Birdsville

3.3 miles east stands the old settlement of Birdsville, since 1767 ancestral seat of the family of Phillip Jones (d. 1789). Most of the surrounding land and property has remained in the hands of his descendants since 1750 and the original house begun by him in 1767 is still standing as one of the oldest and stateliest ante-bellum mansions in Georgia. Birdsville is located on the Old Louisville Road and was for the first half of the nineteenth century on the stage coach route from Georgia's second capital to Savannah. During the War Between the States, the Jones Mansion was spared Sherman's torch by the heroic resistance of its mistress, Mrs. William B. Jones. Six generations of Phillip Jones have lived here.