Butts-Columbia-Greene County GaArchives News.....Robert Grier – Almanac Maker February 24, 1899 ************************************************ 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: Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 September 10, 2007, 5:23 pm Jackson Argus February 24, 1899 Jackson, Ga. February 15. – Butts County is one of the smallest in the state, but within her borders have transpired events of great import, and from her sturdy yeomanry have sprung men who have left the imprint of their lives on the pages of the nation’s history. Among the easier events which have transpired within her limits may be mentioned the famous treaty entered into by the government and the Creek Indians at Indian Spring in 1825. McIntosh representing a part of his people, sold all of the rights to their territory, which act later cost him his life. On this occasion Hopoethleyoholo, the hary young chief, made an oration in opposition to the sale or treaty, which for impassioned eloquence, brilliant metaphor and sublime pathos reached the dignity of a masterpiece. Among the notable men perhaps none gained such distinction as Robert Grier, the complier of the almanac bearing his name. This almanac in days gone by was of more importance than it is now, though it is stated that many of the rural justices of “squires” of Georgia still administer oaths to litigants upon it. But in the old days Grier’s almanac was looked upon with a reverence akin to that paid the Bible. I chanced to see one for the year 1826 recently, which is in the possession of Thomas Grier, of this county, and was astonished at the great amount of really important information in it. In it were waybills for the various stage routes in Georgia and the Carolinas, the name of the president John Adams, and his cabinet and their salaries; the supreme court judges of the United States, the roster of the military companies of Georgia, etc. Recently I had a talk with Mrs. M. E. Bryans, of Indian Spring, a grand daughter of Grier’s and from here I learned some interesting facts about this unique and philosopher. He was born in Columbia County, Georgia, in 1780, of Scotch ancestry. His grandparents left Scotland during the reign of Mary and settled in the north of Ireland. From there they emigrated to this country and settled in Pennsylvania. Some time before the revolutionary war they came to Georgia. Robert’s parents were tillers of the soil and he was railed a farmer. When very young he was seized with a strong desire to obtain an education and to this end he applied himself assiduously at night and on rainy days. After reaching his majority he went to Greensboro, where an uncle, Andrew Burnes, was teaching school. Mrs. Bryans informs me that Burnes was an unusually well educated man and that from him her grandfather obtained the original almanac, the first one ever printed in Georgia. Robert showed a great aptitude for mathematics and became very proficient in this science. Indeed, he was once offered the chair of mathematics in Franklin college, but did not accept. After leaving Greensboro he taught school in Wilkes county for a number of years. He married his cousin Elizabeth Grier, of Green county, who, by the way was an aunt of Alexander H. Stevens. Soon after his marriage he moved to Butts county(about 1827) and settled on a large tract of land six miles north of Jackson. There on the old homestead, within sound of the turbulent headwaters of the Ocmulgee, he with his wife and children is buried. Upon a modest slab over his grave is this simple legend…In Memory of ROBERT GRIER, who died May 4th, 1848. Aged 68 years. The old home is still standing and is in a tolerable good state of preservation. None of the outbuilding or Negro quarters remain. At this home Alexander Stevens was a frequent visitor and with a pardonable pride his grand- daughter relates that upon one of these visit she declared that “Uncle Bob has one of the brainiest heads in the nation.” Mrs. Bryans recollection of his personal appearances and mental peculiarities are quite interesting. He is described as being of medium height, not corpulent, but powerfully built. His head was so unusually large that he was forced to have all of his hats made to order by a hatter of Augusta. He was eccentric given to mental abstractions and a prodigious reader. He owned a good library, astronomical textbooks, charts and atlases, etc. Colonel Baruet of this county is in possession of some fifty of these volumes and they are very highly prized by him. Grier was a Presbyterian in religious belief and was well versed in biblical lore. He was an ardent politician and a fine mixer of grog. From a “Phrenological Description of R. Grier, Esq., by E. Mason,” a copy of which is in my possession we quote the following: “Causality is a beautifully developed. He loves to know the why and wherefore of every cause. This faculty disposes him to reflect a great deal on the nature of things and to become so lost in thought often times as to forget all that is going on around him. He is a man of strong intellectual power and one who can give a reason for what he says. Comparison is full and he sees relations between similar objects quick and discovers analogies between objects when others see none. Locally is prominent. He remembers now with distinctness every spot he has been in during his life. He remembers dates and chronological epocha better than most men. The organ of numbers is admirably developed. He takes great pleasure in performing aostruse and difficult operation in mathematics. He doubts the existence of a Trinity because it cannot be proven. Language is not very prominent. Benevolence is full. Reverence is rather full and when his imagination, which is very fertile, ranges through the firmament and attempts to grasp the magnitude of the solar system, circuits of the planets and their revolutions, he is filled with the deepest and most sublime emotions. After ascribing to him nearly all of the virtues, as indicated by bumps on his cranium, the phrenologizer closes with the following: “On the whole he is a man of strong, mind and the mantle of genius has fallen upon him. Like all distinguished men, he is suigeneris. Music is full and he is delighted with its melting melodies. Robert Grier is well remembered by many of the older people of this county and all agree that he was a talented man, but very odd. His love for children was proverbial and he himself was as simple and unaffected in manner as a child. Aside from Mrs. Bryans and her sister, who is a resident of Louisiana, and their children, there are no living descendents. His son, Sidney, lived several years after his father’s death, but was never married. He, it is said, very much resembled his cousin, “the old commoner.” His grave is next to that of his father and upon the slab marking is this inscription…. “In memory of Sidney Algernon Grier, born July 10, 1812, died January 13, 1864. he was the son of Robert Grier, the maker of the Griers Almanac. This is a case of reflected glory applied. Robert Grier was a well-to-do planter and was the owner of a large number of slaves and it is said of him that he was kind and indulgent master. A large boulder near his old home is still pointed out as being the place where he went to lie at night and view the stars, and many are the stories told of his wonderful knowledge of astronomy and how he would with startling accuracy predict storms and other phenomena of the elements. All honor to this rare old man, who made the world wiser, if not better, by having lived in it. NOTE: There is a photo of his house, open fire place in the house and the family burial grounds shown with the article. Jackson Argus – Butts County Week of February 24, 1899 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/butts/newspapers/robertgr2352gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 8.6 Kb