Lincoln County GaArchives News.....Chennault - Matthew Historic Homes 1976 ************************************************ 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: Barron Bradford barronrb@aol.com October 22, 2007, 10:50 am Augusta Chronicle-Herald September 5, 1976 1976 4F Sunday Chronicle-Herald Augusta, Ga., Sunday Morning, September 5, 1976 Legends surround old homes named to national register By Vinnie Williams THOMSON, Ga. – The gold of the Confederacy was lost in Lincoln County, near the confluence of the Broad and Savannah Rivers. “The Chennaults, father and son tortured by the Federal troops so they would reveal where the Confederate soldiers had hidden the treasury, lived In the Chennault house near the Old Petersburg Road, Georgia 44,” says Mrs. Fred Prater. Mrs. Prater’s mother, Mrs. T.W. Cullers, bought the Greek revival house, circa 1850, from the Chennault family in 1943. She gave it to Mrs. Prater in 1961. Mrs. Prater has given it to her son, Paul. Recently the Chennault house, along with three others nearby, was named to the National Register of Historic Sites. The others are the Matthews house, also in Lincoln County; the Anderson and Willis-Sale-Stennett homes, both in Wilkes County. They were all described by the sites historian as “historically and architecturally distinctive.” Washington-Wilkes, of course, is filled with historic sites and bronze markers, but the Chennault and Matthews homes are Lincoln County’s first entries on the National Register. The county, of course, has four bronzes markers: Tory Pond, the Old Petersburg Road, the Lincoln County courthouse and Graves Mountain. Mrs. Prater did the bulk of the research which got the four homes on the register. She was aided by Mrs. Iris Sale, a former clerk of the Lincoln County superior court; and Mrs. Sara Spratlin, a retired schoolteacher. THE LADIES MAKE a fine team and easy company, especially around the big table in Mrs. Spratlin’s dining room, iced tea at their elbows, old books and records scattered around. They complement each other. Mrs. Prater is lively and energetic, Mrs. Sale meticulous, and Mrs. Spratlin filled with imagination: “I go off on tangents,” she admits. All are steeped in Lincoln County lore and legend. The Confederate gold at the old Chennault house, for instance. Mrs. Prater tells the story: “In April, 1865, a train of wagons moved out of Washington, Ga. on the Abbeville Road. That night, having come only about 12 miles, they pulled up before the home of Dionysius Chennault and asked to camp. He let them use a large horse lot nearby. Across the way, in the woods, were the campfires of a group of Tennesseeans who apparently had heard of the wagon train and planned on robbing it. Union soldiers roamed the area, for by this time Georgia was under Yankee domination. “The wagons contained gold and silver coin and bullion belonging to Virginia banks. The treasury had been concealed in Washington for weeks, according to the old story. Its guardians had obtained an order for its safe conduct back to Richmond. “But the wagon was attacked during the night by the Tennessee marauders. They seized the treasury. Much of it was dropped or lost as the robbers fled. Some was recovered, and area families, such as the Houses and the Mosses, became unwitting custodians for portions of it. “Mrs. Mary Lane, who was a House and lived near the Chennaults, recounted in ‘Reminiscences of Wilkes County, Georgia,’ when she was 80 how she and her sister, Mrs. Moss, then young girls, made money belts for a couple of Tennessee soldiers who had part of the treasure. “SHORTLY AFTER THIS stories began circulating concerning the fabulous sums of money concealed on the Chennault plantation. These tales came to the ears of a Gen. Wilde, and a detail of Northern soldiers came to the Chennault plantation for purposes of search. “They strung Mr. Chennault and his son, Fran, then 18, up by the thumbs. They also harassed Mrs. Chennault and the youngest Chennault girl. It was no use. They did not have the treasure. “What happened to it? We, it is my opinion that there were two arms of the treasury train. The one that stopped in the Chennault horse lot – part of this money was recovered by Gen. E.P. Alexander, more was found secreted among the servants, and the raiders got away with a lot of it.” “People still believe that part of the treasure remains hidden near the Chennault plantation,” says Mrs. Spratlin. “People turn up with Geiger counters from time to time and search for it, but all they ever turn up is an occasional mini-ball,” she says. Jefferson Davis fleeing from northern troops, met Mrs. Davis at the Chennault house. She had awaited him there five days. Although the legend of the lost Confederate gold and the presence of Jefferson Davis lends glamour to the house and would qualify it for the National Register alone, the house stands on its own merits. It is a distinctive example of a builder’s art, as are the other three homes, all located within a six-mile radius. “THE NATIONAL REGISTER told us that they would form a historic district except for the intervention of other and less historic houses,” according to Mrs. Sale. One of the unusual features of the houses is that they were all designed and built by a single master builder. “The major architectural significance of the Chennault house resides in its relationship to three other houses, the Willis-Sale-Stennett house in Wilkes County, the Matthews house in Lincoln County, and the Anderson house in Wilkes County, Georgia,” says the National Register report. “As a group, they form a stylistic development which is most probably attributable to the influence of a single master builder in the years just before and after the Civil War.” Documentary evidence indicates that the Willis-Sale-Stennett house was completed in 1857, the Matthews house about 1861. The Chennault house appears to have been begun between 1857 – 1858, and the Anderson house between 1864 – 1870. All are built in the late Greek revival style, but the Anderson house portico is evidence of the increasing influence of the Victorian on Greek revival after the Civil War, according to Mrs. Prater. “THE FIRST THREE houses were apparently build by a John Cunningham who was in his early twenties when he began the Willis-Sale-Stennett house, about 30 when he completed the Chennault house. He learned and refined as he went along. Then in 1861 he vanishes from the tax records. He was earlier recorded as living in the Goshen district of Lincoln County. The Anderson house was either completed by someone who worked with him or was influenced by him,” according to Mrs. Prater. One Danburg tradition states that a black carpenter directed the building of the Anderson house. Ten black carpenters or brick masons appear in the 1870 Wilkes and Lincoln County census records. The six-mile circle occupied by the four houses is on of the oldest and most historic areas in Lincoln County. It is not far from the vanished town of Petersburg, across the Broad and Savannah River crossings, a major trade center. “All settlement in Lincoln County, as elsewhere, followed the river, the major trade route,” says Mrs. Sale. Although Lincoln County now has two certified National Register homes and can claim the legend of the lost Confederate gold as its own, Lincoln County usually is thought of as the home of Elijah Clark Park. Clark, of course, was the Revolutionary War general who broke the Tory hold over upper Georgia when he beat a larger force of British at the Battle of Kettle Creek at War Hill, eight miles west of Washington, in 1779. Elijah Clark Park and museum commemorate this leader who is the subject of a pageant written by Mrs. Spratlin and Mrs. Alice Albea. It was presented twice last year and again this year, commemorating the bicentennial, at the museum. Mrs. Spratlin says that to her Elijah Clark personifies the history of Lincoln County. “It is all wrapped up in his life,” she says. Mrs. Sale protests, “That may be true, Sara, but I’d like to see you and Alice write a pageant about Lincoln County. We have some much more here than just Elijah Clark.” “LINCOLN COUNTY WAS the 24th county created in Georgia. It was cut from Wilkes County in 1796 and named for Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, a Revolutionary War hero who received Lord Cornwallis’ sword at the surrender of Yorktown. Recently the Pine Needle Garden Club presented the county with an oil portrait of Benjamin Lincoln. It hangs in the Lincoln County courthouse. Lincoln County received various nicknames over the years: The Hornets’ Nest, from its habit of sending out swarms of men who “stung” the Tories; and “The Dark Corner of Georgia,” from the alleged uncouth habits of its country boys who could run moonshine or stomp an enemy with equal aplomb. No one has ever denied that Lincoln County has its share of men and women with brains. It seems to export the best. The county points to three leading McDuffie County citizens as “Lincoln born”: District Attorney Kenneth Goolsby of the Toombs Judicial Circuit; William Leverett, president of the First National Bank of Thomason and a former mayor of Thomson for 10 years; and attorney Buddy Dallas. One of the keenest minds in Lincoln County, past or present, was a member of the Lamar family, Peter Lamar, who dammed up Spring Branch in the center of Lincolnton and so got the county seat established there. “The committee picking the county seat was looking for a good flow of water, so he provided it,” says Mrs. Sale. The Lamars gave the land for the Community Church (c. 1823) in Lincolnton, a nearby school which has vanished, and promoted the county far and wide. Their works remain, but the Lamars have vanished. The old Lamar cemetery is in the center of town; a descendent of the family comes from Albany once a year and cleans it. THIS YEAR THE Lincoln County Garden club placed a brick and iron fence around the Community Church land given by the Lamars. Clinton Perryman, an attorney, wrote, “The History of Lincoln County” in 1933. In his later years, after he became judge of the Toombs superior court, he also moved to McDuffie County. His sister, Mrs. Clara Sims, 99, still lives in Lincolnton. His history remains the definitive story of Lincoln County, Mrs. Prater feels. “Still we need someone to update it,” she adds. “After all, we lost one-third of our land to Clark Hill Dam and many landmarks like the Old Guillebeau Inn have vanished.” Mrs. Sale says that there are about 25 new subdivisions from Little River to Broad River and the Savannah. Mrs. Spratlin mentions that the oldest building in Lincolnton is the red, white and blue store on Peachtree Street. It was built in 1894 as a general merchandise store by Mr. Cooksey Groves who had a sign painted on its front: “Everything.” File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/lincoln/newspapers/chennaul2434gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 11.3 Kb