, 1890-07-31
TALE OF A CENTURY.
Tour of Georgia One Hun
dred Years Ago.
THE STORY OF AN OLD TREE
Under Whose Branches Famous
Presbyterian Preacher Was
Ordained.

Tomorrow will be July 90, 1890,
writes n Washington (Ga.) cores q.
pondent, under date of July 10,
and Just one hundred years ago the
day after, that is on July 2l, 1890,
an event occurred in the old town
of Washington, Wilkes county,
which is, | find, interesting to all
Christians In the state, though
primarily 1t concerns Presbyterlans.
This was the first ordination of II
Presbyterian minister west of the
Savannah river. The ceremony
took place under n poplar tree still
standing on the property of Charles
A. Alexander. The poplar tree
(Liriodeudron Tulipifera) is mag
nificent one, though the branches
show signs of decay. There is
probably no larger poplar tree in
the state. have mys elf seen Mr..
Alexander ride behind the trunk ON
horseback, and every part of horse
and rider was concealed.
Rev. John Springer, who was
then ordained by committee of
three ministers sent by the presby-
terry of South Carolina, was clergy
man of much talent and importance
in the early history of Georgia, and
would undoubtedly have been the
first president of Franklin colleg Q
now the university of Georgia, but
for his death In 179S. In that day
Presbyterian ministers were the
great teachers. Mr. Springer was
an extremely accomplished man,
and had been for n number of years
a successful college professor in Vir-
ginia and college presldenJ in South
Carolina. The breadth of his iuflu-
ence is shown by his intimacy with
Rev. Hope Hull, who was at the
head of the Georgia Methodists
of that day, and Rev. Jesse
Morcer, who was the most
influential man among the Baptists.
He was older than either, being
" years old when ordained. After
Jesse Mercer became minister, he
determined to improve his scholar
ship, and he moved near Mr..
Springer's home and studied Latin
and Greek with him. Mr. Springer
had come to Georgia as pastor of
Smyrna church, in Wilkes county,
sout heast of Washington, but such
was the need of good schools and
his reputation as n teacher, that he
was induced to have school at his
residence at Walnut Hill, three
miles north from Washington. Pu-
pills were sent there from all over
Georgia. Among those from
Augusta was boy called John
Forsyth, who aftcrward became one
of Georgia's most distinguished
sons.
But we must not suppose that Mr..
Springer was an ineffective preacher.
He preached eXtemporaneously, us
to words, and combined the fire of
an orator with the polish of very
highly educated man.
a hundred years ago only small
part of Georgia was settled by the
whites, and this lay along the coast
and the Savannah river. The Oconee
was the western boundary of the
white territory, the lands between
the Oconee and Ogeechee not having
been ceded by the Indians until
1793. The counties We're the original
Chatham, Glynn, Effingham, Rich
mond, Burke, Camden, Liberty,
Wilkes, to which had been added
Washington and Green in 1884 and
1856. Wilkes county comprised the
present Lincoln, Elbert, Ogle-
thorpe, Wilkes, with parts of
Taliaferro, Madison, Hart and
Warren. In this year, 1890,
Ebert was laid Off from Wilkes, and
Columbia from Richmond. Among
the records yellow with age in the
courthouse Mt Washington Is a
charge delivered in 1855 by Chief
Justice George Walton, signer of the
declaration of Independence, in
which he speaks to the people of the
county of the revolution as "a seven
or eight years in which you have
distinguished yourselves"
This honorable evidence, from a.
witness so competent and distin-
guished, belongs to Lincoln and Ell
bert, as much as to our present
Wilkes. The county records of
Wilkes are the Oldest in Georgia, as
/ know from recent investigation.
think 1t probable they are the oldest
in the South. The earliest is the
record of will in lT77.
There We're individual churches
before the revolution, and the Epis-
copal church was established in all
parts except Wilkes, which had not
been made into IA parish. The In
dependent Presbyterian church III
existed (burned in 1880,
also Midway church In Liberty, and
what we now call the "First Pres
byterian" church in Augusta.
There was Baptist church in
Columbia, old Kiokee. And also
the brothers Wesley and Whitfield
had preached In Georgia. But the
union of separate churches
came after the revolution. Presby-
terians, Baptists, Methodists all had
their first presbyteries, associa tions,
for this state, in this |
part of Georgia. Kiokee church, !
where the first Baptist asso-
citation was held, l. only q
little out of Wilkes. l have often
thought that these might be called |
the gate counties of Georgia, for
through them poured that great
tide of emigrants from Virginia and |
the Carolinas, which filed up not
merely the state of Georgia, but the
states west of US. a curious proof
IF the origin and homogeneity of
their descendants Is found In the
use by the farmers through the
Of Greer's almanac. Mr..
Otis Ashmore, VINO makes the cal
for this almanac, told me |
n N Mt M IN k tspr l.