Quitman County GaArchives History .....Hatcher Station History from The Quitman Echo 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Donna Eldridge DonnaEldrid@aol.com and Jacquelyn Shepard  June 24, 2004, 9:55 pm

"The Quitman Echo, Quitman County, Georgia", by Jacquelyn Shephard, page 14

                       HATCHER STATION
        

     The post office last known as Linwood was re-established about two miles 
to the southwest in 1866 under the name of Hatcher's Station, in honor of John 
H. Hatcher, one of the old Patula settlers.  Mr. Hatcher owned a cotton gin.  
One of his sons was working in the gin, became cold and went outside to warm by 
a fire.  The lint that was on  his clothes and body from the gin caught fire, 
the boy became frightened and ran, so of course was badly burned and died.  Mr. 
Hatcher sold the gin and moved after a time down the road.  He was the first 
station master at Hatcher and also the postmaster.

    Hatcher Station was the railhead for the South Alabama group during the War 
Between the States and it has been said that enough tears were shed at Hatcher 
to wash the place away.

     There were several stores, Laseter's, Worthy's Store and Cotton Gin, Mr. 
Thomas's and Lanchester's.  A school was also established.  It was called the 
Monticello Subscription School and was located about a mile from Hatcher 
Station.  Mr. Julian Moore's father attended in 1868 at a cost of about $2.00 a 
month, it is believed.

    About 1907 Robert E. Lee, from Evergreen, Alabama, was riding the train and 
when it made a stop at Hatcher, got off and walked about in the woods.  Liking 
what he saw in the way of vines and greenery, he returned to live and married 
Miss Phenie Lavonia Moore of Hatcher Station.  He founded the Chattahoochee 
Floral Company.  The decorative evergreens and wile smilax were a specialty and 
there was a large business shipping the evergreens by rail.  He also ran a 
general store and the post office with the help of his wife.  A two-story 
building was constructed and all of the enterprises were in this building, with 
the living quarters upstairs.  Mr. Lee had the first telephone in the area and 
it was used by the people in the area, usually to receive or to send bad news.  
His wife, Miss Phenie, started a Sunday School and made plans for a church to 
be built at Hatcher Station.  This did not happen, although she purchased a 
piano that was to be used in this church she wanted so badly for the community.

    Mr. Julian Moore and his wife took over the business and ran it after Mr. 
Lee died.  It was closed in October of 1961, plastic had come into fashion for 
decoration and there were not enough people left in the area to support a 
general store.  Mrs. Moore remembers an orphanage in Virginia that ordered 
holly and smilax every year at Christmas for the children.  Mr. Moore, having 
worked in the business while growing up making the crates in which the greenery 
was shipped and learning the business from the ground up, had no trouble and 
continued to farm.

     A stave factory was located in the woods at Hatcher Station until the 
depression.  It is believed that this depression caused it to close.  There 
were a couple of nice homes in the woods built by the stave factory owners, 
although there are no remaining signs of them.

     The Bland's operated a lumber business for a time and a number of people 
moved into the area to work with them.  It is believed that the depression 
ended this business also.

     Hatcher Station, at one time, had four passenger trains a day that stopped 
at the station, two horse and buggy mail routes and enough people to warrant 
fish being shipped from Savannah.  They were packed in ice in large barrels.  
Dennis Bussey would order a barrel of mullet and set up shop across the road 
from the Floral Company on Fridays, usually selling out by lunch time.


 

Additional Comments:
Transcribed and submitted by Donna Eldridge with permission from Jacquelyn 
Shepard


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