Ware COUNTY  GA  Bios -  Wm B. Folks

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by 
Barbara Winge barbarawinge@yahoo.com


http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/ware.htm Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Georgia Table of Contents:

DR. WILLIAMS FOLKS; WAYCROSS PIONEER, CITIZEN, PHYSICIAN
Dr. William Barden Folks was one of the pioneer
physicians of Waycross and the city’s first mayor.  He
was born in Jefferson County, Georgia, the son of Amos
Folks.  After graduating from High School he entered the
Savannah Medical College in Savannah.

After finishing medical college, Folks practiced medicine
in his home town for one year and then moved to south
Georgia where he settled in Waresboro.  After 12 years,
Folks was appointed railroad surgeon by the Atlantic and
Gulf Railroad and moved to Valdosta where he lived until
1872.  At that time Folks was transferred to Tebeauville
(the original name of Waycross).

In Tebeauville he became actively identified with Daniel
Lott, the founder of Waycross, in promoting the new town
and in changing the county-site from Waresboro to
Waycross.  Dr. Lott and Dr. Folks established the first
Waycross newspaper,  “The Waycross Headlight,” given the
name because of the town’s strategic railroad location.
“The Headlight” began in 1876 with Dr. Folks as the
editor and Dr. Lott as the proprietor. Previously Dr.
Folks had served as the Waycross correspondent to the
Valdosta Times.

The burden of all of Folk’s writings was to advance
Waycross as a railroad center.  He became a personal
friend and confident of Henry B. Plant who took over the
Atlantic and Gulf Railroad in 1878 and incorporated it
into his “Plant System.”

Dr. Folks convinced Plant to accept the legislative
charter for a railroad and to build it.  H. S. Haines,
general manager of the Plant System, assisted them.   On
June 21, 1880, Dr. Folks was given the honor of removing
the first shovel of dirt marking the place where the
present Union Station now stands in Waycross on Plant
Avenue.    When the railroad was completed, the county
site of Charlton County was moved from Traders Hill and
the grateful citizens named the town Folkston.

Dr. Folks lived in Waycross until his death on April 19,
1886, at the early age of 56.  He was survived by his
widow, Mary, and five children.  Two sons became highly
successful and well known physicians,  Dr. William Morgan
Folks, and Dr. Frank C. Folks.

Ref:  WAYCROSS JOURNAL HERALD, Waycross, Ware County,
Georgia, April 22, 1974.


(Submitted by Barbara Walker Winge,  barbarawinge@yahoo.com)








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