“Grandma” Agnes Paschal – Georgia Gold Rush Angel of Mercy

Pre-Civil War Hotel in Auraria

by Denise Farnsworth

My last several posts introduced the Georgia Gold Rush, offered a tour through its first boom town/ghost town of Auraria, and discussed mining methods. Today let’s focus on a beloved resident of Auraria, Agnes Paschal. Mrs. Paschal is one of several real-life characters who make an appearance in The Songbird and the Surveyor, first novel of my Twenty-Niners of the Gold Rush series. Oftentimes, I limit historical characters to brief cameo appearances. It can be difficult to confirm enough information about a person to grant them significant page time. The life of Agnes Paschal, however, was well-documented enough that she gained several conversations with my main characters in her role as healer and Baptist church leader.

Agnes was born to Burrell Brewer and Elizabeth Patrick Brewer in 1776. According to Ninety-Four Years, an account of her life penned by her son. George W., Agnes was 5’5” with fair skin, very black hair, and a sweet temperament. She received no formal education but had a good head for numbers, a love of theology, and a penchant for herbal remedies. She had no ear for music and could not dance. Her father died in 1799 and a year later, her mother. Agnes became the companion of a wealthy woman in Lexington, Georgia. There she met former soldier George Paschal, whom she married in 1802. The couple opened a tavern and a store. Doctors boarded with them and taught her medicine.

From 1811-1817, the Paschals ran an inn at the paper mill town of Scull Shoals, south of Lexington. As the War of 1812 ended, loans came due, and drought lowered the river, manufacturing efforts in the settlement waned. The couple moved to manage Bowling Green Inn in Oglethorpe County, catering to wealthy planters. George taught school. Agnes converted the owner of the racetrack for local thoroughbreds, Ferdinand Phinizy, to Methodism, and they closed the race grounds. Agnes found her calling as a healer during the outbreak of a fever that returned for three subsequent summers. She became famous for red-pepper tea,well-ventilated convalescent rooms, and her stand against leeching, bleeding, or blistering.

The Paschals raised a family and became pillars in Oglethorpe County until George’s death in 1832. Their son, George W., a lawyer, persuaded his mother to move with him to the boom town of Auraria in gold country. They purchased the Nuckolls’ hotel and tavern, tore out the bar, and made additions. They soon built a better hotel on the north end of town with signage that read, Mrs. Paschal and Sons. Former Vice President John C. Calhoun lodged with the Paschals two weeks at a time, overseeing his lucrative gold mine. His oratory drew many listeners to their porch.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Paschal went about her work of healing the body and soul. She was known to engage drunken miners in conversation that reminded them of their parents and godly raising. She collected subscriptions for a Baptist church, built so poorly of logs that it fell down the first winter of 1833-34. After that, “Grandma Paschal” opened her hotel dining room for services. When there was a fever among the people, she became known as an angel of mercy. Even when the county seat moved to Dahlonega and many residents followed, Mrs. Paschal never left Auraria. She was laid to rest in the cemetery there at the age of 94, beside her husband, whose body she’d brought from Oglethorpe County. Her children went on to notable military and political careers. George W. acted as a lieutenant in the Georgia Volunteers. He married Sarah Ridge, daughter of Cherokee Chief Major Ridge, and moved to Arkansas.

Look for further upcoming posts about the Georgia Gold Rush. Book one, The Songbird and the Surveyor, set in Auraria in 1833, is now available for purchase. A marriage of protection. A past full of pain. In Georgia's wild gold country, love might strike when it's least expected. https://www.amazon.com/Songbird-Surveyor-Twenty-Niners-Georgia-Gold-ebook/dp/B0F556951W/

Denise Farnsworth, formerly Denise Weimer, writes historical and contemporary romance mostly set in Georgia and also serves as a freelance editor and the Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books. A wife and mother, she always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

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