USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 56
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Fort Barrington. On the banks of the Altamaha River, twelve miles north-west of the present town of Darien, there stood another stronghold whose origin dates back to the earliest Colonial times. It was built as a defense against the Spaniards and Indians and was called Fort Barrington, in honor of a friend and kinsman of Oglethorpe-Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah Bar- rington. This gentleman, a scion of the English nobility, was a large land-owner in Georgia, whose home was just east of Barrington ferry, on San Savilla Bluff. His wife, who was Sarah Williams, belonged to quite a noted fam- ily of Welsh extraction, which is said to have possessed the same ancestry as the royal Tudors and to have claim- ed kinship with Oliver Cromwell. During the Revolu- tion, Fort Barrington,-renamed Fort Howe-fell into the hands of the British. It long ago ceased to exist ; but the old military road which formerly ran between Savannah and Fort Barrington is still known as the old Barrington road.
"Altamaha," according to Colonel Absolom H. Chap- pell, is derived from the Spanish expression "alta-mia," signifying a deep-earthen plate or dish. The name may have been suggested by the character of the lower end of the river, perhaps the only part which the Spaniards saw before the christening and which looked to them like a dish kept full to the brim by tidal impulses from the sea rather than by hidden sources of supply from an un- known interior. Oliver Goldsmith's famous picture of the region where the "Wild Altama" murmured to the woe of the settlers was probably drawn from some exag- gerated account. It runs thus :
"Those matted woods where birds forget to sing But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling Those poisonous fields with rank luxuriance crowned Where the dark scorpion gathers death around Where at each step the stranger fears to wake The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake; Where crouching tigers wait for hapless prey And savage men more murderous still than they While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies
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Mingling the ravished landscape with the skies. Far different those from every former scene,
The cooling brook, the grassy vested green,
The breezy covert of the warbling grove
That only sheltered thefts of harmless love."*
Original Settlers. From an old document, dated January 12, 1775, the names of quite a number of the early settlers of McIntosh may be obtained. It contains a most emphatic protest against the treatment of the New England Puritans by Great Britain. The names attached to the protest are as follows: Lachlan McIntosh, George Threadcraft, Charles McDonald, John McIntosh, Raymond Demare, Jiles Moore, Samuel Mc- Clelland, Richard Cooper, Seth Mccullough, Isaac Hall, Thomas King, John Roland, P. Shuttleworth, Joseph Slobe, James Newson, A. D. Cuthbert, John Hall, John McCollough, Sir., Peter Sallers, Jr., James Clark, John Witherspoon, Jr., John Fulton, Samuel Fulton, Isaac Cuthbert, John Mccullough, Jr., William Mccullough, R. Shuttleworth, John Witherspoon, Sr., and John McClel- land.
Notwithstanding the malarial character of the climate in the alluvial bottoms of McIntosh, the instances of longevity among the early settlers were numerous. Mrs. Susannah Ford died in this county at the age of 113 years; John Grant, a soldier under Oglethorpe, was nearly 90 at his death. George White was 81 and John Calder 77. Both of these were soldiers of the Revolution. Mrs. Ann McIntosh, died on Tuesday, October 22, 1833, at Cedar Point, aged 100 years. She was born at Darien, soon after the arrival of her parents, who came with Oglethorpe; and within ten miles of her birthplace she spent the entire period of her life.
* Lines from The Deserted Village. Goldsmith here describes the lot of the unhappy Englishmen who were forced by conditions at home to brave the wilderness perils of an unknown world. The poet moved in the same little coterie of congenial spirits with Oglethorpe, the founder of the Colony of Georgia, but his description of the region was certainly not obtained from the great philanthropist himself. He probably caught the name of the river from casual conversation with Oglethorpe and then with poetic license proceeded to draw upon his imagination for the rest.
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Distinguished Resi- The seat of the famous Highland dents of McIntosh. clan for which this county was named was at Darien. Here lived for many years the illustrious General Lachlan McIntosh, perhaps the foremost officer in the Continental Army from Georgia. As the result of a duel with Button Gwin- nett in which the latter was killed, Gen. McIntosh was transferred to a remote field of operations but returned to Georgia in time to assist in the siege of Savannah. He was a distinguished member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Col. John McIntosh, a nephew, who, for his gallant defense of Fort Sunbury, was awarded a sword by the State of Georgia, was born at Darien. Maria J. McIntosh one of the earliest of American novelists, be- longed to this Georgia clan and first saw the light of day at Darien. Here also Col. James S. McIntosh, of Mexican War fame, and Commodore James McKay McIntosh an officer in the American Navy, were born. Thomas Spalding, a distinguished Georgian for whom Spalding County was named, though a native of St. Simons Island, was connected with the McIntosh clan through his mother. He died at Darien in 1851 while on a visit to his son. United States Senator Charles Spalding Thomas of Colorado, a former Governor of the Centennial State. was born at Darien. In early boyhood he removed to Michigan, where he was educated at the State University, after which he located in Denver, Col., for the practice of law and began a career of public service which was des- tined to crown him with the highest civic honors.
MACON
Created by Legislative Act, December 14, 1837, from parts of four Counties: Dooly, Houston, Lee and Muscogee. Named for Hon. Nathanlel Macon, of North Carolina, a noted statesman of the early national period. Oglethorpe, the county-seat, named for the illustrious founder of the Colony of Georgia.
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Lanier : A Dead Included today among the dead towns Town. of Georgia is the little village which originally furnished the county seat of Macon County ; the little village of Lanier. The name is no longer to be found upon the map. Concerning it there is little today known beyond the fact that it was named for Clement Lanier. The first court was held at the home of Walter L. Campbell, Judge King presiding.
Birthplace of the On the plantation of Mr. Samuel B. Famous Elberta. Rumph, near the town of Marshall- ville, the most celebrated peach in the world's market was first produced; the famous Elberta. In easy sight of the veranda of his home, there are said to be at the present time more than 80,000 peach trees. Beginning, in a modest way, the cultivation of this far-famed product of the orchard, Mr. Rumph has shipped in one season over 500 carloads. It is due largely to the initial activities of this pioneer fruit-grower that Georgia is today the largest peach-growing State in the Union .*
Original Settlers. White gives the original settlers of Macon as follows: William H. Hol- lingshead, W. N. L. Croker, Needham Mussey, James M. Taylor, William Cole, George V. Whitefield, Jacob Dunn, Samuel Williams, David Jones, Phillip Bailey, Robert Peacock, R. Sellers, John Stapler, William McDowell, Edward Brooks, Walter L. Campbell, John Rushkn, Rob- ert Brooks, John Mott, Henry Turner, John Young, Wil- liam Measles, John Perry, A. Branham, E. Adams, Jesse Rouse, John Monk, Robert Greene, D. Wadley, M. Wad-
* Georgia Historical and Industrial 1900-1901, Issued by the Department of Agriculture. p. 748, Atlanta, 1901.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
ley, D. Mitchell, Thomas Bivins, George Buchanan, James Kaigler, William Underwood, N. Powell, R. Snelling, L. Thrower, S. Hill, Joshua Newsome, William Tompkins, D. Owens, R. Stewart, and M. Kemp.
To the foregoing list may be added John T. Brown, who founded the town of Montezuma; S. S. Boone, who built the first house in Oglethorpe; Clement Lanier, for whom the old original county-seat of Macon was named; Major John Young and others.
Men of Note. Ex-Congressman Elijah B. Lewis, one of Georgia's most useful public men, a dis- tinguished financier and a practical man of affairs, is a resident of Montezuma. Judge William H. Felton, of Bibb, a jurist of note, was born near Marshallville. Here, too lived Colonel Leroy M. Felton, his father, and Colonel William H. Felton, his uncle, both planters of large means. It is a coincidence of some note, in the politics of the State that, during one of the Legislative sessions, in the late eighties, there were three members of the house bearing the same name-William H. Felton. The trio included the illustrious old statesman from Bar- tow.
MADISON
Created by Legislative Act, December 11, 1811, from parts of five counties: Elbert, Franklin, Jackson, Oglethorpe, and Clarke. Named for James Madison, the illustrious Father of the Constitution and the fourth President of the United States. Danielsville, the county-seat, named for General Allen Daniel, an officer of the State militia, who held the rank of Captain in the War of the Revolution.
Where the First According to Dr. George G. Smith, it
Methodist Confer- was at the residence of James Marks, ence Was Held. in one of the forks of the Broad River, supposed to be included within the present limits of Madison County, that the first Methi-
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odist Conference in Georgia was held. The Presby- terians were also quite numerous in Madison when the county was first organized and New Hope church is probably the third oldest church in the Synod of Georgia, dating back to 1788.
One of the most popular resorts in the State for the families of wealthy planters, during the ante-bellum period, was Madison Springs; but the building of rail- roads brought other localities into more convenient access, and gradually the prestige of the famous watering place began to wane.
Madison in the Two miles and a half from Hull there Revolution. is buried a patriot of seventy-six : Cap- tain James Pittman. The grave is unmarked but is well-known in the neighborhood. He served under "Light Horse Harry" Lee for some time and was also with the expedition to the Floridas under Colonel Elijah Clarke. He enlisted when only twenty years old and served throughout the entire struggle. He was afterwards a Captain in the State militia. His com- mission, signed by Governor Jared Irwin, is today the property of one of his descendants, Mrs. C. K. Hender- son, of Lafayette, Ga. Captain Pittman was a native of Virginia.
In the Ware burial ground, a short distance from the old homestead at Danielsville, Edward Ware, a patriot of the Revolution, lies buried. The grave is marked by a plain granite stone which is uninscribed except for the simple initials "E. W." He died at Danielsville, Nov. 3, 1836. Austin Dabney, a famous mulatto patriot, the story of whose eventful career is told elsewhere, lived for a while in Madison.
Original Settlers. According to White, the original set- tlers of Madison were: Samuel Long, Jacob Eberhart, Samuel Woods, Stephen Groves, and
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General Allen Daniel, for whom the county-seat of Madi- son was named. General Daniel was a Captain in the 8th. Virginia Regiment of infantry, during the War of the Revolution. He came to Georgia at the close of hostili- ties, locating in the neighborhood of what afterwards became the town of Danielsville. He donated the land on which the county buildings were erected, helped to organize the first court, and by reason of his large inter- ests was for years one of the most influential men in this part of Georgia. He held a Brigadier-General's com- mission in the State militia. One of the chief-executives of Georgia, in after years, bore his name: Allen Daniel Candler.
Alexander Thompson, a Revolutionary patriot, located in 1790 near Five Forks, where he built the first mill in this part of the State.
Andrew Milligan, a soldier under Washington, came to Georgia from Virginia, some time after the conflict, locating in this section.
On the eve of the War of 1812, John Scott, a native of North Carolina, settled in the county of Madison. He left the plow to enlist in the second war with England. For a number of years he held the office of Sheriff.
Hawkins Bullock, a patriot of '76, who, at the age of sixteen, enlisted in General Greene's command, came to Georgia from North Carolina and located in this neigh- borhood.
Page White, a native of Virginia and a veteran of the first war for independence, settled here soon after the Revolution, with his son, Stephen H. White, who became a man of some prominence in public affairs. The Caruhers family is an old one in Madison.
Men of Note. Dr. Crawford W. Long, the renowned discoverer of anaesthesia, was born in the town of Danielsville. His earliest Georgia ancestor,
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Samuel Long, was one of the pioneer settlers of this part of the State. The latter was an Irish immigrant who, years before the War of the Revolution, settled at Car- lisle, Pa. He held a Captain's commission in the patriot army, under the great Lafayette; and, at the close of the war, came to Georgia along with other Pennsylvanians, of Scotch-Irish stock. James Long, his son, the father of Dr. Long, was for twenty years postmaster of the town of Danielsville. He also served in both branches of the State Legislature. Judge Willis A. Hawkins, a former occupant of the Supreme Bench of Georgia, was born in the county of Madison. Danielsville was for many years the home of Judge David W. Meadow, a distinguished legislator and jurist.
MARION
Created by Legislative Act, December 14, 1827, from Muscogee and Lee Counties. Named for the noted Swamp Fox of the Revolution: General Francis Marion, of South Carolina. Tazewell, the original name of the county-seat, changed to Buena Vista, in 1847, to commemorate the famous battle of the Mexican War.
Tazewell was the original name of the present county- seat of Marion. It was changed to Buena Vista in 1847 to commemorate the great victory won by General Zach- ary Taylor in the Mexican War, at which time, with a force of only 4,800 men, he defeated an army of 20,000 Mexicans under Santa Anna. One of the most brilliant vic- tories in American history, it gave the distinguished hero a popularity which made him President of the United States, on the old Whig ticket. An incident of the battle furnished the theme of Whittier's famous poem entitled : "The Angels of Buena Vista." It was here also that General Taylor's renowned son-in-law-Jefferson Davis -then the Colonel of a Mississippi regiment, won his military spurs.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
Original Settlers. As given by White, the original settlers of Marion were: Thomas Bivins, D. M. Burkhalter, J. Burkhalter, Morgan Kemp, Reuben Kemp, Randall Stewart, D. Owens, and R. Sellers.
To the foregoing list of early settlers may be added : G. W. C. Munro, a descendant, on his mother's side, of a surgeon in the French army who came to America with the famous Count D'Estaing. The list should also include : John Sims, Henry Jossey, George L. Smith, Benjamin A. Story, and Judge E. A. Miller.
MERIWETHER
Created by Legislative Act, December 14, 1827, from Troup County. Named for General David Meriwether, a distinguished officer of the State militia, frequently employed by the Federal government in treaty negotia- tions with the Indians. Greeneville, the county-seat, named for General Nathanael Greene, of the Revolution.
David Meriwether came of an old Virginia family, connected by marriage with the Washingtons and the Lewises. In the operations around Savannah, in 1781, he distinguished himself for gallantry as a young lieuten- ant in a company of Virginians; but prior to this time he had witnessed service under Washington at Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth. Settling in Wilkes County, in 1785, he became one of the trustees of the local acad- emy; and, some few years later, when the building was finished, he urged the Senatus Academicus to locate the State University, at Washington, Ga., but without suc- cess. He gave the land on which the first Methodist school in Georgia was located, near Coke's Chapel in Wilkes, and here Jesse Mercer, John Forsyth, and Wil- liam H. Crawford were enrolled as pupils. Daniel Grant, one of his near-by neighbors, was perhaps the first man in the State, from conscientious motives, to free his slaves; and, while a member of the Legislature, General Meriwether caused the enactment of a measure, legaliz- ing the terms of Daniel Grant's will. From 1802 to 1807,
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MERIWETHER
General Meriwether was a member of Congress. He was also employed to represent the Federal Government from time to time in treaty negotiations with the Indians, and became a Brigadier-General in the State militia, under appointment from Governor Irwin. On retiring from public life he settled upon a plantation near Athens, where the remainder of his days were spent. Due chiefly to the influence of the Rev. Hope Hull, he became an ardent Methodist. General Meriwether died at his home, near Athens, where he sleeps in an unmarked grave. His son, James Meriwether, became a member of Congress and was one of the commissioners to negotiate the treaty of 1825 at Indian Springs, by which instrument the re- mainder of the Creek lands in Georgia were ceded to the whites.
The Old Harris Near the town center of Greenville, Home. stands a fine old colonial mansion which enjoys a somewhat unique distinction in the political and social history of Georgia. It was built early in the ante-bellum period by a wealthy planter who in his day was widely known throughout the State- Henry Harris. He came to Meriwether from Wilkes soon after the new county was opened to settlement, accon- panied by his family, including a son, then two years old. The latter, Henry R. Harris, became a man of note. He represented Georgia in Congress from 1872 to 1878 and from 1884 to 1886; and also held the office of Third Assistant Postmaster-General under President Cleve- land. The old pioneer, Henry Harris, was furthermore the ancestor of two distinguished chief-magistrates: Governor Luther E. Hall, of Louisiana and Governor John M. Slaton, of Georgia. The latter descends through his daughter, Nancy, who married a Martin; the former through his daughter, Elizabeth. The handsome old home sits well back from the highway, embowered in the shade of a beautiful grove of trees. During the opulent
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
days of the old regime, it was the scene of many brilliant fetes, nor has the hospitality dispensed in the Harris home since the war been lacking in the fragrant sugges- tions of an earlier time. Here four generations of the family have lived; and one of the fine old heir-looms of the mansion is an oil painting of the noted old pioneer, which bears no fanciful or far-fetched resemblance to his great-grandson, Governor Slaton. The origin of the Harris family of Georgia is said to ante-date the period of the Norman conquest.
The Old Warner There clusters around the picturesque Home. old home of the late Chief-Justice Hiram Warner, in the town of Green- ville, a wealth of historic associations. It was not until his elevation to the bench of the Coweta Circuit that the noted jurist became a resident of Greenville but here the remainder of his long career of public life in Georgia was spent-a period of nearly fifty years.
Judge Warner's Nar- row Escape: An Episode of Wilson's Raid. Volume II.
Warm Springs. Situated on a spur of Pine Mountain, some eight miles to the south-west of Greenville, are the famous Warm Springs. These noted thermal waters maintain a uniform temperature of 90 degrees and a constant supply of 1,400 gallons per minute. Colonel Absalom H. Chappell, in his "Miscellanies of Georgia", thus extols them. Says he: "Had such waters been found in any of the mountains around ancient Rome, marble aqueducts would have conveyed them to imperial palaces and marble bathing apartments would have wel- comed them as they came gushing in. No fires save of
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nature's own kindling have kept them at the same exact temperature through immemorial ages. The climate is worthy of the waters and the site worthy of both."
Original Settlers. According to White, the original set- tlers of Meriwether were: Colonel Wellborn, Marshall Martin, David Williams, Dr. Andrew Park, Abner Dunham, Freeman W. Blount, W. D. Alex- ander, William Harris, Henry Harris, Sr., Isaac Thrash, Allen Rowe, George C. Heard, William Gill, Lewis Pyrom, John P. Thompson, J. Hodnet, E. Peavy, Simion Petit, John Jones, Charles B. Harris, C. Campbell, Major Kendall, John H. Jones and E. Bradley.
To the foregoing list of pioneers may be added a number of others:
It was not long after the county was first opened to settlement that David Meriwether Terrell, a kinsman of the noted Georgian for whom this county was named, came to Meriwether from Wilkes, accompanied by his son, Dr. Joel E. G. Terrell; and here to the latter, on June 6, 1861, was born the future Governor and United States Senator-Joseph M. Terrell.
The Renders were also among the early pioneer set- tlers of Meriwether.
Dr. John F. Moreland, in whose home the celebrated Benjamin H. Hill was for several months a pupil, under the doctor's care, came into the county with the earliest immigrants.
Hope Tigner is said to have erected the first frame house ever built in Meriwether. Dr. George S. Tigner, of Atlanta, and Dr. E. A. Tigner, of Milledgeville, are num- bered among his descendants.
The list of early settlers includes also: Austin V.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
Corley, a soldier of the Revolution who came to Georgia from South Carolina, settling in Meriwether, where he died at the age of 105; William Sasser, a soldier of the war of 1812; Thomas Clark; Henry G. Clark, Cyprian Bulloch, Sr., Catlett Campbell, John L. Dixon, W. P. Norris, William Dunn, William Florence, J. C. Freeman, George Caldwell, John Slaton and Columbus Gay.
Meriwether's Distin- Greenville, the county-seat of Meri- guished Residents. wether, was for nearly half a cen- tury the home of the illustrious Chief-Justice Hiram Warner -- a name historic in Geor- gia's annals. Though a native of New England, Judge Warner cast his lot with the people of Georgia in early manhood and became thoroughly identified with them in fortune. When the Supreme Court was organized, in 1845, he was called to a seat on this august bench, in as- sociation with Joseph H. Lumpkin and Eugenius A. Nisbet, forming with them "the great judicial trium- virate of Georgia." He afterwards served the State in Congress; and resuming the ermine of the Supreme Court he became Chief-Justice, an office which he held by two separate appointments. His distinguished grandson, Judge Hiram Warner Hill, after serving the State on the Railroad Commission and in the General Assembly has been elevated to a seat on the same lofty tribunal over which his noted grandfather so long presided.
Besides having given the State a Chief-Justice, it is furthermore the distinction of Meriwether to have fur- nished three occupants to the Gubernatorial chair of Georgia. In 1853, John P. Atkinson, a native of the State of North Carolina, settled at Oakland, in the north- eastern part of the county, with a large retinue of slaves; and here the future Governor of the State, William Y. Atkinson, was born. The latter afterwards located at Newnan for the practice of law. Governor Joseph M.
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Terrell and Governor John M. Slaton were also natives of Meriwether. Governor Terrell, besides occupying the chair of Governor, served in both branches of the General Assembly and became Attorney General of the State and United States Senator. He succeeded to the toga, in 1910, by appointment of the Governor, on the death of the lamented Alexander S. Clay, but ill-health retired him from the public service before the expiration of the full term. Governor Slaton,* when still an infant, came with his parents to Atlanta, where his father, Prof. Wm. F. Slaton, was for more than a quarter of a century Sup- erintendent of the local public schools, in which office a gifted son, Prof. Wm. M. Slaton, succeeded lim. Gover- nor Slaton has served the State both as Speaker of the House and as President of the Senate. He has always been a leader; and the toga of the American Senate will doubtless be his ultimate measure of reward. Henry R. Harris a kinsman of Governor Slaton occupied a seat in Congress for eight years ; and, under President Cleveland held the office of Third Assistant Postmaster General of the United States.
Wm. T. Revill: A One of the most distinguished edu- Noted Educator.
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