BY KRISTI REED
Located near beautiful downtown Cave Spring, the William S. Simmons Plantation (also known as the Montgomery Farm) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 19, 1980 as significant for its history and its architecture. It is also listed on the Georgia Historic Resources Register and, in 1993, was named a Georgia Centennial Farm.
Built in the late 1840s, the house is relatively unaltered from the time of its original construction. The property also features a two-room brick cookhouse which is believed to have been built 10-20 years before the main house.
In the early part of the 1800s, the area now known as Floyd County, Georgia was still Cherokee Indian territory. The Cherokee, a peaceful, agrarian people, had established their own democratic government, the Cherokee Nation, and were considered one of the five “civilized” tribes.
David Vann was born around 1800 in the valley where Cave Spring, Georgia was settled. The valley was named Vann’s Valley after his father, Avery Vann.
Avery was the son of a Scottish trader named Clement Vann who married a full-blooded Cherokee named Wa-wli Gam. Avery is believed to have been Clement’s son by his first marriage to an unknown white woman. Avery married Margaret McSwain, daughter of a white trader named Alexander McSwain and a woman named Nancy Downing.
In addition to owning a plantation, Avery operated a ferry on the Coosa River. He was quite wealthy though not as wealthy as his step-brother, James Vann - a powerful Cherokee chief known for his fierce temper. His home, Spring Place in Chatsworth, Georgia, is now open as a museum.
When David was 13 years old (in 1813), the Cherokee Nation decided to ally themselves with the United States in their war against the Red Stick faction of the Creeks. Avery Vann fought with the Tennessee Militia under Andrew Jackson alongside Major Ridge, another notable Cherokee leader.
The following year, in 1814, while Avery was away fighting, David’s mother received word that an attack by the Creek was imminent. She loaded her children and slaves onto the ferry and got them all to the other side of the Coosa before the Creeks attacked and burned their home down.
By the end of that year, the Creeks had lost their war against the U.S. and were forced to cede 23 million acres of their territory to the United States government.
Fast forward 10 years and tensions between the Creeks and the U.S. had come to a head again. The United States and the State of Georgia wanted the Creeks to move west of the Mississippi. After ceding millions of acres in 1814, the Creek made it a capital offense to relinquish any more land. Despite this, in 1825, Chief William McIntosh, another wealthy planter and businessman, signed a treaty ceding a large amount of Creek territory to the U.S.
Not only was this a capital offense, but many Creeks disliked McIntosh because he and the Lower Creeks had been aligned with Jackson during the war. Opothle Yohola, one of the Upper Creeks who had fought against Jackson urged the Creek Council to pass and carry out a death sentence on McIntosh. A group of 150-200 Creek “Law Menders” were sent to assassinate McIntosh. They set his house on fire and then dragged him, after he had already been wounded by gunfire, out of the house. He was then stabbed in the heart, shot another 50 times and thrown naked into an unmarked grave.
After executing McIntosh, the Creeks wanted a new treaty but they needed help. Major Ridge suggested they retain the services of his son John Ridge. He also suggested they hire David Vann. Vann and Ridge were promised $15,000 each - a very large sum of money at the time - and Major Ridge was to receive $10,000 for his role in facilitating the arrangement and allowing the Creeks to benefit from his connection to Andrew Jackson. Vann agreed and by the end of 1825 was working for the same people his father fought against in the war and the same Creek faction that burned his childhood home.
Vann and the younger Ridge traveled to Washington with the Creeks and soon became political celebrities. Their actions were reported on in papers around the state and the country.
Vann was prominent enough that when Charles Bird King was commissioned to paint the portraits of Native American leaders, Vann was among those he painted. This portrait eventually made its way to the Smithsonian. When the Smithsonian burned in 1865, Vann’s was only one of a handful of King’s portraits that survived the blaze.
By the end of 1825, David Vann was married to his first wife Jennie Chambers and living in the area now known as Cave Spring. An 1826 newspaper article in The Georgia Journal describes his house as being five miles from the nearest part of the Coosa River and 10 miles from (Avery) Vann’s ferry.
In the papers of Richard A. Blount, who had been appointed by Gov. Troup to survey the boundary line between the state of Georgia and Alabama, he mentions visiting David Vann’s house in August of 1826. Blount’s description would appear to put Vann’s home near or at where the William S. Simmons Plantation home now stands. He describes enjoying a dinner of bacon, snap peas, stewed chicken and milk. After dinner, one of the men in the party asked if they could go visit the saltpetre cave which he places about a mile east of Vann’s home. He wrote:
“Mr. [Vann] and Mr. [Gentry] were so polite as to accompany us and carry lightwood and fire to illuminate this dark mansion of the little bats. We crossed a bold creek - clear water and pebbly bottom about 30 feet wide and ascended a shallow one with its button covered with rocks and pebbles to a spring bursting forth on the west side of a little mountain, in different places with murmuring haste, as if desirous to be liberated from the dark and confined caverns of the earth.”
Blount describes climbing 50 or 60 feet to the mouth of the cave and using a pole to descend into the cave which was “overhung with fluted hangings like forked icicles.” After exploring the cave, they returned to the surface which Blount wrote seemed “as if I had approached the steam of an oven - so great was the difference in the temperature of the air in the cave and above ground.”
He concludes by saying David Vann has an excellent limestone spring and an advantageous stand on the road leading to Turkey Town in Alabama. Those papers also reference traveling from Vann’s house to Avery Vann’s home near the Coosa.
For the next few years, David Vann and John Ridge continued to spend a good deal of time working as diplomats. However, conditions for the Cherokee and other native Americans continued to worsen. By 1830, some Cherokee had already migrated west. Their departure meant several homes in the area had been vacated. Some white settlers took possession of these homes. The Cherokee General Council tasked Chief John Ross with removing anyone occupying recently abandoned Cherokee homes. He sent Major Ridge, David Vann and the Cherokee Light Horse brigade to do this. They evicted the settlers and burned at least 17 homes down. White settlers responded, arrested three of the Cherokee and killed one.
A letter written on May 22, 1830 by Gen. D. B. Brinsmade to Herman S. Gold described a visit to Vann's home. The letter reads in part:
“Tuesday; We visited John Ross, the principal Chief, his house is a long two story building, inside has the appearance of neatness and elegance, here we crossed the Coosa, and passed the tomb of the Cherokee, who was so barbarously murdered by the Georgians. We went along Vann’s Valley, to David Vann’s; his house is elegantly painted outside, and in, and is beautifully clouded and furnished with the nicest kind of furniture, his wife amused us in the evening by playing most charmingly on her Piano, They are both descendants of Cherokee’s.”
It was shortly before the time of this letter that gold was discovered in Georgia. As miners rushed to the state seeking to stake their claims on the land, the pressure to rid the land of Cherokees mounted. Vann, along with other wealthy Cherokee planters as well as the rest of the members of the Cherokee Nation, suddenly found themselves facing the prospect of losing their lands.
In December of 1831, legislation was enacted in Georgia to create Cherokee County, a vast area covering most of the northern part of the state.
Cherokee chief John Ross decided to fight the legislation within the court system. David Vann joined other prominent Cherokees including the Ridges in their efforts to negotiate a treaty with the United States government and end the persecution of their people at the hands of Georgians.
Ultimately though, Vann disagreed with the treaty terms that Ridge and others negotiated at New Echota. Vann refused to sign the treaty—a decision which would later save his life.
Ross fought the federal government’s efforts to remove the Cherokee until 1838 when he finally realized his efforts were futile. Ross accompanied his people on the “Trail of Tears”. His wife was one of the many Cherokee that died as a result of the grueling conditions of the forced march westward.
It is not known at what point David Vann relinquished his land to the state of Georgia and moved west. His plantation would be divided up as part of the fourth section of the third district of what was then Cherokee County. The lots which would become part of the William S. Simmons Plantation were part of Vann’s estate.
While most of Cherokee County was divided into 160-acre land districts, approximately one third of the territory, including that in present day Floyd County, was subdivided into 40-acre “gold” lots to be distributed by means of Georgia’s seventh land lottery held in 1832.
For a grant fee of $10, any bachelor, widow or married man who had resided in Georgia for at least three years was entitled to at least one draw in the gold lottery. Married men who were heads of family were entitled to two draws.
The William S. Simmons Plantation was pieced together from six of the 35,000 40-acre land lots issued during the Georgia gold lottery of 1832. The land lots involved were lots 859, 860, 869, 870, 797 and 798. The plantation home was constructed on lot 870.
Lot 797
Simeon Ellington won lot 797 in the gold lottery. On December 24, 1835, he sold lot 797 to Armistead Richardson, a wealthy landowner and one of the founders of Cave Spring.
Lot 798
Land lot 798 was drawn by Clark Martin (or Martin Clark) who sold it to Robert Ware for $90 in early 1836. Richardson bought lot 798 from Ware on February 9, 1836.
Lot 860
On January 7, 1836, Richardson purchased land lot 860 from Able Moore and Bryan Moore for $50.
Lot 869
Moses S. Duke was the original owner of lot 869. Duke received a grant to the property on January 5, 1836. The lot was subsequently owned by William L. Candler and Elisha Calhoun before being sold to William Smith. The index to grantors and grantees in Floyd County does not indicate when the land was transferred from Duke to Candler and Calhoun or if any other party owned the property prior to Smith’s acquisition sometime in 1836. On October 12, 1836, Armistead Richardson bought land lot 869 from William Smith for $100.
By 1839, Richardson’s land holdings included thousands of acres in and around Cave Spring including lots 797, 798, 860, and 869.
On July 19, 1839, William S. Simmons married Anne Richardson, the 18-year-old daughter of Armistead Richardson. On December 31, 1839, Simmons purchased land lots 797, 798 and 860 from his father-in-law for $2,500.
Lot 859
Hosea Camp sold land lot 859 to William S. Simmons in 1840.
Lot 869
On March 25, 1840 Simmons bought 2.25 acres of land lot 869 from Richardson for a cost of $100. The deed is barely legible, but makes reference to granting use of a spring house on the property. The remainder of lot 869, 37.75 acres, was transferred to Simmons in August of 1842. It appears that this land was held in trust for the Methodist Episcopal Church in Vann’s Valley.
Lot 870
Thomas Blackburn won lot 870 in the 1832 Georgia gold lottery. He claimed the land on January 11, 1834. It is not known when or if Blackburn took physical possession of the property. Blackburn sold the property to Luke Johnson on November 26, 1834 for the sum of $500. The deed describes the property as “being the lot where David Vann’s buildings stand.” The following year, on June 5, 1835, Johnson sold the 40 acres of lot 870 to Hosea Camp for $775. On May 20, 1847, Camp sold the 40 acres of land lot 870 to Simmons for $1,000.
The plantation house was constructed on lot 870. It is not known if the house had been constructed, or was under construction, at the time of this sale.
Land lot 870 is also the site of the brick cookhouse. In the National Register listing, it is described as a residence built by David Vann in the 1830s. In a handwritten history compiled by a previous owner, it was also described as the home of David Vann.
At this point, the Simmons Plantation included 240 acres.
On December 27, 1847, William S. Simmons sold land lots 797, 798, 859, 860, 869 and 870 to Carter Sparks for $5,000. As part of the deal, Sparks gave Simmons a promissory note in the amount of $1,000 payable in full by December 25, 1850.
Carter Sparks was 50 years old when he bought the plantation from Simmons. Sparks was the first postmaster in Cave Spring. He was one of the early trustees of the Manual Labor School which was later known as the Hearn Academy.
Less than two years later, Sparks sold the plantation to James C. Lake for $5,000. At the time of this sale, the plantation totaled 240 acres and was made up of land lots 859, 860, 869, 870, 797 and 798.
Lake was 53 at the time he acquired the property. During the time he owned the property, he served on the board of the Cherokee Wesleyan Institute and what was then called the Deaf and Dumb Asylum (later Georgia School for the Deaf). The Lake family history refers to him as a merchant, planter and owner of a general store. He and his wife had five children, at least four of whom were born during the time he owned the property. Interestingly, Lake apparently knew David Vann.
In 1850, Vann had been traveling in the northeast to recruit teachers for the new Cherokee Seminary in Oklahoma. On his way home, according to A History of Rome and Floyd County, David Vann visited Cave Spring and stayed at what was then called the Lake House.
The book includes a transcript of a letter written by Vann on August 27, 1850 while in Washington, D.C. to Mr. William Smith of Rome, Georgia. The letter states:
“Dear Sir: I wrote to you some time since informing you that I would be glad to hear from you respecting our silver mine in Alabama, but have not yet received anything from you. Will you be kind enough to write me a few lines and let me know how you are getting along? I have determined to go that way when I leave here for home. I cannot say when that will be. It may be some time in October.
“I have no idea that I can get away before Congress adjourns & there is no time set yet for the adjournment of Congress, though I will let you know before I leave when I will be at your house. I wrote a few lines to Major Richardson a few days ago requesting him to save me some peech seed from my old orchard (those large white peeches).
I have no news but what you see in the papers. Mr. Clay has got back this morning. He has been absent ever since his Compromise bill was defeated. The Senate has passed all the measures that he had in his Compromise bill separately with very slight alterations. Give my respects to your family and accept for yourself my best wishes for your health and prosperity.
Your friend and obt. svt., David Vann.”
It is not known what Vann’s connection was to Lake.
In 1857, Lake’s wife, Mary Elizabeth, died at age 33 just three months after her last child was born. She is buried in Cave Spring Cemetery.
In 1860, Lake remarried.
In 1861, the Civil War began.
In July of 1863, James Lake died at the age of 68.
The following year, in October of 1864, after the fall of Atlanta, Cave Spring was the headquarters of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. General John Bell Hood was headquartered in Cave Spring. Gen. Beauregard and. Major General Joe Wheeler were also in the area. At this time, Lake’s second wife and his children from his first marriage (Maria, William, Lizzie P., Joseph H and James Constantine Lake) were still living in the house.
According to an account in the Lake family history, Sherman's army passed through Cave Spring and Sherman headquartered in the Lake house. Lake's oldest son, James Constantine Lake, was almost 17 at the time Sherman’s troops were in the area and was reportedly taken prisoner. There are multiple sources that place Sherman in and near Cave Spring at the time. Sherman was headquartered in Rome for a time and there is an account of him taking a silver thimble from a house between Cave Spring and Cedartown. The book, “Cave Spring and Van’s Valley,” makes reference to the stained glass windows in the Episcopal Church being broken out by Sherman’s troops. The stained glass windows were significant because they had been donated to the church by General Francis Bartow, a famous Confederate general who was killed at the First Battle of Manassas.
Edatha Simmons, the niece of William S. Simmons, recorded Sherman marching through the area and his “vile vandals destroying nearly everything” in her diary which recounts life during the Civil War in Cave Spring.
About a year and a half after the Civil War ended, Thomas Harden Lake, the guardian of James Lake’s children, bought the property at public auction on December 4, 1866 for $2,000. According to the Lake family history, T.H. Lake was the son of James Lake’s brother Joseph.
Four years later in 1873, T.H. Lake resigned his guardianship to W.M. Friend and sold him the property in July of 1873. Friend became the guardian of James Lake’s three youngest children, the other two having come of age.
At this point, the Lake estate went up for public auction and was advertised in the August 10, 1873 edition of The Atlanta Constitution. According to the full page advertisement placed in the newspaper, the property was to be sold on October 7, 1873. However, records show Friend did not sell what was then known as “The Lake Farm” until two years later when William T. Gibson acquired the property.
Gibson had served as a private in the Confederate Army in the Civil War and had been shot in the chest and seriously wounded during the Battle of Sharpsburg in Virginia. He had been sent home to Cedartown to recuperate and was in church when a courier interrupted services to announce that the Yankees were moving towards Rome and intended to destroy it. Gibson immediately left the church service and rode to join up with Nathan Bedford Forest. He ended up with General Joe Wheeler fighting Sherman as he marched through Georgia. Gibson only owned the property for four years before selling it to Green Cunningham in 1879.
Green Cunningham purchased the property on September 10, 1879 for $5,000. At the time of the sale, The Lake Farm was comprised of 160 acres carved out of lots 860, 797 and parts of land lots 798, 859, 870 and 869.
Cunningham was 62 years old at the time. Newspaper accounts of the day describe him as a prosperous farmer, president of the Cave Spring Farmers’ Club, a delegate to the state temperance convention and one of the county’s earliest settlers. Just four years after buying the property, Cunningham’s wife Jincay died at the age of 69. According to her obituary, she was a member of the Baptist church for 40 years, was remarkable all of her life for activity and fine business qualities.
Two years later, Green Cunningham died at the age of 68. According to newspaper reports, he died at home after a lingering illness. In his will, he left the property to Willie Permelia Bobo Montgomery, who was his niece and legally adopted daughter. Willie was married to James Middleton Montgomery. At the time she acquired the property, she was 34 and James was 41.
James had served in the Civil War as part of Company E, 6th Georgia Cavalry. He and Willie married in 1873. They had 11 children. He served at least two terms on the Cave Spring City Council.
Mr. Montgomery died May 9, 1899 just 22 days shy of his 53rd birthday. His death was reported in papers across the state. The notice stated, “J. Mid Montgomery, a prominent Cave Spring citizen, died last week of blood poison and lockjaw. Last week, he got a splinter in his finger, which resulted in his death Tuesday.”
Willie Bobo Montgomery continued living in the house for decades after her husband’s death. During that time, it was known as “The Montgomery House.” In 1937, her daughter Lucille bought the property. Six years later, Willie Montgomery passed away at the age of 92. According to the death certificate, she died in the house of heart disease. Lucille Montgomery continued living in the house until her death on November 12, 1967.
The Montgomery’s oldest daughter and Lucille’s older sister, Rosalie, was born on September 9, 1879. She married Charles Morgan Sewell in August of 1904. Their daughter, Lavinia Sewell, became the eventual owner of the property when she and her husband, J.H. Wesley, purchased the property in 1969.
In 1980, during the Wesley’s ownership, the home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as significant for its history and its architecture. It was also listed on the Georgia Historic Resources Register.
The following year, John Sr. passed away at the age of 80. Their son, John Charles Wesley died three years later at the age of 41.
In 1993, The property was designated as a Centennial Farm by the State of Georgia. The property is listed as the Montgomery Farm with Lavinia Wesley as the owner. According to the State of Georgia website, “The Georgia Centennial Farm Program was developed in 1993 to distinguish family farms that have contributed to preserving Georgia's agricultural history by maintaining working farms for more than 100 years.”
Mrs. Wesley lived in the house until her death in 2000 at the age of 93. According to her obituary, she was a member of the First Baptist Church of Cave Spring and a graduate of Brenau College. She is also listed as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Upon her death, the property passed to her nephew, Charles Whitaker Sewell, and her niece Elizabeth Sewell Arnold.
After sitting vacant for several years and falling into disrepair, the house was purchased by Ina Benton Black on February 15, 2008. The sale included approximately 1.3 acres surrounding the house as well as the brick cookhouse rumored to be part of David Vann’s estate.
The interior wall surfaces are plaster over brick. The parlor, two bedrooms, the upstairs hall and foyer feature hand painted murals in a multitude of colors. Though the walls have suffered damage over the years, the colors are remarkably vibrant and the painting exquisitely detailed. The finest work may be seen in the parlor where the artist did his most elaborate work, including an ornate religious motif over the doorway. The murals in the parlor have gold leaf detail. The artist also used gold leaf to decorate the ceiling and cornices.
The floors are made of heart pine and every room except one includes a carved mantel original to the house. On two of these mantels, the remnants of a faux marbleized paint finish can still be seen. It is believed this faux marbleizing was done by the same artist that painted the interior murals.
Another unique aspect of the home is the extensive wood trim throughout the house. Many of the doors and even some of the trim was decorated with a technique known as faux bois, or painting ordinary wood to look like a more expensive wood. The technique gives the doors the appearance of having panels when in fact there are none. Much of the trim is also painted to simulate wood grain.
The home is currently a private residence.
Copyright Kristi Reed 2025. All Rights Reserved.