"Echoes Of The Past - Part 4"
(NOTE: The following appeared in the 1985 Odum Homecoming program and was written by Hazel Dean
Overstreet. It is being reproduced here for the Odum, Georgia website....KH)
Mrs. Susie can remember very plainly when she was only five years old
(year 1883) when she was carried on a pillow to a Dr. Little in Jesup, who
treated her. She remembers this so plainly, she says, because the doctor's father
was in the house (or office as it would be called today), and he had a cancer
on his face and the disfigurement made such an impression upon her young
mind she has never forgotten it to this day.
Roads in those days were mere trails or dim wagon ruts. If a child traveled
the ten or so miles to Odum or Jesup, he felt as though he had gone, in
present day figures, as far as from here to Atlanta. Men received summons in
the early days to work on roads just as today men receive summons to serve
on the Jury.
In a southwesterly direction from Odum, the families living in outlying
farm areas consisted of just a few old families. Miss Juanita Bennett and
sister, Mrs. Frankie Bennet Watkins, said their mother moved to this section
at the age of three (about the year 1867, two years after the Civil War) with
her parents, Joseph and (?) Stone Ginn. The Ginn child, Mary, married Frank
Bennett, son of Braxton Bennett. Frank's half brothers were Bill, John, and
Enoch Bennett. Miss Beatrice Bennett of Jesup says five of these Bennett
brothers served in the Civil War.
This tract of land in this outlying vicinity was originally Stone's, then
Ginn's, then Bennett's. Land was cheap in those days. Mr. Ginn swapped a
shotgun for a place belonging to William (Bill) Roberson about the year 1870. He
also got a place for the sum of $5.00.
The only places, recollected by the Miss Bennetts, in existence at that time,
in the area they now live, were the Denmark place, the Ginn place, the Bessie
Collins place (formerly Jim or John Hires' place), and the Bill Roberson place.
An early tombstone found in the Odum Cemetery reads John Thompson,
born 1805. Graves and other old tombstones are shaded by old cedar trees.
These early families came into Odum for the provisions which they could
not make on their farms.
EARLY CUSTOMS
Other impressions left upon Mrs. Susie's mind were the early days when all
cloth had to be woven by hand loom. She remembers distinctly her sister
operating the loom. She remembers the spinning wheel, the woolen and
cotton cards and how they had to pick the seed out of cotton by hand. Her
oldest sister, Becky, did the family weaving. By the time Mrs. Susie was old
enough to do this, times were changing, and hand spinning and weaving were
no longer required.
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