Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

404 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
of the Yazoo Act, passed on January 7, 1795, at Augusta, but it was
finally decided to refer the matter of its repudiation to the Legislature
of 1796. No further changes were made. Political excitement was so
intense that a majority of the members recognized the wisdom of leaving
all further revision to a later convention to 'be held when normal condi
tions were restored. Accordingly a convention was called to meet at
the new seat of government in 1798, to which three delegates from
each county were to be chosen in the general election of 1797.
"When the Legislature of 1796 convened at Louisville, it was amidst
the greatest upheaval known to the state since the days of the Revolu
tion; but the nefarious Yazoo Act having been rescinded the work of
creating new counties began afresh. At this time Bulloch, Jackson, Jef
ferson and Lincoln were added to the growing list. Bulloch was laid off
from Screven and Bryan, with Statesboro for its county-seat and was
named for the distinguished Archibald Bulloch, an early colonial patriot,
who died at the outbreak of the Revolution, while president of the execu
tive council. He was an ancestor of ex-President Roosevelt.
Jackson was detached from Franklin and named in honor of Senator
James Jackson who at this session of the Legislature, having defeated
the Yazooists, called down the fire of heaven to consume the records of
this transaction. Jefferson, the county-seat of Jackson County, was
named for the illustrious sage of Monticello. This little town was in
after years the scene of experiments which resulted in the discovery
by Dr. Crawford "W. Long of the anesthetic power of sulphuric ether:
one of the greatest boons ever conferred upon suffering humanity. It
opened a new era in surgery by putting an end to the terrors of the knife
and by enlarging the area of surgical treatment.
Jefferson was organized out of Burke and Warren and named for
Thomas Jefferson, then a member of Washington's Cabinet. Louisville,
its county-seat, was so called for Louis the Sixteenth of France. Louis
ville was designated as the state's permanent capital and the future
seat of government was located at this point by a commission chosen
for this purpose in 1786. In the immediate neighborhood of Louisville
were the homes of some of Georgia's most distinguished men at this time,
including the Cobbs, the Whitakers, the Gambles, the Gunns, the Berri-
ens, the Hardwicks, the Lawsons and the Wrights. Here Gen. Howell
Cobb was born. This was also the birthplace of the second president
of the Republic of Texas, Gen. Mirabeau B. Lamar. Most of the early
settlers of this region, especially in the neighborhood of Galphinton,
were Scotch-Irish. There was a trading-post at Galphinton before the
outbreak of the Revolution, named for a pioneer Scotchman whose
dealings with the Indians in colonial days extended over all this region.
Lincoln was detached from Wilkes. It was named for Gen. Benjamin
Lincoln of the Revolution, who, though not a Georgian, defended the
soil of this state against British invasion. According to recent dis
closures made by courthouse records, the celebrated Elijah Clarke lived
in the upper edge of this county, in what was then Wilkes. The noted
Col. John Dooly, of the Revolution, and the eccentric Judge John M.
Dooly, of a later day, were residents of Lincoln; and in this county was
born the late Dr. Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, diplomat, educator and
clergyman, whose effigy has been placed by his adopted State of Ala-