The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-07-11
Georgia's Buried Town,

On the right bank of the Flint
river, Georgia, sixteen miles east OF
Americus, Capt. Spivey has a fertile
and valuable plantation of6OO acres.
Standing on the river bluff and look
ing at the level expanse of the farm,
now in high state of cultivation,
one would not realize that in these
fields lay the foundation of one of
Georgia's buried towns" As you
stroll along the bluff or through the
fields, you see no sign of the town
of Danville, that grew and flourish
ed there forty or fifty years ago.
Some time in the twenties a few
hardy pioneers pushed across the
river and settled, and as immigration
came in Danville became the
little metropolis of the new settle
ment.
1t had a city government, court
ground, a Methodist church, many
business houses, including a hotel
or tavern, a few dry goods stores
and several family groceries, with a
full complement of dranl.shOps, and
last, but by no means least, cock
pit and a race course. Among the
many doing business there from
1880 to 1910 were Bond and Shef-
field, Wm. Simms, Martin Miller,
VIM. Ronaldson & Bro, Pinchen,
Hunt e. Cowart, William Mann, ),
S. Boone. Hubert Bostick. Benton
Byrd was the leading luminary Of
the legal profession, and Samuel
Loudon the principal boniface. The
resident population at one time
numbered over 800, and Masonic
Hall and one or two stores were OF
brick. Danville in her palmy days
was an immense whig stronghold.
II was not safe for sutiratfe singer
TO attempt to vote the Democratic
ticket. and when the denizens of
Pondtown invaded the "city" IN
force, with their Democratic doc
trines. it was not long till the fur be-
gan to fly. Dealers proclaimed their
LIQUIDS as good Whig whisky" and
no Democrat dared say it wasn't.
But it was on the day set aside
for the sports of the cock pit 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 and around Danville to
fertalize considerable portion OF
Captain 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 developed heels "
enough to wear the ribbon, the whole
population thought it their bounden
duty to find a horse that could beat
him, and sporting men from Column
bus. Macon and Hawkinsville tre-
Iouentlv patronized Danville. Oh,
the lively races they did have and
the bloody mains their pit exhibit
ed An old friend tells me that he
has seen on an ordinary Saturday
evening two hundred saddle horses
hitched to the racks Of Danvllle
while their riders slipped their tod
dies or watched the belligerent roost-
ers. A steamboat called the Mag
nolia" was made and launched at
Danville in 1916 by james Butts d
Co. but made only one trip, having
been sold to parties who piled her
lower down. The Southwestern
railroad coming to Oglethorpe IN
I 1850 sounded the death knell to Dan
vile. Her warehouse was shut up,
her trade fell off, 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 the streets, her for
ums. her churches and her houses,
| is now prolific farm, she is only a
memory. and, like Babylon and An,
tioch. the wolf and the owl howl and
Ihoot amid her ruins.