Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I, Part 48

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

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1 William J. Northen, in Men of Mark in Georgia, Volume II.

2 History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia, Atlanta, 1881.

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at Mayfield. In company with the latter Mr. Evans who formerly owned the plantation, visited the old burial ground; and, without the least difficulty, succeeded in locating Governor Rabun's tomb. Thereupon Mr. Stevens for future identification marked the grave with an iron bar, which he has since replaced with a more substantial marker. The burial place of Governor Rabun was long unknown and except for the timely visit of Mr. Evans it might never have been discovered. The State is indebted to Mr. Stevens for seizing an opportunity to locate the old Governor's grave and to resolve the doubt in question. The town of Mayfield was named for an old plantation acquired in this part of the State by the once noted Judge Wm. Stith, of Savannah, during the early part of the last century at which time it formed a part of Warren. The famous Judiciary Act of 1799 has been credited to Judge Stith's pen. The father of Mr. Stevens became in after years the purchaser of this plantation within the original limits of which lie the almost forgotten remains of Gov- ernor William Rabun.

Hancock in the Quite a number of Revolutionary sol- Revolution. diers settled in Hancock at the close of hostilities with England.

One of these was Henry Graybill, who died at the age of 82. Says White: "He was born in Lancaster, Penn., but removed to South Carolina before the Revolu- tionary War, and afterwards settled in Georgia, where he lived forty-two years. He was a conspicuous and active man during the contest which obtained our inde- pendence, and filled with credit to himself and country the important offices of surveyor and clerk of the court, and was four times elected by the Legislature of this State one of the electors of President and Vice-President. He had been a member of the Baptist church for fifty years and of the Masonic fraternity since the first estab- lishment of regular lodges in our State. He sustained through a long life the most unblemished character."

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Capt. John Cook, a native of Virginia, who com- manded a company of dragoons under Col. Wm. Wash- ington, lived in Hancock.

Bolling Hall, a veteran of the first war for independ- ence, though still a beardless youth when Cornwallis sur- rendered, lived for many years in Hancock, during a part of which time he represented the State in Congress. He afterwards removed to Alabama, where he died at "Ellerslie," his plantation near Montgomery. The in- scription on his monument gives the following particulars in regard to his career :

"In memory of Bolling Hall, who was born in Din- widdie County, Va., on the 25th day of October, 1767, and died at Ellerslie, his residence in Autauga County, Ala., on the 25th day of February, 1836. He served when 16 years old in the Revolutionary War in defence of the rights of America. ? '

Colonel Hugh Hall, Robert Simms, and John Epps Scott were also on the honor roll of patriots. Absalom Harris (1758-1824 enlisted at the age of 27 in Virginia He was an early settler of Hancock.

Among the other veterans of the Revolution who lived and died in. Hancock were: John Hamilton, aged 78; Amos Brantley, aged 70; Dr. Edward Hood, aged 71; Robert Flournoy, aged 62; General Henry Mitchell, aged 79; and General Epps Brown, aged 61. The last two became officers in the State militia.

At Shoulder Bone, on November 3, 1786, a treaty of good-will which promised a termination of the Oconee War was concluded between the State of Georgia and the Creek nation of Indians; but under the leadership of the crafty Alexander McGillivray it was repudiated by the Creeks.

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Sunshine: The

Home of Bishop Pierce.

Volume II.

Original Settlers. According to White, the original set- tlers of Hancock were: General Henry Mitchell, Bolling Hall, Charles Abercrombie, General David Adams, Henry Graybill, Joseph Bryan, William Reese, Jonathan Adams, John Montgomery, Jacob Den- nis, Archibald Smith, T. Holt, Thomas Raines, James Bishop, Isham Reese, M. Martin, R. Clarke, R. Shipp, F. Tucker, L. Barnes, W. Wyley, William Saunders, James Thomas, Jesse Pope, John Shivers, William Hardwick, L. Tatum, and R. Moreland.

To the foregoing list may be added the following names found in a list of accounts filed by the executor of the estate of David Clements, in 1801, to-wit: Joseph Maddox, Abram Betts, Samuel Barron, George H. Mitch- ell, Bolling Hall, Charles Abercrombie, M. Martin, Dr. Charles L. Ridley, Absalom Harris, John Lewis, David Clements, Captain Samuel Hall, Dixon Hall, Dr. John Pollard, William Hardwick, Peter Flournoy, William Lawson, John Trippe, James Lucas, Jonathan Davis, Simon Holt, John Dowdell, Alexander Bellamy, Lindsay Thornton, Isaac Evans, John Shackelford, Robert Tucker, John Hall, William Harper, Thomas Winn, Dr. R. Lee, James Lamar, Thomas Lamar, Peterson Thweat, Job Taylor, Duncan McLean, R. Respess, Dudley Hargrove, Robert Montgomery, Seth Parham, Homer Holt, James Huff, Philip Turner, Thomas Bird, Francis Lawson, Thomas Glenn, Gabe Lewis, David Lewis, Josiah Lewis, Archibald Lewis, Little Reese, John Freeman, William Lewis, Isaac Dennis, John Dudley, Thomas Jones, Wil- liam Kelly, Isaac Dunegan, John Dyer, William Johnson,

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Malaci Brantley, Francis Lewis, George Lewis, George Weatherby, John Perkins, James Parnell, Thomas Broad- nax, John · Cain, Joseph Middlebrooks, H. Jones, R. Tredewell, Woodruff Scott, John Sasnett, James Bonner, Isham West, Thomas Carney, Isaac Wilson, John Brewer, Thomas Carter, Drury Thweat, James Arthur, Daniel Melson, S. Parham, Harris Brantley, William Hatcher, C. Leonard, W. Collier, C. R. Bonner, S. Kirk, Isham Lloyd, Andrew Jeter, Isham Askew, James Childs, Joel Reese, Thomas Pentecost, James Hamilton, William Powell, Ben Harper, E. Bomar, and Robert Simmons.

Eight generations of the noted Battle family are buried in Hancock. At the beginning of the last century Peter Northen, the Governor's grandfather, a native of Virginia, settled at Powelton.

Hancock's Noted Settled by a superior class of people,

Residents. Hancock became at once a county of splendid schools and of great planta- tions; and from the virile stock which peopled this fertile region in pioneer days there flowered a host of noted descendants.

Here lived Dr. William Terrell, a wealthy physician and a prominent man of affairs, who was one of the first Georgians to endow the State University at Athens. The county of Terrell was named in his honor.

Absalom H. Chappell, a member of Congress, a jurist, and an author, was born in Hancock. Afterwards he removed to Columbus. Colonel Chappell, when quite an old man, published a volume of rare interest entitled : "Miscellanies of Georgia."

Four miles from Sparta, the great Bishop George F. Pierce established his country home at a place which he called "Sunshine"; and here his reverend father, Dr. Lovick Pierce, closed his long and useful career, at the age of ninety-four.

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Near Bishop Pierce, at a place which he called "Rockby", lived the noted author, Richard Malcolm Johnston. Here he opened a school for boys which he conducted with great success until the close of the Civil War. Later he removed to Baltimore where he founded an institution which he called Pen Lucy, in memory of a little daughter whose grave he had left behind him in Georgia. But he abandoned teaching after a few years and began to write the famous Dukesboro Tales, descrip- tive of ante-bellum life in Hancock.

Near Powelton lived Governor William Rabun, a Chief-Executive whose zeal for the honor of the State is well attested by his famous controversy with General Andrew Jackson. Two daughters survived the old Gov- ernor, one of whom, Mary, became the wife of a promi- nent physician, Dr. Larkin Bass; the other, Jane, married Thomas Neal, a soldier of the War of 1812. From this latter union sprang Mrs. William J. Northen.

In this same part of the county the great Jesse Mercer was at one time settled as a pastor.

Two distinguished members of Congress before the war lived at Sparta-Bolling Hall and Charles E. Haynes.

For a short period, when a lad, Walter T. Colquitt resided in Hancock where his father, Henry Colquitt, was an early settler.

Here also Governor Charles J. McDonald spent a few years of his early boyhood.

General John Coffee, a noted Indian fighter and a member of Congress, lived at one time in Hancock, where his father settled in 1780.

Judge Linton Stephens, one of Georgia's most illus- trious sons, lived at Sparta. He was a half-brother of the Great Commoner and a member of the Supreme Court of Georgia on the eve of the Civil War. For several

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

months he commanded a regiment in the field. His coura- geous example during the days of Reconstruction has forever endeared him to Georgians. Judge Stephens occupies an unmarked grave in the front yard of his old home in Sparta.

David W. Lewis, the first president of the North Georgia Agricultural College, at Dahlonega, lived here for years. Colonel Lewis was a distinguished Confed- erate Congressman and a man of letters.

Dixon H. Lewis, a power in Georgia politics before the war, resided in Sparta.

Charles W. DuBose, a distinguished ante-bellum law- yer and legislator, lived here. His wife, Catharine Anne, a gifted woman, wrote a story entitled: "The Pastor's Household", besides a number of poems.

Here lived Judge Eli Baxter, and Judge James Thomas, noted jurists.

Judge Seaborn Reese, a member of Congress after the war, resided in Sparta.

Two of the most noted of Georgia's ante-bellum edu- cators taught at Mount Zion-Nathan S. S., and Carlisle P. Beman.

Governor William J. Northen, on completing his studies at Mercer, settled in Hancock, his father's old home. For years he conducted the famous academy at Mount Zion. Subsequent to the war he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits and became Governor of the State. The town of Fitzgerald in south Georgia was established largely through the instrumentality of Governor Northen, who, on leaving the executive mansion became the head of a State bureau of immigration. He edited a work entitled "Men of Mark in Georgia"; and, on the death of Governor Candler, in 1911, was made the compiler of the State Records. One of the purest of Georgia's public men, he has always been a tower of strength in the cause of righteousness. The State Normal School at Athens

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and the Georgia Normal and Industrial College at Mil- ledgeville were established during his administration as Governor.

HARALSON

Created by Legislative Act, January 26, 1856, from Polk and Carroll Counties. Named for Gen. Hugh A. Haralson, an officer of the State militia, . whose distinguished services were rewarded with a seat in Congress. Buch- anan, the county-seat, named for James Buchanan, the last Democratic President of the United States prior to the Civil War.

Major-General Hugh A. Haralson was one of the most conspicuous figures in the public life of Georgia, prior to the Civil War. He was a native of Greene County, Ga., where he was born on November 13, 1805, and, after graduating from the State University, at Athens, was admitted to the bar by special act of the Legislature, being still short of twenty-one. For the practice of his profession he located at LaGrange, Ga., where he arose almost at a single bound to the front. At first a Whig, General Haralson separated from his associates when the party advocated a bank of the United States as a remedy for existing evils. He then became a Democrat; and, notwithstanding the fact that Georgia voted over- whelmingly for the Whig ticket in 1840, he was elected to Congress two years later. Before his term expired, the State was divided for the first time into Congressional districts; and the Whigs having organized his own-the fourth-his defeat seemed to be a foregone conclusion, but he was triumphantly returned to Congress, and again

re-elected in 1846. General Haralson was an ardent champion of State Rights. Fond of military life he organ- ized a company for the protection of his home town during the Indian troubles and by reason of his services to the State he was given the rank of Major-General in the State militia. General John B. Gordon and Chief- Justice Logan E. Bleckley, both married daughters of Hugh A. Haralson. The latter died at his home, in

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

LaGrange, Ga., on Sept. 25, 1854, while still in the prime of life, and was laid to rest in the local cemetery, where his grave is marked by a handsome monument.

Original Settlers. See Carroll and Polk, from which coun- ties Haralson was formed.

To the foregoing list may be added: Capt. W. J. Head, B. R. Walton, Martin Ayers, William Garner, L. B. Eaves, C. C. Eaves, William Summerville, George R. Hamilton, William J. Brown, Dr. William Gaulding, Dr. D. B. Head, James R. Head, John K. Holcombe, Sr., John K. Holcombe, Jr., Seaborn Goldin, Dr. W. F. Goldin, A. J. Hunt, William L. Kelley, Joe W. Kelley, Dr. R. B. Hutcheson, William Johnson, Sr., William Johnson, Jr., William Morgan, Benjamin F. Morgan, and Andrew J. Stewart.

John Rowell, a patriot of '76, is buried in Haralson.

HARRIS

Created by Legislative Act, December 14, 1827, from Troup and Mus- cogee Counties. Named for Hon. Charles Harris, of Savannah, a noted lawyer of the early ante-bellum period, who married a daughter of Gen. Lachlan McIntosh. Hamilton, the county-seat, named for George W. Hamil- ton, a high tariff Democrat of South Carolina. Some of his kinsmen of this name were among the earliest pioneer settlers.

Charles Harris was an eminent lawyer of Savannah who took little part in politics. He was a native of Eng- land, where he was born in 1772 but his early education was obtained in France. He came to Savannah at the age of sixteen and, entering the law office of Samuel

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Stirk, he eventually reached the top round of the legal profession. He declined an unsolicited election to the judgeship; and, when both the Clarke and the Crawford parties united upon him for the United States Senate, he modestly refused the proffered toga, notwithstanding the unique character of the compliment. He died in Savannah, on March 13, 1827, at the age of 55 and was buried in the old Colonial Cemetery, near General Lach- lan McIntosh. He is said to have been connected with the nobility of England.

King's Gap. Says Chappell: "King's Gap, in the Pinc Mountain, a few miles above Hamilton, in Harris County, on the road to Greenville, is the last memento now remaining of a set of Indian trails which, in various directions, perforated the region between the Flint and the Chattahoochee." Colonel Chappell once took one of these trails, in 1827, when visiting the country north of Pine Mountain, on the way to Bullsboro, the county-seat of Coweta. He was lost in the wilderness, but found some one who told him of another trail which led up the Chattahoochee. Pine Mountain, a noted ridge, which penetrates Harris and runs into Meriwether, is one hundred miles nearer the sea than any other ridge of the same height.

Original Settlers. The first comers into Harris, according to White, were: Anderson Redding, T. Jones, W. C. Osborn, A. Johnson, Joseph Davis, E. D. Hines, Thomas Hall, B. Johnson, A. Goodman, S. Huey, James Ramsey, John White, Judge Wellborn, General Low, R. Mobbley, Nathaniel H. Barton, William White- head, Thomas Whitehead, Lewis Winn, John J. Harper, Thomas L. Jackson, Jackson Harwell, Stringer Gibson, John Mitchell, Julius Mitchell, and Thomas Mahone.

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

To the foregoing list may be added: Joseph J. Hamil- ton, Calvin J. Brannon, Henry Kimbrough, Isaac Middle- brooks, Reuben R. Mobley, A. J. Burt, Jesse Cox, D. P. Hill, Nicholas Hutchinson, Thomas Spivey, Thomas Bowles, Adger S. Ellison, Dr. Erastus C. Hood, Martin Cochran, S. C. Goodman, W. J. Hudson, David Jenkins, John F. Jenkins, Thomas McGee, Henry J. Lowe, Tillman Pearce and H. D. Williams. The Pattillos were also established in the county at an early date. William P. Pattillo, a generous benefactor of Emory College, a min- ister of the gospel, and a prominent figure in the insur- ance world, was born here.

James N. Bigbee, a patriot of '76, was granted a Fed- eral pension while a resident of Harris, in 1847, at which time he was near the century mark.

On March 20, 1828, at Hamilton, Judge Walter T. Colquitt presiding, the first session of the Superior Court was held in Harris. N. H. Baden was elected clerk, an office which he held for twenty-five years. The following pioneer citizens qualified as Grand Jurors: George W. Rogers, William Heard, J. Bass, James Loflin, George Chatham, George H. Bryan, Silvester Naramore, Bennett Williams, Edward D. Perryman, Bolling Smith, Stephen Curvin, William Watts, Levi Ezzell, Burwell Blackmon, Thomas G. Bedell, John D. Johnson, Drury Kendrick, John Jordan, Thomas Mahone, Reuben R. Mobbley, Ben- jamin Meddows, William Peel, John S. Beckham.

Men of Note. Two members of the Supreme Court of .Georgia once practiced law at Hamilton : Judge Martin J. Crawford and Judge Mark H. Bland-

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ford. They afterwards removed to Columbus. Colonel J. N. Ramsey, a member of the Confederate Congress and a gallant officer in the field, was born in Harris. He delivered the address at the first Memorial Day exercises ever held. Judge Porter Ingram, a member of the Con- federate Congress, lived at one time in Hamilton. This was also for several years the home of Judge Marshall J. Wellborn who, after serving Georgia on the Bench and in the national House of Representatives, became a noted Baptist preacher. Here lived two widely known lawyers : J. M. Mobley and L. L. Stanford. The present ordinary of Harris, Judge Cooper Williams, who holds a record for continuous service in office, is a well-known and much beloved Georgian. Colonel D. B. Hamilton, a noted lawyer of Rome, was born at Hamilton, a town named for his family.

HART

Created by Legislative Act, December ", 1853, from parts of three counties: Elbert, Franklin, and Madison. Named for the famous heroine of the Revolution, Nancy Hart, whose bold exploits occurred in this section of Georgia. Hart enjoys the somewhat unique distinction of being the only county in Georgia and one of the few counties in the United States named for a woman. Hartwell, the county-seat, likewise named for Nancy Hart. The dead town of Hartford, on the Ocmulgee River, in Pulaski County, was also a memorial to this celebrated Georgia war-queen.

Nancy Hart: An During the year 1825 there appeared

Early Sketch. in the columns of a Milledgeville paper what is probably the oldest extant biography of the Georgia war queen. The name of the author is unknown but the account reads as fol- lows: "Nancy Hart, with her husband, settled before the Revolutionary struggle a few miles above the ford on Broad River, known by the name of Fishdam Ford in Elbert County, at the bend of the river, near a very extensive canebrake. An apple orchard still remains to point out the spot. In altitude, Mrs. Hart was almost Patagonian, remarkably well limbed and muscular, and

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marked by nature with prominent features. She pos- sessed none of those graces of motion which a poetical eye might see in the heave of the ocean wave or in the change of the summer cloud; nor did her cheeks-I will not speak of her nose-exhibit the rosy tints which dwell on the brow of the evening or play on the gilded bow. No one claims for her throat that it was lined with fiddle strings. The dreadful scourge of beauty, the small-pox, had set its seal upon her face. She was called a hard swearer, was cross-eyed and cross-grained, but was never- theless a sharp shooter. Nothing was more common than to see her in full pursuit of the stag. The huge antlers which hung around her cabin or upheld her trusty gun, gave proof of her skill in gunnery; and the white comb, drained of its honey, and hung up for ornament, testified to her powers in bee-finding. Many can bear witness to her magical art in the mazes of cookery, for she was able to prepare a pumpkin in as many ways as there are days in the week. She was extensively known and employed for her knowledge in the treatment of various kinds of ailments. But her skill took an even wider range, for the fact is well known that she held a tract of land by the safe tenure of a first survey, which she made on the Sabbath, hatchet in hand."

"But she was most remarkable for her military feats. When the clouds of war gathered, Nancy's spirit rose with the tempest. She proved herself a friend to her country, ready to do or die. All accused of Whigism had to swing. The lily-livered Mr. Hart was not the last to seek safety in the canebrake with his neighbors. They kept up a prowling sort of life, occasionally sallying forth in a kind of predatory style. The Tories at length determined to beat the brake for them. However, they concluded to give Mrs. Hart a call; and while there they ordered a repast. Nancy soon had the materials for a good feast spread before them: the smoking venison, the hasty hoe-cake, and the fresh honey comb. These were sufficient to prove the appetite of a gorged epicure. They simultaneously stacked arms and seated themselves,

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when, quick as thought, the dauntless Mrs. Hart seized one of the guns, cocked it, and with a blazing oath, declared that she would blow out the brains of the first man who offered to rise or to taste a mouthful. They knew her character too well to imagine that she would say one thing and do another, especially if it lay on the side of valor. 'Go,' said she to one of her sons, 'and tell the Whigs that I have taken six d-d Tories.' They sat still, each expecting to be offered up, each bearing the marks of disappointed revenge, shame and unap- peased hunger; but they were soon relieved, and dealt with according to the rules of the times. This heroine lived to see her country free. However, she found game and bees decreasing; and-to use her own expression- the country grew old so fast that she sold out her posses- sions in spite of her husband and was among the first of the pioneers who paved the way to the wilds of the west."*

The Hart Family The Harts were from Hillsboro, Record. Orange County, N. C. Thomas Hart, the founder of the family in the Tar Heel State, was a merchant who married Susan Gay. The children born of this union were as follows: Susan, Lucretia, Nancy, John, Nathaniel, and Thomas, Jr. With the two noted pioneers, Daniel Boone and William John- ston, the elder Hart bought large tracts of land from the Indians in Kentucky whither he removed his house- hold. Susan married a Price. Lucretia became the wife of the renowned Henry Clay. Nancy married a Brown, and her husband was afterwards United States minister to France. The daughter of Thomas Hart, Jr., married Jesse Benton, Clerk of the Superior Court of Orange, N. C., and became the mother of Thomas Hart Benton, the great pioneer statesman and orator of Missouri. Nancy Hart, the Georgia heroine, belonged to this family

*Condensed from The Milledgeville Recorder.

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of Harts. She came to Georgia from western North Carolina, and, subsequent to the Revolution, emigrated to Kentucky, where the remainder of her life was spent .*

Who Struck Billy It is claimed on the basis of a well- Patterson? established local tradition that the famous query "Who struck Billy Pat- terson?" originated in Hart. The incident is said to have occurred several years before the war at a public drill given by the State militia. The muster-ground was in a section of the county which then formed a part of Franklin, one of the oldest counties in Upper Georgia. There was a large crowd present to witness the manoeuv- ers, among which number was the celebrated William Patterson. In a moment of excitement when there was something of a tumult on the ground, an unknown party dealt Mr. Patterson a blow and in the confusion of the moment escaped recognition. The injured man on re- covering sensibility exclaimed "Who struck Billy Patter- son?" But no one could tell him. Throughout the day he continued to repeat this question, without receiving an answer. Finally it crystallized into a phrase which everyone on the ground was using; and, when the crowd dispersed it was carried into the rural districts.

Mr. Patterson was a stranger in the neighborhood. He was, moreover, a man of powerful physique; and both of these circumstances invested the assault upon him with a certain dramatic interest while at the same time it inspired no doubt a wholesome dread of his wrath. According to tradition he was the famous Wm. Patterson, of Baltimore, Md., whose daughter, Betty, married Jerome Bonaparte; and owning property in Georgia, his

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Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I, Part 48

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