Wholesale Observations: Washington, Georgia

About 40 miles east of Athens, GA (home to the state’s most prestigious University, UGA – “Go Dawgs!”) on U.S. 78, is the picturesque small town of Washington, in the heart of Wilkes County. I have been through it many times.

On one such trip, many years ago, coming back from a visit with friends in Athens over Thanksgiving, I decided to (finally) stop at the “Washington-Wilkes Historical Museum,” housed in a huge old two-story columned house on the downtown main street. I had been by there many times, but never stopped in before to see what they had. (The Robert Toombs house is two houses away.)

I picked up their brochure and took the self-guided tour, staying maybe about an hour. When I got home, and later read the brochure, I discovered to my surprise that the original portion of the house had been built by a distant relative, Albert Gallatin Semmes!

So the next time I went to Athens, six months or so later, I made a point to stop back by on the way home, again. This time I went to find the curator, a white-haired lady named Doris Martin, held out my hand, introduced myself, then asked for the keys!

When she looked up at me in surprise, I explained about my earlier visit, and discovering upon my return to Savannah and reading their brochure, that the original owner was a relative! Whereupon the kind woman undertook to give me her personal guided tour, and explained what she knew.

The original house, she said, was what was now the ground-level basement, later used as the kitchen, and the two upper floors were added later, along with the east and west wings. She showed me the second story’s western wing, and pointed out the six-inch drop from the floor of the main house to the floor of the wing.

We don’t know if that was due to a lack of proper measuring, or the weight of the addition sinking into soft soil,” she told me. “So you have to watch your step.”

She said that the surrounding ~100 acres or so were part of the original farm, but had been sold off by later owners, and were now residential areas. And that the original owners had apparently gotten spooked by a yellow fever epidemic in 1857, so sold the property, packed up everyone and everything, and moved back to Mississippi!

She directed me to the nearby county (Carnegie) library, and told me to ask for the woman in charge of their special collections section, who could show me the various cemetery records (city, church and family) to see if I could find any relatives buried there. I did go by, looked through all of what was there, but couldn’t find a one! So apparently my ancestors “got out while the getting was good,” and didn’t lose a soul in the process.

The other remarkable thing about that second trip was that the curator had the same name as a long-time Savannah dance and theatre icon, Doris Martin, who ran a dance studio for young girls for many years, and choreographed many Little Theatre summer musicals.

She and her husband Harris also served on the LT Board of Directors. I knew them both well from my LT days.

Another recent discovery I made, at an antiques shop in downtown Savannah, down the street from a BBQ joint I sometimes go for lunch, was a book on this very topic.

One of their window displays was a three-level bookshelf with a variety of old books; and a slender green volume at one end of the second shelf caught my eye: “The History of Wilkes County, Georgia.”

I was unaware of such a volume, so of course had to go inside and look at it.

I told the young man who pulled it off the shelf for me that I only needed to “look at it for a minute, and would give it right back to him.”

“Unless, of course, you want to buy it!” he said with a smile. “Of course,” I replied, cheerfully but doubtfully.

Then I turned to the index, and found to my surprise at least half a dozen entries under the name “Semmes.”

“OK, I’ll take it!” I told him. “That was quick,” he said. I told him I’d found what I was looking for, but hadn’t expected to find.

So, five minutes and $62 later, I walked out with it in my hand.

All I’ve had time to do so far is put post-it flags on all the pages referencing Semmes family members.

I will eventually scan those pages, and the introduction to the volume – which is a story in itself – and send them to family members.

One small note: This apparently was a Protestant branch of the family, unlike mine, which was long Catholic. But then, I don’t think there were many Catholics in Georgia back then, unlike Maryland, where my branch of the family comes from. So that may have been more to do with necessity than conviction.

Life is full of surprises!

Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of (“the original”) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia.

He and his wife live in eastern Liberty County, and are long-time Rotarians. He writes on a variety of topics, and may be reached at rafe_semmes@yahoo.com.