I am Jake Scudder, a Wilkes County man from Jackson,
A Whig and Republican in political conviction,
Resting beneath these columns of polished marble
Which stand on a hilltop at Diana's Chapel,
Rising like a sentinel to guard the treasure tunnel
And looking over the river toward Lewis Blackburn -
(except from larger writing ob Scudder)
Jacob McCartney Scudder was born in the last two decades of the 18th Century in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He moved to Georgia as a young man and served in the War of 1812. He was stationed at Fort Hawkins, named after Benjamin Hawkins. (1)
Just after the first quarter of the 19th Century, Jacob McCartney Scudder moved to the Cherokee Territory. He owned and operated a store that provided goods to locals who lived and traveled along the Federal and Alabama Roads. He became the first Senator (Whig Party) and legislated the creation of ten new counties from the Cherokee Territory. He became the first postmaster of the Hightower area of Forsyth County.
Scudder's home was located near the corner of present-day HWY 369 and Old Federal Road: the junction of the Alabama and Federal Road.
When the United States Government became aware of local gold mines, they opened Camp Eaton in May of 1830 on a 28-acre hillside near Scudder's property. Scudder was the primary provider of goods to the U.S. Troop regiments that were stationed there. However, in October of 1830, the camp was briefly shut down and the fort and the property passed ownership to Jacob Scudder. A few months later, at the request of the governor, the Georgia Guard moved into the fort on Scudder's property.
The second in command at the fort was Colonel Charles Haney Nelson. Colonel Nelson had a reputation for being a draconian leader. In 1831 he arrested and gathered several prominent area missionaries, including Reverend Samuel Worchester, postmaster of New Echota, Dr. Elizur Butler of Turnip Town Mountain, and Reverend Isaac Proctor of Sanderstown to Camp Gilmer for their refusal to vow their allegiance to the state of Georgia.
Note: Colonel Charles Nelson had previously owned a public house along the Federal Road further northwest in what is now Pickens County.
Note: Samuel Worchester is the namesake of Worchester v. United States, the Supreme Court case where Justice Marshall wrote in a 5 to 1 decision:
(the) "treaties and laws of the United States contemplate the Indian territory as completely separated from that of the states; and provide that all intercourse with them shall be carried on exclusively by the government of the union," Chief Justice Marshall argued, "The Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia can have no force."
The Court ruled Worchester's imprisonment as being unconstitutional and he was released from his four-year sentence at Milledgeville.
Scudder purchased Chief George Welch's mill on nearby Settingdown Creek from the original land lottery winner and sold it to Dr. Poole. Poole's Mill is named for him.
Jacob was known to be a kind and brilliant man who respected the Cherokee Indians and their way of life and did his best to comply with the government's laws. As a point of irony (at least through today's lenses), Jacob was a wealthy slaveowner. He owned many hundred acres of land in multiple counties.
Before he died, he purchased marble memorials for his family's graves: His own, his wife, and his son Alfred. After he died, rumors abounded about hidden gold that he had stored in his graveyard. In the 1970s, vandals brought a backhoe into the Scudder Family cemetery and broke open the tombs of Jacob and Diana. Whatever gold may have been there, if any, is long gone.
His original tombstone inscription reads:
"TO THE HONOURABLE MEMORY OF JACOB M. SCUDDER, who was born in Wilkes County Georgia the 13th. day of July 1788. Married Diana Jones in Jackson County Georgia the 7th. day of May 1812. Moved to the Cherokee Indian Country now Forsyth County Georgia in 1815. Departed this life March 7th. 1870. Ages 81 yrs. 7 Mo. 6 Dys. But his life was correct as most men."
For over forty years, it was thought that his bones were stolen in the vandalism. However, in 2011, a cemetery clean-up team comprised of Boy Scouts and adults found the bones of Jacob. They were reinterred in their proper place.
Diana's Chapel has over 40 unmarked graves. Among the dead are the Scudder family and their relatives, Cherokee Indians, and slaves.
Today, the cemetery is protected from heavy equipment because it is bounded on all four sides by private homes with fences.
(1) Famous Indian Agent appointed by George Washington whose roles in the Revolutionary War and in the Creek Territory of what now is Georgia were very important. On November 28th, 1796, Hawkins wrote of passing through and over the creek of Long Swamp (Ball Ground). Interestingly, Long Swamp was also known as Locunna Heat.
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