A TRIP IN TIME TO JEWELL, GEORGIA

JEWELL, GEORGIA 

Photos by Scott B. Thompson, Sr. 

If you want to take a trip in time back to the 1800s, from Laurens County get in your car, travel through Sandersville and continue on Highway 15, turn right in Warthen and then turn west when you see the sign for the turn to the road to Hamburg State Park.  Keep going past the park and just before you reach Georgia Highway 16 between Sparta and Warrenton, you will turn a bend and be transported back to the 1800s in an instant.  

     The village of Jewell exists around an expansive open green defined by a few, widely spaced buildings, and along the Warrenton Road (Georgia Highway 16) on both sides of the Ogeechee River. The village lies in two counties, Warren and Hancock, separated by the Ogeechee River. The site is situated near an old Indian trail from the east to the west which crossed the river about a hundred yasds below the present bridge (on Highway 16). There were many rocks in the river at that point which afforded a crossing over the river even at flood staged The rocks were blasted out of the river in later times. On the West stde of the Ogeechee the town surrounds a green, planted at one time with elms which later died. Today the green is grassed and defined by a dirt road

   Facing the -green are a small two-story frame school house on a granite foundation. Built ca. 1871 by Daniel A. Jewell, it has a gable roof with brackets. The principal facade faces north. The entrance is on the center line of the north elevation; a box return gable pediment is over the door. On each side is a window with 6/6 lights. The second story, north elevation, has one window centered over each of the first-story windows, and a double window in the center with pointed arch lintels. On the interior there was a classroom downstairs with meeting hall over the latter reached by winding steps. The benches, the blackboard, the platform, and old stovepipes are still in place. The present use is as a community house for the two churches. 

   Baptist Church: 1871 Norman Gothic style. Faces north. Main entrance through tower (north) end. Pilasters and pointed windows (some double like the schoolhouse). Present use: church. Condition: good. ..

   Methodist Church: ca. 1841-45. Original location at Rock Mills Community, moved to Jewel! in 1894. Wooden, Gothic style. Five-side south end. Square steeple, pointed windows. Present use: church. Condition: good. 

   Ashley Jewell Residence: Wood, Victorian Queen Anne, Gingerbreadstyle house. Faces west. Late 19th Century. Two stories and attic. Fishscale trim. Present use: residence. Condition: good.

Baptist Church, Jewell ca. 1870

Methodist Church, Baptist Church, School 

Rosemont Store

Ashley Jewell House

Rock Mill Methodist Church. ca. 1841

School/Meeting Hall 

The district of Jewell, Georgia, is significant as, the remains of an early Georgia mill village. Its architectural features-date from the 1840s to the latter half of the 19th Century. Nearby are the sites of a textile mill, grist mill, and an iron,foundry. The town of Jewell is located on an old Indian trail, which crossed the Ogeechee River a few hundred yards from the present bridge. 

The town of Jewell has been known by various names. In the early days of its development, it was owned by the Shivers family and tradition has it that it was called "Shivers." The Shivers family, headed by Jonas Shivers, came to Georgia from Virginia and lived in Hancock and Warren counties, Georgia, in the late 18th Century. 

Jonas' son, William Shivers (1783-1852), was the proprietor, not only of the site where Jewell is located, but of Rock Mills, about a mile and a half north, on the Ogeechee, where the William Shivers home place (known as Rock Mill) still remains. One site was also known as Shivers,Mills, 1826-1835. Mr. Shivers had a grist mill at the Rock Mills, and later built a thread mill, as well as a large store to supply the mill workers and their families, at Shivers. 

After William Shivers' death in 1852, his administrator sold the Rock Mill Factory (known in public advertisements simply as the "cotton factory") at Shivers to Thomas Neal of Warren County in November, 1853. This tract included nine acres surrounding the mill site on the Warren County side of the river. Neal sold the same to Thomas Windsor on July 15, 1856, and on February 20, 1857, Windsor, of Baldwin County, sold the site and nine acres jointly to Daniel Ashley Jewel! (late of Massachusetts and New Hampshire) and Simeon C. Bodfish (late of Connecticut) for $3,500. In April, 1857, Jewell and Bodfish bought 105 acres across the Ogeechee in Hancock County to add to their enterprise. A year later, June 15, 1858, Bodfish sold his half interest in both locations to Jewell, and the firm was dissolved. Jewell then became sole owner of the Rock Manufacturing Company. 

In 1858, Jewell and Bodfish (and after July 6th, Jewell alone) had advertised that they had repaired and added new machinery at the mill and that cotton and wool manufacturing was once again underway. They could supply yarns, wool and cloth.

Under the sole operation of Daniel A. Jewell (1822-1896), the community became a burgeoning textile center. A two-story school house was built on the green by Jewell about 1871. During his ownership, homes were built, many on the highlands on both sides of the river, continuing the standard mill houses, built of heart pine and mortised-and-pegged construction, which had been built for the mill workers beginning in the 1840s. 

The Walter Dickson house is an example and is one of the two oldest houses standing in Jewell. D.A. Jewell, a Massachusetts native, had come at age 25 (ca. 1847) to Milledgeville, Georgia, the state capitol, and had married there in 1849 Mary Ann Shea. In the mid-1850s, he operated D.A. Jewell and Company, a wool-manufacturing firm, and this was his occupation just prior to the purchase of the Rock Factory. He moved to Jewell (then called Rock Factory) by 1859, for he was living there in 1860. 

During the War Between the States, while the town was still known as Rock Factory, a company known as the "Ogeechee Minute Men," was formed in 1863, with Jewel! himself, a Northerner, asking the state's adjutant general for weapons. Tradition has it that federal soldiers came through the town in 1864 after reaching Shoals on the Ogeechee, a few miles to the south, but did not burn the mills or the town due to seeing the masonic symbol on the mill's chimney. (This stone was later salvaged and is now located at Call away Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia.) 

The William P. Haynes Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons had been formed at Rock Factory in 1864 and was chartered in 1865, shortly after the end of the war. It was dissolved in 1946. A Baptist church was organized there in 1869 and the brick edifice was built ca. 1871 on the green, also sponsored by Mr. Jewell. It is the oldest brick church building in the Washington Baptist Association. 

The wooden Methodist church was built about 1841-1845 at Rock Mills, and was moved to Jewell in 1894. It had been previously known as the Rock Mills Church. Today it stands on the northwest side of the green. The name of the town remained Rock Factory until approximately 1869-1870. 

An act of the legislature in 1872 incorporated the town as Jewell's Mills, and maps after this date are the first to show the new name. Later, the name became Jewell 's, and later Jewell, as it remains today. The U.S. Post Office at Jewel!'s was established in 1873 with Mr. Jewell as the postmaster, later to be succeeded by his son.

During the first decade after the Civil War (1866-1876), the mill resumed operations, as evidenced by the surviving Factory Accounts book for the entire period. The mill operated six days a week except for holidays (usually Thanksgiving, Christmas, and sometimes July 4th), or when the water was exceedingly high or low, thus hampering production. 

Changes in equipment also caused several down days during this decade. Produced during these years were jerseys, jeans, and yarn. By 1876, jerseys were being made in cotton and wool. In 1876, the mill complex also included flour and saw mills, and by 1880, there were 3,000 spindles for cotton and 150 for wool, with 50,000 pounds of cotton being processed per month. D.A. Jewell died in 1896 and was buried in the town that not only bore his name, but bore the results of his hard work and benevolence. His wife, who died the year before, is buried there also. 

The town of Jewell has been connected with a number of the South's great textile families. Fuller E. Call away, later president of the Call away Mills of LaGrange, Georgia, married Jewell's granddaughter, Ida Cason (for whom Callaway Garden was later named) and eventually helped members of the Jewell family to move to Chickamauga, Georgia, where their descendants are still involved with the cotton mills. 

D.A. Jewell, Sr.'s sole ownership of the mil! continued until 1875, when his son-in-law, Colonel W.L. Bowen, acquired partnership with him and the name was changed to Bowen-Jewell Company. Metal "coins" were minted for use by mill workers during this period. 

Eventually, D.A. Jewell, Jr. (1860-1935) became the family partner with Colonel Bowen. Sales were made in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Jewell, Jr., built a bag plant there, alternating weeks supervising the plants at Jewell and Chattanooga. Gordon Lee of Chickamauga, Georgia, began developing springs in his area and sold land to Jewell, Jr., for a mill, where ca. 1902 he built a finishing plant. 

After several decades of dual mills, Jewell, Jr., sold the Georgia site around 1922 to the Gant Brothers, who ran the Glen Raven Mills of North Carolina. In 1927 the mills at Jewell were completely destroyed by fire. Today only the mill's foundation remains on the banks of the Ogeechee. 

A street of mill houses, known as "Smut Row," paralleling the Warrenton Road, were cleared in the 1960s to make pastureland. Many of the present-day residents of Jewel! are descendants of the original mill families. They have carefully preserved the remaining houses and are interested in seeing that the character of the town remain unchanged. 

Historical material from National Register of Historic Places Inventory Form.   

MARVIN METHODIST CHURCH

MARVIN METHODIST CHURCH

You may have never heard of Marvin Church. And, you probably never knew it was in Laurens County, much less that actually it still is.  Yet, many of you ride by it nearly every week and never knew it was there.  Wearing a disguise of clay bricks, Marvin Methodist still stands more than one hundred and thirty years after it was first built.  Transported from its original location on the New Buckeye Road in northeastern Laurens County, the small one room church is now a part of Centenary Methodist Church, which recently closed its doors after nearly ninety years of service to the Lord.

The story of Marvin Church actually goes back to January of 1866, when Professor Gustavas Adolfus Holcomb, a teacher from Riddleville, Georgia, opened a school on the old W.O. Prescott Place on the Dublin to Sandersville Road.  Sixty seven students came to class on the first day, eager to learn.  Holcomb's school house was a one room log structure, measuring only eighteen by twenty feet.  Obviously with less than five square feet per pupil, the facility was not large enough to accommodate the students.  Parents rushed into action and added a forty by fifty-foot shelter. The ten-foot-tall addition rested upon heart pine posts.  The floor was made of rough pine planks nailed to a foundation of logs.  The cover was made from five- foot pine boards, cut from local woods and fastened with nails made in a local blacksmith shop.   One end of the shelter was boarded up entirely and the others were left open except about three feet around the three sides at the bottom, which gave an appearance of an enclosure.

The primitive school house had no heat.  On colder days, the teacher and the students built a large fire out on the grounds and positioned their school benches as close to the heart of the fire as possible.  In the school's early days, twenty of the older kids were denied the opportunity to attend school because they were serving in the Confederate army.  These young men, who had experienced vast extremes of heat and cold, spent most of their time in outdoor classrooms.

In 1867, the Methodist Conference sent the Rev. John Morgan of Guyton, Georgia, to serve as the minister of the Dublin Circuit.  At the time, there were only four Methodist churches in the circuit.  The main church was in Dublin with three churches located in eastern Laurens County at Boiling Springs, Gethsemane and what would become Lovett Methodist Church, but which was then a small church about one mile north of Lovett, known as "Gopher Hill," taking its name from the fact that gophers had chosen this sand hill for easy digging of their holes.

Church services began in the school, which was affectionately known as "the Shelter."  Rev. Morgan kept his appointments to preach on the third Sunday of every month.  The Rev. Thomas Harris, a Christian Church minister from Sandersville, preached to his flock late in the evening on every fourth Sunday. Frederick W. Flanders, a member of a clan of Methodist ministers from Johnson and Emanuel Counties, filled in when ever he had a free Sunday.

For nearly a decade, the plan of filing engagements had to suffice until a permanent church could be established.  After ten years of planning and hoping, it was the energy of a young minister, H.M. Williams, that provided the impetus to build at church at "the Shelter."

During the four years in which Rev. Morgan served the yet organized and unofficial church, local residents subscribed twelve hundred dollars to build a permanent house of worship.  Any building needs a plan and it was obvious that Col. John M. Stubbs was just the man to design the church.  Stubbs, a lawyer by profession and a man of many talents, lived just up the road at Tucker's Crossroads, the seat of his wife's family, the Tuckers.  Mrs. Stubbs' father was Dr. Nathan Tucker, the largest plantation owner in the area and one of the largest property owners in the county.  Stubbs tried several plans and attempted to come up with final cost estimates.  He settled on his design which included a magnificent edifice with a tall steeple.   His estimate of a cost at five thousand dollars discouraged many citizens whose resources were scant in the days of Reconstruction and its aftermath.  The young lawyer's ambitious plans were abandoned in favor of the status quo.

 Only when Rev. Williams rekindled up a new interest, did the citizens of the community come forward with their pledges and subscriptions to pay for the framing and weather boarding.   A new site one mile south from "the Shelter" was chosen as a more desirable location at a meeting at the old "Shelter."  

Sixteen people stepped forward to form the new church to be named Marvin. The members represented many of the oldest and wealthiest citizens of the community.   They were: Elijah F. Blackshear, Mrs. Elijah F. Blackshear, William H. Walker, Mrs. William H. Walker, Kinchen H. Walker, Richard A. Kellam, Mrs. Temperance Kellam, Miss Addie F. Kellam, Winfield B. Smith, Alfred A. Morgan, Laura M. Smith, Mrs. Polly Garnto, Mrs. Rebecca Davis, Mrs. I.M. Blackshear, David S. Blackshear, Mrs. Susan Mason and Mrs. Winifred Mason.  

The first Board of Stewards was composed of Kinchen H. Walker, Richard A. Kellam, W.B. Smith and David S. Blackshear.  After the election of stewards, the next step was to give the church a new name.  Suggestions were sought from the members.  Some suggested the traditional names such as Evergreen and Olivet.   One person suggested naming the new church Guyton in honor of Joseph M. Guyton and Col. C.S. Guyton who had given the land for the site.  A disillusioned old gentleman rose from his seat in the back of the church and proposed  the name of "Luck and Trouble."   Rev. Williams asked the pessimistic old man, who was somewhat of an agnostic, why he suggested that name he supplied should be used.  He responded that "they were lucky to get it so far and trouble to get it further." Rev. Williams proposed the name of "Marvin" in honor of Bishop Enoch Mather Marvin.  Rev. Williams's suggestion seemed most popular and the new church was given the name

of "Marvin."

Robert H. Hightower instructed his mill hands to furnish the lumber from his mill, some sixteen miles away in Johnson County.  T.J. Blackshear volunteered to hall the lumber with a three-yoke team of oxen as his matching contribution. David Stout Blackshear directed the construction.  With little or no haste the the church was framed, weather boarded and covered The building remained unfinished until about 1885, when the work was finally completed.  During the interim, regular services were held at  "the Shelter."

After the organizing of Marvin Church, the membership increased until the day of opening the new church   A large enrollment of members were present.  The church was not dedicated until 1885.  Dr. J.O.H. Clark preached the dedication sermon. George C. Thompson was pastor at that time.  The following preachers filled the pulpit at intervals.  Rev. A.M. Williams, Rev. F.W. Flanders, Rev. Hudson, Rev. Powell, Rev. Hearn. Rev. H.A. Hodges, Rev. Joseph Carr and Rev. G.M. Prescott, a local preacher.

By the 1940s, the church, located on the western side of the Buckeye Road, just before it intersects with the Cullens/Ben Hall Lake Road,  was abandoned and was used sparingly for funerals in the church yard cemetery.  After decades of abandonment, the building was removed some twenty five years ago and annexed to  Centenary Methodist Church on Telfair Street, where it still stands today. 

LOVETT, GEORGIA

LOVETT, GEORGIA
A Look Back

The town of Lovett is the third oldest incorporated town in Laurens County, losing  the honor of being the oldest town not including Dublin or Brewton, which it finished behind  by a mere three days in 1889.   At the turn of the 20th Century much of the experiences in Lovett was published in the Macon Weekly Telegraph.  Then without any explanation the snippets of the shenanigans and shining moments disappeared leaving the historians with virtually no record of the events which happened there until surviving issues of the Dublin papers began to chronicle her past. But when the calendars began to replace the 18s with the 19s,  Lovett could be lively and Lovett could be lovely. And, Lovett could be lurid, but loving too.

Just after Easter Sunday, the Rev. George C. Matthews, a former minister of the First Methodist Church in Dublin and a founder of the Holiness movement in Georgia, was the featured speaker at the South Georgia Holiness Association's annual meeting.  The streets of Lovett were crowded with  hundreds of people, all in town to hear the elegant sermons of Rev. Matthews and a host of other prominent religious leaders.   Association organizers provided special daily train rides for the large crowds  from Garbutt's Mill to the meeting place, a large sixty foot by ninety foot cloth tent.  The professing Christians met for more than a dozen days.  The Rev. W.A. Dodge, Matthew's counterpart in the North Georgia District, spoke to the gathering, estimated to have been more than two thousand believers and sinners. As the session came to a close, thousands appeared at the tent.  They came on foot, on horseback, in wagons and on trains. They came early and continued to assemble after the climactic service began.  Rev. Dodge preached the morning sermon and spoke only to the men that afternoon.  Mrs. Crumpler spoke to the ladies, while the men folk talked about manly things.  It was reported that the meeting exceeded any other meeting ever held in Lovett in the good it did and "many sinners were moved to repentance and conversion - and the town was generally shaken up."

But, as it goes in small towns of the day, the good news turned to bad news, within a cycle of the moon.  Pebe Hall and Miss Radford of Lovett had gone down to the Big Ohoopee River at Snell's Bridge for a day of jollity and picnicking.  Leaving their friends on the banks of the river, Pebe and his best girl rowed their boat into the center of the stream. All of a sudden the boat wobbled throwing the couple into the swollen stream.  They cried out for help, and help was on its way.  But before they could be rescued, the popular couple disappeared down to the sandy bottom of the muddy water. The pall of their deaths lasted a long time in the minds of their many friends.

It would only be three fortnights before another dead body would be found in the merciless waters of the Big Ohoopee near Snell's Bridge.  A crowd of men were seining the river for a mess of fish when to their utmost horror the fisherman found a solitary leg and a man's head.  Attached to what remained of his neck was a 150 pound iron bar.  A closer examination of their nets revealed a satchel and several articles of clothing.    Investigating officials determined the dismembered remains belonged to one George Yates, who had disappeared three months earlier on March 4th.  There were suspects.  Just to make sure, Georgia governor Allen D. Candler offered a one hundred dollar reward for the villainous perpetrators.

Within a week, George Yates rose to the surface, not from the water or his grave, but he had been alive all the time.  Thoughts of the identity of the corpse turned to Jack Benedict of Athens.  Thought to have been wearing similar clothes at the time of his disappearance led Dr. Benedict, the brother of the suspected victim, to examine the remains and determine that the skull sizes matched. Believing that the Athens physician was simply seeking closure to his brother's fate, the investigation continued.    J.T. O'Neal, a convicted bootlegger who had vanished after his release, may have been the casualty of vindictive co-conspirators he helped to convict.    Johnson County Ordinary J.E. Page continued to investigate the true identity of the mystery man.

Just as the citizens of Lovett were trying to overcome the horrors of the river deaths, a small epidemic of smallpox terrified every man, woman and child.  Between two and three dozen cases of the deadly disease were reported in a small area between Harrison and Lovett.   Physicians were summoned and comprehensive vaccinations were begun, ending the crisis.

Another month brought another tragedy.  On the 9th of August, Bascom Flanders was trying to find a seat on the wood in the tender of a fast running train when he lost his balance and fell to the ground striking his head against an series of immovable cross ties.  Little hope for his recovery was given.

On the lighter side, the farmers of Lovett were enjoying a plentiful season, raising enough corn, fodder and provisions to provide for their families for another year, without being forced into debt.  Ike Askew brought the first two bales of cotton into town on August 9th.    Mr. E.A. Lovett paid Askew $5.80 for his prized bales.  By the end of the month, heavy tropical rains severely damaged the unpicked half of the cotton crop. Fears of losses were erased by the first of October, most of the

farmers were happy. But Lovett continued to grow.  Sidewalks were given much needed and overdue repairs and three new handsome homes were erected that summer.  The young people were preparing a concert and a traveling showman thrilled the congregation of folks with a ascension of his hot air balloon.

The townsfolk of Lovett were proud of the wonderful springs on Tucker's Mill Creek. Although unnamed in a newspaper article, these springs are now known as the "Thundering Springs," which are located three crow fly miles west of town.  Folk medicine believers swore by the healing effects of the mineral laden waters which erupted from the earth.  The boil of the spring was constant and constantly rose about a foot above the surrounding water level.  The springs were ideal for swimming and bathing because even the poorest swimmer could never sink below his heart.   Determined divers attempted to touch the bottom, but the force of the boiling water pushed them back to the surface.  It was said that on cloudy days, the roar of the springs, which emanate from miles and miles away,  rival the loudest reports of an approaching  thunderstorm.

After a festive, and somewhat lively,  holiday season and the end of the 19th Century, promises of bigger and better things were abundant in Lovett.    On the very first day of the 20th Century, six inches of snow covered and killed  a fine crop of winter wheat and oats in the fields. J.T. Lovett was chosen as the century's first mayor.  E.A. Lovett, A.T. Cobb, W.J. Stewart, P.M. Johnson and Z.M. Sterling constituted the town's first council in the 20th Century.    Professor W.J. Daley opened the doors of the Lovett School.  Fifty kids came to class and more were expected to attend. E.F. Cary and W.J. Stewart established an Express office in town. Lovett farmers planned to increase corn plantings in the spring.  The farms and saw mills of the area were so profitable that the lack of available laborers became a problem.

MISCELEANEA FROM THE LAND OF THE 'HOOPEE

RUNNING THE GREAT AMERICAN RACE - Ben Lane, of Wrightsville, Georgia,

driving a 1966 Chevrolet, placed 26th in the 1967 Daytona 500.  Lane, whose prize winnings totaled

$1120.00,  finished 141 of the 200 lap race, just two spots behind David Pearson and ahead of racing

greats Buddy Baker, LeRoy Yarborough, A.J. Foyt, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison. The race

was dominated by Mario Andretti and Fred Lorenzen. Greensboro Record, February 27, 1967, p.

21.

LIGHTS OUT! WATER TOO! - In the early months of October of 1917, the lights went

out in Wrightsville. The broken-down power house was unrepairable.   The town’s citizens came

together in a mass meeting to attempt to quickly resolve the problems, bu to no avail.  J.H. Harrison,

the powerhouse superintendent, set out to complete rebuild the power plant.   Electrical service was

sporadically restored, but a severe winter storm and vandals kept the lights out until mid-February

of 1918.  And to make matters worse, there was a shortage of water and when water was plentiful,

the lack of electricity made it nearly impossible to pump it to homes and businesses.  Macon

Telegraph, Oct. 12, 1917, Feb. 4, 1918.   

HOME MAIL DELIVERY - In today’s world when the practice of U.S. postmen delivering

mail to the mailbox on your front door beginning to slowly disappear, the family of W.E. Parker, of

Wrightsville, Georgia would have preferred that the mail man leave their mail in the box out by the

street.  Early in the predawn hours of January 16, 1960, mail truck driver Benjamin Hull fell asleep

at the wheel, left the roadway some 165 yards from the Parker home and made a bee line through

the Parker’s storehouse, striking the wall of their home and landing in the kitchen.  Miraculously the

family wasn’t preparing an early breakfast and no one was injured, except the house which suffered

approximately $1000.00 in damages.  Augusta Chronicle, Jan. 20, 1960, p. 3.

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED.  Two cars were approaching each other on Highway 319

near Wrightsville, when the car occupied by Herbert and R.W. Jackson of Bartow veered into

another car which was headed from New York to Marianna, Florida and  driven by Lucille

Colosimo.  Colosimo’s husband Philip and Salvatore Carbone along with Lucille were killed.  Two

other passengers, N.J. Zelman and Jack Shomer,  were injured.  What was remarkable was that

Lucille, Philip and Salvatore were the lead vocalist, saxophonist and trombonist of Ray Eberle’s

band.   Eberle, a main member of Glenn Miller’s band, led his own band after Miller’s untimely

death in World War II.  The Bridgeport Post, January 20, 1958.

CELEBRATED SURVIVOR - In the early days of February 1944, a United States Army

Air Force plane’s crew parachuted to safety after the pilot lost control of the plane over Wrightsville. 

The plane crash and crew’s survival was somewhat unnewsworthy except one of the crew, Lt.

William Arnold, was the son of  Edward Arnold.  The senior Arnold was a leading Hollywood actor

for four decades and a President of the Screen Actor’s Guild.  Omaha World Herald, February

5, 1944.

LAST ONES OUT - The beginning of the end of the Vietnam War began in March1973. 

Among the last troops to leave was Claude Green, of Swainsboro, Ga.  As one of the last 1100

combat troops to return home to the states, Specialist Four Green remarked, “The people of Nam

were good.  I am just glad to be out of it.”  Boston Herald, March 30, 1973.

I LIKE IKE - Ray Brinson, a 36-year-old resident of Swainsboro, was proud of his

community and proud of one of its greatest resources, the pine tree.  He was determined to take of

pine seedling and deliver it to the President of the United States, even he had to deliver it on foot. 

So when President Eisenhower spent his Christmas vacation at Augusta National Golf Club, Ray

Brinson decided he would walk the 63-mile trek and hand deliver it to Eisenhower himself.   Brinson

set out walking north from U.S. Highway 1 in Swainsboro at noon three days after Christmas and

arrived late the next day.  After a much needed rest, Brinson hoped to hand deliver the prize seedling,

but was met by the President’s aides, who presented to Cliff Roberts, the Club Chairman, who

instructed the groundskeepers to plant it on the club house grounds.  Omaha World Herald,

December 31, 1953. 

VOTE FOR DURDEN - To some, election ballots can be confusing.  To the voters of

Emanuel County in the autumn of 1957, the ballot was more confusing than usual.  The incumbent

Judge of the Court of Ordinary, known today as the Probate Court, had been appointed to the

position.  Judge Durden chose not to seek election for a full term causing a special election to fill the

vacancy.  Running for the post were Kelmer Durden and Geroude Durden.  When the ballots were

counted, Kelmer Durden was declared the winner by 181 votes.   Dallas Morning News, December

7, 1967.

POSTMASTER PRESIDENT - William C. Layton, Swainsboro’s postmaster, was chosen

to lead the National League of Postmasters at their organization’s convention in the summer of 1960.

Washington Evening Star, August 7, 1960.

AND THE WINNER OF IS - The people of Swainsboro were very proud of their

community’s title as the “Turpentine Capital of the World.”  So proud, that they sponsored a farm

queen contest.  They even were able to secure Georgia governor Marvin Griffin to travel to

Swainsboro to announce the winner.  After the elimination rounds, only Janice Ridgdill and Sarah

Ellen Phillips remained.  Ridgdill, described by a UP writer as pert and pretty, was the unanimous

choice of the three judges.  But, when Governor Griffin announced that Sarah Ellen Phillips, “a whiz

in 4-H Club activities,” as the winner, the judges were shocked.    When the opinions of the judges

were made public, protests within the community  abounded, even among the community’s most soft

spoken leaders.  Ridgdill, an Oak Park junior,  had her winning name removed from the judge’s

envelope  during a secret meeting of the Farm Bureau’s directors, reportedly because Sarah Ellen

was more talented when it came to 4-H club activities.  She accepted the decision with charm and

grace, bowing out when the controversy began to expand.   Later in the year, Janice proved her

worthiness in 4-H activities by capturing the award for the most progress in the club during the year

and a state award for her entomology project.    Miss Phillips, the official winner and a  senior from

Graymont, felt sorry for Ridgdill but vowed to take the crown and carry on her assigned duties. 

Augusta Chronicle, May 8, 1955, Dec. 26, 1955.  

THE LEADERS’ LEADER - The Jaycees, United States Junior Chamber of Commerce

make it their mission to train through community service to become leaders of their community.  The

state leaders of this national organization came together in Miami, Florida in 1951 to elect their

national president.  The delegates chose Lee Price, a Swainsboro, Ga. attorney and Coca-Cola

executive.  During World War II, Price worked for the OSS in Norway in espionage work and

surpvervised European immigrants coming to the United States after the war.    Price joined Coca

Cola in 1951.  He was named Vice President of Personnel in 1954 and Vice President of Public

Relations in 1960.  Price tragically died in 1962 from a heart attack at the age of 44 years.

Greensboro Daily News, June 9, 1951, Augusta Chronicle, February 8, 1962.  

STILLMORE, GEORGIA

Why do they call it Stillmore?  Was it because turpentine baron and town founder George Brinson thought that his prolific still would run forevermore?  Or was it because when you got there, you had still more to go?  Or was it the simply a sarcastic response to the office of the Postmaster General when the list of names for a new town were already taken?  Whether you believe one or more of these legends, believe that this Emanuel County town with a most unusual name was once one of the most bustling railroad towns in East Central Georgia.  This is the story of the early years of Stillmore, Georgia.

In the mid 1880s timber and turpentine man George Brinson and his cousin B.L. Brinson constructed a turpentine mill in the middle of nowhere in a piney forest covering rich and fertile sand.  The Brinson kinsmen expanded their operation to include a large saw mill.  In order to more economically get his sawed timber to markets in Swainsboro and Savannah,   George Brinson knew that he needed a railroad.  Without the aid of profit seeking and demanding Northern capitalists, Brinson began construction of a railroad known as the Brunswick, Athens and Northwestern Railroad.

 Brinson’s enterprises brought in employees by the droves.  With such a large population concentrated in a small place someone thought why not incorporate the new town and allow the residents to govern themselves.  On November 13, 1889, the town of Stillmore was officially created by the Georgia legislature.

 Following a devastating fire which destroyed his mill, Brinson began construction on a thirty-four-mile railroad from Swainsboro to Collins, a depot town on the Georgia-Alabama Railroad.   In 1891, when railroads began to rapidly spread across the state, work was commenced on the Atlantic Shortline, a railroad designed to run from Macon, through Laurens County and eastward to Savannah.


 The bold venture died for lack of financial support.  The owners of the Brewton and Pineora  Railroad laid their tracks along the mostly intact grading and gave Stillmore it second rail line and a fairly direct route to Savannah at the end of the 19th Century making Stillmore a junction town.  More fortune seekers moved in search of work and success.

 Stillmore remained virtually stagnant until 1892 when the town was laid out into lots. By 1900, Stillmore was home to a college, four churches, two lodges, a newspaper, a public library and a large number of mercantile establishments.  

 But by far, Stillmore owed it’s entire existence to the railroads and the opportunities they brought.  The Rogers and Summit railroad became the Millen and Southwestern, which eventually became part of the Georgia-Florida Railroad.  The Brunswick, Athens and Northwestern later became known as the Stillmore Air Line and eventually a branch of the Wadley-Southern Railroad.  The Central Railroad of Georgia, the state’s largest rail company, took control of the Brewton and Pineora.  These three railroads, all intersecting  in the town of Stillmore, provided the spark which catapulted Stillmore into a position as the leading city in Emanuel County.  At least that’s what they said outside the county seat of Swainsboro.

  

Stillmore’s greatest pride outside of its railroads and Mr. Brinson’s mills was the Stillmore Military College.  The college was under the leadership of Professor Y.E. Bargeron,  who also worked as a city official, editor of the town newspaper (The Budget,) and finally as a lawyer.  Mrs. Bargeron taught courses too.   Capt. M.W. Bargeron took over the duties of drill master when the military program was added to the curriculum.  Florence Moore, a sweet lady and a graduate of an outstanding music conservatory,  taught music to both boys and girls.  With the wave of patriotism which swept across America during the conflicts with the Spanish, the ranks of the military students swelled to more than seventy young men.  George Brinson donated the funds to provide nearly three dozen Springfield rifles to the school.  School officials and other townsfolk saw to it that every student soon had a real rifle to train with.  Crowds often gathered in the late afternoon to watch the students demonstrate their military skills on the lawn of the college.  Adult males also wanted in on the action and patriotism.  Joseph Phillips, along with M.W. Bargeron and Dr. R.Y. Yeomans, led the formation of the Stillmore Guards, which trained in case their services were needed across the state or against the nation’s enemies.   In addition to military and music courses, students studied bookkeeping, pedagogy, chemistry, literature, oratory.     

 A fine public library, free to the town residents, was affiliated with the college. Capt. Joseph Phillips, the auditor of the Stillmore Air Line, kept the library filled with the latest new books and periodicals to educate and entertain the students, townspeople and even visitors who walked over from the hotels.

When visitors came to town, they roomed in relative luxury.  Mr. and Mrs. Nat Hughes ran the three story Victorian hotel where people from all over gather from as far away as fifty miles to enjoy the food and fellowship.  If the Canoochee was full, then you could spend the night and get a good meal in the Brown House or the Edenfield House.  

Some of the earliest merchants and businessmen of Stillmore included George Brinson, attorneys Frank R. Durden, Y.E. Bargeron, merchants John R. Hargrove, J.A. Woodward, John H. Edenfield, Sallie Kennedy, E.A. Miller, J.F. Tanner, Wyatt and Frierson, Stillmore Mercantile Co., W.B. Heath,  E. H. Heath, Bessie Nichols, J.L. Martin, J.M. Duberry, Canoochee Pharmacy and many others .  The professional men included attorneys Frank R. Durden,  Dr. L.P. Lane, Dr. J.M. Emmitt and Dr. S.E. Brinson.  Dr. J.R. pulled teeth when necessary.   There were at least two banks in town, the Bank of Stillmore and the Planter’s Bank.

In 1913, a movement began to create a new county of Candler with Metter as the county seat.  The people of southeastern Emanuel County wanted to be a part of it.  They wanted their own county with Stillmore as its capital.  Stillmorians hoped that portions of Emanuel, Tattnall and Bulloch counties could be joined with Stillmore in the center.  They proposed to honor one of the Confederacy’s greatest heroes by naming their county “Stonewall Jackson County.”

 The failure to become a county seat, coupled with the loss of the cotton crop during the second decade of the 20th Century, led to the end of Stillmore’s prosperity.  But don’t call the coroner yet.  Stillmore is still there.  The trains don’t come like they used to.  The college is now in Swainsboro along with the all of the county’s motels.  But the fine folks are still  there and will still be there as long as there is a Stillmore.

MT. CARMEL BAPTIST CHURCH, DEXTER

Celebrating 150 Years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Savior of Georgia Football

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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