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
A Look at
Owltown
Travel Highway 129/19 south from
the old courthouse
square in Blairsville and you will come to the Owltown District of
Union County
lying around the vicinity of the Experiment Station. It was the last of
the
fourteen districts of the county.
This district numbered 1409 was
signed into
law on April 4, 1887. Court appointed commissioners John M. Rich,
Milton G.
Hamby, and Quiller F. Reece had been assigned the task of laying out
the lines
of the proposed new militia district. Daniel Mathis, Thomas Fields and
other
citizens had petitioned for the new district and signed a request for
it with
the Court of Ordinary in Union County. Portions of already-existing
districts
of Arkaqua, Choestoe and Coosa were surveyed and made a part of the new
Owltown
District. Mr. William Colwell, County Ordinary, signed the completed
papers and
the new district was summarily formed.
One is reminded of the words of
naturalist
John Muir, who in 1867, passed through beautiful Union County, Georgia
on his
walk from Louisville, Kentucky to Cedar Keys, Florida, a journey of
over one
thousand miles. He wrote of this mountainous region: "Oh, these vast,
calm, measureless mountain days...in whose light everything seems
equally
divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God."
Whether Muir passed through what
became
Owltown twenty years after his visit, we know not. But he could well
have been
describing that section of Union County nestled along the Nottely River
and its
tributaries. County Historian Edward S. Mauney, in his description of
Owlton in
1950, said of it: "Being no less mountainous than the county's entire
terrain, with its dark recesses called coves, the natural habitat of
that wise
old bird, the owl, suggests what is believed to be the origin of the
name." (p. 72, Sketches of Union
County History
Hoot Owl Town and Hoot Owl
Hollow were
eventually shortened to Owltown. Others have thought that in addition
to being
"the natural habitat of the owl," Owltown may have received its name
from a settlement of Cherokee Indians with Chief Owl as its leader.
Some of the early-settler
families that
chose Owlton as their place of residence were Hamby, England,
Fortenberry,
Rich, Davis, Stephens, Reece, Spiva, Akins, Curtis, Majors, Fields,
Mathis,
Colwell, Bowers, Rider, May, Crump and others. Even today, these family
names
remain in residents in the coves and hollows of District 1409 and
elsewhere in
Union.
If John Muir did, indeed,
traverse land in
what became the Owltown District twenty years after his sojourn here;
he would
have seen cleared patches in the bottom lands where the farmer settlers
grew
corn, potatoes, cabbage, onions, beans, wheat, rye, oats and flax. In
garden
patches were tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and peppers and in yard
patches,
herbs like sage and rosemary for seasoning. Growing out from their
mountain
cabins were the beginnings of mountain orchards of apples, pears and
peaches.
Owltown has been noted as a place of production of good-tasting, juicy
apples.
On the mountains were chestnut
trees, the
annual fall crop of which provided food for ranging hogs and cattle,
and enough
to pick up and haul to market in Gainesville over the Logan Turnpike.
This
extra crop from the forest helped to provide coffee, tea, sugar, cloth
for
making clothes and even shoes for members of the mountain families.
Another distinctive early
industry of
Owlton was the gold mine at Owltown Gap. The yield of this mine is not
currently known, but it, along with the Coosa Mines, caused enough
excitement
to produce a mini-gold rush to
Fort Mountain is within the area
of Owltown
District. The ancient fort, some of the remains of which can still be
seen, is
a great mystery. Legend prevails that it was built by a contingent of
Spanish
conquistadores who came through the region in the sixteenth century
under the
leadership of one Juan Pardo and built a fortress on the mountain. Lost
in
mountain mists and lack of records, we may never know the origin of the
fort on
this mountain.
Out of Owltown have come many
distinguished
citizens. To name a few, the following come to mind. Rev. Milford G.
Hamby was
a noted minister in the North Georgia Methodist Conference. Mr. Newton
Curtis
was termed a "good teacher" and an able debater. Solomon Hill Rich
and Nancy Conner Rich had a son named Charles Edward Rich who was a
noted
Baptist preacher and educator. The Rev. Luther Colwell, another
long-time
Baptist minister in Union County, was a son of John Theodore and Amy
Elizabeth
Bowling Colwell. John Theodore Colwell was county ordinary when "the
old
courthouse" on the square was built in 1899.
"A thousand windows," to quote
from John Muir, open throughout Owltown. One has but to drive its
roadways to
be surprised by beauty and a quality of "divine light" that emanate
from a lofty past and point toward an optimistic future.
[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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