Jasper County GaArchives News.....Bicentennial Bits - Hillsboro, Early Settlement In Jasper County 1970's ************************************************ 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: Suzanne Forte suzanneforte@bellsouth.net July 2, 2004, 10:03 pm Monticello News BICENTENNIAL BITS BY JOHN HARVEY "Hillsboro, Early Settlement In Jasper County" Exactly when Hillsboro was settled is not known though there was a settlement at the site when it was a part of Baldwin County, which could have been as early as 1806. One source says that a Mr. Newby had a cabin in what is now Hillsboro as early as 1803. Descendants of this family now live in Clayton and Fayette Counties. The name Hillsboro seems to date from the early 1820's. The name before that time is not known. Issac Hill, father of Benjamin Harvey Hill, and other members of the Hill family were among the earliest settlers of the area. Other families known to have settled around Hillsboro in the early 1800's were the Kellys, Strattons, Morgans, Turners, Wilsons, Hendersons, Conners and Lovejoys. Sion Barnett, a veteran of the Battle of Cowpens and a printer is said to have been one of the first to publish the famous Machlenburg (Mecklenburg) Declaration of Independence, and is said to have lived near Hillsboro. Zephaniah Harvey, a patriot minuteman of 1776, is buried in Jasper County. He served as Justice of the Peace from the Hillsboro district and many marriage licenses and other legal papers in early records of our county carry his signature. References to early Hillsboro appear in the histories of other communities and of some of the local churches. Examples - an article on the early community of Blountsville says that "The Rev. Mr. Milner served the Presbyterian Churches of Blountsville and Hillsboro". The history of the Monticello Presbyterian Church shows that the first two new members were Mr. and Mrs. Asa Stratton, by transfer of membership from the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church. ON A RECENT visit to Hillsboro, Mrs. Bessie Turner (Mrs. G. B., Sr.) described the Hillsboro she remembered 63 years ago and also told of an earlier Hillsboro she learned of from Mr. Turner's aunt, Miss Ella Wilson. In earlier times Hillsboro was a much larger community that it is today. The business district had many more store and ran from the Anderson House to near the Ben Hill school. On the corner near the Anderson House stood the 1820's tavern and stagecoach stop. Across the road stood the two story Masonic Lodge. Georgia Highway 11, then the stage coach road, passed through Hillsboro much as it does today. Near the Ben Hill school stood the Hillsboro Academy. Macon newspapers in 1830 contained advertisements for that school year. Secretary of the academy was Cuthbert Reese, and it was advertised that the teacher was a native of New York State. Mrs. Turner said that the tavern, Masonic Hall and the academy were gone when she first came to Hillsboro, but most of the stores were still there. The Methodist Church, organized in 1820, has stood in three places, first a brush arbor in a grove of oak trees of Georgia Highway 11 near Mrs. Turner’s home, then near the Ben Hill school, and finally across the road next to the Turner’s store, where it now stands. PART II In the Baptist churchyard stands a large obelisk monument surrounded by a rock and cement wall. This is the Stubbs family lot. They were among the first settlers in the area, and the Stubbs brothers gave the land on which the church stands. The site of the old Stubbs home is now occupied by the home of John McCullough. Some of the older citizens remembered stories and descriptions of when the Stubbs house burned in the 1880’s or 90’s. WHEN THE UNION ARMY came through Hillsboro in 1864, the officers stayed in two houses that are still standing. Both have interesting histories which we hope to learn more about for later articles. At the McKissick house, now known as the Goolsby house, one of the Union soldiers became ill and was left. When he died the people of Hillsboro had him buried in the Baptist churchyard. Another group of officers stayed at the Zahn house. One of them reported that Mr. Zahn was one of the richest men in Jasper County, giving the amount of household goods and how much corn and cotton were stored in Zahn’s barns. Copies of this report are in the Georgia Archives in Atlanta. There is also a mystery in Hillsboro. Not far from the Zahn house is an old well and a long rock wall. Is it a fortification for an early settlers fort? Is it the remains of an old homestead? No one knows. It is called “Jack Knight’s Ridge”. An interesting story told to Mrs. Turner by Miss Ella Wilson was about the battle of Sunshine Church. The battle began in Jasper County and spilled over into Jones County, most of it being fought around Sunshine Church in Jones County. This was the first major battle, after the fall of Atlanta, between Union and Confederate forces. The Confederates hoped to keep the Union Army away from the State Capital at Milledgeville long enough for the governor and other officials to get away. When the battle started, Miss Ella, then only eleven years old, and her sisters could hear the firing of the rifles. She said that it sounded like wild fire running through a can break. Later, she went with her mother, Mrs. Harriet Wilson to Sugar Hill Church and school where the wounded had been taken. Sugar Hill had been turned into a hospital. The soldiers were so close together that you could hardly walk between them, Miss Ella said. She and her mother carried water to the wounded men. Two interesting businesses located in Hillsboro in the early part of this century were a cheese factory operated by Charley Marks and a guano spreader factory operated by the Middlebrooks family. The knocker systern on the spreaders used by Mr. Middlebrooks was copied by a firm in Macon which later got a patent for it. A similar system is still in use on spreaders. Sources: Mrs. G. B. Turner, Sr. Harvey Powell “Georgia Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends”, Lucian Lamar Knight Newspaper Articles Monticello Presbyterian Church History Additional Comments: Transcribed by Suzanne Forte (suzanneforte@bellsouth.net) from copies of articles contained in the Monticello News. There articles were prepared by Mr. John Harvey and published in this newspaper during the 1970's time frame. Permission has been granted by Mr. Harvey for use of these very valuable and informative articles. 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