Feature Friday: The Life and Times of C. J. Crunkleton

I keep waiting for someone to ask me why I included all the local and regional news in my book on Rabun County’s earliest newspapers, instead of only the obituaries and death notices as many compilers do.

No one’s asked, but I think it’s an important question, and my answer is this: Newspapers are, in and of themselves, an important resource outside of the fact that they can serve as a substitute for vital and court records. To demonstrate this, let’s look at excerpts from early issues of The Clayton Tribune and The Tallulah Falls Spray pertaining to a gentleman named C. J. Crunkleton.

Now Available: Rabun County, Georgia, Newspapers, 1894 – 1899

I’m very pleased to announce that my first full-length publication, Rabun County, Georgia, Newspapers, 1894 – 1899, will be ready for purchase and delivery early next week.

I’m so excited about this publication. Newspapers are an underutilized source of historical and genealogical information, primarily because they’re unindexed and sometimes difficult to locate. There are three newspapers covered by this compilation: The Clayton Argus (1894), The Tallulah Falls Spray (1897 – 1898), and The Clayton Tribune (1899).¹ Of the extant issues, only a handful have been microfilmed. The remainder are only available as original issues or as photocopies of news items clipped from the originals, and all of those are held by the Rabun County Historical Society, which is open a limited number of hours each week.

Feature Friday: Christmas Novelties, 1897

One hundred and fourteen years ago today, Taylor & Sweet, merchants whose store was then located in Tallulah Falls, published the following advertisement in The Tallulah Falls Spray (16 December 1897 issue, Vol. 2, No. 20).

Notice.

We have bought a complete stock of Christmas novelties, comprising a nice line of Chinese and Japanese dolls, toys, Christmas cards, etc., which we will sell at a sacrifice. We have a few dozen taffeta and serge silk umbrellas for 50 cents each worth two dollars. Also a line of overcoats for $2.25 and $2.50 worth three times that amount. Buy before they are gone. Taylor & Sweet.

I wonder how many boys and girls found Taylor & Sweet goodies in their stocking that Christmas?

* * * * *

Quotation excerpted from my upcoming volume Rabun County, Georgia, Newspapers, 1894 – 1899, expected to be released in 2012.

Feature Friday: Cincinatus Taylor’s Estate, April 1, 1897

The following item offers a wealth of information and suggests both other records to include in one’s research for this family and possible relationships amongst those mentioned. It was published in the 18 April 1897 issue (Vol. 1, Number 38) of The Tallulah Falls Spray, which served as Rabun County’s legal organ (or paper of record) probably from just after its inception in 1896 to January of 1898, when The Clayton Tribune assumed that function.

Georgia, Rabun County: At Chambers, April 1st, 1897—Samuel Taylor as executor of Cincinatus Taylor, having filed his petition for probate of Cincinatus Taylor’s will in solemn form, and it appearing that citation should issue to be served personally on Jane Taylor, Mary Wellborn, Catharine Page, Jesse Taylor, Sarah J. Stancell, William Jiles, Nat Jiles, Andy Jiles, Rachel Lawin, Nancy Eller, Susan Littleton and Mary Burrell, ordered that the usual citation issue, to be served on them ten days before the May term of this court, and as John Taylor, Mary J. Brinkley, Martha Gaines, Gus Ledbetter and Susan Ledbetter not being residents of this state and their residence unknown, and can only be served by publication, that they be cited and made a party by publication once a week for four weeks in The Tallulah Falls Spray, a newspaper published at Tallulah Falls, State of Georgia, before the May term, 1897, of said Court of Ordinary, and that this order so published constitute such citation.

W. S. Long, Ordinary.

* * * * *

Quotation excerpted from my upcoming volume Rabun County, Georgia, Newspapers, 1894 – 1899, expected to be released in 2012.

Feature Friday: Honor Roll, March 30, 1899

For the past year or so, I’ve been working on compiling a volume of items published in the early newspapers of Rabun Co., GA, namely The Clayton Argus (1894), The Tallulah Falls Spray (1897 – 1898), and The Clayton Tribune (1899). I finished the main body of the volume several weeks ago and am now working on an index. I have applied for a publishing grant through the R. J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation and, if accepted, I hope to have this volume published within the next few months.

To incite interest in the project, I decided to publish small excerpts every Friday from now through November, or possibly longer.