USA > Georgia > Tift County > History of Tift County > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
HISTORY OF
TIFT COUNTY
IDA BELLE WILLIAMS
1800
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
HISTORY
OF
TIFT COUNTY
By Ida Belle Williams
PRINTED BY THE J. W. BURKE COMPANY
MACON, GEORGIA
F292 TSYs
COPYRIGHTED 1948 TIFT COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
REOLIVE
NOV 2 6 1948
28546
COPYRIGHT OFFICE
-
HENRY HARDING TIFT Founder of Tifton
DEDICATION
With admiration we dedicate this volume of the Tift County History to the memory of the founder of Tifton, an unselfish builder, a generous contributor to all good causes, a great bene- factor, a great man-HENRY HARDING TIFT.
V
APPRECIATION
I wish to emphasize my appreciation of everyone who helped me in the compiling of the "History of Tift County." It is impossible to name every- one, but among the number are the following: Mr. J. L. Williams, Mrs. Elizabeth Pickard Karsten, and Mr. Bob Herring, all of the editorial staff of Tift County History ; Mrs. N. Peterson, Mrs. Dan Sutton, Mr. C. C. Guest, Miss Laura Guest, Mr. H. Carmichael, Mrs. Bob Herring, Mrs. Briggs Carson, Sr., Mrs. Peggy Herring Coleman, Mr. A. B. Phillips, Mrs. Weetie Tift Rankin, Mrs. Robert Heinsohn, Mr. H. D. Webb, Mrs. D. M. Braswell, Miss Corrinne Tucker and her students, the Tifton High School commercial department; Miss Elmina McKneely, Mrs. Frank Corry, Sr., Mrs. D. B. Harrell, Mr. L. E. Bowen, Sr., Dr. L. A. Baker, Mrs. Paul Fulwood, Sr., Mr. Paul Fulwood, Sr., Miss Billy Jean Pear- man, Mrs. R. E. Jones, Miss Eulala Tyson, Mrs. Elizabeth Turlington White, Miss Jean Colley, Mr. Phillip Kelley, the Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. W. L. Harman, Mrs. J. G. Fulwood, Mr. Y. Sutton, Mr. Elias Branch, Mr. John Henry Hutchinson, Mr. Earle Smith, Mr. Fred Shaw, Mrs. Louise Griner, Dr. Sanders, Dr. S. W. Martin, Mr. George King, Mrs. Ralph Johnson, Miss Leola Greene, Mr. Ben McLeod, Mrs. Hazel Whittington Fowler, Miss Mary Lillian Willis, Mrs. Maude Thompson, Mr. George Branch, Mrs. Susie T. Moore, Mrs. R. Eve, Judge Eve, Major Steve Mitchell, Miss Cassie Goff, Mrs. Katherine Tift Jones, Mr. Frank Smith, and all other members of the Tift County Historical Society. I found the task of writing the "History of Tift County" very interesting.
We extend sincere appreciation to the following for donations received by Judge R. Eve, for and in behalf of Tift County Historical Society : E. P. and L. E. Bowen, T. W. Tift (Egan, Ga.), City of Tifton, County of Tift, Mrs. Pearl Myers, Mrs. Robt. A. Balfour (nee Debbie McCrea, Thomasville), Harry Hornbuckle, Mrs. Susie T. Moore, Mrs. Lillian Britt Heinsohn (nee Lillian Britt, Thomasville), A. B. Phillips, Joe Kent, Sr.
IDA BELLE WILLIAMS.
For permission to use copyrighted material, I am grateful to the follow- ing :
McCall Corporation, for "Adopting a Rural School," by Myra G. Reed. Mrs. Lillie Clements, for Judge J. B. Clements's "History of Irwin County." Published by Foote and Davies.
Oklahoma Press, for Debo's "Road to Disappearance" and Caughey's "McGillivray of the Creeks ;"
Mrs. Lillie Martin Grubbs, for her book, "History of Worth County," published by the J. W. Burke Co.
vii
Columbia University Press, for Phillips' "History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt to 1860;"
E. Coulter, for his book, "A Short History of Georgia," published by University of North Carolina Press ;
American Historical Society, for Cooper's "History of Georgia ;"
R. P. Brooks, for his "History of Georgia," published by Atkinson, Mentger and Company ;
Mrs. Lucian Lamar Knight, for Lucian Lamar Knight's "Georgia Land- marks, Memorials, and Legends," published by Byrd Printing Company ;
I am also indebted to the Smithsonian Institute for Swanton's "Early History of the Creek Indians and their Neighbors ;"
Oklahoma Historical Society, for "Chronicles of Oklahoma," June 1932 ; White's "Statistics of Georgia," published by T. Williams, copyrighted ;
Jones's "History of Georgia," published by Houghton, Mifflin and Com- pany, copyrighted ;
to the entire staff and files of the Tifton Gazette, to Miss Leatrice Fore- man, librarian of Tifton High School, to the Herrings for J. L. Herring's "Saturday Night Sketches," and to Carnegie Library, Atlanta, for Wat- kin's Digest.
IDA BELLE WILLIAMS
Appreciation of The Tift County Historical Society is expressed to Ida Belle Williams, M.A., Editor-in-Chief of
The History of Tift County
Miss Williams has for fifteen years taught English in the Tifton High School, of which, for the last five years, she has been the capable and be- loved principal. Her feature articles on many subjects have long appeared in the press. Her present work adds another blossom to her bouquet of achievements.
By Elizabeth Pickard Karsten for the Tift County Historical Society.
viii
Many Thanks are expressed
to our highly esteemed Judge Raleigh Eve, appointed by The Grand Jury official Tift County Historian He, with characteristic executive acumen,
organized
The Tift County Historical Society,
of which he is
President,
appointed committees, selected writers, and arranged for the publication
of
The History of Tift County.
E. PICKARD KARSTEN
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER I
Footsteps of the Creek Indians I
CHAPTER II
Footsteps of "Pale Faces" 13
CHAPTER III
Footsteps of Early Settlers 18
CHAPTER IV
The Founding of Tifton
23
CHAPTER V
Wire Grass in the Eighties
30
CHAPTER VI
"The Gay Nineties"
34
CHAPTER VII
The Early Nineteen Hundreds
53
CHAPTER VIII
Tift County 61
CHAPTER IX
.
Agricultural School
66
CHAPTER X
Progress from 1910-1917
78
CHAPTER XI
86
"World Earthquake"-World War I
xi
Page
CHAPTER XII
The Turbulent Twenties - 90
CHAPTER XIII
The Depression 96
CHAPTER XIV
World War II-Second "World Earthquake" III
CHAPTER XV
Post-War Events-Atomic Era I26
CHAPTER XVI
Small Towns 132 Brighton-Brighton Community-Mr. and Mrs. Elbert Fletcher-Mr. and Mrs. Henry Sutton-Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Walker-Brookfield- Bishop Arthur Moore-Chula-"A Lone Soldier in Gray"-Eldorado- Excelsior District-Harding-Mr. and Mrs. Dan Fletcher-Mr. and Mrs. John Goff-Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Hall-Mr. and Mrs. Azor Paulk-Omega -Ty Ty.
CHAPTER XVII
Tifton and Tift County Education 162 Introduction-Annie Bell Clark School-G. O. Bailey, Jr .- W. L. Bryan -Mrs. J. E. Cochran-A. H. Moon-R. E. Moseley-Jason Scarboro- John C. Sirmons-Ida Belle Williams-Mrs. Dan Sutton-Miss Follis- Miss Shaw-Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and Preceding In- stitution-Abraham Baldwin-Tift County Industrial School-W. R. Smith-R. F. Kersey-W. L. Harman-Charles Harman-Faculty of Tift County Schools 1946-47-Superintendents of Education (Tift County)- Present County Board of Education-M. H. Mitcham-Charles Luther Carter-Charles F. Hudgins-W. T. Bodenhamer-Alton Ellis-Mrs. Nicholas Peterson-Conclusion.
CHAPTER XVIII
Churches 204 Brookfield Baptist Church-First Baptist Church of Tifton-Chula Bap- tist Church-Ty Ty Baptist Church-Zion Hope-Bessie Tift Chapel- The Tifton Primitive Church-St. Anne's Episcopal Church-Hickory Springs Church-Brookfield Methodist Church-Chula Methodist-Hard- ing Methodist Church-Mt. Calvary Methodist Church-Oak Ridge Methodist Church-Tifton Methodist Church-Church of Nazarene- New River Church-Presbyterian Church-Salem Church-Turner Church.
xii
CHAPTER XIX
Page 226
Clubs
Boy Scouts-Gun Lake Country Club-Tifton Lions Club-Primrose Garden Club-Tifton's First and Second Kiwanis Club-Chamber of Commerce-Tifton Garden Club-The Country Club-Garden Center- Parent-Teacher's Association-United Daughters of the Confederacy- Tifton County Welfare-Tifton Masonic Lodge No. 47-Tifton Shrine Club-Veterans of Foreign Wars-Woodmen of the World-Tifton Junior Woman's Club-Tifton Music Club-Twentieth Century Library Club-Rotary Club-Tift County Post 21 The American Legion.
CHAPTER XX
Who's Who in Tift County 258 S. J. Akers-L. S. Alfriend-G. O. Bailey, Jr .- L. E. Bowen, Sr .- Elias Branch-W. P. Bryan-Annie Bell Clark-Ethel Clements,-Josie Clyatt (Mrs. Jim Clyatt)-Nathan Coarsey-Peggy Herring Coleman-George P. Donaldson-Judge R. Eve-Paul Dearing Fulwood, Sr .- Ruth Vickers Fulwood (Mrs. P. D. Fulwood, Sr.)-Mrs. J. J. Golden-Leola Judson Greene-Mrs. W. S. Harman-Dr. W. H. Kendricks-Joseph Kent- George Harris King-Harry Kulbresh-Bishop Arthur Moore-Susie T. Moore-R. C. Patrick-Mrs. J. A. Peterson, Sr .- Mrs. Nicholas Peterson T. E. Phillips, Sr .- Dr. Franklin Pickett-Mrs. J. W. Poole-D. C. Rainey-Mrs. W. T. Smith-Mrs. Dan Sutton-John Y. Sutton-Amos Tift-E. L. Webb-Ida Belle Williams-J. L. Williams.
CHAPTER XXI
Some of the Tift County Boys Who Made the Supreme
Sacrifice in World War II .270
Garland Anderson-Tilton Edward Belflower-Winford Elijah Evans- Reuben G. Funderburk-Russell Leonard Garner-Ollie E. Gibbs-Ralph Gibbs-Curtis Mathews-Charles William Mathews-Alvin Mckinney- Sidney Neighbors-Charles Edwin Patton-Robert B. Powledge-Fred- erick E. Sears-George Sutton-Pfc. Durward Lee Willis.
CHAPTER XXII
Wire Grass Journalism -279 J. T. Maund-Ty Ty Echo-B. T. Allen-Tifton Gazette-Quaint Writ- ing in Gazette of 1892-John L. Herring-John Greene Herring-Bob Herring-Leola Judson Greene-Gus Pat Adams-Omega News-Lucy Maude Thompson-"A Wire-Grass Easter" (from Saturday Night Sketches")-The Tifton Free Press-J. L. Williams-Elizabeth Pickard Karsten.
CHAPTER XXIII
Tift County Agriculture 292 Agriculture-Tobacco in Tift County-Mrs. Paul Fulwood, Sr .- Paul Dearing Fulwood, Sr.
xiii
CHAPTER XXIV
Industries
Page -306
The Southern Cotton Oil Company-Armour Enters Tifton Territory- Tifton Cotton Mills-Tifton Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
CHAPTER XXV
Miscellaneous-Part I -309 Facts compiled by the Chamber of Commerce-The Bench and the Bar -Tifton County Representatives and Senators-Mayors and City Man- agers of Tifton-Airport-Stephen A. Youmans-Frank Henry Smith- George Washington Coleman-Tifton Post Office-Union Road-Chase Salmon Osborn-Christie Bell Kennedy-Florence Karsten Carson-An Appreciation of Tifton-Tift County Officers-Coastal Plain Experiment Station-Silas Starr.
CHAPTER XXVI
Miscellaneous-Part II 341 Negro Pioneers-Negro Citizens-Negro Churches-Joe Reeves.
CHAPTER XXVII
True Tales of Wire Grass Georgia 348 Tifton's First Tornado-Tribute to J. L. Herring-Tifton's First Radio Station-Tifton's First Automobile-Tifton's First Filling Station-When Tifton Was Dry-The Key Man of Tifton in 1899-The Progressive Minister-The Horned Negro of Tifton-Candidates Running for Office -How the First Session of Tift County Court Was Paid For-City Elec- tion for Mayor-When Tifton Had Seventeen Lawyers and One Preacher -Big Hog Dan Walker-Grammar School Block When the Circus Came to Tifton-John H. Sparks-The Vamberg Shows-When Life Began for Me.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Tift County Pioneers-Appreciation 363 B. T. Allen-Joseph J. Baker-William W. Banks-Mary Evelyn Town Banks-Annie Fogler Bennett-Frederick G. Boatright-George Washı- ington Bowen-Enoch Piercel Bowen-Irwin W. Bowen-Isaac Stephen Bowen-Branch Family-Elias Branch-Britt Family-Edward Buck- Thomas Carmichael-Briggs Carson, Sr .- Charlotte Carson-Captain Lemuel Chesnutt and Family-Samuel Clyatt-Churchwells-James E. Cochran-Abraham Conger-Abraham Benjamin Conger-Virgil Francis Dinsmore-John Duff-Raleigh Eve-Fletchers-Daniel Fulwood-C. W. Fulwood-James S. Gaulding-Jack Gaulding-Greene Family (James, John, Leola)-Gibbs Family-J. J. Golden-Dr. John Goodman-Kather- ine Tift Jones-C. C. Guest-R. E. Hall-W. T. Hargrett-W. L. Har- man-W. H. Hendricks-J. L. Herring-C. B. Holmes- B. C. Hutchin- son-J. H. Hutchinson-J. L. Gay, Jr .- George W. Julian-Kent Family -Belle Willingham Lawrence-W. H. Love-J. T. Mathis-Dr. John
xiv
Arch McRae-Perryman Moore-Susie T. Moore-Sylvester Murray- Tillou Bacon Murrow-Irvine Myers-Henry Myers-B. H. McLeod- McMillan Family-Silas and Duncan O'Quinn-Overstreets-Padrick Brothers-Thomas J. Parker-Jacob Marion Paulk-Anne Catherine Register Paulk-Dr. John A. Peterson-Dr. Nichols Peterson-J. J. L. Phillips-John A. Phillips-T. E. Phillips-Florence Willingham Pickard -William L. Y. Pickard-J. L. Pickard-John Milton Price-S. G. Slack -Jason Scarboro-Matthew Sylvester Shaw-Edna Cox Shaw-Fred Shaw-Luther Smith Shepherd and Larkin G. Maynard-George Alfred Brannon Smith-Robley D. Smith-W. T. Smith-Walter Crawford Spurlin-Nelson Tift-Henry Harding Tift-E. H. Tift-Bessie Wil- lingham Tift-Henry Harding Tift, Jr .- Amos Tift-Thomas Willing- ham Tift-W. O. Tift-W. H. Timmons-E. L. Vickers-Jonathan Walker-The Warrens-William Wiley Webb-Whiddon Family-C. A. Williams-Cecelia Matilda Baynard Willingham-Margaret Willingham Wood-E. E. Youmans.
TIFT COUNTY HISTORY
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Henry Harding Tift
V
Judge Raleigh Eve xix
Editorial Staff xxi
Commissary Established in 1872 24
Camp Fire Girls of the "Gay Nineties" 35
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural School 69
Tift Theater 97
Mrs. Susie T. Moore, Mrs. Nichols Peterson, Mrs. Paul Fulwood, Sr. 100
Tifton Street Scenes; Entrance to Fulwood Park and Home of Mr. and Mrs. Paul D. Fulwood, Sr .; Woman's Club and Public Library; Street Scene Shriners' Parade 108
Tifton Frozen Foods, Tifton Cotton Oil Company
112
Air View of Omega 153
Tifton Grammar. Junior High, and Senior High Schools 163
Tifton High Band and Glee Club 167
One-Room School attended by Bishop Arthur Moore, Omega School, Brookfield School 181
E. L. Patrick. R. G. Harrell, W. D. Doss, M. H. Evans, J. C. Branch 185
First Corps of Tift County Teachers 187
Mercer Mitcham, C. B. Culpepper, Edna Bishop 191
Tifton Presbyterian Church, Bessie Tift Chapel, Brookfield Methodist Church. First Baptist Church of Tifton, First Methodist Church of Tifton, St. Anne's Episcopal Church of Tifton 206
Baptism Scenes 208
Altar at St. Anne's Episcopal Church 213
Tift County's Diversified Agriculture
294
Scenes in Tift County 298
Scenes on Farms in Tift County 304
Scene in Mrs. Pauline Kent's Yard, Home of Mrs. Elizabeth Pickard Karsten, Sawmill of 1872, Amos Tift, Mary Carmichael 318
J. M. Walker. Leon Clements, Earl D. Gibbs, W. Jelks Warren 330
IV. C. McCormick. A. B. Phillips, Chester A. Baker 334
U. S. Post Office, Courthouse, Bank of Tifton, Confederate
Monument in Fulwood Park, Tift County Hospital 336
C. A. Sears, Frank Smith, P. D. Fulwood, Sr., R. M. Kennon, J. F. Newton, A. C. Tift 338
With Tift Colored Folk 342
Captain Owen Lemuel Chesnutt. G. W. Crum, P. D. Phillips, Patrick Thomas Carmichael, Henry Hardy Britt 375
C. W. Fulwood, Briggs Carson, Sr., Dr. Jasper Brooks, J. L. Herring. Dr. N. Peterson, John Henry Hutchinson 382
William Lowndes Yancey Pickard 449
Mrs. H. H. Tift and Sons. Mrs. H. H. Tift, Mrs. Florence Willingham Pickard 473
Thomas Willingham Tift 485
xvi
TURNER
0 MAP OF 0
-
TIFT COUNTY O
RWIN Co.
0 CEORCIA 0
SCHE IN MILES
1929
CHULA
4690CM
BRIGHTON
.. .
¥+ 1330℃
TIF TON
BROOK
Nº1129GM
FIELD-
ம்பல்
¥12181.M
ELDORADO .
- AMMEGA
NO1612CM
MILITIA DISTRICTS
IRWIN CO.
TIFTON
rt
NL COURSEY
WILLY TAYLOR
CA CHRISTIAN
ROOK FIEL
GED SUTTON
C NELSON
404
LEGEND
BERRIEN
HAARDE
TUFT
JJ DAKER
........
WJ WARREN
FOX COMMI33:048 4
H D WEDD
EUTISIOR
ELDORADO
JO THRASHER
€ P BOW EN
T E PHILLIPS
.............
P
SCHOOL DISTRICTS W L MARMAN
K
CO
HIHOM
COLCJITT
C
383
C. . 04.
4 ... .
INTRODUCTION TO TIFT COUNTY HISTORY By Lillian Britt Heinsohn
This is not a definitive history. The life and the people of this region, from the wilderness era to the present, are too rich and too varied to be dealt with adequately in one volume.
Rather this is somewhat an informal chronicle, an intimate, sketchy sur- vey of folk and folk-lore, of customs, manners, traditions and growth of a highly interesting section of our state. As such we hope it will be a worthy contribution to the stream of material compiled and put into permanent form in various parts of the country for the understanding and the preser- vation of the days and ways of our beginnings.
All over the land there are unmistakable evidences that Americans have been refreshing their national memories, searching for their roots, however obscure, and studying them with fresh interest. It is as if they were finding pride and no little solace for an uncertain present and an unpredictable future in the rediscovery of the past.
A whole new literature has sprung up. A literature seriously concerned with American folkways, regional cultures, pioneer migrations, descriptive- historical novels, and endless outpouring of biography and autobiography. There have been "period pieces," folk-play, lavishly and authentically cos- tumed, both in the theatre and on the screen. Even the W.P.A. produced guides to states, roads and historical spots. Elaborate "restorations" have taken place in many spots of historical interest and significance in order that the atmosphere and cultural quality of long ago might be preserved. In the Library of Congress there was established in 1933 the Archives of American Folk Song, and in so short a time more than twenty thousand recordings have been made of purely indigenous American folk music : mountain ballads, cowboy laments, negro work-songs and spirituals, sea chanties-recorded and preserved for all time.
There is a profound significance in the fact of this need to search out the land, to compile records, to explain America to itself. Those critics and skeptics of the twenties who had tried to "debunk" every tradition, every commonplace national allegiance, many of our time-honored heroes, those critics who had indulged in what has been called the "license of indiscrimi- nate negation," these have been amazed at this rebirth of America's astounding hunger for self-knowledge. for the need to reclaim and re- evaluate the past. The very nature of the crisis through which the world has passed, and the explosive changes it has brought, have intensified this need for self-discovery. In a period of unparalleled shock and insecurity we have turned to our forebears for reassurance, for a reaffirmation of values, that they may give new meaning to contemporary experience and
xvii
thought; that something of the strength, vision and courage that was theirs may, through understanding and appreciation, be ours.
The records and histories of the more brilliant and outstanding men of our early days are full, glowing, and inspirational. They were found- ing and perfecting the structure of a great new democracy, and the story of that struggle is one of the most important in recorded history. Many of these men also stand clearly revealed to us through their own writings. But great as they were, they could not have made America without the fine stout hearts, minds and brawn of the unknown, inconspicuous tens of thou- sands who were the warp and woof of this rugged, determined experiment in self-government. It is not easy to know these people intimately. Most of them were not really articulate, not much given to writing their memoirs. their observations, their inner and outer struggles in support of the new American Constitution, in helping to make the United States a reality. in opening up trackless wilderness and making it habitable, prosperous farm country. We are now beginning to realize and appreciate their tremendous contribution ; we are hunting them out and revaluing them, and paying them tribute.
In "The New Freedom" Woodrow Wilson wrote: "When I look back upon the processes of history, when I survey the genesis of America, I see this written over every page: that the nations are renewed from the bot- tom, not from the top; that the genius which springs up from the ranks of unknown men is the genius which renews the youth and energy of a people. Everything I know about history, every bit of experience and ob- servation that has contributed to my thought, has confirmed me in the conviction that the real wisdom of human life is compounded out of the experiences of ordinary men. The utility, the vitality, the fruitage of life does not come from the top to the bottom ; it comes like the natural growth of a great tree, from the soil, up through the trunk into the branches; to the foliage and the fruit. The great struggling, unknown masses of men who are the base of everything are the dynamic force that is lifting the levels of society. A nation is as great, and only as great, as her rank and file."
The realization of this truth makes it fitting and timely to hunt out. to preserve and to perpetuate the records of lives and times in the less con- spicuous, less publicized parts of our country, even when the personnel of the drama seldom rises above that great "rank and file." We are doing well to cultivate an awareness and an appreciation of all that is indigenous and idiomatic in our particular section of Georgia ; not that this effort may be a mechanism for building an ideological wall around our section. On the contrary, our sense of culture must come out of a desire to make more rich and salty our own contribution to our state and nation.
To much of the rest of the country Southwest Georgia seemed remote.
xviii
JUDGE RALEIGH EVE Historian of Tift County
isolated, sparsely inhabited, and perhaps a little forbidding. But there was romance and much natural beauty in these pinelands. Throbbing with wild life, redolent with pungent aroma of turpentine, lovely beyond description in its green gothic pine temples. A continuous concert of birds by day ; the ecstatic trill of the mockingbird filling the brooding silences of night; the wild fragrance of that night enticing from their hiding places shapes that were silent, elusive, often beautiful. A great silver stag moving with in- comparable grace through the moonlight like some disembodied spirit. Little elfin noises in the bushes and brambles, pine cones falling, twigs from gnarled old limbs shattering the silence with their sharp, impatient voices as they break and fall. To witness sundown and "fust-dark" stream- ing through the majestic trunks of great yellow pines in a blaze of glory was to see a veritable conflagration, a suffusion of molten gold, followed at 'last by paling, amathystine light and profound silence. These were the things the early settlers knew and loved; and the calm, the tranquility entered into their being and became a part of them, and fortified them in their isolation.
Those starlit, fragrant forests are almost gone now. They have been felled to make way for some of the finest farm lands in the state. But the sensitive heart can still feel the brooding, haunting beauty, the wild mys- terious whisperings of the forest, the mystic radiance that permeated the whole countryside and spread magic beauty on man and beast, transform- ing and tranfiguring every scar and blemish and ugliness. There is still strength in such tranquility.
This beautiful wiregrass Georgia does have a contribution to make, and a significant one, to the everwidening stream that is America. These records here presented, incomplete and inadequate as they are, are but our glance backward that reassures. revivifies and reaffirms, giving us inspiration and stimulus to carry forward into a great new era.
LILLIAN BRITT HEINSOHN
xx
Editorial Staff of The History of Tift County
Top row-Ida Belle Williams, Editor-in-Chief, author of History of Tift County; Elizabeth Pickard Karsten, assistant editor and author of chapter. "Pioneers."
Bottom row-J. L. Williams, assistant editor, author of True Tales of the Wire Grass. Bob Herring, assistant editor.
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
THE HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
Footsteps of the Creek Indians
Let us stroll in beautiful Fuiwood Park, Tifton, Georgia. It is the spring of 1947. The colorful azaleas, native and exotic, bordering the walks, and fragrant roses are blooming. The majestic long-leaf pines-a remnant of an ancient forest that probably whispered messages to Lower Creek Indian maidens and lovers on this spot-are still whispering and sighing. The magnolias, rare camellia plants, weeping willows, hollies, leafy branches of various oaks, dogwood blossoms, and sweet tunes of our Southern birds are announcing spring in Tift County.
Boy Scout log cabins and rustic bridges over natural streams, trickling through the woodland, give their human-interest touch and picturesqueness. April breezes are spreading rustic odors of pine straw and perfume from rose vines and native yellow jasmines garlanded over trellises.
Now as we stroll, let us listen to the tramp, tramp of feet of the past in Wire Grass Georgia! First came the footsteps of the animals and the aborigines. Wolves, bears, tigers, catamounts, deer, and wild turkey's tramp- ed through this spot, the present Fulwood Park, during the forest days before and after the sound of the axe and while the nimble-footed "red men" with their bows and arrows hunted game.
The Lower Creek Indians stepped in this section of Georgia. There is proof that Indians lived in what is now Tift County. Indian pottery was found eight miles from Tifton on Dan King's farm. A number of Indian relics have been found on W. L. Lawson's place, near Tifton. A very rare arrowhead was dug up in the old Pickard yard, where Mrs. Elizabeth Karsten now lives.
Let us discuss some of the facts about the makers of the footsteps. Ac- cording to Swanton, the Creek Confederacy had forty-seven tribes, com- posed of families and clans with a population estimated at 20,000. The Handbook of American Indians in Bulletin 30, Bureau of Ethnology, re- ferred to in Cooper's "Story of Georgia," Vol. I, page 46, holds that in ancient days the Creeks occupied the greater portion of Alabama and Geor- gia, residing chiefly on the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, and on the Flint River.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.