DID ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT WAS?

Once upon a war, there was a time, well two times.  In order to save daylight at the end of the workday as World War II unfolded, the United States Government implemented new time zones; Eastern War Time, Central War Time, etc.   The process had been used in World War I by Woodrow Wilson.  The first implementation of War Time came on February 9, 1942, just two months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

A time of controversy arose in Dublin and around Georgia about  new time zones and which ones would the people of Laurens County observe.  Those men with time on their hands - those who had the money or the power to go to Atlanta to make new laws and change the way that the common folks lived -  ignited a cyclone where time flew in circles, around and around and back again. 

In 1941, Georgia’s legislature voted to establish Eastern Standard Time across the state, replacing the tw0 time zone systems of eastern and western Georgia. 

On January 28, 1943, Georgia’s governor Ellis Arnall signed a bill changing the state from Eastern War Time to Central War Time, effectively repealing President Roosevelt’s nationwide time zones.  Georgia was nearly alone in the change.  Ohio was considering going back to the old time, but only Michigan immediately joined Georgia in the reversal of the Federal time zones. 

The measure drove  the state into a crisis. Confusion of what time it really was nearly paralyzed the state. All railroads and airplane companies remained on Eastern War Time.  Baffled mayors looked to their councils for advice to roll back or leave the hands on their clocks alone.    Across the state, one city after another wrestled with the question at hand.  Savannah, Augusta and Macon immediately decided to keep the status quo, although the Macon council had a time committee to study the measure before a final decision was made.  That decision would change.  Macon’s government accepted the new time for some activities while other people were going about their lives an hour behind their next door neighbors.      

In Atlanta, the state’s and the region’s transportation hub, the measure was also studied while the government conformed to state standards, government agencies and schools matched the Federal time. 

“Atlanta is the hub of all war activities in the South,” said Councilman John White, and “it cannot afford to operate on two times.”

Despite the legislature’s affirmative vote, Gov. Arnall dodged the criticism by saying, “I’m not going to try to make anybody do anything they don’t want to.  Any city that so desires, can go on Rocky Mountain time or Eastern time.” 

In Dublin, the city council voted to leave all city clocks on Eastern War Time.  By ignoring the legislature’s mandate, the city would be in conformance with all trains and buses in the city as well as the majority of the rest of the country.  

Initially the city schools and the Carnegie Library did their civic duty and followed the new law.  After one week, the school and library boards decided to get back in step with the rest of the city. 

The Laurens County Commissioners did not take action immediately although the county schools moved their clocks back to Central time.  The county’s semi-official time piece, the courthouse clock, was left unchanged by order of Superior Court Judge, R. Earl Camp.

There was some minor confusion among the churches of the city and the county.  The Rev. Earl Stirewalt, of the Dublin Ministerial Association, announced that the majority of the churches decided to go back to Eastern time for their services. 

The Georgia Senate went back to work.  Some factions wanted to go back to the pre-war dual system with Atlanta and Columbus being on Central time and Macon, Augusta and Savannah in the Eastern zone.  The State Republic Committee approved a measure to do just that.  That measure would repeal the Central War Time Zone as proposed by State Senator Herschel Lovett of Dublin, who favored returning the state to Eastern time under pressure from his constituents. 

“I favor the new time, but I am up here to represent the wishes of my people,” said  Senator Lovett, who originally voted in favor of the Central Time bill, which was actually the same time as it was before the 1941 bill placed Georgia in the same time zone. 

A feeble compromise was reached accepting the heart of Lovett’s bill, but delaying its implementation until April 1, 1943.  But when David Atkinson, the governor’s floor leader in the Senate, polled his members, the necessary “ayes” were five short of passage.  The measure was dropped.  

For the remainder of the war, Georgians across the state went about their daily lives never knowing what time it really was.  One thing was for sure, they knew when it was time to eat and when it was  time to go to sleep.

Finally on the day after Labor Day in 1945 and two days after the Japanese government signed the surrender agreement aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, the state’s Attorney General, Eugene Cook, of Dublin, announced that Georgia would return to Eastern Standard Time as soon as the Congress of the United States discontinued War Time.  

As the calendars were turned to October, everything was back to normal.  Ironically the change wasn’t noticed in the western part of the state.  But in Dublin and the rest of East Georgia, the clocks were turned back an hour.

So, in a few weeks when we spring the hands of our clocks forward and when we all say “I can’t get used to this new time,” be glad that we will still know really what time it really is.    

THE GREAT FLOOD OF '25

Without a doubt, January is the coldest and the darkest month of the year.  And in most areas around the state it is one of the wettest, closely rivaled only by the tropical storm months of the summer.  We here in Dublin and Laurens County are relatively lucky when it comes to floods.  It was in the bend of the river where the old Indian roads converged at the Oconee River where the county's founders first staked out the town of Dublin, where the flood plain is narrow.  Major floods, before the construction of Lake Sinclair, occurred at a one per decade rate.  After the dam at Sinclair was erected, the number of major floods in the inhabited areas of Dublin and East Dublin has plummeted. 

Speaking of wet months, around the second week of January 1925, ninety years ago it began to rain in Laurens County and all around the South.  The rains poured down, heavily and almost daily. The rivers and creeks began to rise.   It rained some more. And, then some more.  The floods came and came again.  Not since 1887 had so much rain had so much of a profound effect on our area as during that rainy month, ninety winters ago.

As far as rivers went then, there were no dams along the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers to control the water levels down stream.  Torrential winter rains and severe summer freshets left river dwellers to suffer from  the wrath of a frequently unmerciful  mother nature.

Dublin was established as a river port along the Oconee River in 1811.  Although the bulk of the commercial district is situated along a ridge nearly a  hundred feet above the mean level of the river, industries along the lower ends of Gaines, East Jackson and Madison Street frequently fell victim to rising winter waters.  Especially susceptible to flooding was the plywood mill situated on the banks of the river just above the river bridge.  From its earliest days in the early 1900s and even until now, thirty foot levels were always unkind to improvements on the property. 

River levels, as they always do, peaked first at places north and northwest of Dublin.  Locally the first effects of the strong torrents were the washing out of bridges and railroad trestles, the first coming along the Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad near Dudley.  In town, there were some places where the river spilled more than 250 feet further out from  its banks than normal.

Wooden bridges, the mainstay of the county's infrastructure, were damaged beyond calculation.  The steel bridge across Hunger and Hardship Creek was six to eight feet under water and totally useless as an entrance or exit along the northern edge of the city. 

The 1920 Oconee River Bridge, somewhat new and modern with improved causeways,  was holding, although the same could not be said of the next bridge downstream at Mt. Vernon, which was beginning to wash completely away.  The railroad bridge at Dublin was still standing, but railroad officials dared not take loaded freight trains over the raging river as it relentlessly pommeled the thirty-five-year-old columns with tons of pressure.   The same could be said all over the central and southern parts of the state, where many substantial bridges were sustaining some degree of damage. 

Days and days of incessant rain brought the Oconee above its flood stage of 22 feet.  "Every branch has turned to a creek and every creek is now a river," wrote a Dublin newspaperman.

With the Oconee still rising, industries along the flood plain began to shut down.  Water backed up into the boilers of the Ice Plant bringing production of the valuable commodity to a halt. 

By the 22nd, county residents had reported that nearly every wooden bridge in the county had been swept away.  Five miles below Dublin on present day Highway 441, the long, wooden bridge over Turkey Creek at Garretta had a twenty-foot-wide fatal, gaping section swept away in the deluge, cutting off the city's main highway to the south. 

People living in northeast Dublin in the Scottsville neighborhoods east of North Decatur had lived with flooding waters for three decades. This time knew they that the flood was for real with the water getting higher and higher every day.

Travel along county roads, made mostly of sand and clay, was nearly impossible.  The trains of The Wrightsville & Tennille and Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroads trains stopped running altogether.   And, when trains stopped, nearly everything else stopped.  Pardon the pun, but there was a flood of mail stacked up in post offices around the county and the state.

On the 21st of January, the river began to crest at 29.6 feet measured at the passenger bridge.  Along the Ocmulgee, the river at Abbeville had risen to 20.1 feet, 11 feet above flood stage, while upriver at Hawkinsville, the water was 36 feet deep, seven feet above flood levels. At Lumber City near the junction of the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers, the waterline stood at 26 feet, nine feet higher than the town's folk wanted to see.

But the water didn't crest in Dublin as predicted on the 21st.  Slight raises were seen during the night bringing the official level on January 22 to 29.84 inches, a measly and insignificant one-sixth of an inch below thirty feet. That crest fell nearly three inches short of the all time record of 32.8 feet established in mid April 1936.

In the Lake Sinclair era, the highest crest of the Oconee River in Dublin came on February 8, 1998.  Depending on the spot where the depth was measured, Don Bryant, the head of Laurens County's Emergency Management Agency, stated that the river crested at 30.54 feet.

As the water levels receded almost as fast as they climbed, all activities began to resume as they normally would.  

In meteorological circles, the year 1925 was quite remarkable.  It was a year when unprecedented and record rainfalls were measured in the winter and the spring.  By the summer, it started getting hot, real hot - a record year to date for temperatures.  By the autumn, the rains stopped and all was dry.  And, mother nature's ever revolving, ever changing cycle began again.

1914: THE END OF THE GOLDEN AGE

1914: The End of the Golden Age

As years go in our past, the year 1914 was one of those years you hated to see end.  For all of the great and wonderful things which happened here a century ago, the fourteenth year of the 20th Century was one final flare into the heavens of our community’s first great golden age. As the year came to an end, Dubliners and Laurens County were celebrating the Christmas season with one of the first, if not the first, lighted municipal Christmas trees in the state and one of the first in the United States.  Still, all was not goodness and light, Decades of darkness and despair would soon reach out their tentacles in an attempt to drag us into the abyss of gloom and despondency.

It was a year when sports dominated the headlines during the spring.  Wrestling matches, featuring some of the best professional and amateur wrestlers in the United States of America, came to Bertha Theater in the early spring to determine the who was the champion.    During that same spring, the Bloomer Girls, a premier women’s traveling baseball team, came to town, where they suffered a defeat to the Dublin boys, a rarity during their southern tour of 1914.

Dublin’s largest church, the First Baptist Church, was officially dedicated upon the paying off of the construction loan, seven years after the building was completed.  Mrs. F.H. Rowe was the first person to be baptized in the church. Another new building plan was making headlines.  Frank G. Corker, President of the First National Bank and an officer of the Georgia Mausoleum Company, announced the construction of a municipal mausoleum at Northview Cemetery. By most accounts, the building, not just for members of a single family, would become one of the first of its kind in the South.

As tensions began to build south of the border with Mexico, local patriots, under the command of W.C. Davis, organized a militia company in case a war with Mexico was declared.

On a grand note, the Federal Post Office on East Madison Street was finally completed, three years after the beginning of construction and a year and a half after its official opening.

Business interests began to suffer and with the economic downturn. The Chamber of Commerce, which had been originally organized in 1911, was re-organized with hopes of a permanent organization for centuries to come.  Present at the first meeting of new chamber were:  C.B. Cadwell (Secretary,) W.W. Robinson (President,) J.M. Finn (Vice President,) and D.S. Brandon (Chairman of Auditing Committee.) Members entertained with movies at the Bertha with free cigars and Chero Cola.

In some news notes of mere trivia, William Barlow celebrated his 103 birthday, making him one of the oldest white residents in Laurens County’s history.  The Farmer's Enterprise, an African-American firm, opened in the building at the corner of Lawrence and Madison next to Chinese laundry under the direction of Rev. A. T. Speight.  Hal M. Stanley was elected as Grand Chancellor of Georgia Knights and Pythias.   The Crystal Palace was  reopened under the direction of  J.D. Southall, who led the installation of a new projector. The Rockledge Militia District, the last militia district created in Laurens County, was proposed.

The county’s first orphanage, Bethlehem Orphange,  opened near Minter on land donated by Mrs. B.M. Wilkes.  The orphanage, which came here from Meansville, Pike County, burned after a few months of operation.

The Rentz Banking Company was organized in May under the direction of  President, Dr. J.M. Page, Vice Pres., H.D. Barron and W.E. Bedingfield; Cashier, H.K. Murchison; and directors:  A.W. Davidson, S.T. Hall, J.S. Adams, W.A. Bedingfield, E.S. Baldwin, Alex D. Blackshear, and J.W. Rowe.  Down in Cadwell, the city was making preparations to install the first light and water system in the county outside of Dublin.

Back in Dublin, the Southern Exchange Bank opened its doors across from the Post Office.

In June, children, accompanied by the mothers and grandmothers, descended upon Dublin for the annual meeting of the Georgia Chapter of the Children of the Confederacy.

In June 1914, the Oconee Cotton Mills, successor to the Dublin Cotton Mills burned to the ground.  The mill, located on Marion Street in West Dublin, was the crowning jewel of the cotton industry which sparked a revolution in Laurens County in cotton production,.

On August 3, 1914, the future governor of Georgia, Nat Harris, spoke to a large crowd at the Laurens County Courthouse.

On a sad note, Judge Kendrick J. Hawkins, the recently appointed first Judge of the Dublin Judicial Circuit, died.  Judge Kendrick was replaced by William W. Larsen, who would later serve several terms in the Congress of the United States.

Dublin attorney Peyton L. Wade was chosen by the governor to sit on the bench of the Georgia Court of Appeals.  Wade served for six years, three of them as the court’s third Chief Justice, until his death in 1919.

The year marked a milestone for one of the county’s biggest supporters.  Carl Vinson, who would later bring to Dublin the U.S. Naval Hospital, Interstate Highway 16, along with a new courthouse and library in the 1960s, was elected to the U.S. Congress for the first time, replacing future Laurens County resident, Thomas W. Hardwick, who entered the U.S. Senate and served as Governor of Georgia, before moving to Dublin in 1926.

In a way, the year 1914 was a year of beginnings, or beginnings of the end.   As Laurens County relinquished her throne as the queen of cotton production, it was the last great year of cotton production before the boll weevil waged its wrath of destruction upon local crops.  And, it was the year that across the Atlantic Ocean that the first world war began, a struggle which would change the face of the world forever.

As I end my eighteenth year of bringing you “Pieces of Our Past,” I again remind you that our most important history is not in our past, but in our future.  It continues to be my honor, my pleasure and my blessing to bring to my readers stories of our people and their contributions to our community and their triumph of the human spirit.

The year 2015 will prove to be an exciting one for me and the Laurens County Historical Society, For it will during this year, when the society’s new museum opens in its new home at 702 Bellevue.  A renewed dedication on the part of our members and our county will make the new museum a show place of our heritage and culture for our residents as well as many others around the state and the nation.

REMEMBERING DUBLIN WITH RED COWART

Reminiscences of Red Cowart

Red Cowart loved Dublin.  Red did what we all should do and that is to write down  what meant the most to us during our lives.  You don't need any special skills, just write what you remember.  If you do so, the remotest of your descendants and the most avid of  future historians will forever be indebted to you.

D. T. "Red" Cowart  grew up in Dublin on the edge of the city's first industrial complex.  His parents, Andrew A. Cowart and Ida Williams Cowart, lived in a home on the northeast corner of East Madison and South Washington Streets on the corner occupied for many years by Rawls Welding Shop.  Red's father operated a lumber mill further down South Washington Street.  Andrew Cowart dug the first artesian well in Laurens County.  Cowart dug his well in the rear of his home and later constructed an indoor swimming pool, also the first in the county,  to capitalize on the abundant supply of fresh and virtually pure water.   Mr. Cowart came up with a brilliant idea.  The spring water was cold and not ideal for swimming.  Across the street at the ice plant, the plant needed cold water to condense steam into pure water for ice making.   So they struck a deal.  Cowart pumped cold artesian water to the plant and in turn the plant piped steam across the street to his pool and presto, a heated indoor swimming pool.  The Cowarts enjoyed the pool all during the year.  Their friends, both old and new and invited and uninvited, enjoyed visiting the Cowart home.

Red prefaced his memories by saying, "The good old days were just that.  They were good to everyone. Everyone was friendly and neighborly. Living conditions, while a bit uncomfortable at times, were never excessively cruel.  All had just about everything they needed and lived well without being forced, against their wills, to live, act and struggle as they are being forced to today?"

The railroads were the most important aspect of our history around the turn of the 20th Century.  The first trains had to stop on the eastern bank of the river.  Passengers and freight were then hauled to town by buggy, wagon or hack.  Judson Jackson and his family were among the first spectators to witness the arrival of the first passenger train into Dublin.  Jackson's son took the wagon and tied the mules under a tree.   The alarming bells and whistle blows so startled the youngster that he began to flee with the wagon shafts in his hands.  His flight ended in disaster when the he lost control of the wagon, which was a total loss.

Red remembered how much fun everyone had on the excursions to Tybee Island on the Central of Georgia railroad.  As many as eight to nine railcars full of passengers boarded the trains early in the morning to enjoy an afternoon frolic in the surf and sun, which ended as nightfall came.  There were Saturdays when passengers disembarked from the train to shop in the many stores of downtown Dublin.  One of his most fond memories was the day the legendary passenger train, "The Nancy Hanks," detoured from its normal route.  Hundreds of persons gathered along the tracks to see "the last passenger train to pass through Dublin."

Despite the large numbers of shoppers and visitors in the downtown area, there were no parking problems.  There was a large parking lot in the first block of North Jefferson street on the site of the old Piggly Wiggly grocery store.  Situated throughout the town were  stables where a farmer could park his wagon.  While he and his family shopped and tended to their business, the horses were fed and watered.  Some persons brought their purchases back to the wagon for safekeeping, while others picked them up on their way out of town.  In the "good old days," there were never any parking meters and no parking tickets," Red remembered.

One of Red's most favorite stories actually had to deal with Laurens County and World War II.   Cowart was a close friend of Judge Jim Hicks.  One day Jim Hicks took Red out to his farm in the Buckeye District.  The judge showed Red a grove of huge pine trees growing along the banks of the Oconee River.  Red asked Judge Hicks why he didn't cut them down and not take a chance on losing them to fire or disease.  The judge said, "Red, I am saving these trees to help the United States whip Japan."  About eight or so years later, Red noticed a small convoy of trucks passing through town.  Each truck carried a single humongous log, there being not enough room to throw another on the truck bed.  Red asked around and found out that the trees were some of the same trees that the judge had shown him in 1935.  The year was then 1943 and the United States and Japan were in the midst of a horrific war in the Pacific Ocean.  The trees, well they were on their way to the planing mill and then bound for transport to the shipyards where they were fashioned into landing craft for invasion of the islands of the South Pacific.

Red wrote of fond memories of river boats, which were the sole means of transportation of freight before the coming of the railroads and automobiles. He vividly recalled the names of the boats, the Rover, the Katy C, the City of Dublin and the Clyde S.  Many a kid would spend hours watching the boats as they pulled up to the docks and unloaded their freight into elevators which took bales of cotton, lumber and other valuable goods up to the level of the river bank.  Especially exciting were the times when new boats were launched into the mighty Oconee.    All of this came to an end when the Clyde S. was beached on the end of a sandbar about eight hundred to nine hundred yards above the river bridge on the East Dublin side of the river, left there to be washed piece by piece back into the river she served so well. 

Dubliners were most proud of the only brick yards in this section.  Located between the old Georgia Plywood Company (Riverwalk Park and Roche Farm and Garden Center) and the mouth of Hunger and Hardship was L.A. Chapman's brick yard, which supplied Dublin and cities around the southeast with fine bricks.  Once the yard's supply of clay was exhausted, the city of Dublin took over the property and filled the pits with trash and garbage, much to the delight of bottle hunters for many decades.  A second brickyard was located about a mile and a half down river.  Those who remember the hexagonal stones which once lined the sidewalks of Dublin and other cities of the state, might not remember that they were fashioned from sand pits of the Georgia Hydraulic Stone Company in East Dublin along Nathaniel Drive.

Finally, Red remembered the time that a group of sailors were gathered in a pub in a Mediterranean port.  One man got up and dared anyone to name a city he hadn't visited.  Wooten Cowart stood and said, "ever hear of Dublin, Georgia?"  The man laughed loudly and said he formerly lived in Dublin and worked at the Carter Iron Foundry.  "I was once arrested for drunkenness," he boasted.  The man who arrested him was Police Chief Cowart, father of Wooten Cowart.    As they say, it is indeed a "small world."

DUBLIN AND LAURENS COUNTY IN 1906

1906
Looking Back a Century Ago

The year 1906 represented another year of progress in Dublin and Laurens County.  Primarily marked by extensive infra structural improvements, the sixth year of the Twentieth Century marked the end of railroad construction in the county, an event which in hindsight may have been an indication of the looming economic depression, an unlucky thirteen years in the future.

The railroads were still king in Laurens County, but several factors indicated that they were beginning to reach the peak of their utility.    On the plus side, the M.D. & S. RR added more freight trains to their schedules.  Locals asked the railroad to add another passenger train to allow for short visits to Macon.   An attempt by the City Board of Trade to erect a Union Depot in Dublin to accommodate four rail lines coming into town resulted in a bitter controversy, which killed the worthy idea.  Plans to extend the Dublin and Southwestern Railroad to Cordele fizzled.  The construction of a railroad from McRae to Dublin through Cedar Grove also never came to fruition.

The year was highlighted by extensive improvements to Dublin’s infrastructure.  Congressmen W.G. Brantley and Thomas W. Hardwick and U.S. Senator A.S. Clay came to Dublin to confer with the Oconee River Improvement Association to make plans to secure a $110,000.00 grant to make improvements to the Oconee River.  River traffic came to a near screeching halt when both the R.C. Henry and the Rover both sunk, leaving the Louisa Steamboat Company without a boat.  The loss of the two boats sustained the need for more funds to clear the numerous and treacherous snags in the river.  Izzie Bashinski,  J.E. Smith, Jr., E.R. Orr, D.S. Brandon and W.W. Ward formed a new company, the Dublin Navigation Company.

Years of planning culminated in the construction of a large auditorium on South Monroe Street for Chautaugua and other entertainment and political events.  The City of Dublin completed renovations to the old Hilton Hotel to become the city’s first brick city hall building.   The city purchased a tract of land across Hunger and Hardship Creek as a second cemetery for its black citizens.  The cemetery, known as the “Cross the Creek” cemetery, was established to alleviate the crowded Scottsville cemetery on North Decatur Street.

Perhaps the most lasting improvement to the city began in 1906.  City officials first began to discuss the idea of a public park of the city.  Through the generosity of the Stubbs family, the construction of Stubbs’ Park would become a reality within the next two years.  The first granite sidewalks were laid in Dublin, replacing the old wooden sidewalks which had served the city for more than a half century.  Several of Dublin’s streets were ditched to provide a healthier environment.   Andrew Carnegie continued his generous  support of the city of Dublin.  Mrs. J.A. Peacock wrote to the philanthropist requesting a contribution of $750.00 to aid in the purchase of a new organ for the Methodist Church.  Carnegie granted the request, but when Mrs. Peacock found herself on the wrong side of the minister’s wife, she was asked to leave the church.  Mrs. Peacock was graciously welcomed at the Episcopal Church until a new minister came to the Methodist church.    The beloved lady was promptly invited to return to the church she loved so dearly and remained in the organist’s pit until her retirement.

Dreamers were busy coming up with new ideas to improve the city.   With the increased automobile traffic in the city, a plan was promoted to establish a street car system along the main traffic arteries of the city.  The plan, boosted by fourteen of Dublin’s wealthiest businessmen drew little support and quickly failed.  Another plan to capitalize on the increasing popularity of the automobile involved a proposed sixty-feet-wide and five-mile-long speedway beginning on Robertson Street and running across the northern extremities of the city to the Oconee River.  H.H. Smith and Clark Grier’s dream failed to materialize for lack of financial support.

Many new businesses began in 1906.   Several such as the Dublin Brokerage Company and  H.K. Stanford Brokerage were organized a result of the increased cotton trade.  Ironically, weather conditions that summer were so devastating that many farmers simply abandoned their fields.   Harvesting of timber in the county began to soar.  The Dublin Brick and Lumber Company,  The Yellow Pine Lumber Company, Southland Lumber Company  and The Laurens Lumber Company were established to profit from the abundance of pine timber reserves in Laurens County.

Other new business to open were the Rentz Trading Company, David &  Grinstead Grocery, W.W. Bradley Grocery, T.J. Taylor Mercantile Company  and Lovett Mercantile Company.   Middle Georgia Fertilizer, The Jackson Stores, Dublin Printing Company were started and flourished throughout the next decade.  Two stalwart mercantile businesses, The Sam Weiscelbaum Company, under the management of N.B. Baum  and the Four Seasons Department Stores, under the management of J.E. Smith, Jr.,  expanded their operations as the town’s most dominant department stores.  The Citizens Bank became the city’s second national bank and changed it’s name to the City National Bank.

Among the highlights of the year were the marriage of soon M.J. Guyton of Dublin and Leila Vinson, a native of Milledgeville and a Dublin school teacher.  Mrs. Guyton’s brother Carl Vinson, would later be responsible for major contributions to Laurens County including the Naval Hospital, the county airport, the Laurens County Courthouse, the Laurens County Library and the location of Interstate Highway 16 near Dublin.     Plans were being made to establish the Harriett Holsey Industrial College.   The institution for black children became the city’s first college.   The Georgia Association of County Commissioner’s met in Dublin in June.  The meeting feature a visit to the Chautaugua and a ride aboard the steamboat Louisa down to Wilkes Springs for a barbeque.  The Dublin Rifles, a local militia company under the leadership of Captain W.C. Davis and lieutenants L.C. Pope and Douglas Smith, traveled to summer camp at Fort Oglethorpe in North Georgia.

As I come near the end of my ten years of writing and penning some five hundred columns, I again want to thank all of my readers for their encouragement.  Your appreciation of my work keeps me going when compiling my columns after a long day’s or week’s work.  Thank you all and remember as we as a county approach our two hundredth anniversary that our most important history is not the history of our past, but the history of our future.

THE CHAUTAUQUA AUDITORIUM

                 If You Build It, He Will Come
                             

     Chautauqua fever was spreading across the country around the turn of the 20th Century.  No, Chautauqua fever wasn't some rare and deadly tropical disease, a Chautauqua was a summer festival which featured a week of educational, scientific, social, and musical programs.  The City of Dublin presented its first Chautauqua festival in 1901.  Every year the planning committee struggled with ideas and the necessary funds to secure the most popular performers and speakers on the Chautauqua circuit.  The most sought after speaker was William Jennings Bryan.  But Bryan didn't perform in just any one-horse town and any shoddy lecture hall. To lure the country's most famous orator to its festival, the committee had to build an impressive auditorium designed to hold hundreds if not more than a thousand paying patrons.

     When the committee on entertainment met in the winter of 1904, those who believed strongly in the future of the festival knew that a permanent home for the festival must be built and to ensure that the festival would grow into a profitable event, the appearance of William Jennings Bryan was critical.  At first, the committee believed that the hall should seat at least three thousand.  To save money, it was decided that the building be rough on the exterior, but comfortable on the inside.   The dreamers knew that the building could also house a large number of other attractions throughout the year.

     At a meeting at the jewelry store of Dr. Charles H. Kittrell, those present appointed Hal M. Stanley, H.G. Stevens, Herman Hesse, T.L. Griner, C. Grier and Dr. Kittrell to a fund-raising committee.  The committee hoped to have "some of the brainiest, most entertaining lecturers on the American platform appear before Dublin audiences" in time for the festival in the summer of 1904.   Despite the untiring efforts of Dr. Kittrell and Messers Hesse and Stevens, the building could not be readied in time.  After a profitable return was paid to the festival's investors, interest in building an auditorium swelled.  

     After two years of planning, plans to build an auditorium began in earnest in the

spring of 1906.  Dublin tycoon J.D. Smith, the first person outside of the organizing

committee to be solicited about the endeavor, pledged $200.00 of the estimated $2500.00 cost of construction.    H.G. Stevens, Hal M. Stanley and W.L. Mason were appointed to the building committee.  Local contractor John A. Kelley was awarded the contract to build the auditorium in time for the festival in June.  

     Many who doubted the feasibility of the project believed that the building would be nothing more than an outdoor pavilion.  The architect designed the building to be one of the coolest in town. Remember central air conditioning was decades away.  To alleviate the accumulation of hot air in the building, Kelley and his crew built an unbroken series of five- foot tall windows around the perimeter of the building, which faced and abutted the western side of South Monroe Street, across from the former location of the studios of TV-35.  The building went back for a short distance before turning in a fan shape to the right in the main auditorium area.  

     After the remaining roofing materials arrived in late May, the contractors began to complete the major portions of the building by  the first of June.  The first  major portion of the building to be completed was the stage.  With the dimensions of twenty-four by forty-eight feet, it was proclaimed that it would be the best in this section of the state.  The stage would accommodate one hundred seated musicians.  The dressing rooms, first intended to be placed adjoining the stage floor, were moved to the rear of the building instead.  In the interest of time, the committee decided to install a temporary dirt floor covered with sawdust and line with primitive benches.   Reserved seats, no better than any other seat except for their proximity to the stage, were sold for $3.00 per seat during the Chautauqua. Once the stage and floor were completed, Kelley and his men began installing the fifty windows, which opened in transform form to create a breeze throughout the facility.   Kelley installed the windows as high as possible to allow the hot air to flow out and the cooler air to flow in from as close to ground level as possible.

     Though one-third smaller than originally planned, the completed building could house nearly two thousand patrons.  The well-ventilated building was illuminated at night by ten dozen electric lights.  All of the window sash was not installed in time for the opening night of the festival.  Contractor Kelley improvised and installed a canvas above the windows which ran down at a 45-degree angle to prevent any rain from coming inside, but at the same time allowing the hot air to leave the building and the cooler air in. 

     Season tickets for the week were sold for $3 for the 508 reserved seats and $2 for the 1114 regular seats.  Chautauqua times were always busy ones in town for the innkeepers as well as the merchants. Thousands of persons came into town by foot, wagon and train to see the shows.  The musicians were housed in the Patillo House on East Gaines Street and the rest of the performers stayed at the more luxurious New Dublin Hotel, just two blocks away from the auditorium on the corner of North Jefferson and East Madison streets.   Special trains hauling hundreds of customers came from Eastman, Tennille and Hawkinsville.  

     The fifth annual session, billed as the best ever, was held from June 17 through June 22, 1906.   The session opened with the sermon "Seeing Him Who is Invisible" by Dr. L.G. Herbert on Sunday morning.  Dr. Herbert, a relative newcomer to the Chautauqua circuit, was known as a forceful orator, a humorist of rare ability and a lecturer of power.  Edward Amherst Ott, of Chicago, Illinois, opened the first full day with his lecture "The Spenders." Dr. Herbert returned to the podium on Monday night with his lecture "A Man Among Men" and again on Wednesday morning with his most popular lecture "A Trinity of Power."

  

     A large crowd attended the Tuesday morning session to listen to the return of Prof. Kaler to Dublin.  Kaler, a former popular music teacher in Dublin, had to leave the city on account of his ill health.  After his recovery, Kaler assembled some of the state's best musicians to form Kaler's Orchestra out of Macon.  The orchestra was joined by The Royal Male Quartette of Des Moines, Iowa and the Star Entertainers of Danville, Michigan.  The members of the quartette also entertained the audiences with solos, duos and trios playing the trombone and the piano as they performed.   The Star Entertainers, led by C.L. Abbott and H.G. Morris, featured players playing twenty musical instruments and musical comedy skits.  Encore performances were held on Wednesday morning and Thursday night. Professor Ott, at the request of those who attended the 1905 lecture,  returned for an repeat of his lecture "The Haunted House" on Tuesday night.  

The highlight of the festival came on Wednesday night with the appearance of Congressman Richard Pearson Hobson.  Congressman Hobson, of Alabama, was one of the country's greatest heroes of the Spanish-American War in 1898.  Hobson risked his own life in sinking the Merrimac in an effort to bottle up Spanish admiral Cevera's fleet.  He was arrested and placed in a Spanish prison but was soon released on account of his bravery. Upon his return to civilian life, Hobson entered the political ring and defeated long time Alabama congressman Bankhead.  Nearly fifteen hundred people paid to hear one of the most popular lecturers in the history of the Chautauqua in Dublin. 

     Herbert L. Cope, the well-known humorist from Chicago, entertained a large audience on Thursday morning with his monologue, "The Smile That Won't Come Off."   At the appointed time, Cope was a no show and nervous directors kept the orchestra on the stage while anxious audience members wanted to stop the music and get on with the fun.  But just as the orchestra ended its first number, the whistle of the M.D. & S train signaled the arrival of the main act.   The final day of the festival featured an old-fashioned song service led by J.A. Warren.  Singers from all church choirs were invited to participate.  Mr. Warren was assisted by C.C. Hutto, E.W. McDaniel, J.R. Daniel and G.N. McLeod.  The afternoon session featured an inter-public school declamation contest by students in the city  and county systems as well as those from Washington, Johnson and Bulloch Counties.  Medals were awarded to the best boy and best girl in the 6-11and 12-20 year old categories.  Mr. Cope returned to close the festival with his hilarious program "The Religion of Laughter."

     By design the annual convention of the Georgia County Officer's Association was held in conjunction with the festival.  Mayor A.R. Arnau, along with L.Q. Stubbs, John M. Williams, R.H. Stanley and Dr. C.H. Kittrell, entertained the visitors with a boat ride on "The Louisa"  down the Oconee River and a barbecue  at the picnic grounds at Wilkes Springs, one of the usual destinations for prominent guests in Dublin.  

     The festival was a critical, as well as a financial success. Investors enjoyed a return of 42 cents on every dollar invested.   After the last person left the building and all the profits were calculated, it was time to finish the project.  On September 12, 1906, the directors of the Chautauqua voted to contract with the Garing Scenic Company to improve the stage.   Scenery, totaling forty-five pieces,  for a street, a garden, a parlor and a kitchen was ordered.  A new drop curtain was purchased.  The old one was retained for scenery. It was said that the new curtain was the second largest in the state, only smaller than the one used in the Grand Opera House in Atlanta.  Mr. Garing suggested that the sides of the building be clothed and painted. The supports and the roof were painted a white or light color.  Two large stoves were put in to keep the customers warm in the winter months. 

     Dr. C.H. Kittrell, the guiding force behind the auditorium, wasted no time and booked a variety of acts for the fall season.  The first show, "A Trip to Atlantic City," was performed by the John B. Willis Company.  Next up was the "The Denver Express."  During the rest of the season, there were performances of "The King of Tramps"  and one by the Edwin Weeks Company.      More improvements were made in 1908. Two thousand dollars was spent on a new floor.  Five hundred opera seats were placed near the stage.  A vestibule was installed in the front of the building.  A

twelve-man orchestra pit was improved to enhance the view of the stage.  The number of lights was increased three fold. The stage was enlarged by twenty feet to the rear.  Two large dressing rooms were added.  

     The results of the democratic primary in Georgia were announced in the auditorium in the spring of 1908.  Musical entertainment filled the intermissions between the announcements of vote totals.  In the fall of that year there were performances of "At the Village Post Office," "La Pooh," and "The Other Woman."   Manager Schiff announced that the Star Theater relocated to the building after its facility on Jackson Street became too small.  To boost business some suggested that the management install a roller skating rink in the building. 

     The successes of the Chautauqua festivals finally came to an end.  The first five sessions were profitable, but after the auditorium was constructed, the profits decreased slowly, then rapidly.   The property was sold for $5,500.00, but the levy and sale was invalidated as being too excessive.   In December of 1909, the Chautauqua Association was forced into receivership.  Dr. Kittrell and J.E. Burch

were named as receivers to gather up and dispose all of the assets of the association.  On the first Tuesday in January 1910, the receivers sold the building and all of its contents to Thomas W. Hooks for $3,377.50, a figure which represented half of its original cost.  Hooks, a public minded man, resisted suggestions that he convert the building into a warehouse and sell the furnishings.  

     Hooks might have asked himself, what about Bryan?  In the beginning, it was believed that if the city built a large building, Bryan would come.   The dream was still alive, but barely.    The convention of the Laymen's Missionary and Christian Workers Association was held in the auditorium in March. It was enough to pay the bills and keep the building in operation.

     A year went by and still no Bryan.  And then it happened.  Bryan had agreed to the terms of an appearance during his tour of Georgia in June 1911.   With the Chautauqua Association out of business, it was decided to name the program "The Summer Festival."  The program was composed of a concert by the Dublin Concert Band, a performance by the DeKoven Male Quartette and a solo presentation by Mrs. William C. Chilton.  There was also a stage performance by the Porter-Johnson Company and arousing performance by Tom Corwine, billed as the greatest one man act in America.   The festival ended with a program of local actors, led by Maggie Rawls.  Among those participating were Teddie Grier, Candler Brooks, William Brandon, Leah Kittrell, John Shewmake, Elizabeth Garrett, Freeman Deese, Joe Mahoney, Florence Simmons, Harrison Fuller, Saralyn Peacock, Elizabeth Arnau, Frederica Wade, Ethel Pritchett, Vince Mahoney, Pickette Bush, Maud Powell, Pauline Brigham and Ray Ballard, the pianist. 

     But the highlight of the festival and the highlight of the existence of the auditorium came on the evening of June 12, 1911.  Bryan, a four-time presidential candidate, was the country's most famous orator. Five special trains from Macon, Hawkinsville, Tennille, Eastman and Vidalia were scheduled.   Bryan spoke to the largest crowd in the history of the city.  His subject was "The Prince of Peace," which was well received by the throng in attendance.  After spending the night in Dublin, Bryan traveled east on the Central of Georgia railroad for appearances in Claxton and Statesboro the following day.  

     He was here! William Jennings Bryan, the ultimate oratory master, admired by millions actually came.  Then in a matter of weeks, perhaps months, the auditorium fell silent.  At some unknown date the auditorium burned.  Whether it met its death by arson or accident, the dreams of Bryan had come true.  So now, when you attend outdoor concerts at the new Farmers Market and sit in your lawn chairs as you listen to the music coming from the stage, turn back your thoughts to a century ago when the country's greatest performers entertained thousands and thousands of us a century ago.

OUR FIRST AIRPORTS

Runways to the Skies Ever since the first Laurens Countians read about the Wright Brothers they dreamed of flying. In the middle of the second decade of the 20th Century, daredevil pilots barnstormed across the nation, entertaining crowds of people in large cities and small cities like Dublin. This is the story of the first airports in Dublin. They were primitive by today’s standards. Most of them were just long narrow cleared strips of land located at various locations on the edge of town. It would be 1944 before Dublin would acquire a first class airport. It was in the middle of World War II that the United States Navy constructed the present Laurens County Airport in preparation for the transportation of patients to and from the Naval Hospital in Dublin. It was in the spring of 1919, just six months after the end of World War I, when the first true aviation activities began in Dublin. Three men from Dublin traveled to Souther Field in Americus to enlist in the Air Service. It should be remembered that it was at Souther Field where Charles Lindbergh made his first flight in an airplane. Sergeant Ruff, the recruiting officer in Macon, flew to Dublin to secure even more recruits. While in the city, Sergeant Ruff found a frenzy of activity surrounding the construction of a city airport, which was being rushed to completion just in time for his visit. Businessmen were anxious to solicit flyers to come to the city and performing aerial circuses. It was suggested that all in the roofs in the business section be painted with the word “Dublin” to make it easier for pilots to know where they were. Though no official Dublin airport existed in the 1920s, there were flights in and out of the city. The members of the Lions Club met in May 1928 to discuss the location of an airport on “the pulp mill site,” now occupied by Riverview Golf Course. A party of airline officials of the Dixie and Northern airline stopped in Dublin on a tour of the state in 1928. Beeler Bevins and C.F. Dieter flew into Dublin on July 2, 1929 during their “All Georgia Air Tour,” which was sponsored by Georgia Power Company. The fliers were entertained with a luncheon at the Fred Roberts Hotel. The men urged those in attendance to build an airport. The flight spurred city officials to construct a first class airport in Dublin. Negotiations began immediately for an ideal site, one which was near the heart of the city and one which was close to the existing electrical lines serving the city. On July 17, 1929, the Dublin City Council voted to enter into a lease to construct an airport on 42 acres across from the W.T. Phelps place on what would become Claxton Dairy Road. The mayor and council suggested that arrows be painted on top of the city hall, the First National Bank building and the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad depot indicating the direction to the airport. Mayor T.E. Hightower urged that “Dublin be put on the air map of the United States Aeronautical Association as soon as possible.” “All the world has taken wings and Dublin must take to the air, too, or be left behind,” Hightower added. City officials hoped that Dublin would become a regular stop on the Atlanta to Savannah air mail route, since the city was located at the midpoint of the two cities. The site was an ideal one since the ground was virtually level and only needed slight grading to put it in shape for landings. The work of clearing the field and putting it in compliance with the specifications of the National Aeronautic Association was apparently never fully completed. L.G. Clarke, an experienced airplane builder, came to Dublin in hopes of advancing the building of an airport. Another landing strip was on the west side of town on the E.T. Barnes place on the Macon Road. This primitive landing strip, probably located near the Dublin Mall, accommodated a Ford Tri Motor plane which carried P.M. Watson, Marshall Chapman, B.J. Daley, Blue Holleman, Lehman Keen, Charles E. Baggett and George T. Morris on a flight to Macon in February 1931. The road was lined with cars filled with spectators hoping to get a glance of the largest plane ever seen in Dublin until that time. It was revealed that George T. Morris was actually afraid to fly, but didn’t want to back out since he sponsored the flight. Morris wrote a letter to his wife informing her of the secret location of a cache of money hidden under a stump - just in case he didn’t make it back home safely. Upon its safe return, the pilot solicited all those who desired to ride in the giant airplane. Five hundred and ten people took him up on the offer, including twenty-five young boys who were the guests of Jim Kendrick. Herbert Moffett took his entire family for a ride and commented that “the plowed fields were the best view.” The pilot, Ray Loomis, urged Dublin citizens to build a better airport. Loomis said, “the field you have now is very good and should be enlarged and stumped to allow two runways. Engineers from the CWA came to Dublin in the spring of 1934 to survey the site on Highway 80 West as a permanent site for a municipal airport. Morris Motor company continued to sponsor Ford Tri-Motor plane rides through 1935. The kids of Dublin formed a Junior Birdmen Club in February 1935. Emory Beckham was elected the wing commander, while Jack Baggett was chosen as the club captain. Billy Keith served as the secretary-treasurer. Other members of the club were Earle Beckham, Luther Word, Owen Word and Jimmie Sanders. The club, organized to promote an interest in aviation, was the only club between Macon and Savannah. The enthusiasm of the Junior Birdmen inspired city officials to begin construction of a municipal airport two miles south of town on the Dublin-Eastman Highway south of the present site of Mullis’ Junkyard. With the support of Monson Barron, the city’s oldest aviation afficionado, Clafton Barron, and Ellison Pritchett, who had worked for Boeing, Lockheed, and Douglas, a four plane hangar was constructed on the site. Local officials continued to push the Barnes site on Highway 80 West, as well as the Cullens site in East Dublin on Highway 80 East. Neither of the three sites ever attained the status of a first class airport. By the end of 1930s, aviation fever had reached its peak. Thirteen young pilots had earned their pilot’s license and six more were in training. Though still without adequate landing facilities, these young men landed and took off in pastures on flights no longer than fifty miles. Among the first to obtain licenses were Emory Beckham, Earl Beckham, Emmett Black, L.A. Mitchell, W.H. Barron, Jr., Izzie Lease, Nat Lease, Lenwood Hodges, Ross Moore and Robert Werden. Ed Hobbs, Claxton Edenfield, Bill Sanders, Sterling Lovett, H.C. Coleman and Joe Lord were working diligently in obtaining their licenses. These men shared two airports, mere pastures, with two Piper Cubs owned by Ross Moore and Izzie Lease and a Avon two-passenger open type plane owned by W.H. “Bud” Barron, Jr. It would take the political power of Congressman Carl Vinson to bring a permanent and high class aviation facility to Dublin. Built by the U.S. Navy in 1943 in connection with the establishment of the U.S. Naval Hospital, the airport, renamed the W.H. Barron Airport after its greatest promoter, was turned over to Laurens County. The airport continues to maintain one of the longest runways in Georgia.