Georgia Natural Wonder #64 - Milledgeville (Part 2). 824

[Top Row Dawg]

Georgia Natural Wonder #64 - Milledgeville (Part 2)

We covered the Natural Wonder of the Fall Line of the Oconee River yesterday. Today we do a big old history tangent on the grand city that developed around the head of navigation on the Oconee River. Milledgeville is the seat of Baldwin County in central Georgia. It served as the fourth capital of Georgia (1804-68) and was the seat of the state government throughout the Civil War (1861-65). According to the 2010 U.S. census, its population was 17,715.



Within the borders of Baldwin County in central Georgia are some of the region's most important historical landmarks. In 1807, just four years after the county was formed, Milledgeville, the county's largest trading center, became the state's new "frontier" capital. Since then, Baldwin County has continued to play an important role in the annals of Georgia history.



Created out of the land lottery of 1803, Baldwin County is named for Abraham Baldwin, an early and influential U.S. senator from Georgia. Of course we know him as the signer of the Constitution and founder / first president of the University of Georgia. We have done many tangents and will probably do many more as his name is prominent all over Georgia. Georgia's legislators acquired the land for Baldwin, Wayne, and Wilkinson counties through a treaty established with the Creek Indians. Today, Baldwin County occupies 258 square miles and borders five other counties: Hancock, Jones, Putnam, Washington, and Wilkinson. Almost immediately after the county's formation, Georgia's legislators chose it as the location of a new capital city to be known as Milledgeville, named after Georgia governor John Milledge.



Tangent on John Milledge who was one of the most important political figures in Georgia during the Revolutionary War (1775-83) and early national period, holding positions as governor, congressman for four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, and president pro tempore in the U.S. Senate. Milledge, one of the men who seized British colonial governor James Wright at Savannah in January 1776, was also a principal figure in the organization of the University of Georgia. Milledge was on the committee that decided the location of the institution, and he later purchased and donated the land on which the university and the town of Athens now stand.

Military Service

Born in Savannah in 1757 and descended from one of the first families to immigrate to the Georgia colony, Milledge received the best education that his family's affluence could provide. His father, John Milledge Sr., was a captain of the colonial Rangers in Georgia and directed his son into military service as a cadet Ranger. As a young man, Milledge was privately tutored and studied law. After admission to the bar, he practiced law at the colonial seat of power in Savannah.



In May 1775 Milledge's ardent support of the patriot cause led to his involvement in the seizure of the British colonial government's magazine in Savannah. On the eve of the Revolutionary War, Milledge, along with patriots Joseph Clay, William Gibbons, Joseph Habersham, Noble W. Jones, and Edward Telfair, seized 600 pounds of gunpowder and subsequently stored the captured ordnance in their cellars. Following the theft, the governor and British Council in Savannah put a price of 150 pounds on the head of each patriot involved; none of the men were captured or turned over to the British authorities.



Savannah's patriot community later asserted that the gunpowder Milledge and his cohorts secured from the arsenal was sent north and used by patriot troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill. When British troops seized Savannah in 1778, Milledge fled to South Carolina. His military service during the war was distinguished; he served in the forces of Count Charles Henri d'Estaing and General Benjamin Lincoln during the Siege of Savannah and also fought at Augusta.


Estaing was given 5000 acres in Georgia, but lost his head in France. Lincoln oversaw the largest American surrender of the war at Charleston.

Milledge ultimately rose to the rank of colonel in the Georgia militia. Among his many endeavors during the conflict was the development of a way to extract oil from the benne seed, which was later used as a substitute for olive oil during the English blockade.


Benne Seed also known as Sesame Seed.

Political Career

In 1780 Milledge formally entered public service as the attorney general of Georgia. In 1789-90 he served in the Georgia General Assembly. In 1792 he was elected as a Jeffersonian Democratic Republican to the Second U.S. Congress. Milledge replaced the flamboyant General Anthony Wayne, whose seat had been declared vacant by the body in 1792 for voter fraud. Elected to two full terms in the Fourth and Fifth U.S. Congresses, he served from 1795 to 1799. He entered the Seventh Congress in March 1801 and subsequently served as the chairman of the committee on elections in that body. Milledge, however, resigned before his term ended in order to run for governor of Georgia in 1802.


Statue of Wayne at Valley Forge, facing toward his home in nearby Paoli, Pennsylvania

In 1801 Milledge (who was still a member of the Seventh Congress), Abraham Baldwin, and James Jackson were appointed commissioners to represent the state of Georgia in negotiations with the U.S. government over Georgia's western frontier. In 1802 the three men ceded the state's western lands to the United States(Yazoo Land Fraud).


James Jackson

Later that year, in November 1802, Milledge was elected governor and immediately set out to strengthen state institutions that would make Georgia's frontier more stable and secure. During his administration, a road was built through Cherokee territory into Tennessee, which enabled better communication and trade with the interior of the new country. Governor Milledge also reorganized the Georgia militia to make it more efficient, an act that put him at odds with other members of the Democratic Republican Party. He also sought ways to alleviate Georgia's debts, the most successful of which was the sale of Georgia's land to settlers. Although Milledge thought that the land was sold too cheaply, he signed into law the first land lottery in the history of the state, which helped to distribute territory seized from Georgia's Creek and Cherokee populations.



In 1804 the state legislature appropriated funds to build a new capital, which was named Milledgeville in his honor. Milledgeville served as the capital of the state for most of the nineteenth century. Milledge left the governor's office in 1806 and returned to national politics. He was elected by the Georgia legislature to the U.S. Senate and took his seat in June 1806. During the Tenth Congress, he served as president pro tempore of the Senate, ultimately resigning his seat in November 1809 to return to Georgia, where his wife, Martha Galphin Milledge, was gravely ill. Milledge spent the next decade at his plantation, Sand Hills, near Augusta. During his final years, Milledge spent much of his time devising new farming methods, especially in the areas of animal husbandry and horticulture. He died at his plantation on February 9, 1818, and is buried in Summerville Cemetery.



Back to the city…….

Founding and Early Years

In 1803 an act of the Georgia legislature called for the establishment and survey of a town to be named in honor of the current governor, John Milledge. The land immediately west of the Oconee River had just been opened up by the Treaty of Fort Wilkinson (1802), in which the Creek Indians, hard pressed by debts to white traders, agreed to cede part of their ancient land. The restless white population of Georgia was pressing west and south in search of new farmland, and the town of Milledgeville was carved out of the Oconee wilderness to help accommodate their needs. The area was surveyed, and a town plat of 500 acres was divided into 84 four-acre squares. The survey also included four public squares of twenty acres each.



In December 1804 Milledgeville was declared by the legislature to be the new capital of Georgia. The new town, modeled after Savannah and Washington, D.C., was located on the edge of the frontier, where the Upper Coastal Plain merges into the Piedmont.


Joseph Stovall House

Because of its central location within the state and its abundant supply of water, Milledgeville grew rapidly into a bustling frontier settlement. Only two cities in the nation—Milledgeville and Washington, D.C.—can boast the distinction of being originally designed and planned as cities to house seats of government.



In 1807 fifteen wagons, escorted by troops, left Louisville, the former capital, carrying the treasury and public records of the state. The new statehouse, though unfinished, was able to accommodate the legislators. On November 2, 1807, the state legislature held its first session in the newly completed statehouse in Milledgeville. Over the next thirty years the building was enlarged with a north and south wing. Its pointed arched windows and battlements marked it as America's first public building in the Gothic revival style.



Governor Jared Irwin soon moved into a handsome two-story frame structure known as Government House, on the corner of Clarke and Greene streets. The new capital was a rather crude frontier community with simple clapboard houses, a multitude of inns and taverns, law offices, bordellos, and hostelries.



The town attracted several blacksmiths, whitesmiths, apothecaries, dry-goods merchants, and even booksellers. Travelers to the town were generally unimpressed, noting the ill-kept and overcrowded inns, the gambling, the dueling, and the bitter political feuds.


Life in the Antebellum Capital

After 1815 Milledgeville became increasingly prosperous and more respectable. Wealth and power gravitated toward the capital, and the surrounding countryside was caught up in the middle of a cotton boom. Streets were lined with cotton bales waiting to be shipped downriver to Darien. Such skilled architects as John Marlor and Daniel Pratt were designing elegant houses; colossal porticos, cantilevered balconies, pediments adorned with sunbursts, and fanlighted doorways all proclaimed the Milledgeville Federal style of architecture.


John Marlor house.

The major churches built fine new houses of worship on Statehouse Square.



The completion in 1817 of the Georgia Penitentiary heralded a new era of penal reform on land now part of the campus of Georgia College and State University.



Public-spirited citizens like Tomlinson Fort (mayor of Milledgeville, 1847-48) promoted better newspapers, learning academies, and banks. In 1837-42 the Georgia Lunatic Asylum (later the Central State Hospital) was developed.




25,000 graves at Central State Hospital.



Oglethorpe University, where the poet Sidney Lanier was educated, opened its doors in 1838. (The college, forced to close in 1862, was rechartered in 1913, with its campus in Atlanta.) The cotton boom also significantly increased the slave population; by 1828 the town claimed 1,599 inhabitants: 789 free whites, 27 free blacks, and 783 African American slaves. The town market, where slave auctions were held, stood next to the Presbyterian church on Capital Square. Black carpenters, masons, and laborers constructed most of the handsome antebellum structures in Milledgeville.



Two events epitomized Milledgeville's status as the political and social center of Georgia in these years. The first was the visit to the capital in 1825 by the Revolutionary War (1775-83) hero the Marquis de Lafayette. The receptions, barbecue, formal dinner, and grand ball for this veteran apostle of liberty seemed to mark Milledgeville's coming of age. The second event was the construction (1836-38/39) of the Governor's Mansion, one of the most important examples of Greek revival architecture in America.


Lafayette in Savannah Georgia.

Brown-Stetson-Sanford House, located at 601 West Hancock Street, c. 1825. This house has a beautiful Palladian double portico and original pilasters. Fanlights have a spread eagle and dogwood blossoms ornamenting the lead dividers. A cantilevered, oval, spiral staircase dominates the central hall and hand-grained woodwork remains in the parlor. Open by request and on the CVB Trolley Tour. Please call 478-453-1803 for more information.



Lockerly Hall, located at 1534 Irwinton Hwy, c. 1839. Lockerly Hall, a Greek Revival home, is the centerpiece of Lockerly Arboretum and presides over its surroundings with elegance and grace. The mansion is a significant example of the finest plantation architecture of the Milledgeville area, as well as the entire cotton belt of the Old South. Lockerly Hall is available for touring as part of the Monday-Wednesday Trolley Tour. For additional information, call 478-452-2112.



John Marlor Art Center, located at 201 North Wayne Street, c. 1830. This facility is one of three historic buildings that make up the Allied Arts Center. This area was once known as "The Strip" which was the heart of the African-American district until the 1980's. It now houses arts offices and the Marlor Art Gallery. The Allen's Market Building, across from the John Marlor Art Center, is a 1911 building that has been adapted into a theatre, meeting and studio space. For information on either site, please call 478-452-3950.



The Civil War and Its Aftermath

On January 19, 1861, Georgia convention delegates passed the Ordinance of Secession, and the "Republic of Georgia" joined the Confederate States of America, to the accompaniment of wild celebration, bonfires, and illuminations on Milledgeville's Statehouse Square. Baldwin County became a target for Union forces. Nearly four years later, on a bitterly cold November day, Union general William T. Sherman and 30,000 Union troops marched into Milledgeville.



Riding into the state capital of Milledgeville on Nov. 23, 1864, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman expressed satisfaction about his initial advance across Georgia. Meanwhile, soldiers watched “tipsy officers hold a mock legislature and pass some remarkable laws” as they presided over a “session” of the Georgia Legislature in its own chamber (state officials had fled the city upon hearing of the Federals’ approach).After raising the Stars and Stripes above the Capitol, several of Sherman’s troops convened their legislative session. They deliberated and voted on several acts; one, placing Georgia back into the Union, passed unanimously to a roar of approval.



Then, tiring of posing as elected officials, the Federals began destroying valuable books and irreplaceable documents in the state library. One non-participant watched as his blue-clad brothers lay waste to the repository. In his journal, he later noted, “I am sure General Sherman will, some day, regret that he permitted this library to be destroyed and plundered.”Sherman had great confidence as the two wings of his forces advanced with minimal resistance.



An elderly resident of Milledgeville queried the general as to the destination of his army. Sherman remarked, “I’m going just where I damn please.”



When they left a couple of days later, the statehouse had been ransacked; the state arsenal and powder magazine had been destroyed; the penitentiary, the central depot, and the Oconee bridge were burned; and the surrounding countryside was devastated.



From the Sherpa guide……

Milledgeville

Milledgeville's Civil War history falls into two categories: the political activities which occurred here when it was Georgia's Civil War capital, and the occupation Nov. 22-25, 1864 by Gen. W.T. Sherman's split Left Wing, which came together here briefly from Eatonton and Shady Dale to cross the Oconee River. Milledgeville, a planned town inspired by Savannah and Washington, D.C., was the state capital from 1803-68. When the capital was moved to Atlanta in 1868 during Reconstruction, the town experienced economic decline but later rebounded in the early 20th century. Today, Georgia's antebellum capital boasts a wealth of well-preserved Federal-style architecture, enhanced by Greek Revival, Victorian, and Classic Revival houses. Easy to tour on foot and beautiful in the spring, a map and guide to 37 significant sites is available from the Welcome Center at 200 W. Hancock Street, 912-452-4687.



Old Governor's Mansion
120 S. Clark St., Milledgeville 912-453-4545

This Greek Revival mansion, built in 1838, was home to the governors of Georgia from 1838 to 1868. When Sherman occupied the town, he slept in his bedroll on the floor of this historic home, from which the furnishings had been evacuated to Macon along with Gov. Joe Brown. Brown was later arrested at this site in May 1865. This national historic landmark has been restored and furnished in period antiques and is open to tours.



• Located at the corner of GA 49 (Hancock St.) and Clark St., across from Georgia College.



Controversial Civil War Gov. Joe Brown worked his politics here, for which another book is needed to describe.



Memory Hill Cemetery
Liberty and Franklin Streets, Milledgeville

This large, historic cemetery has a plot containing the remains of over 20 unknown Confederate soldiers, three Union soldiers in a separate plot. It has one of the earliest Confederate memorials in the state.



It also holds the grave of Gen. George Pierce Doles. Brig. Gen. Doles was a Milledgeville native who lead the Doles Brigade in the battles of Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. Considered a great leader, he was killed at Bethesda Church near the entrenchments at Petersburg on June 2, 1864, and replaced by Philip Cook.



The cemetery was originally one of the four public squares of 20 acres each in the town plan of 1803, but it later became known as cemetery square. The Confederate memorial, erected early in 1868, is believed to be Georgia's first permanent, general county monument. It is a small, plain obelisk marked "Unknown Confederates," which cost its sponsors $300, a large sum in the Reconstruction South.

• Located at the southern end of Liberty St.



Old State Capitol Building, State House Square, Confederate Memorial

The old state capitol, the site of the famous Secession Convention, is considered the oldest public building in the U.S. built in Gothic Style. It served as the seat of Government of the State of Georgia from 1803-63, and was twice partially destroyed by fire. Restored in 1943, the exterior of the present building is a replica of the original.



The beautiful Gothic gates at the north and south entrances to the square were constructed in the 1860s, after the Civil War, of bricks from the arsenal and magazine destroyed by Sherman's soldiers. Today the old state capitol is used by Georgia Military College.



The Secession Convention convened here Jan. 16, 1861, and three days later passed the Secession Act by a vote of 208-89. Two plaques on the wall next to the entrance mention this historic event, with one describing the meeting as "the most brilliant convocation ever held in the commonwealth of Georgia.



" Elected delegates from all over the state came to Milledgeville, many were among the most able men the state has ever produced. Howell and Thomas R.R. Cobb, Francis Bartow, and Robert Toombs all favored immediate secession, whereas Alexander H. Stephens, Benjamin Hill, and Herschel V. Johnson all favored a delay. The secessionists obviously won out.



However, three years later, visiting Yankees repealed the secession ordinance in a mock legislative session, featuring drunken and rowdy soldiers. Gen. W.T. Sherman's men did less damage to the town than what was probably expected by Georgians at the time. His provost guard, which camped out on the statehouse square, burned the brick State Arsenal on the North side, and exploded the brick magazine on the opposite side. Churches were damaged, as was the interior of the statehouse and the state library.


Union troops raising their flag over the Governor's Mansion, Milledgeville, Georgia, November 1864, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, January 14, 1865.

Sherman burned the State Penitentiary where Georgia College is located today, but spared two large cotton warehouses, a textile factory, a flour mill and a foundry reportedly because they were owned by Northerners or foreigners.


Lot of riverboat traffic back in the day, at least up through Laurens County.

Across the street from the entrance of the old capitol building is the second Confederate county memorial, unveiled in 1912. It is a 20 foot granite shaft, flanked by two marble statues of young Confederate soldiers.



Located at Jefferson and Greene Streets on the campus of Georgia Military College.

St. Stephens Episcopal Church
220 S. Wayne St., Milledgeville

This unusual Carpenter Gothic church, consecrated in 1843, was damaged by Union soldiers, their horses, and a nearby explosion when the Yankees occupied Milledgeville. Federal troops stabled their horses in the building (hoofprints are still visible) and poured sorghum molasses down the pipe organ to "sweeten the sound." When Federals exploded a nearby arsenal, it damaged the roof which was originally flat. In 1909, a new organ was presented by George W. Perkins of New York, who had heard about the damage wreaked by Sherman's troops.



In 1868, during Reconstruction, the capital was moved to Atlanta—a city emerging as the symbol of the New South as surely as Milledgeville symbolized the Old South.


McCombs-Holloman-house

Milledgeville spent the remaining years of the nineteenth century trying to survive the loss of the capital. Through the energetic efforts of local leaders, the Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College (later Georgia Military College) was established in 1879 on Statehouse Square.





Where the crumbling remains of the old penitentiary stood, Georgia Normal and Industrial College (later Georgia College and State University) was founded in 1889.







In part because of these institutions, as well as Central State Hospital, Milledgeville remained a less provincial town than many of its neighbors.



Not the same place today.







Perfectly good State homeless shelter going to waste. Scary place then and now.





The Twentieth Century

As the old capital moved into the twentieth century, it produced a number of people who would attain national prominence. Among these were the distinguished chemist Charles Herty;


Charles Herty (far right) is honored as the "father of Georgia athletics" by the University of Georgia's Athletic Association, which presented him with a blanket award in 1934. Other UGA alumni honored on that day include George "Kid" Woodruff, a future Georgia coach (far left), and Sandy Beaver (center).

Epidemiologist Joseph Hill White;



Woodrow Wilson's treasury secretary, William Gibbs McAdoo;



Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, a noted historian of the South. Phillips was the first major historian of the South and southern slavery. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Georgia before completing doctoral work in 1902 at the University of Chicago.



The most famous twentieth-century Milledgevillians, however, form an unusual trio. In 1910 eighteen-year-old Oliver Hardy, of Laurel and Hardy fame, moved to Milledgeville, where his mother managed the stately old Baldwin Hotel, and stayed for three years.



U.S. Congressman Carl Vinson represented his hometown of Milledgeville and central Georgia for fifty years (1914-65). Carl Vinson, recognized as "the father of the two-ocean navy," served twenty-five consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.



The writer Flannery O'Connor came as a young girl with her family to Milledgeville from Savannah.



O'Connor, a 1945 graduate of Georgia State College for Women, did much of her best writing in Milledgeville at her family's farm, Andalusia, which offers public tours.



Her critically acclaimed short stories and novels have secured her reputation as a major American writer.



O'Connor is buried in her family plot in Milledgeville's historic Memory Hill Cemetery.



In the 1950s the Georgia Power Company completed a dam at Furman Shoals, about five miles north of town, creating a huge reservoir called Lake Sinclair. The lake community became an increasingly important part of the town's social and economic identity.



Always heard a famous Rock and Roll couple had a lake house .


Gregg and Cher.

In the 1980s and 1990s Milledgeville began to capitalize on its heritage by revitalizing the downtown and historic district. Another attraction, Lockerly Arboretum, offers tours of the facility's botanical gardens as well as educational programs and the Lockerly Heritage Festival each fall. Deep Roots Festival seems to be the big event now days.



Wow all this and nothing really about modern day Milledgeville. It encouraged restoration of historic buildings and an urban design scheme on Main Street to emphasize its character. By 2000 the population of Milledgeville and Baldwin County combined had grown to 44,700. Community leaders have made concerted efforts to create a more diversified economic base, striving to wean the old capital from its dependence on government institutions.





Tangent of ALL the notable people.

Melvin Adams, Jr, better known as Fish Scales from the band Nappy Roots.


Nappy Roots

Nathan Crawford Barnett, Georgia Secretary of State for more than 30 years.



Ella Barksdale Brown, journalist, educator.

Kevin Brown, professional baseball player.



Wally Butts, college football coach.



Earnest Byner, professional football player.



Pete Dexter, novelist, journalist and screenwriter.
   


Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald, founder of the first secret society at a girls' college.


   
Tillie K. Fowler, politician.


   
Joel Godard, television announcer.


Conan O'Brien show
   
Willie Greene, professional baseball player.
   


Nick Harper, professional football player.


Famous tackle in playoff game by Gentle Ben Roethlisberger, who deserves a tangent for Milledgeville.
   
Leroy Hill, professional football player.


   
Maurice Hurt, professional football player.


   
Edwin Francis Jemison, Civil War soldier who died in battle.


Drummer Boy, head shot off by cannon ball at Malvern Hill, more famous for photo (The Boy Soldier)
   
Blind Willie McTell, influential blues guitarist.


There are some real nuggets on these notable people.
   
Bill Miner, Canada's "Gentleman Bandit".


Coined the phrase "Hands Up"
   
Celena Mondie-Milner, professional track and field player.


Professor at some Texas University now.
   
Powell A. Moore, politician and public servant.


   
Barry Reese, writer.


Marvel Comics
   
Lucius Sanford, professional football player.


Yellow Jacket.
   
Tut Taylor, bluegrass musician.


   
Ellis Paul Torrance, psychologist.


Pioneer Childhood Development
   
Larry Turner, professional basketball player.


   
William Usery Jr., labor union activist and U.S. Secretary of Labor.


   
J. T. Wall, professional football player.


Dawg too.
   
Rico Washington, professional baseball player.


   
Rondell White, professional baseball player.


   
Robert McAlpin Williamson, Republic of Texas Supreme Court Justice and Texas Ranger.



Milledgeville Wrap Up



Oh look a vintage image of the Powerhouse on the Oconee River that we explored during our whitewater Natural Wonder adventure yesterday. Let's not forget this is a Natural Wonder Forum.



But today's post is not counted as a new wonder and only a tangent. We present our GNW gal of the day at the Arboretum.