USA > Georgia > The story of Georgia and the Georgia people, 1732 to 1860 > Part 28
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The first superior court, according to White, was held in
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1822, at the house of Wm. Ruff, and the names of the first grand jurors were: Wm. Jackson, Wm. Malone, James Sel- lers, James Pate, Thomas Abercrombie, C. Cochran, G. Gay, Wm. Wood, Willie Terrell, Jether Barnes, Robert Shaw, Jas. Colwell, John Brooks, F. Pearson, Wm. McKnight, Jacob Hinton, Jackson Smith, S. Strickland.
The first settlers, according to the same authority, were: Wm. Hardin, Jesse Johnson, James Sellers, H. J. Williams, Wm. Pate, D. Johnson, W. H. Turner, M. Brooks, S. Weems, W. Herbert, Roland Brown, R. M. Sims, Wm. Crawford, E. Mosely, John Brooks, Reuben Deming, Jacob Hinton, E. Brooks, John Calloway, R. Jenks, Colonel S. Strickland, Parker Eason, Jos. Kirk, Wm. Griffin, John Griffin, Daniel Smith, Wm. Tuggle, John Lovejoy.
Henry was drawn upon very largely by Griffin on one side and Atlanta on the other; but its population, which was over 10,000 in 1830, was 14,726 in 1850. Of these there were nearly 5,000 slaves.
When the Southern railway from Macon to Atlanta and the Midland from McDonough to Columbus were opened, the country was furnished with the best railroad facilities, flourishing villages sprang up along the line, and McDon- ough, which had declined until it was a very small hamlet, began to take on the proportions of a considerable and prosperous county town.
The people of Henry have always been noted for their moral and religious excellence. The Baptists and Method- ists have been the main bodies of Christians. The Method- ists for many years had a very prosperous camp-ground in the county, and at one time more than one.
Hampton is a small but sprightly village on the line of the M. & W. R. R., and Locust Grove and Stockbridge flourishing towns on the Southern.
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NEWTON.
Newton county was formed from Henry, Walton and Jasper. The land was cheap and healthy, and, like Henry, it was soon settled by a very good class of plain people, most of whom came from the older counties. It was organ- ized in 1821, and named in honor of the companion of Jasper, who assisted him in capturing the British guard near Savannah. The county site was called Covington after a brave officer in the war of 1812.
The people who settled Newton were in the main a very plain, uncultivated but worthy people. There were some persons of large wealth who took up the best lands in the lower part of the county, and near Brick Store there was a very famous settlement of elegant people. They were wealthy, highly educated and refined. They had a hand- some church and an excellent school. In the neighborhood of Sandtown, Newborn and Starrsville there were other excellent settlements with good schools; but in the larger part of the county churches were small and schools were few and poor.
Newton was selected as a seat for the manual labor school and of Emory College, and there were some im- provements in the section near the college and in the county around Covington; but the religious and educational advantages of the county on the whole were for many years very limited.
A number of very distinguished men have sprung from this county, to some of whom we have alluded.
Covington, the county site, was laid out in 1821, and was for many years a country town of respectable propor- tions, with good churches and good schools, and was at one time the seat of the Georgia Masonic Female College, which was quite a prosperous institution. The town has greatly improved in late years, and has an excellent
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DECATUR GA
Seary INSTITUTE
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COURT HOUSE, DECATUR, GA.
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graded school, two railways and a street railway. It is a prohibition town and has an excellent population.
Oxford, the seat of Emory College, is a beautiful village among the oaks, and is noted for the piety and intelligence of its people.
The county of Newton was one of the first to enterprise cotton mills, and at Newton Factory and at Cedar Shoals there were mills fifty years ago, and at the present time there is quite a large and prosperous factory at Porter Dale, formerly Cedar Shoals,
The county is rich in its quarries of most excellent granite.
The G. R. R. and the Middle Georgia and Atlantic road are in Newton, and the people of the county have the best railroad facilities.
The Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians have each a good following in the county. Newton is a prohibition county and is noted for the moral worth of its people.
The county was opened for settlement in 1821, and in 1830 there were 11,815 inhabitants; of these 3,003 were slaves. In 1850 there were only 8,109 whites and 5,187 slaves.
The first court held in the county was in 1822, and the first grand jurors were : Solomon Graves, C. A. Carter, James Johnson, L. Dunn, R. J. Lane, Wm. Jackson, W. Whateley, H. Jones, Thos. Jones, Jno. Stocks, S. D. Echols, W. Fannin, F. H. Trammell, J. Bloodworth, Henry Lane, David Hodge, Robert Leake, John Stephens, G. B. Turner, Geo. Cunningham, Jno. F. Piper, James Hodge.
Newton, as we have seen, was selected as the seat of the manual labor school established by the Methodists, of which I speak more fully in another chapter. When it was decided to establish a college a large body of land was purchased by the trustees and Oxford, a college vil- lage, was laid out. It naturally drew to Georgia a fine body
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of people, among them Dr. Few, of whom I have already spoken, Judge Longstreet and Dr. Means, all of whom had connection with the college. The mother of Justice L. Q. C. Lamar resided here; Judge Longstreet, wise and witty, Bishop Geo. F. Pierce and Bishop James O. An- drew had their homes here.
While Bishop Andrew was living in this village he lost his first wife and married Mrs. Greenwood, who was a slaveholder. By circumstances beyond his control he had already become a slaveholder before his marriage with her. The laws of the M. E. Church forbade slaveholding on the part of its ministry if it could be avoided, and there had been no slave-owning bishop before this time. When by this marriage he became the husband of one who had a number of slaves there was much feeling aroused in the North, and he was arraigned, not for any wrong-doing, but for being connected with slavery. He wished to resign, but the Southern members would not permit him to do so, and eventually he was virtually deposed, and as a result of this the M. E. Church was divided and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized.
FAYETTE.
Fayette, named after General Lafayette, was, at its lay- ing off, a large county. It was in many respects the coun- terpart of Henry. It was settled rapidly, but not so rap- idly as Henry or Monroe. It had, however, 5,000 people in it by 1830, and near 9,000 in 1850, nearly 2,000 of whom were slaves.
The people who settled in the county were generally plain, poor people, who were industrious and economical and made a good livelihood, and, while many of them were primitive in their manners and illiterate, they were a worthy class of people, who led simple and unpretending lives.
Fayetteville, the county site, was long a small village
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without railroad connections, but when the Atlanta and Florida road was constructed it was connected with Atlanta by rail, and is now (1898) a prosperous county town.
White gives as the first grand jury : James Strawn, Wm. Morgan, Matthew Burge, Wm. Watts, Jos. Shaw, John Levi, Chas. Lisles, Jno. Hamilton, James Head, A. Tilghnam, Wm. Gilliland, William Powell, Larkin Lardner, Stephen Smith, Wm. Harkess, James Garrett, M. Glass, R. Barrow.
Much of Fayette county is very poor, but there are some excellent farms on the Flint river and on the creeks, and while the people are not wealthy they live in comfort.
The Baptists are perhaps the largest denomination of Christians, but the Methodists come close to them.
DEKALB.
There is such a general resemblance between the up-coun- try counties which adjoin each other that it is difficult to de- scribe one without describing the other. Dekalb, which was laid out in 1822 from Henry and Fayette, presents almost the same features as we have found in those coun- ties. It was laid out in 1822, and had over ten thousand people in it in 1830.
Lands were cheap, and the homeless people in Georgia and other States were many and they crowded into these hills. As a general thing the lands were very poor and cheap, but along the creeks and brooks there were some fertile tracts, and along the South river some first quality lands.
The village of Decatur was an important little town, in- habited by substantial people almost from its first settle- ment.
Fulton county was made from Dekalb, and the size of the county was lessened and the population much reduced. The first settlers in Dekalb, some of whom lived in what is now Fulton, were, according to White: Wm. Jackson, James Montgomery, Jno. R. Brock, Wm. Ezzard, Wm. Hill, Ste-
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phen Mays, Reuben Cone, J. M. Smith, Wm. David, Masor Shewmake, John Simpson, Amos Towers, Jno. W. Fowler Edward Jones, Andrew Johnson, Jno. Turner, I. P. Carr James W. Reeves, William Murphy, George Clifton, James Jones, Jesse Lane, Lachlan Johnson, William Terrell anc George Brooks.
Stone mountain, one of the wonders of Georgia, ar. immense pile of solid granite, is in this county. It is three
STONE MOUNTAIN.
thousand feet high and six or seven miles in circumference. and from its summit can be secured the most entrancing view of all the country round for sixty miles. The moun- tain is of granite, a peculiarly valuable kind suited for paving and building, and has greatly enriched those who own it.
The growth of Atlanta and its proximity to Dekalt county have caused a number of villages to spring up in this county. Kirkwood, Clarkston, Stone Mountain, Lithonia and Ingleside are all flourishing villages, while Decatur has reached the proportions of quite a city.
Dekalb has been the home of many excellent people,
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ho have done the State good service. The Rev. John S. Vilson came to it a young man, and never left it, except to emove a few miles to Atlanta, till his death in old age. Ie was a teacher and a minister of the Presbyterian church. He was a man of great worth and of great influence.
Charles Murphy, long a member of Congress and a law- er of great ability and integrity, lived in Decatur for many ears, and died there.
James M. Calhoun, a sterling Whig, a worthy and gifted lawyer, lived here for many years.
William Ezzard, once judge of the circuit court, a pure ind upright man, and Dr. Calhoun, a physician of the old chool, were among the prominent citizens of the little vil- age in its early life. Gov. A. H. Colquitt, famous as a sol- lier, statesman and a Christian, lived and died in this county.
Among its present citizens are Colonel Scott, who has, at his own expense, built the Agnes Scott Female Institute, a Presbyterian school; Colonel M. A. Candler, who has rep- esented his district in Congress; General J. B. Gordon, famous as a soldier and a statesman and senator.
The Orphans Home of the North Georgia Conference is located near Decatur. There are over one hundred chil- dren who are being cared for by the North Georgia Con- ference. It is now under the care of the Rev. Howard L. Crumley, as agent, who has done much for it. It was the first orphanage of the Methodists, and its founder was the great Dr. Jesse Boring, who, in his old age, aroused the church to a sense of her duty to her orphans, and caused, by his earnest pleadings, at least ten homes to be erected in the various conferences.
PIKE.
By the same act which made Henry and Fayette separate counties the county of Pike, north of Monroe and south of Fayette, was provided for. No two counties could have re-
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sembled each other in every feature more than Pike and Fayette. In Pike there was a large area of pine woods. some fine land on the river and on the creeks, and in the west of the county some excellent bodies of red land, but the larger part of the county was gray land of moderate fertility.
It was rapidly peopled and was settled, in the main, by people of moderate means, of whom, in 1830, there were six thousand, and, unlike the richer counties, it continued to grow and more than doubled its population in twenty years. In 1850 there were only four thousand negroes in the county, and they were equally distributed throughout the county, which then included Spalding. In 1890, after Spalding had long been given off, there were over sixteen thousand inhabitants still in the county.
The early settlers, according to White, were: John Mar- shall, Isaac Cooper, B. Jordin, J. Gilder, S. Stephens, T. Mathews, E. Phillips, B. Grace, J. Weaver, W. Mobley, E. Mabry, W. Amos, E. Walker, W. Taylor, J. Farley, I. Gil- bert, J. Johnson, R. Myrick, J. Moore, General Daniel, Jas. Neal, Jno. Neal, J. B. Read, James Williamson, H. G. John- son, W. E. Mangum, Gideon Barnes, W. J. Milner, William Ellis and B. Orr.
Perhaps no county in Georgia ever had a better class of settlers than those who came into Pike. But few of them were people of large means, but they were industrious, pious and thrifty. The country was healthy and the land was productive, and there was a general prosperity from the first settlement.
Its first county site was called Newnan; but in 1825 Zebulon was laid out and made the county site. It was at one time a town of some importance. After the railroad skirted the county and Griffin was built up, the little village declined and never recovered its position. A railroad now
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asses through it from Atlanta to Fort Valley, and it is mproving.
Barnesville is quite an enterprising and energetic little ity on one side of Pike. It has long been famous for its excellent schools, and Gordon Institute is one of the largest und most successful of high schools. The school is coedu- ational; it has an elegant equipment and a very large patronage. There are excellent churches in the city for white and colored people, and a very admirable popula- ion. In addition to its school advantages, it has become a manufacturing town of some importance. Its famous car- iage factories, its knitting-mills and its cotton-mills give employment to many hands.
Milner is a respectable village not far from Barnesville, on the Central railroad.
The Midland road, which passes through the western side of Pike, has developed a new section of the county, and there are some thriving villages on it.
Pike has been the home of a sterling class of business men, but has not been famous for its men of political emi- nence. It was the residence of an Irish merchant, Samuel Mitchell, who bought the lot upon which Atlanta stands and laid out the city.
BUTTS.
Butts, which was named from a brave captain of that. name who lost his life in a fight with the Indians in Ala- bama, and whose county site was named in honor of Andrew Jackson, was laid off from Newton and Henry in 1826, and four years afterward had in its boundary 4,000 people. It has the Ocmulgee on its eastern border, and has some good, strong red land on the river; but the larger part of the county is of light, gray soil. It was never, except near the river, a very fertile country; but the land was easily tilled and cheap, and the county was peopled by a class of
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industrious, plain people who worked their own farms and led independent lives.
For many years Butts was some distance from the rail- way and was very far behind some of the contiguous counties in its advancement; but the building of the South- ern railway gave new life to the county. Jackson, from being an insignificant hamlet, has become a sprightly county town; and Flovilla, near Indian Springs, a place of con- siderable trade.
The churches for a long time were very few and very much neglected, until the railroad came; but since that event and the establishing of the public school system the change for the better has been very decided.
In 1830 there were nearly 5,000 people in Butts; in 1850 there were 6,000, and in 1890 there were 10,500.
Indian Springs, the most noted watering-place in Geor- gia, is located in Butts. A small stream of pure, strong sulphur water trickles from a rock, and is said by many who have tested it to be invaluable as a remedy for divers diseases, and has been so regarded for over seventy years. It was at this place that the treaty of 1818 was made, and the famous treaty between McIntosh and his fol- lowers and Messrs. Campbell and Meriwether was made in 1825.
Butts, in its most fertile part near the river, has had the same history as Jasper and Monroe. It was very produc- tive and became the property of large planters, and is now largely in the hands of negro tenants; but the poorer lands are still held by white owners who live on them, as the white population has never diminished but steadily in- creased.
There has been no county in which there has been a more gratifying improvement in the building of churches and the founding of schools. In Jackson, Indian Springs, Flovilla and in the rural parts of the county there have
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been established good schools, and handsome and conve- hient churches have been erected.
The county was first a part of Monroe and was settled as early as any part of its mother county. The first inhab- tants must, therefore, be found among those who came to Monroe.
The Hon. David J. Bailey, long a member of Congress nd a man of influence, for many years had his home in ackson, but the county has been so small and remote that has had few noted men.
CAMPBELL.
Campbell county was named in honor of Duncan G. ampbell, and was laid out in 1827. It was not thickly ettled for some time, and in 1830 had in it only 3,000 eople. In 1850 its population had but little more than oubled, and of these 1, 500 were slaves. The value of the ands was not great. The hills were many and were sterile; ut on the creeks and the river the land was fertile. While he land was poor, it was moderately productive, and the eople were plain and industrious, and so made a good ving.
There was some excellent land near Palmetto, and a very rosperous village was built up there; and at Fairburn, earer Atlanta, there is another sprightly village.
The water-power on the Sweetwater was very fine, and ne of the most successful factories in Georgia was built on hat stream.
The early settlers, as given by White, were the McClar- s, Stewarts, Lathams, Beaverses, Longinos, Davenports, Vattses, Cochrans, Whites, Kolbs, Pauletts, Skeenes, Pen - ingtons, Bullards, Bryans, Hightowers, Hopkinses, Smiths, enningses, Silveys and Thorntons.
The first grand jury, which met at Campbellton in 1829, 24
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was composed of Fulton Sheats, Jere Sampler, I. D. Crumpton, D. Hall, S. Baggett, H. Bird, J. Turner, Q. Daw- son, S. Green, C. Field, George Haines, M. Anthony, T. Hill, I. Crow, D. D. Smith, I. West, E. Dorsett, I. Wise, I. Gresham, I. Hayne, I. Dorsett, I. Gray, Moses Benson.
The fact that the larger part of the county was some dis- tance from the railroad and there was no considerable town in it has had the effect of drawing to Atlanta quite a num- ber of the leading families of Campbell. There has been too little attention paid to education; but there has been for years a high school at Fairburn and one at Palmetto, and the usual common schools are found in the rural parts of the county. The people are generally religious and moral, and generally belong to the Baptist and Methodist Churches.
CARROLL.
On the west of Campbell is the county of Carroll, named for Chas. Carroll of Carrollton. It was laid out in 1826.
It is in the main a county of second-class land, but there. is some excellent land in it, and early in its history there was discovered a rich deposit of gold in a part of the county, and a village sprang up which was known as Villa Rica. A large number of those who came to dig gold re- mained in the county as permanent citizens and openec farms.
There was but little inducement for men with many slaves to turn from the rich cotton lands south of Carrol to settle in it, and so as late as 1850, when the county wa very large, there were only one thousand one hundred slaves in its borders. The larger part of the people owner their own homes, but owned no slaves. The populatio grew rapidly from natural increase as well as from imm gration, and in 1890 there were twenty-two thousand ir habitants.
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The opening of the railroad from Griffin to Carrollton was followed by the building of the railway from Car- rollton to Chattanooga, and then by the Georgia Pacific, which runs through the county. These have given it the best railway advantages, and perhaps no county in the State has advanced more rapidly in every respect than Carroll since the war. Carrollton, from being a small vil- lage, has become a town of considerable importance.
Religion and education have advanced with the progress of the county, and now there are good schools and good churches in every part of it.
Whitesburg is a village in the east of the county, near to the Hutchinson cotton-mills, where there is a high school largely attended. The school is under the control of the Methodists, and has a small endowment left by Arthur Hutchinson, an Irish manufacturer. There are ex- cellent schools in Villa Rica, Carrollton and Bowden, and along the lines of railway in a number of villages there are good schools.
Carroll is on the border of the State, and at its first set- tlement was very remote from market; land was very cheap and the population very small.
In 1830, when the county was much larger than it is now, the population was only three thousand four hundred and sixteen, of which only four hundred and eighty-seven were slaves.
It was the center of a mining excitement, and many wild and lawless men came into it. There was an organized body of horse thieves known as the Pony Club, at one time in the county, who carried on their nefarious work with impunity, and murders were fearfully common near the mines, while gambling and drunkenness sought no conceal- ment; but with the establishment of the courts and the faithful work of the churches the lawlessness of the people has long since disappeared, and no county has a higher
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standard of morality and religion than this county at the present time.
HOUSTON.
In 1821 a county was formed adjoining Pulaski, Bibb and Crawford, which was called Houston, in honor of the distinguished governor of that name. The county site was called Perry, after Commodore Perry.
There was a large part of the county in the pine woods, and much of it in the rotten limestone region known as the black lands. The lower part of the county was remark- ably fertile, and while to white people it was very un- healthy, it was not specially so to negroes, and it drew to it at its first settlement many of the wealthy planters from the older counties, who opened large plantations and who were very prosperous. They often had their homes in Bibb and Monroe, or in the pine belt of the county. Much of this pine belt was productive and the valley of the Flint river adjoined it, and it soon had a settlement of excellent people, who formed a village called Fort Valley, probably because of its having been the site of one of the early Indian forts. The land about the village lay well and was quite productive, and when the railroad reached it the sec- tion was thickly settled.
It was discovered that the country around the village was admirably adapted to fruit culture, and many acres have been put in fruit trees, and fruit is raised in great quantity for distant markets. The desirableness of the land to the orchardist has led many settlers from the west and north to buy fruit farms, and the need of crates and baskets for shipping fruit has led to the founding of fac- tories to provide them, and the little city has become the center of a number of small factories and has a good trade in a variety of lines.
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Flint river is within a few miles of the city, and there are large plantations and stock-farms on it, and in proximity to it large cotton plantations.
The building of the South Georgia and Florida railroad, which passes directly through the county, has developed some flourishing villages, in which there is considerable trade.
The population in 1830 was 5,175 free and 2, 194 slaves; in 1850 there were 6,526 free and 9,924 slaves. The free population in 1830 was almost as great as it was twenty years after.
The people of Houston have always put a high estimate on education. There were chartered academies at Perry, Fort Valley, Henderson and Hayneville at an early day, and many of the sons and daughters of the planters were sent abroad for an education.
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