Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1925-12-24
JUDGE CRUM TELLS
STORY OF OCILLA
"REMINISCENCES RECALLED BY
DEATH OF J. A. J. HENDER-
SON, FOUNDER OF TOWN.

The recent death of Hon. J. A. ].
Henderson, of Ocilla, recalls both sad
and pleasant memories of the past,
among which are these relating to the
founding of the town of Ocilla.
In the early COS Smith Thomas &
Co. operated saw mill at Williford,
in Dolly County. Busbee & Crum, of
Vienna, represented them in their le-'
gal matters. Later, having cut out
their holdings, they purchased large
tract of very fine virgin pine timber
in Irwin County from Mr.. Henderson
and located a saw mill at the spot af-
forwards becoming Della.
The lumber from this. plant was
hauled by teams to Fitzgerald, the
terminus of the old Georgia & AIaba-
ma Railroad. One day, genial Lloyd
Thomas, the managing member of the
saw mill from above named, came in
the office of Busbee & Crum, say
ing. swell Crum, I'm broke. Weput
ali our money in the Henderson tim
Der and now the price of lumber is so
low it won't pay the cost of saving
and hauling to Fitzgerald and I want
your help" After further explana-
tory remarks and discussion, said to
him, "Well my good friend what you
need is railroad, you need the rail-
road extended to your MILL
"That's it." said Thomas, Ego
ahead and see if you can get it for
u.s." Learning from Thomas what he
was willing to do, went in a few
days to Mr.. Cecil Gabbett, the Gen.
eral Manager of the G. & A. at Amer
icus. laid the matter before him. He
becameat once interested and made
anappointment to meet us at Fitzger-
aid in a few days. This date arriving
Mr.. Henderson. with his attorney, the
Judge David H. Pope, of Albany; Mr..
Thomas and met at Fitzgerald where
we received a message from Mr.. Cab
bett that he could not come there but
for us to come on to Savannah, which
we did. The Hon. j. Rudolf Ander-
son, of Savannah, was the Division
counsel of the railroad and in his Of
flee after a few hours discussion
tri-partite agreement was made by
the terms of which Smith, Thomas &
Co. were to furnish the cross ties;
Mr.. Henderson was to furnish the
land for a town site at Ocilla, the
town was to be laid off into streets,
blocks and lots and .thhe railroad to
have each alternate lot. Mr.. Hender-
son was also to give the railroad
thousand acres of land between Fitz-
gerald and the embryo town. The
railroad was to be extended to the
new town and freight rates to the
West DIN lumber to be the same as
from Fitzgerald. This was all done.
All parties benefited from it. Mr..
Henderson grew more wealthy;
Smith, Thomas & Co. made money
and the railroad prospered from the
deal and what afterwards became the
beautiful and thriving city of Ocilla
was born. For these. services, l re-
ceived a fee for my firm of one hun
dred and fifty dollars, fine fee at
that time.
About 1911 met Mr.. Henderson
at Cordele, he saying to me, "Well
you helped to make Ocilla, you've
never been there: T mgoing to have
a big land sale in few days, come
over and be with me- l did and en-
joyed my visit to his hospitable home
very much Now, all the actors in
this transaction but myself have
passed away. Judge Pope, then Mr.
Gabbett,. Mr. Thomas, Mr.. Anderson,
Mr.. Henderson and 1 alone am left
to recount ''the birth of town"
May it live long and prosper.
D. A: R. CRUM.
Cordele, Ga, Dec. 10, 1885,