This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/Bd.2ADE/698 Message Board Post: The following is transcribed from recently located family papers of a Heard family descendent. It tells of the family's and Georgia's rich history. ******** Georgia Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends Lucian Lamar Knight, 1913 William Heard was a pioneer citizen of Harris Co. made from Troup and Muscogee Cos. P. 670. >From Heard Co. created in 1830, and made from parts of three counties: Carrol, Troup, and Coweta. Franklin is the county seat. Stephen Heard, patriot and pioneer, belonged to an English family with large estate in Ireland, but was himself a native of Hanover County Virginia where he was born in 1769, with several of his kinsmen, he settled in what was then known at St. Paul’s Parrish but later on he located as what afterwards became Heards Fort, so called from a stockade which he built with the help of his brother. During the reign of Toryism in upper Ga., his wife and babe were one day thrust out in a snow and both died; and Stephen Heard found a new incentive for patriotism his tragic bereavement. He joined Clarke and Dooly, in relentless warfare against the Tories, and at intervals served the State in civil capacities. The circumstances under which Heard’s Fort became at one time the capital of Ga. May be briefly told. During the absence from the State of Gov. Howley, who was called to Philadelphia by an important session of the Continental Congress the duties of Chief Magistrate fell upon George Wells, Pres. of the Council, but he was killed in a duel with Gov. Jackson, whereupon Stephen Heard, who was next in line of succession became defacto Gov. of Ga.; and when Augusta fell into the hands of the Tories in 1780 he transferred the seat of government to Heards Fort, where it remained until Augusta was retaken. After the cessation of hostilities with England, Stephen Heard became a justice of the Co. Court and a Brig. Gen. In the State Militia. He died at Heardmont in what is now the county of Elbert, Nov. 13, 1813. >From Wilkes Co. P. I042. Stephen Heard, toward the close of the year 1773, planted a colony of Virginians, on the site of the present town of Washington where he built a stockade fort. It is more likely that the first comers to Wilkes Co. were N. Carolinians. The Virginians owned larger tracts of land than the Tar-heels and were proud and better educated and possessed more democratic so the first difference in politics in Ga. started right here. The first settlement on the site of the town of Washington, in Wilkes Co. was made by a colony of immigrants from Westmoreland Co. Va. headed by Stephen Heard, a pioneer who afterwards rose to high prominence in public affairs. Two brothers accompanied him to Ga. Barnard and Jesse, and possibly his father, John Heard, was also among the colonists. They arrived in 1733 and they began to build a stockade fort, which they called Fort Heard. The Heards were of English stock but possessed landed estates in Ireland. It is said of John Heard that he was a man of explosive temper, due to his somewhat aristrocratic blood and that, growing out of a difficulty over tithes, in which he used a pitch-fork on a minister of the church, he hastily resolved upon an ocean voyage to escape the consequences. This fort was harassed during the Rev. war period. There were many acts of cruelty committed when the tide of British success in Ga. was at the flood. Stephens wife was one and his brother, Maj. Bernard Heard, was put in irons, taken to Augusta and sentenced to hang but on the eve of the siege he made his escape and took an active part in the events that followed. It is said that among the prisoners rescued from the hands of the British was his father, John Heard, an old man who was on the point of exhaustion from hunger. In the spring of 1780 Heards Fort became temporarily the seat of the State government in Ga. Stephen Heard was at this time a member of the Executive Council and as stated in the first page assumed the direction of affairs, after the death of Geo. Wells. To ensure a place of safety for the law-making power when Augusta was threatened, Stephen H. transferred the seat of government to Heards Fort in the Co. of Wilkes, where it remained until Augusta was retaken by the Americans. On the traditional site of Heards Fort was built the famous old Heard house, which was owned and occupied for years by Gen. B.W. Heard, a descendent of Jesse H., one of the original pioneers. It stood on the north side of the court house square, where it was afterwards used as a bank and where, on May 5, 1865, was held the last meeting of the Confederate Cabinet. On April 25, 1779, the first court held in the up-country north of Augusta was held at Heard’s Fort.