Country doctors in the early 1900’s depended on the rural roads to see their patients. Doctors were frequently among the first in the community to purchase automobiles and were among the promoters of road and transportation development.
Dr. Pleasant H. Askew’s REO two-seater is believed to be the first automobile in Berrien County, GA. Dr. Pleasant H. Askew was a prominent physician, businessman and landowner of Nashville, GA. In the 1920s he purchased a farm from Sullivan J. Knight along Cat Creek about five miles north of Ray City, GA; it was one of several Berrien County properties he owned.
Dr. P. H. Askew and Delilah Hinson Drawdy riding in an REO two-seater automobile circa 1905. The REO Motor Car Company produced automobiles and trucks from 1905 to 1975. Image courtesy of berriencountyga.com
Dr Lafayette Alonzo Carter (1858-1932), the first automobile owner in Nashville, GA, drove a Maxwell Roadster. Image courtesy of http://www.berriencountyga.com
The second gas vehicle in Berrien County was said to be a Maxwell car owned by Dr. Henry W. Clements. Henry W. Clements was a Physician who lived and practiced in Ray City, Georgia during the early days of the town. He was one of the many Medical Men of Ray’s Mill (now Ray City), who served the community over the years.
The Maxwell Motor Company produced a model called the Doctor’s Roadster, marketed especially to medical men, as seen in this advertisement from The Medical World magazine.
Advertisement for the Maxwell Motor Car in The Medical World Magazine. Dr. Henry W. Clements, of Ray City, GA owned a Maxwell.
In Berrien County, GA the Maxwell line of cars was handled by W.P. Tittle & Co., a Nashville, GA firm from 1911 to around 1925. The firm, owned by William Price Tittle, his brother Devlin Dunbar “Deb” Tittle, and brother-in-law Charlie G. Starling, was the first automobile dealer in Berrien County, GA.
Automobile dealership in Nashville, GA circa 1915
William David Sloan, born March 12, 1879 in the “Rays Mill District” (1144 Georgia Militia District), was another early car owner in Berrien County, GA.
Dr. William David Sloan and his wife Julia Knight Rigell Sloan in an REO two seater. (Image courtesy of http://berriencountyga.com/)
Dr. William David Sloan and his Ford automobile. Dr. Sloan was born and raised in the Rays Mill, GA vicinity.
Dr. R. C. Woodard, of Adel, GA, acquired a Paige touring car, built in Detroit, MI. Robert Crawford Woodard was born in 1867 near Ray’s Mill (now Ray City, GA). He became an important an important figure medicine and education in Wiregrass Georgia. Henry W. Clements roomed with Dr. R. C. Woodard while the two were medical students at the medical college in Augusta, GA.
Dr. George Hill Folsom & Family in their 1914 Ford Model T “Tin Lizzie” Touring Car. Dr. Folsom practiced medicine in Berrien and Lanier counties. He resided in Ray City, GA in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
The memoirs of Judge Augustin H. Hansell (1817-1907) describe his experiences as a student in a common school of the Wiregrass Georgia frontier. He started his education in 1822 at Milledgeville, GA at the age of five or six.
Engraving of early log schoolhouse with children playing at recess.
In his memoirs he describes the schoolhouse of his childhood.
1822
About this time and when only in my sixth year, I started to school…The school was about two and a half miles from our home, and the walk seemed rather long for a five year old. Our nearest way took us off the public road and directly through the extensive orchard and yards of my grandfather…But let us get back to school. The house was about 25 x 20 feet in size. The roof was of boards held in place by small logs laid across them and held in place by wooden pegs. The floor was of puncheons and on two sides of the room a log was sawed out to give light, especially for writing, and boards were fastened inside so that they could be drawn up and fastened by leather thongs. These were tied to wooden pegs, as there were no nails used in the building, which was literally built by hand, and no nails, glass or brick were found there. In one corner stood a large block about two feet high and known as the “Dunce Block,” upon which some unfortunate boy had to stand often for an hour, and if it was a bad case, a dunce cap made of paper and about three feet high was placed on his head. And in addition, a pair of spectacles with bark in the place of glass, was placed over his eyes. The only door was of boards and was fastened by a chain and padlock and the key kept by the teacher.
Hansell also talks of ghostly encounters walking home from school. He mentions that schooling continued even in the Summer and that the Fourth of July was expected as a school holiday.
Early schools were also a subject of the 1894-1895 report on the state of education in the United States produced by the Commissioner of Education, William Torrey Harrison. This was only the second such volume that had been produced. A chapter on early educational life in Georgia addresses the period before the Civil War and describes the typical common schoolhouse of the time in rural Georgia, which was to say in all of Georgia except perhaps Savannah and Augusta.
Schoolhouses
A place was selected on the edge of a wood and a field turned out to fallow, sufficiently central, hard by a spring of purest fresh water, a loghouse was put up, say 30 by 25 feet, with one door and a couple of windows and shelves, with benches along the unceiled walls, and the session began. Most families breakfasted about sunrise, and a brisk walk of three-quarters of an hour brought even remotest dwellers to the early opening.
In Judge Augustin H. Hansell’s school days, lighting the schoolhouse fire was a daily chore. Friction matches, known as “lucifer matches” or “loco foco matches”, had yet to be invented.
The one who happened to reach the schoolhouse first on winter mornings kindled a fire. This was before the date of lucifer matches. In winter half-burned logs were so disposed beneath ashes on the huge fireplaces as to preserve fire through the night, which was quickly rekindled by the aid of pine knots always on hand. To provide against failure, the master and some of the larger boys carried a small piece of rotten wood -punk- obtained from a decayed oak, which, being held under a flintstone and struck with a steel blade of a pocket knife, produced sparks, igniting the wood. There was seldom any suffering from cold. At noon a recess of two hours was allowed for dinner and sports. On days when the sun shone, the hour was made known by its reaching a mark on the floor by the door or one of the window-sills. In cloudy weather it was guessed at. The idea of a schoolmaster owning a watch did not enter anybody’s mind. When the day was done, dismissal was out and out. There were no keepings-in at noon or evening tide. Each day had its own history and no more; whatever was done was done for all henceforth – recitings, good or bad, punishments big or little, became things of the past, though their likes were sure to be enacted on every day thereafter. The meaning is that nothing was put off, no more than a breakfast, for the morrow. The master went silently to the house where he boarded, and the pupils, boys and girls, whipped and unwhipped, turning their backs upon everything, journeyed leisurely along, boys anon rallying one another on the day’s misadventures, personal and vicarious, and the girls behind laughing at them, occasionally lingering to gather and weave into nosegays wild flowers, that in all seasons, except the depth of winter, bordered their way along roads and lanes.
In 1900, the threat of a smallpox outbreak alarmed the citizens of Berrien County, GA. Local outbreaks of smallpox had been reported in cities and communities across the region. African-American neighborhoods were particularly affected. In some cases infected houses were burned to contain the disease. “Because smallpox requires a human host to survive, it smoldered in densely populated areas, erupting in a full-blown epidemic every ten years or so. Wherever it appeared, smallpox caused blindness, sterility, scarring, and death.” – Smithsonian
A year earlier, Berrien County men serving in the Spanish-American War had been vaccinated against smallpox prior to shipping out to Cuba. In some towns, local authorities strongly encouraged all citizens to get vaccinated, some even provided free vaccinations. Residents sick with smallpox were quarantined in “pest-houses.” Those who had been in contact were placed under observation in a “detention house” for 14 days. Visitors found to be infected might be driven out of town.
Smallpox vaccination scene. National Library of Medicine.
Before smallpox was eradicated, it was a serious infectious disease caused by the variola virus. It was contagious—meaning, it spread from one person to another. People who had smallpox had a fever and a distinctive, progressive skin rash.
Most people with smallpox recovered, but about 3 out of every 10 people with the disease died. Many smallpox survivors had permanent scars over large areas of their body, especially their faces. Some were left blind.
Thanks to the success of vaccination, smallpox was eradicated, and no cases of naturally occurring smallpox have happened since 1977. The last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States occurred in 1949. -CDC
In 1900, Berrien County commissioners looked to Dr. Robert C. Woodard, a recent graduate of the Medical College at Augusta, GA (now Augusta University) to treat the sick. Local authorities enforced quarantines with guards around infected homes and considered compulsory vaccinations.
Tifton Gazette January 26, 1900
The Small Pox in Berrien
Hon F. M. Shaw, chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, was in Tifton Tuesday. He came here to meet Dr. Woodard, of Adel, who came up on the noon train, and was carried to Brookfield and Enigma, where five cases of small pox are reported, one at the former place, and four at the latter. The cases were reported Monday, and Coms. Shaw and Dorminy went at once to the scene of the trouble. Guards were put around the houses infected, and a strict quarantine inaugurated. The services of Dr. Woodard were secured by telephone, and the cases placed in his hands. The disease is confined entirely to negroes, and is supposed to have been brought from Irwin or Coffee by migratory hands. One of the negroes at Enigma is reported dead. The action taken by our commissioners deserves the highest praise. The best way to stamp the disease out is to isolate each case, and this they propose doing. A few dollars spent in this way will save the county thousands that would be required should the trouble become epidemic. They should be given every encouragement in their efforts, and the support of every loyal citizen. As yet, no alarm has been felt in Tifton, and no further action has been considered necessary by the city authorities than that taken yesterday in establishing a pest house and notifying the police and all physicians in the city to keep a sharp lookout and report any suspected cases. Should any appear, they will be at once isolated, and vaccination made compulsory.
Despite the attempts at quarantine, smallpox continued to threaten Berrien County. So much so that Judge Augustin H. Hansell determined a large public gathering would be imprudent, and cancelled the March term of the Berrien Superior Court.
Tifton Gazette March 16, 1900 Superior Court Postponed. At Chambers, Thomasville, Ga., March 12th, 1900: For providential causes, consisting in the prevalance of small pox in various portions of Berrien, making it improper to bring the people together, the March Term, 1900, of Berrien superior court is hereby postponed to meet on the first Monday in June next, at 10 o’clock a.m. and all jurors, witnesses and parties interested will attend at that time. Aug. H. Hansell, Judge S.C.S.C.
By the end of March 1900, smallpox was spreading across Georgia and neighboring states. Savannah, GA had had a compulsory smallpox vaccination requirement since 1877, but compliance was less than complete. With the pox running rampant, the city moved for strict enforcement of vaccination for all residents.
Proclamation Office of the Mayor Savannah, Ga., March 27, 1900. The following is published for the information and guidance of the public: As a precautionary measure, and in view of the fact that small-pox prevails in many of the counties and towns of Georgia and the surrounding states, and can be transmitted through the medium of the mails, express packages, freight, etc., notice is herewith given by the Sanitary Board of the city of Savannah, that every person resident in the city of Savannah or the county of Chatham, must be vaccinated within the next ten days, ending April 6, 1900, and that after the expiration of that time the law will be rigidly enforced as to all persons found not vaccinated, as follows: “Section 62, MacDonell’s code (acts of 1877: Vaccination Compulsory: Vaccination shall be compulsory upon all persons living in Chatham county, and any person or persons who have not been vaccinated, and who, after the 19th of February, 1877, fail to be vaccinated, shall, upon conviction for the first offense, be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or imprisonment in the county jail for not longer than one month.” The city physicians will vaccinate free of charge, any persons resident in the city of Savannah or county of Chatham, who are paupers or unable from poverty to pay for the same. HERMAN MYERS Mayor and Chairman of Sanitary Board.
During 1900 to 1904, cases of smallpox continued to be reported in Berrien County and all over the state. On June 21, 1901, the Tifton Gazette reported,
The carelessness of some of [Berrien’s] neighboring counties in dealing with small-pox is little short of criminal. Wednesday [June 19, 1901] a white man came to Tifton in a car crowded with people, and stopped with crowds on the streets until it was noticed that he was thickly pitted with small-pox. Even when notified to leave town, he was sullen and slow about going until he found that he was confronted with the pest house. The state needs a quarantine law to take hold of these cases that refuse to take any measures for their own protection or that of their neighbors.
From 1900 to 1904 an average of 48,164 cases and 1528 deaths caused by smallpox were reported each year in the United States. The pattern in the decline of smallpox was sporadic. The last case in the United States was reported in 1949. Smallpox was completely eradicated worldwide in 1979, because of the mass vaccination efforts of the World Health Organization. Smallpox is the only disease that has been eradicated.
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