Col. William L. Wynn: Namesake to a Neighborhood

Today, we are showcasing an article by local and statewide historian, Ken Thomas, for our History Spotlight. Mr. Thomas' article was originally published in two issues of the Muscogiana (Journal of the Muscogee Genealogical Society) in 1990 and 1991. He answers the questions - who was William L. Wynn; what was his role in Columbus; and what became of him.

The information has been edited for length for the purpose of this Spotlight, but you can read the full articles here: Part One and Part Two. Each will take you to the full issues on the CSU ePress site - you will see the download button. Click on that to read them.

SOURCE: Colonel William L. Wynn (1799-1868): Namesake to a Neighborhood by Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr., Muscogiana, Spring 1990 Vol.1, Number 3 and Fall 1991 Vol 2, Numbers 1 & 2.

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William Lewis Wynn, who lived in Columbus/Muscogee County briefly in the 1830's and 1840's, left a name on the Columbus landscape which has endured ever since. While his house at 1240 Wynnton Road survives, it was not generally known to be his home until more recently when it became called, The Wynn House. But the area in which he lived, part of which was his own land, has been known for over a century and a half as "Wynnton."

Wynnton was a village and Columbus' first satellite community from which planters and others commuted into town to do business or work. The name has endured for the community which was incorporated into the city limits of Columbus in 1925, as well as for Wynnton Road, which eventually becomes Macon Road; being the main road leading east out of town toward the city of Macon, one hundred miles away. There is also Wynnton School, which includes a brick antebellum school building (pictured below) surrounded by a 1920's school building. There are also several churches whose congregations have borne the name Wynnton for over fifty years. Wynn's Hill, the steep incline leading toward the city of Columbus from his home, retains the Colonel's name directly.

Little has been published about William L. Wynn, the namesake for Wynnton. The existing histories of Columbus, from John H. Martin in the 1870's until more recent histories by Clason Kyle and Joe Mahan, reveal nothing about Wynn's background or his life after leaving Columbus.

As in the case of many placename namesakes around the southeast, Colonel Wynn's tenure in Columbus is brief, yet his memory is long-lasting, due to "Wynnton." Who was William L. Wynn and what was his role in Columbus? What became of him?

William Lewis Wynn was born March 10, 1799, presumably in Sussex County, Virginia, the sixth child and fifth son of Green and Hannah G. Tyus Wynn. His parents married on December 23, 1785, in Greensville County, Virginia, and lived in neighboring Sussex County until shortly after 1801, when they moved to Georgia. They arrived in Georgia by 1802 - 1803 to be eligible to enter the 1805 Land Lottery, when living in Hancock County. Green Wynn was a planter and presumably came to Georgia, as did other Virginians, to seek better land for farming. No doubt they brought several enslaved families with them.

After spending a few years in Hancock County, the Wynns moved only a short distance to Georgia's most newly opened land. They appear as early as 1809 living in Jones County, Georgia. Opened for settlement in 1807 and then on the state's westernmost frontier, the county's western boundary was the Ocmulgee River. They lived on the county's northern border with Jasper County, and owned land on either side of the county line. In the early 1820's, Macon would be established on the western bank of the Ocmulgee River, just a few miles to the south.

1818 Map of the State of Georgia

William L. Wynn married Ann Eliza Lewis, 17-year-old daughter of Pearce A. Lewis and Phebe (said to be Langdon), in Jones County, Georgia on June 22, 1828. Shortly after their marriage he and his bride moved to southwest Georgia's Randolph (to a part which later became Stewart) County, which had just been opened for settlement as was Columbus and Muscogee County, through the 1827 Land Lottery. They lived there until early 1832. The 1830 Census indicated that the Wynns had one male child under five, and a second adult male in the household, as well as thirty-two enslaved. It is assumed the other adult male was his older brother, John C. Wynn, as all his other brothers were married.

While living in Randolph/Stewart County, Wynn began his first participation in Columbus. He attended the auction held on July 14-15, 1828, for the sale of city lots in Columbus as well as for land in the Coweta Falls Reserve, the large body of land adjoining Columbus on the east, which had not been distributed in the 1827 Land Lottery as had the rest of the county. Wynn purchased "on time" (five installments) a number of lots, including Lot 60, a 100-acre tract on what would later be known as "Wynn's Hill."

During the few years the Wynns would live in Randolph (after 1830 their land was in Stewart County), Wynn was active in local events affecting river traffic.

Several of the other early planters or large landowners who were to play an important early role in Columbus/Muscogee County owned land in the Stewart County area where Wynn lived. Whether these influenced him to move to his land in Columbus/Muscogee or not, is not known. His in-laws, the Pearce Lewises, also came to the Columbus/Muscogee/Russell County area shortly after 1832.

Wynn's actual settlement date in Columbus/Muscogee County is not known but obviously had taken place by early 1832. His land grants, bought on time, were finally paid for by early 1833 and he received his land grants from the governor of Georgia dated April 15, 1833. He added other Coweta Falls Reserve land by purchasing land grants from others before they finished paying for them, thus while he did not bid for them at the 1828 auction, he ended up as the grantee when the grant was issued.

The earliest surviving official record listing Wynn's total landholdings is the 1838 Tax Digest for Muscogee County. It indicated that Wynn owned 1,638 acres of land in Muscogee and approximately forty enslaved.

Of the land he owned by 1838, some was out in the county, some was small city lots within the city limits of Columbus, and the rest, the part within the Coweta Falls Reserve, a large, contiguous track of land, became Wynn's plantation and homeplace. This plantation became the southern core of the "Village of Wynnton."

The Wynn Plantation was roughly the land between today's Brown Avenue on the east and 10th Avenue on the west, and south of Wynnton Road-Buena Vista Road. His home was built between 1837 and 1838. Colonel Wynn called it "Oakview" and it originally stood on what is now Tenth Street.

The use of the term "Wynnton" as the name for the new settlement arising from Colonel Wynn's plantation can be found as early as the fall of 1837, when the Wynnton Academy was incorporated by the Georgia Legislature. Among the original trustees, besides Wynn, were Lovick Pierce (who built Hilton), Thomas J. Hand, and Isaac Mitchell. The fact that the "Village" extended north of present-day Wynnton Road and Wynnton School is evident from an advertisement for sale of land in August 1838. This land, part of lot 76, was never owned by Wynn.

While in Muscogee/Columbus for approximately fifteen years, from 1832-1848, Colonel Wynn no doubt participated in many local activities. Foremost among these was politics. In October 1834 he was elected as one of two state representatives from Muscogee County on the States Rights Party ticket, along with John Woolfolk, serving only one term, November-December 1834. He ran again in 1837 on an Anti-Van Buren platform but lost. In 1836 he was involved in a lease from the city of Columbus for a large portion of the South Commons (near the present Civic Center and A.J. McClung Stadium) and was already a party to another lease for a racecourse in the same area, his partners being M. W. Thweatt and T. B. Howard. In December 1838 he was a trustee for the Wynnton Female Academy. Somewhere along the way he attained the title or rank of "Colonel." No documentation has been found to determine whether this was an earned or honorary title.

Wynn's wife, Ann Elizabeth Lewis, died in Columbus on June 9, 1834, just before she turned twenty-three. Her obituary indicated that she "died at her residence in the vicinity of Columbus" and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in Columbus, presumably the present St. Luke. She died shortly after giving birth to a daughter, also named Ann Elizabeth, born June 2, 1834, her only surviving child. She is buried in Linwood Cemetery.

Wynn followed family and business connections to Louisiana, where he established the Georgia Plantation in Assumption Parish. There, he became a successful sugar planter, running an operation of nearly 2,000 acres. Colonel William L. Wynn's association with Columbus did not end when he moved to Louisiana, as he still owned a lot of real estate and his daughter kept her ties with her relatives in the Muscogee-Russell County area.

His only surviving child, Ann Elizabeth Lewis Wynn, known as "Lizzie," presumably went to Louisiana with her father, and then perhaps away to boarding school as did many other Columbus women of her era. Somewhere in her travels she met an Army lieutenant with a distinguished lineage, Lieutenant George Garner, and married him in Columbus.

The marriage is recorded several times, although not in the Muscogee County courthouse. It can be found in the parish register of the Trinity Episcopal Church.

Portrait of Lizzie Wynn - The Columbus Museum

Col. Wynn, his daughter, and her family were living in the same house on the "Georgia Plantation" in the 1860 Census of Assumption Parish. Listed as a 61-year-old sugar planter, worth $100,000 each in both personal and real estate, he had in his household George G. Garner, 30, also a sugar planter, A. E. [Anna Eliza], age 26, W. L. W. Garner [William L. Wynn Garner], age 3, born in Louisiana, and George G., Jr., age 2, also born in Louisiana. Henry J. Ferrell, 39, born in Georgia, was also in the household. There were 94 enslaved also enumerated with the household.

The 1868 City Directory of New Orleans is the first to list the firm of Garner, Wynn and Co., wholesale grocers, at 65 Common and 46 Canal Streets. The third partner was C. McCarty. Garner resided at northwest [intersection of] Camp and Philip, and Wynn at 217 Philip, although these are in actuality probably the same address. William L. Wynn died on May 28, 1868, in New Orleans.

The date and place of Colonel Wynn's death are verified in the Wynn and Garner family Bibles. A death certificate and his obituary in the New Orleans paper indicate he died "at Philip Street, between Camp and Chestnut at residence of his son-in-law and daughter." He was described as a "large planter before the War" and was "universally esteemed by all who knew him." He was buried in what is known as Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, in New Orleans.

There is only one known portrait of Col. Wynn. It remains with the family.

1907 Postcard Image of The Wynn House

Col. Wynn's house in Columbus, at 1240 Wynnton Road, was sold by him on February 13, 1852. He sold a tract of land which included "my residence in Wynnton" along with 100 acres, more or less, for $6,500. The estate bordered on the north "St. Mary's Road" (now Buena Vista Road/Wynnton Road) and on the east John R. Dawson, whose home is known as Gordonido (now burned), set then on five acres sold him by Wynn in 1837.

The house was purchased in 1852 by Henry Hurt (1814-1872), one of several sons of Joel Hurt of Russell County, Alabama. Henry Hurt, a bachelor, was a brother to Joel Early Hurt (1821-1865) who later owned Dinglewood. Henry Hurt did not live in the Wynn home long, if he ever did, and sold the same property in 1855 for $14,000 to Col. Hines Holt (1805-1865), an attorney, U. S. Congressman and later a Confederate Congressman.

Left: Gordonido (image taken 10 years ago) Right: Dinglewood

The home remained in the Holt family until it was sold on June 12, 1905, to John Thomas Cooper (1853-1917) and his wife Lenora (Newsome) Cooper. He was president of Cooper Lumber Company. After he purchased the house and 18 acres for $12,000, the house was moved to face Wynnton Road, as the road had then become known. This move probably took place in the fall of 1907. By June 1908 postcards were on sale in Columbus showing the house in its new setting and labelled as the "Ideal Southern Home."

Cooper died at the house on April 10, 1917, and is buried at Linwood Cemetery. In 1932, his heirs sold the house to Mary E. and S. C. Butler. In 1958 James W. Woodruff, Sr. (1879-1963) arranged a swap of historic houses with Mrs. Butler, and thus the Wynn House was transferred to the Christian Fellowship Association as their permanent home.

The Wynn House, a fine example of Greek Revival architecture, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 1, 1972, by the Secretary of the Interior.