The Rev. Alfred Corn, Son of Elder Rev. Adam Corn

The Rev. Elder Adam Corn and his wife, Hannah Heatherly Corn, had at least nine known children, all of whom grew up to be solid citizens. When Union County gave up a section of its land to form Towns County in 1856, the Corn families were in a new county without having to move from the farms on which they had settled.

As we saw in last week’s article about Elder Rev. Adam Corn, he was a Baptist preacher and a church planter. He helped to organize several churches within the Union and Towns Counties areas. One was the Macedonia Baptist Church southeast of Hiawassee. Into the membership of that church, the Elder Rev. Corn baptized his two older sons, John and Alfred in the year 1841. Both of these men became outstanding leaders in church, associational and missions work, and both became ordained ministers and denominational leaders. The story is told that one of the favorite pastimes of these brothers when they were young was to find a stump to use as a pulpit and to “preach away” to anyone who would take the time to listen, perhaps their younger siblings or neighbor children. But even with this early practice as pulpiteers, it was not until John was twenty-eight and Alfred was twenty-four that they were baptized by their father in the Hiawassee River and accepted into the membership of Macedonia Baptist Church.

We will trace first some of the work of Alfred E. Corn, the second child of Adam and Hannah Corn. He was born January 19, 1817 before the Corn family left Buncombe County, NC to begin their travels to other points where they settled. He married Nancy T. Cook on January 16, 1842. I thought I might find their marriage record in Union County, Georgia marriages, since the Corn family moved from North Carolina to Georgia about 1839. I found that Rev. Alfred Corn performed marriage ceremonies for several in Union, but his marriage record to Nancy was not listed in Union. Rev. Alfred and Nancy Cook Corn had children Arminta Jane (1843-1932) who married Mangum Bryson; John Adam (1845-1864) who died in the Civil War but had married Ivy Ann Loudermilk on May 13, 1862. John Adam and Ivy Ann had a son, John Alfred, born in 1863. After his father’s death, his grandfather reared him. This young man became a prosperous property owner and served as both a state legislator and a Senator from the Towns County area. Rev. Alfred Corn’s first wife Nancy died in 1884 and he married, second, to Amanda Matthewson on May 22, 1885.

Alfred Corn was ordained to the gospel ministry by the Antioch Baptist Church of Union County on October 19, 1850. Little did those who sat in on his presbytery realize what a stalwart leader he would become in denominational work. He served for a number of years as an appointee of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board (known then as the Baptist Board of Domestic Missions) to the Indians in North Carolina. He had to preach through an interpreter to be understood by the Cherokee. He was pastor of the Old Union Baptist Church at Young Harris for about 20 years. He was recognized as an outstanding leader in the Hiawassee Baptist Association and the Georgia Baptist Convention. He and Alphaeus Swanson led in organizing the West Union Baptist Church in Hiawassee Association.

He kept journals which tell of hardships during the Civil War. In one, he told how glad he was to see his son, John Adam, home for a brief leave from the Civil War. But later he lamented that, because of his son’s death, his family could never be together again as they once were on this earth. In 1864 his journal shows that he could not get to some of his church appointments because of unrest and “invasion of Yankee troops” that pillaged and robbed. Those same “snipers” stole his faithful steed that had taken him thousands of miles on his journeys to preach and do his missionary service.

He was also noted as an itinerant preacher and was invited to preach at summer camp meetings such as that at Fightingtown, a summer gathering held on a former Cherokee Indian Council Ground in Epworth, Fannin County, Georgia. He was one of the early invited guests after the camp meetings were reinstatedfollowing the Civil War.Known for his level-headedness and attention to duty, he left his mark in several North Georgia and North Carolina counties as he labored to build stronger churches. He and his first wife Nancy Cook Corn were buried in the Old Union Baptist Church Cemetery, Young Harris, Georgia. She died December 26, 1884 and Alfred died July 16, 1905.

c2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. Published March 22, 2012 online with permission of the author at the GaGenWebProject. All rights reserved.

John Andrew Moore and Rev. John Ferry Moore (Moore Family—Part 5)

Last week we traced some of the family of Christopher Columbus Moore (known as “Lum”) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Swanson Moore. You will recall that this account of the Moore family began with early settlers to Union County, Albert and Sarah McClure Moore. These meager accounts in no way cover all the spreading branches of the Moore descendants. This entry centers on two, John Andrew, the fourth child of Christopher Columbus Moore, and a son of John Andrew, the Rev. John Ferry Moore. Perhaps these five views of the Moore family will prove a springboard for further research for descendants who might not have known some of the facts given in these articles about these hardy settlers to our mountain region of North Georgia.

John Andrew Moore was born on December 25, 1871, a fine Christmas present for his father and mother, Christopher Columbus Moore and Elizabeth Swanson Moore. At the time of the new baby’s birth, he had older siblings James, Hanibal and Lavada to welcome his birth. Later, four more children were born to Lum and Mary Elizabeth: Lillie, Lola, George and Arthur.

Focusing on John Andrew Moore, he met and married shortly after his eighteenth birthday (date of marriage January 5, 1890) the very young not quite fifteen-year old, Emily Estalee Teem of Rabun County, Georgia. To this couple were born Forrest Columbus (b. May 7, 1891), Gretchen Manassas (b. March 26, 1894), Gaither Grayson (b. April 17, 1897), Noel Arvis (b. February 21, 1901), Hazel Prudence (June 1, 1902), John Ferry (b. September 14, 1905), Doctor Garland (b. October 1, 1907), Prince Hodson (b. December 7, 1912), and Lady Rhea (b. May 19, 1918). It was a happy day for John Andrew and Emily Teem Moore when they moved by wagon from Rabun County, Georgia back to Towns County in 1919 where John A. could be near his aging parents at Woods Grove. For twenty-two years they were happy farming and entering into the life of the “home” community at Woods Grove. But progress (as the world terms it) moved in, and John Andrew Moore had to sell his acreage for the building of Lake Chatuge as the Tennessee Valley Authority opened a series of dams and power plants for the production of electricity.

John Andrew and Emily Teem Moore relocated to Habersham County, Georgia. There John died June 20, 1950 and Emily died February 12, 1966. They were interred in the Hazel Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, in Habersham County.

Their sixth of nine children was John Ferry Moore, born September 14, 1905 in Rabun County, Georgia. He married Esther Tatham of Towns County on November 2, 1929. She was born April 16, 1909. They lived happily in Towns County until 1941 when their land in the Woods Grove community was purchased by Tennessee Valley Authority for the building of Lake Chatuge. They relocated to a good farm purchased in Habersham County, Georgia.

Children born to John Ferry Moore and Esther Tatham Moore were son Lynn Tatham Moore (1930), Barbara Jeane Moore (1934) and Frances Esther Moore (1947). Then in 1948, after much soul-searching, John Ferry Moore surrendered to the call to gospel ministry and was ordained a Baptist preacher. Lower Hightower Baptist Church in Towns County was his very first church to serve as pastor which he accepted in June, 1949. The next ten years found him faithfully serving churches in the mountains in Towns, Rabun, Stephens and Habersham counties. He was known as a good and solid Bible preacher and one who cooperated in the work of Baptist associations in each of the counties where churches he pastored were located.

In 1959 he accepted the call to a church in Coffee County, Georgia. Then in 1966 he and Ester moved back north to Hall County, Georgia where he accepted the pastorate of Springway Baptist Church. The last three years of his ministry before retirement were spent back in south Georgia, Randolph County, at Vilulah Baptist Church.

In retirement, he and Esther moved back to Habersham County to live His previous record as a good preacher put him in line for engagements in several churches as pulpit supply and interim pastor. One of his very happy appointments was back at Lower Hightower Baptist Church in Towns County in 1981, the very first church he pastored when he began his long career as a Baptist preacher in 1949.

This five-part view of the Moore family of Union, Towns and surrounding counties barely scratches the surface of the contributions this family and its descendants have made in the building up and strengthening of the way of life that has evolved since the first Moore cabins were erected in these mountains prior to 1840. For over 170 years Moore family members have either remained here or gone out to other places to make a difference where they took up residence and plied their work.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 3, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Christopher Columbus Moore Served the Confederacy and the Union (Moore Family, Part 4)

With a name like Christopher Columbus Moore, the third child of nine born to Albert and Sarah McClure Moore must have been destined for a noticeable life in his future. Perhaps like his namesake, who discovered America in 1492, Christopher Columbus Moore (born May 2, 1843 in North Carolina, died September 26, 1920 in Towns County, Georgia) would lead a life worth notice.

When the Civil War broke out, Christopher Columbus Moore was still at home with his parents in the Woods Grove Community of Towns County. He helped his father work on the farm. The political climate in this northern county was both pro-South and pro-Union, with sentiments largely favoring the latter. Few slaves were owned by farmers who, at best, had only small holdings in cultivated acreage.

Christopher Columbus Moore probably walked from his home at Woods Grove to the county seat town of Hiawassee. There, on March 1, 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate Army, joining Company E, 52nd Regiment, Georgia Infantry. For whatever reasons, whether his political leanings or dissatisfaction that he might have been defending slavery, “Lum” Moore (as he was known) was found to be away-without-leave from his regiment several times. Not so good a record, especially for anyone who might have thought of receiving a good conduct medal.

He was at the Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and there he was taken a prisoner of war by the Union on July 4, 1863, along with others in the command of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, Confederate States of America. Evidently plans were in the works to allow any of the imprisoned Southern soldiers who would do so sign an oath of allegiance not to take up arms again against the United States, and thus be released from prison. Christopher Columbus Moore signed the vow of allegiance and was released as a prisoner of war on July 6, 1863, only two days after his capture. He was no doubt still in pain at the time he was imprisoned and released. Lum Moore lost his right forefinger in fighting at Vicksburg—a very useful finger to lose.

Following his release at Vicksburg, he probably returned home to Woods Grove for awhile. But then, whether because of his loyalty to the Union or because he could be paid for his services if he enlisted, Christopher Columbus Moore journeyed to Cleveland, Tennessee where he signed up for a year in the U. S. Army on August 5, 1864. Where he served and in what battles is unknown to this writer, but before his year of enlistment was up, the war had ended. Christopher Columbus Moore was discharged from the Union Army at Nashville, Tennessee on July 16, 1865. Evidently his two enlistments were not something he wanted to discuss. Descendants note that their grandfather was silent about the war for the rest of his life.

The same year as his discharge from the Union Army, Christopher Columbus Moore and Mary Elizabeth Swanson were married on December 14, 1865. Her parents were Anderson Clifton and Mary Brown Swanson. She had been born June 29, 1840, the eldest of the Swanson children. Her parents had migrated from Wilkes County, NC to Union County, Georgia in 1849. Lum Moore’s father-in-law had also served as a blacksmith in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Christopher Columbus Moore and Mary Elizabeth Swanson Moore had eight children:

(1) James (01/07/1867) married Sadie Boyd and Sallie Williams
(2) William Hannibal (04/10/1868) married Jennie Wood
(3) Laveda (04/06/1870) married Albert Welborn
(4) John Andrew (12/25/1871) married Emily E. Teem
(5) Lillie (10/25/1873) married William Nicholson
(6) Lola (10/20/1875) married John Philyaw;
(7) George (04/21/1879) married Pearl Parker
(8) Thomas Arthur (04/09/1882) married Mae Johnson

As we learned from Part 3 of this Moore Family story, Christopher Columbus Moore and his wife Emily looked after his parents in the declining years of their lives, as Lum’s father had specified when he deeded him land along Long Bullet Creek, Towns County, “for taking care of Albert Moore and his wife Sarah and keeping as part of the family during their natural life.” This contract Lum and Emily Moore faithfully kept until Albert died in 1897 and Sarah died in 1899.

The old Civil War veteran of two sides, Lum Moore, lived mainly in Towns County for the remainder of his life, engaging in farming and perhaps harvesting timber from some of his acreage. But there were two brief periods when this couple lived elsewhere. For five years they lived in Habersham County, Georgia at a place called Arnold’s Mill. They also lived briefly in Macon County, North Carolina. Each move may have been because of living nearer some of their married children.

But they moved back to Woods Grove to live out their days. It is interesting that a post office once operated from the old homestead of Lum Moore’s father, and this post office was not called Moore—after the people who lived on that land—and not Woods Grove, as the community then and since has been known, but the post office that operated there for a decade from 1890-1900 was Campagne, Georgia.

Christopher Columbus Moore and Mary Elizabeth Swanson Moore died two months apart—he on September 26, 1920 and she on December 29, 1920. Their marked graves are in the Woods Grove Cemetery, Towns County, Georgia.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 24, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Continuing with the James and Albert Moore Families of Early Union and Towns Counties (Part 3)

Continuing with two of the families cited in the article published January 27, 2011 (Part 2) on Moore families in early Union County, we learn that when Towns County was formed in 1856, at least two of the Moore families living in Union in 1850—those of James and Albert—were within the bounds of the new county, Towns.

In 1850, the household the census taker numbered 627 in Union had only two people in residence, James Moore, age 70 and his wife, June Moore, age 67. Six years later this couple at age 76 and 73 respectively found themselves within the new county of Towns, living in the Woods Grove section. They had not moved. The new geography had just absorbed them as citizens of Towns.

James Moore was born July 10, 1779 in Rowan (maybe Iredell) County, North Carolina. His mother and father had migrated to America from Ireland prior to the American Revolution. James Moore married June Stevenson. She was born in 1783. They first made their home in Haywood County, North Carolina on a little farm alongside Crabtree Creek. The children born to them were named Harriet who married Hiram McLean, Clarissa Ann who married David Sellers, Aveline who married Samuel Sellers, and Johial, Terzey and Marcella whose spouses (if any) are unknown, and then the seventh child, Albert Moore who married Sarah McClure (more about this family later).

Sometime prior to the 1850 Union County, Georgia census, James and June McClure left their Crabtree Creek home in Haywood County, North Carolina and moved to the new and burgeoning Union County and settled in the Woods Grove community. Perhaps it was their youngest son, Albert, who convinced his elderly parents to move when Albert and Sarah decided to settle in Union. But James and June Moore did not have many years remaining in their lives in Union/Towns. June Moore died April 17, 1857 and James Moore died May 30, 1862. Their bodies were interred in North Carolina soil at Ely in Clay County in the Old Union Cemetery there.

Albert and Sarah Moore were registered by the census taker as living in household numbered 234 in Union County in 1850. Albert was born in Haywood County, NC on August 7, 1819. He married Sarah McClure, born April 3, 1822, a daughter of John and Sarah Cathey McClure. We learned from Part 2 in this account of this Moore family that seven of their nine children had been born prior to the 1850 census. Later, Albert and Sarah would have two more children. Their children were:

(1) Talitha Caroline (July 19, 1839-May 30, 1930) married on May 15, 1856 to Jehu Parker
(2) Nancy Ann (b. 1842) married Andrew James (“Jim”) Burch on Nov. 4, 1875
(3) Christopher Columbus (May 2, 1843-Sept. 26, 1921) married Mary Elizabeth Swanson on Dec. 14, 1865
(4) Altha (b. 1845) married George Tipton
(5) Andrew Americus (b. 1846) married Mary A. Green on March 3, 1867
(6) Sarah Jane (b. 1848) married a Parker
(7) Mercilla Arlene (b. 1850) married William L. Townsley on August 31, 1870
(8) Tursey M. (b. 1852) and
(9) Clarissa Melvina E. (b. 1854) married M. Henry Brown of Walker County

Albert and Sarah McClure Moore settled into life in the new county of Towns after they were absorbed into it by virtue of where they lived when that county was laid out in 1856. Then the Civil War came, and Albert Moore served with the Confederate forces during the war.

After the war, in early 1871, Albert Moore added to his already-held property by purchasing 150 acres from Marcus Kimsey for $300. The property was in Land Lot 50 of the 17th District along Long Bullet Creek. Records show that Albert Moore sold 80 acres in 1887 to his brother-in-law George W. Tipton for $300, receiving as much as he had paid earlier for the entire tract of land.

In 1895, Albert Moore deeded to his third child, Christopher Columbus Moore (known as “Lum”) the remainder of his land. The deed had a stipulation that Lum Moore would take in and care for his parents, Albert and Sarah McClure Moore, for the remainder of their lives. As was customary in that era, Lum Moore was true to his father’s wishes and provided a good home for his parents until their deaths.

Albert Moore died June 8, 1897 and his wife Sarah died almost two years later on March 18, 1899. They were interred at the Woods Grove Baptist Church Cemetery, Towns County, Georgia near where they had made their home since migrating from Haywood County, North Carolina to Union County prior to 1850.

c2011 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 17, 2011 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

More on the career of Dr. N.V. Dyer

The farm mule that Norman Vester Dyer chose to have his father sell and give him the $150.00 to continue his education proved a good investment. This man, noted wherever he went as an industrious, wise and solid "school man," touched teachers and students in various parts of Georgia.

He started out teaching in Choestoe, his home community, as an assistant in the country school where he began his own first grade work. Professor Theodore Swanson, who had been the teacher for the seven-month term, wanted to leave early, and suggested to Vester Dyer's father, Bluford Elisha Dyer, known as "Bud" Dyer, a trustee of the school, that the young lad who was just finishing seventh grade, was capable of taking over the school and completing the term. Challenged and somewhat frightened by the task, Vester buckled down and was able to complete his seventh grade school year as a teacher. This was the beginning of his 46-year career as an educator.

Places, besides Choestoe, that knew the influence of this educator, all in Georgia, were Hiawassee, Jones County (Green School), Dooly County (Lily), Milner, Luthersville, Fairburn, Blairsville (Collegiate Institute), Cornelia, Eastanollee (Stephens County), Dawsonville (Dawson County), Summerville and Villa Rica. In the period of his service, the major administrator of a school within a city system was called superintendent (now called a principal). Even though he was head of the school, he also enjoyed teaching so much that he had a class he taught seniors at each school called vocational guidance, citizenship or group counseling. His class was popular with seniors and helpful to them as they explored areas of job opportunity, set goals for their future, and struggled with ideas about living lives of service to mankind.

In his memoirs entitled A Fugitive from a Georgia Schoolhouse, Dr. Dyer said he often encountered three major disturbing elements in school administrator's work: selfishness, politics and ignorance (Fugitive from a Georgia Schoolhouse, p. 65). He gave numerous examples of these three often-times negative hindrances to educational progress.

Selfishness reared its head in those who would downgrade the school and its work because of petty jealousies or desire that jobs of teaching and school management be awarded through nepotism—or making family members or special friends recipients of any jobs available in the schools. In such situations, qualifications of the teachers and administrator, or even their success in operating a school took a back seat to favoritism.

Those who suffered most from such unprofessional practices were the students themselves.

Politics often played a role in who would be elected administrator or who would keep the job. After eleven years as a successful superintendent (principal) of Cornelia city schools, Mr. Dyer was ousted because of the "political machine" operable within the city. The same was true after four years of hard work in the Eastanollee School in Stephens County.

Sometimes called "The Court House Gang," the politicians wanted to get rid of Mr. Dyer as superintendent. Stephens County citizens, who had seen the school improve greatly under his leadership, circulated a petition with over 2,000 signatures asking that he be kept on as superintendent. They even had a Professor N. V. Dyer Day, complete with a hired band, invited speakers and dinner on the grounds on March 30, 1935 in an effort to break the School Board's deadlock on his reelection. Asked to speak before the Board of Education on his own behalf, Mr. Dyer surprised all the large crowd present at the court house by arising, quoting the speech of Brutus from William Shakespeare's play, "Julius Caesar," and likening the political maneuverings to those described in the play in that ancient Roman regime.

He saw ignorance as a daunting deterrent to progress in education. He did not mean by this illiteracy, or backwardness sometimes found in a community due to a lack of educational opportunities. He saw prejudice and resistance to change for the better as enemies of education. In many of the systems where he served as administrator, he offered classes for adults that would help them to a better quality of life. He set up Home Economics classes in some communities and invited mothers to learn to care better for the nutritional and nurturing needs of their children. If men could not manage to get jobs, he offered night classes in literacy or in trades that would help them in vocational pursuits. And ever, he urged students in school to set their sights on higher education, helping them to find ways to get enrolled in college or vocational school beyond high school. Truancy was a problem in his early years of teaching. He helped to write the truancy law that was eventually enacted by the State of Georgia.

Change in administering discipline to students was one of Mr. Dyer's strong points. He initiated the idea of keeping records, turned into the office, of student's offenses. These were recorded on individual cards for each student. If a student had "demerits" equal to five hours from teachers, he/she would be assigned work around the school to clear the demerit points. In that way, many improvements to the buildings and grounds were made by students who had caused disturbance of any kind. Prior to the work to erase the offense, Mr. Dyer would have a counseling session with the student and talk about responsibility, citizenship and payment for offenses. He talked to them about taking pride in their work, and making the school grounds and buildings better than when they had entered the school. This method of discipline, he affirmed, worked much better than the old-fashioned "paddling."

In whatever town the Dyer family lived, they became a vital part of the community as well as the school. Always active in church, he, his wife Jane, and their three daughters, Sarah Ruth, Betty and Helen, were involved. He was a deacon and lay preacher. Jane was a teacher and women's worker. The girls were part of the youth program, and when they became adults, were also leaders in their churches. In Dawsonville, Mr. Dyer led in the effort to erect a new building for First Baptist Church. In most of the towns where he served as superintendent, new school buildings were erected. Active in Lions Club, he served as a local officer as well as a leader in the district and state organization.

Reba W. Roberds who was a teacher under his supervision during his eleven years as head of the Villa Rica Schools said of him at his retirement banquet in May, 1955: "I knew him as a man devoted to high ideals of service, a man of vision and perseverance, a Christian gentleman, and a true friend."

Dr. Norman Vester Dyer, born on a Choestoe farm March 10. 1885, died December 28, 1968 in Villa Rica, Georgia. Of his 83 years spent on earth, 46 of them were as an educator.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published October 30, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Continuing the History of Education in Union County (Part 2)

With school beginning for the 2004-2005 school term, it seems appropriate to review some of the history of education in Union County over the 172-year period since the county was formed in 1832. Last week’s column brought us roughly to 1916 when Mr. M. L. Duggan, Rural School Agent for Georgia, visited the county and submitted a lengthy report with recommendations for improvements for the school system of the county.

Mr. Duggan began his report by giving information about the county: “The taxable value of the county, as returned for 1916, totals $1,003,879.00, of which about one-third is owned by non-residents. Most of this non-resident property consists in large tracts of original forests held by foreign corporations. The United States Government also has acquired a considerable area for the Appalachian Forestry Reservation.”

Population in the county in 1916 was reported as 6,918. Of that number, 2,114 were white school children and 19 were Negro school children. Mr. Duggan commented that “the mountain slopes are covered in hardwood timber, and abound in mineral wealth.”

He noted the “water power that goes wasting everywhere.” Cattle and hogs abounded and the valley soil was fertile. Apple trees grew to large size and produced immense crops of finest fruit with a minimum of care. He lamented that few of the rich resources of the county had been tapped, and that no railroad “touched the county” for easy transport of products to market. “The one greatest need of the county is first-class public highways,” he wrote. “Good roads will facilitate consolidation of the schools and in many ways bring prosperity that will enable the people to support their public schools more liberally. Good roads and good schools always go together, and neither will much precede the other,” he concluded.

He made no mention of the fact that people in the southern portion of the county still hauled their farm produce in covered wagons drawn by mule teams over the Logan Turnpike through Cleveland, Georgia to markets in Gainesville for sale and barter for needed goods not grown on their mountain farms. Those trips took two days going southward, one day for trading, and two days for the return trip.

Those in the northwestern part of the county likewise hauled their goods by mule team but went to the train stations at Culberson or Murphy, NC, or perhaps to Blue Ridge or Mineral Bluff, GA. It was not until 1925 that Neal Gap opened and the first paved road over the mountain to Blairsville was available for the few motorized vehicles available.

The 1916 report on education revealed 43 public common schools (for white students) in the county, and one high school at the county seat in Blairsville, partly supported by the State Baptist Mission Board. This was the Blairsville Collegiate Institute [the subject of previous columns], founded in 1904, and jointly supported by Notla River Baptist Association, the Georgia Baptist Convention, and the Home Mission Board. This boarding school operated from 1904 through 1930, when properties were deeded to the Union County Board of Education and the public high school opened in the fall of 1930. Tuition and board were charged, but students also had opportunities for work-study programs.

Mr. Duggan stated that the “common schools” were located too close together, some just a mile and a half apart and seldom more than three miles, and that there seemed to be no delineation of school districts. The County School Superintendent, T. E. Patterson, was paid “the minimum wage allowed by law,” and could not be expected to do much supervision, receiving such small remuneration for his services. Besides the superintendent, elected members of the Board of Education in 1916 were A. T. Sullivan, chairman; Bart Swanson, Norman Allison, James Seabolt and C. E. Rich.

Mr. Duggan’s report indicated that “teacher elections” were held by patrons in the various school districts. These appointments of teachers, evidently not necessarily approved by the County Board of Education, “degenerated into political contests, and have worked serious injury to the schools.” He recommended standard opening and closings of schools. Much of his survey was done in August of 1916, the month he was told that “most of the schools would be open.” However, he found that many communities were also having “protracted meetings” at the churches—with buildings used also as school houses---and that school could not go on simultaneously with revival meetings. In his third recommendation about schools, Mr. Duggan stated that a uniform opening of schools should occur, and that “the school term should not conflict with the protracted meeting season.”

Item 5 in Mr. Duggan’s recommendations urged “the citizens of the county to vote a local school tax of two or three mills for the further improvement of their schools. “Their children are worth it.” He further noted, “Much of this (tax) burden would fall upon non-resident property owners who will willingly bear it. The entire county would benefit greatly.”

In assessing Mr. Duggan’s report and recommendations, I thought how the millage has increased through the years, but how “non-residents” still bear a portion of the “burden” of taxes and “willingly bear it” for the privilege of owning mountain property within the confines of Union County. Certainly the county schools and students have benefited from this upward progress for education.

Consolidation was a strong word used by Mr. Duggan. He thanked the School Board, the Superintendent, and the Grand Jury for complete cooperation in his August, September and October, 1916 survey of the schools in the county. We can almost imagine his progress through each district of the county as he visited the 43 scattered schools, and as he was present at the court house in each of the three monthly meetings of the Board of Education to hear their plans and to present his findings. Knowing the scarcity of roads and of vehicles in which to travel in 1916, Mr. Duggan probably went from place to place by horseback—or perhaps by horse and buggy. He found lodging in the homes of patrons within each school community. He wrote, “Every encouragement and facility was cordially offered me in making a very thorough educational survey, and there is strong and growing sentiment all over the county for better schools. The Grand Jury strongly endorses any serious effort to that end, and the county Board of Education is awake to the situation. The county is ripe for educational progress, and we confidently predict immediate and rapid improvement in the system and in the schools.”

[Next week: A look at recommendations and problems of consolidation.]

c2004 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published August 12, 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.