IRWIN COUNTY. 333 



Roads and Bridges. — The roads and bridges are gene- 

 rally good. 



Character of the People, Amusements. — The people 

 are kind and sociable. Much time is devoted to hunting. 

 Temperance has not advanced with so much rapidity as in 

 other counties. 



Climate. — The climate is warm. The diseases are simi- 

 lar to those of the adjacent counties. 



Mineral Spring. — There is a mineral spring on the Oc- 

 mulgee river, 22 miles from Hawkinsville. 



Name. — General Jared Irwin, after whom this county was 

 named, was of Irish descent. His parents emigrated to Meck- 

 lenburg county, North Carolina, and came to Georgia when 

 he was about seven years old. 



He served his country faithfully many years during the lat- 

 ter part of the revolutionary war, and afterwards in campaigns 

 on the Georgia frontiers, against the Indians. He at one time 

 commanded a detachment of Georgia militia in the Creek 

 country. In early life he lived in Burke county ; afterwards 

 he removed to Washington county, which he often represent- 

 ed in the Legislature. He was a Brigadier General of the mi- 

 litia ; he was in the Convention for revising our State Consti- 

 tution in 1789 ; in a Convention for the same purpose in 1795, 

 and President of the Convention that formed the present Con- 

 stitution in 1798. The Presidency of the Senate was fre- 

 quently conferred upon him, at various periods, from 1790 to 

 1818, when he died. As Governor, in 1796, he had the hon- 

 our of signing the Act rescinding the Yazoo Law. He was 

 again Governor, from November 7, 1806, to November 9, 1809. 

 At the close of the war of independence, he was a member of 

 the first Legislature that convened under our present form of 

 government. 



He was a very pure man, and an excellent neighbour, 

 whom all around him looked upon as a guide. Hospitality 

 was his chief virtue. In every station he occupied he exhi- 

 bited his devotion to the public good. In his manners he was 

 affable, and in his disposition kind. In religion, he was a Con- 

 gregationalist. To the poor and distressed he was a warm 

 friend. He died at Union Hill, in Washington county, on the 

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