History Spotlight: Who was James Hallam?

SOURCE: Columbus, Georgia's Original Commissioners: Part One - James Hallam by Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr., Muscogiana Journal, Vol. 1, Spring 1989.

---

Muscogee County, the original, large, county, was named and authorized to form a county government on December 11, 1826, when the law was passed by both houses of the legislature. A year later, on December 14, 1827, original Muscogee was divided into the present counties of Harris, Marion, Talbot, and current Muscogee. During the same session of the state legislature, a law was passed which authorized the creation of Columbus. It was signed on December 24, 1827, by Governor John Forsyth. In this law, the governor was authorized to appoint five commissioners "to select the most eligible site and cause to be laid out and distinctly marked on the reserve aforesaid, a town upon which such plan as they may devise and approve...", to have the lots surveyed and organize and conduct the public sale of lots for the newly created city of Columbus and the Coweta Falls Reserve.

Most of the rest of the whole land lots in original Muscogee County had been distributed by the Land Lottery of 1827 conducted in Milledgeville, the state capital, from March 6 through May 25, 1827. Fractional lots were handled separately and were not distributed by lottery. Governor John Forsyth appointed the five commissioners authorized by law in early January 1828. The commissioners and the counties where they lived at the time they were appointed and signed their bonds were: Col. Philip H. Alston, Brig. Gen. Elias Beall, Dr. Edwin L. deGraffenreid, Col. Ignatius A. Few, and James Hallam.

Historic Columbus is fortunate to have the portrait of Dr. de Graffenreid on loan

to the organization from his descendants.

This article will discuss the most obscure of these five men, James Hallam. While the other four commissioners were fairly prominent men of their time or related to families which are easily traced (three have genealogies published on their families), Hallam has not yet been found in any source which predates the establishment of Muscogee County.

Neither the earlier histories of Columbus (Martin, Telfair, Worsley, Lupold, Whitehead) nor the latest two (Kyle, Mahan) have added much to our information of Mr. Hallam. A letter Mrs. Louise Jones DuBose wrote to the director of the state archives in 1928 while writing A History of Columbus, Georgia 1828-1928 (using the pseudonym Nancy Telfair) for the city's centennial, indicated she had been asking a lot of questions. She had located a descendant of commissioner Elias Beall living in Columbus but was not sure whether Hallam's name was spelled "Hallam" or "Hallman." It is obvious from her book that the reply revealed nothing new about Hallam. Hallam signed his bond in Baldwin County, the site of Milledgeville, the state capital, when he arrived for the first meeting of the commissioners, January 25, 1828.

Mrs. DuBose and her sources felt that he was actually a resident of original Muscogee in 1827 before the city of Columbus was established. While no study has been made of who the commissioners were or where they came from for Georgia's other state-established towns, Macon and Louisville, it would sound reasonable that at least one local resident would be needed, since it was not presumed that the commissioners would actually move to the new city to live.

(Editor's Note: In Virginia Causey's Red Clay White Water & Blues, her reference to James Hallam is within the listing of the original commissioners and "probably a local Indian trader.")

Embryo Town of Columbus

There was also a local tradition that Hallam was a lawyer. Most of Muscogee County's records from the creation of the original county government in June 1827 until October 1838 were destroyed in the Muscogee County Courthouse fire, October 15, 1838. The few county-created records which predate this fire do not date back to this early period and would be useful only if Hallam had resided in the county and owned property. In searching the earliest state and federal records concerning the formation of the county and the city and their inhabitants at the Georgia Department of Archives and History, no new clues have surfaced. Hallam's name did not appear in either the 1827 Land Lottery list of winners (as published), the published indexes for the 1830 Census for either Georgia or Alabama, or the 1832 Gold and Land Lotteries for Georgia as published and indexed. His name also does not appear as a county officer, militia captain, Justice of the Peace, or postmaster.

After original Muscogee was named and authorized to form a government in December 1826, news of the formation of the county appeared in The Macon Telegraph since Muscogee did not have a newspaper until The Columbus Enquirer began publication in May 1828. The Macon Telegraph thus is a good source for news about these early days, carrying both social, governmental, and legal notices. In reading the issues for 1827, the first mention found of Hallam's name occurred some six months before he was named a commissioner for Columbus. The issue of June 25, 1827, indicated that he was to be the speaker or orator for the 4th of July ceremony.

Speechmaking was one of the major components for 4th of July ceremonies in the 19th century. Since this was the first one for original Muscogee, for Hallam to have been chosen speaker indicates that he was indeed a local figure of some note. Given the sparsely populated county, it may indicate that he had settled near the temporary courthouse where the celebration was to be held. The site for the 4th of July celebration was the house of Colonel William C. Osburn (Osborne), where the legislature had authorized elections and court be held at the time of the county's organization in December 1826. The mention of Osborne's house indicated that he was obviously residing in the new territory before the land was distributed by land lottery. Perhaps Hallam was as well.

Osborne later placed an advertisement in The Macon Telegraph indicating his intention in November 1827 to open an inn known as "Waverly Hall." Osborne was appointed the first postmaster for the town of Waverly Hall in February 1829 and lived east of the present commercial area of the town on the road to Talbotton. Since he lived close to the current town, it was obviously in the part of original Muscogee which became Harris County. Col. Osborne's house thus was the first county seat for Muscogee and served from December 1826 until the county was divided and elections held for the new governments formed in February 1828. At that time, the election place for newly formed Harris County was designated as the home of Lewis Wynn, not Colonel Osborne.

During 1828, the Columbus Commissioners met several times, both in Milledgeville and at the new town site. They fulfilled their duties by having the town site laid out, surveyed, lots designated, and then selecting a date for and conducting the public sale, or auction, of lots. This took place from July 10 – 23, 1828. The minutes of the Board of Commissioners of Columbus indicate that Hallam was present for most of the meetings held in 1828, and his name appears on all the surviving state certificates of purchase for the new owners signed that summer. There are also payment records indicating the amount and date each commissioner was paid.

Since not all of the lots were sold in July 1828, and fearing that the lots might sell too low, the commissioners held back the rest. Then, the commissioners authorized a second sale, to take place January 31, 1829. It was advertised throughout Georgia, and in some newspapers in Alabama. Only four commissioners signed this advertisement. Hallam's name was missing at the time it was first run on January 10th. No doubt some mention of what became of Hallam appeared in the fledgling Columbus Enquirer. Although it began publication under the editorship of Mirabeau B. Lamar on May 28, 1828, only five issues survive for the years 1828 through 1831. A near-complete run resumes with the issues of January 1832. The only other newspaper known to have been published in Columbus during any part of this period was The Columbus Democrat which did not begin until October 1830.

Ulysses Lewis, first intendent (mayor) of Columbus. CSU Archives.

The only knowledge we have as to what became of James Hallam after the summer of 1828 rests on the following: The Savannah Georgian (and no doubt all major newspapers in Georgia) on March 27, 1829: "Appointments by the Governor since the 1st of January, last (1829): Ulysses Lewis of Columbus to be Commissioner of the sale of lots in Columbus in place of I. Few, resigned. James Van Ness of Columbus do. do. do (meaning ditto) in place of James Hallam, removed." The Executive Minutes (1825 – 1829 of the Governor's office are the source for the official wording. It makes the situation a bit clearer: February 23, 1829: "Ordered that Ulysses Lewis be and appointed commissioner for sale of the lots in the Town of Columbus in place of Ign. A. Few, resigned and James P. Van Ness in the place of James Hallam, removed from the state." This statement definitely indicates that James Hallam had left Columbus, and Georgia. It would appear that he did not resign, as had Colonel Few, and thus no letter should survive that would give any reason for his departure. It also indicates that he was still alive. It is also possible that he could have moved away not realizing that there would be another sale and that his duties as a commissioner were not over.

The name Hallam appears in the counties of original Muscogee later in the name of another official, Jeremiah Hallam, a native of Bertie County, North Carolina, was the sheriff of Harris County. He was living in Jones County, Georgia at the time of the 1827 Land Lottery registration and was in Harris as early as the 1830 census. Thus, the trail ends, for now. James Hallam, one of the founders of Columbus, after appearing briefly in the history of Muscogee/Columbus from 1827 to 1829, disappears.