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Jackson County Georgia |
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1886-1221 The Weekly Banner-Watchman (Athens, GA)
Our Jackson County Edition: Jackson County is one of the original counties which gave birth to Clarke, Madison, Banks and Oglethorpe—just as Virginia gave birth to Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. According to White’s Statistics of Georgia, in 1849 it was 23 miles long and 18 wide, covering 414 square miles, and forming the watershed of the Oconee and the Savannah Rivers. In 1845 the return of the polls was 6,265 whites and 2,728 blacks—a total of 8,993 and gave in State taxes to the amount of $2,500. Jefferson then had a trade of about $15,000 a year, was made the county site in 1806 and was incorporated in 1812. This well-known author (George E. White) went on to say that the climate of Jackson County was healthful, but the soil unproductive—that while some newspapers circulated in the county there was a “great lack of the spirit of enterprise and inquiry.” The county was named for Maj. Gen. James Jackson, of Georgia, who illustrated the State in its early life upon the field and in the executive chair, and who stamped on the great Yazoo fraud. With such a name the county deserved a better destiny than “White’s Statistics” promised, and time has developed the fertility of her soil and improved the resources of her people. Jackson County today is not the county of ’49. The old county has been dismembered and drawn upon, but in wealth and population has kept pace with the grown of the Commonwealth. Its industries are numerous. Its lands are unusually well watered, its business is driving, its railroads are growing and its people are advancing phenomenally in the cause of education. Value of Land Land is the basis of wealth. Land in Jackson County is worth more than in any county in Northeast Georgia. The public sale here the other day, brought out prices which averaged from ten to twelve dollars an acre. Two years ago real estate mounted a boom and lands ran up to $15 and $20 an acre. Short crops, settling values and scarce money have shaken them down to $12, but the materials strength of the county is carrying land along with it. Jackson is phenomenally rich in bottom lands. The county is a system of water courses. The head waters of the Oconee string through the county in perfect network. There are the Pond Fork, Allen Fork, Walnut Fork and Mulberry Forks of the Middle Oconee River. Then the trail of creeks, Sandy, Big and Little Curry, Crooked Creek, Cabin Creek, Turkey, Candler, Pond and Hurricane Creeks form the North Oconee, and these two branches of the river drain the lands for 10 miles and join just below Athens. The wealth of bottoms is prodigious as will be seen from this. The early floods of a wet spring have brought sorrow in the low grounds this year, but the rich bottoms are assuredly bonanzas. I thought I had never seen a more beautiful stretch of country than Judge Colquitt’s place around Apple Valley. The farms around Pendergrass are considered among the finest in the country. Then there is sinew in the red hills. These uplands are strong. The sprout and store of cotton this year are above the failure of the grey uplands elsewhere, and although Jackson says her crop is short, it is easy to see that she has not suffered as others have done. Forests Another thing is impressive as we ride through the county. Although one of the oldest counties in the state over one-third of the land is in original forest. The rich timbers of the virgin growth are ripe for the axe and saw. Senator Pike says Jackson “grows too much timber.” The impression seems to be that more careful cultivation of acres already cleared will pay, and that there is wealth in the unsplintered forests just as there is mineral store in the unruffled earth. There are no very large plantations in Jackson. The Martins raise 300 bales a year—about the largest. I heard of a negro who makes 60 bales this year on his own farm. General Wilson assures me that there had been great improvement in planting methods in the last decade, and that all the signs are progressive. I believe it. Judge Bell, the popular Ordinary, turned over the digest to me. The last record shows 3,266 polls—2,372 white, 826 colored. There are in the county 248,407 acres. The value of the land returned on the tax books is $1,406,436; value of stock $300,000, and the aggregate of the wealth of the county as returned is $2,645,157. But tax receivers’ returns are scarcely adequate sources. For instance, the return of city and town property is given at only $175,000. The return of stock is small. A few years will see a great revival there. Stock and grass farms promise to be plentiful and profitable here. Water Power The presence of so many water courses, suggests plenty of water power. So there is. The number of industries in Jackson County is great. It is hard to ride five miles without encountering a mill. I passed three in the nine miles from Harmony Grove to Jefferson—Hood’s, Jackson’s and McCleskey’s. The great side-wheels turned drowsily through the ice, while the sparks flew from the burr stones within. Ross & Story have a flour and grist mill—with gin and planing mill; F. S. Smith has a tannery and grist mill; J. G. McCleskey has a patent roller flour mill—this is the site of the famous old wool hat factory. Hurricane Shoals has a famous fall for water power. It was here that the old iron works ran during the war. This is now the site of the flour and grist mills—with a gin and saw mills. Cedar Creek and Tallassee are fine water powers. Williams’ Mill is run by C. W. Shackelford. J. G. Justice has a large mill and superb fruit nursery near Jefferson—one of the most interesting spots and profitable industries in Jackson County. Speaking of fruit reminds me that there is a broad table land near Harmony Grove, where a general fruit blight was never known. Mr. Hood says he frequently loses peaches, from frost, which are not cut off a few hundred yards across the railroad. This is a freak of the climate. Some of the people here insist that in twenty years the seasons have undergone a total change, and they would not be surprised to see them take up a new procession. But we digress. Maddox’s Mill, Johnson’s Mill, Griffeth’s, Fowler’s, Lyle’s, Bonner’s, White’s and Duke’s are well known—most of them turned by water, and most of them in successful operation. They work a few months in the year and do the grinding for the neighborhood. This would argue that much grain is raised in the county. There is considerable, but still not enough. Too much flour and meal is sold. One merchant in Jefferson says that 6,000 bushels of meal have been brought there in one season. The grain crops were failures from the floods of last spring; but the tax collector, who has just made the round of the county, says that the fall sowing this year has been very large, and that the spring oats will be heavily planted. This is encouraging. Judging from the number of fine hogs hanging cold and white in the late freeze, I should judge that there will be some choice home-raised meat in his vicinity—at least during Christmas time. Pity it will not last longer. Iron and Granite But Jackson County’s wealth is not all above ground. Iron ore is planted largely in her rocks. Bold ledges of granite lift their shoulders here and there and give evidences of quarrying material as solidly as if piled into a stone mountain. Granite is cut from one of these quarries for the new jailor’s house and jail in Jefferson, and Louisville experts pronounce it is good as the best. These stone works are a short distance down on the narrow gauge railway. The Roads While speaking of the county at large, I must commend the roads. They are well kept. One small bridge between Jefferson and Harmony Grove is a danger trap. An iron bridge across the Oconee was a revelation. It reminds one of a Kentucky turnpike. There are three of these in Jackson County. There is an iron bridge over South Oconee, on the road between Jefferson and Monroe. This is a high truss bridge, resting on piers of wrought iron tubes filled with concrete—something not often encountered on a country road. There is an iron bridge over the Pond Fork of the Oconee. The county paid $7,000 for the three bridges. Besides, there are covered latticed wooden bridges over Middle and North Oconee Rivers. After looking at these bridges and the handsome new court house at Jefferson, I concluded that Jackson must be an extravagant county. I was surprised to find that the tax for county purposes was but 35 cents on the hundred dollars. Ordinary Bell gave the figures from his book. This shows good management all around. Gen. Wilson and County Education Before writing of Jefferson I wish to say a few words on county education. One of the most interesting men in Jackson County is Gen. G. J. N. Wilson. He is school commissioner of the county, and lives in a unique little cottage just across the branch. I visited him at this home which he has built himself, and which he is gradually finishing with his own hand. The walls and windows bear artistic evidences of his own skill. His book cases are handsome models of his own cabinet work. A well-stored library is matched by a well-filled workshop in the yard, and when not engaged with his schools, Gen. Wilson is at work in one or the other. For 30 years he was a teacher. At 56, we find him full of amiability and general information—developing a system of general education and building over his “good gray head”—a home of his own workmanship. Since 1871, Gen. Wilson has been school commissioner. He tells us there are 75 white public schools in the county and 32 colored schools. There are 44 private elementary schools in the county for white children and 23 private high schools. There are 4,174 white pupils in the public schools, and 1,403 colored. There are 5,419 children attending the private schools in Jackson County—making a total attendance of 9,500 whites and 1,403 colored. Martin Institute has 77 male pupils and 81 females—total 158. Jackson County this year raised $6,604.69 for public schools—which were opened 3 ½ months. The private schools averaged 8 1/3 months—Martin Institute being open 10 months. The increased attendance over last year is 724. There were 2,087 pupils advanced from the spelling book to reading and writing; 3,800 advanced to grammar, geography and arithmetic, and 572 left in their same grades. There is 75% improvement in school houses, being now 47 good school houses in the county, and others talked of. Gen. Wilson says that there is a growing desire for schools which but shows the progress of the people. He favors dog tax for the school fund. His board of education is composed of J. A. B. Mahaffey, President, W. F. Stark, C. B. Erwin, T. H. Niblack, R. S. McGarrity. The colored people were making good progress in the schools, he said. No less than 20 teachers worked on the farms, and Gen. Wilson encouraged the colored people of the county to educate themselves for teachers, so as to avoid bringing in teachers from the outside. He does not think the schools interfered with farm or manual labor in the county. Harmony Grove: The Live Town of Jackson County—What it Contains Jackson County is one of the most favored in Georgia with railroad facility, when we remember that twenty years ago there was not an iron track in all its broad limits. Now it is like a garden with an iron railing around it. The Northeastern Railroad runs along the borders where Banks and Madison touch it, and the Air-Line encircles it like bow in the North. The Gainesville, Jefferson & Southern skirts it on the north, and there remains but the Athens & Jug Tavern line in the South to complete this solid setting. The route from Athens to Harmony Grove is substantially the old stage line to Clarkesville—but how different. We leave Athens in the morning with the aid of the locomotive headlight and a little after sunrise the Banner-Watchman is read by fifty people in Harmony Grove—before one third of our Athens readers astir. Center and Nicholson The names of Center and Nicholson, stations on the line, recall two familiar personages in Athens. Possibly no two men were more identified with the business revival of Athens than these. Both are now dead. One man died rich and intestate. The business houses closed doors with respect as his body passed through town—but no relative rode to his funeral. He was without family here, but had plenty of friends. His wealth was sent from Athens between the seals of a single envelope, with the certificate of the National Bank. One niece, a little girl in Arkansas, was the beneficiary. The other man was the head of a large family, stood high in the community and in the church. An interesting generation comes after him to bear his name, and his large estate has been cut up by his executors, and scattered among a hundred buyers. All honor to the enterprise of these men who opened for others a new gateway to the world. The places which bear these names have each one or two stores and have the post offices and trading stores of people in Clarke and Madison. Harmony Grove When old man Butler, way back in the forties, built his little store at these crossroads, he did not know he was founding a town which would become the commercial centre of the county and a live neighbor to Athens. Little is known of Harmony Grove—how it got its name and how it happened to gather such progressive spirits. But there were three men there not born to live in the woods. They would have built up a town on the top of Stone Mountain. Those men were Seaborn M. Shankle, C. W. Hood and Dr. W. B. J. Hardman. They promptly came forward when the location of the Northeastern Railroad was discussed in 1874, and secured the route by a liberal cash subscription. This one act made Harmony Grove. It was in 1875. In 1880 the town commenced to build up. Since then it has gone right along. Today it has 800 people, $276,000 in taxable property, handles 15,000 bales of cotton a year, and controls a volume of $300,000 worth of business exclusive of guano trade. The visitor to Harmony Grove naturally seeks Mr. C. W. Hood at his handsome brick store a few hundred yards up the railroad from the depot. This store has been built but a few years, and is remarkably spacious and well lighted. I am surprised to see such an establishment in Harmony Grove. It would be attractive in Atlanta, Athens or Augusta. The store is filled with people all day. Harmony Grove has done a fine business this season, and since the melting of the snows, cotton has been handled and shipped extensively to buyers. Mr. Hood manages to overlook his bookkeeper and salesmen at the same time, and the man who attempts to engage him in conversation must walk over an acre of floor before he gets through. Mr. Hood came to Harmony Grove in 1849. His father and mother died in Jackson County. His grandfather, like so many of this good North Georgia stock, came from Virginia. He is a small, dark-looking man, with quiet manners, earnest brown eyes, and a nose with the stamp of character. He seems to have earned his way up in the same quiet, attentive earnest way—deliberate in his motion and careful in his speech—until he finds himself at 65, in good health, at the head of a large business, something like $100,000- a year, and is worth at least $200,000. Mr. Hood’s fire-proof warehouse will hold 2,000 bales. He ships nearly all his cotton to Athens, and buys about 5,000 bales a year. To the right of his store, is a handsome residence fronting the railroad track, which looks as cozy on a winter day as it is airy in the summer. Mr. Hood is a native of Jackson County, and his name will be handed down in Jackson County for his enterprise and his industry more than for his wealth. It is said that at the opening of the war Mr. Hood owed some New York parties for goods. After the struggle he hunted up his creditors, who had lost all vestige of the debt, and paid them in full. This act started him with a fine credit, and after merchandising a few years in Athens, returned to Harmony Grove. Here he has made his money. He was asked about the prospects of the Chattanooga Air-Line, but said that he knew nothing definite of the enterprise. It might improve the freight facilities of the place; but then rival towns would be built in neighboring counties. Mr. Hood said he made more money before the railroads came at all. Facilities for freight and travel were increased with railroads, but competition was quickened, large markets sent goods to the field and the margins of profit were greatly reduced. It took a large volume of business and harder work to make money now than ever before. Mr. Hood said the increase in cotton area was remarkable. The cotton belt extended now to the Blue Ridge. The fertilizer had done the business. The people were cotton crazy. “Formerly,” said he, “it was unusual for a planter here to get out of corn and meat. If he did, he could buy of his neighbor next door. Now they try to make cotton at eight cents pay for their provisions and their mules and for all expenses. It will not do it. The experiment is disastrous. What Mr. Stephens said is true: ‘The body of the people are growing poorer every year.’” “What would be the best crop, Mr. Hood?” “Wheat and grasses. This up country is abundantly suited for pasturing and stock farming. Some of my neighbors are going into stock. I have made this year some of the finest clover I ever saw. Why is it that our planters do not raise their mules? There is more money in it than in breeding horses, except fancy stock. Tennessee drovers make money selling mules to our people, at $100 to $150 a head.” Mr. Hood thought there was some money in sheep. In fact Thurmond’s wool carding machines, at Harmony Grove, are bringing wool to this market from the country all around and are turning out pretty work. This is an interesting and successful industry here. Mr. Hood is aided in his business by his son. He weans himself from his store in the summer, and leaves its conduct with the young Hood. The experience of business in the North is that retiring from active business is fatal. Mr. Hood has outside interests in farms and lands, however to keep him alive for many years yet. There are Baptist and Methodist churches here. The Presbyterians, under Rev. Mr. Hoyt, are trying to finish their pretty little church, the lack of ceiling and of a stove prevents them from worshipping there this winter, however it is hoped their friends will help them finish it soon. Harmony Grove extends about two miles along the track, and besides Mr. Hood’s residence is the Bohannon House, built and owned by Dr. L. G. Hardman, and the Central Hotel, built and owned by R. A. Echols, Esq., all large and attractive houses. Besides these, are numerous evidences of skill in the builders’ line. Harmony Grove has the outside evidence of fresh emergence from the builder, with a business vitality of an older place. Mayor Quillian Mr. W. A. Quillian is mayor of the town and has been for two years since its incorporation. His council is W. S. Echols, G. W. D. Harber, R. L. Hardman, T. E. Key. The municipal election comes off the first Wednesday in January. No whiskey is sold in the town and the number of cases before the mayor last year was 67; this year but 38 have been arraigned. There have been no arrests here lately. Dr. George Eberhart, a prominent physician in Hart County, settled here last spring; has made friends and is getting a good practice, and Mr. Wells, from Stone Mountain, has opened a general store with good prospects. Mr. W. T. K. Smith has been in business here about two years and is making money, having paid for his store and built a comfortable home. There are inquiries still for business locations and property. Harmony Grove, in fact, handles about 16,000 bales of cotton annually and pays good for the staple. Most of the soil is red land, and the crop has been better than in Clarke, Oglethorpe or Elbert. Collections have been good, and I have not seen a merchant today who did not have all to do that he could attend to, and who did not give a cheerful report of his business. Most of them do a large credit business. The truth is Harmony Grove is on a special boom this year. Something over 5,000 bales of cotton were bought by merchants here who caught the recent rise and made money. This includes Hood, Quillian, Harber and Gunnels Power & Co. Several thousand dollars have been cleared in this way and some are still holding. This pick up, with a driving trade, has made them happy. About the business of the town, I get the following estimate: Hood & Son $80,000 a year; Harber & Bro. $60,000; Gunnels, Power & Co. $75,000; T. E. Key & Co. $25,000; Quillian Bro. $26,000; Burgess & Allen $25,000; Stark Bros. $10,000. These are hard working, faithful men. They pull of their coats and give their time to business and their customers. Harber Brothers came from Franklin County 12 years ago with little money. The Quillians are Lumpkin County men. This is a remarkable family. Four of the seven brothers were Methodist ministers—members of the North Georgia Conference. The two in Harmony Grove are public-spirited, successful merchants. Hon. T. E. Key, now in the Legislature and member of the town council, married in Athens and is a native of Banks County. The hotels are model little buildings, strong and snug. The Bohannon House is kept by a gentleman of that name, and the Central Hotel by R. A. Echols. The former is as good a hostelry as a man cares to go to, and is well known to travelers and the Athens public. Mr. Little has bought out Seegar’s livery stable and controls the overland travel—to Jefferson and to Homer. I have already alluded to Dr. W. B. J. Hardman, one of the most prominent and successful men in Jackson County. He possesses good property, has retired from business and from his profession, and is not actively in the work of the Baptist ministry. He has started his two sons off handsomely. The elder of these, Dr. L. G. Hardman, is a graduate of the Georgia Medical College, Augusta, and of Bellevue, New York. His practice brings him in $10,000 a year, I understand, and he is associated with Dr. Sharp in a well conducted drug business. Robt. L. Hardman, of Hardman & Co., owns a large hardware store. The Hardmans are popular, thrifty people—as true as steel and as good as gold. There are four lawyers in Harmony Grove, who remain here on account of the good commercial practice—9 miles away from the county court house and county records. These are Messrs. W. H. Simpkins, P. G. Thompson, T. M. Daniel and R. L. J. Smith. Thompson and Daniel are former residents of Athens. Simpkins is a University man, and so is Smith. The latter is well known to the readers of the Banner-Watchman. He left college with the blue ribbons of the law school last August, and has worn the blue ribbons of the courts several times already. He inherits his father’s love for the profession, and possesses uncommon energy and ability. He gives his time studiously and attentively to the theory and the details of law, and I hear of his success from more than one party. He is a noble fellow, and lives with his mother, a most interesting and hospitable lady, in a pretty place near the town. There people here are interested, of course, in the Augusta and Chattanooga Air-Line. They are booked for $16,600, should the road come through here—and if it does, Harmony Grove will be a town of increased importance. I find the people delighted with the schedule of the Northeastern fast mail. Mails and travel are regular, and the service on this line is improved 100%. The next change will be on Sunday, when the evening train will leave Atlanta at 7 p.m. and reach Athens about 11. The Banner-Watchman at Harmony Grove found traces of two of its oldest subscribers. Mr. J. W. Pruitt, of Banks County, was married 50 years ago. He went to Athens to buy his wedding suit, and while there subscribed to the Southern Banner. Mr. James Wade, of Banks, has been taking the paper 40 years. This reminds me that Mr. Pruitt has paid for this paper up to 1888, and Mr. Geo. I. Seney up to 1889. Jefferson: The Railroad, Town Trade, New Courthouse and Martin Institute It was hard to leave the attractive little town of Harmony Grove. With the thermometer at half mast, and the ground frost oozing out of the earth like bulrushes, it was harder. An early morning drive even through Jackson County, is not the way a man might choose of fighting the blizzard, but others have driven further into the arctics on exploring tours, and so we went. For miles out of the “Grove,” as the natives delight to call it, one sees the influence of the live little town. Two or three pretty cottages on the suburbs are evidences of taste and thrift, and one of the prettiest of these is being built by young Dr. Hardman, who rumor says—but we are hunting for facts, not rumors. Our only regret is that the day was so cold and the merchants so busy that we could not get at many other interesting points about Harmony Grove. Nine miles into the interior; over land that had been settled—some of it—for 100 years—into a town that had emerged from the woods 80 years ago, and not out of the woods yet; the prospect of receding from the railroad and red hot stoves did not allure. But a pleasant surprise awaited us on that day of exile and freeze. A town with all the conservatism and hospitality of a community a century old; with all the energy and life of a new depot and good cotton receipts; with much of the polish of an educated centre—with all the traditions and interest of age and all the vigor and promise of a second growth—this proved to be Jefferson—the county site. It lies 18 miles from Athens—northwest. It is the same distance that the Grove is and I trust will soon be as easily reached. To the traveler coming into Jefferson, whether from east or west—two commanding objects strike the eye: the stylish proportions of the new brick court house, planned in Athens and built by McGinty, and the still newer figure of the Martin Institute (see photo/sketch in article). The Jefferson buildings are not all like these, but here and there, nestling in the wooded recess or breaking out boldly in the public squares, are more new houses—telling of freshly invigorated people and newly acquired power. Such is Jefferson, with its well defined strata of the old and the new. Many of the wooden houses are eloquent with history and pathetic with decay—relics of the old tavern and the old bar room being objects of interest. But since the completion of the Gainesville, Jefferson & Southern narrow gauge railroad two years ago, the town has taken on new life. Eight or ten residences have been completed and others will be built this year. Ex-Senator Pike is finishing a beautiful cottage just back of the courthouse. Dr. Watson has a pretty new dwelling in town. Mr. J. E. Randolph has built a number of new houses. The fireproof brick stores of Austin & Co. and Brock Bros. Are strong and spacious, and next door the ground is being cleared for a fine brick hotel which Mr. Randolph will finish this spring. This gentleman, who is one of the progressive spirits of the town, owns a steam mill, with saw mill at the depot, and will soon put up a guano factory at Jefferson. He is anxious for the Athens & Jefferson Railroad and has offered $1,000 towards grading it. Jefferson was incorporated in the “early candlelight” of Georgia’ history. An act of 1796 fixed the spot for the jail and court house in Jackson County. An act amendatory of this was approved by Gov. James Jackson, 2d February, 1798. An act approved by Gov. Jarred Irvine made permanent this spot in 1806. These records are preserved by Ordinary Bell—antique, faded, but still legible. The first public record of the county is preserved by Judge Bell. It is the register of a sale, dated Nov. 24, 1796—written as most of the old documents were, in a fair, round hand. I am told it was not unusual to find in these old records charges of “1 pint peach brandy,” entered up by executors against the estate upon which business they were traveling. These charges are duly admitted and approved. A touch of the late blizzard might explain why these expenses were so openly entered and so readily approved. There was no prohibition then; liquor was pure and men were ingenuous and fiduciary trusts were clean. The old marriage register for Jackson County in 1806 is a marvel. The marriages of record are labeled “solemnized:” one party who tied the bonds writes the suggestive term “executed,” and signs his name with his title, “J. P.” Another party writes after his name “P. G.,” which I am informed, meant “Preacher of the Gospel.” The old surveyors’ plats, notably those of Hugh Montgomery, are clear and accurate. The plans of the old processioning of land suggest the quaint records of Illinois, made by Abraham Lincoln, now preserved so carefully in Northern museums. The fine new courthouse here was built in 1879. It cost $15,000 and is a model—ranking in room and convenience with Athens, Monroe and Gainesville. The courthouse sits on a commanding hill, which sweeps like a fort all the entrances to the town. It is an old lot where Col. Wiley Howard once made 1,600 pounds of seed cotton, and was purchased when the county moved the temple of justice up from the old quarters on the square. On the first floor are the county offices and the jury rooms. To the left is Judge H. W. Bell, the popular Ordinary, beloved by old and young, and who shares with Col. Howard the honor of being one of the most public-spirited men in the county. These gentlemen, with Col. Pike and Judge Pittman, took charge of the Banner-Watchman, and carried him from the strong box of the Treasury to the cupola of Martin Institute. Nothing but the knife blasts of wind tempered their zeal or cut down their hospitality. All of the records were turned over to us, and we would not be surprised to find a bill presented by the next grand jury against this paper for adjourning an appraisement before the court of Ordinary, and interfering with the course of justice in the county. Hon. W. T. Bennett, a well known University boy of the Class of 1881, is now the Clerk and Treasurer of the county, and showed us through three combinations, deep down into the vault where the records and the money lie. The county officers are: H. W. Bell, Ordinary; W. T. Bennett, Clerk and Treasurer; T. A. McElhannon, Sheriff; S. E. Bailey, Deputy Sheriff; W. P. Boggs, Tax Receiver; H. C. Barnett, Tax Collector; W. A. Worsham, Coroner; and A. C. Appleby, Surveyor. The new jail and jailor’s house will be built this spring, and the drawings of McDonald Bros., Louisville, Ky., are very handsome. These buildings will cost the county $9,000, and will be built of Jackson County granite, a quarry of which is now being worked near Jefferson on the narrow gauge. The narrow gauge railroad, which meets the main line of the G. J. & S. at Belmont, is ten miles long and was finished in 1883. Jefferson then had 500 people. Now it has between 800 and 1,000. The principal stores here do a thriving business. They are right around in a public square and seem to be prosperous. Austin & Co. control a business of $75,000 a year; Brock Bros. $50,000; Pendergrass & Co. $50,000; W. T. Harrison & Co. $30,000; and Stanley & Lyle $25,000. Besides these are Webb & Howard who represent a snug cash business, and other houses, which run Jefferson’s business up to $225,000 a year. Fully 3,000 bales are brought here during the cotton season, as I am informed by Mr. J. L. Williamson, the live partner of Austin & Co. The town property is fully worth $200,000. Jefferson & Athens The people here are keen for a railroad to Athens. They declare that the road is but 18 miles over a natural ridge, without crossing a stream of any kind. Such a route could not be found in any other part of this well watered county. The extension of the narrow gauge can be graded to Athens for one thousand dollars a mile. I hear that an Athens capitalist has offered to take the bonds, and that there is some chance that the Georgia Railroad may iron and equip the road when graded. I trust so. A regular wagon trade plies to Athens when the roads are good, but Atlanta drummers are visiting Jefferson every day, and Atlanta is cutting into the core of a trade which belongs to Athens. I find such men as J. L. Williamson, F. L. Pendergrass, and J. E. Randolph very anxious for this Athens road. Some cotton comes to Athens now on the narrow gauge, way round by Social Circle; but what a clean sweep Athens would make with this little gap of 18 miles filled up! Gainesville, Jefferson, Pendergrass, Hoschton, Social Circle, Monroe and Jug Tavern would all file down over the little track and pour their products into Athens. It occurred to me after listening to these men and looking over the field, that Athens was dealing in some magnificent and complicated ligatures just now, to the neglect of a little common sense, narrow gauge gap of 18 miles which is almost ready to heal by local enterprise and “first intention.” To allow this ambitious narrow gauge to stop in Jefferson is suicidal. Atlanta now reaches that section by Gainesville as well as the Circle, and 18 miles of dirt road to overcome is more than 180 of steel rails. Just see the little towns at the edge of Jefferson—all anxious to reach Athens. At Hoschton there is Hosch Bros., W. B. McCants, P. P. Pirkle, and DeLaperriere & Smith, with a business of something like 1,500 bales and $100,000. Then at Pendergrass we have Whitehead & Appleby, A. C. Harrison, W. R. Mitchell and T. Duke & Co. representing a trade as large as Hoschton, and commanding the Garden Valley of Jackson County. Cobb Bros., at Candler, will help. It is estimated that with the aid of these men Athens would not have to subscribe more than eight or ten thousand dollars. To leave this section isolated on the hills is as bad as to have continued the old Georgia Railroad depot across the river. Athens will never command the trade of Jackson until she brings the narrow gauge depot into town. The Narrow Gauge This road is an institution in Jackson County. The little train steams out of town at daylight, and whistles like a calliope, and ambles like a deer over the hills and grades. Fox Galloway has it all his own way in the engineer’s cab, and drives at the rate of 17 miles an hour, running into Wink Taylor’s beautiful Arlington dining room at Gainesville at seven thirty—in time for an early breakfast. Capt. Gus Clarke, the civil conductor, feels as much pride in the system as Hon. Allen Candler, the man who built it, or Major Greene, who runs it. Sometimes the train over the main line steam through Belmont with a dozen freight boxes, which carry only a few less bales than a wide box car. The Jackson Herald I met Mr. John N. Ross, the industrious and genial editor of the Jackson Herald. He prints a clean, readable and reliable paper, and his office was bustling with the first roll of the press. The Herald is an honor of Jackson, and the people tell me that much of the growing good of the town may be credited to this wide awake journal. Around Jefferson Among the younger merchants of Jefferson are Williamson & Potts, who have just fitted up a snug little store with gent’s furnishing goods. Success to them. The presence of Robert Howard recalls a brainy and popular member of the law class of 1875 at the State University. He is a brother of Solicitor General Wm. M. Howard, and is a lawyer of fine ability, a writer and speaker of rare power. Col. W. S. McCarty was very civil and attentive in his attentions to the Banner. Col. Wiley Howard and Lady When the new hotel is built, it is to be hoped that Col. Wiley Howard and his estimable lady may be induced to take charge. The latter was born and married in their present home, where her father lived before her, and is a popular and efficient aid to her husband. Two houses I stopped at on this trip have owed much of their success and cheerfulness to the ladies of the household and we make this acknowledgment and touch our hats to Miss Ida Bohannon and to Mrs. Wiley Howard. Martin Institute In writing up Jefferson, the commanding proportions of Martin Institute—its lustrous record and its glowing future—thrust themselves before us. In 1849, Wm. D. Martin, a wealthy bachelor and merchant, died, an exile from Virginia and a prosperous citizen of Jefferson. Here he made his home and was the recipient of kindly favor from its people. When he died, it is said, he was determined that these people should inherit his fortune, and his will has stood the test of all the courts. To the Jefferson Academy he bequeathed 100 shares of Georgia Railroad stock, which school was incorporated in 1818, and in December, 1859, the charter was amended and the name changed to Martin Institute, in honor of its benefactor. Here then, was an example. A bachelor who had given on “heritages to fortune,” endowing a school for other people’s children. The school has been successful in operation during this long period—quietly doing its allotted work, while hundreds have gone forth to occupy positions of trust and honor throughout the country. The number of students runs between 100 and 200 a year, and the tuition rates are nominal. By this school the means of a liberal education are brought within easy reach. Education in Jackson has received a mental and moral quickening; boys and girls have been prepared for college, and hundreds have left its halls with a broad and secure foundation for their life work. Two years ago the old building burned down; but Jefferson nor Jackson County could afford to lose the institute. The town voted $5,000 school bonds and the institute trustees issued $10,000 bonds and pledged the dividends of their railroad stock to pay the interest. Their income meets all of these obligations and leaves a residuum which is directed toward lowering the tuition of the pupils. The charge is about $1 a month per pupil—nothing when the advantages of the school are considered. The New Institute On the first day of last July the new institute was completed. It sits upon a higher hill than the courthouse, and across the country the blue lines of the mountains can be seen as they lift their shoulders to the sky. The building cost when completed $15,000. A handsomer or more convenient school building cannot be found in Georgia. The structure is large and imposing, built of brick, slate covered, and well arranged in all appointments. The style of architecture is strictly American, combining beauty with utility—beauty in its style and finish, and utility in adaptation to the work for which it was constructed. The first floor contains five large, well-lighted, well-ventilated recitation rooms, with seating capacity for nearly three hundred students, and ample blackboard facilities for every school purpose. A capacious chapel, approached by two broad stairways in front and one in the rear, together with vestibule, stage and music rooms, occupy the entire second floor. The chapel is seated with neat cottage chairs and supplied with two elegant chandeliers of eighteen lights each, and a number of handsome bracket lamps. The state is finished in artistic style, presenting a handsome parlor scene. The graceful windows, the chandelier of tinted glass, the beautiful drop curtain, which alone cost more than one hundred dollars, and the conveniently arranged foot-lights, all harmonize in a scene at once pleasing and instructive. A private stairway leads to the rear of the stage and dressing rooms. The building is surmounted with belfry, and provided with a sweet-tone bell of more than a thousand pounds weight, whose peals are hard at the distance of several miles. The music room and art halls were peculiar objects of interest, while in the design room are kept the apparatus of the school, remarkably complete; with the embryo of a technical tool shop. The boys made the easels of the art room, and will be busy after the holidays, fashioning shelves for the instruments of the physical and chemical laboratory. The board of trustees is: Rev A. J. Kelly, president; J. E. Randolph, secretary; H. W. Bell, treasurer; and H. W. Bell, A. J. Kelly, J. E. Randolph, T. H. Niblack, W. I. Pike, J. B. Silman, F. S. Smith and W. H. Simpkins. Faculty are: Professor Hunter is well known in Athens, where he taught for many years. He inquires proudly and tenderly after many of his old scholars, and is recognized as one of the foremost educators in Georgia. The young ladies are accomplished and vivacious, and brighten the society of Jefferson, besides assisting efficiently in the work at the Institute. This is a gifted and popular family. The building committee of the new institute deserves credit for their work, and their names are appropriately inscribed on its corner stone. They are H. W. Bell, G. J. N. Wilson, J. E. Randolph, J. C. Grow, J. A. B. Mahaffey, T. H. Niblack, and A. H. Brock. The drop curtain of the chapel is a handsome painting by E. D. Irvine, of Macon. It represents Napoleon’s warship at Joppa. Other Towns in Jackson The little towns of Hoschton, Pendergrass, Belmont and Candler, are live and growing places, to which allusion has already been made. I am warned in advance that Jug Tavern is claimed by Gwinnett and Walton, and Gillsville and Maysville by Banks, as well as Jackson. Pendergrass has 200 people and Hoschton 100. Dry Pond has about 100. It is impossible, in a hurried chronicle like this, to sketch all these places, or to do justice to a tenth of the advantages, the wealth, or the progress of old Jackson County. If this sketch has developed the one fact, that it is impossible to describe all of the material advancement in the course of one article, or even a series of articles, the object of the screed has been in part accomplished. Our object is to call the attention of the people of Athens and of the state to Jackson County, and of the people of Jackson to themselves. Page last updated 11/08/2011 |
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