Sketches of Some of the First Settlers of Upper Georgia, of the Cherokees, and the Author

Description

Gilmer’s Georgians, as this work is usually referred to, is a classic account of the first settlers of Upper Georgia. Clearfield’s edition is a reprint of the revised and corrected edition of 1926 and includes an index prepared by the Georgia Department of Archives and History in 1965. The region covered by Gilmer’s Georgians at one time included one-third of the settlers in the state, which helps to explain why the first two sections of the work are of special interest to genealogists. The book commences with an account of the settlement made by a number of Virginia families on the Broad River immediately after the Revolutionary War, with histories of the more prominent families. Next comes a description of the settlement made by various Carolinians in that part of Georgia now included in Wilkes and Lincoln counties. Overall Gilmer’s Georgians refers to over a thousand early settlers of Upper Georgia, with genealogies of the following main families: Andrew, Barnett, Bibb, Campbell, Clark, Crawford, Dooly, Gilbert, Gilmer, Grattan, Hart, Harvie, Johnson, Lewis, Long, Mathews, McGehee, Meriwether, Strother, and Taliaferro. The book’s largely autobiographical final section also treats the relations between the Creeks and Cherokees and the State of Georgia and the United States, highlighting some of the causes and the manner of the Indians’ removal.