The Dawson journal., 1883-03-15
A BURIED TOWN.
Telegraph and Messenger. I

~ t''' S9i4S OAiih III UIe L IInJ
river, sixteen miles east of Ameri-
Gus, Captain l.. E. Spivey has a
f. tile and valuable plantation of
go acres. Standing on the river
blnT and looking at the level ex-
panse Of the farm, nowin a high
state Of cultivation, one would not
realize that IN these fields Law the
foundation Of one of Georgia's 8
buried towns" As you stroll
along the bluff or through the
fields, you see no signs Of the town
of Danyille, that grew and flour
lshed there forty or fifty years
ago. Sometimes IN the twenties,a
few hardy pioneers pushed across
the river and settled, and as immi-
grafton came in Danville became
The little metropolis of the new
settlement.
1t had city government, a
court ground, a Methodist church,
many business houses, including a
hotel OF tavern few dry goods
stores, and several family grocer
les, with a fall complement of
dran-shops, and last, but by no
means least, q cockpit and a race
course. Among the many doing
business there from 1880 to 1910
were Bond & Sheffield, William
Simms, Martin Miller, William
donaldson q Bro, Pinchin, Hunt
q Cowart, William Mann, S. S.
Boone, Hubert Bostwick Ben
ton Byrd was the leading lumina-
ry Of the legal profession, and
Sam London the principal boni-
face. The resident population at
one time numbered over 500, and
a Masonic hall and one or two
stores were Of brick.
/Danville in her palmy days was
an intense Wnig stronghold. It
was not safe for a suffrage singer
to attempt to vote the Democratic
ticket, and when the denizens of
Pondtown invaded the Getty" in
force, with their Democratic doe
trines, it was not long before the
fur began to fly. Dealers pro-
claimed their liquors as good
Wing whiskey," and no Democrat
dared say it wasn't
But it was on the days set aside
for the sports of the cockpit and
race track that Danville appeared
IN her glory, and those days were
frequent. Enough chickens have
been killed in combat with their
"heels" in around Danyille to fer
tilize a considerable portion of
Capt. Spivey's plantation, and an
| old resident assured me, in tone
of regret, that the race-track was
the best that has ever been in the
state. Whenever a horse develop
ed heels" enough to wear the rib
bon, the whole population thought
it their bounden duty to find a
horse that could beat him, and
sporting men from Columbus, Ma
con and Hawkinsville frequently
patronized' Danville. Oh, the
lively races they did have! and the
bloody mains their pit exhibited!
the whiskey that was gulped and
the bloody noses that had to be
dressed! An old friend tells lne
that he has seen ON an ordinary
Saturday evening, 200 saddle
horses hitched to the racks OF
Danville while their riders slipped
their toddies or watched the belli-
gorent roosters.
A steamboat, called "The Mag
nolia," was made and launched at
Danyille in 1916, by James Butts
& Co, but only made one trip,
having been sold to parties who
piled her lower down.
The Southwestern railroad COM
ing to Oglethrope in 1850 sounded
the death-knell to Danville Her
warehouse was shut up, her trade
! fell oil, her people began to leave.
, store after store was. closed and
! left to rot down, and to-day, with
the exception that the spot where
} once were her streets, her forums
: her churches and her houses, is
now a prolific farm, she is only s
, memory, and, like Babalon and
. Antioch, the wolf and the owI
{ howl and hoot amid her ruins.
+ J.