The Green-Rice Mill on Anneewakee Creek

 

Anneewakee Creek

Anneewakee Creek rises to the south of Douglasville and runs southeastward to join the Chattahoochee River at a point a little downstream and opposite the site of the old town of Campbellton.

The name is from the Cherokee language….possibly from a Cherokee family name.   Some researchers think members of this family might have lived along the creek. However, I need to point out Anneewakee Creek actually flows through land that was part of the Creek Nation….not the Cherokee. 

A Cherokee name in Creek Country is not so strange because around 1815 Cherokees were under the impression they would be able to settle on Creek lands as far south as today’s Heard County.   In fact, there was a line of land designated as no-man’s land that ran from the river up to and across the ridge where Broad Street is in downtown Douglasville where both tribes hunted.   It makes sense there would be some overlapping and mixture.  The boundaries kept changing as white settlers began moving in and began their plans to seize Native American lands no matter which tribe claimed the lands.  

In 1821, both tribes agreed to yet another boundary line that began at Buzzard’s Roost Island on the Chattahoochee River where Douglas and Cobb Counties meet and ran westward to the Coosa River in Alabama.  The line passed far above the head of Anneewakee Creek.

When looking to early industry in Douglas County you have to zero in on the area along Anneewakee Creek. By the 1830s two important mills were situated on the creek and shared a property line.   I wrote about the Alston Arnold mill here.

Today the spotlight turns on the mills originally belonging to William Ely Green who came to Georgia via his home state of New Jersey in 1831.  Green brought along his wife, Mary Stiles Green, and their children.   His first stop was the area of Georgia where Morgan, Oconee, and Walton Counties converge.

An article by Arden Williams at the New Georgia Encyclopedia advises “after the War of 1812 some southern leaders, in an attempt to duplicate the prosperity of cotton mills in New England, built textile factories in the South.  Many of the earliest factories were in Morgan and Wilkes County.  The idea faltered a little, but due to an economic depression in 1837 alternative sources of revenue for southern businessmen was needed, and the mills began to prosper.

William Green and his family were welcomed to Georgia by a relative….Ephraim Stiles Hopping….Mary Stiles Green’s cousin.   Hopping had been living in Georgia since 1825 when after graduating from Princeton he headed south to accept a teaching job at the University of Georgia.  Then he decided he would build a mill.

The 1840 census shows William Ely Green living in Morgan County, and by 1846 Hopping’s High Shoals Factory was in full operation and remained so for years, however, at some point Green and Hopping parted ways.  Perhaps they had a disagreement, perhaps they had an amicable parting, or perhaps Green wanted to stake a claim of his own where new unclaimed lands awaited near Campbellton, Georgia following the Indian Removal.

At any rate Green did purchase a strip of land along Anneewakee Creek that Fannie Mae Davis describes as “laying off Anneewakee Road.”  It was there William Ely Green began a couple of mills – one for making cotton cloth and thread and a second mill for creating rope.   My research indicates the rope mill was the only one at the time in north Georgia.   Both mills were fully operational by 1840, but the process could not have been easy. 

The area at that time was a wilderness with few folks in the area.   It was a full thirty years before Douglas County would exist and at that time the city of Douglasville wasn’t even a thought.   The area where our old courthouse stands today was merely an intersection of Indian trails close to an old skint chestnut tree. 

 

Green had to physically clear the land with no modern equipment other than an ax.  Once trees were cleared those same trunks had to be fashioned to use for building structures.  It was back breaking and time consuming work.   There were no corner groceries, so the family had to set to planting crops immediately to sustain them.

Fannie Mae Davis’ information regarding Mr. Green and his mill explains census records for 1850 and into the Civil War years clearly shows both mills employed men and women on an equal basis.  For the most part women didn’t work outside the home during antebellum years, but a few women were forced to out of need.   Mrs. Davis names one such woman – a 65-year old widow named Mary Frails.   She worked in the mill alongside two of her daughters.

Site along Anneewakee Creek where the Green-Rice Mill stood
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8255456   

Besides providing jobs for those in need Mr. Green’s mills also provided an important market closer to the folks who were raising cotton along the Chattahoochee River and on the Chapel Hill plantations.   

Green then shipped his finished products out to various towns that existed near and far.  He used ox drawn wagons as his method of transport.   Davis states, “A round trip to Atlanta took the wagons four days….a trip to Villa Rica would take two days.” 

  

One of Green’s first team drivers was Wylie Preston Tackett.  He began driving a wagon for the mills in 1848 when he was only ten years old!   Driving the wagons was lonely and dangerous work.   The roads weren’t roads that we know today.  They might have followed some of the same routes but they were more or less Indian trails that were barely wide enough for wagons let alone people.   Wild animals such as wolves and mountain lions were prevalent.

Some of the towns could be a little scary, too.  In 1848, Villa Rica was a rough and rowdy gold mining town.

Fannie Mae Davis advises her source for the information regarding Tackett comes from a written account his daughter left behind following her death in the 1960s.   The daughter advised Tackett held the job driving the wagons until he was 23.  At that point he volunteered to serve in the Confederate army.

The area surrounding Green’s mills became a little community since he and the neighboring mill Alston Arnold owned provided housing for many of the workers.  A thriving community store was set up to help those who lived in the community.  Arnold’s property adjoined Green’s tract of land making the area along the banks of Anneewakee Creek a thriving community for that time period.  

In fact, the area was populated to the point that Campbell County leaders placed a district courthouse in the area much like our own mini-courthouses (see my article here) from the past.   The district courthouse was basically a rough log cabin and when it was not in use for government purposes it served as a school as well as a religious meeting house.  I know that seems strange today with the constant cry for the separation of church and state, but this was a frontier of sorts.  Necessity was more important than matters involving how a government building was being used.   Since public education didn’t exist at the time the school would have been a private concern and folks could make a choice regarding sending their children.  There was also a post office.  The Anneewakee Factory Post Office was a log structure on Green’s property.  Fannie Mae Davis states the building stood until well into the 20^th Century.

Of course, the mill provided Green and his growing family with a nice living.   It is reported he had one of the first fancy buggies in the area.    His transport wagons were known to carry cotton cloth and rope out to customers, but would return with such things as a fancy cook stove for his wife’s kitchen and a piano for his daughters to play from such places as Charleston.

A millstone from the Green-Rice Mill along Anneewakee Creek
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8255501

The Green mills survived the Civil War even though Union soldiers were aware they existed.   Perhaps Green’s Yankee heritage helped him keep his property intact. 

Even so, the Civil War impacted William Ely Green and his family.  His son Henry Martyn Green was killed in action at the Battle of Fort Stevens near Silver Spring, Maryland.  Green’s first-born, Robert Edgar Green also served in the Confederate Army.   He came home from the war and attended medical school while overseeing some of the operations at the mill, but he soon tired of it.  Mill work wasn’t for him.   Dr. Green departed for Gainesville where he would end up making his home.   He actually began the city’s first street car line and served as Gainesville’s mayor in 1879. 

William Ely Green eventually sold his business to his son-in-law, Major Zechariah A. Rice.  Major Rice served in Cobb’s Legion during the early days of the Civil War, and during the last months of the war he was an officer with the Fulton County Home Guard.  Fannie Mae Davis quotes the deed of sale as, “Deed book U, page 504, for 870 acres of land lots 100, 101, 102, 103, 112, 113, 1^st District, 5^th Section, Douglas County – Factory House and all machinery appertaining to it.”

Major Rice and his wife Louise lived on the property, but he maintained his interests in Atlanta as well.   Rice was actually returning  to a “home place” of sorts.  You see, Rice’s mother was a member of the Bomar family and his grandfather….Armistead or A.R. Bomar built the Sprayberry-Henley home I wrote about here.

Wylie Preston Tackett returned from the war as a captain and became Rice’s foreman.  Fannie Mae Davis states Tackett, “operated the factory and rope business almost single-handedly.”  He and his family….wife Melissa J. Underwood Tackett and his daughter Ella Virginia (1870-1956) lived in the area.   Tackett was also a Mason.  He died in 1907 and is buried at New Hope Baptist in the Chapel Hill area.

While the business did continue after the Civil War it never operated at the same level as it did before the war.  William Ely Green died on April 14, 1867 and is buried in Atlanta’s historic Oakland Cemetery (see my article here) in Block 95, Lot 1.

Early City Ordinances and Fines

Well, television has the Emmys and the world of cinema has the Academy Awards, but one of my favorite awards is the Stellas.

Not familiar?

The Stellas are given to people who file frivolous lawsuits.   They are named after Stella Liebeck….the woman behind the words “Caution- Hot!” on each and every cup of McDonald’s coffee.    While I realize Ms. Liebeck….and elderly woman…was burned terribly and McDonalds had been warned for years via customer complaints their coffee was too hot there are other Stella award winners that are beyond reasonable and reach the bizarre and brazen category. 

  

One Stella award winner was attacked by a squirrel outside a shopping mall and claimed her injuries could have been prevented if the mall had warned her that squirrels were living outside the mall doors.

A…..mazing. 

I’ve never actually seen an attack squirrel.  I have some that squeal their gibberish and peer over the gutters at me, but attack?   Hardly.   Perhaps it’s the mall variety of squirrel that’s the most dangerous.

 Another plaintiff who won a Stella award blamed Mazda Motors for her injuries in a car wreck claiming the company failed to provide instructions regarding the safe and proper use of a seatbelt.

Seriously?

Perhaps each vehicle should come with its own private stewardess so we can receive the seatbelt, exit and life vest tour every time we venture from our driveway.

I really shouldn’t be surprised.   There are and have been all sorts of crazy laws throughout history…..

Laws are necessary.  You simply can’t live with a group of humans and not have laws.   While laws certainly don’t prevent bad things from happening…..they can serve as a deterrent and the consequences for breaking laws can eventually protect us from those who can’t seem to follow laws.  

But, sometimes laws are passed because someone wants to promote something or someone did something stupid.  Also, from what I can see it’s much more fun for our lawmaking bodies to pass laws than it is for them to repeal them….especially when they have become antiquated.   It’s interesting to see what still remains on the books in some jurisdictions.

I’ve been told when you visit the City of Gainesville, Georgia, you must eat your fried chicken with your hands.  Now, if you happen to know that Gainesville considers itself the chicken capital of the world then it makes sense they want to promote eating fried chicken with your hands…..but a law?   Any tried and true Southerner would know to eat fried chicken with your hands.

At one time in the city of Columbus, Georgia it was against the law to sit on your front porch in an indecent position.  First of all…..what I might consider indecent you might consider decent.

  
Second….I’d love to hear the story behind that little law. 

It is also rumored the state of Georgia still has at least 75 laws on the books dealing with rice paddies.

Yes, rice paddies.

This dates back to a time when rice was the number one crop before the Civil War along the Savannah, Altamaha and Ogeechee Rivers.   Later a hurricane damaged most of the coastal rice fields and they were never replaced, but the laws remain…..just in case, I guess.

The City of Douglasville is no different.   If you go back through the Douglasville city ordinances during the late 1800s some things stand out……

For example, citizens would be fined if they tied a mule, a horse, or a cow under a tree and left it there for any amount of time.

Since automobiles weren’t around then it makes sense that folks would travel to town using animals…..and if they had to go into the courthouse or one of the businesses along Broad Street the animals had to be hitched up somewhere, right?  

The downtown parking lot didn’t exist then…..and at the time I write this it doesn’t exist either due to construction…..but that’s another column for another day, so I would guess the appropriate place back then would have been the road outside the buildings, but apparently some folks wanted to tie their animals up underneath the trees around the courthouse or even James Grove.    I guess with the animal droppings and the animals grazing on the grass and flowers the ladies had planted in James Grove… it would have become an issue.

Docket’s for the Mayor’s Court indicate Tom McElreath’s horse, Julia Clayton’s cow and George Gamble’s mule were all found tethered beneath trees within the city limits.   All three were fined one dollar.

On the subject of animal droppings…….another early town ordinance called for all males between the ages 16 to 45 to work on the city streets for 15 days a year or pay $1.75 if they refused.  I would imagine since the roads were dirt back then the road work would have consisted of filling in the constant mud holes……there was a large one at the intersection of Campbellton and Broad.  Folks finally named the hole because it couldn’t be maintained due to the traffic.  They called it Hog Wallow if I remember correctly.   It would also take a regular crew of folks to keep the animal droppings off the streets.   I don’t guess folks were given baggies back then to keep the area around their horse or mule neat and tidy.

Some men were exempt from the road crews including men missing an arm or leg.  The Mayor was exempt along with the councilmen and licensed ministers.

During the late 1800s men who were missing an arm or a leg were very commonplace as they were more often than not Civil War veterans.  I can understand their exemption, but the other exemptions seem a little extreme to me.   What about those men who were “filled with the Spirit” and “called to preach the Gospel”, but were not licensed?  I guess they had to draw the line somewhere….

Also….why was the mayor and councilmen exempt?   It wouldn’t have been the first time a politician was known to shovel the……oh, never mind. 

 Traffic violations during the late 1800s were also recorded in the Mayor’s Court dockets, but they didn’t involve automobiles.   Early research indicates two men were fined one dollar each for riding their mules on Douglasville’s sidewalks.

 In the early days Sundays in Douglasville were spent resting, visiting, and going to church, however, some early Douglasville citizens had a choice….and used  the day to pursue other activities such as shooting craps, playing cards or making a little wager on a game of pool at one of the local saloons.

 Bars in Douglasville dated back to 1877 when the first license to sell liquor was issued to G.R.Turner, Douglasville’s City Treasurer.  Four years later Mr. Turner would obtain a license that allowed him to offer a pool table for his customers to use.  

Other saloons followed including one owned by G. G. Stewart.   Licenses to serve liquor were $37.50 per year.   I’ve written about Douglasville’s Saloon Era here for a more complete picture of that time.

There were other entertainments….

In June, 1880 G.B. Stewart obtained a license to operate the first ten pin bowling alley.

During this time if city ordinances were broken citizens would appear in Mayor’s Court.  Most of the court cases involved fighting and failure to pay taxes.  Back then taxes ranged from twenty cents to one dollar.   Failure to remit your tax meant you might be sentenced to work on the city streets and/or pay a three dollar fine plus court costs…..or a week in jail.   Fines for fighting were around one dollar.

Hmmm….I know some people I’d be willing to smack for a dollar fine.  How about you?

Fines were also issued within the city limits for cussing (two dollars), for discharging a firearm within the city limits (two dollars or five days), for disturbing a meeting of the medical society (three dollars) and for getting on or off a moving train (one dollar).  

Just like today laws were usually passed to solve a problem, so I have to wonder about the story regarding the disturbance at the medical society meeting.   I wonder what went on there…..

The more information  I find through my research….the more questions I have.

Have a great week!!!

I continue to be amazed and encouraged by the number of page hits this site is receiving each week.   Please share this site with your friends…..and you are more than welcome to share my link on Facebook.

Some of this information regarding city ordinances first appeared in a 1960s column Robert Griggs had in the Sentinel.

His Honor and the Sacred Harp

When I was growing up the stifling heat of July mean one thing…..it was almost time for the Land Family reunion where the offspring of several generations from two people would gather at Sharp Mountain Baptist Church in Ball Ground, Georgia for dinner on the ground.  

In those days we met under a shelter outside the church where the longest table constructed of slabs of marble and concrete blocks I had ever seen extended through a stand of pine trees.  The table would be a checkerboard of various cotton tablecloths brought by the women for them to place their lunch.   All the designs formed a rather strange and beautiful quilt. 

Assorted picnic baskets and Tupperware would be unloaded and stacked underneath the table.   My mother’s Tupperware always had Band-aids stuck on the bottom with her neat handwriting…..Mrs. Geraldine B. Land.   Lord forbid someone got the wrong ham carrier or salad bowl!

The table literally groaned underneath all of the food – every sort of vegetable you could imagine from stewed squash and green beans to fried okra and sweet potatoes – some topped with marshmallows, some with pecans and brown sugar, of course.  There would be fried chicken, country fried steak and salmon patties….roast with carrots and potatos, sliced ham, and pork roast, too.  Biscuits, corn bread, and every type of dessert you could imagine.  I always grabbed one of the largest Chinet plates in the stack and promptly filled it to capacity.

 

After dinner the kids would go running off up the hill to the cemetery to play tag among the headstones of family members long gone or play school in one of the Sunday School rooms.  The adults of every age would talk and contemplate their full bellies in lounge chairs scattered around the table.

And then the singing would begin. 

My Great Uncle Homer loved his singing.   He’d head into the sanctuary by himself and fuss at any of us who might be running through the church building.  He’d tell us “the singing” was about to begin and we better hush up and be still.

Homer would begin to holler for the adults to come on in and sing…..or at least listen, and bit by bit most everyone would straggle in to watch and hear Uncle Homer.   You couldn’t help it.   The comforting sound would draw you in.   He’d select the hymns and then lead us in “a singin’” as he would call it. 

I loved it….and miss it very much.   Uncle Homer has been gone for several years and reunions really aren’t the same without sitting on that wooden pew with my cardboard fan printed with Jesus at The Last Supper on one side and ads from local businesses on the other trying to keep the hot air moving around me.  Everyone from 5 to 85 was flapping those fan so….it’s a wonder we all didn’t just lift up off the ground and rise to Glory.

Sweating and singing with family……it WAS glorious.

Like my Uncle Homer Douglasville’s Joseph S. James was a huge champion for singing – shape note signing, that is.

I’ve written about Judge James before here, and if you aren’t up to speed on Douglasville’s greatest champion and Founding Father then you really need to click through and read a bit. 

Go on…..click through and get up to speed.  I’ll still be here.

Judge James also had a love of music in his bones.   He was born in 1849…..to a singing teacher named Stephen James (1821-1872) and his wife….Martha Shipley.

Besides reading law James also attended the singing school of J.R. Turner and became what is described to be a tireless promoter of Sacred Harp singing in the Atlanta area.

I hear the crickets chirping.    I would imagine many readers might not know what the Scared Harp might be.  

Let me help…..

This website advises, Sacred Harp is a uniquely American tradition that brings communities together to sing four-part hymns and anthems…Technically, [the] style of singing is “shape note singing” because the musical notation uses heads in four distinct shapes to aid in sight-reading, but it is often called “Sacred Harp” singing because the books that most singers use today are called “The Sacred Harp”…The term “sacred harp” refers to the human voice – that is, the musical instrument you were given at birth…In 1844, “The Sacred Harp” was just one of more than 100 oblong hymn books published in the United States.  It has been continuously updated ever since.

This video is a great representation of shape note singing:

Joseph S. James was a shape note singer and composer.   He helped to organize the United Sacred Harp Musical Association in 1904. 

Between the years 1904 and 1911 he published five different works including the Revised Sacred Harp in 1911.  The revision added alto parts to most of the songs and restored several songs that had been deleted from the 1869-1870 version.  Unfortunately, the James’ revision ended up being challenged and our Judge James found himself defending himself in a lawsuit that he eventually lost.

You can read a little about the lawsuit here.

Of course the loss was a huge blow to Judge James, and in 1920 he wrote a pamphlet titled An Explanation of the Sacred Harp in order to defend his position regarding his version of the work.

It’s amazing to me Judge James had time to devote to shape note singing.  He was our first mayor, promoted the railroad through town, involved with our first cotton mill, as well as many other businesses and let’s not forget he had that law career as well.  

When Judge James passed from this Earth his memorial service in Atlanta attracted several hundred singers.  I can only imagine what it sounded like as they tried to honor the man who had been so devoted to shape note singing.   Judge James is buried in Douglasville Cemetery.

The Judge was given credit as a collaborator with S.M. Denson for the arrangements for the song Traveling and The Great Roll Call which is performed in the video below by singers at Mount Pisgah in Stroud, Alabama.

Enjoy!

The soundtrack for the movie Cold Mountain is also a great resource for shape-note singing.  Many of the tracks are found on YouTube.

I feel certain my Uncle Homer and Judge James are still singing….perhaps they have even teamed up and are leading a band of angels!

A new documentary regarding The Sacred Harp and shape note singing will be released in March.  You can find out more about it here.

Have a great week and please share this column regarding Douglas County history with a friend or share with your Facebook friends. 

A Little History Behind Douglas Memorial Hospital

I noticed this particular bit of news last week.   The story deals with the death of a mom who lobbied heavily for home birth in Australia, and then died following her own home birth.

This story provides more information including reader comments.   One thing the articles don’t provide is more information regarding the cause of death.  While it’s very easy to say her choice to give birth at home killed her... that just isn’t necessarily so.    We have no knowledge regarding her health condition leading up to the birth or many other variables that can come into play in any situation. 

One reader commented that even though the majority of women give birth in hospital settings these days, we still have women that die in the hospital.

True.

Every birth has a unique set of variables where many things can happen no matter where the mother gives birth.

This story does hit home with me. 

My second child….my dear daughter….was born at home in 1993.   

Yes, it was on purpose.  

Yes, it was planned. 

   

Yes, I had assistance, and yes…..I’m all for women having a choice regarding where and how they give birth.  I didn’t choose to have a home birth lightly.   I considered it for quite some time.

I actually had three certified midwives who assisted me.   They didn’t just show up when the time came.   I spent the entire nine months doing what many pregnant women do – I took vitamins, I had ultrasounds, I saw medical professionals, and I met with my midwife regularly.  If it had been my first birth or if I had had complications during previous births I wouldn’t have even been considered for a home birth. 

Home birth worked for me.  In 1993, hospitals were just beginning to relax some of the constrictions that had been in existence for years for women giving birth.   I experienced the prevalent clinical atmosphere with the birth of my son in 1985 and didn’t want to repeat it. 


Midwives take a major role in birthing centers now…..having family around the birth mother are prevalent now….getting the mother home as soon as possible are the norm.    In 1993, when I gave birth to my daughter things were still in transition regarding birthing options, and I wanted a different experience.

One area where mothers who give birth at home have absolutely no wiggle room…..or at least I didn’t... was pain management.   I wasn’t even able to take an aspirin, but my recovery time afterward….my ability to get right back to caring for my family was much quicker than my first birth.   

Within an hour after Dear Daughter was born,  I was in the shower, dressed and walked under my own power into the Emergency Room at Douglas General Hospital where a doctor did conduct a follow up exam to make sure everything was as it should be, and of course….I was closely monitored for the next few days as well as my daughter.

Georgia’s midwives….those that work in hospitals and those who don’t……are all well trained.   This website can provide more information regarding home birth here in Georgia. 

I’m just glad women have a choice.

There was a time here in Douglas County when women didn’t have a choice.   All babies were born at home during a time when medical care during the entire nine months wasn’t given like it is now.    Many babies were lost during pregnancy and during birth because we just didn’t know the things we are privy to today.

In fact, Douglas County history tells us that it was the death of yet another mother giving birth that finally…..finally spurred the community to build a local hospital.

The year was 1946.    Medical care in Douglas County existed.   We had doctors in private practice.  I’ve written about a few of them here.      Many surgeries were conducted on dining room tables, and all babies were born at home.  One night in 1946 yet another mother died because there just wasn’t time to get her to the closest hospital in Atlanta.

The book, Douglas County, Georgia:  From Indian Trail to Interstate 20 written by Fanny Mae Davis advises Mrs. Clyde (Alma C.) Gable can be credited for founding Douglas Memorial Hospital.   This happened after she had spent the night aiding the local physician in delivering a baby where the young mother died because a trip to the Atlanta hospital could not be made in time.

The next day Mrs. Alma stood before the Douglas County Board of Commissioners in tears and pleaded with the commissioners to provide residents with a hospital.    Thankfully the men agreed with Mrs. Alma and felt it was time as well and on May 9, 1946 the Douglas County Hospital Authority was formed with the following members – Dr. W.S. O'Neal, Guy Baggett, William Chatham, R.H. Hutcheson, A.H. Stockmar, W.D. Palmer, E.M. Huffine, J. Cowan Whitley, and A.A. Fowler, Sr.

Mr. Frank P. Dorris was instrumental in providing a location for the hospital via the American Legion.  They donated the old Clover Mills School building located on 3 ½ acres of land on Fairburn Road.   You know the location today as the United Way.

The original site for Douglas Memorial Hospital

The public donated money and labor to get the building ready to house a hospital.  The cost for outfitting the building with the necessary wiring and plumbing was $22,716.66.

Most certainly a bargain considering today’s costs.

Douglas County Memorial Hospital opened its doors on April 1, 1948 with up to fifteen beds for immediately use….and just in time, too!   Their first patient was five-year-old Richard Laird.   He had a tonsillectomy. 

By April, 1949 the hospital had added five more beds and boasted 207 babies had been born within its walls.  They had treated a total of 800 patients.

In 1950, the hospital had a new addition and the beds numbered 35….by 1965, the beds numbered 51.

In January, 1971 the hospital moved to its present location beginning as a 98 bed facility and costing $3,675,000.   There would be enough space for 15 doctors on staff and 25 nurses.  A medical complex consisting of four building was also built adjacent to the hospital.  Construction was completed on the new hospital in 1974.

During 1985, Douglas Memorial Hospital treated 4,700 patients and the Emergency Room saw 15,000 people pass through their doors!

During the 1980s Katherine Gunnell was appointed to serve as Chairwomen of the Douglas County Hospital Authority.  Her goal was to provide quality healthcare for the entire community.   Mrs. Gunnell’s obituary published in the Douglas County Sentinel advises:   [Mrs. Gunnell’s] goal was nearly thwarted in 1992 when Douglas General Hospital suffered from financial problems….An informal discussion in [a] church parking [lot] with Mr. Jim Fowler, a Cobb Hospital Board member, led to a key role in laying the foundation for the WellStar Healthcare System.  This discussion led to meetings with Mr. Tom Hill, Cobb Hospital Administrator, who supported some kind of union between the hospitals and pitched it to his board.   In a little over a month the two hospitals merged to form a buying cooperative.   This successful effort led to the 1994 formation of the Promina Health Systems that included Douglas, Cobb, Kennestone hospitals, and others joined later.   In 1999, WellStar Healthcare System was formed from some of the hospitals in Promina.  Today, WellStar, over 11,000 strong, meets the needs of many communities by utilizing state of the art equipment and nationally recognized physicians and staff.   WellStar now serves over 600,000 people.

Plan B: A Few Pictures

Yesterday morning I was on my third topic as my choice for this week's post.   At some point I decided two of those topics still had too many unanswered questions for me to throw them out on the Internet.   My third topic called to me and told me I should go with it, so yesterday morning I worked for a couple of hours and got it all worked out.  

After an afternoon visit with my father and other family members I decided I could come home and publish the piece.    

My mind was at rest.

I had completed my work.  

I was done.

I was content with my writing life.

I should know better.   

The moment you get too cocky and think you have a handle on things the gremlins go to work.   

When I got home last night I fired up my trusty and nearly worn out lap top computer and discovered my post was nowhere to be found.  Fourteen hundred words.....words with a title and words that had been saved had decided to hide from me.  

I have visions of those words whizzing around my computer somewhere having a grand old time hiding from me as I frantically decide what to do.

I hope they are having a blast.      

So....here is Plan B.   A few pictures I snagged from the Facebook page, "You're Probably From Douglasville If...." administered by Nina Vansant Camp.   The pictures reached the Facebook page through various sources.   One thing I've discovered about many of the old Douglas County images.....most are claimed by more than a few folks, so I'm claiming where I snagged them from and if you need to trace them further you can go from there.  I'm grateful to Nina for helping me out here and there with historical details here and there along with so many other folks.

On to the pictures......if you want closer views of the images you can click directly on the picture to isolate it and enlarge it a little. 

This picture has been identified as the Chattahoochee Ferry.....the Gorman Ferry.....or the Austell Ferry owned by Alfred Austell.  He purchased the Gorman Plantation and the ferry.   You can read more about the ferry and the Gorman and Austell family in my post A Bridge to the Past.

This is a view of Chapel Hill Road in 1958.   Amazing to see it without development.  I'm not exactly sure about the location....I'm taking a wild guess and saying it might be looking down the hill towards the present-day soccer fields.

This building is Douglasville College.   It was located where the National Guard Armory is today on Church Street in downtown Douglasville.   Later an elementary school was on the location for a years.    I have previously written about the college in my post 1902:  It's a Marathon Commencement.

Today's Douglasville Welcome Center is pictured below......originally home to the Douglasville Banking Company.   I've written about the bank here.

Today you would know this location as Dr. Robinson's office on Church Street.  O'Neal Plaza is to the left of this building today.  When this picture was taken Price Street still extended through O'Neal Plaza to Broad Street, and the Masons met on the second floor of the building. There are several Masonic symbols on the outside of the building.   I wrote about the Masons in my post titled Taking a Minute for the Masons.

This building at the corner of Broad Street and Price housed O'Neal Drug Store.   Today it's the location of Irish Bred Pub.   The building has quite a history.   I've written about Mr. O'Neal and other past owners of this building in my posts Who is the Man Behind the Plaza?  and Careful What You Look For:  The Millstone.

 This is the cotton mill building found along Highway 78 heading east as you leave Douglasville.   Today the building is in ruins, but it could have been a historical gem to our community had it been protected.    I've written about the cotton mill and it's importance to our town through years and its historical value in my posts Cotton Mill Ends the Doldrums and Demolition by Neglect.

This picture also shows an even earlier view of the cotton mill before the tower was altered .

Well, I'm off to continue looking for my wayward words.....:)


Sometimes technology is more of a hindrance than a help, you know?

A Post in Three Parts: A Reverse S-Curve, a Wayward Caboose, and Antiquated Blue Laws

Early yesterday morning – very faintly – I could hear the train moving through downtown Douglasville even though I live a few miles away from the track.   The sound wafts down from the ridge at Skint Chestnut and floats across the interstate.  It hangs over the Mt. Carmel district for a few seconds as it fades out.  It’s easy to miss if you are busy doing this and that, so I’m always a little surprised when I hear it, but it always makes me smile remembering my childhood growing up with a train track literally in my front yard.

 

The sound also got me to thinking about three separate bits of information regarding “our” train, and I decided it was time to share even though each piece of information could stand alone as a separate column, but why should they?    …..at least there is an underlying theme.  

Part 1:  The Reverse S-Curve….
 

I found some still photographs online of trains making their way through Douglas County as well as some videos, too.   Apparently there are folks that are real train fanatics – often referred to as railfans – people who actually follow trains and take pictures along the route at various locations. 

 

Many of the entries mentioned Douglasville’s “famous Reverse S-curve”.   

Seriously?   The rails passing through Douglas County curve at some point…..and form an “S”?    I began to look closely at the pictures and the videos and couldn’t deny the fact that we do have a reverse S-curve west of town at the N. Baggett Road crossing.    I even got in the car and headed west on 78 and yes…..there it was.  I have driven by the spot hundreds of times, and it just never registered with me.
 

You can see it at this picture I located here:

 

 

The picture above is Douglasville's famous Reverse S-Curve.  The link above serves as the picture credit.

You can really view how the track curves in this particular video here around the 1:08 mark….the first section of the video is a view of Temple, Georgia, but then you see the S-curve at N. Baggett Road.

So, I had more questions.  Why is this reverse S-curve so famous among the railfans and why was the “S” built into the track?   It just seems that straight lines would be safer.    Everything I’ve read about curves mentions the fact that friction and wear on the wheels and rails are problems.   The curves also reduce speed, but that wouldn’t be such a bad thing as trains approach town, right?

I sent the railfan who shot the video a message and Nikos answered me.  You have to love the ease of contact with the Internet!   Nikos stated:

It's not famous really, it's just well known within the Atlanta railroad photography circle, since its a very nice place to photograph trains. As for why it's built like that, I don't know a specific answer, but I imagine it has to do with the topography of the land and a way to gain elevation, if you ever see a train coming through the S curves it often will not be moving that fast and the locomotive prime movers will be working hard. The stretch of railroad between Atlanta and Birmingham is known for its curves and hills.

A friend of mine and long time Douglasville resident advised:

One thing to keep in mind is the period in which they cleared the land and took into consideration the topography of the land. You know once you get west of Douglasville, the Appalachian [imprint] of the land rolls and ebbs. I would imagine back then that the railroad surveyors took the least construction impact path to lay a rail bed. They didn't have equipment back then like we do today.

I'd like to get my hands on some of the information regarding the route of the track and how it was decided. I'm thinking a trip to the Norfolk Southern archives is in order. It's on my list of things to do at any rate.

Part 2: The Missing Caboose....

 

Back in December I visited the Douglas County Public Library on Selman Drive and took a few photographs of their art collection.   This picture is part of the collection:

 

The title of this piece is “The End of the Line” by Jim Perkins.   The title makes perfect sense because Mr. Perkins captured the caboose that sat along the railroad tracks between Broad Street and Strickland Street where Campbellton crosses Broad and the tracks.   The library’s guidebook to the art collection advised me “the caboose was acquired by the City of Douglasville.”

 

I remember seeing the caboose there.   Several people I’ve asked remember seeing the caboose there, so at least I know I wasn’t seeing things, but it has disappeared.  You can actually see the caboose in this next picture on the right:

I thought it might have been moved to Hunter Park…..a caboose is on display there, but was told by someone who used to work at the park it is a different one.

Hunter Park, Douglasville

What on earth happened to it?

 

I have inquired with various people to no avail.   I’m still waiting on some answers, but so far…..nothing.

Part 3:  Antiquated Blue Laws….      

                     

Hearing the train whistle yesterday morning also got me thinking about another tidbit of train related history I’ve been hanging onto, and it connects to antiquated laws we still have today.   The situation involves a piece of litigation originally filed in the Superior Court here in Douglas County before reaching  the Georgia Court of Appeals in 1908.   The case involved one of Georgia’s blue laws.

 

In case you are unaware a blue law refers to a law that is passed based on religious standards.  The origin of the term “blue law” is unknown, but the concept dates back to the Puritans in the 17^th Century when they passed laws requiring church attendance on Sunday.
  

Blue laws abounded back when I was a little girl.   Whether you went to a Christian church or not there were certain things you simply did not do on a Sunday including shopping and apparently at the turn of the century it was against the law for a train to blow its horn on Sundays and disturb the Sabbath.

 

Yes, not only were stores closed across the state in 1908 it was also against the law for trains to disturb the Sunday quiet.  The Defendant in the matter was A.H. Westfall, the superintendent of transportation for the Southern Railway Company.    The complaint advised:

 

….on the 14^th day of April, 1907, said day being the Sabbath day, [the Defendant] unlawfully run and cause to be run in and through Douglas County, over said railroad six freight trains of the Southern Railway Company, all going east pulling a train of freight cars, all of said freight trains arriving and departing from the city of Douglasville during the afternoon of said date.

….The six freight trains in question ran through Douglas County after eight o’clock a.m. on the Sunday charged in the indictment, arriving at their destination, Atlanta, at different hours in the afternoon and evening of that Sunday.

 

…These trains were all prevented from making their trips in schedule time, and were delayed at Waco, by the fact that there was no water in the tank at that place to supply the engines; and the tank was not supplied with water at Waco until about noon on Sunday.

….The failure to keep water at Waco prevented the freight train from complying with their regular schedule, and caused them to be delayed more than 12 hours; and when they left Waco on Sunday about noon, they were ordered to make the run to Atlanta on what was known as an “extra schedule.”

Eventually the Court of Appeals did not uphold the original verdict against Mr. Westfall for several complex legal reasons I won’t bore you with here, but the case was dismissed.

Today this case seems a little silly, doesn’t it?   How could we have a law preventing a train from blowing its horn?    Even without the sort of automobile traffic we have today it would seem folks would need to know when a train was bearing down on them, but the blue laws prevailed.

Over the years one by one the blue laws have been repealed.   I can remember finally having the ease and convenience of entering a store…..almost any store…..on a Sunday to shop.   Today, the thought of not being able to is just ludicrous, and far be it from me to judge anyone, but I would imagine the same folks who attend church venture into those stores for a little shopping, order their favorite dish at a restaurant, or even buy a movie ticket on the once stark and quiet Sabbath.

 

However, one blue law remains…..

 

In November, 2011 The New York Times advised:

Religiously motivated blue laws were once common across the Bible Belt. But over the decades, they have been struck down as anachronistic or unfriendly to business. Georgia was the last Southern bastion of a statewide all-day ban on Sunday alcohol sales in package or grocery stories.

After years of debating whether to do away with a century-old law that banned selling alcohol on Sundays, Georgia politicians decided to let the people vote, city by city and county by county, on what they preferred in their communities. The results were resounding: 105 of the 127 communities that voted chose to end the Sunday restriction, often by huge margins…..

That is a compromise that both sides agree is probably best for an issue where views differ so starkly. “It’s hard to argue with people who just want to vote, even when you disagree with what they want to vote for,” said Jerry Luquire, president of the Georgia Christian Coalition.

  

So, I can hear the train in Douglasville now…..I can go to a movie, a restaurant and do some shopping, but can I buy that same bottle of wine on a Sunday that I can pick up the day before or the day after?

 

No.   I can’t, and unlike so many Georgia communities that have held elections, I haven’t been given the right to exercise my right to vote concerning the issue.

 

Richard Segal, the administrator of the Facebook page called “Douglasville & Douglas County for Sunday alcohol sales,” advises:

 

“What could be the last of the blue laws in Georgia fell last year when the Georgia General Assembly passed, and Governor Deal signed, SB-10 which permits cities and counties to place a question on the ballot to allow the retail sale of alcohol beverages.  The Douglasville and Douglas County governments have not acted on this, but the two cities that are partially in Douglas County have.  Villa Rica voters approved Sunday retail sales in November, and Austell voters get to decide on March 6.  Even with these changes, alcohol sales on Sunday are still treated differently than on other days of the week – no sales before 12:30 p.m. are allowed.”

It really doesn’t matter to me how the vote turns out.  What matters to me is that our citizens here in Douglas County and the City of Douglasville should be able to speak out on the matter by getting to exercise one of the most important rights and responsibilities we have – the right to vote.

 

I certainly hope our elected officials wouldn’t have the audacity to deny citizens their right to vote since so many communities in our state have already had their say.

Perhaps it’s time they heard from you.

 

You can visit the Facebook page for “Douglasville & Douglas County for Sunday alcohol sales” here.

You can find the contact information for the Board of Commissioners for Douglas County here and contact information regarding the City of Douglasville officials here.