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I reckon I get more
positive comments when we go "newspaper browsing" than anything else we
talk about here.
It doesn't take much to send my nose into old newspapers! I love to read
about how things were and how life was here not too many years ago.
Although cattle raising was restricted to certain areas of Colquitt
County, and there was no packing plant to absorb offerings on a daily cash
basis, there were people in the early 1900s who realized the potentiality
of livestock production here according to a planned program.
In the 1880s and 1890s, J. B. Norman, Sr., was among the first to
introduce sizeable numbers of cattle in the Norman Park area.
Until that time, the family milch cow, some hogs and large flocks of sheep
constituted the bulk of the livestock aside from oxen, horses and mules
used for work and transportation.
Four years before the first packing plant was established in this south
Georgia territory, Mayo Kendall said in an interview with a newsman that
cattle raising on Warrior Creek "beats running for public office."
Mr. Kendall had experience in both fields.
One of the largest cattle raisers in Colquitt County in that period,
Kendall also was termed one of the biggest cattlemen in the southern part
of Georgia. On October 22, 1910, for example, he sold 62 head of cattle of
cattle at Isom's Market here - constituting the first large sale of cattle
here.
Kendall possessed a range in northern Colquitt "up on the Warrior Creek"
that was feeding hundreds of animals. He estimated he would market 500
cattle during the year for $15 a head average - or about $7,500 for the
lot.
Kendall was among the earlier farmers who realized the potentiality of the
cattle industry and said, "I'm getting in on the ground floor."
The Colquitt Countian was among those visualized early the need for
something besides the "piney woods" steer. He said in 1910 that he planned
to "improve my stock and enlarge the business of cattle raising."
Did you know that many of our early citizens were from Oconee County? An
old newspaper says that a group of Oconee county farmers and their
families came in November of 1910 and bought farms in the then new
Kendalwood community. The article said they were among the second group of
people to come from Oconee County.
There was a burglar scare in Colquitt County during the spring of 1926. An
automobile was stolen from the home of J. F. Monk on First Avenue after
the thieves had broken into a bedroom to get the keys. A reward of $200
was offered, but records fail to say whether or not the car was recovered.
The old W. C. Vereen home was also burglarized, but the robbers got only a
hat, a ham and a cake.
After several days passed without any further reports of burglaries,
police reported that the burglary scare was "about over."
A band of thieves had left the community, it was believed, and "perhaps
the old guns and pistols which were brought to light, greased and loaded
for action, may not have to be used."
The Philathea Class of the Presbyterian Sunday School was active in 1917
in raising a fund for the relief of Belgian "sufferers." Miss Belle
Pidcock was the chairman of the committee.
We'll browse in the old newspapers again next time! |
