Quitman County GaArchives History .....Settlement of Quitman County ************************************************ 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: Donna Eldridge DonnaEldrid@aol.com July 15, 2004, 7:27 pm SETTLEMENT OF QUITMAN COUNTY Neither the names of the first pioneers who settled in Quitman County nor the dates and places of their settlement are known. It is certain, however, that few settlers came into the area before 1830. But the decade of the 1830's saw the arrival of many pioneers whose descendants still live in Quitman County. During the 1830's churches and post offices were established as the first institutions of community life. There were two routes by which the first settlers came into this virgin territory. The majority of the first settlers came by way of the Old Fort Gaines Road which ran between Fort Gaines and Fort Perry in what is now Marion County. To Fort Perry the pioneers followed the Federal Road which connected Fort Hawkins on the Ocmulgee River in Georgia and Fort Mitchell on the Chattahoochee River in Alabama. At Fort Perry the settlers left the Federal Road and traveled along the Fort Gaines Road to the area now included in Stewart, Randolph, and Quitman Counties. This road, which crossed the present Highway 82 between Cuthbert and Springvale, was well known in its day, for it was blazed as a war path in 1818 by a detachment of Tennessee troups on their way to Florida where they joined the forces of Andrew Jackson in the Seminole War. A few of the early settlers, however, continued along the Federal Road where they transferred to raft or boat for the last stretch of their journey. These early settlers, whether they came by way of the Chattahoochee or the Fort Gaines Road, could not legally settle in the area before 1827, although there is a possibility that a few settlers came in before that date. After the territory was ceded to the state of Georgia by the Creek Indians in 1825, the legislature proceeded to provide for the distribution of the land and to organize new counties in southwest Georgia. In 1826 and 1827 the state surveyed the land into districts and lots. The legislature on December 11, 1826 organized the county of Lee, which included all of the present counties of Sumter, Webster, Stewart, Terrell, Randolph and Quitman, as well as parts of Macon, Schley, Marion, Chattahoochee, and Clay Counties. The land in this enormous area was given to the citizens of the state by lottery in 1827. All citizens had one draw for lots of 202 1/2 acres. Widows, orphans, Revolutionary and Indian War veterans had two draws. After the fortunate drawees had paid the small registration fee, a deed known as a plat and a grant was issued by the state with an attached copy of the Great Seal of Georgia. One such grant was surveyed by William S. Norman and was granted by the state of Georgia to Temperance Donaldson of Jefferson County. Many of the drawees, such as Temperance Donaldson, did not care to settle on the lands which they drew and proceeded to offer the lots for sale. Thus, the majority of the pioneer settlers were probably not the original drawees but buyers of the original holdings. After the initial distribution of land in Lee County, settlers began to come into the area from eastern and middle Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. By 1828 enough settlers had come into the western portion of Lee County for the legislature to organize Randolph County with Lumpkin as the county seat. When Stewart County was organized in 1830, the county seat of Randolph was transferred to Cuthbert. The census of 1830 gave the names of several settlers living in the eighth district which was to become Quitman County in 1858. Among these settlers were John R. M. Neel, Calvin Teel, and Colson Guilford. The eighth district of Randolph County was sparsely settled in the early 1830's. Only 2,191 people lived in Randolph County and this included those living in the part which became Stewart County. When William C. Hill settled in 1832 on what is now known as the Bob Hill place, only one other house was between his and Lumpkin. But despite this sparsity in population, the God-fearing pioneers began to organize churches very soon after their arrival. The first church organized in Quitman County was the Pataula Baptist Church which was constituted about the year 1830. The church was first located at the place known as the Old Pataula Burying Ground near the Ogletree home on Highway 82. The first settlers, who made up the membership of Pataula and the other pioneer churches, selected the upland areas of what is now Quitman County for their homes. They considered that the upland areas were more healthful than the malarial lowlands along the Chattahoochee in the western part of Randolph County. By 1833, however, a sufficient number of pioneers had settled in the vicinity of Georgetown for a post office to be established. Tobanana was the name first given the Georgetown office which was established January 10, 1833 with James G. Salisburg as postmaster. Three years later the name was changed to Georgetown on September 21, 1836. This settlement of Tobanana or Georgetown on the Georgia side of the Chattahoochee River was promoted by the establishment in 1832 of a river ferry at the present bridge site. In that year eastern Alabama was ceded to the whites by the Indians and the neighborhood surrounding the present day Eufaula was opened up for settlement. The little settlement on the hill across the flats from Eufaula becomes something of a stopping point for refreshment and supply before the settlers crossed the Chattahoochee going to Alabama. The lands in the Chattahoochee flats between the river and Georgetown hill and the present site of Georgetown were originally owned by Kenneth McKenzie who succeeded James G. Salisburg as postmaster. After selling his property to William Oliver, the third postmaster, and Captain James Harrison of Twiggs County, McKenzie moved to Columbus, Georgia, and became a prominent citizen of that city. Captain Harrison acquired property in this section in 1835 and settled near Georgetown in 1837. Other early settlers at Georgetown were Adam Leonard, Martin H. Joyce, and Ebenezer Rice. After Georgetown, the next post office to be established in Quitman County was Pataula. This office was established October 11, 1835 in the vicinity of what is known today as the Cross Roads Community on Highway 82. Ransom Godwin was the first postmaster at Pataula and he was succeeded by William C. Hill. Other pioneer settlers in the community were John Pittman, Jessie Ricks Pittman, John R. M. Neel, George W. Harrison, Levi Mercer, Rev. Peter Eldridge, John H. Hatcher, John Martin, J. S. Nash, and Rev. William Ross. Pataula was a stagecoach stop and an inn was located at this point to accommodate travelers. Until about the year 1843, Patuala Church was at the site of the Old Pataula burying ground, but the church was moved to the Methvin place several miles to the north in the early 1840's. It was not until 1857 when the Enon Baptist Church was moved to this vicinity that there was another church in the old Pataula community. In 1858 the name of Pataula was changed to Linwood while Dr. L. P. Dozier was postmaster. With the building of the Southwestern Railroad (now the Central of Georgia) in 1860 the death knell was sounded for old Pataula and the Linwood post office was discontinued in 1861. The office, however, was re- established some two miles to the southwest in 1866 under the name of Hatcher's Station in honor of John H. Hatcher, one of the old Pataula settlers. Thus the present day Hatcher is a daughter of old Pataula and is the second oldest post office in the county. The third post office established in the area now included in Quitman County was Ufaula which came into existence at the end of the 1830's, the first decade of the settlement. This office, named for the old Indian town of Eufaula, was located in the extreme southwest portion of Randolph County. Dr. Swan F. Burnett was appointed postmaster in 1840 and he served until the office was discontinued in 1842. By the end of the 1830's the area of Quitman County had been settled generally. The center of population, however, was still in the central and northwestern sections. In the northeast the Union Methodist Church was organized in 1838. The first charter member of this congregation of the first Methodist Church to be organized in Quitman County, was Mrs. George Ellis, the grand-mother of Mrs. R. C. Methvin and Dr. T. D. Ellis. The Crumbleys, another pioneer family in this area, gave the land on which the present church house was built in 1867-1868. Many of the first settlers in the Union Community came from North Carolina in 1830, and for this reason the area was often called the North Carolina District. A post office was established in the North Carolina District in 1858 under the name of Hodchodkee with James H. Granberry as postmaster. The Hodchodkee post office was discontinued in 1867, and until the Oak Grove post office was established in 1888 there was no post office in the community. John R. Ellis served as postmaster at Oak Grove until the office was abolished in 1904. To the northwest of the North Carolina District the Bumbleton District was also settled during the 1830's. Originally Bumbleton was the name given to the polling place and court ground for the twenty-first district of Stewart County before Quitman County was organized. According to tradition, the name Bumbleton originated when people assembled at that location for elections and justice court and drank whiskey sweetened with molasses which caused the bumblebees to swarm around. The whiskey was sold by Clem Clemons an early settler, who established a store at this place. Clemons was succeeded by Lee who served as postmaster for the Bladen Creek post office. The Bumbleton community has also been known as the Rocky Mount Methodist Church which was organized about the year 1858. The church was first located at the site of the Major family cemetery, but it was moved to the present site about eighty-five years ago. Although the southeastern section of the county received some settlers in the 1830's, a post office was not established in that neighborhood until 1856. In that year the Hamlet post office was established with Rufus Johnson as postmaster. When the railroad was built through this area in 1860, the name of Hamlet was changed to Morris Station in honor of Robert G. Morris, the postmaster and depot agent at the place and the first representative from Quitman County in the Georgia Legislature. During the 1830's when the first settlers were establishing homes, churches, and post offices in the area now included in Quitman County, the land for the most part was covered with a dense growth of forests. Log houses were built at first, but by the middle of the 1830's saw mills had been set up and frame houses were appearing. Small farms predominated, for agricultural products were almost entirely subsistence crops, oats, wheat, potatoes, and rye, and each settler raised enough poultry, hogs, and cattle to supply his need. By the end of the 1830's, however, cotton had become the main cash crop, and by the end of the 1840's four thousand bales were being shipped from Georgetown annually. Transportation was difficult, but the cotton crop from the 1830's to the building of the railroad in 1860 was mainly shipped down to Appalchicola which was the chief market for southwest Georgia. In 1858 when Quitman County was organized, the area of the new county had been generally settled for approximately thirty years. The Indian menace had been removed, a cash crop had been found in cotton, and the slave system of labor had been established with the result that the size of farm units had become larger. In its birth year of 1858 Quitman County was no longer a frontier community. By Mrs. Emmie Bledsoe Lester for the Quitman County Centennial Edition of the Cuthbert Times in 1958. "The Quitman Echo - Quitman County, Georgia" - Jacquelyn Shepard (pages 4-7) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/quitman/history/other/gms55settleme.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 12.7 Kb