Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1922-03-16
SKETCH OF FITZGERALD
BY MRS. D. NELSON

SKETCH OF FITZGERALD
BY MRS. D. NELSON
About the 18th of the year 1895 tn
people began to arrive to settle tn,
old soldiers Colony, established il
Irwin County, Georgia, and we arrive,
the 9th day of February. They has
Kept coming until there were hundred.
occupying shack town on what is nov
East Altamaha street, and the slope.
each side There were not yet any DO
lice officers but jollier lot of people
would have been hard to find anc
everyone tried to make it pleasant for
the new arrivals. The first question
always was Where are You From"
and as early as the 9th of February
70 there seemed to be people from
every state in the Union.
1t would surprise some folks to see
how the people lived for a couple OF
months. Some would come and not
! have much to do with. If he should
have an old friend here when he came
that had already got shack built he
would likely ask Can l use the side
! OF your shack for one wall of mine"
and the answer was always yes, and
there were several that had or 5
families living in row that way.
| Others had tents, slab shacks or
board ones and lived short distance
Off by themselves. Those days the
Colony Company had saw mill and
any man that wanted lumber would
| take hIc firm RI SofC1, II IL. A
came from the saw The slabs were
tree. If you took your turn and the
lumber was cheap, but there were so
many people that each one did not
get very many boards in day for
they had to wait their turn always.
The middle of March 1896, the Col
ony company sent out orders to scat
ter, and as some had got their loca-
tons they went to them, and for those
that had not the company gave them
a place to locate until they had theirs
allotment. The Company said they
were afraid of so many living so close
together under the conditions they
were then living in there would be a
serious time with sickness. In three
weeks time shack town was almost
deserted but fitzgerald was dotted ov.
or with homes some ~ them were
very small until they COZ, build larg
er ones. The sad part of June 90 wa.
soicany deaths and ST. much sickness.
some supposed to be from fever caus
ed by SO much decaying vegetation
and not good water supply and som,
by not observing enough caution abou
sitting on the damp ground arounc
the large bonfires that burned ever,
evening. The third week in Decembe
'96 the center of the town burned GU
of the business section supposed t,
have been caused by an overtime,
lamp in the Margaret Hotel 10
Gated on the corner where McCarty'
. is now. Tim came the rush of tn
merchants that had been burned on
to get back into business so they woul
buy building that they thought woul
do for time and had as many NOV
: ed on their lots as there was time bu
the house movers working almost da
and night to get as many moved a
: possible before the city officers ha
? been sworn in for they said they wer
not going to allow wooden building
y put in to replace the ones that wer
, burned The night of December 8
, there was a man on the watch to tr
r to find out where the last building wa
going but all the answer he could e
from the men and boys was "Ne1
York City" These house mover
were D. Nelson and sons and G. 4
I Scarf.
l, Wen they turned in to go on the lo
he made a run for the council whic
! had remained in session SO as to pu
an injunction on them but when h
got back one corner was already o
blocks and they couldn't do anythin
about it. That was the building tina
Goodman occupied as drug store O.
: the lot back of the First Nations
: Bank. The first one moved in wa
where Bradshaw now is for the Wet
stein Jewelry Store. There were al
ready several denominations of church
es established and small schools. Dur
ing the summer of 'oo there were tw'
school houses erected. The one in tn
first ward is yet standing with SOM
addition. the one in the third ward wa
burned a few years ago and has beef
replaced with brick. AS the land go
well cleared and the water supply wa
improved there was comparatively lit
tie sickness. In 'o6 was the year thu
Ice plant put down their first deel
we'll and the city commenced the ont
at the Light Plant.
There was ever so much trouble get
ting through the work and the work
men lost their tools in the we'll bu
at last it was finished.
| We moved ou five miles to our al
lotment on the fourth of March Sc
as far as the city was concerned
did not know much about it for mex
? years only that it was still forging
ahead.
/ EDITORS NOTE-Mrs. Nelson
kept the city in touch with her neigh
4 borhood however for the old files show
her to have been regular and livcl,
} country correspondent during those
years.