Wiregrass Georgia | Ray City History Blog

Year of the Tiger

May 8, 2013 at 3:09 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: 3rd Georgia Cavalry Battalion, 4th Georgia Cavalry Regiment, Adel GA, Alapaha River, Argyle GA, Battle of Olustee, Berrien Tiger, Cecil GA, Clinch County GA, Duncan L. Clinch, Fellowship Baptist Church, George Harris, George W. R. Stone, James Harris, James Stewart, Jim Hightower, John L. Harris, John's Island SC, Julia Ann Westberry, Mary Alice Stone, Nancy Howell, Nancy Ursery, Okefenokee Swamp, Providence Primitive Baptist Church, Quitman GA, Ray City GA, Richard Bennett, Thomas B. Stewart, Thompson Harris, Union Church, William Harris, Wiregrass Georgia

In Wiregrass Georgia, 1849 may have been the Year of the Tiger. Several previous posts have related the story of the Berrien Tiger, a large panther which attacked Jim Hightower (aka James Stewart, step-son of Thomas B. Stewart) near the Alapaha River in 1849 (see Eyewitness Accounts of the Berrien Tiger).

Here is a family story shared by reader Lloyd Harris, of another “Tiger” encounter which occurred that same year near Argyle, GA, about 35 miles east of Ray City.

When I was young my grandfather related a long ago memory of his grandfather’s encounter with a panther or panthers in the south Georgia wilderness. Our family story coincides with the Berrien Tiger accounts as they happened at approximately the same time. My great great grandfather, James Harris, told this story of his own childhood to my grandad when he was young.

James Harris, 1880s. Image courtesy of Lloyd Harris.

The incident happened when James Harris was about five years old, and coincides with the 1849 date of the Berrien Tiger.

Family of James Harris

James Harris was the first of eleven children born to George Harris and Julia Ann Westberry. He was born near Quitman, Georgia, February 16, 1844.

His father, George Harris, was the son of Thompson Harris (1784-1870) and Nancy Ursery (1784- ) A Confederate Widow’s Indigent Pension application for Julia Ann (Westberry) Harris in 1908 reflects George Harris’ birth in 1817 in South Carolina. Another source relates that he was born in Appling County, Georgia between 1817 and 1822, after which the family lived in Clinch County. George was a blacksmith and in addition assisted his father Thompson Harris in constructing covered bridges. His father’s work was known throughout Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. A trademark of their bridges was the integrated use of iron and bored wooden pegs to hold the timbers together.

George was a blacksmith and wheelwright. Family tradition relates that he assisted his father Thompson Harris in constructing covered bridges throughout Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.

The church records of Union Church show that George and Julia Harris were received and baptized into its membership August 7, 1841, and were dismissed by letter March 12,1842. They became members of Providence Primitive Baptist Church near their home soon after that church was constituted in 1844. Their subsequent records cannot be traced due to the loss of church records.

The Harris home and farm in Clinch County, Georgia was on lot 325 in the 7th District which lot was traversed by the county line between Clinch and Ware Counties when Clinch was created in 1850 from Ware County. This property is situated about three miles north of the present village of Argyle. George Harris was granted this lot from the state on June 3, 1849; also granted the adjoining lot 324 on October 3, 1848. He sold lot 324 to his brother, William Harris, November 2, 1849, and then lived on lot 325 until he sold that parcel of land to Richard Bennett on August 12, 1852.

Tale of the Panthers

There is a family tale handed down through many generations relating to frontier life. The event happened in 1849 during the time the Harris family was residing in Clinch County. George Harris was away leaving his wife Julia and the children home alone in a pioneer homestead. Speculation would be that he was away with his father building bridges or hunting. During one night panthers roaming from the nearby Okefenokee swamp menaced the home ranging closer and closer to the cabin. To keep the predators from entering the home the frantic family prayed through the night and burned their beds, and chairs keeping a large fire going. The tactic flushed the space with light and served to repel an attack by the curious cats.

The Harris family story of a young pioneer family praying, hanging blankets over windows, and burning the bed, tables and chairs was passed down serving to entertain several generations with a true historical drama of frontier Georgia living in the nineteenth century.

George and James Harris in the Civil War

George Harris and his son James both served in the War Between the States. George Harris enlisted as a Private in the fall of 1862 as a member of the 3rd Cavalry Battalion which was formed during the winter of 1861-1862 with six companies. He along with his unit served on the Georgia coast, scouting and patrolling, until a reorganization of troops occurred on January 1, 1863. George Harris’ unit was merged into the 4th (Clinch’s) Georgia Cavalry Regiment , and he was placed in Company I. Lieutenant Colonel Duncan L. Clinch and Major John L. Harris were in command.

At the reorganization, James Harris joined his father’s unit, Company I, 4th Georgia Cavalry as a private. He participated in the Battle of Olustee, Florida and in the battles around Atlanta. Family tradition relates he contracted measles during the siege of Atlanta and was in the city when it fell to the Union armies under General William T. Sherman. His unit apparently left him outside of the city but in the line of the advancing enemy soldiers. James was convalescing on a farm (place unknown) when “Yankees” were seen approaching. He was hidden by the host family in the stump of a huge oak tree that had “bushed” up. James remained concealed in the oak bush throughout the hot summer day until the Yankees left. Though suffering from sickness, and within a stones throw of the Union soldiers, he remained quite and motionless evading capture! Records also indicate he participated in battle at John’s Island, South Carolina. He surrendered at Thomasville, Georgia and was paroled at Tallahassee, Florida on May 15, 1865.

After the war James Harris married Mary Alice Stone. She was born February 16, 1842, the daughter of George W. R. Stone and Nancy Howell. The Harris and Stone families are listed in the 1850 Census of Ware County. James and Alice raised a family and engaged in farming near Adel, GA in present Cook County. He was a skilled blacksmith and wheelwright, as well. James Harris is listed in the 1880 and 1900 census of Berrien County, Georgia.

For James Harris, 1897 was a particularly trying year. That summer a hailstorm hit the Harris farm, damaging his house and property.

James Harris’ plantation hit by storm, 1897.

Tifton Gazette
June 18, 1897

Storm Near Cecil.

Cicil, Ga., June 12. – A heavy and damaging hail storm passed three miles north of Cecil late yesterday afternoon. The cloud traveled in a southeasterly direction, touching the plantation of Mr. James Harris, three miles northeast of this place. The storm was accompanied by a terrific wind, which destroyed a large amount of Mr. Harris’ fencing and a portion of the roof of his dwelling. No deaths or personal injuries have been reported.

In November, 1897, Harris took another blow when his gin was burned down.

James Harris’ gin house hit by fire, 1897.

Tifton Gazette
November 19, 1897

Gin House Burned

Cecil, Ga., Nov. 17 – At a late hour last night the gin house and contents of Mr. James Harris living two miles northeast of this place, was destroyed by fire. The origin of which is unknown, but is thought to be an incendiary’s work. The amount of the damage could not be learned to-day, but it is thought that it may exceed $1,000. SHEBA.

James’ father, George Harris, died between 1892 and 1894 in Echols County, Georgia. His mother, Julia Ann Harris, applied for a Confederate Widows pension in 1908 and 1909 in Berrien County, Georgia. George Harris and his wife are buried in Union Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery in Lanier County, Georgia in unmarked graves.

In 1919, James Harris sold his farm near Cecil, GA.

James Harris sells out in Cecil District, Georgia, 1919.

Tifton Gazette
August 29, 1919

Adel News. There has been a good deal of activity in the sale of farm lands in Cook county this week. Mr. W. S. Kirkland sold his farm to Mr. Jim Buck Whiddon and later bought Mr. John Taylor’s place which he also sold. It is understood that the first brought $15,00. Both of the places are in the Brushy creek neighborhood. Mr. James Harris sold his place in the Cecil district to Mr. General Taylor for $15,000 also.

James Harris was a resident of Cecil, Georgia in Berrien/Cook County until his death. He died in Adel, Georgia December 12, 1928. Alice died October 28, 1928, in Adel Georgia. They are both buried at the Fellowship Baptist Church Cemetery in Cook County near Cecil, Georgia.

Special thanks to Lloyd Harris for the contribution of images and content for this post.

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Witchy Women and Wiregrass Medicine

March 29, 2013 at 12:29 am (Clower Family)
Tags: Age of Heroic Medicine, Atlanta Medical College, Benjamin Rush, Calomel, Douglas GA, Dr. C.G.B.W. Parker, Dr. Rambo, John Thomas Clower, Joseph Ward, Ray's Mill GA, Stafford Davis, Warren Preston Ward, William Ward, Wiregrass Georgia, Witchey Woman

Among the earliest trained medical men at Ray’s Mill was John Thomas Clower (1830-1893), the son of a Revolutionary Soldier who immigrated from Germany to fight for American independence. A graduate of Atlanta Medical College, John Thomas Clower, served as a military surgeon during the Civil War. Afterwards he came to Ray’s Mill (now Ray City), GA where he practiced medicine in this community from 1870 until 1887.

There were the Medical Men of Ray’s Mill, and there were the home remedies. Ray City had its faith healers, too. In the 1930, one such healer was Stella Wright ~ Seeress of Ray City, GA.

In the earliest pioneer days of Wiregrass Georgia, medical science was little known, and the people depended more on home remedies and faith than doctors. In 1922, Warren Preston Ward, of Douglas, GA wrote a series of sketches of early Wiregrass Georgia, and among these was a narrative on medical practices of the early pioneers:

Another thing that entered very largely in the economic life of the people was the question of sickness, medicine and the doctor. There were no doctors in this section of Georgia when it was first settled, for the reason that there were not enough people to support a doctor; but in every neighborhood there was always someone who knew how to give such medicine and plain remedies as were used at that time. Among the common remedies then in use were oil and turpentine, for colds; red oak bark as an astringent; elderberry bark as a purgative and an astringent. The wise ones said scrape the bark down for a purgative and scrape the bark up for an astringent. For cuts and to stop blood, use cobweb; that is spider webs hanging about the walls covered with smut. Sweet gum and mullen was used for fevers, pepper tea was used for colds; for sprains, use a mixture of clay and vinegar; for stings, use tobacco; for snake bite, use whisky or poultice made of salt, tobacco and onions; for pneumonia, bleed the person during the first stages; for burns, use the white of an egg mixed with flour; many people thought that fire could be talked out and there were always many old witchy women ready to talk it out; warts, moles and cancers were conjured (whatever that means). Sage, thyme and rosemary were given by nearly all the people and were used for teas. Another peculiar remedy was for the hives; the remedy was for any person who had never seen their father to blow their breath in the child’s face and the hives would leave right now, so it was said.
In these good old days old Uncle Stafford Davis was a celebrated cancer doctor of the conjure kind. People came to see him for hundreds of miles. They also wrote him letters for his absent treatment. Many people thought he was gifted from God. The old man did not charge anything for his services, if you had anything to give him he accepted it with thanks. He lived to be 106 years old and died soon after the civil war. Before his death he undertook to transfer his gift of healing to his grandson, Joseph Ward. Some of the first doctors to practice in this section [Appling] of Georgia were Doctors Rambo and Smith; old man William Ward also done a little homespun practice. Dr. C.G.B.W. Parker did a large practice, but people relied mainly upon their home remedies and upon advice of the men and women in the neighborhood who had experience in giving medicine and in nursing the sick.

About 1815 calomel came into general use among the common people. Many persons got salivated and were afraid to use it. But sure as you called a doctor he used calomel. If it salivated, so much the better in some cases. During this time of hot discussion, pro and con, some one expressed his disgust at the use of calomel in these lines-

“Mr. Wade was taken sick,
Go, call a doctor and be quick,
The doctor comes and remembers well
To bring a bottle of calomel.

“He turns to the patient’s wife,
Have you a clean paper and a knife?
I think your husband would do well
To take a dose of calomel.

“The patient grows worse quite fast indeed,
Go call a council and make speed:
The council comes, and remembers well
To double the dose of calomel.

“The patient says to his weeping wife:
This nasty thing has got my life.
I bid you all a long farewell,
Let me do so without the use of calomel.”

One of the sad features of sickness and death in these old days was that each family often had to doctor and nurse their own sick, and when they died they had to make their own pine-board coffin and put them away in their last resting place, often with no friend to offer a word of sympathy, or a minister of the gospel to offer a word of prayer or to point sad hearts to the better day and better time when they should all meet again in the morning of the resurrection.

During the “Age of Heroic Medicine” (1780–1850), educated professional physicians practiced aggressive techniques including bloodletting, intestinal purging (calomel), vomiting (tartar emetic), profuse sweating (diaphoretics) and blistering, stressing already weakened bodies. Heroic medicine was strongly advocated by Benjamin Rush (1745–1813), trained in medicine at Edinburgh University and one of the “fathers” of American medicine, who also signed the American Declaration of Independence. While well-intentioned, and often well-accepted by the medical community, these treatments were actually harmful to the patient.

Calomel, a compound of Mercurous Chloride, became a popular remedy for a variety of physical and mental ailments during the age of “heroic medicine.” It was used by doctors in America throughout the 18th century, and during the revolution, to remove “impurities” from the body. Calomel was given to patients as a purgative or cathartic and was often administered to patients in such great quantities that their hair and teeth fell out, along with other horrific side effects. One characteristic effect appeared in the well-known phenomenon of mercurial salivation – a profuse flow of saliva in the body’s effort to rid itself of the deadly a poison. For many patients the cure of Calomel was suffering and death resulting from mercurial poisoning.

According to Steve Spakov, Loyola University, “It is toxic and its toxicity is compounded because mercury accumulates as a poison. It acts as a purgative and kills bacteria (and also does irreversible damage to their human hosts). Some treatments are of historical interest. The three physicians atttending Gen. Washington’s final hours administered calomel to the dying President. Lewis and Clark carried it on their expedition and used it to treat their men’s STD’s. Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women) suffered from its effects.

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Coffee’s Road Passed Seven Miles West of Ray City

March 29, 2012 at 12:02 am (Coffee Road, Troupville of Old Lowndes County, Uncategorized)
Tags: Coffee Road, Florida Territory, John E. Coffee, McRae Cemetery, McRae Georgia, Ray City GA, Thomas Swain, W.H. Outlaw Farm, William H. Outlaw, Wiregrass Georgia

The construction of one of the early roads in Wiregrass Georgia, running from Jacksonville, GA down to Florida, was at the direction of the Georgia Assembly. The Wiregrass was then an untamed wilderness on the nation’s southern frontier. Bill Outlaw’s Georgia Centennial Farm application for the W. H. Outlaw farm observes,

“Tellingly, when the advisability of funding Coffee Road was debated in the Georgia Legislature in the 1820s, a legislator asked why Man should build a road through land that God Almighty had not finished building yet.”

But the military road constructed by John Coffee and Thomas Swain in 1823 became the first route opening up the south central Georgia to pioneer settlers (see Daniel McCranie). Coffee’s road, as it was soon known, passed through the site of present day Nashville, GA and on southward to the Florida line, approaching only about seven miles west of the point where Levi J. Knight first settled on Beaver Dam Creek, the site of present day Ray City, GA.

John Coffee, builder of Coffee Road, earliest vehicular and postal route of this section.

The Act to authorize construction of the road was passed in December of 1822.

1822 Act authorizing construction of the Coffee Road

AN ACT

To alter and amend the eighth section of an act, entitled an act to amend the road laws of this state, passed the nineteenth day of December, eighteen hundred and eighteen.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this act, all overseers of roads appointed in pursuance of the before recited act, shall cause their respective roads to be cleared twenty feet wide, except market roads, which shall be cleared thirty feet wide, and shall cause all causeways to be made sixteen feet wide. Any thing contained in the said section of the said act to the contrary notwithstanding.

ALLEN DANIEL,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.

MATTHEW TALBOT,
President of the Senate.

Assented to December 21, 1822

JOHN CLARK, Governor.

________

AN ACT

Tq authorise the opening of a Road from the Alapaha to the Florida
line.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That from and immediately after the passage of this act his excellency the Governor be, and he is hereby authorised to appoint two fit and proper persons to superintend the opening of a road to commence on the Alapaha at or near Cunningham’s ford on said river, passing through districts number ten, twelve and thirteen in the county of Irwin, and number eighteen and twenty-three in the county of Early, pursuing the best and most practicable route until it intersects the Florida line near the Oclockney river.

Roads, Bridges, and Ferries. 97

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the sum of fifteen hundred dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated to carry the above recited section into effect.

ALLEN DANIEL,
Speaker of the House of Representatives,

MATTHEW TALBOT,
President of the Senate..

Assented to December 23, 1822. .

JOHN CLARK, Governor.

The historic marker in Nashville, GA reads:

The Old Coffee Road, earliest vehicular and postal route of this section, running southwestward from the Ocmulgee River to the Florida Line, passed through today’s Lax, Nashville, Cecil, Barwick and Thomasville. The thoroughfare was opened by direction of the State in 1823 under supervision of Gen. John Coffee and Thomas Swain. Over this pioneer route the products of the region were carried to the coast to be sold and imported goods brought back. Sections of the original route are in use today.

Coffee Road Historic Marker, Nashville GA

About John Coffee, builder of Coffee’s Road, historian Lucian Lamar Knight wrote:

John Coffee, Indian fighter, planter and congressman, was born in the State of Virginia, in 1780, and when a small boy his father moved with his family to Hancock County, Georgia. He was not associated with General Jackson in his campaigns, as was his cousin and namesake of Tennessee, but later on he became a personal friend of that distinguished man. His military services appear to have been rendered to the State of Georgia in connection mainly with the Indian troubles of the first twenty-five years of the nineteenth century. In his youth he moved from Hancock County to Telfair County. Most of his military service was rendered in South Georgia and Florida, and as it was a wilderness country, he is said to have cut out and built a road for the transport of his munition and supplies, which for half a century was known as the “Old Coffee Road,” and a part of it is recognized on the records of the state as the boundary line of Berrien and Coffee counties. The latter county was organized and named in honor of General Coffee by the Georgia Legislature in 1854. He served his county for several terms in the State Legislature, and this, combined with his military record, brought him into prominence as one of the leading men of the state, so that in 1832 he was elected to the Twenty-third Congress. In 1834 he was re-elected to the Twenty-fourth Congress, and was a useful, though not a showy member of Congress, but from the time of his entry into the House his health was infirm and steadily grew worse, so that on September 25, 1836, he died at his home four miles southeast of Jacksonville, and was buried there.

The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress gives the following bio:

COFFEE, John, a Representative from Georgia; born in Prince Edward County, Va., December 3, 1782; moved with his father to a plantation near Powelton, Hancock County, Ga., in 1800; settled in Telfair County in 1807 and engaged in agricultural pursuits; general of the State militia during the Creek War; cut a road through the State of Georgia (called Coffee Road) to carry munitions of war to Florida Territory to fight the Indians; member of the State senate 1819-1827; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses and served from March 4, 1833, until his death; was reelected to the Twenty-fifth Congress on October 3, 1836, announcement of his death not having been received; died on his plantation near Jacksonville, Telfair County, Ga., on September 25, 1836; interment on his plantation near Jacksonville, Ga.; reinterment in McRae Cemetery, McRae, Ga., in 1921.

Grave of John Coffee, builder of Coffee’s Road, died 1836, reinterred in McRae Cemetery, McRae, Ga., in 1921

For more about the history of Coffee Road and the portions that are still in service today, see the research of Ed Cone at:

http://www.edconefamily.com/coffee-rd.htm

-30-

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Eulogy of Elder Ansel Parrish

February 24, 2012 at 12:55 am (Faith and Begorrah, Knight Family, Parrish Family, Uncategorized)
Tags: 50th Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Alderman B. Parrish, Amanda Celestia Parrish, Ansel Parrish, Cat Creek Primitive Baptist Church, E. J. Williams, Elizabeth L. Parrish, Ezekiel Crofford Parrish, Ezekiel J. Williams, Friendship Church, Henry Parrish, J. B. Smith, J. E. W. Smith, James W. Parrish, Jesse A. Parrish, John A. Parrish, Josiah Allen Jones Parrish, Lowndes County Georgia, Mary Eleanor Parrish, Mattie Martha Parrish, Molcy Knight, Moorna Parrish, Moses Westberry Jr, Nancy E. Parrish, Nancy Parrish, Naomi Parrish, Pleasant Church, primitive baptist, Rachel E. Parrish, Salem Church, Sarah Laura Parrish, Union Church, William A. Knight, William Cone Knight, William Henry Parrish, William M. Register, Wiregrass Georgia

Ansel Parrish (1824 -1891)

Elder Ansel Parrish, of Berrien County, GA was one of the ablest and best known Primitive Baptist preachers of his time. Ansel Parrish joined Pleasant Church at the age of 19 and was baptized by Elder Moses Westberry, Jr. He thereafter dedicated his life to the service of the Primitive Baptist faith. During the Civil War he ministered to the confederate soldiers in 50th Georgia Regiment at their encampment near Savannah, GA. He became a leader among the Primitive Baptists, and preached at many of the churches in the area. From the death of Elder William A. Knight in 1860 until 1865, the close of the Civil War, Ansel Parrish served as pastor of Union Church, the mother church of all the Primitive Baptist churches in this section. He died January 16, 1891 leaving a widow and seventeen children, and eighty grandchildren.

Ansel Parrish (1824 – 1891). Image courtesy of http://berriencountyga.com/

Recognized throughout the Wiregrass, “he was considered a great power in the church as well as out of the church”.

The Thomasville Times
August 16, 1884

Moultrie Meanderings.

The yearly meeting of the Primitive Baptists at Barber’s church, three miles east of here, came off last week. The attendance was large, Elder Ancil Parrish, one of the old landmarks, was present. Uncle Ancil bids fair to weather the storms of several winters yet. The creed of these people may be at fault, or not, I don’t pretend to say; but the predominant idea of their lives seems to be embodied in the maxim: “Be honest, industrious and attend to your own business, and they endeavor to carry out this proposition with might and main.

Ansel Parrish married Molcy Knight on December 15, 1842.

Elder Ansel Parrish, (1824 -1891), and Molcy Knight Parrish (1826 – 1897). Image courtesy of http://berriencountyga.com/

Following the death of Ansel Parrish on January 16, 1891, Eulogies appeared in The Valdosta Times:

The Valdosta Times
Saturday, January 24, 1891

He Will Be Missed.

Many of our readers knew a man, now gone from view, whose plain and simple life, unadorned with the polish of modern culture, illustrated in a striking degree many of the higher and nobler attributes of manhood; whose life-work stamped him a man of power. Although denied in his youth the benefits of the ordinary high schools of the country, and necessarily therefore a stranger to theological seminaries, yet he had the gift of oratory, and the force of strong convictions. He expounded the Scriptures as he understood them, and labored to make men better. He was not skilled in the arts of the modern doctors of divinity, nor was he a juggler with words. He was a plain blunt man. To him there shone a light through the clouds of the letter of the word which fired his heart and loosened his tongue. He went out among his people and taught them justice and the ways of peace. He was a law-giver of the old-time type. When brothers quarreled he called them together, heard the testimony, settled the dispute, and sent them away reconciled. He always kept them out of the Courthouse when he could, but if he failed he followed them to the bar of the court, and there exercised a wonderful influence in the settlement of the case. The people believed his heart was pure and his judgment was sound, and seldom a jury was found which would not accept his convictions and make them their own verdict, in spite of the pleadings of the lawyers. It was his custom on such occasions to take a seat within the bar of the court room, and when the lawyers on his side opposed to his convictions would rise to address the jury he would sit dumb and motionless. It is said the lawyers, knowing his power, would often address much of their speech to him, hoping to draw some token of assent, but he could not be coaxed or driven from his position. But when the other side – the right side – was being presented to the jurors, his face would show his sympathy; and repeatedly, and unconsciously, as it were, when strong points were being driven home by the logic of the speaker, or when important quotations bearing on the case would be drawn from the evidence, he would nod assent, and give audible tokens of approval. He was always in touch with the juries, and the verdicts always came right.
It has been often said by lawyers practicing in that court that he was more greatly to be feared, if he was against their client, than the logic and eloquence of the most astute practitioner in the circuit.
This good old man – simple and home-spun in his ways – was a power in the region about him. If he drove to the county town, or to a railway station, a crowd would gather round his buggy before he could get out, and two or three would begin unhitching his horse.
He asked no money for his preaching, but he always had plenty – the product of a well-tilled farm; and no widow, or other deserving poor person in the neighborhood, went unprovided for if he knew of their want. It is said that he studiously avoided giving publicity to his charities, and that the beneficiaries were often ignorant as to the identity of their benefactor.
The fame of this man went beyond the limits of his neighborhood and county. Wherever those of his faith and order assembled in Wiregrass Georgia or Florida he was known, and his name was reverently mentioned. If he was present he was a leader; if absent, his absence was felt.
Such a man was Elder Ansel Parrish, the old Primitive Baptist preacher of Berrien County, as seen by one who was neither his partisan nor his parishioner.
When news of his fatal illness spread over the country hundreds of his devoted friends and followers journeyed to the bedside of the dying preacher to get a last look into the depths of those great grey eyes before the light went out and the old-time fire burnt down in their sockets. And when they laid his body away in the old family burying ground, a great concourse of people gathered to mingle their tears with the sod in the new made mound.

A week later, The Valdosta Times followed up with a tribute to Elder Parrish.

The Valdosta Times
Saturday, January 31, 1891

Ansel Parrish

A Brief Biographical Sketch Of One Who Will Be Missed. “Oh for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still.” Elder Ansel Parrish was born in Bulloch County, Ga., July 7th, 1824, and died at his home seven miles southwest of Nashville in Berrien County January 16th, 1891.
Elder Ansel was the fourth son of Henry and Nancy Parrish, who moved from Bulloch to Lowndes, now Berrien County, in 1825, and the future preacher learned to take his first toddling steps at a camp fire on the road while his parents were moving here.
He grew up with the meager opportunities common to our country and his literary attainments were therefore meager. Of a calm temper he was early separated from the wild life of the country and joined the Primitive Baptist Church in 1843, being in his nineteenth year, and was ordained an Elder March 18th, 1854. He was married to Miss Mollsey Knight, whose father was William Knight [William Cone Knight] and her mother a daughter of Jesse Carter, thus uniting the two largest family connections in Lowndes County. To write of him as a neighbor and friend, a husband and father would be out of place here. Those who knew him best loved him most.
It is as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus I would fain write most, and then, he was so widely known that the task will alas fall short of his merit. The writer heard him preach first and most frequently at Salem (Adel) Church of which he was one of the Pastors for a long number of years, assisted by his uncle, brother and co-worker the late lamented Elder Ezekiel J. Williams. As a preacher he was earnest in the faith as he interpreted the word of God, yet not harsh, ever bearing in mind the faith of others. He devoted his early and mature manhood to his Master’s service and when the infirmities of age began to creep on him he seemed to not regard them as an excuse to satisfy self ease, but labored on, and when he could not stand in the sacred desk to deliver his message he preached seated. For all this work and work in physical pain, he never, to my knowledge, asked a dollar as a reward.
A good substantial farmer, he was not only self sustaining but ever ready to open his hand to the needy when his already open heart heard the cry of distress. Seventeen children, 14 of whom are living, 7 sons and 7 daughters were born to him. He leaves 80 living grandchildren, and 24 dead, preceded him of his 8 brothers and 2 sisters, only the venerable Josiah Parrish of Ava, and Absalom of Arkansas survive him.
Elder Parrish was at the time of his death Pastor of the following Churches: Pleasant and Cat Creek, literally falling in the line of duty. May his fidelity to his Master’s cause be taken as an example by those whom he has so long and faithfully warned. In him his family has lost all that goes to make a husband and father, and his Church its wisest counselor.

The archives of the US GenWeb project provide the following biography:

Biography of Elder Ansel Parrish

Elder ANSEL PARRISH was one of the ablest and best known Primitive Baptist mininsters in his day for over 35 years prior to his death. He was considered a great power in the church as well as out of the church. He was born in Bullock County, July 7, 1824, a son of Henry and Nancy Parrish.
He was married Dec. 15, 1842, in Lowndes (now Berrien) County, to Molcy Knight, born Nov. 7, 1826, daughter of William Cone Knight.
Elder Parrish was first converted and united with Pleasant Church in Lowndes County, Aug. 19, 1843, and was baptized. Mrs. Parrish followed him into the church and was baptized November, 1847. He was ordained a deacon in his church, Feb. 2, 1848, and served in this office until he was licensed to preach, Jan. 17, 1852. Two years later, March 19, 1854, he was ordained to the full Gospel Ministry by a presbytery composed of Elders Wm. A. Knight, J. B. Smith and J.E.W. Smith. From then until his death, Jan. 16, 1891, his was a very busy and fruitful ministry among the Primitive Baptist Churches in Berrien and adjoining counties. His first cousin, Elder E. J. Williams, was Pastor of Pleasant Church when he (Elder Parrish) was ordained and continued as such until 1881 when he declined re-election; thereupon Elder Parrish was called. He continued as Pastor of his home church until his death. At the time (1881), he was already serving Cat Creek Church in Lowndes County, and in April, 1881, he was called as Pastor by Friendship Church near Hahira, also Salem Church in Adel. These four Churches he continued to serve as pastor until his death 13 years later. He also served as Moderator of the Union Association several years. Elder Parrish owned a large tract of land in Berrien County and gave each of his sons a farm when they married. Mrs. Parrish died June 25, 1897. She and her husband were buried in the Lois Cemetery near Pleasant Church.

Grave of Ansel Parrish (1824 – 1891), Pleasant Cemetery, Berrien County, GA. Image source: FindAGrave.com

Children of Molcy Knight and Ansel Parrish

Rachel E Parrish 1844 –
Elizabeth L Parrish 1845 – 1928, married Marion Register
James W Parrish 1847 – 1916
Nancy E Parrish 1848 – 1924
Mary Eleanor Parrish 1849 – 1909, married John Lee
Henry William Parrish 1851 – 1928
John A Parrish 1853 – 1914
Sarah Laura Parrish 1854 – 1933, married William M. Register
Ezekiel Crofford Parrish 1856 – 1924
Martha M. “Mattie” Parrish 1860 – 1942, married Aaron A. Knight
Josiah Allen Jones Parrish 1861 – 1929
Jesse A Parrish 1864 – 1938
Amanda Celestia Parrish 1866 – 1900
Naomi Parrish 1867 – 1886
Moorna Parrish 1868 –
Child Parrish 1869 –
Alderman B Parrish 1871 – 1932

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Early Berrien Settlers Traded at Centerville, Georgia

December 30, 2011 at 12:38 am (Gaskins Family, Society and Leisure)
Tags: Alachua Trail, Altamaha River, Camp Pinckney, Center Village Georgia, Centerville Georgia, Centreville Georgia, Five Mile Creek, Folkston Georgia, Harmon Gaskins, King's Road, Okefenokee Swamp, St. Mary's River, Trader's Hill, Waresboro Georgia, Wiregrass Georgia

Way back in the early days people living in south Georgia had no markets near and so the people would gather their little plunder together, go in carts to Centerville on the St. Maria river, in Camden county, Ga.

Early settlers of Ray City, Berrien County and the surrounding area traveled about 95 miles to trade at Centerville, also known as Center Village or Centreville, in present day Charlton County, GA.

1864 map detail showing locations of General Levi J. Knight’s residence (Ray City), Nashville, Troupville and Center Village (Centerville), with route from Berrien County to Centerville highlighted.

Berrien county cattleman Harmon Gaskins, who from about 1835 to 1875 resided at Five Mile Creek near present day Ray City, GA, was among the local residents who conducted business with the merchants at Centerville. In his 1932 History of Charlton County, Alexander McQueen observed of Centerville, “…Those merchants bought the produce brought in by the farmers and sold in exchange flour, sugar, shot, powder, coffee, nutmeg, etc. and every store sold whiskey. One could buy New England rum for $1.00 per gallon or foreign whiskey for $1.25 per gallon. In those days no store was complete without several barrels of whiskey.”

Centerville truly was at the center of an important crossroads of commerce for Wiregrass Georgia. Located on the St. Mary’s River about two miles east of Folkston, GA, Centerville was situated with convenient river access to the harbor at St. Mary’s and the Atlantic trade, the Kings Road, and also the Alachua Trail, an ancient and important commerce route from the Altamaha River, in Georgia, down into East Florida.

THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
Thursday, July 31, 1980 Pg 2

THE WAY IT WAS – Gene Barber

“The Alachua Trail was until the latter years of the nineteenth century one of east Florida’s most heavily traveled routes. It brought pioneers and mail down from the Centre Village-Camp Pinckney – Traders Hill-Fort Alert area (all in the neighborhood of the present Folkston) into central Florida and took Territorial Florida planters’ products and Indian traders back to the busy Saint Mary’s River for shipping and trading. In the 1840’s into the ’70’s, stage coaches coursed its ruts with mail and visitors…”

According to the Georgia Genealogy Trails: Charlton County History website:

Center Village, a town downriver from Trader’s Hill and established in 1800, was a border town devoted to defense and trade. Camp Pinckney housed border soldiers, and a ferry provided service across the St. Marys between Georgia and Florida and merchants. Tradesmen and other Crackers bartered, bought, and sold their wares on the town streets, settled disputes in public “fist and skull” fights, and wagered on horse racing. Waresboro, a hub for passenger, mail, and freight service on the Okefenokee’s north side, was established in 1824. It was fairly isolated initially, depending on mail service from the distribution station at Camp Pinckney, but gained population and prominence as Ware County’s seat during the antebellum period. All four of these towns faded away as the larger cities of Folkston (Charlton County) and Waycross (Ware County) became rail-road junctions in the postbellum era. But in the years before 1860, they were thriving trading centers and sites of sociability for the area’s white residents.

A historic marker on US1 in Folkston, GA commemorates the old trading village:

Two miles Northeast of here is the site of old Center Village, or Centerville, settled about 1800 and for many years an important trading center. To this village came the inhabitants of Ware, Pierce, Clinch, Coffee and Appling Counties, bring staple cotton, beeswax, honey, jerked venison, hides, furs, etc., to exchange for flour, sugar, coffee, shot, powder and other commodities they did not produce. Here, too, disputes were settled and sports enjoyed. A regular stop for stage coaches traveling the King`s Road, old Center Village went out of existence after the coming of the railroad.

Historic Marker for Centerville, GA. Image source: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=12993

A 1976 article, CENTER VILLAGE, GHOST OF THE PAST, by Carolyn DeLoach, Charlton County Herald, provides further reading.

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Ray City Child Dies From Bite Of Rattle Snake, 1925

February 27, 2011 at 12:04 am (Remedies and Medicine)
Tags: A.W. Smith, Beaver Dam Cemetery, Berrien County GA, Dr. Louis Smith, Dr. William David Sloan, Luther Langford, Merle Elizabeth Langford, Ray City GA, Sloan Family, Thomas Fuller Hazzard, Wiregrass Georgia

The September 4, 1925 Nashville Herald reported the tragic death of Merle Elizabeth Langford.

Child Dies From Bite Of Rattle Snake

     Little Muriel Langford, the 5-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Luther Langford, who resides about a mile from Ray City on the Milltown-Ray City road died Tuesday morning from what was thought to be the bite of a rattle snake.

     The child was playing in a potato patch, near the house, while her mother was working nearby, when she cried out and ran to her mother. The mother thinking the child had fallen down and hurt herself took her into her arms to console it when she noticed that blood was oozing from her leg just above the ankle. Thinking that possibly the child had been bitten by a snake or some reptile the mother started for the house but before reaching the house the child had become limp. The father, who was at the home of a brother nearby was notified and an effort to secure a physician in Ray City failing, Dr. Smith of Milltown was summoned and arrived within a short time after the child was bitten. Dr. Sloan of Stockton was passing and was also called in and both these physicians rendered all the aid that medical skill could give, but the child died within half an hour after their arrival.

     The funeral services were held at Beaver Dam church and the internment took place in the church grave yard Wednesday, Rev A. W. Smith of Ray City and Hahira conducting the rites.

Merle Elizabeth Langford, Beaver Dam Cemetery, Ray City, Berrien County, GA.

Rattlesnakes have always been a part of Wiregrass Georgia. The New Georgia Encyclopedia entry on Georgia folklore observes, “In its unburnt state, wiregrass became an integral part of the terrain and served as cover for wildlife, a place where quail might nest or predators like rattlesnakes might lurk.” As early as 1763, European text were referring to the venomous rattlesnakes of Georgia. A Universal History, published that year in London over-optimistically reported, “Their woods abound with … snakes-; but none of them, except the rattle-snake, are venomous and, as in Louisiana, the natives have a ready and infallible cure for its bite.” By 1804, treatments for rattlesnake bites were discussed in Georgia newspapers. In the Southern Botanical Journal of August 4, 1838 Thomas Fuller Hazzard of St. Simons Island discussed additional treatments for venomous reptile bites and cases where the victims survived. But he also noted, “many persons die annually from the bites of poisonous reptiles in Georgia and Carolina.”

The New Georgia Encyclopedia goes on to discuss the Wiregrass ecosystem as a source for Georgia folklore and the rattlesnake motif in storytelling.

Rattlesnakes constitute another popular motif. A rationale for ritually burning the forest, unchecked rattlesnake populations represent a real threat to people. Personal experience narratives, as the prime prose narrative form of our times, frequently function as cautionary tales, warning about this potential threat. Several wiregrass Georgia towns (Claxton, Whigham) annually host rattlesnake roundups. These festivals shift public attention to the prevalence of this dangerous species, especially since local laws prohibit burning the woods without a special permit. Instead, communities sponsor roundups in which competitors literally capture hundreds of snakes. Every year, for example, as many as 20,000 people attend the parade and festival in Whigham (population 605). Claxton promotes its roundup as “the beauty with the beasts” competition: the judging of the snake competition occurs at the same time as the crowning of the Roundup Queen.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA only a handful of snakebite fatalities occur annually in the U.S. today.

Venomous snakes found in the United States include rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths/water moccasins, and coral snakes…. It has been estimated that 7,000–8,000 people per year receive venomous bites in the United States, and about 5 of those people die. The number of deaths would be much higher if people did not seek medical care….There are many species of rattlesnakes in the United States. Rattlesnakes are the largest of the venomous snakes in the United States. They can accurately strike at up to one-third their body length. Rattlesnakes use their rattles or tails as a warning when they feel threatened. Rattlesnakes may be found sunning themselves near logs, boulders, or open areas. These snakes may be found in most work habitats including the mountains, prairies, deserts, and beaches.

1804 Medical repository of original essays and intelligence relative to …: Volume 7 – Page 304

1818 American journal of science, more especially of mineralogy, …: Volume 1 – Page 259

1838 The Southern botanic journal: Volumes 1-2 – Page 178

1840 A general biographical dictionary: comprising a summary account of … – Page 97

1861 Researches upon the venom of the rattlesnake: with an … – Page 134

1883 The history of Georgia: Volume 1 – Page 232

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Martha Guthrie: Babe of the Indian Wars

December 12, 2010 at 1:13 am (Battle of Brushy Creek, Guthrie Family, Uncategorized)
Tags: Alapaha River, Bannockburn GA, Barzilla Staten, Battle of Brushy Creek, Berrien County GA, Bettsy Sirmons, Boggy Slough, Clinch County GA, Dred Newbern, Dryden Newbern, Five Mile Creek, General Levi J. Knight, Harmon Gaskins, History of Clinch County, Indian Wars, John Fender, John Gaskins, John Marsh, Joshua Lee, Levi J. Knight, Martha Guthrie, Nashville-Willacoochee Road, Pitcher Slough, S.B. Dorminey, Samuel Guthrie, William Daughtry, William Gaskins, William Green Aikin, William Parker, Willis Peters, Wiregrass Georgia

Before her death Martha Guthrie, born amid the conflict of the Indian Wars of 1836-38 related the role of her family in that conflict. The Newbern homestead was located on the east bank of Five Mile Creek, perhaps about eight miles northeast of Ray City, GA. This was probably somewhere in the present day vicinity of the Highway 168 bridge over Five Mile Creek.

Martha Newbern Guthrie was born April 10, 1836, the daughter of Dred Newbern and Bettsy Sirmons. In the spring of that year, pioneers all across Wiregrass Georgia were facing increasing hostilities from the Native Americans who were being forced out of their ancestral lands.

The skirmish at William Parker’s place, on the Alapaha River about five miles east from the Newbern homestead, was a prelude to the Battle of Brushy Creek.

Here is Martha’s story, published many years ago, of the last Indian Fight in Berrien County:

    On the west side of the Alapaha River, six miles south of Bannockburn, on lot of land No. 201 in the 10th district of Berrien County, is a historic spring that is really entitled to be called Indian Spring, were it not that another spot in Georgia bears that name.
    On this lot of land in 1836 lived William Parker, who came to this section in search of a new home in new territory. Four miles North and on lot No. 63 lived John Gaskins and his wife and four boys. Nearby lived William Peters and family.
    Four miles to the Southwest and on the East bank of Five Mile Creek lived Dred Newbern and his family (This [was later] known as the John Fender Place).
    William Gaskins lived further to the north where Bannockburn now is, while Harmon Gaskins lived west of the Parker Home five miles and on lot No. 172. All this was then in Lowndes County.

Leaves for a Day

    One day in July 1836, William Parker had to be away from home, leaving his wife, small child and daughter, just entering her ‘teens, at home alone. Mrs. Parker and her daughter did their washing down at the river bank at the spring mentioned above, and when the noon hour came they went back to the house some 300 yards distant to prepare and eat the noon-day meal. While so engaged they heard a noise down at the spring and on investigating were horrified to discover a band of Indians, dressed Indian fashion with headfeathers, assembled at the spring getting water.
    Hurriedly and cautiously Mrs. Parker sped back to the house and gathering up her baby, with her daughter, left quickly and set out to the west toward the home of Dryden Newbern.
    Arriving there she related what she had seen, as fast as her fright and exhaustion would allow, for she had run every step of the way, and she was almost overcome with heat and fatigue.
    On learning this Mr. Newbern realized that the cause of their own experiences of the night before when the horses had become greatly frightened, snorting and breaking out of the horse lot and coming back the next morning. It was supposed that they had become frightened at the sight of the Indians who were prowling around the neighborhood to steal.

Word Sent Out

Quickly as possible, word was sent out by Mr. Newbern to his scattered neighbors. The women and children were gathered up and carried, some to Milltown where they were placed in a strongly built gin house on the farm of Joshua Lee, while others were taken north to the home of John Marsh near where the S. B. Dorminey home is. A guard was left at each place for their protection and every able-bodied man that would be mustered returned to the Parker home and organized for action.
It was found that during the night the Indians had entered the homes of William Parker, Willis Peters and John Gaskins, and finding no one at home proceeded to take out the feather beds, opened the ticks, emptied the feathers and appropriated the ticks.
They took other valuables including a shotbag from the Parker home containing his money, a handsomely flowered pitcher from the Gaskins home, and other valuable articles which they thought they could carry. They also obtained a small amount of sliver coins tied up in a rag from the Peters home.

Indians escape from first net

    Skirting the river on the West side and opposite the Parker home, is a hammocky swamp interspersed with spots of high ground and almost inaccessible to white men; and when the little band of white men arrived at the scene just after sunrise they could see the smoke of the Indian camp-fires rising in the center of the swamp.
William Peters was placed in command of the little band, because Capt. Levi J. Knight (in command of the militia at the time) had not arrived. Orders were given to the men to entirely surround the Indian camp before firing a shot, if possible.
In the eagerness of the moment, however, precautions were not observed and before the circle could be completed the Indians discovered the approach and opened fire; the whites returned the fire, and were horrified to see their leader, William Peters, fall wounded through the front part of the abdomen by a bullet from a redskin gun.

Overtake Indians

    This so horrified and frustrated the whites until every Indian made his escape. As soon as the wounded man could be properly cared for and the whites being joined by others including Capt. Knight, gave pursuit and overtook the Indians while the last of the band was crossing the river, up near where the Withlacoochee bridge now stands, on the Nashville-Willacoochee road.
The whites pressed the Indians so hard and were so close in behind them until a portion of the plunder was thrown into the sloughs by the Indians, in order to allow swifter flight.
Among the articles thrown away were Mr. Parker’s shotbag containing his money, which was caught on a swinging limb and was suspended just under the water when found; the flowered pitcher taken from the Gaskin’s kitchen, and a shotgun (which was later sold for forty dollars), also the small package of money taken from the Peters home, was found tied to a small bush under the water. The river slough in which the pitcher was found has ever since been known as “Pitcher Slough.”
    The further progress of this band of Indians and their pursuers as they pushed their way through what is now Clinch county and the engagements near “Boggy Slough” and in which William Daughtry had a horse shot from under him and Barzilla Staten was dangerously wounded, is told by Folks Huxford in his “History of Clinch County,” published in 1916.
The man who first discovered Mr. Parker’s shot bag containing his money was William Green Aikins.

Note–The forgoing episode was related to me by Mrs. Martha Guthrie, widow of Samuel Guthrie, and a daughter of Dred (or Dryden) Newbern and his wife, Elizabeth. Mrs. Guthrie was blind, but otherwise in full possession of all her faculties, and talked entertainingly of so many things that happened years ago.

The children of Martha Newbern and Samuel F. Guthrie:

Lewis Guthrie abt 1853 –
Josephene Guthrie 1856 –
Archibald Guthrie 1859 –
Samuel Guthrie 1860 –
Arren Horn Guthrie 1864 – 1932
Dicey Guthrie 1866 – 1953
James Berrien Guthrie 1868 – 1949
Martha Guthrie 1870 –
Linton Guthrie 1872 –
Betty Guthrie 1874 –
John Guthrie 1876 –
Dread Guthrie 1879-

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Claudie Royal ~ 1920s Skidderman at Ray City, GA

October 25, 2010 at 1:13 am (Georgia & Florida Railroad, Uncategorized)
Tags: Arletta Ganos, Berrien County GA, Clarence Cole, Claudie Royals, Clements Lumber Company, Clyde Cole, Irene Cole, Leroy Cole, Luckie Lumber Company, Mary Jones, Ocilla GA, Perry Cart, Ray City GA, Ray's Mill, Skidder, skidderman, sliptongue skidder, Thelma May Cole, Thelma Royals, wheelwright, William Frank Royal, William M. Cole, Wiregrass Georgia

James Claudie Royal (1893 – 1972)

Claudie Royal was born May 7, 1893, at Rays Mill (now Ray City), GA. He was a son of William Frank Royal and Mary Jones. His mother died when Claudie was about one year old. When Claudie was about 4 years old, his father married Arletta Ganos and moved the family to Clinch County.

In 1920, Claudie Royal and his wife, Thelma, were living in Ray City, GA in the home of his father-in-law, Bill Cole. They all lived in a house on Jones Street. The Cole household at that time included William M. “Bill” Cole, his wife Hattie, and minor children, Clarence, Leroy, Clyde, and Irene.

Claudie Royal and Bill Cole were sawmill employees. There were several smaller sawmill operators in the area but from about 1909 to 1923 the big sawmill at Ray City, operated under a succession of owners, was the largest employer in the area. In 1920 it was the Clements Lumber Company.

Claudie worked as a “skidderman,” while Bill Cole was a wheelwright.

As a wheelwright, Bill Cole worked to build and repair the wheels used on horse- or mule-drawn wagons and carts used in the sawmill operation. The wheel hubs, spokes, and rims were all constructed out of carefully crafted wooden pieces. The wheel assembly was banded with an iron “tire” that was custom made by a blacksmith.

Working as a skidderman, Claudie Royal drove a team of horses or mules, using a skidder to transport logs. The skidder dragged logs from where they were cut the short distance to the tracks of the railway tram, where they were loaded and hauled to the sawmill. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 1918 publications, in Georgia a skidderman worked a 60 hour workweek, for a wage of 22.5 cents an hour, or $13.50 per week. The workweek was six 10-hour days.

Skiddermen used two wheel carts, like the Perry Cart, to drag felled logs to the tracks of a railroad tram for loading and hauling to the sawmill. This cart has wooden wheels with steel “tires” 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet in diameter. Construction and maintenance of wheels such as these would have been the work of a wheelwright.

Log Carts. — In all types of carts the logs are swung beneath the wheels with the rear ends dragging on the ground. The height of wheels ranges from 5 to 10 feet with a corresponding variation in gauge.

A cart used in the Coastal Plain region has an arched axle and wheels 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 feet high. The hounds of the cart are fastened on either side of the tongue by a heavy bolt. A bunk rests on the top of the axel and carries two upright guides between which the tongue fits. The latter is held in place by a spring latch. When the cart is to be loaded it is driven up to one end of a log, then backed until the axle is directly over that part of the log to which the chains or grapples are to be attached. The latch on the guides is then released, the team is backed for a step or two and the hounds are forced into a position nearly vertical, which turns the bunk through a quarter circle and brings it near enough to the ground to permit the grapples or chains to be attached. The elevation of the log is accomplished by driving the team forward, which brings the hounds and tongue to a horizontal position.

– Bryant, R. C. (1923). Logging: The principles & general methods of operation in the United States. S.l.: s.n..

Sliptongue skidder working in the south Georgia pine forest.

Hauling logs by mules. Ocilla, GA.

James Claudie Royal died in February, 1972. He was buried at Beaver Dam Cemetery, Ray City, GA

Grave of James Claudie Royal and Thelma Cole Royal, Beaver Dam Cemetery, Ray City, GA.

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More About Troupville, GA and the Withlacoochee River

October 18, 2010 at 12:07 am (Folsom Family, Troupville of Old Lowndes County)
Tags: Alapaha River, Atlantic & Gulf Railroad, Berrien County GA, Big Indian Creek, Cedar Key FL, Coffee Road, Frank's Creek, Franklinville GA, Hamp Smith, Joyce's Ferry, Levi J. Knight, Little River, Montgomery M. Folsom, Morgan G. Swain, New River GA, No Man's Friend Creek, Ockolocoochee River, Owen Smith, Peckville GA, Ray City GA, Swain, Troupville GA, Ty Ty Creek, Valdosta, Warrior Creek, William A. Knight, William Folsom, William Smith, Wiregrass Georgia, Withlacoochee River

Montgomery M. Folsom, from his 1889 book, Scraps of Song and Southern Scenes.

Found this 1889 account of the history of Troupville, GA by erstwhile Wiregrass historian, poet, and humorous writer Montgomery M. Folsom. Folsom starts his tale at the headwaters of the Okolocoochee and Withlacoochee rivers. He traces them down to their connection with the Withlacoochee, at which point Troupville was founded. As the government seat, Troupville was the center of legal and civic activity for Lowndes County (see An Antebellum Trial at Troupville). Troupville was also an important center of commerce and social life for the pioneer settlers of Lowndes County, like Levi J. Knight, who established the first community near the site of present day Ray City, GA. The Knights settled on another branch of the Withlacoochee; Beaverdam creek, at Ray City, flows into Cat Creek on down to the Withlacoochee. For a while the Troupville elders thought the Withlacoochee would provide a navigable waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. Even the Georgia Legislature in 1833 entertained “A bill to be entitled, an act to lay out, open, define and make navigable the Withlocoochey river, from Joyce’s ferry, on said river, to the Florida Line”, Joyce’s ferry being the Withlacoochee river crossing of the Coffee Road. But it was not to be.

Atlanta Constitution, January 29, 1889, Pg 12.

THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER.
VALDOSTA, Ga., January 19. -[Special.]- Away up near the northern limit of the great wiregrass section there is a big cypress swamp. They call them bays there. From this bay emerges a little stream of claret colored water. This is near Peckville, and close to the corner of Worth, Irwin, and Dooly counties. This is the head of the Ockolocoochee, Little river.
    Farther eastward, some ten or fifteen miles, there is another bay from which emerges a restless current that goes rushing away toward the south, fretting among the pine boles, resting among the silent solitudes of the mysterious swamps, the Alapaha.
    About midway between these streams, some twenty miles below their heads, the Withlacoochee steals stealthily out of the depths of a brambly brake and glides noiselessly away, like some black serpent of the swamps winding in and out among the barrens.
    The Ockolocoochee curves and twines among the pine-clad ridges, receiving the tribute of some lesser stream at every turn. Ty Ty, Warrior, Big Indian on the West, No-Man’s-Friend, Frank’s creek from the east, till it reaches Troupville. It is, properly, the river, despite the fact that its name is lost after its confluence with the Withlacoochee. It is like the wedding of a great big strapping wiregrass girl with a short, stout, presumptive little man.
    The Ockolochoochee is the stream for fishing. Along the snowy margin of its glistening sand-bars the red-belly, the perfection of perch; and in its placid eddies, beneath the shadow of the tupeloes, the red-horse sucker, chief of all the carp tribe; abound in strength and numbers sufficient to gratify the most inveterate of anglers.
    New river gives the Withlacoochee a good start, and it swerves away to receive the tribute of half a dozen streams on its tortuous course. From its fountain head it is dark and forbidding, and the secrets of its black waters are preserved most faithfully.
    Away back in the olden days when Lowndes county was as big as Poland, an act was passed by the Georgia legislature, appointing a commission to select an appropriate place for a county site. Franklinville had been its capital, but was not near enough to the center. As the legend goes, Big Billy Knight and Big Billy Folsom were appointed.
    These two worthies, one from the pimple hills of the Ockolocoochee, and the other from the saw palmetto flats of the Withlacoochee; decided that the most appropriate point was right in the fork of the two rivers. They had an idea that the river would be navigable that high up, even above the point where the Alapaha disappears and runs underground a mile before uniting with the Withlacoochee.
    So it came about that where the wine-red waters or the Ockolocoochee and the black current of the Withlacoochee meet at the end of a long sandbar and go tumbling and writhing, eddying and curving down the long reach of moss-grown trees, like two huge serpents struggling for the mastery, the plat of a town was drawn, and it was called after Georgia’s great chevelier governor, “Troupville,” with a strong accent on the “ville.” They had not learned to say “Troupvul” then, and it was such a high sounding title that they lingered lovingly on the pronunciation.
    The town grew apace. It enjoyed what the modern’s call a boom. Land lots sold rapidly, and settlers came rushing in, mainly the Smiths. Lowndes county has ever been prolific in the smith line. Owen Smith, Old Billy Smith, Young Billy Smith, all sorts of Smiths, even down to our Hamp, who so ably represents that historic name in the present pushing metropolis Valdosta.
One of the Smith’s built a tavern, and another Smith set up in business, and young Dr. Briggs, who came from the north, broken in business, but full of energy and ability, and laid the foundation of that prosperity that has long distinguished the Briggs and the Converse families.
    Troupville only suffered one inconvenience. To get to town three-fourths of the population had either to cross the river of the east or the river of the west and half the time, during the winter and spring, these rivers were raging with freshets, the bridges were afloat and were frequently swept away.
   One thing more hindered her prosperity. At the only season when the main river was navigable, the Old Nick, himself, couldn’t navigate it. So it transpired that the only freighted barge that ever tempted its tempestuous tide was a flat boat that went down the river to the Suwanee, thence down that river to Cedar Keys.
    It never returned.
    The boatmen sold the vessel and cargo and walked home.
    Life was too short to navigate that crooked stream, with its sunken logs and treacherous sands, and the hope of water transportation was abandoned.
    Among those who settled in Troupville and left behind many momentous memories, was Morgan Goodgame Swain, a burly blacksmith from Emanuel, who was ever ready for a fight, frolic or a footrace. He stood six feet three and weighed over two hundred without pound of surplus flesh. As handsome as a Greek god he was gifted with herculean strength and a heart that was generous and true. He erected his forge on the bank of the Ockolockochee, and his wife took possession of the tavern. Becky, she was lord above, and Morz was lord below.
    The town of Valdosta was laid off when the old Atlantic and Gulf Railroad was built, about the opening of the war. Brooks and Echols had been cut off from Lowndes, and the county site was moved four miles southeast of Troupville to Valdosta. A great many of the buildings were moved bodily. And now there is not one brick upon another to tell the story of Troupville. A pile of white rocks marks the spot of Swain’s old forge, and some weather beaten mulberry trees still bud and blossom around the old square where stood the tavern. Aside from these there is nothing left to keep alive the cherished hopes that once animated the soul of Troupville.
   The Withlacoochee still glides along to meet the Ockolocoochee, and the land that lies between them, once town property, is now a barren waste, overgrown with somber pines, solitary tufts of bear grass whose white crests wave to and fro in ghostly suggestiveness in the twilight of summer evenings when the whip-poor-wills chant their weird melodies among the lonely thickets.
    Around the once populous portion of the town lies a waste of sedgy fields that are barren and unproductive. The half-wild goats browse among the fennels and briars. “Ichabod” is written in lichen crusted letters, and desolation reigns supreme.
                 MONTGOMERY M. FOLSOM.

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Francis Marion Shaw and the Wrought Iron Range

September 27, 2010 at 4:20 pm (Shaw Family)
Tags: Berrien County GA, Colquitt County GA, Decatur County GA, Home Comfort Range, Ray City GA, Ray's Mill, Thomas County GA, Wiregrass Georgia, Worth County GA, Wrought Iron Range

In 1884 or early 1885 a traveling salesman for the Wrought Iron Range Company was working through his territory in Wiregrass Georgia. Apparently sales were brisk for he was closing deals in Irwin, Decatur, Mitchell, Colquitt, Worth, Thomas and Berrien counties. One Berrien County customer was Francis Marion Shaw, long time resident of the Ray City, Georgia area.

Wrought Iron Range Salesman, circa 1890

In the Feb 24, 1885 edition of the Milledgeville Union & Recorder, F.M. Shaw of Berrien County was listed among those giving testimonial to the purchase of a “Home Comfort” Wrought Iron Range

WROUGHT IRON
COOKING RANGES.
We the undersigned citizens of the following counties have each purchased Wrought Iron Ranges and cheerfully add our testimony to that of many others as to their superiority and excellence in every respect over any other stove we have ever seen or tried. These ranges take less fuel and cook quicker and more thoroughly than any cooking apparatus now made. The are cleanly, economical and durable, and in our opinion their equal has never been made and the superior never will be. We recommend these ranges to our fellow citizens, feeling sure that should they become purchasers, they and their families will be thoroughly pleased, and never regret having bought a “Home Comfort” Wrought Iron Range.
———-

Irwin Co.

Wm. Granthon   Dan Tucker M.T Palk       Mrs. R. Palk H. Harper      G.J. Harper W.A. Mobley    A.E.M. Lord Robt. Fussell Wm. Pridgen M. Dixon       C. Chancey J.M. Barnes    S.P. Troupe John Clemants Isaac Gibbs W.E. Fletcher M.D. Luke J.D. Rogers    J.S. Boberts Thomas Gibbs

COLQUITT CO. O.N. Flours      S.S. May G.A. Hiers       J. A. Alderman D. W. Hooker    John Manning Daniel Burnie    M.J. Alderman C.J. Strickland  R. Weeks W.H. Norman      Jas. Tillman A. Baker         J.A. Tillman

BERRIEN CO. G.W. Sineath   Wm. Castleberry J.J. Sineath    J.W. McKinney W.W. Folsom Reuben Inman R.H. Hutchison   N.B. Jones E. Parrish       Mrs. B. Morrison L.A. Folston   J.H. Shaw E.C. Parrish     F.M. Shaw A.H. Shaw       J. McCraynie G.B. Scott       J.P. Lovett R. J. Griffin    Hughy Taylor John Lindsey    J.W. Sutton W.R. Watson     H. Giddens Josh. Gaskins

DECATUR CO. J.G. Merrett      J.A. Ponder Mrs. S. Crocker   J.E. Harrel Aoel Umphreys    J.B. Umphreys A.B.Belcher       W.J. Dollar T.M. Chester     John R. Brook J.J. Gaimons      J.D. Harrell H.J. Logue       J.M. Whigham Jas. Bell         G.W. Knight C.F. Knight       J.A. Smith T.O. Duggan       M.J. Connel R.E. Wigham       T.M. Whigham Mrs. M.J. Martin  J.J. Knight Jas. Little       T.T. Mites

MITCHELL CO. T.J. Marceant     W.C. Culpepper J.J. Moye         E.H. Akridge J.R.Holton       J.J. Grimer C.P. Parmer       W. Williams J.F. Mansfield    W.H. Jones A.G. Shirrah      F.W. Nix L.A. Brooks      J.A. GlousenE. Shanklin       W.S. Bowls

THOMAS CO. H.A.Hall         J.M. Pilcher, Jr. S. Collier      Mrs. M. Collier J.M. Chastain     John Jones B. Chastain       John S. Culpepper J.C. Shepherd   Henry White W.B. Mire        H.R. Brinson C. Singletary    R. Singletary R.B. McCond       S.L. BallardWORTH CO. A.W. Willis      Ben Cravy G.W. Cravy       J.W. Overstreet J.J. Henderson    B. Hobley Hon. W.A. Harris  S.C. Mayo B. Willis         J.D. Summer J.M. Champion    A.B. Kierce E.T. Goodman      T.J. Harris W.J. Jackson      J.M. Springs Mrs. N.A. Wilder S.D. Parker J.H. Dickson        2tFeb. 17, 1885        32   J. T. Drew       ChassongJos.

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Ray City History Blog

Year of the Tiger

Witchy Women and Wiregrass Medicine

Coffee’s Road Passed Seven Miles West of Ray City

Eulogy of Elder Ansel Parrish

Early Berrien Settlers Traded at Centerville, Georgia

Ray City Child Dies From Bite Of Rattle Snake, 1925

Martha Guthrie: Babe of the Indian Wars

Claudie Royal ~ 1920s Skidderman at Ray City, GA

More About Troupville, GA and the Withlacoochee River

Francis Marion Shaw and the Wrought Iron Range

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