SMITH COLUMN: Smithonia

Smithmonia Community—This historical place, once a bastion of plantation wealth and cutting-edge agri-business enterprise, has a legend that was fostered by a legendary character who was ahead of his time when it came to farm and agricultural innovation.

Oglethorpe County was not the center of the universe at that time, but it came close to being such for many Northeast Georgians.  This was before there was a government funded agricultural extension service, “Georgia Grown” promotion of our state’s farm products, and countless farmers with college degrees.

The life story of “James Monroe Smith, Georgia Planter,” one who did have a degree, is compelling even if you just heard it lately, although University of Georgia historian, E. Merton Coulter, brought about his well-done biography for the UGA Press back in 1961—an informative and addictive treatise. Even if you become heavily ladened with the didactic narrative, it not only reminds you of how tough times were and the curious evolution that transpired a century ago, it, to a large degree, confirms that slavery did not end at Appomattox.  It lasted on into the 20 ^th century—just in a different form.

That the principal of the book was a colorful and gripping character cannot be denied.  He ranks right up there with Old Dan Tucker (Elberton) and the cross-eyed Nancy Hart (Hartwell)—all linked in one geographical sphere almost within arm’s length of each other.

Today you can relive the James Monroe Smith history, which is being preserved by Pam NeSmith who often outdoes her entrepreneurially inclined husband, Dink, who is a newspaper publisher, businessman, and farmer who is trying to train a pair of two-year-old mules while utilizing tractor driving therapy to keep him in touch with the soil which is healthy and humbling.

In his down time, if there is such a thing, Dink NeSmith is writing a couple of books while schmoozing the Oglethorpe County community that serenades him for keeping the local weekly newspaper, the Echo, from becoming extinct.  This is one journalist who knows how to make a buck while embracing community service.

However, let’s not get too far out front with Dink’s doings.  We must allow for crooning with equal gusto the handiwork of Pam who may have more entrepreneurial genius than her enterprising husband.

The museum brochure has this to say about her business vision: “When Pam NeSmith first visited Smithonia, she was awestruck by its beauty and history.” The former chair of the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation admits, “It was love at first sight.”  She saw what Col. Jim Smith saw decades ago.

You can go back in time when you take in Pam NeSmith’s Smithonia today connecting you with Jim Smith’s remarkable legacy.  When he managed his 80,000 acres, making him, at one point, the largest landowner east of the Mississippi during the time when cotton was king, there was a hotel, schools, a commissary, post office, two railroad lines, his mansion, and other outbuildings which included three mammoth brick barns.

Pam NeSmith, as the new Smithonia brochure, points out “wants to revive the magic that Smith started.” She purchased the three barns and 223 acres in 2012. It is now a flourishing community again just like it was in yesteryear but with a different modus operandi.

Book a tour with her and you will learn about Smithonia and its historical founder, his post-Civil War plantation and his ability to make big money in an era when hardscrabble times were prevalent and most people truly lived off the land, but barely.

Pam wanted to preserve the buildings with handmade bricks from the Jim Smith factory, and the 61-foot hand dug well.  If you want to throw a party—from birthdays to a celebration of marriage nuptials, she has the right place and environment for you.

Her events take place in a landscape that mesmerizes.  Kenny Rogers was an emotional victim who built a handsome and fetching home nearby with horse barns, tennis courts, and an 18-hole golf course with which to host and entertain friends and business associates along with his country music soul mates.

Now Pam NeSmith has brought a country squire atmosphere to a renown rural stronghold which is in keeping with Oglethorpe’s illustrious milestones, which includes these factoids:

• Oglethorpe County was named for the founder of Georgia, Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe.
• Lyndon Johnson’s great grandfather was born in Maxeys before migrating to Texas.
• William Harris Crawford, Secretary of State under President James Monroe, and for whom the town of Crawford is named, ran for President in 1824.
• Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame once lived, as a boy, in Goosepond, a settlement along the Broad River.
• Willie Fernie, who won the 1883 British Open, settled in Oglethorpe and was the great grandfather of the aforementioned Ralph Maxwell.

Nothing like local history unless it is those who work to keep it entrenched and accessible like Pam and Dink Nesmith.

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