Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS 441
various industries was not the most difficult task. There were the slaves themselves,
a large and heterogeneous body, a wholly irresponsible people, whose ancestors had
only recently come from Africa. These had to be trained and taught, and how
humanely and well this was done, by the old time planter, is shown by the conduct of
these same slaves, when, during the war, discipline was necessarily relaxed and control
partially suspended.
Joseph Eucker lived the typical life of the Southern planter. Self-centered and
independent, he lived at homo. He had little to buy and always something to sell,
and his great crops of cotton were shipped in Petersburg boats down the Savannah
to Augusta. The neighboring community was unusually prosperous. The Harpers,
the Martins, the Hoards, the Whites, the Maddoxes, the Clarks, the Adamses, and a
host of others, made a neighborhood ideal in its social and domestic charms. Joseph
Backer's home especially, was the scene of a wide and generous hospitality—a social
center which made its impress upon its inmates, and the memory of which abides to
the third and fourth generation. lie was pre-eminently a good neighbor, counsellor,
and friend, for he gave needed help at the right moment. Extremely dignified,
grave and reticent, he was also open-handed and generous. In polities, a whig, he
was one of the chosen friends, counsellors, and advisers of the great leaders of the
party in that district so noted in state and national polities. He never sought
political preferment, though always taking an interest in the questions of profound
importance which then agitated the South.
Living at a time when the country was experimenting with bank laws, he organized,
and, as president, managed, with phenomenal success, the Bank of Kuckcrsville,
under circumstances which would now provoke a smile. We cannot think of a bank,
a moneyed institution, with hardly a human habitation in sight, surrounded by
original forests. This institution was operated in a small, unpretentious frame
building. Its doors and shutters were studded with nails at close and regular intervals
to guard against the burglars' axe. It had a safe without time lock, opened with a
key carried by the president. The furniture was of the plainest, but it issued bills
which passed current par throughout the state. It throve and prospered, and with
the assistance of the wealthy planters in the neighborhood, became a strong financial
institution, contributing to the development and prosperity of that part of the state.
In his old age, Joseph Eucker was a man of striking appearance, ruddy cheeks,
snow-white hair, clear blue eyes. Dressed in the prevailing style, black broadcloth
coat, cutaway to the waist line at the front, beaver hat, turn down collar and stock,
and gold fob, he might have posed for the portrait of the ante-bellum planter, one of
those who made the old South.
His son-in-law, the late Eev. James S. Lamar, of Augusta, in an unpublished
manuscript, has left us the following graphic pen picture of Joseph Eucker:
"In manner and bearing Squire Eucker was simple and unpretentious, and by
nature thoughtful, quiet and dignified. He enjoyed a good anecdote or story, and
possessed a rich store of personal reminiscence, from which he was fond of drawing
for the entertainment of others. He told his stories well, and, of course, like all
genuine recounteurs, he sometimes repeated himself. It was his custom to go to 1
Elberton on the first Tuesday in every month, when the principal men of the county
would assemble in a sort of general meeting together, to attend the sheriff sales, to>
transact business with each other, to laugh and talk and crack jokes, and especially
to save the country by discussing politics. Among the leading citizens of the town
or county at that time were such influential men as Major Hester, Major Jones, Mr.
Pverton Tate, Mr. Lofton, the Mattoxes, the Harpers and the Burehes, Judge W. W.
Thomas, and (during court week) Alexander H. Stephens, Eobert Toombs and Judge
William M. Eeese. All of them were Squire Eucker's friends.
"Squire Eueker's judgment was never known to fail him. Violently opposed to
secession, when the final act came at Milledgeville, he said, pointing to one of his
slaves: 'See that fellow. A year ago he was worth $1,500.00; today he isn't worth
a silver thrip.' But he accepted the situation—helped to equip a company—took
$30,000 of the first issue of Confederate bonds, at par. These bonds were lying in
the old Bank of Athens, in the care of the late Albin Dearing, when the war was over;
not a coupon had ever been clipped.''
'' The house was approached through a long avenue of cedars and box planted by
Margaret, from which the place became known as Cedar Grove. The fine old trees,