Ware County Georgia Lawrence Smith and Rowan Pafford File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Bob Hurst Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/ware.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm JOSIAH SIRMANS, JUDGE BEN SMITH’S ANCESTOR, RESTS IN FENDER CEMETERY Many Of The Smiths, Paffords Are Buried In This Historic Cemetery Just Outside Lakeland CAROLINE PAFFORD MILLER’S GRANDFATHER, ROWAN PAFFORD, IS INTERRED IN SPRINGHEAD CEMETERY This Pioneer Rests In The Burial Ground Of The Church He Built By Robert Latimer Hurst Judge Ben Smith's and Carolina Pafford Miller Ray's exchange of letters gives an insight into several topics: the background found in the writing of the 1934 Pulitzer Prize novel, "Lamb in His Bosom," in 1933 and incidents in Southeast Georgia history. Both serve the student of history and literature well. In 1990, when this correspondence was being sent from Waycross, Georgia, to Waynesville, North Carolina, Mrs. Ray admitted to being unwell. "After another, wearing, horrible stay in (the) hospital, I'm still around. Hospitals are torture centers!" she exclaims. She, then, pauses in her narrative to thank Judge Smith for a copy of his book, "Chuck's Crew," which relates experiences during Ben's active service in World War II. "I didn't know you are a `wri-tah,' too. May the Lord be with you! (You'll need Him!)" Ben thanks her for the autographed copy of "Lamb" and offers her a "newsy letter" about South Georgia "where your roots are." He tells that he has returned to Mud Creek in Clinch County. The magistrate, who was born in Lakeland in 1923, reflects on the log houses, rail fences, syrup boilers, smoke houses --"In fact, every farm was a self-sufficient unit. Spending the night at my aunt's, you could see the stars through the roof but not a drop of rain would come in. I know that you must spend a lot of time thinking about your early days. ..." ..... The judge writes about his early remembrances: "My forebears came to Clinch County (then Ware) in 1822. The first was Josiah Sirmans, who was the first white settler in these parts. He is ancestor to almost everyone in Clinch and Lanier counties. In 1825, Lawrence Smith came from the Barnwell District, South Carolina. He was my great-great grandfather and settled on the northern perimeter of the Okefenokee Swamp. He was neighbor to the Wildes family, who were massacred by Indians. His own barn and outbuildings and crops were destroyed by the Indians during the Seminole Wars of 1837 -1839. He forted up his home soon after, and it became a place of refuge for fleeing settlers. "He and his oldest son, John (my great-grandfather), were both members of Capt. D.J. Miller's company of Ware County Militia. It is noted that a James Pafford was also on the roster. This surely has to be a progenitor of your family as they were in this country by then, having come from Tennessee. This was at a time when the son, James Marion, was only five years old, so it could not have been he. This militia unit was a member of General Floyd's expedition that drove the Seminoles out of their swamp paradise. (I am not particularly proud of this.) Remembering South Georgia, Caroline asks Ben if he "knows" St. Simons Island: "My very favorite spot on Earth! Many the time was that I `crabbed' off that ol' pier! How dear to my heart... Ol' Man Time sleeps nights on `the Island' and often naps in the day time while nothing ever happens." She refers to Paul Redfern, whose historic airplane flight in the 1920s began from St. Simons. Certainly, those days found much happening on this barrier isle, and Caroline Pafford was a part of those "Roaring `20s." Ben, hoping that his letter cheers up the former Waycross native, points out more ancestry that relates to her family as well as his. "Lawrence Smith's son, James C., was the first settler to start an overland freight business. He hauled supplies from the coast to the interior by oxcart and became a wealthy man for those times." He has touched upon a point of interest because Mrs. Ray wrote how her pioneer characters traveled in oxcarts and went from the interior to the coast once a year for supplies. "It is noted that one of the Pafford sons, Berrien, married my kinfolk, Harty, granddaughter of Josiah Sirmans. Her brother, Isaac Sirmans, married my great-aunt, Nancy Richardson. He was the grandfather of the late Hamp Sirmans who ran the Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Waycross. "Your ancestor, Rowan Pafford, was a private in Company K, 26th Georgia Infantry, which was my own grandfather's company. Upon the reorganization in 1862, he became a lst lieutenant in the 4th Georgia Cavalry (Clinch County) and in 1864 took office as Senator in the Georgia Senate during the Confederacy," declares Judge Smith, who continues to cite the closeness of the two families. "I simply do not understand people who are incurious about their heritage. Ours is so wonderful, such a rich tapestry of the human struggle and triumph over the most desperate hardships. I was first privileged to view this great thing in your own book as a little boy, and I never got over the experience. It was an honest book and the only one that came close to telling the story of our people," finishes Judge Smith. Her thoughts turn to the "Ol' Satilla." Informing that she was born on a bluff just above the Satilla where great grapevines (`Fox grapes'?) teased all chidren, the author adds that the joy of any piney woods youngster was pulling down young pines and "riding the great, green horses." "It's all gone," she concludes. "It's all gone --but engraved forever on our true hearts of `solid gold.' There were huckleberry and gall-berry bushes and ... barefoot, brown as coffee beans, happy as whip-poor-wills and mourning doves... But it's all gone now." WAYCROSS-BAXLEY NOVELIST CAROLINE PAFFORD MILLER RAY GAINED FAME BUT ALSO HEARTBREAK Though The World Sent Her Roses, This Writer Would Find Many Thorns Along The Stems JUDGE BEN SMITH REMEMBERS THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER THROUGH A SERIES OF LETTERS These Two Shared Happy And Sad Moments By Correspondence Shortly Before Her Death In 1992 By Robert Latimer Hurst Though she achieved worldwide fame, Caroline Pafford Miller Ray faced her share of heartbreaks. Receiving the honor and awards for writing "Lamb in His Bosom," which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1934, was one thing; but the Waycross native, who had penned the novel about Southeast Georgia dirt farmers while in Baxley, found that there was another side to fame. And, perhaps, it's the "another" that created a sharing of correspondence between Mrs. Ray and Judge Ben Smith. These letters, written in the 1990s, also give insight into this individual's thoughts and feelings, as well as a lesson in the use of words to create images. "Dear Benjamin Smith, you might think that I did not appreciate your beautiful letter referring to my father. It happens to be my only echo about my father from the past. I thought so much of it that I sent `zeroxed' copies to my children. I was quite small when my parents died...." She was writing Waycross' Judge Smith a few years prior to her death in 1992. "There was one other beautiful `happening' that meant much to my family --and me. We were aligned on the back seat of the courthouse in Pearson. In court!" She is writing her remembrances of the painful divorce that separated her and first husband, Will Miller, a former Waycross High School teacher. Her ex-father-in-law, A.G. Miller, had testified that he "was afraid that I would abscond with the three little boys, to Mexico, and he would never see them again." The older Miller served, at one time, as Waycross’ Superintendent of Schools. "The old silver-haired judge leaned forward a little," she tells, "and made a statement, ponderously: `I knew her father! She will never do anything that is illegal and underhanded. The reporters gave me very kind smiles, and no newspaper account was written. Unusual." One can almost hear the sigh that accompanies both painful and kind remembrances of times past. "How I wish I knew the name of that magnificent judge! He was beyond doubt one of the grand men of our old country in the loblolly pines and huckle-berry bushes and ladies' big palm-leaf fans (for sweltering Sunday sermons!). God bless them! There never were, never will be stronger, more loyal, more honest men anywhere ever! "They knew about galluses and old mules (smarter than any thoroughbred!) and `taters baked in hot ashes pulled forward and on the `hearth.' They were noble men!" Mrs. Ray is now Caroline Pafford again, and her remembrances return to that time when Cean and Alonzo, main characters in her award-winning book, took that wagon ride to their new home in the oak scrubs of Southeast Georgia before the Civil War. "Overalls and bare feet and watermelons and `mush-melons' stacked higher than your head in the hallway (breeze-way!) of my Uncle Richard Hall's country home out of Tifton... "I'm proud that I was a little country girl. I never heard of a drop of liquor or a cuss-word in those old days..." She interrupts her nostalgic rambling to ask Judge Smith, "Did you know about my father's brothers --Jesse, Marcus --Was there another? I hope you'll go to the old Pafford Church and grave-yard for (the) Pafford Reunion always on First Sunday in September. And it has never rained on it! I'm inviting you! Go! Never will you eat such wonderful country food! "H.M. Jr. and his wife, Allie, were there last year. My son, George Miller, will be there if he lives and does well. Remember that `ole chicken n' rice'? It'll be there..." Caroline, then, requests that Judge Ben tell her relatives living in Waycross about her day in court. "His father, Morrison --what a wonderful man he was! --sat beside me on the last row at that courtroom, with a loaded pistol in his pocket. "Those were terrible times for me, grossest calumnies... But until this day, there are people who believe those old lies --that I didn't write the book...." (Part II continues the word pictures created from Caroline Pafford Miller Ray's letters to Judge Ben Smith and his response.) `LAMB IN HIS BOSOM’ CAPTURED A NATION IN 1934 BY REVEALING THE LIVES OF SOUTHEAST GEORGIA’S PIONEER DIRT FARMERS All Was Not White-Columned `Big Houses’ And Cotton Fields Stretching To Riverbanks HANDWRITTEN AND SOMEWHAT SHAKY, CAROLINE MILLER’S LETTERS, NEVERTHELESS, CAPTURE THE STYLE THAT MADE `LAMB’ AN INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER Her Turn-Of-Phrase, Choice of Words Pulls The Reader To Yearn For More By Robert Latimer Hurst Caroline Pafford Miller Ray, in writing to Judge Ben Smith in August, 1990, reported that "...until this day there are people who believe those old lies --that I didn't write the book. He did, and I stole it!" The Waycross-Baxley novelist is referring to her 1934 Pulitzer Prize novel that brought this young matron of three boys international attention but great heartbreak as well. The "He" is her ex-husband, Will D. Miller, the Waycross High School English teacher she married shortly after her graduation. This was the man she once described as "her college." She changes the subject in her letter and begins writing about the old Pafford church, the one which Rowan Pafford, her grandfather, "built in the wilderness. It was and is called `Springhead.' The tupelos and little sweet bays guard the old spring," she relates simply. "Anyway, my parents, Elias and Levy Zan, lie just inside the gate." She continues urging Ben to go to the annual reunion the first Sunday in September with "Go you must! And stop there for a still moment and we'll commune." In his response to her letter of August, 1990, Ben informs Caroline that the "old silver-haired judge," who befriended her during the divorce trial, was his Uncle, Judge Will R. Smith. "You may be sure that he did know your father and every other Pafford who had ever been spawned. Uncle Will was my hero. I tried my first case before him --a murder case. He kept calling me `Ben Jr.' instead of `Mr. Smith.'" Since she remembered this Judge of the Alapaha Circuit and Judge of the Pearson Superior Court, Ben elaborated on this man: "He was quite tall, had a Roman profile and was the epitome of dignity, a patrician if there ever was one despite the fact that he picked cotton to send himself to Mercer. He had the most wonderful dry wit; and without cracking a smile, he would break up the courtroom with laughter. ..." Mrs. Ray had confided to Ben in her first letter that she had just returned from a 74-day hospital stay -- "I have diabetes and a lot of its friends".... But she adds that she always sings "Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day, of a home faraway." Ben informs that "The Unclouded Day" is one of his favorites and that he has been a First United Methodist Church choirmember for the past 20 years; therefore he has been acquainted with this hymn for a long while. And, he adds, "I have been to Springhead where my grandmother and grandfather Richardson are buried, and I have drunk from the little spring. Alas, those wonderful things are fast disappearing." "As a boy I read `Lamb in His Bosom' and marvelled that anyone could gain that much insight into the early beginnings of our part of South Georgia," writes Judge Smith in July, 1990, referring to the 1934 Pulitzer Prize novel. "Even when I was a boy, much of the primitive culture remained --log houses, rail fences, smoke houses, syrup boilers, cane mills and the like. I am re-reading the book at this time, having found it in the library; and it is as good as I first remembered it." Ben also noted that Caroline used names from the Pafford generations --Rowan, Jasper, Elias or Lias, Magnolia (the location of the first courthouse in Clinch County) and Wealthy. My father's school teacher at Mud Creek was Professor Elias Pafford. Daddy said that he always wore a `jimswinger' coat. They went to school to him at Bridges Chapel, which was a church on Sunday and a school during the week. "One day Professor Pafford slipped up back of my Uncle Charlie (later Sheriff of Clinch County) while he talking in class. He thumped Charlie on the head with his lead pencil. Charlie had cotton in his ear since he had the earache. When the cotton flew out his ear, Professor Pafford asked, `What's that, Charlie?' Charlie, quickly yet carefully, replied, `I reckon you've knocked my brains out.'" As Judge Smith re-read "Lamb in His Bosom," he reflected on those ancestors that both he and Caroline Pafford Miller Ray share: Micajah, Gideon, Shadrach, Needham, Absalom, Rachel, Matilda, Bathsheba, Queen Esther. "Thank you again for telling the story of our pioneer people. The handling of dialect (always a difficult task) is superb and accurate if I am any judge. What we fail to realize is that their hardship and suffering gave them a dimension that we can only sense from afar (as you did so beautifully). In response to Ben’s praise of her book, Caroline sent an autographed copy with this message: “To Ben Smith, Jr., a belatedly found friend who knows all about the beauty of the long-leaf pine that reaches for the sky and withstands the hurricanes as little hot (wind) blows off the Barbados and Tierra del Fuego - Hot? “You said it ---And sandspurs - And hoppin-john, - And sliced sweet taters fried in hot ham grease -And he knows faith, and honor, and the soul healing word of God, with admiration and old Georgia camaraderie. Caroline Miller.” (Part III continues the colloquy between Caroline Pafford Miller Ray and Judge Ben Smith that touches on heritage and the writing of "Lamb in His Bosom," the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.) DANCE INSTRUCTOR ANITA ABBOTT IS SHOWN IN ONE OF HER PERFORMANCES Time Does Not Diminish The Beauty, Poise, Elegance Of Her Talent THE FORMER HAZEL MILES AND JOHN SHIPES PERFORM THE TANGO Two Students Who Became A Permanent Dance Duo By Robert Latimer Hurst Much has been said in most communities about the development of, or the lack of, the arts and those events that promote culture. It has been brought to my attention by Mrs. John Shipes that perhaps a former Waycrossan has been overlooked for her contribution to the arts in this city. She refers the late choreographer and dance instructor, Anita Abbott. It might be that, for the last few months, many older residents have viewed the demolition of the what was the late Ware County Supt. of Schools and Mrs. T.L. Everett's home on the hill; however, prior to that it was the Waycross Country Club and Anita Abbott's Dance Studio. And as a dance studio, it ranked high because it allowed, under its capable dance mistress, many young people of the town an introduction to the creative talents, poise and elegance that this discipline provides. It was a different era then. It was one in which many youngsters --boys and girls --came home from school to be ushered off to either piano or dance lessons. Although Miss Abbott was a pioneer in promoting arts into the schools, the courses in dance never really caught on here. But that did not stop those children from attending the studio on the hill --and, as one student remembers, the lessons did not gear themselves just to classical dance. "Why, we learned to jitterbug, too!" "Anita Abbott was a dance teacher who brought true culture to Waycross. She has been an unsung heroine in our local history. She gave us --and I speak as one of her former students --enjoyment during those dark days of the Depression," says Mrs. Shipes, adding that this educator, who was the daughter of a man who had been a director of Indian Affairs for the Western states, had gained much experience from travel and study because of her father. From those Roaring Twenties through the Depression on into World War II and after, Miss Abbott, who would be married twice, found time not only to instruct dance but also to prepare performances for many clubs and events that would entertain when it was necessary for people to be entertained. Her talent, for example, was featured in the 1924 Ware County Bicentennial that brought many guests from a distance to view the celebration, in which dance played a major role. Myra Lott, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Miller Lott, is remembered as one of Miss Abbott's students who continued her studies and became a professional dancer, tells Mrs. Shipes. And another student, Doris Lisenby opened her own dance studio because of her love of dance and the inspiration received from the teacher. Mrs. Shipes, the former Hazel Miles, found great love and enjoyment during her years as a dance student. She vividly remembers her mother aiding Miss Abbott as a designer and seamstress of costumes. "During the Depression, my mother's talent allowed me to take dance lessons," she smiles. It was a long time ago. It was a different time. But there they were, ready to learn --one, two, three, four --bashful, awkward, shoulders held back, arms extended, steps too short or too long at first, "Listen to the music," and they danced. ======================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for FREE access. ==============