Baldwin County GaArchives History .....History of Baldwin County - Historical Sketches 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, 11:43 am p. 15 HISTORICAL SKETCHES History, it has been said, is a recital of facts; biography, the picturing of a life. History answers the question, What things have been done? Biography, by what kind of men and women these things were done. Now it is our. purpose to endeavor to make plain, as far as practicable, what has been done in Baldwin County from its earliest settlement. "Lest we should forget," where memory should fondly linger, to tell something of the people who have made history in Baldwin County. To have even a general idea of the conditions at the settlement of Baldwin County it is necessary to know something of the Indian tribes, "the native holders of these rich lands and luxurient forests." The tribes holding this section which was afterwards middle Georgia, was the Creek nation or Muscogees. The name Creeks was said to have been given by the English. They were a powerful tribe that had come from the far West, and had builded settlements and mounds in which were buried bones and skeletons, their rude weapons of warfare, and many Indian antiquities. In White's Historical Collections of Georgia we have short accounts of treaties with the Creeks; covering a period of nearly a hundred years. At the close of the Revolutionary War, the small Colony of Georgia, now an independent state, was involved in one war after another with the Indian tribes. Following the protracted Oconee Wars, by treaty with the Creek Indians, Georgia acquired tracts of land afterwards divided into three large counties: Baldwin, ------------------------ p. 16 Wayne, and Wilkinson. This treaty was between the Federal government and the Creek nation. Commissioners from the United States: James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins, and Andrew Pickens. The treaty was signed by forty chiefs and warriors. This treaty took place at Ft. Wilkinson on the Oconee River, the 16th of June 1802. Ratified January llth, 1803. The Fort was well garrisoned and put under command of Major Samuel Beckham. Several years later, when forays from Indians had ceased, the garrison was removed to Ft. Hawkins, near Macon. An old citizen of Milledgeville writes in the Recorder in 1819: "I was attracted to Ft. Hawkins by the assembling of the Creeks in the neighborhood to receive the annuity due them by the government of the United States. David Brydie Mitchell was there as Indian Agent. "On my arrival I saw the big warrior, the most striking specimen of Indian greatness, and their wonderful orator, 'The little Prince' and Mclntosh their most gallant chief in consultation with the Agent about the affairs of their nation. "In the morning of the next day I crossed the Ocmulgee River and went into the encampment of the Indians who had been assembled to be fed by the government and receive their share of the annuity. It was a forest of tall spreading trees which covered the hills and valleys along the river. There was no under growth to mar the beauty of the landscape. Many thousand Indians were standing or squatting in little groups around the fires, which the coldness of the morning made necessary." The first and only instance of the Indians ever keeping a record of their history was discovered by LeClerc Milford, a young Frenchman, who was a man of high character and intelligence, who lived twenty ------------------------ p. 17 years among the Creeks. Milford was associated with that extraordinary chief, Alexander McGillivray and married his sister. Baldwin County was laid out by the Lottery Act of 1803, or rather that part of it lying on the West side of Oconee River. The East side had been bestowed upon individuals by land grants for notable services during the Revolutionary War. The County was settled in 1803, organized in 1805, named for Abraham Baldwin, who was born at Guilford Conn. In 1784 he came to Georgia by advice of Gen. Nathaniel Green to practice law. His scholarship brought him at once, into prominence and he was elected to Legislature in three months after his arrival. He drew a charter for a complete system of education and was the founder of the State University and for fourteen years was at it's head. Few parts of the state were more quickly populated or with a better class of people than Baldwin County. The part beyond the Oconee River was thickly populated before the County was laid out. A town, Mount-Pelier was projected, as early as 1801, and an Act by Legislature that, "all persons able to work on public roads residing within five miles of the Oconee and Altamaha Rivers from Mount-Pelier to Darien, shall work on said river for the improvement of the navigation thereof five days in each year.” John Miles was commissioner from Mount-Pelier. In 1808 an Act was passed to make distribution of late cession of land obtained from Creek Nation. This Act directs that the part of said territory lying South of the Oconee form and constitute one county to be called Wayne, and that part of the said territory lying south of the Oconee to be divided by a line to be run according to the true meridian from the Oconee at Ft. Wilkinson, south to forty-five degrees, west to the Indian boundary line, into two counties. The eastern to be called Wilkinson the western to be called Baldwin. ------------------------ p. 18 The counties to each be divided into five districts. These districts were further divided into lots of 202 ½ acres each. Tickets were made and numbered of these lots and Acts passed giving regulations as to the drawing of these lots by citizens of at least one years residence in the state. The amount paid into the Treasury ranged from ($9.00) nine dollars per hundred acres to ($0.25) twenty-five cents per acre. River bottom lands bringing highest. The fortunate drawers received grants issued under the hand of his Excellency, the Governor with attached seal of the state investing in them fee simple titles. The commissioners appointed by act May llth 1803 fixed the site and laid off the town of Milledgeville. December 12th, 1804 the General Assembly appointed HoWell Cobb, John Rutherford, Littleberry Bostwick, Archibald Devereaux, George M. Troup, John Harbert, Oliver Porter, commissioners to sell lots in town of Milledgeville not exceeding twenty, of one acre each. "Money from sale shall be, and hereby is, appropriated to defray expenses of erecting a state house in said town for accommodations of the General Assembly of the state." The following is taken from The Louisville Gazette, Louisville, Georgia: "Friday, October 9, 1807. Yesterday 15 wagons left this place for Milledgeville with the Treasury and Public Records of the State. They were escorted by the troop of horses from Washington who arrived here a few days since for that purpose." At same session an Act passed "incorporating a company for improvement of that part of Oconee river between Big Shoals and John Barnett's and the town of Milledgeville, all obstructions to be removed, and when a boat carrying a burden of 8 hogshead of to- ------------------------ p. 19 bacco, when the water is at ordinary height, the company may charge toll. "For every hogshead of tobacco, .50 cts. For every barrel of flour, .18 3/4 cts. For every bale of cotton, .25 cts. For every cask of other articles, .12 1/2 cts. For every thousand feet of lumber, .25 cts. "Whereas it is necessary and expedient that the counties of Baldwin and Wilkinson be organized as speedily as possible; therefore be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same that Samson Harris, Archibald Devereaux, Benjamin Tarver, Stephen Nobles, and Edmund Lane be and they are hereby appointed justices of the Inferior Court of the county of Baldwin; and Samuel Beckham, William Randolph, Lewis Lanier, Wm. O'Neal, and Thomas Gilbert be and they are hereby appointed Justices of the Inferior Court of the county of Wilkinson." It may seem tedious and unnecessary to give these details but they give us official records of the names of the men of those early days who were men of affairs, engaged in laying the foundations of the site of our county. Dec. 8th, 1806, an Act was passed appointing the following persons commissioners of the town of Milledgeville: David Fluker, Jett Thomas, Uriah Thweat, John W. Devereaux, Thompson Bird. These commissioners were given their appointment until first Monday in January, 1808. "Thereafter the citizens of Milledgeville entitled to vote for the members of the General Assembly shall choose by ballot, five persons to succeed them as commissioners of said town; and they shall have and are hereby vested with full power and authority to make such by-laws and regulations and inflict or impose such fines, penalties and forfeitures and doing other incorporate acts as in their judgment ------------------------ p. 20 shall be conclusive to the good order and government of said town of Milledgeville." On Dec. 10, 1807 an Act was passed to lay out and identify five new counties out of the counties of Baldwin and Wilkinson: Morgan, Randolph, Jones, Putnam, and Telfair. It was then enacted that "the counties of Green, Morgan, Baldwin, Wilkinson, Laurens, and Telfair shall form a judicial circuit to be called and known by the name of Ocmulgee circuit." "Whereas, a number of citizens of Washington and Hancock have petitioned the Legislature praying to be added to the county of Baldwin: Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in Assembly met and by authority of the same, that all that part of Hancock and Washington hereinafter described be added to and become part of Baldwin county, to-wit: Beginning on Aaron McKinzie's ferry on Oconee river, thence a straight line to Holt's Mills on Town creek with the meanders thereof to Harris's upper mill on said creek. Thence straight line to Oconee river opposite the Mouth of Little River, thence with the Oconee River to the beginning." In 1809, an Act passed incorporating Planters Bank at Savannah and apportioning the shares, five hundred shares were allotted to Milledgeville under superintendence of Zacariah Lamar, Archibald Dever-eaux, and Jett Thomas. Dec. 10th, 1807, an Act passed authorizing commissioners to sell and lay out lots for academy and churches or meeting-houses— Thompson Bird, Zacariah Lamar, Elijah Clark, John Devereaux, and Augustine Harris—Court house on southeast corner, jail on northeast corner." The square had been previously set aside for these buildings. Dec. 12, 1809, an Act to prohibit duelling. Any person or persons who shall give, bear, or accept a p. 21 challenge, knowing it to be so, in writing or otherwise, or having given, borne or accepted a challenge, or in any way connected therewith either as second or principal in the promotion of a duel and being thereof duly convicted either as second or principal, shall not thereafter be capable of holding any office of honor, trust or profit, within this State. Benjamin Whitaker, Speaker; Henry Mitchell, Pres. of the Senate. David Brydie Mitchell, Governor, Dec. 15th, 1810, an Act to charter a company for improvement of Oconee river from Fishing Creek, near Milledgeville, to Big Shoals at John Barnett's. Dec. 15, an Act to appoint Commissioners for the better regulation and government of town of Milledgeville. The town to be divided into four roads, intersection of Washington and Jefferson streets. At this date Milledgeville had two representatives. Dec. 13, 1810, an Act for better regulation of tavern and shop-keepers to prevent their trading with slaves. In 1810, the population was 3,809 whites and 2,250 slaves. The slave population increased rapidly and in 1850 there were 4,602 slaves. Most of them were out on large plantations but among them were many skilled workmen, and work on public buildings went on rapidly. Additional Comments: From: Part I 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/gms227historyo.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 12.9 Kb