Liz writes: This house was built by George H. Slappey’s son Anson B. Slappey. He attended military school and then joined the Confederate army. He died in 1908. In the 1960’s his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Eugenia Ramsey lived here as well.
East Main Street Residential District, National Register of Historic Places
Thought to have been designed by architect J. H. Russell for Dr. Nathaniel Polhill Jelks (1845-1911) and his wife Kathleen Lamkin Jelks, this house has always been one of my favorites in Hawkinsville, even before its restoration.
I worried for many years that it would be lost, as it had become weather-worn and abandoned. The present restoration was done using a photograph provided the present owners by descendants of Dr. Jelks.
According to a post on Access Genealogy*, which I have abridged : Dr. Nathaniel Polhill Jelks, fourth son of James Oliver Jelks and Mary Polhill, was born July 18, 1845, in Hawkinsville, Pulaski County, Georgia, where he died March 28, 1911. When six years old his family moved to Oglethorpe, Georgia, after two years moving to Hamilton County, Florida, where he received his early education, later studying in Augusta, Georgia. In 1863 he entered the Confederate Army, enlisting in Company I, Second Florida Cavalry, under General Jones…He was wounded at the Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida, March 6, 1865, in which the enemy was defeated. After the Confederates laid down their arms, he surrendered with his command at Baldwin, Fla.
When peace came again to the land, he entered upon the study of medicine, and was graduated at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, in 1868. He immediately began the practice of medicine in Hawkinsville, Ga. In this profession he gained distinction and success, was a member of the Georgia Medical Association, and at one time president of the South Georgia Medical Association…
In addition to his profession he was for many years connected with the drug business, and was one of the leading planters of the county. He was active in civic matters, serving his people whenever and wherever he could. He was one of the earliest members of the board of education that established our present system of public schools. His love and fidelity for his profession were only equaled by that for his church...
December 6, 1870, he married Kathleen Lamkin, daughter of James L. Lamkin, a prominent planter, and Sarah Dillard Lamkin. To them were born seven children: [Kathleen, Edwin Lamkin, Lilly, Needham Polhill, Mary, Maud, and Ruth].
December 20, 1892, Dr. Jelks was married a second time to Kate Pate, daughter of A. C. Pate, a distinguished judge of Pulaski County. To her two children were born: [Pate Anthony, and Georgia].
*-The original source appears to be: Rev. J. L. Baggott, Biographies of Pulaski County Georgia, Daughters of the American Revolution,1935.
Built after the Civil War (likely 1870s) by 1st Lieutenant Reuben Walton Clements (1836-1899), this plantation house remains one of Irwinville’s most prominent landmarks. Clements was commissioned 1st Lieutenant of the Irwin Volunteers, Company F, 49th Regiment of Georgia Infantry on 4 March 1862 . Though he resigned on 30 July 1862 due to measles, he re-enlisted as a private in Company H, 4th Regiment of Georgia Cavalry (Clinch’s,) on 2 March 1863 . He surrendered at Tallahassee on 10 May 1865. [Ironically, this was the same day Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops on nearby property also owned by Clements. That property today is home to Jefferson Davis Historic Site] R. W. Clements’ son, James Bagley (Jim) Clements, resided here for many years. He was the author of History of Irwin County (Atlanta, Foote & Davies, 1932). Clements was a member of the Irwin County school board, an appointed and elected judge, and subsequently served in the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia State Senate.
This house served as the residence of Dr. John S. Pemberton from 1860-1869. He moved into this house from the white cottage pictured in the previous post. Originally located four miles north of Columbus, it was relocated here in 1977 to afford it the protection of the Columbus Historic District.
Columbus Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Dr. John Stith Pemberton (1831-1888), known worldwide as the inventor of Coca-Cola, was born in Knoxville, Georgia, and raised in Rome. Soon after he received his pharmacy license he married Eliza Crawford Lewis and the couple moved to Columbus. They lived in this house from 1855-1860. I’m unsure if the Greek Revival details are original or a later addition. Wounded in the Battle of Columbus in 1865, Dr. Pemberton in an attempt to alleviate pain became addicted to morphine. In his search for a cure to his addiction came the genesis of Coca-Cola, which Coca-Cola historian Phil Mooney asserts was invented in Columbus, not Atlanta as most assume. The Coca-Cola Company’s website, however, doesn’t concur. Either way, Dr. Pemberton sold the formula soon after he invented it. He died on 16 August 1888 in Atlanta and was returned to Columbus for burial.
National Register of Historic Places
I’ve photographed this house dozens of times over the last six years and recently learned that it is being deconstructed and the lumber salvaged for use in a new structure. The longtime owners of this landmark spent many years maintaining it and without their commitment to its history, it would have been long gone by now. I’m grateful for being allowed unlimited access to photograph and document it in its final days. I believe the house originated as a Plantation Plain, or I-House, the common vernacular style of wealthier farmers and planters in 19th-century Georgia. The porches were likely a later addition, giving it its present French Colonial appearance.
The first floor foyer is dominated by a narrow stairwell. To the right of the stairs is a re-paneled bedroom. One of the two main rooms downstairs would have originally served as a parlor and the other may have been a bedroom or dining room.
A “modern” kitchen is evidence that this home has served many generations, though the appliances and design attest to how long it’s been empty.
The upstairs bedrooms are largely unchanged.
As closets were not in use in the mid-19th-century, this one, with a simple closure, was added later.
The mantels are being removed and will be reused. The bricks in the fireplaces were made locally and are one of the best indicators of the age of the house.
In one bedroom, some of the wall boards have already been removed, revealing the beautiful rough-hewn local lumber that frames the house.
The second floor foyer is brightened by sidelights, replicating the appearance of the main entryway.
The foyer leads to a porch with louvered ends to maximize air circulation.
When the house is viewed from the rear, it seems possible that the hallway at the rear of the second floor was once a breezeway, especially when considering the larger windows in the middle.
Here’s the hallway.
It appears to be wasted space in the present form, and people in mid-19th-century rural Georgia didn’t waste space. Still, it’s a nice feature today. More of the original rough-hewn walls have been exposed by the deconstruction.
There are small rear corner rooms on each end of the second floor.
Corner posts are reinforced by buttresses and wooden pegs.
Here’s the view from the top of the landing back down to the first floor entryway.
And here’s a view of the roof of the kitchen/packhouse addition.
And another rear view of the house, showing the size of the kitchen/packhouse.
Unlike most detached kitchens which have been connected to a main house, this one only has outside access. The original kitchen is really a complex of three rooms. The first section likely served as a dining and storage area.
The second room was where the work of the kitchen was done, featuring a large hearth.
A small room at the end of the complex was likely used as a packhouse/root cellar.
I feel fortunate to have been able to experience this house. It’s a real gem.
Robert and Martha Julianna Dubose Toombs purchased this house in 1837 and lived here until their deaths. The front facade of the house is the most impressive part of the structure, with the colonnade added by Toombs being its defining feature. Robert Toombs was born near Washington on 2 July 1810 and was a child prodigy of sorts, enrolling in Franklin College (now the University of Georgia) at the age of 14. He was expelled from the institution for his indifference to its rules but appeared on campus during graduation ceremonies and made a rousing speech beneath a nearby oak tree, drawing out students from the commencement ceremony. Toombs furthered his education at Union College in New York City and the University of Virginia Law School.
He began practicing law at the age of 18 and was elected to the Georgia House at age 28. Elected to Congress as a Whig in 1844, he later became a Democrat. From 1855-61 he served in the United States Senate. Early in the growing debate over states’ rights, he was a staunch Unionist but by the late 1850s was convinced that secession was eminent. Upon Lincoln’s election in 1860, he telegraphed Georgia leaders, urging that secession be “thundered forth from the ballot-box by the United voice of Georgia.” He soon resigned the Senate and returned to Georgia to participate in the Secession Convention. He had hoped to be chosen President of the Confederate States, but became their first Secretary of State instead.
He left the Confederate Cabinet in 1861 and on 19 July was named a brigadier general, serving in the Peninsula, Northern Virginia and Maryland campaigns. After successful service, he resigned his commission in 1863 and returned to Georgia. He would remain a vocal opponent of Jefferson Davis throughout the remainder of the war but served again as a brigadier general in General Gustavus W. Smith’s Georgia Militia. As the confederacy collapsed, Toombs fled to Havana and then to Paris with General P. G. T. Beauregard. Returning to Georgia in 1867, he remained an ardent supporter of states’ rights and never requested a pardon from the United States, therefore never regaining his right to vote. He was one of the leaders of Georgia’s Constitutional Convention of 1876.
Robert Toombs died on 15 December 1885, an unreconstructed rebel until the end. The home is open for tours and is among Georgia’s most important Civil War historic sites.
National Historic Landmark
A native of England, Charles Frederick Crisp (1845-1896) came with his entertainer parents to Georgia as a toddler. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was temporarily residing in Luray, Virginia, with his parents, who were performing there in Shakespearean plays. He enlisted in the 10th Virginia Infantry, was commissioned a lieutenant, and served throughout the war, being captured at Spotsylvania Court House in 1864.
Upon his release in 1865, Crisp rejoined his parents at Ellaville, Georgia, and after obtaining a law degree, practiced there. He was a judge of the Southwestern Judicial Circuit and went on to become a prominent member of Congress. During his time in Congress he served as Speaker of the House. He was elected to the Senate a short time before his death, but did not live to take the oath of office. His son, Charles Robert Crisp (1870-1937) was appointed to fill his term and was later elected to the same seat. Speaker Crisp is the namesake of neighboring Crisp County.
Americus Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
From The Rambler, May-June 2001, Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation: Dr. Solomon Brantley, a physician who served in the Civil War from 1861-1865, and his wife Mary originally built the plantation plain house with little ornamentation. Architect Charles E. Choate added the Victorian detailing in 1899, when he was hired by a later owner to remodel the house. Story has it that Mary Brantley was among the women in Sandersville who begged Sherman not to burn down the town, and he rescinded his order to burn the houses. The house was passed down through several owners before the Haygood family bought it in 1953. The house is now being used as apartments…The house was originally built on piers, which were later filled in with concrete block.
North Harris Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Major Mark N. Newman (1827-1906) of Company C, 49th Georgia Volunteer Infantry, built the first section of this house in 1855. It was extensively remodeled before the Civil War, with the front porch being added then.
North Harris Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places