Day 5—8 May 2—5 2018

     I find it very hard to spend my time at the state park where the concert is being held, then come back to the bus exhausted and try to type out pearly words of learning and/or entertaining.  So, I’ve missed a few days of blogging, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment.  Tonight is the last one until next Thursday.

     Since this is the last night, we won’t be in the state park any more.  But I’d like to tell you some of the history of the man and his courageous wife who settled in this area a long time ago.

           As I’ve mentioned, the festival is held in Elijah Clarke State Park in Lincoln County, Georgia.  Besides being a beautiful 474-acre state park located on the J. Strom Thurmond Lake, it is also a memorial to Elijah Clarke.  He was born in 1742 in Anson County, North Carolina.

Elijah Clark (1742-1799)

In 1773, this area belonged to the Creeks and Cherokee Indian nations.  After 1773, a treaty was signed with Europe.  Elijah Clarke and forty other families settled in the area.  He was a frontiersman, a Continental Army Officer and Revolutionary War hero.

After the war, Clarke was elected to the Georgia legislature.  In 1794, he organized the Trans-Oconee Republic, several settlements in counties of Georgia in the traditional Creek Territory.  From there he attacked several Creek villages, but was restrained by the Georgia government.

 

Clarke's Home inside the park

Houses built with dog-trot construction (a central open hallway divides the rooms of the house) were common during this time.  A newly renovated log cabin displays furniture and tools dating back to 1780.  The house had four rooms.  Two of the front rooms were paneled in maple, which was unusual for the time.  Windows were barred and also had shutters for even more protection.  Gun ports were in every room through the outside walls.  Because it was hostile territory, Clarke knew he had to protect his family.  He also used the central hallway to house cows and horses by stretching rope across each end to keep them safe.  The cabin was known as Clarke’s Fort. 

In the house, their beds had ropes under mattresses drawn tight in place of springs we have today.  The ropes were kept tight for comfortable sleep.  That is where the expression “sleep tight” came from.  If someone over-stayed their welcome, Hannah would loosen the ropes to make for uncomfortable sleeping so the company would leave. The mattresses were made from hay.  Expression “hit the hay” came from this.

The kitchen is in a separate house.  Hannah believed a real lady cooked inside and not over a campfire.  Breakfast would be corn meal mush, apple cider.  Lunch was usually a stew made from whatever meat the men killed.  Last meal of the day would be cold leftovers.

 Clarke’s wife, Hannah, was a Virginia lady, who followed her husband into the frontier.  She made all their clothes.  It was important to her that each of her eight children have two complete sets of clothing—one to wear, one to wash.  On a loom, she produced linen for two shirts for Elijah, which she was very proud of.  When the Tories started over running the settlements, she hid the linen shirts under the smoke house floor.  When they got to their home, the Tories asked the kids where all their treasures were hidden.  They led them to the shirts.

Hannah helped fight in several Indian attacks.  Once, when Elijah was gone, the Tories took over their home and burned it.  Hannah escaped with all eight kids.

Elija and Hannah Clarke's grave marker

         Elijah Clarke died on December 15, 1799.   He and his actions served as one of the sources for the fictional character of Benjamin Martin in The Patriot (a 2000 Mel Gibson film).

The park is also the site of the graves of Elijah and Hannah Clarke.  I think Elijah and Hannah Clark were brave settlers.

Until next time,

             Dolores