I’ve always admired this unusually large wooden structure and until recently knew nothing of its history. It has been in an advanced state of decline for many years.
Harvey Williams notes that it was the elementary school (segregated) and later a coat factory, owned by Sheila Gaskins. It’s a very large school for such a small town, and may have served more grades when it was first built.
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--, Willacoochee GA
This log building once served as the Willacoochee library. It has most recently been used as a thrift shop by the United Methodist Church.
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--, Willacoochee GA
Near the forgotten community of Bannockburn, the Alapaha River marks the boundary between Berrien and Atkinson counties. The Georgia Highway 135 bridge that crosses here normally spans a smallish stream, but if you wonder why it’s so big, check out a Google Earth view of the river at high water. It fills up quickly. [Note the pilings of an old bridge or trestle in the sandbar]. At present (early autumn 2019) the river is low enough to ford and not even get your knees wet. The Alapaha is special to me because Lucy Lake (an Alapaha oxbow in northern Berrien County) was the first place my father took my brother and me river fishing. It had been a popular spot with locals for many years and he had fished there with his father and uncles many times as a young man himself. The river seemed so much bigger to me then.
The Alapaha is one of Georgia’s most beautiful black water rivers. Little known to people not near its banks, it rises in southern Dooly County and meanders southeastward toward its confluence with the Suwannee River near Jasper, Florida. During this course it collects the Wilacoochee, Alapahoochee, and Little Alapaha rivers. An intermittent river, it goes underground through parts of its course, especially in Hamilton County, Florida. A famous locale there, near Jennings, is the Dead River Sink.
The earliest known reference to the Alapaha was made by Hernando de Soto’s expedition. It noted a village near the Suwannee known as Yupaha, in the 16th century.
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--, --BERRIEN COUNTY GA--
Sweetwater is located adjacent to Refuge Primitive Baptist Church. The South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church notes: Less than a mile from the present site, this church was organized in 1888, in a log church with 10-12 members. It takes its name from the nearby Sweet Water Creek which runs just north of the church. This is the original church, brick-veneered with new windows and air conditioning added in 1979-80. The original hard carved altar rail and pulpit are still used. It had door on each end and both sides with Rev. H. T. Ethridge as the first pastor.
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--
This congregation was established on 7 July 1917.
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--
Sometimes, an old barn and an old school bus are all you need for a good photograph. This was taken near Coochee Creek Road and the license plate on the bus was dated 1983.
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--
This church was built by Martin S. Corbitt, who was born nearby on 12 May 1840. He donated two acres of land for this purpose. The church is located on the historic Kinnaird Trail, a Native American trading route. He married Leonora Wealtha Pafford (born 26 August 1847) on 26 November 1867. Two of their sons, William Manning Corbitt and Martin Rayburn Corbitt, built the pews and benches still intact today. Upon its completion, the structure also served as a school with the older Corbitt children serving as teachers. Martin Corbitt lived at Salem all but the last 11 years of his life; he moved into the first house in Pearson and became its first mayor.
Martin S. & Leonora Wealtha Corbitt had 11 children: Catherine Imogene, Mary Ann Miranda, Newton Rowan, William Manning, Henry Madison, Martin Rayburn, Frances Lenora, Martha Ann Elizabeth, Wealtha Alvina, Rebecca Virginia, and Levia Jane.
Leonora died on 5 May 1896 and was the first person buried in the cemetery. On 1 May 1899 Martin married Minnie Frazier Faircloth (9 May 1865-September 1955) and they had three children: Duvon Clough, Frazier Solon, and and William J.
Martin S. Corbitt died on 1 July 1913 and was buried beside his first wife.
The descendants “come back home” the last Sunday in September each year to celebrate their ancestors.
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--
This appears to have been a general store at one time, judging by the architecture, but it is remembered as the Kirkland Post Office. Shea Browning writes: According to Mr. Clark Tanner, a lifelong resident of Atkinson County who grew up near this building’s location, this was the old Kirkland post office. Online historical postal records indicate there was a post office at this approximate location between 1875 and 1954. According to Mr. Tanner, “Mr. Silas White, Betsy’s husband, was the rural mail carrier and owned the building. After the post office closed, the White’s rented the house.” Others have mentioned Mrs. White renting out the home for 40+ years to various tenants.
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--, Kirkland GA
This congregation dates to around 1888 and originally held services in a one-room log schoolhouse. This structure, built in 1890, remains in use today.
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--, Kirkland GA
Built in the Spanish Mission Revival architecture popular with school houses of the 1910s and 1920s, this structure consolidated several smaller area schools. Thanks to Shea Browning for the history.
Cecil Maine writes: I attended Kirkland School in 1940 and 1941. (I transferred from the Harmony Grove school upon their consolidation with the larger schools in the county, and completed sixth and seventh grades there before going on to Pearson for high school, 8th thru 11th grades). At that time there were only 11 grades to complete high school. So I graduated from Pearson High School in 1946.
Bill Musgrove recalled his mother attending here, and Sharon Darley remembers: I attended 2nd through 5th grade then the school shut down. It became a chicken house for years. It had a huge auditorium that held many community events, keeping our community united like a family. Great teachers worked there….they kept us in line.
I’m guessing this structure was either a lunchroom or shop building, probably added not long before the school closed.
Here’s a photo of the 7th grade class at Kirkland School, 1947-48 term. Courtesy of the Days Gone By: Atkinson County Facebook page. Jimmy Brantley writes: My Dad, Harry Brantley, is the principal and teacher in the picture with the children. The school year was1947-48. I was born in 47. My sister Jean could tell more about those years
Filed under --ATKINSON COUNTY GA--, Kirkland GA
