Saturday, December 25, 2010
Christmas 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Vanishing House in Calhoun House
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.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
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
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
Sunday, December 28, 2008
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?.
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?.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
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.
Monday, June 16, 2008
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.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
