Vansant Brothers

Young Vansant and his brother Rueben moved from Cowpen, South Carolina, to Cherokee lands west of Atlanta in 1850. As Douglas County began to form, both brothers wished to give land for the county seat, and after a friendly fist duel Young Vansant won the right to do so. On January 9, 1871, he donated 40 acres in Lots 16 and 17, except for the well, to W. W. Hindman, Ordinary-elect, John C. Bowden, W. N. McGouirk, and James H. Winn, the Board of Commissioners, for the location of the county site and the erection of public buildings. The gift was deeded in old Spencerian style script and, on April 9, 1874, was recorded among the first deeds in Douglas County, with D. W. Price as Recording Clerk and John G. Maxwell, N.P., as signing witness. The tract became the site of several courthouses: first a framed one, then a towered traditional brick building that was eventually destroyed by fire, and later the present modern Douglas County Courthouse. Rueben and Young Vansant and their wives are buried in the private family cemetery just north of the railroad on West Strickland Street.

Douglasville, Georgia · United States