Ware COUNTY GA History Beach Community 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: WAYCROSS JOURNAL-HERALD, Waycross, Georgia Monday, April 22, 1974. BEACH, GEORGIA, WAS THRIVING COMMUNITY By Pauline J. Taylor Beach, Georgia was the northernmost railroad stop in Ware County. This once thriving community is now only a small settlement. [According to Marion R. Hemperly, Deputy Surveyor General of Georgia, CITIES, TOWNS AND COMMUNITIES OF GEORGIA BETWEEN 1847-1962, 8500 PLACES AND THE COUNTY IN WHICH LOCATED, p. 11, Beach, Ware County, was established in 1920] The post office of Beach was on the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic Railroad route and its postmaster was John C. Calhoun. It had only one rural route and Frank Quarterman was the postman. Later the Beach post office was disbanned and moved to Crawley, Georgia, four miles south of Beach. Crawley was known as the "Kirkland Knot Camp." Crawley was located in the area where the railroad now crosses U.S. 1 north. Crawley has no rural route and Calhoun continued as postmaster until he was replace by Zene Kirkland. Later Roy Lynn served as postmaster until his retirement. This post office accommodated only a small portion of Ware County and the remaining residents of all areas north of Waycross were on a Waycross Rural Route. Beach consisted of a general merchandise store, a barber shop and a machine shop. The justice of the peace was J. B. Quarterman and he performed many marriage ceremonies. The biggest industry in Beach was a huge saw mill operated by T. Harper Calhoun. They logged from the wilds of the "Fork of the Hurricane" by the way of tram- roads and engines used skidders and steel cables to drag the huge logs from the hurricane creek to the tram flat cars for loading. [Hurricane Creek and swamp covered an area in Appling, Bacon, Pierce and part of Ware County.] Mrs. Pauline Taylor of Ware County is holder of a warrnaty deed of 1884 giving easements for tram-roads right-of-ways. Housewives and gardners of Beach made their spending money peddling milk, eggs, fruits, and vegetables to the families of lumbermen living in rustic quarters. They paid with certain coins that could only be redeemed at the general store. Dr. J. B. Blitch was once the physician in Beach. He was convicted, it is said, for performing illegal surgery on a black boy and claimed him to be the only "Horned Negro in America," selling him to the circus. The boy admitted the surgery which caused the conviction and Beach was left without a doctor. Midwives served throughout the area delivering babies in the home for whites and blacks as well. Home remedies and practical nursing was essential to life. Practically all the buildings of the once thriving community of Beach are gone but terpentine and timber lands are still very much in use and most of the area is owned by I. W. Strickland and A. L. Strickland. [Contributed by Barbara Walker Winge, ======================== 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. ==============