Ghost or Gold,? Auraria, Georgia

WELCOME TO AURARIA, GEORGIA! Population 0 or 1: One of the things on my bucket list was to go to Auraria, Georgia, and take some pictures. I heard it was ghost town now. It is a ghost neighborhood, it doesn't have enough dwelling to even be a ghost subdivision. There are three houses, one is sort of big and decayed which symbolized the thriving gold mining rush that was here about 1830. This is where gold was discovered in Georgia, and the famous saying, "Thar's Gold in them thar hills!" originated. For years gold was mined, hydra-stripping the hills and mountains. Up until the gold was discovered it was all Indian land, the Cherokee and Creek Nation. They had a contract or a treatyto that fact. Then, some crooked Indians leaders and Georgia Political leaders voided the treaty. The Indians carried it to the Supreme Court and was ruled in their favor. But President Andrew Jackson ignored their decision and had the Indians forcefully removed to reservations out west, mostly in Oklahoma. President Andrew Jackson said Chief Justice John Marshall could enforce their decision if he could.
This little ghost neighborhood was the start of it all: Gold in them thar Hills and The Trail of Tears.
The old white house with all the junk is an interesting place. I poked around and took some pictures. When I got fairly close to the house I could hear someone singing old type songs, like "She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain When She Comes" The music was not coming from a radio, but from someone's throat. I heard on our visit to Dahlonega that the Pickers visited that house recently. It sure would have been easy pickings, all that junk out in the yard. I think someone must live there and he doesn't like visitors.

This little ghost neighborhood was the start of it all: Gold in them thar Hills and The Trail of Tears.
The old white house with all the junk is an interesting place. I poked around and took some pictures. When I got fairly close to the house I could hear someone singing old type songs, like "She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain When She Comes" The music was not coming from a radio, but from someone's throat. I heard on our visit to Dahlonega that the Pickers visited that house recently. It sure would have been easy pickings, all that junk out in the yard. I think someone must live there and he doesn't like visitors.

Throwback Thursday, The Unattached Hand in Savannah's Pink House

Copied and pasted from one of previous posts on my Chicken-fat.com blog.

I went with Anna this past February to Savannah. She had four days of business meetings to attend.

The first or second evening we met the others of the working staff along and had dinner at The Olde Pink House in the historic district.

The Olde Pink House was first owned by James Habersham. James Habersham was a Georgia representative and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Now, it is said The Olde Pink House is haunted by Habersham’s ghost. The travel channel did a bit about Hancock’s ghost there and so did PBS. The waiters claim that he would walk around in his clothing of the period and socialize with the guests and sometimes evening playing a trick on them like hiding one’s fork before he or she reached for it, and the list is endless.

We had reservations. Two big tables held ten of us. Our table was round and was in a corner of the a room. Anna-s co-staffers table were within arm’s reach. One of the men sitting across from me I will call Tony. Behind Tony, high up on the wall, was a portrait of James Habersham, the original owner and maybe part-time ghost.

As we made polite conversation Tony, who struck me as a loud mouth braggart, with lack of anything else to say, brought up the subject of somebody that worked in his office, a handicapped person, a person that was challenged in controlling his body movements and his face movements. Tony said if he got excited talking he would lose control of his facial muscles and spit all over all you as he talked. Tony said he learned long ago to keep his distance or step aside when this guy was about to tell something.

Then…

One quiet person, lets call him John, between 55 and 60 years of age said, “Tony I think you deserve a hand for that”

WHAM!!! A big unattached hand landed onto Tony’s empty plate.

Everything got deathly quiet. John reached over and picked up his rubber artificial hand and re-attached it. Everybody at the table broke into laughter and some even were having hysterical laughter.  I looked up at the portrait of James Habersham and he seemed to be frowning and not amused at all.

The rest of the evening Tony was mostly quiet. The hand was an inspiration to many to use some one-ones… like, “John can’t keep his hand to himself-“ and more.

The Ole' Pink House

Throwback Thursday, Registering to Vote

Throwback to Thursday, Registering to Vote.

The election ads season is here.  Of course election means voting. 

But before one votes one has to register, so here we go.

When I turned 18 I went to the Old Cobb County Courthouse to register to vote.     I went to the voters registration office at the Old Courthouse.  In the hallway was a drinking fountain with a WHITE ONLY sign.  Near it was a WHITE MEN restroom and a WHITE LADIES restroom  The “COLORED” restroom and water fountain was in the basement somewhere.

In the Voter Registration Office I told the kindly elderly gentleman there I wanted to register to vote and he gave me the form to fill out, which I did.  Then he told me you had to be able to pass the literacy test to qualify to vote.  He handed me a sheet of paper and told me to read aloud what was on lit.  It was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

I started:  “Four Scores and Seven Years Ago…”

He said, “You passed.”

I said I had just started.

He said that I correctly pronounced the key word, I did not say “Foe” instead of Four and gave me a knowingly smile.

The polite jovial old man went on to say if the pronunciation requirement was strictly enforced, “no telling who “THEY” would vote for.”

I knew that was just wrong.  But I did not dare say so because I have a slight well-hidden-most-the-time speech impediment and he might have had me read the rest of The Gettysburg Address.

I bet the old fart was spinning in his grave  January 20, 2009.

The Professor and the Petty Boys' Find

Sisters Opal and Janie courting while Sarah is making a pest of herself

I remember my mother telling us about when she was in her early teen  years her family lived on a farm in Murray county, Georgia, near Cohutta and Varnell.  On their farm was a huge boulder that was a good backdrop for pictures. 

If I remember correctly before the big rock was where it was in the pictures, in that spot there was an opening of a cave.  In the first room of the cave was Indian lore and a footprint on the ceiling.  She said her brothers went further back and by flashlight or whatever, saw a huge body of water.

Then, their father, sold rights to the Georgia Department of Transportation to dynamite the area for stones to crush to use for the Cleveland Highway that ran near their home. 

During the dynamiting the huge rock or boulder covered the entrance of the cave.

I’m reading the book MURRAY COUNTY HERITAGE compiled by the Murray County Historical Committee.

I just came across this on page 2:

“In 1934 a large cave was discovered and was thought to contain lost Indian treasures.  Professor J.R. Stull was told of the cave by an aged Cherokee in Utah followed markings on tree to the spot where some “stone images” were found.”  

I wonder if this cave on my grandparents’ farm is the same as Prof. J.R Stull heard about.

Roy, Janie, and Osmo

Sarah Roy, and Leonard

Sarah and Grandma (Frances Viola Ridley Petty)

Cooper's Furnance

Using the jagged rocks it is built with I and friends, when teenagers, climbed this.  That was over 60 years ago.  It occurred to me recently, that I did not have a picture of this structure so it was on my To Do list the next time I was near.   So, here it is.

Below, copies and pasted is my research on Cooper's Furnace, why just reword what I read?  This is less work.

1. Mark Cooper was a politician and an early organizer of the W&A RR. He bought a half interest in Moses & Jacob Stroup's Etowah Furnace and Bloomary on Stamp Creek in 1843. Cooper and Stroup planned a move to the Etowah River to be closer to the railroad, timberland and iron ore. The Etowah Manufacturing ...

2. Cooper Furnace Day Use Area - Mobile District

   www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Recreation/Allatoona-Lake/Day-Use/Cooper-Furnace-park/

   Coopers Furnace Day Use Park is open seasonally and is situated along the north bank of the Etowah River. The park has lots of single car parking, no trailers allowed. This park also allows a great view of the dam from downstream. Park Features: The old Coopers Furnace Iron Works Site Flush toilet restroom facilities

3. Cooper Furnace, Cartersville, Georgia | Built by Moses Strou… |...

   www.flickr.com/photos/26948955@N05/4209473003

   Dec 23, 2009 ... Built by Moses Stroupe in the 1830's and purchased by politician Mark Cooper in the 1840's. The furnace was still in operation until it was destroyed by U.S. Troops in 1864 during the Civil War. All that remains of Cooper's Iron Works is the stone stack. It is located in the day use area of Allatoona Lake.

4. Cooper's Furnace, Cartersville, Georgia - Roadside Georgia

   roadsidegeorgia.com/site/cooperiron.html

   Nov 16, 2003 ... The only remains of the bustling industrial town of Etowah is the furnace at CooperIron Works. Built by Jacob Stroup in the 1830's, this foundry was the first in the area. A politician named Mark Cooper purchased the foundry from Stroup in 1844 after losing the election for governor to George Crawford in ...

5. Mark Anthony Cooper's Iron Works – Georgia Historical Society

   georgiahistory.com/ghmi_marker_updated/mark-anthony-coopers-iron-works/

   Year Erected: 1962. Marker Text: These ruins of an old iron furnace built by Moses Stroup are all that remain of Cooper's Iron Works, developed by Mark Anthony Cooper, pioneer industrialist, politician, and farmer. Cooper was born in 1800 near Powelton, Ga. Graduating from S.C. College (now University of S.C.) in 1819, ...

6. The Lost City of Etowah, Georgia | The Camak Stone

   thecamakstone.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/the-lost-city-of-etowah-georgia/

   Oct 11, 2013 ... Many Georgians have not heard of Etowah but may have visited the CoopersFurnace Day Use area at the base of Allatoona Dam in Cartersville, Georgia. Image. Etowah is recorded as being founded in 1845, established by Mark Anthony Cooper which started out as the Etowah Manufacturing and Mining ...

7. Cooper's Furnace and Laurel Ridge Trails - GeorgiaTrails.com

   www.georgiatrails.com/gt/Cooper's_Furnace__and_Laurel_Ridge_Trails

   It then crosses a Laurel Ridge to an improved road, which is the return path to Cooper's Furnace. This is a great family hike and it is interpreted in places. History Mark Antony Cooper served during the Seminole Wars, in command of Fort Cooper (near Inverness) and his men help build the military road that connected with ...

Throwback Thursday: The Great Locomotive Chase

Throwback Thursday:  Today in History, 1862, in Kennesaw, in front of the Lacy Hotel, Yankee spy James Andrew and his Raiders stole THE GENERAL Locomotive, and headed up the tracks for Chattanooga, saying "I think I can, I think I can!" They thought wrong.   

The day before Andrews' Raiders stayed in the Fletcher Hotel, by the tracks, now The Kennesaw House, which houses The Marietta Museum of 
History.

Disney made a movie about it and starred Fess Parker.

Look!  There is James Andrews now in his hotel room in Marietta, looking out the window at the GENERAL Locomotive  parked below (or maybe a Marietta History Museum depiction of it_.

"10 Cents Bill" Yopp

As far as I know Bill Yopp is the only black and ex-slave buried in the Confederate Soldier Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia.  He entered the Civil War as a manservant for his “Master”.  While there he leaned how to play he drum and became the unit’s Drummer.  When his master was wounded and sent home he stayed as the drummer, CSA uniform and all.

After the war he became a doorman at the Georgia House of Representatives and became speaking terms with many of the legislators.  He convinced them to create a retirement home for old Confederate Soldiers.

I keep asking myself why would anybody devote themselves to the comfort of a group of people who fought to have the right to own his race like livestock?   He must have been a nut-job.

Roy Faulkner died

Roy Faulkner, the man who is credited with carving  Stone Mountain, has died at age 84.

The Rogers of Roger's Ferry

This is a copy we have of Anna's ancestor on her mother's mother's side, William C. "Buck" Jones (1846-1944) and his mule crossing the Chattahoochee River on Rogers Ferry.  Buck was a successful farmer and large land owner in the Alpharetta - Milton area. 

I did not know until this past week where Roger's Ferry was.  I am reading the book  A NORTH GEORGIA JOURNAL OF HISTORY, Volume I, compiled by Olin Jackson, off and on of short history essays of families in north Georgia.

Many people have contributed articles to the books but the one this is about was written by the compiler Olin Jackson, The Cherokee Homes of John & William Rogers.  The jest of the article is that John and William Rogers were high ranking Cherokee Indians and operated Rogers Ferry.  They lived in what was known as the "Shakerag"  Community, which was across the Chattahoochee River from present day Suwanee, Georgia.   Nearer to town was McGinnis Ferry.  John and William endured the "Trail of Tears" and returned and somehow got their land back, which members of the family still live on it today (published in 1991).

Now I know.

I remember that another Cherokee Indian of high rank, John Ross owned Ross's Ferry in Rossville/Chattanooga area that was a step in the Cherokees' Trail of Tears.

Mark Anthony Cooper

Cooper Furance

This huge stone structure is on the side of the Etowah River, just below the Allatoona Dam.   Back in my teenage years I climbed that thing.  It has protruding rocks and stones so it was fairly easily to scale like a roach might, although it did take my breath away.  I think two of us did it.  After we reached the top we realized that we also had to climb down, which seemed it might be harder.  But, we took it slowly and made it without losing our grips or foot hold.

What I didn't realize until recently, that the big stone thing is the only remaining ruin of what was a complex iron and mill works owned by Mark Anthony Cooper (1800 - 1885).  The Cooper - Stroup manufacturing complex had hundreds of men working.   Now, the rest of the complex is under the waters of the Etowah River and Allatoona Lake. 

I just read an article about Mark Anthony Cooper in the book A NORTH GEORGIA JOURNAL OF HISTORY, Volume 1.  article THE STORY OF A COMMUNITY ONCED CALLED ETOWAH by Robert Scott Davis, Jr.

Mr. Cooper was a very enterprising man, he owned many companies, bought companies, improved them and sold them.  He owned several railway companies and one of his companies, the article said, built one of the locomotives involved in THE GREAT LOCOMOTIVE CHASE.  Unfortunately, it didn't say if it was THE GENERAL or THE TEXAS.

Cooper made a lot of money and seemed to have lost all his money in one swoop but actually it was because of a series of unrelated things that went wrong.

Broke, he spent his remaining days in Murray County, Georgia.

Mark Anthony Cooper

Old Post Car of the John Ross Home, near Rossville, Ga.

Here is an old post card of the John Ross Home near Rossville, Georgia.  John Ross was a Cherokee Indian.  He owned a ferry on the Tennessee River.   His ferry was a step in  The Trail of Tears herding the Cherokee Indians off their native land to Oklahoma.  Ironic.  

On This Day In History, the Battle of Resaca

The Battle of Resaca

click on images to make them larger

On this date, May 14, 1864, 150 years ago, was the Civil War Battle of Resaca, Georgia.   In about a month they would be at Kennesaw Mountain, near here in Marietta, continuing the floating battle of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign vs CSA General Joseph Johnston.

On July 16, 2012, Anna and I drove up to Dixie Highway to Chattanooga.   We stopped at the Resaca Confederate  Cemetery :

Welcome to Auraria!

WELCOME TO AURARIA, GEORGIA!   Population 0 or 1:  One of the things on  my bucket list was to go to Auraria, Georgia, and take some pictures.  I heard it was ghost town now.  It is a ghost neighborhood, it doesn't have enough dwelling to even be a ghost subdivision.    There are three houses, one is sort of big and decayed which symbolized the thriving  gold mining rush that was here about 1830.  This is where gold was discovered in Georgia, and the famous saying, "Thar's Gold in them thar hills!" originated.   For years gold was mined, hydra-stripping the hills and mountains.  Up until the gold was discovered  it was all Indian land, the Cherokee and Creek Nation.  They had a contract or a treatyto that fact.  Then, some crooked Indians leaders and Georgia Political leaders voided the treaty.  The Indians carried it to the Supreme Court and was ruled in their favor.  But President Andrew Jackson ignored their decision and had the Indians forcefully removed to reservations out west, mostly in Oklahoma.  President Andrew Jackson said  Chief Justice John Marshall could enforce their decision if he could.

This little ghost neighborhood was  the start of it all:  Gold in them thar Hills and  The Trail of Tears.

The old white house with all the junk is an interesting place.  I poked around and took some pictures.  When I got fairly close to the house I could hear someone singing old type songs, like "She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain When She Comes"  The music was not coming from a radio, but from someone's throat.  I heard on our visit to Dahlonega  that the Pickers visited that house recently.   It sure would have been easy pickings, all that junk out in the yard.  I think someone must live there and he doesn't like visitors.

Roswell Mill Women Recycled

A friend of mine, Harvey Scott,  who lived in Marietta years ago asked me to do a blog about the Roswell Women Mill Workers.  Well, I am all for recycling if it means getting out of some work.  I mean, why do something that I have already done?  This is an Chicken-fat article I made on December 11, 2006: 




Speaking of old mills of the mid 19th century, in nearby Roswell, Georgia, was the Roswell Mill.

Roswell Mill was owned by the founder of Roswell, Georgia, Roswell King. He was a New Englander, Connecticut, I think. Roswell was looking for a good spot to have a mill near a good river and selected an area on the north bank of the Chattahoochee River in Cobb County.* And in an area where he could probably get cheap labor. Thus, he founded Roswell. And he invited his family members and good friends to become the city’s first elite** of the town.

When Sherman began his swath of destruction through Georgia his men were destroying mills in their path, unless they were foreign owned – then they would honor them as not Southern owned, therefore, they got to stay in business. Roswell King made a Frenchman temporarily president and of Roswell Mills. When Sherman’s officers were inspecting the mills they were making Confederate uniforms and other items to aid the Confederate war effort.

The 400 or so Roswell Mill Workers, mostly women were arrested as traitors and sent to northern states to work in the mills.

The picture above, Adeline Bagley, is a distant relative of Anna who was a Roswell Mill worker. She lived 1825-1910. It is a sad war story. Adeline was arrested in 1864 by Sherman’s men and transported with hundreds other to Chicago to work in a mill or factory. At the time her husband Pvt. J. Buice was in the war.  When he returned, he waited for years, then assumed she had died, remarried. She returned, on foot, in 1869. Her husband already had a family. As far as I know she spent the rest of her life alone. War is Hell.


*Now Roswell, Georgia, is no longer in Cobb County. It has been re-mapped to be in Fulton County.
** One elite family in town produced Martha Bulloch, who was the mother of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Mary Bolton Harbersham Possesses Mary Ann Fitzpatrick Body

Thursday I went with Anna to the Blackwell Homemakers Club to hear a presentation by our friend Mary Ann Fitzpatrick.  During Mary Ann's studies of history, she created a caricaturization of Mary Bolton Habersham, wife of James Habersham, a Colonial Georgian.  The presentation was entertaining and educational of that period in time.  The BHC ladies club had a grand time visiting Colonial Georgia vicariously.  

See the above video.  

Click on any image to make larger.

Mary Ann modeling a family heirloom cape from the 1700s..

The Drive-In Movie

Last night the TV sitcom THE MIDDLE had a segment of going to an old fashion drive-in-theater.   I immediately thought of hearing on the news within the past few days of a man in a drive-in theater and  had car trouble.  He knocked on the window of a nearby car asking for help.  Apparently he disturbed a couple having sex and was shot.

Memories of Drive-In theaters: 

One time in my teens four or five of my friends crammed themselves into Larry's 57 Ford trunk and I was picked to buy one ticket at the Smyrna Drive-In  and drive into the theater, which I did

I parked on the back row and got out of the car and was about to open the trunk to let my friends out and suddenly a bobbing flashlight beam came quickly up to me.  A man with an air of authority told me I could not park there, it was the "colored section".   I said OK and turned to get back into the car.  Then the man added, "You better let those boys out of the trunk before they smother."

Another time, the late Jenkie Latimer and I were sitting in the drive-in watching a movie we had both already seen.  We knew a crucial scene was coming up.  I suggested that wouldn't it be funny if during a crucial scene someone drove their car down front, turned around and faced the cars and turned on their lights on bright? 

The next thing I knew Jenkie was starting his car and down front we went.  Jenkie was not generally one who broke rules.  I must have been a bad influence on him.

We turned around and Jenkie turned on his bright lights and the horns started honking.  We exited the theater very quickly.

DIXIE HIGHWAY, REVISITED

This book is better than my ramblings, read it instead.

In the 1940s and 50s we kept the Dixie Highway pavement and tar hot on our frequent trip up and down that 100 mile stretch between Marietta and Chattanooga.  

When I say "we" I mean some of my mother's siblings and their spouses and children and us.  My grandmother and some of her children lived near Dalton and Chattanooga and some lived in Marietta.

I felt I knew the road pretty good and felt that I wanted to see it again to see what changed and what has remained the same.  In today's terms, to ride up it to Chattanoga was on my "Bucket List".  And it was my birthday, so there.

I remember this same view when I was a kid.  Of course, it was black and white then.  I beleive this is the remains of a bridge I  read that Sherman had destroyed.  See the guy fishing?  Also, there is a certain comfort feeling of seeing things you haven't seen for a while and they are still around.

This is an Indian who looks like a warrier or a hunter.  I would think he is pissed off.  This is in Calhoun, only a few miles from New Echota, the then seat of the Cherokee Nation.  His leaders voted for all the Indians to give up their land and walk to Oklahoma.  "The Trail of Tears".  That would be enough to make anybody highly perturbed.

Notice the rock that make this arch?  Along the highway there are many structures made of rock.  It was probably easily accessible.  I think the two CSA soldiers are not following protocal.  If I remember correctly military statues are to face the direction of  their enemy - in this case, the north.  I think one was facing east and the other one was facing west.

Also along the highway there appear to be no zoning laws.  There are all kinds of houses, junk piles of junk in front yards, not to be confused wtih decorative little statues and things, which Anna said is "Yard Art".

The Resaca Civil War  Confederate Cemetery that probably holds the CSA soldiers from a battle about a mile away.  Marvin, a friend, lives near here and he told me he sometimes cuts the grass of this cemetary.

This was the train depot.  Now it is Ringgold's Visitor's Center, History Museum, and bluegrass concert hall.  I bet they have a gift shop too.  They are closed on Mondays.  This is also where James Andrews and his Raiders were caught up with in the Great Locomotive Chase.

The overpass down the hill ahead was there when our family came up often.  It is still there.  What I couldn't find was the Wedding Chapel.  The Wedding Chappel of Ringgold offered a quick bloodtest and a quick marriage.  Las Vegas may have taken notes.  I was told by a stranger when just outside of town at a Civil War skirmish marker that Dolly Parton got married in Ringgold.  The stranger with a white beard told me he was returning from Tennessee where he is practicing for the Baseball Olympics in the age 70 category.  He new all the good places to play baseball in Cobb County, such as Al Bishop Park.

Also, a distant relative of mine is a  resident of Ringgold and famous in an infamous kind away when the law accused him of locking his wife and mother-in-law up and starved them to death....it took 20 years.  He was found innocent in the court of law, but a TV special was made of him and his eccentric ways.  It is no crime to be a hermit.

I found some relatives through my Tyson branch on at West Hill Cemetery in Dalton up on a hill.  When alive they lived in Tunnel Hill, Georgia, then some of them went south and settled near Ball Ground, and one of the daughters married into the Tyson family, near Woodstock.

Burial place for Leander Newton Trammell

This is Leander Newton Tammell's family plot.  The big marker is his, the small one is his wife's.  Leander, or "The Colonel" is a distant relative - well, not that distant, we are first cousins (4 times removed).  He is the one that is responsible for the Trammell House in Marietta.  I found their plot when I visited West Hill Cemetery a few years ago.  This time in Dalton I noticed that  I crossed Trammell Street, on the north side of town.

This grave has my mother's sister and her husband Cecil.  Interesting couple.  I also found this grave years ago, but paid them another visit.  This time I noticed they are buried next to Cecil's parents. 

This is West Hill Cemetery's Confederate Graves section.

I found my mother's brother and his wife Mary Jo's grave.  It is the first time it has been visited by one of our family members as far as I know.

I went into the cemetary's office and asked if they had an index.  The lady said yes and she looked up Thomas Petty.  She found him.  She gave me a map and drew line on the route I should take to get to his and Mary Jo's grave.  She said something like this... "You take the Sermon on the Mount road up and turn right at the green gate - then you park and walk eight rows from the Sitting Jesus."  It sounded like a satire from a Kurt Vonnogut or Terry Southern novel

This is the Chapel in the cemetery.  I just wanted to point out that kind or rock again. There are plenty of structures are made of it.

On the way home we stopped at J.D.'s Bar-B-Que in Acworth.  Delicious!!