Clarke County, Georgia History
The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People 1732 to 1860
by George Gillman Smith, D.D.
Originally published c. 1901
Submitted by K. Torp, ©2007
Clarke
Though Clarke was made a county in 1801, it was not then first settled. It was a part of Franklin, then of Jackson,
and when the University was established at Athens was made a separate county and called Clarke in honor of Elijah
Clarke, of whose distinguished services during the Revolution we have spoken.
The county site was Watkinsville, named in honor of Robert Watkins. The original county of Clarke was a large one,
and in 1875, when Athens was a considerable town, it was divided into two counties, one of which was called Oconee,
the other Clarke. Watkinsville was left as the county site of Oconee, and Athens was made the county site of Clarke.
There was a great deal of first-class land in the undivided county, and a limited quantity in what is now Clarke.
Although Clarke could not present the inducements to settlers which Greene and Hancock did, there came to it some
of the same class of people at its first settlement; and the position of Athens as an educational center drew to
it at a later day a class of most excellent people, who settled in the village and in the country adjoining.
Mr. White gives as the first settlers: Thomas Greer, James Greer, Sol. Craig, Charles Dean, F. Roberson, Wm. Clarke,
Wm. Williams, Wm. Jones, Francis Oliver, Thomas Wade, Daniel Elder, Zadock Cook, John Jackson, Hugh Niesler, Thomas
Mitchell, James Cook, Wyatt Lee, Robert Barber, Hope Hull, A. Briggs, Jesse White, David Meriwether, Joseph Espey,
John Espey.
As we have seen, Athens was laid out on seven hundred acres of land purchased by John Milledge, and was made the
seat of the University. It was very healthy, and soon drew to it an excellent class of citizens. It had a good
country tributary to it, and soon became a place of commercial importance. The facilities for manufacturing provided
by the fine water-powers on the Oconee river, on which the city of Athens is located, were recognized, and at an
early date its citizens began to manufacture; and some of the most successful cotton mills and other factories
in Georgia have been established near Athens. The Georgia railroad early built a branch road to the city, and when
the Air Line railway, from Charlotte to Atlanta, was built, the people of Athens built a line of forty miles to
tap it at Lula, and when the S. A. L. line reached Georgia it came directly through Athens, and then the Central
bought a line from Macon to the city, and thus gave it the best rail way privileges, and it has become quite a
trade center.
Athens has not only been noted for its culture and refinement, but for the piety of its leading people. Although
as late as 1825 there was no church in the village, there was regular religious service in the college chapel.
In 1825, or near that time, the Presbyterians built a church on the campus. The Baptists built also on the campus,
and the Methodists where the First Methodist now stands. The Episcopalians were somewhat later.
There have been great revivals of religion in Athens, in which some of the most distinguished men in Georgia have
begun a religious life. The country around is well supplied with churches, mainly Methodist and Baptist. Clarke
was formed in 1801, and by 1810 it had 5,034 free and 2,594 slave inhabitants, and in 1830 there were 5,467 free
and 4,709 slaves; in 1850 there were 5,330 free and 5,589 slaves. In 1890 the entire population was 15,186. It
has now, in 1899, a very much larger population. The city of Athens is one of the most attractive and elegant cities
in the State. It has a fine electric plant, a street railway, well-paved streets, handsome public buildings, water-works,
and all the equipment of a working city.
Of the University, with which the history of Athens is so connected, we have spoken elsewhere. While Athens had
always had excellent female schools, and the second distinctively female school in the State was in Athens, it
had no female collegiate institute until Thos. R. R. Cobb, as a memorial to a child to whom he was devoted, gave
a large donation for a female institute of high grade, which was called the Lucy Cobb Institute in honor of his
daughter, and which has held high rank with the best schools for young ladies. The State Normal School is also
located here.
In Athens was established the celebrated Southern Mutual Insurance Company, which has been the most successful
purely Mutual Fire Insurance Company in the Southern States, and perhaps in America.
The location of the University in Athens has made it famous for its public men. Among the most valuable of the
early settlers in the county was Hope Hull, whom we have seen as a young Methodist preacher in Wilkes county in
1788. He had a home near Washington, and established ten years before Athens was founded or the University began
its work a classical school and employed teachers to teach it. He was among the heartiest supporters of the proposed
college in Athens and was a member of its first board of trustees, and as long as he lived he never lost his interest
in it. His two sons, Asbury Hull and Dr. Henry Hull, were like himself men of great worth and public spirit.
Asbury Hull was for several years speaker of the House of Representatives in the Georgia Legislature, a leading
banker and capitalist in Athens. Dr. Henry Hull, his excellent brother, once a professor in the State University,
spent his long life in Athens.
John A. Cobb settled in a part of Athens which he called Cobham, and here he lived and educated his two sons Howell
and Thomas R. R. Cobb, whose fame as soldiers and statesmen is so widely extended.
The celebrated Moses Waddell spent his last days here as president of the State University.
Dr. A. A. Lipscomb, the philosopher and sage, lived here in a charming cottage after he had retired from the presidency
of the University.
Young L. G. Harris, famous as a financier and as a philanthropist, lived and died here.
Ferdinand Phinizy, one of the most distinguished capitalists in Georgia, had his home here.
It was in Athens that Dr. Crawford Long used ether as an anesthetic before it had ever been so used by any other
person.
Here Dr. Patrick H. Mell, one of the best of teachers and the purest of men, spent his last years as president
of the University.
The celebrated Stephen Olin, the peerless preacher, spent several years here as professor of English literature.
Here Dr. Nathan Hoyt, the famous Presbyterian preacher, and Dr. Chas. Lane, who came after him, ended their useful
lives, and here Dr. Eustace W. Speer, after having been several times pastor of the church and at one time professor
in the University, fixed his home and ended his days; and in this town Henry W. Grady was born, educated and married.
To catalogue the men of distinction who have been connected with Athens would take far more space than I can possibly
devote to this famous city.
Clarke was, like all the hill counties, settled by people of moderate means, who raised chiefly corn and other
food products. It had in it many stills and made much brandy and whisky, which it sent to the Augusta market, and
the records of the county show that the inhabitants were by no means total abstainers; but there is one record
on the county books different from any other in Georgia: A man, anticipating that he would be assassinated, made
a will, in which he recited his apprehension, and made a bequest to pay the cost of prosecuting the murderer, and
suggesting who he would be and how he might be convicted. He was killed. The murderer was arrested and was convicted
and hung.
The grand jury in 1806 says: The college is now opened, and is ready to teach boys from their A, B, C s, up.
