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Burke
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
BURKE.
Burke county was formed
from St. George's parish, and was named Burke in honor of Edmund Burke,
the great statesman who stood so firmly for the colonies.
There were doubtless a few whites in this section before Oglethorpe
came, for the Indians who lived in this county complained to Governor
Glen of South Carolina, that the whites, among whom were John Jones and
John Whitehead, were making inroads on their hunting-grounds. It is
certain that George Galphin had a trading-station at Gaiphinton, on the
Ogeechee, when Fort Augusta took the place of Fort Moore in 1733. The
settlements in South Carolina reached to the Savannah river, and it is
hardly probable they stopped there. Before the parish of St. George was
laid out the borough of Halifax sent two representatives to the
Assembly of Governor Reynolds, and in the grants made by Governor
Reynolds are sundry grants to persons who were found in Burke,
Jefferson and Screven counties. After St. George s parish was made
Burke county, it gave off Jefferson and Screven, leaving it still a
large county. It was at its first settlement a county of wonderful
fertility and sufficiently undulating to secure good drainage, except
where there were deep depressions and ponds. It had in it no very lofty
hills, and being possessed of a tenacious limestone soil, the rains and
floods left it uninjured.
The Savannah was on the east, the Ogeechee on the west, and the great
Briar creek traversed the whole county. Bark, Camp, Buckhead, Rocky,
McIntosh, Beaverdam, and Walnut creeks were all considerable streams.
Along the banks of each was a large strip of oak and hickory land. The
great pine forests, valued only for pasturage, filled up the area
unoccupied by the oak and hickory forests. There was beneath the
surface an inexhaustible deposit of rotten limestone which now and then
cropped out on the surface. The land was very productive, and there
came into it as soon as it was opened for settlement great crowds of
immigrants.
On the Ogeechee river, and on the various creeks flowing into it, as
well as on the Savannah and its tributaries, there were many settlers
before the Revolution. There was in 1774 six justices of the peace in
the parish, and where Waynesboro now is there was a prison known as
Burke jail.
In 1774, when the Liberty Boys began their rebellion, as it was
regarded by Governor Wright, he received a very decided protest against
their course from this parish, among others, and we find the names of:
George Wells, afterward lieutenant-governor; Peter Shand, James Doyle,
S. Barrow, Dan l Thomas, Gideon Thomas, John Thomas, Robert Henderson,
F. L. Frier, John Red, James Warren, Jas. Williams, Sam l Red, Alex.
Berryhill, Ed. Hill, Charles Williams, Thos. Pennington, John Rogers,
John Anderson, John Catlett, David Green, Jno. Pettigrew, Wm. Catlett,
Jno. Rotten, Jno. Frier, James Davis, Wm. Milner, Elijah Dix, Sam I
Berryhill, Thos. Red, John Bledsoe, James Rae, Jos. Gresham, Wm. Doyle,
Jos. Tilley, Job Thomas, Drury Roberts, Joel Walker, Jas. Red, W.
McNorrell, Jno. Kennedy, F. Stringer, P. McCormick, H. Williams, J.
Greenway, R. Blaishard, H. Irwin, T. Carter, J. Brantley, W. Weathers,
W. Moore, W. Godbe, R Cureton, W. Cureton, P. Helvestien, Elias Daniel,
E. Odom, B. Brantley, T. Gray, J. Brantley, John Greene, John Burnside,
S. Jordan, P. Dickey, Zach Wimberly, S. Lamb. B. Warren, Sol. Davis,
Jno. Gray, Frank Hancock, Pleast Goodall, Wade Kitts, Dan l Logan,
Myrick Davies, John Roberts, R. Douglas, Jesse Scruggs, Henry Mills,
Jos. Moore, Amos Whitehead, John Robinson, John Thomas, Sr., Wm.
Younge, E. Benniefield, Jacob Sharp, C. Yarborough, J. Hunt, B. Lamb.
S. Slockcumb, L. Hobbs, Jno. Forth, N. Williams, Ed. Walters, Jno.
Stephens, F. Francis, M. Davis, Arthur Walker, A. Davis, Allen Brown,
Joseph Allday, Jas. Douglas, L. Ashberry, C. Golightly, John Howell,
Bud Cade, J. Moore, John Whitehead, John Sharpe, T. Odom, W. Hobbs, R.
Cade, John Tillman, C. Whitehead.
Many of these names belong to Virginia and North Carolina, and some are
evidently Scotch-Irish in their origin. These constituted a small part
of the heads of families in the at present three counties, but serve to
give us a little insight as to whence the Burke people came and who
they were. White gives another list at a later day (1792) of the
officers of the first battalion of Georgia militia.
During the Revolution the patriots of Burke had considerable trouble
with the Tories, who made repeated raids into the county. While many of
the people were not in the army, they were patriots, and were in danger
all the time. The first settlers of Burke were not large slaveholders,
nor was there a large influx of slaves until after the invention of the
cotton-gin. It is likely that among the first cotton-gins ever put into
operation in the world was the one set up in Burke county. Before
Whitney secured his patent he put up one of his machines, as they were
called, in Burke county, and ginned what cotton was brought him from
all quarters. The wonderful value of the cotton lands in this county,
low price of negroes, and the depression of the tobacco and indigo
culture caused cotton plantations to spring up as soon as the gin was
invented. The oak and hickory section of the county when opened soon
became quite unhealthy, and the white people were forced to the pine
woods in the malarious seasons, and many of the smaller landholders
sold their holdings in Burke and went farther west, and large
plantations became the rule.
Waynesboro was laid off in 1783 and was named in honor of Mad Anthony
Wayne, who was a great favorite in Georgia. The Legislature
incorporated an academy and granted two thousand acres of land as an
endowment, and incorporated the village with Thomas Lewis, Sr., Thomas
Lewis, Jr., Jas. Duhart, Edward Telfair, and John Jones as
commissioners. Two hundred lots were to be sold and the proceeds were
to be devoted to paying for the public building. The academy was among
the first houses built and the court-house was soon erected. The town
grew and there was a race-course near by, and the famous comedy, The
Wax Works of Georgia Scenes, was acted in this village. There was no
church, however, for many years, and the only preaching was an
occasional sermon in the court-house; but in the early part of the
century two Presbyterian churches, one of which had been organized at
Walnut Branch and the other at Old Church, united and built a small
Presbyterian church in Waynesboro, which was served by a pastor who in
winter preached in Burke, and in summer to the same people who went to
the village of Bath, in the pine woods of Richmond.
A Methodist church was built near where the cemetery is now soon after
the Presbyterian church was built. The building was very inferior and
the congregation very small. It has long since given way to what is now
an elegant building with a large congregation. Six miles from
Waynesboro was an old church which was built before the Revolution, and
long used as a Methodist church, and in the east of the county is
Bottsford Baptist church, one of the first Baptist churches in Georgia.
The Baptist churches at Rocky Creek and Bark Camp and Buckhead were
famous churches in the beginning of the century and for fifty years
afterward.
The county of Burke became early in the century a county of large
plantations and wealthy planters. Some of these lived in beautiful
homes on their places during the winter and in summer went to the pine
woods. Habersham, Alexander, Summerville, Bath and Brothersville were
each piny wood villages, to which the planters repaired before the
sickly season set in. There was much comfort and fine taste in these
antebellum winter homes, and the hospitality of the planters was
boundless. The villages to which they repaired during the summer time
afforded a delightful social circle, and the commodious winter homes
were filled with guests from the cities and the neighboring
plantations. Nowhere was old Virginia life of a century gone by so
reproduced as in Burke sixty years since. The large plantation was
under the management of the overseer. The factor in Augusta or Savannah
cashed the drafts of the planter and supplied his larder with such
luxuries as he might desire from the city. His carriages and his horses
were of the best order, and he supplied his library with the best books
and periodicals. The wealth he enjoyed he had inherited, and he was
often dependent upon the sagacity of others to keep it from leaving
him. This was one kind, and the number was not large, of Burke county
planters, and there were a few in all the neighboring counties of the
same class. Then there were others much more numerous who had made
their fortunes by hard work, and who, while they gave their children
all that wealth could secure in the way of luxury, were themselves
hard-working, close-trading men, who read no books and put on no style,
but who knew how to manage negroes and make cotton. Then there was a
class of poor plain people who lived in the pine woods, few of whom had
any slaves. They lived in log cabins on small bodies of land, and lived
by their own labor. They rafted ranging timber down the Savannah river,
made shingles in the cypress swamps, and raised some cattle and sheep.
They had little to do with the wealthy people of the oak woods, and
knew but little of them. There was no county in the State before the
war began in which there was a worthier, more contented or more
prosperous people than the people of Burke county.
The wonderful cotton-producing quality of the land turned the county
into one great plantation, except in the pine woods. Negroes increased
in numbers, and men who began life with a few found themselves the
owners of scores. They put a high estimate on negro property and did
all they could to increase the number of their slaves. They neglected
their lands, incurred large debts, and when the slaves were freed many
were bankrupt.
Burke sent forth a large emigration, and the descendants of the people
who came from Virginia and North Carolina, and from the north of
Ireland, and settled in St. George s parish, have been scattered over
all western and southern and southwestern Georgia. The smaller
landholders from the oak and hickory country gave way at an early time
to large landholders, and great bodies of negroes under the charge of
an overseer were the sole inhabitants of some parts of the county
during the summer and fall. When the rich cotton lands of the newer
part of Georgia were opened the Burke planter removed a part of his
force to them and opened a new plantation there. Much of the land was
turned out and grew up in old field pines. A planter owned sometimes
what had once been the separate homes of twenty sturdy frontiersmen.
When the war ended and the negro was a freeman, the negroes were found
in far greater numbers than the white people, and the few whites who
lived on their estates came to the county town, and Waynesboro, from
being a deserted village, became a flourishing little city. The
plantations were left in the hands of negro tenants. The old field
pines were cut down, and while the white people in Burke are no longer
distributed over the county, but are concentrated in the villages, they
are in larger number than in the older day. Where there was for many
years a mere railroad station, the junction of the Augusta &
Savannah railroad with the Central, Millen is now a prosperous little
city. Midville, Herndon, Munnerlyn, and Perkins are all villages of
some importance, and there are sundry hamlets in other parts of the
county.
In the pine woods, where for many years the chief resource was ranging
timber and cattle, there are now many small well-cultivated farms,
where there are good substantial prosperous farmers. There are good
schools and churches and a contented, well-to-do people.
I have devoted some care to this account of Burke, since it was one of
the oldest counties, and its history is found largely reproduced in the
other large cotton-producing counties of Middle Georgia. The people of
Burke have always been noted for their hospitality and generosity. They
have been, as a rule, plain, unpretentious, religious people. The
population of this county in 1790 was 9,467, of whom only 2,392 were
slaves. It then included Screven and Jefferson counties. In 1810, 6,166
whites and 4,691 slaves; in 1850, 5,268 free and 10,832 slaves. The
population of whites is greater now than it has ever been, and the
negro population is not diminished.
This county has had its share of distinguished men. Lyman Hall, David
Emanuel, Edward Telfair, Herschel V. Johnson, John Martin, all
governors, lived in Burke. The Hon. J. J. Jones, S. A. Corker, R. E.
Lester, congressmen, were from this county. The Shewmakes, legislators
and jurists, and Judge Lawson, a prominent democratic politician, were
from this county. Colonel T. M. Berrien long lived here. Edward Byne
and the Kilpatricks, famous as Baptist preachers; Professor James
Elmore Palmer, noted as an educator and long a professor in Emory
College, and many others have cast luster on this good old county; but
the county has been chiefly famed for its great planters, who have been
noted for their intelligence and enterprise.
History
of
the
Towns
and
Villages
Girard, a village of Burke county, is
located about nineteen miles southeast of Waynesboro, and seven from
the Savannah river. It has a money order post office and several
stores, and does a good local business. The population in 1900
was 327. The nearest railroad station is Robbins, S.C.
(Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions,
and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. VOL III Publ. 1906.
Transcribed by Marilyn Clore)
Girth, a post-hamlet of Burke county, is located a little west of Brier
Creek, in the southern part of the county. Thomas, on the Central
of Georgia railroad, is the nearest station.
(Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions,
and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. VOL III Publ. 1906.
Transcribed by Marilyn Clore)
Gough, a post-village in the western part of Burke county, with a
population of 44 in 1900, is near the headwaters of Buckhead creek and
about fifteen miles from Waynesboro. Wrens, on the Augusta
Southern railway, is the most convenient station.
(Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions,
and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. VOL III Publ. 1906.
Transcribed by Marilyn Clore)
Keysville, a town in the northwestern part of Burke county, was
incorporated by act of the legislature on Dec. 29, 1890. In 1900 the
population was 101. It is on the line of the Augusta Southern railway,
has a money order postoffice, express and telegraph service, and is the
chief trading center and shipping point for that section.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by
Tracy McAllister)
Hillis, a village of Burke county, is located near the Screven county
line and in 1900 reported a population of 104. It has a money order
postoffice, schools, churches and mercantile houses. Waynesboro is the
most convenient railroad station.
(Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions,
and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. VOL III Publ. 1906.
Transcribed by Angelia Carpenter)
Munnerlyn, a village of Burke county, is on the Central of Georgia
railroad, twelve miles south of Waynesboro. It has a money order
postoffice, express and telegraph offices, stores, schools, etc., and
in 1900 had a population of 87.
(Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, publ.
1906. Transcribed by Tammy Rudder)
Oatts, a post-hamlet of Burke county, is fifteen miles southwest of
Waynesboro and almost on the Jefferson county line. Louisville is the
nearest railroad station.
[Source: Georgia Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events,
Institutions, and Persons, Vol 2, Publ 1906. Transcribed by
Kristen Bisanz]
Rosier, a post-hamlet of Burke county, is sixteen miles south west
of Waynesboro and not far from the Jefferson county line. Louisville is
the nearest railroad station.
Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form Transcribed by Kristen Bisanz
Sardis, a post-village in the southeastern part of Burke county, is
near the Screven county line. The population in 1900 was 51. The
nearest railroad station is Munnerylyn.
Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form Transcribed by Kristen Bisanz
Saint Clair, a post-town on the western part of Burke County, reported
a population of 154 in 1900. It is the principal trading center for a
large agricultural district. Matthews and Keysville, on the Augusta
Southern, are the nearest railroad towns.
s).
Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form Transcribed by Kristen Bisanz
Shell Bluff, a post-village of Burke county, is about ten miles
northeast of Waynesboro, and in 1900 had a population of 61. Green's
Cut is the nearest railroad station.
Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form Transcribed by Kristen Bisanz
Telfairville, a little village of Burke county, is fifteen miles east
of Waynesboro, on the ridge between Brier creek and the Savannah river.
It has a money order postoffice and some local trade. The nearest
railroad station is Robbins, S.C.
Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form Transcribed by Kristen Bisanz
Thomas, a post-village of Burke county, is a station on the Augusta
branch of the Central of Georgia railroad, about six miles south of
Waynesboro. During the war it was known as Thomas Station. Here there
was some sharp fighting between the cavalry forces of Wheeler and
Kilpatrick on Nov. 27 and Dec. 3, 1864, Kilpatrick being supported in
the latter engagement by Baird's division of infantry.
Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form Transcribed by Kristen Bisanz
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