THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Focus on
Benjamin Chastain (1780-1845)
This series of articles on
various Chastain
family members who settled in North Georgia
in
the nineteenth century and made a difference here in politics and way
of life
are necessarily tied together. In the first article June 4, I listed
the first
Chastains who settled in Union
County in the
1830s. In
the June 11 article, I retraced the Chastain lineage back to Dr. Pierre
Chastain (1659-1728), French Huguenot settler and planter who settled
in
Manakin, Virginia
in 1700.
This article will focus on Pierre's great,
great grandchild, Benjamin
Chastain, ninth child of the Rev. John "Ten Shilling Bell" Chastain
and John's first wife, Mary O'Bryan Chastain.
Benjamin Chastain was born July
6, 1780
when his father, the Rev. John Chastain, lived in North Carolina in a
section
that later became Sullivan County, TN. A migration from that section
saw the
Chastains, with others of their neighbors, move to the Pendleton
District of
South Carolina. There he grew up, met and married a lady named Rebeckah
Denton.
Old land deeds often give
information of
the whereabouts of a person. Benjamin was still in the Pendleton
District in
the 1800 census. By 1812 he owned land there. He sold 153 acres on
Chasteen's
Mail Creek at the Woolonoy Fork of the Saluda River
for $50 to William Allen. The land Benjamin sold had been willed to him
by his
father, the Rev. John Chastain.
Benjamin and Rebeckah Chastain
had eight
children born to them before they left their South Carolina home: Mary, Jonathan
Davis,
Jeremiah S., John Bunyan, Benjamin Franklin, Nancy B., Elijah Webb and
Rebecca
Denton.
Land was opening up for
settlement in Habersham
County in North Georgia, and Benjamin and Rebeckah
Chastain moved their family
there about 1817. Their last two children were born in Habersham County,
Jeremiah on June
10, 1818
and Martha Denton on June
16, 1821.
Being a leader in his community,
Benjamin
Chastain followed his desire to make a difference by entering politics.
He
represented Habersham
County in the
Georgia
State Legislature in 1826, 1827 and again in 1832-1834.
With much turmoil occurring
about Indian
lands and negotiations with the Indians, Benjamin Chastain was
appointed an
agent to the Cherokee. That necessitated another move for his family.
This
time, they located near the Toccoa River.
He opened the
first post office in what would later become Fannin County.
First called Tuckahoe, subsequently named Tocoah and still later
Morganton,
this post office was opened on March 15, 1837.
Another task assigned to
Benjamin Chastain,
former legislator and current Indian agent, was the building and
operation of a
fort at the intersection of the Toccoa River
and Star Creek, on
land now under the waters of beautiful Blue Ridge Lake.
At that fort, the Cherokee were gathered together to await the long
journey
westward to Oklahoma
on the Trail of Tears.
Benjamin Chastain died January 1, 1845 at
his homestead in Old
Gilmer County, bordering Union, prior to Fannin County
being established in 1854. His wife, Rebeckah Denton Chastain, who was
born August 28, 1779,
died January 1, 1872
in Fannin County, Georgia. I find no cemetery
markings for them listed in Cemeteries
of Fannin County (2003). The Pierre Chastain Family History
book states
they were buried in the Old
Antioch Cemetery
near the Toccoa
River. Perhaps
unidentified, unmarked
graves mark the final resting places of these pioneer settlers.
The account of Fort Chastain
is another story. That article is forthcoming, as well as Benjamin
Chastain's
part in its location on his property in 1838.
c2009 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published June
18, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA.
Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved.
Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator, freelance wirter,
poet, and historian. She may be reached
at email edj0513@windstream.net; phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood
Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061-2411
Updated June 13, 2018
Back To Union County, GAGenWeb
Site