Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

562 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
complications of the following years were only the .malarial symptoms
of this same gold fever; and while the final outcome was divinely
ordered in furtherance of wise ends, it was destined to leave a scar
upon our history which time has not effaced.
As soon as the removal of the Indians was accomplished, the United
States Government, in 1838, established at Dahlonega a branch mint,
which, continuing in operation, until 1861, coined 1,381,748 pieces of
gold valued at $6,115,569.
Benjamin Parks, by whom the yellow metal was first discovered
on what afterwards became the property of the great John C. Calhoun,
of South Carolina, was still living in the neighborhood of Dahlonega as
late as 1894. During the summer of this year, P. J. Moran, the
famous staff correspondent and editor of the Atlanta Constitution,
visited the gold fields of Lumpkin for the purpose of preparing an arti
cle for the press. Here he found Mr. Parks. The old man was ninety-
four years of age, but his eyes still retained a glint of the old fire
which lit them in his youthful days when he first discovered gold in the
hills. The story which he gave Mr. Moran is substantially reproduced
from the newspaper files of 1894. Said the aged argonaut,:
"It was just by accident that I came across it. I was deer hunting
one day, when I kicked up something which caught my eye. I exam
ined it and decided that it was gold. The place belonged to Rev. Mr.
Obarr, who, though a preacher, was a hard man and very desperate. I
went to the owner and told him that I thought I could find gold on his
place, if he would give me a lease of it. He laughed, as though he
did not believe me, and consented. So a lease" for forty years was writ
ten out, the consideration of which was that I was to give him one-
fourth of the gold mined. I took into partnership a friend in whom
I could confide. I went over to the spot with a pan, and, turning over
some earth, it looked like the yellow of an egg. It was more than my
eyes could believe.
"The news went abroad. Within a few days it seemed as if the
whole world must have heard of it, for men came from every state.
They came afoot, on horseback, and in wagons, acting more like crazy
men than anything else.' All the way, from where Dahlonega now
stands to Nucklesville, there were men panning out of the branches and
making holes in the hillsides. The saddest man in the country was
preacher Obarr, from whom I had leased the land. He thought the
lease was a joke; but he now learned that it was something serious.
One day he came to me and said:
" 'Mr. Parks, I want your lease.'
" 'But I will not sell it to you,' I replied.
"'Why not?'he asked.
" 'Well,' I answered, 'even if I were willing, it is now out of my
power; for I have taken a partner, and I know he would never consent
to it. I have given him my word and I intend to keep it.'
" 'You will suffer for this yet,' said'Obarr menacingly, as he went
away.
"Two weeks later, I saw a party of two women and two men ap
proaching. I knew it was Obarr's family, intent upon trouble. Know-