Talk:Moniac, Georgia

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[edit] Wikilink issues

Greetings,

There is an article on Charlton County, why is the wikilink not working?R Young {yakłtalk} 14:26, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Folk history: tied to Florida

 THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS, Thursday March 11, 1976 Page Two

                    The Way It Was - Gene Barber

             More Historical Notes On The 'Georgia Bend'

    The Bend, being heavily populated in the last century, was

criss-crossed with many roadways and trails, though few could be termed major. Among the most important was the Traders Hill (later known as the St. George) Road. From Macclenny, this ancient trail crossed the St. Marys River where later a bridge was built and named in honor of the numerous and influential Stokes family of the area. The bridge was about two and a half miles east of the Smith Bridge of last week's writing.

    The very old Jacksonville-Tallahassee Road, dating from the

1830's, swung northward and touched the river at this point. From there, travelers and traders turned north into Georgia to Stokesville. This little community was well populated with the Stokes and other families into the first two decades of this century. Stokesville boasted a church, and a little to the north, a school. This post office, established in 1906 with William H. Stokes as post master, Continued until 1918.

    Across the river from the Stokesville school was another

community closely connected the area, Nassau County's Bryce's Camp. Founded soon after the Civil War by George Bryce of Atlanta, the large turpentine and lumber camp began to drift into two communities around 1915-20, Bryceville to the east and Brandy Branch to the west. Like so many other settlements of that time, it moved with the economy, and when trees played out in the vicinity it moved to where trees were. Unbelievable as it might seem, much of the wild country we see about us now simply was not here fifty to a hundred years ago. Much of the land was denuded, including parts of the great Okefenokee.

    The Traders Hill road then ran east of Trail Ridge crossing

Green, Spring, and Tiger Branches to Suggs Mill. A check of a topographic map might make one wonder why the route did not take advantage of the high sandy ridge; the Bend 'Great Divide' was relatively free of boggy places and contained streams to ford or bridge. First, this relic of prehistoric oceanside dunes was usually too dry from runoff and was possessed of hardly any soil nutrients. As a result, the pioneers remained close to the river for transportation for themselves and their lumber, and for better farming.

    Now steadily running true north, the little roadway crossed Mill

Branch. This little stream has been dammed since the early 1800's by various individuals and families to provide power for saws and grits grinders. Some of those families have been Suggs, Nelsons, Hodges and Hicks. A little north is Saucer Branch, named for a pioneer turpentine distiller from west Florida, John Milton Saucer.

    Saucer Branch's sister stream on the Florida side was Deep Creek

(not to be confused with the Deep Creek between Baldwin and Trail Ridge). In Revolutionary days this waterway was called Deep Run Creek, and it formed the southwest limits of English settlement and the northeast boundry of the Seminole hunting ground.

    Skirting the eastern edge of Schoolhouse Bay, the road passed

Chism School. To the east, and on the river, was Emmeus Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery.

This church was constituted in 1858, a short while after it had been established as an arm of the Sardis Church near Traders Hill. The charter members came from both sides of the river, and they were Thomas Crawford, A.P. Murhee, William B. Connor, Mary Connor, and Sarah Johns, all names well represented among Baker Countians' ancestors. Among the early pastors were William R. Crawford, John C. Crawford, John D. Knight, and W.O. Gibson. Clerks in its early history were Henry M. Gainey, R.S. Davis, R.N. Chism, A.W. Hodges, N.S. Connor and D.W. Connor.

    During later years the church disbanded for lack of membership,

and most of its remaining members tranferred to North Prong across the Bend in Baker County. R Young {yakłtalk} 13:57, 10 May 2007 (UTC)