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E OLD RAILROAD STATION IN THE PIONEER DAYS OF WAYCROS3 m ^rges. Tebeauville knew little of the bleak winter days. Saw mil’s and tur pentlne plants had not gotten in their pernicious work of stripping the er mine from her shoulders. Flowers bloomed here the year round and the time seemed far off when nature would demand her crisis. The chilled winds -of war were about to blow but life in this Utile town rejoiced in the sun shine under the blue skies. A vague unrest entered the bosom of the sober minded men of this quiet little village. There was an approach ing cataclysm. The question they often asked “Is It Just?" and the very air told of a coming storm. The hana nirhed me with its following early history: ' “Mr. Philip C. Pendleton settled in that portion cf Wa.vrross known as “Old Nino", or Te^eauvillo, in 1857 At that time a Savannah Company headed by Mr. Jas. Screven, father of the late .John Screven, was building a railroad from Savannah to Thomas- villa. The western terminus for the time was at a point twelve or iirtcen mile3 cast of Diackshear. The laying of the iron reached Mr. Pendleton’s place about a yegr later. The old stage road between Thomasville and Brunswick passed here with a fork running to Burnt Fort on the Satllla EihOSEYE VIEW OF WAYCR033 TAKEN FROM PARKER THEATRE, SHOWING PLANT MEMORIAL PAR K, THE FOUNTAIN AND THE OLD PASSENGER STATION, "NOAH'S ARK." and Gienmore was Number 10, etc. While General Robert E. Lee v in command of the coast defenses, Carolina, Georgia and Florida, stopped for a few hours in Tebeau- ville. Many of the people who lived here then remember seeing this "Man of the Hour” who still lives in the hearts of the people tpday. Among the citizens who resided here were the Tebeaus, Reppards, Remsharfs. Parkers, Grovenstoins, Millers, Beh- rcceive such assistance as the people of this city and county can render U3. NEW PASSENGER DEPOT WHICH REPLACED THE OLD “NOAH’8 ARK.” upon the wall was tracing in fiery letters, “Brother against brother." Old institutions crumbled and new ideas dazzled the men. The War between the States was on. Colquitt’s BrlgaJe received several recruits from Tebeau- ville, among whom was the Honorable Philip Coleman Pendleton. He engaged in planting and looking after his splepdid timbered lands when the Tvar caim on. He raised a company °f vo’iinfeers In Ware county and upon Its organization became major of the fifteenth Georgia regiment. He participated In several Virginia cam paigns, being In the thick of the fight at the second battle of Manassas. Mr. Pendleton organized the first Sunday school in Ware county and was ably assisted by Mr. Speer. Wtcn they left to Join the Confederate River. There was a post office at this place known as “Yankee Towny. It was called “Yankee Town” because northern people operated the > stage J coaches, and they had at this place a relay stable; but all this passed away with the coming of the railroad, and * Screven named the station “Pendle ton.” Mr. Pendleton took the first train to Savannah and had it changed to Tebeauville, fater his father-in-law Capt. F. E. Tebeau, of one of the old Savannah families. “A year or so later a civil engineer came along surveying the route for | the old Brunswick and Albany road. I When he arrived at Tebeauville, he made a side proposition to Mr. Pendle ton to-run the prospective city off in lota and give him every alternate one. Mr. Pendleton did not think he waaj WAYCROSS AND WARE COUNTY. Waycrosa, the gem of South Geor gia, is located in the northern part of Waro county. Ware is compara tively a new county, having been form ed from the immense domain of Ap pling which once Included the five ad joining counties and comprised the urea of a small state. A portion of the Okefenokee Swamp extends over tho Florida lines Into the southern border of Waro county. It was upon the Islunds cf this swamp that the Indians fortified themselves po long during the Seminole War. It was a mystery to the army how they I maintained themselves until nn en trance to tho “cow house", nn elevat-1 I ed fertile island, was discovered by I ‘.he scouts of Gen. Floyd's army. I Through this opening they hud driven) | groat number of the small black cat- j t!o, that were found so numerous in * 1 South' Georgia, when settled by th} whites. It Is said tho word “cracker’’ origin- lottos, Sweats, Smiths and dotting- j ated from the uso of tho long whips hams. Among the first settlers of used by the early settlers in drivini Ware County were: William Smith, A. j these herds. The popping of tho Jornagin, Wm. Drydcn, James Full- whips on every side to keep the drove wood, John Wiiilams, James Sweat,' from scattering/ gave the term to tho John Moore, Thomas Allman, Joseph whip and afterwards to the driver, Dyall, P. Bryan, \V. M. King, Thomas * and so we have the word “Cracker” so Newborn, L. Walker, James Jone^, commonly applied to the rural popula* M, J. Miller, Thos. Hilliard, M. Ad* j Mon of the South, dicon. a ridge runs through the county A mile away from Tebeauville is a .upon which the town of Waycrosa is net work of railroads around which a located. All streams to the east of city grew almost In a night. Her.it flow Into the Atlantic, and t:*oao lights are shining over miles of terri- j west Into the Gulf of Mexico. Thirty tory, beautiful homes are dotted here years ago Immense forests of yellow and there. Progression is seen on pine was abundant in Ware county, every side. The railway crossing sag* j except near the water courses where gested the name for this ‘town. Way- other varieties of trees were cross, the Arcadia of Southern Geer- abundant. Saw mills and. turpenrfjQ j farms have given employment to MR3. J. L. WALKER. 1 ikeurends, and brought Into this sec- through them runs the historic stream of Kettle Creek, where file Wildes family was massacred in 1838 by tho Indians. , This roil Is tho home of the water melon, the ffrupe and pear; nuts, peaches, sweet and Irish potatoes and garden vegetables of every kind. Su gar cane, highland rice and outs yleia fine crops. Cotton, both longn and short, produce well, and those who plant wheat have succeeded finely, although the Intter is a crop that has not been extensively cultivated. Tho Southern Division of tho At lantic Coast Line centres at Way- cross, giving five lines running out from the town to Jacksonville, Tampa Savannah, Brunswick and Albany, it rid miles to Savannah, CO to Bruns wick and 70 to .lackfonvSFo, and ths roads connect at these ports with Foreign"and -Coast wise Atlantic steamer linos. At Trim pa with* ships to Cuban and the Gulf ports, nnd gradually began the development of this rection, nnd in 1SS0 Waycrosa numbered 028. | In 1882 a prohibition contest began and a license of $20,000 w-as estab lished by legislation and went into effect In 1883. i In 18f»0 the population had increas ed to 3,364, and the taxable value of county property five times. The li* cense was increased in 1802 to $30,000 nnd Waycrosa is nn object lesson showing that towns can progress and i become permanent without the salo of liquor, as the population has been steadily growing since that dute, and in 1900 numbered 6,010. In the 1910 census Wnycross had Increased . hor population more than any other city in Georgia, and gave the phenomenal figures of 14,183. The town has a complete system of artesian water works, end an elec tric light plant, ice factory, plaining mills, foundry, etc. TEBEAUVILLE B y Mrs. J. L. Walker, •'"VJT*!*" Mra, J. L. Walker, State Historian and Historian for the Lyman Hall Chapter D. A. R.. has kindly furnished The Herald with the following Interesting history of Tebeauville, or k “Old •Nine", as it has been somethin s called. Mrs. Walker has written a number of very fine articles on tho ♦extinct towns of Georgia. In the Te- ^beauville write-up Mrs. Walker's rep- ation as an Interesting writer is |ly sustained: TEBEAUVILLE. ine can hardly call Old Tebeauvlllo pad town for the lights have never out of the village although her ved a mile further up the ^taking the railroad station with 1 This level plain of wiregrass Jtreeu no longer echoes only the Ee of her people. Various sounds can emanate from an up-to- date railroad shop, that cost more than it would have taken to buy the whole county of Ware in the pioneer days, keep this old town from being silent. The undauntable and imper ialistic railroad tracks now cover the Bite of Tebeauville. Protected from the cold winds of the north by the beautiful pine forests that had been almost unmolested for i Army the Sunday School room was • closed. After p. few months it was reorganized by one whose life has been ; a success and has furnished Inspira tion to many in this section. Mrs. B. F. Williams, the wife of one of the surgeons in the Confederate Array. Mrs. Williams lived a few miles from * Tebeauville at Sunhystde, near the FatlUa river. She was a woman with a purpose, never faltering until she ;had accomplished what she designed | to do. She was-not only the superin tendent of the Sunday School but helped to organize a union church, composed of “Hard-Snell’s", Metho dists, Baptists and Presbyterians, Mint existed and flourished for years in perfect harmony. The distinguished Louis B. Pendle ton was born at Tebeauville. He is editorial writer for the "Macon Tele graph” and is an author of note having written a number of novels and juve niles including: Bewitched; In Tho Wiregrass; Blind Tom nnd The Runa ways; The Wedding Garment; The Sons of Ham; Carita; In The Camp Of The Greeks, etc. Mr. Charles Pen- db ton also of the “Macon Telegraph” spent five years of his boyhood days at Tebeauville. Ho has kindly fur- the one to deal with and told him $o, and suggested that the president of the road come to see him about It. The engineer went back three or four miles, pulling up his stakes its ht went, and made a ct-rve to miss Mr. Poftdleion's land, if one will stand ai | the crossing near Tebeau Creek in I the heart of Waycrosa and look to- • wards Brunswick he can see the curve I lr. the read caused by this effort \ the engineer to make something the side. : ; Sketch Of Way cross : : "Thus Wi beauvllle died, to Lowndes cc “Tebcauvilio was called “Number Nine" because in those days the raiir road company numbered all its sta tions. . Diackshear was Number 8 PREFACE. The Herr.ld will devote ono \ ago each week to show tho ptoplo all over this and other states what wo have in Waycrosa und Ware county. We arc not going to promise you that we will mail out ten, twenty or thirty thousand copies, only our regular edi tion of some 2,000 copies. The Herald will give views of Waycrosa and Ware county, its industries, factories nnd other enterprises, and will be glad to • tlon considerable wealth. Thus it is ! that Jarge bodies of land have been denuded of the best timber, nnd the soil being fertile and easily cUtivat- €d, agricultural interests have devel oped greatly in the past ten years. Although tho saw ntiiis and turpen tine farms nro growing fewer each year there is still In this county largo bodies of (ine.uncut timber of immense size. Among these trees the curly pine in great numbers are found, and through Albany and Balnbrldgo wlUi^ the north and west. The Atlantlr* Birmingham and Atlantic R. “R., by construction and purchase, ir' addins new short Hues to that system which ’puts Waycrosa in direct line with 1 the coal fields of Alabama. The fa cilities for freight In every direction is unsurpassed, and the passenger ser vice is superb. The road now being built from St. Marys, will give us IKe third seaport, and another road con* necting the town with the interior points is projected. In tire year 1870 Waycrosa was only a rail wav crossing,, warehouse, saw mill, a few cottages and not over fifty inhabitants. With the builutng of the' Short Line into Jacksonville nnd the renewal of business life in th<5 south,,