Originally Published in the Fall 2000 . . .

Greene County, Georgia, is a showcase region of rural southern history. Located about halfway between Atlanta and Augusta it rests confident yet humble within the final vestige of Georgia's Piedmont region. Its past requires more than a simple passing glance, its heritage standing out amongst an area of the state rich with historical lore.

Hidden away in Greene County's northern reaches rests what's left of a once thriving community known as Scull Shoals. Records supply ample reasons as to why this place is but a relic; not the least of which is its remote location - even by today's standards. Records also provide a glimpse into the region's dramatic, albeit short-lived existence. Originally laid out on the sprawling river plains which flank the Oconee River, all that remains of Scull Shoals are some factory ruins; once the heartbeat of the place. Life was much more rigorous in those days. The same is quite evident in the history of Scull Shoals, one filled with frontier hardship, raids, slavery, fires, floods, droughts, unemployment, convict labor and economic ruin. And though the name is a mystery - theories range from a family name, to the most probable: a "scull," or shallow drought boat that was popular at the time, to the more dramatic theory citing the discovery of human skulls and bones in the area - the history of Scull, often spelled "Skull" Shoals is well-documented; its wane no secret at all.

The discovery of human skulls seems the most "spicy" legend behind the region's name; there being ample archeological evidence, as well. Close by, and accessible by backwoods trail, stand impressive pre-Columbian mounds. One is 12 feet high, the other 38 feet high. Both are hard to find as they are covered, in some places, by centuries of forest and natural growth. The purpose for such mounds has been expanded through recent theories. But the most widely recognized purpose is the burial of important tribal members. Dr. Mark Williams, an anthropologist from UGA, did extensive study of the mounds and dates them back as far as 1250 A.D. As if setting a trend that Scull Shoals would follow in its day, these early cultures disappeared. Disease brought on by Spanish explorers may have been the reason. Another theory views these natives as early ancestors of the Creek who came to inhabit this region late in the 1500s. And though the Creek who fished and hunted and battled along the thicketed shores of the Oconee enjoyed centuries as the ruling nation here, only with the creation of the fledgling state of Georgia and the United States, does the history of Scull Shoals - the community - begin.

Documentation of the area has been traced back to the treks of early American traveler and explorer William Bartram who left wealthy accounts of the Oconee River region during his expeditions in the 1770s. He told of the skillful, powerful hunting parties of the Creek, the rich assortment of wildlife, and even the one-time existence of tremendous herds of bison and elk. His descriptions were confirmed by the earliest settlers. Some set to taming this wilderness as early as the dangerous frontier days of the late -1770s. The main tide of pioneers and settlers, though, began to flood the region during the 1780s. Still, these were outlying tracts; small farms dotted by rough-hewn log cabins at best. Not until the end-of-the-century would Scull Shoals become a reality.

Atop the Indian mounds ~

1875 plat of "Fontenoy Mills" ~

Ft. Clark-style blockhouse ~

In 1799, the Georgia state legislature declared the Oconee River be opened from Athens on to current-day Milledgeville. This decree was fueled with $50,000, money awarded to the Oconee Navigation Company in the early 1800s for the purpose of improving navigation with the end-goal being the transportation of goods. Initial tolls were set, 18 3/4 cents for a barrel of flour, 25 cents for a bale of cotton, etc. The clearing of the Oconee, though, proved as difficult as it was easy to levy tolls. It was a titanic effort, especially for the time. After many years, little progress had been made. Even dividing the river into quadrants which were then tackled mile by arduous mile proved hapless. The clearing of the river for navigation, by all accounts, never reached Scull Shoals. No amount of perspiration or funding seemed to help. And the Oconee Navigation Co. foundered until it was finally dissolved. Scull Shoals would have to rise of its own accord.

While the manufacturing necessity of routes-of-transport would have to wait, settlers had found no reason to wait in exploiting the rich lands they'd carved from the wilderness. As mentioned, settlers had been farming since the heady days of the Revolution. The Creek, naturally, had resented what they saw as an intrusion. Treaty after treaty failed to bring peace, the notorious Shoulderbone Treaty of 1786 having whipped the Creek into a fury. Repeated raids brought on the building of a series of blockhouses along the Oconee; at that point considered the boundary of civilization. Ft. Clark, named for John Clark, son of the infamous Revolutionary hero Elijah, was erected in the area of Scull Shoals. Issac Stocks built the first "private family" stockade just south of Scull Shoals to serve the same purpose. Pioneers, still wary and armed, began to settle, nonetheless, and farm with more confidence. The early 1790s saw continued violence in the area, an infamous killing and scalping of an entire family near Scull Shoals having occurred in 1793. But these threats soon disappeared, as the Creek were systematically pushed off to the west. Many plantation-style farming operations began to appear. They would be Scull Shoal's first successful economic pursuit. Joel Early, built his "Fontenoy" plantation in 1791, a sprawling farm which would encompass thousands of acres on both sides of the river. His son Peter (governor of Georgia, 1813-1815) followed in his father's footsteps, setting up his own operations on the west side of the river.

Though farming dominated the early development of the area, manufacturing ventures, having been thwarted by the early failures of riverboat transport, finally began to appear in the early 1800s. Sawmills were prospering on the plentiful pine forests of the area. Zacariah Sims saw to the building of a toll bridge in 1809. But Sims, with partner George Paschal, began the first real manufacturing movement. The partners were awarded a grant from the state to construct and operate Georgia's first paper mill, which they had in operation by 1811. The venture seemed hopeful. There was soon a gristmill, distillery, and hotel built for employee housing; and run by Paschal's wife. Yet despite financial backing, things did not go well. The mercurial rise and fall of the river, the main power source, seemed to forever work against production efforts, causing an erratic and unreliable delivery of their paper. Despite a near reliance of the southern states upon their paper during the early days of the War of 1812, this boon evaporated along with everything else during a major drought in 1814. Customers went elsewhere. The financial problems that resulted soon forced the two to sell.

Thomas Ligon bought control of the mills for $5,000; a steal it would seem. This sale, though, would begin an odd, and not entirely clear, series of sales and deals involving the manufacturing operations at Scull Shoals. Ligon lost control of the business in March of 1815, he being forced to sell. As a result, the operations fell into the hands of sheriff Thomas Stocks, who promptly sold the business back to Ligon 10 days later. The events that led to this series of deals has been lost to history. Regardless, Ligon made the most of it. He discontinued use of the paper mill and instead focused on working his grist mill and cotton gins. Over the next ten years profits would be steady, the manufacturing region of Scull Shoals referred to as "Ligon's Mill and Bridge." And with the mills firmly established, and a checkerboard of farms dotting the region, Scull Shoals seemed here to stay.

On July 18, 1827, Ligon sold his considerable holdings, including the bridge and manufacturing interests, to Thomas Poullain for $13,500. This purchase soon brought an even greater sense of optimism to the region, for it would usher in what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age" of Scull Shoals. Under Poullain's direction, manufacturing operations were streamlined, feeding an unequaled run of prosperity for the region. Despite the 30-year old decree declaring the river open, Poullain ignored the obviously forgotten rule and dammed the Oconee to divert a race to the turbines then fueling various mills. Production soared.

It was during this time that Scull Shoals gained distinction as the home of Dr. Lindsay Durham. Born to an easy life, family name, tremendous wealth, he was nonetheless highly skilled and motivated. He was educated in Philadelphia, then came home to practice at Scull Shoals. Since childhood, Durham had been around black slaves - would eventually own over a hundred himself - and the natives who had initially inhabited the region. Despite schooling in the latest medical advances of the day, Durham used as remedies and cures many of the herbal concoctions and salves he'd seen the slaves and natives use. He became well known for including this "voodoo" amongst his repertoire of cures. And his patients seemed not to care. His name was well-known, and many came from far away to seek his services for a particular ailment. He proved a vital asset to Scull Shoals, and administered to their physical ills for many years.

In 1834, Poullain secured incorporation of the "Skull Shoals Manufacturing Company," and was listed as the largest slaveholder in the county with 134. The region flourished for decades, unique to the south in its split reliance upon farming and manufacturing. And despite a devastating fire on November 5, 1845, losses from which would cost Poullain over $60,000 (and may have had a good part in doing him in financially), production by the 1850s was booming. The mills were eating up 4,000 bales of cotton a year, operating 2,000 spindles and looms. The small village which had grown up around the manufacturing sector of the region included a blacksmith shop, commercial stores, housing for workers, and a post office. It was an age of prosperity in Scull Shoals; and in Greene County as well. Estimates at its height place the population of Scull Shoals at 600.

The mill town ~

Warehouse and Store building, c. 1880 ~

Thomas Poullain ~

When the Civil War arrived, the normal pace of business was naturally upset by many of the young hands leaving for the battlefield; and as the war progressed, the shrinking markets brought on by the conquering of southern lands. Production at Scull Shoals, mostly cotton bagging for the staple's transport, dropped off during this time despite the high demands of the increasingly dire Confederate war effort. Its remote location kept the region largely out of harm's way; until 1864. In November of that year, Sherman began his infamous "March to the Sea." And though Sherman's troops cut a massive, destructive swath through the heart of Georgia, Greene County lay just beyond the northern flank of the march, and with only a few exceptions escaped the devastation. Residents did encounter "marauders" detached from the march and bent mostly on wanton destruction for its own sake. A few were reported to have appeared at Scull Shoals. But for whatever reason, and despite its obvious potential to support the Confederate cause, its mills and farms were spared the torch.

If Reconstruction was a trying time for Scull Shoals, as it was most everywhere in the South, records fail to show it. Despite the relative disappearance of Thomas Poullain from the owning circle and day-to-day operations, the enterprise seemed to prosper, providing quality yarns and receiving financial support. Antoine Poullain, son of Thomas, was now the largest holder in the corporation, it now referred to as "Fontenoy Mills." And it was under Antoine, and a collective including his siblings and venture capitalists, that the most enduring potential for Scull Shoals - the community - began. It started with the incorporation of Fontenoy Mills and a re-organization of its ownership into a complex set of on-site businessmen and wealthy speculators. A plan was drawn up, and among its line-items was included requests for funding in order to create a town, complete with plots for farming and housing the workers, as well as an ambitious drive to entice immigrants and other investors to work and finance its grist, cotton, and lumber mills. Well-intentioned was the plan, but it proved too ambitious. The plan never came to be, and Scull Shoals would never see another such attempt. The year was 1875.

Two years later, feeling the pressure of weak finances, Antoine Poullain sold most of his land (keeping control of the manufacturing operations) to a newly formed company, Penitentiary Co. #3. This company had come into existence the previous year on the heels of a state ruling which made legal the sale of convicts as laborers. The practice established a state of "legalized" slavery, and was proven to be entirely corrupt; many accounts of innocent men, mostly black men, being accused of crimes and sent off to the convict labor "gangs." Men with money and aspirations of fortune moved in to capitalize on the practice. And the land Poullain had sold was soon being farmed by convicts. It was soon obvious, also, that Poullain's financial troubles had not been stemmed by his sale of land. He was forced to give up his remaining interests at Scull Shoals to the state in order to satisfy a tax ruling against him, thereby ending the "Poullain" run at Scull Shoals. A collaboration headed by Isaac Powell bought the manufacturing operations at Scull Shoals, renaming the area "Powell's Mills" and promising to revive the prosperous days of old. Indeed Scull Shoals experienced a small boom. The cotton mill, which had been closed by Poullain, was reopened to the delight of many previously unsure residents of the region. Also, Powell, along with partner John Davenport, purchased the land being farmed by the Penitentiary Co. #3's convicts, and created a flourishing operation. The convicts were retained to farm the healthy crops of cotton, small grain, corn and Bermuda grass which the land was producing; 1885 being an especially good year. But this optimism had been overshadowed by the failure of the mills. Production had come to a halt in 1884, the work force having dispersed. There were many reasons behind the closures, money and nature being the most prominent. Sediment build-up over the years had all but cut off the rushing waters still required to power the mill operations. Continuous flooding had also forced painstaking halts, the wait for the water to recede often cutting into production for months at a time. In 1887, it was a flood which harbored the decline of Scull Shoals. It carried away the bridge - this bridge having replaced the original built by Zacariah Sims in 1809 - and cut in two the farming and manufacturing ends of the community. In the same way that the linking of the two had essentially allowed Scull Shoals to rely on its better half during uncertain times, whatever half that happened to be at any given time, nature's splitting of this access signaled its demise. Powell & Davenport soon lost everything. Foreclosure of the defunct mills and vast tracts of property fell to one of Powell's manufacturing partners, Rufus Reaves. Reaves soon learned what all the others before him had learned: that Scull Shoals, for all its potential, was a difficult place to scratch out a living, let alone a fortune. Reaves was forced to relinquish control of his assets at Scull Shoals to the state in 1895.

Mill Ruins ~

Tintype of a flatboat on the Oconee River ~

Dave & Kerri on the Oconee ~

In E. Merton Coulter's history of Scull Shoals, taken from his study "Georgia Waters," he makes the undeniable point that "until the era of paved roads arrived, railroads decreed the destiny of many towns and communities, building up some and leaving others to wither away." This insight seems to have doomed Scull Shoals from its inception. While in existence the community and its operations relied completely on a network of roadways linking it with Maxeys to the northeast, Watkinsville and Athens to the north, Madison to the southwest, and the rest of Greene County, and its depots, to the south and east. With navigation on the Oconee River never a reality, these roads were its lifeline. Slowly over time they all became impassable. And slowly Scull Shoals disappeared.

The "observed" end of Scull Shoals as a working community came with the division of its four thousand acres into seven parcels and the sale of these parcels. These tracts, over time, were further subdivided, further expanding ownership. The final tragic event in what had been twenty years of steady failure began as a heart-felt idea to run a steamboat line along the greater section of the Oconee running through Greene County. Money was raised for both the boat and the clearing of the river, and both were achieved the following year. Despite a grand launching and much fanfare, the steamboat, named the Mary Maddox never maintained a regular schedule. It ran, mostly, when cargoes were available running long-time staples of the area, lumber, cotton, flour, and corn meal to the nearby depots. Still, the service was occasional at best. It seems therefore fitting that the Mary Maddox burned to the water and sank in 1912.

Since then, nature has largely stepped in and taken over where it left off with the land's first clearing. There is little vestige of the once sprawling farmlands and village that presided over the area. Aside from the preservation and interpretation of factory ruins and the community which served it (the U.S. government having bought the property in 1935, various organizations having managed it until it was incorporated into the Oconee National Forest in 1959), Scull Shoals and its story may well have passed into the mystery of legend; a phantom memory of a village left to wither. Luckily, such is not the case. And thanks to continuous efforts, of organizations like the Friends of Scull Shoals, it will not be any time soon.

The Friends of Scull Shoals - http://www.scullshoals.org


Directions:

From north, take state route 15 south from the Watkinsville/Athens area. From south, take Greensboro exit off Interstate-20, follow it north into downtown Greensboro, turn on state route 15 heading north. Just inside the northern border of Greene County, turn east on Macedonia Road. Go approximately two miles to the entrance road leading to Scull Shoals. It is not clearly marked, and is a left - or north - off of Macedonia. The approach road is a long gravel road about three miles. Follow signs to Scull Shoals Village. There is a $2.00 parking and day use fee for the Historical Recreation Area. Funds from the fee go to provide facilities for the area. For more tourist info and a driving tour map please contact the Greene County Chamber of Commerce at (706) 453-7592.

Research Sources & Credits:

On-Site interpretation and the guide Scull Shoals Historical Area, provided by the US Forest Service, Oconee National Forest.

Scull Shoals, E. Merton Coulter, Georgia Waters; Georgia Historical Quarterly, Athens, GA: 1965.

Old Times, Old Towns at Scull Shoal, Daniel M. Roper; North Georgia Journal - North Georgia History, Spring 1996.

Pneumatology, Voodoo, and a Fabulous Georgia Doctor, Louise McHenry Hicky; Georgia Magazine, October-November 1963.

Raper, Arthur F., Tenants of the Almighty. Macmillan Company, New York; 1943.

Rice, Thaddeus Brockett & Williams, Carolyn, History of Greene County, Georgia; J.W. Burke Co., Macon, GA: 1961 - reprint Wilkes Publishing Co., Washington, GA: 1973.

Thanks to Cynthia Smith, Pat Smith and the Greene County Historical Museum. Photography credits ~ Greene County Historical Collection, the wonderful residents of Greene County and Erin & Bert New.