The News and courant. (Cartersville, Ga.) 1901-1904, August 11, 1904, Image 1

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sew Series —Yol. Ill—No 42 IN THOSE OLDEN DAYS Pioneer Citizen Relates Some of City's Earlier History. Having reached that ripened stage of manhood where there is a peculiar joy in things reminiscent, Mr, Nathaniel Derry Lewis, one of the early settlers, is a most engag ing personage, and a conversation with him reveals many things of the long ago that are very interest ing at this day. Mr. Lewis is in his 88th year, and, his wife having died year be fore last, he now lives about with his children, of which there are eleven, and all of them living and grown, the youngest being 35. One of his sons lives at Annis ton, Ala., and, haying a stay with him, he came over, some ten days ago, to be with his children in this county for awhile. One of these is Mark Lewis, near Stilesboro, and the other is Mrs. Seaborn Hicks, of this city. Mr. Lewis acts and looks as spry as many a man of 50, enjoys the best of health and thinks nothing of an eight or ten miles walk when he chooses that kind of combined pastimt and recreation. Several years ago he walked in from Row land Springs, eight miles, before breakfast, and the feat didn’t fa tigue him any to speak of, Seating himself at our request in one of our office chairs, after he had been informed that the News and Courant would like a story from him of the long ago, he be gan: ‘‘You see, I was among the first of the whites who came to this locality. The Indians were here, . ML * * Ji NATHANIEL DERRY LEWIS. atM I well remember the ponies they iode, and the little pappooses, bound to their mothers’ backs by blankets 01 shawls, when the bands would go about; also their ball games and bow and arrow’ shoot ings, which the whites would en joy looking at, and praise the skill of the redskins. “There were about one hundred white people in what is now.Bar fow county, I reckon, when I first came.” “What year was it? I came over from England in 1833, and soon landed at this spot. I went back to England in IS3B to see Queen Victoria crowned. It w r as a grand sight,the crowning. I land ed oacK in America, ana went iw Pennsylvania in 1841. I then came back to this locality, where I have lived ever since until two years ago, w’hen my wife died. “There was a little settlement of a few houses half a mile below the present town, above where the Puckett crossing on the W, & A. railroad now is. I named the place Birmfcgham, for Birming ham in England. I put up a black smith and wood shop there, and when the stage coach line was run ning between Rome and Atlanta I got considerable work on repairs to the stage coaches. •‘Col. Farish Carter, of Carter’s Quarter, on the Coosawattee river, owned consi ’erable land all around here, secured in what was known as the Cherokee purchase. He was a great friend of mine, and tried to get me to name the little settlement we h?d Cartersville, for THE NEWS AND COURANT. him. I told him we had our town already named Birmingham, and didn’t want to change it. I told him it looked like there might be a town grow up a half a mile north. I meant the present site of Carters ville; this was now, mind you, a number of years after I first came, and when the state road was a project on foot, and they were fix ing for a station here. You see the road was built very slowly. They didn’t have the methods and facilities for fast work that they do now. There was one well and one house then in what is now Cartersville. Col. Carter named the place for himself, and had the pleasure of seeing it grow into a smart little town before he died.” “Are there any of the earlier settlers here now besides you?” was asked. “I can only recall three. They are John Gladden, John Callahan and Mrs. Hicks, Seab Hicks’ mother. “Cartersville built up almost altogether on the east side at first. It was a long time that the west side was nothing but a forest. Mr. Nathan Howard had the first little house and a shop on the road running along the railroad in front of the Bill Arp home, where D, B. Freeman's home now is. “There used to be a large pond where skating was done in winter by the earlier settlers. It covered an acre or so of ground, and the middle of it was down about where the warehouses now are, and that pond was never dried up until after the war. There was talk of plant ing trees around it and making it a permanent lake. “The new comers that came to settle up were from lower Georgia and South Carolina mostly. I re member when Mark A. Cooper came from down the country. It was about the year ’45; Kirkpat rick had a saw-mill on the river, and Cooper soon began to discover there was more to expect there than lumber, and went to work on the property which he bought and built up his iron business, Moses Stroup having experimented in iron and built a little furnace al ready. “I used to go to Louisville, in Jefferson county, when the capital was there, and knew some of the prominent Georgians of those days; but you see my memory is now getting faulty on names.” “What were the first incentives for a town here?” was a question given Mr. Lewis. “There didn’t seem to be any great incentive, and Cartersville seemed a slow grower. Rowland Springs seemed to catch a great crowd, people coming from Savan •nah, Mobile, New Orleans, and other places to get the benefit of the water and have a pleasant time. Cartersville was the near' est railroad station, and the com ings and goings made it lively here.” Having heard the fact stated, we asked Mr. Lewis regarding his helping to make the Joe Brown pikes that evoked so much ridicule during the civil war. “Yes, I worked in the armory at Milledgeville where those imple ments were made, and helped to make them. “ ‘You can get the enemy going or coming,' was Governor Brown’s remark about using them in bat tle. “If I could refresh my memory a little I could tell you more, but you see my memory is getting faul ty,” said Mr. Lewis again,and,grate- ful for his patient narrations, we desisted from further tax on his willing faculties. CARTERSVILLE, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 1, 11)04. A FATAL ACCIDENT Bullet from a Winchester Kills a Little Child. SUPPOSED EMPTY GUN Treacherous Piece Was a Part of the Remains of an Old Shooting Gallery. . 1 C)ne of those lamentable fatalities that come from the handling of fire arms supposed not to be loaded and for which there is no blame but only regret, happened in this city last Saturday afternoon. At the home of Mrs. R. L. Reeves, which is between the home of Col. T. C. Milner and the gas works, at about two o’clock, David Reeves, a youth of 14 years, was playing with his fourteen months old niece, Mary Reeves. The child espied a winchester rifle and cried for it. The gun was the property of Frank Rogers, some of the effects of his late shoot ing gallery. Young Reeves had unloaded the gun several days be fore, and never dreaming of possi ble harm to the child, handed it to it. When in the child’s hand the gun caught against a bed post. A loud report was heard and a bullet went crashing into little Mary's skull. The ball entered under the left eye. The child lingered only about twenty minutes. Frank Rogers had reloaded the gun after young Reeves had un loaded it, never dreaming of an accident, but the latter was perfect ly ignorant of the fact, and sup posed the weapon empty and harm less. The little child was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ransou Reeves, who live on the J. W. L. Brown farm, and had come in with its mother, on a visit to its grand mother. The grandmother, mother, and young David Reeves, have been overcome with grief over the acci dent. GEORGIA HONORED. Col. Douglas Wikle i* Nominated for State Senator in Tennessee. Col. Douglas Wikle is again honored by his fellow citizens in Tennessee. He was elected two years ago to the legislature without ODposition and has just been nom inated for the state senate, having carried 17 of the 23 districts in the democratic primary, which is equiv alent to election. Col. Wilke has a law office in the city of Nashville, and resides on his farm, at a con venient distance, just over the line in Williamson county, and reaches the city by lailroad or a drive over the pike. His many friends in Bartow, his old home, will be glad to hear of his success. Rase Rail Revived. Interest in base ball is reviving again in Cartersville. The boys who used to put up such good games here have found some new material and have organized a team that will do some clever work. They went down to Kennesaw to play the club at that place yesterday. Mr. Ben Jones, a well-known citizen of Gordon county, was found dead in his room at his home at Farmville Monday morning. An inquest was held, and it was de cided that his death was due to heart failure. An excursion will be run by the Western and Atlantic railroad from Adairsville, Resaca, Calhoun and McDaniel’s, to Chattanooga and return, on next Thursday, August ißtb. Special train leaves Adairs ville at 7 a. m.; $1.25 for round trip. Tickets good for two days. Little Misses Margie and Mary Hooper Wikle, of Atlanta, are vis iting their aunt, Miss Mary Wikle. FORMEDENCAMPMENT A New Organization of Odd Fellows. M EMBERSHIP TWENTY. Grand Patriarch Randall and Grand Representative Bass are Present and Officiate- An Odd Fellows' encampment was organized under fine promise from Cartersville Lodge No. 142, last Monday night, at the hall of the lodge. Graud Patriarch Randall, of Griffin, and Grand Representative J. L Bass, of Rome, were present and officiated in the organization. The encampment organized with an enrollment of 20 members and was named Bartow Encampment No. 19. The following were the officers elected: J. H. Donahoo, Chief Patriarch. W. E. Smith, High Priest. F. M. Smith, Senior Warden. G. H. Hendricks, Jr.. Scribe. H. L. Adams, Treasurer. J. C. Ray, Jr. C. Gribble, Guide. C. N. Smith, 0.-Sentinel. T. W. Tinsley, I. Sentinel. C. W. Sproull, Ist Watch. H. D. Ford, 2nd Watch. Jno. Stanford, 3rd Watch. J. W. Hill, 4 th Watch. G. W. Young, Ist Guard. H. L. Collins, 2nd Guard. The growth of Odd Fellows in Cartersville has been almost phe nomenal and the order is one of the most sturdy and popular secret orders of the town. Cartersville lodge was organized two years ago with a small beginning and it now numbers over one hundred mem • bm-s. The organization of the c scamp ed is quite an additional neat tri umph for the order here. A JUVENILE CARVER. Tw* Little Negroes Have a Scrap With Almast Fatal Consequences. There was a scrap between two little negroes Friday night that came near being the end of one of the participants. Bill Wofford and John Willie Kelly were their names, they were both about 13 years old, and the row, which was up about the African Methodist church, began first in a play, but grew in violent proportions at a rapid rate. Finally Bill Wofford whipped out a pocket knife and began carving his antagonist with Jack the-ripper speed. Kelly was cut six or seven times. One wound in the back nearly reached his lungs and another in the stomach was an ugly gash. For a while it was doubted if the boy who was, cut would live and Wofford was put in jail to wait developments. The Kelly boy has improved and it is believed will finally get well. DIED IN ALABAMA. Father of Mrs. W. F. Baker, of This City Passes Awav Last Week. Mr. C. C. Sorrels, father of Mrs. W. F. Baker, of this city, was ac cidently killed ba train, walking around one engine into another, at Horse Creek, Ala., last Sunday. His remains were carried to Ac worth Monday and were interred Tuesday. Mr. and Mrs. Baker and daugh ter, Mrs. Robert F. Jones, atteud the funeral. Mr. Sorrels had long been a citi zen of Acworth but moved to Alabama about five years ago. He leaves a wife, who now is very ill, and five children. They are Clifford and Charles Sorrels, of Alabama; Mrs. W. F. Baker, of this city; Mrs. John McEver, of Ac worth; and Mrs. R. E. Cason, of Cedartown. A GREAT PEACH CROP Georgia’s Shipments Amount to About 4,000 Car Loads. HE GOT HIS PRICE. How a Bartow Peach Man Caagkt Up With a Would-Be Buacoer of Shipmest. Mr. R. R, Whitehead has re turned from a trip to Indianapolis, Ind., and Columbus, 0., where be went to see after the sale of two cars of peaches, which were shipped from Stilesboro by Mr. W. H. Grif fin and himself. These cars had been shipped on a guarantee ot 85 and 90 cents, but on their arrival there the commission merchant wired that the fruit was small, specked and in bad condition. Mr. Whitehead boarded the fast train to go and see if this was the case. He arrived at his destina tion, and went direct to the house, and did not make himself known, but asked if they had aif “fancy” peaches. “Yes, sir; a car on the track has just arrived," was the reply. Mr. Whitehead was taken to the car and the fruit shown to him. He asked the price. “A dollar and a quarter to $1.50 a crate,” he answered. They went back to the store, and there Mr. Whitehead made himself known. The gentleman was dumfounded, and did not want to pay t ie guaranteed price, but Mr. Whitehead did not leave until he had every cent of it. The peach growers are con vinced that it is best-tosend a man with every car. IN ALDERMAN IG RACK. Farmer Cartersville Maa Named for Ma aicipal Heaers ia Atlanta, Along with an excellent picture, the Atlanta Constitution of yester day makes the following compli mentary mention of Dr. C. A. Wikle, formerly of this city: “The friends of Dr. Charles A. Wikle, who is a candidate for the city council of Atlanta from the seventh ward, declare he will be elected with little or no opposition. He has never been in politics, never before aspired to any office, and has always been a quiet, thor ough, energetic and prosperous business man. He had no idea or intention of aspiring to any office, being content to pursue the even tenor of his way as a druggist. His candidacy, therefpre, is the result of numerous solicitations from friends who would not take no for an answer; and. yielding to this solicitation, he is now a pro nounced candidate for the city council. “Dr. Wikle was born and reared in Cartersville, Ga., but has lived in Atlanta almost continuously since 1881, the most of which time has been spent behind the drug counter and in the chemical labor atory. He has lived in West End for five years, and conducts one of the most attractive drug stores in the city. His patrons are num bered among nearly the entire pop ulation of that ward. He is a son of Judge J. R. Wikle, president of the National Bank of Carters ville, and a brother of State Sena tor Douglas Wikle, of Nashville, Tenn. “Asa character that the people admire, Dr. Wikle presents a strik ing personality. He is apparently about 42 years old, kind in his ways, strict to perform every obli gation, true to his friends and for giving to his enemies. He will make ho undue sciamble for the place, but nevertheless will doubt*- less be overwhelmingly elected. It goes without saying that if elected he will make the seventh ward and the city of Atlanta a first-class and valuable council man.” Old Series—2sth Year Georgia’s shipment of peaches this year amounted to nearly four thousand car-loads. The bulk of * this vast amount of fruit came from north Georgia, and consider able of it came from Bartow, Gor don and Flovd counties. The shipments from Kingston, Cass Station, Halls, Adairsville, McDaniels, Calhoun and Plain ville were the heaviest ever known from those points, but the prices have been disappointing. Tbe growers have not received wdiat they hoped for, and there is a feel ing among the orchard growers that the industry has received a serious check. This feeling is perhaps due to the fact that former prices had in a measure spoiled the growers. They had come to look upon a crate of good Klbertas as a box of gold nuggets. The industry had, in the nature of things, to come to the level of common business, and this is no doubt what will occur. The orchards which are carefully and cheaply worked and kept ia good condition will produce good fruit, and this can always be sold for a lair price. The orchards which are neglected, and the fruit which is badly packed, will be eliminated in the course of time, and then the well managed orchard will have the market to itself. THE TELEPHONE. Farmer* Should Help the New Liae by Liberal Ceaceaaiaaa. There is no convenience that has come to the people in the march of progress in this century that is more generally appreciated when once enjoyed than the telephone. Your friends are brought to you in communication, if not face to face, within voice sound and there is a pleasure and satisfaction in confer ences thus that one doesn’t expe r.ence in those otherwise. Since the exchange was first instituted in Cartersville the tele phone has grown more and more popular with the people and many people would give up most any home convenience before they would dispense with their phone. Since the lines have been built into the country and new connect ions have been secured their use has been greatly enlarged and more appreciated. The Bell company are now fixing to build a line to Fairmount and meet with no obstruct ions in their work. People in the territory which it will reach do not appreciate as yet what a great con venience it will be to them- The company desires such concessions ‘ from farmers as the running of the lines of poles through their farms, This should be granted them freely and readily and we think it will. Farmers, “think about it, and treat the developers of your locality with liberality. Lengthy Sweets. The day of tall growth for Bartow products seems here. Last week we told of a corn stalk feet high and this week there has been left at our office a stalk of sorghum cane that measures over fourteen feet. It was grown on the farm of Mrs. J. L. Irick, at Grassdale, and was from the crop of Arthur Weems, colored. Among those from out of town attending the Goodwin-Ross wed ding were Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Cor ley, Mr. and Mrs. Clem Hackney, of Macon; Mr. and Mrs. John Fambro and Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Mcßride, of Rockmart. The friends of Mr. Irby Hen derson will be glad to learn that he is improving.