This congregation was established in 1899 and the present church building was completed in 1903. It is also referred to as Pierce’s Chapel.
Pierce Chapel Methodist Church, 1903, Putnam County
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Category Archives: –PUTNAM COUNTY GA–
Keys Grocery Sign, Putnam County
Old stores like Key’s Grocery were rural landmarks. A Coca-Cola sign was a sure way to attract customers.
Jones Grove Baptist Church, Putnam County
Jones Grove is an historic Black church located in the northeastern section of Putnam County.
The old baptismal is quite large and still in good condition, though it doesn’t appear to be in use.
Vernacular Farmhouse, Putnam County
I’m calling this one vernacular and not assigning it one of the usual vernacular forms, [i.e. hall and parlor, saddlebag, &c.] because it’s an eclectic evolution of those, with additions. I believe at its core it’s a relatively early house.
Boswell Tenant House, Putnam County
This double-pen tenant house is located adjacent to the historic Tompkins Inn. [This photograph dates to 2015, so I’m unsure as to the status of the house at this time]. It was included in the National Register of Historic Places nomination of the property in 1978 and described as a servant or drivers’ dwelling, dated to the early 1800s. The context of the term servant would imply slave if the structure was built before 1865, but that is not made clear, and therefore, I think it probably dates to the decade after the Civil War. The survival rate for wood frame slave dwellings is very low. A small family cemetery on the property is believed to include slave burials, though, so they did have a presence here.
I’m identifying it by the owner of the property at that time, which was most likely Emiline Boswell. Emiline was the second wife of Josias Boswell, who acquired the property upon the death of his first wife, Sarah Tompkins Boswell. Josias lost the property to A. R. Zachary due to debt, in 1862, but it was purchased by Emiline Boswell in 1874. She owned it until her death in 1910.
National Register of Historic Places
Turnwold Tenant House, Putnam County
I made these photographs in 2015. By 2020, the house was gone. It was located on the Turnwold Plantation property and by appearances is an early tenant house. I say early based on the layout of the house, but more so because of the handmade brick and fieldstone in the chimney. If not a tenant house, it was undoubtedly a dependency of the plantation.
Union Chapel United Methodist Church, Circa 1858, & Union Chapel School, 1913
This vernacular Greek Revival church is among the oldest in Putnam County, and was built on land originally owned by the same man who owned the nearby Rock Eagle site. The historical marker placed by the congregation and the Eatonton-Putnam County Historical Society in 2001 gives a detailed history: On April 24, 1855, Irby Hudson Scott deeded to the trustees of a new newly organized and consolidated Methodist Episcopal group, three and three-quarter acres of land in the Tompkins District in Putnam County, Georgia. A church building was to be erected on the land. There had been a small church on nearby land owned by the Hearn family named Bethel Church. There was also a small church named Rock Chapel on what used to be known as “the ridge road,” and now called the Uncle Remus U.S. Highway 441. Because the membership of each of the two churches was small, they united into one larger congregation and built a house of worship on the land offered for the purpose by Mr. Scott. These early members built well and today the building is still in excellent condition. No one now living knows where the lumber was milled but it is all the very best heart pine lumber, nowhere to be found today. The sills and framework are hand-hewn and pinned. The doors and triple-sash windows are said to have been made in Augusta, Georgia, and hauled overland to the building site. The lumber used to make the pews and the door and window facing was all hand planed. The pulpit Bible was presented in 1855 and the first pastor was the Rev. Henry Morton. As early as 1867, there was a Sunday school at Union Chapel. Mr. Cullen S. Credille was superintendent of the male members and Mrs. Mary Scott was superintendent of the female members. Many years ago the orientation of the interior was changed with the pulpit and pews being reversed. Originally, the pulpit was before the high windows between the two front doors, and was mounted by steps. A new pulpit and communion rail was installed at the opposite end of the building and a center door was removed and the opening closed.
The adjacent schoolhouse is a landmark, as well. More history from the marker notes: On August 13, 1913, a delegation of 25 gentlemen from the Reid’s Crossroad community went before the Putnam County Board of Education and requested that a better school be built in the area. The board voted to build a school at Union Chapel. The builder was Mr. Robert E. Vining and the school opened in November 1913 and was in continuous operation until county school consolidation forced its closure on May 25, 1946. The school’s first teacher was Miss Fannie Mae Jones. It has been used since as Sunday school space by the church. For generations United Chapel Church and school have been important parts of this community.
Rock Eagle, Putnam County
Rock Eagle is often cited as one of the great wonders of Georgia, yet it remains largely a mystery. Irby Hudson Scott acquired the land after the 1802 treaty with the Creek Indians and his family never farmed the area near the effigy, before selling it to the federal government in 1938. The first known published reference to the mound was made in 1854 by Reverend George White in his Historical Collections of Georgia. In the 1878 Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, C. C. Jones referred to it as the Scott Eagle Mound, in a detailed description of his research at the site. The most recent scholarship places construction of the site at 1500-500 years ago, but dating a place like this is an evolving process. There isn’t even agreement that it’s an eagle. Some have suggested that it represents a vulture. The image of a bird with open wings has been found on many Mississippian artifacts, religious objects, and petroglyphs, and while Rock Eagle is likely of the Woodland period, the influence continued.
Another large bird effigy mound consisting of milky white quartz, known as Rock Hawk, is located nearby. A third effigy mound, known as the Pressley [Presley] Mound or Mound No. 3, was identified on a map of these sites made by C. C. Jones in the 1870s. Now lost to insensitive excavation, it was located on the Eatonton-Godfrey Road.
In June 1940, the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of the XVII Century erected a bronze plaque on a slab of Georgia granite, between the parking lot and the effigy. It reads: Rock Eagle Mound – Mound of Prehistoric Origin. Believed to be Ceremonial Mound. Made with white quartz rocks in the shape of an eagle. Head turned to east. Length 102 feet. Spread of wings 120 feet. Depth of breast 8 feet. Only two such configurations discovered East of the Mississippi River. Both in Putnam County. “Tread softly here white man, for long ere you came, strange races lived, fought and loved.”
In 1936, Works Progress Administration archaeologist Martin Cromer dug exploratory trenches around the mound and found little more than pottery shards and daub. At the time, Rock Eagle was likely in a condition similar to present-day Rock Hawk. By 1938, Cromer restored the effigy to measurements and specifications made by C. C. Jones in 1877.
The tower is a landmark unto itself. Along with the parking lot, fence, and walkway, it was built in 1938.
Some of the most important excavations done at the site were completed in 1954 by Dr. Vincenzo Petrullo and Dr. A. R. Kelly, who recovered burned and unburned human and animal remains, as well as a single quartz point. This research suggested evidence of a prehistoric presence at the site, but unfortunately, the artifacts are lost today.
The Rock Eagle 4-H Center opened in 1955, and has undoubtedly hosted tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of students over its 70 year history.
As a ceremonial site, Rock Eagle is sacred to Native Americans. The University of Georgia is committed to its perpetual preservation and it is open year-round and with no admission cost. The surrounding property is some of the most beautiful and unspoiled in the region.
National Register of Historic Places
Henderson Grove Baptist Church, Putnam County
This historic Black church is located near the Rock Eagle 4-H Center.
Peches Stand, Putnam County
The “PECHES” sign on U.S. Highway 441 near Rock Eagle has always caught my attention. I believe this produce stand was in business as far back as my college days in the early 1990s, and possibly long before that.* The owners have obviously repainted the sign. According to the great-grandson of the original owner they chose the French word for peaches. It’s a misspelling to those who read English and was a clever way to get attention to what would otherwise been just another roadside fruit stand. Everyone has gotten so used to it that they wouldn’t have it any other way. It truly is a landmark of the area.
It turns out the well-loved stand has been open in one incarnation or another since the 1950s, and, yes, the misspelling is intentional, at least at this point. Some suggested Peches was the owner’s surname, but I never found anything to support this.