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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 179
names whose origin can be traced to the Midway settlement. Two of the most
eminent of modern scientists were natives of the Parish of St. John. The list also
includes two university chancellors, three presidents of female seminaries, one presi
dent of the State Normal School, one United States Minister to China, six authors
of note, two historians, six editors, six foreign missionaries, and scores of successful
business men, together with a host of other notables including soldiers, statesmen,
educators, inventors, doctors, lawyers, and ministers of the gospel.* Can any other
religious organization in America exhibit such a record? The explanation is to be
found in the substantial pabulum upon which the offspring of the settlement were
nourished, the emphasis put upon moral and educational values, the sturdy examples
which were set before them, and the fear of God which was an ever-present factor in
the lives of these devout people. To what depths the vital truths of religion struck
root in this fertile soil may be gleaned from thei fact that eighty-two clergymen
have sprung from the Midway settlement. Fifty of these have been Presbyterians,
seventeen Baptists, three Episcopalians, and thirteen Methodists, one of whom
attained to the high office of Bishop. Included among the early pastors of the
church was the father of the famous New England poet: .Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.
—L. L. Knight, in Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, Vol. I, pp. 135-138.
MIDWAY: DERIVATION OP THIS TISKM.—There is some difference of opinion among
the historians concerning' the origin of the name by which this famous settlement
is known. The river which waters the district was originally written Medway, a
spelling which can still be found upon some of the old maps and charts. William
DeBrahm, the colonial engineer, in the original .plan of the district drawn by him
spelt it thus, but in his history he chose the other form. Capt. Hugh McCall calls
it Medway, likewise William Bartram in his Travels. It is so designated in the
letters of Sir James Wright; and even Colonel Jones, who holds to the opposite view
point, reproduces in his Dead Towns of Georgia, a map, on which the name is spelt
Medway. But the latter is quite positive that such is not the correct form of the
word. Says Colonel Jones: '' The territory lying between the Great Ogeechee and
the South Newport rivers was called the Midway district because of its central loca
tion, being about equidistant from.the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, which then
constituted respectively the northern and southern boundaries of Georgia. It has
been suggested by some and the belief is to a limited extent current that the name
both of the district and of the river which permeates it was at the earliest period,
Medway and not Midway, an appellation which was borrowed from one of the well-
known rivers of Merrie 01$ England. The records do not justify the intimation,
and in the light of history it should be repudiated."
Doctor Stacy, on the other hand, is equally certain that in the beginning at least
the river was called Medway and that from it the name of the settlement was derived.
Says he: * "My own opinion is that the district or neighborhood was named after
the river, which was not called Midway, because of any equidistance between any
two points, but Medway, after the river of the same name in England. This form
of the word, however, soon degenerated into the more common and familiar name
of Midway; and, both the church and the community becoming known by the degen
erated appellation, the idea of equidistance was purely as an afterthought. It is an
easy matter to account for Midway coming out of Medway, but difficult to explain
how to get Medway out of Midway. However, for several generations, the church
has been familiarly known as the Midway church, and I have so written it both here
and in the public records." Doctor Stacy is a native of the Midway District. Two
of. his family were clerks of the church session, John Stacy, from 1798 to 1818, and
John W. Stacy, from 1824 to 1854, a period of fifty years having been covered
between them. Doctor Stacy himself is the historian of the Midway Settlement;
and though Colonel Jones was an offspring of the same historic settlement, the
weight of authority in this particular instance is probably upon the side of the
former.
* History of Midway Congregational Church, by Rev. James Stacy, D. D., New-
nan, 1899. Under the head of Liberty County, in Part 2 of this work, the contribu
tions of Midway Church are discussed more in detail.