Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 361
and among his descendants was the late Henry W. Grady. The Cobbs
of Athens arc descended from John Cobb, who is supposed to have been
either a brother or a nephew of Capt. Thomas Cobb. In. another part
of this county, on Kiokee Creek, was first planted the standard of the
Baptist church in Georgia, by the celebrated Daniel Marshall. Here, too,
lived the Crawfords; and here, on August 10, 1790, was born the great
orator of South Carolina, George McDuffie. The new county, because
of its distinguished part in the Revolution, was called Columbia; and
its county-seat was named Appling for a well-known family in this
locality from which in after years sprang Col. Daniel Appling, of the
War of 1812.
Elbert County was detached from Wilkes and named for Gen. Samuel
Elbert, of the Revolution. Elberton was designated as its county-seat.
The rich lands in this neighborhood were early settled by wealthy Vir
ginia planters. This county contained the famous Broad River dis
trict. In the angle of land which the Broad River forms by its conflu
ence with the Savannah, may still be found the ruins of an old colonial
stronghold, Port James, built to defend an old settlement called Dart
mouth. William Bertram, the famous naturalist, who .was engaged at
this time in studying Georgia's flora, visited the old fort in 1776, as the
guest of its commanding officer. He describes it as a four-square stock
ade, with salient bastions at each angle, surmounted by a blockhouse,
and guarded by a number of swivel guns. These were planted one story
higher than the curtains. The latter were pierced with loop-holes,
breast high, and defended by small arms. The stockade of Fort James
was an acre in extent. It enclosed a substantial house for the com
mandant, quarters for the various officers, and barracks for the garrison.
The entire force consisted of fifty rangers, each of them well mounted
and armed with the following weapons: a rifle, two dragoon pistols, a
hanger, a powder-horn, a shot-pouch, and a tomahawk. Three miles
above Petersburg, this same noted traveler discovered an Indian
mound.*
In the neighborhood of Fort James was an old tobacco town known
as Petersburg. It was once quite an important market for the up-
country and was also a seat of culture, the home of Dr. W. W. Bibb,
afterwards one of Georgia's United States senators and still later the
first territorial governor of Alabama. Here, too, lived the Hillyers,
the Caseys, the Walkers, the Watlrinses, the Popes, the Whites, the
Coulters, and other prominent families. This county contained the old
family seat called Heardmont, the home of Gen. Stephen Heard, who
founded the town of Washington. It also contained the home of a still
more famous resident: Nancy Hart of the Revolution.
Elbert became in after years the seat of a famous rural community
known as Ruckersville, founded by Joseph Rucker, a pioneer banker,
merchant, planter and man of affairs; and in this neighborhood was
born the gifted Georgia novelist, .Mrs. Corra White Harris, and the late
distinguished jurist and gentleman, Associate Justice Joseph Rucker
Lamar, of the Supreme Court of the United States.
h '' Travels,'' pp. 321-322.