<i>Living Jackson</i> Magazine : They're Still Here!

They're still here

Photo Essay by Shannon Jackson
Story by Caine Campbell

Photographs marked Cicero Simmons appear courtesy of Robert and Caroldene McEver and Rick Stone.

Murphy-Sosebee House.
After residing for a time in this home built in the late 1800s, Abe Murphy then built the house next to Cicero Simmons pictured on the next page. Take a close look at the early photo and you’ll see, at center, Abe, his wife Victoria and their children. The place, seen here from different angles, is on Sosebee Road in Talmo.

Early shot on glass plate negative by Cicero Simmons.

Kennedy House.
Dr. Wiley C. Kennedy called this place home. It was built around 1914. Now it serves as the Talmo City Hall, Library and Community Center.

Abe Murphy House.
Imagine you’re looking over the shoulder of Cicero Simmons, sometime in 1910 or later. From his second-floor perch in his own home, he’s getting this shot of the house next door where Murphy lived. In Talmo, it is behind what used to be the “Red Store,” and is now owned by Randy and Janet Kucera.

Blackstock House.
Built circa 1910, this place was home to Lon Blackstock, his wife Mattie and their large family. It is located on Old Highway 129, north of Jefferson.

Early shots on glass plate negative by Cicero Simmons.

What Was Life Like!

What was life like when these homes were first lived in? For one thing, their occupants were fairly young, and not just because the homes were new homes for new families in many instances. The first occupants in a house built around 1900 lived in an era when the average life expectancy in the United States was 47 years.

If there was indoor plumbing in these homes, it was a novelty and the envy of neighbors. Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States had an indoor bathtub.

Except for the sounds of farm animals in the daytime and the calls of owls and panthers at night, a pervasive silence comforted the dwellers. There was likely no telephone to ring, as only 8 percent of homes in the United States had a telephone. Few, if any, automobiles would drive by; there were only a few thousand in the entire country.

These homes were mostly on unpaved roads; in 1906 there were only 144 miles of paved roads in the United States. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 miles per hour. Georgia was more heavily populated than California, but that wasn’t saying much.

They enjoyed their Jackson County front porches.

Allen House.
Built as the home of John and Callie Hill in 1916, it was developed by Dr. L. C. Allen as the Allen Clinic and Hospital in 1930. The hospital’s literature described it this way: “Rural Setting, far from city smoke and noise. Beautiful grounds, shrubbery, and flower gardens. Altitude 100 feet. Electric lights and steam heat. Complete X-Ray equipment. Ample supply of Radium. Large, well-equipped Clinical Laboratories for the study and treatment of Medical Cases. Modern Operating Room. Terms: Reasonable.” Located in Hoschton, its use as a medical treatment facility has long since been discontinued.

The Governor’s Mansion.
On Elm Street in Commerce is the Mediterranean style home constructed for Lamartine Griffin Hardman in 1919-1921. Hardman was governor of Georgia 1927-1931. Leroy Collier Hart designed the house. Hardman, 1856-1937, was a physician, manufacturer and farmer who served in the
Georgia House and Senate before being elected governor. The mansion is now available for private and public events. Fee information and scheduling is available at 706-423-9626.

Cicero Simmons House.
Irony of ironies: We are in the debt of Cicero Simmons, the photographer of Talmo, for glass plate negatives of homes and other Jackson County scenes that otherwise would be lost to all except memory, but Cicero did not leave us a photograph of his own home! We may assume he never snapped one. Living Jackson sets things right and settles the score by photographing and now publishing, for all to see, Cicero’s own home. Peer carefully at the second story window over the front porch. Looking through that aperture, Cicero took a photo of his neighbor’s place! You saw it on page 27, the Blackstock House. The Simmons House was built around 1910 in Talmo and is now owned by Wayne and Jill Miller. The Cicero Simmons photographs appear in Living Jackson courtesy of Robert and Caroldene McEver and Rick Stone.

The fact that the inhabitants were able to afford these homes meant that their income was above average, but the average wage in the country was only 22 cents per hour, and the average worker made between $200 and $400 per year. Whatever their income, the people in these homes improved their standard of living by growing some necessities on the place. Some owned chickens and didn’t have to buy eggs at 14 cents per dozen. Most women only washed their hair once a month and used egg yolks or borax for shampoo. They had to go to the store, however, for sugar at four cents a pound and coffee at 15 cents.

The odds are that babies were born in these homes. More than 95 percent of all births in the country took place at home. More people than now would have died at home, as treatment in hospitals was not as prevalent. The five leading causes of death were pneumonia and influenza, tuberculosis, diarrhea, heart disease and stroke.

They enjoyed their Jackson County front porches, but don’t imagine that they sat there sipping ice tea, which in the first decade of the 20th century hadn’t been invented yet. They may have sat in their rockers reading newspapers and the Bible, but two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn’t read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

It may surprise you to learn that one luxury more likely to have been enjoyed in the homes pictured here than by you was the benefit of someone who came in to cook the meals and clean the house. Eighteen percent of households in the country had at least one full-time servant, and domestic help was more likely to be employed in a home in Jackson County and the rest of the South than in other parts of the country because of the prevailing social and economic conditions of the time.