USA > Georgia > Coffee County > Ward's History of Coffee County > Part 10
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Mr. Dickerson was elected Judge of the Superior Courts of the Waycross Circuit in 1928. He is making an excellent judge.
W. C. Lankford was born in Clinch County, Georgia, in 1877, and came to Douglas in 1901 and formed a law partnership with Mr. Dickerson in the year 1901. Mr. Lankford was elected Judge of the City Court of Douglas, Georgia, and served for many years. He was regarded as a good judge, able, honorable, and up- right.
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In 1918 Mr. Lankford was elected to Congress from the 11th District and has been re-elected at every election since that time. Mr. Lankford came up from among the people and he continues to keep in touch with that great throng of citizens known as the "Com- mon People." He studies their interests and knows their needs. He is always on the job in Washington, a roll call never finds him out of place.
October 17th, 1906, Mr. Lankford married Miss Mattie Lott of Douglas, Georgia, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Lott. They have three children : Chester, Cecil and Laura.
And thus ends another chapter in the lives of "Two Boys from Clinch." One is Judge of the Superior Courts, being the highest trial courts in Georgia, the other is in the Congress of the United States, the high- est law-making body in the world.
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Saw Mills and Lumber
In 1858, when the court house was built in Coffee County, in Douglas, there was not a steam saw mill in Coffee County. Old man Jack Ward had a saw mill run by water about the close of the war. The saw was an "upright" saw, and was a very slow process of getting lumber. The lumber out of which the court house was built was sawed up the Ocmulgee River and floated down to Barrows Bluff and then hauled out to Douglas with oxen. There were a great many little pepper mills in Coffee County run by water, but so far as I know they did not saw lumber. They were used entirely for grinding corn. The farmers all over the country would put a bushel of corn on a horse or mule and send it to the mill. It is said that an old farmer went to one of these mills in a big hurry for his meal. He waited and waited and the little mill went round and round. At last with a good deal of spirit he said to the miller, "Your little old mill grinds awful slow. I can eat the bread as fast as you grind it." Whereupon the miller pep up and said, "In how long could you do it?" The man waiting for his meal replied, " "Til I perish to death."
About 1869, when railroads came through Coffee County, the big saw mills came with them. One of the largest mills in Coffee County was operated by The Southern Pine Company at Nicholls, Georgia. An- other large mill was operated at Saginaw about two miles west of Nicholls. Another large mill was op- erated at Broxton, Georgia, by the Dorminey Price Lumber Company. After running at Broxton for many
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years the mill was moved to Douglas and remained here for several years.
About the year 1906 the Darby Lumber Company operated a mill at Douglas, Georgia. These mills were all of the large type and had tram roads reaching to the various sections of the country which brought logs to the mills.
When these large mills ceased to operate a lot of smaller mills were built all over the county. They had no tram roads and used mules to haul the logs.
Another large mill in Coffee County was operated at West Green, Georgia, and was known as The Gar- rant Lumber Company.
The lumber business in Coffee County was not a success. The cost production was high and the market most of the time was dull. It is estimated that less than ten per cent of the saw mills made a success. A large saw mill required something like fifty or a hundred mules, several miles of railroad iron for tram road purposes. Also two or three railroad engines were necessary to pull the trucks. In addition to this was the saw mill itself which required a large invest- ment. When the wheels of the great mill were not turning, the expense of the investment with the mules and railroad equipment, all the laborers and high class mechanics was still going on. And as a conse- quence the mills could not make any money at the prices they had to sell lumber for.
I might say in passing that millions and millions in feet of the finest yellow pine lumber ever grown was wasted and scattered over the country and burned with fire. It was indeed a great destruction of the wealth of Coffee County.
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At this writing. 1930, there are several small mills in Coffee County all cutting lumber of a very inferior grade, but it is the best to be had. New trees will grow in a few years large enough for lumber purposes, but the trees have no heart. They are sap and full of knots. We have lost the timber and will never see the like again.
The following saw mills were owned and operated at the times and places named :
Mill at Westonia, Georgia, operated by Jesse Wes- ton in 1880. Capacity about 30,000 feet of lumber per day.
Saw mill owned and operated by Gray and Gatchel at Lelington, Georgia, in 1880, capacity 60,000 feet per day.
Mill owned and operated by B. B. Gray & Brother at Pine Bloom, Georgia, in 1881, capacity 40,000 feet per day.
The following saw mills have been operated in Douglas, Georgia :
The Ashley Price Lumber Company, capacity 50,000 feet per day.
The J. F. Darby Lumber Company, capacity 50,000 feet per day.
The Pat Darby Lumber Company, capacity 25,000 feet per day.
The Douglas Stave and Lumber Company, capacity 25,000 feet per day.
In addition to these saw mills there have been several small mills operated in many sections of the county since the year 1900.
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The Pine Tree By Eula Newbern Cottingham
"The groves were God's first temples, and in the presence of the tree one finds peace, quietude and inspiration."
Of the eighty well- established species of THE PINES pines, one-half are American. Who knows and remembers forty different kinds of pines ? No one, at least no one needs to. But what we do need to know is how to appreciate the full value of the Georgia long-leaf pine, for this pine taken from its large family ranks as second in value.
We must recognize our pine forest as the oldest, mightiest and sublimest thing living in Coffee County. The first comers to Coffee County found the lands densely forested. To make themselves houses, and to fit the land for agriculture, they had to cut down the forests. And, too, wood was needed for fuel, for furniture, for almost numberless things ; and new uses constantly developed. In addition to all this, in every wooded region which has been settled, inestimable quantities of wood have been wasted-burned just to get it out of the way; such extravagance has been practiced until there is a sad lack of forest areas in many sections of our county.
The original forest of our county, if standing, would be of more value today than all our present industries and improvements combined.
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This is a moderately accurate estimate of the value of one of Coffee's original forests. This forest con- tained four hundred and ninety acres; on this lot there are forty thousand long-leaf pines that should yield annually for four years nine hundred barrels of gum, from which tar, pitch, turpentine, and rosin are extracted. With the present low prices of turpentine averaging forty-five cents a gallon, and rosin eight dollars a barrel, the value of these by-products is enormous. Yet this great natural product was sold for an insignificant sum, for when the Carolina op- erators began looking in this direction (about 1890) for timber, the owners didn't realize its value. My father was among the first to sell; he didn't fully realize what he had done until the negroes came in with their box-axes, and as he expressed it, began to slaughter his beautiful trees. He wept, and for many days scarcely ate anything, but there was noth- ing to do but become hardened to the situation.
After the trees were boxed and drained of their gum, the great merchant saw mills began their op- erations. One of these were at McDonalds, one at Willacoochee, one at Hazlehurst, and later one of the largest in the county was placed at Broxton; and like great octopuses, they began reaching out their long tentacles in the form of tram roads, which grad- ually reached almost every timber tract in this county.
In times past the waste involved in gum gathering was serious, but improved methods have greatly re- duced it and have put to good use many products which have formerly escaped in steam and smoke. In
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times past the waste in wood gathering was serious, but this too has been relieved, for it has been learned that every part of the pine is of value.
When I began this little story of the pine, I meant to name every product and every use of this valuable tree, but I find the task too stupendous. Suffice it to say that there are hundreds of ways in which pine lumber is utilized. It is being sent through nearly every vein of commerce to all parts of the world. Stumps and branches left in the forests after the woodsmen have done their work are now turned into slabs, laths, shingles, and bundles of faggots which are sold for fuel; stumps are taken to plants from which oil and many other products are extracted; and a wonderful invention has made it possible to extract ethyl-alcohol, the highest grade known, from sawdust. Pine needles are made into beautiful baskets and table mats. Pine cones make a most attractive in- terior decoration for winter.
I love to associate my child life with the huge pines that grew near my home. My childhood companion was a younger brother. Our playhouse was under the shadows of these pines; our playhouse carpet was the needles of straws which they gave us from their boughs. The shrubbery in our play-garden was green pine tops and sprigs of gallberry erected here and there. The fence around this attractive garden was made of pine cones. Never was the quiet of a cathedral like the solemn and sweet silence that filled all the wide spaces among those kindly trees; and in their towering tops the winter winds sing to me their wild harmonies on the wild winter nights. Nowadays it is
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the little cluster of pines outside my window in Ward Street Park that catches the winter winds and calls back to memory the music of those sweet and solemn nights-for the sounds of wind are solemn sounds, and the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.
We should have a love of patriotism for our pines. Seek to prevent the present generation from despoiling the future of that which is right. We do not wish to decree that no trees are to be cut, for the trees must be cut constantly to meet imperative needs. But there should be other forests growing up to take the place of those which are being cut down. There should be a campaign against forest fires, a frightfully de- structive agency. It is estimated that since the settle- ment of the United States, fire has destroyed more timber than man. We know this is true in Coffee County. Every spring our forests are robbed of beauty and inestimable value by fires.
Not only has the pine a high commercial value, but it has its place in literature. It has been the theme of many beautiful verses.
Among them all none are more expressive than these two stanzas from the poem "The Pines."
"On the flanks of storm-gorged ridges our black battalions massed ;
We surge in a host to the sullen coast, and we sing in the ocean blast ;
From empire of sea to empire of snow we grip our empire fast.
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Wind of the east, wind of the west, wandering to and fro,
Chant your songs in our topmost boughs that the sons of men may know,
The peerless pine was the first to come, and the pine will be the last to go."
The pine tree is the largest money asset that Coffee County has ever had. For many years our farmers have given lots of attention to cotton as a money crop. Peanuts, velvet beans, sweet potatoes, etc., have figured largely in the prosperity of Coffee County. But the pine trees have produced more wealth than all these products combined.
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Stills and Mills
When the pioneers came to Coffee County, they built their homes and all their houses out of pine logs. Their houses were covered with boards split from pine trees. They fenced their fields with rails split from pine trees. This condition of things remained till about 1870, when the first saw mill made its adventure into Coffee County. At that time Coffee County had the appearance of a great pine park. We had pine hills and pine valleys and pines everywhere.
The Brunswick and Albany Railroad traversed South Coffee County about 1870. The Macon and Brunswick traversed the northern part of Coffee County in 1869. Saw mills and turpentine stills sprang up rapidly all along these two railroads. In a few years nearly the whole of Coffee County was overrun with turpentine stills. The saw mills operated mainly along the railroads, but as the years went by tram roads were built throughout the county to haul logs to the saw mills and turpentine products to the rail- roads.
There never has been such a destruction of property as was wrought by the saw mills and turpentine op- erators. The trees which were too small for the saw mills were worked by turpentine operators as high as they could scrape the trees. When the mills and the stills had done their work of destruction, then came the cross tie getters and cut every tree big enough to make a cross tie. And now turpentine operators are boxing the saplings and blowing up the stumps. This period of time covered fifty or sixty years. The pine tree has made a great fight to continue to grow
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in this country, and in spite of hogs and fire, saw mills, and turpentine stills, we still have the pine trees with us. And we are beginning to realize that the pine will come back if we will only let it alone and give it some protection.
"Woodman, spare that tree, Touch not a single bough, In youth it sheltered me And I'll protect it now."
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Railsplitters
Before Coffee County was settled, Abraham Lincoln was a great railsplitter. He was not the best rail- splitter, for in the Pioneer days of Coffee County we had many good railsplitters. We had no plank nor wire fence, and the only chance to clear land and make a field was to fence it in some way. The first fencing in Coffee County was done with pine poles. Two stakes were driven up in such a way as to make a cross near the top. The fence was built on these posts. A fence like that would keep out cows but would not keep out hogs. And so, as time advanced and it became necessary to enlarge their fields it was then that the "railsplitter" made his appearance. The only tools he needed was an ax and a maul, an iron wedge, half a dozen gluts and a good strong back. A good railsplitter could split a thousand rails in five days. He would generally begin his task on Monday morning and finish his thousand rails by Friday night. Soon after the Civil War, when the people raised a lot of cattle and sheep, it was necessary to have large pastures, and this required a lot of rails, and so there were a lot of men "professonal railsplitters" as they could get a contract for splitting rails. The rails were usually ten and a half feet long and the usual heighth of the rail fence was ten or twelve rails high. Many of the fences were staked and ridered, that is to say, a stake rail was set on either side of the fence jam and crossed near the top and a good, heavy rail was laid on top of these stakes. Many of the farmers took a great pride in the looks of a rail fence. The worm
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rail, as they called it, was laid on the ground and then another rail was laid and then another one, and so on until the ground rail was laid as long as they wanted the fence to be. Then the fence was built up rail by rail, taking great care to make the corners just alike lined up by line and as straight as could be.
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ORDINARIES
1. ELIJAH PAULK, 1881-1889.
2. ARCHIBALD MCLEAN, 1856-1861.
3. ELDER JOHN VICKERS, 1893-1895.
4. THOMAS YOUNG, 1877-1881-1897-1904.
5. WARREN P. WARD. 1904-now serving.
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When a rail fence was well built it made a good, strong fence, and would remain for many years. There are a few of these old fences now, 1930. They have gone the way of all the earth. Wire fencing now is used extensively, and when properly erected makes a good fence.
I remember many of the old railsplitters in Coffee County soon after the war. Some white and some colored. Old Dock Ryals was a great railsplitter. John Smith was a good one. Several of the Lott negroes. Old Dick Bagley, and many others. They were in a class all to themselves. A man who had never learned how to split rails made a poor start when he first began. If he got a hundred rails a day he did well. Selecting the timber was one of the fine arts of railsplitting. The best rail was made as square as possible and made to contain as much heart as could be gotten out of the tree being used.
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A Wheat and Flour Mill
Long before the Confederate War old man Jackson Ward operated a wheat and flour mill in Coffee County. The mill was situated on Otter Creek about ten miles north of Douglas. The mill was operated by water power. The flour was not very white but it was bolted and clean and made very good bread. In the olden days before the Civil War many of our peo- ple grew wheat from necessity, as flour was hard to get from the markets. Wheat has been grown in Coffee County since the war but it is said that the grain is soft and will not keep sound like it does in a northern climate. And so at this writing, 1930, no wheat of any consequence is grown in Coffee County.
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A Carding Machine
One of the most unusual business enterprises operated in Coffee County, in the olden days, was a carding machine owned and operated by Mr. Joseph Kirkland. The power for running the machinery was furnished by an immense body of water known as the "Round About." It was an immense pond covering seven or eight lots of land.
At that day and time much of the cloth was woven in the country. Much of the cotton was picked by hand and also the carding and the spinning was done by hand. The cotton and wool was first carded into rolls and then put on a spinning wheel and spun into thread, and then the thread was woven into cloth. The carding was a big job and Mr. Kirkland operated a machine for carding wool and cotton. People from far and near had their carding and spinning done by his machinery.
Soon after the war the mill was burned down and thus ended the mill and its work. However, by this time thread could be bought from the stores and the mill ceased to be a necessity.
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Snakes in Coffee County
We first met the snake in the "Garden of Eden." He is sometimes called a serpent. He came into the world with a lie in his mouth and until this day his mouth is dangerous. It may not be out of order to make a list of the snakes of Coffee County as they are known by the natives. The most numerous and best known snakes are: the Black Snake, the Coach Whip, the Water Moccasin, the Highland Moccasin, the Spreading Adder, the Rattle Snake Pilot, the Gopher Snake, the Chicken Snake, the Garter Snake, the King Snake. There are several varieties of Black Snakes and Moccasins. The big Cotton Mouth Stump Tail Moccasin is said to be poison and the bite of which will sometimes kill. The Ground Rattler is also poi- sonous. Its bite will sometimes kill. The only poison- ous snakes that I know are those named, but there has never lived a human being but what is afraid of snakes and this has ever been the case since the old Devil turned himself into a snake.
Can Rattlesnakes Charm Birds and Animals?
It is thought by many natives of Coffee County that rattlesnakes have the power to charm or hypnotize birds and small animals such as they wish to eat. A great many incidents have been told me by responsible persons who have seen squirrels come down out of trees and go to the very mouth of the rattlesnake. Mr. Dan Lott, a well known citizen of Coffee County, a big farmer and a good business man, gives me a half dozen incidents or more where snakes have
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charmed birds and squirrels. But the most convincing case is where a cat in his yard was charmed by a rattlesnake. The cat was almost in striking distance of the snake when discovered and fully under the spell of the snake. Rattlesnakes have been so numerous in Coffee County and so many persons have been killed by them I thought it worth while to discuss this ques- tion of their power to charm animals and birds.
Rattlesnakes
The rattlesnake is the most deadly of all snakes. They are not so numerous as other snakes and have a quiet and peaceful disposition. They seldom get angry enough to fight unless they are imposed upon in some way. There are not so many rattlesnakes now as once. The coming in of turpentine stills and saw mills put a lot of workmen in the woods and they killed a lot of snakes. In an area of about half a mile square on the east side of the Seventeen-Mile Creek at the Reed Lake, sixteen rattlesnakes were killed in one season by turpentine hands. More than three hundred people have died in the United States within the last three years from snake bites. It appears that no sure cure has yet been discovered for the cure of the bite of the rattlesnake.
Probably two or three people die every year from snake bites in Coffee County. I know of but one per- son bitten by a rattlesnake to survive; that was Mr. Jasper Hand. One of the first men within my informa- tion who was killed by a rattlesnake was a man named Ellis; he lived up near the section of West Green, Georgia, and died before the Confederate War. Mr. Ellis lived on a farm. A storm came up and blew
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his fence down at night and he got up out of his bed and went around the field and was bitten by a snake in the dark and died. Mr. Thomas Paulk was bitten and died soon after the war. He lived near Lax and was hunting; a deer came along and he shot the deer and the explosion angered the snake and Mr. Paulk was bitten and died.
About 1870 a Mr. Guthrie was bitten at the home of John Lott, Sr. He lived three or four days but finally died. Another case was that of Mr. Vickers, son of Johnie Vickers, near Lax. He was bitten by a snake in the field. He lived only a few hours. Another very sad case was a little son of Mr. John Jowers. It seems that he was picking huckleberries in a swamp and fell off a log on the snake. He was bitten several times by the snake and died in a very short time.
Alligators
The word "alligator" is an old Spanish word (el lagarto) and means the lizard. During the war be- tween the states and for many years after, alligators were numerous in Coffee County. There was one alligator or more in every pond in Coffee County. Alligators prefer to live in ponds with mud and stagnant water rather than live in streams with living water. They have caves generally under the root of some tree and coming almost to the top of the earth some ten or twelve feet from the mouth of the cave. The alligator does not always sleep with his head under the water but his house (the cave) is so con- structed that he can keep his head above the water. Alligators do not grow very large in Coffee County. Six and seven feet long would be considered a large
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alligator. In the winter time alligators are dormant and do not travel nor eat. In the spring of the year when the weather gets warm they come out of their winter quarters and travel around for miles seeking for new quarters and perhaps for a new mate. When the alligator has selected his new residence he piles up a lot of leaves and brush about the root of some tree where the land is dry and lays eighteen or twenty eggs in the nest. Many of their nests are two or three feet high and three or four feet through. In due time the warm sunshine hatches the little gators and they start life in a mud hole.
The alligator is not so vicious as you perhaps have heard he is. I have never known an alligator to catch a man in Coffee County. The worse crime that he ever commits is to kill a hog.
As time went on there was a good market for alligator hides and that put a premium upon the head of every alligator. Thousands of them were killed for their hides. At this time, 1930, there are very few alligators in Coffee County. There are a few in the large streams and rivers. Alligators will fight for their young and so far as I have ever heard they are not dangerous except in defense of their young.
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