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Dr. C. D. Smith's A BRIEF HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY (EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third installment of Dr. Smith's history. Another will appear in an early issue.) PART III. The Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of that day as they were called, were regular jury courts, and I give the names of the first venire sum moned to serve as jurors, for the June term following: X. Wymer Siler 2. Jonathan Whiteside 3. Jacob Hice 4. Wm. Cochran 5. BenJ. Johnson 6. Wm. McLure 7. Peter Ledford 8. Martin Norton 9. John Lamm 10. John Addington 11. Matthew Davis 12. James Whitaker 13. Henry Addington 14. Michael Wikle 15. Wm. Welch, Sr. 16. Samuel Smith 17. Geo. T. Ledford 18. Ebenezer Newton 19. Joseph Welch 20. Luke Barnard 21. George Dickey 22. Zachariah Cabe 23. Mark Coleman 24. Lewis Vandyke 25. Thos. Love, Sr. 26. March Addington 27. Jacob Trammel 28. John Dobson THERE IsLtfO^SUBSTITUTE FOr|a COOD*CUP OF COFFEE A Reprint of Old Book 29. Andrew Patton 30. George Black 3X. Isaac Mauney 32. John M. Angel 33. John Gillespie 34. Joseph Chambers 35. John Howard 36. Jacob Slier. This venire was composed of typical and representative men o f the early population of Ma con County. It would be hard to find an abler body of jurors, even now. In any county In the State. It is true they were a style of men different from the present edition. They were men of sound minds, of the strictest integrity, profoundly impressed with the obligations of law and Justice and for old fashioned courtly deportment one towards another, and for manly bearing in the discharge of their duties as conservators of public peace and justice they have no superiors at the pres ent day. Many of them came to th4 years of manhood in and about the close of the Revolu tionary war which achieved American independence ? at a time and under conditions that "tried men's souls" and when I PAINTING Interior and Exterior By Hour or Contract FREE ESTIMATES Bennie Browning Highlands Road HOTTEST BUICK IN HISTORY No wonder you see so many 1955 Buicks on the high ways ? they're rolling up bigger sales than ever before in history ? topping the popularity that has already made Buick one of the "Big Three" in total national sales. $2380 88 ma/res /f yours ?delivered and ready to roll WE keep coming across a good many people who still are surprised when they see the low delivered price of the Buick shown here. They're surprised because they know that this price is just about what a lot of the smaller cars are asking? if not more. But that's just the point. What's making the 1955 Buick the hottest one in all Buick sales history is the simple fact that its low delivered price buys so much more automobile. Much more automobile when it comes to the lift and life of great V8 power? Buick power in record might. Much more automobile when it comes to style and size and room and ride steadiness ?and the integrity of construction that comes of Buick building. Much more, too, when it comes to matching your motoring needs to the simple practical ity of your budget? because Buick offers you DID VOU KNOW ?) ?locol delivered price ? of the 2-door, 6-passenger Buick SPECIAL Sedan, Model 48, illustrated. Optional equipment, accessories, state and local taxes, if any, additional. Prices may vary slightly in adjoining communities. Even the factory-installed extras you may want are bargains, juch as: Heater & Defroster . . . $81.70; Radio & Antenna . . . $92.50. a stunning choice in just about every price class . . . Like the rock-bottom-priced Special ? the high-powered Century? the extra-spacious Super? the magnificent and custom-built Roadmaster. Each is a Buick through and through? and each is a big reason why Buick sales are soaring as never before. Why not drop in on us this week and see how much your new-car dollars can really buy? in thrills and fun and comfort and deep satisfaction? when you buy Buick. ?"*" WHIN JETTED AUTOMOBILES ARE BUIIT BUICK Will BUIIO THEM MIITON ?ERIE STAHS fO* tUICK- ih. fc/i<k B.-I. Show Ait.rnot. Tu..dov ? MACON MOTOR COMPANY Phone 233 Palmer Street, West franklin, n. c "the survival ol the fittest" gave to us a race of men hrave, true and thoroughly impregnat ed with a love for those rights and that Justice which cost so great a price of blood. That love was quickened and Intensified by the war of 1812 when the mother country, for the second time, attempted to enslave free men and levy unjust tribute upon this grand and productive country of ours. Is it any wond er that men raised in such times and familiar with the heroes who staked their all on the struggle against oppression and injustice should be emi nently qualified to try all legal disputes between their compeers and mete out Justice to the vio lators of the code? I have a distinct recollection of many of the members of that jury. They would compare favor ably with any similar body of men, then or now. In stature they were above the ordinary juryman and were decidedly manly in appearance with a bearing expressive of firmness and a will to do the right. They were very affable gentlemen and well read for men of their times. In fact, they constituted a hrotherhood of patriots who loved and labored for their country's honor and their coun try's good. This constitutes the highest type of citizenship for a commonwealth. Such obedi ence to law and order ? such devotion to the public good ? such fidelity to public trust and such unity of action and pur pose in behalf of the well-being of the whole as characterized those men furnish a guarantee of a prosperous and happy peo ple. , At that first court for Macon county the court appointed the following named persons com missioners whose duty it should be to draft plans and specifi cations for a court house and jail for the county of Macon and directing them to advertise the letting out the same to the lowest bidder at the next term of the court June following, viz.: "Jesse R. Siler, Thomas Kimsey, Luke Barnard, Mark Coleman, James Whitaker, Aaron Pinson, John Bryson, Sr." X find in the "Minutes" of the June term of the court for 1829 that the contract for building the court house was awarded to Col, David Coleman "at three thou sand eight hundred dollars," with Gen. Thomas Love and Zachariah Cabe as securities for the faithful performance of the contract. At the same time the contract for building the jail was awarded to Col. Ben jamin S. Brittain for "twenty nine hundred and ninety-five dollars," who gave as securities for the performance of the "con tract, Joseph Welch, Jeremiah R. Pace and John Hall. The masons who undertook the brick work of the court house were Samuel Lyle and Dr. T. T. Young, of Washington county, Tennessee. They were good hon est workmen in their line. The brick they manufactured were of excellent quality and the house they built would have stood for a half century longer. But in style and capacity it was wholly inadequate to the needs of the present population and from sheer necessity gave way to the substantial and commodious new one which now occupies the site of the old one. For the new and much needed court house the public are mainly indebted to a few public spirited and patriotic surviving sons of the fathers of the county. \A7 a oro ?. V Uib luiiau ICIIUUUCU Ui the times and patriotic char acter of the early settlers, in the manner and spirit with which they served the public interest. I find in the "Minutes" for March term, 1829, with a court house and jail to build, this order: "Ordered by the Court, that the State tax be 20 cents, and fifty cents on the poll? for public buildings 12 Vi cents on each poll, for to de- ( fray county charges 5 cents ? for weights and measures on i each 300 dollars value of land 1 equal to one poll." This order is rather unique in style, but It brings to our knowledge the rate of taxation. The wide dif ference between the taxes of 1829 and 1891 is indeed worthy of our serious consideration. The present population com plain most bitterly of the heavy burden of taxation under which they drag out their weary lives. I believe that in the main they lay this sin at the door of ringsmen and the extravagance of officials. Let us see how this Is. Our fathers believed that they owed a debt to good gov ?rnment ? to faithful adminis tration of law and the consex vation of public peace and : morality, and they patriotically undertook to perform the public service without compensation. I can well remember the good cheer whi?h prevailed when the people gathered at the quarter ly courts to transact the coun ty business and such other business as came within the jurisdiction of a quarterly court jury. It seemed to be a 1 sort of ovation when they could | meet and conserve the public Interest. But the last third of a century has developed new ideas and methods for the pub- 1 11c service, indeed It may be said of this generation as Rob ert Burns said of the Scotch youth In his day: "That beardless laddies should think they better were Inform'd than their auld daddies." Losing that patriotic spirit which prompted their noble fathers to the performance of a public service without a pe cuniary reward, they commen ced to murmur about, the hard ships of the public service without a per diem compensa tion. Nor did they cease this howl for a paltry sum until they secured the coveted prize. Then of course came taxation In order to raise the funds to meet the demand. It presents, In fact, the odd spectacle of a people taxing themselves that they might get it back in a draft upon the county treasury. It is the necessity of this self imposed new order of things that makes the difference be tween the taxes of the present and sixty-two years ago. It has created and fostered a mercen ary spirit in the conduct of all public affairs, than which there is no greater bane to all civil and political purity. This mer cenary spirit is a poison that works imperceptible but none the less surely. It has cost kings | their crowns and republics their liberty and perpetuity. It is ; especially insidious in public af fairs, and there can be little j I doubt that it has been a potent ; agent in weakening public vir ' tue. It has, indeed, been a fruitful source of the perjury ! 1 and bribery that now disgraces ; our civilization ? that corrupts , our public officials ? that de- | feats the administration of jus- I J tice and threatens the perman ency of our noble principles of government. It had its begin ning in little matters but has grown to dangerous proportions, and the end is not yet. Perhaps the reader will consider this an unpardonable digression. While I admit that it is not narra tive, I claim that it is never theless history and so such commends itself to the sober consideration of all. Little as mankind may think about it, one generation im presses itself upon another. And singularly enough, the further removed, as a general rule, each generation Is from the original stock the feebler becomes the impression of the original type. This is the history of nations and commonwealths. I mean this to apply not to mere con ditions of luxury and style under which lie a vast amount of moral obliquity, but to those nobler traits of heart and brain which constitute real worth of character and qualify men to bear up the pillars of good gov I ernment and a sound public I morality. Let the candid reader compare the prevalent disin clination of the populace of to day to perform any public serv ice only from mercenary con siderations?the general spirit of insubordination to law and authority whenever it conflicts with their private prejudices and personal whims with the ready and cheerful compliance with the public demands for the public good, rendered by our fathers of sixty years ago, and he must be convinced of the truth of this axiom. This chapter is written not in a spirit of vindictiveness or the mere love of complaint, but with a view to awakening the public mind to a sense of a prevalent evil, and with a hope thereby to induce a return to healthier methods and a more loyal and patriotic course in the conduct of public affairs. Should this result in stirring up a spirit of emulation of" the noble men Who subdued the wilds of Ma con County to the arts of Christian civilization. I will have gained the coveted reward Almost exactly 30 per cent of North Carolina's school children I are negro. We Handle OFFICE SUPPLIES The Franklin Press FERTILIZER and SF.FDS ? ? ? i Swift's RED STEER Brand All Crop and Grass Fertilizers Check Our Prices Before You Buy! ? ? ? We Fill P. M. A. Orders Roy F. Cunningham ? Groceries, Feeds and Fertilizer Need a PLUMBER? Phone 595- J FOR QUICK DEPENDABLE SERVICE ? Pumps and Hot Water Heaters Serviced and Installed ? Kitchen and Bathroom Fixtures American Standard and Briggs Beautyware H. G. Welch Franklin, N. C. Licensed Plumbing and Heating Contractor Ship'n Shore GIRLS' BLOUSES Co.05 sizes 7 to lJf m inc Tax 3 Summer stand-by: Ship'n Shore's breeze-cool broadcloth sleeveless! Convertible collar has 'kerchief back . . . two pockets hold extra loot . . . shirt tails stay tucked in! Combed cotton . . . wash-bright white, ribbon pastels, deeptones. Lots of perky-pattern styles, too! THE CHILDREN'S SHOP Franklin, N. C.
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March 17, 1955, edition 1
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