PIECES OF OUR PAST - HE ET CETERA CHRONICLES - VOL. 18

THE ET CETERA CHRONICLES - VOL. 18

LONG DISTANCE PLEASE! - Dublin’s first telephone company, the Dublin Telephone Company established the first long distance lines to Wrightsville and Sandersville in the early days of 1898.  The company immediately began running lines to the nearby communities of Swainsboro, Rixville, and Mt. Vernon.  Savannah Morning News, January 8, 1898.

WHAT’S THAT SMELL?  - Dublin’s first sewer line was constructed from Monroe Street to the Oconee River in 1897.  The pipe was placed twenty feet underground although it ran close to some of the most plentiful artesian wells between the courthouse and the river.  And, yes the filth was dumped directly into the river.  Savannah Morning News, April 10, 1897.

RELIGION ON THE RISE - What better evidence of Dublin’s meteoric rise during the 1890s was the fact that in 1897, three major denominations, the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, (Henry Memorial Presbyterian Church, left)  and the members of the Christian church were constructing handsome new houses of worship.  All three congregations still meet.  Only the Episcopalians remain in their original 1897 churches.  Savannah Morning News, July 21, 1898.

 CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

GHOST STORY - John A. Harvill and his wife had just sat down by the fire on

a cold December evening in 1882.  The newly wed couple were distracted when they heard a noise which sounded like a squeaking old wagon.  They ignored the discord as a mere passerby.  After a moment, Harvill thinking the continuing commotion to be strange, sprang to his feet and opened his front door.  

To his utter dismay Harvill observed what appeared to be a very large dog with a torch or lamp attached  to the top of its head.  He called out thinking that he must have been the brunt of some of a candid camera joke, of course, television cameras wouldn’t be around for more than five decades.  When no reply was received, Harvill did what most terrified men of his day would do, he picked up his gun and shot at it.  He shot. He shot again. The dog didn’t move.  In the words of a writer of the Dublin Gazette, “there stood the specter as steadfast as the rock of Gibraltar.”    Harvill couldn’t believe his eyes.  Was he seeing things?

It didn’t take long for the neighbors to come rushing to the scene of the skirmish.  Harvill pointed out the apparition to friends, hoping that they would see it as well. Reportedly, they did.  The brave generals in the crowd consulted each other and devised a plan of attack.  Everyone who could, grabbed a torch and began their advance.  As the first wave of the assault reached the ghostly canine, the pooch resumed his squeaking stride into the oblivion of the night.  While the reporter for the Gazette was covering the calamity, a neighbor came up to him and confirmed that he had also seen the dog, without the squeak.  

HERE COMES A JUDGE ! - Minnie Howell and Charles Jones were deeply in love.  They couldn’t wait to get married.  They rode into Dublin on a Sunday morning in February 1914.  As they drove their buggy through the streets of Dublin, they desperately looked around for a “man in black,” either a minister or judge, both of whom traditionally were donned in a black suit or wearing a black robe.  They wanted someone to marry them in quickly.  It was then when they spotted the newly elected Judge K.H. Hawkins, judge of the superior court of the Dublin circuit walking to the First Methodist Church for its morning service.  The startled judge honored the anxious couple’s request and legally joined their hands in marriage as they sat on the seat of their buggy.  Had Minnie and Charles been able to wait until January of the following year, they may have spotted one W.H. Brunson on his way to church. Brunson, who had only been practicing law for three months, easily outpaced a field of older and more well known candidates to win an election to fill the vacancy in the office of Justice of the Peace of the Dublin militia district following the death of Judge Chapman.  Brunson, a twenty-two-year-old attorney, was the youngest Justice of the Peace in the State of Georgia.

PURE PERFECT! - In the recorded history of Laurens County, less than ten  baseball pitchers have thrown a perfect game.  The perfect game eludes a lot of pitchers who give up a single walk or a single error. Many have come close, but here is a list so far.  If you know of more, please email me at scottbthompsonsr@yahoo.com.

Chuck Beale, June 25, 1990, DRPD - Senior League;  Cam Gay & Joseph

Yancey, DLCRA - Junior League, 2003;  Mark Trollinger, DPRD Midget League, ca. 1971, Cherie Morton, West Laurens,   August 31, 2004;  Sam Perry, Trinity High School March 20, 2001: Shae Kitchens & Ericka Baggett, Trinity High School, August 20, 2005.

SORE LOSER - Ralph Wadley had stood the pain in his mouth as long as he could. He drove from Soperton to see Dr. A.J. Bowen, a Dublin dentist.  Dr. Bowen made a thorough exam and found no medical cause for the paid.  Wadley, incensed and still in great pain, waited outside the dentist’s office until Dr. Bowen came out.  In a fit of rage, Wadley battered the dazed dentist in the back of Bowen’s head with  fists and a pistol. Sacramento Bee, June 20, 1973.

TREE CITY - The idea that our city should be a city of trees goes back more than a century or more.   During the year 1900, 2000 or more elm and Carolina poplar shade trees were planted in the city including 100 on the courthouse square.  In the spring of 1901, an additional 500 Elm trees were planted in the business sections of the city.  Savannah Morning News, February 21, 1901.

THE FIRST HOSPITAL - Dr. Henry Thomas Hodges, a native of Washington County and a graduate of Atlanta Medical College, came to Dublin around 1900.  Dr. Hodges established the city and county’s first hospital on North Franklin Street in Dublin, which he operated until 1921 until his retirement.  Augusta Chronicle, April 8, 1939.