| From Violence to Love |
| The History of DeSoto Georgia |
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By Jacquelyn Cook |
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Summary |
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Violence marked the first recorded history of
the small southwest Georgia town named for explorer Hernando de Soto, when
he visited the Creek Indian settlement there in March, 1540.The 118 page
book gives the legend that clung to a strange well thought to have been
dug by the Spaniards. Moving through Creek history to the first white
settlers and cotton plantation era, the book gives pictures and
letters from the Civil War and describes the lawless days following the
war when the town was incorporated. Ending in 1969, the story
becomes one of a close knit community built around churches and Christian
love.
Available only through interlibrary loan, occasionally on Amazon.com |
| Excerpt |
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The hungry men continued on with a "bad passage through a swamp", near Leesburg. They crossed a small stream, Chokee Creek in Sumter County, about March 29, 1540. This was the area which was to be the town of DeSoto. The exhausted, starving men breathed in the mouth-watering aroma of roasting venison. Indians tended the meat which was cooking, en barbacoa, on a framework of posts on a gridiron over hot coals. The chief invited the Spaniards to share the feast which included wild turkeys and maize (corn) cakes. Thus the explorers enjoyed an early South Georgia barbecue. The Spaniards returned the hospitality of the Indians by mistreating their maidens and seizing supplies to take along on the journey. Although Ranjel makes no mention of digging wells throughout the travels, a legend has been handed down from generation to generation that tells of the Indians retaliating against the intruders by poisoning the stream, thus forcing them to dig a well.
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