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'dade County’s Only Newspaper. VOLUME LIV Here ‘n’ There... ... By FRED HARTLEY gv r been lost in a strange trwn and couldn’t find anybody Y.o would give you directions to v going? 2 et where you wen That happened to the two car¬ loads of Dade Countians who at¬ tended the State Farm Bureau c nvention this week. Arriving in Augusta, the delegation be- ran to scout auditorium about for where directions the j to the be opening exercises were to held. Nobody seemed to be any help. . Morrison hit Then Col. D E. upon a most ingenious idea. He suggested someone take a taxi to th/place and let the ton others volun¬ fol¬ low. Miss May Cure teered . The plan worked. Following a taxicab is no easy work, but they r'l got there on time. The group split Miss May s cab fare between them. We are happy to welcome a new correspondent 'to The Times family this week. Mrs and “—raw sending news frem Sand Mountain. We are also glad to welcome Mrs. R. G. Peterson back into their ranks of Times corresp¬ ondents. The Floral Crest news is always quite interest¬ ing and well written. Mrs. Pe¬ terson was ill for some time, but has recently regained her health sufficiently to be able to get about and gather the news again. With the New Home news, that makes three Sand Moun¬ tain local news columns com¬ ing to us. Along that same line... we had a letter recently from Jer¬ ry Mclnnis, a former Lockout Mountain resident now living in Cuisberstcn, Nebraska. He re¬ marked that he enjoyed read¬ ing The Dade County Times, but wished we had more New Salem nerws. We do too. The Hallow’en paintings in the window of the Trenton Drugstore were done by Dade High students Eddv Sims Ter- ; rv e'tte Dickers ^n-n-ci-ui Mf'h^frnm'th^ "n" j. and an ^ Shelbv auciu y uvci- Ever- i ! one tonth ’ tenth and eleventh p-rades , It was a contest °ponsored «e“ed by Bill Fanner ciasa who a| .re to t, represented trato The prize: Five dollars tc go into the class treasury. . Speaking cf Hallowe’en, seems . we • w liivu had a a iciawvciy relatively quiet ctuicro crxiv one' ftrnn around „ / i here. , rrv, There was the i. ZngsS , v„. “ “ —, teTexr . . b.rl, a 7 perhaps '“7 * * ,ew hannlea, pranlts. C But the van- . ; <Ml*m that has accompanied some ~ celebrations here ncre in m the Past was relatively absent. Over 500 Prisoners ity Mines Before Turn of Century ( Ed. note— The Times is in¬ debted to Charles T. Prince, a pioneer resident of Sand Moun¬ tain for the following account °f the coal mines and the pris¬ on the ,abor Cole that city worked them in area in the late Nineteenth century. It is print- e d here as told to a Times re¬ porter by Mr. Prince and his son Paul, W ho took the reporter n a tour to one of the desert¬ ed mines.) T'e day was dawning peace- f -a.ly juat Hjjg a ny other—at ; p Slope Camp. The prisoners ‘ a d been roused and were being ‘ pared by the guards for their daily trek to the mines. Sud- - _r “y a shot rang out. Then : - a7 °c broke loose. i-'ere was no doubt about it. ’ w ’ as a riot—the most dread- cosiness that can come to a prison camp. George Ward, one of the Prisoners, had somehow mon- to get a gun, a .32 revol- The carefully planned es¬ Bill d tmes Devoted to the Best Interests of Dade County and Georgia. IHfc DADE COUNTY TIMES, TRENTON, GEORGIA. IHURSUAX. NOVEMBER 4, 1954 Council ftirs Plan For New Hall The Trenton City council, meeting in regular session here last Monday night, gave its unanimous approval to a p.o- pasal to e:ect a building which would serve as a city hall, com¬ munity house, recreation cen¬ ter, jail and fire engine gar¬ age. It would be located cn the city-owned property next to the telephone exchange The proposal was presented by Mayor A. L. Dyer as a long term project. He said he felt that the present and ex- pected city income would be adequate to finance it. With the beard’s approval, Mr. Dyer agreed to inve ligate the possibility of securing a loan for the unde:taking He pointed out the need for such a building, reminding the conn cil members that most, cf the other cemmunities in the coun¬ ty now have, or are construct- ing, meeting houses for their residents. The mayor also hoped such a building might serve as a re-j creation hall for the youth cf Hallowe’en Snow It wasn’t exactly what you’d call a White Hallowe’en, but almost. Sunday morning Dade County residents were greeted by the unfamiliar sight of snow in October. It continued to'fall on them as they went to church .that morning, as the minister preached his sermon, as they sat down to their fried chick¬ en or pot roast, and even after they had washed and put away all the dinner dishes. It melted quickly in the valley, but lay all day on the fields and trees on both the mountains. The sight of snow Heanng Survey ™. tests 1,832 Students * vs iiere I During the month cf October, 1,832 Dade County school child- ren underwent a hearing screen ing survey, sponsored by the County Public Health Dept. showing! Sev j enty-seven of these - . hearing . defect, . n were _ ___ ferred to their doctors for fur- ther examination. The teste were conducted by : Health spent two days insiruct- them in the use of the aud- the instrument used in givin ° the i- ests - The audiometer is _ an elec- tronic tr device ae . that , giveo . out f a nlc “edT The ir ,_ head of the , rrry.p ar o C noted t “ Chart After the initial , sercemng. the was two additional tests. Thn Those cp nof no. cape attempt began when ne shot a prison guard jim More¬ land, in the neck. Moreland f 11 but did not die. | The prisoners streamed out of the stockade gate and ran to¬ ward the mines' main office. There they hoped to find an arsenal with enough guns and ammunition to arm themselves j and the whole camp. They hop¬ ed their rebellion would spread to all the other camps on Sand Mountain and set free the 500 ■ convict.s who were working out their sentences in the mines. Hffpes Dashed The little band of rebels 1 got to the main office all right, but they didn’t find the arms they expected to. They did *ind some trouble, I enough to cause though, and to try to shoot their way cut of the net of guards [ that had begun to close in on them. j The desparate escapees fned again and again, killing sever ii guards. One guard, John Luns- It was expected that some saving might be made by the! city having its own jail, thus ( being spared the expense of a j board bill fer use of the county ! Also at the meeting, the' gave its approval to a request by the Trenton Church of Christ to use a one and om inch line in piping the church. The additional of the larger line was to be offset b >’ the church bearing the expense cf digging the ditches. The council also agreed to go ahead with its plan of tak- ing water to the American Le- gion Hall. * Dade Fumbles Give CS 6-0 Playing for the first time this season on a wet field and plagued by fumbleitis, the Dade High eleven went down in ... de- f ea t, 6-0, to Cave Spring here Friday night before approxi- mately 300 chilled fans. After an uneventful fir t half which both teams threaten- ed several times, the third clinging tot he evergreens was familiar, familior hnf but - . In to see cpo the fh# 3 fire firp j coicred autumn leaves laden with the white stuff was un- usual indeed—and Unbeliev¬ ably lovely. M nday the weather nu- derated a bit. But Tuesday snowflakes came swirling in- to Dacle again, borne by cut ting winds. The flurries con- continued to plague voters throughout the morning and early afternoon, sending the mercury plunging to record lows by nightfall. Reading cf 18 degrees were reported from several places in the county on Wednesday morning. coming up to minimum stand- ards were given notices suggest- they see a doctor for fur- examination and correct- ive measures. The two audiometers used ^Tv borrowed fr v>~> m t the Vi n state cfnfiN Health Department. Miss McWhorter, County Health nurse pmised the SS S omcla]itorthcir To Crown Homecoming Queen Friday Night Dade High School’s game with 6 n heTP h p Fririiv l -p r'o-ht °^ L will ' the occasion cf r the second homecoming celebration. crowning of the queen at half time internmaion will *• 8 »t the festivities. . t „, |es h a ve nominated to wear the and ana will be voted upon ord by name, shot and mortally j wounded Ward, the ringleader of the affray. Shot in the fore- head with buckshot, he lived till nightfall. Another bullet wounded Wilson Palmer, also a leader of the riot. Two escaped but were picked up later. The guards closed in f/ round¬ ed up the insurgents and marched them back to the stockade. The mutiny was over. It had failed miserably. All this happened toward the ; dose of the last century. It was only riot that ever occurred at the six prison camps on the mountain, although several es- caped from time to time, some¬ times terrorizing residents of ■the mountain and valley. The prisoners were Geergia convicts who were leased from the state to the coal mine The practice was l common threughout Georgia then. These working the pri¬ soners paid the state $100 per 1 day, as well as feeding, cloth¬ ieorgia Voters Ratify Amendment 4 Dade Opposes School Plan The private school amend- ment was ratified by Georgia voters Tue day by a majority of over 20,000. Unofficial re- from 1803 precincts out of 1810 listed 208,399 votes for the amendment and 181,850 against it. Dade County, along with the rest of northwest Geergia, voted against the measuie. The vote here was 275 for, and 321 against. Other counties in the fumbles which resulted in the Yellow Jackets’ lone touchdown, The Wildcats . ....... lost the ball on the f coiad play after the third . J ua r ter kickoff, The invaders J; 0 ° ver ’ 11 e 1 . 1 ya ? ^ our °^ n ' Bn , ac r s u ae ’ next play, Dade dropped the Johnson, broke away for a 16- , yard run and a first down. j The Wildcat line stood like a brick wall and four plays later (ha the Yelkw IT^-,,, Jackets were still ^‘ cn the ten-yard line. But the next r,ic, play, r>v,ii Phil Ryan’s pass intended for Bobby Lee, was intercepted by Cave Springs’ center, Bill 1 Three- plays later John son carried the ball across the - three yards for the TD. attempted extra pcint was unsuccessful, and the score stood at 6 - 0 . A fourth quarter scoring threat was nipped b y Terrell McCauley as he covered a Cave Spring fumble on the Dade 28. Dados usually snappy aerial attack never quite got under- way, due partially to an ailing pas-Jng arm of quarterback [larold Shankles - The Cats were m so handicapped by the j c ‘ «yan 101 most oi second half, due to an in j ur y- Carl Steele, however, made an able substitute. During the half time in er- mission, the high-stepping dnim majors and n rh r] majorettes mo inroff nc of n f Vf Nrrth - v f Vi Dane S-hocl put on a show [ acrobatics and a ba- ton-twlrllng routine The him- irjM routl by the entire student body. The | one receiving the highest num- , ber of r voters , will ni or f course K be , named The npxt five wiU act as her iadies in waiting, The coronation will be per- formed by the seasonal football captain, who will also be elect- fd thls weck previously, a dlf- ferent captain has been named for each game. ; ing and sheltering them, Each prisoner was given a certain amount of work to do, railed a “task.” Whenever he finished his task, he was through for the day. A husky, hard-working prisoner might complete his task before noon. Laboring in the mines was not easy work. But the prison¬ were not mistreated. They were quartered in large stock¬ ades walled in with heavy lum- nailed together to form a fence 16 feet high. The prisoners slept in bar¬ built inside the stockade perched high cn pillars. from the barracks was almost impossible, since no one try it without being The most troublesome of the were kept in chains, most were allowed freedom inside the barracks. On Sun¬ all were allowed to roam about inside the stockade at area, except Catoosa and Gil- mer, also polled majorities against it. In Dade County, amendment f ur failed to carry by 46 votes. The solid ma j 0r ities against the measure in the Trenton and of the Sand Mountain boxes were large factors in its defeat. In most of the pre¬ cincts, the count was close. New England gave the private school proposal its strongest support percentage-wise in the county where voters favored it by a seven-to one majority. Other Amendments l’ass All the other statewide amend- merits, however, carried in Dade. The first amendment, the home rule proposal, , passed , . by a was vcte of 149 to 69 Number 2, providing for regu- lar annual sessions of the Gen¬ oral Assembly, was approved, 137-69. The third amendment, to exempt property owned - ■ by zsrs d here> 124 _ 68 Thg f . fth amendment appear- j a g ballot carried by a slim majority here, 93 __ 70 . it provides ... for a firemen’s system. Number 6 , pro ... for slum clearance and redevelopment, passed by a vote of i 0 4 to 54. The seventh permitting counties to remove the 15 mill limitation on taxation for 2choo l purposes also carried here, 147-99. Vote Light Despite the interest generat¬ ed by the controversial private amendment, voting was light in the county. Only 595 or less than one-sixth of . the .. reg- jeered voters bothered to cast ballots ^ study of the breakdown on aj j ame ndments in the var- US boxes reveals some inter eSt ing results. The New Home p rec j nc t wen t strongly against each of the first seven amend¬ ments. The same was true of Hooker. Wildwood, on the other hand gave heavy majorities .in faver of each amendment. Voters in the Cole City district showed al- most no interest in any other a m e „ d m e h t except numoer “ te all " the boxes indicated that a considerable number of ballots had nothing e \“oo\ h ^o.S ce Sih“a Cam amendment, ® J n with or-against a ea each ^ one UIie - i n on i y a few cases were the names_ struck from the ballot. Three write-in votes were recorded, one each for Catherine C. Morrison, M. J. Hale and Herman V. Moore, for state senator, representative to the legislature, and U. S. Surfday “Freedom” The convicts took advantage of their Sunday “freedom” and made it a real holiday. Singing, dancing and playing on their fiddles, banjos and harmonicas —all were part of the Sunday fun. Many others, tired of the prison chow, would cook their own meals. Saving their money received for doing extra chores, they flocked to the commissary to buy their grub and prepared it to suit their own tastes in the stockade kitchen. Free from abuse, the prison¬ ers were treated fairly and al¬ lowed some recreation, and knew as much contentment as one could in prison. Such was the picture of prison life under the head warden, Capt. W. O. Reece. But the picture changed when a man named Ed Cox of Atlanta replaced the well-liked captain. Cox had been first a prisoner ■ and later a trusty at one cf the Cole City camps. When he re¬ Published Weekly—Since 1901 How Dade Voted * ■ , j yj] /\lT16flCllT)6Ilt 4 > 's s Slygo.............. 9 5 Byrd’s Chapel...... 4 6 Trenton............39 110 Wildwood. 46 13 New England. 56 7 Rising Fawn . 40 •1° Hooker....... 40 30 Sulphur Springs. 11 0 New Salem..... 18 10 Cole City. ., .. 18 64 New Home..... 17 29 West Brow..........11 TOTAL..........275 321 Blevins Boys Get $25 Savings Bonds Rex and Russell Blevins, sec- ond and third place winners in the 4-H Fat Calf Show at the recent county fair, were pres¬ ented with $25 U. S . avings bonds in a special assembly program last Wednesday. The bonds were presented to the two boys by school super- intendent Roy W. Moo:e and were the gift of the Main Street branch of the Hamilton Na- tional Bank, whose manager is I. A Anderson. Mr. Anderson’s idea in giv- ing the bends was t: recognize fche achievement of the pair and to encourage them to con- tlnue their past efforts along the same line. Governor s Order Bans Hunting. Fishing 4 All hunting (with the excep¬ tion of Marsh Hen hunting) and camping and most fishing and p 1 c n i c k ing (except in ouauc State Parks and ways ide parks) have been banned threughout Geor¬ gia by proclamation of Gover¬ nor Herman Talmadge due to the extremely critical forest fire situation existing in the state. The Governor issued the pro¬ clamation this morning at the request of the Georgia Forestry Commission, the Georgia Game and Fish Commission and the U. S. Forest Service. With daily fire occurrence over the state reaching the rate cf nearly 100 blazes a day, and with much of the ifre supres- gressman, respectively. Election managers said some write-in vnt.Ac votes could not. not he be p.nmtted counted since .since they did not mark an “X” in the square above the space where the name was written in The complete vote by pre¬ cincts on the first seven amend¬ ments has been posted in the window at The Times office for to examine. as warden, he sought to take out his bitterness on the convicts. According to reports, he was cruel and arrogant, beating the prisoners unmerci¬ fully for the smallest offenses The prisoners were segreg¬ ated according to race, but not as to the crimes they had com¬ mitted. They were serving sen¬ tences fer every thing from murder to chicken stealing. When they left the confines of the stockade in the morn¬ ing, they were chained together until they were safely under¬ ground in the mines. At the Rattlesnake Mine, the rough stone steps leading into the deep ravine are dragged grooved where j the chains were across them twice a day for marry years. Air Shafts Still Standing The entrances to most of the mines are covered up now. A little stream out from 1 runs one of them. But the tall, obelisk ’ shaped stone towers that werd NUMBER 43 Soil and Water Loan Program Announced Probably the most far-reach- ing financial assistance to farm¬ for establishing soil and ■ water conservation practices has been launched by the U. S. government. Talmadge R. Tucker, Farmers Home Admin- jistration Supervisor from La Fayette, announced the program here Tuesday in a meeting with j the county FHA committee. The purpose cf the program is to encourage and facilitate the improvement, protection and j proper us of farm land by pro- viding adequate financing for soil conservtion. Loans will be made available to cover costs of: (1) Constructing terraces, ponds, wells, pumps and irri¬ gation . (2) Sodding, subsoiling, pas¬ ture improvment, basic appli¬ cation of lime, seed, fertilizer and fencing (3) Tree planting for sustain- yields, erosion control and shelter beds. (4) Incidental expenses in¬ curred, including labor, gaso¬ line and technical assistance where necessary, All farm owners and oper- ators are eligible to receive the Application will be made with the local ASC office and will be acted upon by the local FHA committee. The loans will be made by private lenders, ,but are in- 10 per cent by the gov- eminent. They may be repaid with 4’/2 per cent interest over a period as long as 20 years. sion equipment in the southern part of the state engaged in confining swamp fires which have burned for weeks, the for¬ est fire situation has become l “potentially d i s a s t r ous,” the Gov n incr explained. The full force of the law was ' placed squarely behind the pro¬ clamation with Game and Fish Commission 1 a w enforcement personnel, the Forestry Commis¬ sion 1 a w enforcement branch, and a 11 peace officers of the state directed to enforce the ban. The ban, which will continue in effect until “weather condi¬ tions have changed to a degree sufficient to reduce the present critical forest fire situation to normal,” states specifically that “all forms of hunting (with the exception of Marsh Hen Hunt¬ ing), and fishing, camping, pic¬ nicking and hiking be terminat¬ ed with the following exceptions. Fishing is permitted from boats only on the public and private lakes and streams provided no form of fire be allowed cf any | nature.” once air shafts are standing yet. They carried fresh air deep into the earth. When the mines were ex¬ hausted around the turn of the century, the long, deep shafts honeycombed the mountain. The tunnels are still there, but are dangerous now, because of the pcisoncus gases that seep through the earth. Carried By' Rail The coal was carried from the mines on narrow gauge rails known as* trams. They went this way to the switching yard, called Dade Yard. Here they were transferred to a broad gauge track to be carried down the zig-zag path thoough Ta¬ tum Gulf to Shell Mound. Little remains now to testify Cole City was once a bustl¬ ing mining area. Thre are only ruins and old-timers like Char- les Prince to tell the story of the industry that has disap¬ with scarcely a trace.