Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I, Part 32

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co.
Number of Pages: 1148

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The first Manual Labor School in the United States was organized in connection with Franklin College, as a preparatory school, in 1803. Mr. Moses W. Dobbins was the teacher, a stern disciplinarian, who believed in the efficacy of the rod. This school became a grammar school under the late Dr. Shaler G. Hillyer. It stood on an eminence of land today occupied by the home of Mr. E. R. Hodgson, Sr., on Prince avenue. The Presbyterian church bought it from the University in 1832. Later, it became the property of United States Senator Oliver H. Prince.

The Toombs Oak.

Volume II.

John Howard® Payne's Georgia Sweetheart. Volume II.

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The Lucy Cobb Dear to the heart of every college boy Institute. whose worship of the beautiful has led him sooner or later to Milledge avenue -the favorite promenade of the undergraduate student from time immemorial-is an institution of learning which scarcely less than the University itself has con- tributed to make Athens a seat of culture, famous throughout the South-the Lucy Cobb Institute. Since the decade which witnessed the stormy on-coming of the Civil War, this splendid school has held a place of unique honor among the seminaries of the land. It has trained for useful womanhood not less than 2,000 pupils who are today scattered throughout the United States; and if few of them are found in the crusading ranks of ballot reform they have nevertheless been evangels of true culture; and while keeping abreast with the real progress of the New South they have at the same time modestly exemplified the gentle traditions of the Old. The circum- stances under which the Lucy Cobb Institute came into existence are as follows : In 1854 there appeared a com- munication in the Southern Watchman appealing to the patriotism of Georgians to establish a high school for Georgia girls. It deplored the necessity of sending the daughters of this State to the far North for an education. at a time when there was so much divergence of view- point between the sections. The author of this communi- cation was Mrs. Williams Rutherford. It was published under an assumed name, due to the characteristic modesty of this gentle woman; and, without suspecting the source from which the letter came, it was Thomas R. R. Cobb, her brother, then a lawyer of State-wide prominence, living in Athens, who was moved to respond to this im- portunate appeal from Mrs. Rutherford's pen. With characteristic enthusiasm, Mr. Cobb took the streets of Athens. He canvassed the town, stirred the people, raised the subscriptions, and organized the Board of Trustees. He also drew the charter for the institution, a model of brevity, in less than fifty lines. On the first Monday in January, 1859, the school was formally opened.

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Professor Wright was the first principal. At a period somewhat later, the famous Madame Sosnowski, who afterwards organized the Home School, was called to the helm. But the dark days of the Civil War were at hand. Mr. Cobb was killed on the battle-field of Fredericksburg, while wearing the stars of a Brigadier-General; and the era of Reconstruction only intensified the gloom which hovered over the despondent Southland. But, finally, in 1880, Miss Mildred Rutherford, a niece of General Cobb, leased the school, assuming the burden of debt by which it was then encumbered. The rolls of the institution attest the success which crowned the labors of this gifted woman. As a writer of text-books on literature and history she has achieved a reputation national in extent and as a leader in the ranks of patriotic societies she has long been prominent among the brilliant women of the South. In 1895 Miss Rutherford surrendered the care of the Institute to her accomplished sister, Mrs. M. A. Lipscomb, retaining a place in the faculty, but devoting much of her time to letters, varied somewhat by foreign travel. Mrs. Lipscomb was equally successful in her management of the school; but she too retired from active control of the Institute in 1908, relinquishing re- sponsibilities to the present talented principals, Misses Gerdine and Brumby, who have proven themselves worthy successors.

The Jackson Oak : At the foot of Dearing street, in the

A Property Owner. section of Athens known as Cobb- ham, there stands a majestic shade tree of white oak whose claim to distinction is unrivalled by the forest giants. For more than three quarters of a century this tree has been a freeholder, owning in fee simple the soil upon which it stands. The following story has been found in an old file of newspapers: "There is a tree at Athens, Ga., which is an owner of land. In the early part of the century the soil on which it stands was

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owned by Colonel William H. Jackson, who took great delight in watching it grow. In his old age the tree had reached magnificent proportions, and the thought of its being destroyed by those who should come after him was so repugnant that he recorded a deed, of which the follow- ing is a part :

"I, W. H. Jackson, of the County of Clarke, State of Georgia, of the one part, and this oak tree- giving the location-of the County of Clarke, of the other part, witness, that the said W. H. Jackson, for and in consideration of the great affection which he bears said tree and his desire to see it protected, has conveyed and, by these presents, does convey unto the said tree entire possession of itself and of the land within eight feet of it on all sides."'

To the foregoing account, Mr. Hull adds: "However defective this title may be in law, the public nevertheless® recognized it, and this splendid tree is one of the boasts of Athens and will be cared for by the city for many years to come. Some generous friend to Athens, in order to show his interest in this unique freeholder, has, at his own expense, placed around the tree granite posts con- nected by chains, replaced the earth which the storms of a century have washed from the roots, and neatly sodded the enclosed area with grass." The friend to whom Mr. Hull refers is Mr. George Foster Peabody, of New York.

The Only Double Barreled Cannon in the World. Directly in front of the city hall, on College avenue, stands a curious relic of the war period the like of which can be found nowhere else in the world. It is the famous Gilleland gun; and the story connected with this nondescript instrument of homicide is as follows: "Mr. John Gilleland, one of the Thunder- bolts, conceived the idea of making a double-barreled

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cannon. His plan was to load the cannon with two balls, connected by a chain, which, when projected, would sweep across the battlefield and mow down the enemy some- what as a scythe cuts wheat. The cannon was cast at the Athens Foundry, duly bored out and mounted, and, on the appointed day, was taken out for trial to a point on the Newton Bridge road, beyond Dr. Linton's. Here a wide track was cut through the pines and a target of poles set up side by side. From a safe distance in the rear, a company of interested spectators, among whom was the writer, watched the proceedings. The gun was loaded and the balls rammed home, with the chain con- necting them. The signal was given and the lanyard pulled. One ball went out ahead of the other, snapped the chain, which flew around and diverted the course of the missile into the standing pines. The other shot went wide of the mark, and the poles which represented the · hostile army stood uninjured. The experiment was a failure. The cannon was taken from the field and was only used in after years to celebrate Democratic vic- tories."

The Confederate Just a block removed from the famous Monument. Gilleland cannon, on College avenue, stands the Confederate monument, one of the very earliest shafts erected in the South, to com- memorate the heroic dead of the Civil War. It was dedicated on June 3, 1872, with an eloquent address by Judge Alexander S. Erwin, of Athens, then a youthful veteran who had lately come to Athens for the practice of law. The officers of the pioneer Memorial Association consisted of the following ladies : Mrs. Laura Cobb Ruth- erford, president ; Mrs. Howell Cobb, first vice-president ; Mrs. Young L. G. Harris, second vice-president; and Mrs. Augusta Clayton King, secretary and treasurer. When the necessary funds were in hand, the order for the monument, a shaft of pure Italian marble, was given

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to Mr. Markwalter, of Augusta, Ga. The base of the marble is granite, forming a series of steps, on which rests a tall marble column, so divided as to combine solidity and grace. Flags, wreaths, and other military symbols adorn the upper portions of the pedestal, while above them are urns and flowers. The names of the gallant officers and soldiers of Clarke County, who fell in the Confederate struggle, are inscribed on the lower facades. Over this section of the monument rises the main division of the column, an ornamental block of stone, containing four inscriptions, one on each side. The following tribute to the Confederate dead constitutes the chief inscription on the monument. It is from the scholarly pen of the late Chancellor Lipscomb:

"True to the soil that gave them birth and reared them men; true to the traditions of their Revolu- tionary ancestors of high renown and hallowed worth; alike by instinct and by principle cherishing the senti- ments of home and country and the allegiance there- unto due as one and inseparable; these heroes, ours in the unity of blood, ours in the unity of patriotism, struggled for the rights of States as held by the fathers of the Republic; and by the fathers of the Republic as a sacred trust unto them bequeathed. The measures of their years suddenly completed, in the fatal issues of battle, reached the consummation of earthly glory in their death; last and holiest office of human fidelity, possible to brave men, attesting their sincerity, vindicating their honor, and sealing their integrity, they won their title to an immortality of love and reverence. "

This is the monument to which Mr. Grady referred in his celebrated speech before the New England Society of New York, on December 21, 1886, when he said: "In my native town of Athens is a monument which crowns its central hill-a plain white shaft. Deep cut into its

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shining side is a name dear to me above the names of men, that of a brave and simple man who died in brave and simple faith. Not for all the glories of New England, from Plymouth Rock all the way, would I exchange the heritage he left me in his soldier's death. To the foot of that shaft I shall send my children's children to rever- ence him who ennobled their name with his heroic blood. but, sir, speaking from the shadow of that memory which I honor as I do nothing else on earth, I say that the cause in which he suffered and for which he gave his life was adjudged by higher and fuller wisdom than his or mine, and I am glad that the omniscient God held the balance of battle in His Almighty hand and that human slavery was swept forever from American ·soil, the American Union saved from the wreck of war."

It may be doubted if there was a town either North or South which made larger contributions to the Confed- erate armies-in proportion to population-than did Ath- ens; for out of 1,513 white men and boys 1,300 were on the firing line of battle. Sixteen per cent. of these were wounded, eleven per cent. were killed, and ten per cent. died from disease, making a total of thirty-six per cent. The various companies from Athens were as follows: The Troup Artillery, the Athens Guards, the Clarke Rifles, Deloney's Cavalry, Ritch's Cavalry, Lumpkin's Battery, the Mell Rifles, the Johnson Guards, and the Highland Guards. Besides there were a number of indi- viduals who enlisted in other commands ; nor should men- tion be omitted of the famous company of home guards, known as the Mitchell Thunderbolts. Most of the above named organizations were in Cobb's Legion; and to the famous Troup Artillery was assigned the honor of firing the signal gun which preceded Pickett's immortal charge at Gettysburg.

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Origin of the South- ern Cross of Honor.

Page 222.

Clark's Distin- As the seat of the University of guished Residents. Georgia, Athens, from the start, en- joyed a sort of intellectual primacy among the cities of the State. It became at an early. period the home of a thrifty class of people. The wealthy planter from the coast hastened hither to put his sons in college and to establish his permanent abode in an atmosphere of culture, made doubly attractive to him by the invigorating climate of the uplands. Gradually the merchant began to find in the new village a market for his wares and the professional man a field for his talents; and so Athens in the course of time became something more than a college town.

Reverend Hope Hull was the first arrival. As the real founder of Methodism in Georgia he occupies a unique position in the historic background. He built his home on the campus, where he became a resident trustee in the most literal sense; donated the first chapel; attended every meeting of the Board of Trustees, except on one occasion when the Board met on the Sabbath day ; and, throughout an era of beginnings, fraught with the most serious consequences not only to the institution but to the State, proved himself the University's earliest and best friend.

On the outskirts of the town he reared Hull's Meeting House, a cabin of rough logs which, under his preaching, became a tabernacle in the wilderness, around which fell the heavenly manna.

The streets of Athens are still fragrant with the memory of this good man.

His sons, Hon. Asbury Hull and Dr. Henry Hull, were long connected with the University, the former as treas- urer of the institution for forty-seven years, the latter as professor of mathematics. His grandson, Augustus

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L. Hull, was for years secretary and treasurer of the Board of Trustees.

Augustin S. Clayton, after receiving his diploma as a member of the first graduating class, located in Athens for the practice of law. He became a Judge of the Superior Court, a member of Congress, and a political essayist whose pen was almost unrivaled in the vein of satire. He also founded the Demosthenian Society of the University of Georgia.

Charles Dougherty, perhaps the foremost lawyer of his day, established his residence in Athens where he continued to reside until his death.

General David Meriwether, a member of Congress and a commissioner to treat with the Cherokee Indians, settled upon a plantation near Athens, where the evening of his life was spent. James Meriwether, his son, was also a member of Congress and a commissioner for the . government in the famous treaty with the Creeks at Indian Springs.

Zadoc Cook, an early representative from Georgia in Congress, lived and died on a plantation near Athens. It is said that his powers of memory were such that he could quote the Bible from cover to cover-probably an exaggeration.

Dr. Ignatius A. Few, the first president of Emory College, spent his last years in Athens, where he lies buried.

Dr. Henry Jackson, who accompanied William H. Crawford on his mission to France, in 1813, and who brought back an account of the famous episode of the French Court, was for many years a professor in the college at Athens.

Here his distinguished son, General Henry R. Jack- son, who wrote "The Red Old Hills of Georgia," was born. The latter was a veteran officer of both the Mexican and the Civil Wars, a diplomat at the Courts of Austria

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and Mexico, a lawyer at the head of his profession, and an orator with few equals. He was retained by President Buchanan, in 1858, to assist the government in prosecut- ing the owners of the famous slave yacht, the Wanderer.

Dr. Crawford W. Long, who immortalized his name by the discovery of Anesthesia, spent the autumnal years of his life in Athens, where the picturesque home in which he lived yet stands on Prince avenue, an object of interest to thousands of visitors. He was stricken with paralysis, at the bedside of a patient, while engaged in the ministrations of his healing art. The Legislature of Georgia has twice named Dr. Long as one of the two great Georgians whose statues are to adorn the Capitol at Washington.

Here lived the Cobbs. The founder of the Athens branch of this noted family was John Addison Cobb, who came from Louisville, Ga., and settled in the locality which still bears the name of Cobbham. Two of his sons attained to the highest distinction. Howell Cobb, the elder, became Speaker of the National House of Repre- sentatives, Secretary of the Treasury under President Buchanan, Governor of Georgia, President of the Pro- visional Congress at Montgomery, and Major-General in the Confederate Army, besides holding a number of minor but important offices. Thomas R. R. Cobb became a lawyer of wide note. He wrote "Cobb on Slavery" before he was thirty-five, a masterpiece of legal litera- ture. On the election of Mr. Lincoln he became the most powerful advocate of unconditional and immediate seces- sion and was largely instrumental in carrying Georgia out of the Union. He rose to the rank of Brigadier- General in the Confederate Army, and was killed at the battle of Fredericksburg, in Virginia, on November 13, 1863, by the explosion of a shell.

Governor Wilson Lumpkin settled near Athens in 1819. His picturesque old home "Cedar Hill" still over-

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looks the Oconee River, two miles to the south of the town. Mrs. Compton, nee Martha Lumpkin, his daughter, for whom the town of Marthasville was named, still resides here, at an age which cannot be far removed from the century mark.

Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin came to Athens somewhat later. He presided with great ability for twenty-one years over the supreme tribunal of the State, founded the Phi Kappa Society and the Lumpkin Law School, ranked as an orator with Colquitt and Toombs. His stately home on Prince avenue was occupied at one time by the Home School, a seminary for girls taught by the gifted Sosnowskis. Until removed from the place which it occupied originally in a grove of splendid trees and on a high knoll it was the most majestic in appear- ance of any of the ante-bellum mansions for which Athens is famous.

Chief Justice Osborne A. Lochrane began his career here as a clerk in a drug store. Athens was also the home at one time of Chief Justice James Jackson.

Benjamin H. Hill, the great orator and statesman, lived here for a few years after the war, occupying the palatial home built by Mr. John T. Grant and owned to- day by Mr. James White. It was from this district that he was first sent to Congress in 1874. His sons, Judge Benjamin H. Hill and Hon. Charles D. Hill, were both educated in Athens.

Oliver H. Prince, a lawyer of high rank who filled at one time a seat in the United States Senate, also lived here for some time. He is credited with having written "The Militia Drill" in Longstreet's "Georgia Scenes". Mr. Prince was lost at sea, off the coast of Hatteras, in the wreck of the steamship "Home", in 1836. Prince avenue was named for him.

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Henry W. Grady, the great orator and editor, was a native of Athens, where he spent his boyhood days. The old home place still stands on Prince avenue. His father, Major W. S. Grady, was a gallant Confederate officer who lost his life at Petersburg, Va.

Here lived the brilliant Emory Speer who for three terms represented the Athens district in Congress as an independent Democrat. His political campaigns have seldom been surpassed in dramatic elements. Judge Speer for more than twenty-eight years has presided over the United States Court for the Southern District of Georgia. His father, Dr. Eustace W. Speer, was one of the most eloquent men of his day in the Methodist pulpit.

Junius Hillyer, an eminent lawyer and statesman of the ante-bellum period who represented Georgia in Con- gress and on the bench with great distinction, resided in Athens for a number of years; also his brothers, Shaler G. Hillyer and John F. Hillyer. The family came from Wilkes County in 1821. It consisted of these boys, together with a widowed mother, Mrs. Rebecca Freeman Hillyer, the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier. Here Judge George Hillyer was born.

Nicholas Ware, a former mayor of Augusta, who succeeded Major Freeman Walker in the United States Senate, removed to Athens in 1823, just a year prior to his death.

Here lived Major-General M. L. Smith, a distinguished Confederate engineer; Brigadier-General William M. Browne, a noted educator; Ferdinand Phinizy, one of Georgia's wealthiest kings of finance; Young L. G. Har- ris, long president of the Southern Mutual, a philanthro- pist and a financier; Captain H. H. Carlton, a member of Congress, a gallant Confederate soldier, and a fearless editor; Joseph H. Lumpkin and Andrew J. Cobb, both

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Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of Georgia; the former a grandson of Chief-Justice Lumpkin; and scores of others too numerous to mention. The present well- equipped young Congressman from the eighth district, Hon. Samuel J. Tribble, is also a resident of Athens; and here Brigadier-General Edward Lloyd Thomas was born.

From a cursory glance over the foregoing list it will be seen that seven counties of Georgia have been named for Athenians: Clayton, Dougherty, Meriwether, Lump- kin, Ware, Ben Hill, and Grady. The county of Cobb was not named for the Athens family but for Judge Thomas W. Cobb, of Greensboro, a former United States Senator from Georgia. Five judges of the Supreme Court have been residents of Clarke-Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Osborne A. Lochrane, James Jackson, Andrew J. Cobb, and Joseph Henry Lumpkin, a grandson of the great Chief-Justice; two Governors of the State have lived here-Wilson Lumpkin and Howell Cobb; four United States Senators-Wilson Lumpkin, Nicholas Ware, Oliver Prince, and Benjamin H. Hill; twelve mem- bers of Congress-Augustin S. Clayton, David Meri- wether, Zadoc Cook, Howell Cobb, Wilson Lumpkin, James Jackson, Benjamin H. Hill, Emory Speer, Junius Hillyer, Henry H. Carlton, and Samuel J. Tribble; two Major-Generals-Howell Cobb and M. L. Smith; four Brigadier-Generals-Thomas R. R. Cobb, Henry R. Jack- son, W. M. Browne and Edward Lloyd Thomas; and three Chief Justices-Joseph Henry Lumpkin, O. A. Lochrane, and James Jackson.

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Created by Legislative Act, February 16, 1854, from Early and Randolph Counties. Named for the illustrious Henry Clay, of Kentucky. Fort Gaines, the county seat, named for Brigadier-General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, an officer of the United States army who represented the Federal governmnt in various ngotiations with the Southern Indians. He surveyed the military road from Nashville to Natchez; and as collector of customs for the district of Mobile arrested Aaron Burr, on February 19, 1807.

Fort Gaines, built on the side of the present town, was a stockade fort, erected during the Creek Indian War to defend the frontier. Twelve miles north-west of Fort Gaines are the beautiful Pataula Falls. Says White: "The creek runs through a bed of blue marl containing a profusion of sea-shells, some of them quite large. Em- bedded in the rock are balls of compact blue limestone the size of twelve-pound shot. Factories to any extent could be established at these falls."

Original Settlers. See Early and Randolph, from which counties Clay was formed.

To the list of early settlers may be added: Thomas King, who built the first mill in this section; Alexander Foster, Prof. Norman Coolidge, Dr. Mark M. Shivers, Robert Thompson, Philip Tinsley, Joel H. Crawford, W. D. R. Crawford, William Neves, Dr. Thomas Bigbie, John Davis, Thomas R. Davis, Richard Grimsley, Joseph B. Grimsley, John P. Best, Hilary M. Shaw, James B. McCord, and Jonathan Hayes. Besides these, the old established families of Clay include: the Vinsons, the Holleys, the Petersons, the Footes, the Plowdens, the Burnetts, the Davenports, and the Sheltzess.

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CLAYTON

Created by Legislative Act, November 30, 1858, from Fayette and Henry Counties. Named for Hon. Augustin S. Clayton, a noted ante- bellum jurist and statesman of Georgia. Jonesboro, the county-seat, was originally Leaksville. The name was changed to Jonesboro when the Central Railroad reached this point and was so called in compliment to one of the Civil Engineers who surveyed the line, Capt. Samuel G. Jones, father of ex-Governor and Judge Thomas G. Jones, of Alabama.

Augustin Smith Clayton was a noted jurist and states- man, the greater part of whose life was spent in the town of Athens. He was appointed by the General Assembly in 1810 to compile the statutes of Georgia. For many years he was judge of the Western Circuit, after which he was elected to Congress where he served for two terms. Judge Clayton was a writer of rare charm and power and at leisure intervals, under the pen name of Wrang- ham Fitz-Ramble, he wrote "The Mysterious Picture," a political satire which at the time produced a sensation. He was also credited with a work entitled: "The Life of David Crockett, by Himself." But, aside from these books, he wrote a number of letters for the press. The election of Governor Troup, after a heated contest in 1824 was attributed to a series of articles signed "Atticus," which were written by Judge Clayton. For fifteen years he was the only lawyer in Athens. Henry W. Grady married his grand-daughter. Judge Clayton was a native of Virginia, in which State he was born November 27, 1783. He died in Athens, Ga., June 21, 1839.

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Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I, Part 32

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933 Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co. Number of Pages: 1148

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co.
Number of Pages: 1148