End of Decade (1938-1940)
In the last years of the decade Lenieu (“Buddy”) and Hazel Bagley Carter broadened the scope of casket sales by her father, J.R. Bagley, into an undertaking establishment. It became Carter Funeral Home. During the process Hazel Bagley Carter became the first woman in Georgia to be licensed a mortician.
The Georgia Power Company started supplying electricity to some parts of Liberty County in 1930. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Administration in 1935. The Canoochee Electric Membership Corporation at Reidsville, Georgia, was formed in 1938. It supplied power to areas in the upper part of Liberty County. Eunice Dasher Olmstead of Taylors Creek was one of the incorporators of the corporation and its first vice president. The Coastal Electric Membership Corporation, to supply power to Bryan County, the lower part of Liberty County, and McIntosh County, was established on June 20, 1940, in Darien, Georgia, and became operative on November 1, 1940. Roger P. Youmans of Yellow Bluff was its first president.
L.P. Youmans, Dorchester member of the Liberty County Board of Education, died in 1938. D.S. Owen, president of the Liberty County Chamber of Commerce, appointed a committee composed of W.C. Hodges, DJ. Dawson, and T.H. McDowell to write a “Resolution of Respect” and deliver it to the Youmans family.
Frederick W. and Inez Tippins Mingledorff purchased the Hinesville Ice Company in 1938. They established the first public water supply system in Hinesville the same year, and their firm became the Hinesville Ice and Water Company. The population of Hinesville at that time was less than 400.
W.H. Cohen, principal of Taylors Creek Junior High School, in 1938 established a school lunch program for his students without public funds of any kind. Two volunteer workers baked bread and prepared a heavy soup of beef, potatoes, corn, cabbage, and onions. It was served to the students at their desks. All of the food was donated by parents of the students.
The Taylors Creek Camp Meeting opened on schedule on October 14, 1938. Reverend J.C.G. Books of Waycross, Georgia, preached the first sermon at 7:30 p.m. All of the “tents” were occupied. “Uncle Nat” Thompson preached the eleven o’clock sermon the following Sunday. That afternoon the “Clan Martin” held its annual meeting, and the Flemington Presbyterian Church presented a program.
Dorothy E. Martin was the new associate editor of the Liberty County Herald in October 1938. Her father was Robert M. (“Bob”) Martin who was editor and publisher of the newspaper from 1893 until his death in 1933. There were short periods of times around World War I when others owned the newspaper, but Martin always returned and reassumed ownership.
The regular meeting of the Hinesville Lions Club was held on October 13, 1938, at the Yellow Bluff Fishing Camp. A story in the Liberty County Herald reported that those who attended the meeting “enjoyed a seafood supper.” The story also said it was “Ladies Night,” and the event was arranged by R.M. Ryon and Eugene E. Torrence, president of the Savannah Lions Club.
A notice appeared on the front page of the Liberty County Herald in 1938 which said: “Will the person who borrowed my copy of ‘Gone With the Wind’ please return it to Miss Olive Ryon?” Olive Ryon was the daughter of Jesse Gordon and Rosalyn Girardeau Taylor Ryon of Hinesville, a teacher at Bradwell Institute, and a very talented pianist. She played what was called “rag-time.”
James C. Hodges, son of John Gideon and Sarah Eugenia Wheeler Hodges, died at his home in Long County, Georgia, on October 8, 1938. He was survived by his wife, Nora Edwards, seven brothers and two sisters. The brothers were W.C. Hodges, Hugh M. Hodges, James C. Hodges, Ross Hodges, Henry C. Hodges, H.A. Hodges, and J. Leon Hodges. The sisters were Theo Hodges Wilkinson and Allie Hodges Garrison.
The Hinesville Bottling Company announced in late summer 1938 that it would sponsor a “Best Baby Girl” and “Best Baby Boy” contest during the Liberty County Fair that autumn. The announcement said its judges would be Ethel Davis Hack, Alice Waite Winn, Inez Tippins Mingledorff, and Estelle Williams Martin.
