However, the enterprise came to naught as the town failed.  (The McIntosh reference was to the Creek Chief William McIntosh who was much resented by fellow tribesmen for selling tribal land to the whites.  He was assassinated by vengeful Creeks on April 30, 1825, at his home called Acorn Bluff  "Lockchau Talofau" in the Creek language  a large plantation worked by 72 slaves and situated in present-day Carroll County.)

 

Nathaniel and Nancy's third child Thomas Lacy was also born in DeKalb County.  The date was September 2, 1826.  The family of five dwelt in DeKalb a good while longer, and as late as the summer of 1828, Nathaniel was at the county seat of Decatur where he was involved in a legal dispute.

 

Nathaniel was party to a suit with Eaton Lynch (evidently Nathaniel's real estate partner) and John G. Roberts, Administrator.  The nature of the civil action remains unexplained because the pertinent records did not survive the subsequent courthouse fire.  (The Inferior Court minutes did survive, otherwise we would know nothing of the proceedings.)  Nor is it clear which party was the plaintiff and which the defendant.  On July 14, 1828, the jury found "for the plaintiff for the sum of fifty eight dollars 26 1/4 cents with cost of suit."  But difficulties persisted, possibly including a breach of promise, and less than a week later a further action occurred when opposing attorney, David Young, and another man, Reuben Cono, bound themselves "unto the said Nathaniel H. Greer for the payment."

 

John George Roberts had been granted letters of Administration for John B. Nelson by the DeKalb Inferior Court.  Until his murder by John W. Davis in 1825, Nelson had operated a ferry across the Chattahoochee — connecting the future DeKalb county with Cherokee lands at the point where Sandy Creek entered the river.  (This location is now situated at the up-river edge of the Fulton County Airport which serves Atlanta.)  It therefore appears Nathaniel was somehow involved with the Nelson estate — possibly as an interested party in the ferry operation.  It is quite interesting to note a curious geographical connection between Allison Nelson, the murdered man's son, and Nathaniel's family. Allison Nelson (who would become Atlanta's ninth mayor and later a famous Confederate general) settled at Meridian, Texas, the seat of Bosque County — the very same county where Nathaniel's widow and four of their sons would eventually dwell.

 

Immediately after the litigation in Decatur, Nathaniel moved his family further west in search of more hopeful circumstances.  By November 28, 1828, when William Reddick was born, the family was living in the new Georgia county of Troup which had been opened for settlement in 1827.  The 1830 census listed Nathaniel as the head of a Troup County farming family of 6 males and 2 females.  Nancy had just given birth on June 26, 1830, to their 4th son named Stephen Decatur, but the identity of the 6th male in the census is unknown to us.  Some indication of the family's material prosperity was reflected in the census which recorded their 4 slaves: 1 male and 3 females.

 

Soon the family moved across the Chattahoochee into the portion of Alabama occupied by the Creek Indians.  Apparently Nathaniel's experience with Nelson's Ferry bore fruit because Nathaniel was likely the operator of Greer's Ferry.  The exact location of the ferry is unknown but likely spanned the Chattahoochee at some point between West Point and the famous Philpot's Ferry at the border of Troup and Heard counties.   Family tradition suggests Nathaniel also operated a trading post at this time, but the location of that enterprise is also a mystery.

 

The exact sites of Nathaniel's home and dealings in Chambers County are unknown, but they were likely on or near Chapman's Trail.  The trail left Troup County at West Point  passing some three miles north of where the town of Lafayette would one day be built  before ending near Fort Williams on the Coosa River.  Nathaniel and his family surely cultivated land as well, but to what extent is not known.

 

On March 4, 1832, Nancy gave birth to twins Christopher Columbus and Americus Vespucius.  Many years later A. V. Greer would record in his memoirs that he and his twin were born in Chambers County, Alabama, but, in fact, the site was Indian land until ceded by the Treaty of Cusseta on March 20, 1832  and the county was not created until later that year on December 18.  The first election of county officers was held on the twins' first birthday March 4, 1833 at the home of James Taylor which was situated on Chapman's Trail about seven miles northeast of present Lafayette.  Seemingly as a present for the occasion, the voters chose Nathaniel as their first sheriff.  On April 20, 1833, the first circuit court was held at the home of Captain Baxter Taylor; it was on Chapman's Trail and roughly three miles northeast of present Lafayette.  Nathaniel had summoned a grand jury and court convened in the shade of a large oak in the yard.

Nathaniel Hunt Greer was born (it is believed) in Hancock County, Georgia on October 26, 1802.  His father was John D. Greer, a farmer and stockman, and his mother was Sarah "Sallie" Hunt, said to have descended from Pocahontas.  Nathaniel was the tenth child and the last of seven sons, the eldest of whom, named Reddick, had died at the age of 19 just six days before Nathaniel was born.  Of Nathaniel's early childhood, all that is known is that he lived in Hancock County at least through 1805 when his father was still claiming residence there  then while still very young, he moved westward with the family.  By 1808 the state of Georgia had created Randolph County, then re-named it Jasper in December of 1812. The family must have moved from Hancock to Jasper County no later than 1814 because Nathaniel's father was appointed to the Jasper County Grand Jury on September 7 of that year.

 

Nathaniel's father acquired land near the county seat of Monticello  and here the young Nathaniel grew to manhood.  He was still living in Jasper County's 365th Militia District when he participated in the Georgia Land Lottery of 1821.  He drew Land Lot 236, Section 9, in the area devised as Houston County  roughly where the modern counties of Macon, Peach, and Houston converge.  The next year Nathaniel's elder brother Gilbert Dunlap got lucky in the Georgia Land Lottery of 1821 when he drew Lot 55, District 11, in the newly created Henry County.  Soon Gilbert settled on this land and it appears that eventually Nathaniel preferred to join his brother Gilbert instead of developing his own land in Houston County.

 

Nathaniel wed before he was 20, but we do not know exactly when or where. It is thought he married in October of 1821, but no record has been found by which the precise date and site can be identified.  His bride was Nancy Ann Terry Roberts, said to have been the daughter of Thomas Roberts and Susan Elizabeth Lacy, both from southern Virginia.  It is claimed that Nancy was born on August 4, 1805, on the northern side of Virginia, in Fairfax County, making her about 16 when she wed  but there is no explanation of why she was born so far from the home area of her alleged parents.

 

On October 11, 1822, two weeks before his 20th birthday, Nathaniel became a father when Nancy gave birth to their first child Gilbert Dunlap while they were living in Bedford County, Tennessee.*  How or why they came to be in Bedford County is unclear, but it is thought that Nathaniel or Nancy or both had relatives there.  It has been claimed that the young family soon returned to Jasper County to till the soil and raise race horses, but no evidence exists to support this assertion.  Whether or not the young couple did return to Jasper is unclear, but on October 7, 1823, Nathaniel did have a letter awaiting his collection at the post office back in Monticello.

 

In 1822, the county of Henry was subdivided and Gilbert Dunlap  Greer found himself living in the new county of DeKalb.  Sometime before 1825, Nathaniel and Nancy were living near or with Gilbert in DeKalb County because there, on January 30, 1825, Nathaniel was elected Justice of the Peace.  Luckily this record survived a courthouse fire of 1842, or we might never have known of this first incidence of Nathaniel's considerable history of public duty.  Just two months before, Nancy had given birth to their second child Willmirth Margaret on November 18, 1824.  Thus, it is reasonable to assume that she was born in DeKalb County.

In the fall of 1825, Nathaniel and two others became agents in a real estate venture  selling lots for a proposed town in northern DeKalb.  The trio placed the following ad in the September 20 issue of the "Georgia Journal," published in Milledgeville, which was then the state capitol:

"To all such as would wish to live in Town near the Head of Navigation on the Chattahoochee. [sic] Will be sold ... in the town of Mount Vernon, on Friday the 14th day of October next, a number of Lots. The town of Mount Vernon lies on the South East side of the Chattahoochee, [sic] in DeKalb County, one mile from or below the Standing Peach tree, and one half mile from the river ... it lies from 30 to 40 miles above McIntosh's late residence, and from 75 to 100 miles above the Great Coweta falls ... from which place Steam Boats can go to New Orleans, and from the Falls to Mount Vernon Pole Boat navigation will be good. Persons wishing to purchase can even purchase at private sale from the subscribers. (Signed) M.D. Watkins, E. Lynch, Nathaniel Greer, Agents for the Proprietors."