USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 76
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
-
WILKES
1041
State grew in population, when once opened to settlement, has stimulated the spirit of research on the part of his- torians to ascertain the causes of this singular growth. For, the first United States Census-taken in 1790- disclosed the somewhat amazing fact that out of 82,548 people living in Georgia not less than 31,500-or more than one-third of the State's entire population-resided within the borders of Wilkes.
Virginia and North Carolina were the States from which the majority of these settlers came.
There are oral traditions without number to the effect that the first settlements in the territory of Wilkes were made as far back as 1769 but the written evidence to sup- port them nowhere exists. Mallory in his "Life of Jesse Mercer" states that the latter's father settled in what was afterwards the county of Wilkes at this date. But the biography in question is not an original document; it was written more than half a century after this region was settled; and it cites no authority as a basis for the statement. According to the rules of evidence, therefore, it must be rejected. The authentic history of Wilkes be- gins with the purchase by Governor Wright, in 1773, of a large body of land in this part of the Province of Geor- gia, for the purpose of extinguishing certain debts due to the Indian traders. The territory embraced in this transfer comprised an extensive area of land from which several counties of Upper Georgia were afterwards form- ed.
We are told by Governor Gilmer in his "Narrative of Some of the Early Settlers on the Broad River" that as soon as this district was opened to settlement a colony of Scotch immigrants was planted in the upper part of what is now Wilkes by George Gordon, an eccentric noble- man, who may possibly have been a relative of the poet Byron and who-on the authority of another writer-was afterwards concerned in the London riots. To cover the expenses of the voyage to America the settlers were to serve an apprenticeship of five years. But the gathering storm clouds of the Revolution frightened his lordship,
1042
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
who somewhat hastily returned to England, leaving the Highlanders to shift for themselves. In consequence of this abandonment, the clan eventually passed by absorp- tion into other communities.
Stephen Heard, toward the close of the year 1773, planted a colony of Virginians, on the site of the present town of Washington where he built a stockade fort.
John Talbot, at an early period, acquired an extensive tract of land in Wilkes, but it was not until after the Revolution that he migrated to Georgia.
George Mathews, afterwards Governor of the State, purchased in 1784 what was known as the famous Goose Pond tract, on Broad River, where he planted a colony of Virginians, from which some of the most distinguished people of the State afterwards sprang.
Included among the Virginians who settled in the Broad River district where the Meriwethers, the Gilmers, the Taliaferros, the Barnetts and the Freemans.
It is more than likely that the first comers into Wilkes were North Carolinians, for as soon as the historic curtain rises we find upon the scene in Wilkes the Clarkes, the Dooleys, the Murrays and the Mercers.
As a rule, the Virginians owned larger tracts of land than the Tar-heels. They were also better educated and possessed more of the comforts and luxuries of life. Be- tween them there was little friendliness; and they seldom visited one another. The North Carolinians, blest with few worldly goods, were democratic to the core. The Vir- ginians were proud aristocrats. The first division of Georgia into political parties was based wholly upon this difference in social status between the two hostile bands of settlers in Wilkes. Clarke was a North Carolinian. Crawford was a Virginian. The strife between them was war to the knife. It became feudal in character, involving at length the whole State; and continued to be for years the Banquo's ghost of Georgia politics.
1043
WILKES
The Oldest Record On the Fortson plantation, in the in Wilkes.
south-eastern part of the county, there is a curious old relic of the early days of Wilkes. It is a flat rock of gneiss or granite, on which is cut a square; and joined to one side of the square is a smaller parallelogram. The work was evi- dently done by means of some sharp instrument in clever hands. At the top of the design are the words: "John Nelson." On one of the sides are the words: "Land Granted in 1775." On the other side appears the date : "1792." The drawing was evidently intended as a map of the land. It is the oldest record of any kind which exists today in Wilkes. As far as investigation has ex- tended, the oldest gravestones in the county are those of the family of General Elijah Clarke, in the Jordan burial ground; but none of these date back to 1792. Nor is the old soldier himself buried here.
Heard's Fort. According to the local historian of Wilkes, the first settlement on the site of the town of Washington was made by a colony of immigrants from Westmoreland County, Va., headed by Stephen Heard, a pioneer who afterwards rose to high prominence in public affairs. Two brothers accompanied him to Georgia, Barnard and Jesse, and possibly his father, John Heard, was also among the colonists. It is certain that the party included Benjamin Wilkinson, together with others whose names are no longer of record. They arrived on Decem- ber 31, 1773 and, on New Year's day following, in the midst of an unbroken forest of magnificent oaks, they began to build a stockade fort, which they called Fort Heard, to protect the settlement form Indian assaults.
The Heards were of English stock but possessed land- ed estates in Ireland. It is said of John Heard that he was a man of explosive temper, due to his somewhat aristocratic blood and that, growing out of a difficulty over tithes, in which he used a pitch-fork on a minister
1044
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
of the established church, he somewhat hastily resolved upon an ocean voyage, in order to escape the conse- quences.
Between the Indians and the Tories, the little colony at Heard's Fort was sorely harrassed during the Revo- lutionary War period. There were many wanton acts of cruelty committed when the tide of British success in Georgia was at the flood. Stephen Heard's young wife, with a babe at her breast, was at this time driven out in a snow storm, to perish without a shelter over her head. His brother, Major Bernard Heard, was put into irons, taken to Augusta, and sentenced to be hanged but fortun- ately on the eve of the siege he made his escape, and took an active part in the events which followed. It is said that among the prisoners rescued from the hands of the British was his father, John Heard, an old man, who was on the point of exhaustion from hunger.
In the spring of 1780 Heard's Fort became temporar- ily the seat of the State government in Georgia. Stephen Heard was at this time a member of the Executive Coun- cil; and when Governor Howley left the State to attend the Continental Congress, George Wells as president of the Executive Council succeeded him, while Stephen Heard succeeded George Wells. The latter fell soon afterwards in a duel with James Jackson, whereupon Stephen Heard, by virtue of his office, assumed the direc- tion of affairs. It was a period of great upheaval ; and, to insure a place of safety for the law-making power when Augusta was threatened, Stephen Heard transferred the seat of government to Heard's Fort, in the county of Wilkes, where it remained until Augusta was retaken by the Americans.
On the traditional site of Heard's Fort was built the famous old Heard house, which was owned and occupied for years by General B. W. Heard, a descendant of Jesse Heard, one of the original pioneers. It stood on the north side of the court house square, where it was afterwards used as a bank and where, on May 5, 1865, was held the last meeting of the Confederate cabinet. Thus an addi-
1045
WILKES
tional wealth of memories was bequeathed to Heard's Fort, an asylum for two separate governments pursued by enemies.
On April 25, 1779, the first court held in the up-country north of Augusta was held at Heard's Fort. There were three justices : Absalom Bedell, Benjamin Catchings, and William Downs. To this number, Zachariah Lamar and James Gorman, were subsequently added. Colonel John Dooly was attorney for the State. Joseph Scott Redden was sheriff, and Henry Manadue, clerk of the court. For several years the tribunal of justice was quartered in private dwellings. It was not until 1783 or later that the county boasted a jail, and, during this period, prison- ers were often tied with hickory withes, or fastened by the neck between fence rails. Juries often sat on logs out of doors while deliberating upon verdicts. It is said that when Tories were indicted, even on misdemeanors, they seldom escaped the hemp. Says Dr. Smith :* "Even after the war, when a man who was accused of stealing a horse from General Clarke was acquitted by the jury, the old soldier arrested him and marched him to a con- venient tree and was about to hang him anyhow, when Nathaniel Pendleton, a distinguished lawyer, succeeded in begging him off."
Washington.' On the site of Fort Heard arose in 1780 the present town of Washington : the first town in the United States to be named for the Commander-in- Chief of the American armies in the Revolution. It was not until 1783 that Washington was formally laid off; but the records show that during the year mentioned it took the name of the illustrious soldier. Next in point of age to Washington, Ga., comes Washington, N. C., a town which was founded in 1782, two full years later. At the suggestion of Governor George Walton, then Judge of the Middle circuit, an effort was made to change
* "The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People," by Dr. George G. Smith, pp. 137-138, Atlanta, 1900.
1046
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
the name to Georgetown, but it proved to be unpopular. The old Georgetown road, which runs between Washing- ton and Louisville, still survives as a memorial of this incident, now almost forgotten. The movement to build an academy in Washington began with the birth of the town; and it seems that provision was made for one in the same legislative act which called into existence the famous academies at Louisville and Augusta. Inspira- tionally, therefore, the Washington school dates as far back as either of these two, which are credited with being much older. Unfortunately, due to a mismanagement of funds by Colonel Micajah Williamson, who was not a busi- ness man and whose financial straits after the Revolution reduced this once patrician land-owner to the necessity of running a tavern, it was several years before a build- ing for the school was completed. At last, however, in 1796, a substantial structure of brick was erected on what afterwards became known as Mercer Hill, when the great pioneer Baptist divine, subsequent to his second mar- riage, came to live here. It was in the old brick school house on Mercer Hill-where the Catholic orphanage now stands-that he held religious services until the Baptist church was built in 1827. Reverend John Springer, Rev- erend Hope Hull, David Meriwether, John Griffin, and John Wingfield comprised the first board of trustees. Mr. Springer held the office of president until his death in 1798, when Mr. Hull succeeded him at the helm.
Washington is one of the most historic of Georgia towns-an abode of wealth and refinement, where aristo- cratic old families still reside in elegant mansions of the ante-bellum type and where the velvet manners of the old regime still prevail. It was the home of the great Mira- beau of secession, General Toombs, whose stately resi- dence was built and owned originally by Dr. Joel Abbott. It is now occupied by Mr. F. H. Colley, who keeps open house for the hundreds of pilgrims who annually visit this mecca of patriotism. Mr. Colley, by the way, is a descendant of an old Fort Heard settler by the name of Staples, who, in addition to boasting a son, reared also a
1047
WILKES
family of sixteen daughters. Wives are luxuries which, on the frontier, are proverbially scarce and-to quote Miss Eliza Bowen-this worthy old pioneer' seems to have taken a large contract for supplying them. One of the first female seminaries in Georgia was established in Washington by Madame Dugas. Back of the public school stands the old Presbyterian poplar under which Mr. Springer-the first Presbyterian minister to be or- dained in Georgia-formally assumed the vows of his sacred vocation. It was in the old Heard house in Washı- ington that the last meeting of the Confederate Cabinet was held; while in the immediate vicinity of the town occurred some of the most dramatic episodes of the era of Reconstruction.
Georgia's First Mrs. David R. Hillhouse was the first Woman Editor. woman in Georgia to edit a newspaper. The paper edited by Mrs. Hillhouse was the Washington News, published at Washington, Ga. It was founded in 1800 by Mr. Alexander McMillan and was first called the Washington Gazette. He was suc- ceeded at the head of the paper by Captain David R. Hill- house, who operated in connection with it the first job printing office in the interior of the State. When Captain Hillhouse died in 1804 his widow took charge of the estab- lishment and conducted successfully both enterprises. She even published at one time the laws of Georgia. Mrs. Hillhouse, therefore, was not only the first woman editor in the State but also the first State printer.
Wilkes in the Revolution. Volume II.
Heroic Women of the Reign of Terror Under Toryism. Volume II.
1048
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
The Battle of
Kettle Creek.
Page 131.
We are indebted to the thorough and exhaustive re- searches of Mrs. T. M. Green, of Washington, Ga., for the most complete list which exists today of those who took part in the battle of Kettle Creek. It is a work of priceless historical value because it contains the names of Revolutionary ancestors from whom thousands of peo- ple today prominent throughout the South have sprung. Mrs. Greene has put under tribute every source of information within her reach, including the official records of Wilkes County, the Historical Collections and Statistics of Georgia by White, the old newspaper files of the State, together with manuscripts, letters, scrap- books, and diaries preserved by families in Wilkes County since the earliest times. The list is as follows:
Elijah Clarke, John Dooly, Mica,jah Williamson, Hugh MeCall, George Dooly, Thomas Dooly, John Freeman, Daniel Freeman, Coldrop Freeman, Stephen Heard, Hall- man Freeman, James Freeman, William Freeman, Bar- nard Heard, John Heard, Jesse Heard, Austin Dabney, James Williams, Sammuel Whatley, Benjamin Wilkinson, Benjamin Hart, Morgan Hart, Nancy Hart, Nancy Dar- ker, Elisha Wilkinson, John Nelson, - Staples, Joe Phillips, Zachariah Phillips, James Little, Andrew Pick- ens, of South Carolina, Joseph Pickens, John Clarke, Owen Fluker, John Fluker, Will Fluker, R. Sutton, Wylie Pope, William Pope, Henry Pope, Burwell Pope, Richard Tyner, Absalom Bedell, Benjamin Catchings, William Downs, Henry Manadne; Scott Redden, Joseph Scott Red- den, George Redden, Jacob MeLendon, George Walton, a cousin of the Signer's, Jesse Walton, John Walton, Nathaniel Walton, Robert Walton, Daniel Burnett, Icha- bod Burnett, John Burnett, Richard Aycock, Robert Day, Joseph Day, John Gorham, Dionysius Oliver, Daniel Coleman, John Coleman, Thomas Stroud, James McLean, Jacob Ferrington, William Bailey, John Glass, Thomas
1049
WILKES
Glass, Charles Beddingfield, William Harper, Robert Harper, John Crutchfield, Francis Triplett, James Alex- ander, John Candler, -- Cade, - Bridges, Captain Anderson, Ambrose Beasley, Jeter Stubblefield, John Lamar, James Lamar, Zachariah Lamar, Basil Lamar, L. Williamson, - Saffold, - Finley, - John Hill, John Lindsey, William Morgan, William Terrell, John Colley, Nathan Smith, ---. Marbury, - Walker, Combs, Stephen Evans, William Evans, John Evans, - Cosby, - Foster, - Montgomery, James White, - Arnold, - Truitt, - --- Snow, John Chandler.
Says Miss Bowen :* "William Simpson, who, as a lad, was brought by his mother on horseback from Mary- land, grew up to be the first person in Wilkes to take out a patent. This was in 1818. The old yellow document still exists (1890) in the hands of the Reverend F. T. Simpson. The invention was a machine for the trans- mission of power. There is a drawing of it attached to the paper, which bears the signature of John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State."
The Presbyterian Just in the rear of Mr. C. H. Alex-
Poplar : Where the ander's home, in the town of Wash- First Ordination in ington, stands the historic Presbyte-
Georgia Occurred. rian poplar, a tree of mammoth proportions, under which the first Presbyterian minister ever ordained in Georgia was duly commissioned to preach the gospel. The tree measures 155 feet in height. The circumference of the trunk is 28 feet, its diameter 9 feet, and the lowest branches are over 50 feet from the ground. To state the size of the tree somewhat differently, it is said that a man on horse-
* "The Story of Wilkes County," a series of newspaper articles by Miss Eliza Bowen, of Washington, Ga. (1900).
1050
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
back stationed behind it is entirely screened from the view of persons on the side opposite. This famous old land-mark of Wilkes is not only one of the largest but also one of the oldest poplar trees of the tulip-bearing variety in the United States.
On January 21, 1790, the spreading boughs of this magnificent forest giant formed the roof of God's first Presbyterian temple in the county of Wilkes. At this time the Presbytery of South Carolina sent commission- ers to Washington for the purpose of ordaining the Rev- erend John Springer, an educator of wide note in the early pioneer days. Either for the reason that enclosed quar- ters were not to be obtained in the town or because the balminess of the summer weather lured them into the open air, the Presbyters from South Carolina decided to hold the services of ordination under the branches of the great poplar. It was quite the common thing in pioneer days to hold religious meetings out of doors.
The statement is often made by partially informed people to the effect that the first Presbytery in Georgia was organized on this historic spot. No such body ever met here. The whole of the State of Georgia was at this time embraced in the Presbytery of South Carolina; and, while the commissioners from the other side of the river, met to perform what was virtually an act of the Pres- bytery of South Carolina, they did not constitute a meet- ing of the Presbytery itself. The historic associations which belong to the Presbyterian poplar proceed from the fact that it witnessed the first ordination ever per- formed in Georgia, under the auspices of the Presbyterian church. There were ministers of this denomination in Georgia prior to this time, but they were ordained before coming into the State.
Old Smyrna Church. Smyrna church, a time-honored old house of worship, which stands in a grove of pines, on the Augusta road, six miles from Wash- ington, was organized by this early evangel of the frontier.
1051
WILKES
John Talbot, the wealthiest land-owner in Wilkes, was an elder in Smyrna church; and, beside him, in the little grave-yard at this place, sleeps his distinguished son, Matthew Talbot, a former Governor of Georgia.
Mr. Springer's Though a devout and faithful minister,
School. Mr. Springer is best remembered as an educator. At Walnut Hill, on the Mal- lorysville road, some four miles from Washington, he established a school of high character, which was known far and wide. Boys were sent to him from Augusta, when the old Richmond Academy there was flourishing in pristine vigor. John Forsyth, afterwards Governor of Georgia, United States Senator, and Minister to Spain, was one of this number. Jesse Mercer, the great Baptist divine, also attended the school at Wal- nut Hill. Mr. Springer was at one time president of the board of trustees of the academy in Washington. He taught school in various places before coming to Geor- gia and was recommended for work on the frontier by General Andrew Pickens, an elder in the church at Long Cane, S. C. He was a native of Delaware and a man in the prime of life when ordained to the ministry under the Presbyterian poplar. He lived only eight years after entering upon his labors as a minister. Mr. Springer died soon after preaching the funeral sermon of Hon. John Talbot. On account of subsequent changes in boun- dary lines to property in this neighborhood, the grave of Mr. Springer is supposed at the present time to underlie the main highway. He was originally buried in his gar- den at Walnut Hill. Mr. Springer was a man of gigantic statue, weighing over 400 pounds. In this respect, he was rivalled by only by two men in Georgia at the time of his death : Dixon H. Lewis, and Sterne Simmons.
It may be stated in this connection that the separate organized existence of the Presbyterian church in Georgia
1052
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
began with the creation of Hopewell Presbytery, on March 16, 1797, at Liberty Church, nine miles west of Washington. This church was afterwards removed. To- day it is represented by Woodstock church in the county of Oglethorpe.
Two Pioneer Bap- tists : The Story of the Mercers. Volume II.
How a Great Christian School was Financed by a Colonial Jew.
Volume II.
Eli Whitney's First Gin House : An Old Land-Mark. In the immediate neighborhood of old Smyrna church, on property which once belonged to the estate of Governor Matthew Talbot, stands an old structure around which centers a world of historic interest. It was erected by the famous inventor, Eli Whitney, in association with his partner for the tim" being, a man named Durhee; and it was built to house what was probably the first cotton gin ever erected in the State of Georgia. (See article by Miss Andrews, p. 125). The origin of the structure probably dates back to 1795; and notwithstanding the flight of more than a century it is still in a fair state of preservation. During Governor Talbot's life-time it served the purpose of a kitchen, but as late as 1903 it was occupied by a family of negroes. Says Miss Andrews, who visited the locality at the time above mentioned: "In the window casings which I ex- amined carefully there were still to be seen distinctly the sockets which held the bars of grating, designed by the inventor to protect his patent, a circumstance which accords with the evidence of tradition."
1053
WILKES
The Old Talbot When first built, the old Talbot man-
Mansion. sion for which the historie gin house afterwards served the purpose of a kitchen, was one of the handsomest homes in the upper part of the State. It was constructed of the best material and was for years the home of Georgia's distinguished Chief-Executive, Matthew Talbot. The exact age of the famous old structure is unknown, but the Governor is supposed to have been living here in 1819 when, on the death of Governor Rabun, it devolved upon him as Presi- dent of the State Senate to assume the oath of office as Georgia's Chief-Magistrate. It was at one time the cen- ter of a gay and brilliant social life. Governor Talbot was a scion of one of the oldest Norman families of England, an aristocrat whose forebears included the Earls of Shrewsbury; and his subsequent defeat when a candidate before the Legislature may be due to the fact that his patrician lineage put him somewhat out of touch with the Democratic masses. He was also a man of large means, the bulk of his property having come to him by inheritance from his father, John Talbot, who is said to have been the owner at one time of 50,000 acres of land. The old Talbot mansion is still one of the con- spicuous land-marks of Wilkes, but except for a certain air of respectability there is little about it to suggest the importance which it once possessed .*
First Roman Catholic Church in In the county of Wilkes was built the first Roman Catholic Church ever Georgia Built in Wilkes. erected in Georgia. Our authority for this statement is the Right Rev- erend Benjamin J. Keiley, Bishop of the Diocese of Savannah. Says he :
"The cradle of Catholicity in Georgia-so far as re- gards the erection of the first building for divine worship
* Authority: Miss Annie M. Lane, Regent, Kettle Creek Chapter, D. A. R., Washington, Ga.
1054
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
-was at Locust Grove, in what was then the county of Wilkes. Near the close of the eighteenth century a few Catholics came from Maryland and settled at Locust Grove. Their reason for leaving Maryland was no credit to their neighbors. They were visited at irregular inter- vals by priests, but in 1799 a French priest, Rev. Mr. Sonze, came from San Domingo, and remained for some time. He erected the first chapel for Catholic service in Georgia. In 1821 Bishop England visited Locust Grove, at which time the old log church was taken down and a frame building erected. Father O'Donoghue was pastor until December, 1822, when Rev. Patrick Sullivan was appointed by Bishop England. Excellent schools were established by these Catholic colonists, and our great commoner, Alexander H. Stephens, received there his early training. Father Peter Whelan, the farmer-priest, as he was called, was pastor at Locust Grove for eighteen years. Locust Grove suffered from the stories of the wondrous fertility of the Mississippi Valley and most of the colonists left only to meet disaster, failure and death in what was then the Far West."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.