Part 3

In the spring of 1866 brother George died. He had been in poor health for a long time, but, in spite of that, he had made a splendid success of his profession, and had acquired a good deal of property. He was the kindest and best of brothers. After brother George's death I applied for testamentary letters for the administration of the Huguenin estate. The letters were granted _de bonis non cum testamentor nexus_. The estate consisted principally of three large plantations in Sumter County. At Colonel Huguenin's death there had been about three hundred slaves. I assumed the position of manager of the estate, which occupied most of my time for many years. When I took charge the estate owed about twenty thousand dollars to Mrs. Rosa E. Delony, Athens, Georgia, a daughter of Colonel Huguenin by a former marriage. I succeeded with great effort in paying off this indebtedness, although the extreme low price of cotton and the contraction of the currency made the payment very difficult to make. Some years I was not able to make any at all. At one time attempts were made to sell the plantations at public sale. But I managed to pull through. My commission for administrator averaged about eight hundred a year.

I resumed the study of law under the tutelage of Mr. L. N. Whittle in 1866, and I was duly admitted to the Bar in the following year. On account of the fact that the Sumter County plantations kept me so busy, I was only able to devote a limited amount of time to the practice of law. I was reasonably successful in my profession. I had a good clientage who felt that their affairs were in safe hands. Some of my cases involved interesting questions of law, several being taken to the Supreme Court. I believe my greatest triumph was the case of Mrs. Martha F. Woodson _versus_ Bodeing & Company, in which the opposing counsel was Mr. Benjamin H. Hill, in which I achieved a great victory. I retired from the practice of law in 1885 and turned my entire attention to agriculture.

During my life in Macon I was interested in the welfare of the city. Under the auspices of the Ladies' Memorial Association, I erected the Confederate monument which is standing to-day at the crossing of Cotton Avenue and Mulberry Street.

My niece, Martha Huguenin, married Mr. J. Marshall Johnston of the firm of R. T. Wilson & Co., bankers of New York City. Mr. Johnston and I purchased large plantations in Houston, Lee, and Dougherty counties, twelve thousand acres in all. The title was conveyed to me and Mrs. M. F. Johnston. The affairs of the Huguenin estate being now wound up I could give most of my time to agriculture on the newly acquired plantations. The price of cotton continued very low. I do not think at that time any one made money planting cotton.

At just about that time the cotton caterpillar appeared in the fields of southern Georgia and bid fair to destroy the crop. Cotton growing seemed doomed as a profitable undertaking. One day while out in the fields I noticed that the moths, the parents of the cotton caterpillar, were flying very slowly, as if sick. I captured some of these moths and took them back with me to Macon, where with the aid of a compound microscope I discovered they were infested with a parasitic insect. This parasite killed them in a short time. I, at once, communicated this discovery to the Entomological Department in Washington. But they refused to agree with me in this, the true reason for the quick disappearance of the cotton caterpillar. Although I had testimony that the same trait of slow short flight was noticed in the moths all over the country, I do not know if any credit has ever been given to my discovery by the Department, or how they finally accounted for the disappearance of the caterpillar from the cotton fields.

In the year 1876, a society for the promotion of agriculture was formed, with headquarters in Washington City. The organization spread with astonishing rapidity, the farmers looking to it for assistance. At a general meeting in Atlanta of the Georgia organization, of which I was a member and officer, a resolution was passed requesting the legislature to form a Department of Agriculture. I was requested to prepare a bill. I had no guide before me; but I drew the bill, defining its object in various matters, and giving the commissioners power to prescribe rules, and to prohibit the sale of worthless fertilizers in this State. I handed the bill to Mr. Bacon, speaker of the House, and it was introduced by Mr. Butt of Marion County. The bill passed without amendment after much discussion, and was soon a law. A similar bill was passed almost at once by several other States.

Among the plantations in the western part of Dougherty County, purchased by Mr. Johnston and myself in 1879, was a body of land of twenty-five hundred acres known as "Hickory Level." The land was very fertile, there was no superior in that entire section of the State. The plantation was very sickly, no white man but one had ever lived on it for two consecutive years. Malaria in its worst form was very prevalent. The death rate among the negroes was alarming. At that time, the theory of the relation of the mosquito to the spreading of malaria had not been advanced. I considered the sickness to be due to a great extent to the very bad water, being what is known as "rotten limestone," which was drunk on the place. The question of obtaining pure water became so important that at one time it looked as though the place would have to be abandoned if some solution were not found. I thought first of building large cisterns with sheds to catch rain water, but that plan involved so many details, and expense, and there was the danger of easy contamination, so I gave up that plan. I suggested then that we bore an artesian well, as I had been investigating that subject and believed that a well could be bored with success. The question was discussed between Mr. Johnston and myself but held in abeyance on account of the expense and the uncertainty of the enterprise.

During the summer of 1880 there was a great deal of sickness on the place. There was very little rain. Water was difficult to obtain and was of a milky color. During that summer I tried to interest the town of Albany and the Central of Georgia railroad in the enterprise of boring an artesian well to obtain good water. At that time Mr. Nelson Tift, Sr., was Mayor of Albany; General W. S. Holt was president and Mr. Shelman superintendent of the Southwestern railroad. As best I could, I laid before these gentlemen, the importance of good water to that section and what the benefit would be to the town of Albany and to the railroads. I explained why I believed artesian wells could be bored with success in this section. And as I felt financially unable to undertake the experiment of the first well, I wished to get financial assistance for the undertaking from those who would ultimately be benefited. I received no encouragement. I wrote articles for the _Macon Telegraph_ and the _Albany News and Advertiser_, explaining fully my reasons for believing that artesian wells could be bored in southern Georgia. My theories were ridiculed, and received no serious attention.

At last, I determined to commence the undertaking myself. I had the consent of my partner, Mr. J. M. Johnston. We were jointly to bear the expense. I again laid the matter before the managers of the Central and Southwestern railroads for assistance. I saw Mr. Shelman in person. All he would do was to give me a free ticket over the Southwestern road for the man whom I had engaged to commence the well. This amounted to three dollars and fifty cents, which was all the assistance I received from the railroads, and that was done in anticipation of the freight charges that were to be on the engine and other material that were to be brought from Selma, Alabama, to Ducker Station for the purpose of boring the well. I had written to a friend in Selma, Mr. J. C. Campton, to recommend to me a man who was accustomed to boring artesian wells in that section of Alabama. He employed for me a Mr. Jackson from Selma at the price of five dollars a day, for his services, and use of his friction clutch and windlass. I purchased an engine and steam pump and commenced work on February 1, 1881.

My reasons for the faith I had in the practicability of artesian wells being bored in Georgia was a matter of thought and observation extending from my boyhood. One day while riding in a buggy with my father in the lower part of Baldwin County, we crossed a little stream known as "Reedy Creek," that flowed over many small round pebbles that looked like birds' eggs. The banks, too, of the stream were covered with these round stones imbedded in the earth. I got out of the buggy to get some to carry home as checker rocks for my sisters. My father then explained to me, that at an ancient period of time this had been the shore of the ocean that had extended over what is now southern Georgia, south of a line drawn from Augusta to Columbus. I was interested in the facts explained to me by my father, and remembered the conversation.

Many years afterwards while on the southern Chattahoochee River I noticed cut by the river bank a stratum of blue earth, which I felt assured was an ocean deposit known as blue marl, a deep-sea ooze. This ooze is impervious to water, preventing the water underneath from rising to the surface in springs. I noticed this deposit on the west bank, the Alabama side, and that it was sloping downward, eastward, and toward the south. I crossed over to the east bank, the Georgia side, none was to be seen. But the natural supposition was that it was there only lower than the river bank. This was near Eufaula. As this marl appeared again at the surface near Brunswick, I took what seemed to me to be a logical position that this deposit extended under all southern Georgia, far down in the earth.

There were other phenomena I had observed on this subject. During the Civil War, I was attached to a cavalry scout service with headquarters near Saint Mark's, Florida. One day I went with a comrade, Jim Denham, in a skiff up the Wakulla River to the Wakulla Spring, about five miles from Saint Mark's. This spring is said to be the largest in the world. It is a great natural curiosity. Here was a river as large as the Chattahoochee or larger, rising up out of the ground. Whence came this water? The natural answer seemed: an underground river flowing under Georgia, which had been prevented before from rising to the surface by some natural obstruction, namely, earth impervious to water. The water had sunk into the earth in the northern plateau and mountains of Georgia, where there were no water-tight strata. I was greatly awed and interested in the Wakulla Spring. At first my ideas of its origin were only vague and crude, but became more definite and crystallized as time went on, and as I added to my observation and thought on the subject.

There had been several attempts to bore artesian wells in Georgia. In about 1850 an attempt was made to bore a well in Albany; which proved a complete failure. They were wanting in continuous pipes to reach water-tight strata. The water would seep out and never reach the surface. Mr. Jones of Newton, Georgia, was the contractor for the Albany well. I wrote to him upon the subject. He answered with a most discouraging letter, stating that when a young man he had lost a good deal of money in that enterprise, which he had never been able to recover from the town of Albany. Another attempt was by a Mr. Walker, called "Rich Billy Walker," a very wealthy man of Pulaski County, who bored two wells near Longstreet, Georgia, both of which were failures, although he went over six hundred feet deep.

My attention was also called to the fact that scientists and especially the famous geologist, Joseph Le Conte, had said that artesian water could not be procured in Georgia. In the face of all this discouragement I am astonished that I was still determined to go ahead, and too my finances were very low. In after years, in thinking this over, I have sometimes felt that I was compelled to continue the undertaking by some power outside of myself.

Commencing February 1, 1881, I continued the work through the spring and summer. My tools were so inferior that I almost had to abandon the well, especially when a boring tool, a reamer was broken off in the bottom of the pipe. My well seemed to be a failure and was ridiculed by some of the citizens of Albany. I remember one day on the street that a Mr. Bazemore, a warehouseman, stopped me and laughingly said that he had an injunction against me, because I was trying to rival Noah,--the difference was that Noah wished to rescue from a flood while I wanted to flood the State. Such ridicule only made me more than ever determined to go on. With great difficulty I succeeded in getting the reamer out. At about the depth of four hundred feet I reached the water-tight stratum, a deposit of deep-sea ooze known as blue marl. I had been looking for this water-tight envelope and felt greatly encouraged.

On August 1st, I returned to Macon leaving word to continue work until my return, which would be within a few days. On August 4th, at ten o'clock in the morning I received the following telegram, "Water flowing at seven gallons per minute." I was greatly gratified at this, which was a triumph for my belief and for my perseverance. I took the next train accompanied by Mr. Harry Edwards of the _Macon Telegraph_. We arrived at Ducker Station the next morning, Sunday, and went out at once to see the little well. It was an inspiring and gratifying sight to see the water flowing from the pipe.

The country was in the grasp of a parching drouth, and presented the appearance of a country in a great need of the blessing of water. A great number of awe-struck negroes had assembled. They regarded me with great wonder and astonishment. It was thought that the Almighty had informed me to strike at that special spot, and I was likened to Moses, who in the wilderness struck the rock from which water gushed out. The news spread. The well was visited by many people who came to wonder and drink the splendid water. An account of my success was published in many of the State papers. The first being the _Macon_ _Telegraph_ with an article by Mr. Edwards in which I was much praised.

This gem of a little well, five hundred and fifty feet deep, of the purest life-giving water, of less than one hundred grains of any substance to the gallon, flowed nineteen years without diminishing. Its diminution at the end of this time was caused by chemical corrosion of the pipe, a hole being made, through which the water passed into the great sand bed above the water-tight strata. I successfully telescoped the pipe with a smaller one. The well had only ceased to flow two or three days.

LOG OF THE WELL OF JOHN P. FORT

_U. S. Geological Survey_

Thickness Depth Feet Feet

A few feet of surface clay, followed by limestone bowlders 65 65

Limestone with silicified layers containing shells--Traversed by subterranean streams 85 150

Blue marl (clay?) 15 165

Shell rock, sand rock, and marl (clay); water rose to within 14 feet of surface 95 260

Sand tinted blue; layer of very fine white sand at 370 feet, below which was some coarse sand with shell fragments and sharks' teeth 120 380

Blue clay and sand rock in alternate layers 30 410

Blue clay with soft sand rock to flowing water 80 490

Sand and clay, forming water-bearing stratum 40 530

Hard rock 17 547

My successful boring of this well was quickly followed by the boring of others. The town of Albany and the Central railroad bored two at once, showing that they recognized the fact that it would be of value to them. Soon there were wells in Jacksonville and Sanford, Florida, and Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia. Other places quickly followed, getting their entire water supply by this means.

Gradually the excitement occasioned by my well died out. By many it was looked upon as an accidental discovery and I was put in the list of cranks. I believe that it even caused my credit to suffer, for the banks of Albany, looking upon me as a crank, refused to lend money to a visionary. Nor has the Central of Georgia railroad, which more than any corporation was benefited by my success, ever acknowledged it in any way, or ever extended to me any special courtesy. The boring of my well, which cost eleven hundred dollars, was never a help to me financially. But it was a great satisfaction to me, to know that I was instrumental in procuring the blessing of good water for a great section of my native State, and to know this has been recognized and praised by many.

During the first ten years my little well was used by a large circle of the surrounding population who daily hauled barrels of water from the plantation. No charge for this water was ever made. It was free to all. It was a great satisfaction to me to see how the health on the plantation was improved. Malaria decreased, and hemorrhagic fever, the great curse of the country, almost disappeared. Pure water is a great preventive of sickness.

Times were hard, but I met all my pecuniary obligations, although sometimes paying as high as fourteen per cent. for money loaned on my real estate as security, taking it as valued at one dollar per acre.

I consider the year 1881 the brightest in my life, as it contained two momentous happenings; in August the boring of my artesian well, and in October my marriage to Miss Lulah Hay Ellis of Atlanta, which event was the most important in my life.

I brought my wife to Macon where we lived three years. I then gave up entirely my law practice, and left Macon. I took my family, my wife and two little daughters, to spend the winter months on Cooleewahee, one of my plantations near Albany. My wife became devoted to this plantation. We lived a healthful and happy life in the open. As game was plentiful, Lulah, with her fishing rod, and I, with my gun, supplied our table.

I now return to my work with the water of south Georgia.

During the boring of my artesian well we drilled through a limestone stratum, eighty feet from the surface to one hundred and ten. When this stratum was reached all the water which could be pumped down the pipe would disappear. I considered this a strange thing. I inquired of contractors in Albany and the neighborhood if they had met with similar strata. They informed me that they had. On receiving this information, I felt confident that water let down into this stratum from a pond would disappear. I became so interested in this proposition that I determined to make the experiment.

This section of Dougherty County is not over two hundred feet above the sea level and has on it a great many shallow ponds which have no natural drainage and which, because of the flatness of the land, cannot be drained by ditching. Near the artesian well on my Hickory Level plantation there was a pond of this character. It was not over twelve feet deep and covered several acres of ground. I thought that this stagnant water contributed to the sickness of the place, and to the high death rate from malaria. Later scientific research concerning the mosquito has proved the connection of stagnant ponds and malaria.

I determined to drain this pond into that subterranean limestone stratum eighty feet below the surface. I had a boat built and transported pine logs to the center of the pond, laid them in a square, building this up until it was above the surface. I then had a platform put upon this crib, connected a small derrick, made a large swinging maul, and drove a three-inch pipe down to the hard-rock stratum. I then attached a chisel to a two-inch pipe which was let down in the three-inch one and cut the rock by continually raising it up and down, thus cutting through the rock until we reached that honeycombed stratum which I was looking for. When the chisel struck this porous rock it fell about two feet. A large quantity of air rose to the surface, startling the two negroes who were working on the chisel. The top of my three-inch pipe was several short pieces screwed together. I now unscrewed and left open at the bottom of the pond the three-inch pipe. The roar of the water as it went into this subterranean cavity sounded like a small cascade. The water in the pond decreased gradually for about two weeks, when it disappeared. The drained bottom presented a remarkable sight--many fish, alligators, and trunks of ancient trees were exposed to the sun.

This was a complete drainage and cost about one hundred and fifty dollars. By preventing the pipe from being stopped up with debris, the pond was kept successfully drained for several years. But, finally, through the difficulties of keeping it open, as there were only negroes on the plantation, and because of general inattention, the pipe became stopped up and the pond filled again.

I would here like to state that to my knowledge this method of subterranean drainage has been taken advantage of, in several localities. One that has been specially drawn to my attention is the drainage with six pipes by Mr. T. F. Putney, of Albany, of several hundred acres. This has greatly increased the value of his land. There are many ponds in south Georgia that I believe could be drained in the same way, as I feel assured that this same porous limestone stratum extends under that entire section.

I believe that this method could be the answer to the great problem of draining the Everglades of Florida. That State is now spending large sums of money on the attempt to drain parts of these vast swamps by canals and ditches. I believe that under this section of Florida is the same geological formation as under Dougherty County, Georgia, and into which could be drained the surface water. And at only a fraction of the cost of the system now being attempted.

I also hold the theory that the earth slides at the Panama Canal could be remedied in the same way, these slides being caused by very wet earth. The geological formation at the Isthmus is volcanic, resting on tertiary. Where the slides occur is one hundred feet above sea level. I think that a system of pipes, from the surface into a sand stratum which runs under the Isthmus, would remove the water from this wet earth. I shall not here go into my theory in detail. I have suggested it to Mr. Goethals, the engineer of the canal, and state it here not only as a theory of mine, but as a prophecy of the system that will ultimately be used.

As I became more and more convinced of the immensity of the underground waterways of Georgia, vast underground rivers making their way to the sea, and as I realized more fully the inexhaustible supply of good water to be obtained, I had the vision of a large area of our State being made more healthful because of pure water, and prosperous by the use of that same water for the irrigation of the land in the growing of crops.