Academy and, for nearly thirty years, made it the leading institution
of learning in this entire region. A thorough Greek, Latin, and English
scholar, an uncompromising observer of prescribed regulations, and a firm
believer in the virtue of the birch as freely applied in those days in the
English and Irish schools in which he had received his training, he was a
terror to all dolts and delinquents. To the studious and the ambitious,
he always proved himself a generous instructor, full of suggestion and
encouragement. The higher branches of mathematics were also taught; and,
as a preparatory school, this institution, under his guidance, had no
superior within the limits of the State. The average attendance was about
seventy. Pupils were attracted not only from Liberty, but also from the
adjacent counties of Chatham, Bryan, McIntosh, and Glynn. Some came from
even greater distances. Two generations sat at the feet of this venerable
preceptor. Fathers and sons in turn responded to his nod, and feared his
frown. Although
“A man severe he was, and stern to view,”
so impartial was he in the support of whatever was just and of good
report, and so competent and thorough as a teacher, that for more than a
quarter of a century his numerous pupils found in him, above all others,
their mentor, guide, and helper in the thorny paths of knowledge. Strongly
did he impress his character and influence upon the generations in which
he lived, and his name and acts are even now well remembered. The evening
of his days was spent, as inclination prompted, at the residences of his
old scholars, by whom a cordial welcome was always extended. That welcome
was recognized by him as peculiarly genuine and agreeable when accompanied
by a generous supply of buttermilk and a good glass of wine. The latter
might be dispensed with: a failure to provide the former was, in his eyes,
an unpardonable breach of hospitality, and materially impaired the comfort
of his sojourn, and the tranquility of the venerable guest.
Among the other teachers at this Academy may be mentioned Mr. James E.
Morris, the Rev. Mr. Lewis, the Rev. Mr. Shannon, the Rev. Mr. Thomas
Goulding, Uriah Wilcox, Rev. Mr. John Boggs, Captain William Hughes, Mr.
C. G. Lee, Rev. A. T. Holmes, Rev. S. G. Hillyer, Major John Winn, Mr. W.
T. Feay, and Mr. Oliver W. Stevens. The building—a large two story and a
half double wooden house, about sixty feet square and located in King’s
Square,—was pulled down and sold some time about the year 1842.
As early as 1797 it being manifest that the population of the town
was steadily decreasing, and that its commercial importance could not
be reëstablished, it was resolved by a large majority of the citizens
of Liberty that Sunbury,—the then seat of justice,—was inconveniently
situated for conducting the public business, and that North New Port
Bridge was the most eligible location for the Court House and Jail.
Matthew McAllister, Esq. had very generously offered to convey in fee
simple, for public uses, a piece of ground two hundred and thirty feet
in length and one hundred and fifty feet in width, situated near “the
Bridge,” without “price or consideration other than a wish on his part to
promote the growth of the town of Riceborough and benefit the inhabitants
thereof.” The middle and upper portions of the county had by this time the
controlling vote in public matters, and the Legislature was memorialized,
in opposition to the feebler will of the residents of Sunbury and its
vicinity, to authorize a removal of the seat of justice. Accordingly, on
the 1st of February, 1797, an act was passed appointing Thomas Stevens,
Daniel Stewart, Peter Winn, Joel Walker, and Henry Wood, Commissioners
to superintend the admeasurement of the land offered by Mr. McAllister,
receive the titles therefor, and erect thereon and keep in repair a Court
House and Jail for the County of Liberty. The act further provided that
after its passage “all courts and elections heretofore held, and all
public business heretofore transacted at said town of Sunbury, should be
held and transacted at the said town of Riceborough,” to which place the
County offices and records were to be removed.[232]
Riceborough was a more convenient point for shipping to Savannah the
rice, cotton, and agricultural products of the County, and was much more
central for the facile convocation of the citizens and the transaction
of public business. Sunbury, however, still remained the favorite resort
of the wealthier planters during the summer months, and maintained a
permanent population of perhaps four hundred. The hurricane of 1804, with
its wild devastations, begat a sense of insecurity in the minds of not a
few dwellers on the coast, and to some extent diminished the population of
the town. Soon afterwards, Bermuda grass began to overspread the bluff and
cover, with its deep mat, the streets and lanes. With its importation the
health of the place became sensibly affected. Chills and high grades of
bilious fever grew frequent in the fall of the year, and from time to time
removals occurred to healthier localities. Many citizens still clung to
their old homes rendered so pleasant by the refreshing sea-breezes and the
never-failing stores of the waters and the orchards, and Sunbury for many
years continued to be the abode of culture, hospitality, and ease. Then
came the hurricane of 1824 blowing down out-houses, bearing away fences,
bringing in the sea in great masses, and carrying fear to many, and even
death to some who resided at exposed points. The wild indigo disappeared
more rapidly than ever, and the dark Bermuda grass asserted its dominion
on every hand. From the numerous cattle accustomed to feed upon its common
and wander through its streets and lanes, and from the refuse of the
town, now no longer new, the original sandy soil became saturated with
fertilizing matter, and grew rich. Thence, under the heat of autumnal
suns, year by year rose exhalations annually more and more prejudicial to
health. Chills and fevers were more frequent, and Sunbury proved less and
less attractive as a summer resort. In 1829 Sherwood describes the town
as having “a flourishing academy, a house of worship for the Baptists,
twenty dwelling houses, two stores, three offices, and a population of one
hundred and fifty.”[233]
Ten years before, the Sunbury Female Asylum had been incorporated by
the Legislature of Georgia.[234] Supported by the generous charities of
kind-hearted women, it never enjoyed a vigorous existence, and after some
years suffered a languishing death.
Although by resolutions adopted on the 18th of November, 1812, and the
12th of November, 1813, the Legislature provided for stationing troops
in the counties of Bryan, Liberty, McIntosh, Glynn, and Camden, for the
protection of the sea-coast of Georgia, it does not appear that any
permanent detail was made for Sunbury. The fort, however, was again placed
in tolerable condition, the planters furnishing the labor requisite for
cleaning out the ditch, strengthening the parapet, and mounting such guns
as there remained and were deemed trustworthy. A few light pieces were
obtained from Savannah and added to the armament. Such gun-carriages
as were manufactured in the county were made by Jonathan Goulding, of
Taylor’s Creek. Not a shot, however, was fired from the fort during the
war of 1812-1815.
Although British vessels of war were constantly upon the coast, and
the smoke of merchantmen captured, robbed, and burnt by them was on
several occasions seen from Sunbury, the enemy never ascended Midway
river. A company composed of the citizens of the town and its vicinity,
numbering some forty men and commanded by the honorable John A. Cuthbert,
and another company consisting of the larger boys then students at the
Sunbury Academy, and under the command of Captain [afterwards Brigadier
General] Charles Floyd, were formed for local defense, drilled at regular
intervals, and held themselves in readiness to act as occasion might
require.
Besides these, there were then three volunteer companies in Liberty
County: the Liberty Independent Troop,—Captain Joseph Jones,—and two
infantry companies, commanded respectively by Captains Robert Quarterman
and John Winn. “The Guards,” under Captain Winn, were at one time
stationed at Hardwick, in Bryan County.
After his defeat at Point Peter, Captain Jones’ cavalry company and the
Rifle company of Captain Quarterman were ordered to the relief of Major
Messias. They were for some time on duty at Darien.
The militia of the County being well organized and efficiently officered,
was largely engaged in maintaining a careful watch along the coast. In
this service assistance was rendered by barges and cutters from the
American Navy, which patrolled Midway river and the adjacent inlets, and
not infrequently established their headquarters at Sunbury. The “Committee
of Safety” for Liberty County, during the war, consisted of General Daniel
Stewart, William Fleming, John Winn, John Stacy, John Elliott, John
Stevens, and Joseph Law. These gentlemen were authorized to take general
charge of the local defense, and to call upon the citizens of the County
for such labor as appeared necessary. In case of a refusal on the part of
any one to respond to the requisition, they were instructed to advertise
the name of such delinquent in the most frequented places, that he might
be held up to public contempt “for having disgraced the character of the
citizen and the patriot.”
This Committee assured General C. C. Pinckney of their ability and
willingness to repair and garrison the Fort at Sunbury, and made
requisition upon him for two 18-pounder guns and a suitable supply of
ammunition. In its remodeled condition, the fortification at Sunbury
received at the hands of the Committee of Safety a new name,—“Fort
Defence.” As being more easily defended, and requiring a smaller garrison,
General Pinckney suggested the erection of a tower for the protection of
Sunbury. This project, however, was never consummated.
The last vessel of any moment, which visited the town, was a Swedish brig
which, in 1814, came in and conveyed away a load of cotton. Mr. James
Holmes was the last Collector of the port; and for many years prior to
his death the office was a mere sinecure. Subsequently a Surveyor was
appointed by the General Government whose principal duty was to sign blank
reports and draw his quarterly salary. The last person who held this
office was the genial Colonel William Maxwell.
Until 1833, the Liberty Independent Troop,—the oldest volunteer
military organization within the limits of Georgia except the Chatham
Artillery,—celebrated the fourth of July each year at Sunbury. This
company was then the guest of the town, and the recipient of every
welcome and hospitality. The morning was spent in military exercises, in
contentions at the head, ring, and target, and the afternoon was crowned
with a public dinner replete with good cheer and patriotic speeches.
This annual parade was the event of the year in that quiet community. On
such occasions the U. S. Revenue Cutters stationed on the coast would
generally come up to the town by special invitation, and participate in
the festivities.
The summer retreats established at Jonesville, Flemington, Hinesville, and
Dorchester, compassed the depopulation of the old town. Without trade,
destitute of communications, and visited more and more each season with
fevers, Sunbury, for nearly thirty years, has ceased to exist save in
name. Its squares, lots, streets, and lanes have been converted into a
corn field. Even the bricks of the ancient chimneys have been carted away.
No sails whiten the blue waters of Midway river save those of a miserable
little craft employed by its owner in conveying terrapins to Savannah.
The old cemetery is so overgrown with trees and brambles that the graves
of the dead can scarcely be located after the most diligent search. Fort
Morris is enveloped in a wild growth of cedars and myrtle. Academy,
churches, market, billiard room, wharves, store-houses, residences, all
gone; only the bold Bermuda covered bluff and the beautiful river with
the green island slumbering in its embrace to remind us of this lost
town. A stranger pausing here would find no trace of the past once full
of life and importance, but now existent only in the skeleton memories
which redeem place and name from that oblivion which sooner or later
is the common lot of all things human. The same bold bluff,—the same
broad expanse of marshes stretching onward to the confines of the broad
Atlantic,—the same blue outlines of Colonel’s island and the Bryan
shore,—the same sea-washed beach of St. Catherine,—the same green island
dividing the river as it ebbs and flows with ever restless tide,—the
same soft sea-breezes,—the same bright skies,—the same sweet voices and
tranquil scene which nature gave and still perpetuates,—but all else how
changed! Truly “oblivion is not to be hired.” Blindly scattering her poppy
she deals with places as with men, and they become as though they had not
been. Strange that a town of such repute, and within the confines of a
young and prosperous commonwealth, should have so utterly faded from the
face of the earth!
“The garden with its arbor—gone,
And gone the orchard green;
A shattered chimney stands alone,
Possessor of the scene.”
It is with pleasurable sadness and filial reverence that we have
brought together these fragmentary memories of a place once the abode
of so much refinement, intelligence, hospitality and patriotism,—the
home of Lyman Hall and Button Gwinnett,—signers of the Declaration of
Independence,—of John Elliott and Alfred Cuthbert,—United States Senators
from Georgia,—and of John A. Cuthbert, member of Congress,—the birth-place
of William Law,—the accomplished lawyer, upright judge, and courtly
gentleman,—and of John E. Ward,—the eloquent advocate, speaker of the
House of Representatives, president of the Georgia Senate, and United
States Minister to China,—for some years the residence of Richard Howley
and Nathan Brownson, Governors of Georgia,—claiming intimate association
with the Reverend Moses Allen, Benjamin Baker, Colonels William and John
Baker, General Daniel Stewart, Colonel John McIntosh, and Major John
Jones, patriots all, who risked fortune and life in support of the primal
struggle for independence,—the scene of the professional labors of
Doctors Dunwoody, Alexander, and West,—and numbering among its citizens
clergymen, teachers, physicians, lawyers, merchants, and planters, whose
influence was appreciated in their day and generation, and whose names, if
here repeated, would challenge respect and veneration.
Nature survives, but nearly all the rest is shadow. In this humid soil so
fecund with vegetation, neglected gravestones,—covered with brambles and
overturned by envious forest trees,—“tell truth scarce forty years.”
V.
HARDWICK.
[Illustration: _Boundaries of the Town of Hardwick_
Resurveyed, in 1853 by William Hughes. County Surveyor of Liberty County.
Georgia.
_J. Bien, Photo. Lith. N. Y._]
During his tour of inspection in 1755, Governor Reynolds was so much
pleased with the natural advantages of the Great Ogeechee river, that he
selected a bluff upon its right bank, some fourteen miles from the sea, as
a location for a new town, which, in honor of his relative the Lord High
Chancellor of England, he named HARDWICK.
In his letter to the Board of Trade he says: “Hardwicke has a charming
situation, the winding of the river making it a peninsula; and it is the
only fit place for the capital.[235] There are many objections to this
town of Savannah being so, besides its being situated at the extremity
of the province, the shoalness of the river, and the great height of the
land, which is very inconvenient in the loading and unloading of ships.
Many lots have already been granted in Hardwicke, but only one house
is yet built there; and as the province is unable to be at the expence
of erecting the necessary public buildings, and the annual sum of £500
allowed for erecting and repairing public works, entertaining Indians,
and other incidental expenses being insufficient for all those purposes,
I am in hopes your Lordships will think proper to get a sufficient sum
allowed for erecting a Court-House, an Assembly-House, a Church, and a
Prison at Hardwick; which will be such an encouragement to private people
to build there as will soon make it fit for the seat of government to the
universal benefit of the province.”[236]
Upon the agitation of this project to transfer the capital of the colony
from Savannah to the Great Ogeechee,[237] twenty-seven lots were quickly
taken up in the town of Hardwick, and twenty-one thousand acres of land
in its vicinity were granted to various parties who favored and promised
to develop the enterprize. DeBrahm proposed that the place should be
fortified by the erection of three polygons, six hundred feet each,
and three detached bastions, to be armed with twenty-five cannon; and
suggested a garrison of one hundred and fifty men.[238]
The Home Government neglecting to furnish the necessary funds, and
Governor Reynolds being without the means requisite to compass the
contemplated change, his scheme of transferring the seat of government to
Hardwick was never consummated, and the town, deprived of its anticipated
dignity and importance, developed simply into a little trading village
adapted to the convenience of the few who there located and cultivated
lands in the vicinity.[239]
By DeBrahm[240] it was reckoned among the five sea-port towns of the
province. Although for many years a port of entry, its commerce was
wholly domestic and coastwise, being chiefly confined to the conveyance
of the products of the region, in small vessels, to Savannah, and the
transportation, in return, of such articles and supplies as were needed by
the planters.
By the act of the 15th of March, 1758,[241] dividing Georgia into eight
parishes, “the town of Hardwick and district of Ogechee on the south
side of the river Great Ogechee, extending north west up the said river
as far as the lower Indian trading path leading from Mount Pleasant, and
southward from the town of Hardwick as far as the swamp of James Dunham,
including the settlements on the north side of the north branches of the
river Midway, with the islands of Ossabaw, and from the head of the said
Dunham’s swamp in a north west line,” were declared a parish by the name
of ST. PHILIP.
In 1786[242] regulations were prescribed for the inspection of Tobacco at
a warehouse to be erected at Hardwick.
By an Act, assented to on the 19th of December, 1793,[243] a new County
was laid off from Chatham, and, in honor of a venerable patriot,[244] was
called Bryan.
The legislature which passed this Act constituted John Wereat, Robert
Holmes, James McGillivray, William Clark, Simmons Maxwell, Thomas Collier,
and Joseph Stiles, Commissioners for the town and commons of Hardwick,
with power, upon three months’ notice published in the Georgia Gazette,
to cause a survey to be made, as nearly as possible, in conformity to the
original plan of the place. This survey they were required to record in
the office of the Surveyor of Bryan County; and also in the office of the
Surveyor General of the State.[245]
By the second section of the Act these Commissioners were directed to sell
at public vendue, to the highest bidder, at such time and place as they
should deem best, and after published notice of six weeks in the Georgia
Gazette, any vacant lots in the town, and any lots which should have
become vested in the State of Georgia, reserving such only as might be
proper for public uses. The proceeds arising from these sales were to be
primarily applied to the erection of a Court House and Jail; and, if any
balance remained in the hands of the Commissioners, it was to be expended
in building an Academy. Within three months after the completion of such
sales these Commissioners were to make full return to the State Treasurer
of the number of lots sold, the price which each brought, and of the
application of the funds realized.
On the 23rd of December, 1791,[246] Hardwick was again designated, by
special legislative enactment, as one of the points in Georgia for the
erection of a public ware-house, and the inspection and shipment of
tobacco.
Eight years afterwards[247] the Justices of the Inferior Court of Bryan
County were authorized to lease, from time to time, and for a term not
exceeding seven years, the common of Hardwick and the glebe lands of the
County, and apply the rents and profits therefrom arising to the repair
and improvement of the County roads and bridges.
Although the Act of 1793 appointed Commissioners and provided for the
erection of a County Court House and Jail at Hardwick, it does not appear
that the contemplated buildings were ever constructed. But few terms of
the Superior Court were held at this place. As early as 1797 the General
Assembly of Georgia[248] authorized the Justices of the Inferior Court
of Bryan County to make permanent seat of the public buildings “at the
Cross-Roads about two miles from Ogechee bridge, or at any other place
within half a mile of the said Cross-Roads.” For this purpose they were
empowered to purchase land not exceeding two acres in extent.
There the public business was transacted, until, in 1814, the
Legislature[249] was induced to sanction the selection of a new site more
central in its location and more convenient of access to the inhabitants
who had multiplied in the upper portion of the County. Godhilf Smith,
Henry Sherman, James Martin, Zachariah Wells, and Luke Man were designated
as Commissioners to sell the old lot and buildings at the cross-roads, and
purchase in behalf of the County a parcel of ground at the new site to be
chosen at or near Mansfield, on the Canouchee river, and superintend the
erection thereon of new public buildings.
Thus, instead of becoming the Capital of Georgia, Hardwick soon ceased to
be even the County-town of Bryan County.
In Sibbald’s “Notes and Observations on the Pine Lands of Georgia,”[250]
&c., written in 1801, we find the following notice of this village:
“Hardwick, situated near the mouth of Ogeechee river in Bryan County,—the
navigation being good, and having an extensive river running through
a fertile country,—bids fair to arrive at some considerable degree of
Importance.” This promise was never fulfilled.
From the best information we can obtain we are persuaded that the
population of Hardwick probably, at no time, exceeded one hundred souls.
In 1824 Mr. Alexander Netherclift was the only resident; and Sherwood, in
his Gazetteer of the State of Georgia for 1829,[251] speaks of Hardwick
simply as “a cluster of houses in Bryan.” Among those who, from time to
time, were inhabitants of the place, may be mentioned Mr. Clark, Dr. Ward,
Mr. Mifflen, Dr. John Jenkins, Dr. Anthony Benezet, Dr. T. J. Charlton,
Dr. Louis Turner, and Mr. William Savage. The commerce of Hardwick was
never large, and was conducted by means of small craft plying between it
and Savannah. Sloops and schooners sufficed, with occasional trips, to
convey to a market the agricultural products of the neighborhood, and in
return to bring back plantation supplies.
After the removal of the public buildings from the Cross-Roads, and upon
the completion of the causeway through the swamp and of the bridge over
the Great Ogeechee river,—thereby establishing immediate and convenient
communication by land with Savannah,—the trade of Hardwick declined, and
its small stores,—abandoned of their keepers,—lapsed into decay.