Richard's Story- 1800-Life at Rocky Comfort Creek

 Rocky Comfort Creek, Burke County Georgia, 1800

Rocky Comfort Creek was home, and 16 year old Richard Womack would have known every inch of it. He would have silently walked the narrow deer paths that crisscrossed the towering pine forests, carrying a heavy long rifle, while hunting with his father, Jesse, and older brothers Jack and William. Young men his age could track game, shoot straight, and use a knife to clean the carcass. Richard would have carried home fresh venison, turkey, and other small game for his mother to prepare for their cooking pot. These were skills every young man took for granted in those days; but they were also skills every man needed to survive. Richard likely spent pleasant lazy hours under the shade of the oaks and hickory trees that lined the gentle stream, fishing with his two younger brothers, Frank and Jesse Jr., showing them the best spots to find the native trout and other fish that would also grace their table.

Their cabin would have been a simple one, with a couple of sleeping areas in the loft- one for the parents and one for the boys, with beds made of rope and shucked corn or feather mattresses, and quilts made by their mother which kept them warm on chilly nights in winter. A fireplace downstairs warmed the house and provided hot water for tea, but most folks had a separate kitchen building to keep the heat out of the main house in summer. This was often attached to the house by a covered breezeway, and a wide covered porch also shaded the front of the cabin. This design was called a dogtrot, and it was the most common type of home on the southern frontier, hewn of local pine, with a shingled roof.

Richard would have spent many pleasant evenings sitting on that porch, listening to the hoot owls and evening crickets, and watching the stars and fireflies, while his grandmother, and his father and uncles told their tales.

They had ever been wanderers, the Womack’s. His grandmother would have told him tales of her childhood. She and his grandfather had grown up on the banks of the James River on tobacco plantations upstream from the colonial capital of Williamsburg. Richard had probably never seen this fine colonial town, but he had certainly heard all about it from his grandmother. A true city- with brick buildings and ornate carriages; ladies in silk dresses and gentlemen in powdered wigs. Fine plantations along the river which sent barrels of tobacco across the ocean to England. Planters who raced fine horses and drank fine wine. But primogeniture was the law of the land- the eldest son inherited all, and most younger sons were sent out to find their way in the world. His grandparents moved away from their childhood home in Henrico County and on to Lunenburg County, Virginia, and then to Caswell County, North Carolina. Here young Richard had been born, before the family moved on to Georgia, settling here on Rocky Comfort Creek. His grandfather, for whom he had been named, died when he was just a baby.

But while tales of colonial days may have been pleasant to listen to on starry evenings, Richard was probably more thrilled by the stories of battles told by the men of the family. Young men are forever drawn to the tales of glory told by older ones, who, looking back at the excitement, often retell with splendid animation and embellishment. Story telling was an art in those days and one of the main forms of entertainment available. And the men certainly had exciting stories to tell. His grandfather and older uncles had fought in the French and Indian Wars. The woods had been full of Cherokees, allies of the French, attacking the British colonists. Now there were just a few renegade Indians here and there, who would occasionally attack isolated homesteads. During the war, however, there had been danger at every turn. The men had fought bravely with their colonial comrades to carve out their small settlements. The Indians had fought bravely to protect their lands. Now they were mostly at peace, the Indians having drawn back farther west to the mountains. 

His father, Jesse, told of much more recent battles- the Revolutionary War against the British. Perhaps he talked less about these more recent, still painful, memories. But Richard would have heard about how the settlers in Georgia were split in their loyalties. The Tories were loyal to the King, the Whigs wanted to break away and form a new nation. Both parties had been friends and neighbors in Georgia, making it a painful situation between families. In the end, they became bitter enemies. The fighting was fierce throughout Georgia and the Carolina's. The British occupied Georgia during this time, and much of South Carolina. Both of Richard’s parents could tell of those bitter years of occupation and fighting. Jesse had fought as a Patriot for the newly emerging nation. Richard, hearing the stories, was likely forming an intense patriotism of his own for the newly formed United States of America. He must have been eager, as most young men are, for some excitement and action in his own life, which at times, probably seemed very dull.

Days were spent with the hard work of carving a farm out of the wilderness. There were fields to be cut and cleared and burned down so they could be plowed and planted. The Womack’s traditionally had grown tobacco- back to the early days on the James River in Virginia. Richard’s grandfather was knowledgeable about this early crop, and likely his father Jesse had taken up that tradition. The tobacco was gathered and taken in rolling hogsheads or on flatboats down the river to the tobacco warehouse in town. From there it was shipped further downriver to the seaport of Savannah.

There were half-wild cattle to be cared for; most grazed in the pine forests, along with the family hogs.  A few milk cows were generally kept close to home, and chickens for meat and eggs. Richard’s mother, Phoebe, probably kept a good sized vegetable garden near the house as well, fenced off from marauding stock and wildlife. There would have been fields of corn, which Phoebe would have pounded for cornbread, and which Jesse would have stockpiled to feed stock. The creek and a spring or well would have provided plenty of clear, good water, but it had to be hauled to the house. Richard and his brothers would have been kept busy with the monotony of seemingly endless daily chores.

There was schooling as well; we know that Richard could read and write, a skill not every man had in those days, and very few women. The Womack and Coleman boys had a tutor- Peter Spencer- who leaves an account of his teaching fees for Isaac, Frank, and John Coleman in 1790, one scholar for Jesse Womack in 1791, and six scholars in 1792 in this area.1 Books would have been rare, but there was almost certainly a family bible that provided a source of reading and inspiration. In the evening, by candlelight, Richard may have spent some time reading precious books, and hearing his father read letters from relatives who had stayed in Carolina or moved westward. It seemed in those days that everyone was moving westward.

1- Accounts of Peter Spencer for Teaching- Early Records of Georgia, Wilkes County, by Grace Gillam Davidson p 317 online 3/10/15