UHS Newsletter

October 2001 Thirty-fifth year. Issue 5

NEXT MEETING ON OCTOBER 22^
FEATURES JERRY MCDONALD *
& LOWER CREEK INDIANS IN UPSON

Upson native Jerry McDonald, a
1955 graduate ofR. E. Lee, has become
our local authority on the life and times
of the lower Creek Indians who used to
populate our section of Georgia.

Our speaker is a retired computer
consultant who mostly searches for arti-
facts left by the lower Creek Indians
when they were forced to leave the state
along with the Cherokees on the infa-
mous Trail of Tears to Oklahoma reser-
vations in the mid 1830's. He and his
brother Tim share in these searches;

and they now have a large collection of
authentic Indian artifacts, including
many arrowheads and a stone ax prop-
erly called a "green stone celt."

In his program. Jerry will tell how
the Indians made and used many stone
tools. He will also explain how he has
gone about discovering many village
sites.




The last well-house! It
stood on the SE comer of the

Square. Built in 1892, pur-
chased by John A. Thurston
in 1914 and moved to his
home.    Moved to Victor
Thurston home in 1963. To-
day it is the property of Miss
Robin Brown, former wife of
Victor's grandson, Jeff Coo-
per, She lives in Griffin







I REMEMBER

• •   •'  •••   ..    - by      •

Hartford Pryor
I remember in the late 40's, Upson
County was having a drive "to raise
money for the March of Dimes (an
organization which funded efforts to
eliminate polio and to help its victims).
Reverend Herbert Morgan was put in
charge of this effort. He came up with a
plan to have a contest, to see who could
raise the most money. The loser would
have to push the winner around the
courthouse in a wheelbarrow.   There
were two other well-known people to
enter the contest.   One was Adrian
Wellborn and the other was Guy Sharpe,
who was pastor of the Rock Methodist
Church, and later a Channel 11 TV
announcer. When the contest was over,
you can guess who won; Rev. Morgan
got the ride around the courthouse in that
wheelbarrow.    •    :^ —77 "

I remember when we were all kids
and we would have to create some of our
own games. We would go to the woods
and rake up large piles of pine straw and
jump into it or ride our bicycles real fast
into it and the sudden stop would throw
us over the handlebars into the straw.
Speaking of bicycles—when bicycles
first started being build with motors, we
created something that we pretended was
a motor by the sound of it. We would
attach a clothespin to the frame of the
bike with a piece of cardboard extended
into the spokes of the wheel; and as we
pedaled along, the card would make a
clicking sound as it hit each spoke,
making it sound as if you had a motor.

One of my precious memories is
about my daughter Gayla Trice. One day
I was working on my lawn mower out in
the hot sun and perspiring heavily.  I
asked Gayla to bring me a glass of water.
She came back with the water and an
umbrella to shade me while I drank it.

Inside This Issue

A September program on lower Creek Indians in Upson Ct. . page 1

A listing of microfilmed Upson County records at the Archives page 2

A biographical account by J. W. Brown on life in the old days page 3

A sailor who did not come home from the sea page 4