Tuesday March 19th, 2024 5:19AM

History and Heritage on display at Ft. Hollingsworth for Memorial Day weekend

By Jerry Gunn Reporter

Alto - North Georgia's sunny sky and comfortable temperatures brought out the visitors Saturday to the 20th Annual 'Day at the Fort' at Fort Hollingsworth, nestled in the rolling Banks County countryside near Alto.

With the enjoyable Memorial Day weekend weather, you could pick and choose your way to get out and have a good time, and hundreds of visitors chose to step back in time and enjoy the music, fun, and living history at the original frontier fort, built in 1793.

Georgia’s boundaries in the 1700’s can best be described as the wild frontier.  Between 1782 and 1797 various treaties were made with the Indians to define Georgia’s boundaries.  Forts were built to protect the settlers who lived on the frontier from local indigenous Indians who were likely to be incited by misunderstandings. Horses and farm animals were often stolen and families had to be protected in fortress-type buildings surrounded by wooden fences.

The lands of the first settlers of Franklin County, whose lands were granted by the State of Georgia between 1783 and 1788, lay north of the Indian Boundary fixed by the treaty of 1785.  These lands were granted under the impression that they lay south of the agreed boundary line.  When this line was surveyed it was found that these lands lay north of the boundary line in the Cherokee Nation.  The Indians demanded their immediate removal.

Fort Hollingsworth, otherwise known as the White House, was in the Cherokee Nation. When the boundary lines were redrawn, it was in Franklin County, then in Habersham County and finally in Banks County (1858).

William Wofford and Jacob Hollingsworth moved from North Carolina to Franklin County, Georgia in 1792. The area where they settled was known as Wofford’s Settlement.

When the line was surveyed and Col. Wofford learned that their settlement was considered to be in Indian territory, he along with other settlers in the area, petitioned Georgia Governor James Jackson to have the line re-drawn, or to take such action to protect them and their possessions from Indian raids. 

The result was the “Four Mile Purchase” of 1804.  The Indians ceded a strip of land four miles wide (from the Habersham – Banks County line on Baldwin Mountain, to Line Baptist Church on old Hwy. 441) and 23 miles long (extending from Currahee Mountain to the head waters of the South Oconee River) which included the Wofford Settlement.  A line of felled trees some twenty-feet wide originally marked the line, which became a “no man’s land.”  The United States agreed to pay the Cherokees $5,000 and $1,000 per annum for the property rights.

By about 1796, conflicts with local Indian tribes were no longer a concern and the string of frontier forts were no longer necessary.  The forts soon became log farmhouses.

The 'fort' is in remarkable condition and 'Friends of Fort Hollingsworth' conducted guided tours that took people back in time to the late 1790's when George Washington was President. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and original owner ancestors protect and preserve it.

"This house covers a lot of eras," Willette White Mote said. "It includes the Revolutionary War era, the Civil War, and there is a great appreciation of history, for the history of our country and the history of this area."

Mote is descended from Joshua White and Katharine Lane White, who obtained the fort and made it their home. They built the addition to the two story single pen that had been the fort and made it look like any other farmhouse of the mid 1800’s. The addition was linked to the original structure by a covered walkway, known as a dogtrot.

And that is where the Civil War connection comes in. The Whites obtained the house as a result of a 'friendly fire' tragedy during the Civil War in Tennessee. John Lane owned the property for a little over a month when the war started. He went to war but did not return. He was killed while returning from getting water from a spring. His men mistook him for the enemy and shot him.

A highlight of the day's activities included Civil War skirmishers who staged an authentic campsite and then a brief fire fight that drew a big audience. For re-enactor Chad White from Hall County, the event helped focus on Memorial Day, which began in the 1860's to honor the Union war dead.  White portrayed a Union soldier.

"Whether I'm portraying a Confederate or Union soldier they're both American," White said. "That's what it is for me, honoring the American Soldier."

Saturday at the fort was also meaningful for another White descendent, Vietnam veteran Richard H. "Rick" White, U.S. Army Retired, who is chairman of the Board for the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame. He inducted another Vietnam veteran, Dan White, into the Hall of Fame. White noted that Dan White was the last person born at the fort in 1948.

Col. White said he hopes Americans have not lost the true meaning of Memorial Day.

"This weekend is about all the men and women defending the freedoms that we all enjoy," White said. "All these freedoms that we have lies on the shoulders and from the sacrifice of those people, over a million of them now. It's nice to have the picnics and the celebrations, I understand that, but the real meaning of Memorial Day is to memorialize those who have given their lives for our nation."

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