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
The Rev.
William Jasper Cotter was assigned by the Methodist
Episcopal Church South to a circuit-riding charge that included twenty
preaching stations, with one in North Carolina, one in Tennessee and
eighteen
in Georgia. From Rev. Cotter’s
autobiography
finished when he was ninety-three years of age and published
posthumously, we
learn much of early history of Union and surrounding counties.
Rev. and Mrs. Cotter (her name was
Rachel) set out for their Blairsville charge from Walker County,
Georgia. He told of “unforeseen
difficulties and
dangers on the way, rivers to cross and mountains to climb.”
The Cotters had their household goods
and personal effects on a wagon drawn by a single horse.
At the ford of the Conasauga River, rains had
evidently brought the river to near-flood stage. In
trying to cross, the horse hesitated but
finally got the wagon to the opposite side.
The vehicle was full of water.
Mrs. Cotter had to spread out their clothing and bedding on
bushes to
dry before they moved onward.
Taking the best road available, called
the Westfield Turnpike, the Cotters moved on across Cohutta Mountain. A jolt from a rock outcropping in the road
damaged a wheel. Night was coming on. They sought shelter in a crude cabin with a
floor of dirt and puncheon. The woman
there received them warmly and provided the best she had of food and a
place to
lie down. Rev. Cotter remembered
that
her husband came home drunk at midnight.
He wrote later of her, “The scene of the lone young woman there
impressed me as partaking of the morally sublime.”
Seeing that his wagon was beyond
repair, and with no machine shop available to assist him, Rev. Cotter
went back
to the White Path Gold Mine in Gilmer County where he purchased a
carry-all. With that vehicle and their
faithful horse, they were on their way again.
That night they arrived at Morganton, Georgia where they were
warmly
received into the home of Elijah Webb Chastain, who at that time was a
member
of the U. S. Congress and was a leading citizen of the area.
They reached Blairsville the next day
and were welcomed by a local preacher, the Rev. Thomas M. Hughes, who
took the
Cotters into his home until they could get their own dwelling outfitted.
A cabin which had not been occupied
for some time was secured for the Cotters’ first house at the
Blairsville
charge. Rent was twelve dollars a
year. Since the cabin was in need or
reroofing, the owner allowed the first year’s rent to go for roofing,
which Rev.
Cotter did himself. (At that time, he
would have made the roof shingles by riving them from felled trees,
splitting
the shingles off one by one from sections of the logs cut the same
length.) He
also rechinked and daubed the house to make it more habitable. Rachel Cotter was able to purchase some
feathers and made a feather bed. With
the other household goods brought with them, they settled into life at
their
Blairsville charge. He wrote of
their
first day in the cabin: “We moved in,
took our first meal, established a family altar, and, being tired, a
good
night’s rest followed.”
The cabin was on two acres of land,
and soon the Cotters planted a garden and a
patch of corn which did well that first year and helped with
their food
supply.
It was in that cabin that the
Rev. William
Jasper and Rachel Cotter’s first child was born, a son whom they named Goudey Halliburton Cotter.
During that first summer of
1846, Rev.
Cotter attended Camp Meetings and preached at them.
They were at Young Cane, Hot House, Cherokee
(in North Carolina), Fighting Town, Gaddistown and Choestoe. Outlaws were
prevalent, especially along the
state line. He sometimes feared his
horse would be stolen and he would be harmed as he traveled. He reported that the camp meetings were
attended by great crowds and during that first summer “one hundred and
twenty-seven
members were added to the church.”
About mid-year, an able local preacher, Brother Elrod, was
assigned to
assist the Rev. Cotter.
He wrote of
problems at the Choestoe Camp Meeting in 1846.
“Gold mines had just been discovered,” he
wrote, “and soon many people were settling in the area where gold was
mined. There was no law nor order. Large crowds attended the meeting and gave
trouble.”
He told of circulating
anonymously among
the crowd and hearing vile language and threats. The
vigilance committee for the camp meeting
had discovered whiskey on the grounds and broken a large jug. Of course, that action did not sit well with
the naysayers.
Saturday came, the time for the
Quarterly
Conference at Choestoe. The Rev. Reneau,
who was assigned to Choestoe, could not be there, and so the Rev.
Cotter had to
preside. The conference proceeded
well. Afterwards, Rev. Cotter was
left
alone in the arbor which sat on a little rise with open glade behind it. He saw seven men walk down the glade and
approach
the tent. One took a pistol out,
fingered it, and put it back in his pocket.
The men walked away.
Later, at the time for services,
Rev.
Cotter saw four of the seven men enter the arbor (tent) and take seats
on the
slabs toward the back. Rev. A. J.
Reynolds was the preacher for that service.
His subject, delivered with typical ‘fire and brimstone’
passion, was
about the woes that came upon those who desecrated the place of worship. He used as illustrations a desperado in the
Revolution who killed a Baptist preacher and cut out his tongue. The perpetrator was found, tried and
sentenced to death. He was offered the
opportunity to confess and pray before his death, but his tongue could
utter no
words. Rev. Reynolds proceeded with
other examples of people who had not escaped the wrath of God. Rev. Cotter wrote that “The power of the
Spirit came upon the congregation.
Sixteen were converted that night.”
But not the four men who had come to scoff and maybe even to use
a
hidden pistol. Later, hearing of
their
demise, Rev. Cotter learned that one of the men was blown up on a
steamboat,
one was killed by lightning, one was stricken blind, and the fourth
perished in
a miserable death.
[Source: The
Autobiography of the Rev. William Jasper Cotter.
Edited by Charles O. Jones, DD. Published
in 1917 by the Methodist Episcopal
Church South Publishing House. A copy is
in the Emory University Library.]
[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.]