1

Crimmins Tour Guide

Field Trip to Macon and Savannah Cobb County Teach American History Grant

Tim Crimmins, Georgia State University

Friday, April 15, 2011

10:30 Ocmulgee Mounds—Archaeology and Reconstruction

The history of Ocmulgee is not only the history of the several cultures that lived there but also the

way that this place became the Ocmulgee National Monument. First of all, Ocmulgee was

inhabited by several cultures. In spite of the fact that most of the people remember this place as the place of the Mississippians and the Creek Indians, evidence found by archeologist in

Ocmulgee shows that this place was habited by other cultures included nomadic hunters, archaic

cultures, and Woodlands. 11,500 BCE – 1600AD

On the ancient Mississippian site, English traders from Charleston first established a small

settlement in what is now Georgia around 1690, 43 years before the establishment of the colony of Georgia.

2

Crimmins Tour Guide

Visitor Center

Earthlodge

Lesser and Greater Temple Mounds

900-1600 A large Muscogee (Creek) town, one of several known to have existed near the Fall

Line area of the Ocmulgee River, arose amid the ancient Early Mississippian mounds on the

Macon Plateau. Englishmen from Charleston, eager to do business with the Creeks, constructed a

Ocmulgee from the river, c. 1100 Housing Everyday Life The Mississippians were a culture which began before AD 750 in the Midwest. This culture was

characterized by intensive maize agriculture; in addition, they are known as mound builders. The Mississippians build the Ocmulgee mounds by carrying the soil basket by basket, and this culture

used them in different ways for things such as temples, public houses, and houses of their leaders.

1540 Hernando de Soto ―...and then on Wednesday, the last day of March, the Governor and his army departed, and they

(DeSoto's riders) arrived at the Great River (the Ocmulgee) where they (the Indians) had many

canoes in which they crossed very well and arrived at the town of the Lord, who was one-eyed, and he gave them very good food and fifteen Indians to carry the burdens. They placed a cross on

the mound of his town and informed them through the interpreter of the sanctity of the cross, and

they received it and appeared to adore it with much devotion."

Trading Post at Ocmulgee around 1690. They swapped firearms, cloth, metal pots, tools and

glass beads for deerskins and furs.

3

Crimmins Tour Guide

British Trading Post Site (Foreground), c 1700 1873 Railroad Cut

Greater and Lesser Temple Mounds Mound Excavation with RR Line c 1935 Mound Excavation, c. 1935

Earthlodge Excavation c. 1935 Earthlodge Exterior Today Earthlodge Interior

The earthlodge was the main structure of the Mississippians at Ocmulgee. There were several

earthlodges at Ocmulgee. The best-preserved one of them, which is 42-feet in diameter, was

reconstructed in the 1930's. This ceremonial building was located on the north side of the Mississippian village. The original clay floor is about a thousand years old. There is a clay

platform, shaped like a large raptorial bird with a "forked eyes", opposite the entrance. This

symbol is one of the earliest known examples of the elaborate motifs typical of the Mississippian Period's. There are three seats on the platform and 47 on the bench around the wall. In the center

of the lodge is a fire pit. The building was probably the meeting place for the political and

religious leaders.

4

Crimmins Tour Guide

Ocmulgee National Monument c. 1940 Archaeological Field Drawings Mounds

Macon Railroads, 1887 Roundhouse Central of GA Macon 1887 Roundhouse, c. 1860

Today tourists, trains, trucks, and autos move through Ocmulgee

Savannah Overview 1733 Oglethope’s Report to the Trustees: ―I chose this Situation for the Town upon an

high Ground, forty feet perpendicular above High Water Mark; The Soil dry and Sandy,

the Water of the River Fresh, Springs coming out from the Sides of the Hills. I pitched

upon this Place not only from the Pleasantness of the Situation, but because from the

above mentioned and other Signs, I thought it healthy; For it is sheltered from the

Western and southern Winds (the worst in this Country) by vast Woods of Pine Trees,

many of which are an hundred, and few under seventy feet high. The last and fullest

consideration of the Healthfulness of the place was that an Indian nation, who knew the

Nature of this Country, chose it for their Habitation.‖

5

Crimmins Tour Guide

Savannah’s Location on the Coast

Yuchi Indians. Paintings by Von Reck. When General James Edward Oglethorpe settled

Savannah in 1733, the natives he encountered were quite different from the native

peoples that Hernando de Soto had encountered two hundred years earlier. He and his

colonists developed relationships with the Creeks, the Yamacraw, and the Yuchi.

6

Crimmins Tour Guide

1733 Oglethope’s Plan for the Development of Savannah: The City

1. a central square, a large open space. 2. four large trust lots facing the square on its east and

west sides that were reserved for public structures, such as churches, banks, or government

buildings and homes for the wealthy. 3. tything lots on long blocks to the north and south of the

square, which were divided into 10 modest house lots 60 feet in width and 90 feet in depth.

The Region: City, Nearby Garden Plots, More Distant Farming Plots—Typography Not Featured

Tomochichi (c. 1734)

Peter Gordon’s account of February 1, 1733 arrival: ―About an hour after our landing, the Indians

came with their king, queen, and Mr. Musgrove, the Indian trader and interpreter, to pay their

compliments to Mr. Oglethorpe and to welcome us to Yamacraw. The king, queen and chiefs and

other Indians advanced and before them walked one of their generals with his head adorned with

white feathers with rattles in his hands, to which he danced, singing and, throwing his body into a

7

Crimmins Tour Guide

thousand different and antic postures.... Feb 8th, each family had given out of the stores an iron pot,

frying pan, and three wooden bowls, a bible, a common prayer book. This day we were taken off

from the palisades and set about sawing and splitting boards eight feet long. March, 1st, the first

house in the square was framed and raised, Mr. Oglethorpe driving the first pin.

Savannah 1770 Six Squares—Reynolds, Johnson, Ellis, Oglethorpe, Wright, St. James

Savannah 1796 Nine Squares and Cemetery

8

Crimmins Tour Guide

Savannah’s Revolutionary Defenses

Battle Field Memorial Park

2004 2005 2011

9

Crimmins Tour Guide

1883 Savannah, looking east from MLK (East Broad) and Bay Street

Panoramic Photo of Savannah, 1908

Savannah, c. 1920

10

Crimmins Tour Guide

4:00 – Bus Overview tour of Savannah Savannah is an 18

th century city with 19

th and 20

th century buildings. We will be looking

for the layers of Savannah’s history that remain in the 21st century.

Coming from Macon on I-16, exit MLK/Gaston Street.

Go left on MLK and see what remains of the early 20th century African American

business/commercial district from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Central of Georgia Railroad Facilities Ralph Mark Gilbert

Ogeechee Canal, 1855 Civil Rights Museum

Cemetery

Mrs. Wilkes

I-16 Massey Heritage C

Hampton Inn

MLK

Bay Street

East

Broad

Street

Savannah in Colonial and Early

National Times—1733-1800

Trustees

Garden

Later

Fort

Wayne

Cemetery

Civil Rights

Museum

Central of GA

11

Crimmins Tour Guide

See what remains of the Central of Georgia Railroad complex and passenger station

from the mid-19th century to the early 21

st century.

Central of Georgia c. 2010

12

Crimmins Tour Guide

Central of Georgia Buildings Today

See William Jay’s Scarborough House (c. 1818), which served as an African-

American school house in the late 19th and early 20

th century.

Turn Right on Broughton Street, the late 19

th and early 20

th century commercial spine.

Broughton Street, c. 1920

13

Crimmins Tour Guide

Turn left on Montgomery, go around Franklin Square.

See First African Baptist Church

First African Baptist Church c 2005 c. 1890

Turn right on Bay Street.

See the 19th century commercial development on the right and the park and 18

th and 19

th

century waterfront buildings on the left.

See the Chart House (1790) 202 to 206 Bay Street. The building can claim to be "the

oldest masonry building in the State of Georgia". In the past it has served as a warehouse

for sugar and cotton, and now it is the home of the Chart House restaurant. Its walls use

ballast stone from the ships, as do the streets coming up the hill from the waterfront.

Chart House (1790) Savannah Harbor 1779

Trustees

Garden

Fort

Wayne

14

Crimmins Tour Guide

See City Hall (1906) and Customs House (1859)

See Freemason’s Hall/Cotton Exchange (1880), Factor’s Walk, and Emmett Park

Turn Right on East Broad Street

See the Site of the Trustee Garden:

Trustees

Garden

Fort

Wayne

15

Crimmins Tour Guide

See the Pirate’s House Restaurant: 18th century buildings on site of former Trustee

Garden. The small building adjoining the Pirates' House was erected in 1794.

Continue on East Broad to East Oglethorpe and go right. This is the southern boundary

of Colonial Savannah. Continue to E. Oglethorpe and go left on Abercorn Street.

See Old Burying Ground: Colonial Park Cemetery. The Colonial Park Cemetery is

the second cemetery in Savannah. It was founded in 1750 and was closed for burials in

1853. It was then reopened as a park in 1896.

Continue on Habersham around Lafayette Square (1837) and the Andrew Lowe House,

designed by John Norris and visited by William Thackeray

Trustees

Garden

16

Crimmins Tour Guide

Continue past Calhoun Square (1851). Notice the Massie Heritage Center (1856), also

by John Norris.

Calhoun Square Massie Heritage Center

Continue to East Gaston and go right

Go right on Bull Street and continue to Monterey Square (1847). See the Mercer

House, also designed by John Norris and featured prominently in Midnight in the Garden

of Good and Evil.

Mercer House by John Norris, 1868 Monterey Square and Pulaski Monument, 1857

Continue on Bull Street to Madison Square (1839). See the Scottish Rite Temple and

the Armory, both now used by Savannah College of Art and Design.

17

Crimmins Tour Guide

Madison Square and statue of Sergeant Savannah Defenses 1779

William Jasper, who was mortally wounded, October 9, 1779, a short distance northwest

of this marker in the unsuccessful assault by the American and French forces upon the

British lines, which ran immediately to the north of this Square.

Continue on Bull Street to Chippewa Square (1815). See Oglethorpe Statue

Chippewa Square Oglethorpe Statue (by Daniel

Chester French)

Continue on Bull Street to Wright Square (1733)

See Monument (erected April 21, 1899) to Chief Tomo-Chi-Chi, Mico of the

Yamacraws Tribe of the Creek Indian Nation, who is buried in Wright Square. Here in

1735, Chekilli, head Chief of the Creek Nation, recited the origin myth of the Creeks.

The Declaration of Independence was read here to an enthusiastic audience, August

10, 1776. Occupation by English forces followed December 29, 1778 and remained,

despite an American/French siege in October 1779, until July 11, 1782.

Wright Square c 1900 Monument to Chief Tomo-Chi-Chi

Madison S

18

Crimmins Tour Guide

Continue on Bull Street to Johnson Square (1733). Today it has early 20th

century

skyscrapers built by local banks and Christ Church (c. 1840).

In early colonial days the public stores, the house for strangers, the church, and the

public bake oven stood on the trustee lots around it.

The Reverend John Wesley assumed charge of Christ Church congregation in 1736.

While here, he began America's first Sunday school meetings and he published for use in

this church the first English Hymnal in America. In 1737, the Rev. John Wesley, after

futile efforts to bring to trial certain indictments against him growing out of his ministry

at Savannah, posted a public notice in Johnson square that he intended to return to

England.

Christ Episcopal Church at

Johnson Square

Drive over bridge to see the waterfront

1779 Siege of Savannah 1883

19

Crimmins Tour Guide

Waterfront 1909 Factor’s Walk c. 1915

2000 2000

Drive back over bridge and

Continue to Sheraton Four Points Hotel

20

Crimmins Tour Guide

Saturday April 16

Walking Tour of Eight Savannah Squares--Looking for Layers of the Past in 21st

Century Savannah.

Plan of Savannah c. 1796—63 years of Growth—Green = 1734, Red =

Squares on Tour, including two that were laid out in 1799

Franklin Square

First African Baptist Church c. 1890

21

Crimmins Tour Guide

Ellis Square

City Market, c 1910 c 2007 C 2008 2011

Johnson Square

Christ Church Green Monument, Johnson Square, c.1900

1. Reynolds Square--1734 Pink House (1789) John Habersham House

2. Warren Square—1791 7 Habersham 22 Habersham 24 Habersham

Street (1791) Street (1793) Street (1790)

Hampton Inn

1 2 3

Hampton Inn

1 2 3

22

Crimmins Tour Guide

322-326 East Broughton

Street (1790)

3. Washington Square--1791

510 East St. Julian 507 East St. Julian Street

Street (1796 ) (1797)

4. Greene Square--503 East President Street 509 East President Street Second African Baptist Church

(1799) (1799) Located 1802. Current

structure 1889 and 1920s

5. Columbia Square Columbia Square has a 19

th century fountain from the old Wormsloe

Plantation and it is bordered by the Isaiah Davenport House (1820).

4 6 5

Hampton Inn

1 2 3

4 6 5

23

Crimmins Tour Guide

6. Oglethorpe Square 110 East Oglethorpe Avenue 122 East Oglethorpe Avenue

(1784) (1760)

12:00 Lunch Olde Pink House (Abercorn

St near E Bryan)

1:30—Beach Institute Neighborhood

Beach institute King Tisdell Cottage

2:15 Bus Depart for Fort King George Historic Site

3:30 Fort King George—A Reconstruction Establishing protection for English settlers in disputed territory--1721 to 1736.

4 6 5

24

Crimmins Tour Guide

5:30 Shellman’s Bluff

and Harris Neck Refuge

6:00 Dinner Hunter’s Café, Shellman

25

Crimmins Tour Guide

Sunday

9:00 Wormsloe—1739-1740. An Archaeological Site,

established by Noble Jones as an eastern outpost for Savannah

and to protect from sea attack

Noble Jones tabby house and wall c 1750

26

Crimmins Tour Guide

At

Jones' Narrows, which is now an overgrown marsh creek, a major inland waterway

flowed past the "Wormsloe" plantation of Captain Noble Jones. A timber guard house

was built in 1739 and 1740, as temporary protection. On September 29, 1740 Thomas

Jones, the treasurer of the colony, was allotted £27 18S 6p to cover the "charges of

Building a Guard House on Pine Island Near Skidaway Narrows." With this allotment

Fort Wimberly, a tabby fortification, was constructed to replace it. Tabby is a unique,

centuries old, southern U.S. coastal building cement-like material composed of equal

proportions of homemade lime (extracted from burning oyster shells), sand, oyster shells

and water.

11:00 Fort Jackson