The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1910-09-02
COLONIAL DAME
---------.--- OF MARIETTA

There are only four members of the
very exclusive sisterhood, known as
Colonial Danes of America, living in
Marietta.
The subject Of this sketch is not one
OF that four, but she is real colonial
dame, because she lived in the section
that is now Forsyth county before it
became part OF Georgia in 1885. Her
father went with his family in 1927
when she was two years of age, from
Anderson, S. c., to a farm in what
was then the land of the Cherokee In
dams. Ten other white families also
moved into the same neighborhood by
permission of the Indian chief.
Those families formed a colony.
She was then little Martha Turner
Morton. 1t is almost as thrilling to
hear her tell of life in that wild, wood
sy place as it once was to read Swiss
Family Robinson.
The most impressive story she told
me was one about the night the stars
tell-a time known as a high tide of
terror when every body thought the
world was coming to an end. One Of
her brothers, boy of twelve, had gone
alone into a canebrake that night
hunting coons whose fur was valuable.
He returned with four cUons and was
so self-possessed his mother asked if
he had been frightened at the falling
stars. They were really meteors that
flew east and west and ceased glowing
before they touched the earth.
The boy replied: "Why, thought
the stars went out like that every
night and there was no danger in it
Nothing caught fire "
The Indians were perfectly friendly
toward their white nelghbors and
taught them the use of medicinal
herbs and ways to catch wild turkeys.
Everyone had plenty of venison, it was
even easier to get than pork because
wild beasts caught the settlers pigs.
The land was very fertile and vege-
tables were easy to raise.
The seed were picked from cotton by
fingers and cloth was woven by women.
Sheep were kept too and wool was
spun and woven with cotton threads
mingled to strengthen it
In those days coffee was not often
to be had, but a substitute was made
of rye. Wheat was threshed with
fails or trodden out by the feet of
horses, and biscuit were eaten only
on Sundays and holidays.
Martha Turner Morton was eight
when she heard her first sermon, and
twelve before she saw doctor.
When she was fifteen she was mar
ried to Mr.. John Robert Sanges who
had just returned from war with the
Seminole Indians in Florida. Mr..
Sanges was of German and French
ancestry. He afterward became a
Methodist preacher but kept his bust
ness of making and repairing vehicles.
Mrs. Sanges has been the mother OF
sixteen children, eight living. She is
tine, wholesome-looking old lady,
actively interested in the news of today
and recalling perfectly things that
happened long, long ago. Eleven
years ago she fell aud broke her right
hip. She was about "a years old then,
so the injury did not heal. She sits
in strong wheeled chair, goes about
the house propelling herself and can
make visits about town.
She has many warm friends and
relatives and receives visitors every
day.
Her nearest neighbors appreciate
her most highly, for she has shared
their sorrows and joys heartily for
sixty years.
She has been a widow a long time
and has known the sadness of parting
with many near and dear ones, but
she is not impatient or sad. She talks
over the phone very easily and does
not need eyeglasses. No one seeing
her would suspect that she has recent
ly celebrated her eighty-fifth birth
day. She has lived in the same brown
cottage on Cherokee street for over
sixty years, and is attached to the
place as it is, and will not transform
it into a modern bungalow as her
grandchildren would do. She insists
that her days work is done and she
is only waiting in the twilight to be
called into to her Fathers House.
A. L G.