USA > Georgia > Jackson County > The early history of Jackson county, Georgia. "The writings of the late G.J.N. Wilson, embracing some of the early history of Jackson county". The first settlers, 1784; formation and boundaries to the present time; records of the Talasee colony > Part 15
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colony "on and on and on" in their successful efforts to build homes and settle, with the help of the other colonies scattered over the county, this the garden spot of Georgia. But the grim reaper, death, cut short his labors.
With all due respect to the other settlers of the county, it must be seen, from records in our court-house, that this colony was the most influential of any in the county at that time.
As the different parts of the county were settled and the people began to get on their feet, so to speak, the Talasee section began to give way, and to swing backward for a while. Such is life. The pendulum will go from one extreme to another. To-day all sections of the county are about evenly represented in governmental affairs.
But, after all is said, the history of the Talasee people is the history of Yamacutah; and the history of Groaning Rock is, virtually that of Snodon and on through the list. Thomocoggan was as great as Stone- throw, (just over the line in Hall County, now) and Yamtrahoochee was as great as any in the list. So none of them can say "I did it" but "We did it by each other's help."-Ed.
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YAMACUTAH .*
FIRST SETTLERS AT TUMBLING SHOALS AND RELATED INCIDENTS.
How true is the word of God: "One generation passes away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever. There is no remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after."
We want to tell you some things that happened when the twang of the Indian's bowstring was heard in almost every forest, but that was not much worse than the crack of the pistol as heard in modern times. Then the rattlesnake was coiled in almost every path, the scream of the panther was heard on almost every hill, and the howl of the wolf echoed through almost every val- ley; but these threatenings were not one whit worse than some of the dangers that menace modern society.
Your forefathers dreamed of unrestricted liberty in the bound- less forest and in the national councils as well. The modern dream is largely of ambition, and the accumulation of riches, of homage to fashion, ease and elegance, the emoluments of office and of the loudest cry calling for extraordinary privileges to a favored few.
But after all, your social gatherings like those of to-day, your intelligence and refinement, your schools and colleges, your churches and Sunday-schools, your asylums and hospitals, your home and foreign mission boards, your Bible and publishing houses, your railroads, automobiles, telegraphs, telephones, sew- ing machines, farming tools, cotton factories and rolling mills, are all infinitely superior to anything known one hundred years ago.
A century ! That is a long, long time. Very few of the human race live that many years. While I do not believe that the Bible fixes the limit of human life at the age of three score and ten, as David is supposed to do in the 90th Psalm, it is a well-attested fact that the majority of the race die young. While we know
"'Yamacutah" was prepared for the Centennial Celebration held in Jefferson, Ga., 1906 .- Ed.
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comparatively little of the age reached by those who lived in this county one hundred years ago, it is safe to say that none of them are living now. They all sleep in the arms of our common mother earth, and how still they lie !
They toiled hard, and met and overcame many dangers. Their hopes and aspirations were as strong as yours, but along different lines. They wrote little, but said much. As far as the record goes, and as far as legitimate conclusions can be drawn from it, a great majority of them were good, substantial people. They were as true to themselves, to their families, their neighbors, their country and their God as any who lived in that age of the world. They were pioneers: the settlers of a frontier country. Their heroic struggles to overcome the unbroken wilderness inhabited by wild beasts and wilder men are worthy of all praise. Of course they made mistakes. With the light of the present genera- tion before them they would have done better. But with all their disadvantages, they built better than they knew. With their primitive axe and scooter plow and rifle gun they laid a glorious foundation upon which the present generation has erected a monument of which no citizen need be ashamed.
The comfortable dwellings in which good cheer and a God- given hospitality reign supreme, and the well cultivated farms, made picturesque by plows that cut the ground like a thing of life, and with harrows, rakes and weeders that smooth it over like a fancy flower-bed, all-all tell us that the people are pros- perous and happy. May joy and contentment always be the pleasing compensations of such a noble people.
I have spent more than three-fourths of a long lifetime in close relations with the boys and girls of Jackson County. For thirty years I passed more than half my time with her noble band of school teachers.
The inspiration received from her children and the uplifting influences of her teachers have been of more benefit to me than all other earthly things combined.
It has been said by one of the most profound thinkers of the age, that, "To be less than twenty years old, and live in the be- ginning of the 20th century, is a greater fortune than has ever
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been offered to the world before." Boys and girls of this great country, do you realize that ?
Look well to your laurels, and live up to your great oppor- tunities. No other generation ever had such favorable and far reaching ones. Your opportunities are already made-made for you. In no other age of the world have such great efforts been made for the education of the young as have been made for you. Your ancestors had no such opportunities. Roman-like they had to make a way or find one, and they generally had to make it. And now to give you some idea of primitive life in this country, we will go back to the first permanent settlement made by white people within the present limits of Jackson County.
Perhaps there are comparatively few people now living in the county who know that there is such a place in it as the "TUMB- LING SHOALS." For more than a generation no road, public or private, has led within sight of them; and like most other things pertaining to the early settlement of this country by the Anglo-Saxon race, their history has never been written. They are about one mile below the well-known Hurricane Shoals, on North Oconee river, where the water goes whirling around one end of a solid rock dam built by the hand of nature, and then ripples over a series of minature falls in such a way as to seem that one wave rolls or tumbles over another. Hence the name, which comes from the Cherokee word, YAMACUTAH, signifying to tumble.
In 1784 Jordan Clark and Jacob Bankston,* two enterprising and adventurous young men, came from Virginia to Wilkes County, Georgia. There they met with a roving band of Choctaw Indians who told them of a strange old camping-ground which they called Yamacutah. They said it was located on the banks of Etoho (Oconee) river, some two days' journey towards the setting sun; that the Great Spirit once lived there; and that since his disappearance Indians sometimes went to the place to walk the paths which God once trod, and then hastened away, as He had done, without leaving a trail to show which way they went.
*See White's "Historical Collections of Georgia."-Ed.
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Having their curosity aroused, Clark and Bankston at once resolved' to go and see if the Choctaws had told them the truth. Late on the afternoon of April 22, 1784, they reached a series of small shoals, which they immediately recognized as Yamacutah. While the stream was small and the shoals modest, they were curious, and their surroundings were sublime and awe-inspiring far beyond anything known to the present inhabitants.
Trees of fabulous dimensions interlocked their ponderous branches, and the acorns and chestnuts of the previous year liter- ally covered the ground. The glaring eyes and startling bound of the red deer, the wild chattering of a multitude of birds, and the warning signal of the rattlesnake, told the newcomers that such beings had seldom, if ever, been there before.
Distant some twenty yards, a great black bear was perched in the fork of a tree. As he moved his forepaws with the evident intention of descending, a ball from Clark's deadly rifle crashed through his head. Curious to say, as was afterwards learned, that bear's life was the first ever known to be taken at or near Yamacutah. After a "delightful supper of broiled bear ham," as the adventurers described it, they slept by turns, through most of the night, and with the rising sun began a careful examination of their surroundings.
About seventy-five yards from the west end of the natural rock dam they discovered a curious upright statue a little over four feet high. It was made of a soft talcose rock, 13 inches square at the bottom; but the top, from the shoulders up, was a fair representation of the human figure. The shoulders were rudimentary, but the head was well formed. The neck was un- duly long and slender. The chin and forehead were retreating. The eyes were finely executed, and looked anxiously to the east. It stood at the center of an earth mound (17) seventeen feet in circumference and six feet high. Around it were many other mysteries which will never be fully explained. Only a few of them may be mentioned now.
Four paths, doubtless the ones the Choctaws mentioned, led, with mathematical precision, from the base of the mound to the cardinal points of the compass. Though it seemed that no other
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part of the forest had been trodden by human feet, these paths were as smooth and clean as a parlor floor. The scrubby cane, which seemed to have been planted by design along their mar- gins, was as neatly trimmed as if the work had been done by a professional gardener. And here, amid those gloomy solitudes the natives believed that our God, their Great Spirit, had walked as a man walks along his homeward pathway.
The statue was found to be the center of an exact circle about one hundred and fifty yards in diameter. Its boundary was plain- ly marked by holes in the ground three feet apart. The holes to which the paths ran in a straight line from the center were much larger than the intervening ones; and before them, inside the circle, were what seemed to be stone altars of varying dimensions. At the end of the path running to the north was a single triangu- lar stone; at the east were five square stones and four steps; at the west, four stones and three steps; at the south, three stones and two steps. Upon the upper surface of all the stones except that at the north the effect of fire was plainly visible and doubtless had been used for sacrificial purposes.
All the paths terminated at the altars except the one running to the east. At this the trail parted, and, uniting beyond it, con- tinued a short distance and then, much like an ascending column of smoke, disappeared, gradually. The account given by the Choctaws was verified. On the smooth surfaces of the stones were deeply cut both three and five-pointed half moons, whose horns turned in different ways.
A good representation of the rising sun and other curious characters were deeply cut on the eastern altar.
Outside the circle were many ash heaps, beaten hard by the heavy hand of time, and over some of them were growing gigantic oaks and towering pines, as if to mark the grave of the dead past.
Having studied these and other features of the vicinity, the adventurers went back to their starting point with a determina- tion to return and make a permanent settlement at Yamacutah.
For an unknown period of time the immediate territory on both sides of the river and for about one mile below, and to the Hur-
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ricane Shoals above, was neutral ground, claimed by neither Creek nor Cherokee, the lords of the adjoining territory.
For reasons already given it was considered Holy Ground : the Indians' Palestine. If on the war path, they went around it; if enemies met there they became friends as long as they remained there; by mutual consent of all the tribes the life of neither beast or bird, nor any living thing, should ever perish there. It was ever to be a place of refuge and never to have upon it the stain of blood. The killing of the bear by Clark was the first breach of law in the Holy Ground, and led, a few years later to open hostili- ties between the red and white men who lived in this part of the country.
On the 20th day of the following June Clark and Bankston re- turned to Yamacutah and began the first permanent settlement of white people within the present limits of Jackson County. They were accompanied by John Harris, a nephew of Nancy Hart, of revolutionary fame, and who became extensively known as Black Harris. He was a skillful workman in both wood and iron, and of almost unlimited resources in strategy and cunning.
A small cabin, which at once became dwelling-house and work- shop, was soon completed. Here such articles were made as seemed necessary to their simple wants. I now have a cupboard which was made by John Harris in that shop in 1785. It was made of boards split from a huge pine tree that grew upon an ash heap near the eastern altar. Though one hundred and twenty-one years old, it is still solid in all its points, and no modern mechanic can excel the workmanship.
This ancient "dresser,"# as the maker called it, together with a curious cluster of pine cones* that grew upon the tree of which is was made; an acorn* which fell from an oak that reached its ponderous branches far over the talcose statue; and some other things, I keep as mementoes of the shadowy past. When in want of curious mental food, or a desire to leap at a single bound from the present back to the long-gone past, I look at these relics of a former age, and with the old Saxon poet who, after his failure to
*These relics are still in the homes of the Author's children .- Ed.
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penetrate the future, cried out: "ROLL BACK! ROLL BACK! Oh, wheels of time, roll back ! and let me realize something of the difference between then and now."
The following year, 1785, was a memorable one. In May there same a cold wave which killed many large trees. The bird family was almost exterminated, and a large eagle, accidentally feeling the warmth of the cabin, became domesticated and remained a pet for several months, when it left wearing a bell which John Harris had fastened around its neck with his name and date engraved upon it. In 1790 this romantic bird was killed in the vicinity of Augusta. Even so large and hardy animals as wolves and pan- thers were found dead in the forest, and many fish were frozen in solid ice.
But the most remarkable phenomenon of that, or perhaps of any other year since the crufixion of the Son of God was the Dark Day on November 24th. It has never been explained, and the splendid illumination of the 20th century casts no light upon the cause of the darkness. Though the sun was visible all day long, and appeared to be much larger than usual, it omitted no light ex- cept such as may be seen while passing through a dense fog at night. The whole of animated nature on the Western Hemisphere was astonished on that day, and all who had ever heard of the final judgment listened in anxious expectation of hearing the long- drawn blasts of Gabriel's trumpet to wake the sleeping dead.
But only that which took place at Yamacutah concerns us now, and the tenth of that can not be told here. Even such strong and heroic men as Clark, Bankston and Harris were anxious, talked in whispers, and sat by their cabin all day. Various animals passed by in utter confusion, and several opossums and raccoons crouched near them, and though they sat with rifles across their knees, not a gun was fired the whole long day.
During the day many Indians came, and seating themselves around the mystic circle, gazed steadfastly towards the central figure. This they continued all day, and perhaps all night; for when next morning they saw the sun rise bright and golden as ever, they arose as one man, went inside the circle, and solemnly walking along the path to a step as regular as the beating of a
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healthy heart, they disappeared beyond the eastern altar as al- ready indicated.
This was the last time this curious performance ever took place at the Tumbling Shoals, or anywhere else so far as I ever heard. What did it mean? Was there any more in it than a mere heathen ceremony ?
In the early part of 1787 the little settlement was increased by the arrival of an important family consisting of Dale Clover, Mrs. Mary Clover, and their two children, Flora, a daughter four years old, and Egbert, a litle boy just beginning to walk. They came directly from Virginia by request of Clark and Bankston, who were near relatives of the Clover family.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Clover were educated and refined. The latter was very beautiful, and her little daughter even more so. Clark, Bankston, Harris and Clover were revolutionary soldiers. were Free and Accepted Masons, members of the Baptist church, and after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, shook hands with George Washington for the last time. Who is not proud to live in a county first trod by such men ?
The population of Tumbling Shoals and vicinity had been increased to 42 men, women and children. Among them were Jared Cunningham, James Montgomery and Dr. Henry Therrauld. Cunningham settled at Hurricane Shoals, and one of our districts was named after his son, John.
Just here one of the strangest romances known to real life might be unearthed by the professional writer. Montgomery afterwards moved to where Cabin Creek church now stands, and building the first cabin there both the creek and church built near it took that name.
Dr. Therrauld was an extraordinary man and his life would fill a volume of thrilling interest. He administered the first pro- fessional dose of medicine ever taken by a citizen of Jefferson. The patient was Mrs. Thomas Jett. He helped to build the first Baptist church organized in the county, and preached the first sermon delivered there. The church was called "Etoho," but was changed to Oconee, and stood some two miles east of the present Oconee church.
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Several good, substantial dwelling-houses, a strong fort, a small grist mill, a successful iron furnace and a school house had been built at Yamtrahoochee (Hurricane Shoals). The first school in the county was taught here by our same Dr. Therrauld, with a maximum number of ten pupils.
Iron ore for the foundry was digged from the mines near the present city of Commerce, and from near Dry Pond, where many tons were taken and carried to be smelted at the Shoals.
Fragments of pots, ovens and skillets were thick around the old site until 1840, when the great Harrison flood, as the big rain was called, swept away almost every vestige of its former life. Then work had to start anew. The old furnace was kept in operation as late as the sixties, during the civil war.
Trouble with the Indians had been brewing for some time and open hostilities began in 1801, with varying results until the gage of battle was decided in favor of the white people, but at the fearful cost of Dr. Therrauld's life-a loss as great as Jackson County ever felt. In these conflicts Clark, Bankston, Harris, Clover, Cunningham, Montgomery and Therrauld always com- posed the front rank.
Only a few incidents may be given. One afternoon when most of the men were at work in a corn field, with their rifles hanging down their backs in deer-skin pouches made for the purpose, little Egbert Clover, who had left the fort unobserved, was vio- lently seized by a painted Indian warrior. His mother who was an expert with the rifle ran out at the only door, and just as she saw her little boy's brains dashed out against a large rock, she fired and the Indian fell dead.
John Harris made a razor strop of skin taken from that In- dian's back, and many razors were afterwards sharpened on it. This is a grim feature of the times; but remember what Sherman said about war.
Only a short time after this sad event, Flora Clover, sister of little Egbert, and Susan Bingham, the 13-year-old daughter of Hiram Bingham, mysteriously disappeared from home. For six long, painful weeks, every possible effort was made to discover them; but without avail. When all hope was well-nigh gone, a
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man of gigantic proportions was seen approaching the fort with a white handkerchief streaming from the muzzle of a long rifle, and another covering the lower part of his face. Finding that he was seen, he deliberately placed the paper under a flat rock and went away as he had come, with a bold, lordly step. The paper, written in elegant style, read as follows:
"A little after dark to-night, leave the key in the lower door of the furnace, and about 12 you may find Flora and Susan inside. Place an invisible guard. ALISCO."
The anxiety of the evening was great beyond description. The instructions given were strictly followed. About 1 o'clock that night, the huge form of a giant leading two girls approached the door, the great key made by John Harris turned in the lock, the girls were gently lifted inside, the door silently closed, and the giant disappeared in the deep shade of the trees. A few minutes more and Flora Clover and Susan Bingham were in their father's arms. There was joy at Yamacutah that night.
In the meantime, other settlements had been made in the terri- tory. At Stonethrow, now Gillsville, were 43 settlers ; at Groaning Rock 47; at Talasee, afterwards Clarksboro, were 51; at Thomo- coggan and vicinity 63; Yamacutah 42, and at places settled by families, 104, making the population of the county at the time of its organization 350 white people.
In 1795, the year before Jackson County was organized, there died near where Berea church is, a man by the name of Patrick Shaddon, the grandfather of Mrs. John Jacobus Flournoy* of local celebrity.
A part of Shaddon's estate was a well-grown ox that ran through the woods as wild as a buck. Somehow, this ox, or Shad- don's steer, as he was called, became public property. Though he ran like a race horse and jumped over fences like a deer, he was finally captured and broken to harness by a famous Indian whose
*John Jacobus Flournoy was a deaf mute and was a man of means. He knew the handicap under which the "deaf and dumb" have to live. He, therefore, set to work for state aid for the unfortunates that had not the money to attend schools in the North. He was largely instrumental in establishing the school for special instruction at Cave Spring .- Ed.
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name was Anaxicorn. The strange feature about the matter was that while in harness and at work he was entirely gentle and docile; but as soon as turned loose he ran away at full speed as wild as he ever was, and as difficult to capture. It became a custom that whoever caught the Shaddon steer was at liberty to work him one week, but must then turn him loose.
On one occasion he was chased by men on horseback as far as the vicinity of Jefferson. William T. Brantly, a young man then living at Thomocoggan, and who could throw a lasso as well as a Mexican ranchero, joined in the chase and soon captured the prize with his unerring rope. As soon as the ox found that his foreleg was hampered he submitted without a struggle. He was his captor's property for six days, and the first plowing ever done in Jefferson territory was during the next day when Mr. Brantly plowed the public square with the Shaddon steer.
About this time most of the citizens living within the original boundary of Jackson, but then known as Franklin County, as- sembled at Thomocoggan to consider various public measures. This was the first step taken towards organizing a new county, but they failed to agree upon any other name than a general one, "THE WHITE MAN'S CONFERERACY." It retained this dis- tinctive title for many years after the county was organized.
Also, about this time, the "Confederacy," in common with other parts of the world, was visited by the "JERKS," a queer disease, if a disease at all, and in this part of the country was called, "The Move-a-Diddles." People sitting or standing quietly at work were seen to jump suddenly, sometimes as far as five or six feet at a single bound, while every muscle in them would jerk and twist in fearful contortions for some ten or fifteen minutes. Then the whole body became rigid and was incapable of motion for about the same length of time. This was followed by a dull stupor that sometimes continued for several hours, and, as a good old lady of the times said, made her feel "like she had the jim- jams." As I do not know how the jim-jams feel, I can not give any further description.
In those days there lived near Jefferson, two brothers, George and Thomas Groves, and their wives were sisters. There were
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two children in each family, both girls being about 17 or 18 years old, and the boys about half grown. They were all unusually bright and intelligent, and the girls unusually beautiful. One day Matthew, the son of Thomas Groves, suddenly became sick when his mother was absent. Having lain as if asleep for a few minutes, he opened his eyes and told his sister Lucy that he was dying, and that his cousin, Nellie, the daughter of George Groves, was dying also. He then closed his eyes and said :
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