USA > Georgia > The story of Georgia and the Georgia people, 1732 to 1860 > Part 37
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482
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. XI.
found again when the great revolution which made a new Georgia began.
The period between 1847 and 1860 was an era of rapid. development. The Central railroad had reached Macon and joined the Macon and Western, which had been com- pleted to Marthasville in DeKalb county, and the Georgia railroad from Augusta and the Western and Atlantic rail- road from Chattanooga had reached the same point. It was now possible to transport cotton unloaded from north Alabama boats at Chattanooga to Savannah, and grain from East Tennessee to Charleston by continuous railways. The village of Marthasville had become the city of Atlanta-a. name selected for it, or rather made for it, by Mr. Garnett and Mr. Peters, who were civil engineers on the Georgia railroad. A road was projected and completed from Rome to Kingston to join the Western and Atlantic railroad; one from Athens to Union Point on the Georgia; one from Augusta to Millen to tap the Central; one from Atlanta to West Point to join the road from Montgomery; one from Macon to Columbus; one from the Central at Gordon to Milledgeville and Eatonton; one from Macon to Albany, and, later, roads from Macon to Brunswick and from Savannah to Thomasville. These railways brought. all parts of the State into connection and led to the rapid. development of every part of it.
In endeavoring to get a view of the industrial condition of the State during this period it will perhaps be best to glance at its various sections as they present themselves.
The rice plantations and sea islands were now owned by a few wealthy and aristocratic people who had a large- number of slaves; and rice and cotton were the chief prod- ucts. There were raised besides, for home consumption, cattle, hogs, potatoes, turnips, and all kinds of garden sup- plies. There had been little change in this section for sixty years, and the pictures we have of the people in the pre-
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AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1847-1860.]
vious pages were as true of them in 1860 as in 1820. The larger rice plantations were on the Ogeechee, the Savannah, the Satilla, Hutchinson's Island and in Liberty county and Bryan's Neck. The negroes had increased till they were counted by the hundred. The richer planters had their winter houses among the live-oaks near the rice-fields, and spent their summers and the early fall in the Northern States or on the sea islands. They still pursued much the same methods of culture their fathers had used, save that the improved methods of hulling rice were now adopted, and the rice, instead of being prepared for market on the plantations, was shipped by the schooner-load to the rice- mills in Savannah. The social life among them was such as we have before portrayed. They were hospitable, refined and self-indulgent. Their wealth was largely in their ne- groes, and as their plantations furnished all they needed, and their factors were ready to attend to all their wishes, they went on their even way and cared little about accumu- lations other than that from the natural increase of their slaves. Life was about as fixed among them as among the English gentry whom they so much resembled.
The middle part of Georgia was becoming more and more a great cotton plantation. The poorer landholders had removed from the older counties; and in these counties and as far west as the Ocmulgee one rode for miles through the lands of some great proprietor. A group of cheap cab- ins, an overseer's house, a large barn, a cotton-gin and screw, with now and then an elegant, roomy mansion in a grove of oaks and hickories, were presented in all sections of the old counties. Cotton was the main product, but among the best planters the raising of meat and breadstuffs was still carefully attended to. The social life of twenty years before was now almost unchanged, except that the young people were better educated. There was, however, a sad destruction of the beautiful woods, and the evidence of
-
484
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. XI.
careless culture was seen in the many old fields on the plantations. Wilkes, Lincoln, Elbert, Greene and Columbia were now counted old and worn-out ; and many large plan- ters had moved their slaves to southwestern Georgia and even to Louisiana and Texas, and were opening plantations in new lands. They still held to their old homes, and these changes in the location of their laborers were made during the period of which we are writing. All the rude features of life in middle Georgia had now disappeared, and there was nowhere a more dignified society or a more religious, worthy people than there was now in this part of the State. But no one could fail to see that the white population was becoming more and more reduced, and that there had been a real devastation of the splendid country which had been settled but little over fifty years. The fields no longer produced remunerative crops, and there seemed but little prospect of improving them, when Mr. David Dickson of Hancock county, by the wise use of commercial fertilizers, opened the way to a wonderful change in planting and of making the ridges and pine woods which had been consid- ered worthless good cotton land. This was by the liberal use of commercial fertilizers. Mr. Dickson was the first planter in Georgia to use the then newly introduced Peru- vian guano and to adopt a new method of cultivating both corn and cotton .* There was considerable interest aroused in cotton-spinning, and mills were constructed in Butts, Greene, Newton, Putnam, Wilkes and Elbert. These fac- tories were run by water-power and paid good dividends. There was now much wheat raised, and in every county there was a merchant mill where good flour was made, and in the grist-mills there were often bolting-cloths for wheat flour. There was a constant advance in education, and in every neighborhood there was an academy. Mercer, Emory, Oglethorpe and the State University were the male
* Hancock County, Chapter IV.
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AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1847-1860.]
colleges, and there were a number of female colleges, chief among them the Wesleyan in Macon and Lagrange College.
The negroes had greatly improved since they were last glanced at. On the large plantations there was much care- ful missionary work, and in the interior much attention had been paid to their moral as well as temporal welfare. It is doubtful whether there was any part of the world, except perhaps Scotland and New England, where ordinary la- borers on farms were the equals in all respects to the negro slaves in middle Georgia just before the war, where they were so well fed, so well housed and their health so care- fully looked after. They were not free from vices, but the interests of the owner led him to guard them carefully against all those vices which reduced their value commer- cially. Murder was rare, and drunkenness almost unknown. They married early, and while they sometimes married often, they had their wives and children. That they were honest as a class or put a high estimate on social purity or the bond of marriage no one could justly say. They could not read, as a rule, but they were oftentimes good farmers and skillful mechanics. While not strictly moral, they were very religious.
The villages and county towns grew slowly during this period. The large planter went to the city for his heavy groceries, and he bought comparatively little at his county town. In Washington, Madison, Covington, Eatonton, Forsyth and other county sites there was considerable trade, and these county towns were becoming more gener- ally markets for cotton and depots for supplies.
Through all the country there were the same churches which had generally been built of unplaned plank or logs thirty years before, and the old plan of monthly meetings was still followed; but now the churches in the towns were beginning to secure pastors who gave them weekly services,
486
THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. XI.
and the plain, uncomely country churches were being now replaced by neat and attractive buildings.
The drinking habits of the people had undergone a great change. The decanter was no longer on the sideboard and the still had disappeared from most neighborhoods, though it was likely to appear again if there was a good peach crop; and while there was still the cross-roads groggery, it was under the ban.
The up-country, as it was called from Atlanta northward, had very rapidly and steadily improved. There was but little cotton raised except in a very few counties. In Cass (now Bartow), Floyd, Chattooga and Polk there was some cotton planted, but the main products were corn, wheat and bacon.
Marietta had become quite an important town, Carters- ville was still but a hamlet, Kingston was a considerable village, and Dalton (or Cross Plains) was becoming a city of some importance. Ringgold was a rather large depot where wheat was purchased in large quantities, while Rome had become a bustling city. The country all along the line of the new railroad was rapidly filling up with a sturdy and industrious people. There had been a gratifying im- provement in the morals and culture of all this section, and an excellent class of people had now fixed their homes in it, and all the rude features of frontier life had disappeared. Along the Etowah in Cedar Valley and along the Chat- tooga there were now elegant homes.
There were good schools established in most of the towns and villages, and there was much more attention given to common schools. During this period a Baptist college was established at Cassville, and the Georgia Mil- itary Institute had been opened at Marietta and had a large patronage.
That part of Georgia known as the Piedmont country, on the foot-hills of the Blue Ridge, Franklin, Madison, Hall, etc.,
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AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1847-1860.]
had lost many of its people, who had removed to newer coun- ties, and being remote from the railroads that section had retained many of its early features, but these old counties had not seriously deteriorated.
The greatest changes in Georgia had, however, passed over the rotten-limestone land of southwestern Georgia, which at the beginning of this epoch was attracting a large immigration. As the railroads reached southwestern Georgia the planters living on the worn lands of middle Georgia, whose slaves had rapidly increased, were led to make large plantations in these counties, and in Macon, Lee, Dooly, Sumter, Dougherty and Baker they settled a large number of slaves. In the history of the counties which preceded this chapter I have already spoken of the opening of these plantations. The country was wonderfully fertile, and for a time was strangely free from the ravages of the caterpillar and the boll-worm. Crops were nearly always sure, prices during all this period were good, and the property of the southwest Georgia planter increased with marvelous rapidity.
During this period there was constructed the Macon and Brunswick railway from Macon to Brunswick, and the At- lantic and Gulf from Savannah to Thomasville, connecting Macon with the coast and the Savannah with the Chatta- hoochee. Both lines went through an almost unbroken pine forest, and there was little development along them before the war began, but the beginning of the great development of this pine country was made at that time.
In the history of the counties which comprised this sec- tion I have told of the wonderful changes which have passed over this entire wire-grass country, but at this time there was but little change to be seen from what had been thirty years before: the same scattered houses, the same simple habits, the same want of educational advantages, were found in 1860 as were found in 1830. The story of the cities
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THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. XI.
will give an insight into the condition of things as pre- sented by them during this era. After the terrible depres- sion from 1837 to 1843 the whole country was wonderfully prosperous for some time. The old banks were solid and reliable; and, save the bank of St. Marys, which was man- aged in Columbus and which was the last bank in Georgia to issue shinplasters, all the old banks were recognized as perfectly solvent. They had large circulation, large resources and the full confidence of the people. Their branches ex- tended all through the State, and they gave liberal accom- modations. When specie was demanded for their bills it was promptly furnished. A few wildcat banks were opened, but these were soon discontinued. In 1857, however, when the cotton had just begun to move, a sudden financial crash came upon the country, and there was a run upon the Geor- gia banks for which they were not prepared. They sus- pended, and their suspension was legalized by the Legisla- ture. The suspension was temporary and business went on, and up to the beginning of the war in April, 1861, there were no serious results from the panic. The Legisla- ture passed what was known as the stay law, and no debts could be collected by legal process.
The wretched illiteracy of many of the Georgia people and the inefficiency of the private school system, supple- mented by a pitiable sum doled out for pauper education to remedy it, had been a source of deep mortification to many Georgians. The political theories concerning paternalism which dominated led the people to oppose vigorously any- thing like a common school system, and for years the prog- ress of primary education where it was most needed was sadly slow. But Thomas R. R. Cobb, the gifted brother of Howell Cobb, formulated a plan for a school system which he hoped and expected, if adopted, would secure the edu- cation of the masses and at the same time avoid anything like socialism. His plan, however, was never given a fair
Gov. CHAS. J. JENKINS.
FOLGER-CIN.
Gov. A. H. STEVENS.
Gov. H. V. JOHNSON,
FOLGER-CIN.
Gov. HOWELL COBB,
NO-839 103
Jos. E. BROWN.
FOLGER-CIN.
BEN. H. HILL.
-CINA
FOLGER-
Gov. A. H, COLQUITT.
FOLGER
DR. G. J. ORR.
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AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1847-1860.]
trial; and with the overthrow of the old State government and the formation of the new constitution after the war, the common school system displaced it. It might, however, safely be said that as far as much of Georgia was concerned, there had been for years few children who were forced to remain in ignorance because there was no chance for them to secure the elements of an education; but there was a fear- ful lack of interest on the part of many to take advantage of the means in reach.
The daily press at the beginning of this period was the Savannah Georgian, the Savannah Republican, the Augusta Chronicle and the Augusta Constitutionalist. There were, however, before the close of this era, the Macon Telegraph, the Columbus Enquirer-Sun, the Atlanta Intelligencer, the Savannah News, and some other short-lived dailies.
The weekly press had become greatly increased, and there were, in addition to the list we have given elsewhere, sundry other papers in each of the leading towns. There were at the beginning of the war a large number of week- lies which were largely supported by public advertising.
The Southern Cultivator was now a vigorous monthly edited by Daniel Lee and devoted to the development of southern agriculture. It was during this period that the Georgia Agricultural Society was formed, and it had its first fair at Stone Mountain in 1848, and afterward there was a fair held for several years in Atlanta, and one of the Atlanta streets is named Fair street in honor of the old fair ground.
In 1860 there was an exciting political campaign which resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln and the tri- umph of the Republican party. Here my story ends. A new era begins, and a much larger volume than this would be necessary to tell the story of the four years from 1861 to 1865. I have tried to give the genesis of the Georgia people, to trace them back to their origin, and I think I
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THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. XI.
have shown how absurdly they write who speak so flip- pantly of the Georgia people as descending from those who were in debtor's prisons and English almshouses, and how much more absurdly they write who declare that the middle Georgians were a lawless and ignorant horde of adventurers whom they call crackers. The facts are that some early Georgians were from England, Scotland, Germany and the north of Ireland, and some of them, not over 1, 500 in all, received a small amount of help from the trustees ; but they were of the best class of the plain people of the Eng- lish yeomanry, the German farmers and the Scotch crof- ters; there came some Highland lairds and their clansmen with the Scotch, and some men of classical culture with the Germans, and some men of education and character with the English, and some enterprising and intelligent people with the Scotch-Irish, but by far the larger number of Georgians came from Virginia and North Carolina. There were a few Quakers and thrifty Jews among the early comers, and the cannie trader from Scotland, the daring adventurer from the north of Ireland, the mystical German, were all here before the Revolution; those broad-minded Englishmen, Noble Jones, John Wereat, James Habersham and Button Gwinnett, and Virginia gentlemen like Wm. Glascock and Geo. Walton, and Scotch chieftains like Lachlan McIntosh, and Puritans like Dr. Hall and Abraham Baldwin, all united in making the Georgia people. The native Celt-the pure Irishman from Cork or Tipperary- warm in his temper and Catholic in his faith, to whom Georgia was to be so greatly indebted in after time, was excluded by religious intolerance from coming at the first settlement, and it was only after the Revolution, and some time after it, that an Irishman like Wilde was found among her public men. The Irishmen who came to Galphin were Scotch-Irishmen and Protestants all, and it was not before 1840 that the south of Ireland people came in large num-
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AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
1847-1860.]
bers into Georgia. It may be best to give a summary of the different classes who have made up the Georgia people. They were: The English yeomanry, a few of the English gentry, the Scotch gentry, the Scotch peasantry, the Ger- mans from the Tyrol who came from Hanover, the Germans from the Palatinate, the Scotch-Irish, the Virginians, Mary- landers and Carolinians, a few New Englanders, a few Portuguese Jews, a few French Huguenots. These were the immigrants, and in after time there were no classes added to these save the German Jews who came as traders into the country. Those who came after the Revolution were of the same class as those who came before it, and do not find a separate place. The social features of the people took shape before the Revolution and underwent but little change in after time. There were then as in after time the gentry, the yeomanry, the crackers and the slaves.
I have up to this time attempted to give a description of each county and a short history of it as it came before me in order of time as organized, and as before the beginning of this period all the State had been divided into counties I have glanced at all parts of it. The counties as first made were very large but they were divided and subdivided, and for thirty years new counties were continually making their appearance. I do not think it necessary now to enter into the history of each, and I am compelled to omit a chapter giving an account of each of these newly formed counties.
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THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. XII.
CHAPTER XII.
RELIGION IN GEORGIA.
Georgia was settled by Christian men and from Christian motives. These Christians were of different denominations, and all forms of religious belief were tolerated except that held by the Roman Catholics. The founders of the colony were in the main Church of England people, and an Eng- lish clergyman, as we have seen, came with the first immi- grants. One of the first buildings erected was a board tabernacle, where Mr. Herbert, the rector, read prayers and preached. His health failed and he returned to England, and was succeeded by Mr. Quincy, one of the New England family of that name. Mr. Quincy remained only a short time and left the colony, and Messrs. John and Charles Wesley succeeded him. John remained in Savannah and Charles went with Mr. Oglethorpe to Frederica.
Of Mr. John Wesley's stay in Savannah we have told elsewhere, as that of Charles Wesley at Frederica. Both of these gifted brothers returned to England, and Mr. Geo. Whitefield came and took John Wesley's vacated place. He was compelled to leave his pastorate that he might raise funds for the support of his orphanage, and the church was somewhat irregularly supplied by the Church of England clergymen and by the officers of his orphanage. The church at Frederica ceased to have a pastor soon after the Spanish war, when the troops were disbanded and the town largely deserted by the people.
There was no other Episcopal church built in Georgia until 1757, when a church was built by the traders in Au- gusta, and Mr. Jonathan Copp was sent over by the Society
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AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
RELIGION. ]
for the Propagation of the Gospel to take charge of it and work as a missionary in the country about.
There was from the beginning and during the progress of the Revolution an entire abandonment of all the Epis- copal churches except the one in Savannah, in which during the days of British occupancy there was occasional re- ligious service. The only Episcopal clergymen who re- mained in Georgia and seem to have sympathized with the Americans were John Holmes and Mr. Abraham Piercey. The church in Savannah was supplied by Mr. Ellington after the Revolution. After the trustees of the Richmond academy had succeeded in building a church in 1789 Dr. Abraham Boyd, an Episcopal clergyman, was put in charge of it.
The church in Burke was abandoned to Methodists and Presbyterians and never reoccupied by Episcopalians. The church in Augusta was not regularly supplied until the Episcopal society in 1816 secured a gift of the lot on which St. Paul's church now stands, and succeeded in erect- ing the handsome structure which is now upon it. When the new cities of Macon and Columbus were laid out the Episcopalians built a church in each city as soon as it was settled, and Bishop Elliot was selected as the first Protest- ant Episcopal bishop of the diocese of Georgia in con- nection with the rectorship of Christ Church in Savannah.
LUTHERANS.
The Salzburghers, of whom we have already spoken as settling the Ebenezer colony, were the first Lutherans. They built a church at Ebenezer under the care of Pastors Bolzius and Gronau.
Another body of Germans made an abortive effort to establish a church at Frederica under the care of Mr. Driesler, and a church was built at Savannah probably be- fore 1759, which was closed during the Revolution and not
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THE STORY OF GEORGIA
[CHAP. XII.
opened again till 1823. Before the Revolution the good Pastors Bolzius and Gronau died and Pastor Triebner took their places. He was a Loyalist and so were many of his flock, but many of them and leading ones among them were patriots.
After the war was over the old inhabitants returned to their homes near Ebenezer and renovated their churches. There was a body of German Lutherans, not Salzburghers, who were led to come to Georgia by Captain DeBrahm, who settled near Ebenezer and finally became identified with the Salzburghers. Some Lutherans from South Car- olina, who were the descendants of the German emigrants to that colony, settled in upper Georgia after the opening of the new lands in 1825, and sundry congregations have been organized in the various counties of Georgia.
THE PRESBYTERIANS AND CONGREGATIONALISTS.
The Presbyterians were the third body of Christians who settled in Georgia and established churches. Pastor McLeod came with the Scotch colony from the Highlands and formed the first Presbyterian church in Georgia. He had service in a log hut at Darien. He, however, did not remain long in his parish, but went to South Carolina when this Scotch settlement was disintegrated, as it was soon after the Span- ish war. There was no organized Presbyterian church after this until the coming, in 1751, of the Dorchester colony, who settled in St. John's parish and built a church at Mid- way; for while these people were not nominally Presbyte- rians, they were practically such, and Congregationalists and Presbyterians were regarded as the same body at that time and were in close alliance. The next church estab- lished in Georgia was in Savannah, where a number of Scotchmen had made their homes, and in 1759 a Presbyte- rian church, which was essentially a Congregational church, was organized and a learned Swiss clergyman, a Mr. Zubly,
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AND THE GEORGIA PEOPLE.
RELIGION. ]
was secured as minister to it. The larger part of this con- gregation, with the pastor, took the side of the colonies, and Mr. Zubly was honored with an election to the Continental Congress. His course there we have seen, and the results of it. The church seems to have had no pastor during the war and was disorganized, and the house was in a dilapidated condition when the war ended. It was repaired and the congregation gathered again, and a pastor was secured. In 1760 there was quite a body of Scotch Presbyterians in St. George's parish, and they organized a church on Briar creek and one at Old Church and Walnut Branch, and had Rev. Josiah Lewis as pastor.
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