Lamar-Pike County GaArchives News.....Pike In The Long Ago July 30, 1885
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Lynn Cunningham http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002535 July 1, 2011, 4:36 pm

Barnesville Gazette July 30, 1885

The rapid strides that the little city of Barnesville has made since the old 
Monroe railroad reached it, are simply phenomenal. Located as it is in the 
extreme eastern border of the county, surrounded by lands which first cleared, 
were regarded very poor, it certainly had no very flattering prospects to 
enliven or encourage its first settlers with the hope that their town would 
ever be more than a small trading station. Griffin was the whale that would 
swallow up all the neighboring towns, and bid fair to accomplish that big 
feat. She did for a time ruin Zebulon, cripple Fayetteville and McDonough, and 
even Forsyth, Thomaston and Greenville felt her power.

After Barnesville began to be settled up prior to the building of the Monroe 
railroad, and even before it was dreamed of, I frequently visited the town, or 
rather the neighborhood, as I had many kinfolks in that section of the county, 
to-wit: the Milner family. My mother was a niece of Rev. John Milner, the 
founder of old Sardis Church, and his son Ed and daughter Marian were my 
school mates at Zebulon, as were Boneta and John T., daughter and son of 
Willis J. Milner, and my vacations were frequently spent with them. Besides 
Uncle Gid Barnes and family and the Milners, I remember Fed Bell, Richard 
Hunter, G.C. Turner, Josiah Holmes, Dr. Long, Levin Turner, S.B. Shehee, 
Stephen Brown’s and a few other families which were all in an area of two 
miles of Barnesville.

Fed Bell had a small store where Hightower’s Drugstore now stands, and where 
Turner and Covington merchandised for many years afterward. Mr. Josiah Holmes, 
my wife’s father, sold goods where Captain Stafford’s swelling now stands. His 
residence was the lot now occupied by Alvis Stafford. Dr. Long’s residence was 
the lot now occupied at presence by Mrs. Cochran, and Jonah and Dick Hunter 
lived where Warren Stafford now lives. There was a little cottage on the lot 
now occupied by Mrs. A.J. Blalock. Gid Barnes lived on the old Higgins lot, 
C.G. Turner on the Bank corner, afterwards Turner’s Hotel, and Willis J. 
Milner lived where P.F. Mathews now resides. Those were the only families that 
then lived in present incorporate limits of Barnesville prior to the 
completion of the railroad to that point. From the Blalock house half way up 
to Dr. Wright’s drug store was at that time a cane break and all of the rest 
of the present city was then virgin forest.

Dr. Long was the only physician for years, and was succeeded by Dr. W.H. 
Hollis. Josiah Holmes first located at or near where J.T. Blalock now lives. 
He lived there in a double log cabin until he built on the lot occupied by 
Alvis Stafford. The Methodist Church was a few paces below and in front of the 
present church, and was a rude weather-boarded structure with no sash to the 
windows, only wooden shutters and a rough floor with cracks large enough to 
give freezing ventilation in winter time. Old Sardis was of the same sort. 
Dick Hunter was the village blacksmith for years and a good one he was too. 
His plows had a county wide circulation, as had F.O. Shockley’s turning plows 
at a later date. Indeed, so famous were his plows that he was induced in 1836 
to remove from Barnesville to Zebulon and set up shops - in order that he 
could be centrally located among his patrons, where he lived until his death. 
But for whiskey he would have been a rich man.

After the railroad was completed to Barnesville, Turner & Covington and Sam 
Kendrick did a large mercantile business, the former house doing the bulk of 
the trade. These stores extended from Hightower’s drug store to Dr. Wright’s.

Turner’s hotel was on the bank corner, and a big hotel it was for that town at 
that time. Besides being the breakfast, dinner and supper house for the 
railroad, the stages also stopped there. When I first located in Barnesville 
it was doing a big business and continued until it was burned down in 1861 or 
2. Daniel Hightower, father of J.W. and David succeeded Turner. There were 
never born two men better adapted to hotel keeping than Turner and Hightower, 
and they were well supported by their wives. Daniel Hightower was one of the 
most accommodating landlords, and was never happier than in making his guests 
comfortable, except possibly when commanding a cavalry company or engaged in a 
fox hunt. His son, J.W., inherits much of his father’s innate kindness.

Turner & Covington, T.K. Kendrick (afterwards Kendrick and Fryer) and H.B. and 
J.W. Elder were the only merchants in Barnesville from 1846 to 1849. Kendrick 
and Fryer did business on the Stafford corner, and the post office was kept by 
them. The Elder’s built a store just above the present city well, in the 
center of the triangular square. Gordon and Willis began business in 1849 I 
believe. Gordon was an old Scotch school master, and had been more fortunate 
had he always kept an old field school. He broke merchandising, left the town 
and went to Carroll county. I do not know if he still lives or not.

Speaking of travel I have seen as many as eight or ten coaches leave 
Barnesville daily. The farmers around Barnesville at that early day were as 
good citizens as those who now till the land. Stephen Brown, S.B. Shehee, John 
Milner, Josiah Matthews, Zachariah Fryer, John Jenkins and his son, J.R., W.J. 
Milner, G. Barnes, Alvis Jordan, Josiah Holmes, John Mayes, Brazier, Owens and 
others of their day were never excelled. Noble old men! Barnesville and 
surrounding country owe much to you for their present prosperity.

I can not close this, my last paper, without mentioning Jessie Jenkins, an 
imbecile, He was the brother of J.R. Jenkins, and was certainly a most 
remarkable character. Imbecile that he was, he was very sharp at repartee, and 
many persons now living had been made to blush because of hard licks he gave 
them, at certain, to them, unfavorable times. Jessie was a religious 
enthusiast, and attended every protracted, general or camp meeting that he 
could hear of. He rode for years a gray horse but was never known to put his 
feet in the stirrups of the sdaale. He was a Methodist in feeling and thought 
Josiah Holmes a model. He always sat by him in church and would do what he 
did. If Mr. Holmes groaned Jesse would groan. If he put his kerchief to his 
eyes, Jesse did; when Mr. Holmes knelt, Jesse kneeled. Indeed he did 
everything his model done. I remember on one occasion when Mr. Peurifoy was 
preacher on charge of Jesse’s conduct. It was a class meeting occasion. After 
the congregation had assembled in the old church, and just before the meeting 
was opened, the preacher ordered the doors, as was the invariable custom at 
that time, closed. Jesse did not like this for he had an horror of being shut 
up at any time, but as father Holmes was present, and he seated by him became 
composed. The preacher began examining the class with regard to their 
religious life and had just finished examining Mr. Holmes. Seeing Jesse by his 
side and not knowing he was an imbecile, this being his first visit as pastor 
to the church, he placed his hand on Jesse’s head and said, “Well my dear 
brother, how do you feel today?” Jesse replied: “I feel mighty bad, boss.” The 
preacher still not detecting his lunacy, continued, “Why do you feel bad, my 
brother?” Jesse responded quickly, “Because I’m feered my mar’s loose, and 
grabbing his hat, quickly shot out of the church. As may be imagined, the 
class meeting was speedily and summarily closed, amid the laughter of everyone 
present. Poor McCard Peurifoy. He never forgot that incident, nor could he 
bear to be teased about it. But it gave the boys a slang phrase, I’m feered my 
mar’s loose,” that was uttered a thousand times or more afterward. Jesse 
called his brother and sister-in-law “Mass Jack” and “Miss Ann,” and loved 
them dearly, whilst they in return humored him to the greatest extent. Jesse 
always seemed to love me and never failed to recognize me on my visits to 
barnesville after I had removed. Poor Jesse! He was bereft of reason while 
living, but I hope his mind has long since opened to the beauties of Heaven.

But I must and will close. Thanking you, Captain, for publishing these papers, 
and begging those of your readers who have been bored in reading them, to 
excuse me for thus continuing them, and praying kind heaven to continue 
blessing Barnesville with happy prosperity, I am as ever your friend,

J.C.C. Blackburn.
Madison, Ga.


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