A Post Office in Gum Log called Napoleon and its founder, Napoleon Bonaparte Hill

In the Gum Log District of Union County, a post office by the name of Napoleon was opened June 20, 1881. This northwestern district of the county borders North Carolina, Towns County to the east, Ivy Log District on the west, and a portion of Lower Young Cane and Blairsville Districts to the south.

Why the unusual name Napoleon for this post office? It was given the first name of its first postmaster, Napoleon Bonaparte Hill. When he made application for a post office, he requested the name Reece’s Creek, as the location was on this creek. Evidently the U. S. postmaster general thought Napoleon would be an unusual name, as indeed it was. About two hundred people lived within the vicinity of the post office and would be served by it, according to the statistics given on the application.

Those who served the Napoleon post office were: Napoleon B. Hill (twice), June 20, 1881-March 12, 1883 and October 2, 1884-March 19, 1891. Miss Mary Ursula Hill, his daughter, served from March 12, 1883 until her father took the position again in 1884. The other three postmasters were Miss Callie Lance (3-19-1891), Charles N. Hill (4-22-1897), and Theodosia E. Mauney (5-17-1902) until the post office was discontinued March 30, 1907.

Napoleon Bonaparte Hill led an interesting life. Born to Felix Walker and Elizabeth Cooper Hill in Rutherford County, North Carolina on November 14, 1832, he seemed destined to become a soldier, with a name honoring that of the famous Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France and military leader during the Napoleonic Wars and the French Revolution. The name itself shows that the family was familiar with personages in world history.

Napoleon Bonaparte Hill married Mary Arabella Evans in 1860 in Cherokee County, North Carolina. Their first child, Mary Ursula (born September 14, 1861) came after he signed up for service in the Civil War, along with his brothers, Abel and Noah, on June 17, 1861. They served in Company A of the 29th Regiment of the North Carolina Infantry, State Troops, Confederate States of America. Napoleon was promoted to Second Lieutenant on November 4, 1861.

Napoleon saw action in many battles in Tennessee and, Kentucky, Mississippi and back to Tennessee. He was wounded and in a hospital in Atlanta when the infamous siege by Sherman’s Army occurred in August, 1864. Hill was sent back to Cherokee County, North Carolina in October, 1864, with orders to recruit absent, paroled and recently released soldiers of Company A, as well as any others eligible for enlistment. The forty-five men joined as Company H to Major Ben M. Ledford’s Calvary Regiment of North Georgia Troops. They patrolled North Georgia and Western North Carolina for renegades and bushwhackers, the most notorious of whom were the Ray (Rae) Brothers. Napoleon Bonaparte Hill received the rank of major prior to his company’s surrender and release at Kingston, Georgia on May 12, 1865.

In 1865, Napoleon, his wife, Arabella, their daughter Mary Ursula, Napoleon’s parents, Felix Walker and Elizabeth Cooper Hill, and other of the family moved to Reece Creek, Union County, Georgia. The Hills became the third owners of a land grant issued first in 1832.

Napoleon built an imposing two-story house north of Reece Creek on the Blairsville to Murphy, NC road (now Hwy. 129). He farmed the land and opened a general store. It was probably in the store where the Napoleon post office opened in June, 1881. There, as people came to the store and for their mail, they no doubt heard of Napoleon Bonaparte Hill’s experiences in the Civil War.

Napoleon “Poly” Hill served as sheriff of Union County in 1876 and Clerk of Superior Court in the late 1880’s. His brother Charles Hill, had served as sheriff and was killed in the line of duty in 1867.

Besides their firstborn, Mary Ursula, Napoleon and Mary Arabella Hill had these children: America Victoria, Benjamin Harrison, Julia Elizabeth, and Charles Napoleon.

Napoleon Bonaparte Hill died at age 78 on January 17, 1910. His wife died June 22, 1917. Both were interred in the Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery, as were others of the Hill family. Today, many descendants of this hardy family live and work in Union County and have made and continue to make contributions as worthy citizens.

One of the famous quotations attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte of France is: “He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.” This could well be a motto to the life and service of the Emperor’s namesake, Napoleon Bonaparte Hill.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published May 26, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Finally a Paved Road Across Neel Gap

For many years no paved roads aided traffic in Union County. In 2005 most of the roads are paved, even “country” or “county” roads. At one time, our forebears used the famed Logan Turnpike to transport farm products to markets in Gainesville. The trip to Gainesville took five or more days, two over the Logan Turnpike into Cleveland for the first night and then on into Gainesville the next day.

A day or more at Gainesville was spent in bartering and securing products not grown on the farms in Union County. Two days were spent on the return trip, with wagons loaded heavily with products for country stores and for personal family use. It was not uncommon for wagon trains to form so that neighbors could be together for company and protection on the Logan Turnpike journey. This major throughway was known first as the Union Turnpike. After Major Willis Logan purchased the right to it in 1871 for $3,000, it was named the Logan Turnpike (toll road). From the early 1830’s until 1925, almost 100 years, this road served the people.

Then came the advent of the first paved road across the mountain. A different route was chosen from the Logan Turnpike. An engineer with the Georgia Highway Department, Mr. Warren Rabun Neel, surveyed for the road. He chose as the most likely corridor the old Frogtown Indian Trail. In laying out the road, Mr. Neel had to follow the natural contours of the land. Consequently, many steep grades and sharp curves were in the original plan for the road.

In 1923 work began on the road through Frogtown or Walisiyi Gap. No modern equipment was available then for grading. Citizens were hired as were their teams of mules and horses. Ball wagon dirt movers were used to dig out the roadway. One steam shovel was available, provided by the construction company, C. M. Lyle, who had the contract for building the road. Picks, shovels, wheelbarrows and drag pans pulled by the farmers’ mules were the main tools used to grade the road across Frogtown, in the shadow of towering Blood Mountain. Since the resources for grading were limited, the work moved slowly. Main strength and determination as well as hard manual labor were applied to the task. Besides Mr. Neel, another person from the Georgia Highway Department, Mr. B. C. Milner, supervised the road-building. The falls on the south side of Frogtown Gap bears his name to honor his work.

Some of the men who hired out to work on the road from the Choestoe District was my father, J. Marion Dyer, and his team of mules and a drag pan; Jeptha Souther who fired the boiler for the steam shovel and contracted to erect the guard rails at the curves; Alonzo Allison, Howard Curtis, Tom and Ed Lance, Floyd Berry and Victor Souther were other known workers. John Paul Souther, son of Jeptha, a mere eight years of age at the time the work began, got a job as water boy.

When the road was first opened in the summer of 1925, it was a soil-surfaced road fourteen feet wide. It was named Neel Gap to honor the engineer who had drawn up the plan for the road. In 1926 macadam was applied and paving became a reality for the central nine feet of the roadway. Four feet of crushed stone paved the shoulders, providing passing room on the one-lane road. More improvement came with the years. In 1931 the highway was resurfaced and widened to fourteen feet. Another project in 1950 brought it to its present 20-feet width with some of the sharp curves softened. Now the picturesque mountain roadway has passing lanes and smooth surfacing. It is a boon to tourism and to commuters who live in the mountains and work “below” them in Gainesville or Atlanta.

Fascinated by the work of the steam shovel, John Paul Souther could hardly stay away from the scene of the grading between 1923 and 1925, and when the first macadam surface was laid in 1926. He says, “This was the most exciting thing I had ever seen in my life. That is why I wanted to see the road work.” Now 90 years of age, Mr. Souther still remembers clearly how the road was constructed and how it changed the way of life for farmers in Union County. As he travels up from his Gainesville home to his former Union County birthplace along Highway 129/19, he still sees in his mind’s eye those days of hard work. He recalls how Floyd Berry operated the steam roller with its huge steel rollers that had to be cooled by applying water to the rollers as they smoothed the hot asphalt.

When Jeptha Souther worked to build the railing, or fence, guard rails were not available. Strong locust posts and cyclone fencing twenty-four inches in width were used to make the fence. Local men were glad to be paid for the locust posts they cut and hauled to the sites along the new road. It was a means of making some money when times were hard for mountain farmers.

From a five-day trip to Gainesville by wagon over the Logan Turnpike to the one-day trip by automobile or truck, farmers took their eggs, chickens and mountain cured hams to markets below the hills. Better economy and ease of travel were assets of this first paved road over the mountain.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published May 19, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

More Post Offices in the Suches Area

Mr. Ira Harkins, who, if not officially the historian of the Canada/Suches area of Union County, should be declared so. I am grateful to him and his articles in “The Heritage of Union County” for information about early post offices in that section “across the mountains” from the county seat of Blairsville.

Last week’s column listed three of these early post offices and the postmasters who worked at Gaddistown, Quebec, and Suches. Several other mail stations were located along the hills and hollows of this mountainous area.

Early settlers along Mulky Creek were the Harkins family and the Shopes family. In 1880 Charles W. O’Kelley made application for a post office which he wished to name Harkinsville. However, the US Postmaster General disapproved that name and Shopes was chosen instead, with Mr. O’Kelley becoming the first postmaster on August 8, 1880. This office was short-lived, with the mail routed to Clemeth near the Toccoa River on March 3, 1883.

However, the people served by Shope didn’t want to give up their post office. William L. Smith applied for approval of Polk, Georgia post office in the vicinity of the former Shope station on January 1, 1882. You will recall that this was the second time the name Polk was approved as a Union County post office. The first was named by postmaster John Butt on February 20, 1884 and changed to Choestoe on September 25, 1881. Evidently Polk had been out of disuse as a post office name in the county long enough to be reactivated in a new location. Some of the people who served Polk were Mr. Smith, James H. Shope (rescinded), Mr. Smith (second time), James H. Cavender, Mary A. Cavender, and Samuel Dixon. The last location of Polk was at Mr. Dixon’s homeplace at present-day Dixon Branch a mile south of Mulky Gap. When this Polk post office closed September 7, 1887, the mail was routed to the Coosa post office.

Joe Lunsford applied for a post office which he wanted to name Mist on April 5, 1903. Mist was not approved as a name and Seabolt was designated. This post office served about 300 people in the area of today’s Cooper’s Creek bridge. Seabolt, too, was short-lived, closing on October 31, 1907 with the mail going to Suches. Seabolt was reopened in 1922 with Frank Seabolt as post master and continued for two years when it was closed in 1924. At that closure, Seabolt’s mail was routed through the Baxter post office.

Baxter was the forty-fifth post office established in Union County. Its founding date was June 16, 1900. David M. Jarrard was the first postmaster. It is believed that the wholesale groceryman, John Cannon, persuaded Mr. Jarrard to apply for a post office permit, and at the same site he would operate a grocery store for the community. Baxter post office was located near a sawmill and grist mill on the Toccoa River. David Jarrard and his wife Essie operated the Baxter post office until they moved to Texas in 1901. The Jarrards were followed by James H. Cavender who served from 1901 through 1903. His sister, Mary Ann Cavender, who got her start in post office work at Polk at Mulky Gap, followed her brother and served as postmaster for thirty-two years. Baxter’s next postmaster was Mary Ann’s sister, Nellie Cavender Grizzle who began work in 1935 and served until her death. Then Mrs. Lillie Gurley was postmaster from January 26, 1944 until the post office was closed April 15, 1953 and the mail routed to Gaddistown. She moved the post office into her home about a mile from the former location of Baxter.

For forty-four years Baxter served its constituents and was a gathering place for those who enjoyed trips to the post office to visit with the postmasters and hear the latest news of the day. The last location of the Baxter post office, in an annex of Mrs. Gurley’s house, was still standing in 1994.

Clemeth post office in the Cooper’s Creek district was approved in 1881 and closed out in 1887. The name was from the first postmaster, Clemeth Cavender. In the short six years of its existence, Clemeth had its founder and the following postmasters: Andrew Campbell, James Cavender, William Jones, William A. Jones (was this the same person?), William F. Cavender and James A. Cavender (for the second time). Gaddistown became the recipient of the mail when Clemeth closed. It is interesting to note that in the application, Clemeth Cavender noted that the location on the Toccoa River was thirteen miles from Blairsville, nineteen miles from Dahlonega, forty-eight miles from Gainesville, and 100 miles from Atlanta. The community of Clemeth had a population of “about 200,” a grist mill and saw mill, a general merchandise store, a school and Baptist and Methodist churches.

Sarah post office began in May, 1899 with John Marr as first postmaster. He was followed by his daughter, Fannie Marr Jarrard , then Marr’s son-in-law, James Jarrard. John Marr and Jim Jarrard also operated a grocery store, one in the “John Cannon” chain of stores. This post office was near Mt. Airy Church on Cooper Gap Road. Sarah operated until May 31, 1955, fifty-six years. The mail was routed through Suches.

Natal began in June, 1901 on the headwaters of Cooper Creek two miles west of Wolf Pen Gap. G. W. Gaddis was the postmaster for almost two months. Others serving at Natal were William P. McGee, Emanuel Burnett, Mrs. Lizzie Burnett, and Miss Mollie Jarrard. Natal closed after thirty-five years of operation and the mail was routed through Suches.

Pilot post office, named after Pilot Mountain and the copperhead snakes called “pilots” prevalent there, opened in December, 1911 with the Reverend William Henry Washington Gurley as applicant. He opened the office in his store, but it was his daughter Mary Gurley who was first postmaster. Operation stayed in the Gurley family, with another daughter, Vennie Gurley Hendrix, serving for eight months, and Ethel Akins Gurley for four years. These were followed by Dollie Grizzle, John F. Seabolt, Dollie Grizzle (for the second time), and Mrs. Bertha Tritt. Pilot closed after twenty-one years and the mail was routed through Suches. These post offices in the Suches area made it easier for residents to have a connection to the world outside their mountain stronghold.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published May 12, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

More Early Union County Post Offices

With double emphases in April on Confederate Memorial and History Month and National Poetry Month, I addressed this column to those two subjects for the past four weeks. We will continue with some more early post offices that once operated in Union County, a series I began earlier.

Let me digress here to thank those who attended the Souther Mill Site and Historical Marker Dedication service on Saturday, April 30. Despite the inclement weather, we did not have rain at the time of the meeting in the afternoon. A large crowd gathered to pay tribute to Jesse Willliam Souther, Jr. who founded the grist mill and sawmill. We thank John Paul Souther, grandson of the mill’s founder, and Theodore Thomas, great, great, great grandson, for their hard work in making the program possible and Mr. Thomas, in particular, for building the shelter that houses the historical marker and pictures at the old mill site. Another marker has been placed with the display of turbines from the mill at Union County Museum Annex, the Butt House. If you did not attend the program, you are invited to see the markers and pictures of the mills.

Today Union County has two post offices—Blairsville and Suches. With all the modern means of transporting the mail, it is hard for us to imagine that in post office history since Coosa, the first, was founded in 1833, the year following Union’s founding, the county has had a total of sixty-four named post offices at fifty-nine sites throughout the county.

Oftentimes in pioneer days, the post office was in a store or in a home. And both the post office and the store could have been in a room of the post master’s home.

Several post offices operated in Canada District. The first, according to record, was named Gaddistown to honor early settlers there, a family named Gaddis. The application was approved June 15, 1848 with John D. Cavender as first post master. Mail came to the new post office from Dahlonega. Gaddistown operated for a total of 107 years under the same name but moving to locations within a mile-square area of the first post office. Several men and women were in charge of the post office for its more than a century of operation: John D. Cavender, Newton K. Williams, A. H. Pitner, Lewis W. Gilreath, Squire E. Jones, John C. Cavender, Essie Brookshire, :Lottie Cavender, Arthur Grizzle, Lottie Cavender (second time), Mrs. Alma M. McDougald. The Warren McDougald’s rock dwelling house was the last location of Gaddistown postoffice.

Quebec post office was named as a complement to the name Canada for the district. Quebec was established August 31, 1881 with Eli P. McGee as first postmaster. The next postmaster at Quebec was Grant Woody. He operated the post office in his Service Spring Hotel at Miller Gap. The hotel, more like a boarding house, was the mountain vacation location of wealthy planters from the south. There in the basement of the hotel was a bar dispensing mountain moonshine and also an ingenious water trough reputedly carrying mineral springs water good for health. Later when all signs of the hotel were removed, the new owners of the land found the mineral water gum log water trough containing old iron implements over which the “mineral water” had passed, probably to give the water its “mineral” or iron content. Following hotel owner Grant Woody’s term as postmaster, two more men served at Quebec as postmasters: John Holloway and William E. Burnett. On April 30, 1907, Quebec post office was closed and the mail routed through the Suches station. Quebec had operated almost twenty-six years.

A wholesale grocer of Dahlonega, Georgia had a good idea for increasing his business and making products not grown on the farms of Canada District more available to citizens. John Cannon, Wholesaler, had a line of groceries, dry goods and hardware. It was very likely that John Cannon helped Eli McGee set up the Gaddistown post office and establish a store there. Bill Davis had opened a store and John Cannon persuaded him that he should send application to open a post office in his store. Suches opened March 6, 1886. Suches was the name of an Indian chieftain who once lived in the valley near the Bill Davis store site. Interestingly enough, John Cannon himself was first postmaster listed with the US Post Office Department. It is very likely that the store owner, Bill Davis, did the postal work. On July 20, 1887, Bill Davis was officially made the postmaster. During its one-hundred twenty-one years of operation, a long list of postmasters have served. The office moved several times. The Lunsford Store owners operated the post office.

The present location near the intersection of Highways 180 and 60 has a stately brick building near the Woody Gap School. Rural routes operate from Suches to take the mail to families living in the valleys once ruled over by Indian Chief Suches.

(Next week: More on other Canada District post offices.)

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published May 3, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Considering the Civil War: Choestoe Guards and Young Cane Volunteers

Continuing with an emphasis on April as Confederate Memorial and Heritage Month and April 26 as Confederate Memorial Day, we look this week at two units that figured prominently in the war---Company K of the 23rd Regiment, Georgia Infantry Volunteers, Army of Tennessee, Confederate States of America, known as “The Choestoe Guards,” and Company B, of the 23rd, known as “The Union County Mountain Volunteers” (also known as “The Young Cane Volunteers”).

These units were formed in 1861 and went to Fort McDonald in Cobb County where they were attached to the 23rd Regiment in August, 1861. Joseph G. Souther who was only six years of age when the men signed up and went away to war recalled in his memoirs written many years later in 1937: “I saw the first soldiers of my township enlisting for the front, happy, content, saying the war would be over in six weeks and not a drop of blood spilt.”

But the anticipation with which the Choestoe Guards faced the war was short-lived, for Joseph Souther noted: “Thirty young men of my township joined the ranks, one-half of which never returned to once prosperous and happy homes.”

Who were some of these soldiers in Company K and Company B?

William P. Barclay was first Captain of the Choestoe Guards. Later he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. The 23rd Regiment was ordered to Richmond, Virginia on November 10, 1861, and shortly went into action at the Battle of Yorktown. It was there the men learned how cruel and terrible war can be. Private John Nix of the Choestoe Guards was a casualty there. His brother, James Bly Nix was near him and saw John cut down by a mini-ball “right in the midst of a roasting ear patch.” Fighting in the Peninsular Campaign of 1861-62, they moved on to the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862. Lt. Colonel William Barclay was described as “cool and gallant” in every intense battle. In Maryland at the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, 1862, Col. Barclay was called “the hero of the battle” by General D. H. Hill and Colonel A. H. Colquitt in their written reports. On September 17 in the Battle at Sharpsburg (Antietam, America’s bloodiest day), Colonel Barclay and his troops underwent heavy bombardment. He was fatally wounded, but before his death he saw his unit victorious in the field. Four Barclay brothers served in the Confederate Army. The others were Elihu S. Barclay, Hugh W. Barclay, and Julius Barclay. Two of these, William P. and Julius (Captain of Company G, 52nd Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment) were killed. Julius lost his life in the Battle of Atlanta.

James H. Huggins, captain and enlister of Company B, the “Young Cane Volunteers,” likewise distinguished himself in battle. On May 29, 1862, Captain Huggins was in command of his unit at the Battle of Malvern Hill. Following this engagement, he was promoted to major. At the Battle of Sharpsburg at which his good friend, Colonel Barclay died, Major Huggins was severely wounded. After that battle, Huggins was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

Then came the forlorn march from Shepherdstown, Maryland back to Fredricksburg, Viginia in the dead of winter. Huggins’ unit was deprived even of shoes and had to march through the snow with such improvised footgear as they could tie around their feet to protect them in the terrible cold. They were assigned to guard a wagon train of supplies. Many of the men were taken captive but some were exchanged a few weeks later. Col. Huggins’ unit traveled much during the last several months of the war. They were at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At the latter battle, General Stonewall Jackson lost his life. There Colonel Huggins was taken prisoner of war and held at Fort Delaware, but was traded in a prisoner-of-war exchange.

His unit was ordered to Kingston, North Carolina, back to Richmond, Virginia, and then to Charleston, South Carolina where they spent the winter of 1863. They were fired upon as they were aboard the ship named Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor, but no casualties resulted for Huggins’ unit. They were ordered to Olustee, Florida, where they engaged in the Battle of Ocean Pond. Colonel Huggins was reported as “acquitting himself with honor” at that battle.

From Florida, Huggins and his men returned to Charleston and thence to Petersburg, Virginia and on to Drewry’s Bluff where they won a fierce battle in May, 1864. In June, 1864, they fought for the second time at the Battle of Cold Harbor where it is reported “they left the ground littered with Grant’s drunken rabble.” They met the enemy again at the final siege of Petersburg, Virginia located on the Appomattox River. The end was near at hand. A week after the final battle at Petersburg came the signing of the surrender papers on April 9, 1865, with the treaty signed three days later on April 12.

Space precludes a listing of all the members of “The Choestoe Guards” and “The Mountain—or Young Cane---Volunteers,” and the brave soldiers who lost their lives. Those with internet connections may access the muster rolls of these two and other units of brave Union County Confederate soldiers.

It is interesting to note that Colonel James H. Huggins, born August 22, 1828, was a lawyer by occupation. He served in the Georgia General Assembly both before and during the war. He signed for Georgia to secede from the Union. He was a slave owner, having two slaves in the 1860 listing who helped him in his farming operations.

Regardless of our leanings, whether North or South, we can but salute the bravery and persistence of the units from the mountains as they defended their homeland. A Confederate Memorial Day marker in Kingston, Georgia declares the South’s men “gallant Confederates—greatest fighting men of all time.”

Historian James M. McPherson stated: “A blend of triumph and tragedy, courage and cowardice, heroes and knaves, selfless sacrifice and selfish profiteering, the war shaped and defined the America that has emerged in the (now 140) years since the guns fell silent.”

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 28, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

April--Confederate History and Heritage Month

I read with interest the Proclamation signed by Union County Commissioner, Honorable Lamar Paris, designating the whole month of April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. Coupled with the Confederate Memorial Day April 26 throughout Georgia and other Southern States, the joint emphases are geared toward learning more about and understanding events of The War Between the States (known as the Civil War) and their far-reaching effects upon our history.

The conflict began in April, 1861 with shots fired upon Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor and ended in April, 1865 with the treaty signed at Appomattox Court House. Within the intensive four-year period, the face of America and its people changed. Volumes have been written and hundreds of films produced to try to get at the heart of the conflict. As I consider writing about the war from the perspective of Union County, I feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the subject, even before I begin.

Many see slavery as the major cause of the War Between the States. Although that institution played a part in secession, there were deeper underlying differences in ideologies and culture. The mainly agrarian South was pitted against a strongly industrial North. If slavery had been the issue in Union County, Georgia, it would have been miniscule. According to the 1850 listing of slaveholders in the county, twenty-four citizens owned 100 slaves. Disregarding the issue of slavery, those from Union County who fought for the Confederacy did so because of loyalty to a region and to the state of Georgia.

For interesting details and a listing of soldiers from Union County by regiments, I recommend that you find copies of these resources and read them: “The Civil War,” pages 29-60 in Sketches of Union County History, Volume 2, by Jan H. Devereaux and Bryan Webb, 1978; “The Civil War in Union County,” pages 41-56 in Mountain Relic, Spring Edition, 1980; and “The Story of Two Soldiers,” pages 35-36 in Sketches of Union County History III, edited by Teddy J. Oliver, 1987. Numerous resources are available online such as Muster Rolls by Companies, Regiments and Counties in Georgia. It takes patience to access and read them, but the effort is worthwhile for those desiring a listing of men who served from Union County.

Union County’s stately War Memorial lists the names of ninety-one men who lost their lives fighting for the Confederacy and three who died while serving in the Union Army. These ninety-four casualties from the War Between the States comprise a larger number than the combined total of casualties from all other wars listed. A Confederate memorial service is planned to begin on Saturday, April 23 at 11:00 a. m. at the Old City Cemetery in Blairsville and then move to the War Memorial. The David W. Payne Camp 1633 of Sons of Confederate Veterans will lead the service commemorating the men who gave their lives for the South.

The words of poet Sir Walter Scott are appropriate as we remember the sacrifices of fallen soldiers:

“Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o’er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Dream of battlefields no more,
Days of danger, nights of waking.”

“All gave some; some gave all.” May they rest in peace.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 21, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

In April, National Poetry Month: Featuring Local Poet, Barbara Ruth Sampson

As we celebrate during April the art of poetry, a local contemporary Union County poet deserves the limelight.

She is Barbara Ruth Nicholson (Collins) Sampson who lives on Nottely Shores. She merits accolades for her excellent poetry. In 2004 she was named National Senior Poet Laureate. She could have submitted most any of her poems to vie for this coveted title. The poem that won the title for her was “Return in the Spring.” She is equally at home in traditional forms and free verse. This poem is of the latter style. Here are her lines:

Spring in the mountains,
but you are not here.
Yet, somehow, my eager eyes discern you
faintly profiled against darkening clouds,
hear your voice echoing in sky-shattering thunder
above the splintered silver waterfalls,
feel you in the profound absence of footsteps
along the leaf-padded trail bordering
the lavishly blossoming rhododendron thicket.
I sense you in the profound grandeur
of this unpeopled wildness,
relax with utter satisfaction in this spot
exclusive to lichen on boulders,
protective moss on northside of trees,
and the drama of an eagle launching himself
into vastness of sky above rugged mountains.

You are here in this eden
that prohibits raucous, man-made noises
within its sacred solitude,
and comes your voice to my depth of yearning
a luminescence of all past glory.
The cadence of your robust laughter,
profound and sincere, makes me smile,
my heart to sing.
So good there is nothing to intrude,
here in the mountains of spring,
with you.

Who is this wordsmith, this maker of verse? Would you believe she has already celebrated her four-score and tenth birthday? Spending most of her time now in a wheelchair, she is not bound by its physical limitations but allows her mind to soar, to grasp ideas that challenge and cajole, words that send imagination on flights of beauty to climb to heights of solitude, where there is “nothing to intrude” save for the very pleasure of writing.

This retired educator—high school English teacher for many years---is herself a daughter of educators: Dr. James M. Nicholson was her father, inimitable principal of Union County High School from about 1930 until his retirement in the mid-1940’s. Her mother was Flora Maynard Nicholson, also an English teacher. She grew up with siblings James Frank, George Truett and Flora Nelle. Her sister, called Nelle, is also a word-crafter and a poet. Barbara Ruth proudly traces her ancestry back to her great, great grandfather John Nicholson, a Revolutionary War soldier whose grave is in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Union County.

Barbara Ruth Sampson and I have been pen pals for many years. Her letters are literary gems, delightful to read and saved among my treasures. It was my distinct pleasure, as a fellow member with her of the Georgia Poetry Society, to review her book of poems published in 2000 by Sparrowgrass Press, Sistersville, West Virginia. The Society meeting in Athens, Georgia in April, 2001 was the scene for my oral review of her book entitled “Earth Is a Splendid Place”. I was delighted that Mrs. Sampson was able to attend the review, thanks to her daughter Sylvia Sampson-Haney who took her. In all the years I reviewed books of poetry for Society members, Mrs. Sampson by far showed the most appreciation. Here was a poet not only proficient with words but one with a deeply ingrained sense of gratitude.

She and Union County poet, Byron Herbert Reece, were friends. He inscribed on his book, “Three Lyric Poets,” published in 1942 by Decker Press, Prairie City, IL: “To Ruth, With admiration and affection.” I noted in her poetry a similarity to Reece’s in her adroit use of traditional forms, her appreciation of nature, her ease in using poetic devices of metaphor, simile and personification. Maybe “something there is in the hills” that draws poetic expression from those with skills of observation and introspection such as she and Reece display.

Like Reece, she is adept at the quatrain. Her “On Planting a Crocus Bulb” states a tremendous amount of truth in four lines: “I planted a crocus bulb today/under the leaves, under the clay;/ I planted a bit of purple hope/in a chilly wind, on a barren slope.”

In “Mortality” she feels and touches the splendor of earth and leads the reader to explore our own time and space in the world. The questions posed in the poem lead the reader to contemplate answers:

Why has pulsing spring so early come to earth
in this the growing winter of my days;
what primal instinct stirs less certain steps
to seek among more rough and youthful ways?
Now surely should I pull the fleecy shawl
around the shivering bones of age,
nor face the freshened breeze that challenges
beyond the spirit now grown pale and sage.
What is this pang within my very core
that makes me laugh yet wish to cry,
envisioning all that will come more
when empty of the world am I?

In reading her book, “Earth Is a Splendid Place”, one identifies with her love for natural beauty and her zest for life. Though age, an expected part of life, rolls upon us with the passing years, she encourages our welcoming the seasons as friends and the accrual of years as a blessing. During this month for poetry and poets, her poetic philosopy is well-expressed in another quatrain that gives her book its title:

High the sky to the edge of heaven,
bright the sun as a smiling face;
life is a treasured blessing given,
and earth is a splendid place.”

Congratulations, Mrs. Sampson, for your well-earned title of 2004 Senior Poet Laureate! Your stamina and wisdom are admirable; your love for and expression of words in poetry are exemplary. You make us think while giving us beauty.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 14, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.