124 BRYAN COUNTY. 



40 to 50 bushels, corn 15 bushels. When the rice lands 

 on the Ogeechee were first cultivated, 92 bushels per acre 

 have been harvested from selected land, and 82 bushels the 

 average of an entire crop. But the soil deteriorates under the 

 present system of culture, and cannot without rest and manure 

 be made to yield much more than one-half as much as when 

 new. 



Religious Sects. — Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. 



Education. — There is no academy, and no schools except 

 those supported by the Poor School Fund. The children of the 

 wealthy are either educated by private teachers or sent to 

 school in the more favoured portion of the country. The popu- 

 lation is too sparse to furnish pupils enough to sustain a regu- 

 lar school. 



Climate, Diseases, Longevity. — The climate is warm. 

 In the fall chills and fevers prevail. The only instance of lon- 

 gevity which has come to our knowledge is Mrs. Christiana 

 Smith, who reached 88 years. This county has generally been 

 healthy. The average number of deaths for a series of 20 

 years on Bryan Neck has been about 1 in 75. 



Remarkable Places. — Fort Argyle, so called by Ogle- 

 thorpe, after John, Duke of Argyle, stood upon the west 

 bank of the Ogeechee river, built in 1733 as a defence against 

 the Spaniards. 



Hardwick, so called from the Earl of Hardwick, Lord High 

 Chancellor of England, situated on the south side of the Ogee- 

 chee river, 15 miles from the ocean. 



Name. — This county bears the honoured name of Jonathan 

 Bryan, one of the founders of the State of Georgia. He was 

 born on the 12th of September, 1708, and was the youngest son 

 of Joseph Bryan, an early colonist of South Carolina, and who 

 rendered General Oglethrope very important aid upon his first 

 landing in Georgia. Mr. Jonathan Bryan, after settling vari- 

 ous places in South Carolina, came to Georgia in 1752, the 

 year in whic. the trustees resigned their charter. His know- 

 ledge of the country fully qualified him to impart useful in- 

 formation to those who desired to settle in the province, and 

 the benevolence of his disposition was often displayed in ad- 

 vising and aiding the new settler. Three years after his ar- 



