A HISTORY
OF DUBLIN AND
LAURENS COUNTY, GEORGIA
and her people
1807-2025
by Scott B. Thompson, Sr.
@ 2025
scottbthompsonsr@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 1586, Dublin, GA 31040
CHAPTER 1 - The Native American Millennia
Laurens County was first inhabited by the American indian about ten thousand years ago. The first inhabitants were organized into small groups known as bands. These bands predominantly settled along the creeks and rivers in the area. The time of occupation began at the end of the Ice Age with the Clovis People. Over the years, the Indians were categorized as Creek Indians, while they were, in fact, several different groups. This area was occupied by the Creeks, Seminoles, Hitchiti, Yamassee, and Uchee (Yuchi), among others.
The earliest inhabitants lived on sandy sedimentary soils in Georgia’s upper Coastal Plain that was created during the Eocene Epoch (54-36 million years ago,) the Oligocene Epoch (34 to 23 million years ago,) and lastly and more profoundly during the Miocene Epoch (5 to 23 million years ago.) During these epochs, the land was submerged under a shallow, 100-mile-long trough in the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean’s shoreline followed the Fall Line, located some 30 miles from northwestern Laurens County in northwestern Twiggs County.
Included in the fossils that can be found in Laurens County, Georgia, are mostly marine animals dating back to the Cretaceous Period (145 millions to 66 million years ago,) including shark teeth, turtles, extinct fishes, along with echinoids known as sea urchins.
The Lower Uchee Trail ran from Lower Alabama to the Augusta area. The trail entered the county from the southwest, following Highway 2,6 which turns into Blackshear's Ferry Road. The trail crossed the Oconee at Carr's Bluff opposite the Country Club and ran into Highway 319, thence toward Augusta. This trail and others helped in the development of the area in the late 18th century. A second trail, today known as the "Chicken Road," ran from Hawkinsville and headed into Dublin along Moore Station Road, Bellevue Road, and Bellevue Avenue. This trail crossed the Oconee River near the current river bridge at what was originally named "Jenk's Ferry." A third trail from Indian Springs through Macon and Jeffersonville became part of the Old Macon Road. After crossing at Dublin, the trail ran through East Dublin, down Highway 29, and Highway 86. A fourth trail ran from Darien to the Forks of the Altamaha (Oconee River and Ocmulgee River) and turned northward along the eastern valley ridge to Milledgeville. It was known as "The Old River Road" or the "Darien to Milledgeville Road." A fifth major trail ran from the "Forks" along the western valley ridge to Milledgeville. It is known today as the "Old Toomsboro Road."
One village site, the Sawyer site at Fish Trap Cut, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site contains two mounds that were constructed in the 13th Century during the Mississippian mound-building period. University of Georgia anthropologists recently discovered that between the two mounds are the remains of a Woodland Period village. This village, which was first occupied about 200 B.C., is the oldest known site of its kind in Georgia.
Several Spanish expeditions were conducted in the Laurens County area during the 16th and 17th centuries. The most famous of these was Hernando de Soto, who came near this area in 1540. Historians and scientists have debated for years over De Soto's exact route. Today, the prevailing theory is that the explorer crossed the Oconee River above Laurens County.
It also stands to reason that DeSoto or some of his patrols passed through what is now Laurens County. There are three basic theories of where DeSoto crossed the Ocmulgee River. Two stated that DeSoto crossed at Hawkinsville. One holds that he traveled north along the eastern bank of the Ocmulgee to Macon. Another espoused by Dr. John Swanton has the expedition traveling along the Lower Uhcee Trail in a near straight line to Carr’s Bluff on the Oconee River, some six miles north of Dublin. The third path was substantially proved by Dr. Dennis Blanton, whose archaeological expeditions discovered the “Glass Site” on the southern banks of the Altmaha River. Blanton found beads that correlated with those of the same era as those of DeSoto’s expedition in 1540. From there, the column moved northward from the forks of the Ocmulgee and the Oconee along the eastern side of the Oconee through Laurens, Johnson, and Washington County before moving toward the Augusta area.
The Spanish government set up a mission south of here at the Forks of the Altamaha. Spanish missionary Father Chozas visited this area in 1597. He told of the "Diamond Mountain" and barely escaped with his scalp between here and the forks of the Ocmulgee and the Oconee ,where the village of Tama is said to have been located. Juan de Lara returned to this area five years later to look for survivors of earlier expeditions. The Spanish established a mission at Tama about 1680, but soon abandoned it. The English attempted to colonize the area, but the plan was abandoned.
The Uchee and the Oconee in this area were subjected to a brutal invasion in 1695 from other Indians to the south. The Oconee traveled south to Florida, which was controlled by Spain. The Oconee tribe evolved into the tribe we know today as the Seminoles. The Indians left this area in the latter part of the 17th Century and the early 18th Century. The lands of Ocute gradually became nothing more than hunting grounds for the Uchee.
All Indian lands east of the Oconee River were ceded to Georgia under the Treaty of 1783. The remaining lands on the west side of the river were ceded by the Treaty of 1801.
CHAPTER 2 - The Post Revolutionary War Period
After the American Revolution, the State of Georgia acquired all of the land between the Ogeechee and Oconee Rivers under the Treaty of 1783. The entire area was known as Washington County. The first owners of the new lands were soldiers of the Continental Army. Later lands were granted under the headright system to heads of household. Among the earliest settlers in what became Laurens County were David Blackshear, Elijah Blackshear, Joseph Blackshear, William Bracken, John Brewton, William Brewton, William Bush, John Culpepper, Thomas Fort, Benjamin Harrison, Blasingame Harvey, Peter Messer, and William Neel.
The State of Georgia established a a one-hundred-man Fort Telfair at Carr's Bluff in 1792. The fort was among a series of forts placed at strategic points and twenty-plus mile intervals along the eastern bank of the Oconee River. However, they were too far apart to prevent all Indian intrusions into Georgia. In a letter from Lt. Roberts in 1794, he refers to the “Point of Rocks,” which most likely corresponds with “Carr Shoals” at the bottom of Carr’s Bluff. Troubles with the Indians plagued the new settlers until 1795, when Benjamin Harrison of Montgomery County massacred seventeen Indians while they were on a friendly visit in the area. The incident nearly precipitated a war. Diplomats prevailed, and hostilities ceased.
On December 19, 1793, most of present-day eastern Laurens County was placed in Montgomery County. During the 1790s, George Walton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and William Few, a signer of the Constitution, presided in the Superior Court of Montgomery County.
A portion of present-day northern Laurens County was included in the Trans Oconee Republic. The fledgling country was founded by Gen. Elijah Clarke, Georgia's hero of the Revolution. With a show of military might, Jared Irwin forced his friend, Elijah Clarke, to leave the country’s capital, which was located just above Toomsboro.
With the de facto removal of the Indians beyond the Ocmulgee already accomplished, the Indian nations sold the lands between the Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers to Georgia. On May 11, 1803, Wilkinson County was created and encompassed a portion of western Laurens County. These new lands were granted under a lottery system to all eligible residents of Georgia in 1805. The remainder of western Laurens County was granted to settlers in the Land Lottery of 1807. Most of the early settlers came from the Carolinas and Virginia, or indirectly from other parts of Georgia. Their heritage was mostly English, Scotch, and Irish, with a few families of German heritage. On August 1, 1807, Poplar Springs Baptist Church was established in central Wilkinson County. This church, which is now located in Laurens County and is still in existence, has the oldest church congregation west of the Oconee River in Georgia.
CHAPTER 3 - 1807 - 1819:
The Creation of Laurens County and It’s Early Years
On December 10, 1807, nearly one-third of Wilkinson County was cut off to form the new county of Laurens. The county was named in honor of Col. John Laurens. Col. Laurens, Gen. George Washington's aide, worked with Benjamin Franklin in securing more French funding and military support to bring the Revolutionary War to an end. Col. Laurens was killed at Combachee, South Carolina, after the British surrender at Yorktown.
The original county seat of Laurens County was located at Sumpterville on Turkey Creek about five miles west of Dublin. The first court was held in the home of Peter Thomas, which was located on the Uchee Trail west of Thomas' Crossroads. Presiding was Judge Peter Early, who later became Governor of Georgia. The first Solicitor General was Elijah Clark, a son of Gen. Elijah Clarke.
The first county officers were: Clerk of Superior Court Amos Love, Sheriff James Thompson, Clerk of Inferior Court James Yarborough, Surveyor John Thomas, and Coroner William Yarborough. The first justices chosen to sit on the Inferior Court of Laurens County were: Thomas Davis, Thomas Gilbert, Edmund Hogan, William O’Neal, and Peter Thomas.
Benjamin Adams, Jethro Spivey, Neil Munroe, David Blackshear, and Noah Stringer were among the first County Commissioners.
In 1809, Laurens County lost a great portion of its lands to the new county of Pulaski. John Thomas, of Laurens County, surveyed and laid out the county of Pulaski, and ran a dividing line between the aforesaid counties of Laurens and Pulaski.
One Laurens County resident, who became a resident of Pulaski County, was a young boy by the name of James Fannin. Fannin lived with his maternal grandfather, George Walker, a one-year resident of what was Laurens County. Fannin, with two years of military training at West Point, went to Texas in 1834, where he led Texas forces in the war against Mexico. Fannin and four hundred of his men were executed by the Mexican army at Goliad, Texas, three weeks after the infamous “Battle of the Alamo.”
Shallus’s Tables documented a six-mile-wide tornado striking and devastating “entire fields and forests” in Laurens County on March 28, 1810. Some observers claimed that it was the worst tornado ever witnessed in Georgia.
William Neel established Dublin's first ferry in what became the most extreme southeastern part of Dublin. The ferry was established in 1804 or before, three years before the formation of Laurens County. Neel's ferry is shown on the land grant maps of 1804 opposite Land Lot 235 of the 1st Land District. This places the ferry at the mouth of Long Branch. This may be the same spot where a ferry was established by Neil Munroe and Richard Ricks in the 1820s.
Neel, along with Jonathan Sawyer, was the first settlers of the community known as Sandbar, which later became East Dublin. In 1806 or 1807, George G. Gaines placed his ferry at the point where the Old Savannah Road crossed the Oconee River. The ferry was put under the same rates as other county ferries in August 1810. Gaines later purchased 1000 acres along the eastern side of the ferry. The street that ran to the ferry was named in honor of Gaines, who left this area around the time of the War of 1812. Gaines sold his ferry, possibly to Henry C. Fuqua. Fuqua sold the ferry to wealthy landowner Jeremiah Yopp in 1831.
The county seat of Sumpertville never took hold. Lots were laid out and basically remained unoccupied or unsold. The state legislature refunded funds to the purchasers of the lots. The site of Sumpertville today is marked by giant live oaks on the northern margin of Walke Dairy Road, just east of Turkey Creek.
A new group of settlers arrived in the early 1800s. They included Amos Love, Henry Fuqua, Josiah Warren, Jethro Weaver, David McCormick, Hardy Smith, Benjamin Hampton, Jethro Spivey, Thomas Moore, Gilliard Anderson, Alexander Stringer, Noah Stringer, Benjamin Daniel, Elisha Ballard, Dennis McLendon, William O'Neal, John Guyton, Charles Guyton, Moses Guyton, Samuel Yopp, Jeremiah Yopp, James Stanley, Ira Stanley, Jonathan Sawyer, John Clark, and Thomas McCall. Most of the county’s residents settled in the northern half of the county, where the soil was more fertile.
The 1810 Census enumerated 2210 Laurens Countians, with just more than three-quarters of that number being free whites and one-quarter being slaves.
With the loss of new lands, local leaders sought to obtain more lands. The legislature agreed and, in 1811, annexed extreme portions of northwestern Montgomery and southwestern Washington counties into Laurens. With new lands to the east, the Justices of the Inferior Court decided that the county seat should be located nearer to the center of the county. The justices chose a plateau nearly a mile from the Oconee River. Just across the river to the east was a riverside community known as Sandbar. It was settled by merchant Jonathan Sawyer in 1804.
In June of 1811, Sawyer was appointed postmaster of a new post office. Sawyer's wife, Elizabeth McCormick, was a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and a descendant of a Dublin, Ireland family. She died in childbirth a couple of years before the post office was established. Sawyer, as postmaster, was given the right to choose the name of the new post office, which he named Dublin, in honor of the capital of his wife's ancestral homeland. On December 13, 1811, the legislature appointed Jonathan Sawyer, Jethro B. Spivey, John G. Underwood, Benjamin Adams, and Henry Shepherd to act as commissioners of the courthouse and other public buildings granting unto them the power “to lay out and sell such a number of lots as may be sufficient to defray the expenses of such public buildings as they may think necessary.”
County fathers chose Dublin as the county seat because of its location on a bluff near the Oconee River. The town was built on a strata of deep and hard rock and was plentiful in artesian water. The original city limits extended a distance of 250 yards in all directions from Broad Street. Eventually, the streets of the town were named for American Presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and Andrew Jackson. Laurens (now Lawrence) Street was named after Col. John Laurens, of South Carolina, and the namesake of the county. and heroes of the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Other American Revolution heroes, Benjamin Franklin and Francis Marion, along with George C. Gaines (an early ferry keeper) had streets named for them. Naval heroes of the War of 1812, Stephen Decatur, Commodore William Bainbridge, and Commodore Thomas Truxton, were also honored. One very short street was Union Street, which ran only four blocks in a north-south direction and was one block west of the Oconee River. Columbia Street, the northeastern margin of the original town, was named after the District of Columbia, which was named for Christopher Columbus.
Benjamin Harrison, the legendary Indian fighter, was the first known murder victim, having been killed at the hands of Hansel Roberts on August 14, 1811. A large contingent of volunteers assembled in Dublin on the 4th of July 1812 to launch an expedition against the British Army at Saint Augustine in the opening months of the War of 1812.
Among the early settlers of Laurens County was Thomas McCall, Surveyor General of Georgia in the 1780s and 1790s. McCall, who served in the North Carolina militia in the American Revolution, was known as the preeminent winemaker in the South, cultivating the natural grapes of the area and experimenting with imported varieties as well on his “Doll Neck” plantation near Fish Trap Cut. McCall is given credit for being the first successful winemaker in Georgia, if not in the entire southeastern United States. Gov. John Clarke, son of Gen. Elijah Clarke and bitter enemy of Gov. George Troup, owned a large tract of land in eastern Laurens County. Jonathan Sawyer, Dublin's founder, went to Darien, where he was a founding director of the Bank of Darien in 1818, the strongest bank south of Philadelphia.
The Oconee River and old Indian trails were the only methods of transportation. The old roads were improved. New ones were cut by the male citizens of the county and their slaves.
Tillot’s Path, an 18th-century trading trail, ran along the southern border of Laurens County to Woodsville, located near the present site of Adrian on the Great Ohoopee River. to Augusta on the Savannah River. The trail followed an old Indian path to southern Georgia and thence northward to Native American towns on the Flint River. William Neel and George Gaines established ferries across the Oconee at Sandbar prior to the formation of Laurens County. Jared Trammel established the first Laurens County ferry in 1808. That ferry was purchased by David Blackshear in 1823 and consolidated with Blackshear's old ferry. Laurens County took over the operation of the Gaines Ferry, which operated until the railroad bridged the river in 1891. Blackshear's Ferry ran under county supervision until 1947.
Ephraim Green was granted permission to establish a ferry in northern Laurens County on August 1, 1808. His rates were to be the same as Blackshear's. Another ferry was established in the same area by William Livingston. William Diamond was granted permission to establish a ferry at the place known as Spear's Ferry on Aug. 7, 1810. The area came to be known as Diamond Landing. It was here, near Wilkes Spring in southern Laurens County, where a third county ferry was sought to be established by Laurens County. Jacob Robinson was granted permission to establish a ferry on August 7, 1815. Robinson was granted permission to double the rates when the river overflowed its banks. While ferries were usually run across rivers, Maddox's Ferry was running across Big Creek before 1812.
Shortly after Dublin was chartered, the United States entered the War of 1812 with Great Britain. The Georgia government organized an expedition that assembled at Dublin in July. Their mission was to beat the British to St. Augustine in an effort to protect the southern flank of Georgia. On the southern front, the United States fought the British-supported Indians. General David Blackshear of Laurens County was ordered to command several divisions of Georgia Militia headquartered at Fort Hawkins. Gen. Blackshear served as a delegate to the Electoral College on four occasions, in 1800 when he voted for Thomas Jefferson, in 1824 when he voted for William H. Crawford of Georgia, in 1828, when he voted for Andrew Jackson and in 1832, when as chairman of the delegation, voted for Andrew Jackson as President of the United States.
While most muster rolls from Laurens County have not survived, many of the county’s young men served in the armies formed to protect the front along the Ocmulgee River. The only known casualties were William Kemp and John Perry, soldiers in the United States Army. Ezekiel Attaway was cited for bravery during the Georgia militia’s attack on Autossee in southern Alabama in 1813, a battle which saw the commanding general John Floyd fall in action. After the battle, David Blackshear took over command of the Georgia forces. In 1818, the Laurens County Dragoons, under the command of Jacob Robinson, participated in an unfortunate massacre of defenseless members of a Cheehaw Indian Village.
Near the end of the second decade of the 19th century, river traffic began to arrive in Dublin. Lands along the river were sold at a premium. The result was a period of short-lived economic growth. Coastal Georgia merchants opened stores in Dublin. Among these merchants was Andrew Low, the uncle of the Savannah man of the same name who was featured in Eugenia Price's novels. Roswell King, overseer of the Butler Plantation and the founder of Roswell, Georgia, owned a store building on the courthouse square.
The first bank in Laurens County was authorized by the Georgia General Assembly in 1818 under the direction of Thomas Moore, Amos Love, John Guyton, and Neil Munroe.
Before Macon became an established port on the Ocmulgee River, Dublin became the most important inland trading center of Central Georgia. George Gaines and Jonathan Sawyer had recognized the potential in this area a decade before. Gaines established the first ferry in Dublin about the year 1806. New York businessman Redolphus Bogart began purchasing some of the lands along the river in 1811. Two years later, he purchased 174 acres for the unheard of sum of seven thousand dollars. In those days, seven thousand dollars would be the cost of ten to fourteen thousand acres of undeveloped land. Bogart sold the property to Gilbert Aspinwall in 1814 at a profit of three thousand dollars.
During the 1815 session of the Georgia Legislature, $10,000.00 was appropriated for the clearing of the Oconee below Milledgeville. Among the five commissioners appointed to oversee the operations was Gen. David Blackshear, who had just completed two years of fighting the British and the Indians during the War of 1812. Blackshear and his colleagues Zachariah Lamar, James Alston, Richard A. Blount, and Jacob Robinson expended much time and labor without any reward except the knowledge that they were working for the public good. The latter of these gentlemen may have been the same Jacob Robinson, who owned thousands of acres along the Oconee River in southern Laurens County. An additional ten thousand dollars was expended in 1817.
River boats began plying the waters of the Oconee about 1817. In that same year, a wealthy Savannah mercantile firm purchased all of the land surrounding Gaines' Ferry for eight thousand dollars. The firm established a store in Dublin, which it operated until 1835. The senior partner of the firm was Andrew Low. His nephew, a Savannah merchant of the same name, was a central figure in Eugenia Price's Savannah novels. The younger Low's daughter-in-law, the former Miss Juliette Gordon, was the founder of the Girl Scouts.
"The Williamson" or "The Georgia" became the first steamboat to reach Milledgeville from Darien on April 13, 1819. Gradually, Dublin and Milledgeville, the state capital, rose to prominence as river ports. The trip took 40 days due to troubles with low water and snags. Two years later, Samuel Howard arrived in Milledgeville after an 18-day voyage from Darien. Milledgeville's importance was short-lived as reliable transportation was only had during the late winter and early spring. Farish Carter and John T. Roland's bold plan to use several boats failed in 1824.
The government of Georgia realized the importance of river transportation and frequently appropriated large sums of money to clear the river of obstructions. An act was passed in 1826 to clear the river below Milledgeville. Among those commissioners appointed to oversee the operation were Farish Carter of Baldwin County and, again, David Blackshear of Laurens County. The project was revived in 1836 and again on January 19, 1852, when Hardy Smith of Laurens County was appointed as a commissioner to clear the river below Milledgeville.
The Laurens County Academy was incorporated in 1819. Most of the early schools were conducted in the churches. Other academies established in the early 1830s were Troup, Dublin, Buckeye, and Laurens Hill.
Dublin planter, Henry Fuqua, was credited with being the first person to discover the feasibility of using cottonseed as a fertilizer. By the end of the first full decade of the county’s history, the population of the county swelled to 5436 souls. The total increase of 146%, boosted by a 400% in the slave population, resulted in the largest single population increase of any county in the state.
CHAPTER 4
1820s to 1850s: The Antebellum Decades
With no banks and no railroads, Dublin virtually faded away before the Civil War. Four land lotteries opened the remaining portions of Georgia over the next dozen years. The migration into western and southwestern Georgia caused a toll in the county’s population from 1820 to 1840. Capt. Basil Hall, of the English Royal Navy, came to Dublin in the early spring of 1828. Capt. Hall noted the appearance of a withering and decaying economy in Dublin. He found free whites and slaves working in the fields together. To his astonishment, he found the slaves here were treated much better and were clothed much better than those in the coastal counties. In 1830, Macon newspaperman Simri Rose described Dublin as "a town containing but a few inhabitants - most of the buildings are decaying and many unoccupied. Considerable calculations appear to have once been made on it as a place for business and many stores were erected, which are now, except for four or five, fast crumbling to the earth. This place has always been considered unhealthy and sometimes proved so. The value of its property has declined to the lowest ebb, and its general aspect of decay is calculated to create somber and unpleasant feelings."
Many people left Laurens, including Dr. Ambrose Baber, who later became a U.S. Minister to Sardinia. James S. Moore, son of Dublin's first physician, Dr. Thomas Moore, graduated from West Point in 1829, along with future generals Robert E. Lee and Joseph Johnston. Eli Shorter, Dublin's first lawyer, became prominent in legal affairs in Columbus. Ga. in the 1820s.
From 1820 to 1840, the population increased by only 149 persons. Only a few residences and stores were to be found. Antebellum plantations were scattered across the northern portions of the county. The major plantations were owned by the Tuckers, Yopps, Guytons, Troups, Whites, Harvards, Hamptons, O'Neals, Thomases, Blackshears, Kellams, Greens, Weavers, Coneys, and Stanleys.
Darsey’s Meeting House was established in 1824 as the county’s first permanent Methodist Church. The church was reinstituted as Buckhorn Methodist Church.
Most of southwestern Laurens County was a vast forest of virgin pine trees. Scottish cattlemen settled in the southern extremities of Laurens County. The Scots came to Montgomery County during the War of 1812 to raise fine beef cattle beneath the trees and in the wiregrass pastures. They were America's first cowboys when this part of Georgia was actually the southwestern United States. Nearly a half-century later, U.S. government experts estimated that the virgin pine timber amounted to a billion board feet. That is enough timber to build a four-inch-wide plank to the moon and back.
Laurens County's most well-known resident moved here in the early 1810s. George M. Troup served in the House and Senate of the United States from 1806 to 1818. Troup lived on the Old River Road just above I-16 on his four to five thousand-acre Valdosta Plantation. His two other plantations, Valambrosa and Thomas Cross Roads, were located east and northeast of Dudley. George Troup was one of the largest slave owners in Georgia. Many descendants of those slaves still live in Laurens County. One of his slaves was Isaac Jackson, known to many as "Old Isaac." Isaac was credited as being the last surviving slave of President George Washington.
In 1822, George Troup was elected Governor of Georgia in the last regular election by the legislature. Two years later, he became the first governor of Georgia to be elected by popular vote. Gov. Troup oversaw the acquisition of the last remaining Indian lands in Georgia. His actions brought the threat of military action by the United States if Georgia's expansionary practices were not halted. Gov. Troup returned to the United States Senate following his two terms as Governor. Gov. Troup's son, George M. Troup, Jr., was the first Laurens Countian to graduate from the University of Georgia. The governor’s daughter, Florida, married into the famous Bryan/Forman family of the Altamaha Delta of Georgia.
Gov. Troup sought the aid of his first cousin, William McIntosh, in the acquisition of Indian lands. McIntosh, half Scottish and half Creek Indian, was Chief of the Lower Creeks and a military leader who was allied with the Americans against the British in the War of 1812. McIntosh visited Troup on a regular basis. One legend states that the chief stayed at his reservation at Well Springs, about eight miles below Dublin, while visiting Gov. Troup. Chief McIntosh sent his children to school in Dublin during his visits. William McIntosh was attacked and murdered by Upper Creeks for his part in the sale of Indian lands. His son, Chili, who went to school in Dublin, escaped and later became the first state school superintendent in Oklahoma.
During the first three years of Governor Troup’s terms in office, his personal secretary, Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar, lived in Troup’s Valdosta home. In 1830, Lamar moved to Columbus, Georgia, where he established “The Columbus Enquirer.” He joined the army of Texas after the fall of the Alamo. Colonel Lamar led the cavalry at the Battle of San Jacinto and later became a major general and commander-in-chief of the army. Lamar served as Secretary of War in the interim administration of President David G. Burnet’s cabinet. In September of 1836, in the first national election in the Republic of Texas, he was elected as the first vice-president of Texas. Two years later, when President Sam Houston could not succeed himself as President, Lamar was elected as the second president of Texas. Lamar fought in the Mexican War of 1845 as a Lieutenant Colonel. In the last two years of his life, Lamar served as Ambassador to Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
James Hamilton Blackshear became the first Laurens Countian to graduate from the University of Georgia in 1826.
During the mid-1830s, the railroads first came to Georgia. The Central of Georgia Railroad planned to build a railroad from Savannah to Macon. The straightest line ran through Dublin and Laurens County. Local residents, led by Governor Troup, forced the railroad to the north. Ironically, their actions kept Dublin and Laurens County away from the route of the 60,000-man right wing of General William T. Sherman's army during its "March to the Sea."
The second documented tornado in Laurens County quickly struck Dublin on April 6, 1831, doing considerable damage to buildings, trees, and fences. One man lost a part of his ear when a remnant projectile of an old building whizzed by his head. The most celebrated meteor shower in the history of the United States awed and frightened most Laurens Countians on November 13, 1833. The earliest known snowfall in the history of the county came on April 6, 1834, when extra-large flakes swirled in a blizzard for a reported two hours. A total eclipse of the sun occurred on about 1:45 p.m. on November 30, 1834, with the path of absolute totality passing through a clear sky over northeastern Laurens County and directly over Blackshear’s Mill pond. It was the second such occurrence since August 13, 11 AD, and only the fourth in a five-thousand-year period from 2000 B.C. to 3000 A.D., the others being on May 1, 1504 B.C., and April 25, 404 A.D. The superstitious and the uneducated believed that “judgment day” had come. February 8, 1835, is still known to have been the coldest day in the history of Georgia. Temperatures fell locally to nine degrees below zero.
The last of the so-called “Indian Troubles” took place in 1836. General Eli Warren was in command of the militia in Laurens and the surrounding counties. In May 1836, Capt. George M. Troup, Jr., led the Laurens Volunteers as a part of the state’s expedition to finally rid the state of Indian depredations against its citizens. Other officers in the company were Lt. Newman McBain, 2nd Lt. Thomas N. Guyton and Ensign Edward J. Blackshear.
Freeman Rowe opened a branch of a Savannah bank in the
1840s. The State of Georgia once again renewed its plans to improve navigation along the Altamaha, Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers in 1851. Ten thousand dollars was appropriated under the management of a board of commissioners. The commissioners in charge of the Oconee River were Hardy Smith of Laurens County, along with William Joyce, John McArthur, and P.H. Lowd (sic) of Montgomery County.
In the 1840s, riverboat shippers turned to the railroads to transport their goods. The Central of Georgia Railroad bridged the Oconee twenty-five miles or so above Dublin at Raoul Station. The trip covered twenty-two miles over sandy hills and bad roads and on average took two and one-half days to complete. Dublin and Laurens County would remain without a railroad for nearly a half-century to come. In 1859, there was a 12-by-26-foot boat loaded with 500 bales of cotton transporting cotton from Milledgeville to Dublin. Just before the Civil War, the men of Dublin decided to build their own boat for use on the Oconee. Freeman H. Rowe and David Robinson built "The George M. Troup". Rowe and Robinson named their boat in honor of Gov. George M. Troup, who had recently passed away. Bob Roberson was the captain of the boat. His crew was composed of three slaves. Shade, the pilot, was hired in Savannah. Elex, a slave belonging to F.H. Rowe, was the cook. Moses, the property of Roberson, kept the deck in order.
Politics were as heated as ever in the 1830s and 1840s. Martin Van Buren did not receive a single vote in the 1836 presidential election. He quadrupled that total in losing the election to William Henry Harrison in 1840. By the 1840s, most of the county’s democratic voters began to shift their allegiance to the Whig Party, an unlikely alliance of southern democrats and northern liberals. Alexander Hamilton Stephens, the future Vice President of the Confederate States of America, became Laurens County’s first elected congressman in 1843.
Ethan Allen Chase came from New England to teach at Laurens Hill School, southwest of Dudley. After three years, he returned to the North. In the early 1890s, Chase moved to Riverside, California, where he was credited with founding the citrus industry in Southern California.
Court times were the only busy times in Dublin. Among the visiting lawyers were Charles J. Jenkins and Herschel V. Johnson, future governors of Georgia, and Judge Arthur E. Cochran, brother of Dublin attorney John Cochran, namesake of Cochran, Georgia, and President of the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. Rev. David Daniell of Laurens County founded the First Baptist Church of Atlanta in 1847. George Troup reluctantly ran for president of the United States as a State Rights Candidate in 1848.
Judge Cochran married Eugenia Tucker, daughter of Dr. Nathan Tucker, who was one of Laurens County’s largest land and slave owners. Miss Tucker attended Wesleyan College in Macon, where she became the founder and first president of the Aldephian Society, which later became the college sorority Alpha Delta Pi and was the world’s first secret collegiate society for women. Isabella “Carrie” Hamilton, the future Mrs. Everard H. Blackshear of Laurens County, was the first student to enter Wesleyan in 1836, when it became the first state-chartered college for women in America. Young John Anderson was the valedictorian of the senior class of the University of Georgia in 1852. Anderson went on to become a promising lawyer and a Baptist minister before serving as Quartermaster of the famed Cobb’s Legion in the Civil War.
Two former residents, Lott Warren and James L. Seward, served in the Congress of the United States in the 1840s and 1850s respectively. Laurens County was saddened in 1856 by the death of the venerable Gov. George M. Troup. Dr. Peter Early Love, a Laurens County native who also practiced law and sat on the bench of the Superior Court, was elected to Congress in 1859. Congressman Love was one of the Georgia congressmen who resigned their seats when the Ordinance of Secession was passed.
Boiling Springs Methodist Church was built in 1851. It still stands today as the oldest wooden church in the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. The Rev. John McGehee began his service as the first pastor of the First Methodist Church in Dublin in 1854. Rev. McGehee served for 63 years, making him the longest-serving active pastor and presiding elder in Georgia Methodism. In 1854, Laurens County erected a poor house and later a poor farm on the land now occupied by the Law Enforcement Center and Southern Pines Recreational Complex. The facility was used until the 1930s and remained in use as a prisoner work farm until the 1960s. Laurens County rapidly became an agricultural center of east central Georgia. With its enormous size and multitude of slaves, cotton and wool production began to soar.
During the early settlement of the southwestern quadrant of Laurens County, early settlers discovered the tens of thousands of acres of massive, virgin pines and rock-hard, strong oaks. Three monstrous pines of unknown length, which required forty-eight oxen to pull them, were taken to the coast and used in the construction of the Great Eastern Steamer. The Great Eastern Steamer was built in 1858 and is thought to be the first oceanliner prototype ship. The gigantic ship was designed to carry passengers from England to India. At the time the ship was launched, she was the largest ship in the world. It seems likely that more timbers from Laurens County were used in the construction of ships and buildings of note around the Southeast
In 1860, the county’s largest slave owners were Oralie Troup, daughter of Governor George M. Troup, Thomas Foreman, grandson of the governor, and the Blackshear brothers, Edward, Elijah and Everard. Other large slave owners were Hayden Hughes, Nathan Tucker, Ashley Vickers, Cullen O’Neal, Willis Brazeal, J.T. Fullwood, Mary Coney, and Joseph M. White. Two hundred and twenty-seven persons owned 3,269 slaves, which constituted nearly forty-seven percent of the county’s seven thousand residents.
On the eve of the Civil War, the civil government of Dublin had all but disappeared. On December 20, 1860, the Town of Dublin was re-incorporated under a commissioner form of government. James F. Robinson, George Currell, W. S. Ramsay, Joel E. Perry, and John B. Wolfe were appointed commissioners under the new form of government.
CHAPTER 5
The War Between The States - 1861-1865
James L. Seward, a former Laurens Countian and member of Congress, attended the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina. Set in the center of a brewing maelstrom, the divided delegates could not produce a candidate to defeat the rapidly rising Republican Party under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln. In late summer of 1860, fiery secession proponent Senator Robert Toombs spoke to a large crowd at the courthouse, urging Laurens Countians to leave the Union. It may be noted that Herschel V. Johnson, a former Georgia governor, United States Senator, and frequent practicing attorney in Laurens County, was on one of the three split Democratic tickets as a vice-presidential candidate.
Laurens County sent Jeremiah Yopp and Dr. Nathan Tucker, two of the county's largest slaveholders, as delegates to the Secession Convention in 1861. Dr. Tucker voted no on the issue of secession, thereby giving the county a split delegation. Though the delegation was split in its desires to remain in the Union, the popular vote for remaining as a part of the United States was an overwhelming sixty-seven percent. The landslide vote did not include any female votes, nor any votes of slaves. Obviously, a true poll of the voters’ beliefs would have been an overwhelming veto of the movement toward secession.
After the war, Ashley Vickers, a wealthy and influential planter, wrote to President Andrew Johnson stating that he was against secession and tried to convince all of his friends to remain with the Union. Many of the neighboring counties to the east also voted against leaving the Union.
Despite the fact that more than two-thirds of all Laurens Countians voted against secession, Laurens County furnished nearly seven hundred men to the armies of the 14th, 49th, 57th, and 63rd Georgia Infantry regiments of the Confederate States Army and several companies of the Georgia Militia and Reserves.
Laurens Countians fought in all of the major battles of the war with the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Tennessee. Sgt. Daniel Mason of Laurens County was the first to fall. Mason was wounded in the first battle of the war at Manassas and died several weeks later. Seven sons of Eason and Eliza Weaver Green enlisted in the Southern Army. Whiteford S. Ramsay and C.S. Guyton of Dublin were appointed Colonels in the Confederate Army. Col. Ramsay was appointed a Lt. Colonel a month after his 22nd birthday, making him one of the youngest colonels in the Confederate army. Lt. Col. Guyton, the highest-ranking Laurens County officer during the war, was given temporary command of Mercer’s Brigade just after the brigade was engaged at the beginning of the Battle of Atlanta. Dublin lawyer, Capt. Young Anderson served as Quartermaster of the famed Cobb's Legion.
William H. “Bill” Yopp, a former slave, served as a private in Co. H. of the 14th Georgia. He earned the nickname of "Ten Cent Bill" when he was doing chores for his fellow soldiers for ten cents. Private Yopp is the only African-American Confederate soldier buried in the National Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia. Three former slaves, Myers Blackshear, George Hozendorf, and Francis Hughes, enlisted in the Union Navy in 1863 and served until the end of the war.
Elijah Curl, a Laurens County private in the 49th Georgia, was given some credit for firing the shot that killed Gen. Phillip Kearney, the highest-ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War.
A few Laurens Countians were members of the 48th Georgia Infantry, which assaulted and overran Federal positions on Cemetery Ridge on July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, on the day before Gen. Pickett's failed charge marked the "high water mark of the Confederacy."
A small commissary was established by the Confederate Government at Laurens Hill on the Cochran Road near Dudley and Montrose. Future Dubliner Alex Moffett served in the Macon Volunteers with Georgia's most famous poet, Sidney Lanier. In the early months of 1864, Laurens Countians serving in the 57th Ga. Infantry were assigned as guards at Andersonville Prison. Dr.
Andrew J. Lamb, who practiced medicine in Laurens County after the war, left his infantry regiment and volunteered for service in the Confederate Navy. He was assigned to the C.S.S. Virginia, which was refitted with an iron hull and was also known as the Merrimac. In 1862, the Merrimac engaged the U.S.S. Monitor in one of the most famous one-to-one naval battles in the history of the World.
Laurens County itself avoided the war for the most part. General Joseph Wheeler, C.S.A., led his four thousand cavalrymen in a river crossing at Blackshear's Ferry in November of 1864 in an attempt to flank the right wing of Gen. Sherman's army. Gen. Samuel Ferguson and his Mississippi cavalry spent a few days in Laurens County protecting against an anticipated mission by Sherman's forces to capture Andersonville prison.
In late November of 1864, the closest battle to Laurens County occurred at Ball's Ferry near where Georgia Highway 57 crosses the Oconee River in Wilkinson County. Sherman's right wing was delayed for a few days by military cadets, prisoners and their guards, and the local Washington County militia. Legend has it that Major James B. Duggan and an elderly female slave tricked a Union cavalry unit into thinking that they were Wheeler's Cavalry. Their actions at the Lightwood Knot Bridge on the Toomsboro Road saved Chappell's, then Stanley's Mill, from destruction by the "Yankees." Chappell's Mill still stands in the northern part of the county. The mill was closed in the 1990s after nearly 180 years of operation.
In the summer of 1863, the Confederate government leased a 3,000-acre tract of land from Dr. Thomas A. Parsons for the location of an infirmary for diseased and broken horses. The institution, under the command of Capt. J.G. McKee was located at the very top of Laurens County along the eastern banks of the Oconee River and accommodated thousands of horses in hopes that they would recuperate and once again be of service to the Confederate Army.
In the days following General Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Laurens Countians wondered what the future held for them. Future Dubliner Louisa Kohn Baum attended the play "Our American Cousin" and witnessed the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Little did Laurens countians know they would be witnesses to history within a month. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, left Richmond before it fell. Davis traveled south in an attempt to escape to England or Texas.
On May 6, 1865, Davis and his escorts reached Sandersville. His family and the members of the Confederate Cabinet were traveling in a wagon train on a separate route. At Ball's Ferry in Washington County, Davis learned of a plot to rob the train. Davis traveled down the river road frantically looking for his family. They met at the home of E.J. Blackshear, son of Gen. David Blackshear. After a short rest and breakfast, the wagon train crossed the Oconee at dawn of May 7. Davis moved down the east bank of the river crossing below Dublin. Confederate Postmaster General John Reagan stopped the train in front of F.H. Rowe's store on the courthouse square. Rowe, a native of Connecticut and a loyal southerner, directed the Confederates along the Telfair Road. Davis spent that night at the southern tip of Laurens County between the forks of Alligator Creek.
That same night the Wisconsin Cavalry reached the Dublin Ferry. Col. Harnden was sent east from Macon in hopes of picking up Davis' trail. Col. Harnden was informed by former slaves of a small wagon train crossing the ferry earlier in the morning and that one of the men was called "Mr. President." When the cavalry arrived in Dublin, they were misdirected by Rowe, who sent them down the River Road east of the Telfair Road. Had the cavalry been sent a day earlier, Davis would have been captured in Laurens County. A day or two later, Davis might have escaped capture entirely. Davis and his party were captured two days later in Irwinville, Georgia. John Davis, the presidential carriage driver, returned to Laurens County to marry Della Conway, whom he met while he was in Dublin. The Davises lived here for the rest of the 19th century.
Gen. John C. Breckinridge, a former Vice-President of the United States, and Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State of the Confederacy, were right behind Davis and his party. Both men barely avoided capture in Laurens County and escaped to England.
CHAPTER 6
The 1860s and 1870s:
Reconstruction and Resurrection
The Reconstruction period was a difficult time for Laurens countians. Nearly half of the soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured during the war. One of those wounded men was Col. Jonathan Rivers. Col. Rivers, a Wilkinson County attorney and former Judge of the Court of Ordinary of that county, moved to Dublin in 1866. Col. Rivers, commanding officer of the 49th Ga. Infantry, survived two amputations. Rivers practiced law in Dublin from 1866 to 1873. Col. William H. Wylly, former Lt. Colonel of the 25th Georgia Infantry, C.S.A., practiced law in Dublin for a brief period in the latter part of the 1870s. Moses Guyton, a former Laurens County teenage soldier of the Confederacy, was named valedictorian of the graduating class of 1869 at the University of Georgia. Those surviving soldiers came back to a home that would never be the same.
Rev. George Linder was elected to the state legislature in 1868, becoming the county's first black representative by a virtually racially equal electorate. Rev. Linder founded three A.M.E. churches in Laurens County. His name is inscribed on a monument next to the Capitol in Atlanta.
At least ten former slaves, Madison Moore, Billy Coates, Tempy Stanley, Jack Robinson, Thomas Allen, Isaac Jackson, Frances Thompkins, Emily Horn, Daisy Wilson and Llewellyn Blackshear, reportedly lived well into their twelfth decades. Robinson, the oldest of the five, died in 1872 at the age of 118 years. Most of the former slaves took the surnames of their masters or men they respected. Among the many African-American families in this category were the Stanleys, Yopps, Guytons, Kellams, Blackshears, Whites, Perrys, Thomases, O'Neals, Coneys, and Troups. Many former slaves like George Linder, Crawford Lord, Ringold Perry and Madison Moore established large farms on their former master's lands.
The war also devastated the public schools of the county. In 1867, there was only one white school with only seventy students and one teacher. Blacks wanted to establish schools but had no money to do so. The county’s first corporation was established in 1868. F. H. Rowe, M. C. Holloway and John W. Yopp, of Laurens County, J. A. Brown, of Randolph County, John B. Wright, of Johnson County, and T. L. Brown, of Washington County, formed the Dublin Manufacturing Company for the manufacturing of cotton and wool, for the grinding of grain, and for the manufacture and repair of machinery.
The 1870s brought the genesis of the new age in Laurens County. Dublin and Laurens County were on the verge of a boom. The Laurens County Board of Education was established in 1872. Rev. W.S. Ramsay was appointed the first school commissioner. Richard “Dick” Hicks established Lee Academy for boys in the early 1870s. Hicks, a graduate of Washington and Lee University, named his Academy for the president of his alma mater, Gen. Robert E. Lee. In 1875, the Academy published The Student, the first newspaper in the county. The first weekly newspaper, The Dublin Gazette, was published by Col. John M. Stubbs in 1876. A year later, the paper was purchased by J.M.G. Medlock. In the 1880s, it was published by L.Q. Stubbs and Harris McCall Stanley. The Dublin Post was established in 1878. The first fire department was established in 1878. The department’s two segregated companies were led by Captains W.H. Tillery (white) and J.A. Yopp (colored.) Judge John T. Duncan established the county’s first weather station on April 1, 1878.
In the early 1870s, Dublin’s incoming and outgoing mail was turtle-like compared to the present day. It was in 1872 when the United States Postal Service altered a major mail route from New York City to Washington, D.C. to New Orleans. After the mail left Dublin, it was carried to Montgomery and Mobile in Alabama and finally to the “Crescent City.”
Rural post offices were being established in the 1870s. The trend of locating a post office at nearly every crossroads in the county continued through the early part of the twentieth century when rural free delivery began. Most of the post offices were consolidated into a central post office in a municipal area. Among the early post offices were Laurens Hill, Reedy Springs, Blackshear's Mill, Condor, Wylly, Buckhorn, Picciola, Tweed, Arthur, Branchville, Lovett, Inez, Hatoff, Beulah, Turkey, Dodo/Brewton, Nameless, Donaldson, Pearly, Walkee, Brutus, Dexter, Westbrook, Springhaven, Grimsley, Dudley, Montrose, Bender, Garbutt, Lollie/Minter, Elmwood, Musgrove, Maggie, Harlow, Martha, Itville, Kewanee, Orianna, Rockledge, Pinehill, Thairdale, Unit, Shewmake, Catlin, Kemper, Elliston, Rentz, Mullis/Cadwell, and Batson.
While relationships between whites and blacks were generally good when compared with other parts of the country, the largest slave insurrection ever devised in Georgia was thwarted in August 1875. The defendants were charged with plotting a reign of terror throughout Laurens, Johnson, Wilkinson and Washington counties. All of the defendants, including a dozen Laurens County men, were exonerated by all-white juries and grand juries, an amazing result considering the real fears of repercussion of disenchanted slaves and their descendants.
Rev. Moses McCall, a Baptist minister assigned to Laurens Hill Baptist Church in the 1870s, served as the President of Monroe Female College, the predecessor of Bessie Tift College.
CHAPTER 7
The 1880s: Railroads, Steamboats and Demon Rum
John M. Stubbs, Robert C. Henry, William H. Tillery, and William Burch formed the Oconee River Steamboat Company, which rejuvenated the steamboat traffic along the Oconee River to Darien in the late 1870s. In the summer of 1867, citizens of Savannah and others living along the Altamaha, Oconee, and Ocmulgee Rivers formed the Altamaha, Ocmulgee, and Oconee Steamboat Company.
Capt. Robert C. Henry, a native of North Carolina, became the father of river boating in Laurens County. He brought "The Colville. "Captain Henry would go on to make a fortune in the riverboat business. He turned his interest to timber and banking in the late 1880s. River transportation lived and died with the rain. The wet season usually ran from mid-fall to mid-spring. Captain Henry joined forces with Dublin lawyer and newspaper owner, Col. John M. Stubbs, to form the Oconee River Steamboat Company. The Company purchased a site for their wharf from Hayden Hughes for $35.00 on February 5, 1879.
R.L. Hicks, a Dublin school teacher, a partner in the firm fo Hicks, Peacock, and Hicks, and rival newspaper editor, launched the "William M. Wadley" in August of 1883.
Changes were being made in the Oconee River Steamboat Company. Captain Henry was succeeded by Jeff D. Roberson, followed by T.B. Hicks, George B. Pope, and A.B. Jones. "The Laurens" sank after a collision with a log raft at a double bend in the river on June 9, 1887.
A new company, The Louisa Steamboat Company, was incorporated on September 21, 1891. "The Gypsy" and "The Rover" were built by the Forest and Stream Club, but were used by Col. Stubbs for hauling freight. Captain William Willard Ward was in command. Capt. Ward, a native of Florida, was one of the few men of Laurens County to enlist in the army during the Spanish-American War.
In 1879, Col. Stubbs joined with L. C. Perry, David Ware, Jr., Rollin A. Stanley and Robert C. Henry, and citizens of Wilkinson County in establishing the county’s first telegraphic connection with the outside world. The Dublin Telegraph Company was established to run a telegraph line from Dublin to Toomsboro on the Central of Georgia Railroad, thereby connecting Dublin to one of the state’s major communication lines. John Stubbs built his own cotton gin factory in 1880.
Meanwhile, Laurens Countians finally agreed that in order to thrive, Dublin would need a railroad. Dublin was down to a mere ten stores. The town lived and died with the fluctuations of the depth of the Oconee River. Winter rains and summer droughts often ground the economy to a halt. Local businessmen took subscriptions to build the Dublin and Wrightsville Railroad from Wrightsville to the Oconee River, giving Dublin a connection with the railroad's terminus at the Central of Georgia Railroad at Tennille. The first train of the Dublin & Wrightsville Railroad reached the eastern banks of the Oconee River on September 11, 1886. From a temporary depot, passengers and freight were carried by ferried across to Dublin.
Col. John Stubbs, of Dublin, and Dudley M. Hughes, of Danville, began a railroad from Macon to Dublin with plans to extend it to Savannah. The Macon and Dublin Railroad, along with the Savannah, Dublin, and Western Shortline, ultimately failed. Nearly twenty years after the first railroad meetings were held, the Dublin and Wrightsville Railroad reached the east bank of the Oconee in the fall of 1886. With no bridge, freight and passengers were unloaded and ferried across the river into Dublin.
Abe Maas and his brother Isaac started their retail career in Cochran, Georgia. By 1880, Abe was operating a store in Dublin, Georgia. In 1886, Abe decided to move to a better location and chose Tampa, at the time a small village on Florida's west coast. Maas Brothers opened its third, and largest, store in 1921. This store was the second-largest department store in Florida, and it contained the first escalator installed in Florida. By 1929, Maas Brothers dominated Florida's West Coast. It was known as "Greater Tampa's Greatest Store
The town of Bruton became the county’s second town on August 20, 1889. The name was officially changed to Brewton in 1895. The first slate of the town’s governing officials was Mayor M. M. Sheppard and councilmen Dr. Esra New, D. F. Williamson, J. A. Jackson, G. T. Mason, and J. O. Wilson. Three days later, the Town of Lovett, Bruton’s sister stop on the Wrightsville & Tennille, was incorporated. William Bales was appointed Mayor. W. H. H. Bush, M. R. Rachels, Z. M. Sterling, J. M. Hutchinson, and E. A. Lovett were hereby appointed as the first councilmen.
In early February 1881, perhaps the greatest flood in the history of Laurens County ravaged the lands along the river. One reporter stated that the river was more than a mile wide in Dublin. A tornado cut a one-hundred and twenty-five-foot-wide swath through Laurens County on May 14, 1881, in what was described as an unprecedented destruction of timber. A slight to moderate earthquake shook Dublin early in the morning of March 22, 1884. The beginning of the shakeup in Dublin's stagnation as a town began with the coming of the railroad, which nearly coincided with the great Charleston earthquake of 1886. An extremely powerful quake gently shook the buildings and people of Laurens County on the night of August 31, 1886. In the latter days of July 1887, a strong hurricane entered the area from the south and dissipated over the Oconee River area. After four consecutive days of heavy rains, the Oconee River swelled to its greatest heights. As much as 16.5 inches of rain poured into the drainage area of the river. One correspondent stated that the river was four miles wide just below the town of Dublin.
Most of Dublin’s entire business district was destroyed by fire on May 26, 1889. The town arose from the fire and began rebuilding before the last embers died out. Large fires continued to plague Dublin until the use of modern firefighting equipment was instituted in the 1950s.
Politics were big in Laurens County in the 1880s. Among those politicians visiting Dublin were Benjamin Harvey Hill, a senator in both the United States and Confederate governments; Gov. Charles Jenkins, who hid the state seal and valuable state documents from Federal reconstruction officials; Alexander Stephens, former Governor, Senator, and Vice President of the Confederate States of America; and John B. Gordon, Governor, Senator, and a Lt. General and a Corps Commander in the Confederate Army. Gordon is said to have ridden into town on a mule when his train broke down. Judge David Roberts, a native of Laurens, was a member of the 1888 Democratic National Convention, which nominated a Union hero of the Battle of Gettysburg, Winfield Scott Hancock. Dublin mayor Thomas B. Felder, Jr., served as a presidential elector in 1888. In 1906, Felder was the first Laurens countian to appear before the Supreme Court of the United States. Felder served as delegate to a Democratic national convention and took an active role in the Leo Frank murder trial, and found himself in the middle of the Teapot Dome scandal and its related cases of the 1920s. He died under mysterious circumstances, as did many other members of the inner circle of President Warren G. Harding, including Harding himself.
In October 1883, the Dublin Gazette reported that one out of every three men on the streets was “beastly drunk.” The question of the legalization of liquor sales bitterly divided the town of Dublin for the entire decade. It wasn’t until the prohibitionists convinced the Georgia legislature to ultimately decide the issue by requiring bar owners to pay a prohibitive license fee of ten thousand dollars per year to operate that liquor sales were effectively banned. With the closing of the town’s six barrooms, drinkers were forced to scour in the dark to get a drink.
Judge John T. Duncan led the effort to build a bridge over the Oconee. Dr. R.H. Hightower's wooden bridge washed away in a flood. In 1883, the first election to build the bridge failed due to the no votes from western Laurens County and the Buckeye District of eastern Laurens County, which had Blackshear's Ferry. The first permanent bridge project began in earnest in 1890, when the United States approved the project.
In the winter of 1888, Mrs. C.L. Howell, of the Buckeye District, may have established a world record when she delivered triplets weighing a total of thirty pounds. Throughout the decade, accidental deaths, injuries, snake bites, and arson were frequently in the news. In an ultra-rare sight, J.D. Horn spotted a penguin in the waters of the Blackshear Mill Pond.
CHAPTER 8
The 1890s: The Phoenix Rises
The year 1891 was one of the most important in the history of the county. Four events signaled the beginning of the explosive growth of Dublin and Laurens County's "Golden Era." The Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad completed a concrete railroad bridge over the river. The other two events occurred on July 22, 1891, when the first permanent passenger bridge was completed through the efforts of Judge John T. Duncan, who died a few weeks after his dream had been realized. That same day, the Macon, Dublin, and Savannah Railroad was completed into Dublin. This railroad was headed by Dudley Hughes of Danville, Col. John M. Stubbs and Capt. Hardy Smith, both of Dublin. New communities sprang up along the main railroads. A.H. McLaws of Augusta, brother of Confederate General Lafayette McLaws, began to publish the “Dublin New Era.”
A third railroad, the Empire and Dublin Railroad, later known as the Oconee and Western, came to Dublin in 1891. On its path was Dexter, which grew to become the second-largest town in Laurens County. This railroad helped to open up a portion of Laurens County, which had been a large forest of virgin pines. It opened all the way to Hawkinsville in 1893, giving Laurens County a connection to markets to the south and west. Dexter, a railroad stop formerly known as Barnes, was incorporated on August 22, 1891. T. A. Wood was the first mayor. J. H. Witherington, W. W. Wynn, W. L. Herndon, J. H. Smith and T. H. Shepard were the town’s first councilmen.
The Farmers Alliance and the Laurens County Farmers Union became the largest political group in Laurens County in the late 1880s. Throughout most of the 1890s, the views of the alliance men often caused a divisive rift between local Democratic voters.
In 1890, Lucien Q. Stubbs, one of Dublin’s most popular mayors, was appointed as Captain of the Dublin Guards Light Infantry, which was one of nine companies that composed the Fourth Regiment of Georgia Volunteers. The volunteers mustered and trained on a regular basis throughout the end of the century. They disbanded in the early 1900s.
The Brewton and Pineora Railroad, came to Brewton at the turn of the century, giving Laurens County its first direct route to Savannah through Scott, Adrian and Stillmore in 1901. That next year, the Macon, Dublin, and Savannah Railroad completed its line to Vidalia, giving Dublin its second direct route to Savannah.
Gertrude Johnson Stubbs was born in 1843 in Jefferson County, Georgia. Her father was a lawyer practicing primarily in Louisville. When she was one, her father was chosen as a presidential elector. The Johnsons moved to Baldwin County. He served for a short time as a U.S. Senator before returning to Georgia to serve as a Judge of the Superior Court. As the nation rapidly sped toward Civil War, Gertrude's father found himself in the spotlight of political cataclysm which evolved in Georgia and throughout the nation. Elected governor of Georgia in 1853, she moved to Milledgeville to live in the governor's mansion. In the highly contested presidential election of 1860, her father was nominated by the democratic party as it's candidate for vice-president on the ticket with Stephen Douglas.
The county’s fifth railroad, the Wadley and Mt. Vernon, was completed to the M.D. & S., and the boom town of Rockledge was born. The sixth and final railroad, the Dublin and Southwestern, was completed to Eastman in 1905, creating the towns of Rentz and Cadwell. Cedar Grove was on the proposed railroad to McRae. That railroad failed despite the support of the powerful future governor, Eugene Talmadge. Cedar Grove, the largest town in acreage ever created in Laurens County, was incorporated on August 17, 1908. John P. Harrell was appointed mayor. James Purvis, J. T. Parish, W. E. Kinchen, J. Y. Hill and S. Harrelson were the town’s first councilmen.
Dublin, at the intersection of five railroads, exploded almost overnight. With the prohibition of liquor sales, Dublin had outgrown its image as a lawless and violent community. The railroads brought in new industries. Downtown Dublin was filled with all types of mercantile stores, from department stores to dry goods, to grocery stores. Around the turn of the century, local businessman and newspaperman L.H. Hilton purchased the old hotel on the courthouse square, which later became Dublin City Hall. The hotel was named for the owner, a custom in those days, possibly making it the first Hilton Hotel in America. About the same time in the mid-1890s, the first African-American hotel, The La Africana Hotel, was erected on South Lawrence Street, between the two side entrances to the present Bank of Dudley. The name may have been changed to the Linder Hotel about the year 1904.
The railroads opened up southern Laurens County, where farmers planted cotton where tall pines once grew. The cotton compress of the Georgia Warehouse and Compress Company was completed in 1895. The company boasted that a farmer's Monday morning cotton would be aboard a European-bound ship on Tuesday afternoon.
The city of Dublin established its own power plant, bringing the first electric lights into homes and businesses. The Dublin Telephone and Telegraph Company was granted a franchise on December 20, 1897. The Dublin Furniture Manufacturing Company was established in the Scottsville section of the northeastern part of the city. The city’s first true industrial building went out of business in less than ten years.
The Rev. George Mathews, a future pastor of the First Methodist Church, founded the Indian Springs Holiness Association in 1890 and served as its president for more than two decades. Delegates to the Weekly Press Association of Georgia gathered in Dublin in 1898. Bishop Henry M. Turner, the first Civil Rights leader in Georgia, spoke to large crowds in Dublin in November 1898 during the annual conference of the Macon District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In December of 1899, the First Methodist Church hosted the annual convention of the South Georgia Methodist Church.
Dublin’s newspapers had their ups and downs. Among the papers published in the city were The Free Ballot, The Dublin Courier, The Dispatch, The Dublin Enterprise, and The People.
The Dublin Cotton Mills, designed by the Wrigley Engineering Company, went into full operation under the direction of Superintendent P.L. West, formerly of Eufaula, Alabama, on January 5, 1902, with 160 looms supplemented by 5000 spindles. The operation of the mill caused a small city with its own stores and churches to form around the mill, which was located on Marion Street just beyond the city water tower.
Kewanee's peach orchard, with its some 350,000 trees, was hailed as the world's largest, but it succumbed to several hard freezes which the investors never overcame. On February 24, 1894, it was reported that 8.4 inches of snow fell on Dublin. Perhaps the coldest day ever recorded in the history of the county came on February 13, 1899, when temperatures fell to at least five degrees below zero. Thirty- mile- per-hour winds blew across four inches of snow and caused the wind chill temperature to drop to thirty-three degrees below zero. On July 5, 1898, and again on October 14, 1899, the depth gauge near the river bridge measured one foot and three inches below zero.
Charles E. Choate, a well-renowned early 20th-century architect, spent several years during the mid-1890s training under Dublin architect, the Rev. George C. Thompson. His most well-known design in Dublin is the Bashinski-Claxton House on Bellevue Ave.
Riverboat Captain W.W. Ward, was the first Laurens Countian to volunteer for service in the Spanish-American War. Dubliner William Little, a member of the 9th U.S. Cavalry, followed Col. Teddy Roosevelt up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. Following the war, Private Little served as an orderly for Arthur McArthur, Governor-General of the Philippines and father of Gen. Douglas McArthur. Dr. C.P. Johnson, perhaps Dublin’s first Negro physician and a former slave educated by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, left his practice for Cordele in 1895. Dr. B. Judson Simmons, a Laurens County native, graduated with honors from Meharry Medical School, became Milledgeville’s first African American physician and the first known Laurens County African American native to practice medicine.
It was in the late autumn of 1894 when a young Nat Porter of Dodge County was transferred to the chain gang of Laurens County. Porter, a convicted gambler, was mercilessly beaten by his guards. This single outrage, which sparked a five-year debate on the method of which convicts were leased and how they were treated, led to the virtual end of the convict lease system in Georgia.
W.W. Robinson knew how to sell hardware. His hardware business skills were second to none in Laurens County at the turn of the 20th Century. In 1906, Robinson’s fellow hardware dealers around the state elected Robinson as President of the Retail Hardware Dealers’ Association of Georgia.
A navigable and unimpeded river was a key to Dublin’s growth as an inland river port. Beginning in the 1890s and lasting for several decades, the U.S. Corps of Engineers worked with local and state officials to clear the river of rocks and dangerous snags of dead trees. The clearing of the river allowed many timbermen to float their logs into Dublin from the north and from Dublin to the south down the Oconee River to its terminus at the Altamaha River.
CHAPTER 9
The 1900s and 1910s:
The Golden Age of the Emerald City
A six-inch blanket of snow covered the fields, farms, forests, and houses of Laurens County on the very first day of the Twentieth Century. This unusual snowfall would go unmatched until February 25, 1914, when 6.5 inches covered the ground.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Dublin was the third fastest growing city in Georgia. Dublin grew so fast that boosters named it "The only town in Georgia that's doubling all the time." People by the thousands came into a town that numbered only a few hundred two decades before. The county's population grew by 572% during the period from 1890 to 1910. Laurens County went from 52nd in population in 1890 to 14th in 1900 and was the third fastest growing county in the state. People from several states and countries came to Dublin. The 1900 census revealed that Laurens was the sixth-largest county in Georgia. From 1900 to 1910, Laurens County dropped to the seventh largest county in the state, but was the second fastest growing county in Georgia, only behind the capital county of Fulton. Once source noted that Dublin had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the nation.
The Macon, Dublin, and Savannah Railroad was extended to Vidalia in the summer of 1901, where it joined the tracks of another railroad and gave Laurens countians a direct route to Savannah. For more than two decades, Laurens Countians took excursion trains to Tybee Island for a day of fun in the sun.
Finally, not one, but two banks, The Dublin Banking Company and The Laurens Banking Company, were organized in Dublin in 1898. The first permanent bank building was erected in 1893 by Captain R. C. Henry on the northwest corner of West Jackson and North Jefferson Streets. Before the period of economic growth ended, Dublin would be home to seven banks. The First National Bank of Dublin was organized in 1902. The First National, "the largest country bank in Georgia," issued its own national bank notes and built Dublin's tallest building in 1912. The massive building, which is a contributing property to the Downtown Dublin National Historic District, was designed by the prominent architect A. Ten Eyck Brown, of Atlanta. At the beginning of World War I, Laurens County had more banks than any county in Georgia, other than Fulton and Chatham counties.
The Dexter Banking Company was granted a charter on January 18, 1904. The bank voluntarily liquidated itself at the end of the depth of the depression.
The oldest bank in Laurens County in continuous operation is the Bank of Dudley. A charter was granted to T.J. Walker, I.J. Duggan, W.J. Gilbert, R.J. Chappell, and B.S. Russell on October 2, 1905. Laurens County's third bank, the Cadwell Banking Company, was granted a charter on January 5, 1910. The bank failed to open on a fall day in 1928, and Cadwell was without a bank. The Farmers and Merchants Bank originated in the railroad junction community of Brewton. The fifth county bank was opened in the northwestern Laurens County town of Montrose. The Montrose Banking Company was incorporated in June of 1911. C.R. Williams founded the bank, as he had many others in our area. The bank failed following the severe economic depression following World War I. Later in August of 1911, a second bank was formed in Dexter. The Farmers State Bank opened on August 19, 1911. The bank was absorbed by the Dexter Banking Company in 1913. The following fall, another Farmers’ State Bank was formed at the opposite end of the county in Lovett. The bank suffered a similar fate to the Montrose Banking Company. The bank boom continued in April of 1912 with the establishment of the Bank of Rockledge. C.R. Williams helped establish yet another bank for the citizens of Rockledge. The Bank of Rockledge failed like all its sister small-town banks. C.R. Williams led a group of local citizens in forming the Citizens Bank of Cadwell, which was granted a charter on November 5, 1913. The Rentz Banking Company succeeded the ill-fated Bank of Rentz. The new bank was reorganized in May of 1914 with the help of several Dublin businessmen.
More new towns were being incorporated. Once, slightly populated railroad stops were given official recognition as municipalities. Dudley, originally known as Elsie, was incorporated on December 20, 1902. T. H. Hooks was appointed as the town’s first mayor. I. J. Duggan, W. J. Gilbert, W. R. Cook, Felix Bobbitt, and R. J. Chappell served as the first councilmen. On August 21, 1905, Rentz became the first incorporated town along the Dublin and Southwestern railroad, which ran from Dublin to Eastman. J. P. Pughsley was chosen by the legislature as the town’s first mayor. The first town council was composed of J. L. Proctor, A. W. Davidson, J. E. Gay, Dr. C. E. Rentz, and Dr. W. E. Bedingfield. The town of Mullis came next. On August 1, 1906, the legislature appointed W. H. Tate, W. H. Mullis, and D. E. Mullis as town council members. J.P. Barrs was the first mayor of the town, which was absorbed by the town of Cadwell after only a few years of existence. Cadwell, the third town on the Dublin and Southwestern Railroad, was incorporated on August 22, 1907. J. W. Warren was appointed mayor of the town. The council was composed of James Burch, Joe Etheridge, C. C. Cadwell and Ed Walden. Rockledge was incorporated on August 17, 1908, with W. H. H. McLendon as the first mayor. L. A. Autry, Rollin M. Keen, R. N. Odum and J.R. Hester constituted Rockledge’s first town council.
A massive fire destroyed most of the business section of Brewton in April 1900.
The first sanitarium was opened on North Jefferson Street by Dr. J. H. Bradley in 1900. The businessmen of Dublin organized the Young Men's Business League in 1900. Two years later, the Dublin Board of Trade was organized by T.L. Griner, S.M. Gibson, H.M. Stanley, W.F. Schaufele, J.B. Outler, N.B. Baum, O.H.P. Rawls, J.A. Jackson, E.R. Orr, Emanuel Dreyer, J.S. Simons, Jr., H.G. Stevens and Z. Whitehurst. It was later reorganized into the Dublin Chamber of Commerce in 1911. At the turn of the Twentieth Century, sentimentalism and celebration of the exploits of Confederate veterans swept the South and Laurens County. The veterans began to meet on a regular basis. Their male descendants, led by C.A. Weddington and J.E. Burch, in 1901 formed the first Sons of Confederate Camp, which they named in honor of Gov. George M. Troup of Laurens County. Every community was improving their schools. Laurens County farmers led the state in the production of sweet potatoes in 1901. A.W. Garrett, A.R. Arnau, and F.H. Rowe led the formation of the county’s first Y.M.C.A. chapter in Dublin. The soil along the banks of the Oconee River in Dublin provided brick manufacturers with an abundant supply of clay. L.A. Chapman’s Dublin Brick Company furnished the city of Jacksonville, Florida, with three million bricks to rebuild after a devastating 1901 fire. The largest of the several brick companies along the river had the capacity to produce a million bricks in a single month.
Dublin Bandmaster Professor Carl Leake had traveled the country playing with the best musicians around before coming to Dublin to teach music and lead the local band. When the news broke that two of his former bandmates were wanted in connection with a murder, he took special notice. Antonio Meggio played the coronet under the direction of Leake in a Texas band. Albert Shaw played clarinet in Leake’s band in Jackson, Mississippi. Leake, who considered both men as good musicians, remembered Meggio as a short, dark-skinned, and unlikable person. Shaw was known as an anarchist and socialist. Both men were arrested as suspects in the assassination of President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York, in 1901. Albert Shaw was quickly cleared of any involvement. Maggio had publicly predicted the assassination a year earlier in 1900. Maggio was exonerated of all charges. Maggio was an early leader of American Jazz, Rhythm and Blues. In the year in which McKinley was killed, Maggio composed the two-time, rag-time “I Got The Blues,” the first known published blues song with the word “blues” in it.
Rural Free Delivery began on New Year’s Day 1902. The first route was along Dexter Route # 1 to the communities of Dexter, Nameless, and Reedy Springs. The first modern self-standing post office was completed in 1903 on the southwest corner of South Jefferson and West Madison by Frank G. Corker. Within a decade, a new government-funded post office was built a block away. The building was razed in favor of Corker’s bank, the First National Bank. In 1903, the Dublin Courier-Dispatch installed the first linotype printing machine by a newspaper outside the Big Six cities in Georgia.
The first automobile came in 1902, thrilling onlookers and frightening horses. Dr. Charles W. Hicks was elected President of the Georgia State Medical Association. The Georgia Cooperage Company, with a daily capacity of 10,000 barrel staves, was established in Dublin. J.A. Jackson took a delivery of more than ten thousand dollars' worth of tobacco products for his store in Dublin in 1902. The shipment was said to have been the largest ever made to a retail store. During an intense thunderstorm in the summer of 1902, Dr. G.F. Green noticed that snowflakes were falling out of the dark storm clouds.
Laurens County maintained 117 schools, the second most of any county in the state. The Dublin City Board of Education made a firm commitment to provide a superior learning environment for its students. The board hired many of the state’s top educators to head the school system. Among the most widely heralded of these superintendents were Joseph C. Wardlaw, a future head of Extension Services at the University of Georgia, Kyle T. Alfriend, future President of Georgia Military College, and W.P. Martin all of whom would later be elected presidents of the Georgia Education Association.
The citizens of Dublin built the first library in 1904 with the aid of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. That small library has grown into a regional library serving over one hundred thousand patrons with state-of-the-art technology resources. "Laughing Ben" Ellington toured the country with his humorous storytelling Vaudeville act. His most famous performances came at the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo. Following a 1901 fire that destroyed the Dublin Academy, the city school board in 1902 erected a two-story modern brick school building, which now serves as Dublin’s city hall. The school’s auditorium served as a community auditorium. In one of the first public events, Tom Watson, the widely heralded Georgia Populist politician, electrified a capacity crowd with his oratorical skills in December. Ernest Camp, editor of the Dublin Times, was known far and wide as the “Wiregrass Poet.” His column, Learned in Laurens, featured his humorous and entertaining poetry. Camp gained fame as editor of the Walton Tribune and was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame in 1962.
The Laurens County Board of Health met for the first time on February 5, 1904. The board was initially composed of Chairman A.R. Arnau, Secretary Dr. L.J. Thomas, and board members and physicians J.G. Carter, J.E. New, and Wiley Wood. In one of its first major steps to combat disease, the board worked with the city of Dublin in establishing a detention camp and pest house across the river in East Dublin. A spring-fed pool was constructed to help cure smallpox victims. Judge John S. Adams and Ernest Camp organized a local military company, The Laurens Volunteers. W.C. Davis was elected captain. Dr. Hugh Moore, T.O. Dupree, and A.M. Wolfe were elected to serve as company lieutenants. C.W. Brantley completed construction of the county’s first three-story building. Brantley added the third story to his building at the northwest corner of West Jackson and North Lawrence streets to accommodate the lodge of Laurens Lodge No. 75 F&A.M. in the fall of 1904.
The Four Seasons Department Store, the largest in this section of Middle Georgia, became the third firm in Georgia to take out a four-page newspaper ad. The Bank of Dexter was founded in 1904. This bank was the first bank founded outside of Dublin. The Bank of Dexter’s lineal descendant carries that mark in its name, First Laurens Bank. The Bank of Dudley, Laurens County's oldest, was founded in 1905. The first Theater, the Theatorium, was opened in 1905 by Mrs. R.H. Hightower. Over the years, Dublin would be home to theatres such as The Crystal, The Rose, The Ritz, The Gem, The Star, The Amusu, and The Strand. Dublin’s modern city hall was opened in 1905. Preston Brooks Rice was the head cheerleader at Georgia Tech, when football was still young and John Heisman was the team’s head coach.
Miss Emma Perry and the members of the Poplar Springs North Church community established the Poplar Springs Industrial School in 1906. It was one of the first of its kind in rural Georgia. Senie M. Hubbard, a resident of Macon and a native of Laurens County, served as a Worthy Grand Matron of Georgia from 1906-1910, the only woman in the state chapter’s history to serve five years in the top position. The trial of G.A. Tarbutton and Joe Flucker for the murder of Letcher Tyre grabbed the headlines in the fall of 1906. The attorneys for the defendants, after an analysis of the Laurens-Johnson county line, were able to convince the court that the alleged murder actually took place in Johnson County. The baffling result of the case was that Laurens County picked up an additional one hundred acres of territory, and the defendants were never indicted by a more sympathetic hometown grand jury. Dr. Charles Kittrell became the first person to manufacture eyeglasses outside a large city in the Southeast. Dr. Kittrell served as the President of the Georgia Association of Optometrists in 1908. The original Buster Brown and Tige arrived in downtown Dublin on February 13, 1907. A crowd of nearly five thousand showed up to get a glimpse of the dog Tige, wearing sunglasses with a cap on his head and a cigar in his mouth.
Throughout the first decade of the Twentieth Century, the city of Dublin continually made improvements to its infrastructure. W.R. Mack published the weekly “Dublin Enterprise” from 1904 to 1908, the city’s first black owned newspaper. The city completed a half-million-gallon reservoir in 1908. The first paved street was that portion of North Jackson Street along the northern side of the courthouse square in 1909. M.B. Stevens, of Dublin, worked as the Secretary to Panama Canal Zone Governors, Col. Chester Harding and George W. Goethals, during the construction of the Panama Canal.
As the young men who fought for the Confederacy began to grow very old, their children and grandchildren banded together to commemorate their heroism and bravery. Under the auspices of the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a thirty-five-foot, ninety-thousand-pound marble statue was erected on the lawn of the Carnegie Library at the intersection of Bellevue Avenue and Academy Avenue. After a four-year dispute when the statue remained veiled, the monument to the Confederate soldier was dedicated on Confederate Memorial Day in 1912.
Stubbs Park, designed by world-renowned horticulturist P.J. Berckmans, opened in 1909. Berckmans' beautiful home gardens became a part of the Augusta National Golf Course. The Dublin High School’s first athletic team played on an outdoor court in the park after playing their first game on the road against Mercer University in 1911.
Stubbs, who had first married Ella Tucker, daughter of Dr. Nathan Tucker, a wealthy Laurens County planter and physician, once again remarried. His new bride was Victorie Lowe. Victorie was born in Maryland. Her father, Enoch Louis Lowe, served as the Governor of Maryland from 1851 to 1854. A staunch Democrat, Lowe served as a member of the Democratic National Convention in 1856 and was a presidential elector in the decisive 1860 Presidential election. In the winter of 1861, Lowe was ready to take a seat in the United States Senate, but the beginning of the Civil War forced this ardent secessionist into exile in Virginia during the war.
The Chautauqua Festival was the main entertainment event every summer from 1902 to 1909. Dr. Charles Kittrell led a community effort to build a large wooden auditorium to house the festival and other community events in 1906. The auditorium, with a seating capacity of 1625, was located on the west side of South Monroe Street and just above the railroad and featured one of the largest stage curtains in the state of Georgia. The annual summer Chautauqua programs consisted of scientific, musical, educational, literary, political, and religious lectures and performances. Dr. Frederick Cook, the self-proclaimed discoverer of the North Pole, spoke to large crowds in 1902 and 1913. Future congressman and admiral, Richard P. Hobson, a hero of the Spanish-American War, spoke to the largest Chautauqua festival to date in 1906. In October of 1908, Thomas E. Watson, Populist candidate for President, became the first and only presidential candidate to appear in Dublin during an election campaign. Perennial presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan spoke to a large crowd at the auditorium during the Summer Festival of 1911. The building burned shortly thereafter.
Thousands of Baptists from all over the state gathered in Dublin during the middle of November 1909 for their State Convention. In attendance were former Georgia governors William J. Northern and Joseph M. Terrell, then current governor Joseph Brown, and future governor Clifford Walker. J.B. Daniel was elected Grand Regent of the Royal Arcanum of Georgia in 1911.
Laurens County’s first County fair opened on October 23, 1911, inside the store of Gilbert Hardware Company. Seeking a more appropriate venue for the fair, Peter S. Twitty, Jr., R.M. Martin, Frank Lawson, Vivian L. Stanley, James M. Finn, Thomas W. Hooks, Sam Bashinski, Izzie Bashinski, E.R. Carswell, and the owners of the Four Seasons Department Store organized the 12th Congressional District Fair Association in 1912. The first district fair was held on the site of the present-day Farmers Market, and in 1916 moved to the northwest corner of Troup Street and Telfair Street. The first fair featured speeches by Governor John Slaton, Congressman Dudley M. Hughes, and future Senator Thomas E. Watson.
An attempt to establish a 12th District College in Dublin was surprisingly nixed in favor of one in the much smaller town of Cochran. The school later became Middle Georgia College.
During the year 1912, eight associations held their state conventions. During the pinnacle of Dublin’s reputation as a central meeting area, the members of the Al Sihah Mystic Temple of the Shrine, the State Sunday School Association, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Georgia Banker’s Association, the Weekly Press Association, the State Agricultural Society, the Macon Presbytery, and the Hotel Keepers of Georgia, all gathered in the Emerald City for business meetings and pleasurable activities. The earliest snowfall ever recorded in Laurens County took place on Thanksgiving Day (November 28, 1912.) That year was also the wettest year ever measured, with 70.3 inches, more or less.
Laurens was a perennial leader in the production of cotton, having led the state in production from 1911 through 1913. In July of 1911, the Laurens Cotton Oil Company began the erection of one the largest cotton gins in Georgia. In 1911, the county produced well over thirty million pounds of cotton. That crop, larger than that of the state of Missouri, was the largest ever produced in Georgia by a single county until the age of mass production on large corporate farms in the late 1990s. It should also be noted that the year 1912 was the wettest recorded year in Laurens County with an annual rainfall of In the years that Laurens was not first, it followed only Burke County. To capitalize on the massive cotton production, the Laurens Cotton Oil Company erected the largest cotton gin in the state in 1912. The 1914 crop of nearly sixty thousand bales was the second largest in county history and the second in the state that year. The Dixie Cotton Company was organized in 1913 and was one of the largest cotton companies in the state. More than a thousand interested farmers gathered for a Farmers’ Union rally in Stubbs Park in 1915 to hear what Georgia Agricultural Commissioner J.J. Brown planned to do about crop diversification and the villainous boll weevil.
The first Coca-Cola Bottling Company was established in the spring of 1912 by manager J.W. Geeslin on the corner of Harrison and Bainbridge Streets.
Laurens was often a state leader in the production of corn and sweet potatoes. This honor was mainly due to its tremendous size. Cotton and corn acreage exceeded 100 thousand acres each, which totaled 40% of the county's area. Mercer and Thomas grew 152 bushels of corn per acre on their farm west of Dublin. This was credited with the greatest yield per acre in the U.S. in 1911. Laurens County had more farms than any other county in Georgia during this period. At one time, the number of farms hovered around the five-thousand mark. Nearly three of every four persons lived on a farm. By the end of the 20th century, less than one in every twenty-two Laurens Countians lived on a farm.
The first Boy Scout troop in Laurens County was established in Dublin in 1910. The boys traveled to Washington, D.C. in March 1913 to volunteer as guides during the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. Scouting expanded to many of the local communities throughout the century.
The Bertha Theatre (1913-1918), the largest auditorium ever built in Dublin, was the site of many of the country's best traveling musical and vaudeville shows. Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and John Burke, Treasurer of the United States, spoke to large crowds of concerned businessmen and farmers at The Bertha. The first talking pictures, which featured a gramophone played in synchronization with the film, were shown at the Bertha in 1913. The theatre also became the weekly site of wrestling matches. A local promoter even boasted that Dublin was "the Wrestling capital of the Southeast." Some of the country’s greatest wrestlers, Mort Henderson, the country’s first masked wrestler, along with Jack Leon, Dr. B.F. Roller, and Ed “Strangler” Lewis battled it out in the ring on the theater’s stage. Dublin’s most glamorous theater burned to the ground in 1918.
The Rockledge community was rocked by the Christmas Eve shooting of the Thigpen brothers, John, Tal, and Claude, by Marshal Ras Raffield in Rockledge. Residents of the area still talk about that fateful day in 1910 when three of its sons lay dead or dying at the depot. In 1911, E.D. White, of Dublin, and his brother, Herschel White, of Screven County, served as one of the few, if not the only brother duo, in Georgia legislative history. C.D. MaCris, a member of the Greek Colony in Dublin, was the first person to publish a book in Dublin. Thoughts of a Greek was sold to raise funds to help the war effort in his native country. In a show of support for their homeland, fifteen Greek residents of Dublin returned to their homeland to fight in a war against the Ottoman Empire in 1912. The second decade of the Twentieth Century brought to Dublin the new sport of automobile and motorcycle racing. Racers from across the county and across the state flocked to Dublin to speed from the site of the present Dublin Center along Bellevue Road and Bellevue Avenue to the Carnegie Library, now the Dublin Laurens Museum. The first recreation lake, East Lake, was established on the east side of the Dublin-Toomsboro Road (North Franklin Street) at Hunger and Hardship Creek.
James J. Connor, a former Dublin mayor and attorney, was elected Georgia Secretary of Agriculture in 1912. That same year, Alex Akerman, a former Dublin attorney, represented the federal government in prosecuting legendary Georgia populist politician Thomas E. Watson for his pornographic writings about the Jewish people. Two of Dublin’s crown jewels, the new Post Office on Madison Street and the First National Bank Building, were completed. The bank building was billed as the tallest building between Savannah and Macon. Clark Grier, a former Dublin postmaster, led a revolt in favor of former president Theodore Roosevelt at the 1912 Republican National Convention in Chicago. Grier returned as a delegate to the national conventions in 1920 and 1924. On October 22, 1912, a severe earthquake shook Dublin, causing great alarm but little damage. The sinking of "The Titanic" ended a favorite local pastime when riding on Oconee River freight boats was banned.
Dublin's Brass Band represented the State of Georgia in the United Confederate Veterans' National Reunions from 1911 through 1915. Five members of the Holmes family, Robert, Joseph, Charles, Charlton, and Harmon, were among the leading bottlers of Georgia's soft drink, Coca-Cola. Judge W.W. Larsen was elected to Congress in 1916. Cong. Larsen had previously served as Executive Secretary to Georgia Governor Joseph M. Smith and John M. Slaton. J.M. Outler was appointed as a presidential elector for Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who soundly lost to former Georgian Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Around Labor Day of that same year, Dublin’s first public swimming pool, “The Natatorium,” was built on the creek on lower Church Street. In 1919, Rev. W.N. Ainsworth, who served First Methodist Church in 1901 and 1902, was elected Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church South 1919. Bishop Ainsworth presided over Methodist Churches from Texas to Virginia and those in China, Japan, and Cuba.
The Dublin "Green Hurricane" dominated their region in their first four years of football and set a state record when they defeated Swainsboro High 86-0 in 1919. In 1921, Coach D.W. Rampley, who played for Georgia Tech under Coach John Heisman, continued the Green Hurricane’s success on the gridiron on the field of the 12th District Fairgrounds.
Frank G. Corker, a Dublin mayor, lawyer, banker, and public servant, built the mausoleum at Northview Cemetery in 1915, one of the first public mausoleums in the South. Harris McCall Stanley, one of Dublin’s top leading citizens, was chosen as the Grand Chancellor of the Georgia Knights of Pythias in 1914.
In 1913, Dr. William C. Thompson started Dublin’s first true hospital in the first block of East Madison Street next to the newly constructed post office. Thompson practiced here for 33 years. His last hospital still stands on the corner of West Madison Street and Rowe Street.
Many African-American Laurens Countians began to prosper during this period. The Dublin Normal and Industrial School was established at the corner of East Jackson and North Decatur Streets in 1907 by the Rev. W.A. Dinkins. Bishop Henry M. Turner came to Dublin to promote the Congregational Methodist school. The school, modeled after Booker T. Washington’s school in Tuskegee, eventually became known as the Harriet Holsey Industrial College in the Scottsville community in 1909. It was Dublin's first college.
Three physicians, Dr. Benjamin Daniel Perry, Dr. Ulysses Simpson Johnson and Dr. Henry Jones came to the county to set up their practices. The first black owned pharmacy, the Regent, opened on South Lawrence Street, the center of black-owned businesses in Dublin. Annie Yarborough, the second female African American dentist in Georgia, began her practice in Dublin in 1911. Dr. Yarborough, a graduate of Meharry Medical College, volunteered to serve in the Army in World War I, but was turned down because the army refused to allow female medical personnel. Pearl Cummings Davis was one of the first African American female pharmacists in Georgia.
On the eastern end of town, C.D. and Katie Dudley, along with their son, Herbert "Hub" Dudley, built the largest group of black-owned businesses, including a funeral home, a motel, a service station, a restaurant, an investment firm, a sawmill, a beauty shop, a shoe shop, a U.S.O. building and a skating rink. Rev. A.T. Speight organized the first black-owned corporation, The Farmer's Enterprise, in 1914. Dr. U.S. Johnson began publishing a newspaper, "The Record," for black citizens in 1924. W.L. "Tom" Hughes was the first mail carrier in Dublin. The most well-known and respected black Dubliner was the Rev. Norman McCall, a giant of a man, who was known for his physical strength as well as his morality and compassion. His funeral procession in 1904 was one of the longest ever seen in the county.
In 1917, E.D. Newsome led the organization of the Central Colored People's Fair Association. A second fair association, the Oconee Fair Association, was organized in 1918. In the 1940s, the “Oconee Fair” was billed as “The Oldest Colored Fair in Georgia.” W.H. Brunson, in 1915, was considered the youngest Justice of the Peace in Georgia at the age of 22 years. Dublin’s semi-pro baseball team won the Middle Georgia championship in 1916.
CHAPTER 10
1917-1919: Boll Weevils and World War
Dublin and Laurens County furnished nearly 1100 men to the armed forces in World War I. Dubliners and Laurens Countians raised tremendous sums of money through bond sales. Many young men from Laurens County enlisted in Company C of the 2nd Georgia National Guard in the summer of 1916. The company was sent to active duty along the Mexican border for five months. In August 1917, the Company was redesignated as Company C of the 151st Machine Bun Battalion.
Corporal Walter Warren of Dexter was the first American aviator to be wounded in France in early December 1917. Many of Laurens' citizens, including its most prominent physicians, served in the military. Early Miller was the first to be drafted. Among the first Negroes in Georgia to be drafted in the Army was a contingent of Laurens County men. Even Dublin's mayor, Peter S. Twitty, enlisted in the U.S. Army. Both Twitty and his successor, Izzie Bashinski, donated their salaries to the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A.. Cecil Preston Perry became the first Laurens Countian to die in action in the summer of 1918. James Mason was the first Dubliner to die in action. He died in France on July 29, 1918. James L. Weddington, Jr., of the 6th Marine Corps Regiment, was awarded the French Croix de Guerre and Silver Star on July 10, 1918, for his heroism in carrying many wounded men off the battlefield to field hospitals for several hours, risking his own safety in the process. Lt. Col. Pat Stevens was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre for extraordinary heroism in action south of Spitaal Bosschen, Belgium, on October 31, 1918. Lt. Ossie F. Keen was awarded the Silver Star. Sgt. Bill Brown of Dexter was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and was one of only 34 Americans to be awarded the French Cross with a Star for his heroism on October 14, 1918, at the Battle of Cote de Chattelon. Charles Q. Lifsey, a Dublin graduate of West Point, served on the staff of Commander of the AEF, General John J. Pershing, in Paris.
Thousands more of Laurens County's finest young men went "over there" for Uncle Sam. Coley B. White survived the sinking of HMS Otranto. Four hundred thirty one other American and British soldiers and sailors did not. Oscar K. Jolley survived a stint as a prisoner in a German P.O.W. camp. Fortunately, the war was relatively short and only fifty Laurens County men lost their lives. On July 28, 1918, some eighty to one hundred African American draftees reported to the courthouse. After many patriotic speeches, the jubilant soldiers boarded the train to Macon’s Camp Wheeler for infantry training. The men were the first African-Americans from Georgia to report for training. Dublin optometrist, Dr. C.H. Kittrell, was ousted from public office after the consternation resulting in his remarks against the draft. During the latter years of the war, the first local chapter of the American Red Cross was established early in 1917.
During the world Spanish Influenza Pandemic, daily reports were coming out in the Atlanta Constitution. In Dublin, new cases were October 22 (109,) October 23 (212 with three deaths,) October 26, (no report,) and October 27 (37) were reported from Dublin The October 22nd figure, which may have been the pinnacle of the epidemic locally.
Laurens County counted among her deaths from influenza three servicemen: Joel Attaway, George Attaway, and Frazier Linder. Thirteen more Laurens County soldiers and one Dublin sailor died of pneumonia during the influenza outbreak. By the middle of October, Dublin city officials and Laurens County Board of Health were forced to take action against the growing menace. School students were ordered to spray their noses and throats thoroughly every morning or risk being sent home for the day. The County Health Board, composed of local physicians, signed an order closing all schools, movie theaters, fairs, skating rinks, churches, soda fountains, and all public gatherings of any kind or nature. Health officials knew only an approximate count of the reported cases of flu in the city, said to be one hundred to two hundred. At first, city and county schools avoided closing schools. When the threat was too ominous for the health of the children, a ban prohibiting school classes was instituted until there was a dramatic drop in flu among the students and their families. The first and only death reported in the first three weeks of October came on a Sunday morning, October 13, when Henry W. Hale, the 27-year-old manager of the Atlantic Ice and Coal Corporation and Sergeant of the Dublin Guards, succumbed to the deadly virus.
During the last months of the war, soldiers went to war on the home front by helping farmers in gathering their valuable cotton crops.
Although on the last weekend of October, doctors received a report of 206 new cases, it appeared that the new numbers were going down, in some cases dramatically. On the very day that the fighting ended in World War I, the Laurens County Health Board released the ban on public gatherings, but urged extreme caution in light of the predictable mass celebrations that ensued after the Armistice was signed later in the week.
After the war, the Dublin Guards, a state militia unit, reorganized as Co. A. of the 1st Battalion of the Georgia National Guard. The unit, which was the first National Guard unit in the Southeast, has evolved to a support company and is still active today. The company's first captain, Lewis C. Pope of Dublin, served as Adjutant General of the Georgia National Guard in the 1920s. World War I's biggest hero, Sgt. Alvin York spoke to a large crowd at the First Methodist Church in the early 1920s. In the euphoria following the end of the war, enough residents of Academy Avenue convinced the city council to rename the avenue in honor of Woodrow Wilson. A few weeks later, more prominent and powerful residents persuaded the council to reverse their hasty decision. Georgia Post No. 17 of the American Legion was organized on September 25, 1919. The initial officers were Commander, Roger A. Flynt, Vice Commander Stephen Parker New, Secretary Javy A. Merritt, Treasurer E.L. Maddox, Chaplain, Dr. M.Z. Claxton, Sr., and Historian William Brunson.
The months after the war were nearly as devastating as those following the Civil War. Dublin and Laurens County depended on the cotton crop. The county was too dependent on cotton. When the boll weevil, which first appeared in Laurens County in the summer of 1912, destroyed the cotton crops of 1918 and 1919, the economy of the entire county collapsed. Business leaders attempted to diversify with other farm products, but with no capital available to invest in other ventures, the county’s economy collapsed. Nearly half the banks failed in the five years that followed.
One highlight of the period was the first professional baseball game ever played in Dublin. The New York Yankees defeated the Boston Braves in a closely fought game at the 12th District Fairgrounds on Telfair Street in 1918. Playing for the Yankees was Frank "Home Run" Baker, a Hall of Famer, who was the leading power hitter in the dead-ball era. Managing the Yankees was Hall of Famer Miller Huggins, who built the Yankees into baseball's greatest dynasty. Dublin High School won its first game ever over Waynesboro 20-13 over Waynesboro at the 12th District Fairgrounds on Halloween. The following week, Dublin stomped Swainsboro, 86 - O, with Charles Walker being the first Dublin player to score six touchdowns in a game. The score was one of the highest ever recorded in Georgia for many decades.
A lasting legacy from the war era was the location of U.S. Highway 80. The "Coast to Coast" highway in its pre-interstate days brought many passersby, from Henry Ford to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Elvis Presley. During the early years of World War I, the City of Dublin became the first city in Georgia and one of the first in the nation to display a lighted municipal Christmas tree. Piccola Prescott became the county’s first woman postal carrier in 1918. The number of telephones in the county increased from 350 in 1910 to 1200 in 1920.
CHAPTER 11
1920s: Laurens Countians In the News
The farm labor force, mainly composed of black Laurens tenant farmers, was leaving in masses. Laurens County did not regain its pre-1920 population of nearly 40 thousand persons until 1990. The lure of better-paying jobs in the metropolitan areas in the north was too tempting. One farmer, Walker Smith, Sr., left his farm where he was making thirty dollars a month. Smith took a job in Detroit, Michigan, where he was earning sixty dollars per week. He left his family at home until he could establish their new home in Detroit. A son, Walker Smith, Jr., was born in Ailey, Georgia. The younger Smith grew up in Detroit and in Wheeler County. He spent some time with his maternal grandmother, who lived in Dublin. Smith developed a great talent for boxing. Upon turning pro, Smith changed his name to suit his profession. The young man then became known as "Sugar Ray" Robinson and at several times, Champion of the World, perhaps the greatest boxer of all time.
Another professional athlete was born in Dublin on Christmas Day of 1912. Quincey Trouppe, whose ancestors were slaves belonging to Gov. Troup, left with his family in the early twenties for St. Louis. Trouppe was an all-star catcher in the Negro Leagues and is generally regarded as one of the best catchers in the league. He played several games for the Cleveland Indians in 1952 as the first black catcher and the history of the American League and a member of the first black pitcher-catcher battery in AL history as well. Trouppe, who at 39 was one of the oldest rookies in Major League history, kept records of the league and was regarded as the historian and archivist of the Negro Leagues.
The Dublin Stars, the first Negro semi-pro baseball team in the county, began playing in 1921. By the end of the Twenties, a new team, The Black Irishmen, would draw large crowds to their games. The Washington Street High Tigers, the county’s first official African-American high school team began playing until the school’s name was changed to Oconee High School.
Phillip Sheftall, a native of Laurens County, retired in 1923 after more than four decades as a Pullman porter. Sheftall was regarded as one of the best porters in the Southeast. He served presidents William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, along with Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Senator John B. Gordon, a Confederate general and governor of Georgia.
Dr. William A.J. Moseley, an African-American physician born in Laurens County, served as President of the Georgia State Medical Association and well known across South Georgia. Dublin’s first African-American theater, the “Pekin” opened in the 1910s on the second floor of the Cummings Buildings on West Madison Street.
The first Boy Scout troop in Dublin was formed sometime in the early in year 1912. Boy Scouts around the country descended on Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson as President of the United States on March 4, 1913. The Girl Scout troops soon followed. Scouting peaked in Laurens County in the 1970s before memberships dropped due to a plethora of new after-school activities.
Many of Dublin and Laurens County's top businessmen and professionals left for positions in state government. Hal Stanley was elected Georgia's first Commissioner of Labor in 1912. In 1931, Hal Stanley was a charter inductee into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame for his work in Editor’s Forum. Stanley was elected the Grand Chancellor the Georgia Knights of Phythias in 1914. His brother, Vivian Stanley, served many years as prison commissioner, making them the only brothers in Georgia history to head state departments at the same time. Vivian Stanley, as one of Georgia’s prison commissioners, became involved in the controversy over the chain gang in Georgia, which was set off by the book and movie, I Am A Fugitive From a Georgia Chain Gang. Albert R. Arnau served as Executive Secretary to Gov. Clifford Walker. Peter Twitty, Jr., also a secretary to Gov. Walker, and a former Dublin mayor, served as Game and Fish Commissioner from 1923 to 1934. Tom Linder served nearly two decades as Georgia's Commissioner of Agriculture. Linder is the only Georgian to be reelected to office after having been defeated for the same office. Judge Peyton Wade was appointed Chief Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals in 1916 and served until his death. His daughter, Frederica, married John Billings, one of the leading editors of Time and Life magazines. John M. Simmons took his lumber company to South Georgia and became one of the leading wooden crate manufacturers in the world. Corliss Palmer, who lived a short while in Dublin, became one of the leading comediennes of the Silent Movie era.
A.J. Woodard, a native of Laurens County, went to work in 1921 at the Tifton Agricultural Station in the heart of the burgeoning South Georgia pecan market. Woodard quickly established the first tests to distinguish between old and new types of pecans. After many years of successful study of one of Georgia’s largest cash crops, one variety of pecan, “The Woodard Pecan,” was named in his honor.
Dublin attorney G.H. Williams resigned from his position as the Republican candidate for a seat in the United States Senate, just three weeks before the election in 1920. Williams, possibly the last publicly known Republican in the county, before the 1960s, asked his supporters to vote for the eventual winner, Sen. Thomas E. Watson.
Dublin and Laurens County suffered through nearly a decade of economic depression before the Wall Street "Crash of '29." In 1927, Charles Molony was president of four railroads, more than any other man in the United States. Tragically, Molony’s financial interests crashed along with many others in the country, which led to his leap from a fourth-story window of a Savannah hotel to his death. All of Laurens County was proud when one of Georgia's last counties was named Brantley County, in honor of its native son, Benjamin D. Brantley, a pioneer businessman in South Georgia. Brantley’s son, William Gordon Brantley, served for sixteen years in Congress and lived in Dublin for a short time.
Boxing became a popular sport in Dublin in the 1920s. Local boxers such as "Scrap Iron" Ladson, Carlus Gay, and Bill McGowan fought in makeshift rings in warehouses and store buildings. McGowan, who won 239 times in 248 professional fights, was the middleweight champion of Canada and Cuba. McGowan quit boxing for a career in movies and appeared with Mae West, Pat O’Brien, and Errol Flynn. McGowan worked as a sparring partner with Macon boxer and American champion, Young Stribling, who fought in Dublin in 1922.
W. Doyle Knight and Julian Rachels established the Riverside Poultry Farm, the largest chicken hatchery in the state. The Dublin Lions Club was organized in 1923. Dr. William Smith was named to head the Georgia State Association of Optometrists in 1924. Just before taking the reins as the Mercer University football team, Josh Cody, a three-time All-American tackle at Vanderbilt, played for the Dublin Irishers semi-pro team in the summer of 1920. Cody, who later coached Vanderbilt, Clemson, Florida and Temple in football and other sports, was voted as the top tackle of the 1869-1919 NCAA team by the Football Writers of America.
Women across the country slowly began to earn their rightful place in political, professional, religious, and social organizations in the early 1920s. Maggie New was the first woman to register for a Dublin city election in 1920, which was held on the first Monday in December. In the 1921 Brewton municipal election, women won the mayorship and five of the seven city council seats. The victorious women were Mayor Mrs. W.H. Beall, Mrs. M.E. Brantley, Mrs. M.F. Beall, Mrs. F.A. Brantley, Mrs. C.G. Moye, and Mrs. H.B. Sutton. The election resulted in the first all-female mayor and council in the history of Georgia, with Mrs. W.H. Beall, being the first known female Mayor of a Georgia town or city. Jessie Baldwin, Clemmie Patton, Mrs. J.S. Adams, Mrs. M.A. Mertz, Mrs. T. Reins, Mrs. Frank Lawson, Mrs. T.J. Pritchett, Mrs. J.D. Bass, Mrs. F.L. King, and Mrs. W.D. Parkerson were chosen as the first women to participate in a 12th Congressional District Democratic Convention, which was held in Dublin in September 1922.
On New Year's Eve in 1922, Mrs. O.L. Anderson was appointed Judge of the Juvenile Court of Laurens County, making her the first female judge in Georgia’s history. Maggie New was the first woman to register to vote in the 1920 municipal election in Dublin. In 1924, Mrs. Mary Rachels Jordan became the first Laurens County woman to exercise her right to vote. In that same year, Opal Glen Rife became the first woman to pastor a Laurens County Church, the First Church of the Nazarene. In 1927, Mrs. Frank Lawson, wife of the editor of the Courier Herald and women’s activist, was elected vice-chairman of the 12th Congressional District Democratic Committee, making her the first woman in Georgia to achieve such a level in Georgia political circles. The first known Laurens County woman to practice law was Kathleen Duggan Smith. Mrs. Smith, a graduate of George Washington University Law School, was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia on February 14, 1924.
John W. Yopp, Sr., a native of Laurens County, founded and established several of the most popular trade magazines in the South in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Under the banner of the Southern Periodical Publishing Company, Yopp published the Southern Coal Journal, the Southern Funeral Director Magazine (established in 1919 and is still in publication today as the oldest family-owned owned operated funeral trade publication), and other trade journals as the Southern Refrigeration Journal and the Southern Dairy Products Journal.
James A. Thomas, a local attorney and a former teenage ensign in the Confederate army, was elected State Commander of the Confederate Veterans in 1916 and National Commander of the United Confederate Veterans in 1925. Gen. Thomas served the last three years of his life as Honorary National Commander. Gen. Thomas brought the Georgia Confederate Reunion to Dublin in 1920. In the first days of the summer of 1925, “Shoeless Joe” Jackson and his Waycross Coastliners played a railroad team from Macon on the 12th District Fairground field. Another bright spot was the construction of Dublin's largest hotel, The Hotel Fred Roberts, in 1926. The project was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. The hotel was named in honor of the committee chairman responsible for the project. Roberts died during the construction of the hotel.
Thomas Hardwick, a former Governor and United States senator and congressman, published The Courier Herald for two years. A weekly edition, which carried Gov. Hardwick's political opinions, was one of the largest circulated papers in the state. Gov. Hardwick, who lived in the old Peacock house at the corner of Academy Avenue and South Calhoun Street, made U.S. history when in 1922, he appointed Rebecca Felton the first female United States Senator.
Captain William B. Rice, a highly successful farmer, naval stores operator, and financier, was one of the founding members of the Georgia Farm Bureau in 1920. In 1920, the Farmer’s Cooperative Association erected a 20,000 bushel grain elevator, the largest of its kind in Georgia and the first and only cooperative elevator in the South. H.J. Braddy established the county’s first wireless radio station at his home on North Franklin Street in June 1921.
Later that summer, the Dublin Country Club was incorporated by H.G. Stevens, F.B. Reins, and E.G. Simmons. The club maintained a nine-hole golf course, which featured sand, instead of grass greens. The clubhouse was located in the present St. Andrews subdivision. The course extended to the original Kroger shopping center. On Christmas Day in 1921, J.L. Bush walked out into his field and picked blooms off his cotton plants. Dublin High faced off against Wrightsville in the city’s first indoor basketball game, which was played in L.C. Pope’s cotton warehouse. The month of January 1925 saw the largest monthly rainfall ever recorded in Laurens County with 14.48 inches. That year saw very hot weather, very cold weather, droughts, and torrential rainfall. In May 1923, there was no measurable rainfall. In September 1924, there was again no rain.
Erwin “Cannonball” Baker, one of the country’s greatest early motorcyclists, stopped at the Standard Oil station in Dublin in March 1926 on one of his many automobile record attempts. J.C. Penney opened his first Dublin store at 103 West Jackson Street in the late summer of 1926. Just before Christmas in 1927, Mrs. J.E. Perry was hailed as the first woman in the United States to have her hair cut during a flight in an airplane.
In 1920, the local branch of the Farmers Cooperative Association erected a seven-story grain elevator at the eastern end of East Madison Street near the river. It was the largest of its kind in Georgia and one of the largest in the South. Dr. C.H. Kittrell, of Dublin, was a delegate to the 1920 Democratic National Convention.
E. Ross Jordan, a Dublin pharmacist, left for Macon, where he became the Manager of the Georgia State Fair in 1923, which he headed until his death in 1955 with the 100th State Fair in Macon.
Freeman Moore opened the first exclusively African-American bus line, The Cotton Belt Bus Line, in the summer of 1928. The route began at 7:30 in the morning at the “Negro Drug Store” and returned to Dublin in the mid-afternoon.
In 1925, the voters of Dublin voted to sell the city’s electric power plant to Georgia Power Company. One of the company’s first managers in Dublin was John J. “Jack” McDonough. McDonough, a Georgia Tech football star of the early 1920s and member of that university’s Athletic Hall of Fame, became Georgia Power Company’s seventh president in 1956. L.O. Moseley, a former resident of Laurens County, was a writer for the Atlanta Constitution, an early radio personality, an aide to Gov. Hardman, and one of the well-respected managers of several of Atlanta’s most popular hotels.
Rev. Clarence D. Graves, long-time pastor of First Baptist Church, served as Secretary of the Foreign Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Church. Graves also spent a term as the Chaplain of Wake Forest University.
The largest fire in the history of Dublin occurred on May 16, 1927. High winds spread a fire in the neighborhoods south of the railroad and between South Washington and South Jefferson streets causing the destruction of at least fifty homes.
Buggs McGowan, of Dublin, was a premier stunt pilot in the Southeast in the first decades of plane flight as the featured attraction of Mabel Cody’s Flying Circus. Known as “The Wizard of the Air,” McGowan was killed in 1923 when his airplane accidentally crashed. Jimmy Calhoun, who was born in 1904 and based out of Dublin, was regarded as one of the top stunt parachutists of the 1920s. Calhoun, when he was only 22 years old, plummeted to his death during a jump at Lakewood Park in Atlanta in August 1926.
The greatest-worst fire in Dublin’s history came on May 16. High winds were battering the city when a fire broke out. Officials determined that a fire broke out in a two-story home some three or four blocks away. The winds carried the blazing embers to the east, where three separate fires began to erupt. In a few minutes, the blaze engulfed a large portion of a thickly populated neighborhood south of the railroad and between South Washington and South Jefferson Streets. Bucket brigades, composed of men and women of both races, were quickly formed. Some houses were spared. When the flames were extinguished at least fifty homes, occupied by African-Americans, were in ruins. An estimated 200 people were homeless.
Chapter 12
The Great Depression
The powerful First National Bank failed on September 24, 1928. It was for a time the largest "country bank" in Georgia. The Citizens and Southern Bank came into Dublin and set up a private bank to prevent the total collapse of the local economy. Mills B. Lane and Victor B. Jenkins organized the Dublin Bank and Trust Company to marshal the remaining assets of the First National’s depositors and hold them until a permanent branch of his bank could be established. Only the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Brewton and the Bank of Dudley survived without closing their doors. Local voters took out their frustrations and produced the largest democratic majority for Democratic Presidential Candidate Alfred Smith in Georgia. The only members of the Republican party in Dublin were Attorney G.H. Williams and a small group of black citizens led by H.H. Dudley.
Henrietta Stanley Dull became the authority on southern cooking with the publication of "Southern Cooking" in 1928, after 10 years as the home economics editor of the Atlanta papers. A devastating fire destroyed the 12th Congressional District Fair in October 1925.
A killer tornado struck Dexter and environs on April 25, 1929, killing two children, injuring about fifty people, and destroying two dozen houses and Mt. Carmel Baptist Church. In a decade when fads were fads, tree sitting was popular with the youth of Dublin. In the late 1920s, an incident occurred at a meeting of the Cedar Grove 4-H Club, which inspired the making of a short film, “The Green Hand,” which told the story of the formation of the club in Georgia.
Doc Ozmer, a member of the 1929 Dublin Irishmen, pitched two innings in his first and last major league game on May 11, 1923. Ozmer, pitching in relief for the losing Philadelphia Athletics, set many league records that season for the Martinsburg Blue Sox, becoming that team’s first 20-game winner. R.L. Rountree, a native of Dublin and former alderman, served as the Chief Inspector for the Georgia Department of Game & Fish in the latter half of the 1920s.
A member of the 1929 and 1930 Dublin Irishmen, Earnest Preston "Tiny" Osborne (April 9, 1893 – January 5, 1969) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1922 to 1925 for the Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Robins. His nickname was sarcastic. Osborne was listed as 6 feet 4 inches tall and 215 pounds in weight. The native of Porterdale, Georgia, batted left-handed and threw right-handed. In 142 big-league games pitched, including 74 starting assignments and 646 innings, Osborne allowed 693 hits and 315 bases on balls. He registered two shutouts, 31 complete games, 263 strikeouts and seven saves. His professional career began in 1929 and ended in 1935, but he was out of "organized baseball" during 1920 and from 1928–34.
In the winter of 1930, the economy in the county had deteriorated so much that the county schools were closed for lack of funding along with the fact that the school districts could not obtain a loan. At the same time, the first significant snowfall in sixteen years covered the county. Local businessmen began a new industry in Laurens County to make up for the normal farm losses. The selling of squab pigeons to eastern markets at high prices boomed in the early 1930s.
The depth of the Great Depression was highlighted when the population of Dublin dropped from 7707 to 6681 from 1920 to 1930. The drop was the worst in the history of the city between censuses.
On June 2, 1932, George Washington Perry, a native of Dublin, caught a 22-pound 4-ounce largemouth bass in a lake in Telfair County, Ga. His prize catch, the most coveted in the fishing world, established a world record for the species and one that still stands more than seventy-five years later. Just four weeks before he won his first election as a United States Senator, Richard B. Russell, who served almost forty years in Washington, suffered moderate injuries in an automobile accident near Dublin in the late summer of 1932. Dublin’s Rollin Stanley served as Student Body President of Mercer University during the 1933-1934 term. Stanley was an attorney and the county’s first agent of the FBI.
Montrose, long a thriving community on the M.D. & S Railroad in northwestern Laurens County was finally incorporated as a town on August 21, 1929. W. S. Williams was appointed mayor of the town, and E. L. Wade, E. L. Green, F. S. English, J. Arthur Cook, and H. W. Wade were the initial councilmen of Montrose.
Throughout the thirties, the economy continued to suffer. The end of the hard times was marked by the resurgence of movie theaters in Dublin. Legendary UGA football coach Wally Butts played with the Dublin semi-pro baseball team in 1930. At McRae High School, Enda Ballard Duggan, of Dublin, was the favorite teacher of a Georgia political legend, Herman Talmadge. In 1933, Congressman W.W. Larsen ended his sixteen-year career in Congress by acquiring a Federal Court in Dublin. Mrs. Annie Ward was chosen as the Grand Worthy Matron of the Georgia Division of the Order of the Eastern Star in June 1931. Mrs. Helen Bashinski was elected president of the Georgia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy at the organization’s meeting in Dublin in October 1931. T.A. Curry, Sr., served as governor of the Georgia Lions Clubs in the early 1930s. Roland E. Brooks, the Superintendent of Dublin City Schools from 1909 to 1914, was elected as President of the Georgia Education Association in 1932. Professor W.L. Hughes, of Dublin, was elected as the Grand Vice-Chancellor of the Negro Knights of Phythias of Georgia.
The year 1933 was a remarkable year for Dublin women. Jessie Baldwin was appointed as the first female Deputy Clerk and U.S. Commissioner of the Dublin District. Elizabeth Garrett Page was chosen as the first female on the Dublin Board of Education. Aretha Miller was the first woman admitted to practice law in Laurens County. At the age of 18, Miss Miller may have been the youngest woman ever to practice law in Georgia. In 1932, Charlotte Hightower Harwell, also eighteen years old, became the first woman court reporter in the history of Georgia. Harwell’s career spanned 43 years. Grace Warren Landrum, Dean of Women at the College of William and Mary, was one of the foremost women educators in the country.
Dublin resident Eugenia Rawls performed on Broadway and as an understudy to Tallulah Bankhead. Miss Rawls was the first American actress to play the National Theatre of Ireland and is regarded as one of the great actresses of the American stage. Augusta Stanley (Mrs. John S.) Adams was regarded as one of the foremost leaders of women’s heritage organizations in Georgia. Mrs. Adams served as President of the Georgia division of the United States Daughters of 1812 and the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, National President of the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, State Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and Curator General of the National United States Daughters of 1812.
Cherry Waldrep, a graduate of Dublin High School, became the first woman to obtain a Master of Science Degree in Math Education from the University of Georgia in the late 1930s. During World War II, she served our country by decoding enemy messages.
The Woodrow Wilson Federal Highway was established north of Dublin in the latter half of the 1920s. The Memorial Highway project was pushed aside during the Great Depression. A rare, brilliant blue meteor streaked across the sky on September 3, 1933.
The Federal government opened the city’s first two-story post office and Federal Building on the Courthouse Square in Dublin in 1937. Following his retirement from Congress, Dr. J. Roy Rowland, Jr. was saluted by the government’s naming the building in his honor.
Breezy Wynn, a former football star at Dublin High, led the Tennessee Volunteers to four of their best seasons and earned some All-America honors. Wynn was called "the King of Duffle Bags" after his factories turned them out by the millions during World War II. Judge Earl Camp served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1932 and 1936 and as a Presidential Elector in 1940. Izzie Bashinski was named the Secretary of the Georgia Board of Regents in 1934.
Eight of Dublin's many successful journalists began their careers during the Depression years. Gladstone Williams, a Harvard-educated attorney, was a leading journalist for The Atlanta Constitution and for several other papers, once serving as a White House correspondent. Williams, an acquaintance of Margaret Mitchell, is said to have been the model for the southern demeanor of Mitchell's legendary character, Rhett Butler. His wife, Sarah Orr Williams, was secretary to U.S. Senator Thomas E. Watson. At that time, Mrs. Williams was the youngest secretary on Capitol Hill. Following the death of Sen. Watson, she stayed on as secretary for Sen. Rebecca Felton, the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, and for the legendary Georgia Senator, Walter F. George. Mrs. Williams was a personal acquaintance with all of our Presidents from Coolidge to Eisenhower. Jack Tarver left Dublin for Atlanta, where he served as general manager, vice president, and publisher of Atlanta Newspapers, Inc., publishers of The Journal and The Constitution, before becoming President of the Federal Reserve Board in Atlanta. Clarence Lloyd wrote for two St. Louis newspapers and afterwards was associated with the St. Louis Cardinals a their traveling secretary for 19 years. In 1967, he was given the #1 card, the highest award of the Baseball Writers Association of America. At the time, he was the second-oldest sportswriter in the country. J. Marion Kendrick served as an executive editor with the Associated Press and as press agent for Hollywood stars, including the legendary actress, Gloria Swanson. Vincent Mahoney reported the news from Hollywood at the beginning of its glory years. Ernest Rogers, who was associated with The Dublin Tribune and The Atlanta Journal, was known as The Mayor of Peachtree Street and was a popular radio personality on WSB Radio. Rogers wrote nearly six thousand columns for the Atlanta Journal during his 19-year career with the paper. Rogers was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame in 1972 and into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1998, making him the only person in Georgia to be afforded that high honor. Nella Braddy of Dublin became a nationally known author writing for Reader’s Digest. In 1933, Braddy published a biography of Anne Sullivan, the teacher of the famous author, Helen Keller. Madge Hilbun Methvin was the well-respected editor of the Vienna News and one of the few women editors in the state. In 1994, she was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame.
Professional baseball returned to the fairgrounds in 1933 and 1935 when the St. Louis Cardinals, "The Gas House Gang," defeated Oglethorpe University and the University of Georgia. On those Cardinal teams were six Hall of Famers: Dizzy Dean, Frankie Frisch, Joe Medwick, Leo Durocher, Jesse Haines, and Rogers Hornsby.
The Dublin Negro League team, "The Athletics," was one of the better baseball teams in the state in 1932 and 1933 under the management of J.D. Howard. Jimmy Reese and Herb Barnhill went on to play in the National Negro Leagues.
Otis Troupe, a native of Laurens County, led his Morgan State football squad to an undefeated season and the Black College National Championship in 1935. Troupe, who was named to the Black All-American team, played for the New York Brown Bombers under the leadership of Fritz Pollard, the NFL’s first black head coach. Troupe, an accomplished singer, was later named to the Black All-American Hall of Fame. In 1937, a sixteen-year-old daughter of Jonas Gallimore gave birth to twin daughters. who were joined at the umbilicus. The little girls died in the Coleman Hospital shortly after they were born. They were the first documented case of “Siamese Twins” in Georgia and the first known Negro “Siamese Twins” ever born.
Claude Harvard, a former student at Telfair Street School, patented twenty-nine inventions for the Ford Motor Company. Harvard, who served as Ford’s liaison to Tuskegee Institute’s George Washington Carver, was a mathematical genius and is regarded as one of the greatest African-American inventors of the 20th Century. On April 10, 1940, the Toledo Crawfords, led by Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston, played the Ethiopian Clowns in a Negro League exhibition game at the fairgrounds. Also on the bill was the world's fastest human and Olympic hero, Jesse Owens.
Dr. Brailsford Reese Brazeal, a native of Laurens County, began a long career as Dean of Morehouse College. As Dean, Dr. Brazeal had a strong influence on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who attended the college in the mid-1940s. In 1946, Dr. Brazeal published The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, seen by many as the first comprehensive history of a Negro labor union. Dr. J.W.E. Linder, of Laurens County, served as President of the Georgia State Negro Medical Association in the late 1930s.
In the summer of 1936, a large contingent of cadets of the United States Military Academy stopped at Stubbs Park for a break and a grand meal. The cadets returned in 1937. Phil Adams, of Dublin, was elected Captain of the Presbyterian College Blue Stockings basketball team. Adams finished second in the mile run among South Carolina college runners.
In the fall of 1936, the great cowboy star Tom Mix thrilled thousands of kids and adults at the fairgrounds. The Works Progress Administration, “The W.P.A.,” gave hundreds of Laurens Countians jobs and in the process, improved schools, parks, sidewalks, streets, and health conditions as well as educating illiterate adults and aiding poor families. Sessions’ Lake, located just south of the present Dublin Country Club, and Clear Lake, located on Highway 80 West at Sandy Ford Creek, were filled with swimmers, boaters, and recreationists of all sorts during the decade of the 1930s.
Scores of Laurens County’s young men left their homes for duty in the Civilian Conservation Corps, which helped to improve the infrastructure of the country, especially the national and state parks. The first regularly scheduled air mail flights in and out of Dublin took place in 1937. The Laurens County Library was established in 1938 by the Parnassus Club in the old Post Office on East Madison Street, but soon merged with the City Library. That same year, Green V. Jenkins, the last Laurens County veteran of the Confederate Army, died. Green attended the 1938 and final Civil War Reunion at Gettysburg.
Dublin physician and former 1932 valedictorian of the University of Georgia, Reese C. Coleman, Jr. was one of a trio of physicians who developed the first color camera, which filmed the interior of a human body. Sophia Benchina, considered by many as Dublin’s first beauty queen, finished as first runner-up in the 1938 Miss Georgia Pageant. Forty-two years later, Miss Benchina attended the 1980 Democratic National Convention, the first time at a Laurens County Woman had done so.
Dublin and East Dublin, rocked by corruption, were given the nicknames of "Little Chicago" and "Booger Bottom" by local residents. The county folks came out of the dark in the latter years of the thirties when the Oconee, Altamaha, and Little Ocmulgee Electric Membership Corporations came on line and turned on the lights.
In the late 1930s, Rev. Shannon Holloway, who served as the minister of First Methodist Church in Dublin, while attending Divinity School at Duke University, was given a roommate who was attending law school at Duke. The two men remained close for more than three decades. In January 1969, Rev. Holloway attended the inauguration of his buddy Richard Nixon as the President of the United States.
Dorothea Trowbridge is thought to have been born in Dublin, Georgia. She became a singer in St. Louis in the early 1930s, and she was taken to Chicago in 1933 to record a number of songs. One of her recording sessions was with James "Stump" Johnson on August 2, 1933, during which she recorded a version of the raunchy "Steady Grinding". It is likely that she is identical with Dorothy Baker, who recorded the song "Steady Grinding Blues" with Roosevelt Sykes in 1930 and/or 1934 (Decca). Dolly Lewis, of Laurens County, was a prominent prophetess of the Bible in the South during the 1930s through 1950s. She was closely associated with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who performed in Dublin at least six times.
Joe Harvey, a native of Montrose, Ga., traveled the country in the 1930s performing in Wild West shows as “The Blue Yodeling Cowboy.” As the leader of the Yodeling Hillbillies of San Francisco, Harvey toured the country playing in carnivals and movie theater stages as well as performing of local and national radio programs. Harvey, who imitated the iconic Gene Autry, faded into obscurity during the explosion of country and western singers in the years before World War II.
Joe Harnell spent the summer of 1938 living in Dublin and working for his uncles in their retail businesses. Harnell returned home that fall and went on to an illustrious music career. He worked as an accompanist for singers such as Judy Garland, Maurice Chevalier, and Marlene Diet. From 1958 to 1961, he was Peggy Lee's full-time accompanist and arranger for the albums Anything Goes: Cole Porter and Peggy Lee & the George Shearing Quartet. In 1962, Kapp Records asked him to work on writing potential hits in the then-hot genre of bossa nova. Harnell's biggest success was with his arrangement of "Fly Me to the Moon", which was a hit in the US in 1963 (number 14 Pop, number 4 AC and won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The album from which it was taken went to number 3 on the Billboard 200. Harnell would go on to release nearly 20 easy listening albums on Kapp, Columbia, and Motown, among others. Harnell was also an integral part of “The Dinah Shore Chevy Show” as the "house pianist" on many episodes. From 1967 to 1973, he worked as musical director of “The Mike Douglas Show.” In 1973, Harnell moved to Hollywood and worked in film score and television composition, composing for “The Bionic Woman”) “The Incredible Hulk” including "The Lonely Man Theme" with which all episodes of The Incredible Hulk ended along with “Another Lonely Road,” “Alien Nation,” the theme song of “In the Heat of the Night,” television show, and “V,” for which he received an Emmy nomination in 1983. In May 1982, with the release of "Rocky III", Harnell also wrote the famous signature tune for the United Artists logo introducing United Artists movies in the early 1980s, during the MGM merger with United Artists, as well as the theme music for the NBC daytime soap “Santa Barbara.” Following this, he became a faculty member at USC's Thornton School of Music as an instructor in film score composition.
Herbert H. Dudley opened Dudley’s Amoco Service Station on US Highway 80 with a short-order counter. Dudley converted the family home nearby as a “Guest House” for the traveling public. He contracted to operate a USO (United Service Organizations) location called the “Retreat” for Black officers of the U.S. Naval Hospital. Later, he opened a restaurant featuring entertainment that included the likes of Little Richard Penniman and James Brown.
In 1935, one out of five watermelons produced and marketed in Georgia was grown in Laurens County.
Just before the beginning of World War II, electric lights were installed on the athletic fields at the 12th Congressional District Fair Grounds on Telfair Street and the rear of Dublin High School on North Calhoun Street.
Chapter 13
1940 - 1945: World War II
Dublin and Laurens County once again stepped forward and sent thousands of young men into military service during World War II. In the hot summer of 1940, Dublin’s two companies (Headquarters Co. and Co. K) of the 121st Regiment of the Georgia National Guard traveled to Mississippi and Louisiana for maneuvers in the Sabine River Valley. The local guards were attached to the Third Army Division from August 4 to August 24. The total number of troops engaged in the maneuvers was 300,000, in what was the largest gathering of troops in American history. The local guards were under the command of Col. Lewis C. Pope, a veteran field-grade officer of the National Guard. Sixteen months later, the fighting became all too real. Scores of Laurens County boys joined the National Guard, which was attached to the 121st U.S. Infantry Division. The Guard mobilized in September of 1940 into Federal service.
Alta Mae Hammock and Brancy Horne were the first women to join the W.A.A.C.. Marayan Smith Harris was the first woman to join the WAVES. Louise Dampier also served as a yeoman in the U.S. Navy. Seaman Elbert Brunson, Jr. was onboard the U.S.S. Greer on September 4, 1941. The destroyer was the first American destroyer to fire upon the dreaded German U-boat submarines in an incident which accelerated the country’s declaration of war against Germany. Despite strong support from all the communities of Central Georgia and the Cong. Carl Vinson, the powerful chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee, the federal government denied the location of a naval air training station on the Oconee River just below the city due to the lack of a large labor force and the heavy infestation of mosquitoes in the area.
In 1941, Albert Clarke, of the Dublin High Green Hurricane, was the first of the school’s players to be named to an all-state team. In 1953, Clarke was named the first football coach of a perennial state and national powerhouse team, the Warner Robins High School Demons.
Before the United States officially entered the war, Lester F. Graham, a Dublin marine, was among a thousand U.S. Marines assigned to protect American interests in Shanghai, China, which was under attack by the Japanese army in the summer of 1937.
Several Laurens Countians were at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Marjorie Hobbs Wilson and her husband were eyewitnesses to the bombing. Also at Pearl Harbor on the “Day of Infamy” were George Dewey Senn, William Drew, Jr., Bascom Ashley, Walter Camp, Joel Wood, Harold Wright, Charles Durden, Hardy Blankenship, Rowland Ellis, Wade Jackson, Nathan Graham, Obie Cauley, and Claxton Mullis. Lts. William C. Thompson, Jr. and Everett Hicks were serving in the Philippines and Woody Dominy was stationed on Wake Island. Mess Attendant 1st Class Albert Rozar served aboard the U.S.S. Gudgeon in the first submarine patrol into Japanese waters.
Alton Hyram Scarborough, of the D.H.S. Class of '37, was the first of one hundred and nine casualties of the war. Robert Werden, Jr. loved to fly and was so anxious to fly planes in World War II that he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. When the United States declared war, he joined the Army Air Force, only to be shot down and killed in the early years of the war.
Capt. Bobbie E. Brown of Laurens County was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism in the assault on Crucifix Hill in Aachen, Germany. Capt. Brown, a career non-commissioned officer, personally led the attack on German positions, killing over one hundred Germans and being wounded three times during the battle. Capt. Brown was the first Georgian ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor, along with eight Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars. At the end of the war, Captain Brown was the oldest company commander in the United States Army and first in length of service. Paratrooper Kelso Horne was pictured on the cover of Life during the invasion of Normandy. Lt. Horne, a member of the famed 82nd Airborne Division and one of the oldest paratroopers in the U.S. Army, parachuted behind German lines near St. Mere Eglise in the nighttime hours before the amphibious invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Ensign Shelton Sutton, Jr., a native of Brewton and a former center for Georgia Tech, was killed while serving aboard the U.S.S. Juneau, along with the famous Sullivan brothers. Nearly two years later in 1944, the U.S. Navy commissioned the U.S.S. Sutton in his memory. His teammate Aviator Wex Jordan, an all-Southeastern guard for Georgia Tech in 1941 and Tech’s Most Valuable Player, was killed in an air accident while training in San Diego on Veterans’ Day in 1943.
Like the fictional Captain John Miller in “Saving Private Ryan,” Dublin and Laurens County teachers left the classroom to fight for their country. Robert Colter, Jr., who had been teaching Vocational-Agricultural classes at Caldwell High School, was killed on February 20, 1945, in Germany. Captain Henry Will Jones, the Vocational-Agricultural teacher and football coach at Dexter High School and a paratrooper, was killed at Peleliu Island in the South Pacific in October 18, 1944. In recognition of his exemplary valor, Capt. Jones was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. Lt. Lucian Bob Shuler, a former Cadwell High School basketball coach, was an ace, having shot down seven Japanese planes in combat. Captain Shuler was awarded eleven Distinguished Flying Crosses and twelve Air Medals. Cpt. William A. Kelley, a former Dublin High School coach, was flying the “Dauntless Dotty” when it crashed into the sea on June 6, 1945. The B-29 Superfortress was the first B-29 to bomb Tokyo. Kelley and his crew, who flew in a bomber named “The Lucky Irish,” were the first crew in the Pacific to complete 30 missions. They were returning home to headline the 7th War Bond Drive when the accident occurred. Randall Robertson and James Hutchinson, both only a year or so out of Dublin High School, were killed several weeks apart on the same beach on Iwo Jima in 1945.
Hubert Wilkes and Jack Thigpen survived the fatal attack on the “U.S.S. Yorktown” at the Battle of Midway. John L. Tyre volunteered for six months of hazardous duty in Southeast Asia in an outfit dubbed “Merrill’s Marauders.” The Marauders, the first ground soldiers to see action in World War II, fought through jungles filled with Japanese soldiers, unbearable heat, and slithering snakes. Only one out of six managed to make it all the way through the war.
Commander Robert Braddy, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, was awarded the Navy Cross, our nation’s second highest honor for naval heroism, for his actions in North Africa in November of 1942. Rear Admiral Braddy retired from the service in 1951. Captain William C. Thompson was awarded a Silver Star, two Gold Stars, a Navy Cross and a Bronze Star for his outstanding naval submarine service. Captain Thompson was the executive officer aboard the submarine Bowfin, which was credited with sinking the second-highest Japanese tonnage on a single war patrol. Thompson was aboard the U.S.S. Sealion when it was struck by Japanese planes at Cavite, Philippines. The submarine was the first American submarine to be lost in World War II. Both men are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Captain Thompson’s first cousin, Sgt. Lester Porter of Dublin led the first invading forces over the Danube River in nearly two millennia. Marine Corporal James W. Bedingfield, of Cadwell, was awarded a Silver Star by Admiral Chester Nimitz for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the Japanese at Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll, on February 6, 1944. His kinsman, Capt. Walter H. Bedingfield was awarded a Silver Star for heroism in setting up a field hospital in advance of American lines at Normandy on D-Day. T. Sgt. Thurman W. Wyatt was awarded a Silver Star for heroism when he assumed command of his tank platoon following the wounding of the commander and guided it to safety.
Tech. Sgt. Luther Word was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for heroism, just prior to his being killed in action. Lt. Paul Jimmy Scarboro was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry as a pilot of a Super Fortress in the Pacific Ocean. Sgt. Frank Zetterower was awarded the Silver Star for heroism when he was killed in action while trying to rescue wounded soldiers.
Lt. Colonel James D. Barnett, Col. Charles Lifsey, Col. George T. Powers, III, and Lt. Colonel J.R. Laney, former residents of Dublin and graduates of West Point, were cited for their actions in India and Europe. Laney was a member of the three-man crew of the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, the world’s fastest transcontinental plane, when it crashed into a Washington, D.C. suburb in December 1945. Lt. Col. Laney survived the crash to complete a distinguished thirty-year career in the Army.
Captain Alvin A. Warren, Jr., of Caldwell, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying 70 missions in the Indo-China Theater night and day through impassable mountain ranges and high clouds. Walter D. Warren, Jr. was a member of the famed Flying Tigers in the China-Burma-India Theater. Flight officer Emil E. Tindol also received the same award, just days before he was killed in action while “flying the hump” - a term used for flying over the gigantic mountain ranges of India and Burma. For his battle wounds and other feats of courage and bravery, Lt. Clifford Jernigan was awarded the Purple Heart, an Air Medal, and three Oak Leaf clusters in 1944. Lt. Garrett Jones was a highly decorated pilot who participated in the first daylight bombings of Germany. Calvert Hinton Arnold was promoted to Brigadier General in 1945. Lt. Col. Ezekiel W. Napier of Laurens County, a graduate of West Point, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and retired from the Air Force in 1959 as a Brigadier General. The "Pilot's Pilot," Bud Barron of Dublin, was credited with the second largest number of air miles during the war, mainly by ferrying aircraft to and from the front lines. Barron has been inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame. Dublin native Lt. William L. Sheftall, Jr., flew 74 missions in Italy and was awarded the Silver Star for heroism. Sidney Augustus Scott, the Chief Engineer of the SS Charles Morgan, was awarded the Merchant Marine Meritorious Service medal for his heroism in the landing of men and material on the beaches of Normandy just after D-Day.
James Adams, Morton C. Mason, Wilkins Smith, Russell M. Daley, Gerald Anderson, Marshall Jones, Robert L. Horton, Loyest B. Chance, Needham Toler, William L. Padgett, Joseph E. Joiner, W.B. Tarpley, Owen Collins, Loy Jones, Thurston Veal, James B. Bryan, James T. Daniel, Cecil Wilkes and others were surviving in P.O.W. camps in Germany, while Alton Watson, James W. Dominy, and Alton Jordan were held prisoner by the Japanese.
Lt. Peter Fred Larsen, a prisoner of the Japanese army, was killed by American planes when being transported to the Japanese mainland in an unmarked freighter. Future Dubliner Tommy Birdsong was digging coal in a Japanese coal mine when an atomic bomb near Nagasaki was dropped. Earlier, he survived the infamous "Bataan Death March." Other future Dubliners who survived the Bataan Death March were William Wallace, A. Deas Coburn, and Felix Powell. Other POWs were D.G. Anderson, E.M. Etheridge, J.S. Hayes, H.G. Hilliard, O.A. Passmore, Milo Tomlinson, and Frank A. Rails.
PFC Wesley Hodges was a member of the 38th Mechanized Cavalry Recon Squad, the first American squad to enter Paris on August 25, 1944. Seaman James T. Sutton survived the sinking of the “U.S.S. Frederick C. Davis,” the last American ship sunk by the German Navy. The 121st Infantry of the Georgia National Guard, which was headquartered in Dublin until 1938 and of which Company K and 3rd Battalion HQ Co. were located in Dublin, won a Presidential Unit Citation for its outstanding performance of its duty in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest during Thanksgiving 1944. Edward Towns was cited for his meritorious service to the submarine forces of the United States. Curtis Beall, after being voted by his classmates as the most outstanding senior at the University of Georgia in 1943, joined his brother Millard in the United States Marine Corps.
Capt. John Barnett, a twenty-one-year-old Dubliner and twice a winner of the Bronze Star Medal for heroism, was credited with being the youngest executive officer in the United States Army in 1944. Lt. Arlie W. Claxton won the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1943. These are only a few stories of the thousands of Laurens County's heroes of World War II. Charles Yarborough and Reuben Whitfield were among the sailors who witnessed Japanese officials sign the official surrender agreement aboard the U.S.S. Missouri.
Major Herndon “Don” M. Cummings was a bomber pilot in the 477th Bomber Group. Though his unit never saw active duty overseas, Major Cummings and his group were known as a group of units collectively called the “Tuskegee Airmen.” Cummings was incarcerated along with a hundred other fellow pilots for attempting to integrate an all-white officers' club at Freeman Field in Indiana in 1945. Through the efforts of future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall and the actions of newly sworn-in President Harry Truman, the pilots were freed and later exonerated of all charges against them. Cummings remained in the reserves for twenty years after his retirement from active duty. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush and was an honored guest at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Two other Tuskegee Airmen who were raised in Laurens County were Col. Marion Rodgers and Col. John Whitehead. Col. Rodgers was a squadron commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron after the war. Col. Whitehead was the first African American test pilot in the Air Force and was one of the few Tuskegee Airmen to fly in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Rev. H. Hollis Hooks, who would serve as the Minister of St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Dublin in the 1970s, served as one of the first chaplains of the Tuskegee Airmen, serving on March 7, 1942, when the first cadets received their wings. Horace J. Green, assigned to a truck company, was killed in action on March 15, 1945, making him the only Laurens County African-American soldier to be killed in World War II.
Laurens Countians supported the war effort on the home front. A State Guard unit was formed by over-age and underage men. Everyone from school children to grandmothers did their part. Many Laurens Countians commuted to Warner Robins and Macon to work for the war effort. Laurens Countians opened their homes to soldiers from Camp Wheeler, near Macon, and British R.A.F. cadets from Cochran Field in Macon. Angelo Catechis bought war bonds with his life's savings to help rescue his family in Greece. The women of Laurens County worked diligently on the home front. The women made bandages, surgical dressings, and sponges by the scores of thousands, along with knitted garments. Carolyn Hall, blind since birth, was one of the most proficient knitters in the community. Laurens Countians contributed hundreds of hours of time to the Red Cross, U.S.O., and numerous Civilian Defense programs.
Bessye Parker Devereaux was the first woman in the Charleston, S.C., shipyards to be awarded the Outstanding Worksmanship Award by President Roosevelt. In the summer of 1944, the U.S. government honored the citizens and Laurens County for their contributions to the war effort by naming one of the reconditioned "Liberty Ships" the "U.S.S. Laurens." William H. Keen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Trammel Keen of Dublin, was among the first group of American pilots to graduate from the Air Corps Advanced Flying School after the beginning of World War II. The Class of 1942-A graduated well ahead of schedule on Jan. 2, 1942.
Private First Class Herbert Silas, of Dexter, played the role of a Yank soldier in a British movie "The Heritage." The film portrayed a group of American soldiers helping in the harvest on a British farm. Phil Adams served as Provost Marshal of Camp Wheeler, a large infantry training center east of Macon.
W.L. Hughes, a local black leader, was a delegate to the 1940 Republican Convention. Rubert L. Hogan, a Dudley banker, served as a delegate to the Democratic Convention that same year. W.H. Lovett represented his district at the 1948 Democratic Convention. Willie Brantley was selected as the most outstanding 4H Club student in the state by the Colored 4-H Clubs of Georgia.
On April 17, 1944, the Colored Elks Clubs of Georgia held their state convention at First A.B. Church in Dublin. The Elks clubs sponsored a high school student in a statewide oratory contest. The winner of the contest was from Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta. In his first public speech, the fifteen-year-old student, who would enter Morehouse College in the fall, spoke on the topic of “The Negro and the Constitution.” That young man would become the greatest civil rights leader in American history. His name was Martin Luther King, Jr. On the very same day, Herbert Rozier, a seventy-two-year-old Laurens County man, became the oldest person ever executed in Georgia and one of the oldest ever electrocuted in the history of the nation.
On February 6, 1942, a tornado struck a Montrose church, killing County Home Demonstration Agent Effie Lampkin, “Uncle” Sandy Owens and Sam Gibson, making it the deadliest storm in county history. The largest measured rainfall in modern times fell on Laurens County on January 19, 1943, when 7.15 inches of rainwater were deposited into local gauges.
Mamie Stubbs Lander, a native of Washington County and a former Dexter High School teacher, was the world leader of the Order of the Eastern Star, the female auxiliary of the Free and Accepted Masons, as the organization’s Most Worthy Grand Matron of the General Chapter, World O.E.S. from 1943 to 1946. For the next three decades until her death in 1975, Mrs. Lander served as Grand Secretary Emeritus. Mrs. Annie Prescott, widow of W.O. Prescott, was appointed by a 1940 Laurens County grand jury as the first woman Justice of the Peace in the county.
Dr. William A.J. Mosley, a native of Laurens County, became one of the first African-American physicians in deep South Georgia. Dr. Moseley, a graduate of Atlanta University and Meharry Medical College, practiced from 1899 to 1939, first in Brunswick, Cordele, and Valdosta before settling in Thomasville in 1901. Dr. Mosley was once president of the Georgia State Medical Association.
Eugene Cook,who was born in and later lived in Dublin, but raised in Wrightsville, served as Attorney General of Georgia from 1945 to 1965, and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 1965 to 1967. Cook’s term of twenty-one years was the longest in the history of the state at the time of his retirement.
Chapter 14
1945 - 1949:
The Greatest Generation Comes Home
The resurgence of Laurens County started during the war. Congressman Carl Vinson of Milledgeville secured the location of a German-Italian Prisoner of War Camp at the old fairground site. Prisoners were put to work on local farms, filling a void left in the male farm labor force. The congressman had selected Dublin as the site for a naval aviation training center, but his plans were never carried out. Vinson, a powerful member of the Naval Affairs Committee, secured the construction of a naval hospital in western Dublin in 1945. The hospital was designed to treat patients who needed long-term care. One of only two rheumatic fever research units in the country was established at the hospital in 1946. The hospital was a tremendous boost to the local economy, bringing in several thousand new citizens. The Navy constructed one of Georgia's largest airports for the transportation of patients. For several years, Dublin played host to several Army-Navy baseball and football games between the prison guards and the naval hospital personnel. The hospital, now the Carl Vinson V.A. Medical Center, is serving the needs of thousands of American veterans. One of the first physicians to serve at the Naval Hospital was Dr. Franklin Gowdy of Glencoe, Illinois. Dr. Gowdy, a former member of the 1st Marine Division, was an All-American tackle for the University of Chicago in 1924. The following year he served as an assistant coach with the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg. Capt. Joseph B. Logue, the second head of the V.A. Hospital, was Division Surgeon of the First Marine Division, which saw heavy action in Peleliu and throughout the Pacific during World War II. Responsible for the first use of D.D.T. to control mosquito-borne diseases, Logue served in the Navy for thirty-six years before retiring as a Vice-Admiral, the third-highest rank in the Navy. Admiral L.B. Sartin, the hospital’s last commander, endured three years in a Japanese P.O.W. camp. Captain Lea B. Sartin, the last commander of the U.S. Naval Hospital in Dublin, in was taken as a prisoner of war while serving at a Manila hospital and endured three years in the Japanese prison camps, first as the prison doctor at Bilbub prison in the Philippines. Capt. Sartin served as Executive Officer of the Naval Hospital in New Orleans before coming to Dublin () Captain A.L. Bryan was a veteran of naval operations in the Pacific serving with valor in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. Bryan entered the United States Navy when he was commissioned a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Naval Reserve on February 1, 1917. Commander Bryan’s first experience in establishing a naval hospital from the ground up came in Jacksonville, Florida, where he served as the Chief of Surgical Service during the hospital’s first six months of operation.
The naval hospital, a part of the armed forces hospital system, took on the role of aiding the war on the home front. This mission included entertainment and rehabilitation of the patients. On April 7, 1945, Eddie Rickenbacker visited the hospital. Rickenbacker was the American Ace of World War I. He owned the Indianapolis Speedway for 12 years. In 1938, he was named President of Eastern Airlines and served in that position until he was named Chairman of the Board in 1959. Rickenbacker's mission was to cheer up those sailors who were facing long periods of recuperation from their injuries and ailments. In the late summer of 1945, an 18-year-0ld sailor Robert Cade from Texas was assigned to the U.S. Naval Hospital as a lab technician. After completing medical school, Dr. Cade specializied in diseases of the kidneys. In 1965, at the request of the the football coach of the University of Florida to keep his players from dehydration, developed and invented a liquid known as “Gator Ade.”
On the last day of April 1945, Helen Keller made a visit to the hospital. Helen Keller had lost her sense of sight and hearing as a very young child. She could not speak. In her later years, Helen Keller authored many successful books. Her visit to the hospital was part of her tour of military hospitals across the country. It was hoped that those disabled veterans would be inspired by Miss Keller overcoming her disabilities. Over the following years, touring bands and companies performed at the hospital for the sailors in the afternoons and at public dances at night. Among those were Forties band leaders Les Brown, Vaughn Monroe, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Skinnay Ennis, Glen Gray, Tommy Tucker, Jan Garber, and Ted Weems. Before they were stars, actor Ernest Borgnine and crooner John Gary also performed on the hospital auditorium. The Clyde Beatty Circus, one of the world’s largest, closed out its 1945 season in Dublin on October 25, 1945.
During the war and post-war years, Dublin was treated to some of the finest entertainment in America. During the war, the Grand Ole Opry toured the southeastern United States. The singers performed in a large tent in downtown Dublin on today's site of Pitt's Car World. All-time favorites such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Minnie Pearl, Eddy Arnold, Bill Monroe, and Lester Flatt thrilled thousands of fans. The newly renovated Dublin Theater played host to cowboy and music stars such as Tex Ritter, Smiley Burnette, Bob Steele, Lash Larue, and Eddy Arnold. George T. Morris brought Dublin into the radio age when WMLT went on the air in January of 1945. A test signal, broadcast just days before the station went on the air, was heard nearly halfway around the world in Australia. The station was first named WDUB. The name was changed to reflect the three owners, George T. Morris, Newton Thompson, and Wilmer Lanier.
Lila Moore Keen, "The Lady of the Camellias," became a nationally-renowned artist for her beautiful paintings of the flowers of the South. In 1949, the first drive-in theatre opened in East Dublin. Several years later a second drive-in, the Rockdale, opened in the Rockdale community west of Dublin. Vincent Mahoney, a native of Dublin and a nationally known and respected newspaper writer, was among thirteen journalists killed when their plane crashed in India in July 1949 in the worst loss of journalist lives in world history. Rev. Charles T. Ricks, of Dublin, served as President of Brewton-Parker College from 1946 to 1948.
Just as many citizens left Laurens County after World War I, many others left Laurens County after World War II. Jane New married band leader Tommy Dorsey. Among the others were M.C. Thomas, the father of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and John Couric, Associated Press reporter, news media executive and the father of television news anchor Katie Couric. Solicitor-General Eugene Cook left during the war and served as Georgia's Attorney General for twenty years, longer than anyone in the history of our state. Cook ended his public service by serving on Georgia's Supreme Court from 1965 to 1967. Dr. Annella Brown began her practice of medicine in a Philadelphia hospital in 1944, making her the first native Laurens County woman to practice medicine. Dr. Brown was the first board-certified woman surgeon in the Northeast and only the fifth in the nation. Judge Conley Ingram left Dublin for better and greater things, eventually serving on Georgia's Supreme Court from 1973 to 1977.
Passenger and air freight service began in and out of Dublin in 1945 with flights on Southern Air Express Airlines. Until World War II, Dublin and Laurens County's economy was almost totally agricultural. With the opening of J.P. Stevens Woolen Mill in 1948, the economy began to shift toward a mixture of agricultural and industrial. During the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the company in Dublin, one of the company's two plants was named in honor of Donald C. Johnston, a company executive whose civic and charitable deeds made him one of Dublin's most honored and respected citizens. Dublin is almost more famous for what it didn't have. It didn't get the Central of Georgia Railroad. Nor did it get the 12th District Agricultural College. In the late forties, Congressman Carl Vinson nearly succeeded in securing the location of the United States Air Force Academy in the Buckeye District of Laurens County. Vinson continued to attempt to secure federal projects in Laurens County, including another naval air station. Vinson was responsible for the construction of Interstate Highway 16 through the center of the county, which began in 1961.
During the 1940s and 1950s, Duren I. Parker and Louis H. Parker were known all of the country for breeding some of the most productive milk cows in the country.
During World War II, the dairies of the county, including Parker’s, Claxton’s, Perry’s, Twin Oak “Hughes”, and Stinson dairies, consolidated into Dublin Cooperative Dairies to save on the cost of production. Home delivery of milk continued well beyond the war. Belk Matthews opened its first store in Dublin in 1946.
Hugh Frank Radcliffe, who spent some of his early years living in the Dexter community, established a world record for strikeouts in a 9-inning game when, as a pitcher for the R.E. Lee Rebels of Thomaston, he struck out 28 Lanier Poets on April 19, 1948. Radcliffe, who signed an unprecedented $40,000.00 signing bonus with the Philadelphia Phillies, bounced around the minor leagues after developing arm trouble. Bill Sims, a Dublin wing back and leader of the 6th District Champion Dublin High School, was named to the all-state team and played in the first Peach Bowl High School Classic in Macon in 1945.
Glenn Watkins was born in Kite, Georgia. Watkins learned to play fiddle and the age of seventeen in 1943, and began his radio career as the leader of the Hi Neighbor Boys at radio station WFBC in Greenville, South Carolina. During this early stint in his career, he got to do personal appearances with many of the major acts from WSM's Grand Ole Opry at the time, including Eddy Arnold, Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Pee Wee King, Cowboy Copas, Rod Brasfield, Minnie Pearl, and many others. Watkins would learn to play at least a dozen and a half instruments. When WMLT in Dublin went on the air in 1945, the station manager hired Glenn and his “Dixie Playboys” to become the station’s headlining live Country & Western act for the remainder of the 1940s. They made personal appearances throughout the WMLT broadcasting region in schoolhouses, theaters, and dance halls. Hollywood's cowboy movies were popular then, and many of the stars would tour the theaters. The Dixie Playboys opened the shows for such Western stars as Tex Ritter, Jimmy Wakely, Lash LaRue, and Charles Starrett, among others. Watkins, whose music career lasted more than sixty years is a member of the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame.
Dr. Leland Moore was a native of Laurens County, Georgia. Moore graduated from Emory University’s School of Theology. For more than half a century before retiring in 1961. A leading Methodist minister of his day, Rev. Moore was the first Methodist minister of the South Georgia Conference to obtain a doctorate degree in Theology. He died on January 16, 1972.
Walter Burkemo, who worked as a prison guard at the German-Italian POW camp in Dublin in the last years of World War II, dated a Dublin girl, the future Nell Rulli. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Burkemo was seriously wounded twice, earning two Purple Hearts, the second time during the Battle of the Bulge. Burkemo resumed his PGA Tour career after recovering from his injuries. He had little success in the late 1940s, but in 1951, his luck began to change when he won his first of four Michigan Opens. His best years in professional golf were in the early 1950s; he won the PGA Championship in 1953 and was runner-up in 1951 and 1954. He was a member of the Ryder Cup team in 1953. Burkemo was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame (1758) and the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.
Moody Brown graduated from the United States Naval Academy as a member of the Class of 1947. The class, known by many as the best class in the history of Annapolis, included President Jimmy Carter, CIA Director Stansfield Turner, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral William Crowe, and Medal of Honor Winner-Prisoner of War-Vice Presidential Candidate James Stockdale. Stanley A. Reese, a Dublin lawyer, Referee in Bankruptcy, and army officer, worked on the legal staff of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in post-war Asia. Reese helped to lead the prosecution of more than twenty-five Japanese soldiers and officials.
Kara Coates, a native of Laurens County, joined the famed Harlem Globetrotters, one of the most celebrated teams in the history of the sport. John M. Outler, Jr., son of the Rev. John M. Outler Sr. and a former resident of Dublin, served for more than a decade as General Manager of WSB Radio and in 1948, as the general manager of the first television station in the South, WSB-TV. Outler also served a term as Chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters. The last regularly scheduled passenger train to Macon left the depot in Dublin on December 31, 1949. S.M. Alsup, a Dublin grocer, was elected as the Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of the Knights Templar of Georgia in 1949.
Chapter 15
The 1950s: Happy Days
Herschel Lovett brought minor league baseball to Dublin in 1949. The Green Sox played in one of the best minor league parks in Georgia. The club had affiliations with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, and Milwaukee Braves before a reorganization of the minor leagues ended baseball in Dublin in 1962. The Dublin team also played under the names of the Irish, the Orioles, and the Braves. The Green Sox won the regular season title in the Georgia State League in 1950. Charlie Ridgeway, a former Dublin Green Sox player and manager of the Fitzgerald team, made professional baseball history when he sent in twelve-year-old Joe Reliford into a game, making the young man the youngest man to play professional baseball and the first black player to play in the Georgia State League. Izzy Leon, the first member of a Dublin minor league team to play in the majors, played for the 1949 Green Sox and the 1945 Philadelphia Phillies. Tony Roig, a member of the first Green Sox team, played three seasons for the Washington Senators. Larry Foss, a pitcher on the 1955 Dublin Irish team, played for a brief time for the defending World Champion Pirates in 1961 and the hapless 1962 New York Mets, the worst team in major league history. World Champion manager and Hall of Fame inductee, Earl Weaver, was a player-manager for the Dublin Orioles in 1958. When the Baltimore General Manager wanted to move Weaver to another team, thousands of his local fans demanded and secured his place on the team through the end of the season. Dave Nicholson, baseball’s first bonus baby, and Steve Barber, of the ‘58 Orioles, who were the AL leader in shutouts in 1962 and the fastest pitcher in baseball in 1960, played under Weaver’s managership.
George Werley, a pitcher for the 1958 Orioles, pitched one inning for the parent team in the waning days of 1956, just three weeks after his 18th birthday. He never played another major league game. Bill Robinson, Glen Clark, Jim Driscoll, and Hal Haydel of the ‘62 Braves went on to play in the major leagues. Barber, Nicholson, Robinson and Clark all played for the Atlanta Braves at one time during their careers. One opposing player from neighboring Sandersville thrilled the crowds with his massive home runs. The eighteen-year-old rookie, Willie McCovey, ended his major league career with more than five hundred home runs. Bill Robinson played with the World Champion Pirates in 1979 and coached the 1986 World Champion Mets and the 1998 World Champion Marlins.
During the years in which Dublin fielded teams in the Georgia State and Georgia Florida Leagues, some of the umpires in that league called Dublin home base. The most successful of these men in blue included Harry Wendelstedt and John Kibler, longtime veteran National League umpires, along with Russell Goetz and Cal Drummond, the latter of whom was one of the few umpires ever to die while calling a professional baseball game. Tony Venzon, a fifteen-year National League Umpire, called three World Series and three All-Star games. Bill Haller, who called games during the 1958 Georgia-Florida League season, umpired for twenty years in the American League, including four All-Star and four World Series games. Hank Morgenweck called the 1975 ALCS and Nolan Ryan’s 4th no-hitter.
In 1951, the Oconee High School Trojans, in their first year of existence, won the Class B football championship. John Tidwell, the most popular player of Dublin’s only Georgia State League pennant winners in 1950, enjoyed a successful term as the Executive Director of Fair Park. John oversaw the Texas State Fair, and executive director of Fair Park in Dallas, which included the historic Cotton Bowl, the Texas State Fair, Dallas Music Hall, Texas Governmental Center and other public facilities. Brandon Southern, Jr. was a star football player for Washington Street High School, the predecessor to Oconee High School in Dublin. Southern enrolled at Morris Brown in Atlanta, where he was a star football player, sprinter, and long jumper. Southern was a member of the 1951 Clark team, which captured the national SIAC championship in 1951. In his last two seasons at Clark, Southern was named to the SIAC All-American team. After graduation, he stayed at Clark as an assistant football coach. He began his high school and coaching career at Thomaston High School in 1955. In 1997, Southern was named to the SIAC Hall of Fame.
The 1950s were a decade of continuous prosperity. The 914th Combat Support Hospital Unit, which won the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation for its actions from October 17, 1944, to July 4, 1945, was relocated to Dublin on August 1, 1950. After six months of service, the unit was decommissioned by the army. The Cedar Grove Girls won the Class C state basketball championship in 1951, giving Laurens County its first state championship by any team, either male or female. The boy's team lost in the finals. Four Dublin women presented a highly credible report to the U.S. Air Force of their observation of a group of five UFOs late in the afternoon of September 3, 1952. In January of 1952, Dolly, the world’s most famous “two-headed cow,” came to the end of her sixteen-year tour around the continent when she died in Dublin.
The University of Georgia established a state 4-H camp on the current site of Riverview Golf Course for Negro members in 1951, following the efforts of such leaders as Emory Thomas and Effie Lampkin. The camp, which was attended annually by thousands of black youths, including future Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson, was considered the finest Negro 4-H facility in the South. Capt. Thomas J. Simmons, a sixteen-year veteran of the Army, was named as Adjutant of the Armed Forces Press, Radio and Television Service. Capt. Simmons entered the army as a private and worked in the Pentagon in implementing the integration of the armed forces during the Korean War. Lucius Bacote, principal of Oconee High School (established in 1951), headed the 9,000-member Georgia Teachers and Education Association. In 1959, Bacote was elected to head the National American Teachers Association. Dr. U.S. Johnson was elected President of the Georgia State Medical Association for Negro Doctors in 1950.
Modern brick schools were being built county-wide. Little did those attending a performance sponsored by the Laurens County Concert Association in the old City Hall in January of 1952 realize that the young actor on stage would go on to a remarkable career on stage, television, and film. The starving actor who toured the country with his partner and wife was Hal Holbrook. The Katie Dudley and Vinson Village housing projects and the Laurens County Hospital opened in 1952. The Rev. Silas Johnson, former pastor of Caldwell and Buckhorn Methodist churches, died in 1951 after serving ten years as president of Wesleyan College in Macon. The Dublin High track team captured the 1951 Class B state championship.
Twelve Laurens County men lost their lives in defense of their country in the Korean War. James E. Rix and James E. Daniel were the first two Laurens Countians to be killed. Sgt. Albert Lewis of Laurens County was starved to death in a Korean P.O.W. camp. Emerson Burns, Wesley Hodges, and Tyrois Odom survived and were welcomed home by one of Dublin's largest parade crowds ever. Hodges was awarded the Silver Star for his heroic actions during the war.
Col. Erwin O. Gibson commanded the 65th Infantry Regiment in the second half of 1951. Known as the Borinqueneers, the unit was the first regiment in the U.S. Army composed entirely of Puerto Rican soldiers. Major Charles L. Holliman, then a lieutenant, treated 700 casualties during the war. Holliman, relying on his experience as a combat medic in World War II, had to perform field surgery. He lost only one man. Airman Bobby Tennyson Robinson was killed by a tornado at Lawson Air Force Base, Columbus, Georgia, on March 13, 1954. Airman Robinson remained at his sentry post despite the threats to his own safety and died a victim of the Cold War. J.P. McCullough was an aviation instructor in the Air Force. Among his more famous pupils were two of the country’s better-known aviators, United States Senators John Glenn and John McCain. Seaman Lonnie “Jiggs” Woodum, less than eighteen months out of Oconee High School, was one of more than one hundred sailors killed aboard the U.S.S. Bennington in May 1954 in the nation’s second-worst non-battle naval disaster. On June 22, 1951, Major George O’Neal, a native of Laurens County, was bestowed with the Silver Star for his gallantry in leading the Third Infantry Division to victory under dire circumstances.
The Herschel Lovett Bridge replaced the narrow 1920 bridge over the Oconee River in 1953. William C. Dominy, of Dublin, began his six-year term as Commander of the Georgia State Patrol in 1953. After many years of serving in the leadership of the Masons of Georgia, Marshall A. Chapman was chosen Grand Master of Georgia Masons for the year 1954. In January of 1954, the National Guard returned to Dublin when the 286th Infantry Heavy Mortar Battalion was organized under the command of William V. Crowley, Jr.. Louise Blackshear Deal, a native of Dublin, became the first woman to serve on the Fulton County grand jury in 1954. The horrific heat and drought of the summer of 1954 irritated rattlesnakes, which struck Laurens Countians more than ever. Laurens County was often the home to field trials of the Georgia Fox Hunters Association. In November 1954, the National Association of Fox Hunters held their 61st annual field trials here and in the following November in 1955.
The Dublin Green Sox and the Sandersville Giants held one of the greatest slugfests in minor league history at Lovett Park. The Dublin team scored 34 runs against 17 for the Giants on June 6, 1954. The Irishmen garnered 29 hits. The stats posted best any team in major league history and remain one of the highest run games in minor league history.
At the height of racial strife in the South and in Georgia, hundreds of black and white Laurens Countians jointly launched a massive and successful search for the missing Melvin Reed, a young black child, who had wandered away from his parents’ car in the autumn of 1955.
Dr. Harold McManus, Sr., who served as the pastor of Marie Baptist Church from 1953-1957, served as a chaplain in the United States Navy in World War II, subsequently joining the Naval Reserves and retiring with the rank of Captain. He held the Roberts Chair of Church History in the Christianity Department of Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, where he taught from 1949 until 1985. Dr. McManus was honored twice as the dedicatee of the Cauldron, Mercer University's yearbook, in 1957 and 1962.
Betty Glo Cawthon and Steve Mercer were awarded first place in the Georgia: Clothing and Livestock Conservation, respectively, in 1954. Long-time Dexter area resident Steve Mercer began working with livestock as a young boy. Mercer, who won numerous awards in his hobby, won the Georgia 4-H award for livestock conservation in 1954 and represented Georgia in the National Convention. Trabue Sutton Brooks, of Dudley High School and a retired school teacher, was a national winner in her 4H Club project “Corn Meal and its Uses” in 1955.
Selina Burch, a native of Laurens County, was one of the first female presidents of a Telephone Workers of America local union in the United States and remained active in the Union movement until her retirement in the 1980s. With an average temperature of 67.3, well above the average of 64.8, and only 24.66 inches of rain, nearly twenty-two inches below normal, the year 1954 was the hottest and driest year of the 20th Century. For 17 consecutive days from Jun 22 – Jul 8, 1954, the high temperature was measured at 100 degrees and above. During the year, the high for the day was at or above 100 degrees on 44 days. On August 4, 1955, Capt. Hugh Clafton Barron desperately tried in vain to save the lives of his passengers and crew when his American Airlines Corsair crashed into dense woods four hundred yards from a runway at Fort Leonard Wood. Ten months earlier, Barron had saved the lives of 46 people when he piloted his crippled plane to a crash landing at a Chicago-area airport. William Roscoe Coleman, a native of Laurens County and a former Hepzibah, Ga., mayor, state senator, and state representative, was named to a seat on the Georgia Board of Regents in 1958 for a term of seven years.
Dubliners and Laurens Countians were elated, then greatly disappointed after the announced location of a B-52 bomber base on the outskirts of Dublin was vetoed by President Dwight Eisenhower in July 1956, in favor of another site in his home state of Kansas.
It was a cold, cold February day in Germany in 1959 when James Cook, a future resident of Laurens County, Georgia, became embroiled in the hot political controversy of the Cold War. Cook and a squad of men had been assigned to a transport convoy through the Russian Sector of East Berlin. Stopped and detained for several hours, Cook and his fellow men unwittingly became somewhat of an international incident. The confrontation was chronicled in a television movie, Thunder Over Berlin. The movie starred CBS News correspondent Douglas Edwards, comedian Jerry Stiller, and actor John Karlan, who portrayed Private James Cook. You may not know the name of John Karlan, but if you watched television in the late afternoons from 1967 to 1968, you would know his character, the insane Willie Loomis, the henchman of the vampire Barnabus Collins in the soap opera Dark Shadows. Cook was killed in action in Vietnam.
Lucille O'Neal was born to Sirlester and Odessa Perry O'Neal in the early 1950s. It was time when the O'Neals and many other black families felt uncomfortable in the postwar South. The family moved North in hopes of finding a better life. On March 6, 1972, Lucille gave birth to a son. The little boy didn't remain little very long. He began to grow and grow and grow. Carrying the genetic markers of his mother's paternal ancestors, the young man began to grow to a height of seven feet and one inch tall. Today you know that young man as Shaquille O'Neal, one of the most celebrated, dominating, and talented basketball players in NBA history.
Joseph “Dick” Jones was born in Dublin on August 8, 1925. A son of Lawton Jones and Maude Jones, Dick served in the United States Navy during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Fascinated with the heavens, the Naval officer completed three world tours, and sometime in the 1950s, Dick volunteered to serve in the super-secret Project Magnet. Unlike the Air Force’s Project Blue Book, Project Magnet focused on magnetic fields around the Earth. A special U.S. program was created to work with the Canadian Government to seek out to find the source of any disruptions.
One important result of Jones’s research came with the discovery that certain obvious variations in the Earth’s magnetic field were detected in the area east and southeast of Key West, Florida. The group had heard of the pilots who were lost while training off the coast of South Florida in 1945. They had heard the legends of mysterious ships and underwater colonies off the lower Florida Coast. Their work laid a foundation for research into the area infamously known as “The Bermuda Triangle.”
Dublin’s oldest franchise restaurant, the Dairy Queen, opened at is current East Jackson Street location in March 1953.
An armory building was constructed in 1957 and later named in honor of Major Charles E. Stroberg, the executive officer of the unit. Over the years, the armory has hosted all types of events, including circuses, prom dances, wrestling matches, antique shows, and concerts by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Ernest Tubb, and Don Gibson. Grand Ole Opry Stars continued to perform in Dublin during the 1950s. Among those performing here were Hank Snow, Bill Monroe, Kitty Wells, Ray Price, George Morgan, and Cowboy Copas. The Dublin High School debate team was awarded the best team in the state in 1959 in Class A. Clyde Beatty’s Circus, the largest circus in the world, came to Dublin for two big shows on October 7, 1958. Not your mediocre third team circus, this was the actual big show, one which was completing the last leg of its 1958 tour in New York City and other large and small cities of America.
Douglas Wells, a native of Laurens County, was known throughout Georgia for his art, especially in the field of outdoor manger Christmas scenes and watercolor landscapes. Wells began to succeed under the mentorship of John Marsh, husband of Gone With The Wind author, Margaret Mitchell.
In the mid-1950s, Velma Warren, who was a member of a sharecropping family on the Cook Place near Montrose, married an up-and-coming singer, the fabulous James Brown. At the Veterans Hospital, patients have come and gone. There was something unusual about this particular patient in the autumn of 1955. He was a veteran paratrooper of the United States Army who fought in Korea. After the war, he married Frances Googe of Hazelhurst, where he made his home. He did nothing to create the excitement. The unusual amount of attention paid to this patient, Vincent Cadette, came not from his actions but because of his ancestry. His ancestor was among the most famous men of the late 19th century. Vincent was an American Indian like his great-grandfather, Sitting Bull. Tom Stewart, Dublin High head football coach, in 1954 was named to coach the South All Classification team in the 1954 Georgia High School All-Star game.
Crystal Scarborough, of Dublin, went to work as a lifeguard and swim coach in Jacksonville, Florida as the city’s Aquatic Director at the age of 17. Scarborough moved to Los Angeles to train for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. She began teaching lessons in swimming in the Hollywood area in 1950, retiring after 31 years. By the end of the 20th Century, the school had become the largest privately owned swim school in the United States. Scarborough gave swimming lessons to Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan, Anthony Quinn, Jane Fonda, and Joan Bennett, among many other celebrities. She also taught the children of Chief Justice Earl Warren, Frank Sinatra, June Allyson, Bob Dylan, Rita Hayworth, and even a grandchild of the iconic underwater explorer, Jacques Cousteau. Scarborough was cited by five United States presidents for saving hundreds of people from drowning. She appeared on many variety and game shows while she was active in teaching. In her prime, Scarborough was deemed to be one of the best swimming instructors in the country.
Dublin-born and Brewton-bred Theron Sapp “broke the drought” and became a Georgia Bulldog immortal when he scored the winning touchdown to defeat Georgia Tech, breaking a long string of Bulldog losses to the state rival. Sapp, the Most Valuable Player of the 1959 Senior Bowl, went on to play professional ball with the World Champion Philadelphia Eagles in 1960 and later with the hapless Pittsburgh Steelers. The Dublin Irish football team won back-to-back state championships in 1959 and 1960, mostly on speed, intelligence, and unbridled determination. Ben Crain, a Dublin back, was named Georgia Class A Back of the Year in 1959. The 1960 team was led by Georgia Class A Lineman of the Year Ben Snipes. Joining Crain as first team selections to the All-State team during the 1950s were Bobby Gay, Henry Sheffield (2 times), Mike Malone, and Charles Garrett. The Oconee Trojan football team had many outstanding seasons during the 1950s and 1960s, winning several district championships. The respect and the comradery and respect between the Trojan players and fans and their Irish counterparts was unparalleled in the pre-integration decades.
The City of Dublin moved into the current City Hall, the Dublin High School from 1902-1954, in 1959. Dublin began an unprecedented growth into the suburbs in the 1950s and early 1960s with the establishment of Pine Forest, Highland Park, West Bellevue, Brookwood, North Dublin, and Green Acres Subdivisions. Despite the growth of Dublin, the county's population decreased. The growth of Dublin was led by real estate developers, the Curry Brothers, Thomas and Louie, the Cordell Brothers, Howard and Clayton, and L.D. Woods. Mr. and Mrs. Roy Harkleroad established a restaurant they named the Briar Patch, in keeping with the designation of U.S. Highway 441 as the Uncle Remus Highway. For most of the fifties and sixties, the place was frequented by cruising teenagers, who began a tradition known as “Scratching the Patch.” Next door to the restaurant was the “Brer Rabbit Motel,” which featured wooden cutouts of Uncle Remus characters. Jack Lamar Linder retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Senior Master Sergeant, one of the first to attain that highly coveted rank among enlisted airmen. Corky Scarborough, Dublin High’s last male cheerleader, worked as an illustrator for Disney and DC Comics’ Superman.
The beautiful young girls of Laurens County dominated other young ladies of the county in representing the clubs of AMVETS clubs of Georgia in the national beauty pageants in the latter half of the 1950s. Betty Ann Maddox was chosen the state winner in 1956. Nan Larsen returned to the winner’s podium in 1959. A year later, Anna Dora Harden Loyd was chosen Miss Georgia Amvets of 1960.
George W. Luck was born in Dublin in 1934 and grew up in Wrightsville. Following his graduation from Wrightsville High School, George, the second Johnson County boy to earn the Eagle Scout Award, received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but left after his first year. He returned home to Georgia, where he enrolled at Georgia Tech to study aeronautical engineering. Once again, Luck transferred, this time to fill his appointment to the nation’s newest military academy, the United States Air Force Academy, in its only second year of existence. As a test pilot, George flew cutting-edge missions in the B-52 mothership, zoom flights in the F-104 to extremely high altitudes, many varieties and alterations of the KC-135, and C-5 galaxy tests, among other things. His test pilot duties were interrupted by the war in Southeast Asia, where George flew combat missions in the A-1 and A-26.
Chapter 16
The 1960s: Progress, People, and Purpose
The early 60s brought on a spurt of growth in Dublin which had not been seen since the turn of the century. The rejuvenated Chamber of Commerce and the newly created Dublin-Laurens Development Authority began a forty-something-year string of securing new industries for the community. The city and county established the first municipal welcome center in Georgia, which entertained thousands of visitors each year. New factories were being built. Old ones were expanding. The Laurens County commissioners built an agricultural center on Telfair Street in 1961 to promote one of the county's major industries. The old brick courthouse, a favorite of many Laurens Countians, was torn down in 1963, after voters turned down the bond issue to build a new courthouse. A typical "modern Sixties style" courthouse was completed in 1964 with the help of Congressman Carl Vinson of Milledgeville, who secured half of the funds from Congress, making our courthouse the first federally funded county courthouse in the United States. Vinson also secured some of the first federal funds appropriated for public libraries to build the Oconee Regional Library on Bellevue Avenue in 1964. The march of progress, including the construction of the post office on Bellevue Avenue in 1964, led to the destruction of some of the avenue's most beautiful homes.
A new luxury came into Dublin homes in 1965 with the advent of cable television. One of those who came to Dublin to work with the cable company, Group W, was John Lack. After he left Dublin, Lack made it big in the cable television business when he founded MTV, Nickelodeon, The Movie Channel, and ESPN-2. WXLI-FM went on the air as the county's first FM station in 1967. Hal Murray, a Dublin native and veteran of World War II, was one of the most popular disc jockeys in America during the Rock and Roll era, especially in Pittsburgh and Minneapolis, where he was known as “The Emperor.” In 1962, Wayne Cochran, known as the “White Knight of Soul,” recorded a version of his hit song, “The Last Kiss.” The song was recorded in the Studios of radio station owner Ted Kirby for Aire Records. Two years later, Cochran’s song, recorded by J. Frank Wilson and went to the Top 10 on the record charts. Cochran’s mother was the former Miss Lena Starley of Laurens County.
Don Lamb led the effort to build a new football stadium in 1962. The 8000-seat stadium, known as the Shamrock Bowl, was financed totally by private individuals. The players responded by dominating their class for most of the decade, winning a state championship in 1963 and finishing in second place in 1967. One smudge on their 1960 record was a close loss when Americus Panther quarterback Dan Reeves scored the winning touchdown at Battle Field. Reeves as a player and coach, has appeared in more Super Bowls than any other man in NFL history.
Dublin High basketball star Perry was a starter at Auburn University. He was selected as one of the best 25 players in the state and a High School All-American in 1964. Ronnie Rogers, a Dublin High football star and a two-time All-State Lineman, was named as the 1965 Class AA Defensive Lineman of the Year. Rogers, "The Dublin Dinosaur," was a star defensive lineman for the Georgia Bulldogs in 1970. Rogers was tabbed by some experts as one of the best defensive linemen in the Southeastern Conference. Former Dublin gridiron All-State end and star receiver for Furman University, Robbie Hahn, set nearly a half-dozen Southern Conference records and was honored by being named to the All Southern Conference team and as an honorable mention for the All-American team of 1966.
Chan Beasley, a Dublin High running back, was named AA Back of the Year for the 1967 season. Beasley earned an honorable mention for a High School All-American team. Greg Crabb, an All-State Irish guard, played in the inaugural Peach Bowl for the South Carolina Gamecocks. Mike Rich, an All-State back of the Class of '68, was a star running back for the Florida Gators in the late '60s and early '70s. Rich was the starting halfback for the East in the 1971 East-West Shrine All-Star Football game, beating out the heralded Ivy League Star and Heisman Trophy winner Ed Marinaro. Rich’s career was ended by an injury after he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1972. Among the other Irish All-State first team selections in the 1960s were Ronnie Baggett, Tal Fuqua, Tennyson Coleman, Charles Faulk (2 times), Danny Stanley, Tom Perry, Vic Belote, and J.C. Pitts. Belote was chosen to the eleven-member All-South team in his senior year at Dublin.
Ben Snipes, a Dublin lineman was named the Class A, 1960 Lineman of the Year. Snipes was an All-State in 1960 and 1961 and an All Classification All-Star, South Team in 1961. Considered one of the best Dublin High athletes before school integration, Snipes pitched for the University of Georgia and played for the Georgia Bulldogs before going into a long career as a high school coach. Kenny Webb, a former Laurens County Sheriff, was a member of the 1968 South All Classification Team in 1968.
Dublin High's golf team won state championships three out of four years, during the period from 1962 to 1965. Richie Cummings won the AA low medalist in 1962 and Robert Swinson in 1965. The Dexter High Hornettes dominated girls' Class C basketball for most of the decade, winning state championships in 1962 and 1963 and establishing a record 67-game consecutive game winning streak for all Georgia girls’ teams, which lasted until the 1970s. From 1960 through 1963, the Dexter girls won 125 games and lost only 9. Judye Bryant and Kay Waldrep were selected to the Class “C” All State team in 1965. Bill Perry was selected as one of the best basketball players in AA in 1968.
Dublin's Literary teams, led by Thespian Troupe 669 under the direction of R. Lynn Woody, were perennial winners in regional and state literary meets. The "Dixie Irish" Marching Band, under the direction of John Hambrick and later Jim Willoughby, was regarded as one of the best high school bands in the Southeast. In 1962, percussionist Jimmy Stinson and clarinetist LeCroy Melton were selected as members of the United States of America High School Band.
John Willie Anderson, the valedictorian of Oconee High School in 1966, was one of fifteen African-American students in the nation to be awarded the National Achievement Scholarship. Anderson was one of the first African-Americans to attend Mercer, where he studied until he was drafted into the United States Army.
Rock and Roll legend, "Little Richard,” shed his flashy costumes and spoke to a large crowd at the Laurens County Courthouse on what Jesus meant to him on September 27, 1960. Richard chose Dublin for his first stop on his first solo tour in 1951. Dr. U.S. Johnson, the last of the black Republican leaders in Dublin, served as a delegate to the 1960 Republican Convention. Several months later in January of 1961, another inspirational figure spoke in Dublin - this time at the Dublin VA hospital. He was Harold Russell, a double-amputee veteran of World War II. Russell, the only actor ever to win two Academy Awards for one performance, starred in the classic film and best picture of 1946, "The Best Years of Our Lives." Corrine Tsopei, Miss Universe 1964-5, presided over the opening of the Royal Crown Cola plant in East Dublin in 1965. Paul Kea, a former staff announcer at WMLT and a former Laurens County English teacher, was the Assistant Registrar of the University of Georgia and participated in the integration of the University of Georgia in 1960.
Ron O’Quinn, Miami’s top Rock and Roll deejay, worked aboard a pirate radio ship off the coast of England, and a future resident of Dublin, toured with the Beatles in the summer of 1966, during their final American tour. A member of the Georgia Broadcasting Hall of Fame, O’Quinn’s career spanned seven decades until his retirement in 2015, but he came out of retirement in 2021 at the age of 78. In the summer of 1960, Lovett Park hosted a regional tryout camp for the Cincinnati Reds. A Reds scout spotted a very young infielder, who showed the scout that he had all of the intangibles to become a good ball player. Right there on the spot, the young man, who happened to be from Cincinnati, was signed to a professional contract. His name was Pete Rose and the rest was baseball history.
One of Laurens County's most inspirational figures was Don Smith, a veteran of the Cold War in Vietnam. In November of 1963, Lt. Smith was gravely injured in an auto accident. He was completely paralyzed. In 1967, Smith, a standout athlete in the U.S. Navy and at Jacksonville State, began coaching football at East Laurens High School. Coach Smith coached football teams in the Dublin Recreation Department league for many years, was named as National Coach of the Year, named as honorary coach of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, commended by President Nixon, named Georgia Jaycee's Man of the Year, ordained as a Baptist minister and named as one of the top five young men in Georgia in 1970.
Robert Johnson once wandered into the spring training camp of the Boston Braves to find a job, even if it was cutting the grass. Johnson was hired and spent more than four decades as the groundskeeper of the Braves organization. During the first and only season of the Dublin Braves, Johnson was hired by his good friend and team manager, Bill Steinecke to come to Dublin to get the unkept field at Lovett Park into good playing shape. In 1966, Johnson was hired to become the first groundskeeper of the Atlanta Braves, a post which he served in until 1992.
Rubye G. Jackson, the first woman to serve as an assistant Attorney General of Georgia, began her legal career in Dublin. One of the most unusual county elections in Georgia history took place in October of 1962, when 29 candidates ran in a special election to fill a vacancy in the office of Laurens County Tax Commissioner. Former Dublin transplant, George T. Powers, III, was promoted to Major General in the U.S. Army by John F. Kennedy in 1963. Gen. Powers commanded Fort Bliss from 1965-1967 and followed in the footsteps of Generals James Longstreet and John J. Pershing. Laurens County Superior Court Judge, Harold E. Ward, made history during the April term of court when he appointed Annie Vickers Thigpen and Alfred L. Hay to the Laurens County Board of Jury Commissioners. Until May 1, 1967, the board had been made up entirely of white male members.
Dr. Eleanor L. Ison-Franklin, a native of Dublin, was named a director of a medical department at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Franklin was the first woman to serve in that capacity. Dr. Franklin was also the first woman, black or white, to head a medical department in an American university. Dr. Robert Shurney, also a native of Dublin, was one of the first African-American scientists to work at NASA. Dr. Shurney was one of the agency’s top physicists, receiving honors for his designs of the tires for the lunar rover on the Apollo 15 mission, as well as his training in weightless environments and his innovative designs of the toilet for the Skylab space station in addition to his designs of eating utensils and solar panels for the Skylab. This widely heralded scientist accomplished all of these feats without the benefit of a high school diploma. Bridges Edwards became the first African-American to be elected to serve on a city council. His election was set aside on a technicality.
Charles W. Adams, a native of Dudley, was elected as Senior Vice President of the Coca-Cola Company in 1966. Adams served in the position until 1974, when he became the assistant to the chairman of the Coca-Cola Company. Rev. Albert Outler, who lived in Dublin as a child while his father served the First Methodist Church, was recognized as one of the greatest Methodist theologians of the 20th Century. In 1966, in his second attempt to gain a seat on the Dublin City Council, the Rev. Bill Norris, who had been a teenage trainer with the Dublin Braves in the summer of 1962, rapidly climbed the ladder of success by serving first as a trainer for the New York Mets, New York Nets and New York Knicks. In the mid-1970s, Norris was selected to be the head trainer for the U.S. Men’s Tennis Association, a post he held for more than thirty years.
Hubert Rogers served aboard the USS ====, the prime recovery ship for Mercury Mission Friendship 7. When John Glenn was hoisted out of the water, it was Rogers who came into his debriefing room and served the American hero with a hot cup of coffee.
Mother Nature showed her wrath when a New Year's Eve ice storm crippled Laurens County on the last day of 1963. During 1964, Dublin rain gauges accumulated 68.28 inches of rain, twenty-two inches higher than normal and a yearly record for the 20th Century. Former Dublin attorney, M. Hardeman Blackshear, served as Georgia's Deputy Comptroller General from 1963 to 1967 following a term as Georgia’s Chief Deputy Attorney General.
Laurens County voters approved the merger of the Dublin and Laurens County School systems for the 1965-66 school year. After a long and protracted series of court battles, the two systems were separated by the courts. A new election was held, and the issue of consolidation was defeated. Dr. J.L. Smalley was named Georgia Veterinarian of the Year in 1965. Smalley was known all over Georgia in political circles. His annual suppers attracted presidents, senators, congressmen, governors, and most politicians. Dublin judge Harold E. Ward swore in controversial Gov. Lester Maddox just moments after his election by the Georgia Legislature in 1967. Kelly Ward caught a 63-pound striped bass in the Oconee River to set a state record in 1967.
Thomas J. Lewis, a native of Laurens County, was named the principal of Rocky Ford High School at the age of twenty-two, making Lewis the youngest principal in the State of Georgia.
The Laurens County Historical Society was formally established on December 7, 1967. On March 4, 1968, Lela Warnock was named the first and only woman county commissioner of Laurens County. Following the death of her husband, Dewey Warnock, Mrs. Warnock served the remaining part of his term. One of Dublin's oldest residents in 1968 was Louis Greenhaus, who was 101 years old. Greenhaus, a Russian-born naturalized citizen and a resident of the V.A. Hospital, served in both the Spanish-American War and World War I. Between the wars, Greenhaus was a member of John Phillip Sousa's band.
Douglas Williams, of Dublin, became the first African-American student at Brewton Parker College in 1968. In 1969, the Cordell brothers, Howard and Clayton, opened the first automatic car wash in this area. Jimmy Carter, the first person who would become President of the United States to make a public appearance in Dublin, spoke to the annual Chamber of Commerce meeting in 1969 while he was preparing to run for Governor of Georgia. Carter first publicly of his personal encounter with a UFO.
The owners of the Courier Herald and radio station WMLT developed the idea of a St. Patrick's Festival to promote Dublin and Laurens County. The planners Ed Hilliard, Dick Killebrew, Anne Everly, Jo Ann DiFazio, and W.H. Champion envisioned a single festival in 1966. The festival, which is held over a three-week period in March, has grown into the longest celebration of St. Patrick's Day and Irish heritage in the world. The festival attracts thousands of participants every year, including nationally known parade grand marshals and performers. Among those national personalities appearing in conjunction with the festival were Brenda Lee, Vince Dooley, Eileen Fulton, Danny Davis, and Jimmy Carter. Big band leaders Guy Lombardo, Wayne King and Vaughn Monroe performed in the late 60s around festival time. Future President and First Lady, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter were participants in the 1973 St. Patrick’s parade.
Roland Wilbur Charles, Jr., a temporary resident of Dublin, died at the VA Medical Center on July 18, 1997. Charles, a former sailor in the 1950s, worked at NASA and was responsible for the worldwide installation of S-Band radio systems for Earth-to-space communications during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. A former national vice president of the Children of the American Revolution, Charles was buried in Arlington National Cemetery
Annie H. Johnson, a 76-year-old widow from Montrose, Ga., in the summer of 1966, became the first person in the state of Georgia to receive Medicare payments. Thomas Edgar Mallory died all alone with no survivors in the V.A. Hospital in Dublin on November 16, 1967, at the age of ninety-two. Staff Sergeant, Mallory, perhaps one of the oldest prisoners on the Bataan Death March at the age of sixty-eight, was one of those rare men, who served in the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World II.
Steve Fuller, a graduate of Dublin High School, co-founded Underground Atlanta in 1969. Fuller became the owner of several of Atlanta’s most popular restaurants. Dot Peppers, of Dublin, was elected President of the Georgia Elks Aidmore Auxiliary in 1961. Wilbur S. Jones, a popular Baptist lay leader and Sinclair oil distributor, served a president of Georgia Baptist Training Union and Vice President of the Georgia Baptist Convention.
Dent Jackson and J.B., Brantley, Jr. joined Phillip Coney and Warren McLendon as Dublin and Laurens County’s first African-American law enforcement officers, respectively.
Chapter 17
Patriots and Heroes -
The War in Vietnam
As was the case in many wars before, Laurens County sent many of its best young men into the armed services during the Vietnam War. U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles P. Ragan was one of the first naval advisors sent to Vietnam in 1963. Lt. Ragan was awarded a Bronze Star for heroism by the President. Lyndon Johnson. Col. Addison Hogan was awarded the Gallantry Cross with a Silver Star by the South Vietnamese Government for his service in Vietnam in 1963 and 1964. Sergeant James A. Starley of Dublin was killed by a bomb in Vietnam on February 22, 1965. Sgt. Starley was the first of twenty-four Laurens Countians and the 229th American to lose his life during the war.
In the winter of 1966, Lt. Col. Harlow G. Clark, Jr. became the first Laurens County officer to be killed in action. The citizens of Laurens County erected a sign in front of the Dublin-Laurens Museum honoring those men who served in the armed forces during the war. The names of those who died were painted in gold. A dedication ceremony was held on June 30, 1967, in which the families of Bobby Finney and James Cook, the third and fourth men who lost their lives during the war, were special guests. Sgt. Jimmy Bedgood, winner of four Bronze Stars for bravery, two Purple Hearts, and an Army Commendation medal with a "V,” was killed in his third tour of duty in 1968.
Four Laurens County aviators Warrant Officer David L. Green, Jr., Lt. W. T. Holmes, Jr., John E. Best, and Captain Wilbur A. Darsey were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Air Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal, respectively, for valor and meritorious service in the early years of the Vietnam War. Lt. Col. W. Clyde Stinson, Jr. of Dublin was killed while directing his troops from his helicopter. Stinson, a 1953 graduate of West Point Military Academy, was awarded two Silver Stars. At the time, Lt. Col. Stinson was one of the highest-ranking officers killed in the Vietnam War.
Major James F. Wilkes, a Forward Air Controller flying a modified civilian Cessna airplane, was awarded a Silver Star for directing fighter aircraft in between friendly and enemy positions and saving the lives of many American soldiers. Major Wilkes also won two Distinguished Flying Crosses and fifteen Air Medals. Staff Sergeant Charles D. Windham, Jr. was awarded two Bronze Stars for his heroism as a Patrol Leader, one of the most dangerous positions in the field. Chief Warrant Officer Danny Collins was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Air Medals, and a Bronze Star. Sgt. Gary Fields, a Green Beret, won several medals for his actions as a helicopter gunner. Capt. Fred M. Stuckey was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry in action when he piloted his helicopter into an extremely hazardous area under difficult weather conditions and rescued American soldiers who were pinned down under enemy fire. Lt. Col. Holman Edmond, Jr. in his two tours of duty in Vietnam, was awarded 2 Bronze Stars and 17 Air Medals.
Billy Bryan of Dublin and his fellow MPs established Operation Blind Orphan to care for blind and orphaned Vietnamese children. Four sons and one daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.V. Tipton were serving in the armed forces. These are only a few of the remarkable stories of Laurens County's heroes during the Vietnam War.
Sgt. Kenneth Hodges dreamed of serving in the U.S. Army just like his uncle. After he graduated from B.D. Perry High School, Hodges joined the army. In March 1968, Sgt. Hodges was a top platoon sergeant commanded by Lt. William Calley in My Lai Vietnam. The platoon followed orders and destroyed the villeage and many of its inhabitants. Not long after receiving a commendation, the incident came to life into one of the most famous incidents of the war. Hodges was arrested and charged with several felonies. Eventually, all the charges were dropped. Hodges’ desire to serve led him to take his challenge to remain in the Army all the way to the United States Supreme Court, a case which he lost. Broken mentally from the post traumatic stress, Hodges turned to alcohol for relief. Hodges returned home with little fanfare, but two human resources men at the VA Hospital took a chance and hired Hodges as a Housekeeper 3rd Class. Over the next 37 years transorted patients to medical facilities around the state. Hodges took advantage of his quiet time with the patients to counsel them on how to cope with their stressful post-war lives and how to turn to God for comfort and solace.
Chapter 18
The 1970s: Forward Together
The 1970s saw a continued period of sustained economic growth. Southeast Paper built a newsprint plant in the latter years of the decade. The company has expanded to become the nation’s largest and one of the world’s largest producers of recycled newsprint in the world. The plant continued the tradition of diversified industries in our community. It is the diversification of Laurens industries that makes the county a desirable place in which to live.
Mrs. Ed Smith, formerly Marilu Crafton of Dublin, was chosen in 1970 to be the first Republican on the Georgia State Board of Education. Mrs. Smith, whose husband was killed in a car accident while conducting the first Republican campaign for the governorship of Georgia since Reconstruction, joined Dr. John A. Bell of Dublin, also a member of the Board from 1963-1977. Dr. Bell served as chairman of the Board of Regents in 1976. Laura Gibson, the former Miss Laura Jane Snider of Dublin, married former Georgia governor Marvin Griffin in 1971. The 1971 AA Debate Championship was awarded to the team from Dublin High School.
Shopping habits changed when the Dublin Mall opened in 1971. The biggest disappointment of the Seventies was the failure of the proposed Junior College in Dublin. Air South began regular passenger flights in and out of Dublin in June of 1971. Aboard the first plane was the future President Jimmy Carter. Sergeant Major J.W. Beasley of Dublin was the highest-ranking enlisted man in the Georgia State Patrol. Beasley was blinded by a shotgun blast in 1953 and returned to duty as a radio operator.
After opening his first furniture store in Soperton in 1949, Sherwin Glass moved the corporate headquarters of Farmer’s Furniture to Dublin. The company rose to become one of the nation’s largest retail furniture chains and the largest in terms of the number of stores. Known nationwide as a generous philanthropist to Jewish organizations, Glass was elected to the Furniture Hall of Fame in 2003. W.H. Champion, editor of the Dublin Courier Herald, was elected President of the Georgia Press Association in 1975.
Ray Pope began his law enforcement career as a patrolman with the Dublin post of the Georgia State Patrol around 1940. He served as Police Chief of Waycross, Ga., and Macon, Ga. And Jackson, Mississippi. Pope’s ultimate assignment came in 1971 when he was named the Commissioner of Public Safety in Command of the Georgia State Patrol. Pope was the president of the Georgia Peace Officers Association and Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police.
William Scott, a future resident of Laurens County, won the 100-yard and 200-yard dash races in AA for the Johnson County Trojans in 1973. Scott’s Class A record of 9.7 seconds in the 100 yd and 21.8 seconds in the 200-yd dash, which is no longer run, still stands today. Old-time football watchers in Johnson County are adamant that Scott was faster than his successor, Herschel Walker. Scott played two seasons for the Clemson Tigers before an injury ended his career.
An F-2 tornado struck southeast of Dudley on January 13, 1972. The first two weeks of February of 1973 saw the greatest daily rainfall to date ever officially measured, with 5.57 inches and the greatest daily snowfall, which in some places exceeded 14 inches. In 1974, Sharon Lynn Tucker of Dublin became the first African-American woman to obtain a law degree from the University of Georgia. When sugar prices went sky-high, moonshining, which had been a local tradition for over four decades, became a thing of the past. At one time, Laurens County was home to one of the largest contingents of revenue and ATF agents in the state. Bobby Coates joined the U.S. Secret Service in 1966 and protected President Richard Nixon in his last year as President.
John Kibler of Dublin was chosen as the Best Actor in Class AA, GHSA in 1977. John Carruth, a former Dublin resident and a successful Roswell architect, was chosen as the Best Actor in 1973 in Class AA of the GHSA.
The Possum Hollow Festival, Laurens County's premier fall festival, began in 1975. David and Pat Graham were selected as the National Farm Bureau's Young Farm Couple of the Year in 1976. 98-year-old Lucian A. Whipple, a native of Laurens, retired in 1976 as the oldest practicing attorney in the country. Dr. George R. Lee retired at the end of 1977 after 65 years of practicing dentistry and establishing a record for length of service by a professional in the county’s history. The year 1977 was the coldest year of the 20th Century.
Public Service Commissioner William E. Lovett, Jr. of Dublin was the first Laurens Countian in forty years to be elected in a statewide election. Former Dubliner Cassie Yates made it big in Hollywood, co-starring in major motion pictures and television shows. Charles Robinson, Jr., of Dublin, was the first African-American to become certified by the American College of Healthcare Administrators and was selected as Georgia’s Health Care Administrator of the year in 1977. The West Laurens Junior High Industrial Arts Club was the best in the nation in 1978. Rev.
Irene Tos, the first woman pastor in the history of the South Georgia Methodist Conference, began a one-year term as pastor of Pinehill Methodist Church. Two of the saddest moments of 70s were the murders of Orianna grocery store owner, Mrs. L.B. Thigpen, who was killed by mass murderer William Pierce in 1971, and of convenience store worker, Marty Wilkins, who was killed by mass murderer Henry Lucas in 1979.
Sports news continued to dominate the 1970s. Tal Prince, a Dublin car dealer, was killed in a qualifying race for the 1971 Daytona 500. Willie Hall, a native of Montrose, was named a captain of the University of Southern California football team. He was also chosen the team’s Most Valuable Player and selected to the All Pac-10 Conference team. Hall received the ultimate collegiate football honor when he was a First Team NCAA All-American. Hall played in the 1971 Shrine East-West Game and the 1972 College All-Star Game. Drafted in the 2nd round of the 1972 NFL draft, Hall played at linebacker for two seasons for the Saints (1972-3) and four seasons with the Oakland Raiders (1975-78.) Willie Hall led the stalwart Raider defense in their victory in Super Bowl XI. Cy Dozier retired after 35 years of coaching boys' basketball at Dexter High School. Bert Greene, son of local golf pro Herb Greene and who called Dublin home, won his first P.G.A. tour event at the L&M Open in 1973. Until a freak injury put an end to his career, Greene was one of the promising young stars on the PGA tour. Joe Isaac, star pitcher for the East Laurens Falcons, was an 8th round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1974 Major League Baseball draft.
Tina Price, a Dublin High School and U.G.A. scholar-athlete, was a state high school and college tennis champion. Tina set several records for the women's basketball team at the University of Georgia, starred on the Lady Dogs tennis team, and was one of the top 15 draft choices in the first Women's Professional Basketball League. Mickey Register, a former Dublin and West Laurens pitcher, was named to the All-SEC Baseball team in 1975. Ira Welborn, a former Dublin High track star, shattered the American record for pole vaulting by a man over thirty with a vault of 14 feet 9 inches at the Master's Track and Field meet in 1976. Azzie Kellam of Dublin was named to the Junior College All-American team in 1976. In 1976, football star Herschel Walker played his first high school game outside of Johnson County at the Shamrock Bowl, a game in which he was held to negative yards rushing. Herschel Walker was held to minus 8 yards rushing in the 1977 game.
James Bailey, a native of Dublin, played center for the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers in the Final Four NCAA tournament in 1976. Bailey, a dominating shot blocker and dunker, was a two-time first-team All-American. Bailey was drafted in the first round (sixth overall pick) in the 1979 draft and played seven seasons in the NBA. Michael Wright, a West Laurens running back, was named as the school’s first member of the All-State (AAA) football team in 1979. David Williams was chosen as Trinity High School’s first All-State football player in 1977.
Willie Jones, a former Dublin resident and F.S.U. linebacker, was chosen to the All-American team in 1978 and played for the Oakland Raiders, who won the Super Bowl in 1981. Dallas Allen, of Morehouse College, was a member of the 1978 NCAA Division III championship team in the 440 relays and an All-American in track. After graduation, Allen played in several exhibition games with the Atlanta Falcons. Allen, coach of Westlake High School, was honored as having coached the most active NFL football players (6) during the 2005 season. Steve Edwards, an all-state Dublin quarterback, was chosen to the All S.I.A.C. football team in 1979. Eddie Small, a temporary resident of Dublin, played basketball for the University of Georgia in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Rex Ellington was selected as one of the top 25 basketball players in Georgia in 1979. Terry Meardith, a huge Dublin lineman, was named to the 1979 All-State team.
Patty Cutler, of East Laurens High School, was chosen as President of the Georgia Future Business Leaders of America in 1971. Randy Hodges, a one-time resident of of Dublin, was a star pitcher for the Baldwin County Braves. Hodges was chosen as the top pitcher in the Old South Region in 1977. Hodges finished his career with ten complete games in 1977 (upon graduation, he was tied for first in Georgia Southern History and still remains in the Top 10 of all time.) Hodges set the record at Southern with eight consecutive wins. His ERA of 1.69 is still in the top 10 of all Georgia Southern pitchers. Dublin High School basketball star James Smith was a member of the South Georgia All-Star team in 1978 and a member of the All-State team. Smith was an NAIA All-Conference selection while at North Georgia College.
Thousands of people floated down the Oconee during the period from 1974 through 1981 in the wet and wild, Great Oconee River Raft Race. Amy Woodyard of Rentz was chosen as the Queen of the University of Georgia Football. As a part of her duties, Amy served as Queen of the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 1977. Also in 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed fellow Georgian and a native of Dublin, Jerome Bullock as Marshal of the District of Columbia. Bob Rushton, formerly of Dexter, was elected as the president of the United States Jaycees. In 1978, J.P. Stevens began making the cloth for the famous "Green Jackets," which are awarded to the winners of the world's most prestigious golf tournament, the Masters.
Ronnie Gay, a Dublin resident and Georgia State Trooper, portrayed a Georgia “Smokie” in the iconic Burt Reynolds movie, “Smokey and the Bandit.” The St. Patrick’s Leprechaun Road Race garnered some national attention when Bill Rodgers, one of America’s greatest long-distance runners, won the annual event on several occasions. Over the years, Olympians Francie Larrieu Lutz, Benji Durden, and John Tuttle.
Charlie Wayne Hammond was born in Lyons, Georgia. After serving in the Navy from 1959 to 1963, he became a musician until his retirement back to Savannah in 1978. Hammond was front frontman and lead guitarist with the iconic Ernest Tubb & the Texas Troubadours and appeared often on the Grand Ole Opry. Charlie performed on Tubb’s last studio album, simply named “Ernest Tubb” in 1975. He also performed with Ace Cannon, a popular singer and saxophonist from the 1960s. Hammond lived in Savannah until he moved to Dublin in 1986, where he started a successful security company and eventually retired. He died on August 10, 2014.
The Dublin-Laurens Museum opened on July 7, 1979, in the Carnegie Library Building. The building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was slated for destruction in 1966. Concerned citizens, led by Albert Geeslin, met, and as a result of their efforts, the structure was saved. John Ross and Allen Thomas led the effort to renovate the building at a cost of $50,000, donated mostly by interested citizens. The building became the home of the Laurens County Historical Society and a repository for materials that help establish or illustrate the history of the area. It also provides for exhibits and as a meeting place for cultural groups.
Harold Joiner, of Laurens County, was one of the leading 4H Club members in Georgia in the 1950s. Joiner served as president of the organization in 1957 as well as President of the Georgia Master 4-H Club for several years. He was a Member of the 4H Master Club, whose members were state winners and chosen as delegates to the National Convention. Joiner won a start 4H award in 1948 for his work Garden and Leadership. Joiner was the Farm Editor beginning in 1955 of the Atlanta Journal, retiring in 1966. It was during that time that the national membership bestowed the highly regarded Gold Key Award to Joiner in 1960. He graduated from the University of GA with a degree in Journalism. He served as an International Youth Exchange in Germany and proudly served two years in the Army. He served as President of the National Farm Editors Association In 1966, he became executive director of the Georgia Forestry Association.
During the latter half of the 20th Century and the first quarter of the 21st Century, Dubliners have served in high places in Georgia fraternal organizations. Those persons include: Civitan Club District Governor- Elbert N. Mullis, Charles Hall, Kenny Martin, and Ryan Lastinger. Rotary - Dist. Governor - Jacob New, Preston Johnson, and Billy Adams. Rotary - Assistant Dist. Gov.. Frank Seaton, Jr. (2 terms), Phil Thacker, Alan Barfoot, Eugenia Powell, Helen Harper, and Candace S. Christian; Exchange Club - Marty Smith. Elbert Mullis was the Chairman of Membership for the International Civitan Club.
Dr. Linda J. Hedden was appointed as the head of the Domeciliary Department at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in the winter of 1979. A sociologist by profession. Dr. Hedden became the first woman in the history of the United States to serve in the chief of a domiciliary department in a VA hospital. Thomas F. Boyd, a native of Dublin, served a term as Interim President of Wesleyan College in Macon, the oldest university in the world to confer degrees to women.
Robert M. Daniels, a native of Laurens County, was known as one of the best magazine art directors in the United States. Daniels served for more than two decades with Atlanta Magazine, Esquire, True, and Discover magazines, along with many other regional and national publications.
Satellite TV came to Dublin homes on July 26, 1979.
Chapter 19
The 1980s: Technology on the Rise
During the decade of the 1980s, Dublin and Laurens County took on the role as a regional medical center with the construction of Fairview Park Hospital, its surrounding medical offices, and the continued improvements to the Carl Vinson V.A. Medical Center. The Dublin Center opened in the 1980s, giving Laurens Countians local access to a college education. Over the last quarter of a century, the center has provided courses from Georgia College, Middle Georgia College, East Georgia College and Georgia Southern University. The establishment of the Heart of Georgia Vo-Tech School was a boost to the local and regional economies. The economic effects of new and expanded industries led to an explosive growth of retail businesses and restaurants in the outlying areas of town, while still retaining a viable downtown area. Campbell Soup Company constructed the first mushroom plant in the United States and the largest one in the world near Dudley in 1983.
Jim Hammock, a Dublin businessman, was appointed to the Georgia Public Service Commission, joining fellow Dubliner Billy Lovett. Laurens County was saddened by the death of two of its sons, Sgt. Dewey Johnson and Capt. Lynn McIntosh, in the ill-fated attack to rescue the hostages in Iran in April of 1980. Laurens Countians sweltered in 109-degree heat on the hottest day ever recorded in Laurens County on July 14, 1980. In the summer of 1980, President Jimmy Carter invited hundreds of his staunch Laurens County supporters to a barbecue on the White House Lawn. Don Branch, a native of Dublin, was named to head the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in October 1981.
The days of May 16th through 18th in 1982 were among the darkest in the county’s history. Tim Phillips, a Dublin sailor, was assassinated by terrorists on the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Two days later, Georgia State Trooper Dicky Morris, formerly of Dublin lost his life while racing to the scene of an accident along a rain-slick highway. That same day, Johnny Pearson, a former West Laurens graduate, accidentally lost his life while undergoing army training in Fort Lewis, Washington.
Dana Wasdin was born in Dublin, Georgia on May 1, 1983. Dana began working as a crewman and production assistant in movies and television shows. In 2012, Dana married Canadian actor Shawn Ashmore, who starred as the “Iceman” in the X-Men movies. Ricky Brown was a dominating West Laurens basketball player and went on to play with Washington State and South Alabama.
In 1984, Camsco opened its first plant in the United States to teach the art of growing mushrooms commercially. The venture was headed by Pieter Vedder, a worldwide expert and author of the “bible of mushroom cultivation.”
Helen Harper, who went to work in the office of the Probate Court of Laurens County, was elected as judge of the court, making Harper the first woman in the history of Laurens County to be elected as a judge of a constitutionally created court.
Max Byrd, PhD. Attended Dublin High School in the late 1950s. A scholarship from Harvard University was all Max needed to embark on an outstanding career in education and journalism. Excelling in his studies at Harvard, Max was awarded a fellowship to continue his studies at Cambridge University, King's College in England. Max returned to Harvard, where he obtained his Ph.D. in English. Max developed a lifelong friendship with classmate and fellow writer, Michael Criton, author of Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain, among many other best-selling novels. Byrd served as an Associate Professor at Yale University. Max was awarded the Younger Humanist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and an award from the A. Whitney Griswold Fund for the academic year 1974-75. His first book, Visits to Bedlam: Madness and Literature in the Eighteenth Century, won him many accolades.
In 1976, Byrd edited and published Daniel DeFoe, A Collection of Critical Essays. While serving as an associate professor at the University of California at Davis, Max began publishing books on English literature In 1981, Max Byrd was promoted to a full professorship at UC Davis. Max began to publish a diverse genre of books than his usual scholarly, literary writings. He began writing detective novels back at Yale in 1973. His first published novel, California Thriller, was the first in a series of Mike Haller mysteries. The Private Eye Writers of America awarded him their first-ever Shamus award for the Best Paperback Original Novel. At the suggestion of his publisher, Bantam Books, Max began to write historical novels on Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Ulysses Grant. In the early 21st Century, Byrd turned to novels about the American West, the Lincoln Assassination, and novels set in Paris, France. In 2004, Max Byrd retired from teaching. Max was a frequent reviewer of history books for the New York Times and other publications.
Danny Howard, a popular and long-time local musician and a member of The Country Gentlemen, The Rocky Creek Band, and The Blue Grass Generals, was awarded the Georgia Bluegrass Guitarist of the Year in 1981. John Wilson, a standout Dublin High football player, played on the 1989 and 1990 Georgia Southern Eagles National Championship Football teams. Bronda Davis, a West Laurens 1988 All State basketball player, set an all-time school scoring record - 1796 - leading her team to the 1987-1988 State Championship. She played for Georgia Tech and made the 1991 US Olympic Festival South roster. Her team won the gold medal. Her basketball career was cut short when she contracted lupus. Wonzie Holmes, a wheelchair bound athlete, won six gold medals in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in the late 1980s.
Dr. J. Roy Rowland, a Dublin family physician, was elected to the United States Congress in 1982. Dr. Rowland served twelve years, in addition to six previous years in the Georgia House of Representatives. Gene Bracewell, a former resident of Laurens County, was elected as the Imperial Potentate of the Shrine of North America for 1984-5. The Rev. James Travick was elected as the first African-American Laurens County commissioner. Bracewell served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Shrine for ten years, more than six years as its treasurer, and was named Shriner of the Decade of the 1980s.
Barbara Sanders Thomas, a 1965 graduate of Oconee High School, completed a successful career at CBS radio, as the network’s Director of Finance and Administration, the first African-American woman to attend the network’s management school, and the network’s first African-American woman to serve as a senior vice-president. Probate Court Judge Helen W. Harper was elected in 1980 as the first female to be elected to a judgeship in the county. Judge Harper would go on to serve longer than any other judge in the history of Laurens County.
Dottie Burch, of Dublin, was elected President of the Georgia Elks Aidmore Auxiliary in 1981. Trinity High School won the state football championship in 1980 and in baseball in 1989. Phil Wallace, of Dublin High School and the University of Georgia, was selected as the 4th best high school basketball player in the state in 1980. West Laurens High earned a state title in basketball in 1981. Former Dublin football star and Division 1-AA All-American, Taz Dixon, tied an NCAA record by playing on three national championship football teams with the Georgia Southern Eagles. He was joined by former Dublin teammate John Wilson, who played on the 1989 and 1990 championship teams. Scott Hagler, one of the greatest place kickers in South Carolina Gamecock history, kicked in a few games with the Seattle Seahawks. Hagler succeeded former Irish teammate Tony Guyton as captain of the Gamecock football team.
West Laurens track star Chris Howard threw a discus a distance of 188 feet and 8 inches to set an all-time record for Georgia high schools in a meet held in the state of Georgia. His mark stands second best in state history for all track meets. The following year, he heaved a shot put a distance of 61 feet 4 inches to establish at the time the second longest put in state history. Future Dublin Junior High shop teacher, Mel Lattany, was the fastest man in the world in 1984, running the 100-meter dash in a time of 9.96 seconds, one one-hundredth of a second below the world record. He was only the second human being ever timed below 10 seconds in the 100-meter dash. Lattany was a six-time All-American in track at the University of Georgia, a member of the 1980 and 1984 Olympic teams, an eight-time S.E.C. champion, and a one-time world record holder in the 300-meter dash, 100-meter Junior dash, and the Sprint Medley Relay. Kevin Stuckey, of Dublin, was named to the AA All-Star Team.
Jackie Martin, a former Dublin basketball star and a member of the Kansas Jayhawks women’s basketball team, was named to the All-Big Eight basketball team. Tragically, she died of leukemia in her mid-20s. In 1985, the Carl Vinson V.A. Medical Center cosponsored the inaugural National Veterans Golden Age Games for older veterans. Wonzie Holmes, a wheelchair bound athlete, won six gold medals in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games. During the 1980s, Derrick Harris, Jon Helton, Clint Harris, and Brian Labella were named to the first team All-State football team. Labella was named as the kicker for the all-classification team in 1989. That same year, Harris was named to the Orlando Sentinel’s Dixie Dozen team in 1989. Waylon Morton of Laurens County was a delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.
Marvin Long was inducted into the UT Martin Football Hall of Fame in 1986. Long served as captain of the 1958 UT Martin football team that posted an undefeated season. An offensive and defensive end from Dublin, Ga., he was selected as an NAIA All-American. He also played football at Georgia Military College and Tennessee Wesleyan before coming to UTM.
Don Denning, who coached the Dublin Irish football team from 1965 to 1968, was an all-state player at Sandersville High School. After playing college football for Presbyterian College, Denning led his Douglas County team to the AA Championship in 1964. He led Dublin to region championships in 1966 and 1967. Denning finished his high school coaching career with 45 wins and 10 losses (9-2 average/season.) Denning entered the college coaching ranks with Memphis State, Western Carolina, Delta State and Delta State. In 1981, Denning moved up to a position as Administrative Assistant to Coach Danny Ford of Clemson University. The Tigers went undefeated that season, including clinching the National Championship after winning the Orange Bowl.) Denning moved up as defensive coordinator in 1982. Denning retired from coaching after the 1985 season to go into private business. Jon Helton, a Laurens County Superior Court Judge, was selected to the AAA All-State team as a lineman in 1988. Helton went on to play for Auburn University. Joe Cunningham, a future football coach at Dublin High, was an assistant coach for the University of Georgia basketball team, which won the SEC and made it to the final four of the NCAA March Madness.
One of the worst droughts in Laurens County’s history came in the spring of 1986, when there was little or no rain from March to July. In April 1981, there were few May flowers because there was not a single April shower.
Chapter 20
1990s: A New Golden Age
Dublin and the communities of Laurens County have come full circle in the 1990s. The growth and cohesion of the communities have resulted in a second "Golden Era." It was not until 1990 that Laurens County reached its pre-1920 population. In March of 1990, Judge William M. Towson, Laurens County’s longest serving Superior Court Judge, made his second substitute appearance on the bench of Georgia’s Supreme Court. During the Gulf War, the local units of the Georgia National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve were activated. In the fall of 1990, 64 Laurens Countians and members of the 988th Army Reserve Supply Company based in Dublin left their homes and families for service in Saudi Arabia near the Kuwait border in the weeks leading up to the Gulf War. Fortunately, they all returned home safely.
Thousands of Laurens Countians have seen themselves on local television since the establishment of WGTV-35 by Gil Gillis in the early 90s. One of the station's most popular shows is the annual Christmas videos, which feature the enormous wealth of musical talent in Laurens County. In the 1990s, Dublin was home to five radio stations providing a wide variety of music, news, and sports. YKK, based in Japan, opened its large aluminum extrusion plant in southern Dublin in the early 1990s.
Maury Beasley was a state golf champion in 1991 and 1993, and in between, defeated the legendary Tiger Woods in the Rolex Junior Classic. Bill Brown, another former Dublin High golfer, played for the University of Georgia and in 1991 was the Southern Amateur Champion. Joe Moran, a former resident of Dublin and captain of the 1925 and 1926 Virginia Tech Hokies, was inducted into the Virginia Tech Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991. Chris Plummer and Michael Jones were the first and only two East Laurens Falcons to be named to the All-State football team in 1991 and 1992. Sally Smalley Bell, a former DHS basketball player, was awarded the Naismith Award as the Women’s Official of the Year. In the next decade, Bell was touted as one of the top women’s basketball officials in the world, being selected to officiate NCAA Final Four games, Olympic Basketball, and Women’s NBA games. Tim Knight, of Dublin, was named the National Taxidermy Association's Best all-around Taxidermist in 1993. Ryan Taylor,- two-time All-State defensive back the AAA Defensive Player of the Year, led the Dublin Irish into the finals of the state championship in 1994.
Tonja Edmond, of Dublin High School, served as President of the Georgia Future Homemakers of America in 1991. Dr. Charles Meyers, a Dublin orthodontist, served twenty-three years in the United States Army. For his exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. Dr. Meyers was awarded the prestigious Legion of Merit by the Surgeon General. As it happened, Meyers was the first orthodontist in the United States Army to receive the award with a prefix designating that the award came from the Army.
Lehman Watson, a 1947 native of Dublin, was a successful boxing coach. He was inducted into the T.A.G. (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia) Boxing Hall of Fame. In fact, he was the first coach to have three sons, whom he coached, to win the Boxing National Championships.
Dr. Cyler Garner, formerly of Dublin, was elected as President of the Georgia Medical Association in 1991. Howard Hendley, future Dublin High School principal and then Americus High School principal, was named National Principal of the Year in 1992. One of Dublin and Georgia's finest citizens, Ed Gannaway, lost his life on an August afternoon in 1995, while piloting his crippled ASA plane to a crash landing, saving the lives of twenty-four others. Sydney Kyzer Morton was chosen as a delegate to the 1992 Democratic Convention in New York, making her the first Laurens County woman to be afforded such an honor. James Cuyler, perhaps the best East Laurens basketballer ever, led the Falcons to the playoffs in 1999 and 2000, earning All-State Honors in 1999 and 2000.
Through the generosity of Bill Lovett, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Holmes, and many others, along with the leadership of Dubose Porter, Griffin Lovett, and the Laurens County Historical Society, the community came together in 1995, raising over four hundred thousand dollars to renovate the old Martin Theater into Theatre Dublin, a regional performance center. Among the early performers and lecturers to appear on the stage were Bill Anderson, George Lindsey, T. Graham Brown, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Fran Tarkenton, and Gene Watson. James Gregory and Billy Joe Royal. The West Laurens gymnasium was the scene of performances by Charlie Daniels and Jerry Clower. The Olympic torch passed through Laurens County and Dublin in July of 1996 and then returned through the county two more times, making Laurens the only county in the United States through which the torch passed three separate times. The torch also passed through the irregular city limits of Dublin three times.
Stacy Nobles, a former Trinity High School superstar, ranks 2nd all-time on Liberty University’s career rushing list with 3,711 yards. He led the team in rushing from 1997-99, going over 1,000 yards in 1998 and 1999. Nobles scored 25 touchdowns in his final two seasons, leading the team in scoring both years. Stacy ranks 3rd all-time among scoring leaders excluding kickers. Nobles is also the school’s all-time leader in rushing attempts, 2nd in rushing touchdowns, and 3rd in all-purpose yards. He was named an honorable mention All-American three consecutive seasons and made the NCAA I-AA All-Independent first team in 1998. Nobles coached football at West Laurens High from 2011 to 2016. Nobles was named to the All-State Team in 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995. In 1994, he rushed for 2681 yards and 43 touchdowns. In his final season, Nobles rushed for 2136 and 38 touchdowns. He finished his career with 6,232 yards and 103 touchdowns. Named to the State baseball team in 1995.
Gerald Carr, a former state champion West Laurens wrestler, won the 167-pound National Junior College Athletic Association title in 1995. The Dublin girl's softball team won the school's first female state title in 1996 - a feat they repeated in 1997. During the 1990s, the Trinity Lady Crusaders won the state championships in tennis in 1992 and 1993 and track in 1998 and 1999. The boys captured championships in track in 1996, 1998 and 1999. Earl Dunham, a native of Dublin and former Lanier High of Macon star athlete and World War II paratrooper, was inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame as the only player in South Carolina Gamecock history to serve as captain of the football, basketball and baseball teams and the only member in that university’s hall of fame to be a three-sport star.
Dublin High wrestler Witt Durden, a perennial All-American and the top prospect in the country in his weight class, won his fourth straight state wrestling championship title. Dublin All-State linebacker Ron Rogers ended his career in 1997 as the third leading tackler in Georgia Tech history, the MVP of the East-West Shrine Classic, and a 6th round draft choice of the Baltimore Ravens. Teenage tennis phenom Tanner Cochran was chosen as a member of Team USA junior squad and was one of top top-ranked junior players in the country. In the latter, she reached the semi-final round of the Girls’ Doubles.
During the 1990s, David Pritchett, Nathan Dardy (two times), Chris Cauley, and Johnnie Evans, all of Dublin, were also named as first-team All-State football players. Brian Williams, Gerald Carr, Darrell Stokes, Patrick Horne, McKinley Wright and Rodney Thomas of West Laurens were selected as first team players on the all-state team. Marcus Brown, a West Laurens defensive back, was named to the all classification team in 1990. Dublin’s Nathan Dardy was named as one of the top 100 high school players in the South in 1995. Julian Prada (‘92), David Duncan (‘93), Matt Hollingsworth (‘94), and Norman Thacker (‘94) , all Dublin Irish soccer stars, were named to the All-State Team.
Jerry Duncan set the state record for the largest Tunny fish ever caught in the state. Edgar Blanchett scored two holes in the same round of golf at the Green Acres Golf Club in 1998, a feat which happens about once in every ten million rounds of golf played. Dublin Mayor Albert Franks was a charter inductee to the Georgia Municipal Hall of Fame in 1992.
The Laurens County Library completed a multimillion-dollar expansion to serve our citizens into the next century. In the 1996 election, Laurens Countians re-elected their state Senator, Hugh Gillis, who began his 53rd year in the Georgia Legislature, more than anyone in the history of our state and country. Lewis Brantley, a former resident of Laurens County and a member of the Florida House of Representatives and President of the Florida Senate, was chosen as the Imperial Potentate of the Shrine of North America. His brother Charles, a former director of the Florida DMV, a former director of Florida Highway Safety and head of the Florida Trucking Association, was chosen as the Chaplain of the Shrine of North America.
Cedric Harris, a former member of Dublin Thespian Troupe 669, starred in Off-Broadway plays and had a recurring role in the soap opera, As the World Turns. Rev. Harold Lawrence, a former assistant pastor at First United Methodist Church, was recognized as the state’s most prolific writer and compiler of the history of Georgia Methodism.
The first Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade was held on January 14, 1995, in Downtown Dublin. The annual event was sponsored by the Dublin-Laurens Black History Festival.
Roland Ellis, Jr., of Macon, spent his last, lingering, dying days at the VA Hospital in Dublin. Ellis was Valedictorian of his UGA Senior class and a member of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honor fraternity. During his service in World War I, he was assigned as a military representative to the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, which worked to implement the negotiations of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles during most of the year 1919. Roland Ellis, in 1923, graduated from Columbia University in New York City with a degree in journalism from one of the country’s top journalism schools. Ellis returned to Paris, France, in 1924 to serve as Paris editor of the New York Herald and Le Monde. Roland began writing book reviews of many of the country’s most important works. By 1926, Ellis returned to New York, where he served as the editor of “The New Yorker Magazine.” His regular column, “Talk of the Town,” was the paper’s most popular lead article. During his stays in Paris and New York, Ellis became a part of the elite social scene. He was introduced a virtual who’s who in America during the Roaring Twenties. One of his golfing buddies was none other than the iconic Bobby Jones, with whom he played at the courses on Sea Island, Georgia.
Brian Craig Wilcox was born in Dublin, Ga. He moved to Pleasant Grove, Utah High School. In his last two seasons, Wilcox was ranked in the Top 30 shooting guards in the nation. He played four seasons for the Washington Huskies. “C.J.” was chosen to the All-Pac 12 team in his last two seasons. He finished second in school history in points scored and fifth in blocked shots (first for a guard. Wilcox retired as the university leader in three-point goals made (6th in PAC-12 history. Additionally, he set the school season record with 90 three-pointers. Wilcox is one of only three players to score 1700 points in a career, make 275 three-pointers, and grab 400 rebounds (1743.) Wilcox was selected as the 28th overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft (1744.) Wilcox went on the play for the Los Angeles Clippers, Orlando Magic, Portland Trailblazers, and the Indiana Pacers in a career greatly hampered by injuries (1745.)
Jackson Pollock, who once lived in Dublin, died in September 1995 at the ripe old age of 125. Journalists proclaimed him as the oldest man in the world.
The Dublin-Laurens 1997 and Beautiful Commission won the 1997 Keep America Beautiful National Award for its efforts to keep our community beautiful. The Dublin Center and the Heart of Georgia Technical Institute expanded to serve the needs of our community and the Middle Georgia area. Laurens County’s Robbie Cook was selected as Georgia’s Artist of the Year in 1998.
The year 1998 didn’t start off so well for Laurens Countians. Dorrie Joiner, a former Dublin High graduate and promising stage actress, died at the age of thirty-nine. Joiner appeared in many Off-Broadway plays, including Fortune’s Fools and the original stage production of Steel Magnolias, in which she played the role of “Annelle,” the beautician. Dorrie appeared in a guest role in It’s a Living and recurring roles in The Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and Texas. She also had a co-starring role in the 1986 movie, Fire With Fire. Deputy Kyle Dinkheiler was brutally shot and killed on January 12th. Laurens Countians by the thousands, as well as law enforcement officers from around the state, paid their respects to the slain officer. Unrelenting rains spawned by El Nino continued to plague river dwellers as well as Laurens County farmers who couldn’t get their cotton out of the fields and were hampered in planting their spring crops. Roy Malone of Dexter was named as the top tree farmer in the southeastern United States in 1998. The eye of tropical storm Earl passed over Laurens County on September 3, 1998. During a sixteen-hour period, more than seven inches of rain fell on Laurens County, establishing an unofficial record rainfall.
Dr. Forrest Marshall, a Dublin optometrist, had a talent for inventing things to help him or for the average consumer to make life simpler. Over his career, Marshall was credited with more than 60 patents or disclosures. He came up with the idea of putting ridges along the side of roads to warn drivers who were veering too close to the side, but failed to act on it.
James Cuyler, a first-team all-state Class A player, led the East Laurens Falcons to within one victory of the Georgia Class A championship in 1999. The last year of the decade of the nineties was a particularly sad one for local music fans with the untimely death of Randy Howard, a local man who was a World champion fiddler.
On August 19, 1999, many Dublin citizens, their cars, and homes were pummeled by what was described as the heaviest hail storm of the century. Laurens Countians opened their schools, churches, homes, and pocket books to help several thousand coastal Georgia refugees who were seeking to escape Hurricane Floyd during the greatest evacuation in United States History on mid-September of 1999.
Todd Hogan, Chuck Beale, and Brian Mallette all ended the decade playing baseball in the minor leagues. Dublin All-State lineman Ben Claxton started at center for Ole Miss, a rarity for a true college freshman. He snapped the last offensive play of the century in football and was named to the pre-season All-SEC team. Colby Crabb, a Dublin High softball, basketball, and tennis star, was awarded the GACA’s female scholar-athlete of the year in 1999.
Jody Pollock, an educator and coach in the city and county school systems, was a member of the Georgia Southern Eagles (Member of the SoCon All Conference Team in 1998, 1999) and the Georgia Bulldogs (SEC Champs in 2001,) for whom he played for the 2001 College World Series. In 1998, Pollock was named to the All-American Academic Team.
As the 20th Century came to an end, Dr. John A. Bell completed his 66th year of practicing medicine, the Rev. Jack Key entered his eighth decade in the ministry of the Gospel, and Judge William M. Towson and Col. H. Dale Thompson were about to embark on their seventh different decades of service in the legal profession. On a sad note at the end of the century, Laurens County lost its longest-serving teacher. Miss Louise Buchan, the epitome of a first-grade teacher, taught school for fifty years, all but one of them in the Dublin city school system. Earlier in the decade, Dublin native Prentice Tyndal retired as the police chief of Clermont, Florida, a position he held for 37 years, making him at the time the nation’s longest-serving chief of police.
At the end of the Twentieth Century, Dublin and Laurens County were well into their second "Golden Age." Charitable efforts in the county were at their peak. The United Way Agencies, WINGS, Habitat for Humanity, our growing local churches, and many other civic organizations were serving their community through the efforts of many concerned Laurens Countians. The annual United Way campaign was edging ever closer to the half-million-dollar mark in local funding. Dublin and Laurens County were riding a wave of over five decades of moderate but continuous growth. In the previous three and one-half decades, retail sales skyrocketed from 23 million dollars to a level approaching 500 million dollars annually. The tax digest soared from 57 million dollars upwards toward 700 million dollars in the last 27 years. Bank deposits swelled to nearly 500 million dollars - a 1000 percent increase since 1970. The population of the county and the city was at record highs, although the county population seems to be increasing faster than that of Dublin.
Chapter 21
2000s: The Athletic Decade
Dublin and Laurens County began the year 2000 just where they left off at the end of the last century. Development Authority officials announced the location of a multi-million dollar distribution center for Best Buy electronic appliances and later Fred’s Department Stores. The West Laurens girls won the school’s first-ever AAA Slow Pitch Softball State Championship. Tanner Cochran was rewarded for her success on the tennis courts by accepting an invitation to play in the 2000 U.S. Tennis Open. Alfred O. Pearson, the first African-American to serve on a local school board, was honored as a charter inductee into the Georgia Agriculture Education Hall of Fame. He joined William A. Avery, a native of Laurens County and a longtime Emanuel County teacher. Rufus “Red” Tindol, the 1985 Georgia Small Businessman of the Year, was selected to the National Pest Control Hall of Fame in 2000. Karen Lord Rutter, a native of Laurens County, was named one of the top twenty teachers in the nation by U.S. Today.
Birch “Crimson Slide” Johnson, who was born into a VA Hospital family in Dublin, reached the pinnacle of success as a first-call trombonist and Emmy Award nominee. Johnson was a member of the famous “Blues Brothers” band. Although there were no extremely low temperatures, the year 2000 was the coldest year since complete record keeping began in 1930. Bishop Imagene Bigham Stewart, a native of Dublin, was elected Vice President of the National American Legion Auxiliary. Bishop Stewart has been nationally recognized by President Clinton and both Presidents Bush for her work with homeless veterans in Washington, D.C. Former Dubliner Ira Edwards was elected the first African-American sheriff of Athens-Clarke County in 2000.
George English, a native of Dublin, spent three decades working at NASA, many of them in the agency’s top management at Cape Kennedy. September 11, 2001, aroused a sense of patriotism not seen in Laurens County since the days of World War II. Future Dubliner, Jerome Pullen, was only duty with the NYPD on that fateful day. N Tanner Cochran played in Semi semi-final U.S. Open Girls’ Doubles. Damian Moss, who underwent physical rehabilitation in Dublin, married a local girl, made his home in Dublin, and made it to the big show as a member of the Atlanta Braves pitching staff near the end of the 2001 season. Moss was a top candidate for Rookie of the Year in 2002. Yancey Reynolds, III, a former West Laurens High lineman, was named 1st Team All-American offensive lineman, National Junior College Association. Reynolds played for Georgia Military College at, National Jr. College Camps in 2001. Jamel Ashley, perhaps the fastest native born Laurens Countian and state champion sprinter for West Laurens in the 100m and 200m dashes in 1998, was a JUCO national champion and a six-time all-American at Wallace State Junior College. Jasha Balcom, a former Dublin High baseball standout and College of Charleston star, was named to the Freshman All-American team. Balcom was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 2003 MLB draft.
Alex Williams, a West Laurens linebacker, was named to the AA all-state football team. Travis Smith, a former West Laurens footballer, ended his career as the holder of many receiving records at Presbyterian College and the South Atlantic Conference and as a member of the 2000 and 2001 All-American teams. Tafara Makaya, a standout Dublin soccer player, was named to the 2001 All-State team. Xavier Whipple, a native of Dublin, led his Wilkinson County Warriors to several state championships. Whipple, after playing four seasons with LSU, served as an assistant coach and head coach of the Warriors, one of the best Class A teams in recent Georgia history.
J.W. Goodwin, another V.A. kid, was named commander of America’s newest aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. After seeing the massive ship to completion and taking her through her first sea trials, Goodwin was promoted to Rear Admiral in 2003 and was named Deputy Director for Plans and Policy for the U.S. European Command. In 2007, Rear Admiral Goodwin was named to command the Naval Air Force Atlantic. Members of the local National Guard unit attached to the 48th Brigade served as peacekeepers in war-torn Bosnia in 2001.
The year 2002 was another year of outstanding sports performances on both team and individual levels. The Dublin High wrestling team won the school’s first boys’ State Championship since 1963. Four members of the team were individual weight class champions. Anthony Johnson, a West Laurens wrestler, won his weight classification for the second year in a row. Johnson won 104 matches in a row and was named a High School All-American and a NHSCA National Champion. Meanwhile, former Dublin Wrestler Witt Durden was named to the All-American Division 1 Wrestling team for the second year in a row. Brian Mallette, a former Dublin High star, pitched his first game in the Major Leagues in April. Donny McLendon of West Laurens was named AAA Player of the Year by the Atlanta Tip Off Club and the Georgia Sportswriters’ Association.
Ben Claxton, a 5th round draftee of the Denver Broncos, was named as a 2nd Team All-SEC as a center. Coach Roger Holmes instilled a spirit in the community of football fans that had been unrivaled in four decades. The Dublin Irish, picked by most experts to have a break-even season, won the team’s first-ever appearance in the State Semi Finals at the Georgia Dome on its way to a 14-1 season. The only blemish on the team’s banner season came with a tough loss in the state championship. Quintez Smith was named AAA Player of the Year, and Holmes was voted AAA Coach of the Year. Five players, Brian Mimbs, Maurice Johnson, Quintez Smith, Erik Walden, and Brian Wallace, were named as all-state players, a record for any Laurens County school.
Heather Hancock of the Dublin Irishettes was selected as the AAA Fast Pitch Softball Player of the Year. Dublin basketball star Jermaine Hall was on his way to becoming one of the greatest players in the history of Wagner College and the North East Athletic Conference. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as his team took part in “March Madness,” the NCAA championship. Alex Williams, a West Laurens linebacker, was named as the 22nd-top inside linebacker in the nation and the 27th-best overall prospect in Georgia by Rivals100.com.. Williams was an all-state pick as a junior. He played for Duke University from 2003-2006.
Brit Whittle, a native of Brunswick, Ga., lived in Laurens County with his parents, Dale Whittle and Iris Wells Whittle during his postgraduate studies. Brit was a character and voice-over actor with more than twenty years of experience. Brit appeared in dozens of television shows, including Chicago Med, Younger, Bull, The Americans, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, All My Children, and The Guiding Light. Donna Douglas, who portrayed the amiable Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies, became an often visitor to the St. Patrick’s parades.
Years of hard work and dedication by historical preservationists culminated in 2002 with the establishment of two national historical districts in Dublin, the Downtown District and the Stubbs Park-Bellevue-Stonewall District. In its continuing presence as a major part of the economy of Laurens County, Southeast Paper was honored with the distinction of having its No. 2 machine as the most productive machine in the world.
Dubose Porter, a former President of the Georgia Press Association, began his third decade in the Georgia House of Representatives in 2003. He was honored by his colleagues when they elected him Speaker Pro Tempore of the House, the second-highest office in the House. Laura Meadows, a former Dublin resident who had been director of the Farmers Home Administration in Georgia, director of One Georgia and director the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, was named Assistant Secretary of State.
Anthony Johnson, wrestling for Lassen Community College, finished third in the 2003 NJCAA National Championships. Japorie Bostick, a Dublin High School senior in his last race, captured a AAA state title when he ran the 400-meter dash in 48.81 seconds. Jessie Anderson Brown was posthumously honored by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. Coach Brown was a GAIAW Coach of the Year, SIAC Coach of the Year, and a member of the SIAC Hall of Fame. Coach John Strickland was named the AAA Georgia Baseball Coach of the Year. Strickland led his team (29-8) to the championship series for the first time in school history.
In November 2003, Damian and Emilie Moss inaugurated the first annual Damian Moss Family Foundation Golf Tournament and Auction. Playing in the first tournament were baseball stars Kevin Brown, Marcus Giles, John “Blue Moon” Odom, Marquis Grissom, Ron Reed, Chris Hammond, and Chipper Jones. Included in the list of other athletes playing on the Country Club Course were: Ray Goff, former UGA football coach; Dan Roundfield, former Atlanta Hawks star; Dan Bouchard, former Atlanta Flames star; and Ralph Boston, former Gold Medal Olympic champion.
Robert Brown, a School graduate and leading Atlanta architect, was honored by the citizens of Dublin for his outstanding contributions to the state of Georgia and his selection as Chairman of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Michael Cauley was named President of the Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants for the 2003-04 year. James K. Davis, Jr., a former Oconee High School football coach, retired from the Georgia Power Company. In his thirty-three years of service at Georgia Power, Davis became the company’s highest-ranking African-American corporate officer.
Dublin's oldest bank, until it merged with Capital City Bank, was The Farmers and Merchants. Just before the merger, the F&M bank was evaluated as one of the one hundred safest banks in the United States, being one of only three in Georgia so designated. The bank started in Brewton in 1910.
Ron Bradley, former Trinity High basketball coach, was still coaching after more than forty-five years. Coach Bradley, an inductee into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and a 1972 and 2004 National Coach of the Year, is the winningest coach in Georgia history and among the winningest basketball coaches in the country at any level. In December, Jennifer Jessup, a former Dublin High School softball star and All-SEC Scholar athlete at Mississippi State University, was the 10th overall pick in the 2004 National Pro Fast Pitch Softball League.
For the second time in as many years, the Dublin High School wrestling team captured the 2004 AAA State Wrestling championship by defeating Lovett High School. In defeating the Lovett team, the Irish allowed their intra-county rivals, West Laurens High School, to garner a second-place finish. Individual state champions from Dublin were: Brandon Herrin (135), Demario Jones (140), Cody Hilbun (145), Cory Phillips (189), and Dominique Small (215). West Laurens wrestlers Justin Harvey (112) and Travis Williams (125) captured individual honors. Former West Laurens wrestler Anthony Johnson, wrestling for Lassen Community College, was the number one-ranked junior college wrestler in the country in the 174-pound classification. The two schools, which, if combined, would form the best wrestling program in the state, battled each other on the basketball courts.
The Dublin Irish, highly ranked beyond the first half of the season, defeated the equally talented Raiders twice to capture the coveted Laurens County Championship. The Raiders, led in career accenting games by Warren McLendon and Ken Kemp, never looked behind and captured the biggest prize, the 2003-04 AAA State Championship by defeating the heavily favored and defending state champions from East Hall High School.
Billy Henderson, a native of Dublin, was inducted into the Georgia Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame in 2004. Coach Henderson was a four-year letterman in football and baseball at the University of Georgia, a two-time selectee to the All-SEC baseball team, and a college coach at Furman University and the University of South Carolina. In his forty-two years of coaching, Coach Henderson led his teams to three state championships in football, one in baseball, and one in swimming. When he retired in 1996, he was 5th in football coaching wins in Georgia high school history. Dublin District Superior Court Judge H. Gibbs Flanders, Jr. was elected as the President of the Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia for the 2004-2005 year. J. Randolph Evans, a native of Dublin, was cited as one of the nation’s best attorneys in the field of legal malpractice and ethics. Evans’ client list includes top Republican leaders Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastert, and J.C. Watts. Evans was a presidential elector for George Bush in 2004 and 2008 and for Donald Trump in 2016. In 2018, he was appointed as the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg.
High winds and heavy rains, remnants of Hurricane Frances, wreaked havoc on the trees of Laurens County on September 7, 2004. Tropical force winds, unseen in Laurens County in many years, damaged ancient trees throughout the city and county. The week ended with nearly nine inches of rain, twice the monthly average for September. Tropical Storm Jeanne dumped another 6.5 inches of rain late in the month, bringing the unofficial total rainfall for the month to more than 14 inches, and establishing an official monthly record of 12.95 and the largest in 80 years.
Belinda Higdon Pinckney, of Dublin, was promoted to Brigadier General in the United States Army. General Pinckney was the first person ever from the Comptroller field to be commissioned a general. As one of the few African-American women generals in the Army, Gen. Pinckney assumed the position as Deputy Director of Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the largest finance and accounting operation in the World. As the first woman to do so, Gen. Pinckney later took over command of the Army Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command. In November 2004, Lt. Soffie Thigpen, a lifelong resident of Laurens County, became the highest-ranking woman officer in the Georgia State Patrol. The Dublin Irish football team, coming off a rebuilding season, returned to the Georgia Dome in 2004, losing a heartbreaker to perennial power Buford High School. On January 6, 2005, Harold McLendon became the first black judge of the City Court of Dublin. His father, Warren McLendon, was the first black deputy sheriff of Laurens County in the 1970s.
Dick Allen, a native of Washington County, lived his last years in the Carl Vinson VA Center. Allen’s passionate study of early American Jazz music led to the foundation of Tulane University’s Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, a leading national collection of the history of jazz music in America.
West Laurens and Dublin High Schools continued their dominance of Georgia High School Wrestling in 2005, when they finished first and second in the State of Georgia. Individual champions from West Laurens were Michael Slaughter (112), Josh Harvey (130). Top state wrestlers from Dublin included Brandon Herrin (135), Marcus Allen (152), and Joey Knox (160). Lehman “Leh” McGrath Keen, III, an up-and-coming racer in the Rolex Grand American Circuit, and his team finished a surprising sixth in the GT Division during the 2005 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. As a rookie in the Rolex Series, Keen finished sixth in the 2005 driver standings (his team finished 3rd). Keen scored a GT victory in the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen.
Pedro Campuzano, a 1980 graduate of Dublin High School and the crew chief of Sebastian Bourdais’s car of the Paul Newman racing team, was cited as one of the best crew chiefs on the Grand Prix racing circuit. Cammie Dalley, of East Laurens, was named the top cheerleader coach in Georgia in 2002.
In the winter of 2004-2005, the local National Guard unit of the 48th Brigade mobilized for service in Iraq. The brigade included Russian-born Laurens County brothers Pavel and Dimitri Rybakov, who joined the guard to fight for their adopted country. Donning the first 21st Century Army uniforms, the local unit of the Georgia National Guard, Co. A, 148th Support Battalion, 48th Brigade, went into foreign service in Iraq. Members of the company were featured in a series of articles in the Atlanta Constitution and a six-part documentary, American Soldiers on Country Music Television.
Dr. Brenda Shuman-Riley, a Dublin High School English teacher, was named the Georgia Teacher of the Year in 2005. Another Dublin teacher, wrestling coach Ken Whiddon, was elected to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his decades of dedication to the sport as a coach. Ronnie McGirt, a Dublin High track star, captured the State AA title in the 110 m high hurdles.
E.G. Kight, nationally renowned blues singer, was nominated for her third W.C. Handy Blues Award. Awarded annually to the country’s best Blues artists, Kight, the 2004 nominee for Best New Artist, was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Female Artist. On May 15, 2005, the local company of the Georgia National Guard, 48th Brigade, mobilized for duty in Iraq after months of training in the deserts of California.
The dream season of the Dublin Irish football team ended prematurely with an upset loss to Cook County in the second round of the state playoffs. The Irish (12-1) scored 549 points during the regular season, setting a Georgia high school record. The Irish finished the season with 621 points as the only team in Georgia high school history to average more than fifty points per game. The Irish established the greatest margin of victory in a season with a 51.75 to 2.5 spread. The Irish defense posted the second-lowest points allowed total in a regular season, with the only score being a late field goal in the ninth game of the season. The Irish set regular season records for the most games scoring more than fifty points (5), most games scoring more than forty points (9), most games scoring more than five t0uchddowns (10), most touchdowns scored (76), and fewest touchdowns allowed (0). Defensive End Chopper Foskey was named to the AA All-State Team. Demaryius Thomas, a wide receiver from West Laurens High, made the team as well. Thomas Barnes and Brian Wilcher of the Irish were named as honorable mention members. Quintez Smith, a former Dublin High back and sophomore defensive back of U.T. Chattanooga, was named to the All Southern Conference team.
For the fourth year in a row, West Laurens and Dublin High wrestling teams finished at the top of the state in wrestling competition in 2006. West Laurens, the winner of the State Duals Competition, took its second consecutive AA title, with individual titles being won by Blaine Harvey, Michael Slaughter(2-time champion), and Walter Blash. Dublin wrestlers Deion McLendon, David Stanley, and Marcus Allen (2-time champion) captured state titles for their team, which finished a close second to Lovett. Nicole Newman, a senior at Georgia Southern, was named to the All Southern Conference Women’s Basketball team.
In March 2006, Ben Smith and Chris Wright led the Dublin High School basketball team to the Georgia Class AA championship, the first in the history of the school. Smith and Wright, cousins and teammates from the age of five, were both named to the first all-state team by the coaches and writers. Smith was named Heart of Georgia and co-Middle Georgia Player of the Year, while Wright, a former Heart of Georgia Player of the Year, was named co-Middle Georgia Player of the Year and Georgia Class AA Player of the Year. Coach Clinton Thomas was named Class AA Coach of the Year.
In April 2006, the United States Postal Service issued a new stamp commemorating the life of Dublin’s boxing champion, Sugar Ray Robinson.
Brantley New, a former Dublin High pitcher, was named to the Atlantic Sun All-Conference team and was the 27th round choice of the Boston Red Sox in the annual baseball draft. After deciding to remain at Mercer for his final year, New signed with the Red Sox in 2007. Sarah Howard, a Dublin Middle School student, following in the footsteps of her father, Chris, won the National Under 13 Girls Championship in the discus competition. Dubliner Bill Brown, a former University of Georgia golfer, won the Georgia Amateur Golf Championship in 2006. Greg Barwick and Jim Windham won the Georgia State Championship Fishermen title in November 2006.
Terry Evans, a former Trinity High School baseball star and junior college All-American, completed a stellar minor league season in 2006. As a member of the Palm Beach Cardinals, Springfield Cardinals, and Arkansas Travelers, Evans banged 33 home runs, second most in the minor leagues. His slugging average of .565 was eighth best in the minors and his on-base average plus slugging average placed him in the top 15 in the minors. The East Laurens girls’ 4x100 relay team won a state title.
John Pate, a former Army airborne ranger, commando, and infantry officer, coached football at West Laurens High School from 2006 to 2008. Pate holds the record for the most games coached at Georgia Southern in fifteen seasons. Coach Pate helped to lead his Eagles to five National Championships
Company A, 148th Forward Support Battalion of the Georgia National Guard, returned from nearly a year in Iraq. As a part of the 48th Brigade, the Dublin unit was under the brigade command of Brigadier General Stewart Rodeheaver, a former S2 of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 121st Infantry Unit in Dublin in 1986. The members and their families were honored by the community with a parade and picnic on July 15, 2006.
Bliss McMichael, a student at Trinity High School, was named Georgia’s Junior Miss in the summer of 2006. The State of Georgia announced the location of the state’s largest office in the Office of Child Support Services in East Dublin.
Joe Uliano, Jr., one of Hollywood’s top music video producers, completed his 30th video production. Among Uliano’s most well-known clients are Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Faith Hill, Prince, and Shania Twain. In 2006, Uliano produced the MTV Video of the Year for Panic at the Disco. That same year and the year before, he produced the Best Rock Video of the Year. Many of his videos have been nominated for many other MTV and CMT awards. In 2008, Uliano received the MTV Video Award for producing the Best Video of the Year, Best Female Video, Best Rap Video, and the Viewer’s Choice Award. Delia Hammock completed her 18th year as the nutrition director of the Good Housekeeping Institute.
David Heidler, a 1973 graduate of Dublin High School and college professor, completed his 13th book and continued his acclaim as one of the country’s most prolific and respected writers of American history from the time of the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. During the 2006 show season, Cruiser, trained and co-owned by Linda Rowell, was the leading female pug dog in the nation.
Charles J. Bradshaw, a former Dublin High School quarterback in 1953, was elected to the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame. Bradshaw, a Little All-American at Wofford College, established the Hardee’s Restaurant chain. Along with his partner and wide receiver Jerry Richardson, Bradshaw established Spartan Food Systems, which owned the Quincy’s and Denny’s franchises. Bradshaw, as President of Transworld Corporation, oversaw the operations of Century 21, Transworld Airlines, and Hilton International Hotels. William Bradshaw, another former Laurens County resident and current South Carolinian, was inaugurated as the 2006 Chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association.
Ronald Klosterman, former General Manager of the Flexsteel Plant in Dublin, was selected as the company’s chief executive officer. Pam Walker, a Douglas County teacher and former Laurens County teacher, was Georgia’s 2007 Teacher of the Year.
The senior members of the Dublin Irish Football didn’t set out to score more points (682) than any other football team at any level of play in the history of Georgia. Nor did they set out to score more points in the playoffs (206) than any team in Georgia High School History. Nor did they set out to score more points (65) than any team in the history of semifinal playoffs in the Georgia Dome. They set out to win a state championship.
On a warm December afternoon before the largest crowd (9000+) ever to watch a sporting event in Laurens County, the Irish accomplished their goal by battling Charlton County to a tie (13-13) in the Shamrock Bowl to secure the school’s first football championship in 43 years. Linebacker Thomas Barnes was named AA Defensive Player of the Year. Tackle Tyler Josey and Defensive Back Jamon Morris were named to the all-state team as starters. Quarterback Ben Cochran and running back Brian Wilcher were selected as honorable mention members of the team. Cochran (QB), Josey (OL), Wilcher. DB), were named as the best at their positions by the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association in AA. Barnes and Roger Holmes were named the best defensive player and coach of the year in South Georgia AA, respectively. Dublin kicker Drew Griggs, who nearly died two years earlier from a staph infection, was named the Best Special Teams player. Griggs was also featured in an article in Reader’s Digest detailing the dangers of the deadly contagion.
The exciting year in sports ended on a high note. Former Dublin kicker Brian Mimbs brilliantly recovered his perfectly executed onside kick to help spark his Georgia Bulldogs to a come-from-behind victory over West Virginia in the Chik Fi La Bowl Peach Bowl in Atlanta. Former Irish defensive standout Erik Walden was tenth in the nation in quarterback sacks and as a member of the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders was a member of the All-Conference team of the Sunbelt Conference in 2006 and 2007. The school’s weightlifting team captured the second state title in the 2006-7 school year.
The Crusaders of Trinity High School captured a state title in football to give the county two titles in the same season. The championship marked the sixth state title for the school, with other championships coming in golf, boys’ track, girls’ track, girls’ basketball and softball. The school’s boys and girls teams won their fifth and third respective state championships in May, while the boys team won it third consecutive title. Trinity’s girls’ basketball team won the state GISA AA championship with a win over Brookwood in March.
West Laurens wrestlers captured their third and unprecedented straight state title in 2007. Michael Slaughter became one of the state’s few three-time champions, while Blaine Harvey and Walter Blash won their second consecutive state individual titles. Josh Harvey, Dondricus Anderson, and Germany Coleman gave the Raiders six individual titles. Bryant Meeks died in 2007. Meeks, a former All-American center for the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1940s, retired in Laurens County just before his death.
Juwan Wells, of Dublin High, was a second-team All-State defensive lineman for Dublin in 2013. Played football for Liberty University from 2015 to 2018. Big South second-team all-conference, 2017. Led Liberty in tackles for the second year in a row, finishing the season with 74 tackles. Ranked No. 1 in the Big South in tackles by defensive linemen (6.7 per game). Big South first-team all-conference in 2016.) HERO Sports FCS Sophomore All-America team, 2016. Led the Flames with a career-high tackle total of 79. Ranked third in the Big South in total tackles.
Deano’s Italian Restaurant, owned by Jennifer and Rob Shaffer of Dublin, is a nationally acclaimed Italian restaurant that has been named the Best Pizzeria in Georgia by USA Today on two occasions and selected by Paula Deen as the Top Pizza Hot Spot. Deanos was included in the Top 100 Plates Locals Love in Georgia. The restaurant was voted number one in the state of Georgia for it's brick oven pizza in USA Today in 2010. In 2013, it was recognized as "Pizza Worth a Detour" in the USA Travel Guide.
After nearly six decades of operations by Forstmann and Company and its predecessor, J.P. Stevens in East Dublin, officials of the county’s last textile manufacturer announced the closing of the company’s plant, primarily due to Major League Baseball's decision to discontinue purchasing wool hats from the company. At the peak of the plant’s production, the company was the leading manufacturer of billiard and gaming table cloths in the world.
Hubert Mizell, a 50-year veteran sportswriter and charter member of the Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, was honored by the Augusta National Golf Club with the Masters Achievement Award for his outstanding coverage of golf’s most important tournament for more than forty years. While all untimely deaths are tragic, the deaths of two popular local pilots, James V. Hilburn and Jefferson I. Davis, III, in a plane crash in North Carolin, shocked the community in early May 2007. Their deaths came only several weeks after Bob Holler and Danny Page, two parachutists participating in a jump at the Laurens County Airport, became the first people killed while participating in a St. Patrick’s Festival event. An F2 tornado struck the center of the county along McLendon Road early on the morning of April 15, 2007, causing moderate damage and a few injuries.
While the county’s official rain gauge showed it had not rained in 48 days from April 16 until June 2, 2007. One otherwise cloud-free day was eclipsed by a dense wave of smoke which was blown into the area from its origin in Ware County. The drought came to a notable end when, on June 2, 2007, the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry officially dumped 6.84 inches into the official gauge. Radar measurements indicated that more than eight inches fell in the area between U.S. Highway 80 East and Georgia Highway 86, with a small section receiving more than ten inches, making the 24-hour rain total one of the greatest in the history of the county.
In the ultimate of Father’s Day present, Mike Evans traveled to see his son Terry play his first major league game on June 18, 2007. Three days later, Terry Evans got his 1st major league hit, a two-run home run, during his first start in his home stadium in Anaheim, making him one of the relatively few players in MLB history to hit a home run for their first hit. Evans was named to the Pacific Coast League All-Star team (he would the team again in 2009,) selected as the best minor league player in the Anaheim organization and rated the 28th best minor league baseball player in 2007.
West Laurens Assistant Wrestling Coach Gerald Carr was named the 2007 National Assistant Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Ty Wright, a former West Laurens outfielder, was named the Georgia Junior College Association Player of the Year for 2007. In 2008, Wright, a junior, was named to the second team All-America team and the first team All-Southern Conference team.
Karl Slover, one of the last surviving actors to portray a Munchkin in the “Wizard of Oz and a resident of the Sheridan Living Center,” joined his fellow Munchkins in Hollywood to receive their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Local coffee shop owner and actor, Jack Walker, co-starred in his biggest movie role to date in the Denzel Washington and Golden Globe nominated film, “The Great Debaters. “ As the year ended, Walker’s film producing debut “12 Fl. Oz” was in post-production. The feature movie, directed by Dublin native Dalton Harpe, is the first feature-length movie filmed in Laurens County.
AA Defensive Player of the Year and Athlete of the Year Rashard Smith and his All State teammates Andreakas Rollins and Nick McRae, a Georgia Football Magazine All Classification lineman, led the Dublin Irish football team, whom many gave little chance of making into the playoffs after running only one starter from the state championship team of 2006, to the state semifinals in the Georgia Dome for the third time in four years in 2007. On December 10, 2007, Laurens Countians celebrated the county’s bicentennial. The celebration was led by co-chairmen historians Allen Thomas and Scott B. Thompson, who supervised the gathering of information to place in a time capsule in a display in the Laurens County Courthouse. In the display, the historians acquired a 1807 bell to commemorate the event.
For the first time in the county's history in 2008, both the Dublin City Schools Board of Education (Rev. Richard Sheffield) and the Laurens County Schools Board of Education (Rev. Ellis Carswell) were headed by African American chairmen. SP Newsprint, the largest industrial plant in the history of Laurens County, was sold to the White Birch Company in 2008. U.S. Senator John Edwards became the first legitimate presidential candidate to make a campaign stop in Laurens County in January. Nearly one hundred and forty years after he became one of the few African-American Confederate Soldiers to surrender his arms at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, William H. “Ten Cent” Bill Yopp was honored by the Governor of the State of Georgia in his annual Confederate Memorial Day proclamation.
At sunset on the evening of February 15, 2008, a special excursion train of the SAM Shortline dubbed the “Emerald City Express” arrived in Dublin from Vidalia as the first regularly scheduled passenger train from Vidalia since December 31, 1949. Tal Orr, the local train aficionado, was the first to deboard the train. The following day, the train traveled to Macon for the first time in more than 57 years.
Herb Entrenkin, Jr., a native of Dublin, received the Gold P Award as the highest annual alumni award from Presbyterian College. Entrenkin flew many missions on a C-130 plane in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He flew for Delta Airlines for more than 32 years.
In the sports world in 2008, Dublin wrestler Quinton Carter captured a state championship. The Trinity High girls' team won its second consecutive state basketball championship. The Crusader baseball and softball teams and the girls’ track teams won the state championship, and the girls’ soccer team finished in second place in the school’s last year in Class AA. The boys basketball teams from East Laurens, led by first team all state players Jimmy Williams, Jr. and Ken Taylor (first team all-classification), and Dublin High, led by first team all state guard Rashard Smith, finished first and second among public high school teams, losing out to two private schools, who were allowed to give scholarships to players.
The Dublin boys soccer team lost to yet another private school (Walker High) in the final game of the A/AA State Championship, giving the Irish three appearances in the Final Four state AA tournaments in the 2007-08 school year and leading to the Irish winning the Harley Bowers Award for the most successful high school athletic program in Middle Georgia. Erik Walden, a former Dublin High footballer, was drafted in the sixth round of the 2008 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys but was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs to start the season. Walden, who was named to the all-decade team of the Sunbelt Conference by CBS in 2009, ended his rookie year on his third team, the Miami Dolphins, as an up-and-coming special teams player. John Checkovich, a former Dublin school teacher, was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Checkovich was a three-time South Carolina Coach of the Year and a Southeast Coach of the Year.
In 2008, Ruby Haag Brown died. She traveled with the circus for 50 years and enjoyed the circus life, performing many shows, including The Mighty Haag Shows, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the Circus Hall of Fame and Shrine circuses. She performed aerial acts such as the Loop Walk and the Spanish Web and was famous for being carried in Alice the Elephant's mouth by her leg. She was fondly remembered for Miss Ruby's dog act.
Three Mother’s Day tornadoes in 2008 wreaked havoc along Evergreen Road, both Buckeye Roads, and the Lowery Community, killing James Tracy Clements and his wife Lisa in the first documented tornadic fatalities since 1942. Team Georgia, the seven-man passing team representing the Atlanta Falcons and composed of four Dublin High football players, finished in the final four of the NFL’s 2008 passing tournament in New Orleans.
Irish quarterback and safety Rashard Smith was the Class AA Defensive Player of the Year for two consecutive years and the first in player in Georgia to garner the award since the award was established in 1992. Smith tied a state record with five interceptions in one game during the 2008 regular season. Smith was elected as the Offensive Player of the Year (South) and 1st Team quarterback (AA) by the Coaches Association. Briceton Cannada, one of a long line of outstanding Dublin place kickers, was named to the AA All-Star team and the coaches’ team as well.
Brian Mimbs, who punted the sixth-longest punt in UGA history and the longest in 35 years and posted the second-highest mark for average yards per punt (43.1) in Bulldog history, the fourth-best season average (44.0), became the only player to twice average more than 50 yards per punt in a game. Mimbs was also named as the first team punter on an All-SEC Team. In the Capital One Bowl on January 1, 2009, Mimbs set a school record for the longest punting average (49.2) in a game. Perhaps more importantly, Brian finished as one of the nation’s best student-athletes and was only the fifth player in UGA history to be named to the All-SEC Academic for all four years of his eligibility.
John Checkovich, who began his teaching career at Dublin High School in 1965, was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, for his lifetime service to wrestling, which included his being thrice named as South Carolina Coach of the Year and once as Southeastern Coach of the Year. Kailey Johnston won the gold medal at in the Compound Individual Archery competition at the Junior Outdoor World Championship in October. Miss Johnston was also a member of the gold medal-winning Team USA.
A world’s first occurred over the skies of Laurens County on the afternoons of August 22nd and 23rd in 2008. A F-15 fighter jet, flying at a speed approaching 1500 miles per hour, made a test flight of the world’s first synthetic-fueled plane in a 120-mile flight from Columbus to Dublin in four minutes. In 2008, Sai Reddy became the first non-Caucasian Laurens County delegate to a Democratic Convention.
Economic woes topped the dinner table conversations in Laurens County. Gas prices skyrocketed upwards toward five dollars a gallon, before plummeting nearly two dollars a gallon in a four-week period. A near record number of home foreclosures filled the legal ads of the Courier Herald. Meanwhile, Retire in Georgia magazine pronounced that Dublin and Laurens County as one of the top places in Georgia to retire in.
Not since the mid-1900s did so many statewide office seekers blitzed through Dublin on the campaign trail. On October 30, 2008, United States Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson briefly appeared in front of the courthouse. It was the first time that both of the state’s senators appeared in Dublin at the same time. More than seventy percent of the registered voters of Laurens County turned out in record numbers, exceeding twenty thousand to elect Jackie Dalton as the county’s first woman Clerk of Superior Court and Buddy Adams as the county’s first Republican county commissioner.
Dublin High School formed the first R.O.T.C. unit in the history of the county. The unit, which won several awards, was first commanded by Colonel Scott Ostrow.
The last fifteen days of the year 2008 saw unusually warm days, posting an average usually experienced in late March and early April. One rare weather phenomenon was a late afternoon Christmas day rainbow in the northeastern skies over Laurens County.
Dublin High’s Quinton Carter captured his second state wrestling championship in 2009. Commander Ed White, of Dublin, was awarded the Legion of Merit for his exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services from April 2007 until his retirement in February 2009 by United States Navy. Sherrard Brantley, a Dublin High basketball star, transferred to UGA after one season of junior college basketball at Northwest Florida State College, where he was All Pan-Handle Conference during the 2009-2010 season. He sank 43 percent of his 263 three-point attempts for a JUCO team that reached the national semifinals. He played guard for the University of Georgia from 2010-2013. Brantley was a member of the 2008-2009 AA state champion Irish basketball team. In his final game at Georgia, Brantley and his teammates upset the defending national champion Kentucky Wildcats.
Perhaps it was a sign of the times, but on March 2 and March 3, 2009, two Dublin banks were robbed on consecutive days. Law enforcement officials captured both suspects within 48 hours. The 48th Brigade deployed for training before going to carry on the War Against Terrorism in Afghanistan. Ruby Martin, of Dublin, retired in 2009 as the longest-serving court reporter in Georgia history.
The Dublin Irish basketball team won its second state basketball championship in four years by capturing the AA title in 2009. Led by the All-State guard in all classifications, Rashard Smith, the Irish (31-1) were ranked # 1 throughout the entire season and lost only once in a Florida tournament to a 5-A team. Smith finished his high school career as the AA Player of the Year, the Middle Georgia Athlete of the Year, and a two-time all-state player in both basketball and football. Head Coach Marvin Latham, who turned 45 on the day of the championship game, was named the AA Coach of the Year. Ben Smith, a former Dublin Irish guard and member of the Jacksonville State Dolphins, was selected to the first team of the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Trinity Boys won the state championship in soccer in 2009.
The Dublin boys baseball team finished in second place in 2009 and first among public high schools, which are not bound by the less stringent restrictions as private schools were. Coach William Barham and pitcher Zach Mullis were named the co-coach and co-player of the year in AA. Ty Wright, an all-conference outfielder of the Georgia Southern Eagles, was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the summer of 2009. Ronnie McGirt, a former DHS sprinter, won the NCAA Division II 110-meter hurdles and, in doing so, earned All-American status. Sarah Howard represented the United States in the IAAF World Championships in the shot put. Joey Knox, a former Dublin wrestler, was a 2009 Southern Conference champion. Donnie Fowler was inducted into the USSSA Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport of softball.
Stuart “Mad Dog” Gottlieb, a former Dublin resident, was a star guard player for Weber State College in Utah in the mid-1960s. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the 10th round of the 1969 NFL draft. Father of 1802 and Nolan Gottlieb was born in Dublin in 1982. Nolan suffered from cystic fibrosis. Despite his debilitating disease, Gottlieb went on to play for Anderson University Junior Varsity basketball team in South Carolina, where he would later coach. Tyler Gottlieb, born in Dublin, Georgia in 1985. Tyler was a star pitcher for First Presbyterian Day School in Macon. Stuart pitched for Stetson University in 2005. Was a two-time All-State, four-time all-region, two-time all-city, and two-time all-middle Georgia performer at First Presbyterian Day School. Was named Middle Georgia Player of the Year.
Jeff Pettis, a native of Dublin, was a biologist and entomologist known for his extensive research on honeybee behavior. He is currently head of Apimondia. He was the research leader at the United States Department of Agriculture's Beltsville Bee Laboratory. His research has led to significant breakthroughs in understanding and managing CCD, a primary cause of North American bee population decline. He is also known for discovering with Dennis vanEngelsdorp, then at Pennsylvania State University, the ability of bees to detect pesticides and harmful fungi in collected pollen and subsequently quarantine the harmful substances from the rest of the hive. His research has also studied the synergistic effects of Imidacloprid on bees, an insecticide derived from nicotine which has been shown to contribute to CCD.
In May 2009, Edward Whitehead, a native of Dublin and a resident of Detroit, Michigan, was honored as the oldest Boy Scout in America. Stephen Grieser, a Dublin police officer, was honored as one of the top policemen in America by the International Association of Police Chiefs and Parade magazine. Dublin native Crystal Hardy was selected as one of only twenty Americans to carry the Olympic torch through Canada before the 2010 games. Siblings Casey and Natalie Harper captured national titles in rifle competition.
A disgusting sign of the times was the inhumane use of pit bulls and other dogs in dog-fighting contests. In October, in the largest raid of its kind in Georgia history to date, sheriff’s deputies, animal rights activists, and humane society volunteers rescued 98 dogs who were alleged to have been used in dog fighting. Weather forecasters were given a turn around when the normally dry months of September and October were among the wettest ever without the presence of a single tropical storm in the two month period when nearly sixteen inches of rain fell on Laurens County. Unusual rains continued until the end of the year, making 2009 one of the wettest years ever without the aid of tropical storms.
Demaryius Thomas, a former West Laurens standout, was selected to the 2009 All-ACC team and led the nation in yards per reception. Thomas was selected to the third All-American team in Division I. Quintez Smith, a former Dublin quarterback, was named to the American Football Coaches and Daktronics Division II All America first teams. Smith, the CIAA Defensive Player of the Year, tied a Division II season record with four touchdowns on interception returns and led the division in interceptions. Smith set an NCAA Division II record with the most return yards on interceptions and most receptions returned for a touchdown in a single game. On the Sunday before Christmas, Erik Walden, a journeyman special teams player, started for the Green Bay Packers, making the former Irish standout the school’s first football player to start an NFL game.
Chapter 22
The 2010s - A Second Century and Beyond.
The year 2010 started off with 12 consecutive days of freezing temperatures, a series unheard in the usually moderate winters in Middle Georgia. Dublin Irish footballers, Quintez Smith, Erik Walden, Brian Mimbs, Thomas Barnes and Rashard Smith were named to the Georgia All-Decade teams. The East Laurens Falcons won the 2010 AA State weightlifting crown, the school’s first state championship in its history.
Economic troubles continued. With massive cuts in state funding, Laurens County schools were forced to enact unprecedented tax increases. The first ever “Tea Party” was held on Tax Day to protest rising taxes and government takeover of health care and the daily lives of Americans.
The Heart of Georgia College merged with the Sandersville Technical College in 2010 to form the Oconee Fall Line Technical College.
Demaryius “Bay Bay” Thomas, a former West Laurens and Georgia Tech star, was selected by the Denver Broncos as the 22nd pick and the first wide receiver in the 2010 NFL Draft. Thomas’s debut was a successful one with eight catches and a touchdown. Terry Evans began the season as a member of the 25-man roster of the Los Angeles Angels. Sarah Howard was chosen as a member of the United States team in the 2010 Olympics in Singapore. Maurice Martin, of Dublin High School, was named the AA Athlete of the Year in high school football in 2010 and 2011. Kailey Johnston set an indoor world archery record in her age group from a distance of 25 meters.
Dublin Middle School officer, Allen L. Harris, was cited as a finalist for Parade Magazine’s Officer of the Year. Also in October, Deano’s Italian Restaurant was named the top Italian Restaurant in Georgia and one of the top in the nation. Carol Porter became the first female to win a major party’s nomination for Lieutenant Governor. Porter, a Democrat, finished a respectable second in an election dominated by Republican voters. Early in the primary season, Mrs. Porter and her husband, Dubose made national headlines when the couple ran for the state’s two highest offices at the same time. Matt Hatchett was elected to replace Porter to his seat in the legislature, a seat which he held for 28 years, longer than any Laurens County state representative. Hatchett became the first Republican elected to the state house from Laurens County since George Linder in the days of Reconstruction.
The year 2010 ended with a rare near-Christmas snowfall on the day after Christmas and the even more rare, third snowfall in a calendar year. Many of you may know that Senoia, Georgia in Coweta County, is the site of the filming of the iconic and legendary Cable TV series, The Walking Dead. The show's popularity has been a boon to the economy and tourism of the once small Georgia town, some one hundred miles from Laurens County.
What you may not know is that many of the outdoor scenes were filmed on land leased to the studio by a former Dublin physician. For many seasons, AMC Studios filmed some of the show's most horrific and bloody scenes on the property of the late Dr. Henry Raymaker, a local psychologist, leading citizen, and student of politics.
On the second day of 2011 and in his third start for the Green Bay Packers, former Dublin star and journeyman linebacker Erik Walden helped his team with 16 tackles, including 3 sacks, to make the playoffs. In doing so, Walden was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week. The unusual winter weather continued on January 10, when a sheet of ice, a half inch thick or more, covered most of the county. The ice, which caused minor power outages, remained in shady spots for an entire week.
Dublin and Laurens County experienced hard economic times in 2011. A string of factory closings and downsizing of the Technical College produced the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. The establishment of the solar energy plant, Mage Solar, as its North American headquarters gave locals a ray of hope.
During the second decade of the 21st Century, manufacturing plants from around the world. They included Erdrich Umformtechnik, a German company and Georgia’s 2019 Small Manufacturer of the Year, Polymer Logistics, an Israeli company, Dinex, a Danish company, and leader of auto emission equipment. Valmiera Glass, a Latvian Company, was a world leader in fiberglass manufacturing until it unexpectedly closed its operations in 2019.
Laurens County Athletes continued to perform remarkably in the 2010s. Sally Smalley Bell, a former Dublin basketball player and nationally recognized women’s referee, and Stacy Ham, former Georgia Southern great and Trinity High School coach, were elected to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
During the first two decades of the 21st Century, Trinity High School football players who were named All-State included: Wyatt Payne, George Best, Josh Walker, Zac Hodges, Will Leverett,*Jackson Brack, Joshua Mayo, Phillip Corbett, Kyle Newby, Dylan Rogers, and Michael Wheeless.
Dublin’s Leh Keen got a full-time drive with #41 Mazda RX-8 for Dempsey Racing in the Rolex Sports Car Series and took the team's Mazda to their first and only win at Watkins Glen International Raceway in 2010. Keen and his team members won the 2011 Grand Am Rolex GT Championship. In 2012, Keen’s team won their third championship in four years. Josh Herrin, sometimes based out of Dudley, Ga, became one of the top motorcycle racers in the United States.
NFL history was made in the first rounds of the playoffs on the second Sunday of 2012. Demaryius Thomas, a former West Laurens star athlete, grabbed a Tim Tebow pass and sprinted eighty yards for a sudden-death, game-winning touchdown to set the NFL record for the quickest end to an NFL overtime game. The reception was named the “Best Moment” in the annual ESPY Awards. Thomas, who played an important role in the Broncos Super Bowl 50 championship, caught Peyton Manning’s NFL record-breaking 509 touchdown pass in 2014. The ball was placed in the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Earlier that year, Thomas, a five-time consecutive all-pro, set an all-time Super Bowl record with 13 receptions in Super Bowl 48. Thomas left Denver to play with Houston, New England, and the New York Jets.
Maurice Martin, of Dublin High School, was named the 2010 and 2011 AA Athlete of the Year. Cedric O’Neal and Tyler Josey, former Dublin football stars were members of the 2012 Valdosta College National Championship team. Josey was an All-Gulf Conference and a National Player of the Week. O’Neal set many rushing records at Valdosta State and played briefly with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Buffalo Bills. O’Neal, a three-time all-Gulf South Conference running back, finished as the school’s all-time leader in rushing and touchdowns scored. Michael Coffey, a former Dublin High catcher, was named as a Second Team member of the All Peach Belt Conference team in 2011.
In 2013, Jasha Balcom, a former Dublin and Georgia Bulldog star player, appeared in the role of the student double portraying Jackie Robinson in the film, “42,” which was filmed at historic Luther Williams Park in Macon, Ga. Cammie Dalley, of East Laurens, served as President of the Georgia Coaches Association in 2014.
In 2012, Dublin celebrated it’s bicentennial under the direction of Julie Driger, Tiffany Stanley, and Scott Thompson.
Tyler Daniel, a former West Laurens star pitcher, was named to the 2012 All Peach Belt Academic Team. Johnny O’Neal, a West Laurens star linebacker who went on the play football with UGA, was twice named to the Army All-American Bowl in 2012 and 2013. West Laurens Eason Spivey was drafted by the Anaheim Angels in 2014 and played two years in the Angels' minor league system. Abby Leroy, a star softball player for West Laurens, was named to the All Peach Belt Conference Team in 2013. Abi Leroy, star softballer for West Laurens High, who was selected to the All-State Team in 2011. In 2013, as a member of the Georgia College Softball team, I was selected as a PBC Scholar. In 2014, Leroy was selected to the PBC All-Academic Team and named a PBC Presidential Scholar, to the All-Southeast Region, and to the All-PBC Second Team. In the year 2015, Abi was a PBC Gold Scholar. She was named to the NFCA All-Region and PBC All-Academic Team. In her senior season. Abi was chosen to the first team Peach Belt All-Conference Team.
Darrell Williams, Jr., a West Laurens standout, played football for Western Kentucky before joining the San Francisco 49ers in 2017. Williams later played on the taxi squads for Los Angeles and Baltimore.
Laurens County Commissioner Buddy Adams led the effort to name portions of the U.S. Highway 441 By Pass for the county’s military heroes, Lt. Kelso Horne, Sgt. Mack Fitzgerald, and Col. William C. Stinson, as well as the county’s three Tuskegee airmen.
During the 2010s, downtown began a dramatic transformation. Just twenty years before the inception of the Main Street Program, the downtown area was dying economically. With tens of millions of public and private investments and with the aid of mostly local banks, old buildings have been renovated and their storefronts restored to their original appearance or a vintage-type front. The entire first block of West Jackson Street has been renovated.
In 2013, Dublin’s campus of Middle Georgia College was merged into Middle Georgia State University, Laurens County’s first University. Georgia Military College established a branch in the First National Bank Building.
Amanda Lee Adams, of Dublin, was a star on the TLC reality show “Myrtle Manor,” also known as “Trailer Park from 2013-2015.
Dublin’s LaQuinta Hotel was named as the best hotel in the company’s worldwide chain. Scott Brantley, an up-and-coming country music artist won the 2014 Ga Country Awards Traditional Artist of the Year, the 2013 Ga Country Awards Male Artist of the Year, and the 2012 Texaco Country Showdown State winner. Mary Frances Flanders, a local journalist, was chosen as the winner of the Miss Oklahoma International Pageant in 2016.
The national Vietnam Wall came the VA Hospital grounds in August 2014. More than 5000 people attended the four-day event to remember those American servicemen and women who gave their lives during the Vietnam War. The project was led by former Vietnam cavalry soldier Johnny Payne, the members of the local Daughters of the American Revolution, the staff of the VA, the Dublin Civitan Club, and many volunteers and donors.
Justin Smith, a West Laurens Receiver, played for the Missouri Tigers from 2016-2019. He was the All-Middle Georgia All-Sports Athlete of the Year in his senior year (2014-2015) at West Laurens. Faith Flanders, a West Laurens softball star athlete was named to the All-State team in 2012 and 2013. She played for Georgia College, where in 2016 she finished 1st in PBC in RBIs, 4th in doubles, 8th in total bases, 10th in slugging pct., and 10th in hits. Flanders was the 2016 NFCA All-Southeast Region Second Team, 2016 D2CCA All-Southeast Region Second Team, 2016 All-PBC First Team, and 2016 PBC All-Academic Team. In 2015, she was a 2015 PBC All-Academic Team, 2015-16, PBC Silver Scholar, and PBC Presidential Scholar, and in 2013-14, Faith was a PBC Silver Scholar. Former Laurens County school teacher and Silver Star awardee during World War II, Marine Captain Henry Will Jones, was selected to the Abraham Baldwin Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.
Brent Honeywell, a former NW Laurens Elementary student, was awarded the MVP of the All-Star Futures game in 2017 for his effective pitching effort.
Sheikh Rhaman, formerly of Dublin, was elected to the Georgia Senate in 2016, making him the first immigrant and first person of Arabic descent in a state senator in the history of the state. Rahman and Courier Herald Editor, Chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, were chosen as delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Julie Driger, who served as an aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, was appointed to complete the term of the late educator and long-term commissioner, Roscoe Brower, making her the first African American woman to serve as a Laurens County Commissioner. Driger, a long-term member of the Dublin City Council and choral leader, was elected to the Georgia Municipal Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2018, Brenda Chain was the first African American Female to be elected to the Laurens County Board of Commissioners. Two years later, she became the board’s first African American female chair. In 2019, Brenda Roberson, the Laurens County’s highest ranking female officer, was the first African American woman elected to the East Dublin City Council. In 2019, Phil Best was elected to his sixth four-year term as Mayor of Dublin, making the popular mayor the longest-serving Dublin mayor ever.
An EF-2 February 2014 tornado damaged or destroyed at least sixty houses north of Dublin. In the same month, a moderate ice storm struck the county. On February 5, 2017, an EF-2 cut a devastating swath across southern Laurens County. With more than 63 inches of rain, the year 2013 became the wettest in a half-century, some 17 inches above the normal amount. The official rainfall for October 2016 was a scant 0.2 of an inch. Rain fell on Dublin for twenty consecutive days from May 15 to June 3, 2018. On average, May is usually the driest month in Laurens County.
Tropical Storm Irma came within 50 miles of Laurens County on September 11, 2017, causing a moderate amount of damage. Hurricane Michael, the strongest tropical storm/hurricane ever measured,d struck Laurens County on October 10, 2018, knocking out power for many days. The community came together and, with the aid of electrical workers from all over the United States and Canada, restored power in a remarkably short period of time.
In 2018, the first phase of a project to establish a marker to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s first public speech at the First African Baptist Church was completed through the aid of church members, the City of Dublin, Laurens County, the Dublin Downtown Dublin Authority, the Dublin Laurens Tourism Council, and the Laurens County Historical Society. The memorial drew national praise and countless grants and awards. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
On May 4, 2019, the body of Corporal James Cordie Rix completed its long, long journey home. It was a journey that took a little more than 25,000 days from the day the 18-year-old soldier was killed in the cold tundra of North Korea until his body came to its final resting place, the cemetery of Union Springs Baptist Church on Scotland Road in southern Laurens County, Georgia.
On November 1, 2019, the Dublin Irish football team, Region 3-2A champions, accumulated 758 rushing yards in a shootout with Suwanee High School from the State of Florida in the Shamrock Bowl in Dublin. The 758 rushing yards total is the eighth-highest single-game total in national high school football history. Jacques Evans had 23 carries for 375 yards and 7 Tds, while Kemp logged 12 carries for 252 yards for 3 Tds. Evans became the 16th Georgia player to score 7 touchdowns or more in a single game, bringing this total to 13 in two consecutive games. The Irish went on to capture the Georgia Class AA Championship on the former Turner Field and home of the 1996 Olympic Stadium. The Irish finished their 14-1 season as the 20th-best small high school team by High School Football America and 25th-best by MaxPreps. The Irish posted 6206 yards at 413.7/game and were 2nd in rushing touchdowns in the nation with 89. At the end of the 2019 season, the Irish moved to 8th place all-time in victories with 626. Romello Height, who signed a scholarship with Auburn University, was an all-state linebacker, while Ty McRae was an all-state lineman.
Jaquez Evans, the AA Player of the Year, was selected to the Georgia All-Star Game, the GA National Guard, and the South Team. He rushed for 2531 yards on 262 attempts in 14 games for an average of 180.1 yards a game and 9.7 yards a carry while scoring 40 TDs. (10th all time, Georgia and 3rd in the country. Evans was thrown 1 pass, which he caught for a 19-yard TD. He had 1 interception, which he returned for 22 yards and a TD. Scored a total of 42 Tds. Evans punted 18 times for an average of 39.1 yards a punt, with 6 punts inside the 20-yard line and 3 inside the 10. He had a long of 59 yards. Evans kicked off 46 times for an average of 40.9 yards per kick with 21 touchbacks. Playing both offense and defense, Jacques Evans posted one of the best seasons and most valuable seasons of any Georgia high school football player. seasons and the most valuable seasons of any Georgia high school football player.
Jacques Evans, of Dublin High, was selected as the AA Offensive Player of the Year and Best Running Back in AA in 2019. Evans led the Irish to a state championship. Evans led his team to a shootout victory over Suwanee High School from Florida. The Irish's 758 rushing yards total is the eighth-highest single-game total in national high school football history. Jacques Evans had 23 carries for 375 yards and 7 Tds. Evans became the 16th player in Georgia high school history to score 7 touchdowns or more, bringing his total to 13 in two consecutive games. Played football for Western Kentucky beginning 2021.
Dublin’s Romello Height was selected as the Georgia AA Defensive Player of the Year and All-State Defensive Lineman. Played football for Auburn University and South Carolina. Height played in the GACA football all-star team and was named a Top 30 Prospect by ESPN. Tre Coney, a former DHS lineman and a senior at Reinhardt College, was named to the First Team NAIA All-American Team.
Great farmers were still alive in the second decade of the 21st Century. Danny Hogan, a Laurens County Farmer, was inducted into the National Association of Conservation District, SE HOF. Jeff Bacon won the Southeastern District Hay Contest, sponsored by the Farm Bureau. Dublin Mayor Phil Best, the city’s longest-serving mayor, was selected as the President of the Georgia Municipal Association.
Johnny B. Hall, a public servant for more than five decades, died, leaving a legacy in the African American Community of Laurens County. As a state patrolman, Trooper Hall escorted Georgia governor Roy Barnes and boxing legend Muhammad Ali during the 1996 Olympics.
Chapter 23
The Twenty Twenties
The Twenties started off with a big roar. From November 2019 until February 2020, a normal annual rainfall of 45 inches fell on Laurens County. A similar occurrence happened again the following year.
An event that shook the world came to Laurens County in the late winter of 2020. The COVID-19 virus began to strike the county. Six thousand two hundred and forty-two caught the virus, and tragically, at least 211 persons died during 2020 (113) and 2021 (98.) A record six people died on August 20, 2020. The virus peaked in the mid-summer of 2020, the early winter of 2020-2021, and again in the late summer and early autumn of 2021. On Christmas Eve 2020, a record 119 cases were reported. That number was eclipsed on August 31, 2021, when 185 persons tested positive. In efforts to avoid the virus, the South Central Health Department led the way with cooperation of local governments, schools, churches, businesses and the people. The virus and its variants continued to ravage the country and world well in 2022.
Herschel Walker, who was named as the greatest football player in college football history, established his corporate office of Renaissance Man Foods in Dublin. Former Dublin High baseball coach, Chuck Beale, Sr. was named to the Georgia High School Dugout Hall of Fame.
Morris Bank became the first bank in Laurens County to have more than a billion dollars in assets. Julie Drigger, a former associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was appointed as the first African-American Mayor of Dublin.
The Dublin Downtown Development Authority and Dublin’s downtown property owners kept racking up state and national awards for the renovations of the Henry Building, the Jackson Square Park, the Salt Water Fishery, and the Weischelbaum Building (Company Supply.) By the end of the year, Charlie Garbutt’s construction company, Garbutt Construction, had won its total of state awards for renovation, rehabilitation, and restoration in Dublin and around the state to nearly one hundred awards. Joseph Sumner, a Dublin attorney and Johnson County resident, won the 2021 Old West Turkey Shoot among turkey hunters across the nation.
George Hagler was a volunteer kicking coach for the Dublin Irish, who coached for 32 seasons. Hagler's list of students includes at least fifteen college kickers, many who played for Division I universities, making him the most prolific kicking coach in Georgia high school football history. The list includes Scott Hagler, Sam Hagler, Brett Bailey, Kevin Stuckey, Brian LaBella, John Michael Marlin, Landon Schenck, Reid Bethea, John Michael Marlin, Chris Cauley, Michael Santamaria, Brian Mimbs, Drew Griggs, Justin Miller, Briceton Cannada, Teddy Tanner, Brice Watson, Barry Brown, and Bill LeRoy. In the winter of 2021, Leh Keen became the first automobile driver in the history of the world to reach a speed of more than 100 miles per hour. Keen’s mark of 102.6 mph shattered the old record on 86 mph.
Ben Smith, a former Dublin High basketball star, was selected to Jacksonville State’s Hall of Fame. He was further honored with his jersey being retired by the university.
The county and the entire football world were shocked by the sudden death of the immensely popular and kind player. His prime quarterback, Peyton Manning, said. "But off the field, he was every bit as good a person as he was a player.” Thomas, a five-time All-Pro wide receiver and college All-American, died suddenly at his home, just two weeks shy of his 34th birthday on Christmas Day.
Despite playing injured in many games, Thomas set many records during his limited 10-year career. A former West Laurens and Georgia Tech star, was selected by the Denver Broncos as the 22nd pick and the first wide receiver in the 2010 NFL Draft. Thomas’s debut was a successful one with eight catches and a touchdown. NFL history was made in the first rounds of the playoffs on the second Sunday of 2012. Thomas grabbed a Tim Tebow pass and sprinted eighty yards for a sudden-death, game-winning touchdown to set the NFL record for the quickest end to an NFL overtime game. Thomas set a Super Bowl record with 13 receptions in Super Bowl 51 in a losing effort. Thomas caught Peyton Manning’s record 509th touchdown pass in 2014, an event that was exhibited in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Was selected to the 2009 All ACC team and led the nation is yards per reception. Thomas was selected to the third All-American team in Division I in 2009. Overall, in 2009, Thomas had a breakout season with 46 receptions for 1,154 yards and eight touchdowns. This earned him First-Team All-ACC honors. He finished his collegiate career with 120 catches for a conference-leading 2,339 yards and 14 touchdowns.
In High School was an all-state football player in 2005 and a member of the West Laurens 2004 Basketball State Champions. After the game, he participated in the North-South All-Star game. Thomas was again selected as an all-region and all-Heart of Georgia, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution named him to its Class AA all-state first team and PrepStar to its All-Region team.
As of 2019, Thomas still holds 17 Denver Broncos team records.
Receptions, playoff career: (53)
Receptions, playoff season: (28 in 2013), (3RD All time NFL)
Receptions, playoff game: (13 on February 2, 2014, against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII).
Receiving yards, regular season: (1,619 in 2014), (20th all-time NFL)
Receiving yards in a single game, regular season: (226 on October 5, 2014, against the Arizona Cardinals)
Receiving yards in a single game, playoffs: (204 on January 8, 2012, against the Pittsburgh Steelers) (8TH all-time NFL)
Receiving yards, playoff season: (306 in 2013)
Receiving touchdowns in a regular season: (14 in 2013) (tied with Anthony Miller in 1995)
Receiving touchdowns in a playoff season: (3 in 2013)
Receiving touchdowns in a playoff career: (6) (tied with Rod Smith)
Games with at least 100 receiving yards, career: (33)
Most games with at least 100 receiving yards, single season: (10 in 2014)
Most games with at least two receiving touchdowns: (10) (tied with Ed McCaffrey)
Consecutive games with at least 100 receiving yards, season: (7 in 2014) (2nd all-time NFL.
Consecutive with at least 100 receiving yards, playoffs: (2) (tied with Vance Johnson)
Consecutive games with at least five receptions: (16 in 2016) (4TH all-time NFL.)
Thomas was a member of Denver’s Super Bowl 50 championship team, a five-time participant in the Pro-Bowl (2012–2016)) and a two-time All-Pro in 2013, 2014. Thomas’s career ended in 2019 after playing with the Texans, Patriots, and Jets, finishing just short of 10,000 yards receiving in a ten-year career frequently hampered by leg injuries. Retired as a Bronco in 2021.
Dublin’s J.T. Wright, Montavious Thompkins, John Potter, and Gabe Benyard were named to the GACA Class A All-State team. Qua Ashley, of Dublin High, was named to the 2021 Georgia High School all-star team, and with coach Roger Holmes. Holmes led the South Georgia senior and junior state all classification GACA all-star teams to victories in the 2021 Annual All-Star Games.
Vietnam Veteran Gus Albritton, a three-time awardee of the Purple Heart, was featured in new stories around the country when his Purple Heart medal was found after being missing for many years. Albritton began volunteering at the VA Medical Center in 1991 and has selflessly donated thirty years of his life to serving veterans at the rate of about a thousand hours per year.
Madelynn and Marcus Rayner, members of the Dublin High band, were named to the Honor Band of America. The siblings, children of band director Marcus Rayner, were invited to march in the 2022 Rose Bowl Parade.
The AMC Theater closed its doors on January 2, 2022, leaving Dublin with no first-run movie theater for the first time since the mid-1920s. The closing was due to the COVID-19 virus, the high cost of admission, watching movies online, and the lack of movies for adults. The theater reopened in late May, as the Golden Ticket Cinema just in time for the summer movie season.
West Laurens' dominance in wrestling continued in 2022, with the Raiders capturing the 2022 AAAA Duals Championship. Chase Horne, a Raider heavyweight wrestler, won an unbelievable fourth consecutive season without ever losing a match. On April 13, 2022, Joe Uliano, age 94, shot an 88 at the Dublin Country, shooting six strokes under his age.
In the spring of 2022, the Emory Thomas Auditorium was named to the National Register of Historic Places. Completed in 1956 as a part of the headquarters of the Georgia Colored Four-H Clubs, the brick structure is the last remaining structure of the first exclusive colored 4-H club headquarters in Georgia and in the United States.
On June 18, 2022, a weak earthquake slightly jiggled Laurens County. The 3.9 quake was centered in Metter, Georgia, some forty miles from Laurens County. A dozen decades later, the rebirth of Dublin’s Golden Era moved along with the remodeling of the Furney Bartow Stubbs Building on the southern corner of the Courthouse Square. East Laurens High School and West Laurens Middle School opened new school buildings in 2022.
Quincy Howard, valedictorian of the Dublin High School class of 2021 and a Georgia Tech student, won a round of Wheel of Fortune university students netting him almost $70,000.00 in winnings. Meta Monteleone, a resident of Dublin’s Carl Vinson VA Center for many years, turned 108 years old and held first place as the oldest surviving nurse who served in World War II. Local State Representative Matt Hatchett was named to chair the powerful Appropriations Committee in the Georgia House of Representatives for the year 2023.
Dublin High School’s football team completed its 100th season. The program, which started in 1919, did not play in 1923, 1928, 1929, and 1930. Over that span, the Irish hold a record of 653-343-25, adjusted to include an additional unreported win of 6 and 3 losses.
For the second autumn in a row, local sports fans mourned the death of a nationally known athlete. This time, fans were shocked at the untimely death of Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, a leading MMA fighter, from cancer. The West Laurens softball team, a perennial playoff team, captured the school’s first state championship.
Western Kentucky’s Jacques Evans, who led the Dublin Irish to a state championship in 2019, was named as a linebacker on the first team Conference USA. Dublin High’s Terrianna Wilburn, who was signed by Pensacola State College, was voted the best shot clocker in Public Class A and regional Defensive Player of the Year in the 2021/2022 season.
Dublin High’s Taz Dixon was named to the top 40 players in Georgia Southern football history, as well as being named to the Georgia Southern Athletic Hall of Fame. A 1989 All-American who lettered four times as a safety for the Eagles. A major part of the defense that led the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 12.1 points per game, as the Eagles went 15-0 and won the national title … Left Georgia Southern holding six school records: passes intercepted in a game (2), most career interceptions (12), most interception return yards in a career (182), most interception return scores in a game (1), most interception return scores in a season (2) and most interception return scores in a career (3). Had 233 career tackles, 23 pass breakups, 12 interceptions and had 19 solo tackles in a playoff game against Appalachian State in 1987.
St. Gobain, founded in 1665 in Paris, France, and one of the world’s oldest companies and a worldwide leader in the manufacturing of lightweight building products, moved some of its operations to Dublin. Tyre’s International, a subsidiary of India’s Mahansaria company, opened the company’s third warehouse in October 2022.
Dudley Funeral Home, founded by Clayton D. Dudley and Herbert H. Dudley in 2022, celebrated a century of service to the citizens of Laurens County. The funeral home was part of a larger complex of businesses, including the Dudley Motel, which hosted Civil Rights activists. including Dr.Martin Luther King, during the critical stages of the movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Participants were left unmolested by law enforcement out of respect for the owner, H.H. “Hub” Dudley.”
Laurens Countians mourned the death of Dr. J. Roy Rowland, Jr. Rowland served the county in the state legislature in the 1970s (1976-1982.) He served in the United States Congress from 1983 to 1995. Rowland voluntarily retired from Congress, retiring at the age of sixty-nine. The last twenty five of his life, Rowland continued to serve his community, state, and nation. Congressman Rowland helped pass many bills related to veterans and health issues, including the misuse of quaaludes and the treatment of Americans with AIDs. According to his autobiography, Dr. Rowland was President Bill Clinton's and the U.S. Senate’s main choice as Surgeon General. The president bowed to his wife’s pressure to nominate a person who agreed with her health care policies.
Atlanta attorney Page Pate, who lived in Dublin in his younger years, drowned off the coast of St. Simons. Pate was one of the more respected lawyers in Georgia and was often called upon by television news shows to comment on legal issues.
Downtown Dublin’s Deano’s Restaurant was selected as the best Italian restaurant in Georgia in 2022, 2003, and 2004.
Captain Hugh C. Barron, Jr., a native of Dublin, died in August 2022. His father, Hugh C. Barron, Sr., was killed in the mid-1950s while piloting a commercial plane. Barron became a commercial airline pilot at a young age, carrying out a tradition deeply rooted in the Barron family lineage. His as his two brothers who were captains with Delta and TWA. In 1998, Hugh finished his esteemed time in the cockpit of a DC-10 flying internationally. In 2009, Hugh was honored by the FAA with the prestigious and rare Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for serving as an airline captain for over 50 years. Fred Houston, a fixture at the Bud Barron airport for many decades, was also honored with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. In 2023, Calvin Stephens, of Dublin, received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. Dublin’s Myrna Ruth May White was honored by the Atlanta Airport Authority for her outstanding contributions to the airport’s fifth runway, by placing a plaque on the tarmac.
Laurens County brothers Victor and Vanzil Burke of Burke Management Company represent many successful actors in Hollywood and produce small-budget films as well. Trinity’s Cheerleading team won their second state championship in a row in the 2022 GIAA Game Day competition. Dublin’s Ramontei Dardy was named first team defensive lineman all-state in Class A. Joe Uliano completed his 60th year as a Ruling Elder of Henry Memorial Presbyterian Church.
SEC Network named Dublin’s Minute Grill the Best in the South in 2023. Dublin’s Cracker Barrel, managed by Mike Kennedy, was chosen as the 5th best store in the 660-location chain around the country.
Demaryius Thomas, already a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. Dublin’s Jacques Evans, first team member of the USA’s All Conference team in 2022, was a finalist for the 2023 Allstate AFCA Good Works team. He was among 136 nominees recognized for outstanding service in their respective communities. Brent Honeywell, Jr., a former student at Northwest Laurens, won his first game as a major league pitcher as a member of the San Diego Padres. Honeywell battled injuries for many years to finally make it to the Tampa Rays team before joining the Padres. He was traded to the Chicago White Sox near the end of the 2023 season. Former Dublin, Georgia Tech, and NFL linebacker Ron Rogers was chosen to serve as Tech’s honorary captain in Tech’s opening game of the 2023 season.
By the end of August 2023, Laurens County Health officials announced that 10,000 Laurens Countians had contracted the COVID-19 virus. In forty-two months, at least 332 Laurens Countians were known to have died as a result of the virus.
Laurens County’s E.G. Kight’s newest album, Sticks and Strings, was selected as the Number 10 Blues album in America on the Billboard Charts in September 2023. Fairview Park Hospital was named as the 15th best medium-sized community hospital in the United States by Becker’s Hospital Review. The hospital was also named as the best in the State of Georgia.
Demaryius Thomas was elected to his third berth into the Hall of Fame, the Georgia Tech Hall of Fame, in 2023. East Laurens Falcon’s Madison Cheek became one of the few girls to score a field goal, extra point, and recover an onside kick in a GHSA football game. Madison is perhaps the only female high school student in Georgia to kick a field goal, kick an extra point, hit a home run, pitch a shutout, and score a soccer goal all in the same season.
Dr. Fred Williams, Dublin City Schools Superintendent, was awarded as the Superintendent of the Year 2023-2024 in Georgia. Williams was named as one of the top four superintendents in the nation. The Trinity Christian Crusaders won first place in the 2023 GIAA Gameday Cheer Championship. Keith Hammond, a native of Dublin, was selected as the National High School Association football referee of the year 2023. Hammond was the first Georgian to receive the honor. D’Eryk Jackson, out of West Laurens High School and a senior linebacker at the University of Kentucky, led Kentucky with 81 tackles, including 32 solo tackles this season. Jackson was named All-SEC by the Pro Football Focus, College Football Network, and Phil Steele organizations. Dublin’s gigantic defensive lineman, Nasir Johnson, was ranked as the nation’s 12th-best defensive line prospect when he signed with the Georgia Bulldogs. Johnson was named as an all all-qualifications defensive lineman as well as a first-team all-state in Class A.
MGCSU began a multi-million-dollar expansion in 2023. South Korean company Woory announced that it was opening its first U.S. manufacturing location in Dublin. Almost six months later, another South Korean company, Hwashin, announced plans to establish a manufacturing facility in Dublin, Laurens County, which would create nearly 500 jobs. The facility makes electrical heaters and control units for electric cars.
Tim Scott, a former Principal of Dublin High School in the early 2000s, was selected as the head of the Georgia High School Sports Association. Dublin High’s weightlifting team won the Peach State Classic in 2024. The 4th GHSA Bass Fishing State Championship was won by Ryan Soles and James Brooks of the West Laurens Raiders. Nasir Johnson was the Georgia State Champion, Class A, in the discus throw. The Dublin High Girls’ 4x200 Relay Team just captured their third straight GHSA Class A State Championship. (Caitlyn Nesbit, Azoria Lovett, Kayden Hope, and Tahara Diallo)
In an ultra-rare celestial event, Laurens Countians were able to see the Aurora Borealis in the northern skies over Laurens County on May 10, 2024. Five months later, on October 10, the “northern lights returned to Laurens County.” Leap Day 2024 was the warmest ever recorded in Dublin at 79 degrees.
Frenchy Hodges, a Laurens County author, was inducted into the Fort Valley State University Alumni Hall of Fame. Dr. Rebekah Daniel, director of bands and a former West Laurens and Georgia Southern Drum Major, was voted the top teacher at Eastern Kentucky University.
Increased inflation in the country led to the closure of national chains, Red Lobster, Big Lots, Popeye’s Chicken, and Flex Steel, a leading national manufacturer of home furniture. The void was partially filled with the opening of at least five modern convenience stores, a second Chick-fil-A location, a McDonald's location in East Dublin, several new restaurants, and the highly popular Hobby Lobby.
Early in the morning of September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene, a Category 1 hurricane, struck Laurens County. The eye of the hurricane, which spouted gusts at or above 111 miles an hour, passed over Dublin and the central portion of the county. Eastern Laurens County and the neighboring counties to the east were hit harder. Some tornadoes, emanating from the storm, caused massive damage to houses and trees. The cleanup operation started the next morning. Churches, schools, civic clubs, and neighbors assembled to aid those in need. Gov. Brian Kemp sent in the National Guard to hand out tons of food and water. Hundreds of linemen moved in from the eastern part of the country to restore electrical, phone, and Internet service. Georgia Power and the four Electric Membership Corporations workers were able to restore communications in a few days to a few weeks. Across the county, tens of thousands of trees were damaged or felled. Approximately 10 to 14 inches of rain preceded the hurricane. Not a drop of rain fell on Laurens County for the next 38 days. The last time there was a totally dry October was in 1961.
On October 11, 2024, Dublin High football coach Roger Holmes won his 200th game, marking the first time in the century-plus history of Dublin football that a coach joined the top 100 of all-time victories in Georgia High School history. Holmes joined Dublin natives, Billy Henderson (15TH, 340) and Barney Hester (6th, 340.) Holmes' winning percentage, .732, ranks him 25th in all-time career winning percentage. Holmes led the Irish to their 5th undefeated regular season and averaging 50 points per game while allowing on 14 points per game. Dublin High finished 2nd in Class A with a 13-1 record and finished in the Top 10 in the state with a winning percentage. Kennesaw State and Dublin’s Qua Ashley was named to the first-team kick returner of the USA Conference in 2024.
Brent Honeywell, Jr., a former Northwest Laurens student, started the year 2024 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system. Near the end of the season, Honeywell was picked up by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Honeywell appeared in 20 games and posted a fine ERA of 2.62. He was placed in the injured list during the last week of the season. In October, Honeywell was added to the Dodgers' playoff roster. The first part-time Laurens Countian to play in the NLCS, Honeywell had a fine outing in Game 3 and came in the 5th game to keep pitching to save the arms of the Dodgers’ better relievers. In his first game, he pitched well. Honeywell, a rare screwball pitcher described by many as quirky, was named by some sportswriters as the “unsung folk hero of the Dodgers” in the National League Championship series. Brent pitched in game 4 of the World Series, which was won by the Dodgers.
Fairview Park was named by Georgia Trend Magazine as the top medium-sized hospital in Georgia in 2024. Sadly, the hospital’s popular, long-time CEO, Don Avery, died after surgery, just six months prior to his announced retirement date later in the summer.
In an ultra-rare celestial event, Laurens Countians were able to see the Aurora Borealis in the northern skies over Laurens County on May 10, 2024. On January 21, 2025, a rare southern snowstorm, dubbed Winter Storm Enzo, deposited 5.5 inches of snow on the City of Dublin. Below Dublin, the depth was somewhat higher. The snowfall ranks as the third-largest snowfall in the recorded weather history of the county.
Kinsey Cooper, of Montrose, was a member of the Georgia Women’s Equestrian team that won the NCAA Championship in 2025. Bill Leroy, a former baseball star at West Laurens and North Georgia College, was playing at catcher and team captain for the Savannah Bananas, the world’s most popular comedy-based baseball team. Dudley Little Leagues' 10 U boys and girls participated in the Regionals of the National Little League Tournament. Theron Sapp, a Brewton native and one of only four Georgia Bulldogs to have their jersey number retired, was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1925.
TO BE CONTINUED...................
August 6, 2025
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