At the time he began his operations there was hardly a successful mining enter()rise in that section. The methods for obtaining gold were almost entirely primitive, the mills and machinery being crude and imperfect. Under his thorough business knowledge and energy, and by backing his judgment with his means, he has, more than all others, brought the mining industry of northern Georgia to its present j)r()sperous condition. A large tract of comparatively worthless territory has become one of the most valuable mining properties in the State. Under a charter granted by the Legislature of Georgia, he organized the " Hall's Gold Mining Company," becoming its president by the unanimous vote of its stockholders, which office he still holds. Hydraulic mining has been largely and successfully carried on. Water has been brought a distance of more than thirty miles to supply stainj)-mills and for washing down the ore. The canals and ditches e.Kceed fifty miles in length. There are ten thousand six hundred feet of twentyfour and thirty-six inch iron pipe, and six thousand seven hundred feet of wooden pipe, of like dimensions, used in the work. I All this has been the result of Mr. Hand's skill, I pluck and perseverance. So fully is this realized in I the Georgia gold belt, that he is generally called the I father of the gold mining interests of the State, and ' no history of that enterprise can be written in which

HISTORY OP WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

his name will not be prominently mentioned with clue credit and honor.