Home

Tim Day, a member of the Gartrell/McCravey line recently reached out to me about helping him track down some long-lost relatives. Back in 1995, Roger Cagle, father of Bill Cagle, took Tim and others on a drive somewhere near Price Creek. Tim remembered seeing and hearing about a Talona Methodist Cemetery. He and I spent several hours driving down various back roads in Northwestern and North Central Pickens County. We stopped at Price Creek Baptist Cemetery to pay homage t

In a previous post about Young Potts Cemetery, we learned of Young Potts, his emigration to the gold mines of the Dahlonega area, and his acquisition of land in the Wolfscratch Wilderness area. He was a successful businessman and built a nice house beside a spring near the north end of Yellow Creek (The creek, not the road) north of present Hwy 53 and east of Steve Tate. Potts died early and his wife and daughters remained at the property, one day after Mrs. Potts died, Roxi

CLICK HERE TO BUY TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH: A COMPENDIUM OF NORTH GEORGIA HISTORY After four years of research and countless hours and excursions, I'm proud to release my first book about North Georgia history. The book spans four centuries of events with original content. Over thirty separate pieces of research are organized into six sections: The First Inhabitants - Pretribal Indians through the Cherokee Enter the Europeans - British and American Colonists from the Revolutiona

The home guards remain one of the most confusing aspects of the history of the Civil War in Georgia. Family tales and reminiscences...

I am Jake Scudder, a Wilkes County man from Jackson, A Whig and Republican in political conviction, Resting beneath these columns of polished marble Which stand on a hilltop at Diana's Chapel, Rising like a sentinel to guard the treasure tunnel And looking over the river toward Lewis Blackburn - (except from larger writing on Scudder) Jacob McCartney Scudder was born in the last two decades of the 18th Century in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He moved to Georgia as a young

The Treaty of Tellico and the great road that traversed Augusta, Georgia to Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1805 the Federal Road was created, having been established by a treaty between the Cherokee and the United States Government. Chief James Vann, a half Scot, half Cherokee leader. The treaty allowed for the passage of the white settlers through the Cherokee Territory. A series of taverns and public houses were constructed along different segments providing travelers with

In 1829, a man named Young Potts moved to Dawson County from South Carolina. He hit the ground running and made a small fortune in his early prospecting in the late 1820s. Within a few years, in an attempt to maintain anonymity, he and his family moved into the rugged terrain known as the Wolfscratch Wilderness in 1836. Located on LL 131 and 98, Young Potts purchased nearly 500 acres of land in the remote forests of Cherokee County. Young Potts built his house near a spri

1886 Map with Johntown, Georgia John Dilbeck was born in 1787 in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Around 1839 he moved to Dawson County (Gilmer at the time) and purchased 160 acres near the present Steve Tate/Faucett Lake area. He acquired Land Lot 160, and Land Lot 129. This was where the area of Johntown sprung up. Upon his death in 1857, the land passed to John L. Grogran, the brother of John Dilbeck's son-in-law. The descendants of the Dilbecks lived near Burnt

On November 9th, 2022, I was a part of a thirty-five-person group of hikers that traveled to the Tate Mountain Estates area of...

Cherokee County officially came into existence in 1831. Previously, the land was known as the Cherokee Territory. Two years before,...