Moran, Georgia

and the families who left their name there

Augustus Benjamin Moran was born in Hancock County, Ga in 1822 of the marriage of Jesse Moran and Frances Trice. Jesse is of the James Moran line that goes back to County Clare in Ireland. Before that the family was in Offaly County and is the start of Patrick Edward Moran's book MORAN FAMILIES FROM OFFALY.

Augustus Moran married Caroline Elizabeth Simmons and the settled in Crawford County, Goergia in what became known as the Moran Community and now called Moran, Georgia. Moran, Georgia is located on the northeastern tip of Crawford County near the Monroe County line. Moran, approximately six miles east of Musella, first appeared on the Georgia map in 1900. This central area of the former town was situated one mile north of the intersection where Moran Road feeds into East Hopewell Road. In the post Civil War era, Moran featured a post office, railroad depot, general store, peach packing house, grist mill, and several antebellum homes.

The settlement was referred to as the Moran community as early as 1850 when Augustus Benjamin Moran (1822-1874) and his wife Caroline Elizabeth Simmons (1824-1904) were living there and raising a family; they were married in 1841. Legend has it that the ancestors of the Moran family settled there in the early 1800s and that they came at the invitation of Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, the Creek Indian agent; Hawkins was the first white man to set foot in Crawford County, circa 1800. Before Hawkins' arrival, Crawford County was inhabited by Indians. Since the town wasn't officially designated by the Postal Department until 1897, it was likely named after Augustus Benjamin Moran and his son, Thomas Jefferson Moran, both of whom were prominent leaders in the community. In the 1850 census, Augustus Benjamin Moran was 28 years old, his wife Caroline was 26, and they had three children: William-7, Andrew-5, and Elizabeth-2. Not yet born was Thomas Jefferson Moran (1853-1932), who became Moran's first postmaster, the railway station manager, a general store owner, and a farmer.

The name of a community becomes official when it receives a postal designation. Thus, on 26 May 1897, a certificate signed by the Postmaster General of the United States, James A. Gary, established Moran as a postal address and appointed Thomas J. Moran, the son of Augustus and Caroline Moran as its first postmaster.

Thomas J. Moran (1853-1932), the son of Augustus Benjamin and Caroline Elizabeth Moran, married Alice Leola Yates (1871-1963) in 1895. This union produced four daughters: Lillian, Daisy, Lena, and Ann. John Oakey, the son of their youngest daughter, Ann Moran Oakey (1912- 1966) and the only grandchild of Thomas and Alice Moran, now owns the former Moran home and its surrounding property. John and his wife Sharon live in Peachtree City.

The pre-Civil War Moran house is 188 years old and still standing. The house took seven years to build. The construction project began in 1815 and concluded in 1822. The house, built expressly for William and Bethiah Pierson Simmons, was constructed by a German carpenter using slave labor. Its walls were made of hand-fired brick and measured two feet thick. The house was plastered inside and stuccoed outside. Inside the house were four fireplaces, all uniquely constructed. When Augustus Benjamin Moran and Caroline Elizabeth Simmons married in 1841, the house was given to them as a wedding present by the bride's parents, William and Bethiah Pierson Simmons. After Augustus' death in 1874, his wife Caroline lived there another 30 years until her passing in 1904. After her death, her son, Thomas J. Moran and his wife Alice became the principal occupants of the house. The house was located a half mile north of the original post office building where Thomas Moran worked. Often, he would walk to work. Thomas went to be with the Lord in 1932 and his wife, Alice, lived there another 31 years until her passing in 1963 at the age of 92. John Oakey, grandson of Thomas and Alice Moran, periodically comes down to mow the grass and maintain the premises.

The Moran home as it stands today, was it "Tara" ?

Presented in this model is the mansion of Scarlett O'Hara's plantation "Tara" as depicted in the 1939 film "Gone With The Wind." The movie facade was constructed on the RKO studio backlot known as "40 Acres" in Culver City, California, and it stood until 1959 when the tattered remains of the set were disassembled and shipped to Atlanta.

There has been strong speculation over past decades that Margaret Mitchell used stories about life in Moran, Georgia as a guide in writing about the old south in her famous novel, "Gone with the Wind." This novel was published in 1936. A block-buster movie by the same title hit the theater marquees in 1939. It is thought that Mitchell modeled the fictional 'Tara Plantation" after the old Moran house and farm. Woven into Mitchell's novel was a southern plantation like the one at Moran, which had suffered the harsh realities of the Civil War. How did Margaret Mitchell learn about Moran? Well, it turned out that Margaret's brother, Steve Mitchell, an Atlanta lawyer, was a close friend of Judson Andrews, who was the husband of Lillian Moran, the oldest daughter of Thomas and Alice Moran. Judson was a gregarious and popular Atlanta attorney (considered a gubernatorial candidate at one time), who regularly regaled Steve and Margaret Mitchell with stories about life in Moran, which typified the old south and its involvement in the Civil War. During the 1950s, along came Susan Myrick (1893-1978), the renowned Macon Telegraph writer and a friend of author Margaret Mitchell. Myrick had served as technical advisor to "Gone with the Wind" regarding southern dialect and culture, after being lobbied for the job by Margaret Mitchell. Myrick knew the connection of the old Moran house with Margaret Mitchell's "Tara" and wanted to write a story linking the Moran house to Tara, but she met immediate and strong resistance from Alice Yates Moran. Mrs. Moran, well into her 80s and living there at the time, did not want to contend with the notoriety and the curiosity seekers the story would generate, so she persuaded Myrick not to write the story. Thus, until now, this story has been muted for 60 years.

Tara as seen in the movie

Another historic landmark resided on the backside of the Moran family farm. Cutting across its rear acreage was the old Creek Indian trading route that extended from Florida to New York.

Following the fall and burning of Atlanta in 1864, while the men folk were away, a detachment of Yankee soldiers from General Sherman's army marched into Moran. They temporarily quartered outside the majestic Moran family home site waiting on the main body of Sherman's troops to arrive. Before they left, they stole all the food and livestock on the farm and burned the mill house, slave quarters, and other shelters on the Moran property. They also freed and chased away the slaves, many of whom returned. The soldiers would have looted and burned the Moran house, but spotted a Masonic ring on a table. General Sherman apparently had warned his troops against applying his "scorched earth policy" against churches and people of religious persuasion. History records that General Sherman did not burn the Masonic Temple in Atlanta.

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