The memories of fifty years: containing brief biographical notes of distinguished Americans and anecdotes of remarkable men

Front matter

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The Memories

Preface

IN the same week, and within three days of the same date, I received from three Judges of the Supreme Court, of three States, the request that I would record my remembrances of the men and things I had known for fifty years. The gentlemen making this request were Joseph Henry Lumpkin, of Georgia; William L. Sharkey, of Mississippi, and James G. Taliaferro, of Louisiana.

From Judge Sharkey the request was verbal ; from the other two it came in long and, to me, cherished letters. All three have been my intimate friends — Lumpkin from boyhood; the others for nearly fifty years. Judge Lumpkin has finished his work in time, and gone to his reward. Judges Sharkey and Taliaferro yet live, both now over seventy years of age. The former has retired from the busy cares of office, honored, trusted, and beloved ; the latter still occupies a seat upon the Bench of the Supreme Court of Louisiana.

These men have all sustained unreproached -reputations, and retained through their long lives the full confidence of the people of their respective States. I did not feel at liberty to resist their appeal : I had resided in all three of the States ; had known long and intimately their people ; had been extensively acquainted with very many of the most prominent men of the nation — and in the following pages is my compliance.

I have trusted only to my memory, and to a journal kept for many years, when a younger man than I am to-day — hastening to the completion of my seventieth year. Doubtless, I h«ve made many mistakes of minor importance ; but few, I trust, as to matters of fact. Of one thing I am sure : nothing has been wilfully written which can wound the feelings of any.

Many things herein contained may not be of general interest ; but none which will not find interested readers ; for while some of the individuals mentioned may not be known to common fame, the incidents in connection with them deserve to be remembered by thousands who knew them.

VI PREFACE.

These Memories are put down without system, or order, as they have presented themselves, and have been related in a manner which I have attempted to make entertaining and instructive, without being prolix or tedious. They will be chiefly interesting to the people of the South ; though much may, and, I hope, will be read by those of the North. Some of my happiest days have been passed in the North : at Cambridge some of my sons have been educated, and some of my dearest friends have been Northern men. Despite the strife which has gone far toward making us in heart a divided people, I have a grateful memory of many whose homes and graves were and are in New England.

Would that this strife had never been ! But it has come, and I cannot forego a parent's natural feelings when mourning the loss of sons slain in the conflict, or the bitterness arising therefrom toward those who slew them. Yet, as I forgive, I hope to be forgiven.

There are but few now left who began the journey of life with me. Those of this number who still sojourn in our native land will find much in these pages familiar to their remembrance, and some things, the reading of which may revive incidents and persons long forgotten. In the West, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas, there are many — the descendants of those who participated in events transpiring fifty years ago — who have listened at the parental hearth to their recital. To these I send this volume greeting ; and if they find something herein to amuse and call up remembrances of the past, I shall feel gratified.

To the many friends I have in the Southwest, and especially in Louisiana and Mississippi, where I have sojourned wellnigh fifty years, and many of whom have so often urged upon me the writing of these Memories, I commit the book, and ask of them, and of all into whose hands it may fall, a lenient criticism, a kindly recollection, and a generous thought of our past intercourse. It is an inexorable fate that separates us, and I feel it is forever. This sad thought is alleviated, however, by the consciousness that the few remaining sands of life are falling at the home of my birth ; and that when the end comes, as very soon it must, I shall be placed to sleep amid my kindred in the land of my nativity.

The Author.

Chapter I. Revolutionary Traditions

Middle Georgia — Colonel David Love — His Widow — Governor Dunmore

— Colonel Tarleton — Bill Cunningham — Colonel Fannin — My Grandmother's Bible — Solomon's Maxim Applied — Robertus Love — The Indian Warrior — Dragon Canoe — A Buxom Lass — General Gates — Marion — Mason L. Weems — Washington — " Billy Crafford " . . 13

CHAPTER n.

PIONEER LIFE.

Settlement of Middle Georgia — Prowling Indians — Scouts and their Dogs

— Classes of Settlers — Prominence of Virginians — Causes of Distinction — Clearing — Log-RoUing — Frolics — Teachers Cummings and Duffy — The Schoolmaster's Nose — Flogging — Emigration to Alabama . . .19

CHAPTER HI.

THE GEORGIA COMPANY.

Yazoo Purchase — Governor Matthews — James Jackson — Burning of the Yazoo Act — Development of Free Government — Constitutional Convention — Slavery : Its Introduction and Effects 27

CHAPTER IV.

POLITICAL DISPUTATIONS.

Baldwin — A Yankee's Political Stability — The Yazoo Question — Party Feuds and Fights — Deaf and Dumb Ministers — Clay — Jackson — Buchanan — Calhoun — Cotton and Free Trade — The Clay and Randolph Duel 38

CHAPTER V.

GEORGIA'S NOBLE SONS.

A Minister of a Day — Purity of Administration — Then and Now — Widow Timberlake — Van Buren's Letter — Armbrister and Arbuthnot — Old 1 lickory Settles a DiflSculty — A Cause of the Late War — Honored Dead . 52

vii vili CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

POPULAR CHARACTERISTICS.

A Frugal People — Laws and Religion — Father Pierce — Thomas W. Cobb

— Requisites of a Political Candidate — A Farmer-Lawyer — Southern Humorists ....6x

CHAPTER Vn.

WITS AND FIRE-EATERS.

Judge Dooly — Lawyers and Blacksmiths — John Forsyth — How Juries were Drawn — Gum-Tree vs. Wooden-Leg — Preacher- Politicians — Colonel Cumming — George McDuffie 70

CHAPTER VIII.

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

/ Governor Matthews — Indians — Topography of Middle Georgia — A New / Country and its Settlers — Beaux and Belles — Early Training — Jesuit I Teachers — A Mother's Influence — The Jews — Homely Sports — The ' Cotton Gin — Camp-Meetings 92

CHAPTER IX.

PEDAGOGUES AND DEMAGOGUES.

Education — Colleges — School-Days — William and Mary — A Substitute — Boarding Around — Rough Diamonds — Caste — George M. Troup — A Scotch Indian — Alexander McGilvery — The Mcintosh Family — Button Gwinnett — General Taylor — Matthew Talbot — Jesse Mercer — An Exciting Election 117

CHAPTER X.

INDIAN TREATIES AND DIFFICULTIES.

The Creeks — John Quincy Adams — Hopothlayohola — Indian Oratory — Sulphur Springs — Treaties Made and Broken — An Independent Governor

— Colonels John S. Mcintosh, David Emanuel Twiggs, and Duncan Clinch — General Gaines — Christianizing the Indians — Cotton Mather — Expedient and Principle — The Puritanical Snake 130

CHAPTER XI.

POLITICAL CHANGES.

Aspirants for Congress — A New Organization — Two Parties — A Protective Tariff — United States Bank — The American System — Internal Improvements — A Galaxy of Stars — A Spartan Mother's Advice — Negro-Dealer

— Quarter- Races — Cock-Pitting — Military Blunders on Both Sides —

CONTENTS. IX

Abner Green's Daughter — Andrew Jackson — Gwinn — Poindexter — Ad Interim — Generals by Nature as Civil Rulers 142

CHAPTER XII.

GOSSIP.

Unrequited Love — Popping the Question — Practical Joking — Satan Let Loose — Rhea, but not Rhea — Teachings of Nature — H. S. Smith . .157

CHAPTER XIII.

INFLUENCE OF CHILDHOOD.

First Impressions — Fortune — Mirabeau B. Lamar — Dr. Alonzo Church —

— Julius CjEsar — L. Q. C. Lamar — Texan Independence — Colquitt

— Lumpkin — What a Great Man Can Do in One Day — Charles J. Jenkins 166

CHAPTER XIV.

A REVOLUTIONARY VETERAN.

Tapping Reeve — James Gould — Colonel Benjamin Talmadge — The Execution of Major Andr^ — Character of Washington — A Breach of Discipline

— Burr and Hamilton — Margaret Moncrief — Cowles Meade. . . 184

CHAPTER XV.

CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT.

Governor Wolcott — Toleration — Mr. Monroe — Private Life of Washington

— Thomas Jefferson — The Object and Science of Government — Court Etiquette — Nature the Teacher and Guide in all Things .... 202

CHAPTER XVI.

PARTY PRINCIPLES.

Origin of Parties — Federal and Republican Peculiarities — Jefferson's Principles and Religion — Democracy — Virginia and Massachusetts Parties — War with France — Sedition Law — Lyman Beecher — The Almighty Dollar — " Hail Columbia " and " Yankee Doodle " .... 214

CHAPTER XVII.

CONGRESS IN ITS BRIGHTEST DAYS.

Missouri Compromise — John Randolph's Juba — Mr. Macon — Holmes aad Crawford — Mr. Clay's Influence — James Barbour — Philip P. Barbour — Mr. Pinckney — Mr. Beecher, of Ohio — " Cuckoo, Cuckoo ! " — National Roads — William Lowndes — William Roscoe — Duke of Aigyie — Louis McLean — Whig and Democratic Parties ...... ^ .. 225

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FRENCH AND SPANISH TERRITORY.

Settlers on the Tombigbee and Mississippi Rivers — La Salle — Natchez — Family Apportionment — The Hill Country — Hospitality — Benefit ol African Slavery — Capacity of the Negro — His Future .... 243

CHAPTER XIX.

THE NATCHEZ TRADITIONS.

Natchez — Mizezibbee ; or, The Parent of Many Waters — Indian Mounds — The Child of the Sun — Treatmeiit of the Females — Poetic Marriages

— Unchaste Maids and Pure Wives — Walking Archives — The Profane Fire — Alahoplechia — Oyelape — The Chief with a Beard . . . 253

CHAPTER XX.

EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.

Chicago — Crying Indians — Chickasaws — De Soto — Feast of the Great Sun — Cane-Knives — Love-stricken Indian Maiden — Rape of the Natchez

— Man's Will — Subjugation of the Waters — The Black Man's Mission —

Its Decade ' . . 268

CHAPTER XXI.

TWO STRANGE BEINGS.

Romance of Western Life — Met by Chance — Parting on the Levee — Meeting at the Sick-Bed — Convalescent — Love-Making — " Home, Sweet Home" — Theological Discussion — Uncle Tony — Wild, yet Gentle — An Odd Family — The Adventurer Speculates 277

CHAPTER XXII.

THE ROMANCE CONTINUED.

Father Confessor — Open Confession — The Unread Will — Old Tony's Narrative — Squirrel Shooting — The Farewell Unsaid — Brothers-in-Law — Farewell Indeed 298

CHAPTER XXIII.

WHEN SUCCESSFUL, RIGHT; WHEN NOT, WRONG.

Territorial Mississippi — Wilkinson — Adams — Jefferson — Warren — Claiborne — Union of the Factions — Colonel Wood — Chew — David Hunt

— Joseph Dunbar — Society of Western Mississippi — Pop Visits of a Week to Tea — The Horse " Tom " and his Rider — Our Grandfathers' Days — An Emigrant's Outfit — My Share — George Poindexter — A Sudden

CONTENTS. XI

Opening of a Court of Justice — The Caldwell and Gwinn Duel — Jackson's Opposition to the Governor of Mississippi 321

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE SILVER-TONGUED ORATOR.

John A. Quitman — Robert J. Walker — Robert H. Adams — From a Cooper- Shop to the United States Senate — Bank Monopoly — Natchez Fencibles

— Scott in Mexico — Thomas Hall — Sargent S. Prentiss — Vicksburg — Single-speech Hamilton — God-inspired Oratory — Drunk by Absorption

— Killing a Tailor — Defence of Wilkinson ...... 343

CHAPTER XXV.

A FINANCIAL CRASH.

A Wonderful Memory — A Nation Without Debt — Crushing the National Bank — Rise of State Banks — Inflated Currency — Grand Flare-up — Take Care of Yourself — Commencing Anew — Failing to Reach an Obtuse Heart — King Alcohol does his Work — Prentiss and Foote — Love Me, Love my Dog — A Noble Spirit Overcome — Charity Covereth a Multitude of Sins 361

CHAPTER XXVI.

ACADIAN FRENCH SETTLERS.

Sugar vs. Cotton — Acadia — A Specimen of Mississippi French Life — Bayou La Fourche — The Great Flood — Theological Arbitration — A Rustic Ball — Old-Fashioned Weddings — Creoles and Quadroons — The Planter

— Negro Servants — Gauls and Anglo-Normans — Antagonism of Races . 372

CHAPTER XXVII.

ABOLITION OF LICENSED GAMBLING.

Baton Rouge — Florida Parishes — Dissatisfaction — Where there's a Will, there 's a Way — Storming a Fort on Horseback — Annexation at the Point of the Poker — Raphignac and Larry Moore — Fighting the "Tiger" — Carrying a Practical Joke too Far — A Silver Tea-Set .... 390

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THREE GREAT JUDGES.

A Speech in Two Languages — Long Sessions — Matthews, Martin, and Porter — A Singular Will — A Scion of '98 — Five Hundred Dollars for a Little Fun with the Dogs — Cancelling a Note ...... 403

Xll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXIX.

AMERICANIZING LOUISIANA.

Powers of Louisiana Courts — Governor William C. C. Claiborne — Cruel O'Reilly — Lefrenier and Noyan Executed — A Dutch Justice — Edward Livingston — A Caricature of General Jackson — Stephen Mazereau — A Speech in Three Languages — John R. Grymes — Settling a Ca. Sa. — Batture Property — A Hundred Thousand Dollar Fee 423

CHAPTER XXX.

DIVISION OF NEW ORLEANS INTO MUNICIPALITIES.

American Hotel — Introduction of Steamboats — Faubourg St. Mary — Canal Street — St. Charles Hotel — Samuel J. Peters — James H. Caldwell — Fathers of the Municipality — Bernard Marigny — An Ass — A. B. Roman 440

CHAPTER XXXI.

BLOWING UP THE LIONESS.

Doctor Clapp — Views and Opinions — Universal Destiny — Alexander Barrow — E. D. White — Cross-Breed, Irish Renegade, and Acadian — A HeroicWoman — The Ginseng Trade — I-I-I '11 D-d-die F-f-first . .451

CHAPTER XXXII.

GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF THE RED MAN.

Line Creek Fifty Years Ago — Hopothlayohola — Mcintosh — Undying Hatred — A Big Pow-wow — Massacre of the Mclntoshes — Nehemathla

— Onchees — The Last of the Race — A Brave Warrior — A White Man's Friendship — The Death-Song — Tuskega ; or, Jim's Boy . . . 465

CHAPTER XXXIII.

FUN, FACT, AND FANCY.

Eugenius Nesbitt-- Washington Poe — Yelverton P. King — Preparing to Receive the Court — Walton Tavern, in Lexington — Billy Springer, of Sparta — Freeman Walker — An Augusta Lawyer — A Georgia Major —

— Major Walker's Bed — Uncle Ned — Discharging a H<^ on His Own Recognizance — Morning Admonition and Evening Counsel — A Mother's Request — Invocation — Conclusion 479

THE MEMORIES

OF

FIFTY YEARS.

CHAPTER I.

REVOLUTIONARY TRADITIONS.

Middle Georgia — Colonel David Love — His Widow — Governor Dunmore — Colonel Tarleton — Bill Cunningham — Colonel Fannon — My Grandmother's Bible — Solomon's Maxim Applied — Robertus Love — The Indian Warrior — Dragon Canoe — A Buxom Lass — General Gates — Marion — Mason L. Weems — Washington — "Billy Crafford."

MY earliest memories are connected with the first settlement of Middle Georgia, where I was born. My grandparents on the mother's side, were natives of North Carolina; and, I believe, of Anson county. My grandfather. Colonel David Love, was an active partisan officer in the service of the Continental Congress. He died before I was born ; but my grandmother lived until I was seventeen years of age. As her oldest grandchild, I spent much of my time, in early boyhood, at her home near the head of Shoulderbone Creek in the county of Green. She was a little, fussy, Irish woman, a Presbyterian in religion, and a very strict observer of all the duties imposed upon her sect, especially in keeping holy the Sabbath day. All her children were grown up, married, and, in the language of the time, "gone away." She was in truth a lone woman, busying herself in household and farming affairs. With a few negroes,

2 13 and a miserably poor piece of land, she struggled in her widowhood with fortune, and contrived, with North Carolina frugality and industry, not only to make a decent living, but to lay up something for a rainy day, as she phrases it. In her visits to her fields and garden, I ran by her side and listened to stories of Tory atrocities and Whig suffering in North Carolina during the Revolution. The infamous Governor Dunmore, the cruel Colonel Tarleton, and the murderous and thieving Bill Cunningham and Colonel Fannin, both Tories, and the latter natives to the soil, were presented graphically to me in their most hateful forms. In truth, before I had attained my seventh year, I was familiar with the history of the partisan warfare waged between Whig and Tory in North and South Carolina, from 1776 to 1782, from this good but garrulous old lady. I am not so certain she was good : she had a temper of her own, and a will and a way of her own ; and was good-natured only when permitted this way without opposition, or cross. Perhaps I retain a more vivid memory of these peculiar traits than of any others characterizing her. She permitted no contradiction, and exacted implicit obedience, and this was well understood by everything about her. She was strict and exacting, and had learned from Solomon that to "spare the rod was to spoil the child." She read the Bible only ; and it was the only book in the house. This Bible is still in existence ; it was brought by my grandfather from Europe, and is now covered with the skin of a fish which he harpooned on his return voyage, appropriating the skin to this purpose in 1750. She had use for no other book, not even for an almanac, for at any moment she could tell the day of the month, the phase of the moon and the day General Washington captured Cornwallis ; as also the day on which Washington died. Her reverence for the memory of my grandfather was idolatry. His cane hung with his hat just where he had habitually placed them during his latter days. His saddle and great sea-chest were preserved with equal care, and remained undisturbed from 1 798 to 181 7, precisely as he left them. I ventured to remove the cane upon one occasion ; and, with a little negro or two, was merrily riding it around in the great lumber-room of the house, where scarcely any one ever went, when she came in and caught me. The pear-tree sprouts were immediately put into requisition, and the whole party most mercilessly thrashed. From that day forward the old buckhorn-headed cane was an awful reminder of my sufferings. She was careful not to injure the clothing of her victims, and made her appeals to the unshielded cuticle, and with a heavy hand for a small woman.

It was an ill-fashioned but powerfully-built house, and remains a monument to this day of sound timber and faithful work, braving time and the storm for eighty-two years. It was the first framed house built in the county, and I am sure, upon the poorest spot of land within fifty miles of where it stands. Here was born my uncle, Robertus Love, who was the first white child born in the Stale west of the Ogeechee River.

Colonel Love, my grandfather, was eccentric in many of his opinions, and was a Puritan in religious faith. Oliver Cromwell was his model of a statesman, and Praise-God Barebones his type of a Christian. While he was a boy his father married a second time, and, as is very frequently the case, there was no harmony between the step-mother and step-son. Their jarrings soon ripened into open war. To avoid expulsion from the paternal roof he ''bundled and went." Nor did he rest until, in the heart of the Cherokee nation of Indians, he found a home with Dragon Canoe, then the principal warrior of the nation, who resided in a valley amid the mountains, and which is now Habersham County. With this chief, who at the time was young, he remained some four years, pursuing the chase for pleasure and profit. Thus accumulating a large quantity of peltries, he carried them on pack-horses to Charleston, and thence went with them to Europe. After disposing of his furs, which proved profitable, he wandered on foot about Europe for some eighteen months, and then, returning to London, he embarked for America.

During all this time he had not heard from his family. Arriving at Charleston he made his way back to the neighborhood of his birth. He was ferried across the Pedee river by a buxom lass, who captured his heart. Finding his father dead, he gathered up the little patrimony left him in his father's will, should he ever return to claim it : he then returned to the neighborhood of his sweetheart of the ferry ; and, being a fine-looking man of six feet three inches, with great blue eyes, round and liquid ; and, Othello-like, telling well the story of his adventures, he very soon beguiled the maiden's heart, and they were made one. About this time came off the battles of Concord and Lexington, inaugurating the Revolution. It was not, however, until after the declaration of independence, that he threw aside the plough and shouldered the musket for American independence.

That portion of North Carolina in which he resided had been mainly peopled by emigrants from Scotland. The war progressing into the South, found nearly all of these faithful in their allegiance to Britain. The population of English descent, in the main, espoused the cause of the colonies. With his neighbors Love was a favorite ; he was very fleet in a foot-race, had remarkable strength ; but, above all, was sagacious and strong of will. Such qualities, always appreciated by a rude people, at that particular juncture brought their possessor prominently forward, and he was chosen captain of a company composed almost to a man of his personal friends and acquaintances. Uniting himself with the regiment of Colonel Lynch, just then organized, and which was ordered to join the North Carolina line, they marched at once to join General Gates, then commanding in the South. Under the command of this unfortunate general he remained until after the battle of Camden. Here Gates experienced a most disastrous defeat, and the whole country was surrendered to the British forces.

South Carolina and North Carolina, especially their southern portions, were entirely overrun by the enemy, who armed the Tories and turned them loose to ravage the country. Gates's army was disorganized, and most of those who composed it from the Carolinas returned to their homes. Between these and the Scotch Tories, as the Loyalists were termed, there was a continual partisan strife, each party resorting to the most cruel murders, burning and destroying the homes and the property of each other. Partisan bands were organized by each, and under desperate leaders did desperate deeds. It was then and there that Marion and Fanning became conspicuous, and were respectively the terror of Whigs and Tories.

There were numerous others of like character, though less efficient and less conspicuous. The exploits of such bands are deemed beneath the dignity of history, and now only live in the memories of those who received them traditionally from the actors, their associates or descendants. Those acts constitute mainly the tragic horrors of war, and evidence the merciless inhumanity of enraged men, unrestrained by civil or moral law. Injuries he deems wanton prompt the passions of his nature to revenge, and he hastens to retaliate upon his enemy, with increased horrors, their savage brutalities.

As the leader of a small band of neighbors who had united for protection and revenge. Colonel Love became conspicuous for his courage and cruelty. It was impossible for these, his associates, as for their Tory neighbors and enemies, to remain at their homes, or even to visit them, except at night, and then most stealthily. The country abounds with swamps more or less dense and irreclaimable, which must always remain a hiding-place for the unfortunate or desperate. In these the little bands by day were concealed, issuing forth at night to seek for food or spoils. Their families were often made the victims of revenge ; and instances were numerous where feeble women and little children were slain in cold blood by neighbors long and familiarly known to each other, in retaliation of like atrocities perpetrated by their husbands, sons, or brothers.

It was a favorite pastime with my grandmother, when the morning's work was done, to uncover her flax-wheel, seat herself, and call me to sit by her, and, after my childish manner, read to her from the "Life of General Francis Marion," by Mason L. Weems, the graphic account of the general's exploits, by the venerable parson. There was not a story in the book that she did not know, almost as a party concerned, and she would ply her work of flax-spinning while she gave me close and intense attention. At times, when the historian was at fault in his facts — and, to say the truth, that was more frequently the case than comports with veracious history — she would cease the impelling motion of her foot upon the pedal of her little wheel, drop her thread, and, gently arresting the fly of her spool, she would lift her iron-framed spectacles, and with great gravity say: "Read that again. Ah! it is not as it happened, your grandfather was in that fight, and I will tell you how it was. ' ' This was so frequently the case, that now, when more than sixty years have flown, I am at a loss to know, if the knowledge of most of these facts which tenaciously clings to my memory, was originally derived from Weems's book, or my grandmother's narrations. In these forays and conflicts, whenever my grandfather was a party, her information was derived from him and his associates, and of course was deemed 2* B by her authentic ; and whenever these differed from the historian s narrative, his, of consequence, was untrue. Finally, Weems, upon one of his book-selling excursions, which simply meant disposing of his own writings, came through her neighborhood, and with the gravity of age, left verbally his own biography with Mrs. Mcjoy, a neighbor ; this made him, as he phrased it, General Washington's preacher. He was never after assailed as a lying author : but whenever his narrative was opposed to her memory, she had the excuse for him, that his informant had deceived him.

To have seen General Washington, even without having held the holy office of his preacher, sanctified in her estimation any and every one. She had seen him, and it was the especial glory of her life. Yes, she had seen him, and remembered minutely his eyes, his hair, his mouth and his hands — and even his black horse with a star in his face, and his one white foot and long, sweeping tail. So often did I listen to the story, that in after boyhood I came to believe I had seen him also, though his death occurred twenty days before I was born. My dear, good mother has often told me that but for an attack of ague, which kept the venerable lady from our home for a month or more, I should have been honored with bearing the old hero's name through life. So intent was she in this particular, that she never liked my being named after Billy Crafford (for so she pronounced his name) for whom the partiality of my father caused him to name me. Few remain to remember the horrors of this partisan warfare. The very traditions are being obliterated by those of the recent civil war, so rife wit-b scenes and deeds sufficiently horrible for the appetite of the curious in crime and cruelty.

Chapter II. Pioneer Life

Settlement OF Middle Georgia — Prowling Indians — Scoirrs and their Dogs — Classes of Settlers — Prominence of Virginians — Causes of Distinction — Clearing — Log-Rolling — Frolics — Teachers Cummings AND Duffy — The Schoolmaster's Nose — Flogging — Emigration to Alabama.

THE early settlement of Middle Georgia was principally by emigrants from Virginia and North Carolina. These were a rough, poor, but honest people, with little or no fortunes, and who were quite as limited in education as in fortune. Their necessities made them industrious and frugal. Lands were procured at the ex-' pense of surveying; the soil was virgin and productive; rude cabins, built of poles, constituted not only their dwellings but every necessary outbuilding. Those who first ventured beyond the Ogeechee generally selected some spot where a good spring of water was found, not overlooked by an elevation so close as to afford an opportunity to the Indians, then very troublesome, to fire into the little stockade forts erected around these springs for their security against the secret attacks of the prowling and merciless Creeks and Cherokees.

Usually several families united in building and living in these forts. As soon as this protection was completed, the work of clearing away the surrounding forest was commenced, that the land should afford a field for cultivation. While thus employed, sentinels were stationed at such points in the neighborhood as afforded the best opportunity for descrying the approach of Indians, and the watch was most careful. When those employed in hunting (for every community had its hunters) discovered, or thought they had discovered signs of the presence of the savages, scouts were immediately sent out to discover if they were lurking anywhere in the neighborhood. This was the most arduous and perilous duty of the pioneers, and not unfrequently the scout, or spy as he was usually termed, went to return no more. When seed-time came, corn, a small patch of cotton and another of flax were planted, and cultivation continued under the same surveillance.