Facts about Stewart Countyand Early History

The history of early Georgia and consequently the historyof Stewart County are, to a large degree, the history ofthe Creek Indians. For most of Georgia's colonial period,Creeks outnumbered both Europeans colonists andenslaved Africans. They also occupied more lands thanthese newcomers. Not until the 1760s did the Creeksbecome a minority population in Georgia. They ceded thebalance of their lands to Georgia in the 1800s.

The area now known as Stewart County was inhabitedby Native Americans for thousands of years in thePre-Columbian Period. Roods Landing Site on theChattahoochee River is a significant archaeological sitelocated south of Omaha. Listed on the National Registerof Historic Places, it includes major earthwork moundsbuilt about 1100-1350 AD by peoples of the sophisticatedMississippian culture.

The first Europeans to encounter the Native Americanswere Spanish explorers in the mid-sixteenth century. At thattime, the historical Creek tribe inhabited the area, and theymaintained their territory until after European Americansettlers arrived in increasing numbers in the early decadesof the nineteenth century. In the 1830s, due to conflictsbetween the early settlers and the Indians, the federalgovernment via Indian removal forced most of the Creek torelocate west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory inpresent-day Oklahoma.

One conflict between the early residents of StewartCounty and the Creek occurred on May 15, 1836, as Creekwarriors crossed the Chattahoochee River from Alabamaand attacked the town of Roanoke, Georgia. The citizenswere caught unprepared. Many fled to Lumpkin andColumbus. The attack was led by Creek war leader JimHenry and two hundred to three hundred Creek warriors.The town was taken by complete surprise and the Georgiamilitia could not set up a defense fast enough to save thetown. The Indians burned plantations and carried offNegro slaves. As I write the Green Grove story, I am curiousto know to what extent my own ancestry relates to theCreek Indians. Family members were often told that mymaternal grandfather, John Hubbard, was part Indian. Itwas also interesting to find out that the Creek Indians tookslaves as they raided the early settlers of Stewart County.There was a relationship carved out of desperation andneed between the Creeks and the Negro slaves.

Under the European Americans, Stewart Countywas created by an act of the Georgia General Assemblyon December 23, 1830, from land that had been part ofRandolph County, Georgia. The county is named forDaniel Stewart, a Revolutionary War veteran, fighteragainst American Indians, and great-grandfather of USPresident Theodore Roosevelt.

White settlers developed the area as large cottonplantations, part of the "Black Belt" of Georgia and theDeep South. Although the term originally described theprairies and dark soil of central Alabama and northeastMississippi, it has long been used to describe a broadagricultural region in the American South characterized bya history of plantation agriculture and a high percentage ofAfrican Americans in the population.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, as manyas one million enslaved African Americans were taken therein a forced migration to work as laborers for the region'scotton plantation owners. After having lived for severalgenerations in the area, many stayed as rural workers,tenant farmers, and sharecroppers after the American CivilWar and emancipation.

Before the Civil War, planters depended on enslavedlabor to cultivate and process the cotton for market. In1850, Stewart County reached its peak in wealth as oneof the largest cotton producers in the state. It had thetenth-largest population of any county, with 16,027 people;of these, 7,373 were enslaved. By 1860, the population haddeclined to 13,422. Kinchafoonee (later Webster County)and Quitman County had been created from StewartCounty territory in 1853 and 1858 respectively. There were5,534 slaves in the redefined Stewart County.

After the war and emancipation, cotton continued as amajor commodity crop but began to progressively decline.Stewart County lost its premier position when it wasbypassed by developing railroads which went north andsouth. It did not have railroad access until 1885.

Inappropriate farming practices and over cultivationof cotton from before the Civil War led to extensive landerosion by the early twentieth century, with accompanyingpopulation losses. Up to the twentieth century, many blacksleft the area in waves of the Great Migration, seeking jobsand better lives in northern and Midwestern industrialcities. Farmers shifted to cultivating peanuts and later pinetrees to reclaim and restore the land. Population lossescontinued throughout the twentieth century, as the forestand lumber industries did not require as many laborers

In 1965, some of the towns in Stewart County began toredevelop historic properties to attract tourists and expandthe economy. Lumpkin, Omaha, and Louvale all hadrelatively intact historic properties and commercial districts.Green Grove, the historic African American community,established after the Civil War, is the primary subject of thisbook. Stewart County was the first rural county in Georgiato use historic preservation and main street redevelopmentto support historic tourism.

Stewart County Quick Facts from the US CensusBureau showed the number of households from 2007 to2011 as 2,183. The racial makeup of the county at 2011was 46 percent white persons and 50.9 percent blackpersons with American Indians, Asians, and Hispanicsmaking up the remaining 3.1 percent.

Stewart County is located in southwest Georgia, justsouth of the fall line. Its county seat is Lumpkin, Georgia,located thirty-five miles south of Columbus, Georgia,and sixty-five miles northwest of Albany, Georgia. Thereexist many buildings from the 1800s in Stewart Countythat needed to be preserved, fostering an appreciation ofhistory from those who had their beginnings in StewartCounty especially. Consequently, preservation has becomean important movement in Stewart County. As mentionedearlier, 1965 saw productive efforts to restore historicbuildings, thereby embarking on historic tourism as aviable component of a much-needed reenergized economicengine.

A group was formed to restore a stagecoach hotel.The inn, built about 1836 in Lumpkin, Georgia, by Dr.Bryan Bedingfield, served as a family residence as well asa stopping place for stagecoaches and other travelers. Dr.Bedingfield was the first physician in Stewart County; hisson, Dr. Samuel Bedingfield, who grew up in the inn, wasthe first white male child born in Stewart County. Therestoration of the 1836 Bedingfield Inn, on Lumpkin'scourthouse square, became the first small-town communitypreservation project in Georgia. Today, the Bedingfield Innhas been transformed to one of the great house museums ofthe South.

The citizens hoped to attract tourists to the county;this marked the beginning of Heritage Tourism in ruralGeorgia.

The early success of the inn restoration caused thesame group to establish a living-history museum knownas Westville. It is a simulated village of 1850, comprisingactual historic buildings of Georgia.

More historic and natural attractions followed theexample of Westville. Providence Canyon, designated astate park in 1971, is a series of erosion gullies on 1,003acres of land, but the multicolored 150-foot-deep "canyons"attracted tourist and media attention throughout thetwentieth century.

In approximately 900 AD, the Mississippian culture inStewart County left major architectural features.

Two of Georgia's six largest mound sites in StewartCounty are Roods and Singer-Moye Mounds.

Other important preservation efforts have been initiatedby the Historic Chattahoochee Commission. Organizedin 1970, the HCC is charged with the responsibility ofpromoting tourism and historic preservation. In 1970, itbecame the nation's first and only "bi-state heritage tourismagency." One other organization worth mentioning is theLower Chattahoochee RDC, which took interest in theStewart County area. It includes eighteen counties: elevenin Georgia and seven in Alabama.

The largest city in Stewart County is Richland. It islocated nine miles east of Lumpkin and twenty-seven mileswest of Americus.

Lumpkin was established on March 30, 1829. It wasnamed for Governor Wilson Lumpkin. Atlanta was almostnamed Lumpkin, but Governor Wilson declined to nameit Lumpkin. He suggested that it be named Marthaville,for his daughter—and it was for a while. Lumpkin wasincorporated and designated the county seat in December1830.

The first house in Lumpkin was built in August 1830.In 1836, the town had more than thirty dwellings. Therewere fourteen stores, three confectioneries, three taverns,a Methodist and a Baptist church, a men's academy, acourthouse, one blacksmith shop, three lawyers, and threedoctors.

The north, south, and east sides of the square werefilled with small wooden stores erected on pillars, just asthe dwellings were. A short flight of steps led into eachbuilding.

A fire destroyed all of the buildings in the 1890s exceptbrick and cement structures. On the north side, brickbuildings were erected to replace small wooden structures.

Lumpkin had a temporary hewn-log courthouse built in1831, which was a blockhouse.

The second courthouse was completed in 1837, and itlasted until 1895. It was replaced with a brick courthouse,which burned in 1922. A new one was built, which stillstands today.

The Victorian jail was built in the 1890s and still housesthe trapdoor for gallows. It is said that one person washanged there.

One of the first incorporated cities in Stewart Countyis Omaha. Founded in the 1890s, when the railroadarrived, Omaha is nestled in the northwest corner of thecounty near the juncture of the Chattahoochee River andHannahatchee Creek.

Another community within Stewart County is Louvale.Best known for its "Church Row," Louvale's PrimitiveBaptist, Methodist, and Baptist churches form a religiouscourtyard of sorts, with a community center among thechurches. Louvale is long and narrow, stretching about sixmiles along US Highway 27.

Much of Stewart County is covered in southern pines,mostly in hardwood climax.

Most visitors enjoy the red and white oak, sweetgum,hickory, poplar, sycamore, beech, red maple, dogwood,buckeyes, holly, and magnolia.

Providence Canyon, near Lumpkin, has the largestnational collection of the rare plumleaf azaleas in the world.

There is an interesting map of Lumpkin in 1848. Itwas hand-drawn by a young man from the North whowas living in the town and writing letters home. It is nowdisplayed in the Public Room of the Bedingfield Inn.

You can enjoy a "windshield tour" along Lumpkin'sStagecoach Trail. There you will see the exteriors of morethan twenty houses of the 1830s to the 1850s markedby black-and-white stagecoach signs in the yards. Somehomes along the stagecoach trail are those of Mrs. RhondaAverett, Mr. and Mrs. Randy Butts, and Mr. and Mrs.Andrew G. Mistulie

The Georgia Trust Ramble joined Westville and StewartCounty Historical Commission, Friday, October 27, andSaturday, October 28, 2000. It was made a family affair,including children and grandchildren, to discover StewartCounty's treasures. The tour of Lumpkin included theBedingfield Inn, the courthouse, and the Baptist church,to name a few. A tour of Louvale included Louvale ChurchRows. A tour of Richland included the Richland hotel, abank, and the Richland Baptist and Methodist churches.

Another community, Roanoke, was founded on theriver in 1832 and burned by Native Americans in 1836.Similarly, Florence was founded in 1837 as a river townnear one of the South's first cottonseed oil mills. A statepark remains to mark the city now.

The county grew quickly on the premise of cottonfarming. Lumpkin grew too, attracting merchants fromas far as New Hampshire and Vermont. White settlers,overwhelmingly of English ancestry, about 84 percent,came from other areas of Georgia. Three counties,Washington, Wilkes, and Jones, supplied about 40 percentof the new settlers. By 1850, Stewart County's populationranked tenth out of ninety-five counties in Georgia.

In addition to cotton and the boll weevil, StewartCounty's economic history has been tied to peanuts, pine,and heritage tourism.

Heritage tourism has now become an innovativeapproach in raising the level of consciousness abouthistorical preservation and has to some degree enhancedthe economic coffers of Stewart County. Today, there aretwenty-seven historic places in Stewart County that arelisted on the National Register of Historic Places. GreenGrove Church, School, and Cemetery are listed as site six.Refer to the entire list of Historic Places in Stewart Countylater in this book.

People and Founders of the Green GroveCommunity, Church, and School

The year was 1886, twenty-three years after theEmancipation Proclamation issued by President AbrahamLincoln; twenty-one years after the adoption of theThirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitutionfreed the Negro slaves; eighteen years after the FourteenthAmendment, which gave the freed slaves full citizenship,was ratified; and sixteen years after the adoption of theFifteenth Amendment gave the right to vote to the freedslaves. At this juncture three men with an insatiableappetite for freedom, for justice, and for being and actinglike men among men entered the picture. They came,enshrouded with immense dignity, punctuated with anunquenchable thirst to live in a land whose Constitutiondeclared all men to be created equal and endowed by theircreator with certain unalienable rights, among them therights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Enternow Mr. Perry Hudson, Mr. Louis Cherry, and Mr. IsaacShorter, the founders of the Green Grove Church. Theycame humbly, but they were determined to put their stampon the Green Grove community, to exert some influence onhow their families would be raised—how, even then, theindomitable spirit which formed the Green Grove paradigmwas being framed. They came without the alliance andprotection of the Freedmen's Bureau that had been struckdown a decade earlier. It's important that they came—buthow they came and the adversity they overcame is moreimportant.

Green Grove Church had its beginnings on a spot ofland under a bush arbor. We don't know how long thesemen of Christian faith worshipped there, but we do knowthat they were free. They were citizens, and they had theright to vote. They knew that no matter how shaky theirpresent circumstances might appear, there was a brighterday ahead—and they were going to stake a claim on thatbrightness by obeying the Almighty God through theestablishment of a church at Green Grove in His name.

They had very little money and few tangible resources,but they knew the value of owning land. Landownershipwas only a recent possibility for many of their friends andrelatives. Owning land held viable economic and politicaladvantages for these men and their families. But not thisspot, for while land in and of itself held great significanceand promise, this piece of property would serve as theearthly foundation for a house of worship with a heavenlymission. A house of worship built on their own ground,with monetary influences and other contributions, furthersolidified their quest to secure for themselves and theirposterity a place to nurture and develop the spiritualaspects of their very being. Owning this land and having atotal commitment to build a church house was a physicalmanifestation of the Green Grove paradigm at work. Thesemen held the belief that if you worked hard, believed inGod, stayed honest in your dealings, and always strove forself-improvement, you could have a good life on this earth.The name Green Grove was given by a prominent citizenof the place because the grass seemed to stay green allyear long. By 1898, the Green Grove Church was holdingclasses for children—serving notice to the communitythat the church was ready, willing, and able to assemblewhatever resources were needed to take care of its own. Theclarion call for self-help had gone out to the residents ofthe Green Grove community, who for the most part weretenant farmers, but who were ready to rise to the challengeeven though it seemed improbable much of the time.

Try to walk with me through these times, on pathscreated at first by three men and later by an entirecommunity. Walk with me as we see many, uneducatedthemselves, going without so that their children couldhave a future. There was no help from anyone outside ofthe Green Grove community. There were no bankers, nolawyers, and no persons occupying positions of authority inthe majority community who were a part of Green Grove.Consequently, there were no means available to these menwhereby their economic standing could be enhanced.