This single-pen tenant house is typical of the residential dwellings common in the tenant farming and sharecropping era and was related, no doubt, to the Hard Cash community. There were likely a number of these along Hard Cash Road at one time, and this may be the last survivor. While it’s an endangered resource, it’s just more evidence that even utilitarian homes were built better a hundred years ago than they are today.
The only reference I could find about Hard Cash was that the place name appears on an 1894 Southern Railway map. This indicates it was a railroad siding, perhaps with a freight depot for shipping whatever goods were being produced. I’m imagining cotton or even corn, but it may have encompassed a lot of different products. As to the Hard Cash aspect, I suspect it referred to a business owner not running credit accounts, and only accepting “hard cash”. That may be overthinking it, but it’s how I see it.
This old shotgun store was likely a commissary, serving farm workers or other laborers who lived in the area.
Take a detour off the Bowman Highway at Dewy Rose and you’ll pass down a gravel-topped road named for the historic community of Hard Cash. While the story of the community is hard to track down, the drive will pass by a couple of historic homes and leftover farm buildings related to this enigmatic place. It’s a short drive but a nice break from the highway.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 