This Greek-Revival Georgian home was the center of large plantation owned by Josephus Hillman (c.1827-1880), who was one of the wealthiest men in what would eventually become McDuffie County. Though 1860 is generally accepted as the date of construction, there is no official documentation of this date. Typical of his time, Hillman was an enslaver, and the success of his agricultural operations was dependent on this fact. He became a Baptist minister during the Civil War and served as pastor of Thomson First Baptist Church in 1870-1871. Though his fortunes were greatly reduced by the end of the Civil War, he was able to continue his operation with tenant farmers and sharecroppers, including 11 of his former slaves. Failing health led Hillman to sell his plantation to Methodist minister Felix P. Brown in 1879.
Brown sold the farm to the Pylant brothers in 1897 and the property again changed hands in 1905, when it was purchased by William K. Miller as an investment. Paul Akers Bowden (1876-1968) ) bought the farm in 1916. Bowden, nor its next owner, Lucille Bowden Johnson (1903-1994), never lived full-time in the house, but Lucille undertook major renovations in the 1950s. After Lucille’s death, it was owned for a time by the Wrightsboro Quaker Community Foundation, but I believe it is once again a private residence.
White Chapel AME is an historic congregation near Round Oak. The present building dates to 1957. Though I haven’t been able to locate much history, the church was likely organized by freedmen of the White Plantation in the years following the Civil War. The plantation was established between 1800-1810 by Virginia-born Thomas White, Jr. (1781-1830), and the area, near the Jasper County line, was historically known as White’s District. White’s son, Joseph Clark White (1810-1887) inherited the estate and owned over 3000 acres and 120 enslaved people.
One of those slaves was Caroline “Aunt Ca’line” White (c.1848-1948). My purpose of visiting White Chapel was to document her burial place, but I was unable to locate it. She was well-known by all the people of the Round Oak community and a local newspaper reported at her death: “She was a slave girl on the plantation of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Clark White at the “old White place,” north of Round Oak before the War Between the States. Her husband, Tillman White, died several years ago. She leaves children, Jackson, 83; Mary, 81; Tom, 80; John, 78; Henry, 72; and also seventy grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her oldest grandchild is 68.
The day before her death Aunt Ca’line threaded her needle, without the aid of glasses, and quilted; she also helped whitewash the fireplace. She always claimed to be part Indian and certainly had many of the characteristics of the Indian, and so do her children. Henry is known as “Red Man,” and although he is 72, is as agile as most men of 58. Aunt Ca’line was thrifty, and always had a garden, chickens and many quilts pieced up.
She became rather deaf in the last few years and her grandchildren persuaded her to stay off the highway, but before that she came to town every day and was as chipper as could be, liked by all, white and colored.“
Her obituary also noted that “…she was as much a “rebel” as any southerner could ever be. She always spoke of the “good old days” and says that they were well treated, had everything they needed, and they were all happy, before the Yankees came…” Such statements must be viewed with suspicion today, considering their sources in white-owned newspapers which worked overtime to promote the “happy slaves” narrative, to which few Blacks in the Jim Crow era would have ever disputed to any White person at the time.
Vernacular Headstones of White Chapel AME
Though I couldn’t locate Mrs. White’s gravestone, I did document a few vernacular memorials, all of relatively recent vintage.
Annie Hutchings (1908-1986)
A family member or someone in the community made this headstone, with a deeply incised cross.
This is one of several headstones with decorative motifs incised on the back side.
These designs may have been made with metal or plastic strips or even fencing. If I recall correctly they date mostly to the 1980s.
Most of the slabs and headstones feature stenciled names, as seen below.
Lue Ella Odom – Better known as Mrs. Doll
No birth or death dates were given on Mrs. Doll’s memorial.
The Cabaniss-Hanberry House, located in the vicinity of Bradley, is one of the most iconic works of domestic architecture in Georgia. The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, who stabilized and restored the exterior in 1999, describes it as “…a vernacular example of Jeffersonian Classicism…and possibly the only remaining house of its form in Georgia...”
The builder of the house, George Cabaniss, Sr., (1744-1815), was the Virginia-born son of Mathieu Etienne Cabanis (1710-1789). His grandfather, Henri Hubert Cabanis (1655-1720), was a French Huguenot who fled to Virginia in the late 1600s.
After service in the Revolutionary War, George married Palatea Harrison (1758-1822), in 1781. In the 1790s, he was one of several Cabaniss siblings who “…began a succession of migrations with parts of their families, first to North Carolina and then to Georgia. Some of the family eventually moved on to Alabama.” He first came to Greene County before eventually settling in Jones County.
He built this house circa 1805, undoubtedly with the labor of enslaved men, and sold it to his son Harrison Cabaniss (1782-1819) in 1811, after building another home near present-day Round Oak. After Harrison’s death, his widow, Sarah “Sally” Kirk Cabaniss (1798-1848) remained on the property until her death. She left 1215 acres and 29 slaves to her grandchildren. The house was occupied by descendants of its builder until the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Some notable descendants of George Cabaniss, Sr., include Dr. Palacia “Pallie” Wilson Stewart (1805-1866), one of the first licensed women physicians in Georgia, and Henry Harrison Cabaniss (1848-1934), an early owner of the Atlanta Journal and vice-president of the Cotton States and International Exposition.
The Martin and Lucretia Stamper House, also known as Merrywood, is one of the finest surviving houses in Talbot County and a representative example of the Early Classical Revival in Georgia. It is an I-House at its core. The Classical look is evident in the full height portico, Ionic pilasters, and most notably, the elliptical fanlights over the four front doors. According to the National Register of Historic Places, “Before moving to Talbot County in 1833, Martin Woodson Stamper (1796-1874) was a prominent citizen of Upson County. Martin Stamper was born in 1796 in Virginia and reportedly served in the War of 1812. In the 1820s, he was living in Upson County, was married to Lucretia Jane Walker (1789-1856) from a prominent Upson County family, and was politically active. In 1825, he was the first sheriff of Upson County and served as a representative in the state legislature in 1832. In 1833, the Stampers moved to Talbot County and were [among] the early settlers of the county. In the 1840 U.S. Census, Martin Stamper owned 40 slaves and over 708 acres of land where this house was built. In July 1850, Martin Stamper sold the house and 690 acres of land to John Harris, a Baptist preacher, and the family moved to Early County.” It is a near certainty that the house was constructed by men enslaved by Stamper, and as with so many of these early Georgia houses, that is usually left out of the narrative.
The house is largely obscured today, but was restored in the early 2000s. According to the National Register, the interior retains its historic integrity and most of its original finishes. It’s a magnificent house, even with such a limited view.
This exquisite Georgian Cottage, heavily influenced by the Greek Revival, is, architecturally, one of the finest houses in Lee County. According to the History of Lee County, Georgia (1983), it has traditionally been known as the Byne Plantation. It’s still at the center of a large working farm in the historic Oakland community.
Gilbert M. Byne (1825-1910) was the first member of the Byne family to live in Lee County, establishing a large plantation near this site upon his arrival. He married Georgia Virginia McKnight (1854-1924) of Coweta County in 1883 and continued to expand his land holdings throughout his life. He also served as a Lee County commissioner. Gilbert’s grandfather, the Rev. Edmund Byne (1730-1814), migrated from King and Queen County, Virginia, to Burke County, Georgia, in 1781, and founded two churches there.
I first thought the house to be of antebellum construction but after consulting the Lee County history, believe it was built in the early 1880s, soon after Gilbert was married. The history notes that he had a new road cut through the area to accommodate such a place. The Bynes’s only child to live to adulthood, Marilu Byne (1890-1979), married Alvah Wallace Barrett, Sr. (1889-1956), and they continued to maintain the plantation until the waning days of the Great Depression, when they lost the property through a mortgage to the Haley family.
The Georgian Cottage type, two bays deep divided by a central hallway and therefore symmetrical in layout, is inherently Greek Revival in spirit, and this house certainly exemplifies that. It’s a well-maintained beauty.
According to Pebble Hill Plantation, “The original Piney Grove Church was organized as Piney Grove Missionary Baptist Church in 1885 as a “Bush Arbor” by black families who lived and worked on the plantation. The first wooden church structure was built by Mrs. Kate Hanna Ireland Harvey for the plantation’s staff and their families. Every year, the staff, their families, and the plantation owners joined together for a Christmas service inside the church. After two fires, Pebble Hill’s last owner, Elisabeth Ireland Poe, paid for the design, by architect Hugh Seaver, and for the construction of the church building that stands today. Construction was completed in the summer of 1936. At the time, it was the only church in the area with the innovation of electric lights. There is still an active congregation at Piney Grove that meets for services twice a month.”
Thomas Jefferson Johnson (1793-1847), who came from Pulaski County to southwest Georgia in the early 1820s to establish a plantation, was one of the legislators responsible for the creation of Thomas County in 1825. The county was named for one of Johnson’s relatives, soldier-architect Gen. Jett Thomas (1776-1817).
Dairy Complex, designed by Abram Garfield, 1928. This now houses the Visitors Center.
Johnson built his first house on the property that came to be known as Pebble Hill circa 1825 and married Jane Wilkinson Hadley in 1827. According to the National Register of Historic Places, it was “…a simple two-story dwelling with farm outbuildings and slave cabins nearby.”
Statue of a prized bird dog, one of several found throughout the property. Pansy Poe was an avid sportswoman long before it was fashionable and dogs were her greatest passion.
Jane died after the birth of their third child and Johnson remarried in 1839, to Martha Evans Everett. They had no children. Julia Ann was the only one of Johnson’s three children to live to adulthood.
Log dogtrot cabin, used as a schoolhouse and playhouse. Built in 1901 for Kate Harvey’s children, it’s the oldest surviving structure at Pebble Hill.
At the time of Johnson’s death in 1847, he owned 3000 acres and twenty slaves, who made the plantation a model of self-sufficiency.
Walkway to main house
When Martha Johnson died in 1850, the property was inherited by Julia Ann, who married John William Henry Mitchell, Sr., soon afterward.
Main house, 1936
The Mitchells replaced the original house with a more refined structure, commissioning English-born architect John Wind, who had already built many fine area homes and the Thomas County Courthouse.
Formal garden in front of the main house, designed circa 1934 by V. Ethylwyn Harrison, one of America’s first female landscape architects
Their eldest daughter, Jane Temperance Mitchell, complained of constantly sweeping pebbles from the walkways around the house, and complained that the family lived on a “pebble hill”. The name has been synonymous with the property ever since.
Tunnel arbor
Mr. Mitchell entered Confederate service late in the Civil War, as an adjutant of local militia, serving in the defense of Atlanta at the request of Governor Joseph E. Brown, but upon returning home to a greatly reduced labor force, died from pneumonia in March 1865.
Side of main house
The land was subdivided among the Mitchell heirs in 1876. Julia Ann and her children, Jane Temperance Stevens, Martha Josephine Stubbs, Mary Elizabeth (Bettie) Davenport, and John W. H. Mitchell, Jr. all received parcels. Julia Ann died in 1881.
Whimsical statuary at side entrance of house. There are several of these, all with different instruments, and two turkeys, as well.
By the 1890s, Pebble Hill as it had existed in its heyday had been further subdivided and sold to Horace J. McFarlan of New Jersey.
Pool and fountain in the arbor behind the main house
During this time, Thomasville and Thomas County had become a popular destination for wealthy Northern tourists seeking winter relief.
View from formal garden behind the main house
After briefly being owned by McFarlan and Thomasville judge Henry W. Hopkins, Pebble Hill was purchased by Howard Melville ‘Mel’ Hanna circa 1900. In 1901, Hanna gave Pebble Hill to his daughter, Kate Hanna Ireland. Mrs. Ireland increased the size of the property to around 4000 acres in short order and brought her children, Robert Livingston ‘Liv’ Ireland and Elizabeth ‘Pansy’ Ireland for long visits each winter.
Rear elevation showing the central section of the main house
They began spending more time in Thomas County and became very attached to the property. Kate Ireland added gardens near the main house, increased the living space through the construction of a new wing, and built structures to accommodate the growing number of visitors who came to hunt and explore the land.
Pebble Hill Plantation Cemetery
Kate established a championship Jersey herd in the 1920s and with it, a corporate function of the plantation, known as Pebble Hill Products.
Magnificent oaks are found throughout the property
Kate divorced in 1919 and married Perry Williams Harvey, an executive with the Hanna Company in Cleveland. The focus of the Pebble Hill property at this time had shifted to a shooting plantation. In fact, it was the crown jewel of the Thomas County quail plantations. My friend Joe Kitchens, who served as the first director of Pebble Hill when the site opened to the public in 1983, and who wrote the text accompanying Hank Margeson’s photographs in The Quail Plantations of South Georgia & North Florida (UGA Press, 1991), gives an excellent background at his Longleaf Journal: “There is history behind this story. When the railroads first began bringing northern tourists and outdoors men and women to Georgia, the track literally ended in Thomasville. Below was Florida- still malaria and yellow fever country. In addition to its comfortable winter weather, the “piney woods” of Thomasville offered health benefits- or so it was claimed-as well as outdoor adventure. Five large resort hotels, a carriage course around the town and a “Yankee Paradise” Park attracted winter visitors from the “frozen north.” Horseback riding, coaching, fishing for largemouth base (gigantic in the warm waters of nearby alligator-infested lakes, Iamonia and Miccossuki), and above all the chance to shoot quail (not “hunt”- in sporting parlance the dogs “hunted” and the humans “shot”). Dogs, horses, warm weather and shooting. An enticing alternative to freezing weather, snow and soot- filled air in Cleveland and other northern cities…Many of the new owners were partners and beneficiaries of the boom in oil-and the monopolizing enterprise of John D. Rockefeller, whose Standard Oil Company made Cleveland the heartland of financial and industrial ambition. Among those who flourished there were the Hannas, the family and kin of Senator Mark Hanna of Ohio. Hanna emerged as a “king maker” in national politics by managing the campaign of presidential aspirant William McKinley. Mark Hanna seems to have nourished ambitions of being president himself. In the Gilded Age, potential Republican presidential candidates were vetted in Thomasville by the wintering millionaires. A grand niece of Mark Hanna, Mrs. Parker Barrington Poe, or “Pansy” as she was universally known, owned Pebble Hill. It was said you could walk across Thomas County and never leave Hanna- owned land.”
This appears to housing for workers, or a small office.
The National Register of Historic Places notes: “Large expanses of land were burned off each season to allow freedom of movement for both wildlife and hunters, and fields of corn and other grains were planted and left, unharvested, to attract game birds, particularly quail. Local residents were hired and trained to assist in running the plantation and in organizing the hunts. Since hunting season meant many guests remained for extended periods, a large house staff was required to meet the needs of the family. To house all of these workers, cottages were constructed on the grounds. More than sixty such families lived on the property.”
Plantation Store, 1911. This is where Pebble Hill Products were sold to plantation workers and others.
During this period, Kate oversaw an expansion of the built environment at Pebble Hill, commissioning numerous support structures and landscaping that reflected her passion for the property.
Overflow Cottage, Circa 1917. This accommodated guests when the main house was full.
Abram Garfield, son of President James A. Garfield, designed a complex of service buildings, including a dairy, cow barn, stables, and a carriage house. Apartments and offices for workers were also constructed at this time.
Nurses’ Station, 1929
Besides Easter and Christmas celebrations for the employees and their families, Black workers were feted on Emancipation Day. This was unheard of in the rest of the South, but Northern Republicans of this time were quite progressive and it was the norm at Pebble Hill and other plantations in Thomas County.
Nurses’ station, interior
Perry Harvey died in 1932, and in 1934, the historic plantation house was destroyed in a fire that left just a 1914 expansion wing intact.
Dog Hospital, 1920s
Kate Harvey again called on Abram Garfield to build a new residence, and V. Ethylwyn Harrison, one of the few female landscape architects in the nation, designed new gardens and landscape features to complement the house.
Fire House, 1920s. The constant danger of fire made a working fire engine a necessity.
Another innovation at the plantation in the early 1930s was felt throughout Thomas County, thanks to Kate Harvey’s foresight. The Pebble Hill School and Visiting Nurse Association was ahead of its time and was encouraged and supported by other plantation owners. At a time when simple medical care was out of reach for many in this region, Kate Harvey provided registered nurses who traveled throughout the county tending to sick plantation workers and other laborers.
‘The Waldorf’, 1929. This was the plantation laundry.
In May 1936, just four months after the completion of the house, Kate Harvey died.
‘The Waldorf’, interior
Elizabeth ‘Pansy’ Ireland inherited the estate and spent the rest of her life preserving its legacy, especially the improvements her mother had made during her ownership.
Kitchen garden shed, 1920s
She also inherited her mother’s love of the outdoors and of Pebble Hill itself, and continued many of the traditions associated with the property.
Kitchen garden, 1917
She was one of the few female polo players of her era, and kept several champion thoroughbred horses on the property.
Mrs. Poe’s ‘speed limit’ sign
She also owned over a hundred hunting dogs at one time, even building a dog hospital and luxury kennels.
Pump house, Circa 1929
She married Parker Barrington Poe (1914-1991) in 1946 and at the time of her death in 1978, had established a foundation to preserve Pebble Hill in perpetuity and to open it for public visitation.
Kennel Cottage, Circa 1928. Also known as ‘Mack’s House’, for kennel manager Mack McQueen, this housed the kennelman and his family.
Mr. Poe oversaw this transition and the site was opened in 1983. It remains the finest example of the hunting plantations that put Thomas County on the map.
Learning Center
Pebble Hill not only offers a rare glimpse into plantation life, but is a living museum of two centuries of agriculture, architecture, social change, and preservation.
According to the National Register of Historic Places, the Jarrett-Hayes House “was built by Robert Jarrett using hand-made bricks and slave labor...it also has an original ell on the rear… The house reflects the construction methods of the period with the on-premise, hand-made bricks, pegged interior woodwork, and turned balusters...The property was at one time a thriving 800 acre plantation producing corn, wheat, cotton, peas, and beans. In 1950, it was purchased by Elizabeth Turnbull Hayes, great granddaughter of Robert Jarrett. The land was used for farming until the creation of Lake Hartwell in 1958-1960.”
It is well maintained and remains an important symbol of the area’s early history.
The Asa Chandler House is one of the most historically important and endangered houses in Elberton, and an unusual resource to be so intact within an urban setting.
Kitchen, originally located north of house but later attached
Though tax digests and historic resource surveys date the house to circa 1849, it likely originated earlier as a simpler form, perhaps a dogtrot, and possibly as early as the 1820s or 1830s.
Chimney, showing original granite blocks with restored brick section
Asa Chandler (1806-1874) bought the 36-acre property in 1849. He was a preacher and yeoman farmer who may have owned several slaves. After the Civil War, Rev. Chandler continued to operate the farm while serving numerous congregations in northeast Georgia. He was known to have a peach orchard at one time. Southern Anthology, a genealogical compendium of “families on the frontier of the Old South” notes: “Rev. Asa Chandler was born on the 22d of August, 1808, in Franklin County, Georgia. He made a public profession of faith in Christ in his 14th year, and joined the Poplar Spring church, in his native county. He was ordained in his 21st year, and in 1834 accepted the pastorate of the Van’s Creek church, in Elbert county, and moved to Ruckersville. He served that church as pastor for the long period of thirty-seven years, and was its pastor when he died. Other churches also enjoyed the benefit of his ministerial services, especially the Falling Creek church, of which he was pastor for more than twenty years.“
19th century well house
In 1917, the home was purchased by postmaster and mail carrier Walter C. Jones, who added the garage and other modern barns to the property. Mr. Jones was also a small-scale farmer, who may have planted the pecan orchard behind the house.
Barn, possibly of log construction and later sided with tar paper
The property is amazingly intact but its location on the main north-south highway in Elberton makes it vulnerable to development.
Garage, 20th century
It’s important for its antebellum origins, but also for its transition into a modern farm.
View from well house to main house
I don’t know its present status but I hope it will be preserved.
Front elevation of house, showing sleeping porch (at right) added by the Jones family in the 1920s
This historic cemetery near the lost plantation village of Heardmont is best known as the final resting place of Stephen Heard (1741-1815), who served briefly as governor of Georgia, from 1780-1781. It’s also referred to as the Stephen Heard Cemetery, Heardmont Cemetery (historic), and God’s Acre Cemetery. The earliest identified burial dates to 1800. It has been maintained by the Daughters of the American Revolution, though I’m not sure if that arrangement is still in place. It’s very well maintained. A granite marker near the entrance states: John W. McCalla, husband of Mary Allen McCalla, daughter of Singleton W. Allen*, deeded ten acres more or less, to the order of the “Daughters of the American Revolution” on November 24, 1903. The northeast corner, known as Heardmont Cemetery and church lot, to be reserved for burying purposes of the family members and relatives of Singleton W. Allen. *-Singleton Walthall Allen, Sr. (1793-1853), married Jane Lanier Heard, daughter of Stephen Heard.
He and his family came to Georgia in 1759, and in 1766 was the beneficiary of a 150-acre land grant for service rendered during the French and Indian War. Tensions remained high among the British settlers and the Creek and Cherokee peoples, and after both tribes signed the Treaty of Augusta in 1773, land north of the Little River was opened to settlement. To help protect new settlers from Native American incursions, Heard and his brother Barnard constructed Fort Heard, at present-day Washington, in 1774. Around the same time, Stephen and Barnard, along with their father, established another fort, known as Heard’s Fort, seven miles north of Fort Heard near Fishing Creek.
The Heards were patriots (Whigs) and were part of a larger group of rebels that included Nancy Hart, Elijah Clarke, and John Dooly. Far from being embraced by their fellow settlers, these colonists were the target of British sympathizers, known as Tories. As the British occupied Georgia, the Tories committed widespread acts of violence, culminating for Stephen Heard in the loss of his wife, Jane Germany, and their adopted daughter. The Tories invaded the Heard property and forced the women outside and into the snow. They later died of exposure.
His resolve greater than ever, Stephen Heard participated in the Battle of Kettle Creek on 14 February 1779. The battle was a major setback for the British in northeast Georgia, as only 270 of a force of 600 survived, but Tories continued to create chaos in the area. During one such campaign, Heard was captured and taken as a prisoner to Fort Cornwallis in Augusta. Legend holds that he was saved by one of his slaves, Mammy Kate.
Heard was appointed governor by the executive council of the House of Assembly on 24 May 1780 and served just over a year, departing the office on 18 August 1781. Clay Ouzts writes: “During his term, the British, who had overrun most of the state, were in control of its principal cities, and the backcountry was in a state of anarchy. Heard’s Fort functioned temporarily as Georgia’s capitol, but raids by Tories and Indians forced Heard and the council to move about continually to avoid capture by the British.“
Elizabeth Darden Heard (October 1765-5 June 1848)
After the Revolutionary War, Heard was granted nearly 7000 acres. He built Heardmont about 30 miles north of Washington on land which became part of Elbert County in 1790. He married Elizabeth Darden (1765-1848), a great niece of George Washington according to Findagrave, and they had nine children. Heard was an early justice of Elbert County, a delegate at the state constitutional convention of 1795, and a member of the committee that laid out the county seat of Elberton in 1803. He died at Heardmont on 15 November 1815. Heard County is named for him.
Col. Stephen Heard (13 November 1741-15 November 1815) The memorial doesn’t mention his brief service as governor, but notes: He was a soldier and fought with the great Washington for the liberties of his country…
