The dead towns of GeorgiaJones, Charles C., Jr. (Charles Colcock)
History
The dead towns of Georgia
Jones, Charles C., Jr. (Charles Colcock)
Extinct cities -- Georgia; Georgia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
The bluff upon which the town was located rises about fourteen feet
above the level of the Great Ogeechee, and is distant some two miles
from Genesis’ Point, to which Fort McAllister gave such heroic memories
during the Confederate struggle for independence. In front, stretching to
the north, is a point of land or peninsula. On the west the fresh waters
of the Great Ogeechee river lave the Hardwick bluff, and then treading
northward, and at right angles to the general course of the stream, by a
graceful bend to the east embrace the northern extremity of the peninsula.
Again turning to the south, the river reaches the eastern bluff of the
town, where, curving gently, it pursues its course, emptying through
Ossabaw sound into the Atlantic Ocean. This peninsula in front of the
town constitutes a dividing line between the fresh and brackish waters of
the river. At the point where it springs from the bluff it is less than a
quarter of a mile wide, although a journey of several miles is requisite
to complete its circuit by water.
From the bluff, backward toward the south, extends a high and dry plain
adapted for the location of a town. The surroundings, however, were
unhealthy during the Summer and Fall months, and there was nothing to
encourage population, or ensure the continuance and prosperity of the
settlement.
In 1866 a feeble effort was made to revive the town of Hardwick; and the
Georgia Legislature on the 21st of March of that year passed an act the
leading provisions of which are as follows:
After reciting the fact that the Commissioners of Hardwick had long
ago departed this life, that the site of the town and its common had
been regranted by the State to private individuals, and suggesting
the advisability that Hardwick should be reëstablished for the better
advancement of the industrial resources of the State, the Act appointed
Jacob M. Middleton, Thomas C. Arnold, William Patterson, Henry E. Smith,
and John W. Magill, Commissioners, and authorized them to acquire by
cession or purchase the town of Hardwick and its common “not to exceed
one hundred and fifty acres in extent.” Having obtained proper titles to
the land, these Commissioners, or a majority of them, were directed to
have the town of Hardwick surveyed and laid out into lots of such form and
dimensions as they should deem fit. Plans of the town were to be by them
filed in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Bryan County,
and in the office of the Surveyor General of the State.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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