THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
When
Union became a county in 1832
This past December 3, 2007 was
Union
County's 175th birthday. By an Act of the Georgia Legislature, signed
into law
by then Governor Wilson Lumpkin, Union became one of ten counties
carved from
the vast territory once known as Cherokee County, and the eighty-third
county
in Georgia. This northern reach of Cherokee, Georgia was so named
because it
was still the dwelling place of the Cherokee Indians that inhabited the
coves,
mountains and valleys of the beautiful land.
In the late 1820's, gold was
discovered in
the vast Cherokee County, with deposits found along Duke's Creek in
what would
become White County, Yahoola Creek in the Lumpkin County area, and
Dooly in the
future Union County. Drawings for the 40-acre gold lots and the
160-acre land
lots were conducted. Many who drew the lots for land did not want to
settle in
the remote mountainous areas of North Georgia. Therefore, they sold
their land
lots, making them available to more hardy pioneers mainly from North
Carolina.
Ancestors of these, in turn, had first settled in Virginia and were of
sturdy
Scots-Irish descent. Some of these pioneers had already made their way
into
what became Union County in 1832 and had settled on small farms along
the creek
and river bottoms, with the mountains stretching above them as a
veritable fortress
against the outside world.
Citizen John Thomas was a
representative
from this mountain region to the Georgia Legislature meeting in 1832.
Whether
he was the one to introduce the bill to form the county of Union is not
known
to this writer. However, it is a matter of public record that, when
asked what
to name the new county, John Thomas was quick to respond: "Name it
Union,
for none but Union-like men reside in it!"
We are not to confuse John
Thomas's
suggestion for a name for the newly-formed Union County as being
indicative of
the later pro-Union and pro-Confederacy political leanings. The Civil
War was
some thirty years in the future when Union County was formed in 1832.
Rather,
Representative Thomas had in mind the Union Party, a political group
that held,
"Our federal Union--it must be preserved!" In the fairly young and
struggling nation, having won its independence from Great Britain in
the
Revolutionary War, and reinforced that freedom from Britain's
over-lordship in
the War of 1812, America's independence was dear, but seen as strong
only if
citizens could uphold the Union itself.
In 1832, Andrew Jackson was the
seventh
president of the United States, serving his second term. Jackson hailed
from
the frontier state of Tennessee. Vice-president was John Caldwell
Calhoun of
South Carolina. Jackson and Calhoun were often at cross-purposes in
their
philosophy of government. Jackson was the first president elected from
among
"the common people," not from the group of well-know Revolutionary
War supporters. Jackson had distinguished himself as a general in the
War of
1812, the Indian Wars, and in the famous Battle of New Orleans.
Jackson signed the "Indian
Removal
Act" into law in 1830. The famous US Supreme Court case of Worcester
versus Georgia occurred in 1832, in which the Cherokee Nation
challenged the
Removal Act. The Supreme Court upheld the Cherokee position to maintain
their
mountain stronghold, but Jackson did not try to enforce the court's
decision,
giving his answer as "John Marshall (Supreme Court Justice) has made
his
decision. Now let him enforce it!" We know the succeeding story. By
1838,
when Union County was less than six years old, the Trail of Tears
occurred, and
the Indians that remained within the confines of Union County were
moved west.
The first officers of the new
county of
Union in 1832 have evidently been lost in a courthouse fire or lack of
preserving public documents. In all my research for the first county
officers,
I could not find names or dates of service of the first leaders of the
county.
It is unfortunate that we do not know to whom to give credit for Union
County's
beginning government.
The first census of Union County
was
ordered by an Act of the Georgia Legislature of 1833 for the ten new
counties
formed in 1832. The census was completed March 24, 1834 by William B.
Gilliland. It showed a population in Union County then of 903 persons
living in
147 listed households. An examination of last names of many of these
householders in 1834 shows that descendants of these first settlers
have
remained as citizens of Union County for the past 175 years. I am proud
to name
among them my own ancestors of Dyer, Collins, Hunter and England and
others.
By the time of the 1840 Union
County
census, the population had increased to 3,152, showing that Union had
become a
popular place to settle in the eight years of the county's existence.
In the
1840 census, slaveholders were listed as being eighteen of the total
population, and slaves numbered eighty-seven. The smaller farms of the
mountainous
Union County terrain did not foster great plantations as found in the
Piedmont
and Southern areas of Georgia. The largest slave-owner in 1840 was
Morton
Saunders who owned twenty-three slaves. It would be interesting to know
where
his land holdings were located.
More than 175 years have passed
since Union
County's founding. Political leaders have come and gone, many making
their mark
in local, state, national and even world affairs. But still nestled
within one
of the most beautiful stretches of earth is the 323 square-mile area of
Union
County, still drawing population to its pristine forests and fields,
developments and tourist areas. Now the Appalachian Development Highway
(also
known in places as the Zell Miller Parkway) has replaced the Logan and
Unicoi
Turnpikes and the Indian Trails of lore. But the call of the hills is
ever
present. The days of the "daring horsemen" (Naduhli - Nottely) have
long passed. But we should hope that the lure of "Tsistu-yi"- dancing
place of rabbits- and the land of the "Ani-yun-wi-ya," "peaceful
people" will never fade from our beloved North Georgia map.
c2008 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published January 10, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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