The Rev. John Corn, Another Son of Elder Rev. Adam Corn

We’ve traced the story of Elder Adam Corn who moved to Union County from North Carolina as early as 1839 and of his second son, the Rev. Alfred E. Corn, both of whom were noted as missionaries to the Indians and were instrumental in planting churches in the new settlements to which they moved.  The first son of Adam and Hannah Heatherly Corn was John who was born October 18, 1813 near Cullowhee in what was then Buncombe County, North Carolina, now Jackson County.  John was already married when his father Adam and the rest of his siblings relocated to Union County, Georgia.  John and his wife and one child under five were listed in the 1840 census of Union, but the census taker mistakenly spelled John’s last name as Carne instead of Corn. 

 

John Corn’s marriage to Mary Wade (known as “Polly”) Carter was recorded in Rabun County, Georgia as occurring on November 10, 1836 with the Rev. Robert Wood, also a Justice of the Peace, performing their marriage ceremony.  Polly’s parents were Jesse Carter and Lavina Sams Carter.  The Carter line went back to Edward Carter from Oxfordshire, England who settled in Pennsylvania about 1682.  Before Jesse and Lavina Carter moved to Rabun County, they had lived in Buncombe County near Cullowhee and their daughter Polly and John Corn knew each other then, and probably fell in love.  He went to Rabun County to court and marry her in 1836.  Polly was about three years older than John, having been born September 20, 1810 on the farm where her parents then lived at the Atkins Branch of the Big Ivy River near Cullowhee, NC.  The young couple made their home at first at Cullowhee, but then when Adam Corn, John’s father, decided to migrate to Union County, Georgia to secure land available for settlement there, John and Polly decided to move, too.

We have seen from previous stories about Adam and Alfred that Rev. Adam Corn baptized his two older sons in the Hiawasee River near Macedonia Baptist Church in 1841.  John Corn’s license to preach was issued by Macedonia Church on December 17, 1842.  Two years later, on November 16, 1844, John Corn was ordained to the gospel ministry by that same Macedonia Church.  Serving on the presbytery and ordaining council to question John were his father, Rev. Adam Corn, and neighboring pastors Rev. James Kimsey and Rev. Singleton Sisk. 

A very significant event took place in Augusta, Georgia in May of 1845.  Messengers gathered from states having Baptist Conventions and cooperating Baptist churches to discuss and act upon the proposal to form the convention and establish a Board of Domestic Missions, of Foreign Missions, of Education and other benevolent entities.  Four friends discussed the importance of the meeting in advance, and they were made messengers from their respective churches in Union County to attend the organizational meeting.  They had been given credentials for voting on proposals presented at the Augusta meeting.  The men rode in Major Josiah Carter’s carriage drawn by two fine horses.  With the routes available then from Blairsville to Augusta, we can imagine they went provisioned to camp out along the way since it would have been a several-days journey.  In the group were the Rev. John Corn, the Rev. Elisha Hedden, the Rev. Elijah Kimsey and Major Josiah Carter.  Major Carter was a brother-in-law to Rev. John Corn, the brother of John’s wife, Polly Carter Corn.  Not only did these four men from Union County vote to form the Southern Baptist Convention, but Major Carter himself pledged there to contribute to foreign missions.  Not only would he hold true to his pledge, but three of his granddaughters and one great grandson later became appointed foreign missionaries.  The long trip to Augusta for these three ministers and one layman had far-reaching effects. 

Rev. John and Mary Carter Corn lived in the Upper Hightower section of Towns County, a portion taken in when Towns was formed from Union in 1856.  There they had a farm and reared their family:  Lucinda Caroline who married Lafayette McKinney and Rev. Will Eller; Hannah Lavina who married Marion Stonecypher; John Heatherly who married Sarah Elizabeth Dillard; Mary Adeline (an invalid) who never married; and Nancy Elizabeth who married Ransom Smith. 

             

Rev. John Corn was pastor of the Upper Hightower Baptist Church in his community for many years.  It was said that, because that church was in his home district, he would never accept money for his services.  Other churches he pastored were Old Union and Bell  Creek in Towns County, and at Franklin and Valley River in North Carolina.  He was listed as the first moderator of the Hiawassee Baptist Association when it was organized in 1849.

             

But farming and preaching were not the only two interests of the Rev. John Corn.  When the Civil War was looming and the secession of Georgia from the Union seemed eminent, Rev. John Corn and Rev. Elijah Kimsey were elected representatives from Towns County to attend the secession convention held at the state capitol, then located at Milledgeville, Georgia, a four-hundred miles round trip by horseback from Hiawassee.  Each of these representatives voted against Georgia’s seceding from the Union.

             

Rev. John Corn was a slave owner.  He bought two young slave girls from his brother-in-law Major Josiah Carter.  Harriet, a slave girl, age 7 was purchased for $750 in 1861, and Susan, age 14, for $1,600 in 1863.  He purchased a 17 year old slave lad at a slave auction in South Carolina for $850 in 1862.

             

When he was 48, Rev. John Corn was drafted into the Confederate Army and served,  according to his pension record, as Captain of Company D, 24^th Regiment of the Georgia Volunteers.  His service lasted from June 21, 1861 through May 22, 1862.  When the elder Rev. John Corn resigned his commission, his son John Heatherly Corn  enlisted in the Georgia Cavalry, Company A of the Sixth Regiment and served until the end of the war.

            

In 1874, Rev. Corn was elected as Towns County’s representative to the Georgia Legislature.  By then, the state capitol had been relocated from Milledgeville to Atlanta. While  in route to his legislative duties, he became ill and had to return home. He died from complications with pneumonia at his home at Upper Hightower on January 2, 1875.  He was interred in the Corn family cemetery at Upper Hightower near his home.  Mary Polly Corn died January 14, 1879 and was also laid to rest in the family cemetery.

        

A special election was held through orders of Georgia Governor James Smith, and Samuel Y. Jameson, the great-uncle of Dr. S. Y. Jameson, President of Mercer University, Macon, was elected as Rev. John Corn’s successor to represent Towns County in the Georgia Legislature. Just as John Corn’s son, John Heatherly Corn, followed his father’s example and served in the Civil War, so he entered politics, becoming Towns County legislator for the 1884-1885 term. John Heatherly Corn also served as postmaster of the Visage post office in Towns County from 1875 through 1913, the entire life of that post office.  The Corn families contributed much to early development of both Union and Towns Counties.

©2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones.  Published March 29, 2012 online with permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject.  All rights reserved.

[Ethelene Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.  She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net; phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061-2411.]

Through mountains mists a light in the mountains, Part 2 Truett McConnell College, 1946-2006 Holding Forth The Flame of Knowledge For Six Decades

We continue the exciting story of how Truett McConnell College, Cleveland, GA, grew from the foundations of the Hiawassee Academy (1886-1930) and the Blairsville Collegiate Institute (1904-1930). In this 60th year of the college’s founding, we celebrate the fanning of the flame of knowledge that sprang up and kept growing because people nourished the vision.

The George Truett Junior College, Inc.

From 1930 through 1944, the flame of an institution of higher learning lay dormant. But many people remembered the Hiawassee Academy and the Blairsville Collegiate Institute. The flame was there, awaiting another ignition.

Another Mountain Preachers’ School was held at Blairsville in July 1944.

Who preached the sermon that ignited the flame as Rev. Ferdinand C. McConnell had done in 1886? The person’s name is not known to this writer, but several factors were present to remind the gathered preachers that the time was right to propose a new Christian college in the mountains.

Dr. George Washington Truett died July 7, 1944. He had become a model for visionary ministers who set aggressive goals and worked to reach them. The ministers talked about establishing a college in his memory.

The Great Depression was past. America’s involvement in World War II, although taking a toll on young lives, had brought a raise in economic levels through work associated with the war effort. Many of the young men who would be returning from war when it ended would desire an education.

The vision was born in the hearts of several men. Among them were the Rev. Claud C. Boynton, Rev. L. Clinton Cutts, Dr. W. A. Taliaferro, John B. Payne (layman), Dr. Leslie S. Williams, Dr. James M. Nicholson, Mr. Frank Shuler (Union County Superintendent of Schools and a layman), and Rev. Clarence Voyles. Mountain preachers and mountain laymen seized the vision, fanned the flame.

After the Preachers’ School had ended, the above-named men met for prayer and discussion in the basement of First Baptist Church, Blairsville, where Rev. Claud C. Boynton was pastor. The dream was turned into a plan. The flame of knowledge was again ignited.

After several meetings, a committee drew up a charter and the men approved it.

The charter named the new school the George Truett Junior College, Inc. It was legally filed in Superior Court of Union County, Ga., on September 15, 1944.

A Firm Foundation and Founding

Desiring that the college have a firm foundation and adequate sponsorship, the next step was to present the plan to the Georgia Baptist Convention. Dr. Leslie S. Williams, professor at Tift College, Forsyth, gave the resolution at the Georgia Convention on November 13, 1944. The recommendation was referred to the Convention’s Executive Committee for study. Rev. Claud Boynton and others spoke in favor of the resolution.

At the 1945 Georgia Baptist Convention, the resolution to establish Truett Junior College passed and an appropriation of $25,000 was designated from the convention’s educational funds. A committee was appointed to “recommend…the best location and plans for securing additional financial support.” (from Georgia Baptist Convention Minutes, 1945, pages 80-81).

A “Committee of Ten” was appointed by the Convention’s Executive Committee to do preliminary work relative to site and fundraising. From November, 1945, through March, 1946, various north Georgia towns vied for the college’s location and pledged land, money and endowment. Blairsville was among the towns vying for the location.

At the March 12, 1946 meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, the announcement was made that Cleveland, Georgia would be the site.

Several factors entered in. The location was still within a mountain county. The college would draw students from a broad area of Georgia and elsewhere, and having the college south of high mountains such as Unicoi Gap and Neel Gap would facilitate access at a time when the state and nation were still recovering from effects of World War II, scarcities in tires and transportation. Citizens of Cleveland had pledged more in acreage, building materials, money and utility services.

The Christian Index, newspaper of the Georgia Baptist Convention, announced in its July 11, 1947 issue that the new college to honor the late Dr. George W. Truett and Dr. Fernando C. McConnell would be located at Cleveland, Georgia.

A massive area-wide rally was held in Cleveland, Georgia on July 23, 1946, the official founding date of Truett-McConnell Junior College. Rev. L. Clinton Cutts, then pastor of First Baptist Church, McCaysville, Ga., temporary chairman of the Interim Board of Trustees, presided. A large crowd of Convention officers, ministers, and citizens of a broad area attended the rally. Five persons who had attended the Hiawassee Academy when the Rev. George W. Truett taught there were present. They were Mrs. J. Miles (Maggie) Berrong of Hiawassee; Mr. B. R. Dillard of Dillard; Mr. and Mrs. Andrew P. Ritchie of Clayton; and Mr. John A. Earl of Lakemont.

Sixty years had passed since the Rev. F. C. McConnell had ignited the spark for education on the courthouse steps in Hiawassee. From Cleveland, Ga., the flame was kindled and the vision was stirring toward reality.

A New College Opens Its Doors

Much work ensued from the July 23, 1946 founding date until the college opened doors to students on September 15, 1947. Facilities for classes and administrative offices had to be arranged. A curriculum and faculty had to be assembled. Plans for accreditation had to be drawn up. Arrangements for boarding students to live with citizens in the town were made.

Fifty-four charter students and eleven faculty and staff met in convocation with the first president, the Rev. Dr. Loomis Clinton Cutts leading the processional. In a little more than a year, Dr. Cutts and others had formulated plans and the word was “Go!” Much cooperation had brought about a miracle in little more than a year.

I was in that first group of students meeting on September 15, 1947. We had a vision. I had a distinct sense of mission and calling to be in that place at that time in a brand new college. It was exhilarating and motivating. And so has it been in the sixty years since to remain closely associated with the “light in the mountains.” In this sixtieth anniversary year, the vision continues. The flame still glows brightly, has taken on a new aura. “Veritas liberat” is the motto, “Truth liberates.”

c2006 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 2, 2006 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.