USA > Georgia > Jones County > History of Jones County, Georgia, for one hundred years, specifically 1807-1907 > Part 18
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3. James Ross House built in 1826 by Mrs. Beersheba Jones, later the home of John and Capt. Peyton Pitts, and then the Pursley home.
4. Blair House built between 1810 and 1820 by John Mitchell, added to in 1820-22 by James Smith, then passed in turn to Mitchell, Smith, Bowen, Barron, Blair.
5. Dennis Greene House, built in 1810, remodeled by Capt. and Madam Jonathan Parrish (Nancy T. Slatter) ; became the home of Richard Henry Hutchings I, then Green. This was made historic by visits of Gen. LaFayette in 1835, and Gen. Kilpatrick in 1864.
6. Store of Charles Hutchings and Joseph Winship, built in 1829 by James Smith, 32 feet front by 104 feet deep, occupied in 1829 by Justice and Williams, in 1835 by Hitchings and Win- ship. Clowers store was on the southwest and Parrish on the northeast. (Owned now by Bullingtons. )
7. Part of the Dennis Green House was in 1830 the law office of Samuel Lowther and Alfred Iverson and was built in 1821 by Arthur Redding with 22-foot front and 40-foot back. On the south was the Parrish house and Mrs. Gibson was on the north.
8. Hamilton house was built in 1830 by James Lockett, next owned by Blount and later by Roland T. Ross. This was the birthplace of Mrs. Dorothy Blount Lamar of Macon, now owned by Hamiltons.
9. Holsenback house, built in 1811-12 by Jack Jones, the branch back of it to be used for a tan-yard, later occupied by, Jones, Allen, Morgan, Holsenback.
10. Ben Willingham house was built in 1821-26 by John W. Carrington : owned and occupied by Senator Alfred Iverson 1826 and the birthplace of his son, Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson; later occupied by, Carrington, Iverson, Juhans, Ellis and Willingham.
11. William Wiley Barron house, built in 1818 by Samuel Dennis : remodeled later by occupants ; later occupied by Dennis, Pope, Parke, and then by W. W. Barron.
12. Gresham house built in 1817 by David T. Milling, bound- ed by Pulaski, Pinckney, Madison, and Jackson Streets; occupied by Milling, Ormsby, Hutchings and Kingman.
13. Stewart house, built in 1810-11 by Robert Hutchings,
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Home of United States Senator Alfred Iverson and birthplace of Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson, Jr. in Clinton (Owned by Ben Wil- lingham of Macon).
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bounded by Pulaski on the front (Highway from Macon to Gray), Pinckney on the north and Washington on the south ; occupied by Robert Hutchings, Greaves, then Reuben Stewarts.
14. Lowther Hall (now burned), built in 1822 by Judge Sam- uel Lowther ; occupied by Lowther, Hardeman, Pursley, Dr. and Mrs. Frank Jones.
15. Oldest residence was built in 1809-10 by Charles McCar- thy, and was owned from 1880 by Mrs. Margaret E. Pope (Mr. Wiley) and Miss Rosetta Worsham, used as the post office at one time ; known as the McCarthy and the Pope House. (Owned by Reuben Stewart. )
James Ross House built in 1826 by Mrs. Bersheba Jones
The Ross Home and People
The James Ross home built in 1820 in Clinton by Mrs. Ber- sheba Jones is impressive in appearance situated in the crown of a hill back of the old Methodist church. In 1824 it was the home of John Pitts and Mary Moore, Ichabod and Peyton Pitts, brothers of Jack. Children of John and Mary Pitts were Martha who married David E. Blount; Maria Ann who became Mrs.
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W. W. Gibson; Dauphin the father of Mrs. Mamie Purlsey, Gus Pitts of Haddock and Elizabeth Pitts who married Samuel F. Anderson of Macon in a double wedding with her sister Mari- etta Pitts and Isaac Hardeman at the old, and later burned, David Blount house. It was in this old house Estelle Anderson of Macon was born. Peyton Pitts married Mrs. John Pitts' sister, Ann Moore; at her death he married another Moore sister. They rest by his side in the old Clinton cemetery. The Gibsons, Kingmans, and Andersons are double cousins, as Peyton Pitts was the grandfather of the first Mrs. Robert Kingman and of the Gibsons. John Pitt's second wife was Mrs. Mary Blount, mother of Col. James H. Blount father and Mrs. Walter D. Lamar, Fannie, Jim and Joe Blount. Mrs. Blount was the moth- er of Mrs. Alice Bowen Andrews and Mrs. Irene Bowen (Mrs. John Gray), another son was Ed Blount. Ichabod Pitts married Miss Emiline Winship and their children were Cora, Mamie, and Will Pitts; Mamie married Robert Hemphill of Atlanta.
The picture as you see shows the house in excellent condition. The medallions, stair and wainscoting are interesting and al- though the old boxwood gardens are gone, and the big trees, the place still is most attractive.
The Gordon-Bowen-Blount House
A few miles from Haddock, in Jones County, Georgia, is the old Gordon-Bowen-Blount house, which has stood unchanged over a hundred years. Because of its being practically unoccupied for nearly fifty years, there has been no incentive to remodel; consequently, it remains just as it was planned. A screened side porch has been added, which can easily be removed, and cement bases for the columns of the front stoop have been constructed.
Begun in 1828, it was many months in the building, as the intricacies of detail in the interior plaster and wood decoration attest. It was built for John W. Gordon afterwards a general in the Mexican War, who moved from Hancock County with his parents, Thomas and Patience W. Gordon, and lived for many years near the old fort at Fortville. The house has changed ownership but twice: when General Gordon, on removing to Texas to make his home, sold it to Thomas O. Bowen of Jones County, in 1848; and when he, in turn, went to Texas and sold
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Built in 1816 by Peter and Lurany Mitchell Clower also known as Hamilton and Andrews house.
it to his brother-in-law, James H. Blount, in 1880. It was de- scribed as "bounded by the road leading from Thomas O. Bow- en's house to Fortville, and by lands of J. H. Blount and James Finney" It belongs to the Blount estate, although never having been used as a permanent home by the Blounts.
When the Floyd Rifles were called to Norfolk, Va., in April, 1861, Eugenia Wiley of Macon, and her sweetheart, James H. Blount of Jones County, were married. There was not time for a honeymoon so they drove to the home of his sister, Mrs. Thom- as O. Bowen, to spend a few days, before he joined his company in Norfolk. Because of the sentiment attached. Mr. Blount bought the house in 1880. Thereafter, even though he was in Congress at the time, and later was sent by President Cleveland as special envoy to the Hawaiian Islands, while retaining a resi- dence in Macon, whenever it was possible he and Mrs. Blount spent their wedding anniversary at the old house in Jones Coun- ty. This custom Mrs. Blount has kept up during her years of widowhood. It was later the setting for many delightful picnic parties given by her daughter, Mrs. Walter D. Lamar of Macon.
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In 1819, a young artisan, Daniel Pratt, left his birthplace, Temple, N. H., and arrived in Savannah with his kit of tools. For five years he had been in training as a carpenter, with ship- building experience on the New England coast. In 1821, he went to Milledgeville, then the capital, where several houses in the town and county reflect his work with either a spiral or an ellipti- cal staircase, among them being "Westover," in Baldwin County, and Lowther Hall, in Jones. He bought a plantation in 1825
Hamilton House built in 1830 by James Lockett. Later owned by Blount and Ross. Mrs. Dolly Blount Lamar was born here.
from John W. Gordon, near the old fortification in Jones County, on the stage road to Milledgeville. Two years later he married Esther Ticknor, who was on a visit from her home in New Eng- land to the family of her late brother, Dr. Orray Ticknor, in Clinton. It was soon after that that he began the construction of the mansion house for John W. Gordon.
A man of indomitable energy and far-reaching vision, Daniel Pratt later founded the town of Prattville, Ala., and made a fortune in the manufacture of cotton gins. His residence at Pratt-
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ville, still standing, is almost a replica of the Gordon house in Jones County.
On a high hill above Commissioners Creek, and situated in a grove of red oaks and hickories and storm-torn white oaks, the Gordon house faces due east, and is surrounded by a plantation of several thousand acres. In the earlier days the approach to the house from the big gate was around a circular driveway,
Day-Barron Place near Round Oak (in ruins) Built about 1825.
An old stone used in Morgan's tannery at Clinton, erected to the Pioneer citizens by the Morton Chap- ter, D.A.R.
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bordered with paulownia trees, to an avenue of crepe myrtle which still borders the walk leading to the front stoop. Within the circle of the driveway were flower beds bordered in boxwood in geometrical designs.
Resting on a foundation of old brick, a few feet high, the house is without basement or cellar. The two-story stoop is typi- cal of the period. Two fluted wooden columns of Roman Doric order uphold a pediment in which guttae have been employed in place of the more conventional dentils; and a frieze with guttae extends across the house under the eaves. Pilasters at each corner of the facade balance pleasantly with those that flank the door- way. The balcony, rimmed with turned balusters, extends to the pillars. The house is built of wooden clapboards, with two stories and an attic, and has a gabled roof.
The arresting feature of the facade then and today is the intricate design of the fanlights above the doors. Roman in feeling and semi-circular in form, the lower fanlight rests in pilaster shafts and side-lights with lower panels flanking double, six-paneled doors. The upper fan-light is elliptical.
To those who know the house the staircase is an anticipation : to others a glad surprise, for it is spiral, with all the beauty that its tradition implies. The hallway is divided by an elliptical arch, the front hall being ten feet in width, but widening beyond the archway to form a circular hall for the stairway. Springing from a shaft with fluted pilasters on front and back, but paneled on the inner side, the arch is delicately designed and has an acan- thus-leaf decoration.
Beginning just behind the left shaft, the free-hanging stair- case rises in a graceful spiral to the attic floor. The round hand- rail is of walnut and the balusters, plain and attenuated, are of pine, three-quarters of an inch in width. An applied scroll of carved wood, gilded, decorates the stringer. The latter is painted to represent black marble, and the newel post is black, with gold trim.
The mantels are very beautiful, especially the one in the living room, flanked by a tall deeply set niche on either side. The medallions of carved and ever-widening circles overhead are exquisitely done. The wainscoting around the base of the
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walls is in perfect condition and attractively panelled in light and dark woods. The moldings are wide and intricate.
This house cost General Gordon over $60,000 and it took five years to build it. Dr. Horatio Owen Bowen bought the house
The spiral stair at the Gordon-Bowen-Blount house near Haddock-built by Daniel Pratt.
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and plantation from Gen. Gordon when cotton was selling for four cents a pound. Dr. Bowen gave the place to his son, Thom- as O. Bowen. Dr. Horatio Bowen was an esteemed physician, a graduate of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He had one of the most complete libraries in the South in a building separate from the home, which Sherman burned, while the Fed- erals occupied the big house. South of the house was a huge scuppernong vine and a fruit orchard of peaches. figs, quinces, apples and cherries. On one side were currant bushes and the purple fragrant lilac plants. Joining this was the vegetable garden naturally terraced with eight big vegetables beds with broad walks between bordered with white and purple iris. At the corners were rosebushes which bloomed every month. The poppies and jonquils formed beds along the terraces.
(Now owned by Dr. Lindsey of Milledgeville, who kindly let me visit and photograph the house. )
The Runaway Bride-A True Story The Gordon House
The runaway bride was a beautiful brunette beauty, Miss Camilla Gordon, daughter of Gen. and Mrs. John W. Gordon. The wedding had been planned for months and the plantation had never looked prettier. It was spring, flowers were in bloom, the mockingbirds sang and the moon silhouetted the large trees, the grass was emerald green and the big house with a fresh coat of white paint looked like a bride itself. Even the slave houses were whitewashed and the yards clean and prim with spring snow-on-the-mountain, cape jasamine, and prince feather. The groom was to come by boat to Savannah and get the stage coach for the wedding. A caterer from New York had been at the house for days and with the help of the servants had made the most luscious food and the drinks were plentiful. The linens were pressed to a queen's taste and the satin wedding dress laid out in the guest room, with its real lace Juliet cap and yards of veiling and a long satin train. Surely no queen could have had a more beautiful face or setting than Camille, but few noticed that she was restless and on edge. The day before the groom was to arrive, Camille met her lover at a huge old oak tree on the Drew Place nearby. He had his best horse hitched to a new
Gordon-Bowen-Blount House built in 1828 by Daniel Pratt (now : owned by Dr. Lindsey) .
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buggy and together they drove to Clinton with all of the haste possible, which was about eleven miles. As they drove up to the courthouse, the horse fell dead. They were married in front of the courthouse steps in Clinton and got the stage coach to Sa- vannah. As the bride and groom arrived at the hotel whom should Camilla Gordon see but her would-be groom leaving the hotel. Now I would like to give his name and to tell what hap- pened after that, but that is all that I know. We do know that the Gordon family moved to Texas about 1848.
The Comer House
This house was built in 1817 by David T. Milling, bounded by Pulaski (Macon Highway) Pinckney St. on the north and Wash- ington on the south; was occupied by Milling, Ormsby, Hutch- ings, Kingman, Gresham, and now owned by Mrs. Mary Comer. This house had been changed by removal of two porches and only the main rooms are as originally built.
The Small's House
The George Small's own one of the very old houses in Jones County. It is built on a hill and very impressive, sturdy and strong with a long veranda. On a stone set in the grassy front are the words carved, "William Johnson, 1849." The high steps are of native granite and Mr. Small says that old mill stones down on the creek near the house weigh tons and are smoothly chiselled, showing just where the old mill stood. The rooms are large with the traditional high ceilings and have large fireplaces with handwrought andirons and fire set. The setting of oaks and plants give a cool, shady and ante-bellum appearance to this attractive and well kept place. This is located several miles on the road passing the old Clinton Methodist Church.
Newton House in Forsyth Moved from Clinton
The Newton home in Forsyth was torn down 130 years age in Clinton and moved to Forsyth by ox cart. This is a beautiful two-story house and one of the show places in Forsyth. It is named "Ishpekan" meaning "it is high." At the ends of the huge structure are two broad chimneys, very substantial and in keep- ing with the size of the house.
The house has characteristics of the New England houses of its day. During the Civil War it was used as a commissary. The
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Reubin Stewart House built in 1810 by Robert Hutchings bounded by Pulaski Street in front, Pinckney and Madison.
Dennis Greene House built in 1810, owned by Nancy Slatter and Jon- athan Parrish then Hutchings. Made his- toric by visits of Gen. LaFayette in 1825 and Gen. Kilpatrick of the Federals in 1864.
The John C. Greene House built in 1820.
Built in 1817 by David T. Milling, later owned by Mill- ing, Ormsby, Hutchings, Kingman, Comers. The home has lost the porches and col- umns and part of the build- ing.
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home is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Howell Newton. The garden and old brick walks and boxwood are all in keeping with the house.
Peyton Pitts House on the Garrison Road. Burned in 1950-Owned by Jernigan Wood in 1870. (Courtesy of Mary Wood Smith)
Peyton Pitts House
The Peyton Pitts house was built about 1835 on the old Indian Trail known as "Horse Path" and later called the Garrison Road. Soon after Pitts built his house he built the church, Pitts Chapel, which is still in use. The house like many of that period was large and sturdy with long porches, painted white with the dark green blinds. Peyton Pitts built a village of his own, for his house and church was only part of the village. There was the grain house, the smokehouse, the shop and carriage house, the slave cabins, and the pigeon house. These were all painted white in a large grove of oak and hickory trees. Pitts liked pigeons and he could be seen mornings and evenings with a basket of grain feeding them. The house burned about 1950. Pitts sold the place to Jernagin Wood about 1870. Pitts Chapel will be found in "Churches."
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Cabiness House-Built by George and Sarah Kirk Cabiness near Bradley about 1820. (Courtesy of Mrs. Doris Hungerford Fraley)
Cabiness House
The old George and Sarah Kirk Cabiness house built about 1808 and lately restored by a descendant, Mrs. Doris Hunger- ford Fraley, is located near Bradley. On land not far away is a walled-in burial lot of this family. Mrs. Fraley has a hand- woven sampler made by the daughter of George and Sarah Cabiness, Martha A. W. Barron, wife of Benjamin Barron. The house is located in Barron's District, G.M.D. 300. A very sturdy and attractive building with unusual motifs on cornice and man- tels. The yellow and green in the old sampler was used in restor- ing the interior.
The drill grounds of the Militia in Jones County were near this house and during periods of war were in constant use. The place is located about two miles east of Bradley.
The Day-Barron Place
The old Day Place, which was built by Joseph Day is now in ruins but was once a show place in the county. Joe Day, who was Speaker of the House for five terms was a very outstanding
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The home of the poetess, Jane Thigpen in Clinton, used for a one-teacher school for many years after her death. (Courtesy of Mrs. Kate Ross)
man in the county. His life is found in "Men of Mark" in this book. He built the house about 1820. It had two stories and a full basement with a wide hall on the first floor. The stair was very attractive with a graceful curving mahogany stair rail which went up to the attic above the second floor. The rooms were large with high ceilings and until recent years there were two wide short porches in front. The drive came through an avenue of cedars for 200 yards and then at the gate the huge boxwoods made the walk on to the house. Boxwoods were also used as a foundation planting. When the house was new Hon. Joe Day had his friends from the Capital in Milledgeville to drive over to a great barbecue dinner out under the majestic oaks in the grove. The place was sold to Benjamin Barron in 1845 and is now called the Barron Place. Benjamin Barron reared a large family here and the graveyard enclosed by an iron fence is nearby. At present the property is owned by Dr. B. L. White.
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The Old Clinton Hotel
This historic house now owned by Mrs. Valentine Barron Blair is located at the east corner of the public square (on the road from Milledgeville to Fort Hawkins). This house was built between 1810 and 1820 by John Mitchell. In 1820 it was added to by James Smith, a lawyer. Other owners were: Mitchell, Smith, Bowen, Barron and Blair. The old Census record shows that guests were registered at this old hotel from New York, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, and several from Ireland.
The two-storied large house has columns across the front on both porches, upstairs and downstairs and the detail of the wood-
Top-The old Clinton Hotel as it looks today.
Bottom-The old Johnson House in Clinton as it is now. (1956)
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work is most interesting. The walls, ceilings and floors have very wide hand-hewn boards of the heart of pine. When having some work done on the staircase a few years ago, the workman found two old duelling pistols hidden there. The story is that the man of the house was to meet his challenge one morning early, so the night before his wife dropped the pistols down behind the stair well and they were never found.
The W. W'. Barron House
The W. W. Barron house now owned by Miss Ben Barron was built in 1818 by Samuel Dennis; remodeled by later occu- pants, Pope's, Parks (Wiley B. Pope), Michael Sullivan, Chas. Hutchings, Geo. Mann. Mrs. Mary J. Park to Mrs. Ida Barron. The deeds speak of the streets of Clinton as west side, Pulaski Street, east side, as Cook's Lane, north side as David White's Land and south as Washington Street, Pinkney on north.
This is an attractive two-story house high on the bank of Macon-Gray highway and is in a good state of preservation.
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The Joseph Glawson House built about 1842 by James Gray then owned by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Ware Stewart and then bought by Joseph Glawson.
(Courtesy of Mrs. Jewell Brooks)
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Glawson House
The Joseph Glawson house was built about 1842 and first owned by Judge James Gray, father of the James Gray for whom the City of Gray was named. The house was then sold to Thomas Ware Stewart and wife Palatia Harrison Wilson Stew- art, M.D., next the home was sold to Joseph Glawson and was in possession of this family until it was torn down in recent years. The place was very attractive with great boxwood borders and old cedars and a vista of rolling land and forests on every side and the cotton fields of hundreds of acres, in the distance.
The U. S. Lancaster Home
This old home was moved from Blountsville between 1845-50 and at that time belonged to J. B. Godard. He had bought the house from Williams prior to this. It was taken down piece by piece and all of the framework has Roman numerals cut on them for matching, in order to put the house up, as it was. The huge uprights of the heart of pine go from the ground up through the second story to the top of the house, about 75 feet. William Morton bought this from Godard. The home is attrac- tive inside and out and is typical of the ante-bellum buildings of the 1820's. The home is now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. U. S. Lancaster, located about halfway between Haddock and Gray.
Greene Home
The deeds to this property of the Greene home run back to 1807. In 1862 the Greene family came into possession through an executor's sale. The place contained 900 acres, and four hun- dred more acres were purchased later. It was the boast of the Greene family that never had a bushel of corn, a pound of meat nor a sack of flour been purchased for the place. The house was built by Henry Finney in about 1821. The hand-carved mantels were a great attraction. A vault over the grave of Benjamin Finney and one over the grave of William Reynolds, indicate foremer owners as shown by deeds. One headstone of W. M. Greene shows that he was the youngest brother in the family. He died in Macon in 1896 at 26 years. A. B. Greene reared eleven of his own children and five orphan children, three boys and two girls, nieces and nephews whose parents were dead.
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This place is near the Dunlap place and in recent years has been called "Honeysuckle Hill," because of the abundant growth of wild honeysuckle along the streams and boundaries.
White House
Col. Thomas White is listed as one of the first settlers of Jones County, and is on the list of Justices in 1810. Represented Jones County in the Legislature in 1817-1818. He marreid Eliz- abeth Haynes Clark of Virginia and built his home near the Jasper County line, and White's District is named for him. At first the house was a square two-story structure, with fanlights over the lower and upper doors with double porches upstairs and down. Later two wings were added on each side of the tall structure. The old family cemetery stands nearby enclosed in a wall made of massive native stones. Back of the big house stood slave cabins and a large two-story brick house used for spinning and weaving. This building was taken down when the grandsons built their houses at a later date, the brick were used for chim- neys and pillars. The old brick kitchen still stands, with the huge fireplace and Dutch ovens. The brick are handmade from clay on the place and fired in an oven.
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