17 M E T R O
Walker said the exhibit may be small in size now, but she expects that it will continue to grow with help from some of the Dicksons’ distant relatives. “I think this exhibit is going to put Sparta on the map,” Walker said. “I’m getting some more artifacts soon from the family. And we’re hoping to take the exhibit on the road in January and the first stop will probably be Augusta. After all, that’s where Amanda Dickson ultimately retired and is buried.” Walker said that she has already been contacted by the Lucy Craft Laney Museum about the exhibit. “After David Dickson died and Amanda had to go through the long court trial to fight for her inheritance, Amanda moved to Augusta and bought a large house on Telfair Street,” Walker said, referring to a home located in the 400-block of Telfair Street which is now the law offices of attorney Sam Maguire. “I think after all Amanda went through, she just wanted to get out of Sparta and start somewhere new. And Augusta was a perfect choice.”
S P I R I T O C T 1 0 2 0 0 2
THE DICKSON CIVIL WAR
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According to Leslie’s book, the 1885 Dickson will trial was not only nasty, but a huge public spectacle. Hancock County was suffering from severe financial and agricultural losses following the Civil War and many of the plantations weren’t ever able to recover. Sparta was now a very poor town filled with citizens that had a lot of time on their hands. “The white citizens of Hancock County anticipated the trial with excitement,’” Leslie wrote. “Because money was scarce, public entertainments were simple. Speeches for and against the demon liquor attracted crowds.” Therefore, Leslie stated a court trial involving David Dickson, once known as the “Prince of Georgia Farmers,” was high drama. And the claims that the Dickson family were leveling against Amanda were pointed. “The disgruntled white relatives brought suit on several grounds,” Leslie wrote. “They argued that the will should not be admitted to probate because it was not the ‘act and will of David Dickson’; that Dickson was not of sound and disposing mind at the time of writing the will; that he was unduly influenced by Amanda and Julia Dickson; that Amanda was not David’s child; and that the will was ‘in its scheme, its nature and tendencies illegal and immoral, contrary to the policy of the state and of the law.’”
CLEVENTEEN WALKER
AMANDA DICKSON’S AUGUSTA HOME Fortunately for Amanda, her first encounter with David’s white family in court was short and sweet. The lawyers for the white relatives decided they wanted to wait until the Dickson will trial was before the Hancock County Superior Court in the town’s stately new courthouse before they presented their witnesses and case. Therefore, without much of an argument given from either side of the Dickson case, a Hancock County probate judge upheld David’s will on July 6, 1885. But the civility between the two sides didn’t last long.
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AMANDA DICKSON’S GRAVE IN CEDAR GROVE “On November 16, 1885 the drama began in the Superior Court room of the recently completed Hancock County Courthouse,” Leslie wrote. “The citizens of Hancock County had begun constructing the courthouse in 1880 and completed it in 1883. The stately old building still stands on a ridge that runs through the center of Sparta. “Ironically, in 1885, David Dickson’s estate still owned $28,000 in Hancock County Courthouse bonds, or 90 percent of the $30,000 that the citizens borrowed to construct this ‘masterpiece of Victorian architecture.’”
According to Walker, media came from all around the nation to sit in the courthouse’s pine pews and cover the trial. “The trial was covered by papers from New York, Atlanta, New Orleans and those closer to home like Macon and Augusta,” Walker said. “I think the white relatives’ main argument was that Amanda wasn’t David’s daughter. Also they said Amanda and her mother, Julia, had too much influence over David. The lawyers for David’s relatives pointed out that Julia managed some of David’s money and was in charge of all of the household matters.”
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