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1776-1789
Revolutionary War And
f-# •
Aftermath In Georgia
In April of 1776, Georgia
organized an official
revolutionary government
by adopting a set of
temporary state “Rules
and Regulations." These
guidelines made few
changes in the machinery
under which the state had
already been operating for
several months.. Early in
the following year, a more
permanent document was
drawn up. This new con
stitution was extremely
democratic, giving
getterous voting power to
most of the white adult
male population.
* The war was not long in
coming to Georgia. The
boundary area which the
state shared with East
Florida -long a trouble
zone-quickly became a
haven for Southern
loyalists who set up
headquarters In St.
Augustine. Frequent raids
and skirmishes occurred,
and for the first three
years of the war Georgia
annually dispatched an
expedition to wipe out the
In Perry
Phone Increase
Reflects Growth
The steady growth of the
City of Perry is reflected in
the increase of the number
:of telephones in service
here.
2 In 1976, there are 4,161
telephone customers; 3)516
residential and 645
business phones. (These
figures do not include the
hundreds of telephones In
the various motels In the
city.) ‘
In the Perry Exchange,
there are 3,058 telephones
serving Elko, Henderson,
Haynevllle, Grovanla,
Kathleen andClinchfleld In
Houston County.
The above figures show
that General Telephone
Company serves 7,219
customers In Perry and
Houston County.
In 1971, Perry had 3,279
telephones and In 1961,
2,115 telephones (not
counting motels).
The General Telephone
Company bought the
Southeastern Telephone
.•Company, which serviced
Perry, In 195* Since 1969,
Peyry has been the District
headquarters and Kenneth
Aldridge has been the
district manager for
• General Telephone Co.
The Perry District in
eludes the Exchanges of
Perry, Unadilla,
Byromvilje, Marshallvllle,
Montezuma, Buena Vista,
Ellavllle, Ideal, Woodland,
Warm Springs, and
Manchester. There are
35,723 telephones in the
Perry district and fifty
. nine employees.
First Exchange
The first telephone
exchange in Perry was
owned and operated by
Janies D. Martin, Jr. and
his family in their home at
the corner of Main Street
and Washington Avenue
where a new brfck office
building now stands. This
exchange was sold in 1923
to a group of investors who
•old it in 1925 to a Roberta
couple who continued the
Mme Houston Telephone
Company and retained
Cater Rogers as manager.
In • 1928,* The
Southeastern Telephone
Company bought the
Houston Telephone Co. and
made Robert Morris,
manager. In 1958, Mr.
Morris became test board
man. After forty-seven
tears of service, Mr.
Morris retired from
* General Telephone Co. in
February, 1975.
Mrs. Estelle Hunt has
been with the local
m
enemy there. These at
tacks were chronic failures
and served no purpose
whatsoever except to
divert men who might
have been more useful
elsewhere.
In late 1778, the British
decided to shift their own
offensive to theSouth.
Saratoga and dther
disastrous battles in the
North had cost them
almost evdry foothold they
had occupied In North
America other than New
York, and in Georgia and
South Carolina they hoped
to find allies among the
local Indians and loyalists.
The operation was directed
by Lieutenant Colonel
Archibald Campbell, who
found the patriots so
confused upon his arrival
that he was able to take
Savannah immediately.
The rest of Georgia soon
followed this collapse,
despite the efforts of both
Continental troops and
state militia.
However, the British
were unable to maintain
telephone exchange for 38
years. She has been a
supervisor since 1955.
There are now six
supervisors and thirty
seven employees with the
Perry Exchange.
Telephone service In
Perry has grown from less
than 100 customers in 1923
to over 4,000 In 1976 due to
the increase in population
from 500 to 9,500.
General Telephone
moved Into their present
brick building in May 1972.
Direct dialing went info
effect In Perry In 1967.
•
Georgia
Churches
Georgia has over 10,000
churches, synagogues, and
chapels with three million
members and over 8,000
ministers. The Baptists
have the largest mem
bershlp, followed by
Methodists, Catholics,
Presbyterians and
Episcopalians. The
smaller denominations
include Church of God,
Assembly of God, Seventh
Day Adventists, Christian
Science and others. There
are a number of Jewish
synagogues. In Atlanta,
there is a Greek Orthodox
church which in Its dome
has a creation picture of
mosaic glass that Is the
second largest in the
a orld.
How-ston'
Correct
•
The County's name,
Houston, is pronounced
"How ston" instead of
"Hugh ston". Named for
John Houston, governor of
Georgia from 1778 to 1784,
the county's name was
pronounced like that of the
family.
Houston's
First Child
Bom In 1823
The first child born in
Houston County was
Milton Wright whose birth
occurred Dec. 19, 1823,
according to the County
History.
their Initial advantage; the
Rebels quickly recovered
from the beating and
worked to remedy their
major problems-lack of
unity and effective com
munlcatlons--and the
anticipated flood of Indian
and loyalists support for
the British failed to
materialize. Both sides set
up government again, the
British in Savannah and
the Rebels In Augusta.
Through the rest of 1779
and 1780, the situation
remained largely un
changed except for oc
casional clashes and the
Fearless Patriots
Role Os Georgia Women
In The Revolutionary War
Women throughout the
colonies played important
roles in the Revolution,
and Georgia had its share
of them. Any mention of
female courage and
determination would have
to include Hannah Clarke
and Sarah Williamson,
both the wives of military
leaders In the patriotic
ranks. Hannah Clarke
endured illness,
harassment by Tories, and
many other hardships, as
she followed Colonel Elijah
Clarke on his campaigns.
After the successful
conclusion of his siege of
Augusta, she even asked
him for leniency in the
punishment of his loyalist
prisoners, even though
they had not often dealt
kindly with her.
Sarah Williamson was
also persecuted by Tory
neighbors as a result of her
husband's Whig af
filiations. One one oc
casion, their home was
barbarously pillaged in his
absence, with loyalists
burning the house and even
coldly murdering their son
before her eyes. But
Mlcajah and Sarah
Williamson continued to
support the war and the
patriotic cause, living to
see the beginnings of a long
line of illustrious
descendants who would
include a Georgia
governor and two Supreme
Court justices.
All other stories of
fearless female patriots
pale somewhat in com
parison with the legandary
Nancy Hart. Tall, red
headed, unusually strong,
she and her quick temper
were not to be reckoned
with lightly. Tales about
"Aunt Nancy" and her
war time exploits have
Increased with the years
until it Is difficult to
ascertain exactly which
are indeed based upon
fact. British loyalists
controlled Wilkes County,
where she and her family
lived, and exercised their
authority regularly with
terrorist tactics. When a
group of Tories stopped by
her home one day to
demand a meal, she, un
daunted, plotted a mean of
disarming them. Talking
and joking with the enemy
to put them at their ease,
she persuaded therp to lay
down their weapons while
they enjoyed the food. No
sooner had they done so
than Nancy snatched up a
musket and captured all
six of them. One of the
more picturesque
elements of fhis legend has
it that, since Nancy was
cross-eyed, each of her
prisoners, .uncertain of her
aim, feared that she
pointed her gun directly at
him and so dared not make
a move tor freedom. It is
also popularly believed
that Nancy herself hanged
her captives in her own
back yard and later buried
them beneath her cabin,
brief crisis in September,
1779, when a large French
force under the leadership
of Count d'Estalng with
support from General
Benjamin Lincolm tried
unsuccessfully to oust the
British from Savannah. In
neighboring South
Carolina, Charleston and
most of the Rebel army
defending it were taken. At
about the same time,
Augusta fell to loyalist
forces under Campbell. In
the wake of these bleak
events, many sometime
patriots returned to the
royal cause, swearing
but it is far more likely
that she simply marched
them off to Elijah Clarke
or another local Whig
commander to do with as
he saw fit. Whatever the
true facts, it is testimony
to her fearless conviction
that such a story has
become so widely ac
11 UNDER THE SKILLFUL FINGERS $1
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|H OF A GREAT NATION WAS BORN
I KCLLWOOD ||.
II COMPANY II
11 STANFIELD GROUP 11
N 'fe GEORGIA DECOR DIVISION M 'J
their renewed allegiance to
the King in return for light
or suspended punishment.
Guerrilla fighting con
tinued indecisively. The
Rebel government con
tinued haphazardly to
exist, essentially in name
alone.
In 1781, Contine/ital
troops commanded by
Anthony Wayne and
Nathanael Greene came to
the aid of the beleaguered
southern colonies. Augusta
was retaken, then Ninety-
Six in South Carolina, and
finally Savannah itself in
the following summer. The
cepted, and the name of
Nancy Hart still stands
today as a symbol of all the
courageous women of the
Revolution.
Courtesy of the Georgia
Commission for the
National Bicentennial
Celebration and the
Georgia Archives.
rebel leaders moved back
into Savannah and began
to strengthen themselves
for effective governing. At
first, those Tories who
remained in Georgia even
after its recapture by the
patriots were harshly
treated, with legislative
penalties of banishment
and property confiscation
for their former loyalties,
but enforcement of these
measures gradually
subsided together with the
public outcry for revenge.
The legislators, hoping to
entice badly needed new
settlers to Georgia, made
attractive offers of grants
and bounties to all patriots,
and particularly to those
who had served the state
during its British oc
cupation. The new state
began to prosper as the
population increased and
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL THURS., JULY 1, 1974,
its economy flourished.
Friction with local Indians
was smoothed over,
although not decisively
settled; trade, industry,
and agriculture all grew
rapidly; the plantation
system became in
creasingly more im
portant.
Other major changes,
not always visible, also
occurred in post-war
Georgia. The issues for
which the Revolution had
been fought--the fun
damental significance of
each individual, his right
to self-determination,
social mobility, political
and religious freedom-had
made themselves strongly
felt. The democratic ideals
of free thinking and living
had become entrenched.
Each (white) man was to
have the opportunity,
theoretically at least, to do
with himself and his life as
he himself wished,
provided that he harmed
no one in doing it. When, .ft
1788, Georgia ratified the
newly-created United
States Constitution and
participated in the election
of George Washington as
the country's first
President, the state was
firmly established
economically, socially, x
and democratically.
Without the Revolution as
a catalyst of change, much
of what contributed to the
creation of she "new"
Georgia would have been
decades later in coming
about.
---Courtesy of she
Georgia Commission for
the National Bicentennial
Celebration and this
Georgia Archives.