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Butts History Cont. from page 3 HOLINESS CAMP MEETING, 1906 The fifteenth annual camp meeting of the Indian Springs Holiness Camp Ground Asso ciation commences Thurs day evening, August 9th, continuing ten days, closing with the evening service on the 19th. There will be five services each day, and among the prominent Christian workers who will be present and lend their assistance will be Rev. Joseph H. Smith, of Redland, California, Rev. Budd Robin son and Rev. William Huff, of Texas. The musical feature of the meetings will be in charge of Mr. Charlie Tillman, the noted singer who has for a number of years so success fully led the singing with his pure, sweet voice. The services will be held at the Tabernacle, which was erected in 1893, is situated in a natural amphitheatre, being a perfect auditorium, having a seating capacity of about 2,000. It is conserva tively estimated that be tween 25,000 and 30,000 persons annually attend these Meetings, and the indications point to a large increase in attendance this year, the Southern Railway offering the usual reduced rates. With the addition of anew hotel on the grounds, a number of large new cot tages, plenty of pure spring water, the comforts and conveniences are largely increased. This enterprise was launched in 1891 on a plot of ground midway between Flovilla and Indian Springs, and bordering on the dummy railroad connecting the two points. The original tract of ten acres, donated by friends in the two towns and adjoining country, was en larged by the purchase of twenty-four acres. The first Trustees were W. A. Dodge, S. H. Hunter, W. T. Garbutt, T. L. Thrower, J. H. Curry, Mr. Murrah, J. P. Martin, W. T. Lott, J. W. Evans, (Ashburn, Ga.), J. W. Evans, (Flora, Ga.), H. A. Hodges, and G. W. Mathews. First Officers: President, G. W. Mathews; Treasurer, W. A. Dodge; Secretary, H. A. Hodges. Mr. Dodge was the real leader of the Camp Ground movement; after wards became the President and remained so till his death in February, 1904. The trustees at present are: G. W. Mathews, J. W. Evans, Flora, Ga., J. B. Martin, T. L. Thrower, Joseph Mabett, C. D. Tillman, R. F. Burden, H. P. Myers, M. D. Smith, F. C. Benson, W. K. Meeks, W. O. Butler. The fourteen previous camp meetings held upon these consecrated grounds have a steady increase in depth of work and spiritual power. Their promise to the spiritual life and health of the Church at large in the State is best realized by those best acquainted with their char acter and history. The little rock-ribbed Spring only a mile distant is the chief reason that the camp grounds were estab lished here, it being easily accessible to those who attend, and also desire to drink this wonderful medi cinal water. It is estimated that fully 50,000 persons annually make their pilgri mage to Indian Springs, coming from every southern state and many from the north. Information from D.A.R. Phamphlet (1906) FLOVILLA Flovilla was first called East End. later it was called Heards Station for J. W. Heard. Flovilla, “Villa of Flowers” is the name it was later called and has been used until the present. Flovilla has many impor tant businesses, one being an undertaker’s establishment, operated by Mr. George Elder, Mrs. Add Nutt’s father. Some of the business es from 1900-1923 were two banks, two drug stores, several warehouses, a gin, a cafe, hotel, furniture store, an up-to-date mercantile store, two churches, two doctors, a lawyer, a black smith shop, a jail, city hall, post office, and Southern Railway depot. (Courtesy of citizens of Flovilla, Misses Willie Smith, Jewel Smith, Mrs. Bob Thompson, and Mrs. Add Nutt). In The Macon Telegraph of January 1923, the following news item appeared, “Flo villa, COMMUNICATION CUT OFF as 18 stores BURNED DOWN. Disaster started from blacksmith shop. None inured. Eighteen of the principle businesses were totally destroyed . . . Damage estimated at $50,000 .. . Buildings destroyed were: post office, city hall, city jail, White’s Drug Store, gin, Dozier’s Bank Bldg., Negro Methodist Church, Negro lodge, Preston’s Ware house, Lawson’s two ware houses, J. T. Edwards and Sons Warehouse, Smith’s Brick Warehouse, and Smith’s Mercantile Store. The Macon Telegraph, cour tesy of Miss Willie Smith. Captain W. F. Smith was among Flovilla and Butts County’s outstanding citi zens. He rode horseback from Atlanta to Macon in an effort to get the E. T. V. and G. R. R., now the Southern Railroad, to go through Butts County and Flovilla. The railroad was built in 1881. With Messers. Lindsey and Elder, he built the Flovilla- Indian Springs railroad, known as the Dummy. In 1909 he and his associates acquired a franchise and built a street car tract from the Southern’s rail depot to the business section of Jackson. He failed to receive encouragement and this is thought to have hastened his death which came in 191-2. Before his death, he secured a franchise to run a lighting system through Jackson. Obituary, The Jackson Progress-Argus, March 22,1912 JACKSON DAM “Jackson Throws Open Her Gates To the Central Power Company. -The com pany was assured of the hearty co-operation of the citizens of Butts County. “Mr. C. W. Lane, of the firm of Lane Bros, and Company, one of the best known firms in the country, is on the site superintending the construction.” Jackson Argus, May 15,1908 After securing the lighting franchise for Jackson, Cap tain Smith went in search of the most available water power to generate electri city. He said, “I found it where the present dam is now located.” The first step was in the purchase of 58 acres, known as the old Thomas place, and next, the purchase from Mr. William Hodges, of a mill site just above the Thomas place. In looking at the shoals above and below and also the towering cliff on either side, he saw the immense quanti ties of fine granite for building purposes. Mr. S. C. McCandless became interested and pur chased 95 acres on the Jasper County side of the Ocmulgee River, known as the Byar’s place. It was on these properties that the great dam was constructed. Mr. Mc- Candless interested Mr. Harold Mallet of Jackson and they together bought all of the power rights from the old Byars place to Dempsey’s Ferry. They felt that the best way to interest capital was to “combine all power from Lamar’s Mill to the head of the river.” When Mr. Lamar was shown the site where the dam is now located, he said, “I am astonished. I did not know Butts County had anything like this in it.” About this time C. F. Howe,' an engineer, came through looking for water power. Captain Smith, in telling of THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA their conversation, said, “I showed him what I had and explained my purpose of development.” Mr. Howe said, “You are going to spoil a big thing by a little one. Sell your holdings to me and I will help you to make a development from which you can have power cheaper than you can develop it yourself.” Captain Smith further said, “We agreed and Mr. Henry Howe and Mr. Thomas Carling of Macon bought our holdings and they went ahead and made several other purchases.” The Central Georgia Power Company backed by New York Capital had the dam built. L. N. Fornum was in charge of the engineers. J. G. White Company, one of the largest construction corpora tions in the county, secured the contract to build the dam. Information is from news clippings in a scrapbook prepared by Mrs. Joe Varner and presented to Captain Smith in his last illness. The letter that accompanied the book, together with the scrapbook, is in the posses sion of his daughters at Flovilla, Mrs. Bob Thomp son, Misses Willie and Jewel Smith. Since Captain Smith was a citizen who liberally contri buted his time and resources for the development of Butts County, it is interesting to know that copies of the Butts County Argus, April 5, 19, 26, May 10, 17, 24. 31. 1877. published by Captain Smith and Stone and The Middle Georgia Argus, of July 4, 1878, edited by Captain Smith and T. W. Morrow are in possession of his three daughters, Mrs. Bob (Alice) Thompson and Misses Jewel and Willie Smith who reside in Flovilla. His obituary in the Jackson Progress Argus stated that Captain Smith edited his papers by a brass lamp on a Washington press. The family also has a copy of The Head-Light published by Captain Smith at Flovilla in 1903. Heavy Damage Caused By Rain The Central of Georgia Power Company was the heaviest loser. The coffer dam and trestles above and below the dam, washed away, entailing $75,000 to $lOO,OOO damages. Butts County Argus, March 4,1910 Dam Completed Dam completed and water now filling the Reservior .... The power plant is one of the largest in the South, several hundred men have been working on it (day and night) for the past two years. It represents an expenditure of about three million dollars. The power will be used in Forsyth, Griffin, Macon, Monticello, Jackson, and other places in Middle Georgia.” Butts County Progress, Nov. 25,1910 S On October 17, 1781, British General Cornwallis bade his troops lay down their arms at Yorktown. This was to be the last major action of the Revolutionary War. Coleman’s Garage And Body Shop A BRIEF HISTORY OF IRON SPRINGS COMMUNITY Information Compiled for Community Project The Community was named Iron springs, because there is a spring in the community with iron in the water. Early settlers discovered this spring and named it. It has been called Iron Springs since. The oldest school in the community was consolidated with Oak Hill School, and for several years there was a consolidated school in the community; then it was consolidated with other schools in the county to form the one school in the county at the seat of Jackson. At the site of the oldest school in the community, a club house has been built. In 1900 a dummy line ran through the community; also a stage coach route. Both original churches still stand, Pleasant Grove Congrega tional and Union Ridge Christian. These have been remodeled in recent years. There are two cemeteries in the community, one being a family cemetery and the other an Indian Cemetery. There is an old soldier’s grave near the Community House which was marked several years ago by the D.A.R. Today there are a good number of new homes, remodeled homes, and all homes in the community have electricity and pumps to furnish running water. The history of this little community dates back as far as the oldest person living can remember and as far as he or she knows only by tasting the water was the name given it. Several gins have been run in the Community but these have all been torn down and replaced by farms. Information by Mrs. Mildred Ballenger Indian Cemetery: The Indians in death, as in life, rest in a large wooded area beneath the under brush. The wild honeysuckles and dogwood send forth their fragrance and beauty in the Springtime, and the rainbow colored leaves hover over it in the fall. In the sleet and snow their graves are blanketed with the new fallen leaves. Among the graves is one memorial still standing to a Revolutionary War Soldier, “Rich D. Speake, 3 S. C. Mil, Rev. War.” New Farmer’s Phone Ser vice Put in to Iron Springs “The Southern Bell Tele phone Company has made a contract for the connection of anew farmers line with the Jackson Exchange.” This service will provide tele- THURSDAY, JULY 1. 1976 phone service to the follow ing farmers: J. M. Maddox, J. L. Maddox, R. H. Henderson, William Preston, J. D. Thomas, T. J. Linkous, J. O. Cole, L. M. Maddox, Mrs. S. A. Lemons, and others. Butts County Progress, Nov. 1910 BLOOD-STAINED LETTER TELLSA FRIGHTFUL TALE By Bernice McCullar Georgia heroine of an Indian murder covered her dead husband with her last garment. There is a blood-stained letter in the library over at the university in Athens that would make the hair curl on the back of your neck. In fact, there are two letters, though only one with the blood on it. Yet the other is still more frightful. Together they tell a tale that reminds you of those lines in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “I could a tale unfold whose lightest work would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and com bined lockes to part, And each particular hair stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.” This is the story of Georgia’s Antigones whether two or three, you figure out. At any rate, this story is better than that of Sophocles because it is true. His was the stuff that dreams are made of. You probably remember that in Sophocles’ popular drama (which the old Greeks liked so much that they made him a general), a sister is not allowed to give a decent burial to her dead brother because he had charted a different course from that of the powerful rulers. Georgia’s Antigone -a girl named Jane pulled off her last garment, and stood there in the dignity of her nakedness, to spread it over her dead, to keep the fowls of the air and the merciless sun away from the one she had loved. Her mother or aunt in another letter plays an Antigonean role also. The story is an old one. You probably read it in school in your history books, though they pass it lightly. It is the story of the Greek chief William Mclntosh, killed by his people because he signed the treaty which they said gave away their lands to the white man. Mclntosh was first cousin to Georgia’s colorful Gov. George Troup. You can see the house where the treaty was signed any time you want to drive down to Indian Springs, between Jackson and Forsyth. But the bloody tragedy had its setting in Mclntosh’s residence up near Roopville. Mclntosh was a man of Scotch and Indian ancestry. He became a brigadier general when he fought with the American forces in the Florida campaign. His cousin, Gov. Troup, was violently in favor of ridding Georgia of the Creeks, so much that he had Georgia at odds with the Federal Government, and caused much vexation of spirit to President Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Mclntosh himself came to believe that the way of peace was for the Creeks to give up their Georgia lands and go West. In fact, he signed at Indian Springs on Feb. 12, 1825 —a treaty ceding, the Creek lands in Georgia to the state for $400,000 and as many acres in the West. For this, he got the tract that is now the Mclntosh reserva tion, which was to be his doorstep to doom and death. The Creeks refused to accept this treaty. They named Menewa, a rival leader, as Mclntosh’s execu tioner. He took a hundred Indians with him, went to the Mclntosh house, drove all whites away, and brutally murdered Mclntosh and an aid by firing a fusillade of more than a hundred bullets into them. They tied up Col. Samuel Hawkins, Mclntosh’s son-in-law and husband of his daughter Jane. They kept him tied up from before daylight until 3 o’clock the next afternoon. They were waiting for their chiefs to come and pronounce his sentence. It was death. They would not give Jane - who piteously begged for it anything to cover the body of her dead husband. She had left on only one garment. This she took off to cover her beloved dead. Her pitiful letter relates the story. It is probably the most tragic letter ever written in Georgia. But right next to it in the university ©ttitJtomlfppKiinjs From a Great American Flower Shop by permission of THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE The winter of’77: Party season for the British. A turning point for the Patriots. We’ve faced a heartbreaking retreat from New York and across New Jersey. 3,000 men are British prison ers, and Washington is foresaken by many of his own. The British generals figure it’s only a matter of time before we give up and beg the King’s pardon. But the British are a trifle too smug. We recross the Delaware and, battle after battle, surprise the enemy and defeat him. It s on to Saratoga, where our victory becomes a turning point. It gives us courage through the longest winter at Valley Forge. While we suffer cold, starvation and sickness at Valley Forge, the British elite continue to party with their Loyalist friends in Philadelphia. But we learn something. Not to give up. The nation learns, too. And the rest is history, $ JACKSON FLOWER SHOP library is a similar letter written by one of Mclntosh’s two Indian wives, yet carrying the signature of them both. > Peggy and Susannah. You read it wondering which one wrote it. Could they both write? Jane’s letter, sent to Col. Campbell and Maj. Meri wether, was written on May 3, 1825. It reads, “My dear friends, I send you this paper which will not tell you a lie. but if it had 10 tongues, it could not tell you the whole truth. On the morning of 30 of April, at the break of day, my Father’s house was sur rounded by a party of hostile Indians . . . They took away the best of Father’s money and pro perty, and destroyed the rest, leaving the family no clothing (some not even one rag) nor provisions. Brother Chilly was at Father’s and made his escape, with a white traveling man (Note: Chilly set out for Milledge ville to carry the dreadful news to the Governor). It was before daylight and he was not discovered . . . While murdering my beloved Father, they were tying my husband, Col. Sam’l. Haw kins, with cords . . . Not content with spilling the blood of my husband and father, these barbarous men refused my hand the ‘painful privilege of covering his body up” - here Jane is confused, and speaks of both her dead as one- “They stript me of my two best friends in one day. Stript of property and stript of clothes ... yet more painful than all the rest, that the body of my poor murdered husband should remain unburied, to be devoured by the birds and beasts. Was ever poor woman worse off than I?” She wrote of the high waters that prevented help from getting to them. “We are in a dreadful condition. I don’t think there will be one ear of corn made in the Nation. Most people have fled to DeKalb and Fayette counties, and are too much alarmed to return. I am afraid you think I make it worse than it is, but how could that be? For it is worse of itself than any pen can write. I mock me when I try to speak of it. After I was stript of my last frock but one, humanity and duty called on me to pull it off and spread it over the body of my dead husband, which was allowed no other covering. Which I did as a farewell witness of my affection. I was 20 miles away trom any friend (but my sister Catherine who was with me) and had to stay all night in the woods surrounded by a hundred hostile Indians who were constantly insulting and affrighting us. And now I am here with only one old coat to my back and not a morsel of bread to save us from perishing, or a rag or blanket to cover my poor little boy from the sun at noon or the due (sic) at night, and I am a poor distracted orphan and widow. If you think Proper, I wish this to be published.” Signed, Jane Hawkins. The letter of the two wives of Gen. William Mclntosh was sent to the government itself, addressed to the U. S. Commissioner. Written in a fine script -but by which wife, I would like to know - the letter is a vivid as Jane’s. What’s more, this is one with the bloodstains. And the late Col. Telamon Cuyler, that interesting Ed wardian from down near Gray who gave this condition to the university, had the spot analyzed and it IS blood. The writer of this letter also speaks of seeking a covering for their dead. Cont. on next page