This a rear view of this house, identical to the front, which is obscured by privet and other vegetation. Located in the historic Smith Hill neighborhood, at the edge of Talbotton’s main Black cemetery, it is a typical example of the form, which was nearly always used as tenant housing. The top of the central chimney has been capped, but the hearth remains in place. The house is wider than most early 20th century examples I’ve documented, so I would date it to circa 1870s-1890s. It was later used as rental property.
Martha Riley; May Lue Riley; Oscar Riley; Robert Riley; and Eucie Riley. Gone But Not Forgotten.
This extraordinary vernacular memorial marks the burial place of members of the Riley family of Talbotton, in Smith Hill Cemetery. Smith Hill is perhaps the oldest municipal Black cemetery in Talbotton, a town which before the Civil War was essentially a network of plantations. As a result, the final resting places of the enslaved who toiled on those plantations are generally unknown. Smith Hill may have had origins as a plantation cemetery but it grew into the de facto burying ground for the Black community. It quickly descends into a ravine and marked graves are scattered in all directions. Varying styles, from plain to Victorian, are present. The earliest marked burial dates to the 1870s, but there are scores of unmarked graves in Smith Hill.
I chose this memorial to represent the cemetery for its obvious artistic merit, but also to illustrate the difficulty which faces genealogists and historians in documenting the lives of a population that was traditionally left out of the broader story of Southern history. The marker, with stenciled names, a marble cross, and folk art flowers, tells us someone cared about these people, but beyond that, there lives are a mystery. James Riley (1923-1955) and Rose Riley (?-1978) are represented by ledger stones nearby, so they were related. Perhaps the names on this memorial were earlier members of their family who wanted to make sure their names were not forgotten.
According to Voorhees University: “Elizabeth Evelyn Wright (1872-1906) was an African-American educator, social reformer, and founder of Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina. She was born [one of 27 children of a carpenter father and a mother who may have been full-blooded Cherokee] on April 3, 1872, in [the Smith Hill neighborhood] Talbotton, Georgia, during a time of racial segregation and limited educational opportunities for African Americans.
Wright was raised in poverty but was determined to receive an education. At the age of 16, she left home and traveled to Tuskegee, Alabama, where she enrolled at the Tuskegee Institute. She worked as a domestic servant to support herself while pursuing her studies.
Inspired by the educational philosophy of Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute, Wright believed in the transformative power of education for African Americans. After completing her studies at Tuskegee, she returned to South Carolina and started teaching at the Macedonia School in Denmark.
Realizing the need for higher education opportunities for African Americans in the region, Wright embarked on a mission to establish a college. She started by raising funds and gathering support from local communities, churches, and philanthropists. In 1897, she founded Denmark Industrial School, which later became known as Voorhees Industrial School and eventually Voorhees College.
Voorhees College provided vocational training and academic education to African-American students, focusing on agriculture, carpentry, home economics, and other practical skills. Wright believed that education should not only prepare students for employment but also instill character, discipline, and moral values.
Elizabeth Evelyn Wright’s dedication to education and her tireless efforts to establish Voorhees College played a significant role in expanding educational opportunities for African Americans in South Carolina. She passed away on December 14, 1906, but her legacy lives on through Voorhees College, which continues to educate students to this day.“
The church was originally known as St. Phillips A. M. E. Church, but later changed its affiliation to Methodist. It was organized by freedmen on 15 April 1870. The original building was destroyed by a storm in 1875 but under the guidance of Rev. A. S. Grangin, was rebuilt later that same year. Part of Jefferson Street which runs beside the church, was renamed Elizabeth Wright Avenue in her memory.
If the resource I’ve used is correct, this structure was known as the Johnson cabin and expanded circa 1855 into the present Greek Revival form for use as the headmaster’s home. It is the last surviving significant structure of the Rose Hill Seminary, established by Zion Episcopal Church founder Reverend Richard Johnson, who came to Talbotton in 1846. The expansion of the house may have taken place at the direction of Reverend Wesley Gahagan, who came to Talbotton in 1852 to manage the school. Reverend Gahagan died in 1857 and the school closed soon thereafter. [Thanks to Jim Bruce for further confirming some of this history].
Trae Ingram notes that the house suffered serious damage during a tornado a few years ago.
According to the 1973 nomination form which added this property to the National Register of Historic Places: Construction of the housebegan in 1828. It is an amalgamation of two two-story…houses to which was added a mid-19th century portico and several 20th century rooms…[the house] is an example of what happened to vernacular architecture in Georgia as a family and its needs and stylistic wants grew and changed…
George Washington Bonaparte Towns (1801-1854) was born in Wilkes County, though his family soon moved to Greene County, and then on to Morgan County. He moved to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1821, and operated a pub while studying law. He was admitted to the bar in 1824. He also briefly owned a newspaper, the Alabama Journal. His first marriage, to Margaret Jane Campbell in 1826, ended tragically. His bride, who had been in poor health, died just a few days after the ceremony. [He married Margaret Winston Jones of Virginia in 1838].
Towns moved to Talbotton in 1828 and served as one of its first commissioners. He was also one of the first attorneys in the new town, owning a very successful practice. He was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1829 and 1830. He served in the state senate from 1832-1834. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1835 but resigned in 1836 over concerns that the legislature might be forced to pick a Whig as President in the upcoming election. Instead, a Whig won Towns’s seat, but he successfully won re-election to the seat in 1837 and served until 1839. He continued to practice law and served one more term in Congress, in 1846, but lost re-election to John W. Jones, a Whig.
In 1847, Towns was elected governor of Georgia in a highly contested race against the Whig candidate, Duncan L. Clinch. He served until 1851 and died in Macon in 1854.
The house is also known as the Towns-Persons-Page House. After Towns left the governorship and moved to Macon [circa 1852], the house was sold to the Persons family, who occupied it until 1968, when it was purchased by the Gary Page family.
Robert H. Dixon, a state senator and state representative, owned this land from 1827-1857 and built the main house, seen above, circa 1840. The property was sold to Daniel G. Owen (1830-1892) in 1858, and was held by his heirs until 1967. Owen was a Confederate soldier, taken prisoner by the Union, who came back to a different plantation after the war. He was a model farmer. Instead of dwelling on the loss of his slaves, he went about making the property work with one-third the labor of plantations of similar size. [Please note that this is private property. I’m grateful to the property owner for permission to photograph the grounds].
His waterworks, built in 1886, was considered his greatest modernization and received much attention in the press. The water tower is the tall feature covered with vegetation.
Numerous outbuildings survive on the property.
I cannot identify each outbuilding, but each had its own specific function. Descriptions and a much more detailed chronology of the property can be found on the National Register nomination form.
Jim Luckey, the present owner of the property, writes: Mary Elisabeth Hargis Luckey, great niece of Collier Vines Mills along with her husband James Milton Luckey jr. Purchased The Elms from Ed and Cheryl Smith in 2005 bringing the property back into the family. Since the time we purchased the mule barn was razed as it was too far gone to restore. However the stacked stone foundation was left in place. We replaced the roof in 2013 and found the underlying heart pine boards to be in perfect condition. In addition crickets were made and installed behind each chimney and flashed with industrial powder coated metal to divert water and all gutter-downspouts and underground drains installed.
One point which needs correction is the structure being called a guest house [I made a guess that this was a guest house] was indeed either the overseer’s cottage or the cook’s cottage. We think most likely the cooks as the overseer would have been on higher ground and the cook closer to the main house. The Elms is our favorite place and we love being the caretakers of this beautiful piece of history. We are delighted to see the interest this article has created. Any questions we would be pleased to answer contact Luckeyjim@gmail.com
Elaine Kilpatrick Tyler, a former resident, writes: My family and I lived at this farm in the 1950s. We moved there from Talbotton, Georgia. I was in the 11th grade at Talbot County High School in Talbotton. I cherished this farm place with so much history. My childhood dreams of having a horse came true and I ended up with 3 horses. My brothers refinished the floors at the guest house. The lady that owned the place at that time lived in Macon, Ga. (I think) . Anyway I loved all the history of this place, the jail under the house, the milk cellar, the cemetery, and so much more. I hope I can go there and see the place this spring. I see some changes in the front at the entrance…there used to be a very large muscadine arbor to the left of the as you went onto the porch.
Built for John Thomas Blount, this Greek Revival cottage was later owned by the McCoy and Maxwell families. It became a focus of statewide attention when, on 5 April 1896, Emma Owen was shot and killed while visiting Jenny McCoy here. A local dentist, Dr. Will Ryder, had become enamored of Ms. Owen and had apparently been stalking her. At the time of the murder, Emma was sitting beside the front window of the home, in the company of her boyfriend, when Ryder fired shots into the parlor. After committing the act, the doctor fled to his nearby office and attempted suicide, but was rescued by friends. He was later charged with murder but was lynched while awaiting sentencing. Blood stains from the murder are still visible on the wood floorboards and the house is widely believed to be haunted.
This grand home was built by attorney Joseph Pou and soon thereafter to sold to a Dr. Hill, who was a professor at the LeVert Female College. Dr. Hill, who later practiced law in Macon, became a chancellor of the University of Georgia and is credited with transforming its focus from teacher education to a broader academic spectrum.
