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H. & T. E. ATKINS |
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WILLIAM C.J.GARRISON |
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A. G. BOYD,
PROPRIETOR |
| (Webmaster's Note: The following 1976 letter was not edited for grammar or
spelling.) PO Box 114 Miss Lurleen Collier Dear Miss Lurleen: Guess you will be surprised to hear from me but I have been intending to write you for quite a while. I noticed in the Jackson Herald that you had been appointed among several to serve on the Jackson County Historical Society. The March 17th issue of the Herald includes a "Salute to Maysville" which includes considerable historical data involving both Jackson and Banks Counties. However, there are two things I believe are very important and not mentioned in Carlene Loggins article along with some photographs. When we moved to Maysville about 1903 or 1904, we first lived in what was then known as the Cheney place right on top of a hill on the street that started at the Presbyterian Church running in a Southwestern direction to the Railroad tracks and then taking up across the tracks and extending alongside the old Chair Factory on one side and Carr Boyd & Co. on the other side and on up the hill some five or six hundred feet. The house was occupied in later years by the Otis Reynolds family. Behind that house on the side of a small stream there was what we called "The Tan Yard" and the old dilapidated building remained there for many years afterward but unoccupied all the while. I used to go down there and play in the old building where there were several square vats which I suppose were used for chemicals or what not for dipping leather in the vats during the tanning process. I believe that tannery must have operated way back in the 1870's, 1880's and 1890's but from what I can remember (and I was a very small boy about 5 years old then) the place had not been occupied or operated for several years before we moved there. The wooden building must have been something like 75 by 100 feet more or less. I doubt if your Historical Society will find much, if any, information about this in the Jackson County records and unless there is someone familiar with the old tannery calls it to the Society's attention, you may miss out on it. Perhaps the Tax records will reveal something about it. I do not have any idea who owned or operated that place. Seems to me C. T. Bacon or his wife owned the property immediately joining the stream on both sides. There was a small bridge immediately South of the Tannery Building and a road which went on over in the Country. The other thing was a "Board Walk" on the North or East side of the Railroad tracks in Banks County a few hundred feet from the Jackson-Banks County line at the Railroad. This Board Walk was not near a Stream or Lake or Seaside mind you, whereas the now famous Atlantic City Board Walk was first built about 1870 along the Sea Shore. The Maysville Board Walk covered a sidewalk along property owned and occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Al Chandler and extended northward or maybe westward for two or three hundred feet if my memory serves me right. This Board Walk covered a low sidewalk which I suppose was subject to flooding and lots of mud in rainy seasons. My first note of it came along when we lived on up the sidewalk beyond the Boyd two story white house. Our house was known as the Baugh place. I used to race other kids when bare footed on the Board Walk in warm weather and we had a merry time of it. I do not have any idea where the town of Maysville or maybe Mr. Al Chandler conceived the idea of making the Board Walk rather than filling the low place with earth. Maybe someone there got the idea after going to Atlantic City and seeing and using the Board Walk there. That maysville Board Walk was removed sometime after 1908 or 1909 or 1910 as it was not there when we moved away from Maysville in December 1911. One of the things I remember so well about that Board Walk was that Luther (Cora's husband) played a harmonica and when he left home for the train at the depot to take his paper route he always played that Harmonica and I ran along side of him singing whatever he was playing. One song I shall never forget was "Wont you come take a ride in my Airship and visit the man in the moon." That was along about 1907 and what did people know about Air Ships and trying to visit the man in the Moon? Somebody back then surely had some wild dreams to think that one up. Where Luther got on to the song I just dont know unless it came on an Edison phonograph of which there were few. Miss Frella Maddox owner of the Maysville News had one and Luther worked for her in the Printing Office. He also had the afternoon Atlanta Journal Route and I helped him deliver papers right at dark. Whether these items will insterest you and the Historical Society I do not know but I decided to pass them on to you anyway. Our best wishes and regards to you. Sincerely, Ernest M. Yarbrough
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