Tag Archives: Georgia Pioneers

Nancy Hart Cabin, Elbert County

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Just past the group shelter as you approach the cabin, you’ll see this marker, noting the location of a spring on Nancy Hart’s property at Wahachee Creek. It was erected by the New Deal Works Progress Administration and the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1936, as part of ongoing work inside the Nancy Hart park.

Though to my knowledge she never made a flag, Nancy Hart (c.1735-1830) is the Georgia equivalent to Betsy Ross, in the sense that she’s the best known woman of the Revolutionary War era in the state. As a spy and combatant, she far exceeded the expectations of her gender at the time. She’s also the only woman to be the namesake of a county in Georgia; nearby Hart County was so named in 1853. The city of Hartwell, and Lake Hartwell also bear her name. At the outset of the Civil War, a group of wives of Confederate soldiers in LaGrange formed a militia group to protect the home front and called themselves the Nancy Harts.

Though details about her life are varied and sometimes in conflict, most historians believe Nancy Hart was born Nancy Ann Morgan in the Yadkin River Valley of North Carolina circa 1735. She was a cousin of Daniel Morgan, who commanded a successful American force at the Battle of Cowpens. She married Lieut. Benjamin Hart (1732-1802), himself a relative of Thomas Hart Benton and Henry Clay. Her family came to the Broad River Valley of Georgia in the early 1770s, just as tensions between Tories, English soldiers and other British sympathizers were coming to a head. As to her personal qualities, Clay Ouzts writes: “…Aunt Nancy,” as she was often called, was a tall, gangly woman who towered six feet in height. Like the frontier she inhabited, she was rough-hewn and rawboned, with red hair and a smallpox-scarred face. She was also cross-eyed. One early account pointed out that Hart had “no share of beauty—a fact she herself would have readily acknowledged, had she ever enjoyed an opportunity of looking into a mirror.” And, her “physical appearance was matched by a feisty personal demeanor characterized by a hotheaded temper, a fearless spirit, and a penchant for exacting vengeance upon those who offended her or harmed her family and friends. Local Indians soon began to refer to her as “Wahatche,” which may have meant war woman“.”

The greatest legend about Nancy Hart was that she killed six Tories who had come to her cabin looking for a patriot (Whig) leader whom she’d just help escape. Details of the event have emerged as fact and folklore, but the story generally goes that the Tories killed one of her turkeys, ordered her to prepare it and feed it to them, and subsequently became drunk on the wine she served. After killing two of them with their own weapons, she held the others captive while reinforcements were gathered. The survivors were then hung from a nearby tree. Some proof of this may have been uncovered, literally, when railroad crews unearthed six human skeletons near the site of the original cabin, in 1912.

A bronze plaque notes that this replica of Nancy Hart’s cabin was built by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1932, at the approximate site of the original and using some of the original bricks in the chimney.

After the war, Nancy became quite religious, later moved to Brunswick and upon Benjamin’s death in 1802, returned to her Broad River homesite, which had at some point flooded and washed away the cabin. After briefly residing in Athens with her son, John Hart, they settled near relatives in Henderson County, Kentucky, where Nancy spent the rest of her life.

I’m glad that such a fascinating character in Georgia history is remembered. There may be as many myths as truths in her story, but she certainly embodies the spirit of resistance that flowered in Georgia during the Revolutionary War.

Phillips-Turner-Kelly House, Circa 1810s, Jasper County

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With the recent loss of the old Liberty Methodist Church, this early I-House [Plantation Plain] is the last significant landmark that I know of in the long lost settlement of Calvin, in Jasper County. The two-over-two central hallway dwelling also features shed rooms across the rear and, barely visible on the left side of this image, a formerly detached kitchen which was later attached by a breezeway.

Wiley Phillips (1791 or 1792-4 August 1875) is believed to have been the first owner of the house but Sarah Yarborough from Warren County was the first owner of the property and the house may have been built around the time of her marriage to Jesse Tollerson [also recorded as Tollison] in 1813. Wiley Phillips’s nephew, Calvin Fish, is considered the first white child born in Jasper County and was the namesake of the Calvin community. Thomas Smith purchased it in 1833 but sold it to Richard Turner in 1835. Turner never actually lived in the house, though he, and later his estate, owned it until 1863, at which time his son-in-law, Benjamin B. Freeman, sold it to Shelly P. Downs. Downs was a physician and served as surgeon with the 38th Regiment of the Georgia Militia during the Civil War. It was next owned by Seaborn C. Kelly (1836-1872) sometime between 1866 and 1872. Kelly sold the house to James Benton on 15 January 1872. Scarcely three weeks after Kelly sold the house, on 7 February 1872, he and his brother John C. Kelly were murdered in Monticello by Clinton Digby, a cousin of Seaborn Kelly’s wife, in a disputer over a Black laborer. James Benton sold the house to Seaborn Kelly’s son, Burton Clark Kelly, in 1885 and it remained in the family until 1997, though it was unoccupied from circa 1958 until being sold to Philip A. Jones in 1998. Mr. Jones’s extensive research is the source of most of the ownership history.

National Register of Historic Places

Red Hill Christian Church Rises From the Ashes of June Fire

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A lightning strike took out the historic Red Hill Christian Church near Richland on 21 June 2023. By early December, the congregation had already rebuilt it in the same manner as the original, and it looks like they’re nearly ready to move back in and begin holding services.

The first Christian Church [Disciples of Christ] in Georgia was constituted at this site in 1837. Services were held early in the 1830’s by Rev. George Lynch Smith, first in a brush arbor and later in a log schoolhouse. It was first known as Providence Chapel. The structure lost in June was built in 1857 during the pastorate of Rev. Smith’s son, Dr. Jubilee Smith, who served the congregation until 1895. It was originally a two-story building, with the second floor serving as home to Smith Lodge No. 233, F. &. A. M. Dr. Smith organized Co. I, 17th Georgia Infantry here in August 1861. The second floor was removed much later; I’m not sure when the name was changed to Red Hill.

Dr. David Lane Kendall, Pioneer Georgia Physician

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Driving into Yatesville, this headstone caught my attention, but I figured it would be like others I’ve found throughout the countryside: a small family plot long forgotten by the passage of time. And though that was true to some extent, what I learned about the man who was buried here was quite fascinating. It turns out that this was the cemetery of Bellwood Hall, a plantation owned by one of Georgia’s early country doctors, David Lane Kendall, Sr. (1790-1850).

Dr. Kendall was born in Washington County in 1790 and moved to Upson County in 1830 where he and his second wife, Louisa Rogers Steele Kendall (1804-1881), built Bellwood, a grand plantation house complete with formal gardens. The property was likely maintained by enslaved men and women. It was destroyed by fire sometime in the late 1800s, but thanks to the foresight of Dr. Kendall’s daughter, Louisa “Loula” Winifred Kendall Rogers (1838-1931) , much of its history survives in special collections at Emory University.

Corinth Baptist Church, 1916, Effingham County

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Corinth Baptist church traces its origins to 1812, when the Little Ogeechee Baptist Church of Oliver established the Cowpen Mission here, beside Cowpen Branch. In 1875, the mission’s name was changed to Corinth Baptist Church.

Forsyth City Cemetery, Circa 1823

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Victorian obelisks at sunrise

The Forsyth City Cemetery, also known as Oakland, is thought to have been first associated with the Forsyth Methodist Church, who built a church and adjacent burying ground in 1828. The church is long gone but the cemetery has expanded greatly. It’s a bit curious, though, that the earliest known burial dates to 1827. All that is known of the decedent, Elizabeth Griffin Beal, (1808-1827), is that she was the wife of Robert Beal and daughter of William and Rachel Griffin. A typical young wife and sadly, a typical early death. Nothing extraordinary in those facts. But the fact that her memorial predates the church cemetery suggests that the property may have been used as early as the founding of Forsyth in 1823.

This burial ground is one of those great repositories of local history, with a wide range of funerary memorials and markings and, when compared to some of our other cemeteries, is quite easy to navigate, by car and by foot. It has a Confederate section and and African-American section. I only photographed a few memorials and markers and they’re presented here in no particular order.

The mausoleum of the family of Isaac Whiting Ensign (1820-1907) is one of the architectural highlights of the cemetery. Ensign was a native of Connecticut.

This is a small portion of the Confederate section. The nearby Methodist church served as a hospital during the Civil War and many casualties of the Atlanta Campaign were brought here for care and/or burial. Of the nearly 300 burials in this section, a large number are unknown.

Many of the unknown Confederate markers were honored with American flags, which is wrong on many levels, not the least of which being that when they died they were not Americans. I presume it was done purposefully since there are many but I don’t understand the reasoning. I’m sure someone will attempt to explain at some point. The Confederate flag may not belong in many places, but on the grave of an unknown Confederate soldier is certainly one of the places it would be expected to be found.

The modern memorial for Only Patience Outlaw Anderson (1777-1864) was placed by Anderson descendants in 2017, and made by the Barnesville Marble Company. Her name got my attention first. Only Patience Outlaw. But I learned that she was a refugee in Civil War-era Forsyth who died while here. The marker notes that she was the matriarch of early East Tennessee family, Daughter of Col. Alexander Outlaw & Penelope Smith Outlaw. Widow of Hon Joseph Inslee Anderson, Bvt. Major Revolutionary War, U. S. Territorial Judge, U. S. Senator Tennessee, 1st Comptroller U. S. Treasury. He was the namesake of Andersonville and Anderson County, Tennessee.

This is the Oliver Morse (1802-1868) family enclosure, at least he was the oldest decedent I found. Low fences made of local stone are found mostly in cemeteries north of the Fall Line, though many have collapsed and intact examples are increasingly uncommon. They are usually associated with locally prominent families.

The Pye family enclosure may be my favorite in the Forsyth City Cemetery, for its presence of these old brick crypts, some of which are in very poor condition. The earliest readable memorial here dates to 1852, and I’m sure these brick crypts are much older.

William Frederick Johnston House, Johnstonville

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From what I’ve located via online sources, including the National Register of Historic Places, I believe this was the home of William Frederick Johnston (1857-1925), son of pioneer settler John Banks Johnston (1804-1880). It’s a fascinating example of the evolutionary process of a rural house. It originated as a log house and was later improved and expanded into a gabled-ell. If the house were built when William was about 20 years old, it would date to circa 1877, but I believe the size of the log boards may indicate an earlier construction, perhaps prior to the Civil War, by John Johnston. Either way, it’s a very important surviving vernacular house.

John Johnston of South Carolina was the original settler of this area, in 1821. Johnstonville was the first seat of government of Monroe County, which at the time of settlement extended from Houston County in the south to Fayette County in the north and included all the land in that context between the Flint and Ocmulgee Rivers.

The National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Johnstonville-Goggins Historic District notes: It is thought that the very earliest settlers of Johnstonville came to the areas of Land Lots 254 and 255. This area was near the Towaliga River and possibly an old Indian settlement. Most of the early settlers had large acreage and some of them had slave labor in the early 1800s. The village was growing into a bustling community around a crossroads area. The crossroads as on a leg of the Old Alabama Road Trail and the Pony Express delivered mail to Johnstonville, Goggins, and other communities in the district.

Johnstonville-Goggins Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Willis Pentecost Menefee, Father of the Town of Palmetto

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Major* Willis Pentecost Menefee (1814-1855) is considered the founder of Palmetto. His father, George Menefee (1762-1840), of Virginia, served in the Revolutionary War and was granted land in Jackson County, before moving to Talbot County. The elder Menefee is buried on the grounds of his plantation near Collinsworth Methodist Church in Talbot County. Willis Menefee established a plantation** in old Campbell County, near the site of present-day Palmetto and donated land for businesses, schools, parks and the Palmetto Methodist Church and gave all land necessary for the Atlanta and LaGrange Railroad. These gifts led to the creation and subsequent growth of Palmetto, part of Campbell County before its annexation into Fulton County.

This is actually the second resting place of Willis Menefee and his mother, Nancy Collier Menefee (1771-1852). They were originally buried on his plantation but re-interred in the Wayside City Park in downtown Palmetto in 1980.

*-I haven’t been able to locate a military record for Menefee, and therefore do not know whether the title of Major is an honorific or if it indicates actual service. Honorific titles were quite common among the upper class in the 19th century.

**-For descendants seeking slave records related to the Menefee family, I haven’t located any, but due to his status as a planter, he would have almost certainly been involved in this institution.

Smyrna Methodist Church, 1911, Wilkes County

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The amazing history of Smyrna begins in 1785, when Reverends John Newton and John Simpson of the South Carolina Presbytery began holding services in nearby homes at the request of Sir John Williston Talbot (1735-1798), who had come to Georgia to attend to the 50,000 acres granted him by King George III. The first church, built on this site in 1793, was a log structure and the Reverend John Springer, the first Presbyterian minister ordained in Georgia, was the first pastor and he remained here until 1801. Membership had declined to such a small number by 1820 that the Presbyterians transferred the building to the Methodists and moved to the Washington Presbyterian Church. Beginning in the 1840s, the Methodists and Presbyterians held joint camp meetings on the grounds, which went on for many years. The old log church served Smyrna Methodist until a frame structure replaced it in 1860. The present structure dates to 1911.

Historic Smyrna Cemetery

The land for this burying ground, and by extension the churchyard, were given by Sir John Talbot in 1788, and it is one of the most historic in the region. I’m sharing some of the highlights here, focusing on the early gravestones.

Talbot Enclosure

This enclosure of Georgia granite is the burial place of several members of the Talbot family and other early members of the congregation. Because it’s the burial place of Governor Matthew Talbot, I’m identifying it as the Talbot Enclosure, but many families, including Jones, Charlton, Martin, and Colley, are also present.

Matthew Talbot, the son of Sir John Talbot and the namesake of Talbotton and Talbot County, served as the 30th governor of Georgia, albeit for only two weeks [24 October 1819-5 November 1819]. After moving to Georgia from Virginia, he served as a clerk of the Superior Court in Elbert County [1790-1791] and represented Wilkes County in the Georgia General Assembly. He later moved to Oglethorpe County and represented them in the state Constitutional Conventions of 1795 and 1798. He served in the Georgia Senate in 1799, 1801-1803, and from 1808 until 1822. While serving a President of the Senate, he became the interim Governor of Georgia upon the death of Governor William Rabun in 1819. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1823, losing after a battle in the legislature that lasted three days before a selection could be made. This resulted in the legislature changing the system of electing governors by election by popular vote. In 1827 he once again was a gubernatorial candidate, but passed away before the election.

James C. Talbot (5 October 1799-11 July 1840)

James Creswell Talbot, who, according to his headstone, stood well as a Preacher, served the Smyrna congregation before his death.

Mary L. Talbot (5 July 1838-17 February 1849)

Mary was the daughter of Reverend James C. Talbot and Sarah A. Talbot.

Thomas Henry Jones (July ? 1816-10 March 1818)

Thomas Henry Jones was the son of Col. William Jones, a veteran of the War of 1812. No birth or death dates for Col. Jones have been located as of this writing.

Dr. Henry Augustus Jones (9 August 1821-15 December 1854)

I like the inscription on this early physician’s headstone: The law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with men in peace and equity.

Frances Charlton (7 March 1782-11 September 1857)

The headstone of Frances Charlton is a nice early Victorian example featuring weeping willow trees. It is signed by its maker, Glendinning of Augusta. It notes of Charlton: Lived a consistent member of the Methodist Church nearly half a century.

Owens Colley (9 April 1851-13 September 1851)

Owens Colley was the infant son of John Owens & Sarah E. Colley.

Pvt. Gannaway Martin (18 September 1740-26 August 1819)

Gannaway Martin served in General Elijah Clarke’s Regiment of Georgia Troops during the Revolutionary War.

This is another view of the Talbot Enclosure from the back side.

This is the corner of the enclosure at a point where it joins another smaller enclosure.

Behind the Talbot Enclosure is an equally old and historic section of the cemetery. I’m calling it the Barnett Family Plot, for the number of Barnetts interred here.

William W. Barnett (16 November 1747-25 October 1834)

William W. Barnett was a son of John Barnett, Jr., an Irish immigrant who was one of the earliest settlers of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. His sister, Mary, is believed to have been the first white child born in Mecklenburg County. Along with his father and his brother, William served in the Revolutionary War in the Snow Campaign and the Battle of Hanging Rock.

Jean Jack Barnett (1750-11 September 1811)

Jean Jack, a native of Pennsylvania, was the wife of William M. Barnett of Wilkes County.

Charity Barnett (1789 ?-26 September 1808)

Charity was the daughter of William W. & Jean Barnett. Her headstone is one of the earliest in the cemetery.

William J. Barnett (July 1813-22 September 1828)

Elizabeth Margaret Joyner Barnett (1799 ? -23 January 1822)

Elizabeth was the first wife of Samuel Jack Barnett (21 January 1775-14 January 1843). His second wife, Elizabeth Wingfield Willis Bennett (30 March 1791-11 June 1856), is buried nearby.

The three memorials that follow were just aesthetically interesting to me.

G. W. Florence (Birthdate unknown-1874)

The simple mausoleum of G. W. Florence features a ventilation pipe on its roof. This is likely due to the belief held by some Victorians that people were often buried alive and this would provide air to the “not-yet-departed”. Florence himself has proven a mystery, as I can’t locate anything about his life. Even his birthdate is missing from this memorial.

Augustus Stovall Tatom (12 January 1877-6 October 1913)

Augustus Stovall Tatom was the son of Wiley G. Tatom (1847-1916) & Georgia M. Tatom (1847-1930). The broken Corinthian column on the headstone is symbolic of a life cut short in the parlance of Victorian funerary art.

Elizabeth Cooper Meriwether (21 August 1840-24 Mary 1921)

Cornelia Elizabeth Cooper Meriwether was the wife of Thomas Molloy Meriwether (1821-1899). The ferns and tropical plants featured on her headstone may have a Victorian meaning, but I think they’re more representative of the Arts & Crafts aesthetic that was popular at the time.

Rehoboth Baptist Church, 1903, Metasville

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This beautiful structure is at least the third home of Rehoboth Baptist Church, a congregation which can trace its beginnings to 1806 in the community of Jackson’s Cross Roads, a couple of miles from the present location. The move to this location came in 1824 and the church built at that time served until the construction of this building in 1903. A very large historic cemetery is located across the road.

Wilkes County truly has some of the nicest historic churches of any county I know of, and they are all so nicely maintained. If you like old churches, it’s worth a visit for that reason alone.