Tag Archives: Georgia Monuments

Site of Holmesville Masonic Lodge #195, Appling County

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Located in a roadside park on Georgia Highway 15, south of Baxley, this granite marker notes the charter site of the Holmesville Masonic Lodge, No. 195, Free & Accepted Masons.Other markers and monuments here pay tribute to the first county seat of Appling County, Holmesville. A bronze tablet [not pictured] placed by the Colonel Daniel Appling Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution notes that Holmesville was incorporated here on 8 December 1828, on the property of Solomon Kennedy. At the time of its founding, present-day Appling County, encompassed all or part of 12 counties: Appling; Atkinson; Bacon; Brantley; Charlton; Clinch; Coffee; Echols; Jeff Davis; Pierce; Ware; and Wayne.

Benjamin Hawkins Monument, 1931, Roberta

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The text on this monument gives a good overview of Colonel Hawkins’ life. [Some of the language would hopefully not be used today, such as referring to Native Americans as ‘savages’. I don’t think it’s “politically correct” to find that offensive]. Erected in 1931 by the United States government to commemorate the life and public service of Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, who was born in Warren County, N. C.  August 15, 1754 and died at the Creek Indian Agency on the Flint River, June 6, 1816. He was a student at Princeton and shortly after the beginning of the Revolution became a member of General Washington’s staff with the rank of Colonel, serving with distinction throughout the war. He was one of the first senators from North Carolina and was conspicuous for his interest in Indian affairs. Colonel Hawkins was asked by General Washington to assume jurisdiction over all the Indian tribes south of the Ohio River. At the height of his career he came to Georgia and established his home among the Creek Indians on the banks of the Flint River in Crawford County. He built the fort which was named in his honor on the Ocmulgee River at Macon and lived there while the fort was being erected, but his permanent home was at the Creek Agency. His body lies on a bluff overlooking the Flint River where he lived among the savage tribes for 16 years, a man of letters, a mediator of peace and faithful unto death.

Colonel Benjamin Hawkins – Public Domain Image via Wikipedia

Roberta Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

 

Big Red Apple, 1926, Cornelia

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Once the largest apple market in the South, Cornelia is still a large producer. In 1926, the Southern Railway gave the Big Red Apple to the city. It has become a statewide icon.

Cornelia Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

George H. W. Bush Commemorative Marker, Cornelia

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May God Continue to Bless Our Community with the Love, Patriotism and Unity Shown During the Visit to Our Great County by President George Bush on October 20, 1992.

Gaskins Angel, Willacoochee

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This monument marks the plot of Dr. James A. Gaskins, his two wives and family at the historic Willacoochee City Cemetery.

Griffin-Bradford Monument, 1976, Lax

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Set amongst stately old oaks and pines, this monument was placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1976 to honor the memory of two of Irwin County’s pioneer settlers and veterans of the American Revolution. Corporal James Griffin and Lieutenant Thomas Bradford lived and were buried near this site. Both families are still well-represented in the county today.

James Griffin was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina in 1753. He enlisted in the Continental Army in 1776 and made the rank of corporal in 1777, seeing action at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and Guilford Courthouse. After migrating first to Burke and then Montgomery counties with his wife Sarah Lodge (b. October 23, 1766, d. between August 22, 1853 and March 4, 1854) they finally settled in Irwin County in 1827.

His close friend for many years, Thomas Bradford, and Thomas’s wife are also buried here.  I’ve been unable to locate further information on Lieutenant Bradford, but some of his children married into the family of Corporal Griffin.

The historical marker reads: This Historic Marker Erected by Descendants of Corporal James Griffin 1753-1836 and Lieutenant Thomas Bradford 1756-1840. These Revolutionary War Heroes were both Born in Edgecombe County, N. C. and their remains are near this site where they settled these lands in the early 1800’s.

More about Corporal Griffin can be found at Find A Grave.

Pig Monument, Washington County

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This is one of the strangest but most heartwarming monuments you will see in Georgia.

On this spot in 1933 during the Great Depression neighbors of a farmer named Bartow Barron joined together to rescue his pig from a dry well. This monument is erected to the spirit of friendship and community so characteristic of those times.

Donors listed on the monument: Reynolds Allen, Beegee Baugh, John Burkey, Suzanne Caskey, Chris Chandler, Beaufort Cranford, Ruth Cranford, Nancy Culberson, Lee Dickens, May Donnelly, Charles W. Ennis, Noel Fowler, Floride Gardner, Emily Garner, Don Hartsfield, Myralyn Hartsfield, Goat Helton, Francis Ross Hicks, Cecil Hodges, Mary Holt, Martha Johnson, Maxa Osterman, Brenda Phillips, Rubye C. Pittman, Wesley Pittman, Randolph Puckett, Gus Pursley, Leon Thigpen, Catherine Everett Thurston, Elizabeth Tinley, and Harriett Wright.

I’m not sure when the monument was erected, but I would guess the mid-1990s. I believe a poem about this incident was published by Harold A. Martin in his book Southland and Other Poems of the South [Cherokee Publishing, 1992], which is referenced at the bottom of the marker.

John Wesley Memorial, 1950, Cockspur Island

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A stone monument with a cross at the top, commemorating John Wesley's arrival in America on February 6, 1736. Surrounded by greenery.

This simple brick and marble column commemorates John Wesley’s landing in America on 6 February 1736. Cockspur Island was then known as Peeper Island. The founder of Methodism was sent to the fledgling Georgia colony by the trustees to be a missionary. A quote from Wesley’s journal is memorialized on the column: “Fri. 6,-About eight in the morning I first set my foot on American ground. It was a small uninhabited island,…over against Tybee, called by the English Peeper Island. Mr. Oglethorpe led us through the moorish land on the shore to a rising ground,…we chose an open place surrounded with myrtles, bays, and cedars, which sheltered us both from the sun and wind, and called our little flock together to prayers.”

The memorial was placed in 1950 by the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames and is easily reached from the parking lot at Fort Pulaski National Monument.

Battle of Shepherd’s Plantation Monument, 1936, Florence

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This monument, placed as a centennial remembrance by the Roanoke Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the WPA in 1936, commemorates the bloodiest engagement of the largely forgotten Creek War of 1836. The main text reads: On this site was fought the Battle of Shepherd’s Plantation between Creek Indians and pioneer settlers aided by volunteer soldiers stationed at Forts Ingersol Jones and McCreary under Major Henry W. Jernigan and Captain Hamilton Garmany. A second tablet lists the four Stewart Countians killed in the battle: Captain Robert Billups; Jared Irwin*; David Delk; and —-Hunter. *-[Jared Irwin was the nephew of Governor Jared Irwin].

I believe commemorations of victories and massacres against Native Americans should tell the whole story about their removal but I believe they’re important as geographical markers and should invite broader study.

 

Sheriff Earl Hamrick Monument, Jeffersonville

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A monument on the courthouse lawn honors Earl Hamrick, one of the longest-serving sheriffs in U. S. History. It reads, simply: W. Earl Hamrick, Sr., Sheriff, Twiggs County, January 1, 1941 – December 31, 1988, “A Living Legend”