Jackson County GaArchives History .....History of Harmony Grove-Commerce, Chapter 2 1949
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CHAPTER II

EARLY HISTORY AND PIONEER SETTLERS

   (Some one has said that history is the true record of things in general and
inaccurate in some particulars. We accept this definition in recording this
narrative.)

   The name, Harmony Grove, was first given to a community near Pittman's Bridge
on the east side of the Oconee River and on the John B. Jackson place, where
there was a school for girls. According to the record of the Post Office
Department in the National Archives in Washington, D. C., the post office of
Harmony Grove was established here October 24, 1825. Russell Jones was the first
post master. The charter for the Harmony Grove Female Academy was granted by the
State Legislature December 20, 1824 (see chapter on schools) which was ten
months earlier than the establishment of the post office. It is evident that
securing the charter for the school had some bearing on the establishment of
this post office, which was in the vicinity of the W. M. Potts place, earlier
known as the John B. Jackson place. It is well established that the community,
or settlement, that was known as the town of Harmony Grove, now Commerce, was
settled about the year 181o, or possibly a few years earlier.

   Among the first settlers was Hardy Minish, who lived on the small branch
between the present Frozen Food Locker Plant and Willoughby Park. Minish Militia
District was named for him. He was the father of Pierce Minish from whom C. W.
Hood, Sr., bought a large area of land on the west side of Commerce. The younger
brother of Hardy Minish, Uncle Dicky, lived at the head of the branch between J.
T. Quillian's and W. A. Dale's residences. About 1878, W. B. Power and J. M.
Chandler built a tanyard on this branch just below the old Gibb's foundry and it
became known as the tanyard branch. In 1882, W. B. Power and W. T. Thurmond had
a public gin just where the Dale house stands.

   West of the Minish tract was the Bennett place where Tapley Bennett lived. He
was the father of Captain A. T. Bennett and Hosea Bennett. This tract was later
the W. C. Hood land. The old home, or house, stood near T. J. Syfan's residence
where the old chimney of the original house stood for decades. These boys went
to California in the Gold Rush of 1849. Captain A. T. Bennett soon returned and
settled near Apple Valley where he reared a large family. Hosea remained in
Arkansas. The land of Tapley Bennett joined the land of Hardy Minish and Caleb
Wood on the north and Isaiah Borders on the west. The Hardy Minish tract
probably ran along about the Blue Bell Overall Plant in line with the depot near
the present grammar school ground, lying west of this line and joining the
Bennett and Borders line.

   The Isaiah Borders tract probably extended to the Oconee River. The old house
on the hill left of the Jefferson Road is where Isaiah Borders lived and died
and where W. L. Williamson was born. Enoch Borders lived on top of the hill
beyond Borders Creek. He was the father of Mrs. C. T. Nash, Mrs. P. G. Thompson
and Eugene Borders. The father, Isaiah Borders, lived and died in the old
dwelling now standing on the south side of the Commerce-Jefferson highway. He
died about 1852 and was buried in the family graveyard as was, also, his son,
Enoch, just across the road in front of the late W. L. Williamson's home. Among
the children of Isaiah Borders was Mrs. Bowden, who lived in Harmony Grove to a
ripe old age. She first married James W. Shankle, son of Eli Shankle, one of the
pioneer settlers of Harmony Grove. After his death she married James Bowden. She
inherited all the land on the east side known as the Bowden land from James W.
Shankle, her first husband. James Bowden's daughter married a Pomeroy. His son
was Bill Bowden.

   The Bowles place adjoined the Borders tract on the south where H. E. Hardman
lived and where the water works' plant is located. The elder Jesse Bowles had a
mill on the creek at the shoals. The old family is buried on the premises with a
rock inclosure. It is reported that several hundred dollars in silver and gold
were secretly buried on the place.

   South of the Bowles place lies the Hardy place up the branch, later known as
the Virginia Barnett place and later occupied by Henry Shore who married Tempy
Barnett. Amelia Hardy married Jackson Dunson, brother of Linton C. Dunson, who
left the country in the sixties and has not since been heard from. He left one
son, George Dunson. Virginia Barnett was the daughter of Uncle Johnnie Glenn.
Her mother was a Hardy, and her Aunt Temperance Hardy lived with her. Virginia
married Joe Barnett, who died in the War of the Sixties, leaving her with two
children, Johnnie and Tempy. Tempy married Henry Shore.

   G. J. N. Wilson for a number of years was County School Commissioner and
author of Jackson County History. He was born and lived on a part of the Bowles
or Nash place known as the Wilson place and later the George Martin place near
the White Hill School house. During the Civil War, Wilson ran a woodwork shop
here, repairing vehicles and blacksmithing.

   On the east side of the town was the extensive Shankle land and property,
owned by Eli Shankle. This land covered largely the eastern part of the town--a
line from the front of the Blue Bell Overall Plant by the depot, school house,
now grammar school, to the Harmony Grove Cotton Mill, thence running northeast
to the branch adjoining the land of Dr. W. B. J. Hardman, thence north down
branch to the Hargrove land, thence west including lands owned by Dave King,
Levi Matthews, Dilmas Baugh and the Bowden land. Mrs. Bowden's first husband was
James W. Shankle, eldest son of Eli Shankle. Dave King, Levi Matthews, and
Dilmas Baugh married daughters of Levi Shankle, the second son of Eli Shankle.
Eli Shankle, born in 17849 married Rebecca Hargroves who was born in 1786 and
whose father lived near the Hargrove Creek on the Carnesville road. Eli married
about 1808 or 1809. He settled near a spring at the head of Shankle Branch,
known as the Shankle, or Baugh, Spring. He lived here some months under a brush
arbor until his house, hewn out of pine logs, was built. This house was among
the first, if not the first building in town, and was his residence where all
his children were reared. This house became the home of Levi Shankle, Eli's
second son. Levi moved later to the home later known as the Dave King place. The
old home passed into the hands of Virginia Baugh who in 1883 sold it to Mrs. M.
M. Barber of Washington, Georgia. Mrs. Barber moved there the same year and
resided there until her death in 1906.

   Eli Shankle was the father of the following sons and daughters: Levi, the
second son, who inherited the home place; one daughter, who married Linton
Dunson and another, who married Linsey Dunson; Ophelia, who married C. W. Hood,
and died in 1857; James W., the oldest son, who married the daughter of Isaiah
Borders. After James' death his widow married James Bowden who had two children,
one boy, Bill, and one girl, Mrs. Pomeroy. The youngest son was S. M., known as
Seaborn, who built the Shankle home near the present post office and was for
years in the mercantile business.

   Levi Shankle, the second eldest son of Eli, inherited from his father the
home place. Levi's sons were Ras, Sam, and William (Dr. W. M. Shankle) who went
to Texas. Levi's daughters were Virginia, who married William Baugh; another
daughter who married Levi Matthews; another who married Dilmas D. Baugh; and
Sarah, the youngest, married Dave King.

   The W. C. Farrabee land was just south of Harmony Grove and adjoined the
Haggard land on the west and the Butler and Hudson land on the north. His father
was old Dr. Jesse B. Farrabee who came from Newton County, Ga., in the year 1835.

   Just south of the Farrabee land were the places of Major J. P. Hudson and
Pink Butler. Major Hudson was the father of Tom, Andy, and Jule Hudson. His
daughters were Mrs. Tom Gober and Mrs. L. J. Dunson. The Pink Butler place lay
side of Major Hudson on the east. This place was located at the Butlers Railroad
Crossing and along side of Butlers Cut in the railroad. Just south of this place
was the Henry B. Gober, father of Asbury and Jay Gober, place. North of the
Butler place was the R. K. Minish place, afterwards Elijah Whitehead's and W. C.
Glenn's place. John Minish was the father of R. K. and John W. Minish.

   Originally southeast of Harmony Grove, bordering the Shankle land, was the
French Haggard tract which was a government grant. W. B. J. Hardman bought off
this place, or grant, one hundred acres, or more, in 1855. He built a house on
it and it became known as the Dr. W. B. J. Hardman home place and his doctor's
office. J. E. and W. R. Haggard lived on the land adjoining. They were sons of
French Haggard. French Lord who lived on part of this grant was the grand son of
French Haggard.

   North of the Haggard place was the land of Bijah Wilbanks, who was the father
of Mrs. Elijah Wilbanks; after-wards this was known as the Hilliard Ingram
place. The old Buck Nunn place, before the War of the Sixties, adjoined on the
west the Wilbank's land. This later was a part of the Shankle land. Adjoining
the Shankle land was the Hargrove place just across the creek, later bought by
C. W. Hood about 1867, then called the Cratic Gober home place.

   In the northern part of the city was the Caleb Wood property, beginning at a
branch on State Street east of Jessie Wood's home. Caleb Wood's property
extended north of State Street and east of North Broad and Homer Streets,
including most of the property on these streets. This was divided among the sons
of Caleb Wood, namely, M. P. Wood, who lived where is now the George L. Carson
home, owned by Mrs. Gussie Barber, daughter of George L. Carson. J. N. Wood
owned a large part of lots where is now located K. N. Sharp Store, Belk-Gallant
Store, down to the Dale Tin Shop. His residence was where his son, E. S. Wood,
now lives. Part of this land was sold to Dr. V. H. Deadwyler in 1875 who built a
home where the late J. T. Quillian later bought and rebuilt about the latter
part of the 1890's. This property has recently been bought by the Blue Bell
Overall Company and the house torn down. Jesse P. Wood owned the eastern portion
of the Caleb Wood property which is now occupied by his daughter, Jessie Wood.
This adjoined the land owned by James W. Shankle afterward known as the Bowden
tract of land. C. M. Wood owned the upper end of the Caleb Wood land, containing
several acres, running back to Johntown, the Negro section.

   P. C. Pittman, who was generally known as Dick Pittman, lived on Pittman's
Creek, just a few yards on the east side of the creek. He ran a corn mill on the
creek. He owned a considerable tract of land which extended up to what is now
Johntown. This land joined the W. J. Goss place just east of Johntown and the
Levi Shankle tracts owned by Levi Matthews and Dilmas Baugh.


Additional Comments:
From

HISTORY OF HARMONY GROVE - COMMERCE
JACKSON COUNTY, GEORGIA

BY
THOMAS COLQUITT HARDMAN
1810-1949


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