Mrs. Carrico raised the first crop of corn in this township. Mr. Hugh Massey was a colored man, and he built the first little horse mill and the first cotton gin to pick out cotton seeds for our farmers. This characteristic of the township endures to the present day, as will be testified by scores of resident and non-resident sportsment who have waded the marshes many a day with wet limbs, empty stomachs, but happy hearts. In later years, hunters from abroad come in sometimes with modern sporting facilities and slay in a week's time one third as many. At a much earlier day, wild turkeys were very abundant in the drier portions, but sought the treeless marshes very often for food, or to hatch their young.
Every old settler can tell interesting tales of turkey hunts.
Along the borders of the woods in early morning they congregated, and could be shot from tree tops until the hunter was weary. It is asserted that often they were so remarkably fat that when they struck the ground after being shot dead from the top of high trees, the skin upon their backs would burst open like a ripe pod. Great rolls of yellow, oily fat were often taken from their bodies. The name of the builder could not be learned. A large dam, with an excellent natural mill site, furnished water-power second to no other place in the county.