The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-10
BIRTH OF HOME, SWEET HOME.
IN A LOG CABIN IN MURRAY COUNTY
PAYNE WROTE THE MELODY.

Field of Many Indian Battles in
the Early Part of the Last Century.
A County without Railroads, but
One Is to Be Built This Year.
Spring Place. the County Seat, So
Named on Account of Forty
Springs-A Town Full of History.
Was the Home of Van, One of the
Chiefs of ,sheai Six NatiOns-His
House StiII standing.
Murray county's history is identified
with the history Of Whitfield, and with
Barlow and Walker counties, which
were once a part of Murray, and also
with Dade and Catoosa, which were
laid off from Walker. so that what is
written about the older county, as l
mentioned in my sketch of Whitfield,
is common property
Murray county, as it is, is compare
lively small when compared with what
it was in 1882, the year 1t was laid off
from old Cherokee the mother of coun-
ties in Northwest Georgia. Its pres
ent area is 352 square miles. 1t is
watered by the Connesauga and Cosa-
wattee rivers, the united waters OF
which form the Oostanaula, which,
joining the Etowah river at Rome,
forms the Coosa. The land is rolling
and partly mountainous, and the soil
fertile, producing corn, wheat, rye,
oats, cotton, potatoes, white and
sweet; fruits of all kinds do we'll.
The Cohuttah range, which crosses
the eastern part of the county, is rich
in minerals, and several companies are
carrying on profitable mining opera
tons.
The county is without railroads,
though the Western and Atlantic
passes near it's boundaries, and there
is every reason to expect that the Dali
ton and Alaculsey Railway will be
built this year. This railroad will ex-
tend from Dalton, via Spring Place,
to Cohuttah Mountain, distance of
twenty miles. and thence to connec-
ton with the A. K. and N. Rail-
way at Murphy N. C. The build
ers of this road are gentlemen inter-
CSlSll III tlAC 0lillCd SboiCo 10y NoN
and other manufacturing concerns of
Binghamton, N. Y, and DR.. Kilmer
of Swamp Root" fame.
Murray is noted as a butter and
cream, and stock raising county.
omitted to say that the county was
named after the late Hon. Thomas w
Murray, a gentleman of political prom
inence in the early years of the nine
tenth century.
The county seat of Murray is Spring
Place, and derives its name from forty
bold springs in the neighborhood. 1t is
an old and interesting town and full
of historical incidents. 1t has a brick
kept by MIR. w. W. Shields, and
a number of thrifty stores and neat
cottages. The pride of the town is
the Nancy Hill Institute, which is
built on the site of the old Moravian
Mission building. The institute bears
the name of the only daughter of Mr..
George Hill, a prominent citizen of
Murray, who was killed by being
thrown from her horse, and her father
endowed the institute in loving mem
DRY of his lost one.
There are two newspapers in Spring
Place-The Jimplecute, edited by Col
c. l.. Henry, who at the time of my
visit was engaged in making bricks
with which to build house, and the
Journal of which Mr.. C. II. Shriner is
editor.
There are three churches-the Meth
Odist. Rev. n. A. Parsons; the Bap-
fist. Rev. c. P. Roney, and the Pres
byterian, the pulpit of which is untitled.
In a log housesin Spring Place, ira
dition says. Home, Sweet Home" was
written. The story is that during what
our forefathers called 1.-The late war,
that with England in 1912, John How
ard Payne wandered into the Cherokee
Nation, and was put in durance vile
by the United States military author
tiles for meddling with what did not
concern him. The buck Indians of
Georgia and Alabama at the time men
toned were engaged in scalping white
men, women and children, while the
older Indians remained at home and
lived on the lands contributed to the
missions by the kind-hearted people of
the United States.
Payne is a romantic character in
American history. He was an editor
who wrote for two continents; a writ
ginius," still has a place on the stage;
an actor of more than ordinary his
trionic ability, who played to audiences
in London as well as New York; and
a poet whose song is sung the world
over. Payne closed his eventful life
in his sixtieth year as a mi-diplo-
mat. at Tunis, Africa, where he was
United States consul in 1852, and dy-
ing the best-known American of his
day.
Payne doubtless had reason to think
while confined in that log cabin
away off in the Indian land,
with a sentry standing guard over
him, that there was no place like
home" After a brief confinement he
was sent back to the white settle
ments, where his philanthropic tenden-
cies could not interfere with the eff
forts of the Government while with
the help of Gen. Andrew Jackson, Old
Hickory, and his soldiers to keep the red
man in a reasonable peaceful mood,
or put them where the wicked cease
from troubling"
Spring Place was until the removal
of the Cherokees to the Indian terri
tory, the home of Van, one of the
lesser chiefs of the Nation. Under
the care of the Moravian Missionaries,
and those of the American Board of
Missions who came later, the Indians
made fair progress in civilization;
their children attended the schools
which were established throughout the
Cherokee Nation; churches were built.
in some of which Indian converts
preached; farms were cultivated and
couraged. The Government, how
hIlilt the Great