The et cetera chronicles – vol. 120

IF YOU WERE A BLIND CARPENTER –   They say that those who have disabilities also have extraordinary talents.  Could you be a carpenter and not be able to see?  Well, way back in the 1870s, there was a blind African-American man who was somewhat of an oddity. A professional well-digger, this talented man could dig and clean out wells as well as split boards and shingles with uncanny accuracy. Even more amazing was the fact that the old man could take the boards and shingles and nail them to a house with missing pieces.  Bolivar, Tennessee Bulletin, Oct. 9, 1879.

ONE SHOT IS BETTER THAN TWO – Ross Garrett had a severe case of Trypanophobia. In other words, he hated needles.  Garrett and the other prisoners of the Washington County jail were scheduled to receive compulsory vaccinations as a method of protecting fellow prisoners from communicable diseases.  The sticking was set to begin on Christmas Eve 1904, and Garrett wanted no part of it. Garrett somehow secured a gun and shot and killed Special Officer Matthews rather than getting a shot of his own. Garrett fled.  A posse of local citizens caught up with the fleeing felon. When the killer decided to evade again, Deputy Marshal Wilson fired a fatal shot into Garrett.  The Ottawa,a Kansas Daily Republic, Dec. 24, 1904. 

SHOEMAKER’S HELPER – John Raymond, a Sandersville shoemaker, frequently needed help in his business, especially when it came to small details. He would often call upon his helper, whom he called “Jersey.”  When Raymond would get a half sole fitted and ready to sew up, he would yell, “Jersey, Jersey!”  Raymond knew that his friend could drill holes faster in leather than anyone around.  The helper was so good at his job that he didn’t need an awl at all.  Nothing strange here, except that Jersey was not a human.  Jersey was Raymond’s pet mosquito. 

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THE FIRST PHONE BOOTH – It was the summer of 1903, and the City of Dublin was growing by leaps and bounds. The first telephones had been installed five years earlier in businesses and wealthy homes. Ordinary citizens could not afford the monthly fees.  The City of Dublin hired a company to install call boxes around the city for the use of the public and especially for the use of law enforcement, and conducting city business. Atlanta Journal, Aug. 29, 1903.

A RHYMING MAN – Back in the mid-1880s, there was a man in Twiggs County by the name of Teaberry Newberry.  Montgomery Adv. July 1, 1885.

FOLLOWING THE MONEY – Mrs. Eugenia Hightower was the richest woman in Laurens County.  Through her husband’s immense wealth, Mrs. Hightower accumulated a fortune of more than two million dollars.   Dr. Hightower was the most popular physician of his day.  Mrs. Hightower was known for her building and operating the first movie theater in Dublin in 1905.  Mrs.  Hightower and her son operated theaters in Dublin until the 1940s.   

Years after Dr. Hightower’s death,  Mrs. Hightower married Dr. Abram Soper, of Detroit, Michigan.   Soper, a self-proclaimed physician, actually prepared and sold remedies supposedly to cure people from their many ailments.  Before the marriage, Eugenia was said to be one of the wealthiest women in the United States.  Soper’s first wife, Ruth, the mother of his seven children,  deserted him after 14 years of marriage.  The doctor waited more than 30 years to complete his divorce for desertion. He waited only one week to marry the merry, wealthy widow Mrs. Hightower.  Apparently, the marriage was doomed from the start.  Mrs. Hightower returned to Dublin, where she died in on her 80th birthday in 1938.  Soper, a native of Canada, was back in Detroit, where he’d died in 1926.   Detroit Times, April 28, 1916, June 3, 1916.  Detroit Free Press, April 27, 1916. Bessmer Herald,   Feb. 26, 1898, Atlanta Journal, May 7, 1916. 

PROFESSOR STROZIER – Reuben J. Strozier was a teacher in Dublin High School in 1902.  Professor Strozier served as the President of South Georgia College in McRae for twenty years. Sav. Morning News, 5.30.1902.  Macon Telegraph, March 25,  1918. 

TALKING TO THE COUNTRY – In July 1904, Dublin residents, fortunate enough to own a telephone, became able to talk to almost every good-sized city in the United States.  Atlanta Journal, July 18, 1904.