MT. CARMEL BAPTIST CHURCH, DEXTER

Celebrating 150 Years

During this year of 2007, the members of Mount Carmel Baptist Church are celebrating the church's Sesquicentennial anniversary.  The history of Mt. Carmel, the seventh oldest Baptist Church in Laurens County, is like all other churches, the history of a people, and not just a history of buildings.  An attempt to chronicle the entire 150-year history of Mt. Carmel within the confines of this column would result in an entire book, a project which is nearing completion as you read these words.   So, instead of compiling a litany of one fact after another, I will attempt to tell you some of the more interesting pieces of the early years of the church's history.

Mt. Carmel Baptist Church was constituted on March 15, 1857.   The church was named for Mount Carmel, a small mountain range located in northern Israel and the West Bank and a sacred location in the ancient culture of the Canaanite.   

One might wonder why would a church be founded far away from any town.  At the time of its founding, the closest town was in Dublin, some 15 miles away.  Even the current nearby  counties of Dodge and Bleckley did not exist and were actually a part of Pulaski County, even more distant from Dublin.  Despite its remote location, the land  around Dexter was highly sought after by farmers.  Much of the area was owned by the non-resident timber companies and northern investors and availability of squattable land was too much to resist  for the rightful occupants of the fertile farms which surround Mt. Carmel.

Ironically it took a war between the states over the issue of state rights and slavery to desegregate our local churches.  Before the Civil War, white and black churchgoers attended services together.  Although slaves were not treated to the same status as their fellow white members, they were accepted into the church as children of God.  On the very  first day of church, the members of Mt. Carmel took turns in subscribing their names to a covenant to give themselves to one another and receive one another in the Lord.  Joining the Alligoods, Hobbs, Hills, Witheringtons, Shepards, Fountains and Grimsleys was Sealy, a woman of color, who was the property of Hardy Alligood, the first deacon of Mt. Carmel.

On the 1st day of August, 1857, Gilbert, a black brother belonging to Francis Clark, was received by experience into the church.  According to the minutes of the church, no new black members joined the church until April 1862, when Patty, another slave of Francis Clark, was received into the church.  By the fall of 1864 when six colored sisters joined the church on one day, seventeen of the worshipers at Mt. Carmel were slaves.  After they received their official freedom, the former slaves established their own churches.  Calvin Hoover was the last former slave to leave the church in November 1866.

The Civil War also had a profound impact on the life of the church and its members.  On the first Sunday in November in the fall of 1861, the members resolved to excuse the absences of John Hobbs, William A. Witherington and Mathew L. Alligood, who three months  earlier had enlisted in Co. C of the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the Georgia State Troops, later the 57th Georgia Infantry Regiment.    The following spring, the church's two Davids, Alligood and Hobbs, joined local companies of the 49th and 57th Georgia regiments. Only 5th Corporal Witherington, who lived to the ripe old age of eighty, would return to the sanctuary of Mt. Carmel.   Although church clerk Berry Hobbs was reported to have "gone to war," he may not have been involved in combat.   Private Mathew Alligood died of disease in Lexington, Kentucky in 1862.    2nd Sergeant John Hobbs  was wounded in the shoulder at Baker's Creek in 1863 and was killed at Jonesboro on the last day in August 1864, during the Confederate army's retreat out of Atlanta.  David Alligood was severely wounded in his breast and captured at Gettysburg.  He was released two months later, only to be killed by an enrolling officer on November 18, 1864.  David Hobbs may have been wounded at Baker's Creek or during the siege of Vicksburg.  He died at Point Clear, Alabama in July 1863.   After the end of the hostilities, Hardy Blankenship, George W. McDaniel and James Robert Shepard left the ranks of the army and joined the ranks of the church.

With many of the male members serving their newly created country, church services took on a more somber tone.  A special Thanksgiving service was held on the 4th Thursday in November 1861 to "fast and pray for the peace and prosperity of our nation."  The state of Georgia began assembling even more companies of young men and boys in an all determined effort to win the war in 1862.  In compliance with a proclamation issued by the governing body of Laurens County, it was agreed that the members of Mt. Carmel would join their fellow Christians on March 7 for a day of "humiliation, fasting and prayer which was set apart by us that God divert his judgment from our land and nation, that he would aid us in the present strife of Union that is upon us."  When the war began for real in May, the members resolved to write the soldiers once a month and to gather together on the 4th Sunday of each month to emplore upon the mercies of God for their protection and the comfort of their loved ones.  Before the members of the 49th and 57th left to live out their destiny in  hills of Virginia and the fields of Mississippi, Rev. Larry Hobbs prayed for the safety of their souls. 

It may have only stood for twelve and one half years, but the story of the third church  building at Mt. Carmel may have been one for the record books.  On December 3, 1916, the proud members of the church held a dedicatory service for their new house of worship.   Erected out of green lumber fashioned from trees from the area and kiln dried at the mill in Dublin,  the $2500.00 church was completed in a record seven weeks.    Deacons W.A. Witherington, F.R. Faircloth and F.R.  Witherington saw to the needs of the church including in their design ten Sunday school rooms and a 30 foot by 50 foot auditorium, a facility unparalleled in any country church in the county.

On April 25, 1929 a horrific tornado came up from the direction of Cochran.  Turning more to the north than northeast, the storm  headed straight for the Mt. Carmel community.  Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, one of the most modern and best equipped church buildings in the county, was totally destroyed.   The Mt. Carmel School and the teacherage, located across the road from the church, were amazingly untouched.  Several homes in the community were destroyed.  The J.D. McClelland home and that of Mrs. W.A. Witherington were destroyed. No one in the McLelland family was harmed, but Mrs. Witherington, her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Milton Witherington, and infant grandchild  were seriously injured.  Jim Dawkins lost his house and most of its contents.  Thankfully and most mercifully, his wife and five children only suffered minor injuries.  Calvin Patisaul's house was destroyed.  Almost  all of his large family suffered some type of injury, though none too serious.   Lee Floyd's wife was badly injured when their house was destroyed.  One vacant tenant house and the vacant old Dave Fountain home were torn to pieces. Tornados don't distinguish between occupied and unoccupied houses. 

In the aftermath of the storm, two children, a nine-year old daughter of W.J. Southerland and a baby daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Knight, lay dead among the rubble of the cyclone, most likely the only known fatalities from a tornado in Laurens County. 

These are only a few of the thousands of stories which make up the heritage of Mt. Carmel Church.  This Sunday, October 6th, the church and its members, guests and friends will belatedly celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of one of the county's oldest and most historic churches.

The Savior of Georgia Football

You may have never heard of Richard Von Gammon.  But, when he died one hundred and ten years ago today, football in Georgia was nearly forced out of existence by the bereaved legislature of this state.  Throughout Georgia and across the nation, a congregation of ministers cried out for the abolition of this most violent and vicious  game.  Without the aid of Von Gammon's mother and Bulldog captain William B. Kent, football in Georgia may have ended, if only for a little while.

It was a typical fall day on the 30th day of October 1897.  The bleachers and sidelines of Atlanta's Brisbine Park were crammed with spectators to see if the undefeated Georgia Bulldogs, inspired by a trouncing of Georgia Tech the week before, could defeat the powerful Cavaliers of Virginia in a contest for superiority of southern football.  Georgia  had just completed  the team's first perfect season, albeit they only played four games and won them all.  

Richard Van Gammon, a well-liked fraternity fellow and outstanding quarterback from Rome, Georgia, kicked off to Virginia to open the contest.  In the second half with Virginia in command of the game, Van Gammon, playing  defensive back, sprinted toward a Virginia runner.  Before he could make the tackle, the helmetless Bulldog was overrun by a wall of blockers, said to have been joined in a flying wedge formation with arms locked and bearing down upon him with all the force of an equine stampede.

Van Gammon dove to tackle the Cavalier runner and struck the ground headfirst.  The Virginians trampled over his motionless body.  For several excruciating minutes, players and coaches vainly attempted to revive the fallen star.  At first it appeared as if Von Gammon was completely paralyzed, his eyes gazing blindly into the autumn sky.  Eventually he was revived and helped to the sidelines, where he was examined by physicians who were attending the game.  The doctors decided to transport Von Gammon to Grady Hospital for further examination and diagnosis.  After he arrived at the hospital, Richard's temperature  soared up toward 109 degrees.  With his brain swollen to intolerable limits, Von Gammon never regained consciousness and died.

Just days after the fallen footballer's funeral, mass hysteria swept throughout the Georgia legislature.  Fueled by intense lobbying by a host of ministers and a nationwide cry against the barbaric deaths that football had caused across the country, the lawmakers adopted a near unanimous ban on football in the state.  The bill was sent to Georgia governor W.Y. Atkinson for his signature.

It was then when Van Gammon's mother and Bulldog captain William Kent issued an appeal for the governor not to sign the ban.  The people of Athens, most of the university's faculty and even some Georgia players thought it was best to put an end to football at Georgia forever.  Mrs. Von Gammon wrote a letter to Governor Atkinson pleading to him not to allow her son's death to end the game he so dearly loved.  Aided by a poignant and stern letter from renowned Georgia professor and the team's first coach, Dr. Charles Herty, who advocated the necessity of sports to promote physical health, and the persistence of Captain Kent, the governor never signed the bill.  Though football ended for the 1897 season after three games - they only played four or five games anyway - the games would resume the following year.

William B. Kent was born in Montgomery County, Georgia on January 30, 1870.  This son of William Kent and Martha Beckwith Kent entered Mercer University as a freshman at the ripe old age of twenty-three in 1893.  After playing football at the Baptist college for a single season, Kent transferred to Athens for the 1894 season, where he played guard.  In 1896, William was moved to right tackle by Georgia coach Pop Warner, who went on to iconic status as the coach of Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle Indians, as well as successful stints at Pittsburgh and Stanford.  Kent, at five feet eleven inches in height and weighing in at 185 pounds, was one of the strongest men at the college.  In his junior season at Georgia in 1896, Kent was named president of the Athletic Association and captain of the football team for his senior  year.     As president of the Athletic Association, Kent led the organization out of its bankrupt position onto solid financial ground. 

Off the field Kent excelled as an editor of the Pandora, the university's yearbook, as well as serving with highest honor of the Demosthenian Literary Society and as a commissioned officer in the military department.  Considered one of the most popular men on campus - there were very few, if any, women enrolled as students in those days - William was known to have been a man of high moral character and a leader in the Young Men's Christian Association and his Sunday school class at the Baptist Church in Athens.   During his semesters at Georgia, Kent served as president of eight organizations.

Kent, a self-made man, studied law, literature and bookkeeping.  To pay for his studies, he taught  school and even sold lightning rods one summer.  

While he was in Athens, William met and married Miss Senie Griffith, daughter of Clarke County state representative F.P. Griffeth.  Following her death, Kent married Lallie Calhoun, a member of one of Montgomery County's oldest and most prominent families.

After his graduation from Georgia, Kent was admitted to the bar, beginning his practice in that portion of Montgomery County, which would later become Wheeler County in 1912.  In addition to his duties as an attorney, Kent served as both solicitor and judge of the City Court of Mt. Vernon, a state court assigned to handle misdemeanor offenses and minor civil claims.

In 1910, Kent, the former football hero, was elected to represent Montgomery County in the Georgia legislature.  While in the House of Representatives, Kent introduced a bill to carve out that portion of his county lying on the western side of the Oconee to form a new county, purportedly to be named Kent County, not in his own honor, but in honor of his father, an early settler of the area.  The name of the new county was Wheeler instead, named in honor of Confederate cavalry general Joseph Wheeler.    Kent was chosen to serve as the first judge of the Wheeler County Court of Ordinary, or as it is today known, the Probate Court. 

William B. Kent died on November 21, 1949.  He is buried in Oconee Cemetery in Athens, Georgia in a town where football is king on autumn Saturdays.  Perhaps the epitaph on his tombstone should read, "here lies William B. Kent,  the Savior of Georgia football."  

CAROLYN JAMES

The Top Secretary of the Army

Carolyn James, of Adrian, Georgia, wasn't the first woman to join the Women's Army Corps during World War II, nor was she the first Georgian out of the some 150,000 women who volunteered to help the war effort in uniform.  But it was this patriotic granddaughter of the founder of Adrian, who made U.S. Military history twice in her 20-year career.

Carolyn Hauser James, a daughter of Thomas Jefferson James II and Inez E. Hauser, was born in Adrian, Georgia on January 21, 1910.  Her grandfather, Thomas J. "Capt. T.J." James, founded the town of Adrian in the 1890s as a base for his railroad, the Wadley & Mt. Vernon, and his massive farming interests.  Not long after her grandfather's death, the James family fell on hard times.  During the years before the Great Depression, Miss James and her family moved to the Miami-Dade County area, where Carolyn took a job as a stenographer in a law office and later in a hotel.

As a divorced mother of a son James Richard Owen, 14, Carolyn decided it was time for her to join the war effort officially.  So at the age of 35, Carolyn enlisted in the Women's Army Corps on March 23, 1945 in Miami.  In the late 1940s, Carolyn worked at Oliver General Hospital in Augusta, Georgia.

The Women's Army Corps provided valuable service to the Army in times of war and peace.  General Douglas MacArthur proclaimed that the WACs "are my best soldiers."  The general added, "They work harder, complain less, and were better disciplined than men." Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "their contributions in efficiency, skill, spirit, and determination are immeasurable."

As the country returned to war in 1950 in Korea, Carolyn and other stenographers saw an increased work load.  Carolyn was assigned to Tokyo, where she was given the task of devising a system to organize and file correspondence related to the truce meetings which were held in hopes of ending the war quickly.

In her position as administrative assistant to the G-1, Carolyn received the Brown Star Medal for meritorious service to the Far East Command headquarters.  The citation for the medal read in part," for devising an ingenious system of processing and filing high priority correspondence and expedient cross-indexing providing a chronological history relevant to the cease-fire armistice negotiations in Korea."

In the week before Christmas, 1952, James' meritorious achievements led her assignment by General James A. Van Fleet to his 8th Army headquarters in Korea.   Master Sergeant James, the first ever master sergeant in the United States  Women's Army Corps, was joined by Corporal Louise M. Farrell, of Billings, Montana as the first two members of the WACs to be permanently assigned to duty in Korea.

Carolyn James once told her family friends  that while in Korea, she was scheduled to receive the Bronze Star from General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.  She related that she wore her best uniform to headquarters.  Just as she was to enter the building, however, a bird left its droppings all over her uniform, leaving her with a dilemma - see the General in that state, or go back and change and risk being late.  She chose the former, which is perhaps why I never saw a photo of the ceremony, although her uniform blouse shows she wore the medal.

Carolyn, in a January 1953 letter to her cousins, Anne Laura Hauser and Melville Schmidt ,  wrote, "I was transferred to Korea on 18 December, after the Far East Command had made a thorough search for a WAC to fill the position of personal secretary to General Van Fleet, and finally decided I had the desired qualifications - although my tour was about up.  However, when they approached me, I volunteered to extend for six months.  Since there are no other WACs in Korea, Eighth Army recommended that I bring another for company, so I chose a girl who had court reporting experience.  We had the honor of being the first two WACs to ever be permanently assigned to Korea's combat area." 

"Of course, everything considered,  Public Information Office and the other publicity media decided it was good material for WAC recruiting purposes, so for one week prior to our departure, we were constantly being photographed - motion and still; televised, and radio interviewed   Then we were flown over in a special mission B-17, " James continued.

"We were cordially received by all in headquarters here.  They have really done everything to make us comfortable and happy.  We're billeted in a senior officers' billets , which had a portion of the second floor allotted to female personnel - Red Cross workers, the Chief Nurse of the Eighth Army, and us.  We eat our meals here in headquarters in a little spot right outside the kitchen of the Army Commander's mess," the revered sergeant said. 

Sergeant James stated, "My duty hours are quite long -- from 0800 to 2100 and sometimes 2200 (9:00 and 10:00) at night.  However, movements are so restricted and the working conditions are so pleasant, it isn't too bad.  We have a little Korean house girl who takes care of our clothes, which gives us added freedom from outside chores."

With fond remembrances, the Adrian native recorded, "I have certainly enjoyed my short tenure as General Van Fleet's secretary, for he is without doubt one of the finest men I have ever had the privilege of knowing.  He is a superior field commander, American and humanitarian, and is respected and admired by everyone - Koreans included." 

In summarizing her war experience, Sergeant James stated, "The devastation and misery in this country as the result of this war is indeed heart-rending, but there is much evidence that our government and its people are doing everything possible to alleviate much of the suffering.  Aside from the many government-sponsored welfare organizations, every military unit (including the front-line units) has its own welfare program in the form of aid to orphanages, hospitals, etc.  It certainly increases one's pride in his country and its people to see such a genuine display of generosity toward those less fortunate." 

Carolyn's time in Korea was short as an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, although a 1963 Colorado Springs Gazette article stated that M. Sgt. James has gone to Korea six months before hostilities began in 1950. 

James was assigned as Chief Clerk of the General Staff office at  ARADCOM Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado in the summer of 1956.  In her seventh and last year at ARADCOM, James served as Administrative Officer of the Training Branch, G-3.

With the passage of The Military Pay Bill of 1958, Congress added pay grades of E-8 and E-9. With the new law in effect.  Carolyn H. James became the first in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) promoted to grade E-8, making her the first WAC promoted to master sergeant (or first sergeant).  It was during her tenure in Colorado Springs when Master Sgt. James was promoted to Sergeant Major (E-9) making her the first woman in the history of the United States Army to hold that esteemed enlisted man's rank.  

In 1963, Sergeant Major James was awarded an Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a second Army Commendation Medal.  She was assigned to the Women's Army Corps School at Fort McClellan, Alabama.  A second Oak Leaf Cluster was awarded to before her April 1965 retirement ceremony.   

Carolyn James lived for nearly two and one half decades in Colorado Springs following her retiriement after twenty years of service to the Army.   Sergeant Major James died on May 8, 1991 in local hospice.  

And thus the story of the determined and patriotic lady from Adrian, Georgia, who grew up to serve the country as the top secretary in the Army. 

GEN. JOHN TWIGGS

GENERAL JOHN TWIGGS
 Revolutionary Hero

John Twiggs was born in the state of Maryland on June 5, 1750. Very little is known of his early life, other than he came to Burke County, Georgia with his family shortly thereafter. A child of a poor family, John took up the trade of being a carpenter. Twiggs caught the eye of Miss Ruth Emanuel, a firm lady of character and sister of the Hon. David Emanuel. Following their marriage John and Ruth moved to Richmond County, where they established a modest plantation.

As tensions began to mount between the American colonies and the King of England, more local difficulties began to arise. Twiggs joined the army as a lieutenant and as a captain, a position to which he was appointed on June 1, 1774, led a company of men of St. George's Parish in a successful operation against a band of Cherokee Indians who had been making raids along the settlements along the Georgia frontier. In 1779, Twiggs, in support of Col. William Few, defeated a contingent of British troops seeking to attack the jail in Burke County. In the months which followed the epic battle at nearby Kettle Creek, Twiggs kept British regulars at bay by skirmishing them at every opportunity and attacking their supply lines in the rear of their lines. John Twiggs found himself and thirty men under attack at Butler's plantation on the Ogeechee River in June, 1779. Outnumbered by more than two to one, Twiggs inspired his men to rout the British force causing a bit of consternation among the British officers in Savannah.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Twiggs encountered and conquered a band of British marauders at Buckhead Creek. On September 12, 1779, Twiggs and his company of soldiers joined General Benjamin Lincoln in preparation for an all out siege upon the British held Savannah. In one valiant and eventually futile attempt after another, the Continental army and local militia failed to liberate Georgia's ancient capital and most important city. In the retreat under cover of a flag signifying mutual respect for his status as an officer, Twiggs and his family were fired upon by British riflemen.

Following the fall of Charleston, the southeast's most important port, in May, 1780, Twigg's force joined General Horatio Gates' army in an attack at Camden, South Carolina. The colonial army, composed primarily of untested local militia, were trounced by Lord Cornwallis' battle-hardened veterans. Twiggs was nearly impaled by a saber, and left for dead on the battlefield. With the fire of freedom still in his soul, Twiggs returned to the Georgia backwoods to thwart his old enemies as they continued to pillage and terrorize the western regions of the colony.

Twiggs led American victories at Fish Dam ford and at Blackstock's house, where he personally led the attack against the fierce charge of the calvary of the villainous Banastre Tarleton. Though not given adequate credit for his actions by contemporary historians, it was indeed Col. Twiggs, who at the end of the day, was in command of the victorious colonists. During what was truly America's first civil war, a plot by an infamous Tory by the name of Gunn was uncovered and circumvented. When it was insisted that the poltroon be hung by the neck, Twiggs, in his usual forbearance, vetoed the execution of his assassin.

For his gallantry in action, the Georgia legislature, in its meeting in Augusta on August 18, 1781, named John Twiggs a brigadier general in the Georgia militia. Though the Revolutionary War was technically about to come to close in the early fall, British loyalists and discontented Indians were rumored to be mustering along the western frontiers in preparation for an attack on Augusta. For the remainder of the conflict, Twiggs organized for the impending attack, which never materialized.

After the close of the war, Twiggs retired to the solitude and enjoyment of his home, which he dubbed "Good Hope." He served a term as Justice of the Peace of Burke County in 1782. But the contentment was fleeting. On May 31, 1783, Twiggs along Georgia's most illustrious statesmen Lyman Hall, Elijah Clarke, William Few, Edward Telfair and Samuel Elbert met with a council of Cherokee chiefs in Augusta. The result of the negotiations was the purchase of a large tract of land in northeast Georgia. Nearly six months later, Twiggs helped to negotiate a treaty with the Creek Indians. Under the agreement the State of Georgia acquired all of the lands between the Ogechee and the Oconee rivers under a treaty, which precipitated a new war, a conflict which would evolve into a fifteen-year series of skirmishes and raids along both sides of the Oconee.

Treaty negotiations continued at Galphinton in 1785 and at Shoulderbone Creek. On September 8, 1791, Twiggs was again promoted by the Georgia legislature, this time to the position of Major General. It was during that year when Twiggs made his only engagement into politics by being elected to represent Richmond County in the Georgia legislature.

One of his most difficult assignments came in 1794, when Major General Twiggs was ordered to assemble a force of six hundred men to eject Twiggs' old comrade, General Elijah Clarke, who had, in the eyes of President George Washington and Georgia authorities, usurped his authority by establishing his own country along the western banks of the Oconee River in what would become Wilkinson, Baldwin and Laurens counties. Before the attack was launched, Clarke conceded and violence was averted.

In 1800, the State of Georgia honored General Twiggs by appointing him to the initial Board of Trustees of Franklin College, which evolved into the University of Georgia. Throughout his final years, this five-foot ten-inch stout man, with his florid complexion and gray eyes, remained active in civic affairs.

John Twiggs rarely sought any glory for his actions, only the satisfaction that he was serving his fellow man and protecting them from harm. In compliance with his wishes, no extravagant memorial would be placed on his grave. He died on March 29, 1816 at the relatively old age of sixty five. His body was laid to rest in the Twiggs family cemetery ten miles south of Augusta, off Georgia Hwy 56, on Goshen Industrial Blvd.

John and Ruth Twiggs had six children. One of them, David Emanuel Twiggs, served in the War of 1812, the various Indian conflicts of the era, and because of his heroic actions during the Mexican wars, was breveted a major general in command of the Department of Texas. When the Civil War erupted, Gen. David Twiggs surrendered his command to the Confederate army. For the act of treason and his acceptance of an appointment in the army of his homeland, Twiggs was dismissed from the Federal army. Another son, Levi Twiggs, was a field officer of the Marine Corps from the War of 1812 until his death during an assault on Mexico City in 1847. Two U.S. naval ships were named in his honor. A great grandson, Lt. Gen. John Twiggs Myers, earned high recognition in Marine Corps history for his valiant actions as commander of the American Legation guard in China during the Boxer Rebellion. His wife's brother, David Emanuel, served under Twiggs during the American Revolution and in 1801 was elected Governor of Georgia. On November 14, 1809, the State of Georgia immortalized the name of Twiggs by naming its newest county, Twiggs County, in his honor.

SHEWMAKE, GEORGIA

SHEWMAKE, GEORGIA
A New Beginning

Do you know where Shewmake, Georgia is?  Most of you would not unless you live near there.  Here's a hint.  It is on the Macon, Dublin and  Savannah Railroad.  Do you know now?  Here's another hint.  Nearly twenty thousand cars pass through it on a daily basis.  Give up?  Shewmake, a tiny village with an ephemeric life, is located at the most southern  end of Walke Dairy Road as it approaches Interstate 16.  It is named for the family who owned thousands of acres of land in the area.  Shewmake, the plantation, was one of the county's ten largest post bellum plantations, containing nearly seven thousand acres, stretching from the Turkey Creek Bridge on Hwy. 257 nearly to the city limits of Dudley.

In 1848, Henry P. Jones, one of the wealthiest men in Burke County and in the state of Georgia for that matter, purchased 950 acres from Josiah Horne.  The land is located along the western side of the present Georgia Highway 257 south of the Interstate and north of Turkey Creek.  The following year he paid James D. Hampton $2500.00 for 3100 acres.  Jones acquired 2500 acres from William Hampton and various other tracts to form one of the county's largest plantations, which he called "the Sumpterville Plantation."   He derived the name from the traditionally accepted first county seat of Laurens County.  Jones called  the lands he purchased from Horne "the Telfair Place."

Jones, from time to time, lived in a home on the place he called the Sumpertville Plantation, which in 1850 was tended to by seventy slaves.   Henry Jones, born in 1809, was an orphan.  Described as "the architect of his own fortunes," Jones was a member of the wealthy, prominent and powerful Jones family of Burke County, Georgia.  It was in October of 1853 when the forty-three-year old Jones was suddenly struck with severe inflammation of his intestines, possibly a ruptured appendix.  He died on October 2nd.  His massive estate passed to his wife Elizabeth and his children, who continued to manage it for more than a quarter of a century, before dividing it among all of the heirs.  Jones was eulogized as "bland and modest in his manners and in his heart benevolent and kind."

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Penelope Jones, a beautiful daughter of Henry Jones, married a rising young lawyer from Burke County by the name of John Troup Shewmake.  Shewmake was born on January 22, 1826.  Educated at home, Shewmake enrolled in Princeton University at the age of eighteen.  After one year of intense studies, Shewmake returned home and enrolled in William Gould's Law School in Augusta.  He was admitted to the bar in 1846 and entered the practice of law, briefly in Waynesboro and then in Augusta, where he practiced until his retirement.

In the same year he married, John T. Shewmake was named the Attorney General of Georgia during the administrations of Governors Howell Cobb and Herschel V. Johnson, who would become eminently involved in the secession of Georgia from the Union.  As Attorney General, Shewmake, who was only twenty-five years old, was responsible for representing the State of Georgia during one of it's most critical eras, as well as being in overall supervision of the prosecution of criminal cases.

Shewmake was elected to represent Burke County in the Georgia Senate in 1861.  In his two years in the capital in Milledgeville, Burke and his fellow senators debated the issues of secession and how to manage its  tumultuous consequences.  In November 1863,  John T. Shewmake was elected as one of ten men to represent Georgia in the Second Confederate Congress.      The first session of the Congress began on May 2, 1864 in Richmond, Virginia.  Just some fifty crow-fly miles to the north, newly installed Union commander Ulysses S. Grant was poised to launch his final throat-strangling advance on the Confederate capital.

When the fighting around Petersburg and Richmond intensified in June, the congress adjourned and returned in November when the dueling armies went into bivouac for the winter.  On March 18, 1865, when the fall of Richmond was eminent, the Congress adjourned forever and Congressman Shewmake returned to Augusta, where he resumed his law practice.

The beneficiary of a fine education, John Shewmake paid it forward by accepting the presidency of the Augusta Board of Education in 1874.  After a four year term, Shewmake returned to the Georgia Senate, once again to represent Burke County.

Nearly forty years after the death of Henry P. Jones, his heirs agreed to a division of the lands.  John and Lizzie Shewmake and their children Annie Whitehead, Lena Johnson, Burke Shewmake, William J. Shewmake, Hal P. Shewmake, Marshall A. Shewmake and Claud Shewmake agreed to accept the Sumpterville Plantation as their share of the Jones estate.

John T. Shewmake, his son Burke, and his son-in-law James Whitehead joined together in incorporating "The Sumpertville Factory" in 1881.   The factory was formed to conduct a manufacturing, merchandising and milling business at Shewmake's Mill on Turkey Creek near New Bethel Baptist Church.   Primarily the business was established to make cotton and wool cloth, mill grains and saw lumber into timber.  After his retirement from politics, John T. Shewmake was a frequent visitor to Laurens County overseeing the farming operations here and frequently attending sessions of the Superior Court.

In the mid 1880s, John M. Stubbs, of Dublin, Joshua Walker, of Laurens Hill, and Dudley M. Hughes, of Twiggs County, began their plans to construct a railroad from Dublin to Macon.  In 1891 their dreams became a reality when the Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad ran its first train into Dublin.  Along the way at the point where the railroad intersects Walke Dairy Road, the railroad established a small railroad depot and stop, which was named "Shewmake" in honor of Congressman Shewmake.   George A. McKay was appointed the first postmaster of Shewmake, Georgia on April 27, 1900.  The post office was closed on February 15, 1903 with all mail ordered to be sent to Dublin.

John Troup Shewmake's wonderful life ended on December 1, 1898 at his home in Augusta.    He was buried in Magnolia Cemetery.  His son Burke had just died an untimely death.     The old man's surviving sons formed the Orchard Canning Company in an attempt to profit from the rapidly thriving orchard business centered at Kewanee a few miles to the west and around Montrose, several miles to the northwest.  In 1907, the Shewmake Brothers changed their corporate name to simply "the  Shewmake Brothers Co."    The company continued to do business well into the 1920s.

Marshall A. Shewmake moved to Dublin in 1907 and lived on Bellevue Avenue.  About 1910, Shewmake went into business with S.T. Hall to form the Shewmake Hall Company.  Marshall and his brother Hal, along with Hall, O.H.P. Rawls and G.M. Fomby formed the Southern Buggy Whip Company in 1911.    Shewmake, a long time director of the Commercial Bank, and his partner S.T. Hall enlisted C.D. Hilbun and B.D.  Kent in reorganizing the business into the Laurens Hardware Company, which continued to do business into the 1970s.

Today, Shewmake is home to hundreds of families.  Nearly a century after it's hey day, the community you might not have attached the name to, is one of county's most desirable residential areas.  

MONDAY MORNING MAYHEM IN MONTROSE

The Nightmare Before Christmas

When three chronic criminals invaded the town of Montrose eighty three years ago looking for some extra spending money for the holidays, they didn't find what they looking for.  What they did find was not what they expected to find in the vault of an isolated rural bank.  Despite their repeated efforts to pick up some cold Christmas cash, the yuletide yeggmen were frustrated at every turn.

On a warm early December Monday morning of December 21, 1931, the mayhem in Montrose was about ready to begin.  Town Marshal L.G. English had gone to a room over the depot of the Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad to spend the rest of the evening when he heard the sound of a truck outside.  Thinking it was a little unusual, Marshal English went outside where he found three men getting out of their truck near the bank.   

The trio asked the marshal for some water to put in their truck's radiator.  Just then, one of them grabbed him in a stronghold from the rear.   English struggled and managed to pull his pistol from its holster.  Firing two shots into the ground, the marshal hoped that the reports of the gunfire would alert several allies nearby.

The captors grabbed his gun, watch and some of his pocket change before tying English up with a heavy cotton window sash cord.  English was carried to a swamp and dumped on the rain-soaked ground, his feet bound together with his hands tied behind his back and tied to a tree.  One bandit remained to watch English while the other two thieves  raced back to town to blow the bank's safe with no fear of any interference by law enforcement officers.

Little did the burglars know that the Montrose Banking Company was undergoing a voluntary liquidation by agreement of the stockholders during the deep and darkest days of the Great Depression. 

The two burglars broke into the bank through a side window and immediately set out to blow open the vault.  The criminals beat, burned and blew off the outer vault door.   Several holes were drilled with an acetylene torch, stolen from Schofield & Sons in Macon two weeks prior.   The inner door  presented a major obstacle, one that the criminals could not manage to crack open despite the pressure of intense heat which left the metal door red hot several hours later.   The combination lock on the safe was so badly damaged that neither the thieves nor bank officials could open it. A Macon lock smith had to be brought in confirm that the $300.00 inside was still there according to Special Deputy M.V. Pickron.   Disappointed in not being able to get into the main vault, every desk, drawer and cabinet was looted.  The total take, approximately $4.00 in silver coins, foiled the villains, who took off back to the swamp.

When the two main miscreants returned to pick up the guard, English, once again, began to struggle, managing to get off a couple of shots.  Threatened with the loss of life if he continued to resist, Marshal English kept quiet until his captors were out of sight. He finally wiggled free from his bands and walked a two-mile trek back into town in the pitch-black, pre-dawn darkness.  English's shots were heard by several persons, who quickly dismissed the noises as pre-Christmas revelry. 

The suspects, W.S. Elliottt, Grady St. Clair and W.C. Carr, took off toward Macon in a truck which was reported stolen in that city earlier in the evening.   Twiggs County Sheriff Samuel Kitchens enlisted the aid of four Macon city detectives, who were familiar with the trio of thieves.  Before their return to Macon, the trio of crooks, dumped their equipment into a creek after one of tires on their stolen truck went flat. 

Marshall English was of very little help, only being able to identify his guard as a tall thin man.  Bank President W.G. Thompson surveyed the damage and sighed in relief that the bank had  not lost a significant sum of money. Montrose merchant Clint Wade scoured the stores of the town to look for additional burglaries, failing to find any.  Ironically, within a year, Montrose postmaster Wade accidentally took his own life when a gun he placed in his vehicle inadvertently went off and killed him. 

Within two weeks of the Montrose Robbery, a similar string of burglaries took place in Macon.  Macon Police Chief Ben T. Watkins began to suspect the three Montrose suspects.  Based on information obtained in the Macon case, police officials were able to obtain an arrest warrant for Elliott St. Clair, W.C. Carr, Loren Carr and one Grady Sinclair, all of Macon.  Marshal English was able to positively identify Sinclair as one of the three men who attacked him, testifying that it was Sinclair who said, "I reckon you will know me when I see you again!" 

Before the end of January 1932, St. Clair was found guilty of a robbery in Houston County, just as the Laurens County Grand Jury began listening to evidence against him and the others in the bank burglary and the kidnaping of Marshal English.  Within a few weeks, St. Clair found himself on trial in Bibb County and yet again in March. 

Loren Carr was found not guilty in a Bibb County trial of stealing a car used in the theft at Montrose.  W.S. Elliott, who entered a Kentucky reform school at the age of 9, had a twenty year criminal career,  turned state's evidence against Grady Sinclair, admitting to the Bibb County crimes and the Montrose caper.  He admitted that it was the first time that Elliott, who was sentenced to 13-15 years in prison,  and Sinclair had conspired to commit a crime.

J.L. Carr offered to plead guilty to Laurens County Solicitor General Fred Kea by agreeing to two consecutive, five-year prison terms.  The remaining cases against W. S.  Elliott, Grady Sinclair and W.C. Carr, who confessed their crimes,  were dead docketed as all three were already serving substantial sentences in Georgia prisons and headed for the chain gang in White County, Georgia. 

Just a day after Carr was sentenced and the case was closed, Walter Wilson was found dead shot in the heart with a shot gun on yet another Monday mayhem in Montrose.

By the beginning of World War II, W.C. Carr was back in a Bibb County jail on charges of theft.  In late August of 1966, Grady St. Clair, part of a large organized gang of thieves,  committed his last burglary when he was shot by Warner Robins policemen in a burglary of a food store. 

And as Santa's stockings were hung by the chimneys of Montrose with care on , a cool, clear and Christmas night, all was silent and bright in the town of Montrose with no mayhem in sight.

CADWELL, GEORGIA

THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS

August 21, 2007 marks the end of the first one hundred years of the town of Cadwell, Georgia. Tomorrow, a new century will begin on the anniversary of the incorporation of the town on August 22, 1907.   Over the last century, Cadwell has risen from a tiny village to a bustling farm town and railroad depot, settling in as a quiet place to raise a family and spend the waning years of  retirement.

The origin of Cadwell actually goes back more than a mere 100 years. The area was formerly known as Reedy Springs.   The name comes from a nearby spring, which undoubtedly had a lot of reed plants around it.   The Reedy Springs Militia District was created on October 5, 1883.    After the Civil and Indian Wars, the necessity of each militia district was no longer necessary.   The militia districts then began to function as voting districts and Justice of the Peace Court districts.

The Reedy Springs community was also known by the name of Bluewater.  That name was derived from a nearby creek to the north and west.  In 1883, the Reedy Springs District had four churches (all Baptist), a common school, a steam gin, a grist and saw mill.  Farmers produced 800 bales of cotton, 800,000 board feet of lumber, and 8,000 pounds of wool.  The farmers of the area, which extended down to the current day Cadwell area and over to Dexter were: E.F. Alligood, H. Alligood, I. Alligood, A.J. Barron, H.D. Barron, J.H. Barron, W. Barron, W.T. Barron, J.D. Bates, A. Bedingfield, J. Bedingfield, R.A. Bedingfield, W. Bedingfield, W.A. Bedingfield, G.W. Belcher, Eliza Clarke,  H.C. Coleman, W. Coney, J.E. Crumpton,R.H. Crumpton,  C.C. Gay, Hardy Gay, Mrs. M. Gay, Stephen Green,  D.Y. Grinstead, E. Grinstead,  P.E. Grinstead, Robert Grinstead,  J. Hobbs, A.B. Holliday, W.F. Holliday, L.H.  Hudson, S.B. Johnson, W.D. Joiner, A. Jones, W.J. Kinchen, W.F. Kinchen,  G.B. Knight,  J.T. Knight, R.G.B. Knight, B.  Lewis, S. Lewis, T.J. Lewis, J.R. Locke, J. Lowery,  W.A.N. Lowery, G.W. McDaniel, H.R. McDaniel, J.R.  McDaniel,  R.F. Mathis, C. Mullis, J. Mullis, W.H. Mullis, R.F. Register,  and A. Rountree.

The local businessmen were A.J. Adams, machinist; H. Alligood, sawmiller; J.M. Bass, miller; W.B.F. Daniels,  general store; J.T. Rogers, general store; R.L. Faircloth, machinist; James Lovett, wheelright; J.R. Sheperd, general store; and Wynn Brothers, general store.  Local ministers in 1883 were N.F. Gay, D.E. Green, J.W. Green, T.J. Hobbs, J.T. Kinchen, J.T. Kinchen, Jr., J.I.D. Miller, J.T. Rogers, C.B. Smith, and C.R. Winham.  L.A. Bracwewell was Justice of the Peace and A.B. Clark was the Notary Public and ex-officio Justice of the Peace.

Situated along the rail line of the Dublin & Southwestern Railroad was the defunct town of Mullis, or "Mullis Town."  Mullis, which was incorporated as a town in 1906, was located just north of the northern city limits of Cadwell.  An intense rivalry began between the citizens of Mullis and Rebecca Lowery Cadwell Burch, who had plans of her own to develop a town of her own.  Shortly after Cadwell began to flourish, Mullis Town, at least in its official status, faded away.

Rebecca Burch had intended to name her new town "Burch" in memory of her late husband.  Mrs. Burch knew that the town would have to have a post office, so after making an application for one, she discovered that the name of "Burch, Georgia" had already been taken.  As an alternative choice, Cadwell's founding mother submitted the last name of her first husband, Matthew Cadwell.  When Matthew Cadwell was buried in Lowery Cemetery, he was buried with his horse, the same horse that he was riding when he was struck by lightning.

The owner of a fine tract of land, Mrs. Burch hired Zollicoffer Whitehurst to survey and lay out a design for a new town to be named in honor of her late husband, Charlton O. Burch.  Whitehurst's original design, completed in 1905 - two years before the incorporation of Cadwell, contained 52 commercial lots and four larger lots on the northeastern side of the just completed rail line.  Initially, Whitehurst placed five streets in his design.  Snow Hill, Burch and Coleman streets paralleled each other running in a northwest to southeast direction.  Dexter (Georgia Highway 117) and Dublin (Railroad) streets intersected these streets at right angles.

The original limits of the town included all of Land Lots 11 and 20 of the 17th Land District of Laurens County and encompassed an area of 405 acres.   Two years after Cadwell was incorporated, the town actually shrunk in size, down to 1000 square yards in a square shape centered around the intersection of  Dexter and Burch streets.  It would be another forty-six years before the  the size of the town was doubled in 1955 to encompass 2000 square yards.

The town of Cadwell's first mayor was J.W. Warren.  Warren was appointed to lead the first town government by the Georgia legislature with the wise counsel and guidance of the initial slate of councilmen, James Burch, Joe Ethridge, C.C. Cadwell and Ed Walden for a period of two years until a new election could be held.

According to the first census of Cadwell, one hundred and fifty four persons lived in Cadwell in 1910.  Among the heads of families that year were: Uriah Woodard (telegraph operator,) Arthur Mullis (salesman,) Daniel Harrell (house carpenter,) John Weaver (barber,) William Mullis (farmer,) Hershall Jones, James Fason, Henry Smith, Willie Powell, Robert Pullen, Robert Pannell, William Curry, Leon Joiner (turpentine laborers,) Thomas Wood, Allan Carter, Thomas Bird, James Gallimore, Josiah Griffin (railroad laborers,) Murl Coleman, Isaac Coleman (telephone operators,) James Mullis (farmer,) Simeon Bland (physician,) Henry Bedingfield (farmer,) James Burch (bank cashier,) Robert Burch (drug salesman,) Henry Coleman (farmer,) H.C. Stonecypher (merchant,) Hiram Mullis (merchant,) Horace Mullis (telegraph operator,) Robert Ridley (hotel keeper,) John Ridley (laborer,) Bennett Bedingfield (farmer,)  William Colter (salesman,) C.C. Cadwell, and Victoria Cadwell.

Cadwell's  charter was repealed and a new one put in place on August 19, 1912.  H.C. Burch was named Mayor by the new act.  A.T. Coleman, A. McCook, H.R. Bedingfield and J.A. Burch were appointed councilmen.  The new law gave the town government the right to establish it's own public school system, a novel power not given to other Laurens County towns.   In 1925, the Cadwell Public School system was abolished and the town's school became part of the county public school system.

Yet another charter was issued in 1914.  H.C. Burch remained in the position of mayor, but A.M. Johnson, L.T. Harrell, H.R. Bedingfield and E.E. Hicks were named as new members of the council.

The first post office in Cadwell was established on August 17, 1908 after being moved from Mullis.  Arthur Mullis served until September 21, 1910, when Bennett J. Bedingfield assumed the duties as postmaster.  Other Cadwell postmasters were Joseph A. Warren (1912-1914), Homer Mullis (1914-1918), Hiram Mullis (1918-1935), John B. Bedingfield (1935-1936), Belie B. Hicks (1936-1943), and Katherine F. Underwood (1943-).

Laurens County's third bank, the Cadwell Banking Company, was granted a charter on January 5, 1910 with an initial capital of $25,000.00.  The original incorporators were L.B. Holt and G.C. Wood of Sandersville, H.C. Coleman, Jr., W.H. Mullis, Sr., J.A. Burch, H.C. Burch, H.R. Bedingfield, A. McCook, H.C. Stonecypher, and W.B. Coleman of Cadwell.  A brick building was constructed on the southwest corner of Dexter and Burch Streets.  L.B. Holt served as the first president.  The bank acquired the assets of the Citizens Bank of Cadwell in 1916.  The new board of directors chose H.R. Bedingfield as president, H.C. Burch as vice president, J.A. Burch as cashier, and H.H. Burch as assistant cashier.  The bank failed to open on fall day in 1928 and Cadwell was without a bank.

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. Many of the incorporators were listed among the shareholders of the Cadwell Banking Company.  They included A. McCook, Mrs. R.E. Burch, B.K. Smith, S.F. Scarborough, C.J. Barrs, L.P. Lavender, C.C. Cadwell, T.R. Taylor, Victoria Cadwell, J.M. Gay, J.B. Bedingfield, H.R. Bedingfield, J.L. Watson, D.W. Alligood, L.W. Lavender, O.S. Duggan, A.H. Duggan, A.J. McCook, W.W. Warren, B.J. Bedingfield, J.H. Barron, W.J. Mullis, J.F. Graham, A.F. McCook, J.A. Warren, H.B. Warnock, J.B. Colter, Mutual Telephone Exchange, H.C. Stonecypher, A.M. Johnson, J.W. Bass, Sr., J.W. Bass, J.E. Rogers, J.F. Etheridge, C.C. Hutto, and A.B. Daniel.

The citizens of Cadwell regathered and formed a new bank in the early months of 1929.  The bank was a private bank owned by J.B. Bedingfield, J.F. Graham, W.D. Parkerson, and L.K. Smith, who served as cashier.  The bank underwent a series of name changes from the Graham, Sikes, and Company Bank to the Graham, Smith, and Bedingfield Bank, and finally to the Farmers Clearing Bank.  W.A. Bedingfield joined the firm after J.B. Bedingfield was elected Clerk of the Superior Court.  W.D. Parkerson left the firm and the bank reorganized with L.K. Smith as president and W.A. Bedingfield as cashier.

In 1966 the directors received a state charter and became the Farmers State Bank.  Early officers of the bank included L.K. Smith, W.A. Bedingfield, W.B. Coleman, and Kennon Smith.  The bank moved to the former post office location on Burch Street, the site which it still occupies today.  In 1980 the bank was purchased by Farmers Bancshares of Douglas.  Edward E. Morris took over as president of the bank, a position which he still holds today. Dan Rowe was elected cashier.  The bank opened its branch office in Dublin on Veterans Boulevard in October of 1984.

The single most important factor in the establishment and growth of Cadwell into an economic center of southwestern Laurens County was the establishment of the Dublin & Southwestern Railroad.     E.P. Rentz, a Dublin banker, owned a saw mill in Rentz and took a keen interest in the project, becoming the main owner of the railroad.

Grading began on March 2, 1904 in western Dublin along Marion Street near the Dublin Cotton Mills in Dublin under the supervision of E.P. Rentz and superintendent, Frank S. Battle.  The organizational meeting of the railroad was held in the Citizens Bank on April 6, 1904.  E. P. Rentz was elected president.  J.J. Simpson and  W.D. Harper were elected as vice president and traffic manager/treasurer respectively.  William Pritchett,  J.M. Stubbs, and David S. Blackshear of Dublin were elected to the board of directors.  The first spikes were driven and the workers raced to complete the road to Rentz by mid May.

From its intersection with the Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad, the D & S RR ran southwesterly and crossed the present day Industrial Boulevard on the site of Flex Steel.  The line ran in a southerly direction as straight as possible crossing Turkey Creek at Tingle, later known as Garretta.  From that point the road turned in back to the southwest through a small station known as Mayberry (at the site of Southwest Laurens Elementary School) and thence to the lumber mill in Rentz.   From that point on, the old tram road bed allowed the owners to cheaply, and fairly rapidly, complete the railroad into Eastman.

Engineer J.P. Pughesly immediately began laying out the road along the old tram road. Col. Stubbs traveled to Eastman on June 27th to solicit monetary and moral support from the businessmen and farmers of Eastman and Dodge County.  In return for their subscription of shares for the twenty to twenty-five thousand dollar project, the investors would be given a share of the company.    Eastman investors were reluctant to get involved.  However, when the city of McRae invited the directors of the D&S RR to turn the course of the railroad in a southerly direction, the men of Dodge County put their names on the dotted lines.  S. Herman, W.H. Cotter and W.H. Lee of Dodge County were added to the railroad's board of directors.

The first scheduled train from Rentz to Dublin ran on June 29, 1904 with two daily trips to follow in July.   Battle's crews began laying rails in mid-August.    The old tram road bed was in fairly decent shape, two years growth of weeds and saplings excepted.     Next along the line was the town of Mullis.

From Cadwell, the railroad turned again toward Eastman, running first through the community of Plainfield.  Construction was delayed by legal actions by some Eastman citizens along the route of the railroad and the City of Eastman as well.  General Manager W.J. Kessler, a highly successful former manager of the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad,  moved the headquarters of the railroad to Eastman in May of 1905, with the ultimate  intention of extending the road on the Ocmulgee River.

Any town needs a church, or two or three churches.    John Burch was the first to put that belief into motion.  He organized a Sunday School for children in one of the Frierson Company houses.  The adults became interested and Mrs. Rebecca Burch came through with an ideal spot on the corner of Snow Hill and Walnut streets.    On September 10, 1909, the first organizational meeting was held and the Cadwell Baptist Church was born.  John Burch and A. S. Jones were elected as deacons.  Jim Burch took on the duties of church clerk.  The founding members of the church included John Burch, H.C. Burch, J.A. burch, C.C. Hutto, A.B. Daniel, A.S. Jones, A.F. McDaniel, Mrs. M.A. Burch, Mrs. A.B. Daniel, Mrs. Leo Lewis, Mrs. Neily Cadwell, Miss Lola Burch, Miss Ellis Lewis, Mrs. Flora Graham and Mrs. J.F. Ridley.    Those present at the initial organizational stages elected the Rev. E.W.  Evans as the church's first pastor.

The original church, a fairly large wooden structure, was completed in 1910, though the building was not painted on the outside until 1913.  In 1919, the members of the church finished their new and current building on the corner of Dexter and Snow Hill Streets.  An annex building was erected in 1957.

Despite the large contingent of Baptists in Cadwell, there were a few of the Methodist persuasion.  Again Rebecca Burch stepped up and deeded a tract on Walnut Street  to J.E. Perry, Beulah Burch and Mack John as trustees of the of Methodist Church.  The first pastor of the Methodist Church at Cadwell was the Rev. Silas Johnson, who in 1943 became the president of Wesleyan College in Macon.    The church's first stewards were Mrs. R.E. Burch, Mack Johnson and W.J. Ballard.  The Methodists built their  first and current building, a modest wooden structure, in 1913 on a lot which adjoins the old Cadwell school site.

A second and more important essential element of a new town is the establishment of a school. In yet another public spirited donation from Rebecca Burch, H.C. Burch, B.J. Bedingfield, J.E. Faulk, A.W. Mullis and D.W. Alligood, appointed by the Laurens County school board, took title to a two-acre tract at the corner of Snow Hill and Dexter Streets in 1911.  The first school was a large wooden building with a tall belfry on the southern end.  It suffered the usual fate of all too many wooden buildings when the school burned in 1928.

Jim Smith was the community's first school teacher and principal.    He was followed by Mr. Marsh and H.L. Lawson.   An additional school was built in 1916 on the present school site.  It was two-room brick building with an adjoining auditorium.   After giving up it's charter as a separate system in 1925,   a newly created school district was formed under the leadership of H.C Burch, J.B.  Bedingfield, J.F. Rivers, J.T. Jones and D.W. Alligood.  Cadwell students excelled in a wide variety of subjects, particularly in the fields of agriculture, home economics and as the Cadwell Bulldogs in the sport of basketball.  Children attended school in Cadwell until the 1960s when the students were transferred to Laurens High, which later became a part of West Laurens High School.

  The following is a tribute written to Cadwell, which at one time was being promoted as the county seat of Northern County, to be named in honor of Gov. William J. Northern (1893-1894.)  The movement, like several others of its kind,  to crop off an extremity of Laurens County never materialized.

A TRIBUTE TO CADWELL

Cadwell is a beautiful city,
     Capital of Northen County,
Contains one thousand people,
     and pretty girls in bounties.

When a good place to board is wanted,
     Stop with Mrs. Ridley on the hill,
Three young ladies to entertain you,
     You will never regret the bill.

Miss Fannie B. plays the piano,
     Miss Della B is in love, I am aware.
Miss Arbelle is so good and quiet,
     You would hardly know she's there.

But they are all fine, I tell you,
     I love them all you bet.
But Buren and Swanson have got me beat,
     To my sorrow and great regret.

But I must soon leave you all,
     And bid you all good bye.
It make me feel so lonesome,
     and I feel like I could cry.

I have enjoyed my stay immensely.
     You have been so nice and kind.
I thank you all ever so much
     and this is all my little rhyme.

         For a more detailed history of Cadwell see 70 Years, A History of Cadwell, Georgia by Fannie Jo Bedingfield Holt.  It is with great honor and respect I dedicate my capsuled history of Cadwell to Mrs. Holt and to all the fine people who have ever called Cadwell their home.