SCHLEY COUNTY, GA - HISTORY Woodall-Patton House ***************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm *********************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Kay New mknew@mindspring.com Woodall-Patton House NATIONAL HISTORIC REGISTER-SCHLEY COUNTY, GA. Woodall--Patton House and Post Office (added 2002 - Building - #01001432) Also known as U.S. Post Office - Schley, Georgia GA 240, 3 mi. W of US19, Ellaville Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Architectural Style: No Style Listed Area of Significance: Communications, Politics/Government, Architecture Period of Significance: 1850-1874, 1875-1899, 1900-1924, 1925-1949 Owner: Private Historic Function: Domestic, Government Historic Sub-function: Post Office, Single Dwelling Current Function: Vacant/Not In Use The Ellaville Sun ­ Date unknown in 2002 Schley County house on National Register of Historic Places By Michael Dixon My grandmother recalled the many times she and her brothers and sisters rode in a wagon from their home near Buck Creek to the post office at Concord in northwestern Schley County. For farming children in the late 1880s, the short trip by dirt roads was an outing they relished. Three days a week, a carrier came on horseback from Buena Vista and Tazewell, dropped off mail, picked up outgoing mail and rode on east to Murray’s Crossroads and perhaps as far as Oglethorpe before retracing his route to Marion County. Today few passersby on Ga. Hwy. 240 cast a glance at the little house just west of the Concord United Methodist Church. Fewer still know that the house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Little more than a footnote of Schley County history, the house was the post office at Concord for 17 years. As such, it witnessed the comings and goings of area residents. It served not only as a United States post office but also as a place where news and views were exchanged. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Jan. 11, 2002. The post office was operated in the living room, which was entered through one of two doors on the front of the house. The other door, the one on the left, went into the home’s one bedroom. A porch with banisters stretched across the front of the house, sheltering the two doors and two deep windows. The living room-post office and the bedroom were connected by a door, and both rooms had fireplaces. To the rear, the living room led into the small dining room, and the kitchen beyond. Two more porches, one off the kitchen on the west side of the house and another off the bedroom and dining room at the rear, rounded out the structure. Water was drawn from a well. A barn stood about 100 feet west of the house and contained a hay loft and wooden boxes for chickens’ nests. Cured meats were kept hanging in a small smoke house about 20 feet from the kitchen. Finally, a tiny building with one door served as a repository for outdated catalogs and other reading materials. The post office was established Feb. 13, 1888, according to an official “Record of Appointment of Postmaster, 1832-September 30, 1971.” It was officially designated the Schley Post Office. James W. Woodall was named postmaster. The house was owned by James’ mother, a widow, Elizabeth Woodall. Like their neighbors, the Woodalls earned their living by farming. The post office provided supplemental income while meeting a need in the community. Previously, the nearest post office was at Murrays Crossroads, three miles to the east. The Schley Post Office was not the first attempt by local residents to establish (several words illegible) 1884 James Franklin Hudson filled out a form called a “location paper,” as required by the federal government. Hudson proposed to name the post office Schley. It was to be located at a place called Beulah, 600 yards south of “the route from Oglethorpe to Buena vista (sic) on which the mail is now carried 3 times per week.” Hudson stated that the facility would serve “200 or 250” patrons. For some reason the proposed post office at Beulah never came into being. Four years later the Schley Post Office was established in the Woodall home. James Woodall was succeeded as postmaster by his sister, Mary Ella Woodall Patton, on April 21, 1893. Mrs. Patton was the widow of Samuel Patton and the daughter-in-law of Robert Patton, a prominent citizen of Schley County. Patton’s headstone in the cemetery at Concord indicates that he was a captain in the Army of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. He later served as a state senator. He died July 27, 1893, three months after his daughter-in-law was appointed postmaster at Schley. Ella Patton remained “postmistress,” as she was called, until July 31, 1905. On that date the Schley Post Office was discontinued; by that time, patrons were served by motor route from the Ellaville Post Office. Changing times brought new opportunities. A reporter for the Columbus Enquirer-Sun visited the Concord community and wrote her observations, which appeared in the edition of May 7, 1903. Her story was headed: “Schley, a Flourishing Community Down in Schley County,” and was datelined: Schley Post Office, Schley County, Georgia, May 6 (Special). Among her observations were these: “Professor Horace Stewart is now principal of the Concord High School here. . . . “Thirteen ladies of this neighborhood, unmindful of the unlucky number, got up a fishing excursion to Buck Creek a day or two ago. They spent an enjoyable day, caught lots of fish, and had a fine time generally. The genus homo was excluded from the trip, with the exception of one gentleman and a boy, who went along, the ladies no doubt believing that one or two men would prove ‘handy’ on an expedition like this . . . . “The cozy little Patten (sic) house here, kept by the postmistress, Mrs. M.E. Patten, is a hotel where the traveler and his team always get excellent accommodations.” The tax district in which the lands of the Woodalls and Pattons were located was called “Nubbin Hill” in the early 1800s. By 1887 the name “Patton Hill” appears in the tax digests. Eventually, the Schley Post Office became known, unofficially, as the Patton Hill Post Office. Elizabeth Woodall deeded her property to her daughter, Mary Ella Woodall Patton, on July 17, 1924. The following year Mrs. Patton married businessman Arthur Hill. Mary Ella Woodall Patton Hill’s two married names were the same as the name of the tax district in which she resided and the eventual name of the post office of which she was postmaster: Patton Hill. P.S.—The writer lived in the Patton Hill house as a child. At that time, the house, barn and outhouses remained unchanged from their original construction. More recently, electricity, indoor plumbing, a bathroom and a back bedroom were added. The property currently is owned by the writer’s cousin who lives in Atlanta. From The Tri-County Journal, Wednesday, April 17, 2002 Old Schley house, post office is on Register of Historic Places A house that was once used as a post office in Schley County has been approved for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. According to Ray Luce, director and deputy state historic preservation officer, the “Woodall-Patton House and Post Office” has been added to the register. The house is located on Georgia Highway 240 at Concord, about seven miles northwest of Ellaville. It was a U.S. Post Office from 1888 to 1905. At the time the post office was established, it was described as being on the “Buena Vista to Oglethorpe Road”. The second postmaster, Ella Woodall Patton, was the daughter-in-law of Captain Robert Patton, an officer in the Confederate States of America Army and, later, a senator in the Georgia General Assembly. Patton’s grave is in the cemetery beside the Concord United Methodist Church. Mail was delivered and collected three times per week by a carrier on horseback from Marion County. (The part of Schley County where the post office was located had been a part of Marion County until Schley County was formed in 1857.) The post office was officially designated the Schley Post Office. In time, it acquired the name “Patton Hill Post Office.” According to the nomination submitted to the National Register, the Woodall-Patton House is significant in architecture as a good, intact example of a rural, double-pen farm house, believed to have been built around 1870, which retains its original floor plan, siding, doors, windows, front porch, door knobs and other features. It has a pair of front entrance doors, each leading to separate front rooms, with no hall (it was in one of these front parlors that the post office was established). The house is also said to be of political/governmental significance due to its use as a post office for the northwest corner of Schley County. The postmaster/postmistress was the owner or resident of the house: James W. Woodall (1888-1893), and then his sister, Mary Ella Woodall Patton (1893-1905). In 1905 the post office was discontinued and service transferred to Ellaville, the county seat. The house sits on a parcel of land that is part of the tract of 100 acres which was purchased in 1871 by Mrs. Elizabeth M. Woodall, the mother of James and Mary Ella, who served the post office. The mother and daughter made their living from farming and continued living in the house together as late as 1910. Ella Woodall Patton (by then remarried to Arthur Hill) died in 1931 at the age of 72 and the house was sold. There is also an outbuilding remaining (a smokehouse). ==========Notes: The article is written by Michael Dixon and has evidence of much research. Thank you Michael. Thank you Kay. The author of the Tri-County Journal piece is uncertain. There is a great deal of Schley County history here and I have to say this piece is special to me as Mary Ella Woodall Patton married Arthur Hill (my 1st cousin twice removed) of Ellaville and there are other Woodall-Hill marriages as well. Harris Hill http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002514