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Archiver > ALHENRY > 2000-11 > 0974059429


From: bzbee <>
Subject: Re: Woodville Beat, Henry Co AL
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 12:03:49 -0800


Since you have had the very interesting histories of Lawrenceville and Franklin
posted, I wonder if anyone knows anything about the Woodville Beat in Henry Co.?
My relatives (Silcox and Burke) are listed as owning land in that area. I enjoy
reading how these small settlements got started, so would enjoy anything anyone
wanted to post. Thanks. JSA

Katie Bennett wrote:

> Franklin (named for Benjamin Franklin) was an important trading center on
> the Chattahoochee River---sort of a commercial port---which began around
> 1814, roughly the same time as the frontier fort (Ft. Gaines) was
> established on the GA side for the protection of settlers.
>
> After the Creeks were defeated in 1814, they were pushed into an area that
> began about 4 miles north of Franklin at Hardridge Creek. Franklin was the
> "port of entry" for many of our Henry Co AL ancestors. And, it was formerly
> an important Indian settlement. In 1804, 22 chiefs signed over the Forbes
> Purchase at a nearby horseshoe shaped grove of trees where large meetings of
> Native Americans were often held. It was known as Cheeska-Tolafa.
>
> In 1814, Col. Robert Irwin/Erwin/Irvin started the white settlement at
> Franklin while he was posted at Fort Gaines. (He first married Eliza Harvey,
> daughter of Henry Co AL's first representative, Benjamin Harvey.) Col.
> Robert Irwin and Anthony McCullough owned and operated the first ferry
> across the river to Fort Gaines.
>
> My ancestors had a store in Franklin called Bennett & Chitty. They traveled
> to NY and London for the finest of goods. They brought Cornelius Van Clief
> Morris from NY to work there, and he eventually owned the store and moved it
> to Fort Gaines. Another daughter of Benjamin Harvey, Elizabeth Caroline,
> married C.V. Morris. Another, Rebecca, married Howell E. Chitty. And
> Chitty's daughter, Eliza Caroline, married Col. James Bennett's son, Thomas.
>
> It was thought in those early riverboat days that the Chattahoochee River
> was going to explode the area into a major commercial district, very much
> like NY. (Okay, so our ancestors were a little bit wrong!) So, in those days
> the area attracted some wealthy New Yorkers, who thought they were gonna get
> even richer.
>
> I have seen a map of Franklin, but don't have one. I think I saw it in the
> Clay County Library in Fort Gaines, GA. It is simply a layout with the
> stores listed, and it was a very small town.
>
> Franklin survived as a busy port until the railroad to Fort Gaines was
> completed in the mid 1850's. Because of the railroad to Macon and Savannah,
> Fort Gaines jumped to the lead over Franklin and it grew in population and
> wealth while Franklin slowly declined. Part of the reason for that decline
> was the frequent flooding that Franklin experienced, and since Fort Gaines
> was 140 feet higher than the river, it was the preferred settlement.
>
> I have been told that the final blow to Franklin, however, was not a flood,
> but a fire which burned every building in the town. The fire was before the
> devastating flood of March 1888, which even took down the bridge that
> spanned the Chattahoochee from Fort Gaines to Franklin. After that, there
> was never another structure built on the Franklin site.
>
> While I was growing up, Franklin was just a pecan grove and a memory handed
> down to me through my father.
>
> Katie Bennett
>
>
> ----------
> >From: "Margie Daniels" <>
> >To:
> >Subject: Walter F. George Resevoir
> >Date: Sat, Nov 11, 2000, 11:30 PM
> >
>
> > Does anyone know anything about Franklin Beat located at the base of the
> > Walter F. George reservoir.
> >
> > My Glover family owned land there and I am trying to find out what towns or
> > communities would have been there.
> >
> > Also am still trying to get the historical information on Lawrenceville,
> >
> > Margie

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