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.