From Days Gone By Sept 23, 1929

 September 23, 1929.

    For a dozen years or so the Bee Line highway project has been worked on. Interest in the road has never lagged in the proposed route from Macon to Irwinton, to Wrightsville, Kite, Swainsboro on to Savannah. The scene was at Ball's Ferry where Washington, Wilkinson and Johnson have for years cried the need of a bridge across the Oconee. Everyone there was a Bee Line booster and enjoyed a big dinner on the grounds. Congressmen Larson and Vinson were there and pledged their unstinted support of the proposed and unfinished route. Signing the pledge for Johnson County was Ordinary W. J. Flanders.

    The county is at work on the Jeff Davis so the highway department will take it over. They are hard at work on Price's bridge. Mr. William Bedingfield, Jr. is now with the Brinson Drug Store. Prof. John R. Roundtree of Adrian is principal of the Rentz Consolidated School and Miss louise Burke of Scott teaches third grade there. Mr. J. S. Stephenson of Kite moved to Vidalia taking a position with the International Harvesting Company.

    The organization of a local Parent-Teacher Association is soon to be complete. Mrs. H. B. Bray is temporary chairman. Savannah is planning a big day on October 9th as they honor Count Pulaski.

    Sheriff W. D. Rowland holds Harold E. Smith, a young white man in the county jail charged with the theft of a roadster automobile which he drove into town. Acting on information furnished him as to the car, numbers and license they located him in the city and arrested him. A telegram from Minot, North Dakota, signed by Sheriff W. E. Slaybaugh was received advising Rowland to hold Smith and the car, that he was coming for them.

    Georgia Power Co. is going ahead with immediate plans for construction of a 12,000 acre storage lake on the Oconee River at Furman Shoals and build a great plant. Power from this development will feed lines into Wrightsville. It is expected to be completed in 1931. It will have a 60,000 horsepower capacity and will feed into the existing network of 110,000 and 44,000 volt transmission lines into Macon and Augusta divisions. This plant will be fed by a vast lake impounded by a solid concrete dam and earth abutments which will be 3,000 feet long and 90 feet high. This great lake will cover 12,000 acres and will lie chiefly in Baldwin, Hancock and Putnam counties with perhaps small portions in Jones and Greene.

    Mrs. Lewis I. Davis died suddenly at her home 7 miles south of Wrightsville. She was sitting on the porch with her grandchildren when she began feeling badly. She went in an laid down on her bed. When the grandson's went in to see about her she had passed. She was a Miss Tharpe before her marriage and a sister to J. T. and J. C. Tharpe and Mrs. Tom Veal. She was a member of Gumlog where she was buried.

    Mr. Sanford Claxton died very suddenly in Kite. He had been unwell for some time. That morning he entered his cousin's store to make a purchase when he became violently ill and died in the store. He is a son of Mr. M. J. Claxton of Kite. He was married and had one child. He was buried at Gumlog.

    Ralph Eugene, the two month old son of Mr. & Mrs. Minton Sikes, died September 17th at home in Wrightsville. The babe was buried at Gumlog.

From Days Gone By Sept 16, 1929

 September 16, 1929.

    On the Ohoopee bridge, a mile east of Adrian, was the scene of a fatal accident when two trucks crashed. One killed, a second badly injured and 2 or 3 more badly shaken up. Robert James Ellison died instantly and W. H. Anderson's leg was broken. The two trucks left Adrian headed towards Meeks, the front truck driven by a white man and a number of Adrian boys riding with him to the river bridge. The second truck was driven by a negro man. The first truck was owned by Mr. Henry Hutcheson and driven by his son. Giving the Adrian boys a ride he stopped on the bridge to let the boys out. The second truck came up and crashed into them. The impact threw the Ellison boy into the concrete bridge railing killing him instantly. He was the grandson of Capt. T. J. James, founder of Adrian and was just 14. Anderson is a son of Mr. & Mrs. Horace Anderson of Adrian. Ellison was buried in Adrian.

    Mr. Pink Morris of this county is in a very pitiful condition from an auto accident several weeks ago on the Ohoopee River bridge at Gumlog when a car driven by Mr. Riley Sheppard left the bridge and went into the swamp. Both were hurt but Sheppard has recovered. Morris was hit on the head and his mind has not been right since. He is in the care of Sheriff Rowland on complaints his folks want him treated at the sanitarium in Milledgeville but they are not accepting inmates at this time.

    There is action along the Bee Line highway again this time it comes from Wilkinson County, here to boost the highway. Wilkinson wants it, Jones and Twiggs wants it, Johnson started off wanting it. Emanuel hasn't refused it but has been cold-footed on it. Bibb is also on board. All the interested counties will meet soon at Ball's Ferry to discuss the entire route from Macon to Swainsboro. Congressman W. W. Larson and Carl Vinson are invited guests.

    The recent legislature made a new highway system that includes the Jeff Davis highway from Wrightsville to the Jefferson line, the road to Emanuel line below Kite, and the road to Ball's Ferry. The Jeff Davis from here to Bartow is included in the 800 miles added by the State. Johnson's first priority is fixing Price's bridge which has been an eye-sore for years.

    The county forces eliminated the bad curve below Farmers Gin where the street comes into the road from Kite. A sharp corner was cut down and fixed. Georgia Power removed two large transformers and replaced with three 350 K.V.A. transformers which gives Wrightsville twice the amount of power.

    Scott High School opens the 23rd. Miss Bertryce McWhorter will teach at Alma High School. Mrs. J. W. Vanlandingham will teach in the Samaracand College in North Carolina. Miss Lillian Hicks is teaching at Kite. A dozen students are in college at Cochran. They are Nannie McAfee, Nancy Crowe, Brown Davis, Edd Jordan, Beverly Kennedy, Lamar Hatcher, Willard & Bertrice Price, George Morris, Ernest Cheaves, Albert Meade and Carl Walker.

    Mr. Mason Davis is manager of the Dixie Grocery Store, one of the Parker chain, in Wrightsville located in the Ford building. Mr. J. T. Duff for Duff Brothers, large county farmers had a result of 10 to 12 bales of cotton to the plow and some are getting 14 bales but none are falling below 8 bales. Its a 17 horse farm and they have ginned 120 bales and will probably get 60 more.

    Sleuth work by officers of the county captured Joe Archer and Bose Johnson, two colored farmers and they pled guilty to cotton stealing. Judge Brinson gave them eleven months each on the chain gang, both are old men. They are repairing the bridge across Cedar for the county.

From Days Gone By Sept. 9, 1929

 September 9, 1929.

    A big whiskey and a distilling raid was made by Sheriff W. D. Rowland and Deputy Jim Tapley down on the Little Ohoopee in the eastern part of the county. The big moonshine factory was running in full blast when the officers got in to where the plant was carefully built but the fellows who operated the business didn't care to have such heavyweight visitors just at that hour and had put distance between themselves and their illicit shop in the swamp. The 150 gallon copper still had just been re-charged it looked like, and was turning out some good-looking liquor, according to the deputy. About half a barrel there went the way of all "shine" when a couple of officers seize it and it with a large vat of "mobby", and a lot of other materials were destroyed on the spot. There was evidence around the place of big whiskey operations for some time and this is likely to head in on a lot of plans to carry on in greater volume hereafter.

    Mr. B. R. Morrow of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and Farmer's Seed Loan Office will be in Wrightsville every Monday until further notice to assist the farmers in remitting their obligations to the government. Mr. F. C. Powell of the Corley-Powell Produce Company in Atlanta writes that Johnson farmers are raising more food products for distant consumption and is doing a good job of it. Many large trucks are now hauling cotton to Augusta and Savannah averaging 16 to 18 bales per truck. Little cotton is being shipped by rail. The county agent will have another hog sale on the 25th.

    Prof. D. W. Urquart is entering in the poultry and egg business at Pringle. Mr. Avery Glover, while cutting some forage for his animals was bitten in the finger of his left hand by a rattlesnake and he had to shake the snake loose from his hand. He used a belt for a tourniquet and headed for town for medical aid. He is ok but in a lot of pain.

    Kite Consolodated School opens the 17th. Wrightsville High opened with 344 enrolled. Harrison School opens on the 16th. Mr. Wesley Brinson is going to Georgia Tech. Martha Martin and Florence Brinson go to Georgia Normal in Statesboro. France Flanders, Juliette Roundtree, Nannie Claire Hicks, and May Ware Daley return to Wesleyan College. Louise Kent and Louise Neal attend GSCW in Milledgeville. Elizabeth Kent and Lula Harrison attend Bessie Tift College. Mamie Riner and Emily Moye attend Statesboro Teachers College.

    Miss Claudia Riner will teach at Adrian. Miss Nannilu Moseley will teach at Bogart. Mary Sanders and Doris McIntyre will teach school at Dexter.

    The Kite College list is Ellen and Annie Mae Hatcher, Gladys Hill are attending GSCW in Milledgeville. Verestal Anderson and Allie Belle Fortner are attending the Statesboro Teachers College and Mr. Julian Minton is attending Georgia Tech.

    Mr. & Mrs. Cleo Johnson moved to Milledgeville where he is a traveling salesman for Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company. The Wrightsville City Council hopes to do something for the dilapidated sidewalks before long. Ordinary W. J. Flanders and District Manager W. S. Dennis of Dublin have been in consultation on two roads, the Jeff Davis from Bartow to Wrightsville and Route 15 from Wrightsville to Dublin.

    Miss Pennilou Josey, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. W. L. Josey from the eastern side of Johnson married Mr. Robert Hatcher of Tennille on August 31st. He is a Washington County business man. Miss Erna Flanders Wheeler of Wrightsville married Mr. Alexander Morrison of Broxton on September 3rd in Aiken, S. C. She is a daughter of Mr. & Mrs. C. C. Wheeler.

    Mrs. M. A. Carter of Scott died on August 31st after a lengthy illness. She was 72 years old, widow of Dr. Carter. Surviving are several daughters and three sons.

From Days Gone By Sept. 2, 1929

 September 2, 1929.

    The local American Legion is stepping out strong sponsoring the big county fair which they claim will be the largest and best ever held in the 12th District. They have the promise of the aid of the local citizens, past fair management, the county agents and the business houses. An exact date has not been set.

    Two big checks have come to Ordinary J. W. Flanders. The past due money for the Confederate veterans and the second quarter gas tax check. The veterans check was for $1,600. Each veteran received $50, payment based on $200 per year. The 1919 legislature increased the pensions to $360 per year payable in $30 each per month, but does not go into effect till January 1930. The State spent four hundred thousand to pay Georgia pensioners this quarter.  The gas tax check amounted to $1,418.14 for the second quarter. 

    Wrightsville High School opens on the tenth. Miss Christine Claxton is in nurse training at Oglethorpe University in Savannah. Mr. Harvey Hatcher will enter the School of Commerce at University of Georgia. Mrs. O. H. Tompkins will be principal of Pebble City, Georgia schools. Miss Beulah Moseley is in Athens at the State Normal College.

    Miss Erna Flanders wed Mr. Alex Morrison at Aiken, South Carolina. Miss Alma Webb wed Mr. Talmadge Logue on August 25th. Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Beddingfield had a boy, Hugh, Jr. on August 22nd.

    At the home of Will Cochran near Donovan, Layson Beecham wanted to do away with a dynamite cap that was left in the house, took it outside and pitched it some 50 feet into the yard. It exploded and sent some sort of missile, part of the cap, or rock, which hit an 18 month old baby boy sitting on the porch, in the right jugular vein of the throat. The child was bleeding profusely and rushed to Dr. Brantley who dressed it. The boy is said to be ok.

    C. S. Bradshaw, Jr., about 6 years old, smothered to death in a pile of cotton in the back of his father's barn, 5 miles west of town on the Dublin road. He is a son of Mr. & Mrs. Clarence S. Bradshaw. It was about 30 minutes his mother found him breathless. Only his feet and part of his legs stood above the cotton. Efforts to revive him did not work. His father was off on a fishing trip at the time. He was buried at Pleasant Grove.

    Maybelle Hall, colored, got the worst end of a bloody fight in her home, and her husband Willie, charged with attacking her as she lay in the bed. She said Willie jumped out of bed, hit her over the head with a fire poker almost bending the rod double. She jumped up to try to defend herself but her face and eyes were full of blood and could not see. He then began pelting her with his fists. This went on about 20 minutes when she finally made a run to the neighbors. Willie changed his bloody clothes, then went to Chief Crawford who locked him up. Maybelle filed attempted murder against him and he is now rooming with Sheriff W. D. Rowland.

    Have you ever heard of a cow giving birth to a calf when the mother cow was less than a year old? Well this happened in this county. The cow liked three weeks being a year and gave birth on the plantation of Mr. Brown Douglas. Old timers say this was a very unusual thing.

    Farmer Monroe Cook is gathering 5 acres of old time bunch butter beans on his Adrian road farm. He expects to pick 2,000 pounds with an average market price of seven cents. He is shipping them to Atlanta. This crop of butter beans will be followed by cabbage. This is another example of farmers diversifying from cotton.

    Mr. Walter Eugene Smith of Pleasant Plains community died on August 27th after being confined to his bed for three weeks with typhoid fever. He was a deacon at Pleasant Plains and buried at Beulah. He was 32 years old and left a wife, seven children, three brothers including Will Tom Smith, a sister, and a half sister.

From Days Gone By Aug. 26, 1929

 August 26, 1929.

    County Agent Crow and a number of farmers sold a car load of sweet potatoes at a dollar a bushel in 50 pound hampers. In this car were 634 hampers to be shipped to Chicago. In another carload to Chicago held about 500 hampers. This excites renewed interest in diversified agriculture.

    Farmer W. H. Holton, on the Jenkins place for 13 years and running, is a good farmer, and results show a good cotton farmer. He has 40 acres in cotton now. While he expected 25 bales, his crop will go to 28 to 30 bales. That's pre-boll weevil levels. How does he do it? He fights the weevil. He says there are three crops of the insects. The first dosen't amount to anything. The second strew the crop of weevils to do the damage and the third crop will eat it up unless you poison them or destroy in some way. He goes after all three crops of the insect. On his 40 acres he has spent $90 in poisoning. He estimates ten bales of cotton by doing so were saved.

    Mr. & Mrs. Oralee Walker had a girl on August 24th. Miss Louise Tanner and Mr. Luther Manning married August 17th. She is a daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Jimmie T. Tanner. Miss Ethlyn Moore, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. C. H. Moore wed Mr. Bascom C. Weill who is a traveling salesman.

    Mr. Francis Shurling will attend Oglethorpe University. Miss Martha Martin and miss Florence Brinson are attending Georgia Normal School. Miss Nancy Rowland is attending GSCW at Valdosta. Miss Caroline Blount is going to the State Normal at Athens and Ethlyn Blount will teach music in Unadilla.

    Mr. Henry Tharpe of Stevens Hardware Company in Dublin is going to Atlanta to work for Fridgidare. The American Legion is considering sponsoring the fall fair in October. Playing at the Idlehour Theatre is Jacquline Logan and Ina Keith in "The Lookout Girl", also Buddy Roosevelt in "Lightning Shot".

    Judge W. C. Brinson, City Court judge has suspended court until November on account of the farmers gathering in their crops. Ordinary Flanders has assessed the road tax this year at $3.00 each.

    Mrs. Annie Webb McAfee, daughter of the late J. D. Webb, died on August 20th. She was born December 29, 1865 and married John A. McAfee, Jr. on September 9, 1886. She a faithful member of Arline Chapel Methodist Church. Her children are Mrs. J. W. Vanlandingham, Miss Bertha McAfee, Otis, Lotis, John D. McAfee, Mrs. J. R. Williams, Mr. J. M. McAfee and Mrs. C. A. Turner. She was buried in Westview.

From Days Gone By Aug. 19,1929

 August 19, 1929.

    There is a regular organized post of the American Legion here now. The full organization was completed last week in the City Council chambers. Col. Guy Alford of Swainsboro, a post organizer, is one of the leading Legionares in this part of the state. The officers elected were: Commander- B. B. Hayes; Vice-Commander- H. B. Bray; Sargent-At-Arms- Z. A. Cullens; Finance Officer- E. Q. Martin; Agent- Arlie Price; Historian- W. N. Price; Chaplain- T. E. Jenkins.

    The legislature has put on a six cent tax on gasoline and four cent on motor oils as of September 1st. Users are at present paying a tax of four cent on gasoline and nothing on oil. This should net the State eight million annually. The Neill-Traylor highway milage bill will increase state highway milage from 6,300 miles to 9,000 miles.

    Mr. John A. Douglas is the City Collector for Wrightsville and will begin collecting on the 15th. Miss Nannie Kennedy has accepted the teaching of Home Economics at Fernadina High in Florida. Mr. & Mrs. James I. Spell have returned to their home in DeLand, Florida. Mr. John R. Rowland celebrated his 79th birthday surrounded by his children, grand and great grand children, cousins and many good friends.

    Mr. & Mrs. W. S. Brown had a boy on the 14th in Savannah. Mr. & Mrs. Laudice Lovett will move to Milledgeville where he accepted a salesman position with Georgia Power Company. Prof. J. W. Williams moved to Bogart, near Athens, and take charge of the consolidated school there. Mr. Walter Smith is now in Macon at Southern Business College taking a Commercial Business course. Miss Ollie Eve Hatcher of Kite married Mr. J. J. Nixon, Jr. of Augusta on August 17th.

    A camp for farm women will be at the Wrightsville School house consisting of refinishing furniture, vegetable gardening, poultry raising, home orchard, breadmaking and keeping cows for profit. Mayor Monroe Cook is shipping a carload of Porto Rico sweet potatoes netting him $1 per bushel. Cotton picking is moving along fast. Farmers feel the crop will not be as large as expected. Mr. S. P. Rice brought in a sample of his corn that measured 14 inches in length and two and one half inches in diameter.

    Mr. Sherrod Renfroe died on August 19th at the age of 74. The funeral was at Gethsemne church with burial in Westview. He raised three sons and six daughters, those that survive him are E. O., Q. J. and W. W. Renfroe, Mrs. George Young, Mrs. J. A. Bush, Mrs. H. L, Smith, Mrs. Ira Waters, Mrs. H. L. Blount and Mrs. J. B. Raymond.

    Little Barney, the 13 year old son of Mr. & Mrs. Johnnie Kittrell died August 15th. He had been bad afflicted and suffered severly for near two years. He was buried at Union Hill.