THE GREEN HAND

Success through FFA

For nearly four decades, the novel and its movie version of Paul Chapman’s “The Green Hand,” proved that any child, no matter how disadvantaged or troubled could succeed in life if he learned and followed the creed of the Future Farmers of America.  This story, which was told over and over again, has its roots right here in Laurens County, Georgia.

“Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve:” That is the motto of the young men and women of the Future Farmers of America.  Originally founded as the Future Farmers of Virginia some ninety years ago, the Future Farmers of America were officially organized in 1928.

Still today when many youngsters have left the farm or never live on a farm at all, the F.F.A. is one of the nation’s largest youth organizations with a membership of  more than a half a million.

It was in the year 1932 in the midst of the country’s deepest economic depression, when University of Georgia professor of  agriculture Paul W. Chapman wrote a novel which he called, “The Green Hand.”  The book was intended to show that the Future Farmers of America could and would improve the lives of the youngsters who participated in the new program.

The plot line features a fictional and hopelessly delinquent student, Fred Dale.  The inspiration for the bad boy turned good came on a night before Christmas in 1927.  Set in the fictional community of Cedar Falls,  the story actually took place in Cedar Grove, Georgia, situated in the southern tip of western Laurens County.

Cedar Grove School was one of the first in the county to develop a vocational agricultural program following the adoption of the Hughes-Smith Vocational Act of 1917, which was adopted by the Congress after the sponsorship of Hoke Smith, a United States Senator from Georgia, and Congressman Dudley M. Hughes of Danville in neighboring Twiggs County.

The story goes that in attendance at the banquet were two professors from the University of Georgia. The occasion was a father and son banquet held at the school.   In the midst of a traditional, yet unexciting speech, a gang of rowdy youngsters interrupted the Christmas merriment and fellowship.  The culprits were apprehended and punished for their malfeasance.

The professors returned to the campus and told the story.  One thing led to another and Paul Chapman decided to write a book based on the event.  In 1932, Chapman, who was named Director of Vocational Education of the College of Agriculture of the University of Georgia in 1934, completed his work, which began to  be read by many a future farmer. Chapman accepted an offer to turn his novel into a movie.

Senior officials of Sears-Roebuck & Co. saw the potential revenue in producing the movie, which was primarily shot in and around Athens, Georgia.  Most of the cast was composed of students and regular citizens of Clarke County and around the state.  The lead male character Dale goes on to success in government and business in the 29-minute film, which was completed in 1939.

The movie reaffirms the book’s plot that F.F.A. can change the life of a bad kid.  Dale is at first expelled from school, but is given the chance to by a vocational school teacher to return to school and make amends for his delinquent behavior in a classic story of bad becomes good.  The story features romance, fights, a trial, and saving the family farm from foreclosure in the traditional Hollywood style.

It was only natural that the film premiere in the home of the University of Georgia in Athens With 4000 F.F.A. students in Georgia, as many as 5000 people were expected to visit the Classic City to see the new film, which many of them could relate to.  All of Athens promoted the film, which premiered on January 12, 1940.  Georgia Governor E.D. Rivers and the founder of the National F.F.A. were in  attendance at the premier activities,  which were broadcast over WGAU radio.  The next day, a Saturday when traditionally farmers came into town, was declared “Future Farmers of America Day in Athens

During that winter and the following spring, the film was shown in theaters, high school auditoriums and gymnasiums around the state and around the country.  A big theater screening of the “The Green Hand” became a feature event of the 1940 National Convention of the Future Farmers held at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. .

Future Farmers Programs in Laurens County began in 1936 at the high schools of Dudley, Dexter and Rentz.  Rentz organized its chapter in October 16, 1936. Professor Luther H. Cook (left)  and businessman Ralph Chambless led the effort to build an educational building in 1939.

Dudley High boys organized a chapter  in October 1937 under the leadership of president Addison Hogan.  Oliver Heath was named Vice President. Secretary Clinton Perry, Treasurer Lawton Johnson and Recorder R.W. Parker served under the leadership of Doyle Bedingfield.   Clyde Greenway, Vocational Teacher at Cadwell High, led the formation of the Cadwell chapter. Cedar Grove established its own chapter later under the leadership of H.D. Jordan.

The Laurens County Future Farmers of America joined forces at a fish fry held at Session’s Lake on the evening of March 26, 1938.  Addison Hogan, of the Dudley Chapter, was selected as President of the consolidated chapter, with the leadership rotating on an annual basis.  Danville High School  from Twiggs County was allowed to join the Laurens County Future Farmers Clubs in March 26, 1938 as that county had no program at the time.

On May 15, 1940, the local premier of “The Green Hand,” sponsored by the Lions, Exhcnage and Rotary clubs, was presented at Dublin’s Ritz Theater on West Jackson to a full house.  The next day on “4-H/FFA Day” in Dublin, some one  thousand county school students were released from their classes to attend the grand festivities in downtown Dublin.  A two-block long parade and a concert on the courthouse grounds  by the Laurens County Marching Band  thrilled the large crowds during the noon hour.  Dublin optometrist and long time advocate of vocational education in the county, Dr. Charles Kittrell, helped to organize the spectacular event with the unwavering  support of County Demonstration Agent Nelle Robinson.

For the last seventy five years plus, the boys and girls of the Laurens County chapters of the Future Farmers of America have proved Paul Chapman’s theorem, that good, decent farm kids and even some of the bad ones who were set on the path of the straight and arrow can make a difference in their community, their state and their nation.

THE BIG ONE THAT STILL GOT AWAY

The World Record Large Mouth Bass

As fish stories go, this is a big one - a really big one.  For more than three quarters of a century, this verified fish story has withstood the test of time, a drove of doubters, and a congregation of cynics,  and though there is no existing direct evidence to prove, or disprove, his claim, George Washington Perry, a former resident of Telfair County and a native of Laurens County, Georgia, still holds the record for catching the biggest large mouth bass in the history of the world.  This is the true story of his catch and how it still got away.

George Washington Perry was born on March 1, 1912 in Dublin, Georgia.  One of six children of Joseph and Laura Perry, George grew up on farms in central Georgia.  When he wasn't helping out with the chores or working in the fields, George dreamed of going fishing, not only for the sport of it, but for something good to eat.  You see, George lived in the days when the boll weevil came and devoured most of the cotton plants which brought money to everyone, regardless of whether or not they owned or even worked on a farm.  This was the Great Depression.  There was little food to eat.  With what little money George and his family did have, it was a shame to waste it on buying food, especially when he  could reel it in out of a stream, creek, pond, lake or a river for free.

It was early on the morning on Thursday, June 2, 1932.  George woke up, saw it was raining and immediately thought to himself - no farming today,  the fields are too wet.  But, it would be a good day for fishing.  Fish usually bite better when the atmosphere's pressure falls during storms.  So, George called upon his buddy Jack Page to join him for a day of fishing.  The pair hoped to catch a mess of fish for supper that night, but just in case they didn't, it would be good for two teenage boys to talk about things teenage boys tend to talk about, not to mention missing a day of toiling in the hot Georgia sun.

With only one lure between them - a Creek Chub Fintail Shiner - George hopped in Jack's pickup truck bound for Montgomery Lake, an ancient ox-bow lake formed over centuries as the meanders of the Ocmulgee River's were cut off from the river's main run.  The 1931 Creek Chub catalog boasted that the No. 2101 Natural Perch fintail shiner with its beautiful, natural colors, scales, fins, with flat sides and a swishing tail and flexible fins was as near like a living, breathing and wiggling minnow as any human could make.  The company guaranteed their lure would make a fool out of any big old wise fish.  Their promise would turn out to be more than mere puffing, more than George could ever imagine or even dream.

George didn't want to lose his prized plug.  After all, it cost him $1.25 - which in those days, was a good wage for a long  day's work.  Perry pulled back his $1.50 rod and reel and carefully cast his lure between two horizontal cypress trees lying on the surface of the once bountiful lake.   Perry saw a splash.  He felt a tug.  He pulled back.  When nothing moved, George feared that he had hung his line on a pesky stump or a submerged log.

But then, the tug became a pull.  The pull became a strain. The strain became a struggle. a Adrenalin gushed through George's veins.   His instincts took over.  George pulled.  He pulled harder. After an arduous fight, George and Jack got the monster bass to the bank and put it in Jack's truck and set off to Helena, the closest town.

George and Jack pulled up to the store of J.J. Hall and Company.  They knew they had something special, certainly the biggest bass they ever saw and naturally they wanted to show it off.   As they strode into the store to exhibit their prized trophy, all eyes turned, gazed and bugged out in disbelief.

George laid the lifeless bass on a pair of scales.  No one would question the accuracy of these scales which were actually the official scales of the Helena Post Office.  The needle stopped at twenty-two pounds and four ounces.  Someone grabbed up a measuring tape and wrapped it around the twenty-eight inches of the fish's girth and then laid it out on the counter and marked off thirty-two inches.

      There were no digital cameras in those days and certainly not any cell phone cameras.  It was more than six decades before any purported photograph appeared.  The one that did showed an unidentified man and an unidentified young boy holding a big fish.  The palm trees in the picture's background still stand on the post office property and lend some credence to its authenticity.

Someone suggested that Perry submit his fish to Field and Stream Magazine as a part of their annual fishing contest.  Obviously George won it  that year.  Though George Perry was a legend in the Big Bend region of the Ocmulgee River, he never received much of any national recognition until later in life and more so after he died.    As a part of his prize winnings, George did receive a shotgun, a pair of boots, a rod and real and a tackle box, a  seventy-five-dollar value, as the catcher of the biggest fish of the year.   Today his picture and story would be all over the Internet and plastered in every fishing magazine in the country.   Just to put the doubters to rest, George went out and won the contest again in 1934, with a bass weighing a mere thirteen pounds and fourteen ounces.

So what did George Perry do with his big fish?  No, he didn't have it mounted and put on his wall.  He did what every country boy of the 1930s would have done. He gave it to his mama, who cut it up into pieces and fried it in a big cast iron pan. Mrs. Laura served the world record fish with some tomatoes and onions she picked out of her garden and a mess of good old fashioned skillet-fried cornbread.  The Perry's finished off the rest of fish the next day, much to the consternation of ichthyologists around the world.

Jack Page seemingly disappeared.  No one ever seemed to know whatever happened to Jack.  Maybe he left Telfair County to see if he could catch an even bigger fish, always regretting the fact that it could have been his turn to cast the lure into Montgomery Lake that day.

George Perry put aside his fishing tackle as a vocation and took up an interest in aviation.  He worked on planes and opened a flying service in Brunswick.  In 1973, at the age of sixty-one and before he could tell the complete story of his world record catch, George Perry crashed into the side of a mountain near Birmingham, Alabama while ferrying an airplane.

No one in these parts ever caught a more celebrated fish.  Kelly Ward of Laurens County did manage to snare the largest striped bass ever caught in Georgia when he reeled in a 63-pounder in the Oconee River in 1967.  Some say it might have rivaled the world record had it been weighed immediately after Ward caught the big fish.

Catching the world's biggest large mouth bass is no secret.  There are some necessary skills; careful planning, good weather, and a lot of luck that goes into landing the big one. In the words of my late daddy, who considered himself a fine fisherman, when it comes right down to it, "sometimes, you just have to hold your mouth right."

FARMING IN LAURENS COUNTY IN 1915

The somewhat lackluster year of 1915 was more remarkable for what did not happen here

than what did happen.  After a quarter century of unbridled growth, Laurens Countians began to

suffer from business closures, cotton crop failures and general uneasiness about their future.  The

county had reached its zenith in 1913 and 1914, but there were always people here who never

lost faith in themselves and the county they loved.

For example, take a look at an article penned by "A Dublin Resident," in the August 10,

1915 edition of the Macon Telegraph, which he titled, "Laurens County Proves Its Splendid

Richness - Brilliant Opportunities in Laurens for The Worker."

In proclaiming that life is worth living the writer pointed to a "countywide" spirit

progressive reform in bettering schools and churches in addition better home lives and farming

conditions.  Credit was given to the county commissioners, school officials and teachers, Sunday

school, the Laurens School Improvement League and school agricultural clubs for the continued

growth in the county.

First and foremost on the minds of Laurens Countians in 1915 were good roads, not only

passable and maintained county dirt roads, but the coming of the Dixie Highway to Central

Georgia.   As the year progressed, Dublin appeared to be a sure spot on the highway's two route

selections from the trans continental Columbus to Savannah route, the future Highway 80, or the

Savannah to Atlanta route, which was not chosen. 

With its half million acres and 810 square miles of area, the need for new and better

county roads were always on the all-important minds of the voters. With improved roads came

the need for things we take for granted today.  Concrete culverts and bridges were on the need list

of the commissioners, who, in those days, were called "Road Commissioners."  The first

non-river crossing bridge was the steel bridge over Hunger and Hardship on North Franklin

Street.  With new and improved equipment and an abundance of natural soil resources, the

commissioners began to further appease their voters as tax dollars would allow.  

Boasting the fact that Laurens was a "Two-Crop County," the author pointed to the fact

that the number of farms was increasing every year. That figure would peak in 1924, when the

county boasted more than 4000 farms, an all time state record.  Part of the increased number of

farms was attributed to the subdivision of once larger farms and former ante bellum plantations

across the northern portion of the county and the cultivation of the pine and Wiregrass section

along the lower southwestern edge of the county. Prime farm lands brought between 25 and 50

dollars per acre, far below the prices of farms in other southeastern states.

The boastful, status quo  idea that a cotton-corn dominated agricultural economy would

continue to support Laurens Countians soon dissolved into oblivion.  The coming of the boll

weevil and the near destruction of the cotton crop led to a massive crop diversification

agricultural pursuits for the first time since the Civil War.  Before the war,  the plantations across

the northern end of the county were forced to diversify to support all of the needs of the residents

of the county.  

As the cotton economy began to fail, farmers looked to other vegetables, grains and

grasses, such as oats and vetch,  as well as increasing the production of livestock, swine and their

byproducts. 

Dublin, the county seat, was pointed to as the key to the economic development of the

county, which was the center of a developing commercial and industrial area.  The writer saluted

the communities of Dexter, Dudley, Cadwell, Rentz, Tingle, Montrose, Rockledge, Brewton,

Lovett, Minter, Orianna, Catlin, Cedar Grove and Poplar Springs for working together with

Dublin and each other.

By all accounts, this writer was hopelessly optimistic as to the near future of Laurens

County.  With the escalation of World War I and the country's eventual entry into the war in

Europe, agricultural activities began to stabilize.  Once the war ended and the cotton crop failed

to rebound, the economic consequences were staggering.    As the county peaked in  its number

of banks to a mark only behind Fulton and Chatham counties, one bank after another began to

fail.  Before the end of the 1920s, the county's banks dwindled down to two, the Farmers and

Merchants Bank and the Bank of Dudley, which were owned by single families.

The sole purpose of the 1915 article was to show that Laurens County, though ravaged by

the boll weevil, had the power to survive any agricultural crisis.  With an average annual rainfall

of 51 inches over the previous four decades, Laurens farmers were poised to continue their large

yields.

The author pointed to the ten million dollars of farmland encompassing a quarter of a

million acres and 400 square miles, and  fed by the streams of the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers,

the county was perched on the precipice of greatness.

Two indicators of better time was the formation of the Farmers Supply Company and the

Laurens County Farmers Union.  Cotton production in 1914 rose to nearly 60,000 bales, or

30,000,000 pounds.  Beating that second highest record, set in 1911, would be difficult for

Laurens County's farmers, who had led the state from 1911 to 1913 and finished a close second

in 1914.  

Production plummeted in 1915 by nearly a third in Laurens and in the other leading

counties in the state.  When the bales were counted and estimated, production for the year 1915

amounted to 40,000 bales, although respectable, was regarded as a devastating loss to Laurens

County's farmers.  

The Laurens Herald looked at the 40,000 bale figure and applauded it as a sign of

increased diversification.  On the optimistic side, the first carload of hogs, sponsored by the

Farmers Union, were shipped to Moultrie in hopes of agricultural diversification.  A county wide

soil survey was completed to give farmers a better knowledge of soil conditions across the

county.

In retrospect, not even the invulnerable Four Seasons Department Store, which had been

the leading store in the East Central Georgia area for nearly a decade, could withstand its losses

when it filed bankruptcy.  

Despite drastic changes in cotton crops and prices and the national economic woes,

Laurens County farmers persevered for the next three decades.  As World War II ended, the

county's farmers once again led Laurens back to the top of the list of the most productive farming

counties.  

GROVER C. NASH

Soaring to New Heights

Grover C. Nash could fly a plane with the best of any pilot of his day.  In 1938,  he made history during National Air Mail Week.  This is the story of a poor farm boy from Twiggs County, Georgia who piloted his plane into history as he became the first African American pilot to fly and deliver the U.S. mail.

Grover C.  Nash was born in Dry Branch, Georgia way back on April 4, 1911.   He was seventh child and third son of Joe and Annie Nash.  No one alive seems to remember what his life was like as a child, but history tells us that it had to be tough.

Nash marveled in wonder when he saw planes flying overhead.  Like most boys of his day, Grover dreamed of flying like a bird.  But being black and being in the South, his chances of getting to fly in an airplane were just about as slim as his sprouting wings and flying on his own power.


Grover Nash went North in hopes of attending flight training classes.  The color of his skin prevented him from being accepted. But in 1931, Grover was  accepted into flight school. A graduate of Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical University in Chicago and Moore's Flying School in Dayton, Ohio, Nash had earned a Master Mechanic's certificate within two years.  Flying his own plane, a midwing monoplane he dubbed Little Annie, Grover Nash honed his flying skills under the tutelage of Roscoe Turner in St. Louis.  Turner, a World War I pilot, was a champion racing pilot in the 1930s.  He also studied under John C. Robinson, who was one of the founders of the Challenger Aero Club, one of the first black pilots organizations.

Tuskeegee Institute was supposed to be the destination of Nash's first long distance flight. Flying with him would be Col. Robinson and Cornelious Coffee, two of the nations' most famous pilots. The trio were engaging in a southern tour to Birmingham, Chattanooga, Murfreesboro, as well as stops in St. Louis, Terre Haute and other cities in Illinois.  While they were approaching Decatur, Alabama, Robinson and Coffee had to crash land their two-man plane.  Being the junior members of the group, Coffee and Nash remained in Decatur, while their leader went on to address students at Tuskeegee. Nash's disappointment vanished when he returned the following year to visit the renowned black educational institution.

Nash made headlines in January 1935 when he gave a dazzling exhibition at an air show celebrating the seventy-second anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.  As a lieutenant of the Military Order of the Guards and a member of the Challenger Aero Club, Grover's reputation in Chicago continued to grow.  To help pay the bills, Nash managed the service department for a chain of automobile parking lots in the Chicago area and operated his own flight school for six years.

A well-experienced private pilot, Grover C. Nash was somewhat of an automobilist.  In 1937, Nash set out from his Chicago home to visit a sick relative in Los Angeles.  Driving with little or no pauses, Grover made the 2,448 mile trip in 48 hours for an average of 50.8 miles per hour, a record for any automobile at the time.  It wouldn't be the only time that year that Grover Nash would take a long trip to see a relative.  When Grover left home in 1929, he promised his daddy that one day he would return home  in a plane.  There was much joy that day in Dry Branch when Grover's monoplane came over the tree tops and landed on the red clay soil of home.

The United States Postal Service established National Air Mail Week in 1938.  As a part of the celebration, an experiment was conducted to determine the feasibility of picking up and delivering air mail throughout small cities and large towns throughout the country.

It was early in the afternoon of May 19, 1938.  Excitement was escalating in Mattoon,  Illinois.  It was the first time the city's mail would be flown to its recipients around the state and the country.  As Nash landed his Davis monoplane in Mattoon, he was greeted by the post master, the police chief, city officials and somewhere near one hundred curious onlookers.   Grover was given a hero's welcome, a tour of the city, and dinner at a local caf‚.  Nash stashed about seven hundred more letters inside his plane and headed off to Charleston, only ten minutes away.

Charleston had never had airmail service either.  But, Grover Nash couldn't have dreamed that his reception there would dwarf the welcome he received on his first stop.  An estimated eight thousand people crammed the runway of the city's first airport.  A band played.  The crowd cheered. Nash waved to his adoring admirers.     After waiting out a severe thunderstorm, Nash took off at 5:45 for Rantoul with another two thousand letters.

An astonished Nash later told a reporter for the Chicago Defender that no one seemed to notice his color along the way - especially the  hundreds who pressed him to autograph their letters.  It was, however, the first time that an African American had carried U.S. mail through the air. And, on that day, Nash made the longest flight and carried more letters than any of the 146 pilots, before returning to Chicago, five minutes ahead of his scheduled arrival.

Five months later on Halloween Day, Grover Nash joined hands in marriage with his sweetheart, Miss Lillie Borras.

A group of black pilots in the Chicago area organized as the National Airmen Association of America in an effort to stimulate interest in aviation and understanding of aeronautics.  On August 16, 1939, a petition was filed to incorporate the organization in the state of Illinois.  Naturally, Grover C. Nash was among the founding directors.  The Airmen staged the first national all black air show in United States history earlier that summer.

During World War II, Grover Nash served his country as mechanical instructor at the US Army Air Force Aircraft Mechanical School.  He spent sixteen months as an instructor for the Army Air Force Training Command. In his first ten years of flight, Grover Nash  logged more than 3,000 flight hours in thirty different types of aircraft.     In 1943, Nash was the only black instructor at Keesler Field in Mississippi and Lincoln Air Base in Nebraska.   After the war, Nash was a member of the faculty of Dunbar Vocational High School in Chicago, where he taught before his retirement to Los Angeles.

While visiting his relatives back home in Twiggs County, Grover Nash died on August 10, 1970.  He was buried in the church cemetery of White Springs Baptist Church.  Ten years after his death, Grover Nash was honored by in the exhibit "Black Wings" in the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.