This is a little lengthy for a post but we hope you will take the time to read and enjoy it. By Jimmy and Martha McConnell A Spring Trip Around Ducktown, Georgia Not many people know that Forsyth County once had two incorporated towns. The first was Cumming and is the county seat. The only other community that actually was an incorporated town was Ducktown. For a while the area was part of the Settendown or Hightower Areas. New Harmony Baptist Church was constituted in 1855 and after that the bustling community was known as New Harmony. It was located in the western part of the county, almost a stone’s throw from Cherokee County. The center of the area was where Heardsville Road and Franklin Gold Mine Road intersects. In the N/W corner was Ledbetter’s Store run by Lewis T. Ledbetter Sr. The store also served as the post office for the area. Around 1900, Lewis Ledbetter received a letter from the Post Office Department. There was a problem with the mail service in Forsyth County. It seems that some of the mail destined for New Harmony was being delivered to the Harmony Post Office which was on the eastern side of the county. They were getting complaints! Since Harmony was commissioned as a post office first, New Harmony would just have to find itself a new name. The first attempt to rename New Harmony was rejected. Lewis Ledbetter is said to have walked to the front door in frustration. Just as he looked across the road he saw a gang of ducks making there way around the neighborhood. Lewis half joking filled out the papers wondered what the people up north would think about the name Ducktown! You guessed it!! The name of Ducktown was accepted. The first time that the name Ducktown appears on the census is in 1920. There were ten families living within the city limits. By the 1930 Census there were sixteen families living in Ducktown Town. The perimeter of the town was said to be a quarter mile radius starting at the crossroads. By comparing the two censuses we believe that probably the census taker estimated the boundaries. We find most all of the same families in both the 1920 and 1930 census. Forsyth County did not officially name the roads until the 1980’s. What is now Heardsville and Franklin Gold Mine Roads were called such names as West Ball Ground Road, Frank Cochran Road, Cuba Road N. E. and Canton Road S. W. No wonder they had trouble with the mail service for the names of the roads changed from one census to the next. The 1930 census was taken by Heard Orr. He and his wife, Rosie Lee (Holbrook) and daughter, Annie Sue lived just outside the city limits. How convienent for Heard as the census for the sixteen homes took two days. (April 11th and 12th 1930.) It wouldn’t take him long to get home for supper. By coincidence all seventy two residents of Ducktown were Georgia born. The oldest was 84. There were seventeen farmers, three store workers, two traded in livestock and one man was an automobile salesman. We will start our outing on what is now Franklin Gold Mine Road. We will start at the northern edge of the city limits and work our way back to the crossing. Our first house is Rev. John W. and Ida Edwards Miller. Nineteen year old son, Carl was living at home. Daughter Carrie was already married. John was a farmer and also a basket maker. Emma Lou Nix (McConnell) had to walk by this house to get home from school. There was a goat that roamed the yard and most days he would chase the children. Her cousin, Leora, got a basket strip and started swatting at the goat to scare it away. It only served to aggravate the goat. About then the Edward’s cousin’s came by in their “strip down” and all of the cousin jumped in leaving poor Leora there to fend the goat alone. Heading back toward the crossing is George H. Ledbetter , wife/Beulah and sons, Lamar, Junior and Jimmy. They’re living in the Old Ledbetter Homeplace. His brother Lewis T. Ledbetter Jr. is living next door with wife/Grace and daughter Louise. By the next census this family had moved to Atlanta and was operating a furniture store downtown. Carl and Mae (Ellis) Howard were living in the next house . They had married on June 20th, 1926. Their tiny daughter Francis would soon celebrate her 1st birthday. Carl’s parents Thomas and Nola (Cape) Howard lived about a mile up Heardsville Road with five of his siblings. Next we turn west toward New Harmony Church. Sampson Alfred and Bessie L. Holbrook and family is the first house on the right. No doubt he was named after his great-grandfather, Sampson Clayton. The children were: Ruby, Catherine, Buren, Emory, Eugene and Billie. On this same property was a small renter house. Somehow, Will and Lou B. Cochran managed to squeeze in all six of their children that included: Gladis, Lois, James, Catherine, Margie and Faustine. The next house is James O. and Pallie (Armstrong) Henderson and sons: Guy and Herbert .James father, Berry, also lived with the family. Later they had a son that was named after the grandfather. Young,Berry Henderson grew up to be a Baptist minister and pastured many of the churches around the area. He has written a book on his experiences. Son, Ott and wife, Eula are newlyweds and live next door. We turn around just before we get to New Harmony Church and head back to the crossing. Much of downtown Ducktown is coming up on our right. The cotton gin building is first and then the warehouse where the cotton was weighed. The mule barn is next with the town calaboose attached to the side. Friday night could get pretty rowdy in Ducktown. It never failed that Sheriff Frank Cochran (father of Will) would have to be called. Someone would surely spent the night in the tiny jail! Note: The business area of Ducktown was destroyed by fire soon after the 1930 census. The people of Ducktown formed a bucket brigade but their efforts failed. The stores and their contents were all lost. Sam, Lillie Mae, Ty and Ruth Sandow lived close to the crossing. Sam helped Lewis Ledbetter his general store. Emma remembers being sent to the store with a mental list of what to bring back. As soon as she entered the store he would start reciting soda, sugar, salt and several other products sold at the store making Emma Lou forget what she came to the store to get. It was all in fun but she would have to run back home to see what she needed to get. Just north/east of the crossing was General and Lottie Revis. Sons Marion and Earl helped their father on the farm. Daughters: Odell, Stella, Ruth and Charlotte were still in school. Charley and Lena Edward’s who live next door are farmers too. If we head back west we’ll see George and Margaret (Smith) Ledbetter. The patriarch and matriarch of all the other Ledbetter’s in the community. There are in their 80’s and have been married for sixty years. Thomas Smallwood’s house is next. He lost his wife, Rebecca several years ago. Son, Wesley is also a widower and his daughter Martha is living there too. Thomas has three other sons that are still living at home. Starling, Alton and John, along with Wesley and Thomas share the farm chores. Nettie, Sara and Nolen Hawkins, children of John T. and Mary Hawkins can be found walking to New Harmony school with the Revis children. The first one at the school gets to build a fire in the pot bellied stove when heat is needed. We’re back at the crossing at Loma (Howard-sister to Carl) and Lewis Ledbetter’s house. Loma’s flowers are really beautiful this year. Their daughter, Margaret is still home but will soon marry Berry Bagwell. Sons, Herbert and Dean help out in the store. Herbert won’t travel far to find his bride. A few years later he will marry, Catherine Holbrook, who lived in the other corner of the cross roads. Ledbetter’s Store sits nearer the road in front of the house. Lewis sells a lot of fertilizer to the farmers in the area. Folks around Ducktown visit there often to buy what they can’t grow on their farms. Don’t wait for the next census to visit us. There is sure to be something happening at Ducktown. Y’all come back now!
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 02:10:18 +0000
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