Vanishing Calhoun and Other Items of Historical Interest

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T17:37:00.000-05:00

It has been many months since I posted to Vanishing Calhoun...however on this Christmas Day we are seeing something that has not happened in years...SNOW!!

Vanishing House in Calhoun House

2010-02-07T21:50:00.002-05:00

On January 1, 2010 a pretty good portion of our house vanished in a fire. THis has put a kink in some stories I had planned for this Blog. I hope to recover the data from the hard drive from our melted computer soon. After I get the data we will be back in business.

2009-01-25T16:38:00.003-05:00

Moss Methobapterian Chapel
Location:

N 34º 32.663 W 084 º 51.934
Pine Chapel Road
Gordon County, Georgia

This church is located out in the county, but it definitely meets the definition of vanishing. The roof is falling in, windows have been removed, and the masonry is crumbling. A descendent of the builder told me that it was probably going to be bulldozed. She was going to try and recover the marble plaque before the church vanishes.

I first encountered the crumbling church on a birding trip out on Pine Chapel Road. It was the plaque that caught my eye and tweaked my interest. Cut into the stone was the following inscription:
MOSS METHOBAPTERIAN CHAPEL
BUILT BY
C.L. MOSS 1937

For a few minutes I sat and wondered about this denomination. I could not say that I had even been in or heard of a Methobapterian church. I hate puzzles and word searches, but I was able to see the obvious roots of the name. Metho - came from Methodist, Bap from Baptist, and - pterian from Presbyterian. Boy did I think I was smart. I asked a couple of my friends that are more blessed in theology and the such and they had never heard of a church with this kind of name. Time passed and I had just about given up on learning anything more about the little church until I met a descendent of C. L. Moss out in front of the church. I did not ask her name – shame on me -- but the information she gave was very valuable. The chapel was built by her great grandfather Columbus L. “Lum” Moss as a nondenominational church to serve the people that worked on his farm. Mr. Moss was quite the agricultural giant in Gordon County. He was also a very influential politician serving at the local and state levels. The farm was the Old Governor Brown farm and apparently was very large. In 1866 Governor Brown’s Gordon County holdings were in excess of 1500 acres. Mr. Moss’s holdings must have been equally impressive. It was said that over forty families once lived and worked on Mr. Moss’s farm. So, while Mr. Moss and family attended Calhoun First Methodist Church the spiritual welfare of his workers was being attended to in a chapel dedicated to the honor and memory of his parents.

Sources

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

Joseph E. Brown, About North Georgia, http://ngeorgia/com/ang/JosephEBrown, assessed 1/15/09

Oothcaloga Mill

2008-12-28T07:04:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-09T22:54:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-16T14:38:00.003-04:00

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

2008-04-20T00:38:00.003-04:00

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

2008-02-24T16:11:00.002-05:00

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

2008-02-23T10:23:00.002-05:00

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

2008-02-18T10:08:00.005-05:00

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

2008-01-16T22:04:00.000-05:00

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!!!

Jawbones

2007-12-30T22:02:00.000-05:00

I was navigating around on Dave Tabler’s Appalachian History blog and ran across an article written by Ruth Cade in November of 2007. The subject of this story was a “Booger Man”. Apparently, Ruth’s dad had used the threat of a local ghoul to make the kids want to come in and stay in after dark. This story brought back memories of “Jawbones”.

I grew up in Mt. Olive, Alabama. Today, this would be considered a rural suburb of Birmingham. Our next door neighbor was Clyde and Bertha Countryman. This couple had moved to Mt. Olive many years before Momma and Daddy bought their house in the suburbs. They were from a mining community south of Birmingham called Boothtown in Shelby County. Their children were grown and had children of their own. As a boy I stayed with Ma Ma Countryman during the day. As time went on Ma Ma and Pa Pa treated me like one of their own. After I started to school I would stay with her until my parents got home in the evening. When time changed in the fall it would get dark before Momma and Daddy got home and I would get to walk home in the dark. I distinctly remember PaPa Countryman telling me to go straight home or Jawbones would get me.

Now what was Jawbones? I remember him describing Jawbones as a wild animal of sorts that hung out around the mining camps and Mt. Olive getting children that stayed out after dark. Jawbones smacks of the Booger Man strategy employed by Mrs. Cade’s father. I wonder how many more stories are out their about Booger Men and Jawbones? I would love to hear the stories.

Winter Time Ain't What It Used To Be!!!

2007-12-27T23:27:00.002-05:00

The following is a photograph of Court Street looking east toward the Gordon County Court House. The photograph is dated 1892. There is a pretty fair amount of snow on the ground. If we had that much snow on the ground in the morning Calhoun would pretty much grind to a halt. For Calhounites of the day this snow did not seem to cause much trouble. They seem to actually be prepared for such an event. Note the two sleighs in the picture. Throughout the photographic archives there are many wintery scenes of Calhoun. Is this a photographic record of a time when north Georgia was colder? My family comes from the northern hill country of Alabama and Mississippi and my parents and grandparents sure indicated that it was colder when they were kids. My grandmother told of mornings when my great-grandmother would get out of bed and broom the snow off the quilt they slept under. Apparently they had a serious roof issues in those days.

Update

2007-12-11T21:12:00.001-05:00

Well the leaves have fallen and we are headed into the holiday season here in North Georgia. Work at CHS is quite brisk right now, so I have been lacking in my posts. Hopefully, I will be adding new posts to my blog over the next few days.

Reservoir Identified

2007-11-04T16:32:00.000-05:00

The first post I made to the Vanishing Calhoun on August 13, 2007 was about an odd shaped structure above the Boston House on Mt Alto. I issued a general query as to the origins and function of this structure in the blog and started asking around. A local told me that it might be a water tank of sorts. She lived on the hill and heard about a tank that once was near her house. One person speculated that it was an athletic field of sorts – maybe a tennis court. The first hint of what the structure could possibly be came from the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Calhoun. On this map a reservoir is noted as being east of town on or off of O’Calligan Street. This street appears to be the present day alley that leads behind the Calhoun Municipal Building. Sheet 3 of the Sanborn Map clearly shows a system of pipes that appears to take water away from the reservoir and feed to various parts of town. Most notable is an eight inch piper that is labeled “to reservoir”. Today this pipe can be seen in the bank above and behind the municipal building. Further explanation of the structure seen in the picture comes from Jewell Reeves in the 1962 Climb the Hills of Gordon. According to Reeves on March 26, 1898, a bond referendum was voted on to fiance the construction of the town’s first water supply system. Plans included a pumping station to be located on the land of H. L. Hall and reservoir to be construction of Kiker Hill above the jail. The present day Municipal Building is the same structure as the aforementioned jail. Jimmy Palmer, the present Mayor of Calhoun, said that the reservoir was eventually filled in. I think the aerial photo above shows the location of the old reservoir.

Harbin Peach Orchard, 1900

2007-09-12T00:04:00.000-04:00

As I examine and study the images of Calhoun's past I am often surprised by the subject of the photograph. Vanished chapters in our history that are as much of our community fabric as the Outlet Mall and Carpet industry of today are often discovered. Take the photograph above for example. The citation that accompanies the photograph states the following: Calhoun 1900. View of the Harbin Peach Orchard. This area is now the residential area of Hillcrest Drive and Sequoyah Terrace.

The Thicket

2007-08-26T12:44:00.001-04:00

On June 3, 1850 in Inferior Court of Gordon County, Georgia Oothcaloga Depot was named the county seat of Gordon County. The fact that Oothcaloga Depot won the honor over Big Springs can be attributed to the philanthropy of John P. King. Mr. King graciously donated all of the land that was going to be used for public buildings. He also donated a strip of about thirty acres of piney woods. These woods separated the growing hamlet around the Depot from Oothcaloga Creek and a millpond. These bodies of water, in alignment with the scientific thought of the day, were believed to be the source of the “bad air’ that was thought to the causative agent of malaria.

It is said that the Gordon County Fairgrounds adjoined the pine thicket in southwest Calhoun. This is confirmed by the 1911 Sanborn Tax map in which the “Pine Grove” was noted as being east of West Pine Street. From what I can tell, West Pine Street approximates the route of present day Yellow Jacket St.

In the picture the red line approximates the Oothcaloga Street. This street extended out toward the Rome road. The green colored area is thought to be the “Thicket”

Looking West, 1916

2007-08-21T19:49:00.000-04:00

This photograph from 1916 is described as an aerial view from atop Mount Alto.

Johnson Gin Company, Between 1911 and 1943

2007-08-16T22:44:00.000-04:00

The picture above is of Johnson Gin Company. The business was located at the corner of South King and Court Street. This company appears on the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Calhoun. It was destroyed by fire in 1943.

Information about Unknown Landmark

2007-08-15T22:15:00.000-04:00

I learned today that there was a reservoir atop of Mt. Alto at one time. Could this be a man made oval shaped reservoir? I also may have a lead on the house in front of the structure.
Tonight I discovered digitalized 1911 tax maps for Calhoun on the Internet. There is a road on one of these maps named O'Calligan Road. This road is labeled as leading to the "Reservoir". This road appears to start directly across Piedmont from North Court Street. I think that O'Calligan is the alley that leads to the parking lot the Calhoun Municipal building. I visited this parking area Thursday afternoon and discovered that there is an iron pipe jutting out of the bank above this parking lot. The 1911 map indicates that an eight inch pipe followed O' Calligan to the "Reservoir".

Pavilion Park, ca 1897

2007-08-15T00:15:00.000-04:00

The photograph is said to be taken by T.F. Tomlinson in 1897. The band in the photograph was know as the Belmont Band. There are several photographs of this band in the Vanishing Georgia collection. However, this post is about the Pavilion. The citation with his photograph states that this Pavilion was located at the site of Phil Reeve Stadium. The Reeve is the home of the Calhoun High School Yellow Jacket football team. Considering that I am one of the administrators at CHS I had to give us a plug. Back to the Pavilion! There is no landmarks of any type to mark the location of this part of Calhoun history that has vanished. Maybe somebody that reads this blog can shed some light on the history of the pavilion.

Unknown Landmark in Calhoun, Georgia

2007-08-13T22:38:00.000-04:00

This home in the middle of the photograph is the Boston House or Mt. Alto. ( ca. 1939) It was the home of Dr. John H. Boston. Dr. Boston is a notable Calhoun figure. However, this post is about the odd structure behind the house in the upper right hand corner of the picture? Any ideas about what we are looking at? You can double click on the picture and it should open in Explorer.