New Evidence #6 – Wilkinson County, GA

Why were so many of the people who eventually end up living in Dale County, AL found in Wilkinson County, GA on the 1820 census?  Was there a mass migration from Wilkinson County into the new lands becoming available?

Let’s take a few minutes to learn a little more about Wilkinson County, GA.  Here is a quote from A History of Wilkinson County, written by Victor Davidson in 1930:

“The old Mitchell map of 1755 shows a trail leading from Augusta by way of Oconee town, thence westward, crossing the Ocmulgee where Macon now stands thence on to the Mississippi River.  The map states this trail was followed by Col. Welch in 1698, and since then followed by traders.  This map also indicates that the English had factories and traders in all the Indian towns except the Alabama [tribes]; and that they had established them as early as 1687.

“... With the settlement of Savannah the trail leading by way of Ball’s Ferry, thence to Macon by way of Irwinton probably became an important one as it was the most direct route between Savannah and the tribes on the Chattahoochee River to the northwest of Macon, although for the tribes further south the route known as the Chicken or Chickasaw Trail by way of Dublin and Hawkinsville might have been more often traveled.  The other trails through the county were probably traveled a great deal both by the traders and the Indian hunters who still owned these hunting grounds, the Uchees even using the Ogeechee River as hunting grounds up to 1740.  It is also probable that a few families of Indians continued to live here even after the main body of the tribe had moved away.”¹

Ball’s Ferry was initially owned by John Ball, Senator of Wilkinson County.² The road he is describing went through present-day Wilkinson County, GA and connected to the “Old Federal Road” which was a path the Creek Indians allowed the United States to use through their territory!  It was the equivalent of a major highway.  The map in Figure 20 shows the full length of the road:

Figure 20 - Old Federal Road

Click image for larger view.

Davidson goes on to describe how these roads evolved:

““The growing travel between Milledgeville, Marion, and Hartford and the establishing of a line of stage coaches made it necessary for stations to be established every ten miles where the tired horses having been driven at a gallop the greater part of the way were exchanged for fresh ones, which had been hastily harnessed and gotten ready when the stage driver’s bugle was heard in the distance announcing his approach.  Quick to grasp the opportunity McGinty built a tavern which tradition says was well equipped to satisfy the hunger as well as the thirst of the wayfarer.”³

While Davidson never says when this tavern was constructed, he goes on to talk about events happening in 1821, which implies it was constructed near the time of the 1820 census.

As a test of this theory that many of the people recorded on the 1820 Wilkinson County census were travelers, let’s see if any of them are still living in Wilkinson County, GA on the next census (in 1830):

Thirteen of the 20 people listed above appear to be living somewhere else 10 years later when the 1830 Census is conducted.  This was just a “quick look” and deeper, more thorough research may reveal more information.

In one final thought – Elizabeth Ward was pregnant in 1820 with her first child who was born in GA on February 16, 1821 – just 6 months after the 1820 Census was conducted on 8/7/1820.  Their first child is their only child not born in AL.  Could she and her husband have met up with her mother along this route? Did she seek the help of her mother during her pregnancy and delivery of her first child?

Or, is this an entirely different James Ward who is in the process of moving through Wilkinson County towards new land in the west?