Old McDonald house poses plenty of historical questions

Everyone knows that old McDonald had a farm in Dahlonega. Now the question is: “Who built it?”  Retired Dahlonega Postmaster Jimmy Anderson believes that Reverend William Thomas may have built the house situated in what is now Yahoola Creek Park, not Captain Jesse McDonald.  Robert McDonald, the last McDonald to own that farm, was actually his late wife Farrell’s uncle.
“He told me tales about growing up on that farm in that house,” Anderson recalled.
Meanwhile, the Lumpkin County Historical Society met at the Dahlonega Community House recently to hear from descendant Alan McDonald, who addressed that question, among many other topics related to the historic 19th-century dwelling.

ASKING QUESTIONS

After the publication of story “Civil War-era house on the move” on May 29, explaining that the historic residence could be relocated to a small property north of town owned by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Retired Dahlonega Postmaster Jimmy Anderson reached out to The Nugget.
Anderson disagreed with a quote from SCV Area Commander Michael Dean, who told the County Planning Commission that Captain Jesse McDonald began building the McDonald house after returning home from fighting as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War, and that he completed it around 1870.
As evidence, Anderson actually referenced a June 26, 1997 article in The Nugget titled “The Blue Ridge Rifles of 1861 and the Maryland Campaign,” by Kate Cassady Brehe.
In the next-to-last paragraph of the story, Brehe writes: “In 1866, Captain Jesse Marion McDonald married Sarah Ann Thomas and bought the Thomas farm, located on Yahoola Creek behind Consolidated Gold Mine.”
Anderson agrees, with the exception of the date. He shared family geneaological records that show Capt. Jesse Marion McDonald actually married Sarah Ann Thomas on December 24, 1863.
“[Capt. McDonald] didn’t build that house. He bought it from his in-laws,” Anderson said.

VIOLENT ENCOUNTER

Anderson recalled an old story passed down to him about Jesse McDonald’s alleged ill-fated interaction with a pair of soldiers at the McDonald home.  
“Dahlonega was occupied by Union soldiers after the war. The old Dahlonega Mint, which stood where Price Memorial is now, was their headquarters. They lived there, and that was a military headquarters and what have you. And there was a lot of bad blood between the occupying Union soldiers and the local folks and the old Confederates, who were returning home after trying to kill those guys,” Anderson explained.
He said that around 1869, the town marshall, a man by the name of Cornelius Moore, was out doing his rounds on the town when he came across two federal soldiers.
“They were drinking and rowdy and what have you, and Marshall Moore had his little dog with him that he was very fond of. One of these Union soldiers kicked his dog. And he warned them not to do it again. Well, the guy kicked his dog again and Moore shot and killed him right there on the square.”
Anderson said Moore had no choice but to flee.
“While he was trying to get out of town, the alarm was raised at Union headquarters and the whole garrison pretty much turned out in force trying to find him. And two of those soldiers made the mistake of showing up down at the McDonald farm looking for Moore.” Anderson continued.
Moore apparently was in hiding, but at a different house.
“Nobody knows exactly what transpired between McDonald and those two soldiers that showed up, but apparently it wasn’t good. He’s spent four years fighting those guys and he comes home, and all of a sudden they’re at his door. He didn’t appreciate it,” Anderson said.
Anderson claims he has found muster rolls supporting his theory. He said two federal soldiers were listed as AWOL around the same time as the alleged incident, but were eventually reclassified as deserters because they were never heard from again.

DIRECT DESCENDANT

At the Historical Society’s meeting earlier this month, President Janet Parker welcomed a crowded room of history buffs to listen to featured speaker Alan McDonald, a direct descendant of Capt. Jesse McDonald, talk about his memories of the property and what he would like to see happen to the historic house.
Parker said the Historical Society has held discussions with the County in the past about preserving the structure, but they didn’t come to fruition.
“Now, according to the paper last week, the Sons of Confederate Veterans are also interested, and have a plan for it … I think the thing we all have in common is we would like to see the house preserved. Because it is one of the oldest houses in Lumpkin County. So whatever needs to happen to make that preservation happen, I think we’re going to support it,” Parker added before bringing McDonald to the podium.
“I do thank you for inviting me,” McDonald said. “The house means a lot to me. I grew up down there on the creek. It’s my house that I was raised in until I was about five, and then we just moved a little higher up on the hill.”
McDonald said he was poor growing up, but didn’t know it.
“We didn’t have running water,” he recalled. “We had a pipe stuck up in a spring head. We called it ‘the spout.’ And we’d fill 30-gallon trashcans up with water and take them back down there, and that’s what we’d use to cook with, take a bath in a number two tub and all that stuff.”
Eventually, McDonald teased the crowd with a story eerily similar to Anderson’s.
“I guess y’all have heard the story about the two carpetbaggers, or Yankees, that he took to the field,” to which the audience replied in the negative. “You ain’t heard that?” McDonald responded incredulously.
McDonald started by saying that his great-great grandfather was a good man, but didn’t look like he would be. “He looks like he’d be a sure-enough stern fella, you know?”
“But the story goes, after the Civil War the carpetbaggers or whatever you want to call them come down here and tried to buy up land and whatever. They said [Jesse McDonald] took two of ‘em out to the field with an axe on his shoulder, and they never come back. And of course, I won’t get into it more than that. But they just never came back,” he told the audience.

HAUNTED HOUSE?

McDonald said that many have claimed the old house is haunted, but he has not seen direct evidence himself.
“The only time I got scared me and my wife lived above the house, like I said, a little bit higher up on the hill. But I was gonna go huntin’ one night. It was a good, full moon. I ain’t gonna tell you what kind of huntin’ I was going, but I was going huntin’ on a full moon.”
McDonald said as he was walking down the road in the moonlight, he was startled by movement off to his side.
“It was a big old beaver run out the side of me and yonder. I thought I was gonna have a heart attack!” he recalled to laughter from the audience.

HISTORY MYSTERY

As for the mystery of who built the house and in what year, McDonald has his opinions, but admitted that he isn’t completely sure himself.
“It’s [called] the McDonald house, and they farmed all of that,” he said. “But it could have been the Thomas farm, I’m not disagreeing with you on that, because I know he married Sarah Thomas. We are kin to the Thomas [family], of course we would be by her. But whether it was the Thomas farm, I ain’t got a clue,” he said.
As for plans to relocate the house north of town, McDonald said ideally he would prefer to see the house restored where it stands.
“But what the County has done with it, I mean it’s good. The kids’ recreation and stuff, it is good what they’ve done. Do I like to see it change? No. Do I like what they’ve done? I guess. Yes. To me, change is a good thing. But history is where you learn from. The house, without any history with it, is just a house.”