Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 457
improvement. Travel was slow at best and good roads were needed for
stages; also in the interest of the planters, some of whom were -forced
to haul produce hundreds of miles to market. As a rule, Georgia's ear
liest roads followed the old Indian trails; and, in some respects, especially
in the upcountry, were no better. It was difficult for stages, containing
some score of passengers, to cover more than twenty-five miles per day,
while the journey to New York usually consumed two weeks.
It was also necessary to deepen river channels and to remove all
obstructions from the beds of streams. The Legislature of 1809 passed
an act to clear the Savannah River. Both the large planter and the
small farmer living along the water courses were largely dependent
Upon these streams which they used for floating produce to market.
Similar means were .also taken to open the Broad, the Ogeechee and the
Oconee rivers, on each of which, settlements were rapidly increasing in
number.
On December 24, 1809, an act was approved creating the new County
of Twiggs, for which purpose a large body of land was detached from
Wilkinsoii. The new county was named for Gen. John Twiggs, of the
Revolution. Marion, the original county seat, is today one of the lost
towns of Georgia.
With the Indian problem temporarily quieted, there was a marked
revival of commercial enterprise throughout the state. To this period
belongs the establishment of Georgia's oldest bank. On December 6,
1810, an act was approved creating the Bank of Augusta.* Its capital
stock was $300,000, divided into shares of $100 each, and of this sum
$50,000 was reserved for the State of Georgia, subject to the approval
of the law-making authorities. In the event the state became a stock
holder in the bank, it was stipulated that the governor, treasurer, and
comptroller-general, should be entitled, at each succeeding election, to
name two members of the board of directors. As given in the bank's
charter, the original board of directors consisted of the following stock
holders: Thomas Gumming, its first president; John Howard, Richard
C. Tubman, John McKinne, James Gardner, Hugh Nesbit, David Reid,
John Moore, John Campbell, John Willson, Anderson Watkins, John
Carmichael, and Ferdinand Phinzy. The charter was signed by Gov
ernor David B. Mitchell, as governor, and by the presiding officers of
the two law-making bodies: Hon. Jared Irwin, president of the Senate,
and Hon. Benjamin Whitaker, speaker of the House of Representatives.
Two weeks later, the Planters Bank of Savannah was chartered. But
we read in the caption to this act that its purpose was to incorporate
"the Planters Bank of the State of Georgia and to repeal an act passed
December 5, 1807." t The bank may have failed to operate under its
original charter, but, nevertheless, in its legal conception, it is an older
institution than the Bank of Augusta. The incorporators of this bank,
chartered December 19, 1810, were: Charles Harris, John Bolton, James
Ward Stebbins, John P. Williamson, George Scott, William Mein, John
M. Berrien, Andrew Low, John Gumming and Zachariah Miller.
On December 6, 1810, the agricultural interests of the state received
a wonderful stimulus from an act of the Legislature creating the Agri-
* "Claytcm's Compilation," pp. 588-595.
f'Clayton's Compilation," pp. 632-637.