Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II, Part 81

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

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Rev. Daniel Hook, in the year 1860, organized in Sandersville a church of the Disciples of Christ. His son, Judge James S. Hook, was after- wards State School Commissioner of Georgia. Captain Evan P. Howell, late editor and part owner of the Atlanta Constitution, lived in Sandersville

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at the outbreak of the war. Pressly Hyman, one of the promising young men of Sandersville in the early seventies, removed to the West and became Lieutenant-Governor of Nevada.

To mention by name only a few more of the early pioneers of Wash- ington, the list includes : William Hardwick, John Rutherford, George Frank- lin, Zachariah Brantley, William A. Tennille, Dr. John B. Turner, General Lewis A. Jernigan, a noted educator, afterwards Ordinary of Washington; Colonel Morgan Brown, Nathan Haynes, William Smith, better known as "Uncle Billy," a wealthy planter; William Hodges, Daniel Ainsworth, Colonel E. S. Langmade, Dr. A. A. Cullens, Dr. Eldridge Williamson, Ben- jamin Tarbutton, Captain Henry C. Lang, Thomas E. Brown, Henry Brown, John Langmade, and Robert Hyman. Most of the original settlers of Washington were Revolutionary soldiers, but they sleep in unmarked graves.

Tomb of John Rutherford. On a plantation three miles west of Sandersville, just off the Milledge- ville road, is an old weather-beaten tombstone, on which the following epitaph is inscribed :

"To the memory of JOHN RUTHERFORD, a soldier of the Revolution, who lived long afterward to share the honors of his countrymen. He retired for many years from public life and died in the affection of his country, on the 31st of October, 1833, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He is buried at his request by the side of his first wife, Polly Hubert."

Recently the graves of two Revolutionary soldiers have been located in the neighborhood of Sandersville : William Ganier and John Sparks, and just as soon as markers can be obtained from the Federal government these graves will be marked by Jared Irwin Chapter, D. A. R. On the old Jordan place, near Davisboro, the last resting place of John Jordan has been located. He was a soldier of the Revolution, under General Elbert. His grave at present is marked only by white hyacinths. Likewise within a short distance of Davisboro, two other burial places of Revolutionary patriots have been discov- ered. These are the graves of William Hardwick and Moses Newton. Samuel Elbert Chapter, D. A. R., of

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Tennille, has undertaken the marking of these graves, and is at the same time intent upon locating other historic spots.

Thomas W. Hard- Sandersville is the home of the gifted wick: Senator- Thomas W. Hardwick, who-at the Elect. youthful age of forty-two-is Georgia's new Senator-elect. His service of twelve years in the popular branch of Congress was rewarded with the Sen- atorial toga at a recent primary election, and in Decem- ber next Mr. Hardwick will take his seat as Major Bacon's successor in the American House of Peers.

Fort Irwin. General Jared Irwin, with his three brothers, John Lawson, William and Alexander, all of whom were Revolutionary soldiers, built a fort near Union Hill to protect this section of Georgia from the Indians, and it became known as Fort Irwin. Nothing is posi- tively known concerning the character of this stronghold. But it was doubtless securely built, and, occupying a strategic point, it was' instru- mental in keeping the savages at a safe distance from the settlement.

Tennille. Three miles distant from Sandersville, on the main line of the Central of Georgia, is one of the most important commercial centers in this part of the State: Tennille. Without rehearsing the facts previously set forth in Volume I, some additional items may be cited. On March 4, 1875, the town received its first charter of incorporation and at this time the corporate limits were fixed at one-quarter of a mile in every direc- tion from the depot of the Central Railroad. Provision was made in this charter for an election, to be held on the first Saturday in May, 1875, for an intendant and four aldermen, each to hold office for one year .* During the next few years the growth of the town was so rapid that, on October 24, 1887, an Act was approved granting Tennille a new charter and extending its corporate limits to a distance of one thousand yards in every direction

*Acts, 1875, p. 187.

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from the warehouse of the Central Railroad. Hon. John C. Harman was designated as the first Mayor, with Messrs. W. J. Joiner, Jr., J. E. Murchison, H. S. Hatch, W. P. Davis, James W. Smith and H. E. Hyman as Alder- men.1 In 1900 the style of the corporation was changed from the "town of Tennille" to the "city of Tennille." On September 19, 1881, the Tennille and Wrightsville Railroad was chartered, with the following incorpora- tors : Messrs. W. C. Matthews, B. D. Smith, G. L. Mason, G. B. Harrison, H. N. Hollifield, G. W. Peacock and Z. Peacock, of the County of Washington, A. T. Hanas, of the County of Washington, and W. B. Bales, W. A. Tompkins, W. L. Johnson, J. A. McAfee, T. W. Kent and W. W. Mixon, of the County of Johnson.2 Tennille is well supplied with strong banking establish- ments, with excellent school facilities, splendid water and light plants and with a wide-awake and progressive body of citizens.

WAYNE

Waynesville. Wayne County was organized in 1803 out of lands acquired from the Creeks under the treaty of Fort Wilkinson; and by an Act approved December 8, 1806, the following com- missioners were named to choose a site for public buildings : Solomon Gross, Francis Smallwood, John Mundon, William Clement and William Knight.3 But the county was slow in finding settlers, and it was not until December 4, 1829, that a site was finally fixed on land donated by William Clement, one mile from the village of Waynesville.4 Both the town and the county were named for General Anthony Wayne, of the Revolution, who aided in Georgia's redemption from the British.

Jesup. But when the County of Charlton was formed from Wayne in 1855 it left Wayneville on the extreme lower edge of the county, making a new site for public buildings necessary, and in the course of time the

1 Acts, 1887, p. 618.

2 Acts, 1881, p. 268.

3 Clayton's Compendium, p. 326.

4 Acts, 1829, p. 193.

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county seat was removed to Jesup, a town named for General Jesup, of the United States army, who rendered important service to the State in the Creek Indian war of 1836. The town of Jesup was incorporated on October 24, 1870, with the following commissioners, to-wit .: Will- iam Clarey, W. H. Whaley, G. H. Cameron, T. P. Little- field and W. C. Remshart.1

Fort James.' This stronghold, built to defend the frontier during the Indian wars, was located on the west bank of the Altamaha River, fifty miles above Darien and twelve miles below the mouth of the Ohoopee. There was also a fortification by this name built in Colo- nial times, to defend the old settlement of Dartmouth, above Augusta, in what is now Elbert County, Ga.2

WEBSTER

Preston. Webster County was formed out of Randolph and was first known as Kinchafoonee, from a well-known creek of this name, but Kinchafoonee pro- voked a ripple of laughter over the State, and on Febru- ary 21, 1856, the name was changed to Webster, in honor of the great orator of New England. At the same time the name of the county-seat was changed from McIntosh to Preston. The town was incorporated by an Act ap- proved December 22, 1857, with the following commis- sioners, to-wit .: George M. Hay, John W. Easters, Will- iam H. Hallen, James G. M. Ball and Henry W. Spears.3

WHEELER

Alamo. On August 14, an Act was approved creating by Constitutional amendment the new County of Wheeler from a part of the County of Montgomery.

1 Acts, 1870, p. 207.

2 Vol. I, p. 537.

3 Acts, 1857, p. 187.

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This Act was ratified at the polls on November 5, 1912, after which the new county was formally created by proclamation of the Governor, on November 14, 1912. Alamo, a town on the Seaboard Air Line, was made the county-seat. Some of the oldest families resident in the county are the Kents, the Gillises, the Calhouns, the Mc- Lennans, the Clementses, the McRaes, the Morrisons, the Curries, the Clarkes, the Adamses, the Ryalses and the McArthurs.

Where Governor Governor George M. Troup, while on a visit to the Troup Died. Mitchell place, one of the numerous plantations owned by him iu this section of Georgia, in 1856, was seized with a violent illness, which here ended his days. William Bridges was the overseer in charge of the Mitchell place at the time of Governor Troup's death. In another part of this work will be found a picture of the pioneer cabin in which the great apostle of State Rights breathed his last. The Mitchell plantation was settled by Hartwell Mitchell in 1814. It was located on the west side of the Oconee River. This fine old plan- tation is now the property of the Kent family of Wheeler. Still another plantation owned by Governor Troup in this county was the Horseshoe Place. But the old Governor is buried on the banks of the Oconee River, in Montgomery County, at Rosemont, still another plantation which he owned, where a beloved brother, Robert L. Troup, was already buried.

WHITE

Cleveland. In 1857 the County of White was organized out of Habersham and named for Colonel John White, an officer of the Continental Army, whose brilliant exploit on the Great Ogeechee was unsurpassed in the annals of the Revolution. The county-seat was first called Mount Yonah, but the name was afterwards changed to Cleveland. It has never been quite settled for whom the town was named, but presumably it was for Colonel Benjamin Cleaveland, the hero of King's Mountain, notwithstanding a slight variation in the spell- ing of his name. Cleveland was chartered by an Act ap-

Where Gov. George M. Troup Breathed His Last,

OVERSEER'S CABIN ON THE MITCHELL PLACE, IN WHEELER COUNTY,

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proved October 18, 1870, with the following town com- missioners, to-wit .: William B. Bell, Virgil Robertson, A. J. Comer and William G. Goodman .*

Nacoochee : Relics of At the foot of Yonah Mountain, in a Forgotten Race. the picturesque upper part of White County, lies one of the most beau- tiful valleys in the world-far-famed Nacoochee. Neither the Yosemite nor the Shenandoah can match it in some respects. There are lineaments of loveliness which it shares in common with no other spot on earth. It mat- ters not how extensively one has traveled, he cannot visit this Lost Paradise of the Cherokee Indians without feel- ing the spell of enchantment which the scene here throws around him, and though he may not quote the language he will at least voice the sentiment of Tom Moore's apt lines :

"There's not in the wide world a valley so sweet

As this vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet."

The cradle of the Chattahoochee-it has been de- scribed in the wondrous witchery of Lanier's song; but the power to do it justice lies neither in the poet's pen nor in the artist's brush. The task of recalling some of the historic memories in which this romantic region of the State abounds is a much simpler one. There is a wealth of legendary lore connected with Nacoochee; and from the mellow recollections of an old gentleman-now gone to his reward-who knew the valley like a book, every page of which was dear to him, and who in child- hood explored its hidden mysteries, and listened to its weird fairy tales, and wandered to the utmost verge of its green meadows, the following brief account has been condensed. Says Mr. George W. Williams :

"Nacoochee has a history as thrilling in interest as the tales of the Arabian Nights. This valley was doubtless for ages one vast lake. The

*Acts, 1870, p. 182.

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fretful waters at last cut a channel through the rocks at the east end of the valley and the great basin was drained, leaving a fertile area of landscape some seven miles in length, with the Chattahoochee River winding through the verdant prospect. The Cherokees selected this quiet and safe retreat for the capital of a populous nation, and Nacoochee Old Town, the name by which the settlement here was first known, became the chief town of the Cherokees. At one time, it must have been the center of an ancient civilization. The original occupants of the valley were a warlike race of people. They surrounded themselves with long lines of fortifications, leveled the tops of the hills, and raised huge mounds. On the high places resided the chiefs of the nation, surrounded by knights as brave as ever drew a lance. During the past seventy-five years many relics have been found in the valley, furnishing proof most positive of hard-fought battles, in which shot and shell were used. When the writer was a boy, his father, who was one of the original settlers in the valley, taught his sons the science of farming; and from time to time they plowed up many, many rare and curious specimens, including gunlocks, swords, broken shells, toma- hawks, arrows and human skeletons.

"In 1834, when the miners were digging a canal for the purpose of washing the beds of the streams for gold, a subterranean village was discovered, containing some forty houses in number. These were buried ten feet deep. The logs were hewn and notched as at the present day. This village was covered by a heavy growth of timber; and near it, under a tree, fifteen feet in circumference, which must have been at least five hun- dred years old, there was found a double mortar, ten inches in diameter, perfectly polished. It was made of transparent quartz. This village was doubtless built by DeSoto in 1539. More recently a discovery was made here which interested me very much. A plough-share, near an Indian mound, struck a hard substance. On examination it proved to be part of a walled sepulchre. The bottom was paved with polished stones, and the tomb contained many skeletons, one of immense size, also conch shells, pipes, and other curious specimens of handiwork, besides a piece of in- wrought copper. As the natives were ignorant of the art of working in this metal and never buried in walled sepulchres, the question naturally arises: When did these huge men live? A learned historian of Copenhagen says that America was discovered in the year 985 by Biaske Horjeufsen. It is also said that a colony from Wales settled in this country at the same time. Doubtless these early European adventurers were exterminated by the vast tribes of Indians. It is mainly by way of tradition that we hear of them. The walled sepulchre may have been built by the Welsh colony in the tenth century of the Christian era."

Nacoochee Old Town was undoubtedly one of the places at which DeSoto stopped in his quest of the yellow metal. Signs of a somewhat lengthy sojourn by the Span-

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iards in this locality are still numerous. Colonel Charles C. Jones, Jr., identifies the Xualla of the old Spanish narrative with an Indian settlement somewhere in this region, a surmise which is more than justified by the monumental remains and which furthermore tallies with the description. According to Mr. Williams, the Indian Queen of the tribe here settled, at the time of DeSoto's visit, was Echoee. Nacoochee and Eola were her daugh- ters, both beautiful, dark-eyed Indian maidens. Lorenzo, a companion of the bold knight, having acquired knowl- edge of the fact that certain treasures of priceless value were concealed in a cavern under Mount Yonah, cun- ningly sought to possess them. He partially succeeded by artful blandishments in fascinating Queen Echoee. But in the end he was killed by old Wahoo, the chief of ' the tribe. Echoee, with her daughter Eola, was drowned, but Nacoochee was saved by Sautee, the young sixteen- year-old son of a Choctaw chief. As a sequel to the res- cue, there developed quite naturally a love affair. But the marriage of Nacoochee to Sautee was forbidden. The pair resolved upon flight, and when pursued and over- taken hurled themselves from an overhanging cliff of Mount Yonah into the vale beneath. They were buried in a common grave. The large mound in front of the. summer home of Dr. L. G. Hardman, formerly the Nicht- ols place, marks the traditional spot in which the lovers are supposed to be interred. Nacoochee and Sautee val- leys, uniting, perpetuate the names of the ill-fated pair, while the grave in which they sleep is kept perennially green with cypress, ivy and rhododendron.

WHITFIELD

Dalton. Dalton, the county-seat of Whitfield, was first known as Cross Plains. But in 1847, when the State road was built the name was changed to Dalton, in compliment to a civil engineer, John Dalton, who, real-

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS

izing the possibilities of this locality as the site for a future town, made a survey of the land and divided the same into lots .* His judgment was subsequently con- firmed by General Joseph E. Johnston, who made Dalton his base of operations during the Civil War. The town was incorporated by an Act approved December 28, 1853. Two schools, the Dalton Female College and the Southern Central Baptist University of Georgia, were chartered in 1850, each with a strong board of trustees. But for addi- tional particulars in regard to Dalton the reader is re- ferred to Volume I of this work.

Red Clay: The Cher- Red Clay, famous in history and legend as okee Council Ground the Cherokee Indian Council Ground, lies a short distance north of the town of Dalton. Nearly a century has passed since this historic spot, stamped forever with the agony of a noble race, witnessed the signing of the famous treaty between those of the Cherokees who favored and those who opposed the United States Government. To this council of the two factions came the Indian chiefs and head men of the Cherokee Nation.

In the deliberations which ensued, the treaty party, headed by Ridge, declared "that the Cherokees could not exist amidst a white people; that while they loved the land of their fathers, they considered the fate of the exile far better than submission to the laws of a State." At the head of the party opposed to removal was John Ross, principal chief of the Cher- okees. The Committee of Conference met at Red Clay in October, 1835. To relieve the Cherokee Nation from its distressed condition, George M. Waters, John Martin, Richard Taylor, John Baldridge and John Benge, acting under the instructions of John Ross, principal chief, on the one part, and George Chambers, John Gunter, John Ridge, Charles Vann and Elias Boudinot, on the other, acting under instructions of Major Ridge and others of the treaty party, "agreed to bury in oblivion all unfriendly feelings and act unitedly in treaty with the United States for the relief of the nation. "'

This agreement was signed at Red Clay, October 24th, 1835. The treaty party met at New Echota, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, near the present town of Calhoun, and on the 29th of December, 1835, concluded the treaty with the United States Commissioner. The chiefs of the anti- treaty party did not attend this convention, and made every effort to

*White says that the town was named for Tristram Dalton, an English- man, but on the authority of Hon. Paul B. Trammell, it was named for John Dalton, as above credited.

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WHITFIELD

negotiate a new treaty, more favorable, but without success. By its terms' the Indians were permitted two years' grace in which to leave their beloved lands, but the time expired and they still repudiated the treaty. The United States government decided that the only possible way to make them move would be at the bayonet 's point.

John Ross, who made the most zealous efforts to save his people from expulsion, was born at Rossville, Georgia, October 3rd, 1790. His father was a full-blooded Scotchman and his mother a half-breed; he was therefore one-fourth Indian, as the Indians say, "a quateroon." He lived for a number of years at the home built by his grandfather, John McDonald, at Rossville, Ga., but he enlarged it, adding a council chamber twenty-three feet long, which for years had only one door. As a precau- tion, he later added two more doors, one opening into his bed-room in the center of the house. The house is now owned by John McNair McFar- land, a descendant of the McFarlands, into whose hands the Ross place passed, and in its exterior and interior has been little changed.

Chief Ross, about two years' before the exile, built a home at Flint Springs, Tenn., some five miles north of Red Clay. It was a two-story log house, a part of which still stands, though it has been improved and much changed. Nearby, on the Ross land, Dr. Butler, a missionary to the Indians, taught a school. It has been said that Ross moved to his Tennessee honie for protection, as the Government had troops stationed near there; certain it is that with his Indian wife, his children and negro servants, he was living at Flint Springs about 1837.

Tradition says that he had a daughter famed throughout the Cherokee land for her beauty, her grace of manner and modesty; in truth an irre- sistibly charming maiden. A young Indian chief was her suitor and gained the favor and approval of Ross, but not the love of the girl, for she had already given her heart to another, whom she frequently met in a seques- tered trysting place. The young man vowed that he could no longer endure life without her, and she yielded to his pleadings; in the dark and silent hours of the night she met her lover at the appointed place, mounted the horse behind him, rode away and married the man of her choice.

Near the Georgia-Tennessee line there still stands an ancient, two-story brick house built by Chief McEntyre. This quaint old mansion stands guard over an Indian burying-ground. In the corner of an old-fashioned garden, in a tangle of briers and viues, are several time-worn tombstones bearing names and dates still legible and interesting to the romantic passer- by. A few years ago there came from the West several of the descendants

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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIAL'S AND LEGENDS

of these Indians to visit the home and graces of their forefathers, made precious by tradition. Rev. A. R. T. Hambright, a gentleman eighty-five years old, still living near Red Clay, gives an interesting account of a visit made by him when a child in company with a trader and his uncle, to the McEntyre home. The men had a large amount of silver; which. they had secured from the Indians in trade and barter_ This silver they carried in saddle bags across an Indian pony, which the little six-year-old! boy rode. This was done to divert suspicion, as at that time the Cherokee Nation was in a state of disorder. This silver was exchanged for paper money at McEntyre's, where they spent the night.

In the years previous to the Red Clay convention, the Ross aml Ridge parties indulged in bitter and relentless hostilities, out of which grew the tragic death of Chief Jack Walker. The Chief became infatuated with a young white girl of fifteen summers, by name Emily. Her family op- posed the suit, but watching her opportunity she eloped with her lover. Taking the girl on the horse with him he swam the Tennessee River, pur- sued by her infuriated brothers, but untouched by their bullets. After their marriage they returned and lived in Walker Valley, near the present town of Cleveland, Tenn., on what is now called the Pryor Lea farm .. Tra -- dition says that he had two wives, the other an Indian, and that the two. lived in the same house in a most friendly manner until the chief was called' away for a short time, when the Indian wife invariably whipped the white one. The squaw, however, got her whipping when the chief returned.

At a meeting of the Council at the Old Fort, between Cleveland and 'Spring Place, Walker was accused of treason. He left for home with a friend, and when about nine miles away, at Muskrat Springs, was waylaid and shot by an assassin hidden in the top of a tree. Old mem still living remember the exact spot, for often as children it was pointed ont to them.

Tradition says that his wife, Emily, told several of her friends that she felt very uneasy about him during his absence on that memorable day, as she knew the Indians were angry, and that she felt relieved when looking out she saw him riding up the road on his gray horse. She sent a servant to take his horse and stood waiting for him to come to her. As no one came, she went out to learn the cause of the delay, finding only the servant, who said with trembling voice, "Mr. Walker is not here." She said she saw him as clearly as she ever saw anything in her life. A little later, at nightfall, he was brought home fatally wounded, living only a short time.

It was at this period of the strife that John Howard Payne arrived in the Nation of the Cherokees, resolved to study the Indian problem on the

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Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II, Part 81

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