USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 51
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George Wells, after- wards Lt .- Governor,
Wm. Moore,
John Tillman,
Peter Shand,
Philip Helveston,
John Thomas,
James Doyle,
Ephraim Odom,
Francis Lewis Feyer,
Shadrach Barrow,
Thomas Gray,
James Warren,
Joseph Gresham,
John Greene,
Samuel Red,
James Roe,
Starling Jordan,
Edmond Hill,
WVm. Doyle,
Zachariah Wimberley,
Thomas Pennington,
.Joseph Tilley,
Benjamin Warren,
Job Thomas,
Daniel Thomas,
John Gray,
Joel Walker,
Giden Thomas,
Pleasant Goodall,
William N. Norrell,
Robert Henderson,
Wade Kitts,
Francis Stringer,
John Red,
John Roberts,
Humphrey Williams,
James Williams,
Nathan Williams,
Robert Blaishard,
Alexander Berryhill,
John Stephens,
Thomas Carter, .John Anderson,
John Rogers,
Amos Davis,
David Greene,
Drewry Roberts,
Allen Brown,
Win. Catlett,
James Red,
James Douglas,
James Davis,
John Kennedy,
Robert Douglas, Sr.,
Elijah Dix, Thomas Red,
Paul McCormick,
Henry Mills,
.John Greenway,
Amos Whitehead,
Wm. Whethers,
Hugh Irwin,
Ezekiel Brumfield,
Wm. Godbe,
James Brantley,
Clement Yarbrough,
Wm. Curton,
John Catlett,
Barnaby Lamb,
Elias Daniel,
John Pettigrew,
Lewis Hobbs,
Benjamin Brantley,
John Frier,
.John Howell,
Jeremiah Brantley,
William Milner,
.James Moore,
John Burnsides,
Samuel Berryhill, John Bledsoe,
John Sharpe,
Patrick Dickey,
Wm. Hobbs,
Stephen Lamb,
Richard Curton,
Robert Cade,
Charles Williams,
Moses Davis,
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JEFFERSON
Solomon Davis, Jacob Lamb,
Francis Hancock,
Joseph Allday,
Seth Slockumb, Charles Golightly, Bud Cade,
Myrick Davis, Landrum Ashbury,
Daniel Logan,
Jesse Scruggs,
John Whitehead,
.John Forth,
Joseph Moore,
Thomas Odom,
Edward Watlers,
John Robinson,
Frederick Francis,
Jacob Sharp,
John Thomas, Sr., Caleb Whitehead.
Arthur Walker, James Hunt,
Despite the foregoing protest, delegates were sent to the Provincial Congress which met in Savannah on July 4, 1775 at which time the tie of allegiance to England was severed ; and throughout the Revolution the Parish of St. George was the abode of the most intense loyalty to the patriotic cause and the theatre of some of the most tragic engagements.
Louisville : Georgia's First Permanent Capital. Page 146.
The Yazoo Fraud : An Episode of Dramatic Interest Recalled. Page 149.
Burning the Infamous Records With Fire from Heaven. Page 152.
General Solomon Wood, a Captain in the War of the Revolution, died in Jefferson County. He distinguished himself by his opposition to the Yazoo fraud, held many offices in the county, and was highly esteemed by his fel- low citizens. Aaron Tomlinson, an officer of the Revolu- tion under General Greene, and Jacob Sodown, a comrade in arms both reached the age of 80. There is an old
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
Revolutionary patriot buried in Louisville by the name of King whose grave is said to be in a state of absolute neglect. George Larson Stapleton and John Peel, both patriots of '76, are supposed to be buried somewhere in Jefferson.
Original Settlers. According to White, the original set- tlers of Jefferson were: William Hard- wick, John Fulton, Roger Lawson, Hugh Lawson, Joseph Gamble, William Gamble, Major John Berrien, Captain William Haddon, Captain Patrick Connelly, Andrew Berryhill, James Shellman, the Pattersons, the White- heads, the Hamptons, and others.
To the above list may be added the names of the fol- lowing persons, most of them emigrants from the North of Ireland, who received land grants prior to the Revolu- tion and settled in the township of Queensboro : Z. Albrit- ton, John Allen, David Alexander, Hugh Alexander, Thomas Atkinson, Matthew Barr, Samuel Barren, John Bartholemew, Mitchael Beatty, Thomas Beatty, James Blair, James Boggs, John Boggs, James Breckinridge, John Brown, William Brown, John Bryant, John Busby, John Campbell, John Cary, John Chambers, Alexander Chestnut, Isaac Coleman, George Cook, Robert Cooper, John Crozier, John Dickson, M. Dorton, Isaach DuBose, Davd Douglass, Robert Duncan, John, Evans, John Fin- ley, James Fleming, R. Fleming, Samuel Fleming, Rich- ard Fleeting, John Gamble, Robert Gervin, John Gilmore, R. Gray, John Green, David Greer, James Haden, Joseph Hampton, D. Hancock, Robert Hanna, William Hanna, William Harding, Garland Hardwick, C. W. Hardwick, W. P. Hardwick, James Harris, Sherrell Hartley, James Harvey, James Hogg, Henry Hurd, John Ingram, David Irvin, Isabella Irwin, Joseph Johnson, John Kennedy,
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JEFFERSON
Isaac Laremore, Henry Lewis, Samuel Little, Matthew Lyle, Samuel McAllister, John McClinigan, Elizabeth Mc- Clinigan, William McConkey, William McCreery, James McCroan, Thomas McCroan, Patrick McCulloch, B. Mc- Cutlers, Patrick McGee, Adam McIlroy, James McKelvey, John McKelvey, Moses McMichan, James McMichan, Daniel McNeill, John Mack, Patrick Mackay, William Mackay, John Martin, John Maynard, James Meriwether, Robert Miller, John Mineely, Andrew Moore, Matthew Moore, Adam Morrison, John Morrison, John Murdock, Arthur O'Neal, Jesse Paulett, John Peel, Richard Peel, Robert Prior, Jesse Purvis, John Reese, Clotworthy Robson, James Rodgers, Robert Rodgers, Edward Rog- ers, David Russell, Robert Sampson, William Sampson, Love Sanford, Joseph Saunders, John Scott, M. Shell- man, James Simpson, Jesse Slatter, William Skelly, Walker Stevens, Edward Thompson, George Thompson. James Thompson, John Todd, John Toland, James Ton- kin, Henry Tucker, Esther Tweedy, John Warnock, Robt. Warnock, Benjamin Warren, John Wilson, Seb. Wither- up and Thomas Wolfington. Most of the early settlers of Jefferson were patriots of the Revolution. In addition to those mentioned in the foregoing list, General James Gunn, Colonel Wood, Moses Newton, William Walker and George Corvan, veterans of the first war for independ- ence, died in Jefferson.
Perhaps nothing happened of greater importance to the town, while Louisville was the capital, than the estab- lishment of the Louisville Academy, one of the oldest and best institutions of the State. When Jefferson County was formed from Warren and Burke Counties, in 1796, there was included in the act which provided for the new county a provision also for the establishment of a school in Louisville, to be a branch of the State Univer- sity, founded at Athens, in 1785. The school at Louisville was one of a group established about this time by the
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
Legislature as feeders to the State University and these schools are probably the oldest in Georgia. The commis- sioners to organize the academy were: David Bothwell, John Shellman, James Meriwether, John Cobbs and Josiah Sterrett.
The Old Slave Market.
Page 155.
Jefferson's On account of the location of the seat of
Distinguished government at Louisville, some of the best
Residents. families in the State settled in the immed- iate neighborhood, and quite a number came from Virginia and North Carolina. They acquired large tracts of land and lived in the ample style charac- teristic of wealthy planters. Hugh Lawson, whose father, a North Carolinian, settled in the district prior to the Revolution, became a Captain in the War for Independence, a commissioner to locate the capital at Louisville, and a trustee of the University of Georgia.
Roger Lawson Gamble, Sr., a son of Joseph Gamble, was twice elected a member of Congress, and was a Judge of the Middle Circuit from 1845 to 1847. He lived and died in Jefferson. The latter's grandson, of the same name, also became an occupant of the Bench.
John Milton, who held the office of Secretary of State during the Revolution and who saved the official records of Georgia from destruction by carrying them to Mary- land, was a resident of Jefferson. The county of Milton in North Georgia was named for him. His son, John Milton, became Governor of Florida, and the widow of the late Governor William Y. Atkinson, of Georgia, is one of his descendants.
Major John Berrien, the father of the distinguished Senator, lived for several years at Louisville. He held the office of State Treasurer of Georgia. During the Revolution he earned his military title by conspicuous
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gallantry, was wounded at the battle of Monmouth, was decorated by Washington with the emblem of the Cincin- nati, and later became President of the Georgia branch of this organization. The emblem in question was an eagle. Major Berrien was born four miles from Princeton, N. J., in the famous "Berrien Mansion," where Washington issued his farewell orders to the American Army, at the close of hostilities. He died at Savannah, Ga.
Benjamin Whitaker, long Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, lived and died in Jefferson.
Governor Herschel V. Johnson, owned an extensive plantation in the neighborhood of Louisville, where the last years of his life were spent. He is buried in the new cemetery underneath an impressive monument.
United States Senator James Gunn also lived at Louisville. Unfortunately he became associated with the Yazoo speculators, whose designs were thwarted by his colleague, Governor Jackson.
Governor Howell Cobb and General T. R. R. Cobb were both natives of Jefferson but were reared in Clarke.
Howell Cobb, Sr., an uncle of the Governor, a planter of large means also resided in Jefferson. He was a mem- ber of Congress from 1807 to 1811.
One of the early settlers of Jefferson was Ambrose Wright. His son, Major-General A. R. Wright, became an officer of high rank in the Confederate Army, and an editor of distinction. The present Comptroller-General of Georgia, William A. Wright, who has held this office continuously for thirty-six years, is a grandson.
Daniel Hook, an eminent pioneer minister of the Church of the Disciples, resided for several years at Louisville, where his distinguished son, Judge James S. Hook, commissioner of education, jurist, and scholar, was born.
The celebrated Patrick Carr, who is said to have killed one hundred Tories with his own hand, lived and died in
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
Jefferson. Among the other soldiers of the War for Inde- pendence, who came from this immediate vicinity were: General Solomon Wood, a Captain in the Revolution, afterwards a General of militia, who bitterly opposed the Yazoo fraud; Aaron Thompson, an officer under General Greene; Chesley Bostwick and Littleberry Bostwick, both officers; Seth Pearce and William Lyon.
Chief-Justice James Jackson a grandson of the old governor, was a native of Jefferson. Here also lived Brigadier-General Reuben W. Carswell, a distinguished Confederate soldier, and a jurist of note.
JENKINS
Created by Legislative Act, August 17, 1905, from parts of four counties: Bulloch, Burke, Emanuel, and Screven. Named for Governor Charles J. Jenkins, an illustrious chief-magistrate of Georgia, who bore the executive seal of the State into exile during the days of Reconstruction. Millen, the county-seat, named for Hon. John Millen, of Savannah, a noted lawyer, who died on the eve of taking his seat in Congress.
Charles J. Jenkins : While occupying the office of Gov- In Exile Preserves Seal of Georgia. ernor, during the days of Recon- struction, Charles J. Jenkins per- formed an act of civic patriotism, the bare mention of which, after a lapse of fifty years, still awakens a thrill of admiration. To prevent the executive seal of the State from being profaned by the military satraps, Governor Jenkins, on being deposed from office by the Federal officer in command of the district, General Meade, took the instrument of authority with him into exile among the mountains of Nova Scotia, and there kept it until the reins of government in Georgia were restored to the Caucasian element .* Under an act of Congress,
* Most of the accounts state that it was the Great Seal of Georgia which was carried into exile by Governor Jenkins. But this is a mistake. Accord- ing to Hon. Phillip Cook, the present Secretary of State, the great seal of Georgia has never been disturbed. It was the executive seal, which figured in this dramatic episode of Reconstruction. The great seal of the State is used in attesting papers which bear upon inter-state or foreign relations and is stamped upon a piece of wax, which is then attached to the docu- ment. The executive seal is used in the ordinary transactions of the executive department, without the formalities above indicated.
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passed early in the year 1867, Georgia was grouped with Alabama and Florida, in what was known as the third military district of the seceding States; and the Saturna- lia of Reconstruction was begun. The negroes now voted for the first time and the registration lists, which were supervised by the Federal authorities, contained as many blacks as whites. At an election held for delegates to a Convention, the avowed purpose of which was to remold the organic law of the State, thirty-three blacks were chosen; and the mongrel body which met soon thereafter amended the Constitution, committed Georgia to Republican pledges, and ordered another election for Governor and State House officers. Thus having disposed of the business on hand, the Convention was ready to adjourn.
But the hotel bills of the delegates still remained to be paid. As commander of the military district, General Meade directed Governor Jenkins to draw a warrant upon the treasury of the State, for the purpose of defraying the conventional expenses. But Governor Jenkins did not think that the disfranchised tax-payers of Georgia should be made to foot the bill for this sort of a banquet, and he firmly refused to issue the desired order. On receiving this note, General Meade forthwith removed Governor Jenkins from office, detailing General Thomas H. Ruger to act as Governor; and, to avoid any unpleasant hitch in the proceedings, Captain C. F. Rockwell was detailed to act as Treasurer. The sovereignty for Georgia was ruthlessly outraged by the usurpers.
It was now the victorious high-tide of the military regime in Georgia. The rule of the bayonet was supreme. But Governor Jenkins was determined to uphold the honor of the commonwealth at any cost; and he quietly departed into exile, taking not only four hundred thous- and dollars in cash and leaving an empty strong box for the carpet bag administration, but also taking the execu- tive seal of the State, which he avowed should never be affixed to any document which did not express the sover-
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
eign will of the people of Georgia. Depositing the money to the credit of the State in one of the New York city banks, he then crossed the Canadian border line into Nova Scotia, where he kept the insignia of statehood until Georgia was at last emancipated from the bonds of the military despotism which enthralled her. On the election of Governor James M. Smith, he emerged from his retire- ment and formally restored the executive seal to the proper authorities, expressing as he did so the satisfac- tion that never once had it been descrated by the hand of the military tryant. The Legislature of Georgia suitably acknowledged the fidelity of Governor Jenkins by adopt- ing appreciative resolutions in which the Governor then in office was authorized to have struck without delay and presented to Governor Jenkins a facsimile of the execu- tive seal of Georgia, wrought of gold and stamped with the following inscriptions: "Presented to Charles J. Jenkins by the State of Georgia. In arduis fidelis."
Millen, the county-seat of Jenkins is one of the most progressive towns of South-east Georgia, a bee-hive center of trade, well supplied with banking facilities. The town boasts a number of solid business establishments. On the court house square the local Chapter of the U. D C. has unveiled a handsome monument to the heroic dead of the South.
Original Settlers. See Bulloch, Burke, Emanuel and Screven, from which counties Jenkins was formed.
Some of the old established families of the county in- clude : the Daniels, the Joiners, the Brinsons, the Parkers, the Edenfields, the Applewhites, the Bolts, the Kirken- dalls, the Lanes, the Laniers, the DeLoaches, the Ander- sons and the Cliftons.
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JOHNSON
Created by Legislative Act, December 11, 1858, from Laurens and Emanuel Counties. Named for Hon. Herschel V. Johnson, jurist, Governor, Confederate States Senator, and candidate for Vice-President of the United States on the Douglas ticket, in 1860. Wrightsville, the county-seat, was named for John B. Wright, a leading pioneer resident. Johnson is said to have been the first county in the State to enforce prohibition.
Herschel V. John- son : Incidents of His Career.
Volume II.
Original Settlers. Jethro Arline and William Norris were among the first comers into John- son. The former lived in a part of the county which was cut off from Montgomery; the latter in a part which was taken from Emanuel. The list also in- cludes John B. Wright, for whom the town of Wrights- ville was named; W. P. Hicks who gave the land for streets and public buildings at the county-seat; Major James Hicks, Dr. H. Hicks, M. A. Outlaw, James Tapley, T. A. Persons and B. W. Holt. Johnson's two delegates to the secession convention at Milledgeville were also pioneer residents : Wm. Hurst and J. R. Smith. The old established families of Johnson include : the Daleys, the Lovetts, the Wiggineses, the Htrrisons, the Claxtions, the Kents the Robinsons, the Baileys, the Flanderses, the Thompkinses, the Jenkinses, the Bryans, the John- sons, the Harrises, the Brinsons and the Pages.
JONES
Created by Legislative Act, December 10, 1807, from Baldwin County. Named for Hon. James Jones, of Savannah, a distinguished lawyer of the early ante-bellum period. Gray, the county-seat, named for a pioneer family established by James Gray. When organized Jones included a part of Bibb east of the Ocmulgee River.
James Jones was an early patriot whose name has become somewhat obscure, with the State's lengthening
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annals. The average Georgian labors under the impres- sion that the county of Jones was named either for Dr. Noble Wymberley Jones or for Major John Jones, both patriots of the Revolutionary War period, and both of them better known than the comparatively forgotten Georgian whose name has thus been rescued from obliv- ion. Why the Legislature should have ignored Dr. Jones, whose devotion to the principles of independence caused him to be styled "One of the morning stars of liberty" or Major John Jones whose gallant career was terminated by a cannon ball at the siege of Savannah, is a conundrum of politics somewhat mystifying to the brain of the twen- tieth century historian. The subject of this sketch must have been a favorite of his generation, though character- ized by none of the greatness which endures. Mr. Jones was a native of Maryland, who received his education at the academy in Augusta, after which he came to Savannah, at the age of eighteen. He studied law but relinquished it upon his marriage and became a planter. He served in the Legislature which passed the Yazoo act, but opposed the bill; was a member of the Conven- tion which framed the Constitution of 1798; and, during the same year, took his seat in the sixth Congress of the United States. He died while occupying the latter office. on January 12, 1801, and was buried in the Congressional Cemetery, in Washington, D. C., where he rests beside his personal and political friend, General James Jackson. -
Clinton. Clinton was a town of some importance long before Macon was founded and for a number of years thereafter. It was first called Albany. Hugh M. Comer, Thomas White, John Cook, and William Hol- ton were among the earliest judges of the inferior court. The little town was famous throughout the land for the cotton gins which were here manufactured. Samuel Griswold and Daniel Pratt, two ingenius and wide-awake
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pioneers, came to Clinton from the State of Connecticut when the county was first opened and in a modest way began to build cotton gins. The plant grew, and agents were soon distributed throughout the Southern States. Great wagon loads of cotton gins were sent out from Clinton long before the first railroad was ever built in Georgia. It is estimated that something over 900 cotton gins were sold annually by this establishment. Mr. Pratt afterwards removed to Alabama, where he founded the town of Prattville, while Mr. Griswold, remaining in Georgia, established the town of Griswoldville, on the Central Railroad. The iron works at Griswoldville were so completely destroyed by the Federal troops during the Civil War that they were never afterwards rebuilt.
Revolutionary John Lamar, Esq., a soldier of the war Soldiers. for independence and a man of some note in his day, died in Jones. The following record of Mr. Lamar has been preserved in Historical Collections of Georgia. Says the author: "As a soldier of the Revolution he was not only brave to a fault but his services were of long duration and his sufferings excessive. Very shortly after entering the army, he was deputed with others to the performance of a perilous duty, in which he was deserted by his companions and left to execute the order alone, which he did to the admi- ration and astonishment of all. For this act of intrepid- ity and fidelity, the government tendered him a Lieuten- ant's commission in the regular forces which, however, he modestly declined, on the ground that he was too young and inexperienced to assume the responsibilities of the station, being at this time only in his seventeenth year. He served under Generals Marion and Pickens, attached generally to the battalions of the latter; was at the battle of Eutaw and Cowpens, at the siege of Au- gusta, and in several other engagements; was once taken
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
a prisoner but made his escape from the camp of Lord Cornwallis, rescuing at the same time one of his cousins ; and was twice wounded during the war by the British, and once by the Indians after his removal to Georgia."
Another veteran of the Revolution was Benjamin Reynolds. He died in Jones at the age of 73. Says White: "He was a native of Caroline County, Va. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, he was too young to enter the service. As soon as his age would admit, however, he took up arms. After the war he removed to South Carolina, settling in a neighborhood whose residents were distinguished for loyalty to the British Crown. Mr. Reynolds, from his zealous devotion to the cause of liberty, encountered the most violent per- secution from his misguided associates. After the open- ing of Middle Georgia to settlement he became one of the earliest pioneers of Jones."
Oliver H. Morton, a soldier of the Revolution, came from North Carolina to Georgia in 1807 and settled in Jones. He was a native of Boston. During the struggle for independence he was carried a prisoner to England. He followed the sea for twenty-eight years.
John Lowe and Alexander Dunn, both patriots of the Revolution, were early settlers of Jones. The latter afterwards removed to Alabama.
In a private burial ground of the Comer family, five miles west of Clinton, is the grave of James Comer, a patriot of seventy-six. Mr. Comer died at the age of 108 years. His last resting place has been substantially marked.
At the first session of the Superior Court which was held in 1808 the following Grand Jurors were empanelled : John Bond, Daniel Hightower, James Jones, John Mitch- ell, George Ross, Stephen Gafford, William Caldwell, Elkannah Sawyer, Nicholas Ferrell, William Mong, Samuel Caldwell, Peter Sanders, Philip Catchings,
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JONES
Ephraim Ellis, Elijah Turner, Seymour Catchings, Thomas Seals, Zachariah Booth, Jacob Dennis, Ebenezer Moses, John Harvey, William Jackson, John Bond, James McInvail, James Huddleston, Giles Driver, Charles Gat- chet, William Perry, Jesse McPope, John Cooke, Green Winne, Thomas Stephens, and William Carr.
The Famous Bunkley Trial.
Volume II.
According to Dr. George G. Smith, deeds to property in Jones were executed, prior to 1818, by thirty-one women, only one of whom could write.
Original Settlers. As given by White, the original set- tlers of Jones were: Captain Jonathan Parish, Peter Clower, Henry Low, William Williams, Wilkins Jackson, Jeremiah Dumas, Thomas White, Jere- miah Pearson, Major Humphries, James Comer, Hugh Comer, Roger McCarty, Allen Greene, Benjamin Tarver, Bailey Stewart, James Anthony, George Harper, John Chapell, Jesse M. Pope, Henry Pope, John Bayne, Ste- phen Kirk, William Carbanus, P. A. Lewis, James Jones, William Jones, Robert Hutchins, and James Gray.
To the foregoing list may be added : Thomas Blount, William Brown, J. C. Freeman, Robert McGough, George Cabaniss, John Cabaniss, Henry Cabaniss, Ephraim Sanders, Elisha Tarver, Robert Ousley, Isaac Moreland, James White, Samuel Griswold, Daniel Pratt, and others. The Bunkleys were also among the first settlers, and at a period somewhat later came the Winships-Joseph and Isaac.
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