Hammett

The Vanished Town of Hammett

With steadfast support and significant contributions by Crawford County Historian Sidney Goodrich. Appreciation for photos and other input to: Sandy Simms, Sally Patten, Betty Meyer, Gloria Dodgen, Cindy Holt, Melinda Horne, and genealogical research by Dwayne Powell, my brother.

A Vanished Community
The town of Hammett that once flourished on Avera Road during the late 1800s and early 1900s has vanished from the landscape of Crawford County. First appearing on the Georgia map in 1915, the settlement was located five miles southwest of Roberta. The railroad tracks that first passed through Hammett around 1890 are still visible, but were abandoned by the Southern Railroad around 1975. Pine trees now grow between the tracks. In Hammett’s early days, mail was transported by railroad. The train dropped off a mail bag at the tracks. A messenger retrieved the bag and carried the mail to the post office for local distribution. According to a 1927 postal map owned by Sidney Goodrich, the post office at Hammett was three-fourths of a mile from the railroad. No longer heard is the shrill sound of sawmills splitting timbers. No longer seen are wagons brimming with cotton rolling through town headed to Avera’s cotton gin. Two vestiges are still extant: a dilapidated, hundred-year old Avera Cotton Gin, which sits beside the abandoned tracks, and the former home of Solomon Pope and Joanna Troutman built before the Civil War, circa 1860.

Named after Hammett Brothers
Hammett first appeared on the Georgia map in 1915. It was named after two Hammett brothers who operated a sawmill there. At their sawmill, the Hammett brothers cut cross-ties and bridge timbers used by the railroad to build trestles across creeks and geographical depressions. Such a trestle was built between Hammett and Gaillard. Sidney Goodrich and his brother Billy, as small boys, often would walk from their home at Gaillard up the tracks and across the trestle to Hammett, a distance of nearly two miles. Courthouse records show that, during the early 1890s, J. L. Hammett had extensive land holdings in the 6^th district of Crawford County, which is about five miles northeast of the settlement of Hammett, close enough that sawmill operations could have been set up at Hammett. Although the censuses of 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 do not reflect the Hammett surname in Crawford County, the Hammett brothers were probably listed in the 1890 census, whose records were destroyed in 1921 by a fire in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C.

Reconstruction of Hammett in early 1900s
The historic settlement of Hammett covers a 2.6 mile strip of Avera Road bounded on the east by Zenith Mill Road and on the west by Pope Road. Avera Road, originally designated as Columbus Road, was named after the Avera family during the early 1900s. Listed below are significant historical landmarks sequenced by their distance (in miles) from Zenith Mill Road.

Milepost 0.5: Hammett Road is reached. It runs south to north along the railroad tracks back to U.S. Highway 341. On the south side of Avera Road once stood the old Phelan-McGhee house. Sidney Goodrich relates an amusing story about this house that was told by his grandfather, Luther Spillers. The Bride Ripped Off Her Wedding Dress: “An African-American man riding a mule stopped by the Spillers Store at Gaillard around 1915. He had been instructed to convey an urgent message to a young lady preparing to be married that day. She lived in said house at Hammett. The man rode up to the house on the mule and asked to speak to the bride. When the girl came outside, he told the bride-to- be that her fiancé had married another woman the night before. The man stopped back by Spillers store on his way out of town. Obviously quite unnerved by his encounter with the jilted bride, he related to Mr. Spillers: “That lady got so mad that she ripped her wedding dress slap off, tearing it shred by shred…all that remained was her petticoat."

Milepost 0.6: is seen the railroad track laid in the 1880s. Still standing beside the track is the old Avera Cotton Gin. Close by the gin was a railroad passenger station. This structure has collapsed. Clay Holt found in its rubble an old hand truck and a sign which read: “Hamburgers 10-cents.” Passenger trains stopped running on that track in 1939 and freight operations were discontinued by1954. The track, still visible, proceeds southward to Gaillard. At Gaillard during that era were a railroad passenger station, a post office, and the Spillers Country Store run by Sidney Goodrich’s grandmother, Mrs. Jennie Reed. “Miss Jennie,” as she was affectionately called, served the dual role of railroad station agent and postmaster at Gaillard. Sidney’s mother, Jewell Spillers Goodrich, succeeded Mrs. Reid in these capacities. Sidney served as assistant postmaster and helped run Spillers Store (opened in 1897) until it closed in 1971.
Milepost 0.9: on south side of road was the home of Clifford Rufus Avera. It is now owned by Clifford’s granddaughter, Cindy Avera Holt, and husband Clay. Clifford was the son of Robert Edward Avera (1869-1936). Robert Avera, one of Hammett’s first settlers, was very prominent, being a County Commissioner and owner of the Crawford County Bank during the early 1900s. He also started the first school at Hammett. His farm comprised over one thousand acres, which included his country store and a cotton gin near the railroad track. His farm is now owned by the Uniwattee Plantation.
Milepost 1.0: on the south side is the home of Jim and Melinda Horne, built 18 years ago. Jim Horne said his father, Buddy Horne, and his grandfather, James Washington Horne, would take cotton to the Avera gin by mule and wagon. They also purchased goods at Avera’s store. “My dad said the Averas were all good people,” remarked Jim.
Milepost 1.2: on the north side once stood the old Avera Country Store, which sold groceries, soft drinks, candy, tobacco, snuff, nails, and everything imaginable. This store was started by Asbury Avera, father of Robert E. Avera. During the early 1900s, this store featured a post office. Prior to that time, it had been a school building. Inside was a pot-bellied stove around which the townspeople gathered to share the local news. About 12 years ago, the crumbling old store was torn down by the Uniwattee Plantation. Its owner, Ed Tomberlin, resides off Pope Road.
Milepost 1.3: on the north side stood the home of Robert E. Avera and his wife, the former Leila Webb. The Avera house burned from a lightening strike in 1969. The Avera family is buried in the Roberta City Cemetery.
Milepost 1.5: at this point, the bridge over Avera Creek, built in 1969, is reached. The original road was routed south of the present bridge. It meandered through the swamp, crossed a wooden bridge, and came out onto Avera Road a half mile west of the present bridge. During the 1940s, my wife, Beverly Davis Powell, as a small girl, used to spend the night with her grandparents, Lewis and Lila Jane Cummings, who lived on Avera Road. Beverly often went fishing with her grandmother, Lila Jane, near the old wooden bridge. Gloria Harris Dodgen, granddaughter of Robert E. Avera, knew Beverly’s grandparents well and remembers how much Miss Lila Jane loved to fish. Gloria and Beverly both have fond remembrances of the unique green-glass water bottle in Mrs. Leila Avera’s refrigerator, a conversation piece at the time. Beverly’s grandfather, Lewis Taylor Cummings, was the farm overseer. The Cummings’ home was torn down about 15 years ago. It stood a few hundred feet west of Jim and Melinda Horne’s home.
Milespost 2.0: pond where prominent farmer Leonard Sanders accidentally drowned while duck hunting in a boat on 19 December 1973. His home was on the northeast corner of Avera and Pope Roads.
Milepost 2.3: gaze down the long driveway to the south of Avera Road and you will see the famous Pope plantation home where Joanna Troutman and husband Solomon Pope (a lawyer from Montgomery, Alabama, and native of Edgefield, South Carolina) lived from 1859 until their respective deaths in 1872 and 1879. The house was built either before or after Joanna and Solomon returned to Elmwood in 1859. According to Gloria Harris Dodgen, Robert E. Avera’s granddaughter who lives in Columbia, S.C., “the story passed down through the years was that Hiram Troutman built this home for his daughter and son-in-law, Solomon Pope.” After the Popes married in 1839, they first set up residence at Hiram Troutman’s Elmwood Plantation around 1840; then relocated to Alabama from about 1843 to 1845. They subsequently lived in Rome, Georgia, from roughly 1846 to 1859. On January 20, 1859, Solomon and Joanna purchased 2200 acres of Elmwood Plantation from Hiram Troutman for $22,000. Hiram Troutman owned over 5,000 acres at the Elmwood Plantation, named for its abundance of Elm trees.
Milepost 2.6: on the north side of Avera Road, a short distance past the intersection of Pope Road, once stood the earliest built house on Avera Road--the home of Hiram Bainbridge Troutman. This house, where Joanna Troutman grew up, sat on the knoll still called Mulberry Hill. It was surrounded by a peach orchard and situated just south of the Matthews Packing Shed, whose structure is still standing. Circa 1970, Hiram Troutman’s house was disassembled by Phillip Fountain of Peach County. Fountain placed it in a warehouse, but never rebuilt the house.

The “Betsy Ross” of Crawford County
According to the book, “A Lady and a Lone Star Flag,” authored by Henry David Pope, Joanna’s great grandson, the 17-year-old Joanna Elizabeth Troutman received the inspiration for crafting the Texas battle flag while sitting on the porch of her father’s home. She noticed a single star that appeared prominently in the sky. “That star reminds me of Texas” she exclaimed, implying that the lone star reminded her of Texas fighting alone for its independence against Mexico. Joanna immediately went inside the house and drew a five pointed star on paper and under it wrote the word “Texas.” With the help of a few young girls, Joanna fashioned the flag in an upstairs room of her father’s inn at Knoxville. (Troutman’s Inn, destroyed by fire in 1928, stood near the old Postal Road and across from the Knoxville courthouse.) The flag, made of white and blue silk petticoats, bore a blue, five-pointed star on each side. One side bore the words, “Liberty or Death.” On the other were the Latin words which translate, “Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” In 1835, at her father’s Knoxville inn, she presented the flag to the Georgia battalion of 150 men who were marching to assist Texas in the war with Mexico. The Georgia volunteers, commanded by Colonel William Ward, carried the flag into battle. The lone star flag designed by Joanna was adopted as the state flag of Texas in 1913. Joanna Troutman is immortalized in the State Cemetery in Austin, Texas, where a bronze stature depicts a young girl with needle and thread sewing the lone star flag. Her portrait, an oil painting, also hangs in the Texas state capitol.

Troutman-Pope Lineage
Hiram Bainbridge Troutman (1797-1880) married Balsora Ellis (1800-1836) in 1819. They produced seven children: Joanna Elizabeth, the oldest, born February 19, 1818, in Crawford County, Georgia, Cornelia-1822 (died in infancy), John Fielding-1823, Marcellus-1828, Hiram -1832, George-1833, and Isaac-1835 (died in infancy). Joanna and her siblings grew up on the Elmwood Plantation, some five miles southwest of Roberta. Joanna Troutman (1818-1879) married Solomon Pope (1810-1872) in 1839. They had four sons: Henry Bainbridge Pope-born at Elmwood in 1842, Marcellus Pope-born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1845, John Solomon Pope-born in Floyd County in 1847, and Solomon Lewis Pope II- born in Floyd County in 1852. Marcellus and John died young and Solomon II died a bachelor at age 30. Henry, the oldest, married Mary Elizabeth Bilbro and had 12 children: five boys and seven girls. We have been in contact with two great, great granddaughters of Joanna: Sally Cooper Patten and Betty Pope Meyer. Sally, born in 1932, a psychologist, lives in San Mateo, California, with her husband Ron. Betty Pope Meyer, born in 1942, a retired nurse, lives in Canberra, Australia, with her husband, Paul. Their common grandfather was John Berryman Pope (1874-1940), who was one of five sons born to Henry Bainbridge Pope (Joanna and Solomon’s first son, born in 1842). In 1936, Henry David Pope, a great grandson of Joanna and Solomon Pope published a book about Joanna entitled “A Lady and A Lone Star Flag.” During 2004, two great, great grandchildren of Joanna visited the home of John and Sandy Simms: Great, great grandson, Dr. Henry David Pope Jr., the son of the book’s author, with his wife Carol, and great, great granddaughter, Sally Patten, and husband Ron. They ate in the same dining room where Joanna Troutman had dined 150 years ago. Afterwards they held and inspected a silver spoon and fork set from a dinnerware collection captured from Santa Anna in the Texas-Mexican War (Oct 2, 1835-Apr 21, 1836). The two silver pieces were given to Joanna by General Sam Houston as a token of his appreciation for her contribution to the cause of Texas independence.

Pope Cemetery featured in Atlanta Constitution
Solomon Pope departed this life in 1872. In 1875, his wife Joanna married the honorable W. G. Vinson, a Georgia state legislator. Joanna died four years later, on July 23, 1879, at Elmwood and was buried next to her first husband, Solomon Pope, and their sons. In 1913, the Atlanta Constitution featured a photo of the Pope Cemetery. Clearly visible was the 6 to 8 foot granite obelisk that stood over Solomon Pope’s grave. According to Emmie Carnes Bankston’s “History of Roberta and Crawford County,” Joanna’s grave was “unmarked.” When Joanna was exhumed in 1913 and her remains transported to Texas, her concrete tombstone was placed as the headstone of a stone walkway leading to the Pope house. The tombstone, still there, is not engraved with Joanna’s name or birth-death dates as Mrs. Bankston’s book attests.

Joanna Troutman’s Remains Transported to Texas
In 1913, at the persistent entreaties of Mrs. Louis L. Brown of Fort Valley starting in 1905, Texas Governor Oscar B. Colquitt, after passage of a resolution by the Texas legislature, secured permission to have Joanna’s remains exhumed in Georgia and taken to Texas for re-interment. Joanna is enshrined in the state cemetery in Austin, Texas. Sidney Goodrich’s grandmother, Mrs. Jennie Reed, and mother, Jewel Spillers, the latter a small girl at the time, recalled seeing Joanna’s “rusty-looking metal casket” being transported by their home at Gaillard on a horse-drawn wagon. Her casket was temporarily stored at the Fort Valley residence of John Fielding Troutman Jr. (Joanna’s brother’s son), awaiting a transportation order from the Texas Governor. The body was met at Austin, Texas, by the Governor and a group of dignitaries.

Previous Owners of Pope Plantation
After Joanna died in 1879, Elmwood became dilapidated until a purchaser, Sidney H. Phelan, an Atlanta druggist, restored and remodeled the plantation house in 1901. He left the two front rooms as they were when Joanna lived there. In 1931, Robert Taylor bought Elmwood and bricked the house in 1933. In 1951, Wade Seagler became owner until his death in 1988, at which time the property devolved to his family. John and Sandy Simms came there in 1994.

Pope Cemetery Mystery
When John and Sandy Simms moved there in 1994, they immediately became faced with a perplexing mystery--the Pope cemetery was missing. No one knows when it was moved, or why. The obelisk over Solomon Pope was not to be found, nor were the graves of Joanna and Solomon’s sons. Hiram B. Troutman and his wife, Balsora Ellis Troutman, may also be buried there. Standing a short distance from the original cemetery site is a sizeable mound of dirt. From all indications, it “appears” that the Pope Cemetery markers, including the stone obelisk, were bulldozed into a pile. The remains of the Pope family are “assumed” to still be in caskets below ground level; however, their above-ground markers are definitely missing.

Granddaughters want cemetery restored
The great, great granddaughters of Joanna Troutman, Sally Patten and Betty Meyer, are desirous that the contents of the mound be investigated, and, if the grave markers of their ancestors, including Solomon Pope’s stone obelisk, are found, that they be reassembled on the former cemetery site. The Pope Cemetery deserves restoration. Notable icons of Crawford County history are buried there.

Avera Road residents proudly display old Hammett town sign. L-R: Sandy and John Simms, Ryan Johnson and daughter, Sophia, Ann and John Andrews, Clay Holt, and Cindy Avera Holt.	Avera Cotton Gin	Avera Country Store	Hiram B. Troutman home
Pope Cemetery with obelisk	Pope Home-circa,1860 and present	Hiram Bainbridge Troutman	Joanna Troutman (1818-1879) became famous for designing the Texas state flag in 1835 during time Texas was fighting for its independence against Mexico. An oil painting of her hangs in Texas State Capitol at Austin.
Betty Pope Meyer, Great, great, great granddaughter of Joanna Troutman	Sally Cooper Patten, Great, great, great granddaughter of Joanna Troutman	Troutman Inn where Joanna Troutman sewed flag and presented it to Georgia Battalion in 1835	Mound assumed to contain Pope Cemetery
Hand truck from old RR passenger station	Old RR passenger station (now collapsed) from which a hand truck was found in the rubble and also a sign which read "Hamburgers 10 cents"	Marion Shannon who was caretaker for Mr. Wade Seagler (former owner of Pope place, 1951-1988) and who also was grounds keeper for the Seagler family. Mr. Seagler passed in 1988 and property was taken over by his wife, Susan, and sons Phil and Chip until 1994, at which time John and Sandy Simms came there

100-year-old mystery solved

Pope family graves found in Fort Valley

By: Billy Powell - Author and Georgia Post Columnist

Strange disappearance of Pope cemetery
The 3 February 2011 issue of “The Georgia Post” featured a trip back in time to the quaint little town of Hammett that first appeared on the Georgia map when the railroad came through Crawford County during the 1880s. The Hammett story included a comprehensive profile on the life of famous Crawford County icon, Joanna Troutman Pope, who lived at Hammett during the 1800s. This story concluded with a 100-year-old mystery regarding the strange disappearance of the Pope cemetery from the Elmwood Plantation. This 2200-acre plantation, called Elmwood because of a cluster of elm trees in front of the Pope house, was owned by Joanna Troutman’s husband, Solomon Pope. It was located on Avera Road about five miles southwest of Roberta.

When were Pope family graves moved?
When John and Sandy Simms moved to Elmwood in 1994, the cemetery was missing. The presence of a sizeable mound of dirt on the west side of the old Pope home led many to believe that the Pope cemetery had been bulldozed over and piled into a mound. However, Phil Seagler said the cemetery was missing when his father, Wade Seagler, purchased the Pope place in 1951. Although Wade Seagler passed from this life in 1988, the Seagler family continued to operate the Elmwood farm until 1994. Larry Sanders, who grew up on the Elmwood farm, went further back in history. He confirmed that no cemetery was present on the premises during the time his father, Leman Sanders, and uncle, Leonard Sanders, managed the farm for Robert Taylor. Mr. Taylor owned the farm from 1931 to 1951. Since the Pope Cemetery was featured in the 23 February 1913 edition of the Atlanta Constitution, this reduced the window in time for the cemetery’s disappearance to the 18 years between 1913 and 1931, the time period we cannot account for.

Who was buried at Elmwood?
The first to be buried at Elmwood was Joanna and Solomon Pope’s third son, John Solomon Pope. He died on May 12, 1848, six months after his birth. The next was Joanna’s husband, Solomon Pope, who died in 1872 at age 63. Solomon was called Col. Pope, a prerogative of distinction during his era. By profession, he was a lawyer. He had amassed large land holdings in both Crawford and Floyd counties. Lee Pope, Georgia, six miles north of Fort Valley, was named after him. The third family member buried there was Joanna who passed in 1879 at age 61. The fourth member buried at Elmwood was their fourth son, Solomon Lewis Pope Jr. (1852-1882). Solomon Lewis Jr. inherited Elmwood after his mother’s death. He lived to be 30 years old. He was a bachelor and died intestate.

Not Buried at Elmwood
Not buried at Elmwood were Joanna’s and Solomon’s second son, Marcellus, who died soon after birth in 1845 and was buried near Rome, Georgia, and their first son, Henry Bainbridge Pope, born in 1842, who moved to Lonoke County, Arkansas, in 1894 and died there in 1898.

Recap of 3 February Georgia Post story
Our 3 February 2011 issue of “The Georgia Post” related how Mrs. Cornelia Hartsfield Brown of Fort Valley succeeded in convincing Texas Governor Oscar B. Colquitt to enshrine Joanna Troutman Pope at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin for her contribution in designing the lone star flag. At her father’s Knoxville Inn in 1835, Joanna, age 17 at the time, presented the flag she had crafted to the 150-man battalion of Georgia volunteers marching to Texas to assist in the war with Mexico. Joanna’s flag was carried by the Georgia volunteers into the battle against Santa Anna’s forces. Subsequently, Joanna’s flag design was adopted for the Texas state flag. After the Texas legislature passed a resolution to honor her, Joanna’s remains were exhumed at Elmwood in 1913 and transported to Texas. The departure of Joanna’s remains to Texas left the Pope cemetery at Elmwood with three remaining graves—that of Joanna’s husband, Solomon Pope, and their two sons, John Solomon and Solomon Jr. The 8-foot stone obelisk that stood over Solomon Pope’s grave was prominently pictured in the 1913 Atlanta Constitution story. A photo of this obelisk was included in the 3 February story.

How the mystery was solved
Over the past several months, Crawford County historian Sidney Goodrich and I have spent much time interviewing people and researching possibilities regarding the missing cemetery. Our research concluded that Solomon Pope was not buried in the Roberta city cemetery or in any church cemetery in Crawford County. One day recently while sitting in Sidney’s living room at Gaillard discussing the matter, Sidney and I both surmised that the Pope family members could have been moved to the Fort Valley cemetery at the time Joanna was exhumed. Sidney also recalled that his grandmother, Jennie Reed, and mother, Jewel Spillers Goodrich, had seen Joanna Troutman’s casket passing their home at Gaillard in 1913 on a horse-driven wagon. Miss Jennie and Jewel told Sidney that it was a “rusty metal casket.” In recent days we had learned that Joanna’s casket was enroute to the home of John Fielding Troutman Jr. (Joanna’s nephew) in Fort Valley where it would temporarily lay in state awaiting transportation instructions from the Texas governor. Sidney observed, “Wonder if the Pope family is buried in Fort Valley?” I replied, “It makes sense to me, because Joanna’s brother, John Fielding Troutman, and his family are buried in Oaklawn Cemetery there.” Then I said, “Let’s call Rooks Funeral Home.” Sidney handed me his phone. I called and Marianne Rooks answered. I asked Marianne if she knew if a Pope family was buried in Fort Valley. She said she would check her records and let me know the next day. She called as promised, advising that Solomon Lewis Pope was listed in a Central Georgia Genealogical Society book compiled on Oaklawn Cemetery, which covered burials from 1850 to 1993.

Kerry Rooks and City Marshall Calvin Jones join the search
I next contacted the Fort Valley City Marshall, Calvin Jones, who checked, but found no record that Solomon Pope had purchased a cemetery lot in Fort Valley. He reasoned that many early-1900s records were missing or possibly never filed. Calvin was most helpful. As possible clues to facilitate the search, he made copies of the both the Troutman and Vinson lots (Joanna married William Green Vinson, a state legislator, after Solomon Pope passed) as well as a layout of the entire cemetery. He also offered to meet me at the cemetery to assist in locating Solomon Pope’s grave. Before we could go to the cemetery, I received a call from Kerry Rooks, owner of Rooks Funeral Home in Fort Valley. Kerry said, “I have found the obelisk of Solomon Pope and the graves of his two sons.” Kerry is to be commended. Looking for those graves was like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, but Kerry knows that cemetery like the palm of his hand. We scheduled a meeting in the cemetery the next day and Kerry carried me right to the gravesite. In fact, Solomon Pope’s obelisk is near the grave of my great, great grandfather, Dr. Henry Troup Love, a medical doctor who served in the Civil War, and owned all the land from Fort Valley to Powersville. Mr. Jones showed up shortly afterwards and, after considerable searching, located the Troutman family plot. Joanna Troutman’s brother, John Fielding Troutman Sr. (built Troutman house that now houses Peach County Chamber of Commerce) is buried there as well as his son, John Fielding Jr.

100-year search for Solomon Pope ends
In conclusion, the 100-year-old mystery has been solved. It is logical to assume that Solomon Lewis Pope and his sons, John Solomon Pope, and Solomon Lewis Pope Jr. were moved to Fort Valley in 1913, at the same time that Joanna was exhumed. Sidney Phelan, a wealthy Atlanta druggist, owned Elmwood at the time. It would have been to Phelan’s advantage to have the cemetery removed from his farm. It was in the way and required constant upkeep. Further, since Joanna’s brother, John Fielding Troutman (1823-1905) was buried in Fort Valley, his son, John Fielding Troutman Jr. (1865-1928), would have thought it was a good idea to move Joanna’s husband and two children to Fort Valley when they transported Joanna to Texas. I was impressed with the epitaph on Solomon Pope’s obelisk. It reads: “He was a disciple of Jesus.”

Standing beside Solomon Pope's obelisk in Fort Valley's Oaklawn Cemetery are, L-R: local columnist Billy Powell, historian Sidney Goodrich, and Marianne Rooks of Rooks Funeral Home	Billy Powell steadies broken grave marker of John Solomon Pope, infant son of Joanna Troutman and Solomon Pope, who died on May 12, 1848, six months after birth	From left are Kade Rooks, Marianne Rooks, Kerry Rooks, and Fort Valley City Marshall Calvin Jones. Notice Solomon Pope's obelisk at left and its detached base in front of Calvin Jones. Between Kerry and Calvin are the graves of the infant John Solomon Pope and Solomon Lewis Pope Jr.	Obelisk reads: Solomon Lewis Pope. Died Oct 2, 1872. Age: 63 years, 5 months and 18 days. He was a disciple of Jesus
Grave of John Fielding Troutman Sr. in Fort Valley's Oaklawn Cemetery. He was Joanna Troutman Pope's brother	Super Sleuths Powell and Goodrich at infant's grave	Troutman House was built in 1855 by John Fielding Troutman Sr. (1823-1905). He was a state senator and served on staff of Gov. Howell Cobb . His home originally sat near site of Dairy Queen on Perry highway. When he died in 1905, his son, John Jr. (1865- 1928) moved house to its present location. When Joanna Troutman Pope (John Sr's sister) was exhumed in 1913 for enshrinement in Texas state cemetery at Austin, her casket was carried to John Troutman Jr's house by horse-driven wagon and lay in state awaiting transportation instructions from Texas governor.

My appreciation to Julie Huskey, Catalogue Librarian at Mercer University's Tarver Library, for outstanding assistance in providing copies as well as the transcription of "Atlanta Constitution" microfilm articles, dated 1913, regarding Joanna Troutman. Julie lives in Crawford County.

This page was last updated Monday, March 14, 2011

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