THE ET CETERA CHRONICLES - VOL. 69
PURE PERFECT! - In the recorded history of Laurens County, less than ten baseball pitchers have thrown a perfect game. The perfect game eludes a lot of pitchers who give up a single walk or a single error. Many have come close, but here is a list so far. Chuck Beale, June 25, 1990, DRPD - Senior League; Cam Gay & Joseph Yancey, DLCRA - Junior League, 2003; Mark Trollinger, DPRD Midget League, ca. 1971, Cherie Morton, West Laurens, August 31, 2004; Sam Perry, Trinity High School March 20, 2001: Shae Kitchens & Ericka Baggett, Trinity High School, August 20, 2005.
SORE LOSER - Ralph Wadley had stood the pain in his mouth as long as he could. He drove from Soperton to see Dr. A.J. Bowen, a Dublin dentist. Dr. Bowen made a thorough exam and found no medical cause for the paid. Wadley, incensed and still in great pain, waited outside the dentist’s office until Dr. Bowen came out. In a fit of rage, Wadley battered the dazed dentist in the back of Bowen’s head with fists and a pistol. Sacramento Bee, June 20, 1973.
HERE COME THE BRIDES or THE LOTHAIR LOTHARIO - J.E. Barber came to Lothair, a community in northern Treutlen County to take a job as a farrier in a naval stores company. One day he ventured into Dublin to obtain a marriage license to marry a widow lady there. Shortly thereafter, he married the widow in the Laurens County Courthouse. Once the ceremony was over, Barber exclaimed to the officiant, “Judge, this makes the 22nd woman I have married and in a few days, I will marry another.” The astonished jurist spread the word all over the city of the criminal activities of the bigamous groom. Barber’s Lothair wife claimed that she had been drugged into submission to marry the Lothair lothario. Three known abandoned brides lived in Orange County, Florida alone. There whereabouts of the other scorned spouses was unknown. Apparently, the judge revoked the license since it does not appear in the official records of the Probate Court. Sioux City Journal, September 4, 1895.
ESTATE PLANNER - John Gilder may have been one of the first estate planners in Dublin. In his middle age, Gilder had a burial vault and coffin ordered for his burial. Decades later, the store of M.L. Jones, where is casket was stored, burned to the ground. Gilder contacted a friend to order another one from a Macon casketmaker. When Gilder became ill in the winter of 1891, he couldn’t wait on his dilatory friend any longer and wired he sum of 250 dollars straight to the undertaker. Jackson City, Michigan, Patriot, April 19, 1891.
SORRY, NO HAM THIS CHRISTMAS - The Rev. Sam Plummer, who pastored two local churches found himself in the county jail on charges of stealing a hog a few days before Christmas. His congregations were slow to pay and times were bleak for the hungry parson. On the way home, Rev. Plummer under the cover of a darkening dusk sneaked into Jule Reed’s pigpen on South Lawrence Street, quickly snatchd a squealing swine, and started home with his Christmas dinner.
Soon the preacher was confronted by T. B. Hudson. When interrogated, Plummer admitted that the sound coming from under his coat was that of dog. Instantly, a loud squeal emanated from beneath the coat. The scared sermonizer drop the porker and lit out into the darkness. Hudson summoned Marshal Raffield and Constable Raffield, who arrested the swine snatcher and took him to their own pen. The humiliated preacher stood silent while he was placed on a $250.00 bond. Atlanta Constitution, December 24, 1891.
A MAD DASH FOR FISH - An owner of a large fish pond near Swainsboro thought of way he could make a lot of money. He tickets for $5.00 to anyone who wanted to come to his pond draining and grab as many as they could. Seven hundred people showed up to rush and grab a tasty meal for their families that weekend. By the end of the day and estimated 15,000 pounds of fish had been gathered into buckets, hand nets, and seines for a total haul of $3500.00 for the owner. The crowd was so large that a state patrolman was hired to direct traffic and fire a start the mad dash for the scaley delights. The Charlotte Observer, August 31, 1943.
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