Georgia: Its History, Condition and Resources

by Samuel Adams Drake

Railways.—Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Albany, and Augusta are railway centres. In 1860 there were in Georgia 1,404 miles of completed railway; in 1878 there were 2,340 miles. The Atlantic and Gulf Railway crosses the State from Savannah to Bainbridge, in the extreme south-west, on the Flint river. It is 236 miles long, passing through Blackshear, Valdosta, and Thomasville (from which there is a branch line to Albany—58 miles—and Macon), while from Dupont there is a junction with the Florida lines. The Brunswick and Albany also extends from the coast at Brunswick to Albany, 172 miles, whence it is to be continued in a westerly direction to the Chattahoochee, in Early county. A third line connects Brunswick with Macon (187 miles); and another, the Central Georgia, unites Savannah with Macon and Atlanta (294 miles). The Central Georgia works a branch-line from Millen to Augusta; the Milledgeville and Eatonton from Gordon to Eatonton (22 miles); the South-Western from Macon to Eufaula, Ala. (144 miles), with branches from Fort Valley to Columbus (72 miles), Smithville to Albany (23½ miles), Cuthbert to Fort Gaines (20 miles), Fort Valley to Perry (13 miles), and Albany to Arlington (36 miles); the Macon and Western from Macon to Atlanta; and the Upson County line from Barnesville to Thomaston (16 miles).

Atlanta is situated on the great iron highways from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to Mobile and New Orleans, and from Chicago to Florida. The Western and Atlantic connects Atlanta and the Georgia system with the Tennessee lines at Chattanooga (138 miles). Several great battles were fought for the possession of this railway during the secession war. The Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line extends to Charlotte, N. C. (269 miles). The Georgia railway connects Atlanta with Augusta (171 miles), with lateral lines from Carnak to Warrenton (4 miles), Union Point to Athens (40 miles), and Barnet to Washington (18 miles); it also works the Macon and Augusta line from Carnak to Augusta (70 miles). The Atlanta and West Point (80 miles) unites those places. The Alabama and Chattanooga crosses the N. W. corner of the State. The Cherokee extends from Cartersville on the Western and Atlantic to Rockmart (23 miles). The Columbus and Atlanta, projected between Columbus and Rome, the Memphis branch (Rome to Decatur, Ala.), and Savannah, Griffin, and N. Alabama, from Griffin to Newman, to be extended to Guntersville, Ala., are in progress. The Georgia Southern extends from Dalton to the Ala. State line (portion of Selma, Rome, and Dalton road); North-Eastern from Athens to Lulah (39 miles); Ocmulgee and Horse Creek (7 miles); Rome Railroad, Rome to Kingston (20 miles).

Government.—The executive power is vested in a governor elected for four years by a majority of the people. If there is no election by the people, the general assembly chooses one of the two receiving the highest number of votes. The legislative authority is conferred upon a senate, members of which are elected for four years, and a house of representatives elected for two years. The legislature holds annual sessions, beginning on the second Wednesday of January. The State judiciary consists of a supreme court of three judges, who hold office for twelve years, one retiring every four years, and of inferior courts, presided over by nineteen judges, appointed by the executive with the consent of the senate. Except in probate cases, these courts have original jurisdiction, civil and criminal, in law and equity. County courts are established in most of the counties. There is an ordinary for each county elected for four years, who holds a court of ordinary and probate. The organic law of the State now forbids slavery or involuntary servitude except for the punishment of crime. Imprisonment for debt, and legislation affecting the free exercise of that personal liberty guaranteed to the citizen by the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, are also prohibited. All male inhabitants between eighteen and forty-five are subject to military duty. There is a homestead exemption of $2,000 on real, and $1,000 on personal property, except for taxes, for money borrowed or expended on the homestead, or for labor or materials used upon it. The property held by a married woman at the time of marriage, or subsequently inherited or acquired by her, is not liable for the husband’s debts. A married woman may also sue and be sued in matters pertaining to her separate estate, and may carry on trade as if single. Georgia is entitled to seven representatives and two senators in Congress.

Education.—Previous to the war, there was no common school system in Georgia. Although a plan of public instruction was organized at an earlier date, it was not given effect to until 1873. In that year the schools were put in working condition, and are now to be found in every county of the State. The attendance in 1876 was—whites 121,418, colored 57,987, showing a small but steady increase for the three years the schools had been in operation. It is computed by the school commission at 200,000 for 1879. The higher branches of education are well represented. As early as 1801 steps for founding a university were taken at Athens. The first commencement took place in 1804. The college proper (Franklin College at Athens) annually admits free of charge “fifty meritorious young men of limited means,” and also such as may be studying for the ministry who need aid. There is also connected with the university a medical college, located at Augusta, and an agricultural college at Dahlonega, with nearly 250 students, whose tuition is free. The State college of agriculture and mechanic arts, also connected with the university, has a special endowment derived from the United States of $240,000; the whole endowment of the university is $376,500. The university, exclusive of its establishments at Augusta and Dahlonega, has five departments, 13 professors, and 200 students, with a library of 14,000 volumes, and two literary societies. Besides the usual collegiate course, there are a preparatory school and a law school. Mercer College, at Macon, is a Baptist institution. It was founded in 1838; and until 1870 it was located at Penfield, in Greene county. It has an endowment of $160,000, a library of 12,000 volumes, and about 135 students. Besides the regular academic course, there are schools of law and theology. The high schools at Penfield and Dalton are connected with this college. Emory College at Oxford, Newton county, was chartered in 1836. It is the property of the Georgia and Florida conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South). The present number of students is 156. Emory has a valuable college apparatus and a good working library, but lacks an endowment. The Wesleyan Female College at Macon was one of the first female colleges, if not the first, in the world, its charter having been granted in 1836. It has 200 students, and is the property of the Methodist denomination. Since 1840 degrees have been conferred upon 1,080 graduates. The Southern Masonic Female College at Covington belongs to the Grand Lodge of Georgia, and is designed to educate female orphans of Freemasons. Pio Nono College at Macon is a recently established Catholic institution, chiefly founded by the efforts of the bishop of Savannah. The Atlanta University for the education of negroes was established by the now extinct Freedmen’s Bureau and various charitable societies of the Northern States. It receives an annual appropriation from the Georgia legislature of $8,000. It accommodates 240 pupils. There are a number of institutions, in addition to those enumerated, that are entitled colleges, but come more properly within the designation of high schools. There are also institutions for the blind (at Macon), and for the deaf and dumb (near Rome).

Objects of Interest.—Perhaps the most beautiful scenery in Georgia is to be found in the mountain region traversed by the Air Line railway. About 2½ miles from the town of Toccoa the creek of that name falls 185 feet over a precipice. Fifteen miles beyond Toccoa are the cascades of Tallulah, where the river descends successive terraces of broken rock between the walls of a chasm 800 feet deep. In this vicinity are the charming valleys of Nacoochee and Mount Yonah. In the extreme north-east is Rabun gap and the cascades of Eastatoia. Connected with this region, once the hunting-grounds of the warlike Cherokees, are many Indian legends. The country between Atlanta and Chattanooga is deeply interesting from having been the battle-ground of opposing armies in the civil war. Kenesaw mountain, itself the scene of a bloody encounter, commands a view of the country which for two months the Confederate commanders disputed foot by foot. Stone mountain, 9 miles from Decatur, is much visited. The Chattahoochee, in the neighborhood of Columbus, is picturesque; and Savannah is one of the most attractive and idiosyncratic cities of the Union. There are numerous mineral springs scattered over the State, which are much resorted to by invalids.

History.—Before the arrival of Europeans the country now embraced in Georgia was inhabited by the Cherokee and Creek Indians. The Cherokees possessed the north, the Creeks the south. Both were very powerful and warlike, the Cherokees numbering 6,000 warriors, and having 64 towns and villages. To be more precise, the Cherokee country extended from the 34th parallel north to the country of the Six Nations, and from the heads of the rivers emptying upon the South Carolina coast westward to the Mississippi. The whole course of the Tennessee was within this magnificent domain, now mostly embraced in the four States of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. In 1729 this extensive territory was surrendered by treaty to the crown of Great Britain. The following year the Cherokees made formal submission to Sir A. Cuming, Bart.

Georgia was the only one of the original thirteen colonies that received any aid in its settlement from the Government of England. General James Oglethorpe conceived and executed the plan of founding an English colony in that portion of the Carolina proprietaries’ grant between the Savannah and Altamaha. His purpose was to create an asylum in the New World where insolvent debtors, and persons fleeing from religious persecution, might begin life anew or enjoy religious freedom. By royal letters-patent issued in June, 1732, the proposed colony was called Georgia in honor of the reigning prince; and the House of Commons granted £10,000, which was soon increased by private subscription to £36,000. Under the charter the trustees had powers of legislation, but could receive no reward for their services. Even grants of land to themselves were forbidden.

With 116 emigrants Oglethorpe sailed from England in November, 1732, arriving in the Savannah in February. He landed at the present site of Savannah, where he was soon after hospitably received by delegates from the Lower Creeks, who consented that the English might peaceably inhabit among them. The next year a small number of Bavarians came over, and were settled in what is now Effingham county. Oglethorpe also established settlements at Darien, at Augusta, and on St. Simon’s Island. In 1736 the colony received considerable accessions of emigrants, with whom came John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism. In 1738 the Rev. George Whitefield visited Georgia, founding the orphan-house at Bethesda, near Savannah, from funds chiefly collected on his tour in the northern colonies.

Anticipating invasion by the Spaniards of Florida, who claimed Georgia, Oglethorpe, on the renewal of war between England and Spain, led an expedition to St. Augustine, Florida, which he besieged without success at the head of 2,000 men. The Spaniards retaliated by landing in 1742 a small force on St. Simon’s island, from which they were expelled by Oglethorpe. They then abandoned further attempts. Slavery was introduced into Georgia about 1750. In 1752 the trustees surrendered their privileges to the crown. A royal governor and council were appointed to administer, in conjunction with delegates of the people, the government of the province. During the French and Indian wars the remote settlements suffered somewhat from incursions of the Cherokees. The treaties of 1763 with France and Spain extended the boundaries of Georgia to the Mississippi on the W., and to St. Mary’s on the S. After this the colony flourished greatly until the breaking out of war with England, at which time the colony was estimated to have a population of about 70,000 souls. In 1775 Sir James Wright, the crown governor, left the province. Delegates were sent to represent Georgia in the continental congress who signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1778 a British land and naval force occupied Savannah and Augusta, but were subsequently compelled to abandon the latter place. In September of the same year a combined American and French force, under Lincoln and D’Estaing, unsuccessfully attempted the recovery of Savannah, losing nearly 1,000 men in an assault. Augusta was reoccupied by the conquerors. Charleston being surrendered by General Lincoln in 1780, the patriots of South Carolina and Georgia were only able to maintain a partisan warfare, until the advance of General Greene from the north, at the head of considerable forces, resulted in the expulsion of the royal troops from those provinces. Georgia at the conclusion of peace ratified the several Acts constituting her one of the United States of America. She framed her first constitution in 1777, a second in 1789, and a third (which has been several times amended) in 1798.