SARAH HAWKINS CLARK, daughter of Major Wm. Clark and Elizabeth Sevier and granddaughter of Gov. John Sevier, was born Oct. 27, 1782 in Washington County, TN. She was married on June 1, 1802 to Gen. James Rutherford Wyly (1782-1855), son of James Wyly and Jemima Cleveland and grandson of Benjamin Cleveland. Early in the 1810s they moved to the Tugaloo Valley of northeast Georgia where they built Travelers Rest, a stagecoach inn and plantation home along the newly constructed Unicoi Turnpike which ran from Augusta, Georgia to Tellico Plains, Tennessee.. James Rutherford Wyly, Sr. was a state commissioner for the State of Georgia to improve navigation of the Savannah and Tugaloo Rivers; sheriff of Franklin County, Georgia for twelve years; a captain under Major Benjamin Cleveland in the Creek campaigns of the War of 1812; and Colonel of the Habersham County Militia from 1828 to 1834. Selling out to Devereaux Jarrett in 1833, the Wylys moved to Clarkesville and continued their entrepreneurial ventures, one being the Phoenix Hotel. Sometime after the move to Clarkesville, Gen. Wyly developed a wandering eye. The object of his affection was Frances Fannie Edmondson. The Wylys were granted a divorce in September 1836 term of Habersham court. Mrs. Wyly was awarded the Phoenix Hotel in Clarkesville. She remained in Clarkesville until her death on June 29, 1860. She was buried in the Old Clarkesville Cemetery near Grace Episcopal Church. As for Gen. Wyly, he took Fannie and moved over Unicoy Gap to old Union but now Towns County near the headwaters of Hiawassee River where he lived in the large two-story brick house near Mt. Zion Church. He died there March 27, 1855 and was taken back to Clarkesville for burial in the Old Clarkesville Cemetery. His son, James R. Wyly, Jr., died in what is now Towns County on Jan. 15, 1847. His grave is the oldest inscribed marked grave in Mt. Zion Cemetery.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 04:50:34 +0000
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