This four-over-four house was built for Sam Houser. Later owners were the King sisters and, beginning in 1948, C. C. Chapman, who served for many years as the sheriff of Houston County.
Houser-King-Chapman House, 1903, Perry
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: Georgia Politicians
Neidlinger-Monroe House, 1904, Effingham County
This farmhouse is located on a section of 1000 acres originally granted to Samuel Neidlinger, who built a hand-hewn log house on the property in 1788. Neidlinger was a settler of New Ebenezer but left that community after the Revolutionary War. Another house on the property, built by Samuel Neidlinger’s son, Emanuel, was burned by Union troops while Emanuel was away in service. The pioneer Neidlinger’s great-grandson, Lenorian, built the present house in 1904. Lenorian was a Georgia state senator in the early 20th century.
The house is a Georgian cottage, though locally, the style is known as the Salzburger Plan.
Switzer-Ingram-Hudson House, 1830s, Hamilton
This marvelous structure originated as a Federal I-House and was likely begun much earlier than the given date of circa 1830. Some have suggested that it was the second house ever built in Hamilton, but that needs further substantiation. Its earliest known owner was Williamson Switzer, Judge of the Inferior Court of Harris County from 1833-37. Switzer was among the most prominent citizens of Harris County in his day and was instrumental in the establishment of the poor asylum in the county in 1835. Later owners were Porter Ingram and William Irby Hudson, a Georgia state legislator and senator.
Governor George W. Towns House, 1828, Talbotton
According to the 1973 nomination form which added this property to the National Register of Historic Places: Construction of the house began 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.
National Register of Historic Places
Sugar Creek Plantation, 1937, Telfair County
Upon its completion in 1937, this Colonial Revival house became both home and refuge for Eugene Talmadge and his wife, Mattie Thurmond Peterson Talmadge, known to all as Miss Mit. Talmadge had just lost the governor’s race after serving two terms and this country estate provided him a place to revitalize and plan his political comeback. At the time, Telfair County was still seen as the seat of the Talmadge family and the rural anchorage was important, as Talmadge fancied himself a champion of the common man. The same voters who had rejected him for his lack of cooperation with FDR’s New Deal programs in 1937 returned him to the governor’s office in 1941. By now, Talmadge was relying on his unapologetic brand of racism to reach voters, and it succeeded; his well-attended rallies stoked racist fears among poor whites throughout Georgia.
After another absence from office, Talmadge ran again in 1946, and became only the second man in Georgia history to be elected to a fourth term (Joseph E. Brown, the Civil War governor, was the other). He died on 21 December 1946, before he could serve his fourth term. The so-called Three Governors Controversy followed, and soon Talmadge’s son Herman became governor. He later served four terms in the United States Senate.
The family seemed to have little interest in maintaining the house, as they lived their lives far away from Telfair County for the most part, and it fell into a state of neglect. For many years, the fate of Sugar Creek Plantation was uncertain. It had long been in disrepair when former Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor Jim Wooten, a Telfair County native himself, purchased and restored the house and grounds in 2011.
Please note: It is now a private residence and security-monitored.
Walt’s Bar-B-Q, Weber
I can’t find any history of the Weber community, but considering that it was the home of Walt’s Bar-B-Q (Walt Gaskins) and the old Gaskins Consolidated School, it seems it should have been called Gaskins. I imagine Walt’s was a landmark but looks like it’s been closed for many years. Rhonda Garrett writes that Walt Gaskins was a long time Sheriff of Berrien County (who) also served in WWII and was on The Arizona when it was bombed at Pear Harbor.
Tomb of Governor Troup, Lothair
This sandstone enclosure is the de facto memorial to one of early Georgia’s best known politicians, Governor George Michael* Troup (8 September 1780-26 April 1856). The obelisk was placed in 1848 upon the death of Troup’s brother, Robert Lachlan Troup (1784-1848). The enclosure was built by slaves from sandstone quarried nearby at Berry Hill Bluff of the Oconee River.
*- Some sources assert that Troup’s middle name was actually McIntosh. This is due to the fact that Troup’s mother was a McIntosh and he was born at McIntosh’s Bluff on Alabama’s Tombigbee River, which was part of Georgia at the time of the governor’s birth.
Detail of engraving of George Troup from The Life of George M. Troup by Edward Jenkins Harden, 1859. Public domain.
Governor Troup spent most of his time after his 1833 retirement at Val d’ Osta, his home in Dublin. He died while visiting Rosemont Plantation, one of numerous properties he owned in Laurens and Montgomery counties. A man of his time, Troup was a fierce supporter of slavery, owning around 400 human beings during his lifetime. It is also suggested that, like many slave owners, he fathered children with some of his female slaves.
Troup served as a state representative, member of the House of Representatives, United States senator, and two-term governor of Georgia (1823-1827). Georgia’s best-known politician of the era, William Harris Crawford, encouraged Troup to run for governor. His first run was unsuccessful, due largely to the deep divide between the aristocratic planter class (by now known as Troupites) and the common farmers and frontier settlers (known as Clarkites, for John Clark) that had dominated state politics since the late 18th century. The state largely favored the Clarkites, but when Clark chose not to run in 1823, Troup was elected as an alternative. As a Democratic-Republican governor he ensured the removal of the Creek peoples from Georgia, a dubious achievement from a modern perspective. His endorsement of the Treaty of Indian Springs was met with an amended version from President John Quincy Adams, who favored allowing the Creeks slightly more land, but Troup ordered the militia to enforce his version. President Adams capitulated, not wanting to go to “war” with Troup over the Indian issue. He eventually became a strong Jacksonian Democrat and was nationally recognized for being a champion of states’ rights.
The ornamental iron gate was designed by Savannah blacksmiths D. & W. Rose.
Governor Troup was the namesake of Troup County, and Troupville, the first permanent county seat of Lowndes County. The present county seat of Lowndes County, Valdosta, is named for his plantation, Val d’ Osta.
Old Castle, Circa 1820, Washington
I’m unsure who built this house, but it was purchased in 1851 by Isaiah Tucker Irvin, a member of the State House of Representatives. He died in 1860 off the coast of Galveston, Texas, when a ship he was traveling on exploded. The Wilkes Guard, which he commanded, changed its name to the Irvin Guards in his memory. The home was purchased by Oliver S. Dyson, founder of Wilkes Telephone Company, in 1934, and has been associated with the family for many years.
East Robert Toombs Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Washington-McCook House, Circa 1851, Macon
Built for James H. R. Washington, an early Macon mayor, this house was relocated from its original College Street location on the property of the Washington Memorial Library in the 1970s. It stands today as a good reminder of the power of community involvement in the preservation of historic architecture.
Macon Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Speer-Sheridan House, Circa 1865, Macon
Built for Alexander Speer, an attorney, Confederate officer, and member of the Superior Court of Georgia, this Italianate townhouse was owned by Robert Sheridan by 1908.
Macon Historic District, National Register of Historic Places