Abandoned Store,

Osierfield, Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Interior of Abandoned Store,

Osierfield, Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Just a few years ago, there were still several abandoned commercial buildings in Osierfield, but this is the only one that remains. It appears to have been a general store.

Sycamore Angel,

Sycamore, Turner County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Gravesite of Mattie Hazel Reeves (1906 - 1915)

Sycamore, Turner County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

These photos were made in a cemetery on the north side of Sycamore, off Georgia Highway 32. Sycamore was incorporated in 1891, and today has a population around 500. The church where the cemetery is located is unmarked, so I'd appreciate any help tracking down its name. Cemetery angels are one of my favorite subjects, and elaborate ones like this are quite rare in South Georgia. They were often chosen to mark the site of babies' or childrens' graves.

Texaco,

Osierfield, Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Osierfield Grocery,

Osierfield, Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

The Osierfield Grocery is one of those rare country stores that has managed to survive into the twenty-first century. Though it now maintains limited hours, a visit to this special place is like stepping back in time fifty years. Of course, it's been a long time since they sold gasoline in Osierfield, but the Texaco sign gives the visitor a taste for the nostalgia that awaits him or her inside. It has always been a favorite stop for railroad men, one of their last before arriving in nearby Fitzgerald.

Revival for Body And Soul,

Westwood, Ben Hill County, Georgia, 2001.

c. Brian Brown

Revival for Body and Soul, Detail,

Westwood, Ben Hill County, Georgia, 2001.

c. Brian Brown

The community of Westwood evolved around the fringes of the AB&C Railroad's machine and repair shops. (Today, CSX maintains a Yard & Crew Office near the site of the long-abandoned shops.) Never incorporated, Westwood was once central to African-American life in the county, and today survives as a neighborhood. This structure was likely used as a community tabernacle or meeting house, and has been abandoned for at least 25 years.

Hand-hewn Barn,

Spring Hill Church Road,

Irwin County, Georgia, 2002.

Spring Hill Barn,

Irwin County, Georgia, 2003.

Both c. Brian Brown

This barn, near Spring Hill Church in southern Irwin County, is an example of the type barn that was once common in South Georgia. It is made of rough, hand-hewn logs, and insulated with red clay. Very few structures of this age remain, and I estimate this one to be around a hundred years old.

Signs of the Times,

Sylvester, Worth County, Georgia, 2002.

c. Brian Brown

This business owner is obviously a collector of antique signs, as am I, and has chosen to share his wonderful collection with the people of Sylvester. Particularly interesting are brands that were once common, and now all but forgotten in South Georgia: Royster Fertilizers, Double Cola, Piedmont Tobacco, and Darsey Oil Company. (Darsey, based in Albany, is still around, but you rarely see an old DOC Gasoline sign anymore) It is really a shame that businesses have forsaken tin advertising signs. They truly were works of art. The building in the left background of the photograph is the Neoclassical Revival Worth County courthouse, built in 1905 and substantially remodeled after a fire in 1982. Sylvester bills itself the peanut capital of the world, and their annual Georgia Peanut Festival is coming up.

LINK

www.gapeanutfestival.com provides good back-ground on the importance of peanuts to Worth County, and South Georgia.

Barn on Douglas Highway (Georgia 32),

Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Primitive Well, Wisteria Road,

Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

In days gone by, farms of every size had their own shallow well. This example is typical in its use of available materials. Some utilized brick, but mostly, they were built with crude cement and a mixture of fieldstones and rocks. There was a great variety, and I will post more examples in the future.

Lax Baptist Church,

Lax, Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Like any other small town in South Georgia, Lax seems to have more churches than anything else, and Lax Baptist, with its simple but unique architecture, and the hand-carved wooden sign over the front doorway, is my favorite.

Slim & Wilma Martin,

WALB Radio Studios, Albany,

Dougherty County, circa 1936.

photo from Southern Exposure:

The Story of Southern Music in Pictures and Words

by Richard and Bob Carlin,

c. 2000 Billboard Books

Semi-professional husband and wife acts were very common fixtures on South Georgia radio stations during the Depression. There is very little information on Slim and Wilma Martin, but they were predominately known as blugrass performers, and had moderate success. I believe there is a 1978 recording (possibly by the Library of Congress), called Narrow Trail to Heaven. While they were often not paid for their programs, they were able to use their fifteen minutes of air time to play popular music ranging from old favorites to hymns, and advertised area appearances and recordings, which they often made themselves.

Wray Store,

Wray, Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Wray is another small settlement in Irwin County, that was once a busy railroad stop and farming center. Today, there's a post office (visible in the left background of this photograph) and a couple of churches. The railroad still passes through, but there are no stops anymore. This old store has been closed for a number of years.

Barn, Tulip Road,

Spring Hill Community,

Irwin County, Georgia, 2004.

c. Brian Brown

Hunter's Bar-B-Que,

Irwin County, Georgia, 2003.

c. Brian Brown

Hunter's was a local favorite, and a welcome sight to many a truck driver on Georgia Highway 32 for years. I was especially fond of their goat sandwich. While it closed a few years ago and has since reopened, I'm not sure who is involved in the operation. Though, if the present owners are using the old recipes, I'd recommend a visit if you're ever in the area.

Sorghum Field, Petunia Road,

Ben Hill County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Sorghum has not traditionally been known as a Georgia crop. Southwest Georgia has now taken the lead in the production of this autumn crop, even though it is best known in the mountains around Blairsville, which has the annual Georgia Sorghum Festival. The canes of the plant are very similar to sugar cane, and are used primarily in syrup. This field in northwestern Ben Hill County have been under cultivation for several years.

7 Up,

Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Lax Precinct House,

Lax, Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

This is an update to my earlier posting on Voting Precinct Houses of Irwin County. Lax is a small settlement on the Irwin-Coffee County line. I'm still looking for the other Irwin County precinct house, at Wray. If you have trouble finding my other Precinct House photos, just type Voting Precinct Houses of Irwin County in the Blogger search area at the top left portion of this screen.

Irwinville Lodge # 315,

Irwin County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

The Masonic Hall at Irwinville is one of the oldest in the state of Georgia. Approximately 150 years old, it has been in continuous use longer than any public building in Irwin County. I'd appreciate more information on this historic place, but will be looking for more to tell you in the mean time.

Tift County Confederate Memorial,

Fulwood Park,

Tifton, Tift County, Georgia, 2005.

c. Brian Brown

Confederate Memorial Detail,

Fullwood Park, Tifton, 2005.

c. Brian Brown

In the years following the Civil War, every county of the old Confederacy felt it an obligation to erect a monument honoring local boys who served the cause. Through the work of the Charlotte Carson Chapter # 1140 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Tift County's memorial to her confederate dead was erected on 26 April 1910. The monument was originally located downtown, but was later removed to Fulwood Park to circumvent traffic problems. Captain Owen Lemuel Chesnutt, a local Confederate hero, spoke at the original dedication of the monument.

Leaving Irwinville Cemetery,

Irwinville, Irwin County, Georgia, 2002.

c. Brian Brown

Gravesite of R.W. & Una Clements,

Irwinville, Irwin County, Georgia, 2001.

c. Brian Brown

Irwinville was the seat of Irwin County throughout the formative years of its history in the nineteenth century. The Irwinville Cemetery, on Big Creek Church Road, dates back about 150 years, and is the final resting place for many Irwin County pioneers. Reuben Walton and Una Whiddon Clements are among the best known of these early settlers. Judge Clements was an officer with the Irwin County Volunteers during the Civil War, and later went on to write The History of Irwin County. His wife was a well-loved local hostess and both were very interested in preserving the early history of their home county.

Sundial Lupine (Lupinus perrinis) on Ten Mile Road,

Near Alapha River at Irwin-Turner County Line, 2004.

c. Brian Brown

The lupine famiily is most common in cooler climates, and though this species has a short blooming time, it's one of South Georgia's most spectacular wildflowers. Several small colonies thrive in the sand ridges near the Alapaha River on the Ten Mile Road (Georgia 107), and along the sand dunes near the Alapaha on the Irwinville Highway (Georgia 125), just past Irwinville.

Broxton Rocks,

Broxton, Coffee County, Georgia, 2001.

c. Brian Brown

Dry Waterfall, Broxton Rocks

Broxton, Coffee County, Georgia, 2001.

c. Brian Brown

Broxton Rocks,

Broxton, Coffee County, Georgia, 2001.

c. Brian Brown

The Broxton Rocks have become widely known in recent years, due largely to the efforts of the Georgia Conservancy. Extending over an area of roughly four miles, and covering some 3800 acres, the Rocks are the outcroppings of a geological formation known as the Altamaha Grit, and harbor some of the rarest plants and wildlife in the state. Giant sandstone boulders characterize the landscape, and in the wet season, Rocky Creek spills over the area in the center photograph above to produce what may be the largest waterfall in South Georgia.

LINK

www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/georgia/preserves/art6691.htm

This is a direct link to the Nature Conservancy's guide to Broxton Rocks, and provides information on touring the site (which is by appointment only) and more on the rare wildlife found here.

House on Morning Glory Road,

Ben Hill County, Georgia, 2002.

c. Brian Brown

United States Post Office,

Mystic, Irwin County, Georgia, 2001.

c. Brian Brown

Mystic was settled in the late nineteenth century as a sawmill camp for Henry Harding Tift's vast lumber operations, as much of the virgin pine forests in the area around Tifton, his namesake and base of operations, had been depleted. The township was named in honor of Mr. Tift's hometown, Mystic, Connecticut.

Grave of Unknown Union Soldier, Evergreen Cemetery,

Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Georgia, 2005.

c. Brian Brown

Fitzgerald, unique because it was a colony for Union veterans after the Civil War, in the heart of the Old Confederacy, boasts an unusually large number of Union graves in its main cemetery, Evergreen. Several unknown soldiers' remains were transferred to the city at the request of locals around the turn of the last century, largely due to the efforts of the Grand Army of the Republic and its ladies auxillary, the Women's Relief Corps.

Tobacco Crew Near Tifton, 1977.

Photographer Unknown.

Courtesy of the American Folklife Project.

This photograph, made by a folklorist as part of the South Central Georgia Folklife Project, epitomizes the beginning of the end of African-American labor in the agricultural industry in the South. By the mid-1980s, Hispanics had begun to replace African-Americans in jobs that had been synonymous with the race since before the Civil War.

Red Sharecropper's House,

Palm Road, Irwin County, Georgia, 2003.

c. Brian Brown

Most of the thousands of sharecropper and tenant farmer houses that once dotted the South Georgia landscape have been demolished or simply fallen victim to the march of time. Those that remain are often utilized as storage or hay barns. They were typically very crude in construction and in protection from the elements, and often housed large families. This is one of my personal favorites.

Abandoned Farmhouse, Legg Road,

Near Rebecca, Turner County, Georgia, 2002.

c. Brian Brown

Map of South Central Georgia,

S. Augustus Mitchell, Cartographer, 1846.

Courtesy of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government

University of Georgia, Athens.

This map of South Georgia, focusing on the south-central region as I have been doing with my postings, shows a much more sparsely inhabited area than we know today. S. Augustus Mitchell was one of the great early American cartographers, and his maps of Georgia in the mid-nineteenth century are among the most accurate available, treasured by both collectors and historians for their bold use of color.

LINK

www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/histcountymaps/ If you enjoy old maps, the Historical Atlas of Georgia Counties at the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government is the best source. Simply scroll through their list of Georgia counties and go from there.

Barn at Sibbie with Hay,

Sibbie, Wilcox County, Georgia, 2004.

c. Brian Brown

Barn at Sibbie with Kudzu,

Sibbie, Wilcox County, Georgia, 2003.

c. Brian Brown

The Sibbie community, near the Wilcox-Ben Hill County line, was named for Sibbie Wilcox Land. Other than that, I know virtually nothing of its history. It is a ghost town now, surrounded by the large farming operation of the Luke Family, and was probably never much more than a trading post for local farmers. The earliest reference I've found is on an 1899 Georgia railroad map, though I suspect it was settled a bit before then.

Hobbs Grocery,

Dakota, Turner County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Dakota was like so many other South Georgia settlements, merely a whistlestop along the railroad. On an 1899 map, it appears as Ada (Dakota Station). This long-abandoned country store stands as a reminder of much busier days along the railroad in Dakota.

Gravesite of R. A. Bedgood (1847-1904),

Arabi Antioch Cemetery

Arabi, Crisp County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Gravesite of Ella Thompson Smith (1898-1917),

Arabi-Antioch Cemetery, 2006.

Arabi, Crisp County, Georgia

c. Brian Brown

The Arabi-Antioch Cemetery is a well-preserved site, with headstones dating back to the mid-19th century. Arabi appears on maps as early as the late 1880s, though I'm unable to find much more about its origins. The two figural headstones pictured above are among the most elaborate I've seen anywhere in South Georgia, and are wonderful examples of monumental art. In recent years, Arabi has prided itself as the boyhood home of country music singer T. Graham Brown.

Monolith at Devil's Den at Dusk,

Ben Hill County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Landscape at Devil's Den,

Ben Hill County, Georgia, 2006.

c. Brian Brown

Devil's Den, as it has been known for nearly a century, is a rare geological formation in northwestern Ben Hill County. It is an alien landscape, scattered with sandstone boulders, and seems more desert than forest. Rock outcroppings of this type are rare in South Georgia. Very little is known of the origin of the area, but scientists feel it may be evidence of a massive meteor shower in the late prehistoric period.

Bethlehem Baptist Church,

Ben Hill County, Georgia, 2002.

c. Brian Brown

Bethlehem Baptist Church,

Ben Hill County, Georgia, 2002.

c. Brian Brown

Bethlehem Church was constituted as Ozias Primitive Baptist Church on 14 July 1832. Elders Wilson Conner and John Martial served as the Presbytery. First members were John McDonald, Elijah Hunter, Penelope Hunter, Catherine McCall, Mary McDonald, and Elizabeth McDonald. The Reverend Randall McDonald was pastor, and Redding Hunter was church clerk. On 11 March 1854, the name was changed to Bethlehem. The Reverend Hardy McGlawn and the Reverend W. F. Willis served as first pastors of the reorganized congregation. Many descendants of the original members still reside near the church, which is located at the northern end of Ben Hill County.

Piedmont Plant Co. Catalog, 1946.

Albany, Dougherty County, Georgia

Collection of Brian Brown

Here's more evidence of South Georgia's strong agricultural heritage. Piedmont Plants served farmers throughout the United States for several generations, beginning around 1906, with wholesale plants, until going out of business several years ago. Mr. E. P. DuVernet noted in the introduction to this catalog that "the victory garden program has created an army of amateur gardeners who have had the satisfaction of producing their own garden-fresh vegetables for the first time..." He goes on to note "nature has been good to us in Southwest Georgia." Some of the tomato varieties offered that year, at $1 per hundred plants, were Bonny Best, Marglobe, and Greater Baltimore. To the wholesale trade, onion plants ran $1.50 per thousand, lettuce $3 per thousand, and pepper plants $3.50 per thousand. How times have changed.

Tifton, Georgia's Largest Tobacco Market

Curt Teich & Co. Post Card, 1944.

Collection of Brian Brown

This postcard sums up the vibrant heyday of Tifton, as Georgia's flue-cured tobacco center, but brings to mind the fact that Tifton is still one of the leading centers for agriculture in the state. The rich fields surrounding this progressive South Georgia city are among the most productive in the Southeast, and the University of Georgia centers the bulk of its ag-science research at their Experiment Stations surrounding the campus of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

A. T. Fuller Lumber Company Office,

Ocilla, Irwin County, Georgia, 2001.

A. T. Fuller Lumber Company Warehouses,

Ocilla, Irwin County, Georgia, 2001.

A. T. Fuller Lumber Company Warehouse,

Ocilla, Irwin County, Georgia, 2001.

All above c. Brian Brown

A. T. Fuller was throughout his life one of the leading businessmen of Irwin County. His company oversaw tens of thousands of acres of prime South Georgia woodlands, and many young men in the area got their start working for him. These structures, which stood behind the present-day Popeye's Restaurant and Dollar General Shopping Center in Ocilla, were recently razed, but in their heyday were among the busiest in Irwin County.