THE FOUNDING OF LAURENS COUNTY

　

Laurens County was created on December 10, 1807 by an act of the Georgia Legislature. The enacting law, in taking the middle portion of Wilkinson County, defined its boundaries as " all that part of Wilkinson County lying between the Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers, beginning at the mouth of Big Sandy Creek on the Oconee River running thence sixty degrees west to the Ocmulgee River, thence down the course of the same to the upper corner of the Fourteenth Land District on said river, thence along the upper line of the Fourteenth District to the Oconee River, thence up the same to the point of beginning. The original Laurens County, stretching from the old frontier line of Georgia to the new frontier line on the Ocmulgee, was bounded on the south by the new county of Telfair - created on the same day as Laurens County was formed - and included all of present day Wheeler, Dodge, and Bleckley Counties and a portion of Pulaski County. Georgia honored Col. John Laurens of South Carolina by naming its newest county, Laurens County, in his honor.

The first order of business for the new county was to form a county government. Under the laws prevailing at the time, counties were governed by five justices of the Inferior Court, who were elected by the male citizenry. There was no tri parte form of government as we know today. The Justices of the Court acted as a legislative, executive, and judicial body, sharing jurisdiction of civil and criminal cases with the Superior Court and retaining sole jurisdiction of decedent's estates, guardianships, and marriages, now handled by the Probate Court. The court was given the authority by the Georgia legislature in 1810 to oversee the drawing of petit or trial juries and grand juries for matters pending in the Superior Court, this being due to the fact that the judge of the Superior Court was usually unavailable for the process. The first justices chosen to sit on the Inferior Court of Laurens County were: Thomas Davis, Thomas Gilbert, Edmund Hogan, William O'Neal, and Peter Thomas. William O'Neal had served in that capacity in Wilkinson County from the inception of that county.

Peter Thomas, owing to the fact that as he was a member of the court and that as there had been no county government formed until that time with the authority to build a courthouse, graciously offered the court the use of an outbuilding near his home for holding its sessions until a courthouse could be built. It is reasonable to assume that Thomas had moved to that location prior to the formation of the county. While it is impossible to determine the exact location of Thomas's home, deed records seem to indicate that it may have been near the east side of Turkey Creek in Land Lot 21 of the 2nd Land District, just above the Lower Uchee Trail. The area, although not centrally located geographically, was located near the intersection of the Uchee Trail and an Indian trail leading from Indian Springs through Macon toward Savannah and in the most populated area of the county in the first and second land districts, which had been granted to citizens two and one half years earlier.

The intersection is still known today as Thomas's Crossroads. Major Peter Thomas came to Laurens County in 1808 from Montgomery County where he had been a State Representative and Tax Receiver in 1806. Peter Thomas assembled a large plantation in the area. Maj. Thomas bought Land Lot 21 from Frederick G. Thomas of Hancock County in 1806 and Land Lot 28 from Clement Lanier for $500.00 on October 15, 1808. The sale price of the second land lot, located south of the crossroads seems to indicate improvements to the land, which may have been a small house. On August 10, 1809, Maj. Thomas paid $800.00 for the fractional Land Lot 6, which he bought in partnership with Abner Davis. Again the high price suggests some type of improvements, possibly a grist mill. It appeared that Maj. Thomas had disposed of his land by 1809 and moved away from the area. Then again, he is shown as living in Laurens County as late as February 17, 1819.

The first session of the Inferior Court was held on the fourth day of January, in 1808. The first order of the business, presumably after an opening prayer and preliminary remarks, was an adjournment until ten o'clock the next morning. The first matter heard by the justices was a petition by Andrew Hampton and David McDaniel, who held temporary letters of administration of the estate of William Darsey, who may have died while living in what was then Wilkinson County.

On the 2nd of February, the justices took up the division of Laurens County into districts. Laurens, like all other Georgia counties, were divided into militia districts. The use of militia districts dates back to the earliest decades of Georgia's existence as a colony. Each militia district was numbered beginning in 1804 and was known for many years primarily by the name of the district's captain - a practice which is exceedingly confusing to researchers since the captain was elected on an annual basis by the members of the district company. Every man in the district between the ages of sixteen and fifty were automatically enlisted in the militia. Each district's militia company was the lowest part of a chain of command under the overall command of the Governor of Georgia. In addition to their use for military defense, districts were also used for determining jurisdiction of the Justice of the Peace Courts, boundaries of election districts, values of property subject to taxation, identifying locations of lands in head right counties, and any other purpose provided by law.

The Justice of the Peace or Magistrate Courts were the third level of courts in Georgia. The Justice of the Peace had the power to try minor criminal offenses and civil cases, along with the power to marry individuals. The first Justices of the Peace, appointed by the Justices of the Inferior Court during the their February session, were James Bracewell and Alexander Blackshear in the first district, John Fullwood and Andrew Hampton in the second district, Elisha Farnall and Joseph Denson, Sr. in the third district, Needham Stevens and Samuel Jones in the fourth district, and William Hall and Robert Duett in the fifth district. Each militia district had two constables, whose main duty was to aid the sheriff in keeping the peace in the district and during court sessions as well. The first Laurens County constables were John McBane and John Pollock in the first district, Gideon Mayo and John Williams in the second district, James Moore and Joseph Denson in the third district, John Jion and Henry Duett in the fourth district, and John Grinstead and William Morris in the fifth district. James Yarborough, selected by a majority of the justices, was named Clerk of the Court of Ordinary.

The cutting of new roads and the widening and improvement of old Indian trails were a top priority for the justices. On February 2, 1808 the justices ordered that a road, the first of three converging at the home of a Peter Thomas and the first seat of the county government, be established from Blackshear's Ferry on the Oconee River to Fishing Bluff on the Ocmulgee River. This road followed the Uchee Trail for the most part, crossing Turkey Creek at the home of Peter Thomas, Rocky Creek at the Indian camp above where the path crosses, Little Ocmulgee River at the path, and ending at Fishing Bluff near the future site of Hartford on the Ocmulgee River. Peter Thomas, Samuel Sparks, Charles Higdon, and William Morris were appointed overseers of the road while Amos Love, Edmond Hogan, and Thomas Davis were appointed as commissioners of the road. The second road ran from Jeremiah Loftin's home to the home of Maj. Peter Thomas. During that first session of the court, the third road opened ran from Green's Ferry on the Oconee River to the home of Peter Thomas. This road ran from the ferry located in Land Lot 292 of the 2nd District in a westerly direction, possibly along Evergreen Road and turning southwest toward the home of Major Thomas.

More roads were ordered to be opened during the second session of the court in August of 1808. A short road from Beatty's Ferry to Trammel's Ferry was cut along the western banks of the Oconee. A major road running from the Oconee River at the future site of Dublin and opposite the community of Sandbar, to the Uchee Trail was cut under the supervision of George Gaines, Benjamin Darsey, and Charles Higdon. This road ran from Gaines's Ferry along or near East Jackson Street through present downtown Dublin and thence along Bellevue Avenue to the point where it turns into Bellevue Road. From that point the road, continuing in a southwesterly direction, ran to the beginning of Moore's Station Road. From that point the road ran across Turkey Creek through the lower edge of Palmetto Lakes Subdivision and striking Little Rocky Creek and then Rocky Creek just below the Kewanee community. From that point the road ran in a southwesterly direction along a road which is now called the Chicken Road through the current day communities of Rowland and Empire where, upon reaching the latter, it followed Highway 257 to the Uchee Trail crossing at the Ocmulgee. This road, known as the Chicken Road, is said to have followed an Indian trail.

An examination of the surveys of area along the road from 1805 to 1807 failed to reveal the presence of any road or trail. During the August 1809 session of the Inferior Court, Jesse Green, Jesse Stephens, Terrel Higdon, Elijah Thompson, and John Underwood were appointed commissioners of a road running the length of the county "from the upper line down the river or the nearest and best way" crossing Turkey Creek at Whitehead's Mill. Thomas Fulghum and Reuben Harrelson were appointed commissioners of the road from Flat Creek to the lower county line. This road appears to have followed the Old Toombsoro Road through present day Dublin and down the Glenwood Road crossing Turkey Creek at what is today still called "Robinson's Bridges." The road may have turned more to the east or continued down the Glenwood Road to the lower county line.

The sale of spiritous liquor, regulated by the Inferior Court, was authorized during the August, 1809 session. Peter Thomas was granted a license to sell liquor at his store on the Uchee Trail near Turkey Creek, while Jonathan Sawyer, who would found the town of Dublin twenty two months later, was granted permission to sell spiritous liquor at the Sandbar. The court then authorized the clerk to approve any liquor license applications, without further order of the court.

Laurens County's white male voters selected Peter Thomas to represent the county in the Georgia House of Representatives in the first state election held in 1808. Thomas was re-elected the following year. Edmund Hogan, another of the first five justices of the Inferior Court, was elected as the county's first state senator. Jethro B. Spivey replaced Hogan in 1809, coinciding with Hogan's move to Pulaski County. Charles Stringer and Elisha Farnell succeeded Peter Thomas in the House in 1810 and 1811, while Henry Sheppard followed Spivey in the Senate.

Laurens County was assigned to the Ocmulgee Superior Court Circuit of Georgia, both created the same day. The first court session was held in an outbuilding near the home of Peter Thomas, presumably the same building in which sessions of the Inferior Court were held. Presiding over the session was Judge Peter Early of Greene County. John Clarke, the circuit's Solicitor General, known today as the District Attorney, tried the first case in the Superior Court. At the first session no case were tried, only six true bills of indictment were found. Charles Higdon, a member of that first grand jury, was himself indicted for bigamy by that same grand jury. Other members of the jury were Benjamin Adams, Benjamin Brown, William Boykin, Robert Daniel, Joseph Denson, Benjamin Dorsey (Darsey), Simon Fowler, Henry Fulgham, John Gilbert, Thomas Gilbert, Leonard Green, Edward Hagan, Andrew Hampton, Mark Mayo, Gideon Mayo, George Martin, William McCall, Charles Stringer, John Speight, James Sartin, Jesse Stephens, Samuel Stanley, Samuel Sparks, George Tarvin, Joseph Vickers, Jesse Wiggins, Nathan Weaver, David Watson, Joseph Yarborough, and William Yarborough. Unfortunately only one of the major court record books of Laurens County is missing, that one being Minute Book A, the first one kept by Amos Love, Clerk of the Superior Court. There is some evidence to indicate that the book was used in the compilation of "History of Laurens County, Georgia, 1807-1841." However, diligent searches of the vaults of the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Laurens County have revealed no evidence of its presence.

Court sessions seemed to bring out the fighting spirit in several Laurens Countians. One of the first indictments was made against Amos Forehand, who in the presence of Alexander Blackshear, a member of the grand jury, wished "that Hell might be his Heaven, if he did not kill the Judge at the flash of a gun if the prisoner then in jail was a brother or relative of his. While this statement was by a legal technicality an assault, the judge, Peter Early, wasn't too pleased. Following the Forehand indictment, the grand jury indicted Samuel Riggins for insulting Clerk Amos Love by kicking him as he was leaving the home of Maj. Thomas. The third indictment handed down by the the October, 1808 grand jury was made against Michael Horne and the same Samuel Riggins for fighting in the courthouse yard, while the court was in session. Four years later William Monroe made the mistake of cursing the grand jury while standing in the door of the jury room and failing to leave when ordered to do so. Christopher Edwards mocked the baliff and cursed in the presence of the jury. James Drake made the same mistake as William Monroe and found himself indicted. Drury Roberts and Benjamin Faircloth were indicted for fighting in the courthouse yard during a session of the Ordinary Court.

The Georgia Legislature of Georgia enacted a law on December 1, 1809, fixing the site of the public buildings of Laurens County in the town of Sumpterville on a lot of land to be purchased by the justices of the Inferior Court. The justices were empowered to be the commissioners of the courthouse and jail with all the powers necessary to maintain them.

The legislature directed the justices to set aside at least four acres of land for the seat of public buildings and other county purposes and gave them the right to sell any of the county's land adjoining the public lands. During the February session of the Inferior Court, the justices appointed Amos Love, Alexander Blackshear, Andrew Hampton, John Fullwood, Jethro B. Spivey, Simon Smith, Elisha Farnall, William Yarborough, Leonard Stringer and Stephen Vickers to assist the justices in the location of the county courthouse. The lands were evidently laid out or at least some plans were made to lay out the town. For some unknown reason the Georgia Legislature passed laws in 1812, and again in 1813, authorizing the Justices of the Inferior Court to reimburse purchasers of lots in Sumpterville. The act of 1812 mentions that lots were purchased and that the town of Sumpterville was square in shape.

Contrary to what is found in Laurens County History, 1807-1941, the town of Sumpterville was not located where the home of Peter Thomas was situated, or was it? The town of Sumpterville, according to tradition, was located on the site of the John Fullwood Place in Land Lot 39 of the First Land District, just west of the old Josiah Stringer Place. Fullwood purchased the 202.5 acre land lot on November 24, 1808. The one thousand dollar purchase price indicates that some type of building, or buildings, was located on the land. During the August session of the court in 1811, the justices ordered that Fullwood be paid the sum of thirty six dollars for building the courthouse at Sumpterville. Since there is no evidence of any purchase of any land by the Justices of the Inferior Court either in the deed records or in the minutes of the court, it is virtually impossible to determine exactly where the town of Sumpterville was located. One might determine that Sumpterville was indeed located near the home of Major Peter Thomas at the intersection of Turkey Creek and the Uchee Trail - also at the point where the first three Laurens County roads converged. The Uchee Trail was the best and most traveled road in Laurens County. Thomas's home was located in the 2nd Land District, the most heavily populated in the county. On August 6, 1811 the justices of the Inferior Court ordered that a road be cut from the intersection of the Sumpterville Road and the Gallimore Trail to run in an easterly direction. A year later the court ordered all lands above the Uchee Trail between Turkey Creek and the ridge which divides the tributaries of Turkey and Rocky Creeks to work on the road. This Sumpterville Road may have been the current day Wayne Road or a road which takes a similar path to the Old Macon Road, running parallel to the western bank of Turkey Creek.

The first census of Laurens County was taken in 1810 by Hugh Thomas, who was appointed by the Justices of the Inferior Court. While no names were enumerated, the total population of the county was 2,210. Laurens was third in population among the newest counties in Georgia, behind Baldwin County, the seat of the state government, and Twiggs County, which was rapidly becoming an economic and judicial center in Central Georgia.

With the loss of lands to Pulaski County a year earlier, county residents clamored for more land on the east side of the river. When it became apparent that the legislature would cut off a portion of Montgomery and Washington Counties east of the Oconee and place it in Laurens, local officials began to look for a new county seat. On December 13, 1810, the Legislature appointed John G. Underwood, Jethro Spivey, Benjamin Adams, John Thomas, and William H. Mathers as commissioners to purchase or acquire by donation any quantity of land, not to exceed one full land lot of two hundred two and one-half acres, at or within two miles of the place known by the name of Sandbar on the Oconee River as a site for the public buildings of Laurens County. The commissioners were directed to lay out the town into lots and sell the lots at a public sale, following an advertisement in "The Georgia Journal" and one Augusta newspaper. The commissioners were authorized to use the proceeds of the lot sales to erect a courthouse and jail, with any excess being used for county purposes. As a consequence of the removal of the county seat from Sumpterville, the justices were directed to issue refunds to any purchasers of lots at the old county seat, to cancel any contracts to purchase the same, and to sell all remaining lands at Sumpterville "as they think most expedient," with any proceeds being applied to the building of a new courthouse and jail. It is difficult to determine exactly when the decision was reached. It was most likely the commissioners who made their decision in short order.

The commissioners chose a site in Land Lot 232 of the First Land District about one half mile west of the Oconee River at a point directly opposite the Sandbar, the site of George Gaines's ferry and the traditional crossing of an old road leading from Macon to Savannah. Jonathan Sawyer, a former resident of the capital city of Louisville in Jefferson County, was appointed as Postmaster of Dublin on or before July 1, 1811. The origin of the name of the new town had nothing to do with the ethnic origin of Sawyer, who is sometimes incorrectly referred to as Peter Sawyer. Sawyer's wife, Elizabeth McCormick, died circa 1809 while bearing a child. Sawyer, being the postmaster, made an application to the Post Office Department in Washington for the name of his choosing. He chose the name Dublin, in honor of Dublin, Ireland, the hometown of his wife. Mrs. Sawyer's sister, Ann St. Clair McCormick Troup, was the first wife of George M. Troup, the up and coming Congressman from Coastal Georgia. Mrs. Troup, like her sister, Mrs. Sawyer, met an untimely death early in her young life.

　

Before there was a post office and before the town was officially incorporated, Jethro B. Spivey, John G. Underwood, Benjamin Adams, and W.H. Mathers conducted the first sale of town lots on May 23, 1811. Purchasers were expected to pay for the lots in four equal installments with the first payment coming due on January 1, 1812. On December 13, 1811, the legislature appointed Jonathan Sawyer, Jethro B. Spivey, John G. Underwood, Benjamin Adams, and Henry Shepherd to act as commissioners of the courthouse and other public buildings granting unto them the power "to lay out and sell such a number of lots as may be sufficient to defray the expenses of such public buildings as they may think necessary."

The choice of a county seat on the eastern edge of the county was predicated on the accession of new lands on the east side of the Oconee River. Three days before the town of Dublin was authorized as the county seat, the legislature approved an act to incorporate a part of Washington and Montgomery counties into Laurens County. The new lands, which had been already been inhabited for more than twenty five years, was described as beginning on the east side of the Oconee River, opposite the Laurens County line, and thence in a direct line to the mouth of Forts Creek; thence up the meanders of the same to the limestone rocks; thence in a direct line to Wood's Bridge on the Big Ohoopee River; thence down the Ohoopee River to Pugh's Trail at the Mt. Pleasant Ford; thence in a direct line to the head of Mercer's (sic Messer's) Creek; thence down said creek to the Oconee River.

With the accession of the land on the east side of the Oconee River in 1811, three new districts were added to Laurens County. They were the 52nd, today known as Smith's District, the 86th, today known as the Buckeye District, and the 87th, which is no longer in existence. The 52nd District included all that portion of the county which was formerly Montgomery County and which was south and east of the Uchee Trail leading northeast from Carr's Bluff and today includes all of Smith's, Carter's, Oconee, Jackson, and Rockledge Districts. The 86th G.M. District included all of the land above the Uchee Trail in what was Washington County until 1811. The 87th District, probably abolished with the cession of the lands along the western banks of the Ohoopee River in 1857 to Johnson County, may have included portions of both the 52nd and 86th districts in northeastern Laurens County.

The practice of naming militia districts ended in the 19th century when permanent names were given to each of the districts. From that point on the 52nd District was known as "Smith's" District, named in honor of the Smith family in general or Hardy Smith, Jr. in particular. The 86th was named the "Buckeye" District for the main community in the district, which was located on the new Buckeye Road, which was formerly the old Buckeye Road, about a mile north of its intersection with the Ben Hall Lake Road. The 341st District became known as the "Burgamy" District, in honor of John Burgamy, who may have been a captain of the district. The 342nd became known as the "Dublin" District for the county seat which lay within its bounds. The 343rd district was dubbed "Pinetucky," probably in recognition of the thousands of pine trees covering this district, the largest district of original Laurens County. The 344th was known as the Hampton Mills District in honor of Andrew Hampton, a prominent resident of the district. The 345th District was named in honor of David Harvard, a prominent resident of the district. The 391st Bailey District was named for Henry Bailey, a large landowner who lived on the Old Toomsboro Road.

CHILLY MCINTOSH

A Most Unusual School Student

When the son of William McIntosh attended school in Dublin, he didn’t have to study about Indians, he was one.  In the days before Thanksgiving nearly every elementary school student learns about the Pilgrims and the Indians.  Most historians, usually the ones raised in the north, conveniently forget about the first settlers in Jamestown, Virginia and the Indians who feasted together when the first Puritans were not even dreaming of coming to America.  This is a story of a true Indian who attended local schools while his father was visiting his cousin, George M. Troup of Laurens County.  His life spanned the greater part of the 19th  century and involved him in many of the historic events of early history of our nation. 

Chilly McIntosh was born more than two centuries ago about fifty miles west of Whitesburg, Georgia.  His parents, William McIntosh and Eliza Grierson, were children of Scottish men and Creek Indian women.  William McIntosh rose to the rank of chief of the Lower Creek Confederacy.  Chief McIntosh served first as a major and later as a brigadier general in the United States Army during the War of 1812 and the Seminole Indian War of 1818.

Chilly was educated in the ways of the white man and the Creek.  While maintaining the importance of his Indian heritage, Chief McIntosh encouraged his children to learn the ways of the white man.  Chilly would often tag along with the Chief as he came to Dublin to visit George M. Troup, who was a son of his father’s sister.    One of Chilly’s playmates was a son of Jonathan Sawyer, the founder of Dublin.  

While he wanted to go with his father to serve in the War of 1812, Chilly was asked by the chief to remain at home to look after the family.  During the war, Chilly was sent to some of the finest schools in the state, including the academy at the capital in Louisville.  Like his father, Chilly dressed in typical frontier clothing.  His skin was lighter than his parents and could easily pass as a darker skinned white man.  Just when he thought he would be able to join his father’s forces in the war against the Seminoles in 1818, the Chief was mustered out of military service.

Chilly McIntosh built a home at Broken Arrow.  He worked with his father in establishing a trading post at Fort Mitchell.  Soon a dispute arose between Indian Agent John Crowell and the McIntoshes.  Crowell seized goods from the McIntosh store.  In retaliation, Chilly organized a band of warriors and forcibly reclaimed what he claimed was rightfully his.    The younger McIntosh followed in his father’s footsteps by serving at the highest levels of the Creek Nation. 

In 1825, Chief McIntosh and other Lower Creek leaders signed a treaty at Indian Springs ceding all of the remaining Indian lands in Georgia.  As Clerk of the Creeks, Chilly joined his father in signing  a treaty with the State of Georgia, headed by Gov. George M. Troup.  Their signatures on the controversial document led to the father and son being marked for instant death by factions of the northern Creeks. The Upper Creeks were not a party to the agreement.  The chiefs of the Upper Creek towns were absolutely livid.  They issued a death warrant for Chief McIntosh, his son Chilly, and all others who signed the treaty.

An assassination squad was dispatched to the McIntosh home near Alcorn Bluff on the Chattahoochee.  On May 30, 1825, the party hid out in the woods waiting to pounce on McIntosh.  They passed on one chance to kill the chief on the road leading to his home.  The marauders set fire to the McIntosh home.  Chilly was awakened by two of the attackers.  He managed to escape. McIntosh, in a final act of desperation, fought off the killers, but only for a few minutes.  The smoke was overwhelming.  The assassins moved in.  They shot the Chief fifty times, dragged him out into the yard, and took his scalp in front of his terrified family.

The Creek nation pardoned Chilly and the surviving members of his family after the massacre.  Chilly, then Chief of the Coweta, was commissioned a major in the United States Army.  During the visit of the Marquis de la Fayette to Georgia in 1825, the French officer who aided the  Continental Army was welcomed to Georgia by none other than Major McIntosh and a detachment of fifty Indian warriors, whose bodies were stripped and finely painted.  The major’s men escorted the  French hero across the Chattahoochee River to the loud yells as he met Georgia’s official delegation.

In 1828, Chilly rounded up the surviving members and loyal supporters of the Chief and headed for Three Forks, near present day Muscogee, Oklahoma.  Chilly, like his father, became the leader of the Creek Nation, then in exile in Oklahoma.  He is credited with being the first School Superintendent of the Territory of Oklahoma.  Chilly came under the influence of missionary Baptist ministers and joined the ministry himself, devoting much of his time to rid the Indian nation of illegal liquor.

During the 1850s, tensions between the northern and southern states turned from simmering to boiling.  The same was true among the former southeastern Indian tribes, the Cherokee and the Creek.  The wounds resulting from the treaty of cession in 1825 still kept the two tribes on different ends of the political spectrum.  As slaveowners, Chilly and his younger brother Daniel Newman Mcintosh, who was named in honor of a fellow officer of their father, sided with Stand Waite, a Cherokee sympathetic to the South.  

On the very day that Union and Confederate forces first clashed in Manassas, Virginia, the Creeks loyal to the Confederacy organized under the command of the McIntoshes, Molty Kennard and Echo Harjo.  Daniel McIntosh was given command of 900 Creek cavalrymen as the 1st Creek Cavalry.  Lt. Colonel Chilly McIntosh, leading 400 Creeks, commanded the 1st Creek Cavalry Battalion.  

When the Confederate armies won early victories, the Cherokee were forced to reevaluate their neutral position.  On Christmas Day 1861, Chilly McIntosh and his men were trapped in an ambush at Chustenanlah near the Big Bend of the Arkansas River.   With the aid of a regiment from Texas, the Confederate Creeks broke through the enemy line and escaped.  The Cherokee, led by John Ross, joined the South in the fall of 1861.  Tensions erupted the following winter between the two rival Creek factions.  Following a reorganization of Creek Confederate troops, McIntosh was promoted to Colonel and placed in command of the 2nd Regiment, Creek Mounted Volunteers.  He combined his regiment with Brig. Gen. Stand Waite.  During the war, McIntosh took part in the battles of Round Mountain, Pea Ridge, Fort Wayne and Honey Springs.    

Ten years after the end of the war, Chilly McIntosh died on October 5, 1875 in his home near Fame in the Oklahoma County, which bears his family name.  And though the life of Dublin’s most unusual school student ended far from where it began, the traditions of a family who shared a deep heritage between the white man and the Indian still live on.

 

CHAPPELL'S MILL

Ye Ancient Landmark

There is no more ancient local landmark, at least of the man-made variety, than Chappell's Mill situated at the northern extremity of Laurens County.   This grist mill, once a part of a widespread network of dozens of such mills, is the last of a once thriving commercial operations which served to convert the farmer's grains into the daily bread of life.

No one can tell exactly when the mill first was constructed.  The old story goes that it was a Mr. Gilbert that built the first mill on a branch of Big Sandy Creek, known as South Sandy Creek, about the year 1811.    It is likely that the builder of the original mill was either John or Thomas Gilbert, who owned land in the area in the early years of Laurens County. 

  

Though the exact date is not known, James Stanley II purchased the mill and more than two thousand acres surrounding it.      The hilly regions of northern Laurens County provided an ideal location for a mill.  Grist mills were often the commercial centers of the rural areas of the county.  They were similar to today's convenience stores and often sold other products in addition to ground corn and wheat.  Stanley formed a mercantile concern named for two of his sons, H.B.  and Ira Stanley, to capitalize on the rich resources of the area.

James Stanley died in 1841 and ownership of the mill passed to his sons.    Ira Stanley  was a man of high education. He married Janet McCall, daughter of Thomas McCall and Elizabeth Smith.  Though he owned in excess  of sixty slaves, Stanley refused to sell his excess slaves and kept families intact on his large plantations.   A starch opponent of the liquor trade, Stanley served as sheriff of Laurens County (1825-26) and state representative (1834-35.)    Stanley was a close friend of Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America.    Family members relate the story of the time when Stephens stopped in for a visit with Stanley, who informed him that he was contemplating building a new home.  Stephens requested a pen and drew a sketch of his home, which Stanley duplicated as nearly as possible. 

During the War Between the States, the mill became a purported target of Sherman's  cavalry soldiers as they patrolled the flanks of the right wing of the Union army as it approached the Oconee River at Ball's Ferry.  Major James B. Duggan, a Confederate officer at home on leave, learned of the plot.   With no comrades available, Duggan dashed off to the nearby bridge over Big Sandy Creek, known as the "Lightwood Knot Bridge."    The legendary story tells that Duggan enlisted the aid of an elderly slave woman to deceive a Union cavalry patrol into believing that they were a squad of Confederate  general Joseph's Wheeler's cavalry coming up to block their crossing.  It has been told for decades that Duggan and the woman set the bridge afire and caused the Yankees to scurry off in mortal fear.

After the war, the local economy was in a shambles.  Nearly all of the men in the family had been actively involved in the war.  Rollin and Benjamin Stanley were officers, as well as James Chappell and Peyton Douglas.   The continued operation of the mill was important, perhaps more important than ever before.  The sons and sons in law of Ira Stanley entered into an agreement in September of 1868 to settle Stanley's estate.  James W. Chappell (husband 0f Harriett Stanley) , Peyton W. Douglas (husband of Georgia Stanley) and Ira E. Stanley purchased the interest of John F. Burney (husband of Margaret Stanley), Rollin A. Stanley and Benjamin F. Stanley for the sum of $4000.00.   The purchase included all mill rights and the rights to flood the pond to a sufficient level to operate the mill.  Also included in the conveyance of "Stanley Mills" included "all lumber on hand," possibly indicating that a saw mill was located on the premises.

From that point on, the mill became known as Chappell's Mill.   Ira Stanley Chappell, the eldest son of James T. and Harriet S. Chappell, died in 1931.  He was the last member of the Chappell family to own the mill.   Before his death, Chappell sold the property to Allen J. Dixon, who operated it for a quarter of a century.  Dixon advertised an auction for the sale of the mill, including the 50-acre pond, seven acres of land and three dwellings.  Dixon also offered more land at the set price of $10.00 per acre.  Don't we all wish had been there on December 18, 1942 with a pocket full of money?.   Dr. T. J. Blackshear was the high bidder.  He maintained the property until it was purchased by James and Forrest Townsend, grandsons of Allen Dixon.  

Charles Fordham,  Alton Carr, George Fordham, Carl Robinson and many others  kept the mill going for many years.  Production often went above 15,000 bushels a year and grossed more than $100.000.00 annually.   Once the grains of corn were ground, the meal was carefully sifted and poured in paper bags bearing the name of the mill and a generic conception of a southern grist mill.  The fine meal was sold to grocery stores around the state.  The mill was operated on water power until about 1950, when the more dependable electric power motors were installed.    Despite the dependability of electric turbines, the Townsends always wanted to restore the water power because it was free.   James Townsend always proclaimed that the slow grinding process was superior to the rapid factory processes.  

In 1997, after one hundred and eighty six years of continuous operation, the last batch of corn was ground.   The closure was not the result of the dastardly Yankees, a disastrous fire or an untimely death of the operators.  The death of our county's most ancient landmark came at the hands of indifferent government bureaucrats, who insisted that the Townsends install modern and prohibitively expensive equipment to keep the mill in operation.  

 The first mill house was located  on the northern side of the pond, but was washed in a flood and moved to the other side of the dam to protect it against floods.     The 1840s mill house still stands as a vivid reminder of the distant past.  Over the years, it has been modified to accommodate modern conveniences, but when you see it, you will be transported back in time to an era when life was a little slower and a lot gentler.  

WHITEHALL PLANTATION

WHITEHALL
An Antebellum Treasure

Any old house, especially one of the wooden clapboard variety, has a tale to tell, or many tales to tell.  But, since walls can't really talk, we will just have to use our imaginations. There are stories of life and death, laughter and despair, and triumph and tragedy. Though many of the accounts of life in an old house were never preserved, a few have been documented.  Architects design homes and carpenters build them, but a home is shaped and molded by those who live in it.  This is the story of Whitehall, the seat of the White family of Laurens County for many a decade and one of the county's oldest surviving homes.

Joseph McKee White migrated to Laurens County, Georgia about the year 1846.  White, a native of South Carolina and son of John and Dovey White, grew up on a plantation in the Sumter  District of South Carolina on the Black River.    His close friend Daniel G. Hughes believed that Joseph actually came from York County.   Before moving on, White completed his higher educational studies at the University of Georgia.   

Members of the White family were always told that White came through central Georgia on his way toward Mississippi, where he hoped to establish a thriving plantation in the lush delta regions of that state.  According to the family lore, White was so impressed with the fertility of the soils of Laurens and Pulaski counties that he ended his search and settled along the line dividing the two counties.

Joseph White, a man with a fine physique,  was described by Dan Hughes to be " a man of marked intelligence and sense of logic."   White's first recorded purchase of land came in 1847 while he was still considered a resident of Sumter County.  He purchased 900 acres from Mary Wilkinson for the not so paltry sum of $ 1700.00.  This land would form the nucleus of his plantation which he would call "Whitehall."  Though his real estate holdings would eventually encompass ten thousand acres or more, most of his purchases were recorded.  Located on the waters of Crooked Creek on the Old Uchee Trail, Whitehall was considered to be a part of the community known as Laurens Hill, which was centered a few miles to the northwest.  

White used his higher educational skills in an attempt to master the science of agriculture.    A frequent contributor of letters and articles in local papers, White wrote of the problems facing the state and nation on political issues as well as the problems which faced the farmers of the state.  His writings showed his readers that he was no ordinary man, but one of superior intellect and one whose opinions were weighty and valuable.

Just down the road on an adjoining plantation lived one of the most beautiful young ladies Joseph White had ever met.  Cherry Coley, a daughter of Cain Coley, accepted Joseph White's proposal of marriage.  The couple were married in 1850 and moved into White's new home.  

Large plantations were communities within themselves.  Though White's land holdings were large, he surprisingly owned relatively few slaves.  In 1850, White is shown as the owner of 39 slaves, 29 of whom were under the age of 14.  In 1860, the number of slaves rose to 50, with only forty percent of them being under the age of 14.  Many of the larger plantations were served by a local physician.  One such physician, Dr. J.W. Woods, a relative of Joseph White and recent salutatorian of his medical class, was invited to remove himself from his home in South Carolina in hopes of establishing a lucrative practice in the Laurens Hill Community.  Woods, an avid hunter, returned from a hunting trip, only to find himself somewhat ill.  As his own physician, Woods administered a dosage of what he thought was quinine.  A momentary lapse in vision resulted in his consumption of a fatal quantity of morphine.  For three agonizing days, the comatose doctor was beaten with wet towels and walked through the walls and around the porches of Whitehall in a futile attempt to revive him.  Dr. Woods once breathing body was laid to rest in the corner of a large field about a mile northeast of the main house at Whitehall.

Another short term resident of Whitehall was W. H. Mobley.    Mobley, a nephew of Georgia congressman Charles Crisp, married a daughter of Sen. John H. Reagan of Texas.  It will be remembered that is was Sen. Reagan, who as the Postmaster of the Confederate States of America, led the caravan of Confederate President Jefferson Davis as he made his way through Laurens County in an attempt to escape capture by Union forces in 1865.  Mobley served as his uncle's secretary in Washington and moved to Palestine, Texas to practice law.  He removed to Cochran in 1892 and lived with the White family until his return to Texas two years later.  Mobley, like his father actor who was killed in an Atlanta theater,  died a tragic death when he consumed a fatal dose of morphine in 1901.  

During the Civil War, Joseph White served as a major in the Confederate Provisional Army.    Too old to engage in combat, Major White was commissioned to help raise food and gather war materials for the cause of the Confederacy.  White may have commanded a small Confederate commissary, which was located just beyond Laurens Hill next to the Harvard family cemetery.  Several years after the end of the hostilities, Major White was granted a  full pardon by President Andrew Johnson for his acts of war against the United States.

Architectural experts have likened Whitehall's straightforwardly simple design of well proportioned square columns as representative of the best of a number of similar houses and buildings of the period, among them the cottage behind the President's House at the University of Georgia and the Davis-Edwards House in Monroe.   The house has been defined as hybrid mixture of indigenous architecture with the dignity and clarity of Greek  designs, which Thomas Jefferson so ideally sought in his classical designs. 

Students of architecture will recognize the details of the frame clapboarded t-shaped rectangular  house with a five-bay front, a hipped roof, two interior chimneys and three end chimneys.    Surrounded by a grove of ancient cedars, Whitehall features a porch on three sides.  Guests entered the home through a double door entrance into a central hall.    Grand houses like Whitehall often attracted the most prominent and highly erudite visitors.  Reportedly, thirteen governors of Georgia have slept in the guest bedroom, located in the northwest corner of the house.  

During the the late 1950s and early 1960s,  the home was occupied by  John Richard Staley, major renovations were put in place including transoms with radiating muntins, all new plaster and woodwork.  Staley, the president of Quaker Oats Company, purchased Whitehall as a birthday present  for his wife, the former Miss Carolyn Flemming, who had always admired the stately old home.   A car port was added and a breezeway between the house and kitchen was so enlarged to  merge into the house itself. Modern wiring, heating and plumbing were installed under the direction of the chief engineer of Quaker Oats Company. 

Architect Jackson Lamb, a native of Montrose, purchased the house in 1966 and undertook a major and complete restoration of the home, where he married his wife Nancy Ragsdale.  Lamb sold the house to Henry and Martha Cannon in 1970.  Henry, a long time executive with the Georgia Forestry Commission, and Martha, sister of Marion Folsom, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare during the Eisenhower administration, continued to make improvements  on the inside and outside.  

In the mid 1980s, Bill Holmes, a great-great grandson of Major White, purchased Whitehall and much of the original plantation lands.  Holmes  made improvements to the property, especially on the grounds.  Today, the property is owned by an investment firm and is not open to the public.

THE CHICKEN ROAD

The answer to that question is obviously, the chicken.    Perhaps the most essential question should be, why was the road named for a chicken and was the chicken, a bird, an Indian or a soldier?   For more than a century , toponymists (look it up, I had to) have vainly sought out to finally determine the derivation of the name of "The Chicken Road," which runs from Hawkinsville, Georgia on the Ocmulgee River to Dublin, Georgia on the Oconee River.

The Chicken Road is actually two roads.  Laurens, Bleckley andDodge Counties differ in their Chicken Roads.   Both Chicken Roads follow a northeasterly path running from Old Hartford on the Ocmulgee River, opposite Hawkinsville, through Frazier and Empire.  The lower road continues through Chester in Dodge County following the general path of Highway 257 on into Dublin. 

Northwest of Empire, another Chicken Road, sometimes called the "West Chicken Road" or "East Chicken Road"  veers   a little northwest of the former rail center through Dodge and Bleckley and enters Laurens County near the intersection of Branch Road, Moore Road and the terminus of Hillbridge Road. Continuing along its northeasterly course, this Chicken Road runs through the Buckhorn Community, first settled by Benjamin Darsey in the early 1800s, and intersects the Dudley-Dexter Road, Highway 338 at Turkey Creek, at a place once called Kewanee.  

From Kewanee it passed through the Hogan lands on the same basic northeasterly course to the Shewmake Community near I-16.  Passing through the legendary first county seat of Laurens, Sumpterville, this Chicken Road followed Moore Station Road until its intersection with Bellevue Road and Bellevue Avenue (Old Hawkinsville Road)  until reaching its terminus at the Dublin Ferry, where the ancient Indian road from Indian Springs to Savannah crossed the Oconee River.  

             One of the first attempts to find the derivation of the name was published in the Dublin Post on May 1, 1879.  "Ms. James Wyatt tells us that Mrs. Polly Weaver says Mr. Thomas B. Fuqua is mistaken in thinking the Chicken Road to Hawkinsville got its name from the chicken stealing proclivities of the road hands who opened the road.  This aged lady, then  about 80, says the Chickasaw Indians who lived in this community used to travel that road to Hawkinsville (which town, by the way was at that time situation on this side of the Ocmulgee River and called Hartford) to trade, and that on this account it was called the Chickasaw road, finally abbreviated to Chicken Road."

At the southern end of the Chicken Road, J.W. Carruthers, an ancient resident of Hawkinsville, proclaimed that the road's name had nothing at all to do with Indians.  He claimed that road was constructed about 1825 to 1830 and it was a mere folly to the residents of Pulaski County, who in ridiculing the idea proclaimed "that nothing more than a few dozen chickens would ever be brought over the road." 

Carruther's statement as to the date of the road seems to be plausible in that no trace of a trail is shown on the surveyors' detailed land lot maps of the area mad about 1806.

Yet another attribution of the name to the feathered bird is the story that the area along the southern end of the road was abundant with wild chickens.  The story goes that one day a chicken peddler was traveling along the road when he fell asleep near a creek in the present day Frasier community.  When the man awoke, he found his wagon gate open and not a single chicken in sight.  The old timers believed they skedaddled to the woods and swamps where they lived the wild life.  

Most anthropologists believe that the Chickasaw came from the west to settle in Louisiana and Mississippi, so it seems unlikely that any Chickasaw ever lived in the Hawkinsville area.  

Renowned toponymist, Kenneth Krakow, in his landmark work "Georgia Place Names," restates the Chickasaw Indian connection, but incorrectly states that the Chicken Road was originally part of the Lower Uchee (Yuchi) Trail, which also ran from Hawkinsville, but along a somewhat parallel path crossing the Oconee River, five to six miles above Dublin near Blackshear's Ferry.   

Guy Alford, of Swainsboro, after consultation with Hal M. Stanley, State Commissioner of Insurance and formerly of Laurens County, believed that the Chicken Road was named after General George Chicken. Mereness in Travels Among the Colonies, wrote that George Chicken represented the the English Commissioner of Indian Affairs, traveling through this area on his way to the Flint River.

And so, I come to the end of my quest.  The question still remains.  Not only are there three somewhat logical sources for the naming of the Chicken Road, once the road leaves the Empire Community of Dodge County, there are two separate and distinct Chicken Roads.  

If you want to know my guess, I will go with the less romantic name which derived from the shipping of chickens along the road.  This conclusion is based on the lack of a chicken road being shown on early 19th Century surveys of the area coupled with the fact that this area was primarily settled by Yuchi (Uchee) and Muskogee speaking Creek Indians. 

However, it remains positively clear that at one time or another that a bird, a soldier and an Indian did cross the Chicken Road.  Why? You know why! And don't ask me again!

DUBLIN'S FIRST NEWSPAPER

The Beginning of a Tradition

As you read one of the thirty thousand plus newspapers ever printed in Laurens County, have you ever wondered when the first periodical came off the press?  This is the story of the premiere edition of "The Student," a student newspaper published by the students and teachers of a Dublin Academy in the middle of the 1870s.

To get news from the outside world, a Laurens Countian used to have to subscribe by mail to newspapers from Milledgeville, Macon, Sandersville, or as far away as Augusta and Savannah.  Since there were no trains coming into the county until 1886, delivery of newspapers was expensive.  Papers were generally read by the elite business and professional men of the day.  Many of them came preprinted on one side with news of national and world events.  On the blank side publishers would print local news and advertisements.  The first traditional paper in Dublin was known to be the Dublin Gazette, which was published by Col. John M. Stubbs in 1876.  Issues of the Dublin Post hit the streets in 1878.  The Post evolved into the Dublin Courier Herald, which is in its ninety third year of operation.

But the first newspaper ever printed in Dublin was not your traditional daily or weekly paper.   It was published by the students of Lee Academy and its headmaster, Richard "Dick" Lowery Hicks.  Hicks was a son of James Hicks, who wrote a Geometry textbook and furnished the first academy in Wrightsville.  Richard Hicks was born in 1848 and came into manhood just as the Civil War ended.  He attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.  The president of the university during those years was none other than General Robert E. Lee.

Hicks returned to Georgia and moved to Dublin with his brothers, Henry and Charles, both of whom were doctors.    The Hicks were ingrained by their parents to believe that education and public service were paramount. In the early 1870s, Dick Hicks decided to open an academy in Dublin for boys.  Public schools were considered inadequate for the needs of the sons of the town's most prominent and erudite families.    The school, a meager two-room building, was known to have been located on Bellevue Avenue, about where the radio station offices are now located.  Hicks promoted his school where the courses were composed of thorough philosophical instruction.

Volume 1, Issue 1 of "The Student" was published in February 1875.  The monthly paper carried a subscription price of fifty cents per session, payable in advance.  The editors were C.J. Hicks and J.R. Fuqua.  All articles were solicited from the students and friends of the academy and could not be submitted under any anonymous or pen names. The smallest ad cost five dollars per inch per session, while an entire column cost the advertiser a healthy sum of fifty dollars.  Under the banner on the front page was the phrase "Excelsior" a reference to higher education.  Gymnastics and music were also an integral part of school day activities. 

The front page of the premier issue carried articles entitled "Desultory Reading" from The Saturday Review, "The Follies of Great Men," "Early Rising" from Hall's Journal of Health and "Reflections in Westminister Abbey," from Addison.

In greeting their readers for the first time, editors Hicks and Fuqua acknowledged their youthful faith and enthusiasm but promised to afford the students of Lee Academy  with pleasant and profitable recreation.  The editors saw the venture as a way of giving the students an opportunity to write a newspaper of their own.  They believed that writing a single article for the paper would encompass more thinking power than an entire session of regular school writing assignments.  The primary goal of the paper was to encourage the establishment of an adequate library.

The paper's editors realized that they were publishing the only newspaper in the county, but vowed to maintain the paper as a student paper, though items of local interest would be highlighted.    The first edition carried the news that the road in front of Captain Smith's (Gaines Street) had been put in good condition and requested that the same be done for the other streets in the city.  The river was up and the time for boating was right.  Rounding out the items of local interest was the tidbit that Col. Stubbs' ram was the only sheep in Dublin.

Advertising was and still is essential for the profitable operation of any newspaper. The editors praised their main advertisers.  L.C. Perry & Company was saluted as one of the best establishments outside of Georgia's main cities.  The same was said of dry goods merchant M.L. Burch.    Other advertisers were Dr. R.H. Hightower, Lawyer J.A. King, buggy dealer R.M. Arnau, liquor dealer O.J. Beale, and Richard A. Odom, the proprietor of the Troup House, the town's only hotel.

The paper carried the news that Dr. J.T. Chappel, Laurens County's representative in the Georgia legislature, had introduced a bill to abolish the County Court.  The editorial praised the act which would rid the county of a court which was established only in the interest of a few office seekers and pettifoggers. 

Of utmost importance to the county in the 1870s was the rejuvenation of steamboat traffic along the Oconee River.  With no railroads even in the planning stages, river transportation was essential to the future of the local economy.    It was reported that Capt. Day had raised his boat "The Clyde" from her watery grave along the coast line between Darien and Savannah and had her rebuilt so that she could continue to serve the needs of Dubliners.  

There were greetings to old students and news of their life after leaving the academy. J.G. Wright, Jr. had "gone west." Weaver, the medalist of the class of '73, was studying medicine, while Jack was shooting rabbits in Texas and Holmes was fiddling and farming. "Toob" was selling goods.  "Little Peacock" had no particular employment, but it was reported that he intended to return to school soon.  J.H. Hightower was teaching the "young ideas how to shoot," and W.J. Hightower was teaching "the shoots how to idea."

After the closing of Lee Academy, Richard Hicks joined the firm of H. Hicks & C0mpany, which operated a drug store on the southwest corner of the courthouse square and maintained a profitable river boat company.  Dick joined forces with J.W. Peacock & Company in 1878 to publish the Dublin Post, which in 1887 was absorbed by the Dublin Courier, which evolved into the Dublin Courier Herald and which is today published by Dubose Porter, Dick Hicks' great-great-great-nephew. And the stories, they go on and on.

OUR INFAMOUS INFERNOS

         Back in the old days, when fires were put out by brigades of volunteers throwing buckets of water or by fireman hand pumping small streams of water, a fire in the downtown area was often quite cataclysmic. Dublin's first major fire occurred on  May 26, 1889.  One hundred and twenty five years ago today, Dublin's business district was one mass of charred timbers and smouldering ashes of once bustling businesses. There was no hope in sight. Gloom, despair and agony permeated the smoking ruins.

When the business section of Dublin began to expand, stores and other places of business were expanded well beyond the original plan of four lots/buildings  per block.  The closeness of buildings to each other , coupled with the fact that brick buildings were somewhat scarce, even in the early 1890s, led to massive fires in the downtown area, some fueled by drought and wind, others fed by insidious incendiaries.

Dublin's first "great" fire (great fires are never great)  began early on a quiet Sunday morning.  A westerly wind was howling down the main street from the west.  It had not rained in weeks.  Water was scarce.  Napoleon Baum was only beginning to erect the town's first public well on the northeast side of the Courthouse Square. With the two requisite elements for a catastrophic conflagration present, the smallest spark would ignite a firestorm. 

Investigators focused on the source of the fire and determined that the flames emanated from the Post Office causing  the whipping winds to leap from one wooden structure to another.  For nearly nine hours, townsfolk futilely  sought t0 extinguish the rolling mass of flames.  The Dalton Hotel was sacrificed by dynamiting it to save the Tillery and Burch houses.

The fire burned everything from the corner of Lawrence Street around the block and down Jefferson Street stopping before reaching the Troup House.  Among the buildings suffering substantial losses were the Post Office, the old Hooks Hotel,  Roughton's store, B.F. Duggan's Grocery, C.W. Brantley's house, F.W. Shelton's general merchandise store J.W. Gilder's building, P. Hillman's restaurant, Peter Franklin's barber shop, Jesse Cowart's grocery, George Bang's Dublin Jewelry Store,  H.P. Smith's shoe store, Susan Tillery's store house, Nathan Burch's building, Willis Dasher's restaurant, L.C. Perry's stables and buggy shop, and M.L Jones' store, which was the highest valued loss at $4000.00.  Jones came out smelling like a rose because he had $3000.00 in insurance.  No other building owner did.  G.W. Maddox's furniture store suffered the most damage with $3000.00 in uninsured losses. 

Only the slightly damaged brick office of Dr. R.H. Hightower (where Deano's is now located) survived the fire in the entire block southwest of the courthouse square.    The final total of damages ranged from $25,000.00 to $50,000.00 with eleven business houses being totally engulfed in flames.  The total figure was most likely at least $40,000.00.  Two or three weeks later, the rains finally came and the town was safe, at least for a while.

One of the burned buildings belonged to H.C. Roughton of Sandersville.  Upon hearing of the fire, Roughton rushed to Dublin by train, arriving  just before the fire was finally under control.  He sought out L.A. Chapman, the owner of the brickyard.  The next morning before the ashes cooled Mr. Chapman began delivering bricks to the site.  What resulted may be the oldest building in downtown Dublin.  It is occupied in 2014 by New York Fashions.  

It was another Sunday and another fire. It was the evening of September 21, 1890, just before the autumnal equinox.  It had been relatively wet, a condition which had severely damaged the year's cotton crop.  Just about 9:00 in the evening, a wood stove caught on fire.  The flames spread across the street from the Troup House on the first block of South Jefferson Street consuming all of the houses in their path.  T.F. Newman's harness shop, J.S. Lewis' ice and soda saloon, the barbershop, the bottling works, and the newspaper offices of the Dublin gazette were totally destroyed. Much to the chagrin of the liquor and beer drinkers, both J.M. Rinehart's and W.J. Hightower's bar rooms were incinerated when the flames hit their flammable stock.    Luckily, hardly $50.00 of  Miss Susie Bearden's millenary was scorched.

New Year's Day 1894 was not a happy one, not at all.  

On the last day of 1893, the citizens of Dublin were looking forward to a better economic year following the economically disastrous Panic of 1893.    Just before midnight, flames began to fly out of the Whitehead-Watkins Building on the corner of West Jackson and South Jefferson Streets.   Thoughts immediately turned back to May 26, 1889, when the entire block was virtually burned to the ground.

The first story stores of G.W. Bishop, E.J. Tarpley, G.W. Maddox and Tarpley & Kellam were gutted.  Upstairs, the medical offices of Dr. A.F. Summerlin, and Dr. Charles Hicks, along with the legal offices of  Peyton Wade, Frank Corker, Joseph Walker, Joseph Chappel, and Mercer Haynes. were destroyed except for a few pieces of furniture and books of Dr. Summerlin and Attorney Wade, which were carried out before the flames totally engulfed the newly constructed brick building.  Amazingly, none of these erudite professionals carried insurance.

Dr. Hightower's building, which survived the Great Fire of 1889, was severely damaged when the adjoining burning building collapsed upon it.    The fire was so intense that the heat broke windows across the street in the bank.  The proprietors of Lord & Brooks covered the front of their building with wet blankets to keep the heat from damaging their store next to the bank.  

No clues were ever found to determine the origin of the New Year's fire, although preliminary investigators believed it to be of an incendiary nature.  

In today's world of high tech fire fighting equipment and highly trained firemen, we would like to hope that we are exempt from such infamous infernos.  But as you know, history has a way of repeating itself.  It is important to all of us to follow simple and basic fire prevention guidelines to protect our families, friends and our homes and buildings. 

  

DUBLIN GEORGIA FIRES