USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 59
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MURRAY
troops of both armies who ruthlessly levied upon it for supplies. The sway which Colonel Sam Carter exercised over his little empire was one of firmness tempered witlı gentle speech and kind treatment, and when he was borne to his grave a few years ago, in a sheltered corner of the great yard, eight of his oldest servants acted as pall- bearers for a beloved master to whom they had once been slaves and whose service they had never left. Next to Colonel Sam Carter, one of the largest slave-owners in Georgia at the outbreak of the war, was Colonel L. M. Hill, of Newnan. The young son of Mr. Colquitt Carter, therefore, since he is a grand-child of both, enjoys the distinction of having descended from two of the wealthiest slave-holders of the old regime in Georgia. Despite the marked changes which time has wrought, many of the typical phases of life in the old South still survive on the vast estate, the popular name for which is Carter's Quarters.
Original Settlers. See Cherokee, from which county Mur- ray was formed.
Farish Carter, at the time of his death, perhaps the wealthiest land-owner in the State, was the first settler of any prominence to locate in Murray, after the removal of the Cherokee Indians. He owned an extensive planta- tion at Scottsboro, some few miles to the south of Mil- ledgeville, besides large tracts of land in other localities ; and in no far-fetched sense of the phrase he was literally one of the last of the barons. So abundant were the crops gathered by Mr. Carter from his imperial acres that the expression "more than Carter had oats" became one of the proverbial saws to indicate the highest reaches of wealth in the ante-bellum days. He married a sister of Governor Charles J. McDonald. His son, Samuel Mc-
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Donald Carter, in turn, married a sister of United States Senator Walter T. Colquitt. The town of Cartersville, Ga., was named for Farish Carter.
To the list of pioneer settlers may be added: John Bryant, James McEntire, Euclid Waterhouse, James F. Edmondson, Calloway Edmondson, John Rollins, Pleas- ant McGee, Dr. Wm. Anderson, Rev. Samuel H. Henry, Rev. Joab Humphreys, Jacob Holland, Thomas Connally, W. J. Peeples, Drury Peeples, Edward Gault, John Otis, William Luffman, the Bateses, the Harrises, the Wilsons, and the Walkers.
There were several Revolutionary patriots living in Murray, who were granted Federal pensions, as follows : John Baxter, in 1834; Joseph Terry, in 1837; and Zach- ariah Cox, in 1847. John Hames, supposed to have been the oldest surviver of the struggle for independence, died in Murray County just before the Civil War, and was buried near Spring Place. On July 11, 1911, his body was exhumed and reinterred in the National Cemetery at Marietta.
MUSCOGEE
Created by Legislative Act, December 11, 1826. Named for the great Muscogee or Creek Confederacy of Indians, whose territory extended from the foot-hills of the Blue Ridge to the Florida line, and from the Savannah River on the East to the Alabama on the West. The nation was composed of numerous federated tribes, but was broadly divided into two main parts: the Cowetas, or Lower Creeks, who lived chiefly in Georgia; and the Coosas, or Upper Creeks, who lived chiefly in Alabama, around the headwaters of the Coosa River. By the treaty of Indian Springs, in 1823, the State of Georgia acquired from the Creeks an extensive area of land, to the West of the Flint, from which five large counties were at once formed: Carroll, Coweta, Lee, Muscogee, and Troup, each of which was afterwards sub- divided. Two of these, Muscogee and Coweta, were so-called to commemorate a brave race of people, the last foot-prints of whose moccasins were soon to disappear forever from the soil of Georgia. Columbus, the county-seat of Muscogee, was named for the great Italian navigator who discovered the Western Hemisphere. When organized in 1826 Muscogee embraced, either in whole or in part five counties: Harris, Chattahoochee, Marion, Talbot and Taylor.
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Origin of the It was the commonly accepted belief
Muscogees. among the Muscogee. or Creek Indians that the original home seat of this power- ful family of red men was among the mountains of ancient Mexico. At any rate, when Hernando Cortez, in command of his adventurous army of Spaniards, landed at Vera Cruz, in 1519, and pressed toward the interior of the country, he found the Muscogees forming an inde- pendent republic to the north of the Aztec capital. The English name of Creeks was given to them, because of the vast number of small streams which watered the new lands in which they dwelt.
Was This Locality James Mooney, an ethnologist of Visited By De Soto? international reputation, identifies the modern city of Columbus, Ga., as the "Chiaha" of the old Spanish narratives, toward which the march of De Soto, in quest of gold, was first directed. He says that the famous explorer, instead of taking the Connasauga and the Oostanaula to Rome, came down the Chattahoochee to Columbus, proceeding thence in a north-westerly direction toward the Mississ- ippi. Pickett, Meek, Jones, and Shea, hold to the former view. But Mooney's contention is based upon com- paratively recent investigations. In a work which ap- peared on the subject in 1900 he claims that his theory is confirmed by an original document, the existence of which was unknown when former researches were made .* Pro- fessor Mooney has been identified for years with the Bureau of Ethnology, in Washington, D. C., and has specialized upon the prehistoric records and remains of the Southern Indians.
* James Mooney in Myths of the Cherokee, House Document No. 118, Washington, D. C., 1900.
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According to White, Le Clerk Milfort, a highly edu- cated French gentleman, who came to America in 1775, visited the Creek nation after making a tour of the New England Colonies. He formed the acquaintance, while at Coweta Town, of the celebrated Alexander McGilli- vray, the great chief of the Muscogee Indians. Delighted with this cultured half-breed, who was a most extraordi- nary man, he determined to make his abode in the nation. He afterwards married McGillivray's sister and, in course of time, became grand chief of war, in which capacity he conducted a number of expeditions against Georgia. He also wrote, at leisure moments, while a resident of Coweta Town, an important historical treatise on the Creeks, which he afterwards published in France. Pickett, in his excellent history of Alabama and Georgia, has translated from this work an interesting account of the Muscogee Indians.
Coweta Town: The Story of a Treaty Which Confirmed America to the Anglo-Saxons.
Page 69.
At the south end of Oglethorpe
Kenard's Ferry: Where Oglethorpe street, in the city of Columbus, Crossed the Chatta- hoochee. there stands a memorial stone, erected by Oglethorpe Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, to commemorate the famous visit to Coweta Town, of the great humanitarian and soldier. It serves also to mark the point on the Chattahoochee, at which Oglethorpe passed into Alabama. The memorial con- sists of a small white shaft of marble, set in mortar, on a brick foundation-an unpretentious affair, scarcely more than three feet in height, but it well answers the
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patriotic purposes for which it was intended. On the north side appears the following inscription :
Kenard's trail or ferry, where General Oglethorpe crossed the river and signed a famous treaty with the Indians. August 21, 1739. Erected by Oglethorpe chapter, D. A. R. 1898.
On the south side the following statement is in- scribed:
Treaty signed at Coweta Town, south-west of this point.
As early as 1895 the members of Oglethorpe chapter, under the leadership of Miss Anna C. Benning, then regent, began to make researches, the purpose of which was to locate the historic point in question. The testi- mony furnished by such authoritative historians as Pickett, McCall, Stevens, and Jones, was carefully weighed and sifted. The immediate environment was also put under microscopic examination and thoroughly investigated in the light of local tradition. It was found that the trail which crosses the stream at this point had been known from time immemorial as Kenard's trail or Kenard's ferry, so called after a noted Indian chief. Furthermore, deep ruts in the earth leading down to the river bank at this point indicated an ancient usage, dating at least two centuries back.
The committee by which the exact site was finally identified and which took the preliminary steps looking toward the marking of the spot consisted of the follow- ing members, appointed by the regent, viz: Mrs. E. P. Dismukes, Mrs. L. H. Chappell, Mrs. Jane E. Martin, Mrs. James J. Gilbert, and Miss Mary Benning. Sub- stantial assistance was also received from several prom- inent citizens of the town, among them, Mr. L. H. Chap- pell, then Mayor of Columbus and Mr. John T. Norman both of whom are entitled to special mention. The memorial was erected in 1898 but the coping was not added until 1900.
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Fort Mitchell. On the site of Coweta Town there was erected in 1813, under the personal super- vision of General John Floyd, an earth-work, which he called Fort Mitchell, in honor of the chief-magistrate, Governor David B. Mitchell, who was then in office. At the outbreak of the second war with England, the Creek Indians, who had been allies of the British, in the first war for independence, arose on the frontier; and it was for the purpose of reducing these tribes to submission that General Floyd, at the head of the State militia, was dispatched to the border. On reaching the great bend in the Chattahoochee, subsequently called Woolfork's Bend, he erected Fort Mitchell, on the Alabama side of the river, to fortify this strategic point, which task having been accomplished he plunged into the deep interior of the wilderness.
Columbus Founded : It is not a matter of surprise that a 1827. site which furnished a rendezvous for the great Muscogee Confeder- acy of Indians and which, for a long period, was the chief town of a vast wilderness empire, should, in after years, become an important center of industry in the white man's web of civilization. There was not an In- dian in the Southern forest who-at least in the lore of the council-fires-was not familiar with the great bend in the Chattahoochee River, a land-mark whose peculiar conformation gave rise to a number of legends. The rapids in the stream, at this point, known as Coweta Falls, not only mark the head of navigation on the Chat- tahoochee River, to which point sea-faring vessels can safely come from the Gulf of Mexico-three hundred and sixty miles distant-but they possess an energy for manu- facturing purposes which, expressed in terms of hydro- electric power, can turn the wheels of countless factories and furnish light and warmth to unnumbered homes. The quick-witted Anglo-Saxon was not slow to grasp the pos-
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sibilities of a locality which possessed such unusual strategic advantages; and no sooner was it relinquished by the Creeks, in the famous treaty at Indian Springs, than it was seized and occupied by the whites, who, at once, began to erect great mills and to build, upon solid foundations, "The Lowell of the South."
Columbus-the modern successor of old Coweta Town -is already an important depot; but when the Panama Canal is opened the world may expect to see a metropolis in this quarter. On December 24, 1827, an act of the Legislature was signed by Governor Forsyth, the eventual outcome of which was the establishment, near Coweta Falls, on the Chattahoochee River, of the present city of Columbus. It was not an act of incorporation but an act to lay out a trading post at this point, on lands reserved for the use of the State, to name the same, and to dispose of lots at public sale, or otherwise. Under the terms of this bill, an area of ground, containing 1,200 acres was set apart for town purposes, inclusive of the commons. There were five hundred residence lots of an acre each in the scheme of subdivision besides a square of ten acres for public buildings; and to the proposed new town was given the name of Columbus, in honor of the Genoese navigator.
The commission appointed to execute this trust con- sisted of the following members: Ignatius A. Few, Elias Beall, Philip H. Jones, James Hallam, and E. L. De- Graffenreid. At the time of the original survey, this particular site formed part of an almost unbroken low- land forest, in which the undergrowth in places resembled an Indian jungle, while in others there were great ponds of water in which fish of large size were to be caught. Where some of the handsome sky-scrapers of Columbus now stand it is said that there were formerly swamps and marshes. But the submerged area lay chiefly to the south of what is now Oglethorpe street; and between this
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thoroughfare and the river the land was comparatively high and well shaded with luxuriant oaks and hickories. When the first town lots were offered to purchasers, in the year following, Governor Forsyth himself attended the sale and camped out-of-doors, in a beautiful grove, not far from where the present docks are located; and here, at one of the numerous bold springs which have long ago ceased to flow, he quenched his thirst.
With the very earliest of the pioneer settlers of Col- umbus came Mirabeau B. Lamar, who, in 1828, estab- lished the Columbus Enquirer. But the brilliant young editor did not long continue at the helm. Losing his beautiful bride of a few months, the heart-broken hus- band left Georgia in the early thirties for Texas, where plunging into the struggle for independence, he attained to the rank of Major-General and became the second President of the new republic. It may be questioned if any newspaper in Georgia was ever identified in owner- ship with the names of men more gifted than the paper which Mr. Lamar founded. The list of his successors in the editorial sanctum includes James N. Bethune, Henry W. Hilliard, Wiley Williams, Thomas Ragland, Samuel W. Flournoy, G. A. Miller, John H. Martin, B. H. Rich- ardson, and C. I. Groover-all of them men of strength. Mr. Hilliard was long a member of Congress from Alabama, a minister of the gospel, and an orator who competed for the laurels of eloquence with the great William L. Yancey.
Colonel Ulysses Lewis, a man of whose sturdy charac- ter the early records speak in high terms was the first mayor of Columbus, an office to which he was elected when the town was incorporated in the fall of 1829. He afterwards removed to Russell County, Ala., where he died.
The first steamboat came to Columbus in the spring of 1828. After making some needed repairs, it started one
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Sunday morning upon an excursion trip down the river, with a large percentage of the town people on board. Woolfork's Mound-the objective point-was safely reached; but, when the prow of the vessel was turned toward Columbus, on the return trip, the Captain encoun- tered stubborn difficulties in raising steam enough to stem the swift current. The consequence was that a number of the excursionists were forced to make the journey back home on foot, while it was not until the next morning that the boat finally dipped anchor at the docks.
The first bridge over the Chattahoochee River was built in 1833 by John Godwin. By way of assisting this pioneer enterprise of construction the State of Georgia advanced to the town of Columbus, the sum of $16,000.
Education was also fostered. As early as 1828 the Muscogee academy was incorporated. Other splendid schools followed. Lots were donated this year to various religious denominations, including the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, the Baptists, and Catholics. The Bank of Columbus was chartered in 1829 and the Farmer's Bank in 1831. Following the Indian troubles several years later specie payment was sus- pended; but the march of prosperity was soon resumed. The development of railways tended to divert the export trade in cotton from Apalachicola to Savannah; but the erection of cotton mills, the first of which arose in 1844, speedily overcame this handicap.
On Monday, January 23, 1832, occurred the first affair of honor. Both of the principals were prominent citizens of Columbus-General Sowell Woolfolk, a State Senator, and Major Joseph T. Camp, a talented young member of the bar. The duel was fought on the Alabama side of the river, at Fort Mitchell, with fatal results to General Woolfolk, who received a wound in the breast from which
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
he expired in a few seconds. Major Camp was also pain- fully wounded in the abdomen. The cause of the hostile meeting was an old personal feud. As a tragic sequel to this encounter, Major Camp was shot and killed on the streets of Columbus, on August 14, 1833, by Colonel John Milton, the tragedy growing out of the hot blood incident to the turbulent era of politics when Clark and Troup divided the State into hostile factions.
During the Creek Indian War of 1836 Columbus be- came the storm-center of operations, due to the prox- imity of the tribes on the opposite side of the Chatta- hoochee River. Multitudes from the nearby cabins in the wilderness fled hither for protection. The town soon began to bristle with bayonets and to swarm with gay and brilliant uniforms. General Winfield Scott, the Commander-in-Chief of the United States army established headquarters here. The people of the town also became familiar at this time with the tall mili- tary figure of General Jessup, who remained in charge for some time after his superior officer left. Colonel John H. Howard, of Columbus, who afterwards built the first cotton mill, bore an important part in the hostilities of this period, at the head of State troops. There were numerous engagements in the immediate neighborhood to which Columbus contributed her quota of soldiers. The times were filled with alarms. But, in the end, the Indians were suppressed; and, when peace was restored, Columbus began to reap substantial profit from the ex- ploitation which her splendid local advantages received during the campaign.
Original Settlers. To the "History of Columbus,"* compiled by John H. Martin, from the local newspaper files, we are indebted for the following
* History of Columbus, Ga., 1827-1865, compiled by John H. Martin, Columbus, Ga., 1874. Thomas Gilbert, the publisher of this work was an Englishman to whose wise forethought and timely initiative the State of Georgia is indebted for the publication of this work.
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list of pioneer settlers who came to Columbus, during the first decade after the settlement of the town, viz .: General Mirabeau B. Lamar, Judge Walter T. Colquitt, Colonel Nicholas Howard, Colonel Ulysses Lewis, Edward Lloyd Thomas, A. S. Rutherford, John Fontaine, Hon. Henry W. Hilliard, Wm. J. W. Wellborn, Forbes Bradley, Colonel John Milton, Dr. Thomas W. Grimes, Colonel John H. Howard, Dr. S. M. Ingersoll, Lambert Spencer, the father of the late president of the Southern Railway ; John Beall Dozier, whose daughter Virginia married Hon. William A. Little; James W. Fannin, Jr., Hon. Alfred Iverson, Rev. Ignatius A. Few, Rev. Jesse Boring, Rev. Thomas Goulding, General Daniel McDougald, president of the Insurance Bank, who killed Colonel Bur- ton Hepburn, in self-defence, as the result of a business quarrel; Louis T. Woodruff, who operated a line of steamboats between Columbus and Apalachicola ; George W. Woodruff, who owned the empire flour mills; Colonel Nimrod W. Long, Joel Hurt, the father of the well-known civil engineer and man of capital who bears the paternal name; Judge Eli S. Shorter; James S. Moore, John Manley Flournoy, Samuel W. Flournoy, Judge Grigsby E. Thomas, General James N. Bethune, Julius C. Alford, Jonathan A. Hudson, Philo D. Wood- ruff, J. T. Kilgore, Charles A. Peabody, Dr. E. L. De- Graffenreid, Thomas G. Gordon, Samuel T. Bailey, Dr. H. C. Phelps, Dr. Fitzgerald Bird, Joel B. Scott, General Sowell Woolfolk, R. T. Woolfolk, Elisha Avery, S. R. Andrews, Thomas W. Cox, L. J. Davies, Andrew Harvill, Dr. H. A. Thornton, John Taylor, Nathaniel P. Bird, Major Joseph T. Camp, A. R. Mershon, Asa Bates, T. H. Ball, Moses M. Butt, R. T. Marks, John R. Page, Major A. F. Moore, H. R. Taylor, David Dean, William Mullaly, E. L. Lucas, W. D. Lucas, David W. Upton, G. B. Lucas, J. R. Lyons, E. Jewett, B. Tarver, A. L. Watkins, Neill McNorton, J. P. Jackson, Thomas Davis, A. Y. Gresham, Dr. J. W. Malone, Dr. A. S. Clifton, Lewis Allen, T. T. Gammage, M. R. Evans, James Hitchcock, Willis P. Baker
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G. W. Dillard, John McClusky, George W. Elliott, W. H. Alston, Harvey Hall, J. B. Kennedy, Lemuel Merrill, Allen Lawhon, James H. Shorter, Dr. John J. Wilson, James C. Watson Rev. John W. Baker, James K. Redd, John Hicks Bass, Thomas J. Bates, Joseph Biggers, a soldier of the Revolution, who came from South Carolina John Godwin, Samuel T. Hatcher and Dr. Thomas Hoxey.
In the fall of 1828, Judge Walter T. Colquitt, held at Columbus the first session of the Superior Court. Andrew B. Griffin was the first clerk and the following citizens were sworn as Grand Jurors: E. E. Bissell, foreman ; John R. Page, Samuel B. Head, E. B. Lucas, Stoddard Russell, Robert Daniel, Robert Henry, Benjamin Tarver. Thomas Rogers, Samuel E. Buckler, Thomas Lang, Joseph White, Henry Triplett, Samuel Koockogy, Thomas Cox, Thomas Sluck, and Jonathan A. Hudson.
Micajah Bennett, a Sergeant in the Revolution ranks, was granted a Federal Pension in 1843, while a resident of Muscogee.
Two patriots of '76, George Wells Foster and James Allen, are buried at Linnwood. The graves of both heroes are marked by neat head-stones. Dr. Lovick Pierce, the distinguished Nestor of Georgia Methodism, married a daughter of the first named patriot.
Muscogee in the At the outbreak of hostilities with Mexican War. Mexico, there were hundreds of volun- teers in Columbus who were eager to enlist. The martial spirit of the community was aroused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. General Mirabeau B. Lamar, the second President of the Republic of Texas, next to Sam Houston the foremost soldier of the war for Independence, was formerly a resident of Columbus. His sister, Mrs. Absalom H. Chappell, was still living there;
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and these considerations augmented the general appeal to patriotism. The result was the equipment of three companies for the front. No other town in the State furnished more than one, a statement which shows the extent to which the heart of the populace in Columbus was fired. The companies were attached to the Georgia Regiment of Volunteers, in command of Colonel Henry R. Jackson, of Savannah. They were organized as fol- lows:
Georgia Light Infantry-Captain, J. S. Calhoun; 1st. Lieut., E. R. Goulding; 2nd. Lieut., H. C. Anderson ; Ser- geants, W. B. Phillips, Asa B. Hoxie, W. T. Smith, and M. H. Blanford; Corporals, R. R. Howard, A. Scott, Thomas Reynolds, and George Lindsay. 91 members enrolled.
Columbus Guards-Captain, John E. Davis; 1st. Lieut., John Forsyth; 2nd. Lieut., C. P. Hervey; Ser- geants, R. Ellis, J. King, W. C. Holt, and W. C. Hodges; Corporals, W. G. Andrews, V. D. Thrope, James Hamil- ton, and R. A. McGibony. 87 members enrolled.
Crawford Guards-Captain, John Jones; 1st. Lieut., R. G. Mitchell; 2nd. Lieut., J. S. Dismukes ; Sergeants, T. Schoonmaker, H. S. Tisdale, A. M. Sauls, and D. A. Winn; Corporals, John May, John Loachaby, James B. Wells, and N. J. Peabody. 83 members enrolled.
The city of Columbus also furnished three officers to the Regiment: Thomas Y. Redd was Lieutenant-Colonel, Charles J. Williams was Major, and John Forsyth was Adjutant. The Muscogee troops were in the very thick of the fighting. They participated in most of the famous battles and returned to Georgia crowned with victorious laurels.
St. Elmo : Its Memo- ries of Augusta Evans Wilson. Page 234.
Torch Hill: The Home of Dr. F. O. Ticknor.
Page 231.
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Girard: Where the Last Battle of the War, East of the Mississippi, Was Fought. Volume II.
The Killing of Ashburn: An Episode of Recon- struction. Volume 1I.
The Birth-Place of Memorial Day.
Volume II.
Since April 26, 1866, when the graves of the Confed- erate soldiers were decorated for the first time, with formal ceremonies, the following well-known public speakers have been the Memorial Day orators in Colum- bus, the birth-place of a custom which has since become universal, in honoring not only the Confederate but also the Federal dead :
Colonel J. N. Ramsey, 1866; Dr. E. F. Colzey, 1867;
Major Raphael J. Moses, 1868;
Judge Joseph F. Pou, 1869; Thomas W. Grimes, 1870; C. H. Williams, 1871; Judge Wm. A. Little, 1872; Capt. J. J. Slade, 1873; Ex-Mayor Sam Cleghorn, 1874; Col. Thos. Hardeman, Jr., 1875; Henry W. Hilliard, 1876; Capt. J. R. Mcclesky, 1877;
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