Twin City Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Queen Anne Cottage, Twin City
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Barn, Emanuel County
Brewton-Hendrix House House, Circa 1858, Evans County
Oral tradition suggests that this Plantation Plain farmhouse was built for Jonathan Bacon Brewton (1827-1897) by Amos Hearn, the builder of the nearby A. D. Eason House. Brewton was the son of one of the area’s earliest settlers, Benjamin Brewton, who came to Tattnall County (now Evans) in 1794 from Warren County. He married Margaret Everett in 1848 and one of their sons, John Carter Brewton, was a co-founder and the first president of Brewton-Parker College.
Jonathan served as Clerk of the Superior Court of Tattnall County and two terms in the Georgia House of Representatives . From late 1862 until early 1864 he was active in the 5th Georgia Cavalry but returned before war’s end upon his election as clerk of the court. In 1865 a foraging party of Union troops passed through the area and ransacked the house. After the war, Brewton continued his enterprises and also operated a general store and post office. The community around the house and store was known as Haw Pond at the time. Brewton also owned a gristmill, lumber mill and cotton gin. Brewton’s heirs sold the house to one of their former sharecroppers, James A. Hendrix, in 1936. The Willcox family has owned it since 1990.
Source: Pharris DeLoach Johnson, Houses of Heart Pine: A Survey of the Antebellum Architecture of Evans County, Georgia.
Precinct House, Undine
I believe the precinct houses are called courthouses in this area.
A. D. Eason House, 1857, Undine
Abraham Darlington Eason (1816-1887) was the youngest son of William Eason, who founded the first Methodist church (Mt. Carmel) in Tattnall County after migrating from Colleton County, South Carolina. Abraham married Susan Tillman (1827-1907) in 1843. The young coupled settled near the Tillman ferry operation on the Canoochee River, in what is now the community of Undine. They first built a log house. Abraham was very industrious and deeply involved in the community, serving in the state house, as justice of the Inferior Court and tax collector and receiver. In just a few years he had acquired over 5500 acres, which he doubled with the purchase of his father-in-law’s estate in 1851. (This historical background comes from the excellent work of Pharris DeLoach Johnson, Houses of Heart Pine: A Survey of the Antebellum Architecture of Evans County, Georgia).
In 1854, Eason began acquiring materials for the construction of a permanent home to replace the log cabin and in 1856 hired Amos Hearn, a local carpenter, to complete the project. As with nearly all large Southern houses of the era, slaves were likely integral to the construction process. The family still owns many of the detailed ledgers A. D. kept during construction of the house. Meticulous attention is being afforded its restoration of the house. I spoke at great length with the present owner’s (Paul Eason) son, Joey McCullough, about the process and the family is very committed to maintaining the integrity of this important landmark.
A tobacco barn built in the 1930s remains on the property.
A log corn crib is present, as well, but the only thing holding it up are the trees that have grown up beside it.
Timber Protection Organization Office, Homerville
This is presently home to the Ware Visiting Nurses Service, but Tom Chandler notes that it was originally the Timber Protection Organization (TPO) office.
Clinch County Courthouse, 1896, Homerville
National Register of Historic Places
Tenant Houses, Cogdell
I believe this house and another one adjacent to it were built to house employees of the Sessoms timber and turpentine operations. Both are very endangered and are likely to be gone soon.
Prospect Primitive Baptist Church & Cemetery, Clinch County
History of Prospect Primitive Baptist Church, located near Du Pont, has been hard to come by, but as is often the case, some background can be discerned from the cemetery. The earliest discernible burials date to just before the Civil War, so the congregation was probably established around that time by pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia. There are some nice older graves in the cemetery, so I’m sharing a few examples for their historical interest.
The ledger stone of James Touchton is signed by the carvers, Wilcox & Lamance of Brunswick.
Mathis served as a private in Carter’s Independents, a local regiment in the Indian Wars. “Indian Wars” is a very broad term and can cover a variety of periods.
Skinner was a private in Captain’s Knight’s & Johnston’s Company, 81st Reg, Georgia Militia, during the Indian Wars.
Private Hutto entered service on 15 July 1918, attached to the 4th Company, Coast Artillery Corps Replacement Draft, at Fort Screven. He drowned aboard the HMS Otranto off the Scottish coast on 6 October 1918. He left behind a widow, Norine Essie Woods Hutto, and no children.
I always like finding these wooden markers. They were much more common in the past but many have been lost to the elements or replaced with more permanent markers.
Tenant Farmhouses, Lanier County
These are some of the most authentic remaining tenant farmhouses I’ve encountered. Two survive, as well as the chimney of another.
It’s nice that the landowner has allowed these to stand all these years and though they appear to be in their last days, they’re important sentinels of another time and place.
Update: As of 2023, these structures are gone.