Timeline for Jesse Womack's Extended Family in North Carolina and Georgia

date	Place	Event
1741 Apr 23	Amelia County, Va.	Richard Womack purchases land
1758	Lunenburg Co. Va.	Abraham Womack private in Va. Colonial Militia, French and Indian War (serves with John Mitchell-future brother in law)
1761	Orange Co. NC	Aug 1761, Orange Co, NC Court minutes, 57-252, "Ordered that Richard Womack, Jacob Womack, Abraham Womack, Josiah Aldey {sic, Richard Womack's son-in-law}, Robert McFarland, Andrew Evans, Frederick Kerlock, Robert Donaldson, Hugh Barnet, William Barnet, William Chambers Jr, Edward Chambers & John Hurley be appointed a jury to lay out and open a road to begin where the road from the County line crosses the road leading from where John Pryor, Esq lives to Orange County house, thence ... to .. Granville County line, and that Edward Chambers, Robert McFarland & Thomas Douglas be appointed overseers."
1763	Granville Co. NC	Abraham Womack marries Martha Mitchell
1765	Orange Co. NC	Abraham Womack buys 166 acres on Hico Creek adjoining land of John Pryor (patent book 14, p.385) dated 7 Jun 1761
1767	Orange Co NC	Abraham buys 205 acres Mayo Creek (formerly belonging to Philip Pryor)
1771	St. George Parish Ga. (later Burke Co. now Jefferson Co.)	3 Sep 1771, St. George Parish, GA {later Burke Co, GA; the area where the Womacks lived is modern Jefferson Co, GA}. Georgia Land Owner's Memorial 1758-1776. John Womack, 100 acres, St. George Parish, 2/100, 14 Dec 1771. Bounded on NW by John Emanuel, SW by Richd Womack and Peter Grant, other sides vacant. Granted to self 3 Sep 1771. Signed by Abraham Womack for John Womack.
1771	Rocky Comfort Creek, Burke, Ga.	Richard Womack and his wife were living here with four children and six negroes. Colonial Records of GeorgiaVol. X page 897.
1771 Sept.	Rocky Comfort Creek, Burke, Ga.	Capt. Jonathan Kemp moved from NC to St. George Parish (Burke Co) in abt 1768 and bought 100 acres of land on Rocky Creek. Here he met and married Sally “Patsy” Womack. Colonial Records of Georgia by Chandler Vol. XII page 52
1772	Orange Co NC	30 Mar 1772, Orange Co, NC, Orange Co, NC Deed Book 3, p.483, dated 30 Mar 1772, Abraham Womack of Orange to Alexander Davison of same, 205 acres, W side of May Creek {sic, Mayo Creek in modern north-east Person Co, NC}, on Thomas King's line, formerly Philip Pryor's. note that in 1777 the northern part of orange county became caswell county
1773 Nov 15	St. George (Burke Co.) Ga.	St. George Parish, GA - Richard Womack of St George to son Jesse Womack, slave Tom, witnessed by Abraham Womack and Martha (her M mark) Womack; proved by Abraham Womack 9 Dec 1773.
1781	NC	Jonathan Kemp was a Captain in Burke’s Regt, NC Militia during the Revolution. Then returned to Georgia
1783 Nov 3	Wilkes Co. Ga.	Wilkes Co, GA, Abraham Womack warrant for 500 acres, warrant dated 3 Nov 1783; surveyed 6 Nov 1783; on Gravils Creek, near Powels Creek of Ogechee, bounding on all sides by vacant land. (granted 1785)
1783 Nov 3	Wilkes Co. Ga.	Wilkes Co, GA, Abraham Womack warrant for 300 acres, warrant dated 3 Nov 1783; surveyed 6 Nov 1783; on the head of Harden's Creek of Little River, bounded by vacant land on all sides. (granted 1789)
1784	Burke Co. Ga.	Jonathan Kemp elected to the Georgia Legislature and serves as a Justice in Burke Co.
1784 Jan 28	Burke Co. Ga.	Francis Boykin (later migrates to Tombigbee) a “refugee soldier” of Burke Co. Appoints Jonathan Kemp, Esq. to obtain his bounty land.
1790	Burke Co. Ga.	Headrights include:Boykin, Francis and Jesse, Coleman, Francis, Fussell, William, Harvey, Blassingame, Kemp, Daniel, Pace, James, Prior, Robert, Warmack, Mary, Warmock, Jesse (plus Taylors, Walkers, and others)
1791 Jan 20		Death of Sally “Patsy” Womack Kemp Jonathan Kemp remarries Elizabeth Cox
1796	Hancock Co. Ga.	Abraham Womack deeds land and possessions to children, witnessed by David Womack
1797 May 25	Hancock Co. Ga.	Abraham and Martha Womack deed Francis Coleman, husband of dtr. Mary, 75 acres on Graybill’s Creek Hancock Co., GA Deed Book B, 1794-1802, pages 475, 545, 546
1797 June 2	Hancock Co. Ga.	Last Will and Testament of Abraham Womack, Book A page 219, Hancock Co., GA. Dated 2 June 1797, Court of Ordinary.
1801	St. Helena La.	Jonathan Kemp and his sons sign a petition for claim to West Florida titles Mississippi Territorial Papers of the United States Vol. V 1798-1817page 168

Richard's Story- 1800- Louisville, Georgia

Like everyone else in the family, Richard would have greatly enjoyed a day off from farm chores to take a trip to town. Rocky Comfort Creek quickly met with the broader, faster flowing Ogeechee River, and four miles down the Ogeechee was the closest town- Louisville. This was an easy ride by horseback, and not a bad walk, either. And Louisville was not just any town; it was the capital of Georgia. 

State Seal of Georgia, from Trousset encyclopedia, Paris, 1886 - 1891

Here Richard and his father and brothers would run into not just local plantation owners, but others like his uncle Jonathan Kemp, who were gentlemen serving in the Georgia legislature. Great men came to Louisville, and it would have been a gathering place for men of power and wealth. This was no provincial backwater- it was the center of government. Here, in 1798, the Georgia Constitution was crafted. Here the state seal was designed- a U.S. flag and a wharf holding hogsheads of tobacco and bales of cotton (the chief exports of the state) and the motto “Agriculture and Commerce” and three pillars representing values of the time- “wisdom, justice, moderation.”

Louisville was also the market center for the entire region. Richard and his family may have shipped their goods downriver on a flatboat or carried them on pack horses when they conducted their trade in town. Tobacco was traditionally packed into barrel like hogsheads, which were then hitched to mules or oxen to be rolled along the path to the docks. Tobacco was evaluated, sold, and stored at the large tobacco warehouse that had been on the Ogeechee near Louisville. From there the tobacco was shipped downriver to the seaport of Savannah.

The post office was at Louisville- here Jesse Womack would send and receive letters from his far-flung family members, and receive news of what was going on in the nation. The city had been laid out on 40 acres of squares and streets to encourage orderly growth. There were no doubt shops and businesses...here was a fine  colonial open market house where Phoebe could buy cloth and sewing materials, coffee, sugar, and salt. Here Jesse could find tools and ammunition. Here the young people could seek out others of their own age.

Market House, Louisville, Georgia. From Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, HABS GA 82-Louvi 1-2

 Also at Louisville was the now infamous slave market, built in the earliest days of the colony, in 1758. Traders returning from Africa would bring slaves here to trade to upland plantation owners. The unfortunate souls would have met their new masters here, at the slave market. We can only imagine the sights and sounds of this place on days when a shipment of slaves came in for sale.

"Whitney Gin" wikipedia, public domain

Richard’s keenest interest at the time, however, was no doubt the new cotton gin. Men and boys from many miles around would have flocked to see this incredible piece of machinery. Louisville had one of the first  commercial cotton gins in the world, and it is said that Eli Whitney mailed his patent from the Louisville Post Office. 

If the Womack’s grew any upland cotton, Richard and everyone else on the farm would have been all too familiar with the tiresome task of bending over a basket for hours to separate the tiny green seeds from soft cotton boll by hand. This job was so time consuming that it was difficult to make upland cotton productive. Now, with the new gin, 50 pounds of cotton could be seeded in a day. 

Did Jesse and his sons meet Eli Whitney? It is entirely possible. We do know that Eli traveled to Louisville and spent time there. All of the planters would have wanted to meet him to talk with him about his incredible invention. With tobacco profits decreasing and cotton profits increasing, it is almost certain that Richard, along with many other planters, young and old alike, saw cotton as the crop of the future. 

They were right. The cotton gin was the impetus for change. Now increasingly wealthy planters needed more and more land to grow the fluffy white fiber, which was to be planted, harvested, and borne on the shining black backs of more and more negro slaves.

        Richard Womack's world, and that of the south, had changed forever.

First Cotton Ginf from Harpers Weekly 1869 Illustration depicting event of some 70 years earlier (wikipedia-public domain)