Living Jackson Magazine :: Our Towns

Our Towns – Pendergrass

Story by Gail Ellen Daly
Photos by Joshua T. Barnett

Tucked between Jefferson and Gainesville, the city of Pendergrass is just a dot along U.S. Hwy. 129.

But turn off the highway, make another turn onto Old Gainesville Road and a small village comes into view.

Despite its tiny population and scant two square miles, at one time the sleepy city was a thriving town along the Gainesville, Jefferson and Southern Railroad.

“The railroad made Pendergrass and the railroad broke Pendergrass,” said Pendergrass native Linda McMullen.

In 1883, the railroad company completed laying 20 miles of track between Gainesville and Jefferson, McMullen pointed out, and built a depot. The same year, the village known as Garden Valley gained its own post office.

In 1891 the railroad company built a new depot at its current site and established regular passenger services. Forests were cut down and houses built.

“There were double train tracks,” said Pendergrass Mayor Monk Tolbert, “and the train stopped here every two hours.”

Cotton was king and, Tolbert noted, this was the first area in the state to grow cotton—the finest cotton slated for the large mills.

In 1891, residents decided to incorporate, with city limits set at one-half mile in all directions from the depot.

Citizens named their new city in honor of railroad director Frank Pendergrass who was in charge of the crew laying track.

When work was complete, the town’s history notes, he placed the name “Pendergrass” on the building, thus giving the town its name.

By 1900 the booming city boasted three doctors, three hardware stores, a bank, a cotton warehouse, telephone exchange, two cotton gins, two buggy factories, cottonseed oil mill, blacksmith shop, five general stores and a hotel.

And Pendergrass boasted the only veterinarian in the state outside of Atlanta.

Most of the businesses, housed in wooden structures, were close together along a stretch of road facing the tracks. When fire broke that terrible night in March 1905, with one exception, every storefront burned.

It’s unclear how many businesses rebuilt, but the city thrived during the early 1900s.

However, following the cotton market crash in 1920, national events and nature conspired to hasten the town’s decline.

According to McMullen, at its peak cotton sold for 40 cents a pound. The price dropped to 5 cents following the crash. Then the 1925 boll weevil infestation destroyed the crops entirely.

In 1927, the railroad stopped its passenger train runs through Pendergrass, replacing them with a jitney.

“It cost one-cent a mile,” McMullen said. “So a trip to Gainesville cost 10 cents.”

McMullen’s father, J.W. Cole, recalled how he and his friends would gather enough pennies so they could ride the train to Gainesville.

Banks closed after the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression began. People lost their land and their homes, savings were wiped out. The population dwindled.

After losing massive numbers of people, Pendergrass reverted to a small agrarian town with a part-time city government. It offered residents few services and virtually no employment. The city council met on a part-time basis.

That status remained in place until 2002 when development began changing the face of Jackson County.

Once the city council decided to become full-time once again, they hired Rob Russell as the town administrator and applied for and received a Homeland Security COPS grant through the federal program.

The grant paid the salaries of two full-time officers and a full-time clerk. Russell doubles as police chief.

The 2000 census showed slightly more than 400 people living in the city limits. Tolbert estimates the current population at 604.

Although there is a current housing slump, Tolbert does not expect that to last more than a few years. With 1,100 approved building lots and easy access to the Hwy. 129 bypass, the population could explode.

Annexation has added 1.5 miles to the city boundaries, with additional annexation requests yet to be acted upon.

“We need to make sure it (land to be annexed) fits into our comprehensive land use plan,” he explained. “In other words, existing agricultural land.”

Despite large farms and some lovely older homes, Tolbert and Russell said the city has numerous rental properties. They were, however, successful in getting rid of some derelict properties.

The town’s centerpiece, its historic depot, has been completely renovated and is the focal point for community events.

Few cities can claim government offices are located in an early 1900s house.

Tolbert noted that downtown Pendergrass along Old Gainesville Road is in an “overlay district where they are looking for small businesses to locate.”

However, government officials are also looking for retail development on the bypass within the Pendergrass city limits.

“It’s a perfect location,” Tolbert said, “and we’re out beating the bushes.”

He expects to attend retail conventions promoting Pendergrass. “If we don’t blow our own horn, no one else will,” he said. “There are nine towns all competing so we need to be aggressive.”

Some may also use the word “aggressive” when describing the town’s police department.

Even Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, notes that in 2006, for the third year in a row, Pendergrass collected the most “fines, fees and forfeitures per capita” of any community in Georgia.

Russell defends the amount of money and number of traffic tickets by insisting the town would be No. 1 in the state per capita no matter how much money is collected, because of its tiny size.

“We’re actually in the bottom 50 in dollars,” he said. “And we’re one of the two safest cities in Jackson County.”

Tolbert called Pendergrass a small town where everyone knows each other and their dogs, but more importantly, “a town that welcomes newcomers.

Gail Ellen Daly is a freelance writer and former newspaper reporter living in Apple Valley with her husband and animals.