USA > Georgia > The story of Georgia and the Georgia people, 1732 to 1860 > Part 30
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AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
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Taliaferro, after Colonel and Judge Taliaferro, and the county site was called Crawfordville in honor of W. H. Crawford.
This very small county has had the same history as its parent counties and it is needless to repeat it here.
The first Roman Catholic church in a rural section, and perhaps the first in any section of Georgia, was built at Locust Grove, afterward Raytown, in this county, then Wilkes.
Taliaferro has been rendered famous by being the county in which Alexander H. Stephens was born and the county in which he is buried. He bought the little farm his father, who was a country teacher, owned, and it was his residence when he died. His father was a Pennsylvanian of a correct, if of limited, education; a country school-teacher, a man of great integrity and of very small estate. He was living on this little farm of one hundred acres when he was taken violently ill, and died, leaving his son Alexander an almost penniless orphan. The guardians of the boy gave him his first schooling in this county, and his academic training in Washington. He was graduated at Athens. When he be- gan the practice of law he settled at Crawfordville. It was then a new village in a new county. He was soon sent to the Legislature, and early evinced his wondrous power as an orator and his astuteness as a statesman. His career as the great commoner, both before and after the war, is too well known to be told here. He died in Atlanta while gov- ernor of the State, but was buried at his lifelong home.
The little county was a healthy one, and negroes in- creased very rapidly, with the usual result, and in 1850 there were more negroes than whites in the county.
TROUP.
When the lands secured by the Indian Springs treaty in 1825 were opened for settlement a large county was formed
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on the western border of the State, including what is now a number of counties, and was named Troup in honor of the fiery governor, and its county site was called Lagrange after the home of the Marquis de Lafayette, who had but re- cently made a tour through the United States.
This county has been repeatedly divided until it has reached its present size. There were few sections of the State superior to it in attractiveness and fertility. The oft- told story of middle Georgia is applicable to Troup. Much of it was very rugged and very rich. The water was pure, the air free from malaria, the forests magnificent, and on the Chattahoochee and the various creeks there were bot- toms of great fertility. There was no part of the county sterile and it was rapidly settled, not by poor people, who are generally the first in a new country, but by well-to-do planters from eastern Georgia, who opened large cotton plantations at their first coming.
Although the first settlers came into Troup in 1826, by 1830 it had a population of six thousand. Lagrange, when Sherwood published his first gazetteer in 1829, had only a court-house, a jail, a Methodist church and seven resi- dences, and in 1833 was large enough to entertain the Georgia annual conference.
The lands were so productive that they were at once oc- cupied by large planters, and soon after the settlement of the county cotton was sent in wagons to Columbus and Montgomery by hundreds of bales.
The log house, the first in all new counties, soon gave way, and a few years after the settlement of the county there were handsome residences in all sections of it.
The same methods of planting which had resulted in the almost desolation of the older counties of Georgia were a! once adopted in Troup. The people of moderate means were soon bought out by the large planters, the forest were cut down, cotton was planted largely and almost ex
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clusively, and the lands washed away until, when the mag- nificent county ought to have been in its prime, much of it was counted as worn out.
Many of the planters lived in the town of Lagrange and their great plantations were in charge of overseers.
There were in 1850 seven thousand eight hundred and thirty-one whites and over nine thousand negroes in the county.
In no county in the State was there so much attention given to education, especially to the education of girls. A female high school, from which sprang the Lagrange Female College, was established by Thomas Stanley in La- grange as early as 1833. The Montgomerys afterward built from this foundation the Lagrange Female College, which became in the course of time one of the most famous schools in the State. It was afterward sold to the Meth- odists and is still a flourishing institution.
The Rev. Milton E. Bacon established a female college under Baptist auspices not long after the Lagrange Female College was chartered, and carried it to a high degree of suc- cess. Both of these colleges were destroyed and both rebuilt.
The education of males attracted as much attention at an early day, and the Rev. Carlisle P. Beman, the famous teacher, taught a male school in the village, and the Rev. Otis Smith had a classical school for boys at Brownwood, where Dr. Brown had at one time his female seminary.
The religious privileges of Troup have always been of a very high order. The Methodists were early in the county, and a Methodist church was one of the first buildings in the then village of Lagrange. The Baptists had a large membership and the Presbyterians a strong church. Each of these denominations had good churches in Lagrange as early as 1835. The wooden churches of the Baptists and Methodists have long since been replaced by neat brick
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structures, and the Methodists have a third church on the same lot. The most distinguished preachers of each of these three denominations have filled the pulpits in La- grange.
The city has become in late years quite a manufacturing town, and with its two railways, its colleges and its com- merce, it has become one of the leading cities of that section of Georgia.
West Point, immediately on the Chattahoochee river, is a town of considerable importance. It has a large graded school, several churches and some large factories near by, and does considerable business.
Hogansville, on the other side of Lagrange, is a village of some size, with an excellent population.
The county of Troup has long been famous for its public men and its brilliant and beautiful women. It drew to it at its first settlement men of culture and influence. Julius Alford, known as the war-horse of the Democracy; Walter T. Colquitt, the great stump-speaker as well as advocate and judge; Hugh A. Haralson, a leading Whig and con- gressman; Edward Young Hill, the great jurist; Benj. H. Bigham, the lawyer and judge, all lived here; but no man perhaps has shown with such brightness as Benjamin H. Hill, who spent his boyhood in the county and his youth in the town of Lagrange, and won his first laurels as a great orator while living there. Mr. Hill was born in Jasper county, but his father moved at an early day to the county of Troup. The father was a man of fine intelligence, of pure character and of large means. He gave his son the best of opportunities, which he faithfully improved. He began the practice of law in Lagrange and soon was at the head of the bar in Georgia. He took ground against the measures of the leading party in Georgia, the Democrats, and when the excitement concerning secession began was a decided Union man. When the State seceded he took
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his place as advocating a Southern Confederacy, and was a senator to the Confederate Congress and a close friend of President Davis. After the war he was in the House and finally in the Senate, when, in the vigor of his manhood, he passed away.
Dr. R. A. T. Ridley, famous as a physician and a public man and noted for his philanthropy and his piety, lived here.
Troup suffered fearful reverses from the war. The Troup people were free livers and somewhat careless financiers. Their wealth was largely in their slaves, and all they had made was invested in the negroes they had reared. They were kind and careful masters, the country was healthy, and their negroes had increased largely and rapidly. Many of them were in debt for slaves they had bought, as well as for expenses incurred in supporting those they had raised. When their property was rendered valueless by Federal fiat many of them were hopelessly bankrupt. The planters, as in Middle Georgia, found it impossible to man- age as they had done, and many of them removed from their country homes and went to the towns, renting their plantations to their ex-slaves. The towns prospered at the expense of the country, and for a time it seemed as if the country would be deserted. But now the current is turning, and there is a tendency to build up homes in the rural sec- tions.
The building of the Atlanta and West Point railway over forty years ago brought Troup into connection with the seaboard, and the building of the Macon and Birmingham road to Macon has brought it into closer connection with Savannah.
MERIWETHER.
Meriwether county, named in honor of General Meri- wether, kinsman to James Meriwether who made the treaty,
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was cut off from Troup in 1827. The description I have given of Troup is applicable to Meriwether in almost every feature. Like Troup, it was settled from the eastern coun- ties, and in 1830, only three years after it was laid out, there were nearly 4,500 people in the county. Much of the land in Meriwether was like that of Troup, and the same wasteful agriculture exhausted the lands as rapidly. There was, fortunately, some poor land in the county tenanted by poor people, and this has not been worn out, but has im- proved.
This county is famous for the only thermal spring in Georgia. It is known as Warm Springs. It sends forth 1,400 gallons per minute at a temperature of 90°. It is 1,200 feet above sea level. The improvements are very handsome, and the watering-place is very popular. There are also chalybeate and sulphur springs in the county.
The people of Meriwether have always been noted for their morality and for their attention to education. There are now schools of high grade at Greenville, Stinson, Senoia and Woodbury. A camp-meeting attended by immense throngs has been held in Meriwether near Warm Springs annually for over seventy years.
Meriwether has had her share of distinguished men.
The Hon. Hiram Warner came from Massachusetts to Georgia and settled in Houston county as a teacher. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, elected to the Legis- lature, and made a judge of the Western Circuit. He fixed his home in Greenville and never changed it. He was placed on the supreme bench as soon as the supreme court was established, and retained his place there until his death, except during the period in which he was a member of Congress.
Colonel Henry R. Harris, for several terms a member of Congress and an assistant postmaster-general under Mr.
LAGRANGE FEMALE COLLEGE .- GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS.
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Cleveland's administration, was born in this county and has resided here all his life.
Governor Atkinson was a native of this county, and was brought up and educated in it until he went to the Univer- sity.
For many years after the neighboring counties were sup- plied with railroad facilities Meriwether had none. The road from Griffin to Newnan skirted the upper part of the county, and the West Point road passed through a corner of it. But a narrow-gage road was built from Columbus to Greenville, and the Macon and Birmingham crossed the county from east to west, and the Midland from the north- east to the southwest. No county has now better railroad facilities, and no county has made more rapid progress since the advent of the roads. .
Greenville is a prosperous county town with an excellent people, good churches and good schools.
Stinson, Woodbury, Warm Springs, Senoia and Harris City are all promising villages.
The preachers came into Meriwether with the coming of the people, and had but to gather the members of their various churches together. A plain church was among the first buildings in every neighborhood. The Methodists and Baptists are the leading denominations, and they have been in the county since its first settlement.
HARRIS.
From the south of Troup and the north of Muscogee a county was cut off in 1828 which was called Harris in honor of Charles Harris of Savannah, a distinguished law- yer who died about the time the county was laid off. It was a county of varied resources, and was, like the neigh- boring counties, rapidly settled. In 1830 there were 5,000 people in it, although it was but four years old, and in 1850 there were nearly 7,000 whites and 8,000 slaves. The
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county was settled, as were all these western counties, from the eastern and middle parts of the State.
Many of the people, when they came to Harris, were large slaveholders, and were well supplied with all the requisites for planting; so the best red lands were taken up in large plantations, while the poorer lands were occupied by people of limited means.
Hamilton, the county site of Harris, was named in honor of that staunch anti-tariff Democrat of South Carolina, General J. W. Hamilton. Hamilton was too near to Colum- bus to ever become a town of much commercial importance, but has been from its first settlement a pleasant place of residence. The schools in the town have been good, and education has been carefully attended to.
When the narrow-gage road was completed to Green- ville, across the Pine Mountain, a village of some impor- tance named Chipley was built up.
The first court was held in Hamilton in 1828 and was presided over by Judge Walter T. Colquitt.
There is so little to distinguish one of these western cotton-raising counties from the other that anything like an elaborate account of any one is out of place, and Harris is no exception to the rule. It was largely settled by eastern Georgians-an intelligent, moral and religious peo- ple. The chief denominations were Methodists and Bap- tists and the churches were established as early as the county.
The city of Columbus, being so near to Harris, has drawn to it a large number of Harris county people. The county has not been famous for distinguished public men, but as a rule the citizens of Harris have been noted for their intel- ligence and morality.
COWETA.
Coweta, which adjoined Troup on the east, was a large and, in the main, a fertile county. It was named Coweta
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fter the old Indian town two miles below Columbus, and ts county town was named Newnan in honor of General Daniel Newnan, a brave soldier in the war of 1812.
The county was in all respects like those already de- cribed which adjoined it. There was no waste land in it, but the fertility of its various sections differed much, and according to the nature of the soil was the class of settlers who made their homes in the county.
In the rich red lands there was the slave-owner, and on he poorer gray lands the men of smaller means. The ands, having been granted by lottery, were very rapidly occupied by Georgia people, and in three years there were 3,000 people in the county, of whom 1,372 were slaves.
There were but few people of anything like considerable property, and the larger number of the first comers were men in very moderate circumstances.
There was, however, as in Troup, quite an immigration of people of some property from the eastern counties. After the county had been settled some time there came to t a fine body of people who moved in a body from Vir- ginia, and, besides these, a colony of German origin from South Carolina, but the larger part of the people came from the eastern counties of Georgia.
They had few hardships to encounter and found land very cheap and a wide range for their cattle and hogs, and were soon comfortably fixed in their log cabins.
The first court-house was at Bullsboro, about two miles from the present city of Newnan, and the first court was held there by Judge Walter T. Colquitt. This place, which was chosen as a county site, was not satisfactory, and no public buildings were ever erected there. At that time Coweta included Heard and Carroll and was an immense county.
The early records show that there was a great deal of fraud in taking up the lands, which were distributed by lot-
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tery, and that, as is common in newly settled counties, there was a great deal of drinking and fighting. There was, how- ever, never a reign of lawlessness in the county.
The people were generally poor and generally moral. They were from the best families east of Coweta, and were substantial, industrious and unpretending people.
The price of land at the first settlement of the county ranged from fifty cents to two dollars and a half per acre, only the very best lands bringing more than one dollar.
The chief property of the first comers was cattle. Cows and calves sold for twelve dollars; cattle, as they came, at six dollars per head. There was much bacon made, which found ready purchasers in the newcomers.
It was, however, only a few years after the county was settled before it became famous as a cotton-growing county and the plantations were greatly enlarged.
Coweta was no exception to the general rule in middle Georgia. Farms were absorbed in plantations, and the same condition of things noted elsewhere followed the re- verses of the war. The planters abandoned the plantations and negro tenants alone were left. A gratifying change is now passing over the county. The great estates are being divided and the number of smaller landholders is increas- ing.
Newnan was made the county site in 1827, and has beer one of the leading towns in western Georgia since its first settlement. It soon became a place of commercial impor- tance, and, being the site of the public buildings and of the academies, it drew to itself a population noted for its intel- ligence and refinement. The ante-bellum homes, some o: which still stand, were commodious and imposing, with large grounds about them, mainly owned by planters who had large estates in the county.
The citizens took great interest in education in all sec tions of this county. Mr. M. P. Kellogg, a northern teacher
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of great ability and enterprise, built up a female institution of high grade, which he called College Temple, and which was a noted school for girls for many years. There was, from the settlement of Newnan, a classical school for males, and in the country neighborhoods there were some excel- lent schools. The Longstreet Institute, the Rock Springs Academy and the Senoia Institute were all fine schools.
The Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians came with the first settlers, and the Methodists and Baptists each had a log church in Newnan in 1827. The Presbyterians came next, and the Episcopalians have now a church in the city. These first churches were of logs, but they soon gave way to better buildings, and these in turn to those which are still better; and now in Newnan there are elegant churches which would do credit to any city, while all over the county there are comely and comfortable churches of various de- nominations. In addition to these the colored people have a number of neat and attractive buildings.
This county has been the home of many prominent and useful men who have been distinguished in the history of the State.
Rev. Dr. Luther M. Smith, president of Emory College and of the Southern University, was born and brought up in this county.
W. B. W. Dent, a congressman, was a useful resident of this county in its earliest settlement.
Hugh Buchanan, a gifted Scotchman and true soldier, and who was severely . wounded in the war between the States, came to Coweta a young teacher and studied law. He became at once prominent, was sent to the Legislature, elected a judge of the circuit court and a member of Con- gress, and died here greatly esteemed.
The celebrated Dr. Calhoun, the famous surgeon of At- lanta, whose reputation as an oculist has become world- wide, was brought up in Newnan.
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Perhaps no town in the State has had a better class of enterprising citizens than Newnan. The Messrs. Cole, na- tives of Coweta, built up a famous foundry and machine shop, whose work took the highest prize at more than one State exhibit, and in common with others built up a cotton- mill, which has been successful from its beginning.
There is now no town in western Georgia in which there are evidences of more genuine prosperity than Newnan.
TALBOT.
Talbot was named in honor of Matthew Talbot. He was one of the prominent men of Wilkes and was senator from that county and president of the Senate when Gov- ernor Rabun died. The death of Governor Rabun made him ex-officio governor. He ran for the governorship, but was defeated by G. M. Troup by two votes.
The county of Talbot was ordered in 1826. It was a very large county and of very varied features. Some of the land was remarkably fine, and the Talbot valley, lying between the Oak and Pine mountains, is a valley of great beauty and fertility. Much of the county was very rugged, and though the hills were fertile, they were easily washed away. There was some valley land on the river and a large body of pine woods.
The county was speedily settled, and in 1829 it had 3,841 free inhabitants and 2,099 slaves. The wealth of the neighborhoods varied according to the character of the soil.
The same story told of Meriwether and Troup can be told of Talbot. Eastern planters moved all their interests to the new country. The proximity to Columbus enabled the settler to secure all the comforts he had left behind. Schools were at once established, churches built, and so Talbot became a great cotton-raising county. In 1830 there were 7,81 1 free and 8,723 slaves.
The population of Talbot differed but little from the
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best population of the adjoining counties. It was largely settled by eastern Georgians, and the oak and hickory lands by cotton-planters. They had been neighbors in Morgan, Putnam and Hancock, and there was but little change in their lives in this new county.
As was always the case the pine lands and the poorer sections were neglected and thinly peopled for a number of years; but when the railroad to Columbus passed through the county mills sprang up and farms followed. The Mid- land road from Griffin to Columbus passed through Talbot, and a branch road from Talbotton to Bostwick connected Talbotton with the Central railroad.
The history of Talbot is simply that of all the slave- holding, cotton-planting country. It suffered much from the reverses which followed the war, but is now perhaps as. prosperous on the whole as it has ever been.
Talbotton, the county site; was settled as soon as the county was made. It has been famous from its settlement for its culture and refinement, and while it has suffered, as all the near-by towns have done, from the attractions of the large cities which have drawn its people away from it, it is still a thrifty town, with a good trade and an excellent population.
Geneva and Bostwick are small villages on the Central railway.
The Collinsworth Institute, now suspended, was built and endowed by Josiah Flournoy, and was long a famous high school among the Methodists. The LeVert Female College, now the graded school, was a famous female college.
From Talbotton Allen F. Owen was sent to Congress and made minister to a foreign court, Geo. W. Towns was. made governor and Barna Hill was made judge.
Leonard Rush, one of the ablest of Georgia preachers, long had his home in the Talbot valley.
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BAKER.
A very large county in the northeastern part of Earl was cut off from that county in 1825 and named Baker i: honor of Colonel Baker of the Revolutionary war. It was when laid out, almost an unknown land to the people of Georgia, and few had any appreciation of the immens value of the as yet untouched soil. It was not a pleasan country to the eye, nor did it seem to promise good health It was in what the old geologists called the tertiary forma tion; the water was strongly impregnated with lime, and the air was laden with malaria. It was soon discovered that the hummocks were exceptionally fertile, and adapted especially to cotton.
It was at first taken possession of by the stock-raiser and was a fine land for grazing, but as soon as the fertility of it soil was recognized it was bought up by the large slave owners of middle Georgia and plantations were opened.
While the climate in winter and the early spring was very fine, it was very unfriendly to white people in the late summer and fall, but it was not so to negroes, and they breathed the malarious air with greater impunity.
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