From Days Gone By Dec 24, 1921

December 24, 1921.
    According to Victor Davidson of Wilkinson County the proposed Bee-Line Highway was once an Indian trail. Known as the Ridge Road it divides the valleys of Big Commissioner and Big Sandy creeks, lined with old homes.
    The movement ehich is gathering force in Washington, Johnson and Emanuel counties for the building of a Bee-Line state highway from Savannah to Macon, running through these counties, crossing the Oconee River at Ball's Ferry and passing through the middle of Wilkinson County, is arousing considerable comment here.
    The proposed route known as the Ridge Road passes through Irwinton and running near the majority of the towns of the county would be of untold benefit to thousands of people in Wilkinson. Macon being the market in which most of the produce of the county is sold, there has been felt a widespread need for an excellent highway to that city for many years, and should the big canning plants open up in Macon in the near future, Wilkinson County, on account of its proximity, will be able to market all the vegetables that can be raised.
    Although the length of this stretch of road lying in Wilkinson County is about 30 miles, yet there is no doubt but that this could be built as cheaply as any road in the state. There is a world of clay and sand all along the route which could be had without effort. In addition to that there is a peculiarity about this road that is to be found perhaps nowhere else in Georgia, in that throughout its entire length in the county, it can be run without crossing a single stream of water, which would eliminate all need of bridges.
   This road gets the name of Ridge Road from the fact that throughout the whole county it follows the long narrow ridge which divides the valley of the Big Commissioner from that of the Big Sandy creeks. The ridge is the divide and in places very narrow. One joker makes a statement which is slightly exaggerated in that "when a car is coming from Macon in the rain water that runs off the right side of the car goes into Big Sandy and the left side into Big Commissioner". However, there are one or two spots where this might happen on the road.
    This road has played an important part in the history of Wilkinson County. First, we find it an old Indian trail leading from the Indian village of Fort Hawkins towards the sea coast. Later, when the county was laid off and Irwinton was settled, it became the line of communication between this isolated spot and the civilized world. The Oconee River being opened for navigation for barges and small boats, the cotton, tobacco and other produce was hauled along this road to Ball's Ferry and often on to Savannah. Later on, when Fort Hawkins settlement began to grow, the road was extended there along the old Indian trail, and this being the nearest route to Savannah by as much as a whole day's journey, then became the stage route to Savannah the road was during those years traveled as much perhaps as any road in the state.
    Running along the highest ridge of the county, on either side are the wide valleys of the two creeks stretching out for miles, furnishing the finest views to be found in middle Georgia. It is small wonder that as the county increased rapidly in population the aristocracy of the antebellum days should build their fine homes along this route. To this day many of the dilapidated remains of those homes may yet be found, others with their chimneys standing guard over the ashes as ghostly reminders of the departed glory of the old South.
    Still later, along the road came Sherman's hosts, burning and pilliaging the countryside, passing through Irwinton, destroying the court house on his march of destruction. And to this day the country has not recovered from the devistation nor have the indignities suffered been obliterated from the minds of the people. In their triumphant march along this road, Sherman's men carried J. R. Kelley, now attendance officer for Wilkinson, then the one-legged soldier, a prisioner in their hands and sentenced to be shot at sunrise because he had the nerve to attack single-handed the Federal patrols approaching the town of Gordon, killing one of them. Mr. Kelley succeeded in rolling out of the covered wagon he was in and escaping his captors while crossing Ogeechee swamp.
    There are no less than three Primitive Baptist churches located on the road, Ramah, Friendship and Myrtle Springs. Ball's Ferry across the Oconee, connecting this stretch with Washington County, is one of the oldest ferries across the Oconee river, getting its name from Anderson Ball, one of the most prominant pioneer citizens of the county.