7
Conclusion

The Whitley Point Record Book is a document rich in fascinating detail and frustrating silences. Dating back to the early years of the Whitley Point settlement, the record book casts a uniquely authentic patchwork of light on the way these early settlers lived, how they settled their disputes, what they bought to supplement what they grew or made, and how they paid for their purchases.

Part of its fascination lies in the fact that there is something in it for virtuall y everyone--the social historian of middle America, the legal scholar interested in what kind of disputes arose and how they were resolved in the period before the Civil War, the economic historian curious about how small storekeepers conducted their b usiness or about the details of frontier farming, and the local history buff or amateur genealogist searching out names, relationships, and other details of local or family history.

The Whitley Point settlement--the first settlement in Moultri e County--is now gone except in memory. Other than the early cemeteries, no trace of the physical settlement itself can be found on a modern map or above the ground. But the name Whitley survives to mark the creek where the first family settled, and to designate the modern township. And the record book survives--to provide many of the names, and some of the details of life in this earliest Moultrie County community.

(Page 69)