Baldwin County GaArchives History .....History of Baldwin County - Introductory Materials 1925 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 5, 2004, 11:42 am HISTORY of BALDWIN COUNTY GEORGIA BY MRS. ANNA MARIA GREEN COOK ILLUSTRATED ANDERSON. S. C. Keys-Hearn Printing Co. -1925— ------------------------ COPYRIGHTED MRS. ANNA M. GREEN COOK. PRINTED FOR THE HISTORY COMMITTEE OF THE NANCY HART CHAPTER D. A. R. Mrs. Sarah Hearn Garrard Mrs. Gertrude Home Hutchinson Mrs. Sarah Canty Whitaker Allen Mrs. Leola Selman Beeson Miss Floride Allen Miss Leila Lamar Mrs- Helen Maxwell Longino Mrs. Clara Williams Pottle ----------------- DEDICATION I was born and reared in Baldwin County, which County is the subject of the within little volume. I was a charter member of the Nancy Hart Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and have been to this date an active member of the chapter. My association with these splendid patriotic women, some of whom are now living and some of whom have gone to their last reward, has given me the greatest affection for them personally, and the highest appreciation of their splendid patriotism. In every way they have actively, intelligently, and patriotically sought to keep alive the glorious memories of the distant past. In token of my fond affection for them, I dedicate this little volume to the members of THE NANCY HART CHAPTER DAUGHTERS of the AMERICAN REVOLUTION ------------------------ p. 5 INTRODUCTION The period of Georgia's history, extending from 1807 to 1868, was the most romantic, the most fascinating, and, in many respects, the most brilliant period in the state’s political and social annals. The hardships of pioneer life were beginning to disappear in the glamour of prosperous days. Both the spinnet and the minuet were still in vogue, and even the old-fashioned crane still lingered in the fire-place, but the latter was beginning to yield to the modern stove and to the lucifer match. It was an era of great plantations and of elegant manners;—an era which remembered Lafayette's last visit to this country and which showered upon the aged palladin of Liberty its gayest benedictions;—an era in which the dueling pistols were something more than ancient heirlooms and the field of honor was still a favorite meeting-place for gentlemen of the old school, with grievances to settle and with differences to adjust;—an era in which flowered some of the brighest intellects which the state has ever known, when men like Berrien and Forsyth and Troup and Crawford and Stephens and Toombs and Herschel V. Johnson and Benjamin H. Hill and Joseph E. Brown, the Cobbs and the Lamars and the Lumpkins and the Colquitts still wielded the heavy armor of giants;—an era which witnessed the great tariff debate of 1832 and the stormy secession convention of 1861;—an era in which not only the social but the political life of the state reached its golden noontide of splendor;—and then the crimson holocaust of War and the grim nightmare of Reconstruction! These are memories which invest historic Milledgeville with a peculiar charm, making it unique, in this respect, among all the cities of Georgia. Here ------------------------ p. 6 some of the wealthiest planters of the state built costly mansions, some of which are still standing, embowered amid ancestral oaks; but most of the former occupants are gone, and perhaps there is hardly a section of the Union to which the scions of these old aristocratic families have not borne an honored escutcheon. We find them in New York, in Boston, in Chicago, up and down the Middle West, and out on the far Pacific Coast; and wherever these sons and daughters of Milledgeville are scattered they are prosperous and happy; they have not forgotten the old times; and to the various channels of commerce, of industry and of social life, they are contributing those high and homebred qualities which have made Georgia great among American commonwealths. Milledgeville was for sixty years the seat of government. During much of this time, it boasted two powerful newspapers which were known to every nook and corner of the land. They not only shaped public opinion but they made and unmade public men—their editors were veritably Earls of Warwick. Events which have molded the history of Georgia here followed each other in a dazzling sequence; and, though a full half century has now elapsed since the mills of legislation were shifted to the banks of another stream, the harp of the Oconee still wakes a song which drowns the Lay of the Last Minstrel. Milledgeville is still a place of pious pilgrimage—its very streets are like fragrant aisles in some old cathedral—its trees are all Charter Oaks, each of them the custodian of some thrilling secret, steeped in its own atmosphere of romance and of legend, and whispering of its own traditions. But the glories of Milledgeville are not all of the past. To compensate her for the loss of the capital, she can today boast two magnificent institutions of learning, in each of which one rosy generation succeeds another, without a suggestion of gray hairs or of deep wrinkles. Thus, amid scenes of departed ------------------------ p. 7 splendor, of decadence and of decline, there courses the warm blood of a perennial youth and mingles the fair bloom of a perpetual morning. It is somewhat singular that not until now has an adequate history of Milledgeville—one of the state's historic centers—found its way into print; but this long-felt want has been supplied at length in an excellent work, to which these rambling observations form all too unworthy an introduction. It comes from the pen of Mrs. Samuel Austin Cook, and is replete not only with data patiently gathered from first-hand sources but abounds in breezy anecdote and in racy reminiscence, and is charmingly set forth in a well-organized presentation of all the essential facts. It is the story not of Milledgeville only but of Baldwin County, and it tells us of a once highly cultured settlement called Midway, where the towers of Oglethorpe University first arose back in the mid-thirties of the last century—where, in the almost forgotten little grave-yard, sleeps the great Dr. Samuel K. Talmadge, an uncle of the noted Brooklyn divine and an early president of the institution—where the gifted Sidney Lanier began to sweep his golden harp while still an under-graduate—where the astute Joseph M, Brown, who was destined to succeed an illustrious sire as governor, was an assiduous student, and where the many-sided Dr. James Woodrow once taught his classes, in mental characteristics, not unlike his celebrated nephew who was later to become President of the United States, and spokesman for humanity at the great Peace Conference in Versailles. It is with a touch of intimate acquaintance that Mrs. Cook narrates her story, with knowledge born of the very scenes in which her own life has mingled, of which it has formed, in fact, an integral part. She comes of the county's patrician strain, of its reigning aristocracy; and, if the tenderest strokes of her pen are given to Midway, the compelling reasons are obvious. Hither she came as a young bride, in the glow.of her happy ------------------------ p. 8 honey-moon; and here, for half a century, she has lived her life, sharing not only the joys but the sorrows of those around her, and helping to make the burdens of her neighbors lighter to bear. Mrs. Anna Maria Green Cook—to give the author's full maiden name—was born in Milledgeville, September 22, 1844; and she will this year celebrate the attainment of her eightieth birthday. In all the county, there is not a more energetic or tireless worker. With a wonderful play of spirit, she is literally an embodied sunbeam; and, whether it be in the church societies or in the various patriotic organizations of which she is a member, she finds constant employment for both mind and heart, is always optimistic and full of enthusiasm, and, in spite of manifold duties, is often scheduled for public addresses. It is an inspiration to touch elbows with this rare woman, who is still emphatically young, her years to. the contrary notwithstanding. Mrs. Cook's father was the distinguished Dr. Thomas Fitzgerald Green, whose long and useful life as a public official was a benediction to the whole state. He occupied a handsome home, where Jefferson and Hancock streets intersect, purchased from Dr. Samuel C. Boykin, the original owner. Her paternal grandfather, Dr. William Montgomery Green, was a native of Ireland and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. He belonged to the Irish nobility, and it was a proof of his patriotism that, when offered a seat in the English Parliament, he refused the proffered honor, preferring to accept no favors from a government whose oppressions were galling to his countrymen. So much of thrilling romance attaches to the career of this bold patriot that the reader will be interested to know somewhat of his history, for it links him in Irish affections with the immortal Robert Emmet. He came to this country with the great patriot's elder brother Thomas, for whom he named one of his children, and who afterwards became Attorney General of New York ------------------------ p. 9 and is now buried in St. Paul's church-yard underneath a handsome monument. Dr. Green's wife, according to well-authenticated tradition, was a first cousin of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whose tragic fate is still freshly recalled. Members of the family are tenacious in the belief that the pioneer immigrant's name was not really Green, that he merely assumed this name as an emblem of the country which he was forced to leave, having taken part in the famous Rebellion of 1798. When the old patriot was on his death-bed, Dr. Thomas F. Green arrived just in time to hear him whisper over and over the syllables "Nugent." He always wore on his little finger a delicate ring on which this name was engraved. There were also silver spoons which bore the same mysterious lettering; and from this circumstance it was surmised that he was possibly Sir Thomas Nugent, one of the Irish Confederates. Another theory is that he was General William Montgomery, who went as an exile to France; and it was directly from France that he came to America, with Thomas A. Emmet, for whom the author's father was named. (Mrs. Cook's maternal grandfather was Thomas Crowder, whose parents were Mark and Mary Crow-der, of Virginia and Maryland. Mark Crowder was a soldier of the Revolution. Thomas Crowder married Elizabeth, daughter of Captain John Hawkins, of North Carolina. Removing thence to Georgia, he settled first in Hancock County and afterwards in Baldwin, where he lived the life of a prosperous planter, dying in 1840). Dr. Thomas F. Green, the author's father, was a practicing physician until his election in 1845 as Superintendent of the State Asylum for the Insane, now the Sanitarium. He married in 1826 Adeline Eliza Ann Crowder, of which union there were six children who reached maturity: (1) Mrs. James Augustin Hall; (2) Mrs. Adlai Osborne Houston; (3) Mrs. Charles L. Bass; (4) Thomas F. Jr., who married Ella B., ------------------------ p. 10 daughter of Chancellor Lipscomb, of the State University; (5) Mrs. Samuel Austin Cook, the author; and (6) Mrs. James Patton Phillips. It was in a home of exceptional culture and refinement that Mrs. Cook spent her girlhood days. She attended school at Midway until it was time for her to enter the Masonic Female College, at Covington, Ga., from which institution she graduated in 1862 with first honor. Four years after the close of the war between the states, she married, in 1869, Samuel Austin Cook, of Albany, Ga., a man of rare gifts, who was both a versatile writer and a talented musician. But banking and mercantile activities engrossed most of his time until the failure of his health forced him to retire to a small experimental farm and to engage in agricultural pursuits. He was for thirteen years a contributor to the Savannah Morning News and at one time edited the Agricultural Department of the Southern Farm, a weekly periodical established by the lamented Henry W. Grady, with whom he enjoyed a close personal friendship. When a lad of sixteen, Mr. Cook enlisted in the Confederate ranks and remained in the service until the close of hostilities, achieving a record of which his descendants are justly proud. The old colonial home at Midway has always been a charming social center, its unaffected simplicity of life delightfully reminiscent of ante-bellum days. Ten children here came to brighten the domestic hearthstone, only three of whom survive, Mr. Ansel Brewster Cook, of Greenville, S. C., Mrs. William Proctor, of Macon, and Miss Gallic Irvin Cook, teacher of Ceramic Art, in Wesleyan Female College, at Macon. There are nine grand-children living, and one great-grand-child. The grand-children are: Mrs. Bascom S. Deaver, Samuel and William Proctor, Thomas Fitzgerald Cook, Ansel Brewster Cook, Susan Elizabeth Cook, Samuel Austin Cook, Robert Young Cook, and Walton Cook, of LaGrange, Ga. Little Jeanette Deaver is the only great-grand-child. Judge Thomas F. Green, of Athens, ------------------------ p. 11 Ga., one of the State's most distinguished lawyers, and Rev. Charles L. Bass are the author's nephews. Mr. Cook died June 25, 1911. Where the voices of happy children filled house and lawn, with peals of merry laughter, silence now reigns, but the memories of fifty years are sweet. Here, with one of her grandsons, Mrs. Cook lives quietly alone until the close of the session at Wesleyan, when her daughter returns to open her Summer Art School and to impart a touch of joyful yesterdays to the old home, on which the sun for over half a century has risen and set. Mrs. Cook is a devout Methodist. She loves the sanctuary of God and is never absent from church unless providentially hindered. Many official responsibilities have been laid upon her, including the treasurership of the Missionary Society for forty years, and she has also been unweariedly active in other bodies, including the U. D. C., D. A. R., and the W. C. T. U. organizations and serving the former two as. chaplain. She is at present working in two Sunday Schools, in the Methodist Church, and with ex-service men. She has frequently as a delegate attended conventions both religious and patriotic and often as a most effective public speaker has delighted large assemblies. Yet still, amid the pauses of her work and in the quiet of her home, with the cares of the busy day laid aside, she has found time to write this wonderful book, which will travel far and wide over the land and will entwine her name inseparably with the memories of her native town. Like the queen who loved a Roman, "age cannot wither" this noble woman. It has only touched her locks with silver, enriched her eventide with tranquil beauty, and imparted to her pure, unselfish life a mellow charm of sweetness. May we catch her gentle foot-fall and hear her welcome voice for many a happy year to come. LUCIAN LAMAR KNIGHT, LL. D., F. R. S. State Historian. Spotswood Hall, Atlanta, Ga., March 21, 1924. ------------------------ FOREWORD The writer claims for this unpretentious little history no other demand upon public attention than the interest attached to Milledgeville as the seat of the old Capital of Georgia, where events of thrilling interest occurred and scenes memorable in history were enacted. It is a compilation of facts that might otherwise be lost to this and succeeding generations. Acknowledgement is given to histories by Lucian Lamar Knight, Dr. George G. Smith, Dr. Ulrich B. Phillips' "Georgia and States Rights", and old files of the Milledgeville Union Recorder and of the Macon Telegraph. Thanks are gratefully extended to those who have assisted by words of sincere encouragement and helpful suggestions. The family sketches speak for themselves. Many of them are of state wide and even national interest. These sketches are written by some member of the family or by descendants of early settlers of Baldwin County. ------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I Historical Sketches. Indian Tribes. Treaty at Fort Wilkinson. Baldwin County laid out. Mount Pelier. Wayne, Wilkinson and Baldwin Counties. Milledgeville laid off, 1803. Commissioners appointed, 1804. Treasury and Public records moved 1807. Acts passed by the General Assembly. Population in 1810. Forts and Indian Treaties. Milledgeville in 1815. Old Stage Roads and Indian Trails. A scrap of Milledgeville's Ancient History, (Mrs. Sarah H. Hall). Sketch, (Mrs. N. R. Talley). General LaFayette's Visit to Milledgeville, (Mrs. 0. M. Cone). Oconee Town, (Mrs. J. L. Walker). A Glimpse of the Old Capital of Georgia, (Mrs. Loula K. Rogers). Historic Site in Milledgeville. The Baldwin Blues. Politics in Georgia. Judge Tait and General Clark. PART II Institutions. Schools—Academy 1807. Dr. Wm. Montgomery Green. Dr. Cotting. Boys Preparatory and Girls Seminary Oglethorpe University. Banks—State Bank. Darien. Bank of Milledgeville. State Sanitarium. Churches—Camp Creek. Mount Olive. First Baptist. Catholic. Episcopal. Bethel Methodist. First Methodist. First Presbyterian. Little Church Under the Pines. PART III Miscellaneous—Personal Reminisences. Faithful Negroes. Poem— Uncle Jerry. Armistice Day in Milledgeville. Poem—Home Again. PART IV Nancy Hart Chapter, D. A. R.—Story of Nancy Hart. Georgia Day first observed. Funds started for marking Historic buildings. Major Jacob Gumm's grave marked. Old Capitol Building and Governor's Mansion marked. Address of Dr. L. L. Knight. Y. M. C. A. Hut given to G. M. C. French orphans supported. Memorial trees planted. Fort Wilkinson marked. Treaty at Fort Wilkinson. Rock Landing. Liberty Tree Planted. Old Map of Milledgeville. Real Daughters' graves marked. Revolutionary Soldiers' graves marked. LaFayette Centennial. Address of Col. Erwin Sibley. Early marriage records of Baldwin County. Early Bible record. PART V Biographies. Additional Comments: From: HISTORY of BALDWIN COUNTY GEORGIA BY MRS. ANNA MARIA GREEN COOK ILLUSTRATED ANDERSON. S. C. Keys-Hearn Printing Co. -1925— File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/baldwin/history/other/gms226historyo.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 18.8 Kb