2744 and more - Fantastic, Fascinating, Freaky, Famed, Favorite, Foremost, Fateful, Fabulous, Forgotten, Funny, & Phenomenal - FEATS & FACTS ABOUT THE FINE FOLKS OF DUBLIN AND LAURENS COUNTY, GEORGIA By: Scott B. Thompson, Sr.

 2744

and more

Fantastic, Fascinating, Freaky, Famed, Favorite, Foremost, Fateful, Fabulous, Forgotten,  Funny, & Phenomenal

FEATS & FACTS ABOUT THE FINE 

FOLKS OF DUBLIN AND LAURENS COUNTY, GEORGIA 

By: Scott B. Thompson, Sr.

@ 2021 

         THIS IS A COMPILATION OF THE OUTSTANDING ACTS OF NATIVE, SHORT TERM, AND LONG TERM RESIDENTS OF DUBLIN AND LAURENS COUNTY, GEORGIA.  FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS COMPENDIUM, ONLY ACTS OF STATEWIDE, SOUTHEASTERN, NATIONAL, AND WORLD ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE LISTED.  VOLUME 2 WILL CONTAIN MORE FEATS ON A LOCAL LEVEL.  

   THERE ARE HUNDREDS, PERHAPS THOUSANDS MORE ACTS WHILE NOTEWORTHY, DO NOT MEET THE CRITERIA SET OUT ABOVE.

IF YOU HAVE MORE EXAMPLES OF FANTASTIC FEATS, PLEASE 

EMAIL ME AT

SCOTTBTHOMPSONSR@YAHOO.COM

THE LIST WILL BE POSTED ON THE INTERNET AND WILL BE UPDATED ON A REGULAR BASIS. 

1. In the early summer of 2017, former West Laurens baseball and wrestling star, Dustin Fowler, matched a feat that only one person in the history of major league baseball had ever  accomplished.  Fowler took absolutely not a scintilla of joy in tying a record held by Archibald Moonlight Graham.  Fowler, while starting in right field for the New York Yankees against the White Sox in Chicago, ran fast and far to his left to catch a dying fly ball off the bat of Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox.  Fowler, flying high after standing in the footsteps of other Yankee right fielders, Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, Roger Maris, Dave Winfield, Tommy Henrich, and Hank Bauer, tore his knee up and missed the rest of the season.  The Yankees traded Fowler to the Oakland Athletics, where Fowler enjoyed two decent seasons at the major league and minor league levels in 2018 and 2019, eventually ridding himself of the dubious record which Graham still holds to himself.  Fowler had shared with Graham the distinction of the being the only non pitchers in the history of Major League Baseball to play in a game and never get an at bat.   Now comes the weird parts -  both Graham and Fowler were Southerners, Graham, a native of North Carolina, and Fowler, a native of Laurens County, Georgia.  Both men were known for their good speed.  Both men played right field. And, both men played their first major league game in New York, Graham for the New York Giants and Fowler for the New York Yankees.  Moonlight Graham was made famous in the movie Field of Dreams, who made his debut in Chicago. Oh, by the way, Fowler tore his knee on June 29, 2017 and Graham played in his only game way back in 1905 on, you guessed it, June 29.  Fowler made a return to the major leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021. 

2. Cassie Yates, who resided in Dublin during her childhood and attended Dublin City Schools.  During her four decade career in Hollywood, Cassie appeared in several top Hollywood movies and in many of  most popular shows of the 1970s and 1980s, including McMillan & Wife, Rich Man, The Bionic Woman, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Quincy, M.E., Vega$, Simon & Simon, Magnum, P.I., Hotel, Cagney & Lacey, Thirty-something, and Murder, She Wrote.    Yates has appeared in nearly a dozen movies with iconic actors, Burt Lancaser, Tommy Lee Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Crenna, Robert Blake,  Art Carney. Cassie, who was a regular on Regular on Dynasty and Rich Man Poor Man, II.  played the role of “Barbara Scott” in the first Perry Mason television movie, Perry Mason Returns.” Yates portrayed the first female district attorney to lose to the legendary defense attorney.

3. After the Civil War, Lawrence Keen and his wife, Mary Alice Chipley, decided to pull up their stakes in Laurens County and go to Texas to find a new, and hopefully better, life. Before they left, the Keens were blessed with their first daughter, Mary Alice Robena Keen.  Little did Mary Alice know what was in store for her and especially her grandson, Bobby in the Lone Star State.  Bobby, grew up to be a colossal man and a talented actor.  Bobby was known to his fans as Dan in real life.  On the television screen, Dan Blocker was widely and affectionately known as “Hoss Cartwright” on the iconic western series, Bonanza.” 

4. Sidney Augustus Scott, of Laurens County was serving as the Chief Engineer of the SS Charles Morgan on June 10, 1944, just four days after D-Day.  The Charles Morgan has delivered her cargo had and was headed toward the beachhead at Normany with a full crew and approximately 500 soldiers and hundreds of tons of equipment aboard.  While the crew was nearly finished unloading the cargo and its passengers, a bomb struck the ship, which began to sink in the water.  Engineer Scott and Chief Steward Robert McCain, swiftly searched the ship for injured or trapped survivors all time time getting all fires out of control. At low tide they and 10 shipmates volunteered to reboard the ship in spite of continued enemy action.  They manned pumps to keep the engine room dry and make possible the salvaging of valuable stores and equipment.   For his heroic actions, Scott was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. 

5. In 1848, David Gornto Daniell, of Laurens County, Georgia  was sent by the Baptist State Convention to the tiny railroad town then known as Marthasville and now known as Atlanta. He gathered 16 men and women together, raised the necessary funds  and First Baptist Church Atlanta was born.   Rev. Daniell, the first pastor of the first Baptist Church in Atlanta preached to his congregation in various locations around the fledgling city.  In June, they dedicated their first church building on the corner of Walton and Forsyth in downtown Atlanta.  The church building was nearly destroyed.   In the early years of the Great Depression, the valuable property was sold. 

6. Captain Bobbie E. Brown, of Laurens County, was the first Georgian to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during World War II. Captain Bobbie E. Brown, who grew up in southern Laurens County and joined the Army at the age of fifteen was awarded eight purple hearts and two silver stars for his heroic actions in the Battle of Crucifix Hill near Aachen, Germany in the autumn of 1944 (7.)  Promoted to Captain after his captain in  his 1st Infantry Division was killed, Captain Brown holds the distinction of being not only the longest serving company commander in World War II, but the oldest company commander as well (8.)  

9. George Walton, a native of Virginia who came to Savannah to practice law.  An immediate success, Walton was appointed as a delegate to the 2nd Continental Congress.  A part of his duties required him to cast his vote on a critically important matter before the Congress.  Walton voted yes.  After the Revolutionary War, Walton served in various legal and state positions.  In 1790, Judge Walton was appointed as the Judge of the Middle Judicial Circuit, which included Washington County and Montgomery, portions of which later became the eastern part of Laurens County.   By the way, that matter on which the future governor and senator voted yes on came up for a vote on July 2, 1776.  I think you know what they call the document where Walton signed in the first column below Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall.  It was our the most precious document in the history of our county, The Declaration of Independence.  

10. Louise Kohn Baum loved the theater.  As a young woman, her father Phillip Kohn, a staff architect at the United States Capitol, was often seen with his family around the District of Columbia.  On an April evening, the Kohn’s attended a presentation of the popular play, “Our American Cousin.”  The place was Ford’s Theater.  The date was April 14, 1865.   The entertainment erupted into horror when John Wilkes Booth fired a bullet in the skull of Abraham Lincoln.  After the war, Louise married Napoleon Baum and moved to Dublin, where they resided at the northeast corner of the courthouse square.