History of Georgia, Wilkes County

    Laid out in 1777. PArt set off to Elbert; 1790; part to Warren, 1793; a part to Lincoln, 1796; part to Greene, 1802; parts to Taliaferro, 1825 and 1828. Length, 23 m.; breadth, 17 m.; area square miles, 391. Named after John Wilkes, the great champion of American liberty.

    The streams are Broad and Little rivers.

    The surface of the country is undulating.

    The soil is productive, though much worn.

    WASHINGTON is the county town, 60 miles N. E. of Milledgeville.

    The railroad is completed to Washington, at which place evidences of improvement greet the eye in every direction.

    Mallorysville and Danburg are small villages.

    Statistics from the Census of 1850. --- Dwellings, 709; families, 709; white males, 1,883; white females, 1,922; free coloured males, 10; free coloured females, 11. Total free population, 3,826; slaves, 8,281. Deaths, 193. Farms, 468; manufacturing establishments, 9. Value of real estate, $1,772,515; value of personal estate, $4,359,015.

    The climate is subject to great changes.

    A few years ago there were living, Thomas ANDERSON, aged 81; William WILLIAMS, 90; Mrs. Sarah FREEMAN, 85; Thomas TALBOT, 80; D. CARRINGTON, 80. Mrs. H. MINTON died at the age of 95; Wm. JONES, 80; Andrew WOLF, 80; Mrs. CALLAWAY, 90; Isham RICHARDSON, 86.

    Mrs. Hannah CLARKE, relict of Major-General Elijah Clarke, died in this county on the 26th of August, 1827, aged 90 years. Mrs. Clarke had attended her husband through many interesting periods of the American Revolution, and had often experienced some of the distressing vicissitudes of war. She once had her house burnt, with all its contents, during the absence of her husband, by a pillaging party of British and Tories, who ravaged that part of the country in which she then resided, and was turned out to seek shelter as she could, with a family of several children then in her charge. She was afterwards robbed of the horse on which she was riding to meet her wounded husband near the North Carolina line. During part of the campaigns in which General Clarke was engaged, she accompanied him, and on one occasion, in attempting to remove from a place of danger near which an engagement was soon expected, she had her horse shot under her, while two children were on his back with her. She was at the siege of Augusta, and present when the garrison under Browne capitulated, and many of the prisoners, then and at other times taken by her husband, experienced her benevolence and hospitality. She lived to behold and rejoice in the prosperity and happiness of that country which she had frequently seen desolated by cruelty and bloodshed; and in the enjoyment of the esteem and affection of a large circle of friends, she attained a good old age, and at last, after a short struggle, was liberated from all earthly cares, and entered "into that rest which remaineth for the people of God." Her remains were interred at Wooburn, near the resting-place of her husband, who had twenty-eight years before closed a life of patriotic exertion in the cause of his country.

    Mr. John WRIGHT died on the 28th of March, 1831, aged 102 years. He was a soldier under Braddock in 1755, an armed patriot during the whole Revolutionary War, and an active and able partisan in repelling the murderous inroads of the Indians into Georgia, in the earlier periods of her history.

    Ezekiel HARRIS, aged 71; Colonel Samuel JACK, 65; Major Samuel WELLBORN, 60; Captain Abraham SIMONS, 79; Joseph JOHNSON, 98, all soldiers of the Revolution, died in this county.

    Among the early settlers in this county were, S. HEARD, Wm. DOWNS, John KING, Absalom BIDDLE, Benjamin CATCHING, Henry WARE, George WALTON, John RUTHERFORD, H. FREEMAN, John TORRENCE, William MOSS, William TERRELL, John WINGFIELD, John GEORGE, Benjamin TALIAFERRO, Thomas WOOTEN, Andrew BURNS, John CUNNINGHAM, James TATE, Wm. MOORE, John TALBOT, Walton HARRIS, Henry MONGER, James MARKS, T. LEDBETTER, B. JORDAN, Josiah COLE, Jeremiah WALKER, Edward JONES, Wm. STOKES, James SHEPARD, Wm. POLLARD, Micajah WILLIAMSON.

Transcribed by Tim Stowell [email protected]