Journey to a Town Center

Gather two or more people together in one community and it won't be long before the disagreements begin.

It's inevitable.

We are human.

Our great city of Douglasville began under a cloud of disagreement including a major lawsuit that went all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court. Head on over to the Douglas County Courthouse and find the very first court docket book dating back to the 1870s. The first entry will advise the first Defendants in the county happened to be the Douglas County Commissioners, and the lawsuit concerned the location of the county seat.

The Georgia General Assembly issued an act on October 17, 1870 creating Douglas County. Within the language of the act was a stipulation calling for an election to be held the first Monday of November, 1870 to elect an ordinary, sheriff, clerk of superior court and to choose a location for a county seat where all county business would be conducted.

Many thought it was a foregone conclusion that the Chapel Hill community would be considered. In 1870, Chapel Hill contained a general store and a few other businesses. There was both a Baptist and Methodist church and three different schools including a high school. The area was a very prosperous plantation community with several influential citizens.

Many others preferred the area up on the ridge known as Skint Chestnut where W.G. Black and his wife Sarah had located a trading post some years before. It wasn't just the draw of the ancient Chestnut tree or the trading post that enticed folks. It had a lot to do with the proposed rail site the Georgia Western Railroad (today's Norfolk Southern) wanted to create.

The 1870s was time when attitudes in Georgia were changing. Many of our town fathers understood the new "farm to factory movement" which would result in business opportunities, more industrialization and an established rail line.

The railroad had actually proposed building a rail line through the county prior to the Civil War, but the war delayed it. The right-of-way would cross the county for 19 miles, and at one point would parallel the old Indian trail where the road passed the ancient Chestnut tree. By 1870, the land had been cleared for the rail line from Atlanta to Skint Chestnut and beyond to Reuben Vansant's crossroads.

By the time the election rolled around thoughts of Chapel Hill as the county seat had been replaced by a group of folks wanting the center of the county chosen as the location. The geographical center is approximately where Pray's Mill Baptist Church is located today off of Highway 5.

The folks who supported this area were known as "center people" and included Moses M. Smith. He argued the railroads could be persuaded to run a line through the area and mentioned the area's water sources -- the Dog River, Bear Creek and Sweetwater Creek -- as the fuel to run a million dollars worth of machinery. He did have a few valid points, but many felt it would be too difficult to persuade the railroad to change their plans since much of the land had been cleared...



THANK YOU for visiting “Every Now and Then” and reading the first few paragraphs of “Journey to a Town Center“ which is now one of the 140 chapters in my book “Every Now and Then: The Amazing Tales of Douglas County, Volume I”. 

Visit the Amazon link by clicking the book cover below where you can explore the table of contents and read a few pages of the book…plus make a purchase if you choose!

Let's Go Back in Time

This week I want you to imagine yourself traveling back through time to the spot where the old courthouse is located in downtown Douglasville. There you are....standing on the sidewalk on Broad Street facing where the old building is today. All the buildings along Douglasville's main street have fallen away and suddenly the street noise has ceased.

What do you see?

What?

A group of Cherokee Indians standing alongside a chestnut tree......a tree where all the bark has been scraped off?

Oops.....sorry.   You've gone too far.

Move ahead in time a little from that spot.

There. Try that.

What do you see?

Yes, it's okay that you still see the very large chestnut tree. Do you see any people? Yes, you are in the right place if you see a wagon with a white man and white woman.

The year is 1835, and the land where you stand is still part of Campbell County. Douglas County will not exist for another 35 years, and very soon the ten-mile wide No-Man's Land separating the Creek and Cherokee Nations will no longer be necessary. The strip of land had been created in 1821 by the state of Georgia as a buffer zone between the Lower Creek Nation and the southernmost settlements of the Cherokee Nation since they fought constantly. The agreement stated the natives could not settle within the buffer zone but could hunt and fish there.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was the death knell to the Creeks an the Cherokees in Georgia. The Creeks ceded their lands and were removed from the state in 1832, and by 1838, following a lengthy court battle the Cherokees would walk that long Trail of Tears.

While there were many wagons with white settlers entering western Georgia one in particular is important to the Douglasville story....that would be the wagon carrying W.G. Black and his wife, Sarah. They had traveled all the way from Carrabus, North Carolina along the Indian trails to Campbell County, Georgia. At the Chattahoochee River they crossed at Buzzards Roost, an island in the middle of the river, and finally made their way along the trail to the lone chestnut tree high up on the ridge within No-Man's Land.

Black decided to settle on the land staking out a claim on both sides of the trail. Soon he saw the advantages of his location as more and more wagons passed his place close to the tree that would become known as the community of Skint Chestnut. W.G. Black set up a trading post, dug a well, and set up a few camping spots for travelers to rest along the journey.

Trading posts were necessary in those days just like we need convenience stores, fast-food joints, and hotels and motels today when we take long trips. Travelers could meet up with other people, hear the latest news, purchase and barter necessary items and most importantly they could just rest.

W.G. Black and his wife are both buried at Winn Wilson Cemetery found on N. Flat Rock Road off Cedar Mountain Road in the woods behind the Rufus Nicholson farm (as of 1977) northwest of Douglasville per this website.