USA > Georgia > Colquitt County > History of Colquitt County > Part 10
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F. R. Pidcock, Sr., Executive Vice-President.
Mrs. Besse P. Pidcock, Treasurer.
F. R. Pidcock, Jr., Secretary.
Ed H. Lewis, General Freight and Passenger Agent.
J. F. Hatfield, Superintendent.
I. C. Johnson, Auditor.
J. D. Weston, Jr., General Agent.
J. R. Hackett, Jr., General Agent.
L. G. Cox, Train Master and Car Accountant.
C. B. Patterson, Master Mechanic.
H. F. Hatcher, Commercial Agent.
The Georgia-Northern Railway Co., and its owners have logically participated in the general prosperity of the com- munity, a prosperity which has resulted largely from the
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courageous foresight of the members of the Pidcock family. Of course the Georgia-Northern Railway Co., and its owners have stressed the transportation business, but they have known always that their business not only tends to build up basic industries but is itself built up and supported by such indus- tries; so they have always accepted suggestion of their Col- quitt County neighbors and customers that they contribute of their money and leadership to community enterprises of a worthy nature. Moultrie had its first growth as soon as the Georgia-Northern reached Moultrie. The town had at that time a population of 150. In 1900, it had 2,000. In 1920, the population of the City of Moultrie was a little less than 7,000. At the present date, February 20, 1937, the popu- lation of the city including its suburbs is the rise of 14,000 souls. During all the railroad's existence its relations with its employees have always been of the most cordial and friendly nature and there has never been a strike among its laborers.
CHAPTER XXIII Moultrie Speaks
WE HERE REFER to a kind of advertisement printed on map paper, in size about 18" x 30", and gotten out in 1895, a copy of which is in our possession at this time. The center of this ad is a cut of the second courthouse of Colquitt County, which is surrounded by printed matter, setting out the ad- vantages of Moultrie and Colquitt County. We attach a copy of this ad at the end of this chapter. We think it is a "hot" piece of advertising. Moultrie and Colquitt have had many a special trade edition since this advertisement; but it sets a swift pace, it will be admitted.
In a border of this ad appears a few advertising items worthy of being set forth here:
"Pearsall and Shipp" deal in Law and Collections.
"The Moultrie Observer" holds itself out as the "leading newspaper in South Georgia," doing this through "W. H. Cooper, editor, publisher and proprietor." Founder, too; of Colquitt's first newspaper.
"A. M. Tyler and Co." advertise "A complete line of cloth- ing, hats, shoes and groceries."
"J. J. Walker, Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law," will take a case in any kind of court.
"W. H. Cooper" will sell a few lots, as a sideline to his newspaper work.
"Christian Wurst" is a blacksmith.
"H. B. Lester" is a lawyer. "R. C. Ingalls" sells timber and lands.
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MOULTRIE SPEAKS
"The Central House" is, quite appropriately, "centrally located," being run on the present site of the Norman Hotel, by Mrs. J. L. Peeples, a sister-in-law of Mr. D. A. Autrey.
"Fisher Bros."-J. S. Fisher, sheriff, and M. J. Fisher- run a livery stable, a fact rendered more emphatic by a spank- ing team attached to a buggy, with a whip standing upright in a whip-socket.
"J. P. Smith" is a lawyer. J. L. Hall is ditto.
"D. F. Arthur, Atty.," deals in lands.
"James Holmes" is running a still, as is evidenced by a cut showing a copper still and "worm." No; you're wrong; it's a turpentine still.
"Dukes and Huber" do a contracting business, and manu- facture a superior quality of brick.
"Fisher and Smith"-J. S. Fisher and W. B. Smith-build wagons, buggies and carts.
"Beall and McLean"-O. A. Beall and McLean, are general merchants.
"C. C. Harrel"-Quitman, Georgia, and Moultrie, Geor- gia-runs a general dry goods store at both places, called "The Fair."
"J. B. Norman, Jr.," is a retail dealer in all kinds of food- stuffs and feed-stuffs.
"The Holloway Company" hold themselves out to the world as "Jewelers, and dealers in optical goods, and proprietors of the Poplar Spring Bath-houses, centrally located, where you can always get baths of all kinds." (Query: What has be- come of "Poplar Springs"?)
"A. B. Peters" says he is a physician and surgeon, and lends color to the assertion by publishing a mortar and pestle, for such cases made and provided.
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
"W. C. Sessoms" is likewise a physician and surgeon, but minus the mortar and pestle.
Last of all, as we make the round of the ad, is a picture of a young merchant named "W. B. Dukes," who modestly puts out an alias of "The Model American Merchant, Owner and Operator of Five Different Stores." The reader will hear more of "the model merchant," which is the due of both the reader and the merchant.
Note: Upon a review of the above border ads, we find that Dr. C. A. Holtzendorf is a "Dental Surgeon," with office over Dukes and Smith's drug store. Also, that we have over- looked Dr. J. H. Cook, another "dental surgeon," whose office is over the Autrey Building, to have missed them both, is per- haps in the nature of things. One cannot be expected to put one's self out much to find a "dental surgeon."
As we promised, we end this chapter with the advertisement hereinbefore referred to. We do this for the reason that we are rather proud of this piece of advertising. It is the first of many put out since May, 1895, by Moultrie boosters; but we have doubts as to whether it has ever been surpassed.
MOULTRIE
Situated away down in south Georgia, in the midst of the wire grass and pines, is one of the most flourishing and prosperous towns of the South.
It has indeed caught the spirit of thrift and enterprise, and is fast forging its way to the front. Three years ago, Moultrie had only 50 inhabitants; now she is a thriving little town of 1200, busy, stirring souls; and her population is increasing daily.
People growing tired of the old barren hills of north Georgia and the Carolinas are seeking new homes in this favored section.
Very little short cotton is raised here now; the long-staple Sea Island can be raised here just as cheap; and, while short cotton is
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MOULTRIE SPEAKS
selling at from four to five cents, long staple brings from twelve to twenty cents a pound; and those who plant it claim that just as much of the long staple can be raised per acre as the short staple. Land here, well tilled, will produce two-thirds of a bale of long cotton per acre; and the farmers of other sections of the South, growing tired of the low prices of short staple cotton, are fast com- ing to Colquitt County, and taking advantage of her fresh, cheap, productive lands, discarding the cheap short-staple cotton, and de- voting their time and energies to the long staple.
This is the home of the watermelon. The finest melons in the world are raised in this section. Immense amounts of melons are shipped every year from south Georgia to the North, and to less favored sections of the United States. One acre here planted in melons and properly cultivated will bring as much in the market as ten acres in corn or cotton.
Another great industry to which our lands and climate are pe- culiarly adapted is the fruit culture. Peaches, pears, apples, grapes, and all kinds of fruits grow here to perfection. We are only twenty-eight miles southwest of Tifton, the great fruit center.
Some of our most enterprising planters are embarking in the cul- tivation of fruit. It is astonishing to what perfection sugar cane and potatoes grow here. And the peanut, the oat, and corn, grow here as well as anywhere in the world. The health of this section is pro- verbial. We are twenty-six miles northeast of Thomasville, the re- nowned health resort.
Land here can be bought for a mere song. The very best of lands can be had for from $2.50 to $10.00 per acre, though the price of land is constantly rising.
This county has a record for morality and law-abiding that is not exceeded by any county in the South.
Colquitt County was established in 1856-thirty years ago-and during that time, there has never within her borders occurred a lynching, nor has anyone ever been hanged, and but one criminal sent to the penitentiary.
This county has perhaps the finest saw-mill and turpentine timber anywhere to be found, until recently remote from railroads, her timber stands almost in its primeval glory.
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Quite a number of turpentine stills are being operated in the county, and sawmill men are coming here to save the timber, as the turpentine men leave it.
Moultrie perhaps ships more naval stores than any other point in the world.
At present, we have but one railroad-the Georgia Northern, which intersects with the Savannah, Florida and Western, at a point thirty-one miles south of here. We hope, however, to soon see both the Tifton and Thomasville and the Columbus Southern extended from Albany to Valdosta. If these roads are built, Moultrie will then have ample railroad connection.
Moultrie has twenty-nine mercantile establishments, all in pros- perous condition. She has four livery stables, all running on a pay- ing basis. The Central Hotel, run by Mrs. J. L. Peeples, is one of the best in the South. The climate here is superb. There is an absence of both extreme heat and cold, and out-of-door work is pos- sible the year round. The population in the last two years has in- creased from 150 to not less than 1400. Fifteen or twenty buildings are in course of construction, and will be erected during the summer. A large modern brick hotel is in contemplation, and it is probable that its doors will soon be thrown open for the entertainment of guests. Stock companies are being formed by northern men, and are buying up lands in this section, preparatory to undertaking fruit culture.
Cattle, sheep, hogs, and goats are permitted to run in the forest unguarded and unsheltered and unfed throughout the year, and yet they thrive and multiply, drawing on Nature's storehouse for their provisions. This is considered an unusually good country for bees, wild flowers growing spontaneously, and the writer can testify that he never saw anywhere richer colored honey.
CHAPTER XXIV Colquitt in 1898
THE PRECEDING CHAPTER deals with Moultrie and Colquitt County in 1895, which was two years after the first railroad reached Moultrie. We are now to deal with our subject as we found it in 1898. Our first personal contact with Col- quitt was on the second day of June, 1898. We had been admitted to the bar twelve days before, at Ellijay, Georgia, by Judge George F. Gober, of the Blue Ridge Circuit. We visited our wife's kin at Arlington and at Camilla, and with her, drove over from Camilla in a two-horse hack, coming through Hartsfield, and the section that is now Funston. We arrived at Moultrie at high noon, and took dinner with W. H. Budd, the Methodist preacher, and went into a rented house belonging to Mr. J. F. Monk. The next day, we took dinner with Mr. H. C. Mackenzie, whose wife was a relative. Mr. John H. Smithwick, our professional partner to be, had pre- ceded us one day, having left Cherokee County about the same time we did; but he came direct to Moultrie.
In a biography of William Tecumseh Sherman appears the account of how his parents, both college people, went West as advised to do by Horace Greeley, and settled at Lancaster, Ohio. The book says, "It was a good place to build up a law practice. The county was new, and there was much title and transfer work, as well as land litigation. Also, there were several saloons, which furnished a lot of criminal practice."
This exactly describes conditions in Colquitt County in 1898. Plenty of title litigation, and much real estate trans- ferring. Also, there were nine saloons. Also there was a criminal killing about every four weeks, and we did not count Negroes. It was a young lawyer's paradise, if he
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
knew how to charge and collect a fee. The prosperity sound- ing out of the advertisement described and quoted in a preced- ing chapter was rising right on. W. B. Dukes, the "model mer- chant," was still running his five stores. He was Moultrie's leading merchant alright, his main store being situated on the northeast corner, formed by the intersection of the streets where Friedlander's store is now located. Monk Murphy and Co., a partnership composed of Miles Monk, Sr., Henry Mur- phy and J. F. Monk, was operating a general store, where the Moultrie Cafe is now located. Jack Walker, the lawyer, was gone, as was Attorney Lester. John A. Wilkes had just come to Moultrie, and formed a partnership with J. L. Hall. H. C. Mackenzie and J. D. Mackenzie were practicing law in partnership. Drs. Sessums and Peters sole members of the medical profession in 1895, had been joined by a Dr. Ellis, whose office was on the ground floor of a building in the middle of the block immediately south of the courthouse square. He had a mounted human skeleton in his consulta- tion office. Dr. Holtzendorf, plying the profession of den- tistry in 1895, was gone in 1898. Dr. J. H. Cook, however, was still in Moultrie.
W. C. Vereen, who lived on his turpentine farm in north- west Colquitt in 1895, had moved to Moultrie, in 1896, and lived in a two-story frame building, on the present site of his elaborate brick residence.
The Moultrie Banking Company, which was not in exist- ence in 1895, was here and going good on June 1, 1898, with W. W. Ashburn, president; W. C. Vereen, vice-president, and J. H. Clark, cashier. J. B. Norman, Jr., owner of a grocery business in 1895, had closed this business in June, 1898. There were only two brick buildings in Moultrie in 1898, and none in 1895. Antone Huber was laying brick on the second story of his two-story building, situated then and now on the west side of the courthouse square. Battle Bros., a
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COLQUITT IN 1898
firm composed of George and Joe J. Battle, had a kind of livery stable and wagon and buggy business where the Sunday school extension of the First Baptist Church of Moultrie now stands.
The Battles were very eccentric, on occasion. For instance, late in the year 1898, this firm put in a stock of undertakers' sup- plies in their store, and ad- vertised that part of their business by suspending a full-sized black coffin to a beam extending out over the sidewalk at right angles to their warehouse. In a night or two, the coffin was missing; and was presently found over in the Ocapilco swamp, filled with mud. Some fifteen year later, Joe JAMES MURPHY, Colquitt Reconstruction Leader. Battle had a livery stable and a live-stock warehouse running back north from First Avenue, East, and back to the present Friedlander store. In course of time, he cut off on the side of his warehouse a storeroom, for a stock of mill- iners' supplies; and in a day or two, across the whole front 'of his building and high up above the roof, was a big sign in box-car letters, carrying the words, "J. J. Battle, Millinery and Mules."
By 1898, J. B. Norman, Jr., Hon. Martin F. Amorous, and Major Bacon had acquired extensive timber interests on the eastern side of Colquitt County, and had built a tramway to their sawmills which were located about fourteen miles
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
east of Moultrie. From Sparks, a station on the G. S. & F. Ry., and then decided to extend it to Moultrie, having taken out a charter for it, under the name of Sparks, Moultrie and Gulf Railroad. This had been done in the middle of 1898, and daily schedules had been put on between Moultrie and Sparks. Henry Parrish presided in its Moultrie depot, which was near the present A. B. & C. depot. By 1898, a good many thousands of acres of timbered lands had been worked for turpentine, especially that portion within hauling distance of Sparks. The men who had worked this turpentine were J. B. Norman, Jr., W. H. Barber, Duncan Sinclair, W. B. Connoley and a Mr. DeVane. Mr. W. C. Vereen came to Colquitt for the purpose of going into the naval stores busi- ness in the neighborhood of Pineopolis, only to find that Mr. DeVane had already preempted it. As a result Mr. Vereen went to the northwestern part of the county, and secured a bonanza in virgin, workable timber.
Others who were at work in the naval stores business in 1898 in Colquitt were A. C. Darling, and James Holmes, operating separate stills in the eastern suburbs of Moultrie. D. A. Autrey, with a hundred thousand dollar investment, at Autreyville, in southern Colquitt, and Major John K. McNeil toward the southeast corner of Colquitt, was doing an ex- tensive naval stores business, in connection with his son, Thos. McNeil.
There was held in Colquitt County, on June 6, 1898, an election for State and county offices. Perhaps it was a primary; but anyhow, there was no registration and Negroes voted in droves.
The candidates for governor were Robt. Berner, Spencer Atkinson and Allen D. Candler. Pearsall and Shipp man- aged for Atkinson, while Mckenzie and Mckenzie sponsored Candler's interests in Colquitt. Candler spoke, just before the election, at the courthouse. High light of the speech-
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COLQUITT IN 1898
"And fellow citizens," he squeaked, "I'm against taking taxes from the poor for the upkeep of the University of Georgia, for the purpose of teaching dudes to dance. My observation has been that, about the time you learn a boy the meaning of the Latin hic, haec, hoc, he forgets the meaning of gee, haw, Buck." The audience roared in glee, and Bob Shipp, Atkinson's manager in Colquitt, said to those around him, "Let's go, boys, the old man's got the county."
In the afternoon of June 6, we acted as a clerk to the elec- tion managers, this machinery was seated in one of the rooms on the ground floor of the old courthouse, and on the south side. The voters came up the walk from the south of the courthouse square, and handed their tickets, marked and folded, through a window. Presently, in some excitement, a turpentine operator, brought up forty-three Negroes on the walk. He stood at the head of the column, and as a Negro would walk up, he handed him a marked ticket and watched him while he stuck it in the window. The column reached nearly, if not quite, through the turn-stile on the south side of the square. Two white flankers walked up and down the column, to prevent the opposition to the ticket being voted by the men from getting any of them away from their boss- man.
"Can that man vote all those Negroes?" we asked of lawyer Bob Shipp, who with us was in the room where they were vot- ing.
"It's a pretty safe bet he can," answered Shipp.
"Well, if I were running for anything, I'd like to have the support of that gentleman," we mused.
Just about that time, a man tried to yank one of the "voters" out of the line, when, with great promptness, one of the flankers shot him. The shot was not fatal, but it was temporarily effective all around; and after this, the turpen-
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
tine man was not interfered with any further in his politics. The turpentine operator is still alive, a resident of a nearby county ; and the man who got shot is still going. But we are under the impression that he has quit fooling with another man's political "rights."
In 1898, there were no paved sidewalks in Moultrie, al- though some planked sidewalking is remembered in front of the stores, over in front of the south side of the courthouse square. The streets around the square were very sandy, and much cut up with the traffic. About 1904, the city au- thorities spread a coating of native red clay over the surface of the streets around the square; and Attorney John A. Wilkes told us that he had just overheard a visiting woman say, "There'll be no endurin' the people of Moultrie hence- forth, now that she has clayed her streets." John thought the remark was in poor taste, and attributed it to envy. Said he thought that she must have come from either Camilla or Tifton.
CHAPTER XXV Old Greenfield
JOEL C. GRAVES was Colquitt's first manufacturer. He was a native of Vermont, who in 1838 had moved to Monticello, Florida. In the beginning of 1857, he trekked northward again; saw Colquitt County; bought timbered lands lying to the south of Moultrie, and finally built a dam across Creek, about eight miles south of Moultrie, and near the Pavo road, where he erected a gristmill, and put in a set of wool cards, and built a barrel factory-a "bucket shop," as it was called by Graves' neighbors. All these enterprises were housed in a three-story frame building. Their motive power was steam.
This shop manufactured from native hardwoods, such as cypress and the gums, black and sweet, barrels, tubs, and small kits. If we except a few gristmills and wool cards, this was Colquitt's first manufacturing establishment.
Presently, he made a contract with the Confederacy for supplying the army and navy with barrels for use in shipping syrup and meats to the armies from this section. Also, it furnished an excellent reason for keeping Graves' two sons from under the provisions of the "Conscript Act."
At one time during the life of this contract, some fifty to sixty laborers, all taken from the vicinage, worked for Mr. Graves. Of course, when the war was over, the contract was no longer effective; and the local market for barrels, tubs, and buckets did not suffice to keep the bucket shop going.
So Mr. Graves borrowed some money from his three broth- ers, and finally paid off this indebtedness by deeding some of his Colquitt timber lands to them. One of his brothers
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HISTORY OF COLQUITT COUNTY
was killed at the Battle of Resaca in 1864, leaving some fifteen hundred to two thousand acres of these lands to his wife and two daughters.
Mr. Joel C. Graves was a Presbyterian minister; and when he changed his residence to a place which had no church or- ganization of that faith and order, he would proceed to create such organization; and, when he found it necessary, he would erect the church building. This explains why for seventy- two years, there has been standing in the midst of Mr. Graves' former land-holdings in Colquitt County, a brick church building. It long has been called "The Old Green- field Brick Church"; and was built from brick burned from clay taken from a deposit near Mr. Graves' mill. This was the first brick structure ever erected in Colquitt County, and the only one, till another, a jail, was erected in Moultrie in 1892.
Since Mr. Graves' family, including his "in-laws," con- stituted all the Presbyterians resident in Colquitt County at the time Mr. Graves built his church, they, of course, con- stituted his organization. After Mr. Graves moved away from this section, the church building came to be used in a desultory way for both Methodists and Missionary Baptists, residing in the neighborhood. Especially, after Dr. Baker E. Watkins, a neighbor of the Graves, and a Methodist, and Rev. A. C. Stephenson, a noted Baptist preacher, who lived in Thomas County for fifty years, held forth with more or less regularity in the brick church.
Mr. Graves, a year or two after the war, moved his resi- dence to a point about four miles from Ty Ty, in Worth County, where he was engaged in duplicating his work at Greenfield (including a Presbyterian church building), when he died there, in 1867, and was brought back to Greenfield graveyard for burial, among the "rude forefathers of the hamlet," not many steps from the last resting place of his
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former friend and associate, Dr. Baker E. Watkins, Methodist preacher, member of Georgia's Constitutional Convention of 1865, and father of two of Colquitt's representatives in the House of Representatives in the General Assembly of Georgia. Dr. Baker E. Watkins' grave, with that of his wife, has fallen into much disrepair. Doubtless it will soon be put in proper shape, as the Moultrie McNeil Chapter of the U. D. C. has constituted itself guardian for Greenfield churchhouse and graveyard. This fact is profoundly gratifying, since it is always painful to find graveyards have become "neglected spots."
The 1860 census shows that Ruth Graves, a native of Ver- mont, age 51, and by profession a common-school teacher, was an inmate of the residence of Joel S. Graves, at Old Greenfield. It also shows that Roxy Ann Graves, age 23, a native of Florida, who had the same profession, likewise lived with Joel S. Graves. The former was a sister of Mr. Graves, and the latter his daughter. We have omitted to say that, in addition to Presbyterian church building, Mr. Graves was said to always build a school building. And this is what he did, at "Old Greenfield." The brick building at that place was divided into two rooms. One was for religious services, and the other was used as a school room. Both Ruth and Roxy Graves taught, at times, in that section of the build- ing. We incline to the view that their work was of a very high order of excellence. And we are sure that the same can be said of Mr. Graves' preaching. He is said to have been a zealous proselyter for his church, although it was open for preachers of other faiths and orders.
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