The UGA Football Barn Sign, as this old store or warehouse building is now known throughout Dawg Nation and beyond, has become a serious landmark, has its own social media presence, and has even been featured on t-shirts. It was already well-known when I first photographed it in 2010, and was a sign for many travelers on the road to Athens that they were getting just a bit closer to the nirvana of a weekend between the hedges. In some of UGA’s leaner years, the sign changed regularly to reflect on recent shortcomings and was a welcome beacon of tough love, when most observers weren’t willing to put it out there. It never disappoints, and the current message is the best. I just know if this old building were to fall down, there would probably still be a UGA Football Barn Sign.
This perfect example of Georgia’s most common house type is like countless others that later added a wing for use as a kitchen or bedroom. I’ve said many times that these houses weren’t fancy, but they were built better than most houses of today.
The photo above, made by Anne Chamlee 32 years ago, was made from the other side of this house, but gives a good idea of the size and design. Anne and I were both sure that the house was long gone, but were delighted to learn from Rachel Boatright that it was still standing and still in her family. I wasn’t able to photograph as much of the house as Anne did, but was so excited to find it, not much worse off than it was in 1992. It really looks about the same, though it’s now surrounded by privet. I’m sure the house means a lot to the family; sometimes, it’s prohibitive to restore these places, but I think there’s always hope.
This is an important vernacular house, but it’s difficult to determine its original layout. It may have originated as a dogtrot, but was later transformed into a central hallway form. The addition of another door at the front changed its layout at some point. Significantly, the detached kitchen remains.
Located on Hog Road, Pleasant Springs Methodist Church was established in 1874 and was last affiliated with the United Methodist Church. A large historic cemetery lies adjacent to the building, which interestingly has burials dating to 1864, ten years before the church is known to have been established. Pleasant Springs is built in the most common style to be found among 19th and early 20th century Georgia churches. It’s so common, in fact, that it can make dating of the structure a bit difficult, but I believe this to be circa 1890-1910. It also features two front doors, one for men and one for women, as was typical of the time.
Nancy Melissa Massey Brantley (7 September 1845-3 December 1879)
I don’t often photograph family cemeteries, as many aren’t publicly accessible, but this one was open and very inviting, with great landscaping, spring blooming bulbs, and obvious good maintenance. There are always stories in these places, and a bit of this one unfolded from the pen of the late Georgia-born writer, Van K. Brock, with whom I coincidentally corresponded many years ago.
The cemetery is identified in different sources as the Joseph D. Brantley Family Cemetery and the Massey-Brantley Cemetery. According to Findagrave, Joseph Daniel “Joe” Brantley, Sr. (13 November 1845-17 November 1900), the namesake, isn’t buried here, but at Mount Gilead Primtive Baptist Cemetery, also in Washington County. He was the grandson of James Brantley, who migrated to Washington County from Tar River, Chatham County, North Carolina. Joe Brantley served as a private in Company A, 28th Georgia Infantry during the Civil War. Nancy Melissa Massey, a Washington County native, was his first wife. They had three daughters and a son.
Almarintha “Marintha” Cowart Brantley (3 March 1859-5 October 1888)
Van K. Brock wrote that “Marintha gave birth to five children while caring for seven stepchildren. One of her children died at birth. She died trying to give birth again.” I’m not sure about the “seven” stepchildren, as Joe and Nancy only had four children, but I may be missing an aspect of that. At any rate, Joe and Marintha’s three children who died at, or near, birth are buried here.
Infant deaths were common at this time in history.
Infant Daughter Brantley (5 October 1888-5 October 1888)
Of the three Brantley infants to die, Victory was the first, and the only one given a name.
Victory Brantley (26 February 1884-29 May 1884)
Joe and Marintha had another daughter and two sons who lived to adulthood. They are buried elsewhere. Not long after Marintha’s death, Joe married his third wife, Beulah Haddock Brantley (17 October 1869-11 September 1901), on 17 February 1889. Beulah bore Joe seven more children, all but one of whom survived to adulthood.
I’m not sure if this cottage originally stood here or if it was moved to the location, but other than some “modernization” it’s a fairly nice example of the Georgian Cottage form. This enduring hip-roof house type can be found all over the state, from the city to the country, and can be quite plain, or take on decorative elements, most commonly Queen Anne porches and posts. Examples that feature dormers like the one above are often associated with the Queen Anne style and date from the 1880s-1920s, though the style is still popular today.
Jones Chapel C. M. E. Church was likely a Freedmen congregation, formed in the years after the Civil War when Black Georgians were establishing their own churches away from the plantations where they had been enslaved. I have been unable to locate any history, and don’t know if it was originally associated with the Christian Methodist Episcopal movement or if it was an independent congregation. I confirmed it was a C. M. E. church through obituaries. There are a few members of a Jones family buried in its historic cemetery. Perhaps there are clues as to its origin in their stories. The church building as it stands today was likely built in the late 1800s or early 1900s.
The church survives in an idyllic setting today, beside a pond surrounded by a managed longleaf pine plantation, but the pond is a recent addition, dating to circa 2009-2010. Nonetheless, it’s not every day you see an old church with its own dock. The church isn’t part of the managed property, according to maps, but is likely an easement for the surviving family of its former members.
Situated on a ridge across from Jones Chapel, this historic cemetery is as important a resource as the church itself. It contains a nice variety of vernacular and commercial memorials, and formerly enslaved men and women, along with freedmen and their descendants, are buried here. My focus here is on the vernacular memorials.
Bessie H Jackson? (Aug 5, no year-22 July 1960 or 1961)
This vernacular memorial is topped by a cross made of shells and reads: Memory of You Forever.
Bidy Ann Talington (12 March 1900-6 January 1904)
Bidy Ann was the daughter of Sam and Hattie Talington.
Ransom Powell, Jr. (26 May 1899-6 May 1915)
This is a marble stone, likely bought as a blank and inscribed by a local craftsman.
Georgian Brinson (1870-22 February 1909)
This is a typical “stenciled” ledger stone in a common shape. It remains in relatively good condition.
Nias Gonder (4 March 1883-11 September 1923)
This is another typical stenciled stone.
Mattie B. Jones (30 September 1907-8 July 1908)
Ivy and an anchor are represented in the tympanum of this marker, and an accompanying poem reads: A little flower of love that blossomed but to die, Transplanted not above to bloom with God on high.
Little Sandra Leann Dixon (birth and death dates obscured)
This is the first Eldren Bailey headstone I’ve seen with the Blake Funeral Home identified. I’m not sure where it was located, but likely in Atlanta where Mr. Bailey lived and worked.
Newman Jackson (9 May 1910-8 August 1995)
This is one of two Jackson headstones with a distinctive dotted text. Though they were made 15 years apart, I believe the same person created both. In addition to the birth and death dates, it reads: Memories Your Children-We Still Love You
Professor Thomas Jefferson Elder (1869-1946) came to Sandersville around 1889, at the invitation of a local minister, for the purpose of improving educational opportunities for Sandersville’s Black children. According to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form, he was “the one man who had meant most to the educational, social and spiritual advancement of the colored people of the county for almost 60 years.”
Newspaper photos of Professor Thomas Jefferson Elder and Lillian Phinizy Elder, circa 1940s. Public Domain images accessed via Findagrave. No known restrictions.
A brochure from the City of Sandersville notes that Thomas Jefferson Elder was born and raised in Oconee County. His father was Blant Elder, a planter, and his mother was Sarah A. Love. He barely knew his mother as she lived in the home of her employer. A white man named John Meeks took care of Elder and his brother after their mother died. They attended the Knox Institute in Athens and graduated from Atlanta University. He taught for two years in Athens, where he met his wife, Lillian Phinizy Elder (1868-1943), a graduate of Spelman Seminary and fellow teacher. He furthered his education at Morgan Park Academy and Cook County Normal in Chicago, and Hampton Institute in Virginia.
In 1889, Elder established “Sandersville’s first Negro school” in the Springfield Baptist Church, with 25 students. Two years later, he purchased a nearby lot and built a two-room school, which became the Sandersville High and Industrial School. It was the first school in this part of the state to include manual training in its curriculum and in 1917 a domestic science building was constructed with the help of the Rosenwald Fund. In 1928, due largely to the fundraising efforts of Professor Elder, the present structure was built by the Rosenwald Fund and renamed the Thomas J. Elder High and Industrial School in his honor. It is in the H-Form popular among Rosenwald schools and was considered one of the finest and largest Black schools in Middle Georgia at the time. As to his administrative skill, his obituary noted: During his superintendency of the school, he maintained rigid discipline. A student breaking a window replaced it at his own expense, often working after hours to earn the money. Desks in the school, some of them over 40 years old, were unmarred by carving and whittling. Elder explained that offenders were made either to sand down and varnish the desk top or to buy a new one.
Professor Elder and his wife are buried in front of the school. An article in the 13 June 1946 edition of the Sandersville Progress recounts the following: Nearly 20 years ago, standing in the city square, the late George Warthen and the late C. B. Chapman made an agreement. “When Elder died,” said Mr. Warthen, “if one or the other of us is living he will see that Elder has white pall bearers. Agreed?” “Agreed,” said Mr. Chapman. G.S. Chapman overheard the conversation; it was he who carried out the agreement for his father.
The school became an elementary school in 1960, when a new Black high school was built, and continued in that capacity until closing in 1980. It now serves as the T. J. Elder Community Center.
