Declaration of Independence, an instrument which he was entitled to sign. Most of his life was spent in Savan- nah. Sir Patrick Houstoun, his father, was an English baronet.
Lyman Hall, one of the immortal trio whose names appear on the scroll of freedom, spent the last years of his life on his plantation at Shell Bluff, on the Savannah River; and here his ashes rested until 1848 when they were removed to Augusta and placed under the monu- ment to the Signers.
George Wells, President of the Executive Council, who fell in a duel with Governor James Jackson, was living in Burke on the eve of the Revolution, near the old town of Queensboro in what is now Jefferson.
Herschel V. Johnson was a native of Burke. He rep- resented Georgia in the Confederate Senate and on the Superior Court Bench as well as in the Chief-Executive's chair; and was a candidate for Vice-President of the United States on the ticket with Stephen A. Douglas.
David Emanuel a native of Pennsylvania, lived and died in Burke. He was an officer in the Revolution, who afterwards became Governor of Georgia.
Two other Chief Executives of the State, who owned plantations in Burke, were Edward Telfair and Jared Irwin. Both were patriots of the Revolution; and the latter at his own expense built a fort for the protection of the district in which he resided.
George Galphin, the famous Indian trader, lived at Silver Bluff, on the Savannah River, opposite Burke; while his trading-post at Galphinton, on the Ogeechee, was located in a part of the county which was afterwards made into Jefferson.
Hon John J. Jones, a member of Congress when Georgia seceded, afterwards a member of Governor Brown's staff, and for years president of the board of trustees of Emory College, lived and died at Waynes-
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boro. Hon. Samuel A. Corker, a member of Congress from 1869 to 1871 and a gallant Confederate soldier, was also a resident of this town ; and here was born Judge J. K. Hines, whose father represented Burke in the Leg- islature for a number of years.
BUTTS
Created by Legislative Act, December 24, 1825, from Henry and Monroe Counties. Named for Capt. Samuel Butts, an officer of the War of 1812. Jackson, the county-seat, named for General Andrew Jackson, the famous hero of New Orleans, afterwards President of the United States.
Captain Samuel Butts was a gallant officer of the State militia. He lost his life in the battle of Chalibbee, on January 27, 1814, while leading a fearless charge against the Indians. It was during the second war for independence, when the savage tribes on the frontier, instigated by the British, rose in arms against the whites. Major General John Floyd, at the head of the State troops, undertook to complete his victory over the Indians in the battle of Autossee by penetrating into the country of the Upper Creeks. News came to him that certain bands of savages had fortified a town on the Tallapoosa River, in what is now the State of Alabama and he was marching thither. When the troops halted for the night within fifteen or twenty miles of the town, they went into camp only to be aroused before day- break by the unexpected appearance of the Indians. To quote a writer of the period: "The darkness of the hour, the covert afforded the Indians by a thick forest of pines, the total want of breastworks, the surprise which the first yell of the savages occasioned, and the estimated numerical superiority of the enemy's force, were well calculated to put the courage of the militia to a severe test; but not a platoon faltered. In less than fifteen minutes every hostile Indian but the dead and dying had filled from the battle field." Captain Butts fell, in the
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thickest of the fight, shot through the abdomen, and the country lost a gallant soldier and a true patriot. Captain Butts was a native of Virginia, in which State he was born on November 24, 1777. But he came to Georgia in early life, settling first in Hancock and then in Jasper. He was for some time engaged successfully in mercan- tile pursuits ; and when, at the outbreak of hostilities, the Legislature of Georgia advanced a sum of money to General Floyd with which to purchase needed supplies for the army, he placed this sum in the hands of Captain Butts, who promptly executed the commission.
McIntosh Rock.
Page 161.
McIntosh Trail. Beginning at Fort Hawkins, opposite the site of the present city of Macon, the McIntosh trail ran almost due west to the Old Indian Agency on the Flint, thence northward following the valley of this stream to a point three miles north of the present town of Senoia, where it divided, one branch run- ning eastward by way of Indian Springs to Augusta, the other running westward by way of Newnan to Talladega, Ala., and thence to the French villages along the Missis- sippi. Portions of the trail still exist in well defined country roads but some of the connecting links are difficult to trace by reason of topographical changes. Andrew Jackson, during the second war with England, marched his troops over this trail to New Orleans where he won his celebrated victory on January 8, 1815. Near Senoia where the trail diverged, General McIntosh built a fort the ruins of which can still be seen. The town which later arose in this vicinity was named for an Indian princess famed throughout the forest for her beauty. She belonged to a tribe known as the Cowetas or Lower Creeks, of which Gen. McIntosh was the chief. Mrs. R. H. Hardaway, of Newnan, regent of Sarah Dickinson Chapter, D. A. R., is perhaps the foremost authority in
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the State on the MeIntosh trail, a part of which she has succeeded in tracing with wonderful minuteness of detail.
McIntosh Reserve. What is known as the MeIntosh re- serve is an area of land one mile square situated in a bend of the Chattahoochee River. between Carroll and Coweta Counties, where it occupies both sides of the stream. The old home of General MeIntosh stood on the Carroll side of the river in the extreme southern part of the county, and was reached by the famous trail. a branch of which ran through the reserve. Here General McIntosh was mur- dered by a band of the Upper Creeks in 1826. His last resting place is unmarked: but in a grave somewhere in this neighborhood, overlooking the tawny waters of the Chattahoochee, the brave chief lies buried.
Recently a movement to purchase the historie Varner House at Indian Springs was launched by Piedmont Continental Chapter of the D. A. R. Mrs. A. H. Alfriend. on behalf of the chapter, brought the matter before the State Convention at Marietta in 1912. at which time the initial steps were taken looking to an ultimate acquisition of the famous old tavern. The identical counter on which Gen. McIntosh affixed his signature to the treaty still stands in the office of the Varner house, preserved intact.
Original Settlers. AAs given by White, the original set- tlers were: A. Mclendon, Samuel Clarke. Thomas Robinson. Colonel Z. Phillips. John Ter- rell. Howell Andrews. Jesse Dolly. Thomas Buford, A. Woodward. Wiliam Barclay. James Harkness. Abner Bankston. John McMichael. Mr. McCord and others. Quite a number of the early residents were from Upper Georgia and South Carolina.
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Distinguished Resi- John Wyatt, a soldier of the Revo-
dents of Butts. lution, who fought in the Virginia campaigns, under Washington, spent his last years in this county, where he died at the age of 99. The burial place of the old hero is unknown.
The great Jesse Mercer died near Indian Springs, at the home of James Carter.
Judge John T. Hall, a distinguished lawyer and jurist at one time assistant U. S. Attorney General, was born in Butts.
Dr. James W. Beck, a noted scholar and a gifted divine, was for years principal of the Jackson Institute, prior to which time he was president of Bowdon College. His son, Judge Marcus W. Beek, occupies an honored seat on the Supreme Bench of Georgia, while his daughter, Mrs. Leonora Beck Ellis. has achieved fame both as an educator of Southern girls and as an author of rare gifts.
Captain Larkin D. Watson, a gallant Confederate officer, who lost a limb at Sharpsburg, was long a resi- dent of Jackson. The local Chapter of the U. D. (. is named in his honor.
Hon. David J. Bailey, lived here. Ile was a distin- guished member of Congress, an ex-President of the Senate of Georgia, a Captain in the Seminole War, a lawyer of high rank at the Bar, and a cultured gentleman of the old school, possessed of large wealth.
CALHOUN
Created by Legislative Act, February 20, 1854, from Early. Named for the great John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Morgan, the county-seat, named for General Daniel Morgan, of the Revolution.
Original Settlers. See Early, from which county Calhoun was formed.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MOMORIALS AND LEGENDS
The following pioneer residents may be added to the list : William G. Pierce, William E. Harvin, Capt. P. E. Boyd, John Colley, W. G. Sheffield, E. Padgett, Jefferson Lamar Boynton, Thomas J. Dunn Dr. John B. George, Dr. Thomas K. Leonard, Lorenzo D. Moore, J. H. Futch, Dr. Winslow D. Cheney the Fortsons, the Stricklands, the Davises, the Longs, the Lawsons, the Rambos, the Calhouns, the Smiths, the Millers, and other well established families.
Arlington, a town named for the historic home of General Lee on the Potomac, is one of the rapidly grow- ing trade centers of this section of Georgia.
CAMDEN
Created by the State Constitution of 1777 from two of the old Colonial Parishes: St. Mary and St. Thomas. Named for Charles Pratt, Earl of Camden, an illustrious Chief-Justice and Lord Chancellor of England, who, notwithstanding the favor lavished upon him by the Crown, opposed the attitude of the English ministry toward the Colonies in America. He pre- sided at the trial of the celebrated John Wilkes, a member of Parliament, whose strictures upon the King's speech caused him to be imprisoned in the Tower of London. Wilkes, at this time, edited a newspaper, called the North Briton, in which the bold criticism appeared. It was held by the great jurist that the incarceration of Wilkes was illegal, an opinion which was happily in accord with public sentiment, and which made him the recognized champion of a Free Press. He became one of the most popular men in England. Three years later he was created an Earl, and, in 1766, was made Lord Chancellor. But he did not relinquish his principles; and eventually resigned his high office for a more active career in British politics. He was an avowed friend of freedom, whether in upholding the Colonies on the far side of the Atlantic or in defending the rights of English subjects at home. Numerous townships and counties throughout the United States attest the esteem in which he was held by the Revolutionary patriots. St. Mary's, the county-seat of Camden, was named for the river on which it stands and which was called by the Spaniards, Santa Maria.
Spanish Traditions. In the depths of the forest, some seven miles from St. Mary's may be seen the ruins of an old structure, built of tabby, in regard to which there are a number of speculative theories but nothing in the way of definite or positive in-
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formation. To judge from the remnants which time has spared, it must have been a Spanish mission, equipped with the means for defence against sudden attack at the hands of the Indians. The roof has long since fallen into decay and mingled once more with the soil around it; but the walls in part still continue to defy the elements. These are pierced by numerous loop-holes which were evidently intended for guns; but the oldest inhabitant knows only that these ancient remains were here when he first settled in the neighborhood. There is a local tradi- tion to the effect that some two hundred years ago a Spanish vessel, with a number of pious monks on board, entered the mouth of the St. Mary's River and moving up the stream dipped anchor at this point; and since the fragments of this ancient structure are not unlike the ruins of the old monasteries, on the St. Johns River, in Florida, there is at least some basis of probability for the conjecture that there was here located an old Spanish mission, whose origin antedates the arrival of Ogle- thorpe upon the bluffs at Savannah .*
Cumberland Island : The grave of General "Light Horse Historic Memories. Harry" Lee and the famous Carne- gie estate, at Dungeness, have made Cumberland Island a Mecca for tourists, second to no other resort on the South Atlantic coast. Beside General Lee is buried a comrade-in-arms by the name of Charles Jackson, who died while on a visit to the Greene family, in 1801. The widow of General Nathanael Greene, who, after the death of her first husband, married Phineas Miller. is also buried here; but the remains of General Greene himself repose under a handsome shaft on Bull street in Savannah. The Bunkleys, an old Camden family, own a strip of land running from Cum- berland Sound to the far-famed beach. On this property
* Authority: Mr. James T. Vocelle, of St. Mary's.
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the hotel is situated, in a grove of live-oaks, a mile from the ocean. The surf at Cumberland is unsurpassed, and the fishing in these waters annually attracts a multi- tude of anglers.
Old Forts on Fort St. Andrew, an old fortification Cumberland. erected by Oglethorpe in 1733, probably an earthwork, stood at the north end of Cumberland Island. The name is still borne by the sound through which the waters of the Satilla River here meet the ocean. On the south end of the island, Oglethorpe at the same time, while making a tour of the coast, built Fort William, to command the entrance to the St. Mary's.
Fort McIntosh, a Revolutionary stronghold, was built in 1776 on the north east side of the Satilla River, some distance inland, to protect the exposed frontier from attack by the British. It stood about eighty yards from the water's edge and consisted of a small stock- ade, one hundred feet square, with a bastion at each corner and a block house in the center. Captain Richard Winn, with a small garrison, undertook to defend the fort against a force which outnumbered his own by three to one and which, in addition to British regulars, in- cluded Indians and Tories. On account of the heavy odds, he was forced to surrender; but the fight which he made challenged the admiration of the enemy and secured fair terms of capitulation.
Historic Old Out of the beaten paths made common- St. Mary's. place by the tread of tourists, in the extreme south-eastern corner of the State, where it seems to occupy a sort of world apart, sits quaint and beautiful old St. Mary's. It is one of the most unique places to be found on the whole Atlantic
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coast from Maine to Florida, a genuine fragment of Arcadia. Formerly an important port of entry it is today seldom visited by ocean steamers; and the even tenor of life which here ripples underneath the boughs of gnarled old druids is disturbed only at rare intervals by messengers of any kind from the outside world. There is here no mad and feverish rush after mammon- no seething vortex of trade-no Babel of commerce- but instead, the coolest of ocean breezes play sportively among the pendant mosses. From the town center to the water's edge, there is one continuous expanse of green. The spring daisies march boldly to the court house door where they congregate in clusters unaffrigh- ted by the minions of the law; the streets are paved with emerald from curb to curb; and life takes on a glint of the Lost Paradise here in the cool shade of trees which might have graced the Garden of Eden. Nature in one of her most lavish moods has endowed this quaint old town. War and pestilence, fire and storm, have each in turn visited St. Mary's, but the gentle surgery of mother earth has never failed to heal the wounds and to hide, beneath vine and flower, tree and shrub, even the scars which these repeated scourges have left, making the town, if anything, more picturesque than before and preserving it in spite of Time's work, "a thing of beauty and joy forever."
Smuggling Days Perhaps the most impressive land- Recalled. mark of St. Mary's is the historic little house of worship occupied by the Presbyterians. Quite a number of traditions, some of them undoubtedly based upon actual facts, cluster around this ancient edifice. During the early part of the last century when Florida was a province of Spain, there was a lot of smuggling done through the port of St. Mary's by a shrewd band of sharpers who made large
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