A History of the Middle of Georgia 1
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Jackson: A History of the Middle of Georgia 1 In the southwestern section of town is a place that was once howling grounds for two packs of wolves. The two packs, one from Yellow Water and one from Sandy Creek, made that area their nocturnal meeting area and made nights frightful to early settlers due to the hideous howling. Before Jackson was created, the area where the downtown now stands was only two Indian trails that crossed where a 10’ by 12’ log cabin stood and was used as a post office. The first hanging in Jackson took place before the city was created in the middle of what would become Third Street between the Furlow and Slaughter residences. Two White men were hanged there on an old chestnut tree and were buried in the backyard of the Furlow place. 1818 In 1818, the first church services were held in what would become the City of Jackson. They were conducted by a Methodist, Mrs. Mary Williams Buttrill, in a log house erected by her slaves at what is now the east entrance to the Jackson Cemetery. Buttrill died in 1830, but for years she took her own seven boys, three daughters, slaves and local children into this log house one afternoon a week to hold religious services using her Bible and prayer book. 1822 The Southern Railway was built through the area that would soon become Butts County in 1822. A Western Union telegraph service came to the area soon after that. 1825 Butts County was created by an act of the Georgia General Assembly on December 24, 1825. It was Georgia’s 64th county. At the same time Butts County was created on December 24, 1825, the General Assembly passed an act to incorporate the Butts County Academy. Justices of the Inferior Court were asked to select seven trustees for the school and identify a parcel of land for the school. Schools at this time were not intended to educate the masses, but to cater to the children of the wealthier class. At first the academy was used only by those who lived nearby, could afford to board their children there, or afford transportation to and from the school. The first court of Butts County was located under an oak tree on Wade Watkins’ property. 1826 Jackson: A History of the Middle of Georgia 2 According to Grier’s Almanac in 1826, Indians were scalping and skylarking wherever they liked, and games and whiskey were abundant in Butts County. The first road created by the new county in February 1826 ran from Jackson to Simeon Lovejoy’s in the Towaliga District. Five other county roads were ordered at the same time. Lovejoy was one of the first real estate agents in the county. According to John W. McCord, who was interviewed at the age of 80 in the Jackson News in 1882, “it was on the 12th of April, 1826, that a few men gathered here one day to sell lots for the town of Jackson. My father was among the number, and I was then a young man.” When asked who the founder of Jackson was, McCord answered: “A Mr. Bobinet. He sold the lots from his estate, expecting a lively town to spring up in after years, but we lacked facilities and the town has never amounted to a great deal. This was all Henry county in those days.” The City of Jackson was created on December 26, 1826, and named for James Jackson of Savannah, who was a fiery Revolutionary War hero with a lustrous career as governor, statesman, ambassador, and man of letters. [Some have said that Jackson was named for General Andrew Jackson, who repulsed the British in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 and served as President of the United States from 1829 to 1837.] The city arose on a 303.75-acre tract of land the justices of the inferior court of the newly-formed county of Butts purchased for $1,000. The entire parcel was divided into squares, and each square was then subdivided into lots. The lots were bigger the further out from the town center. The sale of these lots was advertised throughout the state in the Fall of 1826. The terms of the sale of these lots was that the buyer put down one-fourth of the purchase price, and then make three annual payments of the remaining balance. The justices of the Inferior Court were instructed by the General Assembly to select a lot in the new town for the building of a Methodist church, one for a Baptist church, and one for a Presbyterian church. The Baptists are said to have been unhappy with their lot, and worked with the Presbyterians to build a church (likely in 1828) which the two denomination shared for many years. Another lot was also to be chosen as a place for public burial. The General Assembly named Samuel Lovejoy, Edward Butler, William V. Barney, John Robinson and Henry Hatler as commissioners of Jackson with the power to pass all by-laws for the governance of the town. Turman Walthall was already operating a business in Jackson, having opened in 1825. The first minister of the gospel in Jackson was Remembrance Chamberlin, a Presbyterian. On August 4, 1826, he reported that a church had been organized in Jackson with 23 members. Chamberlin lived across the street from the current Methodist Church on East Third Street, and his body was buried in the yard there after he died. It was removed and re-interned in the city cemetery in the 1890s when work on the street necessitated the move. Jackson had a newspaper called The Republican sometime between 1826 and 1840. Jackson: A History of the Middle of Georgia 3 1827 The first courthouse of Butts County was built out of logs and situated on North Oak Street between Second and First streets where a city parking lot exists now. The cost of the building was $120. It was there in May 1827 that the first murder trial in the county took place: Ludwell Watts of Monroe County was on trial for the murder of Denton Daniel. Watts was found guilty based on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to hang on August 12 of that year. When the day came, he was hanged in the vicinity of the intersection of Third and Indian Springs streets. A large crowd gathered to witness the execution. In 1882, John W. McCord was interviewed in the Jackson News. McCord was born in 1802, and was 80 at the time of the interview. He recalled that hanging, and added his memory of another man condemned to die that same day. “I remember when the first hanging occurred here in 182[7]. It was intended to be a double hanging, but one of the doomed men resisted in his cell and only one of them swung then. Lud Watts and Tom Leverett were the men, and they were hung right out there in that field before you” pointing to a field in front of his home [described as being on the route to Indian Springs]. “Both of them were murderers of the deepest type, but when the sheriff went for Watts, he made tight with weapons he had concealed in his cell, and it became so desperate and lasted so long that the legal hour passed, and he had to be re-sentenced by the Judge, who, by the way, was C. J. McDonald. Watts was hung the following Monday, and I believe that is the first man ever hung on any day but Friday in the United States.” In an annual report to the inferior court in August 1827, it was noted that $8,081 worth of lots had already been sold in Jackson. The first person to buy a lot and record his deed was John D. Swift of Newton County on January 30, 1827. Writing in the State Gazetteer in 1827, Adiel Sherwood said Butts County had not public buildings yet, and that Jackson consisted of five houses, four stores, and a Presbyterian Society with no house of worship. One of the first businesses in Jackson was Bradley’s Old Tavern, operated by William and Willard Bradley. It was located on the southeastern corner of the intersection of Third and Oak streets. Bradley’s Old Tavern was the place strangers and prospectors in the new county sought food and rest and “the glass that cheers.” After lumbering over muddy roads, travelers on stage coaches stopped at Bradley’s to satisfy their hungers. Politicians met there and exchanged opinions and discussed topics of the day. C. J. Simmons, son of Dr. C. J. Simmons, was born in 1827 soon after the town was laid off and created. He was credited with being the first person born in the City of Jackson. [He died in 1891.] The Butts County Academy, the first public school building in the county, was built in 1827 and was 45’ by 25’, two stories tall, and erected (except for chimneys and plastering) for $475. Jackson: A History of the Middle of Georgia 4 Isaac Nolen was the first sheriff of Butts County. He resigned on August 7, 1827, and Samuel Clay was appointed to take his place. The post office at Jackson was officially established on November 6, 1827. 1828 The following year, in February 1828, the Gazetteer noted the progress made in the new town of Jackson: “there was in Jackson seventeen houses, nine stores, two doctors, nine mechanic shops, three law offices, houses of worship for Methodist and Presbyterian, a court house, jail, and an Academy.” The first doctors in Jackson were Dr.