OPPOSITE: Benjamin and Sarah Henderson Parks. This is the only known photograph of Benjamin and Sarah and was probably taken around 1870. The original tintype is owned by a great-grandson Woodrow Parks.

Above: Benjamin and Sarah Parks and several generations of the Parks family are buried at Yellow Creek Baptist Church in Hall County, Ga.

to Hall County in 1820. This more closely agrees with Benjamin Jr.'s reference to his age when he first saw the mountains of North Georgia.
In 1833, then age 86, Parks Sr. gathered supporting documentation to file his pension application of military service. Correspon- dence indicates that he had difficulty veri- fying his record; and in 1852, nearly 13 years after his father's death, Benjamin Jr. employed attorney George H. Jones of Washington, Georgia to reapply for benefits on behalf of his father. A state- ment by the son in 1847 gives the death of Benjamin Parks Sr. as July 11, 1839. He and his wife are buried in unmarked graves at the Yellow Creek Cemetery.
Even though one Parks family record says Benjamin Jr. had only one sister, Sarah (1781-circa 1864), it admits that other siblings may have been born. A family Genealogy chart owned by Lumpkin descen-

RIGHT: A later and more well-known photograph of Benjamin Parks. A copy of this photograph is permanently displayed at the Dahlonega Courthouse Gold Museum. The original tintype is owned by a great-grandson, Woodrow Parks.

The two cattlemen had a lick-log at the site where the Dahlonega Courthouse Gold Museum now stands. It was a frontier practice for people to "salt' their livestock by placing salt blocks in grazing areas, and from the location of Parks and Ralston's block Dahlonega got its locally known "licklog" name.
Parks himself lived on the east side of the Chestatee River and crossed over the frontier westward into the Cherokee Nation to tend his cattle and horses. A lengthy interview with Parks remembers "the Indians were all around when I came" to Georgia. He said he ate a basic Indian dish, "conee-banee," with them many times. Benjamin Sr. had befriended the Indians, Parks said, and his family felt safe and welcome among them. "We always treated them right," he remarked, and they did the same by us."
Despite such recollections of good relations with the Cherokees, all history of the 1820's and 30's describes a turbulent time for Indians in Georgia. White Georgia had ceded her western claims to the federal government in 1802 and stipulated that the government do all in its power to convince Indians within its borders to give up their land and leave.
With little movement of Indians by the late 1820's many Georgians adopted a stern policy. The discovery of Gold by Benjamin Parks in the Cherokee heartland and an avalanche of prospectors reinforced demands for Indian eviction. Even with action by the federal and state governments, Georgia Cherokees desperately held on, and nearly 9,000 remained here in 1835,

when the infamous Treaty of New Echota finally sealed their fate.
Benjamin Parks Jr. did hint at worsening feelings when he said the Indians "would have gotten on all right if they had been left alone. Those were good times..." It is not known what role, if any, Parks played in the Indian removal; but that his associate, Ralston, married a Cherokee and defended the nation again removal suggests that Parks may have appreciated the Indian cause.
Parks' fond remembrances may have been colored by romantic feelings for one Indian woman, the daughter of a Cherokee chief, whom he considered marrying. He claimed that the Indians were anxious for the match, but his family would not

have accepted it. "Our children would have had no nation, so I did not marry her," Parks said, "but, dear me, how beautiful she was!"
He did marry Sarah (Sally) Henderson (1805-1884), also originally from North Carolina, on February 9 or 10, 1825 (records disagree). She was the daughter of John G. (Smokin' Johnny) and Jane Bleckley Henderson. Benjamin and Sarah, records agree, had ten sons and one daughter. The family Bible owned by Woodrow Parks, great-grandson, gives a twelfth birth, but this Benjamin H. Parks (January 25, 1850-?) was a grandson. Their children:
John Henderson Parks (February 9, 1826 - December 10, 1893), born Hall County, married Barzilla Castleberry (1824-1876) on May 26, 1847. He also married Rebecca McCurry.
Joseph Marion Parks (October 28, 1827 - October 31, 1903) born Hall County. He married Eliza Webb on December 4, 1849.
Aziel Clifton Parks (August 16, 1829-1854). He married Mary Hendrix in Jackson County on March 10, 1848.
Samuel S. Parks (May 27, 1831 - Jan. 1, 1865).
Benjamin Madison Parks (July 7, 1833-?). He married Elizabeth Allen on April 19, 1866.
William D. Parks (April 22, 1835 - March 27, 191 I). He married Sara F. Jay in Hall County on February 8, 1855.
Andrew H. Parks (February 9, 1837-?). He moved to Oregon and then to Washington State where an unknown number of relatives may live.
Thomas Lafayette Parks (November 17, 1838 - May 10, 1918). He married Malisha Montgomery in Jackson County on December 3, 1857. He later married Elizabeth Calhoun.
David Rives Parks (November 9, 1840 - January 26, 1918). He married Ellen Eli- zabeth Weaver on April 25, 1867.
Elizabeth Jane Parks (November 14, 1842 - May 1844).
Harvey C. Parks (September 24, 1844 - July 21, 1914). He married Sarah Elizabeth Cain on December 8, 1867.
The most widely quoted story of Parks' discovery of gold appeared in The Atlanta Constitution on July 15, 1894. Reporter P. J. Moran interviewed Parks at the home of his son Harvey, who lived near the Hall- Lumpkin County line. Moran made the near all-day trip from Gainesville by horsedrawn coach as a passenger on the overland mail service. He was accompanied by Capt.

Frank W. Hall, the Vermont native who made a fortune in gold prospecting here. Moran recorded Parks' age then at 94, actually he was 91 in mid-1894, less than a year before his death.
Moran described Parks as "a striking figure. Tall, but slightly stooped, his figure was trim and well knit, evidently a good man yet." His last surviving grandchild, Benjamin Gordon Parks (May 6, 1886 - January 26, 1968) of Dahlonega, remembered his grandfather similarly in a 1960 news- paper article. Grandson Gordon said Parks was "a bigger man than I am by a right smart," giving his own height as five feet, 11 inches.
"He was a good old man--I can tell you that," said Gordon. "This is his stick I'm walking with. He hooked it around my neck many a time and pulled me up to him to paddle me, loving like. It's hick- ory and homemade. He made it himself, bending the hickory when it was green and tying it down till it dried."
At last account, Leroy Parks of Dah- lonega, a great-grandson of Benjamin Jr. had possession of the cane that his famous forebearer carried until his death. Leroy's brother, Charles S. Parks, Port Arthur Texas, holds the small jug in which Benjamin

carried quicksilver; and Woodrow Parks, a great-grandson from another branch of the family, Dahlonega, has Parks' eyeglasses, case, and wallet.
Parks' discovery of gold, all stories agree, was "by accident." As he told reporter Moran, "I was deer hunting one day when I kicked up something that caught my eye. I examined it and decided that it was gold." Another account of the discovery, based on Parks story retold by Ross McDonald, another early gold miner now deceased, is far more colorful. McDonald was age 21 when Parks died.
"Uncle Benny talked to me many times about the old mining days, and he told me how he found the gold that caused the rush," McDonald said. "He was a pretty high-strung, man. One day when he was out deer hunting, he stumbled over a rock. He picked up the rock and threw it hard against another rock, and when it broke, he saw it was strung through with gold."
Even more embroidered stories drama- tically picture Parks walking over ground hard from winter freezes, then tripping into a mountain stream to make the discovery. Yet another story, the recollections of Bob Meaders, a lifelong Dahlonegan now deceased, actually quotes Parks directly.

ABOVE: The "Gold Rush King and Queen" in 1957 in Lumpkin County were Gordon Parks, a grandson of Benjamin, and Mrs. Harvey Franklin Parks (Sally Green) a granddaughter-in-law. They were photo- graphed at the old Parks homeplace. The house has since been remodeled.
(Photo: Courtesy Madeline Anthony)

Meaders retold his daugher Margaret, now retired and writing a Lumpkin County history in New Mexico, this Parks story:
"I was following a deer path northwest of here, hoping it wouldn't turn across the river, for late October is no time for fording. I wasn't walking good as common and was well-nigh tired down, for I wore some new birthday boots not yet broke in. Crossing a little dried-up watercourse, I kicked up a nice quartz piece with a sparkle to it that caught my eye. When I looked, I knew it had to be but only one thing--gold!"

This account lays to rest any doubt over the time of the discovery. Some say nearly 1828,11 others say 1829, but Bob Meaders quoted Parks further: "It was my birthday (October 27), so I'd ought to know. And--I'm a telling you--the to-do that followed was going full steam before ever 1829 was rung in."
The property owned of the gold-rich land was Robert O'Bar, a preacher and founding member of the Yellow Creek Baptist Church in 1823. Parks, too, was a deacon of the church and member of the building committee for construction of the camp meeting arbor now in the museum village near Lumpkin (Stewart County), Georgia.
The spelling of O'Bar with one "r" comes from a locally owned copy of the original land lease, although typed copies of church records use the double "r" spelling, and The Constitution story spelled the name "O'Biar-." Described as "a hard man," the preacher laughed at Parks' contention that he could mine gold on the property, thinking

his story just "so much wind rattlin' a gourd." But O'Bar agreed to a 40-year lease, dated September 12, 1829, and said that Parks could have three-quarters of all gold mined.
Parks soon took on a partner in his prospecting ventures. The copy of the land lease names Joel Stephens as the partner, but in no other research are the two men linked.
On a return trip to the spot where he first saw gold, Parks used a pan to turn the earth, comparing it to "the yellow of an egg. It was more than my eyes could believe." News about his discovery spread through the countryside like wildfire. "It seemed," Parks said, "within a few days, as if the whole world must have heard of it; for men came from every state I had ever heard of. They came afoot, on horseback and in wagons, acting more like crazy men than anything else."
From Dahlonega to Auraria (then Nuckollsville), men panned the branches and cut holes in the hillsides. Meanwhile, Preacher O'Bar, who owned the portion of the land that ultimately was known as Calhoun Mine, stewed. Several accounts of Parks' description of O'Bar, likely based on Cain's History of Lumpkin County, say he was "the saddest man in the county." However, Moran's original story in The Atlanta Constitution quote Parks calling im "the maddest man in the country."
One day O'Bar approached Parks

and asked for the lease. Parks said he re- fused, explaining, "Even if I were willing, it is now out of my power, for I have taken in a partner, and I know he would never consent to it. I have given him my word, and I will keep it."
Two weeks later O'Bar returned to the mining site with three other family members. Parks again refused the offer, saying he would not give up the lease for ten times its value. "Well," O'Bar was quoted, "the longest pole will knock off the permis- sion;" and with that, his mother broke open the sluice gates to let out the water and threw rocks to splash a laborer in the ditch. After a scuffle, the family went to town and swore out warrants for the arrest of the Parks crew.
This action was a futile attempt at intimidation, Parks felt. O'Bar then sold the land to Judge Underwood, who in turn sold it to Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Cdlhoun persuaded Parks to relin- quish his lease for what Parks thought "a good price." He said, however, that in the first month of Calhoun's ownership, the mine yielded 24,000 pennyweights of gold, "and then I was inclined to be as mad with him as O'Bar had been with me."
Parks likened gold mining to gambling--- "all luck," he said. The gold fever did infect him, and he soon entered another speculation on Garvin Branch and on his own farm, uncovering 1,000 pennyweights of gold a month.

As the years passed, "Uncle Benny" developed quite a repertoire of stories with which he regaled listeners. One of those depicts Parks and Lewis Ralston rescuing a woman from an attack by a respected man from another county. While deer hunting near Auraria, Parks said that he and Ralston heard screams. Nearing the Ellison homeplace,

ABOVE: William D. Parks (April 22, 1835- March 27,, 191 1) and his wife Sarah F. Jay Parks (Feb. 22, 1839 - Oct. 21, 1908). They were married in Hall County on Feb. 8, 1855. They are both buried at Yellow Creek Baptist Church, Hall County.
(Photo: Courtesy Woodrow Parks)

they startled the attacker. Parks wrestled a large knife from the man and threw him over a fence. He even dislodged the man's thumb, and at his request, put it in place again. But Parks never reported the incident to authorities.
All his life, one source says, Parks preferred hunting and farming--the quiet life--to the excitement of gold mining. Ross McDonald said Parks lived to regret his gold discovery, feeling that he caused the area to grow too rapidly. But he was proud of his ability as a hunter.
"I have killed many a deer," he told ported Moran in 1894. "I will not say that I have killed as many as that man in Coffee County, who claims to have 1,000 antlers to show for his skill, but I have killed more than any other man hereabouts. I once killed two deer with

the same shot. The two were running by me abreast. I fired and one fell dying, while the other was disabled so that my dogs came up in time and held it until I could dispatch it with my knife."
After his children married and his wife died, Parks lived with his youngest son's (Harvey C. Parks) family. Longing for the old homeplace, where the Joe Walden family lived, he would travel by mule and buggy back to his former home. He would stop enroute to entertain schoolchildren at a section of the county called Curry, now the site of Mount Sinai Church three miles from Dahlonega.
"He loved children, and they loved him," recalled Ross McDonald. "I remember how Uncle Benny would come by during recess, hitch old Becky (his mule) and the old buckboard and proceed to tell us children stories and do stunts for us."
Well into his 80's, Parks could "shoulder his legs and walk on his hands," McDonald said. Into his 90's, he took pride in showing how he still could effectively take aim with his hunting rifle, Long Susie. The old muzzle loader measured five feet, 10 inches and was made in London. Time has worn the date, probably 1657, almost illegible.

ABOVE: The old arbor at Yellow Creek Baptist. Benjamin Parks was a deacon and a member of the building committee when the arbor was constructed in 1854. It was later sold and moved to the museum village of Westville near Lumpkin, Ga. in Stewart, County.
(Photo: Courtesy Marc Cutright)

Great grandson Perry E. Parks, Gainesville, held the weapon and powder horn until his death, and they are now property of Perry E. Parks Jr., Dallas, Texas.
On one of his trips from Harvey Parks' home in the community then called New Bridge, Benjamin died at his old homeplace, just east of what is now the intersection of Wimpy Mill and Cavender's Creek Road, on March 5, 1895. He made the trip--about 12 miles--to check on his mule, Becky. Evidently, he had taken the animal to a nearby stream for water. "They found him dead with his face in the water," recalled

grandson Gordon, who was age eight at the time. "I imagine he had a stroke."
Parks had lived a full and interesting life, with as many as nine of his children growing to adulthood and having families of their own. Determining an accurate count of his great-grandchildren, much less their names, would be a monumental task. As proof, a mere one of Benjamin's ten sons, Harvey, fathered 10 children of his own, and five of these, Benjamin's grandchildren, had a minimum of eight children. Several of these great grandchildren have died, but others, now in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. are spread about the country. Benjamin Parks Jr. has descendants in north Georgia. Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida. Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Ohio, California. and possibly elsewhere.
Mrs. Curtis Parks, Gainesville, agrees that family research is "as confusing as can be because they all had a baker's dozen children." Sharon Johnson, superintendent of the Dahlonega Courthouse Gold Museum.

where most Dahlonega visitors stop, also says "I have more people to come in here saying that they are related to Benjamin Parks than any other person."
Each September, north Georgials descendants of Parks gather at Yellow Creek Campground in northern Hall County. In this way, they maintain family ties and memories of their famous ancestor. At the annual reunion in 1960, the family agreed to take up a collection for a new brass marker for the Benjamin Parks Jr. gravesite. They returned again in September 1961 to place the marker which names Parks "discoverer of gold in Ga. 1828, setting off first gold rush in U.S."
Nearly quarter of a century later, that marker remains the most visible public reminder of Benjamin Parks' lif e. Now it is beginning to show signs of age, but its letters still read clear, and its surface gets an occasional coat of polish. And visitors to the cemetery plot, who are rare, claim that on some days, when the sun and clouds are fixed just right, the marker looks as though its brass has turned to gold.