Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsCapt. John Willcox Did Not Raise His Glass To Old Hickory
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
Capt. John Willcox, Jr. was certainly a man caught in the middle of a lot of stuff and between the twilights of changing times. As a baby and youngster, he had seen the flash and heard the sounds of the Revolution. In fact, he had left the turbulence of North Carolina and the aftermath of the fighting between the Regulators and the Tories and Regulators and British to come to Georgia where he probably hoped to find some peace.
That War about tore up what was left of neighborhoods and confidences in North Carolina because many times your neighbor turned out to be your enemy. The cruel British had hanged many of the Willcoxes's friends, one being an officer who was told his life would be spared if he brought in one of the main Regulators. His wife and fourteen year-old son (who had asked to be hanged in place of his father but was refused) were held hostage and when the officer returned without his man he was hanged. A plaque there respects the efforts of that brave man and five more Regulators who were also hanged.
John Jr.'s father, named John also, who narrowly escaped hanging, had made his last cannon ball for the Patriots and was now sleeping with his fathers (died 1793). Actually, he is buried in North Carolina and his father, Thomas, is buried at Ivy Mills, Pennsylvania. The British had also destroyed the family ironworks. And what the British didn't destroy, the raging and rising Deep River did, and so another investment in this area probably did not appeal greatly to John, Jr.
Capt. John Willcox was a man of great wit and loved jolly times when he could find them. He was also a man who, despite his good and mirthful spirit, had seen the devastation of war and like many of our forefathers who saw the lash of the Depression, wanted to be square and solid with his money. Thus, he was a man who was accustomed to "paying as he went." He would not have been one, in our current day, who would buy a sofa this year and not pay interest (or payments) until goodness knows when.
But John, Jr. saw some of the same devastation in Georgia that he had witnessed in North Carolina. The Revolution had passed but now Capt. John faced the perils of the War of 1812. He built and ran pole boats and carried supplies up and down the Ocmulgee and Altamaha rivers to the military stations scattered up and down the rivers. It is said he built forty-three of these pole boats during the war period.
As General Jackson claimed victory in New Orleans in 1815, he was immediately a hero because, for one reason, the people badly needed a hero - a hero from the conflict that severed us forever from English rule and burned our capitol. Even Dolley Madison was proclaimed a heroine for saving valuable papers and getting out of the burning buildings before the roof caved in (hopefully it wasn't that close but it was certainly not a pleasant thing for her by any means).
So, about the time Capt. John thought he had a hero to idolize and a break from fighting, he realized it just wasn't so. General Andrew Jackson demonstrated that he was not coming back from Florida to help the Ocmulgee pioneers and the Indians had started the fighting again. So, John's hero and his break from fighting pretty much evaporated. The only things he had to show for his troubles were the scalps of the Burch men, the subsequent Battle of Breakfast Branch (which included a wounded son), the massacre at Chehaw Village, and all the things that went with all that bloody business (see past articles for those stories). It indeed was not a happy time for John Willcox.
But John probably felt a little sorry for Capt. Jacob Robinson, because they were not only hauling Jacob into court on charges of leaving his military post to have John Willcox build a boat for him. He was also being used as a goat to replace Capt. Obed Wright who had fled to Cuba (with the help of Jacob and others, including Gov. Rabun and soon-to-be Gov. John Clark). As we remember, Jacob was in on the massacre at Chehaw Village.
The court-martial found Jacob Robinson guilty and kicked him out of the army but all of this was reversed shortly afterward by Governor John Clark who had helped the soldiers and settlers all along. E-cun-naw-au-po-po-hau (what the Indians called Clark because they said he was always asking for more land) had short patience with any faction who did not support the frontier men. In fact, he had horsewhipped Judge Tait through the streets of Milledgeville and had shot William H. Crawford in the wrist during a duel over some of these issues. He was not about to let Old Sharp Knife (Indians' name for General Andrew Jackson) or anyone else pick on the Ocmulgee people. The Clarks were smart people because Gibson Clark, John's brother, had graduated as the first valedictorian at the University of Georgia in 1804. But they were rather aggressive, too. Probably took after their pa, General Elijah Clarke, who started his own country up around Toomsboro, Georgia, and really didn't like it when George Washington made him shut it down. I suppose the Father of Our Country thought one country was enough.
But, as John Willcox reflected on these things, he saw brighter stars glowing. The country had about convinced England that coming over here messing around was not the most healthful or profitable thing to do.
And, he saw more Willcoxes coming along. He and his wife, Mary Lea Willcox, were responsible for a bunch of them. Their house was full of children and their names were: (1) Mark Lea Willcox, (2) Joseph Willcox, (3) James Lea Willcox, (4) Lewis Barge Willcox, (5) George Willcox, (6) Woodson Willcox, (7) Nancy Willcox, (8) Thomas Lea Willcox, (9) John Willcox, (10) Rebecca Willcox, (11) Mitchell Griffin Willcox, (12) Mary Willcox, (13) Clark Willcox, and (14) Elizabeth Willcox.
Right off, we can see John and Mary took seriously the charge of Providence to replenish the Earth. I believe they did their part - and then some.
But at the July 4, 1834, celebration at Jacksonville, Georgia, John Willcox did not raise his glass in a toast to Old Hickory, as did some of the others in the crowd , but the mind and mouth of the old sage from the boatyard up the river formed these words ---"To the Heroes of the Revolution and Signers of the Declaration of Independence." Yes, John had placed upon the pedestal of his life in America the heroes he thought worthy of praise - but General Andrew Jackson was not among them.
Credits:
Telfair History Book, 1807-1987;
Willcox Family History by Martha Albertson;
John Willcox (1728-1793) by Historical Research Company;
Pioneer Days Along the Ocmulgee by Fussell Chalker;
History of Telfair County (1807-1987);
History of Georgia by Merton Coulter;
Telfair Newspaper Clippings (1810-1892) by Tad Evans;
info furnished by Gertrude Wilcox Williams and Diane Williams Rogers and others;
various other sources.
