The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-02

Several light draft steamboats, have
been built at Dublin, and among it's
citizens is Capt. John NJ Graham, who
has built a number of boats, including
the steamer, Two States, now running
on the Savannah river.
Dublin is a good cotton market, and
was. told that the staple brings as much
in Dublin as it does at the ports. Hav-
ing a navigable river, the city has low
freight rates. 1t is an orderly city,
only requiring a chief and three police
men to support the majesty of the law.
There is a local brass band and mill
tary company Co. A. of the Second
Regiment, Georgia State Troops. Dub
lin also has Board of Trade, and a
Young Mems Business League, and
two good hotels, all of them valuable
adjuncts to the up building of the city.
To sum up, Dublin of to-day is a
growing city, and has the wherewith
with which to keep on growing. or
course, there are many just such cities,
all Offering good inducements for in
vestments, not only in business of all
kinds, but in real estate ventures; but
Dublin with its river and its railroads;
its fertile farming lands and valuable
forests nearby, seems to me to be an
ideal place for rapid development and
money making.
According to the school reports for
1900, Laurens county makes a better
educational showing than the average
county. There are lis schools, of which
"a are white. The total white enroll
ment is 3,412, and the attendance 26S9.
The total colored enrolment is ESQ,
and the attendance ! 1868. The average
monthly cost per pupil is $1.20, of which
the state pays so cents, showing that
so per cent. Of the cost of the schools
is paid by the county.
The Wiregrass boys of Georgia COM
posed about half of the soldiers that
the state furnished to the Confederacy,
and Laurens county had q. full repre-
sentation in it's armies. The survivors
of that patriotic struggle have a pros
porous camp of United Confederate
Veterans, and it's headquarters are in
Dublin. / met quite a number of the
veterans, among them: Maj. Smith of
Dublin, and my old friend and COM
rade, DIR. w. A. Thomas of Brewton.
The doctor was a private in Co. F.
ATLANTA Grays) Eighth Georgia. He
was wounded in Virginia, and on re-
covering was commissioned lieuten-
ant in Maj. A. Bonaud's Battalion of
Artillery. Every old Savannahian re-
members that brave Frenchman, who
feared nothing ON earth or elsewhere.
The command subsequently became
Bonauds Regiment of Infantry and inn
mortalized itself at Olustee, Fla.
BY some mistake of the red tape OFF,
Gals at Richmond, DIR. Thomas was
gazetted Chaplain of the Battalion. He
refused, to accept the commission be-
cause he was not a minister. Maj.
Bonaud, however, would not listen to
his objections, and said that he, (Thom-
as) would do just as we'll as a min
lister, and if he could not pray
he could read out of the prayer book,
and that would do just as well. for
If he prayed over a dead man he would
not know, and if he was officiating over
a live one, he would not care. How
ever, changing the command from an
artillery battalion to a regiment of in
fantry settled the question, and DR..
Thomas ministerial labors ceased. l
had also the pleasure of meeting Mr..
j. c.. Manning, formerly of Savannah,
who is permanently located in Dub
In. He is a cotton merchant and is
doing well.
Laurens county is noted for its
health. It's surface is rolling, and is
intersected by a number of creeks
which afford good drainage. The Oco-
nearly equal parts. and is the only
navigable stream within its bounda-
ries.
The population of the county by the
census of 1900 was 25,90S, an increase
of about nearly SO per cent. in ten
years. This increase is due to the
advent of railroads, and clearing the
land by the naval stores operators and
saw mill men, making it available for
farming. Almost everything can be
grown or raised upon it's rich and pro-
ductive soil, although cotton is the
principal and money crop; it is sup
plemented by good crops of corn, oats,
wheat, and potatoes. Fine fruit is
grown in the county, and the largest
peach orchard in the world is twelve
miles from Dublin. The farmers, like
those in all Wiregrass counties. are
energetic and intelligent.
The names of Blackshear, Yopp,
Stanley, Rowes, and other, old settlers
are still perpetuated\ in the PERSONS
of some of the best men in Laurens.
The first named are the descendants
of Gen. David Blackshear, a Revo-
lutionary patriot, who removed from
North Carolina, a state that in the
past and present. has given Georgia
some of it's best citizens, in 1890, and
settled on the Oconee. In the Creek
war he was brigadier general of Geor-
gia troops, and did good service in de-
Tending the frontiers, of which Lau-
rens county was a part, from the
forays of the Indians. He commanded
the line of forts in Twiggs, Pulaski and
Telfair counties. During the war with
England in 1S12-15, he marched $500
troops to the defense of the coast,
cutting a road from Fort Early to Da-
rien.
Laurens county has the honor of
having given Georgia the last Gov
ernor elected from this part Of the
state, Col. George M. Troup, whose
remains rest at his old plantation
'Valdosta." about nine miles from