USA > Georgia > The story of Georgia and the Georgia people, 1732 to 1860 > Part 23
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TELFAIR.
Telfair was formed from Wilkinson in 1807, and named. for Edward Telfair. We have, in our account of Mont- gomery county, drawn a picture of Telfair. In all this. region known as the pine-barrens there was so much general resemblance, that the impression that there was no differ- ence in land where pine trees grew was a common one with. those who did not know better; but this was quite an error The great pine belt was in that geological formation known as Quaternary, and a small part in what was known in. Georgia as the rotten limestone country and by the old geologists as the Tertiary, where there are many fossils. Much of the pine land near the coast consisted of barren sand dunes, and is now, and probably always will be, worth- less, and much that might have produced well is too flat for drainage; but in Montgomery and Telfair and the adjoin- ing counties there is a large body of pine land high and dry, with a good foundation of yellow clay, where the water is pure and free from lime. This land is not naturally fertile, and when manured does not hold its fertility; but by liberal fertilizing it can be made to produce largely. The Scotch immigrants of America (Scotchmen from
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North Carolina) saw the worth of these lands, and, as they cost but a trifle, they secured large bodies of them and built up good homes. Much of this land, however, was not taken up by home-seekers, but by speculators who secured the titles to it for a very small price. It was thought to be worthless; and many of those who drew lots would not pay the five-dollar fee demanded for a plot and grant. The speculators took this reverted land for the price of the war- rant, and secured the title. They then put the lands on the market. There were not a few lots which were held under forged deeds, and innocent people were inveigled into the purchase of lands which were worthless, or for which the seller had no title. A company of Maine lumbermen, who thought they saw large possibilities in lumbering in Georgia and in working up the pine forests of the South, bought from the real owners who had bought them from the State, for an insignificant sum, many thousand acres of land in Telfair and the adjoining counties. They paid for the land, and received good titles to it. They built large sawmills on the Ocmulgee river, and founded a city which was called Lumber City. The venture was not successful, and they abandoned the country. They held to their deeds, however, and paid the trifling taxes which were demanded. The mills rotted down. The lands were unoccupied, and were taken possession of, in many cases, by land thieves. They sold the lots to bona-fide purchasers and gave bogus titles. In some cases the lots were sold for taxes and bought in good faith; and, in blissful ignorance that the Maine company existed, these simple-hearted purchasers took possession of the lands and improved them. They never dreamed that the Maine company had any successor or representatives. For decades of years matters went on in this way, until after the war, when the great lumber firm of W. E. Dodge & Co. appeared on the scene and presented titles to the land, which were recognized as good, and pre-
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sented tax receipts which showed that the tax sales had been illegal. They demanded that the owners should vacate their holdings. There was much litigation, and men were ejected from their homes by violence, and in turn there was murder and lawless proceedings against the agents of strangers. The courts came in; false titles were exposed, and blood-stained criminals were punished by lifelong imprisonment in distant prisons. There was, of course, a great deal of the county not involved in these troubles, and the railways opened it up; the turpentine and lumber men came in, and few sections of the State have developed so rapidly as this section of the once despised pine-barren of Telfair.
The lots of land were large-490 acres in a lot, and a lot of land was often sold for twenty dollars. The result was the securing of large bodies of land by comparatively poor men, who relied upon the wild pastures for feeding their cattle, and upon a small area of well-fertilized land for their breadstuffs.
Montgomery, Telfair and Tattnall were all peopled in the main by thrifty Scotch people, and cattle- and sheep-raising was the great industry. And in no part of Georgia was there a better type of people than in these pine forests. These people had the virtues and the vices of the Scotch. They were clannish and somewhat narrow, and many of them were too fond of whisky; but they were plain and honest, and shrewd and religious. The school was found in every section; but the county was thinly peopled, and kirks of their fatherland were few and often remote, and so many of the Scotch Presbyterians became Methodists and Baptists. The Methodists had missionaries and camp-meet- ings and organized churches among them at an early day, and built up quite a church from the descendants of the Highlanders.
The population of Telfair in 1810 was only 526 whites
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and 288 slaves; in 1820 it was 1,571 whites and 561 slaves. Twenty years later it was 2,396 whites and 831 slaves. These slaves were almost entirely confined to a few planta- tions on the river, where there was sometimes a large num- ber, amounting to scores, on a plantation.
The first settlers were: Jos. Williams, A. Graham, D. Graham, John Wilcox, Thos. Wilcox, G. Mizell, A. Mc- Leod, Robert Boyd, Moses XRountree, James Mooney, Wright Ryall, McDuffie, J. A. Rogers, N. Ashley, C. Ash- ley, John Coffee, W. Ashley, A. Brewer, J. Herbert, S. Herbert, J. MacCrea, Duncan MacCrea, O. Butler, Lachlin Leslie.
Of these the Ashleys, Coffees, Brewers and Rogers were English, and had large plantations on the river. The others were pure Scotch.
The Southern railway passes through Telfair and the steamboats ply the river.
The people of Telfair always valued education, and the country school was in every neighborhood from the first settlement. They were, however, a poor, plain people and were content with the elements of an English education; but as the railroad came the desire for better culture was developed, and high schools were established, and in Mc- Rae there is a collegiate institute known as the South Georgia College, which is quite a flourishing school and is doing much for higher education.
TATTNALL.
The immense county of Montgomery was divided in 1801 and a new county was made. Josiah Tattnall, the patriot son of the staunch old Loyalist, had been governor and his health had given way. It was evident that death was not far away, and he resigned his seat and fled to the West Indies. In delicate compliment to him the new county was called Tattnall.
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There were in it in 1810, scattered over a large area, one thousand five hundred and twenty-four white people, and five hundred and twenty-four negroes. The Altamaha was on its southern and western border, and there were some large plantations on it, and the negroes were probably found on a few estates.
The first settlers, as given by White, were: Ezekiel Clifton, Ezekiel Stafford, Henry Holland, Stephen Mat- tock, Wm. Coleman, Wm. Eason, George Lewis, Joseph Collins, Nathan Brewton, Moses Jernigan, Jones Temples, B. Stripling, A. Daniel, Jno. Mattox, Step. Bowen, E. Bowen, A. McLeod, John McFarland, James Turner, James Jones, M. Jones, Jesse Collins, David Boyd, Allen Johnson, Elisha Parker, Elisha Curl, James Tillman, Dan'l Highsmith, Jno. McArthur, Alex. Gordon, John Jones, Joshua Dasher, Reuben Nails, Luke Sapp, Benjamin Sapp, John and Grove Sharp, Levi Bowen, Lewis Strickland, John Anderson, James Underwood and John Dukes.
The students of this list will be able to pick out sundry Scotch names from it, but the bulk of the people were of English and American origin.
The lands, save on the river, were purely pine woods, and like those of Montgomery, were valued for their pas- turage alone, and although the landholders had much land, they lived in a very simple way.
For thirty years there was no fixed place for a court- house, and it was 1832 before Reidville was fixed on as a county site.
The county was very thinly settled, and being so remote from markets and so isolated, it was largely dependent on its own resources, and perhaps no people were more pros- perous and independent.
The railroad which came through the pine woods to Brunswick did not pass through Tattnall, but the Central and the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery railroads
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eventually reached it, and now the county has good railroad facilities and has rapidly improved.
The immense pine forests have been a source of large revenue for years and are still richly productive. There is but little to differentiate this county from that of Mont- gomery, from which it was taken, and in describing Mont- gomery and its people we have described Tattnall.
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The Baptists and Methodists have been the ruling Chris- tian denominations, and the Methodists have had a camp- ground here for over sixty years.
There has always been some attention paid to education, and the county had an incorporated academy at an early day, but education, except by a few families of large means, was for a long time sadly neglected.
The county is one of the best of the pine woods counties and is being rapidly developed. The Altamaha river is its southern boundary, and, being always navigable, it has given the lower part of the county easy access to Darien, and there has been considerable trade in lumber and cotton, and of late years in naval stores.
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CHAPTER VII.
1813 TO 1820.
Peter Early-William Rabun-Matthew Talbot-Great Increase in Produc- tion-Advance in Population-First Steamboat Line-Improvement of Riv- ers-First Transatlantic Steamship-Roads-Character of the Productions of the State-Inflation-Change Bills-New Banks-Bank of Darien- Academies-Religious Progress-Social Conditions-The Low-Country Peo- ple-The Low-Country Slaves-Life among the Cotton-Planters-Drinking Habits-The Cross-Roads Whisky Shop-The Georgia Yeomanry-The Georgia Cracker and his Origin-Trouble with the Creeks-Massacre of Friendly Indians-Political Antagonisms-Newspapers in Georgia-New Counties-General Description of the Mountaineers-The Hill Country and its People-The Piny Woods Counties and the People-Emanuel-Irwin- Appling-Early-Walton-Habersham-Rabun.
Authorities as in last Chapter, with the addition of Andrews's Reminiscences of a Georgia Lawyer, Clarke & Mitchell Pamphlet (very rare), Lamar's Com- pilation of Georgia Laws, and the newspapers of the period.
Judge Peter Early succeeded Governor Mitchell as gov- ernor in 1813. He was one of the illustrious family of Virginia Earlys who had descended from an Irish immigrant who came to Virginia in 1661. His father was Joel Early, an eccentric Virginia gentleman who settled a large manor on the Oconee river in what is now Greene county. The father was a man of culture and gave his son the best ad- vantages the country afforded, and he was graduated at Washington College, in Virginia.
He studied law and was soon made a judge. He was a man of fine attainments and strictest integrity. As we have seen, he vetoed the bill to extend the stay law, and it was passed over his veto, and when he offered for governor at the end of his first term he was defeated by Governor Mitchell, who, for the third time, was chosen governor. He was disgusted at this treatment and returned to the se-
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clusion of his country home in upper Greene, but his fellow citizens insisted on his accepting office again, and he was chosen State senator. While holding this office he died.
Governor Mitchell, of whom we have already heard, who was now elected to take Governor Early's place, did not serve out his term of office, but resigned to take the posi- tion of Indian agent.
William Rabun was president of the Senate and became ex officio governor. Governor Rabun was born in North Carolina, and his father removed to Georgia while he was but a lad and settled first in Wilkes and then in Hancock county. The governor had few educational advantages, but was a man of fine sense, a laborious student and a man of highest character. He had been for years a member of the State Legislature, and was president of the Senate when Governor Mitchell resigned. He was elected to suc- ceed himself, and while in office, in the vigor of his man- hood, he died.
Matthew Talbot, at the time of Governor Rabun's death, was president of the Senate, and succeeded to the office of governor. At the election John Clarke was chosen as governor.
Governor Talbot was a native of Virginia, a son of John Talbot, one of the early immigrants to Wilkes county. He settled in this county, but afterward removed to Ogle- thorpe. He was a member of the Assembly for a consid- able number of years, and president of the Senate from 1818 to 1823. He was a leading man in the Clarke party, and came within two votes of being elected governor over George M. Troup. His character for probity and strong common sense was very high. He was succeeded by Gen- eral John Clarke, of whom I shall speak in the next chapter, at the close of the period now under survey.
During this period Georgia was rapidly developing. There was then no part of the State in which the lands
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were worn out, and into the first counties there was a con- stant immigration and a rapid increase in population. The multiplication of cotton-gins and the demand for cotton abroad had given a great impetus to cotton-growing. The embargo and the non-intercourse acts and the disturbances resulting from the Napoleonic wars had almost put an end to cotton production for some years, but now that the war was over the demand was lively.
The list of exports from the Georgia ports were: 1810, $2,557,225; 18II, $1,066,703; 1812, $1,094,595; 1813, $2,147,449; 1814, $4,146,057; 1815, $7,436,692; 1816, $8,530,831; 1817, $10,977,051; 1819, $6,525,011.
The population, which in 1790 was 82,000, in 1810 was 252,000, and in 1820, 340,947. With this growth in popu- lation and in commerce, the question of transportation became a very important one. The rivers into the interior offered the best facilities within reach of the people for moving produce, and after the introduction of steamboats, where the water was deep enough to float them, they were brought into general use. In 1814 Samuel Howard of Savannah received a charter for a line of steamboats, and a little later a large company was chartered to put a line of boats on the Altamaha and Savannah route. A great deal of freight was carried by the flatboats on the various rivers beyond the limits of steamboat navigation. The State made sundry appropriations for cleaning out the smaller rivers, and even the larger creeks, in order to make them navi- gable for steam and flatboats. Some adventurous Savannah merchants deserve to be immortalized for leading in the great work of transatlantic steam traffic. They were Wm. Scarboro, A. B. Fannin, I. P. McKinnie, Samuel Howard, Charles Howard, John Haslett, Moses Rodgers, A. S. Bul- loch, John Bogue, Andrew Low & Co., Robert Isaacs, I. Minis, S. C. Drummond, J. P. Henry, John Speakenan, Rob- ert Mitchell, R. & Q. Habersham, John S. Bulloch, Gideon
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Pott, W. S. Gillette and Samuel Yates, who formed the Savannah Steamship Company, and who had built for them the first steamship which ever crossed the Atlantic ocean. The ship was named Savannah, and sailed from Savannah for Liverpool in 1819.
The roads were wretched. All the repairs upon them were made by a contribution of labor levied on the people living near the roads, which was paid during the summer- time when there was a rest from farm work. There was no art of road-building known to them, and when the rains began in the fall and winter and the heavy loads of cotton were conveyed to market and goods were brought from it, the highways became almost impassable. Augusta was the point to which the cotton from Middle Georgia and the produce from upper Georgia were sent, and the roads through the hill country of Middle Georgia were in an execrable condition during the entire busy season; and the roads to Savannah were almost as bad. It was a matter of serious concern, after the crops were made, as to how they could be marketed.
The agricultural interests of all parts of the State were rapidly advancing. The rice culture of the coast was now very profitable, and the rice-planter had none of the diffi- culties to encounter which his up-country fellow citizen met with; and the sea-island cotton-planter was as fortunate. The produce of the pine woods was almost entirely cattle, which could be driven, or ranging timber, which could be floated to market. The up-country people sent very little produce to market except cattle and whisky, but the middle belt was seriously embarrassed to get its main crop-cotton -to market.
The cotton machines had now taken the name of gins, and were becoming quite common in the middle counties of the State. They were not at this period, as in after time, owned by the planters themselves, but were set up by
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the merchants in the small county towns, who took the cotton in the seed, ginned it and sent it to market packed in round bales, which were of about three hundred pounds weight. The cotton-screw and cotton-press were as yet un- known. From Elbert, Wilkes and Lincoln a considerable quantity of cotton was sent by flatboats to Augusta; but even from those counties in which there was access to the river much of it was sent in wagons to the same market.
The demand for labor to make cotton caused a great influx of negroes, who were brought out by the negro traders in large numbers. From 1815, and for over twenty years thereafter, there was great activity in all circles and much inflation. Land was cheap, selling at from one dollar to two dollars per acre. Cotton was from seventeen to twenty cents per pound; and men bought plantations in. Morgan, Jasper and Jones, and paid for them with the pro- ceeds of one crop.
Money was necessary to meet the demands of these busy days; and as there was not sufficient specie, and as neither the State banks nor the United States bank met the demand for small currency, change-bills called "shinplasters " were used. These grew to be such a nuisance that the Legisla- ture adopted the same method to suppress the floating of them that the United States adopted to suppress the issue of State banks: it taxed the "shinplasters" 25 per cent. The Planters Bank had been chartered in 1810, the Bank of Augusta at the same time. In each of these the State had a block of stock. The Bank of the State of Georgia was chartered in 1815, and the Bank of Darien in 1818. The latter was largely owned by the State, and the Legis- lature agreed to guarantee the redemption of the notes. The bank was to have its nominal home in Darien, but an office for discount was to be in Milledgeville, and it was to have branches in all parts of the State. At Darien, Mil- ledgeville, Dublin, Clinton, Watkinsville, Hartford, Macon,
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Greensboro, Columbia C. H. (or Appling), Eatonton, Mon- ticello, Madison, Sparta, Sandersville and Lincolnton stock was to be subscribed for. The State was to own a majority of the stock, and it was to be a State depository.
The efforts to open manufacturing establishments had not been successful, and so a charter was granted for a lot- tery, whose profits were to be applied to the building of a woolen factory in the up-country.
There was a good deal of interest taken in the educa- tion of the higher classes. Academies were chartered in all the principal towns, and each received a stipend from the State. The academies at Sunbury, Augusta, Washing- ton, Waynesboro, Greensboro and Savannah, which had been long established, were now flourishing, and during this period academies were incorporated in Powelton, Mad- ison, Monticello, Eatonton, Warrenton, Elberton, Sardis, Hillsboro, Dublin, Jeffersonton, and in the counties of Mc- Intosh, Jackson, Jasper and Camden.
Some of these academies, as they were called, were merely ordinary schools in which the English branches alone were taught; but in most of the villages the elements of a classical training were given. The Mt. Enon Acad- emy, founded by the Baptists, had suspended, and the col- lege at Athens was sadly crippled by the war and was still not flourishing.
The masses were only provided for by what was known as old field schools. There was no provision made by the State up to this period for the establishment of free schools, and those who were not near enough to the acad- emies to attend them were largely without any school facil- ities at all. This was the case even in the older counties, while in the newer there was almost an entire absence of any provision for even primary education. The old field school was not much changed from what it had been twenty
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years before, and it underwent little change for twenty years after this.
The great religious interest which had continued from 1800 to 1812 had somewhat lost its vigor, but still the ad- vance of the leading churches was steady, if not rapid. The evangelical preachers still went with the new settle- . ments, but their number was too few to do more than give a very unsatisfactory service.
In my sketch of the counties and in the special chapter devoted to the subject, I have endeavored to give a fuller account of the religious movements of the period than I can give in this summary.
The Baptists and Methodists were now the leading de- nominations in middle and southern Georgia; but the Pres- byterians were influential and wealthy. The Baptists had a high school in Powelton and the Presbyterians one at. Mt. Zion.
The Methodists were steadily growing, especially through the agency of the camp-meetings, which were now held in every county. In the older counties there were log churches in the country for the Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians, and in some of the towns there were plain frame churches, but in most of the county towns there were no churches of any denomination. Except in Eben- ezer, Savannah, Augusta, Milledgeville, Midway and Mount Zion, there was preaching only once a month in any church.
During this period there was, as far as I can discover, but one Sunday-school in the State and that was in Lincoln: county at a church called Pine Grove, and it has had a con- tinued existence to the present time without a break.
Camp-meetings were very necessary and were very need- ful in those days. They were not confined to the Method- ists alone, but were held also by the Presbyterians and Baptists.
As yet society in new Georgia had most of the features
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which belong to all newly settled countries. The houses were still in the main of logs, and most of the people very plain in their style of living. Nearly all the people of family owned their homesteads, and while many of them were in humble circumstances, they were very independent.
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The farms at this time were generally small, not over two hundred acres, and there were many more separate homesteads in 1820 than there were twenty years after that date, and after 1840 the number decreased with fearful rapidity.
Washington, Warrenton, Sandersville, Eatonton, Madi- son, Monticello and Sparta were towns of considerable trade. At that time a few merchants carried very large stocks of all kinds of goods, which were sold on twelve months' time, and generally at one hundred per cent. above cost. The merchant went to market twice a year. A few went to New York, the larger number went to Charleston, and many went no farther than Augusta. Here they bought dry-goods and hardware. Groceries were generally purch- ased in Augusta. The goods bought in New York were generally shipped by sailing vessels to Savannah, and thence boated up the river to the nearest point to the wagon-train. There were regular wagon-trains to Baltimore and Phila- delphia.
There were few stores in which liquor was not sold. The profits were very large and the risks very great. The laws for the collection of debts were very severe. Men were sold out relentlessly by the sheriff, and imprisoned for debt when they could not or would not pay. Absconding debt- ors were frequent, and to run away between two days was a common thing. Fortunes were being rapidly made dur- ing this period. Men who came to Georgia in the first of the century with a few negroes, who bought land at one dollar an acre, now found their slaves largely increased in number and their land worth tenfold its cost. Men who
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