Laurens County GaArchives News.....Stories of Young Dublin Recalled November 14 1931 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Olivia Terjesen terjesen@adelphia.net May 17, 2004, 6:23 pm THE DUBLIN COURIER THE DUBLIN COURIER NOVEMBER 14, 1931 SATURDAY Stories of Young Dublin Recalled Citizens of Pioneer Days Tell of First Settlers and Their Families --------------------- Two of Dublin’s oldest and most distinguished citizens, Mrs. Ella L. Spivey and Mrs. Anna M. Geffcken, know a great deal about the early days of Dublin through actual experience. To talk with them and learn about the past is like turning back pages in a city’s diary, if there were such a thing. Anna, the eldest daughter of Joseph E. Stevens and Margaret Stevens, nee Holmes, is 72 years of age. She married Mr. W. F. Geffcken, who died in 1923. Three children were born to their union, Mrs. Effie M. Fort of Dublin and Horace and Frederick Geffcken of Portsmouth, Va. There are eight grandchildren to be loved by Mrs. Geffcken now. Ella the youngest, and only other child of Mr. And Mrs. Stevens is 71 years of age. She became the bride of A. K. Spivey, who died in 1911. The couple were blessed with four children, O. W. Spivey, who now lives in Rebecca, Ga., Lavada, who became Mrs. D. F. Bush and who lives in the same place; Bonnie Belle, who married W. R. Wynn and who now lives with her mother in Dublin: J. Hilton Spivey of Atlanta. There are six grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Mrs. Spivey and Mrs. Geffcken were born and reared in Dublin. Their father was a true pioneer who came here, worked and cared for his family and who gave his life in the battle of Vicksburg during the Civil War. The two women are proud to know that their father fought and died bravely. Before he went to the war he built a court house, which is still standing, but which is now known as the Court Square Hotel. They reverence his memory although Mrs. Ella cannot remember him and Mrs. Anna has just a faint memory of him. Their mother’s father and mothers, Edwin and Melinda Holmes, “Aunt Lindy and Uncle Ed” to their many friends, were among the first settlers in this section. They were hard workers and honest citizens. Both lived long lives. Mr. Holmes dying at the age of 91, and Mrs. Holmes at the age of 86. They died in the year 1898. There is a story, which has proof, about Edwin Holmes. He had a clock in his youth which he kept through the years. He reared eleven children and each of them grew to know that clock as a very permanent possession. They got up, went to bed, went to school, church and played by hours ticked out by that clock. It is over a hundred years old, and is now in Mrs. Spivey’s home. In a recent interview they told their earliest recollections of Dublin in the following words: “Dublin was a very small place, just a few stores--part of them barrooms. There was only one physician, Dr. Hudson, who was followed by Dr. Harris Fischer and Dr. Peyton Douglas. “There were only two church denominations here in our youth, Baptist and Methodist with only one church building. The building stood on the same place where the First Baptist church now stands. When the city was ready to build a new church the old building was razed and given to the colored people to build them a church, which was used for a number of years for both worship and school purposes”. “There was only one school building in the city at that time, which stood on the site where the High school building now stands. It was still being used when Horace and Effie Geffcken reached the school age and they entered their school life there.” “The mail service was poor at that time. It was sometimes brought on horseback or in a buggy from Toomsboro, as that was the nearest railroad station. The mail was often delayed for several days at the time, especially in rainy weather as there was no bridge across Hunger and Hardship creek.” Mrs. Spivey and Mrs. Geffcken went to school in the same building that their father did. He came here from South Carolina while still a youth in 1835?. Later he married and built a home. The W. & T. depot is standing the yard of that home now. The First National Bank building marks the spot where John Dasher’s home was built. He was an uncle to Mr. Stevens. In 1871, the mother of these two women died. They remember and can give the names of each person who lived in Dublin at that time. The list follows: Col. E. C. Corbett ? and family; Charlton Smith, farmer; Col. James Thomas, Proprietor of the Old Troop Hotel; Henry Herrman, merchant; William Tillary, Shoemaker; Elijah Benton, tax receiver. F.H. Rowe, merchant; George Currell, farmer and merchant; Col. Rivers, lawyer; Col. W. S. Ramsay, Baptist minister and school teacher; R. A. Stanley, lawyer; Bryant Herndon, Dr. Douglass; Dr. Fisher, Ben Dixon, farmer; John Keen, Capt. Hardy Smith, ordinary; Mike Burch, Wright Stanley, William Hester, W. E. Geffcken, father of Anna Geffcken’s husband; James Reinhart, merchant; L. C. Perry, T. P. Sarchett, merchant; W. J. Scarborough, Mr. Holliway, T. H. Rowe, merchant; J. T. Duncan, merchant; Col. J. M. Stubbs, lawyer, William Pope, merchant. Dr. Fischer had the only drug store in the city at that time. There is an interesting story about the Court Square Hotel. It is bound up in the lives of its builder, Mr. Stevens and his descendants. It has already been stated that the building first served as a court house. Later it was moved and became a clinic, managed by Dr. Edmundson and Dr. Thompson. About this time, Mrs. Spivey’s youngest daughter, Bonnie Belle, granddaughter of the builder finished a course in nursing at the Rawlings Sanitarium in Sandersville and came back home and located. In a day or two she was called on duty by Dr. E. B. Claxton on her first case and made her first dollar within its walls. There are many other interesting stories which the two sister tell. One of them a rather sad one, follows: “Before the river bridge was built there was a ferry to be used by those who wished to cross. This ferry was managed for many years by an old Negro named Bill Madison. He would sing and strain his muscles and carry his passengers across the river. This continued for many years and finally Bill had to stop as his feet were strained so out of shape that he could no longer work or walk. He turned the job over to his sin-in-law, July Donaldson.” Another story which amuses any one of the younger generation, those who are so accustomed to automobiles, airplanes and trains, that it is hard to find somebody who will get startled over anything. The story goes that during the girlhood of Mrs. Spivey and Mrs. Geffcken ______________________ to stop on the other side of the river, as there was no way for it to cross. One day, Dan smith decided to ride out and see the train. He took a fine horse, one which had never seen a train and rode bravely forth. The place to see the train was finally reached and Mr. Smith enjoyed the sight immensely. Not so the horse. The animal became very hard to hold and began acting in a very strange manner. Mr. Smith thought nothing of it and continued to hold the animal, so it would not run away. In a few minutes the horse began to tremble and a little later fell to the ground, frightened to death. Another happening of the past, which concerns Mrs. Spivey and Mrs. Geffcken, occurred during the CIVIL WAR. When Jefferson Davis passed through Dublin, he stopped under a china berry tree near their mother’s house. She was greatly upset thinking that the men were Yankees. She was almost ready to flee to safety when the men passed on. Later in the same day, after she had forgotten her fright, she saw another group of men nearby, and realized that they actually were Yankees, who were following Mr. Davis and his men. She was again afraid for her children and home, but soon discovered that even the enemy can be friendly at times, for the blue-coated Yanks rescued her horse which had fallen into a well in front of the house. There are many other interesting stories about Dublin’s first years- stories that are known by most of the oldest living citizens as “first hand” knowledge. These stories are known to the younger citizens, who have listened with happiness to their elders tell tales about the war, the young Irish city founded by Jonathan Sawyer, and of the first trains and cars. Mrs. Spivey lives with her daughter on the corner of Gaines and Washington Streets and Mrs. Geffcken lives with her daughter and Pine Street. They are known and loved by a great many people of Dublin and Laurens county. This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 9.1 Kb