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Any Museum can invite you to look.... A great one changes the way you see!
A Restored and furnished ante-bellum home containing a fine collection of Confederate items, as well as other exhibits which tell the story of Wilkes County, Georgia.
Located at 308 East Robert Toombs Avenue in beautiful, historic Washington, Georgia. (U.S Highway 78 - Business).
Property of the City of Washington, Georgia.
Come see us soon!!!
The mission of the Washington Historical Museum is to collect, preserve and interpret the history of Wilkes County and the piedmont region of Georgia. To help people connect with the past so they have an understanding of the present and are better prepared for the future.
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Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday:
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sunday: 12:30pm to 3:30pm
Closed Mondays and all major Holidays
Admission:
Adults: $3.00
Children 5 – 12: $2.00
Under 5: Free
 
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Washington Historical Museum
308 East Robert Toombs Avenue
Washington, Georgia 30673
Phone (706) 678.2105
Email: historical@washingtonwilkes.org
I. Wilkes County
Even before the colonization of Savannah, Georgia, pack traders and trappers were in this area and intrepid families were slowly moving in. However, from the moment the broadside issued by Governor Wright in June 1773 went out into the Carolinas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania offering the rich, deep-loamed, well-watered hills of these ceded lands of northeast Georgia. For headright settlement, sturdy pioneers of English, Scotch-Irish, and German descent brought their families to claim this favored earth. In 1774, the first forts were established near the confluence of the Broad and Savannah Rivers just north of the present town of Washington, Georgia and became known as Fort Heard.
This stockade, named for one of the Virginia families, was constructed for protection against possible Indian attacks, and later served as defense against British assaults during the Revolutionary War. Soon after its completion, another stockade, called Heard’s Fort for its builder, Stephen Heard, was constructed eight miles away on Fishing Creek. (Heard’s Fort served as a temporary seat of government in 1780 during the British occupation.) One year after the Declaration of Independence, the Executive Council re-designated these ceded lands as Wilkes County (1777), making it the first county of the State of Georgia.
In early 1779, Wilkes County men, under leadership of Elijah Clarke and John Dooly, overwhelmingly defeated the British in the battle of Kettle Creek, eight miles from the site of present day Washington. Momentarily relieved of British assaults, Clarke and Dooly united these men again to fight and defeat a band of 800 Creek Indians in March, 1779. They distinguished themselves in Revolutionary battles in other states, e.g. Cowpens and the Battle of Kings Mountain. From the spring of 1780 until July 1781, the British occupied Augusta, sending raiders into Wilkes County to subdue the zealous patriots. One band murdered John Dooly in his home; Stephen Heard’s wife and child died from exposure in a snowstorm when their cabin was burned; and Elijah Clarke’s wife and children were driven from their home and forced to flee to North Carolina. Nancy Hart, a Wilkes County mother, became the hero of numerous legends including one in which she killed two Tories and held others at gunpoint while her daughter ran for help. In July 1781, Wilkes County troops assembled for the last time and drove the British from Augusta. On July 11, 1782, the British left Savannah, and in November, the War was over.
In the peaceful years following the Revolutionary War, Washington and Wilkes County began to prosper and population grew rapidly as planters were attracted by the soil. The cotton era began. Wagons and flatboats, loaded with the money- making fiber traveled post roads and rivers to reach their market. And with wealth came fine white-columed homes of the ante-bellum period, replacing early log cabins and austere plainstyle homes.
Prosperity and peace brought the promotion of education and religion. Sanders Walker organized Fishing Creek Baptist Church in the northern part of the county in 1783. Washington Academy, one of the first three public schools chartered by the State, was opened in 1786 for boys and girls of all ages and offered a traditional academic education. The Methodists opened Succoth Academy near Washington in the 1790s, operating until 1803. The Rev. John Springer, first Presbyterian minister to be ordained in Georgia, was ordained in 1790. Educator as well as minister, Springer operated a school at his home, Walnut Hill. One of his first pupils, Jesse Mercer, later founded Mercer University.
From the original Wilkes County, nine other counties were taken and it is from this area that Georgia has been populated. Of the first thirteen governors, eleven were from original Wilkes. Wilkes County was named for John Wilkes, a Colonial Supporter in the British House of Commons. George Walton of Washington, Georgia who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was a large landowner and first circuit judge.
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On January 23, 1780, the Legislature appointed five men to lay out a hundred acres in Wilkes County into a common and town, “which shall be called Washington.” Stephen Heard and Micajah Williams, two of five men appointed by the Legisature, served as commissioners to see that lots were sold, a free school was built, and surplus money was used for the construction of a church.
In 1786, Micajah Williamson opened a tavern, located on the present site of the Wilkes County Courthouse. Here, Politicians met and one of the tavern rooms temporarily served as a courtroom. In 1790, the town also served as a stop for stagecoach lines from Augusta.
In 1804, a stage line was incorporated to operate stages between Augusta and Washington. New Business enterprises took place in the expanding town, and rapidly replaced the few remaining residences around the public square.
The railroad began to develop in Georgia in the late 1830s. However, it was not until 1847 that Samuel Barnett and other members of the Washington Railroad and Banking Company were able to induce the Georgia Railroad to build a branch from the main line to Washington. The spur was completed in 1853.
On the night of January 19, 1861, messengers brought the news of Georgia’s secession, and a new Confederate emblem, a blue flag with a single five-pointed star, was raised in front of the courthouse. Four-years later, on May 5, 1865, remnants of the Confederate cabinet from Richmond met in Washington and President Jefferson Davis met with his Confederate Cabinet for the last time.
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III. Washington Historic Museum
Often referred to as the Barnett-Slaton House, the Washington Historical Museum is built on land once owned by Micajah Williamson and is a white frame, two-story house. There are eighteen rooms, numerous hallways, and thirteen doors leading outside. Albert Gallatin Semmes who acquired the land in 1835 from his brother-in-law, William L. Harris, probably constructed its earliest section in 1835 or1836. Harris also owned the adjoining property, which he sold in 1837 to Robert Toombs. He sold the property, dwelling and outbuildings to Mrs.Mary Sneed in 1836 for $4,500. About twenty years later (1857) the house and the hundred acres surrounding it were acquired by Samuel Barnett, a Washington attorney, author of several books and Georgia’s first Railroad Commissioner. Mr. Barnett greatly enlarged the house with the addition of the front rooms, hallways, and the present staircase. His descendants lived here until the death of his daughter, Mrs. Edward McKendree Bounds, in 1913. At that time, the surrounding acreage was divided and sold separately, the house with its present lot going to Mr. William Armstrong Slaton, whose family lived here until 1955. Shortly thereafter the City of Washington acquired the property and home and deeded it to the State of Georgia for the establishment of a museum. The restoration of the home by the Georgia Historical Commission was planned and directed by the late Thomas G. Little, historical architect.
Edward Fauntleroy Willis of Richmond, Virginia gave many of the furnishings in the Museum to the City of Washington. They originally belonged to Mr. Willis’ great-grandfather, Dr. Francis Thomas Willis, who was a native of Washington, and are typical of things to be found in fine Georgia homes of the mid-19th century.
Our collection of Civil War relics is one of the finest in the South. It includes Jefferson Davis’ camp chest given to him by English sympathizers and used until he left his generals, cabinet members and staff after the final cabinet meeting. Other exhibits include original photographs, signed documents, Joe Brown pikes, and Ku Klux Klan regalia of the Reconstruction days. Casts of the original busts of the men in Georgia’s Hall of Fame by sculptor Bryant Baker are on display, as is a collection of Indian relics gathered by a native of Wilkes County, the late Morton Reese. A fine collection of guns of the period is on display, also.
The Main floor of the museum is furnished as a typical doubles parlor, dining room, and bedroom of the mid-century. The ground floor has been restored as a kitchen and storage area, including a dry well. The corner cupboard in the plantation office on the ground floor was made in Wilkes County.
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The Washington Historical Museum
Presents
COVERING TIME WITH QUILTS AND COVERLETS OF WILKES COUNTY, GEORGIA
A quilt and coverlet exhibit of 19th century Georgia
Museum Hours:
10 – 5 Tuesday through Saturday
12:30 – 3:30 Sunday
Closed Mondays and Major Holidays.
Admission:
Adults $4.00
Children 5 – 12 $2.00
Under 5 Free
Contact the Washington Historical Museum at 706-678-2105 or historical@washingtonwilkes.org
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