Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I, Part 46

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

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Mrs. Catherine Freeman, the widow of Colonel John Freeman, of the Revolution, was living in Penfield, in 1854, at the age of 86.

Adam Livingston, a native of the north of Ireland, grandfather of Congressman L. F. Livingston, came to America in 1760. He bore arms in the struggle for inde- pendence, after which he removed first to Virginia and then to Georgia, settling in Greene County where his first wife was killed by the Indians while getting water at the spring. In 1805 the old veteran started to Kentucky, but died at Cumberland Gap while en route. Thereupon the family returned to Greene, where a plantation was pur- chased and a permanent home established. John Adams, a patriot of 76 settled in Greene, at the close of the Revo- lution, coming from Tar River, N. C. His sons, Robert and John, reared large families in this section. John Walker, a soldier under Washington, migrated from Vir- ginia to Georgia early in 1800 and settled in Greene. His descendants are numerous, including the Walkers of Hancock, Putnam, and Walton.

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One of Georgia's Some time ago, in the Ordinary's Oldest Documents. office at Greensboro, was found an old bundle of parchment yellow with age which proved on examination to be one of Georgia's very oldest documents. It contains the complete records of the Court of Land Commissoners appointed by the Royal Governor James Wright to issue the "ceded lands," by which name the tracts of land acquired from the Creek and Cherokee Indians on the eve of the Revolution were known. The Governor's formal instructions given at Augusta on November 19, 1773, are also included. Out of the land which the commissioners issued under the terms of these instructions was afterwards organized the original county of Wilkes; and just why the document in question happened to come to light in Greene when the logical place for it was either in the office of the Secretary of State or in one of the Court Houses of the territory ori- ginally belonging to Wilkes is one of the unsolved conun- drums at present puzzling the minds of historical investi- gators. Mr. J. A. LeConte, of Atlanta, has recently made a transcript of these records for Joseph Habersham Chapter. They cover a period of two years.

Muster-roll of To protect the settlers against the repeat-

Dragoons. ed incursions of the Indians, there was organized a Militia Troop of Dra- goons, under the command of Captain Jonas Fouche, which was destined to become famous, at least in the traditions of Middle Georgia. From an old muster roll, dated February 25, 1794, a list of the members has been obtained; and since it throws an important side-light upon the history of the period, it is herewith reproduced. It is almost a complete roster of the prominent families of Greene. The following members were enrolled :

Jonas Fouche, Captain, Peyton Smith, Cornet, George Phillips, Sergeant,

Charles Watts,

Terrance Byron, Joseph White,

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

William Browning, Sergeant,

James McGuire,

Charles Harris, Corporal,

Robert Finley,

John Young, Corporal,

William Curry,

Samuel B. Harris, Trumpeter,

Joseph Shaw, John Pinkerd,

Samuel M. Devereaux,

Little B. Jenkins,

John Harrison, Abner Farmer,

Presly Watts,

Isaac Stocks,

Robert Watson,

Samuel Dale,

Henry Potts,

Josiahı McDonald,

Dennis Lynch,

Jesse Standifer,

Skelton Standifer,

William Scott,

Joseph Heard,

Arthur Foster,

James' Moor,

William George,

Humphrey Gibson,

John Capps,

Robert Grinatt,

Micajalı Wall,

George Reid,

Robert Patrick,

Douglas Watson,

Jesse Jenkins,

George Owen.

Early's Manor : The Old Home of an Illustrious Governor. On a bluff of land overlooking the Oconee River, near Scull Shoals, rest the mortal ashes of Peter Early, one of the most noted of Georgia's ante-bellum statesmen. He sleeps on land which once belonged to the old family homestead. But the handsome brick residence which formerly crowned the eminence was long ago destroyed by fire, while the family burial ground of the Early's today forms part of Mr. M. L. Bond's horse and cow lot .* The little cemetery is a parallelogram, eighteen feet in length by twelve feet in width and is enclosed by a brick wall five feet in height, one corner of which has crumbled to the ground. On the yellow marble headstone which marks the last resting place of Gov. Early-a slab some three feet and six inches high-appears the following inscription :

Here lies the body of Peter Early who died on the 15th of August, 1817, in the 45th year of his age.

* Letter from Mr. Bond to the author of this work, dated Oct. 25, 1912.

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William Heard, Farrier,

Theodore Scott,

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There are two other graves on the lot. One of these is occupied by Mrs. Ann Adams Sherwood. She was Gov. Early's widow. Subsequent to her first husband's death, she married the noted pioneer Baptist preacher, Dr. Adiel Sherwood. But she lived only a short while after contracting wedlock a second time. In the grave beside her sleeps an infant daughter, whose death pre- ceded the mother's by only six months. The inscription on the tomb of Mrs. Sherwood reads:

Sacred to the memory of Ann Adams Sherwood, consort of Rev. Adiel Sherwood. She was born in Bed- ford, Va., in 1783, and died November, 1822. Delecta dum vixit. Memorabilis in mortu.

Gov. Early's old home place was located 20 miles south of Athens, 2 miles north-east of Wrayswood, 9 miles south-west of Maxey's, and 8 miles east of Farm- ington. The Early plantation is owned by Messrs. F. E. and W. G. Griffith, of Athens. Only a small part of the original estate belongs to Mr. Bond, who bought the par- cel of land on which the old Governor lies buried. The grave is some 200 yards from where the mansion former- ly stood and is less than thirty feet distant from the Oconee River, on a high point of land, which is never

inundated by freshets. We quote the following paragraph from Dr. George G. Smith. Says he :* "The Governor's father, Joel Early, came from Virginia and purchased a very large body of land on the Oconee River, where he located what he called Early's Manor, in which he maintained the style of an old English baron. His will is on record and is a document of unique interest. It gives direction, not only as to the distribution of his property but as to methods for pruning his apple orch- ards and for resting his fields. He bequeathed his land to trustees to be given to his favorite sons when they were

* Story of Georgia and the Georgia People, Atlanta, 1900.

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thirty-six years old. Two of his boys he disinherited, one for extravagance, the other for disrespect."

Tombs of Two In the town cemetery at Greensboro

Noted Senators. rest two distinguished Georgians, both of whom wore the toga of the United States Senate, besides illustrating Georgia on the Super- ior Court Bench : Thomas W. Cobb and William C. Daw- son. They are both memorialized by counties, in addition to which both rest in graves which are most substantially marked. (See Historic Church-yards and Burial- Grounds, Vol. 2).

Penfield : The Cradle of Mercer University. Volume II.

The Methodist Schism of 1844:

Greene's Part in the Great Rupture.

Volume II.

The Dawson Judge Dawson was twice married, first,

Family Record. in 1820, to Henrietta, daughter of Dr. Thomas Wingfield; and, second, in 1850, to Eliza M. Williams, a widow, of Memphis, Tenn.

His eldest son, William Reid Dawson, died while a student at the University of Georgia, in the junior class. The second child was Henry M. Dawson, who died at the age of three years. Next came George Oscar Dawson, who became a lawyer of Greensboro and frequently rep- resented the County of Greene in the State Legislature. The fourth child was Henrietta Wingfield, who became the wife of Joseph B. Hill, of Columbus.

Edgar Gilmer Dawson, the fifth child, married the only daughter of Dr. William Terrell, of Sparta, an

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eminent physician and member of Congress. Soon after being admitted to the bar, Mr. Dawson moved to Colum- bus.

Emma Caledonia, the sixth child married Edward W. Seabrook of South Carolina, the nephew of Gov. Sea- brook.

Lucien Wingfield Dawson, the seventh and last child, became a lawyer of Greensboro and married Eliza, daughter of George Dent, of Athens .*

On the court-house square in Greensboro stands a handsome monument erected by the patriotic women of Greensboro to the gallant Confederate dead. The monu- ment was formally unveiled on April 26, 1898, at which time the address of the occasion was delivered by Lucian Lamar Knight, Esq., of Atlanta. The speaker was pre- sented to the audience by Hon. James B. Park, after- wards Judge of the Ocmulgee Circuit.

Original Settlers. According to White, the original set- tlers of Greene, were: Thomas Horton, Davis Gresham, William Fitzpatrick, Henry Graybill, Oliver Porter, John Bailey, Charles Cessna, Thomas Baldwin, M. Rabun, John George, Alexander Reid, Michael Rogers, David Dickson, Walton Harris, Peyton Smith, Ezekiel E. Park, Peter Curtwright, G. W. Fos- ter, John Amour, Major Poullain, Jesse Perkins, Joel Newsome, James Armstrong, Thomas Harris, and Ma- jor Beasley.

To the above list, Dr. Smith adds the Abercrombies, the Dales, the Fouches, and the Brewers.

* Stephen F. Miller, in Bench and Bar of Georgia, Vol. I.

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

Thomas Hart, the grandfather of Judge John C. Hart, was also among the pioneers. Likewise William Janes, Obediah Copelan, Mckinney Howell, Archibald Perkins, John C. Wood, Dr. James Nisbet, John Dolvin, the Davises, the McWhorters, the Lewises, etc.

The first resident of Greene to leave a will on record was Joseph Smith, a surveyor. His estate comprised : 17 cows, 4 horses, 3 Bibles, 3 Testaments, 3 sermon books, a number of surveying instruments, and 4 1-2 yards of gray cloth. The first Grand Jury was constituted as follows: Thomas Harris, foreman; David Love, Walton Harris, David Gresham, John A. Miller, William Fitzpatrick, William Heard, Moses Shelby, James Jenkins, Joseph White, Robert Baldwin, William Shelby, Jesse Connell, Joseph Spradling, and William Daniel.

Greene's Years ago, Judge Eugenius A. Nisbet-

Distinguished then a member of the Supreme Court of

Residents. Georgia-made the remark that no county in the State was more prolific in men of note than the county of Greene and even the most casual glance at the records will suffice to make obvious the truth of this statement.

The illustrious jurist himself was a native of Greene. Judge Nisbet, besides occupying a seat on the Supreme Bench, represented Georgia in Congress and wrote the Ordinance of Secession. He was one of Georgia's purest public men.

Dr. Lovick Pierce was a resident of Greene, during the early days of his ministry ; and here at the old Foster place, near Greensboro-the great orator of Methodism, Bishop George F. Pierce, was born.

General Hugh A. Haralson, a member of Congress and an officer in the State militia, was a native of Greene.

Here lived the great Thomas W. Cobb, statesman and jurist, who represented Georgia in the United States Senate, and for whom the county of Cobb was named.

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Here lived Judge Francis H. Cone, an eminent lawyer, whose personal encounter with Mr. Stephens on the steps of the old Atlanta Hotel, in 1844, was one of the most dramatic episodes of ante-bellum politics.

Greensboro was also the home of the noted William C. Dawson, who served Georgia on the bench, in the national House of Representatives and in the Senate of the United States. Dawson County was named in his honor.

Dr. Francis Cummins, a soldier of the Revolution and a noted Presbyterian divine, the tutor of Andrew Jackson came to Georgia at an early period and was pastor of a church in Greene for twenty-three years. He died of influenza, on the day after preaching his farewell sermon to the congregation. Dr. Cummins was a native of Penn- sylvania.

Judge Thomas Stocks, one of the founders of Mercer, was a native of Greensboro. He first saw the light of day in one of the log forts built to protect the frontier. Judge Stocks lived to be an octogenarian.

The celebrated Judge Longstreet lived at one time in Greensboro; where he married Miss Elizabeth Park.

Governor Peter Early-one of the greatest of Geor- gia's ante-bellum public men-was a resident of Greene. His home was at Scull Shoals on the east bank of the Oconee River. Here the distinguished statesman and jurist lies buried.

Thomas Flournoy Foster, a noted lawyer and legis- lator of the ante-bellum days, lived here. He was sent to Congress while a resident of Greene and, after removing to Columbus, was again elected to a seat in the national House of Representatives.

The following anecdote of Mr. Foster is preserved in White's Historical Collections of Georgia: "A plain citizen from a distant county visited Milledgeville about the commencement of the session of the Legislature and,

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

on his return home a neighbor inquired about the oraniza- tion and asked who was elected speaker. The artless reply was 'A little frisky hard-favored, pop-eyed man from Greene was the speaker, for he was nearly all the time speaking, while the man whom he called the Speak- er, higher up in a chair, did nothing but say-' The gentle. man from Greene.' "

Here lived Miles W. Lewis, long a member of the General Assembly of Georgia and R. L. McWhorter, for years a power in politics.

Judge Henry T. Lewis, who occupied a seat on the Supreme bench of Georgia and who put William J. Bryan in nomination for President at Chicago, in 1896, lived in Greensboro.

Julius C. Alford, a member of Congress, famous at one time as "the old war horse of Troup," spent his boyhood days in Greene.

Bishop .James O. Andrew, the martyr-bishop of Meth- odism, lived for a short period in Greensboro; and here he married the widow Greenwood from whom he acquired the slave property which rent Methodism asunder in 1844.

Yelverton P. King, a distinguished legislator, who was at one time Charge d'Affairs in one of the South American countries, was a resident of Greensboro.

The great Jesse Mercer lies buried at Penfield where Mercer University was located prior to the Civil War; and here at one time resided Nathaniel M. Crawford and John L. Dagg, both eminent Baptist theologians. Billing- ton M. Sanders, the first president of the institution, also resided here; and Shaler G. Hillyer, Shelton P. Sanford, J. E. Willet, and Patrick H. Mell-all noted educators- were at one time residents of Penfield.

Dr. Adiel Sherwood, while serving the Greensboro Baptist church, in 1829, published his famous Gazetteer.

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GWINNETT

Archibald Henry Scott, an eminent educator, taught school for quite a while at Greensboro, where the future bishop of Methodism, George F. Pierce, was among his pupils.

He was the father of the ripe scholar and man of letters, Dr. William J. Scott, who founded and edited Scott's Magazine, an Atlanta periodical of the early seventies.

Judge John C. Hart, a distinguished former Attorney- General of Georgia, was born in Greene, near his present home at Union Point.

Here lived Nathaniel G. Foster, a member of Congress and a noted Baptist divine; also his brother, Albert G. Foster, a jurist of note.

Four counties in Georgia have been named for resi- dents of Greene, viz., Early, Cobb, Dawson and Haralson. Two United States Senators lived in Greene, viz., Cobb and Dawson; eight members of Congress, viz., Early, Cobb, Nisbet, Dawson, Haralson, Alford and the two Fosters, Thomas F. and Nathaniel G .; two bishops of the Methodist church, Pierce and Andrew; two judges of the Supreme Court, Nisbet and Lewis; one Governor of Georgia, Peter Early; and a number of strong judges of the Superior Court.

GWINNETT

Created by Legislative Act, December 15, 1818, out of treaty lands acquired from the Cherokees in the same year. Named for Button Gwin- nett, one of the signrs of the Declaration of Independence, from Georgia. Lawrenceville, the county-seat, named for Captain James Lawrence, of the Chesapeake, who fell mortally wounded on board his ship, on June 1, 1813. His last words have since become historic: "Don't give up the ship!"

Gwinnett's Earliest Martyrs: A Monu- ment Which Tells of Two Tragedies. On the court-house square in the town of Lawrenceville, there stands a monument which the people of this community erected in 1836 to com- memorate a double-sacrifice which was made at this time by the county of Gwinnett upon

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

the altar of patriotism. There is nowhere in the State a shaft of marble around which gathers a more pathetic story; and to the youth of the town it has ever been the most powerful incentive to heroic deeds. On one side of the monument is chiseled the following inscription :

This monument is erected by friends to the memory of Captain James C. Winn and Sergeant Anthony Bates, Texan Volunteers, of this village, who were taken in honorable combat, at Goliad, Texas, and shot by order of the Mexican commander, March 27, 1836.

The following inscription appears on the side opposite :

To the memory of Ensign Isaac Lacy, Sergeant James C. Martin, and privates William M. Sims, John A. V. Tate, Robert T. Holland, James H. Holland, brothers; Henry W. Peden, and James M. Allen, members of the Gwinnett company of mounted volunteers, under the command of Captain H. Garmany, who were slain in battle with a party of Creek Indians, at Shepherd 's, in Stewart County, Ga., June 9, 1836. Their remains rest beneath this monument.

The story of the brutal massacre of Fannin's men at Goliad is elsewhere told. Captain Winn, on the first call to arms, went to the relief of the distressed Texans, ac- companied by his boyhood's companion, Anthony Bates, who perished with him in Fannin's devoted band. The remains of the victims were left unburied in the neighbor- hood of the mission where they were shot by order of Santa Anna. Three months later occurred the second holocaust, whereupon a town meeting was held in Law- renceville; and, on motion of Colonel N. L. Hutchins, it was decided to erect a monument to the memory of these gallant men : Gwinnett's earliest martyrs.

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GWINNETT

Button Gwinnett was a native of England, where he was born in 1732. Coming to America only four years in advance of the Revolution, he located first in Charleston, S. C., after which he purchased St. Catharine's Island and settled on the coast of Georgia. Due largely to the influence of Dr. Lyman Hall, a fellow-citizen of the Parish of St. John, he espoused the patriotic cause, and, together with Dr. Hall and George Walton, while serving in the Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence for Georgia. He was also a member of the Council of Safety, and, on the death of Archibald Bul- loch, became President and Commander-in-Chief of Geor- gia. While occupying this office, on May 16, 1777, he fought a duel with General Lachlan McIntosh, a rival for military honors; and, receiving in this en- counter a mortal wound, he breathed his last, within a few days after the fatal exchange of shots. He was doubtless buried in the old Colonial Cemetery at Savan- nah, since he was living at the seat of government, when the unfortunate affair with McIntosh took place, and it was on the outskirts of Savannah that the hostile meeting occurred. But when an effort was made to find the body of Button Gwinnett, in order to place it under the monu- ment to the Signers, in Augusta, the grave of the old patriot could not be located.

Original Settlers. Elisha Winn settled in what is now the county of Gwinnett as early as 1800, coming to this State from Virginia. Nathan L. Hutchins, a native of South Carolina, who afterwards became a Judge of the Superior Court, settled in Gwinnett when the county was first opened. The noted Simmons family was also established in Gwinnett at an early period; and with the first tide of immigrants came-the Baughs, the Borings, the Kings, the Howells, the Stricklands, the Anthonys, the Baxters, and the Grahams. The list of

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

early settlers also includes : Madison R. Mitchell, Asahel R. Smith, J. G. Park, Hines Holt, S. McMullin, Noah Strong, William Maltbie, Richard Lester, William Nes- bitt, William McDaniel, Levi M. Cooper, Egbert M. Brand, Isaac Hamilton and others.

White, in his Statistics of Georgia, gives quite a lengthy list of Gwinnett county pioneers who attained to phenomenal years. The number includes John Davis, who joined the church when he was 99 and who lived to be 110; George Wilson, who reached the century mark; a Mr. Hunt and a Mrs. Shaddock, both of whom lived to be 100; John McDade, who registered 95; George Thrasher, whose span of life reached 93; and Stephen Harris, who died at the age of 90. Besides these, there were still living in Gwinnett, when the volume from which we quote went to press, in 1849, a Mrs. McCree, who was then in her ninety-fourth years, and Nathan Dobbs, Leonard Willis, and Thomas Cox, three old patriarchs, each of whom was 92.

Major C. H. Thorn, a patriot of '76, is buried some- where in Gwinnett. Wm. McRight, a private in the Revo- lutionary ranks, was granted a Federal pension while a resident of this county in 1837.

Gwinnett's Major Charles H. Smith, the noted hu-

Distinguished morist, was born in Gwinnett. He re-

Residents. moved to Rome in 1851 for the practice of law, and still later established his resi- dence at Cartersville, where he spent the remainder of his days.

Here lived two distinguished judges of the same name who served on the Superior Court Bench of the Western Circuit-Judge N. L. Hutchins, Sr., who served from 1857 to 1868, and Judge N. L. Hutchins, Jr., who served

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GWINNETT

for a number of years beginning in 1882. Major Smith married a daughter of the elder Judge Hutchins. The name is still worthily borne by a distinguished lawyer of Lawrenceville, Hon. N. L. Hutchins, who has represented Gwinnett in the General Assembly of Georgia.

The younger Judge Hutchins commanded the 2nd Georgia Battalion of Sharp Shooters during the Civil War.

Captain James C. Winn, one of the martyrs of Goliad, went from Gwinnett to Texas, where he perished in the brutal massacre of March 27, 1836, at the famous Spanish mission, near San Antonio. His brother, Rich- ard D. Winn, was a distinguished resident of Gwinnett. The latter's son, Hon. Thomas E. Winn, represented Georgia in Congress from 1891 to 1893. Judge Samuel .J. Winn, a well-known lawyer and jurist of Lawrenceville. was the father of Atlanta's well-known mayor-Hon. Courtland S. Winn.

Brigadier-General Gilbert J. Wright, a noted Confed- erate officer, was a native of Gwinnett.

Colonel Lovick P. Thomas, who commanded the famous 42nd Georgia regiment in the battle of Atlanta and who afterwards held for years the office of sheriff in the county of Fulton, was born here.

Dr. James F. Alexander, a noted surgeon, of Atlanta, who served in the Secession Convention, spent his boy- hood days on a farm in Gwinnett.

Here lived Hon. James P. Simmons, a noted author and a leader for years in Georgia politics. He was a member of the Secession Convention, in which body he was one of the six delegates who signed the celebrated ordinance under formal protest. Hon. Wm. E. Simmons, one of Georgia's ablest Constitutional lawyers has been a resident of Lawrenceville since boyhood.

Colonel Tyler M. Peeples, a distinguished lawyer and publicist ; Railroad Commissioner J. A. Perry;

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

Judge Charles H. Brand, and other prominent Georgians, live here; and Hon. John R. Cooper, of Macon, one of the best known criminal lawyers in the State-recently a popular candidate for Congress-was born in Gwinnett.

HABERSHAM

Created by Legislative Act, December 15, 1818, out of treaty lands acquired from the Cherokees in the same year. Named for Major Joseph Habersham, an illustrious patriot of the Revolution, afterwards Postmaster- General in the Cabinet of President Washington. Clarkesville, the county- seat, named for Governor John Clarke, of Georgia. Originally Habersham ineluded White and a part of Stephens.

Major Joseph Habersham, a native of Savannah, born July 28, 1751, was the second son of the staunch old loyalist, James Habersham, who, during the absence of Governor Wright in England, was placed at the helm of affairs. Joseph was an ardent patriot, despite his fath- er's zealous attachment to the Crown. He was one of the six bold liberty boys, who broke open the powder magazine in Savannah, on the night of May 11, 1775 ; and, at still another time, in association with Captain Oliver Bowen, he commanded the first vessel equipped for naval warfare durng the American Revolution, and captured a schooner loaded with military supplies for the Royal government. He was a member of the Provincial Con- gress which met in Savannah on July 4, 1775, a member of the Council of Safety, and, when the Georgia Battalion was organized, he was chosen Major.

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Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I, Part 46

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