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GREENE.
Greene was formed from Washington in 1785. It was named Greene in honor of General Nathaniel Greene, and was composed
of what is now Greene and Hancock and a part of Taliaferro, Oglethorpe and of Oconee. It was a magnificent county.
The Oconee and Apalachee rivers and several large creeks ran through it, and the bottoms were wide and fertile.
The larger part of the county was forest-covered hills of rich red land. The lower part, toward Hancock, was a
fine gray land which was covered with a growth of small oaks, and at the first settling of the county was regarded
as the least desirable part of the county, but is now the most thickly settled and prosperous part of it.
The first settlers, as Mr. White gives them, were: Thos. Haines, D. Gresham, W. Fitzpatrick, H. Graybill, Oliver
Porter, John Bailey, Chas. Cessna, T. Baldwin, M. Rabun, J no. George, Alex. Reed, M. Rogers, D. Dickson, W. Harris,
Peyton Smith, E. E. Parks, Peter Cartright, G. W. Foster, Jno. Armour, Dr. Poullain, Jesse Perkins, Joel Newsome,
James Armstrong, Major Beasly. To these might be added the Abercrombies, the Dales, Fouches, and Brewers.
These names are nearly all Virginia and North Carolina names. Greene was largely settled by people from these States
and had in it a very few people from any other section. The list which is given by White includes many who were
afterward in Oglethorpe and Hancock.
The first settlers lived on the creeks and near the river, and for their own protection in close proximity to each
other. A blockhouse was generally built at a convenient distance, and the families upon the approach of the Indians
fled to it for protection. The men left their families in the blockhouse and went into the fields to cultivate
the corn patches from which they hoped to make their bread. Until the cessation of the Oconee war there was constant
peril and the immigration of people of means was small; but by 1790 there were five thousand four hundred and five
people in the several counties then known as Greene, of whom one thousand three hundred and seventy seven were
negroes. There was constant apprehension of Indian forays and troops of soldiers were kept under arms.
In 1794 there was a troop of dragoons commanded by Captain Jonas Fouche, of which we have a roster in White’s collections.
These dragoons were:
Captain Fouche, Peyton Smith, Geo. Phillips, William Browning, Chas. Harris, John Young, S. B. Harris, Wm. Heard,
S. M. Devereaux, John Harrison, Abner Farmer, Isaac Stocks, Samuel Dale, Josiah McDonald, Douglas Watson, Jesse
Standifer, Wm. Scott, Arthur Foster, Wm. George, John Capps, R. Patrick, J. Jenkins, Chas. Watts, T. Byron, Jos.
White, R. Finks, Geo. Owing, Wm. Coursey, Jos. Shaw, Jno. Pinkard, L. B. Jenkins, P. Watts, T. Scott, R. Wairon,
H. Potts, D. Lynch, S. Standifer, Jos. Heard, Jas. Moor, H. Gibson, R. Grimatt, George Reed, M. Wall, J as. McGuire.
The militia districts mentioned were: Armour’s, Browning’s, Taylor’s, Beard’s, Melton’s.
Although the county was organized in 1786, the first court does not seem to have met until 1790. The first estate
is appraised in 1786. It consisted of:
Fifty bushels corn, 1 bay mare, 1 cow and calf, 1 heifer, some hogs, an ax, a hoe, a linen wheel, a brass kettle,
a tea kettle, a wash-tub, churn, candlesticks, bottles, slaye, tea pots, bole, mugg; 200 acres land, £75.
The first will is that of Jos. Smith, a surveyor, made in 1786. His estate was, 17 cows, surveying instruments,
4 horses, 3 Bibles, 3 Testaments, 3 sermon books, 434 yards gray cloth.
The first grand jury was: Thos. Harris, David Love, Walton Harris, David Gresham, Jno. A. Miller, Wm. Fitzpatrick,
Wm. Heard, Moses Shelby, James Jenkins, Joseph White, Robert Baldwin, Wm. Shelby, Jesse Connell, Joseph Spradling,
Wm. Daniel.
The grand jury presents as a “greate greavance” that these were more land-warrants than there was land.
The judge prescribes as a rule for lawyers that: “For the sake of a decent conformity with an ancient custom, and
of a necessary distinction in the profession, that attorneys shall be heard in a black robe, but this rule was
not to be enforced till the next session.”
The cases in the early courts were largely for assault and battery, and when parties were convicted the fines were
been generally from three to ten dollars. One who was convicted of manslaughter was sentenced to be branded on
the left thumb with the letter M, and four convicted of forgery were to be hung.
The court-house in 1798 was a very inferior building, and the jail was a mere hut. As late as 1798 the United States
soldiers were still quartered in the country to protect the settlers from Indian raids, for, though the Indians
were nominally peaceable, they were likely at any time to give trouble. Despite the dangers from Indians and the
hard ships of the frontier immigrants poured in from North Carolina and from Virginia. Many of the North Carolinians
came from Rowan and Mecklenburg and settled on Shoulderbone creek in Hancock. The Virginians came from Franklin,
Brunswick, Prince George, Dinwiddie and Prince Edward and settled on the Apalachee and Oconee. The first comers
to Greene were, as they were in Wilkes, generally men of small means. They were industrious and thrifty and prosperous.
The tide of settlers was very constant and very full. At first nothing was produced but food crops, principally
corn and cattle and hogs, but there was a large quantity of these. The range was wide and cattle and hogs fattened
in the woods. A little tobacco was raised for market, but there was but little to sell and few purchasers for anything.
The people lived within them selves. They made everything needful for comfort, and up to the war of 1812 Greene
and Wilkes and Hancock were filled with plenty. The county produced everything needed for man or beast. There was
corn, barley, rye, wheat, hogs, cattle, horses. There were few people of large wealth in the county up to 1812,
and none who were squalidly poor. There were a few people like old Joel Early, who kept up the style of an old
English baron, but the ???ger part of the people lived in solid comfort and made no pretenses. Living was exceedingly
cheap, and board was two to four dollars per month. Unfortunately the drinking habits of the people were universal,
and brandy and whisky were freely used, and they were distilled in quantities . Life in all this middle Georgia
belt was so much the same that the story of one of these counties is the story of all.
The people of all these counties came from the same section and had the same features. They were, as far as education
was concerned, beyond their children, who grew to manhood on the frontier, and who twenty years after ward settled
in Jasper, Morgan or Jones. Most of those who signed deeds in Greene could write their names, but it was not so
twenty years afterward. Those who grew to man hood during and just after the Revolution had scant opportunities
for learning even elementary branches.
After the bringing in of the cotton-gin in the first years of the century, and as the country on the west of the
Oconee was opened, the men who had small farms and raised pro vision crops entirely began to seek other homes and
the farms were absorbed by the plantations.
After the war of 1812 wealth very rapidly increased in Greene and cotton planting was vigorously pressed. As was
the case in Wilkes and Columbia negroes began to take the place of white people, the plantations of farms, and
cotton of grain.
The effort of the planter from 1815 to 1850 was to raise all the cotton possible. Grass is the deadly foe of this
textile plant, and now the Bermuda grass was brought into Greene. Mr. John Cunningham, a merchant of Greensboro
in the early twenties, told the author that he brought the first small tuft of this grass to Greensboro and planted
it in his garden. The garden was soon covered, the farm was next to follow, and the pestiferous grass, as it was
regarded, spread so rapidly that in some cases the fields were simply surrendered to it and the planter counted
his plantation as ruined. With the new lands opening, the Bermuda grass spreading, the fields once so fertile becoming
washed and worn, the planters of Greene began to seek fresher lands in the west, and as in Wilkes the farms were
absorbed by the plantations. The after history told of Wilkes and Burke is true of Greene.
It is now no longer a county of planters, but is a county of villages. The owners of the land reside in the small
towns and the negro tenants work the fields. But while this is the fact now, it has been a fact to some extent
for over forty years. Save that the freedman has taken the place of the slave, it is as it was when the overseer
con trolled the plantation before the war. This is true of the red lands, but not true of poorer lands in other
parts of the county. Here there is improvement in every line.
The Presbyterians and the Baptists came into Greene with the first settlements and organized churches before they
had meeting-houses. The Baptists had churches at Scull Shoals and Bairdstown shortly after the county was settled,
and occupied jointly with the Presbyterians the building called Siloam meeting-house, then on the hill overlooking
Greensboro. Here Mr. Ray had an academy, and for its support an appropriation was made by the Legislature. The
Methodists entered the county as soon as they came into Georgia, and soon had a number of preaching places. Bishop
Asbury preached at Little Brittain, and at Bush’s, now known as Liberty, and the South Carolina Conference was
held at this church in 1808 Asbury and McKendree Were both present. Lovick Pierce was ordained an elder and Bishop
Wm. Capers was admitted into the connection as a preacher on trial. There was a famous camp-ground at Hastings,
where the people of Greene used to assemble annually for religious meetings. One of the most remark able revivals
of religion ever known in Georgia reached Greensboro in 1827, when Judge Longstreet and many of the most prominent
men in the county were converted. Greene is now well supplied with churches and school houses, and while the country
neighborhoods have declined, the villages of Greensboro, Union Point, White Plains, Penfield, Woodville and Veazy
have grown up, and the people of the county have religious and educational advantages beyond those at any previous
time; and while much of what was once the most fertile land in Greene is not now productive, the average of production
per acre is perhaps greater now than at any time since 1820.
Greensboro was selected as the county site as soon as the county was laid off, and an academy was provided for.
The trustees were granted one thousand acres of land for its endowment. Commissioners were appointed to lay off
the town and build the academy and repair Siloam meeting-house. The Rev. Jas. Ray was appointed rector.
Greensboro drew to it from its first settlement a fine class of citizens and soon became famous for its culture
and refinement. It was the county site of a wealthy county, and while in the early days the planters mainly lived
on their plantations, the lawyers and doctors, preachers and teachers, as well as the court officers, nearly all
lived in the town. Here Dr. Lovick Pierce practised medicine during the time he was a local preacher, and here
Dr. Adiel Sherwood, the great Baptist preacher, lived, and while living here in 1829 he published the first book,
‘Gazetteer of Georgia,” which attempted to tell of the resources of the State. Here Judge Longstreet began the
practise of law and became famous as a wit and jurist. Here he married and as has been seen became a Christian
and Methodist preacher. Here Wm. C. Dawson, long time senator and one of the most popular of Georgians, had his
home and practiced his profession. Thomas Foster,the genial and gifted young Congressman, practised law in this
village.
John Bethune and Vincent Sandford, each clerks of the court and men of position and influence, lived here. Near
here the great Georgia bishop, Geo. Foster Pierce, was born, and here he spent his childhood, and from Greensboro
he went to college at Athens. Here he decided to enter the Methodist itinerancy, and laid down his law books and
entered the ministry.
The eccentric but sterling Governor Peter Early lived in this county, and is buried on what was his manor. His
father, Joel Early, came from Virginia, and purchased a very large body of land on the Oconee river, where he located
what he called Early’s Manor. His will is on record and is a striking document. It gives direction not only as
to the distribution of his property, but as to the methods of pruning his apple orchards and resting his fields.
He bequeathed his land to trustees to be given to his favored sons when they were thirty-six years old. Two of
his sons he disinherited, one for extravagance, the other for disrespect. The descendants of the Greene county
people are found in all sections of the Southern country, and they have been among the most useful and distinguished
of the people.
©2007 Genealogy Trails
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