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Spalding County |
Griffin | Thomas Spalding
General Lewis Lawrence Griffin |
John Henry Holliday
War
Years | Oak Hill Cemetery |
Confederate Cemetery
Spalding County
The land which is now Spalding County was claimed in the 1540’s by
Spaniards as part of Florida. Then, in 1629, England declared the land
part of South Carolina. Not until 1764 was this area an official part
of the colony called Georgia. Led by Chief McIntosh, the Creek Indians
ceded all land between the Flint and Ocmulgee Rivers and north to the
Chattahoochee River on January 8, 1821, in the First Treaty of Indian
Springs.
Two years later, the treaty was declared invalid because of rumors of
bribery and coercion. Chief McIntosh signed another treaty with the
white man and was subsequently executed by a faction of the tribe
opposed to giving away lands. Although no Creek settlements existed in
Spalding, the familiar McIntosh Road was an important trail leading to
Indian Springs, a meeting place for Indians. The Springs’ highly
sulfured waters were thought to have healing powers.
After the treaty, five counties were created by the Georgia General
Assembly: Monroe, Henry, Fayette, Houston and Dooly. The next year,
Pike County was carved from Monroe and Henry. Not until December 20,
1851, was Spalding County founded. It was created from parts of Pike,
Henry, and Fayette counties.
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Griffin
Early leaders were desperate to settle the newly acquired land, so it
was given away in a lottery system. Winners almost always used their
202.5 acre lots for farming, especially cotton. The only way to
transport goods to Macon, the nearest market, was by wagon. Better
transportation was a necessity. The solution to the problem was
tracks, rails and locomotion.
The Monroe Railroad, owned by General Lewis Lawrence Griffin, received
authority to build a line from Macon to Forsyth in 1833. More charters
were granted to other companies. Tracks were planned to connect Macon
to Savannah, Augusta to Madison and Chattanooga to a tiny town called
Terminus.
General Griffin envisioned a town that would prosper at the crossings
of a North-South line and a tract running East-West. After determining
where these railroads would meet, he bought 800 acres in Pike County
from Bartholomew Still. Griffin made a plan for the new town which
included wide roadways, plots for six churches, two schools, parade
grounds, and a cemetery. William Leak bought the first acre on June 8,
1840 for the tremendous sum of $1000.00. In 1842, the first steam
engine came through town.
The railroad attracted cotton growers who supported merchants in town.
Soon, professional people were settling in a place which was
wilderness only a few years before. Griffin was officially
incorporated on December 28, 1843. That same year, Marthasville (once
Terminus) was incorporated, and in two years would be renamed Atlanta.
The Depression of 1843 halted the Monroe Railroad’s construction.
Plans of an East-West line to connect in Griffin were forgotten.
After the Monroe Railroad was sold under court order, the Georgia
Railroad’s line was extended to Atlanta, not Griffin, as the General
had hoped. In 1855, a fire destroyed an entire block on the east side
of Hill Street. But also in that year, the town emerged from the
depression, cotton flourished once again, and business and population
boomed.
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Thomas Spalding
 Known as Georgia’s Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Spalding was born at
Frederica (on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia) on March 25, 1774. His
ancestors were from the Highlands of Scotland, and were among the band
of hardy warriors which Oglethorpe brought to Georgia to form a
bulwark for the New Colony against the Spaniards in Florida. His
great-grandfather was John Mohr McIntosh, leader of the clan which
settled Darien.
His service to agriculture was almost limitless. It has been said that
the Experiment Stations of ante-bellum days were the plantations of
Thomas Spalding and a neighbor, James Hamilton Couper.
Spalding was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1798, and,
in 1850, was a member of the Great Convention at Milledgeville. He was
the only man to serve in both of these distinguished gatherings, and
was elected Chairman of the 1850 Convention. This gathering, largely
through Spalding’s guidance, produced the Georgia Platform, which
meant that Georgia would accept the Compromise of 1850. Other Southern
States fell into line, and the Secession of the South was postponed
another decade. This was Spalding’s last service to his state and
country. On his homeward journey, he reached the home of his son,
Charles, at Darien, in sight of his beautiful Sapelo Island, and
passed away January 4, 1851. He was interred in St. Andrew’s Cemetery
at Darien.
Thomas and Sara Spalding had sixteen children, only five of whom
survived. There are close ties between the Spalding Family and our
County. The Kell’s at Sunnyside, Georgia were his cousins: Captain
Kell and Thomas Spalding both being descendants of John Mohr McIntosh,
the highlander who settled McIntosh County. Captain Kell’s sister,
Evelyn, married Charles, a son of Thomas Spalding. For many years,
Evelyn & Charles Spalding lived in Sunnyside, Georgia.
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General Lewis Lawrence Griffin
 Around 1810, a young man named Lewis Lawrence Griffin settled in
Twiggs County. The very poor native Georgian would become president of
the Monroe Railroad and the founder of the city of Griffin. Griffin
became a General in the Georgia Militia after fighting in the Indian
War and other wars against the Creeks. He served in the Legislature in
1829 and 1830. He lived in Monroe County and Macon, all the while
amassing a large fortune. General Griffin purchased 800 acres of land
and planned a city at the crossing of his Monroe Railroad and another
line. But not long after June 8, 1840, when the city’s first lots were
sold a depression hit the nation and the Monroe Railroad and Banking
Company collapsed. General Griffin lost most of his fortune and moved
to Aberdeen, Mississippi. There, he remarried, raised a family, and
acquired another fortune. He died in Aberdeen in July of 1867,
survived by his wife and two children. General Griffin’s ante-bellum
home still stands across the street from Aberdeen’s city hall and is
owned and occupied by his grandchildren.
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John Henry Holliday
Born on August 14, 1851 and baptized on March 21, 1852 in the
Presbyterian Church of Griffin. John’s mother, Alice and father, Henry
were respected Griffin citizens. Alice ran a very religious household.
Henry was the first Clerk of Superior Court of Spalding County. He was
part of the Confederate Army and in 1862, left it with the rank of
Major. The family ended up moving to Valdosta, Georgia a few years
later. John attended and completed school at the Valdosta Institute.
In 1870, he entered the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, where
he soon graduated in 1872. "Doc" Holliday then moved back to Georgia
and built a successful dental practice. It was at this time that Doc
was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which severely threatened his health.
He was given two options: to stay in Georgia and maybe live 6 months
or to go out west to a dryer climate and survive 2 years. It didn’t
take long for him to take the advice of his doctor and move to Dallas,
Texas in 1873. In Dallas, Doc attempted many times to continue his
dental practice, but his continuous coughing deterred patients. Doc
was an educated man and learned the skills of poker very quickly. In
the saloons, patrons paid no attention to his constant coughing, and
there, Doc could also drink to ease the pain of his disease. On
November 8, 1887, Doc died in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Because of
his participation in the famous gun fight at the O.K. Corral that
lasted less than one minute, Doc’s name will live forever in western
history. He should, however, also be remembered by his earlier
accomplishments and that he had survived his tuberculosis for a
remarkable 15 years. Doc’s distant cousin still resides in Griffin and
has taken the responsibility of preserving the history and legacy of
his famous relative.
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During the war years Griffin was not
the site of any Civil War battles, but nonetheless it was a vital
location during the war. Camp Stephens, located two miles north of
McIntosh Road, was a mobilization point for infantry. Cavalry were
mobilized at Camp Milner, which is now the grounds of the city park.
Two military companies from Griffin and seven from Spalding County
were organized to fight. Not only was Griffin the first stop for
troops and the home of many soldiers, it was also a hospital town and
a printing center. Trainloads of sick and wounded poured into
hospitals, public buildings, the courthouse, stores, colleges and even
private homes. Much Confederate money was printed in Griffin as well
as most of the Confederate government’s stamps. At one point, Spalding
County even printed its own currency. Although not destroyed
physically by Union soldiers (only one warehouse was burned), Griffin
was devastated financially. Three hundred miles of railroad, the
city’s lifeline, had been demolished. Yet once again, as it did after
the depression, the town recovered. A new development in Griffin
helped it to survive Reconstruction and the postwar era. The 1880’s
saw the birth of textile manufacturing in Griffin. In 1888, the
Kincaid Manufacturing Company opened. It continued to expand by buying
other mills in the area. Today, the company is known as Dundee
Mills/Springs Industries and is one of Griffin’s largest employers.
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Oak Hill Cemetery
Oak Hill Cemetery was a part of Lewis Lawrence Griffin’s original plan
for the city. Many persons crucial for the establishment of Griffin
and Spalding County are buried there. Nationally known figures buried
in Oak Hill include James S. Boyton, governor of Georgia after the
death of Alexander Stephens, a hero of the Confederate navy, John
McIntosh Kell and Martha Eleanora Holliday, Doc’s sister who died in
infancy. The cemetery is one place to walk through Griffin’s history.
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Stonewall Confederate Cemetery And Griffin’s
Memorial Park
Many who died in the battles of Atlanta and Jonesboro were left
without a proper burial. Around 1867, a group of women organized to
form the Ladies Memorial Aid Society to create a cemetery for the
fallen soldiers. They, and other volunteers, went to Lovejoy’s Station
to collect remains. Over 500 Confederate dead and 1 Union soldier were
interred, marble headstones were acquired and a monument was dedicated
on August 17, 1867. Monuments for the dead of the Revolutionary War,
both World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and for the women who
nursed soldiers in Griffin during the Civil War are also located in
the Stonewall Confederate Cemetery and Memorial Park. The cemetery and
monuments are located on East Taylor Street across from the Flint
River Regional Library.
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