USA > Georgia > Tift County > History of Tift County > Part 34
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"I had known Mr. Herring since 1898, and every year and day that I knew him he was the same big-hearted, genial gentleman that he was the last week of his life. I never saw him even begin to lose his head on any matter, and I knew him through times of peace and through two wars in which our country was engaged.
"The time I saw him happiest was, perhaps, at the time of the last elec- tion of Woodrow Wilson to the presidency. He had worked and toiled for three or four days and nights, giving every detail of news as fast as the wires brought it. That night everybody was gathered about the corner at Brooks drugstore celebrating. For some reason I felt that everybody want- ed to express some appreciation for the good work Mr. Herring had done for us ; so I got on a soap box and stated that I would receive dollar bills. no more no less, from anybody that wanted to make up a purse to buy Mr. Herring a suit of clothes. The idea went like wild fire. I was swamped with bills. I asked the people to wait until I could get a man to make a list of the people that were giving. I got one man, then another, then an- other. All three failed to keep up with the inflow of money. So we do not
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know exactly who it was that contributed to this fund. Little did I think that the same suit would be saved for his burial.
"I always knew that he was a genius, but could not think just wherein his mind was different until he wrote the 'Saturday Night Sketches' of Wire Grass Georgia forty years ago. After analyzing those stories, I came to the conclusion that he was a man with a photographic mind. I was convinced that he held in his mind's gallery every picture of the impres- sive scenery and customs of the people of his boyhood days. He had one of those peculiar minds and memories that enabled him to close his eyes and review the scenes of 1880; where he could see and hear bleating calves and lambs on the rye. He could recall the scenery and doings of the little log school houses of his country in that day. He could see the line up at the old country church in every detail. He could see the long haired maiden and hear the strong voice of the horny handed preacher at the baptizing down in the old mill stream.
"He died, it seems, at an untimely hour. But since thinking we find that a man can't die at a time that is good for him and good for the people he leaves behind. God took him at a time that was best for him, for he will be remembered only as the powerful, genial, kind Editor, and not as an old, tottering man in the afternoon of life with his good works half for- gotten. Mr. Herring recorded with kind words, perhaps more births and deaths than any other man of his age. If there were a single rose petal. laid upon his grave for every kind word he said, and for every good deed he did, he would rest today beneath a mountain of roses."
TIFTON'S FIRST RADIO STATION
This, as well as the first filling station was started by Mr. J. L. Brooks, the corner druggist.
It was in 1922 he raised the highest pole ever put up in the county. It stood right where the back part of Bowen's Undertaking shop is now. It was the aerial. The radio was behind the prescription case of the same drugstore he now occupies. The aerial wire went from the back door of the store to the top of the pole.
The loud speaker or amplifier had not arrived then. It was just a receiv- ing station. A private one, but the people made it public.
Mr. Brooks was the announcer. When big news was expected many went to the drugstore. Mr. Brooks did the receiving by way of a double head phone from which a long cord went to a black box, one that looked like a big battery, that was the radio.
Mr. Brooks sat in a chair and told us what was going on in distant
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places that we had heard was on the map.
When the Dempsey-Firpo fight came on all that were of a sporting mind, crowded in behind the prescription case to hear the fight announced, round by round.
Mr. Brooks being an admirer and follower of Dempsey went to work with great enthusiasm. Everything started off fine. We couldn't hear what the radio said but Mr. Brooks could with the head phones, so he was an- nouncing it blow by blow. The fight was going just about as he could talk. He announced a knock down by Dempsey and in the same second he said, "Firpo is up. He's down again. Again up and again down." Then the announcer looked like he had been struck by lightning. He called out loud, "Dempsey is knocked out of the ring; friends are throwing him back in the ring. Firpo's down, he's up, he's down. By that time the fight was going so fast and reckless he couldn't tell it fast enough, so he jumped up from the chair and began to show us what was going on by swinging both right and left in every direction. We were terribly crowded in there but every- body gave the announcer and actor every bit of room they could spare ; so as not to interrupt the proceedings. Had Firpo not gone down to stay when he did, several of us, would have probably gone down.
One time all stations were notified to listen for a certain program to come from London at a certain time. Then, Mr. Brooks pepped up and tuned in at the appointed time. The program could be heard well enough to understand it was from London but no better. That, we believe to be the first radio communication received in Tifton from across the Atlantic.
The radio cost $50.00. Later when amplifiers came out one was bought at $75.00 to attach to the $50.00 radio.
TIFTON'S FIRST AUTOMOBILE TIFTON'S FIRST FILLING STATION
The first automobile owned by a Tifton citizen was brought in to the town the first part of 1902 or 40 years ago. Its owner was J. E. Johns (livery stable man). It was a one-cylinder Cadillac. Inside room for driver and four passengers. It was painted red; well upholstered and looked good. Didn't have any cover of any kind above the seats. Entrance to the front seat was from the side; no doors. The entrance to the back seats was through a door at the back of the car.
It was used to carry people pleasure riding about town at a rate of 25c or 35c per hour. That auto met the trains and carried people to any part of town for 25c per person. The car cost $1,100.
About a year after this first car our well known druggist, Dr. J. L. Brooks, brought to town a Rambler roadster, 2 passengers. It was a little
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lighter and more streamlined than the Cadillac. It cost $1,000. Prior to that a well known firm, Gorman and Jefferies, made bicycles called the Rambler. They changed to making autos but held the name Rambler. The Rambler factory and name was bought by a Mr. Nash.
The car Mr. Brooks had would have been fine on the roads and streets we have now. It looked about as well as the present cars. Road conditions were bad, which subjected a car to sudden and unusual strains. All cars were chain driven then. One chain beginning at the motor which was under the center of the body of the car. The chain went to the rear axle.
When Dr. Brooks got into the country in heavy sand and hot weather his chain usually broke. The ruts in the sand were real deep and this put the car close to the ground. There was nothing to do but to crawl under the car and fix the chain. The Doctor weighed 230 and from the fact of the motor being hot and greasy and the sand hot, which together made him hot, he could never find as much room as he needed under there to make the repairs.
There were no garages then; cars were stored in the livery stables. The Doctor put up with all these inconveniences for two years and then sold the struggle buggy to a medical doctor in Fitzgerald for $800.00.
In those first days of the cars there were inconveniences about buying gas and oil. At first only the drugstores sold gasoline, and that was in very small quantities. It was sold only for clothes cleaning.
Dr. Brooks was never a fellow to put up with inconveniences. So, he put up a pump on a vacant lot near his store and ordered gas. By that time some other cars had come in the town, so that pump was Tifton's first filling station. There were lots of horse racks on the lot and many times when gas was wanted it was not unusual to find a horse or team of mules hitched to the gas pump.
I almost forgot to tell the price of gas. Wholesale price was 3c per gal- lon : retail price from the pump was 5c per gallon, no tax.
I might say here that one of those single cylinder cars on our paved roads at 25 miles an hour would take next to no gas at all.
WHEN TIFTON WAS DRY
Back in the fall of 1898 the women of the Tifton Baptist Church thought they should by all means have a missionary to represent their church-which was new and young at that time-in the foreign fields.
They lit upon what they believed to be a very apt young gentleman. One that had been an enthusiastic attendant at all the various kinds of meetings held at the church. One that saw eye to eye with the entire feminine mem- bership.
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This young fellow was sent to Boston, Mass., for special training in a school there that trained workers for the foreign fields. But, the night before the day of his going a merry, get-to-gether festival was held to cele- brate his departure. No, there was no drinking at the meeting, not even coffee. Tifton was dry then. It was oyster stew night.
The young man left and arrived in Boston on schedule. He reported at intervals regarding progress, which statements were true and satisfactory. The training course was finished in late December of that year, 1898.
He arrived back in Tifton on Christmas Eve. The plans were to start him foreign, about ten days later. On Christmas morning, the day after his arrival, he was invited out by his friends and former associates to their home. With a desire to give him a royal welcome they had egg-nog in abundance. He joined in wholeheartedly and did his bit. No one took too much. The people were of fine character and members of the Baptist Church; some of them are here now.
By the next day this young fellow had heard so much unfavorable news about himself that he didn't feel able to face the women that had sent him to Boston. He hung his head and strode away.
That fellow was a Western Union telegraph operator at that time. He gave up a good position to make that venture.
THE KEY MAN OF TIFTON IN 1899
One bright morning in 1899 we found in Tifton a strange nice looking tall, slender young man arranging to put on a one-man show the following night in Bowen's Opera House.
In order to advertise some of his unusual abilities, he proposed to find the key to any post office box hidden in any place in town. He proposed further to allow anyone selected to blindfold him as securely as they saw fit, and while thus blindfolded he would drive a team of horses from a livery stable in search of the key and when found drive directly to the post office while blindfolded and unlock the box that the key was made to fit, the first time without trying the key on any box other than the one it was made for. His proposition was promptly accepted. News went out over the town that the drive would begin at 3:00 p.m.
J. E. Johns was the livery stable man and the stable was located on the lot now occupied by Buck Blalock's pool room on Main street. The post office was in the store room now occupied by Mr. Pittman's Firestone store. J. M. Duff was the postmaster.
At 3:00 p.m. Mr. Johns had two horses hitched to a buggy-the key man was there. He was blindfolded with a big black cloth. Mr. Johns went along to hold the horses while the man was hunting the key. The
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key man did the driving. Mr. Johns did not help him in any way. The people of the town were lined up along the sidewalks waiting for the drive. In a few minutes the blindfolded man came driving the two-horse buggy team up Main street at top speed. Holding his hands high so the people could see that he was doing the driving. He continued out Love Avenue and in front of the home of Senator Susie T. Moore he stopped the horses suddenly and while Mr. Johns held the horses the man hurried through the yard and back in the garden where a board fence was being rebuilt; he turned over two or three boards while blindfolded, picked up the key and hurried back to the buggy-took up the lines-turned the team around and drove at top speed to the post office-got out-hurried in and un- locked the box the key was made for-hurried out and took Mr. Johns and the team back to the livery stable.
It won't be any use to ask me how he did it.
THE PROGRESSIVE MINISTER THE MODEL YOUNG MAN AND BILLY
This was in Tifton in 1900. The minister was the Reverend C. G. Dil- worth of the First Baptist church. I have forgotten the model young man's name. He was of nice size-slightly of the strawberry blond type-medium personality. He worked in the corner drugstore. He had lived in Tifton only a few weeks. He was the right-hand man of the minister. Rev. Dil- worth had built two or three very small church buildings on the outskirts of town. One was in Edgewood. It was called the Edgewood Mission. Some kinds of services were held at these outposts every Sunday as well as at the regular church. Both the preacher and the model young man were busy all day every Sunday. The model young man got into the good graces of the preacher early after he arrived here by volunteering his service in any way the preacher might need him, so he was used to supply two or more of the outposts every Sunday. He was undenominational. He stopped and offered his services to other churches; sometimes accepted. Altogether he was a real handy fellow, as there was more of that kind of work here at that time than there were workers.
The young man was very popular with all the people of the town, ex- cept the other young men about his age. Outside of his church activities he did quite a bit of courting. Another young fellow here at that time said the girls were plum fools about him. That accounted for his unpopularity with the young gentry of the town. Another reason why he was, his asso- ciation almost altogether with the elderly gentlemen and of his hi-hatting the younger ones. Also, it was these elderly gentlemen of the town that had most of the world's goods. They were the ones he liked best. After the
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young man had become quite efficient in his line, the minister, Rev. Dil- worth, wrote a rather lengthy article for the local paper telling of the young man's good qualifications and the value he was to the town, and especially of how much help he was to him in the work of the church. He finished the article by calling him a model young man, and that he, the minister, sincerely hoped to see the other young men of the town follow after him.
The second Saturday night after the article in the paper, the model young man went among those elderly gentlemen of the town that had most of the wealth and had each one cash a check for him. I never learned the amounts but none were real large, but they were numerous, for he al- ways liked a large congregation. Needless to say that he didn't have enough money in the bank to cash the first one. The south end of the A. B. & C. Railroad was then the Tifton, Thomasville & Gulf. A passenger train left every morning at 7:00 o'clock for Thomasville. Sunday morning after that Saturday night the young man left on that train. He connected with an- other train at Thomasville for the west. The first thing we younger fellows thought about was the preacher's wish that many others would follow after him. We checked up on who was here and who was not here. We found that the pracher's article was not entirely without results, for one young man, named Billy, followed after the model. Billy was born and reared in Tifton. He had always worked at the Tifton Planing mill. He was rather short of stature with black hair and blue eyes. Billy went away in a brand new spring suit for it was early in the spring of the year. He wore a new black derby hat. The two traveled due west from Thomasville to the Pacific coast as fast as the trains could run and connect. Arriving at the coast the model turned abruptly to the north. The turn was too quick for Billy. He got knocked loose at that point. We younger fellows had no regret of the model's leaving, but we were worried about Billy. He had been popular with all the people, old and young, especially with the older men that worked at the Tift mill. They had more hope of Billy getting back than we younger fellows had. Just in front and at the edge of the sidewalk of the first house east of the home now occupied by Amos Tift and family, there was a big open well, the first to be dug in Tifton. It had real good water. Capt. Tift always said: "If they ever drink water a few weeks at that old well and go away, they will come back." That was our only hope of ever seeing Billy again. We remembered how nice he looked in that new suit and derby. We went through the long summer months holding that picture in our minds.
So in the late fall of that year when the days were short and cooler, one afternoon when the sun was down below the tops of the trees, we saw something coming in the road from the west. Several went out to look and with shaded eyes we discovered it was Billy. The word quickly went.
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around the block. All came out to the edge of the street and waited. Billy walked up slowly and leaned against a telephone pole. His suit was faded and tattered ; he looked five years older ; the soles of his shoes were gone; the uppers were none too good ; the derby that went away so crisp and new was dented in here and there, it had turned green from the weather and was frazzled on the edge. Billy was really tired. A gentleman, Mr. John Pope who had worked at the mill and known Billy from infancy, said : "Billy, my boy, in your depressed condition, what is the first thing you will have us do for you?" Billy answered and said : "Give me a drink of water from the old well and go and tell that preacher that I followed his advice as long as I could."
Now off the story I wish to remind the readers of an article in the Free Press last year where I wrote about Uncle Josh when he told us 50 years ago. He.said, "Boys, don't ever swap horses with the fellow that gets to church on Sunday ahead of all the others and shakes hands with all that come."
THE HORNED NEGRO OF TIFTON
A citizen of Tifton that lived here in the year 1897 and part of the years immediately after 1897 traveled over the country showing a young negro man with horns. The horns were about four inches long. The Tifton showman claimed the young horned negro was right out of the wilds of Africa. Two or three other white men went along with the show. The band of showmen went into the St. Louis World's Fair at its beginning in 1904. They kept their show going almost to the end of the fair, at which time all parties connected with the show while drinking got into an argu- ment over the division of funds and in a free for all fight knocked the horns off the negro and that broke up the show and organization.
The origin of the horns was this way: The Tifton citizen had taken the horns off a calf. He split the skin on the negro's head in two places and attached the horns to the skull in the hair above the forehead in proper or natural position. The hair after that was never cut. With the hair growing around the horns the appearance was perfectly natural which made the subject look extremely wild.
CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR OFFICE.
In the first election in Tift county a business man of Tifton ran for one of the county offices on what he called a sensible business-like plan. He said there was no use for continuous hand shaking and lobbying around with the voters. He copied all the names of the registered voters
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in a little book and began to call on the voters by that list. Everyone that he interviewed that promised to vote for him he checked o.k. in the book. When he had the promises of a substantial majority of the registered voters marked o.k. he quit the drive and returned to his place of business. There were 21 registered voters at the precinct of Brookfield ; 20 promised to vote for him; one voter being out of the county that day of the canvass, he did not see that one.
After the election the candidate counted the number of votes promised and the number received. Brookfield gave him one vote and 20 against. Needless to say the candidate lost by a substantial majority.
HOW THE FIRST SESSION OF SUPERIOR COURT OF TIFT COUNTY WAS PAID FOR
The county was created in 1905 in mid-summer. The people had given in taxes in the other counties and had to pay in the other counties.
In the fall of that year a term of superior court was held. Judge Mitchell of Thomasville and Solicitor W. E. Thomas of Valdosta were the high officers. As the session was coming to a close the jury had to be paid as well as other expenses. There was not as much as a dime in the treasury. A way had to be found to pay off. Some one or more gentlemen reported about eight of the high lights of the town for gaming. They were mostly members of the bar in the courtroom. Charges were brought quickly and one by one was called to stand up. They pled guilty and received fines from $50.00 to $100.00 each. In a few minutes there was money in the treasury.
CITY ELECTION FOR MAYOR
In an election in the early days of Tifton for Mayor there were two candidates, one a livery stable man, the other a former mayor, lawyer and smooth politician. The livery stable man had never run for office before. He didn't canvass for votes ; he depended upon his announcement only. On the morning of the day of the election before the voting began the former mayor told the livery stable man that it had long been the custom that when two gentlemen were running for the same office the polite way was for each one to vote for the other and not vote for themselves. The livery stable man readily agreed to abide by the long established custom and voted for the other candidate. In the vote counting there was not a singlt vote in the box for the livery stable man.
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WHEN TIFTON HAD 17 LAWYERS AND ONE PREACHER
It was about the year 1910 the town council bought a road roller, entirely on credit. It was a gasoline tractor with two real heavy wide rollers for smoothing the streets. It didn't work very well ; so the population soon began to call the machine the "dummy." Criticism of the council for buying the dummy was running high. Public sentiment was about to declare the dum- my a nuisance. The council were anxious to get it back where it came from without paying. A way had to be found. The 17 lawyers in a meet- ing found that the city council did not have legal authority to buy anything except necessary supplies for running the town; so the dummy had to go back home.
The lone preacher was a frail Methodist minister named Whiting.
BIG HOG DAN WALKER
There was a citizen of Tift County that raised the largest hogs so far as is known in the world. It was Dan Walker that lived two miles north of Tifton. It was during the years of 1900 to 1910. The hogs weighed from 1,250 to 1,683 pounds. Several weighed 1,600 and 1,683. They were ex- hibited at the state fairs in Macon. At one time two were driven from the Walker farm drawing a two horse wagon into Tifton and back to the farm. In color the hogs were a pale red, nearly yellow. The hair was ex- tremely coarse. They reached top weight at seven years old.
The writer was on the farm at one time when Mr. Walker was feed- ing the hogs. To show me the strength of their backs he and a half grown son sat on the back of one of the hogs while he walked around and ate corn. Mr. Walker weigher 165 pounds and the son half that much. There was no difference in the way the hog walked with or without the load.
Mr. Walker was very conservative in his claims for his hogs. I was in his tent on the fair grounds at Macon and found that he represented the hog as weighing 1,600 pounds while that one weighed 1,683.
No one knew of the hogs being of any special breed. Mr. Walker claimed that he grew them to the enormous size with some kind of tonic of his own formula. Mr. Walker died about 1925.
GRAMMAR SCHOOL BLOCK WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME TO TOWN
The greatest of all shows that ever came to Tifton was about the year 1904 when the John Robinson Shows came and opened up with the great drama of The Queen of Sheba arriving at Jerusalem riding in her chariot drawn by four snow white horses with all her servants and attendants. She
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was met first by one hundred of Solomon's wives with their maids and attendants ; everyone of the wives was nice looking, slender, and taller than the average of women. Everyone walked unusually erect and dressed in the best Oriental style. All appeared to be Syrians; no real blonds or bru- nettes.
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