From an article dated February 7, 1932 in one of the Atlanta
papers soon after Campbell County became a part of Fulton County. The article was
penned by Charles L. Bass and is titled “Campbell County, Now Part of Fulton,
Important in Early History of Georgia” with the sub-headline that said, “Campbellton,
now one of the state’s ‘deserted villages,’ flourished as county site before
the Civil War”.
At the outset of the article Mr. Bass predicts Campbell County
would be lost by absorption by Fulton County….that it would submerge as well as
merge with Fulton .
Mr. Bass correctly asserts Campbell County’s “history and
traditions will silently slip into the annals of the past and become but a
memory”, and I would have to agree.
Most people today – eighty-four years later – have no idea
Campbell County ever existed.
The article covers several things, but in this post I’m going
to relate the information regarding Native Americans and the earliest days of
Campbell County.
Later this week I’ll post the remainder of the article.
In the bottom lands of the streams in Campbell County the
Indians held their corn dance festival; the early settlers related having
observed them. It is a tradition that on
a hill near Pumpkintown a fierce battle had been fought between the Creeks and
Cherokees fought with such savage fury that the victors drove the vanquished
into the river.
It is probably true as an unusual number of human bones and
Indian relics have been washed up near here in seasons of extremely high
waters.
Evidence of Indian trails leading to the well-known
Three-Notch and Five-Notch trails is still seen as reminders of the occupancy
of the vanished race who once proudly claimed it as their own.
The new country with its fertile lands along the Chattahoochee
River and its magnificent forests of fine timber then unspoiled by the reckless
ax of the woodmen was an inviting territory.
However, settlement in the county was retarded by fear of the
Indians who were angry at the treaty made by General McIntosh and who had been
foully assassinated by a mob of Cowetas or Lower Creeks at his home in May,
1825. And constant rumors of further vengeance
and unrest against the whites were circulated.
Previous to the treaty signed at Indian Springs on February
12, 1825, by General William McIntosh, representing the Creek Indians, and
Duncan G. Campbell and James Meriwether the United States government, the proud
descendants of the brave warriors who owned and possessed the land roamed in
happy freedom. It was the territory of the Creeks but on the borderland of the
possessions of the Cherokees. Indeed, across
the Chattahoochee there was a strip of land considered neutral ground. Here
Creeks and Cherokees met and made treaties.
But even before the creation of Campbell County settlers had
moved into the territory. Among these early residents were Judge Walter T.
Colquitt and with him his young secretary Benjamin Camp, the latter was to become
one of the county’s most prominent citizens.
Judge Colquitt had an extensive plantation on the
Chattahoochee which had grown a settlement known by the homely name of
Pumpkintown or Cross Anchor at the time the county was organized.
I’ll post the remainder of this article later this week……
