My paternal grandmother, Nettie Mae Pate Brown, was born near Amboy. I’ve never known a whole lot about the family history, or which Pates in the area I’m related to, but I was very excited to find this old landmark. It’s amazing that in all the miles I’ve covered with Vanishing South Georgia that I had never been to Amboy proper before. It’s just a few miles from Rebecca; it goes to show how some of the nicest places can be right under your nose and it can take you forever to find them.
Tim Wise writes: …The Pate store is a blast from the past. I grew up at the church you listed and remember Mrs. Pate, the owner, as one of the nicest country people you will meet. Full of “sugars” and “oh honey” types of language. I plundered around this store a great deal and it’s very interesting on the inside. It used to house jeans and boots. It served as a polling place for a long while. James Dean notes: I am pretty sure that the ‘Amboy’ sign above the store was the sign on the Amboy railroad depot. Many years ago (late 1950’s or early 1960’s) the Amboy depot was moved across Georgia Highway 159 from the store.
I’m looking for anyone who knew my grandparents. They have both passed away now. (Mattie Pearce Smith and Ed/Eddie Smith)
If you have an interest in connecting with the Pate family, this is a link to Ms.Frances’ obituary: https://www.perryfuneralchapel.com/Obituaries.html I knew her since the early 1970s. She was the high school biology teacher. After my sophomore class with her, she asked me to be her teacher’s aide the next year. I ended up doing that for 2 years. She was an amazing lady; the epitome of a southern woman. Polite, proper, kind, hard working and tough as nails. She talked about her daughter Susan a lot, as well as her 1st grandson. I think she was already a widow then. I believe she lived alone in her house just across from this store until her death at 100!
Tim, you are right. It was a “sharecropper”. My family lived across the road during my school years. I spent a lot of time visiting and shopping in the store. At one time there was a grist mill, it was on hwy 159 East of town, Strickland’s Grocery across from Pate’s Store (which at one time included a Post Office in which I mailed penny post cards there. Also a cotton gin, a peanut seed processing plant, the Amboy Baptist Church and just beyond a school house. We played in it as children. A lot of history there for me.
Wow. The pate store is a blast from the past. I grew up at the church you listed and remember Mrs. Pate, the owner, as one of the nicest country people you will meet. Full of “sugars” and “oh honey” types of language. I plundered around this store a great deal and it’s very interesting on the inside. It used to house jeans and boots. It served as a polling place for a long while. I believe that it used to be a sharecropper store but I need to validate that fact.
Thanks for sharing these memories, Tim!
I am pretty sure that the ‘Amboy’ sign above the store was the sign on the Amboy railroad depot. Many years ago (late 1950’s or early 1960’s) the Amboy depot was moved across Georgia Highway 159 from the store. Other Amboy folks can probably give more accurate info.
The last name “Pate’ is a shortened version of The Noble King “St. Patrick” and the Pate’s go back as far as the 1600’s in the British rolls.
Brian,
You should join Ancestry.com to learn more about your family’s past. Your photos make me homesick! My mother took us out of Georgia when I was 11 but I have great memories of the South.
Sherry