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Shoals on the Ogeechee State
Historical Marker
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Located on Ga. 123 on the Warren County side of
the Ogeechee River
33.2546, -82.75508
(Text)
SHOALS ON THE OGEECHEE
First called Lexington, Shoals was
the site of what was probably the first woolen mill and iron foundry in
Georgia. In 1794, Col. William Bird, Revolutionary soldier from
Pennsylvania, and Benjamin A. Hamp bought several thousand acres of
land including the shoals, a natural site for a dam, where they built
the mill. The race was made by alternately burning pine logs on the
granite and pouring cold water over it so the stone would split off.
Hamp soon sold his share in "Bird & Hamp" to Col. Bird. After Col.
Bird's death in 1812, his heirs sold the property to Thomas Cheely, who
built a grist mill for grinding wheat and corn. This, with the woolen
mill, was burned by Sherman's forces in 1864. In later years there have
been grist mills and ginneries at the site operated by the Coleman
family who own most of the original bird property.
"Aviary," the home of Col. bird
and his wife, Caroline Dalton Bird, with its family cemetery where both
are buried, was on the hill overlooking the dam. Among their
descendants were William Lowndes Yancey, "Orator of Secession," and
Benjamin Yancey, Jr., minister to Argentina under President Buchanan.
149-4 GEORGIA HISTORICAL
COMMISSION 1957
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