Stampless Covers - Georgia - Item#20770
Click on image to enlarge.
Item# 20770

NEWNAN Ga. OCT 11 861 neatly struck light cds with matching PAID 5 (CSA Catalog type A, CV $200) on cover to J. Belknap Smith, Esq., Columbia Mine, Ga. Some minor flap faults. $140.

COLUMBIA GOLD MINE – Georgia has been a Mecca for gold mining since the 1820s. One of the first miners in the territory was Jeremiah Griffin, a wealthy local farmer, who bought out the interest of two traveling Englishmen who had discovered gold on nearby lands. By purchasing 3,000 acres that adjoined his claim, Griffin soon had a virtual monopoly that shut out would-be competitors. Griffin later became a mining engineer and invented the gold stamp mill. It was erected on Little River about 1832. This invention was the forerunner of the gold mining mills of later years, and today the original stamp mill is housed at Yale University. A small book, titled simply "Gold Book," located on the shelves of the Probate Court office in Appling, relates to the gold fever of 1832 when people could buy a chance in the unique land lottery of Georgia. The prize was a hoped-for gold mine located on lands predominantly within the former Cherokee Indian reservation of northern Georgia. In time, a branch mint would be built at Dahlonega, Ga., for the manufacture of gold coins. Columbia County native Ignatius Few had a hand in helping to choose the architects for this project. Unfortunately, in the 1840s, after Griffin had enlarged his plant, he was accidentally shot and killed in a mishap with his own gun while returning from Alabama on his horse. Shortly thereafter, his enterprise was bought out by the Columbia Mining Company. Gold was first found in the Columbia Vein in 1823 and from that time until the beginning of the Civil War, the property was worked continuously by private methods, on a more or less extensive scale. Just preceding the War, 120 slaves were employed on this property in mining and milling 10 tons of ore per day. (W. H. Fluker: The Engineering and Mining Journal, 22 Sept 1900, page 340) This undertaking worked on a huge scale until the machinery was confiscated by the Confederate government during the Civil War and all the work came to a standstill. Also, about this time the mint was closed in Dahlonega. Many Southern miners had previously left in 1849 for the more lucrative gold fields of the west, namely California. Nevertheless, early postal records reveal that there was a post office operating at the Columbia Mines site until it was discontinued June 22, 1866, with Benjamin Brownhead serving as postmaster. Probably that last local gold boom was during the Great Depression years of the 1930s, when the Hamilton Mine of McDuffie County was worked for a while by William Fluker. A noted geologist, Fluker was a lecturer on the speaker's circuit at many conventions and gatherings in that field. He was the General Manager of the Columbia Mining Company in 1899. In the early 1900s, reports and letters were sent out looking for investors and interested buyers for its property and equipment. The investors found gold mining a very volatile venture. The J. Belknap Smith family and the William Fluker family lie in repose in fenced-in graves in a small cemetery on the Wilkes County side of Little River, where once they crossed over for their gold-digging ventures.



Price: $140