The Georgia General Assembly established Greene County, Georgia on 3 February 1786 from the northern portion of Washington County. It was named in honor of Gen. Nathanael Greene, the celebrated Revolutionary War commander in the Southern theatre. From its creation, Greene County became an active conflict zone as the Oconee War raged from 1786–1796. The General Assembly set the county's western border at the Oconee River, the line established by two recent treaties between Georgia and the Creeks. Many Creeks, however, questioned the treaties' validity and refused to accept the loss of their lands east of the Oconee, making the new county a hotly contested border region between the Creek Nation and Georgia.

The village of Greensborough was designated as the county seat in 1787, and later that year a Creek war party attacked the settlement, burning the wooden courthouse and several cabins. Over the next decade, Creek warriors carried out numerous raids on white farms across the county. They deliberately avoided killing white settlers–an act that would have provoked swift American retaliation–and instead focused on stealing horses, cattle, hogs, and other livestock in an effort to drive the whites from the region.¹

In the mid-1780s, only a small number of settlers remained in Greene County while the threats from Creek raids lingered. Capt. John Hill, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, received an 862½-acre tract of land on Richland Creek in 1785 for his military service. Since Richland flows north from the Oconee River, Hill's farm lay squarely within the contested borderland. Between 1788 and 1793, Creek warriors made repeated attacks on his property, stealing horses, cattle, and hogs. On at least one occasion, Capt. Hill and his son, Joseph L. Hill, tracked the Creeks across the Oconee River and "a considerable distance into the Indian Nation," but failed to recover the livestock. During this period, Joseph recalled that "there were considerable signs of Indians to be seen near the house & round the plantation."² Capt. John Hill and his family persevered, and the Creek threat gradually abated by about 1802 as increased white settlement pushed the frontier farther west.

Despite the continued threat from the Creeks, settlers began pouring into Greene County beginning in the 1790s. Among the newcomers were Capt. William Blanks, another Revolutionary War veteran, and a group of settlers from Orange County, North Carolina–John Riley and his brothers-in-law, Jacob Finley and James R. Gray.

Notes:

¹Haynes, Joshua S. Patrolling the Border: Theft and Violence on the Creek-George Frontier, 1770–1796. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2018.

²Georgia Archives, References Services, RG 4-2-46, Indian Depredation Claims, Joseph L. Hill, John Hill.