PIECES OF OUR PAST - 2004

 

PIECES OF OUR PAST

Sketches of the History of Dublin and Laurens County, Georgia

and East Central Georgia Area

2004

Written by 

Scott B. Thompson, Sr.

Copyright 2008

The Emerald City History Company, Inc. and Courier Herald Publishing Company, Inc.

scottbthompsonsr@yahoo.com

WMLT AND THE EARLY DAYS

 OF RADIO IN

DUBLIN, GEORGIA

Radio first came to Dublin in the early 1920's.  WSB came on the air in 1922 as Georgia's first commercial radio station.  In the early days of radio,  stations more than 500 miles away were heard in Dublin.  H.J. Braddy and his son established the first radio station in Dublin in the summer of 1921.  The station, located in the Braddy home on North Franklin Street,  was a rebroadcast station which could rebroadcast signals over a short range.  The Grand Ole Opry became a local favorite in the late twenties.  The first Georgia Bulldog game heard in Dublin was the Yale game in October 1928.  Throughout the thirties WSB, WMAZ, KDKA, WSM, WLS, and WLW were among the local favorites for drama, comedy and news programs. 

In 1944, Dublin businessman George T. Morris sought out and obtained permission to establish a radio station in Dublin.  Morris saw that Dublin was a growing community and he knew that the coming of the U.S. Navy Hospital would ignite a growth in Dublin that had not been seen in more than 30 years.  Morris also saw that Dublin's trade area would be able to enjoy the music and programs and more importantly, hear the commercials.

The station was built on the southwest corner of East Moore Street and North Franklin Street.  Many of the early stations were owned by insurance companies and other corporations and their call letters were abbreviations  for the company slogan.  WSB in Atlanta is said to have been an abbreviation for Welcome South Brother!   WMAZ radio, which began at Mercer University, was an abbreviation for Watch Mercer Attain Zenith.   George T. Morris was joined by two partners in this venture.  They were Lanier Thompson and Newton Thompson.  Thus the call letters were M (Morris), L (Lanier), and T (Thompson), with the W designating that the station was east of the Mississippi River.  By the end of 1944, the station was preparing to go onto the air.  The signals of a test broadcast on January 8, 1945 were heard by M.S. Lamont in New Zealand, more than six thousand miles away.  Depending on weather conditions, the station's signal could be heard in nineteen states and Canada. 

The station had an initial frequency of 1340 kilocycles with a power output of 250 watts and was one of thirty-four stations in the state.  By today’s standards, the power output would be obliterated by radio interference, but in 1945, the station’s broadcast could be heard over a moderate range.  Amazingly, there were five other stations in Georgia (WGAU - Athens, WGAC - Cedartown, WDAK - Columbus, WSAV - Savannah and WWGS - Tifton) which broadcasted on the same frequency as WMLT.   Did you know there was another WMLT?  Yes, a college television station at Concord College in Athens, West Virginia, uses the same call letters as our own local radio station.  Today, WMLT  broadcasts at 1330 kilocycles along with two other stations, WLBB in Carrollton and WBBQ in Augusta. 

At one o’clock p.m. on January 16, 1945, WMLT began broadcasting from a remote studio in the dining room of the Fred Roberts Hotel with a program dedicating the new station.  The first program was the news from the station’s network, the Mutual Broadcasting Network, which was established in 1934.   Al Robinson was the first station manager.  The first day’s programming schedule featured Superman, Tom Mix, Roy Rogers, Count Basie, Lawrence Welk and Sammy Kaye, along with local entertainment.  The Lanier High School Band traveled from Macon to play a mid-afternoon concert.  From the station’s two studios, Studio A and Studio B, local pianists Fred Kea, Nell Tyre and Mae Hightower played timeless classics and popular tunes of the day.    The station signed on around sunup and signed off the air around 11:00 in the evening.    Because a television in every home was at least a decade away, radio programs remained popular after World War II.  

Among the more popular radio programs in the early days of WMLT were “The Jack Benny Show,” “Fibber McGee and Molly” and Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians.  Throughout the day, local, state and national news programs kept the public informed.  The station’s first newscasters were  Jean Brigham (Pat Evans) and Betty Page.   Misses Page and Brigham  were two of the first women to broadcast the news on a Georgia radio station.

Pat Evans hosted “Stars on the Horizon,” featuring the news of Hollywood, which came into the station over a teletype machine.  A graduate of Shorter College with a degree in speech and drama, Pat Evans, now Mrs. Jean B. Bennett, said “ helping Al Robinson put this new station on the air was very exciting as well as being my first job out of college.”  Mrs. Bennett remembered that all of the employees had to go to Atlanta to take a simple test to get approval from the FCC to be allowed to broadcast their voices over the airwaves.  One of the biggest thrills  of her career in Dublin came when she interviewed cowboy and western star Smiley Burnette.  Burnette, most well known as Gene Autry’s sidekick and the train engineer in “Petticoat Junction,” was in town doing a performance at the Martin Theater. 

Betty Page hosted “Talk of the Town,” a local news program.  “Most of the news items were phoned into the station,” said Miss Page.  “My mother often helped me gather the news for my show,” Betty remembered.  One of the most difficult tasks that Betty and the other on-air personalities had to endure was the announcement of the deaths of Laurens County’s young men in World War II, which  accelerated in the Allied Army’s final push into Germany in the Winter of 1945.   Donald Hull was the first sportscaster for WMLT.   Hull also hosted “The 1340 Club,” which aired listeners favorite songs.   Another young employee of WMLT in its early days was Louis Parker, who later followed in the footsteps of his father and went on to a long career in the dairy business in Dublin.  Among the other favorite local programs were “Record Shop,” which featured popular tunes of the day and “Birthday Club,” which announced birthdays of local citizens.   Every radio station had a quiz show.  WMLT broadcast “It’s Up To You,” which featured contestants on the stage of the Martin Theater.    T.E.Vassey,of Augusta, became the station’s general manager in 1946.

WMLT featured original programming with local artists performing gospel and country music.  One of the more popular performers was Glenn Watkins and his “Dixie Playboy Band.”   Watkins, a native of Kite, Ga., began playing on the radio at the age of 17 in Greenville, S.C.    While trying to establish himself in the country music business, Glenn opened for Eddy Arnold, Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Pee Wee King and Minnie Pearl.  The “Dixie Playboys” were formed just for WMLT and were popular favorites.  Along with Watkins, Smitty Pope and Skeeter Harralson are all members of the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame.   Glenn left the band in 1949 to join another band, The Trail Riders, before opening a successful insurance business in Albany, Georgia.  

Another WMLT employee to move on to other successful ventures in Albany was Grady Shadburn.  Shadburn worked at WMLT in the early 1950s before joining the Army in 1954.  In 1958, Grady joined the staff of WALB-TV.  He worked at the station for nearly forty years and was known to a generation of baby boomers as “Captain Mercury.”  He also performed the role of “Ringo” in the western show “The Lazy A Ranch Party.”  Shadburn also served as the station’s weatherman for decades.

On the station’s 60th anniversary, we look back to some of the station’s most well known personalities, both on and off the air.  Ed Hilliard and Dick Killebrew were icons at the station in the third quarter of this century.  Programs like “Party Line” and “Swap and Shop” drew many listeners.  On “Party Line” listeners would try and guess the name of the song being played on the radio.  “Swap and Shop” allowed listeners to buy and sell almost anything of value.    In the 1970s and 1980s, Bucky Tarpley and Bo Whaley became two of the station’s most popular morning personalities.  Behind the scenes of any successful radio station are the women who keep the programs running and perform the daily business of the radio station.  The best in the business were Jo Ann DiFazio and Anne M. Everly, who stills works at the station after forty years of service.

Today WMLT broadcasts gospel music programming at 5000 watts at twenty times its original power.  There are no microphones, no turntables and no music you can dance to.  But to everyone who ever tuned their radio to 1330 or 1340, cherish  the memories of the songs that touched your heart, made you dance and reminded you of when you first fell in love. Happy Birthday WMLT!

05-02

THE VETERAN’S HOSPITAL

DUBLIN, GEORGIA

As the United States got deeper into World War II, the need for long term care military hospitals rose.   Congressman Carl Vinson of Milledgeville used his influence as Chairman of the House Committee on Naval Affairs to establish a naval hospital in Dublin.  Over the next twenty years, Congressman Vinson nearly succeeded in establishing the United States Air Force Academy and an Air Force base in Laurens County.  The plans for the hospital, which would serve as a long term care facility, were formulated in 1942.  Early in 1943, the prospects of the hospital  seemed dim. But Vinson persevered, and the project was approved in the late spring.

The primary need in order to establish a navy hospital in Dublin was the transportation of patients in and out of the city.  The Laurens County Board of Commissioners purchased 640 acres of land three miles northwest of Dublin for the construction of an airport.  The land was purchased at a cost of nearly double the amount originally budgeted.  The commissioners resorted to issuing warrants to pay the cost after a bond issue and bank loans failed to materialize.  The federal government took over the construction and completed the project in 1943.  Among the first military uses of the airport was the delivery of mail to the few hundred soldiers who where stationed at the prisoner of war camp in Dublin.

The City of Dublin took immediate steps to aid in the construction of the hospital.  The city attempted to issue bonds for the construction of water and sewer lines to the hospital.  The Citizens and Southern Bank took over the financing after the failure of the bond issue.  The federal government stepped in and provided the remaining funds to extend the lines to the hospital.  A four lane road was built running from McCall's Point at the end of Bellevue Avenue to the hospital site.  Real estate developer and theater owner R.E. Martin donated land for the road.  Years later the city lined the road with oak trees.  The road, originally known as the Old Macon Road, now bears the name of Veteran's Boulevard in honor of all the patients at the hospital.

Construction of the hospital began in July of 1943.  Lt. Commander Louis S. Dozier came to Dublin to inspect the site and begin the initial preparations.  Before the construction could begin, a rail spur line was laid from the Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad to the site.  An elevated steel water tank was the first structure to be completed.  Even as the work was proceeding, the government was still in the process of acquiring the land.

The government chose a 231 acre farm site on the western edge of Dublin.  The farm, known as the "Capt. Rice Place" or "Brookwood," was owned by W.P. Roche.  E.T. Barnes asked the court to allow him to harvest the crops growing on the land.  Judge A.B. Lovett agreed, but allowed the government to immediately go into possession of the land where the water tank was constructed.  The government was allowed to take full possession of the property by September 13, 1943.  Mr. Roche's home was spared, but part of his orchard was taken under a condemnation process through which Mr. Roche was paid the market value of $112.00 per acre.

In September, the engineers began laying out the streets on the hospital grounds.  The streets were named for medical department personnel killed in action during the war.  Gendreau Circle was named for Capt. Elphege A.M. Gendreau of San Francisco, who was killed in combat in the South Pacific.  Blackwood Drive was named in memory of James D. Blackwood of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, senior medical officer of the "U.S.S. Vincennes."  Johnson Drive and Alexander Drive were named in memory of Cmdr. Samuel E. Johnson of Clinton, Alabama and Lt. Cmdr. Hugh R. Alexander, of Belleville, Pennsylvania and the U.S.S. Arizona, who were killed at Pearl Harbor.  Crowley Avenue was named after Lt. Cmdr. Edward Crowley of San Francisco after he was killed in the Solomon Islands.  Neff Place was named in honor of Lt. Cmdr. James Neff, Senior Medical Officer of the cruiser "U.S.S. Juneau."  Trojakowski Avenue and Morrow Place were named in honor of W.C. Trojakowski of Schenectady, N.Y. and Lt. Junior Grade Edna O. Morrow of Pasadena, Calf. who were killed in airplane crashes.  The last street, Evans Avenue, was named in honor of Lt. Cmdr. Edward E. Evans of San Francisco who was killed in the Solomon Islands in December of 1942.

R.A. Bowen & Co. of Macon began the grading and clearing of the land in mid September.  One of the first obstacles to be cleared was the Capt. Rice home known as "Brookwood."  It was built in 1903 by Joseph D. Smith.  Smith sold the home to farmer, naval stores operator and businessman Capt. W.B. Rice.  Rice developed the land into one of the finest farms in Laurens County.  In a matter of hours, the site of many of the grandest and finest social gatherings in Dublin was gone forever.  

The first bids let for buildings were for eight patient wards.  The wards were built of masonry and were two stories in height.  The contract was awarded to Beers Construction Company of Atlanta for 1.16 million dollars.  The initial plans called for a 500 bed, 5 million dollar hospital. After the end of the war, the hospital would be turned over to the Veteran's Administration which planned to add another thousand beds running the total cost to ten million dollars. After the wards were constructed, a central hospital and administration building would be constructed in the center of the complex. Nurse's quarters, bachelor officer's quarters, WAVES barracks, corpsmen's barracks, mess attendant's barracks, a gatehouse, greenhouses, a fire station and garage, an incinerator and storage buildings rounded out the remainder of the hospital area.      

  The buildings were designed in the colonial style to blend with the colonial homes along Bellevue Avenue.  The wartime shortage of material necessitated the use of clay, wood, and cement products from the local area.  A crew of five naval civil engineers and twenty civil service engineers, inspectors, accountants and clerks began work under the supervision of Lt. Cmdr. Dozier. Dublin's civic and church organizations worked together to accommodate the hospital staff during the construction phase.  A corps of 125 architects and engineers worked out of an Atlanta office building designing the project under the supervision of Lt. R.R. Grant.  President Roosevelt gave final approval of a Federal Works Agency grant in December of 1943 to extend water and sewer lines and install the necessary equipment at the pumping station.

As the completion date neared, Dublin tried to cope with its growing pains.  Ingram Construction Company moved its operations to Dublin and constructed twenty brick homes for hospital personnel. Captain A.L. Bryan estimated that as many as a thousand people would be attached to the hospital. He estimated that as many as two hundred families would move into the Dublin area.  Commander Ellington of Charleston estimated that one hundred forty new houses would be needed to house the new families.  By May of 1944, the city of Dublin was forced to institute rent ceilings to prevent gouging by landlords.

Despite some instances of rent gouging, the construction personnel were well treated by the community.  When the Dublin Theatre reopened in the summer of 1944, special Sunday movies were shown to the military personnel.  During the late summer of 1944, the navy men played Army-Navy baseball games against the army guards from the local German prisoner of war camp.  The sailors also played basketball games against alumni teams from local high schools.

Finally on January 22, 1945, the hospital was ready for full operation.  Five hundred beds were in place with room for an additional three hundred and fifty more for emergency purposes.  The original complex was built with four and one half million bricks which,  if laid end to end, would extend all the way to Washington, D.C.  There were sixty cubic yards of concrete, seventeen hundred tons of steel, eighty miles of interior piping, five elevators, five thousand windows, twenty one hundred doors, eleven acres of flooring, four acres of acoustical ceiling tiles, twenty miles of underground piping and six thousand cubic yards of earth work.

Commander Louis Dozier, a native of Macon, Georgia,  was commended by the Bureau of Yards and Docks for his work in supervising the construction of the hospital.  He was promoted and was assigned overseas.  Commander Dozier was ably assisted by project managers Lt. Carl B. Babcock and Carleton B. Johnson.  The project was supervised at the highest levels by Rear Admiral Jules James of the Sixth Naval District and was operated by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

The dedication of the hospital was scheduled for the early afternoon.  A light and cold rain kept many away.  Nearly every politician and business leader in Georgia was invited to attend. Military leaders in the hospital's chain of command were invited to speak.  Gov. Ellis Arnall and Congressman Carl Vinson were slated to speak, but were detained and did not attend.  Postmaster M.J. Guyton spoke on behalf of his brother-in-law, Congressman Vinson, before a somewhat disappointed crowd.  The first patients were scheduled to be brought in during the ceremonies but were delayed by a few hours by the bad weather.  The hospital was not quite finished when it opened.  The commander's office was temporarily located in the front guard house and later in the surgical wing of the hospital.

The initial cadre of officers at the hospital was headed by Capt. A.L. Bryan.  Capt. Bryan was a veteran of naval operations in the Pacific serving with valor in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.  Commander A.J. Delaney served as the first Executive Officer.  Commander B.E. Goodrich, Chief of Medicine; Commander W.S. Littlejohn, Chief of Neuropsychiatry; Commander D.D. Martin, Clinical Director; Lt. Commander E.B. Brick, Chief of the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Section; Lt. Commander V.B. Buhler, Chief of Laboratory Services, and Lt. Commander P.V. Dilts rounded out the executive staff of the hospital.  The Red Cross provided a staff of nearly two dozen women to serve the hospital.  The early heads of the Red Cross workers were Helen Cassidy, Merle Foeckler, and Margaret Weatherall.

The hospital, then a part of the armed forces hospital system, took on the  role of aiding the war on the home front.  This mission included entertainment and education of the patients.  On April 7, 1945, Eddie Rickenbacker visited the hospital.  Rickenbacker was the top American ace of World War I.  After the war, he got into the automobile business.  Rickenbacker owned the Indianapolis Speedway for 12 years.  In 1938, he was named President of Eastern Airlines and served in that position until he was named Chairman of the Board in 1959.  Rickenbacker's mission was to cheer up those sailors who were facing long recuperation from their injuries.

On the last day of April 1945, Helen Keller made a visit to the hospital.  Helen Keller had lost her senses of sight and hearing.  She could not speak.  Upon the recommendation of Alexander Graham Bell, she went to a special school for the blind.  Anne Sullivan taught Miss Keller to listen to others talk by placing her hand on their faces.  She eventually learned to read, write, talk and type and graduated with honors from Radcliff College.  In her later years, Helen Keller authored many successful books.  Her visit to the hospital was part of her tour of military hospitals across the country.  It was hoped that those disabled veterans would be inspired by Miss Keller's overcoming of her disabilities.  Over the years that followed, touring bands and companies performed at the hospital for the sailors in the afternoons and at public dances at night.  Among those were forties band leaders Les Brown, Vaughn Monroe, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Skinny Ennis, Glen Gray, Tommy Tucker, Jan Garber and Ted Weems.

The hospital continued to expand.  A research laboratory was built in late 1945 to study the effects of rheumatic fever.  Captain J.B. Logue succeeded Capt. A.L. Bryan as commander of the hospital.  The last naval commander was Capt. Lea B. Sartin.  Capt. Sartin was taken as a prisoner of war while serving at a Manilla hospital and endured three years in the Japanese prison camps, first as the prison doctor at Bilbub prison in the Philippines.   Capt. Sartin served as Executive Officer of the Naval Hospital in New Orleans before coming to Dublin.  The peak of hospital patient load came in came in June 1946, when there were 1200 Navy and 100 VA patients served by 75 Staff Officers, 80 Nurses, 300 corpsmen, and 78 WAVES.  Nearly three years after the end of the war the hospital was decommissioned as a naval hospital.  The ceremonial transfer was broadcast  from the studios of radio station WMLT on the evening of June 30, 1948. Dr. David Quinn was named as Administrator of the new Veteran's hospital.  On September 15, 1948, the hospital was dedicated by Senator Walter F. George and Congressman Carl Vinson.

Felix Bobbitt, a Laurens County native and a paraplegic veteran, was the first patient admitted to the Veteran’s Hospital.   Within a year, hospital beds were increased two and one half times to accommodate 500 patients,  though the actual number of occupied beds only averaged around 350.  For those patients who were able to enjoy the outdoors and primarily for the staff, workers and their families, the hospital grounds featured indoor and outdoor basketball courts, six tennis courts, a swimming pool, a small golf course and bowling alleys.

In 1956, an Intermediate Service Center was established under the direction of Dr. Albert Bush.    At the end of its first decade as a VA Hospital, twenty physicians, three dentists and nearly six hundred employees were providing services for more than 450 patients.  Two hundred more patients were waiting to get in the hospital.   By the end of the 1950s a domiciliary with 450 members was established bringing the total patient load of 950, all served by 650 employees.  

A 56-bed nursing home unit was established in 1965.  The unit expanded by 30 more beds in 1975.   In 1971, six-acre Lake Leisure was constructed along Bud’s Branch, the only creek in Dublin which flows in a northerly direction.    

My most personal fond memory of the hospital came at Christmas.  In a day when church and state were separate but not mutually exclusive, Mamma and Daddy would drive us by the front of the hospital to gaze upon the tens of thousands of beautiful Christmas lights and wondrous displays of holiday celebrations.  

Today the Carl Vinson Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, named for the man totally responsible for its existence, has a 339 operating-bed facility which is staffed by approximately 750 employees.  The men and women of the VA Hospital provide acute and extended care services, ranging from pulmonary, optometry, surgery, podiatry, urology, cardiology, mental health, women’s health and general primary care.  With a budget in excess of sixty million dollars, the hospital, which turns sixty years old this month, continues to be a vital part of our local economy. 

05-03

THE REST OF THE STORY

Doctors, Patients and Visitors at the V.A. Hospital

Over the last six decades, hundreds of thousands of our country’s heroes have received medical care in the VA Hospital.    More than ten thousand physicians, nurses, sailors, waves, technicians, secretaries, and health care workers have walked the long halls, worked tirelessly to serve those who had served them and frequently held back their tears in the presence of those who suffer terribly from the wounds of war of the ravages of time.  It is to these wonderful Americans and the unnumerable legion of volunteers who have given of themselves that I dedicate these columns.    

Franklin Gowdy was born to Dr. F.M. Gowdy and Margaret K. Gowdy on June 2, 1903 in Union Pier, Michigan.  He grew up in St. Joseph, Michigan.  Gowdy attended St. Joseph’s High School, where he was vice president of the Crescent Society in his junior year.  While at St. Joseph’s, Franklin performed in school plays and choral programs.

Franklin played tackle for the University of Chicago Maroons in the early 1920s.  In 1924, he was elected captain of the football team.  Gowdy was generally regarded by national experts as one of the best tackles in the county and rated by his coach, the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg as “one of the best tackles ever developed at the University of Chicago.” Gowdy was chosen to the All Big Ten team and the All American team and led his team to a 3-0-3 record and its last Big Ten Championship.  He was honored by Coach Stagg in 1925, when he was asked to coach the Chicago line.  His younger brother Vic followed in his footsteps, first at Chicago and then as captain of the Oberlin College team. 

Dr. Franklin Gowdy graduated from Rush Medical School in Chicago.   He began the  practice of  medicine in 1937 in Evanston, Illinois, where he met and married his wife, Dorothy Faye Brockway.  Dr. Gowdy enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve shortly after Pearl Harbor.  Gowdy, then nearly forty years of age, expected to serve in the Naval Reserve at the Great Lakes Naval Base.  He was transferred to the Marines and sent to Guadalcanal attached to First Division United States Marine Corps.  The First Marine Division participated in the invasion of the islands of New Britain and Pellilu. By the end of his tour in the South Pacific, Dr. Gowdy rose to the rank of Lt. Commander in the Navy.   His brother Howard served as an officer in the Army Air Corps.  

In his last year in the service in the Navy, Dr. Gowdy was assigned to the United States Naval Hospital in Dublin, Georgia.  In January 1946, Dr. Gowdy resumed his practice of medicine in Winnetka, Illinois.  He and his family resided in nearby Glencoe.  Dr. Gowdy practiced medicine in the Chicago area and taught internal medicine at Northwestern University until his death on July 15, 1973. 

In 1952, Dr. M. Fernand Nunez served as chief of laboratory services at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Dublin.  Dr. Nunez was a direct descendant of Dr. Samuel Nunez.  The original Dr. Nunez came to the infant colony of Georgia in July, 1733 as the physician and apothecary for the Colony.  Dr. Nunez delivered Phillip Minas, the first male child to be born in the colony. 

Officials at the Dublin VA Hospital were honored when the national commander of American Veterans agreed to pay a visit to the hospital on January 12, 1961.  The commander, a Canadian born paratroop sergeant in World War II, was the guest of honor at a luncheon held in the dining room and the featured speaker in the auditorium, which was filled with patients, staff, and personnel.  The commander told the veterans "It's not what you have lost, but what you have left.  Disability does not mean inability."  He urged the veterans to pass on to the civilians what they had learned in the military.  The Commander spoke from experience for he lost both arms during the war.  He tried, without his hands, making a movie. He played the role of Homer Parrish, one of several veterans returning home after the war.  Evidently he did a pretty good job.  He was awarded two awards for his performance in the film.  His name was Harold Russell.  The classic movie  from 1946 was "The Best Years of Our Lives."  The movie won the Oscar for best picture. Frederich March won the Oscar for best actor.  The director and writer also won the Oscar that year.  Russell, one of the most famous American heroes of World War II, won the Oscar for best supporting actor and another special Oscar "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." In his first and only movie, Sgt. Russell was the only actor ever to be awarded two Oscars for one role.  Russell went into the public relations field after the war.  He died in 1993. 

In the days and months before Fidel Castro took control of the Cuban government, Cubans by the thousands fled to Florida and parts of the southeast.  Several families came to Dublin and, in particular, to the Veteran's Hospital.  Three of Cuba's top physicians wound up in Dublin. They were unanimous in their view that the Cuban refugees should leave Miami and come to small American towns like Dublin, which were a more true example of American life and the strength of our country. Dr. Rogello J. Barata was a former professor of surgery at the University of Havana Medical University until 1961.  Dr. Barata served as general and thoracic surgeon at the V.A. hospital.  His former student, Dr. Luis G. Valdes, was Chief of Surgery in one of Havana's largest hospitals after completing his post graduate  work at Harvard University.  The third and most prominent physician was Dr. Delio S. Garcia, former professor of Pathology at the University of Havana.  Dr. Garcia had been the former director of the Cuban National Bureau of Identification.  Between 1944 and 1948, Cuba was experiencing a wave of gang killings when nearly 150 prominent people were killed.  Dr. Garcia was able to identify five of the killers through scientific tests.  The first murderer he identified was a young Cuban rebel by the name of Fidel Castro.  The Cuban families assimilated into the community; Dr. Valdes’ mother-in-law taught Spanish at Dublin High School.

At the Veteran's Hospital, patients came and patients went.  There was something unusual about this particular patient.  He was a veteran of the United States Army having fought in Korea.  After the war, he married Frances Googe of Hazelhurst, where he made his home.  He did nothing to create the excitement.  The unusual amount of attention paid to this patient, Vincent Cadette, came not from his actions, but because of his ancestry.  His ancestor was among the most famous men of the late 19th century.  Vincent was an American Indian like his great grandfather, Sitting Bull.

One of Dublin's oldest residents in 1968 was Louis Greenhaus, who was 101 years old.  Greenhaus, a Russian-born naturalized citizen, was a resident of the V.A. Hospital.  Naturalized as a United States citizen in 1892, Greenhaus served as a sergeant in the Spanish-American War and World War I. Between the wars, Greenhaus was a member of John Phillip Sousa's band and played under the direction of America’s foremost band leaders. Greenhaus credited his daily cigar as the most important factor in his longevity. 

   

In the early decades of the V.A. Hospital, the wards were filled with veterans of the Spanish American War and World War I.   William C. Owen was Georgia’s oldest surviving veteran of the Spanish American War.  He turned 100 years old on September 4, 1978.  Lemuel J. Rogers, who died at the VA Hospital on June 25, 1963,  served under Col. Teddy Roosevelt and retired as a master sergeant in 1926.

Roland Wilbur Charles, Jr. died at the VA Medical Center on July 18, 1997.  Charles, a former sailor in the 1950s, worked at NASA and was responsible for the worldwide installation of S-Band radio systems for Earth to space communications during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.   A former national vice president of the Children of the American Revolution, Charles was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Roland Ellis, Jr., formerly of Macon, died in the VA Medical Center on May 22, 1995.  Ellis worked as a journalist for the Paris Tribune before joining the New Yorker magazine, where he once wrote the popular column “Talk of the Town.”

These are a few of the thousands of stories of the people of the VA Hospital.  Their complete stories would fill volumes.  I encourage you to record your stories of the hospital for posterity so that the generations to come will know just what a special place the V.A.  Hospital is. 

05-04

BUD HILLBURN

Poor Man Bound to Die

Bud Hillburn was bound to die.  We all are, but this troubled man had a destiny - to die with a hangman's noose around his neck, a knife in his belly or a volley of vigilante bullets in his chest and brain.  As he sat in his jail cell on New Year's Day a little over a century ago, there was no revelry, no joy, only a glimmer of hope that he wouldn't meet his maker before the winter ended.  The early years of the 20th Century were extremely violent.  In some ways they were more violent than they are today, a century later.  In the east-central Georgia area, and most of Georgia for that matter, not a week went by without a murder, aggravated assault, or a killing in self defense, whether justified or not. 

It was a relatively tranquil Sunday evening in Rixville, Georgia on February 7, 1904.  Twenty-year-old Abe Durden, a son of a prominent Adrian, Georgia family, was dispatched to the small community on the Wadley Southern Railroad, south of Adrian at the intersection of the Old Savannah Road and the Adrian-Soperton Road.  Durden asked Longus Durden and a young Moore boy to accompany him to serve a warrant for gambling on Bud Hillburn, known to be a notorious gambler.    The trio found their man at the home of John Ricks, about a half-mile from Rixville.  

Durden approached Hillburn, first called Hillman in some newspaper accounts, and told the burly man that he had a warrant for his arrest and that he must submit to the law.  Suddenly and without any warning, Hillburn pulled his pistol, one he took from Norman Brown,  and fired it point blank into Durden's body.  Durden was able to draw his own revolver and fired three shots in self defense.  It appeared Durden's shots had little effect, though witnesses initially misstated that Hillburn's arm was broken.  Hillburn managed to get off four shots, two of them mortally striking the young bailiff in the breast and the thigh.  

Emanuel County Sheriff George Frederick Flanders was summoned to the scene, but instead sent his deputy John Medlock to organize a posse to capture the fugitive assailant.  A reward of fifty dollars was issued the next day for information leading to the capture of Durden's alleged killer.  Within a day or so, Hillburn was captured in that portion of Montgomery County which is now Treutlen County.  He was found by Rance Phillips, Ebb Durden and Andrew Gillis, all members of the Rixville community.  The trackers found the renegade in the loft of an old out building which was being used by some mill hands.   Hillburn discovered the approach of the trio and attempted to flee, firing shots to discourage his pursuers.  Realizing that further flight was futile, an exhausted Hillburn forsook his weapon and succumbed to his captors. 

 

On September 5, 1904, Hillburn was tried before a jury with Middle Circuit Superior Court Judge Alexander F. Daley presiding in and for the Superior Court of Emanuel County.  The outcome was never in doubt as solicitor B.T. Rawlings introduced one witness after another to seal the fate of the accused.  Hillburn's defense attorney A.F. Lee did all he could to zealously represent his client in the face of overwhelming evidence. The jury returned a verdict of guilty.  Judge Daley subsequently sentenced Hillburn to die by hanging.  Despite the fact that the defendant had just been convicted of murdering an Emanuel County law enforcement officer, there was no report of the trial in the Swainsboro Forest Blade nor any of the newspapers from the surrounding counties. 

On November 21, 1904, Lee and Rawlings traveled to Atlanta to argue his appeal of Hillburn's conviction before the Supreme Court of Georgia.   The defense attorney argued that Judge Daley erred in not granting a continuance to the defense.  Lee maintained that it was critical that the court compel a defense witness to testify.   It was contended that the witness would testify that it was Durden and not Hillburn who fired the first shot.   The State of Georgia countered and showed the appellate court that the witness knew nothing of the actual murder and therefore his testimony was not essential to a proper defense.  The defendant further contended that the warrant which Durden was serving on Hillburn was improper and therefore Hillburn had a right to defend himself from what he perceived as an assault against his person. The court dismissed the allegations on the grounds that there was nothing in the record of the case challenging the validity of the warrant and therefore the warrant was presumed to be valid.

Hillburn's most valid ground for a reversal was that his confession, or alleged confession, was obtained under duress.    Bud told a deputy that he had fired under his arm and not straight out, a fact contradicted by one of Hillburn's own witnesses.  In writing the opinion of the court, Justice Beverly D. Evans, a former Washington County judge and attorney,  ruled that prisoner's statements were freely and voluntarily made.  Justice Evans found that despite the fact that  the accused was a Negro and at the time was a prisoner in the calaboose and surrounded by a crowd of white men,  those circumstances did not render the confession necessarily inadmissable.   The court further found that the confession should not be thrown out on the grounds that the jailer told Hillburn that he would protect him and make him comfortable if he told the truth.

Hillburn's last hope for his life depended on an appeal to the Georgia Prison Commission. In an unprecedented move, A.F. Lee omitted the normal request for a commutation of the death sentence to life in prison.  Lee asked the commission and the governor for a full pardon reiterating Hillburn's claim of self defense. Lee also asserted that it was impossible for his client to obtain a fair trial in light of the case of two Negroes, Reed and Cato, who were burned to death by a Bulloch County mob after the two men were accused of murdering and  then burning a white family near Statesboro a month before the trial. 

The commission denied Hillburn's request for liberty, and the preparations for the execution the following Friday were set in motion.  On February 3, 1905 and four days short of one year after the death of Abe Durden, A.F. Lee had one final meeting with his client.  Reverends W.H. Franklin, W.H. Miller, J.W. Young, H.H. Maze and Nelson Jones spent the morning attempting to console the condemned killer through prayer and song.

Thirty minutes before high noon, Bud Hillburn was escorted to the gallows.  He was asked to sit on the steps and pose for photographers.   Hillburn weakly climbed the steps  and was asked to speak to his executioners.  He said, "I don't care to stand out in the cold wind," apparently oblivious as to his impending fate.    John W. Durden, father of young Abe, asked Hillburn if he had been persuaded to kill his son.    Without any equivocation, Hillburn said, "No sir, not a soul in the world."  He revealed that he was so drunk that he could hardly stand and that he thought it was Perry Scott who was trying to arrest him as he had tried to do so before.   Confessing to his crime in his last few moments of life, Hillburn stated that he shot but didn't know whom he was shooting. 

Five ministers implored for Hillburn to pray for his soul. He refused though he did accept the offer of a last meal of beef, bread and hot coffee.   Hillburn gobbled down all he could eat in the last ten minutes of his life.  The crowd counted down the clock which soon struck twelve o'clock noon.   The hangman placed a black cap over the doomed man's head and adjusted a noose around his neck.  Hillburn complained, "Don't choke me! Is my time out?  Let me go. Let me go!" Sheriff Fields sprang the trap and in a brief instant Hillburn was dead, his neck broken according to Dr. G.E. Youmans, the attending physician. 

Abe Durden's death had been avenged.  Ironically had Hillburn's attorney been able to delay his execution for a few months, Durden's killer would have died not by the noose, but by the final stages of cancer, or consumption as it was called in those days.    The editors of the Forest Blade took note of the sorrowful affair and urged their readers not to let Abe Durden die in vain and stamp out the evil "blind tiger" whiskey establishments which ultimately and directly led to the young man's untimely, unfortunate and undeserved death.

 

05-05

CLAUDE HARVARD

Genius Has No Color

For more than half of his life, Claude Harvard fought to overcome the obstacles in his life.   He was a mathematical genius.  But before you think he was carried a slide rule with him and was some sort of prosperous preppie prodigy attending a major university, think again.  Claude Harvard was born almost as poor as poor can be.  He was the son of a South Georgia black sharecropper in the years when cotton abdicated its crown as the King of the South.  

Claude Harvard was born on March 11, 1911  in Dublin, Georgia. He attended Telfair School, which was then located on Pritchett Street.  His teacher and school principal Susie White Dasher was more than proud of Claude.  Mrs. Dasher related that he was a mathematical wizard and was always at the top of his class.    

Claude’s interest in science and technology was aroused around 1921when he read a magazine article about owning your own wireless radio set.  The first  radio station in the country, KDKA in Pittsburgh, went on the air in November 1920.  Georgia wouldn’t have its own station until 1922 when WSB began broadcasting from Atlanta.    Claude was determined to own his own radio.  He saved his pennies and sold salve to raise the money. 

By 1922, it became impossible for many black tenant farmer families to survive in the boll weevil ridden cotton fields of Georgia. The Harvard family moved to Detroit, Michigan with hopes of a newfound prosperity.     With his most priceless possession in hand, Claude left the relative tranquility  of Dublin for the bright lights of big city life.   

Claude enrolled in a machine shop class in high school.  His teacher observed his talent and recommended him for admission to The Henry Ford Trade School in 1926.   Auto magnate Henry Ford established the School in 1916 to train orphaned children to become workers for his auto plants.   Despite the fact that he was not an orphan, Claude was accepted in the school because of his impressive talents in machining and metal work.  The cards were stacked against Claude at the school where blacks seldom graduated because of the rule against fighting.  The principal figured that Claude wouldn’t make it at the school because there was no way he could finish his classes without getting into a fight with the white kids.  Claude kept his temper and avoided any scrapes.  He  excelled in every course at the school.  He was elected president of the radio club at the school.    Ten students in the club took a test to become a certified amateur operator.  Claude, the only one of the group to pass the test, became the first African-American in Michigan to receive an amateur radio license.    Harvard, known as “The African Pounder,” worked at the school radio station WARC.    Upon completion of his courses at the Henry Ford Trade School, Claude Harvard was at the top of his class.     

Despite the fact that Claude had reached the pinnacle of success at the school, he was denied the automatic right to a union card because of his race.  Harvard later found out later that all of his applications for Union membership had been discarded in the trash can.  But Harvard’s talents couldn’t be discarded.  The Ford Motor Company hired him anyway and assigned him as the head of the radio department.

In 1934 at the age of twenty-three, Claude was personally selected by Henry Ford to display his ground breaking invention of a piston pin inspection machine at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.    Harvard’s most well known invention allowed workers to clean the surfaces of auto pistons to one 1/10,000 of an inch.  His machine determined the proper hardness of pistons and checked the length and diameter of its grooves, rejecting any defective parts in the sorting phase.   Claude Harvard never forgot the pride he felt at the Exposition.  He was deeply honored by Ford’s confidence in him as well as the pride he felt when other black attendees came to his booth.  

Impressed with Harvard’s remarkable abilities, Henry Ford asked Claude to speak on behalf of the company at Tuskegee Institute.   With only one day to prepare the speech, Harvard rapidly researched his topic and presented to Ford by the end of the day.   The Institute’s iconic scientist George Washington Carver in welcomed Claude to the school and issued a rare personal invitation to tour his personal laboratory.    As a token of his gratitude, Carver presented Harvard samples of his work and an autographed picture of himself.    Carver remained fond of Harvard and his work and often inquired of him in conversations with Ford.  In 1937, Harvard was again honored by Ford when he appeared in an advertisement in Popular Science Monthly.

While at Ford Motor Company, Claude Harvard patented twenty-nine inventions for the manufacture of Ford automobiles, though he reaped none of the royalties and profits of his genius, all in accordance with a company policy that required employees to relinquish their inventions to the company.  One invention was sold for a quarter of a million dollars to U.S. Steel.  He left the company to establish his own business, the Exact Tool & Die Company.  The initially successful business failed when white employees of customer companies found out they were doing business with a black businessman.   Claude went to work for the Federal government but soon discovered that he was discriminated against in his pay scale.  An old friend from the Ford Trade School suggested that he take an employment test at the Detroit Arsenal.  Claude quickly solved a trigonometry problem and passed a subsequent civil service exam.    Harvard worked at the Arsenal until his retirement. 

 

Harvard came out of retirement when he began teaching at HOPE Machinist Training Institute in Detroit in the early 1980s.  The school was organized to teach hands on training for minority youths.    After two years, Harvard became an unpaid volunteer at the school.  He designed implements and guides to facilitate the production of metal parts.  Harvard maintained that it was the vast experience of himself and other instructors which contributed to better teaching of young students.  Though machine work was controlled by computers, Harvard maintained that the process was still basically the same as it was in the 1930s.  He encouraged his students and all children to study math and to put as much effort into learning as they do into sports.   In a 1997 interview with Otha R. Sullivan Harvard offered these words of advice, “Have you noticed how kids exercise, play sports and learn dances?  If they treated their brains the way they treat their bodies, they would be great.  If you gave your brains half the exercise you give your muscles, you’d be very smart.  Kids shouldn’t be afraid of mathematics and science.  The subjects aren’t as hard as they look.  I especially recommend that young people tackle mathematics.  It really isn’t that difficult.  Apparently, the teachers just make it seem that way.”

Claude Harvard died in 1999 in adopted hometown of Detroit.  The young Dublin boy who once dreamed of owning his own radio has been heralded as one the greatest African American inventors of the 20th Century.  

Harvard was philosophical about the impediments of racism in America and encouraged others to aspire to his goals.   In a 1937 interview, Harvard said “The Negro boy who is complaining about the breaks against him should stop squawking and do as this black boy did and make the grade in spite of being black.  I must make the grade.”    In chronicling the early successes of the young inventor, Herbert H. “Hub” Dudley, Dublin’s leading black businessman and a columnist for the Dublin Courier Herald wrote, “Genius knows no color or creed.  The World loves a contributor to civilization.”

  

Sources: African American Inventors, Otha Richard Sullivan, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1998; Detroit Free Press, November 22, 2000; Retired Machinists Train Minority Youth, Thomas J. Armstead, Feb. 1984 (www.findarticles.com); Dublin Courier Herald, January 29, 1937. 

05-06

THEY CALLED THEM “BLUEJACKETS”

African American Sailors in the Civil War

They weren’t the typical Civil War soldiers. They weren’t white. In fact, they weren’t soldiers at all.  They were sailors, seamen of the United States Navy.  This is the story of seven native born east-central Georgians who served in the almighty Federal Navy while it maintained its stranglehold over shipping lanes along the southeastern coasts during the Civil War.

The United States Army developed a policy of seizing slaves from Southern plantation owners and employing them as laborers.   Up and down the South Atlantic Coast former slaves were freed. They flocked into camps along coastal islands.    It became readily apparent that these people could provide both army and navy commanders with valuable information.  These former slaves provided the Union Navy with invaluable intelligence information, including the location of Confederate fortifications, navigation information along inland waterways, and foraging of supplies and food.  

Originally the Negro sailors were considered mere laborers and were paid a minuscule salary.  Eventually the men were treated for pay purposes as equal to the whites and were allowed to be promoted for outstanding performance of their duties.  Some sailors rose to the rank of pilot.  These river pilots provided vital services to the Federal navy. 

While the true number of black soldiers on both sides of the conflict will never be known, most historians believe that at least fifty thousand or more Southern blacks served in the Confederate Army.    Many were used in support roles, but company commanders needing bodies to fill in the lines were not opposed to filling their ranks with blacks,  in complete  deference to the official policy of the Confederate government.    Among the most famous black Confederate soldiers was Private Bill Yopp of the 14th Georgia Infantry.  A Laurens Countian by birth,  Yopp, who surrendered with his company at Appomattox, is the only African-American Confederate soldier buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia. Records of black Confederate casualties are virtually non-existent, though black Union casualties have been estimated to have been nearly forty thousand.   

It has been estimated that some eighteen thousand former slaves served in the United States Navy during the Civil War.  Four hundred seventeen of them are known to have been born in Georgia.   A good portion of native Georgians serving in the Union Navy gave the place of their birth as Georgia, with no indication of the county of their birth.  At least three Laurens Countians are known to have served in the Union Army during the war. Unfortunately, further efforts to trace the lives of these three men after the war were futile.  Neither of the three men appear in any Federal censuses after the war.   

Myers Blackshear, the oldest of three native Laurens Countians to serve in the Union Navy, was born in 1826.  A five-foot five-inch tall farmer, Blackshear enlisted for a three-year term on December 31, 1863.  Blackshear was assigned as a 3rd Class Boy aboard the U.S.S. Restless. On April 1, 1864, Blackshear was reassigned to the U.S.S. San Jacinto. 

The San Jacinto, named for the climatic battle of the War for Texas Independence, was the Navy’s second screw frigate.  The ship participated in the Virginia Peninsula campaign of 1862.  In the last year of the war, the San Jacinto was assigned to blockade duty along the Southeastern and Gulf coasts.  The ship was lost on New Year’s Day in 1865, when she sunk on a reef near Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas.

Francis Hughes, a barber by trade, was born in Laurens County in 1827.  Hughes enlisted for one year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 7, 1863.  He was assigned as a landsman aboard the U.S.S. State of Georgia.  A landsman in 19th Century language was a sailor on his first voyage or one who is inexperienced in sailing.  The USS State of Georgia was a side wheel stern steamship and was often in dry dock for repairs.  The ship saw limited action in the first half of 1864 during Hughes’ tenure on the ship.

George Hozendorf, born in 1836, listed himself as unemployed when he enlisted in the United States Navy at Fernandina Island, Florida on March 31, 1864. This five-foot three-inch tall native of Laurens County was assigned as a landsman aboard the U.S.S. Para.  The Para, a 190-ton mortar schooner, saw action throughout the war, primarily off the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.  In the summer of 1864, the Para participated in a mission up the Stono River in South Carolina.

Joseph Crawford, a forty-six-year-old Emanuel County laborer, enlisted in the navy for the duration of the war at St. George’s Sound on July 27, 1863.  He served as a First Class Boy aboard the USS Somerset until the summer  of 1865.   Crawford served aboard the Somerset with his younger brother Cato Crawford.  The younger Crawford enlisted for the war on July 15, 1863 at St. George’s Sound.  The Somerset, a wooden-hulled side-wheel ferry boat was used primarily to block Southern blockade runners.  On March 30, 1865, the ship destroyed the salt works on St. Joseph’s Bayou.  

Andrew Brown, a five-foot eleven inch Twiggs County native, was born in 1825.  He enlisted “for the cruise” at Key West, Florida on March 4, 1863.  He served from April 1, 1863 to September 1863 aboard the San Jacinto.  In that month he transferred to the USS James L. Davis until December.  Brown returned to San Jacinto for few days before returning back to the James L. Davis once again.  His last assignment was aboard the San Jacinto. 

Sampson Freeman, the third man of the group to serve aboard the USS Somerset, was born in Wilkinson County, Georgia in 1832.  He enlisted for the duration of the war on July 1, 1863.  He was a laborer by profession and served aboard the Somerset until June 1865.

Records of the participation of the black soldiers and sailors in both armies are scant.  As a result of the popularity of the movie “Glory,” more attention has been drawn to the former slaves and free blacks who served in the Union Army.  However, much less attention has been paid to those who were slaves and fought in defense of their homeland despite its dogged determination to maintain the abomination of slavery.   Many historians, including the highly respected Ed Bearrs of the National Park Service, believe there was a coverup to obscure the service records of those slaves who served the Confederacy.   

05-07

WHAT IS WAS, WAS BASEBALL

The Dublin Athletics

In the dark days of the Great Depression, it seemed the whole world had two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.  It was a time when despair and desolation enveloped the nation but couldn’t kill it’s soul, the game of baseball - the national pastime.  Most  its players played for free or just enough for pay for a hot meal and a soft bed.  The blessed got paid.  Some like Babe Ruth were paid $80,000 a year.  Then there were the barnstormers, men who played day after day anywhere anyone would show up and pay to see a good game of baseball.  This is the story of a group of Dublin based men who enjoyed successful seasons in one of the minor Negro leagues of the South in 1932 and 1933. 

Carved out of a rolling meadow of the fully undeveloped Dudley Cemetery on East Mary Street, the team’s sand lot paled in comparison to the cross-town 12th District Fairground diamond where the self-styled “Gas House Gang” and World Champion St. Louis Cardinals took on the university boys from Athens and Atlanta.  Semi adequate backstops and invisible outfield fencing rarely contained out of play balls which often sailed into the thickest of thickets or over nameless graves of once beloved souls.  Attendance varied according to the what time of the day the game was played.  Those who had jobs could scarcely slip away to watch the game, while those who didn’t have a livelihood watched for free from afar or opted instead to spend their pennies on a much coveted hot meal.

When the 1932 season, opened the team didn’t even have a nickname.  Suggestions were sought. But since no better name was suggested, Courier Herald sportswriter Joseph Leath began calling the team the “Dublin Athletics” or the “Dublin A’s” for short.  Leath, who reported the highlights of the A’s games in the “Colored News” section of The Dublin Courier Herald, chose the name because of the success of the Philadelphia Athletics on the National League, who had just that year  posted the highest winning percentage of any team in the decade of the 1930s.    Leath also solicited names for the park, but the team settled on the generic “Mary Street Park.”  

Picking a winning team wasn’t an easy task.  There was no draft and no minor leagues.   Better Georgians like Josh Gibson and Jackie Robinson played for the real Negro League teams in the big cities.  Former Dubliner Quincey Trouppe played for many teams during his highly successful two decade career.   The league was an association of south Georgia teams composed mainly of local men, sometimes boosted by a unknown phenom signed before another team could grab him.    Team rosters changed and often.  New players, who shined in tryouts, beat out those who struggled in the field and behind the plate.  Luther Hendricks, who lived on Vine Street, managed the team in it’s first year.  The first reported game, an extra inning affair, resulted in road victory over Wrightsville 11-9.  Playing for Dublin were Kiler, 1b; May, rf; Frank Howard, 3b; J.D. Howard, Captain and cf; Butler, c; Brown, p; Horne, ss; and Gilliard, 2b.  About a month into the season, the A’s added Gillis, Brooks, Jenkins, Oliver, Chesnut, Kiler and Newton to their team.  The latter three men came on to lead the A’s to an outstanding second half of the season.   Reese, perhaps the Jimmy Reese who played for the Atlanta Black Crackers in later years, had an outstanding season on the mound for the A’s.  

In the 1932 season, the Athletics played teams from Jessup, Hawkinsville, Wrightsville, Sandersville, Macon, Ailey, Gordon, Vidalia, Milledgeville, Forsyth, Wrens, Augusta and Athens.    The highlight of the season was a two-game series against the Chattanooga Black Look Outs on August 3rd and 4th.    The A’s held the powerful Black Look Outs to a 1-1 tie in the first game with Big Lefty Chestnut (No. 44) going 2-5 and holding the team, which once included the legendary Satchel Paige in his first year of professional baseball.  The A’s lost a heartbreaker (5-4) in the second game against the visitors, who were on a barnstorming tour of Georgia.    As the A’s enjoyed great successes, attendance swelled.  Many white fans came to watch the best game in town.  A second highlight came a week later when the Athletics defeated the Macon All Stars, who lost their first game of the season.    The season ended with a tie with the Augusta All Stars followed by four consecutive two-game sweeps of Augusta and Athens and  Chestnut’s 16 strike out victory over the a team from Jacksonville, Florida, just days after he pitched a one hit shut out of the Augusta team. 

  

The 1933 A’s opened their season with a tilt against Greenville, S.C., with J.H. Hicks managing new players Garner, Blacker, Bush, Book, Kiler, Ford, Davis and Major Freeman.  Within a month, Luther Kendrick returned to the helm of the team and brought back some of the outstanding players from the ‘32 season.  The 1933 team played some new teams, the Augusta Wolves, Macon Red Sox, Augusta Giants, Columbus Red Caps, Macon Peaches, Eastman White Sox, Atlanta Blues, Forsyth, Fitzgerald, Glenville, Wrightsville, Waynesboro, Savannah All Stars, and Chattanooga.    The Athletics featured a powerful lineup: Vondale, 2b; Will Hayes, ss; Jake D. Howard, lf; Squat Jones, cf; Jimmy Reese, p, 1b; Herb Barnhill, c; Chestnut, p, rf; Massey, 3b and Emory Davis, p. 

Without a doubt the most valuable player for the A’s was the man with no first name. Known simply as “Chestnut,” or “No. 44," the tall lanky southpaw dominated every team he faced.  In 1933, he compiled a record of at least 14 wins with only one known loss, that loss coming at the hands of the powerful Montgomery Grey Sox of the Negro Southern League.   In his sole defeat, “No. 44" struck out 14 Grey Sox and allowed five hits, but lost a twelve inning 2-1 game.  Chestnut struck out 18 Atlanta Blues batters surrendering only 1 hit win following a nineteen strike out one hitter against Forsyth.  “With big league control and the steam of a pile driver,” Chestnut defeated the Macon Peaches in five games, including driving in the winning runs with two out in the bottom of the 9th inning in front of 500 fans. It has been said that he had such good control that his catcher could turn around, squat and catch the ball between his legs.

Following a successful 4th of July series, it was announced that the team was on the verge of bankruptcy.  Manager Hendricks resigned when players went to Sheriff Wiley Adams and demanded that they be paid the team salary of $75.00 for the past two weeks.  Hendricks contended that he had paid his players with money he had personally borrowed and hoped to pay back out of gate receipts.   The Athletics surfaced from the storm with a new name and new uniforms.  The Dublin All Stars under their new manager and left fielder Jake Howard and their new owner Bracewell Troup began to play better teams throughout the Southeast, including the Jacksonville Red Caps,  Montgomery Grey Sox and the Tampa All Stars, whom the Dublin Stars defeated in the self styled Georgia Florida championship. 

Jimmy (Lefty, Big Jim, Slim) Reese won 20 games for the Atlanta Black Crackers in 1937.  The tall lefthander and Morris Brown College graduate taught school in Atlanta before he was signed by the Indianapolis ABC’s in 1939.  He finished his short career in 1940 as a member of the Baltimore Elite Giants. 

Herbert “Herb” Barnhill spent nine seasons in the Negro American League.  He caught for the Jacksonville Red Caps in 1938 and again in 1941 and 1942.  In the intervening years the Red Caps played in Cleveland Ohio under the name of the Bears.  In 1943, Barnhill signed with the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the most famous teams in Negro League history.  Considered an average catcher and a weak hitter, Barnhill spent his last three seasons (1944-1946) as a member of the Chicago American Giants. 

While a member of the Red Caps, Barnhill, along with his teammates, worked as a railroad porter from September to March.  His right thumb permanently bent back at a right angle was the result of catching some of the great pitchers of the Negro Leagues for more than fourteen years.  One of the biggest highlights of Barnhill’s career was pushing a batter out of the way and tagging out Jackie Robinson at home plate.  More than fifty years after he retired, Barnhill still remembered the sting of racial discrimination, but was contented with the fact that more people attended the Negro League games than their white counterparts.  Herb Barnhill passed away in Jacksonville, Florida on July 25, 2004.  He was the last of the Jacksonville Red Caps and the last of the Dublin Athletics.  

The 1933 Dublin Athletics/All Stars ended the season with a documented record of 31-11 and were credited as being one of the best teams in the South.   But the question remains, what ever happened to ol’ Chestnut, “No. 44?”  Like the legendary Satchel Paige, the dominating lefty always wanted to pitch both ends of a double header.  Perhaps he moved on to a new team with a new name and made it to the big leagues. Or perhaps today  after the death of his catcher Herb Barnhill, the last survivor of the Dublin Athletics, “No. 44" is still mowing them down on the fields of dreams across the heavens. 

 

05-08

WHEN BASKETBALL WAS ALL WE HAD

The 1945-46 Dudley Basketball Teams

It was a time when hardly anyone could dunk a basketball, a time when guards on the girl’s team had to stay back at their end of the court.  The war years were tough on everyone.  There wasn’t a whole lot of money to be spent on fun.   Some kids were lucky enough to have battery-powered radios with long antenna wires, which were hung on tall poles or trees in the front yard.  On Tuesday, Friday and some Saturday nights from November to early March, there was basketball.  In the days before there were state championships in high school sports, the Holy Grail of high school basketball in rural counties were the County Championships.  Nearly every community still had their own school.  Rivalries were often intense, but were frequently friendly, not filled with some of the unsportsmanlike ferocity of today’s rivalries.  From Lovett to Cedar Grove to Dudley,  the highlight of the school year was basketball.  The winter of 1946 was no exception.

One of the top teams of the late 1940s were the teams from Dudley High School. The kids had little time to work on their game.  Many of them were farm kids, and chores demanded priority over basketball practice. Still, years before they were penned as the Cardinals, the boys and girls from Dudley dominated other Laurens County teams, all without the luxury of having a true basketball coach.    You see in those days, schools were hampered by tight budgets and were compelled to have sponsors accompany the team at home and on the road.    Sometimes a school got lucky when the teacher knew a lot about the game.  The boy’s sponsor at Dudley was vocational education teacher, Troy Edwards, while the girls were sponsored by the home economics teacher, Mrs. G.S. Crews.  

The girl’s team was led by the Hogan sisters, Betty Ann and Barbara, both crack shooters.  Winnie Mae Raffield was the third starting forward.  Keeping the other girls away from the Dudley basket was more than adequately handled by starting guards Grace Willis, Delores Lister and Mary Radney.  Substituting for the starters were Catherine Woodard, Kate Willis, Ann Radney and Celestine Barfoot.

The boys were led by center and high scorer Billy Crafton.  You know him as Don Crafton, long time president and CEO of Morris State Bank.  “Billy” was a name penned on the lanky center by his grandfather.  Starting at forward were Don Haskins and Captain Fisher Barfoot, a future vice president of Piggly Wiggly Southern, community leader and  Georgia state representative. Tom Brown and Mike White started at guard for the boys.  Coming off the bench to spark rallies or preserve a victory were substitutes Billy Kibler, Atys Bowles, Rabon Lord, Roy J. Chappell and Rowell Stanley.

During the 1945-6 season, Dudley played Laurens County teams from Rentz, Cadwell, Condor, Brewton, Cedar Grove, Lowery, Wilkes, and Dublin High School.  Road trips were fairly short with games against Soperton, Jeffersonville, Irwinton, Wrightsville, Toomsboro and Cochran.   Among the stiffest competition the Dudley boys faced that year were the boys from Condor High School.  The eastside young men lost only one game during the regular season, that coming at the hands of Dudley, and suffered a stunning and fatal loss in the county tournament.   

It wasn’t until the 194os that most schools had gymnasiums.  Prior to that, many schools were forced to compete on dirt courts enduring unfavorable winter conditions.  Don Crafton remembered, “Basketball was king.  People lined the walls of the wooden gymnasiums to root for their teams.  Gymnasiums were heated mostly by large pot-bellied wood-burning stoves.”

Perhaps the most exciting regular season game came on a cold Tuesday night in the Condor gym.   A mistake in the scheduling forced the teams to shorten the quarters to five minutes each.  At the end of the first quarter the girls were tied 4-4.  Dudley held on to garner a highly spirited 23-12 victory over the Condor girls.  The boys game was much closer and even lower scoring than the girls game.  In a slow downed game, the Dudley boys  defeated the highly touted Condor five 13-9, ten of those points coming from center Don Crafton.  

In much more satisfying games, the Dudley teams smashed the hoopsters from Wrightsville.  Betty Ann Hogan, the team’s leading scorer for the season,  poured in 26 of her teams 33 points in a 33-7 romp.  Don Crafton contributed 18 points and Tom Brown another 15 points in a 54-14 stomp of the Johnson County quintet. 

Dudley’s closest rivals were the teams from Dexter, Cadwell and Rentz.  The teams were so well balanced that the outcome of games were virtually never certain.  With another 20-point night, Betty Ann Hogan led the girls over nearby Rentz, 28-21.  The Dudley boys struggled, but with a dozen points from Crafton, managed to eek out a 28-27 come from behind road victory over Rentz. 

In those days, Dublin was included on Dudley’s schedule, even though their school was much bigger and was the only school in the county to have a football team.  Near the end of the season the teams met at the Hargrove Gym on North Calhoun Street.  The Dudley girls defeated the girls from Dublin by a whopping margin of 38 to 15, with Betty Hogan putting 30 points on the board.  The boys game was tied at the half, 18-18.  Tom Brown scored 15 points and Fisher Barfoot added 12 more as the Dudley five defeated the Dublin five 39-38.  

 

The highlight of the season was the Laurens County Basketball Tournament in February.  Tom Brown led the Dudley boys with 21 points in a 55-20 smashing of Cedar Grove on the second night of the tournament, which was held at Brewton High School.  In the semi-final games, the Dudley girls easily defeated the Brewton six by the score of 34-13.  As usual, Betty Ann Hogan topped the scoring list with 20 points.  Tom Brown led the boys again matching the entire Brewton teams total in a 39-15 smashing.  

In the county championship, both Dudley teams faced the hard charging teams from Rentz.  In a close game, the Dudley girls pulled away in the 4th quarter to register a 40-27 championship victory.  The boys game was much closer, too close for the nervous fans of both teams.   During the entire game, the teams remained within four points of each other.  When the final buzzer sounded, Dudley sneaked by Rentz in a hard-fought 25-24 victory to capture the school’s second county championship. 

Both teams advanced to the District tournament.  The Dudley boys defeated Sandersville in the first game and Dublin in the semifinals, only to lose to a more powerful team from Cochran in the finals.  The girls captured the district title, bringing home first place trophies in the county and the district.  The team’s four trophies and many similar ones were tragically lost in a fire a few years later.  The highlight of the district tournament was the naming of Betty Ann Hogan to the All-District team.  For decades after she graduated high school, people asked her if she was the young girl who was such a great basketball player for Dudley.

In today’s basketball world, basketball in March is called “March Madness.”  A half century ago it would have been better termed “March Sadness.”  The end of the county and district tournaments signaled the end of the game until the return of winter and a void in the lives of the kids who depended on the game.   To some, basketball was all they had.  

 

05-09

1933: THE YEAR OF THE DUBLIN WOMAN

In 1933 it was still a man’s world.  Most women worked in the home.  Some women taught school, while others worked in clerical, domestic and other less than glamorous jobs.  But it was in the deep dark year of the Great Depression that a few of the women then and formerly of Dublin took off their aprons, put their brooms in the closet (just for a little while anyway) and set out to find their rightful place in our society.  During this month of March when we celebrate Women’s National History Month and on this International Women’s day, here are a few stories of the scores of Dublin women who excelled beyond their usual triumphs of managing our homes, families and every other thing left in their charge. 

Charlotte Hightower Harwell was very good at her job.  The only problem was that every other court reporter in the state of Georgia in 1932 was a man and she was just a 20-year-old woman.  In derogation of the long-standing practice of male court reporters, Dublin Judicial Circuit Judge J.W. Kent appointed Mrs. Harrell as his court reporter, making her the first woman court reporter in Georgia.  She later worked in LaGrange and in Gainesville for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit, which included the counties of Hall, White, Lumpkin and Dawson.  Mrs. Harwell distrusted stenograph machines and recorded most of her trials by shorthand. It was said that she was such a good typist her hands were at one time insured by Lloyd's of London.  Former Chief Superior Court Judge Richard Kenyon of Gainesville said, "For years, she was one of the brightest, most competent court reporters that this area has known."  "All the lawyers had great respect for her," said Gainesville lawyer Julius Hulsey. "Nobody ever questioned her transcripts," he added.  Mrs. Harwell retired in 1975 after a 42-year career as a court reporter.   Charlotte Hightower Harrell died on May 22, 1995 and is buried in the Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville, Georgia.

Elizabeth Garrett Page was born in Hancock County, Georgia in 1903.  Her father, A.W. Garrett, was one of the leading bankers and businessmen of “Dublin’s Golden Age.”  In November 1933, this 30-year-old mother of four was appointed by the Dublin City Council to the Dublin City Board of Education, making her the first woman to serve in that capacity.  Mrs. Page’s appointment came at a time when women had been voting on a regular basis for only a decade.  Educated at Wesleyan College, Mrs. Page was the first president of the Parnassus Club and president of the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.  Mrs. Page was also active in the First Methodist Church, where she was the first president of the Leader’s Class.  Mrs. Page served as the Society editor for the Dublin Courier Herald and operated a private kindergarten from 1949-1966.   Mrs. Page died on March 3, 1986 and is buried in the mausoleum in Northview Cemetery in Dublin.

Aretha Miller Smith was born in Laurens County on July 22, 1914.  After graduating from high school in 1930, Aretha went to work in the  law office of W.A. Dampier.  In those days it was not mandatory for candidates for the bar to attend law school or pass a written test.  An applicant only needed to be presented for admission by practicing attorneys and pass an oral test administered by the judge of the Superior Court After three years of reading and studying the laws of Georgia, Miss Miller appeared before Judge Kent for her  examination on her knowledge of the law.   She passed and in December 1933 at the age of  19, Miss Aretha Miller became the first female attorney in Dublin, the first in the Dublin Circuit, one of the few female attorneys in the state at that time and most likely the youngest female attorney in the history of Georgia.

In addressing the court upon her admission to the bar, Miss Miller expressed her joy and humbly pledged her untiring efforts toward the cause of human justice, realizing the great responsibility and the uplifting influence that may be exerted in a community by a good lawyer.  She worked with W.A. Dampier until 1943, when Mrs. Smith joined in the war effort when she took a position in the Judge Advocate’s office at Robins Field in Wellston (Warner Robins), Georgia.    Aretha Miller Smith practiced law in Dublin for more than three decades before her death on December 23, 1969.  She is buried in Northview Cemetery in Dublin.

Jesse Baldwin, daughter of Sidney A. Baldwin and Mary Searcy Baldwin, was born on October 28, 1888.  Following the death of L.Q. Stubbs in 1933, Miss Baldwin was appointed as the first female Deputy Clerk and United States Commissioner of the Dublin Division of the Southern District of Georgia. Miss Baldwin died on April 26, 1977 and is buried in Northview Cemetery in Dublin.

In 1933, Sarah Orr Williams was beginning her 12th year as a secretary to a United States Senator from Georgia.  She began her career in Washington, D.C. as secretary to the legendary senator Thomas E. Watson.  Following Sen. Watson’s death in 1922, Gov. Thomas Hardwick, who would later move into a home a block south of Miss Orr’s home on Bellevue Avenue and South Calhoun St., appointed Watson’s close friend Mrs. Rebecca L. Felton to fill Watson’s unexpired term.  Senator Felton retained Sarah in her office making her the first secretary of the first female United States Senator in the history of the country.  A new election was held that fall and another legendary senator, Walter F. George, was elected to succeed Mrs. Felton.    Sarah Orr remained as Sen. George’s secretary until 1934, when Sen. George replaced her with his nephew.  Sarah Orr, daughter of former mayor and a leading Republican in Dublin, married Gladstone Williams, a writer for the Atlanta Constitution and other newspapers in Washington and Miami.   While working at the Atlanta Constitution, Gladstone became acquainted with Margaret Mitchell.  In writing her epic novel “Gone With the Wind,” Mitchell modeled her character of Rhett Butler after Williams, who also bore a slight resemblance to the actor Clarke Gable who played Rhett Butler in the movie version of the novel.    Known as a colorful character and treasured for her sharp wit, keen mind and undying loyalty to friends, Sarah Orr remained a volunteer for the American Red Cross, March of Dimes, American Cancer Society and numerous other charities.  During her years in Dublin, Sarah Orr was instantly recognized while wearing her trade mark hats and long cigarette holders.  She was an avid supporter of the Laurens County Historical Society and the Laurens County Library.    Among her lasting contributions to the heritage of our community were the articles she wrote on the waning historical places and sites in our area following the post World War II boom.   She died at the age of eighty-four on March 18, 1981 and is buried in Northview Cemetery.

One of Dublin’s most well known and respected teachers was Bertha Sheppard Hart.  Bertha Hart,  a daughter of M.M. Sheppard and Julian Caroline Page, was born in Johnson County on September 8, 1878 near Wrightsville.  Mrs. Hart was the wife of long time county agent John F. Hart.  The Harts moved to Laurens County in 1922.   In 1929, Mrs. Hart published “Introduction to Georgia Writers.”  In this definitive bibliography of the works of Georgia authors, Mrs. Hart sought to encourage her students and students across the state to strive to become great writers.   Her most famous work was as the editor of “The History of Laurens County, Georgia, 1807-1941.”    Mrs. Hart was a popular speaker to civic, patriotic and cultural organizations in addition to her years of devotion to teaching Sunday School at First Baptist Church.  Bertha Hart served a four-year term as President of the Woman’s Study Club as well as terms as Regent of the John Laurens Chapter, NSDAR and as an officer of the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.  She was a substitute librarian at the Carnegie Library and was named “First Lady of Dublin” by the Beta Sigma Phi sorority.  She died on April 18, 1949. Her ashes were buried beside her husband in Union Point Cemetery in Union Point, Georgia.  

The year 1933 was an especially gratifying year for Nella Braddy.  Born in Americus and reared in Macon and Dublin, Miss Braddy was one of the country’s most successful women writers and editors.  Miss Braddy was a daughter of Robert E. Braddy, Sr., a prolific writer of letters and articles in his own right.  Her brother, Robert E. Braddy, Jr., was an admiral in the United States Navy and was awarded the Navy Cross, the country’s second highest award for heroism.

Miss Braddy was educated at Wesleyan College, Converse College and Columbia University in New York.   She began teaching in Georgia public schools, but soon decided she would pursue a career in writing.   Nella went to work for Doubleday Publishing Company.  It was at Doubleday where she met her husband Keith Henney, a writer of radio text books and electronics magazine articles.  As an editor at Doubleday, Miss Braddy compiled and edited articles of some of the world’s most famous authors.  Among her landmark works are the “Standard Book of British and American Verse,” “O. Henryana,” “The University Library” series and the “New Concise Pictorial Encyclopedia.”  Though she was considered one of the country’s foremost female encyclopediasts, Braddy admitted she had a poor memory for facts.  

In the early 1930s, her bosses assigned her to a project that would change the course of Nella’s life forever.  Nella was charged with working with Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy in the compilation of Keller’s book “My Religion.”  Over the years the  trio worked closely writing the manuscript and gathering information for the book.  The three became intimate friends.  It was during this time that it occurred to Nella to write a biography not on the world famous Helen Keller, or her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy.  In 1933, Doubleday published “Anne Sullivan Macy, The Story Behind Helen Keller.”  The book received rave reviews from the New York Times and the leading literary critics of the day.  In appreciation for her friendship, Keller and Macy surprised Nella with a brand-new car, which she hesitantly accepted and didn’t know how to drive.   Miss Braddy continued to work with Helen Keller in various book projects.  In 1941, Nella Braddy authored “Rudyard Kipling, Son of Empire,” the most definitive biography of the British/Indian author.   Her “Reader’s Digest” article on Anne Sullivan Macy was considered one of the best in the magazine’s first quarter century.

Grace Warren Landrum, one of two daughters of the Rev. William Warren Landrum and Ida Dunster, often visited in Dublin at the home of her sister Mrs. Margaret Landrum Watkins. In 1912, Miss Landrum founded the Dublin Woman’s Study Club to promote the study of literature, art and music.   For the rest of her life, Miss Landrum maintained close ties to the Woman’s Study Club as an honorary member.  She was born July 18, 1876 in Providence, Rhode Island.  In 1898, she was the first Southern woman to graduate from Radcliffe College.  Miss Watkins began her teaching career at the Washington Seminary in Atlanta.  She taught at the Kentucky Home School for Girls in Louisville, Kentucky, before obtaining her A.M. Degree from the University of Chicago in 1915.  She was a Professor of English at Tennessee College in Murfreesboro and Head of the English Department at Westhampton College.  Grace Landrum was awarded a Ph. D. in English from Radcliffe in 1921.  From 1927 to 1947, Dr. Landrum was an English professor and Dean of Women at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1919, Miss Landrum published “Charlotte,” a biographical novel of one of her gifted students.  She was a member of the honor society Phi Beta Kappa and a prolific writer of journal articles on literature. Of her most enduring legacies at William and Mary was the establishment of the “Yule Log” ceremony at Christmas.   The Yule Log is carried through the crowed of students who each take a sprig of holly and touch the log and tossed the burning sprig into the Yule Log Fire,  symbolically tossing away their worries for the rest of the year.  Dr. Landrum’s original idea included the wearing of 18th Century costumes and the passing of a boar’s head throughout the crowd.  More enduring legacies at William and Mary are Landrum Hall and Landrum Drive named in Dr. Landrum’s honor and memory. After retiring from William and Mary, Dr. Landrum taught briefly at the University of Redlands in California.   Grace Warren Landrum died in Columbus, Ohio on April 21, 1951.  Always considered as an honorary citizen of Dublin, Miss Landrum was laid to rest beside her sister Margaret Landrum in Northview Cemetery.  

Mrs.  John S. Adams was one of the leading members of a large number of women’s patriotic organizations on the local, state and national levels.   Born Lucia Augusta Stanley on January 2, 1874, Mrs. Adams was a daughter of Capt. Rollin A. Stanley, C.S.A. and Rebecca Lowther.  She was a member of what was undoubtedly Laurens County’s most prominent family.  Her brother Harris McCall Stanley was the editor of the Dublin Courier-Dispatch, school board president, military officer, and founder of the Dublin Chautaugua and the Carnegie Library.  In 1911, he was elected Georgia’s first Commissioner of Commerce and Labor.  Another brother, Vivian L. Stanley,  worked in the newspaper business in Dublin.  A former postmaster of Dublin, Stanley was elected to the Georgia Prison Commission and played a pivotal role in the extradition of Robert Burns, whose story became immortalized in the book and the movie “I Was a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang.”  Her eldest brother was Ira Lowther Stanley.  Ira L. Stanley began his newspaper career with the Dublin Gazette.  He was one of the founders of the Dallas Evening Herald and other newspapers in Texas.   Frank R. Stanley, the fourth of her brothers to work in the newspaper business, was printer of the Gainesville News.

Mrs. Adams was called to join and lead nearly every patriotic women’s organization in Dublin.  She was the first president of the Thomas McCall Chapter of the Daughters of 1812.  Mrs. Adams was a Regent of the John Laurens Chapter NSDAR, state president of the Colonial Daughters of the 17th Century, state regent of the Daughters of 1812, President General of the Colonial Daughters of the 17th Century, and national Curator General of the Daughters of 1812.  She and her husband Judge John S. Adams lived in “Prences,” their home on Bellevue Road, which is now being restored by Lana and Allen Thomas.  She and her husband moved to Washington, D.C. in the mid 1930s when he took a position with the Treasury Department.   Judge and Mrs. Adams returned to Dublin when he took a position as the Referee in Bankruptcy for the Dublin Division of the Federal Court.   

There were other outstanding Dublin women in 1933 who are  too numerous to mention here. They will have their own place in other columns.  It was a year when actress Eugenia Rawls was beginning to step off the college stage toward the bright lights of Broadway.  It was a year when Madge Hilburn Methvin was one of the only female editors of a Georgia newspaper.  In a time when food was scarce to many people, Henrietta (Mrs. S.R.) Dull, the food editor of the Atlanta Constitution, was the country’s foremost expert on Southern cooking.    There were even more unsung women that never were afforded the credit of their enduring efforts.   The year was 1933,  the year of the women of Dublin.     

05-10

HENRIETTA STANLEY DULL

The Queen of Southern Cooking

Long before there was a Betty Crocker (actually she was a fictional person), Julia Child or Paula Deen (of Lady and Sons fame), there was Henrietta Stanley (Mrs. S.R.) Dull.  Trained in the art of true southern cooking by former slaves and forced into cooking as profession to support her family, Mrs. Dull was considered by the people of her day as the consummate Southern cook.  Her 1928 cook book “Southern Cooking” is still defined by current culinary connoisseurs as the Bible of southern cooking.

Henrietta Celeste Stanley was born on her family’s plantation near Chappell’s Mill in Laurens County, Georgia on December 6, 1863.  Her parents were Eli Stanley and Mary Brazeal. On her father’s side, Miss Stanley boasted a fine pedigree which included three colonial governors.  On her mother’s side of her family, she descended from Solomon Wood, who took an active part in exposing the Yazoo Fraud of 1795.

It was during her early years when she observed the Negro cooks who provided the daily meals for the Stanley family.    Born into a wealthy family which had the luxury of a variety of foods, Henrietta was said to have made a hobby of trying each dish she ever heard of by duplicating it from memory.    In her youth, the women of the house were charged with preparing three meals of day.    Leftovers were discarded or fed to pets and there was no such thing as refrigeration.   The ladies had to prepare many of the basic ingredients and condiments which we enjoy straight out of a box, jar or can today.  Henrietta and her family moved to Flowery Branch,  Georgia, where her father worked as a railroad station master.  At the age of 23, Henrietta married Samuel Rice Dull of Virginia.  The Dulls became the parents of six children.   

After a decade of marriage, Mr. Dull began to suffer from mental illnesses.  Mrs. Dull found herself in a seemingly overwhelming dilemma.   Forced into supporting her children and her ailing husband, Mrs. Dull did the only thing she knew how to do, and that was to cook.    Preparing cakes and sandwiches at first for the ladies of her church, Mrs. Dull soon began to sell a large variety of prepared foods out of her home.  What started as a way of making ends meet eventually became a successful and profitable venture. Widespread praises led to invitations to plan parties throughout the social circles.  

The owners of Atlanta Gas Light Company invited Mrs. Dull to initiate a program of home service to promote the sale and proper use of gas stoves.   She always compared a gas range to a husband by proclaiming “ you couldn’t get the best out of either until you learn how to manage them.” Though the theory of home service had been unsuccessful on previous occasions, Mrs. Dull rose to the occasion and championed the program.   During this time, Mrs. Dull was chosen to head the Home Economics Department at Bessie Tift College in Forsyth, Georgia.  She lent her expertise to establish and develop a Domestic Science Department at Girl’s High School of Atlanta and later a department for its night school. 

During World War I, Henrietta Dull served as a hostess in the Soldier’s Recreation House on Peachtree Street.  Affectionately known as “Mother Dull,” she was a mother and cook to more than fifty thousand dough boys.  Two of her sons, Samuel Rice Dull, Jr. and Ira Cornelius Dull, enlisted in the army.   Mrs. Dull believed it was her duty to comfort the boys and young men stationed at nearby Camp Gordon in hopes that some Christian mother would do the same for her boys, wherever they may be stationed.

Her success at Atlanta Gas Light led to an offer from the editors of the Sunday Atlanta Journal Magazine to write and edit the Home Economics page of the magazine section.  As with all of her previous efforts, Mrs. Dull became an instant success.  Her recipes were found in kitchens throughout Georgia.  Her cooking expertise soon spread throughout the South and led to invitations to make cooking demonstrations and conduct cooking schools as far north as Delaware.  It has been said that she was the pioneer of cooking schools in the South.  Requests for copies of her recipes led Mrs. Dull to contemplate compiling her recipes into a comprehensive guide to Southern cooking.

Mrs. Dull’s landmark work with its thirteen hundred recipes was simply titled “Southern Cooking.”  The 400-page book, which has sold more than a quarter of a million copies, was designed to be a practical guide to preparing dishes with items which were readily available in local groceries.   “Not once in the whole book will you discover that I had called for the use of an ingredient that any southern housewife can’t get by calling up the grocer,” Mrs. Dull said.    Mrs. Dull’s book emphasized the need for making cooking simple with easy to follow directions with exact measurements and cooking times.  In her youth, few recipes were put in writing.  Directions were often passed by word of mouth and the amount of ingredients were expressed in pinches, dabs and plenty.  “Southern Cooking” also features chapters on sample menus, including seasonal and formal selections, as well as chapters on food selection, table service and kitchen equipment.   Thirty five years after her book was published, Mrs. Dull was horrified to discover that she omitted a recipe for that staple of Southern cooking, collard greens.  Mrs. Dull’s book, which was dedicated to her friends, the women of Atlanta and the South,  was sold throughout the United States and seven different countries.   It is still a popular selection in old book stores and EBay. 

Mrs. Dull recalled a time when as a child she bribed the cook to allow her to make some corn pone.  For the rest of her life cornbread was still her favorite food (and mine too.)  “You can make it thick, ... thin...  with lacy edges that get deliciously brown. Oh, I do love corn bread!  I suppose I just love cooking,” Mrs.  Dull said.  Mrs. Dull didn’t even mind washing dishes because she figured out that washing them in cold water with little soap prevented “dish pan” hands.   Among her best tasting dishes were her angel food cakes, called “archangel cakes” to distinguish them from the run of the mill cakes.

After 20 years with the Atlanta Journal, Mrs. Dull retired in 1938.   That same year she was listed as one of the twelve most famous women in Georgia.  But she wasn’t through cooking.  For another twenty years and well into her nineties, Mrs. Dull enjoyed cooking for friends and family in times of celebration and in times of grieving. Henrietta Stanley Dull died on January 28, 1964 at the age of one hundred years.  Her life was described as one of unselfish service and outstanding achievements.   Her sweet disposition and charm endeared her to everyone with whom she came in contact.  She is buried in Westview Cemetery in Atlanta. 

05-11

THE RETURN OF THE GAS HOUSE GANG

It was unanimous.  The Lions Club voted to sponsor a return visit to the Dublin Homecoming Day.  This year's opponent would be the University of Georgia.  Dubliners were thrilled when it was announced that Dean would pitch in Dublin.  Dizzy Dean had become one of the most popular players in baseball.   The tall, amiable, and talented righthander drew a crowd everywhere he went.  During this period, his popularity was only equaled by Babe Ruth, although he was not very popular with opposing players because of his taunting and high self-esteem.    His career spanned 12 years from 1930 to 1941.  He had to retire because of arm problems.  Dean pitched only four innings during a comeback attempt in 1947.  In 1934 and 1935, he won 58 games and lost only 19. Despite his short career, he had 150 wins and a .644 winning percentage, one of the highest in history.   "Ole Diz" regained his popularity in the 1960's when he was the color man on the Yankees and Braves games.  Diz always had a funny story to tell.  He coined expressions such has "He slud into second" and "Powder River".  Dizzy's trademark was his bellowing rendition of "The Wabash Cannonball" in the late innings of the game.  Dizzy was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1953.  From 1932 to 1937, Diz was as good as any pitcher in baseball history. 

The Cardinals fielded a team with Hall of Famers; Joe Medwick, Frankie Frisch, Leo Durocher, and Jesse Haines. Joe Medwick, who held a .324 lifetime batting average (34th all time) and 540 doubles (12th all time).  Joe Medwick  was one of the best outfielders of 1930s and the NL MVP in 1937 and the last National Leaguer to win the Triple Crown.  Frankie Frisch was one of the better all around players in the 20s and 30s.  He was a member of eight NL World Series teams - more than any other player, a .300 hitter thirteen times, a scorer of 100 runs seven times, 1931 NL MVP, a lifetime .316 hitter, and 25th on the all time hit list with 2880.  Jesse "Pop" Haines, the elder member of the team at 42,  threw his knuckleball for 210 wins and 209 complete games.  In the days before the Cy Young Award, he might have won the Best Pitcher Award in 1927, leading the league in complete games and shutouts and second in wins and winning percentage.   Leo Durocher was one of the most famous and colorful managers in baseball history.  Pepper Martin was one of the most speedy, colorful and hustling players in the thirties.  They joined Jimmy "Ripper" Collins, a .300+ hitter four times and NL Homerun Champ in 1934; Paul "Daffy" Dean, 1934 Rookie of the Year;  and Spud Davis, a steady .308 hitter who has the 3rd highest lifetime batting average for a catcher, to round out the team. 

     The Cardinals arrived in town on April 2, 1935 at 9:00 a.m. in three Pullman cars from Bradenton, Florida.  Paul Dean had lost a close game to Yankee great Lefty Gomez the day before.  They went to the Fred Roberts Hotel on Academy Avenue to check into their rooms.  Dizzy, Paul, and Player/Mgr. Frisch were whisked off to the school auditorium up on the hill where the City Hall now stands. Dizzy, speaking first, told the house packed with youngsters and fans, "If you want to be a baseball star like some of the Cardinals, don't smoke or drink."   Daffy shyly rose to speak.  He grabbed the attention of the admiring kids when he told them, " I want to say that you should get all the education you can.  I never had the chance to get an education myself, but if you ever want to become anything, to get somewhere, you better get all the education you can." Paul had said this many times before.  As Paul returned to his seat, he looked to Dizzy for approval.  The crowd signaled its approval with a tremendous roar. 

     As the Deans were walking back to the hotel they were followed by hundreds of kids, Frankie Frisch, and Bobby Norris of the Macon Telegraph.  Paul said, "You know, I've had to do that fifty times I guess.  Sometimes I think it gets monotonous, but every time I get up before a bunch of kids like that, and they applaud, it gives me goose pimples."  Dizzy nodded in approval.  Dizzy and Paul signed well over a thousand autographs that day.  The popular Frankie Frisch only signed a few dozen, mostly when the Deans weren't around. 

     Dizzy and Paul slipped off into the lounge to get a rest before lunch.  They sat down with Jesse Haines and Burgess Whitehead for a game of Bridge.  The upcoming year was the topic of conversation.  Dizzy was worried about the Giants while shuffling the cards.  The old veteran Haines asked Dizzy, "Diz, are you going to rub the spots off those cards?"  Diz stared at Haines and dealt the next hand.   After a few hands, Dizzy walked around town and finally admitted he would be happy to win 23 games this year. 

     The weather was perfect!  By noon, the 3000 seats were crammed.  Another 3000 fans walled the outfield fences.  The Cardinals took the field with Dizzy Dean on the mound.  The Bulldogs were coached by former Lanier High School and University of Georgia Football Star, Vernon "Catfish" Smith.   His assistant actually coached the team that day.  Dean struck out Jimmy Moore. Ennis singled through Pepper Martin's legs.  E.J. Moore flied out to center and Andy Anderson struck out to end the inning.  Pepper Martin led off with a 373 foot double off the left field fence.  Frankie Frisch singled, scoring Martin.  Rip Collins then followed with a ground rule double into the crowd, scoring Frisch.  Martin doubled off the wall again but failed to score in the 2nd inning.  Five singles by Frisch, Medwick, Collins, Durocher, and Dean led to three runs in the third inning. Three successive doubles by Frisch, Medwick, and Collins accounted for four more runs in the 4th inning. 

     Dean lasted until the 5th inning when he gave up three runs and ran his hit total to seven.  Dizzy was probably drained from all the pre-game excitement.  Ed Heusser came in and finished the game.  Bishop relieved  Bulldog pitcher Nichols in the 5th.  The Cardinals picked up two runs in the 8th when Wilson and Worthington doubled and scored.  The Bulldogs picked up one run in the 8th and 9th innings.  The final score was Cardinals 11, Bulldogs 5.  

     The game also had its humorous moments.  The base umpire Bill Delancey, a Cardinal back up catcher, swung at Dizzy.  A couple of the Cardinals ran to his defense pretending to knock the umpire flat on his back.  One of Dizzy's teammates threw a cup of water on him after he got "dizzy" over a bad play. One fan, dressed in a hunter's green suit, hat, and suede shoes stood out even more with his lavender shirt.  Some men could hardly keep their eyes on the game for the hundreds of pretty girls.  Former Dublin dignitaries such as Tom Linder, Agricultural Commissioner; Hal Stanley, Prison Commissioner; Vivian Stanley, Secretary of Commerce; and Peter Twitty, Game and Fish Commissioner, were in attendance. 

     The excitement didn't end after the game.  Kids by the hundreds followed the teams back to the Fred Roberts Hotel  to wait on the Cardinals to come down and autograph balls, cards, and other items.  A local man, Tom Pritchett, was asked if he was a ball player.  He nodded yes and signed over a dozen times in the presence of an amused Clarence Carroll and Cicero Walker.  The Boy Scouts served as "Gophers" for the players.  Jule Greene ran errands for Dizzy Dean.  One little boy asked a man, "Are you Dizzy or Daffy?"  The man sent the boy away by saying, "I may be a little dizzy and daffy, but I'm not of the Dean variety." 

     The teams were entertained that night with an informal dance at the Country Club.  After a good night's rest, the Bulldogs returned to Athens and the Cardinals headed west for another season.  Well, most of the Cardinals had a good night's rest.  Ole Diz really enjoyed himself at the dance.  Diz slipped off with some locals to Frank's Place, which was located on the site of the Oaks Shopping center, for some stronger refreshments.   According to "Time" Magazine, Dizzy missed the train the next morning, drawing a $100.00 fine.  Not to be outdone, Dizzy announced his retirement after the season.  The Cardinals finished second that year, four games  behind the Chicago Cubs.  Dizzy won 28 games and led the league in strikeouts while Daffy gathered 19 wins.  Joe Medwick finished near the top of the league with a batting average of .353.   Ripper Collins had one of his best seasons, batting .313 with 23 home runs and 122 runs batted in. 

05-12

BERT GREENE

The Rise and Fall of a Middle Georgia Golfer

Bert Greene was a pretty fair golfer in his day.  At the age of eight, he was beating some of the duffers at the Dublin Country Club.  Forty years ago Greene was in his prime as one the leading collegiate golfers of the Southeastern Conference.  Ten years later his PGA career vanished as a result of a freak career ending injury.

Charles “Bert” Greene was born in Gray, Georgia on February 11, 1944.    He took up golf at the age of four.  In 1950, Bert’s father, Herb Greene, was hired to be the club pro at the Dublin Country Club.  Growing up around golf and being the son of a pretty good golfer, Bert was destined to excel on the links.  In his days in Dublin the elementary school student outscored several grown men when he finished atop the 2nd flight.   The Greenes left Dublin for Jacksonville, Florida for a short time before returning to the Middle Georgia area where Herb worked on golf courses in Eastman, Douglas and Cochran.  Bert’s sister Barbara also followed in their father’s footsteps and played for a time on the LPGA tour.

In 1961, Bert, playing for Dodge County High School,  won the Georgia AA state championship by nine strokes with a two straight sub-par round total of 136.  Later that summer, he captured the Georgia Jaycee’s Jr. Championship.  The following year, the Dodge County golfer won the 17-18 year old bracket of the Future Masters of Golf with a three round score of 210.  Greene was awarded a full scholarship to play for the University of Tennessee golf team in 1963. That same year Bert was the Tennessee Amateur Golf champion.  In 1964, Bert won the individual championship in the Southeastern Conference and garnered All American honors that year as well as his junior season in 1965.     Bert played as an amateur in his first U.S. Open in June 1965, but failed to make the cut. 

Greene’s first appearance in the Master’s Golf Tournament in Augusta came as an amateur thirty-nine years ago this week in 1966.  He qualified for the tournament by finishing in the top eight of the previous year’s national amateur tournament.  In his first practice round,  he posted a 71 with birdies on 13, 14 and 16 with a 20 foot eagle birdie put on the 15th hole.  Bert missed the cut after decent opening rounds of 80 and 77.  In the fall of 1966, Bert decided to turn pro.  He attended a tour school but needed a sponsor to pay the bills of entrance fees, travel expenses and lodging.  Two men in the beverage business signed on to sponsor the up and coming golfer.    Greene started out strong in the opening round of 1967 Los Angeles open.  He was among the third round leaders of the ‘67 Tuscon Open but fell back to a distant and even par behind Arnold Palmer, the tournament winner. But after a disappointing rookie year when he brought home only $1,702.57 in winnings, Bert was left without a sponsor. 

Buck White, a former golf pro, saw a lot of potential in the tall, slim and blonde fellow Tennessee golfer.  He convinced an eclectic group of investors to sponsor Bert for the 1968 seasons.  The group included a Florida housewife, a lawyer, dean of a Quaker school in Garden City, N.Y., a toy merchandiser and a mysterious man with a funny sounding name.  In March 1968, Greene once again soared to the top of the 3rd round leader board.  Following an outstanding start, Greene was in 8th place, seven strokes off the lead, six ahead of Jack Nicklaus and nine strokes ahead of Lee Trevino.   In The Dural Open, just as he had done a year earlier in Tuscon, Greene fell off the leader board following a poor fourth round.   A highlight of the year 1968 came in Minnesota when Bert, listed as playing out of Union Point, Ga., scored a hole in one in the Minnesota Golf Classic.  

Bert’s fortunes turned for the better in 1969.    After participating in the U.S. Open, Bert finished 11th in the Kaiser Open ahead of golfing legends Hale Irwin and Sam Snead.  He was an early leader in the American Golf Classic and the Buick Open.  His best tournament of the year came in the Westchester Classic. After blistering rounds in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, Greene drew within one stroke of the leader in the final round.  Going for the green in two, his ball found the trap.  Still in contention, he missed a putt, which cost him $20,000.00 and his first tour victory.   Bert had a great outing when he finished 4th in the Greater Hartford Open on Labor Day weekend.  He finished the year 23rd on the money list with $56,878.00 in winnings.

Bert returned to Augusta National in 1970 on an ominous note.  During the practice round, one errant shot landed in an empty lunch box.    He finished 12th in  the tournament with a highly respectable even par four round total of 288.  Two weeks later, Bert finished 5th in the Tallahassee Open. He continued to play well during the spring, finishing 3rd in the Houston Championship and 13th in the Atlantic Golf Classic.   In one of his first professional victories, Bert captured the Brazilian Open title in June.  Fighting bursitis throughout the summer, the lanky power golfer was the first round leader of the Green Island tournament before falling to an 8th place final finish.

Greene got off to a good early start when he placed atop the leader board in the 1971 Glen Campbell Open.  A second victory on foreign soil came in the Lagostas in Bogota, Columbia in February.    For the second straight year, he finished 12th in the Masters.  Among his better tournaments that year were the Atlanta Golf Classic and the Kemper and Colonial Opens where he was  among the early leaders.  His best finish came in the Western Open when he placed 6th.     

The year 1972 proved to be a turning point for Bert.  He only managed to finish 32nd in the Masters, though he finished ahead of Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino.  His best finish came with  top ten finishes in the Houston and Greater Milwaukee Opens and a sixth place finish in the Colonial.  His career nearly came to an end in the fall  when during a round of golf, Bert became frustrated with a bad shot, slammed his club into his golf bag, and caused a pistol inside his bag to discharge.  The bullet struck Greene in the foot nearly ending his golf career.

Six years of traveling all over the country playing hundreds of rounds of golf finally paid off for Bert Greene in 1973.  Bert finished 5th in the Byron Nelson Tournament in April and the BC Open. In September, he finished 12th in the Heritage Golf Classic.  But in was in Raleigh, North Carolina when finally Bert won his first PGA Tournament.   After four rounds of regulation play, Bert was in first place in the L&M Open with a score of 68-73-67-70 (278) when on the last hole, Miller Barber sunk a 40 foot putt to force a playoff.  On the 5th playoff hole, Bert sunk a twenty-foot twenty-thousand dollar putt to cinch his first tour victory. Back at home in Dexter, Georgia, where his father was the golf pro at Green Acres Country Club,  his parents Bert and Kathryn were ecstatic.    Just before the tournament, Bert spent a few days for rest and relaxation.   “For the first time in his pro career, the pressure is off,” his father said. 

But things didn’t get better for Bert.  A wrist injury signaled the end of his once promising career.  He finished last in the first round of ‘74 Masters and missed the cut.  Two weeks later he rebounded  with a 21st place finish in the Tournament of Champions.  His one highlight came when he shot a 67 and was one stroke off the lead of the World Golf Open at Pinehurst in September.    In that same tournament  a year later, he finished 53rd and took home only $476.00 in prize money.    It was one of his last tournaments as a touring professional.

After leaving the tour, Bert Greene became a Mississippi state trooper.  For nearly two decades Bert Greene almost abandoned the game which brought him fame and enjoyment, playing an average of only three rounds a year.    He was the first PGA tour victor ever to regain his amateur status.  At the age of fifty, Bert attempted to join the Senior Tour.  He missed the cut and decided to permanently retire to enjoy the things he loved the most, his family and fishing.  When asked if he had any regrets, he told a reporter, “ I have no regrets.  I knock on wood because I have two great kids and a grand boy, Jacob.”

05-13

EUGENE COOK

Georgia’s Lawyer

If he was still alive, Eugene “Gene” Cook would be one hundred and one years old today.  From the mid 1940s through the mid 1960s, Gene Cook served as the Attorney General of the State of Georgia.  His twenty years as Georgia’s lawyer exceeds all of the terms of his predecessors and successors.  As the Attorney General, Cook was called upon to advise the governor and the legislature on many of the divisive issues in Georgia’s history.

Julian Eugene Cook was born on April 12, 1904 in Wrightsville, Georgia.  The son of James Monroe Cook and Ida Preston, Gene attended the public schools of Wrightsville.  He entered Mercer University in Macon, where he was the editor of the school annual, the Mercerian.  While at Mercer, he was President of the Junior class and a member of the Phi Kappa and Blue Key honorary societies.    Following his graduation, Cook was accepted into the university’s law school, from which he graduated in 1927 with first honors.

Eugene Cook returned to his native Wrightsville, where he entered the practice of law.   In 1932, he was easily elected over William Pope as Solicitor of the City Court of Wrightsville.  As solicitor, Cook prosecuted misdemeanor cases in what was actually a state court.    After serving a four-year term as solicitor, Cook served a four year term as Judge of the City Court of Wrightsville.  

Gene Cook launched a campaign for the post of Solicitor General of the Superior Court of the Dublin Judicial Circuit. After easily defeating W.W. Larsen, Jr. in the Democratic primary in 1940,   Cook took office on New Year’s Day in 1941.  Since the seat of the circuit was in Dublin, Cook moved to his new home on Woodrow Street.    During the first two years of World War II,   Cook prosecuted cases in Laurens, Johnson, Treutlen and Twiggs counties.  On February 18, 1943, Cook took office as the Revenue Commissioner of Georgia under an appointment from Gov. Ellis Arnall following a reorganization of the department.

Eugene Cook had withdrawn from the 1942 Attorney General’s race but realized his dream of becoming the top lawyer in Georgia, when on March 18, 1945, he was appointed to the post by Gov. Arnall.  Attorney General Cook found himself mired in the middle of one of Georgia’s most explosive political controversies.  The iconic Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge was elected to the office of Governor in the 1946 general election, but died before he could take office.  Three men claimed the right to hold the vacant office of governor.  Ellis Arnall, the retiring governor, claimed that he should remain in office until a new election could be held.  M.E. Thompson, the victor in the race for Lieutenant Governor, claimed that since the office of the governor was vacant, he was the rightful holder of the office.    Gov. Talmadge’s son Herman claimed that it was his inherent right to succeed his father in office.  As the state’s legal advisor, Cook was called upon to render an opinion as to whom should be governor.  He ruled in favor of Arnall, who had appointed him to the post nearly two years earlier.  After weeks of debate in the halls of the legislature, newspapers throughout the state and at the bench of the Supreme Court of Georgia, M.E. Thompson was declared to be the rightful occupant of the position as governor.  Though Cook and Talmadge were bitter enemies at the time, they later became good friends until Cook’s death.

The most electrifying legal issue of the 1950s was the desegregation of public schools in the South.   Though he led the fight to eliminate the KKK in Georgia, Cook, a self described political moderate, was a fierce opponent of integration of schools and other public facilities.   As Attorney General of Georgia and in accordance with the prevailing policy of the state, Cook joined other attorneys general of the southern states in opposition to the position of the court in the landmark case of Brown vs. the Board of Education.  In 1957, he ruled that President Eisenhower’s use of Federal troops in integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas was constitutionally void.  His opinion led to a resolution of the Georgia legislature condemning the act.    In the early 1960s, Cook engaged in a pivotal ruling in representing the State of Georgia against the rights of black students to integrate the University of Georgia.

In addition to his service to the state, Gene Cook was an active member of the Lions Clubs of Georgia, serving as a District Governor of District 18-B from 1939 to 1940.  He was also a leader in the Boy Scouts.  A member of the Baptist Church, he served on the Board of Directors of his alma mater, Mercer University, as well as Brewton Parker University near his hometown.   Cook was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention on three occasions and never lost a political contest.  He was appointed as an honorary citizen of Texas, Mayor of San Antonio and a Kentucky Colonel.  In 1954, Cook served as president of the National Association of Attorneys General of the United States.  

In one of his last most notable acts as Attorney General, Cook sided with most states in opposing the Federal court’s decision to provide, at  state expense, funds for indigent defendants in the 1963 case of Gideon vs. Wainwright.

On June 14, 1965, Cook, the dean of the nation’s state attorneys general, was appointed to a vacancy on the Bench of the Supreme Court of Georgia by Gov. Carl Sanders.  On the day of his swearing in, Cook began hearing cases vital to the people and government of Georgia.  Upon taking office, Cook became the first Johnson and Laurens Countian to hold the office of Attorney General and the Supreme Court of Georgia.  Eugene Cook was the last of only six Georgians to hold both positions.  Cook succeeded Justice Grady Head, whom he also succeeded as Attorney General. 

Among his appointments as Assistant Attorneys General were Marmaduke Hardeman Blackshear of Dublin and Rubye Jackson of Brewton.    Jackson was the first female to serve as an Assistant Attorney General.

Just two days after his 63rd birthday in 1967, Justice Cook, despondent over the loneliness following the death of his wife a few months earlier, ended his life with a self inflicted gun shot wounds.  His birthday presents were found nearby.  He was eulogized by his friends and former political foes as a great public servant of Georgia.  Gov. Carl Sanders told reporters, “Gene Cook was one of the finest, most able and dedicated public servants that I have ever known.  He was one of the kindest and finest men I knew.”  Eugene Cook was buried in Westview Cemetery in Atlanta.

05-14

BUTCHERY AND GORE IN BALTIMORE

A Case of Untenable Uxoricide

You may ask yourself, Why write an article on East Central Georgia with a headline like this?”   Fifty six years ago this week, a former Dublin woman was murdered and brutally dismembered by her estranged full- time employer and part- time lover.  The untenable uxoricide, described as the most fiendish murder  in the history of Baltimore, made headlines throughout the nation. While all too many such murderers are still haunting our country,   it is important to note that in the last few years before World War II murder was much more common than it is today.  Warning! The faint of heart should stop reading now.

Evelyn Byrd New Rice, a former wife of William Brooks Rice, Sr. of Dublin, was a pretty, petite, auburn-haired, brown-eyed mother of two.  Following the couple’s divorce, her husband was awarded custody of their children, Brooks and Jack.  She was last seen in Dublin in January 1938.  Mrs. Rice was married to Robert Finney for several years before the couple parted while Finney was stationed at Fort Screven at Tybee Island.    Mrs. Finney changed her name back to Evelyn Rice and moved to Baltimore to find work. Though she never saw Finney again, Evelyn remained in contact with Rice and her two sons.

Evelyn Byrd New Rice began working as a mind reader and finally  as a bar maid in the East Baltimore bar of Italian immigrant Marcus “Marco” Aurelio Tarquinio.  Tarquinio immigrated to America and joined the Army Corps of Engineers in World War I.    He worked as a tong runner in the Sparrows Point plant of Bethlehem Steel.  In 1937, he opened a bar.  Marco invited Evelyn to move in with him and keep his house.  The couple argued bitterly and regularly.  A neighbor, Mrs.  Nizidek urged Evelyn to leave town and return to Georgia to be closer to her children.   In the months before her death, Evelyn wrote Brooks that she was afraid of Marco.  

The conflicts between Evelyn and Marco occurred more frequently and became even more vehement.  Marco began to lock Evelyn in a room before leaving the house.  Around midnight of April 14, 1939, the couple got into one of a series of bitter arguments.  Neighbor Frank Peterson heard the fussing from his next door house.  Peterson later told police that they argued for about two hours.  “I heard Evelyn scream and then she stopped.   I didn’t hear anymore so I went to sleep. ” Peterson said.  A few days later Peterson asked Marco about Evelyn’s whereabouts.  Marco said, “Evelyn’s gone again.”  Peterson responded, “Where?”  “Aw, she‘s got plenty of friends, and she’s been all over eighteen states,” Marco declared.

It was almost dark the following night  when nine-year-old Nicholas Kemper climbed down into a Lombard Street sewer to retrieve his rubber ball.  As he was scanning the floor of the dark and filthy sewer, Nicholas noticed a bundle of newspapers.  Upon a closer examination, the boy discovered a hand protruding from the comic section.   “It’s a hand down here!  It’s a hand,” exclaimed Nicholas. 

   

The grocer on the corner heard the boy’s screams and summoned the police. Patrolman Paulk climbed down into the hole and found a second bundle, this one containing one of Evelyn’s lower legs.   An all out search was instituted in the sewers about a block from the Tarquinio home.  Throngs of curiosity seekers and volunteer searchers swarmed the site at the intersection of Lombard and Chapel Streets.  Joe Wosk and Jack Bernsein found a right foot and the other lower leg in a sewer a block away.     Searchers found her internal organs carefully wrapped in recent newspapers as if they had just been purchased from the local meat market.  Evelyn’s blood stained lounging pajamas were discovered in  yet another location the following day.  Two days after that, an arm was found cater-cornered from the site of the initial gruesome discovery.  A hospital worker found two-thirds of her torso in a dump next to the Baltimore city hospital.   In the case dubbed “The Torso Murder,” police found the victim of the crime before they knew that she was missing from her home. 

A couple of days later,   Marco went to the East Baltimore police precinct to report  Evelyn’s disappearance.   Suspicious of Marco’s culpability in the matter, the police chief sent a couple of men to shadow the barkeeper.   At first, the police conducted a vigorous investigation, but the search soon waned after hundreds of tips from a horde of drunks, eccentrics and amateur sleuths failed to lead police to any clues as to Evelyn’s location.

The Baltimore police arrested Tarquinio on suspicion of murder.    The suspect was interrogated for more than six hours before he confessed to the heinous murder.  Tarquinio told police that the couple had argued mostly over her drinking and other men as they always did.  He admitted that in the heat of the moment he struck Evelyn and that she fell down the stairs into the basement to her death.  The police conducted a search and surmised that Tarquinio panicked and took Evelyn’s body down into the basement, where he methodically  dissected it and scattered her remains throughout the neighborhood sewers.  The most damning and readily identifiable evidence against Tarquinio was discovered just outside the basement door in a small back yard garden.  Eighteen inches below a  bed of newly blooming tulips and beneath a slab of concrete was the head of the former Peach Festival beauty queen.   The walls of the Tarquinio back yard were lined with onlookers hoping to get a glance of yet another decaying part of Evelyn’s body.  Peering over the fence, Frank Peterson watched police as they excavated Evelyn’s head from the flower bed.  He cried out, “That’s Evelyn.”    Buried beside the tulip bulbs were her two upper arms, two upper thighs and the remainder of her torso.  When police presented the suspect with a typed summary of his confession, he recanted his story and denied any knowledge of the details of his former lover’s murder.  Police gathered Evelyn’s remains in a tub and presented them to Marco.  When questioned as to identity of the mutilated corpse, he responded, “That’s Evelyn, Evelyn Rice.”   

Tarquinio was indicted, tried and convicted of the murder of Evelyn Rice.  The State of Maryland demanded the death penalty, but the court sentenced him to life in prison.  For some inexplicable reason, the convicted wife killer was paroled after serving only fifteen years in prison.   He vanished from the community, but according to the terms of parole, he remained in contact with his parole officer, who found him to be a gentle man who adhered to the terms of his parole.

Evelyn’s body was cremated and her ashes were buried in the family plot in Americus.  Her right hand was never found.

05-15

WHEN JOHNNY CAME MARCHING HOME

“The old church bells will peal with joy, Hurrah! Hurrah! To welcome home our darling boy, Hurrah! Hurrah!  The village lads and lassies say with roses they will strew the way, and we’ll all feel gay, when Johnny comes marching home!”                Patrick S. Gilmore, 1863.

Battered, bruised and broken, the scattered remnants of a once mighty legion of Southern men and boys crawled back home to try to rebuild their lives and their communities.  On this the 140th anniversary of the end of the Civil War or the War Between the States, as some frivolously termed as the “Late Great Unpleasantness,” I will focus on some of the mere boys who returned from the war to lead productive lives within their communities.  While underage men were generally assigned to duties in local and state militia, many young boys, sixteen years of age and under, fought for the homes and communities in a war like all other wars, those which are started by men and fought by boys.  

Green V. Jenkins, a son of James J. and Lucinda Jenkins,  was born in Laurens County on January 27, 1848.  His brothers Isaac, Littleton, and George W. fought in the Civil War.  The oldest brother, Isaac, died in Richmond, Virginia on December 15, 1862.  Corp. Littleton Jenkins was captured at Spotsylvania Court House, Va., on May 12, 1864.  Corp. Jenkins was taken to Elmira Prison in New York. George Jenkins was wounded and disabled at Mechanicsville, Va. on June 26, 1862.  Green, the baby brother, was ready to fight for Georgia.  In 1864, at the age of sixteen, Green Jenkins enlisted in a reserve unit of the Confederate Army. He saw service in Georgia and South Carolina during the last year of the war.  During that time, he was sent to duty at Camp Sumpter in Andersonville, Georgia.  Green Jenkins was very proud of the many years which he spent as a Deacon of Bethsaida Baptist Church.  

In July 1938, Mr. Jenkins, attended the Blue-Gray Reunion in Gettysburg, Pa., on the 75th anniversary of that monumental battle.  Only two and one half months later, on September 26, 1938, Green Jenkins died at the age of 90.  He was the last surviving veteran of the Confederate Army in Laurens County, "The Last Boy in Gray."  Jenkins was buried in the cemetery at Bethsaida Church, next to his wife who predeceased him by ten years.  

The next to the last Laurens County Confederate veteran was John W. Green, who was seventeen when he enlisted in Co. H, 63rd Ga. Inf. in May 1862.  He was wounded at Rock Face Mountain and spent the remainder of the war at his home near the future site of Dexter, which he helped to develop.  A prominent Baptist minister, Rev. Green died on September 25, 1937 at the age of 92.

While Green V. Jenkins was the last surviving veteran of the Confederate Army in Laurens County, the last surviving Laurens Countian who served in the Confederate Army was Andrew Coleman Sanders.  Sanders was born in Laurens County on Feb. 20, 1847, the youngest son of Coleman and Emily Hudson Darsey Sanders.  The Sanders family moved to Calhoun County in Southwest Georgia before the Civil War.  The fifteen-year-old Sanders enlisted in Company D, "The Calhoun Rifles" of the 12th Georgia Infantry, on December 9, 1862.  Sanders survived the horrific Battle of Gettysburg, endured the siege of Petersburg, and limped into Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.  At the age of ninety, Sanders realized his dream of returning to Gettysburg for the 75th Reunion.  On December 17, 1939, just five days before his 70th wedding anniversary, Private Sanders joined his comrades in arms.  Sanders, the last veteran in Calhoun County, was buried in Mars Hill Cemetery. 

William F. Geffcken was born on September 17, 1848.    At the age of 13 years and six months, Geffcken enlisted in the “Coast Rifles” in Chatham County and served for the remainder of the war.  Geffcken Street in the southern section of Dublin is named in his memory.  Fourteen-year-old Samuel Fleetwood enlisted in Co. B of the 57th Ga. Infantry in May 1862.  He died relatively young but lived a productive life in the Mt. Carmel Community near Dexter.  

At least a baker’s dozen 15-year-olds from Laurens County served in the war.  On October 13, 1861, just ten days beyond his fifteenth birthday, William A. Witherington enlisted in Co. C, 2nd Reg., 1st Bgde., Georgia State Troops.  The company became Co. C of the 57th Ga. Infantry.  He survived the near annihilation of his regiment at Champion’s Hill.   As Fifth Sergeant, the 18-year-old Witherington led his company’s charge in the first hours of the Battle of Atlanta in July 1864.  Sgt. Witherington remained in the service until the surrender of the Army of the Tennessee on  April 26, 1865.    Witherington returned home and lived in the Dexter community, where he became a leading citizen. Robert F. Rozar enlisted in Co. G of the 49th Georgia Infantry in May 1862.  After fighting in most of the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862, he was discharged from the service for being under age.  

The last Laurens County man born who served in the war was Gideon B. Towns. Born on Dec. 23, 1848, Towns enlisted in “The Telfair Volunteers,” Co. B., 49th Ga. in March 22, 1864 at the age of 15. William H. Mullis nearly made it through the war unscathed until six days before the end of fighting when he was captured and taken as a prisoner of war for nearly three months.  Dudley Keen suffered a wound at Kennesaw Mountain just a month before his 18th birthday, and after 25 months of service.   James L. Linder served in the Georgia Militia before his 16th birthday and after the war became one of Laurens County’s leading physicians.  William Kea, who four decades later would become a popular Laurens County Commissioner from the east side of the river, served all four years of the war.  

W.A. Jones served the entire war with Co. B, 57th Ga. Infantry, except for a short time when he was taken prisoner after the fall of Vicksburg.  William S. Graham enlisted in the 1st Bgde. of the State Troops in 1861.  Fourth Sergeant Graham served for the duration of the war, including the siege of Vicksburg and Battle of Atlanta.  Among the others in the middle of their second decade of life were: John W. Raffield, J.I. Mathis, Thomas A. Smith, W.A. Jones, William J. Jones and Thomas D. Currell. 

As a sixteen-year-old, James T. McDaniel was ready to fight and to die for the Confederacy.  As a battle-hardened veteran of the Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, the Wilderness and Cold Harbor, McDaniel grew weary of war, left his command and took the oath of allegiance to the United States in the summer of 1864. A year after his enlistment, 17-year-old Robert Dixon was wounded in his hip during the campaign for Vicksburg.  John Floyd Thomas was wounded at Chancellorsville in May 1862 and again at Spotsylvania C.H. two years later.  He was taken prisoner and spent most of the rest of his teen-age years in a Union prison  W.J. Thomas lost his right eye when he was struck by a mini ball at Deep Bottom, Va. during the long siege of Petersburg.  Among the 16-year-olds from Laurens County who served in the Confederate Army were Thomas R. Windham, J.P. Scarborough, Henry T. Jones, S.K. Passmore, Henry E. Moorman, John Brown Jones, Starkey Daniel and H.H. Wynn.

Soldiers on both sides of the war rapidly developed a fondness for the upbeat and optimistic song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”  While few  of the survivors of the bloodiest war in American history actually  marched home in gaiety (they hobbled and struggled all the way back),  all of the young Laurens County boys who left their school books and playgrounds behind to whip the Yankees returned alive. Hurrah! Hurrah!    

05-16

THE ONLY TOWN IN GEORGIA THAT’S DOUBLIN’ ALL THE TIME

Dublin’s Building Boom of 1905

There was once a saying in Dublin that Dublin, Georgia was “the only city in Georgia that’s doublin’ all the time.”  The city’s boosters boasted the rapid growth of the Emerald City, whose population grew from a few hundred in 1880 to several thousand by the end of the first decade of the Twentieth Century.  A century ago, the city was growing by leaps and bounds as it became one of the top twelve population centers in Georgia.

When the mortar between the bricks of the Carnegie Library was just barely dry, plans were being made to upgrade other public and private buildings within the city.   Dublin’s City Hall, an unpretentious two-story building at the western end of town, was not in keeping with the new metropolitan spirit sweeping the community.  The city council chose the former Hilton Hotel across from the courthouse on the northern side of the square for a more appropriate facility.  The new building was actually a remodeling of an old hotel built by G.S. Hooks, first known as the “Hooks House.”  In keeping with the tradition of the times, hotels were named after their operators.  The hotel, which bore a strong resemblance to a fortress with Spanish influences,  was later named the “Hilton Hotel” for its owner Attys P. Hilton, making it one of the first, if not the first, Hilton Hotels in America.  

On the first floor were offices of the Chief of Police, the Clerk of Council, the city electrician, the fire department, the city physician, and six five by ten feet jail cells.  The second floor contained the  Mayor’s office, the city council chamber, fireman’s quarters, and a 2100 sq. ft. courtroom with a sloping floor.    Atop the building was a fire bell.    The city was divided into four quadrants.  When a call came into the fire department, a fireman quickly ascertained in which quadrant the fire was located. Someone ascended to the roof and signaled the town by a corresponding number of rings.  The alarm being sounded, nearly everyone rushed to the scene.  Usually there was always someone first on the scene who climbed on the roof and began chopping holes.  Not realizing the folly of their good-hearted efforts, the holes accelerated the flames, resulting in a motto being penned on the fire department, “we never lose a chimney.”   The building was used until the late 1950s when the City Hall was moved to its present location.  The old building was razed for a parking lot for county employees.

Across the courthouse square on the site of still another county parking lot was the Laurens County Jail.  Built sometime in the late 1800s, the hoosegow became unfit even for the most depraved fiends.  Local Methodist minister and part time architect George C. Thompson was hired to superintend the work.  The jail was one story high with thirteen two-man cells placed one over another.  There was one separate cell for women with a separate bath room.  On the upper row of cells was a special cell reserved for those who were condemned to hang.  In order to facilitate their executions, no longer held in public after John Robinson’s hanging in 1901, prisoners were placed on a trap door that was dropped as a reminder to those in adjoining cells of a similar fate if they committed a capital offense.    The jailor’s residence was placed above the jail.  New columns were placed on the portico and the roof line was improved.  The jail was used by the county until 1963 when the current courthouse was completed.

While the members of the First Baptist Church were still formulating plans to build a new church, the members of the Christian Church hired A.C. Bruce of Atlanta to design their first church on the corner of North Jefferson and East Gaines Streets (now the site of the offices of Jefferson Street Baptist Church).  The 57 foot by 65 foot eight thousand dollar stone building featured a tower on the front right corner with entrances on both streets.  In the rear of the church were the Sunday school rooms, parlor, pastor’s study and dressing rooms.  The Sunday school rooms could be opened into the sanctuary, increasing its capacity  to seven hundred people.  The beautiful structure was used until the late 1950s until it was torn down for the location of First Federal Savings and Loan Association.

Rev. George C. Thompson was busy in 1905.  With the aid of his two new assistants, S.M.  Golden of New York and Arthur Smith of LaGrange, Thompson was hired to design and supervise the building of a new elementary school in the northeast section of the city.  The school, known as Johnson Street School for the street upon which it was located, was a two-story building which was used until the early 1950s when it was replaced by a modern brick structure.  When school board members decided to build a new school on Saxon Street several years later, they withdrew bid offers and decided to save money by using Thompson’s plans for the sister school, which was also used until the early 1950s when it was also replaced by a modern building.

Dublin’s tallest structure to date, the Brantley Building, was completed in the spring of 1905.  Rev. Thompson designed the three-story structure to house three twenty-five foot wide stores on the first floor.  The corner store was first occupied by the Oconee Pharmacy with the middle store being occupied by C.W. Brantley’s Buggy Company.   On the second floor was a buggy repository and eleven professional office spaces.  A third floor was added to house the lodge of Laurens Lodge No. 75 F & AM.  The lodge’s quarters featured a lodge room with inlaid gold Masonic emblems in a pressed metal ceiling, four regalia rooms, and eleven more professional offices.    At one time the building office actually housed the Lyric Theatre, a small silent movie picture house.  For most long time Dubliners, the building is known as the Lovett & Tharpe Building, which was occupied by the legendary hardware company from the early 1950s to the early 1980s.  Today, the building houses the Sleep and Recline store.

The Dublin Courier Dispatch completed its first permanent building at 120 S. Jefferson Street in 1905.  The two-story five-thousand square foot building featured a business office and stationery department on the front of the first floor.  The editorial room was on the front of the second floor with the linotype machinery and composing rooms in the rear of the second story.  A large skylight in the center of the building illuminated both floors in a time when electric service was still primitive and unreliable by today’s standards.  Within a week, work on the adjoining Taylor-Coleman Pharmacy was completed.   The buildings were occupied for many years by Central Office Suppliers and Strange Drug Company respectively.

The M.D. & S. Railroad began construction on a new depot on the north side of the tracks on S. Jefferson Street in the fall of 1905.  That building was used until the early 1960s when it was razed.

All over town, new houses were being built.  The year 1905 was a good year for Dublin and today, a century later, the city is still enjoying a building boom, albeit that in 1905 you could have built every building in Dublin for the cost of the new Kroger grocery store.

05-17  

KEEPING THE PEACE IN MILLTOWN

The Textiles Strikes of 1934

In a day when our young men and women of the Georgia National Guard are busy training to keep the peace on the other side of  the world in the desert cities of Iraq, it seems quite proper to remember a time when a hundred young Laurens Countians left their jobs and their schools, yes their schools, to protect the textile mills of West Georgia and their workers from strikers, some local and some brought in by northern unions to disrupt mill operations or protect workers’ rights, depending on how one looks at the situation.  It was a time, especially at the Bibb Mills in Porterdale, Georgia, when some of the peacekeepers, those imported in from northern cities by mill owners, were more violent than those simply seeking to earn a decent wage with decent working hours.

In the summer of 1934, a quarter of a million textile workers across the United States were very unhappy.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt urged the unions  and the mill owners to resolve their differences without the use of a strike.  On September 4, 1934, fights broke out in Macon.  Later 17 people were arrested in Porterdale, a mill town in Newton County, Georgia.  By the middle of the month, violent outbreaks were paralyzing the cities of Macon, Columbus and Augusta, as well as smaller mill towns across the state.   By mid September,  three fourths of Georgia’s 60,000 textile workers were on strike.  Throughout the South, southern governors began calling out National Guard units to protect the state’s twenty-nine mills and those who continued to work in them.

On September 15th, after the conclusion of Georgia’s Democratic primary, Gov. Eugene Talmadge called nearly four thousand guardsman of the Georgia National Guard in an action which remains the largest peace time mobilization of the Guard in Georgia’s history.  Headquartered in Dublin was the 121st Infantry, the first National Guard regiment organized in the Southeast under the current system of the National Guard in 1919.

For years local members of the Guard had trained for civilian duty.  Only on rare occasions had the members of the 121st Infantry ever been called to face a mission of such magnitude.  Approximately a hundred men in Headquarters Company and Co. K under the command of Capt. T.C. Keen and Lts R.L. Webb, CL. Deveraux and Clifford H. Prince, summoned their men for duty.    Early on Monday morning September 17, 1934, fifteen trucks pulled out of Dublin loaded with a hundred men, each armed with a rifle, 40 rounds of ammunition and a bayonet.  Nine men, J.L. Sears, M.M. Cannon, R.E. Drew, R.L. Thomas, W.H. Drew, G.Z. Brown, A.R. Attaway, D.E. Sheppard and J.H. Carlisle ,volunteered their services to the mission to keep the peace in Porterdale.

The mobilization had an immediate impact on the community because  later  that afternoon, eight of the men were scheduled to attend football practice, not for some college team or a semi-pro squad but for the Dublin High School Green Hurricane.  Starters Bob Werden, “Peck” Dominy and John Hinton and reserves J.T. Hadden, Jack Flanders, Harris Dominy and Barton Tindol left their shoulder pads and jerseys behind and exchanged them for a olive drab uniform and a gun.  

The guardsmen arrived in the mid afternoon and were immediately assigned to man machine gun positions at all entrances around the perimeter of the town and at strategic points inside the city limits.    Guardsmen patrolled the streets at all hours of the day to maintain order.  The main order of the day was to protect the mills and all persons legitimately entering or leaving the premises.  

Fortunately for all of those concerned, there was very little trouble in Porterdale.  The greatest hardship for the boys was the lack of sleep.  Some guardsmen commented that if they were able to get some sleep, they would like to stay in town until Christmas.  Some of the men got to go to dances and dance with the local girls.    Lt. Deveraux commented that he had not been in his tent and that the only sleep he got was while he was walking on guard duty.  Sgts. Palmer Currell and Otis Sanders returned to Dublin to procure a load of coats and blankets when the weather turned cooler than usual.   Lt. R.L. Webb commented, “ There are no baths, no steam heat at night and no moonshine.”    

It has been said that an army travels on its stomach and the week in Porterdale was no exception.  Douglas Barron swore he did nothing but peel potatoes the entire time he was there.  Mess Sergeant Henry Walden prepared some decent meals which included a hearty plate of spaghetti and cheese.

By the end of the week the wave of violence across the state had waned.  Mill workers, with no way to accomplish their demands, returned to the their jobs, first in dribbles and then in large waves.  The only strife in Porterdale came from the peacekeepers who had been hired by the owners of the town’s four mills, one of which was the rope and twine factory, the largest of its kind in the world.  The hired mercenaries were all of northern and foreign descent and were very tough and armed with billy clubs and sawed off shotguns, according to one local guardsman.  A mill policeman got into a skirmish with a group of mill workers and fired into the crowd, striking, but not seriously, wounding three men.

As for the National Guard, it was a quiet week.  There were three shots fired and only one casualty.   Herbert “Zip” Beckham was in his tent when he was cleaning his supposedly unloaded rifle when it discharged and tore a hole in his tent.  There was a momentary panic, followed by hilarity and chastisement.  John McGlohorn suffered a similar embarrassment when his weapon accidentally discharged.   A guardsman from Hawkinsville was on guard duty late one evening when he heard something approaching in the woods.  He warned the  intruder to halt but got no response.  After a second warning, he fired his automatic rifle into the dark, only to find out that he had not killed a striker but a local farmer’s cow.   

The National Guard only made two arrests in Porterdale.  A sentry observed two “hillbillies” walking through the woods with their squirrel guns in hand.   Operating on specific orders of martial law, the pair was confronted and their weapons were seized.  The men were sent to a specially prepared prison at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, though most of the local guardsmen believed they were free of any harmful intentions and that they just used poor judgment in walking armed through the woods in the middle of a military action.

By the end of the week with the situation at Porterdale well in hand, Gov. Talmadge relieved the 121st Infantry of its mission and ordered them to return to their homes and yes to their schools, just in time to attend the opening of the Dublin Theater and  to play Hawkinsville in the football game the following weekend.  Many of these men remained in the guard and served our country in World War II.  Unfortunately many of them, including Bob Werden, Palmer Lee Braddy and  John R. Scarborough, were killed in action. 

Members of the local national guard companies who participated in the mission at Porterdale were:

Headquarters Company

Col. L.C. Pope

Lt. R.L. Webb

Lt. Joel Lord

Sgt. Bennett L. Carroll

Sgt. Lake T. Proctor

Sgt. Otis T. Sanders

Sgt. Hubert B. Willis

Sgt. Harry M. Hill

Corp. Thos. H. Hobbs

Corp. John W. Horne

Corp. Joseph H. Horne

Corp. F.C. Tindol

Corp. Wm. P. Tindol

PFC Thomas L. Cook

PFC Herman E. Lord

PFC Millard E. Barron

Pvt. Charles M. Barron

Pvt. Joseph A. DickensPvt. Addison B. Savage

Pvt. John Scarborough

Pvt. Jack P. Snider

Pvt. Charles L. Webb

Pvt. Kelso C. Horne

Pvt. Lord B. Tindol

Pvt. Hardy Smith

Pvt. James R. Fountain

Pvt. Hunter Horne



Company K

Capt. Trammell Keen

Lt. C.D. Deveraux

Lt. Clifford H. Prince

1st Sgt. C.G. White

Sgt. Albert O. Braddy

Sgt. Charles B.  Keen

Sgt. James A. Rivers

Sgt. Durrell Sapp

Sgt. Henry L. Walden 

Corp. William S. Drew

Corp. Robert J. Lee

Corp. Joe Sumner

PFC PalmerL. Braddy

PFC Frank Brantley

PFC Herbert Beckham

PFC Hubert R. Clarke

PFC Ben F. Curry

PFC William Dominy

PFC John Gilbert

PFC Francis L. Hall

PFC AltonKillingsworth

PFC James Lord

PFC Ernest McGowan

PFC Joseph McGowan

PFC Edward E. Mullis

PFC Ernest L. Sellars

PFC Wm. P. Strickland

PFC Jack Flanders

PFC Willard Beasley

Pvt. Ray Camp

Pvt. George Carr

Pvt. Fred J. Coleman

Pvt. Stewart Conner

Pvt. Earle E. Crafton

Pvt. Letcher Curry

Pvt. Harris F. Dominy

Pvt. Ralph F. Edwards

Pvt. James R. Fort

Pvt. Thos. E. Fountain

Pvt. James D. Gordon

Pvt. J.T. Hadden

Pvt. Comer F. Holton

Pvt. Herbert C. Holton

Pvt. James F.  Jernigan

Pvt. Edward Jordan

Pvt. Alfred P.  Keen

Pvt. Oliver M. Laney

Pvt. Ernest H. Stewart

Pvt. George F. Lord

Pvt. James L. Maddox

Pvt. Jno M. McGlohorn

Pvt. John B. Passmore

Pvt. James L. Russell

Pvt. L.B. Smith, Jr.

Pvt. Jas. Scarborough

Pvt. George W. Stuckey

Pvt. Charles M. Sykes

Pvt. Kimball F. Thomas

Pvt. James W. Ward

Pvt. Ephron C. Wynn

Pvt. Leon R. Byrd

Pvt. Wm. E. Edwards

Pvt. Hudson T. Hall

Pvt. Robert Werden

Pvt. Jack Hadden

Pvt. John Hinton

 

  

 

  

     

  

     



05-18

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Strange But True Tales

Green Pittman enlisted in the Confederate army on August 21, 1861 as a member of the “Wilkinson Guards,” which were designated as Co. I of the 3rd Georgia Volunteer Infantry.  His first major wound came at the climatic battle of the Battles of the Seven Days at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862 when his company suffered massive casualties in brutal fighting.   Pittman survived the horrific battles of 2nd Manassas, Sharpsburg, Chancelorsville, Gettysburg, and Spotsylvania virtually unscathed.  

Green Pittman suffered a terrible wound in the Battle of Hatcher’s Run on February 6, 1865.  The mini ball struck the upper part of his nose near his left eye.  After the fighting subsided, Pittman was taken to a field hospital, where his wound was dressed and probed by an army surgeon.   Leaving the bullet in his head was the most acceptable option because of the risks of surgery.  He spent the rest of the war in a hospital.  Though Pittman knew that the mini ball was still in his head he rarely thought of it during his daily routines.  On a Sunday morning February 1869, Pittman was preparing to go to church when he felt something strange in his mouth.

As he was combing his hair, Pittman felt a large object which he almost swallowed.  There was no pain, no bleeding when the one-ounce two-pennyweight ball popped out four years after it entered his nose.  The grizzled veteran of many of the world’s most horrific battles cherished the iron ball as a reminder of his good fortune.  Augusta Chronicle, July 1, 1875.

A Swainsboro woman set what was thought to be a world record for going from the grave to the altar.  On Tuesday, January 30,  1906, J.J. Sewell, one of the most hardworking and honest men in that section of the state, died of tuberculosis  leaving his entire estate to his widow Alice.  Mr. Sewell was buried on Wednesday.  His wife was present, dressed in proper attire and showing the usual emotional distress at the death of her dear departed husband.  Also at the funeral was one Robert McDaniel, who had professed his love for the widow before Sewell’s demise.  McDaniel accompanied the bereaved woman as she left the cemetery.  On Thursday, the couple appeared in Ordinary Court Judge Yeoman’s office and obtained a marriage license.  The anxious couple quickly traveled to the home of Judge John Sutton, where they were instantly married and set off on their honeymoon.  When questioned as to the timeliness of their marriage, Mrs. McDaniel said that she needed someone to comfort her and knew McDaniel had loved her a long time.    The editors of the Swainsboro Forest Blade took an opposite stance, when they wrote, “ Peace to the ashes of Mr. Sewell.  He is better off in his grave than hitched up with such a woman as this and hounded by a man who would marry her.”  Washington Post, February 5, 1906. p. 1, Swainsboro Forest Blade, February 1, 1906.

It was a hot muggy late summer afternoon on September 15, 1881 in Dublin when a terrific thunderstorm struck around two o’clock.  James Hester saw the oncoming tumult and pulled his team of oxen under a large china berry tree about half way between Maas’s store and J.E.  Perry’s house.  Hester took the beasts of burden loose from the cart and was preparing to lead them around to tie them to a wheel when a stream of mysterious luminous fluid seemed to cascade down through the tree.  To those who were present, it appeared that the eery liquid coated a light sheet over the oxen and their driver.    The animals instantly fell dead to the ground, the one closest to the tree never moved.   Hester, stunned and dazed as if dead, was carried to Maas’s store and revived.   He soon became able to relate his experiences to the concerned and curious crowd which had gathered around him. 

The thunderbolt was felt all over town.  A Dublin Post writer was standing in the office between T.A. Howard and William Linder, the paper’s printer.  While the writer felt nothing, Howard instantly complained that his right leg was broken, while Linder felt his composing stick being wrenched from his hand.  He complained of a pain in his wrist for half an hour.   In another part of the newspaper office, G.W. Stephenson complained of a pain in his right wrist.  

Joel Perry, who was sitting on his porch when he saw Hester’s animals killed by the mysterious glow, did not hear the clap of thunder but did suffer a severe headache and ringing in his ears for a while.  Other citizens reported similar ailments.  Though the striking of china berry trees, Dublin’s primary shade trees, was not unusual, the calamity did cause quite a stir among local residents.  Dublin Post, September 21, 1881. 

Jeannie Couey and Rachel Alligood were as close as sisters can be.  Despite the fact that they were nearly twenty years apart in age, the pair was inseparable.  They had the same father, Nathaniel Franklin Gay, but Jeannie’s mother was Sarah Burch and Rachel’s mother was Martha Burch, both daughters of Alfred Littleberry Burch, making them cousins as well as sisters.  Confused?   Both women were members of Baker Baptist Church and did nearly everything together.  Jeannie died at 8:30 on the evening of January 4, 1928 at the ripe old age of sixty-four.  Less than twelve hours later, Rachel made her way to her beloved sister’s home.    When she walked in the room to view Jeannie’s lifeless body, she fell dead on the floor in grief.  Both Laurens County sisters were buried in Gay Cemetery the following day, side by side, united in life as in death.  Augusta Chronicle, January 5, 1928. 

     As a child has a one in 365.25 chance of being born on Christmas Day.  For most kids that isn’t such a great thing when it comes to presents and birthday parties.  Christmas was a landmark day in the life James Erwin Loyd of Laurens County.  Loyd was born on Christmas Day in 1866.  He died on his 82nd birthday on Christmas Day in 1948.  The odds of being born and dying on Christmas Day are 1:133,225.  Hi wife Leonia Wood Loyd was born on March 15, 1876, still known to some as “The Ides of March,” a day on which Julius Caesar suffered his mortal fate.  She died in 1944.  The date of course was March 15th, her 68th birthday.  The Loyds are buried in the Union Baptist Church cemetery on the Soperton Highway just north of Minter.

Dr. G.F. Green is authority for the statement that a number of snow flakes fell in this city yesterday.  At his home, Dr. Green states, it hailed for a minute or two and then snowed.  The falling of snow flakes was witnessed by several reputable people and there is no doubt but that the statement is true, strange as it may seem.  Dublin Courier Dispatch, July 24, 1902.

05-19

MARCHING THROUGH THE JUNGLES OF HELL

John L. Tyre’s, One of Merrill’s Marauders

Merrill’s Marauders were hailed as one of the most celebrated units of the Armed Forces of the United States during World War II.    One of its members, John L. Tyre, a native of Brewton, Georgia, demonstrated  courage and bravery as one of three thousand men who accepted President Roosevelt’s call for volunteers for a “dangerous and hazardous mission.”  Officially known as the 5307th Composite Unit, Merrill’s Marauders, named in honor of their commander Col. Frank Merrill, were awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for their accomplishments of  opening the Burma Road in the southeast Asia. In the process,  eighty percent of the Marauders were killed, injured or succumbed to disease.

John Lawrence Tyre was born in Brewton, Georgia in 1921.  The son of Charlie and Nina Nobles Tyre, John attended Brewton schools until his graduation in 1938.  As a child, he enjoyed playing marbles, pitching horseshoes and fishing in Brewton Creek.  After he finished school, Tyre went to work as a diesel mechanic in Atlanta and Wrens.  In 1939, he went to Virginia to work at a naval air station.  It was during a visit back home that  he met his future wife Darrell in the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Dublin.   After passing his draft physical, John endured basic training at Camp Cross, S.C. before spending 3 months at the Fort Benning Infantry School and receiving advanced infantry training at Camp Van Doren, Ill.  Army privates earned very little, about fifty bucks a month. And John wanted to give Darrell a wedding ring, so while in Baton Rouge he earned $49 to pay for the ring by shooting dice all night long.  He gave her the engagement  ring in March of 1943.  Within a short time, Tyre was back off to more training, this time at Camp Carson, where he answered a call for hazardous duty service for a period of no longer than six months.   It didn’t happen that way.

John Tyre and 2000 other men trained in California for a few weeks and were transported aboard the U.S.S. Lurline, a converted passenger ship, to New Caledonia, where they joined a group of hardened veterans from New Guinea and Australia.  With a full load of supplies aboard, the ship set sail for Bombay, India, traveling along a zig-zag course to avoid Japanese submarines.    The Marauders trained for about a month.  On occasion, the men shot monkeys in the trees for target practice.     The group set out for Burma, passing through Sam, India, known as the wettest place on Earth with its 300 inch annual rainfall.   The first mission was the village of Shadasook, one hundred miles behind the enemy’s lines. With the aid of the Chin natives as guides and the support of the Girkas, dubbed by Tyre as the world’s best soldiers, the mission was a success. 

In unbearable heat, fighting torrential rainfall, debilitating diseases and Japanese snipers, Tyre and his fellow soldiers cut paths through jungles where there were none.   Tyre was a part of a force directed to secure the airfield at Michinau.   The enemy overran the village, but the Marauders retained control of the vital landing zone, which allowed Allied supply planes to keep “flying the hump” between India and Burma.  In the action, John developed a malarial fever of 104 degrees and was evacuated back to a hospital.   After six weeks, Tyre returned to duty.

Tyre was assigned to the Red Combat Team under the command of Maj. Edward Ghiz and 1st Battalion Commander Lt. Col. William Osborne.  One of Tyre’s most memorable moments in the jungle came when he and his buddy “Blacksnake” were on a scouting mission.  Three Japanese soldiers jumped out on the trail. Tyre instinctively unloaded his Browning Automatic Rifle.  “Blacksnake” was killed, but  luckily Tyre managed to fall down and roll into a low area.  For two days, Tyre and others waded down a creek avoiding being spotted by the enemy forces.    The closest John Tyre ever came to being killed was in that creek when the Japanese began shelling.  Some of the rounds were effective, killing Americans in mass.    Tyre was seeking refuge behind a tree when an artillery round landed ten feet away.    It failed to explode as designed, and once again, John Tyre’s life was spared.  A relief unit was brought in, and Tyre’s team set out on fifty-mile forced march through mountains for three days.   The area was secured and turned over to the Chinese army, which cut off the Japanese army’s supply lines and led to their retreat. 

While in the jungles, the men, if they were lucky, survived on a diet of potatoes, fish, rice and seaweed.  Supplies were dropped by air.   The men had to carry all of their equipment, including their M-1 rifle and 150 rounds of ammunition.  Many times Tyre and his buddies climbed into Japanese foxholes for cover, only to find them filled with body lice.  Of his commanding officers, Tyre most admired the unit’s second in command Col. Charles N. Hunter.  “He was our best leader and everybody liked him,” remembered Tyre.  

After his last mission, Tyre returned to the hospital and saw no more action.  He remained on duty helping his fellow soldiers by keeping the supply lines moving.  Sixty years ago in June 1945, John L. Tyre left China. From China, he traveled back to India, over the Indian Ocean,  the Mediterranean Sea, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Newport News, Virginia, where he arrived on July 20, 1945.    One of the highlights of the trip was the sight of Arabs riding camels as the hospital ship passed through the Suez Canal.   As fast he could, Tyre got a furlough, returned to Georgia and married his sweetheart.    After a brief honeymoon, he returned to duty at Fort Gordon, where he was discharged after a few months.

After the war, Tyre tried his hand at farming, living in a very small house which couldn’t shield his family from the cold winters.  He planned to “get rich” operating as a truck driver.  When the futility of driving on long runs and missing his family finally took their toll, Tyre went to work for Lockheed.  He worked at Warner Robins and as an fuselage inspector, Tyre helped build the first C-130 airplane in 1953.  Many of these durable planes were still flying fifty years later.  In 1971, he suffered a major heart attack, retired three years later and moved back home to Laurens County.   

John Tyre believed in the power of prayer.  His brother Bill was in the Army Air Force.  He believed in the possibility that it was his brother’s plane which dropped supplies to him and the other starving and battered soldiers.  During the war, the women of Brewton Baptist Church put stars on a quilt for each local boy in the war.  Prayers were prayed almost daily.  It worked.  All of Brewton’s boys made it home alive.

In summing up his life, Tyre told his son-in-law Allen Thomas in an oral history interview, “ Ups and downs, ups and downs, ... a pretty good life.  I have a lovely wife and two beautiful daughters (Lana T. Thomas and Sylvia T. Williamson),” he added.  

According to John Tyre’s calculations, nearly one third of his fellow soldiers lost their lives.    Perhaps as many as three times more Japanese soldiers were killed.  In summing up his time in the jungles of Burma, Tyre  said,  “It was rough go, but I knew God was with me.”

On this Memorial Day and for all times to come, remember the valor of John L. Tyre and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces,  who sacrifice their lives to protect the freedoms we enjoy today.  

05-20

OUR FIRST PEOPLE

The Genesis of a Whole New World

No one can say for sure exactly when the first human walked through the forests of what is today East Central Georgia.    The best estimates are that modern man first lived in the upper limits of Georgia's Coastal Plain somewhere between ten and twelve thousand years ago.   However, Clovis culture relics which date back as far as 13,250 years ago have been found along the Fall Line and in some instances in Laurens County and other counties in this area.    These people lived a life far different than their descendants even ten thousand years later. 

Beginning approximately fifteen thousand years ago, the Earth's climate began to undergo a radical change.  Temperatures increased worldwide. A massive  polar ice sheet,  which extended far down into North America, began to melt away.  Consequently,  the oceans began to fill with the melting ice.  Before the dramatic climate change, the Georgia coastline  extended up to one hundred miles east of its present location.  With a shift of the oceans to the west, the pine  forests of north Georgia were replaced by hardwoods.  The hickory oak hardwoods of southern Georgia eventually gave way to a forest of pines and river cypress and oaks.    The change in the flora of this area brought about a corresponding radical change in the fauna.  The wooly mammoths, camels and horses which once roamed the forests and grasslands disappeared.  Most of the smaller mammals which today populate our forests such as the deer, rabbits and  squirrels were also present during the Paleoindian period. Even the buffalo remained in our area,  until it became extinct around the time of the first English settlement of Georgia.  

The first people who lived in the United States are identified as Paleo-Indians.  The period of their existence is divided into three periods: Early (11,500-9000 B.C.), Middle (9,000-8500 B.C.) and Late (8,500-8,000 B.C.).    All available evidence indicates that the Paleo-Indians were hunters and gatherers, who moved when local food sources were exhausted.   The early occupants of the Southeast moved in bands ranging from two to four dozen people.    Permanent village sites were often centered around stone or chert/flint quarries along the Fall Line, the ancient coastline of Georgia.   By the end of the Paleoindian Period, camps were occupied on a short term basis.

Archeologists have determined that the three periods of Paleoindian occupation are marked by differences in projectile points.  Indians of the Early Paleoindian period fashioned large lance-shaped points known as Clovis points.  Those Indians of the middle period adopted a smaller fluted points.  The final points of the period, known as Dalton points, had lanceolate blades and concave bases.  These tools, which included projectile points, scrapers, knives and gravers were made by flaking optimal pieces of chert, commonly known as flint, by using hard substances, including bones and deer antlers.   Many of the early tools were often disposable. 

No permanent buildings of the Paleo-Indians have been found. We can only surmise that their homes were temporary structures at best, probably made of the raw materials available, including small trees and animal skins.  The people of this period fed themselves with a wide variety of foods from the large mammals such as the mastodon and the buffalo, down to small animals such as the squirrel and the fish found in the bountiful streams which flowed through the area.  

Despite plentiful  evidence that Georgia was occupied during the Paleoindian period, there are less than a couple of hundred sites which have been identified as coinciding with early occupation of the state.  Most of the projectile points of the period have landed in the hands of private collectors.    In one of the most extensive investigations in the history of the state at the Ocmulgee National Monument, archeologists found only one incomplete Clovis point. One of the most prolific sites still remains a mystery.  Rev. Caldwell, father of novelist Erskine Caldwell, possessed a dozen or more fluted points which came from the Brier Creek area near Wrens in northeastern Jefferson County.  A secretive and distrustful man, Rev. Caldwell died never revealing the secret of the origin of his prized finds.    Nearly half of the known Paleoindian sites in Georgia are located in the middle Savannah River area and the upper Oconee River valley along the Fall Line.  Most of the sites which have been discovered lie on a prominence overlooking river or large creek valleys.   

Current estimates contend that fewer than two dozen early and middle Paleoindian points are found within the bounds of Laurens County.  The densest area of distribution extends from the Big Bend area of lower Telfair County north through western Laurens County northward into Wilkinson and Washington counties.  Laurens County lies at the southwestern end of an large oval-shaped area of Clovis variant points which extends northeasterly throughout most of South Carolina into the heart of Central North Carolina.  While Indians of the Clovis period are generally regarded as the first occupants of the Southeast, recent archeological investigations have uncovered a sixteen-thousand year old pre-Clovis site in South Carolina as well as other sites in the Northeast.  

At the lower end of the region is the Lowe Site.  The area was examined in 1985 during a bridge replacement in lower Telfair County on a sand ridge overlooking the swamps of the Ocmulgee River.     Archeologists found a small sampling of Middle and Late Paleoindian artifacts mixed in with others from the later Archaic Period. 

 

Purportedly, one of the largest Indian quarries can be found near the extreme western end of Laurens County.  Located in the vicinity of Bay Branch and the Rock Road lies a large area of unworked boulders of chert, mixed in with a few pieces of discarded workings.    There are unsubstantiated stories of a Clovis knife being found in the area.  In addition to finds in Laurens and Telfair counties, Clovis and Clovis variant points have been found in Dodge, Telfair and Washington counties in East Central Georgia.  Middle Period points have been found in Wilkinson County in addition to Dodge and Telfair counties.  Dalton points from the late Paleoindian period have been found in Laurens, but most predominately in the western regions of Twiggs County.   Laurens and Washington counties are two of only three counties in the state where Silicified Coral raw materials for the manufacture of Clovis points have been found.

It is likely we will never know much more about the extent of the Paleoindian occupation of Georgia, but that is not say we should abandon our studies of our first people.  It was time when man co-existed with nature, when the line between the two first began to diverge.

05-21

THE CIRCLE OF DREAMS

The Farmer's Market

Dreams do come true.  As long as there are dreamers, sooner or later their dreams will be realized.  A century ago there were dreamers who envisioned a large auditorium on an empty block along the southwestern edge of downtown Dublin.  That dream came true but was soon destroyed in a deadly conflagration. Three decades later during the worst economic depression this country has ever known, there were men who dreamed of a market where farmers could sell the fruits of their land and labor to support their families.  That dream, though thwarted at first, would eventually come true, if only briefly.   Now the dream has come full circle.  Dirt is being moved, plans are being finalized and the work is about to begin.  Where there was once nothing but dirt, grass and trees, Dublin and Laurens County will have a first class farmer's market, an outdoor amphitheater, and a living memorial to the Laurens County farmer, the quintessential citizen of Laurens County's past.     

Exactly a century ago, a five-man committee of Hal M.  Stanley, Clark Grier, H.G. Stevens, T.L. Griner and Dr. C.H. Kittrell was actively seeking subscriptions to build an auditorium for the annual Chautaugua festivals held every June. The festival featured programs of a literary, political, religious and scientific nature.  The men envisioned an auditorium which could be rented out for the many regional and state conferences which could be held in the building which featured an unbroken line of five-foot tall transom windows eight feet from the floor.  The building, which was located at the southwest corner of South Monroe and West Madison Streets, was designed to seat 1800 persons on the floor with another 500 seats in the gallery.  In 1911, the building hosted the legendary William Jennings Bryan, who spoke to a summer festival, a replacement for the Chautaugua festival which had been discontinued the year before.  As was the usual case for wooden auditoriums of the day, the Chautaugua auditorium was destroyed by fire soon after Bryan's speech.

Later that fall, the first 12th District Agricultural Fair was held on the upper floor of the D.W. Gilbert's hardware store on West Jackson Street.  The fair was so successful that organizers began to look for a more spacious site for the fair.  In 1913, the fair was moved to the block now being graded for the Farmer's Market.  Thousands upon thousands of visitors traveled to what would become the greatest fair in the history of Laurens County.  

Joe Lord had a dream.  He farmed for a living and lived to farm.   After all, he had six children to feed.  The 1930s was not the best time to be in the farming business. Money was scarce, but Joe persevered.  On his 200-acre farm, Joe Lord raised cotton, corn, wheat, oats, peanuts, soybeans, cattle, hogs, sugar cane and  watermelons with the help of his wife, his children, four mules, a horse and the blessings of good weather and timely rainfalls.   He prospered by paying neighbors and job seekers with the bounty of his land.  Lord learned that in order to prosper in the farming business he must produce staple foods which could be made available on a year round basis.  He sold produce from his farm and delivered his farm products to surrounding towns and cities.  

Throughout World War II and its aftermath, Joe Lord never lost sight of his dream.  With the election of Eugene Talmadge of McRae, Georgia as governor and Tom Linder, formerly of Laurens County, as Commissioner of Agriculture, it seemed like a farmer's market for Laurens County was a virtual certainty.    When the expected support from Gov. Talmadge and Commissioner Linder failed to materialize, Lord and other Laurens County farmers took matters into their own hands.

Walter Daniel, a farmer from the Garretta community, built a small produce shed on the site of the old Chautaugua auditorium on South Monroe Street as a start.  That building was converted into a brick building to house Bob Mobley's generator and starter shop.  Joe Lord enlisted the aid of Walter Daniel, Lewis Allen and Harry Green to form a committee to establish a permanent farmer's market.    Soon R.T. Gilder and Marshall Lord, who had recently returned from the service after World War II, took an interest in the project.  The younger Lord had grown up on the farms of his father and grandfather and knew the value of agriculture to the community.   R.T. Gilder, President of the Laurens County Farm Bureau, led the effort to begin the project.  In 1957, with the aid of Cliff Prince and L.D. Woods, the Laurens Marketing Association, Inc. purchased an eleven-acre tract of land on the Glenwood Road on the site where the United States Army Reserve Armory is now situated.   Four years later before any construction on the site had begun, the Laurens Marketing Association swapped the lands on Glenwood Avenue for a tract on Telfair Street, which would soon house the Agricultural Center.   The "Ag" Center served Laurens County farmers for decades as a show place for farm products and livestock as well as a place for meetings and social gatherings. 

Now, move the clock forward forty years.  Main Street Dublin, The Dublin Downtown Development Authority, was organized fifteen years ago to promote the heritage and economy of downtown Dublin.    Through the visionary efforts of the organization's current chairman Phil Thacker and its past chairman Jimmy Allgood, along with the untiring efforts of Main Street director Kathy Jones and board member Bill Finlayson, Joe Lord's dream of a farmer's market will soon be realized.

But the project will entail more than a simple shed to facilitate the sale of row crops.  The facility will eventually house an amphitheater with a covered stage.  Imagine sitting under the stars on a warm spring night or a cool summer evening and being entertained by the abundance of our local musical talent.   Under the roof of the building  there will be a meeting room, which can be used for meetings and family gatherings.  The main part of the building can be used for larger open air meetings.  Future phases of the project will include an agricultural museum housed in custom designed silos.   It has also been proposed that a railroad museum be established on the southern end of the grounds. 

The project is a worthy one.  Its focus on the promotion of agriculture and the saluting of its profound impact on our past and our future is well founded.  Without the undying devotion of the Laurens County farmer, our community would have withered and died a long time ago.  While the number of family farms in Laurens County has rapidly declined from a state record of more than four thousand in 1924, agriculture remains a vital element of our county's economy now and for years to come.  Please support the project as a reminder of how we got to where we are and to show us the way we are going.    

05-22

IT'S SO, SHOELESS JOE PLAYED HERE

Banned from the sport he loved so dearly, Joseph Jefferson Jackson toured the South playing for the love of the game and the bounties of the baseball promoters. Thousands of adoring fans surrounded sandy diamonds throughout the Southeast eager to catch a glimpse of the man they called "Shoeless Joe."   Eighty years ago this week, this unjust exile played two games in Dublin, never losing a step from the decade of the 1910s, when Joe Jackson was one of baseball's greatest players.

Joe Jackson was born in South Carolina in 1887.  At the age of six,  he began to work in the textile mills, which were a dominant part of his community's economy.  Upon his becoming a teenager, Joe was asked to join the mill's baseball team.  Since he worked half of every day in the mill, with an occasional break to play ball, Joe never obtained any degree of education, a misfortune which would haunt him for the rest of his life.    On Saturdays he would pick up a few dollars by playing baseball.  By the time he was twenty, Joe signed to play semi-pro ball with the Greenville Spinners for a lucrative $75.00 per month.  By the end of August, he made it to the major leagues, but disappointedly, Joe only played in five games.  Jackson returned to the minor leagues,  only to return to the big leagues in 1910 as a member of the Cleveland Indians  of the American League.

As a rookie in 1911, Joe batted .408, the first and only rookie ever to exceed the highly coveted level of batting supremacy.  His batting average dipped to .395 in 1912, but the twenty-five-year-old phenom led the league in triples.  The following year Jackson led the league in hits and slugging average.    In 1915, Jackson was traded to the White Sox for cash and three players.    For the next five seasons, Joe Jackson was a terror in the batter's box,  never falling below .300.  

Joe Jackson's colorful nickname was reportedly penned on him during a mill league game against a team from Anderson, South Carolina.    Joe supposedly discarded a new pair of spikes when they began to rub blisters on his feet.  He played the rest of the game in his stocking feet.  During his first plate appearance without shoes, Joe stroked a triple deep into the outfield, prompting an opposing fan to shout, "You shoeless son of gun, you!"

The zenith of Joe's career came in 1919 when his team, the Chicago White Sox, faced the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. The Sox lost the best of nine series, five games to three.  During the series, Joe was the only player to hit a home run and played outstanding ball in the field and at the plate.   Joe continued to excel in 1920, posting a .385 average and leading the league in triples for the third time.  Joe and seven other White Sox players, an octette dubbed the "Black Sox," were implicated in a scandal which accused Joe and his teammates of throwing the series.  Joe and the others were suspended from baseball until their fate could be determined.

In 1921, Joe Jackson was acquitted of any malfeasance in the series by a Chicago jury.  Despite his exoneration, he was banned from baseball for life by Kennesaw Mountain Landis, baseball's first commissioner, for his failure to disclose his knowledge of the conspiracy.  He returned home to Savannah, where he opened a  lucrative dry-cleaning business.   But as soon as the temperatures of the spring began to rise, offers for his services on semi-pro teams throughout the South and the North came pouring in.  

In the summer of 1923, Joe began the season playing in Bastrop, Louisiana.  Near the middle of the season, Joe accepted an offer by a team from Americus, Georgia.  He led the team to the championship of the South Georgia League, batting .453 in 25 games and .500 in the league championship series over Albany.  He even pitched one inning, surrendering one base on balls,  but no hits or runs.    After the end of the South Georgia League season, Joe played with the railroad team out of Waycross, Georgia.  In 1924, Jackson led the Waycross Coast Liners to the Georgia Championship, doubling as the team's manager during the last half of the season.  

In his last full professional season with Waycross in 1925, Joe played center field and managed the Coast Liners to an impressive record of 63-19-3.    The Waycross team played teams from Georgia, as well as ones from Florida, Alabama  and South Carolina.    On June 22, 1925, the Coast Liners played the Right of Ways from Macon, Georgia, a team fielded by the Central of Georgia Railroad, on the 12th District Fairgrounds in Dublin.  The ball field, located at the western corner of Telfair and Troup streets, was the scene of a 1918 game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Braves and games between Oglethorpe University and the University of Georgia and the St. Louis "Gas House Gang" Cardinals in 1933 and 1935.  

Regretfully, only sketchy details of the game have survived.  Joe's team won the first game, 8-7 on a field described as "rough and in very bad condition."    While no box score was published in the Macon Telegraph, Jackson was credited with leading his team to victory.   After the game, the field was improved for the next day's game, in which the Macon boys won by the score of  11-7.   A third game was apparently canceled, and the teams played two more games in Macon the following weekend. 

One of "Shoeless Joe's" teammates on the 1925 Coast Liner team was William C. Webb.  Webb was born in Adrian, Georgia in 1903.  He graduated from Adrian High School and played college ball at Sparks Junior College.  Webb played under Jackson, whom he described as "a good baseball man."  In a 2001 interview with John Bell, author of "Shoeless Summer" and "Georgia Class D Minor League Encyclopedia," Webb said of Jackson "Even though he was not educated, he had the ability to make managerial decisions that almost always turned out well.  He was a player's manager, who led by example and had great respect for his players."  Webb admired Jackson, who once let the country boy bat with his famous bat "Black Betsy," a hand-fashioned stick of hickory with a slight bend and which sounded like he hit a brick when he struck the ball.   Webb told his interviewer that he often had to help the uneducated superstar by assisting him in signing his name on the back of his paychecks.  Webb went on to play semi-pro ball well into his thirties. 

Joe continued to play some mill league and semi-pro ball until 1941, when he played his first and last night games at the age of fifty-four, belting two home runs in a single game, when most men his age have long given up hopes of playing the game of their youth.  His statistics after 1925 are very scant.  Joe often played under assumed names.  Foster Taylor, the former beloved Mayor of Rentz, Georgia, always recalled the time that he played in a game with the great "Shoeless Joe."   Joe Jackson operated a liquor store and barbecue restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina until his death at the age of 64 on December 5, 1951.

More than a half century after his death, sincere and enduring baseball fans and former players are still seeking to add the name of Joseph Jefferson Jackson to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  After all is said and done, he was absolved of any wrong doing by a jury of his peers and was a player whose .356 lifetime batting average is the 3rd highest in baseball history.  Maybe one day when the  summer skies are brightly shining in Cooperstown, New York, the announcer will step up to the podium and announce the name of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson to his rightful place among the ultimate immortals of the country's national pastime. 

05-23

LOVE STORIES

The Trip From Tweed to Gretna Green

If you know where Tweed, Georgia is, you probably grew up there, or at least somewhere close by.  There are no signs left of this once bustling community on the Old River Road in southeastern Laurens County, except the signs indicating the route of the Minter-Tweed Road, which terminates right in the heart of downtown Tweed.  In the years 1895 and 1896, a local correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution furnished reports of several  elopements  in the now extinct community, home to the Wilkes, Branch, Drew, Beacham and McLendon families. 

The community, once populated by descendants of immigrant Scots, was probably named for the River Tweed, a large river in southern Scotland which forms the border between Scotland and England as it empties into the North Sea.  Established along the old Darien-Milledgeville “the Capital to the Coast” Road, Tweed is situated along a ridge with a commanding view of the Oconee River Valley.

William Branch fell in love with Naomi Wilkes.  At fifteen, Naomi was the most beautiful girl that William ever had seen.  Her father vehemently objected to their courtship.  The couple communicated through her cousins in hopes of evading Mr. Wilkes’s scorn.  Much to his chagrin, on the very day Branch came into Dublin to secure a marriage license, he discovered that Mr. Wilkes was also present.  Realizing Wilkes was busy trading, Branch sped toward the Wilkes home to claim his bride.  Through the aid of Naomi’s cousin Miss Ricks, Branch sent a young boy inside the Wilkes home to summon his fiancé to join him posthaste.  Naomi gathered up her belongings, specially arranged for the elopement and joined her intended.  Parson White married them on the spot on March 23, 1895.   The incident was Naomi’s third attempt at elopement.    A previous suitor tried and failed twice.  Unused marriage licenses were his only souvenir of unrequited love.

William Livingston and his family moved into the Tweed Community in 1895.  William frequently visited the McLendon home about a mile away.  He was drawn to the homestead by his increasing infatuation with the McLendon’s buxom rosy-cheeked daughter Rebecca.  Love blossomed and the couple were engaged to be married.    The Livingston family soon grew unsatisfied with their surroundings and moved across the Oconee River.    The McLendon’s thought not too highly of their daughter’s intended suitor and forbade her to marry the pretentious paramour.    By a secretive communiqué, William notified Rebecca that he would appear at her home on Christmas Day to take her hand in marriage. True to his word, the young man appeared right on time.  Following the protocol of the day, Livingston asked the McLendons for permission to marry their daughter.  Mr. McLendon consented, but Mrs. McLendon balked at the impending nuptials.  

Undaunted, the couple planned a trip to Gretna Green to consummate their marriage.  Gretna Green was a village in Scotland where young couples were married without parental approval.   The following Thursday, Livingston pretended he was going home alone.  Rebecca, feigning a bout of severe depression, informed her mother that she was going to visit her grandfather.  Just above the McLendon house an friendly accomplice intercepted the lovers and spirited them away with all haste to Squire Drew’s office.  They were married on the spot and triumphantly and defiantly returned to the McLendon home.   A good old-fashioned country frolic ensued.  Mr. McLendon celebrated. Mrs. McLendon stayed home and cried.

The spirit of love was in the air.  During the celebration complete with an anvil shooting and pyrotechnic display, Joshua Branch and Mattie Wilkes announced their immediate intention to marry.   Branch told his plan to Mattie’s married sister, who immediately tattled to their father.    Wilkes immediately confronted Mattie in front of her entire family, chastising her for such an impropriety.   Branch, listening to the reprimanding from a concealed spot, bolted to his horse and sped from the scene.   The young man announced to his friends that he would marry Mattie, or someone else, before the next full moon.  Just in case the situation demanded it, Joshua obtained a marriage license with a blank for the wife’s last name. 

Three months later, Josh Branch found another Rebecca to marry.  Branch and Rebecca Henry appeared at the home of C.S. Beacham to complete their marriage ceremony.  Alerted to the impending matrimony, a young man named Barber, who had been spurned by Rebecca, arrived at the Beacham home.  Rebecca’s admirers commenced a knock down drag out joust to determine her rightful husband.  It was reported that “blows rained thick and fast and the combatants cursed each other in the most violent manner.”  Rebecca canceled the wedding, refusing to marry Branch for conduct unbecoming a gentleman engaged to be married.  Just days after the ruckus, Rebecca observed Branch courting a former sweetheart.  Was it the other Rebecca, Rebecca McLendon?  Or, was it one in a long line of brides Branch longed to marry.  Despite her announced intentions to the contrary, the spurned and frustrated young man told friends that he still intended to marry his true love.    According to Laurens County’s marriage records, no Joshua Branch ever married in Laurens County.  I guess he gave up trying to marry a Tweed girl and left the area in an effort to improve his matrimonial desires.

George Miller was an orphan, but managed to accumulate a small fortune to “keep the wolf from his door.”  Naomi Beacham, a fifteen-year-old brunette, was a daughter of one of Tweed’s oldest families.  The Beachams censured their daughter for even looking at the much older Miller.  Naomi disregarded her parent’s earnest restraints and continued to keep company with her suitor.  The young swain, in the company of a friend, approached the Beacham home on a Sunday afternoon.   Miller asked Mr. Beacham for permission to have Naomi visit his home.    Beacham, obviously disconcerted with the entire circumstance, replied “Yes, she can go, and she can go for good, as far as I am concerned.”  Without further ado, George and Naomi spirited away in a buggy bound for the home of Justice of the Peace John S. Drew.  With a bible in his hand and the blazing sun bearing down on his forehead, Judge Drew stood against the front gate of his house.  The bride and groom sat in their buggy, situated just over the fence.    In the presence of Drew’s family and a host of friends gathered on the front porch, George and Naomi were united in marriage.  The newlyweds merrily drove toward their new home without a care in the world, except the dreaded next visit from her irate parents.

Just as a year of elopements was coming to an end, perhaps the most unusual trip to Gretna Green was coming to a finale.  Charity Wilkes, daughter of the venerable Methodist minister John Wilkes, announced her intention to marry Charlton B. Smith, son of Rev. Charlton Smith, of the prominent Hardy Smith family from the Anderson community- just up the River Road from Tweed.  Charity’s twenty-year-old son John A. Wilkes protested his mother’s marriage shouting, “ I’ll kill him just as sure as he comes inside the house again.  You shant marry him; I’ll see to that part of it, provided my gun will fire.”  Charity secreted away and traveled to Messer’s Creek Bridge to wait for Smith.  Meanwhile the groom and his best man waited for her at Norris’ Chapel.  Soon the groom found his bride.  Approaching Charity with the marriage license in hand, Smith cried out, “I have a bench warrant for your arrest.  Will you submit?”

The couple dashed to the home of Judge John Drew, where they were instantly married.  Drew took off his marrying hat, put on his postmaster’s hat and handed a letter to the new groom.  Inside the dispatch was a forged rejection of Smith’s offer of marriage, presumably at the hand of the disenchanted son.    As Christmas Day approached, all was merry and bright.  Charity, a forty-year-old newlywed, had all but forgotten her first engagement twenty years before, one which ended in heartbreak and relegated her to the life of a single mother for two decades.

Charity Ricks, a beautiful young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M.R. Ricks, desperately wanted to marry Adolphus McLendon.  Her parents never believed their industrious and intelligent daughter was courting anyone, much less that she would ever get married.  Just before Christmas Day in 1895, the Ricks accepted an invitation  to attend a wedding in Montgomery County.  As soon as her parents were out of sight, Charity told her sister Mattie that she was going to visit a girlfriend, grabbed up her tooth brushes and headed off to the branch.  There she met her aspiring lover.  The couple made their way to Squire Drew’s house where they became man and wife, much to the consternation of the absent parents.

 05-24

OVER THERE

Dexter Man Makes Uncle Sam Proud

As we celebrate the 129th anniversary of our country’s Declaration of Independence which proclaims the freedoms which we continue to enjoy, let us take a look back to the early fall of 1918, when the Allied Expeditionary Force was making it’s final push into Eastern France and to victory over the forces of the crumbling German empire.  This is the story of an American hero, Bill Brown of Dexter, Georgia.  For his heroic exploits, Sergeant Brown was awarded medals by the American and French governments while he was a member of the 167th Regiment of the Alabama National Guard.

In the summer of 1917, the Alabama National Guard was assigned to the 42nd Army Division.  Nicknamed the “Rainbow Division,” the 42nd was composed of national guard regiments from twenty six states.   Bill Brown and his fellow Alabamians left home for France  on November 6, 1917,  just in time for the coming of the bitter winter.   After several months of training in defensive positions, the 167th moved to Luneville on  February 24, 1918. By April, the 42nd became the first American division to occupy an entire sector.  

As a part of the Twenty-first Corps of the Fourth Army, the 42nd saw action in the  Battle of Chateau-Thierry in July 1918, one of the famous battles of the entire war.  Fighting was brutal and often took place from trench to trench.  One Rainbow division member described fighting in the trenches.  “Our (first) trench was an old one and pretty well shot to pieces. The first night I was in it, it was very quiet, no artillery at all. The only thing that broke the silence was once in awhile a sniper would shoot at something, and the rats running around sounded like someone chasing after you ... Standing post at night is something --you see there is thirty feet of wire in front of our trench and the posts are put in very irregular. It is almost impossible to find a place where you could see clear through the wire, even in daylight, and at night, every post or broken tree looks like a man and if you look long enough the object seems to move.  The first night I stood post, I imagined the trees were men and at times I saw them stoop down and climb over the wire, but after that I was used to it and learned how to tell a man from a tree. If you give a false alarm it means that the fellows who are sleeping in dugouts are wakened and have to come up and "stand to." At the best, the fellows get very little sleep, and if there are any alarms, they get none at all. So the wise Hun has all kinds of ways to coax an alarm; cats are used, and they have whistles that make moaning noises. You hear a cat on the wire and one of these whistles are blown, and you look out and think there is a man cutting the wire, and let her go ... It rained only once while we were in and it was bad enough in dry weather, but when you have to stand in mud, it must be hell.  We were troubled quite a little by snipers, stick your head over and zip---they use a high power air gun, and there is no flash, so they are very hard to locate.” 

The 167th regiment opened the attack  on the Croix Rouge Farm. As Brigadier General Henry J. Riley has written, "The capture of the Croix Rouge Farm and clearing belongs in that list of military exploits which cannot fail to excite the admiration of those who hear the tale because of the determination and gallantry displayed." The success at Croix Rouge led the breaking of the German line in the Marne Salient.  The regiment next saw action at  the crossing of the Ouroq and the battles of  Sergy Hill and St. Mihiel.

Sergeant Bill Brown, a son of Mrs. Ada Brown of Ozark, Alabama, was assigned to Company G of the 167th Regiment.   On the 14th of October, 1918, Bill’s company became heavily engaged at Landres-et St. Georges at Chattelon, near Chalon’s, during an operation dubbed the Argonne-Meuse offensive.  German artillerists and machine gunners were enfilading the company with intense fire.  Artillery support on behalf of the American advance was scant at best.  Alabamians were falling one right after another.  During the heat of the conflict, Brown was first struck by a artillery shell fragment and temporarily put out of commission.  Sgt. Brown recovered only to be stunned by a dose of phosgene gas.    Not one to lie down, Brown gathered his wits and organized his platoon and led them in overrunning the German positions in their front.  When the smoke cleared, only fourteen of the fifty eight men of Company G had survived.  In downplaying his heroism, Brown said, “It would have never happened, if that shell had not hit me first.  I know how to use a gas mask.  There were only fourteen men left and no noncoms. I couldn’t very well leave them in that shape, so I stayed on.”

General Charles P. Summerall, the 167th’s brigade commander, summarized his admiration of the bravery of the Alabamians. “Of all things mentioned in the history of the American Army, the most exacting it was ever called upon to do was take the "Cote de Chattelon" in the Argonne, the key to the "Kreimmlde Stellung" or strong line of defense of the German Army.  That the Alabamians did, and without that accomplishment the American Army's advance on November  would have been utterly impossible.  Of all things I have pride in, it is the fact that I was in command of troops who brought about that wonderful feat of arms.” 

For reorganizing his platoon and showing utter disregard for danger and inspiring his men by remarkable courage and devotion to duty, Sgt. Bill Brown was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with a gold star, one of only thirty-four of the prestigious medals awarded to American soldiers for outstanding bravery on a corps level.  The medal took the form of a cross surmounted by crossed swords, the centrepiece bearing the head of the Republic of France.  In addition to the French award, Sgt. Brown was awarded the Alabama State Medal, which was awarded to the twelve hundred survivors of the Alabama National Guard. The Guard numbered three thousand seven hundred at the beginning of the “War to End All Wars.”  

It took a month for Colonel Bailey of the Atlanta Recruiting Station to find Sergeant Brown and award him his medals.    Bailey presented Brown with the Medal Militaire authorized by Field Marshal Petain of the French Army.   Petain, the leader of the French forces in World War I, was later vilified as the leader of the Nazi supported French Vichy army in World War II, a position which led to a death sentence, but one which was later commuted to life in prison for the 90-year-old former French hero.   During his service in France in the Rainbow Division, Sgt. Brown came in contact with one of the most famous soldiers in American history.  This 42nd’s assistant division commander was elevated to the command of the division on the day before the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.  He rose to fame in World War II as the commander of American forces in the Pacific. His name was General Douglas MacArthur.

All of this ballyhoo came after Brown’s awarding of the Distinguished Service Cross by President Woodrow Wilson on November 27, 1918.   Brown was one of ten fellow Alabamians given the nation’s second highest award for heroism. The Distinguished Service Cross is awarded to a person who, while serving in any capacity with the Army, distinguishes himself or herself by extraordinary heroism not justifying the award of a Medal of Honor; while engaged in an action against an enemy of the Unites States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing/foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing Armed Force in which the United States is not a belligerent party. The act or acts of heroism must have been so notable and have involved risk of life so extraordinary as to set the individual apart from his or her comrades.

After the war, Bill Brown moved to Dexter to engage in the study of agricultural science under the federal board of vocational education.  In an interview with a reporter for the Atlanta Constitution ten months after the war Brown said, “I have forgotten most of that war stuff, but it pleases me that my folks will read about it.”  He was more interested in getting on with his agricultural training than reliving his military training under the most horrific battle conditions seen by American soldiers to that time.

05-25

 SHARING THE LAND

Georgia’s First Land Lottery

Two centuries ago the State of Georgia was about to embark on a unique method of dispersing its lands to its citizens.  Authorized by the Georgia Legislature in 1803, the Land Lottery of 1805 was the first of its kind in the young nation, at least on a massive scale.  For the next quarter century, nearly three quarters of Georgia would be awarded to fortunate drawers or those wealthy enough or those willing to move their homes and families to the wilderness of uninhabited lands.  

For seven decades, lands in Georgia were granted by the King of England or through a system known as headrights.    Headrights were usually reserved to heads of families and as bounties for soldiers of the Continental Army.  Grants were subject to bribery and as rewards for political favors.  During the 1790s, two scandals, the Yazoo Fraud and the Pine Barrens Scandal, tainted the system, though neither were directly involved in the distribution of lands between the Ogeechee and Oconee Rivers.

On May 11, 1803, the legislature enacted a statute providing for a lottery system to divide the lands of the newly created counties of Wilkinson, Baldwin and Wayne.  Wilkinson County encompassed all the land bounded by the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers  lying south of a line running 45 degrees southwest from Fort Wilkinson, while Baldwin County would contain all of the land lying north of  the line.   The enabling act provided that  Wilkinson County be divided into five land districts divided into land lots containing 202.5 acres each.  Fractional lots were often necessary to allocate lands which lay along land district lines.  All of the 1st Land District and a large portion of the 2nd Land District lie within the bounds of current day Laurens County.

Garland Hardwick, 2nd District Surveyor, began surveying the 2nd Land District of Wilkinson County on May 13, 1804.  Hardwick, with the aid of John Vining, William Clark, Isaac Shores and Jesse Lively completed the survey on November 6, 1804.  Eleven days later, 1st District Surveyor James Lamar began his survey of the 1st Land District at the lower end of the lands distributed by the 1805 Land Lottery.  John Foalk, George Johnson, Robert Fullingame, Thomas Brantley, John Roberts and James Miller carried the chains until the work was finally completed on April 5, 1805.  These men worked under difficult circumstances at best.  Most of the Indians were gone, but there were no places around to get food and supplies.  They either killed their own game, gathered fruits and berries, or were provided supplies by merchants east of the Oconee in Washington and Montgomery counties.   

Each surveyor hired two chain carriers, who carried a half-chain with a length of two perches or thirty-three feet and which was composed of fifty links.  The surveyor established the direction of the lot or district line, on which the chain carriers laid the chain down forty-five times for each side of a land lot.   Axe men were necessary to removable obstacles along the line and to mark boundary line trees and corners with chop marks on wooden stakes.  The surveyor was required to post a bond in the amount of ten thousand dollars to insure the faithful discharge of the trusted reposed in and the duties required of them.  The surveyor was compensated by the mile at the rate of two dollars and seventy-five cents per mile.  Out of this payment, the surveyor had to pay the chain carriers, axe men and all other expenses in connection with the work.

The first lottery was held on July 22, 1805.  In order to qualify for the lottery, prospective aspiring land owners had to file a written application to the Inferior Court within their county.  Single white males over 21 and minor orphans and families of orphans were entitled to one draw.  Male head of households and widows with minor orphans were given two chances to draw a prized lot.  Soldiers of the Continental Army, who had heretofore been given preference in choosing lands, were given no special privileges.   Jared Irwin, a former and future governor of Georgia and resident of Washington County, was President of the Lottery Commission.  

The First Land District was composed of 246 whole lots and 60 fractional lots.   The district included all of the land south of the mouth of the county’s northernmost Rocky Creek between the Oconee River and Turkey Creek.  The first whole lot (17) drawn was awarded to the orphans of John Taylor of Washington County.   On September 11, 1805, Lister Crafford, Charles Whitehead and Avery Dye became the first persons to pay the fee of $4.00 per hundred acres to obtain their grants in the district.  William Hill, of Greene Co.,  was granted Land Lot 232 upon which the town of Dublin would be created seven years later.  Thacker Vivion and Cornelious Whittenton were among the few drawers who obtained prizes with both draws, as was James Lucky of Augusta who lived up to his name when he was awarded Lot 92. 

Ironically the most valuable lands were not the whole lots but the fractional lots  lying along the Oconee River and Turkey Creek.  A public auction was held at the capital in Louisville to auction off the lots to the highest bidders, who obtained their grants on February 1, 1806.  Especially prized were the lots for the location of lucrative ferries.  Elijah Blackshear bought five lots at the site of the first Blackshear’s Ferry. Just down the river at the site of the present day Blackshear’s Ferry, James and William Beatty purchased two fractional lots for their ferry, the first authorized by Laurens County.  General John Scott, a prominent early founder of Baldwin County, bought two lots at the point where the Lower Uchee Trail crossed the Oconee at Carr’s Bluff.  Gen. Scott also bought a lot up the river at the mouth of Rocky Creek.  Nearer the future site of Dublin, George Gaines bought a large fractional lot which became the eastern part of the town. Gaines was granted a license in 1806 by the Montgomery County Inferior Court to establish a ferry at the point where an old Indian trail from Indian Springs to Savannah crossed the river.  Even further down the river, William Neel bought lots to establish his ferry, which was located at the current day site of the Riverview Golf Course.  Jonathan Sawyer, who founded Dublin in 1811, bought a fractional land lot at Fish Trap Cut where the river was at one of its narrowest points.  Seymour Bonner purchased the last fractional lot (26) on the Telfair Road at Turkey Creek  on February 28, 1856.  

The Second Land District encompassed 340 lots in Wilkinson County and Laurens County, which embraced 174 whole lots (156 in 2005)  and 28 fractional lots.   These lots were located between Turkey Creek and the river and north of the mouth of Rocky Creek.  Holland Summer, Joseph Tilley, Malachi Maund and John Kent, all of Burke County, moved quickly and were awarded their grants on September 4, 1805.  As was the case in the First Land District Turkey Creek lands, those at the point where the Uchee Trail crossed Turkey Creek were especially prized by bidders.  James Thompson, Laurens County’s first sheriff, bought Lot 3.  Edmond Hogan, one of the county’s first justices of the Inferior Court, purchased lots 7 and 8 at the point where the Gallimore Trail would soon cross Turkey Creek.  John Thomas, son of Peter Thomas, whose home was used for the first session of Laurens County Superior Court, secured 171.5 acres of prime land at the trail crossing site.    

Because of an early fire in the Wilkinson County courthouse it is difficult to determine how many of the fortunate drawers actually took up their grants within the first year.  As many as half of the grants were probably sold to settlers, land speculators and adjoining land owners.  The unpredicted success of the 1805 lottery led to a second lottery in 1807, which disbursed the remaining lands of Laurens County west of the Oconee.  

05-26

DR. PATRICK HUES MELL

Eminent Eighteenth Century Educator

Dr. Patrick Hues Mell’s career in the educational and religious annals of 19th Century Georgia remains unprecedented.  From his humble beginnings as a teacher in a one room Montgomery County school house, Mell rose to become Chancellor of the University of Georgia.  From his first sermon as a licensed minister in a small Baptist Church, Rev. Mells was elevated to the Presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention for nearly a quarter century.  This is the story of one of Georgia’s most foremost citizens who began his remarkable career right here in East Central Georgia.

Patrick Hues Mell was born in Walthourville, Liberty County, Georgia on July 19, 1814.   By the age of fourteen, Patrick became an orphan after the death of his father followed shortly by the death of his mother.  With only the clothes on his back and a satchel of purely personal belongings, Mell began his teaching career in a one-room log schoolhouse, complete with a dirt floor.  He spent two years at Amherst College in Massachusetts before leaving early to teach school in West Springfield, Massachusetts.  He later served as Assistant Principal of East Hartford High School in Connecticut.   In October 1838, Mell accepted a position as teacher at Ryals in lower Montgomery County, which was located below present day Uvalda.  Just four months later, Mell received an offer to become the principal of a Female Seminary at Emory College at Oxford.   His employment came at the urgent request of Gov. George M. Troup of Laurens County.  Troup, who met the young teacher at Dr. Perry’s house in Montgomery County, became a  ardent advocate of the young man.  When plans to establish the seminary failed to materialize, Mell was offered an alternate position as Principal of the Classical and English School at Oxford, one which he accepted.  

It was during his term at Emory that Mell was called to preach the Gospel.  He obtained a license to preach in 1840.  With his career goals firmly established, Mell returned to Montgomery County to marry Lurene Howard Cooper, whom he taught as a student at Ryals.  Mrs. Mell was a guiding force in Mell’s advancement in the educational and religious fields before her untimely death just more than twenty years into their marriage. 

In 1841, again up the influential request of Gov. Troup, Rev. Mell was offered the chair of the Department of Ancient Languages at Mercer University, then located at Penfield, Georgia.   A year later, Rev. Mell was ordained as a minister and served Greensboro Baptist Church and other churches in the area until 1852.    In 1845, Rev. Mell was one of the Georgia delegates to the organizing of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta.  He served as Clerk of the Georgia Baptist Convention from 1845 until 1855.  In 1855, when Rev. Mell resigned his position as professor at Mercer when he was not offered the presidency of that institution.  Mell turned down innumerable offers for positions at colleges and universities throughout the South, including the presidency of Wake Forest.  

In 1856, Rev. Mell was offered a more prestigious position as Chair of the Department of Ancient Languages at the University of Georgia.    After a one year respite from the leadership of the Georgia Baptist Association, Rev. Mell was elected as President of the Association, a position which he held longer than anyone else in the organization’s history until his death more than three decades later.   In 1860, Rev. Mell was selected to become Vice-Chancellor of the University.    As a Ph. D, Dr. Mell remained as Vice Chancellor until 1872. 

Rev. Mell, always a adherent of the rights of the Southern states, accepted the position of Captain of “The Mell Rifleman,” a company organized in Athens, Georgia in the first few months of the Civil War.  Mell’s eldest son Benjamin joined the company.  When Lurene Mell died just a week before the fighting started in July 1861, Captain Mell resigned his commission to remain with his other seven children.  Sgt. Benjamin Mell went off to war an on September 17, 1862 at Sharpsburg, Md.  He was severely wounded and taken prisoner on the single bloodiest day of the Civil War.

On Christmas Eve of 1861, Dr. Mell married Eliza Cooper, who bore him six of his fourteen children.   In the fateful year of 1863, Dr. Mell was elected as President of the Southern Baptist Convention.   When it became readily apparent in the summer of 1863 that the Union Army would be invading Georgia, Dr. Mell accepted a position as Colonel of the local militia units in Athens.  Joining the Chancellor of the University, the faculty and nearly all of the students, Col. Mell accompanied his troops to Rome, Georgia in effort to stop the upcoming invasion of his beloved Georgia.  He remained with the company until “The March to the Sea” ended at Christmastime in 1864.  After the war, Mell returned home to Athens, broke and unsure of his future with a house full of children.

During the war, classes at the college were suspended.   The Southern Baptist Convention did not meet in 1864 and 1865.  In 1866, Mell returned to his position as President and served until 1886, making him the longest or one of the longest serving presidents of the 160-year-old organization, which is the largest of its kind.  During the same period, Mell also served as President of the Georgia Baptist Church, except for a four-year period when he was too sick to attend the annual conference.

Rev. Mell was known to have preached for 90 minutes to a congregation who swore that he never spoke too long.  His son Patrick Mell, Jr. described his father’s sermons as distinct and plain.  

The Rev. Patrick Mell died at his home on January 26, 1888.  Three days before his death he said, “I have been a wonderful child of Providence, if not a child of Grace.” The Southern Baptist Convention in its 1888 session memorialized Rev. Mell for his “ erect figure, angular features, keen eye, concise speech, his incisive thoughts, cogent logic, unyielding orthodoxy, and command address.”

05-27

PICNICKING IN THE PARK

The West Point Class of 1936

In the long history of the United States Military Academy, few classes have had such an impact on the history of the United States as the Class of 1936.  The cadets of the 1820s through the 1850s shaped the future of our country during the horrific War Between the States.  The Class of ‘36, with its forty- eight future generals, made unprecedented contributions to their country and the cause of freedom in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and during the decades of the Cold War which bridged the three conflicts.  One young man, a son of a general but unique to his class, helped to bring the black soldier to the forefront of the United States Military.  This is the story of the West Point Class of 1936, who for a few hours eighty years ago this week were treated to the finest hospitality the men and women of Dublin could muster.

It was the beginning of their senior year at West Point.  After achieving the rank of first class cadets, these 277 young men were bound for ten days  of intense infantry training in the sweltering sun of Fort Benning.  They traveled from New York to Savannah on the U.S.S. Chateau Thierry.   After a hardy breakfast, the cadet corps traveled by truck convoy along U.S. Highway 80 from Savannah.  The first item on the days itinerary was midday lunch in Dublin at Stubbs Park on July 31, 1935.

Mess Officer Capt. William R. McKennon arrived a day early to begin preparations to feed more than 500 cadets, officers, escort crew and guests.   Capt. McKennon set up the mess hall in the Hargrove Gym, the high school’s wooden gymnasium which was located on the present site of Stubbs Park Gym.   Mayor Marshall Chapman requested that everyone in the city display their American flags as sign of support for their troops.  Milo Smith, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, made all of the arrangements with a host of volunteers at his direction.  Wilbur S. Jones, the local Sinclair dealer, had adequate gas standing by to supply the convoy for the remainder of its trip.   MS William Moon and his twelve assistants provided a delicious meal of baked ham, mashed potatoes, stewed corn, cold sliced tomatoes, ice cream, cake and lemonade placed on tables just outside the gym.

Of the young men in the park that day, three cadets would become listed among the leading Army generals of the 20th Century.   They were Creighton Abrams, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. and William C. Westmoreland.  Creighton Abrams commanded armor battalions during World War II.   During the Korean War, Gen. Abrams served as Chief of Staff of the I, IX and X corps.   Just as the war in Vietnam was escalating, Abrams was promoted to Major General in 1965 as deputy commander and later commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command. Gen. Abrams served as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1972 to 1974 and supervised the withdrawals from Vietnam until his death.  Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the son of the country’s first and only black general, was shunned by his classmates and forced to eat in silence and to speak only when spoken too.  The abuse only aroused his desire to succeed in his academic and military studies.  When Davis graduated 35 out of 276 in his class, he joined his father as the country’s only two black line officers.  Five years later, Davis found himself assigned to a flight training program at Tuskegee, Alabama.    Davis led his “Tuskegee Airmen” to unrivaled success over the skies of Europe, where one of every sixteen military personnel killed in action during the war lost their lives.  During his group’s 200 escort missions, not a single bomber was shot down by the German Luftwaffe.  Davis returned to action in 1953 in Korea. The country’s first black Air Force general, Lt. General Davis retired in 1970 to accept an appointment by President Nixon as Assistant Secretary for Transportation for Environment, Safety and Consumer Affairs.  William C. Westmoreland, a former artillery officer and Superintendent of U.S. Military Academy, was Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1965.    Gen. Westmoreland command the United States Troops in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968  and served as Chief of Staff of the Army from 1968-1972.

  LTG John H. Michaelis was a senior aide to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower during World War II.  After the war, he served as Chief of Staff of the Allied Powers in Europe.  After serving as commander of the Army in Alaska and a stint as Commandant of the U.S. Military Academy, Gen. Michaelis served as commander of the 5th Army from 1966 to 1969.  Michaelis left that position to serve as Commander of U.N. and U.S. forces in Korea.  Gen. Michaelis was aided by his deputy commander and former classmate Gen. John H. Chiles.  Bruce Palmer, Jr., a son of a brigadier general and grandson of a medal of honor winner in the Civil War, retired as a four star general.  Gen. Palmer was passed over for the command of the troops in Vietnam after his classmate Gen. Westmoreland’s promotion in favor of another classmate, Gen. Abrams. Palmer, deputy commander under Gen. Abrams,  made his mark on the Vietnam war by writing a scathing report on the failure of the Army and the White House to design a plan to win the war.  

Ten Cadets never made it through World War II.    William Fickes was killed by lightning just four months after graduation.  Maj. Peter McGoldrick was killed in N. Africa in Nov. 1942.  Maj. Frederick Kellam, a member of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was killed in action in the first few hours of D-Day.  Maj. Leonard Godfrey, of the 16th Division, was killed in the first few moments of the Normandy invasion at Omaha Beach. LTC Francis Oliver and LTC Duncan Dowling, Jr., of Augusta, Ga., were killed in the summer of 1944 in France.  Majors Carl Boehr, John Goldtrap, Karol Bauer, and Lawrence Prichard endured the Bataan Death March only to be taken prisoner by the Japanese.  These four officers and thousands more soldiers were herded as POWs into unmarked transport ships bound for Japan.   Many of these ships were bombed and sunk by American fighter pilots, who were oblivious to the human cargo in the holds of their targets.  

General Howell M. Estes was elevated to a four star general by President Lyndon Johnson and placed in command of the Military Air Transport Command in 1965.     Gen. John A. Heintges, the commander of the 7th Infantry Regiment that captured Hitler’s villa at Berchtesgaden in May 1945, was second in command of the Army in Vietnam from 1965 until he was replaced by classmate Creighton Abrams.  

Gen. Howard M. Snyder served as a physician to General and later President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1946 to 1948 and from 1951 to 1960.  It was with Dr. Snyder’s approval that President Eisenhower sought a second term after a near fatal heart attack in 1955.   Gen. James Landrum, then Lt. Col. Landrum, was talking to celebrated war reporter Ernie Pyle when he was killed by a Japanese machine gunner on Okinawa in April 1945.  Lt. Gen. Albert Clark was appointed to head the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970.  Maj. Gen. Chester Clifton, Jr. served as the senior military aide to President John F. Kennedy.  Gen. Clifton gave President Kennedy daily morning briefings on military intelligence reports.  Clifton was riding in the motorcade with the President when he was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.  The general continued to advise President Lyndon Johnson in that capacity until his retirement in 1965. Gen. Charles Billingslea, a former World War II paratrooper, was given command of army units assigned to enforce desegregation at the University of Mississippi in 1962 and to protect a group led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who sought to end racial discrimination in Birmingham in 1963.  Perhaps most notable among the cadets who weren’t presented their diplomas in June 1936 by World War I Supreme Commander, Gen. “Black Jack” Pershing was cadet I. Chang.  Chang, who was sent by the Chinese government to study American military tactics,  transferred to VMI, where he graduated in 1936.  Capt. Chang and his entire company were killed in the defense of Nanking in Dec. 1937. 

As these young men paused to enjoy southern cooking at its finest in the cool breezes of the ancient pines of Stubbs Park, it is inconceivable that they had any conception of the impact that they would have on their country in the next four decades and for many decades to come.

05-28

A HISTORY OF 

RENTZ,   GEORGIA

Rentz, Georgia is located in central Laurens County, Georgia, about thirteen miles from the county seat of Dublin.   It is named for Edward Pierce Rentz, a banker, a sawmill operator, and president of the Dublin and Southwestern Railroad.  E.P. Rentz was born in 1862.  He was a son of  Rev. Joseph Rentz and Martha McGeehee.   Joseph was a minister in the Methodist Church.  His family, originally called “Von Rentz,” settled the German Salzburger community at Ebenezer, Georgia.  Martha McGeehee’s family’s roots were deep in Methodism.  Her brother, Rev. John McGeehee, the founding minister of  the First Methodist Church in Dublin, still holds the distinction of being the longest serving active minister or presiding elder  in the history of the Methodist Church in Georgia with 65 years of service.   E.P. Rentz married Katherine Gaston, whose family traced its roots to Bishop Lovick Pierce and George Smith, two major stalwarts in 19th century Georgia Methodism. 

E.P. Rentz, president of the Citizens Bank of Swainsboro, joined one of Dublin's leading businessman, J.D. Smith, in organizing the Citizens Bank of Dublin in August of 1902.  The bank was located on South Jefferson Street in a building designed by Rev. George Thompson, a local minister and architect, and built by local contractor, E.J. Fuller.  This modest, granite-faced building still stands and is today occupied by attorney, Charles Butler.  Early in 1906 the bank was sold to a new group of investors.  The City National Bank opened with $100,000 in paid in capital, making it the largest bank between Macon and Savannah.  It joined the First National Bank as a part of the national banking system. The new board of directors also included E.P. Rentz.   Rentz purchased a stately colonial home on Bellevue Avenue in Dublin from J.D. Smith.   He sold the home after a few years.  Today the home is known as the W.E. Lovett House.

The area around Rentz was once fields of wiregrass and virgin  yellow pine trees.   During the 1880s, timber brokers began coming into the area to harvest the coveted yellow pine.    Once pine trees were harvested, farmers began planting cotton and corn in their place.   On January 1, 1880 J.D. Bates bought Land Lot 131 of the 17th Land District from John T. Rogers.   The land would eventually encompass over two thirds of the Town of Rentz.  The property was later acquired by W.B.Rogers.  Rogers lost the property when the Merrimack Savings Bank foreclosed a judgment lien against the property in 1894.  

The area was formerly known as Reedy Springs.   The name comes from a nearby spring, which undoubtedly had a lot of reed plants around it.   The Reedy Springs Militia District was created on October 5, 1883.    After the Civil and Indian Wars, the necessary of each militia district was no longer necessary.   The militia districts then began to function as voting districts and Justice of the Peace Court districts.

The Reedy Springs community was also known by the name of Bluewater.  That name was derived from a nearby creek to the north and west.  In 1883, the Reedy Springs District had four churches (all Baptist), a common school, a steam gin, a grist and a saw mill.  Farmers produced 800 bales of cotton, 800,000 board feet of lumber, and 8,000 pounds of wool.  The farmers of the area, which extended down to the current day Cadwell area and over to Dexter were: E.F. Alligood, H. Alligood, I. Alligood, A.J. Barron, H.D. Barron, J.H. Barron, W. Barron, W.T. Barron, J.D. Bates, A. Bedingfield, J. Bedingfield, R.A. Bedingfield, W. Bedingfield, W.A. Bedingfield, G.W. Belcher, Eliza Clarke,  H.C. Coleman, W. Coney, J.E. Crumpton,R.H. Crumpton,  C.C. Gay, Hardy Gay, Mrs. M. Gay, Stephen Green,  D.Y. Grinstead, E. Grinstead,  P.E. Grinstead, Robert Grinstead,  J. Hobbs, A.B. Holliday, W.F. Holliday, L.H.  Hudson, S.B. Johnson, W.D. Joiner, A. Jones, W.J. Kinchen, W.F. Kinchen,   G.B. Knight,  J.T. Knight, R.G.B. Knight, B.  Lewis, S. Lewis, T.J. Lewis, J.R. Locke, J. Lowery,  W.A.N. Lowery, G.W. McDaniel, H.R. McDaniel, J.R.  McDaniel,  R.F. Mathis, C. Mullis, J. Mullis, W.H. Mullis, R.F. Register,  and A. Rountree.

The local businessmen were A.J. Adams, machinist; H. Alligood, sawmiller; J.M. Bass, miller; W.B.F. Daniels, general store; J.T. Rogers, general store; R.L. Faircloth, machinist; James Lovett, wheelright; J.R. Sheperd, general store; and Wynn Brothers, general store.  Local ministers in 1883 were N.F. Gay, D.E. Green, J.W. Green, T.J. Hobbs, J.T. Kinchen, J.T. Kinchen, Jr., J.I.D. Miller, J.T. Rogers, C.B. Smith, and C.R. Winham.  L.A. Bracwewell was Justice of the Peace and A.B. Clark was the Notary Public and ex-officio Justice of the Peace.  

The Williams Lumber Company had built a tram road from Eastman to Rentz where the mill of the Georgia Shingle Company was located.  In 1899, W.D. Harper and John J. Simpson established a saw mill.   By 1902 all of the available timber was located between the mill and Dublin.  The company decided that a new railroad could be built at only a slightly higher cost.  The original plan called for a railroad that would  intersect the Macon, Dublin, and Savannah Railroad near the Dublin Cotton Mills in West Dublin.  Among the early backers of the project were the Macon, Dublin, and Savannah Railroad, with Col. J.M. Stubbs as being the driving force behind the project.  In 1904, Edward P. Rentz and his partners, W.D. Harper and J.J. Simpson purchased the property for $75,000 from Merrimack Savings Bank, which had been leasing the property to Harper and Simpson.   E.P. Rentz, a Dublin banker,  took a keen interest in the project, becoming the main owner in partnership with Harper and Simpson.

Grading of the Dublin and Southwestern Railroad began on March 2, 1904 near the cotton mills in Dublin under the supervision of E.P. Rentz and superintendent Frank S. Battle.  The organizational meeting of the railroad was held in the Citizens Bank on April 6, 1904.  E. P. Rentz was elected president.  J.J. Simpson and  W.D. Harpe, were elected as vice president and traffic manager/treasurer respectively.  William Prichett, J.M. Stubbs, and David S. Blackshear of Dublin were elected to the board of directors.  The first spikes were driven and the workers raced to complete the road to Rentz by mid May.  

The first scheduled train from Rentz to Dublin ran on June 29, 1904 with two daily trips to follow in July.  Engineer J.P. Pughesly immediately began laying out the road along the old tram road to Eastman while Col. J.M. Stubbs was seeking subscriptions from Eastman and Dodge County businessmen. Originally there was only a little interest in Dodge County but when McRae offered to buy into the road, the citizens of Dodge came through with the necessary capital.    Battle's crews began laying rails.  Construction was delayed by legal actions by some Eastman citizens.  General Manager W.J. Kessler moved the headquarters of the railroad to Eastman in May of 1905.  

Conductor B.W. Hightower guided the first freight train out of Eastman on May 5, 1905.  E.P. Rentz, W.J. Kessler, and Supt. C.E. Rentz were on board the inaugural train. Within a week the first load of freight was received in Eastman.  President E.P. Rentz arranged the inaugural passenger service to coincide with the May term of Dodge County Superior Court. The train left Dublin early in the morning of May 15, 1905 with attorneys and clients bound for the nine a.m. court on board.  Passenger service was born as the train arrived just in time for court.

Rentz and his associates had done such a good job in building the road that the Wrightsville and Tennille became interested in the project.  Finally after a year of offers, the W. & T. purchased the Dublin and Southwestern Railroad. The Wrightsville and Tennille made its new runs on July 1, 1906.  Thirty-five years later the story ends when the railroad and an era were closed forever.       

The Town of Rentz was born on October 5, 1904.  E.P. Rentz, acting on behalf of the Rentz Lumber Company, made an agreement with an adjoining landowner, J.D. Bates.  Bates owned sixty acres of land east of or opposite the Rentz Lumber Company Mill.  The railroad bed split the two tracts.  Bates agreed that the title to his land would belong to E.P. Rentz.  In exchange for the promise, Rentz  promised to lay out lots for sale.  Rentz, Bates  and a member selected by both were appointed to an advisory committee to determine the terms of sale.   The 11.4 acre Faulk Reserve located just north of the intersection of Bates Ave. and Bedingfield Ave. was to be held for sale until Bates agreed that it could be sold.  

The Town of Rentz was laid out in a kite-like shape.  The tail of the kite was the intersection of Bates Avenue and Bedingfield Avenue on the eastern end of town.  The top of the kite stretched from the academy lot on the north to the Rentz Lumber Mill pond on the south.   There were twenty business lots on the west side of the railroad and twenty four business lots on the east side.  On the west side of Davidson Street there were 10 residential lots.  On the east side of Proctor Street there were thirty eight residential lots.   The streets were named for the early and prominent citizens of the town.    Bates Avenue was named for the co-founder, J.D. Bates. Simpson Avenue was named for J.J. Simpson, a co-owner of the Rentz Lumber Company.  Bedingfield Avenue was named for Dr. W.E. Bedingfield, one of the town’s first doctors and original city councilmen.  Pughesly Ave. was named for J.P. Pughesly, the town’s first mayor and the railroad engineer.  There was Railroad Street West and Railroad Street East which ran from north to south along the sides of the railroad.  Davidson Street was named for A.W. Davidson, an original councilman and the town’s first businessman.  Proctor Street was named after J.L. Proctor, businessman and original city councilman.    Taylor Street is named for Dr. T.J. Taylor.   Church Street is named for the two churches, Methodist and Baptist which are located in the eastern part of town.  On the west side of town around the lumber mill were a dozen or so shanties.  J.P. Pughesly owned a large lot on the west side of the railroad at the southern end of town.  Dr. C.E. Rentz’s house was a little further down on the east side of the railroad.  A hotel lot was laid out on East Railroad Street just south of the corner of the southern margin of Simpson Ave. and the eastern margin of East Railroad Street.  The Academy was  at the northwestern end of town.

The business lots were sold to C.E. Evans (1), Flora Edmondson (2), Francis C. Walker (10), C.E. Rentz (13-16),  W.H. and Eliza Bonner (34), W.F. O’Connor (35), W.E. Bedingfield (37), J.L. Proctor (39), J.H. Proctor (40),  C.F. and J.T. Ussery (42), and C.E. Rentz (48).   Residence lots were sold to C.E. Rentz (48), J.L. Proctor (62-63), H.C. Coleman (84-85), and H.C. Woodard (92).

On March 11, 1905 the post office of Rentz was established.  John S. Edmondson was the first postmaster.     Other postmasters were J. Eldredge Chambless, General M. Knight, Lovett  N. Mullis, Olin D. Barron, C. Thurmon Grinstead, Ray Chambless, Billy Payne, and Betty Register.   The office effectively replaced the old Reedy Springs Post Office which had been established on October 27, 1873 with John T. Rogers as postmaster.  This office was discontinued on December 31, 1901.  The mail was forwarded to Dexter.  John F. Silas and George P. Bugg were early mail carriers.

The town of Rentz was incorporated by the Georgia Legislature on August 21, 1905.   The city limits extended to one-half mile in each direction from the intersection of Bates Avenue and the railroad.  The first mayor was J.P. Pughesly.  J.L. Proctor, A.W. Davidson, J.E. Guy, Dr. C.E. Rentz, and Dr. W.E. Bedingfield were the members of the first city council. 

As the railroad became a reality, more and more families began moving into the area.  E.P. Rentz offered choice building and residential lots for sale.  A 60 x 100 foot lot could have been bought for $25.00.    Half acre home lots were being sold for $35.00 to $50.00.  A.W. Davidson was the first to build a store  house.    His house store was located on Lot 7, with his home on the adjoining Lots 26 and 27.   He traded under the name of Davidson and Grinstead in partnership with J.T. Grinstead.    Davidson also built the first home in town.  Doctors W.E. Bedingfield and T.J. Taylor established the first drug store in 1905.   J. P. Pughesly established a large general mercantile store.   The store  traded under the name of The  Rentz Trading Company.  Investors in the corporation were T.J. Taylor, J.F. Graham, W.A. Bedingfield, and P.E. Grinstead.   The store, which contained 3500 square feet was considered one of the largest in Laurens County.     Houses and businesses were going up at a fast pace.  Dr. C.E. Rentz built a two-story home on the south side of town along the railroad tracks.  Cullen Evans completed his dry-goods and grocery store in the spring of 1905.    H.C. Coleman, Jr. began construction of his residence in the summer of 1905.    That same year, Haywood Proctor began the construction of a furniture store.    Proctor’s store was modern 20 x 70 foot building with plate glass windows.    J.G. Gay began building his house near the home of J.P. Pughesly in southwestern Rentz.  J.S. Knight built the first cotton gin and grist mill.   J.S. King was also one of the first merchants in  Rentz.  In 1906, T.J. Taylor incorporated his general mercantile business, The Taylor Mercantile Company, with the aid of Joe F. Graham and A.T. Barron.  

During the town’s first two years of existence, Rentz was plagued by a series of four fires.  The second and most destructive fire came in April 1906 when the wooden stores of the Rentz Trading Company, Davidson & Grinstead, and the Rentz Pharmacy went up in flames.  A fourth fire resulted in the loss of the $5000 store of J.M. Outler in 1906.  A financial cataclysm struck the firm of Roundtree, Knight & Coleman in 1907, when the firm petitioned for protection from its creditors under the bankruptcy code.

If the railroad was king, cotton was queen in Laurens County.    From 1911 to 1918, Laurens County was a perennial leader in the production of cotton in Georgia.  In 1912, the county produced more cotton than any other county in the history of our state, before or since.    John Rigby built a cotton gin which burned in 1908.  Dr. Taylor built a gin a year later.  M.E. Burts of Dublin built the Planters Gin.  In 1923 O.D. Barron built still another gin.   Several cotton warehouses were located in Rentz.  The Farmers Union Warehouse was established in 1910.  The original building was destroyed by fire in 1940, along with 800 bales of cotton.  H.Y. Grant built a warehouse in 1923.   R.A. Register later established the Planter’s Gin Company.  The last cotton gin, owned by John Lowery, closed in 1978.

  In the early spring of 1906, Rentz suffered a devastating fire.  The stores of J.P. Pughesley and A.W. Davidson were destroyed along with the drug store of Doctors Bedingfield and Taylor.   The losses were estimated to be between thirty and forty thousand dollars.    The  businessmen of Rentz were not to be deterred.  Police Chief R.A. Watson, broke ground for Dr. Taylor’s new two story store building in May of 1906.    Most of the new buildings were to be built of brick.  The people of Rentz hoped to have seven brick stores, a bank building, an opera house, a city hall and  a Masonic Lodge,  all within three months.

On September 28th, 1906, the Rentz Lumber Company, composed of E.P. Rentz, Dr. C.E. Rentz, W.D. Harper, and J.J. Simpson, sold their interest in the lumber mill to two Dublin agri-businessmen, W.B. Rice and W.T. Phelps.   The conveyance included 12 shanties in the southwestern section of town, three dwellings, the hotel lot, and commercial building lot # 4, along with the lumber yard.  The fifteen hundred dollar sale price indicates that there weren’t a lot of improvements located on the property at the time.  

A school was constructed in 1905 under the direction of Hamp Williams on the Academy lot in western Rentz.  The original school was located on the site of the last school in Rentz.  The patrons of the school met and elected J.P. Pughesly, A.W. Davison, J.L. Proctor, Dr. Charlie Rentz, and B.O. Rogers as the school’s trustees.   In its first days, enrollment approached 200 students.   In 1914 a two-story brick school building was constructed.  Rev. N.H. Burch and O.K. Jolly served as superintendents for many years.  Among the early teachers were Miss Carswell, Dan Metts, Ida O’Neal, Mr. Miller, Mr. Lawson, and Mr. Murchison.   In 1924, Miss Sadye Wilkinson taught the first classes in home economics.  C.A. McMillan was the first Agricultural teacher.   Many area schools were consolidated into the Rentz School District.  L.H. Cook was the new superintendent.  He was succeeded by E.A. Rusk and W.M. Ouzts.  A vocational building was added in 1939, followed by a business training program under the direction of Gladys Fields.   Six man football, a program designed by school superintendent Elbert Mullis, began in October of 1938.  Teams were fielded by the high schools in Rentz, Dudley, Brewton, Cadwell, Dexter, and Cedar Grove.

The Bank of Rentz was established  in 1910.   T.J. Taylor was President of the Bank.  H.D. Barron was the Vice President.  F.M. Kirkpatrick was the cashier.  John D. Walker served as Financial Agent.  The Board of Directors was composed of J.T. Mercer, H.D. Barron, John D. Walker, T.J. Taylor, J.F. Graham, P.C. Coleman, W.E. Bedingfield, W.A. Bedingfield, and B.O. Rogers.   

The Rentz Banking Company succeeded the ill fated Bank of Rentz.    The new bank was reorganized in May of 1914 with the help of several Dublin businessmen.  Dr. J.M. Page, founder of the Commercial Bank of Dublin, was elected president of the bank.  H.D. Barron and W.E. Bedingfield were elected vice-presidents.  H.K. Murchison was hired as cashier.  The original board of directors included A.W. Davidson, S.T. Hall, J.S. Adams, W.A. Bedingfield, E.S. Baldwin, Alex D. Blackshear,  and J.W. Rowe.  The bank was located on the main street along the Railroad in Dexter.   In 1920 Olin D. Barron was President with H.D. Barron and W.E. Bedingfield serving as Vice Presidents.   In the latter years of the bank, Mr. and Mrs. O.D. Barron, Barron Smith, and Foster Taylor were officers of the bank.  The bank and its assets were purchased by the Citizens and Southern Bank in 1974.  The bank continued to operate as a branch for nearly twenty more years before closing.

On Oct. 29, 1903 the Thaggard Masonic Lodge No. 460, F.& A.M. was chartered on the Thaggard Turpentine still grounds south of Dublin in lower Laurens County.  The charter officers included P.E. Grinstead, Worshipful Master; J.F. Grinstead, Senior Warden; P.D. Couey, Junior Warden; and J.C. Gay, Secretary.  In 1905 the Lodge moved to Rentz to a lodge built on city lot 23 and donated by E.P. Rentz on November 17, 1905.    The trustees of the lodge were P.E. Grinstead, R.L. Faircloth, and J.L. Hobbs.    Over the next 55 years, the lower floor of the two-story lodge building was used as a school, canning plant, voting precinct, and the Reedy Springs Militia District Courthouse.  The Masons of Rentz built a new concrete block building in 1960 just in front of where the old building stood.  When the new building was constructed, the officers of the Lodge were J.A. Dominy, Jr., Worshipful Master; G.B. Lindsey, Sr., Senior Warden; J.L.F. Lowery, Junior Warden; Kermit R. Lowery, Secretary; and Leon Keen, Treasurer.

On Halloween night in 1906, the men of Rentz formed a Lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows.    The institution of the lodge was brought about by the members of the Dexter Lodge.  The original members of the lodge were W.B. McLendon, Frank Lavender, W.D. Register, H. T. Beckworth, J.B. Rowe, D.E. Mullis, D.J. Faircloth, J.L. Gay, S.E. Warren, W.D. Warren, E.D. McDaniel, T.R. Taylor, L.L. Frierson, J.S. Frierson, W.J. Mullis, A.W. Smith, James R. McDaniel, J.W. McDaniel, D.J. Grinstead, J.A. Coleman, H.C. Coleman, J.T. Grinstead, H.C. Burch, J.A. Burch, W.F. Coleman, J.H. Coleman, P.D. Couey, W.E. Silas, Washington Hobbs, L.H. Currie, G.B. Knight, F.M. Sanders, W.E. Bedingfield, J.T. Gay, E.O. Alligood, B.F. Dixon, W.D. Dixon, T.J. Taylor, W.O. Minton, L.L. Ward, J.E. Faulk, W.B. Gay, H.J. Alligood, H.L. Faircloth, G.W. Culbreth, W.H. Bedingfield, W.H. Tate, and J.W. Rowe.   Those admitted from the Dexter Lodge by card were C.C. Hutto, R.L. Faircloth, A.T. Barron, C.H. Wyatt, Otis Davidson, M.R. Mackey, Will Ward, Luther Knight, and Robert Knight.

The officers of the Lodge were R.L. Faircloth, Noble Grand; W.E. Silas, Vice Grand; J.R. Gay, Conductor; J.T. Grinstead, Recording Secretary; Washington Hobbs, Financial Secretary; J.W.  Rowe, Treasurer; J.H. Coleman, Chaplain; W.H. Bedingfield, Jr., Warden; A.T. Barron, Right Support Noble Grand; E.O. Baggett, Left Support Noble Grand; O.W. Davidson, Right Support Vice Grand; W.H. Tate, Left Support Vice Grand; W.W. Warren, Right Scene Supporter; E.O. Alligood, Left Scene Supporter; W.J. Mullis, Inner Guard; and L.G. Knight, Outer Guard.  The Odd Fellows met in the Masonic Lodge.

E.P. Rentz sold a lot to the Laboring Friends Society for their Lodge on April 29, 1905.  The  Lodge was located between the Colored Methodist Church and the Colored Reedy Springs Baptist Church.   Wiley Ginn, John Anderson, and Seaborn Rozier were Trustees of the Lodge.  

The Baptists of Rentz organized a church on June 28, 1905.  They met at the L.G. Knight home.  The fourteen charter members were Mr. and Mrs. B.O. Rogers, Mr. and Mrs. L.G. Knight, Mr. and Mrs. G.M. Knight, Mrs. John T. Rogers, G.W. Knight, John S. Knight, D.J. Knight, Mr. and Mrs. W.F. Cooper, and Mrs. George Coleman.  They moved to a brush arbor and the Methodist Church before moving into their permanent church in 1906.  E.P. Rentz sold the church Lot No. 69 for $1.00 on August 5, 1905.  The deacons of the church were B.O. Rogers, W.S. Cooper, J.S. Knight, J.W. Barron, and J.P. Pughsley.  The first pastor was J.T. Smith.  Other early ministers of the church were T.J. Hobbs, T.Z. Bush, T. Bright, O.O. Williams, T.E. Toole, J.R. Kelly, L.N. Jessup, T.J. Barnette, W.E. Harville, Frank Synder, C.H. Hornsby, J.C. Daniel, Otis Garland, F.B. Pickern, E.A. Price, W.O. Brown, J.W. Harper, William Burns, C.E. Vines, Thomas E. Moye, Harry W. Bentley, Charlie Smith, Hugh Harber, Francis F. Bush, Billy Lee, Richard D. Hinely, Hubert F. Woodyard, Jack Sapp, Otis Bentley, and Grady H. Mimbs.   Among the earliest deacons of the church were J.F. Cooper, B.C. Coleman, B.O. Rogers, W.F. Cooper, and H.Y. Grant.  J.E. Chambliss served as a deacon for 40 years.   L.H. Cook served over 50 years as deacon.  Clerks in the church included A.W. Couey, A.J. Cooper, A.W. McCleod, G.M. Knight, F.M. Barron, L.A. Gibson, F.C. Taylor, D.P. Knight, W.W. Fordham, J.E. Chambless, H.A. Rountree, Mrs. Adon Woodard, Linda Morton, and Ruby Knight. The first church was torn down in 1929.  Until the new church was completed in 1931, services were held in Grant’s Cotton Warehouse and in the Methodist Church.

The Methodist Church was organized in 1905.    E.P. Rentz sold a lot to the Church for $1.00 on April 27, 1905.   The property was conveyed to C. E. Rentz, E.P. Rentz, RL. Shy, J.T. Warthen, and J.E. Gay as Trustees .    Among the early members were Mr. and Mrs. C.E. Rentz, Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Warthen, Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Pughsley, and Mr. and Mrs. Joe Keen.    

E.P. Rentz sold a lot for $1.00  to the Reedy Springs Colored Baptist Church on November 29, 1905.  Richard Allen, Richard Moss, and Henry Roberts were the Deacons of the Church.   Rentz also sold a lot the Colored Methodist Church, but there is no indication that the deed was ever recorded.  

The lights came on in Rentz in the early 20s when the town operated off a Delco battery system.  On April 1, 1927, Georgia Power began furnishing power to the town.   In a history of Rentz written by Charles L. Schell in 1998, a list of the  men providing law enforcement for the Town of Rentz were town marshals Rawls Watson, Will Coleman, Charles Tipton, W.D. Register, J. Frank Schell, Alfred Davidson, and Prentice Coleman.

Despite the growth of area in the early years, the population of the Reedy Springs Militia District dropped from 1,904 in 1900 to 1,619 in 1910.  The trend turned around in 1920 when the population rose to 1, 886.    In 1910, the first census was taken in the Town of Rentz.  The population was 275.    Ten years later following the war and the coming of the boll weevil, the population dropped to 219.    The population of Rentz climbed to 400 in 1940.   

The death blows to the growth of the small towns along the Dublin and Southwestern Railroad came in 1941.    The world was at war.   The railroad tracks were pulled up.    At the pinnacle of the history of Rentz, the following merchants and businesses were located  in Rentz: Grant Warehouse, Farmers Union Warehouse, Barron’s Pharmacy, J.R. Chambless Hardware and Electrical Store, J.A. Daniel Gen. Merchandise, E.J. Woodard, Gen. Merchandise, J.A. Davidson Dry Goods, James L. Davidson Grocery, Allen D. Davidson Hardware, J.G. Register Grocery, Z.C. Register Grocery, Eugene Couthern Grocery, P.R. Coleman Grocery, R.A. Register’s Service Station, Mack Strozier’s Lunch Room, O.D. Barron’s Rentz Service Station, F.R. Phelp’s Service Station, Z.C. Register’s Barber Shop, Rentz Wagon Works, O.D. Barron Gin Company, Planter’s Gin Company,  and O.B. Barron’s Stables.

Many people say the best thing to happen to Rentz since the coming of the railroad was the formation of the Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc. in 1953.  The founding officers were C.J. Burch, President; L.K. Keen, Vice President; W.B. English, Treasurer; and J.B. Fordham, Jr., Secretary.   The original party telephone lines were completely replaced by private lines by the early 1970s.  By the mid 1970s, extended area service gave residents the third largest free calling center in Georgia.  Since the installation of fibre optic lines, the cooperative serves over 5100 customers located over an area of 500 plus square miles.  

The drug store, then owned by Herbert Bedingfield, closed in 1955.  Dr. T.J. Taylor and Dr. W.E.  Bedingfield died in 1948 and 1942 respectively.   The Rentz school closed.  Students went to Laurens High and then to West Laurens High.  A new post office was constructed in the 1960s.  A new city hall was built in 1985.   Despite all the changes, the town of Rentz perseveres. 

Congratulations to the people of Rentz and may you always remember your heritage.

05-29

FROM SANDERSVILLE TO COOPERSTOWN

The Original Big Mac

It seems strange that nearly fifty years have passed since a young man from Mobile,  Alabama first took his position at first base for the Sandersville Giants.  As a young boy, all Willie Lee ever wanted to do was to play baseball.  Growing up in the shadows of the legendary Hank Aaron,   the young man idolized the ability, desire and undaunting courage of Jackie Robinson as he broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947.  When he signed a professional contract, he told a reporter that he would have paid the team to let him play baseball. He loved the game that much.   Over his twenty five-year career in baseball, the tall lanky and powerful young man, affectionately known as “Stretch” for his ability to snare and scoop incoming infield throws, became the most prolific left handed home run hitter in the history of the National League, that is until his record was eclipsed by a fellow Giant Barry Bonds.  McCovey  was a man of natural power, found not in a bottle, but in the desire of his heart.  This is the story of Willie Lee McCovey, who began his professional baseball career as a member of the Sandersville Giants in 1955.

Willie Lee McCovey was born on January 10, 1938.    While most kids his age were about to complete the requirements for graduation from high school, Willie packed his careworn bat and glove and headed to Melbourne, Florida for a try out with New York Giants.  Giants scouts couldn’t help but notice his slender 6 foot four inch powerful physique and his ability to catch anything thrown at him.  In addition to signing future Giant greats Felipe Alou and Orlando Cepeda, the Giants  signed Willie to a minor league contract and assigned him to the organization’s Class D farm team Sandersville of the Georgia State League.  His contract provided that he would be paid $175.00 a month or about six dollars a game.   Willie started his career at the bottom of the Giant’s farm system.  Though he grew up in the South and experienced the atrocities of racial segregation in the 1950s, Willie was the first black player ever to play for Sandersville, which was in its eighth year in the league.  He was joined by two other black players, Robert L. Reed and Robert Scott, a former Negro league player.

It has been said that the Giants sent Willie to Sandersville just to get rid of him.  He was such an unknown that the Sandersville Progress first called him “Willie McCoohren.”  It was April 25, 1955 when the young seventeen-year-old slugger was to play his first game for the Sandersville Giants.  The Giants opened the 1955 season at home versus the Dublin Irish. Mayor Tom Carr of Sandersville threw out the first pitch to Mayor Felton Pierce of Dublin.  Georgia State League President was the ceremonial first batter.  Furman Bisher, the legendary sports columnist of the Atlanta Constitution was present to witness the birth of a legend.  McCovey reached base in his first plate appearance and scored a run.  The Giants went on to defeat the Irish 4-1. 

The Giants and the Irish would face each other 21 more times during the season.  In those games the Giants took an 11-10 advantage.  McCovey batted just under .300, driving in 15 runs and smacking five home runs.  The highlight of his games against the Irish came on May 26, when he belted two home runs.  When he was a young man, Dublin resident Melvin Hester, witnessed one of those mammoth McCovey wacks. I remember it as if it was yesterday when Hester, my Sunday School teacher, told a group of us boys that McCovey hit one over Telfair Street.  Whether on several bounces or on the fly, that was a real good knock, well over 500 feet.

McCovey led the Giants to a second place finish in the Georgia State League.  Though his batting average (.305), home runs (19) and runs batted in (113) in 107 games were very impressive, they were nowhere near league records.  McCovey did lead the league in rbi and putouts.  He ended his first season 5th in runs scored, 3rd in total bases and 4th in extra base hits.  Playing that season with McCovey in Sandersville was Julio Navarro, a journeyman infielder, who made it to the major leagues in the 1960s.

Willie McCovey rapidly climbed the steps of the big leagues.  After successful seasons in Danville, Va. And Dallas, Tx. , he was elevated to Phoenix of the Pacific Coast League. In 1958 and  the first half of the 1959 season, Willie batted .319 and .372.  The Giants were in the midst of a pennant race with their arch rival foes, the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The Giants needed Willie’s left handed big bat in the lineup.  He was immediately sent into the starting lineup to replace another young star and powerful hitter Orlando Cepeda, who moved to the outfield.  In his very first game, McCovey went 4-4 against future Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts.  He finished the season with a startling record of 13 home runs, 38 rbi and .354 batting average in 52 games, a feat which earned him a unanimous selection as  National League Rookie of the Year.  In 1962, with a company of heavy hitters including Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda and Felipe Alou, McCovey led the Giants to the National League Championship and a berth in the World Series.  McCovey nearly became a legendary series hero only to have a series winning line drive snared by Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson, who preserved the American League powerhouse’s victory.  Willie achieved his best season to date when he belted 44 home runs and drove in 102 runs in 1963.  

It was during the seasons of 1968 through1970 when Willie McCovey began his journey to baseball immortality.  In that three-year span, McCovey hit 36, 45 and 39 home runs and batted in 105, 126 and 126 runs.  His 1969 season, deemed by most to be his best, led to his election as National League Most Valuable Player.   

Following three seasons at the top of his game, McCovey limped through the rest of his career, frequently playing in excruciating pain.  He missed a third of the ‘71 season as well a half of the ‘72 campaign.    Much to the dismay of Giant fans everywhere, McCovey was sent down the Pacific Coast to the San Diego Padres for two seasons.  In 1976, the aging star was again traded, this time to the Oakland A’s, across the bay from San Francisco.  To the cheers of thousands of adoring fans, McCovey returned to the Giants in 1977.    The height of his active baseball career came in Atlanta in 1978, when Willie McCovey became only the 12th man and the 3rd Giant ever to hit 500 home runs.

In 1986, Willie McCovey was elected to Baseball Hall of Fame with a highly respectable 81% of the ballots in his first year of eligibility. Willie was selected to a half dozen all star games and played in two world series in 1962 and 1971 with a .310 batting average.   In his 2588 game career, Willie McCovey safely hit 2211 times with 521 of those hits being home runs.  He drove in a remarkable 1555 runs and all the while hitting for a career average of .270, all of this accomplished by a young kid who began his dream in the lowest levels of baseball right here in East Central Georgia, trumped the doubters and when he retired in 1980 was the 12th greatest home run hitter in baseball history.  

05-30

THE SECOND MANASSAS

The Return to Bull Run

The end of the summer of 1862 saw General Robert E. Lee's forces return to the scene of the first Confederate victory at Bull Run or Manassas, as it was called by people in the South.  Lee hoped to continue his successes of the Seven Days Battles. Southern generals Stonewall Jackson and A.P. Hill reached Brandy Station on the south side of the Rappahannock River on August 24.  Three days later, Jackson marched 54 miles northwest completely around Pope toward Manassas Gap.  On the 28th of August, Hill moved from Centreville to join Ewell at Blackburn's Ford, where they crossed Bull Run and moved south toward Manassas Junction.  Hill took his men back across Bull Run and moved them up the northeast side of the creek toward the Warrentown Turnpike, where he turned to the southwest and crossed Bull Run for a third time.  Participating in that battle were the Blackshear Guards and Laurens Volunteers of Laurens County and the Johnson Grays and Battleground Guards of Johnson County, along with a host of other local companies from east-central Georgia. 

Gen. Jackson assigned Hill to protect the mill and ford at Sudley Springs.  On the morning of the 29th, E.L. Thomas formed his brigade, including the Blackshear Guards, Laurens Volunteers and Johnson Grays, along the western margin of an unfinished railroad east of the Grovetown to Sudley Road.  Union general Pope had hoped to use his superior forces to crush Hill before the rest of Lee's army joined the fight.  Thomas discovered that the ground was a little higher to the west and moved back toward the road.  Thomas also found impediments in placing his artillery in the woods.  By noon, Union skirmishers, mainly composed of German regiments, began firing on Gregg's Brigade on Thomas's left.  The Federal forces moved back after a brief skirmish.  Thomas moved his men back to the railroad shifting his line to his right and  leaving  a 125-yard gap along a break in the railroad bed where it passed through a swamp. 

Grover moved his Federal Division in front of the gap between Gregg and  Thomas, who knew nothing of Grover's approach. Thomas’ men escaped the battle that morning. But  Grover's men closed to within a few yards of the railroad before they spotted the Confederate line.  Thomas's men stood up and fired.  Grover launched a hand to hand combat attack through the gap and overran the 49th Georgia on Thomas's left.  Thomas retreated back toward the Grovetown Road with many casualties. The move was described by onlookers as "like opening swinging doors."   Grover lost one in six of his men during the first attack.  Thomas  moved to his left and rallied the 49th Georgia.  The fighting was fierce with a crossfire of less than ten yards.  Thomas's left was strengthened by the 14th S.C. and Pender's Brigade.  Grover retreated in 30 minutes after losing another sixth of his men.  

Federal forces under Gen. Kearney launched another attack at five o'clock running into Gregg and Thomas's skirmishers.  Once again, Thomas was nearly surrounded by Federals.  This time Thomas's Brigade stood firm.  Gregg was nearly out of ammunition.  Gen. Jubal Early came to the rescue, saving Thomas and Gregg, who had moved back to Stoney Ridge.  Early, with his twenty five-hundred fresh men, crushed the Federals, who hastily retired to end the day’s fighting.  The battle shifted to the southwest on the 30th with Thomas on the extreme Confederate left.  Thomas lost 155 men, killed or wounded, during the battle.   Corp. James C. Lee, who was killed in action, was the only casualty of the Blackshear Guards.  Capt. James T. Chappell and privates John M. Burch, Uriah S. Fuller and William H. Wright,  all of the Laurens Volunteers,  were wounded in the first day of the battle.  John D. Wolfe of the Volunteers was killed.  William G. Pearson was wounded on the second day.  Johnson Grays Francis J. Flanders, Williamson T. Flanders, Jonathan B. Smith and John Walker were wounded during the first day's fighting.  Future Laurens Countians Sgt. G.W. Belcher (Co. C. 20th), William Cranford (Co. E, 26th) and Lt. James Mincey (Co. D, 61st) were wounded during the two-day battle. 

The 48th Georgia was a part of Gen. Ransom Wright's Brigade of General R.H. Anderson's Division.  The Division was attached to the Right Wing of the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of General James Longstreet.  During a grueling march, Quincey L. Black, A.J. Foskey, and Wilson Riner had to fall out of line.  Ransom Wright, a Louisville-born attorney, commanded a Georgia Brigade composed of the 3rd, 22nd, 44th, and 48th Georgia Regiments. 

At 4:50 p.m. on the afternoon of August 30, the 48th Georgia moved out from its resting place on the Brawner Farm.  Anderson's Division crossed to the south of the Warrenton Turnpike and set out on a two-mile march toward Henry Hill.  During the march, the Confederates were subjected to  artillery fire from Dogan's Ridge.  Three thousand Georgians opened the assault by pressing the Federal lines along the Sudley Road.  

At the height of the fighting, the 48th Georgia moved to Jones' right.  Wright brought his brigade to the far right in support of Gen. G.T. Anderson's brigade,  who were being fired on before their lines could be formed.  Mahone's brigade fell in on  Wright's right flank and  extended the Confederate right far beyond the Union left flank.  The Federal lines were caught in a bad position.  Many elements of the Confederate forces were crossing the road.  The Confederates failed to press the attack and allowed the Union army to regroup.  The 15th and 17th Georgia regiments fell back.  Anderson's Division and the 48th held their position.  James Neal, of the Battleground Guards, was killed in the fighting.   James W. Rowland suffered a wound.   Though Anderson failed to discern that an attack would have cut the Federal lines, his default did not end the assault on the Federal lines.  

Wright and Anderson's brigades continued to pressure the Union lines at slow place until an hour after dark.  Wright's fatigued men were replaced by Wilcox's and Drayton's brigade.  Longstreet's Corps continued the attack forcing Pope's Yankees into a retreat. At the end of the battle Lee's forces were in position to launch an attack deep into the North.  Gen. Lee hoped his success at the Second Manassas would lead his army to victories in Maryland and beyond.  Little did General Lee realize the devastating carnage that would follow in the succeeding battles of Antietam/Sharpsburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. 

In summarizing the battle, a Federal survivor of the attack on Hill’s line said, "The slope was swept by a hurricane of death, and each minute seemed twenty hours long." An artilleryman in Hill’s division, put it this way, "When the Sun went down, their dead were heaped in front of that incomplete railway, and we sighed with relief, for Longstreet could be seen coming into position on our right.  The crisis was over ..., but the sun went down so slowly."   

05-31

LAURENS COUNTIANS IN WORLD WAR II

When the country called, Dublin and Laurens County once again stepped forward and sent thousands of young men into military service during World War II.  Scores of Laurens County boys joined the National Guard, which was attached to the 121st U.S. Infantry division.   The Guard mobilized in September of 1940 into Federal service.  Alta Mae Hammock and Brancy Horne were the first women to join the WAAC.  Marayan Smith Harris was the first woman to join the WAVES.   Seaman Elbert Brunson, Jr. was onboard the U.S.S. Greer on September 4, 1941.  The destroyer was the first American ship to fire upon the dreaded German U-boat submarines in an incident which accelerated the country’s declaration of war against Germany.    Several Laurens Countians were at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  Marjorie Hobbs Wilson and her husband were eyewitnesses to the bombing.    

Alton Hyram Scarborough of the D.H.S. Class of '37 was the first of one hundred and nine casualties of the war.  Robert Werden, Jr. loved to fly and was so anxious to fly planes in World War II that he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force.  When the United States declared war, he joined the Army Air Force, only to be shot down and killed in the early years of the war.  Capt. Bobbie E. Brown of Laurens County was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism in the assault on Crucifix Hill in Aachen, Germany.  Capt. Brown, a career non- commissioned officer, personally led the attack on German positions, killing over one hundred Germans and being wounded three times during the battle.  Capt. Brown was the first Georgian ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor, along with eight Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars.  At the end of the war, Captain Brown was the oldest company commander in the United States Army and first in length of service.  Paratrooper Kelso Horne was pictured on the cover of Life during the invasion of Normandy.   Lt. Horne, a member of the famed 82nd Airborne Division and one of the oldest paratroopers in the U.S. Army, parachuted behind German lines near St. Mere Eglise in the night time hours before the amphibious invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.   Ensign Shelton Sutton, Jr., a native of Brewton and a former center for Georgia Tech, was killed while serving aboard the U.S.S. Juneau, along with the famous Sullivan brothers.   Nearly two years later in 1944,  the U.S. Navy commissioned the U.S.S. Sutton in honor of his memory.  His teammate Aviator Wex Jordan,  an all-Southeastern guard for Georgia Tech in 1941, was killed in an air accident while training in San Diego.  Randall Robertson and James Hutchinson, both only a year or so out of Dublin High School, were found lying dead near each other on the beaches of Iwo Jima in 1945.  

Robert Colter, Jr., who had been teaching Vocational-Agricultural classes at Cadwell High School, was killed on February 20, 1945 in Germany.  Captain Henry Will Jones, the Vocational - Agricultural teacher and football coach at Dexter High School and a paratrooper, was killed in the South Pacific in October, 1944.  Lt. Lucian B. Shuler, a former Cadwell High School basketball coach, was an ace, having shot down seven  Japanese planes in combat.   Captain Shuler was awarded eleven Distinguished Flying Crosses and twelve Air Medals.   Cpt. William A. Kelley, a former Dublin High School coach, was flying the “Dauntless Dotty” when  it crashed into the sea on June 6, 1945.  The B-29 Superfortress was the first B-29 to bomb Tokyo.  Kelley and his crew, who flew in a bomber named “The Lucky Irish,” were the first crew in the Pacific to complete 30 missions.  They were returning home to headline the 7th War Bond Drive when the accident occurred.   Hubert Wilkes and Jack Thigpen survived the fatal attack on  the “U.S.S. Yorktown” at the Battle of Midway.  Tech. Sgt. Luther Word  was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for heroism,  just prior to his being killed in action.  Lt. Paul J. Scarboro was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry as a pilot of a super fortress in the Pacific Ocean.   John L. Tyre volunteered for six months hazardous duty in southeast Asia in an outfit dubbed “Merrill’s Marauders.”  The Marauders, the first ground soldiers to see action in World War II, fought through jungles filled with Japanese soldiers, unbearable heat, and snakes.  Only one out of six managed to make it all way through the war. 

Commander Robert Braddy was awarded the Navy Cross, our nation’s second highest honor for naval heroism,  for his actions in North Africa in November of 1942.  Rear Admiral Braddy retired from the service in 1951.  Captain William C. Thompson was awarded a Silver Star, two Gold Stars, a Navy Cross, and a Bronze Star for his outstanding naval submarine service.  Captain Thompson was the executive officer aboard the submarine Bowfin, which was credited with sinking the second highest Japanese tonnage on a single war patrol.  Thompson was aboard the U.S.S. Sealion when it was struck by Japanese planes at Cavite, Philippines.  The submarine was the first American submarine to be lost in World War II.  Both men are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  Captain Thompson’s  first cousin, Sgt. Lester Porter of Dublin, led the first invading forces over the Danube River in nearly two millennia.  Capt. John Barnett, a twenty-one year old Dubliner, was credited with being the youngest executive officer in the United States Army in 1944.  Lt. Arlie W. Claxton won the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1943. Marine Corporal James W. Bedingfield of Cadwell was awarded a Silver Star by Admiral Chester Nimitz for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the Japanese at Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll, on February 6, 1944.   His kinsman, Capt. Walter H. Bedingfield, was awarded a Silver Star for heroism in setting up a field hospital in advance of American lines at Normandy on D-Day.   T. Sgt. Thurman W. Wyatt was awarded a Silver Star for heroism when he assumed command of his tank platoon following the wounding of the commander and guided it to safety.   Lt. Colonel James D. Barnett, Col. Charles Lifsey, Col. George T. Powers, III,  and Lt. Colonel J.R. Laney,  former residents of Dublin and graduates of West Point, were cited for their actions in India and Europe.    Captain Alvin A. Warren, Jr. of Cadwell was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying 70 missions in the Indo-China Theater night and day through impassable mountain ranges and high clouds.  Flight officer Emil E. Tindol also received the same award, just days before he was killed in action  while “flying the hump” - a term used for flying over the gigantic mountain ranges of India and Burma.    For his battle wounds and other feats of courage and bravery, Lt. Clifford Jernigan was awarded the Purple Heart, an Air Medal, and three Oak Leaf clusters in 1944.  Lt. Garrett Jones was a highly decorated pilot who participated in the first daylight bombings of Germany.    Calvert Hinton Arnold was promoted to Brigadier General in 1945.  Lt. Col. Ezekiel W. Napier of Laurens County, a graduate of West Point, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and retired from the Air Force in 1959 as a Brigadier General.  The "Pilot's Pilot," Bud Barron of Dublin, was credited with the second most number of air miles during the war, mainly by ferrying aircraft to and from the front lines. 

James Adams, Morton C. Mason, Wilkins Smith, Russell M. Daley, Gerald Anderson, Marshall Jones, Robert L. Horton, Loyest B. Chance, Needham Toler, William L. Padgett, Joseph E. Joiner, W.B. Tarpley, Owen Collins, Loy Jones, Thurston Veal, James B. Bryan,  Cecil Wilkes, and others  were surviving in P.O.W. camps in Germany, while Alton Watson, James W. Dominy, and Alton Jordan  were held prisoner by the Japanese.  Lt. Peter Fred Larsen, a prisoner of the Japanese army, was killed by American planes when being transported to the Japanese mainland in an unmarked freighter.  Future Dubliner Tommy Birdsong was digging coal in a Japanese coal mine when an atomic bomb was dropped near Nagasaki. Earlier he survived the infamous "Bataan Death March."   Other future Dubliners who survived the Bataan Death March were William Wallace, A. Deas Coburn, and Felix Powell.   PFC Wesley Hodges was a member of the 38th Mechanized Calvary Recon Squad, the first American squad to enter Paris on August 25, 1944.   Seaman James T. Sutton survived the sinking  of the “U.S.S.  Frederick C. Davis”, the last American ship sunk by the German Navy.  The 121st Infantry of the Georgia National Guard, which was headquartered in Dublin until 1938 and of which Company K and 3rd Battalion HQ Co. were located in Dublin, won a Presidential Unit Citation for its outstanding performance of their duty in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest during Thanksgiving 1944.  Edward Towns was cited for his meritorious service to the submarine forces of the United States.  Curtis Beall, after being voted by his classmates as the most outstanding senior at the University of Georgia in 1943, joined his brother Millard in the United States Marine Corps.   These are only a few stories of the thousands of Laurens County's heroes of World War II, which ended sixty years ago this month.  

05-32

JEROME BULLOCK

The Acts of a Patriot

When President Jimmy Carter appointed 29-year- old Jerome Bullock of Dublin, Georgia as the Marshal of the District of Columbia in 1977, some may have considered him too inexperienced to insure the security of the Federal and Superior Courts of  the nation's capital.  Armed with the enduring educational influences of his maternal progenitors, an innate desire to serve in the armed forces of his country and a resolute determination to enforce laws protecting the fundamental human rights of all Americans, Bullock was well suited for the task.   Though no longer in public service, Bullock utilizes his decades of experience in the field of security in advising his clients on ways of protecting the personal, property and monetary rights of Americans and American corporations from the devious activities of terrorists and criminals who are constantly attempting to undermine the lifeblood of our nation's economy.   

Jerome Bullock's road to success began early in life.  His mother Vivian Bullock, his grandmother Raiford Gamble Baker and his great-grandmother Leila Gamble encouraged Jerry to strive to reach high standards of achievement.  Reading was a number one priority.  Jerome's mother bought him a set of World Book encyclopedias.  The summary of world's knowledge, which still remains in his mother's home today, encouraged the young man to seek all the knowledge he could.  Jerry started school at Millville at the urging of his mother.  He rode with Principal U.I. Toler and his family and his grandmother Baker, who was a teacher at the school.  In the 2nd grade, he returned to Dublin to attend Washington Street School.  The following year, Jerry had to “dodge" his mother's 3rd class in favor of another teacher.  In his "junior high" years, Jerry attended Susie Dasher School.  From 1961 to 1965, Jerry attended Oconee High School, where he was active in the publication of the school newspaper and yearbook, in addition to a host of extracurricular activities. 

Bullock's male mentors included Lucius Bacote, a former principal of Oconee High School in Dublin, and  Col. Holman Edmond and Bullock's father, Jerry Bullock.From an early age, Jerome Bullock idolized Col. Edmond, a decorated helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War.  Edmond, who was mentored by Bullock's grandmother Leila Gamble Raiford Baker  attended Tuskegee University after he ended his first term as an enlisted man.  Col. Edmond became somewhat of a mythical figure in Jerome's life.  Rarely did he see his hero, settling instead for exciting stories of Edmond's military service.  Jerome aspired to fly, just like Col. Edmond.  He worked hard to obtain his pilot's license.  Not wanting to settle for just a license to fly private planes, Bullock obtained a commercial private license, an instrument flight instructor certificate, and ratings in advanced ground and instrument ground techniques.  In more than three decades of flying Jerry Bullock has flow over more than two thirds of North America.  Occasionally, he still flies home to Dublin.  "I enjoy flying because of the tremendous mental challenge required to do it well."  

After his graduation from Oconee High, Jerry turned down several offers to attend other colleges in favor of Tuskegee University, where his father, a World War II veteran, had studied after the War under the GI Bill.  While at Tuskegee, Bullock participated in the ROTC program. During his last two years at Tuskegee, he was awarded an ROTC scholarship.  In his senior year (1968-69), Jerry served as Cadet Commandant of the ROTC Leadership Academy. 

Perhaps the first time Jerry Bullock envisioned himself as a member of the Armed Forces came during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.  " I was in the 9th grade and remember listening to President John F. Kennedy's speech on the radio," Bullock remembered.  Even at a young age, Jerry realized the potential seriousness of the situation.  He read as many newspaper accounts of the crisis as he could.  "The event made me want to go into the military as soon as possible to serve my country, but because of my age, I would have to wait another seven years to join since you had to be 21 years old to accept a commission as an officer and also be a college graduate," he recalled.  The turbulent social events of the 1960s intrigued the young man, who thirsted for knowledge of what was happening around him and the world. "I enjoyed reading the Courier Herald every day and watching news broadcasts on television and trying to understand various world issues," as he recalled what lead to a life long love of current affairs of the business, political, and public service worlds.  Jerry still loves reading an unlimited source of newspapers through the magic of the Internet and discussing them with his mother.  Little did Jerry realize that his thirst for news of world events would aide him in his present job of providing corporate security and investigative services.    

After his graduation from Tuskegee University, Jerry Bullock was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army.  From the start of his military career, he planned on making military service a career with the ultimate goal of becoming a general.  During his three and one half  years in the army, Jerry served at Fort Benning, Georgia, on the Demilitarized Zone on the North Korea-South Korea border and at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.  While stationed at Fort Campbell, Captain Bullock was granted permission to resign his commission to attend law school at Howard University in 1972.    After graduation from law school, Capt. Bullock returned to reserve military service as a member of the 352nd Civilian Affairs Command.  His unit was responsible for designing procedures for operating a civilian government after successful missions in foreign countries.    It was somewhat ironic that the unit, composed of lawyers, judges, police personnel, and public officials, wasn't called to duty until the Iraq war, nearly thirty years later.  

For most of his life, Jerry Bullock has sought to make the world a better place to live. With a firm understanding that laws are essential to the process, he realized that as a lawyer he would have the training to make long-lasting positive changes in the way we live.  Having seen many of the atrocities committed against his race in his youth,   Bullock made it a priority to work through the legal system to protect the basic human rights of the right to vote and the right to be free from fear of harm by those who hated people merely because of the color of their skin.

Perhaps the biggest impact of racial hatred in Jerry's life came in 1964, when Lt. Colonel Lemuel Penn was murdered near Athens, Georgia  by a shotgun blast while traveling home from Fort Benning after a reserve training assignment.  Colonel Penn's senseless death deeply disturbed Jerry, not only because he aspired to serve in the army just as the colonel did, but because of the fact that during Penn's civilian life, the colonel was a director of vocational education and public school teacher.  Somewhere in the back of his mind, he feared that the same abomination could be committed against his mother and grandmother, both of whom were teachers.   In reflecting on the tragic murder of his idol Bullock said, "After this incident, I became even more determined to serve my country honorably as a soldier and a good citizen and be fair to each person that I encountered and work for equality wherever I served.  When opportunities arose in my career that allowed me to serve my country, I did so to the best of my ability.  I guess it was my own personal way of not letting Col. Penn down as well as countless others who had faced injustices in their military service." 

Jerry Bullock's military service allowed him to attend law school under the GI Bill. To help meet his personal needs, he began working in a part time job with the U.S. Marshals Service during his second year of school.    Realizing Bullock's ability in the law and his outstanding record of military service, Director Wayne Colburn and Deputy Director William Hall asked Jerry to conduct an internal investigation into a  four-day hostage event which occurred in the agency's office in July 1974.  Bullock zealously interviewed more than two hundred witnesses and issued his findings of fact in a report, which suggested ways of improving security in the office.  Impressed with the thoroughness of his work, Colburn and Hall invited Bullock to become a full time member of the agency.   Turning down an offer to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jerry decided to accept the offer to join the marshal's office, a decision he never regretted and one which led to rewarding professional and personal experiences later in his career.

In 1977, an opening in the position of Marshal of the District of Columbia came open. Attorney General Griffin Bell consulted with Director Hall for a replacement.  Bullock was shocked when Hall told him that he had recommended him for the job.  During an interview with the Attorney General, the two fellow Georgians talked of growing up in Dublin and Jerry Bullock’s  life in the army and the law.    Attorney General Bell, also a lawyer and former Infantry officer, knew that Bullock was the right man to serve as U.S. Marshal.  Final approval of Bullock's nomination came from another Georgian, Jimmy Carter, who discarded any notions of his inexperience.    With the resolute support of two powerful Georgia senators, Herman Talmadge and Sam Nunn, Bullock was confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn into office on August 1, 1977.

The United States Marshal in each Federal Judicial District is responsible for security of the Federal court system, its judges, prosecutors, and witnesses as well as the execution of all Federal court orders.  Additionally, marshals are charged with the duty of protecting Federal prisoners and apprehending Federal fugitives.    Just five years after the creation of the Marshals Agency in 1789, Marshal Robert Forsyth of the District of Georgia was the first marshal killed in the line of duty while serving civil papers.  One of the most famous marshals was Frederick Douglass, the country's leading black advocate of abolition.  Douglass, the nation's first black U.S. Marshal, appointed in 1877 by President Rutherford B. Hayes was honored by the Marshal's Service in 1979.   During his  dedicatory address Director Hall singled out Marshal Bullock for his distinguished service following in the legacy of Marshal Douglass.

Perhaps Marshal Jerry Bullock's most memorable assignment came in 1978 when he was responsible for the security of James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  when Ray testified before a House committee on assassinations.  Bullock personally led the transportation of Ray from Brushy Mountain Prison in Tennessee to Washington.  After weeks of extensive planning, Marshal Bullock and his team staged a surprise helicopter landing on the prison baseball field, where they picked up Ray, who had been secreted out of his cell.  Bullock approached Ray and informed him that he was now in the custody of custody of the U.S. Marshal.  "I stepped forward, informed Ray who I was and told him that he was at that moment being transferred to Federal custody.  I put my handcuffs on Ray before the Warden removed his handcuffs and we quickly secured his handcuffs through a waist chain for additional security," Bullock recalled.  "I could tell that Ray was stunned to see that a black law enforcement officer was in charge of his custody and safety.  I think that I too was struck by the turn of events at that moment.  Executed with precision, the entire exchange lasted only a few moments," Bullock remembered.  During Ray's trip to the capital, Ray was escorted by a team of escort personnel, including a physician should an incident occur.  With an elevated level of threats against both Ray and his escorts,   each member of the marshal's service wore bullet proof vests.  Ray refused Bullock's offer of a vest for a protection.  In a moment of ultimate irony, picture a black Federal marshal carrying a live saving vest at all times in the event that he needed to protect the man who had slain the leader of the Civil Rights movement and had destroyed the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans.  Another remarkable event in Bullock's career  came in the early 1980s, when Bullock was responsible for the security of John Hinckley, who was convicted of attempting to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.

After sixteen years in the U.S. Marshals Service, Jerry Bullock joined the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice.   In a short time, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, a position he held until his retirement from public service in 1994.  During his service in the Justice Department, Bullock led a team of special agents who investigated fraud and corruption within the Justice Department.     Bullock saw a need for his expertise in the private business world. His travels have led him to all nearly every continent in the world, including an assignment with the prestigious international consulting firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers.

After five years, Bullock realized that his investigative experience in the governmental and private sectors would be of aid to companies and governmental agencies.  He established Bullock & Associates, Inc.,  a Washington, D.C. firm.  Through hard work on the part of Bullock and his staff, the firm has gained a favorable reputation throughout the country.  Since the passage of the Patriot Act, Bullock and his firm have provided valuable investigative services to financial institutions to seek fight money laundering operations.  Investigating both large and small organizations, Bullock is surprised at the extent of terrorist activities that are occurring on a daily basis.  As a result of his investigations into banking transactions, Bullock has uncovered heretofore unknown criminal activities.  

Jerry Bullock is proud to have served his country in both military and civilian capacities.  "My service in both the military and the Federal government allowed me to serve in positions of  trust that required the highest security clearances in our government," Bullock said.  Bullock takes a great reward in his work when his country trusts him in something that is very important to him on a personal level.  All of the time, Jerry Bullock believes that, if only in a small way,  he is representing the people of Dublin and Laurens County.   Just think.  All of these acts of an American patriot originated right here in Dublin where three remarkable women and a host of male role models instilled in a young man the ideals of hard work, education, public service and patriotism.

05-33

BILLY HENDERSON

The Legacy of a Legend 

He has been called the “Macon Meteor.”  Humorist Lewis Grizzard said he sported “one of the last crew cuts in captivity.”  Old timers say he was the greatest athlete that Macon, Georgia ever produced.  Well, they are only partially right.  William Bradford “Billy” Henderson, a star athlete at Lanier High School in Macon, Georgia Bulldog football hero and one of the top football coaches in the history of Georgia, was actually born in Dublin and lived here until shortly after his father’s death in 1937.  This is the story of Billy Henderson, who despite tragedies of real life, led his teams to the pinnacle of Georgia high school athletics.

Billy Henderson was the second son and the youngest of four children of Hollie Bradford “Red” Henderson and Jewel Fauche Henderson.  The Hendersons lived in a small rental home at 510 South Lawrence Street in Dublin.  “Red” Henderson worked as a mechanic at the Bellevue Service Station.  The family attended church at nearby Centenary Methodist Church.   Billy walked five blocks to school at Saxon Street.   When Billy was three weeks away from his 9th birthday, “Red” Henderson died at the age of forty-two.  Suddenly his mother was cast into widowhood with two children.  Jewel moved the family to Macon, Georgia where Billy eventually entered high school at Lanier High. Not a rich family, the Hendersons left the middle class neighborhood of Quality Hill in Dublin for a small home on the south side of the tracks in Macon. 

While at Lanier High, Billy was a two-time All American star in football and baseball.  In his day Billy was the most prolific scorer in Georgia high school history. Following a stellar career with the Lanier Poets, Billy was a two-sport star for the Georgia Bulldogs in the late 1940s.  Earning four letters in both baseball and football Henderson  posted a collegiate batting average of .345 and was twice named to the All SEC baseball team.   Billy played four seasons under the legendary coach Wally Butts.  In two of those seasons, the Bulldogs captured two SEC championships.  As of January 1, 2005, Henderson still held the Bulldog record for the longest pass reception in Georgia Bulldog bowl history.  The mark came in the 1948 Gator Bowl when Henderson snared a 58 yard pass from Johnny Rauch for a touchdown. 

It was during his life in college when he met the love of his life, Frances “Fosky” West.  The couple met on a blind date on a hay ride out to Lakeside Park, which was then operated by my grandparents Irving and Margaret Scott.  During the summers, Billy played semi pro baseball.  In 1948, Billy was playing for a team from Wrightsville when he was summoned from the field to let him know that his first child, William Bradford “Brad” Henderson, Jr. had been born.   Billy worked at several odd jobs to support his family.  Following his graduation from the University of Georgia, Billy played two seasons of minor league baseball in the Chicago Cubs minor league system.    He began his coaching career as an assistant coach with Furman and the University of South Carolina.

In 1958, Billy returned home to Macon, where he was named the head football coach of Willingham (now Southwest) High School.    Henderson built the program toward a winning tradition.  On September 4, 1964, his son Brad set a Willingham passing record in defeating Warner Robins, led then by quarterback Sonny Purdue, Georgia’s current governor.  

And then it happened.  Coach Henderson was busy watching game films.  The team had Labor Day off.  His son Brad came in and asked for the keys to the family car.  He and his girl friend were headed to Indian Springs to enjoy a picnic with his schoolmates.  The couple was coming home when a driver traveling more than 80 miles an hour ran a stop sign and killed young Brad and his girl friend.  When Henderson heard the news that a couple of teenagers had been killed out on Riverside Drive, he suspected it was Brad because Brad was never late coming home.  When Bibb County Deputy Sheriff Ray Wilkes walked into the room,   Henderson knew that the dead teenager was his son and the hero of his life.   The tragic death of his son has never left his mind.  He frequently talks about Brad’s death as a way of coping with the pain.    The people of Macon honored the memory of the junior Henderson by naming the city’s newest football stadium in his honor.

Henderson remained at Willingham until 1970 when the school became known as Southwest High School.  He compiled a respectable record of 64 and 42 in his fourteen years.  Henderson left his head coaching job to accept a position at Mt De Sales.  After two seasons, Billy Henderson got the opportunity to return to Athens, where he enjoyed many successes.

From 1973 to 1995, Billy Henderson coached the Gladiators of Clarke Central High School.  For part of that time, Henderson also served as the school’s baseball and swimming coach.  His son Johnny was a member of the 1976 Georgia Bulldog SEC Championship team.   

During his 23-year tenure at Clarke Central, Henderson’s teams won state football championships in 1977, 1979 and 1985.  They finished second on four other occasions, playing in the championship game three years in a row from 1984-1986.  His teams made it to the playoffs in 19 seasons and at one time for 18 seasons in a row, before going two and eight in 1993.   Fourteen of his Gladiators played in the NFL for a time.  Three of them made it to the Super Bowl.    Billy Henderson coached his last game in 1995.  His health forced him to leave, albeit temporarily, from the game he loved.  When he recovered, Henderson sought to return to his second hometown of Macon to coach a new team at Westside High School.    When he was not hired, his eyes turned toward the position vacated by former Dublin High School coach Tom Simonton at Central High School, spinoff of old Lanier High.    Henderson initially accepted the offer, but left high school football when his life and the lives of his family outweighed his life long passion for football on Friday nights.

When Billy Henderson retired from coaching, he stood in fifth place in wins among Georgia high school football coaches.  As of 2005, he is still listed in the top ten, placing ninth with 286 wins, 107 losses and 15 ties.  Had he not served for three years as an assistant coach for two years and had he been able to return to coaching in Macon, Henderson most likely would have accumulated more than 300 wins.    

One honor after another have been bestowed upon Billy Henderson. He received the Bill Hartman Award from the University of Georgia for outstanding contributions beyond the field.  Henderson is a member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and the Georgia Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame.  His teams won 12 region championships and seven sectional championships.  He is one of the few coaches in Georgia history who have won state championships in three sports; football, baseball and swimming.  Despite all of these accolades, Henderson points to a moment on Thanksgiving Day as the high point of a career. During a team meal on their way to the his first state championship, Henderson took time to lead the team prayer.  He opened his eyes to see white hands and black hands holding each other.  He paused to think “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the rest of society could do the same in pursuit of a common goal?” 

Though Billy Henderson no longer stands on the sidelines on Friday nights this fall,  he continues to be active in youth athletic and Boys and Girls programs in Athens.  He also founded the Athens Sports Hall of Fame.   Not too bad for a young Dublin boy who overcame the loss of his father and his eldest son to become one of the  most renowned sports figures in Georgia high school history.

05-34

THE GEORGIA CRACKERS

Stringin’ Along, Singin’ A Song

They hailed out of Cochran, Bleckley County, Georgia, the hamlet of Carey to be specific.   Described as a hybrid between Jimmie Rodgers and the Sons of the Pioneers, the Georgia Crackers were one of the best of a myriad of country and western groups which toured the honky tonks, barn dance halls and hay rides of the South and the Mid-West during the 1930s and 1940s.  This is the story of the Newman brothers, Hank, Slim and Bob, and their musical career.   

The oldest son of Walter L. and Mary F.  Newman, Henry J. “Hank” Newman, was born in 1905.   Marion Alonzo “Slim” Newman and Robert “Bob” Newman came along in five year intervals.  Times were tough and the family moved to Hawkinsville in hopes of just  getting by.  The boys loved the sound of the guitar.  The boys saved their woeful wages earned from cropping tobacco and mail ordered a guitar.  A coin toss decided who would play first.  Hank won and became the lead guitar of “The Newman Boys.” Short in stature but tall in his vocal ability, Hank became the group leader and soloist.  Slim, described as the “matinee idol of the trio,”  played second guitar.  Bob chose the bass fiddle.  At six feet two inches tall, the youngest Newman was as tall as his instrument.  As the group clown, Bob entertained audiences with his “dead pan” humor and comedic songs.

Hank was the first to play as a professional.   After stints at WCOC in Meridian, Mississippi and at KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana, Hank joined Slim at WRDW in Augusta, Georgia.   In 1930, Hank and Slim made the momentous choice to move north to Ohio.  The duet enjoyed successful engagements at WTAM in Cleveland before making Columbus their permanent home in 1931.  Hank and Slim toured across the Midwest under the sponsorship of Georgie Porgie Breakfast Food and Texas Crystals.   The boys spent short periods playing on radio shows in Atlanta, Ga., Charlotte, N.C., Wheeling, W. Va. and in Reading and Lancaster in Pennsylvania.    As “Hank & Slim,” the boy’s recording came in 1934 when they cut eight songs for the Vocalian label.  

Bob joined the group at the age of twenty.  By the end of the 1930s, the group changed their name to the “Georgia Crackers.”   Touring through hundreds of Midwestern cities and towns, the group acquired a strong following.  Within ten years, the Newman boys became the senior group of the cadre of musical groups on WHKC, the Mutual Radio affiliate in Columbus and were often compared to the “Sons of the Pioneers,” the definitive group of the country western ilk .  The top country and western band in Ohio hired Winnie Waters as a novelty violinist and Hal Snyder as a guitarist.

Then came 1941 and World War II, and the group was forced to disband.  As the war was ending, the Newmans reunited and added Allan Myers on lead guitar and Johnnie Spies on accordion.  The late 1940s saw the acceleration of one of the most popular movie genres, the “singing cowboy pictures.”  Columbia pictures hired the “Georgia Crackers” to sing and to act in its series of Durango Kid movies.  Charles Starrett starred as “The Durango Kid” in three movies with the Newmans.  The boys first picture came in 1946 in “The Fighting Frontiersmen.”  The following year, the trio appeared in “South of the Chisolm Trail.”  In their final screen appearance, the Crackers appeared in “Desert Vigilante” in 1949.  

The Durango Kid movies resurrected the musical careers of the Crackers.    The boys had a regular radio show on KXLA in Pasadena, California.  Slim ventured into a solo career.   After two years of studio recording sessions, the group released twelve new songs.  The boys returned to Columbus, where they appeared daily on WHKC and across the country on the Mutual Radio Network.   The Crackers remained in Ohio until 1958 when Bob’s declining health and new music styles caused the demise of the group.

Bob Newman, the songwriter of the group, was the last and perhaps the most successful Newman in his solo career.  He recorded more than two dozen songs.  One of his biggest hits was “Lonesome Truck Driver’s Blues.”  Perhaps his most famous song came to popularity in the late 1960s.    The emergence of the country music television show Hee Haw brought country music to its greatest popularity to date.  Comedians Archie Campbell and Gordie Tapp and a host of guest stars appeared in between musical selections and comedy sketches with a Bob Newman classic.   That song was one of those songs many people couldn’t get out of their minds, singing it over and over again in their minds or out loud.  The chorus went, “Where oh where are you tonight?  Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I found true love. You met another and Phftt you were gone.”  Bob also penned “The Leaf of Love,” which became a hit for Gene Autry.

Even before the group broke up, Hank, Slim and their wives opened a restaurant in Columbus.  Bob, moved to Phoenix, Arizona where he worked as a DJ and a trailer park manager.  The group reunited in the late 1960s for one final album.    Hank died in 1978.  Bob died fifteen months later in1979. Slim, the last member of the group, died in 1982.

This is the story of a group of young boys from Bleckley County, Georgia, who loved to sing.  During the tough times of the Depression, they brought  joy and laughter to thousands of their fans across the country.  

05-35

PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DUBLIN

What a Difference A Century Makes

A lot of things can happen in a century and they do.    The public school (stress the word singular) of 1905 was vastly different from the six public schools of the City of Dublin today.  In 1905, the primary problems faced by the Board of Education, teachers and parents were money,  communicable diseases and the loss of students who left school to join the work force.  Today shortage of funding, discipline problems and lack of learning stymie the best efforts of our educators and administrators.  Let us take a look back a century ago when life was slower and education was a aspiration instead of a requirement.  

The 1905-6 school year was the fourth in the young history of the city’s brick school building, now the Dublin City Hall.  Dublin’s first school houses were primitive structures located in the western end of the town in the forks of Academy and Bellevue avenues.  In the mid 1800s, the city erected a small two-story building which served  a school, a Masonic Lodge and the City Hall.  It was replaced in the late 1880s by a more commodious wooden structure on Academy Avenue near the present site of the Elk’s Club.  That building was torched by an arsonist in 1901.

One of the biggest differences in the city schools of 1905 and 2005 was the budget.  For the fiscal year June 1, 1904 to June 1, 1905 the total budget was just under $7,500.00.  The entire teaching staff of both the white and colored schools earned $6639.92.  Supplies and materials cost $445.37 while the janitor and the board of education earned $372.99.  City tax payers paid about a third of the revenue.  The state paid nearly another third of the budget, while the parents and the students themselves paid the balance in tuition and matriculation fees.  At the end of the 1904-1905 year, there were 615 white and 163 colored pupils enrolled in the city system.   In the present day when drop out rates are alarmingly high, the number of first graders outnumbered the number of seniors (10th) grade by 109 to 10. The D.H.S. class of 1905 consisted entirely of seven girls.   In the first ten years of Dublin High School, there were only nine male graduates.    The disparity arose from the fact that few occupations required a high school diploma unlike the requirements of today.  The rapid growth of the northeastern quadrant of the city necessitated the building of an elementary facility, which came to be known as Johnson Street School, which would open behind schedule in January of 1906.   E.P. Rentz, H.H. Smith, George C. Thompson and George W. Williams attempted to organize a private school on E.P. Rentz's lot on Oak St. behind P.L. Wade's residence on the present site of the main office of Capital City Bank.

Schools can’t function without rules.  Many of the rules of 1905 are still in effect today.   A grade of 70 or more would get you a passing mark.  Vaccination certificates were mandatory.  Pupils were expected to be punctual, respectful, neat, free of tobacco and present unless in cases of sickness of the pupil or a close member of the family or in a case of “urgent necessity.”  Additionally, students were required to purchase their text books within a week of the beginning of the school or face expulsion.  Even the teachers, who drew an even more paltry salary than they do presently, were expected to buy their own text books.   Teachers were required to have a diploma from a Normal School or two years of previous teaching experience.  

A second major difference was the composition of the schools.  White and blacks attended separate schools.  The black school was located on Telfair Street near the present National Guard Armory.    Though black students were making some progress, City School Superintendent W.R. Lanier reported that more progress was expected and urged that the school for Negroes be expanded and repaired.  

The curriculum was markedly different in 1905.  Today, Dublin High Students are offered a wide variety of courses ranging from technical courses to advanced placement college level courses.  The school was divided into three departments; Primary (Grades 1-4); Grammar (Grades 5-7) and High School (Grades 8-10).     Primary students studied the basic courses of reading, writing, arithmetic, health and spelling along with nature studies when practical.  Grammar schoolers added history and geography to their courses of study.  High school students focused their attention to a more classical education.  Eighth graders took Algebra, English composition, English History, Latin, Physical Geography, and were required to carefully read “The Sketch Book,” “The Alhambra,” and “The Talisman.”   Ninth graders were required to take Geometry, English composition, Latin, Greek, German, General History and Physics along with reading “The Princess,” “The Lady of the Lake,” “The Ancient Mariner,” “Julius Caesar,” and “The Merchant of Venice.”  Senior tenth graders completed their diploma requirements by passing Plane and Solid Geometry, American Literature, Latin, Greek, German and General History, along with Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and “Macbeth” and two southern classic examples of Southern pastiche, “The Marshes of Glynn” and “The Song of the Chattachoochee.”  

School Superintendent W.R. Lanier taught the tenth grade.  F.W. Seckinger taught both the ninth and eighth grades.  D.A. Walker was the 7th grade teacher.  Leila Vinson, sister of legendary Georgia congressman Carl Vinson, was the 6th grade teacher.  Minnie Stokes, Mrs. C.E. Campbell, Maggie Ramsay, Maggie May Rawls, and Callie Johnson rounded out the primary teaching staff.  Professor C.M. Vet served as the Director of Music.  Miss Mattie Dew taught Elocution and Physical Culture to the school girls.  Mrs. J.S. Simons, Jr. was the art teacher.  

The students attending Dublin schools in 1905 were primarily children of wealthy and middle class parents.    There were future soldiers of our country who would lose their lives in defense of freedom in World War I.  James Mason, Syl Hodges and Charlie Huffman. James L. Weddington, Jr., a first grader, would join the 6th Marine Corps Regiment. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre on July 10, 1918 for his heroism in carrying many wounded men off the battle field to field hospitals for several hours, risking his own safety in the process.

Gladstone Williams and his future wife Sara Orr were second graders.  Williams, a personal friend of Margaret Mitchell and model for Mitchell’s character of Rhett Butler in “Gone With the Wind,” was one of the country’s premier journalists in the mid 20th Century.  Sara Orr Williams in her early twenties served as secretary of three Georgia Senators, Thomas E. Watson, Walter F. George and Rebecca Felton, the nation’s first female United States Senator.  Mrs. Williams was a local and regional journalist in her own right.  Flannery Pope, another second grader, would rise to the rank of Colonel in the United States Army and mayor of Dublin, following in the footsteps of his brother, Cleveland Pope (D.H.S. Class of ’00), who was a leader in the Georgia National Guard.   Among other well known Dublin citizens in school that year were Otis Rawls, Landrum Page, Bob Hightower, Guy Cochran, Ruth Hicks, Rod Peacock, Sr., Frank Cochran, Palmer Currell, Marvin Page, Carl Hilburn, Manly Smith, Palmer Hicks, Pearl Page, Jessie Rice, and Tom Linder, who two decades later would become Georgia’s second longest serving Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture.

Today, when the problems of education seem insurmountable, it is a time to look back to a time when parents, educators, students and the entire citizenry saw going to school as a privilege and not just something the law says you have to do.  A century later, kids are still kids.  It’s that in our world, they need love, attention and a basic education, now  more than ever. 

05-36 

DUBLIN IRISH FOOTBALL

The Beginning of a Tradition

As you read this column the 2005 version of the Dublin Irish football team are about to enter the region playoffs.  With a record of 9 and 0 and outscoring their opponents 492 to 3, the Dublin Irish have completed a regular season unrivaled in the eighty year history of the Dublin Irish football team.  With its 530 plus victories, the Irish stand in 14th place in all time victories in Georgia football and in the top 300 of high schools nationwide.  The  Fighting Irish, formerly known as the Green Hurricane, the Irishmen and the Irish, are among the top 150 schools in the nation in winning percentage for schools with more than 500 hundred victories.  This is the story of the first four years of the Dublin High School team, when just as today, the boys from Dublin dominated the game on both sides of the line.

In the early years of the 20th Century football was considered a dangerous sport.  Numerous deaths among the sport’s participants led to its banning at colleges and high schools across the nation.  Players had little padding. Helmets were thin swatches of leather that left the face, and the head for that matter, virtually unprotected.

Until World War I, baseball and basketball had been the sport of choice at Dublin High School.  In the summer of 1919, the city school board agreed to outfit a football team for the fall season.  The principal didn’t have to look far to find a coach.  W.J. Boswell, the school’s French teacher, had been the captain of Oglethorpe University Football.  Boswell was given the unenviable task of assembling a team of football players, many of whom had never played or had ever even seen the game played.  

Charles Walker was elected as the captain of the team.    Eighty-six years ago tonight on October 25, 1919  after weeks of learning the sport, the Dublin Irishmen took the train out of town for a game against Swainsboro. Perhaps Coach Boswell took the team to prevent an embarrassing loss on their home field on the old 12th District Fairgrounds on Troup Street.  With the blocking skills and running ability of an experienced team, the Irish line opened wide holes and backs ran through Swainsboro defenders like hurricanes in a bayou to smash the boys from Swainsboro 45-0.   One of the highlights of the game came when a Dublin end mistakenly ran nearly the length of the field to score a touchdown for the Swainsboro eleven.  A swifter teammate stopped the humiliated runner just in time to preserve the shutout.  Riding on a tidal wave of confidence, the Hurricane defeated a strong Waynesboro team by a score of 20-13.   In a  rematch with the Swainsboro eleven, the Hurricane pulverized Swainsboro by the score of 86-0, a state team record for points in a single game.   Just when it look like the Irish would go through an undefeated season, the tide turned.  Dublin failed to score in its last two games with Fitzgerald and Waynesboro to finish their inaugural season with a respectable record of 3-2 and outscoring their opponents 151-51.  The offensive star was Walker who accounted for nearly half of the team’s points.  Radcliffe Ashe was the anchor of the defensive and offensive lines.  Remember nearly everyone played both ways.    The members of the first Dublin team were:  Freeman Deese, RT; Lloyd Alexander, RG; Wilcox, C; Radcliffe Ashe, LG; Joe Brenzier, LT; Register, LE; Jed Alexander, RHB; Charles Walker, LHB; Emory Daniel, QB and Hyrell Kendrick, FB.  Emory Smith, Victor Slater and Barwick were substitutes.  

The 1920 edition of the team opened the season with a new coach, Oglethorpe alumni, Morton T. Nichols, and a new name, the Dublin Green Hurricane.  J.B. Smith was selected as captain.  The Hurricane opened their season with another thrashing of Swainsboro 25-0.  The Hurricane continued to dominate their opponents with victories over Statesboro A&M (7-6), Waynesboro (7-0), Statesboro A&M (12-7), South Georgia College (52-0) before deadlocking with South Georgia College 0-0 in the 6th game of the season.  The Dublin boys encountered a tough Fitzgerald team but managed to win 27-13 before easily stomping the boys from Fitzgerald 41-0 in a return match.  The Hurricane easily defeated Americus A&M (41-0) and Waynesboro (27-0) to capture a berth in the South Georgia Championship game.  The Dublin team’s hopes of an undefeated season were dashed when they ran into the “the heaviest team any high school ever went up against in Georgia.”  The Douglas team destroyed the Green Hurricane 63 to 6 in the team’s worst loss ever.  The members of the 1920 team were; J.B. Smith, Capt.; Earl Smith, LE; Tom Harville, RT; Radcliffe Ashe, LT; Clyde Wynn, RG; Walter Jackson, LG; Victor Slater, C; Emory Daniel, QB; Hyrell Kendrick, RHB; Doyle Sconyers; LHB; and Guy Crusselle, FB.  Substitutes were White, Marsh, Freeman Deese, Emory Smith.    

For the third time in three seasons, the Dublin Green Hurricane had a new coach. D.W. Rampley’s gridders were just beginning to gel as a team, despite the fact that they averaged less than 150 pounds per man.  Coach Rampley had played under Georgia Tech coaching legend John Heisman before transferring to Davidson College, where he became a star running back.  The Hurricane opened the  1921 season with shutout victories over Statesboro A&M (32-0), Tifton A&M (13-0) and Graymont-Summitt (37-0).   With 12 victories in 13 games, the Green Hurricane was set to play the greatest game in the history of Dublin football against the powerful team from Savannah High.  The Hurricane ran through the Savannah team like a September gale holding them to two 4th quarter field goals and winning the game 27-6.  To add insult to injury and in one of the earliest known trash talking incidents, some of the Dublin placed a coffin with the words “Savannah High” painted on the side in a wagon just in view of their homebound train.  After a scoreless tie in a rematch with  Graymont-Summitt, the Hurricane traveled to Macon to take on perennial power and former Southern champion Lanier High.  In a sluggish game, Doyle Sconyers extra point kick was the margin of victory over the Poets, 7-6.    The Hurricane ended the regular season with overwhelming victories over South Georgia College (20-0) and Warrenton (42-6).   The South Georgia Champions traveled to Athens for the state championship against a powerful Athens High team.  The Green Hurricane was no match from the boys of the “Classic City,” losing by a margin of 42-0.   The members of the 1921 team were; Victor Slater, C; Lloyd Alexander, G; Wynn, G; Radcliffe Ashe, T; Jackson, T; Smith, E; Finlayson, E; Emory Daniel, QB& Capt.; Hyrell Kendrick, HB; Linder, HB; and Doyle Sconyers, FB.  Substitutes were Michaels, Deese, Emory Smith, Joiner, Johnson and English.

Coach Rampley returned for a second season to lead his team to another fine season. The Hurricane opened the 1922 season by blanking their first four opponents, Swainsboro (13-0), Statesboro High (37-0), Graymont-Summitt (6-0), and Waynesboro (19-0).  In what then became the greatest game ever played, the Irish lost a 6-0 heartbreaker on their home  field to one the “Sunshine State’s” best teams, Duvall High School of Jacksonville, Florida. The Dublin eleven defeated GMC before once again defeating Savannah High 6-0 and Statesboro High 19-6.  In a rematch with Athens, the Irish managed to get within one point of the defending state champions, only to lose by the score of 7-6.  In the final playoff game of the season, the 7-3 Hurricane lost to state champion Griffin High.  The members of 1922 team were; Slater, C; Lloyd Alexander, LG& Capt.; Jordan ,RG; Carl Lake,  LT; Radcliffe Ashe, RT; Wynn, LE; Jackson, RE; Michaels, QB; Roberts, RHB; McLeod LHB and Linder, FB.  Substitutes were Spivey, Warren, Woodward, Thomas, Duggan, Stubbs, Joiner and Underwood.

In their first four seasons the Dublin High team posted a remarkable record of 26-7-2.  Outscoring their opponents 570 to 219, the Dublin Green Hurricane instantly became  one of the most powerful and respected teams in the state.  On this Friday night and throughout the athletic seasons cheer your favorite local teams.  Football is about tradition and since that first game 80 seasons ago, the young men of Dublin High School have always made us proud.  Go Irish!

05-37

DR. JAMES BARNES DUGGAN

The Hero of the Battle of the Lightwood Knot Bridges

In the grand lore of Laurens County, no legend has been more celebrated than the acts of a young Confederate Surgeon and his valiant effort to protect the resources of Chappell’s  Mill during General William T. Sherman’s cataclysmic “March to the Sea” near the end of the Civil War.  Despite reports to the contrary that his efforts were unsuccessful, Duggan and his lone aide did accomplish their objective, protecting the mill.  In his private life, Dr. James Barnes Duggan was a guiding force behind the establishment of one of  the county’s oldest and most important institutions, the Laurens County Library.     

James Barnes Duggan, a son of Archelaus and Elizabeth Walker Duggan, was born in Washington County on November 1, 1833.  One of five brothers, Duggan graduated from the University Medical College in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Duggan began his practice in Wilkinson County and supplemented his income through large farming interests.  Duggan was married three times.  His first wife Nancy Jackson bore him four sons; Isaac Jackson, William Lee, James Henry and Paul Franklin.  His last two wives were a Miss Brown and Emma Bass, sister-in-law of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Stanley, a Confederate surgeon whose family operated Chappell’s Mill, then called Stanley’s Mill.

On March 4, 1862, during a massive organization of military companies of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry, James B.  Duggan was elected First Lieutenant of Company A,  “The Wilkinson Rifles,” of the 49th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment.   His company first saw action during the Battles of the Seven Days on the Virginia Peninsula in late June and early July of 1862.  Following the battles of Cedar Mountain and the Second Manassas  Lt. Duggan replaced Captain Samuel T. Player, who was elevated to Major of the regiment.  A soldier in Duggan’s regiment was given credit for killing the highest ranking Union officer killed during the war,  General Phillip Kearney, at the Battle of Chantilly.   Capt. Duggan led the company while guarding prisoners at Harper’s Ferry during the horrific Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam).  Duggan led his company to victory at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. His company was held in reserve in the climatic battle of Gettysburg.  The Wilkinson Rifles participated in the bloody retreating battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse before retreating to a defensive position around Richmond and Petersburg.    On June 11, 1864, Capt.  Duggan was elected as Major of the 49th Georgia replacing Major John A. Durham, who died from wounds that he suffered at Jerico Ford.  

After the long hot summer of 1864, Grant’s overpowering forces were poised in a strangle hold against the embattled defenders of the Confederate capital at Richmond and its neighbor to the south, the strategic city of Petersburg.  During the late fall and winter,  when the armies basically took off from the war, Dr. Duggan was granted a leave to return back to his home.  

The date was November 25, 1864.  The advance elements of the Union Calvary already reached Ball's Ferry on the Oconee River in Wilkinson County.  Ball's Ferry is located about 1/4 mile north of the present Georgia Highway No. 57 bridge over the river.  The cavalry unit was dispatched to the ferry to secure it for passage by the 15th and 17th Army Corps.  These two corps, composed of nearly sixty thousand men, were the Right Wing of Gen. William T. Sherman's army.

     As the Right Wing approached the ferry on the 25th, patrols were sent down major roads to reconnoiter the area for signs of Gen. Joseph Wheeler's Confederate cavalry.  General Osterhaus ordered the First Division under Gen. Charles Woods to march toward the Lightwood Knot Bridges on Big Sandy Creek.  The 29th Missouri (mounted) was dispatched to destroy the bridges and to guard all crossings along the road to Dublin.  General Wheeler and nearly four thousand cavalry men had just crossed the Oconee at Blackshear's Ferry the day before.

Major Duggan was acutely aware that grist mills were prime targets of Gen. Sherman's men.  The local mill, then known as Stanley's Mill and now known as Chappell's Mill, was also serving as a cotton warehouse with a few hundred bales in storage.  He became aware of the fact that "Yaller Jim,” a mulatto servant belonging to the family which owned the mill, had run off to join the Yankees.  Upon hearing of the approach of the Union Cavalry, Dr. Duggan mounted his horse and dashed off toward the Toomsboro Road.  He arrived at the Lightwood Knot Bridges over a swollen Big Sandy Creek.  Legend has it that the bridges were named because the Indians, who once populated the area, bridged the creek by piling a long row of “fat lightered” stumps in the creek. 

     Dr. Duggan fell back toward a house where he found an elderly black woman washing clothes in a boiling pot.  Dr. Duggan formulated a plan to deter the cavalry.  He briefed the lady about his plan.  She agreed to help if the good doctor would insure the safety of her home.  The Major and the lady then set fire to the bridge and its trestles.

     Just then four cavalrymen with "Yaller Jim" on a mule approached from the northeast.  They dismounted and attempted to put out the fire.  Major Duggan and the lady began to open fire on the perplexed cavalrymen, who managed to get off a few return shots.  Through the smoke they saw Major Duggan waving his arms appearing to be ordering his men into action.  The cavalry, fearing they had found that Gen. Wheeler's Cavalry had  double backed and returned to Ball's Ferry, reported to their superiors that they had completed a successful mission by destroying the bridges.  "Yaller Jim" lost his mule and ran into the woods - never to be seen or heard from again.  Dr. Duggan dashed off to his home and found it safely intact.  He returned back toward the bridges and put out the fires.  He graciously  rewarded  the woman who had helped him save Stanley's Mill from destruction by Sherman's "Bummers.”

     Dr. Duggan returned to his regiment and surrendered with the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse.  Duggan served in the Georgia Legislature from 1875 to 1876. Dr. Duggan later moved to Laurens County and built a home known as “Elmwood.”  A community bearing that name is centered around the intersection of Ga. Highway 338 and Claxton Dairy/Mt. Olive Road.   He died on September 29, 1915 and is buried in the Stanley Family Cemetery, affectionately known as “The Ditch,” which lies only a short distance from Chappell’s Mill. 

In 1903,Dr. Duggan's initial pledge of $100.00 led to the building of Laurens County's first public library.  His portrait now hangs in the Heritage Center of the Laurens County Library as a reminder of his most enduring contribution to our community.   

05-38

TOM LINDER

The Champion of the Farmer

For most of the 20th Century, his name was synonymous with agriculture in Georgia.  Until Tommy Irvin, Georgia's current Commissioner of Agriculture, matched his record, Thomas "Tom" Linder was the state's longest serving Commissioner of Agriculture.  In a state where agriculture was the foremost component of the state's economy, Linder lead the state through the desperate Depression years into the modern era of farming.   Though he loved agriculture, he couldn't separate himself from his passion for politics.  A failed race for the governor's office in 1954 ended his political career and sent him into forced retirement.  

Thomas Mercer Linder was born on November 8, 1887 in Laurens County, Georgia.   A member of one of the county's oldest families, Linder was reared to love the land to which his ancestors came in the early 1810s.  A son of Lewis Brothers Linder and Nannie Jane Beall, Linder grew up on the Linder family farm four miles east of Dublin.   Tom Linder married Hazel Kirk Carter, daughter of George W. Carter and Okala R. Odom Carter.  Tom  began farming at the age of ten.  He carefully planted and tended a small patch of corn.  His desire to succeed at farming was so intense that his mother said he measured the height of his stalks every evening and every morning, just to see if they had grown any overnight.   One of the first male graduates of Dublin High School, Linder moved to Hazelhurst, Georgia, where he pursued farming as a career.    Following in the paths of his ancestral legacy of public service, Linder served in the legislature representing Jeff Davis County from 1923 to 1926.  He also served as the county surveyor and as a city councilman for Hazlehurst in 1922.  

Tom Linder's first venture into real politics came in the spring of 1925, when he was running his usual route as a fertilizer salesman through Telfair County.  He came upon a tired dirt farmer, sitting on his plow and pouring sand out of his boots.  The two men talked about the obstacles of weather and money in producing a profitable crop. Both men despised Agriculture Commissioner J.J. Brown's refusal to halt the practice of mixing dirt and rocks into bags of fertilizer.  Linder told the man that he was in the legislature and was looking for the right man to run against Brown and a man who could represent the dirt farmer in Atlanta.  A few days later the man appeared at Linder's house and told him that he was the right man to beat Brown.   Linder agreed to back the determined young man.  That man was Eugene Talmadge, who defeated Brown in 1926 and in the 1930s became governor of Georgia and the founder of a political dynasty which would last a half century.

When Eugene Talmadge was elected to the post of Agriculture Commissioner, he rewarded his new friend and supporter, Tom Linder, by appointing him Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture.  To enhance his skills in government, Linder studied law and was admitted to the bar on December 19, 1927.  In 1932, Talmadge launched a successful campaign for governor, and Linder moved with him into the governor's office as his Executive Secretary.   

After two years in the governor's office where Linder ran the governor's business affairs, he became affectionately known as "Lieutenant Governor Linder."  In 1934, when the 2-year term of Agriculture Commissioner George Adams ended, Linder threw his hat into the ring to achieve the office he had always sought.  Riding the tidal wave of Gov.  Talmadge's popularity among the farmers of Georgia, Linder easily won the election and took office on January 8, 1935.    His tenure in office ended two years later when his mentor, friend and political ally Gene Talmadge also went down to defeat in the 1936 election.  It was during his first year in office when his wife Hazel died.  He never remarried. 

After a four-year respite from office, Tom Linder made Georgia political history when he became the first agriculture commissioner to win an election after previously being defeated for the office.  Once again, Talmadge and his political allies ruled the state.  Linder's mother expected her son's second term in office to be more successful.  But Linder had loftier political ambitions.  When it was reported that Linder would challenge U.S. Senator Richard B. Russell for the Senate, Talmadge and Linder broke their long alliance.  Linder supported Talmadge's opponent Ellis Arnall.

During his fourteen-year term from 1941 to 1955, Linder accomplished more than any of his previous successors.    As editor of the "Market Bulletin," the "Wall Street Journal" of Georgia farmers, Linder built a strong and loyal throng of supporters.  As a strong proponent of stronger markets, he openly fought the policies of the Franklin Roosevelt administration.    He even proposed a state owned farmer's market in Washington, D.C. to promote Georgia's farm products throughout the northeastern states.  At home, Linder organized and developed the Atlanta Farmer's Market, one of the largest in the world.    Linder continued to fight for better farm programs and more opportunities for the farmer. Linder's foresight led to the establishment of farmer's markets throughout the state, including the new farmer's market in Dublin.   

In the 1950 election, Linder carried all but six  of Georgia's counties and was as popular as ever.  He out polled the newly elected Governor Herman Talmadge, son of his former friend and ally.    Linder was poised to win the 1954 election for governor because of the way the "county unit system" favored the votes of small rural counties.  He assumed the prevailing democratic position against segregation and seemed to be a lock to win the election.  But when Herman Talmadge threw his support to Marvin Griffin, Linder finished a remote third. Following his disheartening defeat, Linder retired from active politics, though he practically lived in the Henry Grady Hotel in Atlanta and was in the capital city on every occasion he could.  

For the remainder of his twenty years in retirement, Linder worked on developing a book and chart on the prophecies of the Bible.   Linder developed a massive 250-foot long canvas chart outlining the life of man on Earth and predicting the time for the end of the World.  Tom Linder died in a North Carolina nursing home at the age of 90 in 1977, while he was nearing the completion of his map of the future of man.  

Known to his friends as "Fodder Pulling Tom," Tom Linder was one of the most influential and colorful Georgia politicians of the Twentieth Century.  During the zenith of his career, Tom Linder served as chairman of the National Farm Commissioner's Council and President of the National Farm Committee.     When he rode the political trail, he was one of the boys.  He was a farmer's farmer. And yes, he was once a fodder pulling champion.   

05-39

DECLARATION OF DEATH

Georgia’s Oldest Condemned Man

In the last eight decades, only six Laurens County men have been put to death by electrocution.  Five of the executions took place in the 1940s.  The final death by electrocution occurred in the fall of 1957.   While all six of the men executed by the State of Georgia were black, half of the men were sentenced to death for killing a white victim, the other half for killing black women.  This is the story of the final crime of Herbert Rozier, who at the age of seventy two, was the oldest man ever executed in the State of Georgia and perhaps one of the oldest man ever electrocuted by any state in the United States.

Early in the evening of April 15, 1943, Herbert Rozier came to the house of Essie Evans, his estranged wife.  Rozier opened fire with a shot gun he stole from a trunk in the house of Lula Lord, Miss Iris Minton’s washwoman.  Essie’s son Ed returned the fire. Rozier broke the latch on a window and attempted to  enter the house.  Essie and another son fled to the safety of a locked room.   Frustrated and angry, Rozier left the house and commenced to take an axe and broke the windows and lights of the Evans car.  He then took a knife and shredded nearly all of the  car’s upholstery.  Ed Evans, his face still stinging from powder burns from Rozier’s shot, fired a shot which inflicted a minor flesh wound on Rozier’s left arm.   

W.G. Davis and his family were sitting in their living room enjoying a fine spring evening and discussing what Warren the eldest son might be doing in the Navy.  Suddenly a commotion was heard coming from Essie Evan’s house about a thousand yards down the road.  W.G. Davis heard gunshots.  Thinking that he needed to quell the fracas, Davis  grabbed his gun and said, “I’m going over there.”  His wife begged him to stay home.  Moments later  a gun shot rang out, followed by a trio of rapid shots.  

As he approached the Rozier home, Davis encountered Herbert Rozier, a seventy-two year old itinerant farmer and frequent malefactor moving away from his estranged wife’s house.  “Herbert, what is the trouble up there?” Davis asked.  Without a hint of a warning and without hesitation Rozier fired his shot gun into Davis’s abdomen first with one shot and then fatally with three rapid blasts.   Davis attempted to return the fire, but to no avail.  Rozier sprinted toward the woods as fast as his septuagenarian body would allow.  Davis managed to stumble about sixty three yards until he fell in front of the home of J.H. Davidson, Sr..   He called toward the house for help. With her husband sick in bed, Mrs. Davidson was afraid at first, but she and Alfred Maddox  finally summoned her son J.H. Davidson, Jr.  to go out side to see what the matter was.  William Henry Lee found old Herbert’s shotgun in a ditch about twenty yards from the scene of the shooting.  He would later present it to the sheriff, who ascertained that the gun had a cut shell still inside the chamber. 

About that time, Walter Davis, the victim’s son, came up his father and asked him who shot him. “Old Herbert Rozier shot me all to pieces, and I am gone,” the elder Davis moaned.  Maddox, the younger Davidson and Walter Davis helped put the dying man into the Davidson car.    The Davis and Davidson boys  raced up the Telfair Road to  Claxton’s Hospital on Bellevue Avenue, where they were met by Dr. E.B. Claxton.

Dr. Claxton examined the victim and found Davis’s entrails protruding from a wound below his ribs “large enough to get a person’s hand in it.”    Claxton removed some packing and a large number of shot from Davis, but the patient succumbed around 2:10 the following morning.  While still conscious, Davis was aware that he was dying.    Just as if he knew all of the essential legal elements of a dying declaration, Davis calmly related the entire series of events of the moments leading up to his encounter with Rozier.  

  

Deputy Sheriff Baum Wilkes raced to the crime scene.  Bloodhounds were brought in to follow the scent of the suspect.  A small army of deputies and state patrolmen combed the community for the whereabouts of Rozier. Deputy Wilkes went to the Henry Tolbridge house, where he knew Rozier had been earlier in the evening.  His eyes constantly scanning for evidence, Wilkes observed blood on the floor of the inside of the house.  The deputy  followed a trail of blood back to the scene of the crime.    Owing to the darkness of the night, Wilkes resumed his pursuit of the perpetrator the following morning.  With the aid of Joe Guyton, Deputy Wilkes crossed the Turkey Creek bridge at the store and found Rozier hiding in a house about five miles from the murder scene.   Rozier was armed.  Guyton pleaded to the old man to surrender, which he did without resistance.    Rozier, still wearing his blood stained  jacket,  confessed that he did it because  he was mad that Ed Evans had shot him.

A day after his death, the body of W.G. Davis was funeralized at Bluewater Church.  In his funeral, Rev. Claude Vines praised the memory of the Monroe native and popular farmer.  Ben Burch, Douglas Shepard, W.H. Shuman, Coke Brown, W.P. Roche and Dee Sessions carried Davis’s body to its final resting place in Northview Cemetery.

Herbert Rozier was taken to a Macon jail for safekeeping.  Rufus I. Stephens was appointed to represent him in his murder trial.  At the trial, Dr. Claxton, Walter Davis, Mrs. J.H. Davidson and  J.H. Davidson, Jr.  were allowed to testify as to the statements made by the victim.  Each time Stephens repeated his objections to the testimony as hearsay.  Hearsay statements are out of court statements made for the purpose of proving the truth of the statement.  Normally, such statements are not allowed because the maker of the statement is not available for cross examination. Obviously Davis couldn’t be asked about what he said, because he was in the cemetery.  But all rules have exceptions.  Courts have always recognized a “dying declaration” as an exception to the hearsay rule.  Statements made by one who is dying and knows they are dying have some degree of reliability and are admissible.  It is a question for the jury to determine the weight of the evidence, responded Solicitors James F. Nelson and Lester Watson.

Rozier was found guilty.   His attorney appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia objecting the admissibility of Davis’s statements and to the voluntariness  of Rozier’s alleged confession.  The court reasoned that Davis’s declarations to the witnesses were admissible and that the testimony of Essie and Ed Evans corroborated Rozier’s confession to Deputy Wilkes in unanimously upholding the trial court’s verdict, declaring that Herbert Rozier must die.

On April 17, 1944, Wilkes accompanied Albert Curry, Davis’s brother-in-law, and two of Davis’s brothers to Tattnall State Prison near Reidsville to witness the execution of Herbert Rozier.  Just after noon, Rozier, then seventy two years old, was strapped into the state’s electric chair and put to death.  Following the elimination of the electric chair as a means of execution, it is likely that Herbert Rozier of Laurens County, will remain as the oldest person in Georgia and one of the oldest in the nation to be executed by electrocution.   

05-40

SOWING TO THE WINDS

The Editorial Response

     At one time or another, or even more often than that, most of us disagree with the opinions expressed on the editorial page of our local and national newspapers.  But few of us ever  satisfy our consternation over the opinions propounded by the men and women who bring us the news by beating them to a pulp or shooting them in the heart. Such was not the case during the 1920s, when the editor of the Soperton News was assailed not once but twice over his editorial attacks of rampant illegal liquor trafficking in Treutlen County.

     Soperton City Alderman and merchant Crosby Williams picked up the latest copy

of the Soperton News in the spring of 1924 and read with much disgust the attacks of editor Horace M. Flanders on the whiskey traffic in the community.  Williams feared that such public statements were bad advertising for the town.  Around nine o'clock on the  evening of May 27, 1924, the two antagonists encountered each other.  Williams, standing on a street corner, castigated Flanders for his editorials as the editor was going about his own business.  Flanders denied that he was personally referring to Williams, but the apparently intoxicated Williams continued to curse the zealous advocate of prohibition. Flanders responded, "Williams, you'll have to whip me for that."  With just that in mind, Williams's dander was riled.  "I'd rather you would fight me than curse me," Flanders continued as he took off his glasses and hat and laid them on the running board of a nearby automobile.  Before Flanders could ever rise to accept what he thought would be some sort of pugilistic assault, Williams fired a pistol shot into just above Flanders' heart and left lung.  L.D. Sandifer, J.A. Wilkins and a Mr. Lawrence saw the whole thing.   Williams fled as startled bystanders rushed to the aid of Flanders, who was thought to be dying.  

     After a frantic and intense search, Williams was captured.  On August 21, 1924,

Williams was brought before Judge Eschol Graham charged with assault with intent to murder.  Williams hired the law firm of Saffold & Stallings of Soperton along with the venerable Judge John S. Adams of Dublin to defend him.   Solicitor M.H. Bower represented the state. He was aptly assisted by Solicitor Walter Gray of Swainsboro, Judge Elisha Graham along with Neil Gillis, Jr. and D.R. Jackson of Soperton.  

     In a trial which lasted only two days,  most of the evidence was controverted. Williams confessed that if he shot Flanders at all it was accidental as he was merely

prepared to beat Flanders to a pulp with his fists and only at the request of Flanders

himself.  A jury of twelve men must have felt a little sorry for the defendant.  After all, his business failed and all of his assets were liquidated by an order of the Bankruptcy Court.  The sentence, a mere year, would be served on the Georgia State farm.

     Despite a near brush with death, Horace Flanders continued to publicly scorn those who would violate the laws of the state by selling illegal moonshine.  On February 18, 1927, Flanders published a lengthy and blistering editorial which he entitled "Sowing to the Winds."  Flanders blamed lax law enforcement and apathy for the nefarious wave of crimes  which were ravaging the county.  He urged all citizens, or at least a half-dozen of them, to endorse his thoughts and provide a better place to live for the children of Treutlen County. Sounding like a he was preaching from the pulpit, Flanders lambasted his fellow citizens  for forgetting God and falling shoulder deep in hellishness.

     A week later on the evening of February 25, 1927, Flanders was returning to Soperton from Swainsboro, the ancestral seat of his family, when he was accosted by a trio of hooded rogues wearing white sacks over their heads  along the Norristown-Soperton Highway (U.S. 221) on the Pendleton Creek Bridge.  After tailing Flanders for a good distance, the miscreants passed him and then blocked the road. The men interrogated him about his editorial attacking the rum traffic in the area.  Unapologetic for his writings, Flanders affirmed his position in the face of certain and immediate punishment.  One of the masked men reportedly said, "We'll learn you to write about liquor runners."  The men dragged Flanders from his car, carried him into the woods and beat him mercilessly.  Never having fully recovered from the wounds inflicted by Williams, Flanders lay in anguish wondering if it was all worth the pain he was suffering.

     Just a week after suffering near fatal injuries, Flanders moved his editorial to the

center of the front page of the paper.  Weakened from a his brutal beating, Flanders was propped up in his hospital bed as he vowed to "continue fighting for the right."   "Little did the brutes who assailed me and left me insensible realize that their folly would hasten the end of the reign of their clan and kind," Flanders retorted.  Discounting his physical suffering as inferior to the stain on Treutlen County as a result of this outrage, Flanders vowed, "as long as God gives me strength to push a pencil, that no man or set of men, masked or unmasked, will be able to stop me from expressing my convictions for the cause of right, as I see it."

     

     Several days after the incident, the automobile of Treutlen County Sheriff W.L.

Thigpen mysteriously burned.  State Fire Marshal Ennis was brought in to investigate the fire.  After a thorough investigation, Ennis deduced that Sheriff Thigpen torched his own car in order to cover up his culpability in the attack on Flanders.  Ennis reasoned that Flanders could have easily identified the Sheriff's car, one which he saw on a regular basis.  The fire marshal traveled to nearby Swainsboro to obtain warrants for the arrest of Sheriff Thigpen, Joe Lee and Henry McLendon for burning the car.   Sheriff G.F. Flanders  of Emanuel County, a  relative of Editor Flanders, served the warrant on the three suspects. Only days before, he arrested Thipgen, Raymond Lee, Henry McLendon and Marvin Tharpe  for his kinsman's thrashing, only to see the men set free after hastily posting their bonds.  Sheriff Flanders became involved because at the time state law mandated that only a sheriff could arrest another sheriff.  

     Almost three years to the date after the trial of Flanders' first assailant, Raymond

Lee was convicted for his role in the brutal response to the editor's opinions.  Lee was sentenced to three to five years in prison. Lee loudly proclaimed that "they had

convicted the wrong man."  Apparently the other defendants escaped prosecution as no record of their trial appears in the Treutlen County papers.  Sheriff Thigpen apparently escaped prosecution by bowing out of the democratic primary race early in the spring.  Horace Flanders wasn't so lucky.  The thirty-seven year-old editor never recovered from his first brush with mortality. The last flogging only hastened his death on July 29, 1933 at the age of  forty-three.

05-41

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

The Tragic Yet Heroic Life of Jean Ellington

Little girls aren’t supposed to live in hospitals. They are supposed to enjoy life with their family, play with their friends and do all the things girls are meant to do.  This is the story of one Laurens County girl who spent half of her short life confined in a far away hospital, apart from her family and friends.  After an emergency operation saved her life, Jean was taken by her parents  to a Philadelphia hospital, where she was in the hands of some of the finest physicians in the country.  When they left Jean, her parents thought she would be home at most in five weeks, but weeks stretched into months and months evolved into years -  ten years.  Despite the impediments that life had dealt her, Jean Ellington persevered and made it home, home to the loving arms of her large family and a host of new friends.

Jean was only twenty-three months old when she first developed symptoms of a severe sore throat.  Her mother, Mrs. John Ellington, tried all sorts of home remedies and folk cures in an attempt to mitigate her baby girl’s discomfort.  But Jean’s condition grew worse.   The Ellingtons called Dr. Charles A. Hodges to seek his help.  Dr. Hodges diagnosed the young girl’s condition as a virulent form of diphtheria, a disease not  theretofore seen among Laurens Countians.  

With no clue as to the origin of the disease, Dr. Hodges initiated a series of toxin and anti-toxin shots but to no avail.  As the doctor and Mrs. Ellington sat beside her bed, Jean was overcome with a violent seizure.  Her larynx was rapidly closing, cutting off air to her lungs.  The situation was critical. Dr. Hodges had scarcely an instant to scrub and prepare for an operation.  

Dr. Hodges noticed a small pen knife, a gift to Jean from  a nurse, lying on the table next to Jean’s bed.  With no time to spare, Hodges cut a small slit in her throat. Jean began breathing again.   He rapidly grabbed a small tube which he inserted in the opening to allow Jean to breathe as normally as possible.

Jean recovered from the diphtheria which nearly killed her, but her throat was paralyzed.  The Ellingtons were advised to take Jean to Philadelphia to consult with Dr. Chevalier Jackson of Jefferson Hospital.    Doctors told the Ellingtons that there was a ninety-six percent chance that their  little girl could be cured, though the process could take months, even years. 

Five days after her arrival in the hospital, Jean developed a severe case of scarlet fever.   Jean recovered, only to undergo the first of six operations in July of 1925.   To complicate her condition, Jean developed a bad case of the mumps.    Her life in the hospital was relatively pleasant.   Apart from her family during the nurturing years, Jean was among two dozen other kids with the same condition.  They played together and went to school together.   While confined to the hospital, Jean learned how to play the piano, to sew and to make all sorts of things.  Reading became her favorite past time.

Even more tragic than her predicament was the fact that Jean never saw her family, primarily because the expense of keeping her in the hospital decimated the family’s assets.  Her daddy lost their farm in order to pay her medical bills.  Jean communicated by letters and received gifts by parcel post.  The Ellington family, like many  others of the Depression era, couldn’t afford to have photographs taken, so the memory of her parent’s faces faded away. Once the Ellington family posed for a photograph, only to have the negatives destroyed when the photographer’s studio burned the next day.   

Jean was determined to return home.  After nearly a decade, she began to be able to whisper to her doctors and nurses.    Jean’s brother Johnnie along with T.A. Bland and Emory Garner drove to Philadelphia to pick up Jean and bring her home.  When Johnnie met Jean after a decade, he yelled, “Hello, Sis!”  Jean was speechless.  Tears streamed down her face as the siblings hugged for the first time.    They drove to Washington, D.C. to spend the night. But at 2:00 in the morning, Jean awakened Johnnie  and told him that she couldn’t sleep. She wanted to go home and right then.  After a twenty-four-hour ride, Jean arrived in Dublin the next morning.   The entire family, except the two youngest children, were there to greet the weary travelers. Ten years of longing and pent up emotions erupted as Jean and her mother embraced.  Tears replaced smiles and Mrs. Ellington gently stroked her little girl’s hair.  “Every night I prayed to God that he would bring my child back to health and to me, and now she is here,” Mrs. Ellington exclaimed.  

Sunday was homecoming day.  Family and friends flooded the Ellington home with smiles, hugs, kisses and gifts.  They just wanted to get  a glimpse of  the young girl with the pink complexion and beautiful brown eyes.  Almost like she had never been away, Jean began playing with her brothers and sisters   She remembered their names, Johnnie, Lillian, Marjorie, Lois, Joyce, Grace, Eloise, Charles and Jimmie, but had never seen the youngest five of them.  Her baby sister Sue would come along later.  Congratulatory letters from her friends back in Philadelphia and from well wishers throughout the country poured in. One lady in North Carolina even sent her a scrapbook  of pretty color pictures.  The best present of all, a new puppy, was actually the first pet she had ever had.  Jean and her family made a special appearance at the Ritz Theater, where she greeted even more new friends.  A panel of local physicians explained her plight to the audience. 

Jean had forgotten what her home looked like.  She had never seen a farm, except in picture books.  Jean explored every square foot of her new rented home and farm.  She always enjoyed watermelons, but had never seen one growing on a vine.  She told her parents, “All I want to do is to ride a mule.”

After a short summer vacation, Jean returned to school as a sixth grader. Every morning before school she would adjust the breathing tube hiding it just below the collar of her dress.   

After graduation from high school, Jean took a job as a clerk at the National Savings and Trust Company Bank in Washington, D.C.  A fatal illness overtook her, and Jean died at the age of twenty in Gallenger Hospital on November 13, 1945.  Her body was brought home to Dublin and was buried in Northview Cemetery.   Jean Ellington, despite the tragedies which plagued her short life, was a model of courage, bravery and inspiration. 

Whisked away from her native home to a strange new world, Jean sought the advice and care of the wisest men in the land to bring her home.  With the aid of her new found friends and a fervent personal determination, she made it home.  I am sure as she sat and watched a similar story of a young Kansas girl Dorothy Gale unveil on the motion picture screen, I am sure she echoed Dorothy’s  immortal words, “There’s no place like home!”   

05-42

THE MIXMASTER DISASTER

Dublin Colonel Avoids Premature Fate

It was designed to fly faster and further than any bomber had ever  flown.  Untested and untried before the end of the cataclysmic culmination of World War II, the XB-42 Douglas Mixmaster was designed by military strategists to secure the World from impending Soviet domination and the emergence of a burgeoning Communist China.  Just eight days after setting an aeronautical record, the Mixmaster crashed into a Maryland forest sending the ultimate power bomber into oblivion. Fortunately one its passengers, Lt. Col. James R. Laney, Jr. of Dublin, managed to escape the tentacles of death, still with more than half of his life to live.

James Raine Laney, Jr. was born in Dublin, Georgia on September 24, 1915.  His parents James Raine Laney, Sr.  and Juanita Mills Laney lived on Euclid Street.  James Laney graduated from Dublin High School in 1932.   He enlisted in the Army and  attended a West Point Prepatory School in hopes of realizing his dream to go to West Point.  After years of seeking his admission, James Laney was accepted into the United States Military Academy in the summer of 1937.   He graduated on June 11, 1941.  War was eminent and the class of ’41 knew that it would be their war.  Lt. Laney began his Army career in the Coastal Artillery Corps before becoming the  commander of the 124th AAA Gun Battalion, Ninth Army in England in the European Theater. His unit saw action in the Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe.  He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal in 1944.    Within five years of his graduation from “The Point,” Laney rapidly rose from a 2nd Lieutenant to Lieutenant Colonel.

Though American heavy bombers achieved air superiority in 1945, research and development on high-speed long-range bombers continued at a frantic pace.    Early in 1943, Douglas Aircraft began the development of a twin-engine bomber capable of flying in excess of 400 mph and dropping a ton of bombs within a range of 2000 miles.   The first prototype was tested in May 1944.  The fifty-four foot by seventy foot bomber featured twin rear propellers, which resembled  a food mixer.  The plane was designed to be flown by a crew of three.  Engineers had to compromise on the range, settling for a range of 1800 miles, but gained a little more speed by obtaining a maximum velocity of 410 mph.  

The most successful flight of the Mixmaster came on December 8, 1945,  a mere four years after Pearl Harbor.  On a flight from Long Beach, California to Bolling Field near Washington, D.C., the experimental bomber established a transcontinental record of an average  speed of 433.6 mph, making the flight in five hours, 17 minutes and 34 seconds.  At times when the tail winds were right, the plane traveled in excess of four hundred and fifty miles per hour.  Besting the speed of the ultra fast P-51 fighter, the Douglas bomber, flying at an average altitude of 25,000 feet, exceeded the existing record by nearly 72 minutes.

Following its record-breaking flight, the Mixmaster was placed on display to show off the ingenuity of American aviation.    It was hoped that the plane would be in mass production, but the war ended the need to accelerate its development.  Just four days after the Mixmaster established the transcontinental flight record, the “Dreamboat,” a B-29 Superfortress, claimed the record by virtue of flying from Burbank, California to the inner-city airport in the nation’s capital, despite the fact that  its flight time was somewhat longer and its average speed slightly slower. 

On the afternoon of December 16, 1945, just eight days after its crowning achievement, the Mixmaster was piloted by Lt. Colonel E.J. Ascani on a  routine flight circumnavigating the Washington, D.C. area.  Aboard the Mixmaster were two crewmen, Lt. Colonel James R. Laney of Dublin, Ga. and Maj. C.L. Hayduk.   Just thirty minutes after the takeoff as the plane approached the community of Oxon Hill, Maryland, the pilot noticed that there was a total and complete engine failure.  

In the event of the need for an emergency evacuation of the sleek medium range aircraft, Douglas engineers designed a series of explosive charges, which when ignited would blow off the plane’s rear engines giving the occupants a sufficiently wide portal to parachute to safety.     The unexpected separation of one of the engines from the tail section alleviated the need to jettison it.  Major Hayduck was the first to bale out, jumping from an altitude of 1200 feet. Just a few moments later as the plane was rapidly descending, Lt. Colonel Laney escaped as the plane was just 800 feet above the ground.  Pilot Ascani stayed with his ship until the last possible moment.  He barely made it out, jumping from the dangerous altitude of 400 feet.  Newspaper reports circulated around the country incorrectly identified Maj. Hayduk as being a resident of Dublin and that the third crewman was James M. Laney.  Only his friends and family in Dublin knew the true identity and abode of their friend and relative, James R. Laney.  This fact was verified by a story published  in the Courier Herald two days after the crash.  

Numerous witnesses watched as all three crew members landed safely about five miles east of Alexandria, Virginia.  One of the plane’s twin engines landed in the yard of St. Ignatius Church.  The fuselage landed in a massive heap in a small forest, damaging only a few trees.  Today it is impossible to determine why the plane was allowed to fly.  Just as the plane completed its record flight,  its hydraulic system failed upon landing.  After being towed to the hangar, a fire erupted in the engines when the ground crew attempted to restart them.  Apparently, the mechanics believed that they had fixed the problems.

A subsequent investigation of the crash by an Army board revealed that the engines overheated due to a failure of the pilot to open the shutters to cool the engines. When the first engine failed, the pilot attempted to cool the engines but to no avail.   With the war over and more powerful and faster jet propelled bombers on the drawing boards, the remaining Mixmaster plane was used only for testing programs.  In 1948, the Air Force removed the Mixmaster from its fleet.

During the Korean war, Col. Laney was assigned to the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth from 1950 to 1954.  He then was transferred to Military Assistance Advisory Group in Saudi Arabia.  He returned to the United Sates in 1955 to serve the remainder of his military career in the Office of the Chief of Army Field Forces and at Fort Monroe, Virginia.

Col. James Raine Laney, Jr., who tempted fate on a cold December day nearly sixty years ago, retired from the Army.  He died on October 6, 1995 in Little Rock, Arkansas and was buried with military honors in the Little Rock National Cemetery. 

05-43

SAMUEL GUYTON MCLENDON

FAVORITE GRANDSON

Samuel Guyton McLendon was one of Georgia’s favorite public servants of the first quarter of the 20th Century.  No where other than his native county of Thomas was Guyton treated as a native.  His father’s family, among the earliest settlers of lower Laurens County, was among the throng of Scottish families who came to this area in the first quarter of the 19th Century to raise cattle in the vast wiregrass lands of the lower Oconee and Ocmulgee river valleys.

Samuel Guyton McLendon was born on December 13, 1854 in Thomasville, Georgia.  His parents, William McLendon and Caroline McIntosh, located their home in southwest Georgia in the vast migration to that area in the 2nd quarter of the 1800s.  Caroline McIntosh was a member of the prominent Scottish family of Conecuh County, Alabama. Although it has been reported that Samuel spent a portion of his childhood here in Laurens County, he grew up in the horrific years of the Civil War and Reconstruction.   As he grew toward manhood, Samuel developed a keen interest in politics through his father’s contemporaries, Peter Early Love and James L. Seward, former U.S. Congressmen and natives of Laurens County.

His father came to Thomasville shortly before Samuel’s birth to begin the practice of law.  This followed a series of daring adventures out west and in South America.  He practiced law with Robert S. Burch, former law partner of Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America.  Samuel attended Fletcher Institute and the University of Virginia, before attending the University of Georgia School of Law.  After being admitted to the bar of Thomas County Superior Court, McLendon began the practice of law in the bustling southwest Georgia city.  His superior mind and outgoing personality made him the favorite candidate in the 1879 mayoral election in Thomasville.

In 1884, McLendon, known to his friends and colleagues as “Guyt” or “Uncle Guyt,” was elected to represent Thomas County in the Georgia House of Representatives.  He served two one-year terms before withdrawing from politics for the first time.

Samuel participated in athletic endeavors while in college, but soon his body soon became tormented by the painful symptoms of rheumatism.  The disease never waned and crippled him for the rest of his life.  Scarcely able to stand by himself, McLendon was confined to a wheelchair.  His physical impairment combined with his keen mind and intellect reminded many of one of Georgia’s most respected public servants, the venerable Alexander Hamilton Stephens, former governor, senator, congressman and Vice President of the Confederate States of America.

Denied the pleasures of an ambulatory life, “Guyt” McLendon poured his soul into reading.  All those who knew him enjoyed his company and their conversations with this inveterate reader of Georgia history.  He was often called upon to answer questions, which he knew off the top of his head or found in his vast reference library.

In 1890, McLendon took the hand of Miss Emily Hamilton in marriage.  She was a daughter of the well-known Dr. and Mrs. James S. Hamilton of Athens.  The couple moved to Thomasville, where they lived until 1907, when they moved to their apartment in the Kimball House in Atlanta.

McLendon accepted an appointment as a member of the Georgia Railroad Commission.  Reminiscent of antebellum days was the sight of McLendon’s daily trips to and from work.  With the aid of “Dock,” his personal porter and the driver of his ancient hack, McLendon was carried from the hack to the wheelchairs at the capitol and at the Kimball House, never more than five minutes late.

McLendon was removed from office by Gov. Hoke Smith following a dispute over the Atlanta port bill.  He returned to the private practice of law and the pursuit of his passion, Georgia history.  McLendon became an expert on the ancient landmarks of the state and the process of granting lands to early settlers.  His most famous scholarly work was “The History of Public Domain in Georgia.”  Just like his father, “Guyt” McLendon dreamed of improving the public infrastructures. He pursued, without success, the idea of building a canal from the mouth of the St. Mary’s river through South Georgia to the Sewanee River and the Gulf Coast to provide a more economical method of transporting goods and people.

“Guyt” McLendon’s closest friends decided that he should end his decade long sabbatical from public service.  They gathered in the newspaper room of the Kimball House in 1918.  Without “Guyt’s” knowledge, but with the blessing of Emily McLendon, ten of his most trusted friends publicly announced that McLendon would  run for Secretary of State of Georgia, a position he was most aptly suited for.  The next morning, McLendon learned of his campaign announcement in the Atlanta Constitution.   Never knowing the true identity of the men who drafted him, McLendon accepted the offers of a wide circle of  friends to conduct the vigorous campaign.  

McLendon was elected in November 1918 just as World War I was about to end.  He went to work nearly every day and always in excruciating pain.  As a part of his duties, McLendon also served as Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, Commissioner of Corporations, Commissioner of Georgia Securities, Commissioner of the State Printing Department, State Historical Commissioner and as member of the Forestry Board.

During his eight years in office, McLendon oversaw the business operations of the state.  Though his rheumatism continued to torment his body, McLendon used the wisdom  of his sharp mind to stimulate and promote new ventures in a state ravaged by the rise of the boll weevil and the demise of the cotton crop.

After a two-week losing battle with influenza, Samuel Guyton McLendon died in his apartment in the Henry Grady Hotel on March 8, 1928.  A funeral service was held in the overflowing sanctuary of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta.  Escorted by a squad of Georgia’s highest ranking state officers, McLendon’s body was laid to rest in Oconee Cemetery in Athens beside the bodies of his only two sons.    Immediately following his death, McLendon was replaced by George H. Carswell of Irwinton.

To those who knew him, Samuel Guyton McLendon was known as a “walking encyclopedia”and a brilliant conversationalist.   He overcame the obstacles of his illness to rise to stand as one of Georgia’s most admired public servants and one of Laurens County’s most favorite grandsons.

05-44

 

CHRISTMAS IN THE CIVIL WAR

A Time of Peace

Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, a time of hope and a time of peace.  War is sad, disheartening and well, just war.  Though wars rarely stop to observe the Christmas holidays, the so called “Civil War,” at least for purposes of Christmas, was just that.  Both the Southern and Northern armies imposed a truce during the holidays.  For that matter, few battles took place during the winter months, except in the lower extreme regions of the United States.

A century ago, L.A. Matthews of Dublin sat down and reminisced about his experiences during Christmas of 1864.  Matthews, a member of Co. K of the 5th Georgia State Troops, was at home in Washington County in the autumn following the fall of Atlanta in September.  

Though a feeble effort was made to hinder the onslaught of General William Tecumseh Sherman’s one hundred and twenty thousand man force, Georgia’s defenders left the state to the pleasure of the Union Army.  Virtually nothing of any value was left standing or lying in their path.   Gen. John B. Hood’s bedraggled Confederate army left the state for a final showdown in Tennessee.  The valiant stand in Griswoldville near the Twiggs and Jones County border just before Thanksgiving resulted in a deadly devastating defeat of the Georgia militia and reserves, which were composed primarily of older men and young boys.  Just a few days later, Sherman’s Right Wing crossed the Oconee River at Ball’s Ferry after overcoming only a slight resistance from local militia, prison guards and military cadets.  Moving along a course along and paralleling the Central of Georgia railroad, the March to the Sea was halfway to it’s destination of Savannah by Christmas.

Matthews, fearing that he would be captured, hurriedly left the solace of his grandmother’s plantation on a mule.  He left so quickly that he left his overcoat, an omission which resulted in the acquisition of the coat by a thieving Yankee, who took the coat from his aunt.  With all of the railroads out of commission, Matthews traveled away from the line of the Union march to Eatonton.  From there, he traveled to Augusta and then clear across South Carolina to Charleston.  In the ancient Carolina capital, he discovered that his command was in Savannah, waiting for the inevitable arrival of Sherman’s soldiers.

Matthews finally arrived in Savannah a few days before Christmas.  The Confederate Army had just abandoned it’s position at Forest City.  Just a few days before Christmas, the remaining Confederate forces abandoned Georgia’s sea port, leaving it as the ultimate prize for General Sherman, who took pleasure in presenting it to President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas gift.

As the waning Confederate column trekked northward through once thriving and massive rice plantations, Matthews began to realize the end of the war was near.  From Hardeeville, the retreating rebels moved through Yemasee, Poctaglio and McPhersonville, where they arrived on Christmas Eve.

Matthews remarked, “There Christmas was spent in some of the largest rice plantations we had seen.  The owners fled at our approach and we occupied the big house and the Negro quarters.”  There they found hogs, cows, rice and chickens which they happily appropriated for a fine, and somewhat well deserved, Christmas Eve dinner.  The commissary wagon arrived just in time to furnish a proper finale to the feast,  a fifty-gallon keg of potato whiskey which, according to Matthews, contained “ a fight in every wine glass full of it.”  The long overdue and most needed merriment lasted all night long.  Officers tried to organize the intoxicated infantrymen as best as they could.

But there was no rest for the weary.  As the men assembled at the rendevous point along the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, they were frequently bombarded with what Matthews described as “hundreds of missiles of death.”

Christmas day was another day of feasting and revelry.  Baked shoat, potatoes, beef stew and roasted chickens were the main entrees of the day.  Earlier that morning, Hugh Lawson received a lovingly prepared and carefully wrapped care package from home.  Much to his chagrin, the contents of sausage, bread and cakes were useless and regrettably spoiled.

Matthews took an afternoon stroll throughout the Confederate camps.  He happened upon the tents of the 7th South Carolina regiment.  The South Carolinians had just received a shipment from Chester filled with all sorts of goodies and peach brandy.  Matthews, without a instant of hesitation, accepted the kind offer to partake and imbibe the spirits of Christmas.  At that instant, he must have thought about the folks back home, who barely had a scrap of bread or a morsel of meat to eat that Christmas.

On the 26th the retreat resumed.  The retiring ranks moved via Riper’s Bridge and Broxton’s Bridge northward toward the capital in Columbia.  By March, the march ground to a halt near Salisbury, North Carolina.  The last battle of the Army of the Tennessee took place at Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865.    Sixteen days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia, General Joseph Johnston conceded to the inevitable defeat and surrendered the last of the Confederate Army near Greensboro on April 26, 1865.  

Battered, exhausted and hungry, it was time for Matthews to come home.  He walked the four hundred mile walk back to Sandersville, where he reunited with his family, who were enjoying the few remnants of comforts which “the enemy who had invaded our homes five months ago previously left us,” recalled Matthews.  After the war, Matthews worked for the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad.  He moved to Dublin around the turn of the 2oth Century.  

In this Christmas season, let us pray for the safety of our soldiers in Iraq and around the world.  Let us pray for the consolation  of their families and friends.  May they find peace and glad tidings of comfort and joy.  Merry Christmas to all!

05-45

1905

The News Beyond the Headlines

A century ago, Dublin and Laurens County were at the midpoint of the economic boom that brought our community out of the depths of Reconstruction and the troubling financial decades which followed.  These are some of the stories that  weren’t found in the headlines of the day.  Their effect on the daily lives of our forebearers ranged from the sublime to the significant.

Forty years after the end of the Civil War, the South and Robert E. Lee remained on the minds of many people.  Col. M.H. Blackshear presented a program on the character of the iconic general.  Judge J.W. Overstreet was the featured speaker at the celebration of Confederate Memorial Day.  The festivities began with orations at the courthouse followed by a parade to the city cemetery at the rear of the Methodist Church.   A section of the Carnegie Library was set aside for a display of mementoes of the War Between the States.   The Daughters of the Confederacy set out to mark the graves of all Confederate veterans.  

Business was booming in Dublin.  The Four Seasons Department Store became just the third firm in Georgia to publish a four-page newspaper advertisement in its $1500 annual advertising campaign.  The Artesian Bottling Works received a carload of 30,000 bottles in the late winter.  The Oconee Marl Company was founded to capitalize on the clay compound found along the banks of Kellam’s Creek in the Buckeye District and just above the mouth of Big Sandy Creek in Wilkinson County.  Ice was a hot commodity in Dublin during the summer of ’05.  The Dublin Telephone and Manufacturing Company increased its production to 80,000 pounds a day, possibly to stifle its new competitor, The People’s Ice Company.  Just in time for the holiday season, the Orr-Smith Grocery Company received five car loads of tobacco products from R.J. Reynolds at a cost of twenty thousand dollars.  The Bank of Dudley, the county’s oldest bank, opened in the fall.  

New houses were being erected all over town.  The county jail was remodeled and a new city hall was erected.   The finishing touches were made to the Brantley Building.  The  three-story building at the northwest corner of W. Jackson and N. Lawrence Streets was Dublin’s tallest building.   L.C. Beacham built six new buildings on S. Lawrence Street.  The Courier Dispatch moved into its handsome new quarters on South Jefferson Street. The Taylor Coleman Pharmacy opened for business next door.   Plans were being formulated to build a new school in the northeastern section of the city to be named Johnson Street School.  The Georgia Hydraulic Stone Company, one of the largest firms of its kind in the state, began its operations in the city and across the river in what would become East Dublin.

  With the coming of the Dublin and Southwestern Railroad, the town of Rentz was growing at a rapid pace.  Dexter was riding a decade long boom as the county’s second largest town.   Rapid growth and booming business necessitated the implementation of new taxes and restrictive ordinances.  Montrose was nearly obliterated when the stores of Ed L. Wade, J.B. Brookins, J.W. Rawls and Wade & Adams were destroyed in a spring fire.  

Dublin citizens profited handsomely from the $500.00 fee for tent shows and circuses as well as businesses which sold nonintoxicating drinks, the really intoxicating drinks were banned.  The owners of the Dublin Telephone and Telegraph Company were fined $500.00 for taking orders for whiskey over its telephone lines.  Homeowners and businessmen paid 82 cents a month for the first light and 44 cents for all lights exceeding eight.  City regulations required that all lights would be off after midnight, unless a higher fee was paid.   By the end of the year, the city would spend $4000.00 on improving the electrical system.   It was illegal to tie a horse to a tree or tacking placards on telephone poles, both reasonable in their purpose.  But why was it illegal to throw trash on the streets after  9:00 a.m. and not before?  With fears of yellow fever rampant, visitors to Dublin were required to furnish a certificate showing the bearer was free of the dreaded disease.  

After a four-year absence, the city’s most popular plumber returned to town only to leave after two months to work on the Panama Canal.  Free mail delivery within the city began on August 1st.    John M. Graham, one of the best boat builders on the Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers, was hired to build a new flat boat for Blackshear’s Ferry.  T.J. Barnett brought a chicken with four legs and four wings into the newspaper office.  The Emerald City Palace featured an electric piano.    During an extremely dry month of September, it was reported that the Oconee River was fourteen inches below zero.  River boats were moored with no place to go.  Mrs. J.S. Simons opened her art studio and classroom in her Calhoun Street home. 

The Colored Agricultural Fair was held at the City Pavilion near the lower end of Madison Street and the railroad.  The eight-day event featured prizes for agricultural products and sewing, with ball games and rides every day.  The Acme State Band of Macon provided the entertainment.   The leaders of the Congregational Methodist Episcopal Church began plans to open the Dublin Normal and Industrial Institute at the corner of East Jackson and North Decatur streets.  

 

Politics was as popular as ever in 1905.  Hoke Smith, a candidate for governor, spoke to a crowd of 500 to 800 in a grove on Oak Street south of the present site of Capital City Bank.  In the crowd was an up and coming politician Thomas Hardwick of Sandersville.  Hoke Smith was elected two years later.  Hardwick, who later became a United States Congressman and Senator as well as Governor of Georgia, would make his home on the southwestern end of the block in 1926.  

The Woodmen of the World organized a chapter in Dublin in November.  W.C. Matthews was the organization’s first commander.   The Woodmen met in the Henry Building at the northwestern corner of West Jackson and North Jefferson Streets.   Among the other most active fraternal and heritage  organizations were the Knights of Pythias, Order of Red Men, Young Men’s Literary Society, T.D. Smith Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and Laurens Lodge No. 75, F&AM. 

Music was in an important part of life in 1905.  Frank E. Miller, a professional musician, was hired to teach music to Dublin’s youth.  Miller, a former director of music at Louisiana A&M and Louisiana State University, honed his musical skills in Germany.  The first public music event was a performance of the Macon Lyric Orchestra in the school auditorium.  Miller, a proficient woodwind player and guitarist, replaced the former and popular director W.C. Kaler.

As I end my ninth year of chronicling the events of our past, I invite you to look to the most important history, that of our future.  Every act we take, every move we make, will affect the future of our community.  As we learn from the lessons of the past, let us remember the courage, heritage, wisdom and humanity of those who came before us.  As we approach the last years of our two centuries of existence as a county, may God grant us the ability to strive to raise and improve  our community to heights which will be long remembered by the remotest of our descendants.  May you all have a safe, happy and prosperous New Year!

The End