It's an amazing feat to be able to look at a current satellite map and see the building blocks of a country still firmly cemented in almost plain sight. We can look back at a map that was dated almost two centuries ago, and be able to mark out the exact boundaries of a plantation, and then match that plantation to the records of the family that owned it.
Matching past with present isn't always easy, but in the case of Barrow's plantation, it's certainly satisfying. The map of Barrow's Plantation is one that shows up in many textbooks. It's hard to imagine how many eyes have glanced over it time and again. Who would think to look twice at it, other than to gather the vague details of a general plantation? It's an ordinary map with a few interesting characteristics. The mystery of it, in fact, doesn't show its curious face until someone decides to actually delve a little further than what's presented at the surface.
Barrow's Plantation is located a few miles south of Philomath, Georgia. This information can be deduced by comparing locations and names on the original maps to those on a map of today. When looking at a more detailed map than the textbook example, we can assume that the Philomath, Georgia of today would be in the general vicinity of the Philomath Post Office of the 1860's (Oglethorpe). However, to discover the exact whereabouts of Barrow's Plantation, someone would have to first find the one major error that could bring the whole process to a halt. Without the correct orientation of the map, it would be impossible to place it correctly onto a map of Oglethorpe County that was oriented due north. Once we turn it correctly, it fits in almost perfectly, like a piece of a giant jigsaw puzzle.
In these maps below, Barrow's Plantation is on the left. This is the map that appears both in the History 120 reader, as well as several textbooks. It is skewed so that it is oriented with the top being north. On the right is a satellite picture taken from Yahoo Maps, with added marks for clarity. The blue marks signify an old river bed. We can deduce that these are Little River and it's forks. The green indicates a rough barrier of Barrow's Plantation. The area inside matched up shape-wise almost perfectly with the map of 1881. A deep imprint has been left behind from years of work and living.
The first mystery has been solved, and with possibly the most astounding results of the entire investigation. Barrow's Plantation has had such an impact on the land that it is still perfectly visible today, almost 200 years after the fact.
To really get an idea of the workings of Barrow family, though, more than just maps are needed. The first census of Oglethorpe County in which any member of the Barrow family shows up is the 1850 census (Oglethorpe). It can then be assumed that this was around the time that the plantation was established, and this gives a better picture of just how old Barrow's Plantation really is.
The Barrow family may not have been the most well known in Georgia, but they were well-known enough to still have easily found records today. From the New Georgia Encyclopedia: "David Crenshaw Barrow Jr. was born in 1852 in Oglethorpe County, where his father, David C. Barrow Sr., was a leading planter and a trustee of the university" (Tate). Barrow Jr. was also the Chancellor of the University of Georgia for a time. Pope Barrow, also the son of Barrow Sr., was a member of the constitutional convention of the State of Georgia in 1877, as well as being elected to the State Senate to fulfill the remaining term of Hon. B. H. Hill after Hill's death (Oglethorpe).
It's sometimes taken for granted that while so much history has been lost, a lot of what we do know is easy to find in everyday textbooks. However, there's so much more hidden, some of it right behind the very maps that we use to find our way to and from our local cafes, shops and friend's houses. There's even more hiding in databases, websites, census' and statistics across the internet and in libraries. History is at our fingertips as it never has been before, and Barrow's Plantation is just one example of this, and a rather interesting one at that.
Works Cited
"Oglethorpe County- GA GenWeb." The GA GenWeb Project. 2001. Oct. 2007 <http://www.rootsweb.com/~gaogleth/>.
"Carl Vincent Institute of Government." University of Georgia. 2007. University of Georgia. Oct. 2007 <http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/histcountymaps/oglethorpe1883map.htm>.
Tate, Benjamin. "David C. Barrow Jr. (1852-1929)." New Encyclopedia of Georgia. 2004. Georgia Humanities Council. Oct. 2007 <http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-857>.
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