Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsIf Ghosts Aren't Real, They Surely Are Popular!
And Jacksonville Had Its Share of Them ---
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
It seems like a good bit happened around old Jacksonville, Georgia. For one thing, it's been there a long time for things to happen. In his book, "Black Diamonds", Dr. Russell Mootry, Jr. says that there was talk at one time about making Jacksonville the capital of Georgia. But they went up the river into Pulaski County and thought they had a winner in Jacksonville's sister city, Hartford (the two towns were established the same day - December 14, 1815). Well, Hartford almost made it but lost out to Milledgeville by one vote - so the capital of Georgia, at that time, went to Milledgeville. If you don't have a copy of Black Diamonds, get one from my friends, Mr. George "Brat" Wells or his daughter, Georgia. This interesting and comprehensive work tells a lot about the contributions of black citizens in Telfair County. And other things.
Yes, many things happened around Jacksonville - routine and otherwise. Today, we will deal with the "otherwise." My friend and kinsman, Prof. Robert Jeffries of LaGrange, Georgia, told me some things from his childhood that confirms my belief that there's a lot out there we don't fully understand. Some of it concerns certain "spirits." Some people refer to these entities as "ghosts." Now, there may not be a thing to them, but they surely are popular! I do some presentations for schools and civic clubs and the most requested one is "Ghosts of the South." Even the man for whom Jacksonville is named, General Andrew Jackson, had an encounter with one of these beings in Robertson County, Tennessee. But that is another story.
Back to what perplexed my kinsman Robert Jeffries in 1939. Robert was just a small boy and his grandmother, Anna (Annie) Jane White Wells, was on her deathbed. Her husband, Newton Wells, had died many years before, in 1911. The family was gathered, as was the custom, for the inevitable demise of this loved one and Robert and a brother were playing out in the yard.
What they saw would defy conventional analysis. As they played, they noticed that a lone tree out in the field beyond them was now equipped with a swing and in that swing was a beautiful young lady dressed in the attire of the Civil War era. Not only was there a young lady in the swing but by her side helping her swing was a Confederate soldier who had come across the field to join her at the tree!
Robert and his brother made a quick decision to go in and inform the rest of the clan about this extraordinary revelation which had unfolded right before their eyes. But, by the time his mother had reached the scene of the unexplainable, there stood the lone tree as it had been before, without a swing, and without the presence of the young lady and her Confederate suitor.
At about this time also, word came from the house that Grandmother Annie Jane White Wells had passed on to her reward.
Robert has run this experience back for review many times. He has concluded that perhaps he was given the chance to see a scene from the past - when the young girl, his grandmother, was swinging in the swing, and her Confederate suitor, destined to become her husband, home from the Civil War, joined her there. And now he had come back one last time, from his own death years before, to escort his precious love to those happy regions beyond that veil we cannot comprehend.
Yes, here was 5th Sergeant Newton R. Wells, 50th Georgia Infantry, returning to deliver his devoted wife, Annie Jane, from the cares of the earth and its timebound limitations.
Newton had grown up in Lowndes County and had joined the 50th to fight for the South. He had sustained severe head wounds which left him with partial sight and a hearing loss. It is said that he could not toil in the heat of the sun because of these wounds. He, like many others, received a small pension - little compensation for such sacrifice.
As Robert reminded me of his story, which by the way, is on page 41 of the Telfair County History (1807-1987) Book, he also related other interesting stories handed down to him (via some kinfolk) from the oldsters of yesteryear.
One was particularly interesting. A man lived up at China Hill (between Rhine and Jacksonville) and had been to McRae. On his return trip he caught a ride on a wagon pulled by an ox team. He could probably have made better time walking but I suppose he had been shopping and needed a ride - albeit a slow one. Anyway, it was raining and cold (maybe about like its been around here for the last few days) and in this nasty weather he knew he was going to have to walk the last leg of his journey from Jacksonville to China Hill, a distance of roughly seven miles.
At the two-mile mark, he was at Blockhouse Church, and weary and wet and cold, decided to enter the church. Worn to a frazzle by his trip and adverse weather conditions, he became sleepy and lay on one of the pew benches. It was dark but he awoke and the church was now "lit up" and people were singing, praying, and preaching. In his state of bewilderment, he noticed that no one paid any attention to him and kept their worship service going full steam ahead! It was as though he was invisible to them! At once, he also became acutely aware that he did not recognize any of these people and was not really hankering to make their acquaintance! He decided to leave - if he could!
Making another lightning-fast decision, he glued himself to the nearest wall and slid quietly, but swiftly, out of the place. He did not bother negotiating the steps of the building but cleared them with one giant leap - owing to the large amount of adrenaline he had generated. He landed with his feet moving forward.
Not waiting for the next ox cart to come along, he ran wildly and frantically up the road toward China Hill with no more stops along the way in mind. He also did not look back - probably thinking this would either cut his speed, allow him to see "one of those ghosts" gaining on him, or maybe he just didn't want to remember what he might see!
Anyway, the poor fellow said they had to be ghosts because he didn't recognize a one in the bunch. Also, the preacher said later that they had no services in the church that night. I know that must have been comforting to this man who probably begged for a little more definition of the word "they."
He probably never attended another service at Blockhouse but he's not the only one who had an unconventional experience there. More on that later.
