USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 66
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Brothersville was the name given to the settlement for the reason that three sons of Elisha Anderson became so prominent in local affairs that for years there was not a progressive movement which did not relate itself in some way to these three brothers. They were James, Elisha, Jr., and Augustus. Among the later day resi- dents of the old town may be included, William E. Barnes, Judge John W. Carswell, Dr. Samuel B. Clark, Colonel Edmund B. Gresham, Henry D. Greenwood, Seaborn Augustus Jones, Rev. J. H. T. Kilpatrick, Robert Malone, John D. Mongin, Alexander Murphey, James Madson Reynolds, William Evans, Moses P. Green, and Absalom W. Rhodes.
During the ante-bellum period there was not to be found in Georgia a settlement in which there was more of the typical culture of the old South. The people were not only intelligent but deeply religious. The various phases of orthodox belief were well represented among them; but in 1860 the Hepzibah Baptist Association
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established here a high school which in time superceded the local academy and became an important educational plant. Consequently, on October 24, 1870, the name of the place was changed to Hepzibah, in compliment to the re- ligious body by which the school was organized; and the career of historic old Brothersville came to an end.
Bath. Six miles to the west of Hepzibah is Bath, another old town whose origin dates back to the days be- fore the Revolution. It is located along the same old Indian trail. The place was formerly called Richmond Baths because of the springs which bubbled in this local- ity and which were supposed to possess rare medicinal virtues. It became the resort of wealthy planters, chiefly from Burke. The predominant racial type was Scotch-Irish, and the religions character of the settlement strongly Presbyterian. Among the original settlers were Amos G. Whitehead, John Berrien Whitehead, Amos McNatt, Samuel Dowse, Gideon Dowse, John Randolph Whitehead, James Whitehead, Troup Whitehead, William Whitehead, John Whitehead, John P. C. Whitehead, Wil- liam S. C. Morris, Rev. Joshua Key, Samuel Byne, Wil- liam Byne, Major Poythress, Amos W. Wiggins, Thomas Nisbet, Quintillian Skrine, Commodore Nelson, and others
Dr. Frank R. Goulding, who wrote "The Young Marooners," lived for a number of years at Bath, where he served the local Presbyterian congregation; and while residing here he invented the first sewing machine. (See Volume II).
Dr. S. K. Talmage, an uncle of the great Brooklyn divine, later the President of Oglethorpe University, was also a resident pastor. The list of distinguished ministers who have lived at Bath includes also Dr. Rufus K. Porter, who afterwards became chaplain of Cobb's Legion ; Rev. Calvin MeIver, Rev. Lawson Clinton, and Rev. Timothy
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Dwight. Mr. Clinton possessed several beautiful daugh- ters, one of whom married General Hayne, of South Caro- lina. Mr. Clark refers to him in the following paragraph. Says he: "It was never my privilege to sit under Mr. Clinton's ministration's, but if he was as charming in the pulpit as his daughters were out of it he must have kept his congregations awake even on the hottest summer days.
Mount Enon. In the immediate neighborhood of Bath there is quite an area of high ground which early in the last century became a summer resort for wealthy rice planters from the Georgia coast. On account of the altitude it was called Mount Enon. In 1805, the Georgia Baptists sought to establish a college at this place, but the Legislature, fearing that it might possibly cripple the University, then only four years old, refused to grant the charter. However, an act was passed incorporating an academy at this place, and for a num- ber of years it was quite a flourishing institution. Dr. Henry Holcombe was one of the most zealous friends of this school. He gave it in the beginning 200 acres of land, and in other ways helped it ; but when he finally left the State, it began to languish. Dr. Holcombe was a man of powerful personality, who saw far into the future; but these were pioneer days. The Baptists were then few in number. It was not an easy matter for them to support even an academy at this early period; and not long after the departure of Dr. Holcombe the school was discontin- ued. Mount Enon was at one time quite a settlement ; but for more than fifty years it has been numbered among the dead towns of Georgia. It was never an ideal place for a settlement; and the present drearisome aspect of the locality well justifies the remark of the Rev. Benj. F. Thorpe who rode out to the place one day on horse-back. Said he : "It appears to me as if the Lord, after making
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the world, had a big bag full of sand left and not knowing what else to do with it he dumped it all out at Mount Enon."
Brownsborough. At the time of the Revolution there was a little village by this name located somewhere near Augusta. Immediately after the victory of the American Army at Kettle Creek the patriots were divided into small detachments, and stationed at different points, the better to guard the country against invasion, and to keep a lookout for Tories and British sympathizers. One of these parties, under the command of Col. Leonard Marbury, was quartered at Brownsborough. Learning through his spies that a scouting party of twenty of the King's rangers, commanded by a Captain Whitley, was in the neighborhood, Marbury determined upon its cap- ture or annihilation. Accordingly he sent Captain Cooper with twelve dragoons to cut off Whitley's retreat, and after giving Cooper time to reach his position marched out to attack the British front. Cooper gained the rear of the party sooner than was expected, came upon Whitley and his men while they were at dinner, and, deeming the opportunity too good to be lost, attacked at once without waiting for the arrival of Marbury. The sur- prise was complete, and the British surrendered without resistance .*
Richmond's Noted Prior to the Revolution, there was Residents. only a frontier settlement on the site of the present town of Augusta, the population of which, in addition to the garrison, consisted of a few families living in the neighborhood of the fort. But scattered throughout the parish of St. Paul, there were a number of stalwart men who developed into strong leaders, dur- ing the struggle for independence. Here lived General John Twiggs, a noted officer, who commanded an inde- pendent legion. His plantation lay to the south of the
* Mrs. J. L. Walker, of Waycross, State Historian, D. A. R.
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town. In the upper part of the parish lived Colonel Wil- liam Candler, with his equally famous kinsmen, the Fews, one of whom, Ignatius, held a Captain's commis- sion, while William and Benjamin were both Colonels. William Few afterwards served in the Continental Con- gress and was a delegate to the Convention of 1787, called to frame the Federal Constitution. In 1799, he removed to the city of New York. His burial-place has been located at Fishkill, on the Hudson. Benjamin Few re- moved into what was then the territory of Alabama, where he lies buried on one of the bluffs of the Tombig- bee.
The Glascocks came to Richmond on the eve of the Revolution. William Glascock became Speaker of the House of Assembly ; and because of his prominence in the Whig councils, was attainted of treason by the Tory Legislature of 1781. He died on his plantation below Augusta, called "Glascock's Wash."
Both a son and a grandson of William Glascock rose to the rank of Brigadier-General in Georgia, and they have often been confused because of similarity in names.
General Thomas Glascock, Sr., when a young captain of cavalry in the Legion of Count Pulaski, distinguished himself at the siege of Savannah by rescuing the body of his brave leader, under the fire of the enemy's guns. He was a member of one of the companies organized to pur- chase the Yazoo lands, a circumstance which rendered him somewhat unpopular. But he looked at the matter from the standpoint of a man of business. It was before the era of railroads when wild lands were worthless, and when Georgia possessed a territory imperial in extent. He regarded the attitude of General Jackson in the matter as a dramatic performance intended solely for political effect; and when he attended the State Constitutional Convention in 1798 he refused to sign the Constitution because it re-asserted the State's jurisdiction over land which he claimed as one of the grantees under the usurped act of 1795. He died at his country place, "The Mills," some few miles to the northwest of Augusta, at the age of
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fifty-four. He was a most successful financier and a man of large means.
General Thomas Glascock, Jr., served with distinction in the War of 1812 and in the various campaigns against the Seminole Indians. He became a lawyer of note and a member of Congress. Later in life, he removed to Decatur, Ga., where he was killed by a fall from his horse. The county of Glascock was named in his honor.
Colonel Samuel Hammond, a soldier whose name is still bright on the honor roll of the Revolution, settled in Augusta some time after the close of hostilities. Col. Hammond bore a conspicuous part in the famous siege of Augusta dividing the honors with his illustrious com- patriots, Elijah Clarke and "Light Horse Harry" Lee. He represented Georgia in the Congress of the United States; and, on relinquishing office, was appointed by President Jefferson the first Territorial Governor of Mis- souri, with headquarters at St. Louis, then only a little French village on the extreme western border of civiliza- tion. On account of the failure of local banks he became involved in a large debt to the Federal government; but he sacrifiecd his magnificent property to redeem his obli- gations and left behind him a record for integrity to which no taint of dishonor could ever attach. He died at Varello Farm, his plantation, some three miles below Augusta, on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, at the age of eighty-five.
George Walton, the most distinguished of Georgia's trio of Signers, became a resident of Augusta in 1791. On the outskirts of the town he purchased a country seat which he called Meadow Garden; and here the last four- teen years of his life were spent. He is buried under the monument to the Signers, in front of the court house, on
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Greene street, where the ashes of Dr. Lyman Hall also rest. Meadow Garden has been acquired for memorial purposes. by the Daughters of the American Revolution, who have made it a patriotic museum for relics of the Revolutionary period.
The first digest of the Laws of Georgia was published in 1800 by two prominent lawyers of Augusta-Robert and George Watkins. It was a meritorious work, but it kindled the wrath of Governor Jackson because it con- tained the Yazoo Act. He condemned it, and there follow- ed a series of duels.
Here lived Thomas P. Carnes, a member of Congress and a jurist of note, during the early ante-bellum period; but when Milledgeville became the State ('apital he re- moved to the new seat of government.
John Forsyth, one of Georgia's most illustrious sons, a member of Congress, a United States Senator, a diplo- mat, a member of the Cabinet, a Governor of the State, and an orator almost without a peer, lived in Augusta. He died while Secretary of State and was buried in the Congressional Cemetery, on the banks of the Potomac. His father, Major Robert Forsyth, while holding the office of United States Marshal for Georgia, was killed in Augusta by the noted Beverly Allen, a Methodist preacher whom he was seeking to arrest.
Eight wearers of the toga have come from Richmond -William Few, George Walton, Abraham Baldwin, John Forsyth, Freeman Walker, Nicholas Ware, John P. King, and Patrick Walsh; and two of these-Freeman Walker and Nicholas Ware-were elected to the United States Senate, while occupying the office of mayor. The latter succeeded the former in both roles.
Alfred Cuthbert, though never a resident of Augusta, was brought to the Sand Hills for burial from his home in Jasper.
John P. King was chosen to a seat in the United States
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Senate when only thirty-four years of age to succeed George M. Troup. He was also the first president of the Georgia Railroad, a pioneer builder of cotton mills, and a far-sighted man of affairs who gave initial impetus to the State's industrial development.
Eight Governors of the State have been residents of Augusta-George Walton, John Milledge, John Forsyth, William Schley, George W. Crawford, Charles J. Jenkins, Rufus B. Bullock, and Benjamin Conley.
Mr. Crawford was also Secretary of War in the Cabi- net of President Taylor and chairman of the famous Secession Convention of 1861.
It was Charles J. Jenkins, who bore the executive seal of Georgia into exile rather than permit this sacred ent- blem of the State's sovereignty to be profaned by military usurpers.
If George Mathews be added to the list of Governors the number is increased to nine.
One of the most distinguished residents of Augusta before the Civil War was Judge Robert Raymond Reid. who served with distinction both on the Bench and in the halls of Congress. He was also an orator of rare gifts. On the death of his wife, a bereavement from which he never fully recovered, Judge Reid accepted an appoint- ment to the Bench of the United States District Court for the Territory of West Florida, an office which he relin- quished to accept the office of Governor.
Judge William Tracy Gould, one of the most noted of Georgia's ante-bellum jurists, lived in Augusta, where he established a law school which became famous through- out the South. On May 4, 1911 a portrait of Judge Gould was presented to the Masons of Augusta by his grand- daughter, Mrs. Harriet Gould Jefferies. The address of presentation was made by Hon. William H. Fleming ; and the portrait was formally accepted on behalf of the Masons by Hon. Bryson Crane.
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Ten members of Congress have been residents of Richmond-John Milledge, Thomas P. Carnes, Thomas Glascock, Samuel Hammond, Richard Henry Wilde, Robert Raymond Reid, John Forsyth, George T. Barnes, J. C. C. Black, and William H. Fleming.
To this list may also be added three members of the Continental Congress-George Walton, John Walton, and William Few.
Three occupants of the Supreme Bench have lived in Augusta-Ebenezer Starnes, William W. Montgomery, and Charles J. Jenkins.
Here lived Judge Andrew J. Miller, a distinguished legislator and jurist of the ante-bellum period, who served continuously in the Senate of Georgia for twenty years, a body over which he long presided.
William Longstreet, a noted inventor, who anticipated Robert Fulton in successfully applying steam to naviga- tion, lived in Augusta. The old pioneer lies buried in St. Paul's churchyard.
William Cumming, a dominant factor in public affairs during the ante-bellum period, who fought a duel with the celebrated George McDuffie, also lived here. Alfred Cum- ming, his son, received from President Buchanan an appointment as Territorial Governor of Utah. He after- wards became a Confederate Brigadier-General.
Dr. Francis R. Goulding, who wrote "The Young Marooners" and invented the sewing machine, lived for some time at Bath.
Joseph Wheeler, a member of Congress from Alabama, a Lieutenant-General in command of a Corps of Confed- erate Calvary during the Civil War and a Major-General in the U. S. Army of volunteers during the Spanish- American War, was born in Augusta. The county of Wheeler was named for this illustrious soldier.
Dr. William H. Tutt, a wealthy merchant and manu- facturer of New York, who accumulated a fortune in the metropolis estimated at several millions, spent his boy-
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hood days in Augusta; and when an old man he built the famous Bon Air Hotel, on the Hill, a winter resort for eastern millionaires.
John D. Rockefeller, the great Standard Oil King, has been for years an annual visitor to Augusta, where he resides on the Hill; and here President Taft has fre- quently sojourned, an honored guest.
Eight counties of Georgia have been named for the following noted residents of Augusta-George Walton, John Twiggs, Thomas Glascock, Freeman Walker, Nicho- las Ware, William Schley, John Forsyth, and Andrew J. Miller.
To this number may not improperly be added-Wil- liam H. Crawford, who was at one time a tutor in the Richmond Academy; Joseph Wheeler and William W. Gordon, both natives of Augusta; and Augustin S. Clay- ton, who here spent his boyhood days.
T'en Brigadier Generals in the Confederate Army have come from Richmond-Alfred Cumming, William Mont- gomery Gardner, M. A. Stovall, John K. Jackson, Goode Bryan, William R. Boggs, William D. Smith, E. P. Alex- ander, Victor J. B. Girardy, and Isaac M. St. John; four Major-Generals-Daniel E. Twiggs, Lafayette McLaws, William H. T. Walker, and Ambrose Ransom Wright; and one Lieutenant-General, Joseph Wheeler. Beneath the altar of old St. Paul's church sleeps also the great hero-bishop of the Southern Confederacy-Lieutenant- General Leonidas Polk.
In the gentler realm of letters, the achievements of Richmond have been notably brilliant. Here lived for a number of years, as editor of one of the local papers, Judge Augustus B. Longstreet, the noted humorist, who wrote "Georgia Scenes." He afterwards became a dis finguished educator and divine.
Richard Henry Wilde, who wrote the immortal lyric, "My Life is Like the Summer Rose," was an ante-bellum
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resident of Augusta. He represented the State in Con- gress, where the fire of his Irish eloquence made him con- spicuous among the law-makers of the nation. While a sojourner in Italy, he gathered the materials for his two- volume work on the life of the mad Italian poet-Tor- quato Tasso. He removed from Augusta to New Orleans, where he died of the yellow fever, but his body was ex- humed in after years and brought back to Georgia.
Mr. Wilde was three times laid to rest, first in New Orleans, then on the Sand Hills, and then in the city cemetery, of Augusta, where his mortal ashes today sleep.
At the close of the Civil War, Paul H. Hayne, one of the greatest of Southern poets, came to Georgia from Charleston, S. C., and settled among the pine trees, at Copse Hill, on the borders of Richmond; and here the remainder of his days were spent.
James Ryder Randall, the author of "Maryland, My Maryland," a war-song whose music has belted the globe, was for years a resident of Augusta; and here he lies buried.
William T. Thompson, the celebrated humorist, at one time edited a newspaper in Augusta; but he after- wards removed to Savannah.
Emily Lafayette McLaws, one of the most successful of present-day writers of fiction, was born in Augusta. She afterwards located in New York. Some half-dozen novels have come from the pen of this talented woman.
Charles J. Bayne, a poet of rare gifts, began his career on one of the Augusta newspapers.
Pleasant A. Stovall, who has published a biography of Robert Toombs, in addition to other volumes, edited the Augusta Chronicle for a number of years, after which he removed to Savannah.
William H. Fleming, a former member of Congress. has rendered a service to literature, in the publication of a volume of his speeches. Charles Edgworth Jones and Salem Dutcher have also done much to conserve the his- tory of the State.
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Maria Louise Eve, a writer of unusual charm, whose poems have given her a high niche in literature, lives here.
But the place of pre-eminence-at least among his- torical writers-in this brilliant galaxy of Augustans, must be given to the Georgia Macauley-Colonel Charles C. Jones, Jr. With tireless research, he delved into the State's earliest antiquities, producing a number of monographs on the monumental remains and the prehis- toric tribes of Georgia, besides important biographies. The writings of Colonel Jones have brought him recogni- tion from savants on both sides of the water. His master piece, a two-volume work, entitled "A History of Geor- gia," is a monument alike to his industry and to his genius ; nor will it ever cease to be a matter of regret to the people of this State that the untimely death of this distinguished author prevented the completion of his great task. He has brought the narrative of events down to the close of the Revolution; and at this point some other historian must take it up. But where is the man amongst us who can wear Saul's armor or bend the bow of Ulysses ?
ROCKDALE
Created by Legislative Act, October 18, 1870, from Henry County. Named for the subterranean bed of granite which underlies this region of the State. Conyers, the county-seat, named for Dr. Conyers, of Coving- ton, Ga.
Conyers : Where the It is an item of no small interest, First Battle for Pro- in view of the present State-wide hibition was Fought. prohibition of intoxicating liquors in Georgia, that the first battle for prohibition in this State was fought to a finish in the county of Rockdale. The wave started there and the lead- ers in the fight were : Rev. John A. Reynolds, Dr. Henry
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Quigg, Ham Almand, Colonel W. L. Peek, Dr. J. A. Stew- art, S. D. Night, James Hollingsworth and others. These men unfurled a banner on which was written "No C'om- promise." They presented a solid front to the enemy and, after a struggle of much bitterness, gained a lasting vic- tory for temperance in Georgia and left a perpetual heritage of honor to the place and people.
Rockdale is among the most prosperous agricultural counties in Georgia. It is highly favored in every natural advantage and possesses a rare type of citizenship, indus- trious, upright, enterprising, and intelligent. It abounds in fertile fields, perennial streams, and mountains of granite. The city of Conyers took its name about 1843 from Dr. Conyers, of Covington, who kindly and gener- ously deeded to the Georgia Railroad the right of way through his property in Rockdale County and the land re- quired for railway purposes at the station. To perpetuate the memory of this distinguished physician his name was given to the new county seat. Moreover, since Dr. C'on- vers was a most zealous advocate of temperance, the city commissioners excluded by deed the sale of any intoxicat- ing liquors within the corporate limits, which inhibition was observed in each transfer for years.
Mr. David M. Parker was the first commissioned post- master and held the office in humble but adequate quar- ters for quite a length of time. Mr. Henry Holcombe lived in a log house where the court house now stands. He was so irreconcilably opposed to the Georgia Rail- road passing through his land that he sold his extensive acreage to Dr. Conyers and moved off. The court house lot passed to Mrs. Nancy Almand, a lady of note in this section of Georgia, from whom the distinguished Almand family, of Conyers, is descended. She died at her home and was buried in the Almand grave-yard just below Con- vers, on the Covington public road. The city of Conyers has been tested by repeated fires. Three times the entire
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business section has been reduced to ashes, besides the almost total destruction of the town by a marauding band of Sherman's army during the Civil War. Among the hardy men of brain and nerve who shaped the future of the town and started it safely and successfully upon a career of growth in the early days may be mentioned : Judge M. M. Bently, Squire T. H. Bryans, Squire D. T. White, Dr. J. A. Stewart, Rev. John L. Stewart, Rev. Joel Stansell, Captain Warren Maddox, Rev. Stephen May- field, Mr. Henry P. Almand, Mr. Ham Almand and many others of worthy deeds of honor and enterprise. These men of brave hearts and iron wills labored resolutely for the general good. The Masonic order united with the citizens sometime during the forties and built a two-story frame structure for a Masonic hall and school building. This old land-mark is yet standing on the hill, but has since been converted into a dwelling, with modernized features. Some of the best known men and women of Conyers were here taught. Among the names more recent- ly associated with the development of Conyers may be included : Judge A. C. McCalla, the first ordinary of the county; Dr. C. H. Turner, the oldest physician in the county ; Dr. J. A. Stewart, the first legislator; Colonel W. L. Peek, the first State Senator; Judge George W. Glea- son, the first County Judge, John H. Almand, the pioneer banker and the oldest merchant, and a number of others who with equal zeal have labored for the advancement of the town.
One of the first counties in the State to adopt the "no fence" law, Rockdale has been equally forward in other progressive and wide-awake reforms. The residents of this community have been noted for the interest which they have always taken in schools, in churches, and in the observance of law and order. The first Presbyterian camp-ground in Georgia is in Rockdale and bears the Biblical name of Smyrna. At this place, for more than a century, great religious gatherings have been held annual-
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