Dale County AlArchives News.....W.L. Andrews Tells About Old LandMarks October 3 1979 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 April 24, 2004, 9:18 pm Southern Star W.L. Andrews Tells About Old LandMarks (southern Star Wed. Oct. 3, 1979 -2B) (EDITOR'S NOTE- Dale County historian W.L. Andrews wrote about many old buildings, including Claybank Church, in the following article published in The Southern Star, in its issue of August 12, 1903.) OLD LAND MARKS We shall drop back a little from where we left off last week, to note a few events that took place outside of the corporate limits of the present Ozark, at an early date. In 1828, a round log meeting house was built at the present Claybank church. Curtis Byrd, Eli Ruffin and others built it. The west end stood close to the present spring path, and close on the north side of the present road. The door was in the south side. About the same date Elisha Matthews settled in what is now an old field a half mile south of Claybank church. The old well place and some apple tree sprouts mark the settlement yet. In the fall of 1832 John ANDREWS built the first house at what is now called China Grove camp ground. It stood west of the present road and opposite the old school house now there. The big hickory tree that stood in his front yard still stands. In 1833 be bought out Eli RUFFIN. The old house stood northwest of the first spring head to the west of the present old settlement. Shortly after, he moved the Ruffin house out nearer the church and made a shop of it. Thirty feet south of it he built a log house to live in. About the first of the forties John Andrews built a house off split and hewed poplar logs in the little valley between' his home and the place settled by Wesley DOWLING in 1837, and directly west of the last settlement made by Elisha MATTHEWS out on the Daleville and Louisville road. It was built for Dr. Restus Kelly, a relative, and after his departure, the house was moved to where it stands now at the Andrews old homestead at Claybank. About 1833, Moses Matthews moved from what is now known as the Mary GRAY place to where Mrs. Martha Andrews now lives. He first built a round log house twenty steps west of Mrs. Andrews house, but when he bought the old Daleville courthouse in 1841, he lived in that, after adding a half-story and two piazas to it. It was probably about this time that a log school house was built on the hill at the head of the spring, which, until last year, furnished Ozark her water supply. The pupils used water from the same spring. Naaman WETHERSBY was one of the teachers, and his bones lie in the old Merrick grave yard near the Central of Georgia railroad depot, at this time. Along about now Zeke CARRAWAY settled in the field a quarter and a half quarter of a mile west of the Edward MATTHEWS place. When John MERRICK, Jr. married Annie, daughter of Moses MATTHEWS in 1828, he settled'on top of the rise back of where John Windham now lives. Some old walnut trees mark the place.Somewhere about 1840, Moses Matthews built a gin house on the Daleville road where the residence of M.M. HOLMAN now stands. The identical spot. John D. WORRELL came from Barbour, and put up a store on the west side of the Daleville road, in front of the south end of Dr. J.C. Holman's present residence. His living house was set a little back of the store. He used a wooden pump in his well, which may be there yet. A year later and Tom BULLARD built the first store at old Ozark as we know it. In 1851, E.T. MATTHEWS joined him in business, and they built an addition to their store which still stands and is occupied by a colored family. He also built, at this time, the residence now occupied by James MOSELEY opposite the old Worrell place. After Bullard's death in 1854, Matthews became sole owner of the business, as well as the late residence of Bullard. It stood a hundred yards west of the present home of Mrs. Mary MARTIN. Some chestnut trees and the old well, which stood a little west of the south end of the building, are yet there. About the year 1850, a noted Baptist preacher by the name of Reuben E. Brown came from Georgia, and preached in different portions of Dale County. He preached at Providenc church five miles below Daleville, constitutied Zoar church above Newton, and was prime mover in organizing Union church in Ozark. In the summer of 1852 Moses Matthews and a few of his neighbors, built a bush arbor east of the present cemetery in the street. He was a wonderful singer as well as preacher, and often had associated with him B.F. WHITE and his son in his services. The meeting resulted in many conversions and a number of accessions to the church. The candidates for membership were baptized in the creek a little below the bridge on the road to HawRidge. At that time the road, starting from a point near a sweet gum now standing beside the road in the lane, ran through the field of W.E. ANDREWS, coming out at the southwest corner, and making an acute angle across the present road, crossed the creek where it turns to run in a westerly direction. The branch now runs along the old road most of the way through the field. These candidates for membership were baptized in a shallow, hole under the foot log just above the old ford. According to the old church record now in the hands of Bryant FLOWERS, colored, the converts of Brown's meeting, including Moses Matthews, united with the brethren constituting the Baptist church at Billie Andrews', where Noah Carroll now lives, soon after and the new organization was called Continued On 3B (do not have 3B ) From the Newspaper files of Harold Stephens Scanned and Submitted by Christine G. Thacker. This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/alfiles/ File size: 6.2 Kb