Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 401
session were: Screven, Oglethorpe, Hancock, Montgomery, Mclntosh,
Bryan and Warren.
To glance rapidly over these: Screven was laid off from Burke and
Effingham and named for Gen. James Screven, an officer of the Revolu
tion, killed in a skirmish at Midway Church. Jacksonboro was the
original county-seat; but the seat of government was afterwards changed
to Sylvania. Some of the settlers were men of ample means, who ac
quired extensive tracts of land.
Oglethorpe was laid off fr8m Wilkes and named for the illustrious
founder of the colony, General Oglethorpe. Lexington, the county-seat,
'was named for the famous town in Massachusetts which witnessed the
opening fires of the Revolution. Lexington, Georgia, became one of the
state's historic towns, a center of wealth, refinement and thrift in ante
bellum days. Here was the home of Governor Gilmer, of the two Lump-
kins, Wilson and Joseph Henry, of William H. Crawford, of Stephen
Upson, of Thomas W. Cobb, and of many other noted men. Here we
find the oldest Presbyterian church in the synod of Georgia, founded
by Rev. John Newton, in 1785. Most of the early settlers of Oglethorpe
came from Virginia and were tobacco planters who settled on Broad
River. Some of these were men of wealth and, besides numerous slaves,
brought many of the comforts of civilized life into this belt of the
wilderness.
Hancock was laid out from Washington and Greene, with Sparta
for its county-seat, and was named for John Hancock, of Massachusetts,
whose name headed the immortal scroll of independence. The early set
tlers of Hancock were in the main Virginians, well-to-do people, like
those who settled in Oglethorpe. Sparta derived its name from the
Spartan characteristics of its pioneer inhabitants. This was in after
years the home of Dr. W. W. Terrell, of Bishop George F. Pierce, of
Judge Linton Stephens, and of other noted Georgians. Two schools1, iti
this county were destined to acquire wide celebrity, one at Mount Zion
and one at Powelton. The latter became the center of a strong Baptist
community and the home in after years of Jesse Mercer and of Gover
nor William Rabun. The famous Bemans taught at Mount Zion; and
here at a later time Governor William J. Norteen began his career as
a teacher.
Mclntosh County was detached from Liberty and named for the cele
brated Mclntosh family several members of which were prominent in
the Revolution. It formed a part of the old original Province of St.
John. Darien, its county-seat, was an old Scotch settlement, an account
of which is elsewhere given. Quite a number of the early settlers of
Mclntosh were of Puritan stock; but those in the neighborhood of Da
rien all came direct from Scotland.
Bryan was laid off from Effingham and Liberty and named for Jona
than Bryan, one of Georgia's earliest colonial patriots. Some of the
richest plantations on the coast occupied a strip of land in this county
called Bryan's Neck. Here Senator Augustus 0. Bacon was born. The
old Town of Hardwick has been identified as occupying a site on the
south side .of the Ogeechee, fifteen miles inland. Fort Argyle, built in
1733, as a bulwark against the Spaniards, stood on the west side of
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