This exceptional home was built for Mrs. Beersheba Jones (1790-1850) circa 1826. It is one of the finest of the many architectural gems in Old Clinton. It has long been attributed to Daniel Pratt, though this attribution is now in question. Nonetheless, it is an important landmark of the transition between Federal and Greek Revival architecture.
In her History of Jones County, Georgia, For One Hundred Years, Specifically 1807-1907 (J. W. Burke, Macon, 1957), Caroline White Williams dates the house to 1820, but most modern sources date it to 1826. I’m unsure as to the reason for the discrepancy. Mrs. Jones only lived here a few years before selling the property to John and Mary Pitts. The James Ross family have had the longest association with the house and his descendants have taken excellent care of this important resource.
Old Clinton Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
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.
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.
Cottage of Kitty Andrew, Circa 1844, Old Church, Oxford
This saddlebag cottage was originally located a few lots away behind the home of James Osgood Andrew, a Methodist bishop in Oxford, and has been moved four times prior to finally landing at Old Church. It was the dwelling of an enslaved woman named Kitty, who was inherited by the bishop around the time he entered the episcopacy, and survives as a tangible symbol of the Missional Split (Schism) of 1844 that occurred between Northern and Southern Methodists, since the ownership of Kitty was at the center of the controversy. According to her cenotaph at Salem Campground, Kitty was a slave girl bequeathed to Bishop James O. Andrew by a Mrs. Powers of Augusta, Georgia, in her will when Kitty was 12 years of age, with the stipulation that when she was 19 years of age, she was to be given her freedom and sent to Liberia.
Northern clergyman insisted that bishops could not own slaves and demanded Andrew’s resignation. Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Emory’s president at the time and an enslaver himself, supported Bishop Andrew. The story put forth is that Longstreet and Professor George W. Lane interviewed Kitty and gave her the option of emancipation, which she refused, unwilling to be sent to Liberia. The bishop had this cottage built for her and pledged that she would thereafter live “as free as I am”. Andrew was known for ministering to slaves but even this and his commitment to allowing Kitty to live free was met with suspicion by Northern clergy.
Upon the death of his first wife, Bishop Andrew inherited a young enslaved boy. He then married a widow who owned over a dozen slaves. With all this in mind, and unwilling to compromise, the southern churches split from their northern peers in 1845 and formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Kitty later married a man named Nathan Shell and left the cottage but little else is known about her later life. Findagrave records her date of birth as 1822, though her date of death or even whereabouts remain unknown or unconfirmed.
Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
William H. Mell is believed to be the first owner of this home, more commonly known today as the Capers Dickson House, for the next owner, William Glen Capers “Judge” Dickson (1845-1914). Dickson was a private in Company 1, Cobb’s Legion, Infantry Batallion. Dickson served as a city judge in the courts of Newton County and was a law professor at Emory College.
The facade of the house is very reminiscent of the Milledgeville Federal style, though the overall floor plan is L-shaped.
Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Christened “Orna Villa” in 1820 by Dr. Alexander Means, Jr. (1801-1883), this is the oldest house in Oxford, and if the log house from which it was expanded is considered, likely has origins in the 1790s.
In her highly-readable history of the house, current owner Lisa Dorward has done more research than anyone else, it seems. She writes: A Virginian by the name of Richard Keenon Dearing had come to Georgia in 1793 and purchased 2,000 acres of land on which he built a four-room plantation house of hand-hewn logs. Dr. Means bought the house from Dearing around 1820 and set about expanding and remodeling it into the grand Greek Revival house it is today. Among Dr. Means’s many interests was ornithology, so he named his home that stood among the trees, Orna Villa, meaning “Bird House.”
Alexander Means, Jr., was a renaissance man who, as the Oxford Historical Society notes, served as a physician, school teacher, scientist, college professor, poet, college president, statesman, and as the first state chemist in the United States. Born to an Irish immigrant father and Scots-Irish mother in Statesville, North Carolina, Means settled circa 1820 in what would eventually become the town of Oxford. He married Sarah A. E. Winston in 1827 and they had 11 children. He helped establish the Newton County Female Seminary, served as president of the Georgia Conference Manual Labor School, and taught natural sciences at the newly established Emory College, among other academic endeavors. He entertained President Millard Fillmore at Orna Villa, and delivered the funeral oration for President Zachary Taylor. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical College of Georgia, where he taught during winter sessions. He retired from Emory in 1855, after briefly serving as president. Though he traveled and lectured in many locations, he remained at Orna Villa throughout his life.
As accomplished as he was and as varied his interests, Means, was also man of his time Research by Dr. Gary Hauk and Dr. Sally Wolff King suggests that between 20-28 men, women, and children were enslaved at Orna Villa. Ironically perhaps, Dr. Means was initially opposed to secession, but soon became a vocal supporter of the Confederacy.
Orna Villa stands today as one of the most tangible symbols of Oxford and Newton County’s early history. There are quite a few “ghost stories” related to the house, as well, especially those concerning Toby Means, but you’ll have to read Lisa Doward’s articles to learn more about them.
Typical of Georgia’s grandest town homes, the Bailey-Heard-Dallis House evolved from a smaller and plainer space to a larger, more architecturally-inspired vision. It’s also an important survivor of gentrification, as the 1974 application for the National Register of Historic Places attests: “…the house is currently the only Greek Revival dwelling left in its block. Only a few years ago there were seven such homes on the block.“
Thought to be the oldest house in LaGrange, it was built circa 1828 by General Samuel A. Bailey, who used it as his headquarters during the Creek Indian War of 1836. It was originally a simple vernacular form, with four rooms downstairs and two up, separated by a central hallway. When George Heard bought the house in 1842, he added four rooms and the exceptional colonnade, with six fluted Doric columns on the front and two more on each side of the house.
The home was acquired by George Dallis in 1888 and has remained in his family ever since.
Broad Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Benjamin Harvey Hill (detail), circa 1870-1880. Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Bellevue is a grand Greek Revival mansion, originally the center of a 1200-acre plantation property, built by Benjamin Harvey Hill (1823-1882) for his wife Caroline Holt Hill (1825-1904). It’s surrounded today by one of LaGrange’s premier historic residential districts. It was donated to the LaGrange Woman’s Club by the Fuller E. Callaway Foundation in 1942 and they have been its guardians ever since.
Benjamin Hill, who was born at Hillsboro in Jasper County, has been called a political chameleon for his wavering views and various party alliances. He started his career as a Whig and then became a strong Fillmore-supporting Unionist. Ultimately, he was Southern partisan who voted in favor of secession and quickly voiced public support for Confederate President Jefferson Davis while serving in the Confederate senate. Davis was even a visitor to Bellevue. In response to Reconstruction and the governorship of Republican Rufus Bullock, Hill helped inaugurate the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia during a speech made on 23 July 1868 that supported violence against the governor and others in favor of the Reconstruction government. He was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives and to the U. S. Senate in 1877. He died in office in 1882. Ben Hill County is named for him.
National Register of Historic Places + National Historic Landmark
The Maynard-Cheeves-Childs House is among the oldest in Monroe County. According to Jeunesse Millwood has been under resoration by the D. R. Millwood family since they purchased it in 1991. The wings were added in the 1920s, I believe. Jeunesse notes that her mother and late father have done a lot of research and meticulous restoration in what has turned into a long ongoing project. She says they have learned that the house either began or was completed in 1832. Originally by Thomas Maynard. His consort Sabrina died after giving birth to a daughter Susan and the baby a month later. Their graves remain on the property. Among other things it was used as a hospital during the Civil War as well as, we’ve been told, a hideout for escaping slaves. This would make sense as under the front foyer, there is a very large hole about 6ft x 6 ft. There was a trap door that once opened in the foyer but sadly, all the foyer flooring had to be replaced after the floods of 94 due to water damage. I believe the house eventually went to his son, Elijah, and then his daughter, Elizabeth Maynard Cheeves. Mrs. Flora or Florrie Childs, was a later owner. I’ll update when I learn more about the history.
This view from the west side is more akin to what the house would have originally looked like, even with the shed room at the back. With the Federal influence, there would not have been a porch of this configuration, either .
