Baldwin County GaArchives History .....History of Baldwin County - Scrap of Milledge's History 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, 11:53 am A Scrap of Milledgeville's Ancient History By One of the "Ancients" (Mrs. Sarah H. Hall) Louisville was once the capital of Georgia, but it was considered advisable to have the capital more centrally located, so on one occasion when the Legislature was in session, the subject of removal was agitated. A bill was introduced and passed authorizing the commissioners, with a surveying party, to go through the State from north to south and from east to west and find the most central spot to establish the capital. There were no railroads then and automobiles had not been dreamed of, so it required several weeks of travel for the members living in remote districts to reach the seat of government. It was then only right that it should be centrally located. It is said that this exploring party reached this spot on a hot day in July almost exhausted from fatigue, heat, and thirst. Here they found bubbling under hillsides, four bold springs of clear, cold water. This decided them and it so happened that it was very near the center of the State. These springs can still be seen, perhaps not so boldly bubbling as then, because they were surrounded by majestic oaks, hickories, populars, and sweetgums. The springs are Jarrett's, on north Wayne Street; ------------------------ p. 32 Buffington's, east of Georgia Military College; O'Brien's, now belonging to Mr. Cox, the water supplies Cox swimming pool; and a spring, name unknown, under the hill, north of Mr. Hansel Hall's residence. All of these springs in times past did full duty. Jarrett's furnished all water needed for a hotel situated near it on the corner of Wayne and Montgomery Streets, and for a hydropathic Sanitarium just south of the spring; one of the most stupendous humbugs ever perpetrated on Milledgeville; a cotton factory, five stories high, and all the factory families, to say nothing of the thousand of wash-women dependent upon its water supply for their living. Buffing-ton's spring furnished water for a large hotel situated east of G. M. College, besides the many nearby families. O'Brien's furnished hundreds of families before it began to serve as a swimming-pool. The last one is doing only what it has always done—furnishing wash-women and thirsty pedestrians as they pass by. But it was an enchanted spot in the early thirties, almost hidden in the primeval forest, found only by following the gurgling brook to its fountain-head. I think the removal of the capital occurred in 1804 and the town that sprang into existence was named Milledgeville for John Milledge, then Governor of Georgia. I do not know that there was a single house to be seen where the city now is and the land was all hill and dale, so much so that the stage-coach as it passed along, was sometimes completely hid from view. The spot where Kidd's drug store stands was such a deep ravine that when the coach reached there persons standing where the hotel Baldwin now is could not see the top of the driver's hat. But the town must have grown rapidly; in the twenties and thirties of the last century there were eleven hotels, a theatre, and a bank that did an extensive business with all the large cities of the United ------------------------ p. 33 States and London. The bank building still stands and keeps its original name, and is one of the few landmarks of old Milledgeville. It is the Darien Bank on Green Street. The theatre was situated where the Baptist Parsonage stands, fronting towards the river. The hotels were the Jenkins House, on Hancock street, east of the theatre; the LaFayette Hall, where the Catholic church and Home-Andrews warehouse are; the Washington Hall, where the Whitfield Grocery Company's store now stands; the Beecher and Brown Hotel, where Mr. Stetson Sanford's house is, and of which it is a part; the Jarrett House, on the corner of Wayne and Montgomery Streets; the Huson Hotel, where the Merchants and Farmers Bank now is; the McComb Hotel on Greene and Wayne Streets; the Buffington Hotel, east of Georgia Military College; the eleventh was either on South Wayne or South Jefferson. I am inclined to think it was.on the corner south of the College gate, because I was told by an old gentleman that was the house where a banquet was given in honor of LaFayette when he was here in 1825. There were then but two churches in Milledgeville, a Methodist, standing where the cemetery well is now, and a Baptist, where Dr. Hall's residence stands. I do not know what became of the Methodist, but the Baptist, after it had ceased to be used as a church, was a printing office. It was, with the exception of a small cottage where Mr. Otto Conn's house is, the only building on that four-acre square. After being abandoned to time and the winds of heaven, it acquired the reputation of being "haunted," and was religiously avoided by negroes and children after dark. It was blown down in the late forties. Until the late thirties the only brick houses were the State House, the armory, the arsenal, all on the same square. The LaFayette Hotel, Darien Bank, Court House (afterwards burned) the work shops and cell house of the penitentiary. ------------------------ p. 34 The stores, offices for lawyers, doctors, and county officials, the saloons and shops for barbers, tailors, shoe-makers, etc., were all wooden structures and most of them but one story high. These occupied the south side of Hancock street between Wayne and Wilkinson, the east and west side of Wayne, between Greene and Hancock and the north side of Greene between Wayne and Jeiferson. The market house was then where the new Presbyterian church now stands, the old church being farther east. On the same square and just opposite was a saloon with a wooden statue of an Indian in war-paint and feathers, standing at the door. That Indian both terrified and facinated the children who had to pass that way; but it must have been considered a valuable asset by the saloon-keepers, for whatever was destroyed in our numerous disastrous fires, the Indian was always saved to re-appear at some other saloon. The Penitentiary then occupied the whole of the twenty-acre lot since given to the Georgia Normal & Industrial College with the exception of the small part on which the Court house is located and two other small parts where there was a boy's academy and one for girls. The work-shops and cell-house (a long stone building three stories high) were surrounded by a fifteen foot wall. On this were sentry boxes where guards were stationed day and night to keep watch and at night to call out the hours, beginning at the northeast corner "Eight o'clock and all's well!" and passing on until each guard had called it. The calling of the hours all through the night were cheering sounds to the citizens, for it assured them that all was quiet at the penitentiary. Often they had been aroused from sleep by hearing "Fire, Fire!" and the clanging of the markethouse bell, to find the penitentiary ablaze. There were no water works then and all fires were dependent upon a bucket brigade for extinguishment. ------------------------ p. 35 When the penitentiary was burning the prisoners were liable to escape and might murder, steal horses, or do other damage. During the administration of Governor George W. Crawford, some of the prisoners fixed a straw-match to start a conflagration late in the night, when the chances to escape would be many, and when horses might be easily stolen. The building intended to catch fire was a wooden shed near the cell-house, used for furniture making. Shavings and other combustible material were there in plenty, so it was a bright blaze when discovered. The heat soon became intolerable to the inmates of the cells and they screamed with terror and implored to be let out, but the principal keeper, a profane man, called out, "No, D—n you, you set it on fire and now you shall burn with it." Of course he had no idea of allowing any such thing, but intended to scare them nearly to death and perhaps even singe them a little that they might learn a lesson for their future guidance. Their cries were so distressing and the heat so great that a delegation of citizens called on the Govenor and besought him to interfere. He at once ordered out the two military companies, the Metropolitan Grays and the Baldwin Blues to stand guard while the prisoners were released. There was a large well within the walls of the yard, but it was so near the fire it could not be utilized on that occasion. The soldiers formed two lines making a lane from the large gate to the street well. Gen. Nelson, the principal keeper, had an office in the lower story of the cell-building where he kept a nice suit of clothing hanging convenient for getting into without having to go home when occasion required him to be dressed up. One of the prisoners relying upon the excitement prevailing, went into the office, dressed in the General's clothes and, taking his cane, went leisurely walking down the line of soldiers and away to freedom. He was gone for years, had grown a heavy ------------------------ p. 36 suit of hair, a long beard and a mustache, and, believing he could not be recognized he came back on a visit. He was sauntering down the shoeshop where he had formerly worked, glancing casually from one convict to another, when one of them called out, "Hello, Jim." Jim's time was doubled and thirty-nine lashes were laid on his bare shoulders. The Penitentiary was one of the show-places of Milledgeville and scarcely a visitor to the town ever left before going there. On one occasion, when the legislature was in session, a young man from a Georgia city was cutting quite a dash. He was a regular "lady-killer," visited the girls, took them driving, danced with them, and was rarely seen except in some society girl's company. One afternoon he invited three of the gayest of them to go with him to visit the prison. On getting there he wanted to see the cells. The "trusty" conducting the party, took them through the building, and on reaching one with a hammock in it the young man jokingly remarked, "I want this cell," and turning to the turn-key, "Won't you save this for me?" It was not more than two months after this before he was convicted of forgery and sent up for five years. He was accommodated, he got the cell he had picked out. Confined in the "Pen" were men of every calling —lawyers, doctors, peddlers, preachers, rich men, poor men, all sorts and conditions of humanity. Under good management it might have been, not only self-supporting, but a source of large revenue to the state. It was a boon to the farmers, for here they could sell all surplus meat, corn, butter, eggs, and fruit, and here they could get at very low prices, shoes, harness, wagons, all farm implements, furniture, and besides all repairs needed. Labor being free, everything could be sold at half price. The field where the Georgia Normal & Industrial College has its garden was a tanyard, and the odor from the hides and tanbark was not the fra- ------------------------ p. 37 grance of roses, but there were then no near neighbors to suffer from it. The convicts not only manufactured various articles, but under guard, they would go out in the town to do building, painting, plastering, etc. After the railroad was built from Milledgeville to Gordon, it was thought advisable to manufacture freight cars at the penitentiary for the Central road. To get them to the road there must be a track from the Pen to the nearest point. The street between where now stands Dr. Compton's house and the Rectory was a short and direct line to the Central's tracks, so it was decided to make a cut through it, open the western wall and put in a strong double gate. The four acre town lot on the corners of which are the Rectory, Mrs. Joseph's, Mrs. Reid's, and Mr. Mc-Craw's homes, was then without a building and was Judge J. L. Harris's flower and small fruit garden. The Judge's home was then the one now owned by his grandson, W. H. Hall. He gave permission to waste the dirt dug from the railroad cut on that lot, which of course made the land soft and boggy. One day there were fourteen convicts working on and about the new gate when suddenly they made a dash for liberty. They started in a bunch across the field, but they mired and made little progress. The guards had begun to bang! bang! bang! with their guns and one and another fell wounded. General Nelson and several guards were in swift pursuit and as they passed Judge Harris's door one of his little daughters called out, "If you will run through our lot, you can head them." The General followed the child's suggestion and in a short time returned with a convict collared. He said to the child, "If you will come to my office tomorrow I will give you something pretty." They were then making many beautiful things in their shops, some of which were highly polished cocoanut shells, artistically carved and bound with silver, for ------------------------ p. 38 water dippers. The little girl went to the office and he gave her one of these dippers. I think every one of those runaway prisoners were caught, but that did not stop their efforts to escape. They had learned at school, "If at first you don't succeed, Try, Try again." North of the penitentiary on the same square as the old Baptist church, there was a small cottage occupied by the widow and son of Governor Mitchell, who owned and lived in the colonial mansion on Mt. Nebo (now called McComb's Mount) where in 1837 he died. In Gov. Mitchell's day his house rang with music and laughter. Two of my father's sisters were intimate friends of his daughters and often were guests at his house parties. He was elected Governor in 1809 and resigned the governorship in 1817 to accept an appointment from the President to act as agent to the Creek Indians. It was then that he went to Mt. Nebo to live and when he died his widow and son came to town to live. The widow was a picturesque figure. As a child, I remember well the Martha Washington caps she wore, and the full black silk dresses, with the white lawn kerchief crossed on the breast. She took snuff from a silver snuff-box that she carried in a deep pocket tied around her waist, and had to lift her skirt to get to it. She did not dip snuff, she only took a pinch between finger and thumb and sniffed it up first one nostril and then the other. I would sit by and watch the proceeding with fascinated interest and wish I might try it, but dared not ask permission. She must have liked children, for well I remember she always wore a smile and would answer all my childish questions and ask others of me. Her son, Dr. John Mitchell, was a graduate, although for some reasons, not a practitioner of medicine. He was the father of the late Mrs. Darnell, who ------------------------ p. 39 after many years of faithful service as matron died at the State Sanitarium. 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/gms232historyo.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 15.8 Kb