Cryptures
April 2017
village they established their plantation, a store, and probably a mill. The plantation house was a typical one as you can see throughout the area. It was two story with a beautiful spiral staircase. Unfortunately, the home burned sometime in the 1900’s.Some of his property may have been on the opposite side of the creek in Fayette County. By this time he was one of the wealthiest men in Coweta County. The Wynnes would have seen the last corn dance of the Indians just before they began their journey on the trail of tears.
Glenn had little schooling but he was a voracious reader and diligently acquired extensive general knowledge. People thought of him as one who had a broad and thoughtful mind.
By 1856 Glenn was elected as a Georgia Representative to the U.S. Congress and in 1858 he was elected U.S. Senator for Georgia. He was probably a member of that august body in Milledgeville that debated whether Georgia should secede from the Union. Even though he was a staunch Democrat he was liked and respected by many and received a great number of votes from the Whig party. The election was notable since it was the largest turnout for an election in the history of the state. Glenn was also a prominent judge.
Glenn married Sarah Pope Lumpkin. Sarah was the niece of Governor Wilson Lumpkin and Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin. Glenn and Sarah had twelve children: Obadiah (married Ann Eliza Ware who was a cousin of Dr. Crawford Long), Joseph (married Ann “Sallie” Glass), John Faver, Willie Glenn, Mary Susan, Sarah Catherine (grandmother of Governor Ellis Arnall), Martha Antoinette (married Edward Manson-Smith son of Coke’s Chapel member Reverend George Edward Smith), Elizabeth (Edward Manson Smith’s second wife) Dora (who donated the altar Bible to Cokes Chapel in 1920) Francis, Stonewall, and Emma.
The 1850 census shows that Glenn was 32 years old and owned $7,000 in real estate. By 1860 he had $30,000 in real estate and $85,040 in personal wealth. Today that would amount to about $3,138,291. After the Civil War in the 1870 census, his real estate was worth $8,000 and his personal value was only $7,000. The war devastated the entire South for decades.
During a time of particular hardship and famine, the both the Wynn family and Ware family fed the local Indians. During the Civil War years, Glenn Wynne opened his home to all soldiers who were sick or wounded. He and his family took in widows and orphans as well.
I haven’t been able to establish what year it was but on a bright Christmas day, there was an altercation in the Wynne store between John Bishop and John Chandler. They were both well-known young men of the community. For unknown reasons, Bishop was brutally stabbed by Chandler and later died of his wounds. Chandler ran off and was never arrested and it doesn’t appear that he ever showed his face in the area again.
At some point, Glenn dropped the “e” from the name Wynn. This was not an uncommon practice. The Wynns were faithful members of Cokes Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church. Their last resting place is in our cemetery.