Joseph Emerson Brown

Joseph Emerson Brown. . , In November 1864 Milledgeville was the capital of Georgia. General William Sherman and his men were drawing near as they marched through the State. With the legislature in session, Governor Joseph E. Brown was doing all he could to pack the state records and get as much of the state property into a place of safety. The records were loaded onto rail cars. The train, barely escaping Sherman's army, departed from Milledgeville and arrived the next morning in Macon, Ga with the state records and family members. The train then headed to Southwest Georgia seeking safety. After arriving in Montezuma Governor Joe Brown left his family and returned to Macon to be with the Georgia troops. He arrived there just as Sherman's skirmishers were engaging the army of Georgians who were defending the city. Thirty miles southeast of Montezuma, where the train crossed Blackshear Road, there in the heart of the pine forests was safety for the women and children as well as the priceless state archives. The governor had purchased a 1300 acre tract the year before and had established a home there. This was to be the safe haven for the families and the temporary capitol of an invaded but unconquered state. Many years later, 48th district Senator C.M. Mckenzie, had written on the records of the state a resolution which set forth that Gov. Joe Brown's home in the City of Cordele (where now stands the Suwanee House) was for a while the temporary capitol of Georgia; that there the archives of the state and the great seal were kept, safe from the hands of the invading army. Governor Brown kept his home in Crisp County until July 9, 1872, when he sold the 1327 acre tract.

This article was written by Mary Virginia Brown and from the Cordele Dispatch as told by C.M. Mckenzie..