Newspaper Page Text
Early Butts County History
From History of Butts Cos. Compiled by Jackson B.&P.W. Club
JENKINSBURG SCHOOL
The Jenkinsburg school closed for the fall term on the
night of the 23. The term was a very successful one in every
way. Monday the 4, the spring term begins and with an able
faculty and wide awake trustees a very good year is expected.
The following program was carried out:
Opening Song All My Heart This Night Rejoices School
Motion Song Jack and Gill
Recitation.— The Children’s Telegram Ruth Middlebrooks
Duet—The Witch’s Flight-Tenilla Thurston and Miss
Gaillard
Song Sleigh Bells
Recitation Dolly’s Lesson Lucile Aikin
Duet The Sleigh Ride Trenton Thurston, Allie May Harris
Song The Wandering Jews
Solo —Whisperings of Love Nina Mai Phillips
Recitation Whoos Florence Stalsworh
Duet —At School March Nellihu E ’Dalgo and Miss Gaillard
Japanese Drill
Songs Red Wing
The Hooseir Debating Society
Grandmother’s Drill
Recitation A Model Discourse Ambrose Asbury
Play A Christmas Joke
Butts Cos. Progress, Jan. 1,1909
MISS EMMA MANLEY’S WAR
EXPERIENCES IN THE SIXTIES
Hearing daily rumors of Sherman’s Army marching
through Georgia, I was sent by my parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.
P. Manley, from my home near Double Cabins, Spalding
County, Georgia, to Sylvan Grove near Jackson, Butts
County, Georgia, to the home of my sister, Mrs. Asa
Buttrill, to be with my life companion, classmate and niece,
Mary Buttrill, and share our fate together. Sister and
brother-in-law decided for our safety, niece and I best to
refugee to Macon where my brother Manson Manley, nephew
Taylor Buttrill, Ben Barham, Taylor Johnson, Joe Woodward
and many others of our friends were stationed. Sixteen
year-old country boys under command of Captain Charlie
Stark of Griffin, Georgia.
SO on the 16th of November, 1864, two large wagons
were packed with ebibles, valuable and comfort. The pair of
Kentucky-bred black horses (Sam and Henry) were shod and
groomed and ready to be hooked to a handsome phaeton (the
graduation gift to my niece from her parents). We were just
out of college.
My brother Manson, nephew Taylor Buttrill, Walter
Beeks and others were sent up from Macon as scouts to see
how Sherman’s Army was advancing. The boys spent the
night of the 16th in my sister’s home. Sylvan Grove. Horses
stood at the back door bridled and saddled to mount at a
moment’s warning. About sunrise on the 17th, our wagons
already gone, the horses champing their bits, hooked to the
phaeton eager to go, our country boys on horses half
concealed by the trees on the south side of the house watching
when at a furious rate up galloped five hundred men dressed n
blue to the front gate and called for the man of the house (He
had gone with our wagons) so my sister went to the door and
was thus addressed “Madam, where is Forrest and
Wheeler?” “Sir, I do not know.” “Madam, do not tell a lie.”
“Sir, I’d have you know that I am a Southern Lady.” No more
was said but we could hear the rumbling of the great army at
a distance coming. Frightened faithful negro women were all
in the hous cline clinging to “Mistiss.”
So niece and I, our maids Martha and Manda, got in the
Phaeton with a crippled soldier (Ben Drake who my sister
had nursed two years) driving us. We drove rapidly and
crossed the Ocmulgee River at Roach’s Ferry, went on a mile
and stopped at a well in front of Stephen Johnson’s home in
Jasper County. My brother, Manson Manley, and Taylor
Buttrill were with us there. We took lunch and rested. As we
looked, we saw a blue cloud of Yankee Soldiers coming over
the hill and down to the river; the flat detained them, so my
brother and nephew saddled their horses. Ben Drake leadped
into the phaeton, and off they left at a great speed for
Macon. A hundred or more Blue Coats on fast horses came up
to us in a few minutes. May niece, two maids and I were
standing at the well (as the Johnsons said if they took in
refugees, the Yankees would burn their house.) They yelled
out, “Where are those damn Reds that were with you?” We
said “Gone”. Manda, one of the maids, ran up the left road
screaming. “Come back Marse Taylor and give up or these
Yankees will kill you.” She misled them: they ran for miles
and came back cursing furiously, for our boys had taken the
right-hand road to Macon, Georgia. Manda had one this on
her own accord. After a few moments, niece and I asked if
there was a gentleman in the crowd who would give us
protection. One man dismounted and said “I have a mother
and sister l’ll protect you at the risk of my life.” So we
walked back with him a mile through woods to a little two
room house where the army had captured our wagons,
unloaded them, burst open our trunks and gave many things
to factory people nearby. He took us on to General George E.
Spencer’s tent and asked of him protection for us.
We were dressed in silk henrietta train dresses; as we
walked through the woods, these dresses were torn to shreds,
so Gen. Spencer put us in an ambulance, drove around and
gathered us some of our clothes. My shoes were light, thin
summer ones but the early morning walk through the woods a
mile had made them unfit to wear. Gen Spencer noticed them.
Then I looked and saw a little girl with my new handsome
boots on (My name was on them) so he took the shoes from
her feet and gave them to me. It was turning bitter cold so he
took us back to the little two-room home and told the ’ady,
“Take these in, or I’ll burn your house, damn quick.” Gen.
Spencer then put a guard of forty men around this little house,
kitchen, chicken-house and hog-pen and he, himself brought
nice meals to us and our maids three times a day. Here we
witnessed soldiers with patterns of 15 yards of silk from our
trunks wound around horses galloping up and down the red
muddy hills of Jasper County. One had his horse covered with
my sister’s handsome white crepe shawl. Several negroes
clothed in our brother’s handsome broadcloth suits rode up
and down the road by us with great impudence.
Occasionally an impudent Yank would come into the
house; one took my hands and looked at my rings. There we
sat ten days, heads in each other’s laps and the two maids
sitting on the floor by us. Once Capt. Larkin Watson was
allowed to cross the river and come to see us. He was riding
an old broken-down horse with a side saddle and soon as he
dismounted to come in, a Yank ran off with his horse, but Gen.
Spencer was kind and sent him back home just across the
river.
THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA
When the wagons were captured, Judge Buttrill was
with them. The Yanks made him dismount, took his overcoat
and hat and sent us word the old greyheaded judge from Jack
son was dangling from a limb over the Ocmulgee River. Just
before they captured him, he gave his handsome gold watch
and chain to a poor country man, Mr. Magarhu, to keep for
him, so he kept it and returned it after the army passed, and
was rewarded.
About midnight, the first night we were in the cabin, my
niece was sitting next to a window with a wooden shutter. A
note was slipped through a crack of the shutter to her by the
old man, Mr. Magarhu, which said “Mary, I have been
robbed and stripped by the Yanks but have eluded them,
and knowing this country as I do, will soon be with your
mother.” T’ was a great relief to know that he was alive.
Well, we left Sylvan Grove a warm bright sunny
morning in a handsome turnout and returned in an ox-cart a
bitter cold icy day. We found the house standing alone.
Pailings, fences, gin-house, cotton, cows, chickens, horses
and mules were one. Everything in the house except in my
sister’s room was destroyed. Faithful servants put out the fire
and saved the house many times. We sat up by the fire a week,
had no bedding and lived on parched and boiled corn and
roasted potatoes, not a dish or cooking vessel. Dead carcasses
were lying all around the house.
One windy morning during the Yank’s stay, my sister
looked out her window and said it was snowing. The faithful
colored woman sitting near her said, “No missus, these men
are ripping open your feather beds and pillows to see feathers
fly.”
Gen. Blair occupied my sister’s parlor with his staff,
and when he gave an order to his guard outside, he kicked out
a glass. My sister had a beautiful five-year-old adopted
daughter, Kate Brushwood of Richmond, Virginia. She had
but one article of her wealthy mother’s belongings, an ebony
work box of exquisite make; a rude Yankee jerked it from her
little hands although she pleaded it was all she had of her dead
mother’s belongings, he dashed it against a tree and broke it
into splinters.
Gen. George E. Spener stayed with us in
Jasper County at the log cabin three hours after the entire
army passed, left us food and gave a fine horse to get us
home. He gave it to the Lady, (me). I had an extensive
correspondence with Gen. Geor. E. Spencer after the war,
exchanged pictures, and my niece (Miss Mary Buttrill) said it
was a very unusual circumstance of enemy smitten with little
southland girl at first sight, but naught resulted from it.
Six months after the war, Ben Drake drove up to Sylvan
Grove with carriage and horses. Had I remained at home I
would not have seen a Yankee.
Note: This is also Mrs. R. C. Edwards family and she
gave permission for this historic information to be used in
B&PW Project.
The information was obtained from Mrs. R. H. Moore,
Hampton, Georgia. Permission secured from her daughter,
Mrs. Marvin Clark of Atlanta, Georgia.k
©wt'BnitnEfliiJfppcnliitis
From a Great American Savings Assn.
.MB'* j fZ'
by permission of THE BFTTMANN ARCHIVE
1778: France discovers America.
Our Declaration of Independence has been a success in
more ways than the obvious. All over Europe, we’re
getting emotional support. Practical help, too. Brilliant
officers like Baron de Kalb and Baron von Steuben from
Germany. Kosciusko from Poland. And most of all, anew
respect from France. We’re sure we can get France to
sign a treaty of alliance now. But it isn’t until after our
victory at Saratoga that she’s convinced we’re strong
enough to win a war against England. Benjamin Frank
lin goes to Paris. A treaty is signed in February. And
now, it’s no holds barred. We use the French navy. We
get thousands of troops. And we have the Marquis de-
Lafayette. It’s our first treaty of alliance with a foreign
power. It’s even more than we’d hoped for.s
Newton Federal Savings
& Loan Assn.
Covington, Ga.
THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1976
■ H
jy. - ‘
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE —This photo was taken in the early 1900’s when
Jackson’s water system was installed. Celebrating the occasion in front of the F. B.
Outhouse Grocery Store are 1, J. H. Carmichael; 2, C. R. Gresham; 3, J. R. Carmichael; 4,
S. 0. "Ham; 5, J. B. Wall, Mayor; 6, W. E. Watkins, City Attorney. The picture was
submitted by Mrs. A. C. Freeman.
Jurors
Drawn
The following jurors have
been drawn to serve at the
February term of Butts
superior court, which con
venes here on the 21st:
GRAND JURORS
J. M. Maddox, A. M. Pace,
A. McGibony, E. R. Merritt,
J. E. McMichael, E. W.
O’Neal, J. S. Carter, J. L.
Johnson, 0. L. Weaver, R. C.
Gardner, H. J. Maddox, J. W.
Heard, Jr., J. S. Ham, R. E.
Evans. T. E. Redman, W. P.
Elliott. W. D. Compton, A. H.
Ogletree. A. M. Watkins, Sr.,
W. F. Huddleston. J. C. Bell,
J. B. Carmichael, J. A. King,
J T. E Dalgo. C. L. Maddox,
J. W. Childs. J. M. Currie, J.
D. Brownlee, J. B. Childs, S.
L. Smith.
TRAVERSE JURORS
FIRST WEEK
R. L. Carter, F. M.
Lawson, D. V. Grant, J. J.
Jenkins, W. T. Thurston, B.
Y. Thaxton, C. J. Greer, R.
W. Cash, W. A. Funderburk,
W. A. Wilson, J. P. Maddox,
Eugene Foster, A. J. Hay, W.
A. Wilson, J. W. Jones, C. B.
Sims, W. T. McClure, J. T.
Goodman, W. M. Leverette,
W. T. Powers, I. J. Slaughter,
F. B. Outhouse, H. C.
McElehenney, H. M. Barron,
L. M. Thorton, C. B. Higgins,
B. F. Brown, J. P. Allen, W.
H. M. Bond, J. R. Conner, W.
E. Flynt, Frank Ogletree, J.
C. Moore, O. A. Duke, A. C.
Millen, J. E. Pettigrew.
TRAVERSE JURORS
SECOND WEEK
J. 0. Pressley, J. T. Mayo,
W. B. Maddox, J. M. Craw-
#wtftmciiii)§ppcniii|s
From a Great American Restaurant
by permission of THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
1803: America strikes a bargain.
Spain has given in to France. Her territories west
of the Mississippi now belong to Napoleon. And
the Little Corporal intends to close the river to our
trade. We may even lose the West entirely, and
face sharing the continent with rival French col
onies. President Jefferson sends James Monroe to
Paris with permission from Congress to spend up
to $lO million, if he has to, to buy New Orleans,
Napoleon’s answer: No! But Napoleon has been
known to change his mind unexpectedly. Sud
denly, anew offer. Not just New Orleans, but the
whole of Louisiana for sls million. That would
double the area of the United States! Monroe has
no authority to make that big a buy. There’ll be
plenty of complaining back home. But he goes
ahead. He gets grumbles and, finally, approval.
And we start moving West. $
Tomlin’s Restaurant
ford, T. P. Bell, J. B. Brooks,
J. H. Carmichael, Genus
Maddox, J. L. Fincher, W. M.
Preston, W. R. Minter, T. W.
Ham, Davis Moore, C. M.
Lynch, W. T. Mangham, C.
M. Fletcher, G. P. Williams,
T. J. Waldrop, E. R. Harper,
0. P. Jinks, A. H. Colwell, W.
J. Bankston, W. T. Nelson, J.
R. Sams, S. T. Hendrick, W.
F. Duke, Jr., 0. D. Smith, A.
F. Taylor, Nat Williamson,
R. R. McCord, Lewis White,
D. W. Byrant, J. T. Fincher,
J. F. Lane, W. W. Weaver, J.
R. Long. Butts County
Progress, Feb. 4, 1910.
Our Constitution is in
actual operation; everything
appears to promise that it
will last; but in this world
nothing is certain but death
and taxes. Benjamin
Franklin.
NEW POST MASTER
GOES IN ON
NOVEMBER FIRST
Mr. I J. Slaughter received
his commission as post master
at Jackson last Saturday and
he will take charge of the office
tomorrow, November first.
Mr. J. G. McDonald remains
with the office as assistant post
master and Miss Pearl Maddox
has been appointed a clerk.
Mrs. A. B. Harp’s long
connection with the office ends
today and she gives way
tomorrow to the new official.
The change will take place
without special incident, all the
necessary preliminaries hav
ing been arranged some time
ago. -- Butts County Progress,
Oct. 31, 1913.