PIECES OF OUR PAST - 1999

 PIECES OF OUR PAST

Sketches of the History of Dublin and Laurens County, Georgia

and East Central Georgia Area

1999

Written by 

Scott B. Thompson, Sr.

Copyright 2008

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

scottbthompsonsr@yahoo.com

FOREWORD

Pieces of Our Past is a compilation of articles chronicling the history of Dublin and Laurens County, Georgia, as well as some of the history of Johnson, Treutlen, Wilkinson, Twiggs, Emanuel, Montgomery, and Washington Counties.  Your reception of these articles has been most gratifying.   The greatest compliment that I receive is that someone has thought enough of my article to cut it out of the paper and saved it.  That is why I have compiled these articles so that they may be referred to by students and history buffs.  I believe that you are never too young or too old to study your history and heritage.  No one’s is more important than another’s.  You can find history every where you look.  It is in your family, your neighborhood, your church, your school, your favorite sport, your business, your community, your state, and your nation.  Write it down so that generations to come may remember those who proceeded them. 

My thanks to Dubose Porter and Griffin Lovett of the Courier Herald Publishing Company, who have allowed me to tell my passion for our local history to the readers of the Courier Herald.  My thanks also to my editor and proofreader, Heather Carr, who found all of those late night mistakes in my columns and who has touched them up as if they never existed. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. DR. THOMAS LAMAR HARRIS, Johnson County’s Renaissance Man

2. THE WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION IN LAURENS COUNTY, They Did More Than Just Piddle Along

3. DAVE NICHOLSON, Baseball’s First Bonus Baby

4. WILLIAM PHYSICK ZUBER, First Historian of Texas

5. “TEN CENT” BILL YOPP, A Man to Whom Friendship Was Paramount

6. CELEBRATE GEORGIA DAY

7. STORIES OF REMARKABLE PEOPLE, Slave Centenarians of Laurens County

8. JAMES BAILEY, The Story of “Jammin James”

9. JOHN ADAM TREUTLEN, First Governor of the State of Georgia

10. THE GERMAN-ITALIAN PRISONER OF WAR CAMP IN DUBLIN, GEORGIA

11. THE CHEEHAW INCIDENT, A Most Regrettable Affair

12. THE BRIDGE AT BALL’S FERRY

13. GRAND OLE OPRY NIGHTS

14. THE DUBLIN GREEN SOX, Their 50th Anniversary

15. KILLER TWISTER, Death Near Dexter

16. GENERAL JAMES THOMAS, Commander of the United Confederate Veterans

17. THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS, Things Were Slightly Mixed

18. THE OLD RIVER ROAD, From the Coast to the Capital

19. DUBLIN’S ADMIRAL, The Story of Admiral Robert Edgar Braddy, Jr.

20. SECOND ANNUAL TRIVIA QUIZ

21. GREETINGS FROM DUBLIN, A Brief History of Postcards of Dublin

22. THE OTHER HISTORY OF LAURENS COUNTY, A Few Animal Stories

23. GREEN BERRY HUGHES, Baptist Preacher and Part Time Indian Fighter

24. HOT! HOT! HOT!

25. DEATH BY PRESCRIPTION, The Story of Dr. Ambrose Baber

26. DAVID GARNTO DANIELL, The Story of the First Baptist In Atlanta

27. MAN ON THE MOON, 30 Years Later

28. GENERAL PHILIP COOK, Twiggs County’s Confederate General

29. 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LAURENS COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT

30. THIS OLD HOUSE, The Story of the Freeman Hugh Rowe House, Dublin’s Oldest House

31. MIRABEAU BONAPARTE LAMAR, The Second President of Texas

32. JUDGE REUBEN WALKER CARSWELL, Johnson County’s Confederate General Judge

33. ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN THE TOWN OF ROCKLEDGE

34. THE FOUNDING OF THE STATE PATROL POST IN DUBLIN, and a Few Highlights of Laurens Countians’ Service in the Georgia State Patrol

35. THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARIE BAPTIST CHURCH

36. THE U.S.S. LAURENS, The Story of the Life of a World War II Transport Ship in the Pacific

37. THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL AT POPLAR SPRINGS

38. DUBLIN HIGH SCHOOL’S FIRST STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

39. MAJOR JAMES F. WILKES, Forward Air Controller

40. THE LAURENS GAME AND FISH CLUB

41. THE 12TH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL FAIR OF 1913, The Greatest Fair in Our County’s History

42. STAFF SERGEANT FRANK ZETTEROWER, JR., UNITED STATES ARMY, He Gave His Yesterdays for Your Tomorrows

43. THE OLD BRICK COURTHOUSE

44. THE BATTLE OF GRISWOLDVILLE, One Last Valiant Stand

45. FOREST IN HELL, The 121st Infantry in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest

46. THE SOUTH GEORGIA CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Dublin, Georgia, 1899

47. THE TOP TEN MOST INFLUENTIAL EVENTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY IN LAURENS COUNTY

48. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, Some of the Things We Have Accomplished in the 20th Century

49. LAURENS COUNTY IN 1900

50. The History of Adrian, Georgia

99-1

DR. THOMAS LAMAR HARRIS

Johnson County’s Renaissance Man

If Thomas Lamar Harris lived in a town all by himself, the town would have a town doctor, a town minister, a town lawyer, a town architect, a town judge, a town mayor,  a town councilman, a town storekeeper, and a town philanthropist.  Thomas Lamar Harris did all of these things during his life, most of them at the same time.

Thomas Lamar Harris was born in Davisboro, Washington County on July 22, 1862.  His life spanned from near the beginning of the Civil War to the beginning of World War II.  Harris was the son of Elder Thomas Harris and Mary Smith Harris.  His father was a minister of the Christian Church.  His spent his childhood in difficult times, during the Civil War and the economic depression which followed.

Harris chose medicine as his first profession.  He graduated from Augusta Medical College March 1, 1881 at the age of nineteen.  Dr. Harris began his practice in Johnson County shortly after his graduation.  He located his office in the western part of the county on the old Norris plantation in the Buckeye community.  Dr. Harris practiced out of Norris’s store until June 20, 1890 when he moved to Wrightsville.

Dr. Harris’s practice took him along all the back roads and paths of Johnson County.  When he began practicing medicine, he rode a horse or a mule.  Later he drove a wagon or buggy to visit patients.  By the end of his career, he was driving an automobile.  The good doctor was known for his samaritanism.  It was said that he never turned down a request for help.  The sick knew that and always sent for him when they needed treatment.  Dr. Harris kept on going.  For nearly sixty years, he was one of the most popular doctors in Johnson County.  Even when his eyesight was failing and he couldn’t drive a car, Johnson Countians kept requesting his services.

Like his father, Dr. Harris was a minister in the Christian Church.  His home church was the Christian Church in Wrightsville.  The Wrightsville Church was established in 1881 by Harris’s father, Elder Thomas M. Harris.  Thomas Lamar Harris became Rev. Harris when he was ordained at Buckeye Christian Church in 1889.  Rev. Harris served the Christian Church for fifty years, though his service was not continuous.  Rev. Harris served as the first pastor of the First Christian Church of Dublin from 1900 to 1901.

Not satisfied with being a minister and a doctor, Harris took an interest in becoming a lawyer.  In those days a man could read law in the office of another lawyer as a prerequisite to becoming a member of the bar.  Once a man became proficient in reading the law, he would stand  an oral examination by the judge of the Superior Court.  The Reverend Doctor Harris became Thomas L. Harris, Esquire in 1898, when he was admitted to practice law in the State of Georgia.  Harris didn’t practice law very long.  After a brief career of three or four years, he retired.  It was said that he only lost one case in his career.  

Harris tried his hand at store keeping for awhile.  In 1896, he opened a store in Wrightsville.  Like everything else he did, Harris made the store a success.  The store was in operation for three years before Harris sold his interest.   Harris made a substantial amount of the money and gave it all up, as he had done with his law practice.

After giving up his law practice, Harris retained an interest in the law.  For twenty four years, he served as Justice of the Peace of the 1201st Georgia Militia District.  The Justice of the Peace was the front line of the legal system in those days.  He heard thousands of complaints, both in the civil and criminal cases.   Justices of the Peace were vested with the authority to marry couples when a minister wasn’t around.  But then again, Judge Harris was always Reverend Harris.  Judge Harris retired from the bench in 1936 at the age of seventy four. 

Harris dabbled in the art of architecture.  He aided in the design of the Wrightsville Christian Church buildings and other buildings in the county.   In 1938, after the Christian Church was destroyed by fire, Harris served on the building committee of the present church building.   He was also considered an architect of human nature because of all those whom he had healed and counseled during his fifty years in Wrightsville.

Harris had a strong sense of community, contributing his time, talent, and resources to community projects by serving on dozens of boards, committees, etc.  During his lifetime, Harris served as a trustee of the Wrightsville School.  Many of this friend and community members appreciated Dr. Harris’s willingness to serve during his time spent in political offices. He probably wasn’t a career politician.  When called upon, he served.   He served a term as Mayor of Wrightsville.  At various times, Harris was on the city council of Wrightsville.

Harris also  served in nearly every fraternal organization in the city.  He was a Mason and an Odd Fellow.  He was also a Woodman of the World and a Knight of Pythias.  Harris served as a  leader in all of these fraternities, in most cases serving in the highest position in each one.

With all of these duties, Dr. Harris found time for his family.   He was married three times.  His first wife, Sallie Hough Harris died in 1910.  She and Dr. Harris had seven children.  Harris married a second time to Hattie Cullens, who was twenty seven years his junior.  She bore him only one child and died tragically in during the beginning of the influenza epidemic in November of 1918.  She was only twenty nine years old.   Harris’s third wife, Leila Lawrence, gave birth to two children.  This meant Dr. Harris had  ten children in total.  Later he became the grandfather of at least twenty six.

On the morning of December 9, 1940, Dr. Harris was out walking on the streets of Wrightsville.  He walked with a cane.  After all, he was seventy eight years old.  Just as he was mounting the elevated sidewalk from the pavement at the corner of Marcus and Elm Streets, Dr. Harris faltered, staggered, and fell backwards, his head striking the pavement.  His fellow physician, Dr. Herschel Bray, saw Dr. Harris fall and rushed to his aid.  Dr. Bray took Harris to the office of Dr. Gordon Brantley, which was located nearby.    After stabilizing Dr. Harris, he was taken to the nearest hospital, the Rawlings Hospital in Sandersville.  He never regained consciousness.  On the  unluckiest of days, Friday the 13th of December, this giant of a man slipped away.  He was mourned by hundreds of people whose lives he had touched.  The Reverend Doctor Thomas Lamar Harris, Esquire, one of the most unique persons in the history of Georgia, was buried beside his first two wives in Westview Cemetery in Wrightsville.    

99-2

THE WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION

 IN LAURENS COUNTY

They Did More Than Just Piddle Along

The Great Depression of the 1930s deeply affected the people of Laurens County.  The “hard times” actually began following the coming of the boll weevil during World War I.  It continued throughout the 1920s when all but two local banks, the Farmers and Merchants Bank and the Bank of Dudley, closed their doors.  The tide began to turn in the mid 1930s.  President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a national program to put unemployed people back to work.  The Works Progress Administration, known to all as the W.P.A.,  was established in 1935.  

The pay was good - fifty cents a day.  Supervisors were paid a dollar or so a day.  The program was supervised day to day by local officials.   Workdays were the usual eight hours or so.  The workers were given meals by women in the community where they were working.   The workers were paid off in cash - usually in silver dollars or silver half dollars.  The W.P.A. gave the people jobs.  The take home money was spent in the local groceries and dry goods stores on Saturdays.  It allowed many children to get a handful of “penny candy.”  Santa Claus came to a lot more homes.  Other young men were employed on a full time basis with the Civilian Conservation Corps, the “C.C.C.”

The W.P.A. operated through local people.   In Laurens County the program was spearheaded by the county commissioners, the chamber of commerce, and the Lions Club.  The counties chose which projects would benefit the county the most.  The cost of the projects were often supplemented by local governments.  Consequently the works became the property of the local governments.  During an average week two to three hundred people were working.  The projects were widely varied.  The results were most often tangible, such as roads and buildings.  The intangible benefits included compilations of the historical records of the county.  In other counties,  writing and arts  projects were conducted.  

During the first four years of the program, the accomplishments of the local W.P.A. were remarkable.  W.P.A. workers built or improved more than twelve miles of county dirt roads.  Fourteen miles of paved roads were built.  The first projects were the paving of 5.84 miles of Dublin streets and the paving of the Dublin to Dexter Road.  The farm roads, known as secondary roads, were an integral part of the local economy.  Better roads allowed the farmers to get their crops into the market towns in the county.  Better roads allowed the transportation of school students and of doctors on home visits to isolated areas.  In addition to working on the actual roads, workers placed one hundred and twenty four culverts, which measured nearly four thousand feet in length.  Nearly one-half mile of roadside drainage pipes were laid.

Road work was not confined to the rural areas.  The City of Dublin had nine miles of streets built or improved by workers.  Just under five miles of sidewalks were laid.  Even today, one can see evidence of the work of the W.P.A..   I only have to walk out in my front yard to see sidewalks which were laid on Calhoun and Stonewall Streets in the years of 1936 and 1937.  A bronze marker commemorating the work can be found embedded in the sidewalk at the corner of these streets.  Other markers are found along North Lawrence Streets.  Undoubtedly other markers have been removed or covered in the last sixty years.   Over two hundred feet of street gutters were laid by workers.  Workers helped to install over one hundred traffic signs all over the city.  One has to remember that road hazards and safety warnings along roadways and intersections were not as well marked as they are today.  Another municipal improvement consisted of the laying of 1,182 feet of sewer pipes. 

Capital improvement projects were not limited to roads.  Public buildings were constructed and improved in all areas of the county.   Three new schools were built at Olivet, Harmony, and Dudley.  Vocational agricultural buildings were built in Rentz and Dudley.   The very first project was the grading and terracing around Dublin High School on North Calhoun Street.  That project cost $1,443.00.   Among the schools which were repaired by W.P.A. workers were Saxon Heights, Johnson Street, Washington Street, and Telfair Street schools in Dublin, along with two buildings at Cedar Grove school and the school teacherage at Pine Forest and Bethesada schools.  At Baker School near Rentz, a new auditorium was constructed.  Workers constructed a new gymnasium at Calhoun Street School and made substantial improvements in Stubbs Park.   

A major problem in the rural south was the infestation of stagnant water by the mosquito.  Laurens County, under the leadership of County Health Department physician, Dr. Ovid Cheek,  took part in a statewide effort to rid the public of the dreaded health hazard,  malaria.  In cooperation with local officials, workers drained four hundred and seventy three acres of swamp land and improved the drainage on another two hundred and eighty seven acres.  This effort required the digging of nearly five miles of new ditches and the improvement of four miles of old and ineffective ones.

The intangible results of the programs of the Works Progress Administration were long lasting.  An adult literacy program was established to combat a major problem in the county.  Through the efforts of paid teachers, nine hundred and thirty eight adults were taught to read. Housekeeping aides made over forty two hundred home visits.  These women assisted other women by training them in the rudiments of home economics and child care.  A school lunch program for needy children was established.  While this program was in operation, more than thirty eight thousand nourishing meals were served.

A sewing room was established.    The project workers turned out nearly forty five thousand garments for distribution among needy families.  A book repair shop was established to repair old books in public libraries and schools, the quality and number of which had dramatically decreased during the depression.  Twenty seven hundred plus books were repaired for circulation in libraries. Slightly over eighteen thousand books were repaired for use in local schools.

The programs and projects of the Works Progress Administration worked.  Because they were done by local people under local supervision, their results left their mark on Laurens Countians for decades to come.   They put food on the table and pride back into a demoralized society.  The programs of the W.P.A. gradually faded away.  They were no longer necessary - a result of the massive number of new jobs created when the United States entered World War II.

99-3

DAVE NICHOLSON - 

Baseball’s First Bonus Baby

Dave Nicholson had the tools.  He was big.  He was strong.  He could knock a baseball five hundred feet.  Dave was born in Illinois nearly sixty years ago and grew up playing ball on the sand lots of St. Louis, where Yogi Berra and Joe Garigiola once played.  At the age of 15,  he was noticed by pro scouts.  His pitching was average, but his power was awesome.  There were many times when he hit three or four homers in a game.  After graduating from Southwest High School, he signed a contract for the unheard of sum of $100,000.00.  He hadn’t played a game in the major or even minor leagues.  They called them bonus babies, and Dave was the first.  In today’s market, when Kevin Brown, former pitcher for the Wilkinson County Warriors, will make nearly twenty thousand dollars for every out he gets, Dave’s enormous salary seems so trivial. Early in his career, Dave Nicholson played left field for the Orioles of Dublin, Georgia in the Georgia - Florida League.

Dave was playing for a team in Collinsville, Illinois when he met Paul Richards, general manager of the Baltimore Orioles.  Richards and the Orioles pitching coach were so impressed with his power that they signed him to a contract upon his graduation from high school.  Dave was assigned to an Orioles Class A farm team in Knoxville, Tenn.  The hits and the homers were few and far between.  Strikeouts were common.  Dave was shuffled off to Wilson, N.C., where his hitting picked up a little.  Strikeouts continued to plague the Orioles phenom.  In mid July 1958, Dave was again transferred.  This time he would play for the Orioles Class D team in Dublin.  It was a demotion, but something had to be done - too many strikeouts.

Dave reported to Dublin and was immediately inserted into the starting lineup in left field.  In his first game, Dave went 1 for 5 in a loss to the Brunswick Phillies.  In the first few games his average hovered around the .200 mark, par for his career.  His first home run for the Orioles came on July 28th against the Valdosta Tigers.  In the next game, Dave nearly went for the cycle, missing  it by a home run.  The Orioles were on a roll.  They won eight games in row and began to challenge for second place in the league.  Nicholson’s name disappeared from the box scores, probably due to an injury.   He returned to the lineup during the third weekend of August. 0 for 4, 1 for 4, 2 for 4,  and 0 for 5.  Dave wasn’t hitting.  He was swinging hard, trying hard, but missing badly.  Dave closed the season with one of his best games.  He went 2 for 6 with a double against Brunswick.  Dave finished the year with a .227 average, 3 home runs, and 21 runs batted in.  Dave played defense behind a future fire-balling left-hander, Steve Barber, who rose near the top of the American League with the Baltimore Orioles in the early sixties.  His manager also played second base.  If you are a baseball fan, you might remember his name.  He was recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.   The scrappy little man and baseball genius was none other than Earl Weaver.

Dublin lost its franchise in the Ga./Fla. League following the ‘58 season.  After two weeks of disappointment in Amarillo, Texas at the beginning of the ‘59 season, Dave was shipped off to Aberdeen, South Dakota to play for his former Dublin manager, Earl Weaver.  Something clicked.  Dave began to hit for average, for power, and for distance.   It was his best season in professional baseball.  Dave led the Northern League with 35 home runs, nearly one in every twelve at-bats. He batted in 114 runs in 120 games and finished the season with an respectable batting average of .298.

Dave went into the last game with a batting average of an even .300.  The .300 mark is what every ball player strives to accomplish.  It is the mark of a good hitter.  He only needed one hit in his last three at bats to finish at .300.  One out of four would drop him a fraction below.  He got the critical hit in his second at bat.  Dave was assured of his goal.  Even with the out he made on his third trip to the plate,  he still had the mark.  Weaver asked “Nick” if he wanted to be taken out to freeze his average at .300.  Nick said, “No, I’ll keep swinging.”   He made an out on the 4th at bat.  There was still a chance.  A hit on the fifth at bat would bring him back to .300.  The mark Dave wanted so badly never materialized.  He made an out in his last at bat of the season and finished at .298.  Chuck Hinton, Nicholson’s teammate and future star outfielder for the Washington Senators, said it plainly, “When he went 1 for 5 he almost cried.  He was sick.”  The .300 plateau eluded Dave for the rest of career.  He never came close again.

Hinton marveled at Nick’s power.  “He hit the longest ball I ever saw hit.  It’s got to be the granddaddy of ‘em all.  It went over the  left field fence at Aberdeen and landed almost two full blocks away. I’d say it went 625 feet.  It’s the truth.  They never did measure it, “ Hinton commented.  Fred Valentine witnessed another tape measure job in the ‘58 season at Wilson, North Carolina. “It was well over 500 feet,” Valentine said.

Dave hit well with the Miami team of the International League to start the 1960 season.  His .260 average led to his promotion to the “Big Show” in 1960 with the Baltimore Orioles.  The strikeouts kept coming - one out of every two at bats.  Meanwhile, fellow Dublin Oriole Steve Barber had a fabulous rookie season going 10 and 7 with a 3.21 E.R.A..  Dave was sent back to the minors (again).  Twenty home runs and a .248 average at Little Rock in 1961 earned Dave another shot in Baltimore in 1962.  The second time around was a little better.  He only struck out two out every five times, but his batting average dipped down to .173.   Baltimore had seen enough.  They knew he had potential, but there were too many strikeouts.  In January of 1963, Dave was traded to the Chicago White Sox along with Hall of Fame Pitcher, Hoyt Wilhelm and two other players  for Hall of Fame Shortstop Luis Aparicio and a minor player. 

The ChiSox gave Dave a chance and he responded.  He started and played in 123 games for the Sox, who finished in second behind the league champion Yankees.  Dave hit 22 home runs and drove in 70 runs.  Not too bad for a young ball player.  What was bad was the strikeouts.   His ratio went down.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that he struck out 175 times.  At the time it was a major league record,  not the kind you would brag about.  Dave held the A.L. record for strikeouts  until 1986.  The boos were unbearable, but Dave took it.  He was a ball player.  He loved baseball.  He wouldn’t quit.  Manager Al Lopez suggested a heavier bat, but that didn’t work.  During a practice in May, 1964, Lopez suggested that Dave raise his left arm to get a better look at the ball and to protect the outside of the plate.  It worked.  Dave hit three homers in a double header.  One landed on the left field roof of Comiskey Park, one of the longest home runs in history.   He had his stroke back and was leading the Sox in most offensive categories.  The swing which bloomed in the Spring, faded in the summer heat.  His strikeout ratio increased and his average dipped 80 points down to a season ending .204.

It only got worse in ‘65.  His average dropped to .153.  In 1966, Dave had a respectable year with the Astros. His .246 average was a career best.  His home run total was lower, but so was his strikeout ratio. Dave played 9 games with the Braves in ‘67 and averaged one strikeout a game. Dave had one last shot.  It was a good one.  He hit 34 home runs in the International League in 1968.  He was picked up by the expansion Kansas City Royals in 1969, but never played another game.  When he hit the ball,  he hit it hard.  When he hit the ball,  he hit it far.  When he swung, he missed too many times.  What he might have done had he kept up his pace  Spring of ‘64 pace is up for speculation.  But, that’s baseball.

99-4

WILLIAM  PHYSICK  ZUBER 

 First Historian of Texas

William Physick Zuber had a talent for remembering the events in his life.  He lived through many of the most remarkable events in the history of our nation and his state.  Zuber was a German by his ancestry, a Georgian by his birth, and a Texan for eternity.  During the last forty years of his life, he began writing historical articles for the Texas State Historical Association Quarterly and other historical publications. 

William Zuber was born near the town of Marion in Twiggs County on July 6, 1820.  His father, Abraham Zuber, Jr., came to Georgia from Pennsylvania during his childhood.  His mother, Mary Ann Mann, came from South Carolina to Twiggs County in 1814 to live with her grandparents, Robert and Mollie Deshazo.  The elder Zuber moved to Marion, the county seat of the infant Twiggs County, to establish a mercantile business.  Abraham and Mary Ann married on February 16, 1816.  They established a farm outside of town, where William was born.

The Zubers, like many other Georgians, moved to the new lands of Alabama following the end of the Indian Wars.  They landed in Montgomery County, where they lived until 1824. They moved again- this time to East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.  Abraham Zuber began traveling and made several trips to the Mexican state of Texas.  In the summer of 1830, the Zubers once again packed their worldly belongings and moved.  After a temporary stay in the District of Aes, William’s family moved to Harrisburgh in Stephen Austin’s colony.   They kept on moving.  In Brazoria, their closest neighbors were two miles away.  It was in Brazoria where William began to read historical literature.  After he read “The Life of Gen. Francis Marion” and “The Life of Washington,” Zuber was inspired to serve in the defense of his community against Mexican oppression.  One year later the Zubers moved to the future site of Grimes County, which was even more remote than Brazoria.

As the Mexican Army began to invade Texas in 1835, tensions there began to boil.  William’s thoughts were constantly turning to joining the local military company.  His father, discounting his father’s service during the American Revolution, tried to talk  fourteen-year-old William from joining the militia.  His mother would have no part of it.

News came to the community of Gen. Santa Anna’s investment in the Alamo.  Responding to the calls for help from Col. Travis, Capt. Bennett, the local militia commander formed a small company of a dozen men and boys.  On the morning of March 6, 1836, the company left for the Alamo.  Zuber’s mother wept as she saw her son, a foot soldier in the company, on his way to what she knew would be his death.  Before the company reached its destination, they heard the news of the fall of the Alamo.    Capt. Bennett ordered his men to dig in and await further orders.  On March 20th, Bennett’s Company combined its forces with four other companies.  On the 25th, the company received news of the massacre of Col. James W. Fannin and his men at Goliad.  Fannin, another native of Twiggs County, was murdered after surrendering his men to Mexican forces.  For the next several weeks, Zuber and his company patrolled along the Brazos River in anticipation of Santa Anna’s crossing.  

Just days before the showdown with Santa Anna, Zuber was detailed to care for the sick and wounded in camp.  He desperately tried to find someone to take his place so that he could go into battle.  Remember that he was still only fifteen years old.  When Capt. Gillespie made his final decision and ordered William to remain, the young boy broke into tears.  

William heard the reports of gunfire from San Jacinto on the 21st of April.  He yearned to be there, in battle like the heroes in the books.  Two days after the battle in which Texans defeated the Mexican Army and captured Santa Anna, William walked onto the battlefield, alone.  The corpses of Mexican soldiers were strewn in the fields.    The sights and smells  of decaying bodies sickened him.   William was allowed to peek under a blanket where Mexican General Cos was lying.  After five days, the stench of death was unbearable.  Zuber and his command were ordered to march to Goliad to bury the bones of Col. Fannin’s command.

Zuber remained in the service for two years , protecting his home and community from Indian raids.  Crops still had to be planted and harvested, so Zuber plowed with his gun lying in the row next to where he was plowing.   For several years, Zuber participated in campaigns against Indian and Mexican invaders.  In 1844, Zuber was astonished when he was asked to teach school in Walker County.  He had very little formal education.  He considered himself to be self educated.  Zuber, as he had for years, diligently worked to improve his writing skills.  His first published writing came in a short article in “The Galveston News” in 1855.

In 1861, at the beginning of what Zuber called “The Confederate War,” the old desire to serve in the military came back.    After making the necessary arrangements to protect his family, he enlisted as a private in Col. Carter’s Lancers. Shortly after he left, Zuber received word that his youngest child was dangerously ill.  Fearing the worst, he asked for a furlough, which was denied by Col. Carter.  His captain, feeling sorry for him, detailed Zuber back to his home on a recruiting mission.  Happily he found his family in good health and immediately returned to camp.  

During the early months of the war, Zuber began praying with fellow soldiers.  He also joined a Masonic Lodge within the regiment and achieved the degree of Master Mason in 1864.  His Methodist faith and Masonic beliefs helped him to get through his second war.  Zuber’s Regiment, the 21st Texas Cavalry, campaigned in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri for the rest of the war.  Zuber’s accounts of his regiment and the army’s activities are some of the best ever published.  While he saw action, Zuber never faced the horrific armies of the Potomac and the Tennessee.   When the news of the surrender of Generals Lee and Johnston came, the Texas cavalrymen were still making preparations to continue the fight.   Zuber was wounded and had half of his left “pinkie” finger amputated after the pain became too intense.  Zuber returned home, unable to tend to his farm.  He taught school for a while before returning to his farm.

In 1870, the Texas Legislature authorized pensions for all Texans who served in the Texas military  beginning July 1, 1836.  Zuber got involved in and became a leader of the pension movement.  He continued to teach.  In 1873, he wrote a descriptive account of Moses Rose’s escape from the Alamo.  In 1904, following the death of his wife, Zuber moved to Austin, where he served as tour guide in the State Senate Chamber.  Despite his failing eyesight and vertigo, Zuber continued to write.  He had three rules:  “Write about true and interesting facts.   Search out and correct your own mistakes.  Search out and correct the errors of others.”   William Zuber, like all historians, never finished writing about everything he knew.  He died on May 22, 1913 and was buried with Masonic honors in the State Cemetery in Austin.  Zuber’s writings were compiled by his niece, resulting in his autobiography, “My Eighty Years in Texas.”  

99-5

"TEN CENT" BILL YOPP

 A Man to Whom Friendship Was Paramount

Bill Yopp, the fourth of eight siblings,  was born in Laurens County, Georgia.  Like his parents, he was a slave belonging to the family of Jeremiah Yopp.   The Yopp family owned two major plantations.  One was located in the western part of Dublin centered around the Brookwood Subdivision.  A second was located along the eastern banks of Turkey Creek near the community known as Moore's Station.  Other small plantations were scattered over the county.  Jeremiah Yopp assigned Bill to his son, Thomas.  Bill once said that he followed Thomas like "Mary's little lamb."  The two instantly became friends.  They fished, hunted and played together.  Bill's childhood, while stifled by slavery, was molded by education and religion within the plantation, which included regular church services.

On January 16, 1861, John W.  Yopp attended the Convention of Secession at the state capital in Milledgeville.  Laurens Countians voted to side with the Cooperationists who favored remaining in the Union.   Yopp, the largest plantation owner in western Laurens County, was joined by Dr. Nathan Tucker, a wealthy plantation owner from northeastern Laurens County.  Dr. Tucker, a northerner by birth, voted to remain in the Union.  Yopp cast his vote with the majority who voted for secession.

The first company of Confederate Soldiers in Laurens County was organized on July 9th, 1861 as the Blackshear Guards.  The company eventually became attached to the 14th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  Thomas Yopp was elected First Lieutenant.  Nine days later Lt. Yopp was promoted to Captain when Rev. W.S. Ramsay was elected Lt. Colonel of the regiment.  Bill desperately wanted to join Lieutenant Yopp.   So, he  enlisted in the Blackshear Guards as the company drummer.   Marching in front of company going into battle was not the best place to be, especially if you cared about living.   After the company completed its training in Atlanta, they moved to Lynchburg, Virginia just after the Battle of the First Manassas.   In August, the company was sent to West Virginia,  where they fought under the command of Gen. John B. Floyd, a former Secretary of War in the Buchanan Administration.  Gen. Robert E. Lee was in overall command of the West Virginia campaign.  

Bill often found himself between the battle lines.  He often said "I had no inclination to go to the Union side, as I did not know the Union soldiers and the Confederate soldiers I did know, and I believed then as now, tried and true friends are better than friends you do not know."  On several occasions, Private Yopp was sent out on foraging missions.  Bill ceased to forage for food because his Captain and friend found it to be "wrong doing."  Bill obtained a brush and box of shoe blackening and began to shine the shoes of the men of the regiment.  He soon began performing other services for the men.  Bill charged ten cents, no matter what the service was.  The nickname of "Ten Cent Bill" was penned on Bill.  Bill often had more money than anyone in the company.  His fellow company members took delight in teaching him to read and write. When he was sick, they took care of him.  Bill had a case of home sickness.  Captain Yopp paid for his trip home.  Bill realized that his place was back with Captain Yopp in Virginia.  During the winter of 1861 the company became part of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The first battle of the peninsular campaign of 1862 took place on May 31st.   The 14th Georgia, under the command of Gen. Wade Hampton, got into a bloody fight with the Federal forces.  Four Confederate Generals were wounded or killed.  Captain Yopp was also wounded in the Battle of Seven Pines.  Bill comforted Captain Yopp and accompanied him to the field hospital. After a short stay in a Richmond Hospital, Bill went back to Laurens County with the Captain, who recuperated from his injury and went back to join the company by the fall of 1862.  

At the bloody siege of Fredericksburg, Captain Yopp fell when a shell burst over him.  Again Bill was there,  coming to the aid of his friend.  Captain Yopp recovered during the winter.  The company saw Stonewall Jackson being carried off to a field hospital at the Battle of Chancellorsville.  Bill witnessed the pure carnage of Gettysburg from the company's position on Seminary Ridge.  The Blackshear Guards missed most of the fighting those three days in July, 1863.   On August 31, 1863 Capt. Yopp cashiered, or bought out his commission.  He returned to the ranks as a private until April 2, 1864.  Captain Yopp transferred to the Confederate Navy on board the cruiser "Patrick Henry."   Bill was not allowed to go with Thomas Yopp.  

By some accounts, Bill returned home until the close of the war.  By another, and more official, record, he was present at Gen. Lee's surrender at Appomattox.  In May of 1865, he learned of Captain Yopp's return home.  He left just in time to see the wagon train of Confederate President Jefferson Davis during his attempted escape through Laurens County.    

Times were hard - for people of both races.  Bill worked as a share cropper until 1870.  He went to Macon,  taking a job as a bell boy at the Brown House.  There he became acquainted with many of the influential men of Georgia.  Bill accompanied the owner of the hotel back home to Connecticut.  After his duties were finished, he was given train fare to return home.  Bill became fascinated with New York City and worked there for a short time.  In 1873, Bill returned home for a short time before taking a position with the Charleston and Savannah Railroad. He fell ill with yellow fever and returned home to recuperate and spend some time with Captain Yopp.

Bill returned to New York where he worked as a porter in an Albany Hotel.  There he again met the influential men of the state.  He briefly served a family in California.  In his travels, Bill visited the capitals of Europe.  He worked for ten years as a porter in the private car of the president of Delaware and Hudson Railroad.   Bill then worked for the United States Navy aboard the "Collier Brutus.”  His travels amounted to a trip around the world.

As the world was at war for the first time, Bill realized that old age had crept upon him.  He returned home and  found his friend Captain Yopp in poverty.  Captain Yopp was about to enter the Confederate Soldier's Home in Atlanta.  Bill took a job on the Central of Georgia Railroad.  During World War I, Bill was given a place to live at Camp Wheeler near Macon.  He made regular visits to the Soldier's Home  providing Captain Yopp with some of his money along with fruits and other treats.  Bill won the admiration of the officers at Camp Wheeler, who presented him with a gold watch upon his departure.  Bill's generosity toward Capt. Yopp soon spread to all of the soldiers in the home.  He enlisted the help of the editor of  The Macon Telegraph for aid in a fund raising campaign.  Bill and his friends were able to raise funds for each veteran at Christmas time.  The campaign became more successful every year.  The Dublin Courier Herald  contributed to the campaign in 1919 when the amount given to each veteran was  three dollars.  Bill took time at each Christmas to speak to the veterans in the chapel of the home.  The veterans were so impressed they presented him a medal in March of 1920.  Bill had a book published about his life.  The books were sold with the proceeds going to the soldiers in the home.

By this time, Capt. Yopp’s health was failing.  The Board of Trustees voted to allow Bill a permanent place at the home.  Bill stayed at his friend's side, just as he had done in the muddy trenches of Virginia nearly sixty years before. Captain Yopp died on the morning of January 23rd, 1920. Bill, now in his eighties, gave the funeral address.  He reminisced about the good times and his affection for his friend.  Bill was a popular member of the Atlanta Camp No. 159 of the United Confederate Veterans, who held their meetings every third Monday at the capitol.  Bill died sometime after the 1933 reunion.  He was buried with his fellow soldiers at the Confederate Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia.  After the body of Amos Rucker was disinterred to be laid next to the body of his wife, Bill became the lone African - American soldier of the Confederate Army to lie in the cemetery.  His gravestone provided by the State of Georgia reads: 

DRUMMER BILL YOPP,  CO. H,  14TH GA. INF., C.S.A. 

99-6

CELEBRATE GEORGIA DAY

This Friday, February 12th, Georgians will celebrate Georgia Day on the 266th anniversary of the founding of Georgia by Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe.  Georgia was named for King George II of England and is known as the “Empire State.”  It was the last of the thirteen original colonies.  Its boundaries once extended west to the Mississippi River.  It is the largest state east of the Mississippi River.  Oglethorpe and his colonists actually landed at Yammacraw Bluff in Savannah on February 1st, but when the current calendar was established in 1754, the day became February 12, 1733.   On January 2, 1788, Georgia was the fourth state admitted to the Union. Here are few Georgia firsts and outstanding accomplishments by Georgians.

Georgia has always been a leader in agriculture in the United States. While Georgia has vast farm lands, timber covers over sixty five percent of the state.  The first experimental garden in the United States was planted in Savannah in 1733.  In 1874, Georgia became the first state to establish a state agricultural department.  Georgia is often the number one producer of peanuts and pecans. The state is among the nation’s top producers of marble, peaches, chickens, and wood products.  Georgia also leads the nation in the production of granite and textiles. 

Georgia has many world capitals. Albany is known as the pecan and candy cane capital. Waynesboro is touted as the bird dog capital.   Gainesville is the poultry capital of the world.  Dalton is the carpet capital.  Cairo is the pickle capital and is also known world wide for its syrup. Claxton is the fruit cake capital.   Vidalia is known world wide as the sweet onion capital.   Colquitt is the mayhaw berry capital.  Everyone knows that Dublin and Laurens County are home to the world’s longest celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.

Georgia is home to of the world’s largest objects.  Stone Mountain is the largest exposed mass of granite.  Glenville is home to the world’s largest cricket farm.  Macon is home to the world’s largest copper dome, which covers the city auditorium.  The butterfly conservatory in Callaway Gardens is the world’s largest.  The largest group of black colleges is in Atlanta.  The largest man-made beach in the world is in Callaway Gardens.

Georgia and Georgians have accomplished many of the world’s and nation’s firsts.  Dr. Crawford Long was the first surgeon to use an anesthetic in surgery.  Alice Davis was the first black woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal. Georgia resident and astronaut, Sonny Carter, took the first barbeque in space.   Sugar Ray Robinson was the first boxer to win six world boxing titles.  Juliette Gordon Low founded the first Girl Scout troop in Savannah.  Eighteen-year olds in Georgia were first American teenagers allowed to vote in 1943.  Joseph Sequoyah published the first American Indian  newspaper in 1828 and developed the first written Indian language. Chickamauga National Park is the nation’s oldest military park.   Rev. John Wesley established the first Sunday School in the New World in Savannah in the 1730s.  Rebecca L. Felton was the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, having been appointed to the post by Gov. Thomas Hardwick, former resident of Dublin. The first women’s college sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, was founded in 1851 at Wesleyan College in Macon.  (You’ll find out who was the founder in a later column.)

Eli Whitney invented the first cotton gin near Savannah in 1793.  The first gold rush in the United States took place in North Georgia in 1828.  Coca Cola was invented in Georgia as a headache remedy. In Americus in 1923, Charles Lindbergh made his first solo flight.  Wesleyan and Andrew Colleges were the first two chartered colleges to give degrees to women.  The University of Georgia was the first state chartered university in America.  Spellman College was the first to confer degrees to black female nurses.  The first forestry school was established at U.G.A. in 1906.  Henry Flipper, of Thomasville, was the first black man to be accepted at West Point Military Academy. The first black Baptist congregation was organized in Augusta in 1787. The first black church was established at Silver Bluff in 1733.   The “Savannah” was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, leaving Savannah in May of 1819.  The first American orphanage was established by George Whitfield near Savannah in 1735.  The first black general hospital was built in 1832.  Georgia was the first colony to outlaw slavery.  Henry McAlpin built the first railroad in America at the “Hermitage” in 1820.  Georgia was the first state to charter a railroad, the Mexican-Atlantic in 1827. The Western and Atlantic was the first state owned railroad in the country.  The first ice machine was built in Columbus in 1844.

Many Georgians are among the country’s most famous people.  In the area of politics are: Woodrow Wilson, Ellen Wilson,  Martin Luther King, Alexander Stephens, V.P., C.S.A., William H. Crawford,  John C. Fremont,  Dean Rusk, Griffin Bell, Justice Clarence Thomas, and  Jimmy Carter.  Georgians who have been famous on the stage and screen, and literature are Joanne Woodard, Julia Roberts, Burt Reynolds, DeForest Kelly, Ted Turner, Melvyn Douglas, Ossie Davis, Oliver Hardy, Stacy Keach, Charles Coburn, Pernell Roberts, and   Bert Parks.  Among Georgia’s famous authors are; Carson McCullars,  Margaret Mitchell, Flannery O’Conner, Sidney Lanier, Conrad Aiken, Erskine Caldwell, Frank Yerby, and Joel Chandler Harris.  Among Georgia’s war heroes are: Jim Bowie, Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne, Gen. Nathaniel Greene, Gen. Elijah Clarke,  Gen. Courtney Hodges, Gen. Lucius D. Clay,  and Confederate generals; John B. Gordon, James Longstreet, Joseph Wheeler, William Hardee, Philip Cook,  Robert Toombs, Paul J. Semmes, A.R. Wright, T.R.R. Cobb, Howell Cobb, and Stand Waite.   

In the area of music, Georgia standouts are: Ray Charles, Brenda Lee, James Brown, Travis Tritt, Otis Redding, Ray Stevens, Bill Anderson, Ma Rainey, Curtis Mayfield, Trisha Yearwood, Alan Jackson, Little Richard, Lena Horne, The Allman Brothers, The B-52s, R.E.M., Roland Hayes,  Chet Akins, Harry James, Gladys Knight, and Johnny Mercer.  In the field of sports are: Jim Brown, Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson,  Sugar Ray Robinson, Kevin Brown (the world’s highest paid player,) Wyomia Tyus, Luke Appling, Jim Parker, Rayfield Wright, Paul Anderson, Mel Blount, Johnny Mize, Bill Terry, Dan Reeves, Fran Tarkenton, Bill Elliott, Evander Holyfield, Herschel Walker, Ezzard Charles, Larry Holmes, Young Stribling, and  Bobby Jones.   Other famous Georgians are Doc Holliday, Martha Berry, Elijah Muhammad, Selena Butler and three adopted Georgians; Franklin D. Roosevelt,  Hank Aaron and Elton John.

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. is constructed of marble from Georgia. Andersonville is home to the only museum for all prisoners of war.  Every April, Georgia plays host to the world’s best golfers at the Masters Tournament in Augusta.  The autograph of Button Gwinnett, who signed the Declaration of Independence for Georgia, is one of the most valuable in the world. James L. Pierpont, a resident of Georgia, wrote the classic Christmas song, “Jingle Bells.” 

Georgia’s heritage is monumental .  It shapes us.  It defines us.  It’s preservation deserves our eternal, unwavering, and financial support.   Forget Florida.  Forget the Tennessee/Carolina Mountains. Stay and see Georgia. You will never regret it. Sources; Gorgeous Georgia, The Georgia Almanac, The Historical News (9/98). 

99-7

STORIES OF REMARKABLE PEOPLE

Slave Centenarians of Laurens County 

During Black History Month and Georgia History Month I have chosen to give you a few glimpses into the history of some remarkable African-American slaves who lived in Laurens County.  The largest  African - American families are the Stanleys, Yopps, Guytons, Kellams, Blackshears, Whites, Perrys, Thomases, McLendon’s, Moores,  O'Neals, Coneys, and Troups.  Unfortunately for all us, many of the stories of these people have been lost forever.  I have included references if you are interested in finding out more about these people.  I hope you will.

Jack Robinson was born during the French and Indian War.  He lived the better part of his life as a slave.  In 1865, at the age of 111, Robinson gained his freedom.  He died in Laurens County in December of 1872.   Jack Robinson had survived many hardships during his lifetime, but in the end the "Milledgeville Union Recorder" stated that "tobacco was what cut him down in his prime."  He was only 118 years old and the oldest person to live in Laurens County.  Union Recorder, Dec. 25, 1872.

One of the oldest citizens of Laurens County, was Madison Moore.  Mr. Moore died on November 15, 1912, at the authenticated age of 112 years.  Madison Moore had lived most of his life on the old Gov. Troup place on the east side of the Oconee River.  Madison Moore, who was known as "Hatless" Moore was a body guard and coach driver for his master, Gov. George M. Troup.  His nickname came from the numerous times his hat blew off while driving Governor Troup.  At the time of his death,  Mr. Moore's descendants numbered in the hundreds.  Many of his descendants live in Laurens County today. Dublin Courier Dispatch, Nov. 21, 1912.

Frances Thompkins was born into slavery on the McLendon plantation in lower part of the county near the Oconee River.  She received her freedom at the end of the Civil War.  After leaving the McLendon place, Mrs. Thompkins lived on the Ann Smith place on the Old River Road and later moved up the road to the Fuller Place where Southeast Paper is located today.  Mrs. Thompkins had sixteen children and outlived eleven of them.  Her surviving children were Noah Thompkins, Rev. William Thompkins, Pink Thompkins, Clara Jones, and Minnie Wiggins.  Her eldest son, Green McLendon, was born in the 1850s.  She continued to work until a year before her death.  Mrs. Thompkins died on a Saturday afternoon at the home of her daughter, Clara Jones.  As near as anyone could figure on that day, September 20, 1944, "Aunt" Frances Thompkins was 115 years old, the oldest known citizen of Laurens County. Courier Herald, September 22, 1944, p. 6. 

Lewellyn Blackshear was born on the plantation of Lewis Maddox in 1807, the year Laurens County was created.  At the time she lived near the Washington -  Montgomery County line. In 1921, Mrs. Blackshear still had vivid memories of Gen. David Blackshear going off to fight the Indians in the War of 1812.  She remembered coming to Dublin by  ferry to find a village of only a few houses and stores.  Mrs. Blackshear was given to other members of the Maddox family following the death of Lewis Maddox.  She remembered her last master only as Mr. Odom.   After receiving her freedom she worked for the Holmes family as a domestic servant.  Mrs. Blackshear survived three husbands and five children.  Despite her failing eyesight and poor hearing Mrs. Blackshear was a virtual treasure trove of information. It is too bad that more of her memories were not chronicled.  The question of whether or not Mrs. Blackshear outlived Mrs. Thompkins to become Laurens County oldest living woman has been lost to eternity. Courier Herald, Aug. 21, 1921, p. 1.

Isaac Jackson died in Montgomery County at the age of one hundred and twenty two.  Isaac was a former slave of Gov. George M. Troup of Laurens County.  "Old Isaac" appears in a mortgage of slaves at Troup's Valdosta Plantation in 1846.  Isaac Jackson is credited with being the last surviving slave of President George Washington. Hawkinsville Dispatch, Oct. 19, 1876.

Tempy Stanley died in October of 1905.  She had been a slave of Ira Stanley, whose plantation was located in northern Laurens County.  At the time of her death,  she was living on the John C. Register place in the Burgamy District of Laurens County.  Mr. Register had known Tempy since he was a little boy in the 1830s.  According to Register she was old then.  According to some Tempy Stanley was 114 years old at the time of her death. Dublin Courier Dispatch, October 6, 1905. 

The 1860 census of slaves did not list the name of each slave.  The only information given was the age, sex, and whether or not the person was Black or Mulatto.  However, one person was named in the 1860 Slave Census of Laurens County.  Her name was Marilla and she was owned by William McLendon.  What is remarkable about this lady is that she was 100 years old.  There were four other slaves in Laurens County that year who were over 90 years of age.   One was a female owned by Everard Blackshear.  The other three males were two men owned by John M. McNeal and one man owned by Daniel Anderson. 1860 Slave Census, Laurens County, Georgia.

"Uncle Jerry" Lowther was known to have been the first blacksmith in Laurens County.  Jerry Lowther was born a slave just before 1820.  His master, John Lowther, was  a merchant in Dublin and a speculator in mineral rights all over the country.  John Lowther had Jerry educated in the art of blacksmithing.  After the Civil War, Jerry Lowther operated his own blacksmith shop on the Hawkinsville Road west of Dublin.  During that time, the far western edge of Dublin was the creek that crosses Bellevue Avenue at the Chamber of Commerce.  The area was known as "Sandy Bottom."  During the winter and after a summer freshet,  crossing the creek became nearly impossible.  Jerry Lowther's house was located on the spot where the home of Richard Graves now stands.  His shop was located just to the east on the adjoining lot.  Jerry Lowther died in 1922 at the estimated age of 105.

Sam Linder, a former slave of General David Blackshear, helped to build Fort Hawkins in 1806.  He lived to be over one hundred years old - dying in Laurens County in the 1880's.  Other slaves, like Ringold Perry (also owned by General David Blackshear) Crawford Lord, Rev. George Linder, Madison Moore, and the Rev. Daniel D. Cummings established large farms and prosperous businesses in the decades following their freedom.

During this month, the Laurens County Historical Society will begin publishing a series of books on Laurens County Cemeteries.  The first volume of these books will contain the names of all marked graves and the location of all known African-American cemeteries in Laurens County.  Unfortunately, there are too many unmarked graves.  One of the best maintained cemeteries is located on Highway 319 North.  The Mount Pullen Cemetery contains the graves of many former slaves like Ezekiel Pullen, the church founder,  who was born in 1816 and died in 1883.  Also buried in the cemetery is the body of Robert Myricks.  Myricks was born into slavery just days before the Civil War battle of Second Manassas in 1862.  He died on February 15, 1960 and is known to have been the last surviving slave in Laurens County.

These are just a few of the stories which are worth preserving. They only scratch the surface of the deep roots of the county’s heritage.   I hope they will inspire other stories to come forth.    All history is worth preserving. Let us all dedicate not only the month of February, but all twelve months of the year to preserving our heritage.  After all, it is the only one we have.

99-8 

JAMES BAILEY

The Story of “Jammin James”

James Bailey is tall.  He may be the tallest person ever born in Laurens County.  His height - six feet nine inches in his stocking feet - came in handy for slam-dunking basketballs, blocking jump shots, and getting stuff off the top shelf at Wal-Mart without tip-toeing. 

Bailey was born in Dublin on May 21, 1957.  His family moved away a short time later. James began to grow taller and taller.  His height and superior athletic ability made him an outstanding high school basketball star of the Xaverian Brothers High School team of Westwood, Massachusetts.  For his outstanding ability and play, James was awarded a scholarship to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  

James began his career with the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers in the fall of 1975.  By the fifth game, James was named as the starting center.  His coach, Tom Young, noticed something special in the freshman. The Knights won their first game, and then another.  When Rutgers eased past Boston College by twenty three points, sportswriters began to take notice.  The Knights defeated Georgia Tech to win the school’s first Christmas holiday tournament.  In each of the three games heading  into the Poinsettia Classic, Rutgers scored more than 95 points in each game.  By New Year’s Day, Rutgers was eleven and zero.  Four opponents gave up one hundred points to Bailey’s team.  In the biggest game of the year against arch rival Princeton, the Knights scored seventy five points against one of the nation’s best defensive teams.  The Knights scored more than one hundred points in their last two regular season games.  This was in the days when there were no three-point shots.    In the post season tournament, Rutgers breezed to its second straight ECAC title and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament.  With wins over Princeton, UConn, De Paul, and VMI, the Knights made it into the final four.  The Knights perfect 31 and 0 season came to end with an 86 - 70  loss to Michigan.  Bailey vaulted to national prominence in his freshman season.

Bailey led his team to the NIT in the next two years and one final trip to the NCAA tournament in his senior year.  During his four years at Rutgers, Bailey averaged 16.7 points and 8.7 rebounds a game.  He still holds the Rutgers record for field goals in a season (312 in 1978.)  Amazingly, the big man had 1755 steals (second most in school history.)   Bailey blocked 330 shots and was feared by all those who dared to try him under the basket.  James Bailey was one of the first college centers to perfect the “lob dunk.”  He had 116 dunks in the 1977-78 season, more than many entire teams.  His junior season was his best.  Bailey won the Widner Trophy as the best player in the East.  He was chosen as a first team All - American and finished the season with a 23.5 points per game scoring average.  His career best game came against William and Mary when he scored forty three points and grabbed thirteen  rebounds.  A local sportscaster described Bailey that night as if he were “a slot machine in front of an addicted gambler - all the numbers were coming up right.”

Just days after the end of his junior season, James was selected to play for the United States in the 1978 World Invitational Tournament, a sort of off-year Olympic tournament.  He was named the starting center.  The team had among its members a forward from Indiana State by the name of Larry Bird and a guard from Michigan state Earvin Johnson, who you know as “Magic.”  Also playing on the team were future pros, Joe Barry Carroll, Phil Ford, Jack Givens, David Greenwood, Kyle Macy, Rick Robey, and Sidney Moncrief.  The USA team defeated Cuba 109-64, Yugoslavia 88 to 83 and the Soviet Union 107 to 82 to win the world crown.   Bailey was third on the team in scoring with twelve points per game, more than Bird and “Magic” put together.

Bailey garnered many honors in his four year career at Rutgers. He was first team All Atlantic and a member of the All Atlantic Tournament Team in each of his last three seasons, Tournament MVP in his senior year, Atlantic Player of the Year in his last two seasons, winner of the Donald Courson Trophy as the top male athlete in the Class of 1980, and a first team All American in his last two seasons.  His team won ninety five games and lost only twenty eight.  The Knights were fifty and three at home.  Bailey was drafted sixth in the first round of the June 1979 N.B.A. draft by the world champion Seattle Supersonics.  Chosen ahead of James were Earvin “Magic” Johnson, David Greenwood, Bill Cartwright, Greg Kelser, and Sidney Moncrief.

         The defending champion Supersonics finished with the second best record in league in Bailey’s rookie season.  They defeated Portland and Milwaukee, but lost to division rival and eventual league champions Los Angeles in the Conference Finals.  In his only playoff appearance, Bailey was assigned to guard the legendary Kareem Abul Jabbar.   Bailey became a starter after an injury to Lonnie Shelton. He  had his best season in 1980-1, despite his team’s tumble to the cellar of the Pacific Division.  Playing in all eighty two games, he established career highs in nearly all scoring and defensive categories.  It was during that year that he hit his only three point shot (out of thirteen attempts.)   During his third season, he was traded to the New Jersey Nets, who finished third in their division.  

Bailey was traded in his fourth season to the Houston Rockets, who finished last in the league.  During that year Bailey led the team in field goal percentage.  Bailey replaced the legendary Elvin  Hayes in the lineup.  At the time, Hayes was the all-time NBA leader in minutes played and third all-time in points scored.   The Rockets were a little better in the 83-84 season, finishing next to last in the league.  Bailey was traded a third time in 1984 to the New York Knicks, who finished (you guessed it), next to last.  It only got worse the next year when the Knicks were in the basement of the NBA.  Bailey was shipped across the river to New Jersey in 1986.  Again, Bailey’s team finished next to last.  In his last NBA season, 1987-88,  he finally got out of the cellar, but barely.  The Phoenix Suns won one out of three games and finished as the fifth worst team.   In his seven-year career, James Bailey scored  5246 points and amassed 2988 rebounds.   After his last season in the NBA, Bailey played in Europe until his knees finally gave out.

On the night of February 8, 1993, thousands of his fans and twelve of his former teammates turned out to honor James Bailey with the retirement of his number 20 jersey.  Bailey is only one of three Scarlet Knights to have been accorded such a high honor.  That same year, James was one of the initial five inductees into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame.  He was joined by the late Jim Valvano, legendary N.C. State basketball coach and colorful sportscaster.    Bailey still lives in the area today and keeps himself physically fit by drag racing in Englishtown.

Unfortunately for James Bailey and the game of basketball, James was never surrounded in the NBA with the talent he had playing with him at Rutgers University.   Consequently, he never realized his true potential.  Whether you call him, “J.B.,” “King James,” or “Jammin James,” James Bailey, during the last half of the 1970s, was one of the most dominating centers in college basketball. 



99-9

JOHN ADAM TREUTLEN 

First Governor of the State of Georgia

One of Georgia’s last counties was named for it’s first Governor.  Treutlen County, created by an act of the legislature on August 21, 1917, was named for John Adam Treutlen.  Treutlen was elected as the first governor of the State of Georgia under the Constitution of 1777.  

John  Treutlen was born in southwestern Germany in the early  1730s. When John was about fourteen years old, his family embarked on a voyage to the American colonies.  The Treutlens were Protestants, who fled the Salzburg region of Germany to avoid religious persecution by the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church.    The Treutlens attempted to follow the path of other German families to the hills of Pennsylvania, an area which was similar in climate to their home region.   While sailing to America, the Treutlens and other passengers onboard the ship were captured by a Spanish ship, which took them back to Spain as prisoners.  During this time, John’s father died.    The prisoners were released through the efforts of a British cartel and taken to southern England.    Many of the German families returned home.  Maria Clara Treutlen had no money.   She had no where to go.  The Trustees of the new colony of Georgia arranged for transportation to colony.  In exchange, John and his brother Frederick were indentured to a Swiss merchant in Vernonburg, Georgia.  The boys worked for Michael Burckhalter to pay off the terms of the agreement.

John Treutlen attended school at Ebenezer.  Ebenezer was the center of the German community in what became Effingham County.   Ebenezer had been laid off in 1736 as a home for Protestant Germans who fled from Salzburg, Germany.   One lasting monument from the days of the  Germans , “known to others as ‘The Salzburgers’ ,” is Jerusalem Church.  The old brick Church was built in 1768.  John received the best education available under the direction of Rev.  John Martin Boltzius.  Rev. Boltzius described the young Treutlen, as “a pious and dear child, who grasped the Christian dogma very thoroughly and to the great joy of his heart.”  John Treutlen excelled in his studies and consequently was offered a position as a teacher in the school.  Treutlen was concerned that his teaching duties would conflict with his business affairs.  Treutlen was trying to make a living operating a small store.  Treutlen took the advice of his business associates and declined the offer to teach.  Treutlen’s hard work paid off.  He was able to accumulate enough money to buy a farm and man it with slaves.  

John Treutlen was able to master the English language, while most of his fellow Germans did  not.  His ability to speak and read English allowed him to understand British law and interact with the English speaking colonists.  He eventually taught in the school and became a leader in the church at Ebenezer.  Treutlen became prominent in political affairs.  He was elected as a Magistrate  and later as a representative of St. Matthew’s Parish in the Commons House of Assembly.  Treutlen’s  deeds of public service eventually led to his election to the prestigious position as Colonel of the local militia.   In 1774, Treutlen became entangled in a bitter dispute between two factions of the church.  Treutlen worked with the new Church minister and brought about an end to the bitter feud.

On July 4, 1775, one year to the day before the day we celebrate as our “Declaration of Independence,” Treutlen represented the parish at the First Provincial Congress of Georgia in Savannah.  Treutlen was respected by the small farmers as well as the wealthy  planters.  His desire for Georgia’s independence from the British crown grew rapidly.  He was placed on the Council of Safety in 1776.  During that time, Treutlen joined Button Gwinnett and five other men is drafting the Constitution of 1777, the first of Georgia’s constitutions.  His fellow representatives recognized his leadership qualities and on May 8, 1777, elected him as the first governor of the State of Georgia.

Under our original constitution, the Governor had additional powers but served at the pleasure and direction of the legislative assembly.    His term in office was lengthened to a year, but he still had no veto power.  The parish system was discontinued in favor of a county system of government.  The eight original counties of Georgia were Chatham, Richmond, Liberty, Burke, Wilkes, Glynn, Camden, and Effingham.   

Governor Treutlen’s number one priority in office was the conducting of the war against England.  The state’s finances were in trouble.  Treutlen was able to convince the Continental Congress to appropriate funds for the war effort.   The American Revolution in some aspects was our country’s first Civil War.  Loyalty to the British crown was strong in Georgia and the Carolinas.  Families were fighting each other.  Neighbors were killing each other.  Georgia was in a turmoil.

Governor Treutlen, following the lead of Governor Gwinnett, had to ward off a strong push by South Carolina to absorb the State of Georgia.  The South Carolina legislature sent William Drayton to Savannah to plead their case.  After repeated denials, Gov. Treutlen issued a reward for the capture of Drayton and his associates.  Eventually the movement faded away.

Treutlen’s term expired in January of 1778.   He was succeeded by John Houstoun.  Savannah and Treutlen’s hometown of Ebenezer fell into the control of the British army by the end of the year.  Treutlen secreted his family away to Orangeburgh, South Carolina, a community with many Germans which was thought to be safe from British forces.  Treutlen then seemed to vanish from the face of the Earth.

In the Spring of 1782, Treutlen was murdered.  Just who the brutal murderer or murderers were has never been determined.    According to the legend, Treutlen was murdered by Tory supporters of the King.  Conversely, there were few or no reports of Tory activities in the area.  Treutlen’s body was buried - where no one knows.    His death, like most of his life after leaving office,  remains a mystery.

99-10

THE GERMAN-ITALIAN

PRISONER OF WAR CAMP

DUBLIN, GEORGIA

As the United States became more involved in World War II, more farm products were needed to support the war effort.  The problem was that many of the farmers were no longer fighting the weather but fighting in Europe and the Pacific.  Those still at home aided the war effort by stepping up agricultural production.  

In 1943, State Senator Herschel Lovett, County Agent Harry Edge, and Emergency Farm Labor Assistant Walter B. Daniel contacted Congressman Carl Vinson of Milledgeville to request the location of a temporary prisoner of war camp in Dublin.

Laurens County needed help in gathering the crops that would be ready for harvest in the summer through early fall.  The gentlemen requested that a camp be set up at the County Farm on Highway 441  just above the present Interstate highway.  Vinson contacted Col. I.B. Summers of the Prisoner of War Division of the Federal government.  Col. Summers advised Vinson that the location of camp would not be easy because of the lack of trained prison guards.  Undaunted , Vinson contacted Col. R.E. Patterson of the prison camp at Camp Wheeler, near Macon.  Col. Patterson echoed Summers’s the doubts about a camp for Dublin.  

Under the guidelines of the Geneva Convention of 1929, prisoners of war must be paid eighty cents per day for labor outside of the prison camp.  Prison labor was limited by the number of guards, not the number of prisoners.  The Farm Labor Advisory Committee, consisting of Bob Hodges, Wade Dominy, C.L. Thigpen, R.T. Gilder, H.W. Dozier, Frank Clark, D.W. Alligood, and A.O. Hadden continued to press Vinson to acquire the camp to help in the harvest.  Finally, Vinson succeeded,  and the army allowed some prisoners to be sent from Camp Wheeler.

The first couple of hundred prisoners arrived on August 26, 1943, under the supervision of Capt. Henry J. Bordeaux.  The first prisoners were Italians.    The camp was not located on the county farm but on the site of the old 12th District Fairgrounds.  These were the same grounds where the New York Yankees, Boston Braves, and St. Louis Cardinals had played and where the cowboy hero Tom Mix had thrilled thousands with his traveling circus.  The fairgrounds played host to thrilling feats of athletic skill by Olympic champion Jesse Owens in 1940, along with a barnstorming game with two Negro league teams.  The fairgrounds were bounded on the north by the railroad, east by Troup Street, south by Telfair Street, and west by Joiner Street.   The prisoners arrived just in time to help with the peanut harvesting in Laurens and surrounding counties.  The camp was completed in three days under the Army Corps of Engineers and the Quartermaster Corps.  After the camp was set up, the prisoners were immediately taken to the fields.  The men were used to chop cotton and stack peanuts.

The recently completed naval airfield near Dublin soon began handling the first direct air mail into Dublin.  The guards were getting letters from Fort Benning flown into Dublin every other day.  Dublin civic and church groups made the guards feel at home with parties, home cooking, and entertainment at the service center in the Henry Building at 101 West Jackson Street.  It was not long before the soldiers could return the favor.  A young woman was lying in the hospital in desperate need of a blood transfusion. No local donors with a matching type could be found.  Her friends called the camp commander, Col. S.L. Irwin for help.  Several volunteers arrived at the hospital within ten minutes.  The soldiers came back for a second transfusion. The patient recovered.  Nearly every one of the 250 guards stationed at the prison camp responded to the call of Lehman P. Keen, chairman of the 3rd War Bond Drive. The German prisoners adapted well to the South and were even heard singing "Dixie" after a hard day's work on the farm.   

By October, the need for farm labor had significantly declined.  The Army planned to move the camp by mid-October.  The Fourth Service Command granted permission for the camp to remain open into November.  One half of the five hundred prisoners and their guards were moved in the third week of October under the leadership of Capt. Jennings.  New guards were brought in to replace those who left.  Shortly, the camp closed down for the winter.   

Just as the allied forces began the invasion of Europe in June of 1944, the German prisoners returned to Dublin.  It would be a long hot summer for the prisoners.  One prisoner was killed by a falling tree on Snellgrove plantation.  The prisoner was working with the pulpwood crew of Robert Cullens. On July the Fourth, three prisoners, Josef Damer, Jeorge Fries, and Willi Pape escaped while on a work detail at the Warner Callan Farm near Scott.  They were captured the following day.   Some people said the prisoners just got lost in the woods and were not attempting to escape.  The commandant of the camp instituted harsh disciplinary procedures as a result of the escape.  The prisoners countered by staging a sit down strike - refusing to work on the farms.  Within a few days, calmer heads prevailed. The matter was settled.  By the end of the summer, the situation had eased, and the Army guards had enough free time to play baseball, basketball, and football games against the U.S. Navy at the new naval hospital.

Many of the local people bore no hatred to the prisoners.  Nearly every Sunday morning the prisoners would march from the camp down Academy Avenue and turn north on Church Street for mass at the Catholic Church.  Along the way the Germans sang hymns.    The prisoners cooked their own food.  Inside the camp there were many good cooks.   Some people parked their cars outside the camp fence to catch the sounds of the beautiful German songs and get a sniff of the delicious German dishes being prepared inside the walls.  Janice W. Williams of Wrightsville has a vivid memory of seeing a truck load of Germans passing through Johnson County one day.  “One man stood in the back of the truck facing the front as their leader.  I would watch them go through and they were strong, healthy men.  Someone said they didn’t want to escape because they were out of the war and well fed,” Mrs. Williams remembered.

One day while Oliver Bennett was working in the paint shop at the Naval Hospital, he noticed a German prisoner, by the name of S. Pretscher,  sketching a picture of his girlfriend on a piece of scrap cardboard.  Bennett was so impressed that he asked the man to paint a picture for him.  Bennett secured the necessary materials - a linen towel stretched to form a canvas and the paint.  Pretscher went into his studio, a tent on the prison grounds, and diligently worked on the painting, which was a country scene from his homeland.  Pretscher presented the painting to Bennett. The two men remained friends after the war ended.  The beautiful painting still belongs to the Bennett family today.  

The prisoners came back for one more summer to help the farmers in harvesting their crops, which were still needed for the war effort.  With the end of the war in August of 1945, there was no longer a need for the camp.  The camp closed in early January of 1946.  Today, one lone barracks from the camp still stands at the corner of Troup Street and the railroad.  It serves as a reminder of a time  we all hope will never be seen again.

99-11

THE CHEEHAW INCIDENT

A Most Regrettable Affair

The year was 1818.  Florida was about to become a part of the United States.  Central Georgians were terrified of Indian attacks once again.  After a brief respite of four years,  the State of Georgia and the United States government were engaged in military actions against the Indians of southwestern Georgia, western Florida,  and lower Alabama.   General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee was in command of the Federal forces in the Southeast.  The lands along the Ocmulgee, just as during the War of 1812, were vulnerable to attacks by Indians.

    

Although the Lower Creeks were friendly to Georgians, citizens of Telfair and Pulaski counties had a fear of Indian forays into their homes and farms.   The fear was real since most of Georgia's militia were under the Jackson’s command.  Georgia governor William Rabun requested that Gen. Jackson send a small contingent of his troops to protect the Georgia frontier.   When Jackson failed to respond, Gov. Rabun took matters into his own hands.

On April 14, 1818, Rabun ordered the formation of a militia unit at Hartford, opposite the future site of Hawkinsville.  Rabun directed the men to proceed to the hostile villages of Phelemmes and Hoppones on the Flint River.  Their mission was to punish the inhabitants by destroying the towns.  Capt. Obed Wright of the Chatam County Militia was placed in command of the expedition.  The force was to be composed of Twiggs and Jones County militia, a garrison of Federal troops at Fort Early, and other volunteers.   Wright sent a dispatch to Capt. Jacob Robinson of the Laurens Light Dragoons ordering him to assemble his men at Hartford.  Some of the Laurens Countians refused the order, insisting that it was made without the Governor's authority.  Capt. Robinson gave his men the option of going or staying.  Most of the dragoons followed Robinson to the rendezvous point.  Upon their arrival there were still no written orders.  Robinson hesitated to join Wright but capitulated when Wright insisted that he had proof that the nearby towns were hostile.  Capt. Wright  ordered the Laurens Dragoons to join the expedition, bringing his  total force to two hundred and seventy men.

The expedition moved out of Hartford on April 21st.  Their destination was Fort Early, which had been built by Gen. David Blackshear of Laurens County.  Capt. Ebenezer Bothwell, commander of the fort, provided some troops to Wright despite his opposition to the mission.  Wright moved out on the twenty-second,  headed for the Flint River. On the far side of the Flint River, Wright's men encountered an Indian boy and his two dogs.  The boy was keeping an eye on grazing cattle just on the outskirts of the village of Cheehaw.   One of Wright's men thought he spotted the brand of a Telfair County farmer on one of the cows.  The boy offered to go back to the village to bring the chiefs back for a conference.   Wright declined the offer and ordered the frightened young boy to lead the army into the village.   Just as Wright and his men reached the village, the boy and his two dogs were killed.  An Indian coming out to greet the soldiers was shot and scalped on the spot.   The villagers ran toward their homes in shear terror.  The houses were set on fire.  An elderly woman and child were burned to death.   Another woman was shot in the knee.   The chief, Tiger King, known to his white friends as Major Howard, came out holding a white flag.  The chief's son picked up a gun and then put it down upon his father's command.  At that instant, the boy was shot and killed.    The militia then cut and slashed Tiger King to death, cutting the earrings from his body for souvenirs.  A son-in-law of Tiger King was hacked and killed while attempting to escape.  A woman running with her children was killed.  After two hours, it was all over. No soldiers were hurt.  Six men, two women, a boy, and a girl lay dead.  Wright had gotten what he wanted, or so he thought.  

From that point on, accounts of the affair were as varied as counts of the  actual number of those killed at Cheehaw.  Wright estimated that between forty and fifty Indians had been killed.  Capt. Robinson of Laurens County insisted that a dozen or so shots had been fired from caves before his men opened fire.    Further, Robinson reported finding a large store of British war supplies in the village.  Wright denied the claims that any of his men or the Indians were waving white flags.  Gov. Rabun verified Wright's and Robinson's accounts of the attack, except for the number of deaths.   

The debate over Wright's actions raged throughout the state.  Many Georgia newspapers were highly critical of the militia's action.   Gov. Rabun and Judge C.B. Strong came to the defense of Wright and his men.  Gen. Andrew Jackson was savoring his victory at St. Marks.  When Jackson received a letter detailing the events at Cheehaw, he became furious.  Jackson considered the Indians at Cheehaw to be his friends.  He wrote "It will be stigma on the American nation, unless the general government uses its endeavors to bring the perpetrators to justice."  Gen. Jackson then ordered the immediate arrest of Wright and even threatened Gov. Rabun for his failure to act on the matter.   The fallout from Cheehaw rocked the statehouse in Milledgeville as well as the halls of Congress in Washington.  Andrew Jackson tried to keep the peace with the friendly Creek Indians.  Chief William McIntosh, who led two thousand of his warriors into battle along side Jackson, took a wait and see attitude.  Eventually, Gov. Rabun would change his views toward Wright and his men.  Rabun realized that he was in a "no-win" situation with Jackson and Federal government in Washington.

Gen. Jackson, within a few minutes after learning of the attack,  dispatched Major John M. Davis to arrest Wright at Hartford and take him to the authorities at Fort Hawkins in Macon.  Major Davis was instructed to seek the help of Gov. Rabun if he could not find Wright at Hartford.  Wright left Hartford for his home in Savannah.  Davis finally found Capt. Wright in Dublin on May 24, 1818.   Major Davis sent a letter to Wright informing him of his arrest.  For some reason, Davis and Wright went to Milledgeville instead of Fort Hawkins.  Wright's attorney, Seaborn Jones, filed a writ of habeus corpus with the justices of the Inferior Court of Baldwin County.  At a hearing on May 28th, the justices found no sufficient cause for Wright's detention and set him free. Andrew Jackson was furious - his authority has been dealt a great insult.  Gov. Rabun had Capt. Wright arrested again, hoping that Wright would be tried in a civil court.  John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun, after much deliberation, agreed and set a trial date in December.  A military court martial remained a possibility.

Capt. Wright could not wait five more months in jail.  On the night of July 27th he fled from the Capital city.  Apparently, Wright went south down the Oconee.  He appeared at the home of Capt. Jacob Robinson of the Laurens Dragoons, his second in command at Cheehaw.  Robinson claimed that Wright told him that he had been released.  Capt. Robinson provided Wright a "wooden horse" (canoe) in which Wright was last seen paddling down the river.  Wright went south, never to be heard from again.  

The military authorities, led by Gen. David Blackshear of Laurens County, looked for someone else to blame for the attack at Cheehaw.  Capt. Jacob Robinson was brought before a military court martial in Dublin on May 12, 1819.  Robinson was charged with making out a false payroll, conduct unbecoming to an officer, aiding and abetting the escape of Capt. Wright, and for the false arrest of John J. Underwood of the Laurens Dragoons.  The major charges, those concerning his actions as second in command at Cheehaw, were not presented against Capt. Robinson.   Witnesses for the prosecution testified that the Laurens Dragoons came home on some weekends, and although they were subject to recall at a moment's notice, the military court found that they were not on duty and not entitled to pay. The court found Robinson guilty on the first charge.   The court found that Robinson's conduct was not unbecoming and that he did not leave his men on the west side of the Ocmulgee River while he remained on the safer, eastern side.  The court found Robinson innocent of the charge that he aided Wright in his escape, despite the testimony of several witnesses who testified that Robinson knew that Wright was still under arrest.  Robinson was found innocent on the charge of the false arrest of John Underwood. Lt. Col. Elijah Blackshear pronounced the court's sentence and ordered that Capt. Robinson be cashiered out of service.  Robinson ran for the Georgia Senate in the next election and defeated one of his accusers, the venerable Gen. David Blackshear. Robinson, a large landowner on the lower Oconee,  left Laurens County after Blackshear returned to the Senate.  

In 1842, the matter of the right of military law over civil law was debated by John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives.  Adams maintained that Jackson's orders were eventually followed by Gov. Rabun.  He forgot to mention that  five non-lawyers who made up the Inferior Court ordered the release of Capt. Wright despite Gen. Jackson's specific orders.   Adams then allowed Congressman Lott Warren, a former Laurens Countian who served with Jackson in Florida, to speak on the subject.  Warren defended Gov. Rabun and his stand on the matter, claiming that he never wavered.

So ended some of the darkest days in the history of Laurens County.  Was it a massacre or a justified attack?  Most of the evidence points to the fact that Wright and his men were not justified in their actions.  Although Wright was tried in the newspapers of Georgia and the halls of Congress, the court of public opinion in Georgia found that the actions of Wright and his men were justified.  Many Georgians had lived through thirty five years of depredations being committed against their friends, families, and property and were in no mood to criticize their own people.  No trial was ever conducted.  No legal blame or justification was ever determined.  It is a story that many have never known and that the souls of those who were there will never forget.

ROSTER OF THE LAURENS LIGHT DRAGOONS

Captain: Jacob Robinson;  1st Lieutenant: Charles S. Guyton; 2nd Lieutenant: John I. Underwood; Cornet: Lewis Joiner; Trumpeter: Terrel Higden;  1st Sergeant: Wm. A. Underwood; 2nd Sergeant:  John Anderson; 3rd Sergeant: John Fort;  4th Sergeant:  Frederick Carter: 1st Corporal: Clement Fennell; 2nd Corporal: David Spears; 3rd Corporal:  Nicholas Baker;  4th Corporal: Wm. H. Parimore. 

PRIVATES:  Speir Knight, John Cory, Robert Knight,  John Armstrong, Wm. Fountain, James Knight, John Spicer, Joel Ware, Henry C. Fuqua,  John Underwood, Robert Coats William Carson, James Pickeron, Samuel Hill,  James Glass, John N. Martin, William Oliver, Eli Ballard, Robert Thomas,  John G. Petre,  William Cauthron, William Fullwood, Thomas Riggins,  Thomas W. Anderson,  Littleton G. Hall, Jones Livingston,  Joel Culpepper, Lanier Smith, Levan Adams, Daniel W. Duffie, William Pickett, and James Beatty.

99-12

THE BRIDGE AT BALL’S FERRY

The Bridge to Everywhere

It was big, real big!  At the time it had more impact on the people of Johnson County,  than anything but the War Between the States, the train, the automobile, and electricity.  Though it does not lie within the bounds of the county, the bridge over the Oconee River  at Ball’s Ferry made a significant and lasting impact on the citizens of Johnson and surrounding counties. 

The history of Ball’s Ferry goes back  several hundred years.  Some historians believe that the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto came through the area in 1540.  The site may be the place where the ancient Upper Uchee Trail crossed the Oconee on its way to the Augusta area.    The ferry was established prior to 1816 by John Ball, an early resident of Wilkinson County and a soldier of the American Revolution. In the waning days of November 1864, a small group of local militia, prison guards, military cadets, and some regulars mounted a stand on the east banks of the river at the ferry, which lies about a half mile above the bridge.  The stalwart defenders gave way to the sixty thousand men of Gen. William T. Sherman’s right wing.    

The conception of a bridge began many years ago.  The ferry was adequate, but not always reliable.  The final push to build the bridge came in 1931.  The road to Irwinton, known as the “Bee-Line Highway” was still just a dirt road.  Charles Rountree, editor of “The Wrightsville Headlight,” had been leading the effort since World War I.  Rountree and others sought the support of Congressman Carl Vinson of Milledgeville.  Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge thought the bridge was unnecessary and directed his appointed Highway Board members to deny any requests for funding. Consequently, the Federal government refused to fund the project without state support.  A standstill arose in Federal funding of Georgia Highways.  The U.S. government finally consented and funded all projects in Georgia, except the Ball’s Ferry Bridge.  A new governor, E.D. Rivers, was elected in 1936.  Rivers was more sympathetic to the concerns of mid-Oconee valley residents.  Rivers’ newly appointed Highway Board members moved quickly to authorize funding of the bridge. 

The Ball’s Ferry bridge is actually two bridges.  The smaller, or relief,  bridge is six hundred feet long and was designed to allow flooding waters to pass around the causeway leading to the river. The relief bridge is bounded by thirty foot high fills. Each fill is about eleven hundred feet along and  contains one hundred sixty thousand cubic yards of dirt.  The Washington County dirt was placed on the site by workers of W.C. Shepherd.  The dirt used would cover a football field up to a height of over thirty one feet.   In one month, Shepherd and his crews set a record by placing one hundred twenty thousand cubic yards of fill dirt.  Wilkinson Countians filled in their dirt on  their side of the bridge with county workers.   

The main bridge is 1683.5 feet long. The center of the bridge is twelve feet higher than the ends.   The increased height was necessary due to the fact that the river was still considered navigable.  The bridge stands an average of fifty five feet above the water at the apex.  The span was constructed in such a way as to allow enough horizontal room for boats to pass through.   The steel girders weighed two million pounds and took six hundred gallons of varnish, twelve hundred gallons of aluminum bronze powder, fourteen hundred fifty gallons of red lead primer paint to cover.  Over eighteen thousand rivets were used in the main span.

The twenty four foot wide bridge was supported by three hundred thousand pounds of reinforcing rods. If placed end to end, these rods  would stretch from Macon to Wrightsville - a distance of fifty seven miles.  To mix the concrete for the bridge, workers combined fifty train car loads of cement, fifty one hundred  tons of sand and gravel, and forty  thousand gallons of water, formed with one hundred thousand board feet of lumber.  The bridge rests on a foundation of shell mart and stratified fuller’s earth down an average depth of thirteen to twenty three feet below ground level.  After one and a half years and two hundred thousand man hours of work, the bridge was complete.  Wages varied from thirty cents an hour for unskilled workers up to a whopping seventy five cents an hour for skilled laborers.

The big day for the bridge dedication was set for March 31, 1939.  Proud citizens invited President Franklin Roosevelt to take a leisurely ride over from Warm Springs for the big occasion.  Gov. E. D. Rivers, who had been so instrumental in the construction of the bridge, was slated to give the main address.  Every school child and teacher in the area had the day off and a free meal at the site.  Floats from five counties were brought in for a short parade, which began on the west side of the bridge.  The Laurens County Marching Band, the G.M.C. Band, and the Y.M.C.A. Band from Macon provided the musical entertainment.

The crowd was estimated to number as many as twenty thousand people.  Several hundred hogs were sacrificed to satisfy the appetites of the hungry onlookers.  Gov. Rivers was late in arriving and his place was taken by Warren Grice of Macon.  Also on hand for the festivities was Congressman Vinson, State Highway Chairman Miller, and Labor Commissioner Hulet.

A special edition of the “Wrightsville Headlight” was published to commemorate the event. Merchants and well wishers sponsored several pages of ads to salute the efforts of the community and the workers.  Listed by the “Headlight” as the leading Johnson County families who supported the construction were the Rowlands, Brinsons, Andersons, Claxtons, Kents, Moyes, Veals, Faircloths, Brays, Martins, Lovetts, Parkers, Blounts, Vanlandinghams, Cooks, Pournells, Cullens, Kights, Hatchers, Halls, Outlaws, Vickers, McAfees, Robinsons, Clemmons, Daleys, Johnson, Fulfords, Prices, Powells, Townsends, Jenkins, Millers, Smiths, Jones, Browns, Davises, Tanners, Frosts, Mixons, Tarbuttons, Olivers, Riners, Brantleys, Duggans, Mayos, Flanders, Harrisons, and six or seven dozen more - in other words, the entire county.

An event of this type depends on hard working committees.  Charles Rountree, H.F. Tarbutton, and Elizabeth Vickers were the officers of the Bridge Committee.  Representing Johnson County on the committee were W.C. Brinson, future Georgia Attorney General, Eugene Cook, and Harlie L. Fulford.  Other Johnson Countians serving on committees were Mrs. Clifford Martin, Pauline Lovett, Mrs. B.L. Kight, Mrs. Albert Raley, Mrs. H.T. Johnson, Monroe Cook, L.L. Palmer, E.J. Claxton, C.D. Prescott, J. Tom Davis, Byron Price, W.M. Shurling, L.L. Lovett, B.A. Anderson, Mrs. J. Eugene Cook, Mrs. J. Roy Rowland, and Mrs. M. Daley.

The old ferry which had operated for thirteen decades shut down.  The boat and equipment were removed to the Flint River.   Lester Brown, the last ferry operator, got a job as a chain gang guard.  As it enters its seventh decade of service, the bridge at Ball’s Ferry remains a monument to the dedication of thousands of Johnson, Wilkinson, and Washington county residents, whose unceasing efforts bridged the ancient Oconee and brought the rest of the  world a little closer to home.

99-13

GRAND OLE OPRY NIGHTS

    It’s Toe Tappin’ Time

During the years of World War II, Franklin Roosevelt declared that it was imperative that the lives of American citizens should go on as much as was practical under the circumstances.  Roosevelt balked at the proposal to suspend professional sporting activities.  At the beginning of the 1940's, movies and music were an integral part of keeping up the morale on the home front.  The Ritz, Rose, and Dublin theaters entertained the home folks and kept them informed about the war through the newsreels. Swing music was at its peak.  Another form of music, much older than swing, was beginning to reach the height of its popularity - which would last for another quarter of a century.  In 1925, radio station WSM began a program called "Barn Dance." By the end of 1928, the show became known as "The Grand Ole Opry."

The Grand Ole Opry found a permanent home in Ryman Auditorium in 1941, then promptly hit the road for a series of tours in October.  Bob Hope headlined the national tours.  A somewhat smaller tour headed for Georgia.  On October 15, 1941, the tour pulled into Dublin.  The concert was held in a tent with a capacity of three thousand seats.  The tent was placed on the Jernigan lot on the block bounded on the east by North Jefferson Street, north by Gaines Street, and west by Lawrence Street, known to old Dubliners as the old Piggly Wiggly parking lot, and to newcomers as Pitts’ Car World. The lot was the site of many traveling shows during the first forty years of the century.  The headlining performer was Roy Acuff and his “Smoky Mountain Boys.”  Roy Acuff had already gained nationwide popularity with his hits, "Wabash Cannon Ball" and "Great Speckled Bird."  Acuff in his sixty-year career rose to the title of "The King of Country Music" and was the undisputed leader of the Grand Ole Opry.  Acuff was joined by Grand Ole Opry founder, Uncle Dave Macon and one of the newest members, Brother Oswald, who was inducted into the Opry after 57 years in country music.  Macon was a link to the hillbilly music of the 19th century and was a popular Opry star with such songs as "Carve That Possum" for most of the last 25 years of his life.  Comedy was an essential part of the tour.  The country’s most popular comedy team of Jam Up and Honey, "The Assassins of Grief," kept the crowd in stitches.  The tour returned in 1942 in a somewhat scaled down version. Roy Acuff returned with a compliment of minor stars for a performance on April 20, 1942.

With resounding successes in Dublin, another show was scheduled for April 20, 1943, with an all new cast.  Jam Up and Honey returned with their black-faced comedy routines.  The tour was headlined this time by the newest Opry member, Ernest Tubb.  Tubb had risen to national prominence with his "Walking the Floor Over You" in 1941.  Tubb was one of the most, if not the most,  popular artists in "Hillbilly Music" in the 1940's.  His honky-tonk blues style led to the change of the term "Hillbilly Music"  to "Country Music" in 1949. Also providing comedy on the tour was a young comedienne, Sarah Colley Cannon.  She built her act on her memories of her childhood.  With her $1.98 straw hat, she came to be known as "Minnie Pearl," the queen of country music comedy and one of the most beloved stars of the Grand Ole Opry.  

Joining Ernest Tubb was the most popular band in country music, Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys.  In 1937, they were the first modern big band to join the Grand Ole Opry.  Pee Wee King penned the lyrics for "Tennessee Waltz," one of the most popular country and pop standards of the 1950's.  Eddie Arnold was in his last year with the Golden West Cowboys.  Arnold's biggest hit came in 1945 with "Cattle Call."  Arnold was the most dominating  country singer from 1945 to 1955.  Rounding out the cast was San Antonio Rose, Tex Summey, Cherokee Slim, Chuck Wiggins, and Jimmy Wilson.  

The Opry tour returned on April 3, 1944, with another cast.  That year's show was headed by Bill Monroe.  Monroe,  universally honored as the "King of Bluegrass Music,” would be a top bluegrass act  in country music for more than sixty years.  Monroe's band was made up of many great bluegrass musicians.  Before going on tour in 1944, Monroe hired a young guitarist by the name of Lester Flatt to play in his band.  Flatt and Monroe offered a young banjoist a job at the beginning of the tour.  He turned the offer down but joined the band in December of 1944.  Lester Flatt and the young banjo player, Earl Scruggs, left the band in 1946 and became the greatest bluegrass duo in country music history.   David Akerman, a tall lanky banjo player, was a member of Monroe's band.  Akerman was probably best known to most audiences as “String Bean,” a humorist and charter member of the cast of "Hee Haw."  Bill Monroe was joined by several minor stars of the Opry.  Curley Bradshaw played the harmonica and was joined by Chubby Wise, Clyde Moody, and Mary Ann, "The Kentucky Songbird."  Lonnie and Tommie Thompson, "The Singing Range Riders" rounded out the cast.  Another minor touring company, headed by Pete Pyle and Cousin Wilbur,  stopped for a performance three weeks later.

The Opry tour returned for its final wartime performance on June 13, 1945. Old time favorite, Uncle Dave Macon, led the cast on his final tour.  He was joined by minor stars Gabriel Tucker, champion fiddler Curley Fox, and Texas Ruby, the cow girl yodeler.  Roy Acuff returned to Dublin for a third appearance on April 26, 1946.  His troupe consisted of Velma, Bashful Brother Oswald, Pap and his Jug Band, Tommie Magness, and Joe, Jess, and Sonny.

So ended the Grand Ole Opry tours of the World War II era.  During the war the most famous stars in country music thrilled thousands on the old Jernigan lot on North Jefferson Street.  Over the next forty years, other Opry stars would perform in Dublin.  The modern Martin Theatre became a more appropriate setting for concerts.  Cowboy and country music star Tex Ritter performed twice for large crowds.  Eddy Arnold returned in May of 1951.  Cowboy Copas, who had hits with "Tennessee Waltz" and "Alabam," played at the Martin.  He was killed in a plane crash while touring  with Patsy Cline in 1963.  Curley Fox's wife, Texas Ruby, was killed in a fire that same year.  On May 1, 1953 George Morgan performed his hits, including "Candy Kisses," on stage at the Martin.  His career was cut short by a heart attack in 1975.  He is also well known as the father of current country music star, Loretta Lynn "Lorrie" Morgan.  

During the fifties, sixties and seventies,  there were occasional performances by country stars.  Hank Snow, Brenda Lee, Mel Tillis, Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, Don Gibson, Stonewall Jackson, Ray Price, Jean Shepard, Skeeter Davis, Leroy Van Dyke, Billy Walker, Danny Davis, Stella Parton, and Sawyer Brown performed in the public auditoriums and football fields of Laurens County.  Bill Monroe made a return visit with a concert at the Condor High School gym in 1954.  With a the opening of Theatre Dublin,  country music has returned to Dublin with old and new favorites.   

Country music is an important and permanent part of our heritage.   County music, the music of the people, is more popular than ever before.   Its songwriters and performers seem to capture the  hopes, joys, and fears of many Americans, especially millions of us in the South.    During the arduous  years of World War II, if only for a few wonderful moments, country music  made us smile, brought us to tears, and gave us a good laugh -  just when we needed it most.

99-14

THE DUBLIN GREEN SOX 

Their 50th Anniversary

Fifty years ago, businessman Herschel Lovett brought minor league baseball to Dublin.  Lovett purchased the right to have a team in the second year of the newly organized  Georgia State League.  The Dublin “Green Sox” were seventh team in the league along with the original teams; the Eastman Dodgers, the Tifton Blue Sox, the Sparta Saints, the Fitzgerald Pioneers, the Baxley-Hazlehurst Red Sox, the Douglas Trojans and the Vidalia-Lyons Twins.   The year 1949 was the first year in which a team could legally play baseball on Sundays.   Lovett, a big baseball fan, wanted a team in Dublin.   With his vast financial resources,  Lovett usually got what he wanted.  He visited Florida and found the plans for a stadium for his new team.  He saw one he liked and had one built in Dublin just like the one he saw.  

In the early years of the lower minor leagues, players were bought and sold almost as much as “beanie-babies.”   Lovett, along with  his baseball advisers,  put a team together in short order.   The players reported to their spring training camp in Bartow, Florida on March 15th.  Meanwhile, construction workers back in Dublin were hurrying to complete the park in time for the home exhibition opener.   Local businesses supported the team by buying advertising on signs along the outfield wall.    Lovett hired Bill Phebus as the field manager and Frank Johnson as the business manager.   

Bill Phebus, at forty years of age, had played organized ball for over half of his lifetime.  Phebus pitched for the Washington Senators from 1936 through 1938.  He pitched in only thirteen games,  winning three out of five decisions with a respectable earned run average of 3.33 runs per game.  He was hitless in his ten at bats with the Senators.  During his three year major league career, Phebus played for Hall of Fame Manager Bucky Harris and played with Hall of Famers, Al Simmons and Wes Ferrell.

The Sox won their first exhibition game with a 5 to 1 victory over Sanford, North Carolina in a game played in Bartow.  After the first game,  the team returned to Dublin.  Lovett promptly released nine players and began the quick process of replacing them with nine new ones, including Bob Leehman and George Cooper from the Class B Greensboro team and Wilbur Osthoff of Bartow. The uniform worn by the Green Sox was a traditional gray flannel, with a green braid down the seams of the pants and the sleeves of the shirts.   Orange bordered green numbers were placed on the back of the jersey with a shamrock and “Dublin” in block letters on the front.  Their caps were green with a block “D” or an Old English “D,” depending on what caps were available at that time.  Sometimes the players wore a mixture of both. 

The Green Sox worked out on Carroll Field  for their home exhibition opener at Lovett Field on March 30th against  the Macon Peaches.  On opening night the lineup for the Green Sox was George Kuhn 3b, Bob Benintendi cf, Wilbur Osthoff shortstop, Al Recsignor 2b,  George Cooper, catcher, Charles Ayers  lf, Ed Walczak 1b, Fred Stalarski rf, and Ralph Hisey  on the mound.   A near capacity and enthusiastic crowd of nineteen hundred plus fans turned out for the game.  The Sox were no match for the well established Class A team from Macon.  Dublin’s lone run came when Osthoff singled and scored on three straight walks.  The Green Sox lost their first game at home, and their first game ever under the lights a score of 11 to 1. 

Players were still being added and dropped from the lineup.  There were few black players in the majors, or the minors for that matter. However, Cuban born players with darker skin, like Isadore Leon of Dublin,  were welcomed.  Leon had a 20 and 4 record with the Sparta Saints in the first year of  the league.  A late signee was Jake Gardner, a local boy who starred with the Naval Hospital and the Ogeechee League in previous seasons.  

Dublin lost the next four games to league rivals Vidalia, Eastman, and Baxley,  along with the Class A team from Des Moines, Iowa.   The first win for the Green Sox came at home  with a thrilling twelve-inning 9 to 8 victory over Quebec.  Ray Skelton was cut from the team after two games;  in both of which he was O for the game.  The celebration was short-lived when the Sox lost the last two of three games against Baxley-Hazlehurst and Quebec, before a exhibition ending victory over Eastman.

The inaugural game at Lovett Park was played on April 18, 1949.  That same week, Dubliners were also treated to a visit by department store founder J.C. Penney and the opening of the drive-in theater in East Dublin.  Businesses all over town bought tickets for their employees.  Mayor Flannery Pope and the city council postponed their regular council meeting.    Taking the field for Dublin were infielders Gene Pollard, George Kuhn, Wilbur Osthoff, and Wiley Nash; outfielders Bill Hardegree, Nat Haber, and Jake Gardner, and Ralph Hisey and Ted Guinan as battery mates.

Mayor Pope welcomed the players, league officials, and the crowd.  Father Gilbert, vice-president of the league, threw out the first pitch.  Team president Lovett was the catcher.  Laurens County sheriff Carlus Gay got out in front of the first pitch and stroked it down the third base line and which was eventually ruled foul by the umpire, Marvin Moates, the league president. No one bothered to chase it down.  Dublin blasted the defending league champions, the Sparta Saints 14 to 3, with Hisey putting 14 strikeouts on the board.  Dublin won the next game at home and spent their last day in first place that year -  tied with Douglas.  

By the end of the April,  the Green Sox were in second place with a 7 and 5 record.  One of the highlights of the season came on May 1st.  The local boys were trailing Sparta 3 to 1 in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs.  Pitcher Hisey was walked as a pinch-hitter to load the bases.  Local hero Jake Gardner smashed a liner to center, plating two runners to win the game 4 to 3.  By the middle of May, the Green Sox had dropped to 15 and 13.  By the end of the month they had dropped to fourth place with a 19 and 22 record.   The boys played over .500 ball in the first half of June, but slipped in the first days of summer. They fell to seventh place, one game out of the cellar.  The Sox picked up Vince Natale, a French-Canadian reliever, to shore up their bullpen, and Johnny George, a veteran minor league catcher to shore up their defense.  George returned to  Dublin after his playing days to manage the team.  He started a family here before his wife Robbie’s untimely death in an automobile accident.   

One of the most popular players on the Green Sox was first baseman, Ray Mendoza.  Ray was tall, dark, and handsome.   Nan Carroll Scarboro remembered that “all of us girls had a crush on Ray.”   The men admired Ray’s ability to stretch up to catch high throws and to stretch out to nip a runner at first base.  Among the highlights of the season was the game against the Wrightsville Tigers, eventual champions of the Ogeechee League. The Wrightsville nine, led by Cecil Herringdine, Howard Maddox,  and Woody Davis, defeated the Green Sox 9 to 2 at Lovett Field on July 10th. By mid July, the Sox were mired in last place. The Sox took pride in two consecutive victories over league leader Douglas.  Ralph Burgamy played third  base for the Green Sox and an all star team against Douglas.  The boys went 10 and 3, including an eight game winning streak to start August.  They moved up to fifth place. The Green Sox ended  the season with two losses to Sparta and a sixth place finish.  It was a year of ups and downs.  The fans remained steadfastly loyal to their team - Dublin set a league attendance record in 1950. By 1956, league attendance had dropped, dramatically and devastatingly to team owners, eventually forcing an end to the Georgia State League.  

99-15

KILLER TWISTER

Death Near Dexter

In Laurens County, tornadoes rarely kill.  The worst ones seem to come in March and April.  When they occur, they tend to strike in southwestern Laurens County -  in and around the Dexter community.   On April 25, 1929, seventy years ago this week,   the worst one ever recorded struck the Dexter area,  killing two people and injuring two dozen more.  At the end of the day, the murdering storm had killed sixty persons and injured several hundred more in six Georgia towns.

In 1929, there was no Doppler radar. The only warning came when the  southwestern sky turned black as a moonless night.  The storm began near Cochran,  where five persons were killed and at least fifty were wounded.   It steam-rolled along a northeasterly course -  the way they usually go when they are up to no good - headed for a collision with the town of Chester.  Tall pines, which fifty years before had covered the sandy soil like grass on a football field,  were skinned like bananas.  The Chester School, a substantial building and the pride of the town, was lifted off its foundation and dumped flat on the ground a few feet away.  C.A. Mullis, never had a chance.  He was killed instantly when the funnel sucked him up and slammed him into a tree.

The storm turned a little more to the north,  heading straight for the Mt. Carmel community.  Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, one of the most modern and best equipped church buildings in the county, was totally destroyed.   The Mt. Carmel School and the teacherage, located across the road from the church, were amazingly untouched.  Several homes in the community were destroyed.  The J.D. McClelland home and that of Mrs. W.A. Witherington were destroyed. None one in the McLelland family was harmed, but Mrs. Witherington, her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Milton Witherington, and infant grandchild  were seriously injured.   Jim Dawkins lost his house and most of its contents.  Thankfully and most mercifully, his wife and five children only suffered minor injuries.  Calvin Patisaul’s house was destroyed.  Almost  all of his large family suffered some type of injury, though none too serious.   Lee Floyd’s wife was badly injured when their house was destroyed.  One vacant tenant house and the vacant old Dave Fountain home were torn to pieces. Tornados don’t distinguish between occupied and unoccupied houses.

The storm picked up  in strength, rushing toward the Donaldson community two or three miles from Mt. Carmel.   The destruction of homes, worse than at previous points along the storm’s path, suddenly became deadly.   A nine-year old daughter of W.J. Southerland was killed when her house was demolished.  Mrs. Dan Knighton and her baby, living in the Southerland home, were injured and taken to the hospital.    M. J.  Crumpton noticed the blackening southwestern sky near Dexter, jumped out of his Chevrolet, and ran to pick up the seven members of his family.  Crumpton then drove “like a bat out of Hades” for a few hundred yards to the home of his son-in-law.  After rescuing four more family members,  Mr. Crumpton drove as fast as could, but not as fast as he wanted to,  for two miles before coming to a settlement road.  He dashed through fields, branches, and ditches,  barely reaching safety, just to the very edge of the storm’s deadly reach.  The family returned to their home, only to find that  it had been completely destroyed.   Parts of the house, useless now and  only a painful memory of more pleasant times,  were found on a hilltop a quarter of a mile away.  Many chickens were slaughtered in the maelstrom - a fate which was only hastened by the swirling winds.   The cows fared better, coming out of the storm virtually unscathed, oblivious to what had just passed them by.   Two tenant houses on the Joe Donaldson place were destroyed.

Just before the funnel lifted off the ground,  it reeked a cataclysm on the home of John Knight.  Mr. and Mrs. Knight were seriously injured, each blown some distance from the home and landing in different places.   Mr. Knight’s scull was fractured, and his heart and that of his wife was to be broken forever.  Their baby was found dead, lying forty yards from the house  in a mud puddle, that had rapidly formed in the freshet accompanying the storm.  The brick pillars and the chimney of their house  were picked up and thrown around as if they were small stones.    Mrs. J.W. Thomas lost every building on her farm,  including her house.   J.Q. Pittman also lost his home and just about every thing he had.  

Before leaving the county, the storm struck the Greystone Farms about a mile from Garretta.  One farmer was hurt.  A tenant house was destroyed.  The roof of the overseer’s house was snatched completely off,  like the lid on can of soup.   At that point,  the storm lifted off the ground -  headed toward Emanuel County,  where two were killed and several injured in Norristown.  Two others were killed further over in Emanuel County.   When the twister touched down for a third time, it became even more deadly than ever before.  Eighteen  persons were killed and many more were injured in Metter.  Thirty one  people lost their lives in Statesboro and over a hundred were injured.  Before it was finally over, four more persons were killed in South Carolina.  Tornadic activity continued in subsequent days across the Southeast.

B.H. Lord, President of the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad, the artery which had carried the life blood for the Dexter community for thirty or so years,  arranged for a special  train, which he sent to Dexter on the evening following the storm.  The seriously wounded were returned to Dublin for treatment.   Dublin doctors H.L. Montford, E.B. Claxton, Sidney Walker, and J.W. Edmondson rode the train to treat the  wounded in homes around the devastated community.   Dr. O.H. Cheek, County Health Director, worked all night with members of the local National Guard unit,  supplying the homeless with blankets, bedding, and cots.  Army trucks were converted into ambulances.   Countless women, with no formal training, became nurses - it  seemed the only natural thing to do.  When the comforters, healers, and those who just wanted to help out arrived back home in Dublin, they were greeted by over three hundred grateful and applauding citizens.

 

On Friday morning, when the sky showed no evidence of the previous day’s unrelenting  fury,  property owners and local officials assessed the damages.   B.H. Lord, chairman of the disaster relief committee, witnessed the mass destruction first hand, along with Red Cross chairman H.R. Moffett, Red Cross secretary Mrs. Frank Lawson, and treasurer W.H. White.   Two little children were dead.  Twenty five people were seriously injured.  The seven most seriously injured persons were carried to the Claxton-Montford hospital in Dublin.  Many more suffered minor scrapes, cuts, and bruises.   Crop and property damages , originally estimated at one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, were  revised to over three hundred thousand dollars. 

The local chapter of the Red Cross sprung into action.   A national officer of the Red Cross arrived in Cochran in the late afternoon.  The disaster became the first test of the disaster relief committee -  one they passed with flying colors.  Calls from the Dexter City Council and Laurens County officials went out for any type of help.  Senator Walter F. George introduced a bill to bring Federal relief to the devastated areas of Georgia.   A local fund raising effort was initiated by  Laurens County, which donated one thousand dollars along with five hundred dollars by Dexter’s neighbor city of Dublin.  Those amounts were nearly matched by local citizens with contributions from ten cents to the thirty five dollars and fifty cents given by Cochran Brothers Grocery.   The national Red Cross donated two thousand dollars for replanting the cotton fields.   Women from all parts  of the county  gathered together at the Chamber of Commerce to coordinate fund raising efforts and make plans for distributing supplies and necessities.  Mrs. Frank Daniel served as chairwoman of the Dexter ladies. 

An interesting footnote to the story was the death of a young eagle.  Walter Prescott and T.R.  Taylor were out on the T.V. Sanders farm near Dublin.    All of a sudden,  the befuddled and somewhat amazed duo saw the young bird falling to the ground,  mortally wounded by large hailstones.  J. Guyton Sanders brought the poor pitiful corpse of the bird, which had a wing span of five feet,  to the offices of the Courier Herald. 

99-16

GENERAL JAMES A. THOMAS

COMMANDER OF THE UNITED 

CONFEDERATE VETERANS

Laurens County's most distinguished Confederate veteran was James A. Thomas.  James Thomas, a son of Francis Thomas, was born in Dublin on March 3, 1847.  His father was Clerk of Laurens Superior Court from 1834 to 1860.  His grandfather, Peter Thomas, was a judge of the Inferior Court of Laurens County and hosted the first session of Laurens County Superior Court in his home on the banks of Turkey Creek. James enlisted in Co. A of the 2nd Georgia Brigade of Militia at the age of 16.   Thomas, a young man from a fine family, was honored to  serve as an ensign and color bearer of the company.  His regiment, commanded by Col. James Stapleton of Jefferson County, was a portion of the command of Brigadier General Carswell, also of Jefferson County.  Thomas was involved in some of the battles around Atlanta and in the delaying actions fought during Sherman's "March to the Sea."  General Thomas recounted a battle near Atlanta by saying,

"With Sherman advancing toward Atlanta, the regiment, which was made up of young boys and old men, was held in reserve while being drilled.  When Sherman first arrived near Atlanta, my company was sent to guard Green's Ferry about ten miles from the city.  It was there that the company first came in contact with the northern general's army as it began its march to the sea, and my first time under fire."

"Just after we got to the ferry, one of our men mounted the little four pounder we had with us on an Indian mound.  We did not expect to use it, as we were not on the main front, but the attack of Sherman caused our troops to the left to withdraw without notifying our commanding officer."

"Early the following afternoon, we were surprised to see the Union men gradually approaching us.  We went in our trenches and the gunner opened up with the little Four Pounder.  After one or two shots they put his gun out of commission, but during the night he fixed it and was ready for them again.  For a second time his gun was silenced without him being injured, so before daybreak the next day he patched up the little gun and opened up with his regular morning salute only to be out of commission for a third time, but while he was in operation his gun took its toll of Union men."

The regiment was recalled from Green's ferry to Atlanta and put in the trenches until a few days before July 22, 1864. Then it was sent to West Point, Ga. to defend against the threat of a Union Cavalry attack.  The regiment, which had recently been recalled back to Atlanta,   participated in the Battle of Jonesboro.  The Confederate defeat at Jonesboro led to the evacuation of Atlanta by General John B. Hood's defeated army.  Thomas's regiment quickly retreated to McDonough and thence  to Griffin.  From Griffin, the regiment was sent to Bear's Creek, where they were furloughed for a brief time. The furlough was well received by the men, who were anxious to ascertain the fate of their homes and their community. Their homes lay directly in the path of Sherman’s mighty men, who were arranged in columns that were several miles long.  Sherman’s soldiers enveloped and destroyed anything of use in their paths . . . 

Shortly arriving in Macon, Thomas was one of the first to see the Yankee soldiers approaching the city.  The Confederate forces were moved to Ball's Ferry on the Oconee River just above Laurens County.  When it was apparent that Sherman's target was Savannah, all Confederate forces were withdrawn to Savannah.

Among the many stories which General Thomas liked to tell, there was one about a battle near Savannah, that he had never seen printed in any history of the war.

"Sherman sent a newly equipped brigade of Negro troops on an expedition to cut the railroad from Charleston to Savannah, which was a very important line at the time.  My brigade was sent to intercept the Negroes and met them at a station called Pocataligo, near Hardeesville.  The two forces met at a large "slash" or lagoon, across which a road had been built, and the Negroes, new equipped with every requisite for a soldier, broke and ran after a short fight with the Confederates.  When they ran, the Negroes threw away all equipment and surplus clothing possible.  It was in November and heavy army blankets, overcoats, long and blue cloth, new rifles, haversacks, cartridge boxes, even rubber ponchos, had been given them, and when they began discarding all of this desirable equipment, the Confederates closed in and supplied themselves with everything needful.  General Thomas says when his regiment reached Savannah again, it could not have been told, as far as overcoats and equipment were concerned, whether they were Yankees or Confederates." 

"The regiment was kept in Savannah trenches until the city was evacuated, and it then moved through South Carolina to Augusta with the division.  After being sent to Briar Creek, we could see the progress Sherman made in the day by smoke and at night by the glare of fires.  After being on duty at Briar Creek, the regiment was returned to Augusta and then furloughed."

In April of 1865,  James A. Thomas was mustered out of service in Augusta.  In June, he received in parole from the Federal government.  Thomas returned to Dublin where he  was admitted to the bar.  He moved his practice to Cochran, eventually settling in Macon.  Thomas returned to his native home in Dublin to set up his practice in 1902.  Col. Thomas was a leader of Christ Episcopal Church in its early years.  His son, James A. Thomas, Jr., was in command of the 2nd Georgia Regiment and the 121st Ga. Infantry when he died just before his ship reached France in the early years of World War I.   Another son, Hill G. Thomas, was Justice of the Peace in Dublin for many years.  His granddaughter, Morgie Thomas Baker, donated many of the General's keepsakes to the Dublin-Laurens museum several years before her death.     

Thomas took a leading role in the command  of the Georgia Confederate Veterans.  In 1912, he was appointed Major General, commanding the Eastern District of Georgia, succeeding the late Capt. Hardy Smith of Dublin.  In 1916, General Thomas was elected to command all of the veterans of Georgia. As State Commander, Gen. Thomas secured the Georgia Confederate Veteran's Reunion for Dublin in 1920.   

Gen. Thomas was nominated as National Commander of the United Confederate Veterans at the Richmond Reunion in 1922.  To promote harmony among the veterans, General Thomas withdrew his name when a dispute among the Mississippi delegation nearly brought about a tumult during  the election meeting.  General Thomas retained his position of commanding officer of the Army of Tennessee.  In 1925, Thomas, somewhat small, but a giant of a man,  was elected as Commanding Officer of the United Confederate Veterans.  Gen. Thomas was not able to seek reelection on account of his health, but he was afforded the honor of being named Honorary Commander - a title which he held until his death on Oct. 18, 1929.  Gen. Thomas was buried in Macon, Georgia in Riverside Cemetery beside his wife, the former Miss Josephine Corbett, who died several years before him.  Mrs. Thomas, an outstanding member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, was also instrumental in the founding of Macon Hospital. 

99-17

THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS

“Things Were Slightly Mixed”

The Wilderness - even the name suggests that it was a place you would not want to be.  The area west of Chancellorsville, Virginia - the site of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory and where the Confederate Army lost Gen. Stonewall Jackson - was inundated with scrubby trees growing  as close as possible to each other.   Passage through the area could only be made along established roads. Otherwise, it was virtually impossible to penetrate the dense woods.  The Army of Northern Virginia,  under the command of Robert E. Lee, was well rested - having had no major engagements since the devastating battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863.  The Union Army of the Potomac, under the leadership of its new commander, Gen. U.S. Grant, was in much better shape with its steady stream of replacements and armaments.  The armies of the Civil War fought very few battles from October through April in Virginia.  Many men went home on furlough during the winter months.  There was one thing you could count on.  Come May, the armies would ready themselves for another round of vicious and deadly battles.   The Blackshear Guards, known as Company H of the 14th Ga. Infantry and the Laurens Volunteers, known as Company G of the 49th Ga. Infantry, were assigned to the brigade of Gen. E.L. Thomas, which was attached to Cadmus Wilcox’s Division of Gen. Ambrose Powell Hill’s corps.   

Hill’s Corps left Orange Courthouse on May 3rd, 1864.  Wilcox’s Division  arrived at Verderiesville the next day.  By noon the next day, Thomas's Brigade, moving toward the widow Tapp's farm.  They were part of an overall movement to march around the left flank of the Federals occupying the Chewning Farm along the Orange Plank Road north of Parker's Store.  Geary's Federal division moved forward to check Wilcox's advance.  Wilcox turned left toward the Chewning farm about mid-afternoon in an effort to link up with General Ewell’s men.  Wilcox had a commanding view of the terrain including the vital crossroads at Wilderness Tavern, from a summit on the Chewning farm.  The Federals pulled back from their noontime positions at the Chewning farm to the intersection of the Orange Plank and Brock Roads.

General Heth's Division was pounded by Federal forces at the crossroads.  Hill called for two of Wilcox's brigades to reinforce Heth.  While Thomas’s brigade remained at the farm, the situation grew worse.  Thomas, the last of Hill's reserves, was sent to relieve Stone's men, who were completely exhausted and about to be slaughtered by the Federals.  Thomas arrived just before dark and prevented the collapse of Hill's left.  The 14th and the 49th  took up a position on the left side of the Orange Plank Road.   The fighting did not stop.  Thomas formed a new line on the left where Kirkland's North Carolinians were caught in horrific Federal fire. Wadsworth's Federals were advancing on the Rebel left, driving through a gap between Hill and Ewell.  Thomas immediately sent his men forward to attack a Federal column, which instantly directed a flanking fire on Thomas’ advancing units.  Thomas' men were now fighting at right angles to each other -  in some places they were back to back.  Twenty yards was the limit of their visibility.  The 5th Alabama Battalion was Hill's only reserve.  The Alabamians came in screaming and hollering.  Wadsworth pulled back to fight on another day.

Lee and his commanding officers spent that night worrying about their positions.  Hill was suffering terribly from urological problems.  Hill's irregular lines were a source of great pain to Lee and a mystery to the Federals.  Wilcox and Heth went to Hill for authorization of adjust their lines.  Hill decided against a night move because of the proximity of the Federal lines.  Wilcox, still not convinced, went to see Lee.  Lee assured Wilcox that Longstreet, who had just returned from the fighting in the South,  would be ready for battle in the morning.  Wilcox,  satisfied, returned to his lines.  Early on the morning of May 6th,  Thomas moved along the immediate right of the Orange Plank Road opposite Ward's Brigade, nine regiments strong.  The attack began at dawn along the Orange Plank Road.  Wadsworth moved back toward the Confederate left.

The Federals descended upon the outnumbered Confederates.  George Hall, of Company G, recalled "Our lines extended into the enemy's nearly in the shape of a V or a horseshoe.  The enemy advanced in three columns cross firing our brigade from three directions from the front, right flank, and rear.  We had nearly exhausted our ammunition when our right flank was nearly all captured and killed, and we were ordered to turn back."  Col. Robert Folsom, of Wilkinson County, commanding the 14th Georgia,   continued to rally his men up and down the lines.  Moving to the front Col Folsom yelled "Men, if you love me, die with me!"  The men yelled and countercharged.  Folsom fell.  He died in Richmond. after eighteen days of suffering. 

Thomas's shattered brigade moved to the rear of the lines along Orange Plank Road by midmorning.  Lee was still waiting on Longstreet.  Wilcox personally searched for Longstreet.  The battle turned in the afternoon when Longstreet finally arrived on the scene.  Longstreet was able to turn Hancock's left.  Lee had defeated Grant in their first meeting.  With his men being slaughtered in the dense woods, Grant pulled back to the northeast to the area north of a neighboring courthouse. Many of the men on both sides died -  not from their wounds - but when they were enveloped by rapidly burning fires.

While only one man, Green Berry Hollingworth, lost his life, the battle in the Wilderness was devastating to the Blackshear Guards and the Laurens Volunteers.  John T. Bender, Lott M. Daniel, Corp. B.B. Linder, and Elijah Shepard of the Guards, along with William H. Brown, William F. Grinstead, and James B. Hall of the Volunteers,  were captured and taken to that death trap known as the prison in Elmira, New York.  Private Daniel was lucky, being one of the last Confederate prisoners paroled in the fall of 1864.  Privates Bender, Bowen, Grinstead, and Hall never made it out of Elmira, succumbing to the ravages of pneumonia in the Fall of ‘64.  Linder and Shepard made it through that horrible winter. They had to wait until June of ‘65, over two full months after Lee’s surrender, to regain their freedom.  Privates William E. Duncan, Henry Gay, Thomas A. Jones, William H. Mimbs, and Edward Y. Woodard of the Guards were wounded, along with their comrades John Berryhill, Wm. S.A. Bracewell, Jeremiah Fordham, and Lt. Thomas J. Parsons of the Volunteers.

   One Federal officer described the Wilderness this way:   “There are but one or two square miles upon this continent that have been more saturated with blood." "The whole forest was now one mass of flame,” Gen. John Gibbon of the U.S. Army remarked.  One soldier put it in simple and  less than elegant terms when he said, “Things were slightly mixed.”  The Battle of Wilderness was the first of the battles during Grant’s push toward  the eventual capture of the Confederate capital of Richmond.   When the fighting ended, the Southerners had lost seventy five hundred men while the Union losses numbered nearly eighteen thousand.  The two sides struck each other again the next week at Spotsylvania Courthouse with Lee losing six thousand men and Grant another eleven thousand, killed and wounded. 

99-18

THE OLD RIVER ROAD

From The Coast To The Capital

During the early years of the settlement of this part of the country, roads were scarce, and good ones, were even scarcer.  A good one might be wide enough for a man to pilot a wagon without getting stuck in a rut or a creek ford.  The portion of present day Laurens County lying east of the Oconee River was settled beginning in 1784.  Being in Washington County, which stretched along the Oconee and the Altamaha Rivers from Athens beyond Reidsville, good roads were hard to find.  Nearly ten years later, the southern section of Washington County was cut off to form the new county of Montgomery, which included a portion of what is now Laurens County.

During the days when the American Indian inhabited these lands, pathways were cut from place to place.  They usually followed the high ground along the major rivers and creeks, running between  major towns and trading centers.  There were trails running parallel with the Oconee River on both sides.  These trails were used not only by Indians but by the Spanish military and clergy on their many expeditions into the interior of what would become Georgia. Later the trails were used by English traders out of Savannah and South Carolina.  

During the 1799 session, the Grand Jury of Montgomery County called for the establishment of a river road.  Depredations by Indians along the eastern banks of the river had nearly come to an end.  However, the location of a good road from the left to the right flank of the county would provide more rapid access by local militia in repelling any future attacks, in addition to the other obvious benefits arising from better transportation.  The jurors requested that a road be cut from the extreme northwestern corner of the county at Carr’s Bluff, located at the point where the Lower Uchee Trail crosses the Oconee River, southward along the Oconee River through Montgomery County to the Dead River community.  Dead River is located near Bell’s Ferry, just above the confluence of the Oconee and the Ocmulgee Rivers, forming the mighty Altamaha River.  From that point, the road took a northeasterly turn toward Cox’s Mill on the Ohoopee River, which was in the vicinity of the first county seat of Tattnall County.  From the Ohoopee,  the road would follow the most direct route to Savannah, crossing the Canoochee River at William Durrance’s place. The resolution was approved by George Walton, Judge of Montgomery County Superior Court.  If that name sounds familiar to you, it is probably because he is one of three Georgians who signed our country’s Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The road aided the development of the Upper Oconee District of Montgomery centered around the community known as Sandbar, now East Dublin.  In 1807, when the State of Georgia moved its capital from Louisville to Milledgeville, the road took on the more important role of intrastate transportation.  During the War of 1812,  Indians troubles plagued settlers along the eastern banks of the Ocmulgee River.  Gen. David Blackshear, a Laurens County resident who lived just above Carr’s Bluff, was ordered to cut a road running from the frontier town of Hartford on the Ocmulgee southeast along the northern banks of that river, crossing the Oconee near present day Lumber City and running into the Old River Road.  From that point the road, built primarily for the rapid reinforcement of militia protecting the flanks of our state,  ran down the northern banks of the Altamaha River to the seaport of Darien.   

With the establishment of a new county seat for Montgomery County at Mt. Vernon, the road  became the main thoroughfare of that county and of in Laurens County.  The road, which came to be known as the Darien to Milledgeville Road or the Milledgeville to Darien Road, was constantly being improved and altered.  Work was done by male citizens of each militia district through which the road passed - a required task as a consequence of their citizenship.  Undoubtedly, those planters who had slaves used them to work the roads as well.  In 1818, John Coats, a Laurens County resident, was granted an exclusive franchise by the state to transport persons from Milledgeville to Darien by way of Dublin.  Violators of this license would become liable to Coats in the sum of twenty dollars for each passenger carried. The road came in handy for timber men, who after polling their log rafts to Darien, had to return to the lower Oconee area on foot or by a horse purchased with the proceeds of the highly prized pine timbers.

In the early years of Laurens County, the most well known resident along the Darien -  Milledgeville Road was Governor George M. Troup.  Troup’s modest home, which he named Valdosta, was perched atop a hill with a commanding view of the countryside.  The Valdosta house, which was described as a series of disjointed buildings by one unimpressed author, became a wayside stop for travelers headed to the capital at Milledgeville or to the coast at Darien. There was an occasion, probably in the 1840s, when on a trip to a gubernatorial convention in Milledgeville, four gentlemen of substantial means stopped in to pay a visit to the retired King of Georgia politics.  Thomas Butler King, owner of a major portion of St. Simons Island and Charles DuBignion, owner of all of Jekyll Island, joined their fellow delegates from neighboring McIntosh County, Charles Holmes and James Troup, both physicians, the latter being a brother of the governor.  After a late dinner, Holmes remembered in his written recollections, which he called “Dr. Bullie’s Notes,”  “the table was cleared and the wine was circulated.”  Troup, a well educated, but highly reserved and dignified gentleman, failed to laugh, unlike the others gathered around the table,  at one of Holmes’ stories - an incident, which deeply mortified the distressed Dr. Holmes.  By the end of the evening, Gov. Troup rose to tell a story concerning Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and a political opponent.  Troup, in a subdued, but audible voice, finished, at the urging of the others,  the story, trying not to tell any more facts than was necessary.  Two decades later Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, traveled along the road in his ill-fated attempt to escape capture by Federal Cavalry.  Davis was followed by Gen. J.C. Breckenridge, a Confederate General and former Vice President of the United States, who managed to traverse the road into Montgomery County, undetected by hundreds of cavalrymen converging on Dublin.

  The Darien-Milledgeville Road, known by various names along its route,  still

runs through Laurens County today.    Entering the county from the southeast, the road designated as Georgia Highway 199 begins at Messer’s Creek, the line dividing Laurens and Treutlen Counties.  Immediately to the right is the old road to Louisville, which passes through the communities of Thairdale and Rockledge.  Further up the road lived the Wilkes,Branch, and McLendon families among others.  The road, at times with a commanding view of the Oconee River valley to the west, passes through Tweed, the seat of the Drew family, residents of that area for nearly two hundred years. As the road approaches Pughes Creek, it passes through the community known as Anderson, named after an early resident, John G. Anderson.  Anderson was the father-in-law of Hardy Smith, II, the progenitor of the prominent Smith family of Dublin.  Across the creek is Valdosta Baptist Church, the home church of Gov. Troup’s slaves and their descendants and the oldest Black church on the east side of the river. Going past the Troup place, about a mile north of I-16, the road turns to the right crossing the Old  Savannah Road at the community of Condor, which flourished in the latter decades of the 19th century.  It crosses U.S. Hwy. 80 intersecting U.S. Hwy 319.  From that point,  the road, now closed to public use, continues in a northwesterly direction intersecting the Buckeye Road just behind Ben Maddox’s garage.  The old road then turned more to the left along on the Old Buckeye Road, past the Blackshear and Guyton plantations, paralleling the river through Oconee, and ending in Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia from 1807 to 1867.  This two hundred year old road, while not the most traveled road in the county, is a lasting reminder of our county’s intriguing past.

99-19

DUBLIN'S ADMIRAL  

The Story of Admiral Robert Edgar Braddy, Jr. 

Robert Edgar Braddy, Jr. moved to Dublin at the age of nine in 1913.  Braddy was a son of Robert E. and Neva Eudora Braddy.  The Braddys lived on Maiden Lane in Dublin on the site of the First Baptist Church Life Center.    After attending Dublin schools, he attended Gordon Military College and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1927.  

In 1942,  Lt. Commander Braddy commanded the U.S.S. Bernadou, an old four stacker tanker, built in 1918.   “The Bernadou” was named for Commander John Baptiste Bernadou, a hero of the Spanish American War.   The ship was originally designed to combat submarines in World War I.   The ship was launched four days before the armistice.    After it was commissioned in 1919, the “Bernadou” saw sporadic service in the Atlantic Ocean.  In the fall of 1939, the “Bernadou” was re-commissioned and was assigned to the Atlantic Ocean on neutrality patrol.  The ship had a maximum speed of thirty five knots and was just a little longer than a football field.  The usual complement of the crew was about one hundred fifty.

     Before the United States declared war on Germany, the “Bernadou” carried Marines to Iceland in July of 1941.   For the next year, the ship remained in the Newfoundland-Iceland convoy in the North Atlantic.  The first missions of Braddy’s ship were anti-submarine patrols.   On October 25, 1942,   Braddy's ship, nicknamed the “Bouncing Bee”,  was assigned to carry troops into French North Africa for an attack planned for November, 1942.    Along with the “U.S.S. Cole,” the “Bernadou” was assigned to an attack group heading for the port of Safi, French Morroco.    The mission of a destroyer was to provide close-in combat support for landing troops.   It was a suicide mission.  Braddy’s ship was designated as the lead ship to land the first wave of infantry troops on shore.  

The “Bernadou” was a part of the Southern Attack Group of the Western Naval Task Force.  On the night of November 7th and 8th, the attack group moved away from the main convoy.  The  ships moved to a rendevous point to await the signal for an attack.  Just before dawn,  the eagerly awaited attack signal came.  The “Bernadou” and the “Cole,” commanded by Lt. Cmdr. George G. Palmer of Charleston, South Carolina, steamed toward Safi.   

At 3:30 a.m.,  the two ships moved out headed for the harbor.  H-hour was set for 4 a.m.  The ship was filled with troops.  All of her smokestacks had been removed to disguise her identity.   She rode low in the water and was difficult to identify with her mast down.   Through unchartered waters, the two ships moved toward the harbor entrance.   Their passage went quietly at first, with a scout boat in the lead.  With companies of the 47th Infantry aboard, the “Bernadou” was challenged at 4:10 a.m..   A spot light from the hills above Safi spotted Braddy’s ship.  A signal from shore was answered by the same signal.  The light went out.   The shore batteries opened fire with their French ‘75s.  The two ships, along with others to the rear, opened fire on the batteries.  The predawn skies were lit up by brilliant streams of tracer bullets and the mouths of the big guns.  

Braddy ordered the ship to proceed full steam ahead.  At 4:28 a.m.,  the ship rounded the north end of the mole.  Braddy maneuvered  the “Bouncing Bee” through narrow and difficult approaches to the harbor mouth.  The task became increasingly difficult when machine guns began firing from jetties.   Lookouts on the bridge spotted a bell buoy at the mouth of the harbor.   The ships continued under heavy cross fire.  Braddy and Palmer guided their ships through a multitude of vessels anchored in the harbor.  Braddy ran his ship at near full speed right into the shoreline, which was lined with rocks.     This daring maneuver allowed all of the assault troops to land immediately and avoid small arms fire.  Cmdr. Palmer guided his ship to a dock where he unloaded his men.  The invaders swarmed the shore and reached their objectives.  In the dash for the harbor, not a single life was lost.   The resistance from the shore soon ceased to exist. 

Braddy’s good fortune continued to hold.  The beaching had been eased by an underwater sandbar.  It was substantial enough to hold the ship in place while the assault forces landed, but was not enough to cause any fatal damage to the destroyer.  The “Berndaou” and four other destroyers began providing escorts for tanks and troops during the assault on Casablanca on November 10th. 

For his actions in guiding his ship safely into Safi under dangerous night conditions, Lt. Commander Braddy was given the Navy Cross and an award from the Belgian government.  The Navy Cross is our nation’s second highest award for heroism in the United States Navy.   Secretary of the Navy Knox cited the commanders for their actions “with gallant and resolute purpose, and at grave risk to his own life and the safety of his ship and men, they successfully countered all opposition in the accomplishment of a vital and strategic mission.”  Vice Admiral Henry Hewitt, commander of the invasion, cited Braddy and Coles’ ships with a large measure of the success of the operation.  Admiral Hewitt nominated the two ships to the Navy’s roll of distinguished ships.  The entire crew was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for their actions in the successful operation. 

After the landing at Safi, the “Bernadou” returned to Boston where she remained on convoy duty until February of 1943.  She made a convoy run to Gibraltar in March and in May departed for Algeria.  In July 1943, the ship took part in the occupation of Sicily.  Two months later the “Bernadou” aided in the landings at Salerno.  After two convoy trips to North Africa in the first half of 1944, the ship retired to the easy runs from the east coast of the United States to the Caribbean.  The Bernadou arrived in the Philadelphia Naval Yard for decommissioning on July 17, 1945.   On the last day of November 1945, the grand old lady, who had served her country so well in earning five battle stars, was sold.   

Commander Braddy was also a close and personal friend of deaf and blind American author, Helen Keller.   His sister, Nella, wrote a book for Reader's Digest on Helen Keller and her mentor, Anne Sullivan.   Nella Braddy also earned national acclaim for her biography of the author, Rudyard Kipling.   Robert Braddy retired as a Rear Admiral on October 1, 1951.  Admiral Braddy died on August 14, 1965 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. 

 

99-20

SECOND ANNUAL TRIVIA QUIZ

In this week’s column, I present my second annual trivia test on Laurens County’s history. This year’s subject is geography.  Good luck.  The answers will be in next week’s column.

1. Of the following, which is farthest south:  Vidalia, Lyons, Claxton, or Laurens County?

2. Name any three of the major creeks on the western side of Laurens County:

3. Name any three of the major creeks on the eastern side of Laurens County.

4. Since the time Laurens County was created, how many rivers have been within the boundaries of Laurens County?  Name the river or rivers.

5. Other than the Oconee River, what is  the largest natural body of water in Laurens County?

6. How many Federal highways run through Laurens County?  Name them.

7. Which of the following is the farthest east:  Wrightsville, Scott, or Laurens County?

8. Name the counties which border Laurens County.  For extra credit, name all the counties which at one time or another have bordered Laurens County.

9. Which of the following towns do not line within the bounds of Laurens County: Scott, Allentown, or Orianna?

10. Of the following which is the largest; Rhode Island, Delaware, or Laurens County?

11. Of the following which is the largest; Andorra, Malta, Grenada, or Laurens County?

12. Name the first county seat of Laurens County.  Who or what was it named for?

13. What is the land area of Laurens County?  A) 501 square miles B) 650 square miles C) 810 square miles

14. What do the towns of Lovett, Brewton, Rentz, Dexter, and Montrose have in common?

15. What do the towns of Cadwell and Dudley have in common?

16. What is unusual about Rocky Creek, Whitewater Creek, Long Branch,  and Dry Creek in Laurens County?

17. What creeks in Laurens County are named for animals? (Do not include humans)

18. Which of the following is not in Laurens County;  Little New York, Little Korea, or Little Italy?

19. What do the home of Jesus and the shores of Tripoli have in common with Laurens County?

20. Which Laurens County road  was the first to be paved along its entire length?  When?

21. What do Laurens County, Detroit, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio have in common?

22. If you drilled a hole to the other side of the earth from Laurens County, where would you be?

23. How many hemispheres has the land on which we live on been in?

24. Which Laurens County creek flows through the most counties?  For extra credit, name the counties.

25. What place in Laurens County has the longest name. (Do not include street, highway, creek, river, etc.)

26. Which side of the Oconee River was settled first?

27. Is this statement true or false?  Wrightsville, Georgia is further east than parts of Lowery’s District on the west side of the Oconee River.

28. Which of the following cities and towns have never been in Laurens County:  Adrian, Cochran, Eastman, McRae, or Chester?

29. How many times does Georgia Highway 46 enter Laurens County?

30. True or false: The first river bridge in Laurens County spanned the Oconee River.

ANSWERS TO SECOND ANNUAL TRIVIA QUIZ

This year’s trivia quiz deals with the geography of Laurens County.  Old timers will know many of the answers to the questions.  Some of the questions are difficult at best, unless you have analyzed and re analyzed maps of our county and its surrounding counties.  Although many of the answers  to these questions are trivial facts, hopefully they will teach you something about the history of our county.

1.         Of Vidalia, Lyons, Claxton, and Laurens County, Laurens County is the farthest south.  When you leave Laurens County for these three cities, it appears you are traveling south and east,  The southern tip of the county lies at a latitude of North  32 degrees 9 minutes, while the three cities lie slightly to the north of that imaginary line around the Earth.

2. The major creeks of the western side of Laurens County are Turkey, Rocky, Limesink, Bluewater, Alligator, Reedy, Stitchahatchee, and  Olkwalkee.

3. The major creeks of the eastern side of Laurens County are Pughes, Big, Shaddock’s, Messer’s (or Mercers), Buckeye, Red Hill, Kellam’s, Buckeye,  and Brewton.

4. Upon the creation of Laurens County in 1807, three rivers ran through the county.  The eastern border of the county was the Oconee River, while the western border was the Ocmulgee River.   A somewhat smaller river, known today as Gumswamp Creek, traversed that portion of the county which was ceded to Pulaski County in 1808.  That river was known as the Little Ocmulgee River from its beginning in Twiggs County to its mouth in Telfair County.  The fourth river was the Ohoopee River, which formed a portion of the northeastern boundary of the county from 1811 to 1857.

5. The largest natural body of water in Laurens County other than the Oconee River is known on some maps as Palm Lake. It lies in the confluence  of Messer’s (Mercer’s Creek) and the Oconee River on the east side of the river above the mouth of the creek, which forms the county line with Treutlen County.

6. There are four Federal highways which run through Laurens County.  They are Highways 80, 319, 441, and Interstate Highway 16.

7. Between Scott, Wrightsville, and Laurens County; Laurens County is the farthest east.  Again your perception of direction and position can be deceiving.  While we appear to go east when going to Wrightsville, we are actually heading more to the north.  Also when you go to Scott, you actually leave Laurens County.  But, below Scott on Ga. Highway 86 you don’t leave Laurens County until you are well beyond Scott.

8. Wilkinson, Twiggs, Bleckley, Dodge, Wheeler, Treutlen, Emanuel, and Johnson counties border Laurens County.  At other times, Washington, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Telfair Counties have bordered Laurens County.

9. Portions of the original towns of Scott, Allentown, and Orianna lie within Laurens County.

10. The area of Laurens County is 76% of the that of Rhode Island and 43% of that of Delaware.

11. Laurens County is larger than the countries of Andorra, Malta, and Grenada.

12. The first county seat of Laurens County was Sumpterville, which was named for Thomas Sumpter, a South Carolinian hero of the American Revolution.

13. The land area of Laurens County is (c) 810 square miles.

14. The towns of Lovett, Brewton, Rentz, Dexter, and Montrose are all circular in shape.

15. The towns of Dudley and Cadwell were originally square in shape.

16. The unusual thing about Rocky Creek, Whitewater Creek, Long Branch, and Dry Creek in Laurens County is that we have two of each of them in the county.

17. Among the creeks named for nonhuman animals are Mosquito, Turkey, and Alligator.

18. Little New York was the name of a cross roads northeast of Cedar Grove.  Little Korea was a section of town between South Jefferson St. and the Glenwood Road in southern Dublin.  To the best of my knowledge, there was never a Little Italy in the county.

19. They all lie along the same latitude of approximately 32 degrees North.

20. The first road to be paved for its entire length was U.S. Hwy. 80 which was completely paved in the early 1930s.

21. The cities of Detroit, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio, which are supposed to be at eastern end of the Midwest U.S., lie along the same longitude as Laurens County.

22. A hole drilled from Laurens County to the other side of the Earth would not come out in China, but in the Indian Ocean.

23. Over the last 350 million years the land on which we live has moved from the southern to the northern hemisphere.

24. The Laurens County creek which flows through the most counties is Alligator Creek, which flows through Laurens, Dodge, and Wheeler counties.

25. The longest place name is Baughnaughclaughbaugh, which is located in the southern part of the county and known to locals as “Bonnie Clabber.”

26. Trick question.  The west side of the river was the first to be settled - by the Indian.              

27. Parts of Lowery District in southern Laurens County are further east than Wrightsville.

28. McRae and Adrian have never been in Laurens County.

29. Georgia Highway 46 enters Laurens County two times going east and two times going west.

30. The first record of a river bridge in Laurens County did not span the Oconee River, but the much smaller Ohoopee River, the northeastern border of the county from 1811 to 1857.

99-21

GREETINGS FROM DUBLIN

A Brief History of Postcards of Dublin

At the beginning of this century, the hobby of collecting picture postcards was sweeping the nation.  Today, one hundred years later, there are thousands of people, including myself, who collect postcards.  Postcards, originally invented as a way of sending a message with a picture of a far away place, give us glimpses into  nearly every aspect of our lives, past and present.  Postcards, shortened from the original name of postal cards, were first used in 1870s and were printed by the post office.  These cards did not bear the image of anything but a preprinted stamp.  Picture postcards originated in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition.  

Due to government regulations, messages could only be written on the picture side of the postcard, making cards with no message written on the front a rarity.  In 1907, the government changed its policy and allowed the back of the card to be divided into two sections, one for the message and one for the addressee.  In the early years of postcards, many of the cards were printed in Germany.  The images on these cards were taken with black and white cameras and colored by studio artists, following the notes taken by the photographer as to color of objects pictured in the photograph.  Many times a photograph would be altered to reflect a partly cloudy sky.  Barren trees often have leaves painted on them, some being very poorly done.  One postcard of the depots of Dublin shows utility poles with the lines between them taken out of the photo.

Dublin was one of the larger cities in Georgia at the turn of the 20th century.  With five railroads intersecting in the center of town, travelers often passed through on business or  pleasure trips.  The earliest known postcards of Dublin appeared about the year 1905 and depicted the courthouse and street scenes of Jefferson and Jackson streets.  The first color cards of Dublin were printed in Germany and published by Paul E. Trouche of Charleston, S.C..  

Churches, post offices, depots, elegant homes,  and schools were popular subjects of postcards.  Post cards of Bellevue Avenue, West Jackson Street, South Jefferson Street, the Madison Street Post Office, the Carnegie Library, First Methodist Church, and First Baptist Church were the most popular views of Dublin in the first two decades of the 20th century.  While many postally used cards give the date of mailing, that date does not always tell the date of the photograph.  By studying the history of buildings and other objects pictured in the photographs, one can determine an approximate range for dating the photograph.  For example, the First Methodist Church was remodeled in 1910 to add twin towers on the front and to remove the steeple.  Cards made before this time were mailed after the renovations took place.  Another popular view was that of the First National Bank, known for all eternity as “Dublin’s Skyscraper.”  This seven story building dominated the skyline of the southern section of downtown Dublin after its completion in 1913.

With the entrance of the United States into World War I, postcards were no longer printed in Germany.  The troublesome economic times which lasted for two decades following the end of the war caused a decrease in the popularity of postcards.  As the country began to recover from “The Depression,” a new style of postcards came into use.  These cards, known as “linens” for their linen -like finish were used from the late forties until the mid fifties when a slicker and glossier card, known as a chrome became the predominant card.  Many different views of Dublin were made during the Sixties and early Seventies.  These cards were printed by the Dexter Press and were published by R.E. Drew of Dublin.  These chromes captured some of the favorite spots of Dublin, including the Jay-Cee’s pool at Stubbs Park and the Shamrock Bowl, home of the “Fightin’ Irish.”

The opening of the U.S. Naval Hospital, which later became the V.A. Hospital, brought a new series of views of the hospital, including some of the first aerial view postcards in Dublin.  Travel along U.S. Highways 80 and 441 increased dramatically following World War II.  Postcards of motels along these routes such as Tindol’s, Brer Rabbit, Candlelite, Canady’s, Tanner’s, Shamrock, and Irish Inn were popular among travelers, who sent them to family and friends.   

Among the popular views of Dublin and Laurens County were Blackshear’s Ferry, the old Oconee River Bridge, Fox Hunting at Dawn, and the Welcome Center on 441 North.  Cards were sold primarily in drug stores and department stores.  Today, you can still find several of the linen cards of the 40s for sale at Oatts Drug Store in Dublin, along with modern views of Theatre Dublin, the Dublin-Laurens Museum, the Bill Lovett home, and the Laurens County historical mural on the wall of Oatts Drug Store.  Several cards were printed to advertise businesses.  Richard Hamlet, a local barber here about 90 years ago produced a card with his picture on the front.  In 1909, the City Bank issued one card each month featuring a small calendar, a scenic view, and sound banking advice by the bank president, J.E. Smith, Jr.  

One type of card, known as the real photo card, is highly sought after by collectors.  The card was made by taking a photograph, printing it on heavy stock paper, and stamping the words “Post Card” on the back.  These cards were popular from 1910 to 1950 and are all in black and white.  Several years ago I was fortunate to acquire a collection of ninety two  of these cards from a former resident of Dublin.   Mac Jordan of Macon donated these cards which came from the drug store of his father, Dr. E.R.  Jordan.  They were taken by local photographer Doyle Knight and sold in Jordan’s Drug Store in the Brantley Building, known to most as the Lovett and Tharpe Building.   Many of these could be one of a kind cards.  They depict Dublin from 1911 through 1915.  

Among the most interesting of these cards is one of the First National Bank under construction.  Another card depicts a train crossing the Oconee River railroad bridge when the bridge is about to be covered with flood waters.  Early views of the new Stubbs Park are extremely interesting.  Knight even made cards featuring himself and his partner, Dr. Jordan.  One card depicting a crowd lining Bellevue Avenue watching a car race.   The collection includes views of residential streets and homes rarely depicted in regular postcard views.

Over the last century, approximately four to five hundred postcards depicting Dublin and Laurens County have been produced.   The Laurens County Historical Society has about three hundred and fifty different cards.   It is important to realize that some had very limited print runs - a thousand or so, some more and some less.  Most of them were mailed to other destinations by travelers.  Some were saved, some were pasted in scrapbooks, but most of them were discarded.  Some experts estimate that about ten percent of most cards survive today; unused and near mint cards are even more scarce. Postcards give us an important view into the past.  As the old saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words. 

99-22

THE OTHER HISTORY OF LAURENS COUNTY

A Few Animal Stories

Historians and those who are interested in history tend to concentrate on the history of the human animal in our county.  The other history is often ignored and more often taken for granted, is our natural history.  Over the last five billion years, nonhuman animals in a multitude of trillions have inhabited the lands on which we live.  Sometimes these animals do natural things.  At other times,  they do quite the opposite.  Here are few glimpses of incidents in the history of the nonhuman animals  of Laurens County.

B.H. Lord of the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad remembered that one day a small heard of  cows was being shipped to market by train from Dexter.  As the train approached Dublin, one of cows managed to fall out through a small opening.  The brakeman saw its dangling legs.  After a thorough inspection in Dublin it was supposed that the cow had managed to crawl back in the car.  However, it turns out that the cow did fall out of the car and then got up and walked back to the farm where it was raised.  The farmer was pleased because he was paid for a full load of cows and got one back in the deal. Dublin Courier Herald, January 16, 1936, p. 6. 

A.E. Hobbins was trying out his new bird dog one day.  The dog pointed, but no birds were in sight.  Then one bird flew out from under the dog.  Hobbins promptly fired his gun, hitting the bird.  Hobbins quickly reloaded and waited for another bird.  Eight times in all and at exactly 10-second intervals, Hobbins shot down eight birds.  After examining the situation, Hobbins concluded that the bird dog had chased the birds into a hole and then kept his foot over the hole.  He figured the dog understood how slow he was in loading his gun and allowed the birds to escape at ten second intervals so his master would have time to reload. Dublin Courier Herald, December 19, 1936, p. 6.

O.C. Cumbus, Dr. J.M. Page, and A.T. Brown were riding back home after a day of hunting along Walkee Creek in southern Laurens County.  All of a sudden, a young bear appeared in front of the car.  Cumbus slammed on the brakes, nearly hitting the bear.  Cumbus's prize dog went after the bear.  The hound dog soon discovered he was no match for the startled animal.  Cumbus, seeing his dog was in trouble, went after the bear.  Finally, Cumbus wrestled the bear into submission.  Dr. Page treated Cumbus's wounds.  The bear was brought back to Dublin to the home of Dr. Page.  The proud trio showed their prize to their friends and neighbors.  Dr. Page kept the bear with the intention of donating it to a zoo. Dublin Courier Herald, March 4, 1915, p. 7.

Lt. Rosser Elkins of the Engineering Corps had just completed his assignment of supervising the construction of the Naval Airport at Dublin.  Nearly a year and a half prior to the final day of work, Lt. Elkins had lost his best friend beside a road in Telfair County.  The best friend was his Llewelyn setter, Lou.   Lou would usually hang around Elkins's truck when he was working for the highway department.  On the eve of the completion of the work, a lean, gaunt dog wandered onto the airfield.  Construction workers brought the starving dog to Lt. Elkins.  He immediately recognized his long lost friend.  Lt. Elkins called the dog by name, but evidently too much time had passed for the dog to recognize his master.  Lt. Elkins fed and bathed the dog and nursed him back to health.  He took his friend with him on his next assignment in Albany, hoping to return to the good times they once had together. Dublin Courier Herald, July 6, 1943, p. 1.

Residents of Palmer Street in Dublin called the city to come cut down an old dead tree in front of the W.T. Stinson home.  John Branch, an old resident of Dublin, knew the old oak must be at least one hundred years old.  As the tree was being felled, workers noticed it was full of honey.  Residents had noticed bees in the trees for at least two decades.  City workers filled wash tubs full of the sweet stuff.  Neighbors were called to come get some of the honey.  A broadcast went out over W.M.L.T. about the free honey.  At the end of the day, city officials estimated that the tree had held several hundred pounds of honey. DCH, Dec. 4, 1956, p. 1.

Fish naturally swim up stream. The men along the lower end of Turkey Creek knew that. They also knew that they could place traps in the creek preventing them from swimming up the stream.  The men of northwestern Laurens County sought the help of the Georgia Legislature.  On October 24, 1870,  a law was passed directing the sheriffs of Laurens and Wilkinson counties to remove any traps or obstructions.  Any officer failing to comply with the directive was subject to a fine up to five hundred dollars. Georgia Laws, 1870, p. 457.

Dr. Charles Hicks spent 25 years of his life observing the cases of malaria in the southeastern United States and especially in Laurens County.  At the 52nd Convention of the Georgia Medical Association, Dr. Hicks, President of the Association, spoke to his fellow physicians on the subject of geology, mosquitos, and malaria.  A line following a vein of limestone rock forms the dividing line between the occurrence of malaria cases.  A line that runs from Cape Hatteras, N.C., to Texas runs  through the center of the county,  striking the Oconee River near Dublin.  The line is also characterized as dividing the red clay lands covered with oak and hickory from the light sandy soil lands filled with yellow pines.  Dr. Hicks charted the occurrences of malaria,  which were confined to the area of cretaceous formation where wells were only 30 to 80 feet deep.  Most of the cases of malaria were confined to the Buckeye District. No permanent residents of Dublin ever reported a single case of the hemoglobic form of malaria.  Dublin's water comes from 250 to 500 feet deep artesian wells.  The mosquitos of the Buckeye District were of particular interest to Dr. Hicks.  Hemoglobinuric fever was found In the western part of the district plain.  In the eastern part only the plain type occurred.  In the northern part both types were found, but in the south only the hemoglobinuric fever was found.  Dr. Hicks found that many of the early settlers, especially the men along the river flats, died prematurely from malaria.  Those persons living away from the rivers and streams seemed to have a longer life expectancy. Transactions of the Medical Association of Georgia, 1902, MAG, Atlanta, 1902, pp. 171-183.

While out farming one day, one of J.A. Peacock's tenant farmers discovered a hole in the ground.  Upon further inspection the terrified farmer found that the hole contained twenty five rattlesnakes.  None of the snakes were shorter than 14 inches.  The smallest portion of the largest snake was as big around as a man's arm.  The smaller snakes were killed with a stick.  A Mr. Raffield who came upon the scene took no chances with the big snake, blasting it with his shotgun. Dublin Times, Sept. 17, 1904, p. 4.

99-23

GREEN BERRY HUGHS

Baptist Preacher and Part Time Indian Fighter

For most of the 19th century, Green Berry Hughs was somewhat of a legend in Wilkinson County.   Hughs pastored at several Baptist churches in Wilkinson County, Texas,  Florida and a short term at Bluewater Baptist Church in Laurens County, Georgia.  Rev. Hughs gained legendary status for his acts outside of the pulpit during the Creek Indian War of 1836 and the days following the War Between the States.

Green Berry Hughs, the eldest son of Rev. John Hughs and Margaret White Hughs,  was born in southwestern Wilkinson County, Georgia on May 13, 1814.  Hughs was a grandson of Irishman, William Thomas Hughs, who emigrated to the United States during the American Revolution.  Green (although his name is a unusual one today, it was not that uncommon during his day) grew up in the Baptist Church.  His parents founded  New Providence Baptist Church on the Twiggs/Wilkinson County line near Jeffersonville in 1811, and also led the formation of Bethel Baptist Church in 1833.

The final war between Georgia and the Indian nations began and ended in 1836.  Samuel Beall, the leading military figure of Wilkinson County, operated a store at Irwinton.  Beall entered the Georgia militia and left the management of his store to Hughs.  Green B. Burney organized and captained a company of local militia, known as “The Wilkinson Greys.”  Many of Burney’s neighbors and friends, including Green B. Hughs, enlisted,  ignoring the trust put upon him by Beall.  

The Greys were ordered to South Georgia and to Stewart County in particular.  Having the misfortune of being situated in a swamp, the Greys were overrun by Creek Indians, while waiting further orders.  Green, retreating the best way he knew how, suddenly felt his horse fall under him.  Without the support of his trusted steed, he plummeted to the ground - his gun following him into the mire.  Several Indians, it must have seemed to Hughs to have been at least  a thousand of them,  pounced on him instantly.  Hughs, a small man and hardly able to win a hand to hand fight, struggled to retrieve his gun.  Just as he was facing certain death, Beall and his men arrived on the scene.  Beall spurred his horse, dashed toward Hughs, and lifted him to safety.  He began to struggle.  When questioned by Beall, Hughs stated that he wanted to go back for his gun.  Beall realized that the man he rescued was none other than Green Berry Hughs, who was supposed to be minding his store back in Irwinton.  Beall, a devout Methodist never known to swear even under the most trying of circumstances, cussed Hughs for even thinking about going back.  Beall then chastised Hughs for abandoning the store.

A short time after the Indian wars, Hughs married Nancy Methvin.  He took up farming and amassed a small fortune.  His father, one of the few Wilkinson County Baptists who believed in the Missionary Doctrine, led the “missionary churches” of  Wilkinson County  over the divisive question of missions.  The elder Hughs’s churches, New Providence and Bethel,  split from the “anti-missionary” churches.  In 1842, shortly before his father’s death, Green Hughs was ordained a deacon in the Baptist Church.  He gave up farming on a large scale and devoted his time to serving God.  By the end of the 1840s, Hughs received his license to preach the gospel.  In the mid - 19th century, ministers were required to travel long distances by horseback to reach churches scattered throughout the county and surrounding counties.  The churches where Hughs preached were members of the Ebenezer Association of Baptist Church, which was composed of churches mainly located in Laurens, Wilkinson, and Twiggs counties.  Rev. Hughs pastored at Antioch and Stone Creek churches in Twiggs County; Clear Creek, New Providence, and Jeffersonville churches in Wilkinson County; and Salem Church in Baldwin County.  

At the beginning of the 1860s, most of the male residents of Wilkinson County were not in favor of seceding from the Union over the question of slavery.   In the area where Hughs lived, the Allen, Burke, Carswell, and Davidson families were strongly in favor of remaining in the Union.  Despite the strong anti-secession feelings among Hughs and his congregation, when the war came, the young men and boys of the area fought for the state.   John Thomas Hughs, the eldest son of Rev. and Mrs. Hughs, enlisted in Co. F, 3rd Ga. Infantry.  After being discharged from the army, the younger Hughs reenlisted in Co. D. 57th Ga. Infantry.  4th Sergeant Hughs was one of the lucky ones, surviving the war unscathed - except for a brief stint in a P.O.W. camp following the fall of Vicksburg.  Rev. Hughs -  being in his fifties-  was too old for military service.  He served his community and his Lord by seeing to the needs of poor widows and orphans in the area.  

Rev. Hughs was drawn into one of the more exciting events of the war quite by accident.  He had witnessed the pillaging and burning of the countryside during Gen. Sherman’s “March to the Sea” during the fall of 1864.  In the days following the end of the war, Robert Toombs, a fellow Georgian, narrowly missed being elected President of the Confederate States of America. He served with distinction at the bloody battle along Antietam Creek, secreted through Central Georgia in a successful attempt to escape from the country.  One Sunday morning, Toombs was being escorted through the county by Joel Dees to the home of Wesley King.  The men lost their way and wound up at Bethel Church, where the Rev. Hughs was preaching his usual Sunday morning sermon.  Dees interrupted the services to ask Hughs for his help in finding the King home.  It has been said that it was the only time in his life that Rev. Hughs stopped a sermon and put the word of God on hold.  Hughs mounted his horse and led them to their destination.  Robert Toombs successfully escaped the Union Army.  In 1868, he returned to Georgia, where he became a powerful political force - never holding political office because of his refusal to swear allegiance to the United States.

In the midst of the dismal days of reconstruction, Rev. Hughs, like many of his generation twenty years before, left Georgia for Texas.  When his money was nearly gone and the heat became unbearable, Hughs returned to Georgia.  He served for a brief period of time as the pastor of Bluewater Baptist Church in Laurens County.  In 1875,  after preaching with his son at a mission in Florida, Hughs returned to preach at his beloved church at Bethel.  At the age of sixty nine, when his health was failing him, Rev. Hughs was assigned by the Ebenezer Association to distribute Bibles among the poor and to serve as a supply pastor.  His last assignment was Mt. Pleasant Church in Baldwin County.  In 1886, while making preparations for a meeting at Bethel Church, Rev. Hughs collapsed, passing on to Heaven a few hours later.  His life was a long one, devoted to serving his God, his family, and his fellow man - a Christian soldier in every sense of the word.

99-24

HOT! HOT! HOT!

The Case For and Against Global Warming

We all know how hot it gets in the summertime.  Many times we feel like the temperature is in excess of one hundred degrees.   The relative humidity of the South causes the air to feel hotter than it actually is.   In the last sixty years, statistics have shown that the official temperature in Dublin has exceeded one hundred degrees only three hundred and eighty six times or an average of only six and a half times per year.    Of those three hundred and eighty six times, one hundred and eleven or nearly thirty percent came in the years of 1954, 1977, 1980, and 1981.   Amazingly during the years of 1940, 1947, 1949, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1967, 1973, 1989, 1991, 1992, and 1994 the official temperature never made it to the century mark.  The longest streak without a one hundred degree day began on August 31, 1990 and ended on July 10, 1993 for a total of one thousand forty five days - or nearly three years.  During a four year period from June 23, 1964 to July 1, 1968, the temperature reached one hundred degrees only once, on July 13, 1966.

Despite the arguments that the Earth’s temperature is rising due to global warming, one hundred degree plus temperatures by decade have no definite pattern.  During the 1940s, temperatures reached one hundred or more degrees on thirty days.  The highest temperature of the decade occurred on June 18, 1944 and on August 30, 1948, when the thermometer read 104 degrees. During the 1950s, the second hottest of the last six decades, temperatures reached one hundred or more degrees on 110 days. 

The hottest year of the last sixty two  years was 1954.  During the summer of that year the temperature exceeded one hundred degrees on thirty eight days.    Sixteen times the temperature reached an even one hundred degrees.  For seventeen consecutive days from June 22nd to July 8th, the temperature climbed to one hundred degrees or above - an all time recorded temperature record.   The streak started out with a cool morning low of sixty two degrees on June 22nd.   During the next seventeen days,  the mean temperature was eighty seven degrees.  The mercury reached 101 degrees on four days, 102 degrees on six days, 103 degrees on three days, 104 degrees on five days, 105 degrees on one day, 106 degrees on one day, 107 degrees on one day, and 108 degrees on one day.  The hottest day of that year and the second hottest ever recorded was June 28, 1954 when the temperature rose to 108 degrees.  It was the hottest day ever recorded in June.  The third highest temperature of 107 degrees was set the day before on June 27th.   The 22nd of August was the hottest day ever in August when the temperature was measured at 106 degrees.  The temperature went up to 104 degrees in August, but only tied a record set in numerous years.  The all time record high temperature for October of 101 degrees was  set on October 5th.    During that heat wave, the rain gauge collected eight and one quarter inches of rain, which added to the misery of Laurens Countians. Residents who were finally given a break when the temperature failed to reach one hundred degrees during all of 1955 and not again until August 6, 1956.  

During the 1960s, temperatures fell sharply.   The 1960s, the hottest as far as political turmoil, became the coldest of the last six decades.    The temperature reached one hundred or more degrees only twenty four times out of nine hundred thirteen summer days.   The record temperature for the decade came on August 25, 1968 when the thermometer read 105 degrees.  During the seventies, the temperatures rose to one hundred or more on forty five days, making it the third coolest decade of the last six.  The hottest year of the 1970s was 1977 with eighteen days with one hundred plus degrees days.   During the middle of July, temperatures were at or near one hundred degrees for seventeen straight days.

The 1980s was the hottest decade of the last six.  On one hundred and fifteen days,  we suffered through temperatures at one hundred degrees or above.  The years of 1980 and 1981 were the hottest back to back years on record.   During 1980, the second hottest year on record, temperatures reached one hundred or more on thirty one days.  The following year, in 1981, one hundred degree plus days numbered twenty four, making it the third hottest year.  The all time record of one hundred nine degrees was set on July 14, 1980.  That was in the shade, of course.  Some back porch or back yard thermometers showed temperatures as high as one hundred and fourteen degrees. 

During a three week period beginning on July 2nd , temperatures reached ninety nine degrees or more on twenty of twenty one days.  The mercury reached one hundred on nine consecutive days, the third longest streak, beginning on July 10th, 1981.  For two weeks, temperatures were at or above one hundred degrees.  After a brief respite, one hundred plus degree temperatures returned for eleven straight days beginning on July 31st - the second longest streak of recorded 100+ temperatures. 

The 1990s, so far, have been the third hottest of the last six decades.  Although temperatures have reached one hundred degrees on seventy days, the nineties have been much cooler than the 1950s or 1980s.  To date the highest recorded temperature of the 90s was one hundred and six degrees on July 1, 1998.

Relatively speaking, it can get hot on other days beside the usual summer ones.  There was no chance of a “White Christmas” in 1964,  when we played with our new toys in eighty degree temperatures.  Since 1940, temperatures on New Year’s Day have reached seventy nine degrees three times; in 1952, 1974, and 1985.   July the Fourth is thought by some to be the hottest day of the year.  In the last sixty years, the temperature has reached one hundred degrees on the holiday only twice, in 1948 and 1979.   The temperature has never officially reached one hundred on July 27th since complete records began in 1940.   Of the hottest seventy eight days of the last sixty years, the hottest come in the last six days of June (remember the end of June of last year) and the last ten days of August, just in time for pre-season football practice.  The highest recorded January temperature reached eighty three degrees on January 12, 1949.  The highest recorded February temperature reached eighty five degrees on Feb. 17, 1989.  The highest recorded March temperature was ninety two degrees on March 11, 1974.  The highest recorded April temperature stands at ninety eight degrees - set on April 28, 1986.  The earliest date on which the thermometer reached one hundred degrees was on May 23, 1941.  A week later, the all time record for May was established at one hundred and one degrees.  The hottest November day was November 3, 1961 when the temperature hit ninety degrees.  The hottest December day ever recorded was on December 5th, 1978 when the mercury reached 84 degrees.   

 

The next time you “feel like you are going to melt,” or your electricity bill is measured in  the hundreds of dollars, remember these days when it was truly, Hot! Hot! Hot!  After all, you could have been in Louisville, Georgia on July 24, 1952 when the temperature reached a scalding one hundred and twelve degrees. Whew!

99-25

DEATH BY PRESCRIPTION 

The Story of Dr. Ambrose Baber

Edward Ambrose Baber, a twin son of Thomas Baber of Buckingham County, Virginia, was born on September 12, 1793.  As a child Edward, who was called “Ambrose” to distinguish himself from his twin Edward Hardin, exhibited his boundless qualities of intelligence, morality, and self determination.  Educated at White Hall Institute for his classical training, Baber, at the age of seventeen,  began his study of medicine under the supervision of Dr. Nelson of Norfolk.  This fourth great grandson of Sir John Baber, physician to Charles II of England, would live an eventful, but all too short , life -  his death coming from his own prescription.

Dr. Baber’s medical career was interrupted by the second war with the British in 1812.  As a physician in the army, Baber served at the Battle of Bladensburg. He was wounded, mortally it was feared, and was carried off the field to die.  Baber survived his wounds, which troubled him for the rest of his life.  After completing his military service in the paymaster’s department, Dr. Baber resumed his medical studies at the prestigious medical college in Philadelphia.  When his health began to decline, Baber’s eyes turned southward to Georgia and its warmer climate.

In 1817, Dr. Baber moved his practice to Dublin.  His stay in the fledgling town was cut short for an unknown reason. Possibly it was the lure of  Hartford, on the Ocmulgee River in Pulaski County, which presented  better financial opportunities than Dublin,  which seemed to be stagnant - never reaching her potential as a commercial and river port in Central Georgia.   Hartford, lying on the frontier of Georgia, was susceptible to Indian attacks.  When General Andrew Jackson camped near Hartford during his expedition to fight the Seminole Indians in Florida, Baber was offered and accepted  a position on the medical staff of the future president.  After the end of the war, Baber returned to Hartford.  He remained there for two years until he was again seduced by the lure of success in  another boom town a few miles to the north at Marion, the county seat of Twiggs County.  Marion, before the establishment of Macon, was well on its way to becoming the largest city in Central Georgia. In fact, it was located within a short distance of the geographical center of the entire state of present day Georgia.  

Once again and for the last time, Baber was lured away from his home for the promise of success in a new town.  Oliver Prince, a future U.S. Senator and well renowned lawyer, convinced Dr. Baber to move again - this time to the town of Macon.  Baber was selected by the Justices of the Inferior Court as one of the commissioners to determine and lay out the location of the new county seat of Bibb County on the site of a Creek Indian town.  Macon attracted many of the finest men from the Carolinas to New England such as John Lamar, Oliver Prince, Washington Poe, Eleazar McCall, Edward D. Tracy, Eugenius A. Nisbet, Thaddeus G. Holt, and Smiri Rose.  Baber, a natural born leader, builder, and organizer, worked with these men and others in establishing Macon as the commercial, industrial, and political center of Central Georgia.

Dr. Baber, who had become a member of the Masonic Order while at Marion, led the establishment of Macon Lodge No. 84 F.A. & M. in 1824. He was elected  its  first Worshipful Master.  Within seven years, Baber rose to the position of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Georgia. As Worshipful Master, Baber led the welcome of the General and  Marquis de Lafayette on his tour of the southern United States.  A single cannon shot signaled the arrival of the beloved ally of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was honored, wined, and dined by the finest of Macon’s society.   

Shortly after arriving in Macon, Dr. Baber, an Episcopalian, led the founding of Christ Episcopal Church in Macon and served as Senior Warden from its consecration in 1825 until  his resignation in 1842.   In deference to his religious convictions, Baber became embroiled in a duel between Mr. Beall and Dr. Isaac Mitchell.  Baber was acting as a second for Beall, who was defending the honor of Dr. Baber, who had been publicly denounced by Mitchell. Baber entered the political arena when he was elected to the Georgia Senate representing Bibb County in 1827.  Baber returned to the Senate to serve four more one-year terms in 1831, 1835, 1838, and 1839.  A member of the Whig party, he aligned himself with the faction of former Governor and then U.S. Senator George M. Troup of Laurens County.  During his legislative career, Baber introduced legislation to establish the Commercial Bank of Macon and to fund the copying of Georgia’s colonial records.

While his health continued to suffer, Baber’s personal life took a dramatic turn for the better.  The thirty five year old Baber fell in love with and married Mary Sweet. Mary was the sixteen year old daughter of Rev. George Sweet, an influential priest from Savannah.  The couple took an extended honeymoon trip to New England, returning to Macon to establish their home on Walnut Street, just across the street from Christ Church.  The Baber home, the finest in Macon for many years, contained one of the largest private libraries in Georgia.

Among Babers’s many notable achievements during the latter years of his life were the organization and management of Montpelier Institute, the development of the Central of Georgia railroad, the organization of the Macon Lyceum and Library Society, and his election as president of a branch bank of the Bank of Darien- the first to be located in Macon.   Despite his wealth and large land holdings, Baber only owned a few dozen slaves, most of whom were probably house servants.  

Baber was heavily involved in the 1840 presidential campaign of William Henry Harrison.  Following a three month delay caused by Harrison’s untimely death, Baber was rewarded by President John Tyler with an appointment as Charge` d’Affaires to Sardinia.  While in Sardinia, Baber was charged with the responsibility of enforcing a treaty with the island country off the coast of Italy.  His service was not very enjoyable - his salary diminished by  unforseen living expenses which were not equal to what Baber had enjoyed in Macon.  Baber and his family returned to Macon in 1844 to witness the coming of the railroad.  He lost a bitter congressional election in 1846.

On the second Sunday of Lent, March 8, 1846,  Dr. Baber was called to the home of one Leroy Jarrell, who was suffering from chronic heart disease.  Prior to his visit, Baber prepared a written prescription for the patient.  The druggist, despite detecting a serious typographical error by Dr. Baber, filled the prescription, attaching an appropriate warning to the patient to consult with his physician prior to taking the erroneous medicine.  Jarrell, following the advice of the druggist, questioned Dr. Baber about his prescription.  Feeling confident about what he had written, Baber took a dose - stating to Jarrell that “it needed a little more sugar.”   Before he could place a lump of sugar in his tumbler, Baber collapsed.  His fellow physicians rushed to his aid, but it was too late.  The prominent physician, described as “a prompt, decisive, and energetic professional man,” tragically died as a result of his own prescription. Baber, never satisfied with being an average man, lived his life, constantly striving to improve his profession, his mind, and the community he loved so much.

99-26

DAVID GARNTO DANIELL

The First Baptist in Atlanta

The Reverend David Garnto Daniell was born in Onslow County, North Carolina on May 14, 1808.  His father, George W. Daniell,  fought for the State of North Carolina in the American Revolution.  Two of his great grandfathers were leaders in 18th century North Carolina.  His paternal great-grandfather, Robert Daniell, served as a governor of the colony of South Carolina. The other famous ancestor, also on his father’s side, was General Robert Howe, commanding general of the Southern Division of the Colonial Army during the America Revolution.  His family migrated to Laurens County before February 23, 1809, along his mother’s people, the Garntos, and following the family of Amos Love, first Clerk of the Superior Court of Laurens County.  The family may have originally lived along present day Interstate 16, southwest of Montrose.   The Daniel family established a permanent home on the northeastern edge of East Dublin.  

During his early childhood,  David spent most of his time working on the family farm. He spent a brief time in the public schools of the county, which could be described as primitive at best.   Upon reaching the age of majority in 1829, he pulled up his stakes to seek his fortune.  His journey led him to Savannah where he took a position on the Savannah police force.  Daniell, who did not relish his work. It was not in keeping with the way he had been raised and he soon gave up his law enforcement career.  That same year he met and married Mary J. Bettison.  The Daniells had five children, one of whom married Moses N. McCall, Jr., who was a well known and outstanding Baptist minister in his own right.  In January of 1833, the Daniells received the sacraments of baptism.  Realizing a new mission in life, Daniell began to study the Gospel.

In 1835, David Daniell was ordained as pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Washington County.    Shortly thereafter,  Daniell returned home to Laurens County as pastor of Buckeye Baptist Church, one of Laurens County’s first Baptist churches that had  long been defunct.   Rev. Daniell began riding a circuit between Bethany, Buckeye, Jordan’s (Washington Co.), and Bethlehem Baptist Church, eastern Laurens County’s oldest church.  After another short period, Daniell was also called to the First Baptist Church of Dublin to preach.  Baptist preachers and the money to pay them a decent wage were extremely scarce Laurens County in the 1830s. The travel was rough and the hours, including time on the farm to support his family, were long.  It was during this time when his mother, Mary Daniell,  died.  His father, George Daniell died ten years later in 1845.  Both are buried in the Daniell Cemetery just east of the original Forest Hills Subdivision, near the power line.   

In the Fall of 1839, Rev. Daniell was in attendance at a church meeting in Powellton, Georgia.    After hearing a stirring sermon by Daniell, the members of two Hancock County churches made Daniell an offer he couldn’t refuse.  The Daniell family packed up and moved to Powellton where he pastored for six years.  Feeling the need to take the Gospel to the barren areas of Montgomery County, Georgia, Daniell left his family for missionary work for a period of a year.

In 1847, the Georgia Baptist Convention transferred Rev. Daniell to Marthasville, Georgia, which was soon to be called Atlanta.  Daniell purchased a lot in the town of one thousand inhabitants.  Rev. Daniell began the arduous task of organizing a new church in a new town - a town that rapidly grew to become the rail center of the southeast and the target of Gen. William Sherman’s annihilating army.

After successfully organizing the first church in the future capital city, Rev. Daniell was promoted by the Baptist church to a position with the Southern Baptist Publication Society in Penfield, Georgia, the home of Mercer University.  With one success after another, Daniell once again moved, this time to the booming southwestern city of Thomasville, where so many other Laurens Countians had moved in the second quarter of the 19th century.  After completing a four year term at the First Baptist Church, Daniell returned to Savannah, where he accepted a prestigious position in 1855 with the Foreign Missionary Board. He continued to work with the board until the outbreak of the Civil War.

The men of Savannah were among the first in the state to organize militia units following the election of Abraham Lincoln.  Once Georgia voted to secede from the Union, these units were inducted into the Confederate Army.  Rev. Daniell was appointed as Chaplain of the 29th Georgia Infantry.  The 29th Georgia was assigned to the Department of South Carolina and Georgia and served mainly around the port cities of Charleston and Savannah until the early part of 1863.  Rev. Daniell, out of the very nature of his profession, served as a missionary among the soldiers stationed in the beleaguered city of Savannah.    For most of 1863 throughout the end of the war, the 29th was a part of the Army of the Tennessee, seeing action in Mississippi in 1863 and the siege of Atlanta and the subsequent march toward Savannah in the last months of the war.  

At the end of the war,  Daniell sought refuge in Augusta, which avoided most of the spoils of Sherman’s Army.  It was in Augusta where Rev. Daniell took charge of Kollock Street Baptist Church.  In 1867, Daniell returned to Savannah again to take position as a missionary of the New Sunbury Association.   Daniell settled in Walthourville,  Liberty County, Georgia where he seemed to remain until last days in the 1880s.  David Daniell was described as “cheerful and trusting with a deep and selfish piety.”  He was “as gentle as a woman, but willing to fight for the truth.”

Not too many details could be found to describe the last years of Rev. Daniell’s life.  In all probability he lived it like the rest of years, living for Christ, living for his family, and living for his community.

99-27

MAN ON THE MOON

30 Years Later

Thirty years ago tonight on July 20, 1969,  Apollo astronaut, Commander Neil Armstrong took a small step and made a giant leap for mankind. While there is no tie to our area, all of us over the age of thirty-five were a part of the event.  It was the most anticipated event in the history of mankind.  For eleven thousand years,  the people of our area had been looking up at the Moon in awesome wonder.  Do you remember where you were that historic night?  The landing of a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth was a challenge to the ingenuity, creativity, and courage of the American people.  It was a challenge we met and in doing so displayed what a united effort by the American people can accomplish.

Laurens County’s first brush with the space program came in February of 1962.  Near the end of the second orbit of his historic flight, Astronaut John Glenn's Mercury spacecraft passed over the southern half of Laurens County.  Near the end of his third and last orbital flight, Glenn's Mercury heat-shield came loose.  Glenn's life and that of the space program was in limbo.  Glenn's capsule made it through the earth's atmosphere safely and floated safely into the Atlantic Ocean.  One of three destroyers stationed near Bermuda was the "U.S.S. Noa."  The "Noa" became the prime recovery ship.  It's crewman raised "Friendship 7" from the waters as hundreds of young sailors looked on.  One twenty year old sailor took pictures of Col. Glenn as he emerged from the cramped capsule.  After the excitement waned,  the young man went back on duty until he received a message to report to the galley to take a pot of coffee to the Captain's quarters.  Inside the room was Col. Glenn who was relaxing after the grueling flight.  Col. Glenn graciously accepted the coffee and thanked the young man.  That young man entered the navy right out of high school.  His name was Hubert R. Rogers, Jr. of Rentz, Georgia. 

On July 16, 1969, the massive Saturn V rocket with its powerful engines, the most powerful in the history of man, lifted the Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins away from the gravity of the earth toward a rendevous with the moon.  The world and most Laurens Countians were watching.  Details of the event appeared daily in the Courier Herald.  During Sunday morning services, congregations all over the county prayed for a successful landing and return trip.  President Richard Nixon handed down an order closing all federal offices throughout the country on Monday in celebration of the landing on the moon.  Georgia followed Nixon’s lead,  giving its state employees the day off to celebrate the national holiday.

All over the county, people were watching their televisions, many of which still had black and white screens.  Neighbors, friends, and families gathered together to celebrate the event.  The television pictures were grainy at best, but we were there watching every second of the event.   Just before eleven o’clock on Sunday night, Armstrong began his descent down the ladder to the lunar surface.  At 10:56:40 p.m., Armstrong stepped off the lunar module, uttering the immortal words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  English majors all over the world, quickly noticed that he left out the word “a” before “man.”  The astronauts spent several hours on the surface gathering rock samples, doing experiments, and leaving mementoes of the landing.  On the base of the lunar module was a plaque, which read, “Here man first set foot upon the moon.  We came in peace for all mankind.”

Newspapers all over the world carried banner headlines hailing the event.  The Dublin Courier Herald’s headline read “Spacemen on Moon.”   Pack rats and proud Americans bought extra papers to save for their children and grandchildren.   The papers were put in boxes and drawers along with papers headlining the death of John F. Kennedy and the end of World War II.   Several Dublin merchants and business saluted the astronauts with a full page ad.

In the days and months following Apollo 11's landing on the moon, sentiments ran high for naming the streets around the Shamrock Bowl and the new high school in honor of the astronauts, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins.    The council unanimously agreed to prepare a resolution to honor the space program and appointed a committee to determine the particulars.  The committee was named “The Moon Landing Committee.”  I’m not kidding.  The resolution called for the renaming of what was then called “The Stadium Road” to Apollo Way.  The road in front of the high school was to be named for the commander of the mission and the first man to set foot upon the moon, Neil Armstrong.    The committee planned to erect a monument to the three American heroes near the intersection of the two roads.    Two other streets in the area, which were never opened,  were to be named for lunar module pilot, Edwin Aldrin, and command module pilot, Michael Collins.  At the September meeting of the city council, the resolution was sent back to the Moon Landing Committee for further study.   The resolution never passed.   Several people objected to the renaming of Stadium Road, although the street had never been officially named.  Eventually the street was renamed to Shamrock Drive, a more appropriate name. 

As for myself, the exploration of space has been in the words of the television character Mr. Spock -  “fascinating!” Those things that were science fiction thirty years ago on “Star Trek,” like hand-held communicators,  computer diskettes, and computers we talk to are now common place.  Who knows, by the end of the 21st century, we may have mastered time travel and molecular transportation.  The closest I have ever been to the space program was in Atlanta when I held a door open for Astronaut Edwin Aldrin at the World Congress Center.   Among my most prized possessions is a medallion made from metal from  the command module Columbia and the lunar module Eagle. Three decades ago, these modules  transported two men to the surface of the moon, where they accomplished man’s greatest dream of walking on another world. This dream and this feat are permanent and lasting pieces of our past.  

99-28

GENERAL PHILIP COOK

Twiggs County’s Confederate General

This week marks the one hundred and eighty-second anniversary of the birth of Philip Cook, lawyer, soldier, and statesman.  Philip Cook, one of many eminent Twiggs County citizens, who lived in that East Central Georgia county during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, was born on his father’s farm on July 30, 1817.  Cook was born into a family with a long and distinguished military heritage.  His father had served his country during the War of 1812.  His grandfather, John Cook, fought for the colonial army during the American Revolution in the Carolinas.   During his long life, Cook became one of the most beloved Georgians of the 19th century.

Cook received his early childhood education in Twiggs County. He was in a school near Forsyth when a war, known as the Seminole Indian War of 1836, broke out.  Cook enlisted in Captain W.A. Black’s Company, which was attached to the overall command of General Winfield Scott.  Cook and his fellow soldiers were nearly captured when they became surrounded by a superior force of Indian warriors. They were rescued by a force under the command of General Edmund P. Gaines.  After the end of the brief war, Cook began his secondary education at the University of Virginia.  He returned home after his father’s death in 1841 and began his practice of law in Forsyth, where he remained for three years.  Cook moved to Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he practiced law and served in the Georgia Senate from 1859 until the Civil War broke out in 1861.

Cook, a forty-four-year-old lawyer, was made an honorary member of the Macon County Volunteers.  When the company was activated into the service of the Confederate Army, Cook enlisted as a private.  Upon reaching Virginia, Cook was appointed Adjutant of the 4th Georgia Infantry regiment.  In the early summer of 1862, Cook was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment, following the Battles of the Seven Days around Richmond .  On the last day of the vicious and deadly battles at Malvern Hill, Cook was severely wounded when he was struck by shrapnel.  By the end of the first full year of the war, Cook was commissioned Colonel of the Regiment.  At the battle of Chancellorsville in May, 1862, Cook received his second serious wound when a mini ball penetrated one of his legs.  The wound, which did not seem to be an act of good fortune at the time, kept Cook out of action for three months - long enough to miss the cataclysm at Gettysburg, where his regiment was heavily engaged and suffered dreadful casualties.

During his medical leave, Cook was elected to represent his area in the Georgia Senate, which met at the capital in Milledgeville for forty days.  After the session ended, Cook returned to the regiment at Orange Courthouse, Virginia.  The following June at Cold Harbor, General Doles was killed;  and on August 5, 1864, Cook was promoted to Brigadier General.  From that time forward the brigade became known as the “Doles-Cook” Brigade.  Following his service in Gen. Jubal Early’s disastrous campaign in the Valley of Virginia, General Cook returned to Georgia to serve his final year in the State Senate.  General Cook suffered his third major wound in the final days of the war. During the final assault by the Confederate Army during war, Gen. Cook led his brigade in its attack on Fort Steadman, near Petersburg, Virginia. His wounds forced him to remain in a hospital for nearly four months -  after he was captured one week before end of the war.

In the months following the end of the war, General Cook was elected to represent Georgia in the United States Congress. However, his election was nullified by Federal authorities.  The Federal government relinquished control of the government of the southern states during the period known as “Reconstruction.”   Cook was elected to Congress in 1873 and for four additional consecutive terms.  During congressional recesses, Cook continued to practice law in Americus where he had resumed his post war practice in 1870.  Cook retired from the active practice of law in 1880, choosing instead to live out his last years on his farm.  Cook, like most public servants of his ilk, would not stay retired for very long.

In 1882, Cook accepted an appointment to serve a commissioner to oversee the building of the state capitol in Atlanta.  The commission did an outstanding job with the project, which took six years to finish. The capitol was completed with a $118.50 surplus out of their one million-dollar budget, a rarity in any day.  Once again Cook retired to the farm.  Two years later, in 1890, General Cook was appointed to serve the unexpired term of Secretary of State Barnett by Gov. John B. Gordon, a fellow Confederate General.  Commissioner Cook was elected to a full term in 1892 and a second term in 1894, during which he met his death on May 22, 1894.  General Cook’s body was brought back to Central Georgia and buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia.   His son, Philip Cook, succeeded his father in office.  Cook was honored by the State of Georgia when the new county of Cook was created in 1918.

99-29

 

80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

LAURENS COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT

This week marks the 80th anniversary of the present day Laurens County Health Department.   The first county board of health met on February 5, 1904.   The original board members were  A.R. Arnau, Chairman; Dr. J. G. Carter, J.C. New, Wiley Wood, Board Members; and L.J. Thomas, Secretary.  Communicable diseases like the influenza epidemic  struck Laurens County and the rest of the nation with a vengeance following the end of World War I. As a result, the State of Georgia mandated the establishment of county health departments in each Georgia County.  The department was at its best during the “Depression Years” of the 1930s.

The Laurens County Health Department was established on August 1, 1919 by the Ellis Health Law.  Dr. Ovid H. Cheek, a local doctor who had just returned from service in the Medical Corps during World War I, was chosen as the first director.  As the  department’s only employee, Dr. Cheek had a difficult time organizing programs to maintain proper health standards and to educate the public on the proper methods of sanitation.   Laurens County’s Medical Society was always willing to lend a hand.  Working out a small office in the Hicks Building, Dr. Cheek worked long hours to accomplish his mission of reducing the death rate from typhoid, diphtheria, malaria, and  tuberculosis. Also distressing to Dr. Cheek -  and everyone else for that matter - was the alarming number of infant and maternal deaths due to complications from childbirth.  

One of the new programs of the statewide health department was the registration of births beginning in  1919.  Death certificates became mandatory in 1929.  While most births and  deaths were recorded, some were never reported to the health department. Others were delayed by weeks or even years.

In the first half of the life of the county health department, officials were faced with diseases for which there was no cure.  Today, these dreaded illnesses are no longer major health problems.  Dr. Cheek began a campaign to rid the county of hookworms in 1936.  Diphtheria remained a problem through the mid 1930s, despite numerous educational programs in the county.  Malaria was a major problem in the thirties.  Malaria was spread through mosquitos which infested the stagnant streams and ponds in the county.  Because of  government programs such as the E. R.A., C.W.A., and W.P.A. which supplied the labor to drain the waters, malaria was no longer a problem by the end of World War II.  By the mid-thirties, the staff had grown to add J.H. Black, Sanitary Engineer; Bertha Lambert, Health Nurse; and Evelyn Beacham, Secretary.  L.H. Ledford took a new position as sanitary officer in 1936.   Sara Bridges succeeded Lois Blitch , who succeeded Mrs. Lambert in 1937.  C.W. Matheney, Jr. succeeded Black as Engineer in 1938.  W.R. Latham, Jr. followed Matheny in 1939.

Movie goers in the thirties faced an annoying problem.  No,  it was not loud talking, crying babies,  or foul language in the films, it was rats - yes, rats!   Rats love popcorn as much as we do.  Those who attended the old Rose and Ritz Theaters in Dublin said that many times they sat with their feet up on the chair in front of them.  Bob Hightower, who managed both theaters, worked with Dr. Cheek in getting rid of the rats, roaches, and other pesty insects which attended the movies in large numbers. Rabies was also a major problem in Laurens County.  Dr. Cheek organized and encouraged vaccination programs for dogs and cats in all areas of the county.  In the last month of 1935 and the first month of 1936, there were 18 cases of rabies - and these were the two slowest months for the disease.

The department established a tuberculosis clinic on April 29, 1936.  For a fee of fifty cents, county residents could have a chest x-ray to look for signs of the curable, but deadly, disease.  One common link to transmittal of some diseases was water.  In 1936, Dublin became the second city in the state to construct a water softening plant and the first to build it with federal aid.  Dublin’s artesian water, better than that from shallow wells, dramatically reduced malaria cases in the city. One side effect from the new soft water was a 75 percent reduction in the use of soap.  

Despite the efforts of many, new cases of typhus or Brill’s fever broke out.  Dr. M.Q. Wadell, a prominent druggist, was stricken and died from the plague-like disease.  Immediately Dr. Cheek and Mr. Ledford established stringent standards to combat the deadly rat-transmitted disease.  Garbage disposal, or the proper lack of it, was the main catalyst in the spread of the fever. The department established a dental health program in February, 1937, under a cooperative effort between the department and county dentists, led by Dr. G.R. Lee.  Dentists donated their time to give free dental exams to students in the city and county schools.  

One of the most unusual health related problems occurred in August, 1937.  A sixteen- year old girl gave birth to “Siamese Twin” girls at Coleman Hospital.  According to the Courier Herald article, the twins, who lived only a short time after their birth, were the first conjoined twins to be born in Georgia, and one of the few, if not the first, known case in the world among Negro births.

The health department was charged with the responsibility of inspecting the numerous dairies around the county.  Duren I. Parker, of Parker’s Dairy, stated that  his responsibility was “great and we exert every precaution to see that our milk is produced under disease free and sanitary conditions.”  Gus A. Jepeway, a local livestock dealer, also cooperated with county officials in processing meat and meat products under the most modern standards at his new abattoir on Georgia Street at Columbia Street in 1938.  The public was warned to purchase only meat with the board of health stamp of approval.  Polio, the dread of the 1950s, was eventually eliminated due to the valiant efforts of Dr. Cheek and local physicians in the county and around the nation.

Programs were accelerated in the county with towns and communities striving to improve their water, drainage, and waste disposal problems.  As part of health prevention programs, the health department produced a map of Dublin detailing indoor/outdoor plumbing facilities and utility lines on linen cloth. The map can still be found in the Clerk’s office. A county map was made to speed up malaria control.

Dr. Cheek served for forty one years as director of the department until his retirement in 1960.  One symbol of Cheek’s success was the construction of a new health department building on the corner of North Jefferson and West Moore Streets in 1960.  The modern facility replaced the woefully inadequate office space in the county office building in the old Madison Street Post Office.  Dr. Cheek, who died during the 50th year of the department, was a man who  served the public for most of his life.  He was recognized by Presidents Roosevelt and Truman for his uncompensated service on the local draft board during World War II.  He led the battle which eventually conquered the dreaded diseases of the thirties and made them a thing of the past.

99-30

THIS OLD HOUSE

The Story of the Freeman Rowe House, Dublin’s Oldest House

Dublin’s oldest house, the home of Judge Freeman Hugh Rowe, was built a little over one hundred and fifty years ago.  One hundred and fifty years ago today,  the house became the subject of a short, but bitter, law suit between the owner and the contractor, Francis Rebearer.  Over the next century, the home, despite its rather modest state, would become one of Dublin’s more well known dwellings.

Freeman Hugh Rowe, a son of John Rowe of Fairhaven, Connecticut, traveled to Cuba at the age of eighteen in 1834.  On his return trip, Rowe made his way through Florida and landed in the dormant town of Dublin. He took up the merchant trade and later was named branch manager of the Bank of Savannah in Dublin.  In the 1850s, operating under the firm name of Rowe, Wright, and Robinson, Rowe reactivated the river boat trade along the Oconee River, with his freighter, “The Governor Troup.”  In 1852, Rowe was elected Judge of the Court of Ordinary, which was the successor to the old Inferior Court. The court handled probate and estate matters in addition to managing the business affairs of the county.

On May 28, 1849, Rowe hired one Francis Rebearer, an itinerant contractor, for completion of the house, which apparently had been partially constructed on the site at the current southwestern corner of Academy Avenue and Rowe Street.    Differences began to arise between Rowe and Rebearer.  Rebearer claimed that Rowe refused to furnish materials for the job, a default which Rebearer claimed caused him undue loss of time.  In a loquacious and redundant complaint, Rebearer’s attorney ,A. Russell Kellam, complained that Rowe had been negligent in his refusal to provide the contracted materials, leading. Kellam claimed this lead to a great loss of time, as well as profit which Rebearer hoped to derive from the job of enlarging and improving the Rowe home.

In his complaint, Kellam outlined the work done by Rebearer which included a $300.00 price tag for the construction of the house, $50.00 for building a circular staircase - a true sign of wealth in mid 19th century Dublin since few people could actually afford one, $10.00 for a closet under those stairs, $1.50 for a seat on the portico, $75.00 for two extra rooms upstairs, and $4.00 for framing a well  under the stairs - it being a common practice to build a house over the well as a convenience for Mrs. Rowe and the servants.  Rebearer also built two closets on the first story, a luxury for the time and for many years to follow, and installed sixteen pairs of windows in the house.  Rebearer’s attorney claimed that he made a demand and that Rowe refused to pay for the work done. He also refused to pay $45.00 for lost time which his client suffered on account of Rowe’s refusal to have the materials at the site.  Rebearer’s bill included two dollars for the building of a coffin, the occupant of which was not disclosed.

As always, there are two sides to every case.    Rowe’s attorney, William H. Connelly filed an answer, just as loquacious as the complaint,  and a counterclaim against Rebearer, asserting  that an important part of the work had not been performed in “a workmanlike manner.”  Rowe’s answer stated that the contractor and his assistant, Joseph Hernadez, were hired to build a roof on the piazza, or front porch for those of us in the South.  Rowe averred that it was supposed to be one which did not leak, a defect which Rowe claimed caused damages in the amount of $50.00.

Rowe’s counter claim included bills going back to March 18, 1848 for goods and merchandise from his store, as well as room and board for Rebearer, his wife, and family along with a room for Hernandez.  Rowe contended that the plaintiff owed him for the services of his buggy and servants during the construction of the house.   Many of the purchases came for clothing materials and accessories for Mrs. Rebearer, who was the recipient of a fine hat for a price of $4.50, goat shoes at $1.50 a pair, and a cotton umbrella.  The carpenter purchased tools from Rowe, including a seventy five cent pocket knife.  Two hundred and twenty seven dollars of the four hundred and twenty six dollars and thirteen and one half  cent debt claimed by Rowe was from unpaid loans to Rebearer, including the fifty cents  Rowe lent to him at a party on February 3, 1849.  Among other purchases by Rebearer were twenty five cents for a plug of tobacco he bought for Boy Joe, twelve cents for a fish line and hooks, and twenty five cents for a bottle of magnesia.

The suit was scheduled to be heard by Judge James Scarborough on the first Monday in September in 1849.  The lawyers on both sides worked out a settlement between the parties which was entered in the court’s minutes on March 5, 1850 by Francis Thomas, Clerk.  Rebearer agreed to pay Rowe $14.325 cents and all court costs.

On the morning of May 7, 1865,  a wagon train approached the store of Freeman Rowe on the southwest corner of the courthouse square in Dublin.  It was the main body of the train of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  Davis, who remained on the southeastern edge of town near the present site of Dublin Construction Company, never came to Judge Rowe’s store.  Rowe, a Connecticut Yankee, but a true southerner by then, graciously offered the hospitality of his home to the President and his wife.  Owing to the urgency of the moment, the officer in charge declined the invitation, but accepted Rowe’s kind offer of a freshly cooked Sunday dinner instead.  The next morning when a detachment of the Wisconsin Cavalry came into town in pursuit of Davis, Rowe protected Davis by  directing the Union soldiers down what is today known as the Glenwood Road, knowing all along that he told Davis’ men to take the Telfair Road to the west of the former route.

Freeman Rowe married Margaret Moore, daughter of Dr. Thomas Moore and granddaughter of Captain Thomas McCall, progenitors of two of Dublin’s oldest and finest families.  The couple had only two children, Thomas Hugh Rowe and a daughter, Augusta Rowe, of whom little is known.  Their son Thomas was a Captain in the War Between the States, a legislator, and a merchant.  His wife, Emma Saxon Guyton was a daughter of Moses Guyton, II and Mary Ann Love, members of two more of Dublin’s finest families.   Thomas operated a large farm below his home in the southern part of Dublin. His land encompassed  Saxon Street, which was named for Mrs. Rowe and her family.  Their children were Maggie, Josie, Freeman Hugh, Mary Guyton, Charlie, Emma, and George.  Judge Rowe died in 1890.  His wife Margaret followed him in death in 1904, the same year that Emma Rowe died.  

Freeman Rowe, the eldest son,  was given the home in 1911.   A portion of the property was sold to the Masonic Lodge in 1936, but the house remained on the site until about forty years ago.  It  was then moved to 609 Rowe Street and became the home of the Henry Mason family.  Today it remains a relic of Dublin’s glorious past, hidden away and long forgotten by many.  

99-31

MIRABEAU BONAPARTE LAMAR

The Second President of Texas

Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar was born near Louisville, Georgia on August 16, 1798.  Lamar, son of John and Rebecca Lamar, spent his childhood on his father’s Fairfield plantation near Milledgeville.  As a child, Mirabeau was educated in the finest academy in the capital city.  He was an avid reader, amateur oil painter,  and writer of verse.  He mastered fencing and horsemanship.  Always restless for adventure, Mirabeau set out for Cahawba, Alabama in 1819.  It was there where he entered into a partnership in a store and published the “Cahawba Press.”

Lamar’s public career began when he was twenty five years of age.  George M. Troup, a former United States Senator and Congressman, was elected Governor of Georgia by the  legislature by four votes.  Troup, an early advocate of state’s rights, lived in Laurens County, a few miles southeast of Dublin.  Troup chose Lamar to serve as his executive secretary.  Lamar, a single man, moved into the Troup household in Laurens County.  During the next three years, Lamar lived and worked with the venerable governor.  The two became close friends.  Lamar also developed a close personal and political friendship with General David Blackshear of Laurens County and Seaborn Jones.  

On New Year’s Day of 1826, Mirabeau Lamar married Tabitha Jordan of neighboring Twiggs County, Georgia.  He resigned his position as secretary in order to care for his new bride who was stricken with tuberculosis.  Two years the later, the Lamars and their baby daughter, Rebecca Ann, moved to the infant town of Columbus, Georgia.   Lamar established “The Columbus Enquirer” as a platform for the policies of Troup and his party.   In his brief stay in Columbus, Lamar entered the political ring.  In his first campaign, he was elected to the Georgia Senate.  Tabitha Lamar died during the middle of his second election campaign in August of 1830.  Lamar, grief stricken, withdrew from the race and traveled in order to deal with the death of his wife.  It was also in Columbus where he began to publish his poetry.  His most popular poems were “At Evening on the Banks of the Chattahoochee” and “Thou Idol of My Soul.”   Lamar ran two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress in 1832 and 1834 as a candidate for the “Nullification Party.”

During that time many Georgians were going to Texas to find wealth and opportunities.  Lamar followed fellow Georgian, James Walker Fannin, to the Mexican territory.  Fannin was a one time resident of what became Wilkinson, Laurens, Twiggs, Bleckley, and Twiggs counties.  Lamar found Texas to his liking.  He returned to Georgia to settle his affairs, selling his interest in “The Enquirer.”  Lamar hurriedly returned to Texas when he heard the news of the massacres of his new fellow Texans at the Alamo and Goliad. His friend Col. Fannin was murdered after surrendering his troops to Mexican forces.

Lamar joined the Texas army at Groce’s Point.  The two armies were poised to fight one last great battle at San Jacinto.  Lamar’s quick actions saved the lives of many of his fellow Texans.  Just before the battle,  Lamar, then a private,  was commissioned a colonel and ordered to command the cavalry.  Only ten days after the victory at San Jacinto, Lamar was made Secretary of War of Texas under the provisional government of President David G. Burnet.  Several weeks later, Lamar was promoted to Major General and Commander in Chief of the Texas Army.  Differences arose between General Lamar and his troops and he resigned his commission.

In September of 1836, the Republic of Texas held its first national election.  Sam Houston, the hero of the war for independence, was chosen as president.  Lamar was elected vice-president.  Lamar used his plentiful leisure time to pursue his love of history and study the Spanish language. Lamar triumphantly returned to Georgia to accept the accolades of his friends and admirers and to promote the assets of the new republic.  When he returned to Texas, Lamar found that his presidential campaign had already begun under the auspices of the political opponents of President Houston.  Under the Texas constitution, a president could not succeed himself in office.  Peter W. Grayson and James Collinsworth, Lamar’s opponents, both committed suicide prior to the election.  Lamar was almost unanimously elected the second president of Texas.

Lamar made it the primary goal of his administration to promote the assets of the republic and to seek higher education and stricter morality.  Texas was being threatened once again by Mexico on the south and various Indian tribes on the north.  There was virtually no money in the treasury.  Lamar sent armed forces to defeat the Cherokee in Arkansas and the Comanchee in the west.  Lamar envisioned the expansion of Texas all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  When Mexico refused to recognize his government, Lamar made an alliance with rebel Mexicans in the Yucatan.   Lamar’s recommendation that the republic’s capital be established at Austin on the Colorado River was accepted.  When the Texas-Santa Fe Expedition failed, his critics began to overwhelm his ability to govern.  Texas was bankrupt.  Currency was almost worthless.  One noteworthy program which President Lamar instituted was the granting of land for public schools and universities, namely the University of Texas and Texas A&M University.  Lamar was named by many historians as “the father of Texas education.” 

Lamar retired to private life in 1841.  His policies failed, not so much of his own doings, but through forces within and outside of the country.  Lamar went back to the comfort of studying his historical artifacts.  Tragedy struck once again when his teenage daughter died in 1843.  Once again he traveled to relieve his depression.  He returned to writing poetry to express his emotions of his life’s experiences.

Lamar had previously been opposed to the idea of the annexation of Texas into the United States.  When the Mexican War began in 1845, Lamar was commissioned a Lt. Colonel in Zachary Taylor’s army.  He fought in the battle of Monterrey and later served as a captain in the Texas Volunteer Cavalry on the Rio Grande.  Lamar organized the government of Laredo, Texas and served in the legislature of Texas.

In the 1850s, Lamar found a new life.  He became actively opposed to the Compromise of 1850 and urged secession as the only way to deal with the issue of slavery.  He fell in love and married Henrietta Maffitt in New Orleans in 1851.  Their daughter, Loretto Evelina, was born the next year in Macon, Georgia.  In 1857, Lamar was appointed by President James Buchanan as Ambassador to Nicaragua and Costa Rica.  After of two years of serving in the diplomatic corps, Lamar returned to Texas.  He died of a heart attack at his plantation in Richmond, Texas on December 19, 1859.  He was buried there in the Masonic Cemetery.

Lamar was a truly remarkable man.  He was blessed with a gift for oratory.  His foresight was admirable.  According to the “Telegraph and Texas Register,” he was a “worthy man.”

99-32

JUDGE REUBEN WALKER CARSWELL 

 Johnson County’s Confederate General Judge

Reuben Walker Carswell, who served as Judge of the Superior Court of Johnson County, Georgia, from 1880 through 1886, was born in Jefferson County, Georgia on September 29, 1837.  A lawyer by profession, Carswell served the Confederate States of America during the Civil War as a field and general officer in addition to his service in the state legislature during the war.

Carswell matriculated at Emory University near Atlanta in 1854 and graduated in 1856.  Carswell returned home to Louisville to study law under Ambrose Ransom Wright, who would soon become an important person in Carswell’s military career.  By 1857, Carswell, who was described as “genial, attentive, and prepared,” established a large practice in Jefferson and surrounding counties.  Carswell was a big man, tipping the scales at a robust two hundred fifty pounds - and had with the stereotypical fat and jolly personality. 

On June 14, 1861, just two months after Confederate forces in South Carolina fired on Fort Sumpter, Carswell was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Company C of the 20th Georgia Volunteer Infantry.   Ten months later in March of 1862, Carswell was promoted to first lieutenant. However he  abruptly resigned when the Jefferson Volunteers were organizing in his home county.  Carswell accepted the captaincy of Company E of the 48th Georgia Volunteer Infantry.  Within a few days, Carswell was elected Lieutenant Colonel of the 48th Georgia.  The commander of the regiment, Col. William Gibson of Warren County, was a fellow lawyer.  

In May of 1862, the 48th Georgia was sent from South Carolina to Virginia and assigned to the brigade command of Gen. Ambrose R. Wright, Carswell’s mentor in his early days of practicing law in Louisville.  Wright’s brigade took an active part in the Battles of the Seven Days during which Union forces attempted and failed to establish a siege of the Confederate capital of Richmond.  The 48th Georgia was in the thick of things at the Second Battle of Manassas. In conjunction with Armistead’s and Mahone’s brigade it smashed the Federal lines in front of the Henry House in August of 1862.  At the horrific battle of Sharpsburg, called Antietam by the Union Army, the 48th Georgia again found itself in dire straights.  During the middle of the day, September 17, 1862, Wright’s Brigade was called up to halt an Union advance along the Sunken Road, so dubbed because the bed of the road laid below the surrounding land.  The road, an excellent defensive position by its mere nature, was filled with Confederate soldiers who pommeled Union soldiers by the thousands.  Eventually, the Union forces, who kept coming despite heavily losses, eventually took possession of the road, which by that time was filled with Confederates, dead and dying.  Soldiers on both sides renamed the road “the Bloody Lane.”  By the end of the day,  seventeen thousand men had been killed or wounded - the single bloodiest day in American history.

After playing a minor role in Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory at Chancellorsville in May of 1863, the 48th Georgia moved north with Lee toward the climatic battle of Gettysburg.  On the second day of the three day battle, Colonels Gibson and Carswell led their regiment to the center of the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge.  Wright’s Brigade, long ignored by historians, is credited with being the only Confederate brigade to break the highly fortified line . This accomplishment led General Lee to order Gen. George Pickett to make his fateful charge on the ridge on the last day of the tumultuous, world changing battle.  Carswell survived the battle unscathed and returned to Georgia to represent Jefferson County in the legislature.  Carswell served in the House during the remainder of 1863, during both of the 1864 sessions, and during an extra session of the legislature in 1865, all the time staying on active duty in the army.  

During the last full year of the war, when it became apparent that General Sherman’s army would concentrate his forces on Atlanta, the State of Georgia began organizing local militia units. Some of these units were referred to as Joe Brown’s Army - a comment directed at Gov. Joseph Brown, who was reluctant to submit the men, most of whom were young boys and overaged men, to the command of the Confederate Army.  Governor Brown appointed Judge Carswell a Brigadier General and gave him command of the First Georgia Militia Brigade.   The first major engagement took place at Smyrna on Independence Day, 1864, one year after the cataclysms at Gettysburg and Vicksburg - also known as the day the South lost the war.  As the Union armies continued to advance,  Confederate forces were pulled back to Atlanta, where the main battle took place on July 22nd. The battle was followed by a six week siege.  

After the fall of Atlanta in September, when the crops in the field needed harvesting, Carswell approved a thirty day furlough for the men, which included units from Laurens and Johnson counties, to come home and tend to the business.  Some men never came back - reporting that they were too sick to return. After reorganizing the brigade, Carswell took his men  east to defend the anticipated and painfully eminent siege of Savannah.  Confederate forces abandoned Savannah just prior to Christmas and moved northward in anticipation of joining forces with the Army of Northern Virginia, which was besieged by General Grant’s army in Richmond and Petersburg.  Nearly six weeks after the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, Gen. Carswell surrendered his forces to the Confederate Army in Augusta.

After the war Carswell returned to his practice in Louisville.  His career was called “moderately successful.”  Nevertheless, Carswell was elected in 1880 to the prestigious position of Judge of the Middle Circuit of the Superior Court.  The circuit encompassed an area which included Johnson, Washington, and Emanuel counties.  Judge Carswell began his term on September 23, 1880 and served on the bench until the end of 1886, when his health forced him to resign.   Judge Carswell succeeded Judge Herschel V. Johnson, who served from January 1, 1873 to January 1, 1879.  Judge Johnson was a former governor of Georgia, member of the Confederate Senate, and Democratic candidate for vice-president during the crucial election of 1860.  Johnson may have been the only judge in the history of the state to sit on the bench of the superior court for the county  named for him.  Johnson was twice removed in succession from Judge William Gibson, the same Col. William Gibson who was Carswell’s immediate superior and regimental colonel.  Gibson served on the bench of the Middle Circuit during the reconstruction era from February 1, 1867 to October 24, 1870. Judge and Colonel Reuben Walker Carswell  died on January 11, 1889 at the age of sixty-one.  His body was laid to rest in Louisville’s New Cemetery.

99-33

ONE HUNDRED YEARS 

IN THE TOWN OF ROCKLEDGE

For the last one hundred years, some of Laurens County’s finest folks have called Rockledge home. When the highways came, they didn’t pass Rockledge by - it is the only town in Laurens County which is not located on a state or federal highway - a fact that some of her citizens applaud.  It was the railroads which gave birth to the town.  It was the railroads, when they quit stopping at the depots, which turned this once bustling farm town into a tiny hamlet. Rockledge is  tucked away at the outermost edge of the county, ans is now a faint but everlasting image of her glorious past.

 

In the latter part of the 1890s, the Macon, Dublin, and Savannah Railroad, which had been completed into Dublin in 1891, began acquiring the necessary rights of way to continue its railroad to Vidalia. The railroad would connected there  with another which would lead to the port of Savannah.  At the same time, Thomas J. James was planning a railroad, known as the Wadley and Mt. Vernon, which would run from Wadley, in his home county of Jefferson, through Kite, Meeks, Adrian, Orianna, Rockledge, and onto Mt. Vernon, a commercial center of southeast Central Georgia.  During the summer of 1899, the railroad obtained right of way deeds in the area from Mary Davis, Mary Gray, Julia Gay, N.G.W. Graham, Thomas Miller’s heirs, Mrs. F.B. Miller, William Thigpen, Arlia Foskey, Arnold Thigpen, Lucien Thigpen, E.J. Turner, James Wilkes, and Nathaniel Wilkes. 

Since there are no recorded deeds granting the right for the M.D. & S. Railroad to run its tracks,  it is impossible to tell which railroad reached the Richard Thigpen place on Mercer’s Creek first.  When the work crews began grading the ground near the creek at a point, now located on the Charles and Faye Palmer place southwest of Rockledge, they discovered a large sedimentary stone ledge, part of a larger strata of rock left when the oceans receded from this area a million or more years ago.  The name for the new place seemed obvious, “Rock Ledge” or contracted to, “Rockledge.”  Otherwise, the community may well have been named “Thigpen,” “McLendon,” or “Beacham” for the predominant families in the area.

The  catalyst for the growth of Rockledge came from the cooperative effort between the M.D. and S.  and the Wadley & Mt. Vernon Railroads.  In 1903, Richard Thigpen granted the latter railroad the right to place a connecting tract to the M.D. and S. Railroad.  The arch shaped line connected with the main line of the Wadley & Mt. Vernon railroad in the southeastern section of town.  The road back to Highway 29 runs along that old line.  Another arch shaped line, which crossed over the M.D. & S. on an elevated track,  allowed a return trip back to the main line.  The two railroads operated a joint warehouse next door to the J.R. Hester home.   Rockledge merchants had a very valuable connection with the Central of Georgia Railroad at Wadley.   They became so irrate when the freight tariffs were charged that they took their case against the powerful Central of Georgia Railroad to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1915 - and won!

The directors of the M.D. & S. decided to build an extension of their railroad from Dublin to Vidalia where it would connect with the Seaboard Air Line to complete the railroad’s  original plans.  Offers to buy out the railroad had always been resisted by the  owners.  They feared that the extension would have never been built due to strong opposition from the Central Railroad.  Time was of the essence with the construction.  W.J. Oliver pushed his crews to finish the 38-mile extension within six months.  For the first time, the railroad went into debt to finance the 1.5 million dollar project.  The first M.D. and S. train crossed the Oconee River on January 24, 1902 carrying materials to join the road with the W & T Railroad on the east side.  The last spike was driven on January 28, 1902 in Vidalia.  Through passenger service did not begin until August 17, 1902 with two daily trains each way.  The new raiload - twenty nine miles shorter than the Central's route - gave citizens  a quicker ride to Savannah on  trains which had  buffet and observation cars. The trips cost a  half dollar extra for the Savannah trip.  Folks could board an early morning train bound for Savannah or Tybee Island and they would arrive before noon.   After transacting their business or enjoying the beach,  they could board the train in the late afternoon, arriving home before midnight.  

On September 6, 1899, President William McKinley appointed William Smith as the town’s first postmaster.  Smith was succeeded by J.B. Thigpen, J.O. Pullen, John R. Hester, J.M. Williams,  and others before Frank Flanders was appointed as postmaster in 1918 and served until 1949.  John A. Johnson started carrying the rural delivery mail in 1905.  He was succeeded in 1918 by Clarence Gay, who served with Mr. Flanders until the middle of this century.  Flanders was succeeded by Mary Wynn, who served for thirty five years.  The post office, which has survived the closing of many post offices around the country, is still open today.

The land upon which Rockledge is situated belonged to the Thigpen family for most of the 19th century.  When Richard Thigpen died in 1897, the land was sold to T.W. Garbutt & Co., a timber firm which cut most of the trees.  William Thigpen, Richard’s son, bought a portion of the property from the company and deeded an interest to Arlia Ann Foskey, his sister.  The two began selling lots, the first being a two acre lot sold to the Wadley and Mt. Vernon Railroad’s president, Capt. Thomas J. James.  James, who built the railroad’s station on the spot, which was located on the southwestern corner of the town.  W.H. H. McLendon bought the second lot on March 7th, 1900.  Thigpen and Foskey began selling lots at a moderate pace. The business lots went for $16.00 to $30.00 - a tidy profit for one eighth of an acre, which cost the pair about forty cents.

Local citizens and merchants from  other neighboring towns realized the profit potential in the new community.  The first stores were opened by Wm. H.H. McLendon, R.V. Wilkes, B.C. Wilkes,  J.W. Maddox, John R. Hester, C.J. Donaldson,  M.C. Davis, Green N. Keen, G.M. Johnson, Richard V. Odom, and John B. Thigpen.  Rollin Keen opened the Holmes House, the first hotel.  In 1902, when the two railroads finally joined, Green Keen opened a hotel. It was known for many years as the Keen House, and was located near the present site of the post office.  Elizabeth Wilkes kept a boarding house.   William Williford opened a blacksmith shop.  Daniel A. Autry and E.T. Barnes opened naval stores stills to manufacture turpentine from the sap laden pine trees in the area.  William H. Smith operated a sawmill.

The town’s first corporation, the Rockledge Warehouse Company, was incorporated on December 3, 1910.    The company was organized by Daniel A. Autry, E.T. Barnes, R.L. Odom, R.V. Odom, and M. Thigpen for the primary purpose of establishing a warehouse for the storage and sale of cotton, cotton seed, and fertilizer.

In April of 1912, the Bank of Rockledge was established by its president,  C.R. Williams. The list of incorporators reads like a "who's who" of the Rockledge area.  They included C.R. Williams*, J.S. Drew, Jr.*, D.A. Autry, M. Thigpen*, B.F. Barfield*, William Thigpen, Sr.*, D.E. Walker*,  J.R. Graham, Dr. W.E. Williams*, W.T. Lord*, T.A. Smith, L.J. Pope, C.J. Donaldson, J.H. Salters, J.M. Thigpen, G.M. Thigpen, William Thigpen, Jr., C.L. Thigpen, J.A. Salters, A.P. Odom, J.J. Green, J.F. Cobb, B.E. Barfield, C.W. Brantley, Fannie Thigpen, L.N. Foskey, John A. Johnson, Sr, J.I. Johnson, William Bales, J.M. Williams*, J.R. Hester*, J.I. Maddux* J.R. Graham, Jr.*, R.V. Odom, Sherman Johnson, W.H. Toler, D.E. Walker, L.J. Flanders*, J.B. Thigpen, Richard Thigpen, E.L. Branch, W.H.H. McLendon, R.L. Odom, J.H. Drew, Jr.*, L.F. Pope*, and  E.A. Wynn. (Those men whose names are marked with an asterisk were the initial members of the board of directors.)  

In the Fall of 1906, the men of the area instituted the Kent Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons.  W.H. Smith was elected Worshipful Master.  W.S. Bass and John A. Salter were chosen as Senior and Junior Wardens respectively.  John A. Wilkes and D.J. Wilkes were the Senior and Junior Deacons.  M. Thigpen and W.H.H. McLendon were elected by the members as Secretary and Treasurer of the Lodge.  The Lodge, which may have originally been located northwest of town, found a permanent home near the old Primitive Baptist Church and the Rockledge voting precinct house.  

Residents of Rockledge always enjoyed a fine music programs in the churches and schools.  The cotton warehouse was used for the really big events.  Freight trains with loads of dry goods were always a welcome sight.  Political speeches always brought large crowds into town.   Everyone was excited in June of 1902 when a long distance phone call was made to Keen’s store.  

While the town was not officially established until 1899, there were churches in the area before then.  Rev. John Wilkes, a Methodist Minister, established Sandy Mount Church, which was renamed Mt. Zion and was moved in the late 1800s to a location south of the future town.  Blue Springs Church was organized in 1875 by Rev. Jim White and remains on its original location a few miles west of town.  Norris Chapel Primitive Baptist Church was moved to Rockledge in 1906.  Services were held in the Masonic Hall until a permanent building was constructed.  While no official date has been established for the founding of Rockledge Methodist Church, tradition holds that the church began services in the area in 1886.  Rockledge Methodist Church was officially established in 1908 under the leadership of Rev. C.L. Glenn and William H. Smith.  The church building remains on its original site and is still an active church.   The Rockledge Baptist Church was organized in 1912, and a church was built in 1916.  W.E. Williams and E.T. Barnes, Deacons of the Church,  took title to a lot bounded on by Simmons, First and Pond Streets.

The town of Rockledge was incorporated by the state of Georgia on August 17, 1908 by the state of Georgia.   The charter provided that the limits of the town could extend eight hundred yards in diameter from the depot of the Macon, Dublin, and Savannah Railroad.  W.H.H. McLendon was appointed the first mayor of the town.  D.A. Autry, Rollin Keen, R.V. Odom, and John R. Hester were selected to compose the initial town council.    The first city election was scheduled to be held on the first Saturday in January of 1911.   Among the provisions of the original town charter was a requirement that all males between the ages of sixteen and fifty pay a street tax of three dollars per year, with the option  of working off the tax by working on the streets for fifty cents a day.    Mayor McLendon and his successors in office were given the power to try cases involving violations of city ordinances.  A fifty dollar fine or a sentence of thirty days imprisonment or work details was the maximum fine allowed by law.  The sale of spiritous malt or other intoxicating liquors was banned forever.  

By 1910, the population of Rockledge had swollen to one hundred and fifty people.   That many more people lived in the area immediately surrounding the town.  Living in Rockledge that year were the families of John B. Thigpen, Thurman Holmes, Willie S. Bass, John R. Hester, Richard V. Odom, John A. Johnson, Daniel A. Autry, Hampton Smith, William H. Smith, Willie O. Beacham, Fed Ryals, Rosa Lee, Ashley Fuqua, Sam Ruth, William Williford, Rollin Keen, Wm. H.H. McLendon, Green N. Keen, Eliza Wilkes, James H. Kinchen, James T. Smith, William Underwood, Edgar T. Barnes, Dave Forest, Will Freeman, Tom Holmes, Prince Wiggins, John Donaldson, Charles Brown, Smith Barber, John Sconyers, and Clem Brown. The last two were ministers of the gospel.

  The charter was revised on August 21, 1916. The city limits were expanded to reach one mile in every direction from the public well on the east side of the railroad.   Another council post was added.   The new law expanded the duties of the mayor and council and allowed for the hiring of a town marshal, who had the authority to seize any alcoholic beverages upon any citizen’s sworn complaint.   Dog owners could be taxed up to one dollar a year per dog.  The revision authorized the town to establish fire regulations and to provide for municipal water, sewerage,  and electric systems.  

The new charter also allowed the town to operate its own school system, establish a board of education, tax students upon to four dollars per year, and tax property owners one and one half cents per thousand dollars of taxable property.   That provision was repealed by the legislature in 1922, and the operation of the school was turned over to the county.  The school was located between the Primitive Baptist Church and the Thurston Branch place along the railroad. 

The 1920 Census showed that Rockledge’s population had risen to 229.   Living in Rockledge that year were the families of: E.J. Keen, Dan M. King, Edward Moore, Dan H. Johnson, D.A. Autry, J.G. Smith, Charlie Powell, W.H. Williford, Cad L. Beacham, W.H.H. McLendon, Clarence Gay, Elizabeth Wilkes, Henry Moore, Calvin G. Powell, Ovid Beacham, William Thigpen, Green Keen, C.J. Donaldson, Tom Henderson, J.D. Wilson, Henry Balshin, Dr. William Hulme, T.J. Graham, J.W. Wynn, R.E. Davis, Frank B. Flanders, Ovid Thompson, W.R. Rogers, J.F. Cobb, Oscar Allen, John H. Renfroe, D.M. Heath, George Garrett, Alex Morris, Jasper Richardson, Fannie Thigpen, Steve Clements, Alford Clements, T.L. Myers, Hyman Johnson, Tom Smith, Hiram Weeks, Lottie Smith, John Wilkes, and Levy J. Flanders.   The census revealed that Mary F.  Gay was the school teacher, T.L. Myers was the railroad agent, and that Lottie Smith gave two of her children unusual names - a son was named John D. Rockefeller Smith and a daughter was named Utah Smith.

The trains of the Wadley Southern Railroad stopped running by the end of the 20s.   Captain James never realized his dream to run his railroad to Mt. Vernon, much less to the Oconee River.  The Bank of Rockledge failed during the depression years.  The town charter was repealed in 1929.  Soon the passenger trains of the M.D.S. didn’t stop anymore.  Stores closed.  People moved away, however many of the original residents stayed.  Edgar and Mary Wynn ran a grocery store in town for many years.  The post office still remains open and folks still go to the churches on Sundays. Life in Rockledge  goes on.

Congratulations to all the fine residents of Rockledge, past and present.  The words in these two  columns are limited, but a more detailed history of Rockledge will be forthcoming.  As always, your help and input is always welcomed.

99-34

THE FOUNDING OF THE 

STATE PATROL POST IN DUBLIN 

and a Few Highlights of Laurens Countians’ 

Service in the Georgia State Patrol

The Dublin Post of the Georgia State Patrol was opened sixty years ago this month.  The Georgia Department of Public Safety, composed of three divisions (uniform, licensing, and investigative),  was established in 1937. Over the last six decades, all day and all night, every day of the year,  the troopers and officers of the Georgia State Patrol have patrolled our state’s highways in an effort to keep us safe.  During that time, the men and women of the Dublin Post have investigated thousands of accidents, too many of them with fatalities.

Shortly following the establishment of the Georgia State Patrol, it was announced that the state would fund the operation of fourteen substations throughout Georgia.  Eighty towns and cities applied for a post.   The members of the Dublin Exchange Club began a spirited campaign to have one of those posts located in Dublin,  situated at the intersection of well traveled state highways.  Members of a special committee lobbied Director Phil Brewster for a station.  The original plan called for manning the post with five experienced troopers from the Swainsboro post.  Budget restraints changed all of that.  The fourteen posts were cut to five, one of which was chosen to be in Dublin.  The reason for the establishment of a station here was three fold. First, Dublin was growing in importance as a highway junction. Second, that there was vast rural area surrounding the city and the county; and lastly, that Laurens County unfortunately ranked fifth in the most number of accidents in the state.

After the announcement was made, Sergeant C.M. Jones of Swainsboro came to Dublin to inspect the headquarters building and to make final preparations for the opening.  The original building, which was located at the southwest corner of Telfair Street and Joiner Street, was moved several years ago and is the home of Michael Shepard. The members of the Exchange Club raised the funds to furnish the building with all of the amenities of home, with the obvious exception of the official equipment of the post.

Corporal H.L. Beatty was transferred from Perry to head the local force, which was made up of T.C. Hooper, T.W. McGee, both veteran patrolmen, along with two rookies, E.S. Dixon and Ray Pope.  Ray Pope served in the State Patrol until 1947, less the time in spent at the end of World War II in the U.S. Navy.  Pope served as Police Chief of Waycross from 1961 to 1969 .  On January 12, 1971, Col. Pope was appointed by Governor Jimmy Carter as Director of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, an office he held until November 30, 1973.  The men were assigned to patrol state highways 4, 24, 26, 29, 31, and 78, which are now designated by different numbers,  along with U.S. Highways 80 and 341.   After a short delay in getting their quarters ready, the men finally moved in on September 20, 1939 and began their patrols the next day.  

In 1945, the patrolmen moved to new quarters on Lancaster Street, which was located in the building which stands today behind Bubba’s Tire Company and which was designated as Post No. 20.  The post remained on Lancaster Street until 1962, when it was moved its current location at 1504 Telfair Street.    Many native sons and daughters of Dublin and Laurens County and short term resident troopers  have had outstanding careers with the State patrol.  Lt. Barney McKinnon led the development of school boy patrols.  Henry Walden served a supervisor of patrolmen in the Southern division. Lieutenants Henry Smith and R.B. Killingsworth and Sergeants J.C.  Pope and Henry Wiggs had long and outstanding careers with the State Patrol.  Former Laurens County Sheriff and Georgia Bulldog Star, Ronnie Rogers, began his law enforcement career with the State Patrol and was assigned as a body guard for Gov. Lester Maddox.  Today, Sgt. Johnny B. Hall serves as a body guard for Gov. Roy Barnes. 

Three other men with outstanding careers were William Charles Dominy, J.W. “Sonny” Beasley, and C.W. Starley. William Charles Dominy was born on February 14, 1916, in Dublin.  After graduating from Dublin High School and attending Georgia Teachers College, Dominy  joined the Public Safety Department  in July 1937 and served until 1953, except for a three year stint with the Navy Shore Patrol during World War II.  Trooper Dominy graduated from Woodrow Wilson Law School in 1951.  In February  1953,  Trooper Dominy was appointed to the highest position in the department, that of Director of the Department of Public Safety.  Director Dominy served in that post until February 19, 1959.  

On July 25, 1953, Corporal Sonny Beasley of the Georgia State Patrol was chasing a man suspected of being involved in a shootout in Lyons.  Corporal Beasley was wounded in his eyes by a shotgun blast.  The sixteen year veteran of the force, who began serving on the State Patrol in 1937,  had to adapt to his blindness.  Beasley was assigned to the post of radio operator.  He created mental pictures of all of the roads in his area.  Beasley adapted a special recording device to insure the proper recording of radio transmissions.  Beasley spent  parts of five decades with the State Patrol.  In 1971, J.W. Beasley wore three stripes, three rockers, and a star on his sleeves, which indicated that his rank was that of Sergeant Major. He was the only man of that rank in the department and the highest ranking noncommissioned officer on the Georgia State Patrol.

Major C.W. Starley was born in Dublin and graduated from high school here. He attended Middle Georgia College, Southern College, and Brenau College where he graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice.  Proficient in metro traffic enforcement and special events planning, Starley is approaching his 30th year in law enforcement.  His career began at Post 21 in Sylvania in 1971 and included training with the F.B.I. and the U.S. Secret Service.  In January of 1995, Starley was appointed as Adjutant for the Northern Division of the Georgia State Patrol.  

The men and women patrolling our highways have come a long way in law enforcement.  Gone are the days when they stopped at service stations which held out a flag to signal the trooper to telephone the post to answer a call in another location or when the troopers strung two cords across a highway to time the speed of passing vehicles.    High tech equipment including radar guns and video cameras are at the control of the trooper as he endeavors, as he always has, to keep us safe.  The troopers of Post Number 20 today patrol nearly two thousand square miles in  Laurens, Twiggs, Bleckley, and Wilkinson Counties, an area larger than either Delaware, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.     

99-35

THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY 

OF MARIE BAPTIST CHURCH

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Marie Baptist Church in Laurens County.  This church, like many of its kind throughout our community, has been a common thread which has bound our citizens together through the good times and bad times.  The small country church, called by some a dying breed, still perseveres.  These churches are a testament to the loyalty, devotion, and generosity of their members.

In the latter decades of the 19th century, the community known as Marie had no churches.  The closest Baptist churches were First Baptist Church of Dublin and Poplar Springs North.   In July of 1886, members of the community accepted Capt. L.C. Perry’s  offer to sell his land to build a school, with two stipulations - that being  that the school would be used as a church at times and that the school be named “Marie,” in honor of his daughter.  Occasionally services would be held in the school house, an unpretentious structure described by historian Emma Perry as “dilapidated, unceiled, and unpainted.”  During the summer of 1899, Rev. R.E. Neighbor of the First Baptist Church of Dublin, came to the community to preach.  After preaching to members of his own church in the morning, Rev. Neighbor preached to the sometimes overflowing crowds from Marie in the afternoon.  When the crowd grew too large, the Reverend stood in the doorway and preached inward and outward.  The old school house was moved to Highway 441 and refurbished into a pastorium.

At the end of the revival on September 24, 1899, thirty six of those present joined together and officially organized Marie Baptist Church.   The founding members of the church were: Charlie Bell, Otto Daniel, R.T. Dominey, M.S. Jones, D.E. Hobbs, A.G. Hobbs, Porter Gufford, J.T. Orr, J.F. Rozar, William Scarborough, J.L. Wyatt, Margaret Dominey, Lula Dominey, Lucy Dalton, Minnie Gufford, Emma Gillis, Anna Hobbs, Effie Hobbs, Sallie Hobbs, Johnnie Hobbs, Tobitha Jones, Fannie Jones, Ella Jones, Marcia Jones, Nannie Jones, May Jones, Bertha Jones, Dora Lyles, Charastie Perry, Emma Perry, Celia Scarborough, Laura Scarborough, Emma Wells, Leila Orr, S.M. Jones, and Bessie Scarborough.  Milton S. Jones, William Scarborough, and Otto Daniel served as the first deacons of the church.  The first trustees of the church were Milton S. Jones, S.M. Jones, R.T. Dominey, J.T. Orr, and Otto Daniel. 

Many outstanding ministers have served Marie Church since its founding.  They are: J.T. Smith, 1899, J.E. Duren, 1902, H.T. Smith, 1903, F.R. Bisby, 1905, T. Bright, 1906, T.E. Toole, 1908, O.O. Williams, 1910, T.J. Barnette, 1915, J.E. Townsend, 1917, C.C. Maples, 1940, Alvin G. Hurst 1941, Edward Straney, 1941, C.D. Graves, 1944, Frank Cochran, 1945, M.H. Hendricks, 1947, E. Beckworth, 1949,  W.S. George, 1950, J.J. Morrow, 1951, Harold McManus, 1953, William H. Lowe, 1958, Allen J. Freeman, 1960, J.A. Patterson, 1966, R.T. Russell, 1971, Charles Duncan, 1971, Roy Cable, 1972, Jack Sapp, 1975, Louis Lambert, 1977, Jimmy Napier, 1979, William Wood, 1982, Frankie Hodges, 1983, Hubert Hollis, 1984, Raymond Dunn, 1984, W.E. Flanders, 1989, John Gibbs, 1994, Robert Rogers, 1994, and Jim Dorriety, the current new interim pastor.

              Rev. J.E. Townsend served the longest, beginning in October of 1917 and ending his twenty three and one half years of service  in March of 1940.  Rev. J.T. Smith was a member of the Hardy Smith family and served as Superintendent of the Laurens County School system following the death of another minister, Rev. W.S. Ramsay.

Marie Baptist Church was assigned to the Ebenezer Association of Baptist churches in East Central Georgia.   Marie joined a new association on November 30, 1911 when the Baptist churches of Laurens County formed the Laurens County Baptist Association.  The Association rotated its annual sessions every year.  In October of 1931, Marie Church hosted the twentieth annual session.  C.D. Graves served as moderator.  J.H. Witherington served as the clerk and treasurer of the organization, which only had assets of $97.09 after the bills were paid.  R.W. Eubanks was chairman of the executive committee.  James L. Keen, W.P. Perry, E.M. Witherington, H.C. Burch, and W.M. Herndon represented the five districts of the county.

James L. Keen, Sr. opened the session with a devotional message, and W.R. Lanier gave the opening prayer to a crowd of nearly one hundred messengers from the association’s churches.  Most of the first meetings consisted of business matters with a few sermons in between.  The delegates voted to erect suitable grave monument to honor the memory  of Rev. W. E. Harville, one the association’s most outstanding members.  Other matters  discussed included a county wide Sunday School revival, a resolution supporting temperance, and a request for the county to continue the use of a county police force.  On the second and last day of the session, each church gave a report of their harvest from gardens to support missionary programs.  Otto Daniel, who served as a messenger from Marie Church and as a delegate to the state convention, led the singing during the two day session.  The ladies of the church, who were always behind successful events like this, made sure that everyone was fed and that the church and its grounds were immaculate for their visitors.

During the year of 1930, the Sunday School Department of Marie Church had eighteen teachers under the supervision of Superintendent Otto Daniel. Collectively, the teacher taught two hundred fourteen  people, who attended at the rate of ninety three and one-half persons each Sunday.  The twenty-one year old church, valued at forty-five hundred dollars,  had three hundred fifty members and eight rooms, seven of which were class rooms.  Douglas Daniel was the church clerk, and  W.W. Wells served as the church treasurer.  The pastor’s salary was six hundred dollars, which was only exceeded by Laurens Hill Baptist Church and First Baptist Church, Dublin.

Over the last one hundred years,  the faithful members of Marie Church have built the tiny one room  church into one of the finest little country churches in this part of the country.  Eight rooms were added in 1927, and at the midway point of this century, thirteen more rooms were added. Both of these additions were aided by the generous donation of lumber by D.D. Wright and E.E. Swinson.  There is not enough room in this column to cite all of the donations of time, money, and material given by church and community members.  Twelve more rooms were constructed in1962.  The sanctuary was enlarged in 1968, and a north wing was added in 1977.   Congratulations to all of those with connections to Marie Church.  May she continue to prosper in the service of our Lord for many more centuries to come.

99-36

THE U.S.S. LAURENS

The Story of the Life of a 

World War II Transport Ship in the Pacific 

In the final push to bring World War II to an end in the Pacific Theater and  fearing the worst case scenario of a possible invasion of the island of Japan, the United States Navy began a massive program to build one hundred and nineteen AP- 5 Attack Transport Ships.  The third ship built by Portland’s Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation was the “U.S.S. Laurens.”  This ship was named for Laurens County, Georgia, undoubtedly by Congressman Carl Vinson of Milledgeville - who was a long time friend to his Laurens County constituents and the powerful chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee.  Fifty five years ago this week, the “Laurens” began her maiden voyage from Astoria, Oregon, headed for service in the Pacific Ocean.

The keel of the “U.S.S. Laurens,” which was officially designated as APA 153, was laid on May 23, 1944.  Seven weeks later, the “Laurens” was launched at Portland.  After another seven weeks of completing her final fitting out, the ship arrived in Astoria, Oregon. Her crew, who had been training separately and together in various schools along the west coast and onboard the “U.S.S. Arlington,” was waiting to get onboard their new ship.

Captain A.R. Ponto, acting on behalf of the Maritime Commission, ordered the commissioning  of the “Laurens” on September 7th, 1944.  Captain Donald McGregor U.S.N. took command of the ship with its compliment of thirty-two officers, including Executive Officer, Lt. Commander Raymond J. Solesie U.S.N.R. and two hundred and seventy eight enlisted men.  Nearly two weeks later on September 18th, the “Laurens” was put out to sea on her maiden voyage with a crew of whom eighty percent had never been to sea before.  The ship traveled to San Francisco before taking a course to  San Pedro, California, where Lt. John H. Livingston, would relieve Lt. Commander Solesie as Executive Officer.  On the 20th of October, the ship returned to her base in San Francisco until the morning of the 26th.

In a dense fog, the “Laurens”  passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific Ocean, this time bound for Lea, New Guinea.  As the ship approached the Equator, the “pollywogs,”  a nickname given to the novice sailors who have never been that far south before, were initiated into the “Realm of Neptunus Rex.”  The “Laurens” arrived on the 12th of November, just in time to deliver a batch of Christmas mail.

The “Laurens” made several trips around New Guinea before making  a fifteen hundred and fifty five mile round trip to New Caledonia just before Thanksgiving.  On the 17th of December, the ship set out from Noumea, New Caledonia for another fifteen hundred mile trip. This time the trip was to Guadalcanal with fourteen hundred soldiers from the 35th U.S. Infantry, who were sent there to participate in landing exercises on Christmas Eve. In August 1942, Guadalcanal had been the scene  of the first American offensive of the war and one of the bloodiest battles in American history.  The landings went well, although there were a few close calls.  Japanese suicide bombers began to crash into the area with one coming within one thousand yards of the “Laurens.”

On Christmas Eve, the ship set out for a short trip to Point Purvis.  After a brief Christmas celebration, the ship’s crew took the ship on a thousand mile journey to Manus on Admiralty Island.  On the day after New Year’s, again there wasn’t much time to celebrate, the “Laurens” set out on its third fifteen hundred mile journey, this time to Leyte in the Philippine Islands.    For nearly three months, the ship traveled back and forth between the Philippine Islands and New Guinea.  

On the 27th of March, the “Laurens” began its role in the invasion of Okinawa.  With nearly one thousand men of the 24th Army Corps on board, the “Laurens” arrived in the transport area west of Okinawa on April 1st, Easter Sunday.   Once again, the ship avoided any direct hits by enemy aircraft.  After two nights of night retirement, the ship was sent to Saipan in the Marianas Islands and then on a thirty five hundred mile trip to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  After three weeks in Hawaii, the crew was ordered back to San Francisco.  On the 1st of June, the “Laurens” once again set out for the main scene of the war in the Pacific.  After stops in the Marshall and Caroline Islands, the “Laurens” returned to Okinawa on July 24th with a load of troops and material.

On the 14th day of August, while the ship was undergoing repairs at Mare Island Naval Yard, near San Francisco, the announcement was made that the was over, finally!  The next day, Capt. James Francis Byrne arrived to take  over command of the ship.  The “Laurens,” with one hundred naval officers aboard, set out for Hawaii, where the war had begun nearly four years earlier.  At Honolulu, the “Laurens” picked up six hundred tons of equipment and supplies belonging to the 3rd Battalion, 391st Regiment, 98th Infantry Division.  On the 6th of September, forty eight officers and one thousand seventy two men came onboard, bound for occupation duty in Japan.  One year after she was commissioned, the “Laurens” was headed toward the western Pacific for the last time.

The ship arrived on September 27,th and the 98th Division went ashore.  The “Laurens” took more than fifteen hundred men from Japan to Okinawa, before making a return trip to Japan with a hundred passengers onboard.  The “Laurens” remained anchored in Tokyo Bay until the 10th of November, 1945, when she began her journey home.  

During her fourteen months of duty in the Pacific, the workhorse transport ship had transported thousands of tons of equipment and ferried several thousands soldiers.  She had  traveled nearly sixty thousand miles - a distance equal to two and one-half circumnavigations of the globe along the equator, before arriving at home in Seattle, Washington.  What happened to her after the war isn’t known.  The ship may have been used for a short time after the war, possibly by private companies or perhaps she was sold to the navy of another government. She, like many other ships, may have wound up in the scrap yard.

The history of the “U.S.S. Laurens” was written by an anonymous crew member in the months following the war.  The illustrated booklet, entitled “Life of the Laurens,” can be found in the Dublin-Laurens Museum and the Laurens County Library, making its way here through the magic of Internet auctions.  The “Laurens” played a small part in the largest naval operation in the history of the world, an event we hope will never have to take place again.

99-37

THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL

 AT POPLAR SPRINGS

Tomorrow, October 6, 1999,  is the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the Industrial School at Poplar Springs.  It is the oldest of its kind in the county and one of the first in the State of Georgia.  The school was founded in an attempt to teach the fine arts and skills of cooking, homemaking, agriculture, and woodworking.  The mission statement developed by school leaders stated that they intended to build a school which would uplift the whole community and which would be duplicated throughout the county. Its goal was to provide a course of training as good as could be found in the city and to keep the country boys and country girls in the country - as opposed to their going to the city, which had been contaminated with vice and crowded conditions.

The one-room school was opened by Misses Emma Perry and Claude Martin on October 6, 1906,  with twenty three students present.  Before the end of the first year, enrollment had increased to sixty.  The opening of the school went well, although the events leading up to that first day were not so smooth.  The trustees of the school asked Miss Perry, a member of the Perry family who had lived and still live in the area, to take the position as principal of the school. The school began in 1893 as a regular school in the Laurens County School System.  Miss Perry accepted the offer on three conditions: that an assistant, qualified  to teach industrial education, be hired at the same salary as hers; that an industrial cottage be built and adequately equipped; and that the teachers be allowed to teach what they saw fit.  When the trustees decided not to build the cottage and to eliminate industrial education from the curriculum, Misses Perry and Martin pledged fifty dollars each from their salaries to realize their dreams of what the school should be.  Many of the parents and school patrons felt that industrial education would take time away from the traditional academic subjects.  Miss Perry told the group that she would go out into the community to raise the necessary funds for the school, and she did just that.

The ladies organized a Rural School Improvement Club.  Forty people showed up to work on the building and the grounds.  Water was pumped to the school from the springs.  The building was cleaned inside and out, window panes and damaged equipment were replaced or repaired, and stumps around the building were removed.  The club was awarded a $25.00 prize - a quite substantial award in those days - for the best improvement of any school in the state.   After the school opened, students and teachers continued to show their pride in the school by keeping the grounds and the interior of the school clean at all times.   Thomas E. Watson, a perennial Populist candidate for President of the United States and future U.S. Senator from Georgia, stopped by the school during a speaking tour.  Watson was so impressed with the work at the school that he ran an article in his weekly magazine,  “The Jeffersonian,” urging support for the school.  Dr. C.H. Kittrell, a Dublin optometrist and jeweler and one of Watson’s closest friends in Laurens County, donated a large clock to the school.  Watson put his money where his mouth was and donated his own money to the project.  The Singer Sewing Machine Company in Dublin donated a sewing machine to the school.  Local hardware and general merchandise storekeepers donated goods and material.  The biggest donation by far came from the Dublin Chamber of Commerce with its donation of five hundred dollars to retire the debt incurred in the building of the teacher’s home.  Books were always needed. Through entertaining fund raisers and gifts, the library was stocked with one hundred and fifty books and a book case.  The teachers eased the concerns of many of the parents with their strong emphasis on literature,.  They organized a Literary Society, which met twice a month and gave those who could not afford to go to school on a regular basis the opportunity to learn.

In addition to the literary courses, the teachers taught painting, basket weaving, sewing, drawing, agriculture, nature study, music, and Bible study.  Students in the upper grades were given extra instructional courses - girls in cooking and boys in woodworking.  Students maintained a flower and vegetable garden on a tract of land especially purchased by the trustees for that purpose.

The school had nine grades in addition to the industrial courses.  Funds for tuition were provided by generous patrons of the school.  The unrestricted attendance policy for scholarship students was changed in 1910 to require full time attendance at the school.  If the student had to leave the school during the year without a providential excuse, the yearly tuition of scholarship of thirteen dollars  would be returned to the donor.  Those not on scholarship paid a fee of fifteen cents per day with a fifty cent entrance fee at the beginning of the year.  When a dormitory was built at the school, on-campus students paid a fee of three dollars per month for room.  Mrs. Lula Rogers was the school matron, who looked after the kids while they were away from home.  Remember there were no buses or car-pooling in those days.  By 1910, wagons were being sent around the area to transport students to and from school.

During Miss Perry’s six-year tenure as Principal of the Industrial School, only three students completed all grades to earn their diploma.  All three, Hattie Miller, Euri Belle Bolton, and Dan Metts , became teachers.  Hattie Miller taught in local schools.  Euri Bolton taught  in public schools, obtained her doctorate degree, and became a teacher at Georgia State College for Women.  Dan Metts taught at Massey College and Tifton Agriculture School.  He  became Dean of Sullins College.  It was Metts who became the first teacher to transport students in wagons to and from the schools in Laurens County.

The “History of Poplar Springs North Baptist Church,” authored by R.M. Johnson, lists the following as teachers at the school: Emma Perry, Rev. W.E. McTier, Ruth Colley Montford, and Willie O’Neal, principals; Irene Akin, Nell Bales, Clarice Brooks, Betty Castelow, Mary Chappell (Mrs. Paul Jones), Nannie Fletcher, Theo Fort, Elo Green, Myrtice Green (Mrs. Clarence Montford), Sidney Lee, Marie Logue,  Fannie Morgan, Lizzie Morgan, Mary Jim Morgan (Mrs. James A. Morgan), Julia Nelson, Alma Pinkston, Varina Pinkston (Mrs. Odie French), Fannie Rushion, Nannie Seals, and Sarah Ward were teachers.  A Mr. Hayden, who may have been O.L. Hayden, ag-teacher at Adrian High School in the 1930s, was listed as an agriculture teacher.

After thirty years as an Industrial School and nearly forty five years of overall operation, Poplar Springs School closed in 1937 - a result of a county wide consolidation of schools.  The land, the shop building, and the dormitory were returned to the Church.  The dormitory building was sold and became part of a home in the community.  The shop building still remains on the site at the back of the Church building.  The main school building was transported to Dudley, where it was placed on the school grounds.

In the words of a former student, Dorothy Fordham Nelson, “Miss Perry was a person of vision.”  It was her vision, supported the physical, moral, and monetary support of concerned citizens, that led to the formation and success of a school that according to Mrs. Nelson “was remarkable for its time.” 

99-38

DUBLIN HIGH SCHOOL’S 

FIRST STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

Forty years ago a new era in Dublin High School sports was beginning.  It was the Minton Williams era.  The year was 1959, Williams’ first year as head coach of the Dublin High School Fighting Irish football team.  They would become one of the best teams in the eighty year history of Dublin football.  They were the champions of Georgia Class A High School football.  On offense, they were swift.  On defense, they were tough.  From the stands, they were cheered by the best fans in Georgia.

The 1959 schedule was the same as the year before, only the game sites were reversed.  The 1958 team had a respectable record of seven wins and three losses.    Gone from the ‘58 team were two -time all state running back Henry Sheffield along with Royce Cullens, Billy Eberhardt, and Dennis Hooks.  The first game of the 1959 season was played in Warner Robins, where the Demons were expected to put up a good fight.  The Irish blanked the Demons 14-0.  Speed was the key, as it would be all season.  Bob Dixon led the Irish, scoring both touchdowns.  Guard Buddy Adams kicked one extra point and took one errant snap around the end on a twenty yard run for the second extra point.  The second half was a defensive struggle despite the fine offensive line play of the Irish.

The second game, the home opener, was played before two thousand fans against Mary Persons High School.   In a 47 to 6 rout, every Irish player made it into the game.  Billy Riner, substituting for starting back Ben Crain, scored three times.  Dixon tallied two scoring runs for the second game in a row.    Bobby Hilburn and Ben Snipes also scored touchdowns.  The final point came on a extra point run by Ed Beckham.  Coaches and scouts began to take notice of sophomore running back Tennyson Coleman,  who averaged six yards per carry behind the powerful Irish offensive line.

The third game was against the Sandersville Hawks, the preseason favorite to take the state championship.  With about nine minutes to go in the game, Tennyson Coleman plunged over the goal line for the game’s only score.  Adams’s kick hit the upright and deflected away from the goal post.   The record crowd of nearly five thousand fans went wild.  Ben Crain intercepted a pass on his own ten yard line with seventeen  seconds left to end the final Hawk threat. The final score, 6-0.  

In the fourth game, the stingy Irish defense once again garnered a 12-0 shutout against the Statesboro Blue Devils.  One of Ben Crain’s patented long punt returns set up the first Dublin touchdown by Bobby Hilburn.  Coleman added the second score in the second quarter.  In a brilliant coaching move, Williams kept the defense guessing by constantly switching Crain and Hilburn between the quarterback and halfback positions. 

The Cochran Royals came to Dublin for the fifth game of the season and went away unhappy with a 21-6 loss to the Irish, whose defense continued to stymy their opponents.  For the third time in the season, the Irish failed to score in the second half, but a win was a win. Playing without Adams, Snipes, Baggett, and Riner, the Irish,  led by Crain and Coleman, completely dominated the Royals.

The sixth game was a rout, a 39-0 victory over the Swainsboro Tigers.  Bob Dixon had one of the best games in Irish history, with an mind-boggling average of 22 yards per carry on 8 carries. Dixon’s runs of seventy and fifty two  yards behind fine blocking led to two touchdowns.  Beckham and Riner scored along with Coleman, who scored twice and became the third Irish back in the game to go over one hundred yards. 

The seventh game was a “sister-kissing” 12-12 tie against the Ft. Valley Greenwave.  The Irish missed several opportunities to win the game.  Dixon’s 56 yard run and Coleman’s 150-yard game was not enough to overcome an 80 yard punt return by the Greenwave.  The only blemish on the Irish record that year was made even worse by the loss of their outstanding lineman, Bobby Gay, who suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Fans traveled in record numbers to Sylvania where the Irish defeated the Gamecocks 31 to 13. Following the first score on a catch by Ben Snipes, Dublin kicker Buddy Adams fielded his own kickoff and skidded down the muddy field to the 23 yard line.  Coleman, Baggett and Crain added scores for the Irish, who were then 7-0-1. 

The Irish went on the road again and before a small Blackshear crowd, defeated the Braves 26 to 6.  Dixon, backup quarterback Jimmy Hilburn, and Crain scored for the Irish. Crain scored twice, once on a one yard plunge and again on a  75 yard punt return.  The Irish came from behind to defeat the Baldwin County Braves 12 to 7 in the final regular season game - the third away game in a row.  The Irish were led by the usual stand outs on offense and defense.

Dublin, the 2-A Region champs, traveled to Carrollton for the South Georgia Championship. Ben Crain, who had one of his best games, scored first for the Irish.  Tennyson Coleman, described  by an Atlanta Constitution writer as the best fullback he had seen, scored twice in the second half.  The stingy “Banshee” defense took over and held the 1-A champs scoreless.  Dublin fans looked through the Carrollton stands to get a glimpse of one of their regular fans, movie actress Susan Hayward, who unfortunately was out of town.  For the second time in a season, Dublin kicker Buddy Adams amazingly recovered his own kickoff.  School Superintendent S.R. Lawrence was so happy he did a flip and attempted three cartwheels, the final one ending in a flop on the ground.

Thousands of fans in cars and buses lead by Sheriff Carlus Gay, Police Chief Tillman Jones, and State Patrolman Ben Snipes departed from Bellevue Shopping Center for Thomasville, the neutral site for the state championship against the Summerville Bulldogs, the favored team. After the third quarter ended in a scoreless tie, the Irish offense went to work.  Fullback Coleman scored twice to put the Irish out front.  Co-captains Dixon and Turberville urged their teammates on. Every Irish player, at the constant and loud urging of several thousand of their fans, turned it up.  10, 9... 3,2,1, 0 - yeah!    The score was 12 to 0.  The boys from Dublin, who traveled to the game in sports coats and ties, had done it. They were state champions!

Ben Crain, Bobby Gay, and Minton Williams  were named to the All Middle Georgia team.  Crain was named as the Class A Back of the Year and Gay was nominated to the All State team.  Much to the dismay of Irish fans, several of Dublin’s stand outs, were not even nominated by the Atlanta papers. The paper’s  greatest circulation was in three of the four regions of Class A, which were in North Georgia.  Many Dubliners challenged the remaining all stars to a game against their beloved team.  The Irish scored 253 points, allowing only 50 (eight touchdowns and two conversions.)  Despite negative figures in fumbles recovered, interceptions, and penalties, the Irish dominated in all other statistical categories.

The members of that 1959 team were:  Ben Crain, Bobby Hilburn, Tennyson Coleman, Bob Dixon, Ronnie Baggett, Jimmy Hilburn, Barry Ervin, Billy Riner, Bobby Gay, Buddy Adams, Charles Turberville, Ed Beckham, Tal Fuqua, Worthen Lovett, Orvis Driscoll, Thomas Earl Watson, Ben Snipes, John Reed Deamer, Hugh Hamrick, Ritchie Cummings, James Gardner, Len Malone, Mike McLeod, Billy Brown, Jimmy Harrington, Jimmy Dixon, Jimmy Scarborough, Wendall McMillan,  Phillip Haynes, Wayne Thomas, and Roger Fountain.  Minton Williams and Jack Miller were the coaches. Don Lamb, Jr. and Wayne Fuqua were the team managers.   Many of these players went on to repeat as Class A champions in 1960. 

99-39

 MAJOR JAMES F. WILKES

Forward Air Controller

When one thinks of a pilot during the Vietnam War, they probably think about a B-52 bomber pilot or a F-4 fighter pilot.   The aircraft flown by Major James F. Wilkes of Dublin was neither.  It was not a powerful jet fighter nor a heavy bomber.  In fact, the plane wasn’t your typical military aircraft.  Wilkes was assigned to duty as a Forward Air Controller or FAC for short.  Wilkes and other FACs performed a vital part of the war in Vietnam.  Their contributions, which have been overlooked often by high ranking officers and some historians, were gratefully appreciated by those who counted, the men on the ground.

The United States Army first began the use of aerial fire control in the Civil War with hot air balloons.  These balloons were easy targets and were put out of commission in short order.  In World Wars I and II,  fighter pilots attempted to spot enemy positions in order to aid ground troops. However, at high air speeds, visual observations at low altitudes were difficult.  During the Korean War, one T-6 group flew nearly five thousand air controlled missions.  

The use of Forward Air Controllers became extensive  during the Vietnam War.  Unlike most of the previous wars, combat in the jungles of Vietnam was often close and hidden from aerial view by dense plant growth.  Beginning in 1963, the United States introduced the FACs into action in Vietnam.  Originally the FACs flew Cessnas, which were civilian aircraft modified with four to eight phosphorous smoke rockets.  It was the mission of the FAC to respond to calls from infantry units in close contact with enemy forces.  Once called in, the FAC would fly over the area making mental notes of the area, including troop positions (both enemy and friendly), troop strengths, and any type of flight hazards.

Many times during the heavy fire fights in the jungles, friendly forces were only separated from enemy forces by sixty to seventy five feet. The FAC pilot would then send out a radio message to fighter crews on the “hot pad” at nearby Air Force and Marine bases.  Once the fighters arrived in the area, the FAC would direct the pilots to the target using of smoke rockets carefully placed by the FAC, often only a few meters from the friendly guys on the ground.  The pilot had to have a good knowledge of the ordnance aboard the fighters.  The type of weapon fired on enemy forces was dictated by the size of the force and its proximity to friendly forces.  On some occasions, the FACs would coordinate helicopter and artillery attacks on enemy positions.

The FAC pilot’s mission was extremely hazardous.  After all, they were flying slow light aircraft with no armor.  Once they began dropping the phosphorous smoke rockets, known as “Willie Petes,” they were easy targets for enemy machine gun and riflemen.  Some of the pilots sat on their flak jackets, while Wilkes’s ground crew took one step further to protect their pilot.  The men welded an iron plate on the outside of the aircraft just below the pilot’s seat, obviously to protect him from weapons fire coming from the ground and not the air.

The FAC pilot’s plane had a limited range.  Consequently, instead of being stationed on highly protected bases, the FAC’s pilot airfield was usually a narrow strip seven to eight hundred  feet long near areas  of heavy fighting.  Major James Wilkes was stationed in the northern part of South Vietnam, just below the Demilitarized Zone.  The Pacific Ocean was one side of his air strip and the mountains on the other.  He lived in a tent, known to the men as a “hooch,” for most of his tour of duty in Vietnam.  After several enemy strikes into his area, Wilkes and the other men, built a bunker near their cots.  When an attack came, they dove into the bunkers for safety.

On the 16th of March, 1968, Wilkes was attached to the 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron, 504th Tactical Air Support Group, Seventh Air Force.  He was assigned to protect the troops of the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Infantry Division. Two F-4 Marine Corps fighters were scrambled from the Hue area to provide aerial fire.  Wilkes, known by his call sign of “Bilk 24,” was already in the area.  The first attack was called off when Wilkes noticed that the friendly forces were evacuating the wounded and were too close for comfort.  Wilkes directed the Marine fighters seven hundred meters to the north.  He obtained the critical political clearance for an attack.  During the wait, Wilkes advised the fighters of the situation, briefing them on enemy positions and the fact there were several friendly helicopters in the area.  A low ceiling with haze compounded the problem.  Wilkes’s “Willie Pete” was right on target.  The lead pilot fired his napalm.  Wilkes quickly called in to make an adjustment for the second pilot, who also made a perfect drop.  The fighters orbited around the area, until Wilkes could assess the situation.  On the second run, Wilkes guided the planes in with orders to fire only on his command.  Once again, his directions were right on target.  The fighters pulled up and headed for home.  Capt. Davis, the flight leader, credited Wilkes’s expert guidance in allowing his team to hit the targets and have enough fuel to make it home.  Well over one hundred enemy soldiers were killed.  Eight military structures were completely destroyed and four others were damaged.  During the mission, “Bilk 24" was constantly exposed to enemy ground fire.  Wilkes made it back to his base, but barely.  The Marine pilot estimated he had only twenty minutes of fuel left.  Capt. Davis commended Wilkes’s control instructions as “the most precise, accurate, and timely control I have seen in my three hundred missions in Vietnam.   For his heroic actions in the battle, Wilkes was awarded his second Distinguished Flying Cross, our nation’s  fourth highest award for heroism.

Five weeks later, Major Gerald Ellis, USMC and his team were launched off the hot pad near Chu Lai.  When the Marine fighters arrived, Wilkes directed the planes to wait until he completed his work with a flight of F-8s.  After ten minutes, Wilkes directed the fighters toward their target, briefing them on the situation.  Major Wilkes was having difficulty identifying the target because of the extreme volume of chatter in ground radio transmissions.  It appeared the friendly forces were being held down by several snipers and automatic weapons positions located in several houses along a canal. The friendlies were on the other side of the canal, about twenty five meters from the enemy guns.  Bilk 24 made several low passes over the area to assess the situation.  On each pass the enemy forces directed their fire directly at Wilkes.  Just before dark,  the fighters began their attack, systematically destroying one target after another.  It was getting dark.  The ground fire kept coming.  Bilk 24 was running out of fuel, but he kept flying until the mission was complete.  Now Wilkes was faced with the unenviable task of finding his landing strip in the dark.  As he approached his home base, he called in for help.  The men on the ground launched a flare.  Wilkes was getting dangerously low on fuel.  He had to “seesaw” the wings back and forth to get fuel into the tanks.  Just as the second flare went off, Wilkes’s plane touched down, with only an ounce or two of fuel left in the tanks.  Major Ellis described Wilkes’s actions “as real professional.”  His letter citing Wilkes’s courage under fire, quick reactions, and skill on the very important mission started the wheels turning for some sort of commendation.  The letter passed up the chain of command in the Marine Corps and the Air Force for several months.  For his actions of heroism, Major Wilkes was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for heroism.  Major Wilkes left Vietnam in 1970 and returned to Georgia, where he was assigned as Chief of the Student Branch, 3550th Student Squadron at Moody Air Force in Valdosta.

This 1954 graduate of Dublin High School, who was commissioned in the flight program in 1957, retired from the Air Force.  In three hundred six missions in Vietnam, Major Wilkes was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Silver Star, and fifteen Air Medals.  He was, in the words of Lt. Col. Dean Skinner, “one of the finest FAC pilots in the business” and one who saved the lives of an unnumerable amount of his fellow soldiers on the ground.

99-40

THE LAURENS GAME AND FISH CLUB

“There are no deer in Laurens County.”  Believe it or not, that statement can be found on page 134 of The Official History of Laurens County, Georgia, 1807-1941.   In the latter years of the 1930s the State of Georgia began a program in counties around the state to promote the conservation of wildlife.  While fish, turkeys, squirrels, and rabbits were fairly plentiful, the deer, one of the sportsman’s favorite game animals, was rarely found.  During the last ten thousand years that the county had been occupied by man, deer were hunted to near extinction in Laurens County.

The Wildlife Department of Georgia had a policy of sending in game protectors, who had  no connection to the locale where they were stationed, to enforce game and fish laws.  In late August of 1939, the State of Georgia assigned a twenty-three year-old young man from Savannah to serve Laurens and Johnson Counties.  The young man had recently graduated from a wildlife protection school held at Georgia Tech.  Not long after coming to Dublin, the young man met and fell in love with Dorothy Hicks, a local girl from several of Laurens County’s oldest families.  So much for the lack of a local connection.  During World War II,  he served in the Army Air Force in England.  After the war, he returned to college and obtained degrees from the University of Florida, Mercer University, and the University of Georgia.  He  served as a teacher and as a principal of Dublin Junior High and Moore Street School for thirty four years.  After he retired, he became a full time director of the Dublin-Laurens Museum.  During his thirty-two years of service to the museum and the Laurens County Historical Society, this man has preserved the history and heritage of our county for generations to come.  In fact, the museum would not be the successful operation it is today without his countless hours of dedication.  He is, of course, John N. Ross.

John Ross immediately went to work upon his arrival in Dublin just after Labor Day in September of 1939.   He contacted the publishers of The Courier Herald, who gladly became an advocate for his cause.   He contacted persons who were interested in fishing and game hunting.  His main goal was the education of the public on the benefits of wildlife conservation.  Ross contacted W.W. “Buck” Brinson, Ed Hall, and A.C. Scarborough, who agreed to serve as a nominating committee to select a slate of officers for the as the yet unnamed organization.   Earl Hilburn agreed to serve as a temporary secretary.  

Only twenty citizens showed up for the initial meeting at the courthouse on September 14, 1939.   Those present elected the officers for the organization, which was then named the Laurens County Game and Fish Club.   The initial slate of officers were Bob Hightower, President; Ed Hall, Vice President; and Emory Baldwin, Secretary and Treasurer.   They heard from Fred Brewer, Ross’s counterpart in Plains, and John W. Beall, the game protector assigned to Emanuel and Treutlen Counties.  Both men joined Ross in expounding the benefits of game preservation in the area.  The initial goal of the organization was to seek out protective leases of ten thousand acres of Oconee River swampland.  Ross told the organization “that as a club, they could get as many deer as we want.”  Ross added, “As individuals, you would not be able to do that.”  The club members were also informed on the latest rules and regulations of the State regarding the dove season, which would open in a few months.  Those who came to the first meeting agreed to send out invitations to more than  two hundred persons to attend the second meeting, which was held in the courthouse on September 26, 1939.

The second meeting, attended by forty five persons, was much more productive.  Ross went over plans for the restocking of deer in the county.  Deer, who were over abundant along Coastal Georgia, could be trapped and brought to the vast swamp lands along the Oconee River.  Ross also reported that he had begun the seining of the sloughs of Turkey Creek from the U.S. Highway 80 bridge near Dudley.  Convict crews worked the sloughs in both directions from the bridge and once they had gathered a mess of fish, they placed them back in the main run of the creek.

The biggest announcement of the meeting was the proposal to establish a fifty thousand acre game preserve in the county.  During the years of the “Great Depression,” many Laurens Countians had lost their farm, timber, and swamp lands to foreclosures.  These vast lands were quickly bought by loan and insurance companies.  Club organizers thought of an ingenious plan to preserve wildlife on these lands.  The land owners would agree to sign a protective game lease.  In exchange for their agreement to restrict hunting and fishing on the land, club members promised to erect fire breaks around the timber and to keep an eye of the lands to prevent damage from forest fires and other causes.    Members would have the exclusive rights to hunt and fish on the preserve lands once the animal population had been firmly established.   Ross told the group that large quantities of deer, quail, doves, fish, and other game could be acquired from the government in exchange for the promise of ample protective measures for the animals.  Dues were set at a dollar per year.  They would pay  twenty five cents in cash and work on placing posters around the county and erecting fire breaks until each man had accumulated seventy five cents worth of work.  Rev. William A. Kelley stood up and encouraged each man to bring a friend to the next meeting.

Stanley Reese, the State Solicitor in charge of game and fish violations, promised the crowd the support of his office in prosecuting any violations of hunting laws.  He urged the men “ to create a desire in every citizens to be sportsmanlike and let the Judge of the court know you are behind him in prosecuting violators.”  Jack Hart, former Farm Agent, challenged the men to work together to realize the potential of making the reserve one of the best in the state.  He rattled off figure after figure on the potential wildlife population which could be established on the nearly one hundred forty one thousand acres of wild land in the county.

The following men were appointed to committee positions at the second meeting: A.T. Coleman, Jr. and D.T. Cowart (Publicity); A.C. Scarborough, J.R. Laney, W.H.  Proctor, W.A. Kelley and J.R. Smalley (Membership); J. Felton Pierce, George Foster, George T. Morris and Spec Hall (Finance); Stanley Reese and Carl K. Nelson (Constitution and Bylaws); J.F. Hart, C.H. Kittrell, Robert Bennett and Paul Wood (Education); and Dee Sessions and J. B. Bedingfield (Game Restocking).

The movement to establish the Game and Fish Club ran out of steam when the country went to war.  Twenty years later Calhoun Hogan, Earl Wilkes, Bob Holmes, Fisher Barfoot, Clyde Barbee, E.B. Claxton, Jr., Gene Mercer, Harold Neal, Ray Kitchens, Brigham Scarborough and others established the Laurens County Sportsman Club for the same purposes that Ross and the original club had advocated.  Today Laurens County is blessed with several wild life management areas containing thousands of acres of land which help to preserve our precious wildlife.  Thanks, John!

99-41

THE 12TH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL FAIR OF 1913

The Greatest Fair in Our County’s History

When the air is cool, when most of the cotton had been taken to the gin, and when the kids were back in school, residents of Laurens County turned their thoughts to one of the most highly anticipated events of the year.  No, it wasn’t the November general elections.  It was the Fall fair, held each year in each of Georgia’s twelve congressional districts.  During the second decade of the 20th century, most of these fairs were held in Dublin.  Along with the Chautauqua festivals in the summer months, these district fairs were often the highlight of the year in the host cities.

The first 12th District fair was held in Dublin in 1911 on the second floor of the Gilbert Hardware Building at 123 W. Jackson St., the former main office of Farmers and Merchants Bank.  The second fair was held at the southwest corner of West Madison Street and South Monroe Street behind Theatre Dublin and the Fred Roberts Hotel.   The rapid growth of the fair caused the organizers to look for a permanent and larger site to hold the annual event.  The leaders purchased a tract on the north side of Telfair Street between Troup and Joiner Streets on the old Fuller property.  Peter S. Twitty, Jr. was chosen to manage the fair that year under the overall leadership of pioneer fair organizer and farmer, W.B. Rice.  N.G. Bartlett, Dublin school superintendent, served as secretary of the organization.

Fairs of the early Twentieth Century were a far cry from the fairs in the latter half of the century.  Planners often staged different events and exhibits daily in order to attract repeat fair goers. The fair began on Monday and lasted until Saturday, often the biggest day of the week.  The first day of the fair featured a series of speeches and musical numbers.  The second day of the fair was designated as “Good Roads Day,” and visitors were induced to attend through free admission.  Transportation experts from all over the state came to town to discuss the importance of good roads in Laurens County.  The big event on Wednesday was the Kit Carson Wild Wild West Show.  “Big Sing Day” featured the best in local school musical talent,  organized by Prof. J.M. Spivey of Adrian and Prof. A.M. Pace of Eastman.  Prizes were awarded to the best school class in amounts of fifty, twenty-five, and ten dollars.   Friday was set aside to salute the school children of the district.  Saturday, the day when most of the country folks came to town,  was devoted to the farmers and agricultural products of the district.

One of the biggest events of the fair, possibly one of the biggest in the early history of the county, was the exhibition of daredevil flying skills by aviator Gene Heth.  The airplane, which  was still a novelty in East Central Georgia,  brought out three thousand people to the air strip and many more thousands to the fair grounds  to witness Heth’s flight.  Heth took off from the Pritchett field, which was located between the Laurens County Library and Dublin Jr. High School, for a circular trip around the city, across the Oconee River, and back to the starting point.  After a little difficulty getting started, Heth, who held the world altitude record for a passenger carrying plane, thrilled the crowds in the airplane, which was built by Wilbur Wright. The plane was put on display for everyone to view  between flights.

The other big event on Wednesday was the Kit Karson Wild West Show at Stubbs Park.  The show, the second largest in the United States, featured sixteen railroad cars of animals, one car of horses and buffaloes, Russian Cossacks, Spanish gauchos,  and scores of cowboys, cowgirls, and real sure enough Indians.   The highlight of the show was a re-enactment of the Battle of Wounded Knee.  Trick shooting, lassoing, and an attack on a stage coach were also featured.  One of the negative aspects of the show was the large number of empty wallets and purses found around where the railcars of the show were parked, undoubtedly lifted by light-fingered grafters working the crowds.

F.W. Stanley of the U.S. Department of Agriculture put on an demonstration of irrigation equipment on the W.B. Rice farm, which was located west of town on the present site of the Vinson V.A. Medical Center.    During fair week, the newly opened Bertha Theatre presented a live production of George M. Cohan’s “The Little Millionaire,” starring Burt Leigh and Hazel Burgess. Another popular and thrilling exhibit was the motordrome, which was an oval track, twenty one  feet wide at the base and forty  feet wide at the top. Four motorcycle riders raced each other at speeds up to sixty miles an hour on the nearly vertical track.  The Coney Island Company’s tent featured top Vaudeville performers.  Among the other big shows were the Merry Makers Vaudeville shows, Colliers Famous Old Plantation Minstrel Show, McFall’s Dog and Monkey Circus, Harry Kojan’s Theatrical Girls Show, and a Big Street Parade.  Those attending the fair could stop in at the telegraph of the Courier Herald to catch up on the latest scores in the World Series games between the Athletics and the Giants. 

In addition to being “School Day,” Friday was also the day that the politicians made their off year election speeches to the crowds.  Georgia Governor, John M. Slaton, and 12th District Congressman, Dudley Hughes, arrived at the M.D. and S. depot, greeted by thousands of supporters and serenaded by the Dublin Band.  The men were taken up the street to the New Dublin Hotel for the formal welcome by Dublin’s leading businessmen and professionals.  The local folks liked to show off their city, so they took the men on a ride around town which wound up at the fairgrounds.  Slaton and Hughes were treated to a dinner following their speeches to the crowd. The speeches were congratulatory and laudatory in saluting the accomplishments of the district and the state during the past year.

The final day of the fair was a salute to the heart and soul of the district, agriculture.  Houston County won the first place award for agricultural display, followed by Twiggs and Laurens Counties.  Hundreds of prizes were awarded in a multitude of categories, including agricultural products, livestock, cooking, canned fruits and vegetables, pickles, sewing, crafts, painting, flower arranging, and wood working.  Among the prize winners that week were Carl Nelson for the best handmade hammer handle; Kellie Ballard for the best cakes; Dorothy Hooks for the best cornbread and biscuits (my personal favorites); and Mrs. W.C. Faulk of Jeffersonville for the best lace display.

Attendance at the fair was truly remarkable.   Special trains from all points in the district made runs into Dublin several times a day.   Each edition of the Courier Herald was devoted to the fair.  Businessmen put out an all out effort to attract the visitors to their establishments.  Every motel and boarding house room in the city were full for the entire week.  Seventy men spent the night in the City Hall for most of the week.  The crowd was estimated to be at least five thousand persons per day with at least twenty thousand coming on Wednesday for the big events, bringing the total attendance to approximately fifty thousand people, many of them, repeat visitors.  The county fairs of that era are a now a bygone part of Americana.  In today’s “rush-rush” world, such an event wouldn’t be possible, but it surely would be a welcome change.

99-42

STAFF SERGEANT FRANK R. ZETTEROWER, JR., 

Co. E, 2nd Bn., 222nd Inf.

42nd Division

UNITED STATES ARMY

“He Gave His Yesterdays For Your Tomorrows”

Awarded The Silver Star 

for gallantry in action at Gambsheim, France,

January 6, 1945

“Back in the States, we were told to

pick our squad leaders. One quality to look 

for was intelligence, so I picked the best.”

                                                 Walter E. Stomski, Co. E, 

   2nd Battalion, 222nd Regiment,

   42nd (Rainbow) Division, U.S. Army

    

✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

   May 8, 1945,  V-E Day:  The Dublin Courier Herald’s banner headline read   “ War Officially Ends.”  Public celebrations were somewhat subdued.  There were a few flags displayed publicly in stores and homes around the city.  In the Zetterower home, the mood was much more somber.  Dr. and Mrs. Frank Zetterower, Sr. had heard nothing from their son Frank, who had been reported missing in action for four seemingly endless months. Day after agonizing day, night after restless night,  they held out hope.  Then on the day the war officially ended in Europe, the news they had feared, but prayed and hoped would never come, did come: “The War Department regrets to inform you that  your son was kil....”  You can’t imagine the pain, the never ending pain, unless you have been in their place. The families of James E. Fountain and Christopher Lowery got the same dreaded news that day, a day which was supposed to be a happy one.

Frank Zetterower, Jr. graduated from Dublin High School in 1936.  Little did Frank and his buddies, Red Tindol and Bob Werden , know what the world had in store for them in the upcoming decade.    After graduation, Frank worked a while for Swift and Company before he was granted a Dunlop Tire franchise in Dublin.  

Frank entered the United States Army and began his training at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma.  He quickly rose in rank to a Staff Sergeant in Co. E of the 222nd Regiment of the 42nd Army Division, known forever as the “Rainbow Division.”  The division got it’s name during World War I.  It was named by one of its members, Gen. Douglas McArthur.  McArthur remarked that the division, which was originally composed of National Guard Units from 27 states: “The 42nd Infantry stretches like a rainbow from one end of America to the other.”   

One of Frank’s fellow staff sergeants was Sgt. George P. Beard, Jr..  Beard, Zetterower, and Russell Harris were the staff sergeants in 2nd Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 222nd Regiment of the 42nd Division.  Beard fondly remembered a humorous story about Sgt. Zetterower.  “Because Frank’s last name was Zetterower, he was well known by all of Company E.  There was a daily mail call.  The mail clerk’s name was Cpl. Gwaltney.  He proceeded to call out the mail by the alphabet each day.  Frank, because of his last name, was always the last to receive his mail.  After a few days of mail call, Cpl. Gwaltney, suddenly changed his procedures and started with the letter ‘Z.’   A lot of good natured grumbling occurred as Zetterower sauntered through the crowd with a broad grin and his mail in his hand.  Cpl. Gwaltney did this on several occasions and from then on, everyone knew Staff Sergeant Zetterower in Company E,” Beard wrote.

                       

S.Sgt. Beard remembered another incident which puzzled many members of the company.  First Sergeant Snow gave out weekend passes on every Friday.  Sergeants Snow and Zetterower were always the first to get their passes to nearby Muskogee, Oklahoma.  After a few weekends, Beard finally asked why Snow and Zetterower always got their passes before anyone else.  Zetterower reluctantly revealed that he and Snow were studying to obtain their degrees as Masons in the Muskogee Masonic Lodge.    Because of Frank’s inspiration, Beard became a Mason and recently received his fifty-year pin from Culpepper, Virginia Masonic Lodge.    

After basic training, the members of the 42nd Division, composed of the 222nd, 232nd, and 242nd regiments, boarded troop trains on November 13, 1944 bound for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.  The men wrote their families with the traditional sentiments directing them “not to worry, I’ll be back home, soon.” The men marched quietly to the long train of Pullman cars and troop sleepers as the band played “The Rainbow Song” and “Mountain Dew.” Their wives, girl friends, and well wishers cried.  Despite an attempt to disguise their mission upon the arrival at Camp Kilmer, everyone knew that they were bounded for Europe.  Many of them had been told that the war was almost over and that the German army was ready to quit.  Upon their arrival in New Jersey, the men caught up on their sleep, contacted their love ones, and wondered when they would get a pass to New York City.  Most of the men got to go to the “Big Apple,” before all passes were canceled and they were restricted to the base.   From there, the men of the Rainbow Division boarded the troop ship, “The George Washington,” bound for France.  The rest of the division would come over several months later.

                  

The infantry regiments of the Rainbow Division arrived in Marseilles, France on December 8th and 9th.  Shortly after their arrival, the men marched to a stony, windswept piece of ground known as Command Post 2.  The weather there was an omen of things to come.  The days were cold - the nights, even colder.  The men continued to train during the day.  All lights were put out at night  to protect against German air raids.  In one of his last letters to his brother John, whom Frank affectionately referred to as “Mug Head,” Frank said that he was about 350 miles from the front, somewhere in southern France.  “I don’t know how long I will be at this place, so I’m just waiting around with everyone else to see what happens,” Zetterower added.  The first news from his wife Zona since his arrival in Europe comforted Frank.  Frank wished John, who was a Lieutenant Junior Grade stationed at Dental Dispensary # 29, Camp Ward, U.S.N.T.C., Farragut, Idaho,  a “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!”  The Battle of the Bulge dominated the news from the front.  The Third Army was moving northward, while the Seventh Army was stretching its thin lines to take up the line vacated by the Third Army.  The Rainbow Division was assigned to the Third Army and left the Command Post in trucks, and 40 and 8 boxcars to an assembly area in Bensdorf, France.  While they were on the way, the division was reassigned to the Seventh Army to relieve elements of the 36th Division around Strasbourg.

                                     

The 42nd, not a full strength division, was assigned to Task Force Linden, which was under the command of Brigadier General Henning Linden and which assembled near the ancient city of Strasbourg, where they arrived on December 23rd.   On Christmas Eve, while the remainder of the Division was still preparing to come over, the 222nd regiment moved into front-line defensive positions along the Rhine River.  Task Force Linden was  placed under the control of the 79th Division.   The 232nd Regiment was on the left flank, the 222nd situated in the city of Strasbourg, and the 242nd sat on the right or south flank.  The total line stretched for 19 miles.   The 42nd spent Christmas on the Maginot Line housed in old French forts and school buildings.  There was hot turkey dinner that day.  There was even running water.  Frank and his men could look and see the famous Gothic Cathedral which towered above the skyline of Strasbourg.    Bill Clayton remembered seeing the German soldiers moving about on the other side of the river.  They had orders not to fire, unless they were fired upon first.    The Germans, also on the defense, fired occasional volleys of machine gun fire into American positions.  

    Following the Battle of the Bulge, German forces under Himmler were determined  to repulse the Allied advance into their homeland.  On December 26th, American generals were desperately seeking to fill gaps in the Allied lines. Contingency plans for the evacuation of Strasbourg were laid out.  American lines grew dangerously thin.    New Year’s Day found the Americans shifting positions again.  The 222nd regiment took over the sector previously occupied by the 242nd regiment south of Strasbourg.  A threat of an attack on the following night sent the 222nd a little further to the east.  Following a conference between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and French leader Charles De Gaulle, a decision was made to hold Strasbourg.  January 3rd was a bitterly cold day.  Frank had previously written his brother stating that because of the extreme cold in France, that he and his men were forced to burn their shoe polish to stay warm.   Refugees, fearing an oncoming battle, were fleeing  Strasbourg.  The 2nd Battalion of the 222nd, including E Company,  moved back into Strasbourg.

E Company (222nd) was relieved on the 5th of January, 1945 by soldiers from the 1st French Regiment.  In order to speed up the relief, one company at a time was taken out from the lines.  By 1:00 p.m., E Company had been completely relieved and the men began loading their trucks for Wantzenau.  They rode in trucks known as DUCKs, which were amphibious vehicles. Company leaders had no knowledge of their mission once they arrived in Wantzenau, when they were directed to move to Weyersheim.

The Germans noticed the movements of the 42nd and began an attack on Gambsheim and other points along the Rhine River on the morning of the 5th.   At three o’clock on the afternoon of January 5, 1945, Lt. Colonel Edmund Ellis received orders for the attack on Gambsheim, France, a small village along the Rhine River, which separated France and Germany.   It would be the second time in a month that American Forces attempted to seize the French border town.    On December 7, 1944, three years to the day after America’s entry into the war, the 19th Armored Infantry Battalion and the 25th Tank Battalion liberated Gambsheim.   Zetterower’s company was ordered to move from west to east along the south side of the Weyersheim - Gambsheim Road with E Company of the 232nd Infantry in the attack echelon.  The two companies were a part of Task Force A commanded by Ellis.  They were to attack Gambsheim from the west, while Task Force B would attack from the south.  The two forces began their attack two to three hundred yards west of Weyersheim with Co. E (232d) moving on the right flank south of the Weyersheim - Gambsheim Road.  Zetterower’s company  was still on the way from Strasbourg.  As darkness began to fall, three supporting tanks took the point.  Ellis’s force encountered little resistance, only light arms from German patrols slowed the advance.  Once E Co. (232d) reached the edge of town and the cover of the Steinwald woods the fire intensified.  

The leading elements of Ellis’ force found that a German force had moved into the Steinwald woods, north of town.  The briefing the men received earlier stated that there was no information  whether there were men in the woods or not.   Other German outposts were established along the Landgraben Canal west of the woods.  When contacts with other elements of the Task Force were lost, Ellis called a halt to the advance and returned back to the Landgraben Canal.  The men dug in while the leaders continued to attempt to contact the 2nd Battalion of the 242nd Regiment, which had been delayed in coming up because of heavy enemy fire.  At six o’clock in the evening, the two Task Force leaders, were discussing their next move from a command post in Weyersheim.   

Company E arrived in Weyersheim about 4:30 p.m.  They were told little, just that a small force of Germans were defending the town of Gambsheim.  E Company (222nd) was told that the attack was in progress and that they would be the reserve company in the attack, 600 yards behind E Company (232nd).   As the Company Commander was returning to town, the company had already dismounted from their vehicles and were moving forward through Weyersheim.  During their advance through the town, the commander ordered a test of the radios.  Only two of the six radios had been calibrated.  Two quit working after ten minutes.  In the haste to move out quickly, the bazookas and bazooka ammunition was left behind in the supply truck.

   

Upon their arrival at the canal, Company E (222nd) was ordered to assemble in a field. “There were many junior officers, non-coms, and platoon runners there,” Clayton remembered.  The men removed all but their most essential gear.  Each man placed two hand grenades on his field jacket flaps.  They loaded as much ammo as each man could carry.  A first aid kit and a canteen was the only other equipment that most of the men would carry with them - a thought which befuddled Clayton who was told to expect tanks along the way.  The Company Commander went to look for the battalion commander and placed a platoon leader in command of the company.   The captain ran into the tank commander, who had not seen anything of E Company (232nd).   When he returned to his company, the captain found that E Company (222nd) was about 400 yards west of Gambsheim, out in front of E Company (232nd).  The captain ordered an immediate withdrawal back to the canal.

The Battalion Commander ordered Zetterower’s company to form a defensive perimeter west of the canal in the rear of E Company (232nd).   “ The ground was bitterly cold, the ground was covered with snow, and we huddled together all night long trying to keep warm and prevent frostbite, ” remembered Sgt. Gareth Tuckey.  Many of the men slept (or tried to sleep) out in the open with little to warm them.  After a reconnaissance patrol returned to camp, the Battalion Commander ordered  Zetterower’s Company to be the attacking company, when the force crossed the bridge on the next morning.  The vehicle bridge was the only place where the canal could be forded.  The companies were ordered to get into files and to follow the 242nd over the bridge. 

At 3:00 o’clock on the morning of January 6, 1945, the Ellis force departed from the departure point, the Landgraben Canal vehicle  bridge.  Their mission was to reach the railroad station before eight o’clock.  This time line was critical because the ground between the bridge and the railroad was flat and open.  After reaching the railroad, the Ellis Force was ordered to push the German’s across the Rhine River.  This was no easy task for two companies which had virtually no armored support. 

In an interview following the battle, Colonel Ellis stated, “The attack went off as planned.  The tanks moved out with the Ellis force.  The terrain which the 2nd Battalion, 242nd Infantry, was advancing was not suitable for tanks.  The attack progressed in a satisfactory manner.” He further added that “basically the plan for the attack was sound, but that a three hour delay for further reconnaissance and organization would have been of considerable benefit.”  Better communications, ammunition resupply,  and additional fire support would be needed for the attack to succeed.  There was no bazooka ammunition, although each unit carried an adequate supply of bazookas.    

The point of the 242nd was cut down by fire which enfiladed the column.  Two tanks were brought up to lead the advance.  The forces then moved out across the bridge and took up night attack formations.  Bill Clayton remembered that “you could only see a few feet and conversation was limited to a few whispers.”  The attack pattern was two or three men on the point, followed by the company commander, who was followed by three platoon runners, and three rifle platoons.  

Heavy machine gun fire began to rain down on the Ellis Force after they crossed the first canal.  Three 60mm mortars silenced the machine guns.   Clayton remembered that the German machine guns opened up from several directions.  Sweeping tracers were flying all over the place.  Clayton thought about lying down in the snow.  He heard S/Sgt. Boyd Turner cry out that he had been hit.  Clayton crawled to Turner and brought him back to safety behind a pile of rocks or a stone wall.  It was hard to tell in the dark of night.  Company E, with Sgt. Zetterower heading one of the leading elements, began to race across the open ground, firing as they ran.  The dark night allowed Ellis’s men to move faster.  The Weyersheim-Gambsheim Road, which divided the two forces, aided in directing the attack toward Gambsheim.  The flashes from German guns in the Steinwald Woods to the northeast kept the men moving in the right direction.  The skirmishers of the  242nd slowed the enemy fire from the Steinwald Woods.  

As Lt. George Carroll of Company E looked around as the nautical twilight began, he noticed that the tanks which had been promised to him were not there.  He ran back in the dark to find them, but to no avail.  E Company was pinned down in the snow.  They were easy targets.  Men were being wounded and killed, left and right, in the crossing machine gun fire.  Charles Livingston, a platoon leader, looked around and saw no one was firing.  Company F was supposed to be coming up on the right flank.  They were not there - ambushed and pinned down by the Germans several miles away.   The men of Company E  were hugging the snow laden ground.  Still, there were no tanks.  Five runners were sent back to find them.  All five were wounded.  Frederick L. Vonglarick, Kenneth Dickey, and Harry D. Pratt were all awarded Bronze Stars for their heroic achievement in volunteering to run back through the fire to find the badly needed tanks.  All three were wounded and were presumed missing in action.   As Carroll approached riding on one of the American tanks, Livingston ordered his men to charge toward the railroad embankment. The tanks stopped and began firing.  One round accidentally killed two men and wounded a platoon leader.  The Company Commander attempted to force the tank to unbutton its turrets by beating on the turret with rifles.  After this didn’t work, he managed to get in front of the tank’s periscope and waved his arms.  By 8:00 a.m., the tanks were no longer to be found.  The tank platoon leader was killed when a bazooka round destroyed his tank. 

The men charged toward the railroad tracks.  They had only crossed half way across that open, and very deadly, field.  There was no alternative.  One officer ordered his men to fire rifle grenades into the railroad station.   There were rebel yells and shouts of “hubba hubba” as the men rushed the German positions.  By this time, most of the men must have felt they were about to die.  The embankment of the tracks was the only cover from the horrific fire they could find.   The tracks, which were elevated twenty feet high at a 100% slope, provided excellent cover.  The rifle grenades seemed to slow the enemy fire coming from the station.   Livingston said, “the last time I saw Frank, we were pinned down in the snow along the railroad tracks.”    

It is impossible, after 55 years, to determine the exact order of events as the battle as they took place.  The men’s memories are clouded by the maelstrom of the moment.    Frank took his 2nd Platoon rifle squad toward an open school yard.   “He was with the leading elements of the company,” said Sgt. Gareth Tuckey,  who lead a weapon’s platoon in Zetterower’s rear.     Suddenly one of Frank’s men was wounded, lying helplessly  in the open.  The sun was quickly illuminating Zetterower and his men, who were silhouetted against the white snow.   Frank had to do something.  His man had no chance out there.  Someone had to go get him.  He knew the odds weren’t good.  That man would die unless he went to out to get him.  The sergeant made sure his men were covered from enemy fire before he made his move.  He made it to the man and began to drag him back to safety.  

Small arms fire and the always deadly automatic weapons fire permeated the school yard.  The shots were coming from the direction of the Gambsheim railroad station.  Charles Ross, who was standing near Sgt. Zetterower, said  “ he just dropped down and his helmet went flying back off his head.” Ross called out to Frank, but Frank never moved or answered.  When Lt. Carroll ordered the men the charge, Walter Stomski stood up.  He looked up and down the lines.  “I was horrified to see how many of us did not get up,” Stomski lamented.  Stomski called for his squad leaders looking for orders. “When I called for S. Sgt. Zetterower’s name, he did not respond,” Stomski still vividly remembered.  “At this point, I knew he didn’t make it, but it was not confirmed until the next day when the medic reported the casualties to me,” Stomski said.

The men were ordered to keep going.  Ross hoped Frank was just wounded.  Weapons platoon leader William C. Bahan and Sgt. Gareth Tuckey followed Frank’s squad into Gambsheim.  When they got to where Frank was, they found that someone had marked his location by sticking his rifle into the ground and placing his helmet on the ground.  There was nothing they could do for him now.    They said to themselves that at least he did not have to suffer very long in the extremely cold weather.  Rear elements of the unit came up and brought Frank’s body back to the back of the lines.  Sgt. Zetterower was the company’s first casualty of the war-  in its first battle.

Rifle grenades drove the German defenders from the railroad station area.  Fortunately there were no German troops in the railroad station, which Livingston set up as a command post.  Company E of the 232nd Infantry, the reserve company, came up and the survivors established a shaky foothold on the western edge of town.   E Company (232nd) had lost all but one of its officers in the first hour.  Then, inch by inch and foot by foot, the Americans moved house to house, eventually making it to the eastern edge of Gambsheim.  The Gambsheim Church was shelled in order to prevent sniper fire.  The plan was then to take the southern half of the town.  E Company (232nd) took over the attack echelon.  E Company (222nd) had used most of its ammunition.  The 2nd Platoon was used to establish a bridgehead.  The 1st and 3rd Platoons moved out toward Gambsheim Church, which they took fairly easily through the use of rifle grenades.   The 242nd, now north of the town, had no support.   Col. Ellis reported that there was little fire in the town itself, although there was some enemy artillery shells fired, but were being shot over the heads of his men.   Had Ellis known of the predicament of the 242nd, he would have turned north, instead of south.

The Americans had been told that the town was occupied by a few war weary German infantrymen.  Instead, they ran into a company of German Panzer tanks.   With no bazookas, the infantrymen of Task Force Linden were helpless.    Then men originally thought they were American tanks coming down the Rhine River from the flank.  The men noticed that behind the tanks were German infantrymen, many of whom were killed by American machine gun fire.   

Sgt. Frank Diaz, Jr. was wounded in his back by mortar shell fragments.    Diaz continued to assist the squad leader until he was also wounded.  Sgt. Diaz took command of the squad and helped move the wounded into a railroad station.   Diaz remained with the wounded and took them down into the basement and then directed the remaining men out of the station and back to safety.  For his actions of heroism, Sgt. Diaz was awarded the Silver Star.   Ross was wounded in the leg and taken to an aid station, which had been set up in that  house.    Someone came in and told him and four other wounded men that the companies were pulling out and they had to stay behind. The five wounded men hid in the basement of the house for five days until they were captured and taken to a German P.O.W. Camp for the remainder of the war.  They never knew what happened to their friends and fellow members of the company.  

Bill Clayton remembered coming to after being hit by something.  He was directed to a pub where medics were treating the wounded.  The lesser wounded men started passing a bottle of Cognac around to help alleviate their painful wounds.  Then someone yelled, “here comes a tank!”  The tank fired a shot directly into the building.  Those who could run,  ran out. Clayton attached himself to a Lt. Colonel, whom he figured knew what was going on.  The colonel was trying to organize a delaying action to stop the tank.  Clayton made it back but, it wasn’t easy.

Sgt. Tuckey’s weapon’s squad made it to the station “where it seemed obvious to me that we were hopelessly out-gunned and out-manned, Sgt. Tuckey wrote.  “A couple of senior officers sent three volunteers to try and locate the armor support.  They were wounded or captured almost immediately,” said Tuckey, who then was forced to withdraw with the rest of his squad.  “I lost five men from my platoon, including a college classmate, who was my best friend,” Tuckey lamented.

There was still no communication with the 242nd on the north, or more importantly, the 232nd on the south.  Ellis’s men thought they could hold against the infantry, but not against the powerful Panzers.  Ellis ordered a withdrawal.  The Germans failed to pursue them.  Ellis commented that the German infantry was “rather inferior.”    The two companies of Ellis’s force joined west of town, but when heavy mortar fire began coming into their positions, Ellis ordered a further withdrawal.  

The survivors made it back to the Rohr River to the west.  Livingston and some of the men escaped under the cover of a frozen irrigation ditch.  In all of the confusion and pure Hell, Livingston was unaware of Zetterower’s condition.  Livingston, who was awarded a Silver Star for his heroism during the battle, was shocked and grieved, nearly fifty five years after the incident, when he first learned of Frank’s wounding.  He was “a truly likeable guy,” Livingston said.  “Frank amused me with his ‘Yankee Californian’ pronunciation of his name, which sounded like ‘Zettawowah,” Livingston fondly remembered.  

The American forces had been  forced to into a hasty withdrawal, having to leave many of the wounded behind, including the platoon leader, 2nd Lt. Dallas Hartwell, the third platoon leader,  and Sgt. Zetterower.  It was their first “baptism of fire.”  The two task forces dug in and waited for eight cold days before being sent back to Luneville, France to recuperate and accept replacements.  The men recovered, new replacements came in, and the advance toward Germany continued.  Company E saw action three weeks later at the Ohlungen and Hagenau Forests.   In the last weeks of the war, the men of the 42nd Division moved in the concentration camp at Dachau.   Not knowing  whether or not they were going to fired upon they moved into an area which Bill Clayton described as “deadly quiet.” The prisoners were huddled in their cages. No words were uttered.  Those men of the 42nd, who were the first to enter the camp, were profoundly affected by what they saw for the rest of their lives. The war ended when the 42nd Division was near the Bavarian Alps, which was some of the most beautiful country in the world, a substantial contrast to the hundreds of mile of Hell that had traveled in the last five months.

Going into the battle, Bill Clayton estimated there were 175 men in Company E.  After the battle the company’s strength was down to 65, including the walking wounded.   Among those who gave their lives were Pfc Dominic R. Deluca, Pvt. Jack E. Hodge, Pfc John T. Ratchek, Pfc Robert W. Swanson, and S/Sgt Frank R. Zetterower.    2nd Lt. John T. Smithson was awarded a Bronze Star for his heroic action, when his company was pinned down by heavy machine gun fire, mortar fire, and small arms fire.  Lt. Smithson rallied his platoon and laid down a covering fire which permitted the advance to be continued.  When many of his men began to fall, he succeeded in having two of the more seriously wounded men moved safely to the rear.  Lt. Smithson was reported missing in action following the battle.  Pfc John Masonis was also awarded the Bronze Star for heroism when he came out from the protection of a wall and fired his Browning automatic rifle to allow several exposed men to crawl to the safety of the wall.  Masonis disregarded his wounds and once again moved out into the open to give aid to his wounded platoon leader. 

“On January 6, 1945 at Gambsheim, France, Company E, 222nd Regiment received its baptism by fire.  Without artillery or armor support, and without proper weapons to destroy enemy armor, we attacked the enemy.  We got our asses kicked, losing over half the company.  It was a strange tactic to say the least.”

Bill Clayton, Co. E, 222nd Infantry

In the fall of 1945, the United States Government recognized the heroic achievements of Staff Sergeant Frank R. Zetterower, Jr.  Major Gen. E.F. Witsell posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for heroism, to Frank’s widow, Nona, in recognition of “ His skillful leadership and self-sacrifice in taking care of his men and for gallantry in action.  Frank’s body arrived in Atlanta on July 21, 1948, just over three and one half years following his death.  On that very day and after a long illness, his father, Dr. Frank R. Zetterower, Sr., died.  Both were buried in Northview Cemetery in a double funeral (Sect. M, Row 1).

Ten days after the death of Sgt. Frank Zetterower, another young Dublin sergeant  was a mile or so west of Gambsheim.  He was a part of the 66th Armored Infantry Battalion.  His unit was involved in an offensive to counter the German army which had stood firm in the area.  The young man was a member of Company A which moved across the canal about a mile below where Zetterower’s company had crossed ten days earlier.  This time the attack was directed between the canal and the Steinwald woods.   Their mission was to clear the woods of the German forces.  There was a little snow on the ground, but the fog was so thick that the men could not see more than twenty feet in any direction.  As the men of Company A approached the northern half of the woods, they came under fire.  The young Dublin sergeant fell.  At first his family thought his wound was very serious.  He was lucky, unlike his former neighbor, Sgt. Zetterower.  The man returned to his unit and in April of 1945, led the first allied force across the Danube River in Germany.  The younger neighbor of Sgt. Zetterower, who lived about three blocks from the Zetterower home was Sgt. Lester Porter.

Frank Zetterower was remembered fondly by all of those who still survive him.  Sgt. Tuckey described Zetterower as “a competent, well-liked, and highly respected NCO, who became a member of the training cadre when the 42nd Division when it was activated.”  Charles Livingston hoped that his family would be consoled by the fact that “he was a very brave and selfless man.”   Perhaps Sgt. George  Beard put it best. “Frank was well respected by his squad members, his fellow noncoms, and our Company Captain Bungo.  I am sure our Maker is now using his talents, and Frank has already informed Him that if there is a roll call, please start with the letter ‘Z.”

This Thursday is Veteran’s Day.  On this day I remind you of young men like Frank Zetterower, Jr. and the sacrifice he made for you and me.   Frank Zetterower, like many of the boys of the Class of ‘36, here and around the country, risked their lives to preserve freedom throughout the world.  On this Veteran’s Day, would it would not be too much of a sacrifice for you to lay a remembrance on a veteran’s grave, embrace a living veteran with all of your gratitude and love, and pray for the well being of those future veterans, who at this very moment, and for every moment of the rest of our lives, are standing guard to protect you and me.

“Being from New York, The Bronx, I liked to hear Sgt. Zetterower talk with a Southern accent.  He was always fair and not a sergeant that screamed orders, but accomplished things by a firm voice in a gentlemanly manner and the men obeyed him on account of his toned down method of giving orders.”

Oswald T. Cutilli

Co. E, 222nd Inf.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Letters from members of the 222nd Infantry Regiment,(Zetterower File, Dublin-Laurens Museum.)

The Badge, Rainbow Division Veteran’s Association, November, 1998.

Winter Storm, by Lise M. Pommois, Rainbow Veteran’s Association, Turner Publishing Company, 3rd Edition, 1998.

The Final Crisis, Combat in Northern Alsace, by Richard Engler, Aegis Consulting Group, Hampton, Va., 1999 .

Dublin Courier Herald, May 9, 1945, Oct. 4, 1945.

42nd Rainbow Infantry Division, History World War II,   Lt. Hugh C. Daly, 1946.

42nd Rainbow Infantry Division, National Association of Rainbow Veterans, Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, KY, 1987.

Rainbow Division Website    www.rainbowvets.org. 

Reveille Magazine, April 1998, June, 1998.

Interview with Col. Edmund Ellis in reference to the Weyersheim-Gambsheim Action, 5-8 January, 1945, by William Goddard, 7th Army Historian, U.S. Army Military History Institute.

Furnace and the Fire, Vienna, Austria, 1945.

42nd Division Battle Deaths, Rainbow Division Memorial Foundation, St. Louis, MO, 1995, 

Personal Interview with Dr. John W. Zetterower.

99-43

THE OLD BRICK COURTHOUSE

Anyone over the age of forty remembers the old brick courthouse that stood in the center of downtown.  How could they have torn that beautiful building down and replace it with a dull “boxlike” courthouse?  For sixty seven years, the old building served the county well.  It was the scene of political speeches, concerts, weddings, and meetings which shaped the history of our county - not to mention the adjudication of scores of thousands of lawsuits and criminal trials.

It has always been the nature of counties to build new courthouses.  Growth in a community  invariably  brings about changes.  The first courthouse on the downtown square was built about 1812.  A more substantial one was built just fourteen years later in 1826.  Just twenty two years after that,  a two-story building, which lasted for forty seven years, was built by the Justices of the Inferior Court, who managed the business affairs of the county.  Near the end of the 1880s, county officials, in an effort to find more space, hired an architect to make design changes to add more room to the Clerk’s office on the rear and to raise the height of the building.  These plans were scrapped in a favor of brand new brick building.In 1895, Laurens County erected a new courthouse, which was designed by the architectural firm of Bruce and Morgan of Atlanta.  The building was funded by an additional tax on property owners.

The courthouse bell rang, hailing the aging heroes of the Confederate Army.  It signaled the end of the war to end all wars, World War I.  The iron bell, three feet in diameter, had been installed when Laurens County's first brick courthouse was built in 1895.   During the gubernatorial campaign of 1934,  candidate Claude Pittman was scheduled to speak at the courthouse.  The janitor climbed to the clock tower to alert the townspeople.  The bell was designed to be rung by pulling a rope attached to a big wheel.  The rope grew frayed and worn and would no longer work.   The janitor climbed a ladder and struck the bell, presumably with a hammer or a metal object.   As he struck the bell,  it cracked upward from the base.  County officials knew they would need to acquire a new bell since the crack could not be repaired.  The cost of a new bell could run as high as two thousand dollars.  They turned to scrap metal dealer P.M. Watson.  Watson agreed to sell a slightly smaller bronze bell to the county for one hundred dollars.  Despite its smaller size, the new bronze bell's vibrations would carry further than the iron one's.  That bell, which probably dated back to the 19th century, came from neighboring Dodge County.  Watson purchased the bell in 1939 after the courthouse fire thinking it might be of further use.   Until Howard Edward came along with an idea on how to put the bell up in the tower, the old Dodge County bell sat out in front of the courthouse waiting to be hoisted up to its perch.  When the courthouse was torn down in 1963, Dubliner W.W. Walke purchased the bell and donated it to Christ Episcopal Church, where it is still in use today.  There were plans to build an elaborate bell tower beside the Church, but they never materialized.  For some time the bell was turned upside down and used as a planter.  One man in charge of ringing the bell drilled a hole in it  so that he could ring the bell from the inside of the Church using a long thin wire attached to the hole.  You may have wondered what happened to the old original Laurens County courthouse bell.  Remember the year it was removed.  Mr. Watson sent the old bell, which had signaled so many important events in our history, to perform one more patriotic duty.  The bell was melted down and used in the war against Germany and Japan.

After forty years in the building, it became apparent to the commissioners that it was time to build another courthouse.  Plans were made in 1938 to build a columned courthouse building in keeping with the old style of courthouses, but with the modern amenities.  This plan was set aside with the country’s entry into World War II.  In 1957, the Board of Commissioners again turned to the issue of building a new courthouse.  A design was submitted in 1957 which called for a two-story brick, steel, and aluminum building, which  very typical of governmental buildings of the late 1950s and 1960s.  The design featured an ornamental structure resembled the top of four-sided pyramid turned up-side-down on a wedge-shaped base.  The bond issue was turned down by the voters. 

A large crowd gathered at the Laurens County Courthouse on September 27, 1960 to hear the testimony of a Macon man.  This man had seen a lot of immorality in his business and in society as a whole.    There were no lawyers in the courtroom that night - no judge, no jury.  Buses were sent around town to bring folks to hear the man's testimony.  He came to Dublin to speak about what Jesus meant to him and that he would rather have Jesus than all the fame of being a movie star or rock and roll singer.  As the man rose to speak, the crowd must have gone into a frenzy.  The man was not in his usual attire or putting on his public personality.  He was Richard Penniman, Christian.  You know him by his other name, "Little Richard."  There were a lot of amens that night, but alas, no "Tutti Frutti" or "Good Golly Miss Molly." 

It wasn't an easy thing to do.  The county courthouse of 1895 had outlived its usefulness as a courthouse.  The bricks weren't the best in the world.  The clerk's office was out of room.  The justice of the peace was crammed in an office under the stairs.  The courtroom's temperature ranged from freezing to boiling.  The wiring was dangerously overloaded.  The clock didn't work.  There seemed to be thousands of pigeons on the weather vane. The downtown merchants didn't want the courthouse moved.  Remember in those days, there was no mall, and the courthouse was open on Saturdays.  Several possibilities were proposed.  Maybe the Federal government would abandon its building and construct a new post office.  Perhaps a new courthouse could be built on the county's property on Telfair Street.  Other downtown sites were considered.  A bond issue to fund a new courthouse was voted down by Laurens Countians.  The only remaining solution was to contact Cong. Carl Vinson.  

Cong. Vinson had always come through for Laurens County.  The powerful Milledgeville congressman was able to obtain federal funds for one half the cost of the new building.  Construction began in the winter of 1963 on the first federally funded courthouse in the United States.  The new three-story building was opened on July 21, 1964.  Speaking at the dedication ceremonies were Cong. Carl Vinson, Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges, and Gov. Carl Sanders. The new building isn't as beautiful as the old one, but that's always the case.  If the old lady had lived another thirty years, maybe our citizens wouldn't have let her die.  One silver lining was the rescue of the Carnegie Library building. It was slated for demolition in 1966 and was saved by many concerned citizens, who eventually formed the Laurens County Historical Society.  Other pieces of the old building were sold at public auction.  Dale Thompson bought the weather vane for his new house.  Barbara and Wiley Shepard bought many of the bricks for their new home.  Willis Sapp bought one of the safes for his jewelry business.  One piece, and perhaps the most important piece, was the cornerstone.  The marble stone on which inscribed with the names of J.F. Fuller, M.S. Jones, J.M. Finn, J.R. McDaniel, and T.J. Blackshear, county commissioners in 1895, was salvaged by the Laurens County Historical Society, but was evidently damaged or lost while sent for repair.

99-44

THE BATTLE OF GRISWOLDVILLE

One Last Valiant Stand 

The last days of the Confederacy were coming to an end.  General Sherman’s army was poised in Atlanta ready to march east to Savannah to split the Confederacy in half.  General Grant’s army was still laying siege against General Lee’s army in Richmond and Petersburg.  Many men in the Southern army were coming home on winter furlough with plans not to return.  One hundred and thirty five years ago on November 22, 1864 the largest battle of the Civil War in Middle Georgia took place along the Twiggs - Jones County border east of Macon near the industrial hamlet of Griswoldville.

On October 12th, when it became apparent to Confederate leaders that Sherman’s army would march along the Central of Georgia Railroad bound for Savannah, Maj. Gen. Gustavas A. Smith recalled as many men as he could gather.  These men had been sent home on a harvest furlough following the loss of Jonesboro.  The men, mostly young boys, old men, and disabled soldiers, rendezvoused at Camp Lovejoy.  Among those men was Sgt. Blanton Nance, Co. E, 7th Ga. Militia, who later lived in Dublin; Laurens County residents J.H. Barbour, A.M. Jessup, and Henry E. Moorman of the 5th Georgia Reserves; along with many other old men and boys from Wilkinson, Jones, and Twiggs Counties.  John A. Braswell,  who lost his father early in the war, left his home near Irwin’s Cross Roads in Washington County to join the 5th Georgia Reserves just days after his 18th birthday.  Capt. John McArthur brought his company up from Montgomery County to help hold off the Union army. Companies D and H of the 2nd Regiment were brought up from Wilkinson County.

Following his defeat in Atlanta, Gen. John B. Hood took his Army of the Tennessee to Alabama, along with the cavalry of Gen. Joseph Wheeler.  More than sixty thousand Yankees were moving out of Atlanta toward Lovejoy.  A delaying skirmish was fought on the 16th of November.  Georgia governor Joe Brown sent out a call for all able-bodied men to come to the defense of the state.  The Confederates were forced to retreat to Hampton.   Nance and his men began erecting a barricade across the road leading from Atlanta.   At Hampton, Griffin, and Forsyth, the Confederates were pushed back by the vastly superior Union Army.

By the 20th of November, Sherman’s right wing was bearing down on Macon.  The Central Georgia city had been the object of an failed attack in the summer past.  Macon was a key railroad and manufacturing center, but it was well defended.  Sherman wanted the city to allow his forces to liberate his fellow soldiers imprisoned in Andersonville.  He did not, however, want to commit a large portion of his forces to capture the city.    By the time the Union Army reached Macon, the Confederate Force amounted to thirty seven hundred men, with another thirty seven hundred or so cavalrymen.  The Union Army launched an attack beginning at Cross Keys in East Macon with the objective of taking the heights east of the city, which are now the site of the Ocmulgee National Monument and old Fort Hawkins.  Sherman’s forces were able to get a foothold on the Dunlap Farm, which allowed them to shell parts of the city.  The resulting artillery fire led to the naming of the Macon landmark, “The Cannonball House.”  The small band of Confederates was able to hold off the Federals, who retreated to the east, tearing up railroad tracks, destroying Eleazar McCall’s old mill, and pillaging the countryside for anything of monetary or military value .

Just east of Macon on the Central Railroad was the hamlet of Griswoldville.  The community of five hundred citizens and one hundred slaves was located at the southern tip of Jones County.  Its founder was Samuel Griswold, a native of Connecticut who accumulated five thousand acres of land on which he erected a cotton gin, a candle factory, a soap factory, and a saw mill.  The most important industry was the pistol factory that manufactured the famed Griswold revolver.  The Confederate Army leased the gin building to manufacture pistols, which were turned out at the rate of one hundred per month.  The Griswoldville factory turned out more pistols than all other factories combined. On the morning of the 21st,  the Union Army moved into Griswoldville.  They destroyed over thirty five hundred weapons, burned anything they couldn’t carry, and continued their destruction of the railroad.  That night the clouds dumped a torrential rain in advance of a cold front.  The temperature dropped over twenty four degrees in twenty four hours.

Wheeler’s Cavalry moved out early on the morning of the 22nd.   The Union Army had already vacated the smoldering town and were bound for Gordon, McIntyre, and Irwinton.  The infantry followed and arrived in Griswoldville about noon.  The temperatures was 12 degrees.  It was snowing.  The rain-soaked ground was frozen. Gen. Samuel Ferguson’s Mississippi Cavalry with 4000 men ran head long into the rear of the Union column just east of Griswoldville .

Gen. Oliver Wolcott’s Union forces were about two miles southeast of Griswoldville on the Duncan farm, which was situated on the Jones-Twiggs County line.  Skirmishers came in contact with the Union forces,  who stopped their advance and dug in on the high ground.  Upon the report of the fire from the Duncan farm, more cavalrymen and the infantrymen who had just entered the town were drawn toward the direction of the fire.

The Confederate forces were placed  in a precarious position.  A large open field was  between them and the Union army.  The Union forces were surrounded on three sides by Big Sandy Creek which was a natural barrier to an attack on the Federal left, front, and rear.  The Confederates began an ineffective artillery fire on the hill.  The Union artillery was also similarly ineffective.  The Confederates crossed the creek and advanced to within two hundred fifty yards of the Union lines.  The first ranks were decimated by rifle fire.  There were seven thousand men firing at each other within the bounds of the 190 acre field.  The Confederates kept advancing, filling in the gaps in the lines with reserves. 

By 4:30 p.m. the battle was all but over.  Near the end of the fighting, Sgt. Blanton Nance, part of Anderson’s force which attacked from the railroad at the north end of the battlefield, was shot in the shoulder and the neck.  He fell to the ground.  Nance was lucky.  He was picked up by Union soldiers and taken back to a field hospital for treatment.  Many other wounded men froze to death that night.  Nance, a forty-six year old veteran of the Mexican War, survived and lived in Dublin until 1910, when he died at the age of ninety two.  The Confederates retreated to Griswoldville, returned to Macon the next day,  and  never mounted another threat to Sherman and his men.  Gen. Smith was furious that the militia engaged the Union army contrary to his instructions.  

Most of the Montgomery County men survived. Addison McArthur and Groves Conner were killed, and John McArthur and Thomas Adams were wounded.  Southern casualties totaled  six hundred killed and wounded, which was about ten percent of their force.  Northern casualties were fourteen killed, seventy nine wounded and two missing in action.  The town of Griswoldville was never rebuilt.  Today several organizations are seeking to preserve a portion of the battlefield for posterity.

99-45

FOREST IN HELL

The 121st Infantry in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest

As the weather began to turn cold in Autumn of 1944, the divisions of the First  Army were slowly but steadily moving toward their goal to capture the German capital of Berlin.  German forces were not going to give up that easily.   Some of the most unyielding  enemy  resistance was centered around the area where the countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany join.  The 121st Infantry Regiment, Georgia National Guard, which was mobilized in September of 1940 at the beginning of World War II, was assigned to the 8th Infantry Division of the First U.S. Army. The division was under the command of General Courtney Hodges, a native of Houston County, Georgia.  The regiment, originally made up of Georgians,  was enlarged to include men from all over the country.  Co. K of the 121st and HQ Co., 3rd Battalion were headquartered in Dublin.  Some Laurens county guardsmen served in other companies of the regiment. By 1944, most of the original members were serving in other army units.

At midnight on the morning of November 20, 1944, the order came for an attack on the towns of Hurtgen, Kleinau, and the Brandenberg-Bergstein Ridge.  The 8th division was assigned to relieve the 28th division, which had been engaged in bitter fighting for two months.  American generals believed that one more sustained push would break the German lines.  When the attack began on the morning of the 21st, the 121st, with Col. John R. Jeter in command,  was moving northward from Luxembourg.  The 1st battalion was assigned to take the woods south and west of Hurtgen.  The 2nd battalion would be on the left flank in the Hurtgen Forest west of the town.  The 3rd battalion, including Companies I, K, L, and M, was sent to the woods south of town in open trucks in a cold rain. Maj.  Wesley Hogan’s troops halted their ride near the Weisser Weh Valley southwest of Germeter and began a long and arduous march.  When the Germans saw movement, they directed mortar fire in its direction.  By now the rain had turned to sleet.  The sleet would soon turn to snow.  The 2nd battalion was in a “pickle.”  Fortunately, Co. K had a little time to rest.

The 3rd battalion moved into a position on level ground near the Wilde Saw minefield.  Anti-personnel and antitank mines posed extreme hazards for the infantry, as well as for the American tanks and vehicles.  Co. I was able to move the closest to the German lines before Thanksgiving day on the 23rd of November.   At the end of the day, the 3rd Battalion had made the most progress of any of the units.   In a move that dumbfounded some, the soldiers of the 121st were pulled back from their positions for Thanksgiving dinner.  They got in lines for a cold and soggy turkey dinner.  By this time, General Hodges had become furious with Major General Donald Stroh due to the 8th Division’s lack of progress.

On Friday, the 3rd Battalion made a push up the Germeter to Hurtgen Road and the adjoining woods.  The tanks of the 70th Tank Battalion suffered heavy losses and were forced to withdraw.  Major Hogan ordered Co. K to attack without armor protection.  The mines were becoming deadlier.  Twelve engineers and thirty riflemen were killed or wounded.  When the second attack failed to succeed, Hogan removed the company commander at 18:20 hours.  During that night, the engineers set out to remove mines from the road and is shoulders.  Nearly as fast as they could remove the mines, German soldiers placed new ones to thwart the American advance.  By the end of the fourth day of the battle, casualties in the 121st stood at fifty  killed and six hundred wounded.  They were still three miles from the Roer River, and Hurtgen remained under German control.

In a move of desperation, an attack on Hurtgen was ordered on the 25th.  The CCR, 5th Armored Division moved through the positions of the 3rd Battalion.  There were serious concerns that the 3rd Battalion couldn’t keep up with the tanks due to mines and wet ground conditions.  German forces began firing on the tanks as soon as they got on the road.  When the attack stalled, Col. Jeter was relieved by Col. Thomas Cross.  On the morning of the 26th, the 1st and 2nd Battalions moved toward Hurtgen.  General Stroh was also relieved of his command.  Stroh, who had lost his son in battle several weeks before, was the highest ranking American officer to lose his job in the Hurtgen Forest campaign.  Brigadier General Walter Weaver took over command of the Division.

Sgt. Ira T. Garnto was head of intelligence in HQ Co. 2nd Battalion.  Garnto remembered:  “The trees, mostly pine trees, were in bad shape, all split and splintered.”   I  remember sleeping sitting up some nights.  I served in the headquarters 2nd battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Henry B. Kunzig.  I was in the forward Command Post with Col. Kunzig.  He wanted a messenger from each company and wanted someone in charge of the messengers.  I took four messengers from each of the four companies in our battalion and went back to Col. Kunzig’s bunker and remained there with him.

I was walking into the Town of Hurtgen after it was captured.  I had just come into the edge of town and was standing by a German tank in front of the first building on the left.   I was waiting on my next orders when I heard an artillery round coming in.  It hit the tank with a strange thud, but it didn’t explode.  I was lucky.  It started snowing after a few days, but the snow was much better than the sloppy mud.  The slop was worse than the snow.  It slowed us down.  Many of our casualties came from frostbite.  The tanks had no way to go  in the mud in the forest.  I guess we just outlasted them.”  

On the 27th, the final attack on the town of Hurtgen began.  The 1st and 2nd Battalions led the assault.  Co. K followed Co. I toward Hill 54. From that vantage point, mortar men pummeled the town of Hurtgen, which eventually  fell.  One passing soldier was stunned at what he saw.  There were men loading frozen, dead bodies into a two and one-half ton truck.  One man would grab one end and another the other end and place them in the truck like firewood.  After nearly three months of the fighting,  the attempt to take the Hurtgen Forest ended.  It is criticized by some as one of the biggest wastes of men during the European Campaign.    The V Corps casualties were twenty five percent, four thousand out of sixteen thousand men  were killed, wounded, or missing in action.

Despite the questions raised about the military advisability of the attack, the men of the 121st and the Laurens County guardsmen kept on fighting until they could not fight any more.  In the early days of December, the 8th Division supported the taking of Kleinhau and the Brandenburg-Bergstein Ridge.  One officer of the 121st remarked, “ The men are physically exhausted.  The spirit and will to fight are there, the ability to continue is gone.  These men have been fighting without rest or sleep for four days and last night were forced to lie unprotected from the weather in an open field.  In some instances, men were forced to discard their overcoats because they lacked the strength to wear them.  These men are shivering with cold, and their hands are so numb that they have to help one another on with their equipment.” 

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, on behalf of Pres. Harry S. Truman, recognized the men of the 121st Infantry with a Presidential Unit Citation, which read in part: “The 121st Infantry and attached units are cited for extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance of duty in action from 21 to 28 November 1944.  During this period they made a relentless and determined drive to overcome bitter opposition in the Hurtgen Forest and the capture of the town of Hurtgen.  The bloody and bitterly contested advance, which taxed individual fortitude and stamina to the limit, represented the major offensive effort of the 8th Infantry Division and V Corps in effecting a breakthrough in this heavily defended sector. Despite its high casualty rate, the 121st displayed extremely courageous fighting qualities in an attack on a strongly fortified enemy.”

The men of the 121st gave up their Thanksgiving fifty five years ago.  They dreamed of being at home - eating mamma’s turkey and dressing and taking in the traditional Dublin High School football game that morning.  But there was a job to do.  Most of them had made it from Utah Beach, where they arrived on Independence Day, all the way into Germany - an accomplishment they all were thankful for.  They just wanted to do their job and come home - back to mamma’s house for next Thanksgiving. David Gladstone Daniel was killed in the Hurtgen Forest - he never had another Thanksgiving. 

99-46

THE SOUTH GEORGIA CONFERENCE

 OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Dublin Georgia 1899

Near the end of the 19th century, the leaders of Methodism in South Georgia congregated in Dublin for their annual conference.  The event was held in the sanctuary of the First Methodist Church under the leadership of many legendary Methodist ministers.    It would be the first of three conferences held in our city before a permanent meeting site was established.  The delegates were housed in local hotels and in residences of local Methodists - and probably in the homes of members of other denominations.

The conference opened on the 6th of December 1899 with Bishop A.W. Wilson of Baltimore presiding.  Rev. W.F. Smith, who had been responsible for the building of the Dublin church five years earlier, was elected to serve as Secretary of the conference.  Reverends Thomas H. Thomson, Edmund F. Cook, Osgood F. Cook, William W. Seals, and Jeremy M. Glenn were selected to assist Rev. Smith.  Rev. Glenn would return to the church twenty two  years later as its pastor.  One of the highlights of the first day was the presentation of a gold watch to Rev. W.C. Lovett by the ministers of the Americus District.  

The big event of the second day was the least enjoyed of the conference.  Following the opening prayer, the committee on ministers gave a disparaging report on one of their own.  In light of convincing evidence, the members dismissed Rev. S.G. Meadows from the conference for his acts of immorality.  In a more pleasant agenda item, new ministers were accepted on a trial basis while many newer members were moved up in their class.  Dr. J.W. Roberts, President of Wesleyan College in Macon, made an eloquent speech in the interest of his college.  Rev. J.W. Callahan, former missionary to Japan, spoke on the behalf the church's continued support of mission work.

During the session on the third day, the delegates continued to receive committee reports on various aspects of the church.  More ministers were promoted to higher classes. Those elder members who had served the Church for several decades were superannuated to the esteemed positioned of seniority among ministers of the Church.  

During the fourth day, the delegates went through one committee report after another, ranging from the Orphan's Home to the Epworth League.    Dr. W.W. Pinson gave a report on temperance - one that was enthusiastically applauded by the delegates.  Pinson urged the delegates to be partisan prohibitionists and to eliminate any use of alcoholic beverages.  The minister criticized the American people for sending soldiers and missionaries to Cuba to save lives, when they stood by and let the breweries kill people on a daily basis.  

The final day, Sunday the 11th, was the biggest day of the gathering. Bishop Wilson gave an address at the Methodist Church, while other sermons were presented at First Baptist, St. Paul A.M.E., and Marie Baptist Churches.  A community-wide temperance meeting was held at the courthouse.  The biggest event of the entire conference was the announcement of new appointments to the churches of the conference.

The appointments for 1900 to the Dublin District included J.M. Lovett, Presiding Elder; J.T. Ainsworth, Brewton; E.H. Crumpler, Lovett; E.P. Morgan, Wrightsville station; C.T. Bickley, Wrightsville Circuit; and J.S. Jordan, Adrian.   Rev. William N. Ainsworth was named minister of First Methodist Church of Dublin.  Rev. Ainsworth served two years at First Church, Dublin before moving onto Mulberry Street Methodist in Macon.  In 1918, Rev. Ainsworth was elected Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.  Rev. Ainsworth presided over Methodist Churches around the world until his retirement in 1938.   Preceding Rev. Ainsworth at First Methodist Church and participating in his next to last South Georgia conference was Rev. Peter Simmons Twitty, the beloved minister of thousands of Methodists throughout South Georgia.

Peter Simmons Twitty was born in southwest Georgia in 1842.  On May 27, 1861, he enlisted in Sumter Light Guards, Company K, 4th Georgia Infantry, in Americus, Georgia.  Shortly thereafter, Twitty was appointed regimental musician.  1st Sergeant Twitty suffered his first battlefield wound at the bloody battle of Sharpsburg or Antietam, Maryland on September 17, 1862.  On that day, the bloodiest in American history, more than twenty three  thousand men were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.  Sgt. Twitty returned to duty only to be wounded a second time on the 2nd day of the Battle of Gettysburg.  During that three-day epic battle more than fifty thousand men were killed and wounded.   Twitty was taken prisoner and kept in a Union prison until March 6, 1864.  Sgt. Twitty was wounded a third time at Winchester, Va., on Sept. 19, 1864.  The war ended for Twitty on May 10, 1865, a month after Lee's surrender, when he surrendered at Tallahassee, Florida.  Sgt. Twitty entered the ministry of the Methodist Church in 1872.  He served as President of Andrew Female College from 1891 to 1895.  Rev. Twitty served as pastor of First Methodist Church from 1899 until his superannuation during the 1899 Conference in a highly emotional service, which was one of the saddest moments of the entire week.   Rev. Twitty died on April 15, 1901.

The church sanctuary was filled with mourners and those who came to pay their last respects to their beloved friend and comrade.  Not a seat was empty.  The aisles were filled with standing gentlemen.  Rev. W.N. Ainsworth led the body of his friend and predecessor up the aisle to the chancel railing.  Members of Camp Smith, United Confederate Veterans  stood in a line at the church door.  With their heads bowed in upmost reverence, these gray-haired gentlemen said their farewells to another fallen comrade before bringing up the rear of the funeral procession into the church.  The funeral services were conducted by a half-dozen ministers and colleagues of Rev. Twitty.  Rev. Twitty's body was carried to its final resting place at the rear of the church in the Old City Cemetery.

The life of Rev. Peter S. Twitty was typical of those men who served the Methodist Church at the turn of the 20th century.   Rev. Twitty's death came as a result of that first battle wound he suffered at Sharpsburg, Virginia in September of 1862.  In battle, he was a soldier for his state.  In life, he was a soldier of the cross -  a Christian Soldier fighting for the Lord. 

The Methodists of South Georgia came back to Dublin in 1919 and again in 1937.  Eventually the conferences were moved to permanent locations.  For one week a hundred years ago, our city, on the brink of becoming one of the state's largest, was home to hundreds of Methodists going about their work in serving the Lord.

99-47

THE TOP TEN MOST INFLUENTIAL EVENTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY IN LAURENS COUNTY

The Twentieth Century has been the one of the most remarkable centuries in the history of the world.   The same could also be said for Laurens County.    We have made giant leaps in technology, transportation, education, and in all facets of our community.  Some things have become less important than they used to be, and that is a shame.  This column will focus on the ten most influential events which have had a broad, enduring, and monumental impact on the history of  our county during the Twentieth Century.   And so, in order of increasing importance, here are the events which have changed the lives of our citizens forever.  What do you think?

  No. 10: THE CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS:   At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, there were nearly two hundred small schools in the county.  As time passed and money was scarce, the county and its taxpayers were forced to merge their neighborhood schools in their communities in one decade after another.  The City and County Schools were actually consolidated for the 1965-66 school year, but were once again separated due to a technical flaw in the enacting election.   Students of all races were brought together beginning in 1968 in some schools and were totally integrated by 1970.  As we reach the end of the century, the number of schools has dwindled to sixteen.  From primers to PCs, the face of education has undergone a dramatic revolution in the last century.  

  No. 9:   THE BUILDING OF THE U.S. NAVAL HOSPITAL - Through the dogged determination of Cong. Carl Vinson of Milledgeville, the U.S. Navy constructed a massive long term recovery hospital in the western part of Dublin in 1945.  The hospital, which was taken over by the Veteran's Administration in 1948, has been one of the county's largest employers for more than fifty years.  The hospital brought in people of all creeds and nationalities from all over the world.  Those who came brought new ideas, built new homes, and contributed greatly to the constant growth of the county for the last fifty five years.  The Vinson V.A. Medical Center, in conjunction with the operation of Fairview Park Hospital and the massive influx of new and specialized physicians, have made Dublin and Laurens County a regional medical center and have attracted dozens of new retail businesses and restaurants into our community.

  No. 8:   THE ESTABLISHMENT OF J.P. STEVENS IN LAURENS COUNTY - The opening of J.P. Stevens in Laurens County in 1948 signaled the beginning of an important change in our work habits.  While this textile manufacturing plant in and of its self did not have an initial dramatic influence on Laurens County, it was the first manufacturing plant to locate in the county during the post World War II area.   The company drew workers from the farms and  from all parts of the country.  These workers brought their families and started new ones.  They built new homes where fields once existed.  Their wages were circulated scores of times throughout the local economy.  The location of this one factory led the way toward the location of dozens of others, which in turn created more jobs, more development, and a better quality of life.

  No. 7:   THE TRAINS PASSING THROUGH - While the impact of rail transportation has been eclipsed in the last half of our century, its impact on the development of the county during the first fifty years of the Twentieth Century cannot be understated.  At the turn of the 20th Century, the county had four railroads with two more on the drawing board.  Five of these rail lines sent Dublin on its meteoric rise from a tiny hamlet to one of the largest cities in Georgia.  The railroads led to the development of communities in every sector of the county.  They brought growth to communities, some of which did not exist prior to their coming.  Farmers were able to sell their products to far away markets.  Timber could be shipped up North and across the Atlantic.  Those who had only gone as far as Dublin, had the opportunity to go anywhere in the country.  Every business and every person depended on the railroads for everything they needed or wanted.

  No. 6: THE BUILDING OF HIGHWAYS - Passage over county roads was, at best, difficult in 1900.  With the introduction of the automobile to the county in 1905,  our methods of transportation would be changed forever.  The most lasting impact in this area came in the World War I years with the location of a highway which eventually became U.S.  Highway 80. Highway 80 ran  from one end of Laurens County to the other - which was followed by U.S. Highway 441, which stretched from the top of the county to the bottom.  With the location of I-16 in the 1960s, another Vinson gift to the county, Laurens County has profited handsomely from passers by and from the attraction these highways provide for various industries.

  No. 5: THE DEPRESSION -   Laurens Countians suffered through a depressed economy for nearly a quarter of this century.   While the Stock Market Crash of 1929 is recognized by some as the beginning of the depression, folks here had to endure the closing of banks, scores of business closings, and the lack of jobs.  Many people left the county for the promise of  jobs in other places, like the family of Sugar Ray Robinson, who left one of the state’s record number of tenant farms in Laurens County in 1920.  The hard lessons of the tough life inspired a work ethic unequaled in our history.

No. 4: THE BOLL WEEVIL - This tiny insect grabbed Laurens County by its throat and nearly strangled it to death.  The all-time Georgia cotton production records by Laurens County were withered by the bug’s veracious appetite. Laurens County was propelled into an economic downturn that took nearly twenty-five years to overcome.  This little bug taught Laurens County farmers the hard way that crop diversification was essential for survival in the business of farming. 

No. 3:   THE NEW TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS - Electrical service in homes was extremely rare in 1900.  Dublin built its own power plant in 1897.  Telephones came in 1897, but direct dialing didn't begin until 1964.  Many people finally got electricity in their homes in the forties through Georgia Power County and the E.M.C.s.   Radio dominated the twenties through forties the television invasion of the fifties.  Cable television brought dramatic changes in the sixties.  Satellite communications came into widespread use  the in seventies, business and home computers proliferated in the eighties, and residents were connected to the world via the Internet in the nineties.

No. 2: WORLD WAR II - Perhaps this is the single most important event, or series of events, in the history of the World.  On every day since the beginning of the war, our lives have been affected by the heroic efforts and self sacrifices of our citizens.  Nearly all of our current technologies traces their roots back to the scientific discoveries, production methods, and  economic revival which originated during the war and has constantly escalated with no end in sight.  The men and women who survived the war took on a new outlook on life.  They enjoyed more success in business than any other generation in the history of our county.  They were and still are in the words of Tom Brokaw, "The Greatest Generation."

No.  1: CHURCH SERVICES - In times of joy and in times of trouble, we have gathered in our churches to worship and profess our faith millions of times.  The churches, or rather the people in them, have carried us with their faith in God through the bad times. They have given us the strength and faith to meet any challenge in our future.  

The importance of these events are paramount in our counties past, present, and more importantly in our future in the next century and for centuries to come.

99-48 

 BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

Some of the Things We Have Accomplished in the 20th Century

As we approach the end of the 20th century, or what is generally recognized as the end of the century, the list of outstanding achievements by Laurens Countians, whether native born, long term, or merely temporary residents, is more than just outstanding.  It is truly remarkable for a county of our size.  There is no way that I could list every outstanding achievement, but here a few, many of which have been or will be chronicled in this column.

In service to our country in time of war and time of peace, our citizen soldiers  have been awarded the Medal of Honor - the nation's highest award for heroism - (Capt. Bobbie E. Brown); have been the first invading soldier to cross the Danube River in Germany (Sgt. Lester Porter); have been in command of the most effective submarines in the Pacific Ocean (Capt. W. C. Thompson), have served as an Admiral in the U.S. Navy (Adm. Robert E. Braddy); have served as a General in the Army (Gen. Calvin H. Arnold); have served as a General in the Air Force (Gen. Ezekiel Wimberly); have survived the Bataan Death March (Tommy Birdsong); have been designated as an ace fighter pilot (Col. Bob Shuler); have been the second American aviator wounded in World War I (Walter Warren); have saved hundreds of lives in giving medical assistance to the wounded soldiers in Korea (Major Charles Holliman);  and have symbolized the epitome of the American Airborne soldier during the Normandy invasion by appearing on the cover of "Life" magazine, (Kelso Horne.) Laurens Countians have been awarded Navy Crosses, Silver Stars, Distinguished Flying Crosses,  countless Bronze Stars, and innumerable Purple Hearts in the battlefields of Europe, the Pacific islands, the frozen hills of Korea, and the jungles of Vietnam.  Too many of our men were forced to serve long terms in the prison camps of Germany, Japan, and Korea.  One hundred and eighty-five of our men lost their lives during the wars of the century.  Several more were killed in peacetime accidents.  Laurens Countians have graduated from all four of the service academies.  

Laurens Countians have excelled in all fields of sports.  We have played in the NFL (Theron Sapp, Mike Rich, Willie Jones, Dallas Allen, Terry Merdith, Scott Hagler, Ryan Taylor, Ron Rogers.)  We have played in Major League Baseball (Quincey Trouppe, Bill Robinson, Glen Clark,  Hal Haydel, Jim Driscoll, Steve Barber, and Dave Nicholson). We have played in the N.B.A. (James Bailey).  We have been members of NFL champion teams (Theron Sapp, 1960 Phi. Eagles).  We have been members of  Super Bowl Champions (Willie Jones, 1980-1 Oakland Raiders).  We have played in the World Series (Bill Robinson, Pittsburgh, 1979.)  We have managed World Series championship teams (Earl Weaver, Baltimore, 1970, Quincey Trouppe, Negro League, Cleveland Buckeyes, 1947).  We have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, (Earl Weaver.) We have played in the Masters Golf Tournament (Bert Greene). We have even made the cloth for the Green Jackets awarded to the winners of Golf's most coveted title (the employees of J.P. Stevens/Forstmann). We have played in the N.C.A.A. Final Four(James Bailey, Rutgers, 1976).   We have been Collegiate All Americans in Basketball (James Bailey, Rutgers, 1978-9).  We have been Collegiate All Americans in Football (Willie Jones, F.S.U., 1978).  Several Laurens County high school football players have been players of the year in their classifications.  We have been one of only four U.G.A. football players to have their jersey retired (Theron Sapp, # 40).  We have been M.V.P.s of the Senior Bowl (Theron Sapp, Willie Jones.)  We have been MVPs of the East-West Shrine All Star Game (Ron Rogers.) We have been members of  NASCAR (Tal Prince, who lost his life in a racing accident.)  We have been in the Olympics and have been "The World's Fastest Man, (Mel Lattany, a Dublin Jr. High School teacher.)  We have been state team and individual champions in football, basketball, track, golf, and tennis.  We have been Boxing Champion of the World (Sugar Ray Robinson).  We have been All Stars in the Negro League, (Quincey Trouppe).  We have been a top national sportswriter (Clarence Loyd).   We have been National Coach of the Year, (Don Smith).  We have been top draft picks in the N.B.A. and Women's Professional Basketball, (James Bailey and Tina Price Cochran).  We have been a three-time member of Collegiate National Football Champions (Taz Dixon, Georgia Southern).  We have defeated Tiger Woods in a head to head golf match, (Maury Beasley.)  We have been a four-time state individual high school wrestling champion and all-American (Wit Durden). We have been one of the top professional basketball referees in the world (Sally Smalley Bell).

In the area of public service, we have served as Governor of Georgia (Gov. Thomas Hardwick), Senator from Georgia, (Sen. Thomas Hardwick), and  Congressman from Georgia (Rep. Thomas Hardwick, W.W. Larsen, and J. Roy Rowland),  the second  longest term as  Commissioner of Agriculture (Tom Linder,) the longest term as Attorney General of Georgia (Eugene Cook),  Chief Assistant Attorney General (Hardeman Blackshear),  First Female Assistant Attorney General ( Rubye Jackson),  Commissioner of Insurance (Hal M. Stanley),  Commissioner of Prisons (Vivian Stanley), Commissioner of Game and Fish (Peter S. Twitty, Jr.),  Secretaries to the Governor of Georgia and United States Senators, Supreme Court Justice (Justice Conley Ingram),  Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals (Judge Peyton Wade),  Public Service Commissioners (Jim Hammock and W.E. Lovett, Jr.), Commander of the State Patrol (W.C. Dominy and Ray Pope,) Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church South (Rev. W.N. Ainsworth), Highly honored African-American Confederate soldier (Bill Yopp),  and  Commander of the United Confederate Veterans (Gen. James A. Thomas.) 

We have been President of the Atlanta Journal, (Jack Tarver).  We have been President of the District Federal Reserve Board, (Jack Tarver).   We have been White House correspondents for major news services, (Gladstone Williams).  We have been Hollywood correspondents for major news services (Vincent Mahoney).   We have been nationally known authors, (Nella Braddy).  We have appeared in movies and television, (William McGowan, Corliss Palmer, and Cassie Yates).  We have performed on Broadway, (Eugenia Rawls).  We have appeared on stage at Radio City Music Hall, (Jane New (Mrs. Tommy) Dorsey).  We have been National Farm Couple of the Year, (David and Pat Graham).  We have been state leaders in the production of cotton and corn.  We have been highly respected radio personalities and newspaper columnists (Ernest Rogers, WSB, Atlanta Constitution).  We have been the youngest female lawyer in the history of Georgia (Aretha Miller Smith, admitted at age 18).  We have been members of the band of John Phillip Sousa,(Louis Greenhaus).   We have been the first female African-American graduate of the University of Georgia Law School, (Sharon Tucker).

In the area of near misses, we nearly were awarded the location of the United States Air Force Academy in the late 1940s. According to some had Mrs. Willis Walker had not had prenatal problems, her son, Herschel, one of the greatest running backs in collegiate history, would have been born in a Dublin hospital.

These are just some of the remarkable accomplishments our citizens have achieved in addition to their normal service to their families,  their communities, their state, their country and their God. Our most important history is in our future.  If the accomplishments of the past one hundred  years are any indication, the next century is one in which we will succeed in the challenges that await us.  Let us remember our past as we strive to maintain and strengthen our hope,  our faith, and  our compassion for each other for every minute of the next one hundred years. 

99-49

LAURENS COUNTY  IN 1900

At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, there were virtually no Y 1.9K problems, except for what to do with all of the checks and business forms with the printed date of 18___.  That problem was solved in short order by simply crossing out the eighteen and writing a nineteen.  It didn't take billions of dollars worth of experts to figure out that one.  The people of 1900 did have their share of problems, such as the lack of electricity and running water. However, at the time they were used to dark houses and well water.

When the century began, Laurens County's population stood at nearly twenty six thousand. Today it is approaching forty four thousand.   The county's population, the twelfth  highest in the state, was soaring.  Ten years before, there were 13, 747 people in the county.  In 1880, there were a little over ten thousand.  If the population of Laurens County had continued to increase at the rate of two hundred and fifty percent every other decade, our population would now be close to a quarter of a million people.  The number of male citizens, unlike today, was slightly higher than the number of females - a fact which could be attributed to the large number of laborers and workers who were temporarily living in the county.  Dublin's population was nearly three thousand, while seven thousand people lived in the Dublin Militia District.  The city’s population was increasing so quickly that town leaders proudly proclaimed their new slogan, "Dublin, Georgia - the only city in Georgia that doublin' all the time." The black-white ratio was about the same as it is today.  

In 1900, motorized Rural Free Delivery of the mail had not yet begun, most of the mail was carried by train to the depots along the route and distributed by wagon to the post offices in the community.   That year there were thirty four post offices in the county,  with names like Hatoff, Arthur, Walkee, Pearly, Beulah, Bender, Garbutt, Thairdale, and Nameless.   Today there are eight post offices in the county.  A monumental change in the valuation of land has taken place over the last one hundred years.   At the dawn of the Twentieth Century, Laurens had four hundred and thirty two thousand acres of improved land and only eighty five thousand acres of wild or timber lands.  Today many of those old fields lie idle, or have been planted with trees.  The average value of an acre of  improved land in 1900 was a whopping $2.72, while wild lands, which contained the more than the desirable number of trees, was worth only an average of $1.18.  Today it costs more to record a deed than to buy four acres of land a century ago.  If you do the math, a little over one and a quarter million dollars would have bought all of the land in Laurens County. If you had three million two hundred thousand dollars, you could have purchased all of the real and personal property in the county.

Agriculture was the dominate industry of 1900.  Census takers enumerated ten to fifteen thousand head of sheep.  Today, there are virtually none of these wool making animals to be found in the county.  There were twenty eight hundred milk cows, which produced two hundred ninety two thousand gallons of milk.  The number of hogs was twenty thousand, while the number of chickens was over fifty one thousand.  Beekeeping was actively practiced by farmers who collected over seven thousand  pounds of honey.  Over one million pounds of cotton, the main staple of Laurens County for the first quarter century, was produced at the fourth highest production level in the state.   In 1912, county farmers produced well more than thirty million pounds of the versatile product. 

Railroads, which had been so critical to development of the county were traversing most parts of the county.  The Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad ran from Montrose on the northwest through Dudley, Dublin, East Dublin (or North Dublin), Catlin, Minter, and Rockledge.  The Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad ran from Wrightsville through the Laurens County towns of Lovett, Brewton, Condor, East Dublin, and Dublin. Then it ran southwesterly through Hutchins, Vincent, Springhaven, Dexter, and Alcorn.  The Bruton and Pineora, which joined the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad at Brewton, ran southeasterly through Keen's Crossing, Bales, and Scott. The Wadley and Mt. Vernon crossed the southeastern tip of the county from Orianna to Rockledge.  Trains carried passengers to connecting points for trips all over the country.  They hauled our agricultural and industrial products, while bringing in ton after ton of the goods we needed.  The Dublin and Southwestern Railroad would not go into operation until 1905.

Dublin had more than just an agricultural economy.  The Dublin Furniture Factory was located in northeastern Dublin off North Decatur Street.  It produced furniture for local use as well as some for shipment by rail.  The Dublin Cotton Mill, which was located in southwestern Dublin off Marion Street, was one of the largest in east Central Georgia and provided cotton farmers a direct buyer of their "White Gold."    There was an ice factory since there were no electric refrigerators. Businessmen were quick to take advantage of the massive natural resources in Laurens County.  In the industrial district in the area along East Jackson and Madison Streets, there was a barrel stave factory, a mule hame factory, cotton seed fertilizer plants, cotton seed mills, two brick companies, and a shingle factory.

Timber cutting  in southwestern Laurens County allowed farmers to cultivate lands previously inundated with trees.  In 1884, a government expert estimated there was enough virgin pine timber in southwestern Laurens County to build a four-inch plank to the moon and back or an eight-foot tall wall around the equator of the Earth.  When the trees were cut, farmers moved in and began planting corn and cotton.  Laurens County was on its way to be a leader in the production of cotton and corn in the State of Georgia.

The opening of the railroads created communities where fields and forests once were.  Dexter, already located in a populous area, became the second largest town in the county.  The other main towns were Montrose, Dudley, Lovett, Brewton, and Rockledge.   

One of the biggest changes in our county over the last century is the number of schools.  Each community in the county maintained their own schools under the supervision of a county and city school superintendent.  Now there are fifteen schools.  In 1900, there were over one hundred and fifty, most of them being the one-room variety. 

Politics were heavily democratic.  The Republican party was virtually non existent.  Government and businesses were being led by the sons of those who fought in the Civil War.  These young men organized the Young Men's Business League, the forerunner of our Chamber of Commerce.  It was the vision of these men, aided by the unceasing support and work of our county's women, that led the county through its three decades of unprecedented and monumental growth.

99-50

A HISTORY OF ADRIAN, GEORGIA

This Sunday, December 19, 1999 the people of Adrian celebrate the 100th anniversary of their city’s incorporation.  Adrian actually began as a place in 1891 when a post office was opened under the direction of Postmaster W.R. Smith.  Smith, in accordance with the custom of the day, was given the honor of submitting a name for the town.    Smith began looking at a long list of available names for a pleasant name.  Smith didn’t have to look very far down the list for he decided on the name of Adrian.  Adrian, a railroad town by birth, soon became a trading center for citizens of four counties which joined southwest of the new town.  Those who lived in eastern Laurens, southern Johnson, western Emanuel, and northern Treutlen counties did most of their trading in Adrian - a fact that would later lead to a movement to create a new county with the crossroads town as the county seat.

No history of Adrian would be complete without mentioning an amusing story which led to the town being located in two counties, with a zigzagging line running right through the middle of town.  Joe Hutcheson and Burrel Kea each wanted a river bridge to built over the Ohoopee, known to anyone who lived in Adrian as “The Hoopee.”  Kea, a county official at the time, won out.  Hutcheson, not taking this defeat very lightly and not wanting to live in the same county as Kea, influenced the local members of the legislature to carve the line separating the new county of Johnson and Emanuel County in a way that none of Kea’s land was in his county.  One of the results of this gerrymandered line caused Hardee Thigpen to sleep in Emanuel County, eat in Johnson County, and feed his horses in Treutlen County.

The First Baptist Church was established on September 25, 1891 under the leadership of Rev. J.A. Stephens and Rev. J.A. Chipley.  The charter members of the church were J.F. Williams, Arcena Williams, Joseph Williams, Fanny M. Williams, Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Morgan Johnson, and Mary J. Cox.  After a few services in a brush arbor, the church moved to a building known as the “Handberry House.”  J.F. Williams, W.T. Bennett, and W.T. Phelps headed a committee to build a new church in 1892.  Their efforts resulted in a two-story wooden building - the top story being the home of Adrian Masonic Lodge.  This building was used until 1919, when the present building was constructed.  

The impetus for the creation of the town of Adrian came in the early 1890s when Thomas Jefferson James, known to all the old-timers as Captain James, began grading his railroad, The Wadley and Mt. Vernon through the old Aaron Hutcheson place.  James, like many other railroad men, used hired convict labor to build the railroad along the Johnson/Emanuel County line toward its terminus at Rockledge.  James purchased the remaining assets of the bankrupt Perkins Lumber Company and set up a saw mill in the area.  As many as 1,100 prisoners came to work in the mill, which was one of the largest in the state.  E.P. Rentz, former Dublin banker and founder of Rentz, Georgia, took over operation in 1906.  In 1908, the state outlawed prisoner leasing and the camp was closed.  Captain James died in 1911.  His house, said to have been located on the highest spot in town, burned in 1937, in a spectacular mass of flames which were seen for miles in every direction.  Rufus Youmans, Carl Gillis, Jr., Richard Augley, Billy Belote, and others kept the mill in operation for nine decades.  The Wadley and Mt. Vernon Railroad was completed to Adrian in 1893.  By the end of the 19th century, the road was completed to Rockledge.

With 1,100 men in the area, the need for supporting businesses soon followed.  Captain James drilled an artesian well to supply the camp with fresh water.  One of his first wells, the flowing well at the northern end of the Ohoopee River Bridge, was a failure - being too far away for the water to be pumped up the hill to Adrian.  

After sharing a church building with the Baptists for four years, the Methodists led by Capt. James, began the process of building their own church building.  James, along with Aaron Hutcheson, Will Curry, and a Mr. Houston led the construction of Adrian Methodist Church building in 1897.  That building burned in 1935 and was replaced by the current house of worship.  Adrian is known far and wide for it native sons who have served in the ministry.  Rev. Jack Key and his brother Rev. Billy Key, along with their friend the Rev. Robert Moye, began their ministerial careers as teenagers in the late 1930s are about to enter their eighth decades of preaching the Gospel. 

Adrian Chapel C.M.E. Church was founded in 1894.  St. James Baptist Church was founded in 1898.  White Grove Church followed in 1900.  The first school for black students was established in 1898 under the direction of Flora Troup.  Faith Tabernacle Holiness Church was founded in 1933.  Adrian’s newest church, The Church of Jesus Christ, began holding its services in the old Citizens Bank building in 1997.

The growth of Adrian accelerated in 1897 when the Brewton and Pineora Railroad began its operation as part of the Central of Georgia railroad system.  The “B and P or the biscuit and potato” railroad crossed the tracks of the Wadley and Mt. Vernon in the center of community,  which was appropriated called “The Crossing.”  Some of the first stores were opened by W.R. Smith and M.L. Bailey.

Dr. Tyson led the establishment of the first telephone exchange in 1898.  That same year,  a catastrophic fire incinerated the main line of stores. J.Y. King moved in from Dublin and erected a department store on the ash-laden ground.  In 1912, A.J. Peddy erected a line of stores along the Wadley and Mt. Vernon Railroad.

The act to incorporate Adrian as a town became effective on December 19, 1899.  The town limits extended five-eighths of a mile from the intersection of the railroads. The enabling law gave the authority to the mayor and council to police the town, tax property in the town, and establish a public school system.  The sale of liquor and gambling in any form was expressly prohibited.  Billiard and pool tables were outlawed, as well as any ten pin alley.  In an effort to attract factories, new and existing ones were exempt from property taxes until 1909.

The first mayor of Adrian was Dr. Jeff Tyson.  Dr. Tyson died before taking office and was replaced by Mayor-Pro Tem, Will Curry.  Capt. T.J. James, James Kea, and Aaron Hutcheson were elected to serve on the initial town council.  Many of the early records of the town were destroyed when the city hall, then housed in the old depot, burned in the 1930s.  Among those serving as mayor of Adrian over the last century are: Will J. Curry, M.O. Campbell, J.W.A. Ivey, Alonzo M. Rountree, W.M. Rountree, Leon G. Moye, Ed Ellison, H.C. Williams, Gordon A. Fountain, A.E. Harrison, S.P. Chapman, Carl L. Gillis, Jr., J.R. Youmans, James M. Wammock, Richard Augley, E.W. Avery,   and John E. Tyson, Jimmy Woods, Von Kersey, Mike Thigpen, Harol Meeks, and Joe Lumley.  Dr. Leon G. Moye served as mayor for twenty years, Von Kersey for ten years,  while James M. Wommack and Carl L.  Gillis, Jr. served eight years each. Enoch Oliver was the first Town Marshall.  

Adrian’s population soared to nearly three thousand persons according to some.  The actual population according to the census of 1900 was 833.  The town’s population declined every ten years until the 1950s, when people began to return to Adrian.   At the turn of the 20th Century. the businessmen of Adrian included sawmill owners T.J. James and Rufus Pennington; merchants ,  Thomas Cheatam, William Bailey, Sidney Scott, Sig Lichtenstein, and  Charlie Fountain;  blacksmiths Noah Jones, Jim Ruis, and Henry Stocks; barber, Fred Page; liverymen George L. Mason and Zachariah Anderson; dairyman, Arthur Ponder; druggist, James Mason; hotel proprietor, Susan Green; and gristmiller, Allen Ham.  The biggest industry in the town were the sawmills.  Twenty eight men worked in the mill  along with the 73 of Captain James’s prisoners under the supervision of John M. Davis.   Among the town lawyers were Louis Lightfoot, Bryon Kea, Col. Stephens, and William Pope..  Dr. Jeff Tyson was the first town doctor.  He was followed by Jim Hamilton,  Alonzo Rountree, G.E. Youmans, Thomas Kea, Dr. B.C. Yates, and Dr. Hutcheson.   Leon G. Moye, who came to town as the physician in Capt. James’s prison camp and remained in town, where he practiced medicine for fifty years.  Dr. Donald Kennedy provided valuable in-town medical services in Adrian in the third quarter of the century in the Adrian Clinic which was established by Dr. Moye.  Dr. J.R. Rogers practiced dentistry in the early years of Adrian.

Among the other early merchants of Adrian were: the Barwick Brothers, M.C. Carter, T.J. Braswell, Ed Page, W.K. Porter,  A.J. Peddy,  F.A. Franklin, Levy Spivey, Sam Chapman, Everett Webb, Milo Mimbs, Mrs. McConnell, George Barwick, Mr. Ellison, J.B. Hutchinson,  Clint Smith, homer Youngblood, Morris Key, Tom Fountain, the Coleman family, Mr. Dent,  Will Clements, and T.J. James, who owned several business in town.

Adrian’s first bank, the Adrian Banking Company, was established on May 26, 1902 by R.M. Rogers, J.D. Tyson, H.L. Yarborough, G.H. Barwick, T.A. Cheatam, A.T. Cobb, M.O. Campbell, and C.A. Fountain.  This bank was located on the old drug store site.  The town’s second bank, The Farmers Bank of Adrian, was incorporated on December 21, 1905 by M.C. Carter, E.L. Ricks, A.G. Smith, T.J. James, and W.S. Clements. A third bank, the Union Savings Bank, appears to have been a successor to the first banks.  It was incorporated on April 25, 1908 by T.J. James, W.F. Staten, G.E. Youmans, T.A. Cheatam, and G.W. Drake.  The fourth, and most enduring, bank was incorporated on November 26, 1909.  With a virtual “who’s who” of incorporators, the bank lasted until it was forced into receivership in 1932.  The founders of Citizens Bank of Adrian included C.R. Williams, E.J. Sumner, G.W. Drake, Morris T. Riner, W.D. Sumner, E.W. Carter, F. Carter, S.J. Sumner, J.R. Rowland, W.R. Smith, W.S. Burns, H.A. Stewart, J.L. Williams, M.T. Drake, J.R. Cherry, C.B. Spell, John A. Braswell, F.C. Gillis, Hardee Thigpen, B.R. Sandifer, F.J. Williams, W. Horton, A.W. Gillis, J.W. Smith, James H. Campbell, Arch Woods, A.M. Skinner, Uriah Anderson, S.H. Lynch, R. L. Odom, Ira Thigpen, and R.B. Thigpen. The old bank building, used at one time as a city hall, still stands at the northeast corner of U.S. Hwy. 80 and Ga. Hwy. 15.  Through the efforts of Rufus Youmans and others, the Citizens Bank of Swainsboro opened a branch bank in town, which operated into the 1980s.

Adrian had one newspaper and possibly another. “The Adrian Index”, which began in 1914, was a weekly paper which sold for one dollar per year.  J.G. Elder was reported to have began publishing a newspaper in 1905.  

Adrian benefitted greatly from the location of Dixie Overland Highway along its Main Street in the years of World War I.  The highway, which later became known as U.S. Highway 80, brought thousands of travelers through the town, until the completion of Interstate Highway 16 in the 1970s.

By 1920, the population of Adrian had increased sufficiently to authorize the legislature to reincorporate Adrian as a city.  The city limits were extended to one mile in every direction from the railroad intersection. Mayoral and council powers were extended.  The legislature gave the city the right to tax dog owners two dollars per dog, the power to limit vehicular speeds, and to make improvements to the city’s infrastructure.

Captain James built the first school near the location of the Tom Fountain home. He hired Miss Annie Cheatam to teach.  The second school, located near Mrs. Emma Spell’s home, was used until 1906, when a bond issue was approved to build a new two-story school.  This imposing brick structure, which was located across the street from the First Baptist Church, was completed at a cost of eight thousand dollars. Part of that cost was recouped through a tuition fee of $1.25 per student per month.   It burned in  February of 1926.   The fourth school, most of which was razed in 1998, served students for over sixty years.   A modern gym, which brought basketball indoors for the first time, was completed in the spring of 1940. Basketball dominated the sports scene in Adrian for over three decades. In 1940, the boys team won the county championship for the third consecutive year.  Playing on that team, were the Rev. Billy, Kea, Henry Neal, J.T. Horton, Dale Thompson, Verlon Watson, and Edsel Flanders.  They were a close team, most of them being related to each other. The current gym was completed in 1957.   Adrian’s boys and girls basketball teams were always tough, fast, and scrappy.  Crowds jammed the gym every night the Red Devils were at home. 

Adrian sent its sons and daughters off to war in World Wars I and  II.  Those who didn’t enter military service served on the home front, some even moved to Savannah to work in the war supporting industries.  Thankfully, most of them came home safe.  Jim Gay, a member of the 11th Division, single-handedly captured 192 German prisoners in World War I.   Alonzo Drake attained the rank of General and is a candidate for admission to the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.  Percy Ricks became the first African-American to command an integrated unit in the United States Army.  Jimmy Ricks, a kinsman, became the lead singer of The Ravens and is known as the grandfather of doo-wop music. Adrian’s biggest post war business, Adrian Housing Corporation, began in 1962 under the ownership of Carl L. Gillis, Jr., in the old D&J Building.  The company’s output soared in the 60s and 70s and remains one of the largest employers in the area in their current facilities on Hwy. 80 east of town.

Adrian was, and still is,  the epitome of the small towns and cities of Central Georgia.  For nearly everyone who ever lived there, it holds a lifetime of fond memories.  Perhaps Paul Kea said it best in his 1982 poem “Make Me Once Again Your Barefoot Boy:” 

“I walk as a ghost in my own hometown, 

keeping to the shadows of shaded streets ‘neath stately oaks, pecan, and sycamore 

looking for friendly faces from that happy carefree childhood.  

Forty years away from you have not my vision dimmed. 

How simple was my world in the days of my youth.

Oh! To once again feel the chill where the swamp begins at the bottom of the hill.  

Bending over for that first sweet sip from Cap’n James’ well.  

Watching squirrels play in the hardwoods along the lush banks. 

To walk ‘neath the bridge, mist rising from the swamp, 

or climb a tangled mass of logs left by time and high water.  

To reach the special bend in the river where we always swam.  

Come Adrian, help me throw off this sickly ghostlike visage. 

Rise in youthful vigor as did the fable phoenix.

Become again what was, not is or will be.  

Enshrine my name in a place of honor on your scroll of living dead.  

Forgotten am I only if you forget me.  

Wrap me securely in your comforting mantle of childhood joy, 

lest my two worlds be always but a dream apart.  

Make me once again your barefoot boy.”