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City of Petty 175th Birthday, Nov. 17, 1999, Houston Home Journal
What they did for fun
News from the old Home Journal
paints picture of lively community
By Kristina Simms
SfffiAi.Tg ra HSMUaafWr
For the past couple of months
1 have been engaged in the task
of abstracting marriages and
death notices that appeared in
the Houston Home Journal from
1890-1899. It’s a major
genealogical project and also an
interesting trip into the past.
We are now in the last decade
of the 19005.... yet almost every
day I make a trip to the Perry
library and immerse myself in
the last decade of the 1800 s. It’s
definitely a trip back in time.
Young people today can
hardly imagine a world without
movies, computers, automobiles,
telephones, and ,hey, no televi
sion and no air-conditioning!
So what did our ancestors do
for fun in the last decade of the
previous century? They fished
and swam in creeks; they hunt
ed; they played inter-community
baseball. They had frequent
picnics, suppers, holiday parties,
and Sunday School outings.
They took buggy rides and train
rides. They went to fairs and
agricultural expositions and
bush-arbor revivals. They shared
jokes and tall talcs and gossip.
They played card g..mes and par
lor guessing games and stunts.
They formed life ary, dramatic,
and needlework clubs. They
gathered around the piano and
sang, and if they could find a fid
dler, they gathered around him
and danced. The end of the
school year in those days was a
time for performances and
recitations by the children, and
no one wanted to miss that pro
gram.
And certainly the Houston
Home Journal was an essential
part of their entertainment.
Chatty, gossippy and opinionat
ed was the rule for weekly news
papers in the 1890 s. The editor
would frequently write
“Madame Rumor has told me
that ”
Elopements were treated with
considerable editorial merriment
and narrative detail. One wed
ding report included the fact
that the floor fell in under the
combined weight of the guests.
One obituary included the fact
that the lady of the house had
made some soup that caused the
whole family to become ill, and
one unfortunately to perish.
And perish they did in the
last decade of the past century.
The causes of death were fre
quently included in the obituar
ies: malaria, typhoid fever, con
sumption (tuberculosis),
ipoplexy (stroke), heart disease,
blood poisoning, La Grippe
(flu), and even hydrophobia
(rabies). One particularly
poignant article tells of how the
citizens of Perry collected money
to send a man who had been bit
ten by a rabid dog to New York
to be treated (futilely) at the
Pasteur Institute. Infant, child,
and maternal deaths were heart
breakingly common.
Of all the advances we have
made in the past one hundred
years, those of most benefit to
mankind are surely the advances
that have been made in medi
cine. Most young people do not
even realize that antibiotics have
been in widespread use only
since rhe World War II era. In
the 1990 s in Houston County
Bathing beauties at Houston Lake in the 1930 s
JPe a/ t e tuHtud to be hart
oftA re- yreaf city of
175th s&u*thdcuj!V
Longhorn's
Butcher Shop
1207 Sunset Ave., Perry, GA
’PFouruleit (*)76'
we have medical care that would
have been considered nothing
short of miraculous to our fore
bears in the 1890 s.
Some characteristics of
Houston County have remained
constant over the past 100 years.
Houston Countians were and
still arc intensely proud of their
churches, their commerce, their
schools, and the fruitfulness of
their fields and orchards. Not a
bad way to begin a new millen
nium, actually!
Kristina Simms is a retired
educator and author living in
Perry.
She is the author of Macon:
Georgias Central City, An
Illustrated
Congratulations to the City of Perry
on 175 years of progress & prosperity.
fuanita . Mason
Houston County Tax Commissioner
1040 Macon Road
Acre#* from Stanley Furniture
JEWELRY
CHINA CRYSTAL
FINE GIFTS
a ACCESSORIES
BRIDAL GIFTS &
REGISTRY
Georgia Historical Plates
Barbara Jones
(912) 987-1531
‘//T salute on her ifoth MirtJuhuy
The New Perry Hotel
t-Proad to 1/e //art of'lfierry A*
heritage of hos//itatity
fßaffyj tißirt/u/ay , serry !
Downtown Perry has changed a lot in the
last 175 years, but one thing that
never changes is the hometown
friendliness and warmth
of the people we see every day on
Historic Carroll Street.
l'oelebfatef
\ /
A Classic on Carroll
©rnfaeMio/i ifr
912 Carroll Street, Downtown Perry
987-2255* Mon. - Fri. 9:30 - 5:30; Sat 10-5
Happy 175th
Birthday to the
City of
Perry!
1 Happy 175th Birthday, Perry!
You are always
welcome
at
JONES JEWELERS, INC.
904 Carroll Street
Perry, Georgia 31069