HAPPENINGS IN 1921

The people of Laurens County attempted a comeback from the devastating losses of the cotton crop, bank closures, the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1919 and 1920, and migration of many African-Americans to the North.    Their success was not mind-blowing, but did put the county back to a more stable economy. 

Under the leadership of Coach D.W. Rampley, who played football under the legendary John Heisman at Georgia Tech.  Rampley led the Dublin High School Green Hurricane to an 7-0-1 undefeated  season.  One of those victories was over Savannah High School, 27-6.  After the game, some of Dublin’s jokers painted “Savannah High” on a casket near the train car they were going back home to Savannah.

In  July, Dublin’s native son, H.U. Peacock,  was killed off the coast of England when his freighter caught on fire and burned.

Laurens County’s Bill McGowan begain his boxing career.  McGowan associated himself with Pa and Young Stribling out of Macon.  Stribling went on the be an American champion heavyweight.  After his boxing career was over, McGowan worked as an actor and stuntman in serials and western movies.

The promoters of the 12th Congressional District of Georgia’s annual fall fair, billed the 1921 fair as one of the largest in the 11-year history of the popular event.  These fairs brought thousands of visitors every year.  Heading the speakers at the fair were future Georgia governor and congressman Thomas W. Hardwick.  Hardwick was elected to the U.S. Senate and Governor in 1921.  Five years later, Hardwick moved from his native Sandersville to Dublin to publish the Courier Herald.  He added a weekly version which contained a few local stories and filled with articles and advertisements to promote his political aspirations.

For several years, Laurens County leaders put a lot of effort in diversifying the agricultural production in the state’s second largest farm acreage.  More than one million pounds of velvet beans were stored in the newly erected Farmer’s Co-operative grain elevator.  The effort paid off and by 1921, record amount of shipments were quickly being shipped off to other counties around the state.

Part of that effort was the establishment of Armour Creamery, which allowed the county’s farmers to be able to mass produce cream and butter.

One county farmer, Cain Foreman, made the news when he brought into town rare examples of his second pecan and apples during the year.

Rev, George C. Thompson, Supernumerary of the Dublin District of the Methodist Church,  died while sunbathing in Florida. Rev. Thompson’s most lasting mark on the City of Dublin were his architectural plans for the First Methodist Church, Saxon Street and Johnson Street Schools, the Dublin fire station, the Laurens County Jail and many others in Dublin and around the state. 

Dr. W.B. Taylor, of Dexter, offered his formula to kill the pesky boll weevils, which had decimated the 1920 cotton crop.  That crop of less than 9,000 bales way less than the 1911 production of 60,000 bales - a record for the state until ultra modern cotton pickers were used in the late 1990s.

Banking in Laurens County, was beginning to rebound from the hard times during World War I and the boll weevil invasion.  The top two banks, the First National and the Dublin-Laurens Banking Company merged early in the year.  Meanwhile, the Citizens Bank of Dublin,   The Bank of Dublin, which had been closed for several months, attempted to reorganize. By the end of the decade, only the Bank of Dudley and Farmers and Merchants Bank of Brewton, were the only surviving bank following the failure of the region’s largest bank, the First National Bank. At the beginning of the war, Laurens County was proud that it had seventeen banks, more than any other county except Fulton and Chatham Counties.    

The first Laurens County Hospital, formerly the Hodges Sanitarium, reopened under the direction of doctors, J.W. Edmonson and C.A. Hodges on North Franklin Street.  Dr. E.B. Claxton and William Brigham opened their hospital in the Rentz/J.D. Smith/Lovett home on Bellevue Avenue. 

H.J. Braddy established the first wireless radio station.  The station reportedly picked up signals from Washington D.C. to Cuba.  

The Dublin Country Club was organized and opened on the future location of Dr. E.B. Claxton’s dairy, along the margins of the current day Hillcrest Parkway.  It lasted until the post-war 1940s when the current country club was built

Dublin’s primary hotel, the Troup House, which fronted on the northern side of West Madison Street, burned in mid-January.  The hotel, which once fronted in the first block of South Jefferson Street dated back to the beginning of the Civil War and was named for the late governor, senator, and congressman, George M. Troup of Laurens County.

Mary Alice Armour, a leading national women’s suffragette, traveled from her home in Eastman  to speak at the First Methodist Church on the subject of prohibition.

  For the second time in 18 months, the chief of the Laurens County Police Force, was killed.  George Crawford was killed by Matt Holsey.  Chief Hattaway, his predecessor, was killed in a liquor raid in late 1919.

To finish off the year, the City of Dublin, once again lit its annual  Christmas tree, one of the first electrically lighted in the State of Georgia. 

Once again, another year, has come and gone.  The   year 2021 overall has not been a good year.  Everyone, in one way or another, has been affected by the Covid 19 virus.  We have all lost friends, neighbors, and family members.  I wonder what the historians in 2121 will chronicle this devastating event.

With this article, I conclude my 26th year of writing this column.  It has always been a labor of love.  I treasure the people whom I have met and the most kind comments of you the readers.  Let us all hope, pray, and strive to make 2022 a much better, healthier, and prosperous year.  It is all up to us.  Go out and serve our community and it will certainly serve you.