Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I, Part 47

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

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In the drama of hostilities which followed, he bore a conspicuous part; and from 1785 to 1786 he sat in the Continental Congress. He was also a member of the Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution. President Washington appointed him Postmaster Gen- eral of the United States, an office which he filled until the inauguration of Mr. Jefferson, when he resigned to become President of the Branch Bank of the United

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States at Savannah. He died in the city of his birth, on November 17, 1815, leaving behind him an untarnished reputation. His two brothers, John and James, were also distinguished patriots of the Revolution.

Tallulah Falls.

See Rabun.

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Six miles south-east of Clarksville stood the Chopped Oak, a land-mark famous in the traditions of the early settlers. It was a favorite rendezvous of the Indians and a place where a number of trails met. Here the red men recorded their trophies of battle and planned their savage exploits against the whites. For each scalp taken a gash was cut into the tree; and to judge from the ap- pearance which the old oak presented when last seen, the Indians must have made life in this region a nightmare to the settlers. But the old land-mark has long since disappeared.

Matthew Rhodes, a soldier of the Revolution, lies buried at Clarksville. He died on December 5, 1855, at an age not given, but the old patriot must have been a centenarian. Time has almost obliterated the inscription on the soft granite slab, which was evidently cut by an inexperienced hand from a rough boulder. The grave stone will doubtless be replaced in time by a handsome marker. There are a number of Revolutionary patriots buried in Habersham, but they sleep in graves which can no longer be identified. Henry Halcomb and Charles Rickey, both privates, were granted Federal pensions while living in Habersham, the former in 1845, the latter in 1844.

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In the old Methodist Church yard in the town of Clarksville is the tomb of Richard W. Habersham, a member of the noted family of Savannah and a former representative from Georgia in Congress. The grave is walled up roughly with granite rocks to a height of some two feet, in addition to which there is also a head- stone bearing this inscription :

The grave of Hon. Richard W. Habersham, M. C. Born, Dec. 10, 1786. Died, Dec. 2, 1842. Filii patri.

Colonel Garnett McMillan, a brilliant lawyer, who de- feated Benjamin H. Hill for Congress but died without taking his seat, is buried in this same churchyard.

Two Splendid Piedmont College, at Demorest chartered

Schools. in 1897 as the J. S. Green Collegiate In- stitute, is one of the best equipped plants in the upper part of the State for the higher education of youth. It was founded by the Rev. C. C. Spence, D. D., a former president of Young Harris College, who organ- ized it upon the model of the famous Methodist school at Young Harris. It became Piedmont College in 1903. Dr. Spencer's successors in office have been as follows : Rev. J. C. Campbell, Rev. H. C. Newell and Dr. Frank E. Jenkins. The growth of the institution has been marked. In 1911 a disastrous fire crippled the school; but in con- sequence of the temporary backset the friends of the col- lege applied themselves with intensified zeal to the work of rehabitation. Recently a campus of one hundred acres was acquired on the east side of the Tallulah Falls Rail- way; and to this beautifully wooded tract of land the transfer of the college properties has already begun with the erection of several handsome buildings on the new

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site. In addition to the College proper there is also an academy in which young pupils are prepared for the more advanced studies.

One of the finest schools in the State for the education of Georgia's mountain boys and girls-though one of the youngest-is the Tallulah Falls Industrial School, an in- stitution established and maintained in this picturesque land of the sky by the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs. Barely three years have elapsed since the school was started. But the little educational plant has already performed miracles. It has wiped from the map of Habersham the wretched one room shack, provided by the county authorities, in which, during four months of the year, the children who attended school in this dingy death-trap were forced to sit upon hard benches and to shiver in the raw gusts which blew through the broken window panes. Getting an education is no longer a bug- bear from which these urchins shrink but a privilege in which they delight; nor is it any exaggeration to say that the wholesome effect of the school has been felt at every mountain fireside within a radius of fifty miles. To quote a happy expression coined by Mrs. Willet, one of Geor- gia's most brilliant club women, "the fairy god-mother whose wand has wrought this miracle is Mrs. M. A. Lipscomb, of Athens." Much of the credit undoubtedly belongs to Mrs. Lipscomb. From a rich experience of many fruitful and splendid years at the head of the noted Lucy Cobb Institute, this gifted gentle-woman has come to the rescue of the mountain boys and girls of her native state, sacrificing a leisure which she has well-earned in order to lend a helping had to these unfortunate children of the hills. Several handsome buildings today adorn the beautiful campus; and there stretches before the school a prospect of great usefulness, if the friends of education will only rally around the banner which this unselfish

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woman has here planted in the green heart of our Georgia Switzerland.

Original Settlers. As given by White, the early set- tlers of Habersham were: General Wafford, Gabriel Fish, Major Williams, John Robinson, Alexander Walden, B. Cleveland, John Whitehead, John Grant, Jesse Kiney, Charles Riche, Mr. Vandevier, Hud- son Moss, and William Herring.

Reverend James West, the grandfather of the late Dr. E. P. West, of Clarksville, was also an early settler. He lived to be quite an old man and died almost within sight of the century mark.

Alexander Erwin, a native of North Carolina, settled in Habersham in 1834. Colonel William S. Erwin, of Clarkville, and Judge Alexander S. Erwin, of Athens, were his sons. Zachariah Kytle was also an early settler of Habersham.

Habersham's Here lived a Georgian whose untimely

Men of Note. death alone prevented him from attaining to the highest public honors-Garnett Mc- Millan. His capacity for leadership was most pro- nounced. In the Legislature of 1870 he leaped at once into prominence by demanding a rigid inquiry into the Bullock administration. He was one of the first men in Georgia to challenge the high-handed officialism of this period. His speech on the fradulent bonds caused Gover- nor James M. Smith to appoint him on the famous Bond Committee of 1872, the other members of which were Hon. Thomas J. Simmons, afterwards Chief Justice of this State, and Hon John I. Hall, afterwards an assistant Attorney-General of the United States. The purposes of this committee were advertised on both sides of the water. Meetings were held not only in Atlanta but also in New York; and, after an impartial hearing, in which all the

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facts were sifted and all the parties at interest were exmined, the committee submitted a report, which was adopted by the Legislature, relieving the State of an incubus in the way of illegal bonds amounting to millions of dollars. In recognition of the patriotic service which he thus rendered to the State, Mr. McMillan, in the fall of 1874, received the Democratic nomination for Congress in his district over the great orator of Reconstruction, Benjamin H. Hill; and, in the election which ensued, he swept the field by a majority of 5,500 over his Republican opponent But the irony of fate lurked in these splendid laurels. On January 14, 1875, not quite two months be- fore the opening of Congress, Mr. McMillan died, at the early age of 32; and, by a singular turn of the wheel of fortune, he was succeeded by his former competitor, Mr. Hill. In the untimely passing of this gifted Georgian there is something more than a mere suggestion of the brilliant Hallam for whom Tennyson wrote his "In Memoriam." Mr. McMillan was a student at Emory and Henry College in Virginia when the Civil War com- menced. On the eve of graduation he enlisted as a pri- vate in the 24th Georgia regiment, commanded by his father, Colonel Robert McMillan ; but he subsequently be- came a Captain in the 2nd Georgia battalion of Sharp Shooters.

His father, Colonel Robert McMillan, was a distin- guished lawyer and legislator, who came to Clarksville from Elberton in 1851.

Two well known ante-bellum members of Congress, both of whom sprang from famous Savannah families, resided here Jabez Jackson and Richard W. Haber- sham. Little is known of the former beyond the fact that he served in Congress from 1835 to 1839. The latter suc- ceeded him in office and served for two consecutive terms.

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Governor John Milledge of Augusta, married a daughter of Mr. Habersham.

Brigadier-General William T. Wofford, who com- manded the Department of North Georgia, at the close of the war, was a native of Habersham.

Near the present town of Clarkville, in 1806, was born a noted Indian of mixed blood-James D. Wofford .* The English equivalent for his Cherokee name was "Wornout Blanket." He sprang from the famous South Carolina family of Woffords and was a kinsman of the well-known Confederate General. He spoke with great ease both English and Cherokee and became a writer of distinc- tion. In 1824 he was appointed census enumerator for the district of the Cherokee nation embracing Toccoa and Hiawassee. In 1834 he commanded one of the largest detachments of emigrants, en route to the West, on the eve of the general removal. His knowledge of tribal antecedants was vast. He was educated at the Valley Town Mission school under the Reverend Evan Jones and just before the adoption of the Cherokee alphabet, he finished the translation into phonetic Cherokee spelling of a Sunday School speller. His grandfather, Colonel Wofford, was an officer in the American Revolution; and, shortly after the treaty of Hopewell, in 1785, he estab- lished a colony in Upper Georgia known as "Wofford's Settlement." It was subsequently found to be within the Indian boundaries and was acquired by special purchase in 1804. The name of this pioneer was affixed to the treaty of Holston, in 1794, as a witness for the State of Georgia. On the maternal side, James D. Wofford was of mixed Cherokee and Natchez stock, together with a strain of white blood, and his mother was a cousin of Sequoya. He was a firm believer in the Nun-ne-hi, or Cherokee Immortals, notwithstanding his education, and was an authority on myths and legends. He died at his home in the Indian Territory, in 1896, at the ripe old age of ninety years.

* The name often incorrectly spelled "Wafford".

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HALL

Created by Legislative Act, December 15, 1818, out of treaty lands acquired from the Cherokees in the same year. Named for Dr. Lyman Hall, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence from Georgia Gainesville, the county-seat, named for a local family, according to some authorities; for Gen. E. P. Gaines, of the United States army, according to others. The former is probably correct.

Dr. Lyman Hall was a native of Wallingford, Conn., in which New England town he was born on April 12, 1724. When a young man he came to Dorchester, S. C., where he identified himself with the famous Puritan colony which later crossed into Georgia and formed what is known as the Midway settlement in the Parish of St. John. He was an active physician who, sympathizing with the Boston sufferers, in the outrages of 1774, began openly to advocate independence of England; and, before the rest of the Province was ready to send delegates, he was dispatched by his constituents to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in which body he sat as an accredited delegate from the Parish of St. John. Later, when joined by other delegates, he signed the Declaration of Independence on behalf of Georgia, together with Button Gwinnett and George Walton. His property at Sunbury, having been confiscated by the royal govern- ment, he removed to the North, where he resided until 1782, when he returned to the South and settled in Savan- nah to practice medicine. But he was almost immediately called to occupy the office of Governor, a post of honor which he filled for one term. Subsequently he became judge of the inferior court of Chatham, after which he settled on a plantation, at Shell Bluff, in the county of Burke, where, on October 19, 1790, he died. His remains were placed in a brick vault on an eminence overlooking the river, but were taken to Augusta in 1848 and buried under the monument erected to the Georgia Signers.

When the remains of Dr. Hall were taken from the tomb at Shell Bluff for re-interment in Augusta, the mar-

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

ble slab embedded in the brick wall of the vault was transmitted to the corporate authorities of the town of Wallingford, Conn., the old home of Dr. Hall, where it is still preserved as a memorial to the illustrious patriot. The inscription on the tablet reads as follows :

Beneath this Stone rest the Remains of the Hon. LYMAN HALL, Esq., formerly Governor of this State, who departed this life the 19th of Oct., 1790, in the 67th Year of his Age. In the Cause of America he was uniformly a Patriot. In the incumbent duties of a Husband and a Father, he acquitted himself with affec- tion and tenderness. But, Reader, above all, know from this inscription that he left this probationary scene as a True Christian and an Honest Man.

"To these, so mourned in death, so loved in life, The childless Parent and the widowed Wife, With tears inscribe this monumental Stone That holds his Ashes and expects her own."

Brenau. Gainesville is the seat of Brenau College, an in- stitution of note for the higher education of young ladies. It was chartered in 1878 as the Georgia Baptist Seminary, with the following board of trustees- O. B. Thompson. J. W. Bailey, D. G. Candler, D. E. Banks, W. C. Wilkes, David E. Butler and W. P. Price. Dr. W. C. Wilkes, then pastor of the First Baptist church, was chosen by the board to serve as the first president. He died in 1886 and Professor A. W. VanHoose was elected to succeed him. Under the new president, there was a fresh infusion of life, and plans for enlarging the school were discussed. But the educational era had not yet dawned. The support of the denomination failed to materialize. The indebtedness of the institution increas- ed; and finally the board accepted a proposition from Pro- fessor VanHoose to assume this obligation provided the title to the property should be vested in himself. This was in 1890, at which time the name of the institution was

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changed to the Georgia Female Seminary and Conserva- tory of Music.

Three years afterwards, Dr. H. J. Pearce, then presi- dent of the Columbus (Ga.) Female College, purchased a half interest and became associate president. In the summer of 1893 a new dormitory was erected, large enough to accommodate one hundred students. This was the beginning of a series of improvements and extensions which have continued each year until the present, at which time the plant is one of the largest in the South.

In 1900 Dr. Pearce arranged for a leave of absence and spent three years in Germany and France studying the problems of education and subjects in his own depart- ment of philosophy.

At this time also the name was changed from Georgia Female Seminary and Conservatory of Music to Brenau College-Conservatory. In 1909 Dr. Pearce purchased the interest of Professor VanHoose and assumed entire charge of the affairs of the institution. According to Dr. Pearce, the name "Brenau" is a hybrid expression formed by combining an abbreviation of the German word "brennen", to burn, with the Latin word "aurum" signifying gold. Thus the word Brenau means gold puri- fied or refined.

Riverside, on the banks of the Chattahoochee, some two miles from Gainesville, is a young but flourishing military school for boys.

Lula, one of the most important towns in the upper part of the State, was named for a daughter of the late Ferdinand Phinizy, of Athens. She afterwards became the wife of Dr. A. W. Calhoun, the noted occulist of Atlanta.

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In the center of the town square at Gainesville stands a handsome Confederate monument unveiled on Jan. 7, 1909 by Longstreet chapter, U. D. C. The solid pedestal . of marble is surmounted by the figure of a private soldier portrayed by the sculptor in the act of firing his musket. The monument is a real work of art. Next to the new post office building an exquisite memorial fountain has recently been erected to the memory of the late Colonel C. C. Sanders, for whom the local chapter of Children of the Confederacy was named. Philanthropist, finan- cier, soldier, and public-spirited citizen, Colonel Sanders was greatly beloved by the people of Gainesville. The fountain is enclosed by marble columns forming a cir- cular pavillion, classic in design, and bears the following tender inscription :

1840-1908. Erected by the C. C. Sanders Chapter, Children of the Confederacy. "He left sweet memories in the hearts of men And climbed to God on little children's love."

Two of the daughters of President Woodrow Wilson were born in Gainesville, at the home of an aunt, Mrs. Brown. The historic old home stood on the site of the present Hotel Princeton facing the town square. The fact that an inn bearing this name should occupy the same ground in after years is a coincidence worthy of note.

Original Settlers. According to White, the original set- tlers of Hall were: William H. Dick- son, E. Donegan, Joseph Wilson, John Bates, B. Rey- nolds, R. Armour, Joseph Gailey, T. Terrell, John Millar, D. Wafford, M. Moore, W. Blake, Joseph Read, R. Young, J. McConnell, R. Winn, Thomas Wilson, William Cobb,

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N. Garrison, Joseph Johnson, John Barrett, E, Cowen, A. Thompson, Jesse Dobbs, James Abercrombie, and Solomon Peake.

Henry Peeples, a merchant, settled in Hall when the county was first organized, but later in life removed to South Georgia. His son, Judge Richard H. Peeples, was Judge of the City Court of Nashville for sixteen years. Judge Cincinnatus Peeples spent his boyhood in Hall. He afterwards removed to Athens, where he became mayor of the town. He also represented Clarke in the Legislature. He then removed to Atlanta.

Ira Gaines and Radford Grant were both carly set- tlers of Hall.

Joseph Thompson came by private conveyance from Virginia to Georgia and settled in this section before the removal of the Indians. He owned and operated the first tobacco factory in Georgia. As a captain of indus- try he was a pathfinder and a pioneer. The enterprise failed for the reason that he was too far in advance of the times. He afterwards removed to Alabama.

Patrick O'Connor, an Irishman, lured to America by tales of the fabulous wealth of Georgia's gold mines, embarked upon the Atlantic in a sail boat, which was ninety ways in crossing the waters. He became one of the pioneers of Hall. According to Governor Candler, he owned the first six-mule team in the county and built one of the first two-story houses. At the outbreak of hostilities in 1861 five of his sons went into the army to fight for the Confederacy, and there were no better sol- diers. Patrick O'Connor, Jr., was one of the first post- masters of Gainesville. He was also at one time a mer- chant in Dahlonega. He came to Atlanta in 1862. His daughter, Mrs. A. McD. Wilson, is one of the foremost women of Georgia.

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Joseph T. Winters, a patriot of '76, was granted a Federal pension in 1848 while living in Hall, at which time he was an octogenarian.

Hall's Distinguished One of the most illustrious soldiers Residents. of the Civil War was for years a resident of Gainesville-Lieutenant- General James Longstreet. His commission antedated Stonewall Jackson's; and, throughout the entire struggle, he commanded the celebrated First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was a veteran of two great conflicts-the War with Mexico and the War between the States. Gen. Longstreet devoted his last years to writing his masterful work entitled: "From Gettysburg to Appomattox," in which volume incidentally he defends his part in the battle of Gettysburg. The old soldier was survived by his gifted wife, Mrs. Helen D. Longstreet, upon whose shoulders the mantle of his office as post- master of Gainesville, has fallen. Mrs. Longstreet has published a splendid volume in defence of her husband entitled : "Lee and Longstreet at High Tide."

Dr. Richard Banks, a noted ante-bellum surgeon, re- moved to Gainesville from Elberton, in 1832, and for the remainder of his life was an honorel resident of Hall. He is today memorialized by one of the counties of Georgia.

Here lived Governor Allen D. Candler, who repre- sented the State in Congress from 1883 to 1891; who succeeded General Philip Cook in the office of Secretary of State from 1894 to 1898; and who filled the gubernato- rial chair of Georgia from 1898 to 1902. On relinquishing the reins of office, Governor Candler rendered the State an important service in compiling Georgia's Colonial,

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Revolutionary, and Confederate Records. During the Civil War, he was a gallant Confederate officer, retiring at the close of hostilities with the rank of Colonel. Gov- ernor Candler was at one time mayor of Gainesville, an office which was also held by his distinguished father, Daniel G. Candler.

Governor James M. Smith, though identified in life with Columbus, is in death associated with Gainesville, where he occupies an unmarked grave in beautiful Alta Vista cemetery, surrounded by the peaks of the Blue Ridge mountains. Governor Smith was twice married, but died childless.

Hon. Thomas M. Bell, a distinguished member of Congress, who has served the district ably for eight years, is a resident of Hall.

HANCOCK

Created by Legislative Act, December 17, 1793, from Washington and Greene Counties. Named for the celebrated patriot of the Revolution, John Hancock, whose name heads the list of Signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. When the immortal scroll of freedom was signed, in 1776, John Hancock was President of the Continental Congress. Sparta, the county- seat, named for the ancient metropolis of the Peloponessus, once the rival of the far-famed city of Athens. The hardihood of the pioneers in defying the perils of the frontier suggested the appropriateness of this name. When organized Hancock included a part of Taliaferro.

Mount Zion : The Says Gov. Wm. J. Northen, a native Era of the Birch. of Hancock: "In the early years of the nineteenth century, Nathan S. S. Beman, a native of New York, established a high school at Mount Zion, in Hancock County, Ga. This school was for both sexes and was intended to fit pupils for the duties of life and to prepare them for the more advanced classes in the few colleges which then existed. This school rap- idly gained celebrity and was easily the most famous of its day. Nathan Beman's system was Draconian. He knew of but one penalty for the broken law-the rod; and he applied it to all violators, irrespective of age or

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condition. Carlisle Beman, a younger brother of Nathan, trained under the latter, acquired almost equal distinc- tion, and later became president of Oglethorpe Univer- sity, a Presbyterian school fostered by the Synods of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. He afterwards resigned his chair because the trustees forbade his flog- ging students more advanced than the Sophomore class.1

At Powelton, the great pioneer Baptist preacher, Silas Mercer, organized one of the most noted churches of the Baptist denomination in Georgia. Jesse Mercer, his famous son, afterwards assumed pastoral charge, and under him it became the great religious rendezvous of the Baptists. Here was organized in 1803 "The General Committee" of the church in Georgia; and here in 1822 was formed "The Baptist State Convention."" It is therefore one of the historic land-marks of the church in this State. There was also an academy at Powelton, and in the immediate neighborhood a number of the best people of the county were settled. Robert Simms, a patriot of the Revolution, is buried at the old Powelton church. He died in 1815.

The Grave of On a plantation, four miles west of

Governor Rabun. Mayfield, in a grave neglected for more than three quarters of a century, repose the mortal ashes of one of Georgia's most distin- guished Chief-Executives : Governor William Rabun. It was not until the spring of 1910 that the last resting place of the old Governor was definitely ascertained. At this time Mr. E. A. Evans, of Anderson, Ala., an old gentle- man then 83 years of age was visiting Mr. W. W. Stevens,

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Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I, Part 47

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