Pulaski County GA

Biography of William Augustus Jelks

William A. Jelks, youngest son of James Oliver and Mary Polhill Jelks, was born in Belleville, Hamilton County, Florida, September 5, 1859. He died in Hawkinsville, Ga., February 4, 1935. This family removed to Hawkinsville soon after the close of the War Between the States. William, or “Willie,” as he was called, was educated in private schools in Pulaski County, later at Mercer and Vanderbilt Universities. He was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. On leaving college, he taught in a private school in Hawkinsville for several years, and later edited the Hawkinsville paper until the business was … Read more

Pulaski County, Georgia Land Lottery Register

In 1802 Georgia ceded to the US all the land between the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi River, in return for a promise from the US to remove all Indians from Georgia’s reserve territory. “By purchase if possible; by pressure if necessary.” By an act of the Legislature in the year 1803, the new Purchase of lands from the Indians west of the Oconee River was distributed under the first Land Lottery system. Under it the public lands as they were from time to time freed from Indian occupancy, were at public cost surveyed into small lots of uniform size and … Read more

Slave Narrative of Alice Battle

Interviewer: Elizabeth Watson Person Interviewed: Alice Battle Date of Interview: 1936 Location: Hawkinsville, Georgia During the 1840’s, Emanuel Caldwell—born in North Carolina, and Neal Anne Caldwell—born in South Carolina, were brought to Macon by “speculators” and sold to Mr. Ed Marshal of Bibb County. Some time thereafter, this couple married on Mr. Marshal’s plantation, and their second child, born about 1850, was Alice Battle. From her birth until freedom, Alice was a chattel of this Mr. Marshal, whom she refers to as a humane man, though inclined to use the whip when occasion demanded. Followed to its conclusion, Alice’s life … Read more