From Days Gone By April 13, 1923

 April 13, 1923.

    Barrels of red liquor this day and time!  That's an exciting incident, especially when men, women, autos and officers figure so heavily in a capture as that was Friday morning when Oscar Smith was tipped off as to the location of a Hudson and a Studebaker car near Scott loaded to the last inch with Cedar Brook and old Lewis Hunter bottled-up red liquor.

    Sometime Wednesday afternoon its claimed these two cars left Savannah. A man and woman in each car. Upon reaching Johnson County the Hudson had a mishap to the rear end and it went out of commission 2 miles of Scott. Someone discovered the contents of the runners and reported it to Officer Smith who called Sheriff Lewis Davis who dispatched deputies W. T. Kitchens and Jimmie Davis to the scene.

    Late Friday Davis, Kitchens and Smith drove into Wrightsville with the Studebaker, the two women and the contents of the autos, the latter being transferred to a cell in the jail where under a court order it left early Saturday and was ditched until the red stuff filtered on down and the darkies around is said to have imbibed too freely of it, some of them sipping it up out of the ditch.

    The two women were held at the local hotel. The two men have not been caught. One named Lester Williams and known around Scott, they had left to get parts for the Hudson when the women were caught. Pearl Hendrix and Virgie Hanson as they called themselves plead guilty in City Court and fined $1000 each by Judge Ben Hill Moye. Two men and a woman, one being named Rose, was in town Saturday from Savannah, as soon as the fines were assessed they left by auto. They were seen talking to the women's attorney B. B. Blount.

    The Hudson was pulled into Scott for safe keeping. Of all the conceivable nooks, corners and hiding places that could ever be conceived in, around, back of and under an auto, slides, holes, seats and backs, welded copper cisterns, apertures, candestined and almost undiscoverable, the people had these cars fixed up in the regular runner type. In lieu of the fines the women had 12 months at the State Farm in Milledgeville.

    Three young men from Swainsboro Friday were arrested here on a charge of having whiskey in their car, they rode up and gave bonds. Chief Carl J. Claxton made the arrests. One of the men denied that he knew anything about the whiskey being in the car which he said was his wife's car.

    Mr. W. R. Smith made up his mind to run for sheriff. Dr. Herschel B. Bray of Grady Hospital spent several days with his mother, Mrs. C. T. Bray, Sr. Mr. John W. Williams had a family reunion at his home.

    Mr. E. A. W. Johnson, being sick sold all his store stock to Hall Brothers who sold them to a Brewton firm. Parker & Price bought the grocery stock. Col. W. M. Shurling left for New Orleans where the Johnson County Livestock & Produce Company shipped a carload of cattle. While there he will attend the Confederate Reunion.

    Mr. Johnnie Hall who works for Chas. S. Blankenship, while breaking up ice with an ice pick missed his mark and the pick went through his left hand. Rev. G. F. Sumner, a noted and devoted minister lost his only horse, being a man of limited means the Headlight started a fund to buy him another horse. $41.50 had been collected so far. Mr. D. L. Maddox has taken management of J. B. Paul's barber shop.

    Mann Warthen, colored laboror on the Duff farm was brought to doctors by Jim Duff, badly bruised and cut up, the results of a colored row. Mann had a bad lick on the head from a shotgun barrel by Elbert Fann. Fann and Mann were in a fight and knives were in play when another colored boy hit Mann with the gun. Mr. Duff said the row started over 25 cents.

    Mrs. J. F. Elton died at home after a several week sickness. Besides her husband she had a son, Tom Elton. Burial was at Westview.

    The edge of ignorance in Johnson Co. can be trimmed off a little yet. There are 15 white and 75 colored children in the county above the age of 10 who are unable to read and write. There's work for somebody to do.

From Days Gone By April 6, 1923

April 6, 1923.

    The Field Day Excercises in Wrightsville on the high school campus on the 13th was given official sanction by the county Board of Education. Dinner will be supplied from all points in the county because every school is suppose to participate. The board requests that all teachers lay aside their regular work for the day and bring their children and they will be paid for the day.

    Revival services conducted by Rev. George W. Hutchinson of the Methodist church organization has created an upstirring in the community. Rev. Hutchinson makes it snappy and throws a religious bomb into the churches camp Sunday night. Sinners were hit in every service as congregations go out in earnest. The services will likely go into next week. The Kite Methodist Church will hold the next Johnson-Washington Singing Convention on April 15th.

    Four big carloads of hogs were sold here Wednesday to the highest bidder. The largest lot of hogs in weight sold since the hog sales began. There were 50,247 pounds of mix-fed hogs which sold at $7.17 for tops. There were 18,541 pounds of corn-fed hogs which top price was $7.50. All told there were 516 head.

    The fire sale of the Dixie Dept. Store is still going on at the Tanner store next to Parker & Price grocery. The following stores have agreed to close their business at 6 pm each day from April 2nd to August 1st. City Tailoring Shop, People's Hardware, Hall Brothers, Moye Co., Hayes Cash Store, T. V. Kent, B. B. Hayes, J. Kaplan and Wrightsville Hardware.

    Mr. B. J. Wiggins boasts of having the largest hams and shoulders from hogs on his plantation. He had 20 hams which weighed 816 pounds, two weighing 78 pounds each. Johnnie Stewart living on the Hall place near Liberty Grove while feeding his mule got a severe blow on the under part of his chin from the heel of the mule. Stewart said his jaw felt like it was driven back into his head.

    County officers captured two outfits of stillers Saturday morning down below here landing the shinners in jail. One of the outfits was a wash pot with a very rough cover and ordinary pipe. The other was little better one, an old oil tank that looked like it would hold 15 or 20 gallons. The two outfits were supposed to belong to these colored men living on the plantation where the stills were found.

    The Scott Banking Company at Scott suspended operations last Friday and its affairs turned over to the State Banking Department for adjustments, the first bank closing in the county in years. The boll weevil hit the people hard as well as those who had obtained large loans from the bank and this is the cause of its closing up. This is a Benton bank. The stockholders and depositors include many wealthy and prominent people of Scott and the county.

    While transporting a sawmill from Augusta to Wrightsville the heavy truck of Mr. Luie Kent fell partially through Price's bridge but no one was badly hurt. To all the Corn Club boys Agent Crow says now is the time to plant corn.

    Mr. Oscar Smith of Scott is being sought to run for Sheriff. Some fellow bumped the drive-to-the-right flower pot at the post office street crossing knocking it to smithereens. Mr. R. E. Hayes returned from Oklahoma where he lost his large business to fire. The marriage of Mr. Cleo Johnson of here to Miss Maggie Gillis of Soperton was held last Thursday. The next Confederate Veterans Reunion will be held in New Orleans April 10th. Miss Julia Smith, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. W. H. Smith and Prof. Brannon J. Snell of Liberty Grove were wed.

    Mr. W. H. Lovett, entering the timber and lumber business several months ago. He has completed an $8,000 brick klin in the northern part of the city.

    The Easter was a cold one all over the country. In the city people hovered around the fire places with all the activity of a real winter day. But warm churches brought out large congregations.