There may he names of more distinguished men appearing upon the pages of the history of Chattahoochee County but the writer of this sketch is sure that no more upright, honorable, and worthy citizen ever abode within its limits than David Gaskin McGlaun.

In 1828, a youth of fifteen years, he came to this section with his father from Monroe County where he was born.

After assisting his father in erecting a temporary dwelling place, he returned to Muscogee County to attend school at Forsyth, but owing to failing health he was compelled to abandon the idea of obtaining an education and so rejoined his father's family where they had located in what was then Lee County about eight miles S. E. of the present town of Cusseta. He lived on the same farm for sixty-four years and during that period resided in Lee, Muscogee, Marion, and Chattahoochee Counties as the various changes were made.

At the age of twenty-five years he was married to Sarah Elizabeth John whose people were also pioneer settlers in the same community having come from Wilkinson County. In this company were a large number of persons among whom were some very prominent families. They lived together fifty-two years and they were years of compatibility and strong devotion. There were thirteen children in the family and Ml lived to grow up to manhood and womanhood save one infant.

He could relate many interesting incidents in connection with his early days in this region. They moved in very soon after the Indians left and once it was rumored that they were going to be attacked by them.

They were sufficiently alarmed to flee but the Indians failed to come and so they returned to their homes and remained unmolested.

Soon after locating, they needed some corn ground and it was necessary for them to make an effort to find a mill (Cook and Relbeck's) which they heard was somewhere north of them and it fell to the lot of David Gaskin to do this. So he, with a negro man set out with a load of corn drawn by a yoke of oxen, in search of the mill which was only a few miles distant. After two days and a night they returned home with the meal.   They had to cut down trees and make a road.

His physique was fine and his stature at sixteen years of age gave him the appearance of being twenty-one. He was fond of horses and dogs and his judgment regarding horses was quite superior and at various times brought him success in trading.

I have heard him tell the following incident, with enjoyment, though it occurred in his youth.

A neighbor, who was a professional horse trader, possessed a nice four year old mare which David liked and wished to trade for. So, one day he rode over to the neighbor's house on an old, but high-stepping, racking horse and found Mr.___ sitting in his yard.

Not wishing his errand known, as a ruse, he inquired of the gentleman if he had seen a stray hound puppy, to which he replied, "No, but I would like to trade you out of that horse." David, eager enough to trade, knowing the good qualities Mr. ___'s horse possessed, feigned indifference but suggested that he bring out his horse and they try them out, which they did, each riding the other's horse. Halting, after a short ride, he saw from his friend's manner that he was much pleased with his horse and quietly waited for him to make a proposition, only venturing to ask a question regarding the young horse, to which the neighbor replied that he never asked nor answered a question in a horse trade. He offered to trade for $25.00 but David told him he would only give $10.00 and the gentleman agreed and they exchanged saddles.   Mr. was so elated over his trade, feeling that he had shamefully cheated the youth, he proceeded to the home of his brother-in-law that he might enjoy the joke with him and listen to him boast of his success, as horse trader. His brother-in-law, after hearing his story, proposed that they go out and look at the horse. As soon as he saw it he began laughing uproariously, saying, "I thought David's father had told every body in this country that horse's age. He brought him from Monroe County and he is twenty-seven years old."

The gentleman became very angry as David knew he would and also knew that he would wish to rue back; so he instructed his father, in case he came in his absence, to give him $15.00 more as he had intended giving him the $25.00 he asked when trading, but, that if he talked insultingly to give him nothing. Rut in the meantime he had been to see a J. P. who was a staunch friend of David's and enquired of him if he could take a warrant for young David for cheating and swindling. The officer replied that if David had cheated and swindled him, he most assuredly could but desire to know the conditions of the trade, and on being informed that they traded, each on his own judgment, he replied: "You had better hunt another fool like yourself."

Here is another incident that shows the confidence men placed in each other in those days.

As he was returning home from Columbus on one occasion, when within a few miles of home he met his good friend, Jack Duncan.

Mr. Duncan told him that he was in need of $500.00 and was on his way to see him in regard to borrowing it. He informed his friend that he had it with him and would accommodate him then and there. The only security given was that each inform his wife of the transaction, which in those times of honesty and uprightness was sufficient.

Of his thirteen children, only two survive. He lost two sons in the Civil War, one dying of typhoid fever at Richmond, Va., and one of measles at Griffin, Ga., while a third son was wounded at the battle of Chickamauga.

A son-in-law, Andrew Womack, was killed at Lookout Mt.; leaving to her father's care a widow of eighteen years, and a baby son. He, too, answered the call for old men, and rendered faithful service as food distributor to the end of the war.

He was one of the first commissioners of the county and served for a number of years, assisting in the laying out of Chattahoochee County.

He was a very successful farmer owning more than two thousand acres of land. He was a kind master, regarding his slaves as worthy of the kindest treatment. He freed sixty-five, some of whom remained with him for many years.

He was an honored, respected, and public-spirited citizen, ever ready to do his part in the community. He always contributed liberally toward the support of schools and churches.

He was, indeed, in every sense of the word a high-toned gentleman; a man whose judgment was sought in business matters; one who could wisely calculate his fellowman's value, giving him a solid esteem proportioned to it.


As none of Mr. McCook's descendants have definite recollections or records of his personality and achievements, the information embodied in this sketch was obtained from several sources, but principally from his obituary in possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. W. I. VanHorn.

Joshua Kyle McCook born April 20, 1806 died Oct. 10, 1854, married Miss Sarah King, daughter of John King, who lived in that corner of Chattahoochee nearest the line of Talbot County. Mr. McCook was a well known citizen of this county, to which he came in 1828 (then Muscogee) and where he remained until his death.

The house he built though in a dilapidated condition, is still standing. The fine old trees still stand sentinel both at the old home and the cemetery near by, guardians of the mute evidence of activities of former generations.,

Mr. McCook was a South Carolinian by birth, a Georgian by adoption. He possessed strong traits of character worthy of notice, which made him bold and daring in enterprises that won for him a great amount of earth's treasures, though he commenced life with a widowed mother and her family to support.   (Census of 1850 shows him to be one of the wealthiest. men of this county).

He was a man of integrity and though his education was limited, he possessed an intellectual mind with sound philosophical reasoning. He took a keen and deep interest in the cause of education and especially in the schools of his neighborhood.

His name was one of the school committee of Muscogee County for the year 1839, as given in Martin's History of Columbus, (Ga.)

He was not an enthusiast, yet he was a warm-hearted religionist of the Primitive Baptist denomination, to which he was always ready to contribute, of which church he was a member for fifteen years—at Mt Paran.

His admonitions to his children were always good and to the last he entreated and exhorted them to the practice of virtue and honesty His whole life was such as eulogists can not too highly praise and commend to others.

He died in the 49th year of his age of a complication of diseases. He bore his afflictions with fortitude and resignation and spoke often and freely of his approaching end. He said, 'though I have some strong ties on earth, yet, if it is my Lord's will to remove me, I am ready and willing."

To mourn his irreparable loss, besides his many friends, he left eight affectionate children and his kind, benevolent and beloved wife, who stayed beside him during the whole of his sickness and administered to his every want.

A few words about his wife, who was known in her community as "the best woman in the world" will not be amiss. Those living today who remember her, call her Mrs. Whittle. For two years after the death of Mr. McCook, she married Mr. James Whittle, another pioneer resident of Chattahoochee County.

She was always first to visit the sick, bereaved and afflicted as near or as far as she and her good horse could find the trail leading to their doors. For upon such ministrations of mercy as well as when attending church and visiting her neighbors she was accustomed to ride horseback, and it is said she knit as she traversed the country lanes and roads.

Habits of industry and benevolence were so deeply implanted in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. McCook. that these characteristics still predominate in the lives of their descendants, among the best known of them in Chattahoochee County being the children of Mrs. Martha McCook Harp, who has herself been spoken of often, as "one of the best women in the world."


William Bagley was one of the five commissioners appointed by Gov. H. V. Johnson, in 1854. to direct the initial efforts of the new county of Chattahoochee to function as a political unit of the State.

William Bagley's father, Moor Bagley, is said to have been the first white man to come through King's Gap on the Indian trail above Hamilton, Ga.   He stayed a few years in Harris County, then came into Muscogee where the first record of land bought by him is dated Dec. 24, 1836, (lot No. 253, in 9th district).   He was a cooper by trade, made buckets, piggins, tubs, etc.   As he followed the Indians, he had many dramatic experiences.   Col. J. E. D. Shipp as a boy heard Mr. Moor Bagley, who lived to be quite aged, say that there were few stores in Columbus during his early residence in Muscogee County and when great numbers of Indians would come there to buy goods no one else could get any because the merchants would sell to the Indians at such tremendous profits that they would not pay any attention to people who knew how to trade, until after the Indians left.   Moor Bagley used also to tell this tale: There was a girl in Columbus who drew pictures and she made one of the Chief's daughter, a good looking Indian maiden, which was a pencil sketch colored up a little.  This Indian chief came in one day, said his daughter was dead and he would like to have that picture.   The artist would have sold it for $10.00, but the chief said he would give her ten fine horses and a wig-wam for it.

Mr. Bagley said he could hire an Indian to work on his farm all day for ten ears of com. When the Creek Indians began war after the last cession of their lands in Georgia, his son, William Bagley, subject of this sketch, served as a corporal in Captain Carnes' Mounted Company, 66th Regiment Georgia Militia, having enlisted May 22, 1836, at Columbus. Ga.

Moor Bagley married Jane Graves in old Randolph, later Jasper, County, where William Bagley was born. From Jasper County Moor Bagley was drawn for service in War of 1812. The records in Washington show that Moor Bagley served as a corporal in Capt. Samuel Lane's Company of Riflemen, 4th Regiment (Jones') Georgia Militia from November 21, 1814 to May 6, 1815.

Dr. Geo. Wallis says Moor Bagley was drawn twice, first from Jasper County—during his absence his wife and children (including Wm. Bagley) came to her father's (John Graves') in Fayette County. When he returned, he was drawn again for six months from Fayette County. Moor Bagley paid tax in Fayette County in 1822, and for several succeeding years. His children were all married in Muscogee County. He married a second time, after Chattahoochee County was formed, when he was living near Cooler's Hill. Mr. J. E. Chapman, Sr., re calls going to the home of his great-grandfather, a few miles from that of his grandfather, Wm. Bagley. lie says the second Mrs. Moor Bagley was a scrupulously nice housekeeper, who practiced a custom peculiar to the Japanese—there was an entry for changing shoes and boots worn outside for those kept for indoor wear.

Several of Mr. Moor Bagley's children moved to Alabama and Texas, but William Bagley remained in Chattahoochee County, where he and his wife, Joannah Jones Bagley, reared a large family of sons and daughters. William had been a pioneer in Columbus, for he helped clear the land where Broad Street is now located, and dug the first well in Columbus at the northwest corner of Twelfth Street and Fourth Avenue. Two or three years later he moved into this part of then Muscogee County, where he spent the remainder of his life. After helping to build up this part of the state he saw it again, devastated by war. And all his sons enlisted in this war, on of them, James Madison Bagley, being killed at the battle of Gettysburg. He himself gave service when the older men were enrolled into the militia during last months of the Civil War. One of his sons. B. F. (Doc) Bagley, made repeated efforts before he was accepted, being young and small of stature. It is said he and his equipment weighed less than one hundred pounds when he departed for army life.

During reconstruction days, the people recognizing Mr. Wm. Bagley's ability elected him with D. H. Burts to represent Chattahoochee in the Constitutional Convention at Milledgeville called by Provisional Governor James Johnson in October 1865.

He was Judge of the Inferior Court in 1867-68, when this court was abolished. His services were in constant demand as administrator of various estates of his relatives and friends.

Finally through removals and death, there was only one of the sons living in this county, B. F. (Doc) Bagley, who served the County as representative, sheriff and tax receiver, for several terms of his service as tax receiver, he was assisted by his daughter. Miss Mattie Kate Bagley, then a schoolgirl, who has since become a successful young business woman in Columbus. Ga., and is now Vice President Georgia Division American Legion Auxiliary. Wm. Bagley's vigorous mentality and superior ability are characteristic of many of his descendants.

Col. J. E. D. Shipp, who was his legal adviser during the latter years of his life, says a more honorable, upright man than Mr. Wm. Bagley never lived.


Wm. Woolridge, grandfather of State Senator Chas. N. Howard, the genealogy of whose family is found in this volume, in every generation of which there have been statesmen and leaders in all public interprises,—was one of the five men appointed as first commissioners of Chattahoochee.   He was a large land owner with many slaves, and it is said few of these Negroes left his plantation when they were freed.   For, with a kind master to furnish what they needed, freedom meant little to them.   But changed conditions subsequent to the war made their maintenance a proposition which became increasingly difficult as the years passed and the infirmities of age were added to the handicaps imposed by the financial stringency of the country.   So it has been said these servants almost "ate their master out of house and home."   Judge G. H. Howard says he has listened by the hour to the stories told by these dusky toilers, so faithful in their allegiance to their master's family.

Dr. Howard says his grandfather Wooldridge was a very large man of imposing appearance. His name is found frequently in records of the county, and while be was above age to serve actively in the War Between the States, like all wealthy men he paid heavily in taxes for the support of the army as well as the usual tax for the maintenance of government. He was a man of great force of character and was prominent in all affairs of his day and generation.

Of the first five Commissioners appointed by Governor Johnson in 1854, only Wm. G. Love is unknown to later residents. No official record or family data could be secured for sketch of his life.


Henry King, son of Joseph and Zilpha Powell King was born in 1796, his wife in 1795. They were married at the ages of twenty and twenty-one. Their oldest child, Eliza, was born Feb. 20, 1818. Looking backward through their eyes gives a perspective of more than a century. Their combined experiences and the traditions of their lives is a record worthy of preservation.

The Kings came to Georgia from Tar River in North Carolina, but originally they were from Raleigh. Henry King's father and the father of William Rufus King, the Vice President, were brothers and lived in Sampson County, North Carolina. In later years, William Rufus King, and other members of this large family, moved to Alabama. There was a Rufus King in every generation for people believed in family names in those days.

Henry King married Elizabeth Lee, a daughter of John Lee and his wife Mary Brown. She had all the lovable qualities characteristic of the Lees—gentle, modest, quiet, industrious and affectionate, with intense devotion to her family; and these qualities prevailed in the families of all her sisters.—Polly Rogers of Chattahoochee County, Rachel Vaugn, of Alabama, Elbe Scarborough, Sallie Hargrove, and Harriet Cobb, of South Georgia. There was a brother, John Lee, who moved to Cary, Georgia.

Henry King's brothers were Nathan and Joseph King, Charles King of Chattahoochee County, and Jackie. There was one sister, Belle, who married a Burns. All these were people of prominence and wealth in their respective counties.

Henry King was one of the richest men in Chattahoochee County, but he was not so wealthy as some of his brothers. He lived simply, without apparent pride in worldly possessions. To him and his wife, there were neither high nor low, but all human beings were worthy of help and respect if they showed any disposition to help themselves, by performing honest labor and living upright lives.

When a young man, Henry King was a wagoner and carried goods from Augusta, Ga., to the Cherokee Nation. Of course he used a Conestoga wagon,—a name familiar to the King descendants before the name of Conestoga was dignified and arrived on the pages of history.

On one occasion when war between the whites and Indians seemed imminent, he was in danger from attack by the Indians. But some friendly Indians warned him of the danger, and gave him the countersign that would enable him to pass in case of an attack. When he came to the river, a crowd of Indians sprang from ambush, seized his horses' bridles, jumped upon the loaded wagon, all jabbering and gesticulating. He thought of his talismanie word, which was "Weatherford." When he said "Weatherford," the crowd of Indians fell back as if by magic. After holding a consultation, they permitted him to pass unmolested. He never had any more trouble from the Indians.

"When a tall and gawky boy of seventeen,"—he told this incident on his last visit to his daughter. Mrs. Eliza Wilkinson. —"I remember picking huckleberries in the swamp.. One day as I stood there eating berries, I felt something on my feet. Looking down, I saw a snake, the largest I thought I had ever seen, crawling slowly over my bare feet. I stood perfectly still until it passed over and away; then I left,—but not as slowly as the snake had done, nor in the same direction."

What boy now living has a nerve like that?

When his oldest child married he lived in Pulaski County. Georgia. In the winter of 1836 he moved to Muscogee County. When he first came here, there were tall, long-leaf pines with no undergrowth and people could drive or ride through the woods without having to clear up a road anywhere. Deer were often seen grazing, or hounding off through the open woods.

He loved to fish, and even when an old man he would go many miles in pursuit of his favorite sport. Fresh fish was often on his table, and it was one of his favorite dishes. Wherever he lived he always had a fish pond on his land, and a mill, usually both a grist and a saw mill.

There was nothing effeminate in his character. Pioneers live a hard life, with plenty of hard work and rough amusements. But through it all he was a gentleman; and, like all gentlemen of his day, he was a hard drinker. But when he realized that it was best to quit drinking, he simply quit drinking.

One day when he went to Columbus to attend to some business, he got drunk, as usual; only, this time he must have been a little drunker than usual for it was sundown when he left town for the twenty-mile ride home. He had bought a new negro that day. He was driving a fine horse, and the negro rode in the buggy beside his new master. That wild ride must have been terrible to the negro—who was not drunk.

It was dark when they came to Upatoie Creek. Many people still remember the deep gullies that used to be there before good roads were built. They crossed the covered bridge all right, and then our ancestor, as "drunk as a lord," deliberately drove off the high embankment into the deepest gully. The horse was killed, and it was only a miracle that saved him and the negro alive.   Bruised and broken, they were finally rescued and taken home.

The next day, that old man with the iron constitution, arose from his bed, though he must have been stiff and sore, and announced to his wife that he was going before a magistrate and swear off from drinking.

"Don't do that," his wife entreated. "I am afraid you will break your oath."

But she did not know the man whom she married, and with whom she had lived for more than a quarter of a century.

He went, as he said he would do, before a magistrate and took an oath to stop drinking, and, to his dying day, he was never drunk again.   The magistrate was Mr. Robert Patterson of Halloca District

Grand old man! Even in his naughty deeds there was something of the strength and sublimity of the preceding generations.

When the War Between the States began he was an old man of 65 years, and nearly seventy when the war ended, and was already beginning to feel the effects of age. His oldest sons and all his daughters had married and left home. The war took his youngest sons, on whom he had begun to rely to attend to business and left him, an old man, and his wife alone among a crowd of blacks. These slaves without the guidance of a firm hand, developed some traits that were absent from the majority cf the faithful blacks of the South. They slipped into the house and stole out bedding, sheets, quilts, and even the clothes of the young sons who were away in the war. They stole the horses out of the lot at night and drove them to death. The old master, who trusted the slaves, could not imagine what was the matter with the stock. Afterward he learned that his slaves had been seen at night in Columbus, and one man told of seeing them in the early hours of the morning, returning home at a furious rate of speed.

But they tried one trick too many. One night he waked to perceive his premises all lighted up-fire!—and found out that some one had built a great fire of lightwood knots under the back steps of the kitchen, intending to burn him out.

Then the old lion roused again, and it was a young man who stood there in the light of his burning dwelling. In a terrible voice he shouted the names of his slaves, who waked, or pretended to awaken, and came running.

"Put out that fire you have kindled." he commanded.

Fast fell the buckets to the bottom of the well; a bucket brigade was formed, and the fire was soon under control.

When the last coal was quenched and lay smoking in steam, he called the slaves around him. In the background cowered a woman.

"I know who did this," he said, "and if I only had the proof, I would have thrown you into the fire you built."

Standing there on his porch in the dying light, he spoke to his slaves who cowered before him, grand in his just indignation, one man against a hundred blacks, and told them what would happen if that night's work was ever repeated.

"If this happens again," he said, "I will shoot every one of you or get the right one.   Now back to your houses."

The crowd quietly dispersed, and then the tired old giant lay down again on his bed, without locking a door or closing a window, and went to sleep and slept all night.

Grand old man! in his fury and just indignation, standing there alone, his terrible voice ringing out on the still night air in bitter curses so well deserved.

He was six feet tall, sparse built, with dark brown eyes, dark complexion, (inherited from his mother, who was a Powell) with a large, but a well-formed nose, a firm chin, a mouth firm, yet pathetic—though that pathetic droop might have been caused by the infirmities of age. His chief characteristic was his iron-gray hair, coal black—that rose in two "cow-licks" above his lofty forehead, and floated back like a plume. After his death, at the age of eighty-six, as he lay in a massive metallic coffin waiting in the last farewell, in the old fashioned parlor to be viewed by friends and relatives, that noble forehead crowned with snowy hair waving back like a plume was the feature least changed by death.

His wife was small with delicate features, large blue eyes, and black hair. Her grand-daughter, Miriam King Cody resembled her. In her old age she became so stout that it was said that she was "almost as broad as she was long."

In their old age they were familiarly called "Aunt Betsy" and "Uncle Henry" by hundreds—the rich who respected them, the poor whom they had befriended, and who loved them.


Rev. William Greene Wilkinson, who came to Chattahoochee County, then part of Muscogee, in 1838 from Twiggs, County, Georgia, is a descendant of the English family of Wilkinsons who have left distinguished records in every section of the United States, in commercial, educational, and professional life. A religious strain seems to characterize the entire family, in addition to an uncommon degree of natural refinement, culture, sobriety, gentility, honor and self-reliance.

Between 1802 and 1807 John Lawrence Wilkinson (b. Sept. 2. 1762) is thought to have emigrated from North Carolina to Georgia with his wife Cristiana Luther and several small children, stopping in Montgomery County, Ga., for an unknown length of time, where his eighth child, Lawrence, was born. In 1809 he moved into Twiggs County, settling where the celebrated "Longstreet" road crossed the Pulaski County line, (now the line of Bleckley County) about twelve miles north of Cochran.   This road was once noted for the superiority of its aristocratic farmers.   The house place contained about 1500 acres, including some of the richest lands in that section.   Cotton six feet high' and other fine crops were raised here; some articles made by him, a neat hand mallet, an iron wedge, and an old door made in 1830 or '40 before there were any sawmills in the country, are prized possessions of his descendants.   The neat and legible handwriting in his old family Bible, perfectly preserved, indicates that he was a man of no ordinary culture. In addition to other business interests, he kept an Inn which, no doubt, was a popular hostelry on that much traveled road. He is mentioned in Gilmer's History of Georgia.

John L. Wilkinson died Aug. 23, 1841 and was buried at his request about three-quarters of a mile from the old home-stead on the banks of a creek and his grave marked by a large pile of rocks. Christiana Luther Wilkinson died Aug. 13, 1855 and is buried in Macon County near the home of her son Benjamin B., with whom she lived at that time.

They were the parents of eleven children: (1) Micajah Wilkinson, b. Apr. 11, 1794; m. 2nd Catherine Phillips.   (2) Elizabeth, b. June 20, 1790; (3) James, b. Nov. 30, 1797; (4) Washington Mayberry b. Jan. 27, 1800; (5) John Jr. b. Mar. 4, 1802, m. Fannie Wynne; (6) Benjamin Benanael b. about 1804, m. Mary Ann Hall; (7) Thulia, b. Oct. 9, 1806, m. Josiah Whitehurst; (8) Lawrence Goldwire (or Goulden) b. Nov. 15, 1808, m. Elizabeth Jane Miller; (9) William Green b. July 18, 1813, m. Eliza Ann King; (10) Susannah Adkin b. May 2, 1815, m. (1st) Bryan Clark, m. (2nd) a Mr. Southwell. (11) Calvin Robinson b. Mar. 22, 1820, m. Frances Field, who lived several years in Chattahoochee County.   Francis Field Wilkinson died in 1864, and she and her infant are buried in Mt. Olive Cemetery at Cusseta, Ga.   Other children; Elvenia Ellafair, m. John Dorsey and reared a family in Polk County, Fla.; Ludie m. a Steagall, and lived in Miller County; Jack died unmarried; was drowned at a picnic in Florida when a boat overturned, and he tried to rescue his fiance; Fannie m. a Mr. Kichelberger, and reared a family at Wildwood, Fla.

The ninth child of John Lawrence and Cristiana Luther Wilkinson, William Green Wilkinson, b. July 18, 1813 in Twiggs County, was married on June 16, 1836 to Eliza King of Pulaski County, (b. Feb. 20, 1818) by the bride's great uncle Green Brown Esq., Justice of Peace .

Three months before his marriage Wm. Green Wilkinson joined the troops in Florida fighting the Indians. At the end of this war he was honorably discharged and afterwards received a grant of 160 acres in Florida, which he sold.

The first year after his marriage he was overseer for his father in Twiggs County, but the urge of rich lands to the westward soon caused him to follow his wife's parents to Chattahoochee County, where in 1838 he settled on the west side of Ochillee Creek on the road from Halloca to Cusseta. The two-room house built on a little knoll was soon replaced with a larger house «n a hill across the creek. This place was sold to his brother Calvin Wilkinson in exchange for the Cherry place. C. R. Wilkinson sold his home to Pinckney Rogers and it is still known as the Rogers Place. W. G. Wilkinson moved to the Cherry Place where he lived till 1856 when he bought the Wooldridge and Holt plantation near Cusseta. He enlarged the four room house to nine rooms and lived there till his death. It was a beautiful place in its setting of 150 acres of original oak, its well kept garden, carriage house and negro quarters nearby.

He joined Mt. Paran Primitive Baptist Church in Muscogee County in 1839. Here he was licensed to preach Oct. 2, 1845, but where he was ordained has been forgotten. He was chosen delegate many times to the Associational meetings, served as moderator of the Association and as preacher at Mt. Paran Church, Mt. Olive at Cusseta, at the Church near Pineville in Marion County, at' Slaughter Creek Church, Stewart County, Harmony Primitive Church in Richland, Ga., and elsewhere. He was highly respected and greatly beloved through-out the sections he served. His sermons were characterized by their brevity. It is said that he never preached a long sermon, but plunged immediately into his subject, speaking rapidly and ending suddenly. He ably supported his family from the produce on his 900 acres of rich farm land, said to be one of the richest in the county at that time. His slaves were well cared for, and humanely treated. During his absence from home at one time his overseer unjustly whipped a slave, it was thought, and he would never hire another.

During the War Between the States, being exempt from service, as a preacher, he gave liberally of his possessions. He would not raise as much cotton as was permitted, preferring to raise more food to help feed the soldiers, among whom were three of his own sons, John Henry, Joseph and William, besides the sons of all his relatives and friends. He was a remarkable man in many ways, inspiring in his children the greatest love, respect and confidence; and in his wife much more than the average love, admiration and veneration. Some of his writings have been preserved; no sermons, because he spoke extemporaneously, but many treatises on religious subjects.

His death occurred July 21, 1865 and he is buried in the family cemetery across the road where later were buried many of his children, his wife, grandchildren, and a confederate soldier, Jim Cobb, son of one of his nearest neighbors and closest friends, "Uncle Buck and Aunt Kizzie Cobb." Though he never accepted pay for serving a church, he prospered, and at his death left a large and valuable estate not including the thirty-three slaves which had been freed at the close of the war, a few months before.

His wife, Eliza Ann Wilkinson who was a woman of extraordinary character and ability, lived to rear their twelve children, deservedly winning the love and admiration of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. At her death, Jan. 20, 1898, she was buried beside the devoted husband who had preceded her by 33 years.

Christiana Elizabeth, her oldest daughter, never married, but devoted her life to her widowed mother and the younger children. She died Dec. 17, 1903, and is buried at her request at her mother's feet in the family cemetery.

Mrs. Mary Wilkinson Miller, her youngest daughter, was an honor graduate of Cox College (at La Grange) in the class of 1885. She has much literary work to her credit through which she honors this elder sister whose devotion added to the success of any work she has even attempted.

Dr. James McLester (1804-1859) had a large practice in Muscogee County when Chattahoochee was formed. The plantation upon which he lived was located in that part of Muscogee which was included in the new county of Chattahoochee. He had moved to Georgia from Alabama, but he was a resident of Jackson County Ga. in 1827. His grandfather was a native Scotsman, who served as a soldier under Col. Hines in a North Carolina regiment during the Revolutionary War. His father, John McLester born 1836, who married Araminta Gray in 1796, was a Scotch Presbyterian. These Scotch Presbyterians have usually been strong advocates of education and proof that John McLester was true to this doctrine lies in the fact that three of his sons were physicians and two were lawyers. (Mrs. Minnie Shipp Littlejohn says there was eight sons, four physicians and four lawyers.)

Dr. James McLester, b. in Anson Co. N. C. graduated from the University of Georgia Medical department at Augusta in the class of 1834. He assisted with the education of his younger brothers, one of whom. John Jr.. graduated from the same college in 1839 and afterward studied in Europe and was a lecturer at Bellevue Hospital. N. Y. John Jr. never married. Another brother, Leonidas Me I.ester graduated from the medical department of the University of Ga. in 1843. He practiced for a while in Muscogee Co. and was probably associated with his brother's large practice when Chattahoochee was formed; for his name appears among jurors and other public records during first years of this county's existence. He afterwards located in Cuthbert, Ga.. married Mary Ann Kiddoo of that place and died there.

Dr. James McLester not only assisted his own family in educational matters, but extended his support to the schools of the county. A deed recorded in 1847, in which he gave the land for the academy at Jamestown shows his interest, and he was one of the four men who built and equipped the old school house at Cusseta, under whose portals so many splendid men and women have passed as teacher and pupil.

The administrator of his estate was authorized to pay a sum of money towards the maintenance of this school during the year following his death.

James McLester married Lucinda Caroline Wooldridge in 1836. She was born in Putman County in 1820, the daughter of Absolom D. and Lucy (Henderson) Wooldridge. Since it is known that Mrs. Lucy Wooldridge (later Bussey) was one of the four charter members of Harmony Baptist Church and her eldest daughter the first person to be interred at that cemetery in 1848, the family tradition that Dr. McLester donated the land for this burial plot must be based on facts, although a deed to trustees of Harmony Church was made by William Crew for $50.00, which it is probable Dr. McLester paid, making it a gift to members of this church. The graves of Dr. McLester, with those of many of their kindred and friends are at Harmony Cemetery, Cusseta, to which their great-grandson. Nelson M. Shipp refers in an article published in the Columbus Ledger, entitled. The Glories of Old Cusseta.

"There the blessed lie ... on a green bluff overlooking the fork of the Louvale, Jamestown and Columbus roads and the town of Cusseta, in Chattahoochee County on the other. The prominence looks too, across a valley that might well be a garden of the gods—to a handsome schoolhouse in the distance that symbolizes all that is valuable and intrinsic in the present day.

Old trees, bent with age lean towards each other over the graves of patriarchs as though whispering of memories too sad for the ears of a hurried generation.

History is written on the knoll and hillside. And there are those tragic, unknown graves, mute gestures from another century—missing pages in the annals of proud families.

At the foot of the hill, and around and about, the manors of a past day with their slave quarters and plantations once held forth a life that was gay and brilliant, sober and studious.

Between the cemetery, where lie men and women due to be called great still stands the old school house that far and wide is famous and beloved,—The country churchyard whispers of a victorious race."

Children of Dr. James and Caroline Wooldridge McLester: Laura b. 1837. d. 1853 from effects of measles while attending Slade School in Columbus. Ga. Mary Frances b. 1839; ed. Slade School Columbus, Ga., m.   Hortense b 1842;ed Slade School; m. C. A. Hawkins. Capt. C S A Emma b. 1844; ed. Andrew College; m. B. F. Davis, Capt. C S A James H. (Mack) b. 1846; d. Penfield (Mercer) m. Laura A Battle. Ch. Battle and Annie Laurie McLester. Caroline b. 1851; ed. Andrew College; m. Emory Jefferson Leonidas, b. 1853; ed. Emory and Henry College, Va., m. Lula Persons. Willie, accidentally smothered while playing in a pile of cotton seed while a small boy. Ida b. 1856; m. Council B. Wooten. Daniel b. 1857; m. Mattie Trotman. Children of Leonidas and Lull Person McLesler, Hortense, James (died), Kathleen (died), and Lee.

Source: Rogers, N. K.. History of Chattahoochee County, Georgia. Columbus, Ga.: Printed by Columbus Office Supply Co., c1933.