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Charlton County Herald
W.O. Gibson - 5 Letters to the Editor
(1852-1938)
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Near the end of his life, William Owen Gibson shared his recollections of Charlton County back to the days before the Civil War. In five letters to the editor of the Charlton County Herald, he paid tribute to William Mizell, and recalled Coleraine, Leigh Hill, Sawpit Landing, Centerville, sawmills, schools, and steamboats on the St. Marys River.
Tribute to Billy Mizell
September 22, 1933
To The Editor Of the Herald:
A few days ago, when I stepped into the Citizens Bank a photograph hanging on the wall attracted my attention and the features so familiar to me seemed to say "Come in, Owen. I'm glad to see you." Standing before and looking at it I began to meditate, as I always do when something I see or hear stirs my emotions.
The photograph was of William Mizell, Sr. whose life in later years it is unnecessary for me to speak, for others knew him too. But as there are only two living persons whose acquaintance with him antedates mine, these two persons are his sisters, Mrs. Martha Lang and Mrs. Lucy Lang.
I wish to say a few words concerning his early life and in doing so I wish to compare conditions then with those of the present time. In my meditations, memory carried me back about three-fourths of a century to the first school he and I ever attended. That school was in a small building out in the woods and was built of pine logs from which the bark had not been removed. A door in one end was the only opening and the seats were puncheons near the wall on each side and across the back end. The floor was a few square feet of the dry land that appeared when the world was only three days old. The teacher was Mr. Peter deYoung, a well-educated Frenchman who spoke good English and the scholars were Martha, Lucy, Everett and Billy Mizell, Lizzie and Seaborn Mills, Kate and Sol Vickery, John and Tom Kennison and Jimmy Hagin, and myself.
Where are they now? Everett Mizell and Sol Vickery have lain under the soil of Virginia since the fearful destruction of human life in the Civil War. Billy Mizell is resting in Folkston Cemetery, Lizzie and Seaborn Mills are peacefully sleeping in the family cemetery almost in speaking distance of the spot of their birth. John and Tom Kennison are taking their rest near their home in life. Jimmy Hagin lies besides his mother in an old cemetery near the place where the school house stood, and Kate Vickery is taking her last long slumber in Sardis Cemetery while Mrs. Martha and Mrs. Lucy Lang and myself are the only survivors of that school and we are past our four score years.
Few indeed were the years that Billy Mizell spent in school, but he acquired sufficient learning to accumulate honest dollars and to use them in a way to benefit others as well as himself.
When he was a young man he could convert a raw deer skin into as fine a piece of dressed leather as ever left the hands of a Seminole Indian. He was an expert in laying off straight rows with a plow across his father's field and on through life he continued to plow a straight row. And the building and business where I stood in meditation near his picture will stand as a monument to his honesty and integrity when the marble in the cemetery may have been forgotten.
The transition of the schools from the little log house in the woods to the brick buildings in town is all right, but it remains to be seen how many boys who spend a half dozen or fewer hours in these buildings and have it called a day in school and perhaps think as much or more about baseball, basketball or radios than they do about books will leave behind them the name that my friend and schoolmate Billy Mizell has left behind him.
--W. O. GIBSON
Recollections of Coleraine, Sawmills, and Centerville
April 13, 1934
To the Editor of the Herald:
This morning when the rural mail carrier passed our gate and put some letters in the mailbox I began again my "meditations" and to compare in my mind the present with the past.
When the Civil War was over mail facilities were restored and a system that was satisfactory then was established. What was the system? The mail was brought from St. Marys and Camden County to Centrevillage, a distance of 32 miles once a week with a horse and buggy. Sometimes when there was a heavier mail than usual there would be as many as fifty letters and perhaps half a dozen newspapers. Of course as conditions improved more letters were sent and sometimes an ordinary mail pouch would be half filled with letters and papers. It is safe to say that in those days three-fourths of the grown people in Charlton County did not receive a letter through the mails in a year.
For some time Centrevillage was the only post office in the county, and it was with some difficulty that this office was filled. Of the few men left by the war, none were republicans and of course democrats were not eligible. Finally an old man, who was a comical indifferent sort of a character, agreed to become a republican and he was appointed postmaster. He put Mr. John R. Bachlott in charge of the office. The "office" consisted of enough pigeon-holes to use all the letters of the alphabet that was supposed to begin proper names. The case containing these pigeon-holes was about four feet square and was set on the end of a counter near to the front door of a store. Very few, if any, went to the post office to inquire for mail, only on Saturdays when they went to town on other business.
In or about the year 1867, three gentlemen from middle Georgia, Capt. W.W.
Parker and Capt. J.S. Tyner, who were officers in the Civil War, and a Mr. David
Hill came to Coleraine and under the firm name of Parker-Tyner and Co. erected
a sawmill at Muscogee Landing about 3/4 mile up the river from where Mr. Hebard's
winter home is located. I learned in my childhood that here is where the Indians
used to cross the river. Not long after the sawmill was put in operation, Mr.
Hill who was afflicted with a severe case of asthma, ended his life by putting
a pistol in his mouth and sending a ball into his brain. Capt. Parker soon sold
his interest in the business to Capt. Tyner and returned to Macon where he engaged
in the hardware business. Capt. Tyner, who was held in the highest esteem by
all who came in personal contact with him, continued to operate the sawmill
till the time of his death which occurred as the result of tuberculosis about
the year 1875.
Perhaps very few of your readers know that if he had lived, no doubt Centrevillage
would have been a railroad town long before Folkston was ever thought of. A
company was organized under the name of the St. Marys and Western Railroad Co.
having for its purpose the building of a railroad from St. Marys to Tebeauville
which is now a suburb of Waycross called Old Nine. Capt. Tyner was one of the
promoters of the enterprise and was the civil engineer who surveyed the line.
Col. W.G. McAdoo, father of U.S. Senator McAdoo, was president of the company.
Walter B. Baker, who was born and reared in Centrevillage and died in Fernandina a few years ago, and myself, were the chain-carriers. Walter and I were then about 19 years of age and Col. McAdoo assured us that if we remained with them and the road was built we would be advanced as rapidly as conditions and our ability would warrant. I can say with certainty that I am the only living person in this part of the state who ever knew the father of Senator William McAdoo of California, who in my opinion is one of the foremost statesmen of our country and who I hope will be President Roosevelt's successor.
In my next, if I write again, I will have something to say about the sawmill at Coleraine and about matters and persons connected with it.
--W.O. GIBSON
April 13, 1934 - also from that same article “Incidents In the History of Charlton County:”
"In the original Act, Charlton County was created entirely from territory taken from Camden, one of the state's original counties. During the session of the General Assembly of 1855-56 territory was added from Ware County and the line between the counties of Camden and Charlton was slightly changed. There were no further changes until the creation of Brantley County a few years ago."
Recollections of Leigh Hill and Sawpit Landing
April 27, 1934
Dear Editor of the Herald,
Instead of telling you about the sawmill at Coleraine I have something I prefer to write about at this time.
Through the courtesy of L.E. Mallard I visited old Leigh Hill a few days ago. This old historic place is near the St. Marys River one mile above Coleraine. I say historic, for such it is to me. I spent the first 21 years of my life near its foot where my mother was born and lived and died. In January 1830 my grandfather James J. Leigh moved from Nassau County, Fla. to make his home in Georgia, his native state. He was born and reared in Liberty County and went to Florida in 1823. He stopped at Coleraine in order to select a location on which to build a home. He was at first attracted to the natural beauty of this hill and decided to make a home there but before building he changed his mind and selected a location near the public road one mile above Coleraine and opposite Leigh Hill and where he died in 1839.
I had not seen the old hill in nearly sixty years and naturally my emotions were stirred when I saw it. Instead of house and fields as I used to see it, Nature had been at work as time passed and had placed there a forest of oaks, pines and other trees that no hands beside hers could equal in beauty. The situation of the hill is not clearly seen on account of the dense undergrowth covering it. I could not venture a estimate of its altitude though it rises to a considerable height above the flat woods or pasture lands surrounding it. It is circular and formed with a gradual slope to the base which is something like one-fourth of a mile in each direction. The soil was very fertile when in cultivation and the finest peach orchard I have ever seen in south Georgia was on Leigh Hill when I was a boy.
What a wonder it is that this place has escaped notice for so long a time. With the proper clearing of undergrowth and the pruning of trees, Leigh Hill could almost rival Bonaventure in scenic beauty.
Another fact that might make the word historic admissible is that on the river half a mile away is an old landing called the Sawpit Landing. I wonder how many of your readers know what the name implies. Many years ago an arrangement was made there for the sawing of such lumber as necessity really demanded, mostly for making coffins. A pit was made in the ground about ten feet long and four feet wide with a depth of about five or six feet. Across this pit two logs were laid and the log to be sawed was placed on these and lengthwise the pit. Two sides of the log was slabbed and hewn with axes. It was then put in place and was of whatever length the boards were desired. With a “straight edge,” a line was made with a piece of chalk where the saw was to run to make the board. If chalk was not convenient charcoal was used. One man stood on a frame above the log and another stood in the pit and with a common crosscut saw a board was made. It was slow, hard work but it was better than to have no lumber.
The old pit is there yet but the men who worked and sweated in it have long been gone and most or perhaps all of them were buried in coffins made of lumber that was made by more modern methods, though it is safe to say non of them were put in what we now call caskets.
If we could go backwards to those good old days when the tooting of an automobile horn would have alarmed us, fewer coffins and caskets would be needed, and the morals of the people would no doubt be several grades higher than they are.
-- W.O. GIBSON
Recollections of Sawmills and Steamboats
May 11, 1934
To the Editor of the Herald:
In a recent communication I promised to say something about the sawmill at Coleraine and the people connected with it. I have already stated that not long after it was put in operation Capt. J.S. Tyner became the sole owner of the business. Persons who are not familiar with conditions existing at that time would be astonished to know how much timber was wasted in getting the logs for the mill. Except for an area of a few thousand acres in the vicinity of Camp Pinckney where Mr. Edward Buck operated a turpentine business and another near Uptonville operated by Baker, Jones and Co. and one at the place where the home of E.F. Dean, Jr. is located, operated by John D. Jones, round pines covered the woods and in cutting the trees for mill logs usually about 2/3 of the length from the butt to the limbs was the part used, leaving to lie and rot on the ground enough timber without limbs or knots to please the eyes of a sawmill [owner] of our day.
When the mill got into action Capt. R.H. Bachlott was the first sawyer. Mr. Sampson Barfield was the first engineer and Mr. John G. Wickes was the first lumber inspector. Capt. Bachlott was also foreman of the mill. Almost every young man in the community at some time during the operation of the mill worked in it, besides a great many others from other sections. I had the distinction of being the first "sawdust roller". Except engineer and sawyer, I occupied every other place in the mill and after the death of Capt. Tyner when the business was purchased by J.L.K. Holtzendorf I left the steamboat where I had been working and accepted the position of lumber inspector and foreman which I held during the period of Mr. Holtzendorf's ownership and when he closed the business and sold the machinery to the firm of J. Mizell & Bro. of Kings Ferry I pulled the wire that sounded the last whistle of the sawmill that was ever heard at Coleraine. Of all the men under whom I worked and of all who worked under me, not one is living that my recollection can recall.
Referring further to steamboats and water, the sawmills and turpentine plants on and near the St. Marys River required many vessels to carry lumber and naval stores to the markets and where these products were sold. The firm of S.L. Burns & Co., who operated the largest sawmills on the river except those of J. Mizell & Bro. owned and operated two steamboats. One was the Flora Temple, a side wheeler. The other was the C.T. Sheppard, a propeller driven boat. It was the Sheppard on which I worked between the periods of my work in the sawmill for Capt. Tyner and Mr. Holtzendorf. If I had the physical ability it would indeed be a pleasure to me to make one more trip on the St. Marys and Nassau rivers and on the sounds between them and across the lapse of time I could still handle the wheel of a steamboat.
When these steamboats had been in use a number of years, like all other things they yielded to the hand of time and service and they were overhauled and rebuilt and the name of the Flora Temple was changed to Athlete and that of the C.T. Sheppard to Gladiator. These boats and their names have long passed into oblivion and perhaps all except myself whoever handled their wheels their throttles and their ropes have gone with them out of existence.
Memory carries me back through the space of these many years to one of the grandest sights that my eyes ever met. One bright fair day when a stiff gale was blowing and the waves were rolling high we were towing a big bark out to sea. As we were going seaward the Lizzie Baker, an ocean steamer, was coming in from New York to Fernandina. As the steamers passed each other and each blew three long whistles of recognition I was thrilled with awe and pleasure as I watched the beautiful white monster plow her way through the waves, her bow raising and splitting a heavy roll of sparkling spray.
--W.O. Gibson
Recollections of Early Charlton County’s Schools
July 10, 1936
To the Editor of the Herald:
When I read in the Brantley Enterprise a few days ago of the death of Professor Harvey W. Mitchum, I thought of the management of schools when he was teaching here something more than forty years ago and of the management at the present time and the mention I am making of the difference between then and now relates to the system and is not intended to cast reflection on any individual.
Then each community had its own school. The selection of teachers was made by the patrons and teachers who were employed were those who were competent, regardless of whether or not they attended college and instead of inexperienced girls being employed as teachers, only men and women of mature judgment were placed in charge of schools. Skylarking at night of pupils would have been promptly reproved and had the teachers engaged in such they would have been dismissed and their license would have been revoked.
Usually eight hours was considered a school day. Children walked to school, some going a distance of three miles. There were no buses to take them up at the gates of their homes in the morning and put them there about the middle of the afternoon provided they had been so fortunate as to escape death or injury by accidents or wrecks.
I will now go further back than Mr. Mitchum’s day and give a description of the first school I ever attended. The time was before the commencement of the Civil War and the location was near the present home of Mr. E.C. Kennison. The teacher was a Frenchman whose name was Peter deYoung. The pupils as their names were then were Seab Mills, Lizzie Mills, Martha Mizell, Everett Mizell, Lucy Mizell and Billie Mizell, John Kennison, Tom Kennison, Sol Vickery, Kate Vickery, Jimmy Hagin, Owen Gibson. Where are they now. Everett Mizell and Solomon Vickery have moldered away in soldiers’ graves in the soil of Virginia. S.F. Mills and Mrs. Lizzie Rudolph, John B. Kennison and Thomas V. Kennison are lying in the Mills Cemetery. Mrs. Martha Lang is in a cemetery in Miami. William Mizell, Sr. is resting in the Folkston Cemetery, the town where he spent his declining days after a very active life. Mrs. Kate Wainwright occupies a grave in Sardis Cemetery and James R. Hagin has lain for many years in a cemetery where Bailey’s Branch Church was located in the long ago. Mrs. Lucy Lang resides in Waycross, her home for many years and W.O. Gibson is living in this vicinity. These two survivors of that school are well up in the age that must follow the schoolmates of their childhood.
For the information and perhaps the amusement of some of the readers of the Herald, I will give a description of that ancient schoolhouse. In size it was about fifteen feet square and built of pine logs from which the bark had not been removed. The floor was clay, the seats were hewn puncheons. The writing desk was a plank about one foot wide and reached across the back end of the house. It had but one door and the only window was an opening made by removing two of the logs just above the writing desk and the shutter was a piece of plank suspended by leather straps for hinges. What a contrast between that rude schoolhouse and the present buildings with polished walls and varnished seats.
-----Respectfully, W.O. GIBSON
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