This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: dereddi Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.georgia.counties.screven/2357/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi Folks, The following is convoluted in its pathways, at places - but I think you may find the conclusion (a question, perhaps) to be interesting. I've been making a great deal of use of the Georgia Secretary of State Archives Search function, looking at early plats of Burke and Screven Counties. Among numerous items of interest to me that I've found is the 1787 plat of a 200 acre parcel granted to my gggg-grandfather Nicholas Reddick (aka Redick & Readick) on Brier Creek in then Burke County. This parcel was soon in Screven County, when that county was created in 1793. And alongside Nicholas Reddick's plats were some other plats that should be of interest to others. In 1787 Nicholas Reddick was granted 200 acres on "Halfway Branch", which was located on the "So side of Briar Creek near Paris' Sawmill". Paris' Mill was the location around which the village of Millhaven developed. Francis Paris bought land on Brier Creek at Pine Log Crossing starting in 1769 and by 1770 or shortly thereafter had a dam and mill constructed across Brier Creek. Francis Paris called his enterprise Milltown, but everyone else called it Paris' Mill. He advertised the enterprise as Milltown when he tried to sell it both before and after the Revolutionary War. Well, back to "Halfway Branch" - on the south side of Brier Creek and above Millhaven there are two large branches leading up to the Burke County line. These are Quill Branch which is located wholly within Screven County. Then there is Mill Branch, which is located in both Screven and Burke Counties. I am presently thinking that this "Halfway Branch" of that 1787 plat must be either the modern Quill or Mill Branch. I have focused on these two branches due to a later deed in which John Michael Burkhalter sells a land parcel to Francis Paris. In it that land parcel of Burkhalter is described as being adjacent to that of Nicholas Reddick and the land of Reddick adjoins the millpond of Francis Paris. Present-day topographic maps demonstrate where the remains of that millpond's dam and millraces are situated just above the bridge at Millhaven (downstream from those two branches). The ground of the creek bottom / floodplain surrounding the creek is below 110 feet in elevati! on at the point where the dam had been constructed. Between Millhaven and the Burke County line the creek bottom / floodplain elevation increases to 110 feet about halfway to that county line. The creek bottom elevation does not rise to 120 feet until perhaps two miles into Burke County along Brier Creek. If the millpond backed up behind the dam of Paris' Mill was not exceptionally deep, then it may have extended just a mile or two upstream from the dam's location in present-day Millhaven. If eight, ten, or twelve feet in depth as it spread away from the original banks of the creek, then the millpond might have entended further upstream to the Burke County line or even beyond. It is the presence of that millpond that helps to delimit where Nicholas Reddick's land may have been located. Well, here are four plats that may actually be linked together along the south side of Brier Creek. I've listed the four in the order of dates by which they were granted and surveyed. JPEG image files of he plats and the respective descriptions of the plats are attached to this message (on the Screven County message board - the images are not viewable via the GASCREVE e-mail list). 1) John Michael Burkhalter, adjacent to William Phillips and Mordecai ('Mordicae') Sheftall. 2) William Phillips on Brier Creek; adjacent to Sheftall, J. M. Burkhalter, and himself; with Greiner's Branch passing through both of Phillips' land parcels. Note that John Greiner is shown as the owner of the land parcel surrounding the mouth of Greiner's Branch as it empties into Brier Creek. This is likely John Martin Greiner / Griner (1739 - 1807), who was my ggggg-grandfather. J. M. Burkhalter is supposed to have acquired the land or William Phillips. During the early 1790s J. M. Burkhalter sold two land parcels to Francis Paris and to the brothers Jacob & Peter Reddick. Thus, it is likely that these two parcels described in items 1 & 2 were then shortly in other hands. 3) Charles Kimbrel with vacant lands surrounding his parcel; J. M. Burkhalter being a CC for his survey. 4) Nicholas Reddick, adjacent to J. M. Burkhalter, Charles Kimbrel, & Francis Paris; both J. M. Burkhalter & Francis Paris served as CC. Above I speculated that the Halfway Branch bisecting the parcel of Nicholas Reddick might be modern Quill or Mill Branch on the south side of Brier Creek. The same may be true of Greiner's Branch, as it too may also be one of those two stream courses on the south side of Brier Creek. Here's a little bit of information about John Martin Greiner. Note that he had been granted 250 acres in St. Georges Parish (Burke County) in 1768, only 16 years following his arrival in the colony of Georgia. JOHN MARTIN [3] GREINER (PHILIP JACOB [2], JOHANN CASPAR [1]) was born 1739 in Purysburg, SC & died 1807 in Screven Co., GA. He married MARIA EISCHBERGER May 24, 1763 in Effingham Co., GA, daughter of RUPRECHT EISCHBERGER and ANNA RIEDELSBERGER. Notes for JOHN MARTIN GREINER: Arrived 3rd Swabian Transport, November, 1752. John Martin Griner, Private in GA militia; wounded in battle of Eutaw Springs, SC. Granted 250 acres of land in Burke Co., GA on June 7, 1768. Notes for MARIA EISCHBERGER: Anna Maria Eischberger (Ashberger, Eysperger) was supposed to have come from Saalfelden. Some Eischbergers of the Georgia migration came from Werfen, a village south of Salzburg city. I'm descended from John Martin & Anna Maria via their son Timothy Griner (born February 2, 1765) who married Mary Brunson. Timothy and Mary's son William Jacob Griner (born 1793) married Elizabeth Spooner. That latter couple's son James Griner married Julia Ann Waters. And that couple's daughter Annie Griner married John F. Taylor, with those folks having been my great-grandparents. Then, there's the presence of Mordecai Sheftall. By 1767 he owned 1,000 acres in what became Burke County. At the time of these plats he was still listed as the landowner of some of those lands along Brier Creek. Mordecai Sheftall had been appointed to the position of Deputy Commissary General in Georgia in 1778 (during the Revolutionary War). He was designated as a 'Great Rebel' by the British prior to their taking of Savannah in 1778 (he was captured and tortured by the British). Thus, it was Mordecai Sheftall the Revolutionary War Patriot who owned the land near J. M. Burkhalter, Francis Paris, the Reddick brothers, and others along Brier Creek. He entered into business at age 17 and by the age of 18 years of age (in 1753) he had acquired a 50 acre lot in Vernonburg (near Savannah). And fourteen years later (1767) he was in business in the future Burke & Screven Counties. The following is from the Georgia Encyclopedia. It's a partial, condensed biography of Mord! ecai Sheftall. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3183 "Mordecai Sheftall (1735-1797) The highest-ranking Jewish officer on the colonial side during the Revolutionary War (1775-83), Mordecai Sheftall was also successful as a merchant and shipper and as a soldier and statesman. A highly visible participant in civic activities, he was consistently recognized for his talents by authorities at every level of society and government. He was born in Savannah on December 2, 1735, to Perla and Benjamin Sheftall, who had arrived in the Georgia colony, along with about forty other Jewish immigrant families, in 1733. They sailed on the /William and Sarah/ from London, England, and the Sheftalls were founding members of Congregation Mickve Israel. Sheftall was only eleven years old when his formal education ended, for lack of schools. By the time he was seventeen, he had begun what was to be a highly successful career as a merchant, buying and tanning deerskins to sell at a profit. When he was just eighteen years old, he had accumulated enough money to purchase fifty acres in Vernonburg, near Savannah. Throughout his life, Sheftall speculated in real estate. His pre-Revolution holdings were immense. Well-connected with friends and family in mercantile and shipping in England; the Caribbean; Charleston, South Carolina; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he developed a network of contacts to help build up his own business by his mid-twenties. Sheftall married Frances Hart, the sister of one of his Charleston merchant contacts, in 1761. The couple had six children, all but one living to adulthood. A year after their marriage, they owned 1,000 acres of land and nine slaves. Sheftall took up cattle ranching, acquiring another 1,000 acres in St. George Parish (later Burke County) in 1767 for grazing and timber harvesting. The cattle business led to his building a tanning facility with his half-brother Levi, and in 1768 the Georgia Houses of Assembly appointed him Inspector of Tanned Leather for the Port of Savannah." In the online Hollingsworth Card Catalog there is a single card entry for the Sheftall family. It notes that in 1802 the heirs of Benjamin Sheftall were receiving the lands within Screven County that had once belonged to Mordecai Sheftall (who had died in 1797). So, why am I suddenly focusing on Mordecai Sheftall, Jewish businessman from Savannah and Revolutionary War Patriot & Hero? Well, let's think a bit about the settlement of interior Burke and Screven Counties along Brier Creek. This was where a great deal of early colonial period settlement and economic development occurred in the two counties. The above description of his pre-War activities (from the Georgia Encyclopedia) places much of his economic activity in St. Georges' Parish by 1767. Sheftall is there along Brier Creek grazing cattle and harvesting timber. And what happens in 1769? The colonial miller Francis Paris leaves his milling operation on the Ogeechee River (it may have been located at Mill Creek in Bulloch County) and begins to establish a sawmill on Brier Creek just a short distance from a land parcel owned by Mordecai Sheftall. Paris operated two mills at his dam site on Brier Creek. They generated a reported 400 horsepower. There are hints that he ! had a third mill on his property at Millhaven. Why did Paris leave his Ogeechee River milling operation to start up anew on Brier Creek? Maybe he was looking for greener pastures and more virgin forests along Brier Creek. Perhaps he was invited there by a Savannah businessman who had already established a base of operations along Brier Creek. Who was the driving force behind the development of the milling complex at Paris' Milltown? Was it Francis Paris, himself - or was he invited or prompted to move his operations to Brier Creek. Who and /or what got business development started along Brier Creek? Those are some of my thoughts deriving from having looked at what appear to be four inter-connected plats of the latter 1780s along Brier Creek. Dale E. Reddick Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.

Dale, this is fascinating. The more you can write these kinds of instances up, the better for everyone on this list. It is immensely helpful to place these people during the Colonial period, and then to pinpoint them after the counties shook out. Thank you. Carole Drexel410@att.net -----Original Message----- From: gascreve-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:gascreve-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of gc-gateway@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 2:23 PM To: GASCREVE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [GASCREVE] Sheftall, Reddick, Phillips, Paris, Kimbrel, Greiner,& Burkhalter names on 1780s plats along Brier Creek. This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: dereddi Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.georgia.counties.sc reven/2357/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi Folks, The following is convoluted in its pathways, at places - but I think you may find the conclusion (a question, perhaps) to be interesting. I've been making a great deal of use of the Georgia Secretary of State Archives Search function, looking at early plats of Burke and Screven Counties. Among numerous items of interest to me that I've found is the 1787 plat of a 200 acre parcel granted to my gggg-grandfather Nicholas Reddick (aka Redick & Readick) on Brier Creek in then Burke County. This parcel was soon in Screven County, when that county was created in 1793. And alongside Nicholas Reddick's plats were some other plats that should be of interest to others. In 1787 Nicholas Reddick was granted 200 acres on "Halfway Branch", which was located on the "So side of Briar Creek near Paris' Sawmill". Paris' Mill was the location around which the village of Millhaven developed. Francis Paris bought land on Brier Creek at Pine Log Crossing starting in 1769 and by 1770 or shortly thereafter had a dam and mill constructed across Brier Creek. Francis Paris called his enterprise Milltown, but everyone else called it Paris' Mill. He advertised the enterprise as Milltown when he tried to sell it both before and after the Revolutionary War. Well, back to "Halfway Branch" - on the south side of Brier Creek and above Millhaven there are two large branches leading up to the Burke County line. These are Quill Branch which is located wholly within Screven County. Then there is Mill Branch, which is located in both Screven and Burke Counties. I am presently thinking that this "Halfway Branch" of that 1787 plat must be either the modern Quill or Mill Branch. I have focused on these two branches due to a later deed in which John Michael Burkhalter sells a land parcel to Francis Paris. In it that land parcel of Burkhalter is described as being adjacent to that of Nicholas Reddick and the land of Reddick adjoins the millpond of Francis Paris. Present-day topographic maps demonstrate where the remains of that millpond's dam and millraces are situated just above the bridge at Millhaven (downstream from those two branches). The ground of the creek bottom / floodplain surrounding the creek is below 110 feet in elevati! on at the point where the dam had been constructed. Between Millhaven and the Burke County line the creek bottom / floodplain elevation increases to 110 feet about halfway to that county line. The creek bottom elevation does not rise to 120 feet until perhaps two miles into Burke County along Brier Creek. If the millpond backed up behind the dam of Paris' Mill was not exceptionally deep, then it may have extended just a mile or two upstream from the dam's location in present-day Millhaven. If eight, ten, or twelve feet in depth as it spread away from the original banks of the creek, then the millpond might have entended further upstream to the Burke County line or even beyond. It is the presence of that millpond that helps to delimit where Nicholas Reddick's land may have been located. Well, here are four plats that may actually be linked together along the south side of Brier Creek. I've listed the four in the order of dates by which they were granted and surveyed. JPEG image files of he plats and the respective descriptions of the plats are attached to this message (on the Screven County message board - the images are not viewable via the GASCREVE e-mail list). 1) John Michael Burkhalter, adjacent to William Phillips and Mordecai ('Mordicae') Sheftall. 2) William Phillips on Brier Creek; adjacent to Sheftall, J. M. Burkhalter, and himself; with Greiner's Branch passing through both of Phillips' land parcels. Note that John Greiner is shown as the owner of the land parcel surrounding the mouth of Greiner's Branch as it empties into Brier Creek. This is likely John Martin Greiner / Griner (1739 - 1807), who was my ggggg-grandfather. J. M. Burkhalter is supposed to have acquired the land or William Phillips. During the early 1790s J. M. Burkhalter sold two land parcels to Francis Paris and to the brothers Jacob & Peter Reddick. Thus, it is likely that these two parcels described in items 1 & 2 were then shortly in other hands. 3) Charles Kimbrel with vacant lands surrounding his parcel; J. M. Burkhalter being a CC for his survey. 4) Nicholas Reddick, adjacent to J. M. Burkhalter, Charles Kimbrel, & Francis Paris; both J. M. Burkhalter & Francis Paris served as CC. Above I speculated that the Halfway Branch bisecting the parcel of Nicholas Reddick might be modern Quill or Mill Branch on the south side of Brier Creek. The same may be true of Greiner's Branch, as it too may also be one of those two stream courses on the south side of Brier Creek. Here's a little bit of information about John Martin Greiner. Note that he had been granted 250 acres in St. Georges Parish (Burke County) in 1768, only 16 years following his arrival in the colony of Georgia. JOHN MARTIN [3] GREINER (PHILIP JACOB [2], JOHANN CASPAR [1]) was born 1739 in Purysburg, SC & died 1807 in Screven Co., GA. He married MARIA EISCHBERGER May 24, 1763 in Effingham Co., GA, daughter of RUPRECHT EISCHBERGER and ANNA RIEDELSBERGER. Notes for JOHN MARTIN GREINER: Arrived 3rd Swabian Transport, November, 1752. John Martin Griner, Private in GA militia; wounded in battle of Eutaw Springs, SC. Granted 250 acres of land in Burke Co., GA on June 7, 1768. Notes for MARIA EISCHBERGER: Anna Maria Eischberger (Ashberger, Eysperger) was supposed to have come from Saalfelden. Some Eischbergers of the Georgia migration came from Werfen, a village south of Salzburg city. I'm descended from John Martin & Anna Maria via their son Timothy Griner (born February 2, 1765) who married Mary Brunson. Timothy and Mary's son William Jacob Griner (born 1793) married Elizabeth Spooner. That latter couple's son James Griner married Julia Ann Waters. And that couple's daughter Annie Griner married John F. Taylor, with those folks having been my great-grandparents. Then, there's the presence of Mordecai Sheftall. By 1767 he owned 1,000 acres in what became Burke County. At the time of these plats he was still listed as the landowner of some of those lands along Brier Creek. Mordecai Sheftall had been appointed to the position of Deputy Commissary General in Georgia in 1778 (during the Revolutionary War). He was designated as a 'Great Rebel' by the British prior to their taking of Savannah in 1778 (he was captured and tortured by the British). Thus, it was Mordecai Sheftall the Revolutionary War Patriot who owned the land near J. M. Burkhalter, Francis Paris, the Reddick brothers, and others along Brier Creek. He entered into business at age 17 and by the age of 18 years of age (in 1753) he had acquired a 50 acre lot in Vernonburg (near Savannah). And fourteen years later (1767) he was in business in the future Burke & Screven Counties. The following is from the Georgia Encyclopedia. It's a partial, condensed biography of Mord! ecai Sheftall. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3183 "Mordecai Sheftall (1735-1797) The highest-ranking Jewish officer on the colonial side during the Revolutionary War (1775-83), Mordecai Sheftall was also successful as a merchant and shipper and as a soldier and statesman. A highly visible participant in civic activities, he was consistently recognized for his talents by authorities at every level of society and government. He was born in Savannah on December 2, 1735, to Perla and Benjamin Sheftall, who had arrived in the Georgia colony, along with about forty other Jewish immigrant families, in 1733. They sailed on the /William and Sarah/ from London, England, and the Sheftalls were founding members of Congregation Mickve Israel. Sheftall was only eleven years old when his formal education ended, for lack of schools. By the time he was seventeen, he had begun what was to be a highly successful career as a merchant, buying and tanning deerskins to sell at a profit. When he was just eighteen years old, he had accumulated enough money to purchase fifty acres in Vernonburg, near Savannah. Throughout his life, Sheftall speculated in real estate. His pre-Revolution holdings were immense. Well-connected with friends and family in mercantile and shipping in England; the Caribbean; Charleston, South Carolina; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he developed a network of contacts to help build up his own business by his mid-twenties. Sheftall married Frances Hart, the sister of one of his Charleston merchant contacts, in 1761. The couple had six children, all but one living to adulthood. A year after their marriage, they owned 1,000 acres of land and nine slaves. Sheftall took up cattle ranching, acquiring another 1,000 acres in St. George Parish (later Burke County) in 1767 for grazing and timber harvesting. The cattle business led to his building a tanning facility with his half-brother Levi, and in 1768 the Georgia Houses of Assembly appointed him Inspector of Tanned Leather for the Port of Savannah." In the online Hollingsworth Card Catalog there is a single card entry for the Sheftall family. It notes that in 1802 the heirs of Benjamin Sheftall were receiving the lands within Screven County that had once belonged to Mordecai Sheftall (who had died in 1797). So, why am I suddenly focusing on Mordecai Sheftall, Jewish businessman from Savannah and Revolutionary War Patriot & Hero? Well, let's think a bit about the settlement of interior Burke and Screven Counties along Brier Creek. This was where a great deal of early colonial period settlement and economic development occurred in the two counties. The above description of his pre-War activities (from the Georgia Encyclopedia) places much of his economic activity in St. Georges' Parish by 1767. Sheftall is there along Brier Creek grazing cattle and harvesting timber. And what happens in 1769? The colonial miller Francis Paris leaves his milling operation on the Ogeechee River (it may have been located at Mill Creek in Bulloch County) and begins to establish a sawmill on Brier Creek just a short distance from a land parcel owned by Mordecai Sheftall. Paris operated two mills at his dam site on Brier Creek. They generated a reported 400 horsepower. There are hints that he ! had a third mill on his property at Millhaven. Why did Paris leave his Ogeechee River milling operation to start up anew on Brier Creek? Maybe he was looking for greener pastures and more virgin forests along Brier Creek. Perhaps he was invited there by a Savannah businessman who had already established a base of operations along Brier Creek. Who was the driving force behind the development of the milling complex at Paris' Milltown? Was it Francis Paris, himself - or was he invited or prompted to move his operations to Brier Creek. Who and /or what got business development started along Brier Creek? Those are some of my thoughts deriving from having looked at what appear to be four inter-connected plats of the latter 1780s along Brier Creek. Dale E. Reddick Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GASCREVE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message