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Accounted by Pearl Baker Edited by Mary A. Sicard Reprinted with permission from the McDuffie Progress. The first important large-scale settlement of the lands between Germany Creek and the Indian lines began when Georgia’s Colonial Governor James Wright made a land grant to the Quakers, known among themselves as the Society of Friends, in 1767. The settlement, declared a Quaker Reserve and named after the governor, was called Wrightsborough Township. A town by that name was founded in 1770. The Friends were industrious, peaceful people, dedicated to the principles of non-violence. They opposed dissention; special arrangements were made in the rare event that a Quaker was involved in a lawsuit. They believed in education for boys and girls alike. Women had a voice in religious and civic matters. Two hundred Quaker families, comprised of 1,500 men, women and children, resided in the Township by 1772. Many farms were in cultivation and 20 houses or more were built in the town. They did not remain at peace long. The Indians raided their plantations, stealing stock, burning houses and killing inhabitants. In the fall of 1772, an appeal was made to Governor Wright for a fort to be built near Wrightsborough and for militia to be stationed there. Some Friends were so harried and frightened that they left the colony. Joseph Maddock, the leader of the group and a founder of Wrightsborough, said if help was not forthcoming, “The settlement might fail altogether.” The fort, a log stockade erected at the base of rocks, was built at a cost of 50 pounds. Remnants of this fort can be traced on a hill on the east of the Wrightsboro Church. During the Revolution, it was under the command of Major Panell and Captain John Dooley. Later, the Candler family built a house on this site, which they called the “Old Fort House.” The Revolution was a difficult period for all of Georgia, but it was especially difficult for the Friends. They were neutral, and therefore, a target for the British and the Colonial forces. Both sides preyed upon them, each insisting that if the Quakers weren’t for them, they must be against them. The Indians, too, were no respecters of neutrality and attacked just because the Quakers were white men. There was also a sinister band Governor Wright called the “Raiders of the Back-country. They looted, burned and stole everything in sight—whether it belonged to Quakers or not. They cut a swathe of destruction all through the Briar Creek and Wrightsborough area, killing over 100 people. The end of the war did not mean an end to hostilities. The Indians were still active, and the Raiders made an occasional foray well into the 1780s. Georgia was in a bad situation when the fighting stopped. Plantations had been ravaged and deserted. All educational activities had ceased. Money was worthless. A new start had to be made. To draw new people into the state, bounty lands were given to war veterans, and many from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania took advantage of the offer. Two whole counties, Franklin and Washington, were given in bounty as well as large tracts in the newly created counties of Richmond, Wilkes and Columbia, which had been formed from old St. Paul’s Parish. Warren County was formed in 1793 from portions of Columbia and Wilkes, which placed some Wrightsborough residents in Warren and others in Columbia. The Quakers, who had suffered much during the War, faced another problem. Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1794 and people immediately began buying more slaves to raise crops. The Quakers were opposed to slavery and would not use slaves, but found that they could not compete economically with slave labor. They sent emissaries out to the new territories of Ohio, Illinois and Indiana to look for lands on which to settle because the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided there would be “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory.” In 1805, the Great Exodus started. It was the end of Wrightsboro as a Quaker colony. Many left, but some stayed, casting their lot with the new ways of life and joining other faiths when the Quaker meetinghouse (weekly, monthly or annual meetings of congregations) was discontinued. The old Meeting House, a gift from Governor Wright, later burned down and was replaced by a Methodist church that still stands today next to the historic cemetery. The town grew in importance until after the coming of the railroad in 1835. The residents refused to allow the railroad to come through Wrightsborough, and, as a result, a new village formed nine miles to the southeast. In 1853, that village was named Thomson. For more information, call the Department of Tourism at (706) 597-1000 or use this form.
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