"Once Upon a Lifetime: in and Near Baker County, Florida," book - v.2 (file 1/2)

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by La Viece Smallwood
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                 Once Upon A Lifetime Vol No. 2
                In and Near Baker County, Florida

               By La Viece (Moore-Fraser) Smallwood
                          Copyright 1993

Copies available from the author complete with photos: Rt 2 Box 543
                    Macclenny, Florida 32063

Permission has been granted by the author for posting to this page.

Contains biographical narratives and genealogical information on the
following Baker County folks:

* Lula Thrift (in file 1/2)
* Hardy and Carrie (Hogan) Rhoden Family (in file 1/2)
* Lillian Mae (Prevatt) Scoles (in file 1/2)
* Tony Givens & Janie Bell Blue Givens (in file 1/2)
* Sanderson and some residents who remember when. (in file 1/2)
* Olustee (in file 1/2)
* Coy Taylor/Gordon Taylor (in file 1/2)
* Lorene & Opal Raulerson (in file 1/2)
* St. George, Georgia Area
* Asa Coleman
* E. Ed Yarbrough
* Citizen of the Week - Introduction
* Lewis E. Covin, Jr.
* Sarah Canaday Fish
* Dr. John Watson
* Tillman and Nellie Dorman
* Duncan Rhoden
* George Lacy Dobson
* Andrew Jackson Mobley
* George Raulerson
* Kate Fullerton Wolfe
* Leafie Ola Bryant
* Verdie Fish
* Lucious Combs

_____________________________________________________________________________

                           ST. GEORGE, GA.
  WITH John Arthur Barker, area's first rural mail carrier, his wife
   Sara: Alex Hodges, wife Dorothy, Roxie Chesser Renshaw Okefenokee
                  Swamp, her husband Walter Renshaw.
                                 1981

     Some describe it as the most peaceful spot in Georgia while
others say it is the most desolate spot in the state. Some insist it
is the perfect spot to spend a leisurely day fishing from the cool
sloping banks of the winding St. Marys River, while many argue there
is too much else to see to waste time basking in all that quiet Then
there are those who remember it chiefly as home and the source of some
of the best memories in anybody's world.

     They are talking about St George. It is a sparsely populated
secluded community, southeast of the Okefenokee Swamp.

     The people who live there know its history. They point with pride
to newspaper clippings, yellowed and brittle with age, penned by
curious reporters awed by scenes from a past that is scarcely touched
by modern times.

     Few residents, if any, remember the old St. George. They consider
"what we've heard" almost unbelievable compared to the populated
community of 400 today. But official records show that once, back in
1904, 9,000 acres of land were purchased as a colonization project by
Indiana newspaper publisher P.H. Fitzgerald. He was trying to promote
emigration to the South.

     Here lay the crossroads between south central Georgia and south
Florida, the old north-south Yelvington Trail. The area was once known
as Gaineyville because of the Gainey family who had connections in
Nassau and Camden counties. They were of Spanish heritage. But the
first recorded name of the community was Battenville, so named for
Isam Batten. Two other recorded names are McNeil station and Cutler.
Today residents know it as St. George.

     By 1906, almost every train entering the newly incorporated City
of Saint George brought in settlers. They came from as many as 26
states. Buildings were erected at the rate of one a day and the
resident population soon reached 1,000 with 54 businesses being
established. There was a bank, school, hotels, newspaper and churches.
St. George soon became the leading town of Charlton County.

     During this prosperous growth period, Fitzgerald was indicted by
a federal grand jury for violation of postal laws and the Colony
Company failed to meet obligations to the people. Most settlers from
other states returned to their former homes. Despite an effort by the
remaining people to undertake the project, lack of industry to support
the town caused the economy to fail. The political infighting that
followed prompted the Georgia General Assembly in 1924 to abolish and
repeal the city's charter.

     Many of the area's settlers moved on. Some stopped in Nassau,
Duval and Camden Counties. Some traveled over to Baker, and on into
Columbia and Clay. Many sold their land for five and ten cents an
acre. Some who moved into Baker are the Hodges, Crews, Taylors,
Lauramores, Burnseds, Thrifts and Harris families. Some brought with
them Indian heritage from inter-marriages.

     Today, the city consists of an elementary school (high school
students commute by bus to Folkston), an IGA grocery, a cafe, two
general stores and a post office. other evidence of a once-thriving
city can only be found in history books.

     For whatever reason, a few of the settlers who came... stayed.
The local people, most of them descendants of the original settlers,
are glad they did.

     "I wouldn't leave here unless I was carried out in a pine box,"
said 80-year-old John Arthur Barker, the area's first rural mail
carrier. Barker said he was 16 years old in 1917 when he drove a pair
of mules down from Wilcox County.

     "My daddy was a cattleman running ahead of the stock laws but he
ended up a farmer here," said Barker.

     Sara, Barker's wife of more than 50 years, came to St. George
from Pennsylvania.

     "My granddaddy had advertised for a wife and found one so I came
down to visit him and met Authur," she said.

     During their courtship, Mrs. Barker said she once left a message
at the local boarding house where Barker lived.

     Later Barker was told, "that foreign girl came by here and left a
message for you but we couldn't understand her."

     The Barkers live three miles south of St. George. They reared
nine children on the 1,000 acre farm purchased by his father for $4 an
acre. Other than the price tag, little else has changed. The Barkers,
until a few years ago, shared a telephone line with 18 of their
neighbors.

     Most of those who remained in St. George grubbed a living out of
the earth and nearby rivers and streams. Area employment, mostly
pulpwood mills and turpentine industries, netted the wage earners from
25 to 50 cents a day, and hard times forced many into the higher- if
dangerous -income provided by moonshining.

     Alex Hodges would leave home hours before daybreak and walk eight
miles down an unpaved country road to his 35-cents-a-day job.

     Alex's wife Dorothy rose early to prepare her husband's breakfast
on a two-burner wood stove and pack a gallon syrup bucket with enough
food for the day.

     "I'd put grits in the bottom, then a piece of fried meat, pour in
the gravy, put in a sweet potato or two and some mustard green and
biscuit sandwiches," she said.

     Ooooooooeeeeee, that was good," said Alex.

     "But now it would probably kill people to eat like that" she
said.

     "No, they just think it would," he quipped.

     "Well, anyway, we ate a lot of macaroni and tomatoes back then
because you could buy a big box of macaroni for a nickel and we'd grow
and can our own tomatoes," she said.

     In the late 1930S, Alex got a job driving a truck for $1.50 a
day.

     "Boy howdy, we thought we were rich!!" wailed Alex.

     Eventually the illegal moonshine whiskey business began to
flourish in the area and some local residents saw their first
opportunity to make what they termed "some real money."

     "I went to stilling to make a decent living," said Alex. "I spent
day and night out there in the creeks making it. I made it off and on
for 20 years and then got caught my last days making it by the
revenuer with my britches down."

     Alex said he was raised in a house where cracks were so big "I
could see the moon and stars" through them. His father, who died last
year at the age of 93, crawled "on his hands and knees" to plant a
garden at age 90."

     Alex said he was the grandson of Bashie Heath, a full-blooded
Indian girl. She was left in the area during the 1800s by her parents.

     "She had eight children by three different men, so there are a
lot of us tough half breeds around here," he said.

     Roxie Chesser Renshaw was an "Islander" from deep within the
treacherous Okefenokee Swamp, far removed from even the fringes of
civilization. She was one of 13 children, born to Robert, a son of the
Island's homesteader William, who sought refuge there from the law in
1858. Roxie's life centered almost exclusively around her own family
and those of aunts, uncles and cousins who lived on the island.

     "Until one day one of my cousins brought Walter onto the island,"
she said.

     It took Walter Renshaw 1 1/2 hours to ride by horseback from St.
George to court the 15-year-old Roxie in the seclusion of the swamp.
He often traveled in weather so cold he had to break ice to come
through the slough.

     The day they planned to marry, Roxie had to attend her uncle's
funeral.

     "There weren't no telephones in those days so I couldn't call and
let Walter know, so I just left a note on the door where I'd be," she
said. "He came on over to the Island cemetery and that's where we
married, right outside the gate."

     "I didn't have nothing but a hat and some shoes and they both had
a hole in 'em," said Walter, "but we've been happy together."

     Eight of their 12 children are living.

     "We were sharecroppers and moonshiners," said Roxie. "I've
carried many a 5-gallon jug of shine on these little old shoulders. We
finally got caught by the revenuer who tore up our still and poured it
all out," she said. "We lost $1,000 right then and there!"

     Inside their modest St. George home are original pieces of
hand-carved furniture made by Renshaw's grandfather. Using the skills
she learned as she grew up in the Swamp, Roxie crafts many of the
items she uses today, including toys for children and brooms made from
palmetto fronds. The Renshaws butcher and smoke their own meat, grind
corn into grits and meal and milk their cow daily for fresh milk and
butter.

     "Just ain't no way to get us out of St. George," they say.

     And while the peaceful river flows right on through the tranquil
country-side so do the placid memories flow, constant and unruffled,
right on through the hearts and minds of those who make St. George
their sanctuary.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                           Asa Coleman 1980
                              Update 1992

     Former Baker County sheriff Asa Coleman stood waist deep in the
tea-colored water of the beautiful St. Marys River. A cool, gentle
breeze rippled through the crisp September air, softly rustling the
deep bronze and gold autumn leaves. Snarled rugged roots of various
type scrub trees hugged the white granular banks of the river bed,
reflecting a placid stillness while playful sunbeams filtering through
the virgin timbers cast a soft glow on the gentle waves lapping
against the sandy shoreline. A quiet hush fell among the large crowd
of people gathered at the south prong of the rivers edge.

     "I now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Ghost" boomed the authoritative voice of Coleman, pastor of the
Pine Grove New Congregational Methodist Church. Consenting voices
arose in unison from the crowd. "Amen!," they shouted. "Hallelujah"
they chorused, as the six foot, 210 pound frame of another former
Baker County sheriff, Ed Yarborough, slipped beneath the murky waters,
washing away 25 years of political animosity between the two men.

     "If someone had told me this would have ever happened I would
have told them they didn't know what thy were talking about" said
Coleman, the amicable law officer turned preacher. "But I've since
found out that nothing is impossible with God."

     Both Coleman and Yarborough say they are born again Christians
... converted to a transformation of love instead of hate and doing
good for evil.

     "I guess at one time we were both self-made men disregarding the
laws of God, thinking we could do and say anything we wanted to, and
we came mighty near doing it," said Coleman who wore the Baker County
sheriffs badge for 15 years before retiring from the office Yarborough
took in 1957.

     Ed Yarborough said that for years he and Asa Coleman just sort of
went on different sides of the street adding, "We didn't mix in the
same circles. I knew he didn't like me and I didn't like him. We just
didn't have anything in common."

     Yarborough said that when he became a Christian he felt all
together different about Asa Coleman.

     "I loved him as a human. I loved everybody, people I had bitter
feelings for, many I had literally fought with. I started to care
about them, not necessarily approving of their ways, but as
individuals I loved them. Brother Asa was already changed and
preaching the Lord's word when I was converted. I really felt good
when I talked to him after I became a Christian. We shared several
things we'd let stand between us and I've since enjoyed many hours of
brotherly love and conversation with him."

     At the time Asa Coleman was appointed sheriff of Baker County in
1942 by Governor Spessard Holland, Ed Yarborough was a 16-year-old
youth living on a rural farm in the northern part of the county with
his parents and eight brothers and Sisters. Already he was aspiring
for positions of leader-ship in the local community high school at
Taylor.

     "I always liked being the leader," he said.

     Yarborough said it was after he left home to seek employment that
he became aware of Baker County's reputation for moonshine.

     "I had grown up around moonshine," he said. "It was a way of life
for many people who had no other means to support a family. I never
thought much about it being wrong.

     "It was while I was working for the Standard oil Company in
Jacksonville that I became embarrassed. Many times people would
indicate I must be running moonshine on weekends to be able to afford
my new car. If Baker County's young people went off to obtain work,
attend college or join the army, they had to overcome the stigma
people had in their minds that if you came from Baker County your
family was a bunch of bootleggers. I sorta resented it," he said. "So
I took a stand that we should get rid of it, because it was holding
our county back. The county had no industry so there were no jobs. I
felt there were many things we could do to upgrade our county if we
had better leadership and law and order."

     Yarborough and a group of Baker county businessmen who agreed
with him organized a Baker County Development Commission.

     "I was the first chairman and we started upgrading the reputation
of the county. We realized it had to be built on a firm foundation of
law and order rather than on the false economy of moonshine."

     Yarborough said that 17 Baker County business offered to help
raise the money necessary for a campaign if he would consent to run
for sheriff and promise them firm law and order.

     "I accepted their offer and resigned from my job in February 1956
to began my campaign," he said.

     Coleman, meanwhile, announced he would not seek another term in
the sheriffs office.

     "I had never received any real complaints from the people of
Baker County about moonshine operations," Coleman said. It used to be
in Baker county that moonshine was a way of life for many people. The
laws were hard to enforce because the people involved wouldn't support
them. However, the governor did call me to Tallahassee and said he
wanted the moonshine cleaned up."

     Coleman said he cooperated fully with the state and federal
agents and was destroying many of the county's moonshine operations
his last year in office.

     "Actually I did not have an adequate budget to work with," said
Coleman. "For years I handled the job alone, but finally managed to
hire a deputy in 1948."

     Yarborough said he faced two opponents for the election, one of
whom worked for Coleman.

     "Asa supported his chief deputy during the campaign". said
Yarborough. "We were at each other's throats. We despised one another.
I was very critical of the past administration and we became bitter
political enemies."

     "It was a campaign like malaria," continued Yarborough, "I had to
sell the program to each individual family. If they were working in
the fields I went out where they were working and walked along with
them. I talked to them about the moonshine industry and the effects it
was having on the county. I told them how some of the bigger men
involved in moonshine were gaining control of the county's politics. I
really tried to get down to the issues. I asked them, 'Do you want to
support this kind of county, or do you want a change?

     "The people were so nice to me, I got to thinking I was going to
get practically all the votes in the first primary," he said. "I
actually began to feel sorry for the men running against me because I
didn't believe they would get any votes."

     When the votes were counted, Yarborough said he barely made
second place for the run-off.

     "After that awakening, I got me a speaker on my car, got some
fiddles and guitars and went out to every town in Baker County singing
to the people. I got them to liking me enough they voted for me in
spite of the fact I took a firm stand against moonshine," he said.

     Yarborough said his successful election kindled a flame of
ambition and power.

     "Perhaps ruthless at times he admitted.

     "Politics is the art of comprise," Yarborough mused. "I don't
think I could be the Politician I was and be the Christian I am now. A
good Christian can't compromise so they don't usually last very long
if they get elected."

     Coleman agreed.

     "I wouldn't want to be sheriff again if I was back where I
started and know what I know now, I'd never get into it" but, he
conceded, "if I did it would be a different operation.

     "I used to get so mad and I could hurt you if it came to it," he
said. "But today my mind is all together different and I can be
humble. Since I've been a Christian, I've had people accuse me of
stealing, stabbing them in the back and all kinds of things, but today
I try to be humble and let people know I don't want them mad with me
or me with them. That's the difference in being Christian," he said,
adding, "Used to I wouldn't have put up with it. You'd have me to
fight one way or another. I could hate just as bad as ole Satan
himself, but the Lord changed all that and I'm grateful for it."

     "If a man's really going to live up to his convictions as a true
Christian, he just can't bend enough to satisfy the political whims of
all the different categories," Yarborough said.

     "When I was sheriff I'd party with the partying crowd, or I'd go
to church with the church goers. I'd dance with 'em or I'd drink with
'em. You just have to be all things to all people, so to speak, to
really be a strong politician, and now that I'm a dedicated Christian,
I put the Lord first and I wouldn't be in step with the majority of
the people. Not that I don't think that people in public office
shouldn't be Christians, because I think that's where they are really
needed, but you can't maintain your political image and your Christian
image at the same time because it's too difficult."

     In 1965, Yarborough's third term as sheriff of Baker County was
interrupted by an appointment by Governor Hayden Burns to serve as the
Director of the Florida Sheriffs Bureau in Tallahassee, a position he
eventually resigned. He later formed Yarborough Corporation, a
security guard agency and private investigating firm in Jacksonville.

     "There's probably still a lot of people who hate me, but I don't
hate them back and unless they become a Christian they'll probably
always hate me," said Yarborough.

     "I just put my burdens on the shoulder of the Lord and I never
worry about it anymore," said Coleman. "The Lord saved my life and
made me know He saved it, and from that day forward I have put my
trust in Him."

     "Amen!" said Yarborough.

Update.. Asa Coleman died at home in his sleep on December 8, 1992. He
was born November 23, 1909. Ed Yarborough and his wife Faye live on
their farm in Taylor.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                  ED YARBOROUGH 1980 Taylor Section
                              Update 1992

     Ed Yarborough awoke and slipped quietly from bed on the morning
of December 14, 1978, built a fire in the fireplace and impatiently
waited for dawn. As the first rays of morning light filtered across
the virgin timbers of his 400 acre cattle ranch, he stepped outside
into the crisp morning air and walked briskly toward his new four
wheel drive jeep. A penetrating cold sent a shiver through his tall
muscular body as he slowly steered the jeep down the narrow land
toward his son's home 400 yards away. The jeep's C B sputtered.

     "Morning daddy," Klate Yarborough's voice broke the stilled
morning silence just as Yarborough spotted his son's jeep pull into
the lane ahead of him.

     "Morning son," Yarborough radioed in return.

     The day had begun as countless others over the years. It was
hunting season and the dense wooded thickets that lined the network of
narrow dirt roads through the northeast Florida community of Taylor
were familiar to both Yarborough men, just as it had been to three
generations of forefathers before them. This land was their land ... a
heritage.

     On this particular morning the two men divided up and joined
other community hunters with plans to meet on the other side of a
thicket. An hour later Ed Yarborough found his son lying beside his
overturned jeep, on the same narrow lane they had traveled together
innumerable times over the years. He was dead.

     Other hunters quickly gathered and radioed for help. Then they
walked away, leaving the grieving Yarborough alone with his son.

     Reflecting on the accident that took the life of his only son,
Yarborough said,

     "That had to be the most terrible feeling a man could ever have.
All I could think of was 'my son, my son, my only son.' He was to
carry on my name and inherit the land of my father and his father ...
the land we both loved so much. Up to that moment in my life I had
been fearless, stomping and kicking if necessary to get what I wanted
I had meticulously planned my life and up to that point I had
accomplished everything I'd ever wanted ... but at that moment I was
completely helpless, there was no way I could bring him back and no
way I could replace him.

     "I'll tell you if the Lord hadn't given me some peace of mind I'd
have been a...." Yarborough stopped talking, paused a moment and said,
"Well a lot of people go off the deep end."

     "I knew I could go one of three ways that day," said Yarborough.
"I had drank almost everyday up until that day. I kept my bar stocked
with the best liquor and I thought, 'I can be bitter and blame the
Lord, or I can keep drinking and drown this burden and be a drunken
sot and ruin my health, or I can pray and perhaps the Lord will save
me and I'll see Klate again. That's all the hope I had then."

     Yarborough said his son had repeatedly pleaded with him to make a
change in his lifestyle.

     "He'd say to me 'Daddy, if you didn't drink liquor you'd be happy
and you wouldn't have problems.' I'd say, well Klate, I pray and
nothing happens, and he'd say, 'Yes daddy, but you aren't putting the
Lord first and let nothing be ahead of that. Tell Him you'll put the
bottle down and put Him first' Klate promised me I'd feel a change.
Klate was just full of the spirit, saw something good in everything
anybody did. He was more like Jesus and I could see it."

     Ed Yarborough firmly believes his son died that fateful day so
that he might live to change his life.

     "Scarcely is one man willing to die for another," said
Yarborough. "I believe Klate prayed to the Lord to do whatever was
necessary to save me. "You see," said Yarborough, choking back tears,
"Klate knew if he died he'd go straight to heaven ... he told me that
many times, but Klate loved me and he didn't want to be in heaven
without me. Klate was always after me to get saved, and be born
again," said Yarborough. "He was worried about my soul. I never did
believe anybody could know if they were saved or not, but Klate would
say, 'I do, I know that I'm saved, and I wished you knew.' "

     Yarborough said he would tell his son, "Well maybe I'll know
someday, but I don't know now."

     Yarborough said he was doubtful he would have changed his life
had his son continued to live.

     "In the back of my mind I always wanted to be a genuine
Christian, but I wanted to get through doing the things I wanted to do
first, like partying and drinking. I just hope other people don't have
to go through the loss I did to seek the Lord," he said.

     Yarborough briefly reflected on his life.

     "When I was elected sheriff of Baker County in 1956, I ran on a
reform ticket and I taught morals to the people. I was so convincing,
I started living real good myself and I wanted a son and heir to my
name. I had a lovely daughter and when I was sworn in I remember very
distinctly praying and asking the Lord to bless me with a fine son. I
made certain promises to the Lord and I fully intended to keep those
promises at the time.

     "Klate was born that very year and everything he did thrilled me
from the moment he was born. I got up at night if he whimpered. I was
so proud of him. He used to ride with me in my sheriffs car. He was
number 52 1/2."

     Meanwhile, Yarborough said his fame as sheriff spread across the
state as he became known as the shine-buster ridding Baker County of
its reputation as the moonshine capitol of Florida.

     "My desire for public recognition and prestige increased. I
became ambitious for more power and higher political offices," he
said.

     In 1965 while serving his third term as sheriff of Baker County,
Yarborough was appointed Director of the Florida Sheriffs Bureau by
Democratic Governor Haydon Burns. He resigned his job as sheriff and
moved to Tallahassee.

     "My eyes immediately cast on the governor or some cabinet
position. I began to violate the promises I'd made to God," he said.

     Yarborough resigned the appointed director's position under the
political reign of Republican Governor Claude Kirk.

     I refused to comprise my principles," he said.

     Yarborough said he organized a security guard and detective
agency in Jacksonville. A year later his marriage failed and he moved
to the farm he loved so much in Baker County. His son Klate, then 15,
moved with him.

     "We were real compatible," said Yarborough. "Klate was an unusual
boy. I bought him a new sports car every year, and anything else I
thought he'd want but he was very humble and didn't seem to care for
material things. He loved singing gospel songs and he and a group of
young people would go all over northeast Florida singing whenever they
were asked. Klate even composed a few songs and loved sitting at home
with us just playing his guitar and singing songs he'd written himself
about his grandparents and different people he knew and loved in the
county.

     "I think he excelled in other things, like sports, just to please
me," said Yarborough. "Klate set sports records that are still
unbroken. He played as Macclenny's quarterback for three years and won
a four year scholarship to Memphis State University. I bought him a
new corvette right from the show room window when he made the Memphis
State team, but all Klate really wanted to do was come home, marry his
girl, and work on the farm with me."

     Yarborough said he had a talk with his son during the Christmas
holidays in 1977.

     "I said, son, you don't have to go back if you don't want to, and
he was so happy.

     "We went to work and bought cattle, planted hay, watermelons,
started a nursery with underground irrigation, bought a super
air-conditioned tractor and hay baling equipment. We grossed over
$60,000 on watermelons that summer and divided it right down the
middle. In June, Klate married his high school sweetheart, a Baker
High cheerleader and former Miss Baker County. He was so happy. He
owned his own home and land. Imagine doing all that by the age of 21,
then dying and going to heaven," said Yarborough.

     "In many ways, Klate's life lives on," he said. "After his death
about 20 of his friends joined the church and Baker County High School
established a Klate Yarborough Memorial award given annually to some
outstanding person."

     Yarborough said that one of his son's former high school friends
and teammates applied for work on the ranch.

     "Klate had befriended him when his daddy died," said Yarborough.
Yarborough said he provided work and a home for the boy and his new
bride.

     Klate Yarborough is buried in Taylor community cemetery, near the
land of his heritage. Chiseled on his marker are words he spoke to his
father on December 12, 1978, just 44 hours before his death.

     "How long a man lives in this life is not important. The human
mind can't began to comprehend all the wonderful things that the Lord
has in store for us in the next life. That's the one I'm interested
in. There we'll be together forever."

     According to Yarborough, "I believe those words today just as
much as Klate did when he said them. Those other things I used to want
are way down at the bottom of my list of priorities now, and to quote
my son, 'This life is really just like a pep rally before the big
game.'

_____________________________________________________________________________

                         CITIZEN OF THE WEEK
                             INTRODUCTION

     I was a very young wife and mother when I set out to interview a
few citizens in Baker County more than 40 years ago. The mini sketches
of their lives appeared in a column I wrote in the 1950s titled News
and Views for The Baker County Press. I was always treated with
respect and kindness when I entered the homes of those presented in
this chapter and remained close friends with most of the interviewees
the remainder of their lives. Although limited in writing proficiency
and void of interview skills, I present this attempt to preserve in
some small part a glimpse into the lives of these very choice people.
in many instances the families have told me that what the small
vignettes provide in information about their loved one has provided
them with an insight they didn't previously know. Most of us wait
until its too late to ask the questions we want answers to later on.

     Perhaps in some small way this effort will provide a link to your
heart from theirs, for you will know just a little bit more about
their personal journey through life.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                         LEWIS E. COVIN, JR.
                     1958.....Citizen of the Month

     For more than 12 years, Baker County citizen Lewis E. Covin Jr.
served as Director of the Polio Foundation for the county, and his
tireless service in behalf of that charity resulted in the donation of
thousands of dollars. He was featured as Citizen of the Month on
behalf of his charitable service with the March of Dimes.

     Lewis Covin's life began February 13, 1917, in Columbia, Miss.
His parents were Lewis and Louise Covin, who named him Lewis Emmett,
Jr. His father was superintendent of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
until his retirement.

     He began school in Birmingham, Ala., and graduated from high
school in Waycross, Ga. He attended Emory University at Oxford, Ga.

     His working career began about the age of 12. He always liked the
idea of making his own living, particularly in the retail field, and
he supported himself through high school and college.

     After finishing college, he worked for the Retail Credit Company
in Atlanta.

     Lewis married the former Frances Folks Newton, from Waycross, on
November 27, 1941, in Atlanta. They had been friends for a long time.

     Following their marriage, World War II began and Lewis served
stateside in San Antonio, Texas. He returned to Waycross, where their
first son, Charles Fleming, was born February 22, 1943.

     Lewis Covin Sr. served with the rank of Colonel throughout Europe
during the war and participated in the invasion of North Africa and
Sicily.

     When Lewis Jr. was discharged from the service, he returned to
Waycross, where he was associated with Butler Bros., a retail store.

     In June 1946, he decided to look around for a promising town that
needed a business. He found Macclenny and believed there was growth
possibilities for a retail business. He liked the town immediately,
and after a very short time, made arrangements to purchase the Variety
Store from Mr. and Mrs. A.P. Holt. A few days later, Mrs. Covin joined
him and they rented their first apartment from Mrs. W.A. Dopson. Later
they bought a home from Hugh Griffin on College St., where thy lived
until 1953 when he built his beautiful and modern home on Highway 23.

     The Covins have two sons, Charles Fleming, 16, who attends school
at Gordon Military College in Barnesville, Ga., where he rates as a
corporal; and Lewis Emmett (Lee), III who is in first grade in the
local school.

     The Covins belong to the Methodist Church in Macclenny, Mr. Covin
is a Mason and belongs to the local lodge.

     He plans to expand his business and grow with Macclenny.

     He has already acquired a new business location. He believes that
encouraging high moral standards in a community is good economy.

     He spends many hours of his busy life with his family. On most
Thursday afternoons and Sundays they enjoy being together and having
good wholesome fun as a family, which they consider very important.
They all enjoy horses as their hobby.

     Other than his variety store, he has been in the Westinghouse
appliance business since 1957, where he has gained a very favorable
reputation for his firm and efficient service to our community!

     Even though he leads such a busy life, he still finds the time to
volunteer his service each day for the Polio drive. Volunteer workers
know they can depend on him for any advice or help they need and
receive his guidance and assistance at anytime. The campaign is
well-respected in our county and a most gratifying thanks are
certainly in store for such a deserving citizen.

UPDATE: Frances Covin was born on June 15, 1908, in Waycross, Georgia
and became a resident at Heritage Nursing Facility in November 1991.
She is a member of the United Methodist Church.

Lewis Covin III and his wife Mary reside in Macclenny.

NOTE cwm
Lewis Emmett Covin, Jr. 1917-1989 buried in Woodlawn cemetery.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                          SARAH CANADY FISH
                        OCTOBER 31, 1958 Taylor

     Should you get up mornings, prepare breakfast for 12 children, on
a wood cook stove, dress the children and see them off to school,
fluff up the feather mattresses and make all the beds, then pump water
from an old iron hand pump to wash and rinse the endless amount of
dishes, wash the family's heavily soiled laundry in heavy wash tubs
using rub boards to scrub them clean, iron those clothes with heavy
cast iron smoothing irons you heat on the stove, hoe in the field,
prepare supper, then before you go to bed, mend the home-made clothes,
you sewed on a pedal machine, by the light of a kerosene lamp ... or
fireplace fire ... would you be tired? Whew!! I suppose we would for
most of us today that live in an automated society ... complain!

     Sarah Canady Fish is a remarkable women with an extraordinary
life.

     Back in the days when there were very few modern conveniences,
Sarah Fish gave birth to 12 children and with the exception of one who
died at the age of 11 months, reared them, saw each one graduate from
Taylor High School, and the three youngest from college.... almost
single handedly.

     She was born on a farm on the eve of September 4, 1896, in
Moniac, Ga. Her parents were the late Aaron and Alice (Crawford)
Canady pioneer settlers of Charlton County. She was next to the oldest
of eight sisters and brothers which are still living. Sarah was
attending the Canady school when she was twelve years old and, her
mother died leaving six younger children. Sarah had to quit school to
help raise her brothers and sisters.

     When she was 20 years old she met and married Benjamin Foy Fish.
The ceremony was performed on December 16, 1916, by the late Lucius
Knabb. The couple made their first home with Benjamin's mother, Kizzie
(Smith) Fish. After a year they moved to the Curt Thomas place where
their 12 children were born. The enterprising couple soon were able to
buy the adjoining farm, which was the Noel Raulerson place. They
combined the two farms and had about 240 acres. With 160 of those
acres under cultivation. With the help of hired hands the family
farmed the land for more than 4 decades.

     In 1938, Benjamin died at the age of 45, leaving Sarah with 11
children to rear. She quickly learned to survive on the farm's bounty
keeping her little family all together.

     Sarah taught her children the love of reading and insisted that
each child seek an education. She taught her children the importance
of honesty and integrity and above all things faith in Jesus Christ.
She encouraged them to serve God in their daily lives. As she taught
her children, Sarah worked beside them in the hot dusty fields,
uncomplaining. She continued the dream she and Benjamin shared,
setting an example that hard work and dedication made responsible
citizens. The family remembers many fun times together and learned
that the legacy left them of the highest character was the greatest
gift they would ever receive in life.

     Their children are: Dorsey of Taylor, who works with National
Trucking Co.; Kenneth, who owns Fish's Dairy in Duval County; Iris,
(husband Vernon Williams) owns Williams Body Shop; Wassie, a Baker
County Commissioner (and farmer); Lyma whose husband, T.J. Raulerson,
is the Baker County Tax Collector., Cherrie, (Mrs. W.E. Pierson) works
at Winn Dixie and lives at White House; Joyce, (Mrs. Buford Thrift)
farms; Ben, who is foreman of Raulerson's Ranch at Callahan; Ellen
(Mrs. Don Lee,) married to a nationwide truck farmer in Lebanon, Ind.;
Billy who teaches agriculture in high school in Anthony; and
Typhnes,(Mrs. Don Mikell) home economics teacher in Dalton, Ga.

     Sarah attends church at North Prong Primitive Baptist. She holds
membership in the Friendship Club at Taylor.

     With her quiet and easy manner she marvels at all our modern
progress and conveniences today, but wouldn't trade her life for that
of anyone else.

     This gentle lady deserves each and every blessing that comes her
way. There should be more people like Sarah Fish Canady.

NOTE: cwm
Benjamin G. Foy Fish 1894-1939 & Sarah Canaday Fish 1894-1964 are
buried in North Prong Cemetery.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                            JOHN E. WATSON
                           CA 1958 Macclenny

     Have you thought about the kind of life your family doctor lives?
Well, I can tell you this much, the life of Dr. John E. Watson is a
busy one - that's for sure - but he finds the time for his family.

     When I arrived at the Watson home for an informal chat with him,
I met him on the way to the hospital for an emergency. He invited me
in to wait until he returned, and I was met by his 14-year-old son,
Johnny. Since the home, on the corner of Boulevard and Hwy 121 (5th
St.) is being remodeled, Johnny took me through some of the rooms. In
his room was a card table with a 1,000 piece puzzle started.

     "My goodness," I exclaimed, "you sure are smart to try and put
this together."

     "I don't try by myself," he said. "We all work on it."

     "Your dad too?" I wanted to know, wondering when he found time
for such a project.

     "Sure," he said looking as though he wondered why I'd be
surprised.

     Before long, Judy, the Watson's 12-year-old daughter, returned
from a party and they both started their homework.

     While waiting for Dr. Watson to return home, I learned many
things about him from his family.

     It was on March 15, 1906, that he was born to Lily and John
Watson Sr. in New Albany, Ind. He was named for his father, John
Ethelbert and nicknamed Bert.

     He began his education in Mayfield, Ky., in 1912. In the year
1918, his family moved to Little Rock, Ark., and he graduated from
high school in 1923. That same year, he entered the University of
Kentucky, and finished his pre med there in 1925. He belonged to the
Chi Phi Fraternity.

     Not sure of what his future plans were, he took a job in
California as a salesman in the advertising field for 12 years. He
wasn't satisfied, so he decided to return to school to study medicine.
In 1939, he entered the University of Arkansas and graduated in June
1943. That's where he met his wife, the former Lillian Adams, and they
were married two weeks after his graduation.

     With a desire to live in Florida, he and Lillian left on their
wedding day and ventured down here on a greyhound bus on their
honeymoon.

     After arriving, he interned at St Luke's hospital in Jacksonville
and was a medical resident at Duval Medical Center in 1944. On October
3 of that same year, John Ethelbert III was born.

     In 1942, Dr. Watson signed up for the Army Reserve, subject to be
called to active duty at any time. After medical school, he was called
to active duty and was sent to Colorado Springs, Colo., where Judy was
born in 1946.

     During this time, Macclenny was in need of a doctor and the late
senator Edwin G. Fraser was on the march to help find one. He
contacted Dr. Matthew Moor and Dr. Z.T. Cason of Jacksonville and they
recommended Dr. Watson. Edwin Fraser immediately wrote him a letter
and Dr. Watson flew here to look things over.

     Somewhat disturbed over the fact that we had no drug store or
hospital, he was a little hesitant, but was assured Macclenny would
have both in the future.

     So Dr. Watson returned for his family, and in December 1946 they
moved to Macclenny and rented two rooms from Mrs. Minnie Poythress.
Not long afterwards Paul Rhoden opened a drug store, and 11 years
later his dream of a county hospital promised by Edwin Fraser came
true. (the hospital was named Fraser Hospital for the effort Ed Fraser
put forth to accomplish such a task.)

     Dr. Watson and his family are members of the Macclenny Methodist
Church. He belongs to the Macclenny Lions Club and he helped to
organize the Boy Scouts in 1951.

     As for the future, he plans to remain in Baker County and is
looking forward to the day we have new doctors, a blood bank, and most
of all, the promise of a progressive Baker County.

UPDATE: Dr. John Watson was born March 15, 1906, and died March 19,
1972. His wife Lillian was born October 16, 1915, and died March 12,
1976. They are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery south of Macclenny.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                      TILLMAN AND NETTIE DORMAN
                           December 26, 1958

     On the southwest corner of McIver and college streets in
Macclenny stands one of the most beautiful, pleasant looking and
Inviting homes in Baker County. A Sign on the porch reads, "Suits Us."
Inside the atmosphere is warm and appealing, and the two people who
live within are most charming.

     Very typical of Mr. Dorman's life is sharing, and there couldn't
be a better time than Christmas to share his life's story with us.
This is a story that begins on a small farm northwest of Sanderson,
October 21, 1876. His Parents were John T. and Jane Davis Dorman and
his grandparents were John and Ginchy Dorman, pioneer settlers of our
county. His maternal grandfather, John Davis was killed in the War
Between the States.

     Mr. Dorman was the oldest of nine children born to John and Jane
Dorman. At the age of 13, he began operating the family farm in his
father's absence as a contractor. He received his education in a
little log school on the Taylor road in 1888, and walked the three
miles morning and afternoon. His last school was at Cobb's school on
Cedar Creek and his teacher was the late George R. Blair.

     Life changed for him when he saw what he described as the most
beautiful and wonderful girl he'd ever seen at the Sanderson post
office one day in 1898. Her name was Nettie Bynum and she was visiting
Sanderson for the first time with her sister Mrs. E.D. Henson. A
formal introduction (customary in those days) came later at a party
given for her at her sister's house.

     The couple fell in love and married two years later, on March 29,
1900.

     After their marriage, Mr. Dorman accepted a position as clerk of
the merchandise store of the Canova estate in Sanderson. He remembers
when Judy Canova (the famous movie star) was a little girl and played
in town barefoot and pigtailed with the other children.

     In 1905, he resigned his clerk's job and moved to Jacksonville.
In less than a year, he was enticed to return to Macclenny as manager
of the Pons estate, which was a large merchandise store. On Christmas
Eve night, the store was burned, but much of the store's merchandise
was saved. With what was salvaged, he rented a vacant building on
Fifth street and Railroad Avenue and continued on with the business.
In May 1906, Mr. Pons sold out his store to M.T. Howell and Dr. Eustis
Long. He then accepted a position as bookkeeper for the Irvin Rhoden
Mercantile Co.

     In 1910, the Dormans purchased a lot from Dr. Long and built
their unique home where they have since lived. The plans were drawn by
Mrs. Dorman.

     In 1912, Mr. Dorman was appointed agent in Baker County for the
Standard Oil Co., of Kentucky. He held this position for 44 years
until his retirement September 30, 1956. His position was filled by
L.V. Hires who, Mr. Dorman said, had been a "faithful and efficient"
employee with the company for 20 years.

     After retirement, Mr. Dorman devoted his time to the things he
loves the best: his church, his home and friends.

     Since 1914 he has been a very faithful member of the First
Baptist Church in Macclenny where he has served for about five years
as President of the men's Bible Class and treasurer of the Church for
about the same amount of time.

     In 1902 Mr. Dorman and his father were accepted together into the
Masonic Lodge. He is an honorary member of the Lion's Club and has
served as president. He is a past member of the Odd Fellows, Elks Club
in Lake City and Woodman of the World.

     In 1915-16 he was elected to the Board of County Commissioners
and held the position of the chairman for two years. He served as
president of our city council for six years.

     The star and playing the biggest and most important roll in his
life he says is his beloved wife, Nettie, how helped to mold the
society of our county. She is a charter member of the Eastern Star,
Woman's Club, Garden Club, member of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy and clerk of the First Baptist Church.

     With obvious pleasure, Mrs. Dorman told of the "little vegetable
garden" that Mr. Dorman has each year and relates how he loves to take
baskets of beans, corn, potatoes and tomatoes for distribution to
their neighbors. Occasionally he gets in a little fishing.

     As they talk about their memories of yesteryear, the Domans say
they find great pleasure. Mrs. Dorman told of the time, about two
weeks after their marriage, when she went to visit her in-laws. Her
mother-in-law had stayed home to prepare the Sunday meal for the other
family members to attend church. On this particular Sunday, Mrs.
Dorman insisted on taking her place. Although there was a stove in the
home, her mother-in-law preferred to prepare many of her meals in the
fireplace. Mrs. Dorman decided since the food was said to be much more
tasty prepared in the fireplace, she would try it. Somewhat sooty, she
finished the meal, but remembers she never attempted it again.

     Mrs. Dorman said they furnished their home on the $60 Mr. Dorman
had when they married and had some left over.

     The couple related many experiences about life in Baker County
and I wish there was room to relate each. Never before have I been
captivated with the charm as I was with this couple. Each day of their
life could be recorded in an open book and there are just not enough
words to really describe how fortunate we are to have them as
citizens. We can be sure that God was looking over us when He allowed
them to be among us, for they are truly an inspiration.

     Tillman Dorman was born October 21, 1876 and died February 17,
1964. His wife Nettie Bynum was born March 11, 1881 and died May 24,
1970. They are buried in a mausoleum in Woodlawn cemetery south of
Macclenny.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                            DUNCAN RHODEN
                          ca 1958 Macclenny

     One of Baker County's most beloved citizens is "Uncle Duncan"
Rhoden. Born in 1882 on May 23, he has spent all of his 76 years in
Baker County "loving every minute of it," he said.

     When times were hard and many people (who were lucky enough to
work) made less than a $1 a day for their labor, Uncle Duncan was more
determined than ever to survive and pave the way for future
generations in Baker County. We love him for it

     His story begins on a farm located about 3/4 of a mile from
Macclenny where he was born in the "old McClenny House." He had three
brothers and four sisters. His father, Hansford Duncan Rhoden Sr., and
his mother, Martha Ann (Mobley), started him to school in 1899 at
Rhoden's school not too far from their farm. His father was a school
trustee. The principal and only school teacher was Oliver Milton.
Uncle Duncan attended school in this location until he transferred to
a school called the "Old Academy," located in Macclenny. (Later the
Old Academy was called the Poythress house and was located at the SE
corner of SR 228, or 5th St. and Boulevard.)

     Not long after transferring to school in Macclenny, a new school
was constructed at the corner of Hwy 121 and Michigan Street (present
day Will Knabb home). Students attending could go as far as the 10th
grade and graduate. His teacher was Crater Townsend, and Uncle Duncan
is proud that when his final math exam was given, he and three other
classmates, Charlie Chalker, John Rhoden and Robert Tracy scored 100
percent.

     In 1904, Uncle Duncan's father ran the only hotel in Macclenny,
which was a 22-room frame building. After his graduation from school,
Uncle Duncan continued to live with his parents at the hotel. He was
employed at a general store owned and operated by his brother Irvin.
One fateful day when Uncle Duncan was working a customer that
immediately caught his eye came in. He immediately went to assist her
with help. Standing by the customer's side was a beautiful young girl
that his cousin, Gus Rhoden, told him was Delilah Harvey, the
customer's daughter.

     Uncle Duncan was more than interested and began to inquire about
the young lady to gather as much personal information as possible. He
learned that she attended Primitive Baptist church at Pleasant Grove.

     The following Sunday he visited the church and found her standing
beside the well. He walked right over and got acquainted and from that
day forward there just wasn't anyone else for him. It was love at
first sight.

     Since Delilah lived 19 miles away and it took Uncle Duncan four
hours to travel by horse and buggy, he only got to court Aunt Lila
about once a month. The following year, on December 25, 1910, the two
were married. They had a lovely home wedding and Ella Dowling Taylor
was maid of honor and Arthur Milton was best man.

     After the marriage, they journeyed to Baxter by horse and buggy,
and caught a train to Jacksonville for their honeymoon. They made
their first home in the hotel his father ran, and later moved into a
small place near the B.J. Padgett home on the corner of Macclenny Ave.
and State Road 121.

     On December 26, 1911, a year and a day later, they moved into
their present home located near Macclenny Ave on northeast Fifth
Street. That same year, his fathers hotel burned and he was forced to
move too. The move was with his sister, Mrs. Mattie Green in what is
known as the Rhoden home.

     The late Duff Powers built a new hotel.

     In June 1912 the couple adopted their only child, Nettie Ruth
(Blair).

     In 1919 Uncle Duncan began working with J.D. Rhoden in the
grocery business located where the Baker County Press now stands on
south Fifth street by the railroad tracks. In 1922, he opened his own
grocery business.

     Tragedy struck in 1937 when a fire started in the new hotel,
which burned three stores under it, one being Uncle Duncan's.

     With very little salvaged, he refused to be discouraged.
Undaunted, he moved into a temporary vacant building and continued to
operate his own business for the next 17 years located where present
day Harper's Shoe store is now.

     In 1926 their daughter, Nettie Ruth, married Richard Blair.
Nettie Ruth and Richard lived with her parents in the same family home
where three of their four grandchildren were born.

     In 1939, Delilah and Duncan sold their business and started the
first dairy operation in Macclenny. After a few years, he gave the
business up and in 1946 his son-in-law and daughter purchased 40 acres
of land in West Macclenny and built a home.

     The family was still determined to live together and did, so
until 1955 when Uncle Duncan and Aunt Lila moved back to their "old
homestead" at the present location.

     Two of the couple's four grandchildren live in Macclenny: Mrs.
Pat Walters, and Mrs. Jackie Harvey. The other two live in
Jacksonville: Mrs. Lila Lee Pennywitt and Mrs. Yvonne Yetter. The
couple has six great children, Ann Walters, Alana and Duncan Harvey,
Donna and Cammy Yetter and Elaine Pennywitt.

     Uncle Duncan was baptized and joined the Primitive Baptist Church
in 1950 and says he never knew what it was to live until he gave his
life to Christ. The very first Sunday School he remembers attending is
the Methodist Church which is still in its same location in Macclenny.
At the time, in 1903, the Sunday School Superintendent was Clemmon
Fraser, the great grandfather of Edwin G. Fraser who is the
superintendent of the Sunday School presently.

     Uncle Duncan can remember the yellow fever epidemic in 1888. His
parents moved about three miles out of town to Bay Branch because of
their fear of the fever. After the epidemic, there were so few people
left in town that the ones that were left thought the town was dead
forever, he said. Property was plentiful and cheap. Once his father
was offered his choice of three houses including the one where he now
lives for a trade of five cows and five calves, but he turned it down.
The offer was made by C.B. McClenny.

     The first circus Uncle Duncan remembers seeing came to town and
started unloading an elephant. He got frightened and ran.

     He has lead a helpful life and it makes us proud to know it is
men like him that helped to build our county into what we are so proud
of today.

     Almost any day of the week you can find him, and Aunt Lila, on
their front porch, with a group of their friends. Most of the time
they talk of our present day and future, but sometimes they ramble
back into the past and reminisce over the "good ole days."

     They'll always be a past, but men like Uncle Duncan look mostly
to the future, always helping us to progress more and more. They are
good Christian men, loved by all, for their devotion to our future and
most of all God.

     H. Duncan Rhoden was born May 23, 1882 and died May 31, 1971. His
wife Delilah Harvey Rhoden was born May 12, 1891 and died March 31,
1978. They are buried in Woodlawn cemetery south of Macclenny.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                          GEORGE LACY DOBSON
                      November 7, 1958 Sanderson

     How would like to have the opportunity to legally vote in two
counties? You could if your home property was located on both county
lines, as was George Lacy Dobson's family.

     George and his brothers voted in Baker County and his father
Seborn voted in Bradford. It might not be so pleasant paying taxes in
both counties, though, but that's exactly what his parents had to do.

     George Dobson was born on April 19, 1882, to Seborn and Martha
Ann (Alford) Dobson on a farm situated equally on the Baker-Bradford
county lines.

     George attended school in both counties beginning in Bradford and
when it was out, he would attend in Baker. He finished his formal
education in Olustee at the age of 18.

     After graduation from school, George farmed some with his father,
but eventually struck out on his own, gaining employment in various
jobs before he returned to the farm.

     One evening, he went with a friend to the home of the late
Brantley Harrison Fraser. There he met for the first time what he
described as "the most beautiful girl in the world," Daisy Maynard
Fraser, Brantley's daughter.

     George was bashful and it was more than a year before he could
muster the nerve to ask Daisy for a date. He visited her home one
Sunday evening and asked to take her to church at Swift Creek. It was
what the community called "Big August" and a mighty big affair for the
church. Daisy accompanied him. The two fell in love and within a year,
on August 24, 1904, they married.

     Daisy married George at the home of her father. He wore a navy
blue serge suit he bought for the occasion that cost $12.50. Daisy and
her sisters made her beautiful dress.

     George bought a small farm and he and his mother Martha Ann went
shopping for "some furnishings." Among the things they bought were a
new wood burning stove that came with a set of iron pots, a wash
boiler for washing and boiling clothes and a gallon coffee pot The
bill came to $13 and he had $11.50 left when he married Daisy. He had
made his bounty pulling fodder for 5 cents an hour.

     Their first child, Wilbur, was born on the farm the following
year on the 20th of July. Later they moved to his father's farm, near
Lake Butler where they lived in a small home next door. Four more
children arrived: Donald in 1906, Eunice in 1907, Mattie in 1908 and
Gertrude in 1912.

     When George's mother Martha Ann died, he moved his family into
the home with his father for a while before moving to South Prong,
then Sanderson where four more children joined the family, Joe in
1914, Edith in 1916, Ray in 1918 and James in 1922.

     All of their children are living but two. Wilbur was accidentally
shot and killed at the age of 21 in 1926, and Ray, who died at the age
of 4 months from an unknown fever.

     Donald owns Dobson's Pharmacy in Macclenny, Eunice (Mrs. Jeff
Burnett) teaches school in Jacksonville, Mattie (Stringer-Roberts) is
postmistress in Sanderson, Gertrude (Mrs. Gary Bevis) of Sanderson
works with her brother Donald in the Pharmacy, Joe is Clerk of the
County Court in Macclenny, Edith (Mrs. J.H. Keller) operates the
Sinclair service station in Sanderson and James works for a
construction company in Orlando.

     George recalls vividly when he worked hard in the hot fields all
day and would ride a mule ten miles to a square dance that night.
Because there were very few cars, most everyone traveled by horse and
if they were lucky, a wagon or a buggy. Most of the social gatherings
were held at church, and on the 4th of July there was usually a big
picnic. Saturday was a big day when people gathered in town to shop
and pick up mail. opportunities to socialize were scarce.

     He was 20 years old before he received his first professional
hair cut and shave in a barber shop. it cost him 50 cents .... a day's
wage. In those days he said that boys would gather at someone's home
and the best at cutting hair would use home clippers to give haircuts.

     He recalls how folks fought off mosquitoes in the screenless
homes of that day. They would burn sulphur and rags in pans of dirt,
enough to smoke and chase the mosquitoes away.

     "That's probably why so many people died with fever back then,"
he said.

     He and his wife Daisy recall with grief the flu epidemic of 1918
when so many people died. One was Daisy's sister, Addie Fraser Mann.
They both remember how hard it was to get medicine and doctors. In
1906, another of Daisy's sisters, Martha Bell (Berry), who was living
near Jacksonville, had come by train to bury her 5-year-old son,
Ralph, who had died with an unknown fever on October 12. After the
funeral, Mattie became sick with the same fever, along with her
16-month-old daughter and husband. The following Friday, on Oct. 19th,
she died and the next Wednesday, Oct. 24th, her daughter Thelma died.
Her husband was too ill to attend the funeral of either. He later
recovered and died in July of 1920 in Miami.

     The couple belong to the Mormon Church at Sanderson where he
holds the Aaronic Priesthood. She has taught Sunday School for many
years. Their dream is to someday visit the temple in Salt Lake City,
Utah.

     George loves to fish and spends most of his time doing just that
with his good friend, Tom Sweat.

     The couple is known throughout the community for their kindness
and compassion toward others. They quickly give support and
encouragement to friends, family and community and their door is
opened to all.

UPDATE
George Dobson died November 8, 1964.
Daisy Fraser Dobson died June 1, 1964.
Both are buried in Manntown Cemetery
The grandchildren of George and Daisy are: Elizabeth (Dowling) Dobson,
Earl, Marion, Wilbur, John Paul, Margie Burnett, George, Jean and
Louise Stringer, Billy, Jacqueline, Lamar and Murwin Bevis, JoAnn and
Joey Dobson, Butch and Linda Keller and Saundra and George Dobson.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                        ANDREW JACKSON MOBLEY
                          ca 1958 Macclenny

     If you doubt that Baker County has progressed very much, just ask
Andrew Jackson Mobley. "Uncle Andrew," as he is known to most
everyone, celebrated his 82nd year as a Baker County citizen on
October 7. He was born in 1876.

     Not only has Uncle Andrew watched our county grow, he helped to
build it! He was the oldest of four children born to Jesse Daniel and
Tabitha (Taylor) Mobley. He was born about 12 miles northwest of
Macclenny on the old Wingate place. He began his education in the
Crews school and he and his father, who was the teacher, walked the
three miles from their home to get there.

     He also attended school in Hopewell Church, an old log structure,
in Baxter, walking four miles from his home.

     Next he attended Reynolds School in Georgia before he moved to
Macclenny in 1886. When he lived with his parents on the Bay Branch
place, he enrolled in the Garrett School, which was an old log house.
That was where he finished, what he believes to be, an eighth grade
education with the exception of one term he spent at a school called
the "Old Macclenny House" owned by C.B. McClenny. He still has some of
the school books he used, such as his third-grade reader, Websters
Blue Back Spelling book, Globe Geography and U.S. History Book. He
recalls some of his teachers were: John R. Barnes, S.M. Lyons, Lillian
Proctor and Willie Brant.

     Some of his classmates were George and Sarah Garrett, Sara
Starling, Lizzie Thomas, Rose Mae Stevenson and Josey Hodges. Uncle
Andrew only got one spanking at school, but he said it wasn't the only
time he needed one. He recalls that the teachers were very strict and
kept a bundle of switches over the door that they didn't mind using.
He and his classmates wrote on slates instead of paper as we do today.

     When he had gone as far as he could in school, he sought
employment and started to work sawing logs. He worked for the Cummer
Lumber Co., surveying logs, and in his spare time he built a log home
on 10 acres of land where he farmed.

     It was about this time that he visited some friends in nearby
Nassau County and attended Brandy Branch church with them. After
church, while visiting with some friends, he was smitten by a lovely
young girl named Lucy. He had to walk about eight miles to visit her
and get better acquainted. It took only seven weeks before the two
knew they wanted to get married. Uncle Andrew's uncle, J.E. Mobley was
the justice of Peace and he married them. The year was 1899.

     Uncle Andrew lived on his farm for six years and worked in
Macclenny in a Blacksmith shop owned by Press MacStevenson. Then he
moved to Macclenny, built a two story home, and opened his own wood
shop. He made wagons, buggies, log carts, plow stocks and blades and
general repairs. His shop was the first in Macclenny to be equipped
with shop machinery. He bought the first Washing machine to be
purchased in Macclenny and owned the third automobile, which was a
1909 Olds that ran about 10 miles per hour.

     Next he opened a grist mill and said he has ground as much as 105
bushels of corn in one day. He suffered an eye injury and sold his
business to return to farming. He bought 35 acres of woodland. It was
hard work, but he cleared the oak thickets to build their home. His
sons worked on the farm while he was employed as a carpenter.

     He returned to Macclenny in 1926 and the next year bought a
grocery and fruit store that he ran during most of the Hoover
(Depression) days. His store was located where the Harper's Shoe Store
is now.

     Later he sold his store and went to work as an inspector for the
county school board. He made one more move, and that was to his
present home on SR23. He has a small shop of his own and still has
some of his original blacksmith tools that are 51 years old, which
includes a band, circle and cut-off saw.

     Some of the first homesteads he remembers in Baker County are
still standing. Most have been remodeled such as Wilma and Jesse Frank
Morris's home, and those of John Herndon, Annie Carroll, Duncan
Rhoden, Judge Brown and Ed Turner.

     He attended church in the Poythress home when it was a chapel.
Macclenny had no paved streets and few stores. He was a grown boy
before he got a taste of ice cream, which was sent out from
Jacksonville by train and sold at the general store owned by Ervin
Rhoden.

     He remembers once when he had to move his workshop. It was set on
logs, pulled by mules and friends helped him move it just across the
street from present day Vernon Walker's grocery store, which then was
a cotton patch.

     Uncle Andrew has built about 25 homes in the area, including the
Ray Dinkins home, Ollie Davis, Verdie Reynolds, George Raulerson,
Arthur Thompson, Dee Rowe. He built the very first rural school in
Baker County, which is presently the Primitive Baptist Church.

     When I asked what his future plans are, he said, "To live just as
long as I can, go fishing and enjoy life." He claims to be the
champion trout (Black Bass) "catcher" in Baker County and to prove it
has his picture with one that weighed in at 14 pounds and 14 0Z., and
measured 27 1/2 inches long, 10 inches broad, 7 1/2 inch fan tail and
6 1/2 and 5 1/2 in the mouth measuring two ways.

     Five of the couple's seven children are living: Lacy of Starke,
who owns the Blue Chip Drive inn; Claude of Jacksonville Beach who
runs a cabinet shop; Jesse D. of Salt Springs who runs a grocery and
restaurant business; Annie Mae Thrift of Macclenny; and Donald, who
still lives at home. They have 21 grandchildren and 38 great
grandchildren.

     While visiting in his home, he began to sing a few notes of music
and he told me that my great grandfather, Brantly Harrison Fraser of
Sanderson, had taught the song to him when he attended singing school
at Macedonia.

     With a twinkle in his eye and a boyish grin, he told many
interesting tales about Baker County. His love for the county is
written all over his face and spoken in every word. He helped to build
and mold what is our present-day county. I only wish I could find the
words to tell Uncle Andrew what it has meant to me to write about him
as Citizen of the Week. I felt very privileged as I sat before him and
heard him tell many of his life's experiences and I consider it an
honor to have met him.

FOOTNOTE:
Andrew Jackson Mobley (Oct. 7, 1876-April 2, 1963) and his wife Lucy
Lucenda (Crews) (March 9, 1883-Dec. 17, 1963) are buried in Macedonia
cemetery.

Lucy's father:
Burton Calvin Crews July 26, 1852-July 17, 1934) and his wife Georgia
(Bennett) Crews (1860-Sept 5, 1932) are buried at Oak Grove. Burton's
parents were Calvin McDonald "Mac" Crews and Sarah Jane Stokes.

Andrew J. Mobley's father:
Jesse Daniel Mobley (Dec 3, 1850-Dec. 16, 1925) and his wife Tabitha
(Dec. 7, 1853-March 27,1923) are buried in Macedonia Cemetery

Jesse Daniel Mobley's parents were:
Edward Mobley ca 1818 (Probate Nov. 12, 1894) his wife Judy Scott
1828-died between 1870-1880). Their burial place is unknown.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                           GEORGE RAULERSON
                          September 19, 1958

     On February 10, 1890, on the old Henry Gainey place near Baxter,
Fla., James and Mae Haley Raulerson were blessed with a son, George.
His grandparents were John and Serene Raulerson.

     George was only a young boy of 9 when the "big snow" hit the area
in 1899. Icicles hung from the roof to the porch floor of their modest
farm home.

     "In those days most of the houses were made of plain board
instead of today's shingles," he said. "The snow came through the
cracks in the house and ice and snow were streaked all through our
house. My brother John and I both awoke that morning with the measles
and took pneumonia."

     George began school in an old log building located at Sparkman
Branch. When his family moved over to the Georgia side of the St Marys
River, he continued school in Florida in the Pine Level church.

     "That's where I first met my wife, Alma," he reminisced. "I
remember she had a cape over her shoulders and her face was covered
with freckles."

     Later, he attended the Canady school near Aaron Canady's home,
and while a student there in 1911, he married Alma Mae Knabb at the
age of 18 and not quite out of the fourth grade. He explained that in
those days he had to skip school a lot to work in the fields, so it
was hard to make a grade.

     He and Alma married on December 28, 1911, at the home of Carl
Brown, and settled down on the "old George Reynolds place."

     "I had $65 I had made from a little cotton patch and some pork
hogs. Alma and I boarded the train at Moniac and went to Jacksonville
shopping. We brought back three bedsteads, a dresser, a table and six
chairs, a safe (to store food), and two rockers," he said.

     "When we arrived back in Moniac we had a little money left over
so we bought us a 50-pound sack of rice to start our housekeeping on."

     George and Alma were blessed with twelve children, Eight are
still living. Lorene (Mrs. Lawrence Reynolds) is associated with her
father in the grocery business (Raulerson and Reynolds) in Macclenny,
Opal (Taylor), Myrtice (King) and Gedone (Layton) of Jacksonville. Son
T.J. is Tax Collector for Baker County, James is in the Insurance
business, Violice works for the local state hospital, daughter Sara
Lillian (Saucer) lives in White House. Their oldest son, Hubert lost
his life in World War II while fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. He
was awarded the Purple Heart. The Raulersons have 15 grandchildren and
two great grandchildren.

     They hold membership in the New Congregational Church at Taylor.
Mr. Raulerson is a past member of the Macclenny Lions Club.

Footnote: George Raulerson was born on Feb. 10, 1891, and died October
10, 1966. His Wife, Alma Knabb Raulerson was born Sept 4, 1894, and
died Oct. 25, 1974. They are buried with other family members in the
Taylor Community Cemetery in Taylor Florida.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                         KATE FULLERTON WOLFE
                               'ca 1958

     "Living for others makes a satisfied mind" could easily be a
motto for Mrs. Kate Fullerton Wolfe, better known to us that know her
as "Miss Kate" because of her young-at-heart attitude, or "Mama Wolfe"
because of her loving, kind and understanding way.

     The youngest of eight children, Mama Wolfe was born in 1888 on a
farm in Campbell County, Ga., now Fulton County. Her parents, the J.H.
Fullerton's, started her to Felton Hill school at the age of 6 and a
few years later moved to Tallapoosa, Ga., where she graduated from
high school. After she finished school, she got a job as a saleslady
in a dry goods store 12 miles away in Atlanta. Later, she moved to
Cordelle, Ga., to live with her sister and again obtained a position
as a saleslady. This time she met a young man, Jesse E. Wolfe, who was
a salesman in the same store, which was owned by his uncle. It didn't
take them long to discover they were in love. They married December
14, 910, in Cordelle. They moved to Warwick, Ga., where they entered
the mercantile business together and built a home. While the couple
lived in Warwick, they became the parents of two children, a daughter
Mary and a son Jesse.

     Then the little family moved to Sylvester, Ga., and went into the
automobile business. Two more children, John and Robert were born.

     "This was the last days of the boom," she said, and the family
moved on to Lake City.

     In 1931, the family moved to Macclenny, where Jesse was
associated with the Griffin Motor Co. for many years.

     Three of their four children graduated from the local high
school: Jesse E. Wolfe, who is connected with the C&K Motors locally;
John J. Wolfe, who has been affiliated with the Griffin Motor Company
for 13 years; and Robert, the couple's youngest son who lost his life
June 20, 1944, when his plane was shot down in the Pacific. Her oldest
child, Mary Flory, of Lansing, Michigan, was graduated from high
school in Sylvester.

     "Miss Kate" has five grandchildren: Jean Hawkins of Orlando;
Susan Kent of Wake Forest, N.C, (both are teachers); TOMMY, son of
Jesse and Todd Wolfe; and Robert and Jimmy, sons of John and Mildred.

     Her husband Jesse died in 1947. She does not hide her grief, but
she has found ways to dedicate her life to God and the Community. She
is always there when needed, and because she understands pain, she can
find the words to help others understand theirs.

     She is very active in the Baptist church and is a member and
president of the T.E.L. Class, serves as community mission chairman
for the WMU, is a member of the BTU and has been attending Prayer
meetings for more than 40 years.

     She belongs to the Leona Knabb chapter of the Easter Star, and
during the past has served several offices. She holds a life
membership in the PTA, is a member of the Woman's Club and a charter
member of the Friendly Fellowship Club.

     In recent Years, along with very dear friends, she has taken many
interesting trips to places that include Hawaii, a scenic train trip
throughout the west, the Grand Canyon, a cruise in the Caribbean,
Cuba, South America, Haiti, Nassau, Jamaica, Bermuda, and extensive
motor trips through out northern States including Washington D.C., New
York, Pennsylvania, Williamsbury, and Jamestown, Va. She's been to
Canada, Quebec and Mexico. Throughout all her travels she has managed
to visit all but three of our United States.

     During her visit to Philadelphia, she visited the chapel of the
Four Chaplains where there is a record kept of all the boys who lost
their life at sea. There in the book of memories, she was shown her
son Robert's name. In this sanctuary of brotherhood there are three
alters, Catholic, Jewish and Protestant. They proclaim the unity of
all Americans under one God. The sanctuary is kept up and maintained
by friends and Mama Wolfe is one of its avid supporters.

     To those of you who know the full and rich life of Mama Wolfe,
you know already that she has a beautiful and unselfish spirit.

     Kate Wolfe, born in 1888 died in July 11. 1977, at the age of 90.
Her husband Jesse was born 1886 and died 1947. John, born 1918, died
June 11, 1977. Jesse E. Wolfe, Jr. was born August 14, 1913, and died
October 5, 1967. Son Robert was the first person from Baker County to
be killed in World War II. The family is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery
south of Macclenny except for Robert whose body was never returned
from European soil.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                          LEAFIE 0LA BRYANT
                        Sanderson Florida 1992

     For nine decades, Leafie Ola Bryant has lived six miles south of
Sanderson. She was born on the 600-acre farm of her parents, John
Wesley Mann and Mary Jane Rigdon on October 22, 1902.

     Sitting in the comfort of her modest rustic home that she and her
husband Ernie built in 1940 from lumber cut from their 40 acre
property, she pointed out the back door and said, "I was born right up
yonder. They've throwed away my old house now."

     "My daddy worked real hard every day when I was a little girl.
He'd go to the woods and cut trees and leave me in charge. Mostly me
and my sister Lear worked, the younger youngins didn't have to do all
the things we did. We cut wood for two fireplaces and a stove. We
never let Mama get out of fire wood. We put up fences, plowed the
fields, hauled fodder, dug potatoes, hoed in the fields, washed
clothes in wash pots, cooked for our big family and did just about
anything else you can think of," she said in a recent interview.

     Her 85-year-old sister, Lear Justice, sat nearby looking on. She
was here from Dade City to help her sister celebrate 90 years of life.
Neither of the women could hear. Notes passed between them gave
answers about the highlights of their long life. Brother Funston was
not there - he lives down the road a piece.

     Parents were real strict in those days, they said.

     "Why I didn't let a boy kiss me until I got married," said Ola.
"Well, there was this one boy who held me down one time and got a
little kiss, he was a Smith, I don't know what became of him, but once
after he moved away, he wrote me and said if he had wings he'd fly
away and light into his darlings arms. That meant me. I didn't answer
his letter and I never heard from him again," she said.

     "My mama and daddy wouldn't put up with anything like that... not
for a minute!" she exclaimed. "We didn't talk about such things to our
parents, if we had, we'd had our necks rung."

     Ida married Ernest (Ernie) Bryant April 7, 1923, in Macclenny.

     "We'd known each other all our lives, but he'd moved away to
Plant City when he was in his teens. One day he came back and said
'Let's get married.' We did, and spent our first night with my mama
and daddy."

     "What kind of honeymoon did you have?" I asked.

     "Oh, well, you can just imagine what went on, but I don't think
it was as bad as they do today," she quipped. "My husband was real
loving all our life, and we had a long time to love before we had any
babies."

     After two years of marriage their first child was born. In all,
the couple were parents of 13 children.

     "People used to ask me why I had so many children. I told them
what the Lord said in the Bible I didn't go after the man, he came
after me. I just made a nice little nest. My husband had the eggs." "I
really believe in God and I have real dreams. I've been on the road to
heaven. I've known God since I was 10. I knew there was something that
made us walk and talk, and He's the reason. I know he's going to come
soon, and we'll be on starvation, the Bible tells us our money won't
be worth nothing. We'd better be ready."

     Ola has been a member of Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church near
her home for many years.

     "Me and Ernest taught all our children to live righteous lives.
Our parents raised us to work and not lie and we taught that to our
children. I taught all my boys to cook.

     "If I had my way I'd still have a11 my children at home 'cause
when they get out from under your thumb you don't know what they are
doing!" she said.

     "I'll tell you one thing I'd do if I had my life to live over.
I'd say thanks at the table. I missed that with my children. I didn't
have a Bible until my sister brought me one. I guess she thought the
boogers was going to get me. But I'd thank God for the food we ate if
I could live life over. I didn't do that when my children were growing
up and I should have."

     Ola said the children worked in the fields with her and Ernie.
The smaller children's milk bottles and other things needing
refrigeration were kept in the cool deep water well outside the home.

     The Bryant's never owned a car. Transportation was horse and
wagon. They grew all they ate. They sold produce to buy the staples
they needed. Eggs were ten cents a dozen and helped to buy or trade
for sugar, salt, coffee, tea, matches and kerosene.

     "We didn't have things like toilet paper. we used strips from the
old Sears Roebuck catalog" Picking up a box of Kleenex she said, "We
never knew what these things were in our day."

     When electricity came to their area, it cost $5 to connect.

     Does she believe men have gone to the moon?

     "Well sure, I saw them do it on TV, but the Lord let 'em do it He
won't ever let 'em find out what all else is up there though."

     Today she lives alone. Well almost There's Max the dachshund.
Ernie died in 1971. The children, 37 grandchildren, 37 great
grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren visit often. She
still cooks, cleans house, tends her flowers and takes care of her
daily needs.

     "I miss everyone that's died in my family," she said. "I wish
they could live again and we were all together again. Every night when
I lay down I think about them."

     Daughter Sharon Porter, who lives in Jacksonville's Arlington
section said, "Mama wants to live longer than us, she don't want to
die, she wants to go on living forever."

     "Mama, did you tell her about the new man you just met when you
had your eyes operated on," her daughter asked.

     Ola read her lips.

     "Oh you mean about him, what's his name? Well he's the first man
I've taken notice to since Ernies been gone. He's 85, but you should
see him walk, he don't look it. The doctor talked to me about him and
I told him I might be interested if he could cook. He asked me why I
wouldn't have him for dinner and I told him if I did I just might not
get rid of him."

     "Daddy would turn over in his grave" said one daughter.

     "Well I don't know why he'd want me anyway. I've had my
gallbladder out, my appendix out, my eyes operated on and my female
organs out.

     "I asked my son what he thought about me getting him a new daddy
and he just stared at me. I told him he wouldn't have to come check on
me anymore.

     Ola had just returned from her first trip to New York. She flew
there with daughter Sharon and visited Philadelphia and other places
as well.

     "Mama wore her first pair of shorts. She kept saying someone was
going to see her knees, and I told her no one in New York was going to
care about her knees. She saw the statue of Liberty."

     "Yea, they just juggled me around all over the place," said Ola.

     She likes her home the best. From her front yard she can see down
the lane where her children used to walk to the little one-room school
house. Out back stands the now-deserted corn crib and tobacco barn
that Ernie built. The pecan trees that litter the yards don't bear as
much as they once did. The various fruit trees and grape arbor bear
resemblance of neglect. But the picturesque setting has produced
prize-winning photography for Sharon.

     Ola's little dachshund wags his tail as Ola strokes his soft
brown fur. When no one is around, Ola says she talks to Max.

     "I'm just real glad I learned to read and write since I can't
hear," she said. My ears have shut down. But my dog don't care, Max
just sits and listens."

_____________________________________________________________________________

                             VERDIE FISH
                from Taylor, Baxter, Glen St Mary area

     Most of the early pioneers in America built their first homes and
furnishings from materials obtained of the free land and fed their
families the same way. They used looms to spin the cloth they wore on
their backs and such natural products as indigo weed and red oak bark
to make dyes for it. Corn shucks were used to make bonnets and sun
hats, soap from crackling grease and potash, starch from grated roots.
They swept their dirt and clay yards with brooms made from gallberry
bushes and mops from dried corn shucks. Toilet paper was unheard of
and good use was made of the Sears Roebuck catalog, or sometimes corn
cobs in the comfort of the one or two seater outdoor privy.

     The early settlers of Baker County were no different from anyone
else. They simply lived off the land.

     "Every year in the fall when the crab grass would die, we'd
gather the grass and make grass mattresses," said Verdie Fish, the
former Verdie Rhoden. "Sometimes we'd make our mattresses out of moss,
gathering it green, boiling it in a syrup boiler until the green was
gone and it was dead. Then we'd hang it on the fence to dry. You could
work it up real fluffy to make a nice mattress. Every year we'd have
to re-moss and add even more moss to make it thicker. We didn't have
bed springs back then, just solid boards on homemade beds. Our pillows
were made the same way the mattresses were.

     "If anybody got a good feather bed back then in those days that
was really something," she said, explaining that both geese and
ganders were really valuable to have.

     I've walked many a mile on a hot day through the hot fields
carrying a bucket of water for the geese. They helped to keep the
grass down in the cotton patch and produced about one pound of
feathers own in the cotton patch and produced about one pound of
feathers a year. I've had to hold many a one's head for my mama to
pluck the feathers, usually about three times a year. If they ever got
a hold of you they wouldn't turn you loose either."

     Mama was Josephine combs who married Nathan Rhoden. Verdie was
the fourth of their eight children.

     "My mama cooked the best food in a fireplace. She used as much
dead wood as she could. It resembled coals. When the fire died down
under the vegetables she'd rake the coals out. The women back then
knew just how many coals they needed to make the fire hot to bake the
best bread I ever ate.

     "Mainly they made cornbread, made up into what they called pones
(dry enough to mold). They used plain meal, salt, and water. They knew
how, don't think they didn't, and it was baked just right.

     "We used a hand mill to grind our corn into grits and meal.

     "I used to enjoy going to my grandmother Rhoden's (the former
Doriann Thompson who married William Newton Rhoden). She had honey
bees. My dad and uncle would rob the hives and that fresh honey with
homemade butter and hot homemade biscuits was so good."

     Her grandfather, Richard (Dick) Combs fought in the Battle of
Olustee until a bullet killed his horse and another one pierced
through his thigh. It was the only horse the family owned.

     "During my parent's generation thy used to make caskets for
friends, family and neighbors who died. The sawmill would usually
donate the lumber and the carpenters donated their time. The neighbors
would all gather to help. The women folk would line the inside with
white material and cover the outside in black with a pretty border
around it. I think they were made better then than today," she
continued. "They were made of heart cypress the shape of the body. A
hole would be dug the shape of the coffin down in the clay and the
casket would be lowered flush, and a board laid on top. The clay kinda
sealed the casket in place. You'd never see a grave caved in when they
were buried that way. The bodies were carried by mule and wagon to the
cemetery with the neighbors walking behind, or a line of mules and
wagons carrying friends and family.

     The flowers used to decorate the grave were usually wild flowers
from nearby woods.

     On the 10th of November 1921, Verdie married Dewey Fish. He had
first married Verdie's cousin Lottie Rhoden in 1918, but she died less
than a year later with pneumonia.

     "At first we wondered if we'd get married," she said. "Dewey had
taken time off from farming and hauled cross ties to make the money
for the license and to pay the Notary Public to perform the service.
We were to be married at my parent's home and my mama had a big dinner
of pork and rice for everyone, but the man never showed up to marry
us. Finally Dewey borrowed a car to go looking for him and found a
note on his door saying something had come up and we'd have to get
someone else. He had recommended another Notary Public, so Dewey went
over to his house and got him. After the ceremony we invited him to
eat with us, and all through mama's meal of pork and rice he kept
saying how good the chicken was. I think he was from the north."

     Dewey bought his family homeplace after the death of his father
James Benjamin Fish. The young couple started raising a family which
eventually totaled eight children.

     "My first baby was a little girl, and she was only about three
and a half pounds. I almost departed this ole world when she was born.
Back then they didn't have anything to give you for pain. Nature just
had to take its course, but then it only cost five dollars for a
delivery. We had to hire someone to stay for four weeks each time I
had a baby because you'd have to stay completely in bed nine days,"
she said. "It cost us two dollars and a half a week, plus we furnished
their room and board, so if you had a baby on the way back then you
had to prepare for the finance which was a total of fifteen dollars. I
mean that was a whole lot of money back in those days.

     "Dewey was always in the room with me and watched each one of our
children come into the world. Babies slept in the bed with their
mothers until another one came along. I still believe in that," she
said.

     "There was lots of work for everyone on the farm and you did what
you had to do.

     "Once I wanted to get our outdoor toilet nearer to the house and
our back door, so I waited until Dewey left one morning and I hurried
out and dug myself two holes, right by myself, deep enough to bury two
55 gallon drums.

     "Oh, you had help from the boys," Dewey broke into the
conversation.

     "Oh no I didn't," she said emphatically. "I did it all right by
myself."

     She explained how she then took the old toilet building down by
sections.

     "It was connected by posts, and I moved it inside the chicken
yard. I wanted it fixed as dainty as I could fix it."

     Changing the subject, she said, "it would take as much as three
days to do the wash back then, and we homemade most of what we wore.
We used to have a joke going around 'cause so many of our clothes were
made from flour sacks. Someone was always saying, 'Be careful if you
stoop, 'cause we might see 96 on one side or 100 on the other.' That
stuff was printed on the flour sack and it wouldn't come out."

     And in a way we might say the same for these noble first settler
families who struggled against the hardships of the times that they
lived. Their lives are stamped and printed down in the pages of Baker
County's history now, and no matter what, that stamp of esteem will
never come out or fade away.

Footnote: Verdie and her husband Dewey are both buried in North Prong
Cemetery north of Sanderson.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                 LUCIOUS COMBS, WIFE ERIE FISH COMBS
                                 1993

     On any given day back in the 1920s and 1930s, Lucious Combs, a
life long native of Baker County Could stand on the wood-slated front
porch of his Parent's Sanderson farm home near Cedar Creek and watch
patches and patches of billowing black smoke come up from the woods
that surrounded his home. It wasn't Indians on the war path. It wasn't
a woods fire. It was men hard at work, making moonshine. Mostly, they
were making a living.

     Lucious was one of six children born to Pete and Lillie Agnes
(nicknamed Dough) ( Kelley ) Combs who lived in a "big ole log house"
near Cedar Creek. They were an honest, hard-working farm couple.

     Their son, born Jan. 4, 1913, went to school just like his
sisters and brothers, but one day he was stricken with a high fever
and almost died. in fact, Dr. P.A. Brinson said he'd be dead by night
fall when he examined him. Then Dr. Edward W. Crockett was summoned.
He pronounced the same fate for the young boy. His parents sent for
Dr. Blanton. He told them to 'fix the boy a poached egg and some
grits, and feed him." They did.

     "I got well fast after that. I returned to school up there at
Sanderson, but I just couldn't remember anything I had learned before,
so I told my parents I wasn't going back to school, and I didn't." For
a while he stayed home and helped on the farm.

     "We had a big crack in our house that was so long you could look
from one end of the house to another and see outside all the way. We
had a big fireplace to keep warm, about four feet long. The cold
didn't seem to bother us then like it does now," he said.

     Times were hard. There was little cash money around. Very little
work. If there was work there was little or no money to pay you with.
It was the deep Depression days and you were lucky to have a plot of
land to grow vegetables on and feed a family. Lucky to even be a
sharecropper. Sometimes you could swap eggs or other farm products for
staples at the local store. If you were lucky. It was hard to take
care of a family. Everyone had to shoulder a responsibility and help
out with chores, even at very early ages. A lot depended on luck.
Everything depended on God for survival.

     Despite the hard times, Lucious,s good parents reared two extra
boys. Someone in South Carolina gave the boys to a Mr. Hood who was
the Combs's neighbor.

     "He was mean, real mean, to those little boys, and made the
little fellers try to plow and they were just too little. One day they
just ran away and came to our house. Their names were Colon and
Maryland Comby, but they changed their names to Arthur and John Comby.
They stayed with us awhile, then Mr. Hood came for them. The boys ran
back to our house again and this time Mr. Hood just let them stay.
When they got grown they headed back up to South Carolina to their own
people," he said. He hasn't seen them since they departed.

     The children of Pete and Dough Combs in order of age were Eula
(Kicklighter), Edna (Bryant), Wilbur, Lester, Lucious and Isabell
(Swindell).

     By 1936, Lucious was ready for marriage. His friend, Jake
Raulerson, who later married his sister Isabell, took him visiting one
day at the home of Noah Fish, where he fell for one of Noah's
daughters and Jake's first cousin. Not long afterwards he proposed to
Erie Fish who was only 15 and still in school. He told her he had
enough money to take care of her, and she believed him. They planned
to run away and get married. Lucious picked her up after school in
Macclenny and his brother Lester drove them to Starke where they were
married by a judge whose name they've forgotten. According to him, her
sister Overa was suppose to tell the family when she got home from
school that day, but Erie has no recollection of that. In any event,
no one knew.

     "Did you have a honeymoon?" I asked.

     "No, we ain't never had a honeymoon, and I didn't get any of his
money either," spoke up his wife of 57 years. "We've had more
honeymoons now than we've ever had and it still ain't no honeymoon,"
she quipped. They spent the first night of their marriage and a few
after in the home of his parents.

     "That old house where we spent our first night just burned about
a month ago," said Lucious. "Someone just burned it down."

     In a few weeks the couple went to Jacksonville to work for
Lucious's uncle, Dan (D.L.) Kelly, who grew wonder (large black)
berries. They helped to pick them.

     "My daddy was the first to have wonder berry stock in the
county," he said. "He got them from Uncle Dan and had about an acre of
them. If anybody else had any they got them from daddy 'cause they
sprung from his."

     "What did you do for a living, farm?" I asked.

     "Yea, what time I wasn't making moonshine!" he said.

     "It is pathetic to say, but that was the only way people had to
make money in those days," spoke up Erie.

     When Lucious married Erie it was probably the most important and
best decision in his life. Though very young, she was a survivor and
in addition to bearing up under the hard times, bore him 12 wonderful
children. Without the first real convenience, she was destined to work
along side of him on the farm and held down a few outside-of-the-home
jobs as well. She is called by her friends and neighbors, as a
wonderful, hardworking woman who has known more than her share of
destitute times. She is respected and admired by those who know her.
Each of their 12 children graduated from highschool and one from
college. Erie had to cook for them, sew for them, and manage a
household that was anything but normal. For 17 1/2 years she worked
for Northeast Florida Hospital as an aide to make money for school and
other necessities the children needed. A year prior to that she worked
as an aide in Lake Butler hospital. She was always tending to, or
helping someone else. That life has never been easy for Erie Combs, is
not news to her. She knows it all to well. The memories are painful
and she wouldn't want to go back over it again she says. The hardships
were almost unbearable.

     But the hard-working, God-fearing woman knows in many ways she is
blessed. Tears fall easily for her. That is, they fall if she
remembers too far back in time. There are some things she just simply
wants to forget.

     But one of them is not who she is. She is proud of that.

     She was born June 15, 1919, to Noah Walter and Maude (Raulerson)
Fish, Baker County natives. Her mother died by the time Erie was four.
She and her siblings were scattered for a time with aunts and uncles
and other relatives, but one day her daddy just decided he didn't want
to do that to his children. So he gathered them all up and together
they "made do."

     "He was a good man, a very good man," she said. "He tried not to
let us do without what we needed."

     Lucious agrees. "Her daddy was a good ole man, one of the best
you could find around."

     But when a child life was so hard. She would walk through the
woods to school as a little girl, right by herself, even when it was
dark and scary. When she got in from school everyday there was dinner
to fix, dishes to wash, water to get from the pump and haul to where
ever she needed it. There were clothes to wash in big old tubs out in
the yard, ironing to do with flat irons heated on the wood-burning
cook stove, farming, milking of cows and feeding of livestock.

     "I had to do the things a mama had to do when I was a little
girl," she said. "Children today wouldn't be able to do it."

     When she married Lucious at age 15, she still had it all to do,
and mostly by herself. Lucious, she said, was always drunk. She had a
baby daughter by the age of 16. And the babies came, and came and
came. An even dozen of them.

     There was no romance. "What's that?" she wants to know. There was
a lot of pain, mostly emotionally. And it lingers. It was harder to
bear that the hard work.

     While Lucious farmed he mostly made moonshine, and drank lots of
it. More than Erie cares to remember.

     "I never got caught," he said with obvious pride. "I could out
run 'em. I was young back then and had me a good horse too."

     "I don't mind talking about it, it's been so long they can't do
nothing about it now!" he smiled.

     He didn't have just one moonshine still.

     "I put down pumps all over these woods!" he said. "With all the
smoke risin' up I don't see how come them reveners had any trouble
finding 'em."

     "They came up here to the house looking for me one day after I
had got away from em. They thought I was makin' it. But Erie told 'em
I was out in the woods looking for my hogs. Me and daddy had hogs all
over these woods. So they left."

     "Did you drink any of it?" I wanted to know.

     "No he didn't drink it, he funneled it!" Spoke up Erie.

     "Yea, I drank it, lots of it," he confirmed. "But I ain't drank
in years now. It was especially good when it was aged in them big old
oak barrels. That stuff they put in the stores ain't no good. I made
real good moonshine," he said.

     "I don't drank whiskey anymore, but if I did I'd make my own.

     Moonshine was very common in those turn-of-the-century days. When
asked, most people will say, "everybody did it." But there were
exceptions. Lucious said his daddy was one of them.

     "He never messed with it at all, but me and my brothers did.
Wilber got caught, and Lester, but I think they just had to pay a
fine," he said. "One day them revenuers ran up on Wilber at a still
and started shootin' at 'em. Wilber ran fast as he could home, and
them still a shoot'in at 'em. They put a bullet right through the heel
of his shoe. When he got to daddy's house, daddy was really mad, he
could have a temper, but he let them take Wilber on with 'em . Somehow
though, Wilber got out of it, guess he just paid a fine, I done forgot
what happened. They caught Lester one day, but he got out of it too."

     Moonshine sold for about $5 a five gallon jug. At least that is
what Lucious sold his for. Sometimes ingredients for the shine making
were hard to get and he had to substitute syrup for sugar.

     "I knew one man that used candy when he didn't have any sugar,"
he said.

     Once he bought some black market sugar, about $500 worth of it.
He stored it in a nearby deserted smoke house.

     "The people had just moved from that old house and everything was
deserted over there. One night I could hear an old sittin' hen just a
hollerin'. They'd left behind because they couldn't find where she was
settin' before they left and she happened to be in that old barn. I
knew the revenuers were there when I heard that settin' hen a rarin'.
They were raid'en the sugar They even got the old sittin' hen, took
her right off with 'em too."

     "Them revenuers almost put me out of business once, but I'd just
get right back in it. I decided to put me up a big still out there in
my smoke house until things quieted down. I kept it out there for a
long time."

     "One day them reveners came up to the house. I'd taken Erie to
the doctor, reckon' it was when she was pregnant but I wasn't home and
a friend was here. The revenuers were asking him questions, and looked
over at my barn and said,'I bet he's got shine out there,' but my
friend said, 'no I don't think he messes with the stuff.' All the time
I had 65 gallons stored out there."

     "Did Erie help with the moonshine? I asked.

     "I sure did, I've helped make many a jug of it out there in that
smoke house. The kids did too. They've pumped a many gallon of water
to make that mess with. We all worked in it. One night a man drove up
here wantin' some liquor and Lucious was in the bed drunk and didn't
know the man was here so I was big as a barrel (with child) but I'd
haul one jug at a time and the man'd haul two, until we got as much
loaded as he wanted to buy."

     "When did you stop making moonshine?" I wanted to know from
Lucious.

     "When Ed Yarbrough got to be sheriff," he answered. "Just figured
it was about time," he said.

     The two have retained some of their old friends like Clarence
Crews and Ruby Thrift, Clarence and Gertie Taylor, but don't socialize
too much. There just isn't time, they say.

     He has farmed and done some construction work. Erie also drove a
school bus a few years trying to make ends meet. Times were never
easy, especially for Erie.

     "There's a lot of things I'd like the Lord to take away from me
completely." There is little doubt she feels resentment in weak
moments when memories surface.

     "That's the only thing I feel that stands between me and the
Lord, trying to forget some of the things that's happened to me,
bearing resentment to the way I've been treated."

     "If I could take shock treatment to forget some of the past I
would, I really would. God would be merciful to me if He'd just let me
forget those past years," she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.
The whole story could never be told, she said. in fact very little can
be told.

     "I just can't bear to tell it, but I could write you a book," she
said.

     "I try to be good to her now," said Lucious, realizing that for
her, especially, the years have been very difficult. "There's a lot of
things I wouldn't do if I had my life to live over. I would change
some things."

     He admitted he has not always been tactful or considerate of her.
His words oftimes have been like darts, piercing the heart of a very
loving and giving woman. His actions sometimes devastating to her.

     Their pride and joy is united and obvious. Their children. On the
couch is a pillow with a picture. On the shelf the same photo. Twelve
children pose with their parents, and all twelve have on caps and
gowns.

     "They borrowed them from friends so they could all pose with us,"
said Erie.

     "I want that picture on my tombstone," said Lucious. "I'm so
proud of that."

     His eyes grow misty.

     "Erie broke her hip not too long ago. I tried to be good to her
and wait on her."

     "I don't know what I'd have done without him then, I really
don't," said Erie. "Why couldn't it have always been like that," she
wondered.

     "I know the Lord has blessed us, but it's just been so hard, so
hard, I just wish I could forget some of the past I'd do anything not
to remember some things."

     Erie Fish Combs's remarkable feat in life as a survivor is an
example of tremendous strength and fortitude for her posterity. As she
says in few words, "I could write a book for you, but I won't. I'll
hold it in my heart and let it pass on by."

FOOTNOTE:
The children of Lucious and Erie (Fish) Combs are: Agnes (Mrs. Orie)
Hicks, Vonceil (Bitner), Sylvia (Wingo) deceased, Rachel (Stewart),
Gene Combs, Jannie (Rhodes), L.E. Walter Combs, Mike Combs, Gregory
Combs, Wanda (Rhoden), Daniel Leslie (D.L.) Combs and Marie.

For the record Agnes, Vonceil, Sylvia, Rachel, Gene and Jannie were
delivered at home by a Baldwin midwife. L.E. was born in Jacksonville.
Mike and Gregory were born in Lake City hospital. Wanda, D.L. and
Marie in Macclenny hospital by Dr. John Watson.

Their grandchildren:
Agnes: four children, Libby, Debbie, Diane and Greg.
(Libby's child is Elizabeth, Debbie's child is Steven, Diane's
children are Kelly, Brandy and Jennifer, Greg's children are Mandy and
Stephanie.

Vonceil three children: Dee, Peggy and Earl.
(Dee Dee's children are Troy, Marilyn and Marie, Earl's son is Jarard,
Peggy's children are Eric and Adam).

Sylvia three children: Eugene, Karen and Paul
(Karen's children are Carrie and Felicia)

Gene three children: Eddie, Robert (died) and Christie
(Eddie's children are Dustin, Eric and Derrik, Robert's child is
Ashley Amber).

Rachel two children: Vickie and Nancy
(Vickie's children are Joey and Christie, Nancy's child is Lisa)

Jannie two children: Timmy and Lee Ann
(Lee Ann's children are Joshua and Christie)

LE. two children: L.E. Jr. and Melissa
(Melissa's child is J.W.)

Mike two children: Amanda and Amber

Gregory two children: Greg, Jr. and Jeremiah

Wanda two children: Blake and Matthew

Daniel three children: Misty, Katie, Clinton

Marie is childless.

ERIE's family:
Noah Walter Fish, married Maude Raulerson:
Their children are James Benjamin (J.B.), Erie (Combs), Overa
(Johnson) and Gleason.

Noah's parents were Benjamin Fish and Kissie Smith.