USA > Georgia > Tift County > History of Tift County > Part 3
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30. Durham .Hancock, $8.75; 31. Jordan Hancock, $5.75; 32. James T. Hancock, $2.38; 33. Lewis Harrell, $2.38; 34. William Kirby, $9.75; 35. Daniel Kinard, $12.00; 36. Arthur Lindsey, $8.75; 37. Joshua Lovett, $15.75: 38. McKeeny McLeod, $5.75; 39. Malcom McCrae, $21.50; 40. William McCranie $21.75: 41. Niel E. McCranie, $16.75: 42. John D. McCranie, $5.75; 43. Daniel McCranie, Sr., $15.00; 44. John Mc- Dermit, $27.75; 45. Norman McDonald, $26.00; 46. Malakiah Monk, $11.75: 47. William Monk, $9.00; 48. Rice Mathis, $7.25; 49. C. J. O'Neal, $2.00; 50. R. N. Parrish, $9.50; 51. A. A. Parrish, $10.50; 52. James Parrish, $16.50; 53. E. W. Parrish, $11.50; 54. Joseph Parrish,
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HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
$5.50; 55. Alexander Patterson, $15.55; 56. West Rountree, $17.20; 57. Thomas Rooks, $14.00; 58. D. C. Smith, $5.25; 59. Jona R. Varner, $5.25; 60. S. G. Williams, $13.50; 61. E. J. Williams, $7.50.
When a transcript of the pay roll was printed in The Tifton Gazette, J. L. Herring commented in part as follows (Sept. 23, 1898) : "The fol- lowing transcript of an old and interesting document was found by Mr. O. F. Sheppard's 12-year-old daughter, May, on the street near his resi- dence one day last week .
"Besides being interesting as a relic of the Creek war of 1836, it con- tains the names of many of the fathers and grandfathers of the men who are now among the most honored citizens of Berrien .
"It should be a matter of no small pride to their descendants that so many volunteers of this Florida company were from what is now Berrien, attesting, in no small degree, to their bravery and daring."
Creeks are departing for their new home west of the Mississippi, where the United States Government is sending them. An old squaw on a ship disconsolately fumbles with her last reminder of her home in the east, a little bundle of her possessions. She opens and closes-opens and closes- the bundle. Tears roll down her cheeks, as she sings the pathetic notes,26 "I have no more land; I am driven away from home, driven up the red waters ; let us all go, let us all die together, and somewhere upon the banks we will be there."
Officials of a tribe of Creeks are walking in single file, carrying the sacred plates.27 Another tribe is carrying the large conch shells which the Indians had used in the black drink during the Green Corn Festivals. A group is guarding some of the "town fire" from this beloved home in the East. so that they can keep the old home-fires burning in the West.
Oweeta, a beautiful Creek maiden, is roaming for the last time in her beloved woodland.28 Sad things have happened since she has roamed in this spot. The "pale faces" have seized the Indian lands, and the poor Creeks can do nothing. William McIntosh, the chief of her tribe, has been mur- dered for signing a treaty.
She wanders down by the waters of Labothacossa at Indian Springs, Georgia, until she reaches a weather-beaten rock, where there is an outline of an arrow-pierced heart. Here she has spent many hours with her lover, Kotoomi, on this trysting rock ; but now her people must leave-must leave their homes and journey to the West. How her heart aches to leave these beautiful hills and valleys, the whispering leaves, and the murmuring waters of the old stream as it ripples over rocks.
26. Debo's "Road to Disappearance" page 105 lines 35-36, page 106 line 1.
27. Ibid.
28. Scene based on "The Legend of the Bleeding Heart," by Josephine Jones, Atlanta Journal.
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HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
Kotoomi had whispered, "The wild forest lands will continue on the other side of the big river-we'll have freedom in the West."
"Alas, the forest of the West will never be the forest of the East!" Oweeta exclaims sobbing, recalling his words, as she kisses the old rock, dear to her heart, and sadly turns to join the crowds of departing Indians.
As the Creeks reach their new land, some of them prophesy with tears ;29 "We ... are facing the evening of our existence and are nearly at the end of the trail that we trod when we were forced to leave our homes in Ala- bama and Georgia."
Screen flashes Pleasant Porter, chief of Creeks at the end of the nine- teenth century. He is the son of a white man and a squaw of the Perry- man family. Standing before a Senate committee in 1906, Porter eloquently gives a farewell message:30
"The vitality of our race still persists. We have not lived for naught. We are the original discoverers of this continent, and the conquerors of it from the animal kingdom, and on it first taught the arts of peace and war, and first planted the institutions of virtue, truth, and liberty. The Euro- pean nations found us here and were made aware that it was possible for men to exist and subsist here. We have given to the European people on this continent our thought forces -- the best blood of our ancestors having inter- mingled with (that of) their best statesman and leading citizens we have made ourselves an indestructible element in their natural history. We have shown that what they believed were arid and desert places were habitable and capable of sustaining millions of people. We have led the vanguard of civilization in our conflict with them for tribal existence from ocean to ocean. The race that has rendered this service to the other nations of man- kind can not utterly perish."
29. Debo's "Road to Disappearance" p. 106, lines 12-13-14-15.
30. Reproduced in "Road to Disappearance" by Debo, lines 16-30, page 377, from Creek Tribal Records, 35664; 59 Cong., Sen. Rep. No. 5013. I 627f.
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HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
CHAPTER II.
FOOTSTEPS OF "PALEFACES"
As the footsteps of "red men" fade, let us listen to near and distant tramps of early "palefaces" in our section of the new world. The first Europeans to leave tracks in the wire grass region were Hernando De Soto and his men. With soldiers, horses, hogs, weapons, handcuffs, chains, neck collars, and implements for digging gold, these Spaniards landed at Tampa Bay, Florida in 1539.
According to Lucian Lamar Knight in "Georgia Landmarks, Memo- rials and Legends," Vol. I, Sec. II, p. I, these cavaliers, wearing handsome armor and bringing horses caparisoned, resembled more a cavalcade of knights than an adventurous band seeking treasures in the wilderness. "This little army," Jones, the historian said, (Vol. I, p. 38) "was composed of men accustomed to wars, skilled in the use of weapons and inured to hard- ships. Scarcely a gray head appeared among them." Twelve priests, eight clergymen, four monks, to convert the Indians, and men of letters to de- scribe the events of the march were in the group.
The purpose of the expedition was to discover the wealth of the new world. After planting the flag of Spain in what is now Tampa, and claim- ing the country in the name of Charles V, De Soto marched northward.
In 1540 he and his men marched from Tallahassee, Florida, to Decatur, Georgia, on through original Irwin County to Laurens; he probably did not touch what is now Tift County.
Historians do not agree as to De Soto's route, but they generally con- cede that he came through Wire Grass Georgia.
The following is the itinerary according to Jones's "History of Georgia," Vol. I, p. 66.
March 3, 1540-Left Anhayea (Tallahassee).
March 7, 1540-Crossed a deep river (Ocklockony).
March 9, 1540-Arrived at Capachiqui.
March 21, 1540-Came to Toalli in Irwin County near the Ocmulgee. March 24, 1540-Left Toalli.
March 25, 1540-Arrived at Achese, located in Wilcox County, near what is now Abbeville, on the Ocmulgee River.
April 1, 1540-Departed from Achese.
April 4, 1540-Passed through the town of Altamaca.
April 10, 1540-Arrived at Ocute in Laurens County.
April 12, 1540-Left Ocute. Passed through a town, whose lord was called Cofaqui, and came to the province of another land, named Patofa. April 14, 1540-Departed from Patofa.
April 20, 1540-Lost in a pine barren. Six days consumed in fording two rivers (source of the Great Ogeechee) .
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April 26, 1540-Set out for Aymay, a village reached at nightfall.
April 28, 1540-Departed for Cutifachiqui (Silver Bluff on the Savan- nah River, 25 miles below Augusta).
May 3, 1540-Left Cutifachiqui (Cherokee, Georgia, probably in Frank- lin County ).
May 15, 1540-Arrived at Xualla (Nacoochee Valley, near Mount Yonah ) .
May 20, 1540-Arrived at Gauxule (Coosawattee, Old Town in Mur- ray County ).
May 22, 1540-Arrived at Conasauga (New Echota in Gordon Coun- ty).
June 5, 1540-Arrived at Chiaha, Rome, Georgia.
July 1, 1540-Departed from Chiaha.
The opinion of several historians is that De Soto devastating homes and crops, as he passed through settlements, was intensely cruel to the Indians. "Red men" at a village near the spot where Abbeville is now, entertained him despite his rude manner.
According to Dr. Walter Martin,1 historian, the Spanish were sole claimers of this Southeastern section of the United States throughout the sixteenth century, during which time the Catholic friars converted many Indians to the Catholic faith. Spanish missions grew up in certain sections of South Georgia, and the priests at that time went into the forest trying to save the "red men's" souls.
After the Spanish and later the French, who sailed along? "the island- fringed edge of Georgia," came the footsteps of the English. Let us flash back to 1629 when3 "Charles I gave to Robert Heath a grant of land, be- ginning south of Virginia at 36° and extending to 31° at the north tip of Cumberland Island." This region, which included all the territory from the mouth of the Chowan River in North Carolina almost to the present Georgia-Florida boundary line was named Carolina.4 Our section of South Georgia was then a part of English Carolina rather than Spanish Florida.
The English and Spanish were then about to cross swords for territory. While these countries were disputing in 1733, came the footsteps of the great founder of Georgia, Oglethorpe. The Spanish at this time reclaimed all territory south of the Georgia Colony, the boundaries of which were the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers. The present South Georgia territory had reverted to the Spanish. Our section3 "remained Spanish until 1703 when, at the close of the French and Indian Wars, England was given all terri- tory east of the Mississippi River. Even Florida became English and for
1. "History of Tift County," published in The Tifton Gazette.
2. Coulter's "A Short History of Georgia," p. 4.
3. Ibid .. p. 8.
4. Martin's "History of Tift County," published in Tifton Gazette.
5. Ibid 4.
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the first time our section of South Georgia actually became a part of Geor- gia." St. Mary's River was the southern boundary line of Georgia.
Although at different times South Georgia was like a seesaw with Spain on one end, and England on the other, the rightful owners were the Indians until the United States Government effected treaties with the "red men."
To return to the footsteps of Oglethorpe, in 1729 he was chairman of a committee to investigate the debtor prisons. One reason for his keen in- terest was the fact that one of his friends was in one of the prisons. The investigation was the cause of the release of 10,000 prisoners, many of whom had little hope for the future after their release. Oglethorpe, there- fore, suggested sending some of these debtors to America. After the char- ter was drawn and twenty-one persons, constituting a Board of Trustees, were appointed, the selection of people from reputable families was effected. These6 "sober, industrious, and moral persons appeared before the trus- tees, signified their final desire to go and signed articles of agreements." Between one hundred fourteen and one hundred twenty-five men, women, and children stepped on the gangplank of the ship Anne, and later, on January 13, 1733, landed at Charleston, South Carolina.
On February 12, 1733, later designated as the birthday of Georgia, Oglethorpe and his people made footprints eighteen miles from the mouth of the Savannah River on a bluff, then occupied by Yamacraw Indians, a banished tribe of the Creeks, some of whom lived in what is now Tift County, and their chief was Tomochichi. Oglethorpe also found there the wife of John Musgrove, Mary, who being able to speak English, served as an interpreter. Here four tents in a picturesque grove of pines, and moss-draped magnolias and live oaks sheltered these colonists, who made the first settlement in the mainland of Georgia.
Thus? "Georgia had been set up not for debtors alone. The Trustees had a much broader vision ; there was a place for fortunate Englishmen as well as unfortunate Englishmen ; and there was even room for foreigners, with the state of their fortune no barrier to their entry."
Now as we watch flashes of the "red men" on the screen of time, let us observe scenes presenting "pale faces" who have left tracks on our histori- cal soil.
The screen flashes an event of 1735, when Oglethorpe returns from Eng- land, where he carried Tomochichi, his wife, Senauki, his nephew, and five Creek Chiefs with their attendants. On May 18, at ten o'clock in the morning, Oglethorpe finds that Mr. Wiggan, the interpreter, with the chief men of all the Lower Creek Nation has come for an alliance with the new colony.
6. Coulter's op. cit. p. 21.
7. Ibid., p. 23
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HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
Oglethorpe receives them in one of the new houses in Savannah. Several Indian chiefs speak and present gifts. Tomochichi, mico, now comes in with the Indians of Yamacraw, all of whom bow low to Oglethorpe, who with ingenious tact has won the friendship of the red people.
Tomochichi speaks: "I was a banished man; I came here poor and help- less to look for good land near the tombs of my ancestors, and the trustees sent people here; I feared you would drive us away, for we were weak and wanted corn ; but you confirmed our land to us, gave us food and instructed our children. We have already thanked you in the strongest words we could find, but words are no return for such favors; for good words may be spoken by the deceitful and by the upright.
"The chief men of all our nation are here to thank you for us; and be- fore them I declare your goodness, and that here I design to die; for we all love your people so well that with them we will live and die. We do not know good from evil, but desire to be instructed and guided by you, that we may do well with and be numbered amongst the children of the trus- tees."
It is 1742. Oglethorpe's troops composed of regulars, Indians, and provincial troops are marching up and down the road which the colonist regiment cut through the center of St. Simons Island from Fort St. Simons to Frederica.
(Oglethorpe suffered defeat at St. Augustine with the Spaniards, and then marched his despondent inen back northward. He lay ill of fever for two months at Frederica. Aware that the Spaniards were preparing to descend on Georgia, Oglethorpe strengthened his forts on the coast, main- tained good relations with Indians, and called for assistance from the South Carolina troops, who refused. On July 4, 1742, Spaniards stood off St. Si- mons Sound, preparing to land on the island. They ran by Fort St. Simons with no difficulty and landed near Frederica.)
Screen flashes events of July 7.9 Oglethorpe and his men are attacking the Spaniards as they march in a mile of Frederica. He captures the Span- ish commander and kills or captures the most of the troop. The remnant retreat while Oglethorpe's Highlanders and others follow. Georgians reach an open glade and conceal themselves, while Oglethorpe returns to Fred- erica for reenforcements.
Another Spanish troop, arriving, attacks the ambushed Georgians, who flee. Oglethorpe meets these men on his return.10 "A group of Highlanders under Lieutenants Southerland and Mackay suddenly execute a flank movement, get in the rear of the Spaniards and ambush another glade about
8. Tomochichi's speech from Political State of Great Britain Vol. 47 is reproduced in Cooper's History of Georgia, Vol I, page 157.
9. Scene based on facts from Coulter's op. cit., p. 46. .
10. Ibid., p. 46.
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HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
two miles from Fort St. Simons." Spaniards march out into this glade, stack their guns, and prepare to rest on their laurels of victory. The Highlanders open fire, rush in to the open, and before the attack is over kill or capture two hundred Spaniards.
(This fight was later called the Battle of Bloody Marsh. According to Coulter in "A Short History of Georgia," page 46, this battle, though a minor engagement, helped to unnerve the main Spanish force and led to its ultimate return to Florida.)
CHAPTER III FOOTSTEPS OF EARLY SETTLERS
The screen flashes events of 1800 through the "sixties." The time now is 1800. Listen to the reverberations of the axe, while "pale faces" in jeans and brogans are cutting down trees and clearing the land for shanties and farms. The scene shifts. Now several families, forced on account of dan- gerous Indians to work together in the Tallassee Country, are building their houses in a stockade. ("Tallassee is the name applied to this country by our Legislature in the Act of December 28, 1794. In various other places in the state papers where mention is made of this country it is called Tal- lassee, but Mr. Jefferson in his message to Congress 1802 calls it the Tal- lahassee Country. It embraces all of Southeastern Georgia except the counties of Glynn and Camden ; the larger part, if not the whole of South- ern and Southwestern Georgia was comprehended in it; much likewise of Middle Florida"-("Digest of the Laws of Georgia"-Watkins).
These men are representatives of the immigrants from Virginia, South Carolina, Maryland, and North Carolina.
Now men with their guns are hunting wild deer, birds, and turkeys. These men are not pleasure seekers; the forest is the main source of food except for the little farms, mere gardens, which these farmers till in groups on account of lurking bears, catamounts, and wolves.
It is midnight in Wire Grass Georgia. Vibrations of an unearthly howl startle a woman in a log cabin. A close-up shows terror in her eyes, as she awakens, dazed, and shakes her husband who is sleeping by her. She, in a sweeping yellow homespun gown, and he, in his long night shirt, jump out of bed and seize their guns. These immigrants are not yet accustomed to the howls of wolves in the forest.
Screen flashes events of 1803. There is a buzz in the Georgia Legisla- ture. The Land Lottery Act, which provides for surveying of new lands at public expense, has just passed. The land is to be divided into lots of equal size, each of which is to be given a number. The numbers after be- ing recorded will be written on individual slips, which are placed in a box.
It is 1818. The Act of the Georgia Legislature creating three new coun- ties, Early on the west, Irwin in the center, and Appling on the east, are approved. The counties include the land obtained from Creeks in 1818 and Cherokees by the United States in the treaties of August 1814,
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HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
at Fort Jackson, at the Cherokee Agency July 8, 1817, and at the Creek Agency on the Flint River, January 22, 1818.
(Irwin at this time embraced what is now Worth, Wilcox, Turner, Ben Hill, Tift, Colquitt, Thomas, Cook, Brooks, Berrien, Lowndes, Echols, Clinch, Lanier, Atkinson, Coffee, Ware, Charlton, Jeff Davis, Bacon, Pierce, and Brantley. )
Scene shifts, but the time is still 1818. According to the provision of the Act of 1818, based on the Land Lottery Act of an early date, Irwin has been surveyed into sixteen land districts and 6,500 lots. The drawing is being held, and a small grant fee, required from each grantee. Each man over eighteen years of age and a resident of the United States for at least three years can draw once. Extra provisions have been made for orphans, widows, and veterans.
Flashes come from Irwin County 1840-1850.
A farmer is loading his wagon with a bale of cotton, chickens, eggs, bees- wax, tallow, and hides. While the wagon creaks along a sandy road, he slaps the lines on the old ox's back and hollers, "Git up, Sambo!" This farmer is taking his produce to the nearest town.
His return home after the long journey is a rare event to his family. His wife and children run to meet him and help bring in the packages. Gleefully the little boys and girls tear holes in the packages and peek at sugar, coffee, tobacco, and salt. Finally there are screams of delight; the wife has found a few yards of lace, ribbon, and calico, and the children, a few sticks of peppermint candy.
Mrs. Farmer is weaving on the loom the customary pattern of cloth, checks, for tablecovers, bedspreads, and children's dresses. Cotton has been carded and wound into thread, which came in large hanks from the reel. The thread after being dyed with home-grown indigo, pomegranate, wal- nut, or logwood and copperas is ready for the loom.
This scene is a log-rolling. The whole community has come to help Mr. Farmer get his land ready for plowing. Trees have been cut into convenient lengths of fifteen feet. Men have been divided into groups of nine, and the prize poles, carried by leaders, have been driven under the ends of the logs, which have been raised. Log-sticks of hickory or black- gum have been thrust under logs, which are being carried by four sturdy partners to a heap, where armfuls of limbs, bark, and lightwood are being thrown between spaces by the lads. Now the boys are lighting the pile; a fire is roaring in the forest.
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HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
Lads are carrying to the thirsty men drinking gourds in wooden buckets of water. The large brown jug is there, too, for the older men.
With ropes women are pulling down a quilting frame from the joists, where it hangs when not in active service. Now they are quilting and gos- siping around the frame.
The dinner horn sounds a welcome message to the hungry men, who rush to the water shelf on the front porch. Admiring glances from the ladies do not hinder the hand scrubbing. Now the men are ushered into the sand-covered kitchen, where dinner is spread. The odor of collards and ham whets the appetites. After the blessing, the first shift enjoys eating collards, cornbred, chicken and rice, ham, pork, potato custard, pies, and cakes. Now the remainder of guests and the homefolk have their chance at the log-rolling dinner.
Boys and girls are singing on the way to a dance : "Old Dan Tucker he got drunk Fell in a fire and kicked up a chunk ; Red hot coals got in his shoe Oh, good granny how the ashes flew.
"Cotton-eyed Joe with a tune from the South Everywhere I go I hear his big mouth I'd been rich a long time ago If it hadn't been for knock-kneed Cotton-eyed Joe
"Irwin County gals, won't you come out tonight, Come out tonight, come out tonight ? Irwin County gals, won't you come out tonight And dance by the light of the moon ?"
Garlands of wild flowers and branches of pines enliven this drab room in a loghouse, for it is a festive occasion, a dance. Men are smoking, or chewing and spitting tobacco juice, and the ladies are dipping snuff while watching the young folk play twistification to the accompaniment of
"Oh, come along, my pretty little miss Come along my honey ! Oh, come along my pretty little miss And don't go home till Monday. You are my sugar and tea ;
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HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
You are my darling ; And now I'll turn my sugar and tea And now I'll turn my darling."
Fiddlers are tuning up. Now they are playing this song while the leader calls the couples to the floor :
"I wouldn't marry a pore gal And I'll tell you the reason why ; Her neck is long and skinny, And I'm afraid she'll never die.
Get along home, Cindy, Cindy ;
Get along home, Cindy, Cindy ; Get along home, Cindy, Cindy ; There'll be room for a million more."
"Partners on the floor!" Four couples are arising. "First couple to the right; balance!" Lads and lassies are dancing before their opposites. "Swing." They are joining hands and swinging around. "Swing your cor- ners !" Partners are swinging the nearest, right and left. "All promenade!" Partners are joining hands and promenading to their places. The four couples have made the circuit. "Gents to the right; ladies stand !" "Swing or cheat." Girls are turning their backs to partners. "All promenade!" La- dies to the center; right hands cross. Partners are circling. "Left hand back ! Reverse." "Right hand to your partners ; balance opposite !" "Swing!" "Balance your partner !" "Swing!" "Promenade All!" "Honor your cotil- lion ; seat your partners."1
February 25, 1856. The Georgia Legislature has just passed the act to make a new county, Berrien, from Lowndes, Coffee, and Irwin.
The Sixties. A disconsolate woman in homespun stands on the steps of a log house. Her husband, one of the Irwin County Cowboys, in jeans and brogans has shouldered his gun and is ready to join the Grays. The woman's face is tear-stained, and her hands show marks of toil. The man has deep worry-lines on his brow and his lips are tight. A little boy in a homespun apron runs down the steps, grabs his father's leg, and squeezes it. Henry puts his arms around Nancy, kisses her goodbye, then picks up his little son, who is crying. Quickly the man puts the child down and says, "Be a man and take care of your mamma," then turns away.
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