Midway Museum and National Historic District | Midway, Georgia
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Visitors to Midway can tour this live-oak shaded national historic district, soak up the colonial history of the coast, and learn about the liberty-loving Puritans of St. Johns Parish. Home to the second oldest church in Georgia, many of America's more illustrious citizens have their roots in this charming small town.
In 1630, a group of Puritans from England, fled that country and landed in Massachusetts, where they established a settlement called Dorchester. Years later some of these colonists moved to South Carolina and established another town called Dorchester. After several years, they became dissatisfied with conditions there, and the entire community of 38 families moved again, this time to St. John's Parish (Liberty County) and founded yet another town called Dorchester. What the Puritans lacked in imagination they made up in industriousness, and quickly St. Johns Parish became a prosperous cornmunrty.
The small congregation of Midway Church had a tremendous impact on Georgia and American history and played a major role in representing the Georgia colony when America moved for independence frorn England. Two of the three Georgia signers of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Lyman Hall and Button Gwinnett, were from St. Johns Parish. Midway's character was acknowledged in 1777 when the first Georgia Constitution reformed the English parishes of St. Johns, St. Andrew and St. James into Liberty County, the only original Georgia county not named for a person but an ideal. The small settlement is considered "the cradle of Revolutionary spirit in Georgia" and today is a national historic district.
The settlers first arrived on May 16, 1752. They surveyed the area around Midway, liked what they saw, and petitioned the Council of Georgia for 31,950 acres of land. They were granted their request, and the hard-working Puritans quickly developed successful indigo and rice plantations. The first permanent Meeting House was erected in 1756, and the first service was held January 2, 1758. Midway, also spelled Medway in documents, is named afler the Medway River, believed narned for its location "midway" between the Ogeechee and Altamaha rivers or the Medway River in England.
The first dramatic events of the American Revolution occurred in Massachusetts: the Boston Tea Party of December 17, 1773, then the closing of Boston Harbor by the British in June 1774. When independence fever subsequently swept the colonies, all but Georgia sent representatives to the First Continental Congress held in Philadelphia in September 1774. Feelings were mixed in the young colony concerning opposition to English rule, Georgia's royal governor, Sir James Wright, was a popular and influential leader and many of Georgia's citizens were Tories or Loyalists with business ties to England and did not want autonomy. Georgia's lack of participation at the First Continental Congress earned it resentment from the other colonies, especially South Carolina. The Continental Congress put Georgia under an embargo. South Carolina, furious with its southern neighbor, passed a law decreeing death to anyone who traded with Georgia.
The citizens of St. Johns Parish still had strong ties to Massachusetts, and were frustrated vvith Georgia's lack of support for their New England friends. So they decided to act independently of the colony. The colonists, called "those meddlesome Puritans at Midway" by Governor James Wright, decided to curtail trade with the rest of Georgia and asked to be annexed by South Carolina and be represented at the Second Continental Congress.When South Carolina denied its request, the parish sent its own delegate, Dr. lyman Hall, with 60 barrels of rice and 50 pounds of sterling to help the suffering Boston people. He arrived three days after the Second Continental Congress opened, and sat in on deliberations but did not vote.
Hall was still representing Georgia when the Revolution became a shooting war on April 19, 1775 at Lexington, Massachusetts. The start of war enflamed the passions of Georgians who supported independence, prompting Georgia's Second Provincial Congress meeting at Tondee's Tavern, located in Savannah at the corner of Broughton and Whitaker streets. Unlike the First Provincial Congress, when only three parishes bothered to attend, all 12 parishes were represented with more than 100 delegates. Four additional representatives were elected to join Hall in Philadelphia: Archibald Bulloch, John Houstoun, Noble Wymberly Jones, and the Reverend Joachim Zubly. Bulloch was elected governor of Georgia, and was too busy to go to Philadelphia. Houston and Jones went but had to return to Georgia. Zubly was discovered to have Loyalist feelings and was ousted from the group. Button Gwinnett and George ·Walton took their places, and were present with Hall when the Declaration of Independence was ready to sign. Thus they became immortalized on one of the most important documents in the history of mankind.
Midway's participation in the American Revolution was not limited to politics; the area also ·witnessed a battle and devastation during British occupation. Toward the end of 1778, the theater of war was transferred to the Southern Provinces. The British planned an invasion of Georgia from Florida. Approximately 700 British forces under Lt. Col. Mark Prevost were to attack Midway by land, then meet up with British naval forces numbering 500 under the command of Lt. Col. L.V. Fuser at Fort Morris and Sunbury on the Medway River. From there, they would move on Savannah.
Prevost set out for Midway, destroying plantations in his path, including historic LeConte-Woodmanston Plantation, owned by the famous LeConte family. Continental Col. John White posted 100 Continentals with two pieces of light artillery at MIdway Church and constructed a breastwork just south of it. General James Screven with 20 mounted militiamen arrived and repositioned the forces 1.5 miles south of the church near Spencer Hill. On November 24, 1778, British forces overwhelmed the outnumbered Americans. Screven was wounded and captured and died of his wounds in the hands of the enemy. (Later, Screven County, the town of Screven in Wayne County, and Fort Screven on Tybee Island, were named for him.) White retreated to Midway Church, but in doing so he left behind a fictitious letter intended to deceive the English. The letter said that the Americans were going to be receiving additional troops and making a vigorous stand at Ogeechee Ferry. Prevost, not knowing what to do, burned Midway Church and homes, slave quarters, and crops in the area, then returned to Florida without meeting up with Fuser at Sunbury. (Fuser, unable to meet up with Prevost's land forces, decided to not attack the town or Fort Morris.)
After the war, the Midway Society rebuilt the town. The current church, open to tour, was built in 1792 in a New England style and is the second oldest in Georgia. The area experienced prosperity until the Civil War, when cavalry forces with Union Gen. William T. Sherman invaded the area during his famous March to the Sea. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick occupied Midway and Sunbury for six weeks, destroying plantations, crops, and the railroad. Kilpatrick used the church as a slaughterhouse and the churchyard as a corral. The church's prized melodeon was used as a meat block. (It has been preserved and today is used as a communion table.) Midway was abandoned after the Civil War and the church stopped holding services. Today, the church is used for special events such as weddings.
The area has produced many famous people who have left their stamp on America, including several Midway ministers: the Reverend Abiel Holmes, father of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the author, and grandfather of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes; the Reverand Jedidiah Morse, father of S.F.B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph; and Dr. I.S.K. Axson, grandfather of the first Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. General Daniel Steward, a member of the congregation, was the great grandfather of President Theodore Roosevelt. Five Georgia counties were named for Midway citizens: Baker, Gwinnett, Hall, Screven, and Stewart.
Midway Museum was built in 1957 in a raised-cottage style typical of those built on the coast in the eighteenth century. It houses many exbibits and materials about Midway's history, including exhibits and information on its Revolutionary War and Civil War periods. The museum's library can be used with permission for researching genealogy.
The beautiful, historic cemetery across the street contains huge live oaks that shade roughly 1,200 graves. Many burials are the final resting grounds of most distinguished persons, including General Screven, General Daniel Stewart, and
Louis LeConte of VVoodmanston Plantation. The 6-foot-high, 18-inch-thick wall encircling the roughly 2-acre cemetery was built in 1813 of English brick and was used as a corral by Union troops under Sherman. The monument in the center rnemorializes generals Stewart and Screven.
