The William Harris Homestead, located in Monroe, GA, dates back to 1825 when the first white settlers began to inhabit this part of Georgia.  The main attraction is the log house, which has been restored and filled with items that a nineteenth century farm family would have owned and used.  On the grounds there is also an original smokehouse, corn crib, salt house, and barn.  You can walk down to the natural springs that the early Harris family used for fresh water.  The family cemetery is also on the property.

    In the 1980s, Hubert Harris owned the property, and he and his wife, my Great Aunt Jesse Ginn Harris, built a marvelous home across the highway from the Harris Homestead.  When they found the original homestead, it was not in the best condition, and my great aunt decided to restore the house and the outbuildings.  She is also responsible for having this property and the entire farm listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  It is due to her hard work that this Homestead is now a museum and open to the public.  My mother’s cousin, Dotty Harris Zazworsky, is the Managing Director, and it’s because of her hard work and dedication that over 30,000 school children have toured the grounds during field trips over the past 10+ years!

    Below I’ve written a history of the homestead and how it’s used today.  You can also find out more information by visiting their website at www.harrishomestead.com.

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HISTORY

    In 1818, the state of Georgia bought 1.5 million acres of land from the Creek Indians for $120,000.  The state divided the land into counties, and this was when Walton County was born.  In order to entice people to the largely unpopulated areas, the state conducted six land lotteries to distribute the land.  According to Anita Sams’ Wayfarers in Walton, people who wanted to draw in the lotteries had to meet certain qualifications.  One such example was a soldier of Indian wars who was a resident of Georgia during or since military service.  Some widows and orphans also qualified with certain stipulations. 1

    During the third land lottery of 1820, a Mr. James Gardner of Richmond County drew on lot #149, and a widow, Barbary Wilson of Washington County, drew lot #122.  Each lot was 250 acres and would later make up the Harris land.  Soon after, a Mr. William Carr bought both tracts of land, and it is thought that he built the log house now known as the William Harris Homestead sometime between 1821 and 1825.

    Mr. Carr also won land in the sixth lottery, known as the Cherokee Lotteries of 1832, which may be a reason why he sold this land on October 29, 1836 to John D. Harris and Willis Kilgore.  John was William Harris’s older brother, and Willis was their brother-in-law.  John and Willis deeded the land to John’s mother, Milly Harris, a widow, and she and her son William, who was 21 years old, moved into the log house.  The property has been in the Harris family ever since.

    William Harris married Harriet Amanda Davenport of Athens, and together they raised twelve children and worked the land.  Much like any family in the 19th century, they provided for themselves, and “raised row crops, wove wool and cotton cloth for clothing and household linens; raised livestock for milk, butter and meat; raised chickens, ducks and geese; grew their own wheat and corn for flour and vegetable gardens and orchards; preserved fruits and vegetables for the winter; and they kept small formal gardens for flowers and shrubs.” 2

    William Harris was a successful farmer who owned slaves, and his cash crop was cotton.  During the Civil War, when Sherman marched through Georgia with the intention of destroying the rail system, his unit passed by the homestead a mere 17 miles away, spending one night in Social Circle.  Though Sherman’s march did not directly affect the Harris homestead, it affected the farmer, who depended on the railroad to ship his cotton to Savannah and other places for export.  Through inventories and a census every ten years, it is clear that the Harris farm never fully recovered.  Though they maintained a certain standard of living, it did not improve further.  After William’s death in 1879, his property was appraised and according to the Walton County Estate Returns 1885 (p. 270), his land, which at the time consisted of 365 acres, was worth $2,000. 3

    The log house is a “plantation plain-type house” with two rooms upstairs and two downstairs.  It was similar to early Virginia architecture, and it still has the original 6” x 8” oak timbers, which at the time were insulated with homemade chinking.  The log house possesses its original floors, and visitors can see some of the original wooden pegs on the upper floor.  The doors are also original. 

    At the time when William lived in the log house, the kitchen would have been built away from the house and connected with a breezeway.  This was because fires could easily ignite in the kitchen, and they did not want the house to burn down.  During the restoration, which took place between 1986 and 1990, over two feet of mud was removed from the cellar, and this revealed the original stone floor and more of the log house’s foundation, which is made of handmade bricks and fieldstones.  The cellar was a very important place for William’s family because it remained cool, and they could store milk, butter, fruits and vegetables there.

    The house and land passed through more generations of the Harris family until 1935, when Hubert Harris and Mell Harris bought the land, and then in 1956, Mell Harris conveyed his portion over to Hubert.

    Jessie Ginn Harris worked for over two years and succeeded in getting the William Harris Homestead listed in the National Register for Historic Places in 1982.  Her original application submitted in 1980 requested that the log house and surrounding four acres be considered for the register, but when the property was surveyed, much to the delight of the Harris family, the entire farm was put on the National Register.  This is because the land had been owned and farmed by the same family for several generations.  Not only does the property represent life in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it “constitutes the major portion of a farm that has been in continuous operation for nearly 150 years and, thus, it represents the initiation and evolution of farming practices in the Georgia piedmont.” 4

HOW THE HOMESTEAD IS USED TODAY

    Today, the children of Hubert and Jessie Ginn Harris own and operate the property, and in 2001, they created the William Harris Homestead Foundation.  Several acres of land have been placed under the protection of the Foundation.  “My sisters and brother and I all had the same favorite haunts – places we remembered playing as children – so adding this land to the Foundation is our way of preserving our memories as well as our ancestor’s home,” says Dotty Zazworsky, managing director. 

    In the spring and fall, many school children tour the homestead to learn about “A Day in the 19th Century.”  The children are split into groups and rotate in four 30-minute segments. 

    One huge hit with the children is learning about the daily life of a Civil War soldier.  Robbie Mitchell, a Civil War interpreter, dresses in a Confederate uniform and shows the students how a soldier lived day to day and from battle to battle.  Not only does he tell them such things as what the soldier might have carried with him in his ruck sack and what they ate, he shows them how the soldiers lined up in formation and the different commands they used and also the loading steps of a musket-rifle.  He ends the lesson by firing it into the air. 

    Mrs. Zazworsky shows the children the house and how women in the 19th century spun cotton and wool on a real spinning wheel.  The term “spinster” came about because it was usually the unmarried women who had the task of sitting for hours and hours spinning cotton.  She also shows them how then the thread is woven into cloth on a real, working loom.  At the fireplace, whose original mantel is a simple “Federal-style,” she talks about how they cooked their food.  Upstairs, she shows them the “rope beds.”  At night, someone had to tighten the ropes with a key, and this is may have been how the term “sleep tight” came about.  On top of the ropes lay mattresses filled with feathers or cornhusks.

    Another segment of the tour involves the house garden, where children learn about medicinal herbs and how they were used in the 19th century and also how William Harris and his descendants preserved their food and made their own candles from beeswax.  The fourth segment includes a walk to the Harris spring, a lesson about the Creek Indians who at one time fished and camped near the Apalachee River, and also a hayride along the banks of the river.

    Aside from being recognized in 1982 on the National Register for Historic Places, the Homestead has also received the Citation for Excellence Award, 1990, by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation; the Centennial Farm Award, 1993, by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources; and most recently it has received a “bricks and mortar” grant from the Georgia Heritage Program offered through the Georgia Department of National Resources’ Historic Preservation Division.  With this grant, the Foundation has been able to replace the log house’s porch stairs and roof, and also restore the corncrib.

1  Anita Sams, Wayfarers in Walton (The General Charitable Foundation of Monroe, Georgia, Inc.) 46-47

2  Jessie Ginn Harris, National Register Nomination Information Form (1980) 3

3  Jessie Ginn Harris, National Register Nomination Information Form (1980) Exhibit P

4 United States Department of the Interior Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, June 22, 1982