USA > Georgia > Tift County > History of Tift County > Part 40
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JOSEPH JACKSON GOLDEN
Joseph Jackson Golden was born September 18, 1868, son of Arch Golden and Abigail McClellan Golden, of near Sparks, Berrien County, Georgia. After receiving his schooling in Tifton, J. J. Golden went to Sibley where he was a planing mill foreman. In April, 1893 he returned to Tifton and be- came planing mill foreman at the H. H. Tift lumber mill. With him from Sibley came R. E. Hall and they shared a room at old Sadie Hotel, and con- tinued to room together until Hall married. Hall was at the mill as sawyer at the time that Golden was foreman. (See article on R. E. H.) In Tifton, on August 11, 1897, J. J. Golden married Mamie McLeod, daughter of Daniel Washington McLeod and Katherine Parker McLeod, formerly of North Carolina. Mamie was a sister of Ben McLeod, and of Mrs. D. B. Harrell. About 1903, Mr. Golden went into the hardware business and in this con- tinued for many years. Also he and R. E. Hall bought adjoining farms. Later Mr. Golden's farm and part of that of Mr. Hall went into the area comprised in the Tifton Airport.
On November 28, 1903 W. W. Timmons, councilman of Tifton resigned in order to be eligible to accept the nomination as mayor. J. J. Golden at the
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same meeting was elected to fill Mr. Timmons's unexpired term. He served on Tifton City Council in 1904 and 1905 when Timmons was mayor in 1906, 1907, and 1908 when S. M. Clyatt was mayor, from October 5, throughout 1908 when W. W. Banks succeeded Mayor Clyatt resigned. Golden was on the Tifton school board in 1904, 5 and 6. He served on the standing com- mittee on accounts for several years, beginning in 1904, and was on various other important committees. In 1909 he was elected for a term of two years on the Tifton Sinking Fund Committee.
Few men have had so great a part in the public affairs of the city of Tif- ton as has Mr. Golden. A quiet, unassuming man as to manner, he has been a powerful influence for accomplishment of nearly every project for the growth and betterment of the town. In 1921 he was a member of Tifton's first city commission.
Many years ago Mr. Golden gave up the hardware business in favor of farming, in which he continues
Mrs. Golden is a gifted singer and for more than thirty years was choir director of the First Baptist Church of Tifton.
Mr. and Mrs. Golden have an only child, Josie, a skilled pianist and organ- ist who has been organist at the Tifton Baptist Church for many years and so continues. She married J. J. Clyatt. (See sketch of Mrs. Clyatt in Who's Who, this volume.)
DR. JOHN CHARLES GOODMAN
By a Tifton Pioneer
John Charles Goodman was of English descent, his grandfather having come to the United States from England the latter part of the eighteenth century. He located in Nansemond County, Virginia, and it was there that he met and later married Miss Parthenia Barnes. He was a member of the Church of England and was a good and useful citizen. Such was the goodly heritage of this Tifton pioneer in both grandfather and father.
John Charles. the son of Barnes Goodman and Harriet Benton Goodman, was born in Gates County, North Carolina. His early education was under Martin Kellogg. an outstanding teacher of his time. Young Goodman re- ceived his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina, and his degree in medicine from the University of Virginia. His medical edu- cation was completed at Bellevue Hospital, New York City.
He married Miss Henrietta Ann Goodman, a distant cousin. She, too, had splendid educational advantages. After graduation from the Woman's College in Warrenton. North Carolina, she was for several years a member of the faculty of her Alma Mater.
When war between the States was declared, Dr. Goodman offered his serv- ices and served the four years as surgeon in Lee's division of the Confeder- ate Army, the hospital base being at Richmond, Virginia. At the close of the war he returned home to resume the practice of medicine, but not in Gates County. North Carolina. He, his wife and little son, Charles Hutchins,
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moved across the county and state to Somerton, Nansemond County, Vir- ginia, where they lived until they moved to Georgia in 1881. It was in Somer- ton the other children were born, John Hawkins, Marietta (Mrs. E. L. Vick- ers), Catherine Williams (Mrs. W. Marvin Thurman), James Henry (Harry), and Harriet Benton (Mrs. W. L. Harman).
When Dr. Goodman came to Georgia he and his eldest son Charles, who had just finished business school, entered the naval stores business near Alapaha in Berrien county, which business they operated for a number of years, Dr. Goodman continuing his practice of medicine.
When the Georgia Southern and Florida railroad was built, it crossed the Atlantic Coast Line at Tifton. The building of this railroad opened up a new territory in South Georgia and gave Tifton the prospect of becoming a real town instead of remaining a saw mill village as it was at that time. Dr. Goodman was far-sighted enough to see this, so in 1890 he left the turpen- tine farm in care of his son and moved his family to Tifton. He rented a small house next to Captain H. H. Tift's home and there the Goodmans lived the first year in Tifton.
Dr. Goodman opened an office and was soon busily engaged with his practice. In a few months he began the erection of a dwelling on the corner of what was later Second Street and Central Avenue. It was burned a few years ago, thus removing one of Tifton's earliest landmarks. During the same year the Goodman house was built, Dr. Goodman built a store on the cor- ner of Railroad and Third Streets and in this building he opened Tifton's first drug store. Later the business was moved to the Bowen building on the corner of Second Street and Lose Avenue, this being a more suitable loca- tion for a drug store.
Dr. Goodman's two sons, Hawkins and Harry, were graduate pharmacists; the former was associated with his father until he went to Fitzgerald and there opened the first drug store in the "Colony City." Harry remained with his father.
Dr. Goodman was city physician for a number of years.
The school facilities were very limited and primitive. That part of Tifton's development was not overlooked and Dr. and Mrs. Goodman, as good pio- neers, were interested in everything that meant for Tifton's good and took an active part in its civic, social and religious life. They lent their aid and cooperation in building a school system that would be a credit and a drawing card for a growing, thriving town and community. They made it a point to know the teachers, to make them feel welcome in their new surroundings, and often entertained them in their home. Mrs. Goodman taught her daugh- ters and prepared them for college, which was a credit to her as an educator and teacher. The three daughters completed their education at Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia.
In the early days when Tifton was only a saw mill village, the religious need was not overlooked. In the early 80's Mr. J. J. F. Goodman, a native of this section and a local Methodist preacher organized the Tifton Methodist Church. (This Mr. Goodman was not related to Dr. Goodman.) Later a very
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nice little church was built on the sight of the present First Methodist Church. The pioneers were glad to find a church already functioning and this build- ing served the other denominations for a number of years.
Dr. and Mrs. Goodman, also their sons and daughters were devout mem- bers of the Methodist Church and carried in their hearts a deep, abiding love for the church, taking an active part in its every department of work.
Mrs. Goodman was instrumental in the organization of the Woman's Missionary Society and served as president for several years. Dr. Goodman was an official in the church as long as he lived.
No finer tribute could be paid him than to say he was a friend to man and that those who loved him best were the children of the community. He be- lieved in Tifton's future and with other splendid men that had a similar faith and vision, laid a strong and sure foundation for a town of which to- day's citizens are justly proud.
Dr. Goodman died January 17, 1903. He with the other pioneers can look down from the skies and say, "We did not build in vain."
CHARLES COLUMBUS GUEST
(Ida Belle Williams)
A man with a keen sense of humor, consideration for inferiors as well as equals, the hospitality of the Old South, and honesty-Charles Columbus Guest! Even in the thirties, the years of depression, the Guest home had an air of the nineties, for the C. C. genial spirit could dispel the thickest gloom.
Mr. Guest and his wife were delightful host and hostess on many occa- sions in Tifton. Guest pranks often added spice to the menus. One Novem- ber day the dining table was loaded with the usual delicacies and substan- tials with proper vitamins. George Rastus, a servant in the home, grinned as he passed around luscious sweet potatoes, dripping with their natural candy and seemed to smack mentally his thick lips.
When the family and guests had finished dinner, George came in to clear the table. Alas, his grin changed to a forlorn droop of the mouth, and his step to a drag. No potatoes left! Everyone observed the dramatic disappoint- ment. Mr. Guest finally reached his hand far enough to open a drawer of the buffet: his eyes twinkled with humor as he pulled out the hidden treas- ures-potatoes-and presented them to Kastus, who grinned his thanks.
Although Mr. Guest has lived longer in Tifton than anywhere else, he was born in Lowndes County, six miles from Valdosta, near Cherry Creek, April 26, 1873. When six years old, he and the rest of the family moved to Berrien County. He attended New River School near Vanceville, three or four miles from Tifton. His father, George W. Guest, was born in Mont- gomery County, which is now Wheeler. His mother was Lucretia Pope. Mr. G. W. Guest, postmaster at Vanceville for several years, had a turpentine still and a store. After leaving the turpentine business, he farmed.
When six years old, little Charles Columbus felt his importance, as he tip- toed to hang up mail bags for the train that passed Vanceville. After a few
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years he assisted on the farm until 1890, the year of his arrival in Tifton, when he began clerking for Mr. Enoch Bowen, the merchant who sold every- thing from tacks to caskets.
Swift changes followed. Guest went to Americus and traveled for a furni- ture company, then to Tampa. In 1895 he traveled for a tobacco company. While on this job, he received from W. O. Tift and his son, Ortie, a telegram offering a position in their general store. After working with the Tifts three years, Guest accepted a position with Loree and Buck; when the latter bought the entire business, he made Guest manager of the retail store. At this time the Oakley Boarding House, where he took his meals, was a jolly spot. Judge Eve and Mr. J. L. Williams were among the boarders. One of their favorite pastimes was holding Oakley Court to try violators of the eating laws, such as the number of biscuits. Mr. Eve, who had his first experience as a judge in this court, imposed for biscuit misdemeanors a sentence of fasting. An inter- esting point here is the fact that Mr. Guest now lives in the house which was once the Oakley Boarding House.
Business activities ceased on November 8, 1899-ceased for the wedding bells of Guest and Minnie Maud Nicholson, of South Charleston, Ohio. Their three children are Laura, of Tifton, Nicholson, of Brunswick, and John, of Tifton. Clifford died when a baby. With his usual sense of humor, Guest fre- quently tossed this question to Mrs. Guest, "Do you remember that you are a pearl of great price-fifty cents?" He had bought the marriage license for fifty cents. Mrs. Guest would retort, "Remember you went a long way to spend fifty cents."
After his marriage, Mr. Guest was vice-president and general manager of the Tifton Grocery Company. While with this company he was selected as a member of the Advisory Board for Georgia of the Southern Wholesale Grocers Association, which is an organization of the wholesale grocers of thirteen Southern states. Later Tifton Grocery Company became the Cen- tral Grocery Company when Downing in Brunswick bought it. Mr. Guest traveled for this Central establishment after his experience in turpentine for the next few years. Then for eighteen years he was deputy commissioner for State Revenue Department. During this time he had the confidence and praise of the department and the people whom he contacted.
During these years Mr. and Mrs. Guest lived harmoniously until her death in 1937. Years have come and gone; Mr. Guest now is one of the oldest citizens of Tifton; adverses and sorrows have had their usual places; but nothing has effaced the Guest geniality and courage.
ROBERT EDWARD HALL
Robert Edward Hall, son of William Oscar Hall and Mary Stuckey Hall, both of Wilkinson County, Georgia, was born November 23, 1864, in Wilkin- son County, where he grew up. He was of a large family of brothers and sis- ters: W. O. Hall, Jr., Gordon Hall, D. O., M. A., I. B .. Donnie (married Floyd), Annie (married Knight), Emma (married Collins).
In April of 1893 Robert E. Hall and his friend, J. J. Golden, left Sibley,
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Georgia, where Golden was planing mill foreman and Hall a sawyer and came to Tifton. They took a room together at the Hotel Sadie and next day both of them went to work at the H. H. Tift lumber mill, Golden as planing-mill foreman and Hall as sawyer. Both bought farms, and the land adjoined. They continued to room together until Hall married, December 29, 1895. His bride was Miss Claudia McDuffie (born Marion County, South Carolina, February 3, 1878) daughter of William Preston McDuffie and Mary Catherine Jones McDuffie. Mary Catherine's father was a rail- road man with the S. F. and W., now the Coast Line, in the days before the Southern was built. Mary had gone with her family from South Carolina to Waycross, and after two years there had lived in Savannah for a year before coming to Tifton when she was about ten years old and before the section houses had been built at Tifton.
When Henry Tift, Tifton's founder, bought the lumber mill at Adel, Robert Hall became mill foreman of both the Tift mill at Adel and the one at Tifton. In the later capacity he continued until the Tifton mill closed in 1916.
Thereafter, Mr. Hall bought from Eddie Tift the Tift Dry Goods Store which for years had been conducted in the building now occupied by Wade- Corry Company. After operating the store for two years Hall sold to W. A. Darnell, and Mr. Hall then devoted his time to his farming interests. About this time he was chairman of the Tift County Commissioners.
In October of 1922 when W. T. Hargrett resigned as Tifton City Man- ager in order to accept a position with a Florida short-line railroad, R. E. Hall was elected to succeed Mr. Hargrett as city manager, and in this capacity served for many years. He was followed by George Washington Coleman.
In 1918 Mr. Hall bought from J. J. Golden the house known as the Will James home, at 215 West Sixth Street. Mr. and Mrs. Hall joyously cele- brated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, their children and grand- children being present at the happy occasion. Years rolled, and R. E. and Claudia looked forward to celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary. They often spoke of it, and the time was nearly at hand, when one day R. E., then eighty years old, said to Claudia: "I don't think I'll hold out that long. I don't feel sick, but I just haven't any strength!" Only a few weeks later, on August 2, 1945, he died, at Tifton County Hospital. The funeral was at the Hall residence, and Mr. Hall's pastor, the Reverend W. A. Kelley, pastor of the First Methodist Church of Tifton, conducted the services. Burial was in Tifton cemetery .
Mrs. Hall still makes her home in the Hall home on Sixth Street, where a son and his wife and children are with her.
To R. E. and Claudia McDuffie Hall were born the following children: R. E. Hall, Jr., of Atlanta; L. C. Hall, Donald Hall, Mrs. Henry Davis Collier, Jr., of Tifton; Mrs. Fred W. Mitchell, Columbus; John Hall, deceased, 1945.
Part of the farm which R. E. Hall bought years ago, and the adjoining farm owned by his friend, J. J. Golden, became a part of Tifton's Municipal Air- port.
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WESLEY THOMAS HARGRETT
Wesley Thomas Hargrett was born in Worth County, Georgia, spent his boyhood in Brooks County, and on May first, 1883 set out to learn the rail- road business. Working on the old Savannah, Florida and Western, he started as a section hand drawing fifty-five cents a day. After two weeks came pro- motion. It was continuous.
In 1867, in Liberty County, Georgia, was born to W. J. and Louisa Ed- wards Warnell. a daughter, Lelia, who was baptized in 1886 by the Reverend J. G. Norris, the blind pastor of the Ludowici Baptist Church. At that church Mr. Norris on November 16, 1887, performed the marriage ceremony uniting W. T. Hargrett and Lelia Warnell.
The young couple lived at Alapaha, and before they had been married long Mr. Hargrett was made roadmaster of the division between Albany and Waycross of what is now the Coast Line. This position he took on February 22, 1888 and held for twenty-one years.
When the Hargretts had been married but three years they came from Alapaha to Tifton where W. T. purchased from H. H. Tift, Tifton's founder, Lot No. 1. Block 5, the first lot sold after the plat for the town of Tifton was drawn and lots were put on the market. The house which he built on that lot in 1890 and occupied for many years is still standing next to Doo- little's filling station to which position it was moved from its original site, that now occupied by the Doolittle Station. It was in a grove of virgin growth pines, and between it and the Tift home were only three other buildings: the church, which stood where the post office now is; the C. W. Fulwood residence, which was where the Peterson home now is; and, where the other filling station is, across from Lankford Manor, a house occupied by the young widower physician, Dr. Arch McRae. Leila's sister, Pauline, came over from Ludowici to visit Lelia. She and Dr. McCrea met, and later they were wed and Pauline moved into the house across the road from her sister.
Mrs. Hargrett was the first treasurer of the Woman's Missionary Society, organized in 1891, in February, in Bessie Tift's parlor where Dr. C. M. Irwin, the Baptist supply pastor, met with the ladies and helped with the organization.
After being roadmaster, Mr. Hargrett became superintendent of the Gulf Line Railroad between Hawkinsville and Camilla.
Mr. Hargrett on March 2, 1891, was appointed a tax assessor of Tifton, the other assessors serving with him being W. O. Tift and I. W. Bowen. On January 2, 1893 Hargrett entered upon his duties as newly elected alder- man. J. C. Goodman and J. A. McCrea being elected at the same time for two years. W. H. Love was mayor. Thereafter Mr. Hargrett served on many committees and in various capacities on City Council for many years. In January, 1921, he became Tifton's first City Manager which office he held until October, 1922, when he resigned to go to Live Oak, Florida, from which place he operated the Ocilla-Southern Railroad, of which he had been ap- pointed receiver the previous spring. Later the Hargretts returned to Tifton.
After the death of John H. Powell, of Jacksonville, president of the Live
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Oak, Perry and Gulf Railroad, W. T. Hargrett was made president of that road. In January, 1929, the road changed hands and he became vice-president, which position he held until he retired about two years prior to his death.
Mr. Hargrett attained the remarkable record of not losing a day's salary in fifty-three years, and of not losing but twelve days in fifty-eight years.
The Hargretts moved from the Love Avenue house and lived for many years on Ridge Avenue in Tifton, where they celebrated their golden wed- ding anniversary with a large and brilliant reception, and also lived to cele- brate happily, though more quietly, several other anniversaries, before Mrs. Hargrett died in 1944. Mr. Hargrett missed her greatly and did not stay on much longer. He died in 1945. Both are buried in Tifton cemetery.
Children of W. T. and Lelia Warnell Hargrett are: Mrs. J. C. Rousseau, of Macon; Mrs. Joe Medford, of Jacksonville, Florida: Clyde W., of Atlanta; Wesley, of Miami; Felix, of New York City; Lester, of Washington, D. C .; Robert, of Tifton: Charles, of Norfolk, Virginia.
WILLARD LUTHER HARMAN
Willard Luther Harman was born in Meriwether County, Georgia, August 23, 1863. He was one of eight children of Luther M. and Martha Williams Harman, his brothers and sisters being: James H. Harman of Odessadale; R. Mr. Harman, of Unadilla; D. W. Harman, of Odessadale; Mrs. Mattie Har- man Wisdom, of Chipley; Mrs. Katherine Watson, Mrs. Mollie Watson, and Mrs. Emma Watson, all of Odessadale. Of these, only one, D. W. Harman, survived W. L. Harman who died at his Tifton home, formerly the Good- man home on the southeast corner of West Sixth Street and College Ave- nue, on Friday morning at 7:45, December 28, 1934. His funeral was at the Tifton Methodist Church and burial was in Tifton Cemetery.
W. L. Harman graduated with the A.B. degree from Emory College, Ox- ford, and thereafter taught school at Washington, Georgia, and at Chipley, Georgia, where he married Miss Irene Floyd, of Chipley, in June 1892. Of this union were two children both of whom died in infancy.
In 1898 Professor Harman came from Chipley to Tifton where he headed the Tifton Academy. He returned to Chipley but later again came to Tifton, in 1907. For a time he was connected with the office of H. H. Tift and later engaged in farming and other business.
On June 10, 1908 Professor Harman married a widow, Mrs. Harriet Good- man Evans, daughter of Tifton's pioneer physician, Dr. Charles Goodman (q.v. this book). Of this union were three sons, Charles Goodman, Eugene, who died in infancy, and Allen.
Professor Harman was a popular and highly esteemed educator and he was elected superintendent of Tift County Schools. He was reelected but his health began to fail and about 1933 he was injured in an automobile acci- dent. Later he became ill and developed pneumonia which was fatal.
It was said that if all the school books which Professor Harman had bought for those who could not afford them for themselves could be placed
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in a pile they would have made a huge and fitting monument to his memory. The Tifton Gazette editorially paid to him high tribute.
Of a Christian family W. L. Harman joined the Methodist Church early in life, and served in nearly all the official capacities of the church. For many years he was a steward of the Tifton Methodist Church, and he was a Valdosta District Steward. He was for a time superintendent of the First Methodist Sunday School of Tifton. He was a Mason and a Shriner.
WILLIAM HARTRIDGE HENDRICKS
William Hartridge Hendricks, son of Robert and Nancy Parrish Hend- ricks, was born at Bloys, Bulloch County, Georgia, August 17, 1873. The Hendricks family, of English descent, had come to South Carolina soon after the Revolution and thence one member came to Bulloch County, Geor- gia where Robert was born and became a farmer of substantial means.
Young William Hartridge spent his early years on his father's Bulloch County farm, and attended the Bulloch county schools. Even as a lad he was interested in biology and chemistry, and in 1894 he entered the School of Physicians and Surgeons, at St. Louis, from which he graduated with honors in 1897.
Immediately after graduation from medical school, Dr. Hendricks began practicing medicine at Lenox, Georgia, whence, he came to Tifton, about 1900; because even before moving to Tifton he had business interests here.
On December 21, 1898, at Ty Ty, Dr. Hendricks was married to Lelia May Dell, daughter of Caple Glenn Dell and Margaret Thompson Dell. The mar- riage was at the home of the bride's grandmother, Mrs. Mary Speer Thomp- son. The bride had been born near Americus, in Sumter County, May 20, 1875.
In Tifton Dr. Hendricks soon established a large practice and he was highly esteemed by a wide circle of friends. Dr. Nichols Peterson, Dr. Hendricks established Tifton's first hospital. This was first housed on the second floor of a building which formerly stood where Brooks Drug Store now is. Later the hospital was moved to a house on Central Avenue next door to the old Dr. George Smith residence. Still later the hospital was moved to the old Shepherd home, sometimes called the Johns home, on Tifton Heights. The operating room in the Tift County Hospital is dedi- cated to Dr. Hendricks and he is, in 1946, chief of staff of Tift County Hos- pital.
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