Chapter VII: Part 7

Besides these, there were then three volunteer companies in Liberty County: the Liberty Independent Troop,—Captain Joseph Jones,—and two infantry companies, commanded respectively by Captains Robert Quarterman and John Winn. “The Guards,” under Captain Winn, were at one time stationed at Hardwick, in Bryan County.

After his defeat at Point Peter, Captain Jones’ cavalry company and the Rifle company of Captain Quarterman were ordered to the relief of Major Messias. They were for some time on duty at Darien.

The militia of the County being well organized and efficiently officered, was largely engaged in maintaining a careful watch along the coast. In this service assistance was rendered by barges and cutters from the American Navy, which patrolled Midway river and the adjacent inlets, and not infrequently established their headquarters at Sunbury. The “Committee of Safety” for Liberty County, during the war, consisted of General Daniel Stewart, William Fleming, John Winn, John Stacy, John Elliott, John Stevens, and Joseph Law. These gentlemen were authorized to take general charge of the local defense, and to call upon the citizens of the County for such labor as appeared necessary. In case of a refusal on the part of any one to respond to the requisition, they were instructed to advertise the name of such delinquent in the most frequented places, that he might be held up to public contempt “for having disgraced the character of the citizen and the patriot.”

This Committee assured General C. C. Pinckney of their ability and willingness to repair and garrison the Fort at Sunbury, and made requisition upon him for two 18-pounder guns and a suitable supply of ammunition. In its remodeled condition, the fortification at Sunbury received at the hands of the Committee of Safety a new name,—“Fort Defence.” As being more easily defended, and requiring a smaller garrison, General Pinckney suggested the erection of a tower for the protection of Sunbury. This project, however, was never consummated.

The last vessel of any moment, which visited the town, was a Swedish brig which, in 1814, came in and conveyed away a load of cotton. Mr. James Holmes was the last Collector of the port; and for many years prior to his death the office was a mere sinecure. Subsequently a Surveyor was appointed by the General Government whose principal duty was to sign blank reports and draw his quarterly salary. The last person who held this office was the genial Colonel William Maxwell.

Until 1833, the Liberty Independent Troop,—the oldest volunteer military organization within the limits of Georgia except the Chatham Artillery,—celebrated the fourth of July each year at Sunbury. This company was then the guest of the town, and the recipient of every welcome and hospitality. The morning was spent in military exercises, in contentions at the head, ring, and target, and the afternoon was crowned with a public dinner replete with good cheer and patriotic speeches. This annual parade was the event of the year in that quiet community. On such occasions the U. S. Revenue Cutters stationed on the coast would generally come up to the town by special invitation, and participate in the festivities.

The summer retreats established at Jonesville, Flemington, Hinesville, and Dorchester, compassed the depopulation of the old town. Without trade, destitute of communications, and visited more and more each season with fevers, Sunbury, for nearly thirty years, has ceased to exist save in name. Its squares, lots, streets, and lanes have been converted into a corn field. Even the bricks of the ancient chimneys have been carted away. No sails whiten the blue waters of Midway river save those of a miserable little craft employed by its owner in conveying terrapins to Savannah. The old cemetery is so overgrown with trees and brambles that the graves of the dead can scarcely be located after the most diligent search. Fort Morris is enveloped in a wild growth of cedars and myrtle. Academy, churches, market, billiard room, wharves, store-houses, residences, all gone; only the bold Bermuda covered bluff and the beautiful river with the green island slumbering in its embrace to remind us of this lost town. A stranger pausing here would find no trace of the past once full of life and importance, but now existent only in the skeleton memories which redeem place and name from that oblivion which sooner or later is the common lot of all things human. The same bold bluff,—the same broad expanse of marshes stretching onward to the confines of the broad Atlantic,—the same blue outlines of Colonel’s island and the Bryan shore,—the same sea-washed beach of St. Catherine,—the same green island dividing the river as it ebbs and flows with ever restless tide,—the same soft sea-breezes,—the same bright skies,—the same sweet voices and tranquil scene which nature gave and still perpetuates,—but all else how changed! Truly “oblivion is not to be hired.” Blindly scattering her poppy she deals with places as with men, and they become as though they had not been. Strange that a town of such repute, and within the confines of a young and prosperous commonwealth, should have so utterly faded from the face of the earth!

“The garden with its arbor—gone,
And gone the orchard green;
A shattered chimney stands alone,
Possessor of the scene.”

It is with pleasurable sadness and filial reverence that we have brought together these fragmentary memories of a place once the abode of so much refinement, intelligence, hospitality and patriotism,—the home of Lyman Hall and Button Gwinnett,—signers of the Declaration of Independence,—of John Elliott and Alfred Cuthbert,—United States Senators from Georgia,—and of John A. Cuthbert, member of Congress,—the birth-place of William Law,—the accomplished lawyer, upright judge, and courtly gentleman,—and of John E. Ward,—the eloquent advocate, speaker of the House of Representatives, president of the Georgia Senate, and United States Minister to China,—for some years the residence of Richard Howley and Nathan Brownson, Governors of Georgia,—claiming intimate association with the Reverend Moses Allen, Benjamin Baker, Colonels William and John Baker, General Daniel Stewart, Colonel John McIntosh, and Major John Jones, patriots all, who risked fortune and life in support of the primal struggle for independence,—the scene of the professional labors of Doctors Dunwoody, Alexander, and West,—and numbering among its citizens clergymen, teachers, physicians, lawyers, merchants, and planters, whose influence was appreciated in their day and generation, and whose names, if here repeated, would challenge respect and veneration.

Nature survives, but nearly all the rest is shadow. In this humid soil so fecund with vegetation, neglected gravestones,—covered with brambles and overturned by envious forest trees,—“tell truth scarce forty years.”

V.

HARDWICK.

Resurveyed, in 1853 by William Hughes. County Surveyor of Liberty County. Georgia.

_J. Bien, Photo. Lith. N. Y._]

During his tour of inspection in 1755, Governor Reynolds was so much pleased with the natural advantages of the Great Ogeechee river, that he selected a bluff upon its right bank, some fourteen miles from the sea, as a location for a new town, which, in honor of his relative the Lord High Chancellor of England, he named HARDWICK.

In his letter to the Board of Trade he says: “Hardwicke has a charming situation, the winding of the river making it a peninsula; and it is the only fit place for the capital.[235] There are many objections to this town of Savannah being so, besides its being situated at the extremity of the province, the shoalness of the river, and the great height of the land, which is very inconvenient in the loading and unloading of ships. Many lots have already been granted in Hardwicke, but only one house is yet built there; and as the province is unable to be at the expence of erecting the necessary public buildings, and the annual sum of £500 allowed for erecting and repairing public works, entertaining Indians, and other incidental expenses being insufficient for all those purposes, I am in hopes your Lordships will think proper to get a sufficient sum allowed for erecting a Court-House, an Assembly-House, a Church, and a Prison at Hardwick; which will be such an encouragement to private people to build there as will soon make it fit for the seat of government to the universal benefit of the province.”[236]

Upon the agitation of this project to transfer the capital of the colony from Savannah to the Great Ogeechee,[237] twenty-seven lots were quickly taken up in the town of Hardwick, and twenty-one thousand acres of land in its vicinity were granted to various parties who favored and promised to develop the enterprize. DeBrahm proposed that the place should be fortified by the erection of three polygons, six hundred feet each, and three detached bastions, to be armed with twenty-five cannon; and suggested a garrison of one hundred and fifty men.[238]

The Home Government neglecting to furnish the necessary funds, and Governor Reynolds being without the means requisite to compass the contemplated change, his scheme of transferring the seat of government to Hardwick was never consummated, and the town, deprived of its anticipated dignity and importance, developed simply into a little trading village adapted to the convenience of the few who there located and cultivated lands in the vicinity.[239]

By DeBrahm[240] it was reckoned among the five sea-port towns of the province. Although for many years a port of entry, its commerce was wholly domestic and coastwise, being chiefly confined to the conveyance of the products of the region, in small vessels, to Savannah, and the transportation, in return, of such articles and supplies as were needed by the planters.

By the act of the 15th of March, 1758,[241] dividing Georgia into eight parishes, “the town of Hardwick and district of Ogechee on the south side of the river Great Ogechee, extending north west up the said river as far as the lower Indian trading path leading from Mount Pleasant, and southward from the town of Hardwick as far as the swamp of James Dunham, including the settlements on the north side of the north branches of the river Midway, with the islands of Ossabaw, and from the head of the said Dunham’s swamp in a north west line,” were declared a parish by the name of ST. PHILIP.

In 1786[242] regulations were prescribed for the inspection of Tobacco at a warehouse to be erected at Hardwick.

By an Act, assented to on the 19th of December, 1793,[243] a new County was laid off from Chatham, and, in honor of a venerable patriot,[244] was called Bryan.

The legislature which passed this Act constituted John Wereat, Robert Holmes, James McGillivray, William Clark, Simmons Maxwell, Thomas Collier, and Joseph Stiles, Commissioners for the town and commons of Hardwick, with power, upon three months’ notice published in the Georgia Gazette, to cause a survey to be made, as nearly as possible, in conformity to the original plan of the place. This survey they were required to record in the office of the Surveyor of Bryan County; and also in the office of the Surveyor General of the State.[245]

By the second section of the Act these Commissioners were directed to sell at public vendue, to the highest bidder, at such time and place as they should deem best, and after published notice of six weeks in the Georgia Gazette, any vacant lots in the town, and any lots which should have become vested in the State of Georgia, reserving such only as might be proper for public uses. The proceeds arising from these sales were to be primarily applied to the erection of a Court House and Jail; and, if any balance remained in the hands of the Commissioners, it was to be expended in building an Academy. Within three months after the completion of such sales these Commissioners were to make full return to the State Treasurer of the number of lots sold, the price which each brought, and of the application of the funds realized.

On the 23rd of December, 1791,[246] Hardwick was again designated, by special legislative enactment, as one of the points in Georgia for the erection of a public ware-house, and the inspection and shipment of tobacco.

Eight years afterwards[247] the Justices of the Inferior Court of Bryan County were authorized to lease, from time to time, and for a term not exceeding seven years, the common of Hardwick and the glebe lands of the County, and apply the rents and profits therefrom arising to the repair and improvement of the County roads and bridges.

Although the Act of 1793 appointed Commissioners and provided for the erection of a County Court House and Jail at Hardwick, it does not appear that the contemplated buildings were ever constructed. But few terms of the Superior Court were held at this place. As early as 1797 the General Assembly of Georgia[248] authorized the Justices of the Inferior Court of Bryan County to make permanent seat of the public buildings “at the Cross-Roads about two miles from Ogechee bridge, or at any other place within half a mile of the said Cross-Roads.” For this purpose they were empowered to purchase land not exceeding two acres in extent.

There the public business was transacted, until, in 1814, the Legislature[249] was induced to sanction the selection of a new site more central in its location and more convenient of access to the inhabitants who had multiplied in the upper portion of the County. Godhilf Smith, Henry Sherman, James Martin, Zachariah Wells, and Luke Man were designated as Commissioners to sell the old lot and buildings at the cross-roads, and purchase in behalf of the County a parcel of ground at the new site to be chosen at or near Mansfield, on the Canouchee river, and superintend the erection thereon of new public buildings.

Thus, instead of becoming the Capital of Georgia, Hardwick soon ceased to be even the County-town of Bryan County.

In Sibbald’s “Notes and Observations on the Pine Lands of Georgia,”[250] &c., written in 1801, we find the following notice of this village: “Hardwick, situated near the mouth of Ogeechee river in Bryan County,—the navigation being good, and having an extensive river running through a fertile country,—bids fair to arrive at some considerable degree of Importance.” This promise was never fulfilled.

From the best information we can obtain we are persuaded that the population of Hardwick probably, at no time, exceeded one hundred souls. In 1824 Mr. Alexander Netherclift was the only resident; and Sherwood, in his Gazetteer of the State of Georgia for 1829,[251] speaks of Hardwick simply as “a cluster of houses in Bryan.” Among those who, from time to time, were inhabitants of the place, may be mentioned Mr. Clark, Dr. Ward, Mr. Mifflen, Dr. John Jenkins, Dr. Anthony Benezet, Dr. T. J. Charlton, Dr. Louis Turner, and Mr. William Savage. The commerce of Hardwick was never large, and was conducted by means of small craft plying between it and Savannah. Sloops and schooners sufficed, with occasional trips, to convey to a market the agricultural products of the neighborhood, and in return to bring back plantation supplies.

After the removal of the public buildings from the Cross-Roads, and upon the completion of the causeway through the swamp and of the bridge over the Great Ogeechee river,—thereby establishing immediate and convenient communication by land with Savannah,—the trade of Hardwick declined, and its small stores,—abandoned of their keepers,—lapsed into decay.

The bluff upon which the town was located rises about fourteen feet above the level of the Great Ogeechee, and is distant some two miles from Genesis’ Point, to which Fort McAllister gave such heroic memories during the Confederate struggle for independence. In front, stretching to the north, is a point of land or peninsula. On the west the fresh waters of the Great Ogeechee river lave the Hardwick bluff, and then treading northward, and at right angles to the general course of the stream, by a graceful bend to the east embrace the northern extremity of the peninsula. Again turning to the south, the river reaches the eastern bluff of the town, where, curving gently, it pursues its course, emptying through Ossabaw sound into the Atlantic Ocean. This peninsula in front of the town constitutes a dividing line between the fresh and brackish waters of the river. At the point where it springs from the bluff it is less than a quarter of a mile wide, although a journey of several miles is requisite to complete its circuit by water.

From the bluff, backward toward the south, extends a high and dry plain adapted for the location of a town. The surroundings, however, were unhealthy during the Summer and Fall months, and there was nothing to encourage population, or ensure the continuance and prosperity of the settlement.

In 1866 a feeble effort was made to revive the town of Hardwick; and the Georgia Legislature on the 21st of March of that year passed an act the leading provisions of which are as follows:

After reciting the fact that the Commissioners of Hardwick had long ago departed this life, that the site of the town and its common had been regranted by the State to private individuals, and suggesting the advisability that Hardwick should be reëstablished for the better advancement of the industrial resources of the State, the Act appointed Jacob M. Middleton, Thomas C. Arnold, William Patterson, Henry E. Smith, and John W. Magill, Commissioners, and authorized them to acquire by cession or purchase the town of Hardwick and its common “not to exceed one hundred and fifty acres in extent.” Having obtained proper titles to the land, these Commissioners, or a majority of them, were directed to have the town of Hardwick surveyed and laid out into lots of such form and dimensions as they should deem fit. Plans of the town were to be by them filed in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Bryan County, and in the office of the Surveyor General of the State.

Full power was vested in them to sell the town lots, except such as they might determine to reserve for public uses. Upon completion of the survey, and upon filing plans of the town in accordance with the requirements of the Act, the Commissioners were authorized to select one of their number as an Intendant. Thereupon they were declared incorporated by the name and style of the “Intendant and Commissioners of the town of Hardwicke,” with power to make such by-laws and regulations for its good order and government as were not repugnant to the constitution and laws of Georgia, and of the United States.

Although fortified by this legislation, no action was taken by the Commissioners, three of whom are now dead.

Hardwick exists only in name, and will probably never be vitalized into a municipal entity.

VI.

PETERSBURG, JACKSONBOROUGH, FRANCISVILLE, &C., &C.

Near the close of a spring day in 1776 Mr. William Bartram, who, at the request of Dr. Fothergill, of London, had been for some time carefully studying the flora of Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, forded Broad river just above its confluence with the Savannah, and became the guest of the commanding officer at Fort James. This fort,—which he describes as “a four-square stockade with saliant bastions at each angle, mounted with a block-house, where are some swivel guns, one story higher than the curtains which are pierced with loop-holes, breast-high, and defended by small arms,”—was situated on an eminence in the forks of the Savannah and Broad, equidistant from those rivers and from the extreme point of land formed by their union.

Fort Charlotta was located about a mile below on the left bank of the Savannah.

The stockade of Fort James was an acre in extent. Within this enclosure were a substantial house for the commandant, officers’ quarters, and barracks for the garrison, consisting of fifty rangers well mounted, and armed each with a rifle, two dragoon pistols, a hanger, a powder horn, a shot pouch, and a tomahawk.[252]

For a distance of two miles the peninsula above the fort was laid out for a town called _Dartmouth_ in honor of the Earl who had exerted his influence in procuring from the King a grant and special privileges in favor of the _Indian Trading Company of Georgia_. For the defense of the territory known as the _New Purchase_, had this fort been erected and maintained.

Dartmouth never realized the expectations which, in its infancy, had been formed for it. After a short and feeble existence it gave place to Petersburg which, during the tobacco culture in Georgia, attracted to itself a considerable population and was regarded as a place of no little commercial importance.

For the convenience of the early settlers of Eastern-Middle Georgia, Dionysius Oliver was, on the 3rd of February, 1786, authorized by the Legislature[253] to erect a warehouse on his land, lying in the fork between the Savannah and Broad rivers, for the inspection and storage of tobacco. With the location of this warehouse dates the commencement of the town of PETERSBURG.

The cultivation of tobacco was then enlisting the attention of many planters. In the lower counties of the State the production of silk had ceased to be remunerative, and the tillage and manipulation of indigo had not yielded the profits anticipated.

Cotton was little grown. Many of the early inhabitants of the present counties of Elbert, Lincoln, Wilkes, and Oglethorpe, came from Virginia and brought with them not only a love for the weed, but a high appreciation of tobacco as an article of prime commercial value. The virgin lands of this region were found well adapted to its cultivation: and, as a consequence, this plant grew rapidly into general favor and proved the staple commodity or market crop of the farmers. As the existing laws of the State forbade its exportation without previous inspection and the payment of specified fees, it became necessary to establish public warehouses at convenient points where the inspection and storage of this article could be had. No hogshead or cask of tobacco could be shipped which did not bear the stamp of some “lawful inspector.”[254] These inspectors were required to give bond for the faithful performance of their duties, and it was made obligatory upon them to attend continuously at their respective warehouses from the first of October to the first of August in each year. It was their duty carefully to inspect, weigh, receipt for, and stamp each hogshead delivered at the warehouse. The hogshead or cask was “not to exceed forty-nine inches in length, and thirty-one inches in the raising head.” Its weight, when packed, was to be not less than nine hundred and fifty pounds nett. It was not customary in those primitive days to transport these hogsheads upon wagons. Vehicles of all sorts were scarce. The hogshead or cask being made strong and tight, and having been stoutly coopered, was furnished with a temporary axle and shaft, to which a horse was attached. By this means was it trundled to market or to the public warehouse. Water courses also were freely taken advantage of for the conveyance of tobacco. The location of this public warehouse at the confluence of the Broad and Savannah rivers proved most acceptable to the tillers of the soil in this rich region, and speedily attracted merchants who, there fixing their homes, became purchasers of the tobacco when inspected, and in return sold to the planters such supplies as they needed.

Petersburg soon assumed the proportions of a respectable village. It was regularly laid off in town lots, with convenient streets intersecting each other at right angles. The tobacco warehouses and shops were located as near the point formed by the confluence of the rivers as the nature of the ground and the liability to overflow would permit. The residences were situated above, and occupied lots, each about three quarters of an acre in extent.

In 1797 William Watkins secured from the Legislature[255] the right to establish upon his lots,—35 and 37,—in the town of Petersburg, an extensive warehouse for the inspection and storage of tobacco.

By an act[256] of the General Assembly assented to November 26th, 1802, eighteen of the principal citizens of the town were incorporated into a society “under the name and style of the Petersburg Union Society.” The avowed objects of this association were the diffusion of knowledge and the alleviation of want. It maintained an active existence for some years and exerted a marked influence for good.

On the first of December, 1802,[257] Robert Thompson, Leroy Pope, Richard Easter, Samuel Watkins, and John Ragland were appointed Commissioners of the town of Petersburg, and were charged with its “better regulation and government.” They were to hold office until the first Monday in January, 1804. Then, and on the first Monday in every January thereafter, the citizens entitled to vote for members of the General Assembly were required to choose by ballot five persons to act as Commissioners of the town. These Commissioners were invested “with full power and authority to make such by-laws and regulations, and to inflict or impose such pains, penalties, and forfeitures as in their judgment should be conducive to the good order and government of the said town of Petersburg:” provided such by-laws and regulations were not repugnant to the constitution and laws of Georgia, and that the pains and penalties contemplated did not extend to life or member.

Two years afterwards[258] the powers of these Commissioners were materially enlarged, and they were directed to have a correct plan of the town and commons made by the County Surveyor and recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Elbert County.

Speaking of Petersburg in 1800, Mr. George Sibbald says:[259] “In point of situation and commercial consequence it is second only to Augusta.... It is a handsome, well built Town, and presents to the view of the astonished traveller, a Town which has risen out of the Woods in a few years as if by enchantment: It has two Warehouses for the Inspection of Tobacco.”

So long as the cultivation of tobacco engrossed the attention of the planters in the circumjacent region, Petersburg continued to be a place of considerable commercial importance. In the zenith of its prosperity it contained a distributing post-office, a market place, a town-hall, several churches, and not less than forty stores and warehouses. Its population then has been estimated at between seven and eight hundred souls. During the early part of the present century its trade was greater than that of Augusta. It is claimed that goods of a superior quality were then there sold, and in greater quantities, and at cheaper rates. A large and lucrative business was transacted by the Petersburg boats, which, along the line of the Savannah river, constituted the favorite common carriers of passengers and goods. The existence of the town was due to the concentration at this point of the tobacco crop of a considerable area. The necessity for a rigid inspection of this product forced the planters to bring it here. With Petersburg the presence of this plant was emphatically the cause of population and the parent of trade. After inspection, most of it was purchased on the spot by merchants and speculators, who, from their full stores, supplied every need of the producers. Thence was it shipped to Augusta and Savannah. So soon, however, as the cotton plant began to assert its ascendency, the fortunes of the town commenced to wane. Requiring no inspection, and capable of easy shipment from any convenient point, the cotton bales were sent to various bluffs along the river for transmission to the coast; and thus it came to pass that with the discontinuance of the tobacco culture Petersburg dwindled away and died. Sickness, and the attractions of new and fertile fields in Alabama hastened its ruin:—and now sunken wells and the mounds of fallen chimneys are all that attest the former existence of the town. Its corporate limits are wholly included within the confines of one well-ordered plantation; and extensive fields of corn and cotton have obliterated all traces of warehouse, shop, town-hall, church, and dwelling.

Beneath the conserving shadows of tall trees which mark the outlines of the old cemetery on the left bank of Broad river may still be seen numerous graves, fresh and green when the town was replete with life, but neglected and overgrown with brambles now that the village too is dead.

A few sleepy houses mark the spot where Lisbon,[260] with envious eye, in former years viewed across Broad river the rising fortunes of Petersburg; and, beyond the Savannah, narrowly scanned the efforts made by Vienna to participate in the lucrative tobacco trade.

* * * * *

FEDERAL-TOWN, in Washington County, on the east bank of the Oconee, was another of these Tobacco villages. It perished so soon as the cultivation of cotton became general in the region, and its fort was no longer required as a protection against the incursions of the Creeks.

* * * * *

Deprived of the vitalizing influence of the tobacco trade, Harrisburgh, Edinborough, and other small towns designated as sites for the inspection of this crop, speedily lapsed into disuse and decay.

Not infrequently a change in the location of public buildings dealt a death-blow to villages of moderate size and feeble support. Take, for example, the old town of JACKSONBOROUGH, confirmed as the county seat of Screven county on the 15th of February, 1799.[261] As late as the 20th of December, 1823, an act[262] of the Legislature, passed for its incorporation, designated the Court House as the centre of the town, and extended the corporate limits a half mile in every direction. Five years afterwards the “Jacksonborough Methodist Episcopal Church” was incorporated.[263] The business of the county was, for some forty years and more, mainly transacted at this place. Here, too, for some time, resided Mr. John Abbot, whose work upon the Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia is still highly prized by the students of Natural History. Upon the removal of the public buildings to Sylvania in 1847, this place was robbed of all importance. It was speedily abandoned; and now a few sherds of common pottery scattered over the surface of the ground are all that is left to remind the visitor that the tide of life was once here.

* * * * *

For more than a quarter of a century HARTFORD was a thriving town and the capital of Pulaski county.[264] When in 1837[265] the Court House and jail were transferred to Hawkinsville, ruin and decay overtook the place, and at present there is little else save silence, desolation, and seashells on the abandoned Ocmulgee bluff.

* * * * *

Alarmed at the murders committed by the Cherokees, the Friends forsook their neat abodes above Augusta; and, for quite a century, no memory of that primal settlement has been perpetuated in the neighborhood except by the “QUAKER-SPRING.”

* * * * *

Military posts, maintained for temporary purposes, eventually fall into disuse and live only in history. We have already seen how the fortifications, erected for the protection of the southern frontier of the Colony, when the Spanish war-cloud had vanished returned to the dust from which they sprang. Rendered unnecessary by the overleaping tide of population some were transferred to the outer verge, and these in turn were abandoned upon the assured occupancy of the disputed territory.

_Fort Barrington_,—its mission ended,—long ago crumbled into nothingness beside the yellow waters of the Alatamaha. By DeBrahm’s plan and local memories is it preserved from utter oblivion. _Forts Early_, _Gaines_, _Hawkins_, _James_, _Lawrence_, _Perry_, _Scott_, _Wayne_, and _Wilkinson_,—and others, once potent for protection, and important in the military operations of the State,—deserted alike by soldier and Indian have utterly perished, and the tillers of the soil run their peaceful furrows over areas once swept by their guns.

* * * * *

What subsequently became the site of the little town of FRANCISVILLE, in Crawford County, was at first selected and used by Colonel Benjamin Hawkins as a convenient locality for the transaction of the important duties confided to him by Mr. Jefferson. Here, upon the left bank of the Flint river, and on the line of what was afterwards the established route between Macon and Columbus, he resided for a number of years: devoting his energies to the execution of the trust devolved upon him as United States Agent to the Creek Indians, striving to ameliorate their condition, and by his judicious influence and management perpetuating amicable relations between them and the whites. During his occupancy of the _Old Agency_, as it came to be known, this place gave manifest indications of thrift and activity. A considerable plantation was formed, with residence, mills, work-shops, store-houses, and appurtenances requisite for comfort, security, and the conduct of the business connected with this advanced post. Hither the Indians repaired for supplies at stated intervals. With them an extensive traffic was maintained. Aside from the performance of his official duties, Colonel Hawkins devoted much attention to rearing cattle and hogs. So extensive became his herd that at one time he is said to have possessed not less than five hundred calves. The care of these animals, and the details of the agency furnished employment for many subordinates. The Flint river was utilized as a convenient dividing line to separate the grown kine from their young. Across this stream a substantial bridge was constructed, with a gate at either end. This large stock of cattle and swine enabled him to entertain the Indians,—who constantly visited him,—with abundant although primitive hospitality, and materially assisted in perpetuating the kindly and wide-spread influence which he exerted over them. While he lived, his cattle brand was rigidly respected by the Red men; although, soon after his death, if report be true, the Creeks,—oblivious of former obligations,—stole numbers of these cows and hogs. Colonel Hawkins was a man of decided mark. To him does the State of Georgia owe a debt of special gratitude. His Sketch of the Creek Country[266] is a most valuable and interesting contribution. The French General Moreau who, while in exile, was for some time his guest, was so much impressed with his character and labors that he pronounced him one of the most remarkable men he had met in America. “Under the faithful proconsular sway of Col. Hawkins,” says Mr. Chappell,[267] “the Creek Indians enjoyed for sixteen years, unbroken peace among themselves and with their neighbors, and also whatsoever other blessings were possible to the savage state, which it was his study gradually to ameliorate. To this end he spared no pains. Much was done to initiate, instruct, and encourage them in the lower and most indispensable parts of civilization. Pasturage was brought into use, agriculture also, to some extent; both together supplanting considerably among them their previous entire reliance for food on hunting, fishing, and wild fruits. To the better and more secure modes of obtaining a livelihood which civilization offers, he sought to win them by example as well as by precept. He brought his slaves from North Carolina, and, under the right conceded to his office, he opened and cultivated a large plantation at the Agency on Flint river, making immense crops of corn and other provisions. He also reared great herds of cattle and swine, and having thus always abundance of meat and bread, he was enabled to practice habitually towards the Indians a profuse, though coarse hospitality and benevolence which gained their hearts and bound them to him by ties as loyal and touching as those of old feudal allegiance and devotion.”

Here Colonel Hawkins died in 1816, and was buried on the wooded bluff overlooking the Flint river, a few hundred yards below the point of the present crossing. No stone marks his grave. Among the scattered and almost obliterated mounds in this lonely and forsaken cemetery is one more prominent than the rest. It may designate the precise place of his sepulture.

For several years after the death of this prominent man, who gave impulse and direction to all about him, neglect and decay supervened. New life was infused into the settlement, however, by Francis Bacon, of Massachusetts, who, having married Jeffersonia,—the youngest daughter of Col. Hawkins,—established himself upon the site of the _Old Agency_, about 1825, and founded the town of Francisville. Traffic with the surrounding country was freely invited. Being a man of means, of intelligence, and of enterprise, matters prospered. Other settlers, attracted by the prospect for gain, purchased lots of about an acre in extent and located themselves on both sides of the public road. Several dry goods and grocery stores, a wagon manufactory, a blacksmith shop, a drug store, a church, a public school, a tavern, and a post-office were in time built. From 1830 to 1850 the town had an average population of about one hundred whites. Much business was here transacted.

Upon the completion of the railway running from Macon to Columbus the resident merchants sought other and more convenient localities. Trade languished, was then wholly diverted, and the town speedily disappeared. Cotton fields now usurp the domain formerly occupied by the village.

The traveler from the south as he crosses the Flint river, ascends a long rocky hill, and passes through a narrow lane on the top, discerns no traces of this dead town. The _Old Agency_,—once so important in the early days of this section,—exists only in tradition. _Francisville_, which was builded upon its ruins, has fallen into nothingness. Tall trees and a tangled undergrowth hide the graves of the dead, and there is little else save silence and forgetfulness. Even the earth-mound which covers the bones of the famous Colonel Benjamin Hawkins is incapable of positive recognition, and rests under the common oblivion which has overtaken all.

VII.

MISCELLANEOUS TOWNS, PLANTATIONS, &C.

DeBrahm in his History of the Province of Georgia[268] furnishes us with the following classification of the Towns in the Province:

“Besides the Metropolis of Savannah upon Savannah Stream, 17 miles from the Sea,

Are 4 Sea Port Towns,

Hardwick upon Great Ogetchee Stream
Sunbury upon Midway Stream
Darian } upon Alatamaha Stream
Frederica }

4 Towns upon navigable fresh water streams

Brandon(a) upon little River, is navigable only to the Cataract
above Augusta, 200 miles from the Sea.

Augusta upon Savannah Stream 150 miles from the Sea.

Queensbury in the Fork of Lambert’s River and Great Ogetchee
Stream, 120 miles from the Sea.(b)

Ebenezer upon Savannah Stream 57 miles from the Sea.

(a) Since Gov. Wright’s Administration this Place (being
deserted in Gov’r Reynolds’ time by Edmond Grey) revived
again under the name of Wrightsborough inhabited by above 60
Families, and its Township contains about 200 Families all
Quakers; they are indulged by the Gov’r; that no Person, but
such as they approve, shall be permitted to settle among them.

(b) Queensbury is inhabited by about 70, and its Environs by
above 200 Families mostly Irish, from which it is generally
called the Irish Settlement.

4 Villages of which two are upon a navigable River,

Acton } upon Vernon River
Vernonburg }
Hampstead } upon the Head of Vernon River.”
Highgate }

The enumeration contained in “Histoire et Commerce des Colonies Angloises dans l’Amerique Septentrionale,”[269] is essentially similar: “On partage la Georgie en doux divisions. La Septentrionale comprend;

Savannah } Old-Ebenezer }
New-Ebenezer } Villes. Hampstead. }
Augusta } High-Gate. } Villages.
Abercorn. }
Skindwe }

La méridionale est moins peuplée, on n’y trouve que deux villes & un village.

Frederica } Villes Barikmake } Village.”
New-Inverness }

Savannah and Augusta still exist and are justly reckoned among the most opulent, beautiful, and attractive cities of the Empire State of the South. In their locations the judgment of the early Colonists has been sanctioned by the favorable experience of nearly a century and a half. New Inverness has given place to Darien which, amid shifting fortunes, is still supported by the lumber trade and the rice crop of the Alatamaha. Of the memories of Frederica, Sunbury, New and Old Ebenezer, Bethany, Hardwick, and Abercorn, we have already spoken; and it remains for us in a few words to mention some smaller and insignificant towns, projected in the early days of the Colony, which have long since lost their identity amid the changes of population and the vicissitudes of ownership.

* * * * *

Brandon may be recognized as still maintaining a feeble existence in the later village of Wrightsboro, although its original features and peculiarities have encountered essential modifications. The founder of Brandon was Edmund Grey, a pretending Quaker, who came from Virginia with a number of followers. A man of strong will and marked influence, he was nevertheless a pestilent fellow, and, during Governor Reynolds’ administration, was compelled to abandon his little town. He subsequently formed a settlement on the neutral lands lying between the Alatamaha and the St. Johns rivers. Thither flocked criminals, and debtors anxious to escape the just demands of their creditors.[270]

Brandon on Little river was revived by Joseph Mattock, a Quaker, who having obtained for himself and friends a grant of forty thousand acres of land, called the town Wrightsboro in honor of Governor Sir James Wright, who favored the establishment of the new colony. Mr. Mattock hospitably entertained Mr. William Bartram in 1773, by whom he is described as a public spirited man about seventy years of age, hearty, active, and presiding as the chief magistrate of the settlement.[271] We recall no special incidents in the history of this town. Its life was uneventful, and at present it can scarcely claim even a nominal existence.

Between four and five miles southwest of Savannah, as its limits were at first ascertained, and on rising ground, the village of HIGH-GATE was laid out in 1733. Twelve families,—mostly French,—were here located. A mile to the eastward the village of HAMPSTEAD was formed the same year, and peopled by twelve families,—chiefly German. These settlers were engaged in gardening, and their principal business was to supply the inhabitants of Savannah with vegetables. Francis Moore, who visited these little towns in the spring of 1736, describes them as being “pretty,” and says that the “Planters are very forward, having built neat Huts and clear’d and planted a great deal of Land.”

It would appear, however, that the prosperity of these villages was of short duration. We are informed that in 1740 but two families remained at High-gate, while Hampstead was entirely abandoned.[272]

* * * * *

For the protection of the few families to whom a home at THUNDERBOLT had been assigned, a small fort was erected; but as early as 1737 it had fallen into decay.

* * * * *

On the north-east point of SKIDOWAY ISLAND, ten families were placed and a fort built in 1734. This attempt at colonization proved so unsuccessful that four years afterwards the village had disappeared and the fortification was in a deserted and ruinous condition.

A similar fatality attended the effort to plant a colony of ten families near the light-house on TYBEE ISLAND the year after Savannah was settled.

* * * * *

So long as FORT ARGYLE was garrisoned, the ten freeholders who established their plantations in its vicinity strove to render their cultivation profitable: but, upon the withdrawal of the Rangers, eight of them removed, and within a short time all signs of industry disappeared.

* * * * *

The labors of the Scottish colonists at JOSEPH’S TOWN were prosecuted but a few years, and that settlement was quickly numbered among the failures which occurred on every hand.

* * * * *

Near fort St. Andrew on the north-east extremity of Cumberland island grew up the village of BARRIMACKÉ, which, about 1740, embraced some twenty-four families. When General Oglethorpe’s regiment was withdrawn from the southern frontier, this town speedily died, and for more than a century all traces of its former existence have been entirely wanting.

Similar is the history of the German village of gardeners and fishermen which stood near the southern end of the military road connecting Frederica with St. Simons.

Of the meagre and uneventful lives of Acton and Vernonburgh on Vernon river, of Goshen and Bethany near the Savannah, of Williamsburgh, and Fort Barrington on the Alatamaha, and of Queensbury on the Great Ogeechee, we feel scarce called upon to speak. Were we not dealing exclusively with the _dead_ towns of Georgia, we might enumerate others which, in their moribund condition and present dilapidation, perpetuate little more than the names and sites which they at first received.

Of the more prominent plantations established at an early date we may mention those of Colonel Cochran, Captain Gascoin, and Lieutenant Horton on St. Simon’s island,—of Messrs. Carr and Carteret on the main,—of Sir Francis Bathurst, Walter Augustine, Robert Williams, Patrick Tailfer, Jacob Matthews, Mr. Cooksey, and Captain Watson on the Savannah river,—of Mr. Houstoun on the Little Ogeechee,—of the Messrs. Sterling on the Great Ogeechee river,—of Messrs. Noble Jones, Henry Parker, and John Fallowfield on the Isle of Hope,—of Oxtead, the settlement of Mr. Thomas Causton on Augustine creek,—of the Hermitage, the abode of Hugh Anderson,—of Mr. Thomas Christie,—of the twenty German families sent over by Count Zinzendorf,—of Mr. William Williamson,—of the Trustees, committed to the care of William Bradley,—of Mr. Thomas Jones,—and of president William Stephens at Bewlie. This last plantation consisted of a grant of five hundred acres at the mouth of Vernon river, and was confirmed by General Oglethorpe on the 19th of April, 1738. Of this place Mr. Stephens, on the 21st of March, 1739, writes as follows: “I was now called upon to give the Place a Name; and thereupon naturally revolving in my Thoughts divers Places in my native Country, to try if I could find any that had a Resemblance to this; I fancied that _Bewlie_, a Manor of his Grace the Duke of _Montague_ in the _New Forest_, was not unlike it much as to its Situation; and being on the Skirts of that Forest, had Plenty of large Timber growing everywhere near; moreover a fine Arm of the Sea running close by, which parts the _Isle of Wight_ from the main Land, and makes a beautiful Prospect; from all which Tradition tells us it took its Name and was antiently called _Beaulieu_, though now vulgarly _Bewlie_; only by leaving out the _a_ in the first Syllable, and the _u_ in the end of the last.”[273]

This is the true account of the original cession and _naming_ of that attractive bluff rendered memorable in after years by the debarcation of Count D’Estaing on the 12th of September, 1779, and by the erection of formidable batteries for the protection of this approach to the city of Savannah during the Confederate struggle for independence.

These plantations, and others which might be enumerated, have, _with a single exception_, so far as our information extends, lost all traces of primal occupancy and passed into the ownership of strangers. We allude to the beautiful plantation of WORMSLOE on the Isle of Hope. Of this interesting spot we have the following description penned by an intelligent visitor who made his observations in 1743. He was then, in an open boat, journeying towards Savannah from St. Catharine’s island, where a short season had been spent in the companionship of the friendly Indians who were dwellers there. “We arrived in somewhat more than two Days at the _Narrows_ where there is a kind of _Manchecolas_ Fort for their Defence, garrison’d from _Wormsloe_, where we soon arriv’d. It is the settlement of Mr. _Jones_ 10 Miles S. E. of _Savannah_, and we could not help observing as we passed, several very pretty Plantations.

“Wormsloe is one of the most agreeable Spots I ever saw, and the Improvements of that ingenious Man are very extraordinary: He commands a Company of Marines who are quarter’d in Huts near his House, which is also a tolerable defensible Place with small Arms. From the House there is a Vista of near three Miles cut thro’ the Woods to Mr. Whitefield’s Orphan House, which has a very fine Effect on the Sight.”[274]

After concluding his visit to Savannah, this gentleman “set out in one of Captain _Jones’s Scout Boats_ mann’d by a Party of his _Marine Company_, and had a very pleasant Passage to Fort _Frederick_ on the _Island of Port Royal_ in _South Carolina_.”[275]

Noble Jones, the proprietor of Wormsloe, was a Lieutenant commanding thirty men,—volunteers and enlisted from Savannah,—in General Oglethorpe’s expedition against St. Augustine. He was subsequently assigned to the command of a scout and guard boat and a company of marines to watch the “Narrows at Skedoway” and the “Inlets of the near adjoining Sea;” more especially “those near him of Wassaw and Ussuybaw, lest any surprise should happen.” His guard-boat was armed “with a small swivel Gun” in the bow; and, in February, 1741, upon the appearance of a Spanish Privateer on the coast, “One of our smartest Pieces of Cannon,” says Stephens, “carrying a four Pound Ball, and well mounted,” was delivered to him to assist in the coast defense.[276]

At Wormsloe may still be seen the remains of the Tabby Fortification constructed by Captain Noble Jones. The outline of the work and its general features are well preserved, and constitute, perhaps, the most unique and interesting historical ruin on the Georgia coast.

With all its wealth of magnificent live-oaks, palmettoes, magnolias, and cedars; with its quiet, gentle views, balmy airs, soft sunlight, inviting repose, and pleasant traditions, this beautiful residence has at all times remained in the possession and ownership of the descendants of the original proprietor. Mr. G. W. J. DeRenne now guards the spot with all the tender care and devotion of a most loyal son, and to the memories of the past has added literary and cultivated associations in the present, which impart new charms to the name of _Wormsloe_.

In this youthful country, so careless of and indifferent to the memories of other days,—so ignorant of the value of monuments and the impressive lessons of antiquity,—where no law of primogeniture encourages in the son the conservation of the abode and heirlooms of his fathers,—where new fields, cheap lands, and novel enterprises at remote points are luring the loves of succeeding generations from the gardens which delighted, the hoary oaks which sheltered, and the fertile fields which nourished their ancestors,—where paternal estates are constantly alienated at public and private sales,—landed acquisitions are placed at the mercy of speculative strangers, and family treasures, established inheritances, and old homesteads are seldom preserved. Thus it comes to pass that ancestral graves lie neglected, abodes once noted for refinement, intelligence, virtue, and hospitality lose their identity in the ownership of strangers, and traditions worthy of transmission, are forgotten amid the selfish engagements of an alien present.

The utilitarian may smile at this, the Republican rejoice in it as a logical sequence of his cherished theories, and the disciples of Benjamin Franklin pronounce in favor of such a condition of affairs, but there is a deal of sadness about it nevertheless; and if this order of things obtain in the coming years as it has in those which are gone, America will continue to be largely a land without permanent homes,—a country devoid of ancestral monuments.

In planting colonies where proper preliminary surveys have not been made, and where the founders are compelled in large measure to grope their way in selecting points for earliest occupancy, errors of judgement will occur, and changes will be necessitated upon a more intimate acquaintance with the territory and during the progress of development. Locations at first deemed essential become subordinate to others, and sometimes prove of no value. Mistakes are committed with regard to the importance of streams, lines of communication, and the desirability of permanent seats. Defensive positions are rendered useless as the tide of human life advances. Barren fields are exchanged for others possessing greater fertility. Diseases are developed at certain points which compel their abandonment.

Settlements increase to the annihilation or absorption of others in their vicinity. The possessions of the many become concentrated in the ownership of the few. Towns perish for lack of support. Thus nothing is more common than to observe, amid the changes consequent upon the development of new plantations, a mortality among villages and settlements for which, at the outset, growth and lasting prosperity were confidently anticipated.

“It hath been a great endangering to the health of some plantations,” says Lord Bacon, “that they have built along the sea and rivers in marish and unwholesome grounds; therefore though you begin there to avoid carriage and other like discommodities, yet build still rather upwards from the stream, than along.”

Had this precaution been observed, fewer towns would have died in Georgia.

After all, however, despite the admonitions of the wisest and the foresight of the most experienced, we cannot hope to arrest the potent influence of inherent decay, or to stay that unseen hand which remorselessly worketh change and destruction among human habitations.

“Out upon Time! it will leave no more
Of the things to come than the things before!
Out upon Time! who forever will leave
But enough of the Past for the Future to grieve
O’er that which hath been, and o’er that which must be:
What we have seen, our sons shall see;
Remnants of things that have pass’d away,
Fragments of Stone rear’d by Creatures of Clay.”

FOOTNOTES

[1] “Antiquities of the Southern Indians, particularly of the Georgia Tribes.” New York, 1873.

[2] History of the Province of Georgia, pp. 29, 30. Wormsloe, 1849.

[3] Extract of the Journals of Mr. Commissary VonReck, &c., p. 32. London, 1734.

[4] The Stone of Help.

[5] An Extract of the Journals of Mr. Commissary VonReck, &c., pp. 16, 18. London, 1734.

[6] Moore’s Voyage to Georgia, p. 11. London, 1744.