This fine Queen Anne cottage has been used as an insurance office for many years but retains its beautiful fretwork and overall appearance. Some would call it a “gingerbread” house. It’s one of the nicest surviving Victorian houses in Lumber City. It was possibly designed or built by the Scottish immigrant John Renwick, who was actively building in Lumber City at the time of its construction.
Lumber City has had two advantages in its history that have kept it “on the map”. This small town (pop. 967) had easy access to the Ocmulgee River, and that fact drove its growth in the early years. Long before 1889, when it was incorporated and officially named Lumber City to recognize a busy sawmill’s impact on the community, the area saw the constant traffic of timber rafts running down to the coastal town of Darien, as well as cotton and grocery boats. Author Brainard Cheney (1900-1990), who was born in Fitzgerald and moved with his family to Lumber City in 1906, may be the town’s most famous citizen, though he’s largely forgotten today. An author who was associated with the Southern Agrarians, he wrote several books set on the Ocmulgee River, where he had been a raft hand as a young man in 1917, including River Rogue and Lightwood. Lumber City was the town nearest the confluence of the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers, where the great Altamaha is formed and flows uninterrupted to the coast. Of course the railroad was a presence whose impact can’t be understated and it was inextricably linked to the sawmill.
In the modern era, Lumber City is located along one of Southeast Georgia’s busiest highways, US 341, and milling and timber-related industries continue to operate here. In the days before interstate highways, hotels and restaurants like the Ivy Lodge and the Red River Tea Room were popular with locals and travelers alike.
An interesting historical anecdote concerns John Renwick, namesake of Renwick Street in Lumber City. One of his descendants, Rosemary Morrison, has written to inform me of this connection: “John Renwick, from Peebles, Scotland, lived in Lumber City between 1890 and 1914, and his sister, Janet (Jenny) lived with him from 1902 until his death, afterwards returning alone to live in Lumber City until the late 1920s. A cousin, Robert Murray, came with him to Lumber City, and also lived there. He (or his brother) was a trainee architect.” She also notes that a Miss Knox from Lumber City sent her late Aunt Jenny a scrapbook in the 1950s, containing numerous photographs from the Renwicks’ time in Lumber City, focused primarily on structures around the town. Some of the houses designed and built by “Mr. Jock”, as Renwick was known locally, included those of the McGregor, McLeod, Martin, Murray, Knox, Vaughan, Thormhalen, Walter T. McArthur, and Capt. E. K. Willcox families.
In 2024, Lumber City was devastated, as was the entire region, by Hurricane Helene. Much cleanup has been done, but it will take a long time for everything to be normal again.
Milan is located in Dodge and Telfair Counties, one of many Georgia towns with such a distinction. It was settled in the 1880s due to the arrival of the railroad in the area. It was named for Milan, Italy, and of course, has a Georgia pronunciation. It’s “My-lun”, not “Muh-lan”. Many people have asked me over the years why Georgia has such unusual place names, and it’s not just Georgia. The reason is because common names, especially surnames, were already in use and the post office department wouldn’t allow towns with the same, or even similar, names.
Milan became the focus of unwelcome national attention during the summer of 1919, known as Red Summer. The story is graphic, but as Black history is being officially censored in Georgia and many other states, it should be told. And to be certain, Milan was not alone in regards to such atrocities.
On 24 May 1919, two white men, John Baptiste Dowdy, Sr. (1894-1919) and Levi Evans, attempted to break into the home of a Black woman, Emma McCollers, with the intent of raping her two young daughters. Dowdy’s father, Rev. William Dowdy, was the mayor of Milan. When the family refused to allow them in the house, Dowdy fired his gun.
The girls fled to the nearby home of Emma Tishler and were followed by Dowdy and Evans. During the chaos, Ms. Tishler hid in a well. Berry Washington, a 72-year-old Black sharecropper, heard the commotion and attempted to defend the girls. Dowdy fired at Washington, and after a struggle, Washington killed Dowdy. Washington turned himself soon after the shooting and was transferred to the jail in McRae.
The next day, Deputy Sheriff Dave McRanie handed Washington over to a lynch mob who removed him from the jail and in the early hours of 26 May 1919, hanged him from a post at the site of the shooting and riddled his body with gunshot. His mutilated corpse was left in public view for at least a day, no doubt as an ominous warning to the local Black community.
Fewer than 500 people live in the little town of Pineview, on the Wilcox-Pulaski County line, so there aren’t many places to eat. When I made this photograph a few years ago, the trailer beside this store was the only place selling food, and was going by the name “Smoke House Grill”. The store was the M & M Convenient Store, and appears to have been a service station and garage before that. I think they built a Dollar General across the road after they tore down the most important landmark building in town, the old Clements Drugstore.
Shell’s Bonded Warehouse is one of at least two such facilities in Pitts, which isn’t surprising considering the importance of farming in the area. I’m fascinated by these old buildings; they’re not architecturally interesting, I suppose, but they represent the lifeblood of many small towns whose economies were and are based on agriculture. The old ones are getting harder to find, but many are still in use. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one is still busy in season.
From their website (abridged): The First Baptist Church of Rochelle was organized in 1888 with the Rev. T. B. Fuller and the Rev. J. C. Andrews constituting the Presbytery. There were 14 charter members.
The first place of meeting was in a wooden store house located on the southeastern corner of First Avenue and Gordon Street. Services were later held in a school building on the corner of Lee Street and Sixth Avenue and for some months in the Methodist Church. In 1892, the membership began worshiping in their partially completed building which was located on the corner of Gordon Street and Third Avenue. The same wooden building was being used twenty years later when the membership had increased to 158 and classrooms were needed. Plans were formulated for a new building to be built on the same site where the old building stood. That necessitated moving the old building and making arrangements with Masons for the use of their building as a place for worship. Finally, in April 1917, the new brick building was begun and was completed May, 1918 The total cost of the church without furnishings was $23,047.00 On April 27, 1919, Dr. Walter M. Lee preached the dedication sermon. The building was designed by J. J. Baldwin, Architect of Anderson, South Carolina, who made a specialty of designing church buildings.
This is actually a perspective view of the church, as I was unable to make a photograph of the front, but I think it illustrates the architecture well. J. J. Baldwin and other architects of the era must have really liked this style, as there are scores of similar churches throughout the country.
Kara Kidder wrote, in 2023, that this house had been in her family for over 100 years and that they were still researching its origins. A sign outside indicates it was built in 1905. It’s a perfect example of a Folk Victorian farmhouse and is well-maintained. It is located among fields that go on for miles in all directions.
Holt Baptist Church is one of several historic congregations in the Holt community. It was founded by George Washington Freeman (1855-1930) and Susan Amanda House Freeman (1863-1968) in 1916. It’s likely the church building was constructed around this time. The Freemans came to Irwin County from Wilkes County. I believe Mrs. Freeman was a native of Lincoln County.
A classic late-19th century vernacular house, this example near Lands Crossing is yet another illustration of the expansion of the utilitarian central hallway form. A shed room was added at the rear of the structure and another wing was attached, perhaps a kitchen. I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t logs beneath the siding. The windows bordering the door are a bit unusual. One would expect to find full-length sidelights instead. I suspect this is a later modification, done for a practical reason. It’s one of the nicest and oldest examples of this house type in Irwin County.
This shotgun style building originally served as a store, if I recall correctly, but has been the Mystic post office for many years. My father and I have bought stamps and sent mail from here on several occasions and it’s an experience in itself. It still has a tiny wood-paneled lobby with the old-fashioned mail boxes. And it’s only open for a couple of hours each day. Call me delusional, but I think it’s important for small communities to have services like this. Irwinville lost its post office a few years back and it’s still sorely missed.