Re: Martintown - John C Rigdon
Subject: Re: Martintown
From: John C Rigdon
Date: May 09, 1998

Martintown was a crossroads community located about 12 miles south of
Edgefield and above what is now North Augusta, but at the time, North
Augusta did not exist.  The town of Hamburg on the Carolina side of the
Savannah river gained prominence in the early to mid 1800's and
Martintown died.  Hamburg is also gone now.  Martintown was located above
the rapids and Hamburg below.  Boats were unloaded at Martintown and
wagons made the trip down to Hamburg on a plank road built to allow the
heavier bales of cotton, tobacco, and corn whiskey to be transported.

Around Augusta, we joke about the fact that none of our major roads go to
the places named.  Martintown Road goes to Edgefield, Washington Rd goes
to Appling, Columbia Rd goes to Athens, The Old Savannah Rd. doesn't go
to Savannah - it goes to Waynesboro, and the New Savannah Rd doesn;t go
to Savannah either, it also goes to Waynesboro.  Finally, there's the
Milledgeville road which seems to head in the right direction, but ends
at Ft. Gordon, and the Gordon Highway now bypasses Ft. Gordon in favor of
the Belaire Rd. which never did go to a town of Belaire.  It runs from 
Evans to Ft. Gordon - Now all that was obvious wasn't it?  We do it to
confuse the D_yanquiis who show up every year for Masters.

Oh, yeah, one other.  The Aiken / Augusta Highway is really named the
Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway.  All the street signs say that, and
between Aiken and Augusta, it runs through 13 other towns, and
communities.  It should rightfully be known as the Stieffeltown / Hamburg
highway, because that was its' "destinations" when Hamburg connected to
Martintown via Martintown Rd.

There is a section on The Martins of Martintowne in Chapman's History of
Edgefield which I publish (REPRINT) if you want, I can make copies.

John Rigdon


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