THE ET CETERA CHRONICLES - Part 10
Harris McCall Stanley, a descendant of many notable Laurens County families, was born in Dublin in 1866. He married Ethel Inez Stubbs, a daughter of the railroad baron and attorney Col. John M. Stubbs of Dublin. He began as a "devil" with the Dublin Gazette and worked his way up to be editor of the Dublin Courier Dispatch. Ironically the owners of the newspaper never saw eye to eye with Col. Stubbs on most matters. As a young man Stanley served as 1st Lieutenant of the Dublin Light Infantry and as Captain of the Eastman Guards. "Hal" Stanley was a leader of the Georgia Press Association serving as its president and executive secretary. Stanley was a leader in the establishment of the first public library in Dublin in 1904 and served seven years on the Dublin public school board, including a term as President. He served in the Savannah Co. Military Department, K of P. as adjutant, captain, colonel, and assistant quartermaster general. Mr. Stanley served in several positions in state and federal government, including the positions of fertilizer and oil inspector and federal employment director. Stanley served as Georgia's first Commissioner of Commerce and Labor from 1912 until his office was reorganized on March 25, 1937. He completed 28 years of service when he retired as Chairman of the Industrial Board in 1940. Among his many achievements was the establishment of the Atlanta Farmers Market.
Wanda J. Stine, a two-year resident of Dublin, was among the last few Americans on the staff of U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin, who boarded U.S. helicopters in evacuating the American Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam on April 29, 1975. As told to the author.
In 1924, four brothers gathered together for a reunion at the Baptist Tabernacle in Atlanta. Richard Howard, of Dudley, Georgia, joined his brothers, A.D. Howard, of Soperton, Willis Howard, of LaGrange, and D.A. Howard, of Gaffney, S.C.. The Howard brothers were there to attend the Georgia Baptist Convention. The Howards were not lay delegates. All four of them were Baptist ministers. And, so was their father, Rev. Willis Howard, Sr., of Wrens, Ga. Atlanta Constitution, Nov. 14, 1935.
T.G. Gilbert, was Dudley’s first automobile dealer. Gilbert sold his 1918 Dixie Flyers for $995.00. Atlanta Constitution, March 3, 1918.
Crawford W. Long, the discoverer of ether, once owned a 202 acre tract of land in Laurens County. Long and his brother-in- law, Giles Mitchell, were given the land by Long's father, James Long, in 1848. The land, designated as Land Lot 287 of the 22nd Land District, was sold to Quinn L. Harvard in 1862. Today you can find the land by traveling west from hte Dudley exit on I-16 beginning about a half mile west of the exit and extending another half mile, on both sides of the highway. Deed Book P, pages 15 through 17, Laurens County Records.
Thomas Mercer Linder was born in Laurens County in 1887. Linder read law at home and was admitted to the bar in 1927. He represented Jeff Davis County in the state legislature from 1923 to 1925. It was Tom Linder who gave Gov. Eugene Talmadge his start in politics, when he encouraged the popular governor to run for Georgia's Commissioner of Agriculture. Tom Linder served from 1927 to 1932 as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. Gov. Talmadge rewarded Linder by appointing him to serve as his Executive Secretary in 1933 and 1934. In 1935 Linder easily defeated his opponent in the election for Commissioner of Agriculture. Tom Linder was elected again in 1940 and served in that position until his retirement in 1956. He is the only man in Georgia history to be elected to head the Department of Agriculture after being defeated in a previous election.
Peter S. Twitty, Jr. was the son of a former minister of First Methodist Church, Dublin. Twitty was fourteen when his father died in 1901. The family remained in Dublin. The elder Twitty served in the Confederate Army and as President of Andrew College. From his youngest adult days Peter involved himself in business and political affairs. The younger Twitty graduated from Georgetown Law School. Twitty was elected Mayor of Dublin in 1917. He resigned his position as Mayor to serve in the U.S. Army in World War I. In 1923, he served as the Executive Secretary to Gov. Clifford Walker. Mr. Twitty served from 1923 until 1934 as Georgia Game and Fish Commissioner. Twitty survived several political attacks which were designed to force his resignation. Commissioner Twitty was replaced by Zachariah D. Cravey of Telfair County.
Vivian Stanley, brother of Comm. Harris Stanley, worked with his brother in the newspaper business for over two decades. Vivian Stanley served as editor and publisher The Dublin Post and The Dublin Courier Herald. He served one year on the Dublin City Council and three years as City Clerk. Stanley served as Postmaster of Dublin for four years under Grover Cleveland and eight years under Woodrow Wilson. He served from 1920 until 1928 as secretary to the Prison Commission. He served as a Prison Commissioner from 1928 until the 1940s. Stanley is shown above escorting Robert Burns of Chicago. Burns escape and return to a Georgia prison were the subject of a successful book and highly controversial 1932 movie, "I Was a Fugitive From a Georgia Chaingang." Vivian and Hal Stanley are the only two brothers in Georgia history to hold statewide elective office at the same time.
Dublin’s first city cemetery was laid out during the first decade of Dublin's existence. At the time, the cemetery was located at the northwest corner of the town. Legend has it that the first burial dates back to 1819 when a young man by the name of Laurens Vivian died while visiting the Thomas McCall family in Dublin. It is said that he is buried beneath the sandstone grave marker just to left of the lane which runs from the front gate to the rear of the cemetery
During the 1930s, more and more political and military leaders foresaw a great war being fought in Europe. In 1919, one Dublin man, S.M. Alsup, predicted another world war, twenty years before it happened. S.M. Alsup was a clerk with the American Forces in Treves, Germany. On February 2, 1919, Alsup wrote a letter to his wife. Alsup talked with German citizens and observed what was going on around him. Alsup predicted "that if Germany is allowed to run her manufacturing plants and other industries to the extent of making it possible for her to pay the huge debt that she is supposed to pay, she will be on top again before we know it; at which time the war of all wars will be fought." Alsup went on to write, "I certainly hope I am wrong, but my opinion is that in 1940 there will be another great war, if not earlier." Alsup's prediction was right on the money - twenty years before Great Britain declared war against Germany and World War II began. Dublin Courier Herald, June 20, 1940.
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