USA > Georgia > The story of Georgia and the Georgia people, 1732 to 1860 > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
MURRAY.
On the west of Gilmer is Murray county, named for Speaker Murray of Wilkes. This county was on the west side of the Blue Ridge and in the blue limestone country. Much of it was very fertile, and perhaps, take it all in all, the most beautiful farm in Georgia is located in Murray. Where the Coosawattee and the Talking Rock come to- gether and form the Connesauga, at the base of the moun- tains, are 1,700 acres of beautiful valley land in one body; all taken up by one owner, Colonel Carter. But in various parts of the county, on the creeks and in the coves, there are fertile valleys where clover and timothy grow in great luxuriance. This county was a favorite home of the Cher- okee Indians, and at Spring Place and near-by were the mission schools. The well-built brick houses of some of the Indian chiefs are still standing.
Although the county is new, the country has been inhab- ited a very long time, and much of the best land has been cultivated over a hundred years. There is in the county much sterile land, but there is also much that is productive.
The people who settled Murray were among the best people who came to the mountains, and there was an unu- sual amount of wealth for a mountain county.
455
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1829-1837.]
Spring Place, the county site, was a famous up-country town before the railroads came; but since the building of railways it has been overshadowed by the towns on the line and has declined. There has been quite an exodus from the county to the railway, but the best valleys are still well peopled.
The religious concerns of the county have been seen after by the Baptists, the Methodists and the Cumberland Pres- byterians.
The school advantages have been very limited. The common school system of the State has provided for the people of moderate means, and those in better circum- stances send their children to Dalton and other railway towns.
The county in its first settlement was noted for its law- lessness, and at one time the judges were prevented from holding court by the mob. But by the nerve and determi- nation of Judges Kenan and Warner the lawbreakers were subdued, and now few counties have a better class of people in the main than Murray.
Spring Place is the county site. The little village was famous as a place where the Moravian mission among the Cherokees was established and where Mr. Gambold, who for so many years gave himself to the work of civilizing this tribe, had his home. The American Board of Missions also established a mission near here. The chief Vann lived in a substantial brick house and cultivated a large planta- tion proximate to the village and the mission. He had a number of slaves. The remoteness of this mission from all demoralizing influences made the work of the missiona- ries wonderfully successful. Mission stations with Spring Place as a center were established all through the country adjacent, and long before the Indians were removed there were the circuits of the Methodists and churches of the Baptists.
456
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. IX.
When the Indians were removed their improvements were bought by white men, many of whom were by no means as worthy people as the Indians whom they dis- placed.
It was in this county that the celebrated J. Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home," at that time a correspondent of a New York paper, was arrested and treated with such indignity by the guard under a Captain Bishop that the Legislature expressed its profound regret for the outrage.
PAULDING.
Adjoining the county of Cobb in the west of the newly acquired country was Paulding county. It was named in honor of one of the captors of Major André, the British spy, and was when first laid off a very large county, reach- ing from Floyd to the Chattahoochee, in what is now Douglas county. It was afterward reduced until it has reached its present size.
The county as it now stands is not a fertile one. It is very rolling and the land is thin.
Up to the building of the Southern railway from Rome to Atlanta it was shut up in its own hills and was very slow in development, but since the coming of the road its im- provement has been marked and rapid.
The settlers of Paulding were of the same people who settled Cobb, and life in the rural districts of the two counties was much the same.
Bauxite is found in large quantities in this county, and much of it is mined and shipped to the North, where it is prepared for manufacture into aluminum.
Mr. White, who lived in the county adjoining Paulding, gives only a very short list of early settlers. The settlers were few and their circumstances very humble. They lived, as did most of these people of these sterile hills in upper
457
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1829-1837.]
Georgia, in a very poor way, and when they had no markets and raised no cotton, they had but little money and few comforts; but when slavery was abolished and fer- tilizers brought in, the people began to raise cotton, and being near Atlanta, where they find a ready market for their poultry and smaller products, they have been rapidly improving in population and in their circumstances.
There are some fine lands and some well-to-do farmers on the creeks in some parts of the county. The Sweet- water valley has long been noted for its fertility and its excellent class of people.
The proximity of Paulding to Atlanta and Rome and the general ruggedness of the country will some day result in its becoming a grazing and dairy county, famous for its fruits and poultry, and cause it to grow largely in popu- lation.
There has been decided improvement in the educational and religious conditions of the county since the war. The Methodists have always preached. in some parts of the county, and now their circuits and missions have reached all parts of it; and the Baptists are in it in large numbers.
The people were for a long time very rude and unlet- tered. There was little chance for them to be otherwise where settlements were so scattered and people so poor; but with the system of common school education, in com- mon with all counties similarly situated, Paulding has rap- idly advanced.
FLOYD.
Floyd, which was also a large county, containing several which now adjoin it, was laid off as soon as the country was opened. It was a very fertile country, through which ran the Coosa, the Oostanaula and the Etowah. The In- dians had placed a high estimate upon it, and it is supposed by Pickett, the Alabama historian, that the "Chiaha " of
458
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. IX.
De Soto's chronicler, where the Indians had their chief city, was in Floyd:
The great fertility of this county led at an early day men of wealth to remove into it and settle plantations, and among them was Colonel Mitchell, from middle Georgia, through whose influence the county site was changed from Livingston, ten miles below, to what is now the city of Rome, lying at the junction of the Etowah and Oostanaula. Rome had great advantages in its location, and soon gave evidence of the fact that it was to be a city of no con- temptible size.
Many of the rich bottoms on the Etowah and Oostanaula had been cultivated by the Indians for a long time, but only in corn. They were found admirably suited to cotton culture and productive wheat lands, and to be very val- uable.
There was much broken land in the county and not a little that was quite sterile, but there were some beautiful valleys in different parts of it. Vann's valley, named after an Indian chief, where the Indians had lived, was a fine section of the county, adjoining the famous Cave Spring valley.
Cave Spring is the name of a beautiful hamlet, so called because of the existence of a bold spring which rushes from the heart of a mountain which overlooks the village. The fertility of the country roundabout and the beauty of the location drew to it an excellent class of people. The Baptists established a high school here, endowed by a Mr. Hearn, the Methodists the Wesleyan Institute, and the State has here its Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb.
Rome, the chief city of Floyd, is surrounded by a very fertile country, and is at the head of navigation on the Coosa river. The falls of the Coosa in Alabama prevent- ing the passage of boats to the gulf gave Rome the control of the rich valley of the Coosa; and as soon as the Western
459
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1829-1837.]
and Atlantic railroad was completed a branch road con- necting Rome with it was built. So Rome became the chief cotton market of upper Georgia. The Messrs. Noble, a family of enterprising Englishmen, settled in Rome and erected extensive machine shops. The Southern railway connected Rome with the northwest and the southwest, and the railroad from Chattanooga to Carrollton opened an ex- cellent country north and south of the city. The growth of Rome has been very rapid, and it is now the chief city of upper Georgia. The Methodists have a very handsome church in Rome and a number of suburban churches; and the Baptists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians are all repre- sented by good churches. There is located in Rome the celebrated Shorter Female College (Baptist), which was built and endowed by Colonel Shorter, who was one of the first settlers in the county and a man of very great wealth. There is also a fine system of graded schools kept up by the city.
WALKER.
In 1833, in the extreme northwest of the Cherokee coun- try, the county of Walker, named in honor of Freeman Walker, a distinguished lawyer and politician of Richmond county, was made. Its county site was called Lafayette.
This county, like most of the up-country counties, was very large when it was laid out and is still a county of con- siderable size. It had been a favorite country for the Indians, and when they went west the rich lands on Chick- amauga creek, in McLemore's cove and on Broomtown creek drew from the low-country of Georgia and from the neighboring counties in Tennessee a body of fine settlers.
Lookout mountain was in the west of the county, and was an excellent stock range, and in time was found to be well suited to the growth of various small fruits and veg- etables.
460
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. IX.
For years Walker was cut off from the outer world. Chattanooga and Dalton on the railroad sprang up and took the trade of the Walker people from Lafayette. The little county site languished for years; but the building of a railway from Chattanooga to Carrollton, which passes through Lafayette, has given new life to it, and the pros- pects of its rapid advancement are very bright.
Some ten miles from Chattanooga is what was long known as Crawfish Springs and what is now known as Chickamauga. A subterranean river comes bursting out of the side of a hill in great volume, becoming a stream of 180 feet in width a few yards from its exit from the cave. It is as clear as crystal and has in it a great quantity of fish which can be seen with the naked eye. This beautiful spot was owned by a Mr. Lee, who had a large estate around it. It was settled on as a place for a young city, and Chicka- mauga was projected and, in the language of the times, was vigorously "boomed." This boom was moderately successful, and an attempt was then made to build another city, Kensington, near Mclemore's cove, which did not succeed. This cove, in the heart of the mountains known as McLemore, has long been famous for its fertility and beauty. The extent of its land is not great, but the quality is very good. The Hon. Wm. Dougherty had a summer home here, and Rev. Charles Wallace Howard, who was distinguished as a careful student of Georgia history and as a developer of her resources, spent his last days in this county on Lookout Mountain, where he had a ranch and a garden.
Moore and Marsh, the famous wholesale dry-goods men of Atlanta, began their mercantile life in Walker, and many of Georgia's distinguished men have resided in this county.
For years before the war the educational advantages of the county were very few. . There was a classical school in Lafayette and some of inferior grade in other parts of the
461
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1829-1837.]
county from the first settlement; but until the common school system was inaugurated there was little intelligent effort made to educate all the people. As in all the coun- try, there have been great improvements.
From the first opening of the county the Methodist cir- cuit-rider and the Baptist elder have been at work in Walker, and the people are in the main a religious people.
CHATTOOGA.
From the lower part of Walker and the upper part of Floyd a county was formed in 1838, known as Chattooga. The face of the country is broken by ridges and ranges of low mountains. There are in it some very beautiful valleys and some very excellent land.
Summerville, the county site, is a neat and pleasant country town with good schools and churches.
There is in the county one of the most successful cotton factories in the State, known as Trion Factory. It is located on the Chattooga river, and not only has good water-power but is also run by steam.
There is a settlement in this county known as South Carolina, because of excellent well-to-do South Carolinians who settled in it.
The county has had an exceptionally good reputation for its morality and its religion, and has paid unusual attention to its schools.
It was for many years secluded, but by the building of the railroad from Chattanooga to Carrollton its entire length has been traversed by a railway.
DADE.
Lookout mountain, which passes through the upper part of Walker, cuts the extreme northwest corner of Geor- gia into a small county known for many years as the State of Dade. It was named in honor of Major Dade, who was
.
462
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. IX.
killed, with his whole command, by the Seminoles in Florida.
There were only 2,500 people in the county in 1850, of whom only 148 were slaves.
In this county is the only deposit of coal in the State, and ex-Governor Brown opened the mine and operated it with convicts leased from the State, and built a large iron furnace.
The people of the county are isolated from Georgia and have their associations with Chattanooga. They are a plain, good people, of simple tastes and habits, and are moral and religious.
BARTOW (ONCE CASS).
Among the new counties laid out in 1832 was Cass, named in honor of Lewis Cass. When General Cass took decided anti-southern ground in 1861 the indignant Geor- gians changed the name to Bartow, after the gallant gen- eral of that name who lost his life at the first Manassas.
There is no part of Georgia in which a finer body of land is to be found than is included in this county. It had been a favorite section with the Indians, and the lands on the Etowah, Pine Log and sundry other creeks were famous for their fertility and had been cultivated by them. In ad- dition to these agricultural resources there are large quar- ries of limestone and large deposits of iron ore and man- ganese.
When Cass was first opened it was somewhat remote from the older counties and difficult to reach; but it was rapidly peopled by the best class of settlers. Many of them came from the older counties, and some very substan- tial people came to it from South Carolina. It was so rap- idly peopled that in ten years after it was settled it had in it nearly 13,000 people, of whom over 2,000 were slaves.
463
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1829-1837.]
The land is largely in the blue-limestone region and pro- duces wheat, corn and cotton very abundantly.
The county site was called Cassville, and few villages anywhere had at their first settlement a finer class of people than this little hamlet. When the Western and Atlantic railroad reached the county Cassville was off the line of railway, and during the war the village was burned and the county site removed to the city of Cartersville, on the railroad.
In Cass county the first extensive foundry and rolling- mill in Georgia was established by Cooper, Wiley & Co., and the first railway iron made in Georgia was made at this mill. These iron works were destroyed during the war. Cass was overrun by the Federals, and no part of Georgia suffered more from their ravages.
This county has been famous for its men of distinction. Warren Aiken, once a candidate for governor and long a leader of the Whig party; Colonel W. H. Stiles, the accom- plished minister to Austria; Charles Wallace Howard, one of the most accomplished of Georgia writers; Judge Turner Trippe, a prominent jurist; Colonel Lewis Tumlin, a mem- ber of Congress, all lived and died in this county.
The county has always been noted for its attention to education and religion, and there is a large graded school in Cartersville and excellent schools in all the country neighborhoods.
Cartersville, the county site, is a city of considerable size and enterprise, noted for its handsome buildings, its fine climate, and its excellent citizenship.
Kingston is a hamlet of some importance, at the junction of the Rome railroad.
The county is well supplied with Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches.
There is no county in the State where there are hand- somer country homes than are to be found in this county.
464
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. IX.
The rich beds of manganese and hematite iron ore have added much to its wealth.
As is always the case in a county of rich valley lands, there are also sterile hills inhabited by poor and ignorant people; but taking man for man, there are few sections of the country where there is a better grade of people than is to be found in this county.
MACON.
Macon county, named for Nathaniel Macon, was formed from the adjoining counties. It had in its borders some very excellent land on the Flint river and on the creeks, and some beautiful and extensive plantations of the best red pine land in the eastern part of the county. The best of this land was taken up at an early day in large planta- tions, on which there were placed many slaves. In 1850 there were about 4,000 white inhabitants and 3,000 slaves. Oglethorpe is the county site, on the west side of the Flint. It is a village of respectable size, with a very fine court- house. Two miles west of it is the flourishing little city of Montezuma. It is located very near the river, and was for some years considered quite unhealthy; but the boring of an artesian well opened a vein of the purest water, which came gushing to the surface in inexhaustible quantity, and has removed the source of disease, and now no village in the State has a better record for health. The most remarkable industry of this county is its fruit-growing and its famous nursery business. Mr. Samuel H. Rumph conceived the idea of a great nursery on the red hills of Macon, and de- voted himself to the work of planting one and having large orchards; and finding a demand for his choice fruit in the northern States, he began the shipment of peaches and plums to New York and other northern cities. The busi- ness of fruit-raising and fruit shipment thus begun has be- come an immense one, and hundreds of car-loads of peaches
1829-1837.] AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE. 465
are shipped from this section. The famous Elberta peach originated in his nursery, and has spread all over the land. The cotton industry has given way to the raising of fruit and fruit trees.
30
466
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. X.
CHAPTER X.
1837 TO 1847.
Governor Gilmer-Governor McDonald-Governor Crawford - The Begin- ning of the Great Financial Crash-List of Banks-Low-price Cotton-Con- dition of State Treasury-Contraction of the Circulation-Troubles in the State Finances-Governor McDonald's Nerve-The Central Bank of Geor- gia-Cherokee County Populated-The Monroe Railroad Failure-Comple- tion of the Central Railroad; of the Georgia Railroad; of the Western and Atlantic Railroad-The Effect of the Depression-Political Excitement- "Tippecanoe and Tyler too"-The Opening of Mercer and Emory-Settle- ment of the Western Counties-Features of Middle Georgia Life in 1840- The Mountaineers-The Wire-grass Country-The Religious Condition of Georgia-The Camp-meeting-Georgia Talent in the Pulpit and on the Platform.
Authorities : Acts of Legislature, White's Statistics, White's Historical Collec -- tions, Gilmer's Georgians, Miller's Bench and Bar of Georgia, Sherwood's Gazetteer, Campbell's History of the Baptists, Smith's History of Methodism,. History Bank of England-Benton's Thirty Years' View, newspaper files.
Governor Gilmer was elected as the candidate of the States' rights or anti-Jackson party in 1837. This was the second time he had been chosen as governor. Once he was elected by the Clarke and now by the States' rights. party. He entered his office after the great panic of 1837 had begun, and left it broken in health when it was at its height.
This panic was not, as many have supposed, the same as that brought about from the removal of the deposits by General Jackson .* That panic began in 1834 and ended in.
* In making the above statement I am aware that I am not in accord with the general opinion as to the cause of the panic. Colonel Benton takes the ground I have taken above; and, indeed, until I had read his discussion I had never questioned the fact that General Jackson's vigorous measure brought about the calamity. I was, however, satisfied, after further research, that the- old senator was correct, and the History of the Bank of England, referred to. in the list of authorities, fully establishes his position.
467
AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1837-1847.]
1835. This was far more wide-spread than that, and had an entirely different origin. There had been a time of great inflation in England. Many private banks had been estab- lished. Money was easy and many new cotton-mills had been erected. Suddenly, and apparently without cause, a general distrust of the stability of these country banks was aroused, and there was a general call on them for specie; they in turn demanded the payment of obligations due to them. They were forced to suspend, and the American banks in the larger cities suspended also; and in May of 1837 every bank in Georgia but two suspended specie pay- ments. This was done avowedly as a matter of precaution and not of necessity. The banks in New York, Philadel- phia, Baltimore and Charleston had suspended, and the Georgia banks were forced to follow their example or be drained of specie. In 1834, according to Sherwood, there was in Georgia :
Planters Bank, Savannah
$
Capital. 535,000
Circulation. $214,922
Specie. $147,132
Mechanics, Augusta.
200,000
456,621
183,497
Marine and Fire Insurance, Savannah.
170,000
165,485
118,52I
Insurance and Banking Co., Augusta.
150,000
191,092
86,150
Commercial, Macon
100,000
73,376
53,229
Columbus
203,333
132,790
86,492
Columbus Insurance
150,000
111,496
72,412
Bank State of Georgia, Augusta
1,500,000
....
.
...
Bank of Darien, Darien
469,017
329,942
73,186
Farmers Bank, Chattahoochee
119,825
72,063
8,972
Bank of Augusta
600,000
437,764
353,405
Hawkinsville.
100,000
179,852
78,870
Central Bank of Georgia, Milledgeville .. 2,485,733
237,725
135,186
The mania for establishing banks was wide-spread, and before 1834 a large addition had been made to this list. There was the Monroe Railroad and Banking Company, Macon; the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, Au- gusta; the Central Railroad and Banking Company, Savan- nah; the Planters and Mechanics, Columbus; the Bank of St. Marys; the Ocmulgee Bank, Macon; the Irwinton
468
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. X.
Bridge Co., Irwinton; the Florence Bridge Co., Florence; the Western, Rome; the Brunswick, and sundry others.
Money had been for some years an easy thing to obtain. Planters indorsed for each other and banks freely discounted the paper. Political favorites secured at the Central Bank of Georgia an almost unlimited credit. Cotton in 1836 was 17 cents a pound, and cities were springing up like magic. The crash of 1834 had not affected Georgia, but now came the day of settlement. England had become fearfully in- volved, and the English manufacturers went down before the storm by hundreds. The Bank of England found itself seriously embarrassed and suspension of specie payments seemed to be absolutely certain. Cotton, which was 12 to 15 cents in January, 1837, began to decline, and by 1839 was down to 712. In 1840 it was 6 to 7, in 1841 best grades 712, in 1842 4 to 7, and the lower grades as low as 3. The banks called in their loans and contracted their circulation. Specie could not be secured and change bills were issued by banks and private parties. Negroes de- clined to one half the price they had been held at in 1837, and lands were almost worthless. The railroads which had been projected had suspended banks at their backs as their only reliance. The Western and Atlantic railroad was built with bills of the Central Bank of Georgia, the Monroe rail- road with its own bank bills, and so the Georgia and the Central. The iron was imported from England and paid for in cotton purchased by Georgia bank notes. The an- tagonism to the banks by the Jackson party was fearful, and the banks fought against each other savagely; and to fill the cup of misery, the United States bank, which had been working under a Pennsylvania charter, became hopelessly insolvent, and a new panic set in.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.