JEFFERSON.
Jefferson county was organized in 1796 and named for Thomas Jefferson.
There was no part of Georgia which had been peopled longer by white
people, as we have seen, than a part of Jefferson. Here the Indian
trader had his station before Oglethorpe came, and drew around him
Scotch-Irishmen, and all along the banks of Briar creek, Rocky creek,
Lambert’s creek and the Ogeechee river many thrifty people had their
homes before the Revolution.
According to Mr. White the early settlers were: Wm. Hardwick, Jno.
Fulton, the Clemmons, Pattersons, Roger and Hugh Lawson, Wm. Gamble,
Captain Haden, Captain Connelly, Andrew Berryhill, the Shellmans, John
Berrien, the Hamptons, and the Whiteheads. Mr. White has nat urally
concluded because some of these came from the north of Ireland that all
did. It is certain that William Hardwick and John Whitehead were
Virginians in their ancestry, and I find a large number of persons
receiving land grants before 1800 who evidently came from Virginia, but
not a few from north Ireland.
They were:
Hugh Alexander, James Harvey, Z. Albritton, Charles Harvey, Thomas
Atkinson, Garland Hardwick, Dave Alex ander, Jos. Hampton, Henry G.
Caldwell, Esq., D. Hancock, Isaac Coleman, Wm. Hannah, Isaac DuBose, W.
P. Hardwick, Marth Dorton, G. W. Hardwick, David Douglas, John Ingram,
John Evers, George Ingram, John Evans, Wm. Kennedy, R. Fleming, John
Land, R. Flournoy, Wm. Lowry, John Finley, Samuel Little, John Green,
James Meriwether, R. Gray, John Martin, John Gamble, John Mock, Sherrod
Hartley, B. McCutlers, John Maynard, Wm. Peel, Jesse Paulett, Love
Sanford, Robert Prior, Henry Tucker, Jesse Purvis, Andrew Thompson,
John Reese, Benjamin Warren, Jesse Slatter, John Warnocke, M. Shelman.
All these received grants of land in the county, and there were many
whose names are to be found in the Appendix who received grants before
the county was formed from St. George’s parish or Burke county.
Along the banks of the Ogeechee and on the numerous creeks in the
county were large areas of the best oak and hickory land, and away from
them were wide areas of pine forests.
Like all the first settlements in Georgia, the first industry of the
people was stock-raising, and there was but little else raised for some
years. Then some tobacco was planted for market, and there was a
tobacco warehouse where the product might be inspected, located on the
Ogeechee, in the early part of the century, but after cotton-gins were
set up in the county every energy was turned in the direction of
cotton-planting. Men made large fortunes raising cotton, and with the
usual result—the small farms gave way to the large plantations.
The best lands were very hilly and friable, and as in Wilkes and
Greene, the hills soon washed badly and be came very much impoverished.
In the pine woods, as in Burke, the story was different.
Queensboro was established during the time of Galphin, and Louisville,
which was named in honor of Louis XVI., was selected in accordance with
the statute of 1786 by Hugh Lawson, Wm. Few and N. Brownson, commis
sioners, and laid out in the first of 1796 near Queens boro. An academy
was one of the first buildings erected, and it was endowed by the State
with £1,000 of confiscated property and the proceeds of the sales
of the town lots. The town commissioners of the new city were Rev.
David Bothwell, John Shelman, James Meriwether and John Cobbs. Forty
acres of land were laid out into lots and they were sold at auction.
Perhaps the most stirring event in its early history was the burning of
the Yazoo act spoken of elsewhere. The capitol was removed from
Louisville after it had been there for only seven years, and the modest
building which served for a State-house was sold to the county for
county purposes, and many of the people of Louisville followed the
capitol to Milledgeville.
A State university had been projected, which was to be located in
Louisville, but it was never established. The spot chosen by the
commissioners at the capital city proved to be unhealthy. The hope that
Louisville would be an important city was given up, and it declined,
until in 1850 there were only two hundred and fifty people in the
deserted village. The Central railway was ten miles off. The health of
the village was not good. There was no trade, and there was but little
hope of any change for the better.
The population of the county in 1810 was 3,775 free and 2,336 slaves;
in 1830, 3,062 free and 3,647 slaves, and in 1850, 3,717 free and 5,637
slaves.
The owners of these large plantations in many cases lived in Augusta,
Savannah and Macon, and only visited their estates occasionally.
Churches were few and congregations small, but with changes which came
with the war a new order of things came in. Sprightly towns sprang up
on the railway, and a branch road was made from the Central railway to
Louis ville. The pine-barrens were filled with a thrifty and well-to-do
people. Louisville began to improve and took its place with the
progressive towns. Handsome churches were built, a graded school of
high order was established, and now there are few villages anywhere
more attractive than Louisville, and the county is more prosperous than
it has been in fifty years.
The boring of artesian wells in various parts of the county has
provided a bountiful supply of the purest water, and the health of the
county is remarkably good.
Few counties have sent forth a larger number of good citizens than this
old county. Their descendants are found in all the lower and western
counties of the State and in all the southwestern States.
The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians had congregations in the county before
the Revolution, but churches were not erected. The Rev. Mr. Ronaldson
was the pastor, but he was a Royalist and was taken captive, and being
released he left Georgia and never returned. After the war ended the
Presbyterians sent to Ireland and secured a pastor, the Rev. David
Bothwell, and the churches were revived. The Methodists came after the
Revolution, as did the Baptists. The first church in Louisville was
built by the father of Roger L. Gamble, and was on the lot where the
public school now stands. It was afterward surrendered to the
Methodists, but on their securing a lot of their own the old church,
much dilapidated, was torn away.
There are now excellent churches in every part of the county and good
schools have been established.
At the junction of the railway from Louisville a very sprightly town
known as Wadley has sprung up. It has handsome churches, an elegant
school building and school, neat residences, and good, solid store
buildings, and does a large trade. Bartow, a considerable village, is
only a few miles away.
On the railway from Augusta to Tennille there are several villages of
some size.
Jefferson has been more famous for its large planters than for its
public men, but it has produced not a few men of distinction. Hugh
Lawson, whose father came into Georgia from North Carolina before the
Revolution, was a captain in the Revolution, one of the commissioners
for the sale of confiscated property and for selecting the place for a
State-house, and one of the trustees of the university. He was brought
up in this county.
Judge Roger Lawson Gamble, who was a member of Congress, long lived in
Louisville.
Chesley Bostwick and Littleberry Bostwick, both officers in the
Revolution, lived in this county.
The Cobbs, Lamars, Rootes and Flournoys lived here, and at one time no
county had so many distinguished people.
Towns,
Hamlets and Villages
French, a post-hamlet of Jefferson
county, is a station on the Wadley & Mt. Vernon railroad, about
thirteen miles southwest of Louisville.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by
Renae Donaldson)
Louisville,
the county seat of Jefferson county, was chartered by act of the
legislature in 1786. It is the terminus of the Louisville &
Wadley railroad, which connects it with the Central of Georgia railway
at Wadley. It has express and telegraph offices, a money order
postoffice with free rural delivery, a court house valued at $10,000,
two banks, some good business houses, and among its other industries,
the Louisville Manufacturing Company, which makes fertilizers and
cotton seed oil and meal. The schools belong to the public school
system and several denominations are represented by churches.
Artesian wells furnish the people with good healthful water.
Louisville was the capital of Georgia from 1795 to 1804, and the court
house is built of the material which formerly composed the state
house. According to the census of 1900 there was in Louisville
district a population of 1,574, of whom 1,009 lived in the town.
A slight skirmish occurred here on the last day of November,
1864. Some Federal foraging parties were driven into camp by a
small force of Wheeler’s cavalry. Colonel Langley was sent out
with four regiments and after the exchange of a few shots the
Confederates slowly retired. The casualties were trifling on
either side.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by
Joanne Morgan)
Matthews, a town
in the northern part of Jefferson county, was incorporated by act of
the legislature on August 1, 1904. The population in 1900 was 150. It
has a money order postoffice, with a number of rural free delivery
routes, is located on the line of the Augusta Southern railroad,
and is the principal trading center and shipping point in that
section of the county.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Kim
Mohler)
