Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II, Part 70

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co.
Number of Pages: 1274

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With these splendid influences at work the Cherokees were rapidly moving toward a high type of civilization. But dark days were ahead; for the treaty of New Echota was soon to be signed. Under the terms of this treaty, though obnoxious to ninety per cent. of them, the entire nation was forced to move West and leave forever the land of their fathers. But Chief Boudinot's wife was not to live through the heart- rending scenes of the removal. After a short illness she passed away, and her grave is the only one distinctly marked among the many hundreds of New Echota. Her name is carved on a tombstone erected by Chief Boudinot before the removal of the Indians, and is made of marble brought from Connecticut, her native State.

To show how the Cherokees were progressing at this time the files of an old paper contains the following: "At a meeting of the National Council of the Cherokees, the following resolution was adopted: 'Resolved by the National Committee and Council that an agent shall be appointed to solicit donations in money from individuals, or societies, in the United States for the purpose of establishing a National Academy or College for the Cherokees.' " The resolutions were signed by John Ross, president of the National Committee; by Major Ridge (his mark), Speaker of the National Council; Pathkiller (his mark), Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation; by Charles R. Hicks, virtual Head Chief and Treasurer; Alexander McCoy and Elias Boudinot, respectively, clerks of the two branches of the Legislative Department of the Government.

It was finally the assumption of national sovereignty and plenary powers which incited the Georgians to take measures which ultimately re- sulted in deportation. The removal by force of fourteen thousand people from their homes caused great commotion throughout the whole world. The papers of the day were full of it, a great many taking the part of the Indians. It is said that General John E. Wool, an officer under General Scott, commanding the regulars, and General Richard G. Dunlap, command- ing the Tennessee Volunteers, had their sympathies so enlisted on the side

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of those doomed to exile that they recoiled before the task which con- fronted them. Even sonie of the civil officers looked upon the movement as brutal and outrageous, and so expressed themselves. Consequently we cannot wonder that a man of poetic temperament, like John Howard Payne, should have been moved to compassion for these poor savages; so much so, indeed, that while on a visit to Georgia he openly expressed his sentiments in regard to them. Hearing this, and fearing the effect on the Indians, Captain A. B. Bishop, who commanded the soldiers sta- tioned at Spring Place, sent an armed guard to Chief Ross's home, where the poet was stopping, to arrest the poet and to bring him to Spring Place for imprisonment. One of the guards was John Oates, a man well-known to the people of this section. Payne was arrested at. the home of John Ross, in Bradley County, Tenn., only a few miles from the State line. On the positive testimony of John Oates, it was not in the jail at Spring Place that Payne was imprisoned, but in the Vann House. Said he to one who heard the statement from his own lips. ' "I knew him well. He was at the old brick house-never in jail for a single moment. " The guard stationed there was known as the Georgia Guard, commanded by Captain A. B. Bishop. He was released without an hour's delay when the fact was ascertained that he was innocent .*

MUSCOGEE

Columbus.

Volume I, Pages 816-822.

Girard: Where the On Sunday afternoon, April 16, Last Fighting of the 1865, the last engagement of the War, East of the Mis- Civil War, east of the Mississippi

sissippi, Occurred. River, was fought at Girard, on the slopes of the Chattahoochee, opposite the city of Columbus. It was incident to the celebrated cavalry raid into Georgia of General James H. Wilson. West Point was captured on the same day, but at an earlier hour. We quote the following brief account of

*Much of the material for this article was furnished by Mrs. Warren Davis, of Dalton, Ga. The authorities consulted by her were as follows: Rev. W. J. Cotter, Mr. Jesse Jackson, Dr. George Mellen, White's Historical Collections, etc.

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the engagement at Columbus from Professor Joseph T. Derry's Military History of Georgia .*

"At Columbus, on the same day, April 16-a weck after General Lee's surrender-Howell Cobb made a gallant attempt to defend the bridges over the Chattahoochee, fighting on the Alabama side, but was over- whelmed by the Federal forces, who took possession of the city, capturing 1,200 prisoners and 52 field guns. Colonel C. A. L. Lamar, of General Cobb's staff, was among the killed. The ram Jackson, which had just been built for the defence of the Chattahoochee, was an armament of six seven-inch guns, was destroyed, as were also the navy yard, foundries, arsenal, armory, sword and pistol factory, shop, paper mill, cotton fac- tories, 15 locomotives, 200 cars and a large amount of cotton."

Upwards of twenty companies were organized and equipped in Columbus for Georgia's defence during the Civil War, and some of the officers who went from Col- umbus achieved high distinction, among them General Paul J. Semmes, General Henry L. Benning, the Iver- sons, father and son; Colonel John A. Jones, Colonel James N. Ramsey, Major Raphael J. Moses, and several others. General Semmes and Colonel Jones were both killed in the battle of Gettysburg, while Major Moses, as Confederate Commissary for the State of Georgia, exe- cuted the last order of the Confederacy, in a transaction relating to the disposition of $10,000 in silver bullion.

The Killing of Ashburn: An Episode of Reconstruction. There occurred at Columbus during the period of reconstruction an epi- sode which plunged the whole nation into a fever of excitement, and which evinced a fixed purpose on the part of the people of the South to maintain the integrity of an Anglo-Saxon civilization. It was the killing, by un- known parties, of G. W. Ashburn, an offensive partisan, who represented the most extreme type of radicalism. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1865, in which body he made himself peculiarly odious to the white people of Georgia. The feeling of revulsion naturally reached a climax in Columbus, where he lived

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with the negro element of the population-an object of great loathsomeness to the Caucasian race. The follow- ing account of the trial is condensed from various sources :

The killing of Ashburn occurred on the night of March 31, 1868. He is said to have been a native of North Carolina, from which State he came to Georgia some thirty years prior to his death. There is very little known concerning him prior to the era of military usurpation, which, in addition to unloosing upon Georgia a swarm of vultures from other sections, developed the baser instincts of men who were already residents of the State and who identified themselves for vicious purposes with these ignoble birds of prey. There were undoubtedly some good and true men who, from conviction, advocated a policy of non-resistance; but they were few in number. Ashburn's mysterious taking off, therefore, at a time when passion was inflamed, when civil courts were suppressed, when Georgia 's sovereign Statehood was outraged in the most flagrant manner, and when there was no redress for the whites except through the instru- mentality of the Ku-Klux, was a matter little calculated to produce sur- prise, though it created a tremendous sensation. The military authorities took the matter in hand and caused arrest on suspicion of the following parties : William R. Bedell, Columbus C. Bedell, James W. Barber, Alva C. Roper, William D. Chipley, Robert A. Ennis, William L. Cash, Elisha J. Kirkscey, Thomas N. Grimes, Wade H. Stephens, R. Hudson, W. A. Duke, J. S. Wiggins, and R. A. Wood. Besides these, there were sev- eral negroes implicated. It seems that even the blacks entertained toward Ashburn a feeling of mingled fear and disgust.

For the purpose of trying these alleged offenders, a military court was organized at McPherson Barracks, in Atlanta. The counsel for the pris- oners' included Alexander H. Stephens, Martin J. Crawford, James M. Smith, Lucius J. Gartrell, Henry L. Benning, James N. Ramsey and Raphael J. Moses. On the side of the prosecution, General Dunn, the judge advocate, was assisted by ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown and Major William M. Smythe. While in prison the defendants were subjected to great indignities. They were eventually admitted to bail, however, in the sum of 32,500 each, and not less than four hundred citizens of Columbus, representing both races, signed the required bonds.

It was on June 29, 1868, that the court was duly constituted, but, at the request of Mr. Stephens, a postponement was granted until. the day fol- lowing. The trial then began with the filing by Mr. Stephens of an answer in plea to the specific charges, in which, on behalf of the several prisoners, he entered a plea of not guilty to the crimes set forth. At the same time, the rightful jurisdiction of the court was was traversed. With slow progress the case proceeded until the twentieth day, when orders were received from General Meade suspending the investigation until further

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notice from headquarters. On July 25, 1868, the prisoners were taken to Columbus, under guard. It was at this stage of the proceedings that they were finally admitted to bail; and, for reasons best known perhaps to the military authorities, the trial of the alleged murderers was never re- sumed.

Governor Brown's part in the prosecution of the Columbus prisoners charged with the murder of Ashburn only served to increase the obloquy in which he was held at this time by Georgians, due to his course in supporting the election of General Grant and in upholding the policy of Reconstruction. The following explanation of his course in the Columbus affair has been given by Colonel Isaac W. Avery, his accredited biographer. Says he :

"Weighing the evidence in the matter fairly and dispassionately, it may be shown that Governor Brown, in taking part in this prosecution, was governed by proper motives and rendered a service, both to the State and to the prisoners. He alleges that General Meade employed him, on the condition which he insisted upon making, that he-Governor Brown- should control the case, and that, upon the restoration of civil law, the case should be surrendered by the military anthorities. His employment prevented the retention of very extreme men. The corroboration of Gov- ernor Brown, in this statement, has been very striking. It has been argued against its credibility that during General Meade's life, when the latter could either have verified or denied it, no explanation was made by Gov- ernor Brown of his conduct in the matter. Major A. Leyden, of Atlanta, who talked with General Meade several times about the affair, says that he was assured by General Meade that his fears for the prisoners would not be realized. Mr. John C. Whitner, of Atlanta, states that Detective White- ley, who worked up the evidence for the prosecution, told him that the understanding when Brown was employed was that the military trial was to be remanded to the State authorities, on the reorganization of the civil government. General William Phillips, of Marietta, testifies that Governor Brown consulted with him at the time on the subject and explained to him his attitude of mind. Major Campbell Wallace, in an interview at the time with General Meade, confirms Governor Brown's statement. Many years ago Governor Brown gave his version of the affair to Hon. Alexander H. Stephens and Dr. . T. S. Lawton."

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Coweta Town.

Volume I, Pages 69-73.

Origin of the Muscogees.

Volume I, Page 813.

De Soto's Visit.

Volume I, Page 813.

Where Oglethorpe Crossed the Chattahoochee.

Volume I, Pages 814-815.

Recollections There are few persons who remember 1

of General Mir- General Mirabeau Lamar. It was abeau B. Lamar. nearly eighty years ago that he left Columbus to achieve renown in the war for Texan independence; and barring only an occa- sional visit home he remained an exile throughout life from the land of his birth. But Judge Alexander W. Terrell, of Texas,* an eminent jurist and diplomat, who is still living at the ripe old age of eighty-four years, enjoyed the personal acquaintanec of this extraordinary man who, next to Sam Houston, was the most illustrious of Texans. Says he :

"The career of Mirabeau B. Lamar-patriot, soldier, statesman, poet- was one of the most remarkable in history. He was descended from a French Huguenot, who, after the destruction of La Rochelle, in 1628, found refuge in America. Lamar was born in Georgia, in 1798, and there he grew to manhood. He acquired only a common school education, for he preferred hunting, fencing, and horseback exercise to the confinement of the class-room. But he delighted in reading the ancient classics and the standard English authors, and thus acquired so correct a knowledge of the structure of his own language that few excelled him as a forceful and eloquent speaker."

"I first saw General Lamar in 1853, when his long, jet black hair was tinged with gray. He was of dark complexion and about five feet ten inches tall, with broad shoulders, deep chest and symmetrical limbs. From

*Sketch of Mirabeau B. Lamar, Vol. VII, Library of Southern Literature. Atlanta, 1909.

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under his high forehead blue eyes looked out in calm repose; while his clean- cut, handsome features bespoke an iron resolution.

"When twenty-eight years old he married Miss Tabitha Jourdan, to whom he was tenderly devoted, for he had loved and courted her for years, and her death, while yet in the bloom of youth and beauty, so overwhelmed him with grief that he left Georgia-a homeless wanderer. In 1835 Lamar was next heard from on the frontier of Texas where, like Sam Houston, he appealed to the settlers with impassioned eloquence to revolt against the tyranny of Mexico. There was a strange parallel in the lives of these two great men. Each of them, when crushed by domestic af- fliction, fled from home and friends. Each emerged from self-imposed exile to advocate on a foreign soil the cause of civil freedom; each be- came commander of a revolutionary army, and then president of a new republic; each remained unmarried during all the fierce years of the Texan Revolution, and each found at last in married life his supreme happiness with wife and children."

"On March 6, 1836, the Alamo at San Antonia was stormed by an invading army under Santa Anna, the president of Mexico, all its de- fenders were massacred; while a few days afterward one hundred and seventy-five volunteers were butchered in cold blood at Goliad by his orders, and after having surrendered. Two weeks afterward Lamar ap- peared again on the coast of Texas, at the abandoned town of Velasco, and started on foot to join the Texan army. Colonel Fannin, who was butchered at Goliad, had been the bosom friend of Lamar, and the latter was eager to revenge his murdered friend. On April 20, 1836, Houston's army, after a forced march of two days and a night, with no other food than parched corn, confronted on the smooth prairie of San Jacinto the army of Santa Anna, which outnumbered them two to one. That after- noon Walter P. Lane, while skirmishing, was attacked by three Mexican lacers, who wounded him as his horse fell. Lamar rushed to his rescue, and killing one of the enemy, put the others to flight, though wounded himself. The Texan infantry saw the heroic act, and shouted in admiration. He had won his spurs, and Houston at once put him in command of the cavalry, with the approval of all its officers. The next afternoon, at 4 o'clock, the Texan infantry advanced toward the Mexican line to the tune of an old love-song; but when finally within forty paces of the Mex- icans the band struck up "Yankee Doodle." With clubbed rifles and knives they rushed upon the foe, hewing them down in the fierce onset. Lamar, though wounded, led the Texan cavalry on the right wing like an avenging fury. He remained in the pursuit until sunset, and with his cavalry captured Santa Anna. The battle was over in eighteen minutes, and the Mexicans. slain or made prisoners outnumbered the Texans two . to one. The latter lost only three men killed and twenty-seven wounded.

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"Never before nor since in the annals of war was such a victory won by volunteers in an open field over such a superior force of disciplined troops, and never was a victory more far-reaching; for it secured inde- pendence, resulting in the annexation of Texas to the Union, which pro- woked the war of 1846 with Mexico. Under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo our flag was carried across the continent, while the area of the Union was doubled. Within ten days Lamar was made Secretary of War; in four weeks the Cabinet appointed him commander-in-chief of the army; in four months he was elected Vice-President of the Republic, and in three years President without opposition. No private soldier ever rose so rapidly from the ranks to supreme authority through so many important offices, militay and civil. His style as a writer was not unlike his nephew 's, L. Q. C. Lamar, the United States Senator."

"During Lamar's term as President the frontier was extended and pro- tected, Mexican invasions were repelled, Texan independence was recognized, treaties were made with great European powers, immense tracts of land were surveyed and dedicated to higher education, and a free school system was established-the second on the Continent. France sent her minister to the Republic of Texas, and his residence, built with the gold of Louis Philippe, may still be seen in Austin. Time and official station had not yet soothed Lamar's domestic grief, and it was not until after seventeen years of loneliness that he met and married, in 1851, Miss Henrietta Maffitt, the beautiful and accomplished daughter of John Newland Maffitt, the great Methodist revivalist and orator of the South. When afterwards, in 1857, he was United States Minister to the Argentine Republic, a beautiful Indian girl inspired his heart to compose "The Daughter of Mendoza, " his best- known poem. After the end of his term as President, he kept severely aloof from partisan strife, and found his chief pleasure in the endearments of home, where he died, at Richmond, Texas, December 19, 1859. No suspicion ever tarnished his reputation."

General Lamar* is buried at Richmond, Texas, his old home. The grave is covered by a horizontal slab of rough granite, about six feet and a half long by four in width. It was quarried from the hillsides of his adopted State. At the end of this slab, there rises a splendid shaft of Italian marble, twelve feet high, which rests

*Tombs and Monuments of Noted Texans, by Mrs. M. Lcoscan in Woot. en's Comprehensive History of Texas, Vol. I, p. 702, Dallas, 1898.

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upon a pedestal four feet square. On the west side of the shaft, in bold relief, is chiselled a shield bearing the name, LAMAR, encircled by a beautiful wreath. Just a little below the point of the shield, on either side, project the muzzles of two cannon from among the leaves and flowers. On the east side of the shaft is the simple in- scription :

EX-PRESIDENT OF TEXAS DIED Dec. 19, 1859. Aged 61 years, 4 mos. & 2 days.

NEWTON

Early Times In 1822 Newton County was well-nigh an unbroken in Newton .* forest. There were no cleared lands except Indian maize and bean patches. There were no public roads; simply Indian trails. As soon as the lands were surveyed settlers began to occupy them at once. They cleared and cultivated fields of corn, wheat and other cereals. The men had patches of tobacco; the women had patches of in- digo. No cotton was raised, except enough to make necessary clothing. The cotton was seeded by hand, for there were no gins; before carding it was first washed and then carded by hand, spun on spinning wheels, and finally woven on looms into cloth. The cotton, or spun thread, or woven cloth, was dyed blue by means of indigo, yellow with copperas, or whatever color was desired, with other coloring materials. The cloth thus made, white or colored, was then cut and sewed by hand into such garments as would hide human forms. Foreign fashion had not then invented Balkan blouses or hobble skirts.

At this early date, the forests were made up of oaks of different kinds, hickories, symmetrical pines and other growths. Among them were interspersed chestnut trees, from two to three or more feet in diameter, loaded with burrs containing sweet, palatable nuts. In September

*To Mrs. Wm. C. Clark, of Covington, we are indebted for most of the materials contained in this chapter. She was greatly assisted in the work of gathering data by Rev. A. C. Mixon, to whom grateful acknowledgments are likewise made.

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or October the burrs generously opened, and after a rain or a brisk wind, nuts could be gathered by the bushel. Many of these the children treasured up for winter enjoyment. On what remained, the frisky squirrels feasted and the grunting swine fattened. Chinkapins were scattered all along up and down the little streams. Their little burrs, too, opened and dis- closed little round fruit, large as a bullet and black as the eyes of a pretty girl. These were good to eat, and, besides, furnished materials for such innocent games as "Hull Gull," "Even or Odd" and "Jack in the Bush, Cut Him Down." Children have no such pleasure nowadays. Chest- nut trees and chinkapin bushes are now as scarce as hen teeth in Newton. Another feature of former times in Newton was the abundance of various kinds of birds. Pigeons came in immense flocks in fall and winter, to gather up the acorns. Millions of blackbirds, in gangs half a mile long, came in winter and spring to pick up the uncovered grain in the farmers ' fields. Of other birds, some have disappeared, others are scarce, none are abundant. -

Covington : Its Covington, the county-seat of Newton, Indian Legend. is situated on the Georgia Railroad, 41 miles from Atlanta and 130 miles from Augusta. There is a creek which bounds the north and south of the town bearing the name of Dried Indian; and the legend which tells us of the naming of this stream comes from the long ago. When the earliest settlers came into this section, the red men dwelt upon the banks of this stream. Many were the attempts, often unsuc- cessful, made by the brave pioneers to rout these war- like inhabitants. At last they were all put to death and to flight save one old chieftain, who, single-handed and alone, still breathed the defiant spirit of his race. But one day. while asleep, he, too, was overtaken and cap- tured. To prevent his escape, the old Indian was bound hand and foot with white oak lithes. He was then tied to a tree and pierced with many arrows. Death ensued, but still the settlers were unappeased, and, after cutting his body with deep gashes, they took him to a rocky steep on the banks of the stream, and there left him to dry in the sun. The creek was named Dried Indian from this incident.

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The first church in Covington was a Methodist Church, and was built on the banks of this creek. When the town began to grow, the old church building was sold to the negroes, who have since transformed it into an up-to-date church, with handsome leaded windows and electric lights. Just west of this old church, in a very large grove, stood the old manual training school established in Covington some time in the early thirties by Dr. Olin. It was the property of the Methodists of Georgia. But the school was not a success, and through the efforts of Dr. Ignatius Few, the first president of Emory, this school was sold and some of the buildings were removed to Oxford as a beginning for the school known later as Emory College. Colonel W. W. Clark bought the site and the main building of the Manual School, converting it into an elegant Colonial home, which stands today as the home of Colonel Clark's daughter.

Covington was incorporated as a town in 1822 and as a city in 1854. The earliest settler on the site of the present town was Mr. Carey Wood, a pioneer citizen, who in after years became its most conspicuous land- mark. From a list of the board of trustees of the old Southern Female College, at Covington, may be obtained the names of some of the prominent residents of the town in 1851, when the college was chartered, to-wit .: Joseph A. Anderson, William L. Conyers, John P. Carr, John B. Hendrick, Joseph H. Murrell, Robert O. Usher, Thomas F. Jones, William P. Anderson, Columbus L. Pace, John Harris and John J. Floyd. The present public school system of Covington was established in 1887. Some of the carly representatives of Newton County in the General Assembly of Georgia, most of whom resided in or near Covington, were: Luke Robin- son, Josiah Perry, Martin Kolb, McCormick Neal, John Bass, Richard L. Simms, A. F. Luckie, John Harris. Parmedus Reynolds, John Loyall, Richard Loyall, Felix Hardman, Isaac P. Henderson and Alfred Livingston.

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Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II, Part 70

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933 Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co. Number of Pages: 1274

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co.
Number of Pages: 1274