USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 73
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To supplement the list of pioneers given by White, the first comers into Walker included: DeForrest All- good, A. P. Allgood, his son, afterwards a Judge, Con- stantine Wood, James Young, John Caldwell, Samuel Fariss, Jesse Lane, James Wicker, Thomas Beatty, John Henderson, William Doyle, Jack Harris, William Garvin, James Culberson, William Wright, George Glenn, and William K. Briars.
Samuel Carruthers, a soldier of the Revolution, spent his last days in Walker.
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Walker's Distin- Besides General John B. Gordon, who
guished Residents. spent a part of his boyhood in this region of the State, there have been a number of other distinguished Georgians identified with Walker. Gen. Daniel Newnan, a gallant officer of the State militia and a former member of Congress, for whom the town of Newnan was named, is buried in an unmarked grave at Green's Lake, near Rossville. It is said that while in the act of stooping to drink at one of the springs in the neighborhood he was killed by an Indian. Hon. Judson C. Clements, a former member of Congress, who defeated the famous Dr. William H. Felton, in one of the hardest fights ever known in the bloody Seventh Dis- triet of Georgia, was born in Walker. Colonel Clements has been for several years a member of the Inter-State Commerce Commission, of which body he is at present the distinguished chairman. Hon. Gordon Lee, a practical man of affairs who has represented Georgia in Congress with marked ability for several years, is a resident of Chickamauga. Two of the most successful business men of Atlanta, who built up one of the largest wholesale establishments in the South, Win. A. Moore and Edwin W. Marsh, began mercantile life together in a modest way at Lafayette. Judge C D. Mccutchen, of Dalton, was a native of Walker, and two miles west of the county-seat, Judge W. M. Henry, of Rome, was reared. From this county a number of well-equipped companies went fortlı to the Civil War, some of the officers of which achieved note on the battle-field, among them, Colonel E. F. Hoge, afterwards a lawyer of distinction who founded the Atlanta Journal; Dr. George G. Gordon, Major Frank Little, Capt. F. M. Young, Capt. J. C. Wardlaw, Capt. N. C. Napier, Capt. J. Y. Wood, and others no less gallant, who ably illustrated the cause of the South.
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WALTON
Created by Legislative Act, December 15, 1818, out of treaty lands acquired from the Cherokees in the same year. Named for George Walton, one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence from Georgia, and the recipient of almost every public honor within the gift of the State. When an effort was first made to settle the Cherokee country, in 1802, a new county was projected to be called Walton, and a bill was passed to lay it out; but the measure was not carried into effect, due to the exigencies of the times. Monroe, the county-seat, named for James Monroe, of Virginia, author of the Monroe doctrine and President of the United States.
George Walton, the youngest of Georgia's three sign- ers of the Declaration of Independence, was also the most illustrious member of the trio. He was twice Governor of the State, six times a delegate to the Continental Con- gress, once a United States Senator, once Chief-Justice of Georgia, and four times a judge of the Superior Court. He was also amongst the foremost of the Sons of Liberty, serving as secretary of the Provincial Congress which met on July 4, 1775, to sever the ties of allegiance between Georgia and England; he was a colonel in the American army ; he served on the Council of Safety, of which body he was made president; and, occupying a seat in the Con- tinental Congress, when the Declaration of Independence was signed, his name was attached to the immortal scroll of freedom. While participating in the defence of Savan- nalı, Colonel Walton was severely wounded; and, falling into the hands of the enemy, was sent to Sunbury as a prisoner of war. Though skillfully treated by the British surgeons, he limped for the remainder of his days. If General Howe had acted upon the advice of Colonel Wal- ton, who warned him of a secret passage through the swamp, which called for defence, Savannah might have withstood the assault which followed, but General Howe failed to take the proper precaution and disaster over- took the Americans. With Edward Telfair and Edward Langworthy, he signed in 1778 the Articles of Confedera- tion, and was later a commissioner to treat with the Indians. Governor Walton was born in Prince Edward County, Va., in 1749. He began life as an apprentice at a carpenter's bench, and it was by the light of pine fagots
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that he acquired the rudiments of an education. But there was good blood in his veins. Moreover, he pos- sessed a splendid intellectual and moral outfit and from an humble beginning he became one of the foremost men of his day and time in America. His wife was Dorothy Camber, the daughter of an English nobleman. Governor Walton died at Meadow Garden, his country-seat, near Augusta, Ga., in 1804. This noted old home has been acquired by the national society of the D. A. R. and is today one of the best known and one of the most sacred of Georgia's historic shrines. The celebrated Madame LeVert, perhaps the most gifted woman of her day, was a granddaughter of the old patriot. Governor Walton's body reposed for more than half a century in a country church-yard, but in 1848 it was taken up and placed under the monument to the Signers in Augusta. Sedate in man- ner, comely in appearance, a profound student, and a man of pre-eminent genius, Governor Walton, take him for all in all, was one of Georgia's greatest men.
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Underneath a large mound in an area enclosed by coping and overhung by aged water oaks, in St. Michael's church-yard, an old burial-ground of the Spaniards at Pensacola, Fla., lie entombed the ashes of Dorothy Wal- ton, widow of the illustrious Signer. At the time of her death, Mrs. Walton was living here in the home of her son, George Walton, who held the office of Secretary of State under General Jackson, when the latter was Gov- ernor of the Territory of West Florida. On top of the mound stands a weather-beaten slab of marble which bears this inscription :
Died in Pensacola, September 12, 1832, Mrs. Dor- othy Walton, a native of the State of Georgia, a matron of the Revolution, Consort and Relict of George Walton, a Signer of the Declaration of Amer- ican Independence.
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Dorothy Walton was a woman of strongly marked traits of character. Her sympathies, prior to her mar- riage to the future Signer, in 1775, are said to have been upon the side of the Crown. Mr. Camber, her father, was an Englishman of gentle blood who became the owner of a large estate in the Colony of Georgia, but foreseeing the issue of the struggle which was then im- minent he returned to England. Without avail he en- treated his daughter to accompany him back to the old home. She preferred to share the fortunes of her hus- band, at whose side she remained throughout the drama of war, one of the most ardent of Whigs. On one occa- sion, during the Revolution, when Colonel Walton was absent from home, she was made a prisoner of war and taken to the West Indies, but after a brief period of incarceration was finally exchanged. The fortitude dis- played by Dorothy Walton, under circumstances of pecu- liar trial, during the long struggle for independence, makes her deservedly one of the true heroines of the cause of freedom.
The Battle of On September 21, 1787, there was fought Jack's Creek. in a thick cane-brake, near the site of the present town of Monroe, a famous en- gagement between a party of Creek Indians and a band of pioneer settlers. The principal actors in the drama, on the side of the whites, were distinguished veterans of the Revolution, one of whom afterwards became Governor of the State. The attack upon the enemy was made in three divisions. General Elijah Clarke, the illustrious old hero of Kettle Creek, commanded the center, his son, Major John Clarke, led the left wing, while Colonel John Freeman commanded the right. The story is best told in the language of the elder Clarke. Says he, in his report of the battle, dated Long Cane, Sept. 24, 1787 : "I had certain information that a man was killed on the 17th of this month by a party of six or seven Indians and that on the day before, Colonel Barber, with a small
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party was waylaid by fifty or sixty Indians and wounded, and three of his party killed. This determined me to raise what men I could in the course of twenty-four hours and march with them to protect the frontiers; in which space of time I collected 160 men, chiefly volunteers, and proceeded to the place where Colonel Barber had been attacked. There I found the bodies of the three men mentioned above, mangled in a shocking manner, and after burying them I proceeded on the trail of the murderers as far as the south fork of the Ocmulgee where, finding that I had no chance of overtaking them, I left it and went up the river till I met with a fresh trail of Indians, coming toward our frontier settlement. I immediately turned and followed the trail until the morn- ing of the 21st, between 11 and 12 o'clock, when I came up with them. They had just crossed a branch called Jack's Creek, through a thick cane-brake, and were en- camped and cooking upon an eminence. My force then consisted of 130 men, 30 having been sent back on account of horses being tired or stolen. I drew up my men in three divisions: the right commanded by Colonel Free- man, the left by Major Clarke, and the middle by myself. Colonel Freeman and Major Clarke were ordered to sur- round and charge the Indians, which they did with such dexterity and spirit that they immediately drove them from the encampment into the cane-brake, where finding it impossible for them to escape they obstinately returned our fire until half past four o'clock, when they ceased, except now and then a shot. During the latter part of the action, they seized every opportunity of escaping in small parties, leaving the rest to shift for themselves." White states that in this engagement there were not less than 800 Indians. They were commanded by Alexander McGillivray, a famous half-breed.
Colonel Absalom H. Chappell, in discussing General Clarke's account of the battle, makes this comment. Says he: "It is striking to read his report of this battle to Gov. Mathews. No mention is made in it of his having a son in the battle, though with a just paternal pride,
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commingled with a proper delicacy, he emphasizes to- gether the gallant conduct of Colonel Freeman and Major Clarke, and baptizes the hitherto nameless stream on which the battle was fought, by simply saying that it was called Jack's Creek-a name then but justly bestowed by admiring comrades in arms in compliment to the Gen- eral's youthful son on this occasion. Long after the youth had ceased to be young and the frosts of winter had gathered upon his warlike and lofty brow, thousands and thousands of Georgians used still to repeat the name of Jack Clarke, without prefix of either Governor or General and to remember him too as the hero of the well- fought battle of Jack's Creek."
Original Settlers. According to White, the original set- tlers of Walton were: Charles Smith, R. M. Echolls, Orion Stroud, John Dickerson, Warren J. Hill, Jesse Arnold, Judge Walter T. Colquitt, Jonas Hale, Vincent Harralson, James Nowell, A. W. Wright, C. D. Davis, W. Briscoe, R. Briscoe, R. Milligan, and James Richardson.
To the foregoing list of early settlers may be added : John H. Walker, Isaac Brand, William Terry, William Anderson, Stark Brown, Joseph Herndon, George Wil- son, a patriot of the Revolution, aged 110; Powell Blassin- game, John Carter, Thomas M. Mobley, James Sword, a veteran of two wars, the Revolution and the War of 1812; William A. Allgood, a Revolutionary patriot; Wil- liam Brooks and Abraham Hammond, both veterans of the second war with England : William Pike, Henry Pike, Walker Harris, John Sword, W. M. B. Nunnally, Joseph Moon, William Michael, James Shepard, and Thomas A. Gibbs.
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Federal pensions were granted to the following Revo- lutionary soldiers living in Walton: James Bentley, a private, in 1837; Rufus Barker, a lieutenant, in 1844; and David R. MeCurdy, a private, in 1847.
Walton's Noted On the list of distinguished men who Residents. have lived in the county of Walton ap- pears the name of a noted Texan: Ex- Governor Richard B. Hubbard, who was born on a plan- tation in Walton, in 1836. At the opening of the great Centennial Exposition, in Philadelphia, Governor Hub- bard was the chosen orator of the occasion. As Chief- Executive of the State of Texas, he established a record, and during the first Cleveland administration, he repre- sented this country at the Court of Japan. His work entitled: "The United States in the Far East" is an epitome of useful information on the subject of the Orient. Late in life, Governor Hubbard returned to Georgia and delivered the alumni address at Mercer, his alma mater.
On what was formerly the old Echols plantation, near Arrow Head, repose the mortal remains of General Rob- ert M. Echols, a gallant soldier, who fell in the Mexican War. Gen. Echols was at one time President of the Senate of Georgia. The county of Echols, in the extreme southern part of the State, commemorates the heroic death of this martyred patriot.
Judge Junius Hillyer, a distinguished Georgian, who served the State in Congress and on the Bench with marked ability, practiced law at one time in the town of Monroe. Four of his sons-Eben, George, Carlton, and Henry-became men of note. Judge George Hillyer was at one time Judge of the Superior Court of the Atlanta Circuit; and while he was on the Bench a young man applied to him for admission to the Bar who afterwards became President of the United States: Woodrow Wil- son. Judge Hillyer began the practice of law at Monroe,
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in partnership with his father. At present he is a mem- ber of the State Railroad Commission.
The illustrious Walter T. Colquitt practiced law at one time in Monroe. Here too was born his no less dis- tinguished son who was destined to occupy his exalted seat in the United States Senate and to become the "Hero of Olustee"-Governor Alfred H. Colquitt.
Colonel John T. Grant at one time owned an extensive plantation in Walton called Fair Oaks.
Monroe has been the home since earliest childhood of one of Georgia's most distinguished Chief-Executives : Ex-Governor Henry D. McDaniel. On the battle-field, in the State Legislature, in the Governor's chair, on the State Capitol Commission, and in various other capaci- ties, he has served the commonwealth with conspicuous fidelity and great usefulness. He has been for years chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia.
WARE
Created by Legislative Act, December 15, 1824, from Irwin County. Named for Nicholas Ware, a distinguished lawyer of Augusta, who wore the toga of the United States Senate. Waycross, the county-seat, named to commemorate a point where trails intersected in the pioneer days, and where steel highways afterwards crossed.
Nicholas Ware was a native of Caroline County, Va., where he was born about the time of the American Revo- lution. The exact date of his birth is in dispute. Coming to Georgia with his parents at the close of hostilities, he was placed in the academy of Dr. Springer, at Washing- ton, where he received an excellent training in the English branches. Later he studied law in Augusta, completing his preparations for the bar at Litchfield, Conn. Such were his talents that success was neither slow nor uncer- tain. He soon acquired a lucrative practice, went to the Legislature, where he served in both branches, and, in 1819, became mayor of Augusta, succeeding Hon. Free- man Walker, who had been chosen to fill the unexpired
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term of John Forsyth in the United States Senate. It is quite a novel co-incidence that when Major Freeman Wal- ker resigned the toga. Mr. Ware should have been chosen to succeed him in the nation's highest legislative forum. His sudden and serious illness in Washington, soon after taking the oath of office, caused his wife to accompany him to New York for medical treatment. Here he died in the prime of his intellectual powers, on September 24, 1824, during the visit of the great Lafayette to the United States. There is a fine portrait of Mr. Ware on the walls of the council chamber in Augusta, and another in the home of his granddaughter, Mrs. J. S. Harrison, of Columbus. The Senator's beautiful Augusta home is to- day owned by the Sibleys. His mortal remains lie buried under the annex to Grace Church, in the city of New York. Esteemed no less for his sturdy traits of character than for his eminent attainments in public life, Mr. Ware was a man whose conduct was always governed by the strict- est code of personal honor. He was a staunch friend of education and late in life established his residence at Athens, in order to give his children the best collegiate advantages.
Old Tebeauville. Says a local historian : "One can hardly call Tebeauville a dead town, for the lights have never gone out in the village, although her people have moved a mile further, taking the railroad station with them. On the deserted site an up-to-date railroad shop-which probably cost more than it would have taken to buy the whole county of Ware in pioneer days-keeps this old town from being silent, while the imperialistic railroad tracks now cover the level plain of wiregrass. Tebeauville, though not a town of much size, at the outbreak of the war in 1861, nevertheless furnished several recruits to Colquitt's Brigade, among which num- ber was the gallant Major Philip C. Pendleton. He par- ticipated in several Virginia campaigns and was in the thick of the fight at the second battle of Manassas. Louis
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Beauregard Pendleton, a writer of distinction and a son of Major Pendleton, was born at Tebeauville. From the pen of this gifted author have come a number of popular books for young people including : "Bewitched", "In the Wiregrass", "Carita", "Blind Tom and the Runaways", "In the Okefinokee", "The Sons of Ham", "In the Camp of the Creeks", and many others, into which he has woven the scenery of his boyhood's home in South Georgia. He has also written an excellent biography of Alexander H. Stephens. Hon. Charles R. Pendleton, of Macon, per- haps the strongest individual force in Georgia journalism, is another son of this distinguished pioneer. Colonel Pendleton spent five years of his early life at Tebeauville ; and from him the following facts have been obtained.
"Philip C. Pendleton settled in that portion of Way- cross known as "Old Nine" or Tebeauville, in 1857. At. that time a Savannah company headed by James Screven, father of. the late John Screven, was building a railroad from Savannah to Thomasville. The western terminus was then at a point some twelve or fifteen miles east of Blackshear. The old stage road between Thomasville and Brunswick passed here, with a fork running to Burnt Fort, on the Satilla River. There was a post-office at this place called "Yankee Town." It was so designated because northern people operated the stage coaches and they owned at this place a relay stable; but it passed away with the coming of the railroad, and Screven named the station 'Pendleton'. The man thus honored took the first train to Savannah and caused the name to be changed to Tebeauville, after his father-in-law, Captain F. E. Tebeau, a member of one of the old Savannah families. Perhaps a year or so later a civil engineer came along surveying the route for the old Brunswick and Albany road. When he arrived at Tebeauville he made a side proposition to Mr. Pendleton to run the prospective city off in lots and to give him each alternate lot. Mr. Pendle-
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ton did not think that the man was authorized thus to approach him, and suggested that he tell the president of the road to see him in regard to the matter. Miffed at this rebuke, the engineer went back three or four miles, pulling up the stakes as he went, and made a curve to miss Mr. Pendleton's land. If one will stand at the cross- ing near Tebeau Creek, in the heart of Waycross, and look towards Brunswick, he can see the curve in the road, caused by this effort of the engineer to make something on the side. Thus Waycross was born and Tebeauville died. Mr. Pendleton moved to Lowndes County in 1864. Tebeauville was called "Number Nine", because it was the custom of the railroad company in those days to num- ber the stations."
Major Pendleton, the founder of Tebeauville, was a man of literary attainments. He established in Macon, in 1840, the Southern Lady's Book, a periodical of wide note in aute-bellum days, and was editorially connected with various other publications, at different times. It is one of the local traditions, to which the old residents point with great pride, that, when in command of the coast defenses, at the outbreak of the war, General Robert E. Lee stopped for a short while in Tebeauville. Many of the people who lived here then remember to have seen this Man of the Hour who still lives in the hearts of the people today. Among the citizens who resided here then were the Tebeaus, the Reppards, the Remsharts, the Parkers, the Grovensteins, the Millers, the Behlottes, the Sweats, the Smiths, and the Cottinghams. A mile from Tebeauville is a network of railroads around which a city grew almost in a night. Her lights are shining over miles of territory, beautiful homes are dotted here and there, progression is seen on every side. The railway suggested the name for this town: Waycross, the Arcadia of South- ern Georgia .*
* Condensed from an article by Mrs. J. L. Walker, of Waycross, Ga., State Historian of the D. A. R., with additional items from other sources.
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Waycross: An In the year 1870 Waycross was only a
Outline Sketch. station where railway lines intersected. The population scarcely numbered fifty inhabitants. There was a warehouse and a mill, with a few scattered cottages, but nothing more. The building of the Short Line to Jacksonville and the renewal of busi- ness life in the South, caused this section gradually to develop. Then came the famous anti-saloon fight, and in 1882 a license of $20,000 was established by legislation. There was no check put upon the growth of the town by this measure of reform. In 1890, the population regis- tered 3,364, and the value of property according to the tax digest increased five-fold. Two years later the license for selling intoxicants was raised to $30,000, without diminishing the rate of progress. In 1900, the official census gave the town 5,919 inhabitants, and in 1910 the population reached the phenomenal figures of 14,485. Thus Waycross is an object lesson showing that cities can wax strong without the adventitious help of alcoholic stimulants.
At Waycross centres the Southern Division of the Atlantic Coast Line, a system which gives the town five lines, running to Jacksonville, Tampa, Albany, Savannah, and Brunswick. The best of connections are also made with foreign and coast-wise steamers, both on the Atlantic and on the Gulf. The Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad is adding new short lines to put Waycross in direct touch with the coal fields of Alabama; while the road in process of construction to St. Mary's will add another seaport. The town has a complete system of artesian water-works, the sanitary conditions are excel- lent, and there are few localities which can boast a better health record. It also possesses an up-to-date electric plant, besides ice factories, planing mills, foundries, and other industrial establishments .*
Based upon an article in the Waycross Evening Herald, of November 18, 1811.
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The Okefinokee When the county of Ware was first Swamp. created in 1824, it embraced the entire area of the famous Okefinokee Swamp -barring, of course, the portion which extends into Florida. According to Dr. Smith, it is one of the largest swamps in America, having no rivals on the entire conti- nent except the Dismal Swamp in Virginia and the Ever- glades in Florida. The same authority adds: "This swamp has been explored but partially and has been found to be a vast marsh, with occasional lakes and islands. There is in it some good timber of various kinds. The swamp was purchased from the State a few years since by a land company and an effort was made to drain it by means of a large canal. The promoters hoped also to provide a means for floating the timber found in it to the Satilla River, and thus not only recover much land for cultivation but secure timber for the mills. The effort, however, was not a successful one. The great swamp was a hiding-place for deserters during the war. At the present time, it is noted for its fish and for its vast number of wild bee-trees, furnishing large stores of honey and beeswax." Louis B. Pendleton, a native of Ware, has written an excellent story for boys, in which the scenes are laid in the Okefinokee Swamp.
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