By Stephen Hammock
"You are the River, I am the Sea,
You are the Earth, I am a Tree,
My Roots run deep, your Spirit flows free --
Run into You, Flow into Me."
Time passes so slowly when we are young. It seems to go too fast when we reach our middle and later years. Generations rise, have families, build lives together, watch their children grow up & start begatting, continue into their golden years, and then one by one they all pass away while their descendants continue the dance of life. From century to century, across the millennia, things are always the same - just with different tools, circumstances, and experiences. But their life stories are our history, and the people of the past are with us for as long as their tales are told. The past only demands that we look at it honestly - unfiltered as much as possible - as we gather the memories & stories, the records & artifacts bequeathed from ALL our forefathers down to the present. But History is no posturing for academic tenure or judging the past from some present-day soapbox. Oh no, it is such a sacred duty which we must strive through the most unfashionably bitter storms, and against ignorant, arrogant, and just wrong-headed tomfoolery, to understand and pass along at peril of forgetting who we are and from whence we come. The MEMORYLESS leave little to the future but loss.
Dames Ferry has stories I've been collecting for some time now thanks to the artifacts, records, maps, and good folks like David Green, June Brown Ham, & others who believe that the past must be our guide for the present and the future. Tales of stone tools and Indian pottery, and later stories about the Booths, Dames, Hodges, Greens, and their neighbors on both sides of the river in Jones and Monroe counties. At the old ferry crossings above the ruins of the grist mill, just upstream from the spikes in the rocks left from the old fish traps, at the picturesque shoals with the 4-foot drop-off kayakers love today. At these fords, ferries, & bridges, here at Dames Ferry on the Ocmulgee.
FORDS
Thousands of years before Europeans, Africans, and Americans explored & settled Middle Georgia, there were already other people here, as we know from the artifacts they left to bear witness that they too passed this way. Ice Age spear points have been found in both Jones & Monroe counties as documented by the Ocmulgee Archaeological Society and by the Grande Dame and doyenne of Monroe County archaeology, Eva Persons. Because of this physical evidence, we know for a fact that Paleoindian peoples were crossing the river at least as far back as 13,500 years ago. And not far downstream from Dames Ferry, two Indian trails merged & crossed at a ford near where Archaic Indian spear points and Late Archaic fiber-tempered pottery have been documented. This is the oldest ceramic type in North America and was probably used by semi-nomadic seasonal campers cooking stews here about 4,000 years ago. No, Georgia was not empty then; numerous human cultures had been developing in the "New World" for at least 10,000 years by then. The proof is all around us if we but open our eyes and examine the ground underneath our feet.
Ceramic clues left by the Woodland Indians from a time when the Deptford people lived in villages up and down the Ocmulgee and all over Georgia have also shown up within just a few miles of Dames Ferry. This was more than 500 years before the Mississippian Indians began building their temple mounds and the Vining people were making their rather unimaginative, simple-stamped pottery across the lower Piedmont.
Finally, British traders came from Charleston around A.D. 1690 with European manufactured goods to trade to the Ochese ("Hickory Leaf") peoples in exchange for deerskins and captured enemy Indian slaves. Soon the body of water along which they lived became known as Ochese Creek, and they were being called the Ochese Creek Indians - a name quickly shortened to the Indians who lived at the Creek, or the Creek Indians. This is the earliest name for the Ocmulgee River of which we know. Archaeologists working in Middle Georgia in the 1930s named their pottery the Ocmulgee Fields Ceramic Complex after excavating several important sites in Bibb and Monroe counties. But the Lower Creek only lived along the Ochese for a generation, moving back to the Chattahoochee with the outbreak of the Yemassee War in 1715.
Indian land cessions opened up the land between the Oconee & the Ocmulgee for settlement two decades after American Independence, and the establishment of Fort Hawkins farther downstream in 1806 heralded an era of on-again-off-again struggle between the Indians, the U.S. Government, and the State of Georgia. One of the first stores on the upper Ocmulgee opened soon after Jones County was cut from original Baldwin County in 1807. It was called Booth's Store, after its owner Zachariah Booth, a frontier speculator & businessman who would soon be involved in land transactions all over Middle Georgia. Thomas Woodward later wrote about seeing famed-frontiersman Sam Dale and future Redstick Creek leader Menawa there at the same time in 1809. These two knew each other well, and later fought on opposite sides of the Creek War of 1813, part of the War of 1812. Booth's Store was a well-appointed meeting place for those living on and beyond the Ocmulgee frontier, but folks needed a better way to cross the river than canoes. So Zachariah Booth had a ferry built near his store, possibly as early as 1810, but definitely by 1821, when an act allowing him to operate one passed the Georgia Assembly.
FERRIES
"The water is wide, I cannot cross o'er
And neither have I wings to fly;
Give me a boat that can carry two,
And both shall row, my love and I."
----- 18th century folk song
An undocumented story says that Booth hired two brothers from Virginia named George Green Dame (1784-1867) and John Brooking Dame (1789-1845) to build the ferry boat. We know their father was named George Dame (ca. 1752-1805), and that he was a veteran of the War of American Independence. But his grave is in Virginia, so he must have died there not long before his family headed south to Georgia. Oddly, his will was probated in Jones County in late 1809 or early 1810, as his widow Mary Green Dame (1752-1832) was being "Exonerated from having any thing further to do with Said Will" at that time. George, Jr. sought greener pastures elsewhere, but John settled in Jones County and prospered: first by marrying Zachariah Booth's daughter Mary Polly in 1811, and then, after her death on January 17, 1814, by marrying her sister Mildred. John & Milly were married by her father, who was also the local Justice of the Peace, on December 28, 1814. The Ocmulgee frontier was apparently a place for "wastin' time no more!"
They may have lived in the 15.6 wide x 15.75 long frontier log cabin on a hill overlooking the river that still stands today. Today it is used by a midwife. It must have seen its share of babies over the past two centuries, so this seems somehow fitting for a 200-year-old single-pen log cabin. An inspection of its construction techniques, like the half-dovetail notching, proved helpful in leading me to concur with Kitty Houston of the Middle Georgia APDC on its date of construction, give or take five years. Her 1988 evaluation stated that the structure dates to about 1810. David Green, the current owner with deep family ties to these woods and hills, has kindly allowed me to visit on several occasions to take photographs & measure its dimensions.
Historical documents located thus far tell us more about Zachariah Booth than about his son-in-law, John Dame. Booth was a successful businessman, being involved in a number of legal actions in which he acquired property from others based on unpaid debts owed him, as well as owning Booth's Ferry & store. Members of the Booth family won land in both the 1820 & 1821 Georgia Land Lotteries, and were never again mentioned in Jones County in any census after 1820. Booth himself was advertising his new road from Booth's Ferry to the Flint River in 1821. He later settled in Talbot County, and his son Zachariah, Jr. apparently settled near Columbus. So sometime before 1830, the Booths had left Jones County behind. This does not mean they did not still own land there, however.
John Dame's first official mention was in the Jones County Tax Digest for 1811, and his second was his 1814 marriage to Milly. He was also listed in the 1820 Census, which only named the heads of households. John & Milly had at least three children: Henry Green Dame (1820-1873), William Brooking Dame (1823-1856), and Charles L. Dame (1825-1881). Local lore says that the Dame family operated the ferry for decades, acquiring it in 1838.
We have proof that Dame placed an advertisement in the Georgia Messenger on August 15, 22, and 29, 1839 listing his Jones County property for sale, including houses, a store, furniture, crops, livestock, and the ferry itself. Interestingly, he was still calling it Booth's Ferry at that time. The earliest account I have found that actually calls it "Dame's Ferry" was in a newspaper account of horse thieves who crossed the river there in 1849, and the second was an account of a murder near there in 1855.
But it appears that the property stayed in the family and was not sold in 1839, or even in 1845 after Dame's death. In fact, the first reference I found to there being a mill and a fishery at Dames Ferry was when the entire property, including the ferry, was again listed for sale in 1868 by sons Henry G. and Charles L. Dame, less than a year after the death of their mother Milly Dame. She was buried in one of the two Dame burial grounds. The grist mill and fishery must have been added sometime in the 1840s or '50s. Also, and crucially, a review of historic maps proves that the Dames Ferry crossing was moved upstream from the original ferry crossing at some point before 1851.
According to David Green, his great-great-grandfather Samuel M. Hodge (1821-1887) acquired the property in 1872. While the ferry continued to be known as Dames Ferry, the other money-making parts of the property soon became known as Hodges Mill and Hodges Fishery. There are still spikes in the rocky shoals here indicating where the wooden fish traps once caught shad and redhorse for those leasing the trap that day. Hodges Mill was the location enjoyed by a gentlemen's "fishing party" according to an article in the Monroe Advertiser on May 14, 1897. An article in the Times Picayune on February 15, 1900 said that a passenger train engineer for the Southern Railroad made a successful gamble that he could force his way through river-flooded tracks at Dames Ferry. G. A. Thompson was mentioned as being the operator of Dames Ferry in the Jones County News on July 25, 1901. Lem Card was arrested for burning down S. A. Hodge's gin house, per the Jones County News on February 27, 1902. This Hodge was the son of Samuel. And a Dames Ferry fishery played its part in a practical joke played on one young man by another in a humorous article by S. H. Griswold in the Jones County News on October 1, 1908.
There is a spectacular photograph from 1912 showing a group of travelers crossing Dames Ferry in their cars. This would have still been at the upper ferry location. But at some point between 1931, when a State Highway map shows the ferry at the upper location, and 1939, when a revision of this map shows it at the lower location, the Dames Ferry crossing was moved back downstream at or very near its original 1821 location. The reason for this change is unknown, but it may have had something to do with deeper water at the lower location and/or a change to a stronger ferry boat for carrying across the heavier automobiles of the '30s. This is speculation, however. A 1930s photo was taken around the time of the ferry's removal back downstream. I hope the dog was the ferryman's, and that he spent his time riding the ferry back and forth all day long. There's nothing like a good dog.
Now, let's discuss the Monroe County community called Dames Ferry, which probably arose about the time a railroad depot was established just northwest of the upper ferry location in the 1880s. This was a whistle stop on what was begun as the Atlanta extension of the Macon & Brunswick Railway. During construction, that company was acquired by the East Tennessee, Virginia, & Georgia Railroad, which later made up a large portion of the Southern Railway system that is now part of Norfolk-Southern. The Dames Ferry Post Office was in operation from 1884-1958, so one could say that give or take a decade or so, those were also the years this community flourished.
The Dames Ferry Store, once run by Granny Green, housed the post office, and was a general merchandise store where local folks could buy most of the things they needed in a tiny hamlet. Things like nails, canned goods, flour, cornmeal, animal feed, pipe tobacco, bread, cheese, candy, cookies, & co-colas. It closed down around 1960. Today its ruins can be found amidst the overgrown bushes & briars beside Old Dames Ferry Road near the railroad tracks. The Dames Ferry Baptist Church, built in 1928 and located farther back up the road, was the center for spiritual activities, homecomings, and burials. Many stories of life here were recounted by June Brown Ham in her Dames Ferry memoir. She also kindly drew us a map depicting the area circa 1940. The location of the bullfrog farm one man ran near here in 1937 is not shown, though.
The ferry continued in operation throughout the 1940s and '50s, though crossing the Ocmulgee in your car by boat was seen more and more as a relic of how Middle Georgians had travelled in the days before automobiles, paved highways, and bridges. Fortunately for us latter-day enthusiasts of local history, a handful of people took photos and even some video footage of their journeys across Dames Ferry. And in more recent years a few artists have painted such scenes - including Sterling Everett, who has kindly allowed me to share his paintings here.
BRIDGES
"Crossing ancient fords
Fierce-eyed ferry man opens
A hand for my coins,
Hick'ry leaves, red sliders, shad
Floating in a Dream"
The Georgia Highway Department finally closed down the operation of the Dames Ferry boat in 1962, when the first bridge in the area was completed just downstream from the last ferry crossing. The S. A. Hodge, Sr. Bridge, named for the father of the last ferry operator and landowner on both sides of the river, connected Jones and Monroe counties, passing high above the water along State Route 18. Since the 55-foot boat in use at Dames Ferry was still fairly new, it was moved in 1964 and became the last ferry boat in operation in Georgia. This was at the Marshallville or Flint River Ferry, where the two-car boat remained at work until 1988. It is my understanding that there are efforts now underway to restore this boat for public display there in Macon County.
After 60 years, the Dames Ferry bridge's lifespan will soon end, as the Georgia Department of Transportation found structural damage a few years ago and is now finalizing its studies for replacing it with a new one. Sadly, it looks like the original and final ferry landings on both the Monroe and Jones County sides of the river will be destroyed by this construction process. Contract archaeologists have completed their studies of the area in advance, but apparently found little that would force the DOT to change its plans. That would be a rare thing indeed.
Dames Ferry on the Ocmulgee is a unique place with direct connections to the earliest American settlers of Middle Georgia. Our Indian forebears also traversed, camped, and lived in this area for more than 13,000 years. Today the old fords are now no longer used. The old ferry boats have long since disappeared. Even the first bridge will soon be replaced. But much of the same flora and fauna still live on in these hills and in the waters of Ochese Creek and its tributaries. The shoal bass still strike, the shad still run, and the robust redhorse still cavort amongst the rocks. What's more, the eerie cry of the pileated woodpecker still haunts these hills, and the majestic spring song of the brown thrasher can still be heard calling for his mate in these woods.
The hikers in the nearby forests know these things, as do the kayakers, excited about going over that 4-foot drop near the Ocmulgee's western bank - where some overturn and lose their sandwiches, phones, & flasks and their friends laugh and help them out. Of course, those who know most about this place and its secrets are the living descendants of the Booths, Dames, Hodges, and Greens...and their ancestors, who rest in five nearby family burial grounds and churchyards. Their struggles ended, having paid the Ferryman for their final river crossing before being laid to rest forever beneath the clay, they have become one with the earth.
These are some of our Middle Georgia ancestors.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to research associate Ashley Quinn for making the images seen here more aesthetically-pleasing, and to Jim Preston for his assistance with maps, railroads, and obtuse historical questions, and to John McBride for his help with prehistoric Indian pottery. Highest regards to Eva Persons for sharing her knowledge of Monroe and Jones County archaeology, to Sterling Everett for allowing the use of his two paintings of Dames Ferry, to June Brown Ham for her new sketch map of the community of Dames Ferry in Monroe County, and to Charles Newberry for allowing the use of his aerial photo of the Dames Ferry area. Finally, this article would never have been written without the encouragement and support of David Green, local landowner and descendant of the Hodge and Green families, whose knowledge and enthusiasm made it possible.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Caldwell, Robert
"Look Out For Horse Thieves!" Georgia Journal & Messenger (Macon), May 16, 1849.
Chalker, Fussell M.
Pioneer Days Along the Ocmulgee. Carrollton, GA: F. M. Chalker, 1970.
Dame, Henry G. & Charles L. Dame
"Administrator's Sale." Georgia Telegraph (Macon), September 4, 1868.
Dame, John B.
"Land For Sale." Georgia Messenger (Fort Hawkins), August 15, 22, 29, 1839.
Editor (no author specified)
"Homocide in Jones County." Georgia Journal & Messenger (Macon), July 25, 1855.
"A Fishing Party." Monroe Advertiser (Forsyth), May 14, 1897.
"Dashed Through the River." Times Picayune (New Orleans), February 5, 1900.
"Dames Ferry Man Shows Giant Frogs at State Fair." Jackson County Herald, October 28, 1938.
Griswold, S. H.
"Dave Allen; Hannie Mitchell." Gray-Jones County News, 1
October 1908.
Ham, June Brown
A Bend in the River A Twist in the Road: A Place to Remember Dames Ferry, Georgia. June Brown Ham, 2000.
Hammock, Stephen
"Ochese's Legacy: Creek Indian Life on the Ocmulgee River, 1680-1715." Early Georgia 46 (1 & 2):15-50.
Houston, Kitty
Georgia Historic Resources, Resource No. 139, Jones County. Historic Preservation Section, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, 1988.
Jones County Probate Court
Will Record Book A, 1809-1815; Marriage Records, 1815-1828;
Ordinary Minutes, 1808-1818; Inferior Court Sitting for Ordinary Purposes, County Affairs 1829-1842.
Moffat, William G.
The River Road Settlement of Jones County, Georgia: A Social and Economic History. Milledgeville: Unpublished Master's Thesis, Department of History, Georgia College, Milledgeville.
Monroe County Historical Society
Monroe County, Georgia: A History. Forsyth: Monroe County Historical Society, Inc., 1979.
Persons, Eva Turpin
"The Indian History of Monroe County." In Monroe County, Georgia: A History. Forsyth: Monroe County Historical Society, Inc., 1979.
Post, Audrey
"A Battle Won: Historical Marker is where Brothers May Have Built Ferry." Macon Telegraph, 23 November 1986, pp. 2A & 2C.
Wauchope, Robert
"Archaeological Survey of Northern Georgia with a Test of Some Cultural Hypotheses." Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 21, American Antiquity 31, No. 5, Part 2.
Williams, Carolyn White
History of Jones County, Georgia, 1807-1907. 1957. Fernandina Beach, Florida: Wolfe Publishing, 2003.
Woodward, Thomas S.
Woodward's Reminiscences of the Creek, or Muscogee Indians, Contained in Letters to Friends in Georgia and Alabama. Montgomery, AL: Barrett & Wimbish, 1859.
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