From Days Gone By,Sept. 25,1913

September 25, 1913.

     Here are a few facts about Wrightsville and Johnson County in 1913. It is a quiet, dignified town of about 1,800 population, located in the 12th Congressional District. It has a taxable property of $2,158,154 and a banking capital of $200,000. It has three successful banks. The Exchange Bank, capital $25,000 was organized in 1909. Its stockholders are men of impeachable character. The Hon. C. T. Bray, former county representative and a successful planter and merchant is president of the bank. Mr. J. M. Mason, vice-president, holds the honor of organizing the bank and has lived here 33 years, born in Emanuel County in 1855. He was Clerk of Courts for 12 years. E. E. Daley and E. G. Fulford are the cashiers. In 4 years it has made 60 per cent on capital stock.

    Wrightsville has every right to be proud of the record of Warthen College; founded in 1887, chartered in 1891. Its present enrollment is 240. It opened with 200. It is a very handsome building, steam-heated and splendidly ventilated; 13 teachers all graduates of distinguished colleges. Its president , Rev. J. C. G. Brooks is a member of the methodist conference, born in Forsyth in 1877 educated at Emory College. He is a strict disciplinarian.

    Judge A. F. Daley, president of the board of trustees of the college has practiced law for 35 years. The firm of Daley & Daley stand at the head of the bar in this section of Georgia. R. M. Daley graduated in the literary department of Warthen College and in law at Mercer. He would not be his father's son unless he had exceptionally fine legal talents. Judge Daley married a daughter of Col. Tom Howard. Fulton County, the 5th Congressional District is proud of Hon. William Schley Howard who was admitted to the bar in Wrightsville.

    Hon. E. L. Stephens, the brilliant solicitor general of the Dublin Circuit, was born in Wrightsville in 1875, read law at Eastman and admitted at McRae in 1896. He served in the lower house 1911-12 and was chairman of the committee on corporations.

    Mr. J. F. Renfroe, one of Uncle Sam's most faithful servants has been postmaster 9 years, appointed in 1906 under President Roosevelt. He has receipts of $4,000; 230 local boxes, six rural routes, a great thing for country people.

    The Linder House is the best hotel in Georgia. Major Huff, of the Wrightsville Headlight is more gallant than ever, saying may Johnson County and Wrightsville prosper forever.

From Days Gone By Sep 18, 1913

September 18, 1913.

    The mayor and council passed the advalorem tax ordinance for the city of Wrightsville that taxes all real and personal property, aggregating one per cent, per annum on the dollar. An advalorem tax of five mills, that is one half of one per centum on the dollar for the purpose of paying off and discharging the ordinary, usual and current running expenses of the government of Wrightsville. All taxes have to be payed before the 20th of December, 1913.

    Superior Court has been in session this week, Judge Hawkins presiding, and Solicitor Stephens looking after the States interest. After disposing of most of the civil docket the court adjourned until next week.

    The statements of condition of the various county banks are, The Citizens Bank of Kite, $80,407.26; The Bank of Wrightsville, $178,793.02;Exchange Bank of Wrightsville, $120,470.11; The Bank of Adrian, $59,893.69; The Scott Banking Company, $60,907.81.

    Opening peliminares at Warthen have passed, and regular routine and real work are now in order. Rev. J. C. G. Brooks, President of Warthen College was out of the city this weekend in interest of the school. He met with most encouraging success, both in the prospects for new students and in his finacial campaign.

    Joe Butterly is resuming his studies at the State University. Miss Gladys Anthony is back at Wesleyan College. Dr. Erle Brinson will complete his fourth and last year at Atlanta Medical College. Julius Jenkins graduated Warthen College and is on his way to Athens to the State University.

    Mrs. Eldridge Page died at her home in Harrison. Her health has been failing in her advancing years. Mrs. Joe M. Bryan is ill at her home in Americus with typhoid. Mrs. Mabel Blount has moved to the home of her mother, Mrs. R. B. Bryan. Mr. G. Kittrell has a good plantation for sale consisting of 151 acres, good fertile land, dwelling and several outhouses and a well of good water.

    In Wrightsville last Sunday at highnoon, at the residence of Dr. & Mrs. T. L. Harris, on North Marcus Street, Miss Adel Jenkins and Mr. Geo Vickers were united in marriage. Only the family of the pastor were present at the ceremony. There were no parental objections, and contracting parties arranged their own matrimonal affairs. The bride is the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Jenkins who resides near Wrightsville. She just graduated Warthen College and is an estimadle young woman. Mr. Vickers is the son of Dr. & Mrs. Vickers of Harrison, and he formally attended college here. He is a moral, energetic young man and many wish them much happiness.

From Days Gone By Sept. 11, 1913

September 11, 1913.

      The whistles to the various engines running the several different cotton gins in and around town are "muchly in evidence" from "early morn till dewy eve." They don't fail to blow their own business and blow it good and strong, and long. John W. Williams, special agent Department of Commerce for Johnson County, reports that there has been 541 bales of cotton ginned in the county up to September 1st, this season.

     The attendance at Warthen College is increasing almost daily. About 25 more students from in and around towns entered Monday; also several new boarding students were enrolled. The president of the college has received notice of more who are to reach here soon. There are now 33 boarders at the dormitories of Warthen College.

     Mr. L. J. Claxton, popular alderman has installed at his own expense an electric light on the street near his residence on East Elm Street. It creates a big improvement to that section. F. C. Lord and family have moved from the country to town in the Claxton residence on Railroad Avenue, south. "Frieght" is connected with the Wrightsville Gin Company. J. T. Blankenship, manager of the Union Market, has recently added two large rooms to his house in the northern part of town. W. E. Scott, local agent for the Southern Express Co. has recently been furnished with a spankin' new delivery wagon, painted in bright green and red colors.

    Mr. & Mrs. R. P. Hicks returned Tuesday from their wedding tour north and are at home to their friends at "Southerland", their suburban home. Married at her home in this city on Monday afternoon, Mrs. Anna Tantory and Mr. Martin Brantley, by Dr. T. L. Harris. The three day old infant son of Col. and Mrs. Charles Claxton of this city, died Monday night and was buried Tuesday afternoon at Westview.

   If you have good young cattle for sale, suitable for beef, see me and I will give you the best price for them, M. E. Bridges. "COTTON-GOODTIMES. Miss Cotton and Mr. Goodtimes were happily united several days ago by Brother Fall. Everybody seems to be smiling about it. We hope they will never part. Now if you want to stay on the Good Side of Mr. Goodtimes, you will have to treat Miss Cotton White and buy your groceries from F. C. Lord & Son, whose prices are always right."

From Days Gone By Sep 4,1913

September 4,1913.

    Our sister city, Dublin, is making extensive preparations for the 12th District Fair which will be November 3rd to 8th. It is second only to the Georgia State Fair in Macon and was attended last year by nearly 40,000 people. The 12th District covers 13 of the best agricultural counties of the state. Last year there was more than 2,000 head of breed poultry shown. This year they will have automobile races, airship flights and the regular exhibits.

    For the past few days nearly every train has brought some of the teachers and boarding pupils for the opening excercises of Warthen College. There are six new teachers this year, Prof. J. V. A. Carlton, Mrs. C.S. Ward, Misses Mary and Ruth Ponder, Miss Pansy Webb and Miss Lois Walton.

    Mr. G. M. Hensey of Waycross is now a citizen of our town. He is connected now with the new store of W. S. Burns & Son as head salesman. W. F. Dent, proprietor of the Wrightsville Bottling Works has purchased an auto truck, with which he is able to dispose of quantities of all kinds of soft drinks. It is a first class machine. W. S. Williams is anxious to buy your cotton seed. He pays the highest prices and gives accurate weights. Bring your eggs to the Busy Bee Resturant and will pay 20 cents per dozen for same.

    Mr. Paul E. Bryan has returned to Yale College. Harlie Fulford has returned from Atlanta completing bookkeeping at Southern Business College. Messers. Fay Boland and Arthur Rowland finished Wrightsville's School of Business and Shorthand. Arthur now has a position at a bank in Metter. Mrs. Addie Morel and daughter, Rosamond enjoyed the mountain breezes of Tracy City, Tennessee and our former well-known ex-sheriff J. W. Linder, now of Higgston, spent the day in Wrightsville with old friends.

    Mr. B. J. Moye was called to Oconee about his mother, Mrs. B. A. Moye who has had a stroke. Mrs. W. F. Dent is still sick at her home. Mrs. Roose, the mother of Mr. Dominicus Roose, who was killed in the Kite explosion, arrived there from her home in New York and is with the widow of her unfortunate son.

    Last Sunday at the home of the brides grandmother, Mrs. Amos Bush at Donovan, Miss Dora Bush and Mr. Henry B. Wilkes were married. The bride is a neice of Mr. James Bush. Married in Wrightsville on Wednesday, 27th at the home of Mr. & Mrs. J. E. Hall, Miss Lizzie Snell and Mr. Leo Scarboro were married. She is a daughter of Mr. & Mrs. O.O. Snell of Liberty Grove settlement and the groom a nephew of the Hall's. They will live at Hall's settlement.

From Days Gone By, August 28, 1913

August 28, 1913.

    The opening excercises for the fall term of Warthen College will be held September 3rd with Rev. H. T. Freeman of Savannah giving the address. An arrangement has been made between the county board of education and the college trustees in which public school will be taught in conjuction with the college at the following expense: primary grades, $5; Intermediate, $6; Academic, $7.50.

    Jack Jordan, colored, manager of the Wrightsville Pressing Club has returned from a trip to Atlanta where he has been studying the tailoring business in all its branches. Jordan & Hicks have been operating a pressing and dyeing establishment in Wrightsville for several very successful years. Little Miss Elizabeth Cook was hostess to the Juvenile Sewing Club at her home serving ice cream and cake.

    Mr. Otho Tanner and wife will occupy the residense of the late Rev. Charles Moore on West Elm Street. From present indications the proposed handsome new Baptist church building will soon be in course of erection. Mr. L. M. Burns has a farm for sale consisting of 125 acres, located 7 miles from town, 80 acres in cultivation.

    Dr. C. H. Kittrell has been suffering from lumbago. Rev. E. W. Pease, formerly of this city, but now of Clarkston, informs us that Mrs. Pease had the misfortune to dislocate and fracture her ankle to such an extent that she is confined to her bed and suffering intensly.

    The infant of Mr. & Mrs. J. T. Miller died Saturday night and was buried Sunday afternoon at Piney Mount. Mrs. Minnie Carter, wife of Mr. Oscar Carter, died at her home in this county August 25, from an attack of pneumonia, and was buried Tuesday 26 at Piney Mount. Mrs. Carter was a sister of Mrs. J. T. Miller.

    On James Vicker's plantation, better known as the old Hightower place, on the Ohoopie, a big slaughter of rattlesnakes was made last Thursday and again on Sunday. Messers. Bose Peevy, C. E. Price and others were the discoverers and annihilators. The rattlers were flushed at an old saw mill plant under some slabs. These were found by Mr. Peevy on Thursday, who succeeded in killing twenty odd of them. Mr. Price was at the same place on Sunday, when he with the assistance of others killed twenty or more of the rattler family, making a total of forty two of the dangerous reptiles, all of different ages and sizes, among which were two pilots and old mother snake carrying eleven rattles. Rattlers are getting rather numorous in Johnson County.

From Days Gone By August 21, 1913

August 21, 1913.

    A fearful catastrophe happened in Kite when an explosion killed one man and partially destroyed a building. The Kite Drug Co., gas tank exploded on Friday, killing Dominicus Roose, a dutchman almost instantly and slightly wounding young Crawford Harrison. From the best information available it seems that Mr. Harrison was charging the tank, and Roose came in and offered to assist him, and when the necessary amount from the tube had been transferred to the tank, they tried to shut it off, but on account of the threads on the tube being bad it refused to stop. Mr. Roose then took a larger wrench and gave it a harder twist, thereby stripping the threads, which permitted the gas to flow into the already fully charged tank.

    The crowd seeing a crack appearing in the tank moved out of the way. Mr. Roose however, was making his exit out of the rear door, when the fatal explosion occured, the larger part of the tank hitting him in the back, after having struck the side of the rear door and tearing a huge hole in it. The smaller part went towards the front, striking a barrel of Coca-Cola and completely demolishing it, and also alot of medicine. The damage was estimated at $300. Mr. Roose was buried at New Home Cemetery. About 3 weeks previous to the accident, he had his life insured for $1000. He was married to Coroner Bailey's daughter a few years earlier.

    Wrightsville's various steam cotton gins have all been overhauled and ready for fall business. On Friday the 15th, Tanner & Henderson brought in the first bale of new cotton for the season. The bale was bought by E. A. Lovett for 10.5 cents, who also paid the premium of $5 for the first bale. It was ginned at the Wrightsville Gin Co. and stored in the City Warehouse.

    The Mt. Vernon Baptist Association will hold its General Meeting at Union Hill. The city of Wrightsville's 2nd quarterly report shows receipts & disbursements of $5,527.55. Mr. Will Joiner, former citizen is now in the merchantile business in Columbus. Mr. DeWitt Brinson will leave for Illinois to study horography. Mr. H. E. Price and family have moved back to their plantation home near Bartow. Mr. & Mrs. F. A. Sinquefield will move into the Blount house on Marcus Street vacated by the Price family.

    Mr. & Mrs. McWhorter Shurling announce the birth of a son on August 17th. Mr. & Mrs. E. A. Lovett announced the birth of a daughter on August 20th. Mrs. Fannie Montford has been sick at her West Court Street home and John Luther Kent, son of Judge Kent is sick at his home with fever. The two children of Mr. W. P. Norris have scarlett fever and the family has been quarentined by Dr. T. L. Harris. Mrs. W. E. Scott was carried to Rawlings Sanitarium for appendicitis but died before the surgery having waited too long to go to the doctor. She was buried at Westview.

    The biggest rattlesnake yet killed this year was by Roan Beasley, while squirrel hunting in the Ohoopie Swamp near Kite. He had 23 rattles and the usual button. When it comes to raising big watermelons, J. G. Greenway grew a fine melon which weighed 59 pounds and was 2 feet in length. It was the "gray cast" variety. There is 377 acres, in one body known as the Bales place 2.5 miles from town for sale. If you don't want to get rid of your lands, you'd better keep same out of the hands of the J. M. Mason Reality Co.

From Days Gone By, August 14,1913

August 14,1913.

    A deplorable accident happened near Adrian on August 10th about midnight. Fred Childs, a young man about 28 years of age, was shot and killed by Leslie Smith, a young man about the same age who is a barber by trade. Mr. Smith, who lives with his brother about a mile from town, is usually late getting out from his work, and rides a bicycle to his home. This night, about half-way home, two men loomed up immediately in front of him. Thinking them robbers he jumped off his wheel and fired, the bullet striking Childs near his heart instantly killing him.

    Childs was an orphan boy, his parents having been dead for many years, but was reared in the community. The town is excited but there are few who censure Smith for the act. Leslie Smith was born here and lived here his whole life with the exception of the past year he spent in Savannah as a barber but moved here to take charge of the local shop. Both men were unmarried. Judge William Faircloth has been engaged as council for Smith. The case was tried Monday in Justice Court at Smith's Court Ground, and the defense was bound over for voluntary manslaughter. The case will come before Judge Hawkins at the next term of Superior Court.

    The tax digest for 1913 have been completed and turned over to the Ordinary and Tax Collector. There is a loss of $24,389 on the whites and a gain of $13,003 on the negroes. The total loss being $11,387 compared to 1912 returns. The number of polls for 1913 including defaulters is 2,406 against 1,957 for 1912.

    Dr. & Mrs. R.R. Douglas had a son, Carl, born on August 2nd. Messers. Angus Hightower & Leon Lovett enjoyed the weekend at Tybee. Mrs. Elizabeth Lovett announced the marriage of her daughter, Louanna to Mr. Rosur Lee Stephens in October. J. R. Grice is able to be up and out after an attack of malarial fever. Councilman J. M. Cook was confined to his bed by a bilious attack, but is better and took a drive in his auto to Sparta. Mrs. J. M. Mason went with Miss Susan Elmore, the blind sister of Mrs. Tantory to Rawlings Sanitarium to be operated on for gallstones.

    The funeral of young John Stanley, son of Com. of Labor H. M. Stanley, who was killed by lightning near Dublin, was held in Atlanta. Stanley was a member of the Boy Scouts of Decatur and the members served as honor guard and pallbearers. It was found that the lad's internal organs had been so badly torn and lacerated by the bolt that it was impossible for the undertaker to use embalming fluid.

    The Courier-Dispatch and Laurens County Herald have consolodated and the name of the new corporation is the Courier-Herald Publishing Company, which will begin at once the publication of a semi-weekly newspaper. Some parties from Wrightsville were caught in the Oconee swamp cooking and eating fish, squirrels and turkey without a license or permission from Washington County.