USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 68
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SUMTER
Created by Legislative Act, December 26, 1831, from Lee County. Named for General Thomas Sumter, of South Carolina, a noted soldier of the Revolution. Americus, the county-seat, named for the Western Hemis- phere, not for the crafty Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci. According to Governor Joseph M. Brown, a recognized authority on early American antiquities, the name in various modified forms was a common one among the aboriginal tribes of North, Central, and South America. He also shows how ridiculous the claim is that a vast continent should have been called after a man's given name, instead of by the name which denotes his ancestral house, a departure from established custom which in itself is strongly suggestive of fraud. So far as actual' testimony is concerned there is more evidence to show that Amerigo Vispucci borrowed his prefix from the continent which he visited than there is to show that the great Western Hemisphere was named for the adventurous Italian whose zeal for the truth was doubtless no greater than that of his renowned fellow-country- man, Machiavelli.
Sumter in the With a record for fighting, achieved in the
Mexican War. various Indian campaigns, Sumter was by no means slow, when hostilities with Mex- ico began in 1845, to organize a company for the front. The Sumter County Volunteers was duly equipped for ser- vice on the border and attached to the Georgia Regiment of Volunteers, in command of Colonel. Henry R. Jackson, of Savannah. Its officers were as follows : Captain J. A. S. Turner; 1st. Lieut., O. C. Horne; 2nd. Lieut., J. Cottle ; Sergeants, S. P. Woodward, N. N. Thompson, L. T. Taylor and G. Hughes; Corporals, H. Edwards, C. H. Cottle, M. S. Thompson, and W. A. Elkins. 89 members enrolled.
Andersonville : The Monument to Capt. Wirz.
Volume TI.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS. MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
Original Settlers. As given by White, the original settlers of Sumter were: Martin Mims, W. Mims, Jacob Little, W. Brady, Edmund Nun, Jared Tomlinson, Thomas Riggins, Isam West, Jolm Mann, A. Wheeler, R. Satler, W. Hubert, W. W. Barlow, E. Cottle, D. Justice, W. Pincher, M. Murphey, W. B. Smith, and M. J. Morgan.
To the foregoing list may be added : James Singletary, Floyd Mimms, Hardy Morgan, the Dudleys, the Wheat- leys, and other influential Georgia families. Henry H. Hand a patriot of the Revolution, is buried somewhere in Sumter.
Among the early settlers the following instances of longevity are recorded : Mrs. Oats died at 100. Mr. Gold- ing and Mr. Guerry were both over 80. In 1854, Mr. Nun and Mr. Adams were both living at the age of four-score years.
Americus. Americus, the county-seat of Sumter, is one of the most progressive towns of the State, occupying the centre of a fertile region of country and reached by three distinct lines of railway. It is located 70 miles to the south-west of Macon, in a belt famous for peaches, sugar-cane, cotton, and other products. The truck-farms around Americus are among the best in the State and the splendid turnpikes of Sumter are un- surpassed in the South. The city of Americus owns and operates its own utility works; and, under a charter, granted in 1889, is governed by a mayor elected for two years, and by a city council of six members, chosen on a general ticket. The population of the city, according to the census of 1910, was 8,063 souls. Americus has become of late years, quite an important manufacturing center, with chemical works, machine shops, and cotton mills. It
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SUMTER
also possesses a number of solid banking establishments, and is widely known a a seat of culture, equipped with an excellent system of public schools.
Sumter's Distin- The distinguished Charles F. Crisp,
guished Residents. twice Speaker of the National House of Representatives, jurist of high rank and one of Georgia's most illustrious sons, was long a resident of Americus; and here he lies buried. His partner for many years in the practice of law was General Phil Cook. The latter commanded a famous brigade dur- ing the Civil War, became a member of Congress, a mem- ber of the State Capitol Commission, and Georgia's Sec- retary of State. Here lived George M. Dudley, a noted lawyer. He married Caroline Crawford, the eldest daugh- ter of the great diplomat and statesman, William Harris Crawford. He was also the compiler of Dudley's Geor- gia Reports. Here lived two noted occupants of the Su- . preme Bench of the State: Judge Willis A. Hawkins and Judge Henry Kent MeCay, the latter of whom after- wards became Judge of the Federal Court for the Northi- ern District of Georgia. The list of Sumter's famous residents includes also : Judge Allen Fort, a jurist of high rank and a former member of the State Railraod Com- mission; Dr. George F. Cooper, a prominent physician, who occupied a seat in the great Constitutional Conven- tion of 1877; Colonel A. S. Cutts and Colonel E. G. Sim- mons, both widely known legislators; and a number of others equally distinguished in State politics. Hon. Timothy M. Furlow, a friend of education, for whom the Furlow School was named, at one time a strong minority candidate for Governor, lived in Americus; and, last but not least, the present junior United States Senator from the State of Florida, Hon. Duncan U. Fletcher, one of the projectors of the great Southern Commercial Congress, of which he afterwards became the official head, was born in Sumter.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
TALBOT
Created by Legislative Act, December 14, 1827, from Muscogee and Troup Counties. Named for Governor Matthew Talbot, who, as President of the Georgia Senate, succeeded to the chair of State, on the death of Governor Rabun. Talbotton, the county-seat, also named for Governor Talbot.
Matthew Talbot was by inheritance an aristocrat. Ile belonged to one of the oldest Norman families of Eng- land, and the distinguished Earl of Shrewsbury was among his ancestors. John Talbot, the father of the future Governor, purchased from the Indians, in 1769, an extensive tract of land, in what is now Wilkes County, Ga., containing 50,000 acres of land. It is said that he brought to Georgia as his agent in surveying this body of land, the future Signer of the Declaration of Independ- ence, George Walton. He did not transfer his household to Georgia until 1783, at which time, Matthew Talbot, who was then just of age, accompanied him. From the date of his arrival in Georgia, the subject of this sketch became a power in politics. Entering the legal profes- sion, he was first made a judge of the county court and then a member of the State Legislature. For a while he resided in Oglethorpe, which county sent him to the C'on- stitutional Convention of 1798. He served in the General Assembly of Georgia for a period of thirty years. From 1818 to 1823 he was President of the Senate; and, on the death of Governor Rabun, in 1819, he became ad interim Governor of Georgia, serving until the vacancy was filled by election. He was defeated for Gov- ernor by George M. Troup, after one of the most heated contests ever known in Georgia politics, and it proved to be the last election under the old method of choosing the chief executive by the legislative vote. Governor Talbot died at his home in Wilkes, on September 17, 1827, at the age of sixty-five, and was buried at Smyrna Church, near Washington, Ga., where his grave is substantially marked. Governor Talbot was a man of fine appearance, courtly in manners, easy of access, notwithstanding his patrician blood, and well educated for the time in which he lived.
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TALBOT
Talbotton, the county-seat of Talbot, was settled by a class of people who were superior in many respects to the average residents of the pioneer belt, and the town be- came widely known as an educational center long before the war. At Collingsworth Institute, two of the famous Straus boys were educated-Nathan and Isidor-both of whom became millionaire merchants and philanthropists of New York. It was founded by Josiah Flournoy, a wealthy citizen of the State, and was long a famous high school among the Methodists. The LeVert Female Col- lege, named for the celebrated Madame LeVert, was an- other pioneer institution of the town. It afterwards be- came the graded school of Talbotton.
The Straus Family.
Volume II.
Shadrach Ellis, a soldier of the Revolution, died in Talbot, aged 80. Federal pensions were granted to the following patriots of '76, residents of Talbot: John Green, a private, in 1814; John P. Warnock, a sergeant, in 1839; James Ridean, a private, in 1849.
Original Settlers. White gives the original settlers of Talbot as follows: George Tilley, Wil- liam Evans, Marcus Andrews, Asa Alexander, William Little, S. Creighton, William Gunn. Amos Stewart, H. El- lington, B. Jones, G. Kent, A. B. Stephens. W. Anderson, R. King, N. Chapman, A. Graham, and S. Harris.
To the foregoing list of early settlers may be added : Thomas J. Clemens, a soldier of the War of 1812; Sam- uel G. Redcliff, a scion of the nobility of Ireland; Caleb Norwood, father of Judge Thomas M. Norwood; Dr. Wm. G. Little, father of Judge Wm. A. Little; Wm. Searcy, a pioneer school teacher; Daniel G. Owen, Joel H. Burt
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
John H. Walton, John Ellison, Peter Malone; Lewis Ryan, Lewis Wimberly and Dr. John B. Gorman, a noted scientist, author of "The Philosophy of Animated Exist- ence or Sketches of Living Physics."
Talbot's Noted George W. Towns, a distinguished Gov- Residents. ernor of the State and a former member of Congress, practiced law for a number of years in Talbotton, but after retiring from the Gover- nor's office he removed to Macon, where he lies buried. Allen F. Owen, a lawyer and a diplomat, who served the State in Congress lived here; and here for many years resided Judge Barnard Hill, father of the distin- guished Chancellor of the University of Georgia, Hon. Walter B. Hill. Hon. Henry Persons, a former member of Congress and a trustee for years of the University of Georgia, lived at Geneva. Talbotton was the birth-place of an eminent jurist and man of letters, who at one time occupied a seat in the Senate of the United States; Judge Thomas M. Norwood, of Savannah. It was also the boy- hood's home of Judge William A. Little, ex-Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, and a former oc- cupant of the Supreme Bench. Nor is it the least claim to distinction which this famous old town possesses that here lived for a number of years the noted Strans family of New York. Hon. Charles H. Jones, a distinguished American journalist, credited with the authorship of two national Democratie platforms, was born in Talbotton. During the last years of his life Mr. Jones resided in the city of Paris. John B. Gorman, Jr., and Ossian D. Gor- man, both distinguished men of letters, were born in Talbot. The latter wrote "The Battle of Hampton Roads", a noted war poem.
TALIAFERRO
Created by Legislative Act, December 24, 1825, from parts of five counties: Greene, Hancock, Oglethorpe, Warren and Wilkes, a circumstance which accounts for the local name formerly given to this region: "Five.
941
TALIAFERRO
Points." Named for Colonel Benjamin Taliaferro, a gallant soldier of the Revolution and a noted citizen of Georgia in the early days. Crawfordville, the county-seat, named for the illustrious William HI. Crawford, statesman, diplomat, and jurist, who was. prevented by an unfortunate stroke of paralysis from reaching the Executive chair of the nation. (See Crawford County, p. 492).
Colonel Benjamin Taliaferro was an officer in the Revolution, a member of Congress from Georgia, and a man of the strictest probity of character. His educa- tional advantages were somewhat limited, but with keen powers of observation he soon overcame this handicap. He was a native of Virginia, in which State he was born in 1750. Entering the struggle for independence as a lieutenant he soon became a captain under the famous General Daniel Morgan. The following incident in his life as a soldier has been preserved: In the midwinter campaign of 1776, at the battle of Princeton, in New Jersey, his company forced a British commander to sur- render. When the English captain stepped forward in his fine uniform and inquired for the American officer to whom he was to yield his sword, Captain Taliaferro felt some hesitation in presenting himself, being without shoes or shirt, and his coat far gone into rags. However, he finally advanced and received the sword of the brave Englishman. Later, he participated in the Southern campaigns; and, on the fall of Charleston into the hands of the British, was made a prisoner of war, but he was discharged on parole and permitted to return to Virginia until an exchange could be negotiated. In 1784 he set- tled in Georgia and was soon thereafter sent to the State Senate. He served as a member of the Constitutional ('on- vention of 1798 and as a member of Congress from 1798 to 1802. The Legislature which rescinded the iniquitous act paid a singular high tribute to the character of Colo- nel Taliaferro by electing him a judge of the Superior Court, though he was not a lawyer-a compliment almost without a parallel. Colonel Taliaferro was six feet in height, a man of impressive aspect, genial and courteous in manners, respected by his friends and feared by his adversaries. He died in Wilkes County, Ga., September
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
23, 1821, at the age of three score and eleven years. The last resting place of this distinguished patriot is un- known.
Recollections of Benjamin Taliaferro. Volume II.
Liberty Hall : The Home of Alexander H. Stephens. Volume II.
Tomb and Monu- ment. Volume II.
The Arrest of Mr. Stephens.
Volume II.
The mother of Mr. Stephens was Margaret Grier, a sister of Robert Grier, who originated the famous Grier's Almanac, and a distant relative of Justice Grier, of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Captain Alexander Stephens, grandfather of the Great Commoner, was a soldier in Braddock's army at the time of the latter's celebrated defeat, in the French and Indian War. He was also an officer of the American Revolution, in command of a company of Pennsylvania troops. Captain Stephens came to Georgia with his fam- ily, some time after the close of the struggle, locating first in Elbert and then in Wilkes, on a plantation which was afterwards included in Taliaferro. He died in 1813, at the age of 87. The old patriot lies buried at the old original homestead, in the private burial ground of the Stephens family, some two miles from Crawfordville. Captain Stephens, before coming to Georgia, married Catherine Baskins, in defiance of parental objections, but
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TATTNALL
the alliance proved to be a love-match of the happiest character. His son, Andrew Baskins Stephens, is buried near him in the same plot of ground, and both graves are substantially marked.
Original Settlers. As given by White, the original set- tlers of Taliaferro were : George Tilley, William Evans, Marcus Andrew, Asa Alexander, William Little, S. Creighton, William Gunn, Amos Stewart, H. Ellington, B. Jones, G. Kent, A. B. Stephens, W. Ander- son, R. King, N. Chapman, A Gresham, and S. Harris.
To the list of early settlers mentioned by White, may be added : Absalom Janes and Josiah Whitlock. The for- mer was for years one of the largest cotton planters in middle Georgia. His son, Dr. Thomas P. Janes, under ap- pointment of Governor James M. Smith, organized the State Department of Agriculture and became the first Commissioner, an office which he ably filled for six years.
TATTNALL
Created by Legislative Act, December 5, 1801, from Montgomery County. Named for General Josiah Tattnall, a distinguished Revolutionary patriot, who became Governor of the State and who, while occupying the office of Chief-Magistrate, was privileged to sign a measure removing the stigma of outlawry from the good name of his Royalist father and restoring to the son his beloved Bonaventure. (See Bonaventure: The Country-Seat of the Tattnalls, page 90; Bonaventure Cemetery, Vol. II.) Originally Tattnall included a part of Toombs. Reidsville, the county-seat. The local tradition in regard to the name though somewhat at variance with the spelling, is well authenticated .* In the corner of the court house square there is quite a depression, including a point where reeds of the bamboo type abounded in the early days. It is most likely that a creek or branch was here fed from fountain springs. The original county-seat was four miles distant on the Ohoopee River near Drake's Ferry, where the stream is today spanned by a handsome steel bridge. Reidsville became the county-seat in 1832.
* Authority: Judge C. W. Smith, Esq., of Reidsville, President of the Tattnall Bank.
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
The principal towns of Tattnall-in addition to the county-seat-are as follows : Collins, Bellville, Manassas, Hagan, Claxton, Daisy, Glennville and Cobbtown. Col- lins was named for Perry Collins, Esq., a wealthy land owner, whose plantation was near the site of the present town. Judge E. C. Collins, of the City Court of Reids- ville, is a grandson of this pioneer citizen. Manassas was named for Manassas Foy, a son of George W. Foy, of Egypt, Ga. He was born on July 21, 1861, the date of the first battle of Manassas. He was a successful man of business, but died in the prime of life, at Statesboro, Ga. Hagan was named for Mrs. M. A. Smith, whose maiden name was Miss Hagan. She was a sister of Captain J. S. Hagan, for many years County School Com- missioner of Bulloch. Daisy was named for Miss Daisy Edwards, a daughter of T. J. Edwards, of Daisy, and a sister of Congressman Charles G. Edwards, of Savannah. She became the wife of Dr. B. F. Miller, of ("laxton. Glennville was named for Rev. Glenn Thompson, a Bap- tist minister and a well known educator. Cobbtown was named for the Cobb family, a connection which is still somewhat numerous in the upper part of Tattnall. Bell- ville was named for Mrs. Fannie Bell Smith, the wife of James Smith, Esq. She was a native of the north of Ireland. Included among the descendants of this lady are the following grand-sons: C. W. Smith, of Reidsville, President of the Tattnall Bank and Ordinary of the county from 1869 to 1900; Martin W. Smith, of Claxton, an ex-member of the State Legislature from Tattnall; Marshall A. Smith, of Hagan, formerly President of the Bank of Hagan; Judge Oscar M. Smith and Mr. Alvarado Smith, of Valdosta, Ga., and Mike M. Smith, Esq., Presi- dent of the Orlando Bank and Trust Company, of Or- lando, Fla. Claxton was originally known as Hendrix, but there was already a postoffice in Georgia hearing this name and the ladies of the community, asked to choose a name for the town, selected Claxton.
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TATTNALL
Original Settlers. The first comers into Tattnall, accord- ing to White were: Ezekiel Clifton, Ezekiel Stafford, Henry Holland, Stephen Mattock, Wil- liam Coleman, William Eason, George Lewis, Joseph Collins. Nathan Brewton, Moses Jernigan, Jones Tem- ples, B. Stripling, A. Daniel, John Mattox, Stephen Bowen, A. Bowen, A. McLeod, John McFarland, James Turner, James Jones. M. Jones, Jesse Collins. David Boyd, Allen Johnson, Elisha Parker, Elisha Curl, James Tillman, Daniel Highsmith, John McArthur, Alexander Gordon, John Jones, Joshua Dasher, Reuben Nail, Luke Sapp, Benjamin Sapp, John Sharp, Grove Sharp, Levi Bowen, Lewis Strickland, John Anderson, James Under- wood, and John Dukes.
William Eason was the founder of Methodism in Tatt- nall. He lies buried at Mount Carmel, midway between Reidsville and Collins. On the one hundredth anniversary of the church, some few years ago, a monument was un- veiled to the memory of this pioneer soldier of the Cross. Nathan Brewton, the founder of a noted family identified with this section of Georgia for more than a century, sleeps in the Brewton cemetery, one mile north of Hagan, where recently a handsome monument was placed over his grave. Simon J. Brewton, one of his sons, became a resident of Bulloch, where he was the only man in the county to defeat the celebrated Peter C'one for the State Legislature. Mr. Brewton was not a believer in rail- roads; and, according to tradition, his solicitude for the cattle cost his county one of the earliest lines projected in the State. When the Central of Georgia was surveying a route from Savannah to Macon, he used his powerful influence in the General Assembly to prevent the road from passing through Bulloch. Samuel Brewton, a brother, was formerly a representative in the Legislature from Tattnall. The descendants of Nathan Brewton in- clude : Rev. J. C. Brewton, D. D., President and Founder
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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
of the Brewton-Parker Institute and President of the Board of Trustees of Bessie Tift; H. J. Brewton, Clerk of the Superior Court of Tattnall; and Jonathan B. Brewton, Cashier of the Merchants and Farmers Bank, of Claxton.
TAYLOR
Created by Legislative Act, January 15, 1852, from parts of five counties: Crawford, Talbot, Macon, Monroe, and Marion, and a part of the old Creek Agency lying west of Flint River. Most of the territory of Taylor was originally embraced in Muscogee. The county was named for General Zachary Taylor, a distinguished soldier of the Mexican War, whose brilliant victory at Buena Vista made him the twelfth President of the United States. "Old Rough and Ready," the sobriquet which he won on the fields of Mexico, followed him to the White House and survived his death. The first wife of Jefferson Davis, the renowned President of the Southern Confederacy, was a daughter of Gen. Zachary Taylor. Butler, the county-seat, was named for General William Orlando Butler, a noted officer of the Mexican War, and candidate for Vice-President on the ticket with General Cass in 1848. Gen. Butler was also a poet. The famous ante-bellum classic entitled: "The Boatman's Horn," came from his pen.1
The Old Indian In the north-east corner of Taylor there Agency. lies a tract of land bordering upon the Flint River which formerly constituted a part of the old Indian Agency, a Federal reservation at which, in early times, important treaties were made with the Creek Indians; and where the savages were taught to use the implements of agriculture and to make crops. Colonel Hawkins, the Indian agent, established his residence on the east side of the river in what is now the county of Crawford; and here for sixteen years he mediated between the savages and the whites and ren- dered a service to the country which places him high upon the list of devoted patriots. There is nowhere to be found in American history the record of a greater sacri- fice than was made by this cultured man of letters who relinquished the toga of the United States Senate to live among the Creek Indians. He left at his death a number of mannscripts relating to the topography of the region, to the manners and customs of the savages,
1 This poem appears in Vol. XIV of the Library of Southern Literature, Atlanta, 1910.
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TAYLOR
and to the various Indian problems with which he dealt. Some of these-a remnant which escaped the destruction of his residence by fire-are in the possession of the Georgia Historical Society, at Savannah. We are indebted to Hon. Walter E. Steed, a distinguished resi- dent of Taylor and a former State Senator, for the fol- lowing information in regard to the Old Agency on the Flint :
The reservation embraced an area of land about five miles square and contained fifty lots of two hundred acres each, lying on both sides of the Flint River, by which stream it was divided into two nearly equal parts. In 1822, Crawford County was organized; but the reser- vation continued to be independent of the State jurisdic- tionally until some time after the treaty of Indian Springs, when the Creeks ceded to the whites the land which still remained to them in Georgia between the Flint and the Chattahoochee Rivers. When the Old Agency was no longer maintained by the government, the land embraced within the reservation was acquired by the State and to Crawford County was annexed the portion east of the Flint River. (Georgia Acts, 1826, p. 60) ; and when Taylor, in 1852, was formed, the land lying west of the Flint was added to Taylor (Georgia Acts, 1852; also 1853-4, p. 318). On the old maps of the latter county, there are twenty lots and eight fractional lots, each marked with the words "Old Agency," showing that for- merly they constituted a part of this reservation. The Flint river is crossed at the Old Agency by a highway known as the old Federal wire road; and for more than fifty years a public ferry has been maintained at this point.2
Colonel Hawkins established his residence at the old Indian Agency on the Flint about the year 1800. The celebrated French officer, General Moreau, when an exile in this country, visited Colonel Hawkins at his home in
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