In 2010, Vonnice Brown wrote: I have always loved this building and about a year ago, I purchased it from the Harris family. The bank was built in the early 1900’s and was open only 3 years as a bank. In trying to determine a date of construction, I compared Vonnice’s information with the transcript of an old lawsuit brought by the bank in 1916 against a Mr. Odum. If the bank only operated three years, that would put the date of construction around 1915. Amazing that it only served as a bank for three years. It’s a beautiful old building.
For a time, my family had a store run from the bank building. Probably would have been in the mid to late thirties. My uncle Mayon used to tell the story of the time a man came in to rob them when he and my dad were there. He said dad came up behind the man and he said “hit him, Charles”. Which dad did with a bottle. End of the crime. I have the old cash register they used.
After the bank closed the cement safe from the bank was used at the pump in the middle of the road to water horses. It stayed there until they put up the gazebo. The pump worked until they put up the gazebo
The safe at the pump was a smaller one and may have been used in the bank for some purpose but there was a much larger vault in the bank.
The pump still works. The seals were shot when the gazebo was built and the pump was replaced with a similar model. The original pump is under my barn.
If it only was a bank until 1918, that could be due to the Spanish Flu which hit then. My mother, Jeannie Gulley, grew up in Worth County, and her parents pulled her out of school for the 1918 school year due to Spanish Flu.
Still crumbling into history.
I love this building as well. Oakfield is a charming little community, well kept and cries out for preservation. The other buildings that are shown here from Oakfield speak of an earlier time that suddenly ended. Did the turpentine depression cause its demise or the boll weevil infestation or . . .?
The Berrien Historical Foundation has been researching this community for its connections to some events in Berrien County, Georgia in 1909.
Love it! Are there any other buildings near by? Would make a great antique store!
I am just wondering Lorie if you (or your husband) are related to the large family of Scroggs in the Gainesville / Oakwood GA area? I have a cousin that is married to one of that family and I have known many of them all my life. It is not a very common name.
Please let us know what you do with the building. Hope you turn it into your home. I love old buildings.
Lucky Vonnice! What a beautiful building. I hope she is able to put the building to use again.
Indeed, what are your plans for the building? Hope you will keep us updated on the progress Vonnice and/or Brian.