So the story goes...

Some folks called it the "Garden Spot" of Wilkes County. It was the gathering place of some of the county's top colored "head-knockers." Doting the rural landscape was a tapestry of fruit trees and wildflowers of a sorted variety. A spring was tapped which provided fresh groundwater for about five large families. It hosted the battleground for baseball teams from the surrounding churches who fought for yearlong bragging rights.  They would meet each 4th of July for the annual ball game down in one of the level green pastures. The field was peppered with players from neighboring Baptist churches, such as Cherry Grove, Mulberry, Gipson Grove, Twin Oak, and Reeves Chapel. The enthusiasm among players and spectators would rival an evangelistic camp meeting. There were shouts of cheers and applause for their favorite home team and players despite the simmering July heat. Black folks from Sandtown, Tignall, Danburg, and the surrounding areas of Wilkes County were invited to attend and take part in the gala festivities. Even some of the city dwellers from the colored community of Whitehall would join in the social meet and greet.

 

There was barbeque of the whole hog - of course! Fishing in the stream, tossing horseshoes, and swapping tall tales with a total disregard for the truth. Then there was the simple, but the ever-important pleasure of community bonding and fellowship. Occasionally, one would overhear the men-folk whisper about spirited libation hidden down at the nearby creek. With one end of a rope anchored to the shore, and the other end tied to the jug of golden grain. Its liquid contents kept cool immersed under the nearly stilled waters. Here the home-brewed “hooch” was safe and secure for any adult male who had a hankering for a taste. (It would have been uncomely for any decent woman to be mannish enough to publicly partake!).

 

The "drank" of home-brewed "mountain dew" could have been supplied by any one of several clandestine “distilleries” possibly fed from Hog Fork or Fishing Creek, yet undetected by the local Sheriff and his band of howling Redbone hounds. After all, this was Cohentown...  

 

Cohentown was an all-Black rural farming and residential community in Wilkes County, Georgia. It was located off highway 44 Danburg Road, in the old Anderson or 179th General Military District. (According to the 1910 U.S. Census - Plantation Road). It was nestled south of Hog Folk Creek and northwest of Fishing Creek. (Even today, this historic homestead is surrounded by a network of waterways). Cohentown sat approximately 5 miles north of the county seat of Washington. It was here where family branches of the Cohen, Hanson, Wingfield, Lockhart, Gladman, Anderson, Charlton, Curry, Sims, and others, would plant root, and call home. In this tight-knit community, everyone was an aunt or uncle, either by blood or community bond. From the late 1880s to about 1950, these families of farmers would become acquainted with both the bride of prosperity and the groom of depression.

 

Today, this historic homestead is no longer inhabited. The exact origin of the name Cohentown is unknown. Like many other small Black farming communities in rural Georgia, much of its history has been obscured by time and only gradually coming to light. The name Cohen is possibly a corruption of the name Quearns/Querns. Upon the death of John Quearns in 1814, he requested in his will that his slaves be freed at age 21 and granted 100 acres of land for their care. After a five-year court battle the slaves loss their case to the nephews of John Querns, the Arnetts - the Plaintiffs. Therefore, the hope of becoming Free People of Color and landowners as early as the 1820s became a dream deferred. Once emancipated and having their full name recorded in the 1870 Census, they are shown as Arnetts.

 

However, they remembered the legacy promised them by John Querns (who was mentioned in a Quaker list of 1773). By the early 1890s, the name of Arnett was tossed aside and replaced with that of Cohen - probably a phonetic spelling of what the census takers in Reconstruction Era Georgia thought they heard! In 1881, Peter Arnett, a former slave acquires 62 acres of land. This would become the basis of the rural farming community of Cohentown.

 

This modest homestead would eventually fall victim to the boll weevils, the Northern Migration, and the allure of city life and opportunities compared to rural farm living. There was a growing generational apathy towards the land, which aided in its demise. From these ashes, however, has risen a wealth of interest and research in their lives and institutions. 

 

In 2020, the Cherry Grove Schoolhouse was placed on the Georgia and National Register of Historic Places. In 2021, the Georgia State University Anthropology Department conducted grave mapping with Ground Penetrating Radar at the Cohentown Cemetery (circa 1888). Genealogical research has proven a direct line of descent with at least two Revolutionary War Patriots, and by extension, an American President in Congress Assembled.

 

Thus, we have an African American family with a Jewish name, once owned by a complicated Quaker, in the Mother County of Georgia. Where else, but America could such a blended tapestry of history be woven? This is just a small corner of a growing and expanding body of research.   

 

This is their story... in part.

 

 

 

 

 

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