Oothcaloga Mill

Oothacaloga Mill

This mill was built by John P. King in 1850. Mr. King was a prominent citizen of Oothcaloga Depot – the small hamlet that was soon to become Calhoun. The mill was located on Oothaloga Creek west of town. This location is just south of the present Highway 53 Connector bridge and it would also be just south of the covered bridge built over the Oothcaloga in 1853 by Stephen M. Jones.

The story of the mill parallels the story of the development of Calhoun. Not long after construction of the mill the citizens of Oothaloga Depot were competing to have their town named county seat of Gordon County. A negative aspect of the geographical location was the proximity of the town to Oothalooga Creek and the millpond associated with the mill. The locals feared the miasmatic conditions of the millpond. The miasmatic theory held that stagnate waters and putrid smelling air were the source of diseases like swamp fever and malaria. Mr. King squelched the fears of the people when he donated a 30 acre strip of piney woods that separated the mill pond from the growing town. This wooded strip became known as “The Thicket” and was thought to buffer the people from the disease-ridden area.

The mill exchanged hands several times. Before the Civil War it was owned by James Carter Longstreet. This Longstreet was the first cousin of the famous Confederate General James Longstreet. He was also a prominent lawyer and was appointed Solicitor General of the Cherokee Circuit in 1856. Two year Longstreet was dead at age 29 and was buried in the Longstreet Cemetery on the hill on the opposite side of the creek from the mill. After the Civil War the mill was owned by an A.P. Bailey. In 1873 he was in litigation pertaining to debts that he had incurred to make repairs to the mill. Whether the damage was associated with the Union activity in the vicinity in 1864 is not clear. There is a 1920 reference to Coley’s Mill and a 1928 reference to the mill as Long’s Mill. The mill was demolished in 1955.


Sources

Bicentennial History of Gordon County, Georgia, 1976, Edited by Burton Bell

Printup vs. Barrett, Reports of Cases of Law and Equity argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Georgia at Atlanta, Part of July Term 1872, Vol. XLVI

The Longstreet Society, http://longstreet.org/childhood.html, accessed December 26, 2008.


Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Department of Archives and History, Office of the Secretary of State, gor008, Photograph of Coley’s Mill, Gordon County, Georgia, ca. 1920.

Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Department of Archives and History, Office of the Secretary of State, gor261, Photograph of baptism, Gordon County, Georgia, ca. 1928.


Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Department of Archives and History, Office of the Secretary of State, gor318, Photograph of Oothcaloga Mill, Gordon County, Georgia, ca. 1980-1890?.

First Day of School at CHS

The students that entered our doors Thursday morning did not look like these students. This photograph is of the 1910 or 1912 graduating class of Calhoun High School. The students are identified as C.C. Wills, Robert Chastain, Henry Jones, A.C. Hull, Etta Rossetta, Blanche Gardener, Dollie McLain, and Mildred Cantrell.

Concrete Doughboy

This landmark is not exactly in Calhoun and it is not exactly vanishing, but it is interesting to say the least. This guy is located on the right side of Highway 53 as one approaches the Sonoraville Baptist Church from Calhoun... He appears to be made of concrete and iron. The line of buttons on the front of his shirt is actually an iron rod. He appears to once have held a rifle in his right hand and rested it on his right shoulder. However, the hand is not gone and a flag pole is strapped to his arm and leg replaced the rifle. I call him a Doughboy because of the style of helmet that protects his head. I am sure there is a history here.

Two Unknown Irishmen of Chandler Cemetery

Took a visit this afternoon to the Chandler Cemetery that sits high above Calhoun. I saw an odd looking homemade tombstone with usual writing. But what was the most surprising was the following epitaph:

Two unknown Irish
Who died in a RR wreck
About 1849

At the foot were two small oval stones, each inscribed with the word “Irish”.
There is a story here

South Wall Street Water Fountain

Wall Street runs north and south through the heart of Calhoun. Directly in front of the present day Court House Wall Street is intersected by Court Street. North of the intersection Wall Street is referred to a North Wall Street and south of the intersection it is referred to South Wall Street. I found a photograph of a drinking fountain that was dated 1908. In the description of the photograph the drinking fountain was said to be in the middle of South Wall Street. Examination of the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map indicates the existence of landmark labeled as a well in the middle of Wall Street just south of the Courthouse. It appears from this map that the well would be in front of the present day Pete’s Music Store on the west side of the street and L’Palazzo on the east side of the street. I would imagine that the paving of Wall Street in 1918 and 1919 spelled doom for this fountain.

Madstone

This is story is not Calhoun related, but it is important to me. It represents the resourcefulness of the people I call my ancestors.

Many years ago my great-uncle Kenneth Ray of Greenwood Springs, Mississippi gave me a family treasure. He presents to me the “family” madstone. This rock-like object stayed in an icebox in the dining room of my great-grandparents house. This was a true icebox – no motor, no power. Put a chunk of ice in it and keep things cold. During my boyhood the icebox no longer was used for chilling food stuffs. It was the repository of seeds, papers, and the madstone.

Before being allowed to bring the madstone home I was given instructions on how it was to be used. According to Kenneth if one was bitten by a poisonous snake or a mad dog then one would come to Mammy’s house and request use of the madstone. The madstone was soaked in sweet milk and then placed on the bite. Kenneth maintained that when the madstone was used properly it had the ability to draw the poison out of a wound. It would stick to the wound and fall off after the poison was removed. Kenneth remembered the madstone being used successfully for years and years. There was even a story of a man that died from a rattlesnake bite to the head before the madstone could be brought to the rescue. It seemed like a fantastic story, kind of like witching warts away. However, I truly treasured every shred of the past that my relatives shared with me, so I thanked him and brought the madstone home in a brown paper sack.

What is a madstone? I once asked my students at Vidalia High School to answer that question for extra credit. This was way back before there was internet in every house (Apple IIE days). It was the end of the semester and several children needed to pass college prep biology, therefore I got several informative answers. Primarily, each student found out that a madstone was a concretion of sorts taken from the stomach of a ruminant that had reported curative powers.

A modern student will find much more at their finger tips via the Internet. For example the following text was taken from The History of Rabies in Texas at www.dshs.state.tx.us/idcu/disease/rabies/history/historyInTexas.pdf

Victims of an animal bite would literally ride for their lives to obtain a wad of partially
digested food from the stomach of a cow or deer. These wads of vegetable matter were
commonly known as “madstones for rabies.” In desperate pursuit, bite victims sought the
most coveted madstone, the stomach contents of a white deer. White deer being
uncommon, bite victims often had to settle for a less desirable alternative, a run-of-the mill buckskin. Once a fibrous glob of fodder was obtained, it was moistened in warm
water or, preferably, milk and applied to the wound. To be effective, the madstone had to
adhere to the wound a very long time in order to draw out the rabies poison. After the
madstone had become saturated with poison, it allegedly would no longer adhere to the
wound. At that point, it was put into warm or hot milk, which would turn green from the
poison. The therapeutic gastric contents were then reapplied to the wound. Madstones
were multifunctional. In addition to drawing out the hydrophobia (rabies) contagion
virus, madstones were purportedly effective in removing venom from a snakebite.
However, victims of snakebite were faced with unforgiving time constraints and usually
had to resort to some other remedy; only by the sheerest coincidence would a snakebite
occur in the proximity of a madstone. People bitten by a mad dog, hydrophobic skunk, or
other animal with rabies had the time and the motivation to ride a long way to find a
madstone. And ride they did.

Are the madstone stories in north Georgia? I would love to hear from you.

Millinery in Calhoun

While researching a future blog about South Wall Street I noticed an odd abbreviation on the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. According to the Sanborn map key the abbreviation Mill’y represents the word Millinery. What was a millinery? Consultation of the often cited Wikipedia yields the following:

Millinery refers to hats and other articles sold by a milliner to women, or the profession or business of designing, making, or selling hats and hat trim to women. Women would ask a milliner to remake their old clothing into new clothing. A milliner is a hatter who designs, makes, sells or trims hats. Customers would visit a millinery shop to look at and to buy clothes (children's clothing, shirts, undergarments and caps, for example) Millinery, if taken in a more general sense, also means any accoutrements that are functionally unnecessary, such as a garnish on a dish, or the extra cuff-buttons on a man's dress jacket.

So Calhoun had a clothing store that catered to the hat tastes of the community. This store was a wooden structure on the eat side of South Wall Street. The present day building that houses Terry Knight Studio and L’Palazzo appears to be built over site of the Millinery.

Snow Cream

It snowed this evening in Calhoun, Georgia!! The kids are crazy with the hope that school will be cancelled tomorrow. I do not want to miss school...we will be required to make up the day..I would rather have the snow day off!!

On the other hand I remember growing up in Birmingham, Alabama and missing school for snow and ice. Those were the days!! When I was about 14 we were out for several days. I was in a group of boys that laid in a road side ditch waiting to ambush the few motorists that ventured out after a couple of days of being unable to move around. We had great fun hitting them with snow balls they crept by in their cars. This fun soon came to a crashing halt. One of my compatriots had been packing an oversized snowball that apparently transitioned to an oversized chuck of ice. This flying ice berg connected with the “flat” wind shield of a real Volkswagen Beetle ( 60-ish model…baby blue with large spreading rust spots) and severely cracked the glass. Since the driver knew most of our parents it was not long before we were summonsed to our homes and informed of the plan for restitution and punishment.

Another memory of the snows of my childhood is Daddy’s snow cream. Daddy always made this from the snow on the hood and trunk of the car. He added milk, sugar, and vanilla flavoring in an unknown ratio. As a matter of fact, Momma said he made a batch today. It snowed in Double Springs, Alabama much earlier than here in Calhoun, Georgia. Daddy’s stroke damage makes the communication of measurements difficult at best. Mamma did not see how he mixed the ingredients this afternoon, so the ratio remains a mystery. My wife, Alice, grew up in Crews, Alabama and experienced school canceling snows and ate her daddy’s snow cream. She informed me tonight that there is not a set ratio of ingredients---you just mix them up. I have a problem with “just mixing them up..”

I would really like to know the proper ratio of snow cream ingredients. If you have this knowledge please let me know. Of course it probably will not snow here again for five years and will I lose the recipe and be in the same fix again!!! By the way, our two resident Yankee math teachers at Calhoun High School know nothing of the wonders of snow cream. They can not understand getting excited about snow!!!