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Mmxtar.
VOL. XXX.
COUNTY OFFICIALS
AGAINST DIVISION
Two County Commissioners
Strong Protest Against
“Treutlen.”
As two out of the three county
commissioners of Montgomery
county, we certify to the follow
ing facts:
A life-long residence and our
public service warrant us in say
ing that we know the people of
Montgomery county. We know
that they are opposed to the fur
ther division of this county, and
that such division can only re
sult in its financial ruin.
By daily personal contact with
them, we certify that they are
almost unanimously opposed to
its being again cut in half. We
further state that a large major
ity of the tax payers residing in
the Soperton and Lothair dis
tricts, outside the town of Soper
ton, in the territory proposed for
Treutlen county, are decidedly
against the creation of the new
county. Such creation can only
bring increased burdens of taxa
tion to both the old and the pro
posed new counties.
We give it as our honest opin
ion that fully three-fourths of
our citizens would vote today, if
allowed expression by ballot,
against cutting off half of the
territory remaining in this county
after its repeated divisions. We
certify that to cut Montgomery
county as proposed for Treutlen,
taking practically half of its ter
ritory after having been cut three
times already, would leave the
old cjunty many thousands of
dollars in debt, with no means or
hope of its ever reaching the con
dition of prosperity and financial
strength enjoyed by its people
before its emasculation began.
To claim that our people are
even willing to allow such de
struction of their county is an
outrage against the truth, and a
rank imposition upon a people
cursed by such divisions as no
other county in Georgia has ever
been.
We are constrained to certify
to these facts in the interest of
truth and justice, and not as the
expression of any faction, and
consider them more worthy of
belief than the statements of any
paid hireling who seeks to de
stroy Montgomery county for
the little pay he gets for assist
ing in its disruption.
Elijah Miller,
Carl C. McAllister,
Countv Commissioners.
SENTIMENT AGAINST
FURTHER BUTCHERY
Lives in a New County But
Wants to Save Old
Montgomery.
Editor Folsom of the Mont
gomery Monitor is waging a mas
terful fight to keep new county
enthusiasts from cutting old
Montgomery County again. Al
though we believe in new coun
ties where they are an advantage
and improvement, we believe
that Montgomery has been
butchered up enough.—Claxton
Enterprise
Attends Maxwell Meeting.
Mr. John E. Mcßae, of the
Maxwell agency of Mcßae &
Hicks, returned from Atlanta
yesterday morning, where he at
tended a gathering of the Max
well automobile agents. The
meeting planned to sell 60,(XX)
Maxwells in 1916. See the page
ad. of this reliable, smooth-run
ning car on another page.
First Open Cotton.
The first open boll of cotton of
the 1915 crop was sent in to us
last Friday by Dan Wallace, a
tenant on the farm of Mr. T. 0.
Gibbs. The cotton crop in Mont
gomery county is not up to the
average in condition, but picking
will soon be under way. Several
“first bales” have been sent to
market from other sections.
MAP OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY AND ITS DIVISIONS
Mr. Jim L. Gillis Makes Statement.
To the voters of Montgomery County:
I understand that some of the people
of the county are being led to believe
that I am running on a new county plat
form. I hereby pledge that I will neither
instigate, encourage nor support any
measure that should prove contrary to
the wishes of the majority of the voters
of Montgomery county. Soliciting your
support, lam Respectfully yours,
Jim L. Gillis.
—Montgomery Monitor, July 23, 1914.
At a county primary, prior to Mr.
Gillis’s nomination, and before above
card was published, the people of Mont
gomery county voted overwhelmingly
against the proposed Treutlen county.
Original Area Montgomery Co., 763 sq. miles
Cut to Form Toombs Co., 1905, 80 sq. miles
Militia Dist. cut to Toombs, 1907 15 sq. miles
Wheeler Co., created 1912, 293.5 sq. miles
Leaving Montgomery at present 374.5 sq. miles
Proposed Cut to Treutlen Co. 187 sq. miles
Would Leave in Montgomery 188 sq. miles
Tax Values for Entire Co., 1914 $2,637,250
Poll Tax Payers for 1914 1956
More than three-fourths of the citizens of Montgom
ery County are opposed to the proposed Treutlen cut.
Will the Legislature obliterate Montgomery County, named in honor
of Gen. Richard Montgomery, who died for American liberty?
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A Direct Appeal to the General Assembly.
No county in Georgia has been cut and slashed as Montgomery county has. The
proposition to again eut it and take off* half its remaining territory to form Treutlen
county is an outrage against its people and the state. For ten years its people have
suffered by such agitation and strife and have protested time and again to he let alone,
that some time and money may be used to build up the remnant left of a once prosper
ous and progressive county. The people have spoken by ballot against such a eut, which
cannot mean anything hut to leav'b Montgomery a pauper among Georgia’s prosperous
counties. Three-fourths of the taxpayers in the old section and in the territory again
sought by such cut are against it, but by dis bolical political trading are left without a
voice in the law-making body of the state.
No honest legislator can investigate the truth in this case without arriving at the
conclusion that the Treutlen proposition means the final destruction of a county for the
benefit of a mere handful of men. What have the people of Montgomery done that the
county must be reduced to pauperism? Why is it that every schemer who sees ail op
portunity to put a few dollars in his pocket is allowed to cut and slash Montgomery,
while the creation of new counties in fifty other sections would he more reasonable?
The originator of the idea of creating new counties did not contemplate the
butchering of one county to attempt to force the upbuilding of any village or the
enhancement of the property of any set of men. There is nothing else in the Treutlen
proposition. The people of Montgomery county, and Georgia, await you decision.
We beg you to accept certified facts, instead of the vaporings of paid lobbyists
before you vote for a proposition that means our ruination as a county. The increased
burden of taxation by a further cut would fall on county farmers, who would vote almost
to a man against this unreasonable and unjust proposition. You can save Montgomery
county by a righteous vote. You can finish its destruction by refusing to hear the truth.
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MT. VERNON. GEORGIA. THURSDAY. JULY 29. 1915.
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From County Surveyor.
State of Georgia— Montgomery County.
I hereby certify that the above is a true and correct
outline map of Montgomery County, showing territory
cut from the original county since 1905, together with
the proposed Treutlen County cut. This the 28th day of
June, 1915. S. B. Morris,
County Surveyor Montgomery County.
Upper section shows territory sought for proposed
Treutlen County, to be added to territory from Emanuel
county. If again cut in half, Montgomery County will
be but half the size of Wheeler, made entirely from
Montgomery County territory.
A STRONG DAILY
PRESENTS TRUTH
Savannah Press is Strongly
Against Ruination of
Montgomery.
What is the Georgia legislature
trying to do to Montgomery
county? It looks as if it desires
to get it practically off the map
of Georgia or to so circumscribe
its boundaries as to make it a
county that is constantly pover
ty-stricken and mostly swamp
lands.
We notice with some surprise
that the house committee on con
stitutional amendments has re
ported favorably upon a bill for
the creation of the county of
Treutlen, which is to be made up
from territory taken from Mont
gomery and Emanuel counties.
We are astonished that the com
mittee should have reported this
measure favorably because of the
great injury it does to Montgom
ery, which is one of the oldest
and hitherto one of the most pros
perous of the counties in the
state. The fight for the creation
of Treutlen county we under
stand is being waged by the rep
resentative from Montgomery
county and this makes it difficult
for those who are opposed to its
further destruction to combat the
plan.
The people of Montgomery
county have voted upon the ques
tion of creating Treutlen by giv
ing up a large section of Mont
gomery and they have decided
against it. Representative Gillis
when he ran for the legislature
published a card which certainly
said in effect that he would not
ask for the creation of a new
county unless the people wanted
it. And the people said at the
ballot box they did not want it.
In the face of this Mr. Gillis is
calling upon his fellow legislators
to vote for something his sup
porters at home did not want.
It may be possible his interests
in Soperton, the proposed coun
ty seat of Treutlen, are so great,
or his kinship ties with those in
Soperton so pronounced that he
has changed his mind and has
decided to ask for the creation of
the new county.
Montgomery county has been
so greatly emasculated and cut
up and divided in the past that it
has now reached a point where
it should at least be let alone.
There are sections of Montgom
ery county that are not more
than eight miles across. Much
of the territory is given over to
the Oconee river swamp, which
is neither productive of taxes or
crops. We notice that it is not
proposed to give much of these
dark and swirling waters, cy
press knees and catfish to Treut
len. is to be permitted
to continue to enjoy its share of
the blessings of this great and
noble stream.
In its present shape Montgom
ery county is not any too large
and if it is cut as is proposed to
create Treutlen it will present a
condition of affairs that no legis
lature should assist in creating.
Wheeler county was sliced off of
Montgomery largely to gratify a
whim and the ambition of a dis
barred lawyer who wanted new
fields to conquer and who as or
dinary of the county he assisted
in creating is now a defendant in
a criminal prosecution connected
with the affairs of his
office. It was the ambition of
this man largely that gave Mont
gomery county the first stab.
Now it would appear that the
! county is to be further ruined
! through the ambition of those
who think more of making a
town a county seat than they do
of abiding the wishes of their
constituents as expressed at the
ballot box.
The legislature ought to put a
stop to this plan.—Savannah
Press. (Editorial.)
Superior Court Will
Convene Next Monday.
Montgomery superior court will
begin the August term here next
I Monday. The civil and criminal
assignment of cases will be found
jin this paper. It is not supposed
: that all the cases in the calendar
will be tried. There are no im
portant murder cases up for trial.
It is quite probable that Judge
Graham will preside.
NO. 13.
