USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 52
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Noted Residents of United States Senator Alfred Iver- Jones. son was at one time a resident of Jones, in which county lis distin- guished son, Alfred Iverson, Jr., was born. Both of the Iversons were Confederate Brigadier-Generals.
Henry G. Lamar, a noted ante-bellum Congressman and jurist, lived for many years at Clinton. He was a candidate for Governor in 1857, at which time a dead- lock in the convention resulted in the choice of Joseph E. Brown. The latter afterwards appointed him to the Supreme Bench. Judge Lamar was a member of Con- gress from 1829 to 1833. His father was John Lamar, a soldier of the Revolution. He married a cousin of Jefferson Davis. Chief-Justice Osborne A. Lochrane married a daughter of Judge Lamar.
Here lived Jacob Martin, an eminent lawyer, who served with credit in both branches of the State Legisla- ture. But tubercular consumption claimed him for an early victim, and he died on the train between Macon and Savannah, while en route to Florida.
Judge Robert V. Hardeman, when a young man, came from Lexington to Clinton to begin the practice of law. He became one of the best equipped lawyers and one of the ablest jurists in the State but died in the prime of life in 1871. Here his distinguished son, Colonel Isaac Hardeman, of Macon, was born.
William S. C. Reid, a lawyer of brilliant prospects, lived at Clinton. His talents promised to place him in the front rank at the bar; but, disappointed in love, he neglected his practice, acquired intemperate habits, and finally died in Monroe County at the age of 37.
The late Hugh M. Comer, of Savannah, one of the great railway magnates of Georgia, was a native of Jones.
General David E. Blackshear died near Clinton, but was buried at his old home place in Laurens.
Here lived Captain H. B. Ridley, a political leader, who was quite a prominent figure in public affairs just after the war and here on his father's plantation was born
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one of the most honored Chief-Executives of the State: Governor William J. Northen.
LAURENS
Created by Legislative Act, December 10, 1807, from Washington and Wilkinson Counties. Named for a gallant officer of the Revolution, Lieu- tenant-Colonel John Laurens, of South Carolina, who fell mortally wounded near the close of the struggle, on the soil of his native State. He was a son of Hon. Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress. Dublin, the county-seat, named for the historic capital of Ireland. When organized Laurens embraced Pulaski, Bleckley, and a part of Dodge.
Historical in the spring of 1540, passed through what Traditions. The probabilities are that Hernando de Soto, is now the territory of Laurens. Says Jones, in Vol. I. History of Georgia: "Resuming his march on the 1st of April, De Soto moved along a river whose shores were thickly populated. On the fourth day he passed through the town of Altamaca, and on the tenth arrived at Ocute. If we are correct in our impression, the Spaniards were now probably in Laurens."
Sumterville : The The locality selected as a county site Forerunner of Dublin. for Laurens in 1809 was called Sum- terville. It was located in a thickly settled part of the county between Rocky and Turkey Creeks. But it did not long remain the seat of government. Says Dr. Smith : "In 1809 a part of the county was added to Pulaski. At the same time land on the opposite side of the Oconee was taken from the counties, Montgomery and Washing- ton, and added to Laurens. No public buildings had been erected at Sumterville, and when this new addition was made to the county it was decided to put the county site at a point near the river, and an Irishman who had a sawmill offered land for the public buildings, provided
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he was permitted to give the county site a name. This was agreed to, and with the remembrance of his native isle present, he called the future village Dublin." But Dublin is no longer a village. It is today one of the most enterprising towns of the middle belt, a commercial metropolis whose future growth is well assured.
Soldiers of the Eight miles north-west of Dublin, near
Revolution. Poplar Springs church, lie buried two patriots of the war for independence- Josiah Warren and Amos Love-both of them natives of North Carolina who settled in what is now Laurens when this region of country was a wilderness.
Josiah Warren was the father of three distinguished sons :
1. Kittrell Warren, a noted Baptist divine, who was in turn the father of two eminent men (1) Kittrell J. Warren, who founded the Macon News, a man of rare gifts, and (2) Dr. E. W. Warren, a celebrated Baptist preacher. The latter's son, Dr. Lewis B. Warren, is the present pastor of the Second Baptist church, of Rich- mond, Va.
2. Lott Warren, a member of the first board of trus- trees of Mercer University, a judge of both the Southern and the Southwestern Circuits, and a member of Con- gress. Judge L. D. D. Warren was his son. The latter was the father of Robert H. Warren, of Albany, Ga.
3. General Eli Warren, an officer of note in the State militia. Five daughters of General Warren married as follows: (1) James W. Lathrop, organizer and first president of the Savannah Cotton Exchange; (2) Dr. Sylvanus Landrum, a prominent Baptist divine and father of the well-known Dr. W. W. Landrum, of Louis- ville, Ky .; (3) Colonel Charles T. Goode, of Americus ; (4) Judge Walter L. Grice, of Hawkinsville, a distin- guished jurist; and (5) S. P. Goodwin, of Savannah.
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General Warren's only son was the late Josiah Love Warren, of Savannah. The latter was the father of Charles R. Warren, a prominent lawyer of Blounts- town, Fla.
Amos Love was also the progenitor of an important offspring as follows :
1. Peter E. Love, a physician, a judge of the Superior Court, and a member of Congress.
2. A daughter who married Moses Guyton. From this branch of the family came Moses Guyton, of Mariana, Fla., Judge J. G. Park, of Dawson, Olin J. Wimberly, of Macon, James Bishop, of Eastman, Charles J. Guyton, of Marietta, and the Rev. Guyton Fisher, of the South Georgia M. E. Conference.
3. A daughter who married General Eli Warren. From this branch of the family came Judge Walter L. Grice, Dr. W. W. Landrum, and others.
4. A daughter from whom sprang Hon. Walter J. Grace, Solicitor-General of the Macon Circuit, and Judge John S. Montgomery and Mrs. Fondren Mitchell, of Thomas.
Hardy Smith was also a soldier of the Revolution. He settled in Laurens soon after the county was first opened, coming from the State of North Carolina. His son, Captain Hardy Smith, was Ordinary of the county for a number of years.
Springfield : The Home of Gen. Blackshear. Volume II.
The Blackshear Family Record.
Volume II.
Governor Troup's Will.
Volume II.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
Original Settlers. Among the early settlers of Laurens, according to White, were: General Blackshear, Colonel McCormick, Jonathan Sawyer, Colo- nel Hampton, the Robinsons, and others.
To the foregoing list may be added: Moses Guyton, Amos Love, Josiah Warren, Hardy Smith, William Bush, Dennis Mclendon, and Isaac Pipkin.
Amos Love, a veteran of the war for independence, was the first clerk of the Superior Court of Laurens; and, after holding office for a number of years, he was suc- ceeded by his son-in-law, Moses Guyton. Among the descendants of the latter are Moses Guyton, of Marianna, Fla., Judge .J. G. Parks, of Dawson, the late Olin J. Wim- berly, of Macon, and the late James Bishop, of Eastman.
William Bush was a half-brother of General Black- shear. He accompanied the General when the latter emi- grated from North Carolina to Georgia. The father of General Blackshear married the widow Bush.
At the first session of the Superior Court of Laurens, held at the house of Peter Thomas, near the present town of Dublin, the following Grand Jurors were em- panelled: John Speight, Benjamin Adams, Andrew Hampton, Leonard Green, Jesse Wiggins, Benjamin Brown, Charles Stringer, Nathan Weaver, William Yar- brough, William Boykin, John Gilbert, Joseph Yarbrough, James Sartin, William McCall, Edward Hagan, John Stringer, Simon Fowler, Jesse Stephens, Henry Fulgham, Thomas Gilbert, Robert Daniel, Charles Higdon, Samuel Stanley, Samuel Sparks, Joseph Vickers, Mark May, George Tarvin, David Watson, Joseph Denson, George Martin, Gideon Mays, and Benjamin Dorsey.
Distinguished Resi- The celebrated Governor George M. dents of Laurens. Troup, one of the State's most illus- trious sons, was for years a resi- dent of Laurens. He owned two extensive plantations in
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the county- Valdosta and Vallombrosa-on the former of which he lived. Valdosta was named for a celebrated valley among the Swiss Alps. Vallombrosa was so called, after a noted retreat near the Italian city of Florence. Governor Troup was a man of large means but of some- what eccentric habits. He died while on a visit to a plan- tation owned by him in Montgomery County, on the oppo- site side of the Oconee River; and there he lies buried in the midst of a dense thicket, seven miles west of the village of Soperton, on the Macon and Dublin Railroad But the grave is substantially marked.
It is not unlikely that the ashes of the great apostle of State Rights will rest eventually in the city of Dublin
General David E. Blackshear, an officer of note in the State militia, lived like a feudal lord on his magnificent estate overlooking the Oconee River. His home was originally in the county of Washington, but when a part of this county was added to Laurens in 1809, General Blackshear by virtue of this change in the boundary line became a resident of Laurens.
Here lived for many years a noted ante-bellum Con- gressman and jurist, Peter E. Love, who was also at one time a physician. He afterwards located in Thomasville, Ga. General Eli Warren, a gallant officer in the State militia, Judge Lott Warren, a former Congressman and jurist; and other members of this celebrated Georgia family, were for years identified with Laurens. Judge Warren afterwards removed to Albany, Ga., while Gen- eral Warren settled in the county of Houston.
LEE
Created by Legislative Act, December 11, 1826, out of lands acquired from the Creeks under the last treaty of Indian Springs, in the same year. Named for Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, who, in the Continental Con- gress, at Philadelphia, on June 7, 1776, moved the independence of the Colonies. The county of Lee was formed from a part of the land acquired by the State of Georgia, in 1825, from the Creek Indians, under the treaty of Indian Springs; and when first organized it constituted one of the largest counties in the State. Leesburg, the county-seat, was also named for the
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great Virginla patriot whose historic resolution led to the immortal Declara- tion. Originally Lee embraced Quitman, Randolph, Schley, Stewart, Sumter, Terrell, and Webster, and in part Chattahoochee, Clay and Marion.
Chehaw: Whose Near the present town of Leesburg Destruction Became there was once a populous Indian An Issue of Politics. settlement, reckoned among the six most important towns of the powerful confederacy of Creeks. It was called by the Indians Che-haw or Che-raw, while another name for it was Au-muc-cul-la. The site of this old Indian town was formerly marked by an immense live-oak, which is said to have been nine feet in diameter and to have measured one hundred and twenty feet from tip to tip. The tree fell to the ground years ago but the spot on which it grew it still clearly defined by a circle of oaks which have sprung from the acorns. Under it the Indians held council-meetings.
There is also a tradition to the effect that the first session of the Superior Court in the newly created county of Lee was held under this forest giant.
Forty Indian warriors from Cheraw were in Andrew Jackson's army, and when the great soldier was en route to Florida during the Seminole War he stopped at this Indian village. Cheraw supplied the army with provis- ions. It also cared for the sick and wounded. Conse- quently when the town was wantonly and cruelly de- stroyed by a force of Georgia troops, under Captain Wright, on April 23, 1818, there followed a great revul- sion of public sentiment. The enormity of the offence was pronounced at the time to be without a parallel in the annals of war. It also gave rise to a spirited con- troversy between General Andrew Jackson and Governor William Rabun.
But the old Indian settlement has not been forgotten. The fidelity of the loyal tribe of red men who perished here has been memorialized by a handsome granite boul- der, erected on the site of the old Indian village." The
* The plot of ground on which the boulder stands was donated by the owner, Mrs. O. M. Heath.
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boulder is six feet in height by four feet in width. It is planted vertically upon a mound four feet high, and the inscription on the tablet reads as follows :
CHEHAW.
Large Indian town, home of the Chehaws. A friendly agricultural people of the Creek tribe, who aided our early settlers. They contributed men, food, and horses, to subdue the hostile Seminoles. Here Andrew Jack- son rested with his starving army and was given help in 1818, Here also, in 1818, through misunder- standing, were sacrificed seven of this tribe by Georgia troops, for which all possible amends were made. Erected in 1912 by Council of Safety Chapter, D. A. R.
At the exercises of unveiling, which occurred on June 14, 1912, Judge J. E. D. Shipp, of Americus, a distin- guished historian and scholar, delivered the address of the occasion. He was introduced to the audience by the chapter regent, Mrs. Charles A. Fricker. There was also an address by the vice-president general of the D. A. R., Mrs. William L. Peel, of Atlanta, whose father, General Philip Cook, long a resident of Lee County, was one of Georgia's most distinguished sons. Short addresses were also made by Miss Anna C. Benning, ex-State regent, and by Mrs. Joseph S. Harrison, State editor. The prayer of invocation was offered by the Rev. J. W. Stokes, of Americus, after which, in a neat introductory speech, Mrs. Peel was presented to the audience by Miss Annie May Bell. Three little children of Americus, Mary Dud- ley, Lucy Simmons, and Frank Harrold, Jr., at a given signal, unveiled the monument. The ceremonies ended with a sumptuous dinner among the trees of the forest.
Palmyra. Palmyra was the name of a once populous town on Kinchafoonee Creek, the memory of which has long since grown dim; but it boasted at one time the
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residence of a member of Congress, Hon. Lott Warren. Palmyra was five miles north of the present town of Albany; and when the latter began to rise the former commenced to decline. The well-known Davis family of Albany came from Palmyra; and here too lived the Vasons and the Hilsmans. The little building erected by Judge Vason for a law office is still standing.
Original Settlers. As given by White, the original set- tlers of Lee were: Mr. Woolbright, Dr. Mercer, John McClendon, William Spence, Joshua Clarke, J. O. Edwards, John Lawhorn, John Cook, Abra- ham, Dyson, Lewis Bond, William Janes, E. Janes, D. Janes and D. Sneed.
Likewise included among the early settlers was Wil- liam E. Gill, whose grandfather, Days Gill, fought under General John Clarke, in the Indian Wars.
Lee's Distinguished Brigadier-General Philip Cook own- Residents. ed an extensive plantation in Lee. The first service rendered to the State by this gallant Georgian was during the Seminole War, when a mere lad; and he completed his education after returning home from the field. At the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier. But such was his genius for arms that he leaped to the front by a rapid series of promotions and, on the death of Brigadier-General Doles, at Cold Harbor, succeeded the latter in command. He represented Georgia for sev- eral consecutive terms in the Congress of the United States and closed his career of great usefulness in the high office of Secretary of State. General Cook, for a number of years, practiced law at Americus, in partner- ship with Judge Crisp, afterwards Speaker of the national
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House of Representatives. He was one of the commis- sioners appointed to supervise the erection of the new State Capitol building, in Atlanta, one of the very few public buildings in America erected within the original appropriation. Something like $118.50 was turned into the State treasury unexpended, after the structure was finished. General Cook was one of the most advanced planters of his day in Georgia. His vast acres of land cultivated on strictly scientific principles furnished an object lesson to the farmers in the neighborhood, and the subsequent prosperity of this entire belt of the State may be traced to the splendid initiative of this one man.
Hon. Philip Cook, Jr., who succeeded his father as Georgia's Secretary of State, was a resident of Lee until his removal to Atlanta, in 1894.
Frank L. Stanton, perhap the most widely known of the South's present-day poets, began his literary career on a paper in Smithville, where he was then a sort of factotum. He edited the paper, gathered the news, set the type, and collected the bills. His earliest poems were produced at the printer's case. Instead of writing them out in long hand, he cast them at once into type-a most unusual method of composition. In 1890, he accepted a place on the staff of the Atlanta Constitution, after a brief tenure of service on the Rome Tribune; and here he has since remained. His poems are widely reproduced throughout the United States. He is a master of dialect, both Negro and Cracker; a droll humorist, and a gifted interpreter of the muses.
Colonel Leonidas Jordan, one of the wealthiest men of the State, owned a number of fine plantations in Lee.
LIBERTY
Created by the State Constitution of 1777, from three Parishes: St. John, St. James, and St. Andrew. Named to commemorate the patriotism of the Midway settlers who, from the passage of the Stamp Act, became the most uncompromising champions of Liberty and who, in advance of
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
the rest of the Province, took radical action by sending Dr. Lyman Hall to the Continental Congress as a delegate from the Parish of St. John. Hinesville, the county-seat, named for the distinguished Hines family, an old one in this section. When organized in 1777 Liberty embraced McIntosh and a part of Bryan.
Historic Old Midway: A Shrine of Patriotism.
Page 135.
New England in To find the historical genesis of this Georgia: A Brief Retrospect. pious community on the coast of Georgia, we must go back to the an- cestral seats, beyond the water, in England. On March 30, 1630, there gathered upon the docks of Plymouth, to embark for the New World, a band of Puritans. They came together from the neighboring counties ; and, after a day spent in worship, took passage on the Mary and John, a small vessel of 400 tons, com- manded by Captain Squeb. Entering the harbor of Nan- tucket, on the coast of Massachusetts, they settled in the tide-water region near-by, calling the place Dorchester, in honor of the old home in England from which many of them came. There were one hundred and forty mem- bers in this pioneer flock. At the expiration of five years. becoming dissatisfied, they removed to the present site of Windsor, Conn. In 1695, some of these same Puritans, migrating southward, planted a settlement on the Ashley River, in South Carolina, which they likewise called Dor- chester; and when, in 1751, the restriction upon slave labor and land tenure in Georgia were removed by the Trustees, these enterprising planters sent representatives into the adjoining Province to reconnoiter. At last they decided to locate upon the fertile bottoms of the Midway district. According to the records, the first settlers were beset on the journey by the most violent storms ever known on the Georgia coast; but they were not to be deterred. They proceeded into the interior some ten miles, and selecting a locality which seemed to meet the
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requirements, they called it Dorchester, thus memorializ- ing for the third time this prime favorite among the English towns.
On December 5, 1752, the advance guard arrived at the place of settlement, Benjamin Baker and Samuel Bacon, each accompanied by his family; but the death of Mrs. Baker, on the day following, cast a gloom of sadness over the little camp. In the spring of the next year, Parmenas Way, with his family, arrived; and dur- ing the year 1754 there came seventeen families, includ- ing the pastor's, Rev. John Osgood, and two single men, John Quarterman, Jr., and Moses Way. Those having families were : Rev. John Osgood, Richard Spencer, John Stevens, Richard Baker, Josiah Osgood, Samuel Way, John Quarterman, Sr., Sarah Mitchell, John Mitchell, Samuel Burnley, Edward Way, Edward Sumner, William Baker, John Shave, Nathaniel Way, and Benjamin An- drews. Three of these were from Pon Pon, a settlement on the lower Edisto River, viz .: Sarah Mitchell, John Mitchell, and Benjamin Andrew. In 1755, there arrived six families and two single men. The heads of families were: John Gorton, John Winn, John Lupton, Joseph Bacon, Andrew Way, Isaac Girardeau. The two single men were: Thomas Peacock, of Charleston, and Joseph Massey, of Pon Pon. Five families came in 1756, those of William Graves, John Stewart, Sr., John Stewart, Jr., John Garves, and Daniel Dunnom. The next year came the family of Richard Girardeau; and in 1758 Samuel Jeans and family, James Andrew and family, and Mrs. Lydia Saunders. Then came an interval of several years until 1771, when three families came, those of Jonathan Bacon, William Norman and Isham Andrews, making a total of thirty-eight families, in addition to five single persons.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
Besides the above named settlers, there were some from other localities; and the fact must not be overlooked that several families were established in the district before the Dorchester colonists arrived. The journal of the first General Assembly of the Province in Savannah, in 1751, shows that the community was represented by Audley Maxwell, whose family was probably the oldest one in this section of Georgia.
Vast changes have taken place since 1752; but the names of the old settlers are still preserved by descend- ants in the immediate neighborhood. The sturdy John Quarterman from whose loins have come 23 ministers of the gospel, seven foreign missionaries, and eight dis- tinguished educators, is not without witnesses in the old settlement to testify to his manifold virtues. The Ways have also replenished a large part of the earth, nor is the name likely to become extinct in Liberty for some time to come, for here it still flourishes amid the deserted fields in which other stalks have withered. Relation- ships have been greatly mixed by intermarriage between the various families. Says Dr. Stacy : "The case is very aptly put in the following couplet of names, formed, it is said, by Dr. W. P. McConnell, in 1843, a year generally known as one of exceeding scarcity and hardness, which I give both as a specimen of Liberty County wit and as an illustration of the point. Said he :
"We have Hams and Dun-hams, Bacons and Greens, Manns and Quartermans, a Plenty of Ways, but no Means. "
Dr. Abiel Holmes Among the earliest pastors of the
An Early Pastor : Midway flock was the Rev. Abiel
The Father of the Holmes, D. D., a clergyman of very New England Poet. great distinction, who was born in Woodstock, Conn., December 24, 1763, and died in Boston, Mass., June 4, 1837. He was the father of the celebrated New England poet, Dr. Oliver
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Wendell Holmes. Soon after receiving his diploma from Yale College, the elder Holmes accepted a call to the Midway church, and for six years ministered to the spiritual needs of this congregation. It was a life of manifold hardships upon which he entered; but Dr. Holmes was no ordinary man. The house of worship in which he preached throughout his entire pastorate was a structure built of rough logs, occupying a floor space of 40 by 30 feet. It was in fact little better than a bush arbor, made by driving posts into the ground and filling the intermediate spaces with poles. But the congrega- tion could afford nothing better at this time, on account of the recent severe ravages of war. The labors of Dr. Holmes were most successful. On returning to New England Dr. Holmes married first a daughter of Dr. Ezra Stiles, the President of Yale College, and, after her death, a daughter of Hon. Oliver Wendell, of Cam- bridge, Mass., from which union came the illustrious author who has added such a charm to American letters. But the elder Holmes was also a man of eminent attain- ments. He occupied the pulpit of the Congregational church, at Cambridge, for a period of forty years and, besides editing the manuscripts of his father-in-law, Dr. Stiles, he published, in two volumes, his famous "An- nals", a work of monumental scholarship.
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