The Nations are home this weekend. Y’all Come! Saturday and Sunday, September 21 and 22 from 10-5 Today’s note on “Something Old:” Most county history mirrors other Georgia county history concerning settlement. Original inhabitants moved out as European descendants moved in. But ethnicity never adheres to a hard and fast line. Humans interact: sometimes violently, sometimes in complete cooperation. The stories fascinate. Members of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee, Seminole, Comanche and Shawnee nations will share stories verbally and through dance, art and demonstration this weekend. Attending this event speaks to mind, spirit and soul. Jones County’s boundary story follows as do photographs of my mother, her grandfather, her sister and my brother – our family has the story. Then there’s a link to the festival site. So, this Sunday, I’ll see some of you “Along the Garrison Road.” “Jones County” by Dianne Dent Wilcox reprinted from Along the Garrison Road October 3, 1991 courtesy of The Jones County News. Jones County actually got its start in 1807, but settlers were here much earlier. According to the Georgia State Historic Marker in front of the courthouse, “This county, created by an act of the Legislature, December 10, 1807, is named for James Jones of Savannah, a legislator at 23, and member of the state Constitutional Convention in 1798 in which he was elected to Congress. The first county site was at Clinton but it changed to Gray in 1905….” So, the county was established in 1807, but settlement was the direct result of a number of Indian treaties. In the early days, most of Georgia was occupied by tribes of Indians belonging to the Creek Confederacy. These people were descendants of the ancient mound builders; the Muskogeans had been in the area for thousands of years. Basically, the Creeks were farmers, hunters and gatherers but with European contact they developed a trading society. They were one of the “Five Civilized Tribes” as they adopted many of the customs and institutions of the whites. They were also a peaceful tribe, for the most part, and acted as a buffer between the English colonists, the French, the Cherokee and Shawnee. And thus things remains until American expansionism took over. Needless to say there were land conflicts. Treaties signed in 1733 and 1790 opened Georgia for settlement to the Oconee River at Milledgeville [Montpelier], but boundary conflicts soon erupted. There were several conflicts between 1790 and 1802, and even something called the Oconee War. Most of the issues were resolved with the treaty of Ft. Wilkinson, … signed in 1802. This is where Jones County enters the picture because the Ft. Wilkinson agreement opened the land between the Oconee River and Commissioner Creek at the old Garrison Road. The area is called Flat Shoals, and it is one of Jones County’s earliest settled areas. The rest of Jones County opened with the Treaty of Washington in 1805 and involved the land between Commissioner Creek and the Ocmulgee River near the site of Fort Hawkins [and the sacred Ocmulgee mound site]. Personally, I believe settlers were across Indian lines in Jones County before the treaties, and I continue research in that area. One reason is a deed dated ‘o3, and other reasons include stories like “my grandmother was part Indian,” but I’m still looking. You may have documents or stories from Along the Garrison Road.” link.brightcove/services/player/bcpid618568018001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAEM5N1U~,8TYAlu2PuKzK4sTt6U23R74dsP6KyiLF&bctid=1978139255001
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 19:36:23 +0000
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