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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 317
place in the cemetery adjacent to Midway Church. This brave conduct was recog
nized by both state and national governments, his two surviving daughters were
each granted 1,000 acres of land by the Legislature of Georgia, while the
United States Congress, after the lapse of more than a century, has still further
honored his memory in the handsome memorial shaft which he is soon to share at
Midway, with his illusfaioxis companion in arms, Gen. Daniel Stcwart.
SEVEN or GEORGIA'S COUNTIES NAMED FOR LIBERTY'S SONS.—Perhaps the most
eloquent attestation of the part played by the Midway settlement in the drama of
the Revolution is to be found in the fact that seven counties of Georgia bear names
which can be traced to this fountain-head of patriotism.
1. Liberty. This name was conferred by the Constitution of 1777 upon the
newly created county which was formed from the old Parish of St. John. It was
bestowed in recognition of the fact that the earliest stand for independence was here
taken by the patriots of the Midway settlement^ whose flag at Fort Morris was the
last to be lowered when Georgia was overrun by the British, and whose contributions
to the official lists of the Revolution were manifold and distinguished.
2. Screven, formed December 14, 1793, was named for Gen. James Screven, a resi
dent of Sunbm'y, who fell mortally wounded, within a mile and a half of Midway
Church, on November 22, 1778, and who lies buried in Midway Graveyard.
3. Hall, created December 15, 1818, and named after Lyman Hall, a resident of
the Midway District, who was the first delegate sent from Georgia to the Continental
Congress and who was afterwards a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a
governor of Georgia.
4. Gwinnett, established December 15, 1818, was called after Button Gwinnett,
whose home was on St. Catherine's Island, but business affairs connected him with
Sunbury, who was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a governor of
Georgia.
5. Baker, constituted, December 12, 1825, was named for Col. John Baker, of the
Revolution, one of the early pioneer settlers of St. Jolin 's Parish.
6. Stewart, organized December 30, 1830, was named for Gen. Daniel Stewart, an
eminent soldier both of the Revolution and of the Indian wars. He was a native
of the district, a member of Midway Church, and an ancester of ex-President Theo
dore Roosevelt. He sleeps in Midway burial-ground.
7. Bacon, created by legislative act, during the session of 1914, in honor of the
late United States .Senator Augustus 0. Bacon, whose parents repose in the little
cemetery adjacent to Midway Church.
HEARD 's FOKT.—According to the local historian of Wilkes,. the first settlement
on the site of the Town of Washington was made by a colony of immigrants from
Westmoreland County, Virginia, headed by Stephen Heard, a pioneer who afterwards
rose to high prominence in public affairs. Two "brothers accompanied him to Georgia,
Ba.rnard and Jesse, and possibly his father, John Heard, was also among the colonists.
It is certain that the party included Benjamin Wilkinson, together with others whose
names are no longer of. record. They arrived on December 31, 1773, and, on oVcw
Year's day following, in the midst of an unbroken forest of magnificent oaks, they
began to build a stockade fort, which they called Fort Heard, to protect the settle- ,
ment from Indian assaults.
The Hoards were of English stock but possessed landed estates in Ireland. It is
said of John Heard that he was a man of explosive temper, due to his somewhat
aristocratic blood and that, growing out of a .difficulty over tithes, in which he used
a pitch-fork on a minister of the Established Church, he somewhat hastily resolved
upon an ocean voyage, in order to escape the consequences.
Between the Indians and the Tories, the little colony at Hoard's Tort was sorely
harassed during the Revolutionary war period. There were many wanton acts of
cruelty committed when the tide of British success in GcoTgia was at the flood.
Stephen Heard's young wife, with a babe at her breast, was at this time driven
out in a snow storm, to perish without a shelter over her head. His brother, Maj.
Bernard Heard, was put into irons, taken to Augusta, and sentenced to be hanged,
but fortunately on the eve of the siege he made his escape, and to-ok an active part
in the events which followed. It is said that among the prisoners rescued from the.