Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory - Georgia


Georgia

Fort Hollingsworth

Fort Hollingsworth, Alto, Georgia (34.429906, -83.530400)


Primary Phase of House         Felling Dates: Summer 1824



Site Master 1720-1823 FHWx1 (t = 7.02 WEYM; 6.96 CPZ7x; 6.81 ncps3).


Fort Hollingsworth, also known as the White House, will prove the most controversial of the subjects of this study. It has always been assigned a date of 1793, based on its location being noted as a fort against the Indians on a map of that date. Jacob Hollingsworth came into the area in 1792 and helped establish Wofford’s Settlement at a time when its land had not yet been ceded by the Cherokee Nation. The settlers were forced out until the “Four Mile Purchase” was arranged in 1804, and it had been believed that the early houses had sat unused during the interim. However, recently discovered documents reveal that both the Cherokees and United States military burned the early settlers’ houses and other improvements in the settlement. Dendrochronology dates the current log portion of the house to 1824. The White family purchased the property in 1862, expanded the house several times, and still maintains it as a historic site.


The original house is two story, log (hand-hewn), with half-dovetailed corner joints. Front and rear porches were added to this section sometime fairly soon after initial construction. The second floor walls only reach about five feet above the second floor. Clapboards now cover the outside of the logs but chinking is present, so clapboard may not have been original. First floor joists are a combination of hand-hewn and peeled logs. The house has one room on each story (both measuring 16 feet in depth by 18 ½ feet in width), a stone chimney on one end, and a stair tucked next to the fireplace. Front and rear doors are original; a window beside the fireplace may or may not be. (Mark Reinberger)


Worthington, M J and Seiter, J I 2018 “The Tree-Ring Dating of Ten Vernacular Buildings in Northeastern Georgia”, unpublished Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory archive report 2018/05



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Contact Information

Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory

Proprietors
Michael Worthington
Jane Seiter, Ph.D

25 E. Montgomery St.
Baltimore, MD 21230

410-929-1520

michael@dendrochronology.com