The long awaited Crumpton book [1] on Franklin County land plats was finally published in the summer of 2025. With the aid of this book, I was able to narrow down and even pinpoint some (not all) of the land that James, Benjamin, Charles, Culliver and William Clements owned while living in NE Georgia in the early 1800s.
I will leave my previous research pages intact and unchanged while this page will likely become my final conclusion about where their lands were located.
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The photos below are of a crude map that I put together based on the Crumpton book and I have "cut & pasted", annotated and highlighted the most relevant parts.
The following conclusions can be made based on Crumpton's book:
- James, Benjamin and William all owned land very near each other along the Apalachee and Little Mulberry Rivers in what is now in the Dacula, Gwinnett, County, GA area. James' tract was likely the tract that I have highlighted in blue (on the map below) which was almost adjacent to historic Fort Daniel to the north and Elisha Winn to the south. Note that I have made an educated "guess" about this tract based on the actual plat - it makes sense that his property would adjoin his son (William) and also Fort Daniel since he provided supplies to the troops stationed there during the War of 1812 (where his son William served as a Sergeant). William's tract today encompasses a great part of the Little Mulberry Park.
- James, Culliver and William also owned tracts along the Mulberry Creek/River where present day Hall, Jackson, Gwinnett and Bartow Counties intersect. James' tract is clearly shown in Crumpton's book (green highlight) as is Culliver's (dark yellow highlight). William's tract I have estimated to be roughly the area shown in the lighter yellow highlight. This location is the only location that satisfies the legislation/document when Gwinnett County was originally formed which discusses the Hawkins Line and William Clements' home - see more on this HERE. There is a monument today called the Four Corners Monument that marks this point and William's home was likely very close to this monument. A good project would be to visit the area to see if any remnants of an old bridge might still exist as a bridge would have likely been necessary for him to access all of his property as well as that of his uncle Culliver and his father James.
- Charles Clements' land was likely the small area adjoining Thomas McAdams (also in light yellow highlight).
- Culliver also owned a tract to the NW of James, Culliver and William.
- Note the names of other landowners living nearby: Hamilton, Watts and McAdams - James' daughters married men with these surnames. Although not shown in Crumpton's book, my Horton ancestors lived just to the northeast along the Walnut River (William Clements married the daughter of Prosser Horton). It is highly likely that this Hamilton family is the namesake of the present day Hamilton Mill Community in Dacula - I have planned to visit the Gwinnett County Historical Society in the future to see if I can prove this.
Clements land along the Mulberry at Gwinnett, Hall & Jackson County boundary(Crumpton maps; Annotation by author)
(Google maps; Annotation by author)
(Google maps; Annotation by author)
A Few Historic Associations
In the Crumpton book, there are several large tracts of land owned by Zachariah Cox and John Strother. Both men owned huge tracts in this area, some of which may have been sold to our Clements ancestors. Zachariah was a surveyor and land speculator. At one point, he controlled about 3.5 million acres of land in Alabama before it was a state. See more here.As noted elsewhere, the Clements' were early frontier settlers in NE Georgia and they literally lived along the Indian borders. Historic Fort Daniel was constructed to protect the locals from Indian attacks and therefore they would not have lived very far from the fort - the fort was on the edge of the Indian line.
Elisha Winn's home still stands and is a historic site open to the public. Elisha Winn arguably was the "father of Gwinnett County".
If one examines the other nearby plats listed in Crumpton's book, the names McConnell and Montgomery are shown living near the Clements families. Major James McConnell Montgomery was the famous soldier of Fort Peachtree (now the Atlanta Water Works property on the Chattahoochee River). It was likely that the original Peachtree Road was built by Montgomery and his soldiers and William Clements may have been one of those soldiers. I cover Fort Peachtree in my book. [2]