KINGS OF CROWNS

The game of checkers and its predecessors has been around for thousands of years.  The British called the popular game "draughts".  In America, we called it "checkers."  It was about 90 years ago when checkers skyrocketed to popularity in the latter years of World War I and the decade thereafter.  

The people of Dublin were right proud of their checker playing abilities.  In the summer of 1910, the greatest checker players in the South gathered in Macon.  Dublin City School Superintendent Roland Brooks was there too.  It was claimed that he was the best checker player in Laurens County.

When the game's popularity really began to soar in 1921, the checker afficionados of The Emerald City formed the Dublin Checker Club, said to be one of the first in the state, although  it was actually, only the first in the East Central Georgia area.  

L.G. McNeely was elected president.  The organization's first vice president was George W.  Shepherd.  H.M. Hatcher served as secretary.  Shepherd was hailed as one of the best checkers players in the state, finishing fifth at a past state convention. 

The real Kings of Crowns, in their own humble opinions, resided in the city of Irwinton, Georgia in Wilkinson County.  

Whenever a visitor or novice player came into town, he was pitted against Herschel Dominey.  If he managed to best the mediocre Dominey, the winner then faced, H.B. Adkins, who would pull out his pipe, "Old Betsy," to show the optimist who was really the best.   Then if he was a pretty fair checker man, Ol' Lum was called in to defend the honor of Wilkinson County.  And, if that failed, George H. Carswell, the reserve King of Crowns,  No one, ever beat Carswell.  And if such a travesty ever happened, there was always the threat of showing the purported champion a swift, and not so pleasant, way out of town.

The clock was just about to strike high noon on a hot August Saturday in 1924.  H.F. Heywood had just lost his 22nd game in a row to Herschel Dominey.  George H. Carswell, the local king of crowns, had just wagered four to one that Captain Skelton didn't get into heaven.  An intense argument arose over the issue of tariffs.  Among the assembly of the checker players and onlookers, politics was the main topic of discussion.   

Clang! Clang! rang the bell at the old Union Church.

Instantly everyone thought fire!

The memory of the cremation of the courthouse some six months earlier was still on everyone's mind.    Eyes turned to look for fire hoses.  Eyes looked toward the roof tops and tree lines for signs of smoke.  With not a single plume in sight, the crowd frantically began to collect buckets and fill them with water.  

Not knowing which end of town was on fire, one resident threw down a plug of Brown Mule tobacco which he was cutting for a customer, commandeered Tom Murphy's 1909 Ford, and dashed throughout the town looking for black smoke and flames.  The manic merchant nearly careened into the checker crowd which had assembled at Lum's corner drugstore.  Riding only on two wheels as it rounded the corner, Murphy nearly sideswiped Miss Pinkie Adams' rooster as he was in a wild path while on the way to see a flock of hens.  A pack of agitated hounds followed the swirling trail of dust.

And, the bell rang and rang and rang. 

Mrs. H.B. Adkins, in obedience to the Reverend's request, rang the bell at the appointed hour to remind townsfolk of the beginning of the revival on Sunday. 

Once the excitement was over, the games resumed, but not for long.

"All good things come to end," so they always say.  And so did the checker playing in Irwinton.  Or so, it was said.

Seems that the main topic of the Christian reawakening was the perniciousness of the grand old game.   Rev. Barron, the visiting minister, warned the congregation that checker playing was sinful.  The church members, composed of Methodists and Baptists, were somewhat divided on the issue.  A large number of the Methodists insisted that checker playing was not a sin, since it is not specifically mentioned in the Bible as being in derogation of God's word. The Methodists proclaimed it was only a sin for the Baptists to take part in the game.  Other Methodists remained insecure about the consequences of resuming the games, if indeed Rev. Barron was correct.

Doomsayers predicted the church imposed ban would ruin the city by turning away visitors and prospective citizens who had a passion for the game.  

It wasn't long before checker addicts reasoned and rationalized Rev. Barron's stern warnings.  When it was announced that the recent state championship was determined to be undetermined, those who had the ultimate confidence in their abilities began to wonder what would have happened had they taken a secret trip to Macon to compete and possibly win.  They had no doubt that someone in Wilkinson County would have come back with high honors.

After the ban on checkers was declared, Carswell, a devout Baptist, returned from a trip to Atlanta.  Checker fans held out all hope that since Carswell was not present in church when the matter was cussed and discussed, that the town tradition would resume and the Baptists would soon begin backsliding toward their normal behavior, saving the town from an abomination.  

Apparently, their wishes came true.   When plans for the new courthouse were announced and no steeple or clock was included, town residents went into another frenzy.  Some, like Lum Fleming who cussed the county commissioners for not promptly rebuilding the courthouse,  wanted a steeple like every other courthouse they ever saw.  While others insisted that a large clock be placed on the tower, to remind the checker players that it was time to go home for lunch and avoid the wrath of the beloved wives.

  Victor Davidson, an attorney and Wilkinson County historian, reported, "The checker board at Heywood's store has been consigned to utter destruction and the one at Thads', although still in existence, presented a forlorn and deserted appearance."  Davidson woefully stated that a 50-cent harmonica had taken the place of the checker board at Heywood's.  

When the church folk effectively  pinned the Kings of Crowns in a zugswang*, they resigned their games, removed their boards from the sidewalks  and took their draughts men to the back rooms where the games resumed out of plain sight of the ardent Baptists.

* Zugswang is where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move when he would prefer to pass and make no move. The fact that the player must make a move means that his position will be significantly weaker. 

WILLIE BOMAR

Show Me the Money!

Willie Bomar was dying. She got the cancer. She wanted her $65.78, and she wanted it, "now!"

Willie Melmoth Bomar was born in 1894 to Dr. Elisha Pinckney "Pink" Bomar and his wife, Ella Tallulah Lane. Dr. Pinckney removed himself and his family to Tattnall County before the turn of the 20th Century. Dr. Pinckney was active in his community, serving a term on the school board and once placing himself as a candidate for the Georgia Senate.

Willie and her older sister Ethel grew up in a somewhat happy home. All of that ended in 1918, when their father found himself embroiled in a difficulty in Lyons with A.S. Mosely and his sons, G.G. Mosely and Howell Mosley.

The elder Mosely fired his shotgun twice and his pistol three times at the 52-year-old physician, who turned and walked away from his aggressors. Just as the doctor was walking away, dozens of bystanders witnessed the Mosely boys firing shots directly into a lung of Dr. Bomar, resulting in his swift death. The murder case against the Moselys was transferred to Jefferson County Superior Court in Louisville, Georgia, where it resulted in a hung jury.

Life for the Bomar women had to go on. Ethel taught music and Willie, a graduate of Georgia Normal and Industrial School, taught domestic service in the local school in Lyons.

Eventually, Willie wanted to do more with her life. So she moved to New York, where she obtained her doctorate in Philosophy from the prestigious Columbia University.

In 1931, Dr. Bomar published her first book, An Introduction to Homemaking and It's Relation on the Community. A second book, The Education of Homemakers for the Community was also published in 1931. In all, Willie Bomar authored four books, including a 1937 book, which she entitled I Went to Church in New York.

It was just near the end of World War II when Willie Bomar began to notice something different about her body. Then came the devastating news. It was cancer and it was in her throat and her chest. Two surgeries followed and so did regular visits to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

It was in the autumn of 1948 when Dr. Bomar was asked by Wheeler County to teach on an emergency basis

The issue first arose at the end of the first term in 1949. The retirement board allowed Bomar to keep her contributions to the retirement fund. Then after a secret meeting, one which Bomar was not allowed to appear, the board reversed its position and took her $65.38 away.

Dr. Bomar kept her 10:30, Memorial Day appointment with J.L. Yaden, director of the retirement system of Georgia. Yaden maintained that since the $65.78 had already been deducted from her check, any refund was out of the question unless she resigned her position with the Wheeler County school system. That would mean that she would lose the excessively pitiful, but normal monthly salary of $198.00, which included a $33.00 supplement for teaching home economics. Remember, this was a teacher who held two masters degrees (in science and arts) as well as a doctorate degree in philosophy.

"I'll take mine now," Dr. Bomar, her voice weakened from the paralyzing effects of her throat cancer, told Yaden. She reiterated that the state deducted her portion of her retirement benefits out of her "puny" salary without consulting her. And, to make things worse she would have to wait to die to collect it.

"It's a preposterous thing they are trying to do to me. They want me to wait until I'm dead with old age to collect it. Well, I've got cancer. I need the money for treatment. And, cancer won't wait," cried Willie.

It was Bomar's position that since she had been hired by the Wheeler County school board as an emergency teacher, she was exempt from paying any retirement contributions.

Yaden called Superintendent T.C. Fulford, who reluctantly agreed to terminate the contract of the esteemed professor. That's when Willie Bomar had to make snap decisions.

"I am resigning under protest, but that is all I can do," she lamented.

Delayed and denied at every turn, Dr. Bomar decided that only a drastic tactic would work. The vibrant home economics teacher vowed to stay in Yaden's fourth-floor office until she achieved her modest demand or die right there in the office from the cancer which she knew was rapidly killing her.

Yaden walked out, leaving the dark-haired, matronly school teacher, dressed in her best blue dress sitting there in anger and disbelief, as she shouted, "I protest! I protest!"

A comfortable sofa in the ladies lounge would be her home until Yaden and his board surrendered or she died on the spot, whichever came first.

Not all people defended Willie Bomar's stance. The editor of the Dallas Morning News called her demand for benefits "shameful under the guise of liberalism and social progress."

Others, were more than sympathetic. Custodian C.C. Lord, himself laboring at the lower end of the pay scale, brought Ms. Bomar hot cups of coffee and sandwiches during the night. Encouraging newspaper reporters furnished Coca Cola and Hershey bars to aid the embattled teacher in her fight for right.

After 53 hours of waiting and most likely a call to or from Governor Herman Talmadge, a native of adjoining Telfair County and a politician who championed the cause of the common man, Yaden approached Dr. Bomar and informed her that the board had agreed to her demand.

A swarm of newspaper reporters and photographers barged their way into Yaden's office. With cameras flashing, Bomar triumphantly smiled as Yaden signed her highly coveted check.

"I won! I got my money! It was worth it," Bomar exclaimed.

"I won," said Yaden, who felt that negative feedback from unfavorable nation wide coverage of the impasse was not worth maintaining the state's rigid and unpopular stance.

Straining to get her words out, Willie Bomar was still thinking about teaching again, probably outside of the state somewhere. Writing or editing was also a possibility. Willie bought a train ticket and headed for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota

"I want to pay instead of saying I am too poor. I've been teaching school in Georgia," Dr. Bomar proclaimed.

Upon her arrival at the Mayo, Willie offered herself as an experimental patient at the University of Illinois for betatron cancer treatment. She told the press, "the situation appears to be out of control."

In the end, Willie Bomar was right. She died in 1950. Willie never wanted to accept charity and wanted to pay her own debts. Her perseverance paid off when the mighty State of Georgia backed down and showed the money to this little ol' school teacher from Glenwood, Georgia.

EBB FLOYD: THE GREAT GASTRONOME



Ebb Floyd wasn't exactly a big, fat man. Few people in his day were fat. But ol' Ebb could eat. There was no one around who could eat more and eat faster than this ravenous tenant farmer from the heart of Georgia. This short, stout, and merry gastronome had a sweet tooth for his favorite foods sweet potato custard pies and sugar cane.

It was just before Thanksgiving back in 1888 when Ebb Floyd found himself at a log-r0lling contest. After the competition was over, the participants set down for a tasty supper. To finish off the grand meal, fifteen custard pies were set out. Everyone knew that the sweet potato desserts were among Floyd's favorites. So, one man dared Floyd to eat half of them.

The pie afficionado accepted the challenge, vowing to swallow at least ten of the orange pies. Floyd encircled himself with ten succulent sweet potato pie plates and commenced to move in a clockwise direction. One down, then two, then three, four and five. Ebb kept on stuffing them down. Six down, seven, eight gone, nine and then ten pies gulped. The crowd roared!

The last five were put in front of him. Three were devoured in short order. That's when the agony began. The last two eventually found their way to the bottom of the big eater's belly. Ebb Floyd received no award that evening, other than winning the bet and winning it big, not to mention stuffing his belly full of his favorite food.

A few weeks later, Ebb accepted another good opportunity to stuff himself. Not to be outdone, Ebb set his sights on a Thanksgiving feast. After downing a stomach- stuffing dinner of Thanksgiving turkey, dressing and the traditional fixings, Floyd ventured over to a neighbor's house for a cane eating contest. Ebb knew that he was not going to be able to move at all after the end of the gorging, so he planned on finding a soft spot and collapsing onto it.

Word of Ebb's ravenous eating skills brought out a large audience to see just how much sugar cane, the master feaster Ebb Floyd, could eat at one sitting. As a less than satisfying appetizer, the gobbling glutton consumed fourteen stalks of sugar cane. Then for supper, Ebb nearly got his fill consuming an old fashioned Thanksgiving supper, complete with possums saturated with thick gravy and complimented with dozens of sugary yams.

To make things interesting, the host announced a cane-eating contest and invited all comers to sit down and chew as many stalks as they could. To make things more interesting, a school teacher spoke up and suggested that the contest be one of speed more than endurance. And, to make it more interesting, the teacher proffered a wager that Ebb Floyd could not chew three stalks in under ten minutes. Ebb, a ceaseless gourmand, readily accepted the bet.

The teacher, attempting to hedge his bet a little, picked up three nice-sized stalks, laid them out in front of Ebb, pulled out his watch, and announced it was time to begin. Ebb took only five minutes to chew, chomp and gnaw two stalks into mush. Already feeling the pains of his previous meals that day, Ebb picked up his pace. The third and final stalk succumbed in a mere two minutes.

Then, that's where the fun began. Gamblers conceived of more and more interesting wagers to test Ebb Floyd's inherent ability to eat well more than the average man. With the debate as to Floyd's ability to rapidly chew sugar cane settled, an observer offered to wager, two to one, that the exceptional eater could not swallow a quart of sugar cane juice without taking a breath. Ebb grabbed the jug and chugged it's contents down in less than sixty seconds. To prove his point and double his winnings, Ebb guzzled an extra pint of the nearly pure sugar liquid just for good measure.

Still there were those who believed ol' Ebb could drink still more. A smaller sugar cane mill was brought in. Twenty stalks were run through the hand cranked mill, generating three more gallons of juice. He guzzled it all down. To top off the day of frequent feasts, Ebb Floyd vowed that he would take the twenty smashed stalks and eat all of them before retiring to bed. Another wild roar went up in the room. Vowing not to even show an effects of his daily dessert, Ebb sat down next to his last few morsels of the day. Howling doubters couldn't leave without satisfying their belief that no one man could eat that much in a single day.

Ebb opened his mouth and began to chew. One stalk of cane after another was slowly and methodically stripped of it sheath and leaves. The pile of remnants began to grow as the pile of the remaining stalks diminished at the average rate of one every three and one half minutes. Finally, the astonishing eating exhibition was over.

Ebb Floyd was hailed as the hero of Twiggs, much in the same category of generals, governors, and politicians who have hailed from the nucleus of the Peach State. Those who once doubted Floyd's superior eating ability sent out the word far and wide, that Ebb Floyd could out eat any man in the country, no matter what the food may be.

After his few fleeting moments of fame, Ebb Floyd never appeared in the headlines of newspapers around the country as he did in those days of that November when he was one of the world's greatest gastronomes.

MIDDLE GEORGIA COLLEGE

The Beginning of a Tradition

People began going to college in East Central Georgia one hundred and twenty years ago today. And, they are still going to colleges in places like Dublin, Swainsboro, Eastman, Sandersville, Mt. Vernon/Ailey, and Cochran, where the first college in the area opened its doors on January 10, 1887.

The leading men of the Ebenezer Baptist Association saw the need for a junior college to serve the needs of the growing areas of Laurens, Telfair, Dodge and Pulaski counties. Each county was asked to submit a proposal. Both Eastman and Cochran shared the same railroad, the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad. Laurens County did not have a railroad in place in the beginning of 1886. Railroads were critical to the development of a community. And, at the time, it appeared that Dublin and Laurens County, which did not submit a bid, appeared to be not as progressive. As it turned, things would change. Laurens County became a regional center of economic, business and cultural activity. Dodge prospered during the era of mass production of timber and cotton. Pulaski lost a substantial part of its northeastern territory to a new county, Bleckley in 1912. And, it was in the future county seat of Cochran, where the association decided to establish a college, which would be called New Ebenezer College.

John T. Rogers, of Reedy Springs Baptist Church in Laurens County, joined Jonathan Knowles, Charles Parker and J.G. Wright in forming an exploratory committee to begin preparations for the funding of the project and the acquisition of sufficient lands. Doctors P.A. Jessup and T.D. Walker, Sr. got on board and convinced P.L. Peacock and J.E. O’Berry of Cochran to donate the land for the thirteen-acre, ten thousand-dollar facility.

The association appointed P.L. Peacock, T.D. Walker, Sam Mayer, W.J. Mullis, and J.G. Wright to head the building committee. The committee chose Michael O’Brien, of Hawkinsville, who based the school’s design on one of his favorite colleges in Ireland. E.B. Parker, J.G. Wright, John T. Rogers, M.L. Burch, T.D. Walker, and Jonathan Noles were selected to serve as the school’s first Board of Trustees.

The cornerstone laying ceremony was held on July 22, 1886 under the auspices of the local Masonic Lodge. J. Emmett Blackshear, the lodge’s Worshipful Master, presided over the grand observance.

One hundred and twenty five years ago today on January 10, 1887, the doors of New Ebenezer College opened its doors to approximately one hundred students in a hall across the street from the First Baptist Church of Cochran. Palemon J. King presided over the new school. Professor King, a large and powerfully built man, was already a well-respected school leader from Shelby, North Carolina and would gain wide recognition in Rome, Georgia. King, a graduate of Mercer and a former soldier in the Confederate army, came highly recommend by school officials in Cave Springs and Shorter College.

Within a few months, the students moved into the first permanent building on campus, a two-story structure.

Initial tuition rates that first semester were $2.00 per month for primary courses, $3.00 per month intermediate classes, $4.00 per month for music classes and $5.00 per month for college classes per month. By the way, it would cost you the mere pittance of $12.00 per month to board in the house with the principal.

The college’s curriculum included mathematics, history, Latin, Greek, elocution and English as well as courses in vocal and instrumental music. Eventually courses in art, business and military science were offered. Captain Isaac E. Neff took charge of the military school and established what was called the “Broom Brigade,” who dressed in bright and colorful Zouave uniforms.

College officials guaranteed that each boy and girl who attended would be thoroughly prepared for the best colleges and universities.

Perhaps the college’s most well known professor was Lucy Mae Stanton, who taught art during the 1893-1894 term. Stanton was one of Georgia’s most widely heralded female artists of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

J.M. King succeeded Palemon J. King in 1888. Other principals of the college during its eleven-year history were: W.B. Seals (90-93,) E.M. Turner (93-96,) A.M. Duggan (96-97,) and finally W.E. Jenkins (97-98).

Former graduate and long time Cochran attorney, Lucian A. Whipple, Sr. once hailed New Ebenezer College as a “beacon light” for that section of thee state. Whipple maintained that the college contributed greatly to the economic development of the region between Macon to Brunswick, where there were few if any high schools.

By the mid 1890s, the association’s support for Ebenezer College began to wane. In an election to provide local funding, Cochran residents voted down the measure to support, “The Pride of Cochran.”

When the New Ebenezer College closed, the facilities were taken over by the Cochran school system, with Dr. Jessup and Dr. Walker, two of the school’s most ardent boosters, joining others in taking over the college’s outstanding debt. After nearly twenty years, Cochran High School moved to a new location and once again, the school buildings were abandoned.

During the years of World War I, both Cochran and Dublin competed for the location of the newly created 12th Congressional District Agricultural and Mechanical School. Despite the greater resources in Dublin, Cochran was awarded the location of school, which opened on the first Monday in October 1919.

After only eight years of operation, the Georgia Legislature adopted a law which changed the name of the school to Middle Georgia Agricultural and Mechanical College. Two years later, the name was shortened to Middle Georgia College.

So, now you know a little history of the tradition of the one time Baptist school which evolved into one of our areas most important resources. And, it all began, one hundred and twenty five years ago today.

WHEELER COUNTY

NAME THAT COUNTY

Wheeler County Was It in 1912

It was time to chose.  There was no time for bickering, no time to lose.  The newest county in Georgia, cut off from western Montgomery County on the western side of the Oconee River, was either going to be Wheeler County or Kent County.  Funny how naming a county can bring out so much animosity, so much dissension, mixed with a smattering of apathy.

With the beginning of the 20th Century in Georgia, a monumental movement to establish new counties by carving them out of allegedly oversized ones. The process gave self appointed political power to remote regions of larger counties.  Laurens County, the third largest county in the state,  was the target of at least four new county movements.

The residents of western Montgomery County, those living on the western side of the Oconee River wanted to control their own destiny.  Among them was William B. Kent.  Kent, who had been a hero of Georgia Bulldog football back at the end of the 19th Century as the team's captain, but became a legend of sorts when he led the effort to keep the sport after the tragic on the field death of Georgia back  Richard Von Gammon threatened to end the playing of football in Georgia.

After his graduation from Georgia, Kent was admitted to the bar, beginning his practice in Alamo.  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.  

  

As a resident of the west side of Montgomery County, Kent was urged by his fellow west side friends and neighbors to introduce a bill in the Georgia legislature to create a new county.   New county promoters kicked off a series of big barbecues in Alamo on Memorial Day weekend.  

Kent was more than willing to oblige, even if it meant defeat in the 1912 Democratic primary.  There were no Republicans of any consequence in those days.  

If the move to create a new county so agitated the east siders of Mount Vernon that they voted him out of office, then the victorious Kent's eponymous choice of the county's name would be an eternal consolation prize.   Rep. Kent claimed that the new county was to be named Kent County, not in his own honor, but in honor of his father, an early settler of the area.  

Besides, Kent had more pressing concerns.   He had been fighting his disbarment from the bar for alleged  improper actions.  

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. 

It was in early August of 1912  when the leaders of the House of Representatives and the leaders of the Senate hammered out their differences.  Rep. Kent, in the midst of a tight campaign for reelecting, dropped his request to name the new county for himself or his father and agreed to allow the new county to be named for Augusta, Georgia native and Confederate Calvary general, Joseph Wheeler.  Wheeler, was one of the few generals of the Civil War, who served in the United States Army during the Spanish American War.

Most of the opposition to Kent's original proposition came from the residents of Mt. Vernon.  The compromise also called for the new county seat to be in Alamo, which was incorporated some three years prior to the formation of Wheeler County.  

Representative Cook, of adjoining Telfair County, was given permission to rise to speak on a point of privilege during a morning session of the House on August 9, 1912.  Too feeble to actually speak, Cook sent his stern and carefully written message to the Clerk to read aloud before those members in attendance.  Cook charged that his fellow representative misrepresented the population numbers and in conclusion, charged that the whole affair was a result of "demon politics."    

The cutting off of Montgomery County cost W.B. Kent his seat in the legislature.  J.C. Johnson, a resident of the eastern side of the county, narrowly defeated Kent by a margin of 114 votes.

A big part of the deal was that the county's commissioners appropriate $20,000.00 to build a jail and a courthouse, the latter of which was constructed in 1913 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The deaccession of Montgomery left it with a population of 12,000 people while Wheeler's estimated population stood at 10,000.  What made things worse was that within five years, Montgomery County would lose a substantial portion of its northwestern lands to the new county of Treutlen, a move backed by Representative Johnson. 

Despite the approval of the measure creating the new county Wheeler, final approval of the bill creating the new county would be up to the voters of Georgia, who usually, as a whole, cared nothing at all about counties being split, unless of course, the voters were losing a part of their own county.  To boost their chances of winning passage, backers sought out and won the approval of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, F & A.M..  The members of the Masonic lodges were some of the most influential and respected men in the state. 

The general election was held on November 5, 1912.  Wheeler boosters sent out an appeal to approve the constitutional amendment to honor the memory of that glorious Georgian, a hero of two wars.

As expected, the voters of Georgia, in an act of courtesy, passed the constitutional amendment and Wheeler County, Georgia was officially established one hundred years ago.

GEORGE L. SMITH

A LEADER OF QUIET DIGNITY

George Leon Smith, III was born a century ago today on November 27, 1912 in the railroad community of Stillmore, Georgia.  In 1959, Smith began his tenure as Speaker of the House of Representatives during one of the most turbulent political and social decades in the history of Georgia.  When he died at the age of sixty-one, Speaker Smith was one of the most powerful and admired speakers as well as being the longest serving house leader in the long history of Georgia.

George Smith, a son of DeSausaure Degas Smith and Sarah Gladys Wilder, graduated from Swainsboro High School before attending the University of Georgia, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta and Blue Key.  Smith, a member of the Colby Smith clan of Washington County, Georgia, descended from a family known for its public service to the State of Georgia.

Smith, first elected as the Solicitor of Swainsboro City Court in 1937, began his 29-year legislative career with his election to the Georgia legislature representing his native county of Emanuel in 1944.  Smith served as the attorney for the City of Swainsboro for three decades. Smith won reelection in 1946 and 1948, and finished his career with an even dozen unopposed races.

In 1947, Smith was chosen to serve as Speaker Pro Tempore of the Georgia House of Representatives, a political rarity for a first term state representative.  He filled that high position with dignity until the end of 1958, when he was first chosen as Speaker of the House under an appointment by Governor Ernest Vandiver.

Smith's initial term as speaker ended in 1963, when newly elected Governor Carl Sanders appointed the other George Smith, George T. Smith, to replace him. The Swainsboro attorney, a Sanders supporter,  returned to the office of Majority Whip and Speaker Pro Tempore until 1967.

It was in the election year of 1966 when George L. Smith rose to prominence in Georgia's political affairs.  In fact, during that year when the country was finding itself in one crisis after another, one of the state's most contested gubernatorial elections took place.

Staunch segregationist, Lester Maddox, was selected as the Democratic candidate, defeating former Democratic governor, Ellis Arnall, in the primary.  Although Maddox won the primary with less than 30% of the vote (Jimmy Carter finished in third place,) Arnall entered the general election as an independent candidate and managed to receive seven percent of the vote in the general election and thereby throwing the election into the House of Representatives.  Bo Calloway, the Republican candidate, finished ahead of Maddox by some 3,029 votes.  Georgia law law required a simple majority of the total votes cast.  Going against the will of the plurality of the voters, the Democratically dominated legislature elected Maddox.

With Maddox's support, George L. Smith returned to the well as Speaker in 1967.  It was the first time in the history of the state that the Georgia House of Representatives elected their own speaker, a move which signaled an independent, if only in theory, legislature.  Meanwhile, the other George Smith, was elected Lieutenant Governor, who by law presided over the Georgia Senate.

George L. Smith suffered a stroke in November 1973 in his law office in Swainsboro.  The long time legislator never recovered.

On December 9, 1973, Speaker Smith died.  At that time, Smith had served more years as speaker (11) than any other person in Georgia history.  Only his successor, Tom Murphy, who served in the position for 30 years, surpassed Smith in years of service as the state's top legislative officer.

His funeral was one of the largest gatherings of politicos in the state's history.  Leading the State of Georgia at that time was Governor Jimmy Carter, who would be elected President of the United States within three years as the first Deep South president since Andrew Jackson.

Smith's body lied in state in the rotunda of the Georgia capital.  The first person so honored was Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  In recent times, Eugene Talmadge and Richard Russell were afforded the same high honor, an honor only afforded a dozen men in the state's history.

Smith fought many battles, some winning and some losing,  during his twenty-nine years in the Georgia house. He fought to establish kindergartens in every school system and to extend the number of years a student had to complete prior to graduation.

Two of Speaker Smith's most lasting achievements are the establishment of Emanuel Junior College in Swainsboro and the movement to create a more independent legislature.

The State of Georgia honored Smith's long legacy of service to the state by naming the World Congress Center in Atlanta in his memory.

WHEN THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO ADRIAN TOWN

It was a mild Monday  morning after another serene Sunday  in the railroad town of Adrian, Georgia when the Devil himself erupted  into a conflagration which engulfed nearly the entire business center of the town where two counties and two railroads came together.

Adrian, a town of some 1200 souls and yet to be incorporated as a town, was growing by leaps and bounds.  Located at the junction of the Bruton & Pineora Railroad and the Wadley & Mt. Vernon Railroad along the zig-zag boundary line dividing Emanuel and Johnson counties, Adrian enjoyed  significant progress, due in large part to the business empire of Captain Thomas Jefferson James.

James, a former Confederate soldier and  a wealthy railroad baron, set up a saw mill in the town, where he employed a gang of some 75 convicts to operate his many business interests.   At times, the number of his hired criminal hands reportedly totaled as many as a thousand. 

It was on the morning of  June 5, 1899, when in the soft light of a waning gibbous moon peeking from behind a layer of a gathering mass of cumulus clouds, someone  spotted a large voluminous plume of gray smoke billowing out of Miss Gertrude Peterson's millinery store.  Hardly a soul in Adrian was not awakened by the commotion which immediately ensued.  Those who heard the frantic cries, gathered their sleepy wits, put on  their  just worn clothes and dashed off in the direction of the burgeoning calamity to lend whatever hand they could.  

Several Samaritans did manage to salvage the entire general merchandise inventory of Sigmund Lichtenstein before the flames consumed his newly opened business. 

As the fire quickly spread eastward toward C. J. Watts' barber shop and the Telephone Exchange, the entire business block was in imminent peril. Citizens salvaged all that they could as the flames spread through the wooden structures like a dry cornfield on a windy March day.

  

That's when the convict gang of Capt. T.J. James showed up to fight the flames.  Without their assistance, it appeared that the whole town may have fell victim to the blaze. 

With convicts and citizens working side by side, the stores of E. Ricks, J.R. Porter and M.L. Bailey were saved by the valiant volunteers, whose tasks were made much easier by a barely perceptible westerly wind in the cool, calm, wee hours of the morning.  

A.L. Brown's drug store disappeared into a pile of ashes.  

With the telephone exchange destroyed and owing to the fact that there were no telegraph lines going in and out of town, the town was cut off to the entire world.  

Calhoun's Ice House was gone, its melted inventory being insufficient to douse the flames which consumed it.

The losses were made more devastating due to the fact that few of the property owners had insurance.  

Investigators immediately suspected arson as several small fires had erupted earlier in the day with no apparent cause.  Some believed that the entire inferno was caused by burglars who broke into the millinery store and set the fire to cover their crime.  

There was a fire earlier in the day at Captain James' sugar cane mill, not his saw mill, which was still turning out 100,000 board feet of lumber every day.  Rev. Leon O. Lewis was quick to correct the mistaken reports coming out of the beleaguered town.  Rev. Lewis pointed out there was no motive of any disgruntled employees as no one in the town had any grudge to settle. 

Those who hated, quickly pointed the fingers at the Negroes of the town.  Lewis, pastor of the Adrian Methodist Church,  discounted that notion when he wrote, "As to the Negroes being accused, I can see only one accusation to bring, viz, that as a class they worked as faithfully as the whites to save the property in which they had not a cent of interest."  The minister went on to point out that several black citizens  worked to the point of exhaustion.  "All honor to them,"  concluded Lewis, who rejoiced in the fact that eleven business houses were yet standing in addition to Captain James' large store, the economic nucleus of the burgeoning town.

The fires about the town continued over the following days.  On the night of June 9, Captain James  suffered his second fire in five days.  James' planing mill burned to the ground when a pit full of wooden slabs ignited causing $20,000.00 of uninsured damage.

The flames spread consuming three railcar loads of lumber and nearly six thousand dollars worth of lumber in a matter of hours.  Machinery damage was estimated at $10,000.00, half of the total estimated damage to James's mill.

Once again, arson was suspected since the night watchman reported that he saw the fire begin in a section where no machinery was located.

Just as Adrian town and Captain James seemed to have recovered from the devastation of June of 1899, James businesses were struck again on April 19, 1900.  This time the inferno destroyed his dry kiln near his saw mill.  

All of the Captain's hands rushed to the scene. No one could approach the fire, which fed upon the exceedingly dry lumber inside the burning building and  was fully engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes.

Once again, James' convicts rose to the occasion of rescue the critical saw mill plant from assured annihilation, although once again, James, a wealthy man who curiously chose not to insure his premises, suffered a substantial loss of $15,000.00.

Although the town, with her 1200 people, 22 stores, two churches and a very good school,  never achieved the greatness it had so ardently attempted to achieve, the crossroads community once again rose from the ashes and chased the Devil away.*

*Suppose there was a connection between the fires and  the name of Adrian school's mascot, "The Red Devils?"

CAPTAIN T.J. JAMES

CAPTAIN T.J. JAMES


The Founder of Adrian

In the last twenty-five years of his life, Thomas Jefferson James was known as a builder of railroads. At the turn of the 20th Century, Captain James, as he was dubbed by all those who admired him, built a small metropolis in the wiregrass fields of East-Central Georgia. James died in Atlanta one hundred years ago on November 28, 1911. This is his story.

Thomas Jefferson James was in the northeast Central Georgia county of Jones on June 20, 1846. His mother, the former Miss Druscilla Lyles, died just before Thomas' fourth birthday. His father, Benjamin Jones, while visiting his elder sons in the Confederate Army fell victim to a fatal case of pneumonia and died on September 11, 1861.

Thomas was sixteen, strong, and eager to join his brothers, Abel and William. He traveled to Caroline County, Virginia, where on the 2nd day of June 1863, Private Thomas James subscribed his name before J.N. Beall on the enlistment roll of Company B, 12th Georgia Regiment, known as the Jones Volunteers. A single month later, Thomas James would witness the greatest carnage in the history of North American warfare. Serving in the brigade of George P. Doles, of Milledgeville, James's regiment attacked from the north into the town of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. Luckily, the regiment was not heavily engaged and casualties during the three-day epic battle were relatively light.

Things wouldn't be so easy at Spotsylvania Court House on the 10th of May 1864. The 12th regiment was overrun by Union forces at the Mule Shoe salient. Nearly all of Company B's soldiers still in action were captured, including James and his brothers Abel and William. They were taken prisoners and imprisoned at Point Lookout Prison in Maryland. The James boys were then transferred to the den of death, Elmira, New York, where Confederate prisoners died at a rate equal to or greater than their Union counterparts in Andersonville, Georgia.

By the end of October the number of prisoners crammed into an inefficacious facility designed for three thousand men had swollen to more than ten thousand prisoners. Decades after his imprisonment, T.J. James told of the horrors of his internment at Elmira. T.J. James recovered from a severe bout of measles. William succumbed to Typhoid pneumonia on October 1, 1864. To pass their time, the James brothers learned how to make gutta percha rings made from silver or pearl with thirteen stars representing the Confederate states. They sold them to the Yankees for a few dollars each. Abel and Thomas along with another prisoner used spoons and case knives to dig a tunnel under the house sixteen feet under the outer wall. Their escape was foiled, probably by a camp snitch.

Some five weeks after General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, Thomas James told his captors that he would sign an oath of allegiance to the United States, because all he wanted was to go home. Finally, a month later in the middle of June and after eleven months in prison, Abel and James began their long trek home.

When Thomas James returned home, he found his homeland decimated, barren, and burned. He returned to farming, going to school when he could. By the age of twenty-five, Thomas James's future began to be apparent. In 1868, James went to work as a common laborer on the Macon and Augusta Railway. He saved his scant salary until the "Panic of '73" tolled railroad construction in the state. James went to work for the contracting firm of J.T. and W.D. Grant on the Chattachoochee River. The firm purchased the 4,060- acre, $100,000-dollar, Old Town Plantation just below Louisville, Georgia in Jefferson County. James bought out the Grants in 1884 with other partners, including U.S. Senator and Civil War Governor of Georgia, Joseph E. Brown.

After the economy rebounded, Thomas James bought out his partners and began the practice of leasing convicts from the State of Georgia. Within fourteen months, James' gang of convicts, reportedly numbering as many as three thousand men, built more than 225 miles of railroads across the state. Capt. James, as he was known then, joined a large saw milling operation under the name of the Southern Lumber Company. When the company faltered, James purchased the assets and transformed the ailing company into a profitable operation.

Capt. T.J. James built his own railroad, the Wadley and Mt. Vernon, which ran from its terminus in Jefferson County, southwesterly through Kite, Adrian and Rockledge. The railroad never made it to Mt. Vernon, but did run another line into Emanuel County and operated at the Wadley Southern Railroad.

James expanded his operations to include timber and farming. He was one of the largest planters in the state and certainly the largest in East Central Georgia. His operated gristmills, sawmills, and cane syrup plants on his farm and timberlands which encompassed 38,000 acres.

Thomas James moved his headquarters to the western corner of Emanuel County in a small community named Adrian. James personally made improvements to the infrastructure of the fledgling town, furnishing the town with water from his well east of town on the Ohoopee River and his electric light plant. He owned James Mercantile Company and the Farmers Bank of Adrian.

Captain James was always looking for ways to improve his railroads. In the early spring of 1899, he traveled to Atlanta to put in a bid for the trains of an insolvent traveling circus company. There he met George V. Gress, who was solely there to acquire the circus animals. James and Gress discussed their wants, entered a joint bid of $4,485.00, and walked off with their respective prizes. James took his train cars back to Adrian. Gress offered the animals to the city of Atlanta. The city council accepted. Gress, a lumber dealer, built a building and cages, which became the Atlanta Zoo.

On June 30, 1881, Mr. James was united in marriage to Miss Alice Cheatham, of Jefferson county and a direct descendant of Gov. David Emmanuel, America's first Jewish born governor. They had six children, Thomas Jefferson, Jr., Alice N., Arthur Emanuel, Frank C., Albert H. and Annie M. James.

James told biographer A.B. Caldwell, that he found relaxation in horseback riding and musical evenings spent at home. James credited his success to his parents and the "habits of industry and frugality" that they taught him, along with private study and contact with business men. To the young he commended, "truthfulness, honesty, careful calculations and thoughtful execution, regular and temperate habits."

James held few political offices, but he did serve on the town council of Adrian. He was so loved and so admired that during the "new county" movement of the early 20th Century, residents of the area nearly succeeded in garnering a new county, James County, with its seat in Adrian, Georgia.

It was in 1909 at the height of his business career when Capt. James' health began to fail. He moved to Atlanta in hopes of better medical care. He died in an Atlanta hospital just before 2:oo o'clock, p.m. on November 28, 1911.

Capt. Thomas J. James left his footprints across East Central Georgia. Along the 680 miles of railroads his crews built grew the small towns which are the roots of our area's long and rich heritage, all of which ended one hundred ago.