Remembering the Old Courthouse Part: XI

Remembering the Old Courthouse

Part: XI

The Clay County Courthouse- My Family Connection

By: Jerry Padgett

My ancestors settled in Clay County where I was born one hundred years later in 1932. My parents had a small dairy farm a mile and half from Hayesville. Like most Clay County youngsters. my early years were spent attending school and working on the farm. But every Saturday night after we were old enough to be out on our own, we were found somewhere around the the Court House Square. Our social life consist of church and activities and whatever else was happening around the Court House Square. Betty Benedict’s new book, Winding Round the Square is a great story of social life many of us experienced.

Carl Moore in his interesting book, Clay County Then and Now, make a legitimate claim as being the first descendent of first ever white settlers in Clay County. The grandchildren of Cordie Coleman Padgett ( I am one), makes the same claim. Madison Curtis, my great, great grandfather arrived in Clay County before 1832, prior to the birth of my Great-grandmother Julia Curtis Padgett. James P. Coleman, another great, great grandfather, settled Clay County before his second child was born in 1837. A third GG grandfather, John Rogers was in Cherokee County when the Indians were removed in 1838.

Clay County from its beginning was a farming community. The economy was totally farm and forest dependent. Sometimes adults had to leave the County to find jobs in order to support their families. Eva Nell Mull Wike in her  autobiography The Matheson Cove tells the sad story about her hard working father who for years supported his family by working up North. This was a rather common story for Clay County families. After graduation, most of my classmates in the Hayesville Class of 1950, left Clay County for employment or joined the armed services. Sixty years later, those of us who have survived, are scattered around the world. Both of my sisters have lived their adult lives in the American West. It seems that all of us who grew up here have a life long affection for this county. We long to visit and rekindle the fond memories of Clay County. When I return my first stop is always the Methodist Cemetery where immediate family is buried. Next, Sweetwater Church Cemetery is the burial place of my beloved grandmother, Cordie Coleman Padgett and, from that place you can see, just a few hundred yards away, the birthplace of my father. My great, great grandparents, John and Rachel Padgett are buried in the Baptist Cemetery. Several of my direct descendants are buried in the Oak Forest Cemetery.

While not the emotional equal to family cemeteries and old family home places, the Clay County Court House is special to those of us that grew up in Clay County. The Court House and the Court House Square bring back many happy memories. Every summer since my grandson, Ben, was seven years old, the two of us visit Hayesville for several days to bond, play some golf and instruct Ben about the Padgett side of the family history. We visit old family home places, family cemeteries, the golf course and the lake. We always spend time in and around the old Court House. Hayesville has drawn the two of us back there for fifteen summer visits. The old Court House, to me, is still the center of all that takes place in Clay County.