About The Sylvania times. (Sylvania, Ga.) 2022-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 2022)
thesy lvaniatimes. com The Sylvania Times Wednesday, May 4, 2022 - Page 3 Editorial From the Editor’s Desk -Joe Brady The Sylvania Times, Editor When I wrote a column for the newspaper in Edge- held a reader sent me a poem entitled, “Grandma’s Apron”. I printed that poem in my column, and it was such a huge hit that my loyal readers wanted me to reprint it several years later. How appropriate that I should stumble across that poem again at Mother’s Day! I have no idea who wrote this poem, or I would gladly give them credit because anybody my age or older vividly remembers the apron. You didn’t go into Granny’s kitchen without an apron on, they hung on a peg behind the kitchen door. Mine hung on a peg inside the pantry door. How precious the memories we have? The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying chil dren’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven. When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables, after the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the Fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that old time apron that served so many worthwhile purposes. Remember: Grandma used to set her hot baked pies on the windowsill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the windowsill to thaw. They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron, I never caught anything from an apron except love. Author Unknown Happy Mother’s Day to my own mother, Alyce and to all of you. That’s all for now, take care! fcrlpt p Sjti-M Tiwi fimliHi Pastor Nicole Peeples It Stops Here! Doesn’t it seem that the moment you begin to walk in faith, the enemy comes in to attack that which you are believing? But it is his job to do so. That's why we can never let him in the door or gate of our thoughts. When I purchased my home several years ago, all kind of salespeople would drop by to pitch a sale.... vacuum cleaners, alarms, cable, etc... One day, I made the mistake of letting a Kirby vacuum cleaner rep in the door.... fast forward two hours later, I was buying a Kirby!!! Ugh. I didn't even want one, but she was so persistent and would not take no for an answer. Every excuse I gave, she had a remedy for it. She wore me down. After that, I stopped every sales rep at the door! The same way we need to do Satan and his bag of tricks and lies. Stop him at the threshold of our minds. Layer by layer, he adds on to the lies until it has built a defense that imprisons us...strongholds! We become enslaved to it. Today, focus on the Word to attack every lie as soon as it enters your mind. Don't let Satan make you a slave to your nega tive thoughts! II Corinthians 10:4-5 NLT - 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowl edge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Pastor Peeples is the Senior Pastor at The City of Victory in Sylvania. w m Ogeechee Ramblings Scotty Scott 1 Poor Robin Landing Part 2 Cousin Dale Reddick recently informed me of the following tract named “The Tobler Creeks”, which addresses the origins of “Poor Robin”, which may have tied in with the activities of a Swiss moonshiner named Tobler who had migrated to South Carolina in the 1730s and settled in the Savannah River section from the area above Augusta down to the vicinity of Silver Bluff. The latter place was not far from Jobley’s (a derivate of the name Tobler) Creek in Burke County. This included a segment of the Chickasaw Path, plus a long stretch of Toms Path, which would have joined all of the Tobler Creeks on a comparatively direct line. Perhaps the traders who bought Tobler’s spirits crossed the Savannah at Jobley’s Creek to escape detection by authorities? The place was a good site for a clandestine crossing because it was approximate ly half-way between Mount Pleasant in present northeast Effingham County and Augusta which Georgia had established as inspection points on the Savannah River for regulating Indian trade. Captain Daniel Pepper, commander of Fort Moore on the Carolina side of the Savannah River below Augusta, com mented that the Poor Robin places represent another set of similar but speculative names found in connection with major rivers along a projected line across Georgia. The first and oldest of these sites, as far as records show, pertains to a cluster of Poor Robin designations on the Savannah River to the southeast of Sylvania, in Screven County. In a stretch of about three miles, there is a Poor Robin Lower Point, Poor Robin Lake (slough), and a Poor Robin Bluff and Landing, the last spot being referred to in Georgia colonial records. Upriver from this bluff, about three-quarters of a mile, on the Carolina side, there is a Poor Robin Upper Point. The origin of the Poor Robin names is subject to much speculation. Do they stem from the old rivermen’s language and had meaning that are now lost? But if so, how did it happen the names were applied along the hypothetical line across the state? As the Savannah River landing was referred to in some colonial documents as “Poor Robin’s Bluff’, it is suggested that the locality was named for an individual. That person might have been a Creek chief named Robin who signed the 1733 treaty with Oglethorpe, and who is mentioned as having been bred among the English. It is believed that the chief resided at the bluff which became known to the whites as Poor Robin. Later, when the area between Brier and Ebenezer Creeks was eventually evacuated by the Indians who proceeded to the Oconee, and then to the Ocmulgee, his name was left behind at each subsequent settlement. In closing. I’d just like to state that I’m astounded that our ancestors dabbled in the illicit moonshine trade. How dare they? After all, our ancestors are all models for us to look back on, right? Unearthing Camp Lawton Dr. Ryan McNutt, Ph.D, FSAScot, R.RA. fo the Letters to the editor of The Sylvania Times are wel comed and encouraged. These are pages of opinion, yours and ours.Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s readers. The Sylvania Times re serves the right to edit any and all portions of a letter. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters mwust include the signature, address and phone number of the writer to allow our staff to authenticate its origin. Letters should be limited to 400 words and should be typewritten and double-spaced or neatly printed by hand. Deadline for letters to the editor is noon on Wednesday. Email Letters to the Editor to: thesylva- niatimes@gmail.com Bible & Book Engraving (912)451-6397 Ask for Sam In my previous column I mentioned the global implications of good rail networks for the men bivouacked at Lawton and promised to explain it. In short, the rail networks that linked Lawton to Savannah, Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilm ington, North Carolina stretched across the Atlantic Ocean, past the Union blockade, and into the markets of Great Britain and France. Speculators and private industry consistently ran cotton along the rails past Lawton to the wharfs of Savannah, Charles ton, and Wilmington, where blockade runners transformed the exported cotton into imported goods, cognac, brandy, corset stays, silks, ceramics, toiletry items, buttons, cloth, and so on. Anything in demand was brought in, including of course munitions. However, munitions and war related material made up a small portion of the blockade runner cargo. In fact, it wasn’t until 1864 that the Confederacy mandated a certain percentage of a private blockade runner’s cargo be reserved for war essential, government cargo such as iron, powder, arms, shoes, and medicine like quinine, ether, and opiates. The cargo brought through these merchants then filtered its way through markets to our individuals at Lawton. Ceramics, bottles, tobacco pipes, and buckles and uniform accoutrements in small numbers at Lawton show a clear British origin, likely coming in through blockade runners, and then being either privately purchased, or purchased by the Confederate government, stored in depots and arsenals (like the one in Augusta) and disseminated to troops. However, one of the side effects of this commerce was the monopolization of the railroads by private individuals and consortiums for the movement of their cotton gold to ports, and their imports from ports to markets for distribution. The Confederacy never nationalized, monopolized, or seized railroads for transport of cargo; despite having the legal power to do so, and repeated clashes with governors (including the explosive and belligerent Joe Brown of Georgia) over moving troops between and within states on state railroads, and the rights of railroads to prioritize their own business. While the Confederacy established a Railroad Bureau to inspect, liaise, and arrange for essential transport, ultimately this provided little more than a depressing series of reports of depot and station inspections. Enumerated in these pages are a consistent issue with the Confederacy; its failure to exert executive sovereignty over states and essential industries in support of the war effort. The Railroad Bureau staff document occurrence after occurrence of government chartered freight trains destined for Virginia and other war theaters filled with fodder for horses, salt, bread, meal, and salted beef and pork for men; the trains set motionless on sidings, their cargo slowly being pilfered as it rotted, while train after train passed loaded with private cargos of cotton, heading north for Wilmington for exchange with Great Britain, or clandestine and illegal trade across the front lines with interested Northern factors. After a crop failure in Virginia and other northerly Confederate states in 1863, the government had encouraged the Deep South states to grow food stuffs. Which they did with wild success. Georgia was consumed with fields covered in com, Alabama had produced enough pork that 500 tons were in government storage by April of 1864, not counting the amounts kept for private sale or personal consumption. Across the South, there was more than enough supplies and food stuffs for the Confederate armies in the field. But there was little profit in using even the decrepit and unconnected Southern rail system to send it north with celerity when there was money to be made off the blockade mnner trade and private cargo shipped at higher rates. Indeed, in continued on page 6 LAWTON liiatra ®imrs Proudly covering Screven County’s news, sports, and community events thesylvaniatimes.com Sam Eades Publisher Joe Brady Editor Sam Eades Advertising Sales Debbie Heam Layout and Design Executive Sarah Saxon Admin/Legals/AP Correspondent Burton Kemp Sports Editor Jake Gay Staff Writer Scotty Scott Staff Writer Subscription Rates (Includes tax): 6 Months Delivered In Screven County $ 18.00 1 Year In Screven County $30.00 1 Year Online Only $20.00 2 Years In Screven County $55.00 1 Year Outside of County $40.00 1 Year Outside of Georgia $45.00 The Sylvania Times is published weekly by The Sylvania Times 117 N. Main • Sylvania, Ga. 30467 Phone: (912) 451-NEWS (6397)
